The Fear We Forgot: Reclaiming God's Treasure

My heart is deeply burdened for the church in America. Barna has done a study. In the last 23 years, over 40 million Americans have walked away from the faith. Half of those 40 million are now professing agnostics, atheists, and spiritualists. Second Thessalonians tells us in the last days that there's going to be a great departure from the faith. But what the Bible doesn't say is that those people that have departed, they won't come back. I believe they're going to come back. John the Baptist was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I believe there's a bunch of people in here you're going to be sent to the lost sheep of the church. Amen? What has caused this great departure? I believe that we have a gift given to us by God that we've ignored. And that gift is called the holy fear of God, the holy healthy fear of God. Isaiah 33, verse 6 makes this statement. It says, there shall be stability in your times. What creates that stability? The fear of the Lord is your treasure and his. Now, I want you to look at this closely. The fear of the Lord is God's treasure. What do we do with treasure? We protect it. We put it in safes.

We hire security companies. We have alarm systems. We put it in very, very safe places. The fear of the Lord is God's treasure. It's not only ours. It's God's. Now, when you speak of the fear of the Lord today, we're talking to a culture that's tried to eradicate fear. I mean, in the 90s, we wore t-shirts that said, no fear. We wanted to abolish it because we hated anything to do with fear. But is all fear bad? The answer is no. I mean, you know, the healthy fear of not messing with the grizzly bear cubs will preserve my life. That is wisdom that will save me. The healthy fear of not just balancing over a 2,000 foot cliff drop is a healthy fear that will keep me from going to an early death. But there is a fear that eradicates all other fears. And that fear is called the healthy, holy fear of God. Now, the first question we've got to ask is this. What is the fear of the Lord? Let me say this, students. And I want you to hear me before you automatically just shut me down. The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God, OK? When Israel came out of Egypt, do you

remember Moses led them out? Students, let me ask you. When Moses brought Israel out of Egypt, where were they going? Everybody yell it. The Promised Land. No, that is not right. What did Moses say to Pharaohs five times? Thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they might worship me in the wilderness. Why does Moses want to bring them to a promised land before he first brings them to the promiser? If you bring them to the promised land before bringing them to the promiser, they're going to make the promised land into a place of idolatry. See, I see an amazing thing. I look at Israel. They're abused by Egypt. They have stripes on their backs. Their babies are put to death. They are working all their lives to build somebody else's inheritance. They are eating the worst, the slum. They're living in the slums. Yet they come out of Egypt, and you know what they constantly say? Let's go back to Egypt. It was better for us back in Egypt. I look at Moses. Moses is raised in the wealthiest man's house

on the planet. His grandfather, Pharaoh, is the richest man on earth. He lives in a castle, a palace. He can do whatever he wants. He can have every Lamborghini in the collection. He can have every Harley he wants. He can throw a national party any time he wants. But he comes out of Egypt, and Moses never once says, it was better for me back in Egypt. Why? Because he had one encounter with God at that bush, and he wanted Israel to have the same. And so Moses brings Israel straight to Sinai. And what he does, he goes up to the mountain and has a private meeting with God. And God says to Moses in Exodus 19, he says, Moses, go down and tell the people the whole reason I delivered you from Egypt was to bring you to me. He said, I have called every one of them to be a kingdom of priests. God wanted every one of them to be able to approach him personally. And so God said to Moses, tell them to get ready. And part of the process of his getting ready is he said, for the next two days, tell them to wash their clothes. Get the filth of Egypt off of you, because I'm coming down. And before I ever revealed myself as a loving God, I first revealed myself as a holy God.

And in the center of that holiness is my love. And so when God comes down on the mountain, I mean to tell you these people. They run from God. Why? Because they've got a little bit too much of Egypt still in their hearts. And Moses is utterly confused by their response and he looks at them in Exodus 20, 20 and he says, do not fear because God's come to test you. What's the test, Moses? To see if his fear's in you so you may not sin. Now look up at me, everybody. Do not fear because God's come to test you. What's the test? To see if his fear's in you. Well, wait a minute. He's talking out of both sides of his mouth. Do not fear because God's come to see if his fear's in you? Moses is differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. There is a difference. The person who is scared of God has something to hide. What does Adam do as soon as he sins? He hides from the presence of God. The person who fears God has nothing to hide. He or she is terrified of being away from God. So if you want the first definition of the holy fear of God, it is to be terrified of being away from him.

