The Fear of the Lord

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Looking at our world from a theological
perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast,

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making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Saturday, June fifteenth,

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twenty twenty four. It is currently
eight thirty four pm Central Time,

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and I am coming to you live
from the Theology Central studio located right here

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in Abilene, Texas. Now.
It's Saturday evening. Typically, what that

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means for me is a lot of
sermon prep, right, trying to get

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everything ready for tomorrow, trying to
get the Sunday school lesson ready, trying

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to get the morning sermon ready,
trying to do everything that I need to

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do for tomorrow. That's typically what
a Saturday night would would be filled with.

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It's just a lot of sermon prep. And to be honest with you,

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I really need to be doing that. But because it's Saturday, we're

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reaching the end of another week and
we're about to be in a new one,

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I feel like I'm kind of I'm
kind of conflicted. Right. I

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need to be doing sermon prep,
right, I need to be focusing on

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tomorrow and thinking about everything there.
But at the same time, I'm thinking

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I'm running out of time, right, because this entire week was supposed to

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be about this idea of the fear
of the Lord. Now there was a

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part of me that was going to
use that concept the fear of the Lord

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for all of my teaching tomorrow at
Victory Baptist Church. So then I'm like,

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okay, I may not address it
much on the podcast, but I

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gave everyone the concept the topic.
I told everyone to look up random sermons

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on the sermon's two point oh app
about the fear of the Lord, or

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to look up specific verses about the
fear of the Lord, or sermons based

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on specific verses that mention the fear
of the Lord. So I gave everyone

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the assignment. I gave everyone,
what you know, everything to do.

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I told them everything to do.
And then and I didn't receive a lot

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of emails about it. Right,
it was kind of pretty quiet. Right.

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It wasn't a It wasn't one of
those subjects. It wasn't one of

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those assignments that generated a lot of
interest and a lot of participation, or

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at least not any feedback on the
participation. So then I was like,

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well, okay, so maybe people
aren't that interested in it, But you

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know what, even if people are
not interested in the subject. The fear

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of the Lord is a very important
subject. In fact, I tried to

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stress the importance of the subject when
I gave everyone the assignment right to look

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to look things up. So I'm
like, well, you know, everyone

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else doesn't seem to or they appear
not to care. Again, sometimes when

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you try to critique silence, it's
very difficult to know how to interpret it.

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Right, So but I'm like,
Okay, but you know, I'm

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going to talk about it on Sunday, even though no one else is paying

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any attention to it, I can
at least kind of bring our week long,

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you know, focus on the fear
of the Lord to some kind of

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a dramatic conclusion on Sunday. Right. That was my thinking, right,

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And so I was kind of conflicted, Well, if people aren't interested,

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do I just move on? I
haven't reviewed any sermons on the fear of

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the Lord, and I said I
was going to get to that, so

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do it and just kind of just
all over the place. Well, Well,

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even though I know the fear of
the Lord was the focus this week,

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many of you know, something happened, right, many of you know

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something happened. Had I had a
number of days where I spent a lot

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of time in the car this week
right driving around and I was listening to

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a lot of sermons. And remember
I kind of got something caught my attention

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because I found a sermon series where
each sermon was entitled the Coming Middle East

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War Part one, Part two,
Part three, Part four, all the

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way up to part eleven. And
when I saw the title, it caught

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my attention, mainly because it was
the Coming Middle East War, but it

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was based on Psalm eighty three,
and I was intrigued. So I was

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like, all right, let's review
this now. When I reviewed part one,

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I knew it was only like a
fifteen minute broadcast, so I knew

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I could I could start and end
the review in one broadcast. It would

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be simple, it would be straightforward, and then I could tell everyone,

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Hey, go listen to this series
on the Coming Middle East War. Then

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that would give everyone else something to
do for the sermon's two point oh opp

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challenge. I thought it was all
just like a very simple thing to do.

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But we all know what happened that
first message that first episode was just

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like I was so confused by how
they were handling Saw eighty three. So

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we reviewed part two, which even
became even more confusing. So by the

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end of that, I said,
you know what, everyone just forget,

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We're not gonna I'm not gonna listen. I'm not gonna review any more of

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these messages. I told everyone to
go listen to the rest. But I

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said, I you know, I'm
I've got to do something with Saw eighty

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three now, because I was so
I was so just perplexed and confused and

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confounded and how what they were doing
with Saw eighty three. So this is

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kind of where I am at.
Saturday Night is supposed to be about sermon

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Press, Well, it's tomorrow,
even though it was going to be about

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the Fear of the Lord, and
it was going to be about the Davidic

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Covenant, finishing up continuing our series
in Eschatology, and then for the Sunday

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morning sermon, it was going to
deal with the fear of the Lord because

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we've been working in Proverbs and that's
what we've been focused on. Well,

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the Psalm eighty three thing has hijacked
everything. So tomorrow for the first hour

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and the second hour is all going
to be Saw eighty three. That's all

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we're going to work on. Tomorrow, so that's already hijacked that So but

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okay, so what do I do
If tomorrow is not going to be about

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the Fear of the Lord, then
I'm not going to bring this week long

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focus on the Fear of the Lord
to any kind of dramatic conclusion. Well

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that's not good. But at the
same time, I'm so preoccupied, obsessed

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with the Saw eighty three and how
that series on supposedly Saw eighty three just

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went so horribly, like I don't
even know what that was. Then I

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feel challenged that I've got to do
something with it. So then what do

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I do? Now It's Saturday night, I'm running out of time. So

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here's what we're going to do.
I promised that this week our focus on

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the Fear of the Lord, and
I gave you your assignments. I gave

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you everything to do, so you
can go back and work on those assignments

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with or without me. But what
I'm going to do is I said I

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would review a sermon on Psalm or
Hansamiti three on the Fear of the Lord.

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We already reviewed something on Psaw eighty
three on the Fear of the Lord,

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and I had one ready to go
early in the week. We just

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never got to it because there's always
so many things that can interrupt what we're

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going to do on this podcast.
This this podcast is every day something new

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comes along and we kind of just
allow things to lead us wherever it takes

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us, and we find ourselves in
some interesting spots. I mean, that's

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how we ended up on the PSAWM
eighty three thing this week, right,

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So what I'm going to do is
to at least I know this is not

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going to bring this to a dramatic
conclusion, but I have to. I

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feel like I have to at least
say this week we focused on the Fear

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of the Lord. Here's at least
one sermon review. Now, the bad

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part about this is typically a sermon
review takes me three to five hours of

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broadcasting. It takes about five hours
for me to review a sermon. So

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I don't know if I'm gonna review
this entire thing. We're just gonna see

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what we stumble upon. Again.
We remember the whole challenge for the sermons

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two point oh app challenge this year
is just choosing random sermons. All of

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my sermon reviews, remember how they
work. I don't listen to them first,

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I listened to them in real time
with you, so no one can

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accuse me of just trying to find
things that I don't like or things that

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I can criticize. No, I'm
listening to a sermon because I love listening

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to sermons, and then I speak
about it, analyze it, critique,

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agree, disagree. But it's not
to criticize. It's to say, Okay,

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here's the hypothesis they put forth.
I disagree with it. Now here's

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what I think. And then typically
it just it goes from a sermon review

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into possibly a series, which is
just is what's is? Well, that's

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what happened with SAW eighty three.
We reviewed two messages and now it's going

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to turn into a lengthy series on
SSAW maighty three on my part, because

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it's not so much about criticizing.
It's about Okay, you presented me your

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idea. Now I'm going to go
present mine. So so just keep that

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in mind because people always think I
don't know people just so misunderstand the sermon

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reviews. I listen to sermons.
I can listen to them in this studio

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by myself, or I can turn
on the microphone and listen them to listen

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then listen to them with people around
the world, and that's what I like

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to do. And so I love
I love listening to two sermons and understanding

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their hermoneutical approach, their how they
exegete the text, or their philological approach,

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and just everything about well preaching itself, how they structure the sermon,

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what kind of typical preaching template they're
following or not following, all of those

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typical things. So I guess what
I'm going to try to do tonight is

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bring our discussion about the fear of
the Lord to some kind of conclusion.

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I know, basically it turned into
me giving you an assignment, a lot

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of assignments, and we didn't really
talk about it because we kind of got

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pulled in so many different directions this
last week. But it's Saturday, so

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the week is fast ending, and
this next week it's going to be strongly

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SAW eighty three. It's gonna be
Saw eighty three. That's what it's going

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to be all next week. I
think, I know we're kind of leaving

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Proverbs and we'll circle back around to
Proverbs. So we always have so much

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to do, but let's get to
it all right, It's already been nine

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minutes and forty two seconds, so
let's get to it. Are you ready

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all right? So here we go. We've been working on the Book of

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Proverbs for this kind of like the
Summer of Proverbs. We've done this in

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the past and we're kind of doing
it again. It all started with me

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reading these words the of Solomon,
and then I basically put forth a question

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why Solomon Solomon is writing the Book
of Proverbs. We typically say a proverb

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is this short saying that is to
convey, that is into a impart to

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us God's wisdom. We find wisdom
in these proverbs, and we may say

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why Solomon, and someone may raise
their hand to gains Well, he's the

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wisest man who ever lived. That's
why he wrote the Book of Proverbs.

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Because he's the wisest man, and
it's a book about wisdom. And I

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would counter or play the devil's advocate
and go but wait a minute, Wait

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a minute. The wisest man who
supposedly ever lived happened to also be the

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most extravagant fool who ever lived.
His foolishness was extravagant, it was,

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it was almost exaggerated. He was
like the hyperbole of foolishness Solomon. I

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mean, oh, I mean we
could go on and on and all the

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things that he've done, and and
we will. We well documented everything that

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he did. So we started trying
to answer this question why Solomon, and

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we did a little background study.
Right, we saw Solomon basically serving as

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David's hitman. Hey, as David
is dying, he's basically telling Solomon,

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kill kill, here's these people I
want you to kill. Solomon comes to

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the throne, not only does he
kill those people that David wanted him to

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kill, well, he even kills
his half brother. And were like,

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the whole thing is crazy. And
then next thing you know, he's marrying

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a woman that he's not supposed to
marry, he's making an allegiance with Egypt.

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Just on, and we could just
go all the things that Solomon did.

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It was absolutely crazy. I mean, he did everything wrong. So

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that got us questioning that. So
then we kind of asked this question,

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We'll wait a minute. When it
came to Solomon, and he's given wisdom,

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I know, the way we kind
of preach it is, well,

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he has wisdom in every area,
and I put forth the hypotheses, well,

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maybe Solomman's wisdom was very limited to
his wisdom to rule and to ragin,

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but it did not extend to so
many much of his personal life and

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much of his even spiritual life,
because I mean, he starts sacrificing in

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the high places, he builds high
places, all the things that he did.

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And I put forth that hypothesis,
and we worked on that all right.

