Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.29.20 1 John 4:12-5:5 Pastor Nathan Anderson

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1.29.20 1 John 4:12-5:5 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  In 1 John chapter 4, we're going to be covering verses 12 through chapter 5, verse 5. This is really the last section. Last week we started off with 7 through 11, looking at God is love, God is the definition of love, God is the source of love. This week we're going to be covering these verses.
• 0:22
  And normally I start off every week with a recap. I'm not going to do that this week. We're going to leave the recap for the end of the book at this point. I was talking with Bob a little bit tonight about the fact that we've done a recap every single week. One of the reasons for that is because...
• 0:38
  1 John is one of those books, and as you get into the detail of it, it's easy to get lost and forget what the big picture is. Because there are statements in 1 John that can seem confusing if you lose the purpose and the theme. So every week we've been talking about where we've been, so we remind ourselves of where we're going and what he's talking about. This week we are not going to do that. I think we've established a pretty good trend at this point. We kind of know as we come to the end of the book what the book is about, hopefully. So, as I said, we will do...
• 1:07
  the recap of the entire epistle as we close out the letter in a couple weeks. As we get ourselves ready for this study though, and as I read through this passage this week, I was struck by two particular words. Two words really stuck out to me and that is love and fear. In verses 12 through chapter...
• 1:31
  5 verse 5, love and fear really stand out. These two words have so much packed into them as I think about them and how they connect deeply with each one of us in the community, in the world in which we live. These words truly, if we think about them, these words really define cultures. They define relationships. They define families. They define churches. They define communities.
• 2:01
  How we define love and believe love is lived out will shape all of these areas of our lives. What elicits fear in us, in our communities, in our churches, and our families will often shape how and what we take action on. Fear is often a driving force in what creates action in us and the communities in the world around us. Does it not?
• 2:31
  We see that often in the news. We don't see things in the news that elicits love necessarily. We see things in the news that elicits fear in us, which causes action, activity. How we define these two things will shape much of our focus and our view. How we live is most often an outworking to what we believe and think about these two words, fear.
• 3:01
  And love. And in the discussion on love and fear, I thought I'd share some thoughts from famous people on this topic. And I'd like us to kind of digest these as we go through them. You'll recognize, I think, all of these names. If you don't, that's okay. Some of us, I can explain where they come from, but I think you guys will recognize all the names. The first one is from Ronda Rousey.
• 3:32
  Rhonda Rousey, the female UFC, she was the champion for a number of years in the female ultimate fighting competition. She said, of fear, she said, people say to me all the time, you have no fear. I tell them, no, that's not true. I'm scared all the time. You have to have fear in order to have courage.
• 4:01
  I'm a courageous person because I'm a scared person. She believes that fear is a motivating factor in her life that allows her to move forward. Michael Jordan says, never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
• 4:28
  word I think reflects much of what Michael Jordan believes in his belief system. It's just an illusion. He is very keen on Eastern religions and stuff and allows that to define how he views these things. Muhammad Ali, he who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. And finally, my favorite.
• 4:52
  Adam, you'll probably, both Adams will probably recognize this. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Yoda. Lots of thoughts on fear, on being courageous, on stepping outside of our comfort zones that come from the world. Then next on some thoughts on love. Lucille Ball.
• 5:24
  Of I Love Lucy. That is not what my daughter is named after, if you're all wondering. Lucille Ball says of love, love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.
• 5:50
  Again, I'm pretty terrible with pronunciation of weird names, but Fyodor Dostoevsky, he says, What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love. Paul McCartney says, And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
• 6:21
  Woody Allen of love says, the heart wants what it wants. There's no logic to these things. You meet someone and you fall in love. Marilyn Monroe, she had actually quite a few quotes that were very interesting. But one of them was, a wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she's left.
• 6:53
  Sylvester Stallone says, Based on these definitions and thoughts on these two words, there is...
• 7:20
  actually a vast difference in how people view these two words, isn't there not? There's a huge array of how somebody would define and live out what they think about love and how they react and respond, interact with fear. We do see that people consider these things, though. For these famous people to have spoken on them, they find them important enough to consider.
• 7:48
  You know, ask someone what they are passionate about and many will stumble. If you ask somebody, what are you the most passionate about? They probably will struggle to give you an answer. Ask someone what they love and they'll tell you. Ask someone when they have been courageous and they'll probably hesitate. They won't necessarily have an example right away. Ask someone when they felt fearful and they will most likely be able to respond immediately.
