The Year of the Fear of God: Fall In, or Fall Away (1130am) - 1.12.2024 (Elder John Swain Jr.)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Love Quest International

Church podcast, where we seek to love all nations, equip the

church, mobilize the equipped, and serve all.

We're super glad you're joining us from whenever and wherever

you're at in the world. Welcome to the family to get

your Bibles ready, get some water, get some coffee, maybe

some tea, and get ready to receive.

It's cold time, let's get into it.

Pastors, thank you for this opportunity again to share the

word of God. It's always such a blessing to

do so and it's an honor to be front of God's people and your

people and to represent you. And I just pray I do it well and

I pray a doing and worthy that gives the same impact for the

Kingdom. I can't do you pastor, because

you are fearfully and uniquely made, but I pray have the kind

of impact you'd be proud of and the Kingdom would feel in this

time. Amen.

So I am going to do a quick review or a few, few things.

I'm going to pick up some new stuff from moving forward.

Amen, Amen. So, and, and I'm telling you,

the days are really coming where you, you can't be able to pick

and choose. The guy's going to start

something in one moment and and you can't like do a brief review

and catch it up in the next moment.

Kind of am I making sense right now?

One thing I want to do too is I don't want people to be under

condemnation. We're not trying to guilt people

in the coming and stuff. What we're trying to tell you is

the opportunity that's available and what God is doing right,

because God's going to be God, but he wants his people to

partake of it. Amen.

I said last time before we before we looked at the at the

9:00 AM experience, I said if Jesus was talking here at 9:00

and 11:30, would you be here or do you be like Jesus?

I got enough for you at 9. I don't need to be here 11:30 or

like Jesus, I don't care what you got to say at 9:00, but

11:30 I'll be there. Please make sure it's like

everything that you will say at 9 without me being there.

And some people can take that as saying, John, are you saying

that you were Jesus? I'm not saying I'm replacing

him. What I'm saying is God's calling

us to understand reverence for his word and when he's calling

us to gather, and I was using that to suggest to you that if

there you feel some type of way about that, if it was Jesus, but

and we believe that God by his spirit through the people he's

he brings up is trying to communicate to us, then you have

to be challenged and say, man, if it's not Jesus present, maybe

it's Jesus speaking through those people.

Should I treat it just the same? One of the ways you have my

heart is you treat my kids right.

You cross my kids, you cross me. When you cross who represents

me, you cross me when you receive who represents me, you

receive me. The Bible says it that way.

Who has the son as the father. So I wanted to make sure that

was available for you today. We're going to have some.

We already having fun. We're going to laugh a little

bit more too. So don't don't y'all get it

twisted the fear of God fall in or fall away.

Now the subtitles are important because they give you an insight

in how to organize the information and and and the

points of direction and emphasis.

Fall in or fall away. Everyone say fall in or fall

away. We talked about the difference

between the fear of and being afraid of.

What fear of does like this is summaries.

You don't have to try to check every slide.

I'm summarizing. So it's OK if I move faster than

the slides. The fear of is you stand up,

stand forward, stand in, stand close, stand ready to go.

That's when you have the fear of God.

The fear of God gets you ready. It doesn't cause you to fall

back and fall away. OK, Afraid of get you falling

back? Afraid of gets you covering

this. Afraid of gets you thinking more

about how lowly you are and the consequences of punishment you

might face if you mess up. Afraid of fixes itself on you,

not on God, believe it or not. OK, fear of God and having you

stand and draw near also suggests something.

You know something about his character because I know he is

love when he demonstrates himself.

The fear of God says I can approach love.

It's approachable versus something to be hidden from.

OK, so we talked about fear of versus afraid of and one of the

things we talked about was standing in all reverence means

to stand in all. To fear the Lord means to have

reverence for the Lord. Reverence means to stand in awe.

We dealt with a little bit of how the images of reverence

often are low images, bowed images, me making me little

images. OK, but the definition of

reverence means to stand in awe. So if you reverentially worship

God, it means you're standing in awe.

Doesn't mean you can't bow, doesn't mean you can't kneel.

But how often do we not even think of standing in awe as a

posture of reverence? We talked about how when you

stand, you stand in your authority.

When the king comes in, the expectation is what?

Everybody stands up. Everyone stands up, right?

You don't have to stand up. No, no, no.

Come, come. I'm gonna let you in the side,

right? What happened to me right now is

is Eminem. Slim Shady went through my head

just then. OK, But I said everyone stands

up and I just saw the whole thing at the Emmys or whatever

Grammys and all the little Slim Shady.

All that went through my head real quick and I was trying to

be disciplined and say, John, be focused.

That's not that was the part that I was doing.

I wasn't giving you the pregnant pause for you to respond on

that, right? So anyway, but when the king

walks in, everyone stands up, right?

