Sermon Tone Analysis

I think from time to time everyone at some point gets scared / filled with fear / Fear is an interesting thing / most often when we experience fear / first thing we want to do is run!

/ We want to get away / entering Halloween weekend / strange to me how many people love this holiday / love the demonic / freaky / loved being scared / scary movies gross millions each year!

I work with a girl who only watches scary movies / this poor girl is not healthy / she lives in fear / she like to say she is just “more alert” / but it’s not just being alert / she lives in genuine fear / always asking people what their greatest fear is / always scared to be alone

However, this is not the fear I am going to talk about / Proverbs talks about a different kind of fear / one that involves God Himself / Bible calls it the “Fear of the Lord”

But what does this really mean, and how does it apply to us today?

Next few weeks / I am going to dive into wisdom / Bible has a lot to say about wisdom / if we obtain wisdom / we will see growth in our lives

Albert Einstein said, “Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”

Charles Spurgeon said, “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.”

We all want to grow / Growth for our lives / our businesses / our families / our friendships / growth in every area

This wisdom is what I hope will be produced from this series / We are going to work our way through several teachings from the book of Proverbs in OT

Prov 1, Josh 1, 1 Pet 2

I. Misconceptions of Fear

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

I can remember a few times in my life where I experienced genuine fear / One of those times was when I was younger / and I had a cousin visiting / he was older than I was / and I must have been a bit claustrophobic / Not sure how he knew that / but one night getting ready for bed (we all had sleeping bags on the floor like a camp out) he pushed me down inside of mine and then sat on the top so I could not get out / it was dark / I felt like I could not breathe / I panicked / I thought I was going to die / Obviously I didn’t / eventually he let me out

Other types of fear / fear of heights / Ever see those videos of people who pay for admission to bungee jump / only to get to the top / back out Fear can cause us to retreat / pull back / keep from doing things we really want to do

A. So Is the Bible telling us we need to be scared of God?

1. Bible says Fear is the beginning of knowledge / so should we run from it?

Be scared of it?

a.

The Bible provides us with a starting point

i.

If we want true wisdom in life / we must begin with the fear of the Lord

b.