Jeff Durbin | The Fountain of Life

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If you would please open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs chapter 14, Proverbs 14, working through this book of divine wisdom.

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How do we live? Not just what do we know, not just knowledge, but wisdom.

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Proverbs chapter 14, in verse 27, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray together. Father, we come before your throne.

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You are the holy God, the consuming fire, the

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God of justice and love, the God who never changes. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

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Lord, you say you do not change and therefore we're not consumed. God, we thank you for your everlasting love.

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We thank you for your word, this gift of you speaking to us.

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This is your speech, God. And so Lord, I pray that you would work through the deficiencies of the pastor, the teacher today and you would teach by your spirit, through your word, and I pray that you'd bless and heal your church, heal our minds, and strengthen us, lift us up.

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I pray that you would work by your spirit today, that people would forget me and remember you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

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So you've seen this a lot already. We're in the book of Proverbs, God's book of divine wisdom, wisdom from above.

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And you've already seen this a lot. You see it throughout scripture, and we're going to get into that in just a moment, but the fear of the

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Lord, the fear of God. You've already seen it at the very beginning. How does the book start? Proverbs 1, verse 7, the fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of, there you go. That's how it starts. First opening of the book lays down the foundation.

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If you want to understand, if you want to know, if you want to be able to live, if you want to have skill in living, you want knowledge, you want wisdom, the very starting point is the fear of God.

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That's how the book started, and it happens over and over again. We've already hit a number of verses where the fear of the

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Lord is mentioned. It's throughout the book of Psalms, it's throughout the entire Bible. The fear of Yahweh, not the fear of some

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God, some type of God, but the fear of Yahweh, the fear of the true and living

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God, the only God, to fear Him. So this is obviously, as you do this, not popular today.

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It's not that it's not popular because it's not clearly communicated in the Bible or there's some ambiguity to this doctrine or this truth of fearing

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God. It's not popular today because we have spun a version of the Christian of God that tries to make

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Him more palatable for the world to receive. We want people to come and fill our churches.

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We want large churches, large buildings, large programs. We want to give a message that is something that is easy for everyone to digest.

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We want to know that, hey, this is for everybody, no matter where you're at, no matter what you're doing. We have a version of God that's very soft around the edges, and it's not a

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God who is full of wrath, a God who is a consuming fire. We don't want to see God in that way, so we've sort of given a portrait to the

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West of the evangelical God where He's just very sort of cool, smooth, easygoing, nice God.

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He doesn't have any concerns for justice or obedience. He's just a God of grace.

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So it's not that the attributes being highlighted are not true. Yes, God is a God of grace.

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I mean, Scripture goes beyond saying that God is loving. It says that God is what?

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He is love. He's not just a loving God. He doesn't just have an everlasting love that never ends, it never burns out, but it says that in terms of God in His own character, what is

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God like, who is God? God is love. So it's not as though those attributes are untrue, the ones that are being highlighted all the time to sort of soften the edges around God, it's an incomplete portrait of God.

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We're the creatures. We can't even comprehend everything about God. But God has revealed Himself to us in His Word to show us what

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He's like, what His character's like, and we do, of course, see things in Scripture that seem like, in some ways, like how is

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God like that all the time? Because I see myself generally in kind of like a lane at a time.

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I might have sort of a period of the day where I'm really sad, I'm melancholy, maybe a moment where from 11 to 12 where I'm very joyful and full of praise, then back down again to maybe some sadness and some grief, whatever the case may be.

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And so we look at God as creatures, at this incomprehensible God, and we're saying, how can

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God be all these things and this way all the time? And the answer is, that's why you should fear

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Him. Because He's not like you, He's not like me, He's not a creature. He's perfect in every attribute.

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He's not just love. God is also just. He's not just merciful.

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God is a God of wrath. He responds to evil. He will always do right.

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He is the God of vengeance. I mean, what does God say in His word to us as Christians? What does He say to us? Like leave the vengeance to God.

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Why? What does God say? Vengeance is mine, I will what?

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Repeat, that's what we're supposed to do, is to see God, He will not miss it. He will always answer.

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There will be a final answer and a final end. So when we see evil all around us and even evil not being responded to in this life, justice not being served here, we know that there's an ultimate day ahead of us.

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Why? Because of what we know about God's character, His attributes, God's own nature.

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But it's not popular today to talk about fearing God, to have an actual fear of God.

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I mean, God's sort of portrayed in Scripture as just our friend. Now is it true?

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Again, is it true that as Christians we are the friends of God? Is it true?

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I mean, it actually says, that's a Bible verse, that those who fear God are the friends of God.

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So is it true that God is my friend? Yes. Is it true that God is my father, that He's a loving father to me?

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Yes. But Scripture tells me to fear God. And it actually describes it interestingly in Scripture in this way.

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It'll say to fear God and to not fear man. It'll talk about the fear of man as a snare or as a trap.

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So we're told, fear God, don't fear man. Fear God, don't fear death.

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Fear God, don't fear the future. But it's interesting, the weight goes a different direction.

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Like, we want to say, nah, don't fear God, right? But Scripture says, no, fear God and don't fear anything else.

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See how Scripture portrays that? Very different than we want to preach or teach or accept today.

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But we have to define this. We're going to break this proverb, this wisdom from above, we're going to break it down piece by piece today.

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The first part is the fear of the Lord. What is biblically defined fear?

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Because there's a danger. I admit this. Look. I admit. And we should all be willing to be gracious enough to somebody who hears this call to fear

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God and they struggle with it. Because the kind of fear they're used to with a father is a different type of fear that Scripture's not calling you to.

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It's not a fear of an unstable and an unjust father.

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So we tend to think about that, right? Like fear, you know, I was walking down the street. It was late at night and I see some strange characters sort of coming my direction.

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We think of that as, well, I was afraid. My adrenaline shot up and I was afraid. I live in South Phoenix and this sort of thing happens all the time now in South Phoenix.

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I think, I think everyone's decided to descend on South Phoenix and live in my neighborhood and like set up camp behind my house and sort of those sorts of things.

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So at night I'll regularly see just really shady characters just walking on my sidewalk.

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They stole a package two nights ago from in front of my house. They broke into my mailbox and stole credit cards and things like that.

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It's an ongoing thing, but generally if I'm pulling out, like I was the other night, pulling out of my driveway and I see some guy that doesn't belong in my neighborhood, the first thing that pops up is concern.

