(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, before we get started, if anybody's parked across the street here, the house is for sale? Yeah, if anybody's parked right there, they're having an open house today, so just ask to get your vehicle out of the way so they don't get upset and try to disrupt the service or anything like that. So we're in Jonah Chapter 1, and before I get started with this, I just wanted to say that I'm really glad to see everybody, really impressed with the way things look here. It's kind of different facing this way, even though I've only been here one time, last time I was looking this way, and so I had it in my mind. But whatever I can distract myself about, some of these changes, I don't need that. But yeah, you know, things are just looking really good here. I'm really encouraged by it. And I'm glad to see that all the same people are, you know, keep coming, and that's a great thing. So we're in Jonah Chapter 1, famous story in the Bible. This is not an allegory, this is true. Jesus spoke about it. This isn't just some figurative thing like a lot of New Evangelical Sunday school teachers want to teach you, man. This is the true word of God here. And so, keep your place in Jonah because we are going to come back to it, but go back in your Bible to 2 Kings Chapter 14. 2 Kings Chapter 14. So you're going to go past the big prophets, you know, go back to the four Psalms, go back before the first 2 Chronicles, and go to 2 Kings Chapter 14. So like I said, Jonah Chapter 1. You know, Jonah here, he makes a famous statement after he gets woken up. You know, he says, I fear the Lord, and we're going to take a look at that. But before we get into it, I just want to give you a little bit of background about Jonah. I think it's important when you preach out these chapters, when you're reading the Bible, that you get a good context of where you're actually at, right? Because by the time you get to Jonah in your Bible reading, if you're reading from Genesis to Revelation, that's how I read it from the front to the back. Not everybody does that, but nonetheless, by the time you get to Jonah, you know, these minor prophets, you might forget about what time period Jonah operated in. I just want to show you that. So 2 Kings Chapter 14. Let's see, look down at verse number 23. 2 Kings 14, 23. It says, In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria. So that's what's going on right now. That's who's king right now in Samaria. It reigned forty and one years, and he did that which was evil inside the Lord. He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Abab, who made Israel to sin. He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamathah unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord, God of Israel. Now notice this next phrase here. Which he spake by the hand of his servant, Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, which was of Gathhefer. So that's the time frame in which we're dealing with here in Jonah. So next time you get to this point in your Bible reading, you can know that the kingdom of Israel is still going on. They're still having their wicked kings. They're nearing the end, and Judah's still alive. So this is before the captive. I just think that's important to really grasp that and understand that before you go on any further. And so I'm preaching about a very important doctrine this morning. A very important subject, a very fundamental subject that I think is basically a make it or break it type thing. If you don't understand this doctrine that I'm about to preach to you this morning, you're going to fail. You're going to fail at the Christian life. You might even fail at your real life. And that's the subject of fear. The title of this sermon is the fundamentals of fear. The fundamentals of fear. Fear by definition, if you look it up in the dictionary, it says it's an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous and likely to cause pain. Or the anticipation or awareness of danger. And fear is something that everybody on the planet feels. But the Bible speaks very deeply about the subject. If you type in the word fear in the Bible, you're going to find about, I don't know, 500, I think it's 500 and one times the word fear alone of fears. And so it's a, you know, the Bible has a lot to say about it. I just basically broke it down into very basic fundamental things that hopefully we can all digest and understand. You know, to help all of us be able to apply the right kinds of fear in our life. Because there's a right type of fear and there's a wrong type of fear. And this sermon, you know, if you fall asleep halfway through, don't worry. This whole sermon can be condensed into one sentence. And that is fear is a motivator. The right kind of fear will produce the right kind of actions. The wrong kind of fear will produce the wrong kind of actions and their consequences. So that's what we're going to study today. We're going to take a look at that. I mean, if you add up every single church in this town, every single church, right? Including this one. I don't know how many you've come up with. Probably hundreds. Probably hundreds of different churches in this area. And you subtract one. That's how many you're going to find to have the fear of God. And I'm going to prove that to you. First of all, I'll just tell you this right now. If you don't believe that this Bible is inspired, that it's the perfect word of God, you don't fear God. That's okay. You can have that belief. But just know, just know that you don't fear God. And just be okay with that. Just look yourself in the mirror when you go home today and say, oh, I don't fear God because I don't believe in the Bible. So just understand that right off the bat. How about make that point? Number one, you don't believe the Bible. You don't fear God. You're deceiving yourself. Go home. Have a nice day. So let's move on here. So we're going to talk about what fear is, what fear is not. Who should we fear? Who should we not fear? When should we fear? When should we not fear? And we're also going to take it some misconception, take a look at some misconceptions about fear as well. So go back to Jonah. Jonah chapter one. We're going to take a look at how Jonah displayed fear. So Jonah chapter one, look at verse one. It says, Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Japheth. And he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them with Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So here, what do we have going on here? The word of God comes, the word of God gets preached, the word of God gets told to Jonah, and he just goes the other way. Right? Instead of doing what God says, he just runs the other way. Just absolutely no fear of God in that moment. I'm going to show you that here. And so, the first point that I have, or the first statement that I want to make here, is that fear is a motivator. Right? I mean, think about it. God's word came, and what did Jonah do? Did he really fear God, like he said in verse nine? In this moment in time in his life, did he really fear God? And the answer is no, he didn't. He feared man. Now of course if you watch VeggieTales, they're going to paint this stupid picture like he was afraid of the nanobites, you know, because he's going to get slapped with fishes, and that's just retarded. Okay? It doesn't say anything about that in here. He really, when you read the whole book, he really didn't want them to be saved. I mean, and this is actually a sermon for another time, but I'm kind of getting off on a rabbit trail here, but you read through it, and you know when God, at the end of chapter four here, after the nanobites leave preaching of Jonah, and they start turning from their evil ways, you know, and Jonah's displeased with that. Right? So I wouldn't say that he was necessarily afraid of going to Nineveh. He just didn't want to do what God said. And that in and of itself is the wrong kind of fear. That's the wrong attitude to have. So the first statement is that fear is a motivator. Fear does motivate us, and the right kind of fear is going to lead us to the right kind of actions in our life. You know, and this, I know this is a basic thing, but it's something that you have to understand. You have to really grasp this. You have to let this sink into your heart. We've got to have the right kind of fear. Like I said, keep your place in Jonah, but go towards the beginning of your Bible and go to the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 13. Go to Numbers chapter 13. And while you're turning there, I'll just say, you know, an example that I can think of of the right kind of fear would be, you know, Noah building the Ark. