FAITH OVER FEAR - Love’s In the Driver’s Seat
1 John 4:13-21 February 12, 2023
Introduction:
One of my favorite stories is told by Bob Russell in his book “When Life is a Zoo, God Still Loves You.”
A woman has left work late one night and as she gets on the freeway a terrible fog and mist comes in. She has a dinner date and doesn’t want to just pull over so she cautiously decides to follow the taillights of the car in front of her to her exit. She does this and when he exits at her exit she’s relieved…she continues to follow the taillights through the side streets until suddenly they stop. She waits for a while and then honks…and then all of a sudden the lights go out…the door opens and this big guy gets out and starts back toward her car…she quickly locks the doors, reaches in her purse for mace, and then he knocks on her window…she cautiously rolls it down a millimeter…and says “What’s wrong with you stopping like this in the middle of the street?” and the man replies “I’m sorry ma’am, but we’re in my driveway.”
Following someone in the fog of fear won’t get you home…it will get you parked in a stranger’s driveway…with mace in your hand.
She could have turned on her GPS on her phone, set it for home and followed it slowly in the fog, but she didn’t…she was in the driver’s seat and fear caused her to make a bad decision…it got her off track.
We as God’s people aren’t immune to the things in this life that cause fear either.
The death of a mate, or parents, or child leaves us feeling alone and afraid of the future without them.
We lose a job and the security of that paycheck and wonder how are we going to make it now?
We care for aging parents and feel afraid of making the wrong decisions or being inadequate for the job.
Our mate decides the marriage is over and after years together we are now alone…and what will the future hold for our children.
The fog rolls in…we can’t see how to go forward…pain confuses us and fear sometimes causes us to follow the wrong taillights.
But, God has an answer for those foggy, painful and fearful times:
I. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR GUIDE AND COMFORTER
For each child of God, the Apostle John confirms in our text that, “We can know God lives in us and we in Him.” How? By the Holy Spirit He has given us.” (1 John 4:13)
In the first 4 verses of our text the Holy Spirit, Jesus God’s Son, and God the Father are linked together.
God’s Spirit is given to us…God the Father sent his son to save us. When we accept this truth and acknowledge it with our lives, God lives in us and we live in God…It’s a truth we can know and rely on…The foundation of it all…“God loves us!!!”
Please understand it’s the Holy Spirit that draws us to God, and the message the Holy Spirit uses to draw every single person is: “We are sinners…separated from the Father…He provided a Savior to bridge that separation.”
It troubles me that we ignore this spiritual influence and how important it is. It’s why John writes in His gospel these words of Jesus before His death, burial, resurrection and ascension.
JOHN 16:7-15
Why is it for their good, and our good that Jesus goes away? Because without the cross, without his sacrifice and the victory of the resurrection we have no hope to be reconciled with God the Father…but it also includes the Holy Spirit’s presence in the world after He’s gone…and that presence does powerful things.
1. First He convicts us that we all need a Savior. He shows us our sin, our unrighteousness and the judgment that awaits us…but
2. Secondly, He guides believers in the truth. He comforts us when we’re afraid, He convinces us of our unity with God and He provides the words we need to speak as witnesses of the resurrection.
He glorifies Jesus. He testifies about Jesus. He points us to Jesus. He helps us grow to be like Jesus.
Joey Shaw shares this truth to the church:
The most interesting thing about the Great Commission is that it does not command us to make converts of Christianity. Instead, we are to make disciples of Jesus. The difference between convert making and disciple making is crucial. Converts change religions. Disciples change masters. Converts follow a system. Disciples follow a Person. Converts build Christendom. Disciples build the Kingdom of God. Converts embrace rituals. Disciples embrace a way of life. Converts love the command to “baptize them” in the Great Commission, but that is all. Disciples baptize others but only in context of “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” Converts love conversion. Disciples love transformation.
The only way disciples of Jesus are made is through the influence and transformation of the Holy Spirit…Jesus said, “He will glorify me because it is from me that He will receive what He will make known to you.”
Jesus makes it very clear. His Spirit becomes our GPS system to get home…and to get to Him…and all because:
II. LOVE IS IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
God is love…three of the most powerful words in scripture.
Verse 19 says, “We love because He first loved us.”
God isn’t just loving or about love…He is the definition of love…and He initiated the relationship with us.
It’s the reason He created us…and it’s the reason He was willing to send His Son to be our Savior…after we broke up with Him.
