Awesome God
Recapturing Holy Fear • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I’ve been looking forward to the sermon series that we are starting today. I’m calling it “Recapturing Holy Fear” - because if the Church here in America wants to experience a spiritual awakening, if we desire to see our communities transformed, if we want to cut through the confusion and misinformation of our day with God’s truth, if we are to be the ambassadors for Christ that we are called to be - it all begins with Holy Fear. When the Church fears the Lord - she is fearless in her witness.
For the individual Christian who feels distant from God, who feels that something is missing in their walk with Jesus, those who know they worry too much in life or feel powerless against sin - it is time to reexamine what it means to fear the Lord.
During this series, I will be referring often to the book “The Awe of God” by John Bevere. This is a book that the fellowship of local clergy I belong to decided to read and discuss over the course of the last few months. I’m stubborn, so it took awhile for me to actually set aside time to read it and reflect on each chapter. Yet God kept drawing me back to it. One day I read a chapter that grabbed my attention. In that chapter, the author points out that 75% of individuals in the Bible “who were called and commissioned by God had their effectiveness cut short, and many of them did not finish well.” He then reflected on all the pastors he knew whose ministry effectiveness was cut short or who didn’t finish well. He writes: “Many started passionately, loved Jesus deeply, obeyed and sacrificed to minister to God’s people, but they became jaded, cynical, and many left the ministry. They didn’t endure.”
I want to finish well. And I know that you want to finish well. When we stand before our Lord one day, face to face, we want to hear the words of Jesus as recorded in the 25th chapter of Matthew ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
I want to finish well - but to be honest with you - I find it difficult to do at times. There are times when I can get so easily distracted - more times than I’d like to admit. Sometimes, I forget the One who rescued me. I somehow diminish His presence in my life - fooling myself into acting as if He really doesn’t care what I do.
I even begin to fear other, lesser things. Things that hinder me from living my life to the fullest potential that God desires for me.
And I am pretty confident that you do as well.
What do you fear?
Everyone fears something - even if they have a decal on their truck rear window that says “Ain’t Skeered” or wear a T-shirt or hat emblazoned with the words “No Fear” - it’s all a lie. Everyone fears something - usually multiple things.
Early in my life, I had the fear of missing out (FOMO) - that there was something greater happening somewhere and I was missing it. Maybe because I grew up in a very rural neighborhood - miles from town - and at times felt isolated. The fear of missing out, especially during my early adult years, became a destructive fear. Chasing after new adventures and new experiences, always looking for the next best thing - prevented me from just being present and content with my many blessings. It made it difficult to enjoy real community.
There are many fears that people have that can become destructive.
You may fear taking risk - so you stay in a job or position that you despise instead of pursuing another path.
You may fear losing all your money and possessions - which can lead to an unhealthy obsession over them, even becoming a miser or a hoarder.
You may fear losing your spouse, which may lead to smothering them, or becoming too suspicious of their every action - which can destroy your relationship.
You may fear for the safety of your children, which may lead to enforcing very restrictive rules and never giving your child the opportunity to learn from failure and painful consequences - often driving your children toward rebellious behavior.
Now let’s extrapolate those fears to our understanding of God.
If I fear missing out and I’m always looking for the next big adventure, I’m never satisfied - I’m declaring that God is not enough - there is something greater to be had beyond serving Him.
If I fear taking a risk, I’m declaring that my security is found in my job or my position - therefore it is not in God my Creator.
If I fear losing all my money, I am declaring that God is not my Provider, I am.
If I fear losing my spouse, then I have made my spouse my god.
If I fear for the safety of my children in an unhealthy manner, then I am saying in essence that I am god and only I can protect them.
The question becomes ‘What do you fear the most?’
The Bible is quite clear on this matter - more so than you may realize. Over 300 times in the scriptures do we hear some form of the command to “fear the Lord.”
As we heard in our scripture reading this morning:
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Then there is…
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.
And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
In his book, John Bevere points out four truths:
We are human, and we will fear.
The awe and fear of God is way deeper, more beautiful, and more intimate than many dare imagine.
The fear of God swallows up all destructive fears.
The fear of God is the beginning of everything good.
These are four truths that will hopefully become evident as we make our way through this series.
