Thank You for Your presence. We know it's here, but we welcome You. We acknowledge Your Spirit
that is here to be with us, to teach us, to lead us today, and to join us in worship as
we worship Jesus and we worship the Father. So Lord, we thank You for it. We thank You,
we love You in Jesus' name. So I get the privilege of sharing with You today. And there's
definitely something that the Lord put on my heart for this morning to share. But it's also
kind of a little bit of my own personal journey to get there, because I think it's important
to share with all of you sometimes how the Lord works in different ways, specifically
when you're not a pastor. Because I think a lot of us that don't preach every Sunday
or don't have that accountability, we kind of think, oh, pastors only work this way
and it doesn't work that way for me. So I thought it'd be insightful to share some of
that with you as we get to where, like I said, the emphasis I think the Lord wanted to put
on this morning. So I'm going to kind of weave that in throughout the little bit of
time here we have this morning. But it started even before I knew we were doing prayer.
I was doing prayer this morning, and I was having lunch with a friend, and he kind
of looked at me and asked me the question. He's like, what is the fear of the Lord?
What does that mean? What does that look like? How do you get that? And almost
instantly I gave an answer, and my answer was something along the lines of
it's intimacy with Jesus. It's knowing Him. It's knowing who He is. And out of
that stems all these things that we think about as fear, reverence, awe,
the trembling, etc. And kind of stepped back and like, huh, that had to
been the Lord because I never thought about it like that before, and it just
kind of came. So I'm like, that's pretty good, but that wasn't, definitely wasn't
me. And so it kind of just stuck with me then for a few weeks, right? I just, I
kept thinking about that, like what is the fear of the Lord? What is the fear
of the Lord? And then, and then Pastor Mary texted and said, hey, would you
want to do, you know, prayer one of these days that we're gone? Sure. And
I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, what am I gonna, what am I gonna
share about what Lord, what do you want to share? And I kept thinking
about the fear of the Lord conversation. I'm like, all right, I think
that's what it's like, because I couldn't shake it. I couldn't shake it.
But at the same time, for some reason, it was very important to me
that I had to, I needed the Holy Spirit to tie that topic in with
what pastors have been speaking, with what Pastor Eager has been
talking about, what revival is, and pastor of our identity. And I
don't know why that was, because I'm like, part of me in the natural
is like, I don't want to just come in and share this topic that's
kind of left field. And then we go back into, it was very
important this time around to kind of share something that fit
together. And so that does, that just kind of stuck with me.
So as I started preparing for today, I had kind of a thought
that I thought it was going to be, I thought it was going
to be something along the lines of, look, we hear the fear
of the Lord and everybody thinks, oh, we're scared of God,
he sits on this throne and he's ready to just smite us down
when we do something wrong. And there's all those things that
you think about, you think of the fear of the Lord. And so
like, I'm going to kind of, I wanted to share, I wanted to
share, you know, what really the fear of the Lord is. That's
where I was coming at it from. And I had my vision of what
I thought that that looked like, like I just shared. And
what I felt impressed to do was to actually go through
and read all the scriptures that talk about the fear of the
Lord. And I don't know if I've never actually done that with
one single word before. I've never gone through and said,
all right, every single verse that talks about this, let me
go through and read it. And does anybody have any idea
how many scriptures there are that talk about the fear of
the Lord or in that same vein? Because it's a lot. There's
over 300 of them. So that's a lot of pages. I'm
like, oh man, there's a lot in there. And so I'm like, all
right, let's start. So I started going through it. And I
worked my way from Genesis to Revelation. And for the
record, the interesting thing was most of those verses are
in the Old Testament. There's over 250 of those are in the
Old Testament. The New Testament has only about 50-ish
around there, right? It's a vein, right? So that was
interesting to me. But what stood out as I was going
through them in the beginning part of the week was
there's a lot of, I'll say, promises or results or things
tied to what comes with the fear of the Lord. And I'm
going to read them because it's important, not all of
them, but I think it's important because if you
think about what my response was when I was asked
that question about the intimacy with the Lord and
what does that look like and what that's what the fear
of the Lord is, I'm like, well, I got to find that in
Scripture. So these are some of the things that are
tied with the fear of the Lord, literally in the same
verse, okay? Tithing, humility, the blessing,
worship, obedience, long life, wisdom, it causes us
to praise Him, safety, riches, honor, salvation,
mercy, the secrets of the Lord, confidence, no
lack, His goodness, the Lord's goodness, it allows
Him to hear us. It gives Him pleasure. And the
other interesting thing was, and I don't know if
this was a one-time thing or not, but it also talks
about that there's a book of remembrance for those
who fear the Lord. It talks about the Namalekai.
