Sermon Transcript
Let’s get right down to it. We all have fears.
We are all capable of hating from time to time. And at points, we struggle with doubt. Fears, hate, and doubt. That’s where we’re going this morning. Sometimes when you present material, you want to start with a story or a joke.
Kind of warm people up. And other times you just want to slap people awake and get going. So slap is the option that I have chosen this morning. Fear, hate, and doubt. Yoda says, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to The dark side, very good.
We don’t— maybe we don’t read our Bibles, but at least we watch Star Wars, right?
When Yoda picks up Luke’s X-wing with the Force, Luke says, I don’t believe it, indicating he has doubt, and Yoda tells him, that is why you fail. Your doubts are why you fail. Most of us, I’m guessing, probably want to be like Yoda. No fear, no hate, no doubt. But most of us are probably more like Luke.
We wrestle with these things. We have a dark side. We probably don’t particularly like the fact that we have a dark side. We realize life is better when we don’t fear, hate, and doubt. But despite our best efforts, they still linger around.
So, what are we supposed to do about them?
In the Star Wars universe, it seems like if you try hard enough, eventually you are supposed to emerge victorious over fear, hate, and doubt. Obi-Wan makes it sound pretty simple. He just says, don’t give in to hate. That leads to the dark side. So, in the Star Wars universe, through your resilience, you weather the storm, and you will be able to push away fear, hate, and doubt, which is great for them if it works.
But for those of us who don’t live a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, we have probably realized trying harder to push away fear, hate, and doubt isn’t always successful. We need a different answer. The good news for us this morning is that in our world, in the real world, there is a different answer, an answer that actually works. So let’s read our scripture for today. Nate read it already, but let’s read it again and find out what that answer is.
It should be in your bulletin. It’ll be also up on the screen. 1 John 4: starting in verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 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 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. 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. 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 he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. This morning, as we investigate these verses and learn how fear, hate, and doubt are cast out of our lives, we will see what happened to us, how it changed us, and what we do as a result.
So first, what happened to us? This is not when you write in your blank For those of you who stress about that kind of thing, don’t worry, we’ll make it obvious and it’ll probably be on the screen. But what happened to us? In the Star Wars universe, remember, Luke needed to pull up the strength within himself to deal with fear, hate, and the dark side. It was up to him.
He had these mentors telling him what to do, but he needed to do it. And we said that doesn’t really work for us But I don’t think it even really worked for Luke. In the new movies, not the newest one, there are no spoilers here, I totally promise, okay? But in the new movies, Luke ended up living as a coward, hiding on an island, barely surviving by drinking blue milk. He didn’t overcome fear and doubt.
Fear and doubt still plagued him. So, the answer was not, within himself. Christianity offers a different solution. In Christianity, instead of mustering up courage and assurance and love on our own, those are the opposite of fear, hate, and doubt, something happens to us. Instead of achieving something, we receive something.
In Christianity, driving out fear, hate, and doubt is a lot like falling in love. It feels like someone has entered into your life, and now everything is different. Something is happening to you instead of you really working to accomplish something. No one ever says, I’m going to do A, B, and C, and then I will be in love by the end of the day. That’s not how it works.
There are things you can do that might make falling in love more likely, perhaps. Go on dates, you act sacrificially, but you don’t fall in love with everybody that you dated. It is more so something you experience, something you receive, instead of something that you are able to produce. Let’s face it, right? If you could have produced it, you would have produced it.
At least a lot more often than it actually happened. Now, of course, when it happened, when you fell in love, you accepted it, you leaned into it like you wanted it, but you didn’t really generate it. If you could have, you would have. It more so came upon you, right? Some of us in this room have actually experienced being in love.
And some of us have only seen it in the movies, but all of us probably get the concept that it is more so something that we receive than something we achieve. Something outside of us acted upon us, and then we chose whether we’d go along with it or not, and if we chose to go along with it, it did completely radically change our course. Okay, so I know some of you may be upset with me, already, particularly Christians may be upset with me already, and if you are, I totally understand why. Okay, let me just tell you what you’re feeling. You want to tell me love is not primarily a feeling.
