Don’t Hide from God
Scripture: Genesis 3:9-10Devotional Series: Where is My Fear?
Teaching: Where Is My Fear pt. 1 (SUN_AM 2024-05-19) by Pastor Star R Scott
The fear of God. A number of years back, we had those attorneys who were working with us as we dealt with that persecution that was being put upon us, the lies that had been spread from those who had defected. It sure didn’t help that we were on the front page of the Washington Post at the anniversary of Jim Jones. I’m saying all that to say this: everybody, including the IRS, came in here and went through our books and turned them upside down. Not only were we as squeaky clean as you could get, but there was also not one dime that was not accounted for. But in the process of all that, these attorneys, whose job it was to deal in the area of finance of churches, made this statement. They didn’t say we were the church that had the most money in the nation. Those super churches bring in a lot of money. What they said is that this is the most fiscally sound church that they have ever dealt with. Can you say, “Praise God,” for that? Of course, they wanted to know who it was who had the wisdom and the knowledge to oversee this. It sure wasn’t me. But they did ask, “How did you…?" I said, “I prayed and whatever the Lord spoke in my spirit that’s the way we went. And so many times it seemed absolutely contrary to all the wisdom of the world, but God blessed us because we obeyed,” praise God! Amen?
We’re coming into some times, and I believe if we listen to God, He’s going to lead us to do a lot of things that the world will say, “Umm, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” “I know. You proved it. You haven’t done anything that God’s told you to do.” “I wouldn’t gather up there during Covid. You’re all going to go to prison, and everybody is going to die.” Do you fear God? Where’s the fear of God? We have fear of men. wWe fear the IRS. We fear the government when we’re not supposed to meet. Where’s the fear of God in our lives? He said, “Don’t fear man who is able to destroy your body, but fear Him who can destroy the body and cast your soul into hell” (Matthew 10:28). Do you fear God? I fear God. I fear God every time I stand up here and open this book and represent His Word to His people, lest I make a mistake so that I don’t in any way impose my will, my thoughts and represent them as God’s.
As we go into the world and our jobs on a daily basis, are we there representing God properly? Don’t lean to your own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Now, the evil we are speaking of here is not fornication, adultery, etc. We will see some of that as we go on, but the sin that it’s talking about here is the sin of trusting in yourself (amen?), the sin of having confidence in yourself, the sin of somehow thinking we know how to pastor a church, or the sin of thinking we know how to oversee a household.Whatever is not of the wisdom of God is sin. It represents the original rebellion toward God. This world’s system is the fruit of rebellion to God; amen? And what it does is it breaks fellowship. You remember when Adam sinned and God came into the garden to visit him, and said, “Where are you, Adam?” He said, “I was afraid, because I was naked” (Genesis 3:9-10). God said, “Who told you?” Conscience, guilt, but look at what happened. He that longed to walk in the garden with Jesus was now hiding from Him. Anytime the fear of God begins to wane in our lives, we begin to be afraid of what the Word will say to us about these circumstances, like maybe selling all you have and giving it to the poor.