WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:31.439 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.280 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:21.920 Father, Your Word often asks us to zig when the world tells us to zag. Your Word often is 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:29.519 against the intuitions of our present age and our culture, and we confess before you that you are 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:37.040 wise and that when you speak to us in counterintuitive ways, that's what is truly wise. And so, Father, 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:42.079 we confess before you you are going to ask us to do something which is quite counterintuitive to our 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:47.120 culture. So we ask that you would tune our heart, not just to our culture, but to us. And so we ask that 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:52.240 you would tune our hearts to receive all that you want to give us through your Word and all the grace 00:01:52.240 --> 00:01:57.680 that you desire to give us this morning. Tune our hearts to receive that and to respond in a worthy 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:05.439 manner. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. So this morning, I am going 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:13.599 to attempt to not just to defend the indefensible, but to commend the indefensible as something that you 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:19.680 should actually want to do and pray. And what that is, I think if you were to ask most people, they would 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:27.280 say that real spirituality, real religion should take you away from fear. It should deliver you from fear. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:32.879 It should give you a type of confidence with no fear whatsoever. And that would be something that 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:40.159 people will listen to. And I am going to try to get you to say by the end of the service that 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:48.240 I would like to pray most days something like this. Heavenly Father, please make the person and work of 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:55.680 Jesus more and more real to my heart. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, help me day by day to deepen 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:04.480 my fear of you and my obedience to you. In Jesus's name, amen. Fear of you and obedience to you, that's 00:03:04.480 --> 00:03:10.800 not something that's going to sell easily in Canada. But that's what the Bible teaches. And I believe it's 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:18.800 very, very wise, and it's exactly what our soul needs. In fact, in a very funny way, it's as you grow in the 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:25.360 fear of God that you will lose your fear of other things, actually. And if you don't have the fear of 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:31.600 God, you will always have fears of other things, unless you're a sociopath or something like that. 00:03:31.600 --> 00:03:36.160 So let's look. Why am I even talking about this? I'm talking about this because that's the whole book 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:41.520 of Ecclesiastes, which we've been with for nine weeks, now the 10th, is coming up to the end of the 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:47.120 matter. And that's what the end of the matter is, a desire for you to wholeheartedly want to embrace 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:53.439 the fear of God and obeying his commandments, his commands. So let's look. And it's Ecclesiastes 00:03:53.439 --> 00:04:01.920 chapter 12, verses 9 to the end. So it's six verses. Ecclesiastes 12, 9 to the end. And it begins 00:04:01.920 --> 00:04:09.200 in sort of an innocuous type of way. It begins like this. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught 00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:16.240 the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many prophets with great care. I just sort 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:21.040 of want to pause here. This is, on one hand, it's a very innocuous verse, but it's a very important 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:27.600 verse. It shows that Christians, in fact, value the mind. We value study. At least we should. If you 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:33.920 meet a Christian who doesn't value the mind and doesn't value thinking and doesn't value, you know, 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:40.960 doing research, they might sound very pious, but they're not being biblical. The Bible will encourage 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:46.479 us to be thoughtful people, as thoughtful as we can, to be people who seek after true knowledge 00:04:46.479 --> 00:04:51.120 and to base their lives on it and be able to be good communicators. That's what the Bible will form 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:56.240 you to do if you get to know Jesus. So it begins in innocuous, and then it goes to something. The next 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:02.319 verse is, for those of you who write for a living, and for those of you, and by that I include not just 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:06.079 like people who want to write poetry, but also if you have to write government briefs. 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:10.959 And I know that as soon as we say what this is telling us how government briefs would be, 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:15.759 you'll all say to me afterwards, George, maybe in the future I'll write two government briefs. I'll 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:20.560 write one government brief that obeys this, but if I write it the way this text tells me to write it, 00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:25.919 it'll get filled with red lines and crosses out, because as we all know, government briefs, 00:05:25.919 --> 00:05:33.039 the goal is to be as short and boring as possible with nothing that could get anybody upset, right? 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:39.200 So, but this is telling us to write in such a way and to make music in such a way and deliver lives 00:05:39.200 --> 00:05:44.960 in such a way. It should be, it's tattoo on your hand worthy as a verse. And what is it? Look at it 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:52.800 in chapter 12, verse 10. The preacher or the teacher or the sage sought to find words of delight, 00:05:54.240 --> 00:06:01.840 and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The good, the true, and the beautiful. Like, if you're going to 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:08.959 write, write it as beautifully as you can so that people delight in reading it, because you delight 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:15.359 over beauty, right? And you delight over goodness, and you delight over truth. And so, right, and this 00:06:15.359 --> 00:06:21.679 single passage has this as sort of a goal of writing and creativity to write, you know, John O. F. 00:06:21.679 --> 00:06:26.319 used to write a song. He should write in such a way, and the melody should be the one to delight, 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:31.599 they're true. And the good is there too. It's just not as obvious to it, but it's all three of 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:35.280 these. This great thing, in fact, in all of the things, you know, when I said that what you need 00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:40.800 to do is to pray, that I'm hoping that by the end of the sermon, you'll want to say, you know what, 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:44.400 I think I'm going to try to pray, maybe not every day, but at least once a week, that I'll grow in the 00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:51.280 fear of God and keeping his commands. And that's because God is the source. He is goodness himself. 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:59.120 He is beauty himself. He is truth himself. You are being asked to come into the presence of truth, 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:04.079 the true, the good, and the beautiful. And have that be the source and the inspiration about how 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:09.040 you live your life. Like, who doesn't, who shouldn't, who wouldn't want that? If you're honest. 