Pressing On, Pressing In, Pressing Out.

I want everyone to understand something today, when it comes to my position at Prairie Family Church, as the senior pastor, my greatest concern is your commitment to Christ.

Not your commitment to the church. You can be committed to the church and not be committed to Christ.

Not your commitment to religion. You can be committed to religion and not be committed to Christ.

It is like the guys who are in the Italian Mafia. They attend Catholic Mass, but they are unaffected by what they hear because they are not committed to Christ.

I am concerned about whether or not you are committed to Jesus Christ in such a way that God comes first in your life.

When we are committed to Christ, everything else in our lives falls into place. It aligns correctly.

That is why Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Jesus was teaching the people that when they are committed to Christ and the Kingdom of God, everything else, everything will fall into place.

That is the purpose of this message today, to help us get things aligned.

No, the title of this message doesn’t have anything to do with my waist line!

The title gives us a clue into something that every person who calls themselves a child of God should be doing.

Pressing on, pressing in, and pressing out.

PRAYER

Father, open my eyes to see Your Word.

Open my ears to hear.

Open my mind to understand.

And open my heart so I may receive Your Word today.

AMEN

VIDEO ABOUT THE APOSTLE PAUL

Scripture doesn’t say but I bet it is fact, that Paul was either at the crucifixion of Christ or he knew about it. Whatever the case, before Paul’s Damascus Road experience Paul what was he? He was a minister of murder.

Paul knew about Christ, he knew about His teachings and His healings and about His followers. And Paul wanted to end their movement.

But one day Paul made a decision to change his ways and he committed his life to Christ. By doing this he became a great man of God writing 13 books in the New Testament.

In Paul’s letters he wrote about pressing on, pressing in, and pressing out.

READ Philippians 3:10-16

10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not 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. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Philippians 3:10-16 NIV

When Paul became committed to Christ what did he want to do?

He wanted to know Christ and the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.

Paul wanted to become like Christ.

So what was Jesus Christ like when He walked on the earth?

Jesus was kind, hard-working, compassionate, obedient, thoughtful, and was focused on His mission.

He was adventurous, how many people do you know who walk on water when it is storming out?

He was not a wimp.

He took on the demon possessed.

He stepped on the toes of the religious.

He was not afraid of a challenge.

He paid the ultimate sacrifice for our lives and died on a cross.

He was beaten, whipped, and nailed to a tree. Thorns pierced His head and a sword pierced His side.

Jesus was a manly man!

There is one other thing Jesus was, Jesus was perfect.

He was the perfect man who knew no sin.

That is what Paul wanted to be like, can you blame him?

Why wouldn’t we want to be like Jesus?

He wanted to know Christ. He didn’t want to speculate about Jesus, he didn’t want to guess about Him. He wanted to the deepest, fullest, richest experience that he could find in regards to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And to get that done, Paul was going to press on until he accomplished the task.

Nothing was going to keep Paul from reaching his goal. Here is how Paul put it in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”