Stir Up The Gift

Just seeing what God's doing in our church is exciting, and many

of you are part of that. You're here on Saturdays when we

are doing the outreach and you see people come in and maybe

some of you even have a direct, direct impact on the people who

are coming in, and I think you ought to be.

Now, obviously, I say this all the time, our goal is not just

to get people to church. Our goal is to get people to

Christ and many times coming to church is a help with that, but

it's the word of God that's going to to breakthrough that

hard ground for those who need to be saved and those who need

to have their lives changed if they already are saved.

It's it's the Holy Spirit that has to do that work.

And but he uses us. He uses us to do it.

And just seeing what God's doing is is exciting.

Brother Steve accepted Christ as his Savior last week and that's

an exciting thing. Brother Jim and Miss Sue are

going to join the church after the service today.

And just seeing things that God's doing is, is moving us all

in that direction. That is, is just continuing to

build his church. And it's his church.

It's it's him that has to do the work.

And obviously he uses us. It's exciting when he does that,

but it's God that does it. And I'm preaching this message

this morning because we're going into the holiday season and

things tend to get busy during the holiday season time.

And you know, the the work year is coming to an end.

And so you have a lot of a lot of things that you're doing at

work to try to wrap all those things up.

Lots of holiday shopping and traveling and a lot of other

things that that really just threaten to eat up our time.

And here's what the Bible says in Second Timothy Chapter 1 and

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

verse #3 Paul is obviously writing this to Timothy.

And he said, I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with

pure conscience, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of

thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see

thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with

joy when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in

thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother

Eunice. And I'm persuaded that in thee

also, 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.

I think one of the things that we have to constantly remind

ourselves about in our Christian life is that there's a great

danger in allowing the things of God in our lives to grow cold.

I think that's why Paul, even to Timothy, Timothy of this, this,

this young preacher, this this young man who had so much

potential and who had so much promise.

And I don't, I don't think Timothy was a teenager.

I think he was probably at the very earliest in his early 20s,

maybe even into his 30s by this point is a young man that's

moving into ministry and doing a lot of things in God's service.

And even even to Timothy, Paul had to say, I'm putting you in

remembrance. I'm reminding you about the fact

that you need to stir up the gift which is in the by the

putting on of my hands. I Timothy had served Paul served

with Paul for many years and had served Paul for many years.

He was in an he was an experienced preacher.

He had helped plant churches. He had, he had instructed

preachers, but he still needed to be put in remembrance of the

very basic things because it's very easy for us to move away

from those things many times. And if Timothy needed to be

reminded, I think we need to be reminded also how often and how

easily we forget the importance of guarding and cultivating our

spiritual lives in the spiritual things in our lives, the things

that are the most important. And there are times in our lives

when it becomes necessary for us to stir up the embers, so to

speak to, to blow on the coals and get that fire hot again.

And just by way of understanding, I, I, I think it,

it has to be made perfectly clear that this is a message for

those who are already saved. You cannot stir up something

that is completely dead. If a fire is dead, you can't

just go blow on or you can't just go take a piece of wood and

blow on and expect that a fire is going to come out of it

because it's dead. And that's what the Bible says.

For those who don't know Jesus Christ as their savior, they are

spiritually dead. There is nothing that can that

can make something alive if there's not life there already.

Those who have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior

have that life. They have that everlasting life

that only comes from God. But sometimes in our Christian

lives, we allow that fire to die down.

We allow those the, the, the the the, the fire to grow cold.

And the Bible makes very plain the fact that those who are

unsaved are still dead in their sins.

But those who are saved, We can see a pattern many times that

happens in our lives where, you know, we get right with the Lord

and we get excited about serving him and, and that's a great

place to be. But over time, small things

happen that come in and, and that, that keep us from having

that fervent relationship that God wants to have with us.

And we allow those small things to creep in, little attitudes,

small disappointments, maybe even many times unnoticed

habits. And many times, almost without

even realizing it, we allow that bitterness to form.

And often the things that we get better about and the things that

cause us to lose our fervency are things that in the grand

scheme of things are really not that big of a deal at all, other

than the fact that it's pulling us away from God.

