R1647 A Christian Response to Fear

You've heard this fact before 365 times in God's Word. He says, Do not fear. That's today's subject on The Encouraging Word. Yes, this is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton.

You may know him as a well-known author, a pastor, the pastor to Billy Graham for 25 years. And today, let him be your teacher as we open up 2 Timothy chapter 2 for this message, A Christian Response to Fear. As we open the Word together, know that we're open to pray with you 24 hours a day at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or meet us on our website at www.tewonline.org. If you haven't signed up for Dr. Don's daily devotional, you need to do that today.

It comes out email. You can do it on our website at www.tewonline.org. Now today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. I'm going to ask you to turn in your Bibles today to 2 Timothy. Right there in the New Testament, we're going to be in 2 Timothy. This is Paul speaking to Timothy in his world and he says this, Timothy, I've been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and also in your mother, Eunice. And I am persuaded that this same spirit now lives in you.

For this reason, I want to remind you about something. That you need to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you. And you will remember, he says, when we laid hands on you and set you apart for the work to which God has called you. Verse 7, for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but has given to us a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

Just turn over the page if it's over the page for you to chapter 4. I just want to show you what Timothy was being told to do. Perhaps I'll just read a few verses here. Timothy, 2 Timothy 4, beginning at verse 2. This is what God tells Timothy. Preach the word.

Be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come. Are you listening people? For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine instead.

To suit their own desires. They will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

But you, Christian person, keep your head in all situations. Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist and discharge all the duties of your ministry. Timothy had a mandate.

It was a fourfold mandate. In summary, number one, to preach the word. Just to take God's word and say this is what God says from God's word. He was being reminded that this word doesn't contain the word of God. It is the word of God. This is God's inerrant infallible word. Every word from Genesis to Revelation.

There are no exceptions. He was reminding the Christian man that you don't select things from God to suit people. You just share God. Number two, he was telling him in this passage to be prepared. In season and out of season. Now that little phrase there is interesting. You can interpret that in the life of a preacher whether you feel good or whether you don't.

Be prepared in season and out of season. That little word there literally means you be a Christian whether you feel like it or don't feel like it. It's like 24-7. Number three, Timothy's mandate was to understand the world in which he lived. You know that verse there that says the time will come.

He's telling him you need to understand your world. There will be a time when people won't go to church for any other reason than if that church is suiting their itching ears. It's got nothing to do with God's word. It's whether or not it fits what they believe God should or should not be.

They will heap to themselves teachers and teachers. There will be a great pulling of people away from the absolute truth of God's word toward personal preference and even personal conviction. He was telling him understand the world. And number four, which I love this fourth mandate, keep your head.

Look what he says in verse five of chapter four. But you keep your head in how many situations? All situations. So Christians listen.

That's incredible. Keep your head. Keep your head.

Are we listening? That means focus. Don't veer off course. I know work is a tough place. I know you're living in a difficult environment. I know you're facing challenges. Keep your head in all situations. Keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. But he doesn't just leave it there.

He's about to show us something amazing. So this here in context is this man, Paul, this Christian man in his world. And he was living in a difficult world. And our natural inclination is to have a spirit of timidity. You unpack that word timid makes us timid, fearful, pull back, hold back, become isolated. You know what happens then? Depression will set in. Some of you are getting depressed.

The world is making you that way. You're feeling the crush and you can't quite explain. It's like every time you turn around, it's not so good. And you feel that and it sits on you.

It's like a fog. So let me give you some great news here. This is God's counsel.

You're ready for this. This is God. This is the counsel God gave to Timothy.

Here it is. He told him to do three things. This is powerful. Number one, draw strength from others.

You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton. We'll be back with the rest of today's message, a Christian response to fear in just a moment, but we want you to know that we're here for you. We're connecting both on our website, tewonline.org, but also on the phone. There is a time where typing is good. We'd love to meet you online, keyboard to keyboard at tewonline.org.

But there's also an opportunity, especially in this time of life, the world in which we live and dealing with this subject on fear. It's great to hear another believer praying with you and for you on the phone. We stand ready to do that 24 hours a day at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673, as well as online at tewonline.org. And while you're online, you'll discover wonderful resources like this. Have you ever felt lonely, isolated or abandoned? No one escapes the feelings of loneliness caused by separation, grief, loss or isolation.

It can strike anyone, but God has placed within each of us a basic need for relationship with him. This month with your gift to the encouraging word, you will receive Dr. Don Wilton's powerful message, Fear Not, along with the bonus book Loneliness How to be Alone but Not Lonely. These powerful resources will help you overcome your loneliness and find comfort, security and companionship in God. Now back to today's great teaching on a Christian response to fear with Dr. Don Wilton. This is powerful. Number one, draw strength from others.

