Exodus 17 - Failure to Fear God
Tom Shrader launches a series on avoiding life's dumb mistakes by examining the Amalekites who attacked Israel without fearing God. He emphasizes that having a proper reverential awe of God - understanding who He truly is rather than creating a comfortable version - is foundational to everything else. Without this healthy fear of God, all other wisdom becomes meaningless because it leads to eternal destruction.
“If you don't get this right, then the rest of these don't matter - if you get all of these other seven right, but you miss this one, then it isn't going to make any difference at all, ultimately.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Dumb Mistakes: How to Avoid Them (2004)
Recorded: February 19, 2004
Duration: 42 min
Themes: fear, wisdom, reverence, respect, awe, humility, mistakes, foolishness, making poor decisions, lacking wisdom, new believer, struggling with priorities, young adult, seeking direction, feeling overconfident, mentor
Scripture: Exodus 17, Deuteronomy 25:17-19, 1 Samuel 15, 1 Chronicles 4, Luke 12, Proverbs
Theological Themes: fear of god, reverential awe, divine reverence, holy fear, biblical wisdom, godly respect, spiritual foundation, eternal perspective
Full Transcript
New series today. You saw it when you came in and grabbed your outline, hopefully. It's called Dumb Mistakes. Every time we put that series out, it's interesting to watch your response, because you hear people saying, "Where were you? I could have used this six months ago. Where were you when I met that jerk?" That kind of stuff is what we hear all the time.
I want you to see the subtitle of it: Dumb Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. When we're talking about dumb mistakes, yesterday I'm just on my way over to teach. I thought, you know what, I ought to go on the internet and just type in "dumb criminal mistakes," see what I find. I did find some great ones.
Criminal Stupidity at Its Finest
Here you go, let me read a couple of these to you. A man walked into a corner store with a shotgun, demanded all the money from the cash register. After the cashier put the money in the bag, as the man had instructed, he demanded a bottle of scotch he saw behind the counter. The cashier refused to hand over the scotch, because he did not believe the man was 21.
The robber swore he was 21, but still the clerk refused. Finally, the robber handed over his ID to prove that he was indeed 21. As soon as he left, the cashier called and gave the police the name and address of the man who just robbed the store, and the suspect was arrested two hours later.
I like this one. A man was arrested and charged in the robbery of vending machines. The man posted bail entirely in quarters.
A man in a hooded jacket approached a gas station clerk with a gun and demanded all the money. The clerk complied. When the robber returned home, the police were waiting. The jacket the man wore during the holdup was his high school varsity jacket. It had on his full name and the year he graduated.
The man robbed a 7-Eleven and made his getaway on foot. He ran through the woods, but the police had no trouble catching him. He was wearing a pair of LA Gear shoes, the kind that light up at night.
A man walked into a convenience store with a shotgun under his coat. He pointed at the cashier and demanded all the money. Suddenly, he saw a magazine he wanted to read. He put the gun on the counter and walked over to the rack. The cashier got the gun and held the thief at gunpoint until the police arrived.
Here's the last one. A man and his girlfriend were robbing a convenience store. While waiting for a boyfriend to finish getting the money, the woman noticed a contest entry form. Thinking it would be cool to win, she filled out the form completely with her name, address, and phone number. A few hours later, the police were at the couple's house to arrest them.
Learning from Others' Mistakes
Maybe you've done nothing that's been publicly ridiculed like that, but you have things in your life that maybe fit in that category. That's what this series is about. If you've been around, as you know, we try to redo series every three, four years. The idea is I've forgotten them, and obviously at that point you have, and we'll add new stuff along the way. This is a series that probably many of you have not been around to attend. We last did this over six years ago.
Now, the premise of the series is very simple. There are dumb things that you will inevitably do in your life, but is there a way to avoid them? Tom Clancy, in his novel Clear and Present Danger, at the beginning of that novel was describing characters. Of one of his characters, he wrote this: "Fundamentally, he was an amateur, though a gifted one, who learned from his mistakes readily enough, but lacked the formal training that might have enabled him to learn from the mistakes of others. And what was intelligence training but the institutional memory of lessons from the mistakes of others?"
Here you go. Basically, we've got three ways we're going to learn something. Number one is what we talk about all the time. When I say learn, you immediately think of it: go, get books, take a course, establish a curriculum, some formal dialogue. It may be in a large group, small group. But when we talk about learning, that's one thing we think of.
