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About the episode:

Jaime Luce’ testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!  Learn more.

Related reading:

• How To Heal Through Responsibility and Faith
• How To Use Your Kingdom Authority In Prayer
• Plug Into A Warfare Prayer Source
• Have a Different Spirit
• Be A Good Gardner

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:02
Welcome to the Jamie Lucee podcast. I’m your host, Jamie Loose. Thank you for listening today. All of my blogs, social, and YouTube links can be found on my website, Jamie Luce dot com. If you enjoyed this podcast, you can support it by liking, subscribing, getting notified, and sharing this broadcast. Another way you can help is by rating and reviewing on Apple Podcast. My hope and goal in every episode is to give you tools found in scripture, either by teaching, discussions, testimonies, or interviews that encourage and equip you as you navigate living a real Christian walk in a difficult world. I would love to hear from you whether you have a comment question or prayer request you can email me at mail at Jamie Luce dot com. If you’re watching on YouTube, drop me a comment. I’d love to partner with you on your journey of faith. If you’re listening today on any podcast platform, take a screenshot and tag me and I’ll post it to my Instagram story. And now, join me for today’s episode. Welcome to the Jamulus podcast. Thank you for joining me today, for tuning in, and giving me some of your time. I don’t take that for granted, and I am I counted a privilege to be able to spend some time with you today.

0:01:23
And I have today a hot topic I call it a hot topic to me. It is. It should not be a controversial topic. I’m going to make a couple statements that I think are going to be controversial. I hope that you will hear me out. If you disagree with me, that’s okay. We’re still brothers and sisters in the lord. I I may be showing you something you’ve not seen or not heard. It may be contrary to what you have heard before. And I want to be careful to represent the lord well. And I have prayed before coming on to this podcast and asking the Lord to truly guide me and lead me I don’t ever wanna say something that does not bring him glory or honor. And and so I I really take today very seriously. I I hope that you take learning seriously.

0:02:24
I I was reading just in my regular study time in Proverbs. And we’re actually gonna read several verses out of Proverbs today, but One of those verses I actually tweeted because it talks about how basically we are fools. If we just believe whatever we’re told. And if if you live in the United States, I’m not actually sure how this isn’t in other countries right now. I have a feeling that this is worldwide, that this is not just in the nation of America. I really do North America, and I think that this is I think this is prevalent. From what I can tell, you know, our our new sources are crazy right now, trying to find truth is very difficult. Right now. But it looks like this might be something everybody’s dealing with, but the world’s gone crazy.

0:03:24
There are what I would call doctrines of devils according to scripture that are manifesting everywhere a true spirit of Antichrist is rampant all over the world. And It’s and I want to be careful how I say this because I I do think it’s very true I know not every individual fits into this category. So if this is not you, la la la la la. But if this is you, no, someone has to sound an alarm. Someone’s got to be willing to say something. So If you get mad at me today, I’m okay with that. I I am. My hope is that at least you’ll hear my point of view, at least you’ll hear me. And you can decide and do it that what you want.

0:04:14
But what I’m gonna talk about today is the fear of the lord and what it means to fear god. I I wanna talk about the actual question should we fear God? If you look around at what’s going on everywhere, I think it’s pretty evident that the world does not fear God. In fact, they mock God. They they got it on they don’t only not fear. They they mock and scorn and ridicule. God. But the church, I mean, the world folks, is in the conditions. It’s in because the the church went to sleep on this issue.

0:05:07
And we have come through a period of a couple decades of what was considered and called the seeker sensitive movement and the pendulum of what was taught in churches started here and swung completely the other way. And we we preached a message. When I say we, I’m talking about the church at large, preached a message that we felt would make the world feel welcomed into the church. Okay? I know there were lots of really good intentions. I do. I I know that there were many who felt like if it it was the only way to reach a generation.

0:05:56
But the problem with that is we preached an Now hear me out. This is one of those things where I don’t want you to hear what I am not singing. Okay? So don’t don’t fill in the blanks for me. If I if I don’t say it, then don’t assume I’m saying that. I want you to hear what I am saying.

0:06:15
I’m not saying that the message that God loves is a wrong or bad message. I mean that at all. But I mean, we negated. We watered down the gospel. We have taken what is a powerful world changing life altering message and watered it down so much that you cannot tell the difference anymore. Between a child of God and a child who’s running loose, you know, getting their fill of sin in the world. There there’s no difference. You can’t see a difference. And It’s time for us to deal with it. It’s time for us to deal with it. If we want to see our world saved, the church has got to get saved.

0:07:13
And I think that this question, should we fear the lord, is at the heart of making that wake up decision and changing the way that we have been doing this, the way that we have been behaving. That we even think we’re saved. I mean, I am grateful. Again, hear me carefully. I’m so grateful that churches all over the world. Have a church service and at the end of their service, make a call to those who might be lost in sin to welcome them into the family of god. I’m grateful for that.

0:07:54
However, saying a prayer because you got nervous in church. Because you actually felt a little bit of the fear of god. You you kind of feared is there really a help? Am I really doing this wrong? Or you have a problem that’s really pressing and you need God’s help. So you say yes, I’m gonna I accept Jesus because I want his help. But there is a difference between a momentary, hell married prayer and a a decision to make god your lord because you can see that he’s god. So I hope you understand where we’re going today. I hope you understand my heart.

