So, allow me, if I may, just to open with a quiz.
While I preach, God's people should do what?
Pray.
And listen, it's a multitasking opportunity.
And I trust that you will continue in that habit and that biblically informed pattern for the remainder of your lives.
I sat on the front this morning, and it has been my habit.
I have never come to this pulpit without a certain amount of trepidation.
I've often thought to myself, if the time would come that I would no longer have a little amount of anxiety at the approach to the pulpit,
that I probably should go sell used cars.
The thing that has remained a consolation for me in those moments is a thing that I remind myself of.
It's this.
I believe in the sufficiency and the authority of the Word of God.
That's what I'm here to preach.
I believe in the efficacy.
That's a fancy word for the effectiveness of the praying of God's people.
That's your part.
And I believe in the work of the Holy Spirit.
That being said, let's pray and dig in.
Amen.
Our gracious Father, this morning we are thankful that you have given to us your Word.
Lord, you have given to us eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have given to us the indwelling Spirit.
And this morning we as your people are here depending upon you to work in our hearts,
to hear, to frame our thinking, and to effect our living for the glory of God.
And we, in advance of that work, declare that we trust you and give you credit for what you will do even this morning in and through us.
And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, the end of the year is an interesting moment in a church's time and in our time.
And it's appropriate for us to kind of stop and think, okay, so what are some thoughtful things that we can glean from this text in relationship to the time we find ourselves in?
And I'd like us to look at several different passages this morning to kind of frame our thinking.
First, I want you to turn in your Bible to 1 Samuel 7, verse 12.
1 Samuel 7, verse 12, finds the nation of Israel at a very interesting moment in their history.
1 Samuel, actually the book of Joshua and Judges and 1 Samuel, if you kind of give yourself a little bit of a history quiz,
you would have to admit is not one of the brightest moments in Israel's life.
If anything, you kind of follow the pattern of Israel and you recognize that the songwriter put it well,
prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.
And you track the history of Israel and you find kind of up and down, up and down from one crisis to another
and just kind of floundering spiritually in many cases.
In this instance, the nation had struggled for quite some time and eventually they'd ended up in a real conundrum
and they'd cried out and asked Samuel to pray for them and following his prayer,
the nation had received a great victory over their enemies, the Philistines.
And in that context, we find that Samuel sets up a stone of remembrance.
And here's what he says there in verse 12.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer.
How many of you remember singing the song, Here I Put or State My Ebenezer?
Remember that?
How many of you are old enough before they changed it in the hymn book and nobody could know what Ebenezer was
and so they wrote it out, Stone of Remembrance, okay?
And so here is Samuel saying, this stone we're going to set up and we're going to call it Ebenezer.
Why is that?
There in the text it tells us, Till now the Lord has helped us.
And what Samuel was doing in that case was he was...
Someone, get me a glass of water, please.
Thank you.
I am going to cough and drive myself nuts.
I don't know about you, but it wasn't planned.
Thank you, Donna.
So here we are.
Israel is reminding themselves of what they had received in the way of blessing.
And I'd like us to kind of take that thought from 1 Samuel and carry it over
and think a little bit about what God has done in 17.
It's behind us.
For all practical purposes, less than 24 hours from now, we're going to be in a new year.
And it's appropriate for us as we kind of think about what God has done to kind of track some of the particulars.
And I want to say in advance that I'm not going to cover all the things that God has done in our fellowship.
But it is appropriate for us to stop and think of some of the things that He has helped us to accomplish.
For one, I walked down our 200 wing this morning and looked at the lights.
And I have to tell you, I thought to myself I was on a runway.
Someone popped through the doors in the Sunday school wing, and I could actually see their face.
It's the first time in 31 years that I could see from one end of the hall to the other.
And it's like, Stephanie, that's you.
It's amazing.
And I actually stopped and thought about the blessings of watching this fellowship for the last several years go through the remodel process.
Now, there are some of you here that don't remember the paneling that we cherish for about 31 years in the lobby.
But I walked in this morning, and I looked around, and I thought, man, there are so many things that we are thankful for that have happened because of God's people working together
and prompted by a desire to make things right, we're seeing progressive improvements in many different areas.
