A Genuine Encounter With God

A Genuine Encounter with God

Exodus 3

Matthew 7:20-28

Introduction:

Several years ago I attended a Promise Keeper event in Indianapolis, Indiana along with several men from the church I was Pastoring.

I suppose there were over 50,000 men in that Sports Dome for a Promise Keeper conference.

One man attended the Promise Keeper conference and while he was there the Holy Spirit began to talk to him about reconciling with his father.

He said, "The next morning all was fine until I went to the restroom at a local restaurant. But then I became convicted by the Holy Spirit and began weeping heavily. I prayed to God and asked what He would have me do, and I was aware that I needed to call my dad as soon as possible. I thought about putting it off and was convicted again to do it right away.

"I found a pay phone, and through sobbing, I somehow managed to ask my dad to forgive me for the bitterness and the anger I had held for him over the previous two years. I forgive him as well, as he told me for the first time in my life that he loved me. Praise the Lord for this victory!"

God still needs men and women who will give themselves to prayer, obedience and being sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit to go and to do whatever He tells them to go or do.

I certainly believe in my heart that our nation today needs a Holy Ghost Revival that will turn America upside down, humble America and make our nation and turn them to dependence upon God once again.

It is our only salvation for now and in the future.

Why do we need this now?

Why would men and women want to awaken to the fact that God is wanting them to sacrifice their time and their effort?

I want to make a statement and then I want us to take a good look at that statement that if we don't awaken spiritually as a nation, God is going to cast judgment upon our nation.

Another thing I believe is and this includes all of us here - We are at the threshold of a Spiritual Awakening if we meet God's conditions.

If we don't meet His conditions and are obedient to Him, then I do believe the Nation we love and live in is going to go spiraling downward to judgment.

The time has come for every one of us to face the spiritual facts:

While the General Church across this nation has been asleep in our routines, religious indifference and disobedience, Satan and his demons have been busy attacking relentlessly the moral fibers and cutting away at the spiritual heritage of America.

As Believers and Americans of this nation we are at a crossroads.

If we don't respond now, time could be running out for our nation and for our churches.

I personally believe there is a subtle attack to bring down Christianity and the freedom to worship God as we know it by those who are representing extreme radical movements such as Islam.

On Wednesday evenings I have started a class called: Experiencing God, by Henry Blackaby.

Presently there are 17 of us who are very serious about an encounter with God in these last days.

I want to ask you to listen to God and His Holy Spirit to give you a kind of a spiritual hunger that will produce a change and a desire to be changed to the Christian believer God really wants you to be.

I want to ask you another question this morning before I begin this sermon:

Are you sure without a doubt that you are a Christian believer?

I will address this question again at the end of this sermon.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said "that whoever heard His words and put them into practice was like a 'wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.'" Matthew 7:24-25

Some day in the future the final storm is going to come and only those who have their spiritual lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ will be saved.

I'm sure all of us have been aware of the many earthquakes and natural disasters that have all of sudden began to rock our planet.

Haiti

Indonesia

China

Mexico

Southern California

A Cyclone in India

And the list goes on and on.

All of us our aware of the physical trials many people are facing.

We should be aware of the very real fact of Spiritual Warfare.