Consider Your Reach

In this solo episode, we look at Philippians 3 to encourage us to keep reaching forward and pressing on in faith. Considering your reach means faithfully taking the next step toward a goal, even when the goal feels far away. This episode looks at how our methods of reaching can either strengthen our walk with God or hinder it. This principle has lasting effects in our personal habits, our families, and our congregation. Thank you for considering this idea that I am so excited about! 

Transcript

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Consider one another as a podcast focused on each other. Thank you for tuning in to this podcast that is all about stirring up love and good works in one another. It is April 2026 is flying by and we are already a quarter of the way through the year. February 1st was the first day of this new format for our Sunday morning services. So we are two months into this and I am really encouraged, especially when we look back on the way that we have been using our Sunday afternoons for singings, meals at the Warringtons, and good works. There is a lot of good happening. As we start this second quarter of the year, I am thinking a lot about goals and resolutions that we had at the beginning of the year. A lot of people have probably abandoned New Year goals by now, but I am all the more excited about goals and growth with this concept of reach that I have been fixated on recently. Today we are considering our reach, and I'm so excited to share it with you. Considering our reach works in both directions, both the positive and the negative. So we need to consider both. But explaining the positive will make much more sense and be more encouraging. So we'll start there as we start with Scripture. Today I am in Philippians 3. I'm gonna read Philippians 3, verses 7 through 14. I'm just gonna read the passage and then share some thoughts on it. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on, so that I may lay hold of that, for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Pressing on to the prize is exactly what we want to do. Reaching forward is what we want. I love the imagery, similar to the first Thessalonians 4 1, Excel Still More, shout out the Excel Still More podcast. But here in Philippians 3, I like the imagery of pressing on. Pressing on, reaching forward to me implies someone who was pushing before, but to press on means to keep pushing and pressing. Keep working hard toward the goal. Not starting toward the goal or finishing because you already have reached it, but somewhere in the middle. That area in the middle is what we are talking about today, and how knowing those areas in the middle can help us get started in the first place. I will give you an illustration, then give you an example. If you are like me, you are asked to reach for things a lot. There are certain people that have more reaching abilities than others. Other folks who might be vertically challenged know the beauty of a step stool. If there is something that is out of your reach, there may seem like there is nothing you can do about it. It is impossible. It is out of your reach, so you give up. But thanks to our good friend the step stool, instead of giving up, you can find something small that you can reach and step onto that will then help you reach the thing you couldn't reach before. One more illustration, this time focusing more on reach. I really like this, and this will probably be the one I stick with throughout the podcast. I don't know if any of you have ever been to like a rock climbing place before. Either like a really big one takes up a whole room, or just like the one at the Y that's just, you know, a couple of panels that are maybe 15 feet tall and you climb all the way up to the top. At least that's the goal. The way you make it all the way to the top is by looking for places that you can reach right now. Those places that you reach for when you're standing on the ground allow you to then reach for a whole new group of places and grabs to then move up even further and then do the process again until you've reached your way to the top. Starting at the bottom and looking all the way at the top of the rock wall is very daunting. It's scary being in high places. It's scary knowing the goal right now is out of reach by like a lot of reaches, because it's 15 feet tall and my arms are only three feet long. However, by starting with the reach you can make, by doing the next right thing, you pull yourself up, and then you see a whole new group of rocks and grabs that are available to you. You keep doing that, and something that seemed impossible and way out of reach becomes well within an easy reach just by continuing that process of reaching to what is available. That's how we press on, that is how we reach ahead. Does that make sense? I'm thinking so. I probably over-explained that. I'm I'm guessing it does make sense. I'm hoping we are on the same page here. There's the illustration. Here is the example. At the beginning of my year, I wanted to work on memorizing more sections of scripture. But at the end of January, I had tried to memorize more scripture, but there was just a disconnect where trying to memorize just didn't work for me. I did not know how to go from not having something memorized to having it memorized. It was a good goal, but it felt like looking at the top of the rock wall from the bottom. I knew I wanted to make it to the top, but there needed to be some steps in the middle that were reachable for me at the beginning that would allow me to start and make it to the ultimate goal. Then Terry Fisher came on the podcast and talked about her bracelet with a verse on it, known as a verslet, but what it had was just the first letter of every word in the verse she wanted to memorize. I thought that was a super cool idea, so I tried it. Turns out that was the step stool, or that first place to grab whichever analogy you like that I needed to ultimately reach my goal. With this excitement of seeing how it worked for her by just looking at the gibberish on her verset, I realized this was the reach I needed. So I wrote down a decently long section of