0:18 So today I wanted to speak as building a god-fearing foundation. Often if you look at a house and you see issues with the house like cracks in the wall or something else like that, 0:36 um you could try to fix the crack itself and maybe paper it over or cover it up. But often those cracks show up because there's something wrong in the foundation. And that was my testimony as well. 0:55 that as I grew older in different stages in my life, there were cracks that would show up and sometimes I would deal with the crack itself, that particular problem or that particular sin. And things changed, however, when I 1:14 started to recognize that there was some issues in my foundation. Now I was actually given a very good foundation probably better than any of you have had. Now I I don't know all of you 1:31 personally so I don't know what kind of a foundation you were given but I believe I was given the best foundation. The foundation that I was taught when I was a young boy growing up was the right foundation. 1:49 And still I realized that there were aspects of my foundation that were not set right because I didn't take it as seriously even though the home and the church in which I grew up was trying what taught 2:06 me what the right foundation was. And so I want you all to be encouraged by that. As you know, I grew up in a godly home. Um there were um everything was I wouldn't say it was perfect. Nobody's no home is perfect, but it was 2:24 about as perfect as it could be as I see now. If you had asked me when I was growing up at home, was it perfect? I would have had a different answer. But that's because my heart was still still uh not fully submitted to the Lord. I 2:40 hadn't seen things the way I see them now. And I had I was thankful to have God-fearing parents and parents who loved me. And I'm thankful for all of that. Now, some of you I I believe have that as well. 2:59 god-fearing parents um and parents who did the best they could. Some of you may not. And regardless of what that looks like, be encouraged that God planned your life from before you were born. 3:17 His love for you started before he made the world. We told in Ephesians 1 verse4 that he adopted us in love before the foundations of the world. You write that verse down if you could please so you don't forget 3:37 and you look back on that often that he chose you in Christ Jesus before the foundations of the world. That means that he his plan for your life started with you and then he made the world and separated the land and the 3:54 water and um had the stars and the sun and the planets and put the trees and the fish and animals and Adam and Eve. All of that came after he planned your you. 4:13 And that includes your parents, your home, your body, the way the circumstances you would grow up in, how much money your parents would have, what kind of an education they would have. All of that was planned before the foundations of the world. 4:32 And while you were in your mother's womb, he was writing a book about your life every day. And so this is very important especially for you dear young people to remember because that will help you with a lot of 4:50 questions and problems you may face in life. remembering that your days were planned long before you even existed. And so whatever you faced today, your for many of you it's the end of the day, whatever you will face tomorrow, all of 5:10 that has already been planned in love. And when you made a mistake at some point in the past or committed a sin at some point in the past, that also was included in the plan. I just got to glance at some of the 5:27 questions that you all submitted today and I'll try to answer as many as we can. But many of those questions relate to I would summarize like this. I am struggling. I'm fighting and I'm defeated and I'm constantly defeated and I feel like it will never 5:46 end. Is there any hope for me? We'll get to that answering some of the specifics of those questions later on. But your hope should be based in the fact that God wrote in that book, yes, this this child of mine will be defeated 6:04 on this particular day. It includes that he knew it was going to happen and yet he made a plan for your life. The most important page in the book of your life is the last page. It's that's true for all books. The last page is the 6:22 most important. And imagine yourself turning to a book and you look at the last page. What's written there? I want you to see what is written on the last page of your life. To see that, I want you to please turn with me to Romans chapter 8 6:42 verse 29. Romans chapter 8 verse 29. This is what is written on the last page of the book of my life. And it can be what is written on the last page of the book of your life as 7:01 well. It it may not be yet. I don't know. But there's only one thing that determines whether this is on your book in your book as well as mine. And that is do you believe