The Way of Wisdom: Fear the Lord- July 5, 2026

Big Sky Christian Fellowship Summer Sermon Series on Proverbs

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Of wisdom with a sermon called The Fear of the Lord. We'll be in Proverbs chapter one, one through seven, if you weren't here with us last week, and uh a seven-week study on the book of Proverbs. And I challenged you to read five chapters of Proverbs a week. So that gives you some days off in the next seven, eight weeks that you can actually read all of Proverbs. There's only 31 chapters in it. So I would encourage you, some of you talked to me about that and said you were doing it. So good job. Um, read through all of Proverbs throughout this. You will be wiser because of it as we continue in the way of wisdom. Proverbs 1, 1 through 7 says this. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel, for gaining wisdom and instruction for understanding, words of insight, for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young, let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance, for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. That's as far as we'll read this evening. There is a bulletin in your in there's an outline in your bulletin, rather, that you can follow along with. Okay, a phobic. You know what phobias are? It's a fear-driven question, right? So I want to ask you a phobic question. The question is simple is this what do you fear? What do you fear in this life? Not too long ago, we were in a different series, and I actually asked a question very, very similar. We had kind of a fun little interaction where we talked about some of the fears that we might have. Some of you might have a fear of arachnophobia. Do you know what that is? Fear of spiders. Any spiders scary out here? You got you don't like spiders? Yeah. A few of you are like, stop talking about it. Okay, please. All right. Uh, how about acrophobia? I've got acrophobia. Uh, fear of heights. You get up there on the top of the mountain, you're like, I really want to ski this, but man, I get a little nervous up here, right? Um, some of you have uh nyctophobia or your kiddos have nyctophobia. You know what that is? The phobia and the fear of the dark. Oftentimes kids will have a fear of the dark. James, you have a fear of the dark? Still have a fear of the dark. I like it. That's good. That's good. All right. I don't like the dark in the fall in September when there's grizzly bears around. That's that's scary. That's a whole different phobia. So, and maybe you have glossophobia. Glossophobia would be bad if you were doing what I do because that's the fear of public speaking. And so you wouldn't want to be trading spots with me this evening. And we had some fun around kind of these fears and phobias uh in a sermon not too long ago, but I want to go a little deeper with that question this evening. And I want you to really dig in and think about this. Who or what do you actually fear? Who or what do you actually fear? Let me give you some examples and maybe you can hear yourself in this. Some of you, I would guess, are fearful of uncertainty. When moments of uncertainty, moments when things are unknown, when things are not stable, when you don't know which direction to go or what to do or what decision to make, for some of you in the room, that's paralyzing, is it not? And you have this deep-seated fear that you may not know what to do, that you don't know what to do, you don't know how this is gonna turn out, and it's in those moments of fear of uncertainty and instability that things percolate up in you, bad habits, and and and you kind of unravel in those moments, you kind of spiral in those moments, and what's unveiled is that you have this fear of uncertainty and unknown and instability. Maybe that is some of us in the room. How about this? Let's go a little more internal. Maybe some of us in the room have a fear of being left out, of being rejected by people. Some of us live a lifetime where we fear being unlovable, maybe even just unlikable, because of situations in our lives, because of relationships that have failed in our lives. We have this deep seated fear of rejection, of not being included, of not being invited to the party. And so we we get fearful in those moments, and all kinds of things start bubbling up in our hearts when we have this fear of being left out, of being rejected by other people. Some of us have a fear of not being enough, of not being enough, not having enough money, not having enough financial security, not having enough success, not being good enough at whatever you feel like you need to be good enough. Some of us in the room have a deep-seated fear that we look in the mirror, and the person that we see in the mirror, we just say, that person is not good enough, not pretty enough, not successful enough, just not enough. And because of that, we have this deep-seated fear that seems to just bubble under the surface each and every day of our lives. Or we'll do one more. Maybe you have this deep-seated fear of just how people perceive you. And so in the world of Instagram and Facebook and social media, you you have this deep-seated