Pressing On - Outline of Message at YFC on Tuesday 7th January, 2014

Walking

What does 'Pressing On' mean?

When you hear the phrase 'pressing on', it could mean a number of things. Does it mean pressing a button? Does it mean mustering your determination so that you can do something, despite the difficulties and hurdles? Does it mean making decisions despite a whole range of possibilities? Does is mean putting the past behind you and stepping into a different future?

I think it probably means, to one degree or another, all of those things. What I wanted to look at with the guys in the YFC conference was the particular implications of the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi about 'pressing on'. They are recorded for us in Philippians Chapter 3 - so why not grab a bible and read the passage now, before then reflecting on some of the points that I made with the YFC guys. A great bunch of people, by the way!

I won't let anyone who has given up on their dream convince me to give up on mine.

The first thing I wantes to say was that I was not willing to give up on my dream because someone who had given up on theirs told me I should! It strikes me that one of the greatest blights on faith and hope and expectation is cynicism. You know what I mean - the kind of naysayers who tell you that no matter what your idea might be, they had it once and it did't work for them, so it won;t work for you either.

There is not very much that is more discouraging than seeing the etched lines of disappointment and cynicism on the face of another human being. If you are not careful, that cynicism can become the air that you breathe. Whatever happens don't let that happen. We have each got one shot at life - so make it count. Leave your mark. Do what you love. Find out what you can do with your life. DOn;t let your hopes and dreams and longings for changing the world be dumbed down or diluted by the discouragements and objections of others. In twenty or thirty years someone else will be sitting where you sit now. They will be the 'young generation' with fire in their bellies and longing in their hearts. So grab the life that you have the opportunities that God is giving you with both hands.

The Desire to Move Forward has Got to outstrip every other desire.

You will not 'press on' until the desire to move forward outstrips every other desire in your life. Paul learnt that lesson - and you can hear it in his words in Philippians 3.  His leadership was under attack and his credentials were under question. But he doesn't just defend himself with the people he is writing to, instead he turns their whole argument on his head by proving his credentials and then changing the whole argument and saying that what they think is important is NOT the most important thing to him. When you read the first section of Philippians 3 you realise that for PAul, self reliance was not the strongest motivator (v3); his heritage was not his strongest motivator (vv4-6); his achievements were not his strongest motivator (v7). In fact everything else (v8) was less important for him than having Jesus at the centre of his whole life. This man, who was well eductaed, well-connected and exceptionally clever, had such an encounter with God by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus now stood at the centre of everything he was and everything he did. So much so, that he describes everything else that he had once thought important as 'rubbish' (NIV). In fact the Greek wod is much stronger - he says everything else he once thought important was nothing but a load of crap. Sorry to offend you, but that's what the word is. Paul's desire to kow Christ and to have Jesus at the centre of his life was so strong that everything else felt like crap! Wow. That is a challenging thought for us, when we become comfortable or rest on our laurels, or rely on our own strength, cleverness or ideas. As long as we take our credentials, our significance or our value from something other than Jesus, we are taking it from the wrong place.

You have got to change the culture of your life.

Here's the second thing that we see from Philippians 3. In verses 8-12, Paul makes clear that he now has a new centre in his life - and that new centre is Jesus and knowing Him. Where once he was defined by all the things he mentions in verses 3-7. He is now defined by Jesus and his relationship with Him. I am preaching some of this in my own church (www.goldhill.org) on Sunday nights in a series we have just started, but the reality is that unless we change the culture of our lives, we will continue to assess ourselves wrongly and fall fould of the same mistakes. Paul was able to face anything and emerge from it determined to keep going (see 2 Corinthins 4:8-12) precisely because he had a new centre and a new culture shaping his life and his thinking. That new culture was Jesus. That shouldn't be a surprise to us, because Jesus Himself had a such a strong culture in his life that he was able to face anythign and not be blown off course. He was victimised, but never a victim. He was poor, but did not have a poverty spirit. He was attacke but he never reacted,He always responded. He was abandoned, but did not live with an orphaned spirit. How did Jesus do that? How could He love and serve people the way He did? I think He did it because He knew His identity flowed from His Father and no-one else. He choose to listen to the right voices, He had a right vision for His life and He was shaped by the right values. If we want to press on, we have to be the same.

You have got to keep your focus.

If we want to press on, we have got to keep our focus. In verses 12-end of the chapter of Philippians 3, Paul makes clear that he has one central aim and focus in his life - he wants to know Christ more. Wow! What's your focus? In a buisness book published some years ago entitled 'The One Thing' the author argued that productivity goes up by about 70% when you know what your 'one thing is and you do it.

