Casting Out Fear

I don't need to tell you that there are many things in our world that cause fear, diseases and poverty and the prospect of being assaulted and on and on and on it goes. Some people live in constant fear, which is a dreadful way to live, but that is the reality in the lives of many. For many people, there is no discernible remedy.

For all of the trials and assaults of life, there does not seem to be a solution. Fear for those people is a given. It's a way of life. It is something that will always be with them as far as they are concerned, for which there is no solution.

And I wonder about you this morning. What is it that causes fear in your life? Is it COVID? Is it finances? Is it death, the death of a loved one or the fear of your own death? Is it a marriage that may be failing and you are afraid is falling apart?

Is it the political situation of the world in which we live? Do you have something at your job that is causing you to fear? And there are certainly dozens of other things that I could name that are probably causing some to fear this morning. It is helpful for us to realize that Timothy, Paul's most trusted ministry partner, also was wrestling with fear. And Paul writes to address Timothy's fears in 2 Timothy 1.7. And in doing so, shows Timothy the path to overcoming his fears and by the inclusion of this in the New Testament Scriptures, God intends for it to show us the path to overcoming our fears.

4, writes Paul to Timothy, by the Spirit of God, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I have four questions to address to our text today. Number one, what is fear?

Two, where does it come from? Third, why should we not fear? And number four, how do we overcome fear? Number one, what is fear? What is fear? For God has not given us a spirit of fear. What is Paul talking about when he uses the word fear? And it's very instructive that the Greek word used here is not the common one that you usually find translated fear in your Bible, in your New Testament Scriptures. A common word many of you probably know is phobos, and it is used in both a negative and positive sense. Sometimes it is a bad fear that ought to be dispelled and overcome, but oftentimes it is a good fear, a godly fear, a reverential fear. We ought to fear God.

We ought to fear Him more than we do. But that's not the word that is used here. This is a very uncommon word and a word that is always negative and strongly so. Some Bibles translate the word timidity. God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but that is way too weak a word to translate the underlying Greek word that Paul is using by the Spirit of God. Because it carries the idea of cowardice, of shameful fear.

It is used of those who flee from their army in the day of battle, turn their backs and run away in cowardly fear. And Paul writes to Timothy and says God has not given us that. God has not given us a spirit of cowardice and of fear. So the fear that is spoken of here is a vacillating behavior, an abandonment of responsibilities because of apprehension of circumstances and threats that surround us. That's the fear that is addressed in our text. The question, secondly, therefore, is where does this come from?

And our text is very emphatic. It doesn't come from God, for God has not given us a spirit of fear. God has not given it to us.

It didn't come from him. And as if to reinforce that statement, he goes on to say God has not given us a spirit of fear. And the question is, should the word Spirit be capital S, Holy Spirit, or should it be small s, an attitude of fear?

My Bible has the small s, but I can tell you having studied, I suppose, at least seven or eight commentaries this last week that virtually every commentary takes the other position. Everyone who has studied this passage carefully seems to have come to the conclusion that what Paul is talking about here is not merely an attitude of fear, though, of course, it translates into that in everyday behavior, but what he's talking about is the spirit of the living God. God has given us his spirit. He's given it to Timothy. When he says God has not given us, he's talking about himself, he's talking about Timothy, he's talking about all born-again believers. God has not given us a spirit of fear that is the Holy Spirit.

And the context, I think, makes that abundantly clear. We're going to look in a moment at verse 6, but even now notice what Paul says, Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Now the gift of God, we know, is the gift of ministry, of preaching, that was given to Timothy by God, but more specifically was given to Timothy by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God.

It is a spiritual gift. The Holy Spirit gave that to Timothy. And when we get down to the end of the passage we read this morning, we see words that are not identical to what we have in our text, but seem to be repeating the same thoughts in different words, and what does it say? Verse 13, Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

That good thing which was committed to you, keep how? By thee, and now it's very clear and specific, by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. So I'm satisfied that indeed Paul is writing here about the Spirit of God. And so when he says God has not given us a spirit of fear, that of course goes without saying because if we're talking about the Holy Spirit, of course it's not a spirit of fear. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, and God does not have a spirit of fear, and He hasn't given to us a spirit of fear. So where does it come from? It didn't come from God.

It wasn't given in connection with the impartation of the Holy Spirit, which God gives to all true believers. Where does this fear come from? And fear comes from within us. Fear comes from our human nature, that is from our human sinfulness. Fear comes because of our Adamic depravity, our Adamic weakness, the damage that has been done to all of us because of Adam's fall in the garden and what that means for all of his children throughout the subsequent generations. Fear comes from excessive focus upon ourselves as we are all prone to do.

