God’s perfect love does not push fear aside or hide it; it is able to cast out all fear. That is the promise at the center of this message from NTC Ministries, built on 1 John 4:18. The speaker teaches that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, created in Christ Jesus for good works, and that the lies of fear lose their grip when you receive the love of God every day.
He moves from knowing about God’s love to applying it: serving in your own sphere of influence, rejecting condemnation, and seeing, like Elisha’s servant, that those who are with us are more than those against us. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scriptures he uses (linked to the New King James Version), a timestamped outline and practical steps for the week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was posted on January 27, 2025, and runs about 54 minutes, closing with a prayer to receive Christ. It was preached while Dr. Hohman and Pastor Pam were in Minnesota for a wedding and ministry in Russian-speaking churches. The speaker notes that Dr. Hohman had been teaching on love, and asks whether we are actually applying what we hear.
Knowledge puffs up, he reminds the church. Even with great gifts, without love we are only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1–2). Good intentions in our own strength pale next to the supernatural ability God wants to work through us.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | An NTC Ministries pastor (not named in the recording) |
| Series | Single message, following Dr. Hohman’s teaching on love |
| Main text | 1 John 4:7–19 |
| Key theme | Receiving God’s perfect love daily so it drives out fear and condemnation |
| Length | About 54 minutes, ending with a salvation prayer |
An Anointing for Your Sphere of Influence
The speaker opens by saying preaching is “the easy part”: he simply searches out God’s promises and tells people about them. Yet God is no respecter of persons. Every believer has an anointing for his or her sphere of influence, whether that is family, co-workers or neighbors. You did not ask for the family you got or the place you live, but that is where God put you, and the church gathers to be built up so you can go out as His hands and feet.
Often we take steps of faith and do not see the fruit right away. Someone may have been invited a thousand times, he says, but the thousand and first may be the day they say yes. Jesus told His disciples they would have trouble in the world, but to be of good cheer because He has overcome it (John 16:33). His promises are not just for famous evangelists. They are for us, and the greatest in the kingdom is the one who serves without needing a pat on the back.
Meanwhile, thoughts come in and bombard us: you are not good enough, you failed, why try anymore? Those are not God’s promises, he says, so we take authority over them and give no place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). As a child, he was so frightened by the Incredible Hulk bursting through a wall on television that he had to sleep with the light on. As silly as that sounds, it is how Satan works: he meets us where we are and tries to hold back the potential God has for our lives.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made for Such a Time as This
The answer to the lie is the Word. Psalm 139:14 says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” You are God’s masterpiece, the speaker says, not a screw-up. God did not have a glitch when He created you. Born a thousand years ago, you would have been out of place; God designed you for right now.
In the hustle and drama of life, we forget what God thinks of us. Relationships get messy, so we are tempted to back away from people altogether. That is not God’s plan. He gave us parents, co-workers, children, relatives, neighbors and the people we keep meeting at the same stores. When we know we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and the Holy Spirit prompts us, we can speak that truth into someone else’s life, not from a holier-than-thou attitude, but simply to say God loves you.
That is why church matters. We are built up in our most holy faith and encouraged to take the next step. But we cannot sit back and wait for things to happen magically. God uses us, whether one-on-one, in front of a crowd, or on social media.
He has the church turn to their neighbor and say, “You’re not a screw-up. You’re not a mistake.” Then he reads Ephesians 2:10: we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. “It doesn’t get much easier than that,” he says. God prepared our work before we were born; our part is to walk in it with purpose, power and anointing, asking Him to open our eyes to the opportunities He sends.
The Hands and Feet of the Body
We are all different, and thank God for it. Personalities do not always fit, but that is why the hand cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you (1 Corinthians 12:21). He recalls Dr. Hohman’s illustration: lift one foot and every muscle and bone has to adjust. The body of Christ needs men and women, young and old. Some are anointed to lay hands on the sick, some to evangelize, and some to serve with their hands.
He gives a fresh example from that week. A pipe burst at his brother-in-law’s business on a Wednesday, so he brought the youth group to help clean up ice and water. The next morning, opening the church buildings, he heard another pipe burst beside the radio station. Water had run into the radio room, where power strips lay in an inch or two of water.
