Power Love and a Sound Mind 1973 (1)

From 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7, and I'm reading from King James today. 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.

We're all familiar, I'm sure, with the principle that really runs all the way through Scripture from beginning to end. That only a fraction of those people who taste God's grace ever keep it. There was a fantastic multitude that crossed the Red Sea into the wilderness.

Ate manna from heaven, drank water from the rock. But how many of those people made it to the promised land? And in our Lord's parable of the sower, the sower went forth to sow his seed, and he sowed it generously everywhere. Didn't matter where, he didn't get a soil tester out to test the soil before he threw out the seed.

He threw it out, but how much of that seed that was sown by the sower ever took root and bore fruit and amounted to anything? The seed that was sowed on the rock, or by the wayside, or among the thorns, never did anything. It was only that which came on the good soil. Likewise, when our Lord finished his ministry to Israel, there was probably not a man, woman, or child in the whole nation of Israel who hadn't seen Jesus.

Tens of thousands of people had been awed by his signs, by his words. And yet when it was all over, how many disciples, followers, did Jesus actually have? To taste God's grace, to see God's mercy, to be touched by God's hand, to be delivered by his power, to hear his voice are marvelous things. And yet the vast majority of people who experienced those things eventually end up right back where they were in the beginning.

Now, we have come to a time in which God is doing a new thing on this earth. God is, of his sovereign power, raising out of the dust a people who are to go across the Jordan and take the land. A people who are to prepare the planet for the return of the Messiah.

A people who are to minister in the spirit and power of Elijah. And suddenly, for reasons that you and I will never be able to figure out in a million years, we wake up and find ourselves right in the middle of this army which God has raised up out of the dry bones of our wasted lives. And he fills us with his spirit, breathes his spirit into us, calls us to life, opens our eyes so we can see his son, causes our ears to hear the voice of our shepherd.

And the life which God is putting into us right now we see spreading like a fire to people all over the place. There isn't a fellowship or a church or whatever you want to call it anywhere in this city that has an ounce of devotion to the living God that is not experiencing right now. Growth, development, fruit, a strengthening.

The army of the Lord is growing larger and stronger by the hour. But don't ever make the mistake of thinking that this army which God is raising up and of which we are a part is going to march right into glory without a casualty. Don't ever get the idea that when the war is over and the promised land has been taken that we're all going to be there.

There's a tremendous difference in size between the army which sets out and begins the invasion and the army that finishes it. There are casualties and we could be among them. And the evidence of this kind of thing is all over the place.

Look at the wrecks of churches and fellowships and individual lives and families. All around us are the wrecks of families and churches and fellowships that were once burning and shining light. But somehow they got sidetracked.

They got lured off on a tangent. They got taken up with something other than Jesus. You know, Jesus plus this.

Jesus plus that. Jesus plus our teachings about the church. Jesus plus our doctrines about the Holy Spirit.

Jesus plus our organization. If you want to really be in the church you've got to join us kind of thing. Somehow they got sidetracked and where are they now? They're rotting in a swamp miles away from the mainstream of God's mighty moving.

And this can happen to anybody. There's nobody who's invulnerable. Watch out when you think you're safe.

Oh, I'm broad-minded or, you know, I don't think like that. Watch out. Because it doesn't begin with your thinking, your doctrinal position, your views.

This disease which sets in and begins to pervert and twist the army of the living God. Makes an attack from one of three places. There are three things that we will have to watch out for as we move across the Jordan to take that promised land.

Three things which have destroyed fellowship after fellowship. Poisoned life after life. The first thing to watch out for is fear.

You know, you open your mouth in faith. You're going to really witness. And it just so happens that one of your old friends is there.

And he gives you one look of disgust. And your heart turns to water. You go into Clark Park and you're going to witness.

And within 15 minutes three people threaten you. And your courage is gone. Are you going to handle your money as a man or woman of faith ought to handle his money? Then the transmission on your car goes.

It's going to cost you $300. What are we going to do? And you panic. After a few more of these unpleasant incidents, which will always happen when you start walking by faith.

You begin to wonder whether it might not be wise to pull back just a little bit and play it safe with your mouth and with your money. And always take the road that involves the least amount of risk. And behind it, obviously, you know, it's not common sense or you can call it common sense.

