Amen. Well, if you turn in the book of Samuel, first Samuel, we'll be looking at chapter 12 this morning. First Samuel, chapter 12, we'll start in verse 12 and go through the end of the chapter, verse 25. Last time we saw how God in his goodness would have us to walk in repentance before him. For our good, for our blessing, repentance is a good word. It's a grace, it's a gift. God is always at work in the lives of his people for our good. We need to recognize that. And that's what I wanted to preach last time that even, you know, especially we could see it right in the pleasurable, joyful times, but also God is at work for our good in the painful, in the sorrowful times. We have to believe that and hold on to it. Even if real evils come upon you and they do, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you can know that in the midst of injustice or abuse or persecution or even things like sickness and pain, even the hateful attacks of Satan himself, God would bring good to us through them. Do you believe that today? The God is over all those things that he can bring good through those things into your life and that believing in God's goodness to you. No matter what's happening is the key to repentance. And we saw that last week. While this morning's passage focuses on another crucial and necessary grace in the life of believers, another one that maybe we don't like to think about, but I hope that changes. If it hasn't already, I hope you grow stronger in it. And that is the incomparable benefits of fearing God. I was going to call this sermon and you understand why I didn't because I can't even say it. The incomparable benefits of fearing God actually was afraid it wouldn't fit on the sign at the end of the road. That big, long word, incomparable. But that's what I was thinking about calling it. The incomparable benefits of fearing God. We should want to fear God. Three times in our text were exhorted twice by way of command, once by way of positive example of the benefits and the blessing of fearing God. One time in the text were told not to be afraid. So what is the fear of God and how does it differ from sinful fear? I think that's what we see in our text this morning. Let's pray as we turn to God's word, Father. Again, we just want to pause for a moment and pray because unless your spirit ministers to us, we can understand this word perfectly in our minds and it won't do us a lick of good. So send your spirit with your word into our hearts that we would believe, that we would repent, that we would grow in our obedience and in our love for you, that we would see those things are married because if we love you, we will keep your commandments. So bless us with a fear of you, Lord, to that end for your glory and for our joy. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Here now the word of the Lord from 1 Samuel, chapter 12, beginning in verse 12, this is God's Holy Word. And when you saw that Nay has king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired and take note the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you. You will continue following the Lord your God. However, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is today not the weak harvest? I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord and asking for a king for yourselves. So Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rained that day and the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel and all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die. For we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves. Then Samuel said to the people, do not fear you have done all this wickedness yet do not turn aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart and do not turn aside. For then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver for their nothing. For the Lord will not forsake his people. For his great name's sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover ask for me far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you but if you still do wickedly you shall be swept away both you and your king. May the Lord establish this word in our hearts this morning and pray. I want you to notice first of all this morning fear of the Lord is the first step in following him. Fear of the Lord is the first step in following him. You know scripture often describes the life of the believer as following God right as going down a path and we want to go down the smooth path and we don't want to stumble in the path and we don't want to turn aside into the wrong path and we see that all the time. In fact when Jesus was calling disciples what did he say but follow me follow me as I go down the path and and and walk down this path I want you to walk with me follow me that's the way in which scripture describes the Christian life that we are to be those who follow God and that really is the blessing that we saw last time in verse 14 where it says if you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord then both you and the king who reigns over you will follow will continue to follow the Lord your God and some of the translations they don't know what to do with that they say and it will be well I think one or two add you know if you will continue to follow and it will be well they want to put something good in there but the goodness is the following God you don't need to add anything to the Hebrew text because that is the good thing you will follow God what more could there be then continue to live the Christian life continue to live the life of faith continue to walk after the Lord to be in the center of God's will that is exactly the blessing you will follow God you couldn't have a better blessing than that because off of the path is what hardship pain and judgment and that's what he brings out in verse 15 however if you do not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers now there's a little issue there the if you have an ESV it actually says as it and it will be against your king I believe right says against your king that's because the ESV is following the Septuagint and the Septuagint wants to put the king in there because the Septuagint translators really there are a lot like modern translators they see the text and they say that can't be right and then they change it I mean the Septuagint is a good witness but it's it's not the Hebrew they Hebrew scholars would never have done that the reason why they do that is it literally says it will be against you and against your