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:16.399 If somebody says, no, no, no, no, I'd rather lies, ugliness, and evil. Well, I mean, if they may be 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:20.399 joking at a party or a bar, but if you really start to take them serious, you don't want to turn your 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:24.959 back on somebody like that, right? Because you want to keep your enemies in, you know, the people who 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:29.279 might harm you in sight. But how would it like? So the words of delight, that's referring to beauty. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:34.560 And then uprightly. We could do a whole sermon on upright. But what upright means here is that it 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:41.679 means moral. It means right. It means that you have the right, you have the right relationships 00:07:41.679 --> 00:07:47.519 with other people. They're right. They fit. They're good. And you have the right relationship with God 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:52.639 and the created order. So that would include the right relationship to animals and plants and trees 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:57.839 and rivers and streams. There's a whole ecological movement right there and contained in upright. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:02.639 And you have the right goal, the right desire, so that you're right with people, right with God. 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:08.639 It's good with them. And you're living in a way which is good and fits. And it's moral. And it's such a 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:15.120 beautiful text because it uses the word upright, because what it says is that goodness ennobles you. 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:26.319 An old-fashioned word ennobles you. Evil and virtue makes you cramped and crooked and tiny and petty 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:33.840 and stunted. Goodness, as you become more good, you stand straight. 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:45.920 It ennobles you. And it's a very, very beautiful, old-fashioned, very uncool, square, non-hip word that we 00:08:45.920 --> 00:08:50.240 should all say, who wants to be cool and hip if you're not upright? I mean, that's what we should 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:55.759 be thinking in our minds, right? So here you have it, the words of delight, uprightly, that's the good, 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:03.039 the moral, and then words of truth. And the word of truth here, it's not truthiness, it's truth. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:09.279 And Christianity at its heart, we are reality respecters. What does true mean? You know, 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:15.600 if you're like Planteus Planteus, when I was taking my, you know, I studied my year of theology with 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:19.600 ultra, ultra, ultra liberal people. And in one of the lectures, you know, I said, well, you know, 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:23.279 you have to pursue the truth. And the professor said, well, what is truth? 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:28.319 Truth. And I said to him, that's exactly what Planteus Pilate said to Jesus. 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:32.319 And he looked at me with a frown on his face and said, that's a bit of a low blow. 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:41.120 And I didn't apologize, by the way. Anyway, we went on, right? But it's a miracle I passed. Anyway, 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:47.100 but truth just means what's real. That's what it means. You want to know what's real. 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:54.300 Christianity will, the Bible will corral you to try to learn to be a reality respecter. What's real? 00:09:54.300 --> 00:10:00.779 That's what's true. We can't know exhaustive truth, but we can know true truth. And that's what the 00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:08.540 Bible encourages us to pursue. And now the Bible is going to sound at first as if it's, as if it's 00:10:09.259 --> 00:10:13.660 contradicting itself. No, sorry, that's, that's a little bit. No, okay. So we have the true, 00:10:13.659 --> 00:10:18.299 true, the good and beautiful. And, and that's what we, we should be pursuing. And now the Bible is 00:10:18.299 --> 00:10:25.659 going to say something about itself, which is really important for us to hear. It's going to 00:10:25.659 --> 00:10:30.699 talk about why it is that Christians historically, not just Protestants, but the early church fathers, 00:10:31.659 --> 00:10:35.659 from the early beginnings of the church, you want to hear this doctrine, go to Augustine, go to 00:10:35.659 --> 00:10:40.779 Chrysostom, like the early church fathers, why it is that Christians believe in sola scriptura, 00:10:40.779 --> 00:10:45.819 not solely scriptura, but sola scriptura. It's in this next verse. And for those of you outside 00:10:45.819 --> 00:10:48.059 the Christian faith, you don't know what I'm talking about. That, that's fine. 00:10:49.179 --> 00:10:53.019 Christians are going to make a big claim about the Bible, and it comes from what the Bible says 00:10:53.019 --> 00:10:58.620 about itself. Look at verse, um, oh, sorry. Yeah, no, it is right here. Verse 11. 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:03.819 The words of the wise are like goads, which I'll explain in a moment, and like nails, 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:13.020 firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. They are given by one 00:11:13.020 --> 00:11:17.340 shepherd. Now, right, all of Ecclesiastes, it's moving to a point, it's going to get us hopefully 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:22.940 to the point where we actually want to pray that we'll grow in the fear of God and, and, and obedience 00:11:22.940 --> 00:11:28.620 to what he, uh, he tells us to do. And so part of the beauty of the Christian faith is seen actually 00:11:28.620 --> 00:11:34.860 in this text. If you, last week we looked at the end before the end, uh, and this week we're looking 00:11:34.860 --> 00:11:39.740 at the end of the end. And last week it described God for the first time in the book of Ecclesiastes 00:11:39.740 --> 00:11:47.100 as our creator. And that is a really important Christian idea, but it sounds, it could lead to 00:11:47.100 --> 00:11:53.899 deism, it can lead to God being very distant, as if God set everything in motion with the big bang, 00:11:53.899 --> 00:11:58.620 and, and now he's sort of off doing other types of things. He's lost any type of interest to it. So 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:04.620 it's an important doctrine about, uh, you know, how things work and everything, but it implies God's 00:12:04.620 --> 00:12:09.740 bigness, his transcendence. He's bigger than the big bang. He's the one who effortlessly can cause the 00:12:09.740 --> 00:12:15.819 big bang. But now God is described as our shepherd and shepherds are right amongst the sheep in all their 00:12:15.820 --> 00:12:25.500 mess. Shepherds get sheep poop on their shoes and they get sheep tufts stuck on their clothes. They're 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:30.780 part of, they get right involved in our mess. And so we have here the beautiful picture of God, 00:12:30.780 --> 00:12:35.900 that the God that is introduced and, and revealed in the Bible is the God who is both 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:42.860 unbelievably transcendent and the creator of all things and, and maintains all, all things in their, 00:12:42.860 --> 00:12:48.060 in their proper existence. But he's also the God who is among us. We're going to be going into Christmas. 