Willow Ridge Sermons

February 12th, 2023 • "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." — 1 John 4:18

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Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

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Thanks for listening.

If y'all have got your Bibles, go ahead and open them up with me this morning.

We're going to be in 1 John chapter 4.

In just a moment, we'll start in verse 17.

For our first-time guests, I just want to echo what Pastor Dave said.

We're so glad that you're here.

We're so glad that you've decided to be with us today.

Now, there is a football game today.

It's the Super Bowl.

I typically don't talk about football a whole lot, even though I love football, but I am

curious.

I've had a lot of people ask me if I'm a Kansas City Chief, if I'm pulling for them, or am

I pulling for the Philadelphia Eagles?

And so I just want to say that I don't care.

You know, my Green Bay Packers watch their season go out the window with the defeat by

the Detroit Lions, which is just a terrible place to be, but that's where we are.

So here's what I'd like to do.

Here's what I've decided.

I've been inspired by Patrick Tatushinsky to ask this question and see.

So here's what I'd like, not if you are pulling for one of the teams, but if you are a fan

of either one of the teams.

If you're a fan, like this means this is who you pulled for all year.

Not that you just like Patrick Mahomes, not that you just like Jalen Hurts, but you're

a fan.

So raise your hand if you are a Kansas City Chiefs fan.

One, two.

We've got the Morgan family.

Is that about it?

There we go.

All right.

So Morgans, I'm sorry, but I'm going to go with the Philadelphia Eagles tonight, right?

I just got swatted at by Mike, which is not a good feeling, but I love your brother.

All right.

So that's what we're going to do.

We'll go.

What did you say, Shane?

Go Birds.

All right.

So I'll be chanting Go Birds tonight at the Bradbury House with watching the Super Bowl.

But excited to be here with you guys this morning, excited to dive into this.

It is a cold and nasty and wet morning today, but it is good to be in God's house and it

is good to open up his word.

Have you ever felt like you're living in a problem?

You know, like you just can't fix it.

You just can't get out of it.

You just can't get out of your way.

It seems like everywhere you go, the greater the problem becomes and it's always before you.

I feel like when John is writing this letter, he's writing it in a mindset that there's this

group of people who are largely living in this problem.

And the problem, and we're going to look at this, is that come judgment day, John wants them to face

it with fearless confidence.

But that what he's dealing with is a group of people who either don't have faith in Christ,

but think they do, or they do have faith in Christ, but their faith in Christ is at such a level

of immaturity that they can't live in the confidence of who they are in Christ and in return of the Lord.

And so what John is pleading with them continually over and over and over again is that he desires

this church, he desires us to live in this confidence, this fearless confidence at the return of Christ.

Now this morning I pulled Berger aside, I was like, hey, can we do this?

Can we make this work for this week?

And he said, absolutely.

So what we're supposed to do this morning is start in chapter 4, verse 17, and 19, but then,

because I want us to continue on in our series, and Pastor Dave is going to be preaching next week,

starting in verse 13, and so what I'm going to do is later this week, and we'll send it out through email,

we'll send it out through social media, is I'm just going to do a little video of teaching through

the remainder of these verses.

But I really want us to land in and to focus in on chapter 4, verses 17 through 19 of 1 John,

because I feel like everything that we've been pressing toward,

that what John does in these three verses is he sums it up with this high level of authority

from God to say, here's what I've been talking about, here's what I'm impressing on,

here's what it means that we can stand in confidence in who we are in Christ at the return of the Lord.

Here's everything from chapter 1 until now, wrapped up in these three verses.

So we're going to take our time and just focus in on these this morning.

So let's look, I'm going to read 1 John chapter 4, verses 17 through 19.

And John writes and says this,

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.

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.

And so this morning we're going to look at four words or four phrases that are embodied in these three verses.

The first that we're going to look at is perfected in verse 17.

Then we're going to look at confidence in verse 17.

