The Year of the Fear of God: Fall In, or Fall Away (9:00am) - 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.

Thank you, Lord. Amen.

Yeah. Glory to God.

Glory to God. You can grab a seat.

Lord, I thank you for this opportunity.

Pastors, I thank you for this opportunity to share again.

It means so much. Trust.

Continue. Trust is something that we

honor, we appreciate, and we thank you for that.

My prayer is that I be true to God, true to you pastors, true

to God's people today, Jesus name, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

I want to jump right in first of all and talk to you about real

quick, how many y'all was here Friday, OK, good good luck.

Turn around. Look everyone who was here

Friday, put your hand up. Look at those whose hand not up.

Take your assignments right there.

That's your assignments. Get them here on Friday, OK.

And on Friday, we we have prayer here, Amen.

Then what do we do after that round ball?

We roll deep to round ball after that, right?

Rolled in with a win. Hey, man, you know the, you

know, the glory cloud moves just like we do.

You know what I'm saying? You know, we move in here in

prayer that we then the cloud moves over the round ball.

And we're doing that every Friday.

And we encourage you to come out as making a difference and a

witness in people's lives is deeper than you can ever think,

ask or imagine. And if you ask yourself, does

your shout make a difference? Yes, it does.

Does your face make a difference?

Yes, it does. Amen.

So we encourage you to join us and let us continue to playoff

run and a playoff ride for what God is doing.

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. I want to start off the fear of

God. We've been talking about that

and and the pull that down real quick.

So I want to give him a little focus.

I know I'll set you up and that's this.

So the day's word is the spirit of what?

What's the day's word, Michael? What's today's word, bro?

Revelation. So he gave me just the word

revelation. It's the spirit of revelation,

right? And it's, it's very appropriate

to be talking about the fear of God when you're talking about

the spirit of revelation, because both of those are

dependent upon God showing himself.

OK, there's a difference between wisdom and revelation.

In the Bible you will often see them connected that the spirit

of wisdom and revelation, Wisdom and revelation.

Revelation has more to do with understanding who God is.

Wisdom has more to do with understanding what God needs you

to do. OK, and where Revelation is more

unpacking of the wisdom, it's designed to have you further

understand how to act in a way that furthers the the knowledge

of who God is. Where you get that from preacher

Jesus talking to Peter, he says who the people said I am, who

the people said I am? And then Peter says thou are the

Christ, the Son of the living God.

And then Jesus says flesh and blood has not revealed this unto

you, but only my father. And what what, what was

revealed, who he was not something for Peter to do, OK.

Everything in the book is about revealing God to us.

Everything in the Bible is about that.

It's not about how to better get a better life, although you'll

get a better life, It's not about what you can get.

It's not about even what God has done.

It's about who he is. That's the purpose of the book,

to reveal who He is. And in everything he does, He

reveals who He is and is expressing His kindness to you.

He reveals who He is in his faithfulness to keep your body

healthy and whole. It reveals who He is, not what

He does only, Amen. So these two are linked together

in a way. I think it's very appropriate.

So the fear of God, my subtitle is this fall in or fall away.

Fall in or fall away. OK, fall in or fall away.

Now whenever you get a title, you want to pay as much

attention to the subtitle as the title.

Does that make sense? The subtitles is almost like the

chorus. Many times this is the verse.

What do I mean this the, the chorus is what is used to have

you catch the real spirit of the song.

It's something you'll go back to and refer to.

It's what distinguishes maybe my approach to this music from

someone else's approach to the same music, right?

So as we talk about the fear of God, think about fall in and

fall away. Fall in.

Let that be an echo for you. Fall in and fall away.

It's a way of organizing the information and really

understanding things. So let's talk about fear of

versus afraid of. There's a difference between

fear of and afraid of, all right?

Now the Bible talks about both of those fear of means to stand

up, stand in, stand close, stand ready, and stand rested.

When you're the fear of has all of these connotations.

When there's the fear of God, I'm standing up to God, not

standing up. I'm going to show you better,

but I'm standing up to approach. I'm standing in with him.

I'm standing sure. I'm standing rested.

I'm standing strong. The fear of God has a sense of

standing and a sense of rest to it.

It has a sense of increasing closeness and intimacy.

That's the fear of God. OK, the fear of verse, the verse

says this, the earth things, Genesis, the earth was without

form and an empty waste and darkness was upon the very great

deep. The Spirit of God was moving

over the face of the waters. The Spirit of God was standing

on standing in, standing up and standing ready.

