“Remembering Your Way to Joy” by Pastor Daniel Floyd

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I want to take a moment, if I could, just pastor us through the last week.

I think it kind of feels right to be in church today, doesn't it?

To be together with the body of Christ.

I was thinking that it can look like the enemy's winning.

And it can look like the kingdom of darkness is advancing when you see so much evil around.

But I want to remind you that our God who sits on the throne neither sleeps nor slumbers.

That he's sovereign over all creation.

And that he's still in control.

That he has not set aside his crown, nor has he set aside his authority.

And there's a lot of ways to respond in these moments.

And maybe you felt these ways.

Hopelessness.

Fear.

Maybe anger.

Maybe retreat.

Maybe you think, well, I just hunker down until Jesus comes back.

And I just want to say that there's a better way, and it's the way we as believers respond, and it's by faith.

Faith that he who began the good work in us will complete it.

Faith that in the moments we understand and in the moments we don't understand, that he's working all things together for the good of those who love him and are the called according to his purpose.

We respond in faith.

And I also think it's appropriate that we respond with lament.

And it's not something we talk about a lot, but it's a very biblical idea.

It's the grieving that you often don't have words to put to, and you've experienced that in life if you've lived any amount of life.

And it's not weakened faith to say, I trust God and I lament at the same time.

That doesn't make you less of a believer, it makes you human.

And I'm a little concerned if I could just say it that we're so quick to post and to scroll and to give our opinion and see everybody else's opinion.

And as a friend of mine said, we go to the ground before we go to God.

And just say, God, what are you saying to me in this moment?

Am I answering the question that you're wanting me to answer?

Am I evaluating my own life?

And so today I want to take a moment to pray, because that's what we do.

And we're not throwing words up into the air.

We're talking to a God who hears us.

And prayer is powerful, despite what some commentators may say.

So I want to pray for the Kirk family.

My daughter said to me, Dad, do you think somebody's staying with her tonight?

I want to pray for the family of the young girl in Charlotte.

I want to pray for a generation whose minds are not created to watch a murder on their phone.

And then the next thing they scroll to be a meme that's supposed to be funny.

And we can't hope our way out of this church.

We repent our way out of this.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray.

I watch these young people worship and I can barely hold it together.

I don't know about you.

But there's a revival among this generation, and the devil is not going to step back and go, well, just go on.

So we're going to come in agreement and pray against the spirit of fear, pay against the spirit of anxiousness that's overtaking, because the peace of God will fill their hearts and minds in Christ.

So will you pray with me?

Father, we come before you today.

Because as the disciples said, who else can we turn to?

You have the words of life.

So God, we turn to you in these moments.

And I pray for the Kirk family.

I pray for the family of this young girl in Charlotte.

I pray for the school shootings that happened this week, God.

The grief, the pain, the loss.

I can't even begin to understand, but you are close to the brokenhearted.

You are an ever-present help in time of need.

You are a good and a faithful God.

As we draw close to you, you draw close to us.

And so we thank you, God.

I pray for against the spirit of fear, God.

I pray for a generation that saw things they should not have saw.

University students that came to be educated but saw something their eyes should never have seen, God.

I pray that somehow the peace of God would envelop them and consume them, God.

I pray in this moment, Lord, against a spirit of fear.

You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind.

And so, God, we come against anxiousness today and anxiety that would grip and triggering and trauma today, God.

In the name of Jesus, we believe all power in heaven and in earth has been given to you, and you have dominion over all things.

And so we believe for revival in our nation, revival in a generation.

Do it, old God, before our very eyes.

Do what cannot be explained by human words or by the best effort of man, but by a visitation of the Spirit of God in our day, in our time, and we'll give you all the honor, and we'll give you all the glory.

God, we lift our hands and we say unto you be the honor and the glory and the power and the majesty in Jesus' name of everybody.

Amen.

Amen.

Come on, come on, come on.

Come on, can you clap your hands and give Jesus all the praise?

Oh, come on, you can do better than that.

He's worthy, are you God?

Oh magnify the Lord with me.

Let us exalt his name together.

The great God we serve.

You picked a great day to be in the house of God.

So glad that you're here.

Why don't you get out of your comfort zone a little bit?

Find somebody you don't know their name.

Say hello to them.

Tell them they look like they lost weight this week.

