What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord?

welcome to real truth real quick my name is Adam Tourneau joined as always by Todd Wagner hello Adam hello friends all right Todd question is this what does it mean to fear the Lord it's a good question because so many of us I think we hear the word fear and we immediately think scared at least you know I do I think retreat I think like it reinforces every perception I had of God before I knew him which is that hey he's in heaven he's watching every single move and he's gonna get me and lightning bolts and every bad thing or coming my way if I don't do what he wants me to do and I better appease him otherwise it's not gonna be it's not gonna go well with me and the truth is when we don't listen to what God says it's not gonna go well with this but it's not because he's gonna try and smite us it's because he is the God who is life and light in love and I love to say if you leave light you're gonna get darkness and if you leave life you get death if you leave love you're gonna get an eight and so you know honestly God doesn't judge us because of our sin as much as sin as its own judgment and there's one primary sin that offends God more than anything and because it it when we ascribed him things that aren't true and so when I go god you need to be managed you need to be tolerated and and even we need to be scared of you because God is love the scripture says in first John 4:8 when we say that that that Lord you are not somebody I want to know or want to have to do business with and I got to put up with you I mean that that's a shame it's sinful it's blasphemous blasphemy is when you attribute to God something that is not true where you take away from God something it is true so I said God is love love isn't God gots much more than love ease just and we ought to really respect certainly the fact that when God says something is true if we trifle with it it's gonna cost us but the fear that the Bible talks about really is that word respect and you know I let me just give you a couple of silly Alice raishin then we'll give you a ton of scripture when when there's something that's just awesome like we today in our little vernacular we have this little phrase FOMO fear of missing out right right so I'm not really scared of what's gonna happen at the lake this weekend with you and your buddies I just don't want to miss out because every time I've been to the lake with my friends they've had an amazing times been rich fellowship and fun memories and lots of laughter and hearts were cemented together and so there's a fear of missing out on that on the goodness and the blessing I'm not scared right right so this is here's here comes the scripture all right the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom okay and so you'll understand more what that means when you see how proverbs 1:7 ends where it says but fools fools despise wisdom and instruction they're gonna not lean on God's kindness they're gonna lean on their own understanding in all their ways they're gonna acknowledge themself well when you leave God you're gonna leave light you're gonna leave life and you're gonna leave love all right a couple of other phrases I mean there's all kinds of proverbs proverbs 1027 the fear of the Lord prolongs life it makes it richer and full of it but the years of the wicked will be shortened I mean again I said this at the beginning I want to say it again God hasn't punished us for our sin as much as sin as its own punishment let me say to you again the wages of sin is death it's what you earn by doing it how many of us have been trapped in our own choices because we didn't love God we didn't fear and respect that what he said is true and that that the Word of God is what restores our soul and so I don't really care what restores my soul I think I'll feed my soul with this nonsense and the next thing you know there's a way that seemed right to me but in the end it's the way of death I Adam when I think about the fear of the Lord it's like man I know the goodness of God I've now known the Lord for almost 3 plus decades and every time I have left his will and left his way quenched his spirit and done what I thought was right I've paid some price for it it has always been SPECT ocular but it always at least to despair and anxiety and and hopelessness or we're just concerned like man I might have gotten away with that but I probably know I shouldn't have that's why there's proverbs like this in proverbs 15 16 it says better is a little just a little of what the world offers or even a little provision and the fear of the Lord then great treasure and the turmoil that comes with it Wow proverbs 19 23 the fear of the Lord says leads to life all right so that one may sleep satisfied boy how many of us lay in our bed and I'm just tossing and turning you know in a way that we're just like man I just dread what my life is ultimately gonna produce we have this sense but it says in proverbs 3 that the sleep of the righteous is sweet yeah I love that right now let me give you a different word different in the same book different Hebrew word it talks about the fear of man and that brings a snare and what that's really saying right there is when you're scared what men think of you and I'm gonna do what men want me to do I'm gonna follow the ways of the world it is a snare to you and that that is the people who tremble at peer pressure or at the world's endorsement that's a snare it's a different kind of it was a different word even though it's translated the same in English but he you trust in the Lord is gonna be exalted so when you think of what it means to fear the Lord think of having a right understanding of who God is yeah I like the word you said respect you're you're respectful of him and responding appropriately that's right and I say all the time this isn't a rulebook right that if we don't follow God's gonna smack us this is a love letter yeah it's God revealing himself it's called the revelation of God because God's showing us what we otherwise cannot know and he wants us to know that he cares for us He loves us he wants to rescue us from our sin which is that constant belief it's inside the human heart that God's not good as words not true disobeying him is not that big deal when the reality is boy it's really expensive like it says in the scripture the years of the wicked will be shortened because living in a way that's contrary to the will of God this is not gonna go well with you man all right so think of a right understanding of God when you think of how do I fear the Lord men you don't want to miss out on anything you want to be attentive to his ways you want to seek him with all of your heart not because if you don't he's gonna punish you but because you'd be punishing yourself yeah I like that good answer Todd thank you so much check out those show nuts for other helpful resources thank you so much for watching and we'll talk to you again next week

Channel: Real Truth. Real Quick.

Views: 13,804

Rating: 4.882998 out of 5

Keywords: fear, church, god, christian, christianity, todd wagner, real truth. real quick., fear god, lord, jesus, watermark, pastor, question, frequently asked questions, biblical questions, bible, bible study, truth, scripture, trust, questions, life, believe, John

Id: lJqpnpz4lJM

Length: 7min 26sec (446 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019