• 8:22
  These two words have huge impact in everybody's life, in the world we live in. And I believe that what we will see tonight is that an understanding that tonight is that understanding love and fear are paramount in the life for everybody, everyone, everywhere.
• 8:45
  We all, believer or non-believer, are seeking to understand and unpack these words, what they mean to us, and often defining them and seeking to understand them based on our own experiences. You can see from that quote from Marilyn Monroe that there was certainly hurt in her past, right? You don't say something about love as she did without having your guard up because you have been hurt. That hurt defined.
• 9:18
  created a definition of love. It affected her and clouded her thoughts on what was possible in love. Our key verse for this section is going to be verse 18 of chapter 4. Verse 18 of chapter 4 says, 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.
• 9:49
  In love. With this verse and these quotes and discussion as our backdrop, let's read our passage for tonight. We'll pray and begin. Verse 12 of chapter 4 says, No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit.
• 10:21
  And we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. 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 by this.
• 10:49
  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. 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. We love because he first loved us.
• 11:18
  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 commandment we have from him. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of God.
• 11:48
  By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes?
• 12:18
  that Jesus is the Son of God. Father, we pray, Lord, that you would direct our hearts, direct our minds, Lord, tonight. Give us attentive spirits, Lord, to your truth. God, each one of us in our life, we're honest with you and with each other, has at times come up with our own definition of love.
• 12:54
  based on our experience. God, we've come up with reasons not to act in love because of fear. God, tonight I pray that we would rest, we would soak in the truth that you have given us in your word that you desire for us to hear tonight. God, that as in your word it says, fear might be cast away because we have your perfect love in us. Guide us tonight. Guide my words.
• 13:28
  May this cause an action of love in us, a reactive action in us. I pray these things in your name. Amen. Well, a few years ago, my brother turned 40 years old. It was devised for his 40th birthday to surprise him with skydiving.
• 13:55
  It was also decided that a group of his friends were going to go with him for this experience, of which I was one of them. If you've never been, it's a very unique experience from start to finish. From the moment you pay till the moment you jump out of the plane, you are very keenly aware of what you are doing. They do not withhold information from you throughout this entire experience. From the pictures on the walls to the waivers upon waivers,
• 14:25
  Upon waivers that you sign. You even have to get on a scale. They ask you when you sign up. You have to get on a scale. You say okay. On the paper you say okay I'm 175. And they say we don't believe you. And then they have you get on a scale. A digital scale. And it tells you you're 185. And they're like yeah you're 185. So we're going to stick you with this short dude. Who weighs about 125 pounds. Because they actually have a weight ratio. That they have to meet. So that you don't come crashing down too fast. So they went.
• 14:56
  accurate information and they want to pair you with the right person. Each step as you watch videos of people jumping from planes and then you go out to the hangar and get your jumpsuit on and there's a briefing. You've watched a movie of all of this and then they take you out to the hangar and there's a briefing about the briefing, about the waivers that you signed. And in the briefing they're not
• 15:27
  trying to scare you but they're really trying to scare you like you're going to jump out of a plane are you ready for that like they're really trying to make sure you know what's going to happen and while they're talking to you they're very actually very attentive to your eyes they're looking at your eyes and they can tell a lot by your eyes your eyes say whether you are okay or not based on your eyes they know where you are on the fear scale as you prepare
• 15:58
  And I, for some reason, must have covered my fear very well because my guy, as we're going through the briefing, whispered to me and he said, hey, do you want to do a flip when we go out of the plane? And I didn't want to let on that I was freaked out. And so I said, yeah, of course I do.
• 16:27
  He's like, all right. So they're finishing the briefing, and he's telling me how we're going to jump out of this thing. He's like, all right, so we're going to do two rotations, and then you go straight. And you go straight, and then we'll stop the rotation, and then we'll fall for a while. Two rotations and straight. Okay. The gripping fear you could see on some of the guys' faces was really incredible. After they gave the final instructions,
• 16:56
  They give you this waiting period. I think they say it's because the plane isn't there, but I think it's for you to really let it like finally completely soak in because they don't want to take you up in the plane and then bring you back down in the plane. So they want you to jump out of the plane when you get up there. So they give you some time to really let this soak in. And then next you board and it's one of the smallest planes I've ever been on.
