Look at our scripture tonight out of Philippians chapter 2.
We only got to the scripture last week, so we were talking
about the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord and the
scripture out of Philippians chapter 2 that we focused on was
talking about how we have to work out what our salvation with
fear and trembling. We have to work out our
salvation with fear and trembling, right?
And we said the to, to define fear properly.
We see it as this to Revere, to stand in awe, to honor, to
esteem, to be devoted to. This is important because I hear
a lot of people say they fear the Lord, but they're not
devoted to Him in their everyday life.
They're not devoted to Him. And this is 1 definition of what
we see the fear of the Lord means.
It means to be devoted to Him, to respect, and then also to be
afraid, right? And we talked about this.
Or to dread. And this is not the fear that
the enemy, you know, brings towards our life with a spirit
of fear. No, this is a different type of
fear. This fear involves us
disappointing God or not being obedient to His will and not
doing the things that we should dread the day that we stand
before Him. Because every me what?
And every tongue will confess. We will every, each and every
one of us stand before the Lord and have to give an account of
our walk with Him. Right?
And we should be in fear that we would not do the things that He
is asking or requiring of us to do as believers, right?
And that should be something that you would fear that you
would dread. You do not want to what?
Displease the Father? You do not want to disappoint
him, right? And and so this is very
important that we recognize what the fear of the Lord literally
means. So we saw that we are to work
this salvation out with honor towards Him, with reverence
towards Him, being devoted to Him, right, respecting him and
having a fear in our hearts that we would not do the things that
he's asking of us to do, right? And then we looked at this word
work, and because in the church today and the age of grace that
we're living and the doctrine of grace that has gotten way out of
balance, right? Work is a dirty word, right?
Because people think I don't have to do anything.
We're not talking about earning your salvation.
We're talking about working out what you are to become and what
you are already on the inside after Christ has already
deposited his Spirit and his life within you.
And so we are to become, it's a becoming.
So that means there's things that we are to grow in, we are
to become. And as we're doing that, that
means there's going to be work within our life through the
grace of God, through the Spirit of God, that he's going to begin
to give us the grace and the anointing, the strength to be
able to work out our salvation. All right.
And we see that this work means to perform.
What does that mean? That is not meaning that we are
performing to be approved by him.
No, we are performing the work that He's already put within us
to be able to do because again, it's not about earning our
salvation. It was already paid for by
Christ and it was already. I'm trying to think of that word
imputed to you the minute you called on the name of the Lord,
Amen. The minute you called on the
name of the Lord by faith through your salvation.
Listen, everything that Christ did is already put on the inside
of you. So now you are to perform the
things that He's put it. Remember, you were saved so that
you could do good work. So work is not a bad word in the
Kingdom of God because we're not working this thing in ourselves.
We're working out what He put within us to accomplish.
OK, it also means to accomplish. That means there's things that
He's going to assign for us to do as a believer in the earth,
and He expects us to accomplish some things.
OK? It means this to achieve, to
work out and that's what I'm going to title this Part 2 of
the fear of the Lord is work it out.
Say work it out. OK, we are to work it out.
And then he goes on to say to do that with something results.
So there should be results within your life as a believer
that people ought to be able to see your life and you becoming
all that God has called you to be doing, all that God has asked
of you to do, and you performing it, working it out with His
help. And there ought to be results
within your life. People ought to be able to see a
result. They ought to be able to see a
transformation within your life. Amen.
You ought to not be the same today as when the first day you
got born again and brought into the Kingdom of God.
They ought to see a work by the Spirit of God through the grace
of God on the inside of you and you obeying and yielding and
performing. That is you working it out and
becoming what He wants to see within your life and there
should be results. So it means also when He says
work it out, it means to bring it about.
To bring it about. There ought to be, as I said,
results, results within your life in Christ as you are
walking this walk out every day. It means to fashion.
So there are things that what is he doing?
