What are you full of?
6/30/2011 12:05:01 PM
II Timothy 1:3-7 says, “3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (fear), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
Paul is writing here to a young emerging leader in the life of the church. By the end of this brief letter, we hear Paul admitting that for his part the fight is coming to an end, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He is here charging Timothy to take up the mantle of leadership that God has placed upon him: “I charge you: preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction…keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”
How? Timothy, might have asked. “Not you,” Paul answers in advance of the question, “but by God’s Spirit that fills you.”
Look at the words of these few verses:
“I thank God, … as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” These are the words of a man who is full of thanks and full of prayer.
By point of comparison, what are we full of? Are we grateful and prayerful like Paul?
Here is a man who is filled with longing to be with other disciples in anticipation of being filled with joy. “I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.”
Are we filled with that kind of longing to be with fellow believers, expecting that through them we will be mutually encouraged, edified and blessed? Does it genuinely fill us with joy to be with the people of Christ in the world today?
Paul then acknowledges that Timothy is full of faith – a living, active faith that fills his family: “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
Are we full of the kind of faith that Paul talks about here? Are we full of a faith that lives and affects our families, our communities, the world?
And then we arrive at the statement about being filled with the Spirit of God. Paul reminds Timothy that God has not filled him with a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and love and a steadfast mind.
Do we acknowledge that we are in receipt of those gifts? Do we live as if we are full of fear or full of power? Do we demonstrate to others that we have received a spirit of love and a mind that is set, not on the things of this world, but on Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom?
Friends, today the question is this: Just what are we full of?
I heard one woman say in a stage whisper behind the back of another, “She’s so full of herself.” To which the accused wheeled around and venomously replied, “Well, at least I’m not full of what you’re full of!”
We laugh, — but then we sober up to realize that the same condemnation could be made on occasion of us.
What are we full of?
Consider a simple sponge. A sponge absorbs whatever it is immersed in.
· So, if you are immersed in truth, you will be truth full.
· If you are immersed in prayer, you will become prayer full.
· If you are immersed in grace you will become grace full.
· Likewise, if you immerse yourself in profanity, you will be full of lies or hate.
· If you immerse yourself in pornography, you will be full of lust or shame.
· If you immerse yourself in possessions, you will be full of pride or greed.
Indeed, where your mind is, wherever you invest yourself, there too your heart will be also.
“Well,” we shirk, “I’m a whole lot more truthful than most people, and a whole lot more generous and loving and thankful to God.”
Here’s the problem with that way of thinking, the standard of comparison is not “other people,” the standard of comparison is Jesus Christ. When measured against him, how faith full am I? When measured against Jesus, how truth full am I? How full of love? How full of myself?
Jesus was described by John as being full of grace and truth. And in Colossians we learn that God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Jesus. Imagine that – that we would be full with the very fullness of God (Eph 3:19)! Friends, if we full with the very fullness of God there is no room in us left to be full of anything else!
That is precisely the hope that Paul sets before the Christians of Ephesus. Paul tells them that the church of Jesus Christ is to be the very fullness of him who fills everything in every way (Eph 1:22-23) and that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are actually given to the church for the purpose of bringing Christians to maturity – which is described as “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:12-14)
The fullness of Christ. How do we measure up to that?
Let’s just take one attribute of Christ and try it on for size. John said that Jesus was full of truth. So, are you truthful? Really? Full of truth? Fully full or just partially full? Have you left any room in your life for half-truths? Jesus was full to the brim with truth – being full of truth leaves no room for lies and therefore no room for the Father of Lies.
See how this works?
Let’s try faith. Are you faithful? Really? Full of faith? Fully full or just enough to get by? A believer who is genuinely full of faith has no room in their life for fear because faith in the One who is Love casts out fear – it is banished – gone – and it is replaced by the peace which passes understanding and a knowledge of the secret of being content in all circumstances. So, with that standard in mind, are you full of faith? Jesus was.
Each attribute is worth examining.
Are you mindful and thoughtful or are you forgetful and doubtful of the mercies of God?
What are you really full of?
I made a little chart for you to use in reflecting on your own or with another believer following this sermon. I invite you to carefully consider the list and add to it!
Ask yourself honestly, “what am I full of?”
Don’t know? Let’s return to the sponge.
As we have already established, like a sponge, your life will become saturated with whatever you immerse it in. That is the inward reality. And just like a sponge, when it is squeezed, when pressure is applied, what’s on the inside, pours out.
So, what comes out of your mouth and out of our spirit and out of you when the pressure rises? (pause) That, my friend, is what you’re really full of.
When you receive bad news, when things don’t go your way, when someone around you makes a mistake, when someone falls short of your expectations, when you are inconvenienced, pushed around, pushed aside or even physically pushed – how do you respond?
The command to show second mile love tells us that we should go the extra mile carrying a burden that is not our own, offer our coat to the thief who is already stealing the shirt off our back, and turn the other cheek to be slapped by the one who already degraded us. Ha!
I d
on’t know about you, but I do not always respond as Christ would respond. I continue to be at least partially full of myself and full of the ways of the world in which my life is immersed. I have to be intentional about immersing my life in the Word of God in order that I might be filled to the fullness of the measure of Christ. I must invite the Holy Spirit to empty me and then fill me anew in order that might life might pour forth in thanksgiving to God and bear reliable witness to Jesus Christ.
So, how do we get from where we are to the goal of being filled to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ?
First we have to be emptied. The influences of the world need to be squeezed out. We have immersed ourselves for so long in the ways of the world that the Way of Christ now seems foreign to us.
When Paul writes these words to Timothy he is being an encouragement but he is also calling Timothy out of the wings and onto center stage. No more hiding behind your grandmother’s apron, no more relying on the faith of your faithful mother, no more waiting for me to come to you – Timothy, now is your time. Paul is coming to the end of life and calling Timothy to live into the reality of his calling – a calling for which God has equipped him by His Spirit. God has given you His Spirit – His Spirit of dunamis – POWER; His Spirit of agape – LOVE; His Spirit of a sophronismu – RIGHT AND RIGHTEOUS THINKING.
By the power of God’s Spirit the Church has been equipped to live out and live into and live up to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We can love the Lord our God with our heart, all our mind and all our strength, because God has given us a Spirit of love, a spirit of clear and sober thinking, and a spirit of power. If we are genuinely full of God’s Spirit, there is nothing in the world that stand in the way of the advancement of God’s Kingdom purposes through His empowered people.
Friends, if you recognize that you’ve been immersed in the world and you are living a life that is full of lies, full of worry, full of envy, full of fear, full of spite, full of blame, full of lust, full of remorse, full of wrong – then invite the Holy Spirit to squeeze you dry and then fill you with the living water offered by Jesus Christ. He will fill you with life and grace and truth and power and faith and hope and joy – and when you get pressed and pressured by the realities of this fallen world, you will pour forth in inexplicable peace, contentment and thanksgiving – and people will pause and wonder and watch and hope – just as they did with Jesus – who was filled with the very fullness of God and in him God was pleased to dwell. May we be found so faith FULL. Amen.