The Press

The Press- Philippians 3:12-14

I like to study words and it intrigues me, when a word is used as slang, but those using it for slang are actually using it in its proper definition unknowingly. I remember a scene from The Wire; a character called Monk was giving out money to the kids in the neighborhood so they could purchase school clothes and a young man named Michael wouldn’t take the money out of pride. Michael’s walked away and Michael’s friend Randy asked if he could have Michael’s share. Michael’s other friend Namond told Randy not to press. It was slang for being bothersome, but the slang was the actual definition. When someone is obsessed with someone else, others will say that person is pressed. I like that word press, some definitions include:

a :  a crowd or crowded condition :  throng

b :  a thronging or crowding forward or together

a :  an action of pressing or pushing :  pressure

b :  an aggressive pressuring defense employed in basketball often over the entire court area

To move or cause to move into a position of contact with something by exerting continuous physical force.

That is what the Apostle Paul is speaking on in the text, a continual force, pressing toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call, or in the King James Version the mark for the prize of the high calling, takes continual force. Tony Robins says that repetition is the mother of skill, and when we press toward the mark we need to do it repeatedly.

At the beginning of chapter 3, Paul says rejoice in the Lord, he says it again in chapter 4 rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Now scholars like to argue over the proper use of the Greek for that verse because the word can be used to mean rejoice, and so, and finally, to me I don’t want to spend that much time worrying about it, because I think whether it is the beginning, middle, or end, we need to rejoice in the Lord and praise him anyhow.

Psalm 34

Praise for Deliverance from Trouble

¹ I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

David wrote that while in a foreign land, his own people wanted to kill him so he sought refuge with the Philistines, well David had killed Goliath so he wasn’t going to get much refuge there, played crazy to get away from them. If David could bless the Lord at all times while 2 different kings wanted him dead, surely we could rejoice in the Lord always.

Back in the Philippians Paul says he has reason to boast, he was circumcised on the 8^th day, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, Paul knew the law because he was a Pharisee, and persecutor of the church, righteous when it came to the law, blameless. If anyone had something to brag about it was Paul, good family, good education, good reputation, but when he compared it all to Christ it meant nothing, it was worthless.

That word rubbish in verse 8 does not adequately describe what the Apostle Paul was saying in the Greek. I would suspect because it is in the Bible, and would be read in church during worship that the translators would want to tone it down a bit. The Greek word skubalon, meant more than trash, it was actually dung, fecal matter, but not the biological terms the vulgar terms we would use when describing those things. All his education, all of his bloodline and professional status meant nothing when it came to Christ. All of his accolades were “rubbish” and discarded that he might gain Christ. What to do we worship? You can tell what you worship by looking at your bank account and credit card statements, seeing where the money goes to most. Looking at our calendar, seeing where we spend the majority of our time. What are we willing to sacrifice or lay aside to get closer to Jesus?

The good thing is we can get closer to Jesus by faith, in verse 9 there is some discussion among the scholars about what is going on here. The church at Philippi was one that was mixed, meaning there were some Hebrew believers, and there were Gentile believers and the scholars believe that the Hebrew believers might have thought that they were better than the Gentiles. I mean I could see that, I could see some saints, a church, or even a denomination, caught up in their methods, to the point that they would not work well with other new members and visitors, I can see the Hebrew people being used to doing something a particular way and then going against the influx of new people on the scene. The seasoned saints had done a whole lot of things under the law prior to Jesus coming, now these Gentiles didn’t have to jump through the same hoops to get to Jesus, so they got treated bad. Paul was saying the righteousness didn’t come on our own through the law but through faith.

Paul wanted to become like Christ, and in all the work he did, he still was working toward that goal. Nobody is perfect, but we work towards perfection when we try to be like Christ. Paul in all his accolades said he had not obtained or reached the goal but he pressed, he pressed to make it his own because Christ Jesus had made him his own. You cannot be perfect on your own but you can be perfect in Christ Jesus. You can’t be perfect on your own, but you can be perfect with some help. Just like the football coach that says the individual players are not perfect, but if they all work hard together and press toward the goal they can be perfect. Press toward perfection. I said earlier that when you press you exert continual force you do something repeatedly. One thing I learned from playing sports in school is the value of practicing and conditioning. Take the 100 meter dash, they said during a 100 meter dash, a sprinter may only run at their top speed for 30-35 meters, the rest of the race is building up to that top speed, trying to maintain it, then trying to keep it together as they slow down. The continual training is what helps the runner get to their top speed before their top speed before the competition, the continual training is what helps them maintain the top speed for 35 meters instead of 30, the continual training is what helps the runner keep their form once they start getting tired, what you see on race night is 6-8 weeks of preparation and conditioning.

The same is true with Christianity, this is not just a Sunday experience for an hour and a half, this is a way of life. The continual prayer and fasting is what will keep us having a peace that passes all understanding,

1 Thessalonians 5:17New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

¹⁷ pray without ceasing,

Philippians 4:6-7New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

⁶ Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Not vain and repetitive prayer, but you must do something often if you expect to see some results, I can’t go to the gym work out one time, and then wonder why I am not losing any weight. I must bench press repetitively, shoulder press repetitively, leg press repetitively, and then over time, I will start to see some results.

When we press toward the mark, we also can’t be reminded of our past, our past is there for us to relearn it, not to relive it. Going back to the athletes, the best athletes I know have short memories, they don’t get caught up in their mistakes because that would mess with their confidence, the keep moving forward leaving the past in the past.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17King James Version (KJV)

¹⁷ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Paul is telling us to press forward, don’t quit, we are closer than we think we are, closer than we have been before. We just have to keep trying, and learn from our mistakes.

Thomas Edison famed inventor, had 10,000 failed inventions, but we remember the things he invented that worked.

He is quoted “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
― Thomas A. Edison

And some of these “failures” went on to be ideas that others made work,

Edison tried to invent a voice recorder but it didn’t work, someone thought to press on with that idea, He tried to invent an electric pen that made multiple copies of handwritten documents, somebody pressed on with that idea.

Edison invented a talking doll for kids, but if you dropped the doll it would stop working, then the voice would get weak if you used it too much, but somebody pressed on and made working talking dolls.

Edison came out with a home service club, you join it, and they sent 20 records in the mail to you a month, didn’t work, he also was the first to put projectors in people’s houses to watch movies at home, all these things and more people pressed on with ideas and made them work.

Steve Jobs got fired from the company he started, he worked harder, pressed on came back and brought Apple to world dominance.

What I’m saying is, whatever idea God put in you, don’t quit, keep going, the work is for you to be better than the competition at that one moment. The word used for Goal in the Greek is about achievement, maturity, the accomplishment of the goal, it is more about the end and working towards it, than your win loss record when you get their. At the end of the season, the champion is the champion regardless of what their seasonal record was. If they make the playoffs and keep pressing toward the goal they win.

We press on because Jesus didn’t quit, didn’t quit in the garden of Gethsemane, didn’t quit when they took him, didn’t quit when the whipped him with a cat of nine tails, didn’t quit on the way to Calvary, didn’t quit on the cross, didn’t quit in the grave, didn’t quit when he rose again, and didn’t quit because he is coming back again!