Fearless!

Text: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

Focus: Faith over fear

Function: To help people see that fear is not from God.

Form: GOK (God only knows)

Intro: Last week we looked at what it means to be carrying around the death of Jesus in our bodies.

It means, simply put, that we have the ability to choose to live sacrificially for others and God or to live to please ourselves.

Paul gives a great “therefore” after this passage. In his great “Therefore,” we learn that the primary mission of the Church, the body of Christ, the family of God, is to be God's agents of reconciliation between God and humanity and between other humans.

I would submit that every time we are doing that, we are serving God. That is along with Jesus' great teaching in Matthew Chapter 25 that deals with caring for the sick, the poor, the naked, the prisoner and I would add, anybody who is marginalized by our society.

Jesus, remember, was “the friend of sinners.” Because of that, the powers that be, especially the religious authorities, decided that Jesus was not worth listening to.

After all, if he was such a great prophet, one of them mused privately, then Jesus would know how evil some other people would be and Jesus would not associate with such a person.

They got it all wrong. They got it backwards.

Jesus was telling them that it was those who admit that they are broken and in need of restoration with whom He spend His time. Jesus did not spend a lot of time with those who were so proud that they thought they were better than others.

There is a principle here.

It is the broken, the one who says to God “I need you” that gets the privilege of living in God's family here on earth, right now, in the Church.

Those religious people who cry out how bad certain other people are, are the ones who are missing it.

It was true then, and it was true today.

I submit that anybody who is pointing their finger at another and crying out “morally impure” is part of the problem, not Jesus' solution.

However, I just did it myself.

But that is the thing, Jesus has called us to be agents with Him, on behalf of God almighty, to reconcile people to God and to each other.

And it is pretty simple when we see that.

But, it is a risk.

And this passage, in the prelude to the great calling to be those who reconcile the world to God and each other, is a call for us to do it without fear.

Fear gets in the way.

What are we afraid of?

Rejection?

Loss of Community with those with whom we contradict?

Loss of security here on this earth?

These may be some of the issues that keep us shrinking back from our calling.

There may be more, but in my experience, these seem to be the big three.

And this passage addresses them.

There is a command, a principle that we will do well to remember. Verse 7: “we walk by faith, not by sight.”

This addresses the fear of “loss of security.” It reminds me of something that my brother said to me when my eldest child was going through some major medical problems.

He had 17 surgeries on his right leg the whole time he was growing up with us. He actually graduated high school on his crutches. He spent significant portions of his childhood on crutches.

He has a congenital birth defect that is similar to a birthmark, but instead of being on the skin, it is in his right leg.

Up until 1986, doctors never successfully treated it.

He was in the first grade and the doctor, after consulting with Mayo Clinic, called me and informed me that his condition had never been successfully treated and it would most likely result in an amputation right below his right knee.

How do you tell a first grader that news?

I took him to the Muncie mall to get some ice cream.

Of course, he didn't understand. He just looked at me with those big eyes and told me that he trusted me and whatever I decided would be okay.

This was his leg we were dealing with.

We were sitting there, in the middle of winter and I noticed a rather handsome man walking with the energetic gait of a runner.

He was wearing short pants in the middle of winter.

And I noticed a terrycloth band right above his knee. It looked like a sweat band, but it was in an odd place.

As he got closer, and I was praying for help from God to comfort and inform my son, I began to realize that his right leg was a prosthetic from the base of his thigh downward.

Yet, one couldn't tell it easily.

He was normal, happy, and so comfortable with his condition that he was willing to display it.

I quickly called him over, told him privately that I was just then explaining to my son that we will most likely have to amputate his leg and could he offer words of encouragement to my son?

He did.

But I think God sent that man along for me.

He was living a normal, fulfilled, athletic life.

I honestly think that on that day, I actually met an angel, sent by God to comfort me and my son.

Here is the thing, No matter what happens, God is in control.

So, I mentioned my brother. He called me to comfort me and he said this to me: “What is the worse thing that could happen?”

I thought, well, he could die on the operating table.

But his answer was this, to me: “Nothing can happen that God will not take you through.”

And then I remembered the angel, God went the extra mile to comfort us. My son still has his leg and as it turns out, the experimental technique that we tried was being tried all over and with great success. Praise God.

I thought my security, and my sons, rested in my own strength and power.

But this scripture tells us that God is in control, even of eternity, and if we are looking for security, then look to heaven and our eternal reward.

I am not saying that we live lives for ourselves here on earth and get heaven on top of it.

I am quoting Jesus where He tells us to lay up treasure in heaven.

Security. We are told every day that we need more and if we have more, we will be secure.

I remember when I was a traveling salesman and a young Christian. I was listening to what was then the beginning of this movement of shock radio that was complaining about some sort of lack of freedom or something.

A lot of that, from both sides of the aisle is designed to get us afraid, not trusting in God, so that we get angry and move to their political positions.

I heard this younger woman talking about her finances. She said, my kids are still young and we already have over $200,000 saved for their college tuition. We have .5 million in our own retirement, but I am afraid that we do not have enough. I kept hearing her say “I am afraid...” And yet, compared to me, she was well off and had no reason to be afraid.

But people let fear grip them.

The Lord's prayer is simple in this regard: “Give us this day our daily bread...”

It is a commitment to trust God today and be satisfied.

But we want security. I want security.

I am not talking about being irresponsible with finances. Not at all. But we need to rest in God.

I mentioned two other things. Loss of community and the fear of rejection.

I remind myself of the introduction of verse 14: “we are ruled by the love of Christ.”

Ruled by love.

I like that principle.

We are not ruled by fear.

I have a friend in a Church near London. It is in a neighborhood similar to Brooklyn.

There are gangs in his neighborhood. I asked him if he excluded gang members from his outreach ministry. He responded “the only people we exclude are those who exclude themselves.”

It took me a while to unwrap his statement until he explained it like this.

If a kid comes to youth group and chooses to act out outside of participation in the group, in a way that is disruptive, then that child has excluded himself and when he is ready to join the community, he is welcome back.

Some people exclude themselves. The Pharisees who didn't like Jesus because Jesus is a “friend to sinners” excluded themselves from the family of God by applying rules to who was in and who was out that were contrary to Jesus' teaching.

Let us not do the same.

There may be a loss of community. To take a third way, Christ's way, around the hot button issues of today: politics, homosexuality, racism, feminism, war, urban justice, economic justice and the like is not going to win popularity contests with either political party.

For example, with homosexuality, it has become a political issue wrapped up in a pseudo-Christian issue. But I am not willing to stoop to the level of letting the kingdoms of mankind decide for me. I am going to look at the gospels, look at what Jesus taught, read the epistles and interpret them in light of the teachings of Jesus, instead of Jesus in light of the teachings of Paul, and right there, possibly alienate a big portion of popular theology.

But sometimes, popular theology gets most of its strength from anger and emotions, like it is today and it gets mixed in with another hot button, our Patriotism and all of a sudden, neither side represents Jesus anymore.

But we never exclude anyone except those who, like the Pharisees choose, to separate themselves from us.

For me, I will never take a stand against any group of people, I will always take a stand for Jesus. Never against. Always FOR!