He's molding you. He's fashioning you to become
what it is He created you to be. Right where he tells us and
James that we are to look in the mirror.
And when we look in the mirror, we are seeing what a reflection
or a picture of what he sees us as.
And then we are what to behold That mirror allow him to fashion
us, to mold us, to make us and not tell the Potter, he can't
touch this area in my life, right?
And so it means to render one fit.
To render one fit. Come on.
And then he goes on to say to work a deed or to fully
accomplish and to finish. Isn't that what Paul says?
We need to what? Finish our race?
We need to accomplish walking in everything that God has for us
to walk in in this life. Amen.
Hallelujah. And that is up to us and how
much we allow the Spirit of God to work us out because he's the
trainer. He's the trainer and he's the
one saying, come on, you can do one more push up, right?
He's the trainer and he's the one that says, come on, you can
forgive them one more time. Come on.
He's the one that can say to you, come on, you can keep your
tongue to yourself. See, you can tame it because if
you don't, your religion is worthless.
It's what James says. But I'm not talking about the
tongue tonight because there's been a lot of loose lips sinking
lots of ships. Hallelujah, glory to God, but we
had just move on. So we saw this where he says
work out your salvation with fearing trembling.
I read it out of the amplified too.
It says Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed my
suggestions, so now not only with the enthusiasm you would
show in my presence, but much more because I am absent.
Workout, Here's the amplified what it says.
Workout Cultivate. We've heard that word before,
right? Cultivate, carry out the goal
and fully complete. Say fully complete, because see,
that is the goal for every believer.
And we teach that here is that we must mature.
He expects us to grow up spiritually.
He expects us to walk in maturity as a believer, meaning
we're not going to be doing the same things today as we did the
day we got brought into the Kingdom of God.
We're more mature than that, right?
We've grown. We've allowed that salvation to
be worked out within our lives. And so his goal is that we would
be fully complete or mature. Your own salvation with
reverence. Here's the word honor.
Reverence with honor, with awe, with honor, awe with trembling
self distrust. That means we're not here to
work out this salvation and trusting in our own self.
We're here to work this salvation out with trusting in
the Lord, with trusting in his strength, with trusting in his
grace, with trusting in the working of the Holy Spirit
within our lives. You see that?
And he goes on to say with serious caution.
So again, that we wouldn't want to dread or have fear that we
would disappoint God. So he's letting us know and
amplify we're to work this salvation out with serious
conscious, caution, Caution. That's what the word is,
caution, not conscious. But yes, we should be spirit
conscious and serious about it, right?
But with caution. And then it goes on to say with
tenderness of conscious watchfulness against temptation,
timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God.
So when you say you honor God and you fear God, you know what
that means? That I am going to shrink back
from whatever might offend God. So whatever His word says that I
should be walking in or I shouldn't be doing as a
believer, then guess what I'm going to do?
I am going to do it because I fear him and I don't want to
offend Him because when we choose not to do it, we
offending, we disappointing, we can displeasing.
These are all words that are important words.
We can also, you know, not then become all that He wants us to
become, because what happens when we shrink back from
whatever that would offend him it says and discredit the name
of Christ. See, this is what we're talking
about, the fear of the Lord. I don't ever want to do anything
that would offend him or discredit his name.
And this is when you can tell there's a person that really
honors God because they're not going to do anything that would
come against a church, say anything bad to discredit the
name of Christ or to offend him in any way by not obeying what
the Scripture says, that we as believers should walk in, right?
And this is what really the fear of the Lord is.
We can come in here and say we fear him, but do we?
And these are the Scriptures that let us know, right?
And define some of these things so that we can get a good
picture of what it really means to honor him.
And then he goes on to completely let us know out of
the amplified that it's not in your own strength.
For it is God who is all the while effectually at work within
you, energizing and creating in you the power to do it.
And not only to do it, to desire it.
