OCT 3 2021 | Takin’ It to the Streets S1E1 | Living in All Authority

Sea Change Church · Takin' It to the Streets · "Living in All Authority" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · October 3, 2021
Matthew 28:16-20
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning. I'm Trevor, and I work with the junior high here at the church. I would like to do a scripture reading for you this morning from Matthew 28, one of my favorite verses. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And then Jesus said to them, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teach them to obey my teachings, and behold, I'll be with you always, until the end of the age. The Word of the Lord. Take this message to my brother. You will find him everywhere. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, no. Take it into the streets. Take it into the streets. Take it into the streets. Take it into the streets. Yeah, taking it to the streets. Right on. Thank you, Jeff, for that and kind of creating that as we are in a brand new series.

It is week one of this new series called Taking It to the Streets, and we are going to spend a bunch of time in the Great Commission. This fall, we want to activate your faith, to care for others around the world, taking dominion over your own heart, over the corner that you live on. The actual place you live, the church in which you go to, and to the four corners of the earth. And so this is an activating faith as we look into this.

Let me just pray. We'll get started. Lord Jesus, I want to thank you, God, for this new series, that you would speak to each of us, Lord God, in a way that defines your calling individually upon us. Let the Holy Spirit just intertwine itself upon the Word of God as I speak to use anything in your power, God, to bring dominion into our lives, into this world. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm going to focus on the word in this passage, authority.

It's a really important word. There's a difference between influence and authority. And today I experienced a man walking his dog in front of my house. If you live in front of a high dog walking area, okay, so you know what I'm talking about. Obviously, some of you. There's cell phone voice guy or gal. Like, just because you can't hear them doesn't mean your mic stopped working in your iPhone or your Samsung. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, in front of my house at 7 in the morning.

It's all good. I'm just trying to love on people. Well, today I had a man trying to do, work with his dog through influence as opposed to authority. And so about 7 in the morning, I opened my door and the sun's, it's just nice, but we get a lot of dog walkers and I learned if I put my dog out there, then we get a lot of like back and forth. So I got to wait till a little bit later in the day when the tide goes down of dog walkers in the early morning.

And I hear this gentleman going, come on, don't you want to come on for a good walk? Don't you want to walk? You don't want to stay here, do you? And I'm thinking, okay, that's subtle approach, Caesar. I've watched the show on TV and come on, buddy. You don't, you want to be a good boy, don't you? Don't you want to be a good boy? Three and a half minutes later, like I'm still sitting there trying to just spend some time with the Lord, have a little meditation time.

Come on, don't you want to go? And I'm like, I just want to walk out there and go, dude, pull the leash. Pull the leash. There's a difference between influence and authority. And Jesus is having a pull the leash moment in this scripture. And I want to make it very definitive and clear where we need to use influence in regard to working with others in relationships and where we actually need to use authority. I think if we blur that, we get things wrong.

For too long, the church was using authority instead of influence. And now they're trying to use influence, sometimes at the oversight of the actual gospel. And they're foregoing authority and power. Let me say that authority and power happens more in the existential realm. What do I mean by that? The invisible realm of prayer, thanksgiving, forgiveness, fasting. There's this whole invisible realm of authority that we have oftentimes ceded to the enemy or just ceded for some reason to complacence.

And we try then to have influence in other people's lives with zero authority. And I want to challenge you as we move into this. Before Jesus, as you'll see in a moment, sends anyone out to make a difference in the world, he sets it upon one truth. I now have been given all authority. Now remember, Satan had come to him and said, I have authority. Remember? But the cross changed all that. So Satan comes up and says, I can give you this.

I can give you this. And Jesus, after he's risen from the dead, comes back with his disciples, stands there and he says, by the way, things have changed. I have all authority. Therefore, we'll talk about that in just a moment. So I wrote today that influence is different than authority. And if you want to look at a secular realm, it would be the difference in diplomacy versus war. So diplomacy is we're going to send some diplomats over.

We're going to talk. We're going to have tea. We're going to wear really nice pressed fitted suits. And we're going to try to talk through this. And there's a time for that. But then there's other times when war seems to have been necessary to protect sometimes the vulnerable. And so there is a difference in the real world between diplomacy and war. I put in the battle between spiritual diplomacy versus spiritual authority.