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So then at that point I thought
about moving into well, let's just

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discuss wisdom itself. What is wisdom? And we did a little bit of

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discussing this, but you really can't
start talking about wisdom and trying to figure

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out what wisdom is or isn't.
And because and I even put forth,

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we did a kind of an entire
message, do we need to redefine wisdom

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or a new definition of wisdom?
So we did do a little bit of

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discussing about that. We in fact, I think I did over an hour

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long teaching on that. So as
we're kind of just going through all of

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this, I was confronted or I
started thinking of becoming really meditating on two

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passages of scripture. The first one
is Proverbs one seven. Proverbs one seven,

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the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge. The fear of

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the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And why that kind of struck me

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so much is because when we started
talking about how to define wisdom, typically

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wisdom is defined as the correct use
or the correct application of knowledge. So

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first you must have knowledge, then
wisdom is the correct application of said knowledge.

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All right, Now, this raises
all kinds of questions because Solomon definitely

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did not do that in most of
his life, in most areas of his

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life. Now you may that's why
we decide to possibly restrict it to only

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his what pertained to ruling as a
king, and there he did seem to

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do very good at the correct application
and use of knowledge. But the point

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is we have to have knowledge,
but you cannot have knowledge until you have

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the fear of the Lord, because
the fear of the Lord is the beginning

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of knowledge. So I started putting
forth the question, what is the connection

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between the fear of the Lord and
knowledge? Why is it that you must

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have the fear of the Lord or
you do not have knowledge? And what

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does that mean? Because there's lots
of people who don't fear the Lord but

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have great knowledge. So is this
a specific kind of knowledge, and so

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we started asking some of those questions. And then the other passage that really

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struck me was in Proverbs chapter nine, verse ten, where we read the

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fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. So if wisdom you can't

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have wisdom, or wisdom is the
correct application of knowledge, then knowledge must

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come before wisdom. But you can't
get knowledge until you fear the Lord.

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So the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge, which you must

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have, and then wisdom is the
correct application of that knowledge, typically the

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way it's defined. But wait a
minute, you can't have wisdom until you

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fear the Lord. So, in
other words, would be the prerequisite for

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wisdom, and the prerequisite for knowledge
is the fear of the Lord. Let

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me read that to you again a
Proverbs chapter nine, verse ten. The

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fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. So we must fear God

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before we can even have knowledge,
or that we can even have the the

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have wisdom. We must fear God
before we can have knowledge or wisdom,

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making the fear of the Lord of
great importance. So I asked you to

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try to figure out the connection and
why and how it works, and that

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was some of your assignment. So
that's that's that's kind of what got us

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onto this subject for this week,
the Fear of the Lord. Now,

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I told you to look up random
sermons on the sermon's two point, Oh

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app don't don't look for a specific
church or denomination or a specific speaker.

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Just look and as random as you
can, try to listen to one each

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of this week. Hopefully you've accomplished
that to some level. And well,

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I was in the process of doing
all of that before the Psalm eighty three

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thing kind of derailed me. But
I had one chosen. I had one

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picked that I picked early in the
week, and I never got along,

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never got really to it right.
But it's called the Great Importance of the

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Fear of the Lord. The Great
Importance of the Fear of the Lord.

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I'm like, okay, that's that's
a pretty good title. Was preached by

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Mike Allison at the Preaching Conference for
twenty twenty four, a part of Bethel

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Baptist Church. I'm like, okay, so this fits perfectly because it's talking

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about the importance of the fear,
of the fear of God or the fear

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of the Lord, which I've just
articulated to you why it's important. You

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can't have knowledge, you can't have
wisdom without it, all right, is

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this going to go the same direction? I don't know. I'm curious.

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The next thing I was cured I
was interested by. It's part of a

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preaching conference. And you know,
I say all the time whenever I see

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that there's a new conference starting and
it's going to be on the sermon's two

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point, oh app I always love
that, right if I can watch them

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live great or I like it as
soon as they're added, because I like

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you knowing what's going on at the
conferences, because a lot of times you

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can see what the churches feel are
important or what they are emphasizing, and

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you can kind of get a feel
for what's going on in the world Christianity.

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So this was a preaching conference.
One of the messages is called the

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Great Importance of the Fear of of
the fear of God. I hope you

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look it up again, the great
Importance of the Fear of God, not

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the fear of the Lord, the
fear of God. Same concept. Preaching

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Conference twenty twenty four, Mike Allison, Bethel Baptist Church. Please go find

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it, please, download it.
I don't know how much of it we're

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going to review. I have no
idea which direction it's going to go,

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but we're going to hit play.
I'll be analyzing, critiquing, and we

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will find out. So are you
ready? Here we go that but always

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good to be with him, man, Let's try that again. That was

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an abrupt maybe okay, I'll back
it all the way up. Maybe that's

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just the way when he turned on
his microphone. I don't know. Let's

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see. I think there it probably
eases into it a little better than that.

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Here we go, Thank you,
Amen, good to see you tonight.

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All right, you're looking good most
of you. That's great. I

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don't even like Klipinos, how about
that? But always good to be with

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him. Man, it's been a
long time. I mean, it's been

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a long time. I can't remember. I remember the first time I preached

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for you. I think I ran
a lady off that night and I still

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got invited back. That was amazing. That was and I wasn't being mean,

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I didn't think at that time.
But anyway, I always loved to

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hear doctor Smith, what a what
a blessing? Man? I like the

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way it opens the book and it
doesn't make any difference. A couple of

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quick things. I think every preacher
can tell that story where you preached,

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you taught, and you ran someone
off, because unfortunately, when it comes

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to the way it works in the
American church, I can't speak for other

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countries, especially in the American non
Catholic world, people can just get up

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and leave and go to another church
for any reason, because they ultimately the

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people. The people make the determination. Right they're like like it, don't

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like it, or I've been a
member here for now, I'm just gonna

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leave. And they just leave,
and they just leave, and they just

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leave. And that's why there's those
statistics that you have to have thirty new

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people each year just to maintain,
not even to grow, because that's the

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turnover, the turnover, the turnover, the turnover, the turnover. And

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sometimes you can be very consistent and
don't have a big turno and then one

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thing happens, then boom, you
lose twenty thirty people. And it's always

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weird. The people who stay behind
the preacher will be like, I ran

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them off because I preached the truth. We speak the truth, and they

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left, and the people who leave, we left because that guy wasn't preaching

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the truth and everyone will think they
were right. It's kind of very frustrating

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so that it's sad that that's the
way it works. And now he mentions

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doctor Smith, that's the editor of
the sort of the Lord he's referring to.

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And we reviewed his message from this
conference. I think we reviewed his

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message from this conference and we had
that kind of very well controversial idea where

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he put forth the idea that God
is not in control of everything and God

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does not cause everything to happen.
We were kind of like what we were

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a little perplexed by that, so
we did review that. But here we

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go. Let's see where he's going
to go. Where it's at. You're

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going to get some really good stuff
that'll help you in a blessing to you.

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What a joy, God's good.
I get older, I'm becoming a

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I'm becoming a crier. Are there
any other older people here that you cry

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more? Now? In what you
used to cry? Man? What's wrong

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with me? I feel like,
well, I'm not going to tell you

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what I feel like. I'm just
anyway the weeping prophet. Yeah, with

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the snap crackle and pop bones.
I mean, boy, I'll tell you,

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if I just bend the knees a
little bit, I sound like,

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what's the name of that cereal rice
crispies, That's what it is. That's

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what does that. Turn your Bibles
to the Book of Proverbs chapter one,

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Proverbs chapter one, and then we're
gonna go over to Ecclesiastes chapter twelve.

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This is gonna be so fundamental,
so foundational. So I mean, right

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at the beginning, this is what
I think is the main thing that is

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missing among unfortunately, even Bible believing
Christians. We are being bombarded with the

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thought that because God is love and
that we are saved by grace, that

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God is so desirous just simply to
be our buddy, that if we'll just

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look at him as the one who
will give us everything he wants us happy

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and wealthy and fulfilled, feeling fulfilled
in all the worldly things that we could

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possibly ever want. And I believe
that kind of thought is so far away

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from what our relationship with the Lord
is to be. We have a real

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lack of fearing the Lord. Okay, now, interesting, now I think

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he's putting forth his hypothesis here.
He's putting forth his thesis here pretty I

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think, pretty straightforward. I think
he's being clear. Hey, there's a

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lack of fear of the Lord in
Christianity today. It's missing. It's lacking

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because we have these other ideas,
these other concepts bombarding us now. At

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the same time, though, I
mean, if I go back from the

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very early stages of my Christian life, becoming a Christian as a teenager in

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the eighties, all the way through
the and I've been a Christian ever since,

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all the way through that, all
the things that have happened in my

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life, from that moment of conversion, all the way through all of my

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theological education, Bible college, seminary, Bible institutes, all the preaching and

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teaching that I have done over the
years, I think it would be very

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safe to say I have heard,
probably since the eighties, over and over

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and over and over again, the
thing that is missing is that we do

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not fear the Lord. We do
not fear the Lord. We do not

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fear the Lord. We do not
fear the Lord. We do not fear

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the Lord. I've heard that over
and over and over. I've seen books

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written about it, sermons about it. We do not fear. We've got

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to get back to fearing God.
If we get back to that, that

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will fix and resolve everything. So
I think this puts forth a very important

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question. We will we will not
challenge his assessment that that's desperately needed,

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or it's desperate, or it's it's
drastically miss missing. We will We won't.

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We won't challenge his perspective or his
his take that it's it's desperately needed

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and it's drastically missing. We won't
challenge that. We will just go along

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with that. But here would be
my question, if it's been missing,

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if it's drastically needed, and it's
been needed, and it's been missing throughout

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the years. I mean, you
know, from the eighties, the nineties,

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the two thousands, twenty tens,
now we're the twenty twenties, like

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all of that period of time.
That's a long period of time, and

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it's been missing over and over and
over and over again. Then here's the

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question, how does one obtain the
fear of the Lord? How do you

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get it? Is it something you
produce in yourself by like in other words,

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you're like, Okay, if I
read my Bible more, I will

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get it. If I pray more, I will get it. If I

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go to church more I will get
Do you obtain the fear of the Lord

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by your own efforts? In other
words, the fear of the Lord is

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this thing and you must pursue it. You must chase it by reading more,

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studying more, praying more. Like, what do you have to do

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to get it? Or is it
something that is in a sense produced inside

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of us by a supernatural work?
And if it's a supernatural work, then

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why doesn't God just grant all Christians
the fear of the Lord? And if

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that's the solution to all of our
problems, then all of our problems would

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be over do we get it?
Or is it given to us? And

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if it's given to us, then
well if we don't have it, then

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it's that's that's on God. Right, how do you understand obtaining it?