It'll encourage them.

Oh come on, let's put our hands together for Jesus if you're gonna clap.

He's worthy.

Well, uh, wanna before we get into week three of Happy But Hollow, want to uh just recognize something that's happening in the life of our church.

And I want to I want to always do a good job of letting you know how you are making a difference in the lives of others.

Um I never want you just to come in and come out and think we just did church and not know the impact and the reach of everything that God is doing through the church, and you're the church, so he's doing it through you.

And uh our Gateway Espanol is one of the ways that God is doing that, and I want to share, I'm a big data person, I like stats, and I'll tell you why.

And uh people used to say to me, You're all about numbers.

And I was like, Yeah, because every number represents a name and it represents a story and it represents somebody Jesus died to save.

And so, yes, I care about every number.

And people are like, I don't think we should count anything.

I'm like, Do you not count your kids?

You count what matters, don't you?

Nobody's ever asked me, and I'm like, I got between three and four children.

No, I know exactly how many kids I got because they matter to me.

And how many of you know every soul matters to Jesus?

Can I get a better amen?

And so this year alone, I was blown away by this.

Listen to this.

Gateway Espaniol has been streamed 26 million times and over a hundred million YouTube views.

How amazing is that the last album, the most recent one, Eterno Dios, did I say it close?

God Eternal.

Awesome.

Um, has already had 20 million streams.

Now, I here's what I want you to understand about that.

That's that's 20 million people that you'll never know.

But because of what God is doing through the life of our church, the word of God is going into their heart.

The presence of Jesus is ministering to them and going places we may never know.

And you may get to heaven one day, and someone says, You're part of Gateway.

It was that song that touched my heart.

And so, isn't that amazing how God can take that into places you and I can never go?

I want to honor our Espanol artist.

And so I know some of them are here.

Would you please stand and let us honor you guys?

We're so grateful for you.

We got to hang out a little bit last night, and I just prayed favor.

I prayed lyrics, I prayed melodies from heaven, and we believe the reach is gonna be even greater for the glory of God.

Amen, everybody.

Let's get into week three.

Happy but hollow.

You ready for the word of God today?

Okay, few of you.

How about the rest of you?

I'll give you another try.

You ready for the word today?

Okay, great.

There we go.

Let's let's uh go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, our hearts and minds are open.

We ask that you would speak to us.

We haven't come just to do church.

We need more than that.

We need a word from heaven.

And so speak to us today, and we believe we'll never be the same because of it.

In Jesus' name.

Everybody said a big amen.

Amen.

I want to bring a message entitled this Remembering Your Way to Joy.

We've been in the book of Philippians, and uh, we're gonna continue.

Today's chapter three of the book of Philippians, and so many of you have been a part of the Bible reading plan, and it has been amazing.

We've had over a hundred thousand people go to the website and join in.

We've had 7,000 of you text in and be a part of that.

So I hope you're enjoying that.

If you haven't engaged yet, jump in now.

Uh you know, it's not too late.

Get involved, text happy to 710-10 or go to the website.

You can get all the information.

How many of you have ever gone from one room to another and you can't remember why you went there?

Okay.

Some of you that are lying in the house of God, our prayer team will be down here later.

All right, let me ask you this.

How many of you ever done this?

You went from one room to another and you couldn't remember why you were in that, but you thought, if I stand here long enough, come on.

Come on, be honest.

Okay, even at our gatherings, be honest, right?

I've done, I'm like, if I stand here long enough, it'll come back to me on why I went into this room in the first place.

And you know, we live in such a distracted world, do we not?

Most most of the time, what happened is between one room or the other is not that you know old age was taking over anything.

It's probably we got a text or we saw a headline or or something, an email popped through, or it's just so much stuff is grabbing for our attention, is it not?

So many the notifications and uh and the distractions and the things.

And how many of you know you can you can I've heard this, I'm not saying I've ever done this, but you looked at one thing and then 30 minutes later you're in the depths of YouTube of your okay.

So you're like, no, I don't ever do that.

I'm holy.

Okay, you got on your Bible app in 30, okay, whatever.

We're just so distracted.

And focus is such a powerful thing, even in the business world, right?

I'm I'm a I love reading.

I love, I call myself a bibliophile.

I love books.

I don't I don't want it on Kindle, I don't want it digital.

