[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Robert Cumby, today I'll be reading from Philippians chapter 3 for 10 through 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do for getting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pursue as my goal, the prize promised by God's heavenly call and Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way, and we think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Peter God.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, thank you, Robert.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys have seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, if you have a Bible with you, go ahead and open it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: To Philippians 3, where we were just reading there.
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty much gonna hang out there today.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's our anchor text.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll sit in Philippians 3 versus really the up to verse 16, mainly verses 12 through 16.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to look at today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today's message is I hope an appropriate one and a helpful one for us as we end up another year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today's message is press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to
[SPEAKER_01]: in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's really the message today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope as we listen together to what God says to us that it is, like I said, just helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we end up a new year and step into 2026 here in a few days coming up, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a crazy year, it's been an interesting year and I don't know if you personally have experienced a lot of craziness in your life this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe your year has been totally like pretty pretty normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not a lot of ups and downs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe pretty pretty steadfast and consistent in a lot of ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: But my guess is most of us in this room have experienced some really crazy moments.
[SPEAKER_01]: This year, great moments, I think, you know, I've know, you know, a lot of folks have had children this year, got married this year, you know, new things this year, new jobs, whatever it may be, but also know there's, you know, some of you have lost loved ones, and had other various difficulties in life this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, around the world, there's conflict that we that we have seen and that continue whether it's Middle East or, you know, the Ukraine, Nigeria,
[SPEAKER_01]: political tensions here in our own country.
[SPEAKER_01]: Continue, you know, surprise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Charlie Kirk is assassination a couple months ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just things that have kind of caught us off guard at times, things that have been, you know, amazing that we've rejoiced in and things that have been really sad and in hard and difficult and scary at times.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was kind of looking up headlines this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember like, what all happened?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, what happened in 2020 about?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you all are like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't even remember because so much goes on.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a, not we, really, but the Catholic people have an American Pope, which is weird and interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if that was a headline.
[SPEAKER_01]: Taylor Swift got engaged.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, that's something that people, I think, care about, I don't know, but it was a headline.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like right up there, it was like Pope Taylor Swift.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was the weirdest thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: 2020, five.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been, it's been an interesting year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know where you're at in your faith right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where everybody is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know some of where you're at in your faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had those conversations with some of you in the room, but not everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope and I pray that you feel the strength of the Lord in your life right now, the presence of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope and pray that you feel close to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: That you're really walking with him day by day.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, my guess is not everybody in this room feels that way right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, my guess is you're going into 2026 just kind of, uh, you may be wondering what that's going to look like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe hopefully hopeful about it, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And thinking, you know, the next year's gonna be better.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, um, I want to jump in at Philippians 3 with you just for a few minutes here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, and look at hopefully something that is helpful to us as we think about.
[SPEAKER_01]: what this upcoming year can be in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as I as I pray, I want you to pray as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just pray that the Lord would speak to your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: And really that we would all just be willing to listen and to do what he tells us in his work today, which is press on and crush Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so let's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, thank you for, again this morning, thank you for your word that right now just sits before us that we can look at it and read it again here in the last Sunday of the year and remember what you say to us, how you encourage us, how you lead us, and Father, I pray that you would speak to our hearts right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us hear what you would have for us as a congregation as a church family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, just individually and as families, speak and let us hear your voice in your word and Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a little context for Philippians 3 at the beginning of Philippians 3.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you read, Philippians 2 and 3, such wonderful, wonderful, not that the whole book isn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Philippians 2 and 3 really Paul is digging into his own kind of identity in the Lord and really he's encouraging the Philippian Christians the same way just to be found in the Lord and identify themselves in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The book of Philippians as a whole is a book of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: a joy in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I could summarize it in one word, it would be that it'd be joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've never read through Philippians, maybe that's a good beginning of the year book for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a short little book.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would dare say you could memorize the book of Philippians.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you really put your mind to it and you could, man, just fill your heart in your life with the joy of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what this book is about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy in all circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: joy and suffering joy and trials, Paul's in prison writing this and he speaks again and again in this letter about his own joy, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: While he sits in chains, writing, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine that kind of joy?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a different kind of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a more miraculous kind of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Philippians 3, he's talking specifically about his own identity and Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The things that he used to boast in, okay, at the beginning of chapter 3, he speaks of the way that he kind of used to think about his own life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, if anyone thinks he has reasons for, if anyone thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, talk about himself, he says, I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's just saying, I was a, put it in our vernacular.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a church kid from birth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I grew up in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: He speaks of his ethnic background as in as a Hebrew as a Hebrew of Hebrews, even calls himself an ethnic Jew, the people of God, the tribe of Benjamin, that's sort of an elite status.