0:08:45
I love the people of God. And I love that we are we are on a com we are on a commission’s call by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to win the lost. And how can we win them if they don’t know who God is. If they don’t know, they should be afraid of the wages of sin. If they don’t know there’s something to fear, that there is a heaven to gain as they say and a hell to shun. If they don’t really know that, If you aren’t convinced, how will they be convinced? If you don’t know, how will they know? So I wanna address this today. So I want you to get your bibles out as usual.

0:09:30
I’m gonna give you a lot of scripture today what I think is the problem, and I’ll just dive right in. What I think the problem is is that our flesh our flesh man ever since the fall has wanted to they want a God. They want a God because they have this in a desire in them to serve a God. You can see it. I mean, look at the award television shows in the US, and the songs and the choreography and dances and performances these people are doing. They are depicting hell. They are depicting a devil. They are depicting I mean, this is all over. This isn’t just in the US. I I saw a some type of festival that was done in another country. I’m trying to remember which country it was. It was just demonic. The whole thing was just extremely demonic. And there’s there’s that’s because people know that they serve somebody.

0:10:44
There used to be a song back when I was growing up as a little girl, Bob Dillon, had put out a a particular at that time, it was an eight track tape. I’m giving my age away, an eight track tape that was before there were even cassette tapes and eight track tape. And my mother had popped it in for us to hear and we were listening and going to church and we loved this particular Bob Dillon eight track. Album, whatever it was. Because he had some fun songs on there. One of them was, you know, that at as man gave name to all the animals, and he was talking about Adam’s job when he you know, because he had for a short time, Bob Dillon had actually gotten saved. And my mom had said, the reason she purchased this, she had actually felt a burden for him before he ever came to Christ to pray for him or his salvation. And then she finds out he got saved and she buys the music. One of those songs that was very famous off of that was you’re gonna have to serve somebody. And it might be the devil or it may be the lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody. And it’s it’s because it’s in you.

0:11:58
When you think about all the people who go every Sunday during football season, they serve the NFL. They are painted. They give themselves to it. They purchase tickets and fly all over the country wherever their team is located. People even in their homes, they make sure they get home, they make sure they’re where they need to be when I lived in Texas, everybody planned their Sundays around the Cowboys games. This is no joke. The schools and their kids games in any thing that was extracurricular going on was never planned at the same time that a Cowboys game was on. We just didn’t do that because everybody was gonna be home watching the football game. If they weren’t at the stadium. If it wasn’t a home game and they were actually there.

0:12:44
So people serve something. You might even not realize it and you think that the smash up job you’re doing with devoting your life to your children and all their extracurricular activities is just you being a parent. And you might be serving those kids and you’ll know because you’ll know who’s running the house. You wanna know if you’re serving or leading Who’s in control? Who actually is in control? Think about that. Just just think about that. Okay? I’m I’m offering that that up a little gently. But just think about that. But we want a God that we are comfortable disobeying. Alright. Now listen to me. We want a God that we’re comfortable with that we can disobey. That nothing bad is gonna happen.

0:13:37
That’s where you get the idea of an idol. An idol is made with man’s hands, you you make it, you carve it, you prop it up, you come say your prayers, but you walk away and that thing can’t hear, can’t speak can’t do and it can’t even give you the evil eye. That thing can’t do anything. I I like to like in this. I’ve said this before in previous podcasts. But I like to think of this for people who are workaholics, who give themselves to making the almighty dollar You are serving something that you’ve made with the work of your own hands. That’s an idol. What you work and do and make with your own hands. It can be an idol. I’m not no. I’m not saying everything is an idol folks. But hear me out. I want you to think about this. Okay? And why is that? Why are we so Why are the children of Israel?

0:14:36
After a massive deliverance out of Egypt with major, I mean, the ten plagues and the signs and wonders that God did bringing them through the Red Sea and then closing the Red Sea on top of the Egyptians destroying their enemy forever setting them free forever from that enemy, from that bondage that they were in, and very quickly. Within a matter of forty days of Moses, not bring not, you know, constantly giving them the word, they weren’t in church every day, just give it a little over a month when you when you’re not getting the word of God in you. And what happens? What did they do? They went from serving a miraculous, all powerful god to throwing their jewelry into a fire and moldings boiling down what they have is boil it down and make something out of what you can boil down I mean, that’s all it is. Just your stuff boiled down. And and you take that and you molt something out of it and you serve that.

