# Serving out of fear or love

Category: Fear & Worry
Key Passage: Romans 8
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: August 3, 2025

Turn your Bible to Romans chapter number eight this morning. Romans chapter number eight. We’re going to clean our pulpit out for a second here, before a trip or it trips or whatnot. I don’t want to put the bag in the Baptist tree. That wouldn’t be fitting. So we’re going to hold it up here, get ready to go.

Romans chapter number eight, and once you find that, keep a marker there. We’ll start there. We’re going to be over in 1 John also. First John, it’s towards the back part, and it’s just a little before Revelation. Maybe it’s after Revelation. I’m not sure about that. First John, first, second, third, John, Jude, Revelation. We’ll get it here going in just a second.

Starting in Romans chapter number eight, I love it when God puts the service together. Brother Adam did not know when I was going to preach on, but really about the love of God. All our songs are about that. I like that one. God puts it together and puts his confirmation on it. I’m glad you’re here. Good to see every single person here and thrilled you’re in God’s house this morning.

We’re going to read just those last two verses, really just to put God’s signature on this thing of God’s love. We won’t get all the verses talking about, but just these last two verses here. We’ll start verse number 38, Romans 8 and verse number 38. If you’re there, would you say amen?

He says, “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities”—I think that principality has to do with the demonic realm, satanic powers, and all that—“nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

Can I just put it this way: if you’re a child of God, if you’re truly born again, you will always be loved by God. Nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Nothing. Things today, things in the future, doesn’t matter where or what, nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

If you’ve accepted Jesus Christ, you will always be loved. Nothing can change that. Good day or a bad hair day. Some of you had a couple of no hair days, but anyway, no matter what, you will be loved by God.

When you get up and read your Bible like you ought to do, and when you don’t get up and read your Bible and pray, you’re still loved by God. When you win over that sin that besets you, and when you don’t win against that besetting sin, you’re still loved by God.

When you give that gospel tract and you witness like the Holy Spirit is telling you to, and when you don’t give out that tract and you don’t listen to the Holy Spirit like you ought to, you’re still loved.

When you are the child and you’re obeying mom and dad and you clean your room, and when you don’t clean your room and obey your mom and dad, you’re still loved. If you’re a born-again Christian, you are still loved.

When you’re a good, loving husband, calling her sweetheart, making her coffee in the morning. And when you’re the old grouch, the grump, you know, if you’re saved, you’re still loved by God.

When you’re a wife that promotes your husband’s leadership in the home, and when you just have one of those days, you don’t want to do anything he tells you to do, you’re still loved by God. If you’re saved, you’ll always be loved. Nothing can change. At 10,000 years from now, you’ll still be loved by God.

If you’re a born-again Christian, if you fall into sin and you just wreck your life, ruin your life, if you’re a born-again Christian, you’re still loved by God. You always will be. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ.

What the Bible says. I look over from 1st John, if you would please. First John chapter four real quickly here. 1 John chapter four. Look in verse number nine, please.

He says, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.”

Now, “manifested” just means it’s opened up and shown to the world. It’s made clear. It’s manifested. In this was manifested the love of God for us. First John’s written to the family of God, for us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

Would you pray with me that it would not just be kind of redundant, Sunday school, “God loves you” type, but where God would speak to your heart? Would you pray that as I pray the same thing? Let’s pray together. Lord, I do pray that you would make this thing real, Lord, not just at one time salvation, yes for that, Lord. Father, moment by moment, minute by minute, as we seek to live for you, make it real to us, Lord. Even in our bad times, you love us. Lord, help us to comprehend just a little bit more your love. And we’ll thank you for what you do. In Jesus’ name we ask, Father. Amen.

It was Thursday, the week before last. If you want to put that first picture up, we went to what they call Dead Horse State Park. It is in the middle of nowhere in Utah. I say in the middle of nowhere, it’s a little bit outside of Moab. How many has ever been to Moab, Utah? Beautiful country. But then you go outside of that and you travel a good ways to what they call—you’re going up, up, up—to the Dead Horse State Park.

