Forward Press

P equals m times v, where p stands for momentum.

Momentum equals mass times velocity.

The amount of momentum an object carries will be determined by how heavy it is and how fast it is going.

That's why if you are playing footy and a big person runs at you, it's harder to stop them than it is to stop a smaller person.

This is why we saw tragically on February 28th last month if two trains, which are incredibly heavy, crash, as they did on that track between Athens and Thessalonica and Greece, the carnage is horrendous.

Momentum equals mass times velocity.

Momentum presses forward.

It leans in.

How strongly it leans will depend on how heavy and how fast the object is going.

The Gospel is the weightiest thing on earth.

The Gospel, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the heaviest thing in existence.

It's like high quality jewelry is heavy.

The Gospel is heavy.

It's weighty.

It has gravity.

And the Gospel of the Kingdom is moving forward.

It is taking new ground.

The light of God's word, the light of God's goodness, the light of God's victory in Christ is moving forward into the darkness.

And it's moving forward with momentum.

We're in a series unpacking our seven strategic keys for 2023.

Spiritual Formation, Next 100, Big Sundays, Missional Push, Next Generation, Ministry Mobilization, and Forward Press.

Today, we're considering Forward Press.

Forward Press is originally a golfing term.

It's what they call that set up where you lean a little forward in your stroke with your hands.

But it's also a way to describe an attitude.

It's on the front foot rather than the back foot.

It's positioning for growth.

It's leaning toward the target.

It's the opposite of a fortress mentality.

The English cricket team are enjoying a significant amount of success right now.

It's been built off the back of what has been called Baz Ball.

Baz is the nickname of their coach, Brendan McCollum, who is a New zealander.

McCollum was famous for being an opening batsman who played his natural game and scored runs freely.

McCollum, or Baz, is encouraging the English test cricket side to play their natural game and not fear losing.

And it's working.

There is a belief in the team that is contagious, and they're doing what you might call a forward press.

NorthernLife Baptist Church is 120 years old.

That's something worth celebrating and praising God for.

NorthernLife have recently completed the biggest local church property development project in the history of New South Wales and ACT Baptist Churches.

We're 18 months into growth after being knocked around by COVID, and we believe this season of ministry is a season marked by forward press.

Forward press with expectation for mission, forward press with finances and generosity, forward press with staffing and partnerships, forward press with expectation for spiritual breakthrough and revival.

I'd like us to consider the Apostle Paul's forward press in Acts 20, and ponder what his approach might mean for us in the period of time we find ourselves in.

There are four parts to Paul's forward press in Acts 20, 22 to 24.

Spirit's prompting, certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, and uncommon clarity.

Spirit's prompting, Acts 20, this is our text, Acts 20, verse 22.

And now compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

I only know that in every city, the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.

Paul has spent considerable time in Ephesus and has just finished up a trip across the sea to Macedonia and Greece.

Now he's on his way back past Ephesus in western Turkey to the seaport of Miletus, from where he calls the Ephesian elders to travel about 50 kilometres to come and visit him for one final time.

The persecution towards Paul has been ramping up.

This is his third missionary journey around the Mediterranean.

Interestingly, Paul describes why he is sailing all the way back to Jerusalem.

He's compelled by the spirit.

The word here means bound.

The spirit has a rope bound around him and is steadily drawing Paul back to Jerusalem.

Now, Paul has collected a whole stack of money for the Jerusalem church who are experiencing a famine.

But you get the impression that God has other things installed for Paul, which require him to go back, not just delivering finances, compelled by the spirit.

An important part of forward press is the spirit's prompting.

After spending many decades in local church ministry, you start to see patterns emerging.

The life of a local congregation goes up and down in health.

We've mentioned this before.

You can spend 10 years sort of treading water, doing good ministry, but not moving ahead, as it were, not pressing forward.

Paul could have easily bunkered down at Ephesus or at Athens or Corinth, but he carried a spirit-prompted vocation to move forward with the gospel, taking the good news to the Gentiles at this particular time in his life.