• 17:28
  It's a metal plane. It didn't look too terribly healthy to me. You sit basically in the lap of the guy. In order to go for the first ones, you have to jump tandem. And so you basically sit in the lap of the guy that you're going to jump with because you're almost literally attached at the hip. So they do a little bit of slack so you're actually sitting on the bench. But then when it's time, they cinch you up and you're in their gut.
• 17:59
  And so we're getting up there, and he said, okay, sit up. I'm going to cinch you down. So we cinch down, and we start scooching forward, and door opens. Guy goes out first, and I mean, like, they just disappear. Like, they're there, and then they just fall out, and they're gone. And so it's our turn. I think we were, like, I think we were second in line, and as we scooch forward, he's like, all right, you remember, like, two rotations.
• 18:26
  Straight. Yeah, yeah, got it. Okay, do the rotation straight. We go out. And as we get up there, he's like, hey, do you want to pull the cord? I was like, yeah, I want to pull the cord. Of course. Who wouldn't want to pull the cord? And so he says, okay. He shows me his watch. He puts his watch in front of me. Like, I can't, you know, he's back here. I can't see him. He's super short. So his head's like in my back and small in my back. And he's like, okay, see that? He's like.
• 18:57
  I'm going to put that in front of you. He's got a fancy altimeter watch or whatever that flashes if you're going to die. And he just says, when that goes in front of you, you know it's time to pull the cord. He said, because it's going to be so loud, you're not going to be able to hear anything. We're not going to be able to talk to each other until you pull the cord. And so when I put that in front of you, you know it's time. Okay.
• 19:21
  Get to the edge. You're basically like sitting on the edge, right? And then you just kind of fall out. And we do two rolls straight, okay? And he's not joking. It is crazy loud. It's like the loudest thing I've ever heard in my life. You cannot hear even yourself think that just the wind. And it's so strong. Like you've got the goggles, but the goggles like fly out. And then you can't see them because the wind is coming underneath your goggles.
• 19:49
  And we're falling. We're still falling. And then, so my brother had paid, since it was his 40th birthday, he pays for this guy to jump out, that you can pay to have somebody jump out of a plane with a video camera and video you. And we're falling, and then all of a sudden, this guy just shoots by us. And I'm like, is that guy okay? He just fell really fast.
• 20:19
  And then his chute opens, and then the guy's hand comes out, pull the chute, pull the chute, and what was one of the more unnerving and loud experiences of my life, all of a sudden, it's quiet. I've been out in the woods by myself. This was quieter than that. This was the quietest it has ever been. It's surreal.
• 20:54
  And as that chute opens and as it catches you and we're sitting there, one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen, clear. I could see the mountains, looked at what looked like the entire state of Colorado. I mean, it was just clear forever. As that chute caught me, I went from fear and apprehension to this surreal feeling of awe as I looked out over all.
• 21:26
  these things. And in that moment, when that chute opened and I was safe and all the fear and worry of what was going to happen was taken away, it left me because I knew I was safe. All that fear that had been building up, all that apprehension about what I was doing, suddenly that chute opened and I knew I was safe. I knew everything was going to be okay.
• 21:51
  Tonight, as we look at our verses and especially consider what verse 18 means in context of all of this, and really of the entire book of 1 John, I believe we will see that the perfect love of God expressed through His Son Christ removes all fear because we know that we are safe. That the chute opened and we're saved. This can and does.
• 22:21
  Give the believer confidence. As you hold this picture in your mind, let me give you a basic outline for tonight. We're going to be doing three sections. First one is 12 through 16, abiding, confessing love, verses 12 through 16, which leads to confident love, which causes action.
• 22:49
  Confident love, which causes action, 17 through 5, 3. And from action comes victory, chapter 5, verses 4 through 5. That's our outline, abiding, confessing love, confident love, which causes action, and from action comes victory.
• 23:06
  So our first thing we're going to look at is abiding, confessing love in verses 12 through 16. Something I noticed as I read through this is in verses 12 and 20, they both make reference to this reality that no one has seen God. He says in the first statement of verse 12, no one has ever seen God.