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What's this guy doing here? Is he dangerous to my family? Is he here to break in? I have an app that every morning notifies me of all the bad stuff that happened in the last 24 hours within a half a mile or a mile of my house.

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And every single day it's burglary half a mile from your house, break in, it's theft, it's a violent attack.

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There was a shooting, those sorts of things. Every morning it's like, oh, it's good to live in South Phoenix. It's wonderful.

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But that's not the kind of fear scripture's calling you to have. The kind of fear that you feel an instant shot of adrenaline and fear because you don't know what this is, what this person's going to do.

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They're unstable. Maybe they're dangerous. It's not that kind of fear. It's not the fear of an unstable and an unjust father that many of you have probably experienced.

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Where dad's going to come home, you've done something wrong, or you know he's had a bad day, he's not in a good mood.

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You're afraid of dad to come home because of what might happen when he goes through those doors. Is he going to throw furniture?

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Is he going to be physically abusive? Is he going to be violent? Is he going to end with holes in the wall?

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Those sorts of things. It's not that kind of fear scripture's calling you to have. The fear of an unstable and unjust person.

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It's actually the opposite. When scripture calls you to fear the true and living

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God, it's calling you to have reverential awe. Reverential awe and trembling because he is holy.

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Because he's holy and we're not. We're to fear God with reverential awe and trembling because he is consistent.

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Because he's unchanging. Because he's righteous. And because he's faithful as a father.

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He will always do as he promises. And so scripture says, fear

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God. That's a reverential awe before God. A trembling before God.

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Why would we fear him? Because he's the judge of all the earth and he will always do right.

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So scripture again puts him in two categories in terms of fear. What are you to fear? Fear God. Fear the

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Lord. Fear God over and over and over again. But don't fear man. Don't fear the future.

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Don't fear death. Don't fear your circumstances. There's the command.

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Fear God. Don't fear anything else. Don't even fear, Jesus says, what people can do to the body.

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You know that scripture, correct? Where scripture talks about not fearing man. Don't fear the people that can do things to your body.

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Fear the one who can throw both your body and your soul into hell forever.

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There's the call. Don't fear the ones that can do things to you physically. What can man do to me is the cry of scripture.

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What can man ultimately do to me? It's what kept the martyrs with so much strength throughout

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Christian history. I mean you guys probably heard years ago we were in Scotland for End Abortion Now to try to get the work started there for Christians to save babies there.

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And we got to do this tour in Edinburgh called the Covenanter Tour of the

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Scottish Presbyterian Covenanters and John Knox and all that happened there. And there were so many amazing stories that make you feel very small as a

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Christian. It makes you question your own faith like, do I believe God like these men and women did?

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Would I respond the same and given the same circumstances? Is my faith like theirs? Is it that deep?

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I mean the kinds of things that they endured were they would have their thumbs broken and their legs broken and then they were dragged after this kangaroo court down this cobblestone street that we walked down.

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It's still the same stones. You're walking over their blood down to the very bottom where in the public square everybody's there to watch.

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You're brought up on this platform to be killed in front of everybody. And there's story after story after story of these faithful Christians with no fear.

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With no fear. I mean preachers that were saying as they're walking up the platform saying things like,

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I have more fear of God every Sunday when I ascend to that pulpit than I have right now on this platform.

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Really? Is that true? Because that's amazing.

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That's a sanctifying work of God in somebody's heart to put them in that kind of position. The fear of God is greater in me when

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I ascend to that pulpit to bring his word to the people of God. It's greater then than in this very moment where you're going to behead me in front of everybody.

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What brings a person to that kind of place? To not fear death in that way?

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Well, it's the cry of scripture. What can man do to me? What can you do ultimately to me?

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I know the one who saved me from my sin. I know the one who's sovereign even over your ability right now to take my life.

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I know the one who determines before the foundation of this earth was laid. I know the one who determined my days.

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He knows all my days and he determined this moment so he's the sovereign. And I know the one who is ultimately going to raise this body that's your killing from the dead.

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And so, what's there to fear? Well, if you fear God, you won't fear the future.

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If you fear God, you won't fear the financial circumstances you're in right now. Because you trust him.

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You trust him as the sovereign. You trust his providence. If you fear God, you won't fear man. You won't fear the future.

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You won't fear death. But you are called and I am called to fear the Lord. So, we need to lay down some foundations though, ultimately.

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Why? Why have reverential awe and trembling before this holy

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God? Why? Well, there's a number of reasons why. And it's a bit dangerous in the presence of God to question why

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I should fear him. But let's unpack this for the purposes of explaining to the doubters.

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Why should we fear God? We should fear God because ultimately, he's the creator.

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We fear him and we have awe before him and reverence before him because he made all of this.

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He made you and every part of you and every system in you. It's incredible.

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We've talked about this a lot. But the further we get into the depth of science and biology, where we're at today in our ability to study the human body and the human genome and what makes human beings unique and the language of life that is in your cells, that it's just speech.

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It is speech. God's speaking you into existence. That language. The further we go, the scarier it gets in terms of it shouting to us about the glory of God and him as creator.

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The deeper we go into astronomy or to the depths of science and looking at biology or all of life, the deeper we go, the further we get into understanding how much we should fear this

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God because he's the creator. It's incomprehensible. I want you to see this.

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I've mentioned it before, but you need to take a look at it. One of my favorite documentaries is with Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens.

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It's called Collision. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly encourage you to see it. It's free now. I think it's free.

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At least it's on YouTube. I hope no one stole it. It's on YouTube right now. You can see it, Collision, Douglas Wilson, Christopher Hitchens.

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They have this debate tour around a book. Christopher Hitchens, my favorite atheist in history,

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I wish he was still alive. I would love to have talked with him. He does this really great debate tour with Douglas Wilson.

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Douglas Wilson, I think, was probably one of the first guys that actually just had

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Christopher Hitchens dumbfounded. He's an amazing thinker, Christopher Hitchens was. He is fast on his feet.

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He is an artist with his words. As you watch him debate Christians, he tends to win the audience a lot with how he speaks.

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Douglas Wilson just took his legs off. At the end of the film, you see this private moment between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson in the limousine.

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They were at the pub before that, so I think that Christopher Hitchens may have had a few. You know that old saying, in vino veritas?

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Everyone know that saying? What's it mean? In vino veritas. What is it?