I was like, well, that's interesting. Is that still
going on? I don't know. That's an interesting
thing to think about. So I'm kind of going through
that and I'm like, that's a lot of things tied to
the fear of the Lord, especially when you start
thinking about that. That's all Old Testament.
And so going through the week, I got about, you
know, I got about to maybe Daniel or so like that.
And then we go to, I accompanied Pastor Igor
to the youth camp this last week to kind of,
to help him and serve him there and the kids
there, which was phenomenal, by the way, the message
that the kids were getting throughout the week
and what Pastor Igor had to share and just
the reaction, it was awesome. But who knows,
that youth camp, like, adults can receive as
well. It's not just the kids. So that was the
nice thing about that. And I'm sitting there
and I don't remember, you must have said
this, Pastor, but I wrote it down immediately
because I felt the Holy Spirit and it was
the fear of the Lord is walking in first love.
It's like, huh, because he mentioned first love
and then that ran through me. Like, that's the
fear of the Lord. Like, another aspect of it.
And that was Wednesday. And from Wednesday night
to Thursday night to Friday night, my whole
perspective with the Holy Spirit was showing me
of, well, what's the fear of the Lord was
completely changed. So I'm going to read
a couple of scriptures now moving to the
New Testament because what I, what you're
going to see here is the Old Testament
language talks about the fear of the Lord,
which is reverence. It's awe. It is, there's
the fear aspect of it, knowing who he is
and who we are, pre Jesus, pre what he did
on the cross for us. But if you look at
Matthew 22 and, you know, I won't, if you
want to flip to you, but we'll have
them up on the screen. There's just a
22 verse 34 starting there. So, but when
the Pharisees heard that he had
silenced the Sadducees, they gathered
together, then one of them, a lawyer, a
lawyer, asked him a question, him being
Jesus, testing him and saying,
teacher, what is the greatest commandment
in the law? And Jesus said, you shall
love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul, and all your
mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like
it, you shall love the neighbor as
yourself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. It's like,
huh, somebody, all right, now I'm
starting to see, all right, so when we
look at Old Testament, the fear of the
Lord, because they didn't have the
Holy Spirit, right? But there's
still that intimacy that the people
that knew God, that others that didn't
know him, like some of them that were
more intimate with him, they
recognized it. And you see that with
Moses in the book of Exodus. And it's
interesting, the reaction of the people
that didn't have that intimacy with him,
then those that did like Moses or
David or Daniel. But if we read Exodus
20, starting at verse 18, now all the
people, and this is right after Moses
gets the Ten Commandments. So Moses is
up there, he's getting the Ten Commandments
from the Lord. So now all the people
witnessed the thunderings, the
lightnings, the flashes, the sound of
the trumpet, and the mountain smoking.
And when the people saw it, they
stood or they trembled and stood a far
off. So they saw it, they saw the
presence of the Lord and they were
scared. The people saw that. They were
like, oh man, what is happening?
Like, God's gonna smite me, right?
Like, he is blowing up this mountain,
everything's happening. Moses, they
said, they said to Moses, you speak
with us and we will hear. But don't
let God speak with us. We're gonna
die. So they recognized it.
Okay, they recognize it. And so Moses
said to the people, don't fear.
God has just come to test you, that
his fear may be before you so that
you may not sin.
And so the people stood a far off, but
Moses drew near the thick darkness
where God was. So Moses, who had been
with God, spent time with God,
recognized his presence. He wasn't
scared of him. He was, he was
fearful of him and who he was.
But Moses also knew the promise and
the covenant that he had with God. And
he wasn't afraid to step into that
presence, where those that didn't know
that were.
So that is, it's all starting to click
as we go throughout there. And so like
I said, I was really trying to figure
out, you know, the revival is, and I'm
starting to see the identity component
because you can see it there with
Moses. He, he knows who he is, where
he stands with God.
Okay, and then, and then you get to,
you get to the book of Luke. There's
other parts too, but you go to Luke and
you see the thieves on the cross. And
this one, this one hit me, you know,
the S'moran actually, as you think
about it. But Luke 23, starting at
verse 39, then one of the criminals
who were hanged, my Bible doesn't
open that far, hanged blasphemed
him saying, if you are the Christ,
save yourself and us. So you got one
man sitting there mocking God.