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 that he was moved with fear, that he was moved with fear, and that's how we ought to be. And that's the whole point of the sermon is to get us to fear God, to hear the word, and actually apply it to our lives. That's what we want to do. We want to grow. We want to be able to have God's power, God's blessing on our life, so that we can really reach this community, get people saved. Amen. And disciple them and teach them the ways that God has instructed us. So, I want to start off by taking a look at a wrong example of fear, the wrong kind of fear, because remember, fear does motivate. Fear motivates people. Numbers chapter 13, look down at verse number 25. We're going to take a look at the children of Israel, right? They went to spy out the land, gone 40 days, and now they're going to come give an evil report. So, look at Numbers chapter 13 in verse 25. It says, And they returned from searching of the land after 40 days, and they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paranth and Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Verse 27 says, And they told him and said, We came unto the land where the house sent us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great and moral when we saw the children of Anak there. And it's kind of, you know, as I'm reading these two verses here, I'm kind of thinking about, you know, times where maybe you're driving through a neighborhood and you see an apartment complex and you're like, wow, there's no gates? You know, it looks like it might be okay to knock, you know, or a neighborhood that you go to, right? You drive through it and you're like, man, someday I should knock that, you know, I should knock that neighborhood. You know, maybe we should do some extra soul hunting, you know, it looks great. And then you see, you see some rough looking dudes out there, you know, you're like, well, I don't know, you know, the children of Anak are over there, I don't know if I want to really knock these doors. But look at verse 29, it says, The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. Verse 30, And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. Now keep that in mind. That's the attitude that I'm seeking. That's the attitude that we all should be seeking. That we are able to overcome it no matter what's going on in your life, no matter what fears that you have, no matter what the devil tries to do to you. You need to have this attitude that Caleb had that we are able to overcome. But look at verse 31, But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. See, that's the wrong attitude. That's the attitude that doesn't grow churches. That's the attitude that turns churches like this into a megachurch over time. That's the attitude that's seeker sensitive. You know, we're not stronger than we, we ought to be more like them. Why don't we just try to be friends with them? Why don't we just compromise? Why don't we just forget what God said and just, you know, just get along with everyone? Why don't we just bring Andy Stanley in here, Rick Warren and all these other losers like Ray Comfort and John MacArthur and these fools and these people that are sending everyone to hell? Why don't we just do that? That's the attitude that we don't want. So look at verse number 32, it says, And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is the land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the Giants, the sons of Andy, which come of the Giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight, you know, and this, this here speaks volumes to me. You know, every city in America, every state in America has its false religions. I know there's a heavy Mormon population. There's a heavy dirt bag dispensational population. Sam Gibbs just right around the corner, that loser that he is, you know, but we ought not to let that cause fear in our hearts. Well, you know, sometimes people will say to me, like, do you really want to go to Boise? You know, I heard it like, you know, 100% of the people minus, you know, 100% of people like, you know, either in favor of Mormonism or are Mormons. And of course, they don't know, they're just repeating things that they hear. And I understand that silly exaggeration, but that's been said, right? Everybody there is Mormon. You know, it's all fallowed ground. What's the point? Well, obviously there's a point because there's a bunch of people that I'm looking at here this morning that obviously have some sort of fear, right? You have some sort of fear of God. You chose to come here instead of going to the pagan church. You chose to come here instead of going to the liberal, weak, watered-down church. So obviously we want to build on that. You understand what I'm saying? We want to build on that fear that you already have, that we already have, and that's the right attitude to have. We are able to overcome the false teaching of the Mormons. We're able to overcome the dirtbag dispensational losers at Treasure Valley Baptist Church and all the other Baptist churches that are afraid of them. You know why all the Baptist churches around here are in lockstep with those idiots? It's because they fear them and their popularity more than they do the word of God. That's the truth. That is the truth. And you can swallow that any way you want. I don't really care. You just need to understand the reason why people become compromises is because they don't fear God. They don't fear God. I mean, think about it. I mean, think about it. You know, I was just reading this morning that the NIV changes the word fear when it comes to fearing God into the word reverence. Well, that's not the same thing. It's not the same thing. And then it's no wonder. It's no wonder why these churches act the way they do. It's just a fun center. You know, what's that place over there on the freeway where they drive go-karts? Yeah, exactly. Just go there. Man, just go there on Sunday. That's a better use of your money than going to these weak, liberal churches that aren't going to teach you a single thing. You would be much better off going there driving your go-karts than to go to the Pursuit, than to go to Life Church, than to go to Treasure Valley and those idiots over there. Yes, they're idiots. Look, if you've been soul-wetting long enough and you knock on people's doors and you get them to the point where they understand what you're saying but they just don't want to believe it, that's when you're going to get that righteous anger. That's when you're going to get mad. Because what that comes from, that teaching, that belief that they have where they can't get saved is from those idiots. That's where that comes from. That's where that comes from. People that don't want to trust on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, they want to trust on their own works and what they have done and the sins that they have turned from, that all comes from these people not fearing God, these false prophets that are out here and I hate their guts. And yes, I hate them and I want them to die and go to hell. You know what? But what we can do in the meantime is to go out and make sure that we've got our ducks in a row, make sure that we're living right, make sure that we're in the fear of God, living righteous, doing the holy work of God and changing people one day at a time. That's how we're going to do it. Look, you know, I know the end times are coming, but we shouldn't go down without a fight. And we can fight. And it begins here. It begins with this doctrine. It begins with fearing God. So turn one more chapter over. Go to Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. Look down at verse number six. It says, And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us the land which floweth with milk and honey. When we rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. You see, so we see in this passage of Numbers chapter 13 and 14, we see two types of fear. We see, you know, like Caleb, for example, and Joshua, who feared God. They feared the Lord. They didn't fear man. They didn't fear these giants in the land, right? They feared God. And they said, look, we are able to overcome. If God's on our side, then we're