our sermon series, Mixed Emojis, Mastering Your
Emotions, and we're gonna be in 2 Timothy chapter
one today. Today our emoji we're gonna be talking
about is fear. Has anybody ever been afraid?
Has anybody ever been afraid? Maybe you were
afraid to tell a joke about your boss or your
wife when you were on a stage in front of a lot
of people. Maybe, kids, maybe you were afraid.
to show your parents your report card at one
time. Has anybody ever been afraid to do that?
I was afraid to do that at times, for sure. Maybe
you were afraid of where our nation is going.
During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt,
he was elected the president during the Great
Depression and during his inauguration speech
he gave the famous quote, there's nothing to
fear. Or the only thing to fear is fear itself.
That's what he said. And I think we all know
that that's not necessarily true. Is anybody
in here scared of spiders? Right? People fear
all kinds of things. And fear, it can be rational
or it can be irrational. The Greek word for fear
is phobos, which is where we get the word phobia.
And so I wanted to share this fact with you.
Did you guys know that there was over 500 phobias?
That's a ton of phobias people are scared of
all kinds of things and so just to get started
tonight I want to play another game. We already
got to see them play an amazing game I wanted
to invite you guys to play a game with us tonight
So if you want to stand up, I'm going to put
it the game is gonna be called face your fears
I'm gonna put two different phobias on the board
and miles likes to do this game where you raise
your hand according to the picture Right, and
if you get it, right You get to stay up if you
miss it you have to sit down and I'll announce
the prize at the end You don't know what you're
getting So can we go to the next slide? So the
first fear is Acrophobia do you guys think that
is a fear of fear of heights or a fear of looking
up? Go ahead and cast your votes That one's actually
a fear of heights Hey, a lot of you guys got
knocked out on that one. That's good, because
I thought that was going to be the easy one.
The next one is going to be arachnophobia. Do
you think that's a fear of bubble gum getting
stuck on your shoe, or of spiders? The answer
for that one is spiders, okay? Did anybody get
out on that one? Okay. Okay, the next one is
acrobacrophobia. That's either the fear of people
flipping, or it doesn't actually exist. It doesn't
exist. We got a couple people on that one. Alright,
the next one is ablutophobia. And I bet someone
in here has this tonight. Is it a fear of pools
or a fear of bathing? That's a fear of bathing.
Some of you guys have never heard of that one
because you haven't. I'm just kidding. That's
terrible. That's terrible. Don't hate me. Don't
hate me. We only got a few people left. I'm hoping
to knock you guys out. The next one is unpronounceable.
Hippopotamonstroesquidelio phobia. Is that a
fear of long words or a fear of hippos? Okay,
that's a fear of long words. Did we get anybody?
All right, I got just a couple more. Arachibutrophobia.
Is that a fear of peanut butter sticking to the
roof of your mouth or a fear of ducks? That's
a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof
of your mouth. Okay, you guys all got it? Geez.
All right. The next one's nomophobia. So is that
a fear of being without your cell phone or a
fear of speaking on the phone? I'm trying to
knock you guys out because I didn't want to give
you any prizes. That is a fear of being without
your phone. Did I get some people? Yes. All right,
the last one is plutophobia. Is that a fear of
planets? We got two left. Or a fear of money.
Hey. All right, what do you got? It's a fear
of money. Great job. Give it up for Todd. Todd.
After the service you can have one gift from
the glass container on me, okay? You just you
just tell them that you earned it I got I have
one more slide up that I want to show you guys
Theophobia do you think that's the fear of God
or the fear of chipmunks? I Think I think that's
Theodore from Alvin and the chipmunk so I that
could be right right now. That's the fear of
God But we see we just went through a bunch of
different stuff most of these are real fears
I think except for two of them in there that
were not actual fears There's definitely things
to be feared right Theodore he's not one of those
things amen, but But there are things to be feared
and not all fear is Is bad fear some fear is
good. It's valuable. It's of God to some degree.
There's a fear of getting on a stage and and
making a fool of yourself, that's a good fear.