it? If you believe it, it's there. That's one of the principles in the Christian 7:19 life. If you believe it, it's true. If God has said it, first of all, and then you believe it, it's true. Now, God has already said it. That's what I'm going to show you first. Romans 8 29. God has said that on the last page of the book 7:38 of of our lives, he has written this. Romans 8:29, for those whom he forneew, that's you and I, he also predew means he knew beforehand everything about your life. For knowledge 7:56 that means he beforehand he knew. He also predestined. Determined beforehand all of you whom all of us whom he for knew beforehand. He predestined means he determined the destination beforehand. The final page of the book if you will 8:16 where the story will end, how the story will end. He predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he the son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. So 8:36 on the last page, let me respe this verse this way because he wrote every page of the book of your life beforehand. What he wrote on the last page, the final destination, was this, that you would be conformed to the image of Jesus 8:56 fully. I want to encourage you, dear brothers and sisters and children, to make this a reality in your life by believing it. Not because I said so. Maybe you heard it for the first time this way, but meditate on that verse. 9:14 Romans 8:29 and make it faith and life in you by believing it. Said, "Lord, you said it and you don't have to try to analyze it and uh just take it simply as it's written." And then allow God to as it were 9:33 take a book in your mind and show it to you and say, "Ah, it's written there." The end of the story is Santosh becomes like Jesus in his nature and you put your name there. And I tell you dear brothers and sisters and young people 9:49 especially and children if you really believe it, it will change your life. It has changed my life. And every time I'm facing some difficult situation, I quickly just check is it still there? Yeah, it's still there. Okay, then whatever I'm going through 10:03 right now is going to be okay. if you have faith that it's still there. And that's why Romans 8:28 comes before that. Romans 28:28 is all the pages before the last page. You can 10:21 say and that pages say that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Do you love God? You and again you don't have to determine am I called according 10:41 to his purpose. If you believe you are called according to his purpose that's it. If you believe that you are called according to his purpose then you are called according to his purpose. So everything you're going through now 10:55 in your life is these pages and what's written on all of these pages. Romans 8:28. God is moving in this page. and then the next page and then the next page and the next page. He's causing it all to work together for good. What is that good? 11:14 That on the last page of your life, it will be written conformed into the image of Jesus. So I hope that will be an encouragement for you all. Now the foundation that I wanted to speak about however 11:31 is this. As you know, I mentioned that I was given a very godly foundation. And this is the word I wanted you to remember. God-fearing. The foundation that I was given taught me the fear of God. Let's turn to Proverbs chapter 9 11:51 and read verse 10. Proverbs chapter 9, we'll read verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the holy one is understanding. This phrase, the fear of 12:09 the lord is the beginning occurs multiple times in the book of proverbs. Uh even in the first chapter, you'll read it there. The fear of the lord is the beginning or the foundation. And you can liken it to this that the 12:25 fear of the lord is learning ABC. You want to understand this book of your life, right? And you want to understand that book is every word is written with love. But in order to understand a book, even the Bible, let's say, or a physical 12:43 book, you have to know ABC. When you were a little child before you could read and you just you were at this age where you could try to learn to read, what your parents or your teachers taught you was A B C. And every language 13:01 in the world has that concept of alphabets. Without the alphabet, you're never going to be able to learn to read. Alphabets form words which form sentences which form paragraphs and chapters and the whole book. But it starts with the 13:20 alphabet and if you don't learn your alphabet then this book is any book will be meaningless to you. And that alphabet dear brothers and sisters and children young people especially is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the 13:36 ABC. When I think about what many Christians are speaking about or even especially singing about, I find that most Christian songs, most Christian songs, almost all of them, especially in this in the last 50 to 100 years, I would 13:56 say, speak about the love of God. The love of God must brings us security. The love of God, the kindness of God draws us to repentance. We are told in uh Romans chapter 2:4, God's love, the father's love will draw 14:14 us back to the home as it drew the prodigal son back home. But the foundation of the fear of the Lord is so important. And I almost never heard a song, certainly a new song come out recently that speaks about the fear of the Lord. 14:32 And if we don't get that foundation, that ABC of the fear of the Lord correctly, what will happen is we'll start to speak about and try to read about all the other things in the Christian life, but it'll we'll be confused. 