going to be able to do great mighty things. We can possess land that will become bread for us. And I like this here in verse nine where it says, you know, that they're bread. Yeah, that they become bread for us, you know. And the phrase there, look at verse nine, I guess, is only rebel not ye against the Lord. Why? How would you rebel against the Lord? Well, he tells you, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us. So what you can take away from that is that when you fear people in the community, you fear to knock on someone's door, you fear to give the gospel, you fear to learn how to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you're rebelling against God. That's what it's saying. When you, you know, when you hear a sermon about getting, you know, the TV, the movies, the rock music, the whatever out of your life, the drugs, the booze, and you decide not to do that because you're afraid of what your friends will think, you're afraid of what your family will think. Oh, what are your fundamentals now? You know, just know that you're rebelling against God. That's what you're doing. That's what you're doing. You are rebelling against God. And we ought not to be like that. Right? Look, no matter what happens, you get kicked out of an apartment complex, you know, people start coming, you know, protesting or whatever, which I doubt is going to happen, at least not for a few years. I mean, I could be wrong, but, you know, you ought not to let that fear. You know what, you know what the difference is between those who will quit church after a protest and those who will stay and just fear God? That's what it is. That's what's going to determine whether all of you are sitting here 5, 10, 15 years from now. Hopefully we're not building because Brother Mike's looking like he's doing good. He's doing good. He's doing good. All right. Turn to Judges chapter 8. Something I want to bring up is, you know, being a youth. Right? Being young. You know, we got young people here, but we also have people that are young in the faith. And I want to show you how fear can affect you when you're just a youth. So turn to Judges chapter 8. All right. Judges chapter 8. Look down at verse 17. So I don't have time to develop the whole story about what we're reading here, but it's about Gideon. And so I'd encourage you to go back and read it later. But Judges chapter 8. Look down at verse number 17. Judges chapter 8, verse 17. It says, And he beat down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city, then said he unto Ziba and Zalmun. What manner of men were they whom he slew at Tabor? And he answered, As thou art, so were they. Each one resembled the children of a king. Verse 19. And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if he had saved them alive, I would not slay you. And he said unto Jethro his firstborn. So pay attention to this. He says, And he said unto Jethro his firstborn, Up and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword. Now look at this next part of the sentence. For he feared because he was yet a youth. You know what? It's OK to be to have that fear. You're going to have that. You're new at Zalmun or you're new. Maybe you just got saved and you're new as a Christian or you've been saved for a while and you're you're on fire now. You're new. You know, you haven't grown spiritually. You're a youth. It's OK to have that fear of knocking on somebody's door. It's OK to let those nerves build up. It's natural. That is natural. But what separates somebody who can actually execute the commandments of God is having the right type of fear. And we're going to see that. So it says he feared because he was yet a youth. Now look at verse 21. Then Zebunzalmunna said, Rise thou and fall upon us. For as the man is, so is his strength. And Gibeon arose and slew Zebunzalmunna and took away the ornaments that were on their camels next. So these two wicked guys, Zebunzalmunna, they're like, you know, you're weak. You know, what's the matter, little boy? You can't kill us? And it's not like a couple of rapper bass. You know, just like, you know what? You ain't got the guts to do it. But they're actually kind of speaking some truth here. You know, they said, I mean, look at what they say. For as the man is, so is his strength. So as the Christian is in his Bible, because of her Bible reading, so is, so are they. So as you are in your prayer, I mean, so are you. Right? What you do when you're not here Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, you know, what you do in between these those service times is going to be who you are. If you're only a Christian on Sunday morning, Sunday night in front of people, you know, when the time comes for you to arise and slay Zebunzalmunna in your life, you're not going to be able to. You're not going to have that strength because you haven't done the work. You haven't feared. You haven't done the right things. So keep that in mind and go to First Samuel chapter 17. Now we're going to take a look at another youth in a very similar situation. I know we're reading a lot today, but it's important. First Samuel chapter 17. First Samuel chapter 17. We're going to take a look at David when he was a youth. We're going to compare that to how Jethro was. Remember, Jethro was scared. Right? It's OK. You're a youth. You're scared. That's fine. We need to teach you how to get beyond that, how to overcome that. So First Samuel chapter 17. Look down at verse number 32. Verse number 32. So right off the bat, just right off the bat, you can see David is already different than Jethro. He's a youth here. Keep that in mind. Now look at verse 33. It says, You know, I thank God that we have kids in this church, kids in our movement that are able to actually go and give adults the gospel. I mean, that's a great thing. Those are kids that don't fear. And you should let that inspire you. Let that motivate you to be like, hey, you know, if that little, you know, 12 year old kid can give the gospel, then I can do it too. If they're not afraid, then I don't have to be afraid either. Look down at verse number 34. There came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. You see, David learned to fear God at a very young age. And he actually practiced what he preached. He practiced what he learned. He exercised the fear of God every day in his life. You know, and then that's where it begins. It begins with you saying, OK, look, I've got this trial. I've got this thing that I'm afraid of. It's not of God I'm going to overcome. You know, I might get my lumps and my bruises, but I'm going to go ahead and overcome this. And that's how David was. That's how David was. David was able to have enough faith to put himself in harm's way and watch God work in his life. And that's how we need to be as well. So jump down to verse number 48. We're going to skip some for sake of time. We'll go to verse 48. It says, And it came and passed when the Philistines arose and came in June I to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistines. And David put his hand in his bag and took dance a stone and slang it and smoke the Philistine in his forehead. That the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smoke the Philistine and slew him. And there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheet thereof and slew it and cut off his head therewith. And the Philistines saw their champion was dead. They fled. Verse 52, When the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until thou come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron, and the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way of Shara'im even to Gath unto Ekron. Look at verse 53. It says, And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tent. So how's that for a lesson in motivation? You know, once David said, you know what? This guy cursed our God. It's time for him to die. It's time to get him out of here. It's time that somebody has the guts to stand up and fight. David kills Goliath, cuts his head off. And then that motivated everybody to see that that that that fear and see that's that's what's going to help. Newcomers that come to this church grow right when they see you getting stuff out of your life, when they see me, when they see us doing that together, they're going to be like, wow, I can do that. Well, I can get that. I can give up those TV shows. I can give up those stupid sitcoms. I can give up the movies. You know, I can give up whatever. I