Sermon preached on Sunday, November 26, 2017 at Grace Community Church in our Joint Heirs Fellowship group based on Psalm 34.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to the book of Psalms, Psalm chapter 34.

What is it that you fear the most? We know that fear is a human response. It exists. It’s real.

We might call this a worldly fear. For example, do you know that unbelievers live with an innate fear to lose their worldly possessions, and to lose life itself?

They are concerned with self-preservation and so they fear.

They melt and become as water.

People fear over the unknown. They crack.

They don’t know what is coming and can’t trust anyone and so they live with fear. It is a human response.

It causes them to do the craziest of things.

Just consider what fear drives a man to do?

There is a worldly fear and it drives men to do the craziest of things. But there is also a godly fear.

In OT we read that what God requires of us is to “fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God will all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the LORD’s commandments and His statues” (cf. Deut 10:12).

Solomon cuts it short and says in Ecclesiastes 12:13 –

13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.

All throughout the Scriptures you have examples of men who feared God.
· Abraham feared God and so did not withhold his only son (cf. Gen 22:12).
· Joseph feared God and declared it to his brothers (cf. Gen 42:18).
· Job feared God and so turned away from evil (cf. Job 1:8).
· Cornelius feared God and prayed to God continually (cf. Acts 10:2).

These were men who feared God and such fear was the attitude they carried all the days of their life.

Because to fear God is revere Him and be awed by all that He is and this always translates to life. That is why this kind of emotion / attitude must be predominant in us as His people.

A.W. Tozer has said -

“The fear of God is … astonished reverence. I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most satisfying emotion the human soul can know.”

But what happens when you fear for your life? What happens when you get your eyes off of God and unto life’s troubles or circumstances? When worldly fear comes to the foreground?

One word: DISASTER.

Peter said it best in 1 Peter 1:17 –

17 …conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;

That reverence, that awe, that respect for God ought to flow from your life here on earth. Again not in fear of man or of life’s circumstances, but on God.
 
Jesus said to his disciples in Matt 10:28 –

28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Your eternal destiny is heaven. You have placed your faith in the One who can determine and bring to pass the destiny of souls and bodies.

Illustration: It is said of Lord Lawrence on his memorial in Westminster Abbey, “he feared man so little because he feared God so much.”

I suppose that is a great challenge for us all. It is something that believers of all ages have struggled: to ultimate fear God more than man.

Not to lapse into despair but to develop an unwavering confidence in God.

David came out of that struggle and so penned these words in a psalm.

His message is simply: God can be trusted. He does come through. We can call on Him. He will help His children. Above all, fear Him.

Read Psalm 34.