The Fear of The Lord!

Your hands towards her. So Father, once again, we just blessed Kylie.

Lord. We asked that you would just fill her with your word.

Lord. I just asked that you would allow her to articulate everything that's in

your heart this morning, Lord, that you would open our minds and our

hearts to receive your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, good afternoon.

Well, thank you again for allowing me the opportunity to be here with

you this morning and share with the Lord's put on my heart. I always

want to thank Justin and Lisa for their leadership. And something I mentioned at

the first service, something you all probably know, but I want to make

sure that you know it is the leadership at this church is one of the

most humble teams that I've ever had the privilege of sitting with. If you

haven't, maybe you don't realize, but Justin and Lisa and Wayne and Susan

and Sean and Sarah they love you guys so much. They're cheering you on,

and they want to see you step into all that God has called you

to be. Their hearts truly are for servantship and they lead through serving.

So thank you for I just want to honor all that it's cost you.

It's not cheap, So everything that it's cost you to be here, thank

you. Yeah. Can you just slick around? Our lives are changed because

of your yes. Earlier this year, the Lord started speaking to me about

the fear of God. And February of twenty three, Troy Faust came to

me and so the Lord had given him a vision, and I asked his

permission to share this. I had thought about the vision off and on all

of last year, but then when the new year came, it was like

daily. I just couldn't quit thinking about it. And when he pulled into

the parking lot here at the church, he saw this lion above the rooftop,

pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and

he said it reminded him of like a father in a waiting room waiting for

their child to be born, to take their first breath. It was the

anticipation. As he walked into the church, he looked up at the ceiling

and there was a lock box, and the lords are a lock pad.

And the Lord said, the key to unlocking that is repentance and fear.

And I've thought about that so much. I feel the lion roaming back and

forth. I feel it in my spirit. I feel the anticipation, and

I feel like the Lord has given me a word that has more prophetic than

really teaching, which is what I've been used to. So I feel like

this is the word of the Lord for our body, but also for the

Body of Christ as a whole globally, and that is the fear of God.

I've been reading this book that John Vivier wrote called The Awe of God.

If you don't have it, please go get it. I picked it

up at the beginning of the year, and I have been so convicted about

walking in the fear of God. I was raised in the Church, and

if you had asked me if I understood what a healthy fear of God looked

like, I would have thought I did. And then when I started reading

this, I just felt like the Lord was pulling back deeper layers. And

what I'm realizing is the fear of God and the fear of man cannot coexist.

You will say yes to one and that yes will cost you a note

to the other. So I feel like this is what the Lord is saying

right now. You've heard it maybe before, if you've been in the church

for any length of time at all. The prophetic word and most recent past

has been God is doing a new thing. Do you not hear it?

Do you not perceive it? And that's been said spoken for a couple of

years. He's doing a new thing, not the next thing from what he's

already you know, step two from what he's been doing. But it's a

new thing. And I feel like and I believe that the Lord is saying,

I'm doing a new thing, and it's going to require in order for

you to be part of it, and for you to come along with me

and be part of this new thing that I'm doing, it's going to require

that you have a holy fear of Me. It's essential that we understand what

it means to fear him. John Vivier said in his book, you will

never find God's wonderful manifest presence in an atmosphere where he is not revered and

held in awe. The world, the earth is groaning for his manifest presence.

You are a carrier of that. We are a care of that.

The fear of God, while it may have a negative connotation, which it

did for me growing up, I really didn't like enjoy hearing people talk about

the fear of God. Can we talk about His love? That feels better.

