Don't Be Afraid: Part 2

If you know the Lord Jesus Christ and I hope you do, you know what the message of that song is about. Jesus changed my life He changed my heart, changed my soul. When I came to him for salvation, he gave me his holy spirit that lives inside of here and now in Christ, I am made what? I am made whole. I am made whole.

And you know what that's like if you know Jesus. Life isn't always rosy. We still have trials and struggles. We still deal with different issues in life. But inside, we are whole and one day, we will be whole altogether when we stand before our savior in heaven and we are like him.

We're going to finish what we started this morning. Don't be afraid. Second Timothy chapter one. We're going to read again beginning in verse six. On the subject of don't be afraid Paul writes Timothy, I I I mentioned this morning like Moses trained Joshua and then the time came for Joshua to be the leader and take the children of Israel into Canaan.

More than a million people to conquer a land. What an incredible task. God came to Joshua and said, don't be what? Don't be afraid. Have not I commanded thee.

Don't be afraid. I will be with you. Be strong and what? Courageous. Paul similarly speaking to Timothy here says something what the same.

Paul had trained Timothy and sent Timothy out in the ministry was now the acting pastor at the Church of Ephesus while Paul was in prison in Rome and so this is the second of two letters that Paul wrote Timothy and he is encouraging him to not be afraid but to trust in the Lord and to act on the gifts and blessings of the Lord in his life. Verse six, wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me his prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began but is now made manifest by the appearance of our savior Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.

For the which calls all I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the holy ghost which dwelleth in us.

Paul writes Timothy with these words of encouragement. Words challenging words as well. Timothy, you hold fast. You keep to sound doctrine. You make use of the power that is yours in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

Do not be ashamed of your Lord. Do not be ashamed of the gospel. Do not cower in fear. But move forward with power and love and a sound mind. Paul declares to Timothy that the spirit of fear as we learn this morning, this this is a unique word in Greek.

It's not phobos which is a normal word for a a healthy kind of fear but it is a different word which can be translated timidity or cowardice. Paul declares to Timothy the spirit of fear, timidity, or cowardice that may have been gripping Timothy is not from God. There is that healthy fear, the phobos, which causes one to be cautious and circumspect, which causes one to be loyal and faithful and diligent in the service of the Lord. This is often referred to as the fear of the Lord. That's a healthy kind of fear but this kind of fear is an unhealthy kind of fear.

A fear which causes one to be timid and cowardly. A fear which causes one to be hesitant in the service of the Lord. Causes one to be paralyzed in fear. And hold you back from doing what you ought to do. Doing what God has called you to do.

This is the kind of fear Paul is referring to. God hasn't given us this spirit of fear. This fear is definitely not healthy and definitely not from God. We who are in Christ need not fear in this manner and we spend some time on that this morning. We need not fear eternity.

For in Christ, we have what? Ever lasting life. We need not fear the unknown. For tomorrow is in God's hands and so are we. If we seek first the kingdom of God, then all these things what?

Shall be added unto us. We near not, we need not fear failure. As human beings, we will fail but our God is ever what? He is ever faithful to us and the trying of our faith only helps to make us grow. If we learn from our lessons and we stick with the Lord and his word, as God said to Joshua, we will succeed.

In the thing that God has called us to. And we near, we need not fail most of all, men. Proverbs says, the fear of man bringeth a snare but who so put it his trust in the Lord shall be safe. It is the fear of man which is most often the thing that keeps us from serving Christ. We're afraid of what somebody might say or do or just a look they might gave us or even what they think about us.

I find in the ministry a lot of times, we, what we think they think about us is not what they're thinking at all and we get worried and all out of joint about what somebody is thinking about us when they're not even thinking that and how ridiculous is that? The one person we should be most of all concerned about and what he thinks about us is who? Is the Lord and if we put our trust in the Lord and we serve the Lord, then what does it matter? What men think about us? As long as we're doing the what?

The right thing and the work of God. You read about the Old Testament prophets. God told Isaiah, Jeremiah ahead of time. He said, you're going to minister and you're going to preach and they're not going to what? They're not going to listen.

They're not going to hear. They're not going to repent but you do it anyway. Why? Because I've told you to. Why?

Because it's going to bring God glory in the end. Amen. And so they did and they succeeded. You say, but they people didn't repent. That's okay.

