Press On

This past Sunday I had the pleasure and honor of leading worship with my friend Seth Bible at his home church in Archbold OH. Archbold Evangelical Church opened their new facility about a year ago and have seen some really incredible growth. God is doing great work in their community. On Saturday night they hosted a worship conference lead by Lincoln Bewster. Seth played a warm up set before Lincoln and then lead worship on Sunday morning. Adrain Taylor who plays bass with Seth couldn't stay for Sunday so Seth asked me if I would fill in, and I am so glad I did.

I love how our God Works, He cracks me up at times and this is one of those times. For the past few days I've been in a bit of a funk, just a little out of sorts. It seems like now that my trip to India is over there isn't any "big" event to look forward to and I'm just coasting along.

At AEC they have 2 services, traditional (8:30am) and contemporary (11:00am). I didn't need to be there until 9:30 for rehearsal but I'm up early anyway and decided to make the 2 hour drive over and get there in time for the 8:30 service. They are finishing up their building pledge campain and God has blessed them with exceeding their goals. So they are moving into the next phase of pledges to pay down the debt of the new building. This phase is titled "Press On".

Pastor Jesse Kahler's sermon was about pressing on as far as the importance of the congregation stepping up and continuing on the path to the goal. Even though they had met the goals set by the finance committee, there is still debt that needs to be repaid. So he talked about how to press on.

Here's the funny thing. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Not the importance of the pledges, but the importance of pressing on. As he was talking to his congregation about something total opposite of what I was thinking and feeling God talked to me. The was a parallel there. They had met the goal set up at the beginning of their building project, and I had met my goal of going to India. The whole point of his sermon was to keep moving, keep working, there are new goals to be set, and this is not the time to coast. It's really easy to put your feet up, relax, admire your accomplishments and say that was great, I can take some time off now. But here's what happens; we get complacent, we spend too much time looking at the past, we relax and forget that there is still work to be done. That is exactly what I've been doing, and that's why I've been a little off base. I need to press on to the next adventure, what ever that my be.

These are the notes I took from Pastor Jesse's sermon:

A person who presses on

- has a sense of spiritual incompleteness. They are always seeking to be more like Jesus, and they become more humble the closer they get to Him.

-refuses to dwell on the past. They learn from their mistakes and victories but look to the future.

-exerts enormous energy toward the goal.

I love how God works. I had a choice, I could have told Seth that I didn't have time to spend a good part of my day or the expense of driving over there, but I followed what I felt in my heart.
If we listen He leads us, talks to us, puts things in front of us when we least expect it. Thank you Lord for a great day.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)