Bobby Dagnel: you and i have the capacity those who are created in the image of god we have the capacity different from those places where our natural man would have us to be whenever i feel worried creeping in and it does a lot i try to reframe it in my mind i i try to have a proper perspective i tell myself you know worry bobby worries like a like a a rocking chair it gives you something to do it just doesn't get you anywhere when we come to this this passage of of scripture here i think paul's concern for his young understudy is that timothy has been stymied his ministry in his life has become paralyzed by by the fear of the unknown, the anxiety and worries of the future, a future without the Apostle Paul. You know they had a very close relationship. Paul had a formative role in Timothy coming to faith, a friend, a mentor. Paul is sitting in Roman imprisonment, sitting in a Roman prison right now writing what these last two letters to his younger, his understudy Timothy. And these are the last letters as far as we know that Paul would ever write and so what what Timothy is looking at is a future without Paul a future with without that which gave him security comfort the structures the routines and what Paul recognizes is that is that Timothy's ministry if not his own life has been paralyzed by the worries of the future whenever you go through a natural disaster like like we've seen this past week I think there always remains a little post traumatic stress syndrome where you think about you know you were yes we're truly thankful for far for where we are today after the week of uncertainty and we're thankful for that we praise the Lord for that our hearts are filled with with gratitude but there's a part of us if we if I was to have a confessional back here there's part of US that's already thinking about next time aren't we what might be next time and it's odd in this human dilemma that that is ours that we find ourselves paralyzed in life so often by two by two segments of time the past and the future to the point that it paralyzes us somewhat and in the present tense we seem to live our lives sometimes in this mode between if only regrets of the past and what if the anticipation of an unknown future Paul recognizes that in Timothy and so what Paul does for Timothy I think God's word is is is doing for us this morning if you find yourself we I'm thinking about the future this this morning but it would be no less true in the past if you find yourself facing similar fears and uncertainty this morning as Timothy does and has I want you to look at this text with me in verses 1 through 7 and I want you to notice how Paul addresses this issue and as you allow Paul to as we see Paul speaking to Timothy we we must allow him to speak to us now the first thing that Paul does or the first things that that we're going to highlight that I think is foundational to this is that Paul gives to Timothy a needed reprimand but Timothy needs a wake-up call to be reminded of who he is and what God has entrusted to him notice in that that very first clause in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 notice the very first clause there in in verse 7 it's a foundational statement of which Timothy really doesn't need to be reminded but Paul there's an implication here that that Timothy's living in fear he says for God has not given us a spirit of timidity Timothy God has not given to us as followers of Christ he's not given to us as believers a spirit of timidity it can be translated as cowardice Timothy you're not a coward in in Christ you're not a victim in Christ God has not given to us the implication is that God has given us something and we will see what that is in in the next clause not in this past not in this this particular point but in contrast to this spirit of timidity that is characterizing your life Timothy God has given us something else Timothy's at a place of fear and worry that his ministry has been immobilized doing nothing in the present Richard letterer wrote a book years ago that that caught my attention it's called crazy English but but in this book he talks about in one part of his book he lists some some 20 different kind of phobias, fears with which people live. He began with a nuptophobia. We'll play out the word nuptials. It's the fear of remaining single. A nuptiphobia. Chronophobia, the fear of time. Verbophobia,the fear of words. Dromophobia, The fear of crossing the street. And then there's a a comprehensive expression term i had never heard before and um it it's it covers everything i guess it's its panatophobia it's the fear of everything but panataphobia i think it's tripped by the final one he had here faux phobia it's the fear of fear now what Timothy is suffering from is what we might call predictophobia it's the fear of an uncertain future Timothy Paul says God has not given to you a spirit of timidity that kind of fear may be the natural result the natural response response of a person but you are not called to be a natural man God has called you God has empowered you to be to be something else and what you're displaying Timothy is something that is not to characterize us in our in our circumstances of life we are not to allow the circumstances of life to dictate our sense of well-being in this kind of worry certain certainly does not fit Paul would say with who we are you know what worry really is worry listen worry is calculating tomorrow without God worry is calculating tomorrow without God that's why Jesus would say in the Sermon on the Mount if you'll notice Matthew chapter 6 and verse 34 listen to what Jesus says to those disciples so then do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own now here's the paradox we trust God for our eternal well-being but do we trust him today I think we all do pretty well at trusting God with the big things our our eternal well-being but how are we entrusting God today in the circumstances the little things of life I fear that many of us are like Randy Reed Randy Reed was a young man 34 year old steel worker in south side of Chicago he was working on a nearly completed water tower and he was up there welding on this scaffolding when he needed some particular tools that were nearby and he couldn't quite reach them so he unstrapped his safety belt and harness and leaned out to get those tools and when he did the weight shifted and the scaffolding tilted and he fell 110 feet and landed on a pile of sand near one of the legs of that water tower all of his co-workers came rushing to him 9-1-1 was called paramedics arrived and seeing that he was still alive they put Randy Reed on a on a backboard and And as they lifted him and they were hurriedly carrying him to the ambulance, Randy Reed came to, opened his eyes, looked at his co-workers carrying him on a board, and pleaded, please don't drop me.
