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.
This morning the spiritual issue is our spiritual foundation.
What is it built on? The sinking sand or the solid rock!
A lady came to see me a number of years ago.
She was a sweet and caring wife and mother who had children.
She sat in my office and shared her story and the tears began to run down her cheeks.
She described to me a very shaky foundation in her relationship with her husband.
The woman wasn't whiny or complaining necessarily, and she really wasn't putting all the blame on her husband.
Actually she was willing to accept full responsibility for her situation.
The more I listened the more I realized the underlying reason for the shaky marriage was the fact that the husband had made a decision for Christ, but had failed to go on to be obedient in growing in discipleship and learning to Worship God.
Yes, the husband had some crazy philosophy when it came time to explaining his relationship with God.
You know - it goes sort of like this -
"I believe in worshiping God according to my own way of thinking.
"I don't think you need to be in church every Sunday.
"I can worship God wherever I am.
"I don't need some church or some preacher preaching at me.
"I can worship God watching television on Sunday mornings."
Does that sound familiar to you?
Have you ever heard that from anyone?
Have you ever been guilty of that kind of thinking?
You know - You've heard it - I heard just recently:
"Oh, yeah - there's a bunch of hypocrites down there at that church."
And that kind of talk goes on constantly because there is no genuine spiritual foundation nor is there any assurance of that person making it to heaven .
Folks, there are too many of our family members and friends whose faulty thinking is going to cause them to miss heaven, and we dare not let them think they have that assurance.
It goes against everything that is in the Word of God.
Let me take you to my First Point which is:
I. The Foundational Commitment Matt. 7:20
"Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."
The first thing that every person here today must to is to be honest with themselves.
Would you be honest with God?
I am not trying to get anyone to doubt their salvation, but I want to make sure you understand that when you have a genuine relationship with God, you will be recognized by your fruit.
When you are desperately honest with God - the God who knows all things anyway, you and I will not pretend about our spiritual condition and feel good about it!
As a matter of fact, when you are a fake believer, you will know it.
I have watched the cashiers when they get a twenty dollar bill, take it and put it up to the light.
I asked someone one time what they were doing, and they informed me that a genuine twenty dollar bill had a metal strip going thru one end of the bill.
A counterfeit twenty bill which was popular at one time didn't have the metal strip in it.
It's that way when it comes to having a genuine experience with God. You have the Holy Spirit in your life and He gives the evidence not only to you, but to others through your fruit of the Spirit.
What is the Fruit of a Christian?
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Galatians 5:22-26
What is the evidence of someone who is not in the Spirit of God?
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21
You see - it's so very important that you understand that you can't live a genuine Christian life and stay in the "acts of the sinful nature."
So often human nature is to deny by reason - by saying:
"Well, you know that's just me.
"Everybody else is doing it.
"I can't help myself.
"That's the way God made me."
No! Listen - do you see the end of that verse?
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
How can a man or a woman who pours this kind of sinful nature into their lives honestly have a walk with God?
A life that is built on a shaky foundation/a sinful life cannot stand but will eventually tobble over and crash.
How can husbands and wives find the path to real worship when they pour this kind of evil into their lives.
The only way you can honestly worship God is to pour into your spiritual life His unshakeable foundation
The only way you as married people can worship God is to have a unshakable stability in your marriage.
The only way you can worship God here every Sunday and through the week is through being steadfast in His relationship.
The answer my friend is beginning and staying with God in worship.
A man told a story about the time his son’s sixth birthday was approaching.
He had mentioned he wouldn’t mind a party, and as his son usually was very specific about the kind of presents he liked the dad asked him what he could get him.
Bill expected a well-planned reply, such as "I’d like a baseball glove; you can find it at Toys ‘R ‘Us, aisle 6, below the batting helmets, or a Parcheesi board; the games are in alphabetical order in aisle 1; it’s between the Pac Man and Pay Day." But his son’s request was a bit different.
He said, "Dad, I’d like a ball to play with for my birthday."
Bill said "Great, what kind of ball?" "Oh, I want don’t know, either a football or a soccer ball." "Well, which would you want more?"
He said, "Wellll," and thought about it.
Then he said. "If you have some time to play ball with me this year, I’d really like a football so we could throw it back and forth in the back yard.
