Pressing Forward In Christ

You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

We pray that you enjoy the message.

Last Sunday I I spoke something that the Lord had placed

strongly on my heart for 2026 and it was this refuse to draw

back. If you haven't heard that

message, you can go back and listen to that online.

Go back and listen to that. It's on our website.

That's easy a place to go triumph church dot IE, but that

was based on the Scripture in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

It said now the just shall live by faith.

But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

God wants us to actually draw close to Him.

Read Psalm 91. He wants you to be as close as

possible because in that place is where He's able to provide

all your need. When you're walking away from

the Lord, when you're keeping him at arm's length, when you

turn your back on Him and run away from Him, it's hard for him

to get his blessings to you. And as your heavenly Father, He

wants to so draw close to God. This morning is going to be kind

of a continuance of of that message.

And I'm going to be going to be talking about pressing forward

in Christ. All right.

There's a lot in the Bible, a lot in Paul's, Paul's writings

about refusing to draw back and about pressing forward in

Christ. Following Jesus is not standing

still. You know our our salvation when

we accept Jesus as our Lord. It's not just done all right,

It's a done thing. There's nothing more to do at

all. I can just stand here in my

salvation, in Christ and that's it.

That's not what God wants for us.

It's not standing still. It's movement, it's direction,

it's momentum, it's forward moving faith.

And many believers don't walk away from Christ.

It's not often that you have someone that just makes a rash

decision and at a split moment they just walk away from Christ.

That's not something that that really happens that often,

Especially if you know the Lord and you know his goodness and

you know his love and you know his peace and you've seen him

move in your life, man, you can't just walk away from that.

But there's a lot that simply stop pressing forward.

They stall, they begin to settle, they begin to live off

of yesterday's victories and yesterday's revelations.

But God wants to do more in your life. 2025 was great, but God

wants to do more for you in 2026.

Living as a a Christian, we're not meant to live in neutral.

You're not going to go anywhere in neutral.

You need to put the car and drive right, put it into gear

and have Ford moving faith. And Paul understood this very

deeply near the end of his ministry, after planting many

churches, after riding near 3/4 of the New Testament scripture,

after enduring suffering and and persecution and seeing many

miracles in his life, he still had this to say in the book of

Philippians in chapter 3 and verse 12.

And we're going to kind of hover around a couple scriptures there

in Philippians this morning. But in Philippians chapter 3 and

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

verse 12, Paul says, I don't mean to say that I have already

achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection,

but I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ

Jesus first possessed me. Paul is saying I'm not done yet.

And I heard, heard a number of older ministers say in the past

they'd say I'm, I'm old. I could retire, but I don't want

to retire. I just want to refire.

Sometimes we discount people when they're older in the

twilight years of their life. But they've lived through so

much. They've seen so much.

They've they've experienced so much.

They've applied their faith to so much.

They've seen God move so much in their lives.

Young people like myself still have a lot to learn, right?

The Apostle Paul says that I haven't learned everything yet.

There's still more to this life to press forward in Christ.

And our daily walk with Christ isn't about just refusing to to

draw back as we talked about last week, but it's also

pressing forward. It's drawing closer to him.

I love Sean saying in his testimony, our, our life's

pursuit should be drawing closer to God.

That should be our life's pursuit drawing closer to God,

not the things of this world. Because when we leave this

world, all of that stuff perishes.

There is no one who's going to be carrying their 60 inch telly

with them into heaven, right? Like sometimes we, we, we put so

much, put so much into these things, right?

That are nothing. They're nothing but drawing

close to God. That's eternal, that's in this

life, but it's also for eternity.

And listen, when you're drawing closer to God, you're, you're

kind of like, 'cause this gravity, right?

If you're drawing closer to God, everyone around you can't help

but be caught up in that, right? Your life matters.

Your life has great significance.

There is no one in this room whose life does not matter.

Amen. Your life has so much more

significance than you know. Sometimes we look in the mirror.

We may not realize it, we may not think it, and the devil may

be trying to talk to our minds. You're nothing.

You're you're nothing big. The Lord has you on this earth

for a purpose, and he has a plan for you.

So this morning I want to talk about pressing forward in

Christ. And the first thing I want to

talk about this pressing forward requires letting go of what's

behind. That can be the bad things, but

it can also be the good things. Paul continues in Philippians

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, we just read verse 12 and in verse 13, Philippians

313, he says, no, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved

it. But I focus on this one thing,

forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.

I notice here that Paul doesn't say that the past is, is

meaningless, right? It's important that we learn

from our past mistakes. We can learn a lot from other

people's mistakes. We can learn a lot from history.

So we don't discount the past, right?

But we don't live there. We don't abide there.

