Skip to content Crush It: Letting Jesus Shape Your Life Under Pressure || Pastor Aaron Levy Jan 5 · 42 min ...more
Crush It: Letting Jesus Shape Your Life Under Pressure || Pastor Aaron Levy
January 5, 2025 · 42 min
Series Patria Sermons January 5, 2025 · 42 min · Patria Sermons
...more Show the full description Show less Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
492K followers
Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
492K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Pressing On Towards the Goal 0:00 Alright. We're gonna be in Philippians chapter 3 verse 12 through 14. Let's all stand to our feet, please. We stand to our feet to honor God's word. I'm gonna0:12 be reading from ESV. You can read from your bible or you can simply listen along. Not that I have already obtained this0:24 or am I already perfect, but I press on. Say press on. To make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.0:36 Brothers, I don't consider that I have made it, second time we see the word it, my own. But 1 thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies0:48 ahead, I press on. Say press on. Press on. Towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly father,1:00 we acknowledge that your word is true. We acknowledge that your word has the power to change our lives. Help us to lean in today. Holy spirit, will you convict, strengthen,1:11 encourage, transform our lives? I thank you, God, that it will feel like we're the only person in the room and you're talking to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.1:23 You may be seated. You guys look good in 2025. Look, she she said, I received that. Oh. I want you to look to your neighbor1:35 and give the servant title. Look to your neighbor and say, crush it. We're gonna crush it in 2025. Right? Yes. Now look to your other neighbor, the 1 you1:47 rejected. They looked at you. You didn't look at them as awkward. Now look at them And say crush it. Crush it.2:00 Now here's the question. What are we crushing? There's a lot of times, I grew up in church, and the pastor would say, say this. I'll say it. Say that. Yes. Say it. Amen.2:12 I know none of it. I didn't know what it meant. I'm just saying it. I'm singing it, but it really doesn't have a meaning in my life. So when I look at verses 12 through 14, we're going to press on,2:24 but he uses the word it twice. So we're going to crush it, but what is the it? And we gotta look at scripture in context. Cause if we don't look at scripture in context, we'll just only think2:36 about what's on our mind and not what's on God's mind. There is a man named Paul, if you're not really familiar with the book of Philippians. He is a pastor, he's on his second missionary journey, and2:48 while he is in prison, he's writing a letter to a church he planted in Philippi. And he is sharing some reflective thoughts to give them joy and encouragement, and he said, I2:59 haven't made it my own. Now before, when I would read this without context, the it, I will claim it. I'm gonna my it is a 6 pack. My it I'm3:11 finally gonna lose weight. My it is a promotion. My it is is a property. My it. And sometimes we set New Year's resolutions that are fine, but they have nothing to do with what3:23 God has planned for you this year. So we figured that we start off by saying, what is the it that God wants us to focus on? I'm glad you asked. Let's look at context. Philippians3:35 chapter 3 verse 8 through 11 gives us a hint, a few hints. This is Paul reflecting. I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, Jesus my3:47 lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ. We're getting more of of clues right now. And be found in him. Not having a3:58 righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his4:10 resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. And after I4:22 read that multiple times, I began to see what was on Paul's mind. I began to see what was on God's mind, and it aligns with the vision of patriot. I've reduced each 14:34 to the verse. Because at patriot, we seek the lost, teach the foundries, and the disciples. If we look at Philippians 3 8, we seek the lost because we want people to gain Christ. So that's why Paul is saying, I'm4:46 counting these things as lost. We gotta count our past as a lost so we can gain Christ. And then at Patriot, we teach the found. So we could be found in him and learn who he is instead of4:58 just learning more about what we want from life. And then we send the disciples becoming like him. Now we know what the it is, becoming like him, because he hasn't arrivedThe Power of Suffering and Faith 5:10 yet, but he gives a perfect illustration of what the it is. See we want to know God, and he said, I want to know God by knowing his power and to share in his5:21 suffering. The ultimate illustration of that is the resurrection. Because we have God showing his power to raise from the dead by suffering on5:33 the cross. He brings a light in dark places. That's why He's our father, but He'll suffer with this because He's our friend. We sing songs, He's the5:45 lion and He's the lamb. 20 25, we're gonna press on even though we suffer with pressures. So we want to know God and it's not just knowing his power. I thought5:57 I could just come to church and I say, Hey God, just bless me. I want your power, but no no no no. I'd chill on the