The name came from this. Now, if you loved animals, you might want to plug your ears up, all right, or just remember, I didn’t do this. This is what legend says how they got the name. They said back in the day, cowboys would get a bunch of wild Mustang horses, bring them out. It’s on a plateau, very high up, and it’s got just kind of a peninsula a little bit. They would bring all the horses in there, and they would pick out the horses they wanted, and they would take them. They would leave the rest of the horses there to die. And that’s how it got the name, Dead Horse State Park.

So we’re there, and we had heard—my wife had found out somewhere—that they were going to have a stargazing party. How many have ever been to a stargazing party before? I’d never been, never heard of one. I thought, what do they do? All go out there and do drugs and marijuana or something and gaze at stars? We didn’t buy any, all right? We didn’t do that now. But we thought this sounds interesting, so we went out there and…

It was, to astrology and all that, the darkest night of the year, many said, and the moon was just right, very dark. And then you don’t have the light pollution because you’re in the middle of nowhere, literally. And you’re up on this plateau. It started at 9:30 when the light from the sun is—the sun’s already down, but you still got a lot of light pollution, and that’s starting to dissipate.

A man was there that was very knowledgeable about the stars, and he had a laser that was amazing. He pointed the stars up in the sky and named that star and that star and that star. Pretty amazing. He taught us something. He taught us how to find the North Star. I thought he was cool, so I’m going to try to be cool like him. He taught us how to find this North Star.

He said, “You find the Big Dipper.” How many of you have seen the Big Dipper at nighttime? If you can find the Big Dipper, by the way, here it’s a little bit easier to find because out there you got so many stars. I saw more stars—maybe I see more stars one time my wife hit me real hard. For the most part, I see more stars that night than I’ve ever seen in all my life.

It’s a little of all the stars, a little tougher to point out the Big Dipper. But here it’s kind of easy to point it out at nighttime because you don’t see near as many. If you take the Big Dipper and, of course, the handle of it, and there’s the pot—inside of that is fried okra, by the way, if you ever wonder—and then on one end of the pot there, you take those two stars, you line it up, and it’ll point over to the North Star.

Actually, that North Star is on the tip of the Little Dipper. Some say the North Star is brightest; not necessarily. Usually it is not. But you’ll find it. It’ll go to picture number two, if you would, kind of the same thing, but just a different tip. There it is again, the Big Dipper.

You can go to the third one, if you would, please. Same thing, the Big Dipper. And then it’s pointing over to Polaris, which is the North Star. Now, what’s the big deal about the North Star?

The North Star, if you could line up the axis of the earth and draw a straight line through that and the North Pole up there by Santa Claus, you understand now, you know? And all those presents you didn’t get because you were a bad little boy or girl. Now, you know, I’m teasing, of course. But anyway, if you could do that and draw a straight line, then right above it would be the North Star.

That’s why, no matter where you are in the world, any part of the world, if you can find the North Star, then you know which way is north. Not only that, but if you study a little bit, you can find out how far north you are. If you’re very far south, the North Star is going to be way ahead. If you are standing right on the North Pole, okay, and the reindeer are right beside you and all that stuff, then the North Star would be straight up above you.

Now say all that, let’s say this in life: with all of our ups and downs and good and bad and success and failure in the Christian life, like we all have—you know, on those bad days, you’re going to be tempted not to feel or know that you’re loved by God. I mean, you just did that sin that you said you would never do again. You’ve already did it a million times before. You say, “How do you know that?” Because I’ve been there myself, friend. And you do that again, you’re not going to feel very loved.

But God says, “Hey, the love of God is manifested in this: that he gave us his Son.” So when you get disoriented in the Christian life—and you will get disoriented in the Christian life because you’re human, friend—the thing is you look up and you find the North Star. And the North Star is actually behind the North Star; it’s the cross. And you remember that God gave his Son, and that manifestation shows you the love of God.