mean, take your pick. There's a whole number of things. And look, I'm not up here before you saying that. Oh, I've got no sin. I got plenty of problems. I mean, just hang out with me for a day and you'll see. There's a reason why it's taking me this long to start preaching. But nonetheless, what we saw between Jethro and David is that one feared, one didn't. One did the right things in his youth. The other one did. I mean, it really doesn't tell us what Jethro did. But what I do know is that when it came time for Jethro to slew Ziba Dalmono, he couldn't do it. And I'm not saying he's a bad guy. The Bible doesn't talk a lot about him. What it does say is that he couldn't do it. He just couldn't execute. But we see the David, you know, he's all about it. He's highly motivated. And that's what we need. Well, we can do more to this community with a group of highly motivated people like this. And we can with what the mega churches have, those thousands of people that they have, and all the money and all the programs. We can do a lot more than they can. And actually, Red Robin can do more for this community than those churches. And that's the truth. That's just a fact. That is the truth. It's not even up for debate. And if anybody wants to debate it, you can talk to Kate in there. And look, this is especially important for young people, whether you're a young lady, young man, you're, you know, maybe you're older in life, but you're young in the faith. You know, you just need to take a deep look in your life and realize, you know, am I really fearing God? Do I have the fear of God? And I'll tell you, all of us, every single person in here can work on this. Especially me. Especially Kate. I got to make sure that you're right here. Okay. And, you know, something else that comes to my mind is the government, right? The government's fear tactics. I think it is very important when, you know, when you're young, I mean, for everybody, let me just say for everybody, but especially young children, teenagers, people that are young in the faith, that you don't watch the movies. That you don't watch Hollywood movies and sitcoms and all this garbage. You know why? Because they don't fear God. Most of those people don't even believe in God. The Bible says the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. And what you're doing is you are educating yourself or your kids by people that do not, listen to me, that do not fear God. See, the question I have is, are you going to become like Jethro or are you going to become like David? You have a choice. You have a choice and you need to make the right one. This isn't a Calvinist church. Calvinism is stupid. Right? You do have a choice on how you want to be. I mean, think about it. What's Hollywood? What's the music industry going to teach you? Do you think they fear God? No. That spirit that they have is going to go right through your eyeballs and right down into your heart and affect how you live. That's what's going to happen. You know, if you don't believe me, just wait because you're going to see it. Every church has people like that. Every church has people like that and you're going to see it. So what I want to do now is I want to go back to Jonah chapter one. I want to take a look at the two different types of fear. Two different types of fear. The fear of man and the fear of God. We're going to take a look at that. And you know, more about this government stuff. You know, the government, they've got their desired response out of the American public. I mean, with their media, what is it that they're, what is their goal? It's to cause you to fear. It's to cause you to fear. You turn on the news and it's just all this bad stuff going on. I'm sure look, there is bad stuff going on. Right. But it's just constantly, you know, oh, the bird flu. I don't know if that dates me, how long I haven't watched TV. All these different virus, you know, go get your vaccines. You know, you're going to die. And then you turn on the Hollywood movies and they have the same narrative. They have the same narrative that they're pumping down your throat. You know, fear this. You got to, you got to, you got to fear everything. You know, your house is going to get broken into if you do this, your car is going to get broken into if you do this. You don't buy these security systems. And I'm looking out against all that. You know, we have security systems as well. All I'm trying to say is that the government is like, seems to be like a big master of producing the wrong type of fear in our lives. And so you need to minimize the interaction that you have. And you know, I'm not saying it's wrong to catch the news articles or whatever. Just be careful. Just be careful what you put in front of your face. So back to John chapter one, and we're going to take a look at the fear of man. So John chapter one, verse two says, you know, this is where it says, God says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it. For their wickedness has come up before me. Verse three. But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish and look at this next part from the presence of the Lord, went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them on to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So, like I said earlier in the sermon, during the introduction, this is the wrong type of fear. This is actually the fear of man. Now, I don't believe that Jonah was necessarily like, oh, no, I don't want to go to the Nineveh because you're going to slam me with a fish. Right. What I think he's saying is I just don't want them to be saved. Either way, it was disobedience to God. It was it was fear of them becoming saved. It was fear of doing what God said versus actually executing what God said. And so here we see Jonah apply the wrong kind of feelings. And it doesn't matter whether he was scared of the Ninevehites or whether he was just didn't want to save. The point is, he didn't fear God enough to actually do it right the first time. And then with that consequence, because remember, fear is a motivator. The right kind of fear brings the right kind of actions. The wrong kind of fear brings the wrong kind of actions and their consequence. You just need to understand that. So, you know, the big problem with fearing man is it's a trap. It's a stumbling block. It really is a snare. Go to Proverbs chapter twenty nine. Turn back here. You're in Jonah. Turn back your Bible to Proverbs chapter twenty nine. Proverbs chapter twenty nine. Look at verse number twenty five. Proverbs twenty nine, twenty five says the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be saved. So just think about this. The fear of man brings the snare. Now think about it. You're in church. You hear a sermon about how you should go soloing. You decide not to because you're afraid someone's going to yell at you. You're afraid someone's going to slam the door in your face. You're afraid no one's going to like you. You're afraid you're going to knock on a co-worker's door. You're afraid you're going to knock on your boss's door. Whatever it is, you just need to understand that is a snare unto you in that time. That fear of going soloing, that fear of applying God's word in your life is a snare. You hear a sermon about getting the rock music out of your life and you say, you know what? My friends are going to think I'm weird at work, you know, or at school or wherever you're at in life. You know that there is going to become a snare unto you because that rock music will change how you act. It's going to change you because it does go down into your heart. It does affect your flesh. And it will eventually lead you to doing things to go against God. And that's what this is talking about here. The fear of man bringeth a snare. I think everybody should memorize that because a lot of people like to say, oh, you know, no fear, no fear. You know, we don't have anything to fear. And we're going to take a look at some quotes in a while. But the Bible says that the fear of man bringeth a snare. It's a trap. Just know that it is a trap and it's going to ruin your walk with God. And you just need to understand that. So, let's see here. Go to the New Testament. We're going to go to 1 John chapter 4. Some people are afraid of giving up movies, for example, right? Because they're afraid of how their flesh is going to feel. It's kind of like when you go on a diet, you know. A lot of people, you know, like myself, probably need to, you know, minimize food a little bit. You know, but I'm like, man, I don't want to be hungry. I've got a fear of, you know, being hungry all day. It's kind of like that with sins for us, isn't it? You know, like I know I should get, you know, these TV shows and all this garbage out of my life. But I'm just afraid I'm going to want it too much. I'm afraid that that's going to hurt. And that's what you need to understand is a snare unto you and that is going to hurt you. So you go to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4, look at verse number 18. 