Proverbs: Fear of the Lord

Scripture References: Matthew 10:5-31, Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 3:13-18, Proverbs 10:27, Proverbs 14:26-27, Proverbs 15:16, Psalm 19:9, Psalm 25:12-14, Psalm 31:19-20, Psalm 34, Isaiah 33:6, 1 Samuel 21, Ephesians 4:17-18, Colossians 2:3

Intro:

Good morning, everyone! We're diving into Matthew chapter 10 today, drawing wisdom from Jesus, Solomon (from Proverbs), and David (from the Psalms) to understand the fear of the Lord. We'll see how this powerful concept can actually free us from all our other fears.

Key Points:

• Jesus' Bizarre Halftime Speech (Matthew 10):
  • Jesus sends out His disciples with a message of the Kingdom, healing, and deliverance.
  • But then the message takes a dark turn: "I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves."
  • He warns of persecution, betrayal, and hatred, yet astonishingly commands, "Do not fear those who kill the body... Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
  • This isn't a typical pep talk, but a profound invitation to a greater fear that delivers from lesser ones.
• The Fear of the Lord: The Beginning of Wisdom:
  • Proverbs 1:7 famously states, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."
  • This "fear" isn't a cowering dread but a reverent awe that leads to friendship with God (Psalm 25:14) and is described as "clean" and "enduring forever" (Psalm 19:9).
  • It's a treasure that brings stability, strength, and life (Isaiah 33:6, Proverbs 10:27, 14:27).
• Fear's Grip: Lessons from David (1 Samuel 21 & Psalm 34):
  • Even heroes like King David succumbed to fear, running, hiding, lying, pretending madness, and forgetting God's faithfulness.
  • Fear often leads us to strongholds – places we seek for safety that become captivity. It makes us huddle with those just like us.
  • Psalm 34 is David's testimony and sermon after God delivered him from his fears.
  • Fear is a faith revealer: It exposes what we boast in, what we magnify. To be free, we must boast in and magnify God (Psalm 34:1-3).
• A Greater Fear Delivers from Lesser Fears:
  • Just as the fear of rejection might make you jump off a bridge, or the fear of losing a child makes you brave the ocean, a greater fear can trump lesser fears.
  • The fear of the Lord is not a fear of Him, but a fear of going without Him—a reverent submission that keeps us in step with Him.
  • This fear leads to refuge in God (Psalm 31:19-20), obedience, and faithfulness. It frees us from the compromise that worldly fears demand.

Conclusion:

The idea that "the only thing to fear is fear itself" is a lie. The one thing we should fear is the Lord. And in this divine exchange, when we fear Him most, He delivers us from all other lesser fears, leading us to abundant life and wisdom.

Call to Action:

As we come to the table, let's ask God to expose the fears that reveal what we've put our faith in. Let's boast in Christ's sacrifice, knowing He's made a way for us to live free from fear's influence. Receive His broken body, and ask for a healthy fear of the Lord – one that is pure, clean, endures forever, and leads to fullness of life. Come to the table, and if you need prayer, a team is ready to minister to you.

Transcript

Hey, if you've got a Bible,(...) would you open it to Matthew chapter 10?

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Matthew chapter 10 is where we'll start today. Of course, we're in a series on Proverbs. So we'll start with Jesus here in Matthew. We'll make our way to Proverbs. And then we're going to end our time in the Psalms talking about the fear of the Lord. So Jesus, Solomon and David will teach us about the fear of the Lord today. Matthew 10 starting in verse five. These 12 Jesus sent out instructing them,

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"Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons you received without paying, so give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey,

(...)

or two tunics or sandals or staff, for the laborer deserves his food.(...) And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.(...) As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it's not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on that day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

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Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, don't be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.(...) When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Bezalbol, how much more will they malign those of his household?(...) So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.(...) Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

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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.(...) I maybe should have warned you that I was reading so much. You guys all right? Everyone still with me?(...) I have spent the last few nights doing what many of you have done. I've spent my evenings at either a graduation or a graduation party.

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And every time I'm in a stadium under the lights, I find myself regretting that I didn't play high school football.

