 Well, I like to start my teachings by asking a question, so I'm going to ask you a question. Why are you here? Why did you come today? And some of you can say I was coerced, my mother bought me a ticket. Others of you, it's with your friends, and it's just going to be a great time. Others of you came in here dragging, or it was here for the worship, but it's always good to ask ourselves that. In Hebrews, there's a passage that says, God rewards diligent seekers. And can I add a phrase to that? Joy Dawson, one of my favorite teachers of old, God rewards diligent seekers, not casual inquirers. And quite frankly, sometimes we come to the meanings, and we're just these casual inquirers, kind of like that song that Mandisa sang, that our team sang, and we're driving down the street just cruising, but God really wants us to seek Him. How many of you came here has been mentioned by the team on the front lines of fear? Seriously, there's fear in your life. Anyone? Oh, come on, I know women better than that. How about bunkers of burdens? Or you're warring with worry? Or you're fighting with your family, I'm sorry to say, but we always hurt the ones we love. Anyone have family issues right now? Oh, my word, dodging depression. Anyone here? God bless you. I have had to dodge that before. You're battling with your budget. I heard that out there. The Inland Empire has been hit. Maybe you're in the ditch of disease. Some of you, this has just fallen on your lap. I have four years cancer-free, and I understand that battle as well. Thank you. Maybe you have potshots of pain. There are some deep pain in your life, or you're struggling with sin. Again, I ask, why are you here? And it could be because you're facing one of these battles, these giants, these issues in your life, no matter the trial, no matter what motivated you to be here. I guarantee that Robin and Marie and Koi and Connie and myself and my friend Misty, we have been praying for you for months. And we know you're here because it's God's will for you to be here. And we know you're here because God has a purpose in your life, and I want to encourage you to press on, to not give up, to not surrender in any of these battles, but to pony up, cowgirl up, because I'm from New Mexico, so I could say that. The name of this teaching is She Presses On, and I drew some inspiration from Rosie the Riveter. Does anyone remember her from World War II? And Rosie the Riveter, the United States government brought her out as the poster woman, and she was supposed to encourage us to get into the workforce. Our men were taken overseas to fight the battle of World War II, and so they were recruiting women, and the workforce increased with women by 57%. Now, we know y'all are working way more than that now, but in World War II, that was something else. Over 4 million women came out of their homes and into the workforce, and it was all to help out the war effort. Now, this is a little demeaning, but back then I think they meant, well, the slogan was, can you use an electric mixer? Because if you can, you can learn to operate a drill. And I'm sure many of you know how to do that now. Well, art imitated life, and a real woman came and embodied the poster, and the reason she became Rosie is there was a woman named Rose Will Monroe, and she went from Kentucky to Michigan and started building B-29 and B-24 bombers. And when she was 50 years old, she learned how to fly a plane. Now, I don't know about you, but it was not too late to start pressing on and soaring and doing new things in her life, even in her 40s. Ladies, we are literally still at war. Maybe that is in Afghanistan. You know, it's almost the forgotten war. I work with wounded warriors. Do you know over 150 soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year? Do you hear that on the news? Do you realize that we are still at war? What are we even doing to contribute to our soldiers? I don't know if there's any soldier wives, soldier mothers out there. But we are still at war. Maybe we're at war culturally, with America's moral decline. And trust me, gosh, California, you are fighting some serious issues, aren't you, culturally? Maybe it's spiritually, and your family with Satan or sin or with self. Isn't it time for us as the church to raise some banners, to sound the alarm, to charge into enemy territory, and say, no, we're fighting back? I think she presses on. Let's pledge today, ladies, that our purpose is to press on, no matter the foe, no matter the failure, no matter the foreign terrain you have to enter. It is time for us to press on. Charles Thomas Studd said, some wish to live in the sound of chapel bells. I wish to run a mission, a yard from the gates of hell. I love it when we gather here together. It's good, but it's much better when we go. And that's my hope today. Come and gather, but then go into all the world, because it is ripe for harvest. It is ready for you. In truth, a Christian woman should look more like G.I. Jane than Cinderella. I like Cinderella. I like glass slippers. I like dressing up. All of that is wonderful, but we are called to be soldiers in Christ and to battle up and wear his armor, ladies. Maybe you should stop being worried about breaking a nail and break down some strongholds in the enemy's kingdom. Paul said we're called to fight the good fight. And so I want to encourage you. Revelation reveals that when