Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
We have started a series called The Kingdom Life based on the
life and teachings of Jesus from the Gospel according to Mark.
We look at how we must live our lives on this earth as followers
of Jesus in a way that is countercultural yet powerfully
impactful. As you listen in, our hope is
that you will be motivated to live, love, lead and serve just
like Jesus. Hi Church, What a joy it is to
bring God's word to you. Today we are looking continuing
to look at the Kingdom life and this sub series and this is
really called the Kingdom paradoxes.
When you read the gospels, when you read the New Testament and
you know, couple it to the Old Testament, you find there are
some things that are so in, you know, in contrast to each other,
they really don't seem like they fit with each other.
And in the Kingdom as well, in the teachings that Jesus did on
the Kingdom of God, there are seeming paradoxes.
And we're going to be analysing a few of them of the next 3-4
weeks just to kind of understand what God meant.
Are they really in opposition to, to each other?
And if they're not, how do they fit in?
That's what we're going to be looking at.
And what are paradoxes for those who have a doubt about that.
Paradoxes are contradictory things, things that are in
opposition to each other. And we're going to be looking at
how in Jesus's teachings there were some apparent paradoxes.
They seemingly contradict each other, and we will look deeper
as to whether they do or they don't.
We're going to be looking today at the Kingdom paradox of the
fear of the Lord versus the joy of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord, the joy of the Lord.
How do you find joy in the one that you're afraid of?
That doesn't make sense on a human level.
On a physical level, it doesn't even make sense.
But we're going to be looking at how Jesus actually enforces
these two so beautifully. He, he wraps his teachings
around these concepts and we're going to be understanding that a
bit more. When I was thinking about this
paradoxical nature of the fear of the Lord and the joy of the
Lord, I remembered many Christmases ago when the kids
were younger, usually in a family photo.
This doesn't happen now because the kids have grown up.
But when they were little, for every family photo at Christmas,
Easter, on New Year, there would be one of them who was upset or
fighting. And therefore in the family
picture there'll be 1 frown and there'll BE4 smiling faces.
And I remember the fact that in one Christmas picture we were
taking it in our garden and my husband had had to discipline
two of the three kids and he had disciplined them.
And then he was setting up the camera on camera, on timer,
setting us all up. And he kept telling the kids,
keep a happy face. Keep a happy face.
You guys. I remember our younger 2, the
ones who had been disciplined, so unable to keep a happy face
just because they just got in disciplined and they were far
from feeling happy. And sometimes the paradoxical
nature of some of the things that we read in the Bible make
us feel that way. Well, I'm afraid right now, how
am I going to feel joyful, right?
And so we're going to be looking closer at how we can understand
this paradox and find that they're actually not
paradoxical, but actually very, very fitted in with each other.
So we're going to look at Matthew chapter 10, verse 28
first, where Jesus is talking to people about coming persecution
and he's warning them about that.
And in that context, he says do not be afraid of those who kill
the body but cannot kill the soul, rather be afraid of the
one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
So Jesus himself is saying fear God because he's the one who
holds eternity in the balance for you and me.
He's not talking about anything deeper than that.
He's just going straight to the point.
He's not digressing. He's saying don't fear the ones,
don't fear the the people who intimidate you, don't fear the
ones who are putting you in trouble.
He says instead fear the one who can destroy both soul and body
in hell. So this fear that he's talking
about is really knowing who God is and and in who God isn't with
reference to us. Too many times we equate
ourselves with God. Too many times we think we have
all the answers and we look at God as just this henchman
someone was to aid me and help me in the stuff that I want to
pursue. Sometimes we think God has
certain capabilities which which could help which I lack.
But here's the thing that the Book of Revelation so
beautifully writes, and it says Revelation 15 verses three to
four says they sang the song of God's servant Moses and of the
Lamb. Great and marvelous are your
deeds, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways.
King of the nations, who will not fear you, Lord, and bring
glory to your name. For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you, for your
righteous acts have been revealed.
It's so beautiful because at the end of all time, nations are
going to be bowing before him and singing the song.
And why should he have been feared?
Because he is righteous. He is almighty.
His deeds were marvelous. He's the king of every nation
that we know and don't know. All the nations by the end of
the of time will be bowed before him.
This is why we fear and Revere Him.
We don't fear Him because we are worried that He would punish us.
No, we are not looking at God that way.
We are looking at God as this, this immense, immense creator of
the Sustainer of all life, the One who breathed the world into
existence and realizing that in comparison to Him I am nothing,
and without Him in my life I can do nothing.
