Fear that Leads to Flourishing

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Sermon by Drew Cox from Psalm 128.

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Alright, y 'all can be turning to, I think it says it in the bulletin, but Psalm 128.
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Psalm 128 is where we'll be. We'll read this whole psalm in its entirety and then walk back through this text together this morning.
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I want to first just say thanks for having me. I know I've gotten to know Josh some through Brady and really love
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Josh and consider him a very like -minded brother. So I'm thankful for the privilege of being able to preach.
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Anytime you have people in your life who are just really great friends, it's really a comforting and encouraging picture to see them find a church that loves and cares for them, that they can serve in and love and care for.
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And so I've heard great things about Covenant. I've kind of kept up from afar, just down the interstate in Russellville.
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But I'm excited about all that the Lord is doing in and through this church.
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So thanks for having me here this morning and my family. Psalm 128, starting in verse 1, says a song of a sense.
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Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands.
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You should be blessed and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house.
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Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the
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Lord. Verse 5, the Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
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May you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. Sometimes when
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I'm, I've had opportunities to preach at different places. And I know you guys do it like we do. You typically are walking through a book of the
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Bible at a time. And I think that's the best way to approach going through Scripture together as a church.
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Right now we're just going through Psalms. So usually when I'm preaching, like it's kind of a, we call them one -offs. You know, you're just there and then you're out.
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So if I mess up, Josh has got to deal with it coming right behind me. It's fine, I'm in and out. But what
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I like to do is cover Psalms in those opportunities. And I found that over my personal walk with the
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Lord, I'm never too far away from the Psalms. There's something that I find in them, a wide range of expression, emotion.
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Just, I often find that the Psalmists are asking questions that I ask sometimes.
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So I would just encourage you in your own personal reading time, never be too far away from the
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Psalms. Couple that with whatever else you may be going through at the moment.
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But I would encourage you to spend time in the Psalms. This particular Psalm, I think, has a main idea.
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And we didn't add these headings. But, I mean, we didn't, these weren't in the original language, we added these. But really the idea is that blessed is everyone who fears the
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Lord. One way to say that would just be that the fear of the Lord brings blessing.
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And it makes us a blessing to others. So the fear of the Lord brings blessing, and it makes us a blessing to others.
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If you look, that word blessed is in this Psalm on verse 1, verse 2, verse 4, and verse 5.
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So I do think we would do well to define, in some ways, what this word generally means.
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What's the idea behind being blessed? And it's not, it's more than happiness, but it's also not less than that.
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It really does carry the idea of someone who is truly happy. Or you might say truly content in the
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Lord. It's a deep -seated joy. It's this picture of someone who is satisfied in the
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Lord. And who He is, and what He has done, and all that He has provided. And it will show itself in a number of different ways in our lives, but much more than just material blessing.
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And in this Psalm in particular, He talks about an individual. He talks about a family that's blessed.
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He goes on to mention a society and generational blessing down to the grandchildren.
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And then He also talks about fear of the Lord. And so I think it's helpful for us to define what we mean by fear of the
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Lord. There's a lot of confusion out there. If you just throw this out, of, I fear the
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Lord. I mean, people get tattoos that say, I fear God. And there may not be any fear of the
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Lord in their life. That just happens. It's a phrase that we kind of throw around.
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But if you look in verse 1, we get a really good idea of how fear of the Lord at least shows itself.
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He says, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.
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So one of the ways that we see fear of the Lord is that someone's obedient to the Lord. Someone walks with Him.
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Proverbs 1 verse 7 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is that knowledge rightly applied.
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It helps us to live well. And we're told that without that, without the fear of the Lord, we don't have that.
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We can't live rightly. Proverbs 3, 5 through 7, we know the trust in the
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Lord in all your ways. And, you know, acknowledge Him and He will direct that path. But the very next verse is, fear the
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Lord, turn away from evil. So there's a turning from sin, a trusting in Christ.
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Isaiah 6, when Isaiah encounters the glory of the Lord, he is woe is me and he falls prostrate on his face.
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If you see a lot of times in Scripture when people encounter the Lord, they fall face first on the ground in reverent fear of Him.
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In Joshua 24, when they are, when the covenant is being renewed, they are recounting
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God's faithfulness to them. And then this is how Joshua closes it. He says, now therefore, fear the
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Lord and serve Him with sincerity and with faithfulness. So to me,
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I look at these and there's so many other passages that we could go to. But fear of the
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Lord really is this idea. It is a reverent awe. It is an amazement at who
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God is. It flows out of seeing God rightly and it flows out of seeing ourselves rightly.