They succeeded in following the will of their God and that's all God expected of them. God has not given us the spirit of fear. It says here. But he has given us the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. In this spirit, his spirit, we should tackle the tack tasks and challenges which lie before us in service Christ.

Not in a spirit of fear but in a spirit of power, in a spirit of love, and then the spirit of a sound mind. So, let's quickly look at those three things before we dismiss this evening. We start with the spirit of power. We need not live in fear where for we have been given a spirit of power. The Holy Spirit's power.

God's power. The Greek word for power is Dunamis, okay? Dunamis. From which we get our English word dynamic or dynamite. Kind of tells you all you need to know about Dunamis, doesn't it?

Dynamite is what? Is powerful. It moves things. God is more and God can move things too. He can move the hearts of people.

He can move mountains. He can create universes. This word dunamis means dynamic force. It means active ability or miraculous power. It's used mainly in reference to God, to his power in our behalf.

To his power given to us to use in his service. It is used a 116 times in the New Testament of the power and works of God. I'll read a few. I'm not going put em on the screen but I'll just read em for you. Matthew six thirteen and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. Luke four thirty six and they were all amazed and spake among themselves saying, what were a word is this? For with authority and power, he commanded the unclean spirits and they come out. Luke nine one, then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all the devils and to cure diseases. Acts one eight, but you shall receive power.

After that, the Holy Ghost has come up on you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Romans one sixteen, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew first. Yes. Also to the Greek. Romans fifteen thirteen, now the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the holy ghost.

First Corinthians one eighteen, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Second Corinthians four seven, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. And then first Peter one five, who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That's a few examples of how this word power is used. Of God's power, used in our behalf of God's power that is bestowed upon us.

Given, That word given means we already have this power at our disposal. We don't have to go get this power. If you're a child of God, this power is already at your disposal. This power comes from the Holy Spirit who already lives where? In us.

In us. It's like money in our bank account. All we have to do is use it. It's already there. It's already been placed in store.

It's all, it's there for our using. It doesn't do us a whole lot of good just to let it sit there, does it? Or to deny that we have it. We need to embrace it. We need to use it.

Paul is saying to Timothy, you have the power of God within you. To preach the word of God with boldness to the salvation of lost souls, to the discipling of new Christians. To the to the carrying on of the work of the ministry. You, Timothy, have this spirit of power. Don't be overcome by a spirit of fear.

Instead, overcome the fear with the power of God in your life. Embrace it. Philippians four thirteen, also uses this word. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. I can do that phrase can do.

Guess what? That is a form of dunamis. God will enable me and strengthen me to do, to have the ability to do. Whatever God asked me to do. Now, when you this verse, we quote a lot, we sang it just a few minutes ago and as a kid, I used to think, I could do all things with crying.

I can I can take this pulpit right here and I gotta lift it up off the ground? I can do impossible feats with God but read the context. It was quite a feat that Paul did with God's help but it wasn't anything the world was going to get excited about. But what Paul was saying in this context is I've learned to be content in whatsoever state I am. Whether I'm hungry or not, whether I'm well clothed or not, whether I'm things are going great or not, whether I'm being applauded or whether I'm being persecuted in all things.

I have learned to be content. For I can do all things through Christ which through me. I can endure, Paul says. Whatever the world throws at me, I have the ability to keep going. I have the ability to go through it because I don't go through it alone and the power of God that is within me can strengthen me to fulfill his will, to do his task no matter what the obstacle that the devil throws in my path.

The flesh is weak. We need to embrace the power of God in our life. God will not ask us to do anything that he will not empower us to do. He says, ask and it shall be what? Given.

Given unto you. All you have to do is ask, God says. I'm there. I will help you. I will empower you.

I will I will give you endurance. I I will conquer the fear within you. Just ask. If you know Christ as savior, there's nothing else you have to do to get God's spirit or God's power. You already have it.

But are you yielded to him? Are you willing? To trust him. And let him work through you. We saw, we mentioned David this morning standing before Goliath.

God showed his might and power to the whole nation of Israel in that little boy, that young man with that sling and that stone. But that young man with that sling and that stone had to trust God enough to walk up to that giant. He had to take a step of faith. And there may be a step of faith that God wants you to take. You can do it.

You can do all things through Christ which strengthens you. Do not shrink from his service. Do not shrink from doing his will out of fear because he has given you a spirit of power. He has also given us a spirit of love, a spirit of love. In first John four eighteen, it says, there is no fear in love.

For perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We'll come back to that verse in just a moment. God has given us a spirit of love that that love there is the word agape. It is the love of Christ.

It is the love of God. It is a sacrificial love. It is a selfless love. It is an active love. It is a verb.

It is a love that does. It's a love that cares. It's a love that puts others before who? Before self. That's the kind of love.

That Jesus demonstrated when he died for our sins on the cross. It is the love that compelled compelled him him to to Earth. Earth. To become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross but God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It is described in detail in first Corinthians 13.

We won't take time to turn there tonight. But it is depicted as a selfless love. It is depicted as merciful love. It is depicted as a humble love, as a considerate love, as a patient love. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Remaineth faith, hope, and love and or charity and the greatest of these is what? Love. Charity. As it's translated in our Bible. This is the love not only the love which God himself possesses but the love that God has shed abroad in where?

In our hearts by his spirit. And like his power, we possess that love. It delves within us. Sad to say sometimes, it's masked by our selfish desires. When we're not walking in the what?

When we're not walking in the spirit, but in the lust of the flesh. But if we walk in the spirit, we will know that love. That love will overflow in our lives. It will overcome our fears. The verse I read before, there's no fear in love but perfect love cast without fear because fear hath torment.

He that feareth is not made perfect in love. This love overcomes our fears. Why? Because the object of that love becomes more important to us. Than ourselves.

The object of that love becomes more important than my pride. The object of that love becomes more important to me than my selfish desires. The object of that love is more important to me than my fear of failure or than my fear that that they might think something of me or my my fear of getting hurt or harmed. That's the love that drove Paul from city to city to city to city to preach to those who he had never met. But whom God loved and for whom Christ died.

And for whom God had given Paul that same kind of love that allowed him to endure. Much reproach and suffering. At the very hand often of the people whom he sought to love. It overcame came his fear, his pride, and his selfish desires and so he tells Timothy, it will also overcome yours. God has not given you the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound mind.

I've told you this illustration before. I'm not sure if it was in a message from Timothy or whatnot but I do remember couple times mentioning this but there's author of some hymns in our hymn book who is a happens to be a a distant relative of mine. His name is Philip Bliss. Philip Bliss died in his forties. He didn't reach the ripe age of 49.

That I am. He still wrote many beautiful hymns that have been used greatly of the Lord and the time that God gave him but he died sort of by choice. You see, he was on a train with his wife. They were headed to Chicago for he was going to be leading the music for a Moody evangelistic crusade in Chicago. From time to time, Moody called upon him before Sankey became his music leader and he was headed to Chicago for a meeting and on the way, the train trestle that they were going over collapsed.

The train fell to the ground below and caught on fire. Philip Bliss was able to manage to get out of the wreckage. Somebody that was there who witnessed this wrote later in an article what they saw and they were convinced that it was Philip Bliss. He got out of the wreckage but his wife couldn't. And so, he went back in.

He tried to free her but he was unsuccessful. So, instead, he just decided to stay with her. Now, I don't know about you but the idea of dying a fire is not at all a pleasant one. Engenders a lot of fear. But his love for his wife overcame his what?

Overcame his fear. I think about those firefighters policemen that ascended up into the buildings. Twin Towers in New York just before they collapsed while they were on fire. The group that went up in the first building didn't know it was going to collapse. The firefighters that went up in the second building after the first one collapsed, well, they knew what might happen.

But they went in anyway. And they gave their life. Why when everybody else was running from the fire? Were they running into it? Perfect love casteth out what?

Fear. Fear. Love for the people to try to bring them to safety overcame their fear. Some of them died as a result. We honor those heroes that are willing to give of their lives for others.

Our savior is one of those heroes, the greatest of all. But we can be one too. God may not call us to the other side of the world to be a missionary in a place where our life may be put on the line. He may not call us to run into a burning building to save somebody's life. But all around us are souls that are on the brink of hell and the lake of fire and he has sent us into this world to reach them for Jesus Christ.

He has given us the spirit of love. We need to focus on that love and allow that love, the love of Christ to overcome the fears. That's what Timothy needed in ministry. He didn't just need a lesson on how to. He needed some encouragement and a reminder that God of the love of God, the love of God that dwelt within him.