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Now? We could? I'm just
going to go I'm not even going to

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challenge his perspective that it's missing or
that it's drastically needed. Right, it's

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desperately needed, and it's it's it's
it's it's dress it's drastically missing. I

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think that that's a fair assessment.
I'm not even going to challenge or question

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that the issue is how do we
obtain it? Now? Is he going

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to teach us how to obtain it
or is it just going to teach us

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why we need it? I don't
know. Let's see. Now it's not

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pleasant the priests, but we need
it. We need to fear the Lord.

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Independent Baptists need to fear the Lord, all those who've trust in Christ.

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The Bible says, the Lord is
greatly to be feared in the assembly

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of a saints. This is an
assembly of a saints right here. I

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mean, that's what the church is. It's an assembly. In the assembly

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of the saints, the Lord is
greatly to be feared. And if he's

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not gonna be feared here, then
the world's definitely not gonna fear him.

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We want to see the conviction of
God fall upon people, then God's people

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need to have a fear of the
Lord. You'll notice verse seven. I

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basically already give you the verse.
But notice it says, the fear of

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the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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Notice it is the beginning. This
is where it starts, the fear of

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the Lord. Go over to Ecclesiastes
chapter twelve, and notice verses thirteen and

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fourteen, those marvelous words that begin
verse thirteen, or what every congregation loves

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to hear. Let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter here it is

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fear God and keep his commandments.
For this is what does it say,

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the whole duty of man. Then
it closes out with for God shall bring

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every work into judgment, with every
secret thing, whether it be good or

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whether it be evil, that ought
to cause us to fear the Lord.

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Okay, now a lot of things
to take it into consideration here. So

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let me ask. So I've already
kind of put forth a question, how

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do you obtain the fear of the
Lord? How do you get it?

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Is it something you have to pursue
and you get and how do you get

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it by reading, studying, praying? Or is it something that is granted

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to us or given to us by
God? I think that's an important question.

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Second, he quotes from Proverbs one
to seven and quotes from Ecclesiastes chapter

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twelve. Let me ask you this
question. Did Solomon fear the Lord?

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Did Solomon fear the Lord? Now, let's remind ourselves Solomon was no way

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to get around it. A serial
polygamist. I mean, come on,

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and I think by most definitions you
would say he was a serial adulterer.

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What seven hundred wives, three hundred
concubines, Okay, I think there's some

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adultery going on. I don't.
And there's clearly some polygamy going on,

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all right, clear, And that's
a clear vie a legion of Deuteronomy.

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What's seventeen seventeen about what the king
is not to do? He not only

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has all of these women, he
marries women that he was not even supposed

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to. Forget the number of plurality
of wives. He's marrying women that he's

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not The very first record of him
marrying someone is in what First Kings?

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Is that first King's three I believe, or first King four? I think?

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Maybebe first Kings four? Uh.
And then he's marrying an Egyptian woman,

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and he's making some law, you
know, making some kind of treaty

407
00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:32.880
with with Egypt. He's literally he
literally starts doing the things that he's not

408
00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:36.839
supposed to do. He's offering sacrifices
in high places, and we can go

409
00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:40.200
on and on and on and on
and on. He amasses great amounts of

410
00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:44.880
wealth which the kings were warned about
not doing in First King and Deuteronomy seventeen.

411
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:47.480
We can go on and on and
on and on and on. Did

412
00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:55.759
he fear God? Did he fear
God? And look at First King seventeen

413
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:59.839
records the end of his life.
It's not good. God does not have

414
00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:04.720
with him at the end of his
life. God is not pleased. Did

415
00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:11.319
Solomon fear the Lord? If he
did? Or if Now this is where

416
00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:15.000
it gets. This is the that
we've been dealing with this question now for

417
00:31:15.319 --> 00:31:18.359
you know, for a couple of
weeks. If he did not fear the

418
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:23.319
Lord, well, then did Solomon
have knowledge and wisdom, since the fear

419
00:31:23.319 --> 00:31:30.599
of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge and wisdom. Or did he have

420
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:33.880
a practical wisdom simply and how to
rule and reign? But that wisdom did

421
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:48.119
not extend beyond that? Did he
fear God? Now, if you're going

422
00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:53.920
to say Solomon feared God, well, then you can't be challenging other people's

423
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:57.359
fear God. Now what he just
said there is the reason you should fear

424
00:31:57.400 --> 00:32:05.400
God. The reason you should fear
God is because God will up for God

425
00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:09.519
will bring every work into judgment,
including every secret thing. Whether good or

426
00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:14.400
evil. So should you be sitting
there sitting in church going, Okay,

427
00:32:14.519 --> 00:32:17.200
I'm afraid of God. I'm afraid
of God because God is gonna take every

428
00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:21.920
secret thing and make it. He's
gonna reveal it, He's gonna show everyone.

429
00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:24.960
That's why I fear God, because
God is going to be when He's

430
00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:28.920
gonna take every secret thing. When
I finally get there, and he's gonna

431
00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:30.920
be like, look at everyone,
come here, come here, let me

432
00:32:30.960 --> 00:32:35.119
show you every secret thing that Steve
did, that, Bob did that,

433
00:32:35.240 --> 00:32:37.920
Kevin did that, Tim did,
Like here it all is. Is that

434
00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:42.480
why you should be fearing God is
because you just don't want all of your

435
00:32:42.519 --> 00:32:51.119
secrets to be revealed? And then
how does that work for a believer whose

436
00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:53.640
all of his sin has been washed
away by the blood of Jesus Christ,

437
00:32:53.640 --> 00:32:58.000
removed as far as the east is
from the west. Jesus Christ paid for

438
00:32:58.039 --> 00:33:01.960
all of this, and he satisfied
god wrath for you. He propitiated God's

439
00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:07.240
wrath on your behalf by faith,
His righteousness and obedience is imputed to you.

440
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:14.039
So you stand before God perfect and
holy? Or does that not count?

441
00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:19.559
Like? So, is that the
reason we should fear God? Or

442
00:33:19.640 --> 00:33:23.039
is this a general reason people should
have fear of God necessarily? Is this

443
00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:27.880
for the lost person? Hey,
you should fear God because you will be

444
00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:37.759
judged. Let's see which direction he
goes. That's the subject tonight, the

445
00:33:37.799 --> 00:33:39.319
fear of the Lord. Let's pray
follow. We com to you in the

446
00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:43.720
name of the Lord Jesus, and
I plead for the feeling of the Holy

447
00:33:43.799 --> 00:33:46.359
Spirit of God. Lord, may
we get it. May we allow the

448
00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:51.480
Spirit of God to drive it home
to our hearts. We're going to share

449
00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:54.400
a lot of scripture to that,
Lord, and I pray that you would

450
00:33:54.480 --> 00:34:00.920
just do a mighty powerful work.
When this is all, We would fear

451
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:05.480
you in such a way that you
would receive the praise, the honor,

452
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:08.880
and the glory that you deserve from
us. And Lord will thank you for

453
00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:16.639
it. In Jesus' name. Amen. You know it's now. I know

454
00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:21.760
I point this out all the time
and when I when I review sermons,

455
00:34:21.800 --> 00:34:25.599
because you almost always get the opening
an opening prayer there, and we've I've

456
00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:30.639
discussed my feelings about that, and
yeah, all all the things about it.

457
00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:35.719
But I do find it fascinating that
I've been listening to sermons now forever

458
00:34:35.960 --> 00:34:38.280
I can't even count how many sermons
I have listened to in my life.

459
00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:44.880
I mean thousands upon thousands, I
mean the number. It would be staggering

460
00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:47.239
to even know how many sermons I've
listened to. I mean, yeah,

461
00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:52.639
I mean so many, so many. Yeah, I don't even know where

462
00:34:52.679 --> 00:34:57.480
how you would even count how many. I mean, just wow, I

463
00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:00.440
mean, considering so many are available
to us. I mean, you can

464
00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:05.159
just listen to sermons all day if
you so desire, But it's so freak

465
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:12.519
common and opening prayers. God open
our eyes, God show us, God

466
00:35:12.599 --> 00:35:15.599
revealed to us. God lead us
to truth, show us truth, help

467
00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:20.840
us understand it. And I'm always
curious, what do we really believe God

468
00:35:20.920 --> 00:35:27.880
does for people sitting there listening to
a sermon, Because if God actually was

469
00:35:27.960 --> 00:35:30.679
leading us into all truth and opening
our eyes to see the truth, there

470
00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:37.679
wouldn't be thousands of denominations. There
wouldn't be a disagreement on every doctrinal issue

471
00:35:37.719 --> 00:35:40.280
you can find. There wouldn't be
commentaries that all disagree with one another.

472
00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:44.360
Just think about Christianity. We don't
agree on baptism, we don't agree on

473
00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:46.199
the Lord's Supper, we don't agree
in the structure of the church. We

474
00:35:46.239 --> 00:35:50.559
don't agree. We don't agree on
the word repentance. We don't agree on

475
00:35:50.599 --> 00:35:53.840
the word baptism. We don't agree. Literally, we don't agree on salvation.

476
00:35:54.239 --> 00:35:57.599
We don't. I mean, we
can just go on and on and

477
00:35:57.639 --> 00:36:00.559
on and on and on and on. This church says that they're right and

478
00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:04.760
you're wrong, and the individual Christians
will say, no, you're right,

479
00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:07.880
No, you're I'm right, you're
wrong, that on and or they may

480
00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:09.360
say I'm right and you're wrong.
Or there you're right and I'm wrong,

481
00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:13.960
whatever the case may be. There's
just constant disagreements. I mean, it's

482
00:36:14.039 --> 00:36:19.280
just it's inevitable. Just go to
any Christian website someone posted an article and

483
00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:22.440
immediately just start reading the comments.
Disagree, No you're wrong, No you're

484
00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:23.639
right. Well what about the scripture? Well what about the scripture? Well

485
00:36:23.639 --> 00:36:27.320
know that you don't understand that scripture. No, you don't understand this scripture.

486
00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:29.079
You don't know how to interpret the
scripture. Well, if you would

487
00:36:29.079 --> 00:36:31.880
read your Bible, if you would
open your eyes. But everyone believes that

488
00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:35.599
God has opened their eyes, God
is showing them, God is teaching them,

489
00:36:35.639 --> 00:36:38.280
and God is leading them, Well
then we would all be in agreement.

490
00:36:38.440 --> 00:36:44.400
Right. I know someone's gonna quote, well, the Bible says,

491
00:36:44.519 --> 00:36:45.840
you know, Lord lead us into
all truth. I think those were for

492
00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:52.760
the disciples and for those who ultimately
authored scripture. God led them into all

493
00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:58.400
truth. God revealed truth. God
showed them truth. God helped them understand

494
00:36:59.039 --> 00:37:01.360
that. But I I don't think
that we can apply that to us,

495
00:37:01.400 --> 00:37:09.360
because if we can, something is
desperately wrong. Something is desperately wrong.