But when you understand the fear of God, it's not anger, it's

revering his holy awesomeness. It's actually the greatest force of confidence and comfort and

protection available to any being in the universe. A couple of weeks ago,

Justin was preaching and he said, he made this statement, and he said,

the birthing pains are growing closer together. And we know that in reference

to what we're seeing in the world. You know, it just means like

things are happening in the world, things are happening in the church. We're

seeing things that are shocking to us. Not just in government in the world,

but in church leadership. We've seen it, and it's things that are

shocking to us. When I heard him say the birth and pains are growing

closer and closer together, I immediately in my spirit heard the Lord say,

the world is in need of spiritual midwives. Turn with me to Exodus chapter

one. As I was asking the Lord what does that mean, he led

me to the scripture. Let's see Exodus chapter one, verse seventeen. So

in the scripture, it's talking about the Israelites being held captive in Egypt,

and the Israelites were growing by number significantly. They were surpassing the Egyptians in

foreign land. And there was a new pharaoh and he didn't like that.

He wanted to put a stop to it. So he told the midwives,

the Israelite midwives, in order to put a stop to it, I want

you to kill all of the baby boys as they're being born. So when

you get to the birth to help the mom deliver, you're to kill every

baby boy. So here's what the midwives did. But the midwives feared God

and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them. But let

the always live. Do you realize that Moses was born because the midwives feared

God. Moses led the Israelite out of captivity in Egypt. What movement is

the world waiting to be birthed from someone who fears God. Their lives could

have been taken because they didn't listen to the pharaoh, but they feared God.

They said no to the fear of man and yes to the fear of

God. And because of that, Moses was raised up. The world is

in need of spiritual midwives who fear God. God is doing a new The

birthing pains are getting closer. He's inviting us to be part of it.

He wants to manifest his presence like the world has never known and the world

has never seen. But we have to be in a place where we revere

him. I want to show you some examples of what it looked like for

people that didn't fear him. Oswald Chambers said, when we preach the love

of God, there is a danger of forgetting that. The Bible first reveals

not first the love of God, but the intense, blazing holiness of God.

With his love at the center. Our God is an all consuming fire.

I want you to turn to Leviticus, chapter ten, and you're familiar

with Moses. He's led the children of Israel out of Egypt. They're in

the wilderness at this point, and God has given him. God wants to

dwell with his people, right. He wants his presence to dwell with them.

So He's given Moses very specific instructions to build this arc of the Covenant,

and that is where God's presence is gonna rest for the children of Israel.

Now, not everybody can go in there because it's a sinful nature and

it requires a sacrifice. So God sets up the system of priests, and

he calls Moses's brother Aaron and his four sons to be the priest. Now,

the priests have the responsibility to receive the sacrifice from the people, to

take it into the presence of God. But there's a very specific way and

set of instructions that God has given them to do that. If you turn

to verse one of Leviticus, chapter ten, we'll find out how Aaron's sons

held that responsibility. Now, Nadab and Abahu, the sons of Aaron,

each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and

offered unauthorized fire to the Lord, which he had not commanded them. The

fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before

the Lord. They did not revere God. They had just come out of

a one week commissioning and their first time at the altar, no reverence,

and it cost him. Their lives. Turned to Fort Samuel too. You

may be familiar with Eli. Eli was also a priest from the lineage of

Aaron, and his sons were priests and Eli had a prophet had been sent

to Eli to tell him, there is sin in your household. You need

to deal with this. If you don't, it can't cost you greatly.

And Eli's sons were sinning as priest at the altar. We'll read about it

here in a second, what they were doing. But they didn't revere God,

they didn't fear him. But Eli didn't do anything about it. He

never corrected them, and he didn't heed the word of the Lord. So

if we look in verse seventeen, it says, thus the sin of the

young men was very great, talking about Eli's sense in the sight of the

Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. Samuel

was ministering before the Lord. Some of the things that they were doing is

that people would bring to them their offering, and they were supposed to offer

all of it before the Lord, and they were eating it. They were

consuming it themselves. So they were not offering these sacrifices and obedience to the

Lord. And the people cried and pled with it. At least burn it

and boil it in the water and let the fat rise to the Lord,

and then you can consume the meat. Do something because this was there.

