Hello my name is my name is Josh Martin and I'm one of the pastors here of
Resonate and last week we started a sermon series that's a fancy word for
saying we're gonna talk about something for four weeks we call it a sermon
series and what we're doing for the next four weeks is called heart habits an
ordinary way to extraordinary holiness now if you weren't here last week or if
you just forgot which happens no no judgment there I want to catch you up
to speed as quickly as possible so a habit as we defined is something done
by repetition it's formed by repetition you do it without even thinking it's
done so often it's now a part of you you don't even realize you're doing it
however if you're in don't doing it if you're not doing it you would miss it so
40% of our lives people say scientists say they say is strictly habit that you
are responding to things out of habit at the end of our lives we are some total
of our habits we made fun of cereal last week how we shouldn't eat it with water
how we shouldn't eat it in the bathroom how lots of things so it was like oh
that's funny our habits are funny but but if it's true that we are the sum of
our habits and who we are is what we do then very quickly habits turn from oh
that's funny cereal haha to oh wow is that who I want to be oh oh wow that's
interesting to oh is that where I'm headed and so our habits have a stake in our
future and listen to this anything that has an opportunity to form your future
God wants to speak to that and so still in the recap here so how God speaks to
that is he wants to change us he wants to form us he wants to give us a new way
of life and new habits and how God does it primarily we said last week is he
takes our heart that are cold and dead and anti God hearts and he sends the
Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus in the arrow of the gospel with the mega freight
train of divine power that hits our heart and brings us to new life so God's
strategy for changing us we said was giving us a new heart here's the catch
your new heart comes with new desires new hopes new dreams new future new Lord
knew everything except new habits you have everything you need with your new
heart but you do not get new habits so God has changed you internally so that
you might work and live differently externally and that is called positional
holiness that you stand before God with the position of holiness and from there
God has turned us into people who should live differently so you might ask
yourself what happens to people with new hearts okay so I get it I have a new
heart what happens to me now that I have a new heart well the answer is very
simple evidential change is supposed to happen to you now that you have a new
heart you are supposed to look differently your roommates are supposed
to say hey man what's going on with you the whole cereal thing started to change
what's happening you are starting to live and act differently in ways that are
far bigger than just bad habits you used to have and the process of this is the
fancy word sanctification sanctification I hope you're still with me
that I want to stay academic on you but this is the process by which God makes
you holy the story of the New Testament is simple if you are a sinner which is
all of us then through Jesus become a saint if you are a saint then through
Jesus stop sinning that's the story of the New Testament if you are a follower
of Christ stop sinning in the in the scriptures Paul and a lot of the New
Testament writers write to the saints and the saints literally means holy ones
so holy ones stop being unholy unholy ones by Christ become holy that is the
giving of a new heart but this takes work day by day hashtag day by day this is a
marathon this takes a ton of work which leads to the question if this takes a
ton of work then where am I supposed to begin where do I start what's ground zero
of step 1 2 3 4 where do I begin okay I have a new heart I'm supposed to change
what do I do first what do I start with where's the groundwork where's the
foundation of everything that I'm going to be headed towards listen I know and
whether you're here today or you're on the video at UI I know that you desire
to change I know that over the last week you might have looked at your habits a
little differently you might have been a little more hesitant to let Netflix go
down those 14 seconds and show the next video I know that this week some of you
said okay hashtag day by day I'm gonna try to change some stuff so I know you
want to change and where the scripture tells us to start the change is very
surprising it's intriguing it's surprising it feels counterintuitive it in
some ways very very much was an unlikely place for me so if you have a Bible I
want to tell you where God tells us to start and it's found in Philippians
chapter 2 so grab your Bible it's time with me to Philippians chapter 2 and if
you have if you have a Bible that's great bring your Bibles to church that's
awesome if you don't we always project it on the screen and if you have not
downloaded the resonate app we always have this week scriptures on the app so
you can pull that out as well but Philippians chapter 2 we're gonna look at
an unlikely place where we are asked to start this process starting in verse 8
and this is about Jesus so in verse 8 it says Jesus humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death Jesus became obedient to the point of the
