When Awe Changes Everything

Thank you. Well, thank you guys. Excited to be here today. Jason Ramos is one of our guys on staff. He's not here because he's out at the Hughes unit in Gatesville, Texas with some of our men that are there. Shout out to all of our friends there at the Hughes. They are doing an all-day kind of field day. It's a sports throwdown that's happening. James Mark and I are bolting right after this service. We're gonna head out there, spend several hours with those guys, hopefully crushing them in soccer or basketball or something like that. Doubt that'll happen. We're gonna go for it. And we've been partnering with our friend, Eric Laughlin, who is one of the field ministers there on the unit. He's been helping this throwdown come about. Now, Laughlin is what we call a field minister, which means that he is an inmate there at the Hughes Correctional Facility. He's been through a three-year or three-year-plus seminary. So now he serves like a pastor on the unit. And so Jason and I typically go on Wednesdays. We get to sit with a lot of these guys. It's common that we'll just start and say, anybody got a testimony of what God's doing? And people will come up and share different things that the Lord's been facilitating in their life or in the unit.

So I do this one day, there's like 70 guys there. I'm like, anybody got a testimony? And Laughlin's like, I got one, which is kind of unusual. He doesn't usually come up and share in these kind of settings. And he walks up and he's like, guys, y'all know me. Y'all know I was an atheist who kind of got, you know, accidentally suckered into the seminary, and there I met Jesus and got saved. And I'm just not a real touchy-feely guy. I'm not one of those guys that's gonna like lay hands on people and see them healed or, you know, kind of keep my distance. And he leans over to the stage, he knocks on it. He goes, if I can't taste it, see it, feel it, I'm probably not gonna believe in it. And he goes, however, last week I couldn't sleep. About 5 a.m. I came over here to the chapel, and I was just doing some work. While I was working, someone rushed in the door and said, we need a field minister now. And he's like, why? I don't know. And so they took him to the infirmary, and there on a gurney is this man, this inmate, and there were five people around this guy holding him down. I think three were officers and two were other inmates. And they were holding this guy down, and he was just like, you know, it's like a war zone. And Laughlin said he walked in, and right when he did,

the guy turned and locked eyes with him and let out this demonic language right at him. And he said, I was standing there, and everybody looked at me and said, do something. And he was like, first of all, I don't believe in this. Secondly, what would you do? I mean, what do you do in that kind of situation? And so he said, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. So I just looked at this man, and when we locked eyes, he said, I don't know how to describe it, I saw murder in his eyes. It was pure evil was looking at me, and this demonic language is coming out at me. And I said, in the name of Jesus Christ, go into the swine. And if you're laughing, you know, it comes from a story in the Bible where these demons were having a face-off with Jesus, and he cast the demons out of a man, they went to some pigs, and they threw themselves over a ledge. And he said, I didn't know what else to do. But immediately, the guy did three dry heaves, and then just collapsed back on the gurney. And then looked up and was like, why are y'all all around me? And he sits up in his right mind, looks up at Eric, and is like, what's, why are you around me? And he was like, well, you've had a rough day.

And I just remember, I looked at Eric, and I just said, so what do you believe now? He's like, I don't know what to believe, I'm going to God's word. And I said, but here's what's crazy, his word is spreading all throughout the prison about this situation. He said, I've had people even come and stop me and say, it doesn't happen to somebody else that have been like that's just because they're Pentecostal. But because it's happening to you, I'm actually believing it. And there's this like joy mixed with like chilling awe that is like kind of surfacing around the unit. Because there's this sense of, we're not just talking about theology, this isn't apologetics, this isn't even like a class, an encounter with the living God left someone completely changed forever. And I don't know that there's a better description of what can happen when you go face to face with God than like unspeakable joy and chilling awe that we are in the presence of the mighty one. And so today we're going to talk about what happens when these two things, things merge and I'd like to ask all of you, if you would, to please stand to your feet and we're gonna read from Isaiah chapter six and like Zach said,