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:54.940 Emmanuel. Jesus is described as Emmanuel. He's amongst, amongst us. He's with us in our mess. 00:12:55.340 --> 00:13:01.659 He gets our poop and crap on his boots. He is among us. That's how God is. So it's a very, 00:13:01.659 --> 00:13:10.460 very beautiful image. And this, this, uh, and this shepherd is the one who ultimately causes the words of 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:16.379 Ecclesiastes to be written. I mean, they're written by probably Solomon or not that somebody like Solomon, 00:13:16.780 --> 00:13:22.620 but he's the one who causes the words that we saw in this text to be written. And that's why if I had 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:28.860 had been better organized, I could put on the screen right now, uh, I'd have a really thick black line, 00:13:28.860 --> 00:13:36.060 like about like this all the way across. And on the top of the line, it says God's words and underneath 00:13:36.059 --> 00:13:45.819 it would say all other words, whether angelic, demonic, or human, all other words. Only God's 00:13:45.819 --> 00:13:52.779 words in the Bible are described as being from him. And Christians don't say, well, because of that, 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:58.299 no other words matter. Not at all. I mean, I wouldn't be who I am if I hadn't read Francis Schaeffer, 00:13:58.299 --> 00:14:04.139 if I hadn't read C.S. Lewis, if I didn't know the creeds, if I didn't know the 39 articles in the 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:11.019 Book of Common Prayer with its collects and, and, and, and the ordinal with its preface and, and, and, 00:14:11.019 --> 00:14:16.299 and godly men and women throughout my lives whose words have helped to shape me. These are all 00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:23.339 unbelievably important and unbelievably necessary, but they will sometimes err. Only God's words are above 00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:30.700 that. So it's not solely scriptura, but it's only God's word has that status to inform and to judge 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:36.300 and to shape. And so that the, the, the says, the text here is saying is that the same God who has 00:14:36.300 --> 00:14:43.740 created all things is the same God who is like a shepherd amongst us with in, in amongst our mess, 00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:49.259 guiding us and directing us, touching us, literally, because that's what shepherds would potentially do with 00:14:49.259 --> 00:14:57.019 with the sheep. And he's, and he's the one who speaks. And his words, the words of the, the good, 00:14:57.019 --> 00:15:01.500 the true, and the beautiful, the one who is the source of goodness, source of truth, source of beauty, 00:15:01.500 --> 00:15:09.100 who is beauty himself, truth himself, goodness himself. His words have, in this summary, two functions 00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:15.899 that fit together very, very, very beautifully. One function is to be like the pointy stick that the 00:15:15.899 --> 00:15:22.699 shepherd has to prod the ship, the sheep to move in a good direction. You know, the shepherd doesn't 00:15:22.699 --> 00:15:29.259 prod the sheep to go over the cliff. He prods the ship that prods the sheep to avoid the cliff. He 00:15:29.259 --> 00:15:35.500 doesn't prod them to go to be eaten by wolves. He prods them to avoid the wolf and to go where they're 00:15:35.500 --> 00:15:43.899 going to be safe. And God's words are going to keep poking us, keep, let's be honest, they're going to 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:49.740 irritate us. But they irritate us for our good. They irritate us to go in the direction where we will 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:56.620 find health and wholeness and freedom. And at the same time, they're words that you can completely and 00:15:56.620 --> 00:16:04.139 utterly entrust your life to. And the image here is Louise and I occasionally will go through little 00:16:04.139 --> 00:16:09.100 periods where we like to watch documentaries of things that we would never in a million years do 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:17.179 ourselves. So we'll watch, you know, base jumpers. We'll watch some complete and utter lunatic with a 00:16:17.179 --> 00:16:22.059 suit that when he spreads his legs and his arms, he can jump off of a cliff or a huge mountain and 00:16:22.059 --> 00:16:25.980 glide. We would never do that in a million years, but it's pretty cool to watch sometimes. 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:31.980 Or somebody who'll climb one of those sheer rock faces. That's, we would never do that, but we 00:16:31.980 --> 00:16:36.379 go through periods where it's pretty cool to watch that, right? And if you watch somebody who climbs 00:16:36.379 --> 00:16:42.779 mountains like that, these sheer faces, they hammer things into the crevices of the rock and then they 00:16:42.779 --> 00:16:49.259 get them really solid and then they can hang from them. And you'll, you know, you'll see these, 00:16:49.899 --> 00:16:53.580 always in these documentaries, there'll be some time where they sort of do that and then they'll just sort 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:59.980 of, you know, hang there, you know, a thousand feet above the ground and certain death and just sort 00:16:59.980 --> 00:17:05.180 of hang there and sort of look around, maybe take a picture, look around, comment about how cool 00:17:05.180 --> 00:17:10.059 everything looks, right? And that's what the Bible is, that's what God is saying his word is like. On 00:17:10.059 --> 00:17:15.339 one hand, his word is going to keep poking you and irritating you, but in a good direction. And the 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:21.500 second thing is that once you understand his word, once you come to some understanding of his word, you 00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:30.299 can completely and utterly hold your life, it'll hold you up. It's life-giving. You need it. And that's 00:17:30.299 --> 00:17:35.660 how it's describing it. And it's all coming from the one who is the true, the good, and the beautiful. 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:42.859 Now, the next verse, commentators will spend a lot of time as if the next verse contradicts what's just 00:17:42.859 --> 00:17:49.099 said or if it's problematic, but it's not problematic. It's very wise and it talks about something which we 00:17:49.099 --> 00:17:57.500 really need for our health. Look at what it says in verse 12. It says, my son or my daughter, beware of 00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:03.339 anything beyond these. In other words, of, you know, the books of the Bible, etc. Of making many books, 00:18:03.980 --> 00:18:12.059 there is no end, and much study is wearisome of the flesh. I know we have some people doing their PhD 00:18:12.059 --> 00:18:18.699 dissertations. We're working on their PhDs and they could probably say, lots of working on my PhD. 00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:25.740 I mean, part of the succeeding in your PhD is getting over the wearisomeness of all the writing 00:18:25.740 --> 00:18:30.140 and the rewriting. I know we also have a professor here who probably sends things back to be rewritten, 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:35.019 and they might find reading their stuff. Anyway, you get the point. Well, doesn't this contradict 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:39.740 things? Is this saying, by the way, that C.S. Lewis was doing something wrong because he wrote like 60 or 00:18:39.740 --> 00:18:46.539 70 books? Or, no, it's not saying that at all. It's a very ancient insight which I first had clarity to. 00:18:47.099 --> 00:18:51.019 I don't know how many of you remember the little devotional book by Oswald Chambers, 00:18:51.980 --> 00:18:56.139 my utmost for his highest. I mean, I don't know how many people remember that book. It's a beautiful 00:18:56.139 --> 00:19:01.899 little book to read, a series of little things to think about every day. And one of the things he 00:19:01.899 --> 00:19:07.819 says, and he doesn't deny the use of the mind, he doesn't deny that you need to think and look 00:19:07.819 --> 00:19:14.539 intelligently and study. But he says that often Christians make the mistake of thinking that they 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:22.539 can think their way to clarity on points in the Christian life. But you actually need to obey your 00:19:22.539 --> 00:19:32.220 way to clarity. Obey your way to clarity. I'll be a little bit controversial, and if you want to 00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:37.259 challenge me on this, you can speak to me afterwards. But after we had made our decision to leave the 00:19:37.259 --> 00:19:43.420 Anglican Church of Canada over issues of biblical faithfulness because, you know, because we believe 00:19:44.059 --> 00:19:51.579 that Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 11 is true. And so therefore, if the Anglican Church of Canada 00:19:51.579 --> 00:19:55.900 wants to say that God's mistaken and wrong and Jesus is wrong about a whole pile of things, 00:19:55.900 --> 00:20:00.299 that we can no longer be part of the Anglican Church of Canada. So after we had made that decision, 00:20:00.299 --> 00:20:05.659 but before we'd walked away from our building, there was a woman who came to visit one day, 00:20:05.659 --> 00:20:10.139 and she was an elder in a Presbyterian Church, and her sister was a minister in an Anglican Church. 