cross even death on a cross verse 9 therefore God gave him God exalted him
and bestowed upon him a name that is above every name so that the name of
Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father that is the gospel that the Son of God came down became obedient humbled
himself went to the cross in our place to give us positional holiness now he has
been bestowed given the name that is above every name that all our knees
will bow hopefully willingly noted willingly bow to this Christ every
tongue will confess that he is Lord forever to the glory of God amen Paul
now what okay I got that Josh yelled about it last week what do I do now I
get it okay where do we start here comes the unlikely place verse 12 therefore
my beloved that's us this is the church as you have always obeyed so now not
only in my presence but more so in my absence and here it is in light of what
we just saw which is salvation work out your salvation with fear and trembling
for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure
work out your salvation with fear and trembling is what Paul says work out
your salvation let me just side note say Paul did not say work for your
salvation catch that he said work out your salvation Christ accomplished it
you work it out with fear and trembling is what he says now if you're new to
resonate if you knew the church I know what you're thinking you're thinking man
I came to church for the first time today because my friend told me we were
going to the cub to watch a movie and now we're here or whatever welcome we're
glad you're here or you went to the sub ballroom at UI just to watch a movie
well here's the movie I'm on a video great they weren't lying technically okay
so you're here and you see you see this coming and you go really I come to
church and for the very first time I'm here you're gonna tell me that big bad
main God is up in the sky looking down commanding us to fear him fear God like
God's mad at me already enough I know I already get that I came here hoping you
would tell me about a loving God and you're gonna tell me that I should fear
the God that's mad at me this seems counterintuitive this doesn't seem like
it would be the way to go what will new person listen to me I submit to you that
you are going to like what I'm about to say I think you're gonna say oh wow
that's what it means to fear him can I sign up for that because I think that
what we see in fear is not necessarily what God wants us to see in fear because
we come to this with these weird mythologies in the background going
Zeus was big and bad and mean and so we need to fear him and we've projected
that upon the loving Creator God and we take fearing him as something very
different so I started searching the scriptures and I looked and asked this
one question is this true and is this good is this really where we're headed
and here's what I found hundreds of Bible verses about fear I'm gonna read you
10 okay because I can't read you hundreds because we wouldn't get to leave
today so we're gonna read 10 and I think you're gonna like what you hear Psalm
115 verse 11 says those who fear the Lord also trust the Lord and he is their
help and their shield Psalm 103 but from everlasting everlasting the Lord's
love is for those who fear him first Samuel 12 be sure to fear the Lord and
serve him faithfully with all your heart and while you do that consider the
great things that he has done for you Psalm chapter 2 serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling Psalm chapter 33 listen to this but the eyes of the
Lord follow those who fear him not to keep score and to be mean but the Lord
follows those who fear him so that he might keep them in his unfailing love
and fill them with hope that's just reading you the Bible I'm reading off a
paper but it's still the Bible okay I'll keep going a few more Proverbs sorry
Psalm 25 says this and I love this the Lord confides in those who fear him the
Lord draws near to those who fear him and he will make a covenant to them that
is everlasting Proverbs 19 the fear of the Lord leads to life the one who fears
him rests content and is untouchable by trouble I'll keep going Isaiah 33 under
the chapter be God oh God be gracious to me it says talking about Jesus Jesus
will be our sure foundation for our times of trouble he will be a rich store
house of salvation and wisdom and he will be all of our knowledge just talking
about Christ but the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure that's what
Isaiah just said the fear of the Lord is the key to knowing Christ so so
essentially what Isaiah just said Proverbs 9 verse 10 is probably the most
well-known of all these it simply says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is the beginning of understanding when
Jesus is and if you fast forward to the New Testament when Jesus is in the boat
with his disciples which by the way some of them were fishermen and so this
huge storm comes and the fishermen are starting to get very nervous while
Jesus is getting his nap on Jesus is taking a nap in the boat during the
storm the disciples go get him aren't you afraid Jesus what are you doing and
Jesus tells the wind and the way is to stop and to be still and listen to
disciples in that moment did not go who that was a close one scripture says the
