THE WORKER. At Calvary GOD S ANSWER TO FEAR

Transcription

1 THE WORKER Scripture: Devotion 2 Timothy 1:1-7 Topic 2 Timothy 1:1-7; Isaiah 23:4; Psalm 27:2; John 4:18-19 JUNE 2015 First Week 63 Theme BE SAFE! WALK IN THE PERFECT LIGHT Theme Song Topic At Calvary GOD S ANSWER TO FEAR Kip B. Banks, Sr. East Washington Heights Baptist Church Washington, DC Interim General Secretary, PNBC, Inc. Key Verse For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:6). Devotion: Quiet Music The Lord Is My light and My Salvation (Spiritual) Call to Worship God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear (Psalm 46:1-2 NLT). Prayer (brief) Dear Father, my heart and mind are flooded with fears. Sometimes I am paralyzed. I feel unable to go on. These fears are overwhelming, they remain with me day and night. Yet I hold onto your truth. You have told us not to fear, for you have overcome the world. So I cling to you, I trust in your promises, that you will never fail me, never forsake me. In moments of such crippling fear, I choose to hold your hand. I know you have experienced the most fearful places, I know that you have risen again. In you all promises meet and new life begins. You are my Savior, I hide in you, protected by your love, and sheltered by your grace. In Jesus name. Amen.

2 64 JUNE FIRST WEEK DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE GRIPPED BY FEAR We live in a world gripped by FEAR! These fears include: the fear of terrorism; the fear of the militant group, ISIS; the fear of violence not just in the Middle East, but right in our own backyards; the fear of police brutality and our young black men killing other young black men; the fear of cancer; the fear of the Ebola virus; the fear of financial ruin; and the fear of death. When you think about these and the many other fears that we face on a daily basis, it s enough to make you want to holler and throw up both your hands. But what does the Bible say about our fears? Does God have an answer to fear? What should our response be to terrorism and the many other fears that we face? Should we fear? Should we cower? Should we fret? Should we be troubled? God has a word for us in the first chapter of the book of 2 Timothy. As background, 2 Timothy records the Apostle Paul s last words to Timothy, his son in the ministry. Timothy was a young man with a timid, shy and fearful nature. There was good reason for Timothy to be fearful. Timothy was doing ministry at a time when the emperor, Nero, persecuted Christians and was conducting a campaign to eliminate Christianity. Students of history know that there was a great fire in Rome, which caused untold deaths and destruction, a major calamity! Nero blamed the Christians. Thus, he began the campaign to eliminate Christianity altogether. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Timothy? Here he is, a young man, timid, shy and suppose to preach and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, his father in the ministry, Paul, was in prison, sentenced to die, and yet, he was to uphold the blood stained banner of Jesus Christ. Timothy probably had feelings similar to the feelings we have today. So Paul wrote this second letter to Timothy to comfort and reassure Timothy. This letter and discussion is the basis for the Topic Discussion.

3 JUNE FIRST WEEK TOPIC DISCUSSION 65 GOD S ANSWER TO FEAR Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 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 (2 Timothy 1:1-7). Paul begins to reassure Timothy in verse 5, by reminding him of the faith of his fore parents, the faith of his mother and grandmother and telling him that the same faith that was in his grandparents is also in him. Answer to the Sniper Scare is Faith And that s God s answer to fear! God s answer to fear is faith. The same faith that was in our fore parents, the same faith in our mothers and fathers, the faith for our grandmothers and of grandfathers. The same faith that guided African Americans through slavery, the days of Jim Crow, and through the Civil Rights era. Indeed, faith, is the Christians answer to fear. Terrorism is designed to get us to fear, but faith is the exact opposite of fear. Fear and faith, they are diametrically opposed to one another. You either have fear or you have faith. As we examine the Biblical record throughout we see a dichotomy between fear and faith. Abraham had to make a choice between fear and faith, when he was told to take his son Isaac up to Mt. Moriah, but instead of fear Abraham chose faith and because he did God rewarded him. David had to make a choice between fear and faith, when he faced Goliath, he could have chosen fear, but instead he chose faith and was able to defeat the Giant with a few stones. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to make a choice between fear and faith. fear told them to bow

4 66 JUNE first week down to King Nebuchadnezzar, but their faith told them to trust in the Lord, and they did and were victorious! Esther had to make a choice between fear and faith, fear told her to stay at home, but faith said, I will go unto the king and if I perish I perish! Peter, on several occasions had to make a choice between fear and faith. There he was one day because he chose faith, walking on water, but just as soon as he started to fear and fret, Peter sank! Stir-up Our Faith... The answer to fear is faith, but we ve got to stir up the faith that s inside of us. This means that we must make the faith that we have active. Paul says in verse six, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee. We must stir up our faith we must make our faith active. How can we stir up the gift of faith? The answer is simple and right there in the text. In verse 7 it says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind! Now let s take these in reverse order: a sound mind, love, and power. First we need to Clothe ourselves in our Right Minds. Paul says that God has given us a sound mind. As a young man, I had a hard time understanding what the old people meant when they said Lord I thank you for clothing me in my right mind, but now I understand that it means to be in a right state of thinking. Our minds are important and Satan more than anything wants the control of our minds. Satan knows that if he has control of our minds, he has control over us. If he can get us to think we re defeated, then we re defeated. Indeed, terrorism is designed for one thing and that is to get us scared, and let me tell you, when you start thinking about being a victim if you start worrying about being a victim, then you are a victim! However, the Lord says, I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me (Isaiah 23:4). In addition, the psalmist said, 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 (Psalm 27:1-2).

5 JUNE first week Love God and Others Now in the second instance not only must we stir up our faith by plugging into God s power, but we ve also got to make love a priority. God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and of love. John 4:18-19 reads, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he [God] first loved us. What this scripture is saying is that our time is limited, and we don t have time to fear and time to love. God commands us to love, and he commands us to love Him, ourselves, and everybody, including our enemies. Loving others in our daily relationships can also produce confidence in us. If you love the one you fear, you will no longer fear the one you love. The solution to working with difficult people is not found in manipulative power plays, but in the unconditional love of the difficult people. Yet, we can only love others unconditionally when we have experienced the unconditional love of God. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Plugging Into God s Power Finally, we must plug into God s power. One thing that often happens to us is that when we get stressed-out we get depressed and we spend so much time worrying, we lose power, get weak, and don t have the energy to be all that we can be for God. Therefore, it is imperative that we plug into God s power Source. God s power source is the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples in the first chapter of acts and the 8th verse to wait, and then they would receive power and they would be his witnesses throughout the earth. It s God s power that enables us to face life s challenges and life s troubles. The Bible says in Ephesians 3:20, Now to him [God] who is able to do abundantly more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20-21). We must understand that God wants us during this time of heightened fears to respond not with fear but with power. He wants us to plug into his power source, the Holy Spirit, and in order to power-up with the Holy Spirit we must spend time in devotion alone with God. This includes spending time in fellowship with him, on our knees praying, and praising Him with our lips. 67

6 68 JUNE first week What s the answer to fear? The answer is to fear is faith and stirring that faith up. Today you may be fearful, you might be troubled, you might be on the edge, but if you plug into God s power, if you make love a priority, and if you clothe yourself in a right mind, then your troubles and fear will go away! Amen. Discussion Questions 1. What are you fearful of? 2. How have you responded to fear in the past with faith? 3. What do you worry about, and in what ways does Satan attack your mind? Why do you think the news so often focuses on stories that produce fear in us? 4. How has love driven out fear in your life? 5. How can we do a better job of powering up in the Holy Spirit?