NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH

April 24, 2016

Script: Faith Over Fear

Joel and Nina Schmidgall

Today we continue our Script series and the hope during this series is to expose you to a lot of different voices. So I am excited today because it is not just me speaking, it is also Nina, my wife. We are going to tag team. I’m going to kick us off and then she will take us home. It will be fun.

We have very different stories yet they are the same. Both of us have this thread, the commonality in a sense, each of us have been held captive, one by fear and one by self-doubt. But we have a similar place in our stories because we both can attest to this, that God is overcoming our weakness. So today I want to take you down a history lane of my life.

When I was a little guy, I was out wrestling with my buddies after school. One of my buddies got hurt and he ran off and out of nowhere, this teacher comes and grabs me and begins to rip into me and lays into me like I was a Flyers fan at a Washington Capitals play-off game! I mean verbal lashing out at me. And it was at a time as a kid in my life where every word soaked into me. You know what I’m talking about. I received every word and it was a point where a little bit of fear of authority or a fear of making a mistake began to grip me in my little third grade mind.

Fast forward to junior high. I had an incredible experience with God at a youth retreat and then we came back and the youth pastor invited some up to give testimony so I found myself jumping up and I was up there before I could even think. And he gave me the mic and I went to talk but I choked. I literally choked up and I started tearing up and I couldn’t get more than five words out and I just stood there in silence in front of hundreds of kids! Then I did something that helped. I went and sat down and said nothing!

That is who you are listening to today! But something happened. A little bit more fear began to grip me. I had a fear of social anxiety, a fear of public speaking. Fast forward to high school and I got into a relationship that turned into a four year relationship that I thought would never end, in a good way. But it did end. I thought it was headed toward a great place but it ended after years of deceit. Then I got into a relationship with my future wife and I found myself caged in from skepticism and inability to trust and it was this fear of brokenness in relationship, this hurt that gripped me. And all of these experiences are small, yet not insignificant in a moldable young mind that I found capture by fear in my youth. So I found myself in this fear paradigm growing up that every part of me and every decision and every opportunity, I found myself trying to step back or blend in or just mute myself. I didn’t want to make mistakes. I wanted to go unseen and that affected my life in athletics and my social life and my church life and it affected my family life and my relationship with God. It affected every part of me because everything was measured through the lens of potential embarrassment or fear. So this fear gripped me and I don’t think I’ve ever talked about my personal fears before, publically. It is a little embarrassing. It is insecurity when you throw those things out there. You want to be seen as a courageous and fearless person. But I wander if there are some people here today that you would say, fear is holding me back from becoming who God desires me to be and maybe it is a fear of failure or maybe it is a fear of somebody else’s opinion or maybe it is a fear of your own opinion. Or maybe it is a fear of being exposed for who you are really are.

The enemy whispers into our soul and today I want to talk about a Scripture that I have recited, that I have confessed more than any other Scripture in the Bible. It is a Scripture that doesn’t define me but it is a Scripture that fuels me. It is II Timothy 1:7

7For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

So here is the apostle Paul speaking into a young man, Timothy and he speaks as a mentor, as a pastor, as a spiritual father over this young man. He speaks out of core truth that he wants this son to know and he knows that fear and failure always go hand in hand. But he also knows this, that faith always overcomes fear! And he speaks into Timothy and he speaks into Joel Scmidgall and he speaks into somebody who may be here today. It is not a fear of God and it is not a fear from God. More than anything else in the Scripture, more than any other command, this command, fear not, is given.

If Lloyd Ogilvie were there, the former Chaplin of the Senate, he would say this, Fear not is commanded in the Scripture 366 times. That is one for every day of the year including Leap Year!

We are called to fear not! Faith over fear! So we read this Scripture and we see that when fear is pulled away in Christ, three things are given to us.

First we are given power. I was amazed at the power of God that entered into my life when I stepped out of the fear. Fear of looking ridiculous, fear of hurt, fear of other people’s thoughts, when I stepped away, I stepped into this power. Power to forgive, power to be forgiven, power to speak into somebody else’s life. When you choose faith over fear, you choose God’s power over your ability.

In college I took a semester off my sophomore year from Bible College and I went to a local junior college to save some money. It was right after I was stepping out of this fear paradigm in life. I was following Christ on a daily basis, active in Him, so I decided to get bold in one of my classes. We had been given this assignment that we were to give a presentation on a significant historical figure in US history so I chose Frederick Douglas. He was a man who overcame incredible injustice and prejudice but he was also a man who advanced the kingdom of God greatly throughout his lifetime. So I decided I would take 50 people in this classroom into one of these spiritual experiences. So I got up and gave a sermon for my presentation! And then we sang a spiritual and then I called people to salvation! And I called people to prayer! In the middle of this public school, in this classroom, I was calling out the gospel and people were raising their hands for prayer right there in class! We were having some church that day! I was feeling good and we got to the end of class and my teacher called me over and she called me out into the hallway. I was thinking, oh no! I was transported back to when I was a little third grader and the teacher showed up and inside, you know it is irrational, I felt paralyzed by this fear of making a mistake. I was transported there all of a sudden and I felt paralyzed as I walked into the hall with her. She said, ‘I’ve never experienced anything like that.’ And she said this, ‘That was powerful.’ I got a little pep in my step and I was feeling good! And here is what happens when you step on top of fear with your faith, the power of God shows up in your life! For God does not give us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power!

