Turn now to the reading of God's word, and I remind you that it's not merely the preaching, but the reading of the word of God that is part of worship. This evening, as our theme will be, the fear of the Lord, we're gonna turn first to a New Testament passage, which speaks to that theme, and then an Old Testament text, which will be our text for preaching. But first, please turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, we'll begin reading in verse 22. This is the word of the Lord. that you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men, made perfect. To Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he is promised, saying, yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are of mate, the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Now turning to our Old Testament readings, Ecclesiastes 5. We'll be reading verses 1 to 7. Ecclesiastes 5. the words of the preacher, the words of Solomon, king in Jerusalem, the word of God. Walk prudently when you go to the house of God, and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. For a dream comes through much activity, and a fool's voice is known by as many words. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for He has no pleasure in fools paying what you have vowed. Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there is also vanity. But fear God. Grass withers, flower fades. The word of God endures forever. Please remain standing for a brief prayer of illumination, praying that God would indeed open the eyes of our minds. Let us pray. Lord, as we approach this time in which you speak from heaven, we are sobered that the faithful preaching of the word of God is the word of God. And Lord, I pray that both I and all who are here would humble ourselves before your mighty hands and that we would draw near to hear and not to give the sacrifice of fools. Oh Lord, help us draw close to the Lord Jesus to sit at his feet even now and to listen, not simply to listen, but to obey, for to obey is better than sacrifice. Oh God, help us to hear and to obey for Christ's sake. Amen. You may be seated. What is the greatest danger facing the church today? All the enemies, all the onslaughts, what is the greatest danger facing the church today, facing you, the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ? Perhaps some would say the greatest danger is something like the new atheists, people like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, the late Christopher Hitchens, these new atheists who with aggressive, violent hatred deny the existence of God and try to expunge belief in God from the face of the earth. what we could call theoretical atheism, the denial of the existence of God. Surely a great danger. But if we think, if we contemplate, I think there's a greater danger still, one that's much more subtle, but oh, so much more toxic and deadly. It's what we could call practical Atheism. Practical atheism. R.C. Sproul defines it this way, it's when we live as if there is no God. When we live as if there is no God, we confess him with our mouth, we come to church, we recite the Apostles' Creed, we sit quietly in the pews while the scriptures are being read, and yet, In our lives, and perhaps even in our worship, we go through the motions. We live as if there is no God. His reality does not affect the way we live, the decisions we make, the thoughts we have, the words we speak. We call ourselves Christians, but the way we live spells atheism. We want a solution to this great danger. We have no better place to come than Ecclesiastes 5. Just to give it a little bit of context, look at Ecclesiastes as the preacher, as Solomon, looking at life lived under the sun. Life lived, as it were, apart from God, and when he looks at life that way, he finds that it is vanity. Vanity of vanities. It's empty, futile, meaningless, hollow, utterly vain. It is like grasping for the wind, and you can't quite put your fingers around it. In chapter five, Solomon comes to an exception to this pattern. He comes to a solution to this problem. And so this evening, I ask you, is God real to you? Are you living as a practical atheist? Are you living as if he does not exist? If you want meaning, and you want value, and you want significance in your life, then hear the message of Solomon from Ecclesiastes 5, and it's very simple. It's simply this. Fear. God. Or to make it more elaborate in the language of this text, fear God in worship because he is the judge of all the earth. Fear God in worship because he is the judge of all the earth. Quite simply, fear God. This evening I want us to explore this theme of the fear of God under three heads. First, we'll see the fear of God defined. And second, we'll see the fear of God applied. And finally, we'll see the fear of God motivated. Put it differently, we'll ask three questions. What is the fear of God? How do we do it? And finally, why should we do it? Let's begin with the first head, the fear of God defined. What is it? Look at the book of Ecclesiastes. It's one of those books where if you want to know what it's all about, you need to turn to the last chapter, where you need to begin with the end in mind. If you turn to Ecclesiastes 12, looking at verse 13, Solomon tells you what this book is about. He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's fault. Fear