But basically what it is, is fear. And there are people who will never even cross the Jordan River. They're never going to leave the wilderness, which is familiar to them because they're afraid.

Now, they don't say that. They have a thousand perfectly logical, meaningful reasons for saying put where they are and playing it safe. But they know in their hearts and God knows that behind it all is fear.

And these people will go right on playing churchianity and reading their Bibles. And searching out the hypocrisy in everybody else's soul. But they are a defeated people.

Now, the cure for fear, and the only cure there is, is God's power. Not the power of positive thinking. And not willpower.

God's power. God has given us a spirit of power, says Paul in Timothy. He's given the spirit to us.

But it's up to us to stir it up and to walk in it. That God does not do for me. I have to do that.

I have to stir it up all the time. And if we will walk in that spirit moment by moment, hour by hour. Then we stay going.

We keep going. We don't get overwhelmed and knocked out of the battle. Every day I can go anywhere if I move in the power of the spirit that God has given me.

And I can do anything that God tells me to do. God gives the gift of the spirit with power to his people. But it's up to his people to continuously stir it up.

As was the case with Timothy. Timothy apparently was starting to chicken out. You know, and Paul doesn't say, well, come back to me and I'll give you another treatment.

And I'll pray for you again. He says, stir up the gift you already have. The next thing we have to watch out for as we cross the Jordan River and go in and take the lamb.

Is lovelessness. Not other people's lovelessness. We can see that so easily.

But our lovelessness. When we get so taken up with the battle and the work of the kingdom of God. That we don't have time for that Lazarus who sits at our doorstep.

That one person who needs our help. Our money. Our food.

Just somebody to talk to. We're so busy we don't have time for that kind of thing. We're so heavy we don't have time for those things.

Those worldly things or whatever they are. We're in bad shape. And that's exactly what the enemy is going to try to do.

He's going to try to get you so tangled up in the work of the kingdom of God. That you don't have time for Lazarus. And you'll see how other people don't have time for Lazarus.

But you'll never notice that you don't have time for Lazarus. And you can walk into fellowships all over the place. Where as soon as you go in the door you can feel power.

Power. And there are multitudes of people there. And they exude a spirit of confidence.

But you look in vain to find one Lazarus there. Where are the poor and the maimed and the hawk and the blind. Where are those dirty people.

Those nutty people. Those unrefined types who were always following our Lord around. It's the atmosphere of an insurance office.

Instead of the gate of heaven. It's sanitary. And well organized.

And busy. And prosperous. But beneath the smiles and the handshakes.

Utterly loveless. And when love is gone. Jesus is gone.

No matter how many times they utter his name. There may be a spirit of power there. But it is not the spirit of God.

Because God is love. And he who dwells in love dwells in God. And God in him.

A man say I love God. And hates his brother. Oh I don't hate anybody.

But you're indifferent to people who is indifferent to his brother. Ignores his brother. Never notices his brother.

Remains distant from his brother. A man say I love God and hates his brother. He's a liar.

For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen. How can he love God whom he has not seen. So if we get so busy we don't have time for Lazarus.

If it just so happens that the poor and the maimed. And the halt and the blind. Start leaving our fellowship because they just know that they're not wanted.

Nobody cares about them. If we're so busy having fellowship with heavy brothers and sisters. That we don't have time for that eccentric old man.

Or that disorderly child. We're in bad shape. Now the cure for lovelessness.

Again is obviously and only God's love. We don't have any love in us. But the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts.

By the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And now it's a matter constantly. Daily, hourly of stirring up that gift of love in the spirit.

That God has given us. The same way your great grandmother used to stir up the fire in the kitchen stove. Every morning in order to make breakfast.

You stir up the love that's already there. You don't feel any love this morning. Normal.

So stir up the love that God gave you. Here comes Lazarus. I don't even want to talk to him today.

I have a headache. But you have the gift of love and you stir it up. And talk to him anyway.

The third thing that we have to watch for. Has many manifestations. But they could perhaps be lumped together in the category of.

Flaky extremes. For instance. God has told me to do a specific thing.

And I know he's told me to do it. But it involves danger and risk. To my reputation.

Or to my money. Or to something else that I don't want to take a chance on. And so I don't do it.

And I will invariably then try to compensate. For my disobedience to God. In something he told me to do out there in the world.