Can I get a better amen?

I want the book in my hand, give me a highlighter.

I want to draw on that thing, I want to write notes in it.

I love reading books, I love learning, and um, there's so many books around it, things like atomic habits or things like, you know, uh how to get things done.

And really at the end of it, what it's all about is about how to focus your life down because there's power and focus.

How many of you know that the lights that you're enjoying right now, if they would focus them down, could become a laser, right?

Because there's real power in focus in our life.

And I that's what Paul talks to us about in Philippians chapter 3 is the power of a focused Christian life.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

That the successful Christian life is one where you are focused, where you get distractions out of the way because focus tells you your yeses and it tells you your no's for you already.

A focused Christian life gets the peripheral out of the way and it allows you to zero in on the thing that God wants for you and God wants to do in and through your life.

And if anyone was focused in their life, it was the Apostle Paul.

I mean, even in 2 Corinthians, he talks about I was shipwrecked and then I was beat, um, and then I was imprisoned, and and I was called a god once.

If you remember that story on the Isle of Malta, the the snake came out and bit him, and they were like, he's a devil, and so the gods are trying to kill him, then he shook it off like Taylor Swift, and seeing if you're awake.

And then they called him a god, right?

That's why you can't ever trust public opinion, because one day they'll call you the devil, and the next day they'll call you the god, and you're neither one, okay, everybody?

But he knew what it was to be through crisis and to be through pain and to go through hardships in life.

And in the middle of all that, Paul remained focused on this one thing, and we've seen it in chapter one and chapter two, that he was focused on the mission that God had for him in the middle of all that.

In the middle of circumstances that were awful, he lived a very focused life.

And I want to share with you three things that I think he helps us focus on.

And there are really more things that we need to remember that we probably already know than something new.

Often we think the next step in my Christian life is something new.

I need a new revelation.

I need a new.

No, just sometimes you need to go back to the basics.

You need to go back to blocking and tackling, right?

College football's back on, everything is great in the world again, the peace of God has filled my soul on Saturdays.

And what do they say after a loss?

Coaches, well, we need better the basics.

We need to block and tackle.

It's like, yeah, you're getting millions of dollars.

I knew that.

Sometimes in your faith, though, you need to remember some things that maybe you've forgotten that will help you remember your way to joy.

Philippians chapter 3, if you have your Bible, you can turn there, or if you have your device, you can turn it on.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Just don't be responding to emails when I'm preaching.

And he says this beginning in verse 4, and it's a little bit of a resume that Paul gives of who he was before meeting Christ, and he says, Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, or in my accomplishments, is another way to think about that.

He said, If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I have more so.

And then he gives his resume, circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, and in within Israel, I was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.

Concerning the law, he said, I was a Pharisee.

Concerning zeal, persecuted the church.

Concerning righteousness, which is by the law, blameless.

Then he takes a turn in the text and he says, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ.

In other words, everything else that I thought was what it was about, all that means nothing to me because I've found Christ.

Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish.

In other words, he said, me going all in with Jesus cost me everything, and all those other things and accolades and stuff I thought mattered, it's rubbish now, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

Listen to this, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law.

In other words, not through my good works or my best effort, but that which is through faith in Christ.

The righteousness which is from God by faith.

And then this is the verse that we all know, and we love to quote half of it, but not all of it, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and that's where we like to stop.

But Paul goes on and says, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.

In other words, Paul's saying, there's some things in me that have to die.

And I'm wanting God to conform me.

Thought number one is this in remembering our way to joy, is we need to remember your identity.

Remember your identity.

I want to back up a little bit.

Paul gives his pedigree.

He gives all of the things, all the accolades, Pharisee of Pharisee, Hebrew of Hebrews, of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.

And then Paul had an encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road.

And if you're familiar with the scriptures, you'll know this story.

If you're not, Paul is traveling and he's actually going to persecute Christians, and he has orders and he has authority and he has resources to go do it.

And then a bright light shines down on him, knocks him off of his horse, and he he hears a voice from heaven.

It's God speaking to him.

And then in that moment, as you can imagine, his life's forever transformed.

How many of you think if you were on 114 and a light shone down on you, God stopped you in your tracks, your life would never be the same.

Can I get a better amen?

And so this happened to Paul, and in that moment, he was radically transformed by the gospel because the gospel radically transforms your life.