But, but, but if you were actually to sit down and look at

that thing that's pulling you away from the Lord and you,

you'd have to say that it's not really that big of a deal that

I've allowed to come in here and get in between my relationship

with God. So the question this morning is

very simple but serious. What causes us to grow cold in

our Christian life? What causes us to grow cold in

our Christian life? That's the question that I want

to answer this morning. The title of the message is Stir

up the gift. Stir up the gift.

And I want to answer that question.

What what are the things that cause us to grow cold?

Well, there's a lot of things that we can look at.

I'm going to look at four of them this morning and hopefully

it'll be a help to you. Pray and ask God to do something

in your heart as I pray and ask for his blessing on the message.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

We do thank you for bringing us all here together this morning.

And God, there is no there's there's no accident that we're

all here. You brought every one of us here

for a reason. God, whether we come here all

the time or whether we're just visiting or whether we just here

and there when we have the opportunity.

God, you've got everybody here for this message at this time,

and you knew what you laid on my heart to preach, and you know

who you wanted to be here, God. So I pray that you'd speak to

some hearts this morning, especially those who may have

have have cooled in their relationship with you.

God made every single one of us, myself included, may we evaluate

our lives this morning and see where we are in our relationship

with you and where we can make improvements where we can get

closer to you. I pray that you'd give us the

courage to do that this morning. God, I pray that you'd help us

to get something from your word today.

Thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

The first thing that I see that happens so often in our

Christian lives that causes us to grow cold is willful sin.

Willful sin that would seem obvious, but nothing quenches

the fire of God in our hearts like knowingly walking in

disobedience. Willful sin distances us from

the presence of God it it deadens our spiritual fervency.

It's the dead ends our spiritual sensitivity and I say that it

would seem obvious because how can you expect to have God's

power in your life when you're willfully partaking in sin.

But the truth is that many Christians are involved in sin

that they know is sin and they're making excuses for that

sin to try to give them a reason why they should be allowed to

continue living their lives that the way that they're living.

And they justify why they've allowed to do what they're

doing. Someone who has a a problem with

anger can justify that anger by talking about all the stress

that they're under or all the, you know, the lack of sleep

because of work or whatever it happens to be.

Somebody who is watching pornography can justify it by

reasoning that it's not an addiction.

It's just something that I that I do from time to time.

I'm not addicted to it. And I always ask God to forgive

me when, but when I'm done looking at all those things that

I shouldn't look at, or I'm watching these movies that I

shouldn't watch or looking at these videos or whatever happens

to be on YouTube, It's, it's not an addiction.

So it's OK. As long as I still have a handle

on it. I'm all right.

And we excuse that sin. Somebody who has a problem with

bitterness or unforgiveness can, can justify it by blaming the

other person who they think is the cause for their bitterness

or their unforgiveness. And we, we're so good as

Christians, really just as humans with coming up with

reasons why my sin is OK. No sin is OK in God's eyes.

No, no tiny little white lie, as we call it, is OK in God's eyes.

No little bit of losing your temper, no little bit of

bitterness, no little bit of of things that are inappropriate.

None of those things are OK in God's eyes.

We should not be looking for excuses for any of those things.

We should be looking for ways to get it out.

We should be asking for God's help to get it out, not looking

for ways that we can keep it there.

And that's why I say willful sin many times is what keeps us from

living for the Lord the way that we should and the way that we

can. I read a story in a newspaper.

Diana Valencia was arrested in Texas on drug charges and this

goes back to September of 2008. The newspaper said there was

little doubt regarding her guilt.

Anyone caught with two kilos of cocaine is going to have

difficulty explaining that away as an innocent mistake.

However, she came up with a novel attempt at getting off.

She and her sister decided to bribe the judge who would be

hearing her case to make sure she got off.

And the plan might have worked since the judge was willing to

take the money. Except the FBI got involved and

they set up this lady's sister. They've been suspicious of this

judge for some time, but they set this lady's sister up with

some wires and sent her in to have some conversations with

this judge. And five conversations later,

when they had finally decided on a price that they would pay this

judge to let the sister off, they had everything they needed

against this judge. And the FBI came in and arrested

him and the woman who is trafficking that cocaine.

But a lot of people seem to have the same mindset.

Now, we may not go to a judge and try to bribe him.

Hopefully you're not doing things that will make you have

to go in front of a judge. But we're not.

We're not bribing people. But a lot of times we try to

bribe God. We say God.

Well, if you don't, if I can get through this without getting

caught, then I'll do this for you.