If you're a soldier, you should fear the guy
that's shooting at you, right? That's a good
fear. Kids, I'm sure you know this, but if something's
glowing red, you should not touch that, you should
fear that thing, because it's hot, it's gonna
burn you. And those are all healthy fears. Healthy
fears motivate us to avoid danger, right? And
that's a good thing. There's some people in here
that you just don't want to ride shotgun with
and I'm not gonna not gonna point at them But
we know and that's a healthy fear right you avoid
danger, but if you can't avoid danger You can
at least prepare for it right electricians They
should fear electricity that doesn't mean that
they have to quit their job Or that they go to
work trembling every time they have to work around
electricity It means that they need to know what
they're doing and pay close attention to the
possible dangers at hand. And so the problem
with fear, it comes when we allow our fears to
control our lives. In Matthew 10, 29, Jesus says,
and fear not them which kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell. What is he saying? Fear God, right? If
you don't know Christ as your savior, then you
have a good reason to fear. It's not one of those
phobias. It's the Lord himself. If you're gonna
die right now and you didn't know Christ, apart
from Christ, you would spend eternity separated
from God. And you could easily say, I don't believe
in God. But the Bible says that the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What that means
is that if you don't fear the Lord, you don't
know anything because fearing God is the foundation
of knowledge. It recognizes who God is and who
you are in light of that. And we build everything
else on top of that. He's the creator and we're
his creation. When you fear God, you understand
that you need him. And so I implore you to fear
the Lord, which doesn't mean to run away from
God, more so it means to run to him in awe of
of who he is and what he's done on the cross.
And then you can call on him to save you from
your sins before it's too late. So fear the Lord.
But we're gonna see later that if you do know
Christ, that still fear, that fear that you have
for God, it shouldn't control your lives because
God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. So I wanna
ask, why is it then that we see so many believers
dealing with fear? Fear of sharing the gospel,
fear of failure. fear of rejection or inadequacy,
fear of man. Have you guys ever felt any of those
fears when it comes to sharing the gospel, when
it comes to living out your faith? We've all
felt that stuff. But you're not alone, right?
So many people suffer with these fears. And those
fears, they can destroy you spiritually and sometimes
even physically. Because fear, what it does is
it keeps us from doing what God has called us
to do. And that kills you, doesn't it? That kills
me. Doesn't that plague your spirit when you
don't live up to what God has called you to do?
Doesn't that make you wanna live for the Lord?
And so I wanna convince you guys tonight that
believers can overcome fear. In 2 Timothy 2,
Paul addresses fear in his letter to Timothy
and he says, for God had not given us a spirit
of fear but of power and of love and of sound
mind. He says God has not given us a spirit of
fear. Paul's telling Timothy that you don't need
to be possessed by fear. Fear shouldn't control
you because God has given you his Holy Spirit.
And so that's what we're gonna be looking at
tonight and I just wanna begin with the prayer.
Let's pray. Thank you Lord for allowing us to
come together, for allowing us to get into your
word and I just pray as. as we look at what Paul
wrote to Timothy, that we could apply it to our
lives, that we could see how that we can overcome
fear in our own lives today, so that we can live
out your will and glorify you and see people
come to know you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen. So, quick context, Timothy, he was a gifted
man. He had an enormous responsibility as a young
pastor in Ephesus, but he was timid. and he battled
with fear often. And for this reason we find
Paul in his letters encouraging Timothy no less
than 25 times in different places to be bold,
to not shy away from confrontation and to stand
up where he needs to stand up and be strong for
the faith. But it seems that Timothy's natural
response was the same response that we often
have when we get scared. He stepped back, right?
When we face something that we fear, we often
step back, and spiritually, his fears, they made
him hesitate. They kept him from reaching the
potential that he had at times, and they kept
him from living out God's calling in his life
at times. And so Paul, over and over again, encourages
Timothy to overcome his fears so that he could
do what God called him to do. Timothy wasn't
gonna see God's will accomplished in his life
if he was paralyzed by fear. And this is true
for us too, right? Teens, adults, if we're gonna
live out God's calling for our lives, we're gonna
have to overcome our fears. Not necessarily the
fear of snakes and of spiders, like you guys
can, Gabby, you can still come get me for the
spiders, okay? I might tell the kids to go get
the spider, but it's okay. It's okay. We can
be scared of those things, right? But the fear
that I'm saying we need to overcome is those
social anxieties, those self -preserving tendencies
that stem from fear of what What's gonna happen
if I live out my faith? Those fears that we all
deal with as believers, right? You can have fear
and let it paralyze you or you can, or sorry,
you can have fear and let it paralyze you and
keep you from living out God's will or you can
fear and overcome it, just as Paul did. It doesn't
mean that. You don't have to be afraid anymore.
