Judge Not Jerk

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. Instead, faith in God is championed. The importance of obedience and following the teachings of Jesus is emphasized. The story of Solomon is used as an example of the consequences of operating in the flesh instead of the spirit. Obedience to God leads to peace, fulfillment, and joy. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Romans 13.3 For rulers are not a terror to good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the authority. Jesus welcomes us with open arms. When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive them. 1 John 1.9 When we accept that we have a sinful nature, believe in our hearts, Jesus paid the price for sin on the cross and was raised again to life, and confess that He is our Lord, we get saved. Romans 10.9-10 We are now new creatures, no sin nature. We still have flesh, and if we take our minds off Jesus, we can commit sin. 1 John 1.8 Jesus forgives us and will forgive us whenever we sin. Romans 8.1 There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Right about here, the world rolls its eyes and says, Sure, do what you want, and God wipes it clean. What hypocrites! But this promise of a clean slate is conditional. It isn't a magic eraser. You see, Romans 8.1 continues with, To those who are in Christ Jesus who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Being clean doesn't mean we can do what we want. Quite the opposite. We do not have permission. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? May it never be. We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Romans 6.1-2 We have a new nature. It is not only foreign to us to do what the flesh wants, it is distasteful. But the flesh has powerful habits. The world is all around us, ready to help lead us astray. How can we avoid doing things that we are dead to? By abiding in Jesus, of course. It is always and ever the only way to get things done. Jesus is the Word. And by getting into the Word, we can soak ourselves in His righteousness. Jesus extends grace to save us. Grace doesn't run our lives after conversion. Obedience does. We get grace to obey by remaining in Jesus. Because here's the thing about obedience. You can obey anyone you want to. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be. Don't you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness? Romans 6.15-16 We are to live lives obedient to Jesus, to the Father, lives holy and pleasing to God. It isn't about doing without. It isn't about losing opportunity or missing out on things. It's about taking up the yoke of Jesus and choosing to be restricted in our behavior in order to be right with God and then enjoy the authority in the kingdom that obedience gains you. There's a vast array of behaviors and thoughts that are flesh-based. I'm not talking about sex. We're raised and educated by the flesh. We're taught to live in a system based on flesh. As believers, we should be thinking spirit, not flesh. It doesn't ignore the flesh, the capital system, the trade system, the money system, the education system, the science system. It doesn't ignore that. But that's not our focus. Our focus is spirit, not flesh. Take a look at Solomon. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, 1 Kings 11. Verse 3 tells us how many many is. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. Okay, 700 wives who were princesses. So it's thought that many of those marriages were political in nature, solidifying treaties, trade agreements. Solomon had a vast empire. By marrying into the other kingdoms, it really meshed the whole region together. This just makes sense, doesn't it? We make political arrangements and agreements all the time. Look at Europe and what the royal family did, marrying into all those kingdoms. This is considered good politics, good nation-making, assuring safe borders and mutual benefit. But here's the thing. Why did Solomon need good nation-making? Why did he need political alliance? The Lord was his God and the God of his nation. The Lord could prosper them. The Lord could tell them what to say and where to say it. The Lord could ensure safe borders. The Lord could ensure security so that goodwill didn't need to be courted. And that's without them becoming bullies or ignorant to their neighbors. They don't have to be jerks. Solomon had ceased to looking to the Lord as his source. He was operating in the flesh and no longer paying attention to the Spirit. Now, back a few hundred years before that, when God was leading the Israelites up out of Egypt, before they had even thought to consider having a king, the Lord told them that they would ask for one. And he told them a few things about what kings should and shouldn't do. Deuteronomy 17, 17 says, He shall not multiply wives to himself that his heart not turn away. 1 Kings 11 shows us why the Lord said that so long ago. Why it was a wise warning. And why we know that Solomon was thinking flesh, not spirit. Because if he was thinking spirit, he would have been dwelling on the law and not forsook his teaching. 1 Kings 11, 1-8 tells the story. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, of the nations concerning which Yahweh said to the children of Israel, You shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon joined to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. His wives turned his heart away. When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with Yahweh, his God, as the heart of David, his father, was. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight and didn't go fully after Yahweh, as David, his father, did. Then Solomon built a high place for Shemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. So he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Don't judge him. Are we any better? Solomon was the wisest human of his time, and possibly of all time, 1 Kings 4, 29-34. In spite of that wisdom, he ignored the many warnings available to him, and he chose a path where he was thinking like just another person and not the path of the Spirit. We have the same choice. Will we operate according to our flesh or according to our spirit? Now, anything we do outside the Spirit, outside of faith, is wrong. Romans 14, 23. It doesn't mean it's evil. It means that it's out of the Spirit. It's out of fellowship with the Lord. The Lord is the source of all good things. James 1, 17, Psalm 16, 2. He wants good things for us. He doesn't withhold goodness from us, whether it's spiritual food or whether it's just entertainment. We need to be operating in faith 24-7-365 because anything else doesn't produce obedience. The flesh is selfish. The Spirit is pro-obeying. Obedience is the most important thing we can do because God can use someone who obeys. God can work through someone who will obey him. Jesus said, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavenly burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11, 28-30. Reverence and respect for the Father. Restraint by submitting to the authority of Jesus. These are not hard things. Not when we are spending time seeking the voice of Jesus in the Word. When we are thinking on the things of the Lord and are open to Holy Spirit leading us into revelation. When we sit under the teaching of men and women of God who were anointed to instruct us. When we make God the focus of our lives, not the pursuit of things. It's an adage in the West to participate in the freedom of the pursuit of happiness. But if we pursue God, happiness is a natural byproduct. If we soak in the Word, will, and wisdom of God, obedience, joyful, willing obedience, is a natural byproduct. All these things the world says we're missing out on, they are a distraction from true freedom, true happiness, and true fulfillment. When we do the things of the Lord, when we spend time with Him, we don't need to be fearful of God. The respect, reverence, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Sin has been paid for. God has turned His face to man full of peace and love, goodwill to mankind. What reason would we have to fear the Lord when we are joyful in our obedience to Him? Don't you want to hear well done from God? Luke 19, 17. Get a hug from Him. Obedience is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel 15, 22-23. And disobedience is a sure path to misery. Embrace the peace of following the Lord. Read His Word and open yourself to being changed by it. Be willing to go without temporary things the world tells you are normal and fun. Embrace a lifestyle that is full of peace, fulfillment, joy, and real pleasures. You won't miss the temporary things. You'll even start to wonder why you bothered with them in the first place. The yoke is light. The blessings are many, and it is very, very worth it. Don't be fearful of the Lord and what He might do. Reverence the Lord. Be respectful, worshipful, and let Him be your Lord and Savior. The smiles and fellowship you'll enjoy with Him are better than anything else in the universe. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Isaiah 43, 3-7. We are precious in the sight of the Lord God of heaven. It's true. He formed us and knew us while we were still in the womb. Now, I know that can be a touchy thing for some people, but the word doesn't lie. It isn't one verse. There are at least like 12 to 14 verses that state clearly God formed us in the womb, knew us in the womb, and has known us since we were in the womb. His interest starts when we are conceived, and it doesn't end. Ever. He made us. He watches over us. He desires to fellowship with us. He's looking forward to meeting us face-to-face. Really, His interest started before creation. He loves you. He can't get enough of you, and He never will. As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love, and no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you, just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent His only-born Son into the world, that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear, too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.