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Those two things can create a fear of the Lord that doesn't draw us or push us away, but it really does draw us to Him in worship.
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If you look maybe on the same page, depending on the size of font in your Bible. But if you just look in Psalm 130, just a couple of Psalms over in verse 3 of Psalm 130.
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If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you might be feared.
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Even the grace of God and the reality of His forgiveness should lead us to fear
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Him. Should lead us to honor Him, to revere Him, to respect Him, to worship
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Him. If you were, I mean a lot of the Psalms you think they're looking back at the definitive act of redemption in the
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Old Testament. Which would have been the Exodus. Imagine you're an Old Testament Israelite and you're looking back at the
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Exodus. And you're remembering, if you're in close proximity to that or even further on down the line. But you're remembering walking through on dry ground and you've got walls of water on every side of you.
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Both sides, there's only two. So both sides of you. And then you, the
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Lord takes you out of that and takes you on a path, which He did. That would have allowed them to see the
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Egyptians dead on the shore. Right, that will strike fear in your heart.
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A reverence when you see the power and the majesty of God on display.
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In that delivering them from their slavery to Egypt. We look back as New Testament believers on the cross.
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God's ultimate act of redemption. We see His holiness.
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We see His grace. We see the love of God on display in the death of His Son.
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And we're told some things about Jesus. We realize in His life that He, the Son of God, was the one who perfectly feared the
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Lord and walked in His ways. He perfectly revered His Father. You may want to write this passage down, but Isaiah chapter 11.
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Isaiah is prophesying about this righteous branch that will come forth from the shoot of Jesse.
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And we know that that is ultimately going to be fulfilled in Jesus who comes through that lineage of Jesse and David.
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But He says something about this root that will come from Jesse. And He says this about Him.
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The spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord is upon Him. And His delight shall be in the fear of the
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Lord. Who's He talking about? He's talking about Jesus. The one who perfectly fears the
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Lord. And this Jesus goes to the cross for those, according to Romans 3 .18,
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who have no fear of God before their eyes. So the one who is truly, reverently, perfectly fearful goes to the cross for those who have no fear of God before their eyes.
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We find ourselves in that category apart from Christ. But He perfectly satisfied the holy, righteous wrath of God against all who would turn from their sin.
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That's the kind of good news that leads us to worship. That leads us to fear and to revere
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Him. When we're in Christ, this idea of fear of the Lord, it's not a picture of someone who is a guilty sinner standing before a judge who is ready to throw the book at Him.
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But it really does convey this idea of a son standing before his father who has experienced, who knows the love of his father towards him.
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And then responds in wanting to love him in return. That's what fear of the Lord is.
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But I do think it's entirely appropriate for us to say, if you are outside of Christ, meaning you have never turned from your sin.
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You have never repented towards God and trusted in Him. Then it's entirely appropriate that you would fear the
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Lord in terror rather than in reverence. You do need to revere
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Him, but you should be very afraid if you find yourself outside of Christ.
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Hebrews tells us it is appointed for man to die once. And after that comes judgment.
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For those who are in Christ, there is no condemnation. But for those who are outside of Christ, there is only a fearful expectation of judgment resulting in eternal condemnation in hell.
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And it's good for us, and I say us, and I know that there could be unbelievers here, but we're a gathered people who are trusting in the
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Lord. It's good for us to remember that. It's good for us to remember that there are people in our circles, in our life, in our sphere of influence, who have no fear of God before their eyes.
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And who are destined for His wrath. That we would remember that and carry ourselves in the fear of the
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Lord and proclaim Christ to them where we may be. But it is a reminder that if you are here and you find yourself, and you wouldn't say,
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I'm one who has not trusted in Christ. It's a good reminder that Jesus has offered to you, even today.
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That grace is offered to you, grace is extended to you. If you would turn from your sin and trust in Him.
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To put a bow on kind of fear of the Lord, and again we haven't really even approached the foothills of this mountain.
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But quorum Deo is a Latin phrase that means before the face of the Lord. It really is that idea of living in His presence.
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A recognition that we live and breathe in the presence of God, whatever we may be doing.
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And we live under His authority, and then we live for His glory.
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There's a lot of kids in here, and I love that aspect that our church is very similar in that way.
