**Each Friday Preaching Truth looks at some aspect of preaching, inviting pastors and scholars to submit articles. Today’s “Preaching Post Fridays” feature is authored by Matt Fowler, senior pastor of Union Missionary Baptist Church in Marion, Kentucky.

Matt graduated from Clear Creek Baptist College and is an MDiv student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Matt is also a friend and the two of us have enjoyed a number of coffee chats. You can follow Matt on Twitter. **

Overcoming A Spirit Of Fear

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” -2 Timothy 1:7

I didn’t develop a terror of public speaking until the seventh grade when my teacher required me to give an oral presentation on a book that I had read. When the moment came to speak, I was absolutely paralyzed with fear. I remember my teacher having to pull me aside to try to encourage me to go on. From that moment on, I did everything in my power to avoid public speaking. I faked sickness at least a few times to dodge having to get in front of people. Whenever I was elected by my classmates for something, I refused. As soon as I received a class syllabi I searched for the dreaded words “Oral Presentation” and then began conspiring about how I would avoid it.

This particular fear kept me from many things while I was growing up. It overshadowed me like a dark cloud. I couldn’t shake it or grow out of it. This is why it was confounding when I sensed a call into ministry that I likewise couldn’t shake. One Sunday while I was a Junior in High School, my pastor preached an expository sermon out of 2 Timothy on a call to ministry that changed the trajectory of my life. The experience was similar in power to my own conversion. I responded to the message by walking forward to the Pastor and asking for prayer concerning God’s clear voice that I was supposed to be in ministry.

Even after this call, my fear of public speaking remained. I entered Boyce College to begin my training for ministry and was immediately required to give an oral presentation. My first one was such a debacle that I had another student pat me on the back and say something along the lines of “it will be okay fella.” I accompanied an incredibly gifted college student to the local Salvation Army to preach on Fridays and was once asked to preach for him. After I mumbled through a few notes and finished, a homeless man asked my friend while laughing if I would even be allowed to go home with him. 

I kept asking the question “Why had God so clearly called me to something that seemed so physically impossible for me?” When I say physically impossible, I am speaking literally. My body would shake. My throat would close up. I would feel immensely sick at my stomach. How could someone so incapable ever be used in any ministry capacity? 

The turning point came after multiple times of going forward with an opportunity in faith. I couldn’t escape God’s clear call. I believed that at some point while stepping up to the pulpit in faith, God would come through to override my debilitating fear. Eventually, He did. Eventually, my fear no longer caused me to make an absolute fool of myself. Eventually, even the nervousness was channelled in a way that actually aided me in my preaching. In the process I was humbled. In the process I learned to trust God for the impossible. In the process I became a man that God could use.

Now for thirteen years I have been in ministry that has required me to regularly preach and teach in public. I still get nervous and plead with the Lord before every opportunity, but I have learned to trust Him. I still pray “God, go with me or I will fail. I know what it’s like without Your help and I now know what it’s like with Your help. Go with me.”

There are two types of people that I hope to exhort with this blogpost. First, is the individual (probably young) who is struggling to push through his own fear to fulfill God’s calling. For you, dependency is obvious, but incredibly hard. You know you need help, but trusting on God to come through when you are choosing to accept an opportunity or actually step up to the pulpit is the hard part. Brother, if God has called you and you are not disqualified in any biblical sense, take the next opportunity. Wait on God. Plead with Him to come through for you. You may have to endure quite a few embarrassing attempts, but even in that God is sovereignly at work. It is necessary for your good. Mount the pulpit trusting in His sovereign goodness. God will not hold back what you desire indefinitely. 

Second, is the individual who is no longer experiencing debilitating fear. You may be naturally comfortable in front of people or have gone through your own struggle with fear and come out on the other side. Either way, there is a dangerous temptation for you to no longer depend entirely on the Lord; to prayerlessly mount the pulpit in your own strength. Even if things seem to go well, this dishonors the Lord. The pattern of self-lean will reap a legion of other sins. The Bible warns us repeatedly of this (Psalm 118:8; 2 Chronicles 26:16). Even if you don’t sense your weakness, you are weak without Him. Force yourself to plead with God for His grace, and strength, and unction in the pulpit. Don’t go up without Him.

In Deuteronomy 31:7-8, Moses summoned Joshua to fulfill his calling. Joshua had received a calling that required immense strength and courage. Moses’ pointed him to having faith in the faithfulness of God “who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you” (v.8). The Apostle Paul does the same thing with Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:3-14, but with a broader stroke to encourage him:

• Paul himself was tirelessly praying for Timothy (v.3).
• Timothy had a heritage of sincere faith that also dwelled in him (v.5).
• God had gifted him to fulfill his calling, but it needed to grow through use (v.6)
• He had received the divine blessing of ordination by God-called men (v.6).
• God had given him “a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (v.7).
• Jesus was worthy of facing all difficulties (vv.8-12).
• He had witnessed Holy Spirit filled men worthy to imitate (vv.13-14)

Brothers, overcome your spirit of fear by faith and dependency upon the faithfulness of God and never outgrow it!