We are all inclined to look more to ourselves than to God and to others. Fear comes from looking at our circumstances more than at God's sovereign control. We look at all the things around us and we say, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, and we fear because we are looking at these things instead of raising our eyes to heaven above and seeing an almighty God upon His throne who is ruling His universe perfectly and nothing is outside of His control.

Doesn't that begin to change things in a hurry? Fear comes from looking at our resources which we find to be far too small and inadequate instead of looking to God and His resources, His wisdom, His omnipotence, His love, His grace, His promises, His willingness to come to our help. Fear comes from within us and fear is, I think in this respect, the opposite of faith. Faith looks to God, to His word and draws courage and strength from that. Fear looks to ourselves and to the things that are immediately around us and flees from the dangers which we see on every hand and from the weakness and inadequacies which we find within our own resources. Where does fear come from? In short, it comes from weak faith.

Fear comes from fearing Satan's power more than God's ability and willingness to help us. Are we weak? Of course. Are circumstances threatening? Of course. Is Satan a powerful foe?

Of course. And if that's the things that we look at, then what are we going to do? We are going to fear and the more we see those things the greater our fear grows and it's no wonder therefore that those who don't know the Lord see no remedy for their fears conclude that they must spend their whole life living in fear because what else do they have?

Within our fears, without our dangers. They see nothing that gives them much hope. They're looking for changes in politics, changes in society. If this would change, if that would change, it would make everything better and the things that they are expecting to change can only change when Jesus Christ comes to rule and to reign. But God's people don't need to live that way. God's people must not live that way. That dishonors the Lord.

We are called upon to exercise faith, believing the Word of God, appropriating the truth of God's Word, bringing that down into our lives day by day. Which brings me now to my third question. Why should we not fear? And of course there are a number of reasons.

I've already suggested some. But if we're sticking to our text, there are two prominent ones that appear. And they are very closely related. Why should we not fear? Number one, in order to serve God effectively, why should we not fear? Number two, in order to strengthen our faith. Fear is the foe of faith. But number one, why should we not fear? We should not fear because to fear impedes our ability to serve God effectively. And that's really what Paul is dealing with in this text when we look at it in context. In fact, our text begins with the word for, doesn't it?

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. That for is a word of causation. It forces us to look back. It's a conclusion.

It's something based upon what has gone before. And what has gone before, of course, is the verse immediately preceding, verse six. And Paul says to Timothy, 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. Four, in order to serve God effectively, and back to verse six, we find out that this fear is to be rejected and overcome in order to be able, in Timothy's case, to stir up the gift of God.

I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which you aren't going to be able to do if you are living in fear. And what is this gift of God? Well, he tells us it's a gift which was given to you through the laying on of my hands.

I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. And that points us in the direction of what Paul has in mind. He's talking about Timothy's ordination to ministry, which took place with the laying on of hands, not just Paul's. He only mentions himself here. But earlier, I don't even have to turn a page in my Bible, to go back to First Timothy chapter four and verse fourteen to read, Do not neglect the gift that is in you.

Same idea. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership, the laying on the hands of the presbytery, literally, the laying on the hands of a number of God-called preachers and recognized preachers, apostles, elders, whoever they may have been, Paul being among them. Because of Paul's close relationship with Timothy, Timothy was his son in the faith. Paul here just simply mentions, Don't forget, Timothy, that I laid my hands on you in recognition of the gift that God had given you.

Which needs to be stirred up. He's talking about Timothy's ordination to ministry, which was at one time formally recognized before the church through the hands of the presbytery laid upon him. We call that ordination. Public recognition of Timothy's preaching gift given to him by God. And this laying on of hands is symbolic that this gift is not given by men, it's not given by the church. When Paul says it was given to you by the laying on of my hands or by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, what he's actually saying is it was recognized in that way that this gift was given to you by God.

Stir up the gift that is in you given by God. The gift that was committed to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Verse 14 that I read earlier. And so Paul specifically in Timothy's case is talking about the fact that God had gifted Timothy for the public preaching of God's word. That gift had been recognized by the church. And at some time the church decided now is the time to formally recognize it, to publicly recognize it, and to set aside this man for ministry, to ordain him to ministry, to let everyone know that we approve of his entering ministry and we believe that God has given him the gift of preaching. But Timothy evidently was drawing back. He was afraid. I remind you, 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 strong mind. Stir it up. The idea is to stir up embers that are about to go out. A fire that has been burning and it burns down lower and lower and lower and lower and nobody has been adding fuel to the fire. And pretty soon it's just a few embers down in the bottom of your fireplace or whatever it is that you are doing this.