496
00:37:10.800 --> 00:37:16.320
God can't be leading us all into
different truths. So then do you draw

497
00:37:16.360 --> 00:37:21.239
the conclusion that God's only leading you
into truth and everyone else he's leaving in

498
00:37:21.320 --> 00:37:23.920
darkness and everyone should just listen to
you. Well, then just go ahead

499
00:37:23.920 --> 00:37:31.119
and declare yourself to be the pope. Interesting. They take polls about everything

500
00:37:31.239 --> 00:37:37.880
that's out there today, and one
poll I don't think people tell the truth

501
00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:44.880
in these polls. One poll they
have is for Americans is what do you

502
00:37:45.039 --> 00:37:51.360
fear the most? Now, they
told us in this poll that what Americans

503
00:37:51.559 --> 00:37:59.239
fear the most is not death.
As a matter of fact, death was

504
00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:05.840
number seven on the things that Americans
fear the most. The thing that America

505
00:38:05.880 --> 00:38:14.639
fears the most, according to this
pole, is public speaking. But I

506
00:38:14.679 --> 00:38:20.239
think if you brought any sensible American, brought him up on stage, no

507
00:38:20.280 --> 00:38:24.440
matter how much he fears public speaking, and you stuck a gun to his

508
00:38:24.519 --> 00:38:29.960
head and said, now you start
talking or I'm gonna shoot you. I

509
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:35.960
think they'd start talking, because I
really think they fear death more than what

510
00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:39.440
they fear public speaking. I just
don't think they tell the truth on these

511
00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:46.239
things. Now I have heard that
stated my whole I think in all the

512
00:38:46.519 --> 00:38:52.559
any college where I went, where
I had to do speech class, unit

513
00:38:52.599 --> 00:38:57.960
sties, Military am my leadership school, in Coo Academy, all that at

514
00:38:58.039 --> 00:39:00.719
any time I was anything for the
military. Once again, how to do

515
00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:05.199
speech class? Had to give three
speeches in each one a speech class,

516
00:39:05.239 --> 00:39:13.679
typically do so to obtain my degree
for health care administration. How to do

517
00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:15.719
speech. I don't even know how
many times I've done speech class and it

518
00:39:16.119 --> 00:39:20.239
is cited over and over and over
that that's the thing people fear the most,

519
00:39:20.280 --> 00:39:24.400
and watching how many people handle themselves
in speech class, there is a

520
00:39:24.519 --> 00:39:30.000
great fear there. But I don't
know if it's necessarily people lying. I

521
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:32.280
think it's just like I think the
I think the reason a lot of people

522
00:39:32.360 --> 00:39:38.119
don't why death is not at the
top of the list is because I don't

523
00:39:38.159 --> 00:39:45.440
know if you can live your life
in any reasonable way if you constantly are

524
00:39:45.480 --> 00:39:49.480
in fear of death. If you
live in constant fear of death, it

525
00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:52.400
would be hard to live, right, it would be hard to function.

526
00:39:52.599 --> 00:39:53.440
Right. You'd be like, Okay, I'm not going to go here,

527
00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:55.440
I'm not going to do this,
I'm not going to do that because I'm

528
00:39:55.840 --> 00:39:59.760
I'm gonna die. I'm going to
die. And I think another possible reason

529
00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:05.320
is it's hard. It would be
hard to live our life if we if

530
00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:08.639
we constantly thought about death, we
constantly thought about death, there would be

531
00:40:08.679 --> 00:40:12.199
so many things we probably wouldn't even
do, or even worry about, or

532
00:40:12.199 --> 00:40:14.960
even think about it. I don't
even know how productive we would be if

533
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:17.599
we just constantly were preoccupied with death. I think that's the reason when death

534
00:40:17.639 --> 00:40:21.559
happens everyone's so shocked by it.
I mean, look, you know everyone's

535
00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:22.639
going to die, you know it, and I know it. But if

536
00:40:22.679 --> 00:40:27.159
you get a phone call tonight that
your mother or your father, or your

537
00:40:27.159 --> 00:40:30.639
brother or your sister or anyone close
to you dies, You're gonna be like,

538
00:40:30.679 --> 00:40:31.679
oh, you're gonna it's gonna hit
you, like, wait, a

539
00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:36.159
minute, like, how did this
happen? But it could happen to anyone,

540
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:38.559
So I think I think we just
kind of put that out of our

541
00:40:38.679 --> 00:40:43.639
minds. But yeah, the fear
of public speaking is drastic in a lot

542
00:40:43.639 --> 00:40:45.039
of people. It does. It
does scare a lot of people to death.

543
00:40:45.480 --> 00:40:51.760
Now some of us, that's no
big deal, Like I, yeah,

544
00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:54.199
yeah, whatever, Okay, it
doesn't bother me to speak in front

545
00:40:54.239 --> 00:40:58.559
of people. Obviously I've been doing
it forever. Okay, so it doesn't

546
00:40:58.599 --> 00:41:02.679
bother me. But that that doesn't
make It's just because everyone has different fears,

547
00:41:02.760 --> 00:41:07.280
right. I think we're all we're
all wired a little differently. Some

548
00:41:07.320 --> 00:41:09.559
people have that fear, some people
don't. There's things I may not have

549
00:41:09.599 --> 00:41:15.400
a fear of public speaking, but
I guarantee you I have fear of plenty

550
00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:17.320
of other things. Okay, I
have fear of plenty of other things.

551
00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:21.039
And so do you don't act so
tough? All right? So all right,

552
00:41:21.079 --> 00:41:24.239
But so he's he's bringing up what
people fear the most now, but

553
00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:28.400
I think what he's going to articulate
is how we don't fear God. I

554
00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:35.480
think someone wrote this, and I
think maybe I wrote it. I don't

555
00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:37.239
know. I don't think I wrote
it, but I could have written this.

556
00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:45.800
That's hilarious. That the reason I
laughed. You may not get that,

557
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:49.159
and you may not be funny to
you. But if you are,

558
00:41:49.239 --> 00:41:52.599
if you are a preacher, you're
constantly listening to things and reading things,

559
00:41:52.639 --> 00:41:57.320
and you're constantly writing things down.
Right, I got no books here,

560
00:41:57.400 --> 00:42:00.480
and journals all over the place,
right, and I'll write something down or

561
00:42:00.039 --> 00:42:04.519
in my notes, so my iPad, I'll copy, and I'll cut and

562
00:42:04.599 --> 00:42:08.000
pay something and all over the place, just stuff constantly. Now. Sometimes

563
00:42:08.079 --> 00:42:10.559
yes, I'll try to remind myself
to take the time to write down the

564
00:42:10.599 --> 00:42:14.840
source, write down the name,
write down some but a lot of times

565
00:42:14.880 --> 00:42:16.280
you just hear something you're like,
oh, that's really good, and you

566
00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:20.119
write it down and you just move
on, and then you come back through

567
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:22.559
your notes, like you know,
three weeks later, four weeks later,

568
00:42:22.039 --> 00:42:25.119
you're looking at your notes, trying
to look at what you were studying here,

569
00:42:25.320 --> 00:42:28.599
looking with that, or maybe you're
trying to come up with an idea

570
00:42:28.639 --> 00:42:30.639
for a devotional or a podcast or
a sermon. Who goes, ooh that

571
00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:34.360
was really good, but you're like, wait a minute, was that me

572
00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:37.239
or was that someone else, I
don't remember. I don't remember. Well.

573
00:42:37.480 --> 00:42:40.880
The thing, there was a time
in the past where a pastor would

574
00:42:40.920 --> 00:42:44.719
just preach it right, like it's
theirs right, like they wouldn't even give

575
00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:49.679
it much thought. Right, But
in twenty twenty four, you desperately don't

576
00:42:49.679 --> 00:42:52.679
want to do that because the minute
you say, are you pretend that it's

577
00:42:52.719 --> 00:42:58.480
yours, Someone's going to look it
up and go, you plagiarize that.

578
00:42:58.679 --> 00:43:01.360
So you got to be very the
time you just wrote stuff down and it's

579
00:43:01.400 --> 00:43:06.559
just like you know, but yeah, so but I understand not knowing.

580
00:43:06.559 --> 00:43:08.079
There's a lot of times I'll look
at I'm like, I don't know,

581
00:43:08.239 --> 00:43:10.920
did I write this as someone say, well that doesn't sound like you?

582
00:43:12.039 --> 00:43:15.800
Well maybe maybe, Okay, then
maybe it's not me. I don't like

583
00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:19.320
it. I don't know like it. Just in any given time, when

584
00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:22.800
you're sitting there writing something out,
you may write it out in a way

585
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:23.880
going okay, this is really good, and then you may be thinking in

586
00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:27.320
your mind how to make it sound
better, and then you make it.

587
00:43:27.400 --> 00:43:30.400
It may not sound like your normal
way, or you may who knows,

588
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:37.159
But because you're always bringing in concepts
and ideas and quotes and thoughts and sermons

589
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:42.599
and devotional messages and and this and
and so that all it can all kind

590
00:43:42.599 --> 00:43:45.960
of merge together. I'm not saying
that that excuses, you know, plagiarism.

591
00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:52.079
I'm not saying that it I say
pagiar pelagianism. I'm not saying not

592
00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:57.760
pelagianism, plagiarizing. I'm not saying
I'm not making an excuse for plagiarizing or

593
00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:04.159
plagiarism. That's I'm thinking theology there
so. But I do find that funny

594
00:44:04.159 --> 00:44:10.079
because sometimes I don't remember either.
When I was a child, like most

595
00:44:10.199 --> 00:44:15.280
children, I was afraid of things
that go bump in the night. But

596
00:44:15.400 --> 00:44:20.840
I told myself, for no good
reason, that monsters which lie under the

597
00:44:20.880 --> 00:44:25.840
bed cannot break through the blankets and
the sheets. I may have told yourself

598
00:44:25.880 --> 00:44:30.039
the same thing, anybody here,
Yeah, yeah, okay. By the

599
00:44:30.079 --> 00:44:34.639
time I was a teenager, I
wasn't afraid of what might live under my

600
00:44:34.719 --> 00:44:37.800
bed, but I was afraid of
what my friends might have to say about

601
00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:42.880
the way I comb my hair.
Now, I know I didn't write that

602
00:44:42.920 --> 00:44:46.480
because it wouldn't have been how I
combed my hair. But as an example,

603
00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:51.719
let me just share with you this's
a personal example, when I was

604
00:44:51.760 --> 00:44:57.880
in eleventh grade. At that time, most all the young men wore white

605
00:44:57.960 --> 00:45:01.960
socks. All the football player wore
white socks, all the athletes wore white

606
00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:07.400
socks. All the cool kids wore
white socks. But about the time I

607
00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:13.719
got to eleventh grade, that was
starting to change and they started wearing different

608
00:45:13.800 --> 00:45:16.840
colored socks. Well, all I
had was white socks. Now, my

609
00:45:16.920 --> 00:45:22.360
mom had bought me some socks that
were white, but they had a colored

610
00:45:22.480 --> 00:45:27.760
ring around the top of the socks. But that's all I had. But

611
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:31.719
nobody was just wearing white socks anymore
to school. And so I was in

612
00:45:32.159 --> 00:45:37.360
a play in my junior year,
the Spirit of Saint Louis. That's not

613
00:45:37.519 --> 00:45:42.599
right. Well maybe it was right. I don't remember, but I was

614
00:45:42.599 --> 00:45:46.400
in a play. I remember that
meet Me in Saint Louis. That was

615
00:45:46.440 --> 00:45:50.760
it. Meet Me in Saint Louis
is the name of the play. And

616
00:45:51.239 --> 00:45:54.920
I had to wear knickers in the
play, and I had to have knee

617
00:45:54.920 --> 00:46:02.199
socks, and so we bought some
knee socks that were black. I wore

618
00:46:02.280 --> 00:46:09.280
those every day to school for the
rest of the year because none of the

619
00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:15.519
boys were white sox anymore. Now
you understand I wasn't saved. I was

620
00:46:15.559 --> 00:46:20.639
weak. I get it all that, But it's amazing the things that we

621
00:46:20.760 --> 00:46:28.039
fear. What plenty of save people
fear what people think. Okay, that's

622
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:30.280
not like, well, you know, once you're saved, now you have

623
00:46:30.320 --> 00:46:35.880
supernatural powers. Okay, that's that's
such a built into the way Christians think.