[SPEAKER_01]: The tribe of Benjamin was very proud tribe.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were one of the tribes that didn't really defect like a lot of the other tribes did from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was very proud of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: remain somewhat faithful to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a Pharisee.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would be like a fundamentalist, a conservative you might say, politically speaking.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's who he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took great pride in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said he was zealous.
[SPEAKER_01]: The highest virtue of law keeping for the Jews was that what they were zealous for the laws of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul says, I was me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was zealous for God's law.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to keep his law to the T.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything crossed every T dot every I I wanted to do with the law said to do and I did it as well as anybody could do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said I was blameless in the law as far as the legalistic righteousness was concerned.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was as good as anybody could be legally pure and innocent as somebody could be under the letter of the law.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then he says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all of that was Paul kind of like writing a ledger of his life right in his ledger is his prophets and his losses.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was saying at one point in my life up until before he he wrote this a few years before that he had met Jesus and become a Christian on the road to Damascus to go persecute Christians right.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was met by Jesus blinded by Christ falls off his donkey gets led by the hand into town.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the gospel gets baptized and then becomes a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: The people he used to persecute.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was saying, up until that time, my ledger looked like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that stuff I just named, that was my profit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my loss was Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ was my loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was my only loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like this person who died into Jerusalem and then his followers say, came back to life, I'm trying my hardest to snuff out the movement that follows that name.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was my loss and everything else was my profit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he's saying this, my world has completely flipped.
[SPEAKER_01]: My profit is Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: and all that other stuff is just lost to me now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like by comparison, I mean care about all those other things I just named my status as a Pharisee, my zeal for the law being a Hebrew of Hebrews, the tribe of Benjamin.
[SPEAKER_01]: None of it matters to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Compared to the surpassing greatness he says of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's verse eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know who wrote that song.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will boast in Christ alone, but I think maybe Philippians three was their passage.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will boast in Christ alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: His righteousness, not my own.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Paul, I think Paul would love that song.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what he's singing here.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm boasting in.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that that was profit to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's now lost and Christ is my gain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ is my profit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we get to the end of that little section there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he gets to verse 12, well, let me read verse 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says this, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death and so somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 12, not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: says I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: what is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that pressing on that he's talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I'm not already perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might feel that, by the way, you might ever feel that, like you can resonate with that sentiment in Paul, I can.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, what Paul saying, I haven't quite gotten to this place yet where I'm completely free of the desires of my flesh, where I know Christ perfectly where I'm submitted to him, perfectly where I'm sharing in his sufferings with joy,
[SPEAKER_01]: like not all of us are there 100% right really I wasn't none of us are there a hundred percent I'm not perfect I'm not complete we feel that but he says I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me that word press on it literally means to like earnestly pursue it can be used in a positive way and a negative way it's actually the same word that they were used for persecution
[SPEAKER_01]: So Paul actually used to persecute Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would press on to kill Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was his job to person to run them down.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the word means.
[SPEAKER_01]: To run after them, chase them down, drag them off to prisoner death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, what is he doing?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's pressing on to suffer for Christ, not to make other people suffer for Christ, but for He Himself to enjoy the life-lived under the ministry of Christ Jesus that He may even suffer the way Jesus suffered.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, you see the flip that has happened in his life that he used to pursue Christians to death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he's just pursuing Christ to his own death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he ignores in this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, I pressed on to take hold of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where he says, to take hold of that for which, first of all, Christ Jesus took hold of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, look at verse 14, he says, I pressed on sort of the same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I pressed on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heaven word in Christ Jesus, the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heaven word.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what he's saying there is he's just kind of wrapping verses 7 through 11 up in those words.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the goal for the prize.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the heaven word call of God in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's verses 7 through 11.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's read that again.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a goal, knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I consider them a rubbish that I may gain Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a goal, gaining Christ, knowing Christ, having more of Christ being found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but that which is through faith and Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately, the resurrection from the dead is the ultimate goal, friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the ultimate prize.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the prize that Jesus came to secure for those who trust in Him, for all who call upon His name.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's death itself, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so in the end, and this is the book of Revelation, it's what he says, like, the last enemy is death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the end, Christ will throw death itself into the pit of fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all who are faithful in him will be raised to life, bodily, raised to life, to live eternally, physically and spiritually live eternally in Christ with Christ forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the ultimate goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the prize that Paul is pressing forward towards, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately, so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say this, if Resurrection is the ultimate goal, and here's where I think Paul is thinking about, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about his history.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's started the chapter off talking about his own history, the good things that he used to love about himself in his history.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if Resurrection is the ultimate goal, then here's the thing, your history and I don't know who needs to hear this this morning, but you need to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your history won't get you to that goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And your history can't keep you from that goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you understand that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Your background, your past, good or bad, profit or loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever you consider what lies behind you now, it can get you to the goal and it can't keep you from the goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing that matters now, and I think this is Paul's sentiment in this entire chapter is what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that matters is, are you in Christ?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know Christ, Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you submitted your life to Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you come to faith in Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then do you press on in Christ, whatever lies behind?
