Press On

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Again, I wanted to leave Mark to my brother to continue his thoughts in it.
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So, I guess I'll start it this way.
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You know, I, and I would think you, some of you already know it.
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I do have a tendency to repeat.
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I'm working on it.
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I've been working on it for a long time.
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And maybe you realize that one of the things that I say often is press on.
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And those, that's one of the things I don't regret repeating.
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Because every time I say that, it reminds me of this passage.
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We're going to look at Philippians chapter 3 verses 12 through 16 with a specific focus to help us manage time in verse 14.
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But again, every time I do say those words, even to myself, which I say very often, or to others, this passage comes to my mind.
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So, I thought maybe, I don't think I've ever spoken directly about the passage.
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So, I thought it would be an opportunity to maybe make some thoughts known.
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So, I'm going to ask you to read with me from verse 12 to verse 16.
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And again, I'm going to try to be fairly concise tonight because of time and even in preparation.
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But let's just read it.
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Paul says this in verse 12.
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Not that I have already attained or already perfected, but I press on.
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That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me.
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Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended.
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But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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Therefore, as many as us are mature, therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
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Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule and let us be of the same mind.
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And again, kind of jumping in in the middle of this chapter, but just very, very quickly just to kind of set the setting.
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You know, in chapter 3, Paul is, he starts out the chapter and he's talking about what he had achieved in a sense of his background and his learning and his pedigree, if you will, and how at one point in his life, he thought that that was the way to be right with God.
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That following the law and having all these things lined up was the way in which he could be right with God.
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And so you see that in verses 1 through 6.
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And then Paul comes in verse 7 and in verse 8 and he says, you know what? Of all that I had, I realized I had nothing.
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All that I thought would bring me into a righteous position with God, he realized that having come to Christ or having Christ come to him, certainly it no longer matted what he thought he had, whether it had been achievement again or learning or status or any of those things.
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And then he starts to move further on and where we'll jump in a little bit, that his whole life has now been completely changed and that his life being changed changes the thing that he desires to see, if you will, perfected in his life.
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Before it was, he was a Pharisee of a Pharisee and he was, he under, by the law, he knew the law and he checked all the boxes.
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And again, he comes to this realization as he's encountered by the Savior that all those things as he says he counts as loss.
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And so now there's a realization that he's a new creature in Christ and he must not only forget what he thought was making him righteous but now he has a new principle implanted in his heart and that new principle, in a sense, has new rules attached to it and new goals and new prizes.
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And so he transitions from what he had to the realization of what he really didn't have and then as we begin of what he now possessed.
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And so with that very short background, I want to look particularly at verse 14 but I want to just make a couple of quick remarks.
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One is this and I wonder sometimes even in my own self as I read the word of God and as I try to understand the word of God that I don't lose sight of the reality of the person who is writing it.
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What I mean by that is that these words that are penned here, they weren't written in a laboratory.
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It wasn't like Paul sitting in some ivory tower as a professor and he's contemplating some facts to hand out.
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And I think sometimes we think of that when we read through the scriptures, we lose sight of the person because again, inspired by the spirit of God, but yet it's the person writing and God is using that.
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And so as you think of it that these are not just facts, not even just, if you will, encouraging words from some motivational speaker in the apostle Paul.
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But these are words of a man.
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These are the words of an apostle, yes, but as a man, as he's moved by the spirit of God, having been brought to newness of life.
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And even for this apostle, even for this one, and I would suggest that if we would consider it, this is probably one of the most used men, if not the most used man, ever used by God to display truth to us.
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And as Paul writes this, and again, I didn't have enough time to truly research it out, but this is not, Paul didn't write this the day after he got saved.
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This has been decades.
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And so when we read these words, I want us to try to think about that, that we are approaching it in a way of considering them from his own heart.
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And not, again, not just cold facts and not just even teaching, but that we really see it as that which was in the depth of his heart and what was, if you will, flowing out of it.