suffering. Because you're a good God. And since you're a good6:09 God, you don't want me to suffer, do you? But Paul will reflect on this. Let's look at a little more context. Philippians 1 12 through 13. And the reason why I'm doing this, we're going to be in Philippians6:21 all month, and I really want you to get acquainted with Paul's story in the church of Philippi, but look how he's using this power suffer thing again. He's saying here, I want you to know brothers that what has happened6:33 to me has really served to advance the gospel. Word? So that it has become known that throughout the whole imperial guard and to the rest of the rest that my6:44 imprisonment is for Christ. Paul didn't commit a felony. Paul was on a second missionary trip. Have you ever done something good for God, but it6:56 left you with suffering? Yeah. Wait a minute, What the heck is going on here? So it's saying, I want to know him, so man, I'm going on this mission trip. I'm going to preach the gospel.7:08 And some of us would think, I'm in prison so I'm stuck. But Paul would say, no, I'm chained to my purpose. I'm gonna suffer this and I'm gonna start a prison ministry, and now more people in prison are getting saved7:20 because his perspective is, I wanna know him, his power, and his suffering. He does this again in Philippians 1 21 through 25. It's okay to clap in church. If other people clap, you say, Oh, yeah. That's good. That's7:31 okay. It's welcome. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So, I want to know Christ and I want to live a life that models that power and suffering. If I'm to7:43 live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. If I want the power of the fruit, I gotta suffer with my flesh. You see what he's saying here? So he knows God and now his7:55 life is paralleling that. If you think about Paul's life, he wrote 13 books in the new testament. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And he8:07 wrote, I mean, 13 books, 4 of them he wrote while in prison. That's crazy. Because for me, like, in my personal time, I've been praying to God, God, I want to write more, I want to write more books.8:19 And then I look at his story and I'm like, I'll just put some things on some post it notes. And then, I don't want those problems. I don't want those problems. But there's8:31 this quote by this pastor, Alan. He's an evangelist, it should be on the screens here. It says, When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible man and8:43 he crushes him. Dang, Happy New Year. See, I want this type of Christianity,8:54 where the series is called Press On. So that I can be like, boop. I pressed on. I prayed to God, God, get rid of all my problems. Change my wife, please.9:07 Change my kids. So then when I want God to do something, I press on. Start coming to church. When God wants me to do something, I press off.9:19 Come on now. And see, some of us try to use religion to press on. Hey God, I'm going to come to church, I'm on the dream team.9:31 I go to Saturday morning prayer, I'm in a neighborhood group, I'm reading my bible, I keep it on my desk at work. And then when God says, hey, I want you to forgive that person that hit you, oh God, you know how hard9:43 that is. So we're going to press on amidst life's pressures. We gotta stop saying no to God when it gets hard, because those very things that9:55 are hard, God's trying to squeeze out of you the power that's not only gonna be a blessing to you and your family, but to other people as well. Amen?10:08 This whole thing that Paul's talking about is, I don't want to just know Jesus. I don't want to know about him. I want to become like Jesus. And see, religion will get you10:19 tricking because it's like, well, all you gotta do is these steps and then God will bless you. So we say things in church like, I'm the head and not the tail. Yeah. You are the10:31 head and not the tail. That doesn't mean your tail won't suffer. It's a both it's a both end. See, I grew up in church. I know all the phrases, but some of those phrases ain't even in the10:43 Bible. And I'll just be making that my doctrine. I gotta look and see what scripture says because when I look at the scriptures, if I'm to become like him, I'm a have his power, but there's gonna10:55 be some suffering I gotta go through to get that power. Amen? So that goes to our very first point. You can't impress Jesus. You11:07 can't impress Jesus. Man, we be using religion sometimes to try to impress Jesus, so did Paul. See, before he was Pastor Paul, he was just sinful Saul.11:19 Very smart man, in church, but he thought everybody in church was doing it wrong, so he's going to fix it. So I have his resume that I want to share with you, it's in Philippians chapter 3,11:30 verse 4 through 7. Look at this cat right here. He says, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I got11:42 more. Circumcised on the eighth day. They didn't wait till day 9 for me. But the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of11:54 Hebrews. As to the law, Pharisee. As to zeal, persecutor of the church. I'm gonna persecute the church because they doing it wrong and I'm smarter than God.12:08 As to righteousness under the law, blameless. Verse 7. But what I ever I gained, I had, I count as loss for the sake12:20 of Christ. There's been so many times in my life where I go to God with