I'm sorry that I'm not getting enough time to post these up but here's one that we did for today! I'll upload some more I haven't done over the Thanksgiving weekend!
Reverence
Reverence is the true response that leads to worship to all that come before God. It is recognizing and honoring the authority of God with awe and fear because He is God, and He is more awesome than anything or anyone--period. It also means respecting people, not just because of their position and authority, but as brothers and sisters in the Lord, regardless of their personality, and knowing He loves them too!
Hatred, disdain, disloyalty, and comtempt are the opposites. With these attitudes, we will flee from God's love and precepts, ignore His call, and just do our own thing. We will have no fear of God; we will do as we please, thus placing us on a path of chaos, strife, and destruction. We will have no desire to serve Him, or do the right thing, outside of obligation. We will miss out on true intimacy with Him, destroy relationships, hinder growth in ourselves, others, our church, and miss out on the process of maturity, as well as the wonder of His plan.
Here are positive examples from Scripture
Exodus 3:1-6
He's so Holy. The fear of God has no speck of sin. Wherever God's presence is, it is holy ground Moses shows a positive example as he hides his face from God because he is ashamed of his sins and he can't compare himself to God. God is so holy and the ground where his presence laid was holy ground; Moses was to take off his shoes.
God's holiness = reverence
1 Samuel 26:6-12
Reverence is trusting that God is in full control. David here fears God over man and knows that Saul was God's annointed one. He trusted that God would take care of Saul and respected Him by not killing him. It would have made everything easier and the fighting would end quicker but David knew he was not to mess with God because he feared God over man.
Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah is in the presence of the Lord! He describes the seraphs with six wings and just the incredible sight of it all. After he takes in all this, he immediately realizes he is sinful. He thinks he's going to die because of the sin he has compared to God who was right in front of him. However the seraph comes and puts a coal in his lips and says that his guilt is taken away and his sin atoned for. Wow! This is an awesome example of reverence: God's power of forgiveness.
Revelation 4:9-11
It shows that God is worthy to receive glory and honor to the highest and God is the only one who is worthy HOWEVER sometimes we give it to someone or something else. We give our attention and the value of worth to other things like boyfriend/girlfriend, media, games, drinking, gambling, etc. That's why we only praise God. Because he is SO worth it and nothing else can compare.
Here are some negative examples from Scripture
2 Samuel 16:20-23
This connects to 1 Samuel 26:6-12. David didn't attack Saul because he was God's chosen and so in fear of God, David did not touch Saul. However, David was also God's chosen one but Absalom still attacked David, his own father. In this way, Absalom shows a negative example of reverence because he feared man over God which is definitely not the right choice.
Malachi 1:6-8
In here, their motives are not clear. They are trying to fool God by trying to pass diseased animals as sacrifice. We are supposed to give God the best and they gave Him the worst.
--->Don't deceive or mock God (Galatian 6:7-8)
---> not giving the best (also note Cain here. God looked at Abel's sacrifice over Cain's because Cain did not give God the best and with all his heart)
---> motive was wrong. We have to give God a living sacrifice. Our "living sacrifice" from the Old Testament to modern version is our genuine worship for God. When you don't give God the best you're basically saying, "God, you're not good enough."
Luke 23:39-43
I guess this is a positive and negative example. A negative example, one of the prisoner ridiculed and mocked Jesus because he had no fear for God. However the second prisoner knew that only Jesus would bring Him and acknowledged that Jesus was the way. He feared God.
Define Reverence...
1) God's holiness (Exodus 3:1-6)
2) Trusting God is in full control (1 Samuel 3:1-6)
3) Forgiveness and God's holiness (Isaiah 6:1-8)
4) He is worthy (Revelation 4:9-11)
5) giving our best (Malachi 1:6-8)
Reflection qestion...
1) In what sitution did/do you fail to be respectful to someone when you should have been?
2) What issues in your life would improve with being more revere?
3) Should we revere God, if so, why?
Shining Star Community Church
Falls Church, Virginia
In[2]Him Ministry