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And in that, you and I would be able to find instruction from his heart to our own hearts, again, by the grace of God.
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And I can point that out very quickly because if you just read it again, I want you to just focus, and I'll read from verse 12 again.
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Excuse me.
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And notice how many times he says, I.
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Look, not that I have already attained or I meant already perfected, but I, the apostle, the man, he presses on, that I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
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Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal of the prize of the upward call, in Christ Jesus.
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You see it? You see, again, this is not just cold facts.
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This is not just teaching and understanding being given out, but this is rather what is actually working in this great apostle of the faith.
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And so as you think about it, it's not just as if it's a teacher giving understanding to students.
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It's not just as if he's the master and he's saying to those that are, in that sense, underneath him, you need to do this.
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But rather he's saying, I, these were his thoughts, his heart, his mind, and it was what was moving him.
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Because if you think about it, we all have a very individual relationship with the living God.
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It is God and us, and us to God.
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Now, I'm not discounting the fact that we live this life in relationships, and that could never be forgotten.
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But here's the reality of it.
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If we have entered the life as one, we're going to leave this life the same way.
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And that that reality should work in us, and it should cause us to, as we will see, hopefully, we should be those who have the desire to press on in that relationship with the God who created us.
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Again, I'm not discounting the idea of the community of the body.
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I'm not discounting the fellowship that comes and the encouragement and all those things that come out of a body of believers.
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But what I am saying to you, in so many ways, this reality is that as Paul writes it, this is truly what is driving Paul.
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This is truly what's working in his heart.
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And the words that he uses are, again, not just cold thoughts, but they are heartfelt realities for himself.
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So as you begin to think about what he is going to say, that you and I would understand that we have to consider it for ourselves.
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Or I might ask you even now to begin to think, what moves you? What drives you? Because we're going to see.
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And he uses the imagery of athletics, right? And Paul does that very often.
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He uses this whole idea of running, particularly running a race.
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I've never been one for running.
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I always think the people that are up 6.30 in the morning running down the street, they're cuckoo.
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Now, I'll run if I have to run from somebody or I'll run to somebody.
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But I'm not wearing fancy clothes and just running at 5 o'clock in the morning for no reason.
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But anyway, Paul uses many times this whole idea of a race and of the requirements of those who run a race, if you will, the rules and the regulations and the rewards and the obstacles that are always present.
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So let's just look for a few minutes at a couple of the thoughts that come out of verse 14, particularly, but maybe back up a little bit as we go along.
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So the first thing he says is that I press.
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And as I said to you, he uses it in the personal way and that this is a real action word, right? So I press on, it's a word that really promotes activity.
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It's a word of action.
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It's a verb.
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I can go pretty far with grammar like noun, verb.
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I might even progress to pronouns and stuff.
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But after that, I can't.
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But it's interesting that he says that, that he presses.
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And in the original, the word really means to run, to try to catch up to something.
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I press.
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I'm chasing after something.
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I'm wanting to get to somewhere.
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And so that's why he says, I press towards the goal, the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.
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And, you know, I thought about this a little bit.
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And I thought, you know, we live in a very complex world in our days.
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And people are always chasing something.
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People are always trying to catch something.
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The one who loves money is doing what? Chasing money.
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He's trying to catch up to it.
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He's trying to attain to that place.
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One who loves knowledge, well, what will they do? They'll press on to acquire that knowledge, to catch it, to make it their own.
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And, again, you could apply that in any area.
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Those that love pleasure, they just continually chase after pleasure.
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And nothing else really motivates them other than the thing that they see is the desirable thing to catch, to catch up to, to attain, to acquire.
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And the question, again, is does that penetrate into our own hearts? Can we say that, as we look at this, that what was pressing on Paul presses on us? And that's an important thing to consider.
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And he says, I press towards.
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And he tells us what he's chasing after.
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He's trying to gain ground on something.