And then at the end of verse 17, as he is, so also are we.

And then we're going to jump down to 19 and see that he first loved.

And that in these phrases, what we can draw from this is the confidence that we stand in Christ.

And the first one is this, the biblical truth of what John is pressing us toward in love perfected.

He says this, by this is love perfected with us.

Now, perfect is a hard word for us to grasp.

Because I'm going to ask you, like, what do you know that is truly perfect?

Very little, if not anything.

But here in Scripture, you know, we have a, this wasn't originally written in English.

And so sometimes there's these translation struggles that we have to work through.

And the, and the best definition of a word isn't oftentimes found in just one word, but in order to, to, for it to make sense and flow, we, it's been done that way.

So I want us to understand, what is John saying when he says love perfected?

What does he mean by perfected?

Well, it's this, John doesn't mean flawless, the way we would think of something that is perfected.

And the word John uses here is a word that other places in Scripture means finished, completed, or accomplished.

And so when we look at this and we see, by this love perfected with us, what we see is, by this love perfectedly completed with us.

Now, you're like, Bo, I'm a work in progress.

Well, yes and amen, so am I.

So I want to paint a silly, but maybe accurate picture of what I mean by this.

Have any of you ever taken on a project around your house that you are not qualified or capable of doing, but you decide you're going to do it anyways?

Anybody else ever done that?

I did that yesterday, all right?

So let me walk you through the journey of my, really starting Thursday.

Thursday, Erin comes up to me and she says, hey, did you move clothes into the dryer?

And I said, yes, I did.

And she said, well, you forgot to press start because they're in the dryer and they're still wet.

Now, that's not an uncommon thing for me to do, right?

I oftentimes forget to do that.

So I said, well, I'm sorry.

So she went in and she restarted them.

And after some time, the dryer goes off.

We go up and we open the door and we reach in to grab our wet clothes still.

So she came to me and she said, the dryer's not working.

And I said, well, sounds like the heating element is out.

Now, here's what I've done one time in my entire life.

I've replaced a heating element.

And in that, I was very, very, very confident that I can replace the heating element.

I can impress my wife and feel like more of a man this weekend, right?

So Saturday, don't laugh at me too hard, Brandon.

Saturday, we woke up, we went to Grayson's track meet.

And I'm riding back from Grayson's track meet.

And Aaron says to me, how long do you think it'll take for you to replace this heating element?

Now, I have to make a decision at this point.

What do I land on?

And I said, I can do it in an hour.

That hurts, by the way.

Like, that response just hurts.

Well, my wife, not in sarcasm, but in wisdom, says to me, well, I'm going to add two to three hours to that.

Because I know that sometimes it causes you think something's going to take a certain amount of time and it takes longer.

My feelings were hurt, right?

My pride is starting to work.

Like, sin is happening in this moment in me, right?

And so I go home and I get all the tools ready for everything I need.

And I take my phone out.

And I turn on the timer.

And I press start.

And I am in a mad dash to get this fixed.

So I start taking this dryer apart.

Now, here's what I found out.

This dryer is only about two years old.

And I didn't know this.

Because we got a dryer and I just plugged it into the wall.

Like, this dryer can talk to your phone.

And I took off the back panel and immediately hit panic.

As it looks like a computer.

So I grab my phone and I start taking pictures.

As I unscrew things, as I unplug things, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture.

Because what I know is, let me tell you the truth of where I've had to process through in almost 44 years of life.

Whatever I take apart, I have to put back together again.

And I'm not good at that, right?

So picture, picture, picture, picture, picture.

So I get the whole dryer taken apart.

Unplug, unplug, unplug, unplug this wire, this wire, this wire, this wire.

And there's one last wire that needs to be unplugged.

It's the last wire that is connected to the heating element.

It's a purple wire.

And I reach back to unplug that purple wire.

And it falls apart.

It's burned.

Now I've got a problem.

I know how to replace a heating element.

