Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear

Oh, man, if you think about it, getting up in front of a crowd to speak like this can be pretty scary. What if my brain goes blank in the middle of a sentence? That’s happened to me. Even when I was in my 30s, one time I was wrapping up the worship service and I got halfway through the benediction and my mind went blank. And all I could think to say was, “My mind just went blank, but God bless you all anyway.” I was embarrassed but the older folks loved it.

What if somebody doesn’t like what I’m saying in my sermon? The Bible talks about real life issues, deep things that really matter. There are many parts of the Bible that really demand that we change our ways and there will often be people who don’t want to change and they’ll take it out on you.

But what if God doesn’t like what I say? My job is to preach the eternal word of God. There’s a big temptation to sugar coat it. Am I being faithful to God above all else?

So, public speaking can be scary. Who wants to be up next week?

I found a wonderful Bible verse that helped me get on top of my fears years ago. It’s 2 Timothy 1:7. “for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

When I was nervous about a sermon I needed to preach, I would repeat to myself the 3 things that Paul says that God has given us.

Very quickly, he has given us a spirit of power. Fear makes me feel vulnerable, a potential victim. But when I am doing God’s will, I can trust that his grace will be with me, taking the feeble things I do and empowering them. When I keep that in my mind, my confidence goes way up. The Apostle Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” God is here to give us a spirit of power.

God has given us a spirit of love. Fear makes me worry about what happens to me, imagining many things that might go wrong to me, maybe even striking out at the things I fear. Love makes me be concerned about other people and focus on what blessing I can bring to them. That changes everything. God is here to gives us a spirit of love.

God has given us a spirit of a sound mind. Other translations say self-discipline. Sure, I’m human, I’ll feel afraid sometimes. I should be afraid sometimes. Voices in my head will tell me to give in to those fears. But if I choose the discipline of listening to God’s still, small voice of hope, I can have the mindset to do the right thing, even when I’m afraid.

I hope that verse will be helpful to anyone who is struggling with fears today. But that’s not my main sermon text. Let’s look at 1 John 4:7-19 and talk about the dynamics of love and fear in a broader sense.

Can we recite that verse together a few times?

“for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Our main text for today is from 1 John, chapter 4. It says more about this battle between fear and love:

“7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 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 do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so 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 reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.”