we've been in a series on Proverbs today. We're gonna look at some of those Proverbs but we're gonna expand a bit to go to some other places to see the arc of scripture about how this all plays out. But we're standing because the primary way God speaks to all of us today is through his word. And he's about to speak to you. And you're about to kind of see a sneak peek into a situation where joy and awe comes into a collision. You can just listen as I read from Isaiah chapter six that says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings, they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet. And with two, they were flying. And they were calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the threshold shook and the temple was filled with smoke. Woe to me, I cried, I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it, he touched my mouth and he said,

see, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for. And all God's people said, amen. And they turned their cell phones off, take a seat. Now, to launch into this discussion, I need to tell you that I had a pretty surreal moment back around the time we did our World Mandate Conference. Anybody ever been to World Mandate before? Fantastic event that I've helped be a part of and lead at times and I love it. This past year, I was invited to speak as a part of a panel on the subject of how do you make it for the long haul in your walk with God. So all the speakers gathered in my office for a discussion of kind of what we'd be sharing. And I said, guys, I feel so honored. I've never spoken at World Mandate before. And if y'all know Penny Allison on our staff, she said, well, Carl, it is an honor, but it's also an indictment. And I was like, what do you mean? She goes, well, if you're speaking on a panel called the long haul, it means you're old. And I was like, that never dawned on me till this moment. Now I'm offended at the college team for having me speak on the subject. So Danielle, who kicked off our service today, she starts saying, so what do y'all think it takes to make it for the long haul? And Trey Green, who was there, and Penny,

they start swapping ideas. And all of a sudden, I start having this slideshow of faces go through my mind of people who have said yes to Jesus that I've known throughout the years, and they have plowed and plotted and persevered, and it has not been easy. They have the scars to show for it, and they are still standing saying, Jesus is Lord. Simultaneously, this carousel of faces is going across my mind, and they were the ones who said yes to Jesus at some point, but then like the scriptures say, the trials of life, the loves of the world began to come and choke out that love, and eventually they abandoned following God for one reason or another. And I just found a deep sobriety coming over me in that conversation, and I said, guys, I love that we are becoming increasingly aware of the love of God, but I'm becoming increasingly alarmed that we are not becoming aware of the fear of God. And we need both. And one without the other actually can be a little bit dangerous, because if you find yourself where you have friendship with God, the fear of God, without friendship of God, then you'll see God as irritable and as distant. He's the man upstairs, and you just prefer he stay there.

But if you encounter friendship with God, love of God, without the fear of God, you will approach your spirituality very casually. Jesus is your homeboy, he's your bro. He lets you do what you wanna do, when you wanna do it, how you wanna do it, and then when you screw it all up, he just erases all your consequences, because after all, he's the genie in the bottle, and you just rub your lamp when you need him, and you stick him back in when you don't. So your girlfriend's about to break up with you, better rub that lamp. Get him to come out and help her see the light, but then sticking back in there, until you need that promotion at work, then you better rub that lamp again, get him to come back out so he can get you the money that you need, but then sticking back in until you're sick or someone you know is, and you better rub that lamp again to get him to come out and do your bidding. And I just have to wonder if maybe God is utilizing this series on Proverbs to just lean over, look at all of us and say, I've never been in a lamp and I will not be put on a leash. If you've read the words of C.S. Lewis where they talk about Aslan as a picture of God and say, is he safe? And they're like, oh no, he's not safe. But oh, he is so, so good.