624
00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:39.840
Now, plenty of Christians still fear
what people think. Plenty of Christians

625
00:46:39.880 --> 00:46:44.880
do. They fear what people think
when they preach. They fear what people

626
00:46:44.880 --> 00:46:47.199
think when they sing a special.
They fear what people think and how they

627
00:46:47.880 --> 00:46:53.199
how they are dressed on Resurrection Sunday
or quote unquote Easter Sunday. People fear

628
00:46:53.239 --> 00:46:57.800
what people think, Hey, how
my kids are acting? How I fear

629
00:46:57.840 --> 00:47:01.079
what people are going to think about
us. This people caught. People live

630
00:47:01.280 --> 00:47:06.679
in constant fear of what other people
think. That's that's saved and unsaved.

631
00:47:06.719 --> 00:47:10.920
Okay, now there are some people
who don't. Now that's one fear I'm

632
00:47:10.960 --> 00:47:15.920
glad I never had. I don't
really care what people think. I'm glad

633
00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:21.000
about that. It's a double edged
sword because I go to the other extreme.

634
00:47:21.760 --> 00:47:23.559
I don't care what people think.
So if I think people think a

635
00:47:23.920 --> 00:47:28.239
that I'm gonna go be just because
I want to go against everyone else,

636
00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:32.400
which sometimes that can be a strength, but many times it's its own inherent

637
00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:35.440
weakness. But all right, let's
see if he gets to the fear of

638
00:47:35.480 --> 00:47:37.360
the Lord. We still want to
kind of see where he's going here.

639
00:47:37.960 --> 00:47:45.199
People might say about us. So
what do I fear now? I'm afraid

640
00:47:45.239 --> 00:47:54.519
to put it simply of living a
life that doesn't matter. That's my greatest

641
00:47:54.559 --> 00:48:02.719
fear. I want my time on
this planet to have counted for something.

642
00:48:06.280 --> 00:48:09.639
Now I'm going to raise this question, what is your greatest fear? What

643
00:48:09.719 --> 00:48:15.320
is my greatest fear? And is
it acceptable that your greatest fear is to

644
00:48:15.360 --> 00:48:19.920
live a life that accomplishes nothing or
means nothing. Now, I thought,

645
00:48:20.280 --> 00:48:23.360
shouldn't our greatest fear be God?
If our greatest fear is God, then

646
00:48:23.440 --> 00:48:28.679
what my life accomplishes or doesn't accomplish, or what it means or doesn't mean,

647
00:48:29.239 --> 00:48:32.440
that then should be irrelevant. Right. I mean, is my greatest

648
00:48:32.440 --> 00:48:37.559
fear that my life didn't accomplish anything
or mean anything because it impacts my perception

649
00:48:37.679 --> 00:48:43.239
of myself on my own ego?
Or do I wrap it in a robe

650
00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:45.199
of self righteousness? And say,
but I want my life to count for

651
00:48:45.280 --> 00:48:50.519
something for God. Right now,
I understand that. But sometimes we say

652
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:52.400
I want my life to count for
something for God, but it's really more

653
00:48:52.440 --> 00:48:57.519
about me. I want my life
to count something for God. But see

654
00:48:57.559 --> 00:49:00.159
if the other people see that my
life is counting something for God, that

655
00:49:00.440 --> 00:49:07.119
I'm going to get some of that
praise and recognition. Right now, let's

656
00:49:07.119 --> 00:49:12.480
say your life like this is the
way you would know your life counts something

657
00:49:12.559 --> 00:49:15.199
for God. That means something for
God. You're accomplishing something for God.

658
00:49:15.320 --> 00:49:19.519
However, everyone despises you. Everyone
hates you. Everyone thinks you're wrong.

659
00:49:19.840 --> 00:49:22.960
No one likes you, no one
listens to you, no one comes to

660
00:49:22.039 --> 00:49:27.760
your church. Your ministry is dead. Your ministry is a failure. Everyone

661
00:49:27.800 --> 00:49:30.280
perceives you to be a failure.
No one likes you. Are you still

662
00:49:30.320 --> 00:49:35.079
going to be like, well,
my life counted for I think what we

663
00:49:35.119 --> 00:49:38.280
typically mean. We want our life
to mean something in the eyes of other

664
00:49:38.400 --> 00:49:44.000
people, and then we can see
the numbers. We can see this,

665
00:49:44.079 --> 00:49:46.960
and we can see that because then
we feel good about ourselves. Now we'll

666
00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:50.360
tell ourselves no, no, no, no, no, that all proves

667
00:49:50.360 --> 00:49:54.519
that my life means something to God. It's the motives there. It's very

668
00:49:55.800 --> 00:50:00.119
it's very easy to convince yourself that
you're caring about meaning your life meaning something

669
00:50:00.119 --> 00:50:07.599
for God. But in reality it
can be more about you be that person

670
00:50:07.639 --> 00:50:10.559
who nobody listens to and nobody agrees
with and everyone thinks you're wrong. And

671
00:50:10.599 --> 00:50:14.519
see if you think, well,
my life must mean something to God.

672
00:50:15.079 --> 00:50:19.519
Yeah, well you can tell yourself
that, But I think sometimes that's about

673
00:50:19.599 --> 00:50:23.559
us. So should my greatest fear
be my life not counting or my life

674
00:50:23.599 --> 00:50:28.360
not meaning something? Or should be
my greatest fear? Is I fear God?

675
00:50:29.119 --> 00:50:30.559
And then what should that look like? If I fear God above all

676
00:50:30.599 --> 00:50:39.079
else, what should that look like. I'm afraid of leaving the world exactly

677
00:50:39.159 --> 00:50:46.039
like I found it, no different
from me having been here. Well,

678
00:50:46.599 --> 00:50:53.800
my time's almost gone. I want
it to have counted for God in something,

679
00:50:55.119 --> 00:50:59.679
and that is a desire of my
heart. Now, we're all familiar

680
00:50:59.679 --> 00:51:04.239
with turn about fear, like,
for instance, claustaphobia, and that's those

681
00:51:04.280 --> 00:51:08.480
fear of closed in spaces. We
have a custaphobics here. If you're not

682
00:51:08.519 --> 00:51:14.559
sure whether or not you're a laustrophobic, then just have an MRI in one

683
00:51:14.599 --> 00:51:19.519
of those tubes where you are like
this on your back for forty five minutes

684
00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:22.639
and if you make it through that
with no problems, then you don't have

685
00:51:22.760 --> 00:51:30.800
it. Then there's acrophobia. Now, acrophobia is the fear of high places.

686
00:51:31.360 --> 00:51:36.760
I looked up some of the lesser
known ones, like this. Astrophobia

687
00:51:37.719 --> 00:51:42.159
is the fear of thunderstorms. I
have it. I just didn't know it.

688
00:51:42.199 --> 00:51:45.599
And you know how I got the
fear of thunderstorms. It wasn't till

689
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:49.400
I was an adult that I got
the fear of thunderstorms. My wife and

690
00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:52.719
I we were living in a mobile
home. Then this goes way back up

691
00:51:52.719 --> 00:51:59.280
in Michigan and we had this storm
coming across from Lake Michigan, coming off

692
00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:04.679
the lake at we were living up
just north of Kalamazoo, and it was

693
00:52:04.760 --> 00:52:07.639
one that had all kinds of warnings
with it. I don't think there was

694
00:52:07.679 --> 00:52:12.800
a tornado warning there. But I
was standing in the back bedroom of that

695
00:52:12.920 --> 00:52:16.360
mobile home. I was looking out
the window because that's the direction the storm

696
00:52:16.480 --> 00:52:21.159
was coming from. Man, it
was raining cats and dogs, there was

697
00:52:21.320 --> 00:52:25.920
lightning out there, all of that, and suddenly there was a lightning strike

698
00:52:27.239 --> 00:52:31.800
just right outside the window. Now, that's not all that bad. But

699
00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:37.280
my wife had come into the room, was standing behind me, and I

700
00:52:37.280 --> 00:52:45.440
didn't know it, and when that
lightning went bam, I jumped. Matter

701
00:52:45.440 --> 00:52:50.400
of fact, I turned one hundred
and eighty degrees around without touching the ground,

702
00:52:52.159 --> 00:52:54.599
waiting it out here. From that
time on, I've been afraid of

703
00:52:54.679 --> 00:53:04.760
lightning. Never bothered me before anyway. The fear thunb Mysophobia is the fear

704
00:53:04.760 --> 00:53:12.000
of dirt. Didn't know that,
did you. Erythrophobia is the fear of

705
00:53:12.039 --> 00:53:21.719
blushing. Pantophobia is the fear of
everything, and then agoraphobia is the fear

706
00:53:22.079 --> 00:53:30.079
of fear. Normally, people who
have anxiety attacks are known for agoraphobia,

707
00:53:30.159 --> 00:53:36.840
the fear of fear. Now,
the reality is the fear that we need

708
00:53:36.880 --> 00:53:40.280
the most is the fear of God. God says it's the very beginning.

