Powerful or Pitiful?

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

King James says it this way – “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The title of today’s message is, “Power or Pitiful: Which One Are You?”

Let us pray

Marianne Williamson wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Those are some pretty powerful words. Do you believe it as it pertains to your life? Have you ever dumbed down, acting like you didn’t know something when you did because you wanted to fit in? Were you ever afraid to shine in school because you didn’t want the other kids to make fun of you, call you names or not like you because you were too smart? While we’re here, let me just tell you there is no such thing as being too smart.

Ladies, have you ever acted like you didn’t know something to boost the ego of the man you were with? Or didn’t do something you were really good at because you didn’t think the man you were with could handle your success?

Men have you ever not spoken up because you didn’t want to embarrass your boss, or you thought if you spoke up you might lose your job? Succumbing to the old adage of, “No one likes a know-it-all”. Well let me assure you, no one on this earth knows it all, but we all know something.

God has put something into each and every one of us. A gift, a talent, an ability, something that you were designed to do, and you can do it like no one else. What is that thing that just makes you feel good when you do it? That thing that makes you feel all warm inside even if no one else knows you did it.

Doing things we love should not be contingent upon others knowing we did it. It’s a pitiful thing when a person will only do something if they get paid. Whether that pay be monetary or some other form of payment or recognition, we should do what we do because we love and want to glorify God. Not so someone will call our name, not for vain glory. When we can get to that point, it’s then that we become powerful beyond measure.

In today’s text Paul is encouraging his son in the ministry, Timothy. Timothy was a young man charged with leading a group of people. Many of whom were probably older and some much older than him. It’s a tricky thing sometimes, to lead people who are older than you, because there are times they mistakenly believe their age gives them permission to not listen or follow the leader God has put in place.

Sometimes there is a belief that with age comes wisdom. We would certainly hope so, but I believe we have all met someone who has proven that to not be true.

Our theme for the year has been the power and authority of God. And the messages have been to attempt to let you know that if you are God’s child, if you have claimed Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, by extension, you also have power.

Powerful or pitiful; when we say a person is pitiful exactly what do we mean. Well pitiful is defined as “causing feelings of dislike or disgust by not being enough or not being good enough.” Who determines whether you’re good enough? It certainly should not be man. Man will love you when you please him, but when you get on their bad side, what happens then? They’ll sometimes dismiss you like yesterday’s news or throw you out like trash; then what are you left with, feelings of devastation, despondency, and despair – pitiful.

Sometimes, it’s our fears and opinions about ourselves that make us pitiful. Have you ever been around a person who was self-deprecating? Putting themselves down all the time. In the beginning of the relationship, you tried to encourage them, but then it got to a point where you got tired of encouraging them.

Perhaps it began to feel like they did it just to get you to compliment them, so you ended up distancing yourself from them. I once met someone who had some very real spiritual warfare going on and part of her story was that once she told people what was going on they stopped talking to her.

After I listened for a while, I realized people didn’t stop talking to her because of what was going on in her life, they stopped talking to her because she wouldn’t listen. She had a rebuttal or a reason why whatever you said to her wasn’t going to work.

She shared that she had prayed for a whole week and God wasn’t doing anything, she wasn’t seeing any change. I finally had to say, stop telling people that story, if you want them to pray for you, then ask them to pray, but don’t tell that story anymore and wait on God no matter how long it takes.

It’s pitiful to think if God doesn’t move immediately, He’s not hearing our prayer and we need to do something else, talk to someone else or fix it ourselves. Well, if we read Psalm 27:14 we’ll clearly see David instructing us to do something. “14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Wait on God to fix it. Exercise your faith.

That person is not the only one who was pitiful. We all know someone who has been pitiful at some time in their lives and I would venture to say we’ve all had those days ourselves. We’ve all had days when we held a pity party and we got on the phone and tried to pull someone else into the pity party with us, then got upset with them if they refused to join.

The devil is a liar, we’re not going to spend a lot of time on pitiful, because there is not one place in the Bible where it talks about man being pitiful. There are places where we are to take pity on or feel pity for someone, but God did not refer to His creation as pitiful. So we are not to look at our brothers and sisters in disgust, but rather in an attitude of love with a mindset of how we can help them. Nor are we to feel that way about ourselves.

If we were to look deeper, we would find our feelings of self-pity usually stem from fear.

Fear of not being accepted

Fear of not finding or not being loved

Fear of not having friends

Fear of not fitting in or

Fear of rejection

But whatever your reason for self-pity is, it all boils down to one thing – fear.

What if Ms Williamson is correct in that, it’s not our inadequacies that make us afraid, but that we are powerful beyond measure? Paul said, God did not give us the spirit of fear… fear is a spirit. It comes from the enemy like a demon hovering to pounce, during your time of weakness or insecurity, waiting to swoop down when you haven’t prayed in a while and your connection to God is fuzzy, like the radio when it’s not tuned all the way in or when you get too far away from the signal.

The spirit of fear is there, just waiting to spring into your weak mind that has gotten that way because you failed to exercise it with

daily study of the Word,

daily prayer,

daily meditation,

daily spending intentional time with God.

So since God did not give us a spirit of fear what did He give us?

Paul said he gave us a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. I’ll come back to the spirit of power and start with the last spirit on Paul’s list. God gave us a sound mind; some translations say self-discipline. This is a quietness of mind. Have you ever had your mind so full of stuff you can’t rest; you can’t focus on what you need to do or are supposed to be doing and so nothing gets done?

