SERMON: FANNING THE FLAMES OF FAITH

24 August 2014

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to 2 Timothy 1:1-7

2 Timothy 1:1-7 (NIV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

2 To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 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.

4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.

5 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.

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

            -- as we begin our message this morning, I want to warn you I'm about to show an image on the screen that may cause fear and anxiety for some of you -- I know there's a lot of people who have a phobia about these objects -- and their fear is real and not only do they get very scared and upset when they see the real object, but even pictures of this thing -- a harmless thing found in nature -- created by God -- can cause extreme fright in their lives -- so I just wanted to warn you up front in case any of you are scared of these

            -- all right, so here goes -- ready?

          

            -- everybody okay? -- nobody scared of bananas in here? -- no bananaphobes present? -- well that's good -- I'm glad to hear it -- I'm glad to know that's one fear none of us in here share, but it is a very real fear for some

            -- Mr. Smith (name removed to protect identity) is one person who is very scared of bananas -- he is a bananaphobe

          

 

            -- he has an irrational fear of the fruit -- he's terrified of them -- when he sees them in the store or when he sees someone peeling a banana and eating it, he becomes literally frozen in fear -- it makes him nauseous just to talk about bananas

            -- in a recent article in U.S. News and World Report, Mr. Smith said, "As long as I can remember, these things have been the worst things on earth" -- his fear of bananas is real and it can be debilitating -- he says a recurring nightmare he has is being on a plane where bananas are being served for breakfast -- having to look up the aisle and see a tray full of bananas getting closer and closer to him and watching as a banana is given to every person on the plane and then watching as they peel and eat their banana

            -- “It’s my greatest fear in life,” he says. “If I had advance knowledge of this, I would try to take the next flight. Hands down, I would probably have to get up and start vomiting in the middle of the flight. I just imagine the smell getting stronger and stronger, and then I would leave smelling like the dreaded things. It would be horrendous.”¹

            -- now before we make fun of Mr. Smith's fear of bananas, let me call to mind a quote from an old friend of mine -- "It's not nice to make fun of someone else's phobia" -- which is good advice -- because most of us have some irrational fear of something in our lives -- probably not bananas, because that's a rare phobia -- but there are a lot people out there who share common fears -- for some, it's spiders -- for others, it's clowns -- it could be snakes -- being in crowds -- speaking in public -- praying out loud -- the list of phobias go on and on and on

            -- but the thing is phobias are real and they can impact a person's life

            -- the question is "what do we do about it?" -- people have been trying to cure phobias for years, but I would suggest you not do what Gary Larson suggests in this cartoon 

Professor Gallagher and his controversial technique of simultaneously confronting the fear of heights, snakes and the dark

 

            -- our fears can impact our lives -- but the thing is, they can also impact our spiritual lives -- fear can bind a person's faith and keep them from being and doing what God has called them to do

            -- such was the case with Paul's young protege Timothy -- so let's talk about that this morning and see what we can learn from Paul's instructions to Timothy that might help us in our own walks of faith

            [click on last slide]

II.  Scripture Lesson (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

            -- Paul had met Timothy in the town of Lystra, and had taken an immediate liking to the young man -- his father was a Greek, but his mother was a Jew -- and Timothy had inherited his faith from her

            -- when he heard the gospel of Christ Jesus from Paul, Timothy became a believer and it quickly became obvious God had called him to serve in pastoral ministry -- Paul took Timothy under his wing and mentored him in the faith -- discipling him and teaching him how to lead others in a church setting and eventually appointing Timothy as the pastor of the church at Ephesus

            -- this is where we find Timothy at the time of this letter -- Paul, of course, is writing from the depth of a Roman prison, knowing his time is short and it is only a matter of days or weeks before his life will be ended -- so he writes this final letter to Timothy as a charge to his young disciple -- to encourage him to press on and continue in the faith of his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois

            -- we read the entire passage to give you the context of this epistle, but I want to focus this morning on just two verses -- verses 6 and 7 -- let's begin there in verse 6 and see what Paul has to tell Timothy -- and us -- in this verse

            -- verse 6

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

            -- Paul begins this verse with the words, "For this reason" -- Paul is referring back to Timothy's faith -- the faith he had inherited from his mother and grandmother -- the faith he had learned as Paul's disciple

            -- now, if you read through Paul's two epistles to Timothy, it becomes obvious Paul knew Timothy well -- he knew his strengths -- he knew his weaknesses -- he knew his fears -- and he knew how Timothy's fear could affect his faith, especially after Paul's death when he would no longer be there for counsel -- Paul was worried that his death might cause Timothy's faith to falter -- that Timothy's timidity and fear would cause him to shrink back and allow his faith to fade

            -- so Paul tells Timothy, I know your faith is real -- I know your faith is authentic -- for that reason, don't doubt it -- don't let it die -- keep it alive and active -- fan into flames your faith, which is evidenced by God's gift in your life and the fruit you bear

            -- there's a message for us there in Paul's words that I was reminded of this week -- I had to go to a training class this week and ran into a guy I had met who works for a different squadron on base -- as we're going around the room introducing ourselves, he mentioned he grew up in a town two hours east of here -- and when I run across military members who are from south Georgia, I always make a point to ask them about it -- so at the break I turned to him and said, "Where are you from?" -- and his response surprised me -- he said, "We've already talked about this"

