Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Fear: The Highest Worship Pt.3

Let's turn to Deuteronomy, chapter 10, and also over to Joshua, chapter 24; we want to take a look at a couple of passages as we continue looking at the fear of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's by the fear of the Lord that we have riches and honor and life, the Scripture says. That reverence for God, the ability to make Him big and give Him His worth, is contrary to the natural man, to what's in our members, and so it has to be cultivated; there has to be a communion. The fear of God is going to be in direct correlation to our intimacy with Him, the time that we spend in His presence--to the degree that you get to know Him. You see, you're only going to honor Him to the degree that you know His character, that you really understand who He is. That's the only thing that can beat down the pride in your own life, the self-assurance, all of those things that oppose the majesty of God. It's so important that we cultivate this in our lives and separate ourselves from every obstacle that would hinder us from our pursuit of Christlikeness, that we would learn to abide in Him and let His words abide in us and bring about that conformity to the image of God.

We look in the Scriptures here and we see the generic command in chapter 10 of Deuteronomy, verse 12, "...what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all of thy heart and with all thy soul," and the Scripture continues, and we know it means with all of our strength. This is a requirement of God: to fear Him, to have no other gods before Him. That's the first, great commandment. All of the other commandments, really, are taken into that fear of the Lord. When there's the fear of God, there's not going to be idolatry. When there is that fear of God, there's not going to be the lying and there's not going to be the disrespect for authority and all of the other commandments. So the great commandments: love God, and the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself.

In the love of God, we find the fear of the Lord that dictates the ability to fulfill all of those commandments that were given to Moses. In the passage in Joshua there's a very interesting statement that's made that correlates to this particular commandment that was given in Deuteronomy. This is the requirement of God: fear Him, obey Him, love Him, serve Him. The serving aspect is a service, not of merit, trying to earn credibility with God, but it's a service of affection and appreciation. We're just wanting to be in the presence of God and to be about His business. So many times we take things for granted. How many of you have been amazed, many times, at how much easier your children go to someone else's house and serve? They go over there and they serve, especially in the carnal realm. I remember, as a young man, whenever I was involved with some young lady somewhere and was at her house, I was able to serve and to work around and to work with the father or whatever it was, and my Dad had to beat me to get me to do something at our place. There's a commonness, and that service, though in the natural it may be a self-serving thing, there's also just an excitement to be there in the presence, and all of these different things. That's the motivation that should be working in our lives as we're fearing God, and the appreciation of being able to serve in His Kingdom and to be associated with Him.

In Joshua, the 14th verse of this 24th chapter, it says, "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: [and look at the next phrase] and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood." "...fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth..." So we see, then, that this is a reference to the heart motive as it relates to the truth, or the Word of God--"...thy word is truth" (John 17:17)--the motive of why we're doing the Word, the motive of why we're studying the Word. Is there a reverence for the Word of God, in your life? Do you count it a privilege to take the will of God in your hands and allow it to penetrate your soul?

I was telling someone the other day--it's really kind of an interesting thing. Before I was regenerated, as a young man, I would always defend the Bible. I might be half drunk, but I would always--somebody would say something about the Bible, and I would say, "No, man! That's God's Word; that's God talking to us." I'd never read it. I had one Scripture memorized; I've shared that with you. You know, if I'd used that Scripture on myself, I would have seen I was in trouble, huh? I knew I was in trouble; I knew I was going to hell. I knew I wasn't right with God, but I believed that there was a God. I believed that this Word that you hold in your hands, I believed that this was the Word of God, and I'd fight over it. I'd argue for it. If you pushed me hard enough, I'd get physical with you. You really didn't have to push that hard, but it was something that I really believed, yet I wouldn't obey it. Many of us believe that this is the Word of God, but do we really? Where's the appetite for it? Where's the time spent in communion with Him? Where's the excitement of knowing that this is God speaking to us? And, if it is God, where's His fear, where's the obedience to all of these things that He's spoken?

So Joshua, as he's relating this to us, says that this is what God is requiring of us, out of Deuteronomy: fear the Lord, obey Him, love Him, serve Him--serve Him in sincerity, Joshua goes on to say in the 14th verse. ".choose you this day [he goes on to say] whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood [the idols--the flesh is really what he's making reference to--or the Lord]...but as for me and my house [this famous passage], we will serve the Lord." Now, what he means here by serving God, he's saying, "We're going to fear the Lord. We're going to come to the place where we have chosen to serve Him in sincerity." Not a works, but an affection for the things of God; a hatred for evil, as we saw in our study a couple of sessions ago. So it's going to be how we relate to the Word of God. Is there a reverence for the Word of God, an appetite to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer?