This is why the Bible tells us, by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. Back in the early 1990s, there was an evangelist who was one of the most well-known men on the planet. He had the largest ministry in the world in the 1980s. He was a fiery preacher. And he was arrested because of mail fraud and sentenced to 45 years and was reduced to five. I was asked to come and visit him. And when I visited him, I will never forget, he came into the waiting area. He hugged me and hugged me and wouldn't let me go. And then he said to me, we have so much to talk about and we only have 90 minutes. The first thing he said to me is he said, John, this prison was not God's judgment on my life. It was his mercy. I went, oh my gosh. Now I'm looking at probably one of the most infamous people in the world right now. CNN covered his trial every day, his arrest, everything. And he told me how Jesus had delivered him from all of the evil in his life his first year of prison. He was in his fourth year now. And when I got comfortable with him, I said, hey, I have a question. At what point did you fall out of love with Jesus? When did you stop loving him? Because I remember when you started, you were so on fire. You wept when you preached.

And he looked at me, he said, I didn't. I said, no, no, no, you didn't understand what I just asked you. When did you fall out of love with Jesus? At what point? He said, John, I didn't. Now my walls are back up because I don't know this guy. And I remember I said to him, you committed adultery in 1983 and I named a person. And you're going on with all this mail fraud for seven more years before you're arrested. And you're telling me you didn't love Jesus? Are you telling me you loved Jesus all the way through this? He said, John, I loved him all the way through it. Now he sees the confusion on my face. And he said, John, I didn't fear God. And he said, there's millions of Americans just like me. They love Jesus, but they have no fear of God. It is by the fear of the Lord that one departs from evil. So what is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is to stand in awe of him. It is to honor, tremble, revere, esteem, respect, value, venerate him more than anything or anyone else. When somebody fears God, we will love what he loves and we will hate what he hates. You say God hates? Yes, he does. Now let's show you the legalistic version of the fear of the Lord. This is why we ran from it as a church.

I fear God, that's why I hate those sinners over there. You don't fear God at all because you hate what he loves. He loves those sinners so much, he died for them. What he hates is the sin that unmakes that person. I remember in the 1990s, I was praying every single morning for two hours. I'd get up at 4.45, religiously, every morning. I'd go out to an outside place, usually it was a golf course, and I would pray till seven in the morning. But yet when I would stand up and preach, my words were like boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. There was no power, no unction, no anointing. And I was really getting frustrated. And one day I went to the Lord and I said, God, I don't get it. Why isn't there a stronger anointing on my life? And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said, because you tolerate sin. I went, what? You tolerate sin, not only in your life, but in the lives of others. And then he told me, he said, read Hebrews 1. Now Hebrews 1 is when God the Father inaugurates Jesus as king of the universe. After his resurrection. And in Hebrews chapter one, I read this in verse nine, I believe it is. It said, because you have loved righteousness. And the Holy Spirit said, stop.

Every Christian loves righteousness. He said, but that's not all I said. Because you loved. righteousness, and hated, not disliked, not tolerated, hated lawlessness, therefore God, even your God, has anointed you more than your companions. And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and He said, learn to hate sin the way I hate sin and you'll see the anointing of God increase upon your life. So what is the fear of God or what is the awe of God? Number one, it is to tremble at His presence. Number two, it is to tremble at His word. I'm going to briefly cover this in the next couple of minutes. What does it mean to tremble at His presence? Psalm 89 verse 7 says, God is greatly, everybody say greatly, to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be held in reverence by all those around Him. Now look at the second part of this verse. God is to be held in reverence by all those who surround Him. Let me say this, write this down. You will never find God in an atmosphere where He is not held with the utmost of respect. I'll never forget when I first learned this back in 1997 for the first time in my life, I was asked to the nation of Brazil. I was so excited. It was a national conference and I was the Friday night speaker. I fly down. I pray most of the day in the hotel room. They pick me up. They take me to service. I remember that was back in the days, oh, did I hate those days, when they put the speakers on the platform. During worship, I'm sitting on the platform. Can you believe that?

