Introduction:
A. Once there was a football team who had never won a game.
1. So one day before practice the coach decided to have a talk with them.
2. He told them, “Boys, our offense is bad, our defense is horrible, and our special teams are the worst I have ever seen, so today we are going back to the basics. We are going to start over.”
3. The coach reached over and picked up a football and said, “Boys, this is a football!”
4. Before he could say anything else one of his players spoke up and said, “Coach, please slow down, you’re going too fast.”
B. Brothers and sisters, today I want to have a little talk with you.
1. And we are not having this talk because we haven’t won a game, or because our offense, defense and special teams are horrible.
a. Rather, we are having this talk because it is important for us to back up every once and a while and go over the basics.
2. As you know, we periodically put up new worship banners here in the auditorium.
a. When we put up new banners it signals that there is something important that we want the congregation to focus on.
3. Last year, our banners helped us focus on the 12 shared goals that we have as disciples of Jesus.
4. This year, our banners will help us to focus on three directions that we want to be reaching.
5. I believe that God wants us to simultaneously and continually be reaching Upward, Inward, and Outward.
6. Let’s spend some time today talking about what I mean by reaching Upward, Inward, and Outward.
I. Reaching Upward
A. Reaching Upward has to do with being connected to God and staying connected with God.
1. We will not be effective in Reaching Inward or Reaching Outward if we do not remain connected Upward with God.
2. Our entire spiritual life – including our salvation, our transformation, and our mission – is dependent on our relationship with God.
3. As we look at each of these directions of reaching, I am going to connect them with some verses in the book of Colossians.
a. There are many other excellent verses that provide a foundation for these “reaching directions,” and we will look at a few other passages, but with each of the directions, we will look at something from Colossians.
B. Look with me at Colossians 2:6-7: Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
1. Did you notice the important aspects of staying connected to God in those verses?
2. After receiving Christ in the conversion process, then we must walk in Christ.
3. Walking in Christ includes being rooted and built up in Him, being established in the faith – all this leads to an outpouring of thanksgiving.
4. Our reaching upward toward God is an ongoing walking with Christ and a being rooted and growing in Christ.
C. The agricultural image is a very helpful one and is one that Jesus often used in His teaching.
1. We learn a lot from the Parable of the Sower about being the kind of soil that remains, grows and produces a harvest.
2. It is easy to be a flash in the pan and to experience a quick burst of life and growth when we first become a Christian.
3. But it is hard to remain and be established and growing.
4. Without deep roots, our spiritual life withers, and if we allow our lives to fill up with worldly weeds, they will choke out our spiritual life.
D. Jesus emphasized this in John 15: 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:1-11)
1. There are so many powerful truths in those verses.
2. We begin by noticing that Jesus is the true vine and that we are the branches – that is such a simple fact but a powerful truth.
3. We all know that branches have to remain attached to the vine or they will wither and die.
4. If we don’t stay connected to God we will not produce spiritual life and fruit – apart from being connected to Jesus we can do nothing! (Not we can do some things…we can do nothing!)
5. So we must abide in Jesus dwell in Jesus, remain in Jesus, stay connected to Jesus, always be reaching upward.
6. This is accomplished by keeping God’s word in our hearts and by obeying God’s commands.
7. When we abide in Christ, we remain in His love, we produce fruit and our joy is made complete.
8. Doesn’t all that sound great? What a blessed way to live!!
E. So, how can we daily walk in Christ, abide in Him, and remain in Him?
1. Nothing can replace the spiritual disciplines (practices) of a Christian’s daily and weekly life.
2. These include Bible Reading, Bible Study, Prayer, Worship and Service.
3. These things keep us Reaching Upward and keep us connected to Christ who is the true vine.
4. I want to encourage all our children and our teens to start these practices at a very young age.
a. Young people: you will never regret starting early to walk with God – the earlier you start walking with God, the easier it will be to continue to walk with God throughout your whole life.
6. Those who come to Christ later in life have the challenge of changing years of unspiritual habits which can be done through God’s power and our faithful effort, but it is harder.