That's the fear of God. I'm ready.

The fear of means, I'm ready. I'm standing, I'm looking.

I'm I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm contemplating, I'm resting even

as I stand, OK, an athlete rest on the balls of the feet, not

the heels. Does that make sense?

OK, when the athlete is in a ready position, their their,

their, their weight is forward, not back, right.

So that's what kind of what this standing knee, the Holy Spirit

was ready. OK, fear of has that connotation

to it. It means to reverence.

It means to reverence specifically.

What does reverence mean? Reverence means to stand in awe.

That's why I get the connection of fear of means to stand.

OK, reverence means to stand. Everyone say stand.

Stand everyone say stand. So if I was to ask, see, don't

sit there after you do the interruption, I was going to

have you act something out for me.

I'm not going to do that to you. Andrew, come here.

Please be quick using up my time, bro, don't be slow.

I called you because you're athletic and you can bound you

move quickly, OK? Right.

So I want you to give me a physical posture of all and

reverence. OK, right now what does this

slide say? You see how a certain pictures

in your mind or what reverence means.

OK, now if this idea of reverence or fear of means a

readiness to go and do and move, he can't go, he can't do, he

can't move in that position. Pastor talks about one of the

indications of the fear of God is obedience.

Is he in place to move towards obedience from that position?

What's he going to have to do first if God's calling him to

obey something, Go ye into the place and preach this and out of

the fear of God he's going to go do that.

What's the first thing he has to do from that position, right?

The real reverence of God automatically has you standing

go thee into the place now He doesn't.

He can get to action right away. Thank you, Sir.

Right. That's not a condemnation on

him. Understand that I'm not calling

him out. I could have called half the

more of the room up here and then I said what's reverence?

Reverence would have been selfish perspective from you.

I'm going to make me lowly in the sight of God.

You're not thinking about God. You thinking about your

position, not who God is OK. I come from the US and we part

of a Kingdom when the king walks in.

What do you do? Do you get low or you get So I

almost went there. You get low or you get You rise

up. The king walks in the room.

What do you do when you have reverence for the king?

How come you don't bow down? Reverence has you stand.

Why? Why does reverence have you

stand? What does standing suggest?

You come back up here, Andrew, we're building a case for our

next time. Get back down.

OK? Right.

OK. Is this high authority or low

authority? I'm just what do you think?

I would say it's low authority. OK.

How do I know? It's easy for me to use my power

to manipulate them OK now he's a really strong guy.

He's just let me do this OK? Like he can deadlift and bench

press 3 times in my my body weight.

Be quiet I'm only 120. Why y'all laughing so hard?

What happened to the reverence in the room?

OK anyway OK, high low authority right?

Stand up now he come from the streets, OK?

Now for real he does if you in the streets, OK, He wants to be

standing because when I approach with my colors on, he got

different green colors on I approach.

What are you doing? He's getting his authority ready

to see how he's going to pop off.

He got authority in his position, right?

OK, thank you. But stay ready, OK?

When you stand, you are standing in your authority.

So when the king walks in and you stand, you're saying I'm

presenting all of my authority at the ready, Sir, That's what

standing means. One of the greatest postures you

can have for all. It's not to be just laid out

there. I'm not saying it's not times

for that now. And you understand what I'm

saying, right? I'm challenging our, our, our,

our sin thinking, our lowlife thinking to really understand

what God is calling us to, right?

We can stand in all that means there's no shame in us when we

can stand in all that means we know who we are.

When I know that my Kingdom is as good or better than the

Kingdom I'm facing, I'll stand. Standing in reverence has a

different kind of authority to it, and you have to know who you

are in order to do that. It comes from the Latin, what it

says there to stand in all. Amen.

What is fall in every say fall in?

What's the subtext? What's the what's the subtitle?

So what does fall in mean? See, I was ready for you to do

my Alicia Keys man. I was going to surprise all you

anyway. Fall in, right?

Fall in. Fall in.

Fall in. Fall in.

Hey, hey, hey, y'all. Stay focused.

I am Fall in. I'm waiting for the next slide

to pop up so I can lead people through it.

Yeah. Fall in.

It means to take one's place in a line of formation.

It's a military term. Fall in.

You see how fall in has a sense of standing, right?

The question is, when you have the fear of God, you fall in.

You don't fall away, you stand up and you're ready.

The fear of God says God. You ready for the song?

I'm not going to sing it. You ready?

But you have my attention. That's why I'm standing at

attention, to show you that you have my attention.