That is what this fear looks like when we look at joy.
What does Jesus talk about joy in John chapter 15 verses 10:50?
It says if you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just
as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your
joy may be complete. God is Jesus is actually saying
I am giving you my joy when you do the things that please me,
when you remain in my love. Essentially he's saying when you
live a life that is a God fearing life, I will give you my
joy and your joy will be made complete.
In other translation says your joy will be full, full to
overflowing. So the question here is this is
what Jesus talked about. He said fear God, don't fear
people. He also said when you do what
pleases me, I give you my joy, your joy it's full.
How do I find joy in a God that I'm called to fear and Revere?
That's the question, and I believe the answer is found in
the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was this high official
who had actually been he was a royal, he was part of the
royalty. He was taken to into exile.
You know, during the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the whole band
of Jewish exiles were taken out and displaced and placed in
other countries. And Nehemiah was placed in the
land of Persia where he was sent on exile.
And he was serving the king Artzerxes.
He was serving in his palace. He was his cup bearer, and as he
was serving there, he heard from returning exiles of how the land
was completely decrepit and devastated.
There were no walls, there were no gates.
And Nehemiah developed this burden for the city that he
loved, the home, home country of his which has just been left
open to ravaging and and had just been left exposed.
And so God puts this burden in his heart to go rebuild the
walls and the gates of Jerusalem.
And he broaches the topic to his boss.
His boss releases him, gives him so much favour that he sends
letters, you know, giving him permission to access resources
and opens up doors for him to go safely and enter Jerusalem.
When he goes to Jerusalem, he finds there are a lot of other
Jews who have returned and who are staying there and also are
so saddened by the state of their city.
And so Nehemiah first does a full, you know, he, he does a
recce trip. He checks all where the walls
have been broken, how they've been burnt, comes back, takes
stock, and then invites others into his vision.
Much like what many of us do nowadays when we, we follow
God's calling on our lives, we view, we, we, we understand the
situation and then we decide to rebuild.
So maybe you can relate to Nehemiah as I speak.
But Nehemiah's life is one that is driven by a holy fear of God.
How do we know this? The entire exile, you know, the
exile that that happened to Israel as a country, both the
northern and southern kingdoms, when they went into exile, the
reason was they had forgotten God.
And they didn't just forget God overnight.
Over a period of time they had lost of fear and reverence for
God. The book of the Law was given to
them. They knew what was expected.
They knew what the Levitical priest was supposed to do.
They knew what they were supposed to offer God.
They knew that they had to keep the Sabbath.
They knew they had to give the land a break every now and then.
They knew how to treat foreigners.
They knew how to treat the ones who served them.
They knew all of this in theory and yet they had not bothered to
practice it. The the baseline is this.
The law was given to them so that they would know God more,
they would know his heart. They would be set apart in the
way they worship the one true God.
But unfortunately the exile had to happen because they had
wandered away. They'd lost a fear of God.
They'd merged in with the countries that were around them.
They were not trying to live a a set apart life.
And because of which God's mighty hand came in and
destroyed them. Now, Nehemiah had come back to
this scenario and the people were already broken, probably
emotionally, spiritually, physically weak and tired from
the travel. And he begins to rebuild.
And the midst of the rebuilding, there's so much that comes at
him. It's not like it's a
straightforward thing. He goes, he sources everything
and starts building, gets it done and goes back.
There is so much opposition. People who were Gentiles, who
didn't want them back in a place which was fortified, started
causing trouble. There were there was Sam Bellat
was one such guy who was opposition.
There was a so much of of negativity that he had to deal
with from people around who are watching them.
And God was calling him into a place of just doing the task
given to him. Nahema had come.
Nahema had come to fix the walls to replace the gates.
That was his calling. And the kind of opposition he
faced was incredible. But here's the thing, he kept
doing the work. He kept encouraging his people
to work, and before long the walls and the gates are up.
The people are in a world fortified city.
Isn't that amazing? There must have been some
semblance of safety for them, some semblance of restoration
that you know what we're, we're a little safer than we were
before. And just when he's doing that,
life is starting to go back to normal.
People are resettling in small towns and villages.
He finds out that within the Jewish community there was
slavery that was still being employed, that poorer families
had to sell their children to higher class families in order
to make ends meet. They had to have to give up
vineyards, they had to give up gardens, they had to give up
land in order to sustain themselves.