When you start doubting that and you don’t feel love and you’re on rock bottom, and you’re not the Christian you ought to be, God’s saying, “Look, I want to give you a bearing that kind of keeps your head on straight, that you are loved by God because I gave my most precious thing in all the world, my only begotten Son. I didn’t give you some little bitty thing out of heaven. I gave you the best out of heaven. I gave you my Son. I watched my Son bleed and die and bear your sins on the cross of Calvary. If that don’t show you I love you, I don’t know what will.”

God says, “I want you to know, no doubt about it, I love you,” and that’s the North Star, the cross. By the way, you’ll need that. You can pull that screen up, if you would, please. We’ll all need that. The cross. Because your heart, deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, will trick you and say that God doesn’t love you anymore and you’re less than lovable and you’re not worthy. And you say, “No, there’s a North Star. I know my bearing. I’m messed up as a day’s long, but I know he loves me because there’s a cross.”

That’s what he’s teaching you. This is manifested the love of God. David, when you committed adultery, when you murdered, when you covered it up for at least nine months, hey, you were still loved even though you’re a horrible creep of a guy at that time. On your worst days, you’re still loved by God.

Now, let’s go to the other side of the street for just a bit here. There are some things you can lose in the Christian life. Okay, if you will, over in Psalms 66 and verse number 18. Psalm 66 and verse number 18. I can never lose the love of God if you’re saved. If you’re truly born-again Christian, there was a time in your life—you might not remember the date, but you remember the time in your mind—when you bowed your head and you trusted fully in Christ to pay for your sins. You will always, always, always be loved. Nothing can change that. You cannot lose that. But there are some things you can lose.

Psalm 66:18. What does the Bible there say? It says, “If I regard…” Now, that “regard” has to do with harboring, I’m holding on to, I’m creating a secret place away from everyone else that I’m holding on to the sin. “If I regard iniquity in my heart”—iniquity is a certain kind of sin; there it is—that’s in your heart. It’s the thing in your heart that allows you to cross the line and transgress sin. If I regard iniquity in my heart, what is the next part of that verse? What is it? The Lord will… Wow.

I cannot lose the love of God, but I can’t lose my power in prayer. Isaiah 59, I’ll just read it for you. The Bible says there, “The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.” It’s not that he’s not able. His hand is not shortened that it can’t get down into your life and do miracles in your life. His ear is not heavy that they can’t hear what you’re saying, but it’s iniquity and the sins in your life. I can lose power in my prayer life.

My old preacher, Brother Donnelly’s brother Howes, when he was a younger pastor in Texas, he had had some battles with some people in the church. And he and a man had just had it out. Years later, he’s in Northwest Indiana pastoring, and his daughter is in the hospital about to die. You know, a daughter can get a hold of her dad’s heart. Daughters can get too much from us, dads. They can get anything in the world. My daughter’s shaking her head and saying, “No, no, no, no, that’s not true.” My wife will give her anything in the world, too, now. But they just wrap us guys around their finger, and his daughter was facing death.

And the news came—they’re in the hospital. Boy, he went along and began to pray, “God, you’ve got to do something for my daughter.” And the Lord said, “Hey, there’s something between me and you because you and that fellow had it out in a bad way, and some things were not right. You’ve never tried to rectify that.” Oh, my goodness, Lord, I’m so sorry. Lord, I’m going to try to make this right.

He went, and back in the day before there was these computer and one-eye monster and cell phones all mixed up on that one little bit of thing, there weren’t cell phones. He went and he tried the payphone at the hospital, tried to call back to Texas. He actually couldn’t get a hold of him at that minute, but he got back on his knees and said, “Lord, I’ll do everything I can to make that thing right.” Later on, he did talk to the man and asked for his forgiveness, and he’s sorry. The man said about the same thing. They made things right. But God heard his prayer. His daughter lived.

You can never, ever, ever lose the love of God. He’ll always let—in fact, even when he’s not hearing your prayers, he still loves you. That’s the reason why when he wanted to make it right, that’s the reason why when he was praying, God said, “Hey, Holy Spirit”—well, Holy Spirit is God—“Holy Spirit, hey, you remember that?” God wanted to hear lovingly, as a father would have a child, and say, “Hey, we need to get this thing right.”