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So he's striving.
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He's moving.
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And he wants to get from one place to another place.
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He wants to find the ability to attain what is driving him.
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And if you think about that, you know, there's a real, I believe it's a principle.
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And it's that you and I are either moving toward something or away from something all the time.
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Now, we might not always be conscious of that.
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But I think what is true is that we are either moving towards a particular direction or we're moving away from a particular direction or a particular thing or a particular someone or whatever it is.
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And that we're constantly in a state of moving, following after, seeking, trying to catch something, trying to gain something.
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And again, it's endless how you could probably describe all that.
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But there is that principle, I believe.
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There's always movement in our minds.
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I think you kind of could think of it this way.
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As you get to know someone, you begin to understand what's driving them.
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You begin to understand what they're moving towards or what they're moving from.
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Again, I know we were here Saturday.
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We were talking about a number of things.
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And I thought about how being married almost, you know, 50 years.
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And I said something.
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I said, you know, I don't even understand that chick I married.
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And I'm, but I'm moving towards it.
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And I want to know.
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I'm trying to chase after it.
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But again, we're always moving towards something.
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We're always moving away from something.
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And so as Paul says this, he is trying to impress upon us what's in his heart and that he is moving in a particular direction.
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And that direction is, as we will see, the goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus.
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You know, I think that's true of all of us, right? As being created by God, as being those who have within us many, many thoughts and that we are seeking to follow those thoughts.
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And it could be anything, right? It could be simple of where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? That we are constantly in a state of moving, not necessarily in our bodies, but in our minds and in our hearts, and we're trying to move somewhere.
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And what's interesting is that as you look at these verses, I want you to notice that there's a number of times where Paul makes a very astounding statement.
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In verse 12, he says, not that I've already attained.
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Okay, just keep that in mind.
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And then in verse 13, he says, I do not count myself to have already apprehended.
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And then, if you think about it, he is speaking about pressing towards a goal that he has not yet attained.
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That's why I say, we're always in a state of chasing, catching, seeking to catch something.
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In the imagery of a race, what it would be would be what? The finish line, right? You run a race.
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If you run a race just to lose it, then I don't even know why you would bother to run the race.
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But if you are an athlete and you're seeking to get to the place where, if you will, the reward is, the prize is, then you are in a constant state of movement.
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And actually, nothing else will enter in to seek to deter you from reaching the goal, right? Make sense? I'm sure it makes sense.
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And I just want to point out another thing.
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One of the things, and I want you to look at something because there was a great era, and that era is still with us today, and the era is the start of Sinless Perfectionism.
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And it was present in his day, and perhaps it was the Judaizers, the Jews thought, well, if you could be the Pharisee, if you can keep the law, and if you circumcised, you could do all this and all that, then you become perfect and you're standing before God.
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But that's still with us today, right? There are those who think that by some second work of grace you can attain perfection.
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In other words, you become sinless, which is, as Brother Keats says in the Greek, baloney.
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But the reality is that Paul, and that's why he says it, I believe it's why he says it as many times as he does.
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He says, I have not already attained.
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I press on, and I do not count myself to have apprehended but forgetting those things which are behind, which is what he has done in his words to us, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead.
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And so therefore, this whole idea has to be understood that whatever it is that we're chasing, and hopefully what we are chasing, as we will see, as he says, the prize of the upper core of God and Christ Jesus, that there's a realization that you and I in this life will never finally catch it.
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Now, if you disagree with me, then we can have some discussion.
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But we will never ultimately get to that place which by the spirit of God we desire.
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But we are those who are to continually, and I use the words, press on to that mark, knowing that you and I in and of ourselves and no one else is ever gonna attain it on this side of the veil.
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So that's why he says, I press towards, I'm moving in that direction, again, with the realization that I will never really get there.
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But that does not deter him or drive him or motivate him or move him to keep chasing it.