00:20:10.779 --> 00:20:15.019 And she said something about how you guys have made the decision to leave, and then I asked her 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:20.139 about her sister, and she said, you know, my sister's, well, she said, my sister and I both find this issue 00:20:20.139 --> 00:20:27.579 very, very, very, very complicated. Now, here's where you'll wonder how on earth I ever got a 00:20:27.579 --> 00:20:33.419 counseling degree because sometimes I'm not very nice. I said to her, I didn't, I didn't like, oh, 00:20:33.419 --> 00:20:37.659 yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I confronted her. I said, no, actually, the issue, that isn't the problem. 00:20:38.939 --> 00:20:44.779 This particular issue over blessing of same-sex marriages is very, very, very simple in the Bible. 00:20:45.980 --> 00:20:53.500 But it is a difficult decision to obey it. And I understand that. I can be sympathetic to that. 00:20:53.500 --> 00:21:00.460 But it's not complicated. It's very, very clear in the Bible. I said, that's the problem. It's very 00:21:00.460 --> 00:21:09.579 simple and clear. Complicated to do. Complicated in terms of your job. Or maybe difficult. Difficult 00:21:09.579 --> 00:21:13.579 to worry about your future. Difficult in terms of relations. Like, I understand it's difficult in 00:21:13.579 --> 00:21:20.220 lots of areas, but it's actually very simple. And you can write endless books on it. But your endless 00:21:20.220 --> 00:21:27.339 books aren't going to solve it unless you're willing to obey. And that's what's at the heart of it. 00:21:28.059 --> 00:21:32.620 At some point in time, you study, you study, you read. And then, are you willing to obey? 00:21:36.460 --> 00:21:38.860 I'll say just one other thing about that. If you don't want to think I'm really... 00:21:39.900 --> 00:21:45.660 There was a... In some ways, I'm quite charismatic. I don't mean in a sociological, 00:21:45.660 --> 00:21:53.100 psychological sense. I have no idea about that. But I was really, really, really, really having 00:21:53.100 --> 00:21:59.500 problems to preach a text one Sunday. I think it was in Colossians. And I just, all week, I couldn't 00:21:59.500 --> 00:22:04.700 get the sermon together. And I was living out in Eganville. I was early on in my ministry there. 00:22:05.259 --> 00:22:10.300 And I decided I'd go for a run. And as I was going for a run, and I'm saying that, you know, 00:22:10.300 --> 00:22:13.660 I'm just thinking, I don't know how on earth I'm going to preach this. And then it was as if, 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:19.740 literally, it was as if God spoke to me. And he said, George, your problem is, you don't want to 00:22:19.740 --> 00:22:27.259 tell that congregation that they're dead in their sins unless they give their lives to Christ. 00:22:27.900 --> 00:22:32.779 You don't... You... My problem was, I was trying to wordsmith it. I was trying to think, well, 00:22:33.340 --> 00:22:39.180 you're not quite okay. You know, you're not as whole as you should be. Like, I was trying to think of 00:22:39.180 --> 00:22:44.940 some way to wordsmith it because I was confronted that I was afraid to say something. 00:22:45.580 --> 00:22:49.900 The text was just really clear. That was the problem. I was sort of caught by the text. The 00:22:49.900 --> 00:22:57.420 text said, like, apart from Christ, you're a corpse. That's what it's saying. And I'm trying 00:22:57.420 --> 00:23:01.740 to figure out a way to nuance it. And it was as if God spoke to me on the run. Your problem, George, 00:23:01.740 --> 00:23:04.700 is that you're trying... You don't want to say what the text says. You're afraid to say it. 00:23:05.580 --> 00:23:08.460 And as soon as that came, I went back and the sermon was finished. 00:23:09.580 --> 00:23:13.340 Like, it was really easy to do the sermon. Because my problem was, I didn't want to obey. 00:23:14.620 --> 00:23:19.660 And just in case you're wondering, the next day I said that to the... You know, I'm going through the 00:23:19.660 --> 00:23:23.819 text like this with the congregation. And they might not have quite understood it, but they go, 00:23:23.819 --> 00:23:30.860 oh, okay, well, that's what the Bible says. Like, nobody got mad or left the church over it, 00:23:30.859 --> 00:23:35.979 because they want to just hear what the Bible says, right? And so that's what this is saying here. 00:23:35.979 --> 00:23:41.179 So just to go back in terms of where we are in all of this, we get this beautiful picture 00:23:42.059 --> 00:23:46.139 of the good, the true, and the beautiful. And that when we communicate as much as possible, 00:23:46.139 --> 00:23:52.219 we should try to speak out of goodness and truth and beauty and the delight that comes in that, 00:23:52.219 --> 00:23:57.899 that ultimately God is the source of good and truth and beauty. And that he is not just that, 00:23:57.900 --> 00:24:03.500 but he is also the creator and the shepherd. And he speaks these true words. And the challenge before 00:24:03.500 --> 00:24:12.140 us is, are we willing to obey? And that leads us to, are you willing to pray that you will fear God 00:24:15.100 --> 00:24:22.780 and grow in it and obey what he tells you to do? Look, verse 13 and 14 goes like this. 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:28.940 This is the end of the matter. When I said this is the end of the matter, that's because it says the 00:24:28.940 --> 00:24:34.460 end of the matter. Sometimes Christians just have to be the masters of the obvious or the mistresses 00:24:34.460 --> 00:24:38.059 of the obvious. You don't have to be creative. You just have to say, that's what it says. 00:24:38.059 --> 00:24:43.899 The end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, 00:24:43.900 --> 00:24:51.580 for this is the whole duty of the human being, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every 00:24:51.580 --> 00:24:57.980 secret thing, whether good or evil. I read it again. The end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God 00:24:57.980 --> 00:25:04.220 and keep his commandments, or keep his commands, for this is the whole duty of the person, the human being, 00:25:04.220 --> 00:25:09.019 for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. 00:25:09.019 --> 00:25:16.379 Now, there's a bit of a geek. In the original language, there's four alls, which aren't captured 00:25:16.379 --> 00:25:23.980 in the translation. So if you look at verse 13, it says, all has been heard. And when it says the 00:25:23.980 --> 00:25:32.539 whole duty of man, it literally says, this is all of man. It is literally in the Hebrew, this is all of 00:25:32.539 --> 00:25:39.659 man. And by here, man, you mean humanity. And this is one of those cases where it's best to probably 00:25:39.659 --> 00:25:45.659 translate it as man in the old-fashioned English way, because it's trying to communicate both each 00:25:45.659 --> 00:25:53.420 individual person. This is all of each human being, and it's all of all human beings. And then in verse 14, 00:25:53.420 --> 00:26:00.139 it says, every there means, for God will bring all deeds into judgment with all secret things, 00:26:00.140 --> 00:26:11.660 whether good or evil. So there's four alls here in the text. And it's telling us to fear God, 00:26:12.300 --> 00:26:19.620 and obey his commands. So first of all, I'm going to make it less attractive, but hopefully more 00:26:19.620 --> 00:26:26.920 attractive. There's two different ways to come at this doctrine of the fear of God, and even the use 00:26:26.920 --> 00:26:31.640 of the word fear. Some of your Bible translations avoid the word fear of God. They'll use reverence 00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:41.980 of God or honoring God. And the original word has those elements in it. But you don't want to lose 00:26:41.980 --> 00:26:48.259 the fear of God word there. And because, you see, there's one way of understanding fear of God when 00:26:48.259 --> 00:26:53.560 you're outside of it, looking at it. And there's another way of understanding it when you're inside of 00:26:53.559 --> 00:27:03.179 it. And in a sense, indwelling it. And from the outside, it's connected to this. If you go through 00:27:03.179 --> 00:27:08.779 the whole book of Ecclesiastes, one of the things about the whole book of Ecclesiastes is that it 00:27:08.779 --> 00:27:15.139 keeps reminding you of death. And part of how it's analyzing the human condition is that human beings 00:27:15.139 --> 00:27:23.419 are certain about what is in fact uncertain, and uncertain