But if you’re gonna be real busy this year, maybe you just better get me a soccer ball, because I can play soccer with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood."
The dad thought about this and said, "Let me surprise you.
How does that sound?" And the little boy smiled and said, "Oh that would be great Dad. I really love you."
Then Bill went in and shared this little encounter with his wife and together they agreed, their son was not so much interested in the gift. He was interested in the giver.
(Autoillustrator.com, "WORSHIP")
II. A Timeless Pattern
Jack Hayford describes five types of Worship that I want to spend the rest of this sermon on:
1. The first worship is Redeeming Worship.
Let me take you all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will crush your head,
and you will strike His heel."
When Adam and Eve sinned against God, immediately the Promise of a Savior was given to all humanity.
Redeeming Worship centers itself on the Lord's Table.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and our Lord, the builder of His Church commanded us that we regularly come to the Table to remember Him.
Remember what He did.
Remember the betrayal.
Remember the beating and cruel treatment
Remember the nails that put Him on the Cross
Remember the torment and the agony
Remember the Promise He made
Remember He didn't stay in the grave.
Oh, oh, oh, believer friends, Jesus not only shed His precious blood for my sins.
HE did it for you sins and the sins of the entire world.
It's the Power in the Blood of Jesus Christ.
There's too many people wanting to take the Blood out of the Bible, but listen, it's His blood that was shed for my redemption - your redemption.
It saves our souls from hell.
The blood of Jesus rescues us and helps us recover.
2. The second Worship is Faith-filled Worship
Faith-filled worship demands action.
When that great Father of all Nations, Abraham heard God's voice, he quit what he was doing and immediately went to where God said to go.
One of the things God calls us to do every week is to get out of bed on Sunday morning and come to the Temple where we can worship Him.
Where do I get that? The Hebrew writer wrote for all Christian believers. Let me read it from the Message:
Hebrews 10:22-25 "So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
Listen believer friend, what happens when you do not have a strong relationship with God, you find every excuse for missing Worship service.
And when you miss one Worship service, and then two and then three ... it just get easier to miss most of the time.
I've heard people use all kinds of excuses why they don't come to church to Worship God.
"I can't get out of bed, it's the only day I have to sleep in...
"I can't make it today because my kids have a ball game... and then one day when you as a parent wonder why your child doesn't come to church - go back to the time when you by your choice and example didn't come or you allowed them to be at that ball game.
"I can't go to church with all those hypocrites... Uh! Since when do we come to church or don't come to church because of others. Isn't it God we're coming to Worship????
You see - Coming to church to Worship God is the most fundamental calls you and I face every week.
This is the highlight of my week being in church with you and worshipping God.
The wake-up call is to gather together with God's people to worship Him.
And there's no escaping the importance of this call to Worship God. It's get pretty intense at this point.
1) It's at a certain time
2) It's at a certain place
3) It's with a certain group of people.
4) And It's for a very important reason.
Try to spiritualize it anyway you want to
Try to scorn the church as traditional or too contemporary
Try to be passé about it.
Say it's boring
And still the Word of God lays down a mandate:
"Don't forsake it!"
And Yes, sometimes it will inconvenience your schedule, but you have to set Worshiping God as the highest priority of your week.
We need to get up out of bed
We need to get going.
We need to get here on time.
We need to get a right attitude
We need to get with the program
We need to get actively involved.
And I agree - the preaching at times can be better - the singing in my opinion is gettin' better all the time.
If you my friend are going to have a strong foundation in God, you have to have a Faith-filled Worship.
3) Thirdly - Delivering Worship
Delivering worship is that worship that frees a man and a woman, a boy or a girl from bondage.
We need to see more deliverance from the bondage of sin.
We need to see people get liberated from a life that is displeasing to God.
Let me take you on a journey that we are studying about on Wednesday evenings.
The story unfolds in the first 15 chapters of Exodus and hinges on an encounter that Moses had with God.
There are four things I want you to see:
1. God called Moses from a Firey bush. Exodus 3:1-4
How can we interpret this other than God can call out to us in the most unusual ways.
God is not bound by our typical ways of understanding.
God can approach us in the unordinary.
Believer, listen to me, the fire of God will burn away the chafe from our lives.
It will burn away our fear and pride.
It will cleanse us from our impurities.