my resume. If you've been going to church for years, Pastor Diego will say, yo reputation.12:33 He's a love when he will say that. That guy's crazy. But so many times where I want to give this to God. God, I was nice to my wife. God,12:44 I was on time to the to the huddle. God, I went to Saturday morning prayer. And I'm listing all these things and God looks at it and says, crushes it.12:56 That's religion. Your righteousness is filthy rags, Aaron. Oh, you're trying to do stuff for me? Well, how about you just be with me?13:09 So, there's been so many times, maybe in your life as well, where you may think the faith journey is a corporate ladder. So, the more that I do things at church, the more I'm going to be13:21 blessed by God. Yes, you will be blessed, but there's also going to be some trials in your life to test if you really have faith. We don't do this religion stuff to be exempt from trials. We13:33 we have these disciplines so we can endure trials. Does that make sense? Yes. We're in a fast right now, a lot of us, and we're putting down crushed13:45 soda and we're picking up the oranges. I was looking at pastor Ashley, he had the little waffle, that waffle was calling my name right now. Because what13:57 is a fast? A fast is saying no to your flesh so you can be prepared to say yes to the Father. Right? But when I look at this soda right14:09 here, and I think that's why relationships are called crushes, Because we do things that taste good to us, but not necessarily good for us. And the more that we're14:21 crushing, the more we burping and farting, oh, I'm bloated. It looks like it's fruit, but it ain't fruit. So for those that are newer to14:32 Patriot, because I want to I remember when I was brand new to Patriot, and the church would just talk about things, and I'd be like, Yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, we're going to go on a fast. What is that? The list of things you14:44 don't eat so God hears you? Oh, what? So let's just talk about it in the natural. If you go see your natural doctor, the doctor won't even see you if you're going to give blood or14:55 surgery. He says, Fast 8 to 12 hours before. Now, could you imagine going to your doctor flexing how much soda you15:07 drink? Hey, doc. I've been crushing it. Doctor won't even see you until somebody in the front takes intake paperwork from you. And15:19 I'm not really used to this. My wife's a nurse practitioner, so I feel like I should never have to go to the doctor. I could just ask my wife, hey, what's up with my elbow? Can you go, you know, just take care of it. But15:29 sometimes I gotta go to the hospital, and I be I be feeling vulnerable, y'all. Because I where's the doctor? Who are all these people with this glass in front asking me these questions? But here's what they15:41 ask, what's the reason for your visit? Am I telling you or the doctor? I'm not like these people in here. I gotta be careful on what I'm sharing, I don't trust you.15:53 Where are you experiencing pain? Are you going to email this directly to the doctor or is everybody going to know? Allergies in the spiritual.16:06 What substances or environments are you around that get a negative reaction out of you? Hey, what's your family history of medical conditions? Hey, what are some generational things?16:18 It tripped up your dad, it tripped up your grandfather, it tripped up your grand What are some generational things that are susceptible to trip you up? Hey, what about alcohol? How often?16:31 Well, I had a Truly. I mean, does that count? I don't know. Does that count? We start negotiating with ourselves. Are you sexually active? Have you had multiple sexual partners in the past16:43 year? I have a testimony, you're just asking parts of it. I'm a good sir. And see, when we go to the doctor, the doctor is asking us to fast away from the things16:55 that need to be cleansed out of us, and to be honest about where we really are, so he can work on us. Somehow in the spiritual, we think, I'm a eat oranges and plums, and then now God bless me.17:08 I'm going to deny my flesh so I can be open to the father's assessment and his will in my life. Let let's let's put up let's put up the ingredients of a crushed soda right now.17:21 Can you imagine going to the doctor? Hey doc, man, I've been on that Ester gum. I've been on that high fructose corn syrup, that citric acid. Can you imagine flexing17:33 like that to the doctor? That's what we do every time we go to God. Hey God, I went to Saturday morning prayer of serving kids. Thank you for doing that, but that's not a response for God to bless you, that's your17:44 response to his goodness. But if we look at all these things that are in the crush, look at the very top, contains no juice.17:57 This is what I looked like for years. Just know a little bit about church to talk like I have some fruit in my life, but if you really open me up, I contain no juice.18:09 How about you? So since we can't impress Jesus, point number 2 is we18:21 got to let Jesus press you. Philippians chapter 3 verse 13, very important verse, we already read it. What it says is, I don't consider that I have made it my own, but 1 thing I18:33 do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Now notice this. Preachers do this. Preachers say, I got 1 thing to share, and then we share 2. I'm a close in 518:45 minutes, and then we