And by the end of our time together, if you've never received Christ, I'm going to give you the opportunity to.

And if you should ever be reminded, it should be this week.

You're not promised tomorrow.

And you better do today what you wish you would have done the day you stand before God, because all of us will.

And so Paul has this encounter, and then he spent some time learning, and then in about three years he begins a public ministry.

But whenever he has this Damascus road, he goes to a house, and then God speaks to a man named Ananias and he says, Hey, I want you to go and I want you to pray over Paul.

And he's like, I'm not having it, God, because he knew that Paul was a persecutor of Christians.

He's like, God, you trying to get me killed?

This guy's crazy.

And so he decides, he says, I'm going to not go.

But then God says to him in Acts chapter 9, verse 15, he says, But this is my chosen instrument.

Acts 9:15

And he's going to carry my name before Gentiles and before their kings and before the people of Israel.

And so I want us to focus though on this word.

He says, This is my chosen instrument.

In that moment, Paul is what he's saying is, all this that I count.

It is rubbish.

All the things that I locked my identity to, I now count them as nothing because I'm in Christ, and that is who I really am.

My identity is that I am in Christ, that I'm a child of God.

And this is this is the issue with many of us.

Our joy is robbed from us because we are trying to perform our way to something that Jesus already paid for on the cross instead of just receiving the gift of I'm a child of God.

And if your Christian life feels like you are on a treadmill running, I'm gonna please God and I'm gonna make God happy, and maybe He'll be pleased with me, then of course your joy is that.

But I want to remind you that your righteousness is not of your own good work, so that you can get the credit for it.

It is the gift of God and you're right.

Standing with God, it's because of his blood, his sacrifice, his goodness in your life.

Some of you think you're on the voice.

You're like, well, if I'm reading my Bible enough, and if I pray enough, and if I show up at church enough, and if I serve enough, and maybe if I put something in the offering box, and if I do all that enough, then maybe God will hit the button and turn around and choose me, Jesus.

The cross says you're already chosen.

That while you were still sinners, Christ died before you.

Before you ever took a step towards God, God was taking steps towards you.

Now, does that mean you have a license to live however you want?

No.

Paul mentioned, he addressed that in Romans.

He says, because grace abounds, does that mean sin can abound all the more?

In other words, just because God is full of grace and mercy, can you live like a heathen?

Not if you're in Christ.

But the reason you live holy isn't because you got a have to in your spirit.

It's because you have a want-to in your spirit, because you've received the love of Jesus, and when you realize from the depths from which you've been saved, all of a sudden in your heart it should be like, God, I want to live the life you want me to live, not because I have to, but because I've got a want-to in me.

And Paul said, all that other stuff, everything that everybody thought made me religious, everything I wrapped my identity in.

Hebrew of Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin, Pharisee.

Watch this.

He said, I died to all that.

And I submitted myself to the Lordship of Jesus.

Now, those are two words we don't really want to say.

Submitted.

I'm my own person.

See how that works for you.

See what road that takes you down.

No, he said, I'm submitting my life to the Lordship.

Lord isn't really a word that we use in our vernacular in 21st century America.

But it means that I'm not in control.

That I'm not calling the shots of my life.

That I'm not sprinkling a little Jesus into my world.

I've completely submitted my world.

Watch this.

My identity is so submitted to Christ.

I am a Christian.

Before my ethnicity.

I'm getting on the edge.

Getting on the edge.

Before my job.

I'm a child of the most high God before I'm anything.

I'm first and foremost a child of the most high God.

Had the privilege of speaking at chapel at TKU this week, and my iPad crashed in the middle of the message, by the way.

That was awesome.

And I was talking about how we get our assignments and our identity confused.

And so if you ever lose your assignment, then all of a sudden your identity goes into a crisis.

My identity is not that I'm a pastor.

That's the assignment God's given me.

My identity is a child of the most high God.

I may serve in this role, but my you are not a doctor, you're a child of the most high God first and foremost.

You're not a teacher, you're a child of the, you're not a business owner first.

You are a child of the most high God.

If this assignment goes away, then you don't have to go into a crisis because your identity is found in who you are in Christ, not in what you do.

And if you can remember your identity, then man, you'll find yourself with a lot more joy.

Because how many of you know?

