Blog
Undefeated:
Standing Strong in the Battle
Our Middle School students had the privilege of hearing from Rodney Velting, 7th/8th Grade Youth Pastor at Calvary Church, during their spring Spiritual Emphasis Week. Here’s what some of our students had to say in their own words:
Spiritual Emphasis Day 1: Spiritual Warfare
By Eden Mulder, Cole Miller, and Lauren Formsma
In this chapel we talked about the ongoing spiritual warfare in our lives. We also tied spiritual warfare with our theme undefeated. The word undefeated suggests struggle, competition, or battle. Ephesians 6:12 says: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”.
The devil is always going to try to pull us away from God. Satan either wants us to be completely unaware of the evil works he is doing in our world or be hyper fixated and obsessed with him. We have to have a perfect balance of being aware of the evil going on and the devil’s agenda. We can see in John 10:10 which tells us “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The devil has a selfish agenda. Satan uses tactics like deception, temptations, doubt and questioning, isolation, loneliness, pride, and self-reliance to try and pull us away from God and harden our hearts. But don’t be discouraged because unlike God the devil has limitations. He can only do what God lets him, he’s not omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.
The last idea we talked about was that in any battle you must know yourself and the enemy to win. In our spiritual battle we must know God, the devil, and ourselves. Our relationship with God has to be personal. You can’t just know of God, even if the devil knows of God.
In conclusion we will always face spiritual battles and if you want to make sure you are rooted in your faith and be able to face these battles you must have a strong and personal relationship with God, be aware of the devil and his works, and have a healthy relationship with yourself.
Spiritual Emphasis Day 2: Know Yourself
Written by: Dexter Oviatt & Leena Amey
During this chapel Mr. Velting began with the focus of knowing ourselves in order to be able to fight against the devil’s schemes. Satan will play to our weakness but God can make our weaknesses our strengths if we ask Him to help us where we struggle. We are victorious with God on our side and are more than conquerors through Him. We need to be aware of our Spiritual gift through Christ.
He then asked us a few questions, What does God say about who I am? When you talk about me, how do you describe me, what do you call me? Some of the verses he used to help explain how we can live through Christ and have a godly character are these, John 1:12, Ephesians 2:10, Psalms 139:14, John 3:16, Philippians 4:13, Philippians 4:6-7 and Romans 8:37. To close this topic he described how we should ask God to help and reveal our struggles and our battles so that we can ask for God’s righteousness to overcome them.
He then began to talk about the Armor of God. He introduces this topic with a verse, Ephesians 6:10-14 which says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.”
This verse explains how we should be strong and stand firm in our faith in Jesus. The first piece of armor he introduced was The Belt of Truth. This represents how truth holds our life together and a dishonest Christian cannot withstand the enemy. The second piece is the Breastplate of Righteousness. We all know what’s right and what’s wrong. The third piece is Feet fitted with the Gospel of Peace. We have peace knowing what Jesus did for us and can share that. The Fourth piece is the shield of faith so we can trust in God. The fifth piece is the helmet of Salvation. We Satan wants to attack our minds but knowing we’re saved and God’s grace will protect us. Finally the sword of the Spirit. This represents God’s word and this is how we should fight our battles. These are the items we should use to fight against the devil. Also we can be assured that God has already won the battle!
Spiritual Emphasis Day 3: Undefeated Character
Written by: Evey Newville, Meika VanderKodde & Kole Schenk
Today during Chapel Mr. Velting focused on having an Undefeated Character. He talked about how beneficial and crucial having a Undefeated Character is for us Christians. There were three main examples of this that he focused on today: Growth, Confidence, and Humility. He talked about “Sir Noble” and “Sir Proud” and how “Sir Noble” grows in others and relies on them, where “Sir Proud” is self-reliant. “Sir Noble” is a wonderful example of what having an Undefeated Character in Christ looks like. We need to have a mindset similar to Christ and strive to live a life like His.
We began by reading Philippians 1:3-6 in which Paul writes to young believers in Christ. These verses are about having an Undefeated Character in Christ in regards to Growth. As Christians, we need to be sanctified in Christ, and to grow in the way that God calls us to. Mr. Velting talked about how everyone has daily growth in the Lord and we are called to live for Christ. We also have to understand that we are not perfect in the way that God wants us to be and that no one has the perfect relationship with God. We need to work as a team to be better in the ways that we treat others, and the way that we treat our time with God. The Lord wants us to grow closer to him spiritually, it should be that everyday we strive to walk closer to God to be the person that he wants us to be.