fear of like, how do people perceive me? How do people engage with me? How do I present myself to other people? Are my vacations as good as those people's vacations? And maybe those are the things that are underneath the service for you. And so you function out of this fear that you need to like show everybody how good it is and how great your life is. And so maybe you lie a little bit about it, and maybe you you you paint a different picture than reality actually is because you have this deep-seated fear of how people, how people perceive you. Am I digging a little? Am I getting to some things? Because I think we need to look deep into our hearts to ask this question. What has the most weight in my life? What throws me off center the quickest? What are the things that I actually do fear? Maybe they're in that list, maybe they're not. Maybe there's something that are in your own head that you go, I know what my fear is, I know what that deep-seated fear is in my life. And what do I do with that? What do I do with that? Because here's the problem. When we fear all of those things, we are walking in the way of folly. When we fear those types of things, we are walking in the way of folly. Last week we said there's two ways to walk. We're gonna either walk in the way of folly or we're gonna walk in the way of wisdom. And if we're walking in the fear of all of these uncertain things and people in our lives and people's opinions of us, we are certainly walking in the way of folly. And so, what do we do when we are honest with ourselves about how often we actually do that? And how then do we live in a way that is a way of wisdom, not a way of folly? So I want to take us very back to the beginning of Proverbs to take the first step in this walk, this way of wisdom. The first step in the way of wisdom, the fill in the blank on your bulletin is this. It's simply this: the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. The writer of this, I mentioned this last week. The writer of this is Solomon. He introduces himself, the Proverbs of Solomon. He writes the bulk of the book of uh of Proverbs, and he is considered by many as the Old Testament wisest man. There's this interesting uh moment in his backstory. He is the king's son, he is King David's son, and he has this interaction with God as he's about to take place on the throne. And God says, What do you want, Solomon? Like of all the things, what do you want? And and so Solomon, instead of asking for riches or for fame or for success or for glory, instead of asking for any of those things, he says to God, I would like wisdom. I would like wisdom. And God says back to Solomon in that moment, because you didn't ask for success, because you didn't ask for accolade or for fame or for riches, because you asked for wisdom, I'm gonna give you wisdom. And you will also get all of those things. The sermon within the sermon, we ask for wisdom because it leads us in the ways of wisdom which are fruitful in our lives and in the lives of those around us. And so Solomon is building the foundation in these first nine chapters of the way of wisdom. What does it look like to walk in the way of wisdom? And so he introduces this first step of wisdom in the seventh verse of chapter one, where he says this the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's not the only thing, it's not everything, but it is the beginning. It's where you start. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Fourteen other times within the Proverbs, Solomon talks specifically about the fear of the Lord. I want to go through those. Proverbs 1, 7, we just read it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. He goes on in chapter one to say this: Since they, the foolish people, hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. Proverbs 2, 5. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 18, 13, 8, 13. To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Proverbs 9:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We read this last week. And the knowledge of the holy one is understanding. Proverbs 10:27. The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short. Proverbs 14, 26. Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. Proverbs 14, 27. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death. Proverbs 15, 16, better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Proverbs 15, 33. Wisdom instruct wisdom's instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor. Proverbs 16, 6. Through love and faithfulness, sin is atoned for. Through the fear of the Lord, evil is avoided. Proverbs 19:23. The fear of the Lord leads to life. Then one rests content, untouched by trouble. Proverbs 22, 4. Humility is the fear of the Lord. Its wages are riches and honor and life. And finally, Proverbs 23, 17. Do not let your hearts envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord. Over and over and over again, Solomon repeats that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's where we start when we walk in the way of wisdom, which begs the question what is the fear of the Lord? Like we can put all those passages together and we can look at