0:15:49
And not only did they serve it, They served it and worshiped it lewdly. With luteness, guys, with luteness. I mean, they basically strip themselves and had a giant orgy. This is incredible to me. And yet, I shouldn’t be surprised. Look at our world. What are they parading in front of us constantly? Their lewdness and they want our children participating in the lewdness in in the twisted warped, demonic. Oh my gosh. It it’s so mind boggling what they have done and what they’re doing. And yet it is exactly the same picture as the children of Israel. You just you’re you’re taken something and you serve something, you serve an agenda, you serve a political party, you serve, you know, name it. People serve it. They serve it and they serve it, oh, what’s the word I’m wanting to use? You know, it’s corrupt. It is impure. It is Oh, it’ll come to me. There’s there’s a word I wanna use and it’s Okay. Let’s look at exodus three sorry, thirty two. Exodus thirty two. I’m gonna read you verses five and six. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf. So they’ve just boiled down to their stuff to make this calf and announced. Tomorrow, there will be a festival to the lord. So they have made a golden calf, Aaron, the priest, We have pastors out there, woke pastors all out there doing crazy stuff in their churches.

0:17:52
Saying crazy stuff, believing crazy stuff and calling it more. I saw a video of a performance done in a church that looked like a Grammy show with secular music, with a woman on the cross instead of a man as Jesus, I mean, crazy. That’s crazy. That’s not biblical. That’s heresy. That’s crazy. No matter if I thought that person ever in the past may have said the pastor of that church may have had some good comments. That is awful.

0:18:34
And the dancing and the costumes were lewd, and they call it a festival to the lord. This was supposed to celebrate Easter. A festival to the We call idol worship. We call making God into an image we choose, something that we don’t have to fear and that we can completely act of fula in front of and have no fear and call that a festival and offering a celebration to the Lord. Let’s keep reading verse six.

0:19:19
So the next day the people rose early, and sacrificed. I mean, they sacrificed. They they came and brought burnt offerings that says sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. I mean, they gave to this. They supported this. Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. That’s in your bible. I’m not saying that all on my own. That’s recorded. Those were God’s people, and it is shameful. It is shameful. It’s shameful folks. What God was expecting them to understand is this. So we’re gonna look at exit is twenty. Let’s let’s back it up. Things that God had told them. Okay? Exit is twenty. We’re gonna read verses eighteen, nineteen, and twenty. Here we go.

0:20:26
When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the Ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance trembling in fear. And they said to Moses, you speak to us. And we will listen. But don’t let god speak directly to us or we will die. Okay? So they’re afraid of God, which is the right thing at the moment. Afraid of God, but instead, okay, Moses, you talk to us instead of God. So the minute that Moses is at present, okay, let’s make a god then. We get to just choose how we want to do it. Let’s continue reading. Verse nineteen.

0:21:15
And they said to Moses, oh, I just read that to you. Let’s go to verse twenty. Sorry. This is what Moses tells them. Don’t be afraid, Moses answered them. For god has come in this way to test you and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning. So God’s purpose was to actually bring them to a place where they were afraid of him. He was demonstrating his power in front of them. They could see his power And his heart was to demonstrate to them this mighty power And that fear was so that they wouldn’t sin, so that they would not choose sin because they would understand there is a God that I serve whom I fear. He has power. Okay?

0:22:25
Now, hear me out because I’m not finished yet. I know everyone’s getting mad, but we’re not supposed to fear God. We’re not supposed to fear him. We’re just supposed to reverence him. I’ll get to that. Okay? I’ll get to that.

0:22:36
And then in Jeremiah, I want you to look at Jeremiah. Let’s look at verse chapter thirty two versus thirty nine and forty. So again, this is not just in one place in scripture, I’m gonna show you this in a ton of places. Okay? Verse thirty nine, I will give them singleness of heart and action So that, they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will never stop doing good to them. And I will inspire them. Listen to this. I will inspire them to fear me so that they will never turn away from me.

0:23:36
God is saying I am to be feared. For sure. But there’s a reason that you are to fear me. Because I have a good plan for you, a covenant for you, I want things to go well for you and for your children. I don’t ever want you to fall away and mess up and then lose out on what I have for you. But it’s gonna take says God, fear of me that I would in aspire you to be afraid of me. Okay?

0:24:10
In fact, I’m gonna give this to you because I looked up this word fear over and over again, look at this for fear. Same word fear. Okay? And everybody likes to say that this word fear means that we’re not afraid of god, but that we are in awe of God. Re reverence God. Okay? So they they like to say that that’s what this word means. And I would like to say to you that, well, let me tell you what this word is. I don’t know how to say this word in the Hebrew. I’m sorry, but It is a Hebrew word.

0:24:49
It literally means to tremble. Now to tremble means your knees are knocking, you’re afraid. To tremble. This does not mean This is not in reference standing in. Oh, you’re so wonderful. That’s not what that means. It means tremble. K? Real fear, trembling. Tremble. Too fear. To be afraid, to reverence, to be godly, So these these actions of revelry and and showing no fear is the opposite of having god’s kind of fear to be upright. It mean to be afraid, be feared reverence held in honor To frighten, to a fright, dreadful, to put into fear, to make afraid, to revere these these are strong words, and though reverence is in the meaning. It is by far not the weightiest or the heaviest of the meaning. It truly is to tremble and be frank. That is really what it means. God really did mean what he said.

0:26:13
I know we like to get comfortable. Why do we wanna make a God that’s comfortable to us? Because then I don’t have to be afraid. If I’m comfortable with this God, what do we say even in the business world? You can’t let if you’re a boss, you cannot let your that your employees get too familiar with you. Because if they do, then they won’t behave right. They’ll think they get special privileges and certain rules don’t apply to them.

