The Fear of the Lord — Proverbs 1

0:02 There's a welcome here. There's a welcome here. There's a Christian. Welcome here.

0:10 Praise the lord, brothers and sisters. It's good to be home in or Matt. North America. It was South Florida. Just want to give a brief report and thank the lord and praise the lord for what he has done through us, through us in South Florida.

0:31 I say us because many of you, most of you were praying with me, for me as I was down in South Florida and financial assistance to help me carry on the ministry down there, but the Lord opened up a door for us to be down there. I left just after Valentine Valentine's Day this year. So, I was actually down there five months. I just got back Friday night. The just in time for the wedding yesterday.

1:02 It was awesome. Awesome wedding yesterday. I do want to thank you though brothers and sisters for your prayers and god really was able to use us down there in preaching his word. We never know how many are saved, were saved. Time tells that, right?

1:20 But there were some that were hopefully saved. We know the word went out in a lot of different in assemblies, in churches, but also out in the streets and out in soccer fields. I first went down there a year ago and spent a few months back a few months there and through prayer and counseling with the elders and that, we decided to go down again. Like I said, after February there and started off working with some Spanish assemblies. There were four different Spanish assemblies.

1:52 It's amazing. The year before, the lord opened that door just because I was invited to speak at a at a youth meeting where all the Spanish assemblies in South My in South Florida, Miami area gather once a month and spoke through an interpreter. Don't know much Spanish but brother Rigoberto, he's an elder of one of those assemblies. He was my translator, the translator and from there, god just knit our hearts together big time And so then I went from that first assembly where the youth meeting was to another... To his assembly.

2:24 That was last year. Then we went back this year to start the mission, the five months down there working with the small assembly where Rigoberto is at. Just some great things happening there. The devil's trying to divide the eldership, the leadership there. So, keep praying.

2:42 God shut em down. They're building for a while. The actually the community... Legal stuff wasn't quite all in order, and God is using even that to really stir the hearts, to bring unity and real prayer, and encouraged Regal and some of us. Were out.

3:00 I think I sent pictures this last time via the phone texting that I have of encouraging Rigo to go out right into the community. And sure enough, we were going to meet after the church service for lunch. Just like we most do here and one of the elders was having lunch with us. He was so encouraged by the teaching of the word and then he was getting bold in a Spanish brother and name is Marcio and Cristiano Cristiano, gospel pamphlets? Oh, yeah.

3:35 Sure. Sure. Sure. And I have them in English, Spanish, and so I gave him some and in the restaurant, he just walking around at the tables. Talking in all Spanish people just giving out gospel tracks and talking to some people.

3:49 It was awesome. It was awesome and earlier that morning, they they have a a like we do a breaking bread service, dinner break and then they eat bread. And that's what the Spanish do. They buy loaves of bread and bread and coffee. We have cookies and stuff.

4:05 Well, they needed to go get some more bread. So, Riga was out just buying bread, and he had the idea. He saw these homeless guys that we had seen many times before, many immigrants coming in and some illegal and all that. Just plenty, plenty of guys standing outside this little like a seven Eleven kind of store. And you could tell that they're just boozing it up and, you know, trying to get through life, I guess, and and no work and all this.

4:30 So, Rigo went and talked to them briefly, shared the gospel, but he had to get back, but he says, hey, would you guys like like us to bring you lunch after this? Duh. Of course they would. So, sure enough, while we're going to the restaurant, after we had our food, Rigo, he buys all this, like, a lot of food. And we took it over there, and we had the most awesome little street meeting on the corner.

4:54 All these guys there just really... They'd been drinking, and one guy was well on it. Yeah. He was unconscious pretty much, but, of course, we brought food, and they all started congregating. There's about 20 guys that came all together.

5:09 And Regal had never... He's he's he loves the lord. He preaches the gospel in the building but he's never done it outside like that in quote quote unquote a meeting. He's a great one to one person and I started it off and Regal was translating and just sharing the word and and and then there was another two other brothers there, Spanish guys, younger guys, and just encouraged to boldly feed them the the baton to, hey, with... Oops.

5:36 Sorry about that. It's not just me, a gringo, but here are some brothers. They were touched by the lord Jesus. Why don't they give you... Why don't you listen to their testimony?

5:44 So, two of the guys, they boldly gave their testimonies and then I I says, well, Rigo, you can go ahead. Go preach and because he's trans. He's very... And he preached like crazy in Spanish to these guys for quite some time. And I'm thinking, man, it would be an awesome time to sing a a beautiful hymn.