            -- apparently, we had already had a complete conversation about his hometown and the fact we used to play his high school in football -- and I had no recollection -- no memory at all -- about this conversation -- I still don't remember it

            -- I've been doing a lot of reading lately about memory and enhancing your memory -- and the one constant in all of these articles is you have to use your memory to keep it alive -- they say your mind is like a muscle, and you have to flex it -- you have to use it -- to keep your ability to remember active -- and, if you want to remember certain things -- like conversations you have had -- then you have to go back and walk through that memory from time to time or you will lose it

            -- it's the same way with faith -- our faith is our spiritual muscle -- and just like Paul is counseling Timothy here -- we have to keep it active -- we have to use it -- we have to exercise it -- we have to take care of it -- to keep it alive -- if we don't, it dies down, just like a fire in a fireplace can do if you are not tending it

            -- there are four ways our flame of faith can be smothered

            -- first, willful sin -- willful disobedience to God's word can cause your faith to be smothered -- it kills your witness -- it inhibits the work of God in your life -- when you are not walking with God, God's power does not flow through you and His gift is not manifested in your life -- willful sin can dampen the flames of faith

            -- secondly, neglect -- neglect can cause our fires to go out and weaken our faith -- just like I was saying about my memory -- if you don't use it, you lose it -- and that's true whether we're talking about memory or muscles or faith -- if you want to keep your faith active, you have to use it

            -- third, others can dampen your faith -- other people can lead you away from the faith -- the tendency -- the direction in our lives -- is always away from God -- just as the second law of thermodynamics says, "Energy tends towards entropy" -- energy goes from order to disorder -- the same is true in our spiritual lives -- our natural bent is towards the world and towards ourselves and away from God -- and other people can propel us in this direction if we're not careful

            -- people can dampen our faith in other ways, too -- a lot of churches tend to be like the Stepford Wives -- they want everyone to look the same and talk the same and do the same things -- even have the same spiritual gifts -- and when you are forced to be what you are not, it can dampen the true and authentic flame of faith in your life -- that's why Paul tells Timothy to fan into flame the gift that is in him -- all of us are unique individuals in Christ -- gifted in different ways and with different natural abilities -- and we should never be forced to be what we are not

            -- finally, our faith can be dampened through fear -- maybe not fear of bananas -- but fear of living out our faith as we are called to do so -- which brings us to the next verse

            -- verse 7

7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

            -- God did not give us a spirit of timidity -- the KJV says a spirit of fear -- as I mentioned in the opening of this message, fear is a very real thing -- it can cripple your faith -- it can even dampen it and smother it and put it out

            -- evidently, Timothy had a problem with timidity -- it seems Timothy was probably an introvert -- someone who preferred to be behind the scenes -- someone who was more studious, perhaps, and who didn't like to be out in front leading -- someone who was timid about being in positions like that -- and I can certainly relate to that

            -- I am an introvert by nature -- I like being hidden and being behind the scenes -- I can do okay speaking to crowds -- standing up by myself in front of a nameless audience -- but put me one-on-one with someone or put me in a small group, and I clam up -- I don't know what to say -- and I tend to shrink in on myself -- and I can tell you it has been difficult and life-stretching for me to accept this call into ministry

            -- Timothy evidently had the same issues -- and it seems as if he relied a lot on Paul and Paul's extroverted nature to help him get by -- and now that Paul's ministry and his life is ending, and now that Paul is passing the mantle of spiritual leadership on to Timothy alone -- Paul knows that Timothy's natural tendency to timidity could inhibit his faith and cause irreparable damage to the church

            -- so Paul reminds Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but had given us a spirit of power and of love and of discipline to enable us to minister in His name and to keep our flames of faith roaring hot

            -- notice that Paul did not say he prayed for Timothy to get this spirit of power and love and discipline -- he had already received it -- he just needed to use it

            -- and that's the way it is with us, too -- notice that Paul didn't say to Timothy, "God has given you this spirit" -- no, he said, "God has given us this spirit" -- we have it, too

            -- God has already empowered us to do everything He has called us to do -- we don't have to pray for God to give us power -- Paul says He has already done that -- we don't have to pray for God to give us the ability to love others with agape, unconditional love -- He has already done it -- we don't have to pray for God to give us the ability of self-control and discipline in our lives to walk with Him -- He has already done that -- we just need to put aside our fears and our timidity and pick up what He has already given and walk forward in faith

            -- Paul says we have been given the spirit of power -- the Greek word he uses here is dunamis -- two of our English words are derived from this root:  dynamite and dynamic

            -- both of them refer to the power within -- to energy that is contained within us and that propels us into motion and action and activity -- it is this dunamis that enables change in the life of a Christian

            -- Kim and I watched a show the other night about glass -- and we saw in there a special type of glass called Prince Rupert's drop -- it has a large bulb on one end and a tail that gets narrower and narrower as it moves away from the bulb