• 23:28
  We see in the Old Testament that when Moses is up on Mount Sinai communing with God, God tells him to hide in the cleft of the rock because no one can see God. He says, no one can gaze on my glory. Paul says the same thing in 1 Timothy 6, verse 16. God who dwells in an approachable light whom no one has seen or can see. Now as we've talked about just about every week in this class, John desires to instill in the believer confidence.
• 23:59
  Hope, so that action born from this confidence and conceived in love would enable each believer to be confident. But when we read those first words of verse 12, it seems like a bit of a downer. No one's ever seen God, he says. You've never seen him.
• 24:23
  But John goes on and says, if we love one another, God abides in us. In so doing, John draws our attention, I believe, to the good news of the gospel once more. The God whom no one has seen or can see, this holy and righteous God, who just by passing by Moses on Mount Sinai caused Moses' face to shine so bright he frightened the Israelites when he came down.
• 24:56
  That God, that righteous and holy God abides in us. This is the God who lives in you and I, who abides in you and I as you and I love. John adds that we know this is true because he has given us his spirit. No one has seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us.
• 25:27
  His Spirit. John follows up the statement of we know and that we abide the truth that we now have the God, the holy and righteous God living in us. He follows this up with a statement of the Spirit living in us and through us by the love given to us and to this simple statement and fact that Christ came to save the world. He follows up the fact that we
• 26:00
  Have never seen God, yet we have God living in us. We know this by the Spirit. And then he says in verse 14, And we have seen and testify the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us. We know this by his Spirit, and God sent his Son into the world.
• 26:24
  There's a building argument here, and I think Colossians 1.15 kind of helps us to understand where John is going here. Colossians 1.15 says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Connecting then this statement from Paul with John's statement, no one has seen God, but God did show us what his love looks like.
• 26:49
  God defined and lived out His love in His Son, Christ Jesus. So although no one has seen or can see God, we can show people what His love looks like. It looks like Jesus Christ living in and through me and you. By this truth, God is love, and we who walk and abide in His love are showing Christ to those who need Him, Christians and non-Christians.
• 27:25
  We not only show and live out his love, but we confess, we tell people. We live it, but we also confess it. We speak about it, we tell about it. Verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. We not only show and live out his love, but we confess it, tell people. Because God has not only said something to us, God has said something to us in his word, right?
• 27:59
  but he has also done something for us. And because he has said something and done something, it leads to him doing something with us. God tells us he loves us. Then he showed us he loved us. And because he showed us that, and we've experienced that, we now act, we now do. We are, brothers and sisters, participants in this.
• 28:31
  It's one thing to say that you've been to the hangar. It's a whole other thing to say you've jumped out of the plane. As we jump out of the plane, live, love, and confess Christ. His love is perfected with us. Verse 17, by this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence.
• 28:58
  His love is perfected in us so that we may have confidence. There is not fear in love because perfect love casts out fear. Let me walk us through the incredible blessing of this truth of the perfected and abiding love of God in the life of the believer. Let's go all the way back to the beginning. If you read the book of Genesis, when you read about God's relationship with man, it's always referenced. The men who really knew God, it says,
• 29:28
  of Enoch, of Abraham, of Noah, they what? They walked with God, right? Then in the time of Israel, God lived among the people. He dwelled in tents. He tabernacled among the people. But as the people sinned, God dwelling among them or tabernacling among them was an off and on thing.
• 29:56
  The spirit came and went. This nation sinned and God's glory departed. The first instance of this is in 1 Samuel 4, 21. This happens over and over again. God comes and dwells among them. Then we have John 1, 14. The word became flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among us. That word, the Lord, was crucified, nailed to the cross.
• 30:30
  But this was all part of God's incredible plan that he might live in the believer, dwell in, tabernacle in us. Christ rises from the dead, ascends into heaven. Before he leaves, he says, I will ask the Father and he will send you a helper to be with you forever. John 14, 16. In these...
• 30:58
  verses 12 through 16, John uses the word abide or dwell six times. He tells us that no one conceived God, but that because of the love we have trusted in, which was expressed through Christ's death and resurrection, we can live out this love, abiding, dwelling love in our lives, and we can help people see the love of the Lord because now the Spirit of God dwells in us.
• 31:26
  1 Corinthians, I think, 1619 says, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Lord? Throughout history, God has been building to this final act of giving us access, giving us an opportunity to commune with him in such a personal way that he comes and indwells us. He comes and indwells us. As we experience and live out this love, as we abide in this love, it causes action in us.