What we're trying to propose is that there's something that could come together where fear and friendship get married and that is where you find true freedom. Where you don't live with these being polar opposites, you live as these being integrated in your life, love of God and fear of God. And the result is your freedom in God and in life. Last week, we looked at the wild love of God and how he's better than we could ever imagine. Today, I want to put that revelation of the fear of God in all of your hands. So that's what we're gonna be unpacking to a deeper degree. And if you're sitting out there and you're like, well, bummer. Like I was kinda hoping that's not what we would talk about today. Like, I'm exhausted. Maybe you could talk about how to find rest. You know, or I got some wisdom. I need some wisdom for some decisions I'm making. Let's just talk about wisdom in Proverbs. Or maybe you're like, my family's taking some hits. We need some joy around here. Or my kids or my grandkids. We just, we need a legacy play. How do we make it for the long haul in our walk with God? Well, if that's you, then in effect, what you are asking for is the fear of the Lord. Because the fear of the Lord actually promises all of those things.

Take a look and we'll just kinda do a little walk through scripture, starting with Proverbs chapter 19, verse 23, that says, the fear of the Lord leads to life. Whoever has it rests satisfied. He will not be visited by harm. Now to be clear, this is not saying that Christians will never experience suffering. If you read the whole book of Proverbs, you'll see that trouble and injustice, for those who follow the Lord, it's something that we will deal with as we follow God. This is saying that you may be exhausted because you're carrying the weight of being God on your shoulders. And maybe when you place that weight on him, you find deep rest that your soul needs because now you don't need to impress others and you don't need to carry the weight of life on you. But let's take another look at Psalm 111, verse 10. You're saying, I need wisdom out there. Anybody need wisdom? Okay, here we go. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. See, the fear of the Lord gives you wisdom because if you don't have the fear of the Lord, then you are making decisions based on your preferences. So it's like a dollhouse with lots of rooms. You're in one room and you're trying to make a decision

for your life that will span the course of time. God is taking the room over. He can see how all the rooms connect. So when you fear him, you're able to turn to him and he's able to give you understanding for the next step in your life. Again, if you need joy, you've come to the right place. Look at Psalm 112, verse one. Praise the Lord. How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. See, the fear of the Lord gives you rest on one side. It gives you joy on the other because when you understand the fear of God, then you understand the magnitude and the vastness of God and yet he's still coming close to you and it uncorks a joy you did not know was possible. Yeah, you may be out there going, that's great and all, but I'm wondering how do we kind of make it for the long haul? Go to the very next verse. Their descendants will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. I mentioned Jason Ramos earlier married to Monica. Monica was in the last service and if you know Jason and Monica's story and maybe he's even shared this, you know that they had a bit of a surreal moment this past March because their story is one that was growing up in drugs and addiction,

abuse and trauma that you've probably heard the Ramos's share about. And then he was, he got, Monica was approached by several college students and they asked if they could pray for her in HEB. That would be the seed that would lead to Monica's salvation that would lead to Jason's salvation and they started making very hard decisions, very uncomfortable decisions to follow Jesus at any cost. And they are sitting there at our spring break mission trip and Jason said, I looked over and my granddaughters were going person to person, grabbing their hands, praying for the sick to be healed. And he said, it just kind of. This fast forward kind of motion. I grew up in trauma and abuse, chose Jesus and the fear of the Lord, and now their descendants are becoming mighty in the land. The generations are beginning to see a brand new spiritual pattern erupt from the throne of heaven alone. You realize Psalm 112, it's not lying. It's actually very, very truthful. And so that beckons the question, Carl, what is the fear of the Lord? Because what I found is that for many of us, we kind of have one of two different ideas of what this is that are on two polar opposite ends of a spectrum, both inaccurate. One of them is that God is this like Zeus-like

powerful figure. He sits on a throne with lightning bolts in hand. He's kind of waiting for you to screw up. And then when he does, he can just blast you with his lightning bolts of power to get you back on the right track. The other side of the fear of God goes, well, God doesn't want us to fear. I mean, last week, Carl was showing us videos of horses talking about how perfect love casts out all fear. So I don't think he means fear. I think he means just kind of respect. What I would say to that is, if that is the case, then why did, on a regular basis in scripture, when a human had contact with God or an angel, they typically felt terrified? And many times ended up on their backside. Remember when Jesus is in the garden with his disciples, he's about to get arrested? And this flock of Roman soldiers all come in. Jesus says, who are y'all looking for? And it says in John chapter 18, they answered, Jesus of Nazareth. He says three words, I am he. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. And when Jesus said to them, I am he, Judas fell back and fell to the ground. Now, this guy, John, would continue to follow Jesus and he would be persecuted by being left on an island. And there he has a revelation of God.

