Obedience – The Proof Of Your Fear Of The Lord Series

Obedience – the Proof of Your Fear of the Lord

June 4/5, 2005

Don Jaques

MAIN IDEA: You know you have the fear of the Lord IF you obey instantly, joyfully, and wholly. We obey not because of WHAT we’re asked to do, but because of WHO asks us.

INTRO:

Dale Rooks, a school crossing guard in Florida, tried everything to get cars to slow down through the school zone. But nothing worked…until he took a blow dryer and wrapped it in electrical tape, making it look like a radar gun.

Dale just points the thing at cars, and it’s incredible how quickly they hit the brakes.

"It’s almost comical," Dale says. "It’s amazing how well it works."

Citation: The Connection newsletter, ChristianityToday.com (9-8-04)

Hold that image in your mind. I’ll be coming back to it later.

REVIEW: The fear of the Lord is to have an appropriate awe and respect for God’s holiness and power, and to hate evil as God hates it.

But how do we know if we really are living in the fear of the Lord? If we OBEY Him.

One of the things that strikes me as I think over some of the major characters in the Bible is that God asked them to do some pretty CRAZY things. Things that sounded illogical. Things that would make others scratch their heads or call them strange.

Here are some of my favorite places where this happens:

Noah –

Gen. 6:13-15 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.

Abraham –

Gen. 22:1-2 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Ezekiel –

Ezek. 4:1-9 “Now, son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

“Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel.

“After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.

“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side.

Isaiah –

Is. 20:1-3 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it — at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years…

Hosea –

Hos. 1:2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.”

Ananias –

Acts 9:10-17 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” ¶ “Yes, Lord,” he answered.