This is the FIre of God.
The story is told of a group of women that met for Bible study.
While studying in the book of Malachi, chapter three, they came across verse three which says:
"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
This verse puzzled the women and they wondered how this statement applied to the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out more about the process of refining silver, and to get back to the group at their next Bible study.
The following week, the woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him while at work.
She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest, beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith work, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.
He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire, where the flames were the hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot, then she thought again about the
verse, that "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the entire time the silver was being refined.
The man answered yes, that not only did he have to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on it the entire time it was in the fire.
If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "But how do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that’s easy - when I see my image in it."
Oh, believer friend, God is working in us so that eventually He will be able to see His image in us.
2. God called Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on Holy Ground. Ex. 3:5
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
3. God called Moses to know His heart. Ex. 3:7-8
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites."
It was in the presence of God that Moses learned of a compassionate and gentle God.
God's heart is sensitive to us.
He reaches out to that Mom or that Dad that is going through a tough time with one of their children.
God needs a husband and a father who will have the same kind of heart that He has.
God needs a wife and a mom who will be loving and kind and caring to her husband and her children.
Friends, we will never know this until we get close to the heart of God.
4. God called a man to leadership. Ex. 3:9-10
9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
Now - let me talk especially to the men here this morning by telling you a story that Jack Hayford tells:
Chuck was a hard-nosed guy, a tough, hard-hat type to whom worship seemed more suited for women and children.
Sam was a business executive - in many ways the precise opposite of Chuck except for his conclusions about worship.
They exemplified what I've found to be the most common presumptions by men who think worship is too mystical, too holy, too 'beyond' for them.
Both Chuck and Sam became a part of our monthly men's gatherings where I had prioritized three things:
(1) Forthright, no-games-played worship
(2) Honest, say-it-out-to-someone sharing in prayer
(3) Straight-from-the-shoulder, Bible-centered, practical teaching.
Hayford said, "I watched them, just as I've watched hundreds of others, break free through delivering worship.
Guys who break the sound barrier and sing from the heart (no matter how bad their voices); guys who kneel humbly with a group of other men, lifting their voices in concerted prayer; guys who express their surrender to the Almighty as Paul called men to do with upraised hands. (I Timothy 2:8
"8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing."
These guys change."
IV. The fourth type of worship is Purifying Worship.
Purifying worship comes when a man stands alone in the presence of God.
Corporate worship is vital and necessary for every believer, however, there is no substitute for private worship - Getting where God is and standing before God - meeting God alone.
Isaiah showed us this when he stood before God Almighty and saw his impurity and cried out in shame and guilt: "Woe is me for I am undone.
I am ruined.! For I a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips" Isa. 6:5
I've seen the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and His Light exposed my sin.
Would you allow Him to do that for you today?
You see that is what a Genuine encounter with God will do to you!
What am I talking about?
Sexual uncleanness
Using God's name in vain - profanity
mental impurity
foul habits
The negative use of the tongue
Envy
Backbiting
The only way to get freedom and be delivered from this is to get in the LIght of this Great God and let Him through His Power make you pure.
Can that be? Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God." Matt 5:8
Hayford says, "Jesus calls us to come to Him with a transparent heart that is fully opened in worship, in the privacy of His presence. If we bring our whole heart, without restriction or reservation, we will see God."
V. The last Worship I will cover is Empowering Worship.
Empowering Worship emerges from that quest for God that is open and receptive to the fullness of God's Holy Spirit.
Acts chapter 2 is the grand example of this when the Holy Spirit came and filled the 120 disciples with the Power and Presence of God.l
They were filled.
How did it happen? These 120 disciples were in a worship service praying together.
I have watched people experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit and operate in His giftedness.
Paul said in Ephesians 5:18, "Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit." and then in the next verse he says, "Speak on one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs."
There it is: Worship sustains the Holy Spirit fullness.
A life of power is constant when a man or a woman spends time in God's presence - praising Him.
Conclusion:
This morning I ask you to be complete honest with yourself.
Somewhere in this sermon this morning, God, the Holy SPirit spoke to you. Will you come forward and pray about it? Will you address this in your life?
Paul says in Romans 12:1-2
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will."
When you do this sincerely, you will encounter God.
Your first priority in your relationship with God is Worship.