I don't know how to replace a burned up wire, all right?

So I did what most of us at Willow Ridge Church do at that point.

I called Brent Hawkins, all right?

Brent's not in here today, so in just a moment, we're going to throw his cell phone number up on the screen.

If you're ever in need of electrical help, call Brent.

He especially likes calls late at night, right?

So I called Brent, and my call for Brent was, man, I hope he can come over.

And when Brent answered, Brent knew the Spirit spoke to him.

And he answered his phone by saying, I'm halfway to North Carolina right now.

Which tells me what Brent is saying is, whatever problem you've gotten yourself into, I cannot come over to fix.

So I tell Brent about the problem.

He says, I think your heating element is fine.

I just think you need to replace this wire.

Do you have these tools?

No, I don't have these tools, Brent.

Well, then you need to go to Lowe's.

You need to fix it.

And Brent, like, made a statement like, don't worry, anybody can do this, which, again, kind of hurts, you know?

It's okay, Bo.

Even you can do it.

Anybody can do this.

So I go to Lowe's.

I get the stuff.

I come back.

I put it together.

I promise this is connecting, right?

Put it all back together.

Get everything going.

The wire is good, I think.

And I start putting the dryer back together.

And one of the things that became kind of difficult was getting the dryer belt on the drum.

Couldn't quite see what I was doing.

So in a combination of flashlight with phone at the bottom of the dryer, I can kind of look at my phone and see and got it back together.

Put the dryer back together.

One last thing to do.

But I can't quite see.

So I go to Reach to grab my flashlight.

What are you laughing at?

I can't find my flashlight.

Y'all know now what I didn't know then.

I search everywhere for the flashlight.

Where do you think the flashlight was?

It was in the dryer.

Yep, yep, yep.

So I take it all apart again.

Every bit of it.

Every bit of the dryer came apart.

Scattered all parts of this are now in my daughter's bedroom.

Found the flashlight.

Get the flashlight out.

Start the process of putting it all back together again.

This time I get the dryer completely put back together.

And I'm getting ready to clean up my mess.

And I look.

And there's this metal plate about this big.

And it's obvious that it came from the dryer.

But the dryer's now put together.

And this metal plate is sitting on top of the washer.

Which I'm pretty confident is not where it goes.

So I start looking through my pictures.

There's no plate.

So guess what I did?

I took the dryer all the way apart again.

Because I was confident that in the bottom is where this goes.

And it's not.

So now I panic.

And I start looking through Google images of my dryer.

Here's what I found out.

The very last thing you do in putting your dryer back together,

which was where I was,

is put this plate on the very back

where there's this one little small hole about this big.

But for whatever reason,

Samsung gives you a plate this big to cover it up.

So I put the whole dryer back together again.

I put the plate on.

I take a step back.

Finished.

So what do you think I did?

I went and stopped my timer.

That's right.

I checked my time.

Let me pull this up.

Four hours.

Thank you, Michelle.

Five hours, two minutes, and 11 seconds later.

Bradbury's dried towels last night.

Now, Erin comes upstairs.

Everything's clean.

And she says this question.

Is it working?

And I said, it's working, but here's the deal.

Here's new rules.

Number one, we cannot dry clothes while we are asleep.

Number two, we cannot dry clothes when just the kids are at home.

And we cannot dry clothes when you and I aren't going to be here

and no one's here at the house.

And she said, why?

And I said, because I put this back together,

and I'm deathly afraid that our house is going to catch on fire

over some dish towels, right?

But here's the thing.

It's done.

It's completed.

And I will receive your affirmations after service of telling me

that if this whole thing falls apart,

I can go work for an appliance repair specializing in the purple wire

at the bottom of the Samsung dryer, right?

Like, I got that.

I got that.

So here's the whole point of this, all right?

When I walk through the process that took me five hours and two minutes,

is my dryer perfect?

No.