about what is truly certain. I got this 00:27:23.420 --> 00:27:28.580 from a Scottish pastor by the name of Gibson. He said, the human condition, the book of Ecclesiastes, 00:27:28.580 --> 00:27:35.400 is trying to get us to realize that we're uncertain about what is in fact, in fact, in the real world, 00:27:35.539 --> 00:27:41.840 uncertain. And we are uncertain in our minds about what is in fact, in the real world, 00:27:42.220 --> 00:27:49.539 absolutely certain. And so here would be, you know, an example. And this is where a lot of human 00:27:49.539 --> 00:27:56.159 unhappiness and disappointment comes from, because we're certain we know that, you know, if God's 00:27:56.159 --> 00:28:00.259 blessed you with children, we're certain that our children are going to live long and happy lives, 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:04.420 they're going to have really good, they're going to have, you know, good careers, you know, they're 00:28:04.420 --> 00:28:11.079 going to grow up as Christians, et cetera, et cetera. Or, you know, we're certain about some things that's 00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:16.279 going to happen in terms of a promotion, or we're certain about, well, at the wedding reception 00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:23.700 yesterday. Afterwards, I was talking to a guy, and he introduced himself as a systems engineer who 00:28:23.700 --> 00:28:30.960 just got a job in engineering. And I said to him, are you uncertain about your future? I mean, with AI. 00:28:31.460 --> 00:28:35.379 And he said, well, you know, when I came, when I started into this, I would never believe it would 00:28:35.379 --> 00:28:40.500 come to this. But my future is going to have to be getting into management stuff, because I don't know 00:28:40.500 --> 00:28:44.500 if AI is going to take over large parts of my job, and there'll be far fewer systems engineers. 00:28:44.500 --> 00:28:49.220 Like, what career counsellors five years ago were telling people that? 00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:56.039 I mean, I don't know for certain, but I bet if you went back and looked at the National Post, 00:28:56.160 --> 00:28:59.660 the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, if you went and looked at all sorts of things, they were 00:28:59.660 --> 00:29:05.140 recommending really good careers were to getting into programming. They have great job opportunities, 00:29:05.440 --> 00:29:11.660 really secure future, really lots of work. And now there's an article just in the National Post, 00:29:11.660 --> 00:29:15.980 or the Citizen, or something like that just the other day about how it's really hard for people 00:29:15.980 --> 00:29:21.380 to get introductory jobs in that particular field, because AI is taking it over. But you see, we go 00:29:21.380 --> 00:29:25.900 through life really certain about what is in fact uncertain, because we don't know the future. 00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:29.740 We don't know if we're even going to be alive in a year's time. We don't know if we're going to get 00:29:29.740 --> 00:29:35.980 cancer. We don't know if the economy is going to... We don't know if the economy is going to get skyrocket hot, 00:29:35.980 --> 00:29:40.700 and it's all of a sudden things are really, really well. And how many people wish they could go back 00:29:40.700 --> 00:29:46.319 in time and buy a Bitcoin when they were virtually free, or get an Apple stock when it first opened up? 00:29:46.440 --> 00:29:51.220 Like, you know, if you went back in time and did that, you'd be a billionaire if you got an early 00:29:51.220 --> 00:29:56.140 Bitcoin thing, right? But the future is in fact completely uncertain, but we're certain about it. 00:29:56.720 --> 00:30:03.500 But death is absolutely certain, but the average Canadian is uncertain about whether they will die. 00:30:03.500 --> 00:30:09.839 And then we wonder why we have problems figuring out and managing life and are disappointed time and 00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:15.759 time and time again. And so the book of Ecclesiastes is a reality respecter, and part of that is the 00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:22.019 whole image of death. And last week, if you go back and look, the text says that in death, what happens 00:30:22.019 --> 00:30:29.660 is we return to stand before our Maker. And so what the Bible is really saying here, why is it from the 00:30:29.660 --> 00:30:36.580 outside fear of God? The fear of God is really good from the outside, even though it's not accepted, is it 00:30:36.580 --> 00:30:43.380 need to realize that if you live your entire life in rejection of God, ignoring of God, rebelling against God, 00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:49.300 doing whatever you want, having no time for God, at some point in time, you're going to meet Him face to face, 00:30:49.299 --> 00:30:52.099 and that will break you and crush you. 00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:56.419 You should be afraid of that. 00:30:59.779 --> 00:31:00.599 You should be. 00:31:02.740 --> 00:31:03.659 That's the outside. 00:31:04.579 --> 00:31:07.079 What about the inside of the fear of God? 00:31:07.159 --> 00:31:12.220 Let's say you say, okay, God, George, yes, you know what, I've lived my entire life as if that's not going to happen, 00:31:12.279 --> 00:31:15.279 as if I'll never die, as if I'll never have to appear before God. 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:21.279 And by the way, if you appear before God, what will it be like when He reveals every single secret thing 00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:27.700 that is secret about you and every deed you've ever done, and you're judged by absolute truth, 00:31:28.039 --> 00:31:34.180 absolute truth, not truthiness, not bell curves, but absolute truth, absolute goodness, and absolute beauty. 00:31:36.220 --> 00:31:41.920 And so you take this warning, and you say, George, what do I do? 00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:47.160 And hear the message is, well, you need to get in the inside of that. 00:31:47.300 --> 00:31:53.360 You need to fear God and say, God, and this is for these people 900 years beforehand, 00:31:53.779 --> 00:32:02.039 Jesus, for our Jewish ancestors who were part of that great tree of the faith that we just get grafted into, 00:32:02.039 --> 00:32:08.680 you call out to God and say, God, I want to be in a relationship with you, 00:32:08.740 --> 00:32:12.000 I want to be under your cover, I want to be protected by your mercy, 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:15.879 I don't know how you're going to work it out, but I don't know how you're going to work it out, 00:32:15.940 --> 00:32:19.519 so it's still true, and it's still good, and it's still beautiful, and it's still just, 00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:22.159 that I am under your care and protection, and I have no, 00:32:22.619 --> 00:32:25.619 I don't know how on earth I will ever stand before your judgment, 00:32:25.619 --> 00:32:28.379 but all I can do is call out for you with mercy. 00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:37.679 And for people in Solomon's time, all they could do is trust themselves upon the mercy of God, 00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:40.679 and that he had a history of delivering his people, 00:32:41.219 --> 00:32:44.539 because the exodus was unbelievably important to them, 00:32:45.199 --> 00:32:46.299 and that's all they can trust. 00:32:46.359 --> 00:32:49.059 They don't know how it's going to work in the future, but they can just trust on that, 00:32:49.459 --> 00:32:51.179 and in light of that, I will obey your commands. 00:32:51.180 --> 00:32:53.799 I'm going to talk more about the fear, but we as Christians, 00:32:54.299 --> 00:32:59.440 our understanding of all of this isn't, I don't say to people outside the Christian faith, 00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:01.220 I'm just way better at fearing God than you are, 00:33:01.299 --> 00:33:03.220 that's why I can stand before him in the judgment. 00:33:03.360 --> 00:33:04.420 No, it's not that at all. 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:07.960 I think, is it the offertory we're going to sing? 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:10.140 What is a savior? 00:33:11.019 --> 00:33:16.880 There's a very beautiful hymn from the 1880s or 30s or something like that, 00:33:17.060 --> 00:33:18.519 called Man of Sorrows, right? 00:33:18.600 --> 00:33:19.320 Is that the hymn? 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:20.880 What a savior? 00:33:21.900 --> 00:33:23.420 It has a very beautiful line in it. 00:33:24.279 --> 00:33:28.420 In my place, condemned he stood. 