God's. You realize that's really what the whole book is leading up to. That's the conclusion. And when we see that and we read it afresh with that in mind, we see that the fear of God stands out everywhere. We find it in chapter three in verse 14, where it says, God does it that men should fear before him. We see it in chapter seven, verse 18, where it says, for he who fears God will escape them all. We see it in chapter eight, verse 12. Yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before him. And we find it also in our text in Ecclesiastes 5. And much like the book of Ecclesiastes, if you want to know what Ecclesiastes 5 verses 1 through 7 is all about, you turn to the last verse. You turn to verse 7, where it says, for in the multitude of dreams and many words, there is also vanity, but fear God. That's the controlling injunction, the controlling command. Fear the Lord. Now we know that the fear of the Lord holds a central place in the Christian life. The book of Proverbs says it's the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of wisdom. Calvin is so bold as to say this, here indeed is pure and real religion. Faith joined with an earnest fear of God. Theologian Donald Blesch says, piety is the fear of the Lord combined with an adoring love for him. And then John Murray in his great essay on this topic says, the fear of the Lord is the mark, the distinguishing characteristic of God's people. It is the sum of piety. It is the soul of godliness. You start to realize, The fear of the Lord is really the pulse, it is the heartbeat of the Christian life. It's really important. But what is it? How do we define it? Well, let's look at this both negatively and positively. First, negatively, what the fear of God is not. The fear of God is not a slavish or a servile fear. It does not mean that you walk around in life in anxious dread, waiting for the Lord to drop a lightning bolt on you any arbitrary second. I think a good illustration of this type of slavish fear would be that of a dog that's been beaten and kicked by its master repeatedly and abused to the point where if you walk up to that creature, that pathetic creature, it will cower in fear. You haven't even said anything or done anything. Fear of the Lord is not a slavish or a servile fear. It's also not the fear of man. You have to be very careful not to confuse these things. It is not an anxious dread of pleasing everybody, which is impossible. No, the fear of the Lord, rightly understood, casts out slavish fear. It casts out the fear of man. That's why the Bible also says, fear not, and perfect love casts out fear. Now the fear of the Lord is something different, so let's turn positively to what it is. And here John Murray is very helpful. On the one hand, Murray indicates that the fear of the Lord has a couple senses. First, it can refer to being afraid of God, of trembling, in a healthy way at his judgments against sin. And we see that in Matthew 10, where it says, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. There's a healthy fear of God in which the sinner, at the prospect of judgment, is shot into repentance. out of the fear of the Lord. And even for believers, there is a right sense in which we tremble at the judgments of God, and that becomes a spur, a goad, to lead us to repentance and away from apostasy. On the other hand, Murray shows that the primary sense of the fear of God is something else. It does involve, in the Bible, being afraid of the Lord, trembling at his judgments. When we talk about the soul of godliness, we're directed to a distinct sense, and it's this. Not so much simply being afraid of God, but reverential awe. What Murray calls the fear of reverence. Fear of God in which godliness consists is the fear which constrains adoration and love. It is the fear which consists in awe, reverence, honor, and worship. Murray goes on to say, it is the reflex in our consciousness, the transcendent majesty and holiness of God. This is the fear we come face to face with in Isaiah 6. that great echo chamber of God's glory in which the angels shout, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory, where they cover their faces with their wings, where the prophet is undone, standing in awe before the majesty, the holiness of God. So how do we define it? I'm gonna attempt a definition, and the best one I was able to find is one by Michael Barrett that he put forth in a sermon on this very topic, and Barrett defines it like this. It is living in the conscious awareness of God. Living in the conscious awareness of God. It is an attitude of God consciousness. Congregation, when you fear the Lord, it means that you live in the presence of God. That you live, as it were, before the face of God. You walk with the Lord. You walk before the Lord. You factor him in into every decision you make, every step you take, every breath you breathe. You live in the reality of God. You live in the conscious awareness of the Lord. You live with a God consciousness. Of course, this involves a number of things, and Murray highlights three of them. On the one hand, this means an all-pervasive sense of the presence of God. Think of the child's catechism. I cannot see God, but he always sees me. Proverbs 15, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. There's nowhere you can run, and God is not present. It