following program is sponsored by the havel open door church yet all open door church he's committed to loving god loving people and loving life our doors are open to whomever no mass required seattle open door church glorify you in jesus name amen press on toward the goal this is one of my favorite passages this is the passage just kept me serving god with all my heart is kept me alive at times i believe that we as christians are to press on and press on means to go forward and we have a goal and we're going to find out what that goal is there can be many goals the number one goal is that we can turn around and that we enter into heaven and become just like jesus you know when you get to heaven it says we've come like and speak into the church and philip why he says indeed i count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing christ jesus my lord for his sake i have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that i may gain christ and be found in him not having a righteous of my own that comes from the law but that which was comes from the faith in christ the righteous from god that depends upon faith versed in that i may know possible i may attain the resurrection from the dead not to have already obtained this or him already perfect but a press done to make it my own because christ jesus has made me his own brothers i do not consider that i have made it my own but one thing i do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to it lies ahead i press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of god in christ jesus this break this down this see what the bible is teaching us this look at verses eight and nine a fire for a god but he was misled he was going the wrong direction then he has an encounter with jesus his life has changed but paul has a resume there are people who have a resume there are people maybe their resumes in for a job but their resume is because they have done something in their employment that they are known as the best employee there could possibly be they have a resume of all the things that they have done out of many accomplishments they have there the person has all the plaques on their wall they're the person as you know those crystal little glasses that turn around you get a piece of crystal glass and as your name on and says top employee of them on their best sales or whatever you know that they get a bit better if they gave you money instead ok and you may have a counter of those things that superbowl is and this is what he says in verse c indeed i count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing christ jesus my lord for his sake of suffer the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that i may gain christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in christ jesus the righteous from god that depends upon faith paul is saying nothing good in you without christ is paul saying that he did some things he said he did all kinds of different things but he says what does he say count last it doesn't matter it doesn't matter nothing listen nothing is good in you without christ do you hear that without christ paul saying it doesn't matter he says listen i follow the law i did what the law said i was the fair i did all these days i was a good person but just because you was a good person it means nothing in the eyes of god if you want to press on to be like jesus if you want to present to be a godly father if you want to look like jesus no way so it is called being at a place of humbleness is saying you know what everything i've done is great is wonderful but it means nothing in christ jesus has not my rices if you going to press on it can't be your righteousness heaven knows many people are trusting in their righteousness and they would could try to convince you how good they are but if you are telling people good you are guess if we want to press on we want to become something that we have not been we want to become a better human being we want to be a better example of jesus we want to be like jesus we have to die and then rise up too many people want to be lifted up before they die did you hear me too many people want to be lifted up in positions in titles they want labels they want to be something without dying  that i may know him and the power of his resurrection and the sherry and his sufferings becoming like him and his death that by any means possible i may attain the resurrection from the dead verse ten he wants to know all the power of jesus resurrection he wants no that power that can raise jesus from the grave he wants that power to live within him do you want that kind of power in your life that the power that raised jesus from the dead lives within you that you could accomplish the things that jesus does six then what do you have to do you have to die paul says i before i can encounter the power of his resurrection i need to learn how to suffer how many leaders want to suffer you said that's true how many leaders turn around  says follow me as i suffer you don't hear that suffer serious suffers becoming like him and his death that's suffering did apostle paul suffer he was stoned three different times left for dead he knew about suffering to the point of death and he had resurrection power that follow him where he win give the good give the bad give your entire life to christ die to self completely today is father's day so i want to tie this in and continues the tight end to the father's if you want to be a good father die completely don't trust in you being a good father trust in the holy spirit within you being a good father why do you have to die completely so you can rise up a new life trust in christ alone if you are dead you all the only way you'll get resurrected is through jesus if you die to self you know the only way you're going to make it is what you have to go to jesus stood of yourself press on forget the past do you want to be the best best father best grandparent best mother best student best child best whatever it may be best employer best employee best politician make up my own because christ jesus has made me his own brothers and not consider that i've made it my own but one thing i do forgetting what lies behind in straining forward to what lies ahead if you want to tame godliness forget the past and move forward many of us can look in that past and we can see all the ugly stuff we have done and how we have lived fathers for a father we can look at how many mistakes we have made as a father how mistakes we still make as a father and if we're looking to our mistakes that were looking back here we've taken our eyes off of jesus and we're looking into our past if jesus is this way if the high price of his color is this way if the goal i have is this way and i'm looking this way am i