709
00:53:40.880 --> 00:53:45.400
It's the very beginning. As a
matter of fact, he tells us that

710
00:53:45.559 --> 00:53:49.159
not just once, but many many
times. You would think if God tells

711
00:53:49.239 --> 00:53:53.159
us something wants that we ought to
pay attention. If God says it it's

712
00:53:53.199 --> 00:53:58.079
just so, that's it, and
because he says it, it ought to

713
00:53:58.119 --> 00:54:02.039
be important to us. If God
says it twice, then we ought to

714
00:54:02.119 --> 00:54:07.159
really sit up and take notice.
Hey, this is something God really means

715
00:54:07.280 --> 00:54:13.079
for us to get. We need
to have this. If God says it

716
00:54:13.119 --> 00:54:16.480
three times, al body, if
God says it three times, I want

717
00:54:16.480 --> 00:54:21.960
to make sure I'm following what he
says. But wait a second, I

718
00:54:22.039 --> 00:54:24.199
want to go through and this is
not all of them, but let's go

719
00:54:24.280 --> 00:54:28.760
through some of the statements about fearing
God. I'll do this quick. You

720
00:54:28.840 --> 00:54:31.480
won't have the time to turn there. You just have to get the recording

721
00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:36.760
and listen to it, all right. But Deuteronomy eight six, Therefore thou

722
00:54:36.800 --> 00:54:38.639
shalt keep the commandments of the Lord, thy God, to walk in his

723
00:54:38.760 --> 00:54:45.639
ways and to fear him. Deuteronomy
thirteen four. He shall walk after the

724
00:54:45.679 --> 00:54:49.480
Lord, your God, and fear
him, and keep his commandments, and

725
00:54:49.519 --> 00:54:53.320
obey his voice. And ye shall
serve him and cleave unto him. First

726
00:54:53.400 --> 00:54:58.719
Chronicles, chapter sixteen and verse twenty
five. For great is the Lord,

727
00:54:59.480 --> 00:55:05.400
and great to be praised. He
is also to be feared above all gods.

728
00:55:05.840 --> 00:55:08.639
Second Chronicles nineteen and verse seven.
Wherefore, now let the fear of

729
00:55:08.639 --> 00:55:12.840
the Lord be upon you. Take
heed and do it, For there is

730
00:55:12.880 --> 00:55:16.599
no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking

731
00:55:16.599 --> 00:55:22.360
of gifts Job twenty eight, twenty
eight. And under man, he said,

732
00:55:22.480 --> 00:55:25.840
behold the fear of the Lord.
That is wisdom, and to depart

733
00:55:25.880 --> 00:55:31.519
from evil is understanding Psalm nineteen and
verse nine. The fear of the Lord

734
00:55:31.599 --> 00:55:38.440
is clean, enduring forever Psalm twenty
two and verse twenty twenty three. Ye

735
00:55:38.519 --> 00:55:44.239
that fear the Lord, praise him
all, ye seed of Jacob. Glorify

736
00:55:44.440 --> 00:55:49.320
him and fear him, all,
ye seed of Israel Psalm twenty five and

737
00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:52.960
verse fourteen. The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear him,

738
00:55:53.519 --> 00:55:59.719
and he will show them his covenant
Psalm thirty three and verse eighteen. Behold,

739
00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:04.159
the eye of the Lord is upon
them that fear him, upon them

740
00:56:04.280 --> 00:56:08.280
the hope in his mercy Psalm thirty
four and verse nine. Oh, fear

741
00:56:08.360 --> 00:56:13.760
the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that

742
00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:17.159
fear him. Psalm thirty four and
verse eleven. Come, ye children,

743
00:56:17.280 --> 00:56:23.360
hearken unto me. I will teach
you the fear of the Lord Psalm seventy

744
00:56:23.400 --> 00:56:29.000
six and verse seven. Thou even
thou art to be feared, and who

745
00:56:29.039 --> 00:56:34.599
may stand in thy sight when once
thou art angry Psalm eighty five and verse

746
00:56:34.679 --> 00:56:40.280
nine. Surely his salvation is nigh
them that fear him, that glory may

747
00:56:40.400 --> 00:56:45.039
dwell in our land Psalm eighty nine
and verse seven. God is greatly to

748
00:56:45.079 --> 00:56:50.039
be feared in the assembly of his
saints, and to be had in reverence

749
00:56:50.400 --> 00:56:54.280
by all them that are about him
Psng ninety six and verse four. For

750
00:56:54.400 --> 00:57:00.280
the Lord is great and greatly to
be praised. He is to be feared

751
00:57:00.920 --> 00:57:05.920
above all gods Psalm one O three
and verse eleven. For as the heaven

752
00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:10.519
is high above the earth, so
great is his mercy towards them that fear

753
00:57:12.119 --> 00:57:16.119
him one hundred and three and verse
thirteen. Like as a father pitieth his

754
00:57:16.280 --> 00:57:22.800
children, so the Lord pitieth them
that fear him Psalm one O. Three

755
00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:27.920
and verse seventeen. But the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

756
00:57:28.440 --> 00:57:35.199
upon them that fear Him, and
his righteousness unto children's children Psalm one forty

757
00:57:35.239 --> 00:57:39.400
five and verse nineteen. He will
fulfill the desire of them that fear him.

758
00:57:39.800 --> 00:57:45.760
He also will hear their cry and
will save them Psalm one forty seven

759
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:51.639
and verse eleven. The Lord taketh
pleasure in them that fear him in those

760
00:57:51.719 --> 00:57:55.480
that hope in his mercy. Proverbs
one seven. The fear of the Lord

761
00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:01.760
is the beginning of knowledge Proverbs two
five. Then shalt thou understand the fear

762
00:58:01.800 --> 00:58:08.320
of the Lord and find the knowledge
of God. Proverbs eight and verse thirteen.

763
00:58:08.480 --> 00:58:13.639
I'm sorry, Proverbs two and verse
I gave you that one. Proverbs

764
00:58:13.679 --> 00:58:17.519
eight and verse thirteen. The fear
of the Lord is to hate evil.

765
00:58:21.119 --> 00:58:30.039
Do you get that the fear of
the Lord is to hate evil. That's

766
00:58:30.159 --> 00:58:34.239
one of the problems in America today. People don't hate evil. As a

767
00:58:34.239 --> 00:58:38.480
matter of fact, they love evil, and they hate what God says about

768
00:58:38.559 --> 00:58:45.039
evil. But the fear of the
Lord is to hate evil. Pride and

769
00:58:45.239 --> 00:58:51.639
arrogancy in the evil way and the
forward mouth do I hate? Proverbs nine

770
00:58:51.800 --> 00:58:54.679
ten. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, and the

771
00:58:54.719 --> 00:59:00.119
knowledge of the Holy is understanding.
Proverbs ten and verse twenty seven. The

772
00:59:00.119 --> 00:59:04.159
fear of the Lord prolonged days,
but the years of the wicked shall be

773
00:59:04.280 --> 00:59:08.559
shortened Proverbs fourteen twenty six. The
fear of the Lord is strong confidence,

774
00:59:08.960 --> 00:59:14.559
and his children shall have a place
of refuge. Proverbs fourteen twenty seven.

775
00:59:14.960 --> 00:59:16.760
The fear of the Lord is a
fountain of life, to depart from the

776
00:59:16.760 --> 00:59:22.760
snares of death Proverbs fifteen sixteen.
Scripture says, better is little with the

777
00:59:22.760 --> 00:59:29.639
fear of the Lord than great treasure
and trouble therewith Proverbs fifteen thirty three.

778
00:59:30.119 --> 00:59:34.880
The fear of the Lord is the
instruction of wisdom, and before honor is

779
00:59:34.960 --> 00:59:40.199
humility Proverbs sixteen six By mercy and
truth, iniquity is purged, And by

780
00:59:40.239 --> 00:59:45.880
the fear of the Lord men depart
from evil. Proverbs nineteen twenty three.

781
00:59:46.360 --> 00:59:51.079
The fear of the Lord tendeth to
life, and he that hath it shall

782
00:59:51.119 --> 00:59:57.000
abide satisfied. He shall not be
visited with evil Proverbs twenty three and verse

783
00:59:57.039 --> 01:00:01.239
seventeen. Let not thine heart envy
sinners, but be thou and the fear

784
01:00:01.239 --> 01:00:07.760
of the Lord all the day long
Ecclesiastes eight and verse twelve. Though a

785
01:00:07.800 --> 01:00:13.320
sinner do evil one hundred times,
and his days be prolonged. Yet surely

786
01:00:13.400 --> 01:00:17.119
I know that it should be well
with them that fear God, which fear

787
01:00:17.360 --> 01:00:23.400
before him Isaiah two and verse ten. Enter into the rock and hide thee

788
01:00:23.440 --> 01:00:28.239
in the dust, for fear of
the Lord and for the glory of his

789
01:00:28.400 --> 01:00:34.719
majesty. Now, it's awesome that
he's going through all of them, it

790
01:00:34.760 --> 01:00:37.679
really is. I don't know,
like he's going through him so fast.

791
01:00:37.679 --> 01:00:42.719
I don't even know if you could
write down all the references when it's kind

792
01:00:42.760 --> 01:00:46.320
of like it's I'm conflicted there.
Right, it's twenty twenty four. Right,

793
01:00:46.360 --> 01:00:51.079
it's twenty twenty four. You can
look up the Fear of the Lord.

794
01:00:50.760 --> 01:00:52.400
You can use any kind of tool
to say fear of the Lord.

795
01:00:52.800 --> 01:00:55.079
Basically, give me a list of
all the scriptures Fear of the Lord,

796
01:00:55.159 --> 01:00:59.000
and you probably can have it in
about ten seconds, right, probably could

797
01:00:59.039 --> 01:01:01.880
have it in fifteen seconds, five
seconds, right, And there's there's all

798
01:01:01.960 --> 01:01:05.960
kinds of tools you could use to
find it, so anybody could get a

799
01:01:06.000 --> 01:01:09.920
list of them. He's reading them
so fast that there's no way to really

800
01:01:12.280 --> 01:01:15.000
articulate it. Now, Maybe what
he's or no way to really do anything

801
01:01:15.079 --> 01:01:20.920
with it or try to be impacted
by it. Now, maybe what he's

802
01:01:20.920 --> 01:01:24.639
trying to demonstrate is that the I
did to fear God and the call to

803
01:01:24.679 --> 01:01:30.119
fear God is not a one time
thing. It's said over and over and

804
01:01:30.159 --> 01:01:32.519
over and over. So he's just
going through I'm just going to read all

805
01:01:32.559 --> 01:01:37.639
of these scriptures to drive that point
home that to fear God is of the

806
01:01:37.760 --> 01:01:44.519
utmost importance because it's repeated so many
times, and in that case it's effective.

807
01:01:44.599 --> 01:01:47.400
So you could argue, like,
in some ways is this needed.