I know most of you never even saw that because you're too young. I'm so glad we got delivered from that. Anyway, so I'm looking at this arena. It wasn't an auditorium. It was an arena and there are thousands of Brazilians. This place is jam-packed. It's a national conference and I'll never forget, the worship team was unbelievably gifted and yet I'm standing on that platform and there isn't a drop of the presence of God in the whole place. Now, you understand what I mean by that? The Bible talks of two types of his presence, his manifest presence and his omnipresence. His omnipresence is the presence of God that says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. That's the presence that David said, if I go to the highest mountain, you're there. If I make my bed in the lowest parts, you're there. But the manifest presence, Jesus said, I will manifest. Manifest means to bring from the unseen into the seen. The unheard into the heard. The unknown into the known. It's when God reveals himself to our senses. That presence was totally absent in that arena. And so I closed my eyes. I said, God, where's your presence? And all of a sudden, when I opened up my eyes, I noticed something I didn't see before. I noticed people standing there during the worship looking around like this with their arms crossed. They had their hands in their pocket looking down. I saw a lot of people talking to one another. I saw people coming out of the high places and going down and getting the concessions and going back to their seats with the tacos or the Coke or whatever it was. And I'm like, this will stop.

But it doesn't. The worship sets over. All of a sudden now, one of the leaders of this big movement in Brazil walks up and starts reading from Scripture. And I'm now, because there's no music, I hear a mutter of the people talking to one another. So now I'm sitting there in absolute disbelief. And the Holy Spirit speaks to me and said, you got to address this. So I'm like, how? Nobody's even listening. So he gave me an idea. So I walk up. I get introduced. I walk up the podium. And I just sit there and stare at everybody. And I don't say a word. My translator's looking at me like, what are you doing? When you're the Friday night guest speaker and you're introduced and you're not saying a word, you're just glaring at people. That will get their attention. All of a sudden, all the muttering stopped. Every eye on the place was on me. And I said, this is the first words I ever spoke in public in Brazil. I have two questions. I didn't say, hey, thanks for having me. Love being here. I said, I have two questions. Question one, you're talking to somebody sitting across the table. And the whole time you're talking to them, they got their arms crossed looking around as if they're disinterested. Or they're whispering to the person beside them, would you continue to talk to them?

They said, no. I said, what if every time you go to your neighbor's house and when he opens the door and sees you, he goes, oh, it's you again. Will you go in? I said, no. I said, I have been in this arena for an hour and a half. And there is an announce of the presence of God here, because God will never manifest himself in a place where he's not held with the utmost of respect. I said, if the president of your nation would have walked on this platform tonight, he would have gotten 10 times the respect you gave the Holy Spirit. I said, if Pele, your greatest soccer player in the history of Brazil, would have walked on this platform, you would have been on the edge of your seats anticipating every word. I said, you've given no respect to the Spirit of God. And I preached to them for 75 minutes on the holy fear of God. At the end of the 75 minutes, I said, if you're in here and you say you're a Christian, because it was a believers conference. I said, you say you're a Christian, but you say you lack the fear of God and you're willing to repent. Stand up. 75% of the arena stands up. As soon as they do, the presence of God comes in, people start weeping. I lead them in a prayer of repentance, they're weeping, and the Holy Spirit said to me, I'm coming one last time. And there's no way of describing this ever, can I do this justice, but I'll try. But imagine standing at the end of the runway at Birmingham International Airport and a Boeing jet takes off in front of you, that kind of a violent wind came blowing into that arena.

When it did, the people erupted, erupted. Now can you imagine thousands of Latinos screaming? I mean, that's loud. The wind was louder. And I remember I'm standing on this platform and I am petrified, but I'm drawn. I don't know how else to describe it. I am literally terrified, but yet I'm drawn to this presence. The authority was mind-blowing. I had never in my life sensed anything like it. And I remember I'm standing there and all that's coming out of my mouth is, oh my God. And I remember these thoughts go through my mind. John Bevere, you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you're dead. Now would that have happened? I don't know, but it happened in a church service in Jerusalem when a couple brought an offering and lied about that offering in that kind of presence. They buried them. But I remember I knew irreverence wouldn't be tolerated, but yet I'm so drawn to this. My head's going, can I handle this? My heart's going, don't lift. And I remember the wind lasted 90 seconds, it subsided. And I'm standing there, I'm like, Lord, what do I do? For like five minutes, it's silent. And I, what do I do, what do I do? The Lord's, I'm through with you.