And God, if you could just excuse this over here because I

know that's not something that I should be doing, but just excuse

this. I'll do this for you on the

other side. And we try to make a deal with

God. We try to bribe God into

allowing him to, to let us continue living in that sin.

And a lot of people think that they can joy sin and find some

means of, of avoiding the consequences. 1 old preacher

said they sow wild oats and then they pray for crop failure.

That's not the way that it works.

No matter what devices we come up with, God is a sure and He is

a certain judge, and we cannot bargain with him.

We cannot bribe him. His hatred of sin parallels His

perfect holiness. He does not turn away from sin.

And you can be sure that your sin will find you out.

But in the meantime, it's going to keep you from being what God

wants you to be in your Christian life.

Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 3. Keep your finger there in Second

Jeremiah 3 · chapter mention

Timothy. We're going to come back to it.

But Israel's backsliding and Jeremiah's day was, was rooted

in these deliberate choices to turn away.

And of course, we see that happening so many times.

You start in the book of Genesis and you read through and you

just see that that at every turn Israel turned away from God and

they rebelled against him. And God had to punish them and

brought them back. And they lived for him for a

short time. And the next thing you know,

they're turning and doing their own thing again.

And God warned him and warned him and warned him and warned

him. You better follow me.

You better live for me. Or if things aren't going to go

so well for you, but listen, you follow me.

Here's all the good things that will happen.

And it never failed. They always turned away after

these other gods willfully. Nobody forced them to do it.

They, they made the decisions to turn away from God and to turn

into those idols. But Israel did exactly what many

of us do. They justified their backsliding

to themselves. They had a valid reason why they

were moving away from God. Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse #11

Jeremiah 3 · chapter mention

Obviously Jeremiah is writing this.

And he said, And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel

hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

Return thou backsliding Israel, sayeth the Lord.

And I will not 'cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am

merciful, sayeth the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.

Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou has transgressed

against the Lord thy God, and has scattered thy ways to the

strangers under every green tree.

And ye have not obeyed my voice, sayeth the Lord.

What a wonderful God we serve. God is there waiting to give

them a second chance. Come back to me.

Just come back to me. You're back slidden.

You're away from me, but come back, I'll accept you.

When we choose sin, we choose coldness.

But when we return, God is ready to restore that warmth.

God is ready to restore that fellowship.

What a wonderful God we serve. But you notice that there was a

prerequisite. There's a prerequisite.

God said that they had to acknowledge that known sin.

Look what he says there in verse #13 I'm merciful.

My anger is not going to fall upon you.

I'm ready to accept you back. But only acknowledge thine

iniquity that thou has transgressed against the Lord

thy God and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under

every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the

Lord. That's what he's waiting for.

Acknowledge it. Come to the point where you say,

I am living in sin and I need to change that God will be there

waiting for you when you're ready to make that change.

But he's not going to do it because you say, well, I want to

be a better person. Yeah.

I, I mean, it's OK what I'm doing.

It's, it's not all the time. It's, it's, you know, it's not,

it's not, it's not every day that I go do whatever sin that

is. Not every day that I lose my

temper. It's not every day that I have

lost or whatever it happens to be, and we still continue to

make excuses for those sins. That is not an acknowledgement

of my sin before God. And there is no restoration of

that fellowship. There's no restoration of that

relationship with God until I acknowledge that sin before him.

Maybe you've never heard the name Edwin Cooper, but he was

very famous across America. He came from a family of circus

clowns, and he began performing for audiences when he was nine

years old. And after a stint with the

Barnum and Bailey Circus, he became a fixture on television

in the 1950s as Bozo the Clown. Maybe you remember Bozo the

Clown, but one of the things that he used to tell, as he

called them his buddies and partners every week get checked

for cancer. Get checked for cancer and he

was so busy working that he neglected to follow his own

advice and by the time the cancer was discovered in his own

body, there was nothing that any of the doctors can do about it.

And he died at 41 years of age from that cancer that he had

warned everybody else about. Sin is far more deadly than the

most aggressive and fast growing cancer.

Sin kills and destroys everything it touches.

From the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden until now, Sin does

not take any prisoners. That's the that's the purpose

behind everything that Satan does.

