Tuesday 10/9/12 Fear God!

Dear Father in Heaven.  Good Morning, Lord, thanks for another day, and Lord, I am sorry I missed yesterday, no excuse, Lord, I just did not get all things fit in.  Please forgive me for this, and Lord, forgive others who did not do their work You have asked them to do.  Forgive our sins this day, Lord, and help us to repent of them and walk daily with You.  Hear our prayers this day for healing of those who have cancer, heart problems, kidney problems, addiction problems, and humble all to our knees to worship You.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Good morning, my dear brothers and sisters.  It is a beautiful morning here at the Southern Location of the North Pole.  Here is a date for you to remember ... Friday, November 2nd at 6:00 PM we are going to dedicate "Santa's House" to the Lord.  Come early, please, come straight from work, we will be having "Turkey Chili Con Carney" Hamburger BBQ, and the All American favorite "Hotdogs".  NO booze, drinks, and lots and lots of desserts, cake, pie, pie, and cake, and more cake and pie.  We have heard, shhhhh, but we have heard, Santa and Mrs. Claus are coming.  We are also going to re-dedicate the food pantry to the Lord (after all, He stocks it).  Please pray for Vicki, she has a full plate again.  Pray for God to heal h er, so she can get a job and get back to work.  This alone will help her feel better.  Let's get to the message.  FEAR GOD!!

1 Peter 1:13 - There, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope full on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.  14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  15 But  just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.  16 For it is written:  "Be Holy because I am Holy."  17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.  (NIV)

Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.  (NIV)

Proverbs 8:13 - To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.  (NIV)

Proverbs 16:6 - Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil.  (NIV)

Fearing God.  A friend of mine told me one time he did not fear God for we have a loving God.  And yes, we have a loving God, and we need to fear Him.  The Bible tells us Reverent Fear.  Let me roll you back to the days of childhood, yes, back when those streets were dirt.  By the way, that is not a saying - when I lived on South 27th Street as a child, the side street, "Woodlawn Street", was indeed still dirt as was the alley behind our house.  Anyway, growing up in a home with very lovely parents, both of whom were school teachers, I did learn a few things, "taught by the tune of a hickory stick," so to speak.  I loved my parents, and I knew they loved me, yet I did have this fear of punishment if I was a bad little boy, and I was indeed a bad little boy sometimes.  Okay, more than sometimes.  I can remember one time I hung a dart board on the inside of our garage doors so as to throw some darts.  Now I was not the brightest bulb in the socket, for the garage doors, double doors, had windows in them, and I hung the target between the windows.  Well, you can guess what happened.  I missed the target and the dart went out into the alley, yes, through the window.  Now, I knew I would need to face my daddy that evening when he got home from Pine Grove where he taught school.  How in the world was my daddy going to deal with me when I tell him I broke THREE windows in the garage doors?  Come on, folks, I just had to finish the game!  And before we were done, I had taken out not one, not two, but three windows.  Let me see, a book in my pants?  No, plead stupid?  Well, yes, but he would know that right away.  Tell him I would pay for them?  That was it, and that worked.  But trust me when I say from the time I broke the windows I had this fear of what was going to  happen.  Let me put this in my words, if you want to dance, you need to pay the band, or so to speak.

You see brothers and sisters, oftentimes because of my love for and also fear of my parents doing the punishment thing, I really did stay out of trouble.  I never smoked or drank, and once I had a car, I was sort of an angel because I did not want them to take my car away.  I had that fear.

So with God having so much love for us that He gave His son for us, should we not fear God The Father and Jesus His Son, who will by the way judge us?  I do not believe we are to be scared of Him, no, no, just have fear of His punishment for us, and yes, folks, we will be judged.  The fear is called Reverent Fear as stated in the Bible.  Dare I say it could be respectful fear, as I had for my parents.  I respected them enough that I wanted to act like they taught me to act.  Yes, I failed my parents and broke a few windows, and yes, I h ave over the years broken a few of God's windows also, we call that sin.  (I understand that when Jesus puts out the all for me, he is going to either get rid of the dart board, or board up the windows.  Yes, I am kidding.)

Maybe one more example ... Again from my childhood, I was taught by my mother how to cross streets, in fact before my first year in school, mamma walked me to school and showed me how to cross each street.  Look both ways, I want you to be safe, she taught me not to be scared to cross the street, but to have enough fear of being hit by a car that I would take time to look.

Do you see where I am coming from?  Have enough reverent fear of God not to break His laws and commands.  Have enough reverent fear to REPENT, FOR SURE THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR ... Amen.

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for loving us, thanks for loving me ... be with us, walk with us and help us have reverent fear of You, and have it out of respect for Your love for us.  Help us also stay away from sins. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.

Now go forth and share those blessings.  Love ya, Pastor Dan.