Look over at Isaiah, chapter 66, and you see the Prophet speaking here. In this last chapter of Isaiah we see these words, powerful, as God establishes His sovereignty, His worthiness. Verse 1, He says, ".The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: [What are you going to do for Me? You're going to give Me what? Gold? I created it. You're going to take cedars of Lebanon and cover them with fine, pure gold? I created both of these. You're going to build Me a house to dwell in? There's no house that can contain Me! I'm not looking for all of that. Here's what I'm looking for] but to this man will I look, [Not to the guy that builds cathedrals. 'Here's the guy that will catch My eye,' the eye of the Lord that's searching to and fro, looking for a man that He can prove Himself mighty in and through.] even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit." "A broken and a contrite heart," God says, "I will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).

Jesus says, in the Sermon on the Mount, it's the poor in spirit that He's looking for--the humble, the man that realizes he is the creation and God is the Creator. God is looking for a man who's not moving in haughtiness and pride, in self-will. Then look what He says. Who is this man; who is this poor in spirit, contrite individual? "...[one that] trembleth at my word." Do you tremble when you read this Word? Is this Word alive to you and powerful as it cuts between soul and spirit and reveals what manner of man you are? Do you tremble at this Word as you hold it up as a mirror and look into it and realize what's left to be done to be conformed into His image? Oh, thank God that we see who we are as the redeemed! Thank God that we can look in there and see ourselves as the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ! Without that we would perish! But the man of God says to fail to continue in this Word is to assure forgetting your condition, your propensity for sin, your self-righteousness, the haughty spirit that's in all of the children of Adam. You lose sight of the bigness of God when you fail to tremble at His Word! Self begins to be elevated again, and we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We need to be sober; we need to be discreet. Only the Word of God can bring about that kind of a discretion and a truth as we see ourselves, because the heart is desperately wicked and a man can't know it without spending time in the Word of God.

Over the years I've shared, I think one of the things that's been the greatest asset in God dealing with who I am and allowing me to stay on course for Him with all of the seduction that's gone on--I look around today and I see, in the natural, so many of the young people that I grew up with in the carnal and how their lives are shipwrecked. Then I look around and see so many people in the spiritual realm that I walked with, and their lives are shipwrecked spiritually. It's a scary thing to watch men that you were walking with and doors of opportunity that were given to you, as I've shared with you, in the natural that were made available. I was not only capable, at those junctures, of having nationwide and even worldwide exposure, but opportunities to become very wealthy like many of these men are today. I was headed down that path and thinking I was moving in the right direction, very much like Saul saying, "I'm doing Your will," but not all of it. And God spoke to me those years ago and said, "I'm not pleased with the direction you're going. This isn't what I called you to do. I'm not pleased with this school; I'm not pleased with the direction the ministry is going; I'm not pleased with your moving toward national exposure. This is not what I called you to do." As those of you that have been around for years know, it was right there for the taking. I was at the fork; I could have had it the next week, and that passage in Jeremiah pierced my soul and caused me to tremble at His Word, "I've brought you to a fork in the road; choose the old paths."

There's only one thing that's kept me safe all of these years and saved me from myself, and that's the fear of somehow misrepresenting God and His Word. People that have left here who have been angry at me for any number of reasons, and, we've commented on this many times, not one person has ever accused me of false doctrine. They don't like the application--the fact that we do apply it. The greatest accusation against us is that we don't love people, which, being interpreted, means we don't let them have their own way. We hold them to the standard of God's Word. One thing and one thing alone will protect you: a trembling at the Word of God, a fear of somehow being inaccurate as you speak the Word of God. Do you know how fearful it is to stand here before people like yourselves, blood-bought children of God, people that are God's inheritance, and bring forth the Word of Life, making sure that what you're saying is accurate and it represents the heart and the mind of God? It's a scary thing, and you don't take it lightly, but at the same time, men that stand before the churches around this nation are challenged with another force. It's called the fear of men's faces; in other words, the fear of being a failure, the fear of rejection, the fear of criticism.