0:26:42
And Christians do this. They will say, my daddy God is and he just loves me. And and we actually think that he loves us so much. That he makes special rules just for us. That it doesn’t matter what the Bible says. I’m different. I’m special. And and he he he understood. He knows my heart. He he knows he knows my heart. I love him. Oh, boy, I love my Jesus.

0:27:09
And we’ll say these kind of things and then turn around and completely disobey the word of God. And have no fear. Why? Because we’re not actually serving the God of the Bible. We’re serving an image that we have boiled down to put in the things we want and leave out the things we don’t. That’s a very dangerous thing to do. You’re making your own little religion. You crafted your own little Jesus. And you gave him the same name? I mean, scripture even says there are many Jesus as many that come after him. Calling themselves Jesus. And they’re not Jesus. There’s all kinds of little Jesus’ out there. In fact, it’s a popular Hispanic name. Hey, SUS is a popular Hispanic name. Lots of names, Jesus, just because you call it Jesus, doesn’t make him Lord God almighty of everything that ever was.

0:28:00
Creator of everything, everything, the chair I’m sitting on, even though somebody made this with materials, those materials they did not make. Those materials got made. And those materials are literally held together on a if you were to boil it down and you keep using that word, if you were to look at it like it with with a a powerful enough microscope, They say that atoms, you know, they’re they’re trembling. You know, here here’s a here’s a good picture for you. Have you ever seen a science thing where they show the atoms and they’re bouncing and they’re doing this, they’re trembling before god. They do whatever he tells them to do.

0:28:41
Scripture tells us that even the heavens everything is hung by his word It is held. This earth is spinning right where it spins just because God said stay right there. And don’t you quit doing what I told you to do. And it just keeps spinning and it just keeps doing what it’s doing and then we’ll get the sunrise when we’re supposed to and we get the moon come up when we’re supposed to because God spoke it. It is literally held together by his word. And it trembles.

0:29:08
Scripture tells us how many times that the earth grows everything. Look at the flowers and the plants that grow. What do they do? They grow up to give worship to God. Everything understands in creation, who God is. And his awesomeness. The creator of the stars that light our night sky The fact that I can know that for the rest of my life, there will always be a sunrise and a sunset because God said so. No man is in charge of that. It’s not gonna just fail. God said it. That’s it. He is almighty god. Omnipotent. Omnipresent. All powerful. He he knows it all, created it all, as a plan for it all is sovereign overall, our god reigns and rules.

0:30:02
And we don’t get to say Oh, but God, I don’t like that about you. So I’m just gonna, you know, I’m gonna soften the edge here. That’s a little rust. We we don’t wanna tell people that. We we don’t want you to look like that. We don’t get to determine what god looks like, what god thinks. I don’t get to change his word. His word is his word. I can say, I’m not gonna live by it. I have the ability to do that. I can say, I disagree and walk away. I can. And I’ll face him one day. I will face him one day. But he’s not gonna make me. But you don’t get to make him into something he’s not. We’re deceiving ourselves if we think we can folks. It’s just not right.

0:30:49
He said fear him for a reason because he has a plan for your life. It’s really good. He doesn’t want you to miss out on it. But he knows in order for you, in all of your freedom, to to keep a hold of it, to be able to maintain it, you’re gonna have to have some fear of the Lord and you to understand your days are numbered. You do have a set amount of days of your life. And there is something you are supposed to be doing. There are things you shouldn’t be doing, and there are consequences to your decisions.

0:31:20
We have got to deal with this. We have got to get back the fear of god. We hit we’ve got to quit making him soft. I mean, look, what’s happened? We’re we’re demasculating men. Let alone, God. We’ve demasculated God first. We did that first.

0:31:39
And by putting a female up on the cross calling it Jesus, you’d even did it there. And we’ll say, well, we’re quote in the scripture that in Christ were neither male nor female. Well, while Jesus walked this ERK, he was a male, He was every bit male, tough his nails and yet tender when he needed to be tender. Knew his purpose, never swayed, stronger than the rest, full of faith, full of full the spirit of God doing the miraculous. Not not afraid knowing he came to serve a purpose of suffering, of obedience The Bible says that he learned obedience by what he suffered and guess what? So will we? So will we? If Jesus had to learn it that way, folks, in his humanity, guess what? So do we? We’ve got a humanity to deal with, and it won’t get dealt with without the fear of god. Without a trembling fear, Let’s look at Jeremiah thirty three, eighty nine.

0:32:47
I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me. And will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me, then this city will bring me renowned joy, praise, and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it. And they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it. I was amazed when I read that verse because what is he saying? That for those who have accepted what god has said and live a life, that God has called them to live for those people. Those people that even though they sinned, I forgave them. Every their rebellion, I forgave it. They are a people now of renowned, a city that will bring me great joy and praise and honor before nations. I mean, this is really something. And then he says that it will be so good that the surrounding nations will hear of all the good things that God does for them. And those nations who hear will be in awe of what God has done and tremble. They will tremble.

