Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth (forces crowds seizes)into it.
There is something to be said for faith that neither gets bogged down in the present nor anchors itself to the past but rather looks forward to the future with longing and desire for something more.
• It is a faith that, while holding fast to the foundations of past blessing and past experience, presses through the difficulties of the present and reaches for the promise of the future.
o Forward facing faith peers into tomorrow to catch a glimpse of promises fulfilled.
• A faith that refuses to believe that our best is behind us.
o A faith that refuses to accept that our present circumstances are as good as it gets.
o A faith that longs for and desires after the future.
o A faith that enables the mind to believe that there is a better day ahead, that the best is yet to come.
• This is the kind of faith that we must cultivate in our lives.
o It’s a kind of faith that is always looking ahead, that is never satisfied with what we have but is always reaching for something more.
The foundations that we've been given are great.
• Our glorious past is wonderful.
o The heritage that we continue is a priceless treasure.
o But I must extend my faith to believe that God isn't finished with us yet!
• The past is to be saluted and honored but I still believe that the end of this thing will be better than its beginnings.
o I hear the words of my master echoing in my ears, "Truly, truly, I say to
you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do..." (John 14:12)
• Greater works and better things are still before us.
Our main problem is that we live in the present.
• The here and now is often overwhelming.
o The past is a distant memory and our future is out there somewhere but today’s worries, today’s doubts and fears, they require, even demand the majority of our time and attention.
• The details; the circumstances;
• the struggles; the battles;
• even the mundane tasks;
o our present demands our attention and attempts to dominate us.
• But forward facing faith says, "I refuse to accept things as they are."
o I may have to endure the present, but my hope is in the future.
• Forward facing faith refuses to be constrained within the limits of what can be seen and understood at this present time.
o It refuses to define tomorrow in the terms of today's abilities or inabilities.
o It refuses to trade the warmth of hope for the stark coldness of reality.
With a boldness that can only be drawn from hope, forward facing faith embraces a promise that has not yet been fulfilled.
• It sees the future, not through the lens of the present, but, rather, through the prism of promise.
o It is a faith that invests itself in a hope for a better tomorrow.
o A faith that yearns for the better things that have been spoken but haven't yet been fulfilled.
• It's David with a king's anointing and a shepherd’s staff.
o It’s the little old lady looking at the prophet and saying all is well when her son lies dead in his bed.
• It’s that inexhaustible faith that is fully vested in the possibilities that exist only as mirages on the horizon. Faith that will cause someone to question your thinking or even your sanity
This is the kind of faith that looses the promises of God.
• This is the kind of faith that isn't content to grow comfortable in the present but reaches into the future and pulls itself into a promise.
o It's the kind of faith that believes, that if God said it, he's gonna bring it to pass.
o It's the kind of faith that acknowledges that God is sovereign, he's in control, and it places its trust fully in Him to open the doors that no man can open and to make a way where no man can make a way.
• It’s the kind of faith that looks upon tomorrow sees it through the perspective of hope in what God can bring to pass.
Our text, Luke 16:16 says, "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it."
• everyone forces his way into it."
• When I read that scripture something stirred deep down on the inside.
o Everyone that wants to be a part of God's promises has to possess this forward facing faith.
o Because everyone that becomes a part of the Kingdom of God has to relinquish their hold on their present and their past and press their way into God’s promise.
• No one is saved by accident.
o No one comes into this thing by chance.
o You can’t just coast along and hope to be a part of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus said that every man that hopes to gain entrance to the Kingdom of God, presses his way into it, or forces his way into it.
• Not everyone gets the message of the Kingdom of God.
o Not everyone grasps the promises and blessings of the good news of the Kingdom of God.
o But, without exception, those that do get it have a deep seated faith that forcefully urges them into the promise of God.
• There is something within them that becomes so stirred that it absolutely refuses to accept the current condition as the end of the story!
There is a faith that presses its way into the promise of God.
• This is the common characteristic of every man that receives God's promises.
o They abandon the anchors of their past and the constraints of the present to press, by force, into the promise of the future.
• This is the one thing that every seeker of God must have in order to receive the blessings of God in their life.
The past will endeavor to tell you that you can't change.
• The past will endeavor to tell you that everything has to stay the way that it always has been.
o The past will do its best to hold you down and hold you back,
o it will remind you of all the other times you've tried and failed.
o It will remind you of your inconsistencies, of all your Faults and failures.
• But there's something in forward facing faith that refuses to be anchored to the past.
o It forcefully compels you to reach out to the promise of a brand new life.
o It forcefully compels you to invest your hope in the precious blood of Christ.
o It compels you to cast off the hold of your past and believe that you CAN change;
• that you can be different;
• that there can and will be a better day in your life.
Your present will endeavor to entangle you and snare you to try to keep
you from realizing God's plan and God's will for your life.
• It will distract you with the problems and cares of the day.
o It will bog you down with the tedious details that must be taken care of.
o It will endeavor to tie up every waking moment with the effort to solve the present problems that are around you.
• But there is something about forward facing faith that forcefully compels you to set aside these present concerns and pleasures in the pursuit of a much greater blessing that has yet to be revealed.
This was the attitude of that little lady with the issue of blood.