7. How sad it is when a Christian fails to remain connected to Christ; when they allow the devil to draw their attention away from God and God’s practices; when they become weak and out of shape spiritually because of a lack of attention to their spiritual walk.
a. Tragically, if a Christian persists in this state of not remaining connected to Christ, they will spiritually die and be lost.
b. Jesus said: If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. (John 15:6)
8. I don’t think it is possible to overemphasize how important this first direction of reaching is!
II. Reaching Upward and Inward
A. There is a song we used to sing when I was younger that was called “If I Don’t Get to Heaven.”
1. The song included these words: “If I don’t get to heaven, if I don’t get to heaven, if I don’t get to heaven, it will be nobody’s, nobody’s, nobody’s, no-no-no- nobody’s fault but mine.”
2. That song emphasizes the truth about personal responsibility – individually each of us have to put our faith in Jesus, and depend upon the salvation Christ offers, and walk faithfully in Christ.
3. Nobody else can make those choices for us and follow through with them on our behalf.
4. Each of us have to live the Christian life as an individual, but that doesn’t mean we go it alone.
B. When we become a Christian, God makes us a member of His family, which is the body of Christ, the church.
1. The church is the family of God – there is God the Father, Jesus our brother, the Holy Spirit our comforter and counselor, and all our brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. God’s family is an awesome family, don’t you think!
3. How wonderful it is that older brothers and sisters in Christ are like spiritual parents, or aunts and uncles.
4. How wonderful it is that younger brothers and sisters in Christ are like our spiritual children, or nieces and nephews.
C. And so the church isn’t an organization, it is a living organism.
1. The church isn’t a place where we go, it is a family or team that we are a member of.
2. We are saved as individuals, but we flourish and grow as a community.
3. And just as it is spiritual suicide to cut ourselves off from God and to stop reaching upward toward God, it is just as spiritually damaging to cut ourselves off from the family of God.
4. Just as the branch cannot live detached from the vine, neither can the part of the body live detached from the rest of the body.
a. How long can a bodily organ, like a kidney, or a body part, like a finger, live if it is no longer attached to the body? Answer: Not long!
D. So what does Scripture have to say about the importance of Reaching Inward?
1. Since we are looking to the letter to the Colossians today, let’s look in Chapter 3: 12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:12-16)
a. We see in those verses a lot of “one another” commands – bearing with one another, forgiving one another, loving one another with compassion, kindness, humility and patience.
b. We learn that we are to teach and admonish one another with God’s wisdom – and some of that is done through our worshiping with each other through our singing.
2. The verse that I chose to be on the banner about Reaching Upward and Inward is the command of Jesus from John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
a. Here we see how Jesus commanded His disciples, in the upper room the day before His crucifixion, that they should love each other just as He has loved them.
b. And that in the end, people outside of the church will take notice that we are followers of Jesus if we truly love each other.
c. In a few minutes we will talk about Reaching Outward, but one of the keys of Reaching Outward is that we first get the Reaching Inward part right.
3. When we are effectively loving each other in the church, truly being the family of God and the body of Christ, then the world will take notice.
a. But how unappealing is it when the world looks at the church and sees division, strife, hatred, or racism in the church?
b. But on the other hand, how appealing is it when the world looks at the church and sees a real loving, accepting, forgiving, and serving community?
E. And so, while we continue to Reach Upward toward God and stay connected with Him, we must be actively Reaching Inward to stay connected with the family of God, and to do our part to make the church community strong and healthy.
1. I think it goes without saying that it is very hard to be connected with God’s family if we are rarely with God’s family.
2. Gathering with the church when the church gathers is a must.
3. Our Sunday and Wednesday gatherings each week are like a family meal or a family reunion.
4. Way beyond just being present, God’s plan for the wellbeing of the church is the faithful employment of our individual gifts for the good of the body.
a. Paul talks about these things in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, where he discusses the different gifts we have and the different roles we might play in the body for the health and wellbeing of the body.
b. Every part of the body is needed for the body to be whole and healthy – that includes our oldest members of the community and our very youngest members – that includes our most gifted members and our least gifted members.
c. By definition, we cannot be whole and complete without everyone.
5. So I want to encourage all of us to be Reaching Inward this year.
a. Be present and be attentive to each other.
b. Establish relationships – get the help you need and offer the help that others need.
c. Find ways to use your gifts and talents to bless the congregation.