The second thing is what we call the school of hard knocks. I was just having this conversation—I don't know why, but I'm having a lot of these conversations lately. I'm talking to somebody the other day, and I said, "When did we get so smart?" His point was, "Well, I'm not sure we are that smart, but we're smarter than we used to be." Then he listed about 10 stupid things that we've done over the years. He said, "You know what? We've learned from those." That's the second way of learning.
The High Cost of Learning
The first way is a formal way. The second way is kind of this school of hard knocks. Here's what I've discovered: the tuition for both of those schools is very, very high.
There's a third way to learn, and that's what we're going to encourage you to do in this series. We're going to ask you to observe others—those who perhaps were successful and bright and people you'd want to emulate, or to observe those who perhaps failed, those who were not successful. Doesn't matter. In either case, to observe these people and to learn from them.
Now, when we sat down and plotted through the curriculum for these eight sessions, and we said, "Let's do dumb mistakes," we had a difficult time limiting it to eight. We really did. We had no problem picking the first one.
We've got things in here like the myth that a few drinks won't hurt you. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk a little bit about booze and drugs and all that stuff. We're going to talk about six or seven things just like that. It's important for you to figure them out—their money things, and all that other stuff.
The Foundation Mistake
But if you miss this one today, then the rest of these don't matter. If you get all of these other seven right, but you miss this one, then it isn't going to make any difference at all, ultimately. This is dumb mistake number one in the series, and it's dumb mistake number one that you can
Background
Here you go. Here's some background. If you have Bibles, you're welcome to open them to Exodus chapter 17. We're going to meet a group of people here, the Amalekites. Let me give you a little bit of background on the Amalekites.
You've got Abraham, and then you've got Isaac, and then you've got Jacob and Esau. If you go over to Esau's genealogy and trace it down, from there, as you read through the scripture, you see all these "bites" and "mites." They're all flowing generally out of Esau. Amalek, for whom the Amalekites are named, Amalek is a grandson of Esau. The Amalekites were perennial enemies of the nation of Israel.
When we say Exodus, you should at least, I think, even with just a casual knowledge here, you should immediately go to the nation of Israel wandering in the desert. In fact, this could have been dumb mistake number two. They took what should have been a two-week journey and turned it into 40 years. They're wandering.
The Logistical Nightmare
Think about it, if you would, for just a second. One of the great challenges we always have is to say, let's make sure we understand the humanity of this thing. Moses is leading a group of Israelites through the desert. Do you remember the size of this group? About two million people. And there are no provisions along the way. There's no Albertsons. There's no convenience stores. There's no hotels.
When we travel, well, now it's easy because it's just Susan and me are easier. But when we used to travel with the girls, when we'd go on summer vacation, we'd travel very heavy. We would have one suitcase that would be just toys, books, stuff for the kids. And then each girl would have a suitcase. And then Susan would have a suitcase.
But I travel really heavy. I would have a bag that would just be books and hats and shoes. And then I'd have another bag that would be slacks and jeans and shorts and some shirts. And then I'd have another bag, a carry bag, that would have with it the more dressy shirts and jackets and coats. And then I'd have my golf bag. And that's just for the weekend. That's just for a couple of days going down.
But I travel very heavy. It's stupid. I'm really getting really good at this now. But we go, and I always wear shorts. I might wear a pair of jeans. I never wear slacks. Yet I'd take all that. We'd be taking all of these things. And we'd have stops along the way. And that's four of us trying to get to Sea Ranch.
This is two million people. It's a logistical nightmare.
The Amalekite Attack
In the midst of this, and we'll see a little bit of how they did it in a minute, but in the midst of this, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites. And Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go and fight the Amalekites." By the way, a huge charge that is, because they have no army, no training, no preparation for this. You get these rank amateurs and you go fight the warriors. "Tomorrow, I'll stand on top of the hill with a staff of God in my hand."
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses and Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. And as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, one on the other, so that his hands remained steady until sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it." Make sure you understand. Remember this? Here's the line of succession here. This is the first time in the book of Exodus we hear of Joshua. He is the heir to the job, the description, the position that Moses had. So here's this extraordinary event. And the Lord comes. God says to Moses, "Write this baby down." Key word in there: remember.