0:34:22
Why would you tremble? At abundant prosperity and peace. Why of somebody else? Why would you tremble if you see another nation Why do you think that the world wants the United States to no longer be a superpower? Why do you think because they trembled when they saw the great peace and prosperity, the abundance of prosperity that America had. And the abundance of peace that we had.

0:34:53
What did that do? It caused fear in the surrounding nations. And God is saying when you do it my way, then I’m able to show that they should also fear me because look what I can do. That the prosperity that I bring on you, the abundant peace and prosperity that I bring, is something to be feared from your enemies. It takes Fear is not a bad word. Now, I know that I’m I’m talking about one particular fear, the fear of the Lord. I’m not talking about any other fear. Okay? I’m talking about the fear of the lord. But when it comes to god, fear is not a bad word. It is not a bad word.

0:35:36
The argument is between being afraid and fearing. People like to make this argument. It doesn’t mean to be a afraid of him. It means that we fear him. We understand his power. No. Then if you can understand something’s power and not be afraid. He says you need to fear me in order for you to understand and revere the power that I have. My power is so powerful. It needs to be revered. You should be afraid of it.

0:36:06
We treat petroleum in a very particular way. Why? Because it should be feared. Right? I mean, you treat a virus going around. How’s everybody treating the virus? They want you to tremble and fear. Why? Because it has power? It has power.

0:36:26
The very fact that we’re saying no wonder people don’t think that God’s powerful because we don’t fear him. Without the fear of God, they will not understand. We have got to live a life that is in holiness and reverence before a god that we tremble before knowing knowing that he has saved us and brought us peace and prosperity. But just because he forgave me doesn’t mean he’s not to be feared, Now that doesn’t mean I walk around like afraid it’s gonna hurt me. That’s not what it means. But I understand his power. I understand it’s like holding a firearm. You don’t let a child hold a firearm. They have to be trained to understand its power. We have to understand the power of God. It does not just because I hold it versus a child holding it doesn’t mean that it’s any less powerful. I am very aware of its power. Therefore, I handle it properly.

0:37:28
When you have a right fear, you will handle things right. And without the fear of God folks, you will not handle things right. We will not represent him right. This is so important. People’s lives depend on it. Their lives won’t change if they don’t understand that, yes, God loves you. He loves you so much he gave. Everything for you.

0:37:57
Jesus left the glory and majesty and power of heaven to come die in this sinful earth for our sin and rebellion. But But he’s powerful. And he was raised from the dead with that power. And we are supposed to be living now. With that same resurrection power in us, that should change the way we live, that should change the way we think That should change the way we behave. The way we represent God. Oh, God is worthy. Of our praise and our fear. My love and devotion and my fear.

0:38:45
The only difference between afraid and fearing is your position. How you are positioned with god? Okay? Because if I position myself properly, I fear him. I don’t walk around and fear of him. Though I am very aware that if I step outside of the boundaries, I should be very afraid. Do you hear the difference? Do you hear the difference? Just think of how foolish it is to know that there is a creator of the universe who created time and space. Everything he made, everything that is he made. We have taken the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and this awesome powerful God and walked it. We have said that god is love incessantly without also teaching his greatness and his power.

0:39:56
God finds sin so loathsome. That he had to deal with it by sending his son and having him die a brutal totally bloody death, brutal, to deal with our sin. If our sin is that loathsome, that in order to deal with it, God had to deal with that that way, and we think we shouldn’t be afraid We don’t think sin is a big deal. We’re deceiving ourselves. You’re setting yourself up like I read in that first scripture in Exodus that without the fear of God, you’ll fall away. He is he sends his fear. He incites us and and gives us incentive to fear him so that we won’t fall away into those traps that the enemy has set for us. Our safety is found. In fearing god, that’s where our safety is found. Now I want to look at those some examples. Why fear? Why fearing God? Because it can lead to blessing and it can lead to cursing. And we see different examples of this all throughout scripture. So I’m going to give you several of these.

0:41:13
I want you to turn to Psalm one hundred and nineteen and I’m going to read verse one hundred and nineteen and verse one hundred and twenty. This is how God deals with those who don’t fear him. It says, you skim off the wicked of the Earth like scrum. No wonder I love to obey your laws. I tremble in fear of you. I stand in awe of your regulations. You wanna know why David loved God’s laws, he loved God’s commands. He loved everything about God’s regulations because he knew they led to life. And then without them, You die. You skim off the liquid of the earth like scrum. No wonder I love and obey your laws. I tremble in fear of you. I tremble. He understood the fear of god. Look at James. Chapter four verse twelve. I’m gonna read the first half of the verse twelve a.

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There is only one caregiver and judge. The one who is able to save and destroy. There’s only one who gets to do that, one caregiver, one judge. And it is only he who is able to save or destroy. I would say that there should be some serious, reverent fear. And depending on your actions and depending on your position saved or unsaved, Well, tell if you’re trembling, if your knees are knocking or not. Who are we sup how are we supposed to live then? If we are those who are saved, we walk in salvation. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have invited him to come and and be lord of our life. What should that look like? I want you to turn to Philippians two twelve. Therefore, my dear brother’s as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So Paul is telling the people in Filipi, if you you’re good to do it when I’m there, kinda like when Moses was there, The people did what Moses said. But he’s saying even now and even more in my absence now that I’m not there, you need to continue working out your salvation and how do you do that with fear and trembling.