III. Reaching Upward and Outward
A. Finally, we come to the last of the directions that I want to challenge us to be reaching toward.
1. While we maintain the Upward and Inward reach, it is God’s will that we reach Outward.
2. How sad and selfish it would be for us to keep the joy of a relationship with God and a relationship with God’s family to ourselves?!
3. How sad and selfish would it be for us to view the church as some exclusive club that exists only to meet our needs?!
B. The Scripture I have chosen for the Outreach banner is Mark 16:15.
1. The English Standard Version reads: And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
2. I like the way the New Century Version reads: Jesus said to his followers: “Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone.”
3. This is Mark’s version of what we call “The Great Commission.”
4. Sadly, for many of us “The Great Commission” becomes “The Great Omission.”
a. How many times have you personally obeyed this command?
b. How many people have you shared the Good News with?
c. How many people are Christians today because you Reached Out to them in order to share with them what you have found in Jesus?
C. Now, that being said, we must always keep in mind that none of us can make anyone else become a Christian, and God would not want us to use any kind of manipulative methods to trick people into following Christ.
1. In many of Paul’s letters, he reminded people that he never used flattery or manipulation to bring people to Christ, rather he simply shared the good news, the truth.
2. And Paul also acknowledged that although we may play a role in helping people come to faith, in the end it is God who makes things grow: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Cor. 3:6-7)
3. God has His role in the process, but so do we.
4. There won’t be a harvest unless we do the planting and watering, which is the part that God calls us to do.
D. Turning to Colossians, let’s see what Paul wrote about Reaching Outward in that letter.
1. In Chapter 4, Paul wrote: Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Col. 4:2-6)
2. First of all, for Paul, Reaching Outward begins with prayer – praying for opportunity to share the good news, and praying for the ability to make the good news clear.
3. Second, for Paul, Reaching Outward continues with being wise in the way we act toward unbelievers, and to make the most of every opportunity.
4. Third, for Paul, Reaching Outward includes the ability to be gracious in our speech so that we know how to approach each person, to be able to answer their questions, and touch their hearts.
E. We don’t have time to go into detail about how to be Reaching Out and sharing the good news, we have had many lessons and classes about it, and we will do so in future lessons and classes for sure.
1. But for today, I simply want to help us to have this vision in mind so we can be working toward this end.
2. God wants us to be reaching out, because it is God’s will for everyone to hear the good news and have the opportunity to believe it and obey it.
3. And one of the primary ways that God wants to reach the lost is through us.
Conclusion:
A. So these are the three directions that we will be emphasizing this year: Reaching Upward, Reaching Inward, and Reaching Outward.
1. I hope and pray that all of us will be like minded and will make effort toward reaching in these three directions – it is so important.
2. I hope and pray that we won’t be like the ducks in this parable I want to end with.
B. A parable is told of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church one Sunday to hear their duck preacher.
1. After they waddled into the duck sanctuary, the service began and the duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.
2. He pounded the pulpit with his beak and said, “With these wings, there is nowhere we ducks cannot go! There is no God-given task we ducks cannot accomplish! With these wings we no longer need walk through life. We can soar high in the sky!”
a. Shouts of “Amen!” were quacked throughout the duck congregation.
3. The duck preacher concluded his message by exclaiming, “With our wings we can fly through life! WE......CAN.....FLY!!!!”
a. More ducks quacked “AMENS!” in response.
4. Every duck loved the sermon.
a. They all were truly convicted and convinced about their ability to fly.
b. But as they left the church, all the ducks waddled all the way home.
5. How often do we waddle away from worship the same way we waddled in…unchanged?
C. Today, if we all quack “Amen” to Reaching Upward, Inward, and Outward, let’s consider what ways God wants us to change as we reach in those directions.
1. Some of us, when we examine ourselves may find that we are doing a great job of Reaching Upward, Inward and Outward, and if that is the case, then praise God and keep up the great work!
2. On the other hand, when we examine ourselves, some of us may find that we need to improve in our Reaching Upward, Inward and Outward.
3. Let’s make a commitment to make the changes that are needed in our Upward Reach, our Inward Reach, and our Outward Reach.
4. I know that God will help us make those changes and God will bless us as we do.