Because someone who doesn't really desire to do what God
says is not really fearing Him. If you don't desire to want to,
you know, read the word. If you don't desire to want to
come to church, if you don't desire to want to grow, if you
don't desire to want to actually walk in love with one another,
if you don't want, if you don't desire these things, then do we
really fear Him? See.
And so he and you say you're a believer.
So he goes on to say both to will and to work for his good
pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
You see that? So there's some things that we
are to work out and to do in this life for him, for his
pleasure. Amen.
The things that he desires for us to do.
It's not all about what we desire to do right, but what is
it that He desires for us to do and walk out according to being
led by Him and working out our salvation with fear and
trembling. Now let's go to several other
scriptures in the New Testament, which I didn't get to last week,
so we want to get there first. Peter 1 and 19 through 17
because again I said a lot of Psalms and Proverbs talks about
the fear of the Lord. The majority of the Scriptures
are in Psalms and Proverbs about the fear of the Lord, and a lot
in the Old Testament as well. And so we need to see that this
concept of the fear of the Lord is from Genesis to Revelation,
from the old to the new. Nothing's done away with.
We are to fear him, we're to honor him, we're to reverence
him. We're to walk out our salvation
in this fear and honor before him.
So first Peter, chapter one, 913 through 17 out of the amplified
says this. So prepare your minds for
action. Be completely sober in spirit,
Say sober in spirit, sober in spirit.
Don't be drunk with all the other spirits that are seducing.
All right, move along. Steadfast, self disciplined,
spiritually and morally alert. Here's what he's saying.
Listen, fix your hope completely on the grace of God that is
coming to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Live as obedient children of God.
Do not be conformed to the evil desires which governed you in
your ignorance before you knew the requirements and the
transforming power of the good news regarding salvation.
But like the Holy One who was called has called you, be holy
yourselves in your conduct. Be set apart from the world.
Say be set apart from the world by your godly character.
Wow, how many believers are having the same character as
those of the world and you can't tell the difference and you want
to? Are they born again?
Because they sure are not displaying anything morally.
OK, look what I says. It says with godly character and
moral courage, because it is written you should be holy set
apart, and we're going to define what holy is.
Be set apart for I am holy. If you address as the Father,
the one who is impartially judges according to each one's
work, conduct yourselves in reverent fear of Him, which is
what we said. The fear of the Lord is honor.
Write all of those things of him.
And with profound respect for him throughout your time of stay
on the earth. So He's letting us know that He
expects that while we as believers are living in this
ungodly world, that we could walk holy, set apart.
And the reason why we can walk in holiness is because we fear
Him. Because when you really fear the
Lord, and you honor Him, and you honor His word, and you obey Him
and do what He tells you you need to be doing as a believer,
fear will equal holiness. Outside of you fearing the Lord,
I can guarantee you there are things unholy in your life.
And This is why men can still be wrapped up in pornography,
because they really don't fear the Lord.
And This is why believers can still act a fool and and gossip
and slander and do, because there is No Fear of the Lord, No
Fear of the Lord, right? And so he goes on to say here in
Second Corinthians, he's letting us know, listen, you ought to be
able to fear the Lord. Walk in holiness while you're
here on this earth. He expects us to live holy.
He expects us to walk in the fear of the Lord.
And 2nd Corinthians 7 one says this.
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves. Why would He tell us to cleanse
ourselves if He says He's already poured out his blood on
the mercy seat? Put Jesus Christ on the inside
of us because we can still have to walk out in this earth by
being holy. Meaning there's things that
we're going to have to cleanse ourselves of.
Things we maybe have seen with our eyes come on, things we
maybe have listened to. Things we maybe have allowed
ourselves to slip back into and he's letting us know that we're
the ones that are going to have to cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the what flesh, because the spirit and the what
the flesh battle daily. The spirit and the flesh battle
daily and and who can save us from this wretched man of
ourselves? It's only God and so at all
times we must choose God, our spirit over this flesh.
