Let Go of Sinful Anger

Yoda said “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”  And Yoda could have been talking about the movie Frozen.  Elsa’s fear of losing her sister Ana, led to the explosion that you just saw which ultimately led to the entire kingdom falling into a deep freeze and all the troubles that came from that point on. 

This week the staff attended the Global Leadership Summit and one of the speakers was Joseph Grenny, one of the authors of “Crucial Conversations”  the subtitle of the book is “Tools for Talking When Stakes are High”  Elsa should have been in that session

And if we were honest with ourselves we can track many of our problems in life back to the root of anger. 

Because you are angry with someone or something you do something that you later regret.  You are working at something and it isn’t doing what you want it to do so you get angry with it and so you yank too hard and you break it.  You get angry at your child, spouse, sibling, parent, employer, employee and you say something you wish you could take back.  And you can’t take it back, those words that are said in anger are always remembered.   And you are thinking “But they said they forgave me.”  Yep, but that doesn’t undo the hurt, you can’t unring the bell.

And so you would expect me to say “Let Go of Anger”.  After all  most people would say that anger is bad, that we should never get angry.  It was Buddha who said “Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.”

While Peter O’Donnell wrote “Anger and worry are the enemies of clear thought.”  And Ralph Waldo Emerson   offered us excellent advice when he wrote “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”  And here are words of great wisdom from Ambrose Bierce, “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”   I’ve given those speeches. 

The bible even weighs in on the subject when Solomon wrote in Proverbs 22:24-25 Don’t befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people, or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul.   And again in  Proverbs 29:22 An angry person starts fights; a hot-tempered person commits all kinds of sin.

And most of us think of anger as a “Sin”.  “Forgive me because I got angry” we pray or we tell the person on the other end of our anger “I’m sorry I was angry.”   

And so you would understand if I preached on “Let Go of Your Anger”.  But then we have to deal with passages in the bible like Psalm 7:11 God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day. Or in the New Testament John 3:36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

And we look in the bible and we see Godly men and women who get angry.  And maybe we can understand Moses getting angry, and David getting angry and Jonah getting angry, after all they were people like us. But the bible tells us that Jesus got angry, and you are thinking “Not Jesus, Jesus hugged children and cuddled lambs, Jesus told us to love everyone and turn the other cheek, no preacher you’re wrong Jesus never got angry.”  Yep sure did, he got angry with the Pharisees he got angry with his Apostles and in a story that is familiar to all of us one day he got so angry about what was happening in the courts surrounding the temple he turned over tables, set animals free and chased people with a whip.

And so now we have this dichotomy to deal with.  We perceive anger to always be wrong and to be sinful behaviour and yet we see Jesus acting in a way that seems to be angry and he was without sin.  And there are multiple instances in the scriptures with God being angry, and that is the word that is used “angry” not a little put out or mildly annoyed but angry. 

Perhaps the truth lies in the words of Aristotle who said “Anyone can become angry -- that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way -- this is not easy.”

So here are some questions we can ask ourselves about Anger and perhaps we can find some answers in the Jesus story.

What makes you Angry?  And probably I could get a whole range of answers here.  Some would be appropriate and some would be wildly inappropriate.  A few years ago there was a story in the news about a guy in Ontario who was charged with road rage.    

Someone had cut him off in traffic, I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but he chased the guy down and then forces him off the road with his truck, rams the offending vehicle a couple of times and then grabs a chain saw and threatens the other driver with it. 

Do you get angry in traffic?  In the parking lot?  In the supermarket when someone cuts you off with their cart?  Do you get angry because of the way people treat you?  Because of some slight, either real or imaginary? 

Do you remember when Jesus cleared the temple of the money changers?  Why was Jesus angry?  I think there are a couple of reasons, the most obvious is found in   Mark 11:17 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

He was angry because people were disrespecting God’s temple and making a mockery of God’s rules.  What was supposed to be a Holy place had become an everyday place, what had been set aside as a place to worship God had become a place to worship money.  And because of that people’s relationship with God were in jeopardy.  And that made Jesus angry.

That was why Jesus was upset with the Pharisee; they were putting religion ahead of people and putting roadblocks between people and God.  Once when Jesus was teaching some parents tried to bring their children to him to be blessed and his disciples scolded them for interrupting Jesus while he was teaching and then we read in Mark 10:14 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.”

When people and churches stand between others and God that should make us angry in the same way it made Jesus angry.  

When people are more concerned with their preferences and their comfort rather than reaching out to those who need Jesus, that is a reason to become cranky and when people and churches that call themselves “Christians” do a disservice to Jesus’ name and nature by being rude and bitter, that should make us angry.