It's an amazing place to start, but that's where he began. He said here in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5, he said, this sincerity of your faith, this spirit of determination, this beautiful Christian living, this vibrancy, it was right there in your grandmother and also in your mother. And then he affirms to me, he says, and I can see it in you. Number two, he says, use gifts given by God. In verse 6 of 2 Timothy chapter 1, he says, use gifts given by God. Fan into flame the gifts that are in you. So what God is saying here to Timothy is, Timothy, function in your zone.

You want to overcome your timidity, function in your zone, but make sure you function. You are grieving the heart of God if God, you know God has gifted you and most believers are gifted in so many different ways and you don't use your gifts accordingly. You are grieving God and you're sentencing yourself to a life of timidity. This is the spiritual gas in the tank of the heartbeat and soul spirit of the Christian believer.

So what's God's counsel? Number one, to draw strength from others. Number two, to use the gifts given by God. Number three, to celebrate the means to carry this through. And so what God tells Timothy here is that there are three spiritual gifts that all believers have.

This is what we all have. God gives us these three gifts to carry us through and overcome the pressure and the timidity, the fear that we feel to translate us from weakness into strength, to give us spiritual energy. This is the energizing work of God the spirit.

And there are three of them and I'll just briefly mention them. First is the spirit of power. Secondly is the spirit of love. And thirdly is the spirit of self-discipline or a sound mind.

These are so essential. These are the gifts that we all have, the triumvirate of spiritual giftedness, if you please, that all believers have that provide us with the necessary God given fuel that will enable us to overcome the pressure cooker. Spirit of power, that's beautiful. God's given to you and me a spirit of power. It's that word there is a spiritual word for effective, productive energy. God given effective, productive energy. God provides us with the power, the effective, productive energy necessary to accomplish his purposes because in and of ourselves, we don't always feel like that. And many times we feel so intimidated by everybody and everything.

We find ourselves resorting to silence and inability and incapability. And God says, listen, you have the spirit of power upon you. You can because I am, Jesus says.

I like that. Then he said, I've given you a spirit of love. Romans 5 and verse 5, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which he has given to us. The love of God has been poured out within our hearts by the spirit, which has been given to us. You've been given the spirit of love. One of the things I love about leading people to Jesus and then listening to their testimonies, people always comment how they just have a total change of heart toward other people.

Give your life to Christ and you have this change of heart toward other people. There's a new found love and it's the spirit of love that's been poured out in you by the spirit of the living God. Spirit of power and a spirit of love and then a spirit of self discipline.

I love that third one. It literally means that God by his spirit gives to all of us a secure and sound mind. Listen to this folks. He gives to us the very means by which the believer is able to control every element of his life. Our lives are so complex and multifaceted and a spirit of self discipline, roughly translated means a spirit of a sound mind. It's right thinking, thinking right, thinking according to God's standard. We become timid in our Christianity because we no longer think right. Our minds are so flooded with all the rubbish, the garbage that has just been thrown everywhere.

This polluted world. He said, I've given you a spirit of a sound mind, the very means by which you as a believer are able to control every element of your life. In 1 Corinthians 9 26 Paul spoke about it. He said, he's not going to run around aimlessly. He's not going to be like a boxer who just beats the air aimlessly.

He's going to, by the spirit of God, bring his body and his mind under a spiritual subjection whereby the power and presence of the spirit of God takes a hold of me because God says, I can, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's what God enables me to do. With God everything is possible.

God can. So how does that apply to me? How does that apply to you? Here's what to do.

Let me give you six or seven things in a practical way. If you try to take all of this, here I am, here you are, we are believers and we're living in our world and we're trying jolly hard, aren't we? We want to live for the Lord Jesus. We want to be counted. I, you and I want, we want to hear Jesus say, well done good and faithful servant. We want to please the Lord. We do. We've got this world and it's squeezing.

We're becoming more and more timid and fearful. He says, hold on a minute. Let me tell you what to do. Draw strength from others. Use the gifts God has given to you and celebrate the very means that God has given to you to carry that through. You got it. You got the spirit of power and the spirit of love and the spirit of self-discipline, sound mindedness.

So how does that apply to you and me? All right, here it is. Ready? Number one, first thing all of us need to do, know who you believe.

That's starting point number one. I know who I believe. I believe Jesus. I've settled that. Do you know Jesus? Have you settled that? Have you given your heart to him? That's why I invite you today. Give your life to Christ.