Part I left out, there's five screws that are still sitting in my toolbox

that came off of the dryer,

but I don't know where they go on the dryer,

but we're just going to roll with it, right?

Is it perfected?

No.

There's way more electrical tape than I should probably use

on different spots of the dryer, but it's okay.

Why?

Because it's done.

It's done.

Can adjustments be made?

Yes.

But is it finished?

Yes.

And so, all the way back to this, right?

When John says,

by this, love is perfected with us.

Here's what this means.

Are there adjustments that you and I need to make?

Absolutely.

Are we a finished product?

Completely done with where we want to be in our walk in Christ?

No.

But have we been completed in love of God for us?

Absolutely.

The second half of 1 John 4.12 says this,

if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

God loves us and saves us, and now we know God's love and experienced it for ourselves.

God's love doesn't stop with us experiencing it, but is perfected, is accomplished through our love.

That God's love moves us to actions of love, and in this, love is perfected.

I read a pastor this week, and he says this, perfect love is when you don't talk about the need to share Christ, you do it.

It's when you don't talk about the hungry, you feed them.

It's when you don't talk about floundering new believers and their faith, but instead you disciple them.

This is the picture of perfected love.

Do we still have room to grow?

Absolutely.

But is God's love perfected in us when it calls us and manifests itself in love for others?

Yes, which is what John is pushing us toward.

And so the next part that I want us to look at is to see, is this confidently active.

He says so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment.

We may have confidence on the day of judgment.

So we've said over and over and over again.

I think we looked at 13 different instances last week where John presses us toward that.

That that is his goal, that we are confident on the day of judgment, that we're confident in the return of the Lord.

But as we go through this, one of the things that hinders us in this that I hope we can take away is a truth.

What we talked about on week one in 1 John 1.8 is the fact that we aren't perfect.

We still sin.

Every one of us.

1 John 1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

We sin.

I sin.

You sin.

Anyone on this earth that you think like, no, no, no, not them.

No, no, no, they do.

And if anyone says they don't sin, they don't know the Lord.

They don't know the Lord.

So let's look, though, and try to understand our sin.

Because how can we still sin, but yet stand in confidence before Christ?

So let's understand this in our lives.

So before Christ, before we were saved, here's what happened.

Here's the condition of our soul, the condition of our heart.

Is we sinned, and here's the truth, we loved it.

We loved every part of it.

There may be these pieces in our moral compass as defined by society, that when we do stuff

that affected others, that we knew we shouldn't do it, but yet the pursuit of our hearts were

sinful.

And this is who we were.

And the Bible teaches us that in this, that we were dead in our trespasses and sin.

This is who we were before Christ.

And then whether it was at 6 or 66 or anywhere between or anywhere after, when Jesus saves us,

what we understand is that he had paid the price of our sin with his death on the cross.

And in that, his perfect life is imparted to us, and we are saved.

So I now no longer stand in my condemnation, but I stand in his holiness and his righteousness.

It's not just that he took our sin, which yes, amen, praise the Lord that he did,

but he in turn gave us his perfection, his standing, and we are saved.

And so now where we find ourselves in Christ is we still sin, and Jesus still saves us.

But our approach, our view, our determination of where we are with our sin is different.

And so now as believers in Christ, bought and redeemed and purchased, instead of loving our sin,

we hate our sin, we attack our sin, we fight against our sin, we bring others into a relationship with us

so that we confess our sin and we repent our sin before him.

Yes, we still sin, but we've changed.

We're different.

And it's not who we are anymore.

And so Jesus has saved us from our sin past, our sin present, our sin future,

and now what dwells within us is this desire to no longer live sinfully,

but we desire to live without sin in glorifying him.

And when we do, we find his grace and his mercy.

And it's the sweet spot of who we are in our walk with Christ.

And so we have our confidence in our standing because we are confidently active in our faith.

This is what it means to be confident, is that our faith is what we are confidently active in.

