Please find below Brandon's notes from the Mid-service comments this past Sunday. Think through these comments and read the scriptures we have been drawn to. Meditate on your the word and examine your heart and pray for us to come together as one body under the authority of Scripture.  

There are certain words that grab our attention. I think the word “fear” is one such term.

Most of us here today have probably lived in fear of something at some point or even struggle with fears of something right now.

What are you fearful of today?

I John 4:18 says:  

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

If you are a Christian, you don’t have to live weighed down by a fear or worry of bad things happening to you. That’s torment or punishment and it’s not from God. Instead, you’re covered with God’s love in Christ.

As one commentator has put it, “this means that the Father deals with us as He deals with His own beloved Son. How, then, can we ever be afraid?”

Knowing and understanding God’s love for us - His deep, unfailing love for us in Christ - casts out fear. When we read scripture we are reminded that the Christian has nothing to fear.

Think about it. The worst thing that could happen to anyone is to die in their sin, be separated from God and face His judgment and wrath. If you are not a Christian, there is a reason to fear God’s judgment.

But if you are a Christian, our sin debt has been paid by Jesus. We are forgiven, we are accepted by God for all eternity. Nothing can change that.

We are to have awe and respect for God as our Father. But why fear anything else?

Listen closely to Romans 8:37-39

“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, whatever fears and worries you struggle with. Let me encourage you, that you will conquer those fears by trusting in God’s love for you.

Start by studying scriptures that speak about God’s love. Then take the verses that encourage you the most and memorize them. When fear comes, combat it with the truth.

Let’s Pray

Prayer based on Ephesians 3:14-19

Father, we pray together now, acknowledging that our fears keep us from being focused on Your love for us. We ask now that You would root us and ground us in love, that we would be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that we all may be filled up to all the fullness of God.