14:50 And if I if I have a book and I haven't learned ABC, I can pretend to read this book and imagine that it says whatever I wanted to say. It It's not actually what is said in the book, but because I don't know ABC, I 15:09 can read the book of God's love, let's say, and imagine, oh, God's love is like this. And I can sing write a song about the love of God and sing about the love of God and and in while I'm singing that and re speaking about that I've got my 15:25 own idea of the love of God because I don't know ABC and the only way to really know anything in the Christian life certainly the love of God which is very important because it's what will bring us security 15:43 and draw us back to him. And we're told in the book of Jude, keep yourself in the love of God. But if I don't know ABC, then whatever I think is the love of God will be my own imagination. Just like let's say I I read a book, you 16:02 know, let's take a an earthly book like uh um a book about a a story, a story book. Let's say you read a a story book, a children's story book. And if you don't know how to read and there's no pictures, you can read that and pretend 16:20 that you're reading and sit. Many people are sitting in church pretending that they're reading the book of God's love and they come up with their own idea and some even write songs about it like I said. But if you don't know the fear of the 16:33 Lord, if you don't know your ABC, whatever you thought you read in that book of love is your own idea. And uh I remember once one of my kids when they were little they couldn't read but they they saw their you know they 16:48 saw other people reading so they said I'm going to read too. They take a book and say something. It wasn't what was written in the book. It was just something in their mind and they pretended to be reading. It was really cute to watch. Now, that's 17:02 wonderful when kids are cute like that, but that's not something you can afford to play around with in your Christian life. If you don't know the fear of the Lord, then everything in your Christian life could be completely wrong and you may 17:17 not even know it. So, we must know the fear of the Lord. Now, I want to give you a definition of the fear of the Lord that it's not mine. It's the one my father gave me spoke about with and I believe it to be biblically true 17:34 that the fear of the Lord is not the fear that God will hurt me but the fear that I will hurt God. That's the true fear of the Lord. It's not being afraid of God. I'm not afraid of God. When I was a kid actually and I didn't know the true fear 17:52 of the Lord, I was afraid of God. Now there there part of that is good is true. God gave the Israelites in the old covenant the law to teach them the fear of the Lord. Now he it was a law of love. He loved them tremendously. That's 18:08 why he gave them the law. But he knew that the only way they could truly understand his love was if he taught them the commandments out of fear as it were. And I was taught the fear of the Lord initially 18:24 with a sense of yes being afraid because every sinful person who interacts with a holy God should have some sense of I'm afraid. If the first time you interact with God, 18:44 there isn't a sense of fear, then you haven't really seen the holiness of God. Because when we come to God, we come to him as sinners, filthy, wretched sinners. And 19:02 yes, he is love. But when I first come and see this God, if I've really seen him, there will be a sense of I I I'm afraid because I'm such a wretched person. 