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There's something really special about those lights. And in fact, when I was an Exeter, I found myself thinking, I'm coming back for a football game. And then at Mineral King Bowl, I was thinking, I can't wait to come to a football game. And I don't regret not playing football because I like football more than any other sport. I regret not playing the football for that feeling of being suited up and going out there in the Coliseum and competing. And I also really regret that I never got to be a part of like a halftime speech

(...)

that I've never experienced. And I don't even know what it's really like. I don't even know what it's like, but I've watched films. And in those movies, it's a certain way. And I want to be a part of that. You know, a whole team kind of floods in, dejected. They're down, you know. And the coach is like, you want to quit? There's a door, you know. And then he rallies them.(...) And they rally, you know. And I don't know what he says, but you know, you've seen the scene before. And they take the field. I find myself like really regretting that I never had that experience, that I never got to be a part of a kickoff or experience the camaraderie of a football team.

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What I just read to you is probably the most bizarre halftime speech you've ever heard.

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And I fear that because you've heard it before, you didn't actually just hear what I just read.

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Because you've heard Jesus say things like this before, and you expect Jesus to say things like this, you didn't actually picture yourself in the locker room hearing Jesus say something like this.

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This is Jesus saying, bring it up, boys. He's got his 12. He's like, hey, bring it up.

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And it starts really great. He's like the kingdom of heaven's at hand. And you can see the team going, yeah, it is.(...) Heal the sick. Yeah.(...) Raise the dead. Yeah.

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Cleanse the lepers. Yeah. Cast down demons.(...) You know, like they're fired up, right?

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Freely you've received. Now freely you give, you spend it all on the field. Everyone's like, yeah.(...) And then it starts to get really dark.(...) He's like, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves.

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And you can just see the team going, wait a second.(...) I think you've got that flip flopped.

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Coach, are we the wolves or are we the sheep?(...) Keep it down, Kowalski. You know, that's kind of weird.

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Well, just for the record, I wanted to be the wolves. Well, we're not. We're the sheep.

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And then he promises not that they might face persecution, but they will be.

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Before he does that, he says, we're going out there and we're not taking a helmet.

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We're not taking shoulder pads.(...) Take off your cleats.

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Then he says, you will be, not you might be, you will be flogged.

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You could just see the team being like, what happened? You know,(...) then he's like, brother is going to turn against brother and parents are going to turn against one another. And you're like, coach, this is really, really dark, you know,(...) then the most bizarre part of this is that in the end, he has the audacity to say, do not fear.(...) Rather fear.(...) And it's like, this is the most confusing part.(...) He's like, do not fear.(...) Rather fear the one who can destroy both body and soul and hell.

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So he's like, bring it up here. You know, hey, hey, bring it up.(...) All they can do is kill you.

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And you're worth more than a bird.

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He's like serpent doves on three serpent doves. So are we the dove or the serpent cool ski? That's the last time you chime up. It's both where the serpent doves on three.

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It's that crazy. You know, what's crazier is here we are.

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His disciples ran that play.(...) Got flogged.(...) We're martyred. Went out without shoulder pads and a helmet. Didn't know what to say. We're set before kings.

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And it worked.(...) Here we are. Two thousand years later, eight thousand miles away from where this took place, speaking another language than they spoke. Those disciples ran the play, made disciples. And here we are. The Christian faith continues to grow. And that was the halftime talk they got.

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It's wild.(...) Hey, listen to me.(...) You don't have to go to this church if you're new here. Like, you don't have to come here if you don't like it here.

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You have to know Jesus.(...) You have to know Him.(...) He's utterly unique.(...) Who talks like that?(...) Who leads like that?

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He's worthy.(...) There's no one like Him. If you don't know Him, please, please, please, you have to know Him.

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And to know Him, you have to be in a community. So you can choose this one or another one, but you've got to know Him. And the best way to get to know Him is to participate in His body. Jesus is unreal.

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Dangerous. He won't live inside your expectations. In fact, He seems incapable of living inside your expectations. But this is the guy. This is the coach we long for.