Every time we have to crucify. That's why he says daily we have
to kill this flesh. We have to say no to it.
When you want to do the things that you want to lash out, you
have to say in Jesus name. His Word says this, and I'll
refuse to walk in the flesh with this because my Spirit is going
to dominate me. You see what I'm saying?
So we have to choose that. We're going to put down our
flesh, we're going to keep this flesh under, we're going to
crucify this thing, and we are going to walk in.
Look what He says from all filthiness of the flesh,
perfecting holiness. Look at this in the fear of God,
See, so fearing the Lord brings forth holiness, perfecting that
holiness within our life. And if we don't fear any
consequences, because listen, if you sow to thee, what will you
reap? Corruption, destruction.
When you sow to the flesh that it, you don't escape that.
While we're here in this day, in this earth, we have to choose to
put it down. We have to choose to dominate
it. We have to choose to say no to
this flesh. And we'll always have to do that
until we take on the new body, right?
The glorified body, OK. And so we have to choose to do
that. And when every time we choose to
put down this flesh and all filthiness, right, the
perfecting of holiness begins to operate within our life and the
fear of the Lord. And without the fear of the
Lord, we won't walk in holiness. We won't walk in holiness.
Even though he says be holy, he says be holy as I am holy.
What does holy means? Set apart, separated, right?
It means sacred. Do you know you are sacred to
God? You're sacred.
That's what holy means. Sacred, he says.
Be holy, be sacred, be separated, be set apart.
It means physically holy, morally holy, pure, blameless.
This is what holiness means, Consecrated.
I'm consecrated, I am separated.
Come on. I am sacred.
I am spiritually and morally pure.
This is what holiness means, and it comes through US fearing the
Lord, honoring Him, putting Him first.
Like he says in Matthew 633, seek first the Kingdom of God
and His righteousness. And when we put first the
Kingdom principles of being able to live this Kingdom life in our
life every day, it's producing the fruits of the righteousness
that's already been get imputed within our life because there's
fruits of righteousness. And listen, this will, this is
this is God's process, this is his process.
This is how you become what he created you to be all along for
you to become the person that he desired for you to be created
you to be. And that's his process.
He puts everything within you and gives the ability for that
to function within your life so that then you can begin to walk
it out per the Holy Spirit. And as we yield to the Holy
Spirit and the Word of God every single time, sanctification is
happening, washing is happening, holiness is being produced, fear
of the Lord is being produced. It that is just how He processes
you to become the believer that He would need you to be in the
earth. Amen.
See, everybody most the time think that the minute they get
born again, that's it. You have just magically become a
child of God. I'm a child of God.
No, the seed of everything you need to be able to become as you
work out your salvation is in you.
And that seed now has to be watered, it has to grow, it has
to be able to produce just like a natural seed when you put it
in the water. And do you know what it needs to
be able to grow? It needs, it needs the word, it
needs the Spirit of God, come on, it needs the blood.
Oh, it needs all these things that He has already provided for
us so that we can work out this salvation and become everything
that he wants. And again, we're not making
ourselves holy because there is denominations that what if you
wear your hair up in a bun? If you don't cut your hair, if
you don't wear makeup, if you, you know, wear a long skirt and
not wear pants, then you become holy.
It's called the Holy Pentecost Holiness Church.
So they're doing all this external things instead of
allowing the seed on the inside to become and produce that
holiness in our lives because there's nothing we have to do.
From the outside, everything is working from the inside.
Everything is working for seed. Adam chose to try to pull from
this outside realm to become holy and covered and see Jesus
came and said you have you don't have to do any of that.
I'm fulfilling it all and I'm placing my spirit come on who I
am and recreating your spirit in my image and giving you
everything you need the seed to be able to grow, blossom and
become as you cooperate with me. He always has needed man's
cooperation, always from day one.
God is not a genie where he just waves a wand and you are this
perfect being. No, that's not how it works.
That's not his processing center, Right?
