Pressing On [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The power of the gospel is in this, that you, having been guaranteed the victory, are energized to press on.

That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Unspeakable Joy, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You ready for some good news? If you feel like you're up against something and you start getting that feeling of giving up, and you're finding it difficult to press on, the gospel, the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ will become your fuel, will become real power to you by the implanting of hope. The very fact that we're called to keep pressing on and to keep moving forward in our walk with God is an indication that God is not finished with you yet. We saw in Philippians, the first part of chapter three, that we have been justified, saved, forgiven, born again into a living hope in Christ by Jesus plus nothing else. Today, we're going to see as this text continues that there is a call of continuing on that is rooted in that affirmation.

I want to talk to you today about pressing on. It's in Philippians chapter three and we're at verse 12. Philippians chapter three at verse 12. Paul writes, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brotherhood, do not consider that I've made it on my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize or the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let those of us who are mature think this way and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with mindset on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. I think my favorite Olympic story I've told before, a man named Ruben Gonzalez who in 1983 was a bench warmer on his college soccer team. He started watching the Olympics the next year and he thought, I'd like to be an Olympic athlete. Only problem was he didn't have a sport. So all he knew to do was he wrote Sports Illustrated and said, where do you go to try out and learn how to be an Olympic athlete?

They actually wrote him back, gave him a number to call. He had looked through and looked at all the summer sports and he thought, man, you got to run fast or jump high. He said, I'm not a good enough athlete to do all that. He started looking to the Winter Olympics. He started looking at all the different categories and what he settled on was the luge, a little sled that goes down an icy slope. And the reason he settled on it was you don't have to be much of an athlete for that. And so he called up to the training grounds where people train for the luge and he spoke to somebody there and he said, I want to become an Olympic athlete. They said, how are you? He said, 21.

They said, no, people start training for this in their early teens at the latest. He said, well, but I think I can do it. They said, no, you don't understand, sir. He said, this sport is so dangerous that more people quit this than any other of our Olympics sports. And Ruben said, great. The man said, what do you mean? He said, well, because I don't quit. He said, well, the man said, no, you don't understand.

He said, people will break their bones learning how to do this. He said, great. The man said, you don't understand. He said, nine out of 10 people will quit before they ever even get to any Olympic tryout. He said, perfect. Because he said, I'm not a very good athlete. He said, but I'm not a quitter. He said, I'm not a quitter. He said, I'm not a quitter. Because he said, I'm not a very good athlete.

He said, but I'm not a quitter. And Ruben Gonzalez went on to be in four Olympics in the luge. And his life message is this, if nine out of 10 people quit when the going gets tough, if you don't quit, you're already in the top 10%. When Paul uses this image of pressing on, he is using the image of an Olympic runner. He is hearkening unto the sport that would have been very familiar in his day because of the Greek culture. And it's the image of an athlete devoting every fiber of his being toward the goal marker. The word literally means pressing towards the goal marker. It's towards that image of the finish flag, the finish marker, the tape, whatever.

That's the image that he's using. The athlete who is so devoted towards one focused purpose that he is pressing on towards it. It's a description of the highest athletic endeavor where everything within you is pressing towards this goal. That's what he's saying about the continuing life of the disciple of Jesus Christ.

That's what he's saying. Michael Phelps is swimming again in the Olympics. He's got more gold medals, more medals than anybody in the history of the Olympics. And when he came on the national and world landscape of attention, we started learning what his training is like. He swims an average of eight miles a day during his six hours of swimming each day. He begins his training at 6 30 a.m. in the morning. And he practices all the different strokes. They've learned, the scientists have, that Phelps' body produces one-third the amount of lactic acid of an average swimmer which allows him to swim without muscle burn.

His heart pumps approximately twice as much blood to his muscles as the average human male's heart. His breakfast while in training. Three fried egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions, and mayo.

One five egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast with powdered sugar, three chocolate chip pancakes, two cups of coffee. He requires 12,000 calories a day when he's in training. 12,000 calories a day when he's in training.

I'm just letting my mind go, what would happen with one 12,000 calorie day for me? The image of the Olympian who is moving towards the goal is then attached, Paul uses the image of the prize. And what people in his day would have understood is that the Olympics, which were mainly originally foot races, were presided over by judges and respected officers that were called chief judges.

And after each event, they had a herald announce the name of the victor, the father's name, and the country's name. And then the athlete would come forward and receive a palm branch in his hands. So this is the image Paul's saying that he's using here.