When you stand up, you're in your highest authority, not

your. When you kneel down, you're more

vulnerability. So when the king walks in and

you stand up in his presence, what you're saying is I'm

presenting all of my authority to you, all of me standing up in

honor of all of you. And then what happens is this.

After a moment of standing up in front of a king, when there

comes a time where you want to join covenant with them after

having stood up in your finest, you come and you kneel or bow

before that king because you stood up in your authority.

When you bow, you're saying now I'm presenting all of my

authority to you. The kneel doesn't mean as much

if you never stand up, OK? The king comes in and summons

you into the court, and you come in on your knees like this.

Be there just a bit. Why?

Because I'm really reverent. You let me know what's wrong

with you, OK? I can't even see all the reggae

you have on your cloak. It tells me what kind of king

you are standing in awe. We talked about that if you want

to grow great in the fear of God, you got to get to know the

God the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

Even better. We also talked about use a

heaven context to check things. So if the spirit of the fear of

God is for me, my best indication of how hard to

respond to it is if it's in heaven, if the spirit of the

fear of God's in heaven, then how would I respond to the

spirit of the fear of God in heaven?

That means that's how I should respond to it.

Here. The Holy Spirit, one of the

manifestations of the Holy Spirit is the spirit of the fear

of the Lord. So the Holy Spirit's in heaven,

which means what? The spirit of the fear of God's

in heaven. Got it.

So what was, What's heaven's response to things we said?

We said also sin's response to things is about doing.

It's about works, it's about approval, it's about

performance. I got to show myself to be good

enough. I got to do more, demonstrate

more. Sin is not in heaven.

And if sin is characterized by works and performance, then the

spirit of the fear of God is not characterized by works and

performance. What was it characterized by?

What was in heaven? Presence is in heaven, rest is

in heaven, reverence is in heaven, being is in heaven,

relationship was in heaven. So what am I saying?

I'm saying if you really want to demonstrate a greater fear of

God, it doesn't begin with your actions.

It begins with your internal heart posture of reverence and

understanding who God is and out of that actions they come

alongside. OK, so to say I fear God.

Why? Because I come to church on

time. But if in your heart posture

you're coming to church on time because you don't want to get in

trouble, but you're not fearing God, you are really afraid of

God because your focus is on punishment, not relationship and

standing and drawing near. Make sense?

OK, so if you really want to grow in the fear of God, yes, it

leads to obedience, but it comes out of a love and a reverence

and a connection with him in, in being.

When does the fear of the Lord happen?

So we're on new stuff now. When does the fear of the Lord

happen? Now this is a really important

question because we sometimes we save up like the fear of the

Lord. We treat it like, like our

wedding dishes. You know, you get married.

And sometimes we did. We signed up for dishes and we

put them in the cabinets like, we're going to use them.

We're going to wait till the right time.

What was the right time? I don't know, but we'll know it.

And after a year and two years, you find out you haven't used

the dishes. Why?

Because it's never been the right time.

Because you misunderstood. Dishes are for eating and for

using. OK, using your wedding dishes

daily allows you to remember daily God's goodness to you at

your wedding. You miss an opportunity to

remember God if you save those dishes only for certain high

occasions. I'm glad you asked me, Troy,

what it got to do with the fear of God.

Thank you man, I felt you OK exactly right.

When you treat the fear of God as this singular special one

time thing when I go to church, that's the fear of God in a big

moment of falling back in glory. That's the fear of God

demonstrated. You miss the opportunity to walk

in the fear of God all the days of your life.

The fear of God is for living, not for high ceremony only.

It's for daily live. It's the Holy Spirit for daily

living. I will lead you into all truth.

The Bible says I will show you the way you should go.

The Holy Spirit will says about the Holy Spirit.

Well, if the Holy Spirit's for daily living, then the spirit of

the fear of the Lord's for daily as well.

But how you perceive it will determine how well you tap into

that. So when is does the fear of the

Lord happen? I got on the bottom and there

says this ain't the wizard and this ain't Oz.

If you know the Wizard of Oz, the one time when they went to

the great beginner, that was for me.

I enjoyed that. It happens always, every day

with everyone. That's when the fear of the Lord

happens always, every day with everyone.

That's the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit and all the people

that are surrounding you. That's when the fear of the Lord

happens. That's when the fear of God

happens. So how do you posture for the

fear of the Lord every day? Now notice, notice the keyword

there. What's the keyword there?

You think posture, right? Because ultimately the fear of

the Lord is based on God revealing himself, and you can't

force God to reveal himself to you or in you or through you,

OK? You can posture yourself for

that. You can get yourself ready.

You can tell God, man, if you want to show me more of who you

are in this moment, God, I'm open.

I'd be excited. I look forward to that.

It'd be a real blessing. OK, so it's more about a posture

than it is about I'm just going to decide to fear God more.

I'm going to talk a little bit a little bit more about that

later. OK, so you arise themselves.

How do you posture yourself? Here's some ways you posture

yourself. Focus on gratitude, not guilt.