And the worst thing was that the higher class people were
charging interest for the stuff that they were loaning to
people. All of this, if you, if you read
the Old Testament, you know all of that is wrong because Moses,
when he gave them the law, said you cannot enslave anyone from
your own community. He had said you cannot lend with
interest. This was part of their
foundational belief systems. And yet even after rebuilding,
these things stayed, these cultural habits stayed.
And so God was now going to correct them about it.
But the the beautiful thing was that Nehemiah and the fear of
God that he lived in was able to give direction immediately to
them. He was immediately able to say,
hey, what you're doing is wrong and let's read what he says.
Nehemiah chapter 5 verses 9:00 to 11:00, it says, so I
continued, what you are doing is not right.
Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach
of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are
also lending the people money and grain, but let us stop
charging interest. Give back to them immediately
their fields, vineyards, olive oils, the olive Groves and
houses and also the interest. You are charging them 1% of the
money, grain, new wine and olive oil.
So this was the situation. Look at this one line.
Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach
of our Gentile enemies? Keep a note of that.
He was calling them to live differently, lest the Gentiles
are all around them, looked at them and mocked them, mocked
their God. That's what he was saying.
Now going further down in the later chapters of the book of
Nehemiah, Nehemiah talks about certain reforms that he brought
in. And one of the reforms he did
was he was the governor. He was appointed by the Persian
king to come here, establish this place.
So he was given the title as a governor.
But he says he didn't live like the previous governors.
He didn't extort from the people, you know, oil or wine or
any of that. He lived within his bare
minimum. In fact, he says he didn't even
use the rations that were given for him.
He used it to cook for others. And this is what he says.
Nehemiah 5 was 15. But the earlier governors, those
preceding me, placed a heavy burden on the people and took 40
shekels of silver from them. In addition to food and wine.
Their assistants also lauded it over the people.
But out of reverence for God. I did not act like that, but out
of reverence for God, I did not act like that from these two
passages. And if you read the whole book
of Nehemiah, it's such a beautiful, beautiful story of
resilience, of grit, of vision, of purpose, much like what
anyone of us who are called to rebuild societies, rebuild
communities, rebuild our cities, when we are called for this,
this is what we must look like. This is what our lives must look
like. But there are a couple of things
that I want to leave with you guys today.
I'm going to leave three things about the fear of God.
You know when you are someone who lives in the fear of God,
First of all, the fear of God will make you stand out.
There is no way you will blend in.
When you look at that, it says if you do this, you will bear
the reproach of the Gentile people.
He's saying you will not stand out.
You will once again merge in with the communities all around
you. You were created to stand out.
God chose Israel and all the nations of the world to
demonstrate His great love towards them, to set them apart
as a people favoured and loved. Today, those of us who have got
into the Kingdom because of our faith, we have made it into the
remnant and this remnant must stand out.
It cannot be just fit in. Some of us are so desperate to
fit into office culture. Some of us are so desperate to
fit into our college culture. Some of us want to fit into the
apartment culture. Whatever the prevailing culture
is the fear of God. When you choose to live in the
fear of God, it will make you stand out.
Before I even get into this, I need to leave this with you.
What does it look like to live in the fear of God?
It means that when you honour God with all that you have, when
God is first and foremost in your priority list, the way you
eat, sleep, work, wake, live, is dictated by God.
And I don't mean to say that he's a dictator.
That's not what I mean. It means that I'm so submitted
to Him, I'm so surrendered to Him, that every aspect of my
life feels the hand of God on it.
And so when I live like that, it automatically makes me stand
out. You think of so many stories in
the Bible, the ones who feared God stood out much like a sore
thumb. But when you stand out, it's
easy to see why you are hand picked.
Daniel's friend, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, the entire
nation is bowing before this huge idea.
They stood up, they didn't bow down.
Cornelius was a man of God, a Gentile, and he was the first
one in the Gentile Kingdom to receive the gospel and to be
baptized as an entire family. You see what I'm saying?
When you are set apart for God, the fear of God has to be the
first thing that people notice of you.
I remember back in the day when when you know, people put up
their, you know, child's proposal on any kind of, you
know, we had all our matrimonial sites and all of that.
They would write they wanted a God fearing boy.
And then the interesting lines after that would, would really
make you wonder whether they were God fearing because they
would ask you for their cars, they would ask you for your
salary and all of those other things.
We use God fearing in a very interesting way in our language,
but my question to us is we the remnant, are we truly fearing
God? Are we living in such a way that
makes us stand out or are we living in such a way that we
just kind of merge in? Nehemiah stood out and he
desired for his people to stand out in the way they lived, in
the way they they ran their homes.
