Taste and See - The Fear of the Lord with Pastor Marci Glisson

We're going to start tonight. I just want to go to Psalms 34,

Psalms 34, verses 7 through 9 and I want to talk a little bit

Psalms 34:7–9

about the fear of the Lord. And so in Psalms 34 it reads

this way, it says the Angel of the Lord and I'm reading out of

the amplified in camps around those who fear him with awe

inspired reverence and worship him with obedience.

Our obedience worships him. Have we ever made that

connection that when we actually obey him and are obedient to his

word, it brings worship towards him?

And so then he goes on to say, and he rescues each of them.

Taste and see that the Lord our God is good.

How blessed, fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God

is the man who takes refuge in him and reverently fears the

Lord, you, his Saints, believers, holy ones.

For those who fear Him, there is no want.

For those who fear Him, there is no want.

See, we don't have to want for any good thing when we fear the

Lord, right? We don't have to want for

anything when we fear Him. And then he goes on to say, Come

you children, listen to me and I will what teach you to fear the

Lord with awe inspired reverence and worship him with obedience

and worship him with obedience. And we want to give the correct

definition and define what fear is.

This is not a fear in the fact that we are afraid, like when we

are afraid that we may get hit by a car or we're afraid to get

on a plane because it may crash. This is not this type of fear.

We have learned here that fear, this fear of the Lord is to

Revere, is to Revere Him. It is to stand in awe.

And that's what we did. As we began to worship Him, we

were reminded how awesome our God is, how big our God is.

And we stand in awe that He is the Creator.

Come on. Of everything in the universe,

He created it with His mere words.

He spoke it into existence. Come on.

And and so it means to stand in awe of who he is.

It means to honor Him, to honor him.

When we come in corporately to begin to have praise and

worship. It is for one thing and one

thing only, to bring honor to God, to bring honor to the Lord,

Amen. To honor who He is and what He

has done in our lives, that is the only reason why we are doing

praise and worship, is to remind ourselves that we must honor Him

and who He is because we fear Him.

Amen. We honor Him.

We honor the fact that He would want to come and dwell and and

bring His presence to His people.

We honor that. We honor Him because He brought

us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

We honor Him because of that. And so every time we come to

worship, there should be that honor towards Him, not just so

we can have a fun little praise and worship.

That's not what that's about. It's about us bringing our honor

towards Him, our honor towards Him.

And when He is honored, He'll fill this place with His

presence. When He's honored, when He's

honored for who He is, it means to esteem Him, right?

And we've also read that it means to be devoted to him, that

when you say you are one that fears the Lord, you're saying

that I am devoted to him, I'm devoted to him, I honor him, I

fear him, I'm devoted to him. It means to respect, right?

I respect him. I, I respect what he has done

for me in my life, for what he's done for me in my life.

And then it means to be afraid. It does mean that or to dread,

but to be afraid or to dread in the context of you don't want to

ever do anything that would dishonor him or displease him.

You would never want to be a person that would dishonor who

he is and what he's done for your life, or displease him by

not doing the will of the father, because you can

displease him. When you refuse to do the will,

that of the Father, you can displease Him for Him who knows

what to do through scripture and doesn't do it.

What is that to you? The Scripture says it's sin.

And so when you choose to not do what Scripture says, it

dishonors Him. It actually displeases Him.

Amen. He's not pleased with it,

especially when you know what the Scripture says to do and you

don't do it. So it's very important as

believers, if we're going to continue to reign in this life

and we're going to continue to reign as a church and be all

that God wants us to be as his children, as representatives and

ambassadors of Christ. We have have to ask ourselves,

are we simply obeying what Scripture says in areas of our

life? Because if not, then we are

dishonouring Him and we're not respecting the fact that he has

put things in His word that he expects his children to do.

And isn't that something even with your own children, you

know, it is disrespectful when you tell your child to do

something and they refuse to do it.

What are they doing? They're rebelling against you.

And and some people think that, oh, they're just playing,

they're just having fun. Oh, you know, and make excuses

for that behavior because you do it as a parent.

But that is not what our father thinks about it.

When we see things in his word that he says as a believer we

ought to be walking in and we refuse to do it.

He does not think it's funny. He thinks it's dishonouring and

displeasing and disrespectful. Right.

And so here, as we continue to go through some things on the

fear of the Lord, we have to exercise, you know, the things

that we know as a believer that we should do.

And I can just go ahead and let you know, as a believer, even as

an infant in Christ, as a babe in Christ, if you just got into

this thing, if you just simply read Scripture and do whatever

the Scripture tells you to do, you are going to be pleasing to

God. It's that easy.

And do you know, it doesn't stop.

