I'M AFRAID OF GOD
EMPTY YOUR WORRY WAGON • Sermon • Submitted
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I FEAR GOD
I FEAR GOD
EMPTY YOUR WORRY WAGON
Mordecai Ham the evangelist under whose preaching Billy Graham became converted, had an early confirmation in his ministry. He claimed an encounter with the Holy Spirit so intense that he pleaded for the Lord to back off or he felt he would die. Thereafter, he evidenced spiritual power throughout his life, continually confronting sin and sinners.
Mordecai had a practice in every town and city he would hold revival meetings. He would ask who had the most notorious reputation as an alcoholic or prolific sinner. He would then make it his mission to confront that person that day with the message of sin’s consequences of death or God’s forgiveness in Christ. In one notable early instance, he confronted an infidel who ran when he heard Mordecai had zeroed in one him. The evangelist chased the man to a cornfield. The drunk hid in a cornfield to avoid the preacher. Mordecai had no hope of finding the man and the rascal called out to him:
"What are you going to do?" asked this opponent of the gospel.
Since he couldn’t find the man and would not repent, Ham replied, "Ask God to kill you.” The infidel protested, “Please don’t do that.” Ham said, “since you claim to believe there is no God, such a prayer shouldn't bother you in the least.” Nonetheless the unbeliever begged Ham not to pray for his death. Ham made a bargain, then I will pray for your salvation instead. The man was converted on the spot. There are times when people need to have the SCARY fear of God come upon them.
Ham would write that there are three reasons men run from Christ: love of gain, love of sins that make them shun the light, and fear of what others will say. "The best way on earth to study human nature is to hold up Christ to your crowd and note how He affects them. Each man or woman can be judged by his or her attitude toward Christ. If their deeds are evil, they will shun His light."
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
I. WHY DO PEOPLE FEAR GOD?
The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
YOU DON’T WANT GOD TO RAIN ON THEIR PARADE.
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
b. YOU PREFER YOUR OWN GOLDEN RULE.
HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES.
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ. From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
c. YOU WANT TO FIT IN WITH THE CROWD.
“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
“As you enter the house, give it your greeting. “If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. “Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. “But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. “But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. “So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
mATTHEW
Matthew
II. HOW DOES GOD’S LOVE DRIVE OUT FEAR?
a. HIS FIERCENESS PROTECTS YOU AS HIS CHILD FROM ACCUSATIONS AND ENEMIES. (ABIDE MEANS YOU REMAIN IN HIM AND HE IN YOU).
I said, “I will guard my ways That I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle While the wicked are in my presence.”
How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men!
PS 39
b. SINCE HE PAID YOUR DEBT YOU HAVE FORGIVENESS, AND STANDING BEFORE GOD’S COURT. (YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE FACE OF JUDGMENT: AS HE IS IN THE WORLD, WE ARE).
Rom
HIGH HANDED SIN. YOU ARE GOING TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY SAYS ABOUT IT.
and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
HIGH HANDED SIN. YOU ARE GOING TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY SAYS ABOUT IT.
c. CHRIST GIVES YOU PERFECT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
HOW DO YOU
who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
III. HOW DO YOU FALL SHORT IN EXPERIENCING MATURE (PERFECT) LOVE?
a. PRESUMING ON GOD’S LOVE BY PRACTICING PREMEDITATED SIN.
‘But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. ‘Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.’ ”
No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
HIGH HANDED SIN. YOU ARE GOING TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY SAYS ABOUT IT.
b. LIVING WITH A PROHIBITIVE CONSCIENCE.
Lev 4:
Mordecai had a practice in every town and city he would hold revival meetings. He would ask who had the most notorious reputation as an alcoholic or prolific sinner. He would then make it his mission to confront that person that day with the message of sin’s consequences of death or God’s forgiveness in Christ. In one notable early instance, he confronted an infidel who ran when he heard Mordecai had zeroed in one him. The evangelist chased the man to a cornfield. The drunk hid in a cornfield to avoid the preacher. Mordecai had no hope of finding the man and the rascal called out to him:
"What are you going to do?" asked this opponent of the gospel.
Since he couldn’t find the man and would not repent, Ham replied, "Ask God to kill you.” The infidel protested, “Please don’t do that.” Ham said, “since you claim to believe there is no God, such a prayer shouldn't bother you in the least.” Nonetheless the unbeliever begged Ham not to pray for his death. Ham made a bargain, then I will pray for your salvation instead. The man was converted on the spot. There are times when people need to have the fear of God come upon them.
Ham would write that there are three reasons men run from Christ: love of gain, love of sins that make them shun the light, and fear of what others will say. "The best way on earth to study human nature is to hold up Christ to your crowd and note how He affects them. Each man or woman can be judged by his or her attitude toward Christ. If their deeds are evil, they will shun His light."
“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them, if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord a bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.
Some of you look for things that you think will make God unhappy. Rather you need to recognize the Word points to the life of someone who loves God. God is not thinking that someone who loves Him is looking for loopholes to do their own things. And if something offends Him, He made a way back for you when you miss the mark and stray by accident.