We've lost the Fear of God.

Fear God keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, whether every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And we have a false concept of God.

A symptom of wickedness upon the earth. Not just among those of the world, but even among some of those who call themselves believers, is a lack of fear of God. And when you truly understand what the fear of God is, you just start seeing this all over.

Tonight, a pastor arrested, charged with sexually abusing victims that he met through church.

By day, a Catholic priest, by night, a drug queen.

We do it so big and bodacious right here in Texas. You know, everything is big in Texas because we want to magnify Christ.

I think God is beautifully non binary. Jesus was trans.

But you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved. Nowhere does the Bible say to repent of your sins to be saved. That's a works based salvation. They don't have to repent of their sins, they have to repent of believing in the wrong thing.

So could I say turn from your sins?

No, that's a fault, that's a lie. Because if you have to turn from your sins, that's works.

For those who are in an open or polyamorous relationship here this morning, your relationships are holy, but in almost a kind of cruel fashion. God creates a prohibition and then the serpent speaks a word of truth. Because no matter how you look at this, you've got some really interesting actions coming from the God figure and the Satan figure. Here we have God actually kind of lying.

My stance as a pro choice pastor is not in spite of my Christian identity, it's because of my Christian identity.

I want to submit to you that the enemy has come in with so many lies about whether we should fear God and what that fear of God looks like. So often we've downplayed it, we've tried to make excuses for why we shouldn't truly have fear of God. But what is the biblical definition of fearing God? For when you realize it, you will see that the enemy has been trying to rob it from us all. Because Satan knows that not fearing God leads to our downfall. It is the seed of rebellion. There are a few things that will transform your relationship with God more than having a biblical fear of God. For it impacts how we see God himself, which is the very fabric of our relationship with him. But here comes the problem. Fear is a word full of negative Connotations. Yet fearing God is a beautiful, healthy and wise mindset. We must let Jesus define fearing God for us. We read our traumatic experiences that we had in our past into the definition of what fearing God means to us. And our perception of God is then heavily influenced by our past and by our upbringing. I mean, some of us have experienced terrible things, abusive upbringings, some of us have had an absent father and all kinds of other things we've gone through. We then take this traumatic experience and we either use it to reinforce how we then perceive go, or we take our experience and we overreact to the other side of how we should see God. We reinforce it, for example, by seeing God as this wrathful character eager to punish, and we live and teach others to live in terror of who he is. Or we then overreact all the way to the other side and we say things like, oh, no, it's not actually to fear God. It's to respect God. It's to honor God. It's to have reverence for God. And we should honor, respect, and have reverence for God. But the fear of God is more than respect, honor, and reverence. These are incomplete understandings of defining the fear of God which can downplay the fear of God as it's defined by the Bible. So what is the biblical fear of God? One of the first things you may feel like is a wise thing to do is to look up what the Greek word for fear is. And then you find this word called phobio, which is the word we get phobia from in the English. And you quickly realize that it can mean a wide variety of things. It can mean to be frightened, alarmed, to revere, to have terror, fear, or to be exceedingly afraid. There are many different English words we can use to describe it. So the best way to understand the fear of God is, is not by some dictionary definition in this case, but by the context it is used in within the Scriptures. Let's look at how Jesus himself explains fearing God. Matthew 10:28. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him, who can destroy both body and soul and in hell. Okay, Yeshua just said, fear God, for he has the ability, the power, to destroy our body and our soul. Sounds like a good reason to fear him. But then he does something really interesting in the next verse and he starts contrasting it with fear not. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of Your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore you are of more value than many sparrows. So what's going on? Jesus teaching on the fear of God here can sound contradictory. Fear the Father who can destroy your body and soul in hell, but fear not, for you are of more value than many sparrows, and he has your hair numbered. So what is he trying to say? He qualifies all of this by explaining to us that everyone who acknowledges him before men, he will acknowledge before His Father who is in heaven. But whoever does not acknowledge him, but instead denies him, he will deny before His Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:33 so should we fear God? Yes, fear God that He is a judge, capable and powerful enough to destroy your body and soul in hell. But do not fear, assuming that he has no grace on those who acknowledge him, for he values you. If you end up on the wrong side of history with God as His enemy, you ought to fear for your