also involves the all-pervasive sense of our dependence upon God and our responsibility to Him. You realize that every good thing you have is a gift of pure grace that comes from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, and is to be received with thanksgiving. It also has a third component, our constant consciousness of relation to God, that you live Whether you eat or you drink, to glorify God in all these things. But you don't belong to yourself. You belong to God, and so you live for Him. And out of this God consciousness, obviously there's flow of actions, a turning away from evil, a keeping of God's commandments. And we see this in the life of Noah, the life of Job, the life of Abraham, men who were marked by the fear of the Lord. But at this point, you might think that this is Ecclesiastes, this is the shadowlands of the Old Testament. What place does the fear of the Lord have in a new covenant believer's life? I would say two things at this point. On the one hand, the fear of God and the love of God are really two sides of the same coin. Think about the relationship of a father and a child. Children love their fathers. But hopefully they also respect, honor, reverence, and fear their fathers. They're two sides of the same coin. On the other hand, another way we can think about this is that really, the Old Testament has a lot to say about the love of God. The Shema, the greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not only that, but the New Testament also talks about the fear of God. Look at Paul, Paul says perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Look at Peter, Peter says honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God. Early church was marked by these characteristics, walking in the fear of the Lord. If you have any doubt at this point, whether this should be a characteristic of your life, think of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 11 says this of him, the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. His delight, Jesus' delight, is in the fear of the Lord. That's why Murray says, the spirit of Christ is the spirit of the fear of the Lord. Jesus Christ, when he was on earth, lived in the conscious awareness of his father's glory. Everything he did was self-consciously an act of devotion to his father. And that's why, as Christians, the fear of the Lord is really just an overflow of our union with Jesus Christ. It is part of our union and communion with him, with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit. Well, we've looked at the fear of God defined. It's this living in the conscious awareness of God. Let us now ask the question, how do we do it? How do we move from doctrine So let's go to our second point, not just the fear of God defined, but the fear of God applied. There's one particular place that Solomon directs our attention, one area of application, and that is worship. We fear God in all of life. but particularly in public worship. And we see that we interfere God in worship, generally speaking, in verse one, where it says, walk prudently when you go to the house of God. Walk prudently when you go to the house of God. The literal rendering is guard your feet, keep your foot. There's a sense of circumspection, even restraints, fear as you approach a holy God, when you enter into his special presence. That's why Moses and Joshua removed their sandals, literally, when they realized they were on holy ground. Is it not true that this reality should color qualify and condition our worship. But as Derek Kidner puts it, we should watch our step when we come to worship a righteous God. There should be something about our worship in which the fear of the Lord affects the tone, the posture, And if you're blanking out on this, just think of what would happen if you received an invitation in the mail, and it was a summons from Queen Elizabeth to come to Buckingham Palace to have an audience with the Queen. If that happened, what would you do? Would you get your dirtiest, rattiest pair of jeans, come into Buckingham Palace, and casually joke with her about American pop culture? Probably not. Probably the Will of Guards throw you out. And if that's true with an audience with the queen, where you would surely come with a sense of decorum, dignity, and reverence, and seek to show honor where honor is due, how much more should this be the case? When in public worship, in a special way, you approach the one who is, who was, and who is to come. When you enter into the courts of the king of heaven and earth, and you see the son of man sitting at his right hand, and the sevenfold spirit before his throne, and the angels shouting, holy, holy, holy, should that not color, condition, qualify the tone, the posture of our worship. John Piper has a great one-word description, that our worship, in light of the fear of God, should be weighty, The glory of God literally means weight, heaviness. There should be a weightiness. And in saying this, it should be joyful. It should be enthusiastic and active and energetic. Joyful, but also reverential. This is worship in general. But Solomon goes on to speak about the fear of God in worship in particular, and he highlights three areas. Word. prayer, and commitments. I want to briefly look at these three areas of worship and make application first to those and