Commander's Intent

-God works good into it, Lindsay and the kids ended up getting a surprise trip to colorado springs. It ended up being a blessing in diguise. And obviously when my orders dates were over they came down again, and we got to hang out in Colorado springs, we went to Church down there, we got to spend some family time together. So it was actually really good.

-And then when I got back school has started back up for me. so I jumped right into doing my classes as soon as I got back.

-And then next week the kids both start school, so they both have open house events, and first day of school stuff.

-And then next weekend I’ll be going BACK to colorado springs again for a three day training exercise.

Needless to say the last couple of weeks and this next week has been extremely busy and hectic for me.

-In the best way. We always talk about God being the sculptor and we’re the clay. If you’ve ever worked with clay there’s times where you need that piece of clay to fit a certain purpose, and so you stretch it and you apply pressure in certain ways and in certain areas.

-And it’s uncomfortable at first, any time we’re stretched or we’re given added pressure in our lives, you can almost guarantee that it’s a part of that growth and maturity process.

One of the things I got to do while I was at Fort Carson was I got to shadow and assist the hospital chaplain at Evans Army Hospital. I helped to put on a midweek chapel service, I got to visit a couple of patients who were in the hospital and help to provide them with encouragement.

-But funny enough, while I was there I actually ended up doing a lot less Ministering than I expected. Instead I ended up being ministered to.

-I got to meet and work under no less than 20 different army chaplains. Almost all of whom had been in ministry in the Army for several years, and before they became army chaplains they were pastors at churches.

And so there was this wealth of knowledge and experience that I got to sit under and learn from, and grow from.

-And so one of the things I wanted to do for our message today, since we’re on a turn-around week. I was gone last week, I’m going to be gone next week. We’ve ended a series on the book of Matthew, and in two weeks we’re going to start up a new series.

-And so I thought today would be a perfect day to just have a more casual conversation. That’s why I’m not behind a pulpit, we’re sitting down together as a family. I want to really engage with you guys. So feel free to treat this more like a bible study, roundtable conversation. Interrupt me if you have questions.

I have a couple of things that I want to discuss, but if we end up going down a rabbit trail and talking about something completely different. So be it.

-I want to propose this thought to you all.

-In the army, in the military there is a hierarchy. Not only different people who have different ranks, but there are different organizations who relate to one another in a hierarchy.

-So you have a squad of soldiers. and all of those different squads come together to make up a platoon. and the platoon has leadership and a purpose, and a mission.. And multiple platoons join together to make a company.

-And the company has leadership and a mission, and those companies make up a batallion.

-And the batallion has a commander, and a mission, and those battallions make a brigade, and it goes up and up .

Each of those eschelons have a function and a mission statement.

And the way they derive that mission statement is that they look at the eschelon that is above them, and they write their mission statement

And so the two things that any unit does to dermine what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it, is they look at army procedures. SOP, standard opperating procedures. Which is simply the army has written down the proper army way to do things.

And then they look up to the commander’s mission statement, and look at their commanders intent, to decide what they’re going to do.

The SOP exists for the how. so if the unit mission is to go into this town and clear out this building, the commander doesn’t need to tell them how to clear out the building, where to stand, how to hold the weapon, what formation to walk in.

The commander can just give a mission statement, and the lower units can look to SOP’s and commanders intent thatinforms what they do and how they do it.

And it works really well.

That’s kind of like the church isn’t it. If ACC was a platoon, we have various squads, we have a children’s ministry, we have squads who prepare communion, we have squads who greet people at the door.

And we have sister platoons that we sometimes work along side, First Baptist.

But we’re not a denominational church, we don’t have a Christian Church Headquarters, who is our commander?

-That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? We report directly to the commander in chief, don’t we?

-So let’s run with this. What is our commander’s mission? What’s our commanders intent?

Luke 19:10 NET 2nd ed.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

John 3:17 NET 2nd ed.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

Mark 2:17 NET 2nd ed.

When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke 4:18–19 NET 2nd ed.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 1:32–33 NET 2nd ed.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.”

Galatians 1:3–4 NET 2nd ed.

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father,

Matthew 28:19–20 NET 2nd ed.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

-How do we fit into that Higher order Mission?

[Discussion]

What are our SOP’s

THE BIBLE.

The Bible is our SOP. But the thing about SOP’s is that they are always situation specific. So the standard operating procedure for how you fight in the jungle is going to be completely different from how you fight in the desert. Do you agree?

-The Bible’s the same way, isn’t it?

So what happens if I’m reading the Standard operating procedures and I come to this

Leviticus 4:27–31 NET 2nd ed.

“ ‘If an ordinary individual sins by straying unintentionally when he violates one of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated, and he pleads guilty, or his sin that he committed is made known to him, he must bring a flawless female goat as his offering for the sin that he committed. He must lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter the sin offering in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. Then the priest must take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he must pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. Then he must remove all of its fat (just as fat was removed from the peace-offering sacrifice) and the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar for a soothing aroma to the Lord. So the priest will make atonement on his behalf and he will be forgiven.

It seems a little silly to even ask that, because obviously we’re not going to be slaughtering any goats here.

But I want us to think about this from the standpoint of someone who is a brand new christian, picks up the bible for the first time, and has no idea what to even do with it, all they know is that this book is important and so they start reading it.

but if we’re being honest, how do we determine what applies and what doesn’t? Is there a rule or a principle we follow?

-What are some key places in the Bible where we can look to figure out how we should be doing things as a church?

-And you can give specific verses if you can think of any, or just general sections of the bible? where should we look when we’re a church, we want to carry out our commander’s mission, where do we look in the bible to find the standard operating procedures for what we do?

[Discussion]

Final Discussion Question:

If our Mission is to ____ and the SOP’s we follow is ___

What is our next course of action? What are some things we can be doing as a church in order to fulfil the commander’s intent?