scripture. It was Matthew 25, verses 34 through 46. But I didn't write out the whole thing. I just, like the bracelet, wrote the first letter of every word in those 13 verses. The next step wasn't then to have it all of a sudden memorized, but I did have something that I could reference besides the verses themselves. So now I am off the ground, like a rock climber on a wall. I wasn't going back down to where I started, my brain was forced to reach for something else that was within reach and was higher than where I was. Looking at those first letters, I could then remember the whole verse letter by letter. That process of reaching was the perfect middle ground, to where the next day I could recite the whole verse, all the verses, with just one more reach. No longer needing to reference my written out letters, now I just had the whole thing memorized. And then just to prove that I really was confident in memorizing it, that section of scripture I recited in a sermon. And I promise you I felt confident enough that I had reached my goal, that this actually wasn't scary. It was exciting. I knew I had reached my goal, I knew I had memorized this long section of scripture with just a couple of reaches. Memorizing scripture is one of those goals that sounds good, but then doesn't go anywhere because a lot of us need a step stool to reach the goal. We don't see the middle step between where we are on the ground and the top of the rock wall. Sometimes we need to see those reaches in the middle to reach the ultimate goal. If you want to work on your memorization with me, let's memorize just verse 14 of Philippians 3. Do that by writing out the first letter of every word. I am sure you can get to the ultimate goal within a day by just this one reach. Let me tell you about another New Year's resolution we had and how considering your reach plays into it. My wife and I have had a goal to fast, quote unquote, from something every month. Not like food, where we're not able to fast for a whole month, but from something we are choosing to not take part in for a month of time, considering that a fast. The first month I chose to fast from secular music. This was really cool for me. It's nothing against secular music. Uh, that's fine. Um, but by choosing to fast from something that distracts me and takes me away from spiritual thoughts, I really felt a lot of spiritual progress. It was really cool for me because I found so much a cappella worship music, uh, Praise and Harmony, Keith Lancaster, Narrow Way, Acapeldridge, and Jackson Sneed, shout out my second cousin-in-law. I simply created a playlist of hymns and either listened to that in the car or in my headphones, or I listened to nothing at all. One cool side effect usually when I get into the car, I look at Spotify and choose from the entire discography of the world before going anywhere. Choosing to have a soundtrack in your ears wherever you go is a big decision every single time you have a song to pick. When I was sitting in silence or playing from my hymns playlist, it took away a lot of the micro decisions I make throughout my day, thus making real decisions much less taxing. That was cool for me. So fasting from something like those small decisions of picking a song whenever you get a chance to. Those micro decisions add up. And fasting from that and just hitting play on a hymns playlist or listening to nothing at all really helped me with my real decisions throughout the day. Anyway, back to considering your reach. In March, Juliana is was fasting from sugar, uh, no added sugar, no food with sugar, etc. I have not been doing that, but she has, and that is awesome. Back in January, my brother and his wife were telling us about how they were doing a keto diet, which means like no sugar, no bread, like none of the good stuff. And we were both thinking, oh, I could never do that. Now at the end of March, we were looking into April and she said, You know, after doing no sugar in March, I feel like I could do keto in April. I don't think she would end up doing that, but the point is something that seemed impossible two months ago. Impossible. Way out of reach. Now after one month of one reach, she says, you know, that thing that seemed impossible? Yeah, that seems possible for me now. Regardless of what diets are important to you or how cutting sugar out would affect you, you can see the point. Something that someone was doing for their health reasons seemed impossibly hard. But by finding something in the middle, the thing that seemed so far away two months ago now feels within reach. Okay, so enough examples and illustrations. What does that look like for you? Whether it's health goals, monetary goals, school goals, spiritual goals, you name it the principle applies. If you think you could never preach a full-length sermon, then talk to me and I will schedule you for a Lord's Supper talk. Those are like ten to fifteen minutes. By the way, one more side note, we started with just elders and preachers leading those because we knew this change would be an adjustment to go from just a short talk to more of a sermonette. But now that we have seen this new format for a couple of months, I know we have so many qualified men who can lead and will do such a good job leading that Lord's Supper talk. Maybe that's you. Maybe it's not you. Maybe you don't feel like you could lead a 10 to 15 minute talk. That's okay. We will schedule you for a five-minute talk on Wednesday. If that feels uncomfortable, then we will schedule you for a scripture reading. You get the idea. If being a song leader feels like it's out of your reach, then maybe just be a song starter, like Roger did. He just went up and started the song. Just go up there and start it. Maybe that is your end goal, or maybe that opens up other goals where you do become a full-on song leader. The point is don't look at something that feels out of your reach and then choose to do nothing. Choose to do something. Find what is within your reach and do that. When you keep reaching, you will soon find what once seemed way out of reach is now reachable. This applies to way more than just serving in worship. What about hospitality? Maybe you are not