But there was a second reason that isn’t as obvious but just as valid, and I understand that this is speculation but I think Jesus was upset over the fact that those who were supposed to be leading people to God were taking advantage of them. 

These were pilgrims who had travelled a long way to be able to worship God in the temple and they were being ripped off.  Historians tells us that the same dove that was being sold in the temple court yard could be purchased outside the temple for a fraction of the price, but coincidently the same people who benefitted from the sale of the doves inside the temple were the ones who had to inspect the ones from outside to make sure they would be suitable.  Can you say “conflict of interest”?

And the temple tax had to be paid in a certain currency, the principle had been laid down that the tax was paid for the upkeep of the temple, and that was a good principle the temple needed to be maintained and that needed to be paid for by those who used it.  But then the principle was distorted and became a burden.  Because now it wasn’t enough that the right amount be paid but it had to be paid in the right currency.  So while other currency was used outside the temple the priests insisted on a certain type of currency.  When the pilgrims came they had to get their money changed.  And if it was a straight exchange then the rate was about 20% but if you needed change back the rate doubled.  And so Jesus was angry because people were being taken advantage of.

What was happening was legal, but was it right?   Personally I think Jesus would be a little cranky over what happens in the name of business and commerce in our society today. 

When companies ask the rank and file to make wage concessions and give up benefits and then give their executives million dollar bonuses, I can understand the anger there.   And I don’t think it would be billion dollar bailouts that Jesus would have had in mind for the big banks and Wall Street, just saying.

But here is a rule of thumb, If you are getting angry over your feelings or over your stuff, you are probably getting angry over the wrong things. 

Understand that Jesus didn’t lose his temper, he got angry.  Which leads us to the next question.

How Do You respond In Your Anger? This is a matter of time and degree.  Sometimes people get angry and their response is way over the top.

The guy with the truck and the chainsaw in Ontario, that was probably not the best way for him to express his anger. 

 If you lash right out you have probably reacted the wrong way.   Which is why Thomas Jefferson cautioned people “When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”

Again, let’s look at when Jesus chased the merchants and money changers out of the temple.  In Mark’s account we discover that Jesus had actually been there the day before, Mark 11:11 So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.   And then we pick up the story the next day Mark 11:15 When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. 

So you understand what must have happened, right?   He must have seen what was happening, he left, thought about what was happening  and figured out what his response should be and then came back. 

John’s account of Jesus in the temple comes at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and there has been debate over whether it was the same incident or a separate incident, and I can say categorically it could have been the same incident or a separate incident.  But there is a neat line there in John’s account.  John 2:15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.   I wonder in that account if the taking the time to braid the rope together was his way of counting to ten.

If you find yourself reacting immediately in anger, you are probably in the wrong.  You are letting your anger control you instead of controlling your anger, which is why the bible tells us in Ephesians 4:26-27 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.  Presumably when we let ourselves be controlled by anger that is when Sin gets a foothold. 

But Paul doesn’t stop there he tells us to deal with it right away, and not to let it fester in our lives.  Because if you’re like me you’ll lay awake all night pressing the replay button over and over again.

It was Phyllis Diller who said “Never go to bed angry, stay up and fight.”  I’m not sure that is what the Bible had in mind. 

But understand this; if you aren’t controlling your anger then your anger is controlling you.

So, you need to find out how you are supposed deal with what makes you angry.  Remember when the disciples wouldn’t let the children come to Jesus and he got angry?  What did Jesus do?  Did you yell at them and call them jerks, no he taught the disciples what their correct response should be and then he blessed the children.

What can you do about what makes you angry?  How do you correct it, how do you deal with it?  Can you be part of the solution?

The other thing to note is that there was no personal violence in Jesus’ response, granted he set animals free and scattered coins but there is nothing to indicate that he struck anyone, that he hurt anyone.

Martin Luther King Jr. was angry, Mahatma Ghandi was angry, Timothy McVeigh was angry and Osama Bin Laden was angry.  Two will go down in history as heroes two will always be villains.

The scriptures don’t tell us not to be angry but they do warn us in Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV “In your anger do not sin”

Do You Understand The Price Of Your Anger?  There is an old saying that there is only one letter difference between “anger” and “danger”.  There are people who will go to jail because of their anger.  There are people who lose their lives because of anger, on both sides.   Because a man was angry in Ottawa this week he is dead along with an innocent man.

I can’t count the marriages that I have watched dissolve because of an angry spouse.  Sometimes situations where there was abuse but often just times where the other partner just got tired of the anger and venom that was being spewed. 

People have lost their jobs because they were categorized as an “angry person” and people lose friends for the same reason, nobody wants to be around someone who is always angry at something, even when that anger is justified.