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I know this is hard, guys. I do. I know it sounds hard. But it leads to life. It’s like it’s like me having a child who runs out into the street and I’m screaming. Get out of the street and I go running and yank you. Pull your arm practically out of your socket to save you. And get you out of being hit by a car. I I feel like I’m doing that today. I’m screaming. I’m screaming to save us. And I’m running out and I might be pulling some people’s arms out of socket. They might feel like they’re a little bit disjointed and this might hurt a little bit but it will save you. It will save you.

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God is a good god. In fact, there’s no measure of good other than God. Anything that you think is good? None of it matters. Your opinion doesn’t matter. What you think is good doesn’t matter. It only matters who God says is good because he alone is good. That’s what Scripture tells us. God alone is good. No matter how good you think you are, no matter how good we think our works are, our righteousness is as filthy rags, the word says. We have to understand that God and God alone is good. He determines what is right. And you might think to fear him isn’t right. I’m sorry, but you are mistaken. If he says that’s good for your life, then my brother and sister, it is good for your life. He knows what he’s talking about. He created it all. He knows the end from the beginning, not just of time, but of you, of your life, your end from your beginning. Okay. I’m gonna come down and go on.

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Let’s let’s look at the earmarks. What does Paul say? Are the earmarks then? And proof of a saved life. Somebody who truly lives a saved life. What does that look like? Number one, he says it was obedience. You have always obeyed. And number two, You continue to fear and tremble before the Lord. You continue to walk in fear and tremble before the Lord. Those are the earmarks. Of somebody who truly lives to pleads the Lord, who fears god. Why would fear and trembling be necessary? Look at our world. Just look at our world. Why is it necessary folks? They have no fear of god. They have no fear of god whatsoever.

0:46:44
If you were to look at Job Job is a funny book because according to scholars, they basically across the board agree that it is the best piece of poetry and literature ever ever. But it’s just it’s remarkable what is said about the book of Job. And if I’m completely transparent before you in years past, I have wanted to avoid the book of Job. Because the thought of delving into a man’s suffering and his loss, I just I didn’t wanna see it. I just honestly didn’t wanna see it. If you’ve dealt with any kind of pain in your own life, you don’t wanna see more pain. Right? You wanna see the goodness of God. It’s why people don’t wanna fear God. They they wanna have all the happy feelings, all the happy butterflies, and and the woohoo’s, and church, and praise you Jesus, but they don’t wanna have any fear of God.

0:47:46
And if we look at Job, the main core issue aside from aside from you know, you’ve got your bookends at Job about Satan, you know, coming before God, and God giving permission. And at the end, then God restoring and doing all the he did for Job in the end. But the middle section and the arguments that go back and forth and the discussion between Job and his so called friends is one about understanding God. That book is full about understanding who God is. And I was so relieved that, you know, because I would read and I’d be reading one of the the friends and I’m thinking, what did you just said is right? But then I read what Job says and I’m like, what Job is right? What this guy’s right? And Job is right. And I’d be so confused. And when I was reading a book that Dr. Michael Brown wrote about Job he said the exact same thing when he read it. I was like, oh, thank god. It’s not just me. Because you can get lost in trying to understand who God is, but that’s because he’s so awesome. He’s above knowing, at the end of Job, when we come to the point where God answers Job, God Joe makes this statement to God.

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In Joe chapter forty two, he says, I talk about things. I know nothing about. Once he was confronted with God and who God really was, and God manifested himself to Job and talked to him, tell telling him about himself, Joe realized, I’m an idiot. I don’t know what I’m talking about. You are God. And I think we all need to come back to that place of humility and quit thinking we know it all. That we know so much about god and humble ourselves that in our arguments back and forth about what we know about god And to come before God and say, God, I don’t even know what I’m talking about. You are awesome. I have to obey your commands and do it your way. Your way leads to life. We’ve got to do that. I mean, we understand this concept. Right? Why why do we have this need to to have something to worship? And I don’t I don’t worship. We worship the thing.

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And I said that it’s because we want to take God and shrink him down and and make him smaller than us, so we’re not afraid. That’s why kids when you think about this, kids when they’re a little, they say, you know, my dad’s bigger than your dad. And and why are they saying that? Because they want you and your dad to think that their dad is so much bigger and stronger and better that you’re afraid of their dad. Their dad’s greater. Okay, no matter who you think your dad is, no matter how great you think God is, I’m telling you he’s greater. He’s bigger. He’s better. He’s greater. He’s more than what you have made him out to be. We are to magnify the Lord. That means make him bigger because you could never see him fully as he is until we see him face to face. You will never understand how wonderful, how big, how magnificent, how awesome, how powerful he is until that day comes.

0:51:03
I want us to look at colossians one verses sixteen and seventeen, and I’m trying to wrap this up. For in him, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. It’s like what I referenced earlier. It’s all held together by God. All of it.