I read this week, an author said,

we don't gain confidence by being sinlessly perfect.

We gain confidence by putting our money where our mouth is.

We think back to 1 John 3, 18, when John says,

little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

That's what John is saying here.

Let us not love in just the things that we say and those catchphrases that we've clung to,

but let us love in deed and truth.

It's not only what we say, but it's who we are, and then therefore it's what we do.

So how do we gain confidence?

If you're here this morning, and you're like, but there's this fear at the return of the Lord,

here's what I would plead to you.

Stop talking about your faith and live it out.

Stop talking about the things that need to be done, and instead do them.

Ask yourself the question, am I an observer on the sideline, or I'm in the game doing it?

A few years ago, I'll never forget this conversation.

I was on a mission trip.

And I'm sitting there, and it's been a long, hard day of work.

And there was somebody on the mission trip who made a statement that stood out to me

that caused me to ask them a follow-up question.

And as we're sitting there, and we're relaxing after a long, hard day of work,

they made this statement.

The statement was, I've never felt closer to God than I do right now.

I've heard that statement before.

I probably said that statement before myself.

And I just asked them the question.

Well, what do you mean by that?

Help me understand, like, what's going on right now in the events of this day

to cause you to say, I've never felt closer to God than I do right now.

And I'll never forget this conversation.

It was much longer than these two sentences,

but I hope this kind of encompasses what they were getting to.

They said, you know, on this trip, I just serve others and focus on Jesus.

And all the other distractions of my life are gone.

And basically what they're saying is, I can just love God, and I can just love others.

And all of the other things have gone away.

And I've never felt more closer to God than I do right now.

I think what this individual was sharing with me is the truth of 1 John 3, 18.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

So many times we know the things that need to be done.

We know the things that we need to do.

We know the people that we need to share with.

We know the hope that we need to bring.

We know the actions that need to be done.

We know, we know, we know, we know, we know, we know, we know.

But we choose something else.

And in that, we try to love and word and talk, but not in deed and truth.

I want to ask you this.

In your faith, is your money where your mouth is?

Is it truly not just the things that we say, but are they truly the things that we are acting out?

I asked you the question this morning.

Who are you serving?

How are you living on mission?

Who are you praying for?

Who are you actively seeking to share the hope and joy of Jesus Christ with?

We would all agree, I hope, that that needs to be done.

But the question is, for all of us who call upon the name of the Lord, are we doing it?

Are we doing it in our congregation?

Are we doing it with our kids?

Are we doing it with our students?

Are we doing it with adults?

Are we doing it in every ministry that we have?

Are we doing it when we go to our homes and to our neighborhoods and to our work?

Do we know that the people that we encounter need Jesus?

Yeah.

Well, what are we doing so that they may know him?

How are we intentional with our faith?

The next thing that John points us to is looking like Jesus.

Looking like Jesus.

He says, as he continues in verse 17,

As he is, so also are we.

Here's what we know at Judgment Day.

God will not condemn those who are like his son.

God will not condemn those whose identity is found in him.

God will not condemn those whose lives have been bought and redeemed by the blood of the land,

who were found in Christ, saved from their sin and who they are.

But here's the tension with us.

We can't live at odds with the character of Jesus,

but claim to have salvation in the person of Christ.

We can't claim to be recipients of his grace,

but not begin to reflect who he is.

In 1 John, 16 different times,

he has said,

Abide in him.

In 2 John, he will say it two more times in him.

To abide in him.

And when we abide in him,

we remain in him,

we continue in him,

and we live like him.

And as we are in him,

we become like him.

And I want to ask you this question.

As you see yourself,

do you see Jesus?

Do you see Jesus?

Maybe it's an easier question to ask others.

As we put on a facade,

as we fake some good works and some good deeds.

Not saying that others can't,

they do speak truth in our lives.

But when we stand before who we are and see as the spirit draws us,

when we see ourself,

do we see Jesus?