But there is also a cost when we are angry in the right way.

Jesus got angry over what was happening in the temple, and he responded after thinking about it and without violence.  And the result?  A lesson was taught, not just for that specific point in time but for the next two thousand years.  The temple courts were cleared at least temporarily and I’m sure that some of those who were chased out examined their motives. 

But what else happened?  Mark 11:18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

This was the tipping point in Jesus’ ministry. 

The lives of African American’s were changed irrevocably for the better because of the anger of Martin Luther King Jr.  India’s future was changed because of the anger of Ghandi.  And King and Ghandi paid the price with their lives.

You get angry over abortion, or poverty or social injustice, or people disrespecting God and his name and voice your anger and there will be a price to be paid.  Chances are that you won’t be killed, but it might be the way people view you, or it might be a promotion or it might be contempt.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get angry about those things, it just means that you need to be aware that there is often a price to be paid.  Remember the words of Edmund Burke who wrote “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 

Anger has been the catalyst that has changed our world for the better.  One of my favourite quotes comes from George Bernard Shaw who said  “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the word to himself.  Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

It is when people get angry over social injustice that we see change, it’s when people get angry over the environment that people begin paying attention.  Seriously if it wasn’t for angry environmentalists big business would still be pouring poison into the air and cars would still be burning leaded fuel and getting 15 mpg.

At the Global leadership Summit we heard Allen Catherine Kagina who is the Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority, which is like our CRA or the IRS in the States. She said that she took the position because she was angry.  Angry that the URA was known as a Den of Thieves, angry that the taxes that Ugandans were paying weren’t providing what they were supposed to.  Ten years later the URA is now a model public institution for developing countries around the world.  And more than that it is an institution that the people of Uganda trust. 

It was when Martin Luther got angry over what he saw as the failure of the Catholic Church that the reformation began. 

After all the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley got angry over child labour and the founders of the Wesleyan Church go angry over Slavery.  But it can’t be repeated enough: Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV “In your anger do not sin”

While we understand these normal human experiences of anger, Christians need to ask the question—when is anger righteous, moral and appropriate?  And how we do we respond?  And so this morning I would challenge you to “Let Go of Sinful Anger.”

Let go of Fear

Fear will be your enemy.  And that statement seems to set the tone very early in the movie.  If there seems to be one overriding emotion in the movie “Frozen” it is fear.  The King and Queen are fearful for their daughters and so the girls are separated and grow up alone.  Elsa is afraid of what she might inadvertently do with her power and so she puts up barriers between her and those she loves.  Anna fears being alone and so she ends up engaged to a man she had just met.  Hans being the youngest of 13 brothers fears insignificance and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure he had a place in the world.  Kristoff fears for his business, who wants to buy ice when it always cold?  . And the villagers?  Well like villagers everywhere it seemed that they feared everything.   It seemed that the only characters in the story who weren’t afraid of something was Sven the Reindeer and Olaf the snow man. 

This is week two of our “Let it Go” series and we are looking into the passage that was read for us earlier, in particular looking at the seventh verse that says 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Fear isn’t just the overriding theme of the movie Frozen, sometimes it seems that fear is the overriding theme of life. 

So let’s begin by looking at fear what it is and how it affects our lives.  

The words fear and afraid are mentioned close to five hundred times in the Bible and in the New Testament there are actually several different words used to convey the idea of fear.  The first word simply means to be in awe of, or to revere or respect something.  This is a natural fear.  In the Bible it is used of the fear of God, or fear of death.  This is the type of fear that keeps us from doing silly things, like stepping off tall buildings.

Another word that could have been used means exceedingly afraid or terror. It’s where we get our word Phobia. And it is natural fear taken to the extreme.  If the first type of fear keeps us living, the second type keeps us from living.  The website www.phobialist.com actually lists over 500 different fears, things like Acousticophobia- Fear of noise or Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens., Cometophobia- Fear of comets, Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school. And finally Homilophobia- Fear of sermons, there would appear to be a lot of people who are suffering from that in our country today.

But it isn’t either of those words that Paul used when he wrote to Timothy.  The word he used means, timid or fearful and its root word in the original language means faithless. 

And the context of this word is being afraid to do things or for that matter even to try things, because you are afraid that you might fail.

And so let’s begin back where we started, 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity. . . And so we begin with Paul's instruction to Timothy to Let Go of Your Fear

This is the fear that makes us live mediocre ordinary lives, never taking chances, never trying to change anything, content to simply drift along.  This is the spirit of average, and it keeps you in a rut, and you know what a rut is right?  A rut is a grave with both ends kicked out. 