Jesus come and we are his bride, we are going to be riding horses with him to conquer in Jesus' name. And I want to know how to use that sword and to wear that shield before he comes. I press on as more than a creed. It's a high calling. It's a way of life that crescendos at the coming of Jesus Christ to press on. So let's look at Philippians 3, verse 12. Not that I've already attained or are already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Sisters, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Can I get an amen for that? I find three things to help us press on in this text. Number one, Paul makes a resolute evaluation of his life. Number two, he makes some radical eliminations in his life. And then finally, number three, he has a relentless elevation pressing on upward toward the call of God in Christ Jesus. So this resolute evaluation, not that I have already attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of Christ Jesus. He starts with some knots, what he not has in his life. How many conferences start with knots? Because you know what, we have a lot of knots in our life. Now, was he complaining about financial dissatisfaction? No, that's not what he's saying. Like, if I just had enough money, everything would be better. I read this headline recently and it tickled me, don't envy the super rich, they're miserable. And in California, you guys forget that there's so many beautiful cars and beautiful people and beautiful malls and beautiful things. I mean, we don't have a lot of this in New Mexico. It can be distracting, but that's not what Paul was looking for. This article says a new study co-founded by the Gates Foundation portrays the ultra rich as lost souls burdened by fears, worries and family distortions of too much money. According to an article in the Atlantic, the respondents turned out to be generally dissatisfied lot whose money has contributed to deep anxieties involving love, work and family. You know, some of the saddest people I know have been the richest people I know. That's not what Paul was saying. Was he having dissatisfaction with his physical body, ladies? You are coming today going my hair, it's a bad hair day. I don't have a new outfit if I could just have lost 10 pounds before this event and we have this physical dissatisfaction. Is that what Paul was worried about? No. For women, this vulnerability has spanned history. I wish we could just get over ourselves to be quite frank. I think women are more worried to please women than men, but for me, I grew up in the generation of the Barbie doll. Anyone else? And that is just a standard that's unattainable. I want you to know and I'm sorry this tickles me as well, men are beginning to feel this pain. Do you know they're becoming as body conscious as we have been forced to be because we've been objectified for so long? Well, men are too and you know who's to blame? G.I. Joe. The G.I. Joe doll over the past 20 years, they've made them buffer and more muscles and if they extrapolated the G.I. Joe to a 5'10 guy, his biceps would be bigger than any body builder who's ever lived before. So you know, guys are now trying to have abs like, I don't know, whoever has good abs right now. I'd say Brad Pitt, but like he's old, he's 50 now. So there's got to be someone else that has better abs, right? So Paul wasn't worried about finances. He wasn't worried about his physical body. Really when it comes to money, ladies, it's all going to burn. I don't care what you drive, it's all going to burn. When it comes to our bodies, they are not built to last. Gravity will have its toll. No matter what you do, it's all sinking. And I can tell you that. Paul said that workouts profit little, but godliness is the key. What Paul is talking about here in his knots is that he's having a spiritual dissatisfaction. Oh my gosh, that's almost blasphemous. Paul was spiritually dissatisfied. Paul, the apostle, that was beaten and stoned and dragged and imprisoned and wrote these amazing epistles. He was dissatisfied with his spiritual walk. He just said it. Not as though I've already attained either already perfect, but I follow after that I can apprehend. He still wants more. Now, is Paul disappointed with God? No, because if you read this text earlier, he says that he wants to know the excellency of God, that he wants to know the resurrection. He's not dissatisfied with God. You know what he's dissatisfied with? His Christian walk. It's not good enough yet. Paul, the apostle, said he wants more. Is anyone out there want more than what you have in Christ right now? Because we are supposed to hunger and thirst for righteousness. You know what, you have as much God as you want. That's the truth. Equal to your desire for God is your amount of satisfaction in God. Maybe you need to develop a hunger. I keep journals. And I've read through decades of my journals recently. I have a reoccurring theme. I want more. I weep in my journals. I plead in my journals. I fast. I fall prostate. And I'm constantly saying, God, more. I want more. It's not enough. I'm not satisfied. You know, even after Moses escaped Egypt, went through the Red Sea and marched with the children of Israel, he climbed up on Mount Sinai and said, God, show me your glory. What? He'd already seen the plagues of Egypt. He wanted more. Have you ever said to God, show me your glory? I pray you leave here today. You