You know, this was a bloodshed for their sins, and it was being

treated with contempt by men. And then they were having a relationship with women

outside of the temple gates as well, and were seen as scoundrels and contempt

They had no respect for the Lord or for their priestly duties, and no

fear of God. They are. They go into a war and they both

lose their lives. The same day. Eli loses his life when he hears

about his sons. The same day his daughter in law loses her life while

she's birthing his grandson. The cost is significant. The Lord won't manifest his

presence where there's not a fear of him, because it's for your protection,

it's for my protection. He does love us significantly, He's shown us through

the sacrifice of his son Jesus. He can't give us what we're not ready

for to go to the New Testament. And I'm going to show you another

example of what it looked like to not walk in the fear of God.

And then we're gonna look at what looks like to walk in the fear of

God. Go with me to Acts chapter five. I like this passage in

the Passion translation I'm going to read out of that. This is talking about

the story of Anonius and Sephirah. You might be familiar. Now, a

man named Annonius and his wife Sephirah likewise sold their farm. They conspired to

secretly keep back for themselves a portion of the proceeds, So when Annonius brought

the money to the apostles, it was only a portion of the entire sale.

God revealed secret to Peter, though, so he said to him,

Antonius, why did you let Satan fill your heart and make you think you

could lie to the Holy Spirit? You only pretend to give it all.

Yet you hid back part of the proceeds from the sale of your property to

keep for yourselves. But before you sold, it wasn't it yours to keep

or sell. After you sold, it wasn't the money entirely at your disposal.

How could you plot such a thing in your heart. You haven't lied

to people, You've lied to God. The moment Anonius heard those words,

he fell over dead. Everyone was terrified when they heard what had happened.

Everyone was terrified when they heard what had happened. Some young men came and

removed the body and buried him. Three hours later, his wife, Safira,

came into the room with no clue what had happened to her husband.

Peter said, tell me were you two? Were the two of you paid

this amount for the sale of your land so far? I said, yes,

that's how much it was. Peter told her, why have you agreed

together to test the spirit of the Lord? I hear the footsteps of those

who buried your husband at the door. They're coming to bury you too.

At that moment, she dropped dead at Peter's feet when the young man.

When the young men came came in, she was already dead, so they

carried her out and buried her next to her husband. The entire church was

seized with a powerful sense of the fear of God, which came over all

who heard what had happened. The entire church, the entire group of believers,

was seized with a powerful sense of awe and reverence of God when they

heard what had happened. Let's look at what happened when the entire church was

seized with a powerful awe and fear of God. The very next verse says,

the apostles performed many signs, wonders and miracles among the people, and

the believers were wonderfully united. As they met regularly in the temple courts in

the area known as Solomon's Porch. No one dared harm them, for everyone

held them in high regard. Continually, more and more people believed in God

and were added to their number, great crowds of both men and women.

In fact, when people knew Peter was going to walk by, they carried

out sick the sick people to the streets and laid them down on cots and

matts, knowing the incredible power emanating from him would overshadow him and heal them.

His shadow would touch them and they would be healed because he feared the

Lord, and he could be a carrier of God's manifested presence. Great numbers

of people swarmed into Jerusalem from the nearby village. They brought with them the

sick and those troubled by demons, and everyone was healed. Everyone was healed,

everyone tormented by demons were healed. Nobody left the same way they came.

What if this said? Great numbers of people swarmed into Curville from nearby

cities. They brought with them the sick and those troubled by demons, and

everyone was healed because you fear God. You said no to the fear of

man. You said yes to the fear of God. And you're carrying the

manifest presence outside of these walls, into the city where you work, into

your family, into the schools, and they were healed. That's what he's

calling us too. Where is your sphere of influence? We are all called

to ministry, We're all called to carry his presence. Let's keep reading after

this. The Pharisees were very jealous to watch what was happening. So their

answer to that was to you know, in prison the apostles. The high

priest and his officials who formed the party of the Sadducees, became extremely jealous

overall that was happening, so they had the apostles arrested, placed in chains,

and thrown into jail. But during the night, during the night,

have you ever been in a season of your life that felt like the night?

