Dan Stipp gave today's message on revering, fearing, and loving God. The primary passage used was Deuteronomy 5-6. This passage records Moses retelling how the Israelites received the Ten Commandments and recounts how they cowered under the mountain when God revealed his glory to them through cloud and fire and lightning and earthquakes and a sound like a the blast of trumpets. The people cowered in fear because God demonstrated his glory in such a way as to cause the Israelites to fear. They feared so much that they begged that God wouldn't do it again, but would simply speak to Moses, who could then tell them what God had to say.
Dan started with a short testimony sharing that he'd learned a few "foundational truths" about God early in his Christian life that had helped, even if imperfectly, to live a "Christian life that avoids frustration." His first point was that loving God requires reverence. He then told the story of God demonstrating his glory and the Israelites cowering in fear. God's response was, "Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me..." (Deuteronomy 5:29) To revere God means to fear Him. He went on to say that to fear God is to love him. As Jesus said (quoting Deuteronomy 6:5) was the greatest command, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength." (Mark 12:30)
Dan moved from here to his second point, "Loving God requires more than an inner change of heart, but it requires obedience." Continuing Deutoronomy 5:29, we read, "...and keep all My commandments always..." Similarly, Jesus said in John 14:15,21, "If you love me, you will obey what I command...Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me..." We then broke into a time of testimony and sharing and a number of folks stood up and shared.
Of all those who shared, one stood out for me. A gal Terri and I know and love in Christ, stood and shared how she was broken over the fact that a dear friend of hers had fallen away from the church because the people of the church weren't loving her in the way she thought they should if they were really Christians. Her point was that it's important that Christians know that while we revere God and such reverence is important, we should be aware that God doesn't promise to make our lives happy and wonderful, if we do. In fact, Jesus generally promised the opposite.
Which brings me to the real question I have on the topic. Why should I reverence, fear, love, and obey God? God doesn't promise me anything in return until after I die and even then, why is heaven such a great place anyway? I mean, if heaven is supposed to be the place we live forever and spend the whole time basking in the glory of God, why would I want that? Why is God so scary anyway? What's He done that deserves my love and reverence? Why shouldn't I spend my time indulging my whim and enjoying what I can while I'm young? Why should I bother obeying Him rather than just doing what I want?
I think this was rather well answered in another sermon I listened to today from Grace Bible Church in Hutchinson: God's grace. Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and in Romans 3:9, "for we have already charged that...all are under sin." It comes down to this, we have nothing of worth to offer God. Our works amount to nothing. We can try to be "good people," but we aren't good people. Yet, "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) For those familiar with the GNU terminology of "free," this is "free" as in "free beer." God has offered grace to his chosen people even though we don't deserve it. "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flash but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3)
Therefore, the answer to all the above questions is. Christians revere, fear, love, and obey God because His grace has made us able to do so. Furthermore, now that we are able to do so through the Spirit, we want to do so because He is worthy of those things. He would be worthy of it even if He chose not to deliver us. We should want to do these things all the more because He did deliver us.
I don't think I need to say more. Amen.
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