Do You Fear the Lord?

Our message today comes from 2 Chronicles 7:14. 
¹⁴If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

If I were to ask you what is wrong with the youth in America today, what would you say?  If you thought long and hard about it, you would most likely end up saying they fear no one, have no consequences, lack respect in themselves and for authority.  And for the most part, you are right.  However; it isn't just the youth in America.  It is all of us.  Yeah, you read it right.  ALL of us have become too accepting of the sinful world around us that we fall into the same category as today's youth.  Wouldn't you say that God is the ultimate authority?  Do you fear Him as you should?

Have you ever been in a situation that you knew was wrong but you did it anyway?  You lacked the fear you needed to talk yourself out of that situation didn't you?  See, there is no NEW sin in the world today.  They are the same sins as biblical times.  They just come in different packages now.  Yet, we have allowed Satan to talk us out of doing what we KNOW is right.  Read that above scripture again.  "Humble yourself, pray, seek God's face, and turn from wicked ways.....then I will hear them."  This is a matter of respecting God enough to respect yourself and show it through your actions.  We should have reverence and respect.

Let's look at Psalms 111:10. 
¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

God expects us to fear Him.  You know that little pain in your gut when you have done something wrong?  You know, we call it guilt?  That is a good thing to have.  We should be teaching our children that we should have that guilt when we have done wrong.  That is what keeps us from doing the act again.  Wouldn't you say our world seems to be missing that feeling in the pits of our stomaches?  We have become a little too relaxed about things that the guilt we should be feeling is fading.  How can we respect God if we feel we can do no wrong?  That guilt provides us the necessary knowledge that we don't want the same outcomes again, therefore, we learn our lesson and refuse to perform the act.

Let's look at Hebrews 12:28.
²⁸Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

How can we serve God when we don't fear Him?  In order to respect God and do as God calls us to do, we must fear Him and the consequences that follow our sinful acts.  Do you think we still set moral boundaries for ourselves?  Here's some to think about.....sex before marriage, curse words on television, sex on television, fighting/killing/violence in television or video games, and the list could really go on.  Were these things acceptable 50 years ago?  How about this one......working/cleaning on Sunday?  Was it acceptable 50 years ago.  This shows where we have gone as a society.  But today it seems, we all talk about how bad those things are on Sunday in church, but during the week, it's okay.  We forget that we are the temple at all times.  Just being a Christian on Sunday isn't what God wants.  And if we are doing that then we should be even more fearful of God.  Once Christ is in our hearts we are His temple and we must act that way even outside of church.  We should have the fear of God everyday of the week.  Not just on Sunday.  If you can't respect yourself and you act in such a harmful way through the week, you aren't respecting or fearing God.  Leveticus 19:30 says:
³⁰Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
His sanctuary is not just a white sacred building with 4 walls.  YOU are His sanctuary.

Let's look at 2 Samuel 9:6.
⁶Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!

Why are our jails full of people who can walk out in broad daylight and kill someone without any fear of the consequences to come?  Why doesn't it affect people when they are sentenced to life in prison or being placed on death row?  Why do women walk around with 6 children by 6 different fathers and act like it is okay?  Because there is a lack of respect and reverence for ourselves and for God. 

You know, there are those who have totally given up hope.  They think their lives are so far gone that it can't be fixed.  Some would stay out of chuch simply because they feel they have to do this dramatic overnight change.  But we must remind those lost that it is okay to build boundaries one step at a time.  In fact, we all need to begin doing that.  None of us are immune to sin.  In order for our church to get back to the way it should be, we all have to do that.  In order for this country to get back to the foundations it was built on, we have to do that.  It is one step at a time.  We need to turn back the clock for our values.  Look at everything that is accepted in today's world.  They weren't accepted 50 years ago.  We have become way to comfortable with the times changing.  And they aren't changing for the better.

Proverbs 10:27 says:
²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

This can be done.  We can rebuild our nation and redirect our nation's attention on the core values it was built on.  It can't be done overnight by us.  We must have Faith that God will help us but we ourselves must have enough respect and reverence for the Lord in order to have that Faith.  We must be willing to live the way God wants each of us to live.  If our neighbor sees us skipping out on church to go to a baseball game or to work in the yard, think about the message that is sending to him/her.  There's that lack of fear.  That wouldn't have been acceptable 50 years ago.....but today it seems okay.  But to who?  Not God.  That is the same as having idols before God.  Anything that comes between you and God is an idol.  We ourselves, have become too accepting and Satan is using that to destroy our churchs, communities, and nation.

