Derek Grier - Stir It Up? - Part 2
I remind you, the answer to Timothy's crisis was a simple reminder. Not condemnation, but a reminder. How soon we can forget all God's done with us or for us, especially when it hurts. I mean, all he did for Timothy, all the miracles he saw. When it hurts, you can get so focused on your pain, you can forget what God has done and you can even forget who you are. He said, I remind you, here's a reminder, stir up the gift of God. James one in 17 says, every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights. Actually, when we stir up the spiritual gifts that are in us, we are stirring up our perfections. He was reminding Timothy that God had given him already, everything he needed to get through this crisis. And I wanna remind you today, you have everything you need. You already have it to get through the crisis.
Now, here's where the black eye comes in. Are you still with me? The problem was not Timothy's inadequacy. The problem was Timothy's negligence. He stopped stirring up. He began to get so consumed with the worries, that the fire got cold. You see, the imagery here in the Greek is not really stirring up a pot, as much as stirring up a fire about to go out. The problem was not that something was missing in Timothy. The problem was Timothy had lost his intensity. How many of us were once on fire for God, but then life started kicking sand on your fire? Marital hurts, church hurts, medical hurts, singleness hurts.
Sometimes, everything just hurts in life. But Paul was not just preaching a sermon, he was living a sermon. Because in that cesspool of a circumstance, he was still praying for others, thinking about others. There was still a joy about Paul that the world didn't give in the world could not take away. Therefore, Timothy, I remind you to stir up the gift of God. It was not that the problem was too hard for Timothy, but that Timothy's fire burned too low. The problem is not that life is too difficult, but that our fires are burning too cold. Passion produces energy.
Now, I get the privilege of watching my sons with their young ladies and particularly with my youngest son and his young lady. There's an energy when the two of them in the same room. His eyes are all big and then he's all sharp and on point. They're just an energy. You can feel it when you walk in the room. Because passion produces energy. Okay, so you don't wanna go to church anymore, check your fire. You don't want serve anymore. Check your fire. Maybe you feel scared all the time, check your fire. The solution to Timothy's problem was a reminder.
I remind you, Timothy, to stir up the give God has already given you. Timothy, God has already given you all the raw materials you need to be successful in this life. The only thing you gotta do is stir it up. You see, the good stuff is at the bottom of the soup, you gotta stir it up. Concrete is just sand until you add water and stir it up. Faith is dead until you stir it up with works. Say, Bishop, you don't know, I tried that before. You don't know how hard I've fallen. Well, here's the deal. The worm is the only animal that can't fall down. If you fell down before, at least you know you're not a worm. There's still hope for you. You are in the image and lightness of God. God has a chance and a purpose, a hope and a future for you. Stir up the gift of God, which is in you.
As I was praying, I was feeling the Lord. I have some other responsibilities in the rest and Father Lord said, boy, don't back up. I didn't build you like that. He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom. He's saying, son, for the mountain I need you to climb. The issue's not how high the mountain as much as how stern are you? Because nothing is impossible for those who believe. Well, Paul believed the world of Timothy. He said, Timothy, if you just stir up that gift of God and God doesn't give him perfect gifts, which is in you through, watch this, the laying on of my hands.
Paul was basically saying to Timothy, the same thing that's in me, God placed in you. So if, if I can make it in here, in this prison, you can make it out there. And folks, You know, I've been doing this here at Grace Church for 24 years, but I eat the same message that I feed you every week. So, if by God's grace I can make 29 years of marriage, be faithful to one woman for 29 years... Raise healthy kids, get me through disease. Keep my sanity when I feel like going crazy, navigate the impossible, start it from the bottom, now I'm here. Now listen, just because the food getting a little hot, it's good for you. For God has not given us on a spirit of fear. So, stop blaming God for your anxiety. Stop blaming God for all your worry. Stop blaming God for all your nervousness. It did not come from God.
Now, we sanitize these things. We given these psychological words and we woo, woo, woo, but God didn't give you that. That comes from the world, the flesh and the devil. All that anxiety you were not built for, made for. God didn't put that on you. God has not, not, not, not. All that anxiety, it was just my personality, you don't know what happened. God has not given us plural, me, you, you, you, you, us a spirit of fear. But what did God give us in its place? Power, power, power! The term there in the Greek, we all know it is Dunamis.
Hundreds of years later, the term was used. We got the word dynamite from the word Dunamis, speaks of power and all the rest stuff. But back then, there was no dynamite, they didn't invent it. They didn't have electricity, so it couldn't have been a boom. Back then, the word Dunamis reflected the power of an advancing army. God wants us to walk like a person, speak like a person, act like a person that has a whole army behind them. A person that recognizes more for us than against us. God did not give you that timid, weak, fretting spirit, but he gave you a spirit of what power.