5:59 And sure enough, the Lord touched this one brother who came, who was real shy, never really shared public, and they have their little hymn books with him almost all the time and singing a beautiful song. And only the only the Lord knows. Anyway, we tried to go back, and that became a weekly thing. So, it's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome.

6:52 We do a lot of work. That's in the Hollywood, Florida area. That's actually where the Workers' Elders Conference is gonna be this this fall. And that's how I actually got started down there. It was the Workers' Elders Conference seven years ago that myself and a few others went down, flew down to Florida for, and it was from there the Lord opened that door.

7:11 We went back there, and they're kind of a headquarters down there. And they do once a once a month, the whole church, they do door to door ministry during the week, and very healthy assembly. And not not as big of a kids program as we have, but they're working on it. They go out to the beach once a month. The whole church goes out, as many as are able.

7:36 And the assembly is about the same size of ours in numbers, and there's 40 to 50 of the members that are able to come out. Some are not able to come out, but they're staying at home praying. And we stand on the boardwalk and as far as you can see up toward Fort Lauderdale, as far as you can see down toward Miami on this boardwalk, is basically a sidewalk as big as a road, It's just thousands of people, tens of thousands of people and the beaches in front of you on this side and Chris Schroeder has been down there. They go down there once a season and we do the open air and people from the church once a month, we go down there and do that and just lot of great opportunities to share the gospel there. That church also has a soccer ministry on Monday nights that you've been praying for and I want to encourage you to pray for all these things I mentioned.

8:19 Keep praying for them. Every Monday night, there's almost a 100 people, sometimes more than a 100 people, mostly Spanish. Many of them can speak English, but a number can't. And, they play soccer for about an hour. They'll have a half hour, forty minute break for bible time in the middle, and then they'll carry on with more soccer.

8:39 And they just love soccer down there. And it's awesome. They've been doing that for before I was there at the Workers' Elders Conference. It was just starting. It all started from a couple young guys that just wanted to play soccer themselves as Christians.

8:52 And they began to... They found this one big soccer field. It's it's... Now they actually have to pay money because they put artificial turf on it. It's a nice field.

8:59 So everybody comes there, and these guys sit and listen for thirty minutes, forty minutes to the gospel. And the times I got to preach there on those Monday nights is the lord really answered our prayers and the guys are really and a few a few girls actually too but mostly guys. Then, there's a Fort Lauderdale Assembly that I was involved with quite a bit, and they have a building, a meeting room as big as ours, and just a nice building. It used to be full, but unfortunately there was a really bad church split, I'm thinking about ten years ago. And what's left is about a dozen elderly seniors, not just senior citizens, but elderly, and they are just crying out to God.

9:42 I've been working with them, trying to encourage them just to pray because they can't do the legwork. Lord willing, I'll be going back there in a few months and working, yeah, a lot with this this assembly and especially, and it's right in the middle of Fort Lauderdale. It's just an awesome place, and the community has changed. So put... Pray for that assembly too.

10:00 Then there was an an Indian assembly right near the Hollywood assembly, which on the boulevard where the workers elders conference, but it's it's mostly Indian people, and I've had fellowship there for a number of years and spoken there a couple times and got to do that again this time. And then the Lord opened up the door for this small assembly down in Key West, which is as far south, the furthest, it's called southernmost. It's the southernmost point in US, is in Key West. So, from Miami, you start driving down US 1 and you island hop for 100 miles until you get to the last island, which is Key West. And just to let you know what they're known for, it's a big tourist area, two miles by four miles square island and has an international airport so people come in from all over the place just to come there and here's what they come for.

10:52 They come for Duval Street. It's the name of a street and it's a straight road that leads down to the West side of the island where the sunset is And there's got to be, and I don't think I'm exaggerating, 50 bars at least, you know, streets off of that. And so there could be even more. And people, if you've ever been to Put In Bay, I used to be there before I was a Christian, and that's just a bar room scene, and people go there in the summertime and party. Well, that's what this place is all about.

11:17 And they also... Their claim to fame is being really one of the homosexual capitals of America. And there's a small assembly there. Potentially, it seats 100. And at one time, they did have standing room only.

11:33 There was a naval base right up the street, and there was a great work. Actually, all the assemblies in South Florida were started from that assembly. However, the lord led the the brothers to go down there and start a work in Key West. God started a great assembly there, a good move of god. And from there, they started moving up North to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, And...

11:54 But now this original assembly is down to about a half a dozen people. Elderly. There's two ladies in particular, Maria and Nancy, who are trying to hang on. And it's it's... We need to pray, and I intend, lord willing, to go back there and help.