And Paul tells us that this fear has not been given to us by God.  The question is, if God hasn’t given it to us then where does it come from? let’s listen to what this theologian had to say about the origins of fear.  (clip from “The Phantom Menace where Yoda tells young Anikan that fear comes from the dark side)

That’s right, fear comes from the dark side, and the devil wants you to be afraid to do anything great for God, to say anything for God or to try anything for God.  And we can’t let that happen. 

The spirit of fear robs you of what God wants for you.  When you are governed by fear there are things that you will never do because of your fear of things that may never happen.   And so you are presented with an opportunity to try something new and you don’t because you project your fears into the situation.  I have mentioned before that I am terrified of heights, not just a little scared, really scared.  And that could have kept me from learning how to fly when I was in college but it didn’t.  And in 1988 I was looking at one of the big roller coasters in Florida telling myself that I would never go on it when I realized that I had preached the week before on overcoming our fears, and so it was that day that I discovered that you can be afraid of heights and love monster roller coasters.  And Deborah and I have ridden some of the best in Florida.  But I would never have discovered that if I had of let myself be governed by fear. 

And so Paul continues in his instruction to young Timothy saying 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

So not only does Paul tell Timothy what God doesn’t give, he also tells him what he does give. 

So this morning we aren’t just telling you to let go of fear we are going to look at the three things that God has given you as believers.  Notice that this is not a God will give you, but it’s a God has already given you statement.  You already have these things, you may not recognize it, you may not use what God has given you but as a Christian these things are alaready yours.  Kind of like someone who has a winning lottery ticket in their sock drawer.  The money is theirs all they need to do is claim it, and tithe it of course.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power . . . And so the first thing Paul tells Timothy and by default us is that youneed to Embrace the Power You’ve Been Given.  At this point Paul is writing from the perspective of thirty five years down the road from the Day of Pentecost.  You’ll remember the promise that Jesus made to the Apostles before he returned to heaven.  It’s recorded in Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

But you already knew that because that’s one of my favorite verses and I’ve only used it five gazillion times in the past nineteen years.  And ten days later on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came and the church became synonymous with Power.

Most scholars agree that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy about 66 AD.  And because of that Paul was able to look back at the power that had been released on the Day of Pentecost.  Paul was able to say; “This power, this power that could take eleven unlikely men and turn them into the champions of Christianity is still available to you today.” “The power that took a trembling Simon, the swaying reed who shook at the questions of a harmless maid and turned him into Peter the Rock, able to stand up to the very leaders who had Christ crucified, is yours for the taking.”

You see, up to the day of Pentecost the followers of Christ had his teachings, his words to guide them and give them direction, but it was with the coming of the Holy Spirit that the power was released.  The teachings of Christ were good, but the disciples needed the Power of the Holy Spirit to reveal those teachings as the words of God himself.  It was Al Capone who said “You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.”  Well you can get more with the Gospel and the Power of the Holy Spirit then you can with the Gospel alone.

The power that is offered to the believer is first of all the power to conquer our fears, because as a believer we know that God is in control.  Psalm 34:4 I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.

Can we say that together?  Let’s try it: Psalm 34:4 I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.

Notice that God didn’t erase David’s fear he simply freed David from them.  He gave David the power over his fears.  I believe that when David stood in front of the giant Goliath and looked him up and down that he was afraid.  I believe that when they tossed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace that the three boys were afraid. 

I believe that when Daniel was invited to attend dinner with the Lions that he was afraid, that when Peter stepped over the rail of his fishing boat and placed his foot on the surface of the Sea of Galilee that he was afraid.

And hold unto your seats because I believe that in Luke 22 verse 42 when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane  Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

That Jesus Christ the son of God was afraid.  He was afraid because he knew that he would be beaten, humiliated and hung on a cross to die a long painful death.  And if he wasn’t afraid then he wasn’t a hundred percent human, and that wouldn’t be fair. 

Fear said “Please take this cup of suffering away from me.”  But the power over fear said “Yet I want your will, not mine.”  Fear says “I can’t.”  the power over fear says Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Personally I will probably always be afraid of snakes but that didn’t keep me from moving to Australia with 7 of the top 10 poisonous snakes in the world. And I will probably always be afraid of heights, but I will climb a ladder and clean out my gutters, don’t enjoy it but I will do it.  And with God’s help I will never let my fears keep me from doing what God wants me to do. Why because I have not been given the spirit of fear but the spirit of power.  And to quote Margaret Thatcher  “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.” 

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love . . .