The love of God that would help him to succeed in the ministry of Jesus Christ. And then there is the spirit of a sound mind. The word means disciplined or self controlled. It speaks of thought which is discipline, clear, and discerning. Thought that is discipline, clear, and discerning.

God has through Christ in salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the word of God cleared up our minds from the foolishness of the world. He describes that in Ephesians chapter two verses one through three. There Paul writes and you hath he quickened. Who were dead in trespasses and in sin? Wherein time past, he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

But you hath the quickened. You who are in Christ hath he made alive in Christ and he has quickened our minds. And he's changed our heart and we're different than we were before. He has changed our thinking. We no longer think the way the world thinks.

We see things in a different light. Behave and make decisions. Differently. Than the world around us. For he has given us a new heart and mind.

And that mind is being changed day by day, renewed. As we spend time in God's word and in prayer and in listening to his spirit. Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans twelve two. First Peter one thirteen, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

We can and must have self disciplined lives, principled lives, not driven by lust or emotion or crisis but driven by the principles of what? The principles of the word of God. It will renew your what? Mind. It will change your mind.

It will empower you. It will guide you. The Holy Spirit will teach you from the words that he has given to us as holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And cleanse and change our minds but we need to meditate on his word day and night. Do we not?

Amen. We need to hide God's word in our our hearts that we might not sin against God. Amen. And it will change your mind. It will renew your thinking.

It will give you the viewpoint and the vantage point of almighty God. And conform you into the image of his son. That we can think more clearly that we can see life in a different light, in light of eternity. And not just the temporal things. We can live principled lives and allow God's word to lead us and teach us.

Our mind may change about our work and why we're there. I remember I had to work at a tire factory waiting for Al to look over here and grin at me. Every time I say that, he laughs. To get me through college and the fact of the first summer, I said, I'm not going back. I'm not going back.

I'm not going back. It's hard work. It's dirty. It's nasty. It's hot.

I'm not going back there. And for some reason, God didn't didn't agree. Guess where I ended up? Back at the Dyer Factory. After struggling with God about it for a while, God changed my mind.

And he said, you need to look at this differently. This isn't just a job. This isn't just a way to make money. This is a mission field. There's people around you that need to see Jesus and they need to hear about Jesus.

And so, it changed my life and my outlook on work and the people that were there. We we see coming to church in a different light. Most of the world isn't in church this evening. No, they're taking a nap, cutting their lawn, going to a ball game. Why are you here in church?

Well, because God's given us a what? A new mind. New motives, new new goals, a new loyalty to Christ. We want to learn. So, you're here.

We have a different mindset on giving to the Lord world looks at what you and I give to the Lord each year and goes, boy, you could've used that for something else. No. No, I couldn't. Because I'm far better off giving God what did he is do in honoring him because he always takes care of me and it's better in his hands than it is in mine. Serving the Lord with our time, being faithful to our spouse, not filling our minds with garbage, these are things the world just doesn't seem to understand today.

But God has given us a spirit of a what? A sound mind in Jesus Christ. Use that mind. Allow God to change it more. And put it to use.

Say no to going to places that you shouldn't go. Drinking things you shouldn't drink. Doing things that you shouldn't do. Be disciplined in your minds. Study God's word.

Share it with another who needs it. First Corinthians two fourteen says, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned but us who have God's spirit have the ability to what? To discern the things that be of God. Praise the Lord. We have the spirit of a sound mind.

Thus, we understand this and grow. As we understand this, we grow in the knowledge of Christ and in the scriptures. We need not be afraid. We need to use the mind which God has given us to serve him without fear. Taking a stand for the gospel of Christ, saying and living what we believe, being always ready to give a answer of the hope that it was in us and making important decisions in the will of God.

God has given you a sound mind. Don't be afraid to use it. Don't be afraid to make decisions. Don't be afraid to follow him and to listen to his word and listen to his spirit because he has given you the spirit of power and the spirit of love and the spirit of a sound mind. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for your word, for this message this evening from the apostle Paul. Message of encouragement, message of challenge, Lord. Of conviction that we need not allow fear of men and failure, the unknown, future of eternity to overcome us. For we are over comers in Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us and you have given to us your children the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.

That we like Timothy may use this to hope to hold fast to the word of God, to endure whatever persecution comes our way. To minister in whatever manner and place you call us to without fear. Lord, thank you. Help us, Lord. To embrace that spirit.

And to overcome the other. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.