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Some questions that I think are helpful for kids to kind of get this idea of quorum Deo. Without trying to memorize a
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Latin phrase, and there's nothing wrong with that. But we often ask our kids, where is
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God? To which they would reply, everywhere. And then we follow that up with, can you see
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God? And they say, no, but He always sees me. And then the last question is, how can you glorify
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God? And it is by loving Him and obeying Him. I think that encapsulates the idea of living quorum
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Deo. Before the face of the Lord and in the fear of the Lord. So we go on and we look in verse 1.
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The first thing that we see, He's going to get to in verse 3 and 6, kind of this, how blessing.
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The fear of the Lord leads to blessing of multiple people and society and generations. But He really starts very generally.
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He says, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. So this is men, women, boys, girls, single, married, parent, childless, nationality, social economic background.
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Whatever it may be, Acts 10, 34 and 35, Peter says that truly
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I understand that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, anyone who fears
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Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. There's a couple things that I'm reminded of here.
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One is the fear of the Lord. We're going to talk about how God blesses that. But also don't overlook the fact that fearing the
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Lord is a blessing in and of itself. Fear of the Lord is not natural to us.
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That's not our natural state. We have no fear of God before our eyes apart from Christ.
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And so if you are here this morning, and if you fear the Lord, then you should realize and be grateful that a supernatural work of God has been done in your heart.
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You have been brought from death to life, and you have the Holy Spirit of God at work in you.
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If you didn't, you wouldn't fear Him. So that's amazing. The second thing is that there is actually genuine happiness found in fear.
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That may sound like a contradictory statement, and I bet to most of the outside world that is very contradictory.
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That idea would rub some people really the wrong way. But we understand that there really is no true sense of happiness and satisfaction to be found unless we are not also pursuing holiness.
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Those two things go together. It's not works -based to say that. It's just biblical.
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It's what the Lord says over and over and over. There is blessing in fearing the
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Lord and in walking in His ways. Another thing
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I think it's important to mention is that in a room this size, there really is probably, it's very likely that someone is, at least at some point in your life you've thought this, you may presently be here.
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You may be really trying to walk in the fear of the Lord. And you would look at this passage and say,
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I don't know that I really feel this blessedness in my life. I'm not experiencing some of the things that he highlights in this psalm.
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And there's a couple of things that I would say. One is that we should always recognize that when we're dealing with psalms, it's a lot like the
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Proverbs in the sense that these are truisms. They're not absolutes. He's not saying that because you fear the
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Lord, you will 100 % be married and have a bunch of kids and all those things. We know that Paul never married, and yet we would never say that he didn't walk in the fear of the
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Lord. We know that Dorcas and Acts died single with widows surrounding her who loved her.
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She greatly feared the Lord. Jesus himself, we would say, never had a family in that way.
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He was the one who perfectly modeled what fear of the Lord looks like. So they're not absolutes.
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The second thing I would say is we should examine ourselves, because it is entirely possible that we can deceive ourselves about our own spiritual state.
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We might think that we have a fear of the Lord and then it really not be there.
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That's possible. So I think it's a good thing to pray according to Psalm 139, that the
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Lord would search us and know us and test our hearts, see if there's any grievous way within us and lead us in the way everlasting.
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And then thirdly, I would say we may just need to redefine our working definition of blessed.
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It's easy to say I'm blessed in these ways. Probably often most narrowly we define it as like a material blessing.
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We have an absence of hardship in our lives. There's some good health involved. There's a very comfortable life.
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I mean, I think this is America in general, but also if you just, I mean, I love Northwest Arkansas, but Northwest Arkansas can get pretty flashy if you know what
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I mean. You guys live here, you all know it, right? There's a lot of comfortable living that goes on here. That's not a bad thing.
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And the presence of that, I would say someone that lives that, whether they know it or not, they are blessed by the
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Lord. He's been very kind to allow us to live as comfortably as we do. But also on the flip side of that, the presence of those things doesn't indicate necessarily that someone is walking in the fear of the
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Lord. So we can't just define it narrowly in that if I have those things, I'm fearing the
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Lord and I'm blessed. If you think about the apostles in the early church, they walked in the fear of the
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Lord and they considered themselves blessed when they were being martyred for the faith. So maybe we need to redefine blessing and more go to something like the
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Sermon on the Mount, look at the Beatitudes and figure out that, hey, oh, I can be persecuted and blessed at the same time.
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As a matter of fact, blessed are the persecuted, right? For righteousness sake, theirs is the reward in heaven.
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So maybe it's not physical persecution, but just because there may be health concerns, just because you and your wife may have experienced miscarriages in the past, just because you're single and longing for a husband or a wife and that hasn't happened for you yet, that doesn't mean that you aren't blessed.