I said, okay, it's all yours. I said to the leader. So they whisked me out, put me in the car. They put the national singer and her husband in the car. She goes, did you hear the wind? Did you hear the wind? I said, I didn't want to be the first to say it. Maybe it was an airplane flying too low over the arena. She goes, what are you talking about? And she starts literally almost screaming at me. And her husband goes, honey, honey, sir, that was no airplane. I said, how do you know? He said, because there were security men and policemen all around the outside of the arena. Most of them aren't even saved. He said, they're union people. When the wind began to blow on the inside, they heard it. They came running in saying, what's going on? He said, I'm at the soundboard, the main soundboard, making sure my wife's levels are right for her singing. He said, the whole time the wind stopped blowing, the decimal meters were at zero. He said, not one ounce of the sound of the wind came through our sound system. I said, my God, take me to my hotel room. And I remember, I stayed up till 1.30 at night just in awe and worshiping. The next morning, you cannot believe the miracles that occurred because of one reason.

Awe, reverence, holy fear. God makes the statement in Leviticus 10, verse three, that's a universal and eternal decree. He said, by those who come near me. Yeah, draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. But listen, by those who do come near me, I must be regarded as holy. I'll never forget, one day, I used to struggle to get in the presence of God. One day in my prayer closet, I didn't sing, I didn't pray, I didn't say anything. I just thought about the awesomeness of my daddy. I thought about the fact that he put the stars in the heavens with his fingers and called everyone by name. I thought about the fact that he weighed every drop of water on the planet in the palm of his hands. He weighed the mountains in his scales. And all of a sudden, there's the presence of God. And I went, whoa. So the next morning, I thought, I'm gonna try that again. Happened again. I said, whoa. Next morning, I said, I'm gonna try it again. It happened again. So the third morning, I said, Lord, I don't get it. I have struggled so much to get in your presence before in prayer times. It's so easy right now. And the Holy Spirit said,

how did Jesus teach his disciples to pray? Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed, oh my gosh, hallowed be thy name. There it is. Jesus taught his disciples to come into the presence of God with reverential fear. I remember I was in Malaysia in 1999, two years after Brazil. And by the way, we heard about that wind blowing for 20 years. We got emails and snail mail. I remember Lisa, or actually, I'll tell you, I went down in 2016 to speak to 12,000 pastors in an arena in Goiania, Brazil. I get it. The first pastor I meet, who's one of the leading pastors, says, I was in the building when the wind blew in 1997, 20 years ago. And he said, my life's never been the same. Well, two years later, I'm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I'm in the largest Bible school in the nation. Pastors and leaders had come from all over the nation. It was a totally jammed auditorium this time, not arena. And I remember we were on our final service. And again, that presence, that presence, that presence of God, It's manifested. that presence of God, I remember I'd had all the women, that presence of God,

these are all Asian people, that presence of God, that presence of God, all the Asian women were down there that presence of God, that presence of God, because they were saying, that presence of God, I'm called to ministry and I've never publicly, that presence of God, publicly, and I remember I went down to start praying for them and something happened, something that just shocked me. Daddy came in and all these women started laughing, all at the same time, in unison. And within 30 seconds, every one of them was on the floor, nobody caught him, and I saw literally three women laying on top of each other from just collapsing, laughing. And I'm literally watching these women roll back and forth, laughing, holding their gut, and I, as a Catholic boy, am going, oh my gosh, that must be where holy rollers came from. Right? So I'm just literally observing and enjoying this, right? And this goes on for about five minutes, they're just laughing, hysterical. Daddy had come into the room and he was blessing his girls and the people. And I'm just sitting with my feet dangling and watching this and just going, this is magnificent.

