THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS

Solomon concludes his remarkable book, Ecclesiastes, by saying, "...hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep His commandments...for God shall bring every work into judgment."

1. Fear God.

2. Keep His commandments.

3. Live as if you know judgment is coming.

He writes this fantastic book with wonderful lessons for living, and when he wraps it up he presents these three concepts as the "conclusion of the whole matter." The most important thing he could pass on to us was to fear God, to obey His Word, and to live as if we're going to be judged for how we live.

When you think about it, it's easy to agree with him.

FEAR GOD. I'm not sure we do much of that. In my youth in the 60's churches were just starting to build gyms and game rooms and try to attract people based on the fun they could have, not on the truth they would be taught. And in keeping with the new direction they stopped telling us to fear God lest we confuse "fear" with "being afraid."

They didn't want us to "be afraid" of God. So now we're looking at a generation which was raised on having "fun" at church, being catered to instead of serving, and having no fear of God. And maybe for the first time since the founding of America churches are on the decline in growth. Interesting, isn't it?

Solomon was right. The most important thing is to fear God, even if you can't separate the meaning of "fear" from "being afraid."

I feared my dad when I was a boy. I knew he wouldn't beat me. But I knew he could. And because I feared him, when he told me to do something I OBEYED him. Because I was afraid not to.

When you live that way, it seems you always suspect you're going to get caught, so even when I was away from my dad, if my buddies wanted to do something that I knew Dad would not approve of, I found that I couldn't. I was afraid that he might somehow find out. And he'd be disappointed in me.

In some way,then, all three of these things work hand in hand. If we FEAR God, we will be more likely to OBEY His Word. Even though we can't see Him, and can't tell for sure that He is present, we conduct ourselves as if He will surely find out what we do. So we act right because we think JUDGMENT might be coming.

And all the other rules or regulations, truths and boundaries, are almost completely unnecessary, because a proper and healthy fear keeps us living the way we know we should.

Maybe it's time for this generation to resurrect fear of God. We Christians might behave better if we thought judgment was coming.

This sermon video is available online at www.graceistheplace.com