808
01:01:47.480 --> 01:01:51.519
It may not be needed, but
it may be effective and trying to be

809
01:01:51.760 --> 01:01:55.360
it may be effective. It may
be effective and trying to demonstrate to people,

810
01:01:55.639 --> 01:01:59.800
Hey, this is all through the
Bible, so we have to learn

811
01:01:59.840 --> 01:02:02.320
to God. But here's what struck
me. Here's what struck me, and

812
01:02:02.400 --> 01:02:07.000
I'm and I'm going to put forth
this in a different theological setting. Right,

813
01:02:07.280 --> 01:02:12.599
As everyone knows, we have talked
on this podcast extensively about the proper

814
01:02:12.639 --> 01:02:19.960
distinction between law and gospel, and
that that proper distinction between law and gospel

815
01:02:20.199 --> 01:02:25.679
has been obliterated in basically modern evangelicalism. Right, it's still that proper distinction

816
01:02:25.719 --> 01:02:30.639
between law and gospel, and that
talking about that distinction is typically found in

817
01:02:30.719 --> 01:02:36.519
Lutheran theology, but it's been obliterated
everywhere else within evangelicalism and even within fundamentalism.

818
01:02:36.760 --> 01:02:40.000
And that is rast that can have
a drastic impact on a proper understanding

819
01:02:40.039 --> 01:02:45.480
of the Gospel because I think so
many times are so called gospels are nothing

820
01:02:45.559 --> 01:02:50.440
more than law masquerading as gospel.
It's really law. When you get when

821
01:02:50.480 --> 01:02:53.239
you remove the mask, you remove
the mask and you get down to law.

822
01:02:54.400 --> 01:02:58.800
Remember law if you're if you're trying
to understand what is law and what

823
01:02:58.880 --> 01:03:01.280
is gospel. Any page you read
in the Bible that says do this,

824
01:03:01.519 --> 01:03:05.679
do this, do this, do
this and get this, do this and

825
01:03:05.719 --> 01:03:08.519
get this, don't do this and
this will happen. Anything that says do

826
01:03:08.559 --> 01:03:12.440
this, do this, do this, that is law, law, law,

827
01:03:12.599 --> 01:03:15.719
law, law, law. And
let's make it very clear. Law

828
01:03:15.159 --> 01:03:21.519
is designed to do a few things, but specifically it is designed to show

829
01:03:21.519 --> 01:03:24.119
you your inability to keep it.
It's there to show you how you have

830
01:03:24.280 --> 01:03:28.800
broken it. It has show it's
the law is there to condemn you.

831
01:03:29.039 --> 01:03:31.119
It is to reveal to you.
It is to convict you. It is

832
01:03:31.199 --> 01:03:35.800
to shame you. It is to
humiliate you. It is to break you.

833
01:03:36.840 --> 01:03:38.679
So when you read scripture after scripture
says fear God, Fear God,

834
01:03:38.679 --> 01:03:42.920
Fear God, Fear God, Fear
God, fear God, I know that

835
01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:45.719
in most churches it's going to be
like, get to it. That's what

836
01:03:45.760 --> 01:03:50.280
you need to do. Try harder, but you can try all day,

837
01:03:50.440 --> 01:03:53.920
You're never going to fear God properly. And if to fear God is connected

838
01:03:53.960 --> 01:04:00.280
with obeying him, then unless you
are one hundred percent holy and obedient all

839
01:04:00.320 --> 01:04:03.440
the time, then you do not
fear him. How much disobedience can be

840
01:04:03.519 --> 01:04:09.360
in your life before that can no
longer be classified as fearing God? How

841
01:04:09.440 --> 01:04:13.079
much disobedience can be in your life? How much? Because trust me,

842
01:04:13.559 --> 01:04:16.119
I can give you some just a
few quick scriptures. Love the Lord God,

843
01:04:16.360 --> 01:04:19.840
Love the Lord God, Love the
Lord Thy God with all your heart,

844
01:04:19.920 --> 01:04:23.199
mind, body and soul. If
I can speak correctly, love the

845
01:04:23.239 --> 01:04:25.679
Lord Thy God with all your heart, mind, body and soulf. No

846
01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:28.800
one does that, And if you
think you do, then you've got bigger

847
01:04:28.840 --> 01:04:30.880
problems. Well, if you don't
obey that, and you don't obey that

848
01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:34.599
ever, then do you fear God? Love your neighbor as yourself? Do

849
01:04:34.639 --> 01:04:38.599
you ever truly pull that off?
Oh? Here's one be ye, holy

850
01:04:38.840 --> 01:04:42.400
as He is holy? You're never
holy as God is holy, ever,

851
01:04:42.719 --> 01:04:48.159
not in practice? So those are
three areas where you're an almost perpetual disobedience.

852
01:04:48.440 --> 01:04:54.599
So then do you fear God?
If fearing God is connected to obedience

853
01:04:54.840 --> 01:04:58.880
then you have to be perfectly obedient
in order to fear God, because if

854
01:04:58.920 --> 01:05:02.880
you're not perfectly, then you're disobedient. And if fearing God is obedience,

855
01:05:02.960 --> 01:05:06.239
then disobedience would prove you don't fear
God. So then do you ever truly

856
01:05:06.239 --> 01:05:13.000
fear God? Now I will argue
all those scriptures that say fear God,

857
01:05:13.039 --> 01:05:15.840
fear God, fear God, fear
God, fear God, fear God is

858
01:05:15.960 --> 01:05:18.000
law, which condemns you that that
should be? Well, what do I

859
01:05:18.079 --> 01:05:24.320
do? You run to Christ?
Because in Christ you then will be declared

860
01:05:24.320 --> 01:05:28.639
to be perfect and holy, and
all of Christ's obedience is imputed to you.

861
01:05:29.039 --> 01:05:34.480
Now this comes into play here.
Look at Isaiah chapter eleven. There

862
01:05:34.519 --> 01:05:40.760
shall come forth a rod from the
stem of Jesse, and a branch shall

863
01:05:40.800 --> 01:05:46.679
grow out of his roots Isaiah eleven
to one. Almost everyone says this is

864
01:05:46.719 --> 01:05:51.880
a Messianic prophecy, pointing to Christ. The spirit of the Lord shall rest

865
01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:57.360
upon him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and

866
01:05:57.440 --> 01:06:06.559
might, the spirit of knowledge and
of the fear of the Lord Christ in

867
01:06:06.599 --> 01:06:13.639
his incarnation, in his humanity,
in his relationship to the Father, in

868
01:06:13.679 --> 01:06:18.440
that incarnational relationship one God three distinct
persons. But that proper relationship between father

869
01:06:18.599 --> 01:06:26.119
and son, Christ and his incarnation
feared God. In Christ, his fear

870
01:06:26.159 --> 01:06:30.360
of God, that means he obeyed
all of those commands to fear God is

871
01:06:30.400 --> 01:06:33.639
imputed to my account. So in
my position, I fear God perfectly.

872
01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:40.000
In my position, I obey God
perfectly. So all of those commands.

873
01:06:40.320 --> 01:06:44.199
Yes, we should pursue the fear
of the Lord, but we're never going

874
01:06:44.280 --> 01:06:47.079
to get there. You're never going
to You're never truly going to fear God

875
01:06:47.119 --> 01:06:50.360
properly, ever, and if you
think you are, you're never going to

876
01:06:50.400 --> 01:06:54.880
fear him properly, especially if you
say the fear of the Lord is connected

877
01:06:54.920 --> 01:07:00.280
to obedience. So I would tell
you, when you consider the fear of

878
01:07:00.280 --> 01:07:03.840
the Lord, write down Isaiah eleven
if you believe Isaiah eleven one through three

879
01:07:03.880 --> 01:07:06.679
is speaking of Christ. Now I'm
gonna look at I'm gonna look at this

880
01:07:06.760 --> 01:07:13.840
verse in a different translation. I'm
gonna look at it at a different translation,

881
01:07:14.119 --> 01:07:15.920
just to make sure. I probably
need to look it up in all

882
01:07:15.960 --> 01:07:20.119
English translations, probably look it up
in all. I know. I know

883
01:07:20.199 --> 01:07:24.159
we're approaching. I know this is
a concept. A lot of you may

884
01:07:24.199 --> 01:07:27.920
not are well, depending on who's
listening you maybe if you've been listening to

885
01:07:27.960 --> 01:07:31.320
this podcast, we've done like over
eighty hours of teaching on the proper distinction

886
01:07:31.400 --> 01:07:38.719
between law and gospel, probably the
most important series we've ever done. Okay,

887
01:07:39.119 --> 01:07:44.440
and now that is that is Apple
trying to talk to me, my

888
01:07:44.519 --> 01:07:47.760
Apple device. I will not say
her name, because she obviously thought I

889
01:07:47.840 --> 01:07:50.440
was speaking of her. All right, all right. Isaiah chapter eleven in

890
01:07:50.480 --> 01:07:55.320
this Bible says, and the spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him the

891
01:07:55.320 --> 01:07:58.719
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit

892
01:07:58.760 --> 01:08:01.400
of knowledge and of the fear of
the Lord. So when the King James

893
01:08:01.480 --> 01:08:05.599
and in the New King James,
it clearly states that. And I don't

894
01:08:05.639 --> 01:08:10.280
have I don't have any other translations. But since we've already gone sixty eight

895
01:08:10.320 --> 01:08:14.119
minutes, I won't look it up. Just remember Isaiah eleven. All of

896
01:08:14.159 --> 01:08:16.840
those scriptures tell you you must fear
God, and it says fearing God in

897
01:08:16.880 --> 01:08:23.199
many cases is connected to obedience.
Well, you don't do that. And

898
01:08:23.720 --> 01:08:28.119
if obedience is connected to fear,
then it must be perfect obedience, or

899
01:08:28.159 --> 01:08:30.479
you don't fear God, or you
have to answer the question how much disobedience

900
01:08:30.600 --> 01:08:33.840
before it begins to call into question
how much you fear God. Now,

901
01:08:33.880 --> 01:08:38.000
typically what we do is that person
fears God and fears God until they commit

902
01:08:38.039 --> 01:08:40.840
a certain sin. And then if
they commit a certain sin, well,

903
01:08:40.880 --> 01:08:43.680
they don't fear God because if they
fear God, they would never commit that

904
01:08:43.760 --> 01:08:45.319
sin. Well, then wait a
minute, Okay, now we got a

905
01:08:45.359 --> 01:08:49.439
problem. Well, then did Solomon
fear God? Did David fear God?

906
01:08:49.800 --> 01:08:55.680
Did anybody fear God? Because everyone
in the Bible disobeyed. So in one

907
01:08:55.720 --> 01:08:58.920
hand, practically we never truly fear
God, or at least we can say

908
01:08:58.960 --> 01:09:02.800
we never fear God any we're close
to perfectly. But in Christ Jesus,

909
01:09:03.079 --> 01:09:06.680
we can say that we fear God, just as we say that we are

910
01:09:06.760 --> 01:09:11.880
obedience, because in our position we
are all of those things because of the

911
01:09:11.880 --> 01:09:18.479
imputed obedience of Christ to our account
Isaiah thirty three and verse six. And

912
01:09:18.640 --> 01:09:25.239
wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability
of thy times and strength of salvation.