Bobby Dagnel: Now think about that. Here's a man that had fallen 110 feet, survived, at the end only had a few bruised ribs, shockingly. fell 110 feet survived but now he's being worried by dropping two feet to the ground and i find that humorous because that's that's the way we are we trust god with the big things we trust God with what we believe to be the eternal things but we try we fail to trust him in and the little things the day-to-day circumstances of life this god who marks the fall of the sparrow who has numbered every hair on your head fully aware of our circumstances scripture tells us and yet somehow we feel that god is going to drop us when it feels when it comes to the to the little little daily thing so paul gives to timothy and perhaps to us this morning a little reprimand reminding us of of who we are and what god is doing that god has not given to you a spirit of timidity second thing that paul does here notice we'll go back and read verses two and through seven in their entirety he gives to paul gets to timothee not just a needed reprimAND but but he offers also a nurturing reminder. I like that, how he comes behind this reprimand with words of nurturing for Timothy. He says in verse 2, To Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did as i constantly remember you in my prayers night and day longing to see you even as i recall your tears so that i may be filled with joy or i'm mindful of the sincere faith within you which first dwelled in your grandmother lois and your mother eunice and i'm sure that it is in you as well for this reason i remind you to kindle afresh the gift of god which is in your heart laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity which Paul has detected in Timothy. God has not given a spirit. God is not giving us a Spirit of timidity but this is what He has given. But He has given us power, love, and discipline. Now let's frame this a little bit. Put yourself in Timothy's shoes. And you have someone like the Apostle Paul, this Apostle i mean the primary contributor to the new testament that the apostle paul you have a you have relationship with a man like this who considers you to be a beloved son who is thinking of you constantly who is praying for you constantly someone like paul in your life that is that is longing to see you someone who knows you so well he knows your family and he's familiar with the the faith of your grandmother, the faith of your mother that has now been passed down to you.
Bobby Dagnel: And sometimes in our moments of weakness, I think that's a good way to frame our service. It's something that charges our batteries and motivates us. When I think about the number of people that have a vested interest in my life, those that have poured into me, that have had a formative role in my wife, and I think, you know what?
Bobby Dagnel: I'm going to get my game together here. i've got to buckle up and because so many have poured into my life and and and it's a responsibility that i am that i embrace to be an encourager and an example to others just as these have been to me in my life i think paul's doing that but there's something else at work behind the scenes that i maybe don't think is necessarily obvious in in the text it's wonderful when you have people like that that have poured into your life parents mothers grandmothers but not everybody has that some are fortunate to have that kind of home where you have individuals that have played that formative role in nurturing the life of faith in you some of us didn't have that and i get it but that's never an excuse as a follower of christ we can never say well look at my background what kind of chance did did i have i had no one pouring into me i i was on my own no what what paul is saying here listen don't miss what god has given to us god has giving us power love and discipline this is the gift of god and what we have to understand as much as we appreciate maybe those that have poured into our lives as meaningful as those relationships are those human relationships are those relationships will never get me to the place where God would have me to be in my following of him because it's only the power of God it's only the Power of the Spirit that can do the work of salvation in me that can have the formative impact of my life that's going to move me forward into the place that God would me in my relationship with him that will will not be done and accomplished in any of our lives apart from the spec from the power of his spirit perfect love all the love of those that have poured into us from a human perspective those are good people those are fine people they're not perfect people people with flaws the apostle paul had his flaws the unis and lois they good mother and grandmother they had their flaws but only perfect love cast out fear paul says and so it is the power of god it is the love of god is the discipline that the spirit of god that is accomplishing in us that is necessary to overcoming these these fears, this anxiety, these worries that would seek to dominate our life, to hold us hostage in the present tense. There's a third thing I would have us to notice in conclusion, and that's a necessary remedy, and I want us to go back to verse 6 again.