We must make changes to what is okay for us to do.  We must lay down new boundaries for ourselves and begin building our community with respectable values and morals, our nation with respectable values and morals, and yes.....our churches to have respectable values and morals.  We must fear the Lord.  Remember this, to produce seed, you must first plant a seed.  It only takes one.  Let that one be YOU.  Change what is acceptable for you today.  Others will see the changes in you and will follow.  Do you fear the Lord enough to make that change?

How's Your Real Estate?

Our message today comes a very small book in the Bible.  Ever heard of the saying that dynamite comes in small packages?  That just about sums up the book of Haggai.  Dynamite in a small package.  Our scripture comes from Hagai 2:4-9.
⁴Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts:
 ⁵According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.
 ⁶For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
 ⁷And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
 ⁸The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
 ⁹The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Not a lot is known about Haggai, but what we do know is that he can be found in the book of Ezra and that within a 10 year period, he brought 4 messages to the house of Israel.  To understand the message today, we must look at what was going on historically at that time.  At that time, Israel had been ordered to hault erecting the temple.  God had told them to stop and work on their own homes.  Our message today is on our homes.

We will be diving in and studying 3 different types of "home". 
The first is your personal, physical home. 
What does your house look like?  Its not really what type of home you live in because value means nothing.  It is about how you take care of your home and the things God has given you.  Why should this matter?  Because our daily lives are a mirror reflection of our spiritual lives.  God tells us in verse 4 to "work".  Did you read over that word without thinking about it.  Yeah, it's there.  If you fail to take care of your yard or yourself.....it is a reflection of how much you care.  If you are a lazy person, most likely you are a lazy Christian.  Many a man live in what we would consider, shacks.  Does he/she take care of that shack though?  Is it clean, taken care of?  Or are the weeds grown so high that you can't walk through the yard without brushing them with your elbows?  Are there dirty dishes piled high in the sink and on the counter full of last week's meal?  It doesn't matter how much your home is valued.....it does matter though how you take care of it.  Now, really....why should anyone care about my house but me?  I'll tell you why....

The second is your spiritual home.
Our daily lives and how we take care of what we have is a mirror reflection of how we take care of our spiritual lives.  If you are dedicated to keeping the things you have in good condition, chances are that your spriritual life is also in good condition.  You are more likely to pick up your Bible on more days of the week than just on Sunday.  You probably pray for those on the prayer list on a daily basis.  It all goes back to DEDICATION.  When you dedicated to keeping things nice, you keep them nice in ALL areas of your life, including your spiritual walk with God.  We have all heard that everything we own is not really ours.  It is like rental property.  What happens when you are renting but you don't take good care of the item or home?  You end up paying a price for it.  There is always some fee or charge for damages.  Everything we have in life is God's.  We are only renting it.  Our entire life as we know it, including our physical body is rental property.  We have to take care of it all, our physical and spiritual homes included.

Now, before we jump into the 3rd house, let's look at some more scripture.   It says in Haggai 1:9:
9"You look for much but you find little.  When you bring it home, I destroy it.  Why?  asks the Lord.  Because you all work hard for your own houses while my house is still in ruins."

The third house is God's house.
Do you honor God with your tithes and offerings?  Do you use your spiritual gifts for the glory of God?  Are you working as hard to fill the church with believers and take care of the church body and building  as you are your personal homes?  God wants His people to build His house.  He says, "I blessed you with your own house, now it's times to build the house of God."  Consider your ways.  Are you walking for you and your own pride or are you walking for God?  When your spiritual house is in order....then your personal house and God's house will be in place.  You have to get yourself right with God first.  God tells us in today's scripture to begin building His temple......but you have to remember what happened before this.  He had stopped them from building His temple so they could all work on their own homes.  It is time for us to clean the cob webs out of the corners and add a fresh coat of paint to our spiritual homes so that we can work the way God calls us to do in His house.

Now is the time to invest in your real estate.  Take care of what you have been given physically and spiritually.  Use your spiritual gifts to do the work God has called us to do.  Study the word.  Work on your spiritual property.  The property is worth the price.  Afterall, it is God's!