In fact, Jesus said the thief cometh not but for to kill for

to steal and to kill and to destroy in John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

But because of, because of the the evil nature that Satan has,

his hatred of everything that's good, the devil brings

destruction to everything within his reach.

And you are no exception. The devil is trying to destroy

your life, and when you're living in willful sin, you are

allowing him to do it. How do you expect God to to hear

your prayers when you have iniquity in your heart?

That's what the Bible says. If I regard iniquity in my

heart, the Lord will not hear me.

You're asking God for His help. The only prayer that God can

hear from somebody who is in sin is a prayer for forgiveness.

Then you can ask him for his help, but until you're right

with God, he cannot hear your prayers.

We'll not make it the subject of jokes that we tell or that we

hear. Sin is a is nothing.

There's nothing amusing or humorous about sin.

We're not going to allow ourselves to be tempted to get a

little closer to the line to see if we're still safe.

You ought to do everything you can to stay as far away from sin

as you can. God hates sin with a holy and a

righteous fury, and we should as well.

Turn over to Psalm 139. See, when we find ourselves

amused by sin, it's time for us to focus on the cross.

When we find ourselves not abhorring that sin, when we find

ourselves excusing that sin, we're in a very bad spot.

We need to find our way back to the cross.

When you see the price that was paid for your sin, it ought to

remind us that it's not anything to laugh at.

It's not anything to to just not take seriously.

Our goal should be that we could say with David in Psalm 139 and

verse 23. Search me O God, and know my

heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any

wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

You cannot honestly pray that prayer with known sin in your

life is if you're praying that prayer and you know you have sin

number one, you're not going to pray it because you know God's

going to find something there. There's no point in begging God

to show you what you already know is there.

Get the sin out of your life. God cannot and will not use your

life if you have sin in your life.

And what a waste of a life to go through the entirety of your

life with willful sin that that renders your life completely

useless to God. You can play all the games you

want to. You can pretend to be a good

Christian all you want to. But if you have sin in your life

that you know is there, that you are not willing to get out, God

is not using you. God cannot use and will not use

a dirty vessel. And he makes it very clear all

the way throughout the Bible. And then that that makes you

step back and think, how long have I been living in this sin

or I've been really useless in God's service.

Oh, God might use you sometimes in spite of yourself, but he's

not really going to use you the way that he could.

You wonder why you, you go out knocking on doors and, and, and,

and, and, you know, doing the Bibles on Saturday and you

wonder why you just can't get anybody to listen to what you

have to say and, and lead them to Christ.

Maybe it's because God's not using you at all.

You're doing the things that Christians do, you're going

through the motions the way that Christians go through motions,

but you have no power because you can't have God's power in

your life with willful sin. And I would venture to say that

a huge majority of Christians in churches all across this country

and even all the way across the world, a huge majority of them

are Christians who are living with sin in their lives that

they know is there, that they're just not willing to get right

with God. And what a waste of a life to go

through your entire life holding on to that thing that you just

can't let go of. One of these days, you're going

to stand before God, and God's going to put all the things on

one side that you could have accomplished for him.

And I believe God's going to show us everything that He

wanted us to accomplish. And then on the other side, he's

going to put that sin that you just couldn't get over, that sin

that you just wouldn't let go of and see how they compare.

Most Christians are going to have to hang their heads in

shame and say, I gave up all, I gave up all of that for this.

It's not worth it. But most Christians live their

lives here instead of here. We live in defeat instead of

victory because of willful sin. Not always, but many times.

It's willful sin that leads to the second reason we grow cold

in our Christian lives, and that is neglect.

Neglect. Willful sin often causes that

neglect in our lives. But sometimes it isn't rebellion

that cools our hearts. It's just neglect.

We neglect prayer, we neglect the word of God.

We neglect church worship, fellowship.

We neglect the gift that God has put in US.

Willful sin will push us away from those things.

But sometimes we just get cold. We allow the fire to die in our

hearts. I've mentioned this and most of

you probably know this, but I heat my house with wood and I

can see this very easily. But many of you have started a

fire either in your house or outside, you know, in a camp or

whatever else. And what happens when you don't

tend to the fire? It dies, right?

It just, it fizzles out. And in much the same way, when

we leave the fire under unattended in our spiritual

lives, it dies. Our spiritual fervency fades

when we don't maintain our walk with God.