He's seeing Jesus naked on the cross,
beaten, and he's like, your God, really?
Not recognizing him, okay? But then the
other, the other thief
answered, rebuked him saying, do you
not even fear God? Seeing you are
under the same condemnation. And we
needed, and we indeed, justly for we
reserve the due reward of our deeds,
but this man has done nothing wrong.
And then he looked to Jesus, Lord
remember me when you're, when you
come into your kingdom, and Jesus said
to him, assuredly I say to you, today
you will be with me in paradise.
So you have on the cross, you have an
unrecognizable man in Jesus, and you
have a person, two people that have
been convicted rightfully of their sin,
one recognizing who God is. He has an,
that is an intimate moment. You're,
you're, you're standing there, not
standing. You're, you're hanging there,
being humiliated in front of man, and
one person, first time he's probably
ever met Jesus, recognized him, and said,
Lord I know you're God, I can, I know it
in my spirit. He said, don't forget me.
That's incredible, the recognition of
that.
And then, last, not last night,
Friday night, I'm bouncing around, but
thank you, Kylie. Go to Acts 2 verse 42,
and then this is where, this is where I,
this is where the Holy Spirit said,
there it is.
Acts 2 verse 42, and they continued
steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine,
and fellowship in the breaking of bread
and prayers. Then fear came upon
every soul, and many wonders and
signs were done through the apostles.
Now all who believed were together,
and had all things in common, and sold
their possessions and goods, and divided
them among all as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord,
the temple and breaking bread from house
to house, they ate their food and
gladness and simplicity of heart.
Praising God, having favor with all
the people, and the Lord added to the
church daily those who were being
saved.
So what you see there then is, is
what the heart of, where I was
talking about, shared about the
intimacy of the Lord is, there's an
intimacy amongst the body there.
The apostles in the upper room,
right?
They're breaking bread, they're on one
accord, and that's where God's kingdom
starts to multiply, right?
They're, they're moving it forward,
they're, they're recognizing His
presence, they're with each other,
they're with Him, worshiping Him,
and that's what we've, that's where
the start of revival is, as
pastors have been talking about with
prayer, right, starting there,
because intimacy with the Lord,
when we talk about what's coming
next, is going to be solely dependent
on do we recognize Him when He shows
up.
I mean, when I say solely, you
understand what I mean.
It's, we need to recognize it and
capture the, the presence of the
Lord. And if we don't recognize Him
when He shows up, we're going to
miss it.
And we keep talking about the Lord's
going to move greatly in this next
generation. This next generation
wants authenticity and wants this
and that, which is all true.
But what if it's not what we're
expecting?
What if it's not? We, we think of this
big grand, and it could be, don't, don't,
don't hear me wrongly, like I'm
saying this isn't what it is.
But we think it's going to be
something magnificent, and it's
going to be magnificent. But
magnificent in our eyes is going
to be different than what's
magnificent in the Lord's eyes.
And if we don't have the intimacy
with Him to recognize His Spirit,
recognize His presence, we might
we might squash it, we might shut it
down.
It might be something very simple.
What if it's a bunch of, I won't say,
I won't say, I won't use the example.
But, but what if it's something we
don't expect?
What if it's, you've got people
coming out the streets that just
have a word from the Lord, and it's
the next generation, because they have
that intimacy in the Lord, and they
come up here like, you got pink
hair, you've got nose rings, you
don't know what you're talking
about. But they have a word from the
Lord, because why?
They spent time cultivating that in
private.
We have to learn when it's the Lord
and when it's not.
We have to know, we have to be
authentic with that, especially in this
culture of AI.
Like, you look at images and videos
and stuff, you don't know if it's
real or not. How do you know if
it's real?
That is, that's just a, that is a
a conditioning of questioning reality
amongst our, our, the human race
and the next generation.
The only way you're going to sense
when it's God and when it's not is
through
the intimacy with the Holy Spirit that
you have in private,
and that when we recognize it when it
shows in public.
Okay?
So, when I think about fear of the
Lord, for me it's the fear of, of
knowing
who God is, because there's still a
reverence there, there's still an
awe there.
But we need to be able to step
outside of
of just Sunday morning and say, yeah,
that felt great.
But what about when you're walking
down the street,
you're sitting in Walmart,
there's a Holy Spirit talking to you,
if you see somebody, was that my
thought, was that the Holy Spirit
said, go talk to them.
There's a youth camp that we, that
you know, that you go to, is, is
that real? Is it the Holy Spirit?