[SPEAKER_01]: No matter what it is, good or bad, hard or easy, profit or loss, victory or failure, righteousness or sinfulness, whatever lies behind, it's behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's ahead is press on in him, in Christ, you stay in him, and if you do that, you press on towards the goal of the prize.
[SPEAKER_01]: in Christ Jesus, and that is the resurrection from the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is why Paul says, first 13, forgetting what lies behind, forgetting what lies behind, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And straining, sword, what lies ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard this story years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember it being on the ESPN.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now to look it back up this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: This lady's name is Diane Van Dieren.
[SPEAKER_01]: Diane Van Dieren.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had seizures most of her life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in her 20, she was diagnosed with epilepsy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she actually started running as like her way of kind of dealing with the seizures.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when she felt a seizure coming on, she would go run.
[SPEAKER_01]: She would literally run out the door as she would run as far as she could.
[SPEAKER_01]: But she would have, I mean, pretty consistent seizures.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three, five times a week diagnosed with epilepsy, started running in her 20s.
[SPEAKER_01]: In her 30s, she had a surgery to remove a temporal lobe of her brain, or at least part of it, to stop the seizures.
[SPEAKER_01]: But actually, it has a result of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: She lost a lot of her short-term memory.
[SPEAKER_01]: and her ability to kind of calculate and understand time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so now, this is true, she still runs.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she will run literally hundreds of miles because she doesn't know how far she's ran.
[SPEAKER_01]: She forgets.
[SPEAKER_01]: She can run for, like she will run for like four days, straight one to two hours of sleep a night, hundreds of miles through terrible conditions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she just keeps on going, why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because she forgets what's behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: She has no, I like she knows this about herself.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just can't remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't remember that pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't remember the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm able to just keep her.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just thought that was a great illustration of what Paul is saying here.
[SPEAKER_01]: For getting what lies behind, straining towards, striving towards, pressing on towards what lies ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, you know, I don't know what this year was for you, what sort of victories or failures and the feats and struggles you had this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think that's a helpful verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anytime we're embarking on a new year, I think it's helpful to us to remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we can forget what lies behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, that doesn't mean that we have to just put out of our mind all the bad stuff that has happened to us, the struggles that we have had, that we have to completely forget about our failures and we shouldn't learn from those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean that.
[SPEAKER_01]: What he means is, for getting with lies behind, what he means when he says that, he's saying, I'm letting go of whatever is not helpful to me in getting to my destination.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm letting go of.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's not beneficial, if it's not helping my faith to grow, if it's not helping me to mature in Christ, I will not cling to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will not cling to the things I used to put my hope in that weren't Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will not cling to the things that I used to ruin my hope either.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will cling to Christ because He is my hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: Clinging to what is behind y'all will only hinder my endurance and my maturity in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, it makes me think of Hebrews 12, one and two.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Hebrews 12, one and two.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says that we should throw off everything that hinders
[SPEAKER_01]: and the sin that's so easily entangled.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's interesting that he says it that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything that hinders and the sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: So everything that hinders isn't necessarily listed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not necessarily sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just hindering me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not helping me run to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this takes wisdom, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: This takes prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we must go to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: We must pray to Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we must read His word.
[SPEAKER_01]: So He gives us the wisdom about these kinds of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, are there things in my life that aren't necessarily sin?
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, if you got sin, throw it off.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: repent of sin, turn to Christ day by day by day.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's also things in your life that aren't necessarily sin, but they're also not helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're a thing, and I can't tell you what those things are, because I'm not you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where you have to seek the Lord and just ask them, God, are there things that, man, they're not necessarily immoral, they're not necessarily illegal.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're also not helping me pursue you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I need to throw them off.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't find a Bible verse that tells you how much time you spend on social media.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think you can have wisdom about that might be something that's hindering like the time that I spend there.