Many believers choose surrender. Let me say this again. In the battle between spiritual diplomacy, and I'm speaking existentially, in prayer, in faith, in perseverance. We'll see faith in a moment to overcome doubt. Many believers choose surrender. You see, there's some options. There's diplomacy. And I think in our relational world, I think we want to use diplomacy the majority of the time. We want to use diplomacy and caring for people, being really wise, speaking to people who don't have the same beliefs as us, caring for them, being there for them, using diplomacy.

But in the hidden moments, in the invisible moments, we are taking authority of every argument and pretense that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And so I think in the church, many on the church that I'm seeing are trying to have all this influence, trying to use arguments of the day to influence people with zero power because they don't know their authority. Today, I want to talk to you about your authority.

We're going to talk about three practical steps to living. It's going to help you. Three practical steps for living. You'll see them in your notes. First, in regard to living in the authority given to you in Christ. It's not your authority. It's Jesus' authority. How do you live within it? Three words. Place, cultivate, exercise. Let me say it again. Let's do a Miles thing from the rock. I'm going to say place. You're going to say place.

All right. I love this, right? I can just be Miles. Place. Place. Cultivate. Cultivate. Oh, we should do this more often. All right. Exercise. Exercise. Oh, we might do that more often. I like it. I learned that from Miles. Place. If you're going to live in the authority, not on the edges of authority. Don't live on the edges of authority. If you're going to live in the authority given to you in Christ, you first need to place the entirety of your life under the authority of Christ.

If you are going to live in the authority Christ has given you, you need to place the entirety of your life under the authority of Christ. Two, cultivate. Cultivate. Cultivate a biblically grounded understanding of the authority God has that gives you in Christ. You need to cultivate. You need to understand. The enemy doesn't want you to know the weapons that you have available to you. He doesn't want you to know. He wants to keep you ignorant and away from those.

The word of God will show you what those are. Cultivate. And three, exercise spiritual authority and dominion over every inch of territory in your life. So you exercise authority over every inch of territory in your life. You're diplomatic on the outside, but you are at war in regard to the existential things of the faith against the powers of darkness that are in this world. And it talks about in 2 Corinthians 6, 4 through 10.

As we look at that, we'll look at those scriptures. Before we do that, there's just one quick thing I want to say about the transitory nature of doubt. So I was, Harry and I had a little conversation about this this week. And if you read, go to verse 1. Then the 11 disciples, remember they lost Judas and Matthias was not there yet. So Matthew 29, 16. Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus told them to go.

When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And I'm like, so Jesus died on the cross. You saw it. He's dead. He shows back up, okay, at this place. Remember, he told you to go there beforehand. And then he actually shows up at the place he told you to go, which, you know, it's a long way. It's probably a two, three-hour drive from Galilee. Maybe two and a half hours, I don't know, from Galilee up to Jerusalem.

They're there. Jesus shows up. And you believe and worship because there's Jesus. But it says some doubted. And I'm like, how do you doubt? And it was really interesting. I had two, as I was talking to people about this, the thing that Harry said to me was, I love that Jesus still shows up to the doubters. He goes, I love that he includes the doubters. And I was like, okay, yeah, I kind of like that. But I feel like we're past doubt at this point.

Like, I'm kind of more on the Paul side. Let John, Mark go with Barnabas, and I'll just take, you know, somebody else. You know, but so I like that opinion. And then I talked to somebody else, one of our congregants, and I showed them this. I said, what do you think? They go, oh, I would have been in the doubting camp. That's so me. And I was like, okay, so it's not always my own perspective that actually has full credence in the world.

I'm learning that, not to be tied to my own opinions. Some really good insights on there. Here's what I found out. This doubt was transitory. We've heard that word a lot lately on things that might not be transitory, but nonetheless. This doubt was transitory. Verse 16 and 17. When the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go, when they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. I want to say that every one of these 11 disciples, minus John, who I'm sure he was very disappointed about it, died a martyr's death for Jesus.

Now, John was sent to the island of Patmos. Remember, he got revelation given to him there. He was also boiled in oil, yeah, but lived. I have a feeling John was really upset with God that he wasn't allowed to be martyred for Jesus and die for Jesus. I really think that. I believe that the biggest cross that John had to bear is that everyone got to die for Jesus except him, and he was Jesus' closest friend. That's just my own personal thought.