And I want to say thank you.
Thank you very much, Donna, for that.
That's a servant's heart.
You know what?
Thank you for that.
There used to be a bottle here, but someone has absconded with it.
Was that you, Seth?
Okay, just checking.
Kathy said no, so I believe it.
Okay.
But it's appropriate for us to say thank you to the Lord for what he's done.
I have to tell you another little thing that I'm tickled pink with is in our bulletin this morning,
if you notice our bulletin on the back, it says caring for your children.
There are no blanks in that, and there haven't been any blanks for quite some time.
You may not think that's very important, but it is.
And I'm thankful for that.
And I don't mind saying thank you to Jesus for it, right?
It's a blessing that people that have gifts and determination have worked to bring some of these things about.
It's just neat to see the way in which God has helped our fellowship serve so willingly across such a wide scope of things.
I realize that this morning there's snow that we didn't plan on.
But I have to tell you, yesterday there were seven or eight different people here that were helping clear the snow, volunteers.
Just clearing it privately, quietly, without any fanfare.
And coming again this morning, in fact, I am tasked as part of my job of building the grounds or whatever else.
I would take care of snow on Sundays, and it's normally when I'm not preaching, it's fairly easy.
But when I'm preaching, I'd prefer not focusing on snow and the sermon.
Two S's at the same time.
Someone said, Pastor, I've got it covered.
You don't worry about it.
And sure enough, cared for, and I appreciate that.
So many different things.
The way in which you as a fellowship, prompted by the Spirit of God,
willingly serve across the wide range without a lot of duress and pressure.
I look back over the summer ministry that our fellowship had.
I think about VBS.
And by the way, I don't think it's too early to say that VBS is coming in 18, Lord willing,
and there's already work that is going on in putting the artistic part together.
All hands on deck type of thing.
We're working on it.
But I think about VBS.
I think about youth missions trip.
I think about TLC.
And I look in retrospect and really am thankful for the fact that our senior pastor-elect,
Pastor Shearer, God kind of opened up the opportunity for him to just be directly involved
in so much of what was happening in our youth ministry.
And it's been a blessing to us to have his involvement, his leadership in that.
And we're blessed, blessed, blessed by that.
I look also at what has happened this year in neighboring.
And I have to tell you that I really appreciate the tenor and spirit with which we've approached
the matter of neighboring.
And instead of taking it as just a single event that we're going to do this and done,
it's kind of being woven into our fiber and our thinking.
It's a matter of our prayer life.
It's something that engages us in serving the people that we're around on a regular basis,
not for the sake of an incident, but for the sake of the heart of Christ and caring for
other people.
I'm encouraged when I hear the fellowship talking about neighboring, not as something that they're
kind of beating their chest on, but it's just part of their life and their interest.
And that's progress.
I am encouraged to see that the issue of neighboring has not been driven towards,
I want one single opportunity to share the gospel, and after that, I check the box and move on.
Now, I've got to tell you, if you don't know me, you should know that I care about having an
opportunity to talk to people about Christ.
But it's not to be a once-and-done event.
It's something that the ongoing love for people draws us into giving us the opportunities for
that.
I have to tell you, I look back across this last month in particular, and I think about
the Christmas program and the wonderful ministry that our fellowship had with music and weaving
the gospel in in such a clear and pronounced way throughout the entire program, bringing it
together and just making Christ and the gospel stand out clearly.
The luncheon, over 60 people, I think, attended that and very thankful for that.
And I think it's the first year we kind of push at that, but I look forward to us continuing
to make progress in that and very thankful for that.
It's very interesting for us to recognize that we are about seven months away from the conclusion
of our transition period.
And I remember actually beginning the planning for that about eight years ago.
It's hard for us to think about that far back.
But there were those that began thinking about this that far back, and we slowly moving towards
that.
I can tell you with confidence that God has had His hand in this facet and this movement,
and it's a blessing to see it happening the way it has.
We are a week away from having a candidate come to serve, or at least be considered to serve
on our pastoral staff.
And I know that in the last year, we've been praying and praying and praying for God to
provide the right man.