Number two, a spirit of love. What came into me when I started following Christ with abandon, with everything. I’m not talking about at a distance. I’m talking about going after God with everything I have. What happened is, one, I became bold, and two, He put a love in my heart that was rooted in Him. A love for my friends that I did not have. So I wrote down the name of my friends in my prayer journal and I began to intercede on their behalf. I began to pray over them and go after the Lord for my friends. And then I would talk with them and I would speak the grace and the love of God into them and something started to happen in those relationships. Those relationship started to change and the Lord gave me influence in their life that they did not have from other arenas. You show me who is in your prayer journal and I will show you who you have influence on! Love conquers all! These friends began to wrestle with faith and they began to forgive and they began to take a step in faith towards God and the Lord raised these relationships up and all of a sudden, they went to a deep level that I had not had before. Why? Because fear was replaced with the love of God. We do not have a spirit of fear in God, we have a spirit of power and love.

Number three, a sound mind. The mind is the battlefield of faith and of fear. The apostle Paul talks about this is Philippians 4. He says you will get the peace of God which transcends all understanding and it will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Then he goes on to say this. Think about such things, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

When you win the battlefield in your mind, it overturns the battle in your heart. Our mind and emotions battle but when we give our minds to Him, when we think about such things, they overtake your mind and they overtake your heart. Fear can disguise itself as rational when in reality it is not. Fear is like a con artist. It comes across and portrays itself as real but the only reality is only coming through the power that you give it. Don’t give it any power! When I prayed for, when I shared with, when I sat down and proclaimed the love of God into friendships, every time, I was stepping on top of fear with faith to stand out and I learned that the natural fear in my heart was only fueled for a spiritual instinct called faith.

So when I smell fear now, the instinct kicks in and I have to attack that fear with faith and I have to go after it. So when I’m out on the ball court and there is that intimidating player on the other team, I’m thinking, I’ve got him! When there is a project that seems over my head, I want to go get that project. When there is somebody that everybody has given up on, I don’t want to give up on that person because I know this, that faith over fear is not a singular battle. It is an exercise, it is a spiritual muscle that has to be exercised consistently and unless I fight back fear, then fear will fight back into my soul. I have to attack it!

Nina and I were in Greece a couple weeks ago and we were there with 12,000 refugees at a camp on the border between Greece and Macedonia. 12,000 people without a home in a desperate situation, living in tents with nothing to their names. We walked into that camp with 10 other NCCers, there just to minister for a week. And there was this opportunity to stay overnight in the camp. So when the opportunity presented itself, inside I was thinking, ok, 12,000 people who are desperate, they have nothing and emotions are high and there is no police presence at night and two Americans are going to come in with thousands of dollars of equipment. Is this a good idea? That is what I was thinking internally but fear runs away from and faith run toward. It was that natural fear inside. But I said let’s do this! So we went and everything that I thought would happen happened that night. This family took us in and we ended up sleeping in their tent with them. We sat around the campfire drinking coffee with floaties that I was sure would give me some kind of disease. But we drank coffee with them around the campfire and we were hearing their stories and we were stepping into their suffering and we were experiencing and listening and soaking in the pain of what they are living. They were sharing and emotions were running high and 3:00 am comes around and there is a scrum and 50 or 60 men break out in a fight. It got crazy that night! It was the exact kind of situation that I feared and it was the exact kind of situation that stepping into faith allowed God to move in a unique way. So the next morning, Nina comes in a drinks some floatie coffee with us and heard stories around the campfire and as she does, tears began to run down her cheeks and as she starts to cry, three girls and their old mama begin to cry and they have a tearful embrace around this campfire and something is happening. Then the old mama said, ‘Millions of people hate us, nobody wants us, nobody will take us in, but you come here and you cry with us,’ and it was a moment. I said, ‘Nina, you have the ministry of emotion.’ I was here the entire stinking night and you show up for 10 minutes and you got them crying! I say it with a smile because it was a beautiful thing because there is a little bit of insecurity there in her emotions but that was the exact thing that God used. God used both of us and for both of us, He used us in our insufficiencies.

I’m here to tell you today, don’t you dare leave this place thinking that God cannot use you, thinking that God does not have a plan over your life because you are weak or because you have fear or because you are insufficient in some place in your life! He still has a plan for you! The very thing that held up

Transcribed by:
Ministry Transcription