disciples in that moment are filled with fear and they say who is this that
even the winds and the waves obey him and scripture says Peter falls on the
ground and says get away from me Jesus I'm a sinner and I'm afraid of you and
Jesus looks at him and says you don't have to be there's another part of the
New Testament where Jesus says don't be afraid of the ones that can kill the
body but rather be afraid of the ones that can kill the soul so it would seem
and I need you to hear this I need you to get this whether you're new to us or
you've been around a while but what I'm saying is clearly as I can say it is the
fear of the Lord is not God punishing you the fear of the Lord is God
protecting you the fear of the Lord is not God punishing you the fear of the
Lord is God protecting you and by the way side note it's the wisest thing you
would ever do the wisest thing you could ever do in all of your life would be to
follow after Jesus so the opposite the most foolish thing you could ever do
would be to not fear God and follow Jesus that that would be to run the other
way and God says that is not wise so I'm gonna put a definition on the screen
so we can get on the same page but essentially it says fearing God means
this fearing God means God is in your mind and heart so powerful and holy and
awesome and now I hate using the word awesome because all of you think pizza
is awesome now when I say awesome I mean it strikes all in me and when I look at
it I go oh for some amount of time I go oh that's a big deal so he is so holy
and powerful and awesome that you would not dare to run away from him but you
would only run to him fearing God means that in your mind in your heart God is
so powerful and holy and awesome that you would not dare to run away from him
but that you would only run to him so friends listen to this the foundational
principle ground zero of having a new heart that is going to be filled with
new habits ground zero of that the first habit of your heart should be to fear
the Lord the first habit of your new heart should be walking in the fear of
the Lord now here's why this is important to you because one you're already
afraid of a lot of things it just works itself out so fear shows up here's how
it primarily shows up when you attempt to be sovereign here's what I mean you
look at the future you look at your class schedule you look at what's coming up
you look at when you graduate you look at all that stuff coming and you try to
control it grab it make sure you get your way in the future and you look at the
future attempting to put the pieces together to make it happen and then when
those pieces don't all land together the right way what happens in that moment is
you feel fear you feel anxiety you try to be sovereign and you don't measure up
so you're afraid or the other way is you try to have vision in the future without
a God propelling you to empower the future and therefore it leads you to
fear fear is vision without God it's it's future effort without sovereignty to
pull it off you and I walk in this all the time so God says fear me because I
can figure that stuff out I control that I can move that but if you try to
be God then you will never fear God and you will only fear the fact that you
can't be him it's confusing but I hope you heard me just now and the other thing
is you and I fear man we do the fear of man you go out on a weekend or you have
a decision you need to make and so many times our lives are fueled by the fact
that oh no I fear what so-and-so might think of me oh no I'm afraid that so
and so might not accept me we rarely look at God and say oh no I'm afraid of
what God might think I'm afraid of God not accepting me but rather we always
fear what others are thinking of us and and those are the two primary ways it
works out but but I would say on a day-to-day basis you and I are lulled
into thinking this is not a big deal I would say on a day-to-day basis we
don't think about it that much we don't worry about it that much and we do not
have experiences on a day-to-day basis that would make us feel this sense
another way to say it is you do not like to think you're small you like to
think you're sovereign you and I we don't like to think we're small we like to
think we're sovereign but I submit to you that if you would start to like to
think you're small and you start to fear the one who's sovereign then the
fullness of joy is available to you but you and I like to think we're big when
we should think we're small we'd like to think we're sovereign we should think
we're not and therein lies the issue but one of the primary ways and at least
in my life that I feel the fact that I'm small
is through nature.
So I grew up in Southeast Texas
where there is only trees and dirt, and that's it.
I got out of there as quick as I could, I promise.
But that was just what it was.
And when I was 20 years old, I did a summer camp
that traveled the Northwest, the great Northwest,
wherever that place is, right?
And we flew into Vancouver, British Columbia,
and we did a summer camp,
and we were going to drive down to Tacoma.
You've probably been on this road.
So yeah, you're like, hey, that's Tuesday for me.
Okay, so I'm going on your Tuesday,
and we're driving, and it's great,
and I'm in the car, and we're doing some hills,
and there's rivers, and it's just, it's beautiful.