Assignments, life, world event, all of it is so shifting and shaking.

But if you'll build your life on the solid rock of who Christ says that you are, and you'll determine, I'm gonna die to me and live for Christ, then man, there's great joy in that.

I think it's what Paul was getting at in Galatians 2.20, for I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who died and gave himself up for me, right?

In other words, Paul said, I'm a walking dead man.

You know what's interesting about dead people is they don't get offended.

They don't get bent out of shape when someone cuts them off.

They don't get mad if someone sat in their seat where they usually sit.

We'll go back here.

Why?

Because they've died to self.

And they've come alive to the identity of I am in Christ.

And God is in this job of molding me and making me more and more like his son Jesus, and how I think, how I respond, how I live, how I talk, how I walk, how I operate.

That's my true identity.

Are there days that the old Daniel tries to raise his head every morning when my feet hit the floor?

But I have to remind myself that's not who I am anymore.

Because if anybody be in Christ, come on, they're a new creation.

All things have passed away, and behold, everything has become new, right?

Number two, you've got to remember to forget.

You're thinking, you messed up your point.

No, look what Paul says next in verses 12 and 13.

He says, Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on.

Somebody shout press.

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do.

So interesting to me in the text.

This one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.

And I love the transparency of Paul and just the authenticity.

Here's the apostle Paul.

And he goes, Listen, this whole thing I want to be crucified with Christ, and this whole, you know, I want to know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death, and then the very next phrase, but I haven't got it together yet, y'all.

I'm not there yet.

I so resonate with that because I'm like, man, that's my heart.

But there are days it's not my actions.

Come on, saints.

There's so many days I want to respond differently.

I want to think differently about that.

I want to love those who are hard to love.

But man, I haven't obtained it yet.

He goes, but this one thing I do.

And man, there's so many other things that could have been filled in the blank right there.

This one thing I do, I pray about it.

And this one thing I do is I worship.

And this one thing I do is I get into God's word.

This one thing I do is I get in community so that community can help our sharpen me like iron sharpens iron.

There's so many other things that he could have said here in the moment, but he says, This one thing I do, forgetting what is behind.

I strain towards what is ahead.

Paul's saying, I'm not living my Christian life looking backwards.

I'm living it looking forward to everything God has for me.

I'm forgetting what is behind.

Some of you would do really good in your faith to get a little spiritual amnesia.

Because you spend a lot of your time looking backwards, and the enemy spends a lot of his time reminding you of all the things you didn't do right and the shame that fills your mind, and you get stuck in your progress of faith because the enemy keeps reminding you of some things that God is wanting you to forget about.

That God is wanting you to lay aside.

There's some hurts, there's some choices, there's some moments in your life that you're like, I would just love to forget about that.

And the reality is that you can't just dump things out of your mind whenever they've been that impactful in your life, right?

It's not like you can just men in black.

Y'all remember?

Okay.

It's not like it just evaporates out of your mind.

So there must be something else that Paul is talking about here as we look in our past.

But could I also interject this?

That I think it's not just good to remember the pain of our past, it's good to let go of the success of our past.

Because a lot of times we live life looking backwards at the good old days.

We live life looking backwards at nostalgia.

Well, remember when when God did this and when God did that, and what happens is we build a monument when we were just supposed to build an altar and move on.

And if we're like most churches, we would have put a glass case around it and we'd have put a come on, I grew up Baptist.

They will put everything in a glass case and remember this moment?

Remember this?

We get a plaque, we're gonna cut plaque on the end of the pew.

Okay, that's too much.

Paul's saying, I need why would I let go of my past successes?

Because you can begin to think it's you that got you where you are.

And what we need to look back is with gratitude to go, thank you, Jesus, for what you did behind me, but I'm having faith for what you're gonna do out in front of me.

I'm not gonna get prideful about what you did behind me.

I'm gonna keep trusting you every step of the way for what is out in front of me.

Paul's saying, I'm forgetting what is behind me, and I'm pressing, I'm straining towards what is in front of me.

Now, to understand the significance of this, you've got to understand the concept of forgetting in the Bible, and to get that, we've got to understand what it means to remember in the scriptures.

If you're with me, say amen.

The idea of remembering in the Bible isn't just that you're able to recall data and figure and thoughts into your mind.

It's not the case at all.