quite ready to host the whole congregation like the Reeves did for a singing. Maybe you're not quite ready to host the whole congregation for every Sunday in March like the Warringtons did. But maybe you can have two people over for dinner. Maybe you aren't ready to have people over for dinner, so have someone over for dessert. Have them for ice cream. Start with whatever you can do, because then you will realize there is a lot that is within your reach to do. And when you do that, you will unlock even more things you can do. Consider your reach. I could keep giving examples because I like practical examples, but really you know best how this applies to your life. So think for yourself. What feels out of reach right now? Where is somewhere that I would like to get to, or what is something I would like to be able to do, but because it is currently out of reach, I have done nothing to pursue it. My last little phrase, probably not, there's probably a couple more little phrases. One more little phrase for you is to begin with the end in mind. This is not a hermeneutical principle, how we study the Bible. I thought about making this part of the episode, but I decided against it because I wanted to stay more on the positive side rather than the negative. However, sometimes we begin with what we think is the answer in scripture and then find a way to make the Bible say what we believed it should say to begin with. Uh that is not a good way to read scripture. Don't begin with the answer in mind with scripture when there's something to be interpreted. That's uh begging the question fallacy. Don't do that. Beginning with the end in mind, not a hermeneutical principle. However, it is a good thing to do when it comes to making goals. Begin with the end in mind. It is why long-term planning is so important. The point of a five-year plan is to show us what kind of things we can be doing right now to reach a big goal that is five years away. If I wanted to have a$100,000 down payment, that'll get you like a shack in five years from now, then that means I need to be saving$20,000 a year starting now. That means in the month of April, I need to save$1,666. Let's say hypothetically, as I'm looking at the budget, I'm over that. I haven't saved that much, I'm$50 short. Maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal, but if you're$50 short every month for five years, you will not reach your five-year goal. So that means if I need to find$50 in the budget for April to reach my$1,666 goal, that means I cannot eat out for the rest of the month. Now, when I choose to have beans for dinner, I don't feel like I'm just depriving myself needlessly, even though technically I do have$50 to my name to eat out. Instead, I have a goal in mind, and by eating beans tonight, I met my monthly goal, and I can do the same thing next month, next year, until I have reached my five-year goal thanks to my sustainable plan. Begin with the end in mind. We'll look at this in just a couple more contexts. I suppose at this stage here is where it shifts just a little bit or a lot of bit to the negative. But talk about this with me. People who struggle with addiction, alcohol specifically, when you ask them about the power of one for recovering alcoholics, if you ask them how many drinks would it cause you to relapse, they will almost always say one. A lot of struggles and a lot of sin are like that. There are some sins that may seem so far away and out of your reach, something that you would never do or never justify. But just like it works in the positive, it can work in the negative as well. Some sins, perhaps drunkenness is a good example, seem so far out of our reach that they don't scare us like they should. Again, if you were talking to someone who has struggled with that, they would tell you about the power that one drink can have and how dangerous that would be for them because they have learned the power of reach in the negative way. The point is some things feel so far out of our reach that we aren't even considering the micro reaches we are making to grow closer and closer to justifying a big problem. Maybe that is coarse humor and crude language. Struggling with cursing seems so far away from will. That feels way out of my reach. But if I justify euphemisms and allow myself to keep getting closer and closer to that struggle, it will be easier and easier to justify something I used to think that was way out of my reach, something that I thought would never be a problem for me. But if I allow myself to grow closer, that problem that I thought I would never justify can become justifiable. What about lust and pornography? I do not have to convince you of the dangers of pornography, but sometimes we justify things that seem innocent that reach us closer and closer to those dangerous sins. Going to screens for dopamine hits will be the addiction of my generation. Even if that is just for purely innocent reels and goofs on the internet, it is still a problem to be addicted to anything and robbed of your time like that. As we get used to screens being our source of fulfillment for everything, we are reaching closer and closer to finding sexual fulfillment from screens. If you know there's something that potentially could be a problem for you, don't get close to it. Stay far away from it. Reaching one direction closer and closer toward a sin will make it easier and easier to reach. So consider your reach both positively and negatively. In the positive, it's something that feels impossible, but then it becomes possible one reach at a time, just by doing the next right thing. But in the negative, something that feels like something you would never justify becomes justifiable one reach at a time, perhaps by doing the next wrong thing. Even if that next thing, that next wrong thing feels really small, by doing the next wrong thing, you grow closer and closer to sin instead of closer and closer to God. Make sure you know which way you are reaching. I think church attendance is a good example of this. There are a lot of people who probably at one point never missed a service, Sunday night, Wednesday night, etc. But after missing one Wednesday night, it becomes