going to get to what i desire you'll never get to it so if you're looking at all the mistakes you made you look at all the failures that you've been if you look at all of that you take your eyes off of jesus and you will not reach your goal but what about those of good accomplishments i've done this i've done that i was the best and what i did everything i've done has been the best if you're looking at how good you are back here in the past you're going to miss the mark just as well i said to be  focused on jesus and jesus along can't be on anything else but jesus verse fourteen i press on to reach the end of the race the goal and receive the heavenly prize for which god through christ jesus is calling us i press on the reach the end of the race that's my goal is to get to the end to get wherever it is that trying to accomplish i want to get there i want to be that i look like jesus that's my in goal i want to be a godly father that's my end goal i want to be a church if we talk about all of us we want to be a righteous church re that in a moment we want to be a righteous church that's our goal if you have that as your goal you have to run the race and you have to get to that goal and then you receive the heavenly prize which for is for which god through christ jesus called us what is that heav prize what's the also my goal heaven eternal life that's our ultimate goal is eternal life but listen the reward is greater than eternal life the reward that prize at any prizes merger eternal life they have any prize that you see is the see other souls that are in heaven because of you running the race laura shared the fact that she's been running a race great mom she don't stop just being a godly mom she does don't stop being a godly grandma not being a godly great grandma but she wants to be i don't know about my speaking for you when you know it's not true do you want to be a great great great godly grandma she says oh god give me a health and strength to bear want to be around that long ok that is our goal but you know what you know what her goal really is for her kids you know jesus christ is our lord and savior for their kids the know what jesus christ large savior for their kids kids kids know jesus lord and savior then our goal shouldn't be just to to do what we do as a christian so that we can have a good life and get to heaven it should be because we care about souls the greatest reward is the be and a heaven and as you're in heaven god turns around is this how many people in here know jesus because of carmi dover and people because of me that i'm an advocate but because of me i'm in heaven and then she walks over to mrs how can that be and they say you know what you and your husband went to uganda and did some prison ministry at the woman's prison and when your husband gave an altar call and i came down and milled at his feet you came over and you laid hands on me and you prayed for me to receive jesus christ but maybe it wasn't that person maybe the lady that received jesus christ got out of prison share with somebody else share with somebody else and because of her here in the message of salvation call me pray that she receive christ there's other people that are in heaven that should be or goal so this talk about some of the pressing on that we can do person to be a godly employee do you know that if you have an ungodly boss it can be challenging anybody ever had an ungodly boss anybody ever been an ungodly boss don't raise your hand you can have an ungodly boss but can you be a godly employee if you press on if he has as your goal my mark my mark that i have is i want to be the the best employee can to represent jesus christ is that a good goal have followed the principles we just talked about you know what maybe this day i got to pick some job that nobody has in this room there's never a house you don't think i'm talking about you so nobody in this room as been an auto mechanic that owns an auto shop right good i can do this nobody get offended do you know maybe you own a novel shop and you had the best record of being the best mechanic in town and then you move to arkansas and you have no money and you can't open up an auto shop but you love working on cars you know what if you want to be a godly employee you know you do you go to the olive shop and you act like you are there to do only one thing to be a good mechanic and so when you're there and that owner of that shop does things different than you th do as a mechanic you know say to him you know a lot in seattle i was the best auto mechanic in all of seattle and you're doing everything wrong is that a godly employ you know you die to self you forget what's behind of that experience of who you were as a business owner you leave that behind you do what you become the best mechanic but can you still learn you find out when you've got cars in arkansas that they turn around and have pin holes and everything because there's been a hell hole and everything is touched by the hail you turn around and find out because of all the the rain the the all the under storms all the the tornadoes and all the stuff that you go and meet the car you look at sea you say wow there's a forest underneath that car and if you're not careful you'll try to fix that car the way you did in seattle and it won't be the same so what do you have to do you have to put that all aside and you look to jesus quickly this go the next one be a godly neighbor do you want to be a godly neighbor you have to die to self be a godly neighbor what about your goals to be a godly child do we have any children ok i guess none of you were born the person here is a child right you started as a child you're a child you had to be a child at one time i've jokey but guess what if you have parents they're still living you're still a child do you want to honor your parents do you want to glorify your parents by the life that you live well my parents were terrible does that mean you should be a terrible child your parents are terrible what should you be you should be a godly child so i hope your parents can learn how to be a godly parent even if they're eighty years old would be a godly grandparent that helps for some of us there's a god grandparents in here do you want to be a godly grandparent what a godly parent ok some you say have no kids i don't i'm not a parent i don't know kids are there are people that look to you delete and guide them the mentor them then the reality you can be a parent to them are you a godly parent do you want to be the parent ok it's father's day golly father can i tell you something our side of society would be a lot better if we had golly fathers i believe in the power of man i believe god called men to be leaders that men are to be examples of jesus should women