So fear will equal holiness within your life and all you
have to do is yield to the things that He wants to do
within your life. Now look at Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 26 through 27 says this in order
that we might sanctify it and purifying it by the washing of
the water, by the Word, that He might present the assembling to
Himself glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing
that might be holy and blameless.
Now this is where this sanctification process comes in
within our life. Again, if we will just yield to
the Word of God through the leading of the Spirit of God,
then that washing will happen. What are we washing?
We're washing away the filthiness, we're washing away
those things that caused us shame, guilt, all the mindsets,
all the things, the dysfunctions that we had when we were lost,
and just simply allowing the watering of the word to take a
part of your life. That's why it's so important as
a new believer that you're daily meditating in the word and
reading it. Listen, when I got born again or
when I made him Lord of my life. It was about when I was, you
know, 21 when when we met, but a little earlier than that around
18. I knew nothing other than Jesus
saved me and got born again and filled with and and then learned
that I got filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke in tongues at a
Church of God. But I knew nothing about
anything. And I was reading the word, just
simply reading the word and yielding to what I heard on the
inside. And as I heard him say, you have
unforgiveness and hatred in your heart toward your Father.
You need to go to him and ask him to forgive you.
I knew nothing, nothing, but I clearly heard His voice and was
because I was reading the Word and guess what the Word and the
Spirit was trying to do? Bring a washing and a cleansing
in my life and set me actually free from a bondage the minute I
started out because He went straight to the root of my
problem. Straight to the root.
You see that? So I didn't have to do anything
out here. I was simply reading the Word
and that washing started happening.
But guess what? I had to yield to it.
If I would not have obeyed and yielded and done it, worked it
out, performed it, you know, if I wouldn't have yielded to it
and done it, then I would have still been bound right with
unforgiveness and hatred in my heart.
You see that. And so this is how He processes
us to becoming, and this is how we work out our salvation, to
walk in the fear of the Lord and walk in holiness first.
Peter 2 first, Peter 2 again, verses 9 through 12.
I want to read this. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that
you should show forth the praises of Him who has called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light, which in times
past you were not a people, but now you are the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now you have attained mercy.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lust which war against your soul, having your
conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they
speak against you as evil doers, they may be your good works.
Look at this, they may be by your good works which they shall
behold. You see that he's wanting to win
people by our good works, that they may behold and glorify God
in the day of visitation. He wants to because holiness
will produce glory, and this is His goal because when Adam
sinned in Genesis, the glory departed.
So God's always been trying to get us back into His original
plan, which is He was there in all of his glory, him and God in
communication and in fellowship with no sin, right?
But the minute he disobeyed, the Spirit departed.
So God desired that he would be able to come, bring forth the
sacrifice, to put back within man, as we would be the temples
of the Holy Spirit again, to put back in man the Spirit of God,
so that the glory could rest upon their lives again.
So when people see you, they should see the fullness of His
glory upon your life, and it will happen as you allow the
fear of the Lord to rule and reign in your life.
That will produce an equal holiness within your life, and
then that holiness will produce the glory of God.
What is the glory? The full measure, the full
weight of who God is. You can walk around, come on and
walk in the full weight of who He is in every situation and
every circumstance in all of your life, in this life, so that
when people see you, they see the glory.
They see the glory, man. They look at you and think, wow,
look at your life. Look what you have be.
Look at the results. Look at the results.
Look what you're producing for the Kingdom of God.
When they see you, they see the glory.
Come on. Oh, oh, when they see you,
they'll see the glory. Look at Titus chapter 2.
Titus chapter 2, verse 11 through 14.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to
all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires,
and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this
present age. Looking for the blessed hope and
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ
Jesus, who gave Himself up for us to redeem us from every
lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own
possession. Zealous for good deeds, for good
deeds. So there ought to be production
happening in your life. You ought to be producing what
it is that God has put within you to become in this life.