Some years ago here at Hornsby Baptist, our sense before we had the go ahead for the development, our distinct sense was the wind wasn't blowing at that moment.

The waves weren't metaphorically rolling in.

We weren't thinking faithful ministry wasn't happening and bearing fruit, just that the momentum wasn't there.

Christian ministry is all about sailing God's wind and riding his waves.

It's his power, not our rowing strength that gets us anywhere.

It was a time to get ready to mend systems to see who God was putting into different roles in his church.

There was plenty of work to be done, but we had a spirit prompting that we weren't going to move forward very quickly for a while.

And that's how things panned out.

But over the years, seasons change.

I believe, as do our leadership team, that we're in a growth season as a church.

There is a nor'easter blowing.

The swell is rolling through.

In 2005, God entrusted our church with a weekly stewardship in today's dollars, so factoring in inflation.

God entrusted us with $4,258 per week to steward.

That's in 2005.

Eight years later, that amount had grown in 2013 to $6,397.

10 years on, in 2023, that weekly number is around $12,500, with Barker and our lease department.

So over 20 years, $4,258 to $6,397 to $12,500.

Now, church is more than money, but that's encouraging, isn't it?

That's a demonstration of the season we are serving through.

This is a time to press forward.

Ben was saying last week that the surveys show Christianity is on the decline in Australia.

Well, praise God, that's not what we're seeing.

I wonder, do you know what it's like in your life to sense the Spirit's prompting?

To be healthy Christians, we need to be walking with the Spirit, which means we read our Bibles and we worship and we pray, and we also listen.

We listen for nudges, for subtle and not so subtle leadings of the Spirit.

How many of us know what it's like to have a person on your mind?

You don't know why, but you contact them and God opens up a way that you can be blessed or you can bless them.

It's a prompting of the Spirit.

Paul is moving with a forward press prompted by the Spirit.

As a church, we want to be prompted by the Spirit.

As we press forward in kingdom advancement here at NorthernLife.

So what does that look like?

Some of us are feeling like we're meant to be more involved with kingdom partners in the Philippines.

It's something we're praying through.

I feel the Spirit is prompting about staffing expansion for next year.

SEE23, we're seeking the Spirit's promptings.

How about you?

We're individuals seeking God and we're a church seeking direction.

For Paul, what came with the Spirit's prompting was certain uncertainty.

Acts 20, 22 continues, And now compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

One of the new songs we've been singing has a line, Don't know what you're doing, but I know what you've done.

Certain uncertainty.

Paul is saying, I'm leaning into the fact that I know, I'm certain God is good.

I know God has a plan.

I know I have a role to play in God's kingdom advancement.

I know my obedience will not be in vain.

I know I can't please God without faith.

I'm certain of all this.

And with faith comes the inevitable uncertainty of belief.

George Mueller was a Christian evangelist and philanthropist who lived in England during the 19th century.

In 1835, while on a preaching tour of the country, he sensed the spirit's prompting to start a faith-based orphanage for desperate children in Bristol.

When I say faith-based, we're talking trusting God for everything.

When Mueller stepped out and began the orphanage, he was certain God had called him to do it, just a little uncertain as to how the kids would be clothed and fed.

At the time, there were an estimated 30,000 homeless children in the city.

Over the years, the Ashley Down Orphanage grew to become one of the largest and most successful in the country, and thousands of children were rescued from poverty and given a new hope for the future, certain uncertainty.

Sounds a lot like every disciple in the New Testament, doesn't it?

To follow Jesus has always involved uncertainty, but as the disciples said, to whom else could they turn?

Jesus had the words of eternal life.

Forward press for NorthernLife means taking some calculated risks in the next few years.

It means embracing the fact that failure is an option, and that's okay.

So long as we seek the Lord, try to respond to his promptings and stay in line with our mandate to proclaim the gospel in word and deed.