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In wine there is truth. Veritas. Veritas. In wine there is truth.

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I think that was the moment where it was in vino veritas. I think Christopher Hitchens, as an atheist, maybe had a little bit and was letting a little bit loose.

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He wouldn't normally do. But he says to Douglas Wilson in the limousine that one of the hardest things for the atheist to overcome in debate with the

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Christian is just the insane complexity of all of life and creation.

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That everything is on a razor's edge, Hitchens says. We're one move to the left or to the right, and life is not possible.

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Everything is in this perfect, incredible balance from the bottom all the way out there.

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The farther you go, the lower you go. You see this insane balance that is just incomprehensible.

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And Christopher Hitchens, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, that's what they called themselves.

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Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, the famous new atheist.

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One of the most famous atheists in this last generation says that as an atheist, it's hard to overcome that.

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It's hard to overcome the clear identification of created by creator in all of this.

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So why should you fear God? Because he's the creator of all things. We should fear

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God because scripture says that he's the sovereign over all things. Not the sovereign over just the micro things, the small things, the macro things, the big things, the overarching things.

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Scripture says that God declares the end from the beginning. And he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

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And no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done? He's so sovereign. There isn't, as of course you know,

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Sproul said, a maverick molecule in the entire universe. Everything is by design.

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Everything is by God's decree. Everything has purpose. And so God has the control over all things.

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And so we should fear God because he's the sovereign over all things. We should fear

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God because he's holy. Now, you know this scene, but I can't think of a better scene to express this than Isaiah chapter 6.

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Isaiah chapter 6, it's the scene where Isaiah gets a glimpse of the holiness of God. He's before the throne and the glory of God is there.

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And Isaiah is this incredible prophet from the Old Testament. My favorite book of the Old Testament actually.

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It's amazing. In Isaiah chapter 6, here you have this, in a category of human experience, this righteous prophet.

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And he gets a glimpse of the glory of God and the holiness of God. And the angels are there.

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And the angels are saying about God that he is holy, holy, holy.

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Now, I never want to assume that everyone understands always what that means. So I'm going to explain this.

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In the Hebrew, there's no punctuation. So there's no period, comma, exclamation point.

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There's a different way to emphasize something rather than putting an exclamation point.

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Or like today, if we're doing it in text with somebody like, you're never going to believe this! Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point.

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You have 10, which is a little excessive, right? You're kind of running wild with that many exclamation points.

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But we do it in text to make sure you understand, I really mean this. Well, in Isaiah, in the

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Hebrew, to emphasize the holiness of God, how he is separate from us, and he is good, and he is righteous, and we're not.

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The angels are saying that God is holy, holy, holy.

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It is a way to scream it from the text. Not just holy, holy, but holy, holy, holy.

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And the scene ends with Isaiah covering his mouth, and he immediately recognizes his own brokenness, his own sin, how foul he is before the throne of God, because he says,

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I'm a man of unclean lips, and I'm coming apart at the seams. So, I would venture to say,

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I think, probably Isaiah lived a more righteous life than any of us in this room, in terms of him as a prophet of God, speaking for God, living a life of holiness and blamelessness before man and God, as much as a human being is able to do that.

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And when he got before the throne of God in this incredible vision, his immediate response is to recognize what's on his lips, and that he shouldn't even be here,

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I want to die. So, why should we fear God? Why should we have awe and reverence and trembling before the true

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God? It's because God is holy, and you're not. You're not. I'm not.

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God is holy. God is also a just God. Of course, we can look around the world today and see injustice and evil around us, and we can decry it, and we can condemn it, and there's no question in my mind that every person in this room right now has experienced some injustice, some evil, some vile word, some abusive thing.

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And we recognize the injustice, the not -rightness of it all. But what

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Scripture says about God is that he's a just God. That should cause us to fear. He's not going to miss anything.

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He'll answer absolutely everything. As a matter of fact, in the very next chapter in Proverbs, we're probably going to combine this verse with a few other ones, but it says that the eyes of the

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Lord are on everything, everyone, on the good and the evil.

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On the good and the evil. He knows all things. He knows the depths of your hearts. He knows every thought.

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It even says in Scripture that on the last day, people will be held accountable for every idle word, every idle thought.

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Nothing escapes God's justice. And that's the glory of the cross, by the way. The justice of God satisfied on my behalf in Christ, so that I'm not condemned for it.

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I don't answer for it. Jesus answered for it. But there is a day where everything will be answered by God.

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No injustice will be ignored. Everything will be answered in one of two ways by this just God.

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One, His justice is satisfied for all of your sins.

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Every thought, every sin, every rebellion, every lawlessness, every lie, every adulterous thought, every act of adultery, every murderous thought, every act of murder.

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It is satisfied in Jesus. It is not ignored. Or, why we should fear

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God, is that if you and I are not in Christ, if we don't know Him, if we're not joined to Him by faith, if that death didn't satisfy ours, then every single sin and injustice will be brought before the watching world and will be answered by this

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God who is a consuming fire. Everything. So why should we have fear and reverence and awe before the true and living

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God? It is because He is just. It says in Scripture, The judge of all the earth will always do right.

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He's going to answer everything. We should fear God and have awe before Him because He's just.

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We should fear God because He is full of wrath. Of course, again, God is not like us.

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He is incomprehensible. God is merciful. God is love. God is forgiving.

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His mercy is new every morning. But it also says that God is a consuming fire and He is a

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God of wrath and justice. That He actually pours out, pours out

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His wrath. We should fear Him for this because He has a settled opposition to evil.

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We tend to think of wrath on our side as human beings as pretty bad. Like if I was to say that I saw somebody in here in the parking lot have an outburst and they just raged and they poured out wrath, we would probably have a perspective of that that it probably was not healthy.

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There was some wrath tinged with hatred. There was some wrath tinged with abuse. We would see it as maybe out of control.

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You are so filled with wrath right now, as a human being, as a creature, we would say that it's tinged probably with some sin.

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But when we think about the wrath of God, it is not ever tinged with sin. It is never out of balance.

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It is always perfect. It is always right. It is always true. And Scripture teaches that the wrath of God is

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His settled opposition against evil. And that is why we should fear

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Him. Again, Scripture says, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the

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Lord. I'll say briefly something on this too to bring some context to something popular in history.

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You all know the story of Jonathan Edwards and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It's a popular story in America's history.

