Pound it - Pastor Hope's Message

Hello, everybody. I am so excited that you are here tonight. Call somebody, text somebody, tell them to get online. We got a word tonight. It's going to be a tough one. Going to be a little spanking, but, you know, sometimes we need that, right? So get your Bibles, get your notebooks. We're going to talk tonight about how to be successful in this world, and that is learning how to motivate yourself. Motivating yourself. I heard this story about this tough old cowboy who counseled his grandson that if he wanted to live a long life, he needed to sprinkle a little bit of gunpowder on his oatmeal every morning. And so the grandson did this, and he lived to 93. So, no, I'm not suggesting that you sprinkle gunpowder on your oatmeal, but we all do need a little extra push from time to time to motivate us to do the things that we ought to do, right? So why do we start exercising in January? Because we want to look good in June, right? And we know that it's going to take time to do that. So at Christmas time, why do we start putting back money? Why do we start buying our gifts early? Because we know we have to do what it takes to make Christmas happen. Why do we put up pictures of us in a size six that we want to be, but we all are maybe a 10 or a 12 or 18, right? Because it's just a little bit that we need to motivate us. So let's look at Paul's letter to the Corinthians that's in Philippians 3. And Paul was concerned about the church family, and he wrote a letter to all of them. But this particular letter indicates more intensity of a relationship than, say, what he wrote to the Corinthians or to the Romans or to the Ephesians. This letter is just a little more harsh, It's a little deeper, it's a little more concerning, and it shows us their relationship better. And what he says in there, he says that he loves the family of the believers, so that's important, that he communicated his love for them first and that they are his joy and his crown is what the word says. He expresses deep gratitude for their help and encouragement through prayer, their financial giving. He knows that they are dealing with some struggles, and he urges them to stop being anxious. And in light of all those words, this is what he says to them. He expresses his love. He says, thank you for everything you've done for me in prayer. In finances, he says, I understand that you're going through some things, right? He says. You're dealing with some struggles. He says, and I need you to stop being anxious. Yeah. You in the middle of a lot of stuff, but you don't have to be anxious in the middle. And this is what he says. He says, press on, press on. Do you know what the alternative to pressing on is? It's throwing in the towel. It's giving up. It's letting the enemy have his way. It's just saying, I've had enough. I can't do this anymore. And Paul is saying he does not want this for them and he does not want this for us. It's a message to us. And Paul is talking about in this passage what it means to live a successful, future, flourishing Christian life. Here, let's read it. It's Philippians 3, 17, 14 says, but what things were gain to me these I have counted loss for Christ, yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, from whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish. Dung is another translation. What is dung? Dung is fertilizer. All the things that you go through are supposed to make you grow. Whoop. That's a whole nother sermon. That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God, by faith that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the death. You ready? Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself have apprehended but one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching toward those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What does he do? He says, I forget and I reach and I press. Say it. I forget. I reach and I press. Say it again. I forget and I reach and I press. Listen, this ought to encourage you that he's not talking to sinners here. He's talking to the church. He's talking to Christians. It ought to alert us that once we get saved, everything isn't good in our life. We're going to have stress, we're going to have pressures. We're going to have marital Problems, we're going to have financial problems, we going to have kid problems. Why? Because we are living in a sin sick world, right? This is called life. And the times when we're all down, we're discouraged, we're frustrated. Sometimes we want to throw in the towel. But the scripture says this. It says, in this world you will have tribulation. But what fear not, I have overcome the world. And when you have done all you can do to stand, you just keep standing. When you feel so tired and you want to give up, Scripture says keep standing. When you are hard pressed on every side, but you are not crushed. In verse 12 and 14, listen, he uses this phrase. He says, I press on, I press on. And one thing that is very interesting, you're going to love this about shouted, shouted, shouted when God gave me this one thing that's so interesting to me. The very same Greek word that he uses in verse 12 and 14 that's translated from press is used in chapter three, verse six. He uses the very same Greek word listen, but it is translated persecute. Ooh, you about to get it. Paul says this is what he says earlier in that chapter. He says, I persecuted, oppressed the church. Then he uses the same Greek word, but it's translated press. What kind of word could serve both context? How could a single word be translated persecute over here and press over here? Here's the answer. Are you ready? That word literally means to pound. To pound, I pound, I beat. The only difference in the word is this. Before Paul was a Christian, he was gathering up the whole church and pounding it toward death. He was persecuting the church, he was pounding the church. He was trying to get rid of the church. But after he becomes a Christian, he's gathering up his whole self and he's pounding himself. He's pushing it, he's forcing himself. He's intensely focused into one single point. He says. He says this one thing. He said, I press myself, I pound myself. I murder myself into one thing. Shout one thing. See, Christianity is not passive. It has to be intentional and deliberate. Christianity is not just fire insurance. Paul had a major paradigm shift in his approach to life when he came to know Jesus. He was now fully focused on his relationship to Christ and what it means to be sold out to the Lord. Listen, before this, he listed his accomplishments in verse 5 and 6. He says, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I. More so, he's saying, y' all think y' all got it going on. I had it really going on he said, I more so I was circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, of the Hebrews, and concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteous, which