How grateful are you? God, thank you.

I thank you for this. I thank you for that.

Every time you focus on gratitude, you're remembering

that God did something. You're remembering that he gave

it to you. You're remembering that he kept

you. You're remembering him and what

he did. That will automatically increase

your reverence for who God is. And the more you give and the

more grateful you are. Say you give 10,000 thank yous.

Wow. The weight of God's goodness and

who he is increases. The more you give gratitude, the

more you say thank you. Man, I've been saying thank you

for 100 million times and God I still do not thank you for

everything. Wow, does that make sense?

So gratitude not guilt, Grace not grind.

Focus on grace not grind. It's by His Spirit, It's by his

power. It's by his doing.

What about my hard works? Because of His grace, you can

work hard. It's my hard work.

I study. You're right.

Who gave you the mind? Who gave you the school?

Who gave you the breath? Who gave you the activity of

your limbs? Who gave you a teacher that

could teach? Who protected you from the guns

and the shooters in that classroom?

Who did all that without you having to pay for it, ask for

it, or even earn it? Grace, not grind.

Focusing on God's grace will keep you walking and growing and

practicing the fear of God because you're recognizing it's

God's doing in my life more than my doing.

Being complete, not casual. Focus on everything, not just

some things. Being complete, not casual.

What does that mean? We'll use church for example.

OK, that means if church is at 9, I am ready to go at 9 at 8:50

because I know we have prayer at 855.

Y'all hear what I just said? It means complete, not just

casual. Being complete causes you to be

more intentional. Being styled not sloppy

increases the fear of God. Does that mean you have to wear

a suit and tie? No, but it means even if you got

whatever you got on you've, you've thought about how you

want to wear it. You've thought about know how I,

I, this is what I want to do. This is how I I'm representing

myself and God today. Increasing yourself, decreasing

the fear of God has to focus on being styled, not sloppy.

It's being intentioned, not indifferent.

Whenever you are intention, you're thinking about who am I

meeting with? What's going on?

What does it matter? And the more you think about how

it matters and who matters, the more you begin to say, wow, I'm

going to church today, OK? I'm expecting to encounter God

today. What's God?

The one who made the heavens and the earth.

OK, that's a big deal. The one who raised Jesus from

the dead. OK, that my intentionality in my

going, in my doing, will automatically posture me to see

more reverence for God forgot to reveal Himself to me in a

greater way. Intention and not indifferent.

Obedience and not obligation. Now, before this slide was

obedient versus obligatory, I changed it to obedience because

that's a mindset posture internally.

It's a quick story. There's a young man, parents

said sit down. He said no.

He said sit down. He said no, no kid, sit down.

No kid, you know, kid, sit down. He said no, sit down.

He said no. He said, listen, if you don't

sit down, no ice cream, get sat down.

And then he said to his parents, I may be sitting down, but I'm

standing up on the inside. That was obedient, but not

obedience. You got it.

OK, Obedience is something different on the inside.

So obedience, the more you walk in obedience to what God says

and does, the more He's able to reveal more to you of Himself

because He can trust you because you're listening to Him.

The journey to obedience is what helps you be ready to receive

more of God. How you have to listen, how you

have to ask questions, how you have to trust God, how you lay

down your fears. All of that process towards

obedience opens the door for you to receive and to get to know

God better. So obedience, not obligation,

fresh, not familiar, fresh not for me.

So, so yeah. And this is all this is about

intention as well. OK.

So the more you're able to focus on doing things fresh and being

fresh, Well, this is my 470 time going to Caleb.

That's our sound right there. Caleb now he he, he, he, he is

however old he is. OK.

And ever since he was like, what, 15/12/13, he started

drumming in church. OK, Caleb, how old are you now?

27625 height. How old is he?

He's 26. Let me tell you the more

important part. He's my son.

I ain't confused about that. Think about that when you're

looking for your measurable to justify your relationship with

your father, not your relationship.

So he's 26 from 13 to 26. He has missed four times, I

think, drumming in church on a Sunday four times.

He has learned how to make it fresh every time.

That's why you see oil come out. That's why you see power come

out. That's why you see anointing

come out each and every time even though he's only missed 4

from 12:13 to 26. You have to be attention to make

things fresh. Music team, we meet back in in

the office there as we talk about make sure we're on the

same page and get together and pray and a little bit.

And they came in and they sat down and I said OK, good, I want

y'all to get up and switch seats.

OK, there's switch seats. And they said OK, good, now I

want y'all sweet seats again, but don't go back to the

original seat. OK, so they did that.

Then I said, OK, I went over some details.

I didn't address why I had to do it, but I still don't raise

their hand and said, can you tell me why you why you did

that? I said because, you know, it's

about being intentional, being fresh with each other.

Don't get so familiar, so comfortable.

Don't come in and sit with the same people, the same place, the

same time, the same way all the time.