• 32:05
  Causes confidence in us. Why are we commanded to love, to abide in love, to love our enemies? I think, and I think 1 John bears this out, God is really interested in contrast. Contrast creates questions. Questions which are only answered in the gospel.
• 32:39
  We're called to love our enemies. Warren Wiersbe has a quote that I like. He says, One reason God permits the world to hate Christians is so that Christians may return love for the world's hate. Contrast. We've experienced God's love in our life, and we can share that love.
• 32:59
  And as we do, it creates contrast. Those who do not know the Father, as we saw, are desperately, as we looked at those quotes, as you look at the definition of love, we can see people are desperately seeking love to understand it, to define it by their own experiences. As we live the gospel, the love we have experienced, the truth, the source of the love, right? We looked at that last week. God is the source, the definition of love. As we live out our lives,
• 33:28
  In recognition of the love that we have received, we have opportunity to share the good news with them, those who are seeking to figure out what love is, to define it by their experiences. We get to shift their focus onto a loving God who doesn't change from a world that is constantly in flux. But, I think it's true, we will only do that, we will only share with them, live it, if we are confident. If we have confidence.
• 34:00
  As we live out this abiding and confessing love, I believe it leads to confidence. Verses 17 through 5.3 speaks of this confident love, which I believe then creates action. It says, by this, 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 the world.
• 34:27
  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. God's love is proclaimed in the word of God and proved in the life and death of Christ. The life of a Christian who is abiding in God's love is powerful and potent because of this. Because we're living out of recognition of the love we have received. This is true because just as God's love is not simply a statement from God about man, but lived out, stamped in history through Christ.
• 34:59
  Christ is his love shouting out loud for all to come to him. The fact that his love is not simply a statement we read about, but we see lived out. This shows the truth. God is love, which John spoke about in verse 8. This statement is not just a profound biblical statement, but it is the entire basis of the Christian life and relationship with God in heaven.
• 35:33
  Thus, as this is experienced deeply within the believer, it breeds confidence in the believer, which then bursts forth in action. Warren Rearsby talks about a young couple who's getting ready to get married. And as they're getting ready to get married, the young man asked to see the wedding vows one more time before they go. And he reads them and he says, this just won't do. It doesn't say anything in there about her obeying me. And the wife graciously and gently holds his hand and says,
• 36:03
  It doesn't need to. It's stamped in the love on my heart. We cannot love others, love our neighbor, our coworker, our spouse, our kids, unless we first love the Father of whom is the source of love, as we discussed last week. At the same time, John makes reference to fear. Fear is real. Fear of failure, fear of death.
• 36:32
  Fear of loss, fear of punishment, fear creates anxiety and anxiety births anger, which is the opposite of love. If we are afraid, it is often because of something that haunts us in our past. Something in the present which has upset us or something in the future which is threatened. We fear these scenarios. When we consider the reality of fear and the statement of the fact that John...
• 37:00
  from John, that perfect love casts out fear. As you read that and you think about your life and how you feel, do you not feel a bit confused? Perhaps a little convicted when he says perfect love casts out fear and you're like, I actually am afraid a lot. I don't know about you guys, but I find myself facing fears constantly. So what gives? See, fear is actually the beginning of torment. We fear.
• 37:41
  And then we torment ourselves with that fear. We torment ourselves as we contemplate the lies we have chosen to believe, as we contemplate the unknown of a situation or relationship. The reality is if we can suffer on our way to the dentist, right? Fearing the unknown of what's going to happen as they jab us with all those pointy sticks. If we can fear about...
• 38:11
  relationships within the kingdom, if we can have fear over where is my relationship with my wife? How are my relationships with my kids? If we can have fear and tension over those things, how much more do you think the non-believer, those who do not have a hope, fear the end, the day of judgment? What kind of fear do you think they are living under every single day? What's going to happen next? I believe is a gripping question.
• 38:43
  on many. God wants his children to live in an atmosphere of love and confidence, not fear and torment. The boldness and confidence to combat the realities of this world and fear which comes from living in it is found in verse 17, I believe. The confidence to overcome fear and to live in love is found in 17. As you look at the end of 17, you might pass over this. It might be one of those little...