It doesn't stop. But you know, I found that the

longer, sometimes the longer people are actually believers,

the more they lapse and not do any longer what the Scripture

has done. And maybe things they did in the

beginning that they don't do now because they were so thankful

and so in awe of him saving them and rescuing them from the

situation that they were in and drawing them in the beginning.

And it was easy for them to want to there we're excited about the

Word and read the Word and do the Word and participate in the

Word and all the things that he tells us to do as a new

believer. But then the more they kept

growing, you know, coming to church, serving the Lord, the

longer, the more those things got familiar, get familiar.

And then as believers, we start slipping in things that we know

we should do in Scripture. Amen.

And know that that is a place that we have to, as believers,

always judge ourselves. Do you know the Scripture tells

us, judge yourself lest you be judged?

Do you know He wants you to judge yourself so that

ultimately you don't have to stand before him and Him judge

you on that? And do you know why he would

even have to judge you on that? Because you refuse to do it.

You refuse to obey. You refuse to be obedient to the

very thing that His word was saying for you to do, right?

And He's always there wanting us to obey him, wanting us to do

things. And that's just like, as a

parent, if I give my child a directive to do and they don't

do it, there should be a consequence.

There should be a consequence. See, there's so many natural

aspects in the earth that we can look at to see that this is how

God operates through His Word. And as a parent with a child,

this is how I should be operating with my child as well,

right? Amen.

So let's move on. So, you know, John Bevere made

this statement which made me actually go back to looking at

some things concerning the love of God.

And so he said this. He said you cannot truly love

God until we fear Him, nor can you properly fear Him until you

love Him, right until you love him.

And so you know, Pastor has taught us and we have taught

that the the foundation of the Kingdom of God is on love.

It's built upon God's love and who he is.

But I would say that it is as equally built upon the fear of

the Lord. And if one of those 2 is out of

balance, if you're only focused on, oh he loves me, he loves me,

he loves me, he loves me, he loves me and not have any fear

of him, then there is going to be abuse.

There's going to be abuse, right?

We can see that even in a marriage.

Do you know the Bible says women ought to honor their husbands

and respect them, right? They ought to honor their

husbands and respect them. So you could.

I know women that say they love their husbands all day long, but

when they open up their mouth I know they disrespect their

husband. They disrespect him because of

the way they talk to him, especially in front of people.

Degrading, belittling, demeaning.

That's no respect. That's no honor for him being

the lead in the home. I don't care if he's a good

leader or not. You have a responsibility as a

wife who loves the Lord. Amen.

And actually the scripture says do it because you may win him by

your behavior, your godly behavior, your godly behavior.

But anyway, I'm not talking about marriage and I'm not

talking about parenting. But we're going to move on, OK?

Because it gets tight anytime somebody talks about don't be

talking about my kid and surely don't be talking about my man

and my marriage anyway. But anyway, really the Kingdom

of God is built upon the love of God and the fear of God.

And they work hand in hand. And again, if one of them is out

of out of balance, you could also say it will become

perverted and abused. It will become a perverted and

abused. Do you know, even in Christian

marriages? I guess I'm on the marriage

topic. I don't know.

Somebody in here must need it anyway.

I need it always. What was I going to say?

Oh, abuse. Yeah.

See, when one of these is out of balance, then abuse will happen.

And you know, you can act like you love this person all day

long and you know, do all these things, but in your heart, isn't

that what even he God says? He says you, you love me with

your with your words of the mouth, but your heart is far

from me, right? So you can tell you, you can

tell those things. There's an atmosphere there in

relationships and different things.

And when there's no respect, you can tell they're they're taking

advantage. Oh, I know what I was going to

say. Here it is.

Thank you, Holy Ghost. There have been Christians,

women especially, that I've seen through the years that we've

done counseling with and different things that, you know,

they think because and see this is where it's out of balance.

They think because they're a Christian and because they are

supposed to walk in love that they can be abused and taken

advantage of and manipulated. Well, God tells me I just need

to forgive him. 70 Psalms 7 But no behavior ever changes.

No, that's abuse because something's out of balance.

You see what I'm saying? And so again, even in our

relationship with the Lord, if we don't have a clear

understanding of what the fear of the Lord is and what the love

of God is, and that it is the foundation of everything that's

built from the Kingdom of God, then there's going to be abuses.

And you've seen that in the church, right?

You see that in the church with people thinking, oh, well, God

loves me, He loves me, He loves me.

I'm under grace, grace, grace. So I don't have to obey what the

Scripture says and I can still have sex out of marriage.

That's abuse. That's abuse.

You're disrespecting God and his holy word.

You see what I'm saying? And so again, we have to have

that clear understanding of what it is.

So the being afraid or dread that is defined with fear is

associated with obedience to His will, that you would be afraid

to not obey God's will for your life.