The more you can keep things fresh, the more you can keep

things reverent. Because you're thinking about

the newness, you're thinking about what it is, you're

thinking about what's been done, but you're also thinking about

the possibilities of what is yet to come.

Rested, not running ragged, trusting the rest in the Lord.

When you fear the Lord, he tells you what he's done, and He tells

you he wants you to rest. So when you are able to walk and

rest, you're walking in the fear of the Lord.

Lord, I don't have to grind. I can rest in you and what

you've done. If you tell me to do X and I do

it, God, that's enough. I can rest.

Not feeling I have to accomplish more or do more.

Being reverent but not rolling back.

Here's one Walking in honor not owe me.

Walking in honor not owe me what you owe me pastor comes up here.

How many of y'all walk in church or people walk in church and say

you owe me a good word. You owe me to get out on time.

You owe me to give me the community I need.

And you owe me the the the, the obligation of not having to do

anything and serving here. And you continue to receive me

back every time and say nothing to me about my not serving or

contributing to the community. You owe that to me.

How do you know that shows up? Because then when pastors set

different expectations, all of a sudden it becomes they're doing

too much. They all like they don't take

all that. They don't take this, they don't

take that. What you're really saying is

that no, no, you owe me something different and you're

not giving me what you're supposed to give me.

Honor says I'm going to reverence.

I'm going to respect. I'm a reverence.

I'm a respect. I'm going to treat as valuable.

Here's one reason you ought to honor everyone.

Everybody's made in the image and likeness of God.

Honor that image. If you can't honor the person

the way they've chosen to live their life.

Honor always helps continue to increase the fear of God.

Pastor Terence will call me Sir. He says, excuse me, Sir.

Now we have a good relationship. We're friends.

That's a joke with me and my wife.

OK, but they're you say Sir, call me Sir for the it's just

honor. What do I call him?

Pastor? I'm honoring his call.

I'm honoring the gift of God on his life.

That's why I call him pastor. That's why I call leaders,

leaders and directors, directors, because I'm honoring

them in what God's called them to do, what God's called them to

be. And honoring them I received

from them, but I also build up honor in my own life.

The Bible says this honor your mother and father.

They don't say whether they're good or bad honor them that your

that it may be well with you that your days may be long on

the earth and you know one father.

You need to honor God at your father.

How can you honor the father you can't see if you can't honor the

father that you can't see the work of honor.

What tells you to go through the issues of brokenness and

unforgiveness and the issues of when your when your relationship

family and in getting those out of the way?

So you can't honor a parent or a honor a father.

It opens the door for you to honor God as your father.

If there's brokenness in you, you can't go straight just to

honoring God fully because I say brokenness is going to have you

impacted there. How does it show up?

It shows up in church like this. I don't trust my daddy.

OK, cool. But I don't trust the pastors.

I don't trust the leaders. I don't trust anybody when they

try to hold me accountable or want to encourage me or give me

something that I have not specifically asked for or think

that I need. You said it gets transferred.

OK, so honor posture, not performing posturing yourself

increases the fear of God and the and the ability to receive

it and walk in it. How do you posture yourself?

Are you casual? A lot of times internal things

are reflection of external. I mean, external things are

reflection of internal things. So when we talk about how you

sit, it's not because you can't sit a certain way, but it's that

sitting a reflection of some internal things.

Does that make sense? So how do you posture yourself?

How do you present yourself? How do you prepare yourself?

One way you posture yourself is making sure you keep weeds out

your garden. What do you do to make sure a

fence doesn't creep into your garden?

Do you talk to the people that you've gotten offended with

directly? And so I want to tell you

something. You may have done nothing wrong,

but I'm telling you, man, what you said really offended me.

It's my issue I'm working through.

I'm not telling you for you to change.

I'm telling you to bring exposure to the fact that I got

an issue and I'm dealing with my issue.

So as I deal with my issue, please don't take how I'm

working it out anyway against you.

I'm dealing with my own issue. What's your posture of how you

govern your internal garden? Are you quick to take the plank

out of your own eye before you take the speck of dust out of

somebody else's posture will help you grow and increase and

prepare for the the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

Amen. Now in the recognition we're in

a parliamentary country, we have what we call question period.

Question period, OK, So we won't have question period.

Now. I got all my own questions

already. See, I asked you all for

questions, but I got my own questions.

But I thought there was interesting questions that could

come up. Question period on the bottom I

got conscience, consistency and contours.

Why? When someone says the fear of

God, you can go yeah, or you can say yeah.

How does that work with this though?

If you're not asking the questions of consistency and and

contour and continuity, you, you, you're undermining your

ability to fully believe it and walk in it.

This church is never asking you to take stuff and just believe

it and just go. We want to give you the tools to

wrestle to work through your faith in community and in love

with honour for each other. Does that make sense?

OK, so you got to take these kind of things and say what

about this question though? Because believe it or not,

everything you, your, your subconscious mind, your internal

person is more accurate than your external person.