It means that you know how to keep going despite
your fears And so I guarantee if you're a believer
tonight, you want to honor God with your life.
You want to live out his calling But I'm also
certain that you've dealt with some of these
same fears at times You've probably and you've
probably wondered how can I overcome these fears?
And so here's the objective statement tonight.
Every believer can overcome fear by understanding
these two concepts The first concept that we're
gonna look at is the destructive power of the
spirit of fear. In First Timothy 1 -7, it says,
for God hath not given us the spirit of fear.
Fear can destroy our lives. It can keep us from
seeing God's will in our lives, destroying our
testimony, and in a really practical way, it
can keep us from having great experiences by
destroying our joy. Fear can physically and mentally
incapacitate us as well, destroying our overall
ability to live out God's will in our lives.
And we've already talked about the pressures
and the responsibilities that Timothy had to
deal with and how fear affected those things.
Now I want to talk about three basic ways that
fear can hurt us. And so the first way that fear
can hurt us is forgetfulness. In verse six, fear
can cause us to forget God and all his blessings.
Look at verse six, first Timothy or second Timothy
chapter one. It says, wherefore I put thee in
remembrance that thou stir up the gifts of God.
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands."
Timothy had forgotten who he was. He'd forgotten
who he came from, or where he came from, rather.
In the verses just before this, Paul reminds
Timothy of his heritage. He says, the unfeigned
love that had been exemplified by his family.
In verse five, it says, when I call to remembrance
the unfeigned love that is in thee, which dwelt
first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother
Eunice. And I am persuaded that in... The also.
Timothy's family wasn't timid like Timothy was.
They weren't in bondage to fear. And neither
was Timothy's spiritual family. In both of Paul's
letters, he calls Timothy his son. And here we
see Paul encouraging his spiritual son to live
out God's calling in his life boldly, just as
he had shown him. Paul had discipled Timothy,
literally laying hands on him along with other
elders. And when it came time for Timothy to
take on his own ministry. It says, he's telling
Timothy, I believe that you have the same spirit
in you, right? Which is in you by the putting
on of hands. Fear man had caused him to forget
his heritage in the Lord. But more importantly
than forgetting who he was and where he came
from, his grandmother and Paul who raised him
up. Timothy had forgotten the God that blessed
him with all of this, right? So Paul says, I
put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the
gift of God. God was with Timothy. God had gifted
him to live for the Lord. In his first letter,
Paul told Timothy, don't neglect these gifts.
But it seems that he did. So Paul now is attempting
to stir up those gifts, to light a fire under
Timothy, to call him to remembrance. Too many
believers hide their God -given gifts and abilities
under a bushel because of fear. In 2020, there
was a study, a survey of 1 ,600 Christians. They
were asked, why don't you share your faith? And
you'll never guess what the number one answer
was. Fear, right? If you're obsessed with fear
or overcome by it, then you've forgotten who
God is and what He's done for you. Think of the
man who hid his talents because he feared the
Lord. Everyone else had something to offer their
Lord when he came back, but this man. He failed
the mission that the Lord had for him because
he was afraid, which leads us to the second way
fear can hurt us, which is failure. Fear can
cause us to fail at what God wants us to do.
In verse eight, it says, Be thou or be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord
nor of me his prisoner but be thou Partaker of
the affliction of the gospel according to the
power of God We have one mission right and it's
to reach the world with the gospel Timothy's
fears were keeping him from accomplishing that
mission at times He was ashamed of the testimony
of the Lord. He was ashamed of the testimony
of Paul and it was because he was scared. Timothy
and the Christians at that time were dealing
with real persecution. They had real reasons
to be afraid, very extremely rational reasons
to be afraid, right? Jesus himself was wrongfully
murdered. Stephen was stoned. Others were martyred.
Paul was writing Timothy from prison, right?
And all of these things, they were real possibilities
for Timothy and for other believers at this time.