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Remember, the fear of the Lord being present in your life is a blessing in itself. But sometimes there are things that God, we may say as personally walking through it, man, it just seems like God's withholding this from me.
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But always remember that He knows what's best. And He knows what we need.
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And He will often use those things that we may perceive as, man, I wish I had that blessing, to change us, to shape us more like Christ, to grow us, to sanctify us.
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But also a good thing to remember just generally, a principle, is that prosperity of the soul always trumps material prosperity.
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So with all that being said, then
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He goes on in verse 2, and He starts to get very specific and kind of hone in on what these blessings look like for those who fear the
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Lord. And the first thing He starts with is work. He said, you shall eat the fruit of your labor.
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The fruit of the labor of your hands. You should be blessed and it will be well with you. The Lord blesses honest, faithful, hard work.
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Whatever your vocation may be. In this setting, this would have been an agricultural setting, this was probably the picture of a farmer coming in from the field and enjoying and eating, quite literally, the fruit of his labor.
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He is one who has worked with integrity, with diligence, with discipline, trusting the
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Lord. And now he is enjoying the fruit of his labor. I think it's important for us to ask ourselves,
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I often find myself asking questions to myself when I'm reading a passage like this, and I would say, do we fear the
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Lord in the confines of this building only for a couple hours on a Sunday morning, or do we carry it with us when we walk out this door and go to work on Monday morning?
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Do we take our fear of the Lord with us? Does it show itself in the way in which we conduct ourselves at work?
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In the way in which we serve others in our jobs? Colossians 3, 22 -24 says that bond servants obey in everything your masters, with sincerity of heart, fearing the
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Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the
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Lord you will receive an inheritance as your reward. You're serving the Lord Christ.
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When we view our work in that way, it's really, we don't labor in vain. Whether it's on the farm, or behind a desk, or in the home, or kids, when you're doing your chores that your mom and dad give you, you're serving them, but you're also serving the
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Lord by serving your parents. Nothing we do in his name and for his glory is in vain.
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We would do well to remember that. The second kind of sphere that we see this blessing shows itself is in the family.
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He says, your wife will be a fruitful vine. And notice too, first, he assumes the person, almost it's like the person he's writing to is a husband.
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And he's starting with him and his work, and then it's like this trickle down effect that him fearing the
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Lord ends up being a means of blessing to his family. So the spiritual kind of fruitful, flourishing home, it actually begins with this man who fears the
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Lord. He says that his wife is a fruitful vine. There's certainly this aspect of childbearing there that's involved in that.
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There's also a picture of kind of enjoying intimacy together. The overarching picture is that this wife gladdens the heart of her husband.
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He is coming in from the field from a hard day's work. He is enjoying the fruit of his labor, and he loves the environment that his wife has created in the home.
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She is a fruitful vine. He is refreshed by her. She looks well to the ways of her household.
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Contrary to the loud woman in the streets in Proverbs 7, who is an adulterous woman, the picture is her in the home and flourishing in that way.
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We also see that he says, your children will be like olive shoots around the table. If you're not very agricultural or maybe just ignorant like me,
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I really don't know what olive shoots are. I couldn't have told you prior to reading this passage what an olive shoot was.
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So that picture, when I see that, it doesn't really land on me. I know it's something that probably conveys fruitfulness, but when you look at it, it's really this idea of youthful energy and promise.
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Olive trees go on to bear fruit for the longest of some of these trees for generations. So it's that picture of carrying on a lineage.
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But when they're young and they're gathered around the table, you can see tangibly the promise and the potential of them.
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That's the kind of blessed man. That's what the blessed man sees. And even back in Psalm 127 just prior, he says,
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Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.
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Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. So regardless of what modern society may say, children are a genuine blessing from the
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Lord. And there was one commentator that I just found it kind of funny just the way he said it. But he's like, yeah, the parenting years are hard.
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And things are going to get harder when you have more kids. That just happens. That's the way this works.
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But that's a blessing. And he says, It's very likely that you will feel like you have your hands full before you have a quiver full.
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But when you are training these children, you're raising them. Remember, don't forget that they are a blessing from the
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Lord. I think it is interesting.
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And I'm not trying to harp on society. I'm not trying to sound angry in a sermon. But I do think it's helpful for us to remember that contrary to how the world would define what a rich or blessed man looks like, according to God's Word, it really does look like someone who labors hard, who has food on the table, and a family around the table.
