Series: We are here!
Summary of Series: This series is all about our 7 core values
at Christian Hills Church.
Sermon 8: Experiencing God
Thesis: Many are asking the question today, “How do you experience God?” The simple answer to this question is “You embrace Jesus and His message and then God provides the experience.” In other words open up the door to your heart and ask God to come in so you can experience Him personally and intimately. The key link to experiencing God is in Jesus!
Introduction:
What would you say to a person who ran up to you after a prayer meeting and said, “How do you experience God? What does that look like? What does it feel like?” How would you have responded to these questions?
In the world of today I am told that there is a great hunger for the spiritual dimensions of life, for spiritual things, for something which is beyond our current reality.
In our Wednesday night life group, that I have been teaching, we have been dealing with this question. “How do you experience God?” To clarify it’s not about knowing of God but actually experiencing Him. I first want to say that the best book I ever read on this subject is Blackaby’s book Experiencing God. This is the book we have been exploring on Wednesday night and it’s been a great spiritual work which answers this question. The class has been I think for most of us a great spiritual journey and also very revelatory about this subject.
Throughout History there have been those heroes of the faith who share with others how they are experiencing God. One of those stories is about a woman named Joan of Arc.
History of Joan of Arc:
Joan of Arc (French) [Born 1412 – died 30 May 1431), nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" is a folk heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. She was born a peasant girl in what is now eastern France. Claiming divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII of France. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English in exchange for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon for charges of "insubordination and heterodoxy", and was burned at the stake for heresy when she was 19 years old. Twenty-five years after her execution, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr for the Christian Church (http://en.wikipedia.org).
The following history of her provides some insight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Messenger:_The_Story_of_Joan_of_Arc
In this movie:
Joan is shown being burned at the stake; however, it happens fast, as the flames quickly engulf her and she disappears. The plotline then tells the story of how she came to this. Ten years earlier, Joan, as a little girl, confesses her sins in church two or three times a day. The priest asks after her family; concluding all is well at home, he decides she is only unusually religious. She skips out of the church, glad to be forgiven by God and Jesus. Wandering away from her village, she has a somewhat violent and supernatural vision. She returns to find her village burning. Her sister, Catherine tries to protect her by hiding her inside a closet before the English arrive at their house. The Englishman sees Catherine and forces himself on her but she valiantly fights him off. Frustrated he takes out his sword and stabs her in her stomach, pinning her to the wall. Catherine's now lifeless body is further desecrated and raped repeatedly as Joan watches in horror. She survives the attack, and goes to live with her distant relatives; she confesses to the priest that she wants to forgive her enemies, as the Bible teaches, but she cannot.
She receives visions, she calls instructions and personal messages from the Lord (The English church calls them voices and pronounces her a heretic) to lead a French army to do battle against the English – she does and they free Orleans and eventually total victory comes to France and Charles Vii is made King as she prophesied it would. Her bravery and supernatural leadings of the Spirit prove her connection with God. He prophetic visions does come to pass in history but during this time of war she is captured and martyred. In the scene we are about to watch she is being tried by England and the Church Bishop and she is being told that she did not hear from God by these church leaders. They are telling her that she has not experienced His divine direction or revelations it’s been the Devil instead. She denies that claim and pays with her life at age 19.
Quotes from her:
“I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God's will.”
“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”
Video Clip: Joan of Arc from wingclips.com
Quote by Blackaby from Experiencing God: “There is a world of difference between knowing something to be true in your head and experiencing the reality in your life” (Page 9, 10).
Joan of Arc would not deny that she had experienced God even if it cost her torture and her life!
Do you agree with his thought – I do because many people go to church ad know of God but yet in their own personal lives they have not understood nor experienced Him personally. When you experience Him personally it’s undeniable.
To help answer our question “How do you experience God?” let’s look at John chapter 17 where Jesus is praying for us and His disciples – revealing to us how we should be experiencing God like He did everyday:
Scripture Verses: John 17:1-26: (NIV)
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.
12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
John 17:3: is the key verse for us today within our Scripture text – it helps us answer the question!
Lets listen to some other translations of verse 3:
(CEV) “Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent.”