And that’s when he—what does the Bible say? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He still loves us. But I can’t lose power in prayer.

Something else you can lose. You never lose the love of God, but you can lose the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s interesting. There’s a Bible verse that’s just four words: “Quench not the Spirit.” Someone said, “Well, the shortest verse in all the Bible is John 11:35,” and that’s true, but they say in Greek the shortest verse is “Quench not the Spirit.” I read English. I go with John 11:35. That’s all it says.

There’s another passage in Ephesians 4:30, it says, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” I cannot lose the love of God, but I can lose the fire. You say, “Man, that lady, she’s on fire for the Lord. That man, he’s on fire for the Lord.” God does up the Spirit of God. It’s like a fire. Remember the cloven tongues of fire setting on their head? The Spirit came in power at Pentecost. You can quench that fire, and you can grieve the Holy Spirit.

Now, let me say this: even when you lose the guidance and the fire and the direction and the warmth and the love and the sweetness the Holy Spirit brings, even when you lose that, you’re still loved. In fact, that one verse, Ephesians 4:30, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” You’re still saved. You’re still loved. He still cares for you. But the Holy Spirit that wants to do so much for you is grieving.

My wife, about a week or two ago, her uncle passed, and then this week her aunt passed. I was talking with her, and oh, if she doesn’t mind—I tell her those personal stories. I said, “You’re all right.” She said, “Yeah, I think I’m grieving more than I realize.” And the Holy Spirit, he grieves inside of you. He’s just grieving, “I want to help this person. I have so much I can give them, but they will not listen to me, and they’re going their own way, and they want to do their own thing.” And you cannot lose the love of God, but you can lose the power and the sweetness, the fire that only the Spirit of God can bring in your life. You’re loved.

But can I say this? You don’t have the power of prayer. You don’t have the sweet empowering of the Holy Spirit of God. Let me say something else, and we’re going to change this in just a minute here. You cannot lose the love of God, but you can lose the joy of God. I’ve already mentioned David there briefly. David committed adultery and then murdered Uriah, and they hid it for… and all that’s going on. And then he gets right with God after Nathan the prophet comes, “Thou art the man,” you know the story. And then Psalm 51, we call the repentant Psalm. And in that chapter, he says, “Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.” By the way, he didn’t lose his salvation. Oh, no. Oh, no. He says, “Restore to me, not my salvation. Restore to me the joy of my salvation.”

You know, the most miserable person, you know, the person just mad at everybody in the world, don’t talk to them because they’ll bite your head off. You know, you ever meet anybody like that? A lot of times it’s not a lost person. A lot of times it’s a saved, backslidden Christian. They know the joy of God, they know his sweetness, they know his warmth that only he can bring, and they’ve lost it, and they’re backslid and they got no joy and they’re miserable and mad at the world. David had to go, “Lord, restore to me the joy of that salvation.”

You can’t lose this love. Oh, no, nothing can separate you from the love of God, but you can lose your power in prayer. You can lose the fire that the Holy Spirit brings in your heart, your mind. You lose your spiritual energy, and you just—you’ve got nothing left because you’ve grieved the power source. They’ve got no joy. But even during those times when you’re just mad at the world, you’re ready to bite anybody’s head off and just look at you, and just mean and no joy in your life, even during those times, God still loves you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God.

I’ll never forget years ago, my son and I, we flew out of St. Petersburg, Florida. At that time, St. Petersburg Airport was one of those where you don’t—you get on the plane from outside. You go up the stairs onto the plane. Have you ever flown like that? Nowadays, most airports, you go through the terminal and that little walkway. But some of them still, you know, they go up there. You’re outside. And, man, it was beautiful in St. Petersburg, Florida. I mean, just beautiful. It was wintertime. It was maybe, I don’t know, 70, 80 degrees. I mean, it’s just perfect. And we hopped on that plane, and then we flew to Indianapolis, Indiana. It looked like beautiful weather. Sun was shining. It was just beautiful.