Amen. With your families producing
godly hair inheritance, you know, with with at your business
producing godly business to where people would want to work
for you producing. Come on.
The Kingdom of God in every area of your life.
Hallelujah. This is what He wants, and this
is what can take place for those who will fear Him, really fear
Him. Look at Psalms 96 and 9.
Worship the Lord in the beauty of His Holiness.
Fear Him. Fear before Him all the earth
fear Him you see that fear him Proverbs 16/6 by loving kindness
and truth, sin or or iniquity is atoned for and by the fear of
the Lord. 1 keeps away from evil.
So this goes with those scriptures that we were just
reading ahead of time that listen, when you fear the Lord,
it's going to keep you from doing evil.
When you fear, when you truly fear Him, you're not going to
want to participate in those fleshly deeds, in those evil
works because you fear Him. So fearing the Lord will keep
you from sin, fearing the Lord will keep you from these things.
And so it's so important. It's not just loving him, We
talked about that, but it's fearing Him dreading that you
would not produce what it is that He needs for you to produce
as a believer and disqualify yourself or not become what He
has in store for you to become. Amen.
Now look at Proverbs 8813. It says the fear of the Lord is
to hate evil. The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil. I don't want anything to do with
it. I don't want to be around it,
any evil workings, any of it. And it's not just evil like
witchcraft or be or do and say on no evil.
Evil is anything that goes against God's word.
That's just period. Because God is good and the
devil is bad and he's a liar, and he is the one that is the
worker of evil, all sorts of evil.
And so you don't, if you fear him, you don't want to
participate in it. You don't want to be around it,
you don't want to be near it. You actually want to flee from
it. You want to flee.
But we have to ask ourselves, are we running towards it?
Because if we run towards it, then there's No Fear.
This is an indication that you do not fear the Lord.
I mean, there is no simple no other simple way to explain it.
This is just scripture clearly speaking, clearly speaking.
OK, and So what does it says? The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil, pride, arrogancy and the evil way and the forward mouth
do I hate. Then he goes on and Proverbs
1416 it says a wise man feareth and departs from evil.
See, when you know, when you don't fear him, you are not
going to walk in the wisdom of God.
You're not going to walk in the wisdom of God, and you're not
going to be able to discern that you know what?
This is evil and I shouldn't participate in it and I'm not
going to participate in it. You see that I'm not going to
participate in it because I fear Him and I'm going to depart from
evil. It says, but a fool rages and is
confident. See, a fool will run towards
evil, but we have to recognize that He's letting us know as
believers that if we fear him, we'll depart from it.
We'll flee from it, we'll hate it, we'll hate it. 1st
Thessalonians 5, First Thessalonians 521 through 23
says this. But test all things carefully so
that you can recognize what is good.
Here it is, we'll be able to recognize what is good, hold
firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil,
withdraw and keep away from it. Now may the God of Peace Himself
sanctify you through and through, that is, separate you
from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and
undamaged, consecrated to Him, set apart for His purpose.
And may your whole what spirit, soul and body be kept complete,
and be found blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, it's not just good to get born again.
No, He expects us as those that get born again, it brought into
the Kingdom of God, that we would begin to renew our mind to
the Word of God. That we would begin to allow
ourselves to be molded and shaped and fashioned into the
person that He wants us to become.
So that our spirit, our soul, and our body, He wants our body
blameless. Which again goes to that
crucifying of the flesh every single day and dominating it,
dominating it, right? Dominating this body and putting
it under and putting it into subjection.
The Bible says bring it into subjection.
This body has to submit to what you say, to what you say.
We have that authority. And he wants it all blameless.
All blameless. He wants it all sanctified.
Come on. He wants it all sanctified.
Proverbs 2814 all sanctified. That's why he tells you, don't
you know if you lay with a a married person, come on, I'm
right there in the bed with you in Corinthians.
It's not on my notes. That's a little side note.