You can do that right now. I promise you, your life will never be the same again. Trust Jesus.

Give your heart to him. Number two, accept your assignment. Accept your assignment.

Thank you, Lord. Number three, admit your fear. I'm doing it in front of thousands of people right now.

I'm going to tell you. You look at me and say, well, you know, Don, you just get up there and I'm just telling you. There are too many times that I'm finding myself many times after the fact saying, you know, I should have and I didn't. And I really think the reason I didn't is the spirit of timidity, this fear. It's not a fear.

It's not like you're standing there. It's a spiritual thing. It's like, well, you know, I just don't need to admit your fear. Just tell the Lord.

You know, Lord, you know, you can even come to church and sit next to somebody and a spirit of timidity will cause you not to want to turn to that person and say, how are you today? I'm telling you, it'll happen to you. You'll relegate yourself to your own world. Admit your fear.

Number four, here's a good one. Copy your heritage. I want you to think right now of a father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, somebody in your heritage. Think about them. Now copy them. Draw on that.

God tells us to do that. That's fabulous. Number five, fan your flame. Fan your flame. You know, a couple of nights ago I did my favorite thing, got out my little barbecue set and lit the fire and got everything ready and I wanted to grill some onions. I love grilled onions.

That's why I preach at such a distance on Sunday mornings. So I wrap it in aluminum foil and I put it on the flame. All right. And so that's how I like it. But it takes a little while. Then I go and do something else, something else. You know what happens to those coals, don't you? They just get less and less and less. When it comes to the real thing, like a whole half side of a cow that I'm about to eat.

And I put that on the barbie. The coals are so diminished because they've spent all the energy on my onions. And I forgot when I went to the grocery store, I didn't get enough coals. Do you know how I get those coals going again?

It works. They start blushing again. Heat comes out again.

They come alive. Do you know what you need to do? You need to just fan up your gift a little.

Get the burn back in it. Number six, activate your gifts. Put them to work. Put them to work. Activate those gifts. Make a decision today. Pick on one of your gifts. Just pick on one. Say, you know what? I'm not using this gift for the Lord. Activate it. Watch what God does.

And the last one, number seven, got to put this one there. Celebrate your purpose. Celebrate it. I don't know where we'd be without one another, do you? That old phrase, this is a team effort.

It's all of us. Celebrate your purpose. Would you bow your heads with me today? I want to go back to that first point today about giving your life to Christ.

Settle that issue today. Trust Him right now. Pray a prayer like this. Dear God, today I repent of my sin and by faith I put my trust in you. And if you prayed that prayer today, the prayer of faith, in just a moment I'm going to ask you to leave your seat.

Come. There are people waiting to receive you, to pray with you, to connect you. Second, second thing I want to say today is there are many of you, us, we're dealing with issues. Some of you have got sons and daughters that need special prayer. We're praying with you.

Moms and dads, grandparents, retirees, senior citizens. Maybe it's just lonesomeness. Maybe it's a longing in your heart. This is us. We're family.

We love you. We're praying for you. Indeed, we are praying for you. Perhaps moments ago you were praying along with Dr. Wilton to give your life to Jesus Christ, maybe for the first time or rededicating your life to Christ. You need to know that we are convinced that this is not an accident, that you're listening to this at this particular moment that you heard this message from God through Dr. Don Wilton out of God's encouraging word, the Bible itself. And we believe it's a part of the process of growing in our faith.

And we'd love to help you grow. Perhaps again, you had given your life to Christ moments ago with Dr. Wilton. Dr. Don has fresh resources that'll help you take the next step in rooting yourself in God's word, finding a local church. All of that is absolutely free if you'll call us at 866-899-WORD. Now jot the number down, 866-899-9673. We'll connect with someone 24 hours a day to pray with you and help you get these free resources from Dr. Wilton.

That's 866-899-9673. Perhaps you'd rather email. Well, Dr. Don opens and reads and prays over these emails all the time. If you'd like to email him your story, tell him how maybe God's changed your life, maybe you've rededicated your life today.

Dr. Don has resources for you as well. You can email him, Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W, online dot O-R-G. Just his first name, Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W, online dot O-R-G. He would love to hear from you. He'd love to pray for you.

And he will make sure we send those resources to you if you've given your life to Christ or rededicating your life to Jesus Christ today. We'd also love to meet you on our website. T-E-W, online dot O-R-G is a place you'll find wonderful resources right now. So many are excited about this. It's a neat book and message combination about loneliness, how to be alone but not lonely. Again, you'll find that on our website, T-E-W, online dot O-R-G.