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?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
III. Results of Encounter
Notice that Isaiah's encounter with God ruined him. It disrupted life as he knew it. But it also reveals 3 specific things that took place because of this moment with God!
The result of a real encounter is holiness.
If we have a genuine encounter with God, then the very first result is that we will recognize God's holiness and our lack of it. Isaiah sees the angels circling God declaring that God is holy! One man said that the primary characteristic of God is holiness. When we have a genuine encounter with God we are confronted with His holiness and our filthiness. Position no longer matters. Posturing for attention is smashed. Grandstanding is tossed aside. This happens because we realize that He alone is Holy. He alone is worthy. He alone is God. Too often we want to encounter God for His works, but we need to encounter God for His holiness. We often gather in an attempt to encounter grace, healing, provision all available and guaranteed in His presence but we must first come face to face with His holiness! If we don't, then grace becomes a demand and is cheapened. Healing is received but no gratitude accompanies it. (9 lepers who are healed but don’t return to give thanks had no understanding of who they encountered!) Provision is found and the source is quickly forgotten. However, when we see Him high and lifted up. When we see Him as other than. When we see Him as the King, the Lord almighty we are undone. We are filled with thankfulness that we are even allowed in the same area code as Him. Since holiness is His primary trait then holiness should also be the primary characteristic of the church.
Too often when we encounter God, we want to encounter His power, but we dismiss His holiness.
Does an encounter with God bring power? Yes, but an encounter that brings power and is not allowed to also produce purity will also bring pain with it. Because we will misuse/mismanage the power.
His holiness is also important because it produces the next guaranteed result of a genuine encounter with God.
The result of a real encounter is humility.
Isaiah says, “woe is me.” In an encounter with God pretense is forgotten. Pedigree is forgotten. Think back about the encounters throughout Scripture and you see that Adam encounters His presence and hides. Moses discounts his entire training in the best educational institutes of Egypt in the face of an encounter with God and says, “he is a nobody”. Gideon, faced with an encounter, says “I am the least of my tribe”. Paul, a highly educated and accomplished man, after a genuine encounter lays his degrees aside and says, “I am the chief sinner”.
The simple truth we need to hear is that a genuine encounter with God will destroy pride. It will cause us to embrace humility. We will place ourselves, regardless of education, years in the church, last name or gifting, on equal footing with those around us. We may be the most anointed, gifted person in the room and in His presence our response will be . . . I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.
Too many of us have an encounter with God and strut around as if God got to encounter us. As if some how God should be impressed with my prayers, my praise, my preaching. It is like we have forgotten that God hates pride. A genuine encounter with God won't produce a believer or a body that feels like it is better than other expressions of His body. It won't produce ranking. It won't produce comparison. It will instead produce humility. A revelation won’t produce arrogance but will produce reverence.
There is one final result of a genuine encounter with God.
The result of a real encounter is help.
Notice Isaiah's immediate response to an encounter with God. “Here am I send me.” No hesitation. No begging needed. No prodding. No pressure. Just an understanding that this encounter with God has produced in me the desire to help. It wasn't an encounter that only impacted him. It wasn't an encounter that was used up only on him. Instead, a real encounter with God made him aware of the need to reach out and serve others.
How many times have you encountered God in a worship service and it ends with you? How many times have you encountered God in a prayer meeting and that encounter ends with you? A true encounter with God will result in you saying to God here am I use/send me. A willingness to be sent. A willingness to show up early to serve. A willingness to become a bridge between death and a life giving, life changing encounter with God. If we are going to say that we are encountering God in here, then the proof of that declaration is whether or not we are willing to take that experience out these doors and reach those who need an encounter with God. A real encounter with God will result in reach!
We want you to encounter God not only this month but every time we gather! In fact, His presence is guaranteed. So, we can rest assured that an encounter will happen. However, the results of the encounter will be determined by how we respond to His presence. The proof of His presence will be whether we become holy, humble and we are willing to help.