There ought to be fear. And, and you've even seen this,

if people have been called by God specifically for a purpose

in their life and they refuse to obey that calling, there ought

to be so much fear of the Lord. They ought to be afraid because

they know, look what happened to Jonah in the well, right?

He wanted to disobey and not do what God was asking him to do.

OK, so just because we're in the new covenant doesn't mean that

we get to disobey or not be obedient to especially what

Scripture is telling us we ought to be doing as a believer in our

life, because those who fear Him will want to do what God's will

is for their life. It is not about being afraid of

God, but rather acknowledging His authority and holiness.

It's about acknowledging His authority and His Holiness, and

which leads us to a desire to do His will for our life, OK?

Because of His authority, because of who He is, because I

fear Him, I'm going to. I want to do what the Lord wants

me to do. I don't want to disobey Him or

not do the will of God for my Life, OK.

And so it's important that we recognize that.

And then let's read out of Proverbs 14 so everybody has a

clear understanding what the fear of the Lord is.

Proverbs 1427 says this. The fear of the Lord is the

fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.

And we want to see here that the fountain of life is the starting

point. The fear of the Lord is the

fountain of life. When you look up the fountain of

life, it is the starting point. So what he's saying is the fear

of the Lord is the starting point of your life.

It is the fountain of your life. And everything is going to flow

from the wellspring of the fear of the Lord in your life.

It's good. That's what that literally

means. It is the source of life, and it

is the wellspring, the starting point of your life.

The fear of the Lord, The fear of the Lord to honor him, to

reverence him, to not want to disobey him or displease him in

any way, to want to respect him. And he's letting us know if you

don't have that in your life, there's going to be issues.

There's going to be issues. And we see here in Isaiah 33 and

six, it says this Isaiah 33 and six, it says in that day he will

be your sure foundation, providing a rich storehouse of

salvation, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is your

treasure, is your treasure. He's saying that the fear of the

Lord, when it is your treasure, the treasure is that storehouse,

just like it's the fear of the Lord is the life source or the

spring, the fountain of your life.

He's saying, listen, the fear of the Lord, it is the treasure of

your life and it is the storehouse that when you look at

that word treasure, it literally means a storehouse.

It means an Armory. You know, we have armories here

at the Florida National Guard in Saint Augustine.

We have the headquarters and they have armories.

And you know what's in those armories?

Weapons, weapons. And he's letting us know in

correlation to which I'm not going to go into today, but in

correlation to this storehouse, this treasury, it is your

weapon. The fear of the Lord is a

weapon, and that's why he says that the angels will encamp

around those who fear the Lord. You being a person that will

honor God, you being a person that wants to do his will, You

being a person that does not want to disobey him or displease

him. It is a weapon that he is

saying. Listen, if you'll stay up

underneath the fear of the Lord, there is a storehouse of

weaponry. It will be like a Armory around

you. Come on.

And it also means a full supply. A treasury also has what riches

in it? Gold, silver.

Come on. So think about Pirates of the

Caribbean, right? That's also what is references.

When you fear the Lord, there is riches, there is honor.

Come on, there's provision, there is a full supply, there's

a treasury waiting for you. Who will fear Him?

Everything that you need as a believer will come from the live

source or the spring. Come on, the fountain of life,

of the fear of the Lord, everything you need as a

believer, that's what it's saying, that's what it means.

So it's your treasure. Amen.

Glory to God. Let's look at Philippians,

Philippians chapter 2. I read a lot of Old Testament in

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

the Psalms and you know, Isaiah, but I want to go over to what

the New Testament has to say about the fear of the Lord

because it actually has a lot to say about the fear of the Lord.

But we're just going to tap into a just a couple of scriptures

tonight. That's all we have time left to

do. So Philippians chapter 2 and

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

verses 12 through 13, it says this.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my

presence only, but now much more in my absence, what does He say?

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is

God who is at work in you both to will and work for His good

pleasure. So there is His will and his

work for you, because you have called on the name of the Lord,

and you have been granted salvation.

And He lets us know that now that we're born again, there's a

will and there is a work that you need to do as a believer.

Now, again, this is not a work to earn your salvation because

you've already earned it by His work, by calling on His name, by

faith. And that came first.

You see that you're born again to do a will and a work.

And He lets us know that we now are responsible to work it out.

And how are we to work it out? How are we to work it out?

With fear and trembling, With fear and trembling.

That means we are to work out this will and this work and our

salvation with the Lord, with honor, with honoring him, with

respecting him, with thinking about how awesome he is, being

in awe of what He's done. The fact that He even drew you

out of darkness and saved you and brought you into the Kingdom

of God and gave you a new life in Christ and put the third

person of the Godhead on the inside of you.