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I'm so interested in what Jesus puts out here because I believe that what He's saying when He says, "Don't fear, rather fear,"

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is He saying that there is one fear that can deliver us from all our other fears.

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He doesn't just say to them, "Hey, you're going to be flogged, so don't fear." He actually says, "Get yourself a bigger fear. Get yourself a forever fear.(...) Get yourself what the Bible would call the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is that ring that rules them all.

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It is that thing that can deliver you from all other fears.

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We're studying Proverbs this summer, and the fear of the Lord is a significant theme, and it's the theme that we're going to be talking about this morning. But it is what Jesus is talking about here when He says, "Fear not, rather fear." That there's a fear that can produce fearlessness in our lives.(...) There's one ring to rule them all.

(...)

And Jesus is saying, "Have this.(...) Have this as you go forward. It will deliver you from all your other fears."

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Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7, of course, famously says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."

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Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of the Lord is for us the beginning of wisdom. And so as we've set out to be wise and to have wisdom, the fear of the Lord is essential. It's the very beginning of what it means to be wise.

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If when I talk about the fear of the Lord, you have yourself, you know, you're having a bit of a kind of reaction, that seems so Old Testament. I would remind you that what I just read to you was Jesus in the New Testament. But I also want to remind you of what Psalm 19.9 says.(...) I love this. The fear of the Lord is clean.

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The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever,(...) like as in both Testaments.

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The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

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Two other passages that may mess with what comes to mind for you when I say the fear of the Lord. Psalm 25, 12 through 14 says, let this just mess with your idea of what it means and what it brings to fear the Lord.

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Who is the man who fears the Lord?(...) Him, will he instruct in the way he should choose?(...) So if you want to be a pupil, if you want to be a student of Jesus, if you want to learn from God, you don't have to be smart. You don't have to have it all together. But the people that grow in his class fear the Lord. Those are the people that he chooses to instruct. 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.(...) What?

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And he makes known to them his covenant.

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Listen to Isaiah 33, 6.

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Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times and the strength of salvation.

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The fear of the Lord is his treasure.

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Maybe that's why Solomon would say, if I could ask for anything, I asked for wisdom.

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I asked for this fear of the Lord in my life because it's like a treasure. It's something we want. And so right now, maybe you believe it, maybe you don't, but I'd like you to just decide. Maybe there's more to the fear of the Lord than I know.

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And maybe it's something I want, maybe it's something I need, maybe it's something that breeds friendship and connection with God, not just distance.

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Do you understand that when we fear something, often we distance ourselves from it? That would be the case for, I don't know, snakes,(...) sharks,(...) guns, public speaking, whatever it is. Roller coasters, we often distance ourselves,(...) but we also draw close to things that we fear.

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You fear man and you desperately seek people's approval, and it asks, it invites you to draw close.(...) And you actually come with your need and find refuge in what people think because of the fear of man.

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Also,(...) some of us fear going without, and so we find refuge in money. We actually move towards money. We actually cling. We don't distance ourselves. We move towards that thing that we fear and we need.

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Does that make sense?

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I would describe the fear of the Lord in this way. It's not necessarily a fear of Him, but a fear of going without Him.

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So what it creates in our lives is a sort of reverent submission. I want to stay in step with you.

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Look at what Proverbs, other passages, there's many I could read.(...) But here's a few reasons why the fear of the Lord is valuable and something you should want in your life. Proverbs 10, 27, "The fear of the Lord, it prolongs life. The years of the wicked will be short." Proverbs 14, 26, "In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence,(...) and his children will have a refuge."

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Proverbs 14, 27, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death." Proverbs 15, 16, "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it."

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I want to come back to this idea today that the fear of the Lord can actually work to deliver you from all other fears. That the fear of the Lord can produce in us a fearlessness. And to understand this, I want to look at the life of David and look at Psalm 34.

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But Solomon, he wrote Proverbs, "His father was of course the great King David." And when I think of coming out from under the influence of fear, I think of David.

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I think of King David when I think of a sort of fearlessness and a courage. And walking in the fear of the Lord. I think of David, I think of his Psalms, I think of the things that he did, the things that he wrote.

