Sunday Service 5-2-2010
Living the Victorious Life Part 21
Fear of the Lord – Part 2
NOTES FROM SERMON HEARD AT: Spirit of Fire Evangelistic Ministries Pastor Jerry Begin To listen to the sermon, visit:http://www.spiritoffire.org/ To Comment on this sermon, look for the small "comment" button at the bottom of this Sunday's sermon. If you go to the bottom of the whole blog to comment, you will have scanned through notes of several earlier sermons. Note: sometimes the post does not come up, in which case press the preview button after you have written and then submit.
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When we take our eyes off God alone, everything seems like everything is death and going wrong. Because we have taken our eyes off the fear of the Lord, the world does not fear the Lord. God has certain ways and rules and we don’t fear then anymore. We think we can get away with things and it is not important. We have a sense that everything is by “grace”- or grease- and that we can slip by. We can’t. It is because we have lost the fear of God.
By losing the fear of God, we go our own way.
By not fearing God, you don’t fear His sovereignty over you, His rule over you, His judgment, His chastisement… You don’t fear anything… until the devil comes along and places fear in your life.
The fear of the Lord doesn’t mean to be scared but to have reverence for Him. The fear of the Lord means that He is awe-some. When you see God as awesome there is nothing you can face t
hat will trouble you, no matter what problems come in your life.
God will somehow get glorified in our trials.
We need to have an awe for God
Awe- God surpasses ALL our senses! Consider the universe, galaxies, suns, how they are made, the sizes of them… the tip of our thumb is earth compared to the sun… the sun storms alone affect the magnetic force on the earth… Awe God means it goes beyond all our senses.
God is not up with a big hammer ready to hit you over the head. He wants to teach you, instruct you, bring you to your destiny. He created you to bring you to your destiny, not try to keep you from getting there.
The devil knows a lot about awe… or fear… that’s why he uses it all the time. WE NEED TO COMBAT THOSE FEARS WITH AWE …FOR GOD!
He is an AWESOME GOD…. beyond all our senses.
We choose the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is to hate all evil. To awe God is to choose His way.
The word is choose, not just response to a feeling. Awe isn’t made to happen. When you see something that is awesome, you don’t think of anything else. You don’t choose anything else. You are just caught up in awe. We need to choose to see the beauty of the Lord. We need to choose the fear of the Lord.
It is more than just being awesome… something that overtakes you completely, overwhelms you, permeates you, captures you. It is time that we become captured by God. We need to choose that.
We should be moved from deep within because He is so awesome. Do you see God in a way that He moves you to the point that you forget yourself?
To identify that awe is the most important thing for you who are spiritual beings. You need to choose to look at God in awe, to see His awe. We see it in the way, the Word, it begins by hating evil. If you don’t see evil, you see the good.
We need to get our minds on an awesome God to know healing, to know God answers prayer.
We need to pray until we focus on God… not on what is going on in the newspaper or what is going on in the world.
Job would not slip from his integrity. He chose to awe God.
How did Jesus do the things that He did? How did He live a righteous life? How did He do the miracles?
Jesus said the same things the Father does, He does also.
Isa 11:1-3
11 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
KJV
Jesus chose to honor His Father. He had a heart of awe.
To fear the Lord: to see in awe to respect Him to be submissive to a sovereignty be loyal, trustworthy, faithful be obedient, not want anything else to worship- give God extreme extravagant devotion
When you awe God, you don’t want to depart from His Presence
P2 in notes:
And He will delight in the fear of the Lord.
Isa 11:3
3 And shall make him of quick understanding (ruach- wind, smell, to perceive, to smell like a bloodhound) in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: KJV
Isa 11:3
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
NIV
He keeps his eyes on the fear of the Lord. As a hunting dog does not look from anything but his focus on to smell like a bloodhound that will not take its focus away from the rabbit. God is looking for men and women who have a scent for Him alone. “Where’s God? Where’s God? There He is!!!”
The Hebrews were told to keep God in the front of their foreheads- “Wherever you go, see Me.”
We get all kinds of distractions and the devil gets us, instead of keeping our focus, our awe.
Examples of choosing to awe God:
Cain and Abel-
Abel awed God and his offering was accepted. When Cain killed Abel, God heard Abel’s blood. God had respect for Abel’s offering because He awed God.
Noah awed God, saved him and his family, and brought upon the ark the creatures to survive on the earth.
Abraham awed God and knew that even though he was 100 years old, he became a father of nations. He made him a wealthy man. When Isaac was to be offered, he knew that God would see to the sacrifice because he awed God.
Isaac had 2 sons: Jacob stole his brother’s blessing, but when he awed God his name changed from scoundrel to prince.
Samson awed God and killed Phillistines with a jawbone of an ass. He took his eyes off the awe of God, and lost his strength. When he went back to the awe of God, he had victory.
The 3 men in the firey furnace would not worship the idol. They went into the fire and came out without smelling like smoke.
Daniel awed God and was not touched by the lions in the lion den.
Joseph awed God – even though he was in irons, his faith did not fail. He became ruler of Egypt. His brothers forgot to awe God and became slaves. USA is about to get there because we have forgotten to awe God.
Moses awed God in the desert. God saved him, showed Himself in the firey bush. He brought 3 million people through the desert- God did miracles because he awed God. When God gives you an assignment, don’t worry about it. Awe God and He will make it happen.
Joshua awed God. Joshua and Caleb are the only ones of 12 spies with a good report, the others said “there are giants in there”… Joshua said, “God did it for us before and He will do it again.” The people did not go into that nation because they didn’t awe God. Often we don’t go where we are supposed to go because we don’t awe God.
In battle, God held the sun for 24 hours so Joshua could win the battle. They circled the building for 7 days. On the seventh day, he took the shofar, blew it, and the walls fell down at Jericho.
Rahab the harlot awed God,
Josh 2:7-11
7 And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
8 And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
9 And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.KJV
Josh 3:10
10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.KJV
Josh 5:1
5 And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.KJV
Elijah poured water over the altar of God. He knew the awe of God. Nothing was impossible. God answered by fire. When Elijah lost his awe of God, he ran scared from Jezebel. But he got his awe back.
Jesus awed God and He healed all, brought back the dead. When he was facing crucifixion, He awed God so much that He said “Your will be done”.
Acts 9:31
31 So the church throughout the whole of Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was edified [growing in wisdom, virtue, and piety] and walking in the respect and reverential fear of the Lord and in the consolation and exhortation of the Holy Spirit, continued to increase and was multiplied.AMP
Choose to see things that you have never seen in your life.
Unless you become like a little child, you will not see the things of the Kingdom. A little child awes all the time.
God is an awesome God.
We have to choose to awe God… look for His awesomeness: Choose to be completely overwhelmed by Him. Forget the problems or disease for a moment. Choose to awe Him and you will go beyond your disease, your handicaps. Awe the Almighty, the Creator, and be blessed.
