Preacher: Daniel Kwadwo Akomea-Agyin

Date: February18, 2024

Scripture: Luke 12:4-10

Prelude:

What if you knew that you could never die. Never fall sick. Never fail. How would you live your life?

Many people advice that we live everyday as if it were our last – this in the hopes that we would make groundbreaking decisions that would alter the course of our lives for the better.

But what if we knew that the next day was not our last?

Would that make us lazy?

Would it make us worship God less?

Finally, we are in full control. We are now truly gods – we are finally in full control over our lives.

What if you knew that your money could never run out?  

I will give you a few possibilities:

Over the years, it has been easier for preachers and prophets to use human limitations as their vehicle for delivery, some selling fear and many more selling hope.

BUT What if you knew all things – way ahead of time, and could plan and change them to the way you want them to be without causing a ripple effect?

You mean to tell me that no matter what I do or someone else does, I will never die?

That I will never be sick? Never broke, never fail at anything I do?

I tell you what I would do. I might become an Atheist.

Why would I need God?

Let us Pray!

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this gathering to listen to what you have to say to us. Father thank you for counting us worthy. Dear Holy Spirit, please come and comfort us, show us the way, and lead us. Come and teach us. And Lord

I rebuke any spirit of fear that may want to take advantage of this message to spread fear into the children of God. I bring all spirits of fear into captivity under the Obedience of Christ. Amen! Dear Holy Spirit, come and do as you please! Amen!

Introduction

The Church today is currently at a place in the body of Christ where we have lost something very important. We talk about everything that God is – God is Faithful, God is wonderful. God is Merciful. God is trustworthy. God is Good. God is Love. All these are True, and they are from God without our effort. But how are we supposed to respond to God in a way that will bring reverence to all these attributes – such that we will not take it for granted that God is all of these to us –Loving, Good, Trustworthy, Merciful, wonderful and Faithful?   The very response that we have ignored as a church is “the Fear of God.” We don’t want to talk about it, we don’t want to hear about it, and even if we do, we will do everything we can to make it sound as subtle and less significant as possible. Our understanding of what the fear of God is   is so limited that we usually compare this fear of the Lord to the fear that we experience in this world.

But these two are different. Jesus put it this way in Luke 12. Do not fear anything or anyone who’s worse they can do to you is to kill you. I understand this in a number of ways. I should not fear the oppressor. I should not fear the violent. I should not fear the devil. I should not fear sickness. I should not fear poverty. I should not fear rejection.  BUT I should fear God. The fear of God, therefore, cannot be equated to the fear we see and go through in this world of ours.

What is NOT the Fear of God

So firstly, let us establish what the Fear of God is Not. We do this by establishing what God says about the fear we see and go through in this world.

The Bible records 74 direct phrases from the Old and New Testaments that say “DO NOT BE AFRAID” or “FEAR NOT.”

When Abraham was worried that he was growing old without a child, God appeared to him, reassuring him with the phrase, “DO NOT BE AFRAID” – “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.

When Hagar was distressed in the desert after being oppressed by Sarah and sent away by Abraham, God appeared to Hagar and comforted her with the words, “DO NOT BE AFRAID.”

When Joshua took over leadership from Moses without a proper handing-over ceremony,  God appeared to Joshua and told him, “Be strong and courageous. DO NOT BE AFRAID; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

And in Revelations 2, when the Words were given to the Angel of the Church in Smyrna

“DO NOT BE AFRAID of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”

Obviously, all these people that God appeared to and reassured,   were afraid of something else or some other people or persons or systems or situations   other than God. A careful study of the Bible will reveal that God never appeared to anyone and told them directly – fear me. God rather lamented in many places in the Bible when God saw that the people had lost the fear of God. God would lament through the prophets. For instance, through the Prophet Isaiah – God lamented saying – “Is it not because I have   long been silent that you do not fear me?”

The people failed to respond to God’s Love with the fear of God – so God lamented, saying – why do you not fear me? Is it because I have been silent for so long?

Now that we have established that the fear of God is not the same as the fear we see and experience in this world,  

What, then, is the fear of God?

1. The Fear of God is True fulfillment in Life

The Writer of Ecclesiastes, after exploring the meaning of life and establishing the vanity of life, the vanity of human pursuits, the inevitability of death, the importance of enjoying life’s simple pleasures, concluded the book saying:

<>Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep God’s commandments: for this is the whole duty of humans.

<>For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Ultimately, the writer – often attributed to King Solomon – concludes that true fulfillment can only be found in fearing God and keeping his commandments.

• The Fear of God is Wisdom

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. Proverbs 9:10-12

We know from the bible – from all our days in Sunday school and children’s service that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And yet, we seem to have outgrown wisdom itself to the point that we have disregarded the fear of God in our pursuit of wisdom.