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You know King David because he was a boy who stood up against a giant with a slingshot and slayed Goliath. And before he did, it's not just that he killed Goliath. He talked trash before he did.

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That's something, right? You come out with a slingshot against a giant. Everyone's like, "Don't do this." And you're like, "How dare you defy the armies of the living God."

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But even our heroes need to be rescued.

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And I hope that the kids are learning this in class this morning. That even our Bible heroes need a Savior. They need to be saved. And there's a point in David's life when he completely succumbs to fear.

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David, as you may know, he spent time running for his life.

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He was anointed king 10 years before he became king, and that didn't work real well for the current king, who saw David as a real threat. And so the most powerful person in his world started pursuing him to kill him. And David ran in fear.

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And we can't read it this morning. I wish we could, but please read 1 Samuel 21.

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This is the story of the most powerful man Saul hunting David.

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And you can read it,(...) but here's what it, here's here. Let me summarize it.

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Fear has David running.(...) He's not standing his ground. He's running.

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Fear has David avoiding.

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Fear has David in this chapter lying.

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Not only, he's not just lying to anyone. He's lying to his pastor in this chapter.(...) His pastor asked him a real direct question, and he lied about what he's doing.

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Fear has David in this chapter pretending madness.

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When he gets caught, he does the equivalent of playing dead, but instead of pretending to be dead, he plays mad. Like he acts like a crazy person so people don't mess with him. It says that he let spit come down his face,(...) and he pretends to be out of his mind so that they go. So that they go, why are we going to bother with this guy? Poor guy. They almost have like pity on him. He's lost his mind. Is this the guy who slayed 10,000? Who's this guy?

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So they go, well, he's lost it. Let's leave him alone. And then for David, fear has him forgetting.

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David is in gath when he does this. Gath is the hometown of Goliath, and he's holding Goliath's sword.

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And he's actually in fear. He's starting to forget the faithfulness of God.

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He's remembering the wrong things and forgetting the right things because he's in fear.

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He's actually hiding out in strongholds. That's what the Bible says. That with a group of guys, he's hiding out in strongholds. And a stronghold is a place that you initially go for security, but becomes in time a place of captivity.

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And that's what fear has become for many of us. A place that we would initially go for safety, but it becomes in time a place of captivity.(...) You know, it's not just that you have fear, but the fear has you.

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So David is hiding in these strongholds, and it actually says that he's huddling with people just like himself.

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And so here's the big idea here, and I just want us to connect with it because fear has David running, has him hiding, has him lying, has him pretending, has him forgetting, and has him huddling with people just like him.

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That should be convicting. Does fear have you running?(...) Does it have you hiding?(...) Does it have you lying?

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Does it have you pretending,(...) forgetting the faithfulness of God? And does it have you huddling with people just like you, like hunkered down in some sort of cave?

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The good news is, is that David is delivered from all his fears.

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And we actually have the psalm that he wrote when God stepped in and delivered him from his fear.

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So if you're here and you're like, yeah, I'm running, I'm avoiding, I'm lying, I'm pretending, I'm forgetting, I'm huddling with people just like me, I would prescribe to you Psalm 34, this psalm from David. And this psalm's really cool because the first 10 verses are David's testimony, his song of praise that God delivers him from his fears.

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And verses 11 through 22 are essentially his sermon, what he would want to teach us about what it means to not be crippled by fear.

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And it's really interesting what he teaches us.

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It's so cool that we have, it's so cool that we have this, this story, and then we literally have David's journal entry.

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Taste and see that the Lord is good. This is a psalm of David when he changed his behavior before a bimilec, so that he drove him out and went away.

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This is David's journal entry when God delivered him from all his fears.(...) Psalm 34 verse 1, "I will bless the Lord at all times." Again, the first 10 verses, testimony,(...) 11 through 22 sermon, his sermon for us. "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together."