12:13 There's a great work going on there. It's... We need to pray that god would reestablish a New Testament assembly there. The ladies want that, but there's no men. And it's like one of the elders up in up in the Mainland said, well, you can't really be an itinerant elder.

12:30 You can be an itinerant preacher, evangelist, but you can't be an itinerant elder. You gotta live there. And to live there, you gotta have a lot of money because it's really expensive to live there. The chapel has a little cottage in the back, but you're not allowed, quote, unquote, to live there. They got in trouble with the community in the area, but people can stay there.

12:50 And that's where I would stay, but I couldn't, quote, unquote, live there. Anyway, so pray for the Key West Gospel Chapel. A lot of great things going on there. You go out on Duvall Street, and and, again, there's just hundreds, thousands of people every night who need the lord and at first, I was a little as much as inner city workers as as I've had experience with. Still, I was a little apprehensive but as I started just passing out tracks and trying to talk to people, they're just people like us.

13:18 They're lost sinners. They're they're trying to forget about their problems and and looking for hope. So we need to pray for those folks. So, again, I just wanna maybe have a short time of prayer for that. Time is slipping away.

14:08 Father, we just come before you, giving you praise for our lord Jesus and our... Your great, which is now our great salvation. Thank you, Lord. We are eternally secure. Nothing can pluck us out of your hands.

14:22 Nothing. No one. Nothing. Not time, Lord. Nor eternity, Lord.

14:28 We're in it now. We're in eternal life. It's only gonna change location and finally get set free one day from this vile body we're carrying around with us, lord. Can't wait for that day when you come back, lord Jesus. Father, we just praise you for the work you're doing down there in South Florida and how you unite the believers to work together, lord.

14:47 I know they're praying for us here, and so many are praying for the work in Key West, especially it seems, in that small assembly where the elderly are at, and, lord, we just wanna pray and join those prayers too. We pray for the soccer outreach. We pray for all the tracks given out, all the seeds planted, not just through myself but through so many believers. Lord, thank you god for what you're doing. We pray to encourage and strengthen the works.

15:11 Lord, we pray especially for those assemblies that are struggling that you by your grace would reestablish them to be living really healthy gatherings where your people meet lord. We thank you for those who are steadfast and trying to keep the doors open and trying to keep meeting and and worshiping you and we pray especially for Nancy and Maria down in Key West. Lord, help them to be faithful. We pray you raise up male leadership and that that could be able to work with them lord and have unity and harmony and somehow do a miracle in that community we pray. Lord, now we pray for us here.

15:45 God, how we need you, how we need to hear from you today. Teach us, we pray from your word. In Jesus name, we ask. Amen. Last time I was here, I was speaking on Psalm 103.

15:57 So, we're going to continue a few thoughts from Psalm 103. We could spend so much time in in all of it. My time is very short here right today. So, I just wanted we we we spent the last time in Psalm one one zero three, blessing the lord, oh my soul, and why? We bless the lord because David says, for forgetting not all your benefits, what you've done.

16:24 Well, he does what he does because of who he is and because of who he is, that's what he does and it's just so awesome how David just praises and blesses the lord for all that he is and all that he's done. We're going to read through this and then I just like to focus on one thought about the fear of the lord for just a few moments. Bless the lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the lord, oh my soul, and forget none of his benefits. If you don't mind, I'd like to change this to the first person.

17:00 I'm going to, that's how I pray it to the lord and when I when I speak this to the lord. So, let's start over. Bless you, lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless your holy name. Bless you, lord, oh my soul, and forget none of your benefits. Who pardons all our iniquities.

17:20 Lord, you heal all our diseases. Lord, you redeem our life from the pit. Lord, you crown us. You crown me. We could each say this, lord, as we're praying to you, we cry, you crown us.

17:34 You crown me with loving kindness and compassion. You satisfy my years, lord, with good things so that my youth is renewed like the eagle. You, lord, perform righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. You made known your ways to Moses and your deeds, your acts to the sons of Israel. Why lord?

17:58 What are your ways? You, lord, are compassionate. You, lord, are gracious. You, lord, are slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. Lord, you will not always strive with us nor will you keep your anger forever.

18:14 Lord, you've not dealt with us according to our sins. Neither have you rewarded us according to our iniquities. Why? Because of who you are, lord. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is your loving kindness toward those who fear you.

