Fear vs. Faith – 2
What Voice Are You Listening To?
II Timothy 1:5-7
“When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
I didn’t explain our Scripture text too much this morning, so I want to take a moment and expound on our text for this series. Paul admonishes Timothy in our text to be a man of faith and not of fear. Paul tells Timothy, “Because your mother and grandmother had unfeigned faith, you will have it too.” What does that word unfeigned mean? Synonyms for this word are sincere or genuine. Paul was telling Timothy, God has given you a genuine faith.
So, he continues on by telling Timothy;
“God wants to stir up the gift that is within you, but if you want the gifts of the Spirit that the Lord has for you, you cannot allow the spirit of fear a place in your life. Genuine faith and fear cannot co-exist in the same body.”
I want to encourage every one of you that are here tonight to allow faith to rise up in your heart in the next few weeks. Don’t give place to the devil through the spirit of fear. The devil wants nothing more then to destroy you, but you have not been given the spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. You can’t have a sound mind if you are fearful of things and people. We need to start singing that song every day: “I’m free, praise the Lord I am free, no longer bound, no more chains holding me. My soul is resting; it’s such a blessing, oh! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! I am free.”
The church of this generation is so bound by what people think and what people say. It is time that we stand up as a body and simply declare to the devil: “I am free!” Well I don’t feel free. I don’t care what you feel like, we don’t walk by feelings, we walk by faith. If you start claiming the Word of God and speak freedom, eventually your mind is going to believe what your mouth is speaking.
This morning we began our sermon series on “Fear vs. Faith.” I have been looking forward to this series for weeks now. I believe that God is going to set people free from bondage throughout the next few weeks. There are some here that are bound by public opinion. If you allow the Word of God to penetrate your being throughout this series, you will be set free from public opinion. There are some that are bound by finances; God wants to set you free. There are others that are bound by feelings of fear concerning your marriage, fear about your job, fear concerning your children. No matter what the fear comes from, over the next few weeks you will be set free in the name of Jesus Christ.
This morning we set a foundation for the series. First, we talked about what fear is. Fear is not just a feeling, it goes much deeper then feelings of anxiety or feelings of worry or dread, fear is a spirit and until the spirit of fear is broken in your life you will continue to be filled with fear over everything. Almost every bad choice you have made in the past comes from the spirit of fear.
Then I taught on the two spiritual laws that are in effect today.
Romans 8:1-2; ΒΆ “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
From this Scripture we find that the two laws in effect are the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and then we have the law of sin and death. These two laws are extremely opposite of each other. The law of life brings hope; the law of death brings despair. The law of life brings agape love or selflessness; the law of death brings total selfishness. I want to begin where we left off this morning.
III. THE OPPOSITE OF FAITH
A little girl was in bed, scared of the dark. She went into her parent’s room and told her mother she was afraid. Her mother said, “It’s okay sweetheart. There is nothing to be afraid of, God is in there with you.” The little girl went back to her bed and as she climbed into bed she said, “God, if you’re in here, don’t you say a word, you will scare me to death.”
We learned this morning that the force behind the law of life is faith. The force behind the law of death is fear. In fact, fear always rushes in when faith is not present. We get a clear picture of this very thing happening in one of the incidents in the ministry of Jesus. This is a familiar story of Jesus sleeping in a boat while the disciples were awake weathering a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
Matthew 8:25-26; “Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “ Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him.”
Do you see the connection that Jesus makes with faith and fear? Jesus says, “Why are you afraid?” In the very same breath He says, “You have little faith.” He was attributing their fearfulness to a lack of faith. The same story is found in the books of Mark and Luke, only in slightly different words. Mark put it this way:
Mark 4:40; “And he said unto them, ‘Why are ye so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?’”
Luke puts it this way:
Luke 8:25; “And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, ‘what manner of man is this! for he commands even the winds and water, and they obey him.’”
In all three reports of the gospel, we can see Jesus declaring the opposite relationship between fear and faith. He could not have made it any plainer then this. He was saying if you have faith, you will not have fear. If you have fear, it is because you have little faith.