Mr. Velting then used Philippians 1:27-28 to talk about being Confident in the Lord. Confidence in this context is not confidence in yourself, it is confidence in our God, and in His power. He talked about how no matter how big or small the battle is we need to stay confident in God and believe in His protection. We need to remember we can handle all things with God by our sides regardless of the challenges Satan throws our way. We also need to be just as confident in the work God is doing in our lives. We were challenged to stand firm in Him and have trust and confidence regardless of what is going on around us.
Lastly, we talked about how the Lord wants us to show Humility towards others. Phil 2: 3-4 says, “ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.” The Lord wants us to be imitators of Christ, and one of the ways we can do this is by showing humility towards others as God did for us. We should show compassion towards others not just in good times but in hard times and we need to care for those in need. There is no room for arrogance in the Christian life. The only thing we should be boasting about is the Lord and what he has done for us. We need to share God’s goodness and be reminded that the Lord knows what is best for us. We need to trust him and live our lives to reflect Jesus.
In conclusion, to live a life like that imitates Jesus, we need to have an Undefeated Character. We need to be growing in Christ, have confidence and humility in Him in everything we say and do. It was a great chapel.
Spiritual Emphasis Day 4: Undefeated Faith
Written by: Jackson Witte, Bryson Britton and Hannah Tenney
Today’s chapel started with Mr. Velting doing a quick recap of each of our days.
The first topic we talked about today was faith and trust. He explained how trusting somebody means to have reliance or confidence in another person and that faith is a constant outlook or behavior because of trust in another person. He also describes how in order to have trust you need to really get to know someone in order to understand them. He connected this idea to a story about 2 basketball teams in Wyoming. He shared how there were 6 seconds left in a game and one team was losing by 1 point and the coach called a timeout. The coach drew up a play that was called the “Dog Barking Play” where one player runs to the corner and gets on his knees barking like a dog. This is enough time to free up one of the offensive players to make a layup and win the game. The team needed to have trust in their coach in order to pull off the play because not everyone would actually bark like a dog on your hands and knees. He then connected this to the idea of an undefeated faith. Undefeated faith means you are constantly thinking and acting out trust in God.
One of the things Mr. Velting shared was how we need to get to know God. We need to seek truth in scripture by reading the bible, diligently search for wisdom, and discern right from wrong. We need to ask God to reveal himself to us so we can have a better relationship with him. We can also hang out with others who know God or are striving to know God. To grow with God we need to be honest with Him. We need to also find things to be grateful for even when the enemy tries to make us feel down.
Confessing our unbelief is also a very important part of trusting in God. We need to be honest with God and confess in our times of unbelief to him. James 4:8 “Be near to God and he will be near to you…” . Another part of this is sharing with a trusted friend or adult. Our NPC community is built up as a Christian community and we are able to share our faith with our teachers and friends.
Undefeated faith calls for being grateful and waiting on the Lord. Being grateful helps us fight lies and discern truth. Satan wants us to think that we don’t believe in God and that we should distance ourselves from him but that is not true. Waiting on the Lord helps us to grow our trust. Waiting can be hard but it is essential to having undefeated trust.
Undefeated trust leads to undefeated faith. Without having faith we can’t have we can’t trust. When we are able to trust God we can be faithfully obedient to him. Our attitudes and our actions also come from our trust. When we have faith in God we are able to trust his plan and act out his calling.
As he was finishing up the chapel he talked about two different people in the bible who had undefeated faith. First he talked about Abraham and he mentioned Genesis 12:1-3 which says The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,and whoever curse you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Abraham listened to what God said and put his trust in the lord which shows he had undefeated faith. Even though God had an unexpected plan Abraham knew God, he trusted him so he was able to be faithfully Obedient to God. God also promised that by doing these things and living out his plans that Abraham would be blessed. This teaches us that God will bless us for our obedience.
The second person was Elisha who is found in 2nd kings chapter 6 where they are surrounded and her servant was worried because their enemy was surrounding them and Elisha prayed to god and said open her eyes and there were horses and chariots on fire coming from the hill.
In conclusion Mr. Velting closed us with some questions. “Is Anything too hard for the Lord”? The answer to this question depicts our trust and faith in him and when God has a crazy plan for us we need to trust him and have an undefeated faith.