Does that make sense? You're able to capture more,

it's more precise, more detail it don't miss anything.

It's a question period. First question, what does love

have to do with it? Not see me not not when I was

saying stand up with Slim Shady. I'd have been doing the same

thing with Slim Shady and I got caught myself, right?

Anyway, what does love have to do with it?

Why? Because again, pastor said this,

you can love God, but you may not fear God.

A lot of people love God, but not I'm the kind of person that

if I'm hearing this stuff, I say God.

I got to deal with that OK, because I've always thought love

was more was as important. So God as I'm hearing the things

about the fear of God. How does that what God help me

understand? I'm not questioning the people

I'm saying God, I want to understand him.

What's love got to do with it every hold on, hold on, no hold

on, hold on who we answered What kind of love?

What kind of love you talking about?

Because too often we lump all love together.

OK, we're talking about agape love, not emotional affection.

A lot of folk got emotional affection for Jesus.

They don't have agape for him. That's why you can love God but

not fear him, because you can't truly agape and not walk in

fear. OK, does that make sense?

Right. So it's the the kind of love

we're talking about that has everything to do with the fear

of God is an agape love, not an emotional affection.

It's a covenant love, not a love because of what he's done for

you. A lot of people's love for Jesus

based on what he's done for me. You've forgiven me.

You saved my soul, You delivered me all of those things.

That's not covenant. The fruit of covenant, Covenant

love says my life is your life. I lay it down for you.

I unify everything I am with everything you are.

I'll submit to whatever you say about my life and treat it is

true without doubt, without questioning, without falling

back. And I'll and I'll and I'll live

it out and only for me, but for the generations after me.

That's what covenant says. It's not based on what God did

for me. Because I might based more on.

How much I'm going to sacrifice and give fully myself to the

Lord? Reverence comes from.

So when you're talking about agape level, agape has

everything to do with it. Reverence comes from identity

acknowledged, not accomplishments.

I'm kind of building on the covenant part.

So let me ask you this If God never did anything for you, is

he still worthy to be feared? That's what you got to.

Decide, because then when you stop getting stuff, are you

going to fear him the same, not be afraid of him?

Are you going to lead into him the same, stand with him the

same, honor him the same, be ready the same, posture yourself

the same? That's what you got to.

Ask OK, reverence comes from identity.

Acknowledged. Now, I didn't say from

acknowledging identity. I didn't say that.

To say it comes from acknowledging identity suggests

that unless I acknowledge it, you're not worthy of the

reverence. Identity.

Acknowledge says your identity determines your reverence,

whether you're worthy of it not or not.

My walking in it is based on how I acknowledge it.

Do I really acknowledge that? God is the one who gives me

life. If I truly acknowledge that,

what does that mean for how I breathe every day?

If I truly acknowledge that I owe everything to Jesus.

I owe everything to. Him.

If I truly acknowledge. That that I have no identity

except me and Him and what the Father has produced to me before

the foundations of the world. If I truly acknowledge that,

then how do I respond? If my reverence based on.

Accomplishments. I respond differently.

Mark 12/29. Says this, and Jesus answered

him. Talking about what has love?

Got to do with it. So now in the New Testament says

well, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment?

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love

your neighbor as yourself. Here's a context for one

response to that and Jesus answered him.

The first of all the commandments is here, O Israel,

the Lord our God is one. It's beginning with reverence.

It's beginning with acknowledging that God is God.

There's a father son and the Holy Spirit.

They together work together and you that have no other God

before him and says in the Old Testament it begins with that

awesome understanding of who God is and his worthiness to be

revered even if he's never done anything for you.

That's the first. Part.

Thou shalt love now out. Of that you shall love the Lord

your God. With all your heart.

With all your soul, with all your mind, with all your

strength, can you really say you love Jesus fully an agape way?

I'm not saying you don't love him.

There's different kinds of love. Pastor's got a book he's writing

about that's amazing. There's different kinds of love.

But do you really say you can agape Jesus when you're not even

thinking about trying to do it with all of your heart, all of

your soul, all of your mind, all of your strength?

It's when you say God. I'm purposing to give you my

all, as she talked about earlier in the song.

That's when you're. Saying I love God from an agape

standpoint, covenant standpoint, and notice what happens next.

And the second is lamely, you should love your neighbor as

yourself. So once you come out of that

full agape commitment to love, now you know how to agape your

neighbor, and now you know how to Revere them and fear them and

fear what God's doing in their life as as well.

John 14, says. This.

If you really love me, you'll keep my commands.

And verse 16. Says this and I will ask the

Father, He would give you another comforter.

You can't do this without the work of the Holy Spirit.

You can't have this reverential covenant agape love that's

fueled with the fear of the Lord unless the spirit of the fear of

the Lord is working in you and that comes from the Holy Spirit.

He quickly acts almost immediately.

