Heaven & Hell: Week 1

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Some people like to think that “fearing God” simply means “respecting God” or being in awe of God. While that’s partly true, it’s not the whole truth. The incredible justice and righteousness of God gets left out of some of our depictions of God because we don’t like dealing with the fact that we are all accountable to Him, and being on the wrathful side of God means we have to face up to things in our lives that don’t belong there. But if we’re going to accept the truth, we need to accept that God’s love and God’s justice are both equally part of His character. We can water down our understanding of God to make it suit what we want, but that doesn't make it true.

Check out this week's heavy message from Lead Pastor Rich Ryfun as he kicks off our new sermon series, "Heaven and Hell."