• Her past said you've been sick a long, long time.
o You've spent all your living on doctors and remedies.
o You've proven over and over again that your circumstance is hopeless, the story has no happy ending.
• But she refused to listen to the voice of the past.
o Forward facing faith said, if I can just get to where Jesus is, there is still hope.
The bible tells us that there was a great multitude pressing in on Jesus that day.
• I can just hear the voice of her present circumstances declaring to her that this is useless,
o there's no way you are ever going to get the attention of the master.
o He's so busy and he's surrounded by so many people.
o There's no sense in even trying.
• But forward facing faith said, "If I can only touch the hem of his garment..."
The scripture tells us that she came in behind him, through the press.
• She pressed her way through the crowd to obtain the healing that she longed for.
o Did you get that? She pressed.
• Can I tell you that the only way to acquire God's promise in your life is to press your way into it.
o You've got to press for this thing, it doesn't come by accident and it doesn't happen by chance.
o The promise is yours but you must determine to pursue it.
• The only way to get want you want and need from God is to press.
• You need to let that forward facing faith compel you to press your way into God’s promise.
The Psalmist said, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after."
• That's the voice of forward facing faith.
o It is a singular faith that has a single desire for the promise of God.
• It says, "I will seek it as long as I live, and I will not give up until I obtain it."
o It’s a strength of desire that outweighs all the things of this present world.
• It compels us, it forces us, it presses us into the promise that God has for our life.
o It is a faith that says that I won't be satisfied, there must be something better for my life!
Luke 16:16 declares to us that everyone that obtains the Kingdom of God possesses that kind of faith.
• Its the kind of faith that compelled Abraham to leave Ur and seek a city whose builder and maker is God.
o This is the faith that it takes to move the sinner from the pew to the alter.
• But it is also the same faith that pushes one beyond the mediocre and into the promise of God.
• It's a faith that we must have in order to even become a part of the kingdom of God.
o But it is also a faith that we must maintain if we hope to grow in the kingdom.
I'm afraid that this is where many miss out on God's promise for their life.
• They taste the fervency of forward facing faith at an alter of repentance,
o but discard that passionate pursuit somewhere along the way and settle for less than God's best for their life.
• It is my desire, today, to challenge you to pick back up that fervent forward facing faith and pursue, again, the promises of God in your life.
o He's not finished with you yet.
• The same faith by which you pressed your way into the promise of God.
o The same faith that compelled you into a breakthru at the alter.
o Is the same faith the must be maintained in your life in order to make heaven your home.
• The problem is that we allow the fervency of our faith to fade over the years.
o We quickly settle back into contentment and we lose that desire that compelled and pushed us into the kingdom of God.
• Its my job tonight to challenge you to extend your faith once again.
o Its my job to challenge you to break free of the present and extend your faith to press for a better future.
• God has plans for us, God has a purpose for us.
o God knows where he’s taking us and what he wants to do for us.
o But its only going to happen is we determine to press our way into it.
• We must make up our mind to press for what we have not yet obtained.
o It doesn’t matter if you are coming to an alter for the first time or if you’ve been in this thing for many years the thing that compels you into the promise of God is the raw edge of compelling, pressing faith.
There is a faith that presses its way into the promise of God.
• It’s the only thing that will loose the blessings of heaven.
• I’m hungry for revival.
• This kind of faith is the only thing that will loose it.
• It’s time to start seeing our city and this church through eyes of faith.
• Its time to start looking upon our neighborhoods with faith.
o It’s time to press, by force, into the promise of the future.
Close
When Marine Corps General Chester Puller made is landing in Korea his advance scouts quickly informed him that the Korean army was positioned in front of him.
• A few moments later his scouts returned from is flanks with the news that the Koreans were positioned both to his right and is left.
• Surrounded on three sides and with the ocean behind him, General Puller addressed those around and said, “The good news is, they’re not going to get away from us this time!”
There is a certain kind of faith that simply refuses to be shaped by what it sees but instead invests itself fully in the promise that has yet to be fulfilled.
• I want to challenge you tonight to turn your vision to the future.
o I want to challenge you to take your eyes off of your past.
o I want to challenge you to look beyond your present struggles.
o And extend yourself , in faith, to believe in what God is getting ready to do.
• Let’s strive together.
o Let’s press.
• The scripture says that when Zion travailed she brought forth.
o Travailing requires pressing.
o Revival tarries because we fail to press.
• We are too comfortable.
o We are too satisfied.
o We are too content.
o We need to get a hold of the kind of faith that will push us and compel us into pressing our way into the promise.
• We need a revival of that spirit of pressing.
• I don’t know what you need from God tonight, but I do know that you won’t get it if you’re not willing to press for it.
o You won’t receive your promise if you don’t determine to press your way into it.
o We, as a church, won’t see the revival that we are hungry for until we make up our mind to press our way into it.
• I wonder if there’s anyone tonight that willing to break the mold of the ordinary and press your way into a blessing?
o I wonder if there’s anyone that’s willing to ignore what your eyes see and what reason tells you and press your way into a promise?
• This altar is open.
o The kingdom of God is preached, the scripture said.
• But its up to every man to press your way into it.
o What about you tonight?
• Are you willing to press?