And the pilot, his name was Rick Simon—no, it wasn’t—but the pilot came on the speaker and he said, “Now it’s going to get a little turbulence as we descend because there’s a snowstorm going on in Indianapolis.” Now, we’re above the clouds; it’s beautiful. And, friend, even on those days when those clouds of sin and disappointment and discouragement—not what ought to be—are above me and I’m living below that, even on those days, God’s sun of love is still shining. I promise you the sun is shining every day of your life. You don’t feel it because you lost the joy of God, and the Spirit of God’s quenched, but you’re still loved.

Now, let me go on, just trying to develop this a little bit here real quickly. We’ve got to get out of here because we’re going to be back at 6 o’clock tonight. And you’re going to hear Brother Donald. He’ll be—I love to hear his stories. He’s got all kinds of stories about preaching in prisons for 30-plus years. He’s been killed four times and he’s been resurrected. No, I’m joking about all that. You’ll enjoy. He’s got great stories. I’m looking forward to it tonight.

Let me say this: You never have to work for the love of God. There is a difference here. You may have to work to keep your prayer life powerful, keep the Holy Spirit strong, if you will, in your life. But you never have to work. Sometimes I’ve seen us Christians, we’re working trying to earn his love and try to get back his love, and you never lost his love. It still is there. It’s always there. Remember Romans 8: Nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Now, your prayer life can be [affected], but not his love. Never separated.

You’ll find people trying to work to get God to love them when God does just so much. For God so loved the world. It can be especially stronger sometimes if you grow up in a performance-based environment. You say, “What in the world do you mean by that?” Well, maybe when there’s a parent or an authority figure in your life or whoever raised you with—or grandma, grandpa, or whoever may be—where if instead of them disciplining you, they withdraw their love from you. You understand what we’re talking about? And maybe if you don’t just do what’s right, maybe you don’t bathe them—and by the way, I’m for discipline, you know that—but I’m not for withdrawing your love.

And you see, sometimes it can get to the point if you don’t do everything they want you to do—sometimes not even right or wrong, it’s just them trying to get control of everything in your life—and if you don’t do everything they want you to do, they withdraw their love from you. Are you with me out there? Then you kind of transfer that over to God, God being like that. God does chasten us, but God never withdraws his love from us. Never, ever.

But if you grow up and you’re used to people withdrawing their love from you because you’re not everything—sometimes because you’re not making them look good or whatever may it be—and they withdraw their love from you, then you think God’s like that, and God is nothing like that. For he always, even on your worst day, even when you’re a sorry testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ, you make him look bad at work because they know that you’re Christian, but you’re using foul language, and you’re looking at things you’re not to do, and you’re telling all the dirty jokes. And God doesn’t like that, but even on those days, when you make him look bad, he still loves you.

God never is about performance-based Christianity when it comes to his love. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing, my friend.

Here’s the amazing thing about it: even when God chastens you, he still loves you. Look, if you will, over in Hebrews chapter number 12. Hebrews chapter number 12 is typically called the chastening chapter of the Bible. It deals with it a lot, the last part, second half of this chapter. It’s amazing. I find this often in the Bible. We won’t have time to look at all of them. I’ll look at this one; I’ll read two other ones for you. But I want you to notice something, how amazing it is. When God talks about his chastening, more often than not, if you look a little before it or a little after it, he’ll talk about his love.

You see the difference in a home where maybe the outward looks the same—both are getting disciplined—but one is because of the parent, did you notice that? One is because of the child, what’s best for the child. God says, “My discipline is always with the right motives. I’m never withdrawing my love. It’s always the best thing for you.”

Notice how he does. Look over in Hebrews 12. Hebrews chapter number 12. Look at verse number six. Hebrews 12:6. You’re there? Verse number six, he says, “For whom the Lord what?” Loveth, he always—almost every time you find chastening, you look a little before or a little after, he’ll talk about his love. He’s not loving out of anger and mad, and you’re making him look bad. He’s chastening out of love. Big difference. “For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

Later on, Revelation, he’s told to the Church of Laodicea, remember that? Lukewarm. Notice what it says. Let me read it for you in Revelation 3:19: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.” Proverbs 3, verse number 12: “For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

Friend, I’m telling you, his discipline is out of love. Even when the Lord—you’ve ever heard the Lord taking someone out to the woodshed? You ever heard that before? You folks are old. My goodness. Even when he does, and he does do that sometime, he does chasten us, but it is never because he doesn’t love you; it is always because he does love you and he wants what’s best for you. By the way, that’s the way a good parent will do it. That love—that’s what God does.