fathers all right and you sort of read that and you say how can it be against the fathers when they're already dead you know and so forth but what the word of God is saying there it doesn't even have to say as the new king James does as it was it adds the word was you know it's trying to make sense it just says as it will be against you and it will be against your fathers in other words you can't presume upon the grace of God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob because God's hand will be against you and in the sense it'll be against them in you if you if you turn away from him if you rebel don't presume upon that but fear the Lord that's why the first step right if you fear the Lord verse 14 you could translate it this way if you fear the Lord well then you will serve him if you truly fear the Lord then you will serve him and if you serve him then you will obey him and if you truly obey him then you will not rebel against the commandment to the Lord but you see how it all begins with the right fear of God that's why the first thing is if you fear the Lord Samuel wants the people to fear the Lord do we have a lot of that today do we hear that being talked about today you know what I really need in my life I need to fear God more I don't think people say that I was listening to the radio the other day and they said I don't know I'm gonna have probably too much fun with this but I'll try to you know tone it down a little bit but they said the word for the day is awesome I'm not making this up the word for the day is awesome you are awesome this is what the radio is telling me and I thought well I already know that you know of course I'm awesome you know we all think that about ourselves and then they read it the scripture they read some verses from first Peter and it had a bunch of commandments you know you're supposed to do this this this and then they say at the end of the verse at the end of like three verses that they read about the verses in Peter you know you must do this you must do this because the Lord is this and then it said see you're awesome and I thought did you just listen to what you read it had nothing to do with my awesomeness or the lack thereof and yet that was the word for the day and you know why they do that they think there's this theory that good that is just captured most of the church today that if we just tell people how awesome they are and make them feel really good why they'll be better Christians and that's the way to do it give people this super positive you know give them that you know what they want to hear minimize the sin maximize the awesomeness I told you I was gonna have fun with this the awesomeness that we all are I used to drive me crazy I'm for Danny can relate to this I would go to these youth events and the speakers would get up there and just talked about the kids you kids are so awesome you're on fire for the Lord and they do this for a while and I'm thinking do you think you're helping the kids by telling them this you really think that is the thing I mean where do we see that inscription show me in scripture where Jesus preaches you're awesome I mean somebody come up to me I have a red letter Bible come up to me after the service if you you know show me the passage where Jesus is telling people how awesome they are and that was the way to get them to be better followers of God I you know it just it it would be funny if it wasn't so sad that they really think this is the thing they're they're being faithful to the word of God the Bible says God's hand will be against you if you try for with him not one moment that's Israel and you know they were related to God by works this is how we you know get rid of verses like this no that's not the case they were related to God by grace they've just been saved from a terrible sin I'm asking for a king God bless them anyway and God's telling them if they don't obey him he's gonna turn his hand against them and that same language is used in the New Testament I read you last time first Peter chapter three where it talks about for who would love life and see good days that's what we want right we want to love life and scripture saying yes sure you want that well then what refrain your tongue from evil your lips from speaking to see and the whole passage goes on and it ends like this for the face of the Lord not just his hand the face of the Lord is against those who do evil the New Testament says to Christians because that's who Peter's writing to that's what we need to remember is Christians God will turn his face against us three times in the book of Revelation when Jesus is writing you know sending the the messengers to the churches one that we have the the seven letters to the seven churches three times Jesus says but I have this against you to the churches I have this against you and then he talks about what they were doing and what he was going to do if they didn't repent that's what Jesus told the people beloved we need a fear of God that would keep us from turning against him because we would recognize that he will turn against us and yes if you're a saved person if you're an elect person you're not going to be cast off he's not going to do that to throw you into hell he's going to do that to bring you back as we read and that's why I picked the passage from Hebrews God's chasinging God will chasing you and it will be painful and you won't like it and it will save you and it will be used by God to save you but it's sort of like I was thinking about this it's sort of like open heart surgery right I have a sister-in-law who's had to have open heart surgery multiple times and then you break the breastbone you know really difficult thing to heal from painful you can't move for you know a long time and you feel it and you know praise God it saves your life she was able to have open heart surgery and if you're in that situation where you need open heart surgery you're thankful for it and I think as Christians we should be thankful for the chastening of the Lord right brings us back but I would rather not have open heart surgery if I have a choice I would rather not and I think that's the way we should look at God's chasing and I think that's why we have passages like this where he's saying look follow the Lord and you'll follow him turn away from the Lord and his hands going to be against you and you don't want that and I think that's an incentive for us and we don't want to lose that incentive the Bible doesn't say minimize