This is Michael Phelps in training. Eyes towards a goal in mind with anticipation of being adorned the victor again, your name announced, your country's name announced. And what we're given by Paul here is for all of us who are in the spiritual fight, all of us that are on the path of discipleship, all of us that are moving through earth as aliens towards our true citizenship in heaven, that you can count on this, that the judge has already made his judgment plain through Christ's finished work so that the announcement over your life is one of victory and that you being assured that you are victory and that you being assured that he who is in you is greater than he that is in the world are given the opportunity to press on in this world through whatever adversity you might face and to press on no matter what obstacles you might come against because of the assurance of the victory that lies in front of you. In other words, the power of the gospel is in this, that you having been guaranteed the victory are energized to press on. And I want to just show you today how the gospel energizes us for the great exertion of our lives because what Paul is saying is I don't want you to be confused that just because I have been teaching you that you are saved utterly 100% by what Jesus has done in none of your own efforts, this does not mean therefore that there's not going to be effort on your part. It's just that the effort on your part is not unto salvation but because of salvation.

And he's making this point. There's a lot of exhortation in Philippians about here's how you live. He even says in one point, he said, imitate me.

He's not being boastful or ego. He's just saying that there is a way in which this gospel that's inside of you gets lived out in our lives. And specifically, he seems to be talking about continued growth in the Lord.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Have you ever thought that joy is a delight reserved for those who have no problems? Or have you ever assumed that some people are just born with a joyful personality?

If so, get ready for some good news. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit available to all in Christ, no matter the circumstances of life. Though Paul was in jail when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, he spoke of joy 16 times. No matter what you're going through, you too can discover the secret to unspeakable joy as Pastor Alan Wright leads you through a life building exploration of Philippians. When you make a gift to Sharing the Light Ministries today, we'll send you the new CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, as our way of saying thank you for your partnership. Your gifts are the only way we're able to continue broadcasting the message of grace all over the nation. Happiness may rise and fall with happenstance, but joy is ever present in the Spirit.

So become a partner today and discover joy like never before. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Some years ago, I was interested in studying what the Scriptures had to say about laziness. And some years ago, I preached a message about this. And I found some texts that were quite surprising to me when I began to survey what seems to be linked with this idea of laziness. It's an interesting subject.

It was one of those things that I'm quite curious about because I don't remember anybody ever coming for prayer and saying, please pray for my sluggardliness. I've got some difficult things to do and I don't feel like doing it. So would you, you know, most of our prayer is that the Lord would take away the difficult journey in front of us rather than energize us to do what he's called us to do. And so I was looking at this and a couple of things that occurred to me as I was thinking about it. I thought, when am I at my laziest?

When is it hardest for me to do something that I might not feel like doing in my flesh? And I thought of a couple of images. One, when I was a kid, one of my very first jobs, I was working at the tennis courts. I love tennis and play tennis. And I thought my first job, I'm gonna go work at the tennis courts and, you know, check people into the courts, sweep the courts and water the courts and so forth. But instead, my first job was more of a manual labor thing. And there were some kids hired by the Parks and Recreation Department in Greensboro. And we worked all summer at Spencer Love Tennis Center in Greensboro. And we did a lot of menial tasks.

But one of the hardest things I ever did was one day, I'm totally convinced there's about three or four of us. And they just didn't have anything for us to do that day. And they were going to the next week resurface the soft courts with new composition. And so there's a giant pile of composition.

It's like a grainy, sandy, green dirt. And the whole day they had us move it from here over to there. It didn't even move it much closer to the courts. We just shoveled it in wheelbarrows and moved it over until we made a big pile. We did it the whole day. It was the most frustrating thing. I see absolutely no point in doing this. It's hard to get motivated if you see no point in anything, isn't it?

That's one of the first things. If there's no purpose, no point, then why do it? If there's no purpose and no point, why do it? When people come to the place where they're ready to forsake their life and see no reason to live, they've come to the place and say, what's the purpose? There's no point in it. There's no purpose in my life. There's no meaning in my life.

There's no purposeful use of me. And what the gospel does, the gospel comes in and seizes hold of you with God's great affection. And you start seeing who you really are in Christ.

It changes everything. You know, there's a purpose to this life. There's a point to this life. And I'll tell you, another time it was hard to get motivated is when things get too overwhelming. I don't know if anybody else is like this, but I've got a personality flaw that the more disorganized I get, the more likely I am to become disorganized. You'll either see my car in very nice shape, clean on the inside, polished on the out, or you'll see it quite cluttered. Because once it gets cluttered, it just feels like I don't have time to clean the whole thing up.

So might as well throw another cheeseburger wrapper in there. It's hard to get motivated. If you see no point in something, it's hard to get motivated. If you feel like it's too overwhelming and you'll never be able to do it, right?

And another thing that I think it makes it hard to get motivated, and that is when there's nothing to look forward to. It's hard enough to take the Christmas decorations out of the attic, get ready for Christmas, but I can do that because Christmas is coming. But putting the Christmas decorations back into the attic is one of the hardest things to do. You're just taking down Christmas. Yeah, some of you leave that Christmas tree up all year down that fake Christmas tree down there.

