Key points
- 1
1Paul, one of the greatest figures in the New Testament, openly admits he has not arrived — no one has a point of final arrival in this life.
- 2
2The one thing you must focus on is forgetting the past — letting go of failures, disappointments, and unforgiveness that keep you anchored to yesterday.
- 3
3What you look at determines the direction your life heads — you must fix your gaze directly ahead rather than drifting toward yesterday's pain.
- 4
4You cannot move forward into what God is doing if you are still anchored to what He has already forgiven you for.
“if you continue to hold on to yesterday's failure, what it will impact the most is tomorrow's faith”
“Every intention you had was to move forward, was to keep the car going straight. But there's something about our vision. When you begin to look to the left, all of a sudden subconsciously, you just begin to turn the car to the left”
A story from life
Pastor Daniel recounts teaching his teenage daughter to drive, using the experience of the car drifting in the direction one looks as an illustration of how vision shapes direction.
- 5
5Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus — He is the author and finisher of your faith and the one who can take your pain and do something redemptive with it.
“you can't move forward into what God is doing if you're still anchored to what he already forgave you for”
- 6
6Press on — purpose is not coasted into; it requires effort, contending, falling, and getting back up.
- 7
7Training for godliness is better than physical training because it holds promise for both this life and the life to come.
“you are not going to coast into purpose. You are not going to just stumble your way into a life of significance and meaning”
“If you're wanting 2026 to actually be a year of breakthrough for you and your family, make the end of 2025 pivotal for you”
A story from life
Pastor Daniel recalls running on a four-by-100 relay team in junior high PE class and learning that the fastest runner serves as the anchor at the end of the race.
Application
Pastor Daniel's call is straightforward: don't wait for the calendar to flip. Start now. Identify the past failures, wounds, unforgiveness, or disappointments you are still rehearsing in your mind and make a deliberate decision to release them — not because they didn't matter, but because Jesus has already dealt with them. Then redirect your gaze. Fix your eyes on Jesus rather than on what you lack or what has gone wrong. Finally, press on. Set a goal — physical, financial, relational, or spiritual — and begin today. The church is also invited to lean into the corporate momentum of twenty-one days of prayer and fasting at the start of 2026, trusting that how you finish this year will carry directly into how you begin the next.