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Oh, Trav, you said this was the story of David being delivered from fear in his sermon to us, to those who struggle with fear. The first thing that you need to know about your fear is that you don't have a fear problem. You usually have a faith problem, and your fear is a tremendous faith revealer.(...) So your fears will expose and reveal what you've put your faith in, what you're boasting in, what you're magnifying. And when David is delivered from his fears, he's saying, "Magnify the Lord with me. I boast in him. I make much of him. I blow him up.

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Exalt the Lord together with me and be delivered from your fears."

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How many of you know that when we're wrestling with fear, lying, hiding, hunkering down in some sort of a stronghold, we're usually making much of something. We're usually blowing something up, and it is not the Lord.

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So step one to getting out from under the influence of fear has nothing to do with fear, but once again, placing our faith in a God who stands above our fears. And so David's like, "Let's boast in him. Let's magnify his name together."

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Fear is a strong response to a perceived threat commanding you to protect your hope.

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And where you have fears, you have hopes.

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It'll show you where you house your hope.(...) And David once again is saying, "I hope in you."

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"Magnify the Lord with me."

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You can't have reverence without a revelation. You can't have awe without seeing something. And David's saying,(...) "Let's see the Lord together.(...) Let him reveal himself."

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He goes on, and I'll make one more point before we close.

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This psalm is actually an acrostic poem, so that means that each verse begins with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.(...) And David did that because he wants to teach. He wants his sermon to be sticky too. So I'm not the first guy to have three points that start with the letter P. David did it a long time ago. And he's saying, "Here is my sermon." And it starts with successive letters in the Hebrew alphabet because he wants to teach.

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And what does he want to teach us? Those of us who are lying, hiding, running, pretending,(...) forgetting.(...) Those of us who are paralyzed by fear, what does he want to teach us to deliver us from fear? Verse 11, "Come, O children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord."

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There it is again.(...) A fear that can produce fearlessness in our lives.(...) What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and he saves the crushed in spirit.(...) Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them will be broken. Affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

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Come, my children,(...) listen to me. I'll teach you what it means to live out from under the influence of fear. Fear the Lord and it will deliver you from all your other fears. It will produce in you a boldness.

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Again, this is exactly what Jesus is saying. And let me explain how this works. Have you ever had a greater fear deliver you from a lesser fear?

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I just recently heard this story from my good buddy, Taylor Armarding. Taylor came to visit us. He was marrying a girl who was from the Central Valley. First day I met him, I was like, "Hey, we're going to go jump." I was 21.(...) So let me say that first.(...) I was like, "Hey, let's go jump off this bridge into the river and swim around." And he's like, "Okay, cool." So we went to a bridge. We floated around in the river. We swam. There was like a bachelorette party going on or something.

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And he jumped off this bridge. It was probably 30 feet high.(...) It was about a decade later.(...) And Taylor told me, "I'm terrified of heights.(...) Nothing in me wanted to jump off that bridge."

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But what did Taylor fear more than heights or my jumping from the bridge?

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Yeah,(...) being rejected by me.(...) So guess what he did? I mean, this is how peer pressure works.(...) Its fear is being crushed by a greater fear. And that fear is rejection. So Taylor's like, "Okay, I guess I'm jumping off of this bridge."

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I have five daughters. They're all, you know, they're not all, but they're grown.(...) But when they were all younger, it was kind of hard to herd them.

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And it was a common experience for me to go out on a pier and think, "I'm going to lose one of these kids off the edge of this pier."(...) Now, I think that the ocean is awesome. And by that, I mean awful. And it should be respected. It's terrifying.

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And every time I'm out there, I'm like, "This is nothing to be messed with. The ocean's not mean, but it's nothing to be messed with."

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And when I would picture, sometimes in my mind's eye, one of my kids bailing off the side, guess who's going into the ocean? Guess who's going headlong off the pier?(...) This guy.(...) Because my fear of the ocean has been trumped by a greater fear, which would be losing one of my children.

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What Jesus is saying here is that the answer to your fears is to get a real one.(...) To get a forever fear.(...) To fear the Lord.(...) And to not want to be out of step with Him.

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I want to explain the fear of the Lord using this verse here.(...) So I think it's really helpful because it's kind of a bizarre idea. If you flip the pages from Psalm 34 to Psalm 31, it says, "Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you." Again, let that just mess with your idea of what it means to fear the Lord.

