Sunday, July 1, 2012

How to Grow in the Fear of the Lord (summary from July 1st message)

We do not all fear the Lord as we should, but that’s also true of our love of God or our faith too. The goal is to grow. But how?? Here are some ideas:

1.       God’s Word.
·         The scriptures are God’s way of revealing himself to us. We study them to learn more about God – what he has done and what he is like (John 5:39; Luke 24:27,44). This is the basis of our reverence for him, since we can’t revere and worship someone we don’t know anything about.
·         Can just reading a book about God teach us to fear him? It’s a start in the process. I have never been to Mount Everest, but in reading about it, my respect for that amazing mountain grows. I begin to respect its size and danger and beauty. To actually climb it, of course, would add greatly to my “reverence” of the mountain.

2.       God sovereign gift.
·         They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.
(Jeremiah 32:38-40) - a beautiful passage describing something God will do for his people. Notice the phrase – “I will inspire them to fear me.”  It’s just something he sovereignly does for his people; a gift of grace. It would please him if you were to begin to pray for this regularly!

3.       Forgiveness.
·         Psalm 130:3-4 – “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
    O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
    therefore you are feared.”
·         Forgiveness understood in a superficial way could cause people to license (“It’s okay if I sin, God will forgive me.”) But a God-given repentant and grateful appreciation of what Christ has done for me on the cross immediately sobers me and deepens my reverence and awe of him – “Therefore you are feared.”
·         When we celebrate communion as a church we have a golden opportunity to contemplate together our forgiveness and grow to fear our great Saviour more and more.

4.       Fellowship.
·         “He who walks with the wise grows wise,
but a companion of fools suffers harm.  Proverbs 13:20

“I am a friend to all who fear you,
    to all who follow your precepts.”
  Psalm 119:63

“May those who fear you rejoice when they see me,
    for I have put my hope in your word.”
  Psalm 119:74

·         Be careful who your close friends are – they influence you more than you know. Deliberately choose to walk with the wise (with the God fearing) and you will grow in that quality. On the other hand, hang around with the irreverent and you will begin to despise God.

5.       Training.
·         “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.”  1 Timothy 4:7
·         Notice the words “train yourself.” We need to deliberately begin to think consciously and deliberately along the lines of God’s word and train our thinking to be godly. For example, Isaiah 8:12 13 is an amazing verse that says the world around us fears a lot of things, but that we shouldn’t fear what they fear, and rather should fear God. This takes an intentional re-directing of my mind and faith away from lots of bad and fearful habits towards trusting in God.
·         Also, we should train ourselves to stop being so impressed with what the world around us is impressed with (physical appearance, money and possessions, etc.) and begin to be more impressed with what God is impressed with – faith, love, humility, courage, sacrifice, etc.

6.       Tithing.
·         “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.”  Deuteronomy 14:22-23
·         Here the Israelites were commanded to bring their tithes to a special place and then after they had eaten some of it at a big feast, they were to leave the rest of it with the priests. But in so doing, God said they would “learn to revere the Lord your God always.”
·         How does tithing help us to learn to revere God? Obviously, mechanical tithing won’t do much for a person, but tithing from a heart that recognizes God as the source of all we have and the joyful and grateful return of a tenth of it to him is a heart shaping act. There is some kind of linkage between tithing and revering God. For one thing, it puts money in its rightful place and voluntarily gives God his rightful place in our lives. Tithing (or not tithing) affects a person spiritually.

7.       Omnipresence.
·         Practice the presence of God. He is everywhere all the time – omnipresent. That means we are never beyond his sight and influence. We are never alone and can do nothing unnoticed. More conscious awareness of this causes the fear of God to grow in us. Notice how it worked in Jacob’s life…..
·         When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”  Genesis 28:16-17
·         Jacob thought he was alone as he slept under the stars one night and had an awesome dream about angels and a ladder up to heaven and heard God’s voice. When he awoke he became vividly aware of the reality of God’s presence  – “the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” But the next thing that happened is important – “He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place!” As we learn to live “Coram Deo” – “before the face of God,” reverence and awe will grow.