So the question is, What do you fear most? The fear of God and the fear of His Word to where we tremble at the Word, and we realize that His Word is truth and everything that opposes it is a lie! A fear, a reverence, for the Word of God, that you won't even entertain the foolish thoughts of the world's philosophies! They're foolishness to us! Don't speak that foolishness to me! Do not tell me that's incurable, because the prayer of faith saves the sick and the Lord raises them up! Amen? Don't speak that foolishness to me. Do not use the word "impossible" in my presence, because all things are possible with God! Do you tremble at His Word? Can I ask you a question? Is anything impossible--is the word "impossible" in your vocabulary? "Well, that's not possible." It is if God told you to do it. Amen? How many of you think walking on water is possible? When's the last time you did it? Do you fear God and His Word to where if He says, "Get out of the boat," you're getting out, without any experience? "But I haven't been proven in this"--like David wasn't proven in the armor of Saul. So, then, don't go their way. You see, I'm not proven in economics, I'm not proven in investing in the stock market. I'm not proven in any of those areas, but I just do what God tells me to do. When He says buy something, I buy it; when He says sell something, I sell it.

Do you know--there are only probably four or five of you here that were here at that time--you would not believe the opposition I got, I was absolutely opposed, I was called a fool, I was absolutely ridiculed for the insanity of wasting $64,000 to buy those twelve acres down there [adjoining property to the church]. I look pretty smart today, don't I? I just did what God said to do. I didn't know what was going to happen around here. All I knew was, God said buy that property. I thought we were going to build a church up there at the peak of that twelve acres. We still have the plans in the back. The fear of the Word of God; when He speaks to you, you do it! Do you tremble at His Word? Are you afraid of not hearing the voice of God? Are you afraid of becoming so involved in so much secular noise that you can't hear? If you have a love for the Word of God, you're going to make things quiet enough in your life where you can hear His voice. You see, when I'm talking about the Word of God, I'm not just talking about the written Word. You can read this, you can ride down the road and have it being put into your mind to where you even memorize it. I'm talking about quiet enough to obey, to let it become one with your spirit.

So He makes it very clear that if there's a fear of God, there will be a reverence for His Word, a trembling at the Word. If we fear Him, the Scripture says, we will obey Him (keep His commandments), we will serve Him through the diligent application of His Word. Proverbs says this; look over at Proverbs, chapter 2, for just a second. As we look at these passages, it's very interesting to see that what we're talking about has to become a true treasure to you, or you'll not pursue it. Joshua contrasted the idols with the fear of God. The Scripture speaks to it in many different ways. Treasures--where your treasure is, what else is there? That's where your heart is. Where the abundance of our conversation is, that's where our heart is--out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What do you talk about? Now, what I mean by talking about the Word, I'm not just talking about quoting Scriptures. Application--how it applies in my life; how it applies in your life. How can we better share the gospel? What can we do to better serve the community? What can we do to bring honor to God here in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation in which we're living? Are you always talking about the things of God, the representation of God, the presence of God, the purity of the church? Is there a constant conversation about the coming of the Lord? Because He's going to appear to those that are looking for Him. If you're looking for Him, you're talking about Him, you're making preparation.

Where is our treasure? What is it that we're seeking after? Proverbs 2 says this. We look at this, what the wise man speaks, and he says, "My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding." Incline your ear to wisdom. We've all seen--I don't even know if this works--have you ever seen those people with a glass up to the wall? Does that work? Somebody said, "Yeah." Okay, we know who eavesdrops around here then, don't we? Say, "I use a stethoscope, thank you. High tech." I guess they've got all kinds of equipment now, right? They can hear an ant sneeze. Inclining your ear. Some people just always want to know what's going on; they want to hear. If you're standing in a crowd, you can see the people that are kind of listening to other peoples' conversations. I always, when I see people listening, say, "Hey, if I wanted you to hear, I'd speak up." Have you inclined your ear to the Word of God? Have you cupped your ear, have you put it to the wall? In all of the noise that's going on around us today, are you listening for the voice of God?

Listen to what the wise man says, "[If you will] ...incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord." The reason there's not a fear of God is because there's not an appetite for knowing Him, there's not an effort being made! "Oh, I do wish I feared the Lord more." You cultivate fear through the understanding of who God is, through the majesty being revealed to you through the Word of God. Are you listening to what the Word of God is saying about Him? Are you listening to the testimony of Scripture, of your own heart, as to His lordship?

"Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous..." The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Scripture says, and wisdom is the beginning of the fear of the Lord. So fear is not going to come without a knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God is not going to come casually. You've got to seek after this thing as hidden treasures. I've never been on a treasure hunt, but it's probably a good thing I never got into any of that, or looking for gold, because I know my personality. I wouldn't quit until I found it. But I've already found my treasure in life; I've already found the pearl of great price. Like you, I've looked around at a lot of other things, and nothing satisfies, does it? There's no answer, there's no salve, for the broken spirit. There's not enough, in the arena of hedonism, to fill that hole of the vanity of life without God. So when we've found that and we've tasted it--we've seen the goodness of God--what he's telling us here is, that can be cultivated.

Now, how many of you've found out that when you married that individual you thought it could never get better than that? Jeff and Kimberly just had their twelfth anniversary yesterday. Twelfth? ["Eleventh," Pastor Jeff responded]. See, I'm not as old as I thought I was--their eleventh anniversary. We were at lunch the other day, and they were talking about the different cycles of their life that they've gone through and the things that you learn about individuals after you're married, and then the things that you learn about yourself when you have children. Kids are great to reveal our hearts to us, in many different ways. I told the kids today when they were standing up here with the baby [a young couple that dedicated their baby], as they were holding that baby and they were looking at that child with such adoration--and, you know, we forget this sometimes, so I told them, I said, "You see how you're looking and feel about that child? That's how your Mom and Dad feel about you." We forget how much we're loved. As the kid, as the recipient, we don't really understand, but as the one that's loving, that's how much you're loved. But the thing about love is that it grows, doesn't it? You marry that individual, and you think, "It can't get any better than this." Then after a year of living together it's better, and after eleven years it's ten times better. [Pastor Jeff said, "Amen!"] Kimberly's not even here tonight. She'll get the tape though.

Love grows. What are you missing out on tonight if you're not cultivating that love, if you're not cultivating that fear, if you're not pressing on to know Him more? You see, that's what this is talking about. There's a treasure there. There's something that's beyond your comprehension available if you'll press in to His fullness. You have not exhausted the love of God by any means. You haven't even begun to experience the contentment that there can be in your relationship with Him, the peace that there can be, the power that's available to you! But it's only there as we go on to know the fear of the Lord--"Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." You see, the problem with most of us today is we don't understand the fear of God. We don't know what it means to fear Him, to reverence Him, to depend upon Him. To find the knowledge of God means to come to the awareness of His purpose in your life, the whole duty of man--to stop living in the temporal, to stop being seduced to the secular, to truly believe that there are treasures that are being laid up, that there is a day of justice that's coming, that this life is a vapor (it's here today and gone tomorrow).

When you've been challenged in different things in life, it changes your life. Coming to realize our mortality changes your life, doesn't it, Bill? [Congregant who is battling serious health issue.] It changes your outlook, doesn't it? As some individuals in our fellowship have faced this, it changes your life. But you know what's amazing? How quickly you can change back and adapt when the immediate threat is gone. I know in the things we went through with Janet, how your life is so impacted and radically changed, and then slowly things can creep back. In that twelve-year period that God had spared her life, I could see some of these things. Then in this last circumstance we were again faced with this and the reality. How young (fifty-eight years old), how young--and gone. No guarantee of tomorrow, so what are we doing with today? Are we pouring our lives out and using ourselves up today in fear of God, for the glory of God? You see, you may not have the opportunity tomorrow. If you haven't, you will be blessed with the opportunity to face your mortality, and it will change your life, but it could be too late. Why not receive the wisdom of God, the counsel of God? Why not tremble at His Word and put into effect the testimony of the great cloud of witnesses that have gone on before us, who have established the priorities and the methodology of being conformed into the image of God? Or you can learn it the hard way, but the Scripture says it's available to the diligent, those that pursue it, that love His wisdom as hidden treasures. Those that will fear Him, the Scripture says, will find the knowledge of God, but you'll never come to the understanding of the fear of God until you seek for it as hidden treasures.