The Importance of Memory
Let me hit the pause button for a second and apply that to our life. It is so important for you and me to have vivid memories of the past. And I understand there's some really yucky stuff back there, but even there, I think you need to remember them and value them so they remind you of the results of bad decision and sin. But an even greater point here is you want to be able to say, "Look how God worked. Look what God did." Do you understand that?
This whole Christian thing, this is a journey. This is not, you know this, not a sprint, it's a marathon. And there's two components to it. We talk about it all the time. It's a science class. There's classroom and there's laboratory.
This is the classroom. If you're not doing well in here, if your spiritual life isn't doing well here, you're really in trouble. If you can't stay focused in here, you're in trouble. This is the classroom. This isn't the test. The test is out there. It's in the laboratory, isn't it? It's at 7:45 when we say, "All right, amen. See you next week." And down those stairs you go and out into what people might fondly call the real world.
How God Works Through Memory
As you do that over a period of time, here's what happens if you have a walk with the Lord. You begin to see God work. And now, as you experience things in the laboratory, all of a sudden that vivid memory kicks in. And you say, "You know what? I think I've seen this movie before. I think I've been in a situation like this before. I think I've had a trial like this. Maybe not identical, but very, very similar. Circumstantially, maybe a little bit different. Substantially, the same. And you know what I remember? I remember..."
what God did. I remember how He responded. I remember that all He wanted me to do was obey. And when I was obeying, He was so faithful. I remember I didn't even know what to do. And God intervened. At the time I didn't even know it. But as I sit and I look back, it's undeniable that God orchestrated these things. That's so important.
As you read through the scripture and even into the New Testament, as they're talking to the Jews, they'll talk to them again. Remember your fathers. Well, what should you remember? Well, remember they're wandering around in the desert with no food, no beverage, nothing. And God met all of their needs. What's the lesson? The lesson is God's faithful and He'll meet your needs. That's the lesson. So important in this story.
Moses Builds an Altar
Moses builds an altar. Let's finish it out. I want to get this. Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. Moses built an altar, called it the Lord is my banner. He said, for our hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord. The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. That's the background.
This is not a story about Moses. This is not a story about Joshua. This is not a story about the Israelites, or the Amalekites, or Amalek. This is a story about who? God. This is a story about God. And while along the way there's these very interesting cameo appearances that are made by some of these fascinating characters, the main figure in all of scripture is God. It's a story about God and His relationship to mankind. This is about God. That staff is the presence of God.
Now I'll tell you what He's not doing here. He's not giving you a battle plan for attack. I would assume there's not one military man over in Iraq who's reading this and saying, "OK, here's what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm going to get a staff, and I'm going to have one guy on one side and one guy on the other. And you hold me up, and that's how we're going to conquer the Iraqis." This is a story about God.
The Dumb Mistake Revealed
Here is the dumb mistake. Deuteronomy 25, verse 17-19. Fast forward a few years. "Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on the journey and cut off all who were lagging behind. They had no fear of God."
Here's what's happening. You've got this caravan of two million people. I walked the other day, and I was walking from one building to the other on campus, and they were moving some kindergarten kids from one room to another. And that was the equivalent of what Moses is doing right here with these two million people. And they're walking along, and there's kids, and they're kind of drifting. And then you've got all the girls are lined up, and they're just going. And the boys are kind of drifting, and some are over here. And one, they're whacking each other in the head. So they're trying to go boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. So now they're whacking the girls in the head, and they've got all this problem. But they would have been easy to just pick some of them off.
That's what's happening. Two million people. The Amalekites, it's not a frontal attack. They're just waiting, and as people drift away, they'll kind of isolate them. Bam, they got them. And they'd been warned. They had no fear of God.
"When the Lord your God gives you rest from all your enemies around you in the land, He is going to give you to possess as inheritance. You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. Do not forget." Here's the promise. Here are these guys. We've fast forwarded a couple years now, and God hasn't forgotten. He said, "You remember this, and you remember what they're doing, and you remember this attack, and there's going to be a time when you're going to land in this area that God has given you. When you get there, and now you're at peace with all your enemies, I want you to deal with these Amalekites, and I want you to be aggressive with them."