And then this moment happens,
where we crest this hill, and on the way down,
on my left, I see a little something called Mount Rainier.
And for the first, for 20 years, I'd never seen it.
And for the first time, I see that mountain.
I've seen the Rocky Mountains, and they're great,
but they're all kind of together and far away.
That mountain stands alone in terror.
And I see it, and my first thought is, what is that?
And my second thought is,
how many of you knew that existed and didn't tell me,
because I'm now mad at you?
And we're going to be not friends for a while,
because that is crazy.
What is that?
My friends are like, oh, Josh, that's a mountain.
Okay, I know that's a mountain.
What's it called?
How big is it?
Can we climb it?
Where do we get there?
Where are we going?
I think both struck terror in me,
and I wanted to get close.
Mount Rainier put into me a feeling of the fact
that I'm small.
It made me feel a fact.
In that moment, I thought, man,
who's responsible for that?
Because they're different than me.
I follow NASA on Instagram.
You should too, by the way.
But a couple months ago, I'm on Instagram,
and I'm scrolling through, and I'm like, oh, selfie, selfie.
So-and-so had coffee this morning.
So-and-so really likes to make videos.
Ooh, and I'm scrolling through cat photos, whatever.
And then all of a sudden, on my Instagram that morning,
where I'm just scrolling through at the coffee shop,
NASA posts a photo on the social media network Instagram
that is the third photo ever taken of the Earth
from the outer solar system.
So in the middle of cat photos and weird videos,
I see Earth from the outer solar system
with Saturn's rings in the foreground.
We have a picture of this I want to show you.
That's us.
You see that arrow?
The top one is Saturn, and if you've heard of it, it's a planet.
But I see that.
And listen, something happens to me.
And I recognize this, that I'm standing in a coffee shop
or whatever looking at my phone.
And on my phone, I see a photo of the Earth
that I'm sitting on.
So I'm sitting on the Earth looking at a photo of the Earth
where some astronaut told a space shuttle
to turn around and take the world's biggest selfie
of the Earth.
And now I'm looking at a selfie of the Earth,
and I'm not turning it and going, hey, guys, look
at how cool this is.
I'm in the coffee shop feeling fear,
because I'm feeling the fact that I'm small.
And I immediately go, whoa, who's in charge of that?
Are we still doing a good job?
Hanging on nothing?
Are we rotating well on nothing?
Is everybody doing well?
Can I call NASA and ask if the guy in charge is doing
what he's supposed to do in charge?
Because wherever we are right now, the sun is somewhere,
and on the other side is the moon,
and we are whipping around the sun at Mach 86,
and that is holding ourselves to the chairs right now.
Who's in charge of that?
Can I speak to them?
How are they doing at that?
So I'm going through Instagram, and I immediately
recognize I am in control of nothing,
but my puny little lame iPhone.
And there's something other happening,
and I am not like the other one.
I have my puny little coffee on my puny little phone,
my puny little coffee shop, my puny little world,
and I see a photo of a fact, and I feel this fact,
and I feel the distance between me and the one who
is this fact, and I feel small in the presence of sovereign.
In Southeast Texas, we don't have waves in the ocean,
and there's an ocean, but it's a joke.
You try to surf, you're going to be depressed,
and go home mad.
It's just not real, and so on our fifth anniversary,
my wife and I went to Hawaii, and you
stand on the beach of Hawaii where there's real waves,
and the water grips your ankles differently.
And you stand in that, and you see that,
and you feel the fact that you are small.
And Amy wants to go out there, my wife, and she's pregnant,
and I'm like, you're not getting away from me.
She's like, quit touching me.
I'm like, no, I'm afraid.
Don't let me go.
And she's like, quit being weird.
So I'm trying to be safe.
And I get the boogie board, and I do the thing,
and you get slammed into the water,
and you just get totally ragdolled,
and you're not in control.
You just hope you make it to the top.
And I see that, and I feel that fact,
and I stand on the shore of the ocean,
and I remember in Scripture in the book of Job
where it says that God scooped out the ocean with his hand,
and I realize I scoop ice cream with my hand.
And he scoops oceans with his hand, and we are different.