Right? All of a sudden, the presence lifts and another presence comes in and I recognize it from Brazil. And I went, oh boy. Now I didn't say a word, I just got up. And all of a sudden, within moments, those women all stopped laughing and with moments, they started crying out, weeping, and almost screaming. And I'm sitting there going, oh whoa, here it is again. And I remember, I'm walking back and forth and I'm going, my God. And this time, it was stronger. There was no wind, it was just that presence. And these women are literally crying out. Nobody is orchestrating this except for him. And I'm going, oh my God. And this is when I discovered there's a difference between my heart and my head. Because once again, I had the thought, you say one wrong word, you're dead. And I remember my head thought, I can't take this. And my heart said, uh-uh, God, don't lift, don't lift, please, and I'm literally having an argument. Remember the word of God pierces between soul and spirit? There's a difference. And I remember, I'm walking back and forth and all of a sudden, my mouth says something my mind had never thought of in its entire life.

My mouth said, this is the spirit of the fear of the Lord. And all of a sudden, I went, oh my gosh, that's it. I didn't do it like that, not in that atmosphere. Inside, I'm going, that's it, that's it. Isaiah said, remember Isaiah said, the spirit of the Lord should rest upon Jesus. Look, I'm gonna put the scripture up. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel, might, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord. Now look at this, and Jesus's delight was in the fear of the Lord. You ever notice, the Bible says, when the days of his flesh lifted up his voice with vehement cries to him who was able to save him, and he was heard, Jesus was heard because of his godly fear. It's one thing to pray, it's another thing to be heard. Why? Because he delighted, his delight. Every morning, I'm praying, God, baptize me in the Holy Spirit. God, please, and I know that's only drawn to people that truly walk humble. It's not for the proud. You still with me? So the next, that meeting in Malaysia, it's over, and the pastor, very wisely, didn't end the service with a song. He just got up and he said, I can't end this service,

you're welcome to stay as long as you want. I stayed about 15 minutes, then I started walking out, and this Indian couple, this Indian couple walks up to me, and they just look at me. Now, she was nailed by his presence, I mean, nailed. And I remember, I like to get as close to you as possible. Is that all right? I'd be down here if I could. So I remember, we're just staring at each other, like, what do you say after something like this? And she says this, she said, I feel so clean inside. I went, oh my gosh, that describes it. You just articulated it. That's what I felt in Brazil. That's what I felt in California. That's what I felt in North Carolina. It's only happened like five times. I said, that's exactly, that's exactly what I feel. Exactly, that's exactly what I feel, feel so clean. So the next morning, I'm playing basketball with the Bible school students at Malaysia, right? I'm putting on my gym shorts in the hotel room. The Holy Spirit speaks to me and said, read Psalm 19. I have no idea what's in Psalm 19. So I go, I get my Bible, I go over to Psalm 19, I start reading verse one, verse two, verse three. Then I get to verse nine. The fear of the Lord is clean. And I went, oh my gosh, there it is. The fear of the Lord is clean.

Now look at this, enduring forever. Everybody say enduring forever. Spirit of God spoke to me at that moment. He said, son, Lucifer led worship right before my throne. Hey, Chris Tomlin's a friend of mine. He's my next door neighbor. He's good, but he ain't led worship. right before the throne, where the angels are crying out, holy. Lucifer led worship right before my throne. He was anointed to do so. He didn't fear me. He didn't endure forever. Then the Lord said, a third of the angels surrounded my throne. They beheld my glory, my greatness. They didn't fear me. They didn't endure forever. He said, Adam and Eve walked in the presence of my glory. They didn't fear me. They didn't endure forever. He said, son, every created being that stands before my throne throughout eternity will have been tested in the holy fear of God. After that, I started thinking, so many pastors have started in ministry, on fire. They love Jesus, but they didn't endure in ministry. Why? They lacked holy fear. Are you still with me?