give 12. Right? So Paul is doing that right here. I got 1 thing I'm a do. But he shares 2 things. But remember, we were talking about power and suffering? It is 118:56 thing. I need God's power to release my past and I'm going to suffer through my present situation as straightforward. It's 1 thing. So let me try to illustrate this for19:08 us because I'm a father and my daughters love eating oranges, but they don't love peeling the fruit to get to it. And this flesh needs to die to get to the fruit. So they19:20 come to me as a father and they say, Hey, father, can you peel this off of me? There's a lot of times when my girls come up to me and I tell them to clean their room and they say, hey, is my room clean enough yet?19:33 Because they don't really care about the values that the father was saying in that moment. They just cared about being good enough to do what they wanted to do. Do we treat church that way? See, this is who19:45 we are and there's a lot of times when we go to God, God, I'm all together. Not like how I used to be, praise God. But let me tell you what God wants to do in our19:57 life. We, God knows we wouldn't kill our flesh fast enough to get to the fruit. We'd just be doing a little bit, a little pain. But what GodLetting Jesus Press You 20:09 wants to do is say, you know what, I'm a take this situation. Because Paul said he was hard pressed between the 2. And God may be trying to get your attention right now from a situation that's squeezing you and20:20 is frustrating you and is hurting you, but as you are broken, look at the beauty that's coming out on the other side. When we allow God to press us I'm trying my best not to get this juice on me,20:32 but that's the life of a Christian. When you allow God to pressure, not only do you get blessed, it gets blessings all over your family, blessings all over whoever's around you, because you get squeezed and you get20:42 squeezed and you allow God to minister to you. See, this right here represents brokenness. Look at that brokenness. This right here represents breakthrough. And20:54 if we want to experience the breakthrough, we've got to allow ourselves to be broken. There's been so many times in my life I'm trying to put my life back together for how I planned my life to be, and by this age, I was21:05 supposed to look like this. And then your friends, our friends will start telling, why are you looking like that? Why are you Because they haven't tasted and seen that God is good yet, so they're trying to have you look21:16 like them, but you say, I'm on a different journey. I've allowed God to squeeze me, and as God has put pressure on me, I come out being a blessing to other people.21:29 Can we go deeper? Yes. This is our past. This is our present situation. I want you to be thinking about a present situation in your life that you're experiencing pressure, and this21:41 is what God wants you to do with it. Look how much more room we have to grow. This is why Paul say, I haven't made it my own. K? So we're supposed to do this daily. So we know he's faithful,21:53 and now we're in a different situation, and any time we're in a pinch no, no, hold up, God, hold up, oh, you tripping, God, hold up. And instead of forgetting what lies behind, we're double22:05 minded like the book of James. This is our present, we're rolling back to our past. We're going back to the present. I'm a get with God. I'm rolling back because I miss my girlfriend and I want to do Nah. I gotta22:17 move forward. I got That's why he says, I gotta forget what lies behind and move forward. Because it's a strain. I don't know if you've done this, I've22:29 done this in my life. When I'm trying to like negotiate, like, am I going to let God do? So first God, wait, hold up God, hold up. Let me analyze,22:40 because I'm a thinker, I'm a processor, right? So I use responsibility to negate my faith sometimes. And I say, okay, I'm going to process some things that have happened in my life, and22:52 this is this is a thing that I did a few years ago, and I I really don't think you can use me in this situation because of this, and then I end up putting shame in my pocket. Or23:04 some of you, it's not that what you've done wrong, it's how you've been wronged. And God is trusting you to is testing you to trust again. You've already committed, I ain't never trust nobody again.23:16 So what you do is you roll back and forth, you zoom into this situation, and let me know all the details of why you did this and how you did this. It was 19 96.23:28 And see what this does, we don't recognize this is preventing us from being in the presence of God. Because we take this piece of information, give me all the detail, give me the cheese, man, give me all23:40 the And we and we go all these details, do you want God to do that with you? See, God, thank you for your mercy. And then our spouse, hold up, tell me everything. What is it? What is going back there?23:53 Woah. And see, some of us picture God being like that, so that's how we treat others. But Isaiah 43 verse 25 said, God chooses to forget our sins.24:06 1 of my favorite scriptures that helps me to move forward from situations like this, either shame I would carry in my pocket, or when people have done me wrong, is Philippians 4 verse 424:17 through 7. I don't have time to read it, but I'll reduce it to 1 phrase. The peace of God