You don't have to fight to kill a fire many times, especially if

it's just a fire in a fire pit or something.

Just stop tending to it and it'll smolder and eventually it

will die. That's why it's important to be

faithful to church and to the preaching of God's Word.

You shouldn't be looking for every excuse to miss church.

There's nothing wrong with taking a vacation, but your

vacation shouldn't be from Saturday night to Monday morning

the following week. Ah, perfect.

I was able to miss 2 Sundays. I didn't have to be in church.

I left on Saturday. I got back on Monday.

Well pastor, you just don't understand.

I have work on Friday and I have to be back at work on Monday.

So you're telling me and your kids and everybody else that

work is far more important than being in church?

You won't miss a day of work, but you have no problem letting

God get the raw end of the deal and skipping being in His house.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

What do you think that means? That means be in God's house.

When you have the opportunity to be in God's house, you should be

looking for excuses to miss everything else and be in

church. That's why it's important to

study the Bible and read sound teaching materials in your

studying. Even if you don't learn

something new every single day in your daily Bible study or

maybe from a particular sermon. Not every sermon is going to

convict you. Not every sermon is going to

teach you something that you don't already know, but it's

going to remind you of the things that you do know.

And many times we need those reminders because of neglect

that moves in and just allows us to grow cold.

If you're not stocking the fire, it's going to die.

It's going to fizzle out. The gift, as Paul says, has to

be stirred up. Go back to Second Timothy

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and look at that phrase again.

He says, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up

the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on in my

hands, that that word stirred up literally means blowing up coals

into a flame. Spiritual gifts have to be kept

fired up. God's given you abilities.

God's given you things that you can do.

He's given U.S. jobs. He's given us a task to do.

Every one of us has a responsibility to to be a part

of the Great Commission if we're saved.

Those are things that God has given us to do.

And what we find here in Second Timothy chapter 1 is the command

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

to stir up the gift. That's a description of of

continual, continual revival through the zealous pursuit of

what you've been called to do. That verb stir up is in the

present tense, and it means that it's a continuous action.

It's something that we have to constantly do.

I put thee in remembrance to stir up the gift that God's put

in you. The stirring up of your

spiritual gifts is not something that can be done once and then

just let go for the rest of your life or not just something that

needs to be done once in a while.

It's something that needs to be done continually.

If a spiritual gift is not being stirred up, it's growing cold.

If your spiritual life is not being stirred up, it's growing

cold. The second law of

thermodynamics. Stated simply, it's a very

complex definition of what the second law of thermodynamics is.

But stated simply, it's that systems naturally move toward a

state of greater, of greater disorder or messiness.

It's the law of entropy that things tend to disorder, which

is why when you spin a top, if you don't keep spinning it, or

if you don't keep doing something that's going to keep

it spinning, eventually it's going to stop spinning.

If you don't keep up your house, eventually the spiders are going

to take over. It's going to be nothing but

dust and spider webs. Why is that?

Because things tend to disorder. Things tend to to messiness.

That's just the law of thermodynamics.

Things run out of steam, they fizzle after a while.

And I think this law operates in a spiritual sphere as well as in

the physical. You leave it alone.

A cup of coffee is going to get cool and then it's going to get

cold. You leave it alone.

A fire is going to smolder and then it's going to die.

Spiritual lives that are left alone do the exact same thing.

If you are not actively stirring up your spiritual life, it's

going to get cool and then it's going to get cold and eventually

it's going to die. That's one.

That's one reason why every church is only one generation

away from apostasy. When that stirring stops, the

slide toward apostasy begins. You are either going forward in

your Christian life or you are going backward.

There is no, I'm just sitting here in this spot.

You're either going forward or you're going backward.

And neglect always causes us to go backwards.

Exodus chapter 34. For the sake of time, I'm not

Exodus 34 · chapter mention

going to have you turn over there.

But we read the account of Moses spending the time with God on

the top of the mountain. And when Moses spent that

extensive and that, that, that special time with the Lord face

to face, the Bible says that as he came down from the mountain,

his face shone with the reflection of the Shekinah glory

of God. And Moses didn't really even

notice it, but the people did. And when it came down, they

said, Moses, your face is so bright we can't even look at it.

Cover your face while you're talking to us.

It says every time that Moses went in to talk to God, he

uncovered his face and he talked to God.