You see, the motive is very, very important. God’s motive is always love. If I do it, if I’m not careful when I’m doing it for me, it becomes very easily manipulation. You’re manipulating them to do what you want for you. But if it’s discipline, I’m doing it for them out of love. God never manipulates. He always chastens out of love. You never, ever, ever, ever lose the love of God.

So sometimes when I’m trying to earn his love—did you hear that?—when I’m trying to earn his love, you know what that leads to? That leads to discouragement, depression, and defeat—the three Ds. Because you’re never going to earn his love, and you’ll spend your life trying to earn his love when God says, “I love you so much that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.” You’ll always be loved.

But when my motives [are] I’ve got to earn the love of God, you’re going to be so defeated because you’re going to have to be perfect, and nobody’s perfect. Sometimes that results in us just running from God or fooling on it all. I’m tired of that. I don’t want that. I’ll never earn and keep his love. And you’re right, but you don’t have to. By the way, friend, he doesn’t love you because you’re lovely; he loves you because he is loving. You will always be loved.

Why, you can’t lose your salvation. Brother Bill Johan did a great job on Wednesday preaching about that. Great, great message. You can’t lose your salvation. He said, “Now give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man shall pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” You’re secure in the hand of Jesus and God the Father has his hand wrapped around that, and Jesus said, “Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” You earned it? You lose it. You didn’t earn it; he gave it to you. I had given them eternal life, never perish—five times in two verses he says you can’t lose it.

No, you never earn his love; he gives it. Now here’s the thing about it. Here’s the thing about it. Conditional love leads to fear. That’s a sad thing. Let me say this: fear does have a place. It does. Twice the Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Once it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” There is a place for fear. You know, I’ll be honest with you, I got saved as a boy, you know what? Out of fear. I don’t want to go to hell. Come on now. Nothing wrong with that.

Jude, it’s only in one chapter, Jude, verse 22, talks about, “And have compassion, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” That’s not bad. I mean, honestly, I think most people get saved because we don’t want to go to hell. Praise the Lord. I don’t want to burn for one second. But that’s the beginning. That’s the beginning. There’s a place for fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I think America needs a whole lot more fear of God in America. But if I get saved and I’m in saved for 40 years and I’m still running on fear, something’s not right. I’m not matured.

You see, when you get saved, it may be—I can’t put the numbers—it’s different for everybody, different numbers for everybody—but maybe for me, I got saved because in 90% it was out of fear. I don’t want to go to hell. Maybe 10% out of love. I knew God loved me. But as I grow, when I mature, maybe that flips over, and 90% is out of love, 10% fear. When I’m backslidden, not what ought to be, I do have a little fear. I don’t want to get chastened. Not bad. As I grow.

Look back, if you will, in First John, please. First John, chapter four. And look at verse number 18, First John 4:18, please, real quickly here. First John 4:18. Would you find it? Would you say, amen? Good, good, good. Let’s look at that verse. It’s amazing. So much in this verse. We won’t get it all, but notice what it says. First John 4:18: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” Wow.

So as I grow and I transfer over serving and getting saved out of fear to love, the fear leaves. Because it says there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Because fear hath torment. Watch this: “He that feareth is not made perfect.” Now that word “perfect” has to do with mature. They don’t mature into a full-grown Christian. They’re not made perfect in—slapping them over the head by withdrawing your love? No, in love.

If you want to get a mature Christian, you don’t get it out of fear. You get them as they grow, and it kind of transfers over from fear. Now they begin to realize how much God loves them, even on good days, bad days. God loves them when they’re not with all of it; God still loves them. And we love him because he first loved us. And now you’re not serving so much out of fear; you’re serving him out of love.