And so he wrote a book called, so we're not 17 verses into that account of Revelation chapter one. And he writes, I saw him. And when I did, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. This is all throughout scripture. Matter of fact, the Old Testament word that you see with fear, there's a Hebrew word attached to it and it's yira. And it is defined this way. It's the fear that we feel in anticipation of some pain or danger, awe and reverence. So it's just kind of this overwhelming sense of there's something out there much more powerful than I. And I revere that. Maybe the best way to help you understand that and to grasp that might be to think about the ocean. Because the ocean is beautiful and vast. It's powerful. It's largely unexplored. And a lot of us love to go there. Anybody already been to the ocean or headed to the beach this summer? Let me see your hands. Anybody going? Lots of hands going to the beach. So imagine this.

You get your crew and y'all show up at the ocean. Y'all all walk out to the water's edge and go, we're here. And while we're here, ocean, we've got some rules for you. Because as you can tell, my youngest is about this tall. So I need the waves to be about that tall. And tell you what, we got sunglasses for the family. There is not a place for you to knock their sunglasses off. Lot of married people with rings. You're not allowed to take those rings. And fish, back it up. No nibbling on our toes. Tide, we've tamed you. This is as far, is anybody else feeling the ridiculousness of what I'm saying right now? Because you instinctively know when you show up at the ocean, you surrender to the rules of the ocean. If you bark your orders, it probably won't go well. And yet when you watch scripture, you watch a lot of people doing just that. And again, if you haven't felt this, I mean, I've felt this in the ocean. I had a chance to go to a place called Stingray City several times in my life. It's this wild place, National Geographic documents, this beautiful place, one of the most famous scuba diving areas in all of the world. And how I got to go is crazy.

But anyway, so I remember the first time I went to Stingray City, and the guide told us, he was like, these stingrays have been so accustomed to humans, they'll let you. get close to them, touch them, maybe even feed them. And if you grab their tail, they will shoot a barb into you and you could die. Let's go. And so we all go out into Stingray City and when we first went out there, we're like thinking we could die. So you can see people kind of like going. You know, and then eventually you touch it and the velvety texture of the stingrays, you're like, oh my God. I mean, by the end, my friends are like holding these stingrays, you know, and it's just unbelievable. So we come back the next year, we're scuba diving and we're like, this is gonna be awesome. But they gave us squid this time and said when they go over, just let them go and they'll kind of suck it up. One of my friends, she held on a little too long and he nibbled a little bit on her hand. She was like, I'm out of here. And she bolted out of the ocean and she was gone. I ran out of squid, went back and found the guide.

And again, I'm underwater, I can't talk. So I'm like putting my hand up to say more squid, please. And he bypasses my hand, he goes right to my mask and he starts putting squid all over my mask. And I'm like, I don't know that I like this. And the next thing I know, we have video evidence, like stingrays are like in a flurry all around me. I've got four or five. And I remember just being there going, this could kill me and I hope it never stops. And the vortex of stingrays just going, this is taking my breath away. I'm glad I have this thing to help me breathe. It's just absolutely wild what's happening there. And maybe that is what you are witnessing all throughout the scriptures. When you witness people encountering God, it's like, well, this could take me out. Please don't go anywhere. Exodus chapter 20. We know this area of scripture because we get the 10 commandments around here. But this encounter is marked as an ocean type encounter in the mountains. When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance, fear without friendship. And they said to Moses, speak to us yourself and we will listen, but do not have God speak to us

