Press On: Forget the Past, Run Toward Jesus

But it's a real journey. And Paul wrote to the Philippian church, and he's like, don't give up. I know it's going to be easy to give up on this Christian faith. And that's obviously a small example, but they're suffering and persecution. There's a lot going on. There he's Paul's talking about how the the there's gonna be people around him that are gonna be against Christ and the cross of Christ. And so he's like, I know it's going to be easy to give up, [00:10:17] (24 seconds)  #DontGiveUpFaith

Maybe it's the familiarity of the past. Like, I just felt safer there. In order to go forward, I'm gonna have to grow and mature and develop, and I don't wanna do that. Like, can I trust God fully? It is gonna require some trust. It's gonna require some endurance. But Paul is saying with an urgency in his vocabulary today and a cry in his heart while he's sitting in prison chained to a soldier. He is saying, forget what lies behind and press on. Move forward because it's gonna be worth it. [00:19:44] (31 seconds)  #ForgetThePastPressOn

We're just passing through this earth. We are living for something bigger and beyond, and we have to keep our focus. But while we are here on this earth, we are to run with endurance, eyes fixed on the prize, and Jesus being that ultimate prize. Because when my eyes are on him and fixed on him, I can make it. I can make it through the hardest of storms. I can make it through the toughest of times, and I can sustain momentum and not drift off course. [00:20:50] (33 seconds)  #EyesOnJesusEndure

You can discipline your flesh and say, no. As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. I dedicate all my days to the Lord. I will not look back to the right or to the left, but I will keep pursuing because I know that there is a king on the throne and he said, my son, my daughter, it'll all be worth it in the end. We're not meant to live with a mindset of comfort on this earth, but perspective. We are living for eternity on mine. [00:34:17] (32 seconds)  #ServeWithEternalPerspective

Honestly, like, when you go through hard times, when you go through situations in life, I always say this. I'm like, how do people do this without community? I have no idea. Like, when I'm going through a hard time, I I have people that I can call in and say, hey. I'm not okay. And here's the thing. When you're running the race, you need to have somebody that you can look over at and say, I can't do this. This is hard. And they'll say, I know. [00:26:00] (23 seconds)  #CommunityInHardTimes

I hear these drums in the night, and I, like, I wake up in my my bed, and I'm like, woah. Like a Jumanji situation. I'm like, what's happening? And we wear these in ears, you know, on stage, so I thought maybe it's just really loud in my eardrums still or something. But I just felt the impression on my spirit. The Holy Spirit said, no. There there's some suicidal ideations in the body of Christ. There's and it might not be that you wanna attempt suicide in the physical necessarily, but your spirit, there's attack on your spirit, man. [00:32:48] (31 seconds)  #SpiritualBattlesReal

It was like a protein shake in the spirit realm. It's like all of a sudden, I just felt like I was like this, and then I was like, no. I can do this. Like, he's given me the strength. It's not my strength. It's his strength. And he's literally running with me. He said, come on. Let's go. And from this to this is going to happen even today as the Holy Spirit whispers on your heart and says, my son, my daughter, you've been running a few decades here, but that's okay. That's okay. You there's still a path that I have you on. Stay focused. Keep your eyes fixed. [00:35:39] (41 seconds)  #StrengthFromTheSpirit

to see where Roger was. Wow. And at this exact moment, Roger sprinted past him on the other side and won the race. John lost because he looked back. The moment became so legendary. How sad is this? It became so legendary. There's literally a statue in Vancouver, okay, showing John Landy looking back and losing the race. Like, what? [00:14:10] (28 seconds)  #DontLookBackLesson

what a bummer. The guy could've won. He looks back one glance, and he lost everything in that moment. And spiritually, many believers, many of us today, we are losing momentum the same exact way. We don't even realize it. Not because we stopped running. Right? We're still running, but because we're we're looking we're looking back. And that's why Paul keeps bringing this up. My heart for you today, and I think Paul's heart to all of us today, [00:14:54] (29 seconds)  #KeepMomentumForward

But running, as you know, runners cannot run if they look back. I do know this. My kids were in track for a while. I don't know nothing about track. I don't know nothing about how their feet are supposed to go. All I knew is don't look back. Stop looking at your friends. Look ahead. They'd be like, where am I? They're like, don't look back. I knew to say, don't look back. But as runners, you cannot look back, and there is the same for us as believers today. [00:12:55] (25 seconds)  #RunDontLookBack