Love is an action and a choice, and you need to make the decision every day to make investments in your spouse so that you keep the romance going. And the squishy feelings don’t come, or the squishy feelings come from deliberate choices to put your spouse’s needs ahead of your own needs day after day over the long haul. That’s where the feelings come from. They don’t just fall out of the sky like magic. That’s what you want to tell me.
And you are totally right. That is 100% accurate. I affirm you totally. You must work at remaining in love with your spouse. And when you first got together, you wanted to do the work because you had the feelings, and later, you needed to work in order to get the feelings.
And even if the feelings never show up again, I hope that’s not in your future, but even if they never show up again, you still need to work because you made a commitment. That is totally true. You are right, and that is not what we’re talking about today. This is not a marriage message. I’m not talking about how to keep the passion alive after 20, 40, or 80 years.
Yes, that takes a lot of decisions and investments and work. Please do that. And that’s not what we’re talking about. I’m just drawing a parallel between how experiencing God affects us, influences us, changes us, and something that we are all at least a little familiar with, falling in love, in order to hopefully understand more fully what happens and how it happens when we experience God. And at the same time, in case you’re one of those people who are a little weary of this falling in love language, if you’re like, Don’t— not sure about that, Dan.
At the same time, I hope to both undermine and fulfill the modern popular concept of falling in love. So that’s a fair amount to accomplish, so let’s get started. What happened to us? Just like being in love came upon us, God came upon us. That’s what happened to us.
God came upon us. Look at these verses. Verse 19, God first loves us, and then we second turn around and love Him. This is how it happens a lot of times when we fall in love, right? You are interested in someone oftentimes because they are interested in you.
I mean, a new cute boy comes into your life and And you think, oh, he’s pretty cute. But then, if he acts interested in you, you’re like, it’s go time. Right? That’s what women think, right? I totally understand all females.
I mean, you think, I noticed you before, I kind of saw you over there, but now that you’re pursuing me, I’m leaning in. Even further, right? Like, we respond to someone else’s interest. We see this in verse 13 as well. We abide in him because he has given us of his Spirit.
God gave us something. We receive something— someone, really. That’s what kicks this whole thing off. We didn’t follow some treasure map to uncover God’s Spirit, and then we had him. God just gave us His Spirit, and therefore, we abide in Him.
Just like many of us would talk about falling in love, something came to us, whether we were planning on that to happen or not, whether we wanted it to happen or not, to us it came. Verse 16 describes this as well, so we have come to know and to believe the love God has for us. We have come to know it. This is how we speak about love, right? Like, I realized I’m in love.
I came to believe it. I woke up to the fact. It happened to me. This is how we say it. We’re like, finally happened to me.
People say that. And then, of course, you accepted it. You agreed. You confessed it. We’ll get to that in a minute.
But first, it was, oh, Wow, this is finally happening, like actually happening to me. For many Christians, that is how they would describe their conversion experience to Christianity. One day they didn’t get it, the next day it all made sense. Something warmed their hearts when their hearts were not warm before. They came to know the love God had for them.
They turned around and loved God because they realized internally, not just externally, not, not just that they heard it, although they did hear it, but suddenly they knew on the inside, God really loves me.
You know, every week we sing at the beginning part of our services here. And if you’re not a Christian, you might wonder, why do they sing so much? Why are songs part of Christian services? What’s that about? I would say that is the exact question someone would ask who is not in love.
If you have never been in love, love songs sound pretty foolish to you. You know, back in the day, so sorry for the younger people who missed this, but back in the day you heard LeAnn Rimes sing, how could I live without you? I want to know. How could I breathe without you if you ever go? And if you’ve never been in love, that sounds ridiculous.
You’re like, how do you breathe? Leanne.
You just suck air into your lungs. It’s pretty simple. You can actually do it in your sleep. Did we need a song about this? But then you meet her and you think, How do I breathe without her?
I’m not sure I can. The song makes sense, and I want to sing it all the time. Like, it’s on repeat in my brain. She’s the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. She’s the first thing I think about when I wake up.