The idea of remembering in the scriptures is this is that you're able to pull something out of your history, bring it into your present, so that it has, one scholar said, potency in your reality right now.

In other words, this would be an example.

This is why God told the nation of Israel all the time build uh an altar, remember the works of the Lord your God, pass these down the children from generation to generation.

Why?

Because he was helping them do this biblical idea of remembering, which is this it's I'm facing the Red Sea, I'm facing the promised land and the walls of Jericho, but I'm gonna dig up from my history a moment where God came through for me before.

I'm gonna bring it into my present so that anxiety goes away, faith builds, because the same God that did it yesterday is the same God that'll do it today, and it's the same God that'll do it in all of my tomorrows.

This is what biblical remembering is it's pulling something from your history, the faithfulness of God, bringing it into your present so that your faith is built and fear leaves you and anxiousness leaves you because you're trusting in the goodness of God.

If you're with me so far, say amen.

So remembering is the opposite, or forgetting is the opposite.

It's this it's saying, I refuse to allow things from my history to come into my present and stop me from my destiny.

I'm not gonna allow the voice of the enemy, I'm not gonna allow the voice of shame, I'm not gonna allow the voice of negativity to dig up something from my past that is under the blood, by the way.

And if it's under the blood, then it's been washed as far as the east is from the west.

And so the enemy may remind me of my past, but as one old preacher said, I'm gonna remind him of his future because I am under the blood of Jesus.

I've been forgiven.

So I'm not just playing mental gymnastics and going, well, I'm just gonna forget it, forget it, forget it.

No.

I'm gonna say, it's under the blood.

It's been forgiven.

I've been freed from it.

And I will not visit it again.

So I'm forgetting what is behind me.

In my, I like to call it my holy imagination.

I kind of wonder when the Apostle Paul wrote those words if he wasn't seeing the faces of Christians he killed.

And thinking of people that he drug out of their homes because of their faith.

And thinking of all the zealous things he did.

When he wrote, I counted all his rubbish.

I want to know him in the power of his resurrection.

And I caused so much suffering, and if I can know him better in the fellowship of his suffering, then I'm willing to do that too.

But this is one thing I'm doing.

I'm forgetting all that because I'm pressing towards something.

I have to wonder if that wasn't going through his mind.

Thought number three is remember the gold.

Remember the gold.

Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3.14, he says, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

I press on.

I I press towards the goal.

I was thinking about this.

Here's the thing about pressing that if you're pressing, that means something is resisting.

You don't you don't have to press like I'm not pressing here, I'm just moving my arms out because there's no resistance.

But if I put them on this podium and press, then the the podium is resisting me.

And the more it resists me, the more I have to press.

And because I work out so often, as you can tell.

That wasn't a joke.

I'm kidding.

The more I press, the more resistance comes.

But the more I press, the more resistance comes.

Isn't it interesting that we ask God to grow us?

Then resistance comes, which is the very thing that can grow us, then we rebuke it in the name of Jesus.

It's actually the pushing against you that's growing you.

And you'll retreat and give up if you don't remember there's a goal, that it's heavenward in Christ.

That's what I'm moving towards.

Our little boy Jonas, the six-year-old.

The one that at the end of the commissioning service went like this when Trey said amen.

That one.

That guy.

Whenever he was born, uh, many of you know you may not, he was adopted, and so he came to us at five days old.

And so obviously, like the very next day, went to our pediatrician, and um, you know, just checking him out, everything's great on him.

And then I think it was maybe six months, he's going for one of those checkups, and Dr.

Becker, our doctor, for all of our children at the time, she's laying him down and she's like, I think I want you to see um a specialist.

I think he may have torticalis, which is basically just the tightening of the neck muscle that would cause his neck to go like this, which made him lay, which was um making his skull shape in a different way because of the late way he was laying in the crib.

And so he had to get one of those baby helmets.

See what I'm talking about?

And so they put a um, when they take a picture, it's the cutest thing, they basically put pantyhose over their head, and they do a 360 thing to take uh measurements of his head.

So he's got this little baby head, and like he looks like a little robber.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

But what was so fascinating about is we would go back about every month, and this is I heard this and I was like, wow, if this isn't what the Lord does with us, there was styrofoam inside the little baby helmet, and every so often we would go to the doctor, and the doctor would shave out the styrofoam that's on the inside.