everybody should but god put in anoint upon men you read it in your bible you can't deny it men are called to be leaders what would happen in our culture of men were leaders whatever happened in our culture of men realize that every single person is the looking to a man to set an example and they're looking to a man to fail and what if we had men that said you know what i may not have a son i i have a daughter i have some people that i mentor and to be a godly father our society would change so what's your goal how about your goal your goal our goal is to be a righteous church righteous church let me change this phrase we say we want to be a righteous church because it sounds like you want to be a better than church how about if i put it we don't want to be an on righteous church get everything that out we don't want to be an ungodly church is that easier for you so you don't think there's legalism involved because there's anybody want to have an ungodly church do you want to be a part of it on righteous church no we understand that means that we want to be a church that reflects jesus by our attitude the way we live we walk we talk we want to be a church that looks like a church that believes that jesus is the answer and so is that our goal to be a righteous church a church that honors god listen a righteous church is not a legal estate because legalism isn't righteousness legalism is we're better than we are better than those people out there well i got to tell you this of those people out there in here right now oh wait every one of us are we were out there earlier we came in here we did some to become righteous because we walk to the church doors and so out of that is that we want to be a church that recognizes that people are fall and people are broken that our goal is to love them to cherish the god in them to show them respect and honor to help them to change their life and improve their life and we as a church have done that for how long since one thousand nine hundred and forty nine i think is when the church started and has done it all kinds of different ways and sometimes be as a church have done better sometimes the done worse but our goal has been to be a church that reaches the last the reach the earth and if we have that goal we can't be pride we can't think that we're better then because of how we dress how we look how we talk going that makes us better then is be excepting christ or life who is changing us to become better we're not better than know what your last and was i don't know when it was but all of us of fall short so as not we don't know better because we never sin we are becoming better because of christ within us our goal should be to be like jesus that should be our goal you can't go wrong for like jesus so i got a question for you what is your goal what is your goal as you go to be like jesus if you're going to be a godly employee be to be a godly sibling to be a godly brother or sister if you go to be a godly grandparent or a great great great grandparent and you're going to be a godly parent to be a godly father to be a righteous church or is your goal to become a christian because listen you cannot become a godly father and become a born again christian you're striving for something that will never happen i am going to try to be a godly parent a godly this a godly deb but i'm not going to have christ in me give me the ability to do it you're wasting your time you're wasting your time if you think that you can be good enough on your own strength you're wasting your time it's vanity you will always fall short because you're trusting in whom yourself there has to be a place the st step to be a person if you do want to make a difference in this world listen there's racism in this role did you know that in this community there is racism did you know that there is racism do you think you can change racism without jesus christ good luck because there are people who are racist they have no god in them and they will never change until god grabs a hold of them and how does god grab ahold of them by you with the christ in you loving them and showing christ with them and they accept christ in their life is changed and so out of that if you want to conquer racism by thinking well i'll do is i'll just be really nice to people and they won't be racist anymore good luck with that races don't care how nice you are they're worried about the color of your skin or the language that you speak or how you dress in i have a question for you what do you want to be do you want to be unrighteous you want to be unholy you want to be ungodly do you want to be a servant of satan a servant of self or do you want to honor jesus and the st step is being a christian are you a born again christian have you accepted jesus christ as your lord and savior have said jesus i'm a sinner and i need you as my savior jesus i fall short in so many areas in jesus i need you to change me i need to transform me you need to change the way i doing i need you to make me a different person i need you to take control of my life jesus i need you to be my savior and i need you to be my lord there are people who have done that in this room and their life has changed changed isaiah i don't think isaiah two years ago had any idea how to be a godly father but now he has an idea and because of christ in his life his life has changed isaiah is normally where's the at normally he's with the children work with the children walk so you can learn as the ministers with the children as he looks to susan who's a godly mother what's her example and what can i learn site become that father that i'm going to be soon that has always been a father ever since he had his son actually has two sons he's been a father but he's learning how to be a father god the father so lord i pray for each person in this room lord as we open this altars up or say in the altars are open and if you want to be a godly parent you want to be a godly grandparent you want to be more maybe most people in this room would say i am walking and  righteousness through christ is i'm doing what i need to do but you want to go further along you know that you just need more prayer if you need prayer to be more what you need to be you can come up to this altar maybe you want to learn how to be more of a godly father maybe you need give it to god maybe you say i'm serving god with all my heart but you know what does this want to area i need to give to god and and i will really be that employ i need to be until i give this to god or i really will not be that life seattle open door church located in period committed to loving god loving people and loving life so you have an open door church once you've known but regardless of where you've been or what you've done god loves you the