You see what I'm saying? Fall in means to take one's

place and a lion on formation. It means to stand.

So the real fear of God means you're standing ready.

You're standing at the moment, you're standing in obedience,

you're standing at rest, you're standing in peace, you're

standing in grace. What does it mean to be afraid

of? It means to fall back, fall

down, fall away here, gradually, consistently, habitually.

OK, afraid often is built over time.

That's good. OK, something can terrify you

and you run away quickly, in a moment.

You don't become afraid until you start meditating on the

terror you just experienced. Now gradually that terror

becomes magnified to the point where now it's a fear, OK.

Being afraid of means that you gradually, you fall down, you

fall back, you fall away, you fall just below what you're able

to do. It doesn't always meet you

running away or something. It means you go gradually, not

just giving what you're supposed to give, doing what you're

supposed to do, and what causes you to fall away or fall back.

Sometimes it is something's pulling you.

Your attention, your focus, your own desires will cause you to be

afraid. Remember, the fear of God

requires attention and focus. You can't be two places at one

time. And so you have to be watchful

about where you've been causing you to be afraid of where God is

taking you. You have to be watchful about

where you've been causing you to be afraid of who God is trying

to reveal himself to you as right now I get I get AI get a

rap sometimes. Maybe right?

Deservedly so. Sometimes folks say, man, John,

you just like you ain't got no feelings, man.

You just cold. You just, you don't care.

And sometimes that's the case. So when I came here, people

would ask me, so John, do you miss Chicago?

I said no, how come you don't miss Chicago?

Because I'm here. See, when I came here, I decided

that God was telling me this is where I needed to be and I

couldn't be fully here and give fully here an opportunity for me

to fully see God. If while I'm here I'm doing

this, what would happen is if I'm doing this back to Chicago,

then all of a sudden when difficulty comes up now, I

become afraid I made the wrong choice, afraid it's the wrong

time. Don't let something you've

experienced pull you back and cause you to be afraid of what

God is. Here I'm going to tell you one

thing that caused you to be afraid of things.

Your success. When you've had it, some success

on something, you want to keep repeating that because you want

success. You don't want necessarily

growth or development or what God's asking of you.

So your success begins to pull you away from what God's calling

you to now. But the Lord God called to Adam

and said to him, Where are you? He said, I heard the sound of

you. So Adam goes from walking with

God in the cooler of the day, from lockstep, and now at the

very sound of him. And I was afraid, and I hit

myself. Fear of has you standing ready.

Afraid of has you afraid and falling back and covering.

OK. Don't blame Eve too much if Adam

took a bite. You know what Adam was doing.

I was wondering what it tastes like.

This is my opportunity. Come on.

Don't blame Eve too much. If Adam didn't want none, he

wouldn't have took none. If Adam ain't thought about

some, he wouldn't have took none.

Don't blame Eve too much. Maybe what Eve did was give Adam

a reason to do what he wanted to do, was interested in doing

anyway. Where is that biblically and

scripturally preacher? I take you to the story of the

prodigal son that we call it in the New Testament.

There were two sons. One said I want my inheritance,

give it to me. I want to go out and live my

life my way. The father said fine, I'll give

each of my sons their inheritance.

One went out and lived and squandered and lived on a

riotous living in King James, right?

And came back and he said he was using it, wound up in a pig pen.

He said the the servants at my father's house are doing better

than I am. I'm going to go back to my

father, said just let me be a slave or a servant in your

house. On his way back, his father saw

him coming and he said, father getting ready to do a story,

father. And the father cut him off and

said, bring me my robe, bring me my sandals, bring me my ring,

put it on them, OK. And his brother said this,

what's all that noise? What's all that?

What's going on? And one of the servants says,

oh, we're throwing a party for your brother.

And he went to the father and said, dad, what's going on?

He said, we throwing a party for your brother because he's come

home. He was lost.

But now he's found. And the son said this, you never

even gave me a small little something, something to have a

party with. And then he said, father said,

don't you know that you had everything in my house because

it's always available to you? What if the brothers who stayed

home, what was he really saying? What he's really saying is, hold

on Player, You mean I could have gone out and done that and come

back and not lost nothing and I stayed here trying to be

faithful and true and do it the right way.

And it mean I could have still do that, like even I wanted to

do, and it wouldn't have been no consequence for it.

The brother that stayed home was as prodigal as the brother that

left. The one that left only had guts

enough to do it. Don't blame Eve too much.

Fall away. What does it mean?