18:33 Lord, as far as the east is from the West, you tell us that's how far you've removed, removed our transgressions from us. Removed them from us as far as the east is to the West. Bless you, Lord. Just as the father flower of the field so we flourish. But when the wind is passed over it, it is no more.

19:20 And its place acknowledges it. No longer. But the loving kindness, Lord, your loving kindness, the loving kindness that Jehovah the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, from everlasting to everlasting on us who fear you. And your righteousness is to children's children. What does that mean?

19:47 To those who keep your covenant. What does that mean, lord? To those who remember your precepts to do them. You, lord, have established your throne in the heavens and your sovereignty, your kingdom, lord, rules over all. Bless the lord, you as angels, mighty in strength, who perform his word, obeying the voice of the word.

20:11 Bless the lord, all you his hosts, you who serve him, do... Bless the lord, all you works of his, in all places of his dominion. It's been a lifesaver to me many times. The book of Psalms, someone else might have said, but I've always said, it's perhaps one of the greatest books to get to know God. It's a it's a book about the whole Bible.

20:53 Obviously, the book of about god but so much about theology, who he is. Not just men praying and singing praises to him and crying out to him in their desperation, confessing their sin and it is all that But just a study of who God is. It's a great, great, great study. I want to focus on that phrase, those who fear him. Qualifying statement up in verse 11.

21:20 As high as the heavens, as far as that farthest star is away from planet Earth, that's how great his loving kindness is is but it's qualified. It's not toward everyone. It's toward those who fear him. And then in verse 13, as a father has compassion as children, so the lord has compassion. Again, not on everyone but on those who fear him and down in verse 17, but the loving kindness of the lord is from everlasting to everlasting.

21:47 It's as high as the heavens are above the earth. It's like a father having compassion and pity and mercy on his little children and how long does it last? It's eternal. It's from everlasting to everlasting. Even though we're like flowers and grass, we just fade away and we're forgotten before you know it.

22:03 Couple generations and nobody knows who we are but the loving kindness tore of the lord toward us if if we fear him is from everlasting to everlasting. Let's do a brief study on that phrase, fear of the lord. The best way to do that is to look at some of the scriptures that talk about that. Deuteronomy, I'm not going to wait for you to get there because of time but Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 12. Starting in 12 through 14.

22:46 What does it mean to fear the lord? Do a study. It's it's mentioned over a 100 times and I'm going to I I I gave out a transcript last time I was here of a paper which had almost all the phrases about fear the lord, fear him, fear me, and and etcetera. Any phrase that was talking about fearing god and if you just read every one of those passages in context, you're going to learn like here, what does it mean? Well, there's synonyms that god gives.

23:12 He gives a list of things, fearing the lord and synonymous that's the word phrases but to fear the lord your god, to walk in all his ways. To love him. Fearing the lord includes loving him. To serve the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul. And there's just no way you can get around this one And to keep the Lord's commandments and his statutes which I am commanding you today for your good.

23:42 It's for our good when we fear the Lord. Verse 14. Behold to the Lord your God. Belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth, and all that is in it. Why?

23:52 Again, why are we fearing the lord? Because of who he is. Verse 17, for the lord your god is the god of gods. The lord of the lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome god who does not show partiality nor take abroad because he's god, we fear him. Verse twenty and twenty one, you shall fear the lord your god.

24:13 You shall serve him. Look at this one. You shall cling to him. You shall swear by his name. He is your praise and he is your god.

24:23 So, to fear the lord is all these things put together. Proverbs chapter one verse seven. Beginning of wisdom is to fear the lord. Fear the lord is the beginning of knowledge, right? That's what it says.

24:36 It starts the book with the fear of the lord. It ends the book. The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom. The beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

24:49 So, it has to do with receiving instruction from god and as we're seeing and then to take heed to it and obey it. Chapter eight verse 13, we're in the Proverbs here for a couple verses. Chapter eight thirteen. Here it is. Here's the definition.

25:01 The fear of the lord is is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance. What evil? Well, pride, arrogance, the evil way, the perverted mouth, I hate. Chapter nine verse 10.

25:13 Turn the page. The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom. Again, that same phrase. So, the beginning, the foundation of all wisdom and understanding how to live this life. We've all are facing difficult decisions in our life, difficult troubles in our life.

25:32 That's what life is, living in a world run by Satan. Right? The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. We're in a fallen world, in fallen bodies. But the beginning of wisdom is to fear the lord.

25:45 The fear of the lord is that beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding. What is fear of the lord? Real simple. Getting to know god, knowing almighty god, knowing him intimately through actual knowledge as you read the scriptures, who he is, what he's done, but then to know him and to walk in his that knowledge of him. Chapter 15 verse 33.