And that’s how you get a Christian that’s willing to change everything about their life for God: their music, their dress style, their words, their appetite—everything changes. Why? They matured. It breaks their heart to disappoint God. They read one line in the Bible: “This is the way a wife or a husband or a child or a mom or a dad ought to be.” They read one little line that God said, “This is what I want.” They say, “I want to change everything.” Why? Because they love God.

But you get that kind of love for him out of understanding his love for you. You’re grown, or you’re not serving him out of fear; you’re serving him out of love. That’s how you get a mature Christian. “I’ll give everything in my life. Who cares about my nest egg? Who cares about how much money I make? I just want to serve God. I’ll go to the mission field. I’ll serve him in some jungle somewhere. Nobody knows about it. You’ll never be in the newspapers. They’ll never put you out on some Facebook thing, for the most part.” You’re just hidden away from the world, but God knows about it, and you love him, and you’re glad to serve him there in the jungles. How do you get that? Out of fear? Oh, no, friend. Out of love. They’ve been perfected, matured by the love of God.

If I never grow in love and I just fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, well, the Bible just says there’s torment there. And after a while, your adrenal glands get drained, and you’re just worn out, and sometimes you get bitter, and you just want to run away from God and Christianity and everything about it because it’s just all fear. But as you mature, it transfers to love. It’s out of love, even on my worst days. When I sin and I’m less than I want to be and I fail miserably, I don’t feel loved; I look to the North Star, realize he still loves me, and I focus, I dwell on that: He still loves me.

I thought about through this program with pornography. It was a great program. We went through some of the men and whatnot. And I remember one of the men, not in our church, but one of the men saying, “You know, it was a good day for me when I was falling to realize God still loved me at that moment.” He said, “That’s part of my purity.” “In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.”

They say even nowadays in child development, as they study it more and more, they say children who go through major trauma, abuse, just desertion, poverty, neglect, all these things, as long as they have an adult somewhere in their life that loves them unconditionally, there’s a real good chance it’ll be all right. By the way, we’re all the children of God. You’ve been saved 40 years; you’re still a child of God. And it’s unconditional love that is key.

I got to quit. We’re going to close it out. God doesn’t want you living in fear. He wants you to grow to maturity. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” God wants—two stories, and we’ll go home. We are going to land the airplane pretty soon here. The wheels are down. We’re about to land, all right? Ladies, you can put your shoes on. We’re about to go home.

Hudson Taylor. How many ever heard of Hudson Taylor? China Inland Mission. God used him so greatly. Thousands saved. Brought, if I remember, around 180 missionaries to China. Just amazing. God used him so greatly. Hudson Taylor was an old man. He was interviewing young people to come to China as a missionary, and he was interviewing them, trying to question them.

And he asked them, “Well, why? Why do you want to go to China? What’s going to keep you going?” And they all were giving him good answers. They said, “Well, that’s the Great Commission. Go ye therefore into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.” That’s a good answer, but that’s not what I’m looking for. And someone said, “Well, there’s so many perishing millions. The largest country in the world, China today—India is about to catch up—and all those millions perishing. Somebody’s got to reach them.” And Hudson Taylor said, “That’s good.”

On and on they went. Finally, Hudson Taylor said, “You’ve all said good things. But Hudson Taylor is an old man. He buried his first wife on the mission field, married again. He buried children on the mission field. He had been through battle after battle after battle after battle. He was old and weary. And he said, ‘Those are good answers, but they will not sustain you over the years.’ He said, ‘The only thing that will sustain you over the years’—he referred back to 2 Corinthians—‘the love of God can strengthen them.’ He said, ‘That’s the only thing that will keep you going years, years, burying your wife, your children, on and on, is the love of Christ.’ Serving them out of love. That’s why it says in 1 John 4:18 that’s perfected in the love.”