Yes, they were a walled in city Now, yes, people couldn't see
them as much, but there were still gentiles all around them.
There were still those who were not saved.
You are being watched, for better or for worse.
You've been watched by people around you.
Are your decisions making you stand out as a follower of
Jesus? Or are they saying, are you
bringing reproach to Jesus? Are they saying, oh, these
Christians also are like, are like this.
The Christians also take bribes. The Christians also give bribes.
Oh, they also, you know, have extramarital affairs.
It's no big deal. They're like one of us.
You don't just bring reproach to yourself.
You bring reproach to the name of Jesus.
That's the first thing. Living in the fear of God makes
you stand out. The second thing is that living
in the fear of God won't allow you to give in to intimidation.
The kind of intimidation that Nehemiah was facing was in
another plane. There were a couple of guys,
there were a couple of Arabs, there were Ammonites.
These were all Gentile kingdoms, people who had been left behind.
They were also in the land settled around, and these guys
didn't like that they were restoring this place for their
God's sake, for their people's sake.
And so they started coming out of the woodwork causing havoc
for him. And it's interesting because
they were trying all kinds of intimidation tactics.
They would send someone to them when they were building and say
we're going to attack you. So Nehemiah would immediately
pray. And then he didn't stop with
prayer, actually did something about it.
He gave them all Spears and swords.
They would have that in one in their scabbards or they would
have it in their hands and they would keep building.
They were prepared. He was never pushed back by the
intimidation. He sensed it was intimidation
and he worked all the harder. And I believe that when we have
the fear of God in our lives, no one or nothing can intimidate
us. And let me tell you, we live in
a time of intimidation. Wherever in the world we are, we
experience intimidation. Maybe from a boss, maybe from an
old friend, maybe from a new friend, maybe from a person we
don't know, maybe from from someone in office, maybe someone
in the neighbourhood, maybe someone from law enforcement, we
don't know. Intimidation can come in all
shapes and sizes. But here's the thing, when you
and I live in the fear of God, nothing or no one should
intimidate us. Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 13 says
he had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sign
by doing this and then they would give me a bad name to
discredit me. It's so interesting because a
couple of the guys said, you know what?
Come and meet us in the temple. They acted like they were
protecting him, but he found out Nehemiah discerned that they had
a plot out to hurt him. And so he said, you know what,
I've come here on deputation from the king.
I don't need to come and hide and meet anyone.
You want to meet me, meet me up front in the open.
You don't need to do this undercover.
You see the kind of courage he displays in the face of
intimidation, if not for the fear of God, if not for the fact
that he knew he was on mission. He had his eyes on G on on God
himself. If he didn't have that clarity,
he would have gotten pushed off track.
And I want to ask us today, have you been giving in to
intimidation? Have you been so caught up with
pleasing someone or doing something because you felt so
intimidated? Or are you willing to face the
intimidation head on and say, you know what?
Bring it on. I got a living God inside of me.
Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world.
You cannot scare me. Maybe you've been facing
spiritual intimidation, maybe you've been going through
warfare and God is saying you don't have to be afraid.
As long as you're living in a way that that honours me, that
reveals me, as long as you have a fear of God in you, you have
nothing to worry about. You have nothing to worry about.
God is calling us to a place of fearing him deeply so that we
will fear nothing or no one else.
The third thing about the fear of God is that it moves us into
unexpected places of influence. Mehemiah Chapter 7 verse 2, it
says I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani
along with Hananiah, the commander of the citadel,
because he was a man of integrity and feared God more
than most people do. Hanani was just the commander of
the citadel. The citadel was probably like a
a small little fortress inside and he was just the commander,
but he put in this man and his own brother in charge of an
entire city just because they feared God.
And I wonder if some of us are so desperate for influence, but
we don't have the fear of God, and therefore God cannot
confidently raise us to that place of influence until we
start living in a way that honours him.
It's so important to understand that influence comes to those
who can steward it well. Influence comes.
I agree there are some people who have influence who are not
doing it the right way. But for those of us who know
Jesus, who walk in his ways, who strive to know him more,
influence will come unexpectedly.
When you continually walk in the fear of God, it's so important
to remember that influence is not everything.
Our everyday, our every moment, our moment by moment decisions
to fear God, to to honour Him, to live in his ways, to obey his
word eventually will pay off eventually will pay off.
As we go through the Nehemiah story further on, if you find
that Nehemiah and and the seer, the the scribe, Ezra come up
with this plan. If you're getting all of them,
who can understand the word to come and stand in the square and
where Ezra the scribe reads the word to them out loud, right.