or we will die. Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning. How wild is that? Don't be afraid, fear God. He's trying to walk them up to the ocean and say, don't be afraid of this place and do not impose your rules on it either. Fear God and it's going to keep you from the destruction that you might turn to over and over again in your life. And so maybe this could end up being our definition of the fear of God in light of that, that it means to be so overcome by God's power, majesty and glory that you have no other option than to take him seriously. Could we all read that together out loud? To be so overcome by God's power, majesty and glory that you have no other option than to take him seriously. This means the king of love, he's shown up, he's present to you and your only response is 100% obedience, 100% humility in response to him. That's what I believe we were all witnessing just a moment ago as we stood to our feet and took a sneak peek into the life of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter six, verse one, did you see how it started? In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I didn't read about him, it wasn't like a cool reel that I could just scroll past, I saw him.

Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world and it captures Isaiah. The result of this capturing, he spills out in verse five and he says, woe to me. Actually, the indication here was basically saying I'm good as dead. I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. He's basically saying, man, I'm a prophet. I thought I was a pretty godly guy but then I got into the presence of God and all of my unholiness came to the surface pretty quick. Which by the way, if you're following God as close as you can and you're like, man, why is it the more I follow? Oh God, the more all of my junk comes up, it could be that you're in the presence of glory, and so your unglory is surfacing. It should actually not discourage you, it should encourage you. You're in the presence of the one who's saying, I'm the lame of God who's come to take away the sins of the world. It should lure you to want long for more of him. The righteous response, though, is what we see with Isaiah. It's him sitting there going, I don't want this in my life. I want it out.

Get this out of my life. Back to Proverbs. We see this in chapter eight, verse 13. To fear the Lord is to what? Say it with me. What? I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Another way to say this is, I love what God loves. I hate what God hates. I'm not trying to impose my will on him. I'm being formed into the image of Jesus. And so if we're gonna see Proverbs 8, 13 be a theme and not just a quick moment in a sermon, then you may have to ask yourself a question today straight out of Proverbs 8, 13. And it's, is there something God loves that I hate? Is there something that I love that God hates? Because if it's true, there's something that God is loving and I want nothing to do with it. Or there's something that breaks God's heart and I toy around and play with it. Friends, it is at that very place where your spiritual life will be stunted and powerless. And you will put it on God and say, where is he? But you have given yourself to a life of loving what he hates and hating what he loves. And again, this is why I'm so grateful

that as a people, we are so in love with worship. We love worship in this house. We want more worship. And I hope we never stop being that type of people. But I would suggest we also need a deep love for God's word. Because it's in God's word where you lock into knowing what he loves and what he hates. You can choose, I like that song. I don't like that song. I don't want that song. I want this song. Why don't they play that song and just be a song judger all day long? You don't come to God's word and judge it. You come to God's word, it reads you. So when we become the people who love worship and love God's word, we put friendship and fear together. There's freedom and power. Instead of being stunted and powerless, which is not God's desire for his sons and daughters, he wants you to have life and have life to the full. Are you with me here? This is the, she is, this is the prayer that I'm hoping will capture all of us. And I've just been meditating on Proverbs 3, 7 as well. It says, do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and the result, turn away from evil. Meaning if you allow yourself to kind of think, I think I've got this, I can figure this out. No one really needs to know about this.

You're not gonna turn away from evil, but fear the Lord, you'll turn away from it. I think that as a pastor over these last five years, one of the things that's been very gripping to me has been the accounts of other pastors who have fallen into sin. And while I know that they become memes and they become conversations that people just kind of make fun of those folks, I have a deep like sobriety attached when I see another person, another pastor, who's exposed, the sin finally came out. And you know, I grew up in a home that actually for a while had a televangelist couple, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, led a ministry. And their ministry was played in our home all the time. They loved God, his word and worship, believed in the supernatural. And then it came out that all these pleas for finances that they were doing, they were receiving more money than they could ever deliver on the promises of what they had said with that money. And as a result, Jim Baker was sent to prison for fraud. That led again to the divorce of he and his wife and the ministry crumbled. And there was just this ripple effect across America in that time, because they were one of the leading televangelists at that time. And just this ripple effect of people saying,