God gave you the ability to quiet your mind. He gave you the ability to have peaceable enjoyment of yourself. You have to enjoy being with you before anybody else will. When you can enjoy being with you, you don’t worry so much about the rejection of others.

We can often get discouraged on our journey and in our work by our own opinion and imagination, but a sober, solid, thinking mind would prevent and easily answer any discouragement that may come our way.

A sound mind comes by prayer and meditation. You have to stay connected to the source, staying connected to the source will keep your signal strong so you can hear what thus sayeth the Lord about any situation concerning you. Stay prayed up so your mind stays sound, and you can practice self-discipline.

A sound mind or self-discipline will keep you focused on what’s important, instead of those things meant to lead you down a rabbit hole or a path that leads to destruction and death.

Self-discipline will help you say no, when the action goes against the holy life you have been called to.

Self-discipline will help you not yield to temptation and take the way of escape God has promised you. You just have to look for it.

Self-discipline will help you make wise decisions instead of rash ones that could destroy your life and the life of others.

It is important you keep a sound mind, it’s important that you practice self-discipline. Keep practicing it until you get really good at it.

The second thing Paul said God gave us is love. The Apostle Peter tells us, “The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Whether it’s our life or the world that ends first, we have a limited amount of time to do what God has called us to do. Don’t waste time on inconsequential things, things that don’t matter.

A good way to judge whether or not something is really important is to ask yourself, will that issue you’re dealing with right now matter in five years, will it matter in five months, how about five days or even five minutes; if the answer to any of those is no, then move on.

How? With love, love the hell of that person that irritates you, because when you show kindness to your enemy it’s like heaping coals of fire on their head. You’ll have them so confused they won’t know which way to go and will ultimately bless you and not even know why. The Word says God will make your enemy your footstool and I am a witness.

When we were in CA there was a new person who came in and tried to remove me from my job and put someone else in it. But God said no and our boss would not do it. A few months later, the same person who was trying to get me out of the position I had, was begging me to take her position, which was a higher position than where I was. He’ll make your enemy your footstool. You keep exhibiting the mind of Christ and let him fight your battle. You stay busy doing the assignment He gave you and everything will work in your favor. Remember, favor ain’t fair, but be glad you got it. Amen?

The spirit of love will carry us through any opposition we meet with. Love caused Jacob to work for 14 years to get his wife Rachel when her father tricked him and made him marry Leah first. Love will make you do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do; for your parents, your children, your spouse and most importantly God.

The spirit of love for God will cause us to live above the fear of man, and all the hurt that man can do to us. What is the worse man can do to you; take your life? Yes, we mourn loss, but we must remember when you die in the Lord, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, so is death so bad?

Love, it’s the first commandment. The Pharisees in an attempt to trip Jesus up asked a question; “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Love, it’s in the first (love God) and second (love your neighbor) commandment, so tell me; do you think God meant it. Do you think he gave us the ability to love our neighbor as ourselves? He most certainly did, when the Holy Spirit dwells inside you, you see your brother and sister the way God sees them, you recognize that Jesus died for them the same way He died for you. You recognize that if they had been the only one, Jesus still would have taken off glory and come and sacrificed himself for them, just like he did for you and me.

And finally, Paul said God gave us power, Ms Williamson says “we are powerful beyond measure”. Where does she get that, in Philippians 4:13 we are told “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” All things, everything, there is nothing I can’t do through Christ. God delivered us from the spirit of fear and gave us the spirit of power, of courage and resolution to overcome difficulties and dangers when we encounter them. Power.

We have a spirit of power because when we speak the almighty name of Jesus He gives us power.

In the name of Jesus – we can cast out demons, because demons flee at the mention of His name.

In the name of Jesus – Bodies are healed

In the name of Jesus – Minds are regulated

In the name of Jesus – Hearts are mended

In the name of Jesus – Marriages are reconciled

In the name of Jesus – Strongholds are broken

Walls come tumbling down

In the name of Jesus – Captives are set free

· Jesus said whatsoever you ask, ask in my name and it shall be given unto you - In the name of Jesus – Prayers are answered

· Jesus, the name above every name – because God highly exalted Him

· At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth

Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Demons tremble at that name.

There is power in the name of Jesus.

Jesus humbled himself, came down through 42 generations as a man. He took the form of a servant, he was obedient, even unto the death on the cross, a death reserved for the worst criminal and he was sinless; he was guiltless. But he took on the sins of the world, he took on your sins and mine so that we would not have to pay that price – so that we would not be banished to hell forever, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus paid it all, we have a debt we can never repay and aren’t you glad He didn’t ask us to? Aren’t you glad it was a gift, aren’t you glad you don’t have to try to work off that debt?

But God ask us to do something, tell others about the gift. Don’t you tell people when you come across a really good sale. I had someone tell me about a sale on water just yesterday, so if you’ll spread that news why wouldn’t you spread the Good News of Christ? The news that Jesus died to give us eternal life and it’s free.

Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and

You can have eternal life.

You can experience joy, unspeakable joy

You can have peace in the midst of the storm.

You can have love overflowing, love to love the unloveable.

You can smile when you’re hurting and no one on earth can help.

You can have reassurance when there are no guarantees.

You can have hope when the doctor’s report says there is none.

There is power in the name of Jesus, to break every chain, to destroy the yoke and to tear down every stronghold and nobody can tell it like you can what God has done in your life. Tell somebody, tell anybody, tell everybody; invite them to experience what God has done in your life.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Would you like to experience the power of Jesus, come now the doors of the church are open.