How do you get rid of fear in your life? It is by increasing your faith level. The more your faith arises in Jesus Christ, the less fear you have to deal with. So, what we need to find out is how do you get more faith? That question is very simple to answer.
Romans 10:17; “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
By reading this Scripture we quickly find out that faith rises in our hearts by the Word of God. So many people want more faith, but they don’t want it bad enough to get in the Word to get it.
Fear comes in our lives the same way faith comes. It comes by hearing, but not the Word of God, it comes by hearing Satan’s words. When you give attention to Satan’s words, you are ushering fear into your circumstances.
For example, if you pay attention when the devil whispers into your ear that you are going to go broke, fear will soon grip your soul. Before long, you will be walking around wringing your hands and losing sleep, fearing that you are going to go bankrupt and lose everything that you have worked so hard to attain. When you open the door to the devil’s lies, it always brings fear into your life.
That kind of fear opens the door for the devil to enter and begin really playing havoc with your finances. Soon, your worst fears will come upon you.
Fear gives place to the devil, which allows him to operate freely in your life. When you allow fear into your life, you are allowing a demonic spirit to enter into your thought life. You may disagree with that statement, you can disagree all you want, but God’s word says it is a spirit of fear, and we know that spirit is not the Holy one. It is the evil one. Nothing good can come out of that. Remember, fear gives place to the devil. That was exactly what took place with the disciples in the storm-tossed boat. Their fear in the beginning stages of the storm gave Satan room to really start tearing things up. Fear allowed the storm to get to a point where it might have destroyed them. That is why Jesus exclaimed, “Where is your faith?” When He woke up.
Jesus was actually saying, “Why is this all happening? Why is there water in this boat? Why have you allowed your fear to generate this circumstance rather than taking authority over it by faith?”
I want to make this very clear: “There is no way for Satan to operate destructively in your life unless you give place to him.” You may wonder how you give place to the devil? You give place to the devil by paying attention to his words and therefore start operating in fear.
When you receive a bad report from a doctor, what happens? We believe it because the doctor said it, as soon as you hear that bad report, the enemy immediately comes in your face and starts saying to you; “It’s true! It’s true! You have what the doctor says you have.” However, at that time, you open up the Word to I Peter 2:24; “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” Then you turn over to Psalm 91:16 and read where it says: “With long life will I satisfy him.” And then I turn over to Luke 4:18 and it says, “When hands are laid on you, you shall recover (Mk. 16:18) My anointing heals the brokenhearted, and delivers the captives, recovers sight to the blind, and sets at liberty those that are bruised (Lk. 4:18; Isa. 10:27; 61:1). That’s not all! Then turn over to Isaiah 32:3 & 35:5 and it says, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened. The eyes of them that see shall not be dim.”
If we would just learn to get the Word in us instead of opinions of doctors and friends, then we would stop listening to the devil’s words. The only way fear can leave your life is if you fill yourself with the Word.
If you pay attention to the devil’s words and the doctor’s report rather than the Word of God, fear will immediately begin to wrap its icy fingers around your heart. Fear will open the door for the devil to come in and kill, steal and destroy. All the praying and wailing in the world will not make a bit of difference if you have fear in your life. Because your fear has given place to the devil to do his destructive work.
Faith comes by hearing. Fear comes by hearing and hearing means words. Fear may come through the devil’s words whispered directly to your mind, or it may enter through the words of other people. For example, fear may come not only through a doctor, but also through a relative or a friend that speaks negatively about your situations. Even the words of the newscast declaring that the economy is failing or that there is a break-in spree going on in the community. Any message of doubt can bring fear.
That reminds me of a story I heard this week.
For several years a woman had been having trouble getting to sleep at night because she feared burglars. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he did find a burglar. “Good evening,” said the man of the house. “I am pleased to see you. Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you.”
It is time that we guard the gates of our souls. Your eyes and ears are gateways to your mind and spirit. If you allow the news to enter your mind day in and day out and keep your channel tuned to CNN all day, there is no doubt that there is going to be fear in your household. It won’t be long before you will be afraid of war and economic collapse.
In closing, no matter where it comes from, if it is does not line up with God’s Word, what you hear and pay attention to is an open invitation to the destructive spirit of fear. Don’t let fear into your life.
