“Close Encounters”
Pt. 2 - The Terms
Review – I want to spend just a moment in review so you will remember what we discussed last Sunday since it is the foundation of where we are going this morning. I remind you of the Passion Process – our mandate is simply to Encounter, Equip, and Engage. We will do nothing more and nothing less.
So last Sunday we began dealing with the idea that our goal, purpose, and one desire is that we each have a Close Encounter with God. A simple encounter will not do because there is a huge difference between an encounter and a close encounter. We want to push into and hold on for a close encounter where everything changes. We don’t want you to be able to attend a service and leave feeling like you just left a business seminar or a self-help session. We want you to come face to face with God. You will also remember that I mentioned that we have a choice to make. We can be an Ezekiel 44 church where we do the business of God, but never come near to Him. We can do church and never really have a close encounter. Or we can refuse to settle for running errands and sweeping up and press into a 2 Chronicles 5:11-14 church, which if you will remember says this :
“11The priests then left the Holy Place. All the priests there were consecrated, regardless of rank or assignment; 12and all the Levites who were musicians were there . . . dressed in their worship robes; the choir and orchestra assembled on the east side of the Altar and were joined by 120 priests blowing trumpets. 13The choir and trumpets made one voice of praise and thanks to GOD—orchestra and choir in perfect harmony singing and playing praise to GOD: Yes! God is good! His loyal love goes on forever! Then a billowing cloud filled The Temple of GOD. 14The priests couldn’t even carry out their duties because of the cloud—the glory of GOD!—that filled The Temple of God.”
I declare that is the kind of church we want to have. Where every priest experiences His glory!
So that brings us to the most important question . . . how do we have a close encounter with God? What is the process, steps, ingredients that we must combine in order to have this face-to-face daily close encounter with Him?
So this morning I want to deal with the first part of what I believe are key elements in a close encounter. . . The Terms.
I. Coming to Terms
Have you ever heard or used the phrase “Come to Terms?” Most of us have heard this phrase used in business situations where we are negotiating with another party or entity. The comment goes like this, “We met and talked and we came to terms.” The connotation is that we each bent a little, gave a little, and compromised a little, a little give and take until we reached an agreement.
I believe that the first step in moving from an encounter to a close encounter with God is that we must come to terms with Him. However, the problem is that God doesn’t negotiate. God doesn’t compromise. God doesn’t let us argue or bend a little here or there. In fact, He is very rigid when it comes to the terms or stipulations that must be met in order for us to get close to Him.
Our problem is that most of us have grown up in a Burger King Society that says we have the right and should demand to have it our way. So we carry that mentality over into our relationship with God and we try to demand that He meet us on our terms. However, I have news for you today . . . God isn’t going to agree to let you have your way! He has terms that we must come into agreement with or line up with.
God refuses to ignore or accept our unwillingness to meet on His terms and in His territory. “I’ll just give in this time cause that’s just the way so and so is” never comes out of His mouth. We have to come to God on His turf or He is not obligated to have a close encounter with us. I believe there are three terms we must meet in order to get close to God.
a. Hungry
The very first term or condition that must be met is that we must be hungry. God is very clear in stating that those who seek Him will find Him. Those that hunger and thirst for Him will be filled. We don’t have a God problem, we have an appetite problem.
What are hungry for? Our appetite is driven by our cravings. We crave all kinds of things . . . fame, fortune, success, friends, Starbucks, but how many of us really crave God with every fiber of your being? How many of us long for Him so bad that we will do anything and go anywhere to contact Him, touch Him, and encounter Him? Too many of us are satisfied. We have a take it or leave it attitude about God. I am doing OK all by myself.
Cravings will make you do weird things! If you don’t believe that ask any man who’s wife has been pregnant. 3 a.m. trips to the quick stop to get peanut butter and pickles prove that statement. Weird things. Like standing in line for 4 or 5 days to get the newest video game or to see the new movie. See cravings will make you get up when everyone else is asleep and when everyone else is overtaken by apathy. Cravings will cause you to get out, stand in line, spend money, expend effort, take time even when it is isn’t convenient or comfortable.
So my question is when was the last time that you so craved God that you were willing to do something crazy if necessary? When was the last time you were willing to do things that others weren’t to get to Him? When was the last time you were willing to get up early to find Him? When was the last time you were willing to skip the party everyone else was going on to get into His presence? How hungry are you.
You can have as much of God as you are hungry for! It is time to change our appetite and increase our desire for Him! Crave Him. Long for Him and you will find Him.
I am reminded of the account of Jacob in Genesis 32. The whole account is a story of intense and consuming hunger. Jacob wrestles with God and refuses to let go until he is blessed.
I declare that some of you are just giving up too early. You are letting go too early. I am looking for some folks who will hold on until you can’t hold on any more. I am looking for some folks who are so hungry for a close encounter with God that they refuse to leave, refuse to quit, refuse to be silent, refuse to give up until they get the blessing, get the breakthrough, get the answer, get the touch that they need. Mark me if you want to, cripple me if you have too, ridicule me if you must, laugh and shake your head if you will, but I refuse to let go until I get what I have been promised. My promise is that if I will seek Him I will find Him. My promise is if I will pursue Him, He will pursue me. My promise is that if I will turn my heart toward Him He will turn His hands and His face toward me. Driven by a passionate and consuming hunger. We must be hungry to find God. I’m hungry. I’m hungry.
Come on touch three people and tell them “I am hungry.” Touch three more people and say “My appetite is changing!”
b. Honest
The second condition that must be met is that we must be honest! God never deals with us and allows us to remain dishonest. In order for us to have a close encounter with God we must become brutally honest about who we are, who we are not, what we have, and what we don’t have.