            -- what's interesting is you can take pliers and squeeze on this bulb, and it will not break or shatter -- they even shot the bulb with a .22 rifle, and it absorbed the energy of the bullet without breaking

            -- but, if you squeeze the end of the tail, the entire drop shatters explosively because of the energy contained and bound within the bulb

            -- that's what Paul is talking about here when he says God has given us a spirit of power -- it implies we have power within -- the ability to withstand the pressures of life -- to stand against any trial or storm without fear or timidity -- we just have to look deep within and allow God's strength to empower us to do what we could not otherwise do -- dunamis is applied power in our lives

            -- next Paul tells Timothy we have been given the power of love -- the word he uses here is agape -- and we've been over that enough you should know exactly what that means -- unconditional, all-encompassing love -- the love of Christ -- the love of the cross -- the love we are completely incapable of -- apart from God, that is

            -- whatever it was that drove Timothy's fear, Paul said you can overcome it with love -- when you think about Christianity, you should always think about relationship -- and all relationships within our faith should be driven by agape love

            -- love overcomes all -- love builds relationships -- in ministry agape love is the love that puts self last and puts the needs of others first -- agape love even overcomes fear

            -- I think everyone in here knows Kim is deathly afraid of spiders -- she'll tell you its not an irrational fear but rational, because spiders can sometimes hurt you -- and they can sometimes cause you to do things which are harmful -- but what you may not know is that I don't really like spiders, either -- I have a healthy fear of spiders, too

            -- but when a spider shows up in our house and Kim screams in terror for me to come, I come and I fight back my fear and I kill the spider and save the day -- how? -- agape love

            -- agape love empowers our faith -- it drives ministry -- agape love is only from God and is the only way we can live in love in this world -- Jesus said the world would know us by our love -- not our theology -- not our righteousness -- not our holiness -- but our love -- and this love comes from God

            -- finally, Paul tells Timothy we have been given the spirit of self-discipline or a sound mind -- a sound mind keeps fears at bay -- where do your fears come from? -- what is the source of Mr. Smith's fear of bananas? -- it's his mind -- fear comes from our minds -- it comes from our memory and it comes from our imagination of what the future may be

            -- as Kelly Niven wrote, "if it’s allowed to, the mind will take you away from the present moment. -- If it’s not forced to focus, the mind will return to memories of the past, when circumstances may not have gone well -- [or] the mind will race ahead to the future, worried that things will not go well there, either. -- It operates on fear as a way of self-preservation."

            -- Niven says, "The only way to truly overcome fear is to come into the present moment and focus on the activity in hand -- In all likelihood, there is nothing to fear in the immediate moment."²

            -- I think Paul would agree -- in this verse he tells Timothy, and us, that God has given us a sound mind -- He has given us the spirit of self-discipline -- with a sound mind we can look past our fears to what is real and what is now and what we believe and trust in and move forward to do what God has called us to do

            -- self-discipline and a sound mind allows us to focus our power and our energy and our love on the task at hand -- self-discipline keeps us from wandering off to other pursuits and keeps us doing what needs to be done -- self-discipline keeps us focused on what God wants us to do

III.  Closing

            -- On April 14, 1912, as the Captain of the Titanic realized the extent of the damage to his ship, he broadcast signals of distress in all directions -- many ships heard the cries for help, but most were not close enough to respond -- The S.S. Californian was the closest ship to the scene of the accident -- they were only about one and a half hours from the Titanic -- still the Californian never reached the place where the Titanic sank.

            -- after the Titanic sank and most of the passengers and crew perished, Congress launched an inquiry into the accident -- interviewing the chief officer of the S.S. California, Senator William Smith asked him point-blank, "Why did you not sail to the scene of the accident when the wireless [distress call] reached you?"

            -- The officer shifted uncomfortably in the witness chair -- "We feared icebergs and were lying motionless -- for this reason we had banked our fires and had no steam up." -- in other words the Californian could not move

            -- this was the reason why the Californian, which could have reached the Titanic before it sank, never got there and never rescued a single soul. -- No fire, no power, no one rescued!³

            -- in these verses from 2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy -- keep your fires lit -- keep your flames roaring -- do not fear -- you have not been given a spirit of fear or of timidity -- but you have been given a spirit of power and love and a sound mind

            -- John MacArthur calls these the "Great Spiritual Triumvirate" -- he writes that God has endowed us with these spiritual gifts to keep our faith alive and active -- "power, to be effective in His service -- love, to have the right attitude toward Him and others -- and discipline, to focus and apply every part of our lives according to His will -- When those endowments are all present, marvelous results occur."⁴

            -- as we leave here today and go back into this world, let's keep Paul's charge to Timothy in mind -- don't let sin or neglect or fear dampen your faith -- but keep it alive through the power and love and discipline of Christ

            -- let us pray

1  [Reference removed by privacy request]

2  Kelly Niven, "Think Simple," accessed 23 August 2014, http://thinksimplenow.com/calmness/live-in-the-moment/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ThinkSimple+%28Think+Simple+Now%29

3  Gustaf F. Johnson, "Light the Fires Again," DECISION, March 1971, p. 10.

4  MacArthur, J. 2 Timothy. Chicago: Moody Press