And here we are, again, thanking Him for His hand and His provision and His direction.
And so here we are, looking back across the year, and it is right for us to do what Samuel
instructed the nation of Israel to do, namely, in setting up a stone and saying, hey, this is what
God has done, and this is how far He's brought us, and thanking Him for that.
And I trust that as you walk away from here this morning, one of the things that will be on your
heart is a spirit of thanksgiving that you have been able to see God at work in a body of believers,
producing the fruit of righteousness and producing ministry that is to His glory and to His name.
Now, I want to come to another passage that I want us to focus on, and turn over in your Bible,
if you would, to Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
We look backwards.
Now, I want to come and focus on how do we look forward in a fundamental way and a very,
very simple way.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, if you will follow with me as I begin reading there in verse 10.
The preacher sought to find words of delight, and upright he wrote words of truth, and uprightly
he wrote words of truth.
The words of the wise are like goads and like nails.
Firmly fixed are the collected sayings, and they are given by one shepherd.
Question.
How many of you have been goaded before?
Raise your hand if you have been goaded.
How many of you know what a goad is?
A goad is something that you poke with.
Okay?
You can goad sheep.
You can goad cows.
You can goad husbands.
You can goad children.
You can goad...
You get my point?
Goads are things that you use to sometimes gently move people in the direction they need
to go in.
I mean, you remember what the Scripture says about Paul when he says,
it is hard for thee to kick against the goads, if you remember it in the King James, more or less.
The idea is that, hey, something's pushing you, prompting you in a certain direction.
And here it says, the words of the wise are like goads.
They're valuable.
They're helpful.
And they're like nails.
What you hang things on and depend upon.
Now, look, if you will, in verse 12.
My son, beware of anything beyond these, of making many books.
There is no end.
And much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Now we come to 13.
The end of the matter all has been heard.
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
I want us to think this morning about the importance of believers focusing on Him.
Focusing on Him.
Here we are at the very end of a very broad survey put together by Solomon relating to the issues of life.
And he is bringing things down to the absolutely essential matters.
I remember literally decades ago when the holiday season was graced by just about only one bowl game, right?
Remember the Rose Bowl and that was pretty much it.
And you had one channel to watch it on.
And now how many Rose Bowls are there?
I mean, how many bowl games are there?
I remember looking the other day and I thought, you know, I could kill myself watching all these football games.
It's just too much.
I did watch one, though, last week.
And I remember watching in particular as a receiver ran a perfect route.
The blockers in front of him made perfect blocks and opened up a lane for him to run as soon as he caught the ball.
And Barrett threw a perfect strike.
It was coming right at his numbers.
And he made one fatal flaw.
Do you know what it was?
Before he caught the ball, he planned where he was going.
And you could see his eyes shift and look down the field.
He took his eyes off the ball.
And as a result, when the ball got there, his eyes weren't focused on the ball and he dropped it.
I mean, it was an easy play.
And he failed at the essential thing.
And I bring that up because here is a very simple statement about an absolutely essential spiritual truth.
I'm not going to give you a Bible survey about the fundamental value of fearing God.
You can do that later in your own studies.
But I want you to understand that fearing God is fundamental for us in our walk.
I do want us to recognize on a negative aspect that true God fear, godly fear, is not just a habit or a ritual.
I want you to look at Isaiah.
Keep your finger there in Ecclesiastes and turn over to Isaiah just for a moment.
Isaiah 29, verse 13.
And the Lord said,
Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.
Okay?
So here is something that I want you to recognize.
It's very easy for us to kind of pick up the vocabulary of fearing God and even go through the motions
and not have it make any difference whatsoever in our daily life.
Some of you grew up in liturgical churches.
And by that I mean churches where everything was ritualized.
When you walked into the sanctuary, there were certain things you had to do.
You would genuflect.
You would dip your hand and put water on your head or whatever.
It was all a matter of ritual.
One thing after another.
It was all taught.
Read from a book of prayer, and there was a time to kneel.
There was a time to stand.
Everything was kind of packaged together, and it was taught.