During the night, the Lord showed up. He sent an angel who

appeared before them. He supernaturally opened their prison doors and brought the apostles outside.

Go. The angel told them stand in the temple courts and preach the

words that bring life. Do the very thing that they put you in jail

for, go do it again. So early that morning they entered the temple

courts and taught the people. The High Priest and his officials, unaware of

their supernatural release from prison, convened the members of the Supreme Council, and

they sent for them. And I'm gonna skip ahead to say sometimes they sent

for them, and they went to the prison and they're gone. Really not

how to tell you this. It's all locked up, that your prisoners have

been set free. Another person shows up and says, I know where they

are. They're doing that very thing you're arrested them for. They're standing on

the stump courts and they're preaching about Jesus again. So they show up at

the temple courts and they're there to arrest them, and the apostles they don't

want to make a big deal about it, because the Pharisees and the authorities

they don't want to make a big deal about it because they don't want the

people. They fear the people, and they don't want to be stoned and

hated. So they're there to quietly oppress them. And the apostles just go

right along with it, and they just follow them back. So they when

they brought them before the council, the high priests demanded an explanation, saying,

didn't we strictly warn you that you were to never again preach in this

name? But instead you have now filled all of Jerusalem with this doctrine and

committed to holding us responsible for this man's death. Speaking of Jesus, Peter

and the apostles replied, we must listen to and obey God more than pleasing

religious leaders. We must say yes to fearing God, not to fearing man.

You had Jesus arrested and killed by crucifixion, but the God of our

forefathers has raised him up. He is the one God has exalted and seated

in his right hand as our savior and champion. He is the provider of

grace, as the redeemer of Israel. We are witnesses to these things,

and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God gives freely to all who believe

in him. When they heard this, they were infuriated and determined to murder

them. But a pharisee named Gomaliel, a noted religious professor who was highly

respected by all, stood up. He gave orders to send the apostles outside.

Then he said to the council men of Israel, you need to be

very careful about how you deal with these men. Some time ago there was

a man named Thedas who rose up claiming to be somebody. He had a

following of about four hundred men, but when he was killed, all of

his followers were scattered and nothing came of it after him. In the days

of the Census, another man rose up, Judas the Galilean, who got

people to follow him in a revolt. He too perished, and all those

who followed him were scattered. So in this situation, you should just leave

these men to themselves. For if this plan or undertaking originates with men,

it will fade away and come to nothing. But if this movement is of

God, you will not be able to stop it. If this movement is

of God, you will not be able to stop it, and you might

discover that you were fighting God all along. His words convinced the council,

so they brought the apostles back in, and they had them severely beaten,

not murdered, just one under that severely beaten, and then sent them on

their way and told them never speak in the name of Jesus, and let

them go. The apostles left rejoicing, thrilled that God had considered them worthy

to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. They were arrested, had not

done anything wrong. They were brought before the council, beaten severely, and

they left rejoicing that God counted them worthy to suffer, and nothing stopped them.

They kept preaching every day in the temp courts and went from house to

house preaching the gospel of Jesus, God's anointed one. During those days,

the number of Jesus' followers kept multiplying greatly. They didn't stop. Their lives

were on the line, and they walked encourage and boldness. Thousands of people's

names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and their eternity changed forever

because they said yes to God and feared him. Thousands. The trajectory of

families forever changed because of somebody's yes, yes to fearing God, because of

somebody's no, no to fearing men. We don't have time in these days

to worry about what people are going to think. God is on the move,

and we have to move with him. We cannot worry or be concerned

about what anyone thinks of this. His blood is too priceless. He paid

too big of a price, too big of a cost for us to worry

about what each other is thinking, about what they might think of us.

We won't be the first ones that anyone called crazy. We will join a

great multitude who have already been called crazy. But he's worth it, his

worthy, his blood is worth it. The sacrifice he paid is too great.