19:18 And if and unfortunately in Christendom, people are being told, preachers are presenting a God who says, "Yeah, come. God loves you so much. Come in, come in, come in." And they are never really shown the true God. who's holy and just 19:36 and they're never really shown their own condition of sin. So my I'm thankful that the godfearing foundation that's the theme of our meeting today. God-fearing foundation was the was the one I was given where my initial interaction with God as a little 19:56 four 5-year-old boy I can't remember exactly how old when I first understood these things was God is going to punish me and thankfully I was also in that context told about the fact that God did 20:14 punish somebody so he doesn't have to punish God is a punisher. Now maybe you think Satosh why are you saying this to me? God is a punisher. We must recognize that otherwise we have not seen the true God and God punished 20:31 his own son for me so that he doesn't have to punish me. That's the god-fearing foundation I was given. And I I I'm emphasizing this and I'm speaking about it even at the risk that some of you may misunderstand what I'm 20:50 saying because sadly that is missing in much of today's preaching that God is a punisher and he had to punish his own son Jesus on the cross. And we cannot speak about the cross without 21:09 having to say why did Jesus have to suffer all of that because God is a punisher of sin. And if I don't receive in faith the freedom from punishment through Jesus Christ, 21:28 then one day I will have to face that punishment. And hell is a real place. But the fear of God that I have spoken about then evolves grows into this that having seen that God is a punisher. It starts there and I believe that the 21:46 prodigal son for example if you read the story in Luke 15 there was a sense in which he had the fear of his father. Yes, he knew the love of his father. He knew that his father was a was a lavish, loving, generous person. And he 22:03 he's he said when he came to his his senses he says my even my father's servants have enough to eat and I'm can't even eat the pig's food here. But then as he was but then as he prepared to come he says I'm going to tell my father I'm not worthy 22:22 to be called your son. Why did he say that? Have you thought about why did the son say I'm not worthy to be your son let me be as a slave because he knew the he had the fear of 22:38 his father and he thought my father is a very strict just person and he's probably going to say yeah you're right you're not worthy to be my son go and sit in the servants's quarters you see how even the prodigal son who interacted 22:54 with a loving father. His journey started with the fear of his father. A fear that caused him to say on his own, I don't deserve to be in the house. I don't deserve to be I' I've lost my privileges as a son because my 23:12 father is a one to be feared. And after it started there, then when he got closer to his father, what did he see? A father running to him in love. But if that father, if that son had come back with a ah my my father is loving I 23:29 know I've wasted all his money it's been 10 12 years and I waste all let me come back and say father I'm your son right yeah you love me let's have a good time let me sit on your lap and you'll hug me and embrace me he would have father 23:41 would have come running to him I believe the father knew and that's a picture of god god knows what's in your heart and if is if there is that sense of god my Father, I have dishonored your name so much. I really And you're a a God to be 23:59 feared. You're a father to be feared because of your holiness. And I there's a part of me that's afraid to even come back to you, but I'm just going to try and run to you today again. You see how that starts with the healthy 24:16 fear of the Lord. And then what you will see I tell you dear young people especially you'll see the loving father running to you. That's the fear of the Lord. The fear of God that leads to the love of God. But now 24:35 how do we remain in the fear of the Lord? There's a verse in Proverbs chapter 16. Proverbs 16:E 6. By loving kindness and truth, iniquity is atoned for. You see that balance of 24:55 kindness and truth. What is the truth? That God hates sin. God is holy. And out of that truth that God is holy and no sin can dwell in his presence balanced with his tremendous love for you, his son and daughter, love for the 25:14 world, he draws you in and he makes a way for your sin to be atoned for. Sin must be atoned for. There must be a atone means there must be some sort of punishment setting right. If your sin is never set right, then you 25:33 cannot experience the love of God. You cannot come into his home if you're not cleansed of that. And that's why he says by loving kindness and truth, iniquity is atoned for. And so God, your 25:51 father, invites you today to know the truth that he is a holy God and yet he loves you. This holy God cannot allow even one sin into his presence. So if there is sin in you, he cannot let you in. That's truth. It's the law. It's like the law of gravity. 