fall on your face. You go on a walk. Whatever it is you do to seek God and you tell Him, show me your glory. I want more. Because there is more. He does exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask, hope, or imagine. He has more for you. Paul is not satisfied with these three knots. He first says, I have not attained. Attained means to get hold of and violently seize. It's kind of like he's got the tiger by the tail, but he's not going to let go. He wants more of whatever it is. He's admitting he has not arrived. There's more out there. He hadn't achieved all that he hoped. The next thing he did not have was perfection. He has not been perfect. Any perfect people out there? Really, none? Oh, seriously? Paul wasn't either. And perfect doesn't mean what we think perfect meant. It means to be complete, accomplished, or whole. Anybody ever feel like they have a missing part? You need to go out there and find yourself? Well, that's kind of what perfection is. It completes us. And he's saying he didn't feel complete. The best people in the world are those who readily admit their imperfections and confess they are incomplete and that they're still developing their character. I find comfort in that. I look for friends like that. I'm not looking for perfect friends. I'm looking for friends who are seeking progress toward perfection that will happen when Jesus comes. I love Billy Graham. Skip and I are having the privilege to go to his 94th birthday next month. And he always says, I'm just a simple preacher. I'm like, really? He's preached to more people, evangelized to more people than anyone who's ever lived. But I'm just a simple preacher. He doesn't feel perfect. Solomon, the wisest man said, let another man's lips praise you and not your own. Stranger's lips and not your own lips. Paul knew, even though he was the great apostle Paul, that he hadn't arrived. So he had not attained, he had not perfected. And then there's another odd word. He has not apprehended. That's the better word in English for this. He says that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. I don't know, this sounds like Dr. Seuss to me. Sam I am, Greek eggs and ham, I am Sam. I'm like, what, I apprehended that which I apprehended? I mean, I just got confused. Anyone else? That was just a little confusing phrase. It's terrible English, but it's excellent Greek. Apprehended means arrested. He has been arrested by Christ. And he wants to arrest all that Christ has for him. Do you remember when Paul wasn't Paul, but he was Saul? And he was on the road of Damascus, breathing threats because he wanted to martyr this cult of Christians. And he was arrested by God. He got knocked out of his horse and light came from heaven and said, why are you kicking against the goads, Paul? And then he was blind and dumb. Wow, he was arrested in that path. And he's saying he wants to keep on being arrested for Christ. There is a purpose for Paul's salvation. And there is a purpose for us. And we are to be women of purpose. And part of that purpose is sharing the gospel. Whatever happened to the Great Commission, are you fulfilling the Great Commission to go into all the world? I think sometimes we think if we're not missionaries and it's not Africa, then we don't have to do the Great Commission. We don't need to go like to Upland or, you know, to La Habra where my dad raised me. I mean, I'm from this neck of the woods. We just think that has to be somewhere far away. Why were you saved? Why are you here to escape hell? That's legit. You want to enjoy peace? Totally legit. Why are you here? What is your purpose to preach the gospel? Otherwise, Jesus might as well just take you home. But since he's left you here and you're alive, you've got work to do, girlfriend. And that work is to share the good news. How long has it been since you told someone about Jesus, gave them a track, sat down with your Bible in a quiet place to ask Jesus, examine my life. How long has it been that you've said, Lord, are you pleased with my progress? Am I going somewhere? Socrates once said the unexamined life is not worth living. When is the last time you examined your life? Now, ladies, I know exactly how our brains work. You're like the examined life. I am the over-examined life. I am so hard on myself. I'm constantly saying, I don't have enough quiet time. I don't witness enough. And right now you are just so upset. It's just like whirling, I will never be Billy Graham. This is just impossible. Okay, so the unexamined life is not worth living, but the over-examined life is not living at all. So I'm not asking you to over-examine. This is something the Holy Spirit must do in your life. There are two extremes when I ask you to have self-examination. One extreme, not at all. The other extreme, the paralysis of self-analysis. Don't get paralyzed there. Make this a spiritual journey between you and God. Does anyone remember Marlo Thomas? She does the St. Jude thing, and years ago she was that girl, dun, dun, dun, dun. Well, when she was just becoming an actress, she was Danny Thomas's, the famous actor's daughter, and she was doing her very first small role on a stage. And she was terrified. And right before she went on, a knock came to her backstage dressing room door, and in came a gift from her dad, and it was a pair of horse blinders. And the note said, run your own race, kid. This is