Hallelujah and then gave you the Scripture says everything that

pertains to life and godliness that he's given us this earthen,

this treasure in earthen vessel. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, glory to

God. And he goes on to say, work it

out with honor, work it out with respect, work it out with

pleasing Him, work it out by being obedient to him.

This is your responsibility. God's already done his job.

Jesus Christ has already paid the price and poured his blood

out on the mercy seat. Come on.

And now it's our responsibility, by the grace of God, by the

mercy of God, by the faith of God that He's given us a mustard

seed up to work our salvation out in the earth with fear and

trembling. And I believe there there has

been a lack of the fear of the Lord in the church today because

we're going to read anyway. So he tells us workout.

I want to read what workout means.

It's not like going to the gym, but we need to do that as well.

Hallelujah. And my daughter texts my husband

today as I was stuffing my face and said, Hey, dad, you want to

do this 5K across the lions? There's a Lions bridge 5K that's

coming up this weekend. And, and, and my husband said,

what do you want to do it? And she said, well, I'll do it.

And he said, well, I'll do it. If you want to do it, you know,

I'll do it with you. It's not like I want to do it,

but I'll do it if you want me to do it with you, you know?

And then he looks over at the table, he said, I think that's a

good goal for you too, and I'll help start training you.

Can you imagine him as my trainer?

That's why it's not happened in 34 years.

He's trained me enough anyway. But I thought to myself, he

said, you know what he told me? He told me, you know, a long

time ago you told me you had a dream of you just running and

that you were a runner. I said it must have been the

pizza you made me eat that night.

No, anyway, but I might do it. Hey, you never know.

I'm ready to turn a new leaf. Come on anyway.

So work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

That word work out means perform.

But yet you know, there's this whole teaching now that you're

it's not about performance. It's not about performance, but

working out is about perform you.

What is he saying? You need to perform the

salvation that has been given to you.

You need to work it out. You need to.

It also means produce it, have fruit of it in your life.

And again, we're not doing it in our own work.

We're doing it through the grace that strengthening that

empowering that we learned about that grace, that supernatural

grace that's been instilled in every believers life the day

they called on the name of the Lord.

It means workout means this to accomplish, to achieve, to do

that from which something results.

Is there any results in your life as a believer?

That is a good question. That is a good question that we

should be asking ourselves if we claim to be a Christian.

Is there fruit? Is there those things that are

having a result in our life? Because we year after year, are

continuing to work out our salvation?

We're letting the Holy Spirit deal with us and work us out.

You know the Holy Spirit will work you out.

It's not there just to give you chill bumps, right?

And it means this to bring about to fashion or to render.

Listen to this. This is what it means in the

Greek to render one fit for a thing.

What thing you being a child of God to render one fit.

That's what that means to to do the work, to do the work or

deed, to do the deed. That's what it means.

That means there is going to be tangible results and your life

as a believer that you can see how God has changed you, has has

done things within you you never thought you would be doing as a

believer. You can see it in your marriage,

you can see it with your children, you can see it in your

finances. You can see it in every area of

your life because you've allowed yourself and the Holy Spirit and

the Word of God to work out that salvation in your life, doing

things by just simply obeying what the Word has said and what

God has said on the inside of you through the Spirit of the

living God. Amen.

It means to fully accomplish. Remember, the goal of salvation

is not just to get you in to get you to heaven.

It's to actually get you in. To be the sons and the daughters

come on and of the Kingdom of God, to be royalty, to be those

that know how to rule and reign and overcome in this life.

To be those that are accomplishing great feats like

we see those in the Bible do right to accomplish these

things, to mature, to flourish and to finish.

Because you know what? He tells us that we can not

finish our course in Scripture. So he's letting it.

We have to work out our salvation so that we do finish

our course. We run our race, we do the

things that God has put in us to be able to do, Amen.

And that is going to take us participating with God to do the

things that He wants to do in our life.

Now I want to read this out of the amplified OK, and I want to

go up early to verse 3. So from Philippians 2 to verse

13, and the reason why I want to read it, I want to want you to

see in full context of what he's actually talking about when he's

inserting in there that you are to work out your salvation with

fear and trembling. Because it's actually in context

of doing the will of God for your life and doing the things

that God is speaking to you to do in your life.

But then also talking about doing things not in your flesh

or carnally, because the fear of the Lord will bring you to a

place of holiness. I like to do it, this little

thing. Fear equals holiness.

Holiness equals glory. And this is how we see God work

in your life, is that when you actually understand the fear of

the Lord and begin to honor and be, obey and begin to do what

God is asking you to do in your everyday walk, being willing and

obedient to do His will, then guess what?

That is going to then produce holiness within your life

because you're actually doing the Word, and the Word will by

the Holy Spirit bring sanctification and holiness.