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But still this doesn’t answer the question why we should fear him. I I know people don’t like it. It’s it brushes them the wrong way. I’m telling you until you humble yourself before you’re a mighty god. And come to the place that you recognize you need to need to to put yourself down a notch, not think more highly of yourself than you ought. And reposition yourself that you serve a mighty God. That your life is but a vapor. David said, we’re just on vapor. And yet god. Eternally god. There’s no way to even put words that accurately dish describe him because our vocabulary is too small.

0:52:22
I want to give you an example of some people who did this right who feared God right and then what God did for them. Exodus one chapter seven chapter one verse seventeen, and then I’m gonna also read you verse twenty one. This is the example of the midwives. Farrell had given the command when the children of Israel were his slaves that the midwives were because they were growing a number They were getting powerful. They were getting too big. Cut them down. He says, I want you to kill all the male children that are born. To the midwives, gave them a command. Verse seventeen says the midwives, however, feared god. They feared god. And did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live Okay? Now, I’m I’m actually using this scripture. There’s others in the new testament.

0:53:14
That’s not what the message is about today, so I’m not gonna go there. But you have to stand up to your government. Enough of this, if they want you to do things that do not, that you have to not do what God has told you to do, that it crosses God’s boundary lines. It it that matters. Now if it doesn’t cross God’s boundary lines, then that’s not your concern. But when it crosses God’s boundary lines, you are to fear God and not man. And this is what God did.

0:53:45
Because this is verse twenty one and because the midwives feared God. He gave them families of their own. So this was they sowed the right thing and god then let them reap the benefits of fearing him and not man. And disobeying what pharaoh said. Not only did they not lose their lives to pharaoh, God gave them families of their own, their lives were spared, they were protected, and they received families of their own. Faroe refused to fear God. He and his whole army were swallowed up by the Red Sea, that same Red Sea that delivered God’s people. So those who were fearing God were saved. Those who refused to fear God were swallowed up and taken by the very thing that they tried to use to capture the children of Israel. The very thing, God used the exact same thing to bless one, curse another.

0:54:44
Fearing God affects how you treat people. It brings protection because he’s bigger and he can do something about it and he sees everything and he expects you to live holy. So in leviticus, there are several passages. I’m just gonna read them real quickly. Just to show you, just to give you a little hint about this, how this works with God.

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Leviticus nineteen fourteen, do not purse the deaf or put any stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your god I am the Lord. What’s he saying? I’m watching. If you do that, you better fear me because I’m watching out for them. Do not treat them wrong. Don’t don’t take advantage I’m watching. You better fear me.

0:55:23
Leviticus twenty five seventeen. Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your god. I am the lord your god. Liviticus nineteen thirty two stand in the presence of the aged, show respect for your elders, and revere your god. Where I am the lord. Revere, that’s that same word for fear. Fear me because I’m the lord.

0:55:46
Lividigas twenty five, thirty five, and thirty six, If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and a stranger. So they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your god so that they may continue. To live among you. And Leviticus twenty five verse forty two and forty three because the Israelites are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. They must not be sold as slaves. Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your god. Roughly three hundred times.

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The Bible says fear God or references God fearing. Roughly three hundred times. We need to pay attention. You know, people like to quote, the Bible says fear not, three sixty five times. That’s one for every day. Well, bless God. That’s true. That’s true. When you have God as your protection, Because you’ve chosen him, he is your protection, so you don’t have to fear the thing. You fear of God, but you don’t fear the circumstance. Fear not. There’s a it’s a very particular kind of fear not. But we have almost three hundred or roughly three hundred. I’m not exactly sure what the the exact number is. I said roughly Fear God. Beat God fearing. Live holy because God’s watching.

0:57:15
You may be thinking that this was only in the old testament, so let’s go to Matthew verse ten or chapter ten verse twenty eight. These are the words of Jesus. These are not just man’s words. They since Jesus. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Okay. Let’s look at King David. That was Jesus.

0:57:48
Psalm two verse eleven served the Lord with reverent fear and rejoice with trembling. Interesting. Rejoice with trembling. That’s the same thing as you’re gonna be so blessed it brings fear. You’re going to rejoice and tremble at the same time. This powerful god is mine. This powerful god is watching out for me. This powerful God can change my circumstance and change my life. Completely radically change it and make it different. So I tremble and rejoice.

0:58:27
Psalm ninety verse eleven, who can comprehend the power of your anger your wrath isn’t as as is as awesome as the fear you deserve. Let me read that again. Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. That’s David. That’s in Psalm ninety. We like to quote that because that’s the protection, you know, or Psalm ninety one. Sorry. Right before that song. So we have to understand that not only does God deserve our share because he is so awesome. And I know that as Christians, now the Bible says that we are not reserved for his wrath. His wrath is not reserved for us. That’s reserved for the ungodly. But we still serve him with a trembling. We still rejoice with trembling. We don’t change the fact that he’s still all powerful. That’s the God we serve. And for those who say there is no God and refuse to fear him, this is what God says.

0:59:35
Psalm fourteen, and Psalm fifty one both say this in their first verse. The fool says in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt Their deeds are vile. There is no one who does good. So those who think there is no God there’s not one thing they do that’s good. I don’t care what label they put on it. I don’t care how they tell you that it’s for the, you know, social justice and how good they think all the things are they’re doing. God says, if you don’t serve me, there’s not one thing you’ve done that’s good. Nothing. They are corrupt and their ways are vile. There is no one who does good. Okay.

