One More Push: Part I (Sunday Sermon Notes)

The Chosen Church
Speaker Pastor Asia
Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV)
Title: One More Push!
Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV)

13 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

“Tis the Season,” was the last time Pastor Asia delivered the Word. The message talked about Tis the season being a God thing. Whatever season God allows us to go (grow through), it’s for an appointed time for us in our life. We may deem it as good, as bad, as uncomfortable BUT whatever we deem it is necessary because it was orchestrated specifically for you at that time and space in your life.

Fast Forward: After Pastor Asia gave a power word (Tis The Season - Go listen to it family!), the church went through a season of warfare...I can attest to this for my family.
The message was given to Pastor Asia to tell the people what was to come.
There comes a time in the life of every believer that obedience sometimes becomes exhausting…Not because God failed, not because purpose disappeared and not because the calling has changed.

 Sometimes it may feel this way because running with God requires endurance. The race is not given to the swift but to the one who endures to the end….Read both scriptures to understand this statement.
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Ecclesiastes 9:11 (KJV): "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all".

Matthew 24:13 (KJV): "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

It doesn’t matter how fit you are, you can be the most fit athlete. There comes a time in an athlete’s career where they’re challenged with ability to endure.
This type of tiredness is not because we didn’t get enough sleep or rest. We have to have the stamina necessary to continue in the race.

It turns into a tiredness or exhaustion that develops from fighting spiritual battles, carrying responsibilities, surviving disappointments, standing in faith and continuing to obey God under pressure.

Keep IT REAL: Sometimes when we obey God under pressure, it exhausts us and sometimes it makes us weary and or feel weak.

Some believers are not on the verge of breaking down our front in the public because we have a reputation to maintain, we have to maintain a certain look or façade BUT the reality of the thing is sometimes trying to endure without the appropriate amount of stamina causes us to break down when no one is looking.

The enemy understands that if he cannot destroy your purpose, he will attempt to drain your endurance.

Newsflash: The enemy cannot destroy your purpose because he did not give it to you!! You may be weary and tired BUT don’t stop now.
You may feel tired, you may feel weary, or fatigued, but don’t give up now.

Some people are just going through. Some have been seeking…Some have been serving...Some have been fasting...Some have been praying…You don’t need a new assignment...You don’t need a new Word...You don’t need a new prophecy...You don’t need a new direction…it’s a man’s heart that…

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV) 9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

Simply Put: God has already given us the path to take, He is the truth, the way, and the Light. You don’t need a new direction.

What you need IS

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********ONE MORE PUSH**********

Apostle Paul wrote Philippians while in prison. Paul was talking about pressing while he’s chained. How is that you can press forward while you are physically held down and bound???

Paul was talking about pursuing purpose while confined physically.

Meaning: His/our purpose has NO-THING to do with his/our current circumstance(s). Believers need to understand that their external condition does not have their internal pursuit. Sometimes we allow things on the outside/other things to dictate how much, how fast and hard we go for God.

What’s happening on the outside has NO-THING to do with what He’s working through us on the inside.

That’s why Paul stated this
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Philippians 3:13 ( ESV) 13 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead”

Paul had revelation…Paul had miracles…Paul had apostolic authority, but he said he had not arrived yet.

(Philippians.3:13 (ESV) He knew who he was…he knew the accolades...he knew the titles he had…he knew he had NOT arrived

Meaning:
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He/We was/are not there yet. He/We could not quit now AND There is still ONE more PUSH!!

Newsflash: While running, you cannot run forward by looking backwards. You can try BUT it’s going to slow you down and your opponent WILL catch up with you.

Don’t gift the devil traction over you. Don’t let the enemy walk you down! As believers we cannot afford to look behind while looking/moving forward because the enemy looks to track you and walk you down.

Some have been imprisoned by their past. You have to refuse to be imprisoned by your past. Don’t let the enemy hold you to your past. When we allow ourselves to be imprisoned by our past or by our circumstance(s), we become spiritually STUCK! Finding ourselves in an invisible prison.