So they were people of all stature, all all some nobles,
some ordinary people. They were all in that place
together. And Ezra is reading the word of
God, the word of the Lord to them, right?
And this is what happens. Nehemiah chapter 8 verses 9:00
to 12:00. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra
the priest and teacher of the law, and the Levites were
instructing the people said to them, all this day is holy to
the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep, for all
the people had been weeping as they listen to the words of the
law. Nehemiah said go and enjoy
choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have
nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord.
Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
The Levites calmed all the people saying be still, for this
is a holy day, do not grieve. Then all the people went away to
eat and drink, to send portions of food, and to celebrate with
great joy because they now understood the words that had
been made known to them. So interesting because the
people are weeping. I love that line.
It says they now understood the words that had been made known
to them. The joy that you feel when you
understand the words of God's revelation to you.
It's so important that we read aloud the word of God, that we
internalize the word of God, because that is, that is when we
get to know God better. But then there's this other line
that he says because they were weeping when they were weeping,
he says don't grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
It's amazing because they're weeping must have been seeing
how far they came from had gone from God and how God had rescued
them and and been faithful to his word.
But then it says they went away to eat and drink and they're
going to celebrate. So while their posture was one
of weeping, Nehemiah was reminding them, you don't need
to cry about this, that you fell so short.
You need to be rejoicing because now you understand God's word
and you know how to live by it. And the key there is that the
joy of the Lord is our strength. And it's so important to
understand that when we live in a fear of God, when we live with
a constant understanding of God is God, He is sovereign, He
cannot be understood by mere mortals.
And yet through Jesus, I get to know him.
That should be the source of our greatest joy.
And I missed this. I realized 40 years living as a
Christian, let's leave out the 1st 10 years, 30 years I missed
this, that I'm always looking for something to bring me joy
when it should be purely the fact that I have Jesus in my
life that should be the greatest source of my joy because He is
the one who made God accessible. He's the one I can have a
living, talking, walking relationship with.
He has given me everything I need for life, health and
godliness. Why am I so joyless?
So many times when life hits me and blindsides me, God is asking
that like Jesus, when I look to Jesus, I look to Jesus for so
many things. I look look to him to provide
for me, to protect me, to help me.
But primarily, you know what it says about Jesus and joy?
It says Jesus looked ahead at the joy set before him and
endured the cross. Joy was beyond the cross, but he
had to walk through the way of the cross.
And so often we forget that Jesus is the role model.
If Jesus could do that, Lord, I want to come somewhere in
between. I'm going through this hurdle
right now, but I know this joy set before me.
I know that your grace will be sufficient.
And that is where we need to come to.
We need to come to this place of holding onto Him and saying the
joy is in you, Lord. It's not in what happens or
doesn't happen. It's not whether the prayer gets
answered or the joy is finding you and clinging on to you.
Two things that I want to leave with you about the joy of the
Lord. The joy of the Lord, first of
all, is your superpower. As a Christian, that is our
superpower. Why is it our superpower?
The word joy in itself is is derived from the word Kara.
And Kara's root word is actually grace.
And so this beautiful picture of joy just came to me when I was
reading through the dictionary and it says Kara means is the
gladness that comes when grace is recognized.
So like I said, the minute you go through this start going
through the stormy season, you will realise that Oh my gosh, in
the midst of it, I had family to hold me up.
In the midst of it, I had someone who I could call, who
could pray and encourage me. The in the midst of it, the
medication I took worked. When you start seeing God's hand
of grace on everything, when you see Jesus in the midst of the
struggle, that's when you realise this is worth being
joyful over. Joy is the superpower of every
Christian. It is not something that just
happens overnight. It's not something that I can
manufacture. It's a fruit of the Spirit.
What happens is that it is kindled within us by the Holy
Spirit and it's what comes out of us.
But primarily for that, primarily for that I need to
have a grateful heart. If I don't have a grateful
heart, if I don't have eyes and that have that have light coming
through the mall, I will look at is the darkness of my situation.
But when I start looking at life and saying, God, I see your hand
in this. Yes, I'm suffering, Yes, I'm
walking through this hard path. Yes, I've lost my job.
Yes, my marriage didn't workout, but God, you didn't leave me.
You gave me friends, you gave me a job, you gave me everything I
needed in that season where I thought I had nothing.
The awareness of grace gives you joy.
Joy is the Christian's superpower.