26:10 If you go, if the ball goes up, it will come down. If there is sin in you, it cannot come into the presence of the father. there can no sin can come into his presence but the love is seen in Christ who took our sin away nor bore our punishment and 26:27 so you see the the God who says I've got to keep you far away from me because you're full of sin and at the same time says but I want to draw you close to me and that's why I'm going to clean you up because I've already punished my son 26:40 Jesus your older brother and now you can come into his presence and then The verse goes on to say, "And by the fear of the Lord, one keeps away from evil." Now, I I like to think of this as the day number two in the father's house for the prodigal 27:00 son. Day number one, you can read about it in Luke 15. great party, had a wonderful feast, nice clothes on him, a ring on his finger, shoes on his feet, a big celebration, and and can you imagine what was going through that prodigal 27:14 son's mind? He's so excited. Oh, I'm so excited. I'm here. And he's seeing his father. He's seeing his maybe his other friends and and all that. And he's bring the memories of being back in his father's house are coming. But then what 27:30 happened at the end of that? They all went to bed tired and excited. And then the next morning, the prodigal son has to wake up. And now what? Have you ever thought about what day two was like in the father's house for this younger 27:47 son? I imagine that the young youngest son, the father says, you know, the father has to go to work the next day. Life continues on now that the prodigal son's back. And that's the everyday life you and I live. Father gets up early to start work. 28:02 Maybe he's working in the field. He lets the son sleep and he says, "Oh, he must be tired. He's never slept in a hasn't slept in a nice bed for all these years. Let him sleep for a little bit. Let him sleep in a little bit." And then the the 28:17 younger son finally wakes up, opens his eyes, and says, "Oh, wow. It's already 11:00 in the morning, but I got a good sleep." And then he looks out the window and he sees his father working. and he sees why he was able to have that 28:33 big feast the previous night. It's because his father had worked hard for the to afford all of this, the home that he has and the food that he eats and the comfortable clothes he's wearing and the comfortable bed and he sees his father 28:49 working. He says, "I got to go and help my father." Now, I believe that the reason that younger son left in the first place was because he got tired of working for his father. Every day, his father said, "6:00 in the morning, time to get up. 29:03 Let's go work." And he got tired of it. Every day, 6:00 in the morning, 6:00 in the morning. Now, the father took care of his sons and his family, but he had to work. And he got that younger son got tired of it one day, and he says, "I'm 29:17 sick of this. I want to go somewhere where nobody's going to tell me to wake up in the morning. I can do whatever I want. And he went and wasted his father's inheritance. Then he came back. Now, what do you think would go through 29:29 your mind if you were that son and you had woken up on day number two and your mind goes back to all the wonderful childhood you had and all you wasted all of that in sin and sin made you miserable and there you were in filth 29:47 and muck eating can't even eat the pig's food. But now here you are back in your father's home, sleeping in a comfortable bed. Your belly is full. You can eat again in a little bit if you want. There's plenty of food, but you see your 30:00 father out there in the field working. This is what the fear of the Lord is now that you're back in your father's home. Is the fear of the Lord is what keeps us from evil. What is it that will prevent this younger son from saying, "Oh, I got 30:16 a good meal. let me go back now and waste my father's inheritance again. Go back to that far country. It's the fear of the Lord. Is that sense of I will hurt my father. Like I said, not my father's going to punish me. I 30:31 know my father's not going to punish me. I just saw the big feast he made for me. But now the fear of the Lord is I'll hurt my father that if I just spend the whole day in bed my father will come back and okay maybe he'll give me one 30:46 full day to rest and recover but day number three and he sees that I'm I'm not I don't have a burden to to join with him in his work and that fear of I will hurt my father after he has loved me so much that I will grieve his heart 31:05 by my careless, self-centered life. That's what will get the son out there in the field with his father and say, "Father, I want to be with you. I want to be out with you in the field. Give me something to do. I'm here to 31:20 help you. And your business is my business." Now, the fear of the Lord is what will keep you from evil. This is the foundation, a god-fearing foundation that I was given. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 7. 