Dumb Mistake Number One
Now here we go. We're into the meat of this now. Dumb mistake number one. You see it right there in the text. What's dumb mistake number one? They had no fear of God. You mess this up, the other stuff doesn't matter.
Here's what we're going to do today, and this is going to be a special challenge, frankly. If you're here for the first time, or you're new to the study, you're going to get very uncomfortable in a minute or two. Probably a little bit annoyed, maybe bothered, probably a little angry, because we're going to talk about God. Unfortunately, you live in a culture that when they talk about God, they don't want to really define God very much. They want to just allow God to be whatever He is. What we're going to look at is the God of the Bible. It's important for you to have an accurate understanding of God, and who He is, and your relationship with Him.
A Dude Ranch Illustration
Let me give you, from my past, kind of a silly, but hopefully helpful illustration. Probably ten years ago, maybe longer now, I was invited up to Montana to a dude ranch. And being a dude, I thought I should go. So this is a dude ranch that was just opening, brand new, we were the first people in. Built by some very wealthy people out of Dallas. If I was ever going to go to a dude ranch, this was it. At night, they turned down our beds and put chocolates on the pillows. We had our own chef. We also had, in from New York City, a pastry chef. All he did was the pastries for the trip.
So I arrived, and there's five of us. There's a wrangler, there's the guy that owns it, two guys, and myself. So we're driving in and they've picked us up, we're driving in and they said what are we going to do. They said something about a riding horse. I said, "Well, I've never been on a horse." And they kind of just ignored that so we
Got there. Got checked in. We're a day early. Everybody's coming in the next day and they said, "Let's go for a ride." I said, "Perfect." I headed over to the Jeep. What else would you do? I'm going to the Jeep. They said, "No, we're going to ride horses." I said, "Guys, I've never been on a horse. In fact, this is the first horse I've ever seen that didn't have a number on it."
You've got to understand something. This is a whole new adventure to me. I don't know if they thought I was kidding or not. So I get on, and somehow I read enough to know if you pull right it goes right, you pull left it goes left. The last Marlboro commercial that was ever filmed and shown on television was filmed in this meadow. It is gorgeous. We're riding through the meadow. So far, no problem.
We go over the bridge, and on the other side there's a stream. On the other side is a 350-foot just straight up cliff. Now we get there and they say, "Well, we're going to go up the cliff." There's this roadway, and you go up about 50 feet and then it kind of kicks over and grades gradually into this huge grassy area that just slowly ascends to 350 feet. So we're there. The wrangler who was born on a horse, the owner who's ridden horses all his life, two guys who, unbeknownst to me, have ridden horses for decades, and myself. They said, "That's the way we're going to take all the guests. Why don't we just go right up the cliff?" I don't know, and they said, "Fine." So away they go.
A Dangerous Ride
We go up single file. It's about three feet wide, and I'm really impressed with my horse. I'm the last one because I just didn't understand that a horse could do this. But shale—I mean, one shale and you're gone. I'm watching these rocks. They would go over the edge and then just slowly drift and then explode into the stream. We get up toward the top, and all of a sudden the wrangler—now we're up 340 feet straight up at this point—makes a hard right and up they go. Then the owner, then the other guy, then the other guy.
Well, my horse—we start up, and then my horse kind of goes this way. I'm thinking, "I love this. I got a horse with an independent mind. He knows what he wants to do. He knows something better." Well, we start up, and all of a sudden he starts to lose his footing. I instinctively pull back. Well, no one told me that's reverse. Nobody told me that. How would I know that? The horse swings around and starts to slide, then stops.
I don't know what to do. I'm leaning back. There's a saddle horn, the horse's ears, and the stream 350 feet straight down. The wrangler comes over the edge of this hill like the man from Snowy River. Grabs this horse, grabs it like this, says, "Get off." I said, "What?" He said, "Get off." So I get off. I get up. He pulls, and it takes a while. He pulls the horse up, and the wrangler—this guy's an old cowboy—is just sitting there shaking like this. He said, "You don't understand. That horse's front hooves were almost entirely over. You were seconds away from going straight over the edge."
Interesting, but we've got a problem. I got to get back home. And I did. I climbed back on that horse. Here's what I want you to understand: I climbed back on that horse with a whole new understanding of the relationship between me and the horse. All of a sudden I had a healthy respect for that horse and who he was and what he was about.