He didn't stop, He didn't worry about what people thought. He went

to the cross with us. In mind those people, these people that come

through the doors, the people that come in your life, the people that

walk into your homes, the people that you work with, the people that

you go to school with, they need to know from the mouth of Babes.

All right, we're gonna keep going. In Acts Acts, chapter six,

during those days, the number of Jesus followers kept multiplying greatly. But

just keep going, Cary, he's good. But a complaint was brought against

those who spoke Arabic by the Greek speaking Jews. So this group of people

that were born in the Jewish lineage they left Jerusalem and now they speak Greek,

and they came back and they see what the Lord is doing, this

great movement, and it is amazing. They are witnessing miracles, hundreds thousands

of miracles. But you know what, they're noticing their widows aren't actually getting

as much of a portion of the food as the rest of them. So

they bring up a complaint, and they felt that the widows were being overlooked

during daily distribution of food. The twelve Apostles, hearing this, did not

get agitated. Come on, do you not see the great miracles happening?

Why are you getting offended over this? The apostles instead gathered the people.

The twelve Apostles called a meeting of all the believers and told them it is

not advantageous for us to be pulled away from the word of God to wait

on tables. The first time I read this, I was like, haughty

and arrogant. You know, it's like different positions have more value than the

other. But that's not actually what they're saying. They're saying, we're called

to preach the word and to prayer. This is our lane. We have

to stay in what God has called us to do. This is all so

very important, but we can't be pulled away from what God's calling us to

do, to do what somebody else has been called to do. Who wants

to step up? Who has God called for this position? So this is

what they say, We want you to carefully select from among yourselves seven godly

men. That word carefully is full of reverence and awe, being in the

fear of God, being full of reverence, and all prayerfully consider from among

you seven seven men. And these are the qualifications. Make sure they're honorable,

full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom. Proverbs nine tells us that

the spirit, that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. So

that was part of the qualification. They needed to be a people that feared

God and walked in wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit. And we will

give them the responsibility of this crucial ministry of serving. They held high value

for this. And you know, I was thinking about the Hellenists. So

they're the ones that were like, hey, her widows aren't getting as much

of the distribution, And I kind of viewed them in a negative spotlight because

it doesn't say that they were being part or being used for these massive miracles

that God was doing. No one was following the Hellenists around to get in

their shadow. But maybe maybe the fact that they saw something was falling through

the cracks was good. Maybe he's showing you, Maybe he's showing me this

is falling through the cracks and calling you to do something about it. You're

called to ministry. You're called to carry his presence. It may not be

in the church. You may not be called to be a pastor or part

of the fivefold ministry. Maybe you're called to be a business leader. Maybe

you're called to be a teacher. Maybe you're called to be an accountant.

Maybe you're called to be a lawyer and fight for injustice. We need the

people that carry the presence of God and who fear Him in every sphere of

the world. People need you. These people may never enter a church building.

How will they know? How will they know unless we go and we

walk in this and we're willing and it's not cheap, it costs us.

Are we willing to be of no reputation? I want to say yes.

There have been multiple multiple times that I was sitting here in worship and felt

like the Lord gave me a prophetic word to share with the church, and

I didn't. I didn't because I feared what people thought. So I repent

to you. My fear was they're gonna say, there she is again.

She just wants to be in the spotlight. I promise you. I am

not looking to be in the spotlight. But that doesn't matter. I didn't

obey. What if that word changed somebody's life. What if that was the

one thing they came to God saying Lord this morning, I am desperate to

hear from you, and we don't give the word that God told us to.

I don't have time for that. We don't have time for that.

So I repent for saying yes to having a fear of man and know to

fearing God. I thought I feared him, But he's stripping away from me

that which is not of him. I just want in his presence more than

anything, and I want to carry that presence with me to those that are

around me, because that's where they will be changed. It is not because

of anything I can do or say. It's because of who he is and

what he's already done. And he allows me to partner with him. He

allows me to be a vessel. He allows you to be a vessel.

