PHOBIAS

arachnaphobia: fear of spiders
ophidiaphobia: fear of snakes
olfactophobia: fear of foul smells
coulrophobia: fear of clowns

Throughout the Bible, fear is often what keeps people from being able to enter into some state of blessing that God intended for them.

Numbers 13:27–33, God put the Promised Land before the children of Israel, but they wouldn’t go in because they were… afraid. The spies came back and said: *“The people there are like giants… and we are like grasshoppers. They’ll step on us, or use us as bait to fish with…” *Ever do that as a kid? Point is, it never works out well for the grasshoppers in a land of giants.
Matthew 14:28–32, Peter won’t walk on the water because he looks around at the storm and is afraid. God’s power would have held him up, but instead, he sank.
Israel makes the golden calf because they are afraid God has abandoned them.
Saul disobeys God because he is afraid of the people.
The Israelites wouldn’t take on Goliath because they were afraid.
God had all the power necessary; their fear kept them from experiencing it!

God knows this is what we’re like. After all, we are creatures in a big, big world.

That’s why the command given most often in the Bible is… “Fear not!”

TEXT

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
1 John 4:16–21

The problem with saying “Don’t be afraid” is that it’s not really something that can be commmanded on its own, is it? When you’re afraid, does someone saying, “Don’t be afraid!” make you not afraid?

Ever been to an aquarium where you walk through tunnel with glass on either side.

If you have claustrophobia (close spaces) or thalassophobia (deep bodies of water) or galeophobia (sharks), and you get into the middle of that tunnel, start thinking about what might happen…

There’s a little sign that says, “Don’t be afraid! This glass was specially designed, it can hold 300 elephants” or whatever example they use.

To have any real effect, “do not be afraid” has to come with a basis, a reason beneath it.

God’s command to “fear not” comes with an explicit grounds.

ANALYSING OUR FEARS

Why does fear have such a hold on us? Why are anxiety & depression medications some of the most prescribed in America?

1. We fear whatever we think can really damage us.

2. Fear is often a type of worship.

Remember glory = weight? Whatever holds most weight in your life is where your glory is. You need it, depend on it for life and happiness, security, well-being.

Something holds the key to our happiness, security, well-being, and so you fear whatever you think can take that away.

That’s why the Bible so repeatedly tells us to fear God—he’s the only one who actually holds the key to our happiness, security, and well-being.

3. Fear comes from a sense of punishment.

Fear comes from a sense of exposure; danger. It’s natural; you want to hide from something.
Or it’s FOMO; believing we’re going to be punished by missing out on what we really want, not trusting the one who loves us perfectly.
Fear has been part of the human condition since the Garden of Eden. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, felt fear after they had sinned.
They felt naked. Previously they had been clothed in the love and acceptance of God. The sense of public nakedness, for normal people, is a type of fear. Do you have that recurring dream?! Is it a pleasant one.
- Since our sin, we have felt exposed. It’s a natural emotion.
- We know we need to run from something; but, our problem is that we just don’t know what to run to.

PERFECT LOVE?

Recap

If we have not love… (eardrums! 😂) …last two verses of the chapter, “he is a liar.”

Breakdown Verses

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.
1 John 4:16–18

God is love. It all begins with Him.
”We love because he first loved us.”(19)
us → him
him → us
us → each other
we love each other like Jesus loved us.
us → world
we love like Jesus in the world.

You may be freaking out about the word “perfect” there… take a deep breath, you don’t have to.

Word translated “perfected” (teleioo) = finished, completed, accomplished, acheived its goal. “Perfected love” is the love of God expressing itself in our love to each other. (A journey can be complete or finished even if it is not a flawless journey.)

DRIVING OUT

It’s replaced with something greater.

FEAR (lack of confidence) ONLY COMES FROM… a. not living in the love of God, and b. not showing the love of God to others

Same word as Jesus “driving out” demons.

So next time you’re afraid, and you want to be NOT AFRAID, dig beneath the surface…

Do I really believe God loves me?
Am I loving others the way He loves me?

God’s love is perfect in…

its intensity toward us (God loved us so much He absorbed punishment for us, and, in Christ, He couldn’t love us anymore than He does);
it is perfect in its security (Christ has removed any threat of God taking away His love for us; I know He’ll never leave me for forsake me, because Christ was forsaken for me);
its ability to satisfy us (we were created for the love of the eternal God; in being loved and possessed and held by Him our thirst is satisfied—the arms we sought in romantic love were His arms);
and finally, God’s love is perfect in its oversight of all things in our lives (we know that the God who controls all the universe loves us and will never leave us and is controlling every molecule in the universe to work out His good and perfect plan for our lives).

If God’s love is perfect, I don’t need my circumstances to be.

When I have God’s perfect love, I don’t need others’ love to be perfect.

When I have the safety of having God’s approval, I can handle you letting me down. I don’t need you to be my everything, and I don’t have to control the future. My soul is anchored in God’s love.

What is it we have been talking about? It is God’s love to us. Get the thought into your head a minute: “God loves me”—not merely bears with me, thinks of me, feeds me, but loves me.

Oh, it is a very sweet thing to feel that we have the love of a dear wife, or a kind husband; and there is much sweetness in the love of a fond child, or a tender mother; but to think that God loves me, this is infinitely better!

Who is it that loves you? God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Almighty, who is it that He loves? Me. The text saith, “us.” “We love Him because He first loved us.” But this is the personal point—He loves me, an insignificant nobody, full of sin—who deserved to be in hell; who loves Him so little in return—GOD LOVES ME. Charles Spurgeon

This morning about 6 AM, it’s still dark in most of the house, I decided I should probably try to eat something, so I threw a couple pieces of ham in the microwave. Now if you’ve ever done that, you know how much noise it makes.

Suddenly, out of the darkness, I hear a timid little voice: “Dad, is that you?” “Yeah, honey, it’s me. Everything’s okay.” “What are you making?!”

When you hear something go bump in the night, need the reassurance that the Father’s still there.

He’s still there for you.

My prayer for you this morning is that you could honestly say these words from verse 16:

We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
1 John 4:16