your sin but it says maximize it I want to notice this look at my second point here is fear of the Lord comes from seeing the great evil of our sins I think this is why we don't fear the Lord fear of the Lord comes from seeing the great evil of our sins a really interesting thing happens in our text a wonderful thing really a miracle you see it begin in verse 16 look at verse 16 now therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes I wish you could see the Hebrew for this text because four times in this verse verse 16 you get the second person plural pronoun it's the word Juns you know I love doing this the word Juns that's what you know it Pittsburgh corrects it's more like the Hebrew it has a second person plural we know you as singular Juns is plural right four times it says this literally now therefore Juns stand yourselves and Juns see this great thing which the Lord will do before and this is my favorite one Juns is the possessive second person plural that's the Juns is but what you know what's going on there Samuel is calling the people you got to really pay attention to this that's why he keeps saying you you you four times listen listen watch something's going to happen here and he does this miracle and it's a natural miracle in a sense it's thunderstorms happen right it is the wheat harvest that's the dry season so it would be very unusual but not impossible fourth thunderstorm to happen why is it a miracle because Samuel says it's going to happen and it's going to happen when I pray for it and that's what makes it miraculous it would be like me saying in March in Pittsburgh I'm going to pray and God's going to send sunshine in no clouds and you guys know in March in Pittsburgh that would be a miracle and that's in effect what Samuel does and he prays and they get this storm and what is the purpose of the storm we don't you know the miraculous supernatural thunderstorm Samuel tells us why verse 17 is today not the wheat harvest I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain in order that that you may perceive and see literally that you may know and see Hebrew that you may know and see what that your wickedness is great in the side of the Lord in asking for a king well wait a minute there's nothing wrong in asking for a king do you want to me 17 said they would ask for a king and that they would set a king over themselves when we looked at that already they could say hey we're just doing scripture said what wasn't in the outward it was what was in their heart they were asking for a king as scripture's already told us because they didn't want God as king and that's why it was great their wickedness was great and why does Samuel want them to see that because they asked for a king with sinful motives God gave them a king and their king has just delivered them and and they just had a great great big celebration for that when rightly so because it was God that delivered them and even Saul said the Lord has delivered you this day and Saul gave the glory to God and all that's good except right now because that has happened what are you tempted to do as an israelite hey we rejected God as king and it's great we just got victory over the amonites we just won this great battle maybe we should reject God in other areas of our lives I mean you know whether or not that's going to be what's going through your head the fact of the matter is they had to they had to be reminded that what they did was a great wickedness in the side of the Lord and so much so that Samuel does a miracle to bring the conviction of sin that's how important it is this is supernatural conviction of sin how the scripture wants us to see that our sin is great because we are so tempted too right to trust in the outward I think this is the thing today you know I've read a lot on the church growth movement and that's the biggest sort of prize in the church growth movement is what it's growth if you can get more people in the building than that's a good thing and it's the end justifies the means and it really doesn't matter how I mean within reason you know they're not saying put slot machines in the foyer but maybe that's coming next I don't know it brings the people in maybe you can justify it but that really is the the golden ring the brass ring it's whatever brings the people in and then you know the whole seeker sensitive movement all of that stuff was well we got it you know why don't we preach against you know preach the word more clearly well we don't want to say things that all offend people and and everything's driven by what will bring more people in with the rationale of what well then they'll hear the gospel and then they'll be changed and what will they hear well they'll hear a less of the gospel because we'll keep toning it down and we want more people to come in so we got to turn it down and they're sort of recognizing that maybe the problem is the gospel and some of them even get rid of that right and they're not even preaching the word anymore but the problem is again the outward thing it's not bad to have people we want people to come that's good and there are many things that we can do outwardly that are good but what God wants is the heart and you can't draw near to God while they're sin in your heart and God's not going to settle for anything less from you that's how much he loves you the conviction doesn't come because God hates you doesn't come because God likes to make people feel bad it's because we need to feel bad to get rid of the sin to rightly draw near to God and if I sat here and said you know what God loves you just the way you are and just go out there and do whatever you want and God loves you and it doesn't matter I'm not going to be doing you any favors and I'm not going to be preaching to you the way Samuel the way Moses and the way Jesus did we've got to get rid of this idea that what God wants is for us to be happy and not holy God wants us to be happy but it's because we've been made holy and so I don't want to deny that yes there's the good sure we want to be happy but we need to be happy and in being saved from sin and turning from sin and so what happens here verse 18 Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel when you believe there are commentators to say well that didn't work there are commentators you say this is bad oh now they're afraid of God and that's bad and Sam has got to correct that no this is what Samuel was telling them didn't he just say it in verse 14 if you fear the Lord