What is your 'one thing'? It might be justice, it might be seeing people whole, it might be helping people know Jesus? Whatever it is, focus on it. Let it shape the way you think and let it challenge the decisions you make and the priorities you set. Your internal focus (mine is that I want to kow Christ more and be more like Him) will then lead to you being able to understand what your life purpose is (I want people to be set free by the truth and know that all that Jesus said and does for them is real and that they matter. I want people to know that every person is made in the image of God and therefore  oppression, poverty, manipulation and expolitation are wrong. Christian discipleship is the best way to live and the local church should be the centre of transformation at every level in a community, the the bible can be trusted, the Holy Spirit is real and the truth really does set them free to change the world. That is why, first and foremost, I am a pastor and love leading the local church I do). What is your one thing? Find it, live it, breathe it.

Let the future shape you.

Lastly, if we want to press into what God has for us then we have got to let God's vision for us and His vision for the world reach back into our present lives and change us. Far too many of us allow the past to be stronger than the future - and that is just plain wrong. In the last verses of Philippians 3, Paul talks about taking hold of Christ so that he can encounter all that there is for him. Paul takes hold of Christ Who has already taken hold of Paul. He knows his citizenship is now in heaven, not just in Tarsus. We need to allow what God says about us, what He thinks we are worth and what His plans are for the world to reach into the daily reality of our lives and shape us and be more powerful than any set of circumstances we face or challenges we are experiencing. Our future is secure, our Saviour is reliable and our God is good - so we can face the world and the present with a strong sense of confidence in God.

The decision is ours.

Throughout the history of the Church and Israel, there has been an interesting phenomena. The majority often misses what God is doing, whilst a tiny minority catch it. Just because mediocrity becomes the norm does not mean it has to be your norm. The decision to press into God might be mockes, misunderstood or maligned - but that doesn't make it wrong. Doing the poular thing or the easy thing isn't the same as doing the right thing or the good thing. God wants to press into us and he invites us to press into Him. Whether we do that or not is our call.

What good is an invitation unless you respond to it with a yes?

Rest (2 of 5) - The Reason for Rest

Morning Lilies' (C) Malcolm Duncan. Taken at Angkor Wat, February 2013.

"The Rhythm of Rest" (This is the text of a message I brought on my visit to Cambodia in February, 2013.)

'Therefore, as the Holy Spirit say,

"Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

where your fathers put me to the test

and saw my works for forty years.

Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

and said, 'They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways.'

As I swore in my wrath,

'They shall not enter my rest.'"...

...So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

Hebrews 3:7- 4:13 (E.S.V.)

Entering God's Rest.

God promises us rest. Like a satisfying long drink of cold, refreshing water, rest nourishes, nurtures and strengthens us. Yet in Hebrews 3:11,18 and 19 the writer makes it clear that the people of Israel did not enter the rest that God had promised them. Their failure to 'enter' their rest was caused by their disobedience. They forfeited the ability to enter into the rest God had promised them because they were not willing to submit their lives to the lifestyle trust and obedience to which God had called them. Verse 19 tells us, 'they could not enter because of their unbelief'.  The writer quotes from the Exodus, the Conquest (Joshua 23) and from Psalm 95:7-11. By putting these three passages side by side (passages that span hundreds of years of history), whoever wrote Hebrews is arguing that the 'rest' God had promised His people still awaits them in some way. Hebrews then picks this up when it argues 'there remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God' (Hebrews 4:9ff). God's call to rest is still valid (Hebrews 4:1) and the pathway into it is still the same - faith (Hebrews 4:3).

This is a complicated passage of Scripture, but when we explore it a little. we discover some beautiful jewels of hope and possibility when it comes to rest.

What is 'Rest'?

Many of us rest when we are tired. We rest because we have been busy. We rest because we have had 'a lot on'. We rest because we need to 'clear our head'. None of these are wrong reasons for rest, in an of themselves, but they spring from a wrong understanding of what rest is.

Rest, Sabbath and God.

The Hebrews writer places three ideas side by side. God's work in creation (Hebrews 4:10); rest from from our work and Sabbath (Hebrews 4:9). Looking at all three helps us to understand 'rest' in a completely new, and perhaps refreshing, way.

Satisfaction not exhaustion.