And he tells the ocean, this is as far as you can go,
so it's gonna go, and it's gonna come back,
because it will never be disobedient to the fact.
You can go this far, and you come back.
And right now, in Hawaii, those waves
are being obedient to a fact.
And I feel that fact, and it stirs in me.
So I'm not trying to make you feel bad,
I'm trying to make you feel a fact,
that we are being asked to work out a salvation
with fear and trembling.
We are asked to feel this fact,
because friends, the truth is,
the wind blows at the bidding of God,
the sun radiates at his word,
every star in the sky comes out at night,
because he calls them by name.
There is not a speck of dust that exists
outside of God's bidding, the world is hanging on nothing,
rotating on nothing.
And there are more galaxies and stars
that we haven't found than we have found.
Our breath in this moment is a glorious gift from God.
Our hearts right now are beating with a cadence
that God is giving him.
None of us in this room are willpowering our heart to beat.
None of us, our hearts are beating to a countdown
that God is in control of.
The rulers of the nations are in God's hands.
The future is under his control.
He is all powerful, all knowing, all sovereign.
And if you were to meet him,
if you were to come in contact with him,
if he were to be near to you
and want to show himself to you,
when you see him, you will fear him.
It's just a fact.
You'll fear him.
But oh, the joy, oh, the joy
that in that moment of your most terrifying fear,
this God, all sovereign, all knowing, all powerful,
would look back at you in your fear and say,
friend, you don't have to be afraid.
The most common command in all of the Bible
is do not be afraid.
Over 150 times in the scriptures,
God tells his people, do not be afraid.
So if you fear the Lord,
then you can trust that you don't have to fear anything
because the Lord that you fear
is the one that's with you, casting out all fear.
I need you to hear this.
Fear God is not an angry command.
Fear God is a loving invitation.
Fear God is not angry, mean, rude,
God looking down, commanding you to do something.
Fear God is a loving invitation
for your good, for your pleasure, for your future
to come under his covering.
Embrace the fear of God and then reject all other fear.
Fear God, then fear nothing.
Overcome fear with fear.
Make it the habit of your heart
to resist all fear by fearing the Lord.
Fear him, reject fear.
Have I said it enough?
If you fear him, which the fact is you will,
then if you fear him rightly,
then you have nothing to fear.
Now I guess another way to say it
is the only thing you have to fear after you fear God
is the fear of doing anything
that would ever take you away from God.
That you would say, I fear grieving him.
I am fearful that I would ever do anything
to separate me from him.
I tremble at the thought of not being
under the covering of this glorious God.
I am afraid of anything that might pull me away from God
because the fear God is to say in my heart
that he's awesome, he's powerful, he's good
and I would never run away from him.
I would only run to him.
You should fear him and be comforted by him.
You should be terrified and you should wanna touch.
That's the picture because if I fear him
then I have nothing to fear.
If he's my one fear, then I have no other fears.
I love the Chronicles of Narnia
that C.S. Lewis made Aslan a lion.
And when Lucy's talking to the beavers
and the beavers start talking about Aslan, Lucy,
the youngest one, she gets scared.
She draws near to the beavers and she says, hey, Aslan,
is he safe?
And the beavers draw back and say,
who said anything about safe?
Of course he's not safe, but he's good and he's the king.
But listen, Lucy, he's not a tame lion.
God is other than us.
We do not walk into God's office and kick our feet up
on his desk.
Jesus is not our homeboy in that sense.
And if you're still wearing that shirt,
make it a habit to stop,
because that's old, been around a while.
But he is our homeboy if we recognize the homeboy
is holy and the homeboy is terrifying.
Aslan is who we draw near to all the while going, man,
I am afraid of him and I'm afraid of being away from him.
So I want to be under his covering.
I love these pictures, but I want you to know this.
Fear is not, the fear of the Lord is not an end in itself.
The hope of all is what I'm saying to you is not,
okay, fear of the Lord, you're dismissed.
Fear is not an end in itself.
Fear is an arrow pointing to something.
Fear has a purpose.
Fear is to protect you and to cover you
and to remind you of something.
So in other words, the point of fear
is to say one thing to you.
Stay right here.
Remain right here.