Redefining Our Relationship with God
Inadequate illustration, but maybe you get the point. Lots of people have become very familiar with God, and they're very comfortable to jump on and to saddle up because it's a God that they've created. We're going to look at some very tough stuff today. We're going to watch God wipe out people—women, children—and you're going to have a gut reaction: "Wait a minute. My God would never..."
When you say that, here's what you're saying. Subtle, but true: if I were God, I'd never do that. Or you're saying, "My God—the God I've shaped in my image and my mind—He would never do this." What we're going to try to do is get an accurate view of God and who He is.
Predicting Our Spiritual Climate
I had this idea the other day, and it turned out to be a great one. I went back and pulled a book off my shelf that's dated March 1990. It's "Megatrends 2000"—what John Naisbitt said was going to happen in the last decade of the last century. You know what? He absolutely nailed this stuff cold. He talked about global free markets. He talked about renaissance of the arts. He talked about an economic boom. He talked about privatization of welfare. He talked about the '90s being the decade of women in leadership. He talked about an age of biology.
Here's what he also talked about: religious revival. He goes in and dissects it, and here's what he talks about. He talks about how everything is beginning to change, how the mainline denominations are losing people. People aren't going to those churches, yet they're becoming very, very religious. Here's what he says: "In times of turbulence"—that'd be like the times you live in—"in times of turbulence and great change, people head in one of two extremes: fundamentalism or personal spiritual experience."
Is that not exactly where we are? Where you walk into a Borders and you've got racks and racks and racks of spirituality books that are based on you and what you feel and what you think? Wouldn't you admit, some of you that maybe you're new here and you haven't been around, that if I ask you about God and I push you and say, "Why do you think that? Why do you think that? Why do you think that?" you'd have to admit you'd go, "I don't really know. It seems like it ought to be that way."
When Naisbitt nails it, he talks about fundamentalism. Here's what he says, and he quotes from Humanist Magazine—so it may not be the most impartial...
The Problem with Fundamentalism
When most people hear the word "fundamentalism," they think of something authoritarian, intolerant, and repulsive. They picture a mindset that wants to impose itself on the rest of society, one that sees everything as black and white and for which compromise is alien. So when we ask you to be a fundamentalist, that doesn't look very appealing, does it?
But let me suggest something different. I watch a lot of golf—it helps me sleep. When I'm watching and Jim Furyk is up there, and they play his swing back, here's what the commentators say: "The swing is fundamentally sound. The takeaway's right, the club's in the right spot at the top, and at impact everything's square." There's nothing wrong with fundamentalism.
We're going to fly over to Burbank in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking for a fundamentalist pilot—one hung up on all the basics of navigation, landing, wheels down, all those things. There's nothing wrong with fundamentals.
God Sees the World as Black and White
Here's the deal: God sees the world as black and white. So it only stands to reason that the more I get to know Him—and how would I do that? By the study of this Word—the more I get to know Him, I become black and white. I don't believe God's in heaven going, "Man, I got to rethink this marriage thing. These are compelling arguments they're making here in the Massachusetts Supreme Court. I never even considered this."
God's not perplexed by the world we live in. And I am telling you, as you get to see the world more and more as He does, you will begin to see things more and more black and white. You're going to have a worldview like God's. And in the midst of difficult times, you're going to run one of two ways: your own religion or God's religion.
I've used the illustration about math: 2 plus 2 is 4. We've reached a time when we're going, "If you feel like it's 5, maybe it's 5." Here's one of the cards somebody gave me the other day—one of the deep thought cards. I love it: "Instead of having answers on a math test, they should call them impressions. And if you got a different impression, so what? Can't we all be brothers?"
No is the answer, you moron. 2 plus 2 is 4. And if you don't get that right, you're never going to get calculus or algebra.
The Fear of God is the Beginning of Knowledge
So the dumb mistake is that they did not fear God. The author of Proverbs tells us that the fear of God is the beginning of all knowledge. When we're talking about fear of God, we don't mean cowering in a corner. We mean a healthy understanding of who He is. A far better term for us would be reverential awe of God—understanding who He is and understanding our right relationship with Him. And if you don't get it right, there's a price to pay.
Their mistake? They didn't fear God. The result? Well, we fast forward 350 years. How about that? 350 years.