That’s why we sing in here. It makes perfect sense if you’re in love with God. It doesn’t make any sense if you aren’t. One day you come in here and we’re singing How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, and you think, that was weird. I wonder why they sing.
And then you come to know the love God has for you, and all you want to do is sing. How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son to make a wretch treasure, we being the wretch who becomes the treasure. Why did the same song that used to sound weird suddenly become beautiful?
God came upon you. That is what happened. God came upon you. And when that happens, we change. That is our second point.
How it changed us. Fear, hate, and doubt melt away. Fear, hate, and doubt melt away when God comes upon us. The Christian message isn’t so much stop fearing, stop hating, stop doubting, although God absolutely wants us to do that. He wants us to stop all of those things, and love your brother is even a command in these verses.
But the Christian message is more so that someone has come into our lives who is so amazing and so wonderful and so beautiful that fear and hate and doubt get pushed out of our lives. You know, in our romantic movies and literature and imaginations, we have this idea which ends up falling apart, but we have the idea nonetheless that if we meet the right person, everything that is wrong with us will be set right. The right person will heal all of our imperfections. We think, if I were with him, if I were with her, I wouldn’t have this problem anymore and everything would be okay. Now, that always falls apart because whoever we meet is just as messed up as we are and can’t possibly be our cure, but that impulse, that idea there is someone great enough, bright enough, beautiful enough whose love is enough to fix us, That idea, that is actually true.
It is true we need a love outside of us to come into us to drive away all of our fears, hates, and doubts. In these verses, listen to how God’s love accomplishes just that in our lives. Verse 18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Whoever fears has not been made made perfect in love. By the way, I totally realize I skipped that phrase about punishment when quoting verse 18, so we’ll come back to that in a minute.
But for now, there is no fear in love, and perfect love casts out fear. Why is fear gone?
Not because we tried to stop fearing, but because love came in. Love came in and cast out fear. Think about the way this works. When little kids are scared of something, how do they deal with that? It’s so amazing, they don’t try to eliminate the source of their fear usually, they just try to find someone to be with them so that they’re not afraid.
Like, I don’t want to go in that dark room by myself, but if you’re with me, then I’ll go. It’s so interesting, they don’t think, well, I could turn on the light, and that’ll get rid of my fear. They don’t usually do that. More often, they’ll be like, you come with me and turn on the light, and then we’ll be okay. They think, if someone is with me, everything’s going to be all right.
Listen, as Christians, we never need to fear. We never need to fear. Not because there aren’t scary things in the world. There are scary things. And not because the scary things will go away.
They won’t go away. But we never need to fear because someone is with us who loves us, and the love He has for us will never go away. That’s fear. What about hate? Verse 19 and 20.
Because of God’s love for us, we love, meaning we do not hate. If we hate, then we can’t really say we’ve experienced God’s love. If we have received God’s love, then we will love God and we will love the people around us. We see this in verse 17 as well. As he is, so also are we in the world.
We act like God acts in the world. We love like he does. But again, why do we love like God loves? Why do we stop hating? Not because we say, stop hating, stop hating, stop hating.
Oh, hating is bad. I need to stop hating. That’s not why. But because a new love has come into our lives that changes us. So, that’s fear and hate.
What about doubt? Verse 17. Well, really starting in verse 16. Because God is love and we’re abiding in Him and He’s abiding in us, we will have confidence, meaning not doubt, on the Day of Judgment. And this is where we will bring back in the idea of punishment.
So listen, I’m totally aware the idea of a God who judges and punishes is wildly unpopular, maybe at best wildly unpopular. I know that people think the concept of a Judgment Day where people and their actions will be weighed in the scales and some kind of verdict declared, that that seems out of place with a God who says that He’s all about love. I know that people think that. You might be people. So, let me try to help.
Question for you: Is there any injustice anywhere in the world that you think is wrong, you wish would stop?
Human trafficking, women’s rights in the Middle East, oppression of minority groups. Is there anything anywhere you think is unjust and you think should stop? Of course there is. Of course we want injustice to cease. Of course we want the perpetrators of injustice to be held accountable for their actions.