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There was the Great Awakening. It was a moment of light and life and repentance and forgiveness and all kinds of great things that happened not very long ago in America's history.

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And you know about the famous American theologian Jonathan Edwards and that famous sermon, Sinners in the

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Hands of an Angry God. I want to just point something out. I think, and of course,

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I don't have all the answers here, but I think one of the reasons that that sermon did so much, of course, first and foremost, because of the

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Spirit of God, but secondly, of course, because the Scripture contained in that terrible sermon.

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And by terrible, I don't mean bad. But also, I think it was the context of the day.

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Think about it. Think about the day that they lived in where you had a basic Christian culture and understanding of God.

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What came from the New England pulpit at the time was essentially a reformed confessionalism. They knew they were catechized.

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They had catechism. They had confession. They knew what God was like. They knew God's nature. They knew God's attributes.

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They knew God's character. They knew God's law. They even made sure they had God's law in the state laws.

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Like, that's how much we revere and respect God and His commandments, is they're actually put forth into the capital itself and into our laws.

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There was a context at the time where there's an understanding of the character of God that was basic and understood in that culture.

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And then in comes Edwards pointing everyone towards the wrath of God against sin and how all of us hang in the balance between life and death, between now and eternity.

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That's where we hang. That's where Edwards' point was in the message. Sinners in the hands of an angry

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God. And God is right now holding you. And it's only because God is holding you that you haven't dropped and descended into hell.

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And why would that have such an impact in that day? It's because of what they understood about God, His justice,

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His righteousness, and His character. And if we don't fear God, sinners in the hands of an angry

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God is a meaningless challenge. It's a meaningless threat if we don't fear God.

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If you call out on Mill Avenue on Friday and Saturday night to the licentiousness and to the debauchery and the evil going on, and you say, you are all sinners in the hands of an angry

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God, people scoff. And they walk right past. Why? Because of course there's rebellion, their hearts are hard, but they don't understand the character of God.

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People rebel against God what must first happen is we must abandon fear of God.

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Get that and you'll get the substance of what I'm saying. In order to rebel against God and to fall into sin, we must first abandon our fear of God.

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We have to pretend in that moment when we entertain the lust or the adultery or the abuse or the hate or the murder or whatever it is, we have to first disassociate ourselves from God as creator and as the one who is watching all things and as the sovereign.

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If I'm going to walk into a path of sin, I must first abandon my fear of God.

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First. Watch it. Every time I sin or you sin, the first thing we must cast off is our fear of God.

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It's the first to go, generally speaking. So we have to fear God because He's wrathful.

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And I want to say, I think it's interesting. I do. I think it's interesting that when the

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Apostle Paul is explaining the gospel and how God saves and it's all to His glory and it's this gift of His grace, when he gives us this beautiful story of salvation in that cross, what does he say as the definition?

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What is definitional of the fallen person? He says what? There's none who does good.

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There's none righteous. And how does he sum up the description of all of us? Every one of us.

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Not just not good, not righteous, non God -seeking, the poison of asbestos under their lips, all the rest.

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The summary of it is what? There is no fear of God.

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See that? The contrast between those who know God and those who don't know God. Those who don't know

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God, those who are not redeemed, they have no fear of God. They don't care.

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They don't fear God. And so, when this verse says the fear of the

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Lord is the fountain of life, we need to know what that means. And just a couple of verses here for you to write down, for you to go and meditate on later.

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Proverbs 1 -7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. We've already been here.

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Proverbs 8 -13, the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech

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I hate. Jesus says in Matthew 10 -28, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

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Psalm 33 -8, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe before him.

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Luke 1 -50, and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

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Deuteronomy 10 -12, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the

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Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the

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Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your soul. Proverbs 19 -23, the fear of the

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Lord leads to life and whoever has it rests satisfied. He will not be visited by harm.

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Psalm 25 -14, the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant.

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Psalm 34 -9, O fear the Lord you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack.

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This could go on. Scripture calls us clearly to stand in reverential awe before God.

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Scripture says here in verse 27, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. Think about fountain as a spring.

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Or a well. To which everyone in this room goes, what's that? Particularly kids in here are going,

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I have no idea. Because for us, the spring or the fountain is just a turn of a knob.

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Right? Just right there in front of us at all times. My son, August, he loves to go outside and just turn the water hose on and spray everything and make like mud things and build things out of mud.

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And sometimes I have to, I find out that he turned it on and he never turned it off.

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And so like in the morning, he'll turn it on and then I was like, hey, make sure you turn that off and I'll come home later that day and he forgot and left it on and what is it in my backyard?

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It's this ginormous like lake now that's formed in my backyard. And of course, I received the penalty at the end of the month with the bill.

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Right? But that's it with our kids. It's easy for them to go, I want some water, turn it on.

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I want to take a shower, turn it on. I could do this for as long as I want. I could just keep it on and I have this unending stream of water.

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And it wasn't that way in human history. It's not that way in many parts of the world.

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You know that. Some parts of the world are not like we have because of the blessings of the

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Christian worldview that came here and produced all of these things. Some of the parts of the world every day is a struggle to make sure that you have life -giving water, that you have a spring or a well.

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We send missionaries and we have workers that go to foreign lands to make sure that we help them to build wells so they don't die.

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And that's the context this comes from. It doesn't mean a lot to us today. Be honest. It doesn't mean a lot to us because for us, a fountain of water and life is just a turn of the knob away.

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Like each one of us can hang out here forever and pretty much survive off of that water fountain back there.

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It's just this unending stream. Where's it coming from? We don't know. Don't really care. Right? It's just there.

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That's where we live today. It's all underneath us. It's all, somebody else is in charge of making sure there's always enough of it and it's just going to keep coming into my home.

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And so we don't really, I think, respect really what this is communicating to a people that had to fight for a well or a spring or something that would keep life.

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Think about it for a minute. People have, you know, it just depends on where you're at. Like your metabolism, how healthy you are, and are there some differences in terms of time?

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So it's not, it's not absolute, but they say that the human body can't go more than about three days without water.

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And in terms of it impacting you and ultimately what happens if you don't have water is you die. Like I think it's people doing like water fast.

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Anyone here ever do a water fast? Water fast? Yeah? So I've, of course, very popular today with biohacking to figure out how you can get your metabolism working again.

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Great stuff we're learning in technology today and all these things. But people are talking about the benefits of fasting, how it reboots your system, your cells sort of like shed the toxins, and you turn yourself back on again.