And if you don't give it some attention then eventually it's going to completely die out. Not quickly in my fireplace when I go to bed at night after the embers have gone to almost nothing. I still don't dare close the damper completely or I'll start smelling smoke in the house. There's always a little bit of fire still there.

I close the damper partially and go to bed and when I get up in the morning it's completely out and I can close the damper completely. It's slow, it's gradual, but it is reality that unless the fire is attended to it will eventually go out. Unless the gift of ministry is regularly attended to it can go out.

It can become dormant and useless and eventually dead. And Paul doesn't want that to happen to Timothy. And he's not saying that Timothy has gone a long way down that road toward complete decline and the death of his gift.

But Paul obviously recognizes that there has been a few steps at least taken in that direction and he's concerned that this be reversed. It must not continue. This decline must not go on. You can't neglect the gift that is in you. You've got to stir it up, stir it up, stir it up. It's too precious, it's too valuable. It is something that God has given you.

It must be acknowledged, it must be preserved, it must be exercised. This is the primary way that God has given you to serve him. So stir up the gift of God that is in you by the laying on of my hands for God has not given us the spirit of fear. Evidently Timothy was afraid. Now what has caused Timothy to be afraid?

And we don't know but there are a number of possible reasons that are alluded to elsewhere in scripture. We do know for example that Timothy was not exactly in robust health. He had some health issues. Paul talks in one place, in fact in this same epistle, about his frequent infirmities. Timothy was not exactly a robust giant of a man. He was on the sicklier side of health. That may have caused his fears.

What else? We also know that Timothy had a timid personality. He instructed churches to see that Timothy be with you without fear. Recognize that he is not as bold and robust and outgoing as I am, says Paul, and you need to recognize the difference and you need to help him and protect him and be sure that you're not doing anything unnecessarily in order to stir up fear within him. He's got a rather shy and withdrawing type personality and yet within that there is great giftedness for ministry. I was talking to someone just within the last week or so about a particular minister who has had a long and effective ministry and is very bold and courageous and dynamic in the pulpit, but this person who knows him well said he is extremely shy.

He is very withdrawn in his personality. You wouldn't know that from the pulpit, but that is the case and evidently that was the case with Timothy as well. And his timid personality probably contributed to his fearfulness. And thirdly, we know that he was relatively young. We don't know exactly, but on another occasion, Paul said, Let no one despise his youth. Don't let anyone diminish his value because he's younger than most ministers. He's younger than most of you. He's pretty young to be recognized as an elder. Elder seems to imply older, but he's not so old.

He's young, but he shows the spiritual qualifications for eldership, but his youth tends to make him feel a little bit inferior and reluctant and fearful. And then finally, where was Timothy at this time? He was ministering in the city of Ephesus, and Ephesus was filled with all kinds of opposition, as we know.

The Gentiles, the pagan Gentiles in Ephesus had greatly withstood the ministry of the apostle Paul. Remember the riot of the Ephesian silversmiths that called together thousands of people in the amphitheater to create a riot against Paul? Well, Paul was gone, but the church was still there. And guess who had been appointed to go and lead that church in Paul's absence?

You're right. It was shy, timid Timothy. Look what he's facing in the community where he's serving. And furthermore, there were hostile Jews as well in Ephesus who had done their best to extinguish the light of the gospel. So on the one hand, Timothy is facing hostile pagans. On the other hand, he's facing hostile Jews.

On the other hand, he's facing false teachers. They were there claiming to be Christians but teaching false doctrine. And here was Timothy, who was a bulwark against them in the church, leading others to stand up for truth. And then, of course, there were, as there are in every church, at least a few ornery Christians. You say, how do you know?

Been pastoring for 47 years. You can't convince me otherwise. You start adding that up. It's a wonder Timothy didn't just say, I quit. Walk off and say, I'm going to start making tents or building houses or selling donkey carts or something else.

Maybe I'll invent insurance and start selling that. No, said Paul, stir up the gift that's in you. That's what God has called you to do. Though Timothy was evidently tempted to retreat from his God-given responsibility, Paul is shoring him up and insisting that he cannot.

He must not do that. But in order to continue on, he must cast out fear in order to be able to serve God effectively. And that's the first reason. Why must we deal with our fears and have victory over them? We must do that if we're going to be able to serve God effectively in whatever way God has called us. We must cast out fear if we're going to be faithful to witness to others, to just carry out the assignment of personal evangelism that has been given to all of us as the people of God. A lot of times we're just afraid, aren't we?

