Untitled Sermon (7)

Outline 2

Homiletical Idea: Misplaced fears will lead to misplaced lives

Exegetical idea: Fear God and obey Him because this is the whole purpose of humanity and all the wisdom in the world can’t save you from the coming judgment.

MP 1 - After all has been said and done this is the end of the matter, the conclusion, the most important thing: Fear God and Obey Him.

Does this mean wisdom and knowledge are bad?

No — Wisdom is good but they are just limited and the excessive pursuit of them will not save you. (Support: Ecc 12:9-11)

Solomon devoted his life to knowledge and wisdom.

Wisdom is like a goad / cattle prod.

Wisdom is fixed — generally works.

Wisdom is from God — One Shepherd

Beyond a reasonable amount of research — it can consume you

Idol of information/understanding — knowledge and wisdom

We’ve said all along — wisdom can’t save you / something more than wisdom was needed.

MP 2 - Fearing God and obeying him is our whole purpose.

What does it mean to fear God?

See His Glory — Glory consist of his wrath against evil, and his love and mercy (Exod 34:6-7)

holiness, righteousness, purity — this should strike terror in us.

God is a consuming fire

Isaiah in the temple

Fear of judgment

Everything will be judged (desire, deeds and decisions)

It’s not up to debate whether this will happen — It will

Scripture is very clear on this.

Part of what it means to fear is this kind of sober reality of his perfection and our imperfection.

God’s Glory is not just his righteous anger, but his abundance of grace: His Goodness

This is the question of the Bible — how can sinners be in the presence of so perfect of being?

If were were to stand before God as we are we would be consumed.

God had to make a way to be shielded from his wrath against sin.

That’s why the Bible says we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness.

Illustration: It’s like diving down into the ocean. Human beings can only go 10-20 feet deep in the ocean.

But standing before God is like being 100’s of feet below the surface — the pressure would literally kill you.

But put on a dive suit — or better yet get inside a submarine and you can go hundreds of feed under water. You are shielded/clothed by the dive suit/submarine

This is what it will be like for everyone on that day.

did you get your dive-suit or not? are you in Christ — as you would be in a submarine?

just an analogy — but something like this happens.

You and I were meant to be in the presence of God and experience His glory for all of eternity

In christ he made a way for us to do that.

but you have to put on your gear — you have to come aboard the sub.

But something else happens: obedience

There are two kinds of obedience:

obedience out of fear

Obedience out of Love

Love casts out fear — fear has to do with punishment.

Proper fearing God in his glory — wrath and mercy

leads to loving obedience of God

What does God call us to do?

simply to love God and love one another

Fearing God and obeying him means we have been transformed by his glory to love as he has loved us.

MP3 — Applying this Truth.

We have misplaced fear

Fear of God is often not our greatest fear — we give into lesser fears.

Example: Covid

We are in a pandemic of fear — becuase we don’t know everything.

There isn’t enough information

We need wisdom — and we should use wisdom — apply wisdom.

Yet in the work of redemption something greater is at work.

There have been plagues, pandemics, and politicizing as long as humans have existed.

The question is ‘what is God doing in the midst of this?

What does wisdom say?

Wisdom says — fear God first and obey him — which ultimately looks loving others.

Does God care if you get a vaccine or not?

I think he’s more concerned about how you treat those who may disagree with you.

Maybe God’s purpose is not keep you from getting COVID, but rather to use whaterver circumstance you are in to transform you into the kind of person who loves others well?

Now the world is in chaos — division — hostility

They have nothing to bind them together, nothing to corporately submit to.

The same kind of chaos and division can exist in the church.

I know for a fact, many of you have different opinions on the vaccine and you are standing strong on that.

But how are you loving one one another?

for we are bound to Christ and the call to fear and obey God — by loving others.

In the church, it ought to be different by design.

We are called to something, higher, something deeper, something more profound — Love

What is love you ask?

1 Cor 13:4-8 “4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.”

Conclusion

Here is the end of the matter, the most important thing, the thing you were made for:

to love one another

How are you loving one another?

is being right most important?

What drives that need — misplaced fear.

Why we can love others by laying down our lives:

We don’t have to be afraid of failure or being wrong — b/c Christ forgive us of all sin and love covers a multitude of sins.

We don’t have to fear not knowing enough — because if you are in Christ the Holy Spirit is alive inside of you and will give you wisdom, he will empower you to love others, and he will lead you in the path you should go.

We don’t have to fear death — b/c in Christ, when we die, we come home and it will be a glorious homecoming. There is nothing but gain for those who are in Christ. We can be fearless and we can invite others into that confidence that Christ has overcome even death.

maybe just maybe, God might be using Covid 19 to bring many people to himself — and in terms of cost weight analysis there is nothing more important that people coming to know Jesus and spend their eternities with him.