I'm going to do this great miracle so you see how bad your sin is and then it says they feared the Lord it worked they were supposed to fear God and they were supposed to honor God's prophet you know it's only when we only when we really begin to see the promise of our sins that we really will trust in God alone because there won't be anything here right there's nothing here now when I see that my sin is worse than I think it is if I'm a believer then I'll believe in God more because there's nothing here there's nothing here that's going to give me confidence so the fear of the Lord comes from seeing the great evil over sins thirdly the fear of the Lord drives us to Christ that's how to tell the good fear from the bad fear right the fear of the Lord drives us to Christ I want you to look at verse 19 and all the people said to Samuel this is I think this is the highlight of the text from the people's perspective from God from what God does it's going to be different verse but from what God does in the people maybe I say it that way verse 19 and all the people said to Samuel it's one of the best moments in Israel's history pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die because we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves they get it they didn't they're admitting it they know they deserve to die they know they're only hoping not dying is in God's appointed mediator to pray for them and of course at this stage in Israel's history that's what they needed if you go back I don't do this a lot but I'm going to actually ask you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter five turn to Deuteronomy chapter five I want you to see this because this concept of mediation is so important because this is how we see this text driving us to Christ the people say to Samuel you pray for the Lord for us why is that a good thing because that's exactly what they were supposed to do they were supposed to go to God's appointed mediator remember we're dealing at a time in God's people's history where they couldn't come to God in worship like we do they had to go to a temple and they had to bring an animal and kill it and they had to have a priest do it and the priest were you know the priest was there to mediate because of God's holiness and they had to be taught that for a thousand years until Christ came and what tears the veil and now we don't need a priest I'm not a priest we don't need a priest we all worship God you worship God holy spirits in you and that great benefit has come about because of Christ coming and and bringing to fruition a lot of the promises but look back at Deuteronomy five beginning in verse 23 because here we're 39 years into the Exodus okay they're they're just about to go into the promised land and Moses is reminding them of what happened 39 years earlier so I'll put it in context 39 years earlier they were about to enter they just left Egypt they get to Mount Sinai and God gave them the Ten Commandments if you remember what happened when God gave them the Ten Commandments beginning in verse 23 Moses is going to remind them because he wants to put them in this frame of mind because it was good okay verse 23 so it was when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness remember Mount Sinai dark smoking fiery earthquake all of that trumpets while the mountain was burning with fire that you came near to me all the heads of your tribes and your elders and you said surely the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his greatness and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire we have seen this day that God speaks with man yet he still lives now therefore why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more than we we will die for who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire as we have and they've done listen to this next part you go near Moses and you hear all that the Lord our God may say and you tell us you go tell us and hear and then you come back and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you and we will hear and do it what do you think God thinks about that this idea of Moses going between God and the people who's God going to say oh you know you you guys are wrong you're afraid of me and this is bad and what is what does God say then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you listen to this they are right in all that they have spoken and this is why I named the sermon when I named it oh that they had such a heart oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments then it would be well with them and with their children forever which is what God would have how does it enjoy chasing his people but do you see that this is one of the few places in scripture where God as it were anthropomorphically is said too long to wistfully say something oh that it would just be this way you so what God could make it this way yes he could but he would have it that we would just do that on our own that we would want to yes God's grace comes and and and we are to work with that grace and all of that and I don't want to go into that but God looks at his people and say oh they would just fear me it's sort of like Jesus and remember when he's coming to Jerusalem the last time and he weeps over the city and he says oh Jerusalem Jerusalem you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you if only I could gather you as a hen gathers your chicks under my wings if only I could but you're not willing you're not well yes God will make his people willing by his grace blah blah blah but we ought to be ashamed of that we ought to want to to draw near we ought to want to draw near and that's the point here oh oh that you would want to and you see when God's conviction comes on his people they want that mediator that one to go between them and God because they recognize that they can't come near him and that's the point of it because that's what Jesus is right he's our mediator who goes between us and God and they have Samuel praying for them notice Samus says here more over ask for me far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you I'm your mediator I'll continue to mediate we have Jesus now right what's he doing praying for us at the right hand of God a better mediator Jesus who doesn't bring animal blood over and over again brings his own blood praying for us this is the way in which we should be driven to him though by seeing that we need him by seeing how great our sin is so that we would look at Christ more