But this isn't generally the case for us in America
today. We might get pushback for sharing our
faith, but it's nothing like what they went through.
And could it get to that point? Certainly it
could. Does that actually change anything if
it did though? I don't really think so. I was
in D group this week and one of my guys referenced
Luke 12, 9. And it says, but he that denieth
me before men shall be denied before the angels
of God. And the guy in my D group, he said, man,
if all I have to do is just be a little uncomfortable
around the family table or at the gym or when
I'm hanging out with my friends, then why would
I not share my faith with people and what Jesus
has done for me in my life? Why would I let that
fear of those things keep me from doing God's
will? Jesus is saying here, he's saying that
essentially, to people who he knew were gonna
get martyred for his sake. And Paul was in prison
telling Timothy, don't allow your fears to cause
you to be ashamed of the gospel. Rather, be thou
partakers of the affliction of the gospel according
to the power of God. When we ought to succeed
in our spiritual lives, when God has given us
everything we need for success, many of us fail
for that same reason, for fear. Fear, our fears
freeze us. when we listen to the lies of the
enemy, rather than simply doing what the Lord
has for us to do. And so our gifts, when that
happens, our gifts are rendered useless. That's
what fear does to us. Christians all around us,
all around the world have their faiths strangled
by fear. They're barely able to function in their
calling because their stomachs are tied in knots
by fear. Just like Timothy. Our fear can cause
forgetfulness, it can cause failure, and it can
cause even frailty. We're gonna jump back one
book to 1 Timothy 5 .23. The third way fear can
hurt us is frailty. Fear can actually cause us
to become frail and sickly. Paul's first letter
in 1 Timothy. It was written a few years earlier,
and it doesn't seem to have the same level of
urgency that we see in 2 Timothy. But Paul still
addresses Timothy's fear. He just does it in
a more practical and maybe like preventative
way. Where Paul is almost like admonishing Timothy
in the second letter, like snap out of your fear.
Go live out your faith. In the first letter,
he's more so saying, hey, this is the stuff that
could happen to you. Don't let fear overcome
you. And so in 1 Timothy 5 .23, Paul says, drink
no longer water, but use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. 1
Timothy tells us that from an early age, or from
the early stages of his ministry, Timothy was
dealing with these fears. Timothy dealt with
insecurity about his age. He dealt with, he feared
leadership failures, and he had trouble dealing
with conflict with false teachers. Being a pastor
is tough, amen. Amen, yeah. And Timothy was timid
as well. So that timidness, it didn't really
help the situation much. Timothy was frail. He
was weak because he was afraid of these things,
all these things that could happen as he was
leading that church. And so Paul is counseling
him in these areas throughout the book. In verse
23, he gives him this advice. He says, drink
no longer water, but use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake. and not often infirmities. Warren
Wiersbe said this about that verse. He says,
for a young man already inclined towards timidity,
these pressures would create significant stress
that could readily manifest as physical illness.
The digestive system is particularly vulnerable
to the effects of chronic anxiety, while Paul
prescribes wine as a physical remedy, his spiritual
prescription. was to stir up the gift, to be
not ashamed, to hold fast to form of sound words,
addressing both Timothy's physical symptoms with
practical advice and his fear with spiritual
encouragement. And so that's how that verse lines
up with what he said in the second Timothy. The
Bible doesn't explicitly, doesn't say this explicitly,
but it seems that Timothy's fear and his anxieties
over these things had made him physically sick.
And we know that Today, fear and timidness, it
can weaken a person physically. It can impair
mental strength. Did you know that fear can shrink
your prefrontal cortex, reducing clear thinking?
It can make sound decision making difficult.
It can suppress immunity function. It can trigger
sleep disturbances. It can destabilize your digestive
health. It raises risk of heart issues. And it
also drains social confidence and so fear has
real effects on our lives real physical effects
on our lives at times in extreme cases Did you
know that fear can trigger fatal heart rhythms?
Leading to fatal heart attacks. That's where
you you've probably heard the saying Scared to
death, right? That's where that comes from Timothy
dealt with both physical and psychological fears
So yeah weaknesses that Fear caused. Paul, now
he advises him basically to face your fears,
but also to take something to calm your stomach,
right? When you don't face your fears, your fears
control you, both physically and spiritually.