easier to miss another Wednesday night. And then it is easier to miss Bible class on Sunday mornings. Then, before you know it, your only interaction with your brothers and sisters in Christ is one hour on Sunday mornings. Your only time in the Word is a thirty-five minute sermon. This is not to accuse anyone of anything, but it is to encourage you to consider your reach. Which way are you reaching? In the same way that it is contagious to miss services for whatever reason, it is just as contagious to start showing up more and more. As the Warringtons opened up their homes on Sunday nights throughout March, now as we look to April, I'm gonna miss being there with everyone at the Warringtons home. That should encourage us, encourage us to reach for more time spent together. It should be contagious. I was talking to someone this week about showing up to church more and how they know this is important, but it's really hard for them. And so the solution that this person came up with was directly in line with the considering your reach principle. They said, I know it's hard for me, it can be overwhelming, or I can be too tired, but what I'm gonna do is just start showing up a little bit. I'm gonna start showing up. On a Wednesday night, and then I'll start showing up on a Sunday morning, and then a Sunday morning, not just for the worship, but for the Bible class too. Not exactly sure how long that process will be spread out, but what matters is we are doing the next right thing. That can look individually, like this person who's going to start showing up just a little bit more, just doing the next right thing, show up a little bit more, and now showing up all the time will be in reach before you know it. It works individually and it works holistically as a congregation. The same way that a church's attendance can crumble, at that same rate, a church can also grow. The same way that a church can do the next wrong thing, a church can do the next right thing. This is the progression that I see. The process of a church growing in numbers starts with the leadership being committed to showing up at everything. The doors are open, we are there. If someone is hosting the congregation, we are there. When leadership sets the example, non-negotiable, we are going to be there every time there's an opportunity. The rest of the congregation will see that. And now the rest of the congregation is encouraged to do the same thing they see the leadership doing. When there's buy-in from the leadership, the rest of the congregation won't want to miss out. Starting with a reach of leadership, being committed to church attendance and showing up and being there for each other will encourage the rest of the congregation to make that same reach. I promise you, when the congregation is committed to showing up and being together in worship, at Bible studies, and in each other's homes, it will change the whole church's culture. We will all be closer to each other and closer to God as we keep making these reaches. I've seen it happen before in a very short amount of time, all things considering, where a church starts with the reach right in front of them, and then that opens up more reaches to do more good things. More people keep doing the same and more members of the community, naturally, not by some coincidence, hear about the church and are interested in spiritual things. In my experience, the attendance of visitors from the community in a church service is about five percent of the total attendance. By increasing our own commitment to being here, naturally the next number that goes up is the amount of visitors that we are able to reach. Then, almost without fail, the member most committed to evangelism in a congregation is that newest Christian. You can see how that first reach opens up so many other good places to reach. A growing church that is constantly introducing people to Christ and seeing people baptized frequently may seem far away, but what we are wanting to do is the next right thing. By doing the next right thing, a lot of good opportunities become in reach. So consider your reach by doing the next right thing. If you want this church to grow, it seems like an obvious question, right? Hey, do you want this church to grow? Do you want more people to know about Jesus? Yes, okay. If you want that, the next thing to do is to start showing up whenever the doors are open. If you want to be more evangelistic, maybe that seems obvious too. Of course, of course, I want to share the gospel more. If you want to be more evangelistic, then this week, do something. Do the next right thing. Invite someone to church. Ask someone if they know Jesus. Going back to personal goals that we might have. If you want to improve your budget, start with the end in mind and find what weekly goals you need to meet and do the next right thing. Eating at home for the whole week can change a budget by thousands of dollars over the course of a year. Consider your reach when it comes to Bible study. Write down the first letters of a verse that you want to memorize. Do it with Philippians 3 and verse 14. That will force your brain to reach for the rest of the letters of each word until you have it memorized. Maybe it has been a while since you read the New Testament all the way through. That's a problem. But you can do something about that problem by reading Matthew chapter 1 today. If you are struggling with sin, you have certainly felt the effects of reaching the wrong way, justifying things you never thought would be even within your reach. Today, you can do one thing that pushes you the right way. Delete the app, spend time in prayer, do whatever that one thing is that gets you going the right way. Begin with the end in mind. Look at the top of that rock wall and imagine the grabs along the way that will get you there to that goal. Maybe you need a lot of small reaches to get to that ultimate goal. Whatever that looks like for you, do the next right thing as you consider your reach. The Bible tells us to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works in each other. So thank you for stirring up love and good works in me just by listening to this episode.