Sermon - July 1, 2007

Deuteronomy 6:13-17 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not test the LORD your God as you did as Massah. Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you.

1 John 4:13-18 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Matthew 10:27-31 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Sermon-

How many of you have ever heard of the Four Freedoms? On January 6, 1941 then-President Franklin Roosevelt gave the “Four-Freedoms Speech” that outlined freedoms that we should work toward and enjoy in this country. The speech caught on so well that Norman Rockwell, the famous American painter, did paintings of them. What we will do over the next couple of weeks, since this is Fourth of July week and we thank God for the freedoms that we have in this country, is talk about these freedoms. But we want to approach the freedoms from a Biblical point of view not from a worldly standpoint.

Freedom from fear is the first freedom we want to talk about. We want to see what the Bible has to say about fear. After looking at the Bible readings from today, you’re probably confused. Deuteronomy 6:13 says “fear God”, and Matthew 10:28 says “have no fear”. Are we supposed to fear or are we not supposed to fear? “Fear not” appears three hundred and sixty-six times in the Bible, one for each day of the year and an extra one for leap year! So, God says “have no fear” but then He says “To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10). What are we supposed to do? Today we will look at some of those things we fear in our lives, what the Bible has to say about them, and we will see that the path to “no fear” is through “fear”.

Bad things - tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, loosing our job, loosing loved ones, money problems - create fear. What do we do with fear, how do we handle it, how do we get freedom from fear? Those are the real questions. So, we go to the Bible and see what God says. Deuteronomy 6:13 “Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only.” Fear is not necessarily a bad thing. Fear protects you. We know fire is good; we can’t live without fire. But do we need a fear of fire. The house fires I witnessed when I was Chaplin for the Bethpage Fire Department occurred because people had lost their fear of fire. They would leave candles burning or load up outlets with every appliance that could be plugged into them. Consequently, they wouldn’t protect themselves. Fear is not a bad thing, particularly when it comes to Fear of God, because a fear of God will protect you.

There a lot of fear in regard to the world situation. Matthew 10:28 says “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” We need to replace our fear of bad things happening with a fear of God. When our greatest fear is not worshiping God, we’re on the right track. Fear of not worshiping God is essential. Two weeks before the floods in Alstead in October, 2005; God led us to talk about His “Disaster Plan” from Habakkuk, Chapter 3; the land was devastated, there was no food, no jobs, nothing – bad times! The first step in God’s Disaster Plan is to care for your soul and spirit, as well as your body. The second step is to worship God. That’s how you deal with the bad stuff in your life. Habakkuk 3:18 “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” We need to have a fear of not rejoicing in the bad times, of not worshiping God. 2 Samuel 12:20, David’s child died and David went into the House of the Lord and worshiped. That’s how you deal with the bad things in life, you worship! In Genesis, Chapter 8 the earth was destroyed by a flood, and Noah built an altar and worshiped. We need a fear of not worshiping God, not a fear of the bad things in life. 2 Chronicles 20:5-12 A vast army was coming to destroy Judah and Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly at the temple of the Lord and praised God and cried out to God. Jehoshaphat was worshiping. If we’re not worshiping God, we are going to get plowed under by the bad things in life. The greatest fear we need to have is not worshiping God.

We talk a lot about money in this congregation because the Bible talks a lot about money. There are 2,400 passages in the Bible that deal with management of our time, our money, and our talents because God knew it would be important to us. That’s why we talk about it all the time. Eighty to ninety percent of the work I do with people concerns money problems. We need to talk about God’s financial plan all the time. because #1) we forget; and #2) we have 400 people in this congregation, but only 150 here this morning. That’s 250 people who aren’t present to hear this, so we will need to talk about it again!...and again!!...and again!!! until we reach all 400. And then we will have forgotten, so we will need to talk about it again!... and again!!... and again!!! Fear of God is the solution to money problems. We should have a fear of not working God’s financial plan, of not giving 10% of our income to God. Our congregation has survived all its deficits because our congregation tithes, giving 10% of our income for the Lord’s work. We just came off a year where we had an $182,000 deficit. Yet we’re still in business and the bills are paid! That happened because we worked God’s financial plan– giving 10% to the Lord as a congregation. When you tithe, giving 10% for the Lord’s work, and the end of the financial year comes, which happened at midnight last night, all the bills are paid! The year earlier we had a $158,000 deficit. When we ended that financial year all the bills were paid. We need a fear of God, a fear of not tithing, a fear of not working God’s financial plan because that fear will handle the money problems.

God is in control of all things. He’s the One to fear above all things. All those other fears fade when we actually have a fear of God. The fear of not worshiping God will protect you through the bad times. When you worship, your focus is on God and His ability to handle all the bad things. Worshiping helps you spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. The fear of not working God’s financial plan will protect you and consequently, you will always work that financial plan. You will be provided for, and the fear of money disappears.