00:33:30.259 --> 00:33:34.279 In my place, condemned he stood. 00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:40.039 See, the message of the gospel is that Jesus, in a sense, 00:33:40.140 --> 00:33:43.039 comes and looks at each person through the scriptures, 00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:44.600 and through our mind and our imagination, 00:33:44.740 --> 00:33:45.840 but ultimately through the scriptures. 00:33:46.060 --> 00:33:48.360 Jesus comes and stands, and at some point in time, 00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:51.000 he taps me on the shoulder and asks me to turn around, 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:52.619 and he looks me in the eye and he says, 00:33:52.740 --> 00:33:56.480 George, will you trust me and believe me? 00:33:57.180 --> 00:33:59.180 Will you ask me into your life, 00:33:59.240 --> 00:34:02.539 and will you allow me to come into your life? 00:34:02.619 --> 00:34:04.160 Will you trust me? 00:34:04.160 --> 00:34:10.400 And I might say to him, you know, Jesus, I do trust you, 00:34:10.460 --> 00:34:14.940 but I don't know if you want to know, come actually be connected to me, 00:34:15.019 --> 00:34:18.820 because there's a lot of real mess inside of me, 00:34:18.820 --> 00:34:25.000 and there's a lot of stuff which is not pretty as being too proud. 00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:26.059 It's like really ugly. 00:34:26.059 --> 00:34:32.239 And he says, I know every one of your secrets, 00:34:34.299 --> 00:34:36.099 and I know everything you've ever done, 00:34:37.099 --> 00:34:39.719 and I know everything about what makes you you, 00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:43.000 because I know all of what it means to be a person, 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:46.219 and still I stand by my offer. 00:34:47.299 --> 00:34:51.699 Will you put your hands in mine and allow me to be your savior? 00:34:51.699 --> 00:34:54.119 I will enter you and you will enter me. 00:34:54.739 --> 00:34:55.819 And you say yes. 00:34:56.779 --> 00:34:58.939 And then you discover this profound mystery, 00:34:59.659 --> 00:35:05.500 that in a sense Jesus stands before God the Father with his arm around me, 00:35:05.739 --> 00:35:08.960 and he says, Father, George and I are one, 00:35:09.439 --> 00:35:11.279 and he has trusted me. 00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:15.299 So Father, I know everything about, 00:35:15.419 --> 00:35:16.480 I know what it's going to cost, 00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:17.839 I know everything about George. 00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:20.400 I would like to stand in his place. 00:35:21.120 --> 00:35:22.440 I would like you, 00:35:22.800 --> 00:35:27.820 I would like that the destiny that I deserve will rest on him, 00:35:28.260 --> 00:35:31.480 and the doom that he deserves will rest on me. 00:35:35.180 --> 00:35:36.840 I will bear his judgment. 00:35:37.579 --> 00:35:39.120 And that's the message of the gospel. 00:35:42.200 --> 00:35:44.960 And it's not just that he does it once and then he ignores you, 00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:50.059 but that you are in union with Christ for the rest of your existence in eternity. 00:35:50.300 --> 00:35:52.920 He is not only a forgiveness of sin, 00:35:53.019 --> 00:35:56.059 but you have his presence to cheer and to guide. 00:35:57.079 --> 00:35:58.860 So how does that fit with the fear of God? 00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:01.920 Well, it does in several ways, just very briefly, 00:36:02.039 --> 00:36:03.820 because my time is coming to an end. 00:36:05.320 --> 00:36:07.039 At the heart of the fear of God, 00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:10.539 a couple of weeks ago I used the analogy of us being, 00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:13.679 part of the human problem is that we think, 00:36:14.179 --> 00:36:15.840 I think I'm like a planet, 00:36:16.059 --> 00:36:18.199 and all of the people are people like, 00:36:18.599 --> 00:36:19.840 are the moons around me, 00:36:19.900 --> 00:36:20.860 but if I'm really honest, 00:36:20.940 --> 00:36:22.099 I think I'm like the sun. 00:36:22.659 --> 00:36:24.099 And all of you folks here, 00:36:24.179 --> 00:36:27.219 you're the planets and you're the moons encircling me. 00:36:29.079 --> 00:36:30.340 You know, and in my marriage, 00:36:30.420 --> 00:36:31.719 I can think I'm the sun, 00:36:31.940 --> 00:36:34.139 you're the planets and the moons circling me. 00:36:34.139 --> 00:36:37.379 And part of the problem is that the fact of the matter is, 00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:38.519 you think you're the sun, 00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:40.940 and I'm one of the planets circling you. 00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:44.659 And we all think that. 00:36:45.539 --> 00:36:50.299 And that's just a recipe for chaos and destruction 00:36:50.299 --> 00:36:52.659 and banging into each other. 00:36:54.159 --> 00:36:56.239 And part of what happens with this whole thing, 00:36:56.379 --> 00:36:58.119 like it's all part of salvation, 00:36:58.279 --> 00:37:00.699 of getting in and trusting God to trust this, 00:37:00.699 --> 00:37:03.559 is that day by day I start to learn 00:37:03.559 --> 00:37:05.000 to say, 00:37:05.639 --> 00:37:07.420 I am a moon. 00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:12.420 And that is good. 00:37:14.039 --> 00:37:16.000 And there is a sun at the center 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:19.299 of our little thing. 00:37:20.440 --> 00:37:22.659 And there's other planets and moons 00:37:22.659 --> 00:37:24.480 encircling all around that. 00:37:24.920 --> 00:37:27.980 And it is a good thing to be a moon. 00:37:29.840 --> 00:37:30.920 It is fine. 00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:32.880 The fact of the matter is, 00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:35.059 is that lots of us not only aren't content 00:37:35.059 --> 00:37:36.000 just to say with sun, 00:37:36.019 --> 00:37:36.800 I had to look this up, 00:37:36.840 --> 00:37:38.820 but the center of the Milky Way 00:37:38.820 --> 00:37:42.260 is Sagittarius A star. 00:37:42.440 --> 00:37:43.840 And a lot of us think we're actually 00:37:43.840 --> 00:37:45.500 Sagittarius A star. 00:37:46.780 --> 00:37:49.260 Entire solar systems involving it, 00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:51.400 and planets, and moons, and suns, 00:37:51.400 --> 00:37:52.460 and all of that type of thing. 00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:54.480 And it is the goodness of just saying, 00:37:54.619 --> 00:37:55.480 I am a planet. 00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:59.139 God is Sagittarius A plus. 00:37:59.780 --> 00:38:00.659 He is the sun. 00:38:02.139 --> 00:38:03.599 And so the fear of God comes 00:38:03.599 --> 00:38:05.619 in not wanting to transgress that. 00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:07.480 You see, part of the mystery of the Tanakh, 00:38:08.460 --> 00:38:09.840 what our Jewish friends call the Tanakh, 00:38:09.900 --> 00:38:11.119 what we call the Old Testament, 00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:13.699 is that often if you look at the Psalms 00:38:13.699 --> 00:38:14.320 and the poetry, 00:38:14.500 --> 00:38:15.980 even the book of Ecclesiastes, 00:38:16.579 --> 00:38:19.099 the fear of God is often in the same 00:38:19.099 --> 00:38:20.800 two verses or three verses 00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:23.159 connected with a longing for God 00:38:23.159 --> 00:38:24.879 and a yearning for God. 00:38:28.119 --> 00:38:30.000 And you see, the fear of the God is, 00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:33.000 it's like if I was to discover one day 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:34.259 that one of my sons said, 00:38:34.359 --> 00:38:36.079 Dad, I have some things against you. 00:38:36.139 --> 00:38:37.480 You know, I've come to realize 00:38:37.480 --> 00:38:40.399 that you always were trying to 00:38:40.399 --> 00:38:42.199 live your life through me, 00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:43.940 and you're violating my boundaries 00:38:43.940 --> 00:38:44.920 of who I am 00:38:44.920 --> 00:38:46.659 and not respecting me as a person. 00:38:47.179 --> 00:38:48.879 And you're not treating me 00:38:48.879 --> 00:38:50.099 as a separate individual 00:38:50.099 --> 00:38:51.599 with my own integrity 00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:52.719 and my own plans 00:38:52.719 --> 00:38:53.639 and my own dreams 00:38:53.639 --> 00:38:54.559 and my own talents. 