• 39:12
  snippets of a verse that you're like, what does that even mean? I don't understand that. Going on to the next thing. As he ends verse 17, he says, because as he is, who's the he? He is Christ. As he is, so also are we in this world. We are identified in Christ so closely that all the Father sees is his Son.
• 39:43
  This means that the father deals with us as he deals with his beloved son. And if he deals with us as he does with his beloved son, what do we have to fear? The expulsion of fear from us as we are filled with the truth of the fact that as he is, so also are we in this world. When we consider this, we are then spurred on as those who believe to obey him.
• 40:19
  John says as we have experienced love from the very source and definition of love, we will be enticed to respond in love back to him and to those around us. We will obey him and we will love those around us. From this abiding and confessing love comes action, loving our brothers and sisters and a world gripped in fear.
• 40:45
  And if we are as he is, we have no fear for the day of judgment. And if we have no fear for the day of judgment, then what do we have to fear in this life? And what a gift we can give to those who do not yet believe. From action. So confidence, which breeds action. From action comes victory. Verses 4 and 5 say, For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
• 41:22
  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The word overcome is one of those favorites of John. He uses it in chapter 2 of the first epistle of John, verses 13 and 14, where he talks about overcoming the devil. And he uses it many times in the book of Revelation to describe the believers and the blessings they will receive because they have overcome. But here, John...
• 41:48
  is not describing a special class of Christians who have overcome the trials and tribulations of the coming age. Rather, here John is using the word overcomer to describe the believer. Anyone who has placed their faith in Christ Jesus is an overcomer, John says. John says this is because we are born.
• 42:13
  of god and as he says that as he says and for everyone who has been born of god overcomes the world i can't help but think that he is referencing back to verse four of chapter four where he says he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world i think we see this connection as we read i'm sorry uh verse five is the one verse five is where he says he who overcomes the world he who is in the world let me start over
• 42:48
  His statement that we are overcomers because we are born of God certainly connects with verse 4 of chapter 4. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. We are overcomers because we have the one who is the greatest, the most powerful living in us. Now as I...
• 43:26
  referenced love and fear at the beginning, as I shared those quotes from those people who we all know well, as we realize the reality of our daily struggle with and the grip that fear can have on us, and as we read these words from John, that we who have been born of God overcome the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
• 44:02
  I don't want to trivialize all of this. We live in the real world. We see death, destruction, violence, victimization all the time. There are many things in this life which want to jump up and grab a hold of our love, our life, our hope, our joy, and strangle it right out of us.
• 44:31
  John does say that his commandments are not burdensome, but living out our faith in this world can be difficult, right? We do live in a world filled with our own sin and the sins of all of us, the entire world that is depraved. The discussion tonight is not meant to dilute the reality we all feel and experience each day.
• 45:00
  As we watch loved ones suffer and we say goodbye to those who meant so much to us, as relationships are fractured, jobs are lost, and harm is done, rather than dilute or minimize the reality of these experiences we all face daily, I want the reality of those things to come face to face with the reality of the power of God's love for us. As those two forces come crashing together, I believe that since we are born of God,
• 45:32
  our overcomers, and his love will cast out the fear we have so that we can jump out of the plane as we walk in love and response to him jumping out first. Those who do not yet know the love of Christ are seeking desperately defined love to get away from and escape their fears, to release themselves from the grips of fear, the pain of this world they experience, to make sense of it all. They want to know how to love,
• 46:09
  and they want to know, and they want to be loved. They need Jesus. They need a Christian who is abiding in the love of God to brush up against them and confess Christ to them. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I ask, even as times, words get lost and
• 46:43
  confused, Father. I pray that you would allow your word to come through clearly tonight. God, that, Father, that we really would abide in you. Father, that we would commune with you because we desperately need you. God, but more than that, as ones who are sealed until the day of redemption, God, we are sealed because your spirit lives in us. You cannot deny yourself.
• 47:16
  Father, more than just having an easy life, living a comfortable life, God, I pray that this love, this confidence would well up in us, Lord, that we can confess your love, live out your love to those who so desperately need it. God, we need Jesus every day, and we know him. How much more does a world who has not met him yet need him? Give us the confidence.
• 47:51
  Give us the words. Give us the life that is attractive. Lord, may we live our lives in recognition of what you have given us that others might see the contrast. Ask the questions and hear the gospel. Pray these things in your name. Amen.