What we've been talking about in this series is how God can restore and rebuild what looks irreparably broken. It looks like it couldn't be put back together, and yet our God is one who can put it back together. But here's what we're going to talk about today. That putting together what Satan wants to keep pulled apart. It does not happen without a fight. All right. The enemy is not going to lay down as we are seeing God move through his church and see restorations of marriages, foster care, adoption. We're going to see churches being planted in devastated communities. We're going to see people sent to the mission field where there has been nothing but darkness. Like, these things being rebuilt for God's glory is not going to. It's going to happen without there being a fight.
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The enemy that we face is way more terrifying. The enemy that wants to come and take down the families and individuals that make up a church like Mercy Hill is more terrifying because Satan is real. His demons are real. They have real power. And they are really numbered. There is a certain amount of them that are working spiritually in this world. They sow lies, deceit, frustration, physical affliction, among other things. And when we take up the mission, there is a war that follows. You got to understand, there's only a war because God's people are on mission.
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Jesus Christ on the cross has won the war. But that doesn't mean that the battle doesn't rage. Right here. Right now. And if you think for a second that we are going to be a people that live our lives for a mission. That train our kids to go and try to reach their college campus. To send people to the nations. To restore families through foster care. And to, you know, build families through adoption. Man, to be the type of church who sends people to the nations. Who gives their money to see the mission go forward. If we think for a second we're going to be that type of church on one hand. And not invite a spiritual force. And fight on the other. Then we are sadly mistaken.
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The thing about the mission is you got to understand that it invites war. There is only a war because there is a mission. Let me translate. I'm going to teleport you all the way back into Nehemiah's day and just try to get you to understand the context of this. When Nehemiah led the people to begin to rebuild the wall, it created literally a war. Okay. In terms of, well, it almost created a war. All right. It was people that were in that region that didn't want the nation of Israel to come back to any type of power because they had the power. They began to, the enemy began to heap lies, try to frustrate their plans. We see this if you read through chapter four. Man, try to sow discouragement. And even, yes, begin to threaten them with violence and prepare for violence. But that was the price in Nehemiah four for God's people stepping into their assignment in God's mission.
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God gives each of us an assignment for his mission. They were building the wall. You and I have an opportunity to, by God's grace, build disciples. We have an opportunity, by God's grace, to see him build his church. That's what Jesus said he was going to do. He says, I will build my church. But he says, I will do it upon the confession of saints like Peter, who have said, you are the Messiah. We get a chance to be used by God to build the church of God. Man, we're not, listen, you and I are not out there trying to build the wall. We are trying to build up the church and we each have an assignment to do in terms of that task.
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You and I. I both have, if you're a believer, we all have spiritual giftings that God has given us that match up with Ephesians 2.10, works that he has called us to do and prepared for us before the foundation of the world. Here's what I want you to see. We have a mission, right, to be used by God to build a church. But you and I have individual callings and destinies and purposes that are in line with you. For this God to lead with our gifting so that we might do what they were doing, complete our assignment. Man, jump into the mission in our schools, in our workplaces.
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The church was never supposed to be an audience. It's an army to see God's mission go forward. And I want you to think about this. My pastor used to say it like this. He used to say, hey guys, whenever you enter the ministry, you leave the ministry. He was being a little bit tongue in cheek, but here's what he was trying to say. The ministry happens where you guys are. The ministry is in your families. The ministry is in your workplaces. It's where your kids are in dorm rooms on college campuses. It's in your neighborhoods. That's where the mission is.
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The church, I think sometimes the church thinks it's a little bit of a people with a gifted pastor. Oh no, the church is a gifted people. It's you. It's a gifted people, not a people with a gifted pastor.
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What do you think happens when the mission of God goes forth into the world? In that way, when we go forth sharing Christ with the world, this sermon, listen, it is about spiritual war, but you got to answer this question, okay? I really want you to wrestle with this. Are you engaged in the mission in such a way that it is bringing about spiritual war? And if we're not, then what does that mean? And what does it tell you?
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When you commit your life to Christ and you get serious about the mission, the, I mean, the Bible even calls him the God of this world, little g God. Satan himself and his demons, they will come after you. There will be spiritual battle. Lies, frustrations, deceits, even physical afflictions. These things will come after you and you have to make the decision whether or not you think it's worth it to be redeemed, reconciled to God, given a purpose in this life and an eternity that is sure. You're going to have to figure this out. Is it worth it for me to live in the calling for which I was created, even if it means war? Or is it better to just kind of let it go?