pieces of what is the fear of the Lord, but it's a pretty debated question. What does it mean to fear the Lord? This is a debated question, is it not? I mean, think about it in your own lives. I did a bit of a straw poll on that this week. And I was like, hey, I'm doing a sermon on the fear of the Lord. I was actually fishing with a guy and like out of nowhere, I'm like, hey, I'm doing a sermon on fear of the Lord. What do you think that is? Right? I did it last night at a fireworks display. I was like, hey, I'm doing a sermon tomorrow on fear of the Lord. What do you think it is? And people kind of go like, ugh, what? Right? I mean, they they know they're with a pastor when they're hanging out with me, right? But like, how do you define fear of the Lord? How would you define fear of the Lord? Because we just sang a song about being a child. I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. I'm chosen, I'm loved. And and here's the here's the here's a press on this, right? Is it not easier just to talk about the love of God? Right? Like Jesus loves me and he's awesome, and we're awesome together, and it's amazing. And and so I don't have to fear because, like, you know, per like perfect love drives out fear. That's a verse on a coffee cup somewhere, right? Like, like, what do we do with this debate about the fear of the Lord? Think about it. How would you define the fear of the Lord? If somebody came up to you this week and said, What do you Christians mean by the fear of the Lord? How would you define it? Here's some of how people defined it this week. Uh, one of the guys said, Fear of the Lord is about humility, it's about knowing my place in the big scope of things. I thought that was pretty good. Um, here's another one. This was from last night. I thought this was one of the better ones. Fear of the Lord means that I'm not God. That's pretty good. That was pretty good. Uh, someone else said, the fear of the Lord is awe. Is awe. We're comfy with that one. We're like, oh, oh, yeah, we can deal with that kind of fear, right? Um, one of the one of the books that I was reading for this sermon said that it is worshipful reverence. What I grew up thinking fear of the Lord was like you go to church, you be quiet, you sit in that pew, and if you don't behave, your mom pinches your underarm really, really, really hard. I thought that was fear of the Lord. Turns out it was just fear of my mother, okay. So, so what is what is it? What is fear of the Lord? Should we fear an all-loving God? Does that somehow sync up? And how does that sink up? And and how are we maybe making it too nice? That's what I want to wrestle with this evening. So I want to use a story to help us kind of tie the pieces together of all of those proverbs that we just read. And the old story to help us is the story of Mount Sinai. Okay. So let me set the picture for you here. Dave actually mentioned this uh in his prayer time, and I appreciate that. Good setup, Dave. Um, which is um God leads his people out of slavery, out of Egypt. It's part of the story of God's people, his chosen and beloved people. And because he loves them and cares for them, he takes them out of the land of Egypt. But he does it in pretty ferocious ways, does he not? Like he sends 10 plagues on these Egyptians, plagues that turn the Nile into blood, and then gnats everywhere, and frogs everywhere, and locusts to destroy their crops, and hailstorms and darkness, and ten plagues that end with the death of the firstborn in each household. I mean, this is a scary God, is it not? Like the Egyptians, I guarantee you, they were scared of that God. And so at a certain point, finally, Pharaoh, because he is fearing the Lord, he says to the people, just get out of here. Just get out of here, leave this land. And so they leave the land, they go to the Red Sea, they get to the Red Sea, and Pharaoh goes, That wasn't a good business decision. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go get them back. That's my workforce. I'm gonna go get them back and goes after them. And in this epic scene, right, you you think about Charlton Heston, right? He's got this staff right here, and he holds them out, and the waves part, and the people walk through on dry land. And after they get through, Pharaoh and his army are like, here we go. Can you imagine being on chariots trying to chase somebody down in your middle of a wave here and a wave here? And you're like, I hope those waves stay up, I hope they stay up, I hope they stay up. And then suddenly they start to quiver a little bit, and you're like, I didn't think they were gonna stay up. And suddenly they're rushing back on top of the entire Egyptian army. God decimates an entire nation. Just just just decimates them. The Egyptians were not the same after that. Their military was decimated, their finances were decimated, their ways of of securing food was decimated because God wanted to free his beloved people, but he did it in a ferocious way. Do you think the Egyptians were afraid of him? I think they were. Do you know who else I think was afraid of him? The Israelites. I think the Israelites were. This is our God, he's on our