He says don't worry. I know it's a big task to honor

God that way, to Revere him that way.

That's why I'm giving you the Holy Ghost to help you, OK?

And he's going to bring that spirit of the fear of the Lord

with him. And then Isaiah. 11 verse 2

Isaiah 11:2

says, And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the

reverential and obedient fear of the Lord.

So again, it's just the Scripture further supporting how

the Holy Spirit is helping you to walk in that obedience.

You can't do it without him. OK, what does honor have to do

with it? Honor amplifies reverence by

causing you to remember worth. If I'm going to honor you.

Why? Why should I honor you?

Now I've got to remember whatever your worth is, right?

So as I remember your worth, now I'm able to get more reverence

because I'm seeing what God is doing in your life.

I'm seeing who you are. I'm seeing who you are to me.

I'm seeing how God loved me enough to put you in my life.

So my. Wife.

She's been went through me. With a lot.

So when I look at her and I call her my wife.

I see more than that. I remember a lot of things.

I remember how you stood with me, how you didn't quit on me,

how you helped me when I couldn't help myself.

I remember how you told me to grow up, how you challenged me,

how you supported me even when I was wrong.

I remember how you told people to keep your mouth off my

husband, I don't care what he looks like in your mind, only

bring me a good report. What we deal with in our house

is in our house. I remember the days.

I was sleeping. You roll your hand over and you

put your hand on me and pray for me.

When I remember who. God gave me in my life.

How can I not say God not only thank you, but who is God to

love me that way? My Lord and my God, you see what

I'm saying? Honor.

They cause you to remember worth.

That's why honor is important. It's that the crux of fear in

the Lord. You cannot have the fear of God

if you have no honor. This is important.

Not honor for the honorable. But honor?

For the worthy. If your dad.

Beat you. He's still worthy of honor

because he's, he said yes, they're receiving you and no one

else would. You got me.

I'm not. We're not saying be abused.

But there is a position. Of honor that's worthy of all

the people God's put in your life.

Not because they deserve it, Because they're worthy of it.

Because of the position God gave them.

And I'm telling you, do that, and the honor you give to the

position will cause the Kingdom to activate the fruitfulness of

what that position was supposed to have done for you.

So you come out the other side holding a greater way.

Why does the Bible use the? Same word for fear and afraid.

It doesn't because the context governs the text and the

subtext. It doesn't if the Bible uses

the. Same literal word for fear.

Fear of God. Step in, draw near.

I'm afraid. Same word, fall back.

What's the context? The context is what you think

about God. It's really.

It may. Be the same letters but not the

same word, because the context changes it.

Here it is, we good. We good.

We good, we good, we good said the same 2 words.

She had a context changes. OK, the.

Context is really what the meaning is about, not just the

letters. So in that.

Instance. What you think about God

determines how that that word is translated.

Your response is. Where it comes through the

context of fear is is response good or bad?

If you have the fear of God, you'll fall in.

If you have the freight of God, you'll fall away.

Now, is there a difference between fear of the Lord and the

spirit of the fear of the Lord? Yes, there He is.

Is the difference between in you and on you?

Say in you, on you. I want to take you to one.

Verse here. Acts Chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Verse 31 it says. They're walking in the respect

and reverential fear of the Lord.

The fear of. God is what's in you working to

help you fear the Lord. The spirit of the.

Fear of the Lord is what's on you to help those around you to

come to fear Him. Y'all y'all catch?

That it's got to come on you before it can come in you.

But if the Holy Spirit who put it on Jesus now lives in us,

then that is already in us. That's where the fear of God

comes from. The Spirit of the fear of the

Lord is something that can come on us, that causes the people of

robbing us to fear God. You'd live consistently a life

before people. They will begin to fear God.

How did they begin to fear God? OK, I'll go to church with you.

OK. How can I support you?

OK, I'll let you pray. What?

Because the spirit of the fear of God is on them, that person,

and it's causing other people to come into reference with God.

So the difference between it being in you and being on you.

But it got to be on you before it can be in you.

And when the Holy Ghost came to live in US, now it's in US and

falling through us to come on us so it can come on them.

Lastly, can. I just decide to fear God more

because I want to. No, because it's based on his

revealing himself to you. You can't just decide it.

You can posture yourself for it. You can.

Ask God for it. You can live a life that says,

God, I want to know you some more and I put you above

everything else. Holy Spirit, help me.

And as you do, then that's when you get revelation of who God

is. And the more he fears you, the

more revelation you get. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm going to

say this with you real quick. That's the song we got.

What's the name of the song? The one I've been talking about.

My name is love. My name is love.

There's a part in that song that that that the best things are

called the change from the US side to the God side.

And in that part. You help me with the words here.

OK? In this part it says say say.

This is God speaking to us. Go ahead.

I see in the deep world I turn the car.

These words I've sworn right. They're not.

Here's the part you can trust. Believe me when I say.