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This is a beautiful picture. It's a galvanizing picture. It's a picture that our kids need. They have a picture of Christianity from the culture that is weak and milquetoast. And what we need to give them is this picture. That as a believer, you are called, really two callings here, okay? Number one, I have the tools of kingdom building in my hand. And the other, because I know what that mission is going to invite, which is spiritual war. The other, I hold a sword.
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The war is gonna be at such a height and such a level that we're going to need to keep kingdom building tools in one hand and our spiritual weapons in the other so that we can, we can fight off the enemy while we're building the kingdom, if that makes sense.
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I think it is to our advantage that we do not get surprised when we engage in the mission and spiritual warfare shows up. I think it's to our advantage. If we know that Satan wants to mobilize his war machine, if the storm of his demonic forces is going to come to our shores, it feels to me like it would be pretty smart to expect that. To expect it and to not be caught off guard by it, right?
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Let me give you four, and this is not exhaustive. I mean, I don't have time, exhaustive. Let me give you four ways that when you engage in mission, Satan will come after you in terms of spiritual war, all right? All right? First one is this, he will lie to you. He is a liar. John 8, 44, when he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. This, man, and exactly how it works and how he influences us, it's very hard. It's a spiritual thing. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians that he can even blind the person who is not, spiritually blind a person who is not a believer. There was some kind of way that the demonic influences are able to come into our life and suddenly we begin to believe things that are not true. We start to believe things like, well, you know, I committed this sin again. Finally, this is the last time and God's grace is gonna run out on me. We begin to believe things that aren't true that discourage us and make us not wanna engage in the mission.
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Second thing he wants to do is accuse. Revelation 12.10. Now, Accusation before God, but it also gets into us. Who are you to lead a community group? Look at what you've done and you're gonna go be on a mission trip. You can't even get this together or that together. I know what you did. I see the sin in your life. And now you're gonna be the one that's gonna try to start a Bible study at your work. You're gonna be the one that's gonna do city project. You're gonna do that. This summer, I know what you were doing last summer. You understand? It's an accusation. It's spiritual war.
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Satan also afflicts physically. I know this is, you know, you're like, well, this is stuff. Yes. Yes. There are supernatural things that Satan will do that manifest physically in this world. I have seen them with my own eyes. Okay. And there's no telling how many of us may have been afflicted at times in our life where we are so kind of modern that we think everything is physical when it could happen to us. It's not a spiritual route.
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These are a few, four things that Satan can do of many. I just want you to understand today that seeing them coming is an advantage for us. 2 Corinthians says it like this, so that you would not be outwitted by Satan. We've got, think about Ephesians 6. Think about the spiritual armor. We need truth and righteousness and grace and the spirit, we need these things. Why? Because we know what his tactics are and we're not gonna be outwitted. For we are not ignorant of his schemes. In any war, knowing the tactics of the enemy is a huge advantage.
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If you're gonna pick up the trowel, you better pick up the sword. If you're gonna pick up kingdom work, then you better pick up the sword and build a life that will withstand the storm. And don't be trying to build the bridges and the dams once the storm is already on the shore. Satan will mobilize his war machine against you, against our church. Are we building a life through the flywheel, gather groups, give go, through our inner life, reading, prayer, through relationships, are we building that life?
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Ready yourself for the spiritual battle. Ready yourself for the spiritual battle. If you're not interested in the battle, if you're not interested in the mission, then maybe you don't have to worry about the battle. But for those of you who have decided to engage in the mission and make your local church, Mercy Hill, make your local church one who has a bold mission statement of making disciples and multiplying churches. Let me tell you this, okay? This is awesome, all right? We can celebrate this. This year, 2025, Mercy Hill was named the 25th fastest growing church in the nation, all right? We can praise God for that. That's a great thing. That means many of you are coming in, all right? And I praise God for it. It's awesome. We wanna see thousands more people accept Christ. We gather Thursday night to pray heaven down just to pray for revival. I mean, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people need to get saved in this country. We pray that it'll happen and churches everywhere will be growing. But, here's what I'm gonna tell you. You're gonna engage your ministry in a church that's blowing and going and God is moving in like this. What do you think Satan's gonna do? I mean, what do you think? You think he's gonna take that lying down? There's no way he's gonna take it lying down.
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Are you willing to take that on and to say, you know what? That's exactly the life that I'm stepping into. A life of mission, tool in one hand, sword in the other, and let's go. If you are, then I'm gonna call you to this. We need to be ready. All right, we need to be ready.
