The Unseen- Week 3

Title: Who am I fearing?

Open: Have you ever really been scared? Like really scared and it caused you to lose focus of priorities? (Story of me doing flooring and being held at gun point.)

We all have moments of fear that sometimes cripple us and cause us to not react the way we should.

We have been in this series called “The Unseen” in week 1 Pastor Jeremy discussed what it looked like to have spiritual discernment in our life, and last week Pastor Joel talked on the different types of fear that manifest themselves in our lives. This week, I want to preach on the fear of God, and unpack what it actually looks like.

In the passage that Jonathan read for us earlier we see the creation story, and the story of Adam and Eve and how they fell.

What’s interesting in this story, is it actually displays the fear of God perfectly.

We actually see the relationship they both had with God before the fall,

Genesis 3:8 NIV

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Before the fall, Adam and Eve both walked with God in the garden, hand and hand. They knew God has Lord and friend.

See to truly walk in the fear of God means to walk hand and hand with the Lord. It means to be His friend, to know Him.

So what happened?

The age old deceiver who is still deceiving to this day came along, and He deceived the them. He gave them a fear of missing out on something, that something was the fruit of the tree.

BIG IDEA: Their fear of missing out on the fruit, overrode their fear of the Lord.

This is what the enemy does, when a fear of something enters our life, it rattles the core of our identity, and if we do not have discernment, and do not know how to overcome the fear, we like Adam and Eve, will break our friendship with the Lord and will no longer fear and admire Him, but rather the fear that is in front of us.

One and only point: Godly fear is walking hand in hand with the Lord.

So lets break fear down and learn how to walk in Godly fear?

What Godly fear is not:

-Punishing

-Tormenting

-Misleading

-Overlording

-Destructive

-Deceiving

What Godly fear is:

-Loving

-Honoring

-Friendship

-Truth

-Wisdom

-Holiness

So how do we walk in Godly fear?

1.) We seek Friendship with Him.

Psalm 25:14 NIV

The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.

-The message translation says it best, “God-friendship is for God worshipers; They are the ones He confides in.”

-Walking with Him as friend, begins with knowing Him. We know Him by walking with Him.

-Story of my friend Rod. (Us hiking)

-In walking, we learn a lot about the other person.

2.) We seek to have an undivided heart.

-Adam and Eve had a divided heart because of the lies they believed.

Psalm 86:11 NIV

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

-What is dividing your attention today? (Is it work, friends, family, a sin issue, the voices you listen to?)

-When our heart is divided, the king will not fully inhabit the throne.

3.) We seek His instruction.

-Adam and Eve listened to the Lord’s instruction at first, but because they sought friendship with the snake, which created a divided heart, they no longer followed his instruction.

Proverbs 15:33 NIV

Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor.

-Story of me wanting to do flooring my way.

4.) We seek to hate evil.

Proverbs 8:13 NIV

To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

-Instead of hating evil, Adam and Eve fell for the trap.

-Listen in our day and age, evil masquerades itself around in discreet forms. It’s not as obvious as haunted houses, and the demonic.

-Evil slips into our thoughts and buries itself in our heart.

-But to fear the Lord means to hate the things He does.

-Maybe it’s time to ask the Lord what He hates.

-Story of Becca and I no longer doing Halloween.

One and only point: Godly fear is walking hand in hand with the Lord.

Some questions for you to think about this week in your prayer life:

1.) Ask the Lord what He desires for your life.

2.) Ask the Lord what walking in friendship looks like? What do you need to unlearn, and relearn?

Let’s Pray, and if you need to repent and turn back to the Lord, now is the time.

Let’s stand to our feet, as I pray we are going to go back into the song Give me Jesus, as we do, let’s submit ourselves to the Lord.