1 John chapter 4, verse 18. It says, there is no fear in love. There is no fear in love. Now, the liberals would like to twist that, right? Like the Pope. What does the Pope say? I forgot to write this quote down, but he basically said that the fear, oh yeah, he said the fear of God is a gift from the Holy Ghost. That's what he said. It's a gift of God from the Holy Ghost. And it doesn't mean that we need to really be afraid of Him, of who He is. We just need to have a deep respect for Him. That's not what it means. You should be afraid of God. You know, if you've read the Bible at least one time in your life, that should teach you that that's life, right? And of course, what would you expect from a pedophile? I mean, would you expect anything less from a pedophile? And yes, the Pope is a pedophile. Not up for debate. He's a pedophile. And of course he doesn't fear God. He's a reprobate. He's going to sweat hell wide open. So 1 John 4, verse 18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear. And this is the wrong type of fear that we're talking about. Because fear hath torment. Notice that. Fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. And what this verse is talking about is not talking about the fear of God. You see, a lot of people like to mess with the Bible. They want to make new translations and justify them. They'll say, well, you know, they'll either say that this part of the Bible is inaccurate because it should be reverence, or they'll say that the verses about fearing God should be changed into reverence. They'll always want to mix it up because they'll say, well, there's a contradiction because God said to fear not, right? Didn't Jesus say fear not and all that? And yeah, He did. But you've got to understand there's different types of fear, right? We're all going to experience fear. And depending on how your walk is with God, you're either going to choose the right kind of fear or you're going to choose the wrong kind of fear. And that's what he's saying here. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. Look, have you ever been afraid? You ever heard a little bump in the night? You know, been home by yourself, moms, you know, and you hear somebody rattling that gate, you know, that does bring torment. And that's just life, you know. But this also applies to the Christian life and everything that we do, everything that we try to apply going forward is that, you know, when you know that you should read your Bible every day, when you know you should pray every day, when you know that you should meditate on these things every day and you don't, that does bring torment. Let's face it, if you're saved here today, you've got to admit that brings torment. When we're backslidden, you've got the Holy Ghost inside of you, that's torment. That brings torment. You know, you're just like, nah, you know, I know I should be doing this, I know I should be doing that. And it just torments you. You feel better when you're living right, you just decide, you know what, I understand I'm not perfect, I'm never going to be until I get my new body, which we're going to talk about tonight. But I'm just going to go ahead and just work day by day, service by service, week by week, and just get things right. And I believe it really starts with understanding these fear types, getting the right kind of fear in your life. And that's what we see here. There is no fear in love. And that's also implying that we should stick close to God, stick close to this book, read this book, meditate on it, because that's what's going to produce that perfect, that perfect love, which doesn't have fear, the fear of man. I mean, think about the mighty men in the Bible. Did the mighty men that slew hundreds of people by themselves, like Shammah, said he stood in the midst of a lentil field and slew an entire troop of Philistines by himself. How do you think that man was able to do that? You think he feared for his life? There's no way. There's no way he feared for his life or the other mighty men. Think about Stephen. Did Stephen fear when he was telling the Jews, you know, giving him that great sermon, he gave him that great sermon and preached the word unto him and it says they gnashed up their teeth and stoned him. You know, and as they were stoning him, he was still praying for them. That's powerful. That's the level that all of us should aim to become, because look, things aren't really getting any easier here in this world. I mean, things are going downhill pretty quick, and it starts today. It starts with understanding what real fear is, what the real type of fear we should have in our lives. And so I'm going to move on here. We're going to talk a little bit about this no fear garbage, right? This no fear. I can remember growing up and seeing these no fear stickers everywhere. I think my neighbor gave me one. I put it on my little Nintendo. Yeah, no fear. I'm not afraid of anything. No fear. Fearless. But what does the Bible have to say about that? We're going to take a look at that. You know, basically the goal of that mentality, that ideology, is to get you away from God. So go back to Jonah chapter one. Look down at verse number five, Jonah chapter one, verse five. Because being fearless, I mean, I'm getting ahead of myself here. So Jonah chapter one, verse five. It says, Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man into his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down to the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. So look at Jonah here. He's just like, I'm racked up. I don't have time to fear this. Look at verse six. So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise and call upon my God. If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. So here we see Jonah being kind of fearless. You know, Jonah understands what's going on. He knows that God, you know, is after him. But he can say he's fast asleep. And I like what this guy says to him. He's like, What meanest thou, O sleeper? And I feel like saying that sometimes people fall asleep in church. What meanest thou, O sleeper? What meanest thou, O sleeper? Jonah's like, OK, fine. Yeah. You know, I fear the Lord. That's what he says in verse nine. He says to them, I am in Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made the sea and the dry land. So he's not he's not like, oh, no, he doesn't freak out. He's like, oh, no, we're in a storm. We're going to die. You know, he comes back to his senses. He's like, oh, yeah, I fear God. You know, but in that moment, we see that he's fearless about the surrounding situations that he has. You know, and that's that's that's a dangerous thing, because even though we shouldn't fear man, there are times in our life where, you know, you should fear because it it can help you. I mean, think about these people that like to go play around with lions and crocodiles and alligators. Oh, I swim with the sharks. I like to swim with the great whites. I mean, how often do you hear that they actually get eaten by them? That's pretty stupid. It's pretty stupid. I'm not going to go swim with those sharks. I don't care if it's that big. I don't like that, man. Oh, you know, come up here with a snake. Now, I'll be out. I'll run out. I'll be right out this window. Over top of one of you guys, you know, I'm out of here. And some of you, it would be that way with spiders. I don't know, spiders don't bother me as much. I work on appliances and sometimes I see black widows underneath them down in Sacramento. It doesn't bother me too much. I mean, it does kind of start me a little bit like, oh, that was the closest one I could have gotten. I could have gotten bit by that or something and had to go to the hospital. But nonetheless, you got to be careful about having, you know, I'm not afraid of anything. I'm not afraid of anyone. You know, you should you should be afraid of God for one. You should