soul. But if you're on the right side of history, his disciple, and his people acknowledging him before men, then do not fear his judgment, for he will preserve you. In fact, he's come to die for you see, the biblical fear of God is wrapped in understanding these two attributes of God, that He is both just and gracious. But some consider this a contradiction, and this is one of the rude reasons people get so confused on understanding the fear of God. But the cross reveals to us that we all were separated from Him. We all were destined for the wrath of God, for He must deal with sin justly, for he is holy and righteous, morally perfect and good. And that immediately brings the fear of God upon us. And it should. But as Yeshua saw us and went to the cross in joy, laying his life down in going there to die in our place, he also reveals this nature of God called the grace of God. And we then see how the Gospel reveals that God is both lawful in Jesus, satisfying the just wrath of the Father that needs to have come our way. But now instead goes the way of Jesus. And he's also gracious in allowing Jesus to die for us, making a way of salvation. Mark 16:16. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. God is a loving Father who extends grace towards the repentant, the humble, and those who fear Him. And yet he will uphold justice. Let's look at another example we read in the book of Revelation written by John in verse 17 of chapter one. When I saw Yeshua, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades. We yet again see this interesting contrast between fearing God and fear not. As Yeshua said, John fell down as though he was dead, fearing Yeshua. And Yeshua says, fear not. To John's fear, Yeshua responds with mercy. Luke 1:50 and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. When Jesus tells John, fear not, he is saying, don't fear condemnation. As it was written, John fell as though he was dead. John is told to fear not because he feared God rightly and now he has been accepted by the king and given life. James 4:6 but he gives more grace wherefore he said, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We are in this interesting situation where a healthy fear of God will bring us to a place of humility and honor and reverence and everything else that goes along with appearing before the Almighty. And that means that when we appear in that humility, he will extend mercy towards us and say to us, fear not. But on the other hand, if, let's just say we appear before him with pride, staring at him defiantly, he would not give us mercy, we would instead be lowered, every knee will bow, and we would need to fear hellfire, for we did not fear God. Our response to God positions us as to whether we will hear do not fear, or whether we will hear, do you not fear me? The fear of God keeps us safe and secure in his will. Proverbs 14:27 the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. So there is a distinction that God makes for those who are in him that they don't need to fear punishment. 1 John 4:17 tells us more about by this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment? Because as he is, so also are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. The fear spoken of by John here is in context of the Day of Judgment and the punishment that will be inflicted upon those who rejected the Messiah. John is not saying that believers should not fear God, since John fell down before God Himself in the Book of Revelation as though he were dead. But fearing God as the Creator is different from fearing the punishment reserved for the wicked. Those not in him should Fear that punishment, while those in him will have his grace extended towards Him. He it is to them that he says, I number your hair, and you're of more value than sparrows. You are my child. I call you near me. I die for you to be free. I die to have relationship with you. I want to empower you of my Holy Spirit. I want to use you. I want you to set captives free so they can come into my fold. I want to walk with you in the garden, like with Adam and Eve. I want you near me. Those who are in him need not fear punishment, but are perfected in his love. And what does it mean to be perfected in love as it was written in 1 John 4? Well, he tells us in the next chapter of 1 John 5:3 it says, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. If you want to know whether you fear God, look as to how you treat people and how you treat God. For those are the greatest commandments. And in that the law and the prophets is summarized. God is going to look towards our lives and he is going to look as to whether we obey his commandments, whilst also understanding that he is the One who empowers us and gives us a process of sanctification that calls us near him, as he empowers us to become better people every day. God is not judging us and sending us to hell because we made a mistake this day, for we will make mistakes in this journey, even if we are His. But when we are rebelling against him, then we are in trouble. But you who are in him, you who love him, you who are trying your best, you who are calling on his name, and even if you are stumbling along the way as you are battling these sins, as Paul even said, these things that I don't want to do, I do. We at times will face those situations. He has mercy that he extends towards us as long as we are humble before him, as long as we continue to fear him, and as long as we treat our brothers and sisters with the measure of grace that we ask of God to extend towards us. Because we don't want to be a people who act proudly, who act clean, who act holy, when he is truly our only source of holiness. Let us be a people