Lighthouse Church Durban
The Fear of the Lord
Fear of the Lord is taught in the Old & New Testament. It is a deep respect, a reverent awe of the omnipotent Creator and Sovereign Lord of the universe.
Fear of the Lord leads us to honour and obey God. It leads us out from human folly and into God's wisdom.
Who (or what) we fear most will determine how we live.
Psalm 33:8-16, Philippians 2:12-13, Acts 9:31, Proverbs 1:7, Romans 3:10-18, Deuteronomy 13:4, Luke 12:4-5
- Duration:
- 19m
- Broadcast on:
- 23 Nov 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Good morning, friends. This is, once again, the time that we come around, sit around the table, and hear God's word. This is the light house changed someone broadcast. You are all welcome, and I pray that as you hear God's word, your life will be changed. I'm trusting God for my life to change, and for me to be in a place where I can have a better relationship with the King. I pray that for you to this morning. But the topic for today is the fear of the Lord. Now, friends, just to mention from the onset, we fear for many reasons. Sometimes we fear people, sometimes we fear things, and we fear people or things for what people might do to us, and what things might do to us, so we fear. Sometimes we fear people because of who they are, and we fear them, we fear criminals, we fear the bad guys, we fear many things. But the fear, friends, that we've been talking about today is a bit different from that. The fear of the Lord that we're talking about today, we are talking about deep respect. It's the kind of fear that people would give to presidents. It's the kind of fear that people would give to kings. You know, when the president comes into your city, into your space, we fear them not because they're bad people. We, the kind of fear that we have for them, it's actually respect, and we give them that respect because of the position that they hold in society, or in the nation. And that's the kind of fear that we'll be talking about today. So when we say the fear of the Lord, I'm simply talking about the deep respect that one would give to God. It's when we hold our father, our king, in high esteem. It's when we reverence God, and that's the fear that we'll be talking about today. Now friends, if you look around us, you see many broken things, you see broken people, broken communities, broken nations, many things that are going wrong, lack of integrity, lack of morality, and all these things, the root cause, is the lack of fear for the Creator. If we could only fear the Creator, if we could only have that deep respect for God and give him his place, and know that he sees everything we could do better. So that's the fear of friends that we'll be talking about today. And we'll be reading from the book of Psalms chapter 33, I'll begin to read from verse eight, we'll read up to verse 16, and the Bible says the following. It says, "Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world revere him." So friends, when you hear the word fear, read it interchangeably with the word deep respect, high esteem, to be in all of God. When we look at him and we are amazed at what and who God is. In verse nine, the Bible says, "For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm. For the Lord holds the plans of the nations. He thoughts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand fame for river. The purposes of his heart through all generations." Verse 12, "Blessed is the nation, was God is the Lord. The people it shows for his inheritance." They state him, "From heaven the Lord looks down and sees on mankind." Verse 14, "From his dwelling place he watches, all will live on earth. He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. Knocking is saved by the size of his army. No warrior escapes by his great strength." Praise the name of God. Now friends, reading that chapter, reading those verses helps us to understand or gives us a reason why we should have deep respect for God. The first thing that we see in the scriptures is that word load. Load means he owns everything. The land load, he owns the earth, he owns the universe, he owns everything. And as you read further friends, you see the Bible tells us that he spoke things into being. The Bible is speaking about creation. We have deep respect for God because God is Creator. Everything we see and know, everything we enjoy God created. Why would you not have deep respect for God? We see that God, he owns everything. We see that God is Creator. And friends, I also like the Bible says, God thoughts the plans and the purposes of the peoples. In other words, God is in control. Friends, there are many people with plans for your life. Many people with plans for our communities and some of them not very good plans, but the Bible says God thoughts the plans and the purposes of the peoples. And it goes further by saying that the plans and the purposes of God, they stand, fail, and forever. So it's a God that has plans for your life. It's the God that has plans for our nation, for our communities, for our society. It's a big God. We also see that God creates the hearts of men. And we also see that God sees our peoples. He is only present. God is everywhere and God knows everything. So friends, that's the God that we serve. When we say the fear of the Lord, that's the person that we're talking about. It's the fear of that person, the creator of everything, the one that owns everything. And the Bible says he lives in the heavens and he looks down and he sees everything. So God is as the earth God, as the universe in his hands, your life is in the hands of God. So friends, we came of deep respect for that person and that person is God. Now friends, the fear of the Lord is not the Old Testament concept. It's not something of the past. Because sometimes we get confused as Christians. We speak about grace. We speak about yes, this place for grace, mercy and the goodness of God. But friends, the principle thing is that we revere God. We have deep respect for God. We fear God for who God is, for his position. What's God's position? God's position is that God is Creator. The position of God is that God owns everything. His position comes from the fact that he is Creator, that is the owner of everything. That's where his position comes from and we give him deep respect. We revere him. We hold him in high esteem, praise the name of God. In Philippians chapter two, verse 12 to 13, the Bible says the following. Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who wakes in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purposes. Remember, Sam speaks about the purposes of God that stands fame. Now the Bible says this God is waking something in your heart. So the Bible says wake out your salvation as God gives you grace and mercy. Do it with deep respect. And if you are deep respect and reverence for God, you will not bring things into your life where God is working. Things that you know that God does not agree with. When you know that this God has saved you, when you know friends, this scripture is not for nonbelievers. The scripture is for the believers. The people that have received Christ, you have God working in your life. The Bible says, wake out your salvation with fear and trembling. In other words, with respect for God, the one that is waking in your life. Praise God. In Acts 9, the state one, the Bible says, then they changed through Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. Friends, when we fear God, when we are aware of the presence of God and we give him his place, we give him that this deep respect we make good decisions. We endeavor to do the right things because we know that God is waking. And as we do that, the is peace and we get strengthened. And when people see that, as we see in the Book of Acts, the Bible says they increased in numbers. These scriptures friends are not for nonbelievers. These scriptures are speaking to the church, to you and me who believe through the church that gather every Sunday to brothers and sisters that meet in the homes, these scriptures are speaking to us. Praise the name of God, they fear God. In other words, in their conversation, in everything that they do, they were aware of the praises of God and the position of God in everything that they did. And as they did that, friends, God added to their numbers. Praise the name of God. In Proverbs up to one verse seven, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Now I like those three words, knowledge, wisdom and instruction. Now friends, if we do not know God, we're ignorant because the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Now there's a scripture in the Book of Proverbs that says my people perish because they lack knowledge. Now friends, knowledge is not the same, there's good knowledge, there's bad knowledge, but the knowledge of knowing Him, the knowledge of God, the Bible says it moves from now knowledge to wisdom. So it's the good knowledge of the Creator. So it says the fear of the Lord, as we have respect for God, then we know. In other words, if we do not know Him, if we do not fear Him, and do things from the place of not respecting God, we are still ignorant, we have the knowledge, we get to know Him and then the Bible talks about wisdom and we apply the knowledge and we get the instructions, praise the name of God. So wisdom is the application of the knowledge of Him because friends, we can know about God, we can know many things, many scriptures, but if we do not apply them, then we are lost. The Bible causes fools, praise the name of God. The message says, start with God. The first step in learning is bowing to God. So friends, if we want to know, if we claim to be knowledgeable, then we need to know Him. It says only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning, knowledge and the application of that knowledge, praise God. Now friends, the lack of knowledge, fear and reverence for God causes people to live a life that is not pleasing to God. Because friends, if we don't know Him and we don't know about Him, we cannot refer Him. So it's when we learn about Him, we learn simple things, like God is Creator, God owns the earth. As we begin to understand those things, then we can have deep respect for Him. We can revere Him because we know Him. Praise God. In Romans chapter three, verse 10, to verse 18, the Bible says, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They are together, become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their times practice deceit. Their poison or fibers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mat their ways and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So we see friends, no one is righteous, no one understands. Friends, you can only understand when there's knowledge. Knowledge leads to understanding. Praise God, and where do knowledge comes from? The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, the fear of the Lord. So when we are the fear of the Lord, we have knowledge. And when we have knowledge, we have understanding. And when we have understanding, we can see God. And when we see God, we can do good. Praise God, and then we can continue to live in the fear of the Lord. Praise the name of God. In closing, friends, in the book of the astronomy chapter 13, this for the Bible says, it is the Lord your God, you must follow. And him, you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him. Save him and hold fast to him. So friends, revere God. Deep respect for him. Hold him in his esteem. Follow him and obey his commands. Friends, if we fear people or circumstances, more than we fear the Lord, we are unlikely to walk his ways. If we fear the Lord, more than we fear people, we will walk in his ways, even if we are criticized, mocked or persecuted. So friends, in the beginning, I said, sometimes we fear a lot of things. We can fear people. We can fear things. Sometimes we are afraid of losing our cards. So what do we do? We get insurance. We are afraid of tragedy. What do we do? We get life cover. So fear brings us to a place where we make certain decisions. Sometimes it alters our decisions and our behavior. So in the same way, friends, the fear of the Lord should alter our behavior. The same way we invest in insurance, life cover, and many other things, because we appreciate what those things can do to us. So we take a step in the same way, friends. When we understand and appreciate who God is, it should alter our behavior and the decisions that we make. If we live in the fear of the Lord, because friends, remember, if we have the knowledge of him or God is, then we can make better decisions, because we know who God is. We have the knowledge of him. Praise God. In Luke chapter 12, there's four to five. The Bible says the following. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body. And after that can do no more, this fight. But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear him who, after your body, has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. So friends, as I said, we fear many things. And sometimes we fear people that can kill the body, but the Bible is encouraging us. Do not be afraid of all these things. Do not have more appreciation of all these things and what they can do and the damage they can cause. But fear God, because at the end of the day, life itself is in the hands of God. It's in the hands of the Creator. Friends, I encourage you and they're calling you. Let's give God his place. Revere him. Give him that deep respect. Give him his place. And God has purposes and plans for our lives, our nation and our communities. And those plans and purposes, the Bible says, they stand fair. Praise the name of God and have him blessed week. And God bless you. [ Silence ]
Fear of the Lord is taught in the Old & New Testament. It is a deep respect, a reverent awe of the omnipotent Creator and Sovereign Lord of the universe.
Fear of the Lord leads us to honour and obey God. It leads us out from human folly and into God's wisdom.
Who (or what) we fear most will determine how we live.
Psalm 33:8-16, Philippians 2:12-13, Acts 9:31, Proverbs 1:7, Romans 3:10-18, Deuteronomy 13:4, Luke 12:4-5