But when he came back out, he had to cover his face because

the glory of God was shining so brightly in his face, shown so

much that the people couldn't even look at him.

Next to my wood stove, I have a poker.

Most of you that if you have a fireplace, you probably have one

of those as well. Just something to move the wood

around. And I can take that poker and I

can poke around in the fire and it might get hot.

You don't really want to touch it as soon as you pull it out of

the fire, but it's just a poker. It's not going to get so hot

that it can't cool down in just a matter of seconds when you

pull it out. But if I take that poker when

the fire is roaring and hot and I stick that thing in the flame

and I just leave it there, if I leave you there for a couple

minutes, I'm going to pull that thing out.

It is going to be glowing red. What's the difference?

When you spend enough time in the presence of God, presence of

God gets into you. That's what happens with that

poker. If I'm just poking around in

there, it might get a little bit of fire on it, but there's no

fire in it. I leave that poker in the fire,

it's going to get the fire in it.

That's what causes it to glow burning red.

And that's exactly what we must do in our spiritual lives.

The presence of God needs to be in us.

Not only are you there in the presence of God, but the

presence of God gets into you when you spend time with Him the

way that you should. Turn over to 2nd Corinthians

chapter 3. See, because this is not just

true in the Old Testament. We saw it in the Old Testament.

Moses obviously had the the brightness of the glory of God

in his face. But Paul said if it was glorious

when God gave Moses the Old Testament 10 commandments, then

how? How is the Spirit not even more

glorious? Second Corinthians chapter 3 and

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

verse #9 But if the ministration of death, written and engraving

in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not

steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his

countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the

ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?

For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more

death, the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this

respect by reason of the glory that exceleth.

For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that

which remaineth is glorious. You think about that.

I said, I know it's a lot of a lot of words in their

administration and condemnation and all of those things.

What what Paul is saying here is this.

If Moses just by being on the top of that mountain and writing

things down on a 2 tables of stone that were going to pass

away. If that was so glorious that the

face of Moses shown, how much more should it be with us who

actually meet with the Holy Spirit and have the Holy Spirit

living inside of us and can meet with God face to face The same

way? If you thought that was

glorious, how much more glorious it should be for us in this New

Testament era who can meet with God and have the the reflection

of His glory in our face? Man, what an amazing thing that

ought to be. When you spend time with God,

it's not going to fall void. You're going to start looking

like Him. You'll start to reflect Him more

in your daily life. Oh, that we would never let the

work of God die in us because of neglect.

What causes us to grow cold in our Christian life will willful

sin certainly will do that. Neglect will do that, but #3

others turn over to Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Others cause us to grow cold in our Christian life.

If we're honest, people can affect our spiritual temperature

much more than we wish they would.

Somebody offends us, somebody disappoints us, somebody fails

us, somebody criticizes us. If we're truly dead to self,

whether we talked about last week, then those things should

not be able to affect us. But if we're not careful, their

actions start to shape our attitudes, their actions start

to shape who we become, and they quench our zeal.

Here's what I found. People are human, and people are

going to let you down. People are going to disappoint

you. People are going to do things

that you don't like because that's what people do.

Most of you have no idea how much disappointment, how much

discouragement, how many times a pastor gets let down by people

that he wanted nothing but the best for in their spiritual

lives. If anyone understands the effect

that other people can have on a person, it is a pastor.

But I want you to see this in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse #14

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man

shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man

fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing

up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.

The writer of Hebrews warns us that a root of bitterness can

spring up and defile us. And he says that many are

defiled by that bitterness. See, that's one of those things

that most of the time you can't see it on the outside.

I can look at your faces and you can smile back at me and you can

look so good. And inside you can have that

root of bitterness in there that you're mad at me for preaching

something that I preached, or mad at this person next to you

for something that they said to you, or mad at this person for

whatever else. And that root of bitterness is

just in there, and it's keeping you from being what you can be

for God. Bitterness, we allow so much of

that bitterness starts small, but it spreads very quickly.

And often the things that we let steal our joy are things that

aren't worth losing our spiritual fervency over in the

first place. Somebody has no filter and

offends you or no spirituality and fails you is not worth your

time anyway. And they're especially not worth

your losing your spiritual fire over it.

But so often we allow our spirituality grow cold because

of others. I want you to see this.

Lastly, what causes us to grow cold in our Christian life will

certainly willful sin will do that.