be afraid of what he's going to do to you. You know, if you go out and start, you know, drinking and driving, for example. Right. And that's a big problem with the heathen. They don't have no fear of God. They don't, they don't care. I mean, how many of you know people at your work, you know, or throughout your life or maybe in your own family that, you know, just drink and drive? You know, that's somebody that's, oh, I'm fearless. Don't worry, I can handle it. I got no fear. No fear. I'm fearless. Yeah, you won't be saying that when you wake up in hell. And not because you're drunk, but because you were unsafe and you had no fear. I read this story. It was last week about these two, this husband and wife team that had a job. They had some type of a career down in Washington, D.C. and they decided they were going to quit their jobs because they're not afraid of anything. They're going to go cycle the whole world. They're going to prove that people aren't that bad. There's not that much evil in the world. Well, guess what happened? They went to the Middle East and got power bombed by a car full of ISIS people. I'm just saying, you know, being fearless isn't going to take you too far in life. You need to be careful about this. Oh, I'm not afraid of anything, you know. Somebody comes up to you or, you know, you see somebody walking down there with a shotgun pointed at a house, you know, you might want to call the police. You might want to have enough fear and be like, you know, maybe we should take some steps to minimize what could possibly happen. And that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying we need to be fearful. Like, oh, I'm going to die. You know, you're safe. You know, your home's in heaven. You're just going to go to sleep. But don't let that give you this mentality. Well, I don't care if he comes up here, you know. I'll take that guy away from you and move ahead. What if you don't? You know, there goes another soul winner. There goes another church member. And we don't need to do that. We don't need to lose anymore members. So this daredevil, no fear kind of mentality is just, it's not wise. It's definitely not wise. I used to work on aircraft carriers and submarines for the Navy. And there's an aircraft carrier called the Roosevelt. If you go on there, there's, you know, plaques of Roosevelt everywhere. And his big famous quote was, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And sometimes we'll be working on there and then the commander, you know, he'll be around or he'll give a speech or, you know, he'll give some kind of motivational meeting to those of us that are working there or to the sailors. And it always seems to come up. You know, we don't have anything to fear. You know, we're not afraid of anything. Well, you know what that translates to? The government is your God. That's what that's what he was saying. That's what FDR was saying when he said there's nothing, the only thing that we have to fear is fear itself. Because look, I've already read verse in the Bible that we should, you know, should fear God. We're going to take a look at that, you know, in a little bit more detail here in a moment. But the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That translates, the only thing you have to fear is the government. Because God says you should fear him. We're going to take a look at that. And that's just a stupid saying that we don't have anything to fear but fear itself. You know, what does that even mean? But you know who else believe that? Schofield, Darby and all the other dispensational forefather dirtbags. They believe the same thing. That's that's the mentality of the world. The only thing you have to fear is fear yourself. Unfair is no fear. No fear. I ain't afraid of nothing. I'll knock anybody. I'll do this. I'll do that. What if you die? You know, there are there is a time and a place to be afraid and actually take action. We shouldn't fear man. Here's a quote from John Lennon. He said there are two basic motivating forces. Fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others. Our potential to create evolution in all hopes for a better world rests in the fearlessness and open hearted vision of people who embrace life. You see, that's the mentality. That's the world's mentality. And that guy's a musician, right? Or was. I don't know much about him. Other than he's an unsaved heretic that's going to burn in hell if he's not dead already. I don't really know. Does anybody know if he's still alive? Is that guy dead? I don't know. He's not. He's a walkie talkie. But nonetheless, you know, you can see that's why we get up here and rip on music. Because that's their mentality. That's what they're pushing on you. You don't have to fear anything. You don't need to fear anything, especially God. I mean, they don't say that, but that's what they're applying. That's their intentions and that's what comes out. That's what goes into your subconscious and affects how you live, how you think, how you operate. This guy, Jamie Foxx, the actor and comedian, he said, what's on the other side of fear? Nothing. Nothing. As he said, what's on the other side of fear? Nothing. Well, I'll tell you what. What's on the other side of fear for people that aren't saved is hell. It's God. God says that we should. There is a time of fear and you ought to fear God. Here's what, oh, listen to this. The enemy is fear. Here's another quote. The enemy is fear. We think it's hate, but it's really fear. Guess who said that? Gandhi. That's what he said. The enemy is fear. We think it's hate, but it's really fear. And of course, Gandhi is the famous Christian pastor who preaches the doctrine, love the sinner, hate the sin. So now he says, love the sinner, hate the sin. That's not what the Bible teaches. And I don't have time to get into that right now, but nonetheless, that's the world's view. That's the world's mentality. And that's creeping into churches all over America that you don't have anything to fear. You can be fearless. You can just be fearless. You got nothing to fear. Well, I'm going to prove to you, you do have something to fear. For example, Revelation 21, a famous soul wanting verse that we all use says, but the fearful right off the bat says, but the fearful, right? The fearful and unbelieving and the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Notice that says, but the fearful and unbelieving. Why does he put fearful first? You say, brother Joe, what are you talking about? Why does it say, but the fearful? The fearful are those of us that we are those people that we know today as the fearless. They claim to be fearless, right? They say, I've got no fear. That's John Lennon. That's Jamie Foxx. That's Donnie. That's FDR. They are the fearful. They preach this doctrine that they're not afraid of anything, but they are really fearful. They, they, they, you know, they are, especially now if they're all dead. And that's what the Bible says. Being fearful in the sense of Revelation 21, our people that are fearless, they are not, they're not, you know, they're not willing to accept the fact that Jesus Christ died and paid for their sins. It's just not. And that's what it is. Those are people that claim to be fearless. You know, they're, yeah, they're, they're, they're, uh, they're fearless of everything. So let's move on here. We need to talk about the right kind of fear. The right kind of fear. Turn to Psalm chapter 19. We're going to talk about the fear of God. Psalm chapter 19. If you have your place in Jonah, just go back a little bit. Or if you lost it, just open your Bible right up to the middle. It should land somewhere near the Psalm. Psalm chapter 19. So remember what we learned. Fear is a motivator. The right kind of fear produces the right kind of action. The wrong kind of fear produces the wrong kind of actions and their consequences. So let's talk about the fear of God. Now, what is the fear of God? Remember, Jonah said, I fear the Lord. We saw that in that moment he did. Yes, eventually if you read through the book of Jonah, he does. He does actually go to Nineveh. He does actually continue on with the mission because God is gracious, right? God is very merciful and long suffering. But now we need to learn, what does that mean? What is the fear of God? If someone were to ask you, hey, what's the fear of God? What does this mean? Well, look at Psalm chapter 19, verse nine. It says the fear of the Lord is clean. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. So if somebody were to ask you that, you could say, hey, the fear of the Lord is clean, meaning it's not unclean. It's healthy. It's okay. What that means is when you decide, hey, look, I don't care what my mom and dad think. I'm a married man. I'm going to leave my family the way God says. I'm going to do that. When you do that, you can just rest assured that that's a clean thing. I mean, that is a clean thing. Even though the world attacks you and they're going to, your friends are going to attack you. Your coworkers are going to attack you. You need to understand that's OK, because at that moment you have the fear of God. You have the fear of the Lord. And that is a clean thing. You need to understand that that is clear. It's not unclean. It may feel like that sometimes. She's like, man, why is everybody coming after me? You know, my uncle, you know, even my dogs aren't acting right. You know, my neighbors, my friends, all these people are coming after me. That's OK. They're the ones that are unclean and you're doing the clean thing that he says, enduring forever. What that means is the fear of God is going to produce results in your life that lasts forever throughout all eternity. That's really, you know, an exciting thing. You study about the judgment seat of Christ. You know, when you get there, you know, and God says, you know, well done now, good and faithful servant. You're going to realize you made the right choice. You know, you did right. You did well. You actually took heed to the word of God. You said, no, I'm going to fear. I'm going to fear God. I'm going to fear the Lord. That's a clean thing that endures forever. That produces everlasting results. And then the last part of the verse says the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Look, you can trust the Bible. You can trust God's word. You know, the Bible says you don't really need a man to teach you. Now, yes, you do need to come to church. Right. But you can just, you know, on your own time, open this book, read it and get great, wonderful things from it. Bible says that marvelous are the things that are written in this book. You know, and that's a prayer that you should also have before you start reading every day. You know, just ask God, say, you know, just open up, you know, open up your law. Just revealed to me, you know, marvelous things out of that law. The Bible says you don't have to turn there, but Psalm chapter one hundred eleven verse twelve or verse ten says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have day that do his commandments, his praises endures forever. So what is the fear of God? What is it? Well, it's clean. It endures forever. And then you can also say, you know, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What's wisdom? Wisdom is knowledge applied. That means you. Hey, I came to church. I heard a sermon about going soul winning and I applied that. That is a wise thing. That is a that is a wise thing. And the Bible says that is the beginning of wisdom because it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have they that do his commandments. Now, I mean, you don't have to do the commandments to be saved. Anybody's told you that that's a lie. You do not have to follow the commandments to be saved. But when you get saved and you follow the commandments, the Bible says that's going to bring you wisdom. And rightfully so. I mean, think about it. The more you disciple people, the more you go soul winning. The more you you know, you pray for your brothers and sisters, you help people out, the more you do these commandments. I mean, the more knowledge, the more experience you're going to gain. And, you know, and the Bible says that you can learn great things through experience. And if you've been solely for any length of time, you probably, for example, you might learn a lot about false religion. You go knocking doors around here long enough. You're going to learn what the Mormons really you're going to learn what the Catholics really believe. You're going to learn what Sam gets really teach me when they knock on one of their doors. And I'm like, well, Jesus is only choose Messiah. It's not really mine. It's like, what? What's wrong with you? Let's see here. You don't have to turn there. I'm just going to read this Proverbs chapter one, verse seven. So what is the fear of God says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. It's the fool that comes to church and hears God's word preached and says, you know what, that's garbage. I'm not going to follow it. I really think this now in church, obviously, you should be reading during the week. You should be doing those things because, you know, somebody might come up here and say something wrong, you know, or say you start teaching false doctrine. I've seen I've been in churches in our movement where somebody got up and preach here. It happens now and you got it. You got to be able to educate yourself. Got it. You and the Holy Ghost. You need to learn the Bible so that you can protect yourself against that. But nonetheless, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Hey, if you're you're sitting here today and you're thinking, man, I really want to get smarter. I really want to get, you know, just better at the. Do you have the fear of the Lord? That's the question I would ask. Do you fear God? And just take a look at, you know, take an honest look, do a self check on yourself and just just just be honest. Do you fear God or not? I mean, it's really a simple thing to say, but it is harder to do. You know what? Turn to Proverbs chapter chapter number 16. Turn to Proverbs chapter 16. Somebody says, hey, what's the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is clean. The fear of the Lord endures forever. It's the beginning of wisdom and it's the beginning of knowledge. I mean, to me, I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty darn important. That sounds pretty darn important. If you want to grow as a Christian, you want to mature in the faith. You better fear God so that you can get that knowledge and you can apply it and gain wisdom and start living clean and turn, you know, gain, you know, rack up those eternal rewards. So Proverbs chapter 16, look at verse number six. I want to talk about this, this idea of self checking yourself. It says, by mercy and truth, inequity is purged and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. So maybe you're hearing, you know, this morning you're saying to yourself, you know, do I really fear God? And that's a question that all of us need to ask. Do I fear God? Do I fear the Lord? What would be the evidence of that? Well, look at the verse again, by mercy and truth, inequity is purged and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. So I guess the question I'd have for you is, are you making an effort to depart from evil? Are you making an effort to get that inequity out of your life? I mean, that simple question, look, just be honest with yourself. Are you doing that? And then this isn't directed at anybody in here. I mean, I don't look, I don't know what you guys are doing. You guys look better Christians than me. So, you know, amen. I don't know. But nonetheless, all joking aside, this is a self check that we all should do. You know, have I got the evil out of my life? Have I departed from evil? Have I departed from watching Hollywood? You know, listening to the rap, the rock, you know, hanging out with the wrong crowd, the bad influences in life, right? The people that don't believe in God, the people that hate God. You know, I mean, as Christians, let it never be said of us here that we do that. I mean, that's going to lead you nowhere. That's going to rub you raw. That's going to take the fear of God away from you because you're going to be more worried about pleasing that person than you are about pleasing God. And you need to understand that. And instead of departing from evil, you're going to run right to it and you're not going to have the fear of God. So we got to hurry up here. We're going to talk real quick here about the benefits and how do we get the fear of God. So I'm up here. Look, get the fear of God. You're going to have the fear of God. Well, how do you get it? I'm almost done. Don't worry. Go to Deuteronomy chapter four, Deuteronomy chapter four. We're going to flip through a couple of chapters, more than a couple. Flip through a few chapters in Deuteronomy. But I promise I'll be trying to hurry up. Last thing here. How do we fear? How do we get the fear of God? So you've done the self check, right? You understand the different types of fear. You're looking at yourself like, yeah, there's some things that need to change, things that need to get right. How about how, how do I get the fear of God? Look at Deuteronomy chapter four and verse 10. Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 10. Deuteronomy four, 10, especially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in or when the Lord said unto me, gather me the people together and I will make them hear my words that they may learn. Don't miss this, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth and they may teach their children. So hear my words that they may learn to fear me. You're going to find that phrase a lot through the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Hear and fear, hear and fear. And remember that the key to getting the fear of God is to hear, hear God's word preached, right? Hear the Bible, hear it and apply it. Now turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse 11. Just a few chapters over. Deuteronomy chapter 13 and verse 11. So how do we fear God? Deuteronomy 13, 11 says, and all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. I'm just going to read the rest of these Deuteronomy 17. You can write them down or get them from me later. Deuteronomy 17, 13 and all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuous. The key to fearing God, to actually making the choice to fear God. You say, how do you get the fear of God? It's to hear and fear. It's to make the choice in your heart to hear and fear. Hear the sermons. You know, a lot of great men of God coming to this church every week and they're going to preach different things. You ought to hear that and you ought to fear that and apply it to your life. Deuteronomy 19, 20. And those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. It's really simple to preach. It's simple to say it's harder to do. Hear, fear, apply. Hear, fear and apply. Deuteronomy 31, 12. Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy stranger that within thy gaze that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this law. Look, I'll just be honest with you. If you don't go to church, if you don't go to a church that will preach you the truth no matter what the cost is, you are never going to fear God. And most of you know that. Go to these other churches around here and try and prove to me that they fear God because they don't. They do not. They aren't willing to preach the truth. They're just not willing to do it. I had an independent fundamental Baptist pastor tell me that I don't believe that all parts of the Bible should be read. Like the part I read this morning about David actually cutting Goliath's head off. That really had nothing to do with the sermon and what I was trying to say. I just read that because he told me that. So any chance I get to kind of sneak in a little bit more of the hardcore stuff, I'm going to take. Because I'm not afraid. This whole book, the Bible says that the scripture, that all scripture is profitable for doctrine. For all of us. There's no part of the Bible that we should fear to read in front of you. It's all applicable for today. Deuteronomy 31 and 13. And their children, which have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over Jordan to possess it. Now last place I'm going to have you turn is Acts chapter 19. How do you get the fear of God? Well, you got to hear. I mean, first you got to be saved because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So you got to fear the Lord. You know, obviously you got to be saved, but you need to hear and fear. Just remember that when you're in a situation where you've got a choice. You know, am I going to laugh at this crude joke at work so that they don't laugh at me when I walk away? Or am I just going to, you know what? This is inappropriate. I'm out of here. You know, you have that choice. All of us are confronted with situations like that. And you need to remember that you got to hear and fear. You have to apply the right kind of fear in your life. Don't be afraid of the people at work that are talking like that, that are acting crude. You know, you just need to turn them off. So what? They're going to make fun of you. It's going to hurt. The Bible says that we're in war. We're in a war right now. You know what? You're in a war with your own family probably. You're in a war with people at work, people at the grocery store, a bunch of faggots downtown. They're running around, you know, trying to, you know, throw their pride stuff at you. You know, we're in a war. We have not to let that make us feel uncomfortable. You know what? They're the ones that need to go back in the closet. But anyways, I got to end this here. Act chapter 19, look at verse number 11. It says, Acts 19, 11 says, And God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought into the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out from them. And certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them, which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Verse 14 says, And there were seven sons of Steva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. Now look at this next part. This is funny. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? But who are ye? And I'd just like to stop right there and say, you know, you can apply this the same way. Are you the kind of guy or woman that only wants to just listen to sermons online and just be a YouTube only, you know, and then maybe try and go out and, you know, fight this battle? You know what? You might knock on somebody's door that, you know, has their double tongue pretty sharp, you know, and they're going to say, you know, Pastor Anderson I know, Pastor Jimenez I know, Pastor Thompson I know, but who are you? You know, you just got to be careful here. Look at verse 16. I got to hurry up. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaved on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Again, we want to avoid that. Look at verse 17. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus and fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. That's the right kind of fear. That's the right kind of fear. See, when we have victories in our lives as a church, as a group, as a team together, you know, that's going to cause fear in the community. Look at verse 18. And many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it. 50,000 pieces of silver. And that's my sermon. Sorry, go to verse 19, because here's the result. Here's the result. So mildly grew the word of God and prevailed. And that brings you back to my statement. Fear is a motivator. The right kind of fear leads to the right kind of actions. The wrong kind of fear leads to the wrong kind of actions and their consequences. When we want to be like this group here in Acts, you ought to come to church, you know, and you hear that powerful sermon, fear, you know, and be willing to throw all the garbage out, burn it. Because, I mean, look at the result. What happened? What happens when we as a group do that? This is very important. We get the right kind of actions. Because look, it says so mildly grew the word of God and, you know, and it prevailed. You know, this church here can do that. We can continue to hear in fear and we can really make God's word and voice grow. We can make it so the Mormons can't progress any further. They can't raise that percentage of Mormons, right? You know what I'm saying? We need to go out there and get them saved. We need to go to the colleges and get these guys that are moving here. These freshmen, these sophomores saved before their atheist professors gets them. That's how we're going to make a difference. But I'll tell you what, it only is going to start by when we decide to fear the word of God. We decide to fear God. Remember, fear is the motivator. The right kind of fear leads to the right kind of actions. The wrong kind of fear leads to the wrong kind of actions and their consequences. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this opportunity to preach and just pray you bless this church, Lord. And thank you for your word and the freedom that we still have to gather here. And I just pray you bless the soul winning fellowship and the evening service. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.