You know, it's easy for us to get caught up in some of the same habits here as believers who know Christ
and yet can kind of let our relationship kind of become just a matter of habit and ritual
rather than a sincere and intimate communion with the living God.
You can sometimes show up and just be sad.
Well, I went.
Did it make any difference in your life?
Are you different as a result of hearing the Word of God and worshiping with God's people
and being in His presence?
Maybe not.
Let me give you a classic illustration of something else that can become just mere habit.
What about praying for food?
How many of you pray fairly consistently for your food if it's over 50 cents?
I know if you're eating fries at McDonald's, you don't have to.
It's a value meal, right?
But we have certain lines that, you know, okay, we've got it here.
But really, sometimes we become just caught up in a habit,
and it's not really making any connection that we're saying,
you know, Lord, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have this.
And I'm thankful for it.
But we can very easily become very habitual in our practice of faith,
and we can go through the routine, and it's just a matter of habit
rather than an affection of the heart.
And so here we find that Ecclesiastes is telling us we've got to fear God.
And I'm telling you this morning that fearing God is not just a matter of habit,
but it's a discipline of the heart that thinks carefully and seriously about who God is
on a consistent basis.
So when we think about fearing God properly, what does that involve?
Well, for one thing, it means that we do give other people good reason to trust us.
I want you to turn back in your Bibles just for a moment to Genesis chapter 48,
42 rather, 42 verse 18.
We find there in Genesis chapter 42,
Joseph interacting with his brothers,
and you'll remember that Joseph's brothers had been rather unkind to Joseph,
and now they are living with a high degree of anxiety that payback is imminent.
They're afraid he, remembering the way they had treated him,
he's now going to get even with them.
But listen to what he says there to comfort their hearts.
42 verse 18.
On the third day, Joseph said to them,
Do this and you will live, for I fear God.
What a summary he was giving them of his life.
You do not have to worry about the way I'm going to treat you.
Why?
I fear God.
And the outflow is this,
is that when we have a right view of God,
the people that are around us
don't have a reason to be afraid of us,
do not have a reason to distrust us,
because we, in our relationship with God,
are going to treat them the way we should.
Why?
Because God's there.
What in particular does it mean to fear God?
I want you to ask yourself that question just for a moment.
Do you know what it means to fear God?
Well, let me give you a couple different things to hold on to.
For one, it means to have a sense of his presence.
It means to have a sense of his presence.
When was the last time that you found yourself tempted to do something
and looked around to see if anybody was going to see you do it?
You ever do that?
You're thinking about doing something,
and one of the things that you do in factoring in the probability of you doing it,
is you kind of like,
I wonder, is anybody going to see me do this?
What you're reflecting on is that you're wondering
whether or not you're going to get caught
or whether there are any consequences.
And when we fear God,
we have a sense of his presence,
and that colors our thinking consistently.
I'll give you an illustration of that.
Children, younger ones in particular,
more readily observed in this,
can be a little nasty to each other
in the absence of parents.
How many of you noticed that?
You as parents are upstairs,
and something's going on in the basement,
and you can hear the conversations, right?
And they're being a little sarcastic,
a little critical, a little sharp,
and then all you do is let them know
that you can hear them,
and what happens?
They have an epiphany.
They have a change of heart.
They're suddenly softer and kinder in their tone.
Oh, I...
Why?
They know you're present.
And the characteristic of a person who fears God
is that there is a consistent sense
that God is present,
and you know he's there.
You know he's there.
Furthermore,
a fear of God
is a reflection of a biblical view of God,
and it's informed by Scripture.
In other words,
I know who God is,
and I believe in him
because of what I have been told
by the Scriptures.
That means that our thinking
has been influenced
and led
by what the Bible tells us
about our God.
Let me give you some of the things
that we all here together
would hold on to
and say,
in principle,
we entirely agree with
that God is sovereign.
He's in control of all things.
It's very interesting
that I hear people hold on
to Romans 8, verse 28
pretty consistently,
and yet they can get caught up
in a high degree of anxiety
when things aren't going their way.
If God is sovereign,
are there accidents
that he has completely neglected
to pay attention to,
and you are left
to your own devices,
and you are floundering
because he's not paying attention?