He's chosen you and called you by name to be a vessel to carry his

presence. The birthing pains are getting closer. The world needs spiritual midwives who

fear God. Turn to Hebrews, chapter twelve, verse twenty six. The

earth was rocked at the sound of his voice from the mountain. But now

he has promised, once and for all, I will not only shake the

systems of the world. Do we see that happening right now? He is

shaking the systems of the world, but also the unseen powers in the heavenly

realms. Justin was just talking about that there's been an uptick. God is

shaking what can be shaken now? This phase once and for all clearly indicates

the final removal of things that are shaking, that is the old order.

So only that which is unshakable will remain. Since we are receiving our rights

to an unshakable kingdom, we are receiving our rights because of what Jesus did

to an unshakable kingdom. We should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest

worship that delights his heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender filled

with awe as we lay down our lives, an absolute surrender, meaning we've

said no to fear of men, in fear of God, for our God

is a holy, consuming fire. You get to be part of the shaking.

You get to be part of the hope that's offered in the world when

everything has fallen apart. Have you ever been in a season where everything you

knew to be true and firm and you felt like you were standing on was

taken from you. I have been in that season, and it feels hopeless.

People are in that season. They're watching what's happening in the world,

they're watching what's happening in the church, and they grow hopeless. We have

the hope that they need, but we have to let God shake off and

free us, and strip us from a fear of men, and infuse us

with boldness and courage. Boldness like the lion, he is courage to do

what He has ordered us to do. I believe it's time for the church

to repent. Where we haven't feared the Lord, where we've treated his presence

nonchalantly, where we haven't been willing to stand up and confront lies with the

truth. It's time for us to be bold and courageous. The fear of

God is to stand for truth. Marriage is intended to be between one man

and one woman. That's the truth. There is only one way to heaven,

and that is through Jesus Christ. That is the truth, and we

need the boldness to say so. Fear of God is to be obedient to

God. The fear of God is to be humble and give glory to the

one, the only one who is worthy. A fear of God is living,

bold and courageous. To fear God is to run from evil. Run

run from evil, from evil actions, from evil thoughts. To fear God

is to honor his name and not use it in vain. To fear God

is to hate sin. To fear God is to hate injustice. To fear

God is to not complain, to not grumble, and to not murmur.

To fear God is to stand in reverence of all and all of who he

is. To fear God creates an atmosphere for him to manifest his presence.

We've asked him, show us your glory, Lord, We want your glory.

It comes with his presence. He can only manifest that in an atmosphere

that stands and surrender in awe of who he is when we truly fear him.

John Bevivia wrote in his book The Awe of God, where the Lord

is reverence, his presence manifests. The fear of the Lord changes atmospheres.

It cultivates an environment for the Holy Spirit's power to change our lives and the

lives of others. You carry that wherever you go. God is doing a

new thing. In order to enter that new thing, that new season with

him, we must fear him. The birthing pains are getting closer. The

world needs you. You're the spiritual midwife He's called to them. There was

a gentleman that Vivier talked about. He was a I believe a pastor.

He was a minister. I think he was a pastor and had a huge

ministry, made some bad decisions, ended up in jail. John went to

go visit him, and John sat across from him and he said, man,

when did you stop loving Jesus? And that man said, oh,

I never stopped loving Jesus. I didn't fear him. It's so pertinent that

we carry the love of Jesus, but that we walk in fear of God.

I want to give us the opportunity today to repent. Just ask the

Lord. We'll just have a moment of silence. Is Wayne here he had

to leave? Okay, okay, Sean, would you mind as he plays?

I just want to give us a minute. Would you just ask the

Lord? What is there an area? But I haven't feared? You?

Do? I know what true fear of God looks like. If I don't,

would you show that to me? And when he shows it to you,

just repent. It's very simple. He's made it very easy. After

that, I'll pray for us and we'll go from there. I'm just going

to give you a minute to just ask the Lord to reveal to you.

Thank you for listening. For more messages and other resources, please subscribe to

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