Secondly you are told to Embrace the Love You’re to Display.  You do understand how important this is don’t you?  Love is the key identifying mark of the Christians.  Time and time again we are commanded to love. To love God and to love one another.  And the bottom line is recorded in John 13:35 when Jesus told his followers John 13:35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

The reciprocal of that is “Your absence of love for one another will prove to the world that you are not my disciples.”

The greatest definition of Love is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Now we all know that Jesus is love incarnate.  Jesus was love in a physical form, John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Logically then if we have a definition of love and if Jesus is indeed love then Jesus should fit into that definition.  Let’s try it.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. He does not demand his own way. He is not irritable, and he keeps no record of being wronged. He does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

The word Christian means follower of Christ or little Christ, and if that is the case then would it be fair to say that we need to be exhibiting the same Characteristics as Christ?  Let’s try it.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Christians are patient and kind. Christians are not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Christians do not demand their own way. Christians are not irritable, and they keep no record of when they have been wronged. They are never glad about injustice but they rejoice whenever the truth wins out.

Sound tough, of course it’s tough.  If it was easy everyone would be doing it.  The great thing is that you’re not expected to do it alone. 

If attend Cornerstone then eventually you will hear our mission statement or perhaps you will read it on our website.  And it says “Cornerstone Wesleyan Church exists to reach pre-Christians through dynamic worship and relevant preaching, bringing them to a life expanding relationship with Jesus Christ and guiding them into a practical holiness as evidenced through the fruit of the Spirit.”

And maybe you’ve wondered what exactly the fruit of the Spirit is, well it is defined in Galatians 5:22-23 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

The very first characteristic that we are supposed to exhibit when the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives is love.  And Paul tells Timothy that we have not been given a spirit of fear, instead we have been given a spirit of love.  This is reiterated in Romans 5:5 when Paul tells the early believers Romans 5:5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

On our own we will never be able to love people that way described in 1 Corinthians 13, just not going to happen, and God doesn’t expect it to, that’s why we have access to the power of the Holy Spirit and the Love of the Holy Spirit.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

And then finally we are told to Embrace the Self-Discipline You’ve Been Promised Actually if you are following along in a different translation of the Bible “Self Discipline” may have been translated “a Sound Mind”, which bothered me for a while because I wasn’t sure where I stood if sanity was a prerequisite of salvation.  However my fears have been eased because I’ve discovered that the word used in the original language is kind of tough to translate and this is actually the only spot it is used in the New Testament.  In the Greek it could mean self-discipline or a disciplined mind.  Both translations are pretty close to each other and the word never implied a connection to your spirituality and your mental health.

What it does imply though is that we have the power to control ourselves and our thought life and that might be even more disturbing then the mental health issue.  If you go back to fruit of the Holy Spirit, the first characteristic is love and that would make the last characteristic self-control, or perhaps self-discipline.

You may have discovered in 2014 that it’s not necessary to accept responsibility for our behaviour.  We are told that we behave the way we do because of society, or because of our upbringing, or because it is our inclination or our orientation or because of other areas outside of our control. In other words it’s not our fault if we exhibit behaviour that is unacceptable or hurtful to ourselves or to others.  We are simply a victim and we can’t help ourselves. But that isn’t what the Bible says, the Bible tells us that we are responsible for our behaviour and that if we can’t do it on our own that we can do it with the help of God.

And that is why one of the defining marks of being a follower of Jesus Christ is self-control or self-discipline. And before we can gain control over our actions we need to gain control over our thoughts.  And here Paul tells Timothy that he has already been given a disciplined mind.  Bill Burbury was a professor of mine back in the day and he used to tell us over and over again, “You aren’t what you think you are, you are what you think.”  Motivational speaker Napoleon Hill said “Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do.”

And so the battle for self-discipline and self-control must first begin here.  First of all you have to want to have self-control.  The problem a lot of times is we are too busy enjoying sin and self-destructive behaviour to actually want to stop. And the assurance from the Bible is that if you are a Christian and if you’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to have control of your life that you have already been given the spirit of Self Control and the spirit of Self Discipline.  And yet many of us are like the story you hear every once in a while about the person who dies in poverty and it is discovered they have horded away a fortune, all the while screaming poverty.

Listen to me please right now, if you are a Christian, if the Holy Spirit controls your life you have the spirit of self-discipline, you may choice to use it, or you may choice to not use it, but it is there for you. 

So where are you at today?  In closing this morning I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes, now cup your hands in front of you.  Now I want you to visualize the fear that is keeping you from being everything that God would have you to be, the fear that keeps you from doing everything that God wants you to do.  It might be the fear of rejection, or the fear of failure, or maybe the fear of losing control. 

Now I want you to open your hands and let it go because it is not of God.  You understand, God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity.