Living Fearlessly ... in Perfect Love

Hi, I'm Tony Kostas – and welcome to episode 5 of the Led into Love podcast.

You were made to believe God, to know God, to love God …and you were also made to live fearlessly! 

I know that some of the things that I talk about here can seem like I'm really pointing you to something that's unreal or a high standard – or even something that can make you feel inadequate or a failure, because they seem to be out of your reach. 

But what I'm trying to do – from the depths of my heart – is to help you to see the life, the inheritance that you've been given in God, through Jesus. 

Because Jesus came to give Himself – not just to save people from their sins – not just that they'd be forgiven – not so that they would live in Heaven forever if they believed in Him. But so that they – we, you, me –  could be sons of God … could be as Jesus was. That's what Jesus came to do. 

Everything – not just what I'm talking about, but everything that is written in the New Testament – the things about Jesus, the things about the disciples – the things that, then, these men themselves who wrote their letters: Paul and Peter and James and John – the account of things that Jesus and others of them said – all point to the one thing: that we’re called to share the life of God. 

To start with, God is not afraid of anything. And the inescapable reality of Jesus who – having laid aside the advantage of being God – lived in this world as a man, without the advantage of being God, but lived as a man in the most perfect and beautiful relationship with God the Father – His father, but who is also your Father if you acknowledge Him as your God and if you align yourself with Jesus. 

 That Jesus walked this earth fearlessly, wasn't because He was big and strong. It wasn't because He had an answer for everything, that He was some kind of superhero. It was simply because He walked in intimacy with His Father. 

That is why the apostle John wrote in one of his epistles, in the New Testament: “There is no fear in love, because perfect love casts out all fear.”  That's just the truth! 

If you concentrated on living in a love relationship with God, instead of trying to cope with your fears – trying to get on top of your fears – trying to find out how to counteract your fears … or how to add something to yourself so that you can be on top of things in your life enough that you won't be pushed around by your fears – you are on a fruitless quest! 

But if you take your eyes off fear and live in love, then you'll discover  that perfect love. And by perfect I mean the perfection which is completeness.

I'm sure I've said it already in this podcast, and you'll hear me say it again. If I'm talking about anything that sounds like: ‘Wow – this is out of reach you know. Don't talk about perfection because nobody's perfect!’

Well, if you're a Bible believing Christian, you're in a tight spot when you say something like that … if you say something like that … because perfection is fundamental to relationship with God. 

Now I'm talking about perfection in the terms of where we're talking about perfect love. I'm talking about a love that is complete because it's a love that you are choosing to give. 

Let me say something about love here: Love is an act of will. 

Love is not, as we can often think, an emotion – a feeling. And love is certainly not to do with something that gratifies you. 

Love – genuine love – is the giving of yourself. 

If you read passages in the Bible – particularly, say, take the most famous one: 1st Corinthians chapter 13, the ‘Love Chapter’. And wherever the word love is mentioned, if you replace that with the phrase ‘giving of yourself’ or ‘the giving of self’ you'll get a better idea of what love really is. Because love is you giving yourself. Which means that love is all about giving and not about getting. 

And I hope that many of you who listen to me know that there's a fundamental difference between lust and love. Because lust is you getting for yourself. Love is you giving yourself. They're diametrically opposed. 

When you love, you give yourself. So, love cannot be about you. It's about the object of your love. When you give yourself to God, you give yourself perfectly – completely.  And then you are loving completely. 

And when you love God completely – amazingly you're free of all concern and of all anxiety, and even of speculation, about yourself. 

The reason why God calls us to live in love, to walk by faith, is because He's called us into a relationship that actually believes that God is who He says He is. 

Now there is that other verse that many of you will know, that “…without faith, it's impossible to please God” – and that faith knows, not what it sees, not what it understands – but it knows something that goes far deeper than that. 

In fact “…faith is the substance of things hoped for”. You know that verse in the Bible. Faith actually takes you to a realm of existence, here in this life, that you couldn't live in otherwise. Not as some hopeful thing – but as a tangible thing that is to do with your relationship with God.

And in that relationship with God, you see things, and you know things, that are not natural to you. But they become realities to you – simply because you are living in that relationship with God where you're more aware of the things that are about Him than the things that affect you. 

When you live in a love relationship with God, you know who He is. And in that love relationship with God, you find perfection – you find completeness. You find that the things that would otherwise push you around don't push you around anymore. 

You find that the things that you would be afraid of, you're not afraid of. Not because they've gone. 

Isn't that amazing, with Jesus, that as His 3½ years of ministry were narrowing down to that destiny, or destination, that He knew was coming (the Cross) and things became more and more threatening …right to the time when things became really bad and really brutal – climaxing in His crucifixion – that Jesus doesn't seem to have been thrown at all. We don't see any sign … we don't read any sign … of Him yielding to fear of any kind. 

Now, again, it wasn't because He was a superhero. It was because He was in a relationship with His Father, where His life was not about what was affecting Him. His life was given to His Father and He did not worry for Himself. 

You know that it's also written that you should be anxious for nothing. Anxious for nothing …or ‘don't be anxious about anything’. Now, how can you not be anxious about anything when there are so many things to be anxious about? 

Because, if you come to God, believe that He is who He says He is. And if you believe that He is who He says he is, then He is the Lord – the Creator of the whole Universe – who has given everything to make you His own. 

Not just someone that's His slave. …No way! 

Not even just someone who's His follower. 

But someone who is His own son … and He is your Father. 

And if you believe that He is who he says He is – then you must also believe that you are to Him who He says you are to Him! 

And if you believe that, isn't it ridiculous to try and take charge or keep charge or maintain control … be in control … of your own life, when you have a God who has already given everything? 

You know the verse in the Bible that says: “…He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things?” It's part and parcel of the whole thing. 

Part and parcel of belonging to God, is being free of things that you otherwise have no hope of being free of! 

We all know human weakness. We all know human characteristics. But the point is that Jesus became like us to identify those things, to make the way – not only to show the way, but to make the way – for you and me to live. Not just disregarding things, but live beyond them! Fear and anxiety and all of the things that otherwise would drive you – and in this world that we live in, that is not just an ungodly world …it's an anti-God world! In this world that we live in – fear on all sides, in all ways. Fears within people. Fears outside of people. Fear in your little world. Fear in the world at large. They loom large and larger and larger because this is man … mankind … humanity … trying to make sense of a world without the God who created it. Trying to make sense of being a human being without the God who made us in His image! 

But not so for you. If you believe He is who He says He is, then you must believe everything He says about Himself. 

And I can assure you that you cannot go too far with this. Because there are many people – and many Christian people and religious people –  that will caution you and say: “Just be careful. You’ve got to be realistic. You’ve got to have your feet on the ground.”  

But I'm telling you this – that if you believe God, if you know what you know in your heart, and if you read things in the Bible and your heart says, “That's the truth,” – then believe it!

But even more beautiful than that. Whereas this world talks a lot about ‘meditation’ … ‘going into yourself’ … ‘centering yourself’ … finding peace, finding calm ‘within yourself’ – that's self worship! But I'm talking to you about moving into your relationship with God … entering into God's life and letting God's life enter into your life … living your life with God, so that your life is truly not about you, but about God. 

The only way that you can fulfill what God has in His heart for you, is by coming to a point where you truly have decided that it no longer matters to you what happens to you, because you know, you really know, that it matters to God. 

If I matter to God, then I have nothing to worry about concerning me. But if I'm not sure how much I matter to God … if I'm not sure that God is who He says He is … if I'm not sure that He will do what He says He will do … then the only choice I've got is to fend for myself! 

And one of the saddest things is when you get people who claim to be God's people.  And yet their lives are full of the same provision for themselves … the same anxiety for themselves … they do the same things … they live by the same standards … they acknowledge the same limitations … and God cannot be glorified in the lives of people like that.

And those same people can put Jesus up on a pedestal – and can put other saints and godly people up on a pedestal, as if they were exceptions. But they were supposed to be the way that we are …I won't say ‘they were supposed to be’ … they were what we are now supposed to be – or called to be. 

And if you allow yourself … if you will allow yourself … if you will allow your heart … to respond to God … to move into relationship with God – and don't be afraid where that will take you, because God is well able … in fact He loves to honour people who honour Him. He loves to respond to people who say ‘yes’ to Him. You'll never outdo God. All you'll ever do, at most, is keep responding to God's reaching out to you. 

But when Jesus came, He said, “I come to do your will, O God”. And as He went along – because that was His commitment to His Father – He kept discovering what that was. His Father made sure that He knew. 

And Jesus lived moment-by-moment in that relationship with His Father. He said, “I only speak my Father's words. I only do my Father's works.” 

Now if you desire to know God like that … to live like that … then how can fear push you around? How can fear set the limits of your life? How can fear be the thing that drives you… when your love for God is the thing that leads you? 

Faith, hope, and love are the things that our lives are about – not fear, not anxiety, not struggling with human limitations, not bemoaning all of the things that stop you getting what you want in your life. 

Jesus said, if you seek God's Kingdom first, and all that that means – all His righteousness – then everything to do with this life is going to be taken care of …while you get on with living for God. 

Either belonging to God and knowing him is the most wonderful

 existence in all Creation… or it's nothing … or it's a sham. It can't be anywhere in between. 

If God is who He says he is – and what He calls you and me to is the true life of relationship with God – then it really is as wonderful and as complete as God wants it to be. 

Now, I'm talking to you after many, many years of living with Him, walking with Him, experiencing Him, knowing myself, my humanity – all the weaknesses that come with that humanity. And yet knowing the amazing work of God in my life, and the relationship with God that I have. That I could not have if it wasn't for Him – but I also know I couldn't have with Him if it didn't matter to Him as much as it does. 

And it matters to me more than anything else and everything else. 

I would love to think that anyone hearing this … if you're hearing this – obviously I don't know you … I don't know who you are … I don't know what your life consists of. But I long for you to free yourself, to pursue God, and give God the opportunity to take you where He wants to take you in your life … to make you one of His people in the fullest sense. That's the desire of my heart. 

I'm going to leave this here for now, and I'll be talking some more on the next podcast.