We can't plant a flag. And this is where I'm going to

stay, right? Because time keeps on moving.

Your life keeps on moving. You can't be be bound by your

past. Time is moving forward.

Life is moving forward. That is in the past.

It doesn't have to control you, but it's not it's not

meaningless either. It just means that it's not

supposed to master you. You're not who your past says

you are, right? You're who God's word says you

are. Let me say that again, all

right? Your past is or you're not who

your past says you are. You're who God says in his word

that you are, and in his word he says that you are more than a

conqueror, not just a conqueror. Like it'd be great enough to be

just a conqueror, wouldn't it, Sean?

Not just a conqueror, but more than a conqueror.

That means more than enough. Anything that comes my way, God

has given me provision through whatever it is.

He supplies all my need, right? Provision to overcome that in an

overwhelming way. Not just overcome it, you know,

like, oh, I barely made it over that hill.

Oh, thank God, right? Overwhelming, overwhelming

victory. Hallelujah.

I can do all things through Christ, who does what

strengthens me, in my strength, in my ability, what I know, what

I've trained for, what I can do, or in Christ's ability, in His

strength, what He has enabled, what He has given me.

Amen. Some people are held back by

their past failures. Their failure whispers You'll

never change, you'll never be good enough.

You can't do that. Others are held back by past

success. They're success whispers you

don't need to grow. You've got what you need.

You know what to do. But both voices stop forward

movement. We're not defined by our

failures, our past, but we're also not defined by our success

either. We're defined by God's word and

that's it. This is my identity.

Why do you think the devil worked so hard to attack

people's identity? Or you don't know what in the

world you are. You sometimes you can't even

address people by what's obvious, right?

The devil wants to attack identity because he's the God of

confusion. If he can cause people to be

confused, then it's going to be very difficult them for them to

find out what their true identity is, who they really

are. God created us in His image.

He didn't create us for failure. He didn't create us for

mistakes. He created each of us to be able

to triumph in this life through Christ.

Amen. God's not limited by our past,

so let's not get stuck there. In Isaiah chapter 43, God was

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

reminding Israel that he was present with them, that he's

rescued them from their things in their past so many times and

is reminding them of that. And Isaiah was speaking to the

from the Lord, though, saying don't get stuck in your past.

And that can be easy to do sometimes.

But God's not limited by her past, not any part of it.

And we know from Scripture that if we humble ourselves before

the Lord, he's going to do what he's going to lift you up, isn't

he? So the key here is our humility,

keeping a humble heart. All right, humble.

Your humility keeps you from living in your past failures,

your past mistakes, your past sins, But humility also keeps

you from relying on your success and the things that you do

really great, right? We want to be in a place of

humility where we are focused on Christ, where we're drawing

close to him. Humility is the key.

In Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 18 and 19, Isaiah was talking

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

about the past and he says this, don't forget all that.

He's reminding them of all the things that the Lord has done.

He says don't forget all of that.

It is nothing compared to what I am going to do. 2025 was a

really good year for a lot of us, right?

But don't get caught up in that, all right?

2026 is going to be so much more.

It is nothing. 2025 is nothing compared to what he's going to

do in this year and in your future.

In verse 19, he says for I am about to do something new and

that can make us really nervous. The Lord says sell your home and

move. He's doing something new.

Lord said something similar to us.

Sell your home and move to Ireland.

I've got a plan for you there. I've got a purpose, something

new. Oh boy.

Thank God he didn't tell me that I'd be starting a church, right?

I probably would have had a really difficult time moving

then if I knew where he, I knew where his plan and purpose was,

was heading. I hate speaking in front of

people. Makes me nervous.

I used to. I still get nervous.

That's right. But the Lord's doing something

new. And he says, see, I have already

begun. We're only two weeks.

Today's just the 11th of January.

The Lord's already begun. He's already making provision

for what it is that you need in 2026.

He's already making things happen behind the doors, behind

the scenes that you can't see. All is that required of you is

that you trust the Lord. So all He wants from you, just

trust me here. Just get into the passenger side

of the car, all right? And let me do the driving.

All right, I'm going to take you places that you never even

dreamed about, new places that you have a difficult time even

imagining, right? The Lord has great plans for us.

Second thing I want to talk about today as pressing forward

is a choice. It's not something that's

automatic, it's a choice that you make.

Paul continues in Philippians 3 verse 14 or 14.

Philippians 3:14

He says I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the

heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus Jesus is

calling us. Pressing forward here.

Paul's using intentional language, isn't he?

I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the

heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling

us. You don't drift forward

spiritually. You know what I mean by

drifting? It's like the wind blows you and

you just kind of drift in there. Oh, wow.

You don't drift forward spiritually.

You don't accidentally mature. You don't stumble into

obedience, you don't fall into growth, all right?