then I don't want anything to do with spirituality or Christianity. And I just, this should grip all of us. Because God can forgive you of anything. That does not mean that the consequences of your sin will be instantly erased. And it gripped me even just when he, there in prison, he met God. And he wrote a book called I Was Wrong. I mean, you don't get more humble and contrite than that. Just I was wrong. And I don't remember if it was in this book or right after, an author by the name of John Bevere came and interviewed him and said, Jim, when did you stop loving God? And he said, oh, I never stopped loving God. I stopped fearing him. That is what grips me. That's what pierces me, even this past week I was in Oklahoma, I was preaching at this prison and I got done and this man came up to me, introduced himself as Pastor Martinez, he's an inmate there, he's got four stacked life sentences on top of each other, he came to prison, met Jesus, and man, everywhere he went, people just flocked to this guy, man of God, and he comes up and he says, Carl, tonight when you were preaching, just, I saw anointing on you, and I was like doing the thank you, you know, like we do as pastors, as preachers, like thanks for that encouragement, and he said, but I just wanna say, wherever there's anointing, there needs to also be a warning, and he looks right at me and he's like, and so, I pray that you would have eyes for your wife and your wife alone, that you would not have a love for money, that you would not be tainted by the love of this world, he just starts praying, God, free this man from lust, I pray God, he'd have eyes for his wife alone, he wouldn't care about money and the things of this world, and I wanted to kind of go, I promise, I really love Blair a whole lot, she means a lot to me, we don't have any money anyway, there's nothing to love or hold on to, but there was something deeper in me going, you need to receive every word of this prayer from this man of God, and just open my, yes, yes, Lord, I don't want anything else but what you have, I wanna love what you have and hate what you hate, just could feel the presence of God even meeting us there, right there in the Lexington prison, and I think the reason that we need this is because if you are just a casual reader of scripture, what you will see is an account, an account, an account, an account of the people of God coming to the ocean and barking orders, and maybe one of the prime examples of this is King Saul, who is put in place to be king, mainly to be a representative of God,

so God speaks to him and says, I want you to go to the Amalekites, the enemy, and take them out, destroy everyone and everything, which I know is a very hard thing in 2026 for us to hear, and I don't have time to totally explain how a loving God could impose genocide, but if you go research the Amalekites, you might have a better understanding about a people who prayed on the vulnerable and the weak, not for days, weeks, months, years, for centuries, and they prayed on them and they prayed, and they came after the weak and the vulnerable, there is nothing that breaks God's heart more than that, so he has his gut full and eventually he says, King Saul, go take them all out, they go to battle and they win, the prophet of God, Samuel, shows up, and he shows up and King Saul's like, we did it, and Samuel goes, we did? And why am I hearing sheep over there and looking at a king over there? And Saul goes, oh, no, we kept the best for God. And then some of the most chilling words come from Samuel, he's like, that's not your call. You feared man and not God, so what had been given to you be taken away from you and given to another man. Even more tragic than that is the fact that if you trace Saul's life, which is a devastating life, he ends with an Amalekite putting a sword through him and killing him, because what you tolerate today, it will destroy you tomorrow. And if King Saul were here, he would say, fear God, not man. Friends, if there is anything I could say today, and if you don't hear anything else I say, I'm going to stand here as friend, father, brother, champion, shepherd, whatever you want to say, and I'm saying if there's anything you are loving that he hates, you need to do business with that, not on Monday, but on Sunday. In that place where you're watching your heart grow in affection for what he hates, you'll be stunted and powerless. So if there's something on your phone right now that he hates and you're loving, you need to get rid of it. If there's something back in your house or your apartment or a drawer in your office that you love that he hates, you need to destroy it today, not tomorrow. Like Jason and Monica, if there's people in your life that are like lures attracting you to a life that is leading to destruction, then you need to make some bold moves today to fear God and not fear man. If there's a secret you've been harboring, instead of confessing it and getting it out, that today needs to be the day you're like, I'm done fearing the response of men. I'm going to fear my loving and almighty God, because I know that he has my best interest at heart. This is what David felt, who wrote the Psalms, once he had an understanding of what his sin had accomplished, but also what his God could accomplish that was more than what he had done with his sin. If you look at Psalm 66, verse 16 through 20, he says, Come and hear all you who fear God. Let me tell you what he's done.