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Someone who is enjoying the fruit of his labor. And someone who has a great home environment.
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Marked by love and care for one another. For just a moment though,
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I do think it's worth kind of landing on this all starting with fathers and husbands.
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And I would say this, the spiritual temperature of a home starts with a man who fears the
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Lord. If that is not happening, sometimes it's almost immediately noticeable when you walk into a home.
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The blessings flow kind of down, so to speak, or I would say out. He's living in among his family.
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So they flow out from the husband. He is sort of a prophet and a priest and a king in his home, like Jesus.
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He is declaring the Word of God. He is teaching the Word of God. He is interceding in prayer for his family.
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He is exercising servant -hearted authority in his home. Wielding it not as something to exercise dominion and be domineering, but as something for the good of those who are under his care.
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Who the Lord has entrusted to him. You guys are in the process right now.
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I know there's kind of thinking through elders and deacons. And I don't know who said it.
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I didn't say it, but it's out there. And I'm going to say it this morning, but it didn't originate with me. But really, a man's resume is actually his home.
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That's the first place you should look. The home,
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Joel Beeky says, is an index to how real our fear of the Lord is. So ask yourself, is your home cheerful?
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Is it fruitful? What's the overall mood and tone of the home in which
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I live with my wife and my children? We're not talking about sinless perfection.
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We're not talking about, hey, I have some bad days sometimes. Yes, there will be good days, there will be bad days.
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There will be hard seasons with young kids. There will be some times where you and your wife may feel like ships in the night.
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That happens. But generally speaking, what's the temperature of your home?
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And I would remind you, this is something that will look different in every home in some ways.
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It will show itself in different ways. Family A has different interests than Family B.
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We've got a sports family over here. You've got some big -time readers over here. Maybe you can buy them both.
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That would be great. But either way, we're different. So I'm not saying there's one cookie -cutter way that Fear the
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Lord shows itself in family. You can fear the Lord and be a homesteader, and you can fear the
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Lord and go to Walmart pickup for your produce. You can do both of those things. It happens. Regardless of what
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Instagram, regardless of what Facebook may say, there is no cookie -cutter way that a family has to look.
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When you're thinking about the way in which this is fleshed out in a church, there are good, godly examples that the
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Lord has allowed you to be around. And there may be things that you see in somebody else's home from within your church that you think, man, that's really good.
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That's a really practical way to see fear of the Lord play itself out. And that's great.
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But also remember, balance that with the goal is not just to mimic another family in your church.
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The goal is to walk in the fear of the Lord together. But if you're just trying to mimic another family, what's going to happen is you're going to meet another family.
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And you're going to think, I like that a little better for our family. So then you're going to start doing that. And what's going to happen is your target for your kids is going to be moving over and over and over.
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And they're going to get exasperated. And your wife is going to see right through this kind of sham of fear of the
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Lord that you're like just shifting from one thing to the next. And you're going to burn your family out.
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Fear of the Lord is the goal. Praise God for godly examples of other people in our lives.
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But also you can be who the Lord made you to be. And you can allow your wife to flourish in the way that the
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Lord has made her and gifted her. And you can allow your children to be who the Lord has made them to be.
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And fear the Lord in that way together. This takes a lot of intentionality.
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I imagine if you can think back to when you first started pursuing or dating, courting, however you want to figure that out in that terminology.
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We probably used a lot of intentionality in those early seasons of our dating relationship trying to really set the tone or impress or whatever it may be.
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For me with Tyra, this is kind of odd. I'm not recommending anybody to do this.
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But our first date was Taco Bell and a trip to the movies, which is pointless.
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You can't talk to anybody in the movies. Don't do that. I learned that after the fact. But that was our first date.
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And at our first date, I had a friendship with Tyra before this. So I kind of knew, all right,
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I think she'll think this is pretty funny. You know, she'll like this. I had lost 60 pounds from high school to my first year or second year of college.
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So we were very serious, even though we had been friends for a while.
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I thought, okay, I'm going to do this. So I printed off a picture of me when I was like 60 to 65 pounds heavier on my last night of high school when we were all doing this slip and slide.
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And there's a picture of me, and I printed it off, I framed it, and I showed up at our first date. I was like, I've got a gift for you.
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So I gave it to her, and I said, I'm just setting your expectations because if this goes where I think we both want it to go, this guy may make an appearance at some point in your life again.
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And so you just need to know what you might be getting into. So far, we're three kids in.