And you become in bondage by your spirit, or
by that spirit of fear. And then you miss out
on amazing opportunities to be used by God. And
so Timothy knew the Lord, right? Obviously he
knew the Lord. but fear still gripped his life.
The spirit of fear caused him to forget his God
-given abilities, his God -given heritage. They
caused him to fail at the mission that he was
put on, to boldly proclaim the gospel, and they
also made him physically weak from his anxieties.
But Paul told him how to overcome fear, and you
and I can live lives of bondage of fear, or we
can live freed by faith, because... When fear
dominates, there's no room for Christ, but when
Christ dominates, we can conquer our fears. John
16, 33, it says, Jesus said this, these things
have I spoken unto you, that in me you might
have peace in the world, in the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. Jesus has overcome the world,
amen. There's still, even though Jesus had overcome
the world, there's still so many gifted people
sitting, unused because they're afraid. Even
in my own life, I was afraid to do what God had
called me to do. I feared giving my life over
to the Lord and doing what he wanted me to do.
I feared what my peers would say. I feared what
my parents would think. I feared my lack of capacity.
Am I able to even do this? And I spent the first
five years, five to seven years of my new life
in Christ. pursuing something other than what
I felt like God had called me to do. I almost
didn't pursue ministry at all because I was afraid,
right? Don't let that be you. You guys have so
much potential, and I'm talking to teens, I'm
talking to little kids, adults. You have so much
potential. Don't let fear keep you from being
who you ought to be in Christ. A spirit of fear,
it can enslave a believer, making us forget our
gifts, fail our mission, and even become physically
frail. But God hasn't left us defenseless against
our fears. Second Timothy, chapter one, verse
seven, it doesn't just identify our problem,
it provides a solution. A spirit of fear keeps
us from doing what God had called us to do, but
the spirit of God, it prompts us and aids us
in doing what we're called to do. You can overcome
your fear today by understanding this second
vital concept. the delivering power of the Spirit
of God. And so that's concept number two, the
delivering power of the Spirit of God. Paul says
in 2 Timothy chapter one, verse seven, for God
had not given us a spirit of fear, but of power,
of love, and of sound mind. Like Timothy, we
have a real enemy, and he seeks to destroy us
with fear. But God, he didn't give us a spirit
of fear, he gave us his spirit, amen? And he
gave us a spirit so that we could bring him glory
and so that we could overcome our fears through
his strength, through the Holy Spirit. We're
gonna see that God has given us three qualities
that can enable us to live a life free from the
bondage of fear. I want you guys to notice I
didn't say free from fear in general. I said
free from the bondage of fear. Fear remains.
Remember I just told you I was scared to live
out my calling in Christ. And you know what historically
has been deemed the number one fear by people?
Public speaking. I'm scared right now. But God,
he enables us to overcome our fears through his
strength, which leads us to our first quality
that he gives us to overcome our fears, and that's
power. God has given us a spirit of power. Acts
1 -8, it says, but ye shall receive power after
the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall
be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in
all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost
parts of the earth. Every single believer has
that same Holy Spirit, that spirit of power.
And Paul reminded Timothy that he was no different.
God hadn't. given him a spirit of fear but of
power. Remember he just said that he wanted to
stir up that power in Timothy so that he could
lead the church in Ephesus, so that he could
accomplish the mission of reaching Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the
earth. Paul is now echoing what he told the Philippian
church who was dealing with persecution and uncertainty
in Philippians 4 .13. He said, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. You, me, And
Timothy, we can overcome our fear through the
power of God, which is given to us in the third
person of the Trinity, right? Through the Holy
Spirit. Paul tells Timothy, don't fail to live
up to your calling because of fear rather, in
verse eight, second Timothy, one, be thou partakers
of the affliction of the gospel according to
the power of God. That's not to say that no one
will be against you, but. that if God is with
you, why should you be afraid? God, the power
of God lives in us through the Holy Spirit. And
when your enemy, we know that when your enemy's
stronger than you, you have a good reason to
be afraid, right? When you understand though
that you have greater strength than your enemy,
you don't really need to be afraid. Has anybody,
when you were a little kid and you walked home
from school, if you had a bully that picked on
you, you would have been afraid, right? I had
a bully when I was younger. They lived next door
to me and they would pick on me every day while
I was playing in my front yard and I was scared
to death. So one day I had enough and I went
and I got my dad and we marched right over to
her and we said, hey, you need to leave me alone.
