Encounters - The Proof Of His Presence

Encounters?

The Proof of His Presence

I. Introduction

I like guarantees! I want financial plans that guarantee returns. I want an exercise program that will guarantee weight loss. I want a doctor that can guarantee healing. In life guarantees are preferred but often hard to find. There are so many promises made that aren't fulfilled or kept and so guarantees seem to be rare these days. However, I want to tell you about one guarantee that you can take to the bank. There is no doubt about it, this promise is never not fulfilled. Here it is . . . Matthew 8:20 guarantees that when 2 or 3 of us gather in Jesus' name His presence is a given. We can't escape it. We can expect it. We can rest in it. He will be here! Guaranteed. So that guarantee means there isn’t a gathering that we have that there is only the potential of encountering God. We don't gather hoping He will be here. We don't have to be afraid that maybe He decided to take a break this Sunday. We can rest in the fact that when we gather, we have the opportunity to encounter God. In fact, if we don’t experience or recognize Him, then I submit to you that that isn’t His fault it is ours. We were distracted or perhaps disinterested and we simply miss Him. Don't act like that can't happen. John 1 tells us that Jesus came to His own and they didn't recognize or perceive who He was. So, an encounter takes place, but they miss it. That scenario is often repeated Sunday after Sunday. His guaranteed presence shows up and we miss Him. In Scripture, an encounter with God's presence caused shepherds to fall on their faces and yet what they fell down to we sleep through or sit through. What produces awe and reverence in them seems to only produce yawns from us! Which forces me to ask the question . . . has His glory diminished or has our awe and reverence diminished? As you spend time here today with 2 or 3 others His presence is guaranteed. So, the real challenge is how will you respond?

As I read through Scripture what I discover is that it is a detailed account of encounter after encounter with God and how people respond. From Adam, to Abraham, to Moses at a burning bush, to David in the face of a menacing giant, to disciples in a boat mending their nets, to a rich young ruler challenged to leave everything and follow the Bible again and again is a revelation of the result of these encounters.

So, since the guarantee is that He is here. My question then becomes what will you do? What is the appropriate response to His presence? I pose this question because I think too often the results we seek from an encounter with God are too shallow and limited to the wrong thing. We want a result that is short lived. We want a move of God that will cause us to be able to declare what a great service we had. We want a move of God that we will think about for a few days. The problem with that is that the encounters that I read about in Scripture were life changing in nature. If we are guaranteed to have an encounter with God, then that encounter should be so altering and shaking that we should be unable to return to life as normal. Even if rejected the encounter changes everything. It should disrupt and dismantle our lives to the point that the result is that we are different.

I want us to encounter God in a different and perhaps much more biblically accurate way. We long for encounters to put us together, what about encounters that undo us? Encounter God so that He takes us a part and put us back together in His image.

In order for that to happen, then we must approach God with a different posture, attitude and expectation. We must encounter Him in such a way that the results that a genuine encounter with God will produce the guaranteed results. His guaranteed presence is intended to produce guaranteed results.

That is what I want to look at. What are the results that indicate we have actually encountered God and not just simply had a good Sunday or a powerful worship service?

II. Text

Isaiah 6:1-8 (NIV)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”