God did not rest in creation because He was exhausted! Whether you read the creation narratice literally or metaphorically has no bearing on the point I want to make here. God did not reach the Seventh Day and exclaim, "I am exhasuted from all of this work, I need a break!' Instead, we read in Genesis 2:1 that at the end of the Sixth Day, God looked at all that He had made and He saw that it was 'finished' or 'completed'. Some versions of Scripture translate the word 'finished' as 'God was satisfied'. In other words, God rested on the Seventh day out of a sense of completion and satisfaction and not out of a sense of exhaustion.

We so often rest because of exhaustion! Hebrews 4:3,4 tell us that the pattern of our rest show flow from God's pattern and God's pattern of rest is one of completion and satisfaction. Of course we must rest when we are tired, but when this is all we do, we are putting ourselves in a wrong place. We are resting for the wrong reasons.

God's pattern of satisfaction is one from which we can learn so much. Are we 'satisfied' with our work? Are we ever satisified? Do we work continually because we somehow feel that we are never doing enough? Do we work and work and work because we take our worth from our work rather than our identity? The Scriptures show us a pattern of rest that flows out of satisfaction and a sense of security, completion and pleasure, not just out of a sense of being forced to stop because we cannot do any more.

Sabbath.

We will come back to the idea of Sabbath in the next post, when we look at the 'Rhythm of Rest', but for now it is enough to say that Sabbath is a principle that forces us out of the central position in our lives. When we refuse to rest, we are implicitly stating that we must keep going - that we are indispensible. What at first appears like a result of commitment and zeal is actually a result of pride and selflishness. When we refuse to rest, we are stating that what we are doing cannot work without us. That automatically also says that God is not the centre of our lives. When we refuse to rest, we deny Him the opportunity to demonstrate that the successed of our lives flow from His energy and not our own. 'Sabbath' not only provides us with a chance to rest physically, it is a reminder that we are dependent upon God and His means and strength and not independent  of them.

Three Reasons for Rest.

We rest because God has shown us that His pattern is rest. We rest because He has commanded us to (Exodus 20:8, although this is the only commandment that Jesus did not repeat and I will explain why in the next post). We rest because of the plea of Jesus to us to rest. Matthew 11:28 invites those who are 'weary' and 'heavy-laden' to come to Jesus and rest, to take His yoke upon us and to learn from Him because His yoke is easy and His burden is light.'

Eugene Peterson paraphrases this beautiful invitation like this:

'Are you burned out? Worn out on religion? Then watch how I do it. Walk with me and work with me....learn the unforced rhythms of grace.'

That leads me to what I will pick up in my next post, but for now, reflect on the fact that the reasons for rest are:

1. God models it.

2. God commands it.

3. Jesus calls us to it.

A Command of Equal Force to the Command to 'Go'

One last thought, the call of Jesus to 'rest' has equal force as the call of Matthew 28 to 'Go into all the world and make disciples'. So many of us see the command of Matthew 28 as powerful and transforming - why do we treat the command of Matthew 11 as an option? Indeed, I would suggest that if we don't hold both of these commands in equal weight and worth, then we will be out of balance and will end up unable to function.

Rest (1 of 5) - Do you need to rest?

'Morning Lilies' (C) Malcolm Duncan. Taken at Angkor Wat, February 2013.

"Rest" (This is the text of a message I brought on my visit to Cambodia in February, 2013.)

Do you need to rest?

There are 168 hours in a week. We can either ionvest them or spend them, but the one thing that we cannot do is save them. Although we like the idea of 'saving time', it is actually an impossibility. So many of us, perhaps all of us (if we are ruthlessly honest) try to cram far more into those 168 hours than we should. The result is we end up not only burning the candle at both ends, but we also burn it the middle. With so much candle-burning going on, it is not a surprise that we end up feeling 'burned out'.  Exhasution, overwork and stress and are all far too common for people who lead churches, run mission agencies or work for N.G.O's. Of course, I know that the tendency to over-work can be seen far and wide across society and across our churches, but many of the people that 'answer a call' to work in an overseas context also end up working far too hard. If they are not careful, they do all the right things for all the right reasons, but they do them in their own strength. Whether it flows from an old-fashioned (and very unhelpful) Protestant work ethic which drives them into the ground or it flows from an over-inflated ego and the need to be the 'hero', the results are the same - emotional and physical burn-out. There are many indicators that you are overworking, let me highlight just six. Ask yourself if you are suffering from any of these.

1. Irritability: Things that you could absorb and pass off as unimportant just six months ago now leave you short-tempered. You find yourself snapping at those who are closest to you and losing patience with people who need longer to do something or to process things. You are abrasive, difficult to work with and unsympathetic.