913
01:09:25.800 --> 01:09:30.239
The fear of the Lord is his
treasure. Now I know what somebody's thinking

914
01:09:30.319 --> 01:09:35.079
right now. Somebody's thinking either in
here or perhaps over the internet. Somebody's

915
01:09:35.119 --> 01:09:40.279
thinking, Well, all those verses, Preacher every one of them are in

916
01:09:40.560 --> 01:09:44.640
the Old Testament. Well, that
means you were paying attention when I read

917
01:09:44.680 --> 01:09:48.159
the address of each of those verses. Every one of those verses were in

918
01:09:48.479 --> 01:09:54.640
the Old Testament. But that's not
all the verses. I just hadn't gotten

919
01:09:54.680 --> 01:09:58.359
to the New Testament yet, So
let me give you some in the New

920
01:09:58.439 --> 01:10:02.479
Testament. Matthew eight, Jesus is
speaking. He says, in fear not

921
01:10:02.560 --> 01:10:05.239
them which killed the body, but
are not able to kill the soul,

922
01:10:05.720 --> 01:10:12.479
but rather fear him which is able
to destroy both body and soul in hell.

923
01:10:13.159 --> 01:10:15.520
Now you say, well, that's
the devil. No, he's not

924
01:10:15.600 --> 01:10:18.199
telling us to fear the devil.
The devil has no power in hell.

925
01:10:18.920 --> 01:10:24.039
You understand that was created not for
the devil and his angels to reign,

926
01:10:24.239 --> 01:10:29.560
but to suffer. The devil doesn't
even have the keys to Hell. Jesus

927
01:10:29.560 --> 01:10:33.199
has the keys. Just read Revelation
chapter one. The one that word to

928
01:10:33.239 --> 01:10:40.199
fear is God Luke chapter one and
verse fifty. And his mercy is on

929
01:10:40.319 --> 01:10:45.359
them that fear him from generation to
generation. Ah, that's powerful stuff right

930
01:10:45.399 --> 01:10:49.600
there. Look twelve five. But
I will forewarn you whom he shall fear,

931
01:10:49.720 --> 01:10:54.680
fear him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell.

932
01:10:55.159 --> 01:10:59.279
Yeah, I say unto you,
fear him in Acts chapter nine and

933
01:10:59.399 --> 01:11:02.840
verse thirty one. One. Then
had the churches rest round are throughout all

934
01:11:02.920 --> 01:11:10.000
Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and
were edified and walking in the fear of

935
01:11:10.039 --> 01:11:14.560
the Lord, and in the comfort
of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. You

936
01:11:14.640 --> 01:11:18.680
get that when the churches had the
fear of the Lord, they had rest

937
01:11:19.560 --> 01:11:25.960
the fear of the Lord. Two
Corinthians, chapter seven and verse one.

938
01:11:26.000 --> 01:11:30.399
Having therefore these promises, Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness

939
01:11:30.399 --> 01:11:36.199
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of the Lord.

940
01:11:36.800 --> 01:11:42.800
Pesians five twenty one, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God.

941
01:11:43.279 --> 01:11:46.239
First Peter, Chapter two and verse
seventeen. Honor all men, love

942
01:11:46.319 --> 01:11:53.880
the brotherhood, Fear God, Honor
the King, Revelation fourteen seven, saying

943
01:11:53.920 --> 01:11:57.760
with a loud voice, Fear God
and give him, Give glory to Him,

944
01:11:58.319 --> 01:12:00.760
for the hour of his judgment is
come. And worship Him that made

945
01:12:00.840 --> 01:12:05.920
heaven and earth and the sea and
the thousands of waters. Revelation nineteen and

946
01:12:06.000 --> 01:12:11.079
verse five. And a voice came
out of the throne saying, praise our

947
01:12:11.119 --> 01:12:15.279
God, all ye his servants,
and ye that fear him, both small

948
01:12:15.880 --> 01:12:24.239
and great. So how many times
does God have to say something before we

949
01:12:24.359 --> 01:12:30.720
take it seriously? And we will
stop right there. You can go listen

950
01:12:30.760 --> 01:12:34.720
to the rest of that sermon,
The Great importance of the Fear of God.

951
01:12:35.079 --> 01:12:39.840
Mike Allison on the sermon's two point. Oh, app please go download

952
01:12:39.880 --> 01:12:42.239
it and listen to the rest.
I don't know if we will review the

953
01:12:42.279 --> 01:12:45.960
rest. Maybe we will, maybe
will not. It depends if anyone listens

954
01:12:45.960 --> 01:12:48.600
and wants me to the main point
that we take from this is clearly God

955
01:12:48.680 --> 01:12:53.680
demonstrates it's of great importance because it's
repeated over and over and over and over

956
01:12:53.720 --> 01:12:56.560
and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over again.

957
01:12:56.680 --> 01:12:59.800
But if you read some of those
scriptures where it's repeated, those scriptures

958
01:12:59.800 --> 01:13:03.319
are clearly classified as law because it's
saying do this, and you will get

959
01:13:03.319 --> 01:13:06.720
this, don't do this, and
you will obtain that this, do this.

960
01:13:06.840 --> 01:13:10.439
It's law, law, law,
law, law, law. Well,

961
01:13:10.439 --> 01:13:14.279
what does law do? Laws convicts
you, Law shows you what you're

962
01:13:14.319 --> 01:13:16.319
to do and that you do not
do it, and that you cannot do

963
01:13:16.359 --> 01:13:19.720
it. We cannot keep God's law. Everyone get that right. No one

964
01:13:19.760 --> 01:13:24.680
can keep God's law lost or saved
as a saved person, you cannot keep

965
01:13:24.760 --> 01:13:28.920
God's law perfectly. If you think
you can, you are delusional. You

966
01:13:29.039 --> 01:13:31.600
cannot keep it perfectly. How do
I know? Be holy as He is

967
01:13:31.640 --> 01:13:35.399
holy? You cannot be as holy
as God as holy you cannot. That

968
01:13:35.439 --> 01:13:40.319
would be perfection inwardly and outwardly.
Where you're not even perfect inwardly because you

969
01:13:40.319 --> 01:13:43.600
have a sinful nature even after being
saved. That's why you have to We

970
01:13:43.640 --> 01:13:45.960
have to have glorification where we get
a new body and the old nature is

971
01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:50.319
gone. Right, so we are
we will never obey that perfectly. We

972
01:13:50.399 --> 01:13:55.960
will not so because we don't obey
God's law perfectly. Well, one of

973
01:13:56.000 --> 01:13:59.920
the things we don't obey is fearing
God perfectly. We always fall short of

974
01:14:00.079 --> 01:14:02.199
that. So then what do we
do? Well, Obviously we want to

975
01:14:02.239 --> 01:14:05.680
be convicted by our failure, but
we ultimately by our failure, we want

976
01:14:05.720 --> 01:14:10.079
to be driven to Jesus Christ.
When we're driven to Jesus Christ, what

977
01:14:10.199 --> 01:14:13.439
do we find? We find that
by putting our faith in him, his

978
01:14:13.680 --> 01:14:17.560
obedience, passive and active, is
imputed to our account. His holiness is

979
01:14:17.600 --> 01:14:21.800
imputed to our account. We are, it's accredited to our account that we

980
01:14:21.840 --> 01:14:28.439
are holy, righteous, and obedient. And all that Christ did, all

981
01:14:28.479 --> 01:14:32.800
that Christ was, is imputed to
me. And he feared the Lord.

982
01:14:33.159 --> 01:14:39.520
Isaiah eleven one through three or one
through four. I can look at it.

983
01:14:39.680 --> 01:14:44.079
You can look at Isaiah eleven.
That's clearly a Messianic prophecy. That's

984
01:14:44.119 --> 01:14:45.359
a message. I think I may
have called it a messionic palm, a

985
01:14:45.359 --> 01:14:51.640
Messianic prophecy. Clearly that's referring to
Jesus. Jesus feared God in him.

986
01:14:51.800 --> 01:14:57.560
I fear God in him, I
obey in him, I love in him.

987
01:14:57.600 --> 01:15:00.199
I do everything correctly and practice.
I fall short of all of it.

988
01:15:00.640 --> 01:15:06.079
Now, because I'm declared to be
perfect, positionally and practice, I

989
01:15:06.079 --> 01:15:10.399
should try to pursue what it is
to fear God. Now we didn't get

990
01:15:10.720 --> 01:15:14.199
exactly how we are to obtain it
and what that looks like and how do

991
01:15:14.279 --> 01:15:18.600
we get it? But you did
see the importance of it. Now we

992
01:15:18.640 --> 01:15:24.399
went seventy five minutes. These reviews
always do that. I told you it

993
01:15:24.399 --> 01:15:28.279
would take five hours to try to
review this entire sermon. Easy, maybe

994
01:15:28.319 --> 01:15:30.079
I could finish it up in the
next one maybe, but typically it usually

995
01:15:30.119 --> 01:15:34.279
goes four to five hours, so
maybe because my initial introduction is always so

996
01:15:34.319 --> 01:15:38.439
long. But I had to give
a longer introduction because this is to try

997
01:15:38.439 --> 01:15:41.479
to conclude our discussion of the Fear
of the Lord that we are supposed to

998
01:15:41.479 --> 01:15:44.399
have been working on all week.
I don't think we've even come close to

999
01:15:44.680 --> 01:15:47.760
exhausting the subjects, so we will
probably return to it again. But for

1000
01:15:47.840 --> 01:15:53.560
the starting tomorrow, our focus for
the sermon's two point zero app sermon challenge

1001
01:15:53.600 --> 01:15:57.479
will be Psalm eighty three. But
we will return to this and hopefully you

1002
01:15:57.520 --> 01:16:00.800
did all of the assumates I gave
you this week, and I would challenge

1003
01:16:00.840 --> 01:16:02.399
you to at least finish that sermon. You only have about probably twenty five

1004
01:16:02.399 --> 01:16:08.600
minutes left. Well probably about twenty
because usually the concluding five or six minutes

1005
01:16:08.640 --> 01:16:12.920
as a prayer and summarizing, so
probably you probably got fifteen minutes of actual

1006
01:16:12.960 --> 01:16:17.079
probably teaching, so you can probably
wrap that up soon. All right,

1007
01:16:19.239 --> 01:16:21.880
there we go. Well, we
definitely got to talk about this again soon.

1008
01:16:23.119 --> 01:16:27.000
All right. NEWSI F at yahoo
dot com. That's NEWSI F at

1009
01:16:27.079 --> 01:16:30.800
Yahoo dot com. Thanks for listening
everyone, have a great night. God bless