There's so much I could talk about. The second aspect of holy fear is to tremble at his word. All the people of Israel are trying to serve God. They're doing it in their way. They're doing a lot of things he asked them. They're offering their lamb sacrifices, their bull sacrifices, their grain offering, but God says, it's like offering pig's blood to me. And they're confused. And God says, this is the one whom I look. This is the one whom I look. Now, that word look means to pay close attention to. God is saying to Israel, you're doing all this stuff. You're having all your services, your praise services. You're offering your pig's blood, or excuse me, your lamb's blood. He said, it's like offering pig's blood to me, but this is the one I look at. This is the one I pay attention to, on him who is humble and contrite and who trembles at my word. What does it mean to tremble at God's word? It means we'll obey him immediately. You ever hear somebody say, well, you know, the Lord's been dealing with me about this now for several months. Ha ha ha. You are boasting about your lack of holy fear. When you tremble at his word, it means you'll obey even if it doesn't make sense.

When you tremble at his word, you'll obey even if it hurts. If you tremble at his word, you'll obey even when you don't see a benefit. There was no benefit for Esther to go before the king, but she said, I'm going. If I die, I die. She feared God. You know, you almost have to show people the benefit of obeying God in America to get him to obey. That's a real sad, that's a real sad story. You ever wonder why 40 million people have walked away? Could it be that we sell Jesus instead of preach him? Could we, could it be that we get people to try to join instead of repent? I don't know about you, but all over the New Testament says the only way to turn to him is to repent. It's the first foundation. Repentance from dead works. You know, Lisa and I, I really love her, but you know, if she said to me, you know, Tony was my high school boyfriend. I'd like a few nights a year in bed with him. Peter, I was pinned to him in college. I'd like about a week with him, but you'll be my favorite. I'll love you more than any of them, and I'll spend the majority, 90% of my time with you. I wouldn't have married her. And we think a bride, we think a groom, Jesus is coming back for a bride that says,

let me just have this part of the world. Let me just have this. Let me entertain myself. Let me, let me, let me entertain myself. What, let me entertain myself with what drove the nails through your hands. Means, to tremble his words means you'll obey all the way to completion. What's the greatest promise of the awe of God? It's friendship, friendship. Look at Psalm 25, 14. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant. That word secret actually means secrets. The secrets of the Lord are with those who fear him. How many of you have secrets? Let me see a show of hands really quick. Put them up high, high, high. Do I pray for the rest of you for lying now or later? How many of you know there's good secrets? Not all secrets are bad secrets. There are things, right, Lisa knows that you don't know. Do you understand what I'm talking about? God says, I share my secrets with those who fear me, which means just like you, you don't share your secrets with everybody. You share your secrets with intimate, close friends. Can I show you this in another version? Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him. Not everybody, not everybody is God's friend.

Oh man, could I, now in your book, I have a whole section on this. Just read it. Jesus made a statement, he said, you are my friends. We write songs about it, we preach sermons about it, but we never finished what he said. You're my friends if you do whatever I command you. That's why Abraham was the friend of God. God said, go kill your son. Didn't give him a reason why. Abraham goes three days, lifts the knife up. God says, stop. Now I know you fear me, because you obeyed instantly, because you obeyed when it didn't make sense, because you obeyed when it hurt, because you obeyed when you didn't see a benefit, because you obeyed to completion. Abraham lifts his eyes, Jehovah, Jireh, God just revealed a facet of his personality to him that nobody had ever known before, because he's my friend. Look at the friendship relationship between God and Abraham, it's amazing. One day God says, should we do to Sodom and Gomorrah what we're planning on doing without first talking to our friend Abraham? So the Lord comes down to the terrible tree, says, Abe! Yes, yes, Lord, yes. I'm thinking about blowing up those two cities over there, what do you think?

Sodom, Sodom? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and Gomorrah, what do you think? Abraham goes, think, think, think, think. Okay, think, think, think, think. My nephew's over there. Okay, God, you would like blow up those cities if there was 50 righteous people? The Lord goes, great idea. Okay, we will not blow up the cities if there's 50 righteous people, glad we talked to our friend Abraham. Abraham goes, well, there isn't 50. Okay, Lord, don't get really mad, but what about if there's 45? The Lord goes, another good idea. Abraham talks them all the way down to 10, because he figures there's gotta be 10, lots of one, only needs nine others. There isn't. Now, here's what's amazing. The Bible says Sodom and Gomorrah is buying, selling, trading, marrying, giving, marriage, planting, and harvesting. What is that in today's vernacular? Life is great, the economy's booming, and if there is a God, he doesn't mind our lifestyle. They're 24 hours away from being obliterated by God's judgment, and they're clueless. That's not what's scary. This is what's scary. Lot, everybody say Lot.

