NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH



NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH

July 26, 2015

Revealed: Mission Revealed

Joel Schmidgall

We weren’t allowed to play organized football in our house growing up until we reached high school. So when I became a freshman in high school, the first thing I did was go try out for the football team. I’m kind of skinny today but think of me like half this size in high school. I was skinny! If I had a spiritual gift in high school, it would have been skinniness. And then secondly would be big-headedness. So I looked like a toothpick with a cherry on top. That’s how skinny I was. So anyway I jumped in and the first week of football, I realized something when I went out on the field. I had never put pads on before and I realized I didn’t know how to hit somebody with pads on so I was out there trying but I was playing really timid trying to get better but trying not to get hurt at the same time. I played wide receiver and linebacker and we were in our linebacker breakout and our coach comes up to me and says, ‘Schmidgall, quit trying to protect your equipment! Your equipment is used to hit somebody!’ Then he took his fist and slammed them on my shoulder pads and then he whacked me across the helmet. And something happened in me. Number one, my testosterone kicked in! All I wanted to do was whack that dude back in the face. Number two, I realized that when I have these pads on, I get hit or get hit and it is not going to knock me out. So next play we line up and I shed my blocker and I ran right through that running back, threw him on his back side and stood up over top of him and looked down. I made like four of the next ten tackles. Something clicked. We got to the end of practice and Coach was yapping at the whole team about trying harder. ‘Nobody is doing anything out here except for Schmidgall! He is the only one!’ And I’m going alright! It was good to get in good with coaches. Not so much with the players! So I got razzed pretty hard in the locker but hey, when you got it, you got it! But listen, nothing changed in my body. Nothing changed in my teammates. Nothing changed in the play book but something changed in here. I got a realization and fear was set aside and I was let loose. I became the player that I was supposed to be.

I think a lot of us go into life like it would be for me to go into that football practice without pads. We get beat up. We have to understand that equipment is given to us to equip us to accomplish a mission.

That is our topic this morning, mission revealed. We are set on a mission but we go into life without pads or without using our equipment and without using the resources that God has given us and we get beat up and we get passed to the side. The enemy comes against us. I am sick of seeing our people get beat up! God has plans and purposes over your life. I am convicted by that today. Step up and step into his purpose. Put on your pads! Put on the full armor of God! He is with you.

That’s what it says in Ephesians 6:10

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[c]against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

I was talking this week with one of our marines who attends this location and we were talking about mission dissemination. He said anytime marines go on missions, they are given a mission briefing. He said they use this acronym called SMEAC: Situation Mission Execution Administration and Logistics and Command Signal. It starts with situation, which is going and looking at what you are entering into. The topography and the enemy strengths and weaknesses. And we see in verse 12 right here the enemy defined. The spiritual forces of evil. Paul is writing this letter in Rome under Roman captivity. What’s ironic is that flesh and blood is what’s holding him exactly where he is at. But Paul knew something. He knew who his enemy was. His enemy wasn’t the military man right in front of him.

Who do you see as your enemy? The person that annoys you! The person right in front of you. The person in your way. The person who is working against you. It doesn’t mean that they are your enemy. Who are you fighting against? Paul, in captivity, sees the people who are fighting against him not as his enemy but in fact, he sees them come to faith because of his view of God and his view on them.

Are you fighting your spouse? Are you fighting your neighbor or your boss or your coworker? Our call is not to fight the person in front of us. Our call is to push back darkness. Our call is not to fight the person in front of us but to push back the forces of evil and the kingdom of darkness.

So situation and then mission. Mission is exactly what you need to accomplish. Ephesians 2:10 says that God prepares good works in advance for us. I love that passage. Now, that is part of our mission but we see in Acts 1:8 that we are called to be a witness but we are witness only when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and gives us power. Our calling is to get into the presence of God, to seek the Lord, to get into his Word and to allow his Word to get into us. And then we move. Mission is not just Second Saturday Serve. Mission is not just adopt a block. It is fighting in the unseen. It is going to the invisible and allowing the Spirit of God to work within. To engage with the Holy Spirit is the beginning of a revelation of God’s mission over your life.