Years ago, last one, we’re done. I was—I wasn’t—I was actually at my house in La Verne at the time. The Mormons were coming down the street. And you know how it is? “Oh no, the Mormons are coming.” And so I got my shotgun out. No, I did not. I went out in the yard. I didn’t invite them in, but I went out in the yard, very kind to them. They were very kind. We talked for over an hour. The young men had good conversation.

I never forget this part of it. I said, “Look, I do the same thing you guys do.” By that, I told them, I said, “I go door to door just like you’re doing, start a church. And I’ll go just door to door down the street. I said, but there’s a big difference between me and you. You do it to go to heaven. You do it to earn your way to heaven. I do it because I am going to heaven. That’s the difference right there.”

He gave it to me. I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve to keep it, but he loves me. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Then we love him because he first loved us. He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Heads bowed, eyes closed. Maybe here this morning you say, preacher, I’m going to go back and look at the North Star. I’m going to focus on the love of God. You know, Jude says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, earnestly contending and battling.” And it’s a battle for the Lord. He said, “Hey, you need to keep yourself in the love of God.” A lot of battles going on. But you said, preacher, God spoke to my heart. I need to go back. It just became kind of redundant to me that he loves me. I need to focus on this thing that he loves me. I’m going to do my best to find and locate the North Star of my life.

God spoke to my heart this morning. That’s you this morning. You just lift your hand and preach. God spoke to my heart. I want to go back and focus on the North Star, his love for me. That’s so key. So key. Sometimes I think we lack that so much. That’s how you get good, strong, sold-out, everything to the Lord Christians. God bless you.

This is a little similar. I’m going to ask you something very, very specific, a little similar: that when you’re at the bottom, you’re just feeling miserably, you hadn’t prayed, you hadn’t walked with the Lord, you haven’t witnessed, you’ve been missing church. But you’re at the rock bottom, but you’re at the rock bottom for you. It’s not going to be easy to remember to think about the North Star during that time. When I’m down, when I’m defeated, when I’m discouraged, I’m going to kind of just do the best I can. I’m going to remember this thing: That’s when I’m going to start thinking about how much God loves me during those times. If that’s you this morning, during those times, preacher, I’m going to think about His love for me. If that’s you this morning, I’m going to commit to try to do that. Would you just lift your hand? I’m going to try to do that when I’m at my bottom. God, that’s so important. That’s so key. That’s what he wants. That’s not going to encourage you to wallow in it; that’s going to encourage you that he loves me. I love him. We just sang it this morning: Love lifted. Let’s put that into practice.

Last question, we’re done. You say, preacher, I’ve never been truly saved. I don’t know that I’ve accepted the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. I need to get saved. I need to make sure I’m a child of God. If that’s you this morning, no one’s looking, don’t be ashamed. Please be honest with me. Preacher, I’m not saved. If that’s you this morning, would you just lift your hand up? I want to help you. I mean, I’d love to help if I can. Anybody like that? You lift it up.

Christian, let’s focus on his love this morning. Let’s love him back. Charles Spurgeon said, “I want the Lord when I say, ‘Lord, I love you,’ the Lord say, ‘Charles, I know it.’” I know it. Let’s live for it.

Father, thank you for Romans 8. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Please, Lord, help us to look at the North Star, your consistent, unconditional love. Lord, help us to be lifted by your love this morning. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Think about him looking down from heaven right now on you and saying your name and saying, “I love you.” Thinking about on your low day, him saying, “I love you,” because he does. You’re mad at yourself, disappointed in yourself, defeated, discouraged. Think about him saying, “Hey, I love you right now,” because he does.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Things present, things to come, height or depth, or any other creature. Satan doesn’t like it when you focus on the love of God. He knows that’s the source. He didn’t like that at all.

I think about our young people over here, if you have been saved, no matter where you go, what you do, you’re going to be loved by God. Always, always, always. And that’s an amazing truth, a promise from God. And praise the Lord. Good to have you in God’s house this morning. Be back tonight and look forward to Brother Donald preaching. It will be a blessing for you. Just good to see everybody today. And praise the Lord for you.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Serving out of fear or love＂ - Sunday AM 08⧸03⧸2025 [d1F3XvAxQ8E]