What's the answer?
No.
Furthermore,
if we believe that God is holy and just,
and he's tracking things,
is there a reason
that we need to become exercised
and demand judgment
and people be dealt with
according to proper pattern?
I'll give you an illustration.
The other day,
I was driving,
actually coming back
from West Jefferson
with the snowblower
in the back of my truck
because I was going to clean
the lot here,
and there was an individual
driving down the road
at a very rapid pace,
came up right behind me,
and I could see his irritation
in the rear view mirror.
And I thought,
well, you know,
the appropriate thing for me to do
was just pull over to the side
and let him pass me.
I mean,
he was in a hurry,
and I didn't want to lose
the snowblower out the back
or around whatever,
and I thought,
you know,
the righteous thing
would be just to get over,
and I was not irritated.
I pulled over,
didn't wave,
I just pulled over
to the side of the road,
put my blinker on,
good driver,
you know,
put my blinker on,
got over the road,
and he zips around me.
I mean,
it was snowing,
you know,
but good tires,
I guess.
He zipped around me,
and the next thing he did
was he gave him
the hand signals.
And I thought to myself,
where are the officers
when you need them?
And then I thought to myself,
that's God's problem,
it's not mine.
You know,
if we believe
that God is sovereign
and God is just
and we believe
that he's holy,
it should play out
in the way
in which practical theology
leads us to behave
when things don't happen
our way,
right?
His justice,
his grace,
his love,
his immutability.
And to fear God
is to think consciously
and deliberately
about the nature of God
regularly in our life
and let it have a part
in the way in which
we structure our daily living
and our attitudes.
A sure reflection
that we do not have
a right view of God
is that when we allow anxiety
to occupy the same space
that belongs to him
and we confess
is part of trusting him.
Or,
a self-righteous insistence
on our own glory
and having things
our way
and easily offended.
Well,
there's another thing
that is an indication
of our genuine fear
of God
and that is a strong desire
to please him.
Not out of a fear
of being punished,
but out of a desire
to satisfy
and please him.
Martin Luther,
in one of his
exhortations
on the subject
of the fear of God,
made a distinction
between,
I'm going to use
a little fancy word here,
servile,
kind of a serving
fearfulness of judgment,
servile fear
and filial
or fatherly fear.
He said that
godly fear
is a fear
that is interested
in pleasing God
and satisfying God,
not a fear
of his judgment
and his condemnation.
Over in 1 John,
it says,
first,
his love,
perfect love,
casts out fear.
It's saying that
our relationship
with him
tamps down
that fear
of judgment.
We know,
as it says
in Romans 8,
there's no condemnation
to them
who are in Christ Jesus.
We have no reason
to fear him.
And so,
what does
a fear of God
do for the believer's heart?
For one,
it tells us in Proverbs
that it is the beginning
of wisdom.
It is the beginning
of wisdom.
And you stop
and think,
just how valuable
is wisdom?
Can you put
a dollar amount
on the value
of wisdom?
Let me give you
some illustrations
that help you
do that.
Several weeks ago,
I was involved
in helping
an individual
in a rather
difficult predicament.
And as we were
going through
the process
of helping him,
it came down
to he needed help
with making
a payment
on a car
that was
three months behind.
doesn't have a job,
but he has a Lexus.
You got that?
And the income
that has come in
sporadically
has gone to
pharmaceuticals
that are not
off the shelf.
Now,
here's my point.
Is there cost
to a lack of wisdom?
And the answer is
there's high cost.
Here is the scripture
that tells us
that fearing God
is the beginning
of wisdom.
It helps,
when we fear God,
our hearts
and our lives
are governed
by instruction
from him
and we don't drift
to the left
or the right
and we keep ourselves
in a place
of safety
with him.
Furthermore,
a fear of God
opens our eyes
to see things
that we would not
see apart
from a right view
of God.
Turn in your Bible
to Psalm 25,
verse 12 through 14.
Psalm 25,
12 through 14.
Fearing God
gives us
understanding
that we would
not have otherwise.
Who is the man
who fears the Lord
him will he instruct
in the way
that he should choose.