Then not only are we responsible in our generation, but look what else the Scripture goes on to say about this. Turn back to Deuteronomy, chapter 6. Now, those of you that have hung out around here very long, you know what Deuteronomy 6 is about. How many times have we taught on this passage over the years as it pertains to the training of our children, one of the main themes of our fellowship, to prepare generations? You see, the decisions we've made in this ministry--and it has to do with the fear of God again, not an individual's character necessarily--but the decisions that we've made have not been made for our own personal gain. The decisions that we've made for this ministry, that I've made for this ministry, have not been for how it could benefit me. I've tried to make decisions--just in the area that I could see, I've tried to make decisions for generations, for just two to three generations. If somehow what we've built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Himself being the key, chief cornerstone, if somehow for these generations this can continue, then something will have been effected for the Kingdom of God. And in that time, should Jesus tarry, the abundance of the fruit will be beyond imagination. The compromises that are made to try to gather the immediate, the masses, regardless of the quality, is vanity, because it doesn't remain. So we make our choices for ourselves, our children, and our children's children.

Deuteronomy 6 speaks to that very clearly. It says--listen: "Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you [this is what God requires of us], that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it." Now, look what the commandments, the revelation of the whole duty of man, these things that God requires of you, look what they do: "That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged." That's not just talking about your personal longevity--your days prolonged through your children, through you children's children. The encounter that you've had with God perpetuates itself if you'll teach your children the fear of God.

Now, humanistic psychologists, sociologists, referring to man as the human animal, say that the reason that man wants to procreate is to continue his genes and to perpetuate his life. Some people, when they hold their children, say, "This is part of me." You know, I've never thought that. That's never entered my mind. It was never part of the motivation to have children; it was never part of the awareness of raising the children. In fact, this is the first time I think I've probably ever expressed this, but it came to me as I was watching a program the other day on Discovery about this. I thought, "Look at the difference between the secular and the spiritual." I've shared with you what I've thought about my seed. We ought to have been cut off! The Scotts are dangerous for the planet! How do you see yourself? Why did I have children? "...Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth [in Christlikeness]..." (Genesis 1:28). Can I share something with you about having kids? Don't have more than you can make godly, and don't play a percentage game: "Well, if I have twelve, maybe two will make it." That's what we're called to do. We're called to raise them and train them, and we've shared with you before, your responsibility doesn't end with your kids--"Well, praise God. Mine are grown and out of the house." Mine are grown and still in the house, and they brought others back. They're growing, and that's how it's supposed to be. Now, are you seeing to it that they're being trained up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord? Are you holding that standard and not allowing it to be compromised in your midst? That's what God has called you to do, and it's so important. So he says then, "Teach your children, and your children's children, the fear of the Lord." We've got a job to do.

Deuteronomy 31--just jump ahead a couple of chapters and look what chapter 31, verse 12, says concerning this. "Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land..."

Do you see what your main responsibility is? It's not to get your kids into the Ivy League schools; it's not to allow them to sport around in the finest automobiles and wear the best clothes. It's to teach them the fear of God! Do your kids fear God? Are you allowing any idols in your home? Is there the idolatry of materialism, is there the idolatry of secularism, is there the idolatry of humanism? What motivates your house? What are you talking about as you walk in the way, as you rise up, as you lie down? Is the attending of a church school, a coming to services--is it hypocrisy? Do we live two lives; do we have a church philosophy and a secular philosophy, a rest-of-the-week "real" philosophy? What is the vision that you've set for your home, men? "As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. We're going to fear God. We will not serve the idols that were on the other side of the flood" (Joshua 24:15). What are you teaching? What kind of a reverence is there for the Word of God? "Put down those video games and pick up your Bible." Can I ask you a question, just as something we can use to measure it? Is there as much time being spent in the Word of God as on the computer and on video games? "Where your treasure is..." (Matthew 6:21). When I'm talking about the Word of God, I'm not just talking about time spent reading. The Word of God has to do with reading, studying, meditating, doing, serving. You see, you're in the Word of God when you're serving in the Kingdom. You're in the Word of God when you're out witnessing. You're in the Word of God when you're loving and preferring others better than yourself. It's not just the study time. That's where we get deceived, when we're hearers and not doers. There's a consequence to encountering God through His Word. There's a consequence: it's obedience, it's service, it's love.

So as we wind up for this evening, we have to look and see, how does the Word of God affect our lives? Is it priority? Is it the treasure that we diligently pursue, that we might learn the fear of the Lord? We saw, as we started this study, that (in Proverbs 3:7) the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil. If there's not a hatred and a defecting from the evil of the evil empire--you know, that was one of the things that we always used so effectively as we had Russia--"the evil empire." [President] Reagan used it to a great effect on our nation--the evil empire. You know, from Stalin; Lenin; the shoe-banging Khrushchev ("We will bury you."); the guy that caught the cold all the time, Brezhnev; to the head-smudged Gorbachev--the evil empire--Darth Vader, the dark side, the enemy. You can always motivate to go against, to war against, the bad guys.