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But people are talking a lot about like water fasts. And I'm like, I don't know about that.

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Like I think I have the discipline to do a food fast. I do have that discipline. Of course, I do it. But a water fast to like, is that, is that what it is?

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You just don't drink water? Is that what water, is that really it? So I'm showing my ignorance here of this thing. But everyone's talking about water fast.

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And I'm thinking like, like water fast, like to die? Because it only takes like a couple of days before you're in real trouble.

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You start damaging your organs. Why? Because you must have life -giving water.

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You could die much sooner without water than without food. Like the numbers for food, like no food, are like, some people say like, you know, three weeks to two months.

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But it kind of depends on your composition. It kind of depends on how much extra you have to feed off of as you're going through that process.

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But without water, without a fountain, you don't have life. And so the text says the fear of the Lord is a fountain, a spring of life.

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It's where you're going to live. It keeps going. And so, we live in Arizona. And again, we have access to it all the time.

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And I was thinking that when, you know, by the way, anyone just moved to Arizona?

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Anyone just moved to Arizona like in the last month or so? Okay. All right. So, I always find it amusing when people invite people to like come to Arizona to visit, try to convince them to move here.

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It's always when. When do you invite people to come if you're trying to get them to move here? When? Now. Right?

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That's how I got tricked into moving here. So, I was from D .C.,

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I left D .C. and it was December of 1995. I flew out here to teach some seminars for karate at some schools out here.

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I was only 17 years old, not even 18 yet. I left D .C. and there was a snowstorm. And when I landed in Phoenix, it was blue skies, blue skies, palm trees waving.

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It was like perfect, what, like 70 degrees? And I was like, this is heaven. It's awesome.

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And they're like, yeah, isn't it great? You need to move out here, Jeff. You gotta move out here. And I was like, yeah, I'm moving out to paradise.

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And then, July. July. And I remember that first year here in Arizona, in July, I had this little

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Toyota pickup truck and I had no air conditioning. Yeah, it was bad.

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And I have like, you know, we forget a lot of trauma in our lives, but I remember this trauma.

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I remember having to drive from Mesa all the way to Ahwatukee to the karate school I was teaching at every day in that awful heat.

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The best thing you could do was roll the windows down. At least you got some airflow because you would probably die if you drove with the windows up because by the time you made it from Mesa to Ahwatukee, it's like 150 degrees in your car, you're dead.

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And so, you had to roll the windows down and I remember just this angry look on my face. I just,

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I must have looked like I hated the world. I was just angry as I'm driving down the freeway every day. I hated it.

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That's Arizona. And you ask the question when you move here, you say, what crazy person, what crazy person came to the valley and said, this is good.

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This is good. Because remember, air conditioning is a modern innovation. You know that? It's a modern innovation.

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People lived here with no air conditioning to which you go every July and August.

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Okay, how? By what miracle of God did human beings live here with no air conditioning?

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I don't know. But it is interesting, I discovered, that we know why they actually moved here.

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Do you know why they moved here? Why they settled, when people were in Arizona, why they settled here in the valley? Do you know why?

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Because we're at this low point, where does all the water go in Arizona?

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Where does it eventually go? It goes to its level and where does it flow to? Where does it flow to? Underneath us.

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So while this is a super hot area, and you wonder how can anybody survive here, the reason why people settled here is because they realized at this low point the water flows underneath us and so we actually have more water underneath us than up north and you go, alright, makes sense.

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The point is, is what drew people to this desert hell was the fact that the wells and the fountains of life and water are underneath our feet.

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I know it doesn't feel like it when it's 122 degrees every single day here.

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But that's why they came. Now, one more thing in terms of unpacking this proverb, the fear of the

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Lord is a fountain of life. We really do, if we're going to understand this, not just to understand the conception or the idea of a well and a fountain of life -giving water that keeps you physically alive, but Scripture takes that truth about water and that need of that fountain, that well, and it then begins to give you now the fulfillment of, and here is what

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God is for us, life, not just physical life. Here it is.

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Jesus says in John 4, 14, but whoever drinks of the water

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I will give him will never be thirsty again. You drink from the water that Jesus has to give you, you'll never be thirsty.

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Isn't that amazing? The woman at the well, they have to keep going to this well. Why? Or they'll die. They have to go there and draw from it all the time.

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Or they'll die. They don't have a tap at home. They have to work for it. They have to go to it. They have to pull it up and bring it to their home and go back again.

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They're going to the well to live. And Jesus says to that woman who keeps going there to live, whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

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The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life, bubbling up to eternal life.

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And so that is, at the very least, in what Scripture is saying here about the fear of the

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Lord as a fountain of life, not only life -giving in terms of this physical life, all that is in it, but also the ultimate life that Jesus gives, that spring of water welling up to eternal life.

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Revelation 21, 6 says, And he said to me, It is done. I am the

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Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

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Scripture goes from the hard, the fixed well, spring, fountain. You know you need it to live.

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We need this to live and survive. Scripture says, And spiritually I will give you life forever.

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It will never go away. You will never, ever be thirsty with me. That's what Scripture does.

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Psalm 36, 9. Scripture says about God. This, by the way, is one of my favorites.

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It's one of my very favorites. There's so many ways to actually unpack what this means and what it does for us. Psalm 36, 9 says,

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For with you is the fountain of life.

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In your light we see light. In your light we see light.

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It's beautiful. It's powerful. So then Scripture here says, The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death.

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Just want to point this out because I think it's compelling when we think about our life as Christians. Our sanctification.

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How do we overcome sins that maybe we've just we've been battling with for many, many years.

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We hate those sins. God has caused us to hate those sins. We want to be free from those things.

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We want our tongue to be different. We want our mind to be different. We want how we behave with one another as a husband or wife or friends, sisters and brothers.

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We want to live in a different way. We want to be a more loving person. We're asking like, Why am I this way? Why am I impatient?

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Why do I say these things? Why am I doing this? Well, Scripture says, The fear of the

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Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death.

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That one may turn away. So here's the answer. This is the foundation for escape.

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It's the foundation for escape. Here's the principle from God's wisdom. Do you want to live? Do you want to escape the snares of death?

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Well, it's the fear of God that you may turn away from the snare of death.