[SPEAKER_01]: How about how it's been my free time?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or something about certain relationships in your life, or how you're spending your money, whatever it may be, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's just ways in which I think we need to press into the Lord to ask him, yes, God, get rid of the sin of my life, whittle that out of me, kill those things in me, but also anything else that's hindering me, keeping me from pressing on, keeping me from having endurance, running the race in Christ with Christ toward Christ in the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help me throw those things off.
[SPEAKER_01]: that is the pressing on that Paul's talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when he says, straining forward or leaning forward to what lies ahead, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's how we put that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I press on toward the goal, straining toward what lies ahead, verse 13.
[SPEAKER_01]: that word is literally stretching out.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he's like stretching out for something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm reaching for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now let me say this real quick, Paul's not speaking here about being made righteous.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not speaking here about being justified for given of sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what he's talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's assuming those who are doing this are already in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've already been made right with Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your sins have been forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not saying you've got a strain and stretch out and press on and have good efforts so that God will forgive you.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, if God has forgiven you by faith in Jesus and he already said that, a righteousness that is by faith,
[SPEAKER_01]: If God has forgiven your sins, if you are right with God in Christ Jesus, then he fills this with the Holy Spirit to live a light that's able to press on and stretch out towards the goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: God wants us to give effort towards this.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's not opposed to effort, He's opposed to earning.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't earn your salvation, but you do give effort, making every effort to walk in Christ's press on in Christ's live your life for His glory every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul, is an example of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows, he said Christ Jesus took hold of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's passive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I was here, Jesus snatched me up and saved me by His grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now, now he's put my feet on the ground to run and to press on in Him every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: To put effort forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Salvation by grace through faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that happens again.
[SPEAKER_01]: By God's grace, by His goodness for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: but the sanctification process, that's where God goes, you know what, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, get going, get walking, get moving, strain toward what lies ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christian life is effort.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does take hard work.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't sit down in your lazy boy and just expect God to work in your life and bless and provide and do all the things like just asking him by prayer and just trusting, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to do anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to put forth any effort I've said it like this before.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't pray, you don't have a shovel and pray for a whole.
[SPEAKER_01]: God gives you a shovel, you dig.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you think, in that he gave you a shovel.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, thank you, God, for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you trust him with the gifts he's given you, the opportunities he's given you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what is Christian maturity?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just one more slide I want to put up here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christian maturity is this based on Philippians 3.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pressing on and priced toward Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it's living up to what you've already attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's what he says to in this piece says, all of us who are mature, Christian maturity, all of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if, on some point, you think differently, that too, God will make clear to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's sort of Paul being funny.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, hey, if you don't agree with me, you're wrong, you'll mature one day.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a what he said.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Paul isn't a possible of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Given these words, by Jesus himself to write down for the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we should listen, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We should listen what he's saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of us who are mature should take a few of those things and on any point you think differently, God will make that clear to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a little rhyme for you to remember that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christian maturity, pressing on towards Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about perfection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul's already said that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not perfect, but it's about direction.
[SPEAKER_01]: Am I going in his direction?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a following him
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not perfect at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, but I can repent today and follow him again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll do it again tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then living up to what we've already attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: That means listen to the degree that you have learned, apply and obey what you've learned.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's living up to what you've already attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: to the degree that you've learned, to the degree that you understand God's Word and certain aspects of it, live up to that, to the degree that you've been called, follow God in that call.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you believe God is calling you in some direction, you better go that direction.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, you're not gonna do it perfectly every time, but going his direction impress on, live up to what you've already attained, to the degree that you've grown in your faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, help others to grow in their faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the living up to what you've attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: to the degree that you've been disabled, disciple others, to the degree that you have received, give, that's living up to what we have attained, to the degree that your faith and your confidence in God has grown, exercise that faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's living up to what you have attained, practically speaking, as you go into 2026 here, if there's some conviction in your heart right now,
[SPEAKER_01]: about let's just talk okay those things we need to throw off whatever it is that's hindering right whether it's not even a sinful thing just something that's hindering or whether it's specifically it is a sinful thing in our lives right whatever's keeping us from running that race if you know that and you have a conviction in your life about it living up to what you already attained is throw it off be done with it
[SPEAKER_01]: and look right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It lies behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: So forget it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because in God's economy, he's not looking at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not keeping our record of it holding that over your head.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, he died for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on the cross with Christ dead and done.