God's Judgment After 350 Years
1 Samuel 15, 1 Chronicles 4: "Samuel said to Saul, 'I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over the people of Israel. So listen now to the message from the Lord. This is what the Lord says: I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go and attack the Amalekites and destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them. Put to death men and women and children and infants, cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys.'"
You respond to that? You feel that? You have a visceral response to that? Doesn't your heart want to scream, "That's not fair! What did the donkey do? Plus all of these people are generations removed."
We don't want to read too much into this story. I don't want to get into a bunch of generational curses and all this other stuff. See the point. See what God's saying. God's saying, "You know what? If you don't fear Me..." And here you go: "I don't like that God of the Old Testament. I don't like that God of the Old Testament. Judgment, wrath." How long do you want Him to wait? He waited 350 years and they didn't respond.
The Consequence of Not Fearing God
Here's the result: If I do not have a healthy fear of God and who He is, then you need to understand that you will be destroyed. It will either get you here, in this world, or in heaven.
I got a call on Monday or Tuesday—I don't remember what day—saying that there was a lady, not really from our church, but when she was down here she'd come to our church, and she had died. The husband asked if I would come and speak at the funeral. They really don't know many people down here. There will be people that will be there for the very first time, that really aren't church people, that just knew her a little bit. "Will you come and do that?" And I said, "Sure, yeah."
So I'm in there yesterday. People are fascinating. Here's a room, here's an aisle. I'd say 100 people in the room. I'm not lying to you: 96 of them sitting on this side of the room. I thought it was so weird. And I said, "This is weird. I don't know what it means, but it means something."
A Funeral Message About Reality
"I don't know you, any of you." That was my introduction. "I don't know any of you. And to be really honest, I didn't know Virginia. Which would make you ask, why am I here? I'm here because they invited me to deliver one message."
And you gotta get the scene now. Here's the body. Right behind me is the body—casket, open casket, right here. And these are older people. So you gotta—I'm not kidding you—probably the youngest person that I'm looking at over on this side, 63, 64, 65. So they're all teeing off on the 16th, 17th, 18th hole of life. I mean, these people aren't—and that's what I said. I said, "I'm sure you feel middle-aged, but you're not going to live to be 140, so you aren't."
"And here's what you need to get. And I said, I know you don't know me from a post, so I don't mean to be offensive. You see her here? This is where you're going to be not too long from now. And you better figure that out."
There's no way to avoid it. What happens? Great moment, great illustration. There wasn't anybody dozing in the midst of this. I said, hey, I love you. It's not that I don't care. I'm just telling you, you're not going to avoid this. Does anybody here think you're going to avoid this? Because you aren't.
What happens then? I know you've got Ann Landers' view, and then you've got what Oprah says, but here's the deal. Is there a right answer? I believe there is. It's right here. It's this book that doesn't contain some truth, but is truth.
In this book, here's what it says. It says that if I believe Jesus is who He said He was, and if I understand that I'm a sinner and separated from Him, heaven is my home as certain as I'm standing here right now. There she is. We honestly believe that today she's with the Lord. That just isn't idle speculation or wishful thinking.
The Reality About Heaven and Hell
I go to lots of funerals. I go to lots of funerals of guys who don't know Christ, don't care about Christ, don't go to church, don't read a Bible. There's nothing in there that would indicate any interest for Christ. I'll watch these guys stand up, and they'll say, "You know, I know Bob's up there looking down on us now." No, he's not. He's down there looking up on us saying, "Why didn't you tell me something?"
That was my point. I said, if this lady could come back right now, what do you think she'd say? In your mind, you're thinking she'd run to her family. She'd run to her husband. No, she wouldn't. She'd run to you, her friends who don't know Christ and say, "There's a hell. There's a hell to shun and a heaven to gain. God is a righteous God that will not be mocked. All dogs don't go to heaven. It's not just be a good person. It's know Him and understand who He is and look at His judgment and look at the way He works."
The Principle of Fearing God
Now we're into the principle. What's the principle? What's Luke 12? "I tell you, my friends, don't be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you who you should fear. Fear Him who after killing the body has the power to throw you into hell." There's the issue.