Neglect does that. Others will do that if we allow

them. But #4 if you turn back over to

Second Timothy chapter 1, I think it's pretty obvious that

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

fear will cause us to grow cold in our Christian life.

Back in our text, Paul reminds Timothy here, verse #7 For God

hath not given us the spirit of fear out of power and of love

and of a sound mind. Now, I don't know if Paul knew

something about Timothy that he didn't really tell everybody

about, but he says stir up the gift, which is in you.

Timothy, I need to remind you, you got to stir up the gift.

God's not God's not given us the spirit of fear.

Timothy, He's given us the spirit of power and of love and

of a sound mind. You can overcome that fear

because of the power that you have through God, because of the

the the love that you have through God, because of the

sound mind that you have through God.

Don't, don't be afraid of what other people are going to say

about you. Don't be afraid of what other

people are thinking. Fear will suffocate the flame

inside of you. Fear of failure, fear of

rejection, fear of inadequacy, fear of the unknown.

Those are the things that keep us from stepping out in

obedience and doing what God wants us to do.

Oh, we use that as an excuse so often why I, I can't get up and

sing in church. I'm just afraid of, of standing

up in front of people. I can't teach a Sunday school

class because I'm afraid to talk in front of people.

I can't share the gospel with somebody.

I'm afraid to, to, to have a conversation.

But you have no problem talking to somebody about something you

really enjoy talking about. Oh, you don't have any problem

walking up to somebody in the store and striking up a

conversation about anything. It's not that you're afraid of

talking to people. It's that you're afraid of the

gospel of Christ also. I am not ashamed of the gospel

of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to

everyone that believeth. It's not that you're afraid of

talking to people, it's that you're afraid of giving them the

gospel because you're afraid of what they're going to say.

God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but a power and of love

and of a sound mind. I heard about a man who's his

farm was failing. His wife needed an operation.

The mortgage on the on the farm was due.

The payment on the tractor was due, tuition was due for his

kids who were off at college. The bank wouldn't loan him any

more money. And he was just an ordinary

farmer. He didn't have, he didn't have

money sitting around that he could just go dip into.

And so he decided to do the only logical thing that he can think

of. He was going to rob a bank.

And so he tried to get up his courage.

Now, remember, robbing banks was not his profession.

He was just a farmer, so he was walking around the block trying

to get up the courage to walk into that bank and actually rob

it. He had everything planned out in

his mind, exactly what he was going to do.

In fact, he had a bag that he was carrying under his coat.

He had a gun that he had with him as well.

He was just going to walk in there and rob the bank and walk

out, and that was the only time he was ever going to do it.

He's not a bank robber. He's just in a tough spot.

So he walked into that bank and finally got the courage to do

it. But when he walked in, he got

all confused because he was just scared to death because this is

not what he normally did. And rather than giving the

teller the bag to put the money in, he shoved the gun to the

teller. Pastor the gun.

He took the loose bag and he pointed at her and he said,

don't stick with me. This is a mess up.

Fear will do that to you. But the truth is, when we ought

to succeed in our Christian lives, many of us fail for one

reason or another because we've listened to the minister of

fear, the devil, rather than listening to God, and that fear

has paralyzed us. No matter how gifted we are, no

matter, no matter how much we say we love God and we want to

live for Him, we can become afraid of what God will call us

to do in our lives if we completely surrender to Him.

That's where most Christians get afraid.

Well, if I, if I really get right with God and I really get

my get my relationship with him back up to where it needs to be

and I allow that, that fervency to come back in.

And I, and I and I and I blow on those coals and get those embers

burning hot again, and I really surrender to God.

I just have no idea what he's going to call me to do.

And I'm afraid of what God's going to call me to do.

I'm convinced that many people don't surrender to sell out for

Christ because they're afraid of what it will cost them.

They love their comfortable life and they they're fine with their

mediocre Christianity because it doesn't really cost them

anything. I really get to the end of

myself and give up all my sin I like to enjoy.

And I really started getting God's word and I really

developed that relationship with God.

Then who knows what what he could ask me to give up and I

just can't take that risk now. You would never say that out

loud, but many Christians have that exact same mindset.

There are many people, some of who may be sitting in this

congregation today, who could be greatly used of God if they

weren't so afraid of selling out to Christ.