the over-analysis. You're not running my race. I'm not running Marie's race. You're not running Jane's race. You're not running anybody's race, but your race. What is the progress God wants for you and you alone is the question. So this is that resolute evaluation, and now he moves into some radical elimination, because once we evaluate, we realize maybe we need to get rid of some clutter in our lives. He goes on to say in verse 13 and 14, but one thing I do for getting those things which are behind and reaching forward to the things which are ahead, I press toward the goal. There's two parts of this radical elimination. One is the focus on today, and one is forgetting yesterday. And those are some pretty important things in this radical elimination. He says, one thing I do. I don't know about you, but that phrase should make you go, whoo, one thing? How many of you are multitaskers? You are paying bills while you're cooking and helping your children with homework. You're answering the phone at work, working on a document on your computer and adjusting the calendar. I mean, do you ever do, do you Californians ever do one thing at a time? You're on the phone, in the car, blah, blah, blah. I mean, at least that's what it looks like to us. I don't know. But I mean, you are like consummate, multitaskers. And I always thought that was a good thing because I'm guilty. I'm inevitably calling my mother in Michigan ordering a diet coke at McDonald's while I am doing something else in my car. And she goes, what are you doing? Multitasking, mom. CNN had an article, and it says, newly released results of scientific studies in multitasking indicate that carrying on several duties at once may in fact reduce productivity, not increase it. You mean, I can do one thing at a time? Oh, that's such a luxury. You mean, I don't need to be doing social media while I'm doing something with my foot? You know, I don't know, what is that thing? You know that you need to do? Focus, focus, focus is what this is saying. And that's what my piano teacher always told me to do. And sadly I didn't and I can't play piano. But if I could focus, that would be a good thing. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers. Outliers are those people who do things you would never dream possible, like Olympic athletes and ballerinas and the Beatles. My husband loves the Beatles, I'm sorry. But do you know that he says, those who enjoy wild success spend a minimum of 10,000 hours practicing one specific discipline we think that excellent just happens? No, excellence practices, one thing. Before their success in the 1960s, the Beatles played intense performances almost every night for 1,000 times in nightclubs throughout Europe. Ladies, if you wanna do something, do it again and again and again and again and again. And that's what we are to do in Christ. One thing matters, one thing counts. One thing will be rewarded and that's your pursuit of Jesus. This is our purpose, pursue God, preach the gospel. It's why you're here. And there are plenty of single-minded saints. David said in Psalm 27, one thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. The rich young ruler, one thing you lack, go and sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure and heaven. Come, take up your cross and follow me. Mary with Martha, but one thing is needed and Mary has chosen the good part which will not be taken from her. Maybe you need to have some radical elimination so that the one thing in your life that is most important is God. What, more important than your children? More important than your hobby? Yup. More important than your career? Check. He should be the one thing. The one thing isn't just to abandon sin, sometimes it's also to forsake selfishness. Sometimes, and I'm gonna talk more about this in the next teaching, we need to get rid of some good things in our life. My major in college was fashion merchandising. Again, I think Cinderella's grand. And I like fashion, it's fun for me. I'll dress my friends, my neighbors. If anybody here said let's go pick an outfit, I'm your girl. I really love that. I love to dress my husband, my kids, my grandkids, anything. A mannequin, I don't care. I'm always putting things together. And my 40th birthday, I was with the Lord a couple months before it. And the Lord said to me, I would like you to fast from shopping. Huh, what? No shopping? And you know, that just like hit me at the core. Two confessions. And gosh, and my birthday and Christmas were all right around the corner. And who doesn't like to buy themselves a Christmas present? I mean, you go to the mall, you say you're buying something for your family and you come home with more than what? It's just wrong, but. So anyway, I told the Lord, yes. Yes. I'll give that up. And you will never believe what God did. At the end of my fast, which was just around my birthday and Christmas time, this lady in the church came up to me and she said, the Lord's really been speaking to me. And he told me I'm supposed to take you shopping for a new outfit for your 40s. I was like, yes, God! Because, you know, here is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Sometimes it needs to be one thing. So that's for today, but what about forgetting the past? He says, I forget those things which are behind me. Can we just admit it, we're obsessed with the past? Instead of forgetting it, we