She was six, but she looked like she played defensive
line for Finley High School. So hey, listen,
Peter was scared of a little girl too, okay.
The Bible says in 1 John 4, 4, you are of God,
little children, and have overcome them because
greater is he that is in you than he that is
in the world. Our Father, the one that's with
us, the one that's in us, is greater than our
enemy, and so we don't need to fear. When I had
my dad with me next to that little girl, I wasn't
even worried about her. 2nd Timothy verse 1 -7,
it says, for God hath not given us a spirit of
fear but of power. And then we're gonna move
right into our second quality that has given
us a spirit of love. God has given us a spirit
of love. In 1 John 4 -18, he says, there is no
fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear
because fear hath torment. He that feareth is
not made perfect in love. We love him because
he first loved us. And so, love is a powerful
quality when it comes to dealing with fear. When
we understand God's perfect love for us, it drives
out that paralyzing fear that Timothy struggled
with and that we so often face. The answer for
fear is found in that source of perfect love.
John 3, 16, we all know the verse, for God had.
For God so loved the world that he hath given
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. If you know the love of the son that he
gave his life for you, then you don't need to
fear because God has that perfect love for you.
That perfect love, it casts out fear. His love,
it covers a multitude of sins. It covers all
of our sins. His love even covers our forgetfulness,
our failures, and our frailties. And so, So that
when we fear the enemy more than we love God,
or sorry, those forgetfulness, those failures,
those frailties, they come when we fear the enemy
more than we love God. And when John says, he
that feareth is not made perfect, what he's referring
to is our growing experience of God's love. The
word perfect here, it doesn't mean. Perfect,
like without flaw, it means mature, complete.
When we experience God's love, our love grows,
it matures. And mature love, it doesn't worry
about torment. It doesn't worry about what is
God gonna do? Is God gonna punish me? Because
we know the Lord and it grows as we walk faithfully,
trusting in Christ and what he's done for us
on the cross. And so Timothy. Timothy's timidness,
it revealed that he hadn't fully embraced God's
love so that he could be empowered by him to
face persecution. He knew the Lord, but he had
some growing to do. And so here's the point.
We don't need to fear that the Lord is gonna
pour out his wrath on us if we know Christ. Rather
we should love God by living out his will for
our lives, right? We love him because he first
loved us. And so, and if we don't have fear,
the torment, or if we don't fear the torment
of the Lord rather, how much less than should
we worry about the torment of our enemy? When
love motivates our faithfulness to God, the things
we fear that could happen, they don't compare
to the things that will happen when we live out
our calling in God, in Christ. What I'm saying
is if you, Sorry, if I do what God has called
me to do, I fear that people could reject me.
I fear that people will hate me. I fear that
I won't be good enough. And that would stink,
right? But if you live out God's calling for
your life, people will be saved. God's gonna
be glorified. And that's gonna be far greater
than whatever, that's gonna surpass anything
that could've happened because of our fears,
right? And so that brings us to our last quality.
Second Timothy one, seven again, for God hath
not given us a spirit of fear but of power, of
love, and of sound mind. God has given us a spirit
of sound mind. The phrase sound mind, it indicates
that God has given us discipline, self -control,
and a discerning spirit. The believer, we can
see reality through the lens of God's truth.
as opposed to through the lens of our fear. There's
an old acronym for fear, and it's false evidence
appearing real. That's what fear is a lot of
times, just false evidence appearing real. But
for Timothy, we know that there was actual, there
was potential danger there, and that was very
real. Persecution was happening, and still Paul
admonished him to not live in fear. Don't be
ashamed, he said in chapter one, verse eight.