is the law, blameless he said, I was the best Pharisee there was. See, most of us see our walk with the Lord as just a little piece of our life. But not Paul. Not Paul. He said, to be a Christian, it means that your entire life is gathered up and focused and pushed and pressed on and crucified, murdered. Pound it out. Pound it out toward this one single thing. Your whole life is about one thing. It's about one thing pushed into one thing. What is the one thing pressing on? Pressing on to becoming more like Jesus. Less of you, less of me, but more like Jesus. So in light of all these verses, I want to ask you some questions. How well do you know him? Are you making room in your life for growth in your knowledge of Christ? Are you willing to press on to toward Christ? Are you willing to crucify yourself, murder yourself? Pound every bit of flesh out of you to be like Jesus? What are you straining? What are you reaching for? Are you making forward progress? Let me help you answer those questions. Pressing on requires number one. Forgetting those things which are behind. Whoo. Pressing on number one requires you got to forget what's behind you. Like Paul. In his list of credentials, Paul says, I counted all these credentials, all these wonderful things. A loss, dung, fertilizer for the sake of Christ. Whoa. That meant he had to completely reorient the way he looked at his good deeds, his credentials and his accomplishments and even his failures. For Paul, Christianity wasn't just an add on, right? Christianity isn't something you add to your life and then just keep doing life the way you were. It isn't just getting a little power to get you over the hump. Christianity isn't a little salve you add because you know you're a sinner. Paul's point for Christians is that you have to utterly change the entire way of looking at everything about you. It's not about us. It's all about him. It's not about us. It's all about him. We need to stop asking our children, hey, little bit. Hey Johnny, what do you want to be when you grow up? It's not about what Johnny wants to be. It's what does Christ want him to be? What was he ordained to be before the foundations of the world? And he says all of the things I look at this way, all of those things I was, now I look at them in a different way. I let go of past failures like Peter did after his denial of Jesus. I learn from my past. My past does not define me. My failures are only fuel for my future. Whoo. Losing a grip on past boast and pride on all the things you used to do. Oh, I was the best on the streets. I was the best drug dealer there was. I used to be the best at this. Everybody knew me in my town. You got to let it go. It's not about you. And then number two, pursuing, straining forward to what's ahead. Straining forward. Listen, you cannot focus on what's in front of you if you are constantly looking behind you in regret, looking behind you, wishing and maybe missing how you were viewed or your reputation. It's like the runner of a race lunging toward the finish line. That's what he tells us to do, to press on toward the high call of God in Christ Jesus. Have you ever seen those runners sprint and run so fast, but when they get near the end, they're lunging? That's what he's called us to. He's called us to lunge. Forget and press. Forget and press. Whoo. Just like Paul in his aim for heaven. Just like John in his race to the empty tomb, Timothy in his pursuit for godly things. Sometimes we just need to push, push. And sometimes, let me tell you something. You're going to have to talk to yourself about yourself. You got to talk to yourself. I see myself as my own life coach. I don't depend on anybody else to motivate me, to get me spurred, to get me going. I am my own life coach. I talk to myself in the mirror. I talk to myself in my head. I talk to my kids, I alert them, just like Paul was doing to the Philippian Church because he was close to them, he loved them so much. You got to have people in your life who you know, Lord, love you so much that you'll allow speaking to you and to alert you of potholes and to alert you of things. They see traps, I talk to them. They may not like it, but that's just like a coach. You ever played sports, they'll make you run laps when you don't want to run laps. They'll make you do sit ups when you feel like you're going to throw up. That's what a good coach is. That's what Paul was doing to the Philippian Church. That's what I'm doing to you tonight? I'm spurring you along. I'm calling you to press. I'm calling you to push. I'm calling you to pound yourself tonight. Get back up, get in the game. Because if you don't fight, you don't win. If you don't fight, you don't win. Nobody promised us that as Christians we would not have battles. But we do have a hope, and we do have a promise that if we keep pushing, if we keep pressing, if we forget what was behind us and we keep our eye on the prize, that victory is ours. Victory is yours tonight. If you don't fight, you don't win. Don't just integrate your faith into your messiness. Start pounding your faith into the messiness until it changes the messiness. You're not called to be perfect. You're called to pound it. You're not called to be perfect, you're called to pound it. You're called to murder yourself. You're called to crucify yourself. The Bible says discipline yourself. Why? For the purpose of godliness. Discipline yourself. Nobody's going to do it for you, man. I wish they did. There's no ABCs, one, two, threes. But there is this. You forget what's behind and you push and you press toward the goal. What's the goal? It's Jesus. And you do it with all your might. You're not called to perfection, but you're called to pound it. Get up and start pounding your life. Thank you so much for joining us tonight here on Facebook, Live or YouTube, wherever you're tuning in. I just want to encourage you. If you want to know more about how to live this abundant life. If you want to know more about how to leave your past in the past, listen, go get my brand new book. It's called the Most Beautiful Disaster. It's a story about how God just makes misery miracles out of our mistakes. We all make them. Everybody who breathes makes mistakes, but God wants to redeem them. This book is a tool that will help you learn how to overcome and be everything that God's called you to be. Take a look at this commercial.

Miracles can come out of mistakes. And that's what Hope Carpenter discovered. Her marriage and ministry as she knew them were over. But God had other plans. And for the first time, she's telling the complete story in her new book, the Most Beautiful Disaster. You've never heard a story like this. And it's a story that will change the way you think about how God can turn things around. The Most beautiful Disaster is available online or at all major bookstores. Make sure to get your book first. Pre order your copy today.