Are we the reflection and the embodiment of the work of the spirit that we claim lives in us as followers of Christ?

Do we let the fruit of the spirit sing in us?

As Paul writes about in Galatians 5,

was what is seen in us the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control of the Lord?

What do you see in your life?

What do you see?

And do you see Jesus?

Are we abiding in him?

1 John 3, 2 through 3.

We read this a couple weeks ago.

It's beloved.

We are God's children now.

And what we will be has not yet appeared.

But we know that when he appears,

we shall be like him,

because we shall see him as he is.

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Look at the confidence that John writes in.

We will be like him when he returns.

When he appears,

we shall be like him.

He is our standard.

He is our hope.

He is what we cling to.

But there's this fear.

There's this fear that comes over some of us

in the thought of the returning of Christ.

Look back at 1 John 4, 18,

the one of the passages we read this morning.

John writes, he 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 in love.

If there is confidence in perfected love,

as John has just said,

then there is fear where there is not love.

Complete love removes fear.

This is what the fruit of the confidence that we have,

is that we're not afraid.

Fear has to do with punishment,

not reward.

And in the return of Christ,

is the return of the groom taking his bride.

And it's the reward of him.

And it's the reward that we long for.

And the reward that gives us hope.

And so when you see your life,

what do you see?

Do you see, as we talked about last week,

a true confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

Not just words that we say,

not just a box that we check,

but what we find in ourselves

is the contrite brokenness of the heart

of our sinful condition

and the desperate need to be saved.

The realization that in spite of all that we try,

that we cannot save ourselves,

and we need Jesus

and Jesus alone to save us.

And then that's confidence.

And then from this love,

do you love others?

And that's a tricky question.

Do you love others?

And it's hard to define

exactly how we do that.

That separates the love that we know

from the love that is experienced in our world

through a lot of different means.

But do we love from the love that God has shown us?

Not out of obligation.

Not because we're forced to.

Not out of feeling

because of how it will benefit me

and make me feel about myself.

Not loving out of a social construct of society

that determines this is what we must do

in order to be good people.

But do we love from the love of God?

From the overflow of who He is.

And if that's the case,

then what we experience

is that fear is gone.

Is that fear is gone.

And lastly,

I want us to look at verse 19.

It says,

that gives us a proper perspective

to look at this.

It says this,

John says very simply,

we love because He first loved us.

Our acts of love

never cause God to love us more.

Our acts of love

never determine God to say,

oh, oh, oh,

didn't see that in them,

but now I do.

Now I love them.

He first loved us.

Last night,

after the dryer debacle,

my wife and I went out to dinner.

Had a wonderful,

wonderful time together.

Went to a restaurant

we'd never been to.

Ate a food that we hadn't had

in like five years.

Just a great time.

Great conversation.

Our early Valentine's Day.

Guys,

it's coming, right?

Be prepared, right?

Early Valentine's Day.

And I got to thinking

this morning on my drive here.

Man,

all this could have gone south

years ago.

Let me share with you,

and I've shared this before,

but it's been a long time

since I've shared this before,

about how my wife and I

came to be a couple.

A friend of mine said,

hey, I've got a girl

that I know

that I would like to

set you up

on a blind date with.

And I was single at the time.

Sure.

Well,

if you're younger than me,

let me explain

about a time

when social media

didn't exist.

And here's what

a blind date meant.

You didn't know, right?

Because now,

if there is such a thing

as a blind date,

you're going to jump

on social media.

You're going to find out

what they look like,

what they're into,

all of these things.

I didn't know.

So it's truly a risk

going out on a blind date.

He said she was pretty.

Sure, we'll go out on a date.

Well, I've never claimed

to be the smartest man

in the world.

So let me tell you

what I did.

The day of our first date,

I had an opportunity

to do something

that I wanted to do.

So I stood her up.

I know.

I felt the,

yep, that's what I did.