00:38:54.679 --> 00:38:57.179 You're always trying to overwhelm me. 00:38:57.279 --> 00:38:58.939 And if my son came to me 00:38:58.939 --> 00:38:59.539 and said that, 00:38:59.559 --> 00:39:00.159 or my daughter, 00:39:00.279 --> 00:39:01.699 I would be horrified. 00:39:04.339 --> 00:39:05.379 And I would say, 00:39:05.500 --> 00:39:06.539 please forgive me. 00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:08.000 And I would wish I could go back 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:09.259 in time and fix that. 00:39:10.359 --> 00:39:11.119 And so you see, 00:39:11.219 --> 00:39:12.480 here's the fear of God 00:39:12.480 --> 00:39:13.599 and the love of God 00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:14.799 and the mercy of God. 00:39:14.879 --> 00:39:16.059 How does that work on? 00:39:16.419 --> 00:39:17.119 It's for me to say, 00:39:17.119 --> 00:39:17.699 oh God, 00:39:19.259 --> 00:39:19.679 I am, 00:39:20.179 --> 00:39:21.839 I don't want to start acting 00:39:21.839 --> 00:39:23.539 as if I'm God, 00:39:23.679 --> 00:39:24.759 as if I'm the sun, 00:39:24.839 --> 00:39:26.880 as if I'm Sagittarius A star. 00:39:27.420 --> 00:39:29.400 Help me not to transgress 00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:30.299 those boundaries 00:39:30.299 --> 00:39:31.799 and act as if I'm you. 00:39:32.079 --> 00:39:33.239 Make me content 00:39:33.239 --> 00:39:34.420 to be a moon. 00:39:36.460 --> 00:39:37.659 Moons are still important 00:39:37.659 --> 00:39:38.359 for gravity, 00:39:38.559 --> 00:39:39.839 for us maintaining our place. 00:39:39.900 --> 00:39:41.119 Like, ask a science guy. 00:39:41.159 --> 00:39:41.880 There's all sorts of things 00:39:41.880 --> 00:39:42.579 about being a moon 00:39:42.579 --> 00:39:43.559 which are still really important. 00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:44.460 I just want to be a moon. 00:39:45.340 --> 00:39:46.320 And obeying his commands, 00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:47.500 don't think in terms 00:39:47.500 --> 00:39:48.679 of obeying his commands 00:39:48.679 --> 00:39:50.179 and his words 00:39:50.179 --> 00:39:52.619 in terms of a legalistic threat. 00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:54.099 That's not from the inside. 00:39:54.420 --> 00:39:55.199 The fear of God, 00:39:55.259 --> 00:39:56.380 that's why the fear of God 00:39:56.380 --> 00:39:57.279 is all about not only 00:39:57.279 --> 00:39:59.440 as you enter into the fear of God, 00:39:59.539 --> 00:40:00.320 you're also entering 00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:02.119 into a deeper knowledge. 00:40:02.259 --> 00:40:02.380 You see, 00:40:02.799 --> 00:40:04.759 what my son would say 00:40:04.759 --> 00:40:05.279 if I was, 00:40:05.400 --> 00:40:07.239 if you said I had done that with him, 00:40:07.279 --> 00:40:08.139 he would say to me, 00:40:08.199 --> 00:40:09.059 that means, Dad, 00:40:09.139 --> 00:40:09.880 because you always 00:40:09.880 --> 00:40:11.039 transgressed my boundaries, 00:40:11.279 --> 00:40:12.519 you never loved me. 00:40:13.559 --> 00:40:15.639 Because you can only love 00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:17.639 one who is different. 00:40:19.539 --> 00:40:21.279 And so the clearer the boundaries, 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:22.880 the more the love can be. 00:40:24.019 --> 00:40:25.360 The clearer the boundaries, 00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:26.779 the more I can love God 00:40:26.779 --> 00:40:27.940 and I can honor him 00:40:27.940 --> 00:40:29.239 and I can respect him. 00:40:29.340 --> 00:40:30.059 And that's all part 00:40:30.059 --> 00:40:30.920 of the fear of God. 00:40:31.259 --> 00:40:31.980 And his commands, 00:40:32.179 --> 00:40:33.579 don't think of some type 00:40:33.579 --> 00:40:34.539 of legalistic thing 00:40:34.539 --> 00:40:35.519 coming to crush me. 00:40:35.619 --> 00:40:36.860 It's all the language 00:40:36.860 --> 00:40:37.739 of intimacy. 00:40:40.519 --> 00:40:41.579 It's the intimacy. 00:40:41.759 --> 00:40:42.480 I'm going to go a little bit 00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:43.099 after my minutes. 00:40:43.219 --> 00:40:44.000 I hope you give me 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:45.000 some grace on that. 00:40:45.179 --> 00:40:46.260 I've told you this story before, 00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:46.980 not in a while. 00:40:47.400 --> 00:40:48.719 I was in love with Louise 00:40:48.719 --> 00:40:50.599 and I became, 00:40:50.740 --> 00:40:51.420 I got to know her. 00:40:51.519 --> 00:40:52.559 She was with another fellow 00:40:52.559 --> 00:40:54.039 and I just really wished 00:40:54.039 --> 00:40:54.780 that she wasn't with 00:40:54.780 --> 00:40:55.380 that other fellow 00:40:55.380 --> 00:40:56.280 but with me. 00:40:56.820 --> 00:40:57.579 And one day, 00:40:57.719 --> 00:40:58.820 we were at the same event 00:40:58.820 --> 00:41:00.179 and she was at her seat 00:41:00.179 --> 00:41:01.260 and me and this other fellow, 00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:02.099 we'll call him Bob, 00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:03.460 we go up to the canteen 00:41:03.460 --> 00:41:05.860 and I order the things I order 00:41:05.860 --> 00:41:07.159 and he says, 00:41:07.460 --> 00:41:08.480 I think I'm going to get 00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:09.139 this for myself, 00:41:09.260 --> 00:41:10.280 and then he says these words 00:41:10.280 --> 00:41:11.140 that were like a dagger 00:41:11.140 --> 00:41:11.980 in my heart. 00:41:14.140 --> 00:41:15.320 I know what Louise 00:41:15.320 --> 00:41:16.220 would like to order. 00:41:17.019 --> 00:41:18.320 I'm going to order it for her. 00:41:18.720 --> 00:41:19.640 Why was that like a dagger 00:41:19.640 --> 00:41:20.080 in my heart? 00:41:20.160 --> 00:41:20.940 I had no idea 00:41:20.940 --> 00:41:21.940 what Louise would like. 00:41:24.980 --> 00:41:26.140 I had no idea. 00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:28.760 But he did. 00:41:30.260 --> 00:41:31.760 See, to hear the commands of God 00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:32.980 is to hear what God loves. 00:41:33.940 --> 00:41:35.000 He loves justice. 00:41:35.380 --> 00:41:36.240 He loves mercy. 00:41:36.620 --> 00:41:37.480 He loves goodness. 00:41:37.480 --> 00:41:38.400 He loves beauty. 00:41:38.500 --> 00:41:39.039 He loves truth. 00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:40.000 It's to get to know God, 00:41:40.099 --> 00:41:40.980 to hear his commands. 00:41:43.219 --> 00:41:43.440 You know, 00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:44.659 and as part of maintaining 00:41:44.659 --> 00:41:45.760 an intimate relationship, 00:41:45.900 --> 00:41:46.760 if Louise says to me, 00:41:46.780 --> 00:41:47.360 George, could you, 00:41:47.619 --> 00:41:47.880 you know, 00:41:47.980 --> 00:41:49.000 we have a mousetrap 00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:49.840 underneath the fridge 00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:51.000 and I set the mousetrap 00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:51.760 but it's your job 00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:52.840 to take the dead mouse 00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:53.539 out of the house 00:41:53.539 --> 00:41:55.539 and that's a division of labor 00:41:55.539 --> 00:41:56.280 and she said, 00:41:56.380 --> 00:41:56.539 you know, 00:41:56.639 --> 00:41:56.880 George, 00:41:56.960 --> 00:41:57.740 there's a dead mouse 00:41:57.740 --> 00:41:58.260 and I don't say, 00:41:58.320 --> 00:41:58.460 well, 00:41:58.559 --> 00:41:59.880 I don't have to do 00:41:59.880 --> 00:42:00.460 what you say. 00:42:01.719 --> 00:42:02.480 As you all know, 00:42:02.539 --> 00:42:03.000 that would be 00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:05.380 a successful marriage response, 00:42:05.699 --> 00:42:06.159 actually, 00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:07.659 that would deepen intimacy. 00:42:08.579 --> 00:42:09.079 What you say, 00:42:09.139 --> 00:42:09.299 sure, 00:42:09.359 --> 00:42:09.980 I'll get the mouse. 00:42:10.839 --> 00:42:11.019 Right? 00:42:11.619 --> 00:42:12.960 Think of his commands like that. 00:42:13.039 --> 00:42:14.299 It's connected to intimacy. 