That's all type; we're in a real war! There is an evil empire; there is an evil kingdom--there's a kingdom of darkness. We're the children of light. We've been called to resist! We've been called to destroy! We've been called to occupy! Is this what we're training ourselves and our kids for? Is this what our delight is in? Is our delight in dismantling the kingdom of darkness, in setting captives free? Is that where you get your pleasure? When's the last time you've had that rush of winning someone to Jesus? It satisfies you for a lifetime, and what are you selling out for? A lousy piece of land, a little bigger house, a new piece of fiberglass to drive around? I'm just talking about myself; I happen to drive fiberglass. I would have said a piece of metal. See, my cars don't rust, but they will fade away. They'll be the first ones to burn; they'll melt, actually. Where are you, what floats your boat--what satisfies you? Have you been so dull? Can you even get satisfied anymore? Can you even get excited about anything? You know, we have so much, we can't hardly get excited about anything. Isn't that sad? Do you remember when you--no, there's not many left. I was going to say, Do you remember when you got excited at Christmas if you just got an apple, just a little bit of fruit? Some of the young people are going [look of puzzlement]. You could get so excited about the smallest thing!

As we were back looking around [in California where Pastor grew up], as I was sharing, as a kid, you think about those things, and you remember back. Many of you remember the days. How many of you teenagers have more than one pair of shoes? Let me see your hands. Put them down. How many don't have more than one pair of shoes? Teenagers, Basem! I either woke him up or he didn't-- [Pastor joking with congregant.] As kids, when we were growing up, we had one pair of shoes, and they had holes in them. The only thing, like I told you--you all remember--you'd cut out some cardboard and stick it in there, right? If you didn't have the cardboard in there, then your sock got a hole in it, and you didn't want people to see your bare foot, so you had to switch the holey sock to the shoe that didn't have a hole in it so you wouldn't expose yourself. Then you had two socks with holes in them. The only cool thing, like I said about it before, was if you saw a penny on the ground, you didn't have to bend over to pick it up; you just kind of scooped it up with your foot. How many of you have ever done that? Anybody? Yeah, there's a few. You're just walking along, and you see--"Hey, man, that's cool," and scoop, you pick it up. Penny loafers--I just wore my pennies on the inside. And when you got anything, you were so thankful--hand-me-downs. And we keep getting more and more stuff and that doesn't satisfy, and now even God doesn't satisfy, in many cases.

We'll finish with this. Who is He looking for? Poor in spirit, contrite heart, those that will tremble at the worth of His Word. Then you'll come to the knowledge of God and you'll learn the fear of the Lord, and you'll become a candidate again for the visitation of His power, the freedom over sin, the privilege of serving, and the satisfaction of winning souls, of bearing fruit that remains. Then we've learned the whole duty of man. We know what life is all about, and without it we might as well stand and write our own book of Lamentations and Ecclesiastes and just say it's all vanity. But to come to the fear of God and the knowledge of who we are and why we are, brings about a contentment, a peace, a joy, that can be contagious when it's real in our lives.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God tonight, and we just ask that that fear would be cultivated in our hearts, that we would long for it as hidden treasure--the knowledge of God. That we would tremble at Your Word; the delight of reading, of catching a glimpse of You in these pages, of replicating Your love as we relate to one another, a glimpse of You in us as we serve one another. Beloved, there is no greater appreciation for and awareness of the presence of God than when you see Him living through you, and you say, "What a blessing to be a vessel, an epistle read of men."

As Gary plays, let's stand before the Lord tonight, and the brethren will come. We're going to take some time here in fellowship at the Lord's Table. The trembling, as we become aware of what it cost to put that Word in your hands tonight, to put these emblems in our hands tonight, as we remember Him as He took on the robe of flesh, of humanity, and humbled Himself and became a man. Touched with all of our infirmities; tempted in every way, without sin; purchased us back through His perfect sacrifice; and then said, "Be holy as I am holy. Sell out now for a new Kingdom. Do you understand what I've done for you?" He's the Potter; we're the clay. He can make us any way He wants, and we stand in awe of that, that He would choose us at all. So many still want to dictate what we're going to be. You ought to stand in awe that He chose you at all, to be used for Him.