What he's saying is I reveal myself to you and I'm telling

you that I love you. That's the fear of God's

revealing himself to me. I want to let you know nothing.

Can change me or my thoughts about you?

I'm telling you who I am. My mind's made.

Up I took the cup. It's already been promised and

declared and I want to tell you from now until eternity.

You are loved. You are loved, you are loved,

you are loved. And if you want to show the fear

of God, your only response is not this.

Come here, this is my son. Your response to You are loved

isn't this? The fifth God.

Response to him saying I took the cup, My mind's made-up, It's

been promised. It's it ain't changing, it ain't

going nowhere. I need you to know it, that you

are loved. The fifth God response.

To that ain't this. It's this.

You see what I'm saying? I can't hug it kneeling down.

I can't hug him if he's. Laying on his face.

You understand what I'm saying? The reverence of God will have

you stand, because here I can breathe, breath in his nostrils.

I can have my heart close to His.

We beat his one. I got his back.

You ready Just as much as He got mine.

You understand that? That's the fear of God response

to standing up and standing in. That's why it's.

Only if God reveals. It he invites us into that.

We're not close with this. Where we're supposed to come up

and announce by doing a very quick prayer is this, It's like

the prodigal son. I told you already, He came

back. He was going to say, Dad, I want

to. He said, go get my robe, the one

I've worn from the foundations of the earth.

Go get my robe, the one I was wearing when I was thinking

about this sacrifice. Go get my robe.

Go get my shoes. My, my, get my shoes a piece,

not just yours. Go get my shoes.

Go get my ring. And you put that on him.

That's the that's the fear of God response.

That's the love. And the only response if you're

walking in the fear of God and referencing him in that moment

is to say, Father, yes, put the robe on.

What kind of response is it if my father gives me his robe and

I say it's too special, I'm gonna fold it up.

I'm gonna put it away for a special occasion.

I'm gonna put that joker. On I'm gonna be like a four year

old. I'm gonna wear it to bed.

I'm aware to outside. I'm aware to play.

I'm aware it in the dirt. I'm gonna wear it everywhere I

go. Why?

Because I'm loved. Father, we thank you for this.

Moment we thank you God, we've received.

Thank you God. You're transforming us with the

fear of God in these moments. We're just beginning to unpack

this and unfold this. We thank you for pastors that

have hearts and ears to release this in our midst.

God, thank you for giving the wisdom and the strategy and the

ability to unfold it and pack it more fully even.

God, we're posturing ourselves and making ourselves available

to you to say. God, we're ready for the spirit

of the fear of God to come in our life.

We're going to love you with all of our hearts, soul, mind and

strength. We're putting it all in and all

out. We know the Holy Spirit's going

to be needed to help us do it, but we're telling you God, with

the words of our lips agape, not affection complete God, not

casual. Thank you Lord in Jesus name.

Amen, if you. Received something this morning.

Can we just give God it's? Not it's not fair sometimes.

Get wrecked. And then you got to come and try

to say something that makes sense to a bunch of people.

You can have a seat. Yeah, I'm grateful for the Word.

I'm grateful that God's Word is alive and active and he's so big

and so vast that he would he would birth lyrics in and

through us and then a year later reveal a deeper revelation of

what it even means. He's so, he's so, he's so great,

He's so good. So thank you EJ for living a

life of fearing God. Yeah, grateful to be.

Led by people who really know him and really fear him.

OK. We can do this, OK?

It's it's not even, it is that serious.

I want to say it's not that serious.

It is that serious. I have some announcements for

you guys. So part of the.

Reason probably why we're so tender is because how many of

you know that we are on a fast right now.

You best believe we are fasting as a church for 21 days and we

are meeting here every day, Tuesday to Saturday, 6:30 PM,

Sunday for our Sunday experiences at 9:00 and 11:30.

And then Mondays we have our prayer calls.

The men are at 8:00 PM. And the ladies, Yeah, sorry I

didn't give you all a chance. OK man, let's hear where you at.

All the men are. Yeah, you guys are going to hop

on the call. All the information is there.

The Zoom call at 8:00 PM and then all of the ladies in the

room shout out on time. This is the.

Information for your prayer call.

It's going to be at 8:30. I was finding it so funny.

The men are like, yeah, and the girls are like yeah.

Like we're so. We're funny people, man.

And then January 20th to 28th, we're going to have our week of

revival. And the Lord was challenging me

yesterday. He's like, we can just slap

these labels on things, but he's like, like, do you know what

that means? Like, do you actually believe

that? Like are you inviting people

that you know that need to know me to come?

Like is the gospel real to you? Or do you like just singing

songs about me at church? Like let me be the first to

humble myself before you guys. Like the Lord is convicting me.

And so if I can implore you and invite you to ask the Lord to

start preparing your heart now and ask him who you can bring to

that week. And why don't we just for a week

actually believe that God is who he says he is and he's going to

do what he says he's going to do.