A staff member, Jody, arrived at the same moment, kept the children away, and called her husband Eddie, who had already been working for hours. The speaker had unplugged the equipment without thinking, and everything was fine. Within half an hour Eddie was there, capped the line, and promised to finish the repair in spring. The church was spared a plumber’s bill because someone said, this is what I can do.
He recalls another time the ceiling over the radio room fell in onto the computers. Does Satan want the church to have a radio station? Clearly not. But we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory, because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
Many are called but few are chosen, he notes, because many sit on the sidelines as “pew fillers,” saying they can barely manage their own lives. Take the step of faith and watch what God does. Things that used to bother you stop bothering you, because great peace have those who love God’s law, and nothing causes them to stumble (Psalm 119:165).
Perfect Love Can Cast Out All Fear: 1 John 4
The speaker then walks through 1 John 4:7–19. Love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God. In this the love of God was manifested toward us: God sent His only begotten Son so that we might live through Him. God, who is love, sent love to us, so that we could receive love and be used by it, just as John 3:16 promises.
Verse 10 says God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus took our sin, mistakes and shame. The speaker admits he still makes mistakes and has to tell people, “please forgive me, I’m wrong,” and his lips do not fall off. But if he holds on to it and stews, Satan bombards his mind. “I don’t remember what happened last time,” he says, “because I’ve been forgiven.”
Verses 11–12 say that if God so loved us, we ought to love one another, and if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. People need to see, hear and feel that we are different. We wrestle not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), so we should not fight one another. If someone rubs you the wrong way, come and reason together. We often look for love in a pet, a spouse or children, but you cannot get any better love than the love God has already given you.
Then verse 18: there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. The speaker asks the church to picture the word cast. It does not push fear to the side, mask it or camouflage it. Like a fishing cast, it is gone, the way Jesus casts our sins into a sea of forgetfulness. That is how God’s love can cast out all fear.
He is careful about the line “he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” He is not telling anyone they are not saved. He is saying Satan is a real liar with real demons who want to grip believers with fear, and we remind Satan that he is the defeated one. When your mind will not stop at night, cast those thoughts out and stand on the promise that your sleep will be sweet (Proverbs 3:24).
The antidote to fear, he teaches, is love, and not just any love but the perfect, unconditional love of the Father. The table below sets the fears he names beside the truth he gives in reply.
| The fear or lie | The truth he answers it with |
|---|---|
| “You’re not good enough” | You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) |
| Fear of failure | By my God I can run against a troop and leap over a wall (Psalm 18:29) |
| Past mistakes and condemnation | There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1) |
| Feeling surrounded by the enemy | Those who are with us are more than those with them (2 Kings 6:16) |
God does not motivate through fear or scare tactics, he says; He motivates through love. He reminds us of His promises, including Psalm 18:29, and that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). Satan’s greatest lie is that we are the defeated ones. Like Dr. Hohman, the speaker says he needs to ask every morning, “God, tell me again how much you love me.”
The only person we can control is ourselves, he says, and God has given us real free will. We choose to receive His love, and in doing so we choose to reject condemnation and fear. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). God’s love is not a flimsy, fleeting emotion; it is steadfast and transforms us from the inside out. He quotes Oswald Chambers: when you fear God, you fear nothing else.
Open His Eyes That He May See
One of the speaker’s favorite stories since boyhood is 2 Kings 6:15–23. Elisha’s servant rose early and saw an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” Elisha answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then he prayed that the Lord would open the young man’s eyes, and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
The speaker breaks it down. First, do not fear, even when it feels like one thing after another, like a week of burst pipes. Second, go to God. We do not have to wait in line; our Father is listening now and knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8). Elisha simply asked God to open his servant’s eyes. Just as we feel spiritual opposition, there are angels all around us fighting on our behalf.
The story ends with mercy. Elisha prayed and the Syrian soldiers were struck with blindness, then he led them into Samaria and prayed for their eyes to be opened. When the king of Israel asked whether to kill them, Elisha said no: set food and water before them. After a great feast they went home, and the Syrian raiders came no more into Israel.
What Satan means for harm, the speaker says, God turns for His good and His glory. God loves even our enemies, and the way to reach them is through love. God did not need Elisha in particular; He uses anyone willing to receive His love and let it flow freely through them.