And one way I think that we can be the best that God has called us to be on this race is by making sure that we have the right people surrounding us. Paul tells us, you know, in Philippians and his other writings that there's groups of people. There's people that we need to have in this race in order to press on and take hold of that high call. And I know this personally to be completely true. If you do not have the right people around you, you will you will slow down. You will lose your way. It's important to have community. And so I'm calling this the three c's to help you press on. [00:22:58] (35 seconds)  #BuildYourSpiritualTeam

And this picture of Hebrews with the great cloud of witnesses, this is those who have gone before us that have ran their race well. And they are testifying, and they are witnesses to say that this is going to be worth it. The race is going to be worth it. And when I was reading this, I just began to think of those runners who have ran in faith, whether that be those of the Bible or those that we we know. I have people in my life that have went to heaven, and they ran well. [00:29:11] (31 seconds)  #CloudOfWitnesses

And sometimes when I'm going through a hard time, sometimes when I wanna give up, sometimes when I'm just like, I can't do this anymore. I I let my imagination just picture the great cloud of witnesses. And even this probably a few weeks ago, I was having a really rough time and just feeling some darkness. And leaders we we experience darkness too. We're not living in a bubble. And I was just having such a hard time and really struggling and and, like, pressing I pressed in my whole life. I pressed I my middle name is Press On. You know what I mean? Like, [00:29:49] (38 seconds)  #LeadersFaceDarknessToo

But I I know that the Lord is saying that over to you today. And, yes, there is a cloud of witnesses, but the biggest cheerleader we have is Jesus himself. And he is he's not mad at you. He's not like, come on. Go faster. Why are you going so slow? Why do you keep looking back? No. He's cheering you on. And I hope today that you can sense the weight of that on your on your spirit. [00:31:41] (27 seconds)  #JesusIsYourCheerleader

In other words, the Christian life is not some random, just motion. Right? It is an intentional pursuit. So Paul is describing this over and over again with these analogies. He's encouraging us today to keep pressing forward like an athlete. And how many of you know? He knew that we were gonna struggle, and so he gave us these athletic imagery to understand that it's going to take some zeal. It's going to take some discipline. It's going to take some you know what I'm saying? [00:07:44] (31 seconds)  #RunLikeAnAthlete

This important thing, her heart was still attached to what God was delivering her from. She's on her way out from the deliverance moment, and she has to look back. Think about the children of Israel. Man, they kept looking back. They're in the desert for forty years. God rescues them out of bondage and slavery and oppression, and they're going their way. And it starts getting hard. I don't wanna do this. And [00:16:31] (28 seconds)  #DontReturnToBondage

But is that not what happens on our spiritual journey? We're walking with the Lord. We're like, okay. I can do this. I'm pushing forward. I'm going to CR. I'm getting my step study. I'm I'm moving I'm reading my bible every day. I'm doing this stuff. Come on. Let's go. And then it starts to get a little hard. Right? Because this ain't no walk in the park as Paul has described. But this is a race that we are to run with endurance. [00:17:15] (21 seconds)  #EndureTheRace

why did I why did I take that job? Why did I move to that city? Like, ah. And the regrets start to come in. The enemy loves to distract us and cause us to just lose our momentum. We're not necessarily stumbling fully on the race, which we will do at times as well, but it's the little setbacks, it's the little look backs that can cause us to lose our focus and to not continue to press on. [00:18:45] (27 seconds)  #DontLetRegretsDistract

And I could I could sense the urgency in Paul's vocabulary. I could sense this thing in my spirit that I had maybe been just kind of, like, just giving up a little bit. Not fully letting go, not completely stopping my run, but just getting tired. Like, oh, man. I've been really going a long time, Lord, and I'm I'm getting tired. And I as I began to read it, I could feel this this thing, like faith being infused into my soul. [00:22:11] (25 seconds)  #FaithInfusedInWeariness

No. That we would run with focus and fixed purpose to say, we are running for one thing and one thing alone and that is eternity and grabbing as many people as we can on the way and say, we're going this way. I hope you hear his spirit today. It's not words that I can say. Even as I read this passage in my room that night, I just began to weep. I could sense the holy spirit. It wasn't somebody saying something to me. It was the the spirit, the holy spirit [00:35:01] (32 seconds)  #RunForEternity