A True Encounter With God

Psalms says: “I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise

to the name of the Lord most high"

“I will sing unto the Lord because he halt dealt bountifully with me”

“I will sing, yea I will sing praise unto the Lord”

“Sing unto the Lord o ye his saints and give thanks…”

“Sing unto him a new song play skillfully with a loud noise”

“My tongue shall sing aloud if thy righteousness”

“I will sing of the mercies of the Lord”

“Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing and praise”

“I will sing as long as I live”

“I will sing praise unto my God while I have any being”

“Let everything that hath breath, praise ye the Lord”

I am glad that we come to church and can lift up the Lord right out loud!

I love singing songs, clapping and shouting in church just as much as the next guy, maybe even more!

Point:

But somewhere in your walk with God you have to grow beyond just a singing and shouting relationship with God. –you have to learn how to walk and live for God!!

Somewhere you have to reach the point that your relationship is an intimate one.

-it involves talking to him on a personal level not just singing about him.

Example: We all have someone we look up to, maybe it’s your boss, maybe it’s a friend at work or school, for some it could be your pastor or Sunday school teacher. We tend to talk about these people.

“ But we Just Sing Their Praises”

Do we really know the person? Do we know them as well as their spouses, or their family?

*This is what I’m preaching about this morning!

Having an encounter with God, more than just an emotional encounter but a true encounter with our Savior!

-we are the Bride of Christ and he wants to be intimate w/ us

I want to have an Encounter with Christ that does more than just excite me; I want to be changed forever!

I want a relationship with the Lord that isn’t based on just my “lip service” to him but its based upon my “heart service” for him.

Worshipping God isn’t just some method that we go thru.

Its not like playing the right note on an instrument or singing the right tune in a song, but

It’s having an actual encounter with the Lord of Lord, and King of Kings!

In Isaiah, we read where the man of God had an encounter with God.

Is. 6:1-8(read) 1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

This clearly shows us what happens to a person that has an encounter with God.

One thing that stands out in my mind is when Isaiah says : “I saw the Lord”

He didn’t have some kind of a nightmare or vision inspired by too much pizza the night before, or some bad Chile

-this was not a product of his imagination

-he was not making up some supernatural encounter

But Isaiah had a true, life-changing encounter with the Lord of Glory!

Where he was praying, the doorposts and the threshold shook like an earthquake.

The room filled with the holy smoke of God

I remember a few yrs ago, during an altar service the glory of God was so real that there was a blue haze, holy smoke in the sanctuary about 4 ft off the ground.

-we were having a life changing encounter with God.