Bobby Dagnel: I love the way that Paul does this with his young understudy, way that he gives him a mild chastening necessary reprimand reminding him who he is and uh this nurturing reminder of what god has entrusted to us his power and love and discipline of his of his spirit so here's the necessary remedy i like the way that paul doesn't leave us to figure it out he says here is the necessary remedi in verse six for this reason i remind you to kindle a friend oh it's appropriate for this week like kindling a fire i want you to stir up the fire i won't you to listen don't squelch it don't put it out don't water it down you kindle afresh this fire this this spirit for god has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and discipline for this reason verse 6 i remind you to kindled afresh the gift of god which is in you through the laying on of my hands you know Paul does something here that I think is necessary for us to revisit on occasion and that is the reality that for each one of us who are followers of Christ every follower of Christ is given gift or gifts and the gifts that God has entrusted to us these These spiritual gifts are not something that we sit upon. It's not something that we just sit around and talk about. But this is something that we are to use, that we ought to engage. And he says this gift that you have been given, and when he says kindle afresh, grammatically it's a present infinitive.
Bobby Dagnel: Kindle aflesh, the gift that is in you. Listen, this is a constant. Present tense in the Greek is continual and ongoing. going it's not just this moment it's not just an occasional thing but if we're going to be more than the natural man if we are going to be more than what nature dictates us to be if I'm going to be more of someone that doesn't worry all the time listen I've got to kindle afresh daily constantly unceasingly the giftedness that God has entrusted to me and it's no less true of you and so the remedy listen don't miss this the remedy for worry and I don't want to oversimplify it but the remedy for worry is work you're working you're laboring it's why Paul would say Jesus would say in the Synoptic Gospels to work out your salvation with fear and trimly that doesn't mean you're working for your salvation but we we labor to make manifest what we what we have become internally the work that God's Spirit is doing in our in our lives in this work of salvation you and i we must labor we must work to make that manifest in our life stir it up so the remedy to worry is working instead of living in our own heads instead of being self-absorbed it's having it's Having those arrows outward because you know these gifts Paul spoke a great deal about this in first corinthians 13 and 14 the purpose of gifts that god gives to the church he says it six times in first Corinthians 13 and14 it's for the edification of the church edification the lifting up the building up of the body of christ that's why god gives us gifts so that we might edify and lift up the church see the one constant in that is it's not about us we don't sit and squander the gift we intentionally engage and offer our gifts for the building up the body of Christ the remedy to worry is work working to point my arrows outward to get out of my own head to do the ministry to do the work of the ministry that that God has entrusted to me and here's an assurance even from a temporal perspective dr. Charles Mayo of Mayo Clinic fame once made a statement that that in all of his years of medical practice he had never had a he had never seen a single individual die from being overworked but he had seen many who literally died from worry I thought that was a an interesting statement Robert Frost the poet gave a humorous witty twist to that he said that the reason more people die from worry than work is because more people worry than work. More people worry than work and victimhood is certainly prevalent in our culture. There's a great many people that have found worry to be easier than work, and it is. It's easier to worry than it is to work oh we can even make it appear to be noble to worry about these great causes it's listen it's a whole lot easier for me to give the appearance of of nobility and virtue by always worrying about the injustices of this world this world is an unjust place a whole not easier to worry About Justice than it is me just being just in my life life it's a whole lot easier to to embrace some great cause oh and you worry about it listen we take things like pro-life the magnitude the scale of what it means to be pro-Life and what do we do especially in in the western church the American west not especially the south we take something like pro life a subject like pro live that is so large in scale from conception to death and all that pro-life means the implications of that and what do we do we reduce it down to the least common denominator being anti-abortion and I'm not diminishing that in any way but listen anti- abortion is the low-hanging fruit of the pro-lifemovement it's easy to be anti-absorption put up yard signs wear t-shirts bumper stickers the anti abortion you don't ever have to to get your hands dirty it's the way the affluent we give the appearance of doing something noble especially every election cycle this this tends to come up this one dimensional issue and it's easy to be that you know we had a couple of churches in south Lubbock what become that becomes their banner at election time it's all they talk about what's interesting is when I was pastoring Lubboc we would call these churches and ask them to participate in our weekday ministries because we were heavily vested in at-risk schools, food ministry, clothes, and they always wanted to pray about it. Never would help. We were elbows deep in the muck and mire of humanity and brokenness. But someone would give the appearance of something noble and virtuous. They don't ever have to get their hands dirty.