The purpose of fearing the Lord
is to draw you near to the Lord
so that you would never run away.
Fear is not an end in itself.
Fear is a linchpin connecting you to remaining with Christ.
Stay close to Christ.
Well, how do we do this?
What is this about?
I want to read to you the words of Jesus in John 15,
where he shows us how to practically walk
in the fear of the Lord.
In John 15, verse one, it'll be on the screen,
but if you have your copy of scripture,
you can be with me.
15 one says, I am the true vine,
and my father is the vine dresser.
Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit,
he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit,
he prunes that he may bear more fruit.
Now, verse three, this is the gospel.
Already you are clean, verse three.
You're not dirty anymore.
Already you're clean because of the word
that I've spoken to you.
So remain in me.
Your translation may say abide,
which is a great word we should use more,
but we don't, so we're gonna use remain.
Remain in me and I in you.
Now that you're in, make it your life effort to stay in,
as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself
unless it remains in the vine.
Neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine and you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him,
he is the one that bears much fruit.
For apart from me, listen to this, you can do nothing.
You can do nothing apart from me, he says.
If you go the other way, then you have a lot to fear.
If you run the other way, you have a lot to fear,
and so I've gotta keep reading the Bible to you
and you're not gonna like verse six.
But by the way, this is Jesus's word,
it's not Josh's word, so be mad at Jesus, okay?
Be mad at me too, that's great.
I'm going with Jesus on this one.
Verse six says, if anyone does not abide in me,
anyone does not remain in me.
If all they wanna do is run.
If all they wanna do is get out of here,
and they wanna use me, and they wanna leverage me,
but they don't ever wanna give me their heart.
They were never really in, they just wanted to play.
If all they ever do is wanna run away,
then verse six says, if anyone does not remain in me,
he is thrown away like a branch and he withers.
And the branches are gathered
and they are thrown into the fire and they are burned.
So friends, you have a lot to fear if you run.
And Jesus is loving you enough to tell you that.
But the beauty of fearing God is that you fear him
because he loves you and that you would never do anything
to run from him.
You were made alive by Christ,
now remain in Christ to stay alive.
The habit of your heart is, I've been made alive,
I must remain to stay alive.
And I fear anything that would keep me from remaining.
Two big ideas, one principle.
I fear the Lord, so I wanna remain in the Lord.
I love in the Bible when someone does something wrong,
all of the saints show up,
and even if it's a saint that did something wrong,
and they say, don't you fear God, what have you done?
Can you imagine going into someone's dorm room
after they did something wrong
and just busting open the door going, don't you fear God?
Why don't we talk like that anymore, that's awesome.
I think what if our villages had these moments of like,
don't you fear God, what are you doing?
You're not remaining, are you serious?
That's not who you are.
I know you did some stuff wrong,
but I'm not talking about what you did,
I'm saying, don't you fear God, why aren't you remaining?
Are you really gonna run the other way?
Don't you fear God?
Because if you come under his protection
and you have nothing to fear,
but if you run out from under his protection
for the long haul, then friend lovingly,
verse six of John 15 says you have a lot to fear.
So you have to choose what fear you're gonna go for here.
I think there's a problem in some of this.
Here's what I think the problem is.
You and I, whether you've been a Christian
in a long time or you've been a Christian for a few weeks,
here's if we're not careful,
here's what remain in me in the Christian world is.
You ready?
You're a Christian, so here's what you should do.
Every morning, and by the way, do this,
because it's great, but here's the compartmentalization
of remain in me is killing us as Christians.
Remain in me is pray and read the Bible.
That's what you're told, that's what I'm told.
That's a great thing to be told. You should do that.
But what happens in that is you think
that is the primary slash only way that you remain
is whether or not I got a check on my checklist
of praying and reading the Bible.
And then also I go to two meetings a week.
I go to Village, which every one of you should go to Village.
Amen. Yes, we should preach it.
We should say go to Village and also come to church
where we sing and someone raises their voice towards us.
Okay, so those are the two, I do two events a week
and I pray and read the Bible.
So I did the math.
There are, let's pretend you're awake 16 hours a day,
which you should only be awake 16 hours a day.
FYI.
Okay, we'll move on.