And then they would put it back on, and we'd come back a month later and they'd do more measurements.

And every time they shaved the styrofoam, they were putting pressure on one part of the head and relieving pressure on another part of the head so that it would shape in a nice little round head so his wife would be happy one day.

So the doctor had a picture in his mind of what he wanted this little head to look like, but to get to where the doctor could see, we had to put some pressure on the skull and relieve some pressure in different areas of the skull so that it could get shaped.

But we knew the goal was worth the process of where we wanted to get to.

If I could preach this for a minute, I think Jesus has a goal of where he wants to get you, and that's you would be more conformed to the image of who he is and how you think and how you act and how you look and how you talk, and there's some shaping that he does, and there's some molding that he does, and there's some cutting away that he does, and there's some things that he's working on the inside of you so that you look more like Jesus at the end of the day.

And Paul said, I'm pressing toward the goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus.

I've been shipwrecked, but I'm pressing, and I've been imprisoned, but I'm pressing, and I've had bad days and I'm pressing, I've had good days and I'm pressing, and if I can say something to you today, the marriage may not be where you want it, but keep pressing, and the child may have walked away from the Lord right now, but keep pressing, and you may have got laid off, but just keep pressing, because we are moving towards the upward call of God in the Christ.

I don't know what you're walking through.

You can be seated.

But do what Hebrews says.

Don't throw off your confidence.

Some of you you've been in a season where you threw off your confidence.

Threw off your confidence you were going to make it to the goal.

Threw off your confidence that God's still working in you.

Throw off your confidence that He hears you, that He sees you.

Don't throw off your confidence because you've got a great reward.

And the reward is that this earth is so much better than this earth.

It's the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

You receive the word today, Church.

Hey, let's pray together.

Every head bowed, every eye closed.

Whether you're in the room online, one of our gatherings, maybe at a prison campus.

I really want you to consider.

Your life is not promised to you.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

I don't say that to put fear in your heart.

I say it to check reality.

The Bible says your life is a vapor.

It's here today and gone tomorrow.

And this is not the time to live life guessing.

Or hoping that your good will outweigh your bad one day, hoping that you and Jesus will have your own thing worked out.

It doesn't work that way.

This isn't the time to hope that there's a scale in heaven.

I've read the book, there isn't one.

But if you do enough good, it'll outweigh the bad.

That's not how it works.

Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ Jesus.

There's one way to heaven, everybody.

And it passes through the cross.

And if you're here today, under the sound of my voice, and you're not confident that you know that you know that your sins are forgiven and that heaven is your home, then why would you wait?

Just a moment, we're gonna pray together.

There's nothing special in what I say, but if you by faith from your heart to God's heart will confess your sin.

Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and make him the Lord and Savior of your life today.

That on the authority of the Word of God you will be saved.

Today will be a day of brand new beginning.

And I believe there's some people that God is really speaking to in this moment.

That you've walked away, you've hardened your heart, and today there's an open window for you.

So before we pray, I just want to know who I'm praying with.

And in just a second, I'm gonna count to three.

And when I do, I'm just gonna ask you to shoot your hand up high enough and keep it up.

So I just know who I'm praying with.

You say, This is me today, Pastor.

I need this.

I see you in the back, hands already up.

On three.

One, two, three.

You shoot your hand up right now, all over the room.

If you just shot your hand up, I'm gonna ask you to do something very bold on the floor and in the room.

I rarely ever do this.

I just feel that God is speaking right now.

I'm gonna ask you to stand right where you are.

If you lift up your hand, you say, I need Jesus today, just stand up boldly.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, ma'am, thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, ma'am.

God bless you.

God bless you.

God bless you.

I'm not trying to embarrass you.

This is a bold decision.

This is a big day.

I'm gonna ask you to slip out right now and come down to run our prayer team.

Make your way down here.

Worship team, would you join me?

You stood.

You'd get out of your seat.

Make your way down here.

You're among family.

This is the family of God.

We celebrate your decision.

Come on, church, encourage them.

Making the greatest decision of their life.

You come on down.

God spoke to you.

From the balcony, you make your way down.

God is speaking to you.

You speak today, my day.

Today is the day, my life is river today.

You get out of here today.

Make your way down.

Come on, encourage the let's do this.

Come on, got it speaking.

Come on, let's work together.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.