team. I hope he stays on our team. That would have been my posture, right? Like this God is unlike any other God. When he desires to do something, it happens. That's how it works. And so this same God calls them out into the wilderness. They wander around there for 40 years. And God at this certain moment brings them to this mount, Mount Sinai, and he says, I want to meet with you. Which, if you're the people of God, you're like, He's on my team, right? But he's still God, leading by cloud by day and fire by night, just decimating an entire nation. And he wants to meet with you to tell you how you should do things. Like, I'm listening if I'm there. I'm like, I'm all ears for that God. Okay. And so they come to Mount Sinai, and Moses ascends up onto the mountain. You can look this all up in Exodus, ascends up onto the mountain two times because he goes and gets the 10 commandments from the Lord. He goes and meets with the Lord. He's up there for 40 days, fasting and praying, just like Jesus did in the desert. That's a whole nother sermon. Okay. And he comes down from the mountain, right? And what are the people doing? They're inreverently worshiping of God, correct? No. Who knows their story? What are they doing? That's right. They're building an idol. Why? Because they fear something other than God. They fear something other than God. They want something that they can control and manage and manipulate and handle and build on their own. That's what they want. That's where they put their fear. They have this fear just underneath the service, the fear of uncertainty. What's this God going to do? Unknown. Where are we going? This fear of whether he's going to provide for us. We're going to go to this promised land. There's giants in the promised land. Can you not hear your own fears in the midst of their fears? And so they turn to an idol of their own making. Can I just can I beg you, church? Don't be arrogant. You are not better than them. I am not better than them. We are not smarter than them. We are like, I we have AI. Yeah, that's made us unequivocally dumber, okay? Like this, the next generation has a lower IQ than the previous generation. The first time in modern history that this has happened because of AI. A lot of it, okay? Like we're not smarter. And so we turn to our own idols and vices and things that are not God when these fears bubble up within us. And so they're at the bottom of this mountain. God actually says don't touch the mountain, or we have to kill you. You're like, buddy Jesus? Not really, not at the moment, okay? Which is why some of you are like, this is why I don't read the Old Testament. This is why just skip over to Matthew. I like Matthew, like the genealogy. I really like Luke. I like that, you know, nine-pound, eight-ounce little baby Jesus, right? But this is, make no mistake, this is our God. This is our God. And so he meets with Moses on the mountain. Moses comes off of the mountain, and you can read this. He's glowing so much that they cannot look upon him because of the glory of the Lord that's still reverberating off of Moses. Like Moses is a totally different and transformed person because he has encountered God face to face. And every time he encounters God, it changes like even the physical appearance of Moses, and the people are afraid. And rightfully so. They are in fear of the Lord. And right before they go into the promised land, they're being reminded of this moment in Deuteronomy chapter 10. So in Deuteronomy chapter 10, Moses is reminding them hey, you are about to go into the promised land. Joshua's gonna lead you. He's gonna lead you across the Jordan River. We're gonna part some rivers, a little smaller rivers, but the same kind of thing. And you're gonna walk across on dry land into the promised land, and then you've got battles to fight over there. And so Moses is reminding the people, hey, remember your history, remember what happened, remember God on that mountain. And he says, This, and now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the commands and decrees that I'm giving you today for your own good, for your own good, for your own pleasure, for you to live in the way of wisdom, the way of life, the way that provides for you, the way that is a fortress for you and for your family, for your good. What does God ask of you? Fear the Lord, walk in obedience, love him with all your heart and your soul, and observe the commands that you have been given this day. He wants to remind them this same ferocious God, this mighty God, this holy God who took you out of slavery. He's gonna lead you into the promised land. Do not fear what is over there. Do not get this wrong. Fear him, don't fear them. Fear him, revere him, lift him high, not those giants, not the people, not that situation. Revere him and him alone. That's what he's reminding them. But but wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Didn't that change with Jesus? Like Jesus came and now we like we're good, right? Like he's the ultimate sacrifice. God like got rid of the lightning bolt and the cloud and the big beard. Now he's now he's like a little bit more of like surfer dude guy, like