Gradually decrease the number, amount, intensity or quality.

It means the slope downward. Fear doesn't begin all at once.

It means there's a continuation. There's a process with it.

So now we understand what it means.

The difference between the fear of God and afraid of is that

fear of God. You're falling, you're standing,

you're ready, you're going closer, it's drawing you in.

Is the place of rest about it Afraid of it's terror, it's

falling away. It's like, I don't want this, I

want to move back from this. I'm concerned more about the

negative consequences than anything else.

So the question is then, what are some of the ingredients of

the fear of God? How do you grow?

How do you get there? There's three ingredients.

There's God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Word.

Genesis 1 says this in the beginning, God.

Then it says then the Spirit of God was hovering over the face.

And then God said, if you want to grow in the fear of God, then

you want to grow in relationship with all of these in the

beginning, God the Father in the beginning, the Spirit in the

beginning of the Word. The more you read the word, the

more you'll grow in the fear of God.

It's automatic. The more you fellowship with the

Holy Spirit and invite the Holy Spirit into your life and and,

and, and and walk with the Holy Spirit, talk with the Holy

Spirit, pray in other tongues, do the things of the Spirit.

The more you do those things, you will grow in the fear of

God. OK, The more you recognize God

as your Father, the more you'll grow in the fear of God because

you can't recognize God as your Father without recognizing His

goodness. And His goodness is so

overwhelming. It will put you in a place of

reverence and it puts you in a place of awe.

So what does it truly look like? What does the fear of God truly

look like? That's what I was like.

I try to figure out what does it really look like?

Well, the first thing that I go to myself when I'm trying to

figure out what it really looks like as I go to Heaven's context

for it. Everyone say Heaven's context

because the real essence of whatever God's teaching me

shouldn't change between here and heaven.

See, How do I know sickness is not really for me in the

Kingdom? Because there's no sickness in

heaven. If it ain't in heaven, then it

ain't for me here as a Kingdom citizen to what's for me, here's

what's for me in heaven. It's not going to change.

God said this. Our Father, thy Kingdom come on

earth as it is in heaven, right? So I haven't test all my

theology, right? If you don't fly in heaven, I

got to question whether they should fly on earth.

Makes does that make sense? Now, sometimes there are things

that do work on earth because of context.

You got it. There ain't no sin in heaven,

but there's sin on earth. And because of that, someone had

to die and shed their blood, right?

You don't necessarily have that in heaven in the same, in the

same way, right? So, but I haven't tested it.

The spirit. So I asked myself, is the spirit

of the fear of God in heaven? Is the spirit of the fear of God

in heaven? I say yes, because the Holy

Spirit is in heaven and the Spirit of the Lord, that's the

Holy Spirit shall rest upon them.

And one of the manifestations, demonstrations of of the Spirit

of the Lord, the Holy Spirit is the reverential and obedient

fear of the Lord. So if the Holy Spirit's in

heaven, then every way he manifests himself as a person is

in heaven as well. So the spirit of the fear of the

Lord is in heaven, OK? And so if it is in heaven, that

means that he is something for me on the earth.

So what does it look like? A picture.

Here's a picture of the fear of the Lord looks like.

And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall

lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the

fatted domestic animal together. It's a picture.

If after Jesus wraps some things up, what's going to look like?

Hold on, that picture doesn't look like a picture of terror

and God shaking things and me to be like this.

No, it doesn't, does it? OK, let me show you how this is

a picture. Fear of the Lord.

The wolf got so much reverence for God and how God made them

and the fact that God also made the lamb.

He says, God, I'm a honor the lamb the way you honor the lamb.

I'm not going to feed on the lamb, Take advantage of the

lamb. I'm not going to chase the lamb.

I'm going to lay down and walk with the lamb because I

reverence how you made me and I reverence how you made them.

That's the fear of God. The fear of God means I ain't

got to compete with anybody because God made me for me.

The fear of God means I don't have to chase.

I'm not in competition. I'm not in acrimony.

The fear of God means there's not these enemies between us

that's present there. We're challenging what you think

the fear of God is. We're trying to get all of the

afraid pictures out. Is this wolf afraid of this

lamb? No, there's no afraid of in this

picture. And when there's no afraid of,

then you can walk together. It's not always this kind of

like God is here and I got to fall back because it's like

this. OK, sin is doing, not being say

doing, not being, doing, doing better, doing different and

doing things on my time. Sin is about grinding and

earning and working for it. The Bible says the wages of sin

is death. That's the that's the scripture

verse Romans 623. That's what sins about.

