On a Mission - Leaders' Talks

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hall.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Today, be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

So, as I said, my message today, actually I didn't say it yet, but my message today is called On Mission.

Are you on mission?

Are we as the church on mission?

And when I was a child, I was fascinated by this concept, being on a mission, having a target, and being able to accomplish that goal.

And I actually created this secret organization.

It was called Carriers of Freedom's Light.

And it was different agents in the field responsible for taking the Word of God into the darkest places.

They had support that was technological and tactical that could support them in this.

There was a worldwide underground tunnel system that would make them able to carry the gospel everywhere.

And yeah, I had a really big imagination.

But in order to accomplish any mission, you have to have a team.

Now, that's not necessarily the most popular thing in our movie culture today.

It's always about the one person, you know, 007 or James Bond or the person who knows it all, has it all, and can accomplish everything on their own.

But if anything is going to be accomplished of significance, then it has to be done through a team.

And so that's what I'm going to be talking about today is we're going to dive into the team of the church and we're going to see if we are on mission and how we can do better at getting on mission.

So today I want to talk about first what is our mission.

I think most of the people in this room would be able to answer that very quickly.

In Mark 16, verse 15, it says, Go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone.

Mark 16:15

Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 says, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19

Very simply, our job is to build and grow disciples.

It's to disciple a nation, it's to disciple the world and to make them aware of the incredible gift that God has given us, salvation through Jesus Christ.

But what is the church's role in that?

Ephesians chapter 4 is very closely tied to or almost synonymous with 1 Corinthians chapter 12, which is where we're going to dive into.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

But Ephesians chapter 4, verse 12 says that the church's responsibility or the gifts that God has given the church, their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build up the church, which is the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:12

We are called to build up the body.

We are called to work together as a team to encourage and build up each other so that when we leave this place, when we walk outside these doors, when we leave our small group, we're able to make a difference in the world around us.

We're able to win that person.

We're able to evangelize.

So without any further ado, let's look at what this team dynamic looks like.

I took a class which was really fun on team dynamics and group dynamics, and it's so interesting to see how groups will go through different phases.

And I think we'll see kind of a transition that we kind of move through in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

So 1 Corinthians chapter 12, starting with verse 1, we're gonna see that first we have to join the team.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Second, we have to be equipped on the team.

And third, we have to find our place on the team.

So reading starting in verse 1.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't want you to misunderstand this.

You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols.

So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Holy Spirit will curse Jesus.

And no one can say Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit.

And this is the NLT.

So first point under that main point, main point, joining the team.

First point is the Holy Spirit is the identifier of team members.

We see this if we jump down, or actually in Ephesians 1, verse 13, it says, and we believed in Christ.

Ephesians 1:13

He identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.

Another translation says that it's the seal upon your life.

That when you asked Jesus to come into your heart, when you confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart that Jesus is Lord, and you turned from your sins and your wicked ways, God saved you and you are redeemed.

You are his and the Holy Spirit was given to you as a seal on your life, as an identifier of God saying, You are mine.

That is my child, that is my son and my daughter.

And this passage starts off by just identifying who is on our team.

The people who are on our team have been sealed, have been marked by the Holy Spirit.

And anyone who has the Holy Spirit will not curse Jesus.

And nobody can say, Jesus is my Lord, honestly and truly, except through the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is the identifier of those team members.

The Holy Spirit is also the unifier of that team.

Starting with verse 4, still in 1 Corinthians 12.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.

There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.

God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in us.

We now see that the same spirit is at work in each and every believer.

And to me, this is so cool because there is that seal on every one of our lives.

God is so big and he's so omnipotent that he is actually living inside of each and every one of us, which unifies us as a body.

And what we're gonna see is as we learn and as we grow and we cultivate that connection, we can become one mind as God is.

And we see this also in verse 13.

If we jump down 1 Corinthians 12, 13, some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.

But we have all been baptized into one body by one spirit, and we all share the same spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the unifier of the body.

We may be rich, we may be poor, maybe they're homeless.