The second thing is the joy of the Lord is actually your
protection. It's very interesting because
when you realise just how protected you are when you when
you give God praise from a grateful heart, the joy that
resonates and comes back is what literally gives you the the
adrenaline to keep moving forward.
We have friends who are walking through seasons of ill health in
their parents life and even as they're there for endless
sessions of chemo radiation, when we meet these friends they
have this weird strength just buzzing all around them.
And I believe it's the joy of the Lord knowing that in this
season it is hard. Yes, we're not denying how hard
it is, we're not denying that this feels unfair, but we're
still able to see God's hand upon us.
We're able to see the favour with doctors, we're able to see
these the goodness of God and the kindness of nurses.
And then there's this unexplainable joy in the darkest
of places. It is your superpower.
It's your protection. Why is it your protection?
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
The word strength there is not just brute strength.
It's actually saying God is like it's like a refuge.
Joy is like a refuge. Will there be Causeway to grieve
in our lives just like those returned exiles were weeping
when they heard the word yes. Will intimidation grow as your
responsibilities increase? Yes.
The beauty is that in all of it you will see the fingerprints of
Jesus. You will see the fingerprints of
grace throughout your life. You will experience so much of
His grace it will shock and awe you.
I want to give you an illustration.
This week as I was preparing this, I was asking God, Lord,
explain this to me. I understand what the fear of
God is. I, I come from a family where
for generations and my ancestors have have feared God and we see
that. We see the beautiful
consequences of that in current generations.
And so I know what it's like to live in the fear of God, but
Lord, how do we, how do we see this played out today in a
generation where the fear, even using the word fear of the Lord
is like taboo? They're like, what are you
saying? God is accessible.
God is here. I can do anything to get to him.
He is loving and I'm not going to deny that.
God is loving. God is loving, God is all
powerful, God is all loving, He's forgiving, He's gracious,
but God is calling his remnant to live in a very different way.
And many times, this is the illustration God gave me.
Many times our lives are like this.
You know, if this is me, I want you to look at the person's
face. She looks quite unhappy.
This is me. I have my dreams, my ambitions,
and then I have my office life, I have my school life, I have my
work life, I have my community life, I have my relational life.
And for you, it could be a bunch of different things, your work,
your family or you know, whatever.
But what we do so often is that when I lack a fear of God, when
I am more content in in running life the way I see fit.
Of course, I'm a Christian. I pray, I read the word when I
can. But there's this one aspect
that's missing in my life when I choose not to live in complete
radical obedience to God, where I take my hands off the steering
wheel and say, Lord, it's only you.
What I tend to do is, and I've noticed this in my life, is I
start to build refuges for every part of my life.
I start to build a tighter circle around my family to
protect them. I start to build this this
system in my office where I'm protected from feedback from my
bosses. I start to build up this thing
in my community where I live for myself and not for others.
I start to build these silos in my life.
And the interesting thing about living without the fear of God
is when I'm living in these silos through the week, I have
these different silos. I behave differently at church.
I behave differently at home. I behave differently when I go
out shopping with friends. There are distinct
personalities, and at one point you don't know which
personalities are operating in which.
I have the fear of God when I go into church, but the minute I
leave, get into my car and drive home, I have this terrific
urgency to scream at someone on the road, to use foul language
to treat people at home like they're worthless.
And then my week begins and I I, I do the the weirdest things.
I indulge in things that absolutely shouldn't simply
because the missing factor is the fear of the Lord.
Now suppose I choose, suppose I choose to avidly pursue God, to
read his word, to soak in it. I begin to live in the fear of
God. My life begins to look
different. How so?
What do I mean by that?
Well, I no longer build silos. You know, I breakdown those
walls that I've created. I live a little more free before
God. And you know, in the centre of
this, this life isn't me, it's Jesus.
It's Jesus. Jesus is the centre of this
life. And So what happens is, like
Geshom taught us last week, we need to come to a place of
surrendering our will before God.
When I was working on this with my son, he and I were so
desperately trying to fix this person on their feet.
And it just felt like a very sweet moment when he bent this
woman and he said, mum, let's just lean her on this.
And it felt like that's what it looks like to live in the fear
of God, complete surrendered will to God.
And what happens is it's so beautiful that the little silos
I built the walls fall off. And the way I live privately
before God, the kind of surrender that I bring to Him
starts to trickle into every area of my life.
So the way I am at church is the way I am at home.
The way I am at home is the way I am at work.
The way I am at work is the way I am with friends.
There is no partition. There is no
compartmentalization. All of it is being touched by
the presence of God. Jesus is involved in everything.