Because revival is going to come
from authentic, authentic worship
and service of, of the Lord.
We are to fear the Lord.
We're to fear his name.
The name that's above every other
name.
We're to fear his word and his
presence.
We give it, we give it preeminence. We,
we lift it up, we exalt it, we put it
first in our lives. And, and there's
areas, you can have the fear of the
Lord. You can have that
esteeming of the Lord in certain
areas of your life, and not in
others.
It's, it's fascinating how that
works in the human mind, where
you, maybe you have a really, you have
without a doubt that the Lord is going
to take care of you financially, right?
Like, I know the Lord will bless me, I
tie, that promise is true.
But, oh man, I've, I've got a headache.
I got to go to the doctor. I could
have a brain tumor, right? Like, how
does that, how does the human
mind, how does the human mind work
that way? And I only say that to
show that there's, there's spots
that we put God first, that we
lift him up, that we acknowledge
him, and that he is first, that we
have that intimacy knowledge of him,
that he takes care of us in this
area, but not the other.
All I'm saying is we have to recognize
that, and when we don't have it, it's
Lord, where do I need to be more
intimate with you?
Where do I develop that with you?
And, and it starts in that secret
place, right? We've been talking
about the secret place for some time,
but it all ties together. You see how
it ties together now? It's you have
identity in Jesus, because without
Jesus we're, we're that one thief on
the cross that's sitting there
mocking God, whether we know it or
not.
Right? You can consciously, or you can
intentionally mock God, and you can
unknowingly do it.
Okay? And then when Jesus shows up,
you either recognize it, like the,
like the one on the cross, like Lord,
shut that man, shut up.
That's God, Lord forgive him, forgive
me, I want to be with you.
We have to recognize that. It's, it's
super, super critical.
If anything, I mean, look at, look at
Paul, Paul said, let's say
everything, let's say all the, the
revival, everything happens up, the way
that we think it's going to be the
next generation comes up.
There's this mass revival, and it's
just like we thought was, great,
this is wrong, but guess what? Paul
says, I count everything else, what?
Robish, except for knowing him.
So even Paul said, know him, know him,
get intimate with him, recognize his
presence. We're supposed to actually
be trained in the fear of the Lord, you
develop it, you cultivate it, right?
You sit there and you, you, you ask
him to show him, show you how to do
it. You develop that through that
intimacy with him, and with that
comes all those things I read,
right? Those, those things are still
tied to us in the New Covenant, but by
what? By Jesus, by the blood, by the
cross, by what he did. All those things
I read, I read on purpose, because
that sounds like New Testament
Scripture. That sounds like the things
that we think about when we think of
what Jesus did on the cross for us.
And your secret place is going to
be different for everybody.
There's different ways that I
encounter the Lord,
you know, I used to drive a lot, a lot
of times I was driving. Now there's
still times when you want to be sit
and quiet and not have those
distractions, but it's different for
everybody depending on what season of
life you're in, depending on your work
situation, depending on, on all that.
So don't compare how it works for
Pastor Igor versus, you know,
Ashley versus Julie and Ken and
don't worry about that.
Pursue him. Pursue him.
And it might be 10 minutes? Fine.
It doesn't have to always be an hour.
You should be building, you should be
growing, you should be stretching
yourself, but we need to be pursuing
him.
I, I, I'm going to use this
analogy because, like, like Pastor
Verne likes to say, the Lord woke
him up, or I won't say it was the
Lord woke me up this morning at three
o'clock, you know, there's other
reasons that you might wake up in the
middle of the night, like midnight
Taco Bell, I don't know, but I woke up
and I couldn't fall back asleep, and
I'm thinking about what I'm sharing
this morning.
And, and, and the Lord kind of, I'm
going to say it was the Lord because
I'm going to say it was Lord and if
it wasn't then I think it's still a
good analogy.
But it was, uh, compared to, to
dating, right? When you're, if you're
courting somebody, if you're
wanting to get to know, uh, you know, a
boyfriend or a girlfriend to say, is
this the person I want to marry?
You spend time with them, right? You
want to spend time with them.
You want to have conversation with
them. It just doesn't matter what's
about, right?
And then eventually gets into the
deeper things, the, the, the more
conversations you have, the more time
you spend with them, you start
going deeper and deeper and
that's the relationship that we're
supposed to have with the Holy
Spirit.