drudge it up, we relive it, we flounder hopelessly in it. We watch Oprah or Dr. Phil or somebody to help us, you know, talk about the past. We either blame others, we make excuses for our sinful behavior, we say it's genetic. I'm Irish, of course I have a temper, what do you think? Or we say it's our temperament, or we're chicks, I have PMS, just back off. But PMS is not an excuse to sin, did you know that? Oh, I hate to burst your bubble. Write that down, PMS is not an excuse for your sin. If your husbands were here, they'd be underlining that and elbowing you. Sometimes I just have to put myself in time out. I find that works because I sometimes will sin unless I'm just alone. So anyway, and we can't forget the past by mental acumen or psychological trickery, the only way you can deal with the past is repentance. That's pretty much it. The author of Hebrews said, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And he goes on later to say, and then he will remember their sins no more. So some of you that carry your past around like a bag of garbage, you know those people? They're like, you might smell my garbage. Let me tell you, what's in there? You know what's in my garbage? You didn't have a childhood like I had. Just smell the garbage. We call those testimonies. And I think testimonies are good. We are sinners. I was blind, now I see. But you know what I mean when you revel in it a little too much? You know what I mean? I won't go there. Here's a good rule of thumb. Don't rummage in your past unless something specific from the past is hindering the present. Let it go. No fishing sign. Don't go back there. No digging in this area. Just let it go. It's covered by the blood. Now, if it does hinder the present then deal with it spiritually. Winston Churchill said, if the present quarrels with the past there can be no future. So Paul got to this point and he said, I'm forgetting those things which are behind me. Now, what was Paul forgetting in this text? Because you read this in its context. Was Paul forgetting his sin in this text? No. If you read it, he's just admitted how amazing he is. He's just told you all the spiritual attainments and his religious successes. And he said, according to the law he was blameless. He goes through this pedigree in this text. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews and da da da da. You know what he's forgetting? His accomplishments, his accolades and the applause. It's his pride. He counted every single self-achievement as rubbish that he may attain Christ. Sometimes it's our pride that's in the way of moving forward. The honest thing is you can't live on past manna. What you did yesterday in Christ is gone. What are you doing today for Jesus? And if your testimony is a 20-year-old testimony, what are you doing for God lately? We know what God did for you when he delivered you but what are you doing for him? One thing I do. You know, the next Olympic athlete is gonna break the record. Whatever it was you did, someone else is gonna come along and there'll be a better one at it. But you need to make today count your daily bed, your daily bearing of the cross. It's a daily testimony. So that was the evaluation and then he moves into this relentless elevation. He says in verse 13, reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Jesus. Do you feel it? I'm pressing ahead for the upward, the call in Jesus. Do you just feel him going like this? You know, he's like the little engine who could. He's going uphill and he's gonna keep doing it. Reaching forward or straining toward are running terms of an athlete in training for competition. And he knew about that. He knew about the Olympic gains. It kind of explains the agony and effort that an athlete would have in the last mile of competition. Anybody ever hear done athletic things? You've been in a 5K marathon. You know what it was like to trade for that thing. I did a half marathon twice. The first time I was really cocky and I thought I can run six miles. Why not 13? It can't be that hard. And so I really didn't go in well trained and boom, the gun goes off and you're running and you're just like, woohoo, I'm running. And then all the elite athletes just, they go by you and you're like, cool, it's cool, they're elite, I'm fine. And then all of a sudden the men, they're past you. Yeah, okay, I'm not competing with the men. It's the women. And then the women go by you. And then the older women go by you. And then the senior citizens all go by you. And then the guy in the wheelchair goes by you. And I am out there like, are you kidding me? You know, I'm just dying on this race. And finally, the only thing that brought me in is somebody probably made some soldiers get in the race and they're like, I don't know, but I've been told. And I was like, dang, if I'm not staying with that rhythm, I'm just gonna keep going. And this is this relentless reaching, moving, straining forward. You don't become a gold medal athlete by listening to lectures or attending seminars or watching others race. Winners train, winners compete, winners win. You need to get in the race, girlfriend. He says he's pressing toward the next phrase. That is a Greek term that is describing a hunter pursuing his prey. He's pressing toward, he's crouching down, he's about to jump in and grab that prize. You know, I read every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up