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So side note, free of charge,
it's kind of cool to come up here and watch one daughter give
a testimony, but also look out and see your children as believers.
So that's really cool. All right. Yeah, you can amen. I'm going to need that. So this
is interactive. It'd be just fine. So Proverbs
19.23. The fear of the Lord leads to
life, and whoever has it rests satisfied. He will not be visited
by harm. This evening, we're going to
continue our series on the fear of the Lord. Thus far, we've
heard about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge.
That is indeed the starting point. All knowledge and wisdom is from
the Lord. In subsequent weeks, we've heard
about how the fear of the Lord produces a hatred of evil in
and around us. We saw how fear of the Lord instills
a strong confidence in us because God is so trustworthy and able
to save. We've looked how the fear of
the Lord is a fountain of life, empowering us to live a godly
life. We've heard how the fear of the
Lord is better than earthly treasure, and we heard of God's steadfast
faithfulness as the fear of the Lord turns away wrath and atones
for our sin. Isn't it amazing that we can
spend weeks just talking about the fear of the Lord? That is
a big God, and it's great to serve him. This evening, we're
gonna continue to meditate on how the fear of the Lord leads
to life, Specifically, and if you're one of those folks that
writes down a main point, it's about to come. I pause so you
can grab your pen. Specifically, true security and
contentment is only found in submission to God. True security
and contentment is only found in submission to God. That's
our main idea tonight, and that's our takeaway. So Hayden, that's
for you, you already have it. There you go. So how is your
sleep? How is your rest? Are you satisfied? How's your contentment? Where
are you finding your security? I think most of us would find
ourselves answering these questions with a varying degree of not
great to okay. maybe even pretty good sometimes. And as a believer, I can even
imagine that at times, and I pray for this, that we've experienced
that God's graceful gift of a satisfaction and rest. We've been there. The
fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied. He will not be visited by harm.
This evening, we'll review what it means to fear the Lord, We'll
contemplate the life we have in the fear of the Lord. We'll
identify why we can rest satisfied. And we'll explore why we are
not visited by harm. So another version of this verse,
the LSB, Legacy Standard Bible, it reads this. The fear of Yahweh
leads to life. so that one may sleep satisfied,
not visited by evil." Notice it changed the word harm to evil. A literal translation of the
text reads thus, the fear of the Lord leads to life, so that
satisfied, one may sleep untouched by evil. It's good to not be
touched by evil, but we know as sinners we are. So, let's
look at the fear of the Lord just by way of review. It won't
take long. Remember that we've heard that
this phrase is not just limited to being afraid or scared of
God. Certainly, God is all-powerful
and we can rightly be terrified in his presence. He is magnificent,
the creator, the sustainer. He's the answer to all questions.
However, this phrase, as we've looked at through over the weeks,
is rightly understood as a reverent awe and acknowledgement of who
God is. As believers, it's a grace that
he's imparted to us so that we can live a healthy and godly
fear, and it impacts our choices, our practices, and our beliefs. Living in the fear of the Lord
means living under God's authority and direction. It's submission
to God's will. So how does the fear of Lord
lead to life? It would be falling short if
we would only thought of life as our years lived on earth.
Though there is benefit and blessing now, not in a message of a promise
of health and wealth, that's not what it's about. Christian
believers can look to a much greater promise and eternal life. Jesus speaks to Thomas and the
other disciples in John 14, 6, and he says this, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me. Jesus is our model here. He's
the model of the fear of the Lord. He always did the will
of the Father. He always honored God in his
interactions. He always trusted God and had
perfect confidence in his promises. Jesus feared the Lord so perfectly
that he willingly laid down his life and went to the cross in
obedience to the Father so we could have eternal life. And
this eternal life with Jesus is infinitely better than anything
we can imagine. We could go on and on, couldn't
we? It's how much better that eternal life is for a believer.
No more tears, no more pain, no more sin, perfect worship
and communion with God. Eternal life with Jesus is indeed
our best thought that we can even think. Our life on earth
is just a vapor, poof, it's gone. That is what we, and we should
be fixing our life at, compared to our eternal life, we shouldn't
be fixing our life on this vapor, but on that eternal life. It
makes sense that we would fix our eyes on that, and we should
look to the one who holds the keys to life and death, and we
marvel that Jesus would die for us. That is amazing. God is powerful and able, but
he's also just and good. because we don't deserve to have
that, but that comes later. As we live our lives, thinking,
doing, making decisions, turning this way, that, the fear of the
Lord should be our map, should be our compass. It's the rules
of engagement. The world would have you follow
any other path, but that way leads to death. I think car commercials
do this really, really well. We've all seen, I've been watching
the Olympics, and I've seen some car commercials, and they always
seem to be, there's the straight and narrow path, it's paved,
that's the way they're supposed to go, and then the two look
at each other, and off they go off-roading. And they make it
to this beautiful place, and they're really cool, and they're
happy, because they broke some rules, they went a different
direction, they went their own path. I have nothing against
off-roading. I would love to go off-roading,
it's a lot of fun. But when we choose our own path, it leads
to death. It's not true. God's way is the
only way that leads to life. So how can we rest satisfied? Why can we rest satisfied? God
is so good that he gives us blessings in this life when we fear the
Lord. Our verse reads, whoever has
it, and it is referring to the fear of the Lord, rests satisfied,
or in some versions, sleeps. Believers are at peace with God,
and that is restful and satisfying. We are no longer at war and rebellion
with the creator of the universe and the source of all life. When
we think about this peace, this rest, we shouldn't think about
the touchy-feely new age peace. This is peace with someone we
were at war with. We are his enemies, and now we
have peace with him. That's good news. That's where
you say amen. Thank you. We have lots of examples
of not being at rest and satisfied in our lives. Have you ever been
in conflict with someone? You all are thinking about that
person. Been frustrated with the situation? Been troubled
by your sin or someone else's sin? Wanting but not having? Being
sick? Hurting? These things are not
restful, yet we have them. They're not satisfying, and we
have them. As I meditated on this passage,
and usually I did that early in the morning, my thoughts were
drawn to Matthew 8, 23 through 27. This is probably a familiar
story. I won't read it all, but I'll
summarize. This is a time that Jesus and
his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee by boat, and a
storm arises. Jesus is sleeping, and the disciples
are fearful of losing their lives because the boat is being swamped.