Who the Bible calls righteous. Second Peter chapter one. I'll put it in today's terms. Saved, born again. Is 24 hours away from being obliterated, he's as clueless as Sodom. It takes two messengers of mercy, two angels, because Abraham prayed, thank God Abraham prayed, to get him out. Now, here's two righteous, saved, born again men. I'm gonna put it in today's terms. This man knows what God's gonna do before he does it, and helps God decide how he's gonna do it. This man is as clueless as the world. Why? This righteous man fears God, therefore he knows the secrets of God, because he's the friend of God. This man, righteous man, born again man, does not fear God, therefore he does not know the secrets of God, because he's not the friend of God. Now, you are my friends if you do whatever I command you. That's trembling at his word. I'm gonna end it with this. I could show you all the benefits. Joy is a benefit. The person who fears God is the one who's really happy. Oh yeah, it's in the book, read it. Your posterity's gonna be blessed. I could go on and on about that in a whole chapter.

Eliminates all other fears. You wanna know why people fear? Because they have no fear of God. When you fear God, you don't fear anything else. But this is the one I wanna get to. It's the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Everybody say the beginning of wisdom. Say it again. Proverbs 4, 7, getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do. I love that verse. All right, now look at this. I wanna show you something. I want you to remember this as long as you live, as long as you're in ministry. Getting, go to the next one. The fear of the Lord is a fountain. Everybody say fountain. That word fountain means a continual flowing source. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the traps of death. So, whoa, whoa, whoa. Death has traps. Anybody in here trap or hunt? What do we need for a good successful trap? It's gotta be hidden and it's gotta be baited, okay? So a good trap is hidden and baited. That's the way traps of death are. They're hidden and they're baited. The fear of the Lord is a continual flowing

fountain of life. What is it a fountain of? Well, Proverbs tells us in chapter 15 that it's the counsel of wisdom. It's the instruction of wisdom, right? So the fear of the Lord is a constant flowing fountain of wisdom that protects you from the traps of death. I'm gonna give you an example. Can I give you an example of a man who had no relationship with God, but he feared God? Do you know that? Cornelius feared God, but he didn't have a relationship. I'm gonna give you another man. His name is Abimelech. You'll find him in Genesis 20, right? What about this guy Abimelech? Abraham presents Sarah, his wife, as his sister. Abimelech takes Sarah into his harem. God comes to him at night in a dream and says, you are a dead man. Oh yeah, put it up. I got it. I think you guys will find it. I hope I got it. I may not have it. God says, you are a dead man because the woman you have taken is already married. So you know what Abimelech says? God, God, I didn't know. He says, actually he says, Lord, I didn't know. And you know what God said back to him? I know you didn't know. That's why I kept you from sinning against me. There you go. I kept you. What kept him? That fountain. That fountain. You see, 90% of the time you operate in the wisdom of God, you don't even know it. But it's a fountain that protects you from the traps of death. Now, this is what I want to ask. How can a man sit in a church service for 20 years and hear the Word of God and end up in bed with somebody else's wife? It's not rocket science. No fear of God. How can a pastor preach from a pulpit and end up in bed with another man's wife? It's not rocket science. No fear of God. Abimelech had the fear of God. That's why God kept him. If you look in Ecclesiastics, you will find that that situation is like a net and a snare. And the man who

fears God won't fall into it. Or the woman that fears God won't fall into it. The fear of the Lord is God's treasure. It's Jesus's delight. Why aren't we preaching it? Because Paul the Apostle writes, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not love and kindness. That famous evangelist made that pretty clear to me. You mature your salvation through fear and trembling. There is a coming move of God, and we're on the beginnings of it. And this move will be marked by the holy awe of God. You mark it down. And moves in the past, if men got in the way, they stopped the move of God. In this move, if men get in the way, they'll be taken out like Ananias and Sapphira. There will be no stopping this move. This is not the time to be a performer. This is not the time to be in competitive with your brothers and sisters. Did you get something out of this? Did you get something out of this?