and it knows to survive it has to outrun the fastest lion. But the lion wakes up and knows he doesn't eat unless he outruns the fastest gazelle. Either way, predator or prey, when you get up, you gotta be running. And we are to run the race. So he says he's reaching and he's pressing toward and it says things ahead. Things have had, is it a distant future like heaven in this text, although he wants to go to heaven? It's more like earthly gulls or hurdles. He's jumping the next hurdle, the next trial, the next problem, the next thing. He is going over the hurdles and he's not gonna stop if there's another hurdle. It's these other goals. Everybody knows the Kennedys, right? I mean, there's not a person alive. If you're of my age, you remember the day that JFK was shot or Bobby was shot. And one of the lesser survivors, poor Senator Ted Kennedy to have to bury so many of his family. Well, at his funeral, because you know he died recently, his son Ted Jr. got up and shared this eulogy. And he said when he was 12 years old, he had gotten bone cancer and they had to amputate his leg. And that was just so huge for Ted Jr. And he had to get a prosthetic and he was learning how to use the prosthetic. And he was home now and it was the holidays and it was a snowy day. And his dad said, looks like a great day for sledding. Come on, Ted. And Ted started marching up his driveway and slip and fall and slip and fall. And he turned to his dad and he said, I can't do it. Ted Sr. turned to him and he said, you can do it. And I'm gonna help you and I'm not leaving till you have. Oh, sisters, maybe there's someone who's trying to get up that hill or over that hurdle and they just need someone to say, you can do it. I'm gonna help you and I'm not leaving your side till we've made it over this hurdle. Amen. And oh, that you would just be imperfect like Paul and say, I'm not perfect. I haven't apprehended. I haven't attained help. If we were honest, like Paul is being honest, to get over it. My dad used to say, quitters never win and winners never quit. You are a winner. David Livingston, the famous missionary, they asked him once he came home from a mission trip, where are you ready to go now? And he said, I'm ready to go anywhere provided it's forward. Amen. You ready to move forward, ladies? In your faith to press on with the purpose that you have and to preach the gospel. Because you know what Paul says the goal is? That you press on in Christ Jesus. Jesus is your goal. Jesus, who it says in scripture, his face shines like the sun in full strength. No man can see it in sea. His eyes are like a flaming fire and they run to and fro throughout the whole earth, showing him soft strong on those he loves. His nostrils blast and the seas are exposed to their foundations. He has a thunderous voice like many waters that shake the wilderness. His strong arm has made heaven and earth and nothing is too hard for him. His hand has spanned the ocean and his fingers measured the earth and his feet will stand on the mount of olives one day and split it in two. Jesus, that's who you're running this race for. Jesus, is anything too hard with him? No. So what reward would Paul say he was getting? He's getting this prize for his upward call. The reward for Olympians was just a crown of leaves. Now I'm telling you, I don't think I'm gonna go through that kind of agony. Again, I will not run a marathon if you give me a crown of leaves. Our Olympic athletes get a gold medal, that's not bad. I would maybe do it for a gold medal. Timothy tells us, I have fought the good fight, Paul speaking. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award on that day, not only to me, but to all who long for his appearing. Is there a Maranatha out there? Is there any way out there saying Lord, Jesus come quickly? Are you longing for Jesus to come back? Because if you are, you get a crown of righteousness. And you know what you do with your crown? Revelation says we put them at his feet. And I just know I don't wanna get to heaven empty-headed. I wanna have something that I can lay at Jesus' feet. Amen? Don't you want to run? We wanna be like our amazing sisters who have run before us, Queen Esther. If I perish, I perish. The woman with the issue of blood, we don't even know her name, but she just wanted to touch the helm of the Lord's garment. Ruth, the Moabite, who said your people will be my people, your God, my God, where you die, I'll die. She would give anything to be one of the children of Israel to be a rosy, the Riveter, to be a person who presses on. I'm gonna ask these questions again, and I just want you to tell me she presses on. So is there someone here on the front lines of fear? She presses on! How about bunkers of burdens? She presses on! Worrying with worry! She presses on! Fighting with your family! She presses on! Dodging depression! She presses on! Battling your budget! She presses on! The ditch of disease! She presses on! Amen, sisters, the potshots of pain! She presses on! And struggling with sin! She presses on! Aim to press on! Never give up! Never give up! Never, never, never give up, Winston Churchill! He was not gonna let World War II and the British Empire and ours nothing that you face today that you cannot beat with Jesus Christ as you press on and you make a radical elimination with resolute examination and a relentless elevation in your walk.