Well, how then, if some of them were doubting, how did they get from doubting to dying? How did they get from doubting to dying? I put doubt was assuaged in the doing. You see, as we know, 10 of these 11 disciples were martyred for their faith in Christ, and only John, the writer of Revelation, dying of natural causes. What they did was, after they doubted, they went, walked through the wall of their own doubt and actually did what they thought Jesus had told them to do in faith.

Doubting is never assuaged in the giving up. Doubting, how did they go from doubt to death? They did. They went from doubt to death in the doing. Doubting. And so, maybe you're at a moment in your life, and I thought this was really powerful before we get into those three quick words that we're looking at. If you're at a place where you're like, well, I don't know, and I'm not sure, and God's let me down, or, yeah, Jesus said let them down.

He died. It was a big letdown. It was a big buzzkill for all of them. And then all of a sudden, he shows up there still doubting, but they go do anyways. You see, that's the difference between faith and doubt, because faith actually doesn't exist without doubt. What do you mean? Because the nature of faith is to supersede doubt. If faith, if doubt does not exist, then there is no definition of faith. If doubt does not exist, there is no definition of faith, because faith then is called foregone conclusion, and it's no longer faith.

It's just a certainty. Now, faith actually, it says in the scripture, becomes a certainty after you assuage doubt. So if you are a doubter, if you're like Harry, one of the doubters, I'm just kidding. If you're doubting Harry, I'm just kidding. How do you overcome that and walk as more than a conqueror? Get about doing it in faith. All of these doubters became martyrs. They've got to the point of dying through doing.

So that's the transitory nature of doubt. I believe that doubt is transitory. Don't let doubt put a root of doubt in you that becomes a full-blown, you know, tree that bears fruit of doubt on a regular basis. Chop that down, get to the root of it, and get after what you are called to do. Living in authority. Now, actually, there's two things I'm going to say before I move into that. Living in authority. Verse 18. Jesus came to them and said, go change the world.

No. Jesus came to them and said, all authority, not some, all authority in heaven and where? On earth. Remember, the devil made that claim with Jesus and Matthew. In heaven on earth has been given to me. Next word. Therefore. Therefore. The therefore in this passage. The therefore, the entirety of Christ's commission. Follows the therefore. The entirety of Christ's commission. All the going into the streets. All the winning to disciples.

All of the everything. All the power of Jesus that he promises. Comes after the therefore. And prior to the therefore comes a key word. Authority. He says, the entirety of Christ's commission. The therefore hinges upon the cornerstone. Of the disciples understanding of Christ's authority. As you look at that. The entirety of Christ's commission. Therefore hinges upon this idea of authority. If you do not understand. The authority of Jesus Christ.

If you do not understand the authority that Jesus Christ has given you. You won't make it to the other side of therefore. Does that make sense? All of the stuff. And so many of us are trying to do all the stuff. Right? We're trying to love people. We're trying to care. We're trying to pray for the sick. We're trying to be Christians. We're trying to do what Jesus says. But he bases the entirety of the doing. On what comes before the therefore.

Therefore. And that's his authority. And I want to say. Scripturally speaking. If you don't understand the authority. And walk in the authority. In the existential. You're going to have a vastly. Powerless. That's not the right way to say it. But a. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. You know. Activity. Trying to follow Christ. I guess your discipleship will have less power. I think that's what I'm trying to say. That is what I'm trying to say.

So write that down. That if you don't understand that your authority in Christ. That your discipleship. And your Christ following. Will be less powerful. Let's go to number one. Place. First thing we see here. Is place the entirety of your life. Under the authority and lordship of Jesus Christ. We cannot expect all authority. While living in partial submission. It's just how the chemistry of the spiritual faith works.

We cannot expect all authority. While living in partial submission. I believe that submission is the throttle. Obedience is the throttle of power. That as you obey. As you come under the authority of Christ. Then he gives you authority. Because you're further on in the camp. As opposed to having one foot in Christ's camp. And one foot in the camp of the world. As we move forward. So we see that as we go forward. So the question is.

Do you have the entirety of your life. Under the authority of Christ. These disciples did not become martyrs. By allowing space for partial authority. Let me just say that. These disciples did not become martyrs. Martyrs. By allowing space for partial authority. In their lives. How much space in the territory of your life. Is there so you can go get yours. How much in the map. If you were to draw a map of your life. That is like a map.