How do we learn a fear of God? 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” When we get to the point where we fear God above all things, other fears disappear because, as 1 John 4 tells us, “fear has to do with punishment”. Jesus Christ has taken our punishment. Consequently, you know God’s love for you. You have respect, you have fear for God, and you know that God loves you because Jesus Christ went to the Cross and suffered tremendously to pay for your sins and my sins. God doesn’t punish you for your sins. God doesn’t seek you out to make your life miserable. He LOVES you. Your sins are covered, they’re done away with, they’re gone forever. God loves YOU. He rose from the dead and poured out His Holy Spirit to give you faith. And you’re here this morning because you have faith that Jesus died for your sins. That’s a gift God gave you because HE LOVES YOU. And He said He will be with you in the bad times, in the money problems, and in the world situations that scare the living daylights out of us. He says “Fear not” We know that He is coming back because He promised to come back. You’re going to see Him coming in the clouds, and He’s going to take you home to heaven because He loves you. That is your future. That knowledge covers all our fears. In Jesus Christ there is no fear!

How do we maintain a relationship with God? Life gets pretty good at times and we tend to drift. We say, “It’s a nice holiday weekend, I don’t have to go to church this morning.” We need a fear of God at that point. We have situations in life when bad stuff happens and we get mad at God. We need fear of God at that point. We’re tempted to get every flashing blue-light special in life and spend our money and get in over our head. We need fear of God at that point. When things go wrong, people have a tendency to blame God because they’ve lost their fear of God. God is God; He can do as He pleases. It’s not my place to tell Him what to do or how He should run my life, and how He should bless me. We need a fear of God.

People in this country are trying to get the name of God off of the Pledge of Allegiance, off our money; and take the Ten Commandments out of public places because we’ve lost our fear of God. The only sanity that I’ve heard in the public arena on this subject came from comedian Jay Leno a couple of years ago while doing his monolog. He talked about the floods and hurricanes and earthquakes and fires and everything that was going wrong in this country. He said “Maybe now is not such a good time to take God out of our Pledge of Allegiance.” He is right! We need a fear of God.

People say, “I don’t want a fear of God. I don’t want my children growing up fearing God. God is Love!” That’s part of the problem. We’ve made God this warm, fuzzy little thing who should be our personal vending machine and give us what we want when we want it. We’ve made ourselves God instead of letting God be God. God can do whatever he wants and we need to follow Him. We need a fear of not worshiping, a fear of not following God’s financial plan, a fear that God can destroy both our body and soul in hell. You train your kids to have a fear of fire. If they don’t have a fear of fire, they’re going to play with matches and get burned. Fire can be very good, but we need a fear of it to protect ourselves. God IS very good, God IS very loving, He gave the life of His Son to pay for your sins and my sins so we can have eternal life in heaven and a relationship with Him, but we need a fear of God.

Franklin Roosevelt also said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. If you run that statement through the Bible, it is flat-out wrong. The whole concept of freedom from fear is wrong. We need a fear of God to be protected. We have nothing to fear but losing our fear of God. When we have fear of God, we will follow his principles and everything will fall into place. We have nothing to fear but losing our fear of God.

Freedom of Worship. Franklin Roosevelt said in his speech that there should be “freedom for everyone in the world to worship as they see fit in any way they want.” The Bible does not give us that freedom. God is very specific. God is not anyone you manufacture Him to be. God is the Person of the Father, the Person of the Son, Jesus Christ, who went to the Cross and died and paid for our sins, rose from the dead and said He’s going to return, and God is the Person of the Holy Spirit, who comes to us through God’s Word and through the Sacraments. That’s who God is. Any other god is a false god. And God is very specific – worship Him and Him alone. You don’t have the freedom to worship any god you want; worship the God of the Bible

We also do not have freedom to worship in any manner we choose. This idea has been taken into the Christian Church as a huge deception. How many times do we hear people say, “I wasn’t in church on Sunday. I have an agreement with the man upstairs and I can worship in any way I choose. When I worship, it’s just between me and God. My relationship with God is a private thing!” God never says you can worship Him in your own way. God says there are specific ways to have a relationship with Him and to worship Him. The Bible says our relationship with God is to be lived out publicly as God’s people by coming together. God tells us in Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.” Come together as God’s people and worship. Hear the Word of God, receive Holy Communion, give your testimony, and praise God for all the things He’s done. That’s what the Bible says.

What’s needed to cure these types of thoughts is a fear of God. But we’ve taken the fear of God out of society. God is God and you and I are not. Do it God’s way. God does not ever say that it’s alright to worship Him as we see fit, on the tennis courts or in your living room on Sunday with the TV. When we do it God’s way, we’re on the right track; we’re following the words of Jesus. During our Fourth of July week when we talk about freedoms, Jesus says you will have freedom if the Son of God sets you free. (John 8:32) That’s why we can celebrate this week. But it doesn’t work unless you have a fear of God and know what Jesus did for you in God’s great love. At that point, you can begin to enjoy your freedoms. Fear God above all things.

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