UNCONDITIONAL: CONFIDENCE

In conditional human love, one of the problems we experience is confidence!  How can we be sure that someone loves us?  How do we trust them enough to have a relationship?  Human love is filled with betrayal, failure, and uncertainty.  We see it every day!  In our sermon series, Unconditional, the sermon is Confidence.  If we cannot trust the love of those around us, then how can we know and trust God’s love for us?  This is the question the Apostle John is answering in 1 John 4:11-19.  He reminds us if we are truly loved, and we are convinced of this, then fear is not an option!  He wants us to know the basic and powerful indicators of this love that give us the confidence to “kick fear to the curb!”  Your love life may be a trail of broken tears, but as you read these words, may you be filled with the undeniable assurance that you are loved forever!  1 John 4:11-19:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 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. 19 We love because he first loved us.  (NIV)