As we sing this together and the brethren serve us, just hold; we'll all take together at one time. "For the Lord." Hallelujah, hallelujah! Just worship Him. Just take a few moments and pour your heart out to Him and thank Him for choosing you. Thank Him for preparing your heart tonight to partake of these emblems. You've got to be prepared; you can't just walk in here and make common the body and the blood of Jesus. Consider what you're about to do, the Apostle said, and if there's sin in your life, confess it, and then prepare to eat. Consider what we're doing here. The body of the Lord--"In remembrance of Me," He said.

To not discern this body properly is to eat and to drink damnation to yourself, judgment. What does it mean not to discern His body? It means to continue to live to yourself, as the Gnostics did, and consider yourself pure internally, spiritually, and yet you're living a life that's defiled. What does it mean not to discern His body? It means not to allow the full effect of redemption to free you from the power of sin and to be able to testify and say, "It no longer has power over me. I yield my members as instruments to His righteousness." What does it mean to discern His body? It means to look around in this room and realize that we're not living to ourselves and dying to ourselves, that we're part of an organism, the Body of Christ, and we're obligated to serve one another--we're privileged to serve one another, and we're gifted to serve one another--and that's the discerning of His body. There's a purpose for us being here, being placed here. To not discern that is to minimize what was effected by His broken body and His shed blood. To eat this bread and drink this cup tonight and not be willing to be used for the good of the community is to eat and drink judgment to yourself.

These emblems are about humility and about serving; they're about the eternal and not the temporal. To hold these emblems in our hands tonight should cause a fear and a trembling to rise up as we reverence the holy God, incarnate, the visitation of the Almighty. And it wasn't enough that He came to live as a man and defeat Satan, veiled in human flesh, but following His victory and His resurrection, He came to dwell in us. "Christ in you, the hope of glorification" (Colossians 1:27). We're going to be changed. We're going to see Him, and we're going to be like Him, praise God! This flesh will cease to be, and corruption will take on incorruption, and mortality will take on immortality, and we'll partake of the glory of the Lord. What reverence there should be as we prepare ourselves for that day.

We're overcome by Your love, Father. We're sobered by the task at hand--the task of evangelism, the task of discipleship of our own personal lives and those in our midst--but we hold the sufficiency in our hands, for You have said, "It is finished." We've been declared victors; sin's power is broken. Our names are written in Your book, and we are sons of God, heirs and joint heirs in Christ Jesus. With thanksgiving we celebrate that tonight as we partake of these gifts, in Jesus' name. With thanksgiving we eat this bread and drink this cup. Amen. Let's partake together. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The cleansing of His blood, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake together.

Hallelujah! Just celebrate your freedom and your victory in Jesus tonight. Just delight in the presence of God and the victory that's been won. Hallelujah! Make Him big! That's what fear is all about: just making Him big in your own life, praise God! Make Him big now in your praise and in your worship. Declare His majesty, declare your thanksgiving and your love, declare your liberty over sin! Oh, hallelujah! We delight in You, Lord! We boast in Your greatness! How thankful we are tonight, Father, for the bold access. How humbled we are by Your declaration of our sonship. How motivated we are by the task that you've given us to set ambushments against the enemy, to destroy him by the body and the blood.

Oh, hallelujah! We're excited, Father, as You stir in us again--all things are possible to he that believeth. Do we fear You sufficiently to set out against the enemy and expect the miraculous? Oh, it's our delight; it's our expectation. We do delight in You, Lord. How great You are. Let's sing it together and just boast in His greatness tonight. "Then sings my..." Hallelujah! Hallelujah! How great You are, Lord! How great is Your name! Oh, Jesus. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We're humbled, Lord. We stand in awe of You, and at the same time, we approach You boldly because of the precious blood of Jesus. We perceive You, the Majestic, Almighty, Sovereign Creator, and we call You Father. We serve You as servants; we relate to You as sons. We bow meekly and humbly before Your throne, and we go forth bold as lions and represent You majestically as Your ambassadors. Bring us to the knowledge of the Lord; bring these things to reality and fruition, these relationships that we've just spoken of, for they are the fruit of the fear of God. Make it real, Father, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." Praise God. Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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