By coming inside these walls. Whether it's the walls of the church. Or your prayer group that meets in somebody's living room.

Or somebody's basement. We come back among the believers. And now we do some extreme thing.

Or we say some extreme thing. And we get them shaken up. And then we feel a certain amount of relief.

I compensated for my lack of obedience over here. Because I was chicken. By doing some dramatic thing in here.

That God never told me to do. And then what do I do? Invariably you'll find that then you'll follow up. By going home and eating two bags of Fritos.

And a quart of ice cream. Or you'll vegetate in front of the TV for six hours. Then the next day you'll climb into your brother's case.

Lack of discipline in prayer. The evil one is an expert at getting us going back and forth like this. You know wobbling between this extreme and that extreme.

Today I'm talking all the time. And tomorrow I don't talk at all. Today I'm an unworthy servant.

Tomorrow I'm the only good servant God has left. Back and forth we go. Back and forth.

And as long as we're bobbing up and down. And wobbling back and forth like this. We're of little use in the army of God.

We have no judgment. Our minds are unsound. Our conscience is unsound.

Our vision is warped and twisted. And after a while. If we don't do something about this.

We harden into a permanent warp. You know your favorite twist. That's what you become.

And then very quickly you'll find yourself in fellowship. With people who are twisted the same way you are. So everybody in this outfit wears a missionary smile.

And everybody over in this outfit has a face three feet long. You know and here all the hands have to be up. And here no hands are allowed to be up.

You know and here we have very restrained worship. And over here you know it's not worship unless we break three chairs every service. You know.

Now the cure for these flaky extremes that we let ourselves get sucked into. And again we can see the other man better than our own. The sound mind which God has already given us.

God has given us in his spirit. A sound mind. A mind that is breathed through.

With a wisdom. And a wholeness. Which don't come from ourselves.

And it's for us to get into that and stir that up. Be still and know that I am God. Look at me says the Lord.

Behold the wisdom of the ages. Dying for your sins. Let his words wash your mind.

And refresh your thoughts. Moment by moment. Hour by hour.

And you'll find again and again those fevered fragments of your brain your mind. Will come together again. By a miracle of grace.

And you'll be able to think. In the power of God. Now if we are going to make it across the Jordan River and take the land.

If we're going to keep going till the end of the battle and not be defeated on the way. We are going to have to learn. To draw on the life that God has given us.

To find victory in these three areas constantly. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance. That thou stir up the gift that is within thee through 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. Now if there are people here.

Who are convinced they have never received that spirit. Then after the service is over come down front. And make some brothers and sisters come down here and just share.

And pray. You know there's no reason why you if you haven't received why you shouldn't receive today. And if there are people here.

Who really haven't yet found Jesus. And you're searching for him and you want him. Then when we go to prayer.

Come on down and kneel at this altar rail. And ask him to come into your life. And confess your sins to him.

And he'll hear your cry. He'll do it today. But there is nobody here.

Nobody here. Who is not in need. Of that verse.

In 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 7. That's one of those passages of scripture. Very brief. But if you want to cut out.

Or write down. And stick on our dashboards. And refrigerators.

And bathroom mirrors. We're going to have to get this burned into our souls. We're going to need it in the days ahead.

But we need it right now. We need to know. That God has already given to us.

Now. A spirit. Of power.

And of love. And of a sound mind. That if we will.

We can enter into that spirit. And walk in that spirit. Every hour.

Of every day. Until Jesus comes. Let's wait upon him now and pray.

Lord you know how we excuse ourselves all the time. You know it's the circumstances we're living in. And it's the people we live with.

And the people we work with. And the believers in our fellowship. And this and that.

And Lord we confess that it's not our brother. Or our sister. But it's us.

It's me oh Lord. Standing in the need of help and prayer. Standing in the need of forgiveness.

And we just thank you again Father for showing us. That everything we need. For sanity.

And love. And power. And wisdom.

And vision. We now have. And we pray Father that as we open our hearts.

And as we remove those things that stand between us and our Lord. And as we drink deeply of that river of life that flows in our midst right now. We may be refreshed.

And that we may walk wisely. And obediently. And consistently.

And faithfully. And steadfastly. On the road that you've set our feet Father.

We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.