But the fear of God is more than just the beginning of wisdom.  

Job 28:28

And unto humans, he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

The fear of God is not only the beginning of Wisdom. The fear of God is Wisdom.

• The fear of God is our Response to God for God’s Love, Mercy, and Goodness.

If you look at the attributes of God, all of them come from God without the efforts of humans. When we say that God is Love, it is all about God’s love for us, and nothing about our love for God. The Bible says we love because God first loved us and gave His only begotten son for our sins. When we say that God is good, there is nothing that you and I have to do to experience the goodness of God. God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

When we say that God is faithful, it has nothing do with our faithfulness towards God because the truth is that we are not always faithful to God.

When we say that God is merciful, it is without you and me our efforts. God said – I will have Mercy on whom I choose and I will have compassion on whom I choose.

The Bible says, God’s Mercies endure forever!

BUT while we have no role to play in any of these attributes of God that God shows to us unconditionally,  God demands a response from us.  Much like when I give a gift to you, I expect a response – at least a Thank you.

The response God demands from us is two-fold –   a response to our world- our fellow human beings,  and a response directly to God.   When it comes to our response to our fellow human beings, we have it mostly figured out in our social activism movements—loving our neighbors as ourselves. Showing grace to others. “To act justly and to love mercy”

It is this lateral or horizontal response to our fellow human beings that the writer of 1 John 4 expands so beautifully.   “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.” It is when we have experienced and acknowledged the PERFECT Love of God -in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for you and me -, that we can truly love others without fear.

Then there is our response to God. This is the response that Jesus meant to teach us when He said, “But I will show you whom you should fear.”

Obviously, Jesus strikes a distinction between our two responses to God’s unconditional Love, Faithfulness, and Mercy and Goodness for us. For our lateral response, DO NOT FEAR – rather love in boldness+.   But for our vertical response, fear God.

Fearing God is the only way you can establish and build a relationship with God.

The fear of God draws you closer to God

Psalm 25:12-14

12 Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.

13 They will spend their days in prosperity, and their descendants will inherit the land.

14 The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.

Summary

The fear of God is not something you should want to overcome. We should embrace it in order to draw closer to God. We cannot love God. We cannot be merciful to God. We are unfaithful to God. And we are not good to God. Our only response directly to God is to fear God.

I heard the story of Miriam – a Christian woman in the Middle East, who lost her husband to the violence against Christians. Miriam said – losing my husband this way was hard and it will continue to be hard. But I am a Christian. The Lord Jesus was crucified, whipped and brutalized for our sake. Can’t we shed a few drops of blood for Jesus’ sake?

She understands what Jesus meant when he said – do not fear the one who kills the body and after that can do nothing. Miriam chose to fear God even in her despair as a marginalized Christian woman in a Muslim country. Miriam chose to fear God even after she had just lost her husband to anti-Christian violence. Then she said – it is our responsibility as Christians to keep our faith regardless of the violence against us and continue to love. It is only the fear of God that will cause you to love even the ones who hate you and systematically oppress you.

Jesus said (Matthew 5:43-45) 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

Conclusion

When the time comes  that science and politics finally make humans become indestructible. When we have solved all the problems of violence, of death, of sickness, when we have solved the problem of poverty. – It is only the fear of God, that will keep us in a relationship with God.

But before science and politics, we have our Message of Faith.

Our message of Faith is this: -believe that you have already overcome all of these shortcomings – sickness, death, poverty, violence and trouble. Our message of Faith is To come into this state of mind where you believe that you are indestructible even in the midst of violence, sickness, poverty, and trouble. Fear not the one who can kill the body and after that can do no more.

I am sure that right about now, most of you are thinking – all right, Daniel, we get it. The fear of God is a good thing. We have to embrace the fear of God as our response to God’s love, Faithfulness, Mercy and Goodness. We get it. How do we go about fearing God?  

Jesus said it this way:

“I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

The way to fear God is to acknowledge Jesus publicly before our co-workers, .

In our fearing God, we have to constantly listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees saw Jesus heal and cast out demons from people – and they said  “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

So Jesus told them, when you see that the Holy Spirit is working, do not say that it is satan, you can call me satan, but do not call the Holy Spirit satan – you will never be forgiven.

The way to exercise the fear of God is to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you and amongst you. By not shutting down the Holy Spirit. By not putting our will and desires ahead of the Holy Spirit.

The fear of God will make you re-order your priorities. You will place hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit ahead of everything you do.

Let us Pray:

Dear Holy Spirit, we thank you for visiting us today. Help us to hear what you say to us. Help us to know whenever you are working in us and around us that we shall never resist you. May we never go ahead of you, but lead us. Direct us and order our every step. Do as you please in our lives to the Glory of God. Amen!

Picture from https://samonnawatts.com/5-reasons-dont-submit-gods-will/