I mean my Lord, I mean I fear God and what his word says and
knowing that he sees everything. I am open and exposed.
There's nowhere I can hide from him, and I sure can't hide in
the dark, in another, in another man's bed.
You see what I'm saying? Because he's there.
Hallelujah. Glory to God.
No, I'm a run from it, far from it.
And that's how we ought to be with everything His word says
that we ought to be fleeing from right, fleeing from it, keeping
away from it. Proverbs 2814 how blessed is the
man who fears always. You know what this tells me that
there could be times that you don't fear that you got to stir
UPS of fear the Lord within your.
That's why he says, teach me to fear the Lord.
You got to stir that fear up, OK?
You got to stir it up just like everything else.
How blessed is the man who fears.
Always listen. But what happens if you don't
fear him? But he who hardens his heart
will fall into calamity the minute you choose not to honor
His word. What happens?
We know a hardening can start happening the minute you choose
to disobey his word, to disobey his voice when he's constantly
trying to speak to you about some things, the heart, and you
don't fear him by obeying it. See the hardening do you know,
just like in the natural as Pastor was talking about, I
think it was Sunday, you know, about how when he was whatever
we went and had blood work done. And So what was happening in his
20s because all the burgers from Crystal's that he ate at
McDonald's because he loves a Crystal burger.
I call him worm burgers and I never go through there ever.
We have not eaten fast food in probably over 15 years anyway.
So, I mean, unless there's desperate times like we're in
another country and you're tired of chicken Curry and you see a
McDonald's, you go and you don't get a real burger, you get
chicken. They call their burgers, they
call their burgers and it's chicken because you know, they
don't eat cow meat because they worship it, right.
So when Pastor Ajay is say you want to get a burger, I, I know
it's not a burger. It's it's a piece of chicken
chicken burger, OK, It's not a hamburger OK, y'all get it you
know you get it anyway, what was I saying?
Oh, yes, from eating all of this stuff, all this junk food, you
know, and he got his blood work and what has happened, See in
your body that you don't see the hardening of the arteries, does
it? Does he fall dead overnight?
Most people don't know. It's years of abuse of allowing
the hardening of the arteries. And it's the same thing with the
Word. When we don't fear him, when we
don't honor him, when we don't put Him first, when we see
something in the Word, when we know what to do, when we don't
do it, the Scripture calls it sin to us.
And as we do that over time, what's happening, the hardening
of our heart, the hardening of our heart, those arteries are
getting clogged and at some point it's going to resist you
and you're going to come face to face with it.
And it isn't anything that's happened because of all of a
sudden. No, it was years of not fearing
the Lord and obeying Him and yielding to His Word and
yielding to His Spirit through your life and through your walk
with certain things that He may be speaking and tweaking and
trying to adjust in your life doesn't just happen all of a
sudden. See people that he says that is
in the last of the last days. They'll be that great apostasy
and falling away. It's not because of the the
devil is so strong in these last days.
It's because they refused for years to submit and yield to his
word. All along they've disobeyed His
word and not yielded to it. They're born again, right?
Sitting in churches, but never yielding, never obeying.
And what's happening? The hardening of the heart, the
grieving of the Spirit. Even the Bible talks about it.
We can grieve the Holy Spirit to where He stops talking.
And then you're not. You going to have a 400 years of
silence. So these are all things that we
have to realize that This is why this fear of the Lord is
necessary. Because if you'll keep this at
the forefront of your heart and in your life, then you'll be
quick to obey. You'll be quick to respond.
You'll be quick to yield to what it is in his word he's telling
you to do because you know it's only good for your, it's only
for your best, It's only for your benefit.
Just like Pastor said, the word is not there to be negative to
you. It's only a positive to you.
When you yield to it, it will become negative.
If you choose not to obey it, it will become a negative OK.
There will be consequences when you don't yield, OK, to your
lot, to the word. So the hardening, we don't want
that to happen. Proverbs 17, just a few more
scriptures and we'll close. The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and
knowledge. So what's he saying?