OK, got it. Heaven is about receiving,

being, reverencing and rest not work.

The verse there is Romans 49. There remaineth King James shout

out my boy, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people

of God. So why does that come up?

Is sin in heaven? And if sin is about doing and

about works, and sin is not in heaven, what does that mean?

The fear of God is not about, it's not about doing and about

works. If heaven is about being and

resting, if heaven is about receiving and reverencing, then

the fear of God is more about how you receive, how you rest,

how you stand. It's in a posture internally of

how you value God more than what you do for Him.

The fear of the Lord is not best measured by did you not cuss in

church? It's not about the doing as

much, it is the being. Did you really honor and love

God enough to only want to speak words in His house that that

magnify Him? The fear of God is not so much

about doing, so if you get into a path of doing to deal with the

fear of God in your life or to try to act, increase it.

Ask yourself, am I really on the right path?

The fear of God's about how you posture yourself internally.

Amen. We want to stop there.

It's going to get better. I encourage you to come to the

next one. OK, Let me ask you this.

So if Jesus was here talking Jesus, Jesus, Jesus that Jesus,

if Jesus said listen, you know, for just one weekend, only one

Sunday only, I'm at love Quest, OK?

I came down from heaven or from wherever I am and I'm going to

be here and I'm Jesus talking preaching at Love quest and I'm

preaching at 9:00 and 11:30. Jesus glorified Jesus.

How many of y'all would be like Jesus?

All I want is 9. I'm going to go watch football.

11:30 Jeez, all I want is 9 and one's good for me.

That's all I need. That's enough.

But you know, I I'm not finished with what I'm saying because I'm

continuing over into the Yeah, I I know that Jesus, but I don't

need to get the other half. I'll check you out on YouTube,

Jesus. I'll get the other half on

YouTube when I when it's convenient for me, right?

I'm just saying the fear of God says God, if you're speaking and

I'm hearing and I'm at the ready to listen, however long you

speak, however many times you speak, in whichever way you

speak, I'm going to be there in Jesus name, Amen.

So I encourage you to come on back and finish hearing what God

has to say. It'll bless your soul.

We're going to pray very quickly and very efficiently.

Effectively, Father, I want everyone to lift your head up.

You can stand and lift your head up.

The posture is not always to make yourself low.

You can have a posture of reverence in all of God

standing. Father, we thank you so very

much for what you're doing and how you're doing in this house.

Transform our thinking. Give us revelation of who you

are so purely that we can really know what the fear of God's

really about and we can really walk on the fullness of it all

the days of our life. We want to experience it truly,

fully, completely God because we know it's transformative for our

lives and for this time in which we live.

Thank you Lord for speaking, for sharing, forgiving, for

revealing in Jesus name, Amen. You got something, give God a

big hand clap, Amen. Same with me.

One time, Lord, you have my attention, so I stand at

attention. OK, one more time because I need

y'all to believe this. Lord, you have my attention, so

I stand at attention. Lord, you have my attention.

So I. Stand at attention.

That's good, that's good. Thank you EJ for that powerful

word. I will have y'all take y'all

seats while I give the announcements.

How many know we are in the middle of a 21 day fast?

Has anyone been benefiting from this 21 day fast?

Yes, life in the ozone. So we are in a fast until

January 28th and we are meeting Tuesday to Saturday from 6:30 to

8:00. Does everyone know that say 638

when Tuesday to Saturday? Yes, and then prayer calls are

on Monday via Zoom. Men come on y'all give EJ way

more. Man, what time is your prayer

call? 8 PM. 8:00 PM.

All the details are up there. Ladies.

Come on ladies, what time do we have prayer call on Mondays 830

and the details are also on the screens.

We are at the at the end of the fast.

We are having revival week January 20 to 28th and then 24

hour prayer on January 30th. Y'all excited?

Y'all excited to grow in reverence of the Lord, to grow

in knowledge and wisdom of who God is to you, who He can be to

you. He is so good.

And if you're interested in joining our Gap ministry in

prayer on on Saturdays, please sign up with Vanessa in the back

at the end of the experience. Now I'll just have you turn your

attention to the screens. 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 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 its 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 bat acts 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. Well, we are out of time, but we

are not out of the fear of God. And until next time you know

what it is. Get your love fixed man.

See you at the 11:30 experience. Thank you so much for tuning

into this week's sermon. We pray you were 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?

Earth. There is a sound off the shore,

far from heaven.