Let's just be honest. We just feel afraid to talk to people about the Lord, but we need to cast out fear and move on and do what God has called us to do. We're going to have to have courage to live openly for Christ in a hostile world.

You don't even have to say anything to people, but just living a Christian life is going to bring down the anger, the antagonism, the ridicule, the opposition, the hostility of those around you. We're going to destroy your business because you said that you believe in marriage. That kind of thing. It's happened to others.

That's the kind of world we live in now. What are you going to do? Are you going to run from that and hide in a cave and pretend that you're not a Christian except when you're in church in a nice, safe environment? Or are you going to rise to the occasion and exercise the courage that is needed to live like a Christian in this world? Are you going to banish your fears? We must overcome our fears in order to exercise our spiritual gifts. Not all of us have been called to public ministry like Timothy had, but all of us have been given spiritual gifts that we are to exercise in the body of Christ, and some of them are more public than others.

There's always a danger that we will be fearful in their exercise, and we must not. We must not fear in order to be able to fulfill our God-given opportunities, whatever they may be. And so number one, in order to serve God effectively, and number two, closely aligned to it, is to strengthen our faith, and this actually takes us back one more verse because the word for in verse seven that caused us to go back to verse six brings us back to the word therefore in verse six, which requires that we go back to verse five, right?

There it is right in front of you. The four takes us back to verse six, but verse six begins with the word therefore. I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Why for?

Where for? And that takes us back to verses three, four, and five where Paul is talking about Timothy's faith which dwelt first in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded in you also. All we have to do is look at verse five. 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'm persuaded in you also. I'm talking about Timothy's genuine faith, a real faith, a faith that truly lays hold upon Christ, a faith that motivates those who believe in Christ to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but there is something that weakens our faith.

What is it? Fear. Fear weakens faith, but casting out fear strengthens our faith. So why must we overcome fear?

Number one, to be able to serve Christ effectively in whatever sphere he has equipped and assigned to us, and number two, in order to strengthen our faith rather than weaken it, and that brings me therefore to question number four. How do we overcome fear? What's the remedy? We need to do it. We see we need to do it. How do we do it?

What's the remedy? And God has given us three things in our text that are greatly useful in overcoming fear. On the one hand, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but he has given us something else.

What? He's given us a spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit, capital S. He's given us a spirit of what? He's given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. God's given that to all of his children.

We have it. It's a resource given to us by God that is within us because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, but we can ignore it, we can neglect it, or we can recognize it and draw upon it, and that's what we need to do. We need to draw upon this that God has given us, these three things. Number one, the power of the spirit. That's divine power. That's the Greek word dunamis.

Most of you are familiar with that. You know that that's where we get the English word dynamite, but it really has the idea of dynamic, a dynamic power. God has given us the Holy Spirit, which gives us access to dynamic power because God has dynamic power, and he's given us his spirit. It is the power of effective, productive spiritual energy that has not given us to exercise on our selfish desires, but to accomplish God's purposes in our lives. God doesn't give us this dynamic power as Jesus taught us in the temptation last week to turn stones into bread to satisfy our own needs, but God has given us a tremendous dynamic power to exercise our spiritual gifts and to become active in his service, to become active in our local church, to become active in the ways that God has called us to do, that we might have a dynamic, productive energy to serve God. God's given us the power to do that. He's given us the power that will overcome those fears that might pull us back from serving him powerfully, dynamically, and effectively.

What else? God has given us love, the love of Christ. This is the familiar agape love, the unselfish love, the unconditional love, a love that loves Christ and desires to please him, a love that endeavors to obey him. Christ essentially defined love in terms of obedience to his commandments, didn't he?

In the upper room discourse in John chapters 14 and 15 and 16, if you love me, keep my commandments. That's how you know whether you love me. That's how others know whether you love me. That's how you manifest your love to me. It's not gooey, ooey, ishy, wishy, sentimental.

It's very practical. If you love Christ, you're going to obey him. You're going to endeavor to obey him. You're not going to do it perfectly. You never will. But you're always going to be repentant when you don't, and you're always going to be casting yourself upon him for fresh ability to do it. That's your desire.

Why? Because you love him. And when you love him, you want to please him.

You want to obey his commandments. But this love not only loves Christ, it also loves others. The love we have for others is an unselfish love that seeks their welfare. Even above our own.