Spiritual growth happens when you're purposeful and when

you're intentional. And what you need to do is

develop spiritual disciplines to move forward in the Lord, to

continue to grow spiritually and mature, you need to develop

spiritual discipline. So what does pressing forward

look like? What are some spiritual

disciplines that you should develop and have in your life?

The first one is praying when you don't feel spiritual.

Do you feel spiritual every single time you pray, right?

Are you led by your emotions? Are you led by how you feel?

Well, I just don't feel like praying today.

So, right, I didn't feel like getting up out of bed today, but

aren't you glad I did? Maybe, I don't know.

I wish you would have slept in Pastor Brad, Pastor Amy, she's a

lot nicer, prettier than you are.

But it's a spiritual discipline. Prayer is a spiritual discipline

about creating time to study God's Word.

That's something you have to be purposeful and an intentional.

Listen, time doesn't just manifest itself.

A lot of time. Time gets away from us, doesn't

it? If you're not purposeful and an

intentional, before you know it, you're like, oh man, I just

don't have time now, right? It's gone.

Where did this day go, right? You have to be purposeful and

intentional, consistently attending and being part of your

church. That's a spiritual discipline.

I'm here every Sunday. Yeah, it's a spiritual

discipline. Maybe I won't be here next week.

I don't know. You need to be like, who's

preaching, right? Sean, Carlos, James, anyone You

guys on next week? Let's get in.

It's a spiritual discipline, all right.

Obeying God, even when it's costly.

Sometimes obeying God costs us something.

Caution something. Yeah, that's a big.

That's a big home swimming pool. Don't have much use for a

swimming pool here. We get all the water we need.

You want to go swimming? Just step outside.

All right. Trusting Him even when

circumstances are contrary. And the circumstances are

contrary A lot, aren't they? But are we going to trust the

natural or are we going to trust God's word the the Super over

our natural? You know, faith isn't denying

circumstances. A lot of times circumstances are

very real, right? But God can change those

circumstances. We have testimonies this

morning, this morning of God changing circumstances, right?

God can change anything. The Bible says with God, all

things are possible. I love in Jeremiah where he

says, behold, I'm the God of all flesh.

Is there anything that's too hard for me?

It's not often that God asks us questions in the Bible, but he

asks us a question there. Is there anything that's too

hard for me to us in our our little pea brain minds?

All right, here, let me say my pea brain mind to make you feel

better. You know, like we think

sometimes a lot of things are just too big.

This is just too hard. How can God possibly do this?

But with God, all things are possible.

He created everything that we see, right?

We live in a world, We live in a universe, a Galaxy that God

created. If He can do that, then what in

your life is He not able to do? Think about that. 2026 is going

to be amazing. The last thing I want to talk

about this morning is pressing forward means fixing your focus

on Christ. Paul's strength came from where

he was looking, right? And sometimes those, those

storms and those things that we deal with, those things go in

our life are really big and are really loud and are directly in

front of our face, right? But you just need to be, excuse

me, sorry, sorry, you're in my way here.

I'm looking at Christ, right? Let's move.

Move aside. All right?

I'm looking at Christ who's the author and the finisher of my

faith. Do I have complete trust in?

I don't have, I don't have faith in you.

All right, step aside. I'm focused on Christ, on His

provision, on Him providing for all of my need according to his

riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

Earlier in this passage, Paul said, forgetting the past and

looking forward to what lies ahead.

Forward focus always has a direction, and that always needs

to be on Christ, on Christ alone and nothing else.

There's nothing else that's more important in your life.

When Peter was walking on water, that's an amazing story, isn't

it? And what happened when he took

his eyes off of Christ? He started to sink, didn't he?

It's that same way in our life. When we take our eyes off of

Christ, what's going to happen? We're going to start to sink.

That's where the the, the things of this world become bigger and

larger than Christ in our lives. But when we keep Christ our

focus, when we're fixed solely on him and him alone, The first

thing you should do when this world presents a problem, when

something starts to happen, you get, you get bad, some bad

information about, about something, go to the doctor, get

bad. What's the first thing you

should do, Right? Well, thank you, doctor.

I appreciate you doing your job. I appreciate that.

You know, God bless you, right? But can you step aside for a

minute, right, because I'm looking at Christ and Christ

alone in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 puts it really

Hebrews 12:1

plainly says therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge

crowd of witnesses to this life of faith.

I picture that's where my, my mom is this she's gone on to

heaven, right? Like she's up in glory

worshipping God in his presence. I picture her part of this, this

massive crowd of witnesses, right, who are cheering us all

on. I wish we could hear it.

I wish we could hear that noise. Have you ever been in a stadium

with like 66,000 people? Win the try?