26:12 The last verse of chapter 15, the fear of the lord is the instruction for wisdom. Before honor comes humility. So, it's related to humility and of course, as we see the lord in all his glory, we're going to be humble chapter 16 verse six. By loving kindness and truth, iniquity is atoned for and by the fear of the lord, one keeps away from evil. Johnny, if you do that, daddy's going to spank you and as we get spanked, we begin to learn, oh, it's good to fear daddy, right?

26:45 And obey him And by the fear of the lord, we keep away from evil and of course, that was a human picture but daddy, our daddy in heaven, he's perfect. He knows what's good and right for us. Don't do that or it's going to hurt and the conclusion of the book of Proverbs is 31 verse 30. He speaks to the woman especially at Proverbs 31 woman which is great qualities for all of us, a lot of it. Verse 30, charm is deceitful.

27:17 Beauty is vanity but a woman who fears the lord shall be praised. Psalm 31, if we go back there, we are almost out of time already. Okay. Psalm 31 verse 19. The Psalms are filled with references about fearing the Lord.

27:38 I'm just picking a few here that we that we have. 31 verse 19. How great... Make sure I got the right one. Yep.

27:46 Thirty one nineteen. How great is thy goodness which you have stored up for those. The NAS says, who fear thee. The king saying, King James says, trust in thee. How great is thy goodness that god has stored up for us who fear him and trust in him which thou hast wrought for those who take refuge in him or trust him but the word in the original is that same word used for fearing the lord.

28:10 So, to take refuge in the lord, to run to him, to cling to him, to serve him, to love him. Psalm 33 verse six. By the word of the lord, the heavens were made. By the breath of the mouth of all the of by the breath of he, by the breath of his mouth, all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap.

28:34 He lays up the deeps in storehouses. All that water up there in the sky once was down here in the oceans and the lakes. Let all the earth fear the lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. We won't have time to finish this study.

29:18 It's an emotion that's painful. You don't like it. Who wants to be afraid, right? And it's excited by impending danger, dread mingled with awe and reverence. Yes, it's awe and reverence but we're going to see if we get time.

29:30 If not, we'll have to do it some other time. It means to be afraid and we do fear the lord in the sense of being afraid of his power and glory but as his children, we know he's not going to damn us or condemn us but we fear him. We fear that we we love our daddy. We know he, our earthly father, we know he loves us but I fear that hand, right? When he's going to give me a spanking and so it's it's it's really there.

29:55 We don't want to take away. We stand in awe of him. We fear him. He's god. He's god.

30:01 Verse nine, why do we fear him? Because he spoke and it was done. It came into big being. He commanded and it stood fast. He's creator.

30:11 Verse 16, the king is not saved by a mighty army. A warrior is not delivered by great strength. Don't try and figure it out yourself, friends. We again, we've all got difficulties in life, big time. Some, you know, greater than others at at least at this point in time but then couple days later, our our trouble is greater than yours and then some really intense things going on in this world right now in our lives but we're not saved by our own strength or delivered by an army.

30:40 A horse is a false hope for victory nor does it deliver anyone by its strength. Look at these words here in verse 18. Behold, you could put butt in there, okay? So, we're not saved by our own great might and strength and wisdom and army and we know what to do but behold, the eye of the lord is on those who fear him. What does it mean?

31:01 And those who hope for his loving kindness to deliver them their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the lord. He is our help, our shield, our heart rejoices in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your loving kindness, oh lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in you. So, we are out of time.

31:57 So, begin a a search on your own. If you have computers, just Google in the different phrases. Fear the lord, fear the lord, fear him, fear me, and see what you come up with. It's awesome and take it in context a couple verses before and after. Let's pray.

32:12 Father, we thank you for this time to look into your word. Lord, we'd be lost without your word. We'd I've been in Christian gatherings debating about what it means to fear the lord And the father, there is no debate. We just need to look into your word. So help us, lord, to fear you, lord, because fear honors you and and brings glory to you.

32:34 We thank you. It's not just at all trembling before you, but it surely includes that. You are an awesome god. May each one of us here, lord, starting with me, truly fear you. Lord, we pray as David prayed that you would give us undivided hearts, lord, that we might fear your name.

32:52 And thank you, Lord. You're the initiator. You're the giver of the fear as we learn it later on in our study. It comes from you, and it comes at salvation. Lord, if you would deal with us according to our sins, who could stand?

33:03 But there's forgiveness with you. Why? You We praise you in Jesus name.