It’s important we understand that each of us broke up with God…every single one of us cheated on Him.
[I had a girlfriend in High School cheat on me…and when we broke up she threw my ring into a field (I never found it either)…a while later she wanted to get back together…and I thought “I’d rather eat glass…that is never, ever gonna happen…EVER!!”
The pain of rejection and betrayal is deep…and it doesn’t usually lead to the one who was hurt saying… “OK…let’s do this again.” It’s a big love killer as far as we humans are concerned.]
And God’s Word says everyone of us “Have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” (Romans 3:23) “All have turned away.” (Romans 3:12) Every single one of us have chosen sin and self over God and His laws…“There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10)
From Adam and Eve to Rick Burdette and everyone in between we have cheated on God…But instead of saying: “I’d rather eat glass…I’ll never forgive them”…God initiated healing for our brokenness.
“God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
God didn’t wait until we were ready for the relationship to be restored…He restored it through the sacrifice of His Son while we were still cheating on Him.
When we surrender to that kind of love God doesn’t give us a ring…He gives us Himself…He gives us His Spirit… “Whoever lives in this love, lives in God and God in them.”
And the fear of being punished for our sin is replaced with an absolute assurance…that on the day of Judgment this love has provided us with heaven.
Satan is the god of fear…He is he accuser…He will constantly try to remind you of your sin and your past. When he does…remind him of your Father’s love and remind him of your complete forgiveness in Jesus your Savior.
“There is no fear in love…But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
When God’s love is in the driver’s seat it moves us to be like Jesus in this world…and that has been God’s plan before the creation of the world…How can you tell if someone is deeply in love with God?
III. THAT PERSON LOVES THEIR BROTHER AND SISTER
REREAD 1 JOHN 4:20-21
John says it is impossible to love God and hate people…It’s not impossible to say you love God and hate people but if you do…“You’re a liar.”
Real love is never safe…and it’s never easy. Anyone can love people they like…anyone can love people that love them back…but in truth…that’s not love…it’s what the world does…and requires no spiritual transformation…it doesn’t require God at all…It just requires me trading my friendship for someone else’s…and if someone hurts my feelings or does something I don’t like or agree with…I just “cut them off.” I just end the relationships…John says, “If you claim to be in love with God and operate like this…you cannot truly love God. Your claim about loving Him is false.
It’s the claim the Levite and Priest made about loving God…but then when they saw the Samaritan…They passed by without loving him at all.
What would happen if we prayed this prayer “God test my love for you…Test my claims?”
[I can assure you He will answer that prayer…He will not tempt you to sin, but He will test your claim…and that test will come in the way of a person…they’ll be crippled and broken…and disqualified by the world…Mike Yaconelli in Messy Spirituality writes:
Walking by a pet shop on his way to school, a young boy stopped and stared through the window. Inside were four black puppies playing together. After school he ran home and pleaded with his mother to let him have one of the puppies. “I’ll take care of it, Mom, I will. If you can just give me an advance on my allowance, I’ll have enough money to buy one with my own money. Please, Mom, please.”
The mother, knowing full well the complications having a new puppy would bring to a busy household, could not resist her son. “Okay, you can get the puppy, but I will expect you to take care of it.”
“Yes, Mom, I will.” Filled with excitement, the little boy ran to the pet shop to buy his new puppy.
After determining that the boy had enough money, the pet shop owner brought him to the window to choose his puppy. After a few minutes, the young boy said, “Um...I’ll take the little one in the corner.”
“Oh no,” said the shop owner, “not that one; he’s crippled. Notice how he just sits there; something is wrong with one of his legs, so he can’t run and play like the rest of the puppies. Choose another one.”
Without saying a word, the boy reached down, lifted his pant leg to expose a chrome leg brace to the owner.
“No,” he said firmly, “I think I’ll take the puppy in the corner.”
It turned out that what disqualified the puppy from being chosen by others is what most qualified him to be chosen by the little boy.
It’s amazing how few of us believe in the unqualified grace of God. Oh, yes, God loves us, as long as we’re clean and whole and fixed. But it turns out that what disqualifies you and me from “spirituality” - the mess of our lives and our crippledness - is what most qualifies us to be chosen by Jesus.
When love is in the driver’s seat we are guided by what guides God toward us. Our brokenness…our sin…our mess…It’s what God does when we pray “God test my claim.” He sends someone into our lives that needs to be loved like He loved us.
Let’s pray.