Spiritually Stuck:

✓ We keep replaying on old failures.
✓ We keep playing on disappointments.
✓ We keep replaying old relationships.
✓ We keep replaying on old seasons.

Runners cannot run efficiently while looking backwards. They cannot run efficiently with too much weight. Runners carry the least amount of weight as possible. Excess weight causes one not to run at their maximum capacity. There are times when runners are in their final stretch run, seemingly losing endurance but the coach yells from the field telling the runner to PUSH.

Meaning: You are almost to the finish line but you gotta pull something from somewhere...You have to push through the pain, you have to push through the circumstance(s), you have to push through the heartache, you have to push through present sufferings as scripture tells us in.

Romans 8:18 (ESV) 18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

(((Future Glory)))
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Simply Put: it’s not about the present circumstances. It’s about what the Lord’s glory is going to reveal through me, through you, through us.
LET THE LORD USE YOU!

Recall Moment: You are almost at the finish line...push!!!

Recall Moment: It’s not about the present circumstances.

Hebrews 12:1- (ESV) 1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
Hebrews 12:2 (ESV) 2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Must Do: We have to lay aside every weight, sin and run the race that was set before us. Just like runners, we have to lay aside the weight. If the enemy cannot control your focus, he can’t interrupt your momentum.

Question: What interrupts our momentum?

We should NOT let our yesterday mess up our tomorrow.

Some have to PUSH past regret.
Some have to PUSH past guilt.
Some have to PUSH past grief.
Some have to PUSH past offense.
Some have to PUSH past disappointment…

BECAUSE
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****Pressing…Requires stretching****

Pushing will cause us to stretch. When Paul said PRESSING toward. The language used is pointing to a runner leaning towards the finish line with every remaining ounce of energy.
It’s the image of strain, it’s stretching, its extension, it’s pressing.

Sometimes stretching is uncomfortable.
Stretching causes, you to utilize parts of your body that you do not normally use. Spiritual stretching is uncomfortable because it causes you to step into a place that we are not yet comfortable with.

When God stretches us, He stretches, our faith, He stretches our patience, He stretches our discipline, He stretches our prayer, He stretches our trust and our character.

Stretching is PROOF of EXPANSION. It speaks to an increased ability and capacity. Some find themselves uncomfortable because God’s enlarging their capacity.

Some think that pressure is punishment. Pressure is preparation. Every believer has their own race to run. Your race is NOT my race, and MY race is NOT your race. We all MUST run the race that was set before us.

Every race requires something different. Every race requires a different amount of stretching. Paul is speaking about us running the race that was given to us, not anyone else.

Hebrews 12:1 (b) tells us, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Run your race and let those folks BE!! Some believers become tired because they are trying to complete assignments that GOD never gave them. This can cause unnecessary fatigue. Our race was uniquely structured/fitting for me. The timing of my race was uniquely designed for me. The process we have to go through is individually and uniquely made for us separately. Your race was tailored for you. It was tailored for the purpose He had for us.

 IF God assigns the race, He will provide the grace to endure. Lay aside every weight.
Everything that’s slowing you down may not be sin. IT may be an unnecessary amount of baggage. It could be something you are carrying that was NEVER intended for you to carry. Somethings are JUST too HEAVY for the season that we are in. Somethings are too heavy for where God is taking us.

What does weight look like:

✓ Unforgiveness
✓ Distractions
✓ Toxic connections
✓ Fear
✓ People pleasing
✓ Emotional baggage
✓ Constant Anxiety
✓ Carrying responsibilities that God has NEVER assigned to you If someone would like to run a long-distance race.

Some will stop during a race to change their shoes. Sometimes we just have to STOP and change your spiritual shoes. The old shoes may not be able to carry us through the finish line. Some may ask for stronger legs, some are just asking God for strength.
Sometimes you don’t need stronger legs, you may just need to drop some of the weight. Sometimes we don’t need more power, sometimes we just need to travel lighter.