(The Message) “And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”
(NASB) 3“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
In this prayer of Jesus we have Him explaining to us “How you experience God in this life?” notice what Jesus said, “It is directly connected to Him.” So we need to start there in answering our question:
Quote: From Blackaby “…For a Hebrew person-like Jesus- knowing something entailed experiencing it. In fact, you could not truly say you knew something unless you had dealt with it personally. The small child who had a father might not understand the various grammatical uses of the word “father,” but he would know a great deal about what it was like to have one. So it is significant that, when Jesus spoke about knowing God. He was speaking as a, Hebrew. When Jesus said eternal life is knowing God-including God the Son, Jesus Christ-he did not mean that eternal life is knowing about God. He was not referring to someone who has read many books and attended numerous seminars about God. He was talking about a first hand, experiential knowledge. We come to truly know God as we experience Him in and around our lives. Many people have grown up attending church and hearing about God all their lives, but they do not have a personal, dynamic, growing relationship with God. They never hear His voice. They have no idea what God’s will is. They do not encounter His love firsthand. They have no sense of divine purpose for their lives. They may know a lot about God, but they don’t really know Him. Merely knowing about God will leave you unsatisfied. Truly knowing God only comes through experience as He reveals Himself to you through His word and as you relate to Him. Throughout the Bible, we can see that God took the initiative to disclose Himself to people through their life events” (Page 10).
We are told in Ephesians 5:1-2: “1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
Jesus throughout Scripture is revealed talking with God, actually speaking out loud to Him in the presence of others in some places. He sometimes notes that He does this to reveal the reality that God is with them and that God is working within their current situation. He speaks to God out loud for the benefit of those listening.
Jesus experienced God the Father everyday and He made it a priority in His life and ministry and we need to do the same thing today as well. All you have to do is read the Bible and see how frequently Jesus prayed. Jesus experienced God and the point is we can too if we follow His example.
The best book I have ever read on how to experience God is Henry and Richard Blackaby’s book Experiencing God. In the book they lay out the 7 realities for experiencing God in your personal life.
The seven realities of experiencing God from Blackaby’s book: (Plesae note the handout you were given when you came to service this morning)
1. God is always at work around you (whether you realize it or not).
a. John 5:17, 19-20:
i. 17Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
ii. 19Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.”
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
a. Jeremiah 31:3:
i. 3The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
b. John 3:16:
i. 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
a. Matthew 16:24-25:
i. 24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
b. Matthew 4:19:
i. 19“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.
a. John 8:47:
i. 47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
a. Hebrews 11:6:
i. 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
b. Hebrews 11:1:
i. 1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
c. 2 Corinthians 5:7:
i. 7We live by faith, not by sight.
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
a. Luke 14:33:
i. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.
a. John 14: 15,21,23-24:
i. 15“If you love me, you will obey what I command.
ii. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
iii. 23Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
T.S. - So back to my proposed question: “How do you experience God?” The first step in this process is you have to choose too or decide to have a relationship with God who is all around you every day.
I. To experience God you have to lay the right foundation to experience Him!
a. Jesus is that foundation!
i. You have choose to have an intimate relationship with Him first and foremost (This is how you lay the foundation to experience Him).
1. Hebrews 12:2: “2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
a. Your focus in life must change to experience God!
b. Your relationship with God must change!
c. Your heart and mind need to change!
d. Your direction in life must change to God’s direction for your life!
b. Relationships are formed and cultivated when people decide to have a relationship with one another – it’s a two way agreement based on the desire to get to know and experience the other person.
i. It’s the same in the spiritual realm with God - You have to make the decision to open the door for God to enter into your life and your heart.
1. If you really want to experience Him you have to choose a relationship with Him.
ii. Jesus choose to cultivate and commune with God the Father daily in His life – to Him it was a priority – even over the crowds, the miracles, the ministry and all the hoop la that surrounded him.
1. He knew that His relationship with God the Father was essential – He demonstrated that by talking to Him –just like He was standing right in front of Him – which by the way - He was!
a. He did this to also show each of us that we too through Him could experience God on a daily basis.
b. Please hear my heart – it is not crazy to talk to God like He is literally standing in front of you – because He really is!
i. The Bible tells that if I am “Born Again” the Lord is with me – he even lives within me – He is with me every day!
iii. Jesus told us this in Matthew 7:7-11: 7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
1. Lets me come back to my question: How do you experience God? Answer – You ask!
a. Who do you ask? You ask the Lord for this to happen and then you will experience Him each and every day of your life --- but you have to ask!
i. He will answer you – trust me He will! But you have to do the big ask!
b. You just have to look through your spiritual eyes and listen with your spiritual ears to see He is there. Then do the big ask!
iv. Jesus also said in Revelation 3:20: “20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
1. The two Scripture verses above both come from the words of Jesus (they are in red) and they are saying “Open the door to your heart - ask me to come in - ask me to become a part of your everyday experiences - ask I will come and we will have a personal experience together.”
a. When you open up your heart-your mind-your soul you choose to embrace God and Jesus as the only way to Heaven. This creates the open door to an experiential relationship with God.
b. My story: How did I experience God when I gave my life to Him?
i. To me it was a real and tangible experience – I felt His presence –I felt His love – I experienced His divine touch in my life – it was impactful and very real to me! It changed the course of my life!
c. Main point you need to realize today is that eternal life is associated with a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ (You can only experience God if you have a relationship with Jesus).
i. It s not achieved by good works, religious acts or pious duties, it’s not anything we can earn by our strength or work - it’s a gift from Jesus – it’s an invitation to have a relationship with the same God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, the same God who parted the Red Sea, the same God who created the earth and all of its beauty.