you need he's like my homie, right? And he like might just want to skateboard with me or you know, snowboard or ski or whatever. Like that's didn't didn't that like we don't we don't have to deal with that anymore, right? Like the the God on the mountain. Or do we? Or do we? I've heard this rebuttal from lots of Christians within the church, but but when Jesus came, everything changed. Yes, yes, God put on flesh and and made his living among us. We covered that in the last series, right? He came to live among us in the midst of us. Yes, he did. But can I share a big theological word with you this evening? Immutable. Immutable. Do you know what that means? Never changing. You and I, we are not immutable, right? Like you're like, I changed my mind three times for before breakfast this morning. I didn't, you know. But God is not, He doesn't change, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He He was and He is and He is to come. Revelation makes that very, very clear repeatedly. This is our God. And so, yes, God comes in human form, but Jesus did not come to undermine this all. In fact, He came to fulfill all of this. In fact, He has teachings where he's open about how we should deal with the fear of the Lord. He says this do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Be afraid of the one, capital O, the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. So you don't have that one on a coffee cup, I bet. Right? He says, and he's talking to his followers about the religious leaders and about the Romans. He says, Don't be afraid of them if they persecute you, if they even kill you. Don't be afraid of them. Be afraid, lift high, revere the one who holds you body and soul in life and in death, that you belong to and were bought with the highest price possible, the blood of Jesus Christ. That is who you should revere. That is who you should fear. That is who should get your headspace, right? Like we let people live in our heads, don't we? You do this? You got you guys got bad soundtracks like me? You're like, that sounds like my father. I don't know. That sounds like that guy that said the thing to me in fifth grade, right? That sounds, that sounds like that that dude that was rude to me in traffic. Like, like these voices in our heads that we let have headspace, and we fear, listen to me, we fear those minute more than we fear God. It's gonna push on you. I'm gonna push on you. Some of you fear other human beings far more than you fear God. And you're like, I don't know why I'm so anxious, I do. I don't know why I'm so fearful, I do. Jesus does, because he's like, just lift me high, just lift me above, just entrust me with everything because I will take care of you. I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. But you're gonna fear all of these other things, and your life is gonna continue to spiral and spiral and spiral as you try to control and manipulate and do your own thing and make idols in your own form. And he's calling us back to the right way of thinking about things, and not just the right way of thinking, but the right way of walking in wisdom, that we might fear the Lord. Jesus modeled this for us, didn't he? We said this last week. When we look at Jesus, we look at the way of wisdom. When we see Jesus, he is wisdom. We sang this song too. Christ is our wisdom. And Jesus models for us what wisdom looks like because he's always pursuing the heavenly father. Is he not? He's sneaking away from his disciples and they're like, We got more ministry to do. And he's like, Yeah, but I got to go talk to my dad, right? And then he's like, they're like, hey, I think somebody's gonna try to kill you. And he's like, Yeah, but I'm gonna go up to the Mount of Olives and I'm gonna talk to my father, my heavenly father. And they're like, Well, but how should we pray? And he's like, You start like this our Father, who art in heaven, in that garden of Gethsemane, when he says, Father, not my will, but yours be done. He's submitting his own will to the will of the father. He's obsessed with hearing his father's voice, submitting to his father's will, obeying his father's commands. Why? Because he fears the Lord even though he is the Lord. Wrap your little mind around that one. I haven't figured that one out yet, okay? He let me say it again. That's the hard one. He fears the Lord even though he is the Lord. This is our God. This is our God. And he is one to be feared. That's why Isaiah, when he sees the Lord seated high, and the train of the Lord's robe fills the temple with glory, he's filled with terror. This is why when Mary engages with the angel, the angel first thing he has to say is, don't be afraid. When the shepherds that same night, when they when they heard from the angels, the angels appeared. The first things the angels had to say to them was, Do not be afraid. Why? Because rightly so, God is above. He is above, he's the only one to be feared. And I want to give you one more patriotic example of the fear of the Lord, and we'll close. So it is the 250th anniversary of um our country, which we haven't done everything right, but it's a pretty incredible place, is it not? I