Back in a few verses later in chapter 12 of second
Timothy one it says for which cause I also suffer
these things nevertheless I am not ashamed for
I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I have Committed
unto him against that day So Paul's basically
saying Timothy I've been through your very worst
fears But as a follower of Christ, we can't let
fear keep us from living out God's calling, from
sharing the gospel. Remember, Paul is writing
from prison. Does anybody in here have a fear
of prison? None of you? You guys haven't watched
Scared Straight. If there was a Scared Straight
show in first century Rome and Paul was in there,
he'd be writing Timothy and he'd be like, hey,
it's not so bad, Timothy. You can do it. Just
live out your faith. Because Timothy, he had
a sound, or Paul had a sound mind. Though he
wasn't in denial of his circumstances, he had
a rational trust in God's faithfulness and he
believed that the Lord who saved his soul could
keep it. His discipline, thinking, it was what
anchored him in trusting the Lord and living
out the Lord, or living out his faith. He says,
whom I have believed. Not just what he believed,
but the person whom he believed. He put his faith
in Christ and he knew that God could get him
through that. So our fears, they may or may not
come true, but every promise the Lord has given
us will come true. Peter put it like this in
1 Peter 4 16. He said, yet if any man suffer
as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let
him glorify God on this behalf. Consider Peter
and John in Acts 4 when they're standing in front
of the very people that killed Jesus and they're
being threatened for their faith. and for their
lives, and they said, if you don't stop preaching
the gospel, we're gonna get rid of you, just
like we did Jesus, basically, right? And then
they responded, whether it be right in the sight
of God to hearken unto you more than God, judge
ye, for we cannot but speak the things which
we have seen and heard. They were of a sound
mind. They sounded crazy to everybody else, but
they understood what they were doing. They understood
that, the authority of God trumped the authority
of the enemy. The apostles, they faced their
fears by continuing, after that they continued
to live out their calling, spreading the gospel
to the nations. And almost all 12 of them saw
Timothy's worst fears come true. Still, Paul
exhorts Timothy to overcome his fears and walk
faithfully, freed from bondage, free from fear
through the gifts of God, through... God's power,
his love, and the sound mind that he equips us
with, these aren't just qualities that Timothy
needed, these are what God has given to each
of us. The spirit of fear, it wants to paralyze
us, it wants to keep us from doing God's will
in our lives, but the spirit of God, it propels
us forward in his calling. And so, while the
scripture, it doesn't tell us explicitly if Timothy
fully conquered his fear, we know that Paul's
encouragement wasn't in vain. Paul wouldn't have
written these words if victory over our fear
was not possible through Christ. The spirit of
God is stronger than the spirit of fear. And
today every believer, we have to choose whether
we're gonna be overcome by the spirit of fear
or if we're gonna overcome our fear by walking
in the spirit of God. Through Paul's encouragement,
we've discovered that every believer can overcome
fear by understanding these two essential qualities.
The destructive power of the spirit of fear.
The enemy wants to destroy us, they want to destroy
our testimony and keep us from living out God's
will in our lives by using fear. And the delivering
power of the spirit of God. The spirit of God
enables us to live free from the bondage of fear
by equipping us with power, with love, and with
a sound mind. Psalm 21, verse one, it captures
this perfectly. It says, The Lord is my light
and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord
is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be
afraid? When God becomes our light, our salvation
and our strength, fear loses his grip on us.
Like Timothy, we may still be afraid, and that's
natural, to be afraid of these possibilities
that could happen. But we don't have to be controlled
by our fear. We can move forward in faith because
we have the spirit of power. to face challenges.
We have the spirit of love to cast out fear.
We have the spirit of sound mind to think clearly
in uncertain times. So tonight I have one challenge
for us, and it's a big one. Don't let your fear
keep you from living out God's calling. Step
into God's calling. That's one big challenge
because it encapsulates a lot of things. Share
your faith with your friends, with your family
members. Serve in ministry that challenges you,
that stretches you out of your comfort zone.
Make decisions that require stepping out in faith
and address difficult situations that you've
been avoiding. God wants to work through you,
but if you let fear control your life, it's gonna
be pretty hard for him to move in that, in your
life. So press toward the mark. Just as Paul
did in Philippians 3, 3, 14, he says, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Jesus Christ because God has not given
us a spirit of fear. He's given you his spirit,
the Holy Spirit, the fear of God. It removes
all other fears. The man who kneels before God
can stand before any man. And so Timothy, he
needed to learn this truth and so do we. And
so I'm gonna ask you all to stand. Every head
bowed.