So what are you waiting for?

Absolute certainty about before you will step out in faith.

Maybe what is certain is the uncertainty.

The apostle felt the prompting, but he had to take the next step.

Paul had to arrange to get himself a ticket on a boat that was sailing back to Jerusalem.

He had to go and buy that ticket.

He had to speak to the elders.

He had to push away the procrastination.

He had to act.

This is a great phrase to remember if you want to press forward in God.

I will do today by God's grace what I can do to enable me to do tomorrow what I can't do today.

Many of us have had the vision, but we don't take the next step.

Do today what you can do to enable you to do tomorrow what you can't do today.

Spirit is prompting certain uncertainty, predictable resistance.

Paul writes, I only know that in every city, the Holy Spirit tells me that blessing, success and an easy life await me.

Now, obviously, that's not what he wrote.

He writes, now compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

I only know that in every city, the Holy Spirit warns me, that prison and hardships are facing me.

Paul is expecting resistance to his obedience.

Acts 21 tells us what happened to Paul soon after his arrival in Jerusalem.

The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions.

Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.

While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops, that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.

He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd.

When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

When you step out in faith, our spiritual enemy is going to do something to spoil your party.

Moses obeys God and goes to Pharaoh and says, God told me to say, let my people go.

Pharaoh says, no, I don't think so.

Here's some resistance.

It's predictable.

Joseph has a dream, a vision.

The brothers say, we don't like your coat.

We're going to throw you in a pit.

Predictable resistance.

Nehemiah builds the wall.

Sanballat and Tobias say, no, you're not going to do that.

We're going to stop you.

You want to get financially free.

A few days later, you're going to have a big financial problem.

You want to get in shape.

Your favorite food will be on special.

Predictable resistance.

What are you stepping out into in Jesus' name?

Expect some resistance.

Now, not everything is spiritual attack.

Not everything that doesn't go our way is the devil having a go, but sometimes it is.

And we need to stand our ground in the strong name of Jesus.

Paul writes, however, I consider my life worth nothing to me.

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.

The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.

Spirits prompting certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, and uncommon clarity.

Paul is all the way over in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, Asia and Europe, and he wants to go west to Rome.

That's his heart's desire.

But instead, the Spirit has bound him and drawn him on a ship 1,500 kilometers east back to Jerusalem.

With the Spirit's prompting comes uncommon clarity.

Forward press for a church is so much easier when the Lord has spoken.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the words of Christ.

This year's theme of SEE23 is a prayer, Lord, help us see what you are doing and where you are leading us as a church.

We're open.

Not for an easy journey, but a worthwhile and meaningful journey.

A faithful and fruitful journey.

There is a bullseye for us to shoot at as a church, and it's relatively easy to find uncommon clarity with this bullseye.

The glory of Jesus Christ and the proclamation of his gospel through love in action with words.

That's what we're about at NorthernLife.

Strangely enough, churches lose sight of this easily.

This clarity can become uncommon, but it doesn't have to.

P equals M times V.

The gospel is weighty, but it's also represented by over 1 billion people worldwide.

The mass of the church, not in a Catholic sense of mass, but the weight, the resources of the church, it is weighty.

It has mass.

The resources of this church, educationally, financially, relationally, with our networks, we have capacity in this group of people.

We have influence.

We have power.

We have mass.

And we have the greatest truth of the universe, the gospel of the Lord Jesus.

It's big, the church, and it's moving.

It's taking new ground.

It has velocity, that is speed with direction.

Clarity of purpose gives speed with direction.

When something weighty starts moving, it creates momentum.

We are in a growing season of momentum at NorthernLife.

Join the movement.

We're taking the love of God to the world.

Hope to the nations and good news across the street.

We're pressing forward NorthernLife.

This is a year of forward press.

May we encounter the spirits prompting, embrace certain uncertainty, expect predictable resistance, and experience uncommon clarity.

Amen.

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