The fear of the Lord. Listen, we'll keep you in a
place to what the knowledge of His Word, but when you choose
not to want it, come on. When you choose, you become a
fool. When you despise the instruction
of the word, or you choose to not want to walk in it, you
choose not want to be obedient to what the Word is saying or
yield to what the word says in your life, you'll become a fool.
Amen. Don't despise it, just as Pastor
said, don't let it be a negative.
Always let it be something that you run towards and you want.
And you know that when he speaks.
It's life, it's life, it's life, it's love.
Everything in His word towards you is only for your good and
for your benefit and for your growth and to walk in all that
he desires for you to walk in. Deuteronomy 529 says this.
Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear and
worship me with all filled reverence and profound respect
and keep all my commandments always so that everything what
will go well with them and and your children when you choose as
a believer to bring your children to church And you sit
up underneath the word and your children hear you sitting up
underneath this word and they're receiving the same words you're
hearing and they see you disobey his commands and not do it.
Come on now. It's going to affect their life.
And the same is true on the flip
side. If you obey His word and you
walk in what it is God's asking you to walk in as a believer and
you're loving the Lord with all your heart and you're doing the
things as you're yielding to it through the process of your
journey and walk with Him and your children see it, then guess
what? It is going to go well with you
and your children, but when you choose not to obey His
commandments, it'll affect them as well.
There will be consequences. It affects your whole family.
It affects your whole life, right?
And and again, this is so important for us to recognize.
Hebrews 12/24 says this. Wherefore we are receiving a
Kingdom that cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may
serve God acceptably with reverence.
Here it is and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire.
He tells us how we ought to serve Him and we ought to serve
Him. How?
With reverence and godly fear. With reverence and godly fear.
Hebrews 12/14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without
which no man will see the Lord. With holiness, because fear will
equal holiness in your life. When you really truly fear Him
and walk it out, holiness will be produced within your life
because without it, no man is going to see the Lord.
That's what he says. You see that without which no
man will see the Lord, which is you're not going to see him if
you're not going to be in a position of holiness with the
Lord. Psalms 89.7 God is greatly to be
feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be held in
reverence by all of those around him.
So I've said this too, is that when we come in this place, this
place ought to have such honor and reverence for the things of
God. See, we can't treat what's holy
as uncommon or common as common. What's holy is common because
it's not common. No holiness in the fear of the
Lord is something very precious and.
When we come in here, we ought to recognize that his when when
he shows up and his presence is here, we ought to be in such
honor and respect and thankful that his presence is with us.
When we all come together. We know His presence is with us
when we're by ourselves because He lives on the inside of us.
But when we come in collectively, we are going to
bring forth the presence of God in a corporate way.
And that is something that is so precious and so beautiful, and
it is not common. It is holy.
And we have to remember that. And it comes through US.
Positioning our hearts with the fear of the Lord.
Amen. Positioning our hearts.
I want to read this last Scripture as they come.
Acts 931 Now this is that book of Acts, right?
The first church church dispensation after it was poured
out. Acts 931 it says so the church
throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace being
built up and they were going on in the fear of the Lord.
They were going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort
of the Holy Spirit and it continued to increase, to
increase. So the fear of the Lord was seen
among the church and we know in the book of Acts, Acts chapter
4, where he talks about too, that when people looked upon the
church, they could see the grace of God upon it.
And here we're recognizing that they recognize the fear of the
Lord within the church, within the church.
Amen. So I just encourage you, let's,
let's do an evaluation, do an evaluation of are we really in a
position in our heart that we fear him, that we, we fear him,
we, we honor him, that means we honor his word.
We do what His word says in the midst of everything we're going
through. Whatever it is that we're
dealing with, we're going to do His Word because we fear Him.
I'm I, I don't want to be in a situation without His word in my
life. I always want to honor His word
because I fear Him.