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We don't fear the Lord because He's mean. We fear the Lord because He's nothing to be messed with, and He means what He says.

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And the fear of the Lord produces in us a reverent submission that keeps us in step with Him and leads to long life.

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"How abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind. In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men, you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues."

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What's really weird is you can see this connection as you read the verses on the fear of the Lord, that it results not in distancing ourself from God because we fear Him, but in taking refuge in Him.

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The person who fears the Lord finds refuge in Him.(...) The person who fears going without money finds refuge in it. The person who fears going without the approval of their Father finds refuge in it. It's not just a distancing, but a drawing close to Him that leads to life.

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The fear of man causes you to draw near. The fear of lack causes you to cling. The fear of the Lord causes you to draw near.

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You can see how it then leads to wisdom and it leads to life when the fear of the Lord produces in our lives a reverent submission,(...) a fear of going without Him, a fear of getting out of step.

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You can see how those of us who are here in fear going without, how the fear of the Lord would deliver us and bring us to a place where we can write that check.

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To be generous in the ways that He's called us to be generous.

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Worship team, would you guys come?

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Would you stand with me? When we fear the Lord,(...) when we fear the Lord, it leads to obedience. It leads to us doing the very next thing He tells us to do.

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It produces a fear of straying from Him and that leads to a faithfulness, which in the Scriptures leads to a readiness and leads to reward. And when you fear people, when you fear situations, when you fear loss, it leads to a misplaced faith and hope and a disobedience in our lives because we can't go without those things. And so it leads to a compromise and compromise will lead to our demise in this life and in the next.

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And I just want to ask you right now, we're just going to stand before God and I just want to ask that your fears right now would reveal the things that you've put your faith in.

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Would you, Spirit of God, come and search us and know us and see if there's anything that needs to shift in us?

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The idea that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself is a lie. It's not true. It's not in the Bible. There's one thing we have to fear and it's not fear. It's the Lord.

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And in this wild exchange, when we fear Him most, He delivers us from all the other lesser fears.

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And Lord, we're coming to you this morning asking for just one good fear in our lives, one that's pure, one that's clean,(...) one that endures forever, one that doesn't steal from us, but one that leads to abundance. And that's what we're going to stand at life.

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(Music)

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Lord, if we're running in our fear,(...) if we're avoiding certain things in our fear,(...) finding people who just agree with us, if we're pretending out of fear,(...) if we're forgetting your faithfulness in our fear, just want to ask that you would expose that. And more than just revealing our sin, would you reveal yourself as being so much greater than our fears? We don't just want to see our sin. We want to see you.(...) We want to boast in Christ crucified.

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We want to see your sacrifice as sufficient to cover our fears.

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(Music)

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One last story before we come to the table. Many of you remember Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. They were famous televangelists who fell, and Jim Baker was actually arrested for fraud and embezzlement.

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And four years into his prison sentence, he was visited by a guy named John Bevere, who had a ton of questions for him.(...) And so John Bevere, who's also a pastor, sat with Jim Baker and said, "How did this happen? How did you get so far off track?" And John Bevere asked Jim Baker,(...) "When did you stop loving Jesus?"

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And Jim Baker said, "I never stopped loving him.(...) I stopped fearing him.

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There was no fear of God in my life, and as a result,(...) disobedience ensued."

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Jim Baker then told John Bevere, "There's many people in the church just like that. They love Jesus, but they have no fear of him, no fear of going without him,(...) no fear of being out of step with him.

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He's not mean, but he's nothing to be messed with, and he means what he says.(...) And there needs to be in our lives a fear of the Lord in order for us to walk in wisdom.

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The table is open for us. We're going to worship Jesus.(...) Remember that he's here to cover our sin,(...) that he's made a way for us to live out from under the influence of fear. So would you receive his body broken for us, the scared ones,(...) the ones who lie and hide and pretend and forget and huddle with people just like us? He loves us, he's towards us, and he's for us. Remember that as you come to the table and ask God to give you a healthy fear of the Lord.