Jesus is sleeping in complete confidence in his father's plan.
He's not worried or scared or restless. The disciples wake
him in the midst of the storm, and then Jesus calms the storm
with a word, and disciples rightly marvel. The disciples were afraid,
fearful, thought they would die, and they did the best thing they
could. They went to Jesus, and as he spoke in the sea calm,
the disciples were astonished. This was no ordinary man. We
can sleep knowing that God is always working for our good.
Do you believe this? Help our unbelief. Even in the
midst of hard things, the storms of life, we can rest satisfied
when we suffer under the fear of the Lord. Matthew 5, 6, blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be satisfied. In Philippians 4, 11 through
13, Paul speaks of being content in every circumstance, hunger
and need, abundance and plenty. How? Through Christ who strengthens. The writer of Hebrews in chapter
13, verses 5 and 6 encourages us, be content with what you
have, for he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. So we can confidently say, the
Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can
do to me. We can be satisfied when our fear is properly placed. Matthew 10, 28, this is the placement. 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. We can rest satisfied knowing
that God is working all things together for his glory and our
good. So we see how the fear of the
Lord leads to life, ultimately eternal life, and that when our
thoughts and actions and fears are properly placed, we can rest
satisfied. But this proverb ends with another
benefit. He will not be visited by harm
or visited by evil or untouched by evil. This is the fuel of
our satisfaction. We should not equate harm with
hard. We will have hard things happen.
Troubles and struggles are a part of being sinners in a sinful
world. When we look at this phrase, not visited by evil, we should
think about judgment. The wages of sin is death. Every one of us deserves death.
And once again, we should think about Jesus who took on our sin
and was judged at the cross so for all those who believe in
Christ may be judged according to his righteousness. We will
not be visited by evil because Christ took our place. Knowing
and believing this should cause us to move back up through the
proverb. We can rest because we're satisfied because we fear
the Lord. The fear of the Lord is indeed
the beginning of knowledge as we looked at the beginning of
this series. We can be satisfied with the truth that Christ saved
us from our own sin. That's where you say hallelujah.
Yes, you can all say it together. There you go. So what do we do
with this? So what? Now what? What do we
do? Here's some points of application.
Number one, believe. Reaffirm your belief if you're
a believer. And this is not complicated.
There's no need to complicate it. It's just believe. The word
of God is true. We only have life through Jesus
Christ. Submit your life to him. The
disciples, though rebuked for their little faith, did the right
thing by going to Jesus and saying, Lord, save us, we're perishing. You will perish apart from Christ.
Number two, know how much Christ has forgiven you. We underestimate
this. Tim Keller said it this way.
The gospel says you are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you
ever dared believe, yet more loved and accepted than you ever
dared hope. Number three, resist the devil. Walk in the light. I might cry
here. Read the word. Pray. Love others. Think about what you're filling
your life with. Sin makes you stupid. There's no safe way to sin. Sorry. When you mess up, Remember point
one and two. Practically, read your Bible
every day. Make it a habit. You can't live
without it. Draw near to God, and he'll draw
near to you. Fourth, and the final one, have
an attitude of gratitude. Be thankful to God for who he
is, what he has done, and for all things in your life. because
he uses it all. And so give thanks in all things.
So, how are you sleeping? Where do your thoughts run? Are
you anxious? Are you angry? Are you blaming,
complaining, sinning? There are many things that can
keep us from true rest. I've been there, obviously. At
times, you may even feel hopeless. But here's the good news. There
is hope in Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Lay
all your burdens on him, and he will give you rest. Submit
your life to God, acknowledge him in all your ways, and he
will make straight your paths. In summary, fear the Lord and
submit your life to him. When you do, you will have true
life because you will have true security and contentment. And
ultimately, you will have eternal fellowship with Jesus. Let's
pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for you. Lord, you
are amazing. And Lord, help us, help us to
believe. Help us to repent. Lord, forgive
us when we turn away from you. And Lord, we just ask that you
would let this fear of the Lord, that you would just impart it
to us and that it would be a comfort to our souls. Lord, we thank
you for this evening and we ask for your blessing as we go from
here. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Proverbs 19:23
Series Fear of the Lord
| Sermon ID | 892414512330 |
| Duration | 17:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Devotional |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 19:23 |
| Language | English |
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