A long time NCCer and film director, John Scanlon, said it this way. If you want to know what the mission is, spend time with the General.

Ok, so situation, mission and then the third piece is execution. It’s the nuts and bolts. It is what you actually carry out.

Then the fourth piece is administration and logistics. Where you are going, what you are doing and when you are doing it. This is what you have at your access. This is the resources you have been given to accomplish your mission. This is where I want to spend our time today.

We got back to the Scriptures, Ephesians 6:13

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Paul is chained to one of the best fighting soldiers in the world. So he has firsthand sight of all the resources they have. He decides to use the Roman’s weapons as the metaphor for what we need going into spiritual battles.

It says put on the full armor of God. You have to put it on. It doesn’t just happen by default. You have to put that thing on in the spirit realm. You have to put on peace and hope and salvation and faith. The marine friend I mentioned earlier said the number one thing in preparing for battle is what you do prior to battle. Marines train hard. It is not just a matter of training but preparing as if you were in battle. Bobby Knight said most people have the will to win but few people have the will to prepare to win.

Verse 14 says stand firm with the belt of truth. The Roman belt would have been made out of leather and it is wrapped around the waist so that it holds the cloak or toga in place. And it is also used to hold the weapon to put a sword through. So it was a key part of the armor. So if you take the belt away, everything is free flowing and out there and it puts the soldier in a position where he is not in readiness. He doesn’t have access to his weapon. It tied everything together. Truth ties everything together. It pulls everything tight.

The most life-changing summer of my life was when I interned one summer with a bunch of my buddies. God had got ahold of our hearts and we were hot for the Holy Spirit and we went from just having fun together to being truth-tellers into each other’s lives. If you want to seek God in the mornings, you have to turn the TV and the video games off at night. If you want to stop partying, you have to stop hanging around with the party crew. We would tell ourselves these little lies that would allow us to remain with sin in our lives and allowed us to remain in these cyclical patterns of false in our lives. We would wonder why we couldn’t let something go and it was because we were telling ourselves these little lies that allowed us to keep those things. All of us do this. There are little lies we tell ourselves or we allow the enemy to tell us and we believe them. These little lies that we tell ourselves. If you have good intentions but you buy into these little lies, it can compromise your ability to battle. It can compromise your ability to step into the kingdom of God.

At the end of the day, we have to surrender to the truth of the gospel. Are you willing to lay down your pride before the Lord and allow Him to speak truth into your life? Are you willing to lay down your pride and receive truth that might be spoken into you?

Verse 14 says put on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate of soldier covered their heart and their kidneys and their stomach. It covered their vital organs. So what Paul is saying is that righteousness covers the vital parts of your relationship with God. II Corinthians 5:21 says to be reconciled to God. God made Him who has no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might be the righteousness of God.

Verse 15 says feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Some historians credit the footwear of the Roman soldier with their success. They have these shoes that underneath had these spikes that came out, like cleats but more intense. And that would put them in a state of readiness. They would go into different terrain or maybe on the side of a hill but they always had sure footing when they were fighting the enemy. That footing is key to the success of their battle.

We mentor kids over at the Southeast White House and we have found that when there is no peace in the home, it makes it much more difficult for kids to excel in education or in relationship and respect for others. There is a lack of balance. So we work within the home as well to try to bring peace, not just helping out with homework. When you don’t have peace in your home, it affects the rest of your home because there is an unbalance there. It puts you on the defensive in other areas of your life. But God desires to bring peace to you.

Nina and I pray for the peace of God over our home. We see two kinds of peace in the Scriptures. First is a peace with God. Romans 5:1 says we are justified so that we can have peace with God through Jesus Christ. The second peace is the peace of God. Philippians 4:7 says may be have the peace of God which transcends all understanding to guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. It invades every part of who you are. It invades your heart and your soul and your spirit. It changes everything within you and everything around you. I have found that if I don’t have peace of God within my own heart, then I don’t have peace of God within my house. There is a personal responsibility to seek the Holy Spirit and his peace within our own hearts.