So I'm choosing to please Him in the way I live at home.
I'm choosing to please him with my words that I use with those
who work for me at office. I'm choosing to be kind to the
women who helped me at home because now I have a fear of God
because I'm so much more aware of who he is.
And the beautiful thing is, you may think, well, these kind of
houses are so, these kind of compartments are so open-ended.
Where is the protection? And that's what I want to
encourage you with that when you start living with this fear of
God, the joy of the Lord becomes your strength.
And like I said, strength is not just brute strength, it is a
fortress. I start to rejoice in every area
of my life because I start to see God move.
I start to see God in my children.
I start to see God see God in my spouse.
I start to see God moving and shaping me through my employers
at work. I start to see God when I step
into the supermarket. I see His provision in my life.
And you see how that shapes every part of our life.
This is what I want to encourage you.
The fear of God is not just bowing before him, it is living
in such a way that your entire life is placed exposed before
him. And you saying Lord, you can do
with it as you will. Of the fear of God is 1.
Like the the the writer of Proverbs repeatedly says, the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The fear of the Lord keeps one's life secure.
When you live with the fear of God, it protects your life, it
sets you apart. You are no longer one with
others. You are different.
And when you are set apart, he protects you.
His joy floods your soul. When you are living in a right
relationship with Him, the joy of the Lord will be your
strength. And I want to just encourage you
with this. If you're saying I don't know
what it's like to live with the fear of God.
This is what 2 Corinthians Chapter 7 verse one says.
He says, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us
purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and
spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
God is calling you to be holy because he is holy.
How does that work? It's not saying the right thing
at the right time. It is going deeper and saying,
Lord, I fear you. Teach me.
Show me what is contaminating my body.
Show me what I'm consuming that is so bad for me.
Show me what is contaminating my spirit and teach me how to
remove it. One Peter 117 says since you
call on a father who judges each person's work impartially, live
out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
We are not citizens of earth. We are citizens of heaven.
How we live matters. I was reading this portion in
Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 33, where God was talking to the
prophet about his task and saying, you know what, I will
tell you to say some things you say it, if they turn or not is
on them, right? And the basic thing that he kept
saying, verses 17 to 20 was very interesting.
It says, your people say the Master's way isn't fair, but
it's the way they're living that isn't fair.
When good people turn back from living good lives and plunge
into sin, they'll die for it. And when a wicked person turns
away from his wicked life and starts living a just and
righteous life, he'll come alive.
Still, you keep on saying the Master's way isn't fair.
We'll see. Israel, I'll decide on each of
you exactly according to how you live.
The fear of God will dictate how you live.
It's how you will speak to people.
It is how you will behave with people that you know and do not
know. He is concerned.
The Kingdom life is far more than just reading the Word and
going away. It's far more than just knowing
Jesus at face value and walking away.
The Kingdom life goes deep and it'll undo you in the best way
so that you can live in a way that pleases the Master.
Maybe you are someone who has said the Master's way is not
what I want. It's too restrictive.
It's a narrow gate. I don't want to go through it.
It's true, it is a narrow gate. But if you want to be set apart
in a world that is fast fading away, a world that is headed in
a dark direction, you and I need to be very clear that we will
live in the fear of the Lord. And when we do, we will
experience the joy of the Lord, which will be our fortress,
which will be our protection. Like I said, believer in Jesus,
your superpower is the joy that God gives you.
Without it, you cannot handle what comes at you.
You need the joy of the law to be a protection.
It is a refuge. It is not a fake place of just
pretending everything is alright.
It's not a place of just feeling high on feelings.
No, it is a deep thing. Because remember, happiness is
circumstantial, but joy is existential.
You need it for your life. You cannot live without it.
Ask the Holy Spirit, in this situation that I'm in, in this
broken marriage, in this broken relationship, in these endless
strife and conflict, in this ailment, where can I find the
joy? Holy Spirit, dig deep within me.
Bring out gratitude so that it overflows into joy.
Philippians 4/4 Remember that famous passage?
We used to sing it as kids. Rejoice in the Lord again, I
say, rejoice in the passion. It says this.
Be cheerful with joy celebration in every season of life.
Let your joy overflow. I love hanging out with people
whose joy is contagious. You sit next to them for 10
minutes. You feel better about yourself
and that's what God is calling us to.
In a world where everyone wants to fit in, God is asking you to
stand out. Because when you do stand out,
you will stand out because you fear the Lord.