31:37 Matthew 7. After Jesus gave a many, many instructions. You read Matthew chapter 5. He said, "If you lust with your eyes, it will take you to hell. If you get angry, it will take you to hell." You can read that in Matthew 31:55 chapter 5. He goes on to say if um um about telling lies. He goes on to speak about loving your enemies, not taking revenge. Matthew chapter 6, 32:14 not being a hypocrite, uh not worrying. Matthew 7, don't judge other people and all of these things. And then he says if you really seek to live all of these things you'll find that the way is very very narrow. Very few people are 32:33 actually doing this. And then he talks about at the end of it all he says let me tell you this. There's going to be two ways that you are going to respond to all of the commands that I've given you. One group of you is going to lay a good 32:48 foundation. Matthew 7:24-27. Some of you are going to lay a good foundation. Most of you are going to lay a bad foundation. I talked about that foundation as the healthy fear of the Lord. And what is that good foundation? Is 33:05 doing. He says, "The one who hears my word and does them." Verse 26. That's laying a good foundation. He doesn't say anything about, "Oh, I love you so much and yes, it's okay. I've just given you these instructions." it's kind of like a good 33:23 idea for you to do. No, he says you must do it. And it's the fear of the Lord that that fear that I will grieve him by the way I live my life that will lead me to say, "Father, I want to be with you working. I want to do what you ask me to do. Give 33:40 me something to do, father." The younger child, younger son will say, goes out into the field and says, "Father, I'm ready to work. Give me something to do. I just I you'll help me. I know you will, but I want to partner with you. 33:54 That's laying a good foundation. Doing when you lay that right found that foundation, your house will remain when the storm comes. If not, you'll say, "Ah, the father loves me. Let's sing about the love of God. Oh, that new song has just come out on the 34:12 radio, on YouTube. It's about the love of God and how his love is even bigger than I thought he was." Yes, his love is even bigger than we have ever thought it. But you'll only know the true love of God in all its length, breadth, height, 34:27 and depth if you've learned your ABC. Do you want to read the full book of God's love? Make sure you know your ABC. And then you'll read all of it and you'll find that it's endless. Not enough books. There's more books about God's love, 34:42 more books. But you'll know that it is the true love of God, not some other imagination of God's love because you've read it. You know the fear of the Lord. And I tell you, I want to tell you what I've shown you from is 34:55 from scripture. But I'll tell you from my own experience that I know the love of God today far greater than I've ever known in my life. But that's because I was taught the fear of the Lord and 35:12 I've learned the fear of the Lord. And the more I've learned absolutely sure this is what A looks like. This is what B looks like. This is what C looks like. This is what you know in school they teach us to write write it 35:24 carefully. How many times did you have to write? I don't know if they still teach it like that in school. Now they probably have AI tools that will do it for you. But um when I was in school, I had to write my alphabet so many times. 35:35 So many times. Why? Why did they teach us to write it carefully and write it? You know, I have books A for apple, B for bat, C for cat. Today, that seems like, oh, what's the point? But it's because you learned that when you were a 35:50 young boy or a young girl. Don't despise that little book that taught you what the alphabet was and how to write it out. It's because you were taught that that today you can pick up any book and read it. And if you want to know God's love in a 36:05 greater measure, which is in Christ Jesus, God wants you to know it. You know the fear of the Lord. Before I close, I had planned to speak about three examples in scripture. I don't have time to do that because I want to leave some time for questions. 36:21 I'll just tell you those three examples and I want you to write down these references and read them if you will please so that you can learn the fear of the Lord. The first example is Job. In Job 1, you can read that in Job 1 verse 36:35 1 and verse 8. Here was a man who didn't have any church, didn't have a Bible, didn't have he was even his wife, he was married, he had children. His children, we don't know how how godly they were. His wife certainly wasn't a god-fearing 36:50 woman. He was all by himself. Didn't have any church, didn't have any Zoom meetings or anything like that, but he had the fear of the Lord. And because he had the fear of the Lord, God could take him through a intense trial. I've never met a person in my 37:06 entire life who's gone through what Job went through. Lost all his belongings in one day. And then by the end of the day, he lost all of his children. And yet he could say, "Thank you, Lord. I I bless you. You gave me all that I 37:23 have, and now you've taken it all away. I bless your name." And he really meant it. He wasn't just singing some song says bless the Lord oh my soul or anything like