And then watch how the domino effect of that effects our

lives. And then January 25th, correct,

January 25th, we're going to do 24 hours of prayer.

Who was there last? Was that last year?

Was that a year? Oh, June, I was like, oh God,

that was not last January. Was it OK, last June?

Who was here for 24 hours of prayer?

How fun was it be for real? We had so much fun, and it was

hilarious. We LED worship at like, 3:00 AM.

And I don't really remember. But what I do know is there is,

yeah. It births this depth of

desperation for God. And when you do it with a bunch

of people, it gives you the courage and the confidence to do

it in your own life. And so book it off work if you

have to. We're going to be here all day.

And then it ends at our Sunday experiences the next day, which

is the 26th. OK, so you have a couple of

weeks. Book it off work.

Do what you need to do. If you have kids or you need to

go and then come back and go and then come back.

You can do that. Wear comfy clothes.

You'll definitely want it. And finally, we're shifting how

we do our prayer ministry a little bit.

And so if you are interested in learning how to pray, I have

grown up in the church. I thought I knew how to pray.

And then I started coming to our prayer meetings and I said this

is awkward because I've been leading worship and I don't know

if I actually know how to pray efficiently.

And, and so if you are interested in learning how to

pray and being activated in prayer, Vanessa, raise your

hand, give us a wave. She's a part of our gap

ministries and you can head to the back at the end of service

and sign up with her. This isn't a sign up to be a

part of the gap ministry. Does that make sense?

OK, so you're not signing up to be a volunteer.

You're saying, I really want to learn how to pray.

And that's going to be happening here on Saturday mornings.

We don't have any time yet, right, to be determined.

But if you were interested in that, does that make sense?

Everybody that makes sense. Cool.

So if you are interested in that, please head to the back

after service so that you can sign up.

OK, sound good? We're now going to turn our

attention to the screen. We got a special announcement

for you guys. Y'all love?

Quest Nation PT here, not with you today, but my spirit is with

y'all. I have a couple of announcements

and a couple of things I want to just reiterate.

That's happening. Very important.

And so February 2nd we have Love Quest Nation and collaborate

collaboration. It is the Renaissance, it is the

revival of Kingdom art and it's artists.

February 2nd we're calling out all creatives, all creatives,

all creatives, artists. And you know if you're creative

or not, you know if you're artists or not.

This is your time. It's going to be a time of

fellowship, fun, food, music, creative exercises and we're

starting a community for creatives.

This will be a year we disciple, we equip all of you artists.

Let me tell you something, your art belongs in the hand of God

and with it revival. Sons and daughters are coming

home and in BC. I feel like in in Love Quest

man, there's so many creatives that are ready to be ignited and

set ablaze into the community. So February 2nd we are going to

be playing off the backs of the pop up shop.

So the pop up shop will happen earlier in the day.

That is going to be fun. That's art itself, that's

creativity itself. It's going to be fun.

But the Renaissance is going to be the after party to the pop up

shop. Yes, that Sunday evening,

February 2nd, we are going to have some fun.

Man, Can you imagine artists from all over the city coming

together with one vision, being encouraged, not isolated and

being ignited. I got a word for you, we got

some fun for you and I'm telling you, you do not want to miss it.

I will see you there. Our pop up shop peoples will be

popping up and giving you some information and details so you

can help them help you. February 2nd.

Let's go, wait a minute, one more announcement, one more, one

more, one more. January 19th to call out for our

Stoop ministries. We're getting ready to upgrade

our our our children's church. We're getting ready to launch

our Army of David ministry, which is our youth ministry.

Listen, this may not even be an area you thought you would be

serving in, but this is an area that God is calling you to.

And so I, I think this is your opportunity, whoever you are.

Look, if you don't want to serve with our students, please do not

do it because we are not playing with our children.

That is our next generations and we really want to serve them and

their families. Well, January 19th after the

11:30 AM experience, I will be sharing with you for 30 minutes,

more like 20 and then and giving you an opportunity to ask any

questions. But we have to give our children

and our families the top shelf service.

If that's you and you can help us accomplish that, I want to

see you January 19th after the 1130 experience.

Until next time, you can be praying.

Do whatever you want to do but until next time for sure get

your love fixed man. Amen.

Well, we are out. Of time, but we are not out of

the fear of God. And so until Tuesday, when I see

you here at 6:30 for prayer, get your love face, man.

Thank you so much for tuning. Into this week's sermon, we pray

you are challenged, equipped and encouraged.

Make sure to follow us on all platforms.

That's love quest intl church. We out here for real.

We're really doing it. That's Facebook, Instagram,

YouTube and TikTok. You can find us anywhere you

need to find us. But until next time you know the

drill. You know the motto, get your

love fixed man and we'll see y'all real soon.

There is a river, a flight slowing down from the Grove.

Can you see it? There is a sound off the shore,

far from heaven.