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To see the snare and the trap and to turn. So repentance and sanctification are wrapped up in the fear of the

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Lord. Do you want to be sanctified? Do you want to grow in your knowledge of God and your wisdom? Do you want to grow in your depth and your intimacy with God?

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Do you want to grow and to be strong and to grow out of the old person you once were?

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Do you want to overcome these difficulties and these sins that you deal with? Sins of the mind or sins with the hand or sins with the body?

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Scripture says, It's the fear of the Lord that is the fountain of life that you may turn from the snare of death.

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Now, the word snare here. What is a snare? It's a trap. It's a trap.

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And I'm not going to put myself here as some sort of expert in this. I've...

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I'm not a hunter. I've never been out hunting. Please, brothers, if you are a hunter and you're good at it, please don't look down on me.

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I'd love to learn from you. It's just not something I grew up doing. And so I don't have a lot of experience with traps and snares.

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But I know what they are. And I know what the meaning of this text is. And so a snare is a trap.

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And throughout history, we've had to build traps to capture prey so that we can eat and survive.

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Or we've built traps to capture dangerous prey that are killing our loved ones. And so humanity has had to build snares and traps.

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There are so many. Some are really amazing. And some are scary in terms of the ingenuity and the genius of a person to create that kind of trap.

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There are bottle traps, bow traps, platform traps, deadfall snares, simple snares.

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These are traps that are created to contain prey.

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To trap them and to contain them. The hunter traps and snare the entrapped creature.

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They ensnare them. They trap them. They hold them. And now, because of the snare, because of the trap, the hunted now is caught.

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Unable to escape. What are they doing? Waiting. Waiting.

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It's caught. It's ensnared. It's trapped. And what is it doing now? The prey, the hunted, is waiting.

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Waiting for the hunter to come and take its life. That's the process.

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You're hooked. And now you're taken. And all you can do now is wait for your demise.

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You are caught and death is coming to end your life.

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That's what the text says. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death.

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That's what the trap is doing. So think about this in terms of our sanctification, our life.

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Jesus gives us life, this fountain of life. We're never going to thirst again. The fear of the

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Lord keeps us from actual physical death. The fear of the Lord keeps us from spiritual death.

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And the text says it's the fear of the Lord that is the fountain of life. You want to live? Fear God so that you may turn away from the snares of death.

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So think about it with our walk with the Lord. Think about it with our addictions.

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It could be any kind of addiction, but addiction, substance abuse, the abuse of pills, the abuse of illicit drugs, the abuse of alcohol, addiction, that kind of idolatry of the mind and the heart, that sacrifice, that giving everything up to the thing, right?

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Glorying in and sacrificing in the thing. How do we overcome that?

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Well, Scripture says the fear of the Lord. That's the starting point. You want to get free from that stuff. Of course, you need Christ. You need to be alive in God.

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You need to have new affections, a new heart. You need to know Jesus. You need to be saved. But the

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Scripture says that it's the fear of the Lord that is the fountain of life that you may turn from the snares of death.

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So the starting point is the fear of God. I remember that my whole goal as a hospital chaplain at the hospital with everybody just plagued with addiction, my whole goal was to communicate who

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God is, who they are, that they need to turn from sin, trust in Jesus, and they needed to walk in the fear of the

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Lord. Fear God. Keep His commandments. Fear God. Keep His commandments.

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And it was the thing I was constantly trying to put before everybody, and it's amazing because it was the thing that kept everybody safe who knew

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Christ that came out of that hospital. Some of them are in here right now. Some of the people who were under my care at that hospital who were almost dead and dying because of their addiction are saved and in Christ and in this room right now, redeemed and new.

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They were there with me. They heard the preaching. They heard the message, and God has transformed them, and they're still among us.

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But what I would communicate constantly to people that I saw that were about to bounce and leave was to fear

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God, to turn to Christ, and to fear God. I would say to them, I would say, you know, if you go and you use, you turn away from God in this way, you're going to die.

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You're going to die. And they would just sort of throw off the fear of God and say,

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I don't care. It was sort of like this self -deprecating thing and just this abandonment of concern for their own soul and their own life.

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And they, of course, didn't care what God was saying or what God thought of them in that moment. And so I can tell you about times where I'm pleading with a girl, a young girl, about 19 years old.

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I'm pleading with her at the hospital. She's trying to discharge and to leave to go use again.

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I'm pleading with her, stay. Stay one more day. Just sit with me and let me go through the scriptures with you.

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Let me talk to you. Let me listen to you. Just don't go. You're going to destroy yourself.

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This isn't going to end the way that you think. You think that it ends in pleasure and joy and goodness and it's going to be amazing if I could just get one more hit.

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I'm going to be good. It's going to feel so good. It's going to be so right. It's going to go well. I'll manage it well this time.

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You think that, but that false God will never satisfy a real spiritual need. Turn to Christ.

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Live. Fear God. Keep His commandments. And then, I remember that one girl.

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I remember hearing where she was. Somewhere actually next to Mill Avenue, oddly enough, because this was in Phoenix.

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She made it to Mill Avenue. And so I drove to where someone said they had seen her and so I see her on the street corner and so I pull the car over and I jump out and she is just sitting covered in dirt and muck and she looks like she's dying of thirst.

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Her hair is all nappy and frazzled. She looked horrific. She looked like she was maybe a day or two away from death.

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And this is where I brought her. No fear of God. She didn't fear God and so she abandoned herself to this false pursuit of pleasure and now

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I'm standing above her in the dirt and gravel on the side of the road. How's that working for you?

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How's the peace? How's the joy? How's the pleasure? And the answer was first, abandon God. No fear of God.

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And so she didn't avoid the ensnarement of death. I can tell you so many stories of a guy

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I was outside with in the hospital and I'm just begging for his life. I'm like turn to Christ. Turn to Christ.

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You've got to fear God. You've got to obey God. This is where happiness is and joy is. It's in God and in His ways.

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This is not going to satisfy you. It will not give you what you think it's going to give you. You've got to turn from this.

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And then a couple of days later I saw him wandering. Literally wandering around the streets of 7th

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Street. Just wandering in the streets as I drove away from the hospital. And he looked like death.

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Same thing. Covered in dirt. Disgusting. Looked like he had no life in his eyes.

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He looked like he was the walking dead. Some of you guys remember because you were here for this.

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We had someone among us who had said that they had turned to Christ out of the old life and they were addicted to heroin.

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And they went back to it. They got ensnared by it. They got trapped in it again.