Boy, that's where the challenge comes in. It's hard enough sometimes to even demonstrate a modicum of concern and care for others that has practical feet to do something to help them. But when we realize that God's standard for his people is to esteem others better than ourselves and to love our neighbor at least as much as ourselves, no less than ourselves, that's a high standard indeed. But you see, that focus upon Christ loving him and pleasing him and serving others, that goes a long ways toward overcoming these fears which are present and real, and we must deal with them and wrestle with them. But we realize very quickly we can't spend our whole lives living in a cave to protect ourselves from any possible harm and danger because we've got work to do. We've got service for Christ to accomplish.

We've got other people to serve for Christ's sake. And Christ has given us power to do that. Christ has given us the love that enables us to do that.

Less focus on self and more focus on Christ and others will drive fear out of our lives. And what else has he given us? He's given us a sound mind. A sound mind. We're often told the battle is in the mind, and it is.

The battle for what? For nearly anything. It's in the mind. It's the way we think. I listened to Dave Ramsey quite a bit in the car. He's very interesting and helpful and has a lot of things that I think are probably right on target. And I heard him say, I had to mull this over and chew it over a bit and even discuss it briefly with my wife to see whether I fully agreed with it or not. But he said the only thing that keeps the average American from becoming a millionaire is the way he thinks about money. Boy, we can really argue against that, can't we? I mean, we can think of a hundred reasons why that's not true.

But you know what? It probably is true. It's not true in every case. There are circumstances that will make that not possible. But if you start early enough employing the principles that he tells you to, stay out of debt, live beneath your income, give generously to God, and invest regularly, little amounts, but just regularly over time, over time, over time.

Most people could become millionaires if they lived to retirement age and beyond. Why do so many people struggle? Because you ain't thinking right about money.

You spend every penny you get, you go in debt, it's in the mind. It's in the mind. Now, that's just an example.

I'm not going into that now. I'm just using that as an example. But really, in life, what outcomes we experience pretty much have to do with the way we think about things. The battle is in the mind.

And Paul definitely says that's true here. Your fears, you think they're all reasonable and rational and founded, but probably not all so. God's given us a mind that can evaluate things a little more accurately, a sound mind. That means a disciplined mind, a self-controlled mind, a clear thinking mind. But it's more than just the mind.

It is sound-mindedness in action. If you have a sound mind, as defined by Paul in Scripture, then it will be manifested in a disciplined life. A disciplined mind results in a disciplined life. There are a lot of people who deceive themselves into thinking they have very disciplined minds, they just have sloppy lives. They have clear thinkers, but they just are sloppy livers.

You know what I meant. That's not what Paul concludes. He concludes that if your mind is disciplined, your life will be disciplined. A sound mind is a mind that is informed by God's word and lives according to the wisdom of God's word. A sound mind is a mind that balances the dangers of life with, and there are dangers in life, and a sound mind is not oblivious of them. A sound mind doesn't cast oneself off the pinnacle of the temple and expect God to catch you, lest you dash your foot against a stone kind of carelessness. It's not that kind of foolishness, not that kind of bravery, which isn't really bravery at all.

It's folly. But a sound mind balances the dangers of life with a strong grip on the truth about God. And evaluates all the dangers of life in light of what we know about God. Fear produces disorderliness and confusion. Faith produces orderliness and boldness.

Got it? Some of you do, some of you don't. I'll say it again. Fear produces disorderliness and confusion. Faith produces orderliness and boldness. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. To help us apply in a practical way some of the thoughts in this text, let me ask a few questions. Where are you tempted to abandon God-given responsibilities for a more comfortable course? Is it in your home, on your job, in church, in areas of ministry?

Think about those things and apply the text. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. Who do you need help loving? Your spouse, other family members, church members. Is there somebody at church that just bugs you to death? You need some help in loving that person.

Someone at work, someone in your neighborhood. You've concluded that it's impossible. Ah, no, no, no. God has not given us the spirit of cowardliness, but of power and love and a sound mind. What would change in your life if you were a little more self-disciplined?

Your finances, your habitual tardiness, your procrastination, your weight, your areas of Christian service. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind. I came to the conclusion when I'd finished preparing this message on the basis of this text that it came to my mind just really in the light of what's going on with COVID and all of the fear I see in the world around us. And this text came to mind and I said this would be a good one to explore and to develop and to preach. But when I came to the end of all of this, I came to the conclusion that in some ways this may be the most practical text I've preached on in a long, long time.

This is really down where we live, isn't it? Fear leads to wasted opportunities, which means wasted life. Faith leads to God-enabled accomplishments, which means a productive life. Therefore, do not allow fear to rule your life. Trust in Christ, rest in Him, for He's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. Let's pray. Father, help us to take your word and apply it to our lives. May your Holy Spirit show us where these truths are needed in every life, everyone who's listening today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.