that. He really meant it. How was it that God could go take 37:35 somebody through something like that and 100% response of praise to God? He had the fear of the Lord. If you have the fear of the Lord, dear young people especially, God can take away everything from your life and there 37:51 won't even be one word of complaint from you. And after that, Job got a disease sometime later. and such horrible disease that the whole day he had to just scratch himself with stones. He was it was on his skin yet he says the Lord gave the Lord take away 38:08 took away blessed be the name of the Lord. Do you want such a life? And he was a man like I said not even in the old covenant before the old covenant was given. No Bible, no church or anything like that. No friends to encourage him. 38:23 Even his friends came and made fun of him, taunted him. And yet he had the fear of the Lord. Another example is Abraham. He was a man who walked with God, knew God, was called a friend of God. And then God says, I want to prove that you 38:37 actually fear me. You have the fear of me in you. And so he says, I'm going to ask you to give me that which is most precious to you. Is there something really precious to you? And God asks and God takes it away from you. What he's after, my dear friend, 38:54 dear brother, sister, and child is he wants to prove that you have the fear of God in in you cuz that will solve all your problems and he'll give he then he can give you back anything else. God asked Abraham to give up Isaac that 39:10 thing that was most there was God Abraham would have given up anything else says Lord I'll give you everything I have take everything take all these other things I have he was a rich man says no there's only one thing I want 39:22 that your son and Abraham had the fear of God when God want wants to prove that he's the most precious to you he'll be able to do that if you have the fear of God in you and God's words with such joy. He 39:40 says in Genesis 22, you can read it in verse 12. Genesis 22:12, "Now I know that you fear me. Now I know that you fear me cuz you've given up that which is most precious." And what delight in God's heart when he 39:58 could say, "Here's one who fears me." Abraham is like in some place the father of those who believe. We're told cuz he had the fear of the Lord. And the third example is a man named Joseph. You can read about it in uh Genesis 39:9. 40:14 You can read the whole story. Here was Joseph far away from his family. His brothers had tried to take advantage of him, tried to kill him first, then they sold him into slavery. And there he was all alone for nothing wrong that he did. And this 40:30 woman tries to take advantage of him. and he could have. He didn't have a Bible. He didn't have uh friends to encourage him. He didn't have Zoom meetings. Day after day, he got up early and worked and he went to bed sleeping 40:43 like a slave. He was a slave and he worked hard. And then on top of that, this the mistress of the house, the lady of the house, the owner's wife, uh tried to tempt him sexually. And he was all by himself. She closed the door, nobody was there, turned off 41:01 the lights, you know, all by by yourself. Will you sin or will you not? Maybe maybe none of us will be tempted like that. But that potterer's wife will come on your phone or on the computer and say, "Come sin with me. Let's let's sin 41:18 together. Turn off the lights. Nobody will know. You can hide it. You can delete your browsing history even and delete it. Nobody will know. What will you do? Will you sin? Will you sin if you knew you can get away with it? What 41:33 will keep you in that situation? The fear of the Lord. You see that Joseph said, "Mrs. Piper, I know you think the doors are closed and the windows are the curtains are down and the lights are off, but God is here. 41:50 How can I do this and sin against God? He's here. He's watching." Proverbs 15:3. Let me read that verse. You turn there with me. Proverbs 15:3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place 42:08 watching the evil and the good. He's watching. And if you know he's watching, that ought to bring a fear in you. If you lay this foundation of the fear of the Lord, when you have the fear of the Lord, you'll recognize he's watching. Doesn't 42:24 matter if nobody else is watching. You know, most people Why is it that these these types of sins especi especially lust is a secret sin. People lock the door and they they find a private place where they can sin is because they don't want their wife to 42:39 find out. They don't want their father or mother to find out. They don't want the brothers and sisters in the church to find out. They don't want anybody else to find out. But God can find out. Oh, that's okay. So, they have the fear 42:48 of people, but they don't have the fear of God. And I like we read in Proverbs 16:6, the fear of the Lord will cause you to depart from