I believe that God desires to grant us peace. Jesus said I came to give you peace.

Have you ever heard that phrase ‘get a grip’? You start to get pulled into the craziness going on around you and someone says, ‘Get a grip!’ I was praying yesterday about this message and I was praying that somebody here would receive a full measure of peace. You are in a place where you are trying to get a grip and God wants to grant you peace today, a peace that transcends your mind’s understanding. He desires to give that to you. Receive that today and grip onto it and wear it.

I recently found myself in an argument with my neighbor. It wasn’t my argument but I stepped into the argument. I stepped into the argument and all of that ferociousness that was going that way started coming this way. This person was out of control. They were coming at me and there was some nastiness coming out of that mouth. Thank God there were not little children around at that moment. Everything in my gut, all I wanted to do was just yell at this person. So I told him that. I said, ‘I just want to yell at you right now!’ Then I said, ‘But I’m not going to.’ I might have raised my voice a little. But I wanted to treat him with the respect that other people want to be treated with by you. And it caught me off guard because it worked. There was silence. Alright, ok, have you seen these rosebushes? It was awkward but we went our ways. That exact morning, I was praying for patience and for the peace of God. I got up that morning and I was interceding for patience and peace in my heart before that situation ever came up. Why? Not because I had an abundance of it but because if there was a lacking area in my heart, I couldn’t get a grip on peace and patience, so I was seeking God for peace in my life.

How many of you know that where you are short, if you give yourself to God’s Word, if you put yourself in position to be used by God, where you are short or lacking, God will give you more. Where you come up weak, God will become strong. Only if you ready yourself! Only if you put on the full armor of God and you prepare yourself to be used by Him. The very area where I felt like I couldn’t be used that day, I interceded and I put the readiness on my feet and God set it up to bring a change of course in my life and a change of course in somebody else’s life.

Verse 16

taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

The Romans had a long rectangular knee to chin shield. This thing was huge. In combat, what would happen was the enemy would come and take their arrows in cloth and then dip them in fish and they would light them on fire and then they would shoot all these arrows at the enemy and it was deadly. So the shield was designed in a way that they covered it in leather and then they would soak it in cold water so when these arrows would come and hit their shield, it would immediately extinguish the fire of the enemy! Isn’t that awesome! So Jesus comes along and He says, when somebody is healed, He says your faith has made you well. Your faith pushes back darkness. Your faith aggressively takes a step forward in the Spirit realm.

Here’s what’s awesome about the Roman soldier and his shield. He would take that shield and it wasn’t just used in a defensive manner. It was used as offense as well. So it had a handle on one side and on the other side there was this protective steel covering and that was used, you could actually punch somebody with your shield. You could use it as an offensive weapon. Faith is to be used to take ground for the kingdom. To attack the enemy, living in faith is playing offense.

We are standing in faith right now with one of our volunteers here. One of our volunteers at Barracks Row, her dad has recently contracted cancer. So we are standing up. We are standing firm. We are standing in faith with her dad. It has been rough. He has gone through four rounds of chemo and just postponed the fifth round because his body can’t take it right now. He just went through surgery just so that he could eat food. Yet he continues to have faith. He continues to push back darkness and push back the enemy with faith in his heart. She shares a Scripture with us. Paul and Silas when they were at their lowest, they were in prison, and they praised the Lord in their lowest place, and in their lowest place, people came to faith in Christ. Because of their praise and because of their positioning to worship God, their faith was expanded and used in their lowest place. The last update she shared about her dad said she was there with her dad but her brother had been spending all day every day with my dad and she is happy that her brother gets that quality time with their dad and gets to see how God is protecting my dad. My brother is against following Christ but I know God is working in him. My dad told me if this is what it takes for your brother to come back to Christ, I would do it over and over and over again. She said my dad knows the bottom line. Do you know what she is saying right there? We do not fight against flesh and blood but against the rulers and the enemy of your soul. She asked us to pray that God will work in her brother’s heart as well as insure that her dad’s procedure goes well and pray that she keeps remembering this bottom line, that when her patience runs thin and her frustrations run high, he is going to battle with cancer. He is battling cancer but he is not just battling in the physical realm. Psalm 2 says God is the glory and the lifter of our head. He is the glory and the lifter of our head. He is not looking at cancer. He is looking at the enemy of his son’s soul and he is calling faith into his son. He is speaking light and living light in a dark place. Faith is not just defensive measures for yourself. Faith is going on the offense for your brother. Faith is pushing back and taking a fight to the enemy and calling out the forces of good in the kingdom of God.