A Table in the Presence of Enemies
He closes with Psalm 23, read aloud together. We know it by heart, yet we forget verse 4: though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Life is not all “happy, jumpy, skippy.” There are real seasons of difficulty, and in them we look to God as our source of hope, healing, strength and joy. When we have learned this, we are ready the next time hard things come.
Verse 5 is the picture he loves most: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He compares it to an all-inclusive resort where you take whatever you want, whenever you want. That is the Christian life, a banqueting feast paid for through Jesus Christ. Each morning he says, “God, I’ll take a plate of your love today,” along with a glass of joy, a side of peace and some patience, and he can always return for more.
The message ends with an invitation for anyone who has never received this love to run into the Father’s arms of grace and mercy and receive Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior and the lover of their soul.
Living Free From Fear This Week
These steps are drawn directly from the sermon’s applications:
- Ask for His love every morning. Start the day with the same prayer the speaker uses: God, tell me again how much You love me.
- Answer lies with the Word. When thoughts say you are not good enough, speak Psalm 139:14 and Ephesians 2:10 out loud.
- Cast it out, don’t shove it aside. Treat fear and old condemnation as gone, the way a fishing cast sends the line away.
- Serve in your sphere. Look for one practical way to be the hands and feet of Jesus at home, at work or at church.
- Pray “open my eyes.” When you feel surrounded, ask God, as Elisha did, to show you that those with you are more.
- Show love to an opponent. Like Elisha’s feast for the Syrians, choose kindness toward someone who has opposed you.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Welcome and prayer for Dr. Hohman’s travels
- 0:53 An anointing for your sphere of influence
- 2:38 Message title and 1 Corinthians 13
- 4:19 Be of good cheer; the greatest is the one who serves
- 5:19 Negative thoughts and the Incredible Hulk
- 6:15 Psalm 139:14: fearfully and wonderfully made
- 10:48 From faith to faith; we are all different
- 11:54 Ephesians 2:10: created for good works
- 14:23 Different anointings and the burst pipes
- 19:19 Fighting from victory, not for it
- 21:05 1 John 4:7–9: God is love
- 23:11 Propitiation and rejecting condemnation
- 26:47 Love one another and God abides in us
- 31:10 1 John 4:18: perfect love casts out fear
- 34:40 The antidote to fear is love
- 37:58 Free will and choosing to receive love
- 41:29 Steadfast love and Oswald Chambers
- 42:41 2 Kings 6: Elisha and his servant
- 46:44 Blinded Syrians and a great feast
- 48:41 Psalm 23 read together
- 51:45 The banqueting feast of His love
- 53:52 Prayer to receive Christ
Frequently Asked Questions
Does 1 John 4:18 mean a fearful Christian is not saved?
No. The speaker addresses this directly after reading that he who fears has not been made perfect in love. He says he is not telling anyone they are not saved. The verse is warning that Satan is a real liar with real demons who try to grip believers with fear. Our response is to remind Satan that he is the defeated one, because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world, and to keep receiving God’s perfect love.
Why does the speaker say God uses blindness in 2 Kings 6?
He admits that Elisha praying for the Syrians to be struck blind “seems mean,” but asks the church to listen to how it ends. Elisha led the blinded soldiers into Samaria, prayed for their eyes to be opened, refused to let the king kill them, and fed them a great feast. The raiders stopped attacking Israel. He calls it a type and shadow of how God reaches enemies: through love, not destruction.
Why do we need God’s love again every day?
The speaker says we all have the same flesh and deal with the same thoughts that try to come into our minds. Like Dr. Hohman, he wakes up asking God to tell him again how much He loves him. Using Psalm 23, he compares it to an all-inclusive banquet: we can return as often as we need for love, joy, peace and patience, because the feast has already been paid for through Jesus Christ.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- 1 John 4:7–19 — God is love; perfect love casts out fear
- Psalm 139:14 — fearfully and wonderfully made
- Ephesians 2:10 — created for good works
- 1 Corinthians 13:1–2 — without love, a noisy gong
- Romans 8:1 — no condemnation
- 2 Kings 6:15–23 — open his eyes that he may see
- Psalm 23 — a table in the presence of enemies
- John 16:33 — be of good cheer
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this message lifted fear off your heart, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep receiving the love that casts out fear.