evil. You'll recognize, "Ah, God's right here. His eyes are right there. He's going to look at that screen 43:05 just like I'm going to look at that screen. He's going to flirt with that lady at He's going to watch me flirt with that lady at work. He's watching." The eyes of the Lord are in every place watching. And when you have the fear of 43:18 the Lord, you recognize, yeah, nobody else is here but God is here. I cannot sin. Let me close with uh actually this verse. Proverbs chapter 2. How shall we learn the fear of the Lord? Proverbs chapter 2 verse one. 43:38 My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your year attentive to wisdom. Incline your heart to understanding. For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding. Cry 43:57 out for it. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will know the fear of the Lord and you will discover them. You'll truly know God because the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and 44:12 understanding. So meditate on God's word and cry with a desperate thirst. Say, "Lord, I want to know what it means to fear you because if I do, I know you will preserve me from all sin." Cry out, dear young people. I know 44:31 you're in a battle. I know you, some of you have been defeated for decades perhaps, and you feel like it'll never end. But cry out like you've never cried out before with a desperate thirst. Meditate on these verses I just read in 44:45 Proverbs 2. It's a promise from God that if you cry out and lift your voice, cry out and lift your voice, you will know the fear of the Lord. And the fear 45:04 of the Lord will keep you from sin. You won't have to ask, "How am I going to overcome this sin?" You will have the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord will keep you from evil. Amen. I could speak much more on that u 45:20 dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, but maybe it's good for us to pause there and I've given you enough to meditate on. I pray that the Lord will encourage you in that and that all of us will come to know the fear of the Lord. This is a 45:35 message for me. I'm in my 50s now. It's a message for me. I am I to think that yes, I'll never fall in these things that tempt teenagers and people in their 20s and 30s. There are great grandfathers who fall into sexual sin. Grandfathers fall 45:55 into sexual sin. Why is it? And some of them may have lived in victory for some period of time. It is the fear of the Lord that will keep me from evil. And today, no matter what age you are, if you don't have the fear of the Lord, the 46:09 time is coming when you will fall into sin and perhaps fall back into sins that you were once set free from. But that's not God's will for us. God's will is that we live as overcomers. And it comes from knowing the fear of the 46:23 Lord. So I hope, dear brothers and sisters, let's spend a few minute or so in prayer. Then we'll go into the questions. Heavenly Father, I ask that you will teach us the your fe the fear of you, the healthy fear of you that will keep 46:39 us from evil. I recognize that for some of us, we may not even know that what that means, Lord. And but I pray that you will help us to lay a right foundation, aresh to check our foundation if we've learned our ABCs correctly. And if we have perhaps been 46:55 misreading everything in the Christian life and not receiving, not understanding and not receiving what you've written, what you want to give us because we don't haven't known your fear, Lord. You want to teach us the fear, the fear of you. I believe 47:12 that with all my heart and I believe you're going to do that. You're going to teach us that. We cry out to you, Lord. Lord. And I pray that in every one of the ones listening to this message, there will be a cry to know what it 47:23 means to fear you. And then we'll know your love. And we'll see your love is so much greater than we'd ever thought. And we'll see your plans for our lives more clearly. We'll see it clearly written on the last page of our books that we are 47:37 conformed into the image of Jesus. Make it a reality. Heavenly Father, I pray pour out your Holy Spirit within us. The spirit of the fear of the Lord. It's a spirit that you give to us, Lord. A spirit of the fear of the Lord. So I 47:50 pray that you'll that that spirit will be poured out in our hearts. Forgive us for where we have missed out on that. And our hearts have been so full of the fear of man and the fear of other things. I pray that you will take away 48:01 that completely and replace it with the spirit of the fear of the Lord filling our hearts. I cry out to you for that for my own life. Lord, I need that. I pray for each one that's here in this meeting. every brother, sister, child, 48:14 young person, whatever their struggle, we know that through that fear of you, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we shall overcome in Jesus name. Amen.