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And he barely survived. He took a hit of heroin and in the providence of God, in the weird miraculous providence of God, his father was looking for him that day all over town and decides to stop at a random

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Circle K bathroom. A random Circle K bathroom to use the bathroom.

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And as he walks to that bathroom, his dying son is in the bathroom OD 'ing from heroin.

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Isn't that amazing? Remember that story? An amazing act of the providence of God. The dad is just wandering over the valley looking for his son and he stumbles upon the

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Circle K. His son is dying in that bathroom of a heroin overdose. There's the trap.

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There's the snare. And it is the fear of God that you may turn from the snare of death.

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We have to see these things as snares. You want to be free from it? You want to turn from it?

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The wisdom from above is this. You must have reverence and awe before God first. Tremble before God.

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That is the fountain of life and it will keep you from the trap of death.

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You will get hooked. You will get snared. You will get trapped. And then all you're waiting for at that point is for death to come and visit you and take your life.

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There's the snare. So we have to think about all of these different snares of death.

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Whether physical or spiritual in nature. Whatever the snare is. We have to see it as a snare.

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How about sexual immorality? Sexual immorality. Scripture says that we're to put it to death.

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We're to put sexual immorality to death. And it actually says which is idolatry. That sexual immorality is idolatry.

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It's false worship. But how do we get free from it? We have to put it to death but it contained in there is okay, how do

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I kill this sin in my life? Well, don't get ensnared. That's a start. How do

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I avoid the snare of sexual immorality? That kind of death. Well, I have to first and foremost fear

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God. I have to see it as a snare. The billboard. The sign of the half -naked man or half -naked woman.

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I have to see it as a snare. Don't entertain it. Turn away from it. What does Scripture say about sexual immorality?

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It says to flee sexual immorality. So there's the snare. See it as a snare.

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See it as a trap. See the end as death. See yourself as getting hooked by the trap and just waiting for death to come and take your life.

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Because that's what it is. You need to be able to turn away from it. And this text says it's the fear of the

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Lord. That you may turn away from it. The ad, the random ad that pops up in your feed.

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See it as a snare. Turn from it. Fear God. The Instagram hottie.

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See it as a snare. And if you've been down that road, you know that it started with a subtle whisper.

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It started with the one photo. Then the next photo. Then the next video.

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Then it's in your algorithm. And then Satan is just snaring and snaring and snaring and snaring and snaring.

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And ultimately the destination is what? Death. You want to turn away from it? Fear God.

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If you have no control over those things, how do you put it to death? Maybe you get rid of your phone for a month or two months.

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Maybe you get some accountability software. You fear God enough to say I don't want to get ensnared by this trap that leads to death.

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The porn. The DM. Oh, you're so handsome. You know,

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I think you're so attractive. How it all starts, right? Like adultery starts with those little steps.

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Doesn't it? Sexual immorality starts with just the little steps. The little snares. The little entrapment.

01:00:04

What is it? It's the subtle touch. It's the small encouraging word. Oh, you're so handsome.

01:00:11

Oh, you're so beautiful. Does your husband tell you how beautiful you are? I've always thought you're just the best.

01:00:17

He must be so happy to have such a beautiful wife and such a wonderful wife as you. It's just those subtle traps that get laid out.

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And what do I have to do to avoid that trap? Fear God. Don't entertain it.

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Put it to death. If I want to turn from that trap, I have to have, first and foremost, fear of God. Remember that we've fallen to sin.

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One of the very first things we have to cast off from us is what? The fear of God.

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I have to, in that moment, stop fearing God so that I can entertain the sin and pursue the sin.

01:00:53

You want to turn away from it? You have to fear God. Fear God to avoid the adult shop.

01:01:01

Fear God to avoid the street with the known prostitutes. All it is is snares leading to death for your soul.

01:01:09

If you want to avoid the snare of sexual immorality, you have to fear

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God enough not to download Tinder. Oh, we just got real in here, didn't we?

01:01:23

You have to fear God enough to avoid the late -night invitation to Netflix and chill.

01:01:29

I've been a pastor for a long time. And I have seen devoted, solid believers, solid believers who are in love with Jesus.

01:01:41

They love God's word. They live a life of sanctification. And then they decide, okay, we're engaged now, and we're going to get married.

01:01:49

I'm like, okay, great. I'm so happy for you guys. And they'll say, yeah, we're planning our marriage for a year from now. I'm like, ooh!

01:01:55

Hold up. Pause. You're engaged, and you're going to get married in a year? Why? Oh, because we want to have this grand, glorious, crazy, like, banging wedding and do all this and just all these different things.

01:02:08

I'll say, okay, great. But you realize, of course, if you've committed to each other, you're in love with each other, and you think that you're going to remain sexually pure from here to 12 months from now, you are deluded.

01:02:21

Because what happens in the mind of people who are already committed to each other that this is going to be my wife, and this is going to be my husband, at a certain point, what are you going to do?

01:02:31

You're going to say, we're already getting married. Or I've seen devoted believers who love

01:02:39

Jesus and say, well, we'll get married a year from now. And then they're in my office right in front of me, broken and in tears because they fell into the temptation.

01:02:49

They went that direction. And I'll ask questions, obvious questions. How, pray tell, did this happen to the two of you?

01:02:56

You love Jesus. You want to honor him with your lives. You wanted to wait until marriage. How did it happen?

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And then, of course, the snare becomes so obvious. Well, you know, it first happened like it was like we were together in the bedroom and it was like 11 o 'clock and we're watching a movie together.

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I'm like, are you insane? Do you think that you love Jesus so much and you are so righteous and so strong that you can

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Netflix and chill at midnight? We're just watching a Christmas movie. Right?

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What do you think is going to happen? What does scripture say? Can a man take fire in his chest and not be burned by it?

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Or I'll see Christian couples, they love each other, not married yet. And I see your feeds.

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I don't always comment, but I see your feeds. And I'll see Christian couples that love God, want to stay pure before marriage.

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And I'll see them out somewhere in the desert in some amazing waterfall thing in Sedona or some weird thing.

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And she's in a two -piece and they're alone in a river out in the middle of nowhere and she's in her bra and panties.

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Let's call the two -piece what it is. And I don't care if you hate me or not. That's your bra and panties. We're going to lose people.

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It's okay. But do you think that you can avoid the snare of death as a man in the middle of nowhere with the woman you love in her bra and panties?