Don't even talk to me about it. I found some unusual scriptures when I was studying laziness that I didn't expect. An interesting proverb, Proverbs 22 verse 13 says, the sluggard says, there's a lion outside. I shall be killed in the streets. There's a lion outside.

I can't go out there and work today. There's a lion in the streets and I'll get killed. What? What kind of verse is that? You might expect it to say the coward says there's a lion in the streets or the delusional man says there's a lion in the streets, but it says the sluggard says.

And then another text that really, if you think about it, it catches you by surprise, even though it may be familiar to you. Matthew 25, a familiar parable of the talents. Jesus said, for it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to him his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, and to each according to his ability. He went away. He would receive the five talents, went out at once and traded with them and he made five of them, and he made five of them, and he made five of them, and he made five of them, and he went out at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he had the two talents and made two talents more, but he would receive the one talent, went and dug in the ground, and hid his master's money. And after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with him, and he had received the five talents, came forward bringing five talents more, saying, master, you delivered me five talents here.

I've made five talents more. His master said, well done, good and faithful servant. Likewise, the person received two talents, more. But when he came to this third man, it was a very different story. He came forward, the man with the one talent. He said, master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow, gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid. That's the key word. I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.

Here, you have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. Isn't that interesting? He called him lazy. The man was afraid, but the master interpreted it as laziness.

There's a lion in the street. I'm afraid. I dug a hole in the ground. Here's your one little talent back. I didn't do anything.

I just sat on it. You're lazy. There's a connection in the Scripture between fear and laziness. Oh, there's part of our laziness that's just my flesh just would rather sit there and eat potato chips, you know.

I mean, it's a part of it. But I think deeper than that, what hinders us from pressing on is we have fears. We have fears. And the Gospel answers those fears.

And beloved, when your fears melt away, unspeakable energy comes into your being. Paul says that he had been grasped by God, so he runs to grasp more of God. Or the language that he uses, the same root word used three times in verses 12 and 13, not that I've already obtained, taken hold of this. He says, I haven't taken hold of it. But he says, Jesus Christ has made me his own.

That's the same word. He's taken hold of me. And then he says, so I press on to take hold. So what he's saying is I've been taken hold of by God, therefore I press on to take hold. In other words, something has happened in the way that God has laid seized my life by his grace that's changed everything so that now I press on. I wouldn't have pressed on except I have been apprehended by God and now I'm pressing on.

One of the best examples of this really is the story of Joshua. If you remember the story of the promised land, there were 12 spies that went in to spy out the land of Canaan. 10 came back with a negative report and the people grew fearful, so they didn't take the land. They didn't press on. Why did they not press on?

They didn't press on because of fear. So in a very real way, you could say that the people of God were lazy. They were slothful. They refused to press on because they were afraid. We felt like grasshoppers. It seems like there's giants in the land, and so they didn't go on.

Didn't do anything. This is such a picture of the Christian life, beloved. The land was theirs. God had given them the land.

He had assured him of the land, but the fear of not being able to appropriate what God had promised caused them to be unable to move forward. Alan Wright, maybe you find yourself here today. It's our teaching we hope is a blessing to you, right here in the bookmark of Pressing On. We'll pick back up next time. In our series, Unspeakable Joy, and Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word.

C.S. Lewis said, No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. In other words, joy isn't an elusive dream reserved for a select few who have no problems or for those who were born with a joyful disposition. Actually, joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ. No matter what you're facing, you can have the joy of the Lord in the midst of it.

The apostle Paul did, though he wrote his epistle to the Philippians while imprisoned, he spoke of joy 16 times. Alan Wright's newest CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, takes you chapter by chapter through Paul's explanation of the secret of joy in Philippians. When you make a gift today to Sharing the Light, we'll be delighted to send you the new CD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

Become a partner today and discover the secrets of unspeakable joy. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, so say somebody's listening right now and they identify this is right where they are.

What would you have to say to them? Yeah. Well, when you feel like giving up, it's something that God understands. You remember Jesus, even in the garden, He said, I wish this cup could be taken from me.

It's, so let's first just say it's not an easy thing to press on when you feel like you have nothing left in the tank. But what we're learning today is that the power to press on is not one that comes through, well, us trying to convince ourselves more of the importance of it as much as it is the deeper grasp of the gospel, wherein our fears are lifted. Why did the people, this is the question, keep in your mind, why did the people of God not take the promised land?

Why did they not press on? It was a fear. And so, if you can overcome the fear, then all the obstacles to pressing on are going to be lifted. And the lifted. And so that's why we're focused really today on how the overcoming of these fears enables us to press on. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.