It doesn't matter what socioeconomic status that you may uh possess, we all are unified in the body of Christ.

And this is what's made the Church of Acts stand out from everywhere else because that's all people had to hold on to was their socioeconomic status.

Like I am rich or I am this or I am that.

And people wanted it so bad to be a part of that.

But when they saw a church unifying across those lines, across those standards, it stood out to them that people would be willing to do that.

The Holy Spirit is the unifier of the team.

Being equipped.

So moving down to point number two, once we have joined the team, there is an equipping that begins to take place.

And we see this in verse 8 through 11.

To one person, the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice.

To another, the same spirit gives a message of special knowledge.

The same spirit gives the great faith to another, and to someone else, the one spirit gives the gift of healing.

He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy.

He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit.

Still, another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

It is the one and only one Spirit who distributes all these gifts.

He alone decides which gift each person should receive.

This is so cool to me because as we plug in to the Holy Spirit and we cultivate that connection with him through reading God's word, through meditating on God's word, through worship and through prayer, he begins to change who we are.

He begins to change our minds.

He begins, uh the fruits of the Spirit begin to become visible in our lives.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, we begin to change.

Our character begins to change.

And as each and every one of us begin to change together, we become more unified.

I mean, if every person in the church displayed all of the gifts of the or the fruits of the spirit at all times, wow, we would be a happy group of people, right?

But we're learning and we're growing and we have the responsibility to cultivate that connection that we have with God through prayer, through reading God's word.

Next, we begin to find our place on the team.

First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12, starting in verse 12.

1 Corinthians 12:12

Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.

If the foot says, I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand, that doesn't make it any less part of the body.

And if the ear says, I am not a part of the body because I am not an ear, would that make it any less a part of the body?

If the whole body were an eye, how would it hear?

Or if the whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

Paul here is affirming the necessity for every team member in the body.

And I believe he's discussing a very typical problem that we see in the church today.

We look at the giftings that we have, or maybe we don't even know the giftings that we have, but we're looking at other people and we're saying, you know what, I'm not gifted with being a pastor.

I'm not that part of the body.

Or, you know what, I'm not gifted with teaching, I'm not that part of the body.

So therefore, I will do nothing.

And it becomes so easy to do that, especially in modern church, because the people who, you know, are on stage or the worship team or whoever it is usually are gifted in certain areas, and it's very visible, and it's so easy to be like, oh, I can't do that.

How am I going to do that?

How am I going to be able to impact people?

You have to have a platform, you have to have a uh social media following, you have to be an influencer, you have to do this, all this stuff.

And Paul is saying, just because you're not a hand doesn't mean that you're not part of the body.

You have a specific role to play in the body, and it takes some time sometimes to figure it what that part is.

But he also talks about how there is beauty in this team.

But our bodies, in verse 18, but our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.

How strange a body would be if it only had one part.

Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.

I think this is so kind of comedic how Paul is painting this picture for us.

He's like, how strange would it be if the body only had one part?

Like if there was just an arm flopping down the road over there, or you know, a foot just like its toes moving out into, I don't know, walking, I don't know.

It's just it's very funny uh kind of uh imagery that he gives.

And Matthew Henry commentary puts it this way: variety in the members of the body contributes to the beauty of it.

What a monster would a body be if it were all ear or eye or arm.

So it is for the beauty and good appearance of the church that there should be diversity of gifts and offices in it.

There is so much beauty in the body.

God loves variety.

I remember when I was on a missions trip in Uganda and all of these African children were coming up to me and they were saying, Why can't I have your skin color?

They were like, if I could give you my blood and you give me your blood, would it change my skin color?

I was like, actually, scientifically, no.

We can exchange blood if we have the same type and actually help each other in that way.

It was kind of interesting.

But I what I told them was I was like, God loves variety.

God didn't want everyone to look like I do, God didn't want everyone to look like you do.

He wanted people of all skin colors and hair types, and God loves variety.

Let's leave it at that.

He loves variety, and in the body of Christ we display this variety, and we also need the team.

We need each other.