00:42:14.519 --> 00:42:15.539 It's connected to love. 00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:16.839 It's connected to how you get 00:42:16.839 --> 00:42:17.839 to know the other 00:42:17.839 --> 00:42:20.500 and that's why the fear of God 00:42:20.500 --> 00:42:21.420 here in this case 00:42:21.420 --> 00:42:22.920 isn't connected to a longing 00:42:22.920 --> 00:42:24.079 and loving of God 00:42:24.079 --> 00:42:25.079 but of his commands 00:42:25.079 --> 00:42:26.779 because how do you know 00:42:26.779 --> 00:42:27.899 the one that you love 00:42:27.899 --> 00:42:28.659 is you learn 00:42:28.659 --> 00:42:30.839 what the person you love 00:42:30.839 --> 00:42:32.699 by hearing what they delight in 00:42:32.699 --> 00:42:34.059 and what they want 00:42:34.059 --> 00:42:36.400 and so you hear 00:42:36.400 --> 00:42:37.539 about God's desire 00:42:37.539 --> 00:42:38.279 for beauty 00:42:38.279 --> 00:42:39.019 and goodness 00:42:39.019 --> 00:42:39.719 and justice 00:42:39.719 --> 00:42:40.360 and mercy 00:42:40.360 --> 00:42:41.039 and truth 00:42:41.039 --> 00:42:42.119 and you are getting 00:42:42.119 --> 00:42:43.179 to know the real God 00:42:43.179 --> 00:42:44.980 and if the real God 00:42:44.980 --> 00:42:45.759 is the one 00:42:45.759 --> 00:42:46.980 who is the good, 00:42:47.099 --> 00:42:47.440 the true, 00:42:47.519 --> 00:42:48.059 and the beautiful, 00:42:48.480 --> 00:42:50.139 why would you want 00:42:50.139 --> 00:42:51.460 any other being 00:42:51.460 --> 00:42:52.239 to be God 00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:53.159 other than that? 00:42:53.940 --> 00:42:55.719 And why would you resist 00:42:55.719 --> 00:42:56.659 the true, 00:42:56.779 --> 00:42:57.000 the good, 00:42:57.039 --> 00:42:57.579 and the beautiful? 00:42:57.579 --> 00:43:00.159 Why wouldn't you want 00:43:00.159 --> 00:43:01.000 to come under 00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:03.119 such a God's care? 00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:09.199 And so my hope is 00:43:09.199 --> 00:43:11.340 that we would want to pray. 00:43:12.139 --> 00:43:13.139 Heavenly Father, 00:43:13.319 --> 00:43:14.539 please make the person 00:43:14.539 --> 00:43:15.599 and work of Jesus 00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:17.179 more and more real 00:43:17.179 --> 00:43:18.059 to my heart 00:43:18.059 --> 00:43:19.679 and by the power 00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:20.659 of the Holy Spirit 00:43:20.659 --> 00:43:22.880 help me day by day 00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:24.699 to deepen my fear of you 00:43:24.699 --> 00:43:26.759 and my obedience of you 00:43:26.759 --> 00:43:27.879 to you. 00:43:28.399 --> 00:43:29.439 In Jesus' name, 00:43:29.500 --> 00:43:29.819 Amen. 00:43:30.859 --> 00:43:31.819 That is the path 00:43:31.819 --> 00:43:32.579 towards sanity 00:43:32.579 --> 00:43:33.379 and wholeness. 00:43:35.159 --> 00:43:36.699 And we live our lives 00:43:36.699 --> 00:43:38.259 in fear all the time. 00:43:39.859 --> 00:43:40.679 We do. 00:43:41.239 --> 00:43:42.279 Fearing of the future, 00:43:42.579 --> 00:43:43.759 fearing of bad news 00:43:43.759 --> 00:43:44.359 in the paper, 00:43:44.599 --> 00:43:45.139 fearing of maybe 00:43:45.139 --> 00:43:46.119 losing our jobs, 00:43:46.319 --> 00:43:47.199 fearing when somebody 00:43:47.199 --> 00:43:47.960 says something, 00:43:48.460 --> 00:43:49.259 fearing about getting 00:43:49.259 --> 00:43:50.139 the Twitter mobs 00:43:50.139 --> 00:43:51.819 and all the social media 00:43:51.819 --> 00:43:52.659 mobs after you. 00:43:52.659 --> 00:43:53.679 And let me tell you, 00:43:54.139 --> 00:43:55.480 the part of the last thing 00:43:55.480 --> 00:43:56.399 about the fear of God 00:43:56.399 --> 00:43:57.440 is you get to know 00:43:57.440 --> 00:43:58.460 that you're just a moon 00:43:58.460 --> 00:43:59.679 and God is more like 00:43:59.679 --> 00:44:00.920 Sagittarius, A star. 00:44:01.019 --> 00:44:01.159 In fact, 00:44:01.179 --> 00:44:02.099 he's way bigger than that. 00:44:02.179 --> 00:44:03.980 You realize God is big 00:44:03.980 --> 00:44:05.379 and everything else is small. 00:44:08.539 --> 00:44:09.679 And that part of what 00:44:09.679 --> 00:44:10.539 the fear of God 00:44:10.539 --> 00:44:11.319 and the intimacy 00:44:11.319 --> 00:44:12.659 that comes with this 00:44:12.659 --> 00:44:13.739 whole idea 00:44:13.739 --> 00:44:14.779 and doing his commands 00:44:14.779 --> 00:44:15.679 will start to form 00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:16.279 within you 00:44:16.279 --> 00:44:17.639 is to order your fears. 00:44:18.899 --> 00:44:20.119 And as your fears 00:44:20.119 --> 00:44:20.920 are ordered, 00:44:20.920 --> 00:44:24.019 many of the smaller ones, 00:44:24.659 --> 00:44:25.400 you realize 00:44:25.400 --> 00:44:25.880 there are things 00:44:25.880 --> 00:44:26.980 you can bring to God 00:44:26.980 --> 00:44:28.000 and he takes away. 00:44:29.559 --> 00:44:30.720 And you stand upright 00:44:30.720 --> 00:44:31.240 and free 00:44:31.240 --> 00:44:32.940 in the good, 00:44:33.059 --> 00:44:33.280 the true, 00:44:33.320 --> 00:44:33.800 and the beautiful. 00:44:34.639 --> 00:44:35.599 Invite you to stand. 00:44:44.400 --> 00:44:45.079 By the way, 00:44:45.599 --> 00:44:48.079 you know what? 00:44:48.200 --> 00:44:49.440 I'm going to say this. 00:44:49.500 --> 00:44:50.480 You don't have to say it out loud. 00:44:50.480 --> 00:44:51.400 I'm going to say that prayer 00:44:51.400 --> 00:44:52.199 one more time 00:44:52.199 --> 00:44:53.159 and I'll say it slowly. 00:44:54.019 --> 00:44:54.719 And for some of you, 00:44:54.780 --> 00:44:55.559 it can just be a prayer 00:44:55.559 --> 00:44:57.599 that you say today 00:44:57.599 --> 00:44:58.659 that you might. 00:44:58.719 --> 00:44:59.360 If you're curious, 00:44:59.500 --> 00:45:00.699 I should have had it written down. 00:45:00.820 --> 00:45:01.780 I didn't come up with 00:45:01.780 --> 00:45:02.559 how to word this 00:45:02.559 --> 00:45:03.719 until late last night. 00:45:04.820 --> 00:45:06.179 I'd had the idea all week, 00:45:06.219 --> 00:45:07.500 but I didn't write it down. 00:45:09.179 --> 00:45:10.240 But for some of you, 00:45:10.300 --> 00:45:11.019 this can also be 00:45:11.019 --> 00:45:12.199 a conversion prayer. 00:45:12.199 --> 00:45:17.039 it can be how you become 00:45:17.039 --> 00:45:17.599 a Christian. 00:45:20.159 --> 00:45:21.460 And so I'm just going to say it 00:45:21.460 --> 00:45:22.039 slowly. 00:45:22.259 --> 00:45:23.259 You don't have to say it out loud. 00:45:23.319 --> 00:45:24.579 Just say it maybe in your heart 00:45:24.579 --> 00:45:25.259 if you want. 00:45:26.019 --> 00:45:27.539 And then I'll close, 00:45:27.779 --> 00:45:28.839 I'll wrap it up. 00:45:28.980 --> 00:45:29.099 So, 00:45:29.500 --> 00:45:30.259 Heavenly Father, 00:45:31.739 --> 00:45:33.619 please make the person 00:45:33.619 --> 00:45:34.179 and work 00:45:34.179 --> 00:45:37.199 of Jesus 00:45:37.199 --> 00:45:39.699 more and more 00:45:39.699 --> 00:45:40.900 real to my heart. 00:45:43.480 --> 00:45:44.679 And by the power 00:45:44.679 --> 00:45:45.639 of the Holy Spirit, 00:45:46.159 --> 00:45:50.059 help me day by day 00:45:50.059 --> 00:45:53.139 to deepen 00:45:53.139 --> 00:45:56.500 my fear of you 00:45:56.500 --> 00:46:00.320 and my obedience to you. 00:46:02.340 --> 00:46:03.579 In Jesus' name, 00:46:03.639 --> 00:46:03.860 Amen. 00:46:04.679 --> 00:46:05.159 Father, 00:46:05.460 --> 00:46:06.460 we give you thanks 00:46:06.460 --> 00:46:07.079 and praise 00:46:07.079 --> 00:46:08.440 that you sent Jesus 00:46:08.440 --> 00:46:09.440 to be our Son, 00:46:09.779 --> 00:46:10.400 our Savior. 00:46:10.619 --> 00:46:11.199 We thank you 00:46:11.199 --> 00:46:12.159 that you speak words 00:46:12.159 --> 00:46:13.039 of truth to us. 00:46:13.139 --> 00:46:13.619 We thank you 00:46:13.619 --> 00:46:14.619 that you are our Creator, 00:46:15.199 --> 00:46:16.699 that you are the Shepherd 00:46:16.699 --> 00:46:17.619 that we need, 00:46:17.719 --> 00:46:18.719 that you are the true, 00:46:18.860 --> 00:46:19.159 the good, 00:46:19.199 --> 00:46:19.779 and the beautiful. 00:46:20.059 --> 00:46:20.940 And we give you 00:46:20.940 --> 00:46:21.880 thanks and praise 00:46:21.880 --> 00:46:22.840 that you desire us 00:46:22.840 --> 00:46:23.759 to be your children 00:46:23.759 --> 00:46:25.039 by adoption and grace. 00:46:25.840 --> 00:46:26.360 And we ask 00:46:26.360 --> 00:46:27.159 that your Holy Spirit 00:46:27.159 --> 00:46:27.920 would move mightily 00:46:27.920 --> 00:46:28.619 in our lives 00:46:28.619 --> 00:46:30.119 and draw us ever closer 00:46:30.119 --> 00:46:30.719 to Christ 00:46:30.719 --> 00:46:32.920 and in the power 00:46:32.920 --> 00:46:33.759 of the Holy Spirit 00:46:33.759 --> 00:46:35.079 to grow in our fear of you 00:46:35.079 --> 00:46:36.299 and our desire 00:46:36.299 --> 00:46:36.820 to obey 00:46:36.820 --> 00:46:37.900 what you tell us to do. 00:46:38.239 --> 00:46:39.039 And we ask this 00:46:39.039 --> 00:46:39.940 in the name of Jesus, 00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:41.059 your Son and our Savior, 00:46:41.799 --> 00:46:43.059 and all God's people said, 00:46:43.759 --> 00:46:44.119 Amen.