Pause: Carrying too much weight will cause us to lose spiritual power.
Illustration used: a truck can hold a lot of weight BUT the more weight you add to the truck, the less power the truck will have. Trucks have weight capacity and weight limits. Sometimes we carry stuff that is just weighing us down. Sometimes we cannot go up the mountain because we have too much weight.

The mountain seems rough because we have too much weight. When it’s time for us to walk through the valley, the valley seems impossible to walk through because we have too much weight. When it’s time to run laps, it seems as though we don’t have endurance.
Note: The issue is NOT our power, the issue is that we are carrying too much weight. Focus determines our endurance.

In reference to Hebrews 12:2
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Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. This means that YOU will need to fix YOUR eyes on Him.

Where your focus goes, your endurance follows.
 ✓ If you focus on pressure, you’ll panic.
✓ If you focus on people, you’ll be discouraged.
✓ If you focus on warfare, you’ll become fearful.
✓ If you focus on Jesus, you will discover the strength to continue.
✓ If you focus on Jesus, you continue in your faith BY faith!!
✓ If Jesus started it, He will continue IT! He will finish IT! It’s a finished WORK.

************KNOW THIS************

Philippians 1:6 (ESV) 6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

1. God doesn’t begin purpose to abandon it midway.

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Mary Mary Lyrics

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“I just can't give up now I come too far from where I started from Nobody told me the road would be easy And I don't believe He's brought me this far To leave me”
2. God gives us the strength for the stretch. This scripture shows that God gives strength.

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Isaiah 40: 31 (ESV) 31 “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah encourages us that there is ONE more push. In the text Israel was weary because of captivity and struggle. However, GOD reminded them that why your human strength has limits the DIVINE STRENGTH is renewable! The WORD wait in the text means we have to remain/stay connected with expectations to stay intertwined with God.

The promise in the text that if we STAY connected, strength WILL return. “They SHALL run and NOT be weary.”

The LORD knows that the race is long BUT HE will sustain us while we run OUR race…
Your human strength has limits but your divine weight has endurance.

Some walked into this season tired.

✓ Tired of fighting.
✓ Tired of carrying.
✓ Tired of enduring.
✓ Tired of hoping.
✓ Tired of waiting.
✓ Tired of enduring.
✓ Tired of waiting on the Lord.
✓ However, God’s Word reminds us that this is NOT the time to stop!
✓ We are too close to what GOD is birthing inside of us.
Stay on the path of righteousness

*****There is ONE more PUSH*******

There is SO much warfare BECAUSE purpose is near. The pressure increased because BREAKTHROUGH is approaching. A runner in the final stretch, feels pain in places that it did not feel earlier in the race, legs burn, breathing tightens, strength weakens….BUT it’s something that the runner sees when he’s sees the finish line...He gets some MOTIVATION to finish the race strong!!

Some are not excited about the race because they have not prepared for the finish line.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

If you prepare for the finish line then you know then once you see, you can see the line. You can see the tape!! You just have to get there because that’s the moment you prepared for!!

Deep!!!

This moment I:

✓ Trained for it.
✓ Prepared for it.
✓ Ate well for it.
✓ Stretched for it.
✓ Warmed up for it.
✓ Cool down out for.
✓ Worked out for.

The finish line is the reward our the surprise. We have to have the vision for what’s ahead. Some of us are in a final stretch of a season. The enemy thought pressure would stop you BUT pressure only revealed your endurance.

Listen: It is known that pressure bursts pipes.

When the pressure was put on you, you did not burst!!!! You did not break or bend. It only revealed the endurance that was inside of you!! You are a survivor!!! You survived too much to quit now. PUSH one more prayer! PUSH one more praise! PUSH one more act of an obedience! PUSH one more season of faithfulness.

Message: God NEVER called you to quit in the stretch!
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