We need the body of Christ, and Paul emphasizes this in verse 21.

The eye can never say to the hand, I don't need you.

The head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.

In our culture today, the church has made a lot of mistakes.

People have been offended, there's been false doctrine, there's been mistakes on leadership's part, and so many of us in our culture today are just like, I'm done.

I don't need the body, I don't need the church.

I can listen to a podcast on my way to work, I can put on worship music, but I want to tell you right now that Paul is saying that we need the body, we need each other.

We need the diversity of people coming together with common values and common visions and mission.

We need each other.

So, in review, we see that we first have to join the team by confessing our sins and by believing in Jesus and allowing him to change us, we are able to enter into the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit as that identifier.

And the Holy Spirit is also the unifier of that team.

We become equipped through the working of God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit revealing his word to us, we become equipped to actually contribute in the body of Christ.

And then it's finding our place, it's realizing that every member is necessary, seeing the beauty of the uniqueness of the body and understanding our need for each other.

The only thing left to answer is are we on mission?

And I think there are two questions that we can ask ourselves to be able to anticipate that or to have a better understanding or an assessment of if we are.

The first question is: are we connected to the body in relationship, in blood-stained allies?

Do you have people in your life in the body that you can go to to receive encouragement, to receive reproof from, to be able to uh who can walk with you through those hard times?

And then the second question: are you using your spiritual giftings to build up the body according to Ephesians chapter four?

God has given each of us unique talents and unique abilities that He has not given us to use only for ourselves, but He wants the entire body to be built up and to be encouraged by these giftings.

I love, you know, a church that is on mission.

We can all it takes is opening the book of Acts.

And I remember as I think I was 13 or 14, reading through the book of Acts for the first time, and it was so exciting to me because I was seeing a church that wasn't just attending Sunday service.

They were active and moving and living for Jesus.

They were being thrown in prison, they were selling their property to help people in the church.

And I always thought this was a fun challenge because uh there was a time period where I was around a lot of people who didn't believe in tithing, and they were like, you know, tithing is not New Testament.

I said, You're right, the the New Testament doesn't say that we have to tithe, but when we look at the church in Acts, they sold what they had to give to the church, to build up the body.

And I was like, how much of a challenge is that for us?

You know, when we see someone going through a hard time, how willing are we to give our car away?

I I don't know that I'm there yet.

It's such a challenge to us.

But we see other things in the church, and two incredible examples, I think, are Philip and Stephen.

You know, in the church there was a need.

There was a need for basically food distribution to the widows.

And so these people became part of a team that was in charge of distributing food.

Doesn't sound super spiritual, doesn't sound super exciting, but we look at these men outside of the church and we see that they are acting in another calling.

And I think sometimes we confuse the two.

We're like, well, I'm an evangelist, so I can't do, I don't know, A, B, and C.

But God has given us many gifts and talents, and we use them in different ways and in different places.

Stephen, as we know, he was stoned preaching what the longest recorded sermon to the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Philip had a really cool experience where he was basically teleported from one location to another to bring the gospel to that location.

Like that is some pretty inspiring stuff.

But when we look at the Church of Acts, we see a church that is living and breathing and active, building up each other, supporting each other, encouraging each other, and then going out into the world and changing the world.

We are the church, people of diverse backgrounds, socioeconomic status, personality, and gifting.

But unified and united together through the belief in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us, we can bring a kingdom of God revolution to this city, to this county, and I believe to this nation.

We are called to advance God's kingdom in this world, to bring kingdom of God revolution to the Rockies.

But it starts here.

And it starts by building up the church and encouraging each other to go out.

Father God, thank you that we are the church.

God, we are diverse in so many ways, and so many times that that contributes to the messiness that we're rubbing up against each other.

We've got different personalities, but God, if we can remember our focus, if we can remember who we are serving and the mission at hand and the urgency, Father God, of that mission, God, we can put aside our differences because we can focus on the mission that you've given us.

I pray that we would do this, God, and contribute to the work that you have for the church.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you for listening to the Born for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steveholtonline.org.

God bless.