1. Do you understand the magnitude of this statement?
2. Jesus in this section of Scripture highlights to everyone who ever has or will read this section of Scripture that God was and is glorified by what Jesus has done on the cross.
3. Jesus fulfilled His mission to bring eternal life to the world and to glorify God.
a. He did this by using the authority that God gave Him to be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
b. By choosing to do this He revealed God to the world and to the ones sent to Him by God.
i. God is revealed through the life and the death and the ascension of Jesus Christ.
ii. Jesus was and is God in the flesh.
1. Highlight Athanasius Movie that we are showing Palm Sunday night at 6:00 pm:
a. Jesus was 100% Divine and 100% Human.
iii. Jesus was with God in the beginning according to John 1.
T.S. – To experience God requires a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and this is the starting point for experiencing God on a daily basis.
II. To experience God you have to build the right framework for your life on His foundation Jesus.
a. The frame work for your life to experience God needs to be a God centered life not a self centered life:
i. I John 2: 3-6: “3By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
1. This verse says: To know and experience God daily requires that my life is God centered!
ii. Philippians 2:13: “For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purposes.”
1. God centered living and construction within our life looks like the following according to Blackaby page 103:
a. A confidence in God
b. Dependence on God, on His abilities and provision
c. A life focused on God and His activity
d. Humility before God
e. Denial of self
f. Seeking first the kingdom of God, His righteousness
g. Seeking God’s perspectives on our circumstances
h. Holy and godly living
i. Biblical examples (Blackaby page 103):
1. Joseph – Joseph in Genesis 39 kept His focus on God not on his fleshly appetites and rejected Potipar’s wife’s daily attempt to seduce him. The result was he went to prison rather than to sin. But God honored him in the end.
2. Joshua and Caleb – In Numbers 14:8-9. These guys were willing to trust in the word of God to give them victory in the Promised Land and to proceed forward with confidence in God rather than in looking at their own strength or resources.
a. Result was they entered the Promised Land.
ii. Self-centered Living – Is characterized by the following:
1. Life focused on self
2. Pride in self and personal accomplishments
3. Self-confidence
4. Depending on self and one’s own abilities
5. Affirming self
6. Seeking to be acceptable to the world and its ways
7. Looking at circumstances from a human perspective
8. Selfish and materialistic living
a. Biblical examples:
i. Adam and Eve Gen. 2:16-17: They disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden. Their self-centered decision to be like God cost them dearly and violated the Lord’s command and led to a broken relationship with God.
ii. Ten spies in Numbers 13-14 are the 10 who did not believe God could give them the Promised Land like Joshua and Caleb believed. They looked at their own strength and weaknesses rather than looking to God to give them victory.
b. Philippians 2:3-5: 3Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus
b. The lesson to be learned here is if you want to experience God daily you must decide to live a God-centered life!
Conclusion:
Many are asking the question today, “How do you experience God?”
The simple answer to this question is “You embrace Jesus and His message and then God provides the experience.” In other words open up the door to your heart and ask God to come in so you can experience Him personally and intimately. The key link to experiencing God is in Jesus!
Jesus is the foundation that all experiences with God are laid. You have to start here if you want to experience God!
The other lesson to learn is that once the foundation is laid in Jesus you then have to choose which kind of lifestyle you are going to lead in your life.
Do you want to experience God? Then you have to choose a God centered lifestyle over a self-centered lifestyle – the first one leads to experiencing God daily the other to a lifestyle of spiritual deadness.
So choose this day:
Is it going to be God-centered?
Or is it going to be self-centered?
2 Timothy 2:19: 19Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
Spiritual Exercise:
I would like us all to quiet down for a moment and be contemplative for a moment – In this life of busyness and demands we have a tendency to allow things of this world to distract us from God. Do you agree?
I would like you to take a moment and ask God to show you what is distracting you from experiencing Him today – you could pray the prayer like this, “Lord help reveal to me what is distracting me from experiencing you in my life daily?”
Pause a few moments: Has the Lord revealed to you what it is that is distracting you from Him? If He has then repent (ask forgiveness) for it – then - let it go!
Now I would like you to pray another prayer:
“Lord, please open my spiritual eyes today to see how you are at work all around me every day! Lord, show me your spiritual activity and help me experience a fresh revelation of you today!”
Pause a moment and listen for His voice.
Spiritual exercise for this week:
My challenge for you today is to take the handout I have given you from the Book Experiencing God and read each one of the seven realities of experiencing God each morning over the next 7 days – Ask God to reveal himself to you in light of that reality for that day.