Right? Of course. Meaning, sorry to break this to you, we want judgment. In fact, we make judgments ourselves. We say those things are wrong, and by saying they are wrong, that is a judgment.
Now, here is the important part, the super important part. Why do we want judgment? Why do we want oppression to cease? Why do we say, that is wrong and we are going to hold the people doing it accountable for what they have done? Why do we do that?
Is it because we enjoy punishing people and doing so gives us some sort of masochistic pleasure? Is that why we make judgments? No, of course not. We judge oppressors Because we love people. We love the people who are being oppressed, and because of that, we say to the oppressors, wait a minute, you can’t do that, and we’re going to hold you accountable.
And that is judgment. If you are upset about any injustice in the world, you should pray for Judgment Day. You should say, come on, Judgment Day! Let’s get rid of all this oppression and injustice. And you say that because you love people and you don’t want to see them be the victims of injustice and oppression, not because you have some sort of need to punish people.
I think we get that. I think we can get that. I think that can make sense to us. But the aspect of this that might be difficult for us to admit and can lead to some fear is to some extent we have contributed to the injustice that’s in the world. Now, you’re right, you’re probably not the biggest perpetrator of injustice, probably, granted, but we have all added to the pile of mess that is out there in some way.
And if God really is going to rid the world of all the injustice, if He is going to fix this place and put it back to perfect, if He is going to do that, get rid of all the injustice, if He is going to hold every act of wrongdoing accountable, then we would rightly wonder, what is going to happen to us? Because we have added to that injustice that is out there. At least, I wonder that. I’m sure all of you are better people than I am, no doubt, wouldn’t be surprised at that at all, but I know that I have hurt others, I have lied to others, I have disadvantaged others for my own benefit, and if someone who comes along who loves the people who I have hurt and lied to and disadvantaged, and that person is therefore going to hold me accountable for my actions, I might have some fear. What is going to happen to me?
And this is where perfect love drives out fear. Verse 14, the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Yes, God is going to judge the world because He loves the world.
But also, because He loves the world, He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. On the cross, both the love of God and the judgment of God are on full display because He is simultaneously judging the sin of the world and saving the world from sin. Anyone who trusts Jesus to take their sin away, Jesus takes their sin away on the cross. Your sin is gone. And you no longer need to fear this judgment.
You have no doubts. You have complete confidence for when that day comes. Okay, that is how we are changed. Fear, hate, and doubt all melt away because God’s love casts them out. Now, finally, after God’s love transforms us in this way, what do we do as a result?
Not your fill-in-the-blank right away. Just hang on a minute. Think about the couple who is in love one more time. Have you seen a couple like that recently who are totally in love with each other? They can’t stop talking about each other.
They’re happy all the time. Nothing seems to bother them. They’re nice to everyone. You see them and they’re just glowing. They can’t wipe the smile off their face, and you’re like, what’s going on with you?
And they start gushing about the person that they love. They don’t try to hide what’s going on with them, they’re excited to tell others about it, you know, whether others actually want to hear about it or not, they don’t really care, they’re just going to go ahead and tell you anyway, you know, like Buddy the Elf, it’s like, I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it. And if someone’s rude to them out in the store, like out in the world, like a clerk at a store or something, they aren’t rude back, they just kind of look at the clerk with pity and And they’re like, oh, you poor soul. You must not have found what I have found. And they just kind of dance away.
Now, like we said before, couples don’t stay like that forever. Eventually, the honeymoon ends because this is why the honeymoon ends. You figure out the other person isn’t actually perfect but is, in fact, a terrible sinner, a deeply flawed mess. The object of your affection is not as lovely as you once believed, and your bubble pops. Or at least that’s what Beth found out after she’d been married to me for 6 minutes?
4? 3? 20 seconds? Okay, again, not a marriage message. It’s not a marriage message.
But that is when the marriage really starts, when the bubble pops. You have to figure out a way to love this person like God loves you. God loves you even though you are a terrible sinner. So, your job is to love your spouse like God loves you. That is both the beauty and the challenge of marriage.