His soul
shall abide
in well-being
and his offspring
shall inherit the land.
The friendship
of the Lord
is for those
who fear him
and he makes
known to them
his covenant.
Stop and think
about what that
passage is saying
and its value
to us.
It says,
the man
who fears the Lord
is the one
that God
is going
to instruct.
How does that
play out?
When we have
a right view
of God
and we long
to know him,
our heart
is an open
vessel
to receive
the truth
of who he is.
When we
in our stubbornness
and our resistance
have no interest
in God
and no fear
of God,
we're not going
to learn the things
he has for us.
There are some
of you sitting
here this morning
that are thinking
to yourself,
why is it
that my relationship
with God
in 17
has not been
more vibrant
and marked
by greater growth?
Ask yourself
the question,
do I fear God?
Am I governed
in my thinking
about God
by what the
scriptures tell me
is true about God
or am I demanding
that he be like
I want him to be,
kind of a guy
up there that gives
me what I want,
in any case,
in any case
that I have a desire?
I want us to
recognize that
a fear of God
also checks
our natural
selfishness,
our irritability,
our pride.
A fear of God
checks
our natural
selfishness,
our irritability,
and pride.
Interestingly enough,
I remember
a conversation
not too long ago
with an individual
and I made the statement,
hey, I'm still
working on my pride.
The person
looked at me,
it wasn't in our
fellowship,
everybody knows
I'm working on
my pride here,
but you know,
you're working
on your pride?
Yeah, I am.
I've had a lifelong
battle with it.
Really?
Yeah.
A fear of God
keeps that in check
by reminding you
of who you are
and where you are.
Furthermore,
a fear of God
keeps us from sin.
Keeps us from sin.
I want to plead
with you this morning
that a protective
nature of a fear
of God
is a wholesome
desire
to not sin.
A fear of God
keeps us
from sin.
When was the last time
that you found
yourself consciously
and deliberately
debating
doing something
that you knew
was wrong,
you knew nobody
else was watching,
and you reminded
yourself that God
was present
and He was paying
attention to your heart?
A fear of God
will keep us
from sin.
For the sake
of self-diagnosis,
let's just ask ourselves
a couple quick questions
here
to kind of help you
evaluate whether or not
you have a fear of God.
So here we go.
How easily
are you offended
when people
mistreat you
or say unkind
things about you?
How easily
are you offended
or irritated
when people
mistreat you
or say unkind
things about you?
A reminder,
remember when
Shimei threw stones
and dust at David
and David's friends
wanted to hack
the guy to death
and David said,
what, what, what?
Are you not
paying attention?
He's doing this
because God's allowed it
and God may
do something
in my favor
as a result
where I respond.
That's kind of
a free rendition.
Okay.
How often
do you allow,
listen carefully,
how often
do you allow
anger or moodiness
to put ugly marks
on your relationships?
Let me say that slowly.
How often
do you allow
anger or moodiness
to put ugly marks
on your relationship?
relationship?
How many of you
know what I mean?
It's where you
wake up
and you know
you got a bad attitude
but you think
your wife ought
to have a part
to play in that
and let her know
you have a bad attitude,
right?
How often
do you let
anger or moodiness
put an ugly mark
on your relationship?
Here,
how quickly
do you ask
for forgiveness
when you've sinned
against someone else?
Yes.
Everybody,
I have a little
theology quiz.
Any of us in here
sin free?
Raise your hand.
No one sin free.
How many of you
have sinned
in the last 24 hours?
Didn't have to
raise your hands,
okay?
How many of you
having sinned,
a lot of our sins
happen to other people.
Do you follow
what I'm saying here?
Other people
are affected
by our sin.
So who did you
go to last
and say,
listen,
I am grieved
that I've sinned
against God
and you have also
been the recipient
of that.
Will you forgive me?
How often
do you ask
other people
to forgive you?
When you do
find yourself
tempted,
do you stop
to think
that God knows
and sees?
How quickly
do you remind
yourself that
God's present
and He's paying
attention?
So,
to summarize
it this way
before we step
to one other piece,
ask yourself
this question
practically,
do I fear
God?