Like a territorial map. That used to do like in the 1800s. Or whatever it would be. And there was these different territories. There was your wants. And your loves. And your passions. And your greed. And your desire. And your hope. And your forgiveness. Like what of those territories. Would have the flag of Christ in them. And what would have the flag of self in them. And I want to say. If you want power. The more you step under the authority of Jesus.

You put your life under complete submission to Christ. The more power you're going to have. Place. Keith Green. One of my favorite worship leaders. If you've not listened to Keith Green. It'll sound a little hokey to you at some times. Because it's from the mid-70s. But it is an amazing worship leader. And I really built my faith on the worship of Keith Green. And if we had worship leaders. That thought more like Keith Green today.

I think we'd be in a different place. In regard to some of the places we're going in worship. Keith Green says this. That's what lordship is. Christ reigning as a supreme authority over our lives. Making Jesus lord of our life. Is not something passive. It's a state of. It's not a state of being. It's a state of doing. Those whom Jesus recognizes as his own. Are those who do the will of his father. In heaven. Keith Green.

Number two. So we're going to go from place. Place your life under his authority. To cultivate. Cultivate a biblically grounded understanding. Of your identity. And authority in Christ. The way to know your authority in Christ. Is in the doing. And it's in the educating. It is knowing what the bible says about you. It is knowing who God says you are. If you do not spend time in the bible. You are not going to have an understanding.

Or the tools. Or weapons necessary. In order to take dominion. Over the different elements of your life. Let's just go into Romans 8.37 and 39. It's in the passage. It says this. In all these things. We are what? More than conquerors. Not just a conqueror. You are a super conqueror. You are actually more than a conqueror. Through him. Why? Who loved us. You are a conqueror. Because God loves you. Not because you have power.

Not because you have authority. You are a conqueror. Because of God's love. You have to know that. For I am convinced that neither death nor life. Neither angels nor demons. Neither the present nor the future. Nor any powers. There is that power word. Neither height nor depth. Nor anything in all of creation. Will be able to separate us from the love of God. That is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sometimes you need to hear that scripture.

There are times. Probably throughout the week. Multiple times. Where that scripture will give you the sustenance. To survive a moment of doubt. To survive a moment of panic. To survive a moment of depression. To survive you fill in the blank for your life. You see when you do this. You actually. When you get into the word of God. You actually expose yourself to the supernatural. Because the Bible says that the word of God is living and active.

You are exposing yourself. I will give you a great example. This summer I had about a month. Where I just kind of went back into some anxious thinking. And I was battling and fighting it. And I was doing all the right stuff. To do everything that I need to know. But I hit a wall. And then I just thought. I am going to start going back into the scripture and reading. And it was when I was preparing for the message on Peter.

Where he says to Peter. And I will build my church. Speaking of him. I actually realized. Is that I had said. Jesus you just hang out there. I am going to do some building. I will get back to you in just a little bit. Let me build some church for you. Because I was so good at Legos as a kid. I don't know why Jesus is over there. I was so good at Legos as a kid. And I am just going to build this thing up. And he is like.

No I. Because when you start building it. Then you are going to. It is going to be. It is not built upon me. And if it is not built upon me. The labors. It says build in vain. And in that moment. I understood. Logically the realization of what had happened. Over a three month period. And then all of a sudden. I felt the entire chemistry of my body. And my mind. I just sort of go. And it just. I felt. I physically felt.

It changed. Through the word of God. And then over the last six weeks. Like I have had a noticeable difference. In my own. Just how I feel. About life. Work. People. Things that are happening in the news. I am just like. Whatever. You build it. You do whatever you want. God. I am just going to let you. Like all of a sudden. But it was the scripture. It was actually sitting in the scripture. There was a moment. Where the word of God.

Became real to me. You have to know. You have to cultivate. A biblically grounded understanding. Of your identity in Christ. Expose yourself to the supernatural. And then finally. Exercise. Exercise spiritual authority. And dominion. Over every inch. Of territory. In your life. If you are a student. Of World War II. I study a lot of World War II. And there were two definitive battles. In World War II. One on the eastern front.