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He hadn't come back. Who knows? We'll see. So anyways, that's kind of what
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I mean by I was really trying to be intentional. And that has to carry itself.
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As husbands and fathers, we don't have the privilege of not being that. Spiritual formation is happening in your home, whether it's through passivity or intentionality.
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One of those ways your family is being shaped. But also we balance that even with Psalm 127.
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We're remembering that unless the Lord builds it, we're laboring in vain. We're dependent on the
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Lord to bless our work, to bless our home, to bless our church. We work, and we work diligently, and we lead our families well.
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But we do it in dependence upon Him. All right.
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This next section is a little bit shorter, but here we go. So in verse 4, we see,
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Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. Then in verse 5, the
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Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
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The idea is that the blessing doesn't stop with the family. It flows out from the family into society at large, but also into the people of God in the church and this kind of community.
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The godly family doesn't just kind of bury themselves underground and isolate themselves.
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Yes, we're to live set -apart lives distinct from the world, but we're in it. And so we want to engage it and be a blessing to those around us.
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We want to seek the welfare of the community that God has placed us in. Jeremiah to Israel when they were in Babylon, he tells them,
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Build houses, settle down, plant gardens, eat what they produce, increase in number, seek peace and prosperity of the city in which
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I've called you into exile. God -fearing families are a blessing to their neighbors and to their community, but also to the church.
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I think that we, much of, if you just look at much of the issue that we see in many churches today, we're in short supply of fear of the
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Lord. Many churches would be helped by families,
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God -fearing families who walk in His ways. And I would say this, I know,
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I say you guys are, that Covenant is a new church. Relatively speaking, you are in terms of years.
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You're also, I love that you've already planted a church, which is just super encouraging to think about. But as a new church, and so to speak, don't ever underestimate the great good that God can do through a collective group of people walking in the fear of Him, seeking to honor
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Him where you are. This church, this body of believers, grace included,
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God will use you in ways that you probably never thought imaginable. Walk in the fear of Him.
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Love Him. Serve Him. Walk together. And you will be amazed at what
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God will do over time in and through this church. Last thing, it says the blessing of the
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Lord flows into the next generation. May you see your children's children.
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Peace be upon Israel. Some of you are, and I'm looking right here at Laney, I just shook your hand, so I was like, oh,
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I'm going to look at him. Some of you are enjoying the blessing of this right now. I mean, that's the greatest thing.
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I mean, my parents, I think, I love my parents and they love me, and we have a great relationship. I think they're probably more excited about being a grandparent than they were about me.
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And that may say something about my upbringing and how I was as a kid. But either way, it's a blessing.
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And Scripture tells us, Solomon tells us that grandchildren are the crown of the age.
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There is real blessing and privilege for the Lord allowing you to see your children's children.
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I also think it's a reminder to us with little olive shoots around the table that we're parenting with a long game in mind.
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We're asking ourselves, what kind of future men and women am I raising?
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What kind of dad? What kind of husband? What kind of wife? What kind of woman do
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I want my daughter to be? What kind of mother do I want her to be? What do
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I want to be like as a grandparent? Should the Lord allow me and bless me to see this privilege? Those are questions we're asking.
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We're not just trying to make our days easier by our parenting. We want to parent well.
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Something that I think is good for us to pray, and this is where I'll close, thinking about the children.
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Pray often that you would have a God -fearing home with God -fearing children.
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And pray that God would grant your children God -fearing spouses. And then would grant them and that spouse
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God -fearing children. And then that the Lord would, by His grace, continue that cycle until Christ returns.
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That's what I'm hoping for. I think that's what you're hoping for too. Only the
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Lord can do it. But we are called to walk in the fear of Him. And to love
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Him and walk in His ways. So blessed is everyone who fears the
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Lord, who walks in His ways. And we would say, God help us to be a people, and a church, and a family that does that.
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Let me close this in prayer. Father, thank
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You for the blessing of Your Word. Thank You for Jesus Christ.
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The example of what walking in the fear of the Lord looks like. But also the substitute, the sacrifice.
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Who gave Himself for those of us who once had no fear of You before our eyes. Thank You for the work that You have done.
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Drawing us to Yourself, redeeming us, giving us new hearts. And Lord, I pray that as we meditate on the good news of Jesus Christ.
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As we reflect on Your greatness, and Your glory, and Your majesty. That we would be amazed.
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And that we would live our lives in gratitude and reverence for You.
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Walking in Your ways, seeking to honor and glorify You. In our homes, in our workplaces, in our churches, and in our communities.