You stand out because you stand for what is right and not for
what works for everyone else. As I close, I want to just leave
this picture with you. Like we saw two different homes
as Jesus hung on the cross. He was hung in between two
criminals. We don't know what crimes they
committed, but they were suffering along with Jesus.
And one guy screams at Jesus, berates him, shames him and
says, why don't you get yourself down?
You were God. Get yourself down and get us
down. You see the cynicism, You see
the condescension. But the other criminal looks
over at him and says made him shut up.
It says in the message version it says, have you No Fear of
God? You're getting the same as him.
We deserve this, but not him. He did nothing to deserve this.
This was a guy who knew that God was in his midst.
He knew that this man was sinless.
They were sinful. Too many of us in this day and
age think that we can poke fingers at God.
God, do you know what you're even doing?
You take good people away. You let the bad ones remain God.
You're letting nations go through war.
We are asking questions that are way above our pay grade.
He is God, period. He is mighty, he's awesome, he's
generous, he's forgiving, he's loving.
But he's God. We are not.
We were created for relationship.
We were born again to know him. But in knowing him I don't get
equal to him. I love that exchange between
Abraham and God when they're negotiating for Sodom.
But never, even though Abraham was a friend of God, never did
he equate himself to God. There was always something where
he was submitted to him. And just like that, that that
thief on the cross who knew who God was, he ended it by saying,
Jesus, Remember Me when you enter your Kingdom.
He knew who he was talking to. He knew the level was not the
same. He displayed a fear.
He asked him, do you have No Fear of God?
And what is the beautiful thing that Jesus replies?
He says today you will be with me in paradise.
Paradise is our eternity, is our destination.
It begins the minute you say yes to Jesus.
But sometimes we don't feel very much like we're in paradise
because the stuff that hits us, the intimidation, the
opposition, the setbacks make us feel like there is no room for
joy. But God is saying the joy of the
Lord is your strength. It is what will protect you.
But in order to tap into that, you and I need to live in
alignment with God himself. We need to live with the holy,
reverent awe of God. God is calling us back.
The remnants need to rise up in the fear of the Lord.
How you live, how you treat your wife, how you treat your
husband, how you love your children, how you position
yourself at work, how you don't push yourself but allow God to
elevate you will determine whether others will be drawn
into the Kingdom. It will determine whether God
looks at you and said you feared me.
You lived in a way that honoured me.
Well done. It may trickle down to the
smaller things. Maybe you run a business.
How do you treat the vendors who work with you?
Maybe you have a huge position. You have people at your beck and
call. How do you treat them?
How do you look after the people that help you out?
It'll all come down to this. How we live is how the Master
will look at us. I entrusted you with this.
What did you do with it? Some of us are looking at life
just through the lens of our finances, through our money.
Oh, I have this much, what do I do with it?
I need to grow it. God is saying who did you bless
with that? Did you hold on South tight that
you never let your money grow so that it would be useful for the
Kingdom? God is calling us back and
saying this is who I am. Who will you be?
How will you live? As we pray?
I want to just end by saying will we be?
We are all sinners saved by grace, but will we be like that
criminal who looked at God and say Lord you be God in my life.
I am tired of trying to be God. I'm tired, tired of viewing
others as God and fearing them over fearing you.
God. Can we just ask him that?
Father, I just bring everyone of us before you, the remnant
chosen by grace. We thank you for Jesus, your
Son. We thank you that when we look
at him we realise just how blessed we are.
And that in itself is cause for joy.
And so, Father, today we're irrespective of the season we
are in, we rejoice with cheerfulness, for you are with
us, you are in US, you are carrying us, and you will lead
us. Father, I pray for those of us
who have turned away from you saying, I don't want to fear
this God, I don't want this. This doesn't make sense for me.
Father, I pray that you will soften hearts.
You will draw them back to you. If you are one such person, will
you say, Jesus, I come back, I come back to you.
I will live in awe of you for your mighty deeds, your
outstretched arms, for the things you have done before and
the things you will do again. I thank you God, that you are
drawing many back to live with a holy fear of you.
I pray that you would strengthen us in this journey.
Thank you that you have given us everything we need to run this
race. We thank you that we are not
alone. We thank you that you go before
us, that you are behind us, you are all around us.
We thank you for your Spirit who produces joy in our life that
many will taste and many will want for themselves.
We love you, we honour you, we thank you in Jesus name, Amen,
Amen. God bless you.
May you walk the journey of your life, not just this week.
This is not something for you to just think for this week, for
the rest of your life on earth that you would walk with the
fear of God and you will experience the joy of the Lord
to be your strength. God bless you.
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