Get some sleep, people.
Okay, so if you're awake for 16 hours a day,
that's 960 minutes.
So let's say you spend 46 minutes
praying and reading the Bible.
46 minutes, which I would say is very generous.
Okay, so 46 minutes praying and reading the Bible.
That is less than 5% of your day.
So in the 5% of your day you pray and read the Bible,
then you just go out to two events a week.
So abiding in Christ has been compartmentalized
into five minutes a day and then I go out to two events a day.
But what if I were to tell you that the other 95%
was to be empowered by the 5%
so that you might know this God,
you might be an informed worshiper,
you might be in communion with this God,
and in the morning when you meet with Him or at night
when you meet with Him,
that pushes you into the 95% of your life.
So the other 95,
you ask, what do I do with the other 95?
The other 95 is intended
for you to cultivate your habits
so that you remain
in Christ while walking in the fear of the Lord.
The other 95% of your life,
the whole of the Christian life
as you and I would go to class,
go to work, go to the coffee shop,
go through life, go on vacation,
remaining in Christ under the fear of the Lord
that this 95% would be a holistic experience.
You cannot compartmentalize this into nothing
because God knows
that the fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of wisdom,
the fear of the Lord is also
how wisdom works itself out in day-to-day life.
So the question is if you want to be wise with your new heart,
if you want to be wise with it,
then you remain in Christ.
What you began with is also what you end with
that the fear of the Lord would be what you walk in
day by day by day.
And here's the primary reason that's important
because God knows if you get around Jesus
you will become like Jesus.
Get around Him in the Word.
Walk with Him on the way to class,
praying, seeking Him, cultivating habits.
You reject temptation.
You walk in the fear of the Lord,
remaining in Christ.
If you remain in Christ, you will become like Christ.
And there's nothing God wants more for you
than you to become like Christ
because if you become like Christ,
you walk in the fullness of joy.
You walk in the fullness of pleasure.
You walk with confidence.
And if you become like Christ,
then you are walking the way that God has asked you to walk.
But I know life gets busy.
I know this is hard.
In my marriage, life gets busy.
I remember just a couple of weeks ago,
I was in Atlanta for a few days and then I came back.
I ran into the house and I had like 30 minutes
before I needed to shower and shave.
Not that I need to shave, but you know,
I'm just going to say that.
So shower and shave,
and then I had to go be somewhere at the office.
And so I run in.
I kiss my life.
Hey, love you.
I haven't seen you.
And she's telling me kind of what's been going on
and why'd you leave your clothes on the floor again,
that whole thing.
But it's just a quick conversation.
I love you and I'm out, right?
And that's not really remaining.
That's busyness of life.
But remember Hawaii when I told you about the waves
that are crushing us and the water
that grips my feet aggressively.
My wife and I spent every minute
of every day together for eight days.
We got up early and watched the sunrise.
We walked on the beach.
We went to breakfast and overpaid for the hotel breakfast
and did the whole thing.
And we were around each other so much.
We remained in each other so much
that at some points in that week,
I thought that I could tell you
what my wife was thinking.
And maybe she could tell you what I was thinking.
And we remained in each other.
And there was a unique difference between
hustling home, I love you, and remaining in her.
And if that is true in a simple little marriage picture,
how much more so is that true
for the holistic picture of your life
of walking with Jesus?
Are you living on fast food, Jesus?
Are you hustling through the drive-thru
saying I love you day after day after day,
all the while spending the 95% of your time
absent and not interested,
but trying to spend the 4% or 5% hustling through?
So the question is, are you remaining in Christ
under the fear of the Lord?
So I have times with Christ where I just,
I get on, I drive in the summertime,
I drive Drew's moped because Drew's out of town,
so I drive a moped, ha ha ha, and it's awesome.
So drive a moped down to the Snake River
and just sit with the Bible and say,
man, Lord, I want to meet with you.
There's no cell phone reception down there, I love it.
And there's times where you should go out for a weekend.
You should go on walks with Jesus.
You should put away your Instagram and try to find Jesus.
You should be walking and remaining in Jesus.
You should have people in your life that are pushing you
to be like Jesus.