[SPEAKER_01]: So be done with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: and move forward now in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what your sinfulness was in 2025.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moving to 2026 going, I'm righteous and Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna walk with Him every day, trust in Him every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I'm gonna struggle with it at times.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna stumble at times, but He's a good father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as He watches His children stumble, what's He gonna do?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's gonna pick us up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And help us to keep walking towards Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We press on, not perfection, direction in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: live up to what you've already attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see a lot on our prayer requests, you know, sometimes where you guys will write things about man, we want revival in our community or awakening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all know the difference those two words are revival and awakening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Revival is really in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Revival is about the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Revival is Christian people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get real about your faith, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's revival, that's where Christians wake up and actually start being the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Awakening is when we do that, our community that doesn't know Jesus starts to come to know Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awakening.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we pray for those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I see you guys write those down on your cards and that's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that we pray for those things, but here's the thing about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: First, we have to live up to what we've already attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: Revival and awakening don't happen just because again, we sit back and we ask the Lord for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They happen because then once we've asked the Lord for it, God says, okay, well, you now go press on and faith and live up to what you've attained to make every effort to grow in your faith to share the good news of the gospel to bless others, to serve others to give into the kingdom and let me do my work through the church that I have called that I've called the church to be the church, so I will do that work, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what God wants to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how he does.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does it through us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does it through his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And also, we can't program a move of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't program it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want it, we want to program those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what I mean is, then we want to like, let's put a revival on the calendar.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not a thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you guys grew up going to revival.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is silliest thing in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't exist because God and God alone does that work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know how he does that work.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does that work through people praying.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does that work through people being in his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does that work through people being obedient out in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not let's put it on the calendar and God will do a revival.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's let's live up to what we've already attained.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's go be the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's called us to be we press on and Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: we press on in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a couple of simple things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the band is gonna come back out.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna have a time just to pray and to sing as we end up our time together this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: And also we have some baptisms.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a couple of things, a little application here.
[SPEAKER_01]: What might that look like to live up to what you already tell them, give you three simple ones?
[SPEAKER_01]: If this is not a goal for you in 2026, make it a goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't often tell y'all exactly what to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want the Spirit to lead you, but here's, I'm gonna tell you to do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Regots word and read it consistently.
[SPEAKER_01]: Study it, meditate on it, memorize it, read it with your family, read it on your own.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go from milk to solid food in your understanding of God in his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's one, prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let your prayer life be fervent, unceasing, intercessory that means praying for others, interceeding on behalf of others.
[SPEAKER_01]: and watch for the Bible often uses that word watchful and devotion when it comes to our prayers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is your prayer life watchful?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is your prayer life devoted?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is your prayer life consistent?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let it be that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And number three, the church, the fellowship of the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word is coin and ao.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that word ao?
[SPEAKER_01]: Coin and ao.
[SPEAKER_01]: Consistent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you serving in the church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you giving to the church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'll say it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you giving?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, just mean your money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean your time, your resources, yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: to the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or are you just consuming?
[SPEAKER_01]: Contribute.
[SPEAKER_01]: This ain't Walmart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Contribute.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just, I'm inviting you to that, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to get something from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want that for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Contribute.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Connect to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you, Christian maturity, your Christian maturity will rise.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will go up because you will then be pressing on.
[SPEAKER_01]: toward Christ in your life, and we help each other do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll hear that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not in coin any, if you're not in fellowship, you're not in God's word, if you're not in prayer, and it is so much harder to press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: How you gonna press onto a God you don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: How you gonna press on a God you don't pray to.
[SPEAKER_01]: How you gonna press onto a God who's people, you're not with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: In his word, in prayer, in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reach out for what lies ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we live our lives for that, for the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever your goal is off for 226, let that be the ultimate goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I'm pressing on towards, until I am raised to life in eternity, I will press forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll keep going, and I will trust God.
[SPEAKER_01]: To draw me nearer to him, and to use me to draw others, nearer to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'm telling y'all, we'll see revival, and we'll see awakening.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think 2020 sex is gonna be amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm excited for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: So listen, I'm gonna stand on here, turn on that prayer team and you wanna come down for a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you need prayer for anything right now, as we maybe you're just thinking about those things and thinking about man, what is my life?
[SPEAKER_01]: Look like right now, was it look like for me to press on in Christ or maybe listen?
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're not in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And right now, you need to go, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna start by being in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: and put my faith in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, come talk to somebody, let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you'd like prayer, please come down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Otherwise, just write where you're at and your seats, let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then let's worship Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, bow your heads with me, let's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, we thank you that you've called us this morning to press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know every nuance of every story in this room.
[SPEAKER_01]: But God, I pray that wherever we're all at, that you would can fit and encourage us.
[SPEAKER_01]: that Christ has done the work of salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: That work is done, and yet the work of maturity and growth and sanctification, you've given that to us by your Holy Spirit to do that work now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let us go, let us press on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lead us right now, and Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.