In Russia. And one in the Pacific. The theater in the Pacific. That the entire war hinged upon. There was other battles. In North Africa. There was El Alameen. El Alameen. There was Anzio. In Italy. You had the battle over Britain. You had the battle for the north of the Atlantic. And the U-boat campaign. You had Burma. You had all of these different campaigns. That happened. But there was two. That if they would have been lost.

The war most likely would have been lost. The first was Midway. Midway happened about less than half a year. After Pearl Harbor. And the Battle of Midway changed the entire Battle of the Pacific. I won't go all into the. From all the different components. But after the Battle of Midway. Japan was no longer to keep their thrust going over. To take all of Southeast Asia. It just ended. From that point on. It was over. The next in the east.

Was Stalingrad. Stalingrad was a brutal. Brutal battle. Where the Germans were trying to get through Stalingrad. To the oil fields. And this was a battle that lasted during the winter. Stalingrad is on the Volga. And there was this incredible carnage. That happened. Millions upon millions of people died. In a six month period. I think the Russians lost. 1.3 million people. In three. In six months. That's a lot of people.

To lose in that time. Both of these battles were known to be definitive. I believe you can take that down. I believe that there's two battle fronts. Where you need to take authority. Not diplomacy. To go to war. Which means you're not talking to these elements of your life. And saying. Oh can you please change? No. And those areas are one. The first battle is the battle of your flesh. You need to take authority over the battle of your flesh.

You need to say to my flesh. Not today. You need to look at your addictions. You need to look at the things of your flesh. That are counter. Active to the cross of Christ. And the power of Christ. And rid them from your body. In the same way. And from your desires. In the same way. That you would go to war. In midway. Or a battle like that. It's the battle of the flesh. That battle is going to be won. On an existential level.

It's going to be won. It's in the quiet moments of your life. And you are going to go after it. If you want the authority. And the second. Would be the battle of your mind. I'm just going to talk. Because we don't have tons of time to do both today. But just quickly. As we end. On the battle of your mind. I wrote in the notes. That. If you look at. The battle of the mind. The battle for the Christ centered mind. Is I put as the Stalingrad.

Of all spiritual conflict. If you lose the battle of the mind. If you lose the battle of the flesh. It is going to be very hard. To defend. Your faith. And your life in Christ. Those are two battles. We need to fight. In 2nd Corinthians. 10. 3 through 6. Let me just tell you how we do this. And we'll just talk about the battle of the mind. 2nd Corinthians 10. 3 through 6. It says. For though we live in the world. We do not wage war.

The wage. The way the world does. The weapons we fight. Are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary. They have divine power. To what? Demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments. And every pretension. That sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought. To make it obedient to Christ. As a family that has had depression in our family. As a person who's personally dealt with anxiety.

I realize that sometimes I surrender. As opposed to take captive. Take captive thoughts. And I had one moment in the July. Where all of a sudden it just felt like everything. In that moment. It was just everything was falling down on me. And in that moment I had a decision to make. I can leave the room. I can. There's all these decisions you can make. Or I can take authority. And what I was given the grace to do. Was to stand in that moment and say.

No this is not true. This is a lie. In the name of Jesus. I forgot what scripture I used in the moment. But I began to speak scriptures. That God had given me in that moment. And all of a sudden that moment passed. And I said. I will take captive. Every thought. Every argument. That sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And every single pretension. This is the battle of the mind. And if you are going to fight the battle of the mind.

It's going to be a violent battle in your mind. You cannot act with the battle of your mind. Or your flesh. Like the guy trying to coax his dog. Do not use diplomacy on the battle of your mind. Oh maybe I'll give you a little better. Or with your flesh. Oh you know. If I don't do this. Then maybe I'll allow for this. Have no diplomacy. Go in prayer. Go in fasting. Counsel. Share with others that are your friends. Your confidants.

Get counsel. But begin to attack those two battle fronts. Because there's a therefore in this passage. And if you do not understand the authority that we have in Christ. And if you don't understand the two primary battlefields. Battle of your flesh. The battle for your mind. Then the therefore will never happen. You see the therefore is to go out and change the world. The therefore is where the good stuff happens. But we have to prepare for that battle.

So as we continue on in this scripture. We're going to continue to look at this. We're going to go on after the therefore next week. And start to look. How do we craft now a life. A missional life. That changes the world. How do we craft a missional church. That changes the world. One soul at a time. Amen.