Yeah, They just scored some points.

It's wild. It's madness, isn't it?

Come on, The World Cup's going to be coming up here soon.

Yeah. There's going to be stadiums

full of crazy people cheering for a ball being kicked around.

They're losing their minds over it, right?

Man, the noise from heaven, the crowd that's cheering us on.

Picture it. Therefore, since we are

surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of

faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down.

Listen, the devil is going to try to pile as much as he can on

you, this worry, this thought, whatever it is to try to weigh

you down. Because if nothing else, if he

can't keep you from sprinting, if he can't keep you from

running, then at least he wants to make it difficult for you.

So you have to trudge ahead, right?

Make it hard for you to move forward in Christ.

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially

the sin that so easily trips us up.

And let us run with endurance, the race that God has set before

us. Like how it says, let us run

with endurance. One of the sports I used to do

when I was in secondary school was was track and field.

I was a sprinter, right? I was fast.

I could run short distances really quickly, but you want me

to run a long distance? Oh, man, my sight is killing me.

Just put me to death now. Take Me Home.

Jesus. Right.

I do not want to run another kilometer, please.

Right. It's not about running quickly.

It's about running with endurance.

It's about today I'm taking a step forward.

Tomorrow I'm taking a step forward.

The day after I'm taking a step forward.

I'm not looking behind me at all because I'm moving forward.

I don't care about the past except for to learn from my

mistakes and failures and not do them again right?

But I'm focused on Christ. When I'm focused on Him, I'm not

going to be taking steps backwards.

I'm not going to be walking away from Christ.

I'm going to be pressing forward.

My eyes focus solely on Him and taking steps forward.

Then in verse 2, it says we do this by keeping our eyes on

Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our

faith. He's our champion.

You know, way back when you could have like a champion fight

your battles for you so that you won't have to fight them.

Could have a champion do it. Well, Jesus is our champion.

He fought all of those battles for us.

He's already accomplished what is impossible for us to do.

Those needs that we have, he's already, he already has those

provided. All's we have to do is tap in

and trust him and believe that he's bringing that will to pass

in our life. Amen.

So Paul ends this section in Philippians and what we've been

centered on this morning by urging believers not to settle.

That's something that's really easy to do.

Just settle. This is good enough, right?

You can just do this for me. Lord, that's that's good enough.

God doesn't want us to settle. The apostle Paul says in

Philippians 315, he says let all who are spiritually mature agree

on these things. And he says, if you would

disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain

to you. So he's basically saying,

listen, what I've said is the truth.

And if you disagree with it, well, that's all right.

God's, I'm just going to believe that God's going to make it

plain to you so that you'll agree with what it is that he's

trying to tell you. Amen.

It's the truth. Spiritual maturity isn't knowing

more. It's not how much you know, but

actually walking in what you know.

We're all at different places in our walk with Christ, right?

Some of us have been believers for many years of others of us,

we may be new believers. It's not where we're at in our

race, all right. We should never compare

ourselves with another person. My life is completely different

than your life. God has a completely different

plan and purpose for your life than He does mine or the person

in front of you or behind you. We are all running our own race.

No one has the same race. So it's really foolish to

compare your race, your life with someone else, right?

The point is, is that what you know?

You're actually walking in it. You're refusing to draw back, as

we talked about last week, and you're pressing forward with

what it is you do know. Listen, you're not going to

arrive until you reach heaven. But that means that you're no

longer on this earth. As long as you're on this earth,

you're going to be growing and growing and growing and growing

and drawing closer to God and drawing closer to God and

drawing closer to God and living victory to victory to victory.

Faith to faith. All right, keep moving forward.

2026 is a year where you need to keep moving forward.

Don't draw back, don't settle. Don't plant a flag and say, this

is cool. Where I'm at right now, I'm just

happy with this place. Well, if you do that, you're

limiting God in your life because he's doing a new thing.

Not, not what he did yesterday in your life.

He's doing something new. Amen.

Expect it. And if you're not expecting

anything, like we said earlier, what are you going to get?

You're going to get nothing, all right.

So expect God as you draw close to him.

The Bible says when you draw close to God, he will draw close

to you. And listen in that place where

you're in close proximity from God.

And it's not natural really for for our flesh to draw close to

God. All right, the devil will do

everything in his power to keep you from drawing close to God.

Oh, watch another Netflix episode.

Stay home from church today. Oh, don't fellowship with this

person, right? The devil will do everything in

his power to keep you from drawing close to God.

But that's something that you have to, you have to refuse and

instead pursue God, push forward with him.

Amen. And when you do, you are going

to be so incredibly blessed because in God's presence is

such fullness of joy, the Word says.

Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church podcast this

week. If it was a blessing to you,

share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph

Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.