and have more confidence in and that's what this does this conviction of sin causes the people of God to cry out to Samuel you go to the Lord and you pray for us because we deserve to die and if your sin can only do that more in your life to drive you to Christ that's what God would have it to do to say oh Lord Jesus cry out to the Lord for me that I'd be forgiven go to the that we would be driven to the mediator the mediation of Christ that our sins would cause us to draw close to him because if we would turn aside what happens don't turn aside after the empty things what happens when we start to look at anything else or if the fear this fear of God that would drive us away from God right we need to have the fear that says yes Lord I want you to see my heart you know sort of like just ripping up in your chest and in all the ugliness knowing that God alone can take it away because what happens is if we start to look at the outward we start to think that maybe God isn't gonna you know forgive us then we start to think well we need somebody else to help us like the Israelites did well the airmenites were coming God was a king but now they need a human king or Samuel said if you turn aside what happens if you turn aside you'll go after empty things and they won't help you they won't profit you there's nothing else that's what we need to see the fear of the Lord should cause us to see there's no other way there's only Jesus he's the only one who can take away my sin and that we would see that God is doing that for our good I think that's the point of verse 24 only fear the Lord and serve him in truth don't lie don't think you can hide it that's turning aside that's the very thing that would keep us from God if we start to think that oh I don't want to show God this sin no that's the very thing you should what what happens if you say well pastor you know I want to pray but you know I don't feel like praying or or when I start to pray I start to think things and then I feel bad then tell God that immediately tell him that Lord even as I pray to you right now I don't really want to do this I'm so you know confess that you can't lose with God just continue to show him because he's done good things for you that's the point of verse 24 again only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you we're all here today right because of what God has done in our lives he saved you from sin he's given you all that you have he's done good in your life you don't need to fear that he's going to cast you off if he really sees how bad you are he does right he knows and we don't want to turn after anything else because as soon as we start to think that way we think there's something else we can do there's something else we can turn to we can't go to God he's not on our side on this one we've got to find another way and this is the really the danger of hypocrisy if you think about hypocrisy is a sin that can only tempt Christians because you can't be tempted to be hypocrite if you don't believe right but if we believe in God and we know He's our Savior and then we start to think well we gotta we gotta rely on ourselves at some level and we should be driven back to the promise right if we keep our heart before God I mean I think the temptation is well if I open my heart before God you know he's a hard God and he's gonna say well you've sinned and I don't want to hear that I want to hear how awesome I am right that's what I want to hear and yet that's the only way to be healed if God yes God is going to show us our sin but that we could give it to him and that it would be wiped away this is the promise of 1st John 189 if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves in the truth isn't in us and we have to worship God notice 1st 24 in truth fear the Lord serve him in truth it's gotta be true you can't come up you know hiding things and if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves the truth is not in us notice present tense if we say this is all of us right now there are no perfect Christians we all have sin right now in our hearts if we say that we have not sin we make him a liar and his word is not in us but if we confess our sins he is faithful in us to forgive us our sins and declines us from all unrighteousness in a right fear of God will do that why fourthly and last year right fear of God will cause us to trust only in Christ a right fear of God will cause us to trust only in Christ why is that the case because of verse 22 I think we're tempted as I said to hide our sin to try to minimize it to try to say we're doing better to somehow get God to look at us because of what we've done and this is where this great conviction needs to come in so that we continue to worship God rightly and this is the promise that will help you to do that and this is something we have to get a hold of and this is good because this is a really really reformed doctrine that we reform people should grab a hold of and actually believe it to the point that it changes us for the Lord will not forsake his people for his name sake for his great name sake because it is please the Lord to make you his people now you say how does that help me as I go to God the people are right in saying we've done this great wickedness Samuel pray for us you know we that we won't die Samuel says what do not fear you you have done all this wickedness don't minimize your sin that's the temptation you have done it but don't be afraid don't be afraid to bring it to God bring it to God continue to follow him confess your sin and follow him from there why and then he says twice don't turn aside don't turn aside verse 20 verse 21 the end don't turn aside don't turn aside then verse 22 because here's why the Lord will not forsake his people he's not going to do that for his great name sake do you realize that God's honor is at stake in your salvation that God's honor is at stake that if God doesn't save you then creation can say you know I'm going to pick on Dale since he's right here you know God wasn't able to save Dale his sin was too great he promised he elected him he chose him he gave him faith in repentance but he wasn't able to do that because God has put his name upon Dale Baker and he's put his name upon every Christian who truly is a Christian he's put his name on you his honors at stake that's why he'll do it that's why it says for his great name sake he's put his name upon you how can he let you not be saved it has pleased the Lord to make you as people you see