is greater than a piece of information. You can have the piece of information. And some of us think,24:29 if I just knew this and knew that and knew that, okay, now you have more information, you still don't have peace. So God is saying, we gotta let that go. Forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to24:41 what lies ahead, because we're not going to just talk about breakthroughs from the past. What is the present thing that God is trying to squeeze out of your life, not just to be a blessing to you, to be a blessing to24:53 other people. Look at the mess of my life right here according to who's looking at it. See, because the25:05 father is looking at this, the world looks like this. TikTok, part 6 of the trauma that I've experienced. And we always talk about all this stuff. All this talking we're25:16 doing with no redemptive qualities. Right. So let's just be mindful of all the stuff that we're feeling and doing all these things. Wait a minute. God is like, but I can use that.25:28 I can use a failure. I can use a divorce. I can use a foreclosure. I can use somebody getting fired. Because when it comes in here, that person grew. And now they have a faith to trust me in the future, and I'm going to25:39 use them more. So we know that we can't impress Jesus. We might as well let25:51 Jesus press us and to conclude, let's press on with joy. Let's press on with joy. You know, I don't have time to read it, but26:03 I'm going to kind of summarize it. If you look at Philippians chapter 2, verse 1 through 11, you don't have to look there. I pray that, like, see, sermons are just commercials for you to get in the26:14 Bible. So I pray that you have notes, and then, okay, I'm gonna get in Philippians chapter 2. So Philippians chapter 2 verse 1 through 11, there's 2 things that I wanna highlight that's in Paul's mind. He26:26 says in verse 2, he says, complete he's talking to the church in Philippi, and he says, complete my joy by demonstrating the same love and being in26:38 unity and get along. And I'm like, that's what you want, Bob? You're in prison. So, so, when we read the scriptures, we got to be honest with ourselves, like, what would I want if I'm in26:50 prison? I went on a mission trip and I'm in prison, I'm sending a letter to my wife. Complete my joy by bringing me some Red Vines. Bring me some Nutella.27:03 I'm thinking about me. Like, I'm in this bad situation. But Paul knows that I'm going to press on amidst the pressure. It's just a season, it's temporary.27:15 Because Jesus pressed on for us. Philippians chapter 2 verse 7. Jesus came from Heaven to Earth and the Bible says he emptied himself. So he was27:26 crushed on the cross, emptying out his blood so we can have right relationship with him. Amen. So now that that's on Paul's mind, he knows what the it is. I'm not27:38 trying to make this world heaven because I know that awaits me later. I'm going to allow myself to be crushed and I'm going to press on with joy. So in Philippians chapter 2 verse 17 through27:50 18, look at Paul's reflections from that. He says, even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering, upon the sacrificial offering for your faith, I am glad28:02 and rejoice with you all. And likewise, you should all be glad and rejoice with me. What Paul is saying in that moment is, I28:13 put Christ first. And no matter the situation that I'm in, I'm gonna press on because Christ has given me purpose. And my purpose as I'm becoming like Christ, more people are being introduced to28:25 Christ. We don't win people to Christ by just quoting scriptures. Scripture, scripture, scripture, scripture. No. That's not how that's not that's not how I got 1 to the Lord. What happens28:37 is, are we living a life that's pleasant to others? They're in that situation, they didn't complain. Man, they don't lie, they don't gossip, they have joy, they always smile. What is that about that person? Because I28:49 know their story. What's different about them? Instead of them trying to improve their life, they surrendered their life to Christ. And they allowed the pressures of life to squeeze out God's power to be influential29:01 to other people. So to conclude, I want to share a story. We had our first conference in October of this past year. By round of applause, were you blessed by our conference in October?29:16 Packed house the whole weekend, and I had the honor of being a part of the leadership team to put on the conference. And there were some complex things that were happening with my family while the conference was29:25 happening. Because my wife's birthday is October thirteenth, that was the last day of the conference. So So I'm trying to figure out how I can figure this out at work and then make my wife feel special as well, but also29:37 my my middle daughter, Faith, she's 13 years old, she was going to miss the conference because she was going to Washington DC. So we're like, Oh man, she's not going to be here, and then we're going to be really29:49 doing work, and during that time, behind the scenes, we were planning on launching Patriot Alameda, very busy season, and Faith's on the East Coast. So the week of theShow more In this video 0:00 Pressing On Towards the Goal5:00 The Power of Suffering and Faith20:00 Letting Jesus Press You30:00 Pressing On with Joy
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.