I think we make the mistake that faith comes in single size servings. It doesn’t. Faith is like grape nuts. You pour milk over it and it start multiplying! It expands. There is a generational impact to your faith. Faith expressed, faith exercised multiplies. There are generations beyond what you can see. Faith is playing offense.

Verse 17 says take the helmet of salvation. To go into battle without a helmet would be ridiculous. Any blow to the head would be fatal. The helmet is key. The greatest battlefield is the battlefield of our mind. How does the enemy attack you in your mind? Doubt? Discouragement? Lust? Envy? Pride? Being content in the wrong things? He attacks us in our minds first. Jesus died for the helmet of salvation. He died so that we might be saved. Put that helmet of salvation on. We have a battle in our minds. Do not allow the enemy a foothold in your life. Battle in the spirit realm.

Philippians 4:8 says

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

May our minds be restored to the joy of our salvation!

Verse 17 also says we are to take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. The sword that the Roman soldier used was about 18 inches long and it was sharp on both sides. The Greek word means to utter, to pronounce or speak the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword. When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He spoke the Word of God. We are called to speak the Word of God into our life and to speak the Word of God into our situations.

Our church staff leaves today for a couple days on a play and pray retreat. We will pray into each other’s lives. We will speak the Word of God. The Word of God takes us on the offensive to find victory over our situations.

Speak the Word of God into your situation. Call out his goodness into your circumstances. It doesn’t matter what your job is, speak the Word of God. It brings life.

I’ll close with this. Last week at one of our services, I met Dr. Thomas Matthew and his wife Dana. It was such a privilege to meet them because they have a key part in one of our friend’s lives. It was in May 2013 that Dick and Ruth Foth were on a retreat together and Ruth slumped over and her head went to the left. She experienced what doctor’s call a sudden cardiac arrest where the electrical system in your heart shorts and your heart stops pushing blood out. They called 911 and EMS showed up and they shocked her back to life and put her in a helicopter and took her to the hospital. She had been in a coma for over a day when Dr. Matthew came into that room doing his rounds. He said this to Dick, ‘Dick, I have a sense this is going to be ok.’ 88 percent of people who experience sudden cardiac death die. Of the remaining 12 percent, 1 in 20 will come through it without brain damage. So the odds are slim. Then Dr. Matthew said something that caught Dick Foth off guard. He said, ‘Can I pray for Ruth?’ And he put his hand on her and he began to pray for God to heal Ruth from the top of her head to the end of her toes. At 2:10 am, Ruth awoke. She is still making a mean apple pie! She is doing great! God has healed her! A doctor came along in the ready position, posturing himself with the armor of God and did something outside of his duty. He stepped up and he became the hands and feet of Christ. But that only happens if he puts on the armor of God.

Let’s pray.

God we give You praise today. Lord right now I pray that You would intervene in our lives. I pray that You would call us out Lord Jesus. I pray against the forces of darkness. I pray against brokenness in marriage. I pray against brokenness in relationships. I pray against habits and addictions and against those darts of the enemy that have come against us. I pray for your purposes God. I pray for reconciliation. I pray Lord that somebody here today would reconcile. Lord I pray that You would bring us close together in our families. I pray that You would bring healing into our lives. We pray today that You would help us to stand up and to put our pads on and put the armor of God on and to be confident in who You have made us to be and the resources You have put on our back. We will do it! In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Transcribed by:

Ministry Transcription

margaretsalyers@

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