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Are you going to avoid it? No. So how do you avoid... Well, we're having a real talk today.

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Amen? Yes? How do you avoid the snare of death? Fear God.

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Keep His commandments. Avoid the snare by fearing God enough to say, I have restrictions and boundaries in my life to protect my sexual purity and your sexual purity.

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There will be accountability. There's rules. We're not going to be alone at one in the morning watching movies in the dark in your bed.

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Does that seem obvious enough? That seems like a really general understood standard. We can't do that.

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Amen? So if you're doing it, stop. Fear God enough and love

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God and want to keep His commandments enough to guard your life from the snares.

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Avoid the snare of false pursuits of pleasure, guarding your tongue.

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I'll just say this one. There's so many things to say here in terms of obedience to parents, obedience to your husband, shepherding your family.

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Avoid the snare. Fear God. If you walk into a gathering, a group of believers, and you start to hear gossip, accusations, slander, you start to see this lack of wisdom, what scripture calls us to avoid and to turn from.

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You see people making accusations, belittling other believers. You should fear God enough to leave.

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You should fear God enough to say something and to avoid the snare. When you walk into the church meeting and you see the gossip or the mob, you need to fear

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God enough to turn away from that snare of death. Finally, and I think it's obvious enough, we've already touched it, so I'll say, death.

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Scripture has at least two ways or categories or two types of death that it emphasizes.

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One, of course, you're already aware of, you know, we all face it, it's our great enemy. The physical death brought into creation since the very beginning.

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Genesis talks about it. You see it in Romans 5. Physical death, spiritual death is contained in there as well, of course.

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But there is the spiritual death that's emphasized in Ephesians 2. You know this verse where it says, and you were dead in your sins and trespasses.

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So there's a spiritual death and there's an alienation death component to death in scripture.

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And scripture says if you're not in Jesus, then you are spiritually dead, alienated from God. You were dead in your sins and trespasses, but God made you alive together with Him.

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By grace you've been saved. Then there's this. Revelation 21 .8,

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go there. Revelation 21 .8. And if you would,

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I'd like everyone to go there. So the verse is

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Revelation 21 .8. But we're going to start in verse 5. And he who was seated on the throne said,

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Behold, I'm making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

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And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

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There it is again. The one who conquers will have this heritage. I will be his

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God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

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Scripture refers to, of course, the first death and the second death. This terrifying set of words from Revelation describes the second death, everlasting torment, everlasting punishment.

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It is a real thing. It is a real place and God is warning against it. And so, if we're to take the principle of wisdom from Proverbs 14, 27 and apply it, we see the fear of the

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Lord is the foundation of life. That one may turn away from the snares of death.

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We know that Scripture is promising us through divine wisdom that we will avoid death. And it's common experiences here in the protection that God gives to us by walking in wisdom, literally preserving us from death in certain circumstances.

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But Scripture is clearly saying here as well, it is the fear of the Lord that is the fountain of life to keep you from the snare of death.

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And of course, that would be the ultimate death for a human being. And that is the second death.

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Friends, if you want to avoid that death, the second death, that lake of fire that burns forever, it starts with the fear of God.

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I'll remind you again. When it describes all of humanity in the fall, each of us outside of Jesus, it says the same thing.

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None righteous, no not one, none good, and none who seeks for God. And it says all of these things about us that we have to just be honest with.

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That describes me outside of Jesus to a T. That is the description of my mind and my heart and my rebellion against God.

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But it says at the very end of it, it says there is no fear of God before their eyes. Everybody in the lake of fire, everyone experiencing the second death is described as that.

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No fear of God before their eyes. So if you want to avoid that second death, if you want to avoid that lake of fire, that wrath of God poured out for all eternity there, you must start with the fear of God to receive

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Jesus, the living water, the fountain of life. He gives it freely. He says come and drink.

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Come and drink. But in order to come and want to drink, of course things have to change in my own mind and my heart, and that is the work of God to be clear and sure.

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It is the work of God to get me to a place where I even want to drink. But if I understand that cross and why it is so beautiful and powerful, it starts with the fear of God understanding that it is the holiness of God and the wrath of God against my sin that put my

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Savior on that tree. That is the truth. It starts with the fear of God. Just consider for a moment, final word on this, the law of God comes to us and shows us we're liars, we're murderers, we're adulterers, we covet, we are unjust, we're abusive, we're hateful, we hate

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God, we hate our neighbor. We have vile tongues and vile speech. Our hearts are dark.

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And the law of God comes and shows us the character of God and it shows us how we've fallen short. All, think about this, all liars will have their portion in a lake of fire.

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How many of you guys in here have ever lied? If your hand is not up, you are now guilty, so put them all up.

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Every one of you in here, including myself, has lied. What do you call someone who's lied?

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A liar. It says that those who go to the lake of fire are liars.

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So if you want to avoid that second death and the snare that leads you there, you must start with fear of God to want to go to Christ because you want to avoid the wrath of God against your sin.

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It is the fear of God and the recognition of my identity as a fallen person, my own guilt and shame that leads me to that fountain of life.

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And if you want to escape the snare of death and to turn away from it, it begins with the fear of the

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Lord is the fountain of life. You want ultimate life and freedom from that death?

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Fear God. Turn to Christ and live. He is the righteous one, the blameless one. He lived perfectly.

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He died and rose again from the dead. And he calls you to repent and to believe the gospel.

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He says, come to me and I will give you life and water and you'll never be thirsty again.

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Come to me and you will live forever. And that is a gift of God through faith in Jesus. And if you and I as believers, as God's children, want to escape the snares of death in this life, all of our sanctification starts, starts with fear of God.

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I want you just to notice this because we all experience it. My final word this week. As you're being sanctified, as we are being sanctified and you're growing, notice something.

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That when you and I sin, pay attention to one of the first things that you cast off.

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When you sin against your wife, your husband, your kids, your friends, when you sin in your mind against God and your heart against God, you'll notice that what isn't present there in that moment is fear.

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Reverence, awe, and trembling before God. If we want to turn away from that snare, what does it start with, brothers and sisters?

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What does it start with? Fear of God. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. I pray,

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God, that this message from your word would be a benefit to your people, that you'd grow us, you'd heal us in the area of how we fear you, how we reverence you, how we have awe before you, and how,

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Lord, we tremble before you. Thank you that because we fear you, we are your friends. We praise you,