Week 1 - Oct 9th, 2025 @ YWAM Kona Chris Dupre

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 1 John 4:17 ESV

John, the disciple who leaned on Jesus’ chest, is the same one who teaches about having boldness to stand before God.

Judgment is graduating out of the wages of sin and punishment.

What gives us boldness and confidence before God on the day of vengeance is knowing that every receipt of our sin has already been covered by the blood of Jesus. He paid for it on our behalf.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 1 John 4:18 ESV

Perfected love and torment cannot go together.

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 ESV

How do we grow in loving God more and better?

One way is by growing in the understanding of our sin, because it reveals the depth of His mercy toward us. The only way to truly learn how to love is to first be loved by God. How could anyone possibly love God more for something they don’t even know what it looks like or yet recognize?

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I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Ephesians 1:16-17 ESV

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If anyone wants to grow in the Spirit of wisdom, the foundation must begin with the knowledge of God.. One of the most mind-blowing passages about the love of God is found in His joy. Jesus looked at the cross, and for the joy set before Him, He endured it.

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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrew 12:1-2 ESV

This passage reveals two things:

  1. Jesus considered it a joy to bear the cross on our behalf.
  2. We are His joy. I am His joy.