who understands where we have come from and where we are going. We are going to be with him face to face, and we are no longer going to be in this flesh anymore that keeps us back. Psalm 25:12 who is the man who fears The Lord him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well being and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. As you can see, a biblical fear of God is a God given emotion, an emotion that is only to belong to God. But the disciples of Jesus, they struggled with this as we have all struggled with this at times. In Mark 4 we see that he is on the boat with his disciples. Yeshua is sleeping below deck. And as a storm hits the boat, the disciples are scared. They are convinced that they are about to die. And as they woke him, it Sundays in Mark 4:39, he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Have you still no face? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Wow, this is an important lesson for us all. Yeshua demonstrates his power over the thing that they were fearing. The disciples were so scared of the sea and of the winds and he calms it all and he redirects their fear that they had for the storm towards God instead. As they say, who is this that calms the storm? You see, we serve what we fear. They served the storm. They wanted to make decisions based off their fear of the storm. That's why we shouldn't make decisions from fear. But when we fear God, we will make decisions from God and his will will be established. This is why Jesus told us in Matthew 10:26, so have no fear of them in the world. For nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Yeshua is telling us that a new world is coming where the kingdom of God will rule and nothing of this world will matter anymore. So why would we fear the things of this world that will soon no longer matter? Let us rather fear God, for His kingdom is going to be all that matters. And so as I conclude, dear brothers and sisters, fearing God and not fearing man is primarily an act of faith towards God. I can sit here and tell you until I am blue in the face to fear God and not fear man. But until you decide to take a step of faith and to do will not change. Many, and maybe even yourself are in bondage to fearing the things of this world. They're afraid of being rejected by men, afraid of being betrayed by men. They have fear of the future, a fear of. Of lack of, fear of not being good enough by their own works before God? Fearing for your own children. The fear of spiders, the fear of snakes, the fear of death. But tell me this, did a deadly snake not bite Paul and yet he was preserved? Did Lazarus not bite die yet Yeshua raised him up? Did God not care for the children of Israel? And yet they succeeded their parents entering the promised land. Did Yeshua not die while you were still a sinner? And will he not still have grace as he did? Does God not feed the birds, yet you fear that he will not feed you? Is your future not in the place the Father prepares for you in his kingdom? Are men able to destroy your soul, yet God numbers your hairs? Then why do you fear man's betrayal and rejection when he is the only one that we are to please make a stand today, to have faith, to trust God, to fear God. For Yeshua today is still speaking. And he is saying, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Father, I ask that you would give us that faith that your disciples needed in that day of the storm. For we have our own storm. We have our own fears. And yet you are God over them all. We repent where we have made our fears, our God, where we have made our fears, the thing that we have made decisions from and that we have served. We ask that you would be our God, that we would make decisions from you, from your voice. Lord, help us to not fear the things of this world, nor be people pleasers and world pleasers. Let us set out to please you alone. Father, I ask that everyone who is listening, whose heart is beating with fear right now. I speak to the spirit of fear that seeks to oppress your people. And I command every spirit of fear to leave in the name of Yeshua, every household at the sound of my voice, every person listening to this, we command the spirit of fear to go in the name Yeshua, the Spirit out of lies, the spirit that comes and brings unknowns and lies to the front. What if this? What if that? What if this? What if that? What if God? What if God? What if God? Let him raise his hand. Let him calm the storm. And so I speak to every storm at the sound of my voice. Let it be calmed in the name of Yeshua, Father, bring your peace into their midst and let them see that you are God. And let them fear you, my Lord, instead of their storms. Let them look to you as their salvation and you as the one who gives mercy. And you as the one who can destroy body and soul in hell. And you as the one who we will all stand before one day. And you as the one who dies on the cross for us. And you as the one who spilled his blood for us. And because of all of these reasons, we both fear. And we fear not. We fear you, but we do not fear the punishment reserved for this world. Thank you for saving us, Yeshua. Let your name be glorified. Hallelujah. Let your name be praised. Hallelujah. And let all come to know that the Lord is good. Let them see you come into Jerusalem. Let them hear your voice. Let the Lord go forth from Zion and let the Spirit be upon your people. Speak through your people and give them your boldness. Pray loud. Name? Yeshua. Thank you, Yeshua. Amen. Thank you for joining me today. May the Father bless you, keep you shut, his face upon you, lift up his countenance upon you and give you his shalom, his peace and the fear of God. Sam.