that this part it's not because you did something it's not because oh well you know you you you obeyed in some way or another or you pray to write kind of prayer or you did something that's what got you saved no no no it's the Lord's good pleasure and that is the the ultimate promise because if it pleased the Lord to do it and if it wasn't that he looked down the quarters of time and saw that you would make the right decision under the right circumstances and that's why he chose you know if he just chose you when he looked down the quarters of time and saw you would never choose him but he chose you to give you a different heart that would choose him if it's that then there's nothing in you that would cause God to change because he did there wasn't anything there wasn't in you anything that caused him to choose you if it's just his good pleasure that you're hoping in then there would be no reason for you to ever fear that a sin would cause God to cast you off and that the fear of God ought to bring you closer to him you know when I was a kid I got into a lot of trouble and there were a lot of things that I didn't do and it really came down to you know Robin and I were talking about this it came down to you know in her life it was I mean I mean I mean her family where they raised them as Christians and so forth we were raised to do the right thing but I don't know I just didn't but the reason why I didn't do a lot of the things my buddies were doing was because of my fear of my father and it wasn't that I was afraid my dad would cast me off no it wasn't that at all and it wasn't that I was afraid of his punishments though I was remember one time I came and I'm not gonna go do it but I don't want to tell an illustration about an illustration that's a little bit too crazy but anyway I was afraid of disappointing him I was afraid of shaving him I didn't want to do that there were certain things okay I felt like I could you know continue to party and you know do these things and then what happened was there was one particular fellow as I was getting older and you know sin leads to more sin and I started to get into more trouble and there was a particular fellow who I got into a lot of trouble with and my dad said to me I want you to stay away from this guy he's bad news and when he got back from the army he was he was different he was like just always like his girl left him for a couple of years he finds out a week before he gets back that she met someone else and he was just ready to fight and do all kind of stuff and so what turned into like chasing girls and drinking turned into chasing girls and drinking and fighting with guys and then it turned into checking girls drinking and fighting with guys and racing cars and wrecking cars and then it turned into doing all that and stealing stuff you know getting souvenirs from wherever we were that's what we would call it let's get a souvenir from this place so it's still stuff and then it turned into vandalism and we would destroy stuff and it just kept getting worse and worse and then I'd stay out later and later and I'd stay out all night sometimes and and the fear of my father and disappointing him seemed to get less and less and I continued to to go out with this fella and you know it's just sort of like when we were together it was bad you know I'm probably sure I made him be worse and he definitely made me worse and we just kept doing more and more evil and then as I've given you my testimony before you know this is the fellow that I was in the accident with I don't know if I ever mentioned before though my I remember my dad telling me do not and he didn't really do this when I got into the late teenage years and when I was 20 but he told me do not I don't want you hanging around with that kid anymore and that was the one when we went out and we wrecked and he was killed and I remember going to the attorney because I'm facing felony charge and misdemeanors and I was converted through that but I remember sitting there in the attorney's office my dad got the best attorney in Westmore County and it was recommended him from Indiana County because it's where the accident happened in Westmoreland and I remember sitting in the Galilee's office and him you know talking about how difficult this case was and it's just and and saying it would be $10,000 to just take the case this is 1989 my dad was a mill man that was their life savings and he said to whom do I make out of check and I never paid him back I couldn't and it wasn't even a question I had done the thing he said not to do and I got an immense amount of trouble doing the thing he said not to do and it was fine you know and I had hidden you know underage drinking arrests and I had three of them by that time I'd hidden them from them I only knew about one and over and over again you know just getting worse and worse not fearing my dad not not not not caring about his name and yet in that moment he would have done anything you know in a small way I think that's what the scripture says about Jesus that he has linked his name on you because he loves you why did he love you because he loved you Deuteronomy 7.7 the Lord shows Israel why because he loved it there wasn't anything in them but that means they can't lose it they can't there can't be anything in them that would make God stop you see how verse 22 is your hope Christian do you see how the Calvinism of verse 22 is the assurance that we have God will not forsake his people for his great name sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people he loved you enough to do that and he will never leave you forsake you let the fear of God drive you closer to him knowing that he will never forsake you let's pray father we thank you and we praise you that you do give us this kind of fear but we are to strive for more of it like we are in all the graces of Christian life help us to fear you more so that we would never hide things from you let us not be afraid with that kind of fear that would cause us to flee from you like the wicked have but let the fear of God keep us close to you that we wouldn't want to stray knowing it would be bad for us knowing it would disappoint you and not wanting to dishonor you that way Lord help us to want to honor you to see the great privilege that when we obey you it honors you and you saved us for that reason what a privilege Lord to to live for you in this world help us to fear you enough to do that a little more this week we pray in Jesus name amen