(Living In Love VS Living in Fear)
Notes
Transcript
intro:
intro:
I’m gonna ask a pretty personal question and it doesn’t have to be that deep but what’s a moment that you remember being scared?
This could be a childhood memory, high school, memory or recent memory
What’s the time that you were afraid or scared anxious that’s appropriate to share?
How many of us were scared of the dark when we were kids?
How many of us were scared of showing up to the Halloween party and being the only one in costume? PAUSE… Or that might’ve been just me LOL
The point is all of us have had fear… And all of us still have fear
Last week we discussed love, and we are continuing that discussion
We talked about how our love For God is generated from his love for us…And our love for others is generated from God’s love for us as well
In the passage, tonight we’re continuing looking at this idea of love
And a new element that we will see is verse 18 talking about love and fear…
Church camp Story:
Church camp Story:
Consistently go to camp
Had baseball one year kept saying goodbye
Became afraid…
Church camp conclusion:
Church camp conclusion:
Ultimately, I operated out of a place of fear
Rather than knowing that, my mother loved me and knowing that she wouldn’t put me in danger and she wouldn’t abandon me
I became afraid and instead of operating in love operated in fear
And my mom made me suck it up she prayed for me, drop me off and left
About three hours later, I wasn’t even thinking about it…
Today we’re looking at whether we abide in love or abide in fear…
But let’s open up our text…
Text:
Text:
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Prayer:
Prayer:
As an overview, what do you see in the text?
What verses stand out to you?
What are some thoughts or comments that you have?
Maybe what are some of the themes that we see through the text?
The key Word in versus 13 through 16 is abide… What does the word abide mean?
In the Greek, the word abide means to remain, to stay, to dwell…
Where else can we see it in scripture?
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
In this passage, Jesus is stressing the reality that we must abide in him… We must remain in him the same way that a branch separated from the vine can’t live
Us separated from Christ cannot live…
And the reality is that all of us begin separated from God because of sin
But when we repent and believe we are grafted in to the vine
And we begin to abide… Now with that perspective, let’s look verse 13 through 16
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
We’ve seen this stated previously, but a sign,A indicator that we are abiding in Christ is that we have the Holy Spirit
And what this means is that we have an active in dwelling of God’s spirit
So what do you think it means that he has given us his spirit?
This is a A repeated statement
24…And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
And what this means is, we have the seal of the Holy Spirit
And the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin
He guides us towards righteousness
The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the spirit
Love,Joy,Peace,Patience,Kindness,Goodness,Faithfulness, gentleness,And self control
We begin to see These spiritual fruits, these spiritual traits that don’t come natural to us, we see them become natural…
And the Holy Spirit leads and guides our relationship with Jesus
So we know that we are by based on the seal of the Holy Spirit…
And having our eyes opened to truth because of the spirit, we recognize Jesus as our savior
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
We confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior
We recognize that God sent his son to die on a cross for our sense
And inverse 15 and 16 we continue
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
What do you think this means?
What do you see in verses 15 and 16?
What does it mean to confess Jesus?
What does it mean to believe in the love that God has for us?
What does it mean that God is love?
What does it mean to abide in love and abide in God?
What does it mean for God to abide in us?
Do we abide in the love of Christ???
Why is all of this important?
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
So now we see a distinction between love and fear
What do you think John is saying?
What does he mean saying there is no fear in love???
And how do we reconcile With versus like Proverbs 1:7?
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
What’s the distinction between there being no fear and love and we are supposed to fear God??
When I think about my parents, my father, my mother I know that they love me
I know that no matter what happens in my life, they will be there for me regardless of whether I screw up or do well they will love me no matter what…
But I also have a healthy respect, a healthy fear with my parents; I want to please them I want to do well, I want my life to glorify their sacrifice for me to be Where I’m at today…
But the reality is, I’m not afraid of my parents changing their mind about their love for me
I’m not afraid of my parents all of a sudden deciding that I’m not worth loving because there is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear…
Now are my parents perfect to know… But God is
The love Christ has for each, and every one of us is so deep and so powerful that it will never change
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
If we abide in love, we do not abide in fear
If I abide in the love of Christ, I do not live in fear that God will change his mind about me that I’m not doing good enough
But I live rooted and grounded in his love for me
Knowing that apart from Christ, I am nothing
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Our salvation and our love for Christ and our love from Christ
Is based in who he is… It’s based in his own character…
Not based in our response, not based in our selves, but based on who he is
We love because he first loved us… Which takes us to verse 19
19 We love because he first loved us.
We love out of the love that Jesus provides to us
In the book of James, he says to draw near to God and he will draw near to us
Will we draw Near to God?
Do we draw near to God?
What does it mean to draw near to God?
Because if we do not operate and abide in the love of Christ… According to John , we can do nothing
I can’t love out of my own cup of love because I’m conditional
But God’s love is unconditional
And the love we are supposed to have for one another is unconditional.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
And this is where the rubber meets the road
If we can’t love the people around us who we can see how can we claim to love God who we cannot see?
What are ways that we can choose to love?
What are ways individually that we need to love?
What are ways collectively we need to love
Do you love?
Do you Abide?
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
We won’t be perfect… But we should be progressive… Day by day, we should improve in our love for God and love for each other
Because day by day, we should understand God’s love for us more and more
And that love should flow into everything we do
Everything we believe and everything we say
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
will we do this? or are we not in Him…