I know all of the objections. I know all of the "Well, you know what, that's too narrow. Whatever." I didn't make the rules. I thought coming into this world was fairly narrow myself. One birth canal, one way. Nobody got beamed down here. Fairly narrow way to get in. There's only one way to heaven. We don't make the rules.
"I don't like religion. Hypocrites. You've got hypocrites all over." I got it. I understand it. I am one. I know how you feel. I know what it's like to watch people who say Jesus is the only way and He's changed my life and then watch them sin. I know that becomes an easy excuse for you, but it doesn't remove your responsibility.
"I can worship God on the golf course." I know you can. I hear Him out there. I hear His name called all over the joint when I'm out there. But I've got to tell you something. There's nobody worshiping Him.
This Is the Big Deal
This is a real serious issue. If you mess this up, then nothing else matters. We'll talk about booze in a couple of weeks. Here's what I'm going to advocate. I'm going to advocate you stay sober. Not "stop the press" kind of information. But let's say right now you're in here and you're struggling a little bit. You throw a little down once in a while. Maybe once a month. You get a little juice too much. Let's say you stop that. That's good. Probably the family would like it. Your friends would like it. You won't be as good a dancer, but everything else will be alright.
Here's the problem. If you don't get this right, you're just going to be sober for all eternity in hell. This is the big deal here. It's fear God. We don't have this anymore. You don't live in a world that fears God.
Our Theology Doesn't Go High Enough or Low Enough
A.W. Tozer said this a few years ago. "The problem with our theology is twofold. It does not ascend high enough or descend low enough."
It does not ascend high enough. Remember Kirk Gibson. They just showed this the other day. It's that big home run. World Series game. Run around the bases. That night in the post-game interview, here's what Gibson said: "The big guy upstairs was a Dodger today." Couple of things. First of all, if He's going to be a baseball fan, He's got to be a Cubs fan. Why? They need the help. And He's not a "big guy upstairs." That's how we are. We see God as kind of this giant Santa Claus type of figure. We see our sin as little "boys will be boys." No.
The Reality of What Jesus Endured
Here's what's going to happen. A week from yesterday that Mel Gibson movie comes out. We're going to take our staff on Tuesday night and get a little preview of the thing. I dread this. I didn't see Braveheart. I didn't see Saving Private Ryan. I didn't see Patriot. I don't see these kinds of shows. Whatever those were, whatever Braveheart was, whatever that gruesome level was, ramp it up about ten. Because that's what you're going to see.
What you're going to see—you know you hear this all the time, "Jesus died for my sin"—I think you're going to have a more graphic understanding of physically what He went through. What the movie lacks, and you need to be ready, and again we've got 600 books on order and hopefully they'll be here for us to give to you next week, is to be able to talk to people about not that He died but why did He die.
We're Afraid of People Instead of God
We're afraid of people, aren't we? It's amazing, you're 45 or 50 years old and you still care what people think. You wear a certain shirt, you drive a certain car, join a certain club, work at a certain place, eat at a certain restaurant. It really does matter to you what people think, and there's an appropriate level of that. You're really worried about people, that's why I just chuckle when people—
Say, "Oh these teenagers are so susceptible to peer pressure." Really? Well I've never seen them outgrow it. I deal with their parents and instead of buying a $125 pair of gym shoes, they're buying a $500,000 house just to impress a bunch of people that they frankly don't even care about. You should not be worried about other people, you should be worried about the one true God.
The point that Jesus makes in Luke's gospel is this: because He has powers beyond this life. This is not a secondary issue, this is the main issue. Dumb mistake number one: to not fear God.
The Solution
The remedy is to come to Christ in repentance and faith. What does that mean? If you're here and you don't know what that means, why don't you talk to the person that invited you? Ask them what it means. What does it mean to be a Christian?
Next week we'll pick up right there with dumb mistake number two.
Father, thank you for this truth, these words, thank you for the men and women that are here. I understand what a price they pay to get up early in the morning to be here and I pray this is helpful, I pray it's encouraging. For those for whom this might be new information, God I pray that You'd use this in their life. That You bring them to a point that they would really understand that it is stupid, dumb, to say I'm going to worship a God of my own creation. But to understand that You, the creator God, have spoken to us, You've given us this word, the word is true and we believe it and God You and Your son Jesus are the only path to eternal life. God we pray that to You in Christ's name, amen.
Have a great week, we'll see you next week.