Check the box,
yes,
not like I should.
Let's come
to the last part
of Ecclesiastes
and close.
In the passage,
the writer says this,
the end of the matter,
in other words,
hey,
this is it,
this is the whole
part,
fear God
and keep His
commandments
for this is
the whole
duty of man.
In the end,
we're talking
about applied
theology here,
namely,
keeping His
commandments,
in the end,
the way we think
and act
is a reflection
of what we
believe about
our God.
God.
Do you follow
me?
The way we
think and act
is a reflection
of what we
believe,
what we think
about our God.
Let me give you
an illustration
just off the top
here.
When we steal,
what are we
saying about the
God who we
believe provides?
us?
Hmm?
When we
disobey a
clear command
and instruction,
what are we
saying about
God's wisdom?
I want you
to understand
that the
passage that
tells us
keep His
commandments
is telling us
in practical
terms,
show what
you actually
believe about
God in
behavior that
honors Him.
Practically
speaking,
our obedience
affirms our
love.
John chapter
14,
verse 15,
by this shall
all men know
that you are
my disciples,
He said
elsewhere,
because you
love one
another.
But in
14,
15,
He says,
if you
love me,
what?
What?
Keep my
commandments.
Keep my
commandments.
Our
obedience is
also one of
the means of
grace,
in that some
of the blessings
that we stand
to receive do
not fall
apart from
obedience.
What do I
mean by that?
no farmer
was ever
blessed with
a good crop
apart from
dogged
obedience to
getting up and
going to work
on a daily
basis.
Does that make
sense?
Obedience
is one of the
means of
grace.
And when you
obey Him
and do that
which pleases
Him,
it means you
are in the
place where
blessing
happens.
Let me
close by
asking you a
couple very
practical questions
at the end.
First of all
is this,
have you
come to the
place where
the fear of
God has
taught you and
drawn you to
the cross?
grace.
The song
Amazing Grace
has a line
in it or a
few lines in
it that apply
to this.
It says,
"'Twas grace
that taught
my heart
to fear
and grace
my fears
relieved."
You know
what it's
saying?
It's saying
that the
grace of God
brought me to
realize the
absolute moral
bankruptcy and
darkness of my
heart and led
me to realize I
couldn't save
myself and I
needed Jesus.
Have you
come to that
place?
Have you
come to that
place where
the grace of
God has brought
you to a place
of fear of
God and you
in humility
have cried out
and said,
"'Jesus, I
need you to
be my Savior.'"
Second question
is for you who
are believers
here this
morning,
how often
does a fear
of God
affect your
daily thinking
as a believer?
How often?
I want to
appeal to you
that if you
took time to
study the New
Testament in
particular,
you would find
that the fear
of God occupies
more space than
we are inclined
to think.
God is not
just some nice
old companion
up there that
gives us what
we want.
It says in
scriptures,
it's a fearful
thing to fall
into the hands
of the living
God.
In Revelation,
it speaks about
fearing Him.
And so I
want to
encourage you
who are
believers this
morning as you
think about
18, that what
you will do
is this, is
that you will
say,
Lord, you
being my
helper, I
want you to
stir my
heart that I
will have a
fear of you
that honors
your great
name.
Let me close
with a simple
verse for you
to hold on
to.
2 Corinthians
chapter 5
verse 9.
It wouldn't
be a bad
one to
memorize.
Certainly
it wouldn't
be a bad
one to
underline.
And so I'm
going to ask
that you turn
to it to
give you the
chance to
frame it
in your
own
thinking.
2 Corinthians
chapter 5
verse 9.
So whether
we are at
home or
away,
so whether
we are at
home or
away,
whether I
am here
or there,
we make
it our
aim
to please
him.
This is
my desire.
I want
him
satisfied
with my
life.
Let's close
in prayer.
Father God,
this morning as
we take your
word in hand
and we remind
ourselves first
of blessing
and then
counsel and
instruction,
we want
to be a
people that
fear you,
that obey
you,
that delight
in you,
and give
you delight.
We ask
that you
would work
in us
to that
end,
to the
glory of
Christ.
And we
pray this
in his
name.
Amen.