Did anyone catch Fear Factor this past Monday Night? The first stunt was kind of cool; the contestants had to jump out of a moving helicopter onto a barge full of cardboard boxes. That was neat, but two missed the barge and were disqualified, they didn¡¦t think it was so neat. The next thing was totally gross, I would have walked away. They had to put their heads inside a Plexiglas box and had fifty tarantulas put on their head. Fifty, this is what one of the contestants looked like. They could have kept the fifty thousand dollars.
You might remember from last week that we started looking at the scripture that Angela read this morning, in particular we looked at the seventh verse that says 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
More specifically we looked at the concept of fear, what it is and how it affects our lives. I mentioned that the words fear and afraid are mentioned close to five hundred times in the Bible and in the New Testament there are actually seven different words used to convey the idea of fear. The first word is ƒÖƒßƒÒƒÕƒæƒç Phobeo and it means to be in awe of, or to revere or respect something. This is a natural fear. In the Bible it is used of the Fear of God, or fear of death. This is the type of fear that keeps us from doing silly things, like putting our head in a Plexiglas box full of tarantulas.
The second word we looked at is very closely related to the first one and it is ƒÖƒßƒæƒÒƒßƒp Phobos and it means exceedingly afraid or terror. It¡¦s where we get our word Phobia. And it is natural fear taken to the extreme. If the first type of fear keeps us living, the second type keeps us from living. The website www.phobialist.com actually lists over 500 different fears, things like Acousticophobia- Fear of noise or Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens., Cometophobia- Fear of comets, Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school. And finally Homilophobia- Fear of sermons, there would appear to be a lot of people who are suffering from that in our country today.
The third type of fear we looked at was actually the word that Paul used when he wrote to Timothy, and the word he used was ƒÔƒÕƒÙƒÜƒÙƒæƒÑ Deilia which means, timid or fearful it actually comes from the Greek word ƒÔƒÕƒÙƒÜƒßƒæƒp Deilos which means faithless. And the context of this word is being afraid to do things or for that matter even to try things, because you are afraid that you might fail.
This is the fear that makes us live mediocre ordinary lives, never taking chances, never trying to change anything, content to simply drift along. This is the spirit of average, and it keeps you in a rut, and you know what a rut is right? A rut is a grave with both ends kicked out. And Paul has this to say about that type of Fear: For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidityAnd so if God hasn¡¦t given it to us then where does it come from, let¡¦s listen to what this theologian had to say about the origins of fear. (clip from ¡§The Phantom Menace where Yoda tells young Anikan that fear comes from the dark side)
That¡¦s right fear comes from the dark side, the devil wants you to be afraid to do anything great for God, to say anything for God or to try anything for God. And we can¡¦t let that happen. And so Paul continues in his instruction to young Timothy saying 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
So not only does Paul tell Timothy what God doesn¡¦t give, he also tells him what he does give. This morning we are going to look at the three things that God has given you as believers. Notice that this is not a God will give you, but it¡¦s a God has already given you statement. You already have these things, you may not recognize it, you may not use what God has given you but as a Christian these things are yours. Kind of like someone who has a winning lottery ticket in their sock drawer. The money is theirs all they need to do is claim it, and tithe it of course.
And so the first thing Paul tells Timothy that he has is Power. At this point Paul is writing from the perspective of thirty five years down the road from the Day of Pentecost. You¡¦ll remember the promise that Jesus made to the Apostles before he returned to heaven. It¡¦s recorded in Acts 1:8 But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere¡Xin Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.¡¨ But you already knew that because that¡¦s one of my favorite verses and I¡¦ve only used it five gazillion times in the past seven years. And ten days later on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came and the church became synonymous with Power.
Most scholars agree that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy about 66 AD. And because of that Paul was able to look back at the power that had been released on the Day of Pentecost. Paul was able to say; ¡§This power, this power that could take eleven unlikely men and turn them into the champions of Christianity is still available to you today.¡¨ ¡§The power that took a trembling Simon, the swaying reed who shook at the questions of a harmless mad and turned him into Peter the Rock, able to stand up to the very leaders who had Christ crucified, is yours for the taking.¡¨
You see, up to the day of Pentecost the followers of Christ had his teachings, his words to guide them and give them direction, but it was with the coming of the Holy Spirit that the power was released. The teachings of Christ were good, but the disciples needed the Power of the Holy Spirit to reveal those teachings as the words of God himself. It was Al Capone who said ¡§You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.¡¨ Well you can get more with the Gospel and the Power of the Holy Spirit then you can with the Gospel alone.
The power that is offered to the believer is first of all the power to conquer our fears, because as a believer we know that God is in control. Psalm 34:4 I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me, freeing me from all my fears. Can we say that together? Let¡¦s try it: Psalm 34:4 I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me, freeing me from all my fears.
Notice that God didn¡¦t erase David¡¦s fear he simply freed David from them. He gave David the power over his fears. I believe that when David stood in front of the giant Goliath and looked him up and down that he was afraid. I believe that when they tossed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace that the three boys were afraid.
I believe that when Daniel was invited to attend dinner with the Lions that he was afraid, that when Peter stepped over the rail of his fishing boat and placed his foot on the surface of the Sea of Galilee that he was afraid.
And hold unto your seats because I believe that in Luke 22 verse 42 when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane ¡§Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.¡¨ That Jesus Christ the son of God was afraid. He was afraid because he knew that he would be beaten, humiliated and hung on a cross to die a long painful death. And if he wasn¡¦t afraid then he wasn¡¦t a hundred percent human and that wouldn¡¦t be fear.