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Then he says this, he says, I press towards the goal, I guess in the real translation, it says, mark, does it? Yes? Yes.
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Yes, okay.
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He says, I press towards the goal in the translation that I have.
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I press towards the goal, and again, there it is, right? Paul is a, he's captive, isn't he? Listen, you think about this.
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When we come to Christ or when Christ comes to us, we become free from one master to what? To be captive to another.
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And that you and I need to understand that being captive, Paul is not aimless.
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Paul has a very specific drive that is moving in him by the spirit of God.
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And if you think about it, that's important.
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That's important because people who are not focused, if you will, people who don't have a goal, people who are not moving towards something, many, many times find themselves going nowhere.
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They just move aimlessly.
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And this might sound crude, but I thought, I walk my dog every morning, and as we walk, she just sniffs here, sniffs there, sniffs here, sniffs there.
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Doesn't matter, she's a sniffer, like every other dog.
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But in many ways, it's aimless.
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She knows where to go because we do it every day, so she could walk me.
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But you get my point, that people who don't have a goal, people who don't have something in them driving them from one place to another, many times just go around sniffing.
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And they never really get anywhere.
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The word says that those apart from God are what? Like the troubled sea.
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And they cast up dirt and mire, and it says that there is what? No peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
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And part of that lack of peace is that there's nothing that they're really following after.
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There's nothing that really they are pressing on to, again, unless it is just a desire for pleasure or for status or for position, whatever way it works out in their life.
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So when you think about this whole idea of a prize, because that's what he's talking about, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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And I wanted to think about that for a little bit because I think that's important because if, let's just say someone has real drive, and I've often thought about it, you could be one who has a great deal of drive, and you could be going in the wrong direction, and all your energy of driving in the wrong direction will what? Not only will not get you where you wanna be, it'll take you further from where you ought to be if you have that destination in mind.
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So think about that, and you think about that, there has to be a very specific goal in the mind of the apostle, and then there has to be a very specific prize that Paul is seeking after.
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In other words, again, if you think about it, athletes do it all the time.
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I remember even my boys used to do it when they were in sports.
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They were looking for what? The trophy, the prize, the award, the thing that came to you at the finish line.
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And particularly if you what? Finish first.
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I will just say this as a side, I am totally against everybody getting a trophy.
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Right? Because it destroys, even in that sense, it destroys drive.
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It's just like, oh, well, I'm gonna get a trophy for the shelf whether I finish first or 200.
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But see, there's a difference for us in that you and I have to realize that we are headed for a prize.
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And again, we still have to consider what is this prize? What truly is this prize that we are seeking after? And I would add this, that all religions do this.
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It doesn't matter what religion it is in that sense, because every teaching, every religion has, presents some sort of reward to those that follow the dictates and the rules of whatever that teaching is, right? Whether it be a bunch of virgins on the other side, or whether it be you get to come back in any animal or any kind of way you choose.
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There's always something that's held out as the prize, and that those that are following that are the ones that are driving towards seeking to catch that prize.
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And that you and I have to, again, think about what is the prize? But before we do that, I want you to consider this.
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It's not only a prize, but look how Paul words this.
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He says, in verse 14, I press towards the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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And if you go back just to verse 12, look what he says.
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I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
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Now, that almost could be a little bit confusing, or could be very clear too.
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What is Paul really trying to say? I believe what he's trying to say in part is, God has called you and me, brothers and sisters, for his glory, and he has called us to be like him.
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Would you not agree to that? And that Paul, realizing that what he thought was the thing that would get him to that goal and that prize, was not right, that he now sees that the fact that God has called him to himself is the very reason why Paul now seeks to move towards God.
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In other words, let me put it to you this way.
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Just quickly, a very familiar verse, right? But just, you know, I've turned to Romans 8, but just listen to what Paul says in Romans 8.
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He says, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestine, what? To be conformed to the image of his son.
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Listen, God called us that he might conform us into the image of his son.