mean, I I'm sitting up here preaching, I've preached a lot of years in my life, and I'm so grateful to be able to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for those who have gone before me. I'm so grateful for the places that I've lived around this country. It's it's just incredible. And so I want to share a patriotic example because um who knows the first president? Anybody? Somebody, somebody help me with George Washington. Who got it? Okay, he at least got that one. Little little quiz though. Who was his vice president? I'm not gonna ask you, you know this, you don't get to do you'd know this. Who was the second who was who was who was his vice president and then was the second president of the United States? Anybody know? Adams, that's right. John Adams. Do you know the third? Do you know the third? What's that?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Oh, oh, okay, all right.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

What's up there, you guys? All right, got it. How many of you would have really got it? Like most of you? A few of you, okay. I true confession. I was like looking up Patriots and I was like, oh, he was the second president of the United States. Fantastic, right? Um, then we had a little quiz. I got a couple of them. I got like four, the first five, I think. Okay. Madison was one of them, by the way. Madison River. Anyway. Galton was not. There was not Galton. Okay. Jefferson was. Okay. So this patriotic uh example is John Adams. John Adams, second president of the United States, he was born into a farm family in Massachusetts. Um, humble family. Uh his father was a farmer, hardworking man. Um, and John Adams got interested in politics because it was an incredible time uh within the 13 colonies. And he was trying to figure out with this friend of his named Tom, Tom Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson, and him were trying to figure out like how how should we run things and how should we handle things and how can we declare our independence from England? And so John Adams gave himself to a political career that was above reproach. There are some decisions you can look up later in his career that you might be like, oh, I don't know about that. But but for the most part, he lived far above reproach. He was married to his wife Abigail for his entire married life. He loved her, he cherished her, he cared about her. When he was gone for a long time, it's well noted that he wrote her love letters over and over and over and over again, that they kept in great contact. She was she was his greatest confidant, he said. She would go, he would go to her and talk to her and share things with her. And they they lived this incredible marriage. They had several children, one of whom became the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams. Um, he he helped um create a system of checks and balances. He advocated heavily for a system of checks and balances within the government, saying we need we need to hold each other accountable and help each other. Uh, he was a congregationalist Christian, meaning he was a Christian who was part of a congregational church, a church that all functioned well and functioned together and declared Jesus each and every Sunday, twice actually on Sunday. He worked with Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was the first vice president of our country, the second president in the country's history. He spoke out about not having slaves and never owned a slave in his career. He was a man of great moral character who believed in a constitutional republic, but he only believed in it if the people were moral. And where did all that come from? Where did all that come from? Well, we have this little letter written to his son Thomas, and there's an excerpt that I think explains a lot of why he was, who he was, and a lot of why our country is who she is. And he says this the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and its practice is everlasting happiness. Reflect deeply and often upon your relations with God. Remember that it is in God that you live and you move and you have your being.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

What do you fear? Who do you fear? Let's pray. This is a this is a hard teaching.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

So we ask that you would penetrate our hearts, dividing, dividing and showing and revealing what is in our hearts. God, would you reveal to each of us the things we fear more than you, the things that we revere more than you, the things that we put more weight in than you. And Heavenly Father, I cry out for all of us in repentance to you for these, for these things that we hold in higher regard than you. Forgive us, God. We are a fallen and broken people in need of your forgiveness, in need of your grace, and in need of your mercy. We so often turn away from you. We so often go our own way. We are so often foolish, Jesus. And we are so grateful that you gave your life that we might have life in you. We revere you, Jesus, the name above all names.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

And it's in your name we pray. Amen.