And I'm speaking to myself, it doesn't
stop
once you get, it shouldn't stop once
you get married, just like it shouldn't
stop once you get saved, right? The
older you get in the Lord, the more
deeper and more intimate it gets. Now
it changes, right? You grow, uh, he
shares more, he being the Lord shares
more with you, uh, and you have
ups and downs. But the point is this, is
it's, you develop a human
relationship with your spouse or
future spouse, do the same way we are
called the bride of Christ, like that
analogy is, if you think about how
God describes the church and the
bride, related to our earthly
relationships. Now you compare it to
what he says it should be, but how
would you go about that if you were
trying to marry, if you were going
after somebody said, I, that's the
person I'm supposed to marry. What
would you do? We're supposed to be
with Jesus, we're supposed to be
intimate with him. How would you go
pursuing that? My favorite verse that I
that I actually found amongst this
whole thing, this whole study that I
did, is, is Acts 931. And it's, I
don't know, you read some verses and
it just like, oh yeah, never saw that
before. Then the churches throughout
Al Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had
peace and were edified. And walking in
the fear of the Lord, so they're walking
in the fear of the Lord, they're
walking with him. They're walking in
that intimacy with him. And what? And
in comfort of the Holy Spirit. And
then what happened? They were
multiplied. The, the, the walking in
the reverential fear of the Lord,
knowing him, knowing that we, that
we have the Holy Spirit, which is
the identity of who we are, when
we're saved, when we're, when we accept
Jesus as our Lord. That's when the
Holy Spirit's given to us. And then
what? Then they were multiplied. Then
the revival comes, because you have
that, you know, the Acts 2 that we
read about, about the, the, the
pursuing him in prayer and breaking
of bread, as the Scripture says
there. Then the multiplication comes
because you're after that one thing
and that's him. You seek him. And then
all these other things come.
Right? Matthew 22, we read it there.
Pursue the Lord first. Don't seek the
event. You don't seek the event, you
seek the Lord. Then that's what
happens.
So I wanted, I wanted to, I wanted to
share that. I felt that that was
really what the Lord put on me,
because I think it's super critical. I
think it's super critical as we think
about what the pastors have been
sharing in kind of a unique way
where you go bounce between message
and message.
But throughout the whole thing, if
you're paying attention to what's
being shared,
it fits hand in glove with the, with
each message.
And we have to catch it. We can't
say, oh, Pastor Verne's this Sunday,
you know, we'll, we'll get our, we
get, we'll get our Greek, we'll get
our Hebrew, we'll go through the
whole thing, right? Like pastor
those are just phenomenal. And
Pastor Eagle will come and it's
completely different.
It's, it's sweating, it's running, it's
all those other things, right?
But the message is the same. And the
pursuit is the same.
You're seeking him. And all these
things are needed for us to get
where the Lord wants us to go
personally and as a body.
So we got a, we got a couple
minutes. So what I want to do for
just so, just a few minutes here
since my time management is so well.
As pastor Tanya likes to say, we're,
we're the, this is the prayer group, we
should spend a little time in prayer.
So however you want to do it, we got
five minutes or so before we need the
band to come.
Let's just spend some time seeking him
for these last few minutes and then
we'll enter into praise and worship
and we'll seek him as a body,
right? And then we'll hear pastor's
message and we'll seek him more
through his word. So can we get just
some instrumental or something to kind
of worship too? But Lord, Lord, we love
you. We thank you for your word.
We thank you for your son, Father.
We thank you for the gift that you
have given in your Holy Spirit.
We recognize who we are without you
and that is a, that is a woeful
and dreadful people that are just
that have no hope. We are a hopeless
people without you.
And we thank you, we thank you that you
have sent your son to give us that hope.
To give us that desire, Holy Spirit,
to give us that desire to know Jesus
more intimately.
In every facet of our lives,
Holy Spirit, point out to us the
areas where we are not putting you
first, we are not making you Lord,
where we're not fearing and trembling
who you are in those areas, where
there's areas that we are putting
ourselves like, the Lord will deal
with that, I'll deal with that later.
That's something, that's not, that's
not an important, like Lord, let us
recognize who you are and that
where there's areas that haven't
been washed by the blood Lord,
point those out to us, deal with
us Holy Spirit, whether it's
relationships.
If it's just the lack of a desire
Lord to seek you, Holy Spirit,
remind us of that, not on us
until we have that, that we just
can't resist it anymore, where we
have to go, I need five minutes,
I'm just gonna lay down on my face
and tell the Lord how much we love
Him, just start there.
Lord, we love you, we love you, we
worship you, we worship, we put
you first, put you first in every
area.