But we are not talking about that today. We are talking about how God’s love changes us. And with God, that honeymoon period never has to end because He isn’t a terrible sinner. He is perfect in every way. We really did find the one who completes us, whose love heals us from all of our imperfections.
The myth that falling in love cures all of our faults That turns out to be true. Not true if we’re with a person, but totally true if we are with God. God’s love heals us in that way. So, how then do we act? What do we do as a result of God’s love coming into our lives?
Well, just like the couple that is in love, 2 things. We can’t stop talking about Him, even if other people don’t really want to listen. And 2, we treat others really well. We love others. We tell others about God.
This is your fill-in-the-blank. We tell others about God and we love others.
In these verses, look at this, verse 14, we see and testify that God sent his Son into the world. Or verse 15, we confess Jesus is the Son of God. Testify and confess. We talk about him. And then verse 20 and 21, our love for God necessitates and causes our love for others.
This, this actually says we must love our brother if we love God, which, which is probably what we have experienced. It’s, it’s almost not a choice, like we must do it when, when we’re caught up in the rapture of feeling in love. It’s really difficult to turn around and bark at somebody else. You are filled with this peace and patience and serenity from being in love. You almost must treat others lovingly.
If you don’t have hate in your heart, you can’t be acting in hateful ways.
So, listen, this morning we have talked about how God first loves us And then we became aware of that. We were unaware of his love for us, or it was just kind of an external reality, but then we became aware. It became an internal reality. Having experienced God’s love, we are then changed. Fear, hate, and doubt melt away.
And then we walk out into the world loving other people and testifying about the love of God that we have come to know. Having said all of that, I fully expect there are people here, maybe a lot of people here, people who would identify as Christian who would say that they have never felt completely overwhelmed and changed by the love of God. For you, you might think God is probably there, But you’re not really sure. You certainly haven’t experienced Him in a way that drove out fear and hate and doubt. There could be a lot of people here this morning.
What I want to tell you, hopefully to comfort you, is I totally get that. I’ve been there. I know how hard that is. You’re like, I want to get it, I want to feel God’s love like other people feel it, but I haven’t. You know, just like we see couples who are in love and we’re like, I want that, I’m looking for that, but it’s not happening.
So how do I get that? I want to experience this love of God that other people talk about. I mean, I believe that it’s out there, It’s just not in here. So, how do I get it in here?
I know how hard it is to be in that position. I know how frustrating that is. If that’s you, I would love to pray with you. I want to tell you that I understand.
My advice, if you want it, you might not, My advice is keep sticking around. Just like if you want to fall in love, you probably need to get out there and meet some people. You need to put yourself in a place where maybe that can happen. If you want to experience God’s love, keep putting yourself out there. Keep reading Scripture.
Keep praying. Listen to the Word of God preached. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, Romans 10:17. Stay in Christian community. Don’t give up on church.
Don’t give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, Hebrews 10:25. Keep singing. Maybe start singing. Okay, there’s a lot of engineers in our congregation, and as a group, engineers are not really known for their singing. And probably engineers are simultaneously not really known for feeling it or anything.
So, maybe start singing. Ephesians 5:19, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to each other. That’s why we sing to each other in corporate worship. That’s what that’s about. And here’s God’s promise, James 4:8, draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Why that happens at different times for different people, I have no idea, and is the most frustrating thing about working in ministry. But I do know that the Word of God is true, and if you draw near to him, he will draw near to you. You will experience the love of God that transforms you from the inside out in such a way that you will want to tell everyone about it.
Let’s pray together.
Father, thank you for first loving us when frankly, Lord, we’re pretty unlovable. Thank you for scooping us up.
Thank you for making us your own. Thank you for making us aware of you, that we might enjoy you and love you in return. Lord, we pray that your love would transform us. We pray that we’d be more conformed to the image of your Son. We pray fear, hate, and doubt would be pushed out of our lives.
We pray that we love others more so, and we would better testify to the love that we have found in you.
We ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