But God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and

of love and of a sound mind. You sell out to God, you're

going to find out that the life He has to offer you is way

better than the life you think you can create for yourself.

He's given us power, love, sound mind, everything that we need to

obey Him boldly, everything that we need to obey Him confidently,

everything we need to do to go forward for Him.

If we do sell out for Christ, most Christians will never get

to that point because of fear. I'm afraid of what God's going

to ask me to do. I'm afraid that God's going to

make me go be a witness. I'm afraid that God's going to

ask me to teach a Sunday school class.

I'm afraid that God's going to ask me to lead a ministry.

I'm afraid that God's going to call me to the mission field.

I just. I can't take that risk.

I love the life that I'm living. Too much fear keeps us from

being what God wants us to be. I need to close, but how is your

fire? Where are you at in your

spiritual life? Are you using your gifts for the

Lord, or have you allow allowed things in the way that have

stifled your relationship with God?

The fire may have died down, but the embers are still there.

And I believe, especially in our church, that that's the way that

it is for most of us. Your fire is not dead, you've

just allowed it to die. The Lord's calling you just the

same way that He inspired Paul to call Timothy to stir up the

gift blow on the coals inflamed once again the the passion and

the purpose and the spiritual fervency that maybe you used to

have, or maybe you've never had it at all.

It's time to let God do what He wants to do in your life.

Are there sins that you need to confess and forsake?

Willful sin is always going to keep you from being what God

wants you to be. It's all.

It's the quickest way to allow your spiritual life to grow

cold. And The thing is, most of us are

not sitting here saying, boy, I wonder if I have any sin in my

life that I need to get rid of. Most people are saying that is a

sin that I need to get rid of because you know what it is?

That's willful sin. That's willful sin, that sin

that you know is there that you're just not willing to get

out of your life. And God can never use you with

sin like that. He wants to, but he's waiting

for you to acknowledge it. Only acknowledge, he says, only

acknowledge your iniquity and I'll have mercy.

I'll, I'll build that fire back up hot again.

But you got to get the sin out. You got to acknowledge that you

have a problem with it. You got to ask Him for help.

What about neglect? Apathy maybe would be a better

way to say it. Are there things you need to

start doing again that you've been neglecting?

What did God put on your heart about that as I preached this

morning? That's something that you need

to take care of, something that you need to deal with God on as

He's dealing with you. What about some bitterness or

some unforgiveness that you need to just let go, or some fears to

surrender to God? There's a lot of things that we

allow to hold us back in our relationship, things that we let

in that cause us to grow cold. Today is the day to start to

stir the embers again. Let God get in there and blow on

those embers and you do what you need to do to get everything out

of the way to allow God to blow on that fire.

Allow him to get it hot the way that he wants it to be.

God's ready to give you a fresh start.

That's renewal. God wants to renew you.

He's waiting for you to acknowledge the problem and stir

up the gift. The question is, will you do it?

Will you do it? Stir up the gift.

We all need to be put in remembrance.

Paul says stir up the gift. Let God get in there.

Get that willful sin out. Get the neglect out.

Don't worry about what others have to say about it.

Don't worry about what others have done or said to you.

Get rid of the fear and stir up the gift that God's put in you.

Will you do it? Will you do it?

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank you that you are willing

to allow any of us to come back to you that have gotten away

thankful. Thank you that you're willing to

still use us even when we fail you in so many ways.

God, I pray that where decisions need to be made this morning, I

pray that they would. Only the Holy Spirit can do the

work. You know every single person's

heart in this room. You know where we've come up

short and the chances are that every single one of us know

where we've come up short as well.

We need your help, God. I pray that you give the courage

that we need to step out, make the changes in our lives so we

can be what you want us to be. God, may we have a church full

of people that are on fire for you, Not a church full of people

that are apathetic toward the things of God.

Not a church full of people who have allowed the fire to die and

now it's just smoldering and they're barely hanging on.

God, may you help us to stir up the gift that you've put in US.

Thank you for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

If you would please stand at your seats with your heads bowed

and your eyes closed. Only the Holy Spirit can do the

work in your hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can bring

that conviction and only you can respond to it.

Will you do it this morning if God spoken to your heart as the

panel plays? You come do business with God.

Ask Him to help you. He wants to and He will.

You come as the panel plays.