The attitude that's afraid to ask somebody, do you need prayer? That attitude, afraid to say, come on, go with me to my father's house. That attitude's not from God, it's from the devil. These men were dealing with real crisis'. Not just you know, maybe they might talk about me or a little bit of rejection. No, real crisis'. I may not go home to my family tonight. I might not live another day. But these men and women, they faced it with boldness and confidence. What are we if we can't do the minimal because we're afraid of what someone might think 99% of the time? They're grateful, someone asked, I'm here today because of someone else, who one day had the courage to ask me a question.
End of a sound mind. Literally, that means a delivered mind. How many of you want to live with a delivered mind, free of panic, free of fear, free of intimidation? A delivered set free. Mind with the air blowing through, it is fresh. He might have been in a squalor, stinking and firm, but in his mind, he was free. In his mind, God was fresh and of a sound, a delivered mind. I wanna be delivered from the cares of this world. I wanna be delivered for thinking I gotta do everything in my life like there's no God who cares. And a sound and delivered mind. What scripture is teaching is you can be calm when everybody else is going crazy.
Please don't mishear me. Because sometimes people hear messages like this to their own hurt and they think they always gotta feel like they're shouting at the top of the mountain. No, if you read the Psalms, man, David sometimes lays it out, the Lord, man, I am disconcerted. He's basically half the time he seems depressed and he's dealing with struggles and man, my enemies and this is what's happening to me and God, where are you? From the ends of the earth. God, I cry to you. I mean, you're so far away, God, where are you? Why are you so far from my groaning? And that since his prayer, but in the end, he ends and praise. And we will go through moments and I'm sure Paul did in that prison, but he ended in praise.
And you'll have painful moments, things that take you by surprise, things that knock it down. Stuff you can't smile about immediately. But if you hang in there, you can end in praise. He said, God gives us power, love and a sound, a delivery. I want to be free in my mind. I don't wanna be worried like everybody else. I don't wanna be concerned like everyone else. I don't wanna be beat down like everybody, I wanna really believe all things are possible to him who believes. I want God to really be the helmet of my salvation. Protecting me from crazy thoughts about my future and my family and the people I love in my life. I want to be delivered in my mind. Thank God I'm saved in my spirit.
My spirit is like Christ. I'm a new creation, deep down in my spirit with the Holy Ghost Lord. But my mind, my mind, my mind, my mind is... I gotta be renewed in the spirit and the attitude of my mind. I work on this mind and and get me in this word to remind my mind who I am. I'm not that timid, fearful creature that I once was. And Timothy began to backslide in his image of himself. And maybe I can't do this. Maybe I gone too deep. Maybe it's too far and maybe I need to lie a little bit here. I need to little bit here and bide me a little bit more time and negotiate this and this was what Timothy was thinking. But Paul had to remind him, it's a real gift in you. God lives in you, boy.
And you can do what God wants you to do and you could do it the right way. Pay attention to what I'm saying today. God has not given you a spirit of fear. Yeah, it's gonna try to come on you. It's scary out there, it's crazy out there. It gonna try to come on you. And just cuz you feel it though, don't mean that you are it. Oh, it's for real. You will feel fear, but you don't have to be afraid. You know, you might, every now and then, feel like popping somebody, but that ain't the same as popping somebody. That's feeling like popping somebody. But you don't go to jail for assault because you felt something.
So, what you feel you don't have to do. He's not giving us a spirit of fear, but power. Love somebody in a delivered a sound, healthy mind. One thing about Jesus, if you watch him in the scriptures, he's always clear. Never confused, always clear. Jesus lived with a delivered a free mind. And this whole scripture was about Timothy tapping into what was really already his. It's available for each of us and to each of us. Imagine if I drank water a month ago and I had a great day a month ago. Had eight glasses and because I was filled a month ago, I say, I'm filled now. You can't go without drinking for a month. You can't rest on an experience that happened 20 years ago. Today, as if it's adequate.
Isaiah says in 55:1, if anyone thirsts, let 'em come and drink. Being filled is a daily thing. In order to be filled though, you gotta come to the well, you gotta come to the well, you gotta come to the well. When my kids were little, we gave 'em little sippy cups and we would help them drink and all the rest. But as they grow older, it'd be crazy for me to walk up to a grown man with a beard talking about, here's your sippy cup for the day. Y'all look at me crazy.
But sometimes, that's what we expect from God. We want him to bring the sippy cup. But that's why we're reading through this New Testament ourselves, so we could drink and learn to drink ourselves. This is why we come to church, so we can drink ourselves, you hear? But you gotta come to the well, the water is available. The Psalm said, there is a stream that makes glad the city of God, but you gotta tap into that stream. It's there, but you gotta tap in.
And he was saying, Timothy, the power of God is with you. The power of God is in you. The issue is you've been neglecting and you've been more worried than tapping. You've been more worrying than praying. You've been stressing more than worshiping. And if you would just tap back into that river that makes glad, you will find the strength you need. My encouragement and my challenge today is to tap in. Come to the well. Find out where that well is in your life and tap in and drink, drink, drink, drink, drink.