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And that that should be, ought to be, the prize and the goal of our life.
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Not just to be successful, not just to be known, not just to be this, not just to be that, but to be conformed into the image of his son, for that's the very reason why God saved us.
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And that's why it's so important to press on.
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And that's why it's so important to know what we're pressing on for.
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Pressing on to be, not just again, anything of this world, but rather it is a call, and that's what he says.
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I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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I wanna read a couple of scriptures to you.
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And they relate to this whole idea of athletics and awards, and if you will, the result of our efforts.
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Now again, it's God's call, right? We love him because he first loved us.
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He saved us, but in the outworking of that, we ought to press on.
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We ought to put in the effort.
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When I worked for Penske, they always gave everybody a coin when they came into the company.
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And Roger Penske was very big on this slogan, and you had to have this coin in your pocket because if someone else asked you for it and you didn't have it, you had to pay a dollar.
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I collected some dollars on that, by the way.
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But the word on the coin was efforts equal results.
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Because that's what drove him.
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Because even if you look at his trucks now, it says dedication at every turn.
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And that has a lot to do because he was a race car driver and all that other stuff.
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But I want us to think about a couple of scriptures, and I'll just read them to you.
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I'll tell you where they are, but you probably know that you and I really have to think about this whole idea of the prize and what this prize really is.
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In 1 Corinthians 9, it says, do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
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And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.
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Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but here's the point.
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We for an imperishable crown.
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In 2 Timothy 4, it says, I have fought the good fight.
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I finished the race.
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I have kept the faith.
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Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who love his appearing.
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1 Peter 5 says, but being examples to the flock, he's speaking to those that are to be under shepherds, and he says, but being examples to the flock, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory.
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See, he keeps talking about these crowns.
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One writer, another writer, and another writer.
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Revelation 2 says, do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer, as he writes to the persecuted church, and he says, indeed, the devil's about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tempted, and you will have tribulation 10 days.
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Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
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Again, if our thought is merely that the prize that we are stretching for, seeking to catch, is of anything of this world, then it's a fool's errand, isn't it? Because if you think about it, everybody, again, I believe, is moving towards something or away from something, and if they're chasing the wrong thing, if they're pursuing the wrong thing, if they're pressing on after the wrong prize, what happens at the end? The thing that they're pressing on will perish as they take their last breath, won't it? And so when Paul makes this statement of, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, that it is essential for us to see that this call came to Paul from above, and that you and I are to press on to reach that place of conformity to Christ.
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That conformity to, again, that's why God saved us.
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He didn't save us because he had nothing else to do.
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He saved us for his glory and to conform us into the image of his son.
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Now, many people will say, well, when I get there, I'll receive my crown, but I would suggest to you that you and I think about, we ought to press on because the crown ultimately is the crown and the prize ultimately is being Christ-like.
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I don't really necessarily believe it's just heaven, friends.
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It's being Christ-like.
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It's being like him.
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It's being holy.
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It's being harmless.
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It's being undefiled.
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It's bearing his image.
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It's being witness of public testimony of what God does when he calls us to himself.
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And the thing that hinders that most, isn't it sin, friends? Isn't sin the great enemy of the prize? Isn't sin the great enemy against the holiness and perfection of God? And it's been ingested to every single person because of the sin of Adam and our own sin.
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And that's why the scriptures make so clear that man, in so many ways, as the scripture says, is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward.
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And man drinks iniquity like water.
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And that spiritual death is not only working against the prize of being conformed to the image of Christ but spiritual death brings eternal death.
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Again, the prize has to be to be right with God.
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I press towards the goal of the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.
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And it's the thing that drives him.
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So again, I'm asking you and myself and I hope we will understand what drives us.
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Why are we here tonight? Is it because it's Wednesday night and we always do this on Wednesday night? And I might be part of it.
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Or is it that I want to press on and I want to be conformed to be like Christ? That I want to bear his image.