Fear said ¡§Please take this cup of suffering away from me.¡¨ But the power over fear said ¡§Yet I want your will, not mine.¡¨ Fear says ¡§I can¡¦t.¡¨ the power over fear says Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. Personally I will probably always be afraid of snakes, and I will probably always be afraid of heights. And yet with God¡¦s help I will never let my fears keep me from doing what God wants me to do. Why because I have not been given the spirit of fear but the spirit of power. And to quote Margaret Thatcher ¡§Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.¡¨
Secondly God gives us the spirit of Love. You do understand how important this is don¡¦t you? Love is the key identifying mark of the Christians. Time and time again we are commanded to love. To love God and to love one another. And the bottom line is recorded in John 13:35 when Jesus told his followers ¡§Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.¡¨ The reciprocal of that is ¡§Your absence of love for one another will prove to the world that you are not my disciples.¡¨
The greatest definition of Love is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Now we all know that Jesus is love incarnate. Jesus was love in a physical form, John 3:16 ¡§For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Logically then if we have a definition of love and if Jesus is indeed love then Jesus should fit into that definition. Let¡¦s try it.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Christ is patient and kind. Christ is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Christ does not demand his own way. Christ is not irritable, and He keeps no record of when He has been wronged. He is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Christ never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
The word Christian means follower of Christ or little Christ, and if that is the case then would it be fair to say that we need to be exhibiting the same Characteristics as Christ? Let¡¦s try it.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Christians are patient and kind. Christians are not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Christians do not demand their own way. Christians are not irritable, and they keep no record of when they have been wronged. They are never glad about injustice but they rejoice whenever the truth wins out. Christians never give up, never loses faith, and are always hopeful, and endure through every circumstance.
Sound tough, of course it¡¦s tough. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. The great thing is that you¡¦re not expected to do it alone. If you look at your bulletin, or on the website, you¡¦ll see our church logo. I¡¦m sure that you¡¦ve noticed that the heart is made up of words, and they aren¡¦t just any words they are a list of characteristics often referred to as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You can find them listed in Galatians 5:22-23 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
The very first characteristic that we are supposed to exhibit when the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives is love. And Paul tells Timothy that we have not been given a spirit of fear, instead we have been given a spirit of love. This is reiterated in Romans 5:5 when Paul tells the early believers And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
On our own we will never be able to love people that way described in 1 Corinthians 13, just not going to happen, and God doesn¡¦t expect it to, that¡¦s why we have access to the power of the Holy Spirit and the Love of the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly we are told that we are given the spirit of Self Discipline Actually if you are following along in a different translation of the Bible ¡§Self Discipline¡¨ may have been translated ¡§a Sound Mind¡¨, which bothered me for awhile because I wasn¡¦t sure where I stood if sanity was a prerequisite of salvation. However my fears have been eased because I¡¦ve discovered that the word used in the original language is kind of tough to translate and this is actually the only spot it is used in the New Testament. In the Greek it could mean self discipline or a disciplined mind. Both translations are pretty close to each other and the word never implied a connection to your spirituality and your mental health, so you can go back to muttering to yourself under your breath.
What it does imply though is that we have the power to control ourselves and that might be even more disturbing then the mental health issue. If you go back to the heart on the front of your bulletin, the first characteristic is love and that would make the last characteristic self control, or perhaps self discipline.
You may have discovered in 2002 that it¡¦s not necessary to accept responsibility for our behaviour. We are told that we behave the way we do because of society, or because of our upbringing, or because of other areas outside of our control. In other words it¡¦s not our fault if we exhibit behaviour that is unacceptable or hurtful to ourselves or to others. We are simply a victim and we can¡¦t help ourselves. But that isn¡¦t what the Bible says, the Bible tells us that we are responsible for our behaviour and that if we can¡¦t do it on our own that we can do it with the help of God.
And that is why one of the defining marks of being a follower of Jesus Christ is self control or self discipline. And before we can gain control over our actions we need to gain control over our thoughts. And here Paul tells Timothy that he has already been given a disciplined mind. I had a professor at college who used to tell us over and over again, you aren¡¦t what you think you are you are what you think. Motivational speaker Napoleon Hill said ¡§Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don’t control what you think, you can’t control what you do.¡¨
And so the battle for self discipline and self control must first begin here. First of all you have to want to have self control. The problem a lot of times is we are too busy enjoying sin and self destructive behaviour to actually want to stop. And the assurance from the Bible is that if you are a Christian and if you¡¦ve allowed the Holy Spirit to have control of your life that you have already been given the spirit of Self Control and the spirit of Self Discipline. And yet many of us are like the story you hear every once in awhile about the person who dies in poverty and it is discovered they have horded away a fortune, all the while screaming poverty.
Listen to me please right now, if you are a Christian, if the Holy Spirit controls your life you have the spirit of self discipline, you may choice to use it, or you may choice to not use it, but it is there for you.
So where are you at today? Bow your heads and close your eyes, remember last week I had you cup your hands in front of you and we imagined that we were holding fear in our hands. And then I had you open your hands and release that fear. For God has not given you a spirit of fear. This morning I want you to hold your hands open in front of you well I prayer, ready to claim that which God has given you. He has given you a spirit of power, love and self discipline. Let’s pray.
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