Bobby Dagnel: Oh, we want to fight. We want to discuss racial equality. equality it's easy to to cling to a philosophical ideal but philosophical ideals and those who always worry about philosophical ideals my pastoral perspective is that is that that really doesn't get much done in real time with real people and real brokenness in our world you worry about racial inequality are you treating everybody equal in your daily life is everyone that you encounter at the grocery store at the gas pump wherever it might be every individual that crosses your path do you see them as being equally as important in your life or are you always looking over their shoulder looking for people that you should be talking to instead of this one right here when i was working with tech football we had like years ago they wanted to do a march the team wanted to doing march on and they asked me to come and speak and participate on this black lives matter football team is going to march across campus and i said listen i'll walk with you just just to just to be with you the team but listen there is nothing more disingenuous than us going out there putting on t-shirts and making some grandiose display and grandiose march and we're going to come back to this building and you're going continue treating student trainers Trainers, student equipment managers, with no regard whatsoever, you belittle them, you curse them, but you're going to put on a t-shirt and go out here and act like you're an advocate for equality?
Bobby Dagnel: That's what I want to say to you before we go out on the street here. as if we're going to put on a t-shirt it has to begin in this building and how we treat everyone especially the least among us you see what i'm saying it's easier sometimes to worry than it is to work at overcoming the things that we worry about there's a lot of people embrace victimhood who choose to worry and it is a choice and there are some who who are like atlas who just choose to bear the weight of the world upon their their shoulders you've been to new york city you've probably been to rockefeller center there in midtown and there's a four-foot statue everybody you've Been there and seen the four-story statue of of atlas if you're familiar with atlas he's one of the titans uh uh one of the titan's of greek mythology he's he was condemned by zeus to bear the weight of the cosmos to bear the weight of the world upon his shoulders and and there at rockefeller center you you see this statue of atlus four stories high and he's just he's just bearing the strain of this this giant globe upon his his shoulders very impressive this bronze statue and there's titan under under strain and he's surrounded on three sides there's there's there's influential investment bank they're influential law firms media companies on three stride on three side strangely enough and this is between 50th and 51st street on the west side right across the street fifth avenue saint patrick's cathedral and right across that that street from from atlas if the main doors of saint patricks cathedral are open you can look straight down that room all the way to the altar and behind that altar there is something that offers an eternal contrast to atlas there is a statue behind that altar of of the christ child and the christ child is holding this little orb which is the entirety of the earth as paul said all of creation all things in heaven and earth have been created in him colossians 1 16 i think but what a contrast someone like atlas who is bearing the weight of the world and many who seek to live their life like that just even in nobility as if it's virtuous i'm just going to bear the burdens of the the remedy is to work at overcoming those things that worry you the question i would have us to ask ourselves this morning as we leave is do you believe that jesus is the lord of today do you believe that Jesus is the Lord of today and I know we all affirm that yes he is then can we not allow him to be the lord of our tomorrows you and I we don't have to climb fences that haven't been built yet let's pray together other. Our Father, how often it is in the storms of life, in the firestorms of life in the circumstances of life that we need these kinds of simple reminders of who we are Father we confess, we acknowledge our frailness in the circumstance of life of how we allow our fears and our regrets of the past, our fears of the future we allow those things to get a foothold in our minds and our hearts but father i pray that as we go out into our respective communities as we cross the paths with people this week that we would be reminded of who we are in christ jesus that we are victors that we were not victims that we have not been given by you father a spirit of of timidity but of power of love and discipline and so father my prayer is is that as we continue in this season of dryness around us and in unexpected unforeseeable circumstances that we each one might be for our neighbors and our neighborhoods a presence of assurance that is working for the world around us to reflect that you and you alone are the one to be trusted.
Bobby Dagnel: In Jesus' name I pray, amen. And God bless you all. Have a good week.