This is important because, again, when the Church fears the Lord - she is fearless in her witness.
What does it mean to fear God?
Simply put, it is to revere God and to be in complete awe of Him.
Somewhere back in my early Christian formation, some teacher told me that when the Bible says to “fear God” it meant to worship him with reverence. Back then, I took that to mean “seriousness” - that when I entered a church building, I should be serious and my posture should be as one who respected the One I had come to worship.
That definition falls short of what we find in scripture.
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Acceptable worship with Reverence and awe.
According to the Complete Word Study Dictionary, Reverence is defined as “profound adoring awed respect.” That means way more than seriousness in posture.
And Awe can be defined as “fear, dread inspired by something great and terrific; to strike with fear and reverence.”
As we define fear of God, we must also remember that God is invitational. He draws us in, he desires relationship with us. He has given us a kingdom that cannot be shaken - so when we hear dread and fear, we need to understand those words in a positive light. Holy fear draws us to God, not away from Him.
Our fear of the Lord should balance two aspects of our Creator.
First, God is my friend. Remember Jesus said in John 15:15
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
Second, God is a consuming fire. In prophesying the destruction of the enemies of God, the prophet Isaiah said “Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.” God is holy and will burn up anything that is unholy. Jesus warned in Matt 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
For the one who believes that Jesus is God’s son and that He died on our behalf, we need not fear punishment, Jesus’ blood covers us. But it would be a foolish thing to take our mighty God lightly and disrespectfully.
Reverence and awe. When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he started with our approach to God:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…
To Hallow is to respect greatly. When we recite the Lord’s Prayer, do we do so greatly respecting the One we are approaching in prayer?
In his book, John Bevere explains what it means to fear God:
“To fear God is to esteem, respect, honor, venerate, and adore Him above anyone or anything else.
When we fear God, we take on His heart. We love what He loves, and we hate what He hates…What is important to Him becomes important to us. What is not so important to Him becomes not so important to us.
To fear God is to hate sin.
To fear God is to hate injustice.
To fear God is to depart from evil in every sense - thought, word, and action. It is to refrain from speaking deceitfully. It will not say or put on an appearance that is untrue to one’s heart and thoughts. It keeps our outward behavior congruent with our inward thoughts, motives and beliefs.
To fear God is to walk in authentic humility before God and mankind.
To fear God is to give Him the praise, adoration, thanksgiving, and worship that He deserves.
To fear God is to give Him all that belongs to Him.
To fear God is to tremble before Him in wonder and awe. It is to give His Word and presence our full attention.
To fear God is to obey Him.
To fear God is to abstain from any form of complaining, murmuring, or grumbling.
To fear God is to respect, honor and submit to His direct and delegated authority. It is also to obey the delegated authority, with the only exception being if the authority tells us to sin.
The fear of the Lord shapes our intentions, thoughts, words and actions.”
I hope, as you listened to that list, you heard how the fear of God liberates us. When we fear God, we are then able by His power to shed the sin that entraps us, and we are able to draw close to Him and live as Jesus lived. Fully alive, flourishing, fearless and making a great impact for His Kingdom.
When the Church fears the Lord - she is fearless in her witness.
Now, I want to make clear what the fear of the Lord does not mean. It does not mean being scared of God.
In his 2nd letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul wrote in…
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
The spirit of fear that Paul speaks of is not the same as the fear of the Lord. As Bevere notes, “someone who’s scared of God has something to hide…in the garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve disobeyed and sinned, they hid from God.
However, the person who fears God has nothing to hide. He or she is terrified of being away from God. Holy fear does not quench intimacy, it does just the opposite - it enhances our interaction with God.”
We’ve been given a definition of Holy Fear, what it is and what it is not. Now I want to close by having us try to comprehend the One whom we are to fear.
One more quote from Bevere:
“Our Holy fear grows proportionally to our comprehension of God’s greatness.”
If you want to increase holy fear, spend time focusing on God’s greatness. Consider who He is. He is our ever-present, all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good God. He is worthy of our praise.
The Apostle John had a vision of Jesus in all is glory at the beginning of the book of Revelation, listen to what happened:
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
In other words, because you fear me, you have nothing to fear. Not even death itself.
When the Church fears the Lord - she is fearless in her witness.
Amen.