done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth. His praise is on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God is surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God who is not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me. David standing there going. Oh my goodness. This is the beauty of who our God is. So I understand if you're sitting there trembling going man. I don't know if I can get all this out of me. It hurts in the short term. It just sets you free in the long term and God's playing the long game in your life more than anything else. And if you're pounding going, I just don't know how do I do this? How do I get this out in the open? The way you do it is by studying God. It's not by your manpower. You're not going to go home suck it up and beef yourself up with some Navy SEAL videos so you can go confess sin or or deal with something. Go study your God. Actually, you already did. You stood and you stood at attention of a man who went before the presence of God's like I'm good as dead. And his sin was exposed. No one was wondering if the unglory was there. It came out but verse 6 and 7 show you what God does with all of us in our insufficiencies. Then one of the Sarah found the angels flew to me with a live

coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar and with it. He touched me. He touched my mouth and said see this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is a tone for it's no longer hidden. It's healed by the power of God. This is stunning because the one who could have just pounced and been able to smite Isaiah break him devour him distance himself from him. Touches him just like that horseman last week that we studied where God comes to heal and to make you clean. Friends, this should rattle all of us just a little bit. And it should also make you come alive that you're in the hands of this safe God all at the same time. I mean y'all remember the story I started with this whole demoniac swine thing. You can read the account in Matthew or Mark or Luke where Jesus says, what's your name says Legion. The demon is speaking out in his language Legion because we are many in this man. And then they asked Jesus a question. Are you here to torment us? Another version says are you here to torture us? I mean, what is Satan on the earth do? Torture us. And now the demons are looking at God saying you could rain terror on those of us who are terrorists. Please don't do that. Friends is a simple math.

I want to be with him not them. If the one who is can bring terror on the terrorists is saying come to me. I'm with him. Not with them. This is the reason I don't understand even everything that I'm saying. It's mysterious in so many ways. But here's what I do know is that when Oswald Chambers wrote this these words he was pinning words straight to you to set you free that the remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else. Whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. The key to walking out of your fear is the fear of God. Is it a mystery? Absolutely. But friends you don't want a God you could put in a lamp. You don't want a God you can put on a leash. You want a God who looks over at winds and waves and says hush and they obey. You want a God who looks at a dead man and says get up and he does. You want a God who says I am he and everybody falls over. You want a God that he shows up in the room and there is fear inspired in everybody and he leans close and says do not fear come to me for I am loving and gentle of heart and I will give you an easy yoke. That's the God you want. You don't want the God that you can put in your bottle call out at your bidding.

You want this mysterious God who deserves our everything and our all in our life. So today friends, I'd like to ask us to all end the way we started to stand back up for God's Word. And we're going to go to the end. I'm going to take you right now to your end whether you're a follower of God or not. The scriptures prophesy what's going to happen as a result of the cross of Jesus and what's going to happen at the very end of time. And so I'd like for all of you to read from Philippians chapter 2. Read how we are going to end so that we don't just end when we end but we end there now. This becomes our life. Philippians chapter 2 says and let's read it together. And being found in appearance. As a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so we just love you, Jesus. We worship you, Jesus. We crown you with many crowns. I just wanted to sing this song that's a picture of Revelation 7,

the angels and the heavenly creatures seeing the one whose salvation belongs to and saying that he is worthy. Let's just sing this together.