That's what I did.

Not only did I stand her up,

I had someone else call her

and tell her.

Now, the look on my daughter's face,

I can't look over there

right now

because it is just,

it is filled with judgment

right now.

It is filled with it.

And I stood her up.

Went and hung out with friends.

And like a week later,

two weeks later,

talking to my friend,

I said,

hey, you remember that girl

you tried to set me up with?

You think you could

set me up with her?

And like the look on his face

was like,

you serious?

Like,

you know what happened, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Why don't you see?

So he went and said something to her.

She said,

absolutely not.

No.

Uh-uh, uh-uh.

So she went home.

And to this,

I love my mother-in-law.

And to this day,

this is,

this is the number one reason

why I love my mother-in-law.

My wife came home

and she said to her mom,

she said,

can you believe

that this guy

who stood me up

now is asking

if we can go out on a date?

And my mother-in-law,

and I can hear it

in her voice,

said,

well, Aaron,

maybe you should give him a try.

And she did.

We met on December 15th

of one of the least romantic places

you could meet,

but just wonderful

with my parents

watching my sister

in a Christmas cantata

at First Baptist North Augusta, right?

And when I saw her

for the first time,

there was a spark

in my heart

that was rooted

that that's who God had for me.

And then,

it hit me

how much work

I had to do

in order

to redeem

what I had done.

That's how

so many of us

approach the Lord.

God, my past.

There's no way

that God could love me.

There's no way

that God could forgive me.

There's no way

that Jesus would die for me.

I'm so unworthy.

And what I need to do now

is somehow

prove

that I'm worth it.

What I need to do

is somehow

earn

His love.

What I need to do

is put

my love

for Him

first

and in the hope

that He will love me.

John says,

we love

because He first

loved us.

He loved us

so that we could love Him.

He loved us first.

He loved us

so that we could love

others.

He first loved us.

love

that God

has called us to

originates

in Him

and then He

first

loves

us.

And then we know

and we believe

the love He has

for us.

We trust

and find our hope

in the love

that He has for us

in Christ.

He abides

in us

so that we

can abide

in Him

and His love

overflows

from us

and this

is how

we love.

Our confidence

as we stand

before Him

is not found

in who we are

but our

confidence

is in Jesus.

Would you pray

with me?

God,

thank You so much

of Your love

for Your

children.

God,

I thank You

that while

we were

sinners,

You loved

us.

And that,

God,

there's nothing

that we did

or nothing

that we could

do to earn

Your love.

But,

Father,

You sent

love

in Christ,

the Son

so that

we could

see

love

and that

we could

be saved

by Him.

God,

I pray

that within

us,

Lord,

there's the

that,

Lord,

Your Spirit

is speaking

to us,

revealing

to us

who we

are in

Christ.

That we

are found

and perfected

and completed

in You

and in You

alone.

And that this

love that we've

experienced

overflows

from us,

is active,

is working,

is moving,

and it

gives us,

Lord,

confidence

that we

see

and know

that we

are Yours

and You

are ours.

And that,

God,

we give all

the praise

and honor

and glory

to You

and You

alone.

Because

we love

because You

first

loved us.

God,

I pray

this

morning,

I pray

for anyone

in this

room

whose heart

is captured

by fear.

Lord,

I pray

that what

they would

surrender

to,

I pray

where would

they come

to the

realization

fear.

Lord,

is there

fear?

What they

anticipate

is judgment.

What they

anticipate

is wrath.

What they

anticipate

is punishment.

But that's

not found

for those

who are in

You.

and today,

Lord,

may

through the

drawing of

Your Spirit,

the drawing

of their

heart,

be found

in Christ

and in

Christ alone.

And it's in

Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.

thanks again

for listening

to the

Willow Ridge

Church weekly

podcast.

We hope

that you

enjoyed

listening to

this week's

message.

If you'd

like to

learn more

about who

we are

or explore

additional

resources,

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