then secondary application outside of worship. First, fear God in the ministry of the Word. We see this in verse one. Walk prudently when you go to the house of God and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools. drawn near to hear. When you come to worship, you come primarily to cut people down, to deconstruct the sermon, and to criticize the preacher. And we should be Bereans and search the scriptures, but our primary posture should be one of coming to receive, coming to listen, coming to want to hear a word from heaven. That's the primary application. Come to listen, come to receive, come to hear. And more than that, we think outside of worship, surely there's secondary application. And when you're in a conversation with somebody, we should listen. If you spend the entire conversation talking over the person, You don't really honor that person. So I wanna encourage you, even outside of worship, listen in your conversations. Take time to really wanna hear what the other person has to say. Don't just listen to enough in order to shoot back kind of an argument in return. Sometimes I ask people questions and then they tell me an answer and I wasn't even paying attention. Seek to listen to the other person. Fear God in the ministry of the word. Second area of worship, fear God in prayer. Fear God in prayer. We see this in verses two to three. It says, do not be rash with your mouth and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven and you on earth, therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes through much activity, and a fool's voice is known by his many words. Fear God in prayer. On the one hand, we see the psalmists at times pouring out their souls to God in almost complete transparency. And that's a right and a proper thing to do, to be open with the Lord, to come to him as children to a father. But is there not a point We can cross the line where Job has to put his hand over his mouth when he realizes, I've gone too far. I did not treat God with respect in prayer. And so, one of the ways we can apply this, primarily in worship, is to pray reverently, to offer up our desires to the Lord, but to do so in the proper way. with reverence for his name. And there's two ways we can do this. On the one hand, meditate before you pray. Reflect on God's attributes, his works, his words, and then offer up your desires to the Lord. Think before you pray. Don't just say whatever pops into your head. Pray reverently. Another thing we could derive from this is to offer relatively brief prayers. Those are appropriate. On the one hand, there's no arbitrary word or time limit in the Bible. Jesus prays all night. Ezra and Daniel offer up relatively longer prayers than what we're considering. But the point is this, that the heathen and the Pharisees think that they'll be heard by their many words, by their vain repetitions. And Solomon says no. God is in heaven, you are on earth, therefore let your words be few. Offer up relatively brief prayers, realizing that the brief prayer of the publican, God have mercy on me, a sinner. The brief was sincere and God heard it. Pray reverently. Outside of worship, there is surely secondary application. It's this, think before you speak. Don't be a loose cannon who says in conversation whatever first pops into your minds. Words are powerful. They can bless people. They can curse people. The tongue is a fiery instrument. Think before you speak. Not only that, and this can be very convicting to me, consider using fewer words. Consider having pauses in your conversations. Taking a few moments to pause, even to let the other person speak. Think before you speak, use fewer words, so that not one word falls to the ground, so that every word counts. When you speak, do people listen? Fear God in the ministry of the word, fear God in prayer, Last area of application, fear God in your commitments. Fear God in your commitments, and we see that in verse four. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. In the Bible, there are two types of religious commitments. There are lawful oaths and vows. An oath is a promise that we make to somebody else in the presence of God, calling God as a witness. We have this in the courtroom where we swear to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help us God. A vow, on the other hand, is where we make a promise to the Lord directly. Think of Jacob in the book of Genesis, where he says, I vow that if you bring me back safely to this land, I will give you a tenth of everything I own. We see this in the Psalms, where the psalmist has been delivered out of great affliction. As an act of thanksgiving and gratitude, he vows that he will make sacrifices in Jerusalem. In both of these, we have the idea of binding. committing ourselves to a course of action. And we are called to fear God in these commitments. And there's really two principles that we see spelled out in verse five. Better not to vow and to vow and not pay. On the one hand, we can apply this to mean you should consider before you make a commitment, before you bind yourself to someone or something, consider, think about, count the costs. And on the other hand, We can say that when we do make a commitment, it should be our endeavor to keep it and to keep it promptly. Do not delay, pay what you have vowed. Think of Psalm 15, where