Reach Up, Reach Down, Reach Out

Reach Up

Reach Out

Reach Down

He guys glad to have everybody here.  It’s a little strange doing a virtual men’s breakfast but the upside to social distancing is that you don’t have to share your bacon with anyone.  So just pile it on.

The hard part of all of this is staying connected.  During this crisis the church office has actually been open.  Even so, we have limited the number of people, allowing people to stay at home.  And one thing that everyone keeps noticing is that even though we see each other on Zoom meetings we still miss connecting with one another in person.

We were never meant to live out our Christianity alone we were always meant to be in community with other believers.

That is hard for dudes a lot of times.  Even guys who are more extroverted.  While you might like hanging out with other guys, its a whole other deal letting them into your life.  Seeing you at your weakest moments and allowing them to walk through your pain with you.

Why, because as dudes I believe we have this thing, ingrained in us that we need the respect of other people.

By in large - and I know this is a generalization, but by in large the one thing that men crave is respect.  

There have been numerous studies done that say the most important thing that men need from other people is to be respected.  In fact one study of over 20K men stated that most men have a very low opinion of themselves and spend a majority of their lives thinking that someone is going to find out that they are a fake.  

That is a lot for someone to carry around with them.

So for guys, while we like to hang out, we are not looking for moments, naturally, to let other dudes in to our lives.

Why, because we are men, we are fine, we can deal with it.  You do what you gotta do.  I don’t have time to feel things, I got things to do.  And if anyone finds out that I was weak enough to let that get to me…

But we were never meant to do this thing alone.

When you read the new testament everything points to living out our faith in support of one another.

We’ve heard all you need is Jesus and your will be fine.  As long as you know Jesus you can handle anything but that simply isn’t true.

Even Jesus recognized it, even Jesus needed it.  Think about it, He didn’t travel by himself, he had his boys with him.  As annoying as they were sometimes.  He still traveled with His boys. 

At one point He sent them out to do some evangelistic/missionary type work and He didn’t send them out alone, He sent them out two by two.  

I want to know who Judas’ partner was or Peter.  

Even Jesus when He was praying in the garden asked His three closest bro’s to go with Him but they left him hanging in that moment and when He needed them they were sleeping.

When we read Paul’s letters, He repeatedly reminds them to protect their relationships with one another.  And that one aspect of sin is that it not only separates us from God but that it divides us from each other.  

Because there is something intrinsically valuable about community.

When Paul talks to the Corinthian church about disciplining someone who is not changing the sinful way they are living, His ultimate punishment was that they would be kicked out of their faith community.

Now days that doesn’t matter as much because we aren’t that connected and we will just go the next church that will affirm the stupid things we do in our lives.

But for that situation there was something so valuable about the community of believers that they only way to stop that person from destroying their lives was to remove them from their connections in hopes that they would change and come back.

That’s how powerful it was.

But we have, in a way, removed the importance of community from christianity.  

For years we have said, if you were the only person on earth Jesus would still have come and died for you but we have confused that with thinking that we are the only person of earth that Christ died for.

Even the gifts that we are given by God, and I believe that each person that follows Christ has a gift given to them to make an impact. But the Bible tells us that each of those gifts are given to us no to make an impact for ourselves, or even to reach other people who don’t know christ.  Those gifts are given to us to serve other believers.  So even the gifts that we each have personally been given by God are not given for us, but for others.  Because we need each other.  

There are times in our lives when we don’t have the faith or the strength to walk the road that God has given to us, that is why God gives us other people.  So that those who are stronger can help carry the load.  Sometimes my faith is stronger than yours and can help you walk through you tough moments and sometimes your faith ins stronger than mine so you can help me.  And that is the way that it is supposed to work.

Even in our own discipleship process, we are designed to grow spiritually in community.  Paul says that we are to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.  

We tend to forget about that passage.  We teach, you repent of your sins and God will forgive you (overlooking the fact that you must first forgive others-again community) But Paul tells us to confess our sins one to another - he’s not talking about oh I did something bad to you will you forgive me.  He’s is saying go to someone and confess the sins of you life so you may be healed.  I am convinced that we have a lot of people walking around forgiven but not healed from the sin in their lives.

You see you might not have your sin counted against you because Christ died for your forgiveness, but their are lasting marks, wounds that exist in our lives because of those things, sometimes they cause us to fall back into the same issues, sometimes they plague us as regret and we never grow past them.  But God, through Paul says, those wounds can be healed but it must be done in the context of community.  Of a Christ-centered relationship with another believer where they can help you heal and move past your past mistakes or sins that have repeatedly taken over your life.

Over and over again in the Bible we see the importance of community to help each one of us in a life long walk with Christ.

So how do we do that.

I have one simple thing to help us.

Reach down, Reach out and Reach up

Ask yourself who am Reaching down to?  Who is earlier on in their journey than I am that I can pour into and pull up to where I am.  Who am I lifting up and supporting.

One of my heroes in the Bible is someone that I think is one of the best leaders in the New Testament, some might think Paul, some might think Peter.  Actually mine is a person that earned the respect of both of those men.  Christians throughout the ages have been influenced by him and yet most don’t know who He is.  

His name in Barnabas, actually his name was Joseph but his nickname was Barnabas and for most of the new testament that is what He is known by - It son of encouragement

Most people think that when Paul and Barnabas were together, it was Paul that was the leaders, but that wasn’t true at first.  Barnabas was the leader, when we are first introduced to them it is Barnabas who is mentioned first, He was a leader in the faith well before Paul and it was Barnabas that legitimized Paul’s ministry to the leaders in Jerusalem in Acts 9.  We see Barnabas bringing Paul up at first until He then intentionally takes a back seat to Paul allowing him to be the spokes person.  But it was Barnabas who influenced Paul at first and then there was a break.  A disagreement with Barnabas on another new rookie companion.  Paul didn’t want him to come with on the next missionary journey, but Barnabas saw something in this young man and so I accompanied Him and through that relationship John Mark wrote what is widely considered the first Gospel.  So this one man Barnabas who poured into Paul, who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament also poured into the man who is considered to have written the first account of the life of Christ which Matthew and Luke were based on.

Who are you pouring into, who do you speak life into so they can change the world.  Who are you reaching down to, so you can push them above you.

Who are you reaching out.

Not in evangelism but who are you supporting as you both walk with Christ.  Who are the people that you are doing life with. 

Over and over again in Paul’s letters He praises and prays for other people who he calls co-laborers.  Prisca and Aquilla are two that I can think of in the New Testament.  They were a married couple who constantly crossed paths with Paul and they supported one another.  They were also a couple who poured into another Apostle named Apollos who was fairly famous in Paul’s time.  Who are you reaching out to, who are you supporting.  Are there people around you that you need to connect with.  Because they might need you and you might need them as