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That I want people to see Christ in me.
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And I'm a mess, but don't get too cocky because you're a mess too.
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And that Paul was a mess.
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Was he a great mess? Yes, he was, but he was a mess and he hadn't attained it.
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And he pressed on and he desired to be more and more like the son of God who so loved him that he gave himself for him.
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That's why we ought to be here tonight, by the way.
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I want to put away the things of the old man.
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I want to put on the things of the new man.
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I want to be looked at as a testimony of the grace of God.
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And there's so much that I regret and there's so much I seek to repent from.
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And there's so much that I just look at myself and I see how far away I am from being more and more conformed to the image of Christ.
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But I'm going to press on.
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I know what it's like to live without Christ.
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And it's horrible.
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And it leads nowhere.
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And I know by the grace of God now what it means to have the spirit of God.
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Desiring, and I want to press on towards that mark.
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I know I can't catch it.
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But by God's grace, I'm going to search after it and I'm going to seek it.
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And in that sense, get out of my way.
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Pretty much what it says in Hebrews, right? Follow after peace with all men and holiness.
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What is holiness anyway? And even Brother Keith had brought this up.
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Holiness is to be separate.
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I love that term, that Jesus, that God is the great other.
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There's none like him.
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And isn't it wonderful that he desires to conform us into the image of his only beloved son that he sent into this world to free us so that we can become more and more like his son.
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I mean, that's cool that he has opened the prison gates as I said, he has opened the prison gates and set us free.
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That's what he said, right? If the son shall set you free, he shall be free indeed.
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Free indeed to press on towards the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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So as we close it, again, I ask that question.
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What are we pressing on to win? If it's self-satisfaction, it won't last.
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Can't take that across the grave.
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If it's the things of this world, that won't work.
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You can't take them across the veil.
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Ask the, I know I say it a lot, but ask the pharaohs.
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If you could take your goal and your prize across the veil.
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Now, gotta leave it in the ground.
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So what are we really pressing on to? And there are multitudes, and that's the sad part, isn't it, there are multitudes that are pressing on for the wrong goal and the wrong prize, and they will never find true peace in searching for those things which cannot satisfy.
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So my encouragement to us tonight and my hope for myself, as well as for you, as well it was for the Apostle Paul, and that's why I said to you at the beginning, he says, I, I, I, I, I.
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And remember, if anybody had attained to a level, man, which one of us could not wanna be the Apostle Paul in his mind? But, but that wasn't even enough for the Apostle.
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The only thing that really was the prize is to be more and more conformed into the altogether lovely one.
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So may that be the drive of our hearts, and may, may we, so as, as I say that to you from, as time goes on, I say, press on.
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That's what I mean.
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I don't just mean suck it up, buttercup.
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I mean, press on.
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There's a prize.
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It's conformity, it's, it's Christ-likeness.
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It's seeing him for who he is.
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It's, it's enjoying him forever.
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Press on.
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There's enough mud in this world to sink us all.
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Press on and, press on in this most holy faith.
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Amen.
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All right, any, okay, let's go to the next one.
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Let's just close with a word of prayer, and then ask God's blessing to keep us till we meet again.
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Father, we thank you for your truth.
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Lord, I thank you for, for these words of the Apostle that stirred in his heart, oh God, help us to be stirred by the same truth, to press on, to press on to that upward call of God in Christ Jesus, to put the old man to death, and to put on the new man, that for which Christ went to Calvary's cross to create in us new hearts, new desires, new goals.
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Lord, may we run the race, and may we run it hard, Lord.
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May we not look back.
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May we not be like Lot's wife.
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May we press on.
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May we be an encouragement to, to others, as they see the grace of God demonstrated in our life.
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Oh God, sanctify us.
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Oh God, be, be gracious to us, Lord, that as we bear witness to the truth, that the truth will bear witness through our own lives.
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We ask all this in Christ's name.
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Amen.