the person who can dwell with the Lord is described in this way, that he swears to his own hurt and does not change. He keeps his commitment. When you make a promise, Do people believe you? When you tell your spouse or your friend or your coworker that you're going to do something, does your word mean anything to them? Perhaps as you hear this strong language about the importance of keeping your commitments, a couple questions might come into your mind. On the one hand, what if I make a commitment that would cause me to sin? What if I bind myself to a course of action that leads to wickedness? And here we have to remember that it's a sin to break a commitment, but if you bind yourself to something that would cause you to sin, it would be worse to keep the commitment. Think of David. We're in a rash and hasty moment. He swears that he's going to kill and wipe out every single male in Nabal's household. Then Abigail comes and so graciously intercedes for her foolish husband, and David relents. He made a rash vow, and rather than keeping it, he sins by not keeping it, knowing that it would have been worse to follow through. So if you've made a rash vow like that, repent of it, confess it, and ask the Lord to pardon you and give you grace in the future. Another question, what if I break Better not to vow and to vow and not pay. You hear that injunction and it hurts your conscience because you can think of times when, for whatever reason, a commitment fell through the cracks. You let someone down. You broke a promise. You did not keep your word. What do you do now? Well, sometimes this is very mundane. You told someone you're going to be at Chick-fil-A rear at 1230, and you realize you can't make it. And so one application is communicate with people. Text them, sorry, I hit bad traffic. I'm running late. Or something just blew up at home. I really can't make it. I'm really sorry. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes things fall through the crack. But as we have opportunity, communicate with other people when plans change. There are other times, however, when we really do let people down, we really break the promise, and in those cases, go straight to the cross of Jesus Christ and plead his forgiving mercies. Dr. McGraw, in a little booklet he has on time management, said, when you break your commitment, repent and regroup. Repent and regroup. Ask for forgiveness. If you have to, make reparation. In the words of verse six, don't make excuses. Don't make excuses, but make things right. Go and sin no more. Big idea, take your commitments seriously. Be a person, a man or a woman of your words. Do we not see something of all these things in the Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ, in the covenant of grace, took upon himself oaths and vows. He vowed to give himself as a sacrifice for his people, and Jesus set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem, and he swore to his own hurt, and he did not change. Congregation looked to Jesus Christ as the pattern for covenant keeping. Look at Him as the source of pardon for when we fail, and look at Him as the power to help you rise up and seek to keep your commitments afresh. A few practical points on keeping our commitments. Periodically, it's helpful to take inventory of what you've committed yourself to. Even this evening, mentally run through an inventory, take stock of your commitments. Are you married? Well, if you're married, you took vows to your wife in the presence of men and in the presence of God. Are you being faithful to your spouse? Are you keeping your commitments to him or to her? Some of you are parents. At the baptism of your child, you took vows to raise them in the fear, the admonition, the nurture of the Lord. To model godliness for your children, to pray for your children, are you keeping that commitment? All of us, as God's people, have at one point or another been baptized, and at baptism, God is not only signing and sealing his promises, but he is binding himself to us and binding us to him, calling us to live in love and loyalty before his face. Are you improving your baptism? Are you keeping your baptismal vows? We're reminded even this morning of covenant renewal at the Lord's table, when God renews covenant with us, a reminder to continue walking with the Lord. At a more mundane level, it's useful to define and to track and to review the commitments that you've made. Put them in the calendar, put them on a to-do list, even minor things. It's helpful to take stock and say, what have I told someone I'm going to do? Am I in a position to do it? Fear God in worship. Fear God in the ministry of the word, draw near to hear. Fear God in prayer, pray reverently. Fear God in your commitments, take them seriously. We've seen the fear of God defined, we've seen it applied, what it is, how to do it. There's a third question. Why should you fear God? Why should you fear God? The fear of God motivates. The fear of God motivates. Plato was dead wrong. Plato, that Greek philosopher, said that to know the good is to do the good. And I don't know about you, but I'm a parent, and I'm pretty clear on the fact that my children can know exactly what the good is and still not do it. No, we need motivation. We need incentive. And we see that in our text. Note the word for. The word for comes out in our text again and again and again. It's in verse one where it says, for they do not know that they do evil. We see it in verse two. For God is in heaven and you on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. We see it in verse three. For a dream comes through much activity. We see it in verse four, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. And we see it in verse seven, for in the multitude of dreams and many words, there is also vanity, but fear God. This word's used five times in the text, and it's really a fulcrum. that leverages our motivation by giving us a reason to fear God. And this reason is spelled out in verses six to seven. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there is also vanity, but fear God. We see this reason once again at the end of Ecclesiastes in chapter 12, where it says, for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. The reason to fear God, the reason to live in the conscious awareness of the Lord is he is the judge of all the earth. God has raised up Jesus Christ to judge the world in righteousness, and he will judge every thought, every word, every deed. Therefore, fear him. Of course, this should be a great motivation for unbelievers and a fearful prospect. And there's someone here tonight who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no fear of God before your eyes. Flee from the wrath to come. He's the judge of all the earth. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way. Trust in him. But even for believers, the reality of final judgment is a fitting motivation. We know we are already justified in Christ by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from the works of the law. And yet, as 2 Corinthians 5 says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Even for a believer, you're not going to be judged on the basis of your works. No, you're justified in Christ. but you will be judged according to your works. You will have to give an account for every thought, every word, every deed. Your works do not justify you, but your works will, in that day of judgment, testify to the reality of your faith. They will be an evidence, a demonstration of your saving union with the Lord Jesus. For our works, Our spirit-wrought, enabled good works are the way of life, the way to life. On one hand, this should be a warning. We should tremble before it. We don't want to, even as Christians, we don't want to displease the God who loves us. We don't want to quench his spirit. We don't want to think about that day of judgment with a sense of shame at his coming. but positively, and this is where I want to really hone in on. The fear of the Lord is motivated positively by the fact that God is a judge of all fear. We read that wonderful phrase in the Westminster Confession, notwithstanding the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him. Not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight, but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections. What a positive motivation. fear the Lord in everything you do, that He will accept and reward your imperfect but sincere works and words in His Son, the Lord Jesus, that He will crown His grace in your life. Help me understand this. I often come back to the illustration of my fridge back home. On my fridge, there are a lot of magnets and many other things, but the things that really stand out to me are drawings that my children have done. And they're scrawled with crayons and ink and markers, and in some ways they might resemble a Picasso painting or something, but I can't quite figure out. But I love those drawings. They're imperfect. They're not gonna be in the National Gallery, but they are sincere. And as a father, I accept them in love. Do you realize, child of God, that as you fear the Lord in your thoughts, your words, your deeds, as you desire to bring glory to Christ, that the Father looks at those imperfect, those sincere good works, and he's positively pleased? Would it not be a great motivation for your life to think every day. Oh, Lord, I long to see Jesus, to be like him, because then I will see him as he is. And on that day, when I'm raised up out of the grave and I stand before my savior, I could hear these words, the commendation. Well done, good, faithful servant. Enter into my joy. What a motivation. God is the judge, he is the savior. What a motivation to fear him. Congregation, is God real to you? Or are you a practical atheist who confessed Jesus Christ with your lips, but your heart is so far from him? Do you live as if there is no God? Do you worship as if there is no God? And if so, my word of exhortation to you is this, fear God, because he is the judge of all the earth. Fear God in worship, because he is the judge of all the earth. And not only in worship, but as we leave these doors, Live in the conscious awareness of the Lord. Oh, for a closer walk with him. Love the Lord Jesus. Fear the Lord Jesus. By his grace, let us pray. Father, we come to you in Jesus' name. And we ask that even as we end this service, as you send us with your blessing, that we will leave with a sense of you and of your presence, and that that would color and condition everything we do, everything we say, everything we think, that we would be captured and captivated by the glory of Jesus Christ. Pray this in his name. Amen.