BASIC. Fear God

Over the next few weeks, we're going to go through a series getting back to the BASICS. Sometimes, it's easy for us to lose sight of the basic principles in following Christ. The call to follow & imitate Christ is very simple - but executing & living it is totally different. So we're going to break things down & get our minds & heart back to the basics of following Jesus.

Week ONE: Fear God. This concept is so often downplayed in church. We're taught so much about God's love & how loving our God is, we often don't get taught the FULL character of God. If all we know is a loving God - then we don't know the God of the Bible. God doesn't only have one characteristic. Our God is so extravagant, so great & so mighty. Yes, God IS love. But, our God is also to be feared.

Psalm 111:10 tells us that fearing God gives us knowledge, wisdom & understanding. So to know God & understand who God is begins with a FEAR of Him.

When we look at Scripture, every time man enters into the presence of the Living God, they are overwhelmed with fear. We see Isaiah in Isaiah 6 just cry out his impurity. He thought he was utterly ruined for being in the presence of God. Then John in Revelation 1 tells us he fell to the ground as if he were dead. He literally fell to the ground at the feet of the King as if he were a dead man.

So why is our response any different? Why, when we enter the presence of God, do we respond any differently?

So often we see church as a social event instead of entering into His presence. So often we just jump into God's Word without any prayer & just read it without reverence. So often we just show up to church & simply park our bodies there with our mind on something else. So often we can sit in church & take nothing away from the experience of being in the house of the Lord.

How? How can we think we're any better? Any different? That the God they feared is different today?

We've lost a fear of God. And we need to fear the Living God just like Isaiah & John did in the Bible.

In Revelation 1, John is told to "fear not." But notice in the text this is ONLY AFTER John has submitted. Only after John has humbled himself. Shown fear. Reverence. Surrender.

We serve a God who is to be feared. A God who demands we humble ourselves & submit our lives to Him. A God who demands we surrender ourselves to Him as we enter His presence.





JV