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Rally together, not individually. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. I want you to understand, Satan is going to try to attack the weakest part of the wall. And wherever the weakest part of the wall is, that's where we need to rally with the reinforcements. What am I saying? Are you in a community group? Because that's where we blow the trumpet, y'all. Are you in a group? Because that's where we blow the trumpet. Man, we come together. We know each other. We let people into our lives. We push into other people's lives. We pray together. We have a group, you know, we got group texts together. This is so important in our lives and I pray that you will be in a group and I'm not trying to be dogmatic if it's not a Mercy Hill group. I'm just saying, do you have people in your life and that this is the reality when they blow the trumpet, you know, to rally.
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Keep your spiritual armor handy. So we labored at the work and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. Ephesians 6 tells us as clear as a bell, these are your weapons. Go read it, Ephesians chapter 6. We need to put on the spiritual armor of God and don't neglect these things and keep them handy in our life.
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Stay vigilant. Don't get distracted. So neither I nor my brothers or my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes. Each kept his weapon. At his right hand. We're not distracted. We understand the stakes. We know that we signed up for a life that is bigger than just promotions and possessions and straight A's and soccer. And it's a bigger life. And so because we have signed up for that, we are going to stay ready.
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When we don't stay ready, when we refuse to rally to the trumpet, when we refuse to keep our spiritual weapons handy, when we dull our senses and do not stay vigilant, that's when Satan, who is like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5, 8 says, is going to come and pick us off. You know, the Bible gives us this image of Satan like a roaring lion. You know why? Because there ain't nothing scarier than a roaring lion. I mean, a lion is a king of the jungle for a reason.
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There's a reason that the Bible points. It's to the lion. Because here's why. The lion is smart enough. Man, if you got a person who is like, hey, man, I'm going to rally to the trumpet. I'm staying vigilant. I've got the weapons in my hand. I'm not saying that the lion is not going to come attack you, but I am saying he's not going to devour you. Because that's what he's seeking to do. And the one that he devours is going to be the one that rejects readiness and just says, hey, you know what? Man, I'm living life on my own. I don't believe the spiritual war is real. I'm dull in my senses with everything you can get your hands on. I'm not vigilant about this at all. That's the one that he wants to devour. So I would call you to readiness.
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Now, this is the question that we all have before us. Are we ready to engage? Are we ready to engage in the mission, even though it means bringing the spiritual fight? And I would tell you today, man, I think we have great reason. I think we have great reason to engage in the mission, even if it invites. It invites spiritual war.
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We look back, and we get a lot of inspiration from Nehemiah. Like you and I, I said we're called to be used by God to build the church, and he was called to be used by God to build the wall. And I look back on that, and I'm like, man, if God used him to build the wall, which he did, that's pretty incredible. And if God could do that, what could he do in our life? And that's a good motivation. But we have a better motivation because of what we have seen through a greater Nehemiah. See, Nehemiah couldn't see it. But 500 years after Nehemiah walked on the face of this earth, there came a greater and truer Nehemiah who came not to build the wall, but to build the church, who came not to fix the wall so that the enemies would stay out, but to fix the hearts of the enemies that were within.
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You and I, because of our sin, we have been scattered. We have been exiled, if you want to put it like that. We have been pushed out. We are not part of the family of God, and we deserve nothing but hell to come. I mean, that's what it means. The wages of sin is death. But Jesus Christ, he came and laid down his life. You want to talk about mission inviting war. Jesus came on a mission for you, and the spiritual war was the cross. That's what he took for you. But in his resurrection, he offers us the newness of life.
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You and I, we have been scattered. We understand mission, and we understand spiritual war, because it is our Savior who engaged in both to bring us into his kingdom. And now we have the idea. Yes, it's a great motivation. Man, seeing God work through Nehemiah is like, dude, that's awesome. I want to be a leader like that. I want to have courage like that. That's great. The greater motivation is to understand, man, this balance of mission and war, Jesus truly came with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. And that's how he brought us in. And now you and I have the opportunity to go out and to be a part of the mission.
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Some of you are thinking, man, I just come to Mercy Hill. I just park cars. You know, I just hold a door. I just lead a group. I just work in the kids. I'm just gonna take a little mission trip next year. I'm just sitting on the board of this nonprofit. I'm just going to do this. I'm just, you know, I'm just gonna go on a church plan. I'm just giving my 10% first food. I'm just doing this. I'm just doing that. No, you are engaging in the assignment that God has given you. And we don't lust after somebody else's assignment. Like God gave you an assignment. That assignment is worthy. And it's, man, it's part of your calling and your destiny. And I'm not saying that God's not gonna grow it. Of course he's gonna grow it through the course of your life. But will we engage in the assignment that God has given us? Even though it brings us down. It's about the spiritual battle.
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