Again, I refer you back to Genesis 32. Jacob was hungry, but he had to meet God on His terms. Before breakthrough could come. Before blessings could be given. Prior to a close encounter that would change everything, including his name and his walk, Jacob had to be honest. The angel of Lord asks Jacob what’s your name. Jacob was honest and in one statement he comes clean. I am Jacob . . . I am the trickster, I am the scammer, I am the cheater and his honesty produces a close encounter with God.
Isaiah had to be honest. He is about to have close encounter with God, he sees the Lord high lifted up in the temple and it forces him to meet God on His terms. And so he cries out, “Woe is me for I am undone, and I am a man of unclean lips.” He was honest about who he was and who he wasn’t. Everyone thinks I am the man, the great prophet, that I glow in the dark because I am so anointed, but honestly I confess I am undone, I am unclean.
I long for the day when we can be honest in church again. Honest before God again. I am tired of everyone acting like they have it all together in the church house, missing a close encounter with God due to dishonesty, then going home, going to work and falling apart because they missed God. Why can a person go to a bar and spill their guts and no one thinks less of them, but you can’t come to church and come clean? That is messed up.
I am calling you to honesty today. Who are you? Are you undone? Are you messed up? Are you broken? Are you angry? Are you filled with lust? Are you filled with pain? Are you filled with depression, disappointment? Who are you?
Who aren’t you? I know you act like you have it together when you get here, but what is the truth? Put on the show if you want. Play the part of an actor or actress if you will, but until you lay the mask down and fess up to your issues, your hurts, your needs you will leave here without a close encounter. Let’s determine that we can be honest in this place. This place will be a safe place where we can honestly and openly deal with our failures, our faults, our temptations, our tendencies, our issues so that this place can also be a place where we find healing, victory, and a close encounter.
I would rather us be honest and open about it and allow God to touch us and change us than to have to go through what the woman at the well went through. Her story teaches us that we either come clean honestly or God will force honesty upon us. “I don’t have a husband.” No, you have had 5 and the one your with right now isn’t your husband. Can you imagine the red face? The trembling lips? The ducked head? The debilitating embarrassment of being caught?
You don’t have to be afraid of prophets, words of wisdom, and knowledge when you are honest! Most of the people I know that are afraid of these things aren’t afraid because they think it is weird. They are afraid because they think someone is going to publicly divulge what they are doing in private. Let’s remove the fear and let’s just be honest . . . every one of us has issues and problems.
God requires us to be honest in order for us to be blessed! God refuses to deal in fallacy and He won’t play charades. He always demands truth!
Look at your neighbor and tell them “You can be honest with me!”
c. Holy
The third condition or stipulation that must be met in order for us to have a close encounter is that we must be holy. David challenges us in Psalms 24:3-4 when he asks this question, “Who can ascend unto God?” In other words, “Who can have a close encounter with God?” Then he gives us the answer, “those with clean hands and pure heart!”
Holiness is not optional, it is a prerequisite. We have taken the idea of everyone working out their own salvation with fear and trembling way too far. There are standards and guidelines that we are required to live by. The idea of working out your own salvation is not a license that lets you get to decide what is right, wrong, or acceptable. We must be holy. We must live by His guidelines! There are absolutes. There are black and white areas in this grey world.
In fact, if you go back and read two different accounts about church in the Old Testament you find that holiness is a key component to having God’s presence invade your space and this place. In Exodus 40:30-33, it was only after Moses and Aaron washed their hands and feet in the laver that they could go into the presence of God. And it was only after they had done so that the cloud covered the tent of meeting. Holiness proceeded the hovering.
Back to 2 Chronicles 5:11-14, it says very clearly that regardless of rank or assignment every priest was consecrated and then the glory filled the house. Their holiness made room for His Holiness. Isaiah understood this demand for holiness and cried out make me holy, clean my lips.
Holiness is crucial. Every priest (nursery worker, janitor, singer, usher, preacher, elder) had to be consecrated and sanctified. We need the same thing. We need you to be holy so that we can have a close encounter. Am I saying we expect you to be perfect? No, I answered that in the comments on honesty. We just expect you to be genuinely and passionately pursuing holiness. I remind you that the priests in the Old Testament would tie a scarlet cord on their ankle as a reminder that approaching God is no joke. God wasn’t and still isn’t playing. He demands holiness. Maybe we should start attaching red rope to people’s ankle when they walk in this place just to let them know that God is serious about holiness. Ask your neighbor do you feel something around your ankle?
Oh, don’t get me wrong you can encounter God and leave here and smile about your sin. You can encounter God and wink at your issues. However, in order to get a close encounter you must be willing to address those issues and find holiness. Without holiness God will keep you at arm’s length.
God never alters the robe of righteousness to fit man; He changes the man to fit the robe. I can’t help the words I use, it is a habit . . . Oh, OK I am sorry I will just alter this for you. No, He says bitter water and sweet water can’t come from the same well, no coarse words. I can handle my drink. Oh, OK that wasn’t really for you let me trim this thing down. No, be ye not filled with wine, but filled with the spirit. We want it to get easier while He expects us to get off the milk and onto the meat so that we can grow and fill out into righteousness. He will not lower his standards or change His terms! He will require holiness out of us if we want His presence.
II. Close
I challenge you this morning. Do you really want to have a close encounter? If your answer is yes, then you must become hungry. Your appetite must change. Do you want to have contact with Him? Then you must be brutally honest with yourself and those around you. Do you desire more than you have ever experienced before? Then you must approach God consecrated and holy. We must deal ruthlessly with sin and our wickedness to make room for Him.