2. Vulnerability: You are vulnerable to doing things that you know are wrong. That might be in areas of personal conduct, ethics, morals or in your work. You are more tempted to cut corners, to put up with shoddy work or to pass away your own mistakes as 'inevitable' whilst at the same tiem being hyper-critical of others.

4. Erratic Behaviour: Those around you, either at home or at work or both, do not know how they will find you. People around you are walking on egg-shells far more often than they used to and they are anxious about you will respond to them. In fact, you find yourself 're-acting' far more often than 'responding'. The difference being when you are re-active you don't stop to think about your actions.

5. Habitual Tiredness: You are tired all the time. When you wake up, you feel just as as tired, if not more so, than when you went to bed. You really struggle to make it through a day without feeling a real sense of exhaustion.

6. Loss of Perspective: You are focussing on small things whilst letting big things lie undone. You find yourself feeling paralysed by the choices you have to make and the things you have to get done to the extent that you often find yourself thinking or saying 'I just don't know where to start'. You are missing deadline after deadline and you feel like you are sinking in your work and that there is no way out.

7. Insecurity: You take criticism far too personally. You are hyper-sensitive to the things people say and you are finding yourself feeling more and more isolated, perhaps even paranoid, at what is going on around you. You think people are undermining you when they offer advice and you find your natural reaction to observations from others is one of self-defence.

What can I do?

If some of these (just one, actually) fits your behaviour right now, then it is very likely that you need to do something about your working / living blend and pattern. If you don't, you will end up sliding further and further down the slipway of overwork and you will either hurt yourself or those around you. This is not a game, it isn't inevitable and it is urgent that you do something about it.

Over the course of the next few posts, I will lay out, 'The Reason for Rest', 'The Rhythm of Rest', and 'The Result of Rest.' My last blog on the subject will draw some conclusions. I do hope you will find them helpful. Feel free to pass them on. I've decided to set them out in 5 posts so that they can be read in a more relaxed context - but the five posts flow from one into the other.

Remember, if you don't 'come apart' to get the right blend in your life, then you will eventually either fall apart of tear yourself and those you love apart.

Simple Joy! - Reflection 3 on my Cambodian Visit

'Simple Joy' (Taken on the roadside in Phnom Penh, Sunday 3rd February, 2013) (C) Malcolm J. Duncan.

Joy is a funny thing.

Joy is a funny thing. We so often mistake if for happiness or a light, Cheshire - cat like grin pasted on our faces when people ask us how we are and we want to make sure they think we are okay. We can undervalue its meaning and miss its purpose.

Actually biblical joy is much more akin to the idea of exuberance for life or irrepresible hope or tenacious determination to live or something like that. Its so much deeper- and so much more powerful than just happy. I had been thinking about that a little last Sunday when I was ministering in the morning to the congregation at Living Hope in Christ Church in Phnom Penh. Afterwards, my host, Pastor Barnabas Mamm (Read his book, 'Church Behind the Wire' if you haven't done so already - it is the story of faith in the worst of circumstances) was driving me to a place on the egde of the city where the ministry he is involved in hopes to build a new discipleship centre. On the way, we passed these two boys on the road - and they captured what I meant about 'joy'!

Look at their faces. We stopped and I got talking to the boys a little. The plastic 'hat' on the younger one's head is plastic saucepan. Here were two kids walking along a dirty, dusty road in their bare feet. No shoes to protect them from dangerous glass, snakes or anything else. The neighbourhood was one of the poorest in the city. They had so little - but look at their faces - joy! An exuberant approach to life. They were naturally - not deliberately or academically - enjoying being alive. After I took the photo I showed it them and they laughed and giggled and pointed hilariously (children always do that with photos, don't they) and then our ways parted. They taught me 'joy'. I went back to my schedule and they went on with their day.

Yet these two young boys left an imprint on my heart. Their young, hopeful, life-brimming eyes looked into my soul and left me wondering what has happened to childhood in the UK? When I was a boy, I could easily spend hours playing with a bit of paper and a pen, or an old tennis ball pushed into the bottom of a long sock. Life was there to live and no matter what happened, I had (I think I still do to some extent) an irrepressible optimism. Some pretty bad stuff happened to me when I was a kid - but none of it stole my 'joy'.

When my own children were young, they loved the paper wrapping at Christmas more than the presents, so did yours, no doubt...

So why do we, when we become older, allow this exuberance for life to be taken away, dissolved? Is it cynicism, realism, negativity, life? Or is it we fail to look at the world through the eyes of a child.

As I drove away from the boys, I remembered Jesus words that if we want to enter the Kingdom of God - the Kingdom of Life, we have to become like little children again.

I think I understand why.