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Psalm thirty six one. I says I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked. There is no fear of god before their eyes. He’s saying the reason they are so sinful and so wicked is because they don’t fear god. But now let’s look and I’ll close with these next several verses. This is the promise to those who fear god. I I I wanted to get you here. This is the good news. This is the good news of the gospel, though we should fear God. This is what the fear of God gives us. This is the blessing attached to the fear of God.

1:01:02
Psalm twenty five verses twelve to fourteen says, who then are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. They will spend their days in prosperity and their descendants will inherit the land. The Lord confides in those who fear him he makes his covenant known to them. Then Psalm thirty four nine says, fear the lord you, his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Oh, that’s so good.

1:01:43
Here’s a controversial statement. We need to be taught the fear of the Lord. I’ve got more good news for you. I’ve got more good versus for you, but I want to send this challenge out while we’re hearing this. If you minister or teach people or are training up children, you and your household Balance the love of God with the fear of God. You need to give them both. You don’t get just one. God is all powerful. He’s all loving, but he’s all powerful.

1:02:17
Let’s look at Psalm thirty four eleven. Come my children and listen to me. And I will teach you the fear of the lord. I will teach you the fear of the lord. Psalm one zero three thirteen in seventeen? Did I write down seventeen? Well, thirteen anyway. The Lord is like a father to his children. Tender and compassionate to those who fear him. He’s tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

1:02:51
Psalm one twelve verse one, how joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. Psalm one hundred and fifteen verses eleven and thirteen. Say all who fear the lord, trust the lord. He is your helper and your shield. He will bless those who fear the lord, both great and lowly. Psalm one twenty eight, versus one to four, how joyful are those who fear the lord, all who follow his ways. You will enjoy the fruit of your labor, how joyful and prosperous you will be. Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous, young, olive trees as they sit around the table. That is the Lord’s blessing for those who fear him.

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Folks, Proverbs one seven says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. In fact, today, as I was reading, I came across three more that I just wanted to give you. This is Proverbs fourteen verse two. Those who follow the right path fear the Lord. Those who take the wrong path despise him.

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And then verse twenty six and twenty seven, those who fear the lord are secure. He will be a refuge for their children do your children need protection? Do you Are you concerned about your kids? The fear of the lord is what makes them secure. He will be a refuge for your children. The fear of the lord is a life giving fountain. It offers escape. From the snares of death.

1:04:45
And the last one, Proverbs fifteen verse sixteen, better to have a little with the fear for the lord than to have great treasure and inner turmoil. What is he saying? You can negate inner turmoil and you can have great you could think that having great treasure will will suffice and bring that peace and and that comfort. And he says, no, you can have a little and have the fear of the lord and it is better. You’ll have more than if you have a great treasure but inner turmoil. Why is our world going crazy? Why is there no sound wisdom or instruction? Because of the fact that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you don’t fear God, you have no wisdom. You have no wisdom. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of the of wisdom and our world wants no part of God or fearing him, then there is no secret why. We must get back to the basics folks. Yes. We have to share the love of God, but we also have to share and teach the fear of God.

1:05:54
I’ve got to let you go, but I just want you to seriously think about this, meditation, and time and prayer, thinking and contemplating on how great, how big God is. You’ll never you’ll never reach his end. You You’ll never he’s so much greater. He’s so much greater. He deserves, as the psalmist said, our fear. He deserves it because he’s awesome.

1:06:23
This awesome god who’s to be feared is your father. If you’ve called him lord and accepted his love, then he’s your father. My daddy is bigger than your daddy. And he can do anything. He will protect me. He will bless me. He will provide for me. He will bring me security and peace. My God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that I could ever ask or think. That’s the awesome God that we serve. He is to be feared yes, in reverence. But to our enemies, he is to be feared in the hopes that they will see who he is and be converted. If we don’t live, Gressing their God. They won’t know. It’s up to us. It’s up to us. We’ve got to we’ve got to take responsibility as the church and represent God right.

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I hope you heard today with my heart. I love you. I pray for you. I am concerned for you. We we are we’ve got so much ahead of us to to do and to be blessed by from the Lord. So I encourage you today take this message to heart. Make it yours. Make it yours.

1:07:49
And if you know anybody who needs to hear this message, I challenge you to share like and share, help us get the word out. You can send me correspondence by email, which is mail at Jamie Luce dot com. That’s j a I m e l u c e dot com. My website, Jamie Luce dot com, also has everything there. And I would love to hear from you. I pray that you’re doing well. I’ll continue to hold you up. And my prayers ask you to hold hold me up in yours, and we will see you again next time. Bye bye. Thank you for listening to the Jamieloose podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please rate and review the show on Apple or modify and subscribe wherever you listen. For more, visit Jamie Luce dot com. That’s j a I m e l u c e dot com. You’ll find a free chapter of her new book. You don’t need money, you just need God, and a fresh word from Jamie on the blog each week. See you next week.