Do not conform to 5% of your life
being the whole of your Christian walk.
Reject that and remain in Christ in the day-to-day life.
Remain in Him. Every situation you walk in, remain in Him.
Every scenario you find yourself in, remain in Him.
And when temptation comes for your heart,
reject it in light of the fear of the Lord.
I fear what God might think if I were to do this.
And I fear that this might keep me from remaining in Christ.
And that's the only fear I have in all of life.
So I don't fear man, I don't fear your approval,
I don't fear anything but God.
So would you remain in Christ as He remains in you?
Would you reject spiritual fast food so that you might remain?
I want to close by saying this.
If we're not careful as you've listened,
you might think this.
You might think that I've given you another to-do list.
You might think, OK, Josh, so what I have in my notes so far,
if we're clear, is I should fear God.
And if I don't remain with Jesus,
then God is going to crush me, in other words.
So if I walk with Jesus faithfully,
then I can be OK with God.
God's still kind of mad, still kind of scary,
so I have to be obedient to Jesus so that God doesn't crush me
because He wants me to fear Him.
And you said, if I stay with Jesus, then I cannot fear God.
And so in your notes, you may have this as
if I need to do things for God or He's going to crush me.
If I don't do stuff for God, He's going to crush me.
And I want to say this as plainly as I can.
The beauty of the gospel is not that God's going to crush you
if you don't follow Jesus.
The beauty of the gospel is God didn't crush you.
And now allows you to walk with Jesus as the fullness of joy.
And if you don't take that opportunity,
then I want to plead with you to take it because, listen to me,
you do not have to fear God and follow Jesus.
You get to fear God and follow Jesus.
Oh, the joy that when He looks at you and you're afraid,
He says, friend, don't be afraid.
You do not have to think God's going to crush me
if I don't follow Christ.
Rather, you think praise God.
He did not crush me and gave me the fullness of joy
in a new heart that has new desires,
that doesn't care about the things I used to care about.
And now I get to follow Jesus.
You don't have to.
You get to.
What a joy that your new heart gets to fear the Lord
and gets to fear nothing.
That your new heart gets to fear the Lord and follow Jesus.
And you don't have to fear God and follow the world.
You get to fear God and follow Jesus.
That is the fullness of joy.
That is the fullness of pleasure.
Because in the end, what I'm talking about in all of this
is that this glorious, terrifying God loves you so much
that he could not imagine leaving you on your own.
So he brought you in under his covering,
and he is a God to be feared,
and Christ is a God to be followed.
But that is good news.
That is not something else on your to-do list.
You do not have to do this.
You get to do this.
So I want to invite you.
As we continue in worship,
if you're afraid here today,
and I want you not to be afraid,
but rather to be fearful of the right thing,
and if you're not afraid here today,
then I want to plead with you
that the beginning of wisdom is fearing the Lord
and knowing who Christ is.
So as we continue in worship,
in this little moment we're having here,
I want to invite you just right where you are,
just about your heads,
and I'm going to pray over you, and the band's going to come out.
Father, I pray that in this moment,
I've got to pray that we would experience you
in this moment in a powerful way.
Lord, in this I think about Moses in the Old Testament,
how Moses looked at you and said,
Show me your glory.
And God, in some ways, you look back at Moses
and you said,
Moses, you do not know what you're asking.
That is not possible.
But nonetheless, you still showed Moses
a part of your glory.
And so God, in this moment,
I pray that same thing over us.
I pray that you would show us your glory.
God, you would show us your glory
in a way that makes us scared.
And in that fear, God, it would stir up in us.
In that moment of fear, seeing your glory,
it would stir in us up a passion for worship.
God, it would stir up in us a passion
to respond to your love.
God, that you are all powerful, but you love us.
You crazy love us.
You give your son to show your love for us.
You invite us to come under your covering
because you love us.
You invite us to fear you because you love us.
You give us Christ to follow because you love us.
You gave us a new heart because you love us.
God, your love for us should make us respond.
So God, I pray that this, in this moment,
we would respond to your love.
And we would respond with fear and with trembling.
But because of Christ, we would also respond
with incredible confidence.
Not pride, but confidence.
Well, we love you.
We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
