Sermon Central
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Face To Face
Contributed by Johnny Creasong on Aug 28, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: What does it mean to meet "Face to Face" with God. We need to have more "Face-book" time with Him. But be warned: You cannot seek His Face and save yours!
FACE TO FACE
11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.
(NIV)
5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,
6 he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.
(NIV)
10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
(NIV)
DADDY’S EMPTY CHAIR
A man’s daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father. When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.
An empty chair sat beside his bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.
"I guess you were expecting me,” he said.
’No, who are you?" said the father.
The minister told him his name and then remarked, "I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?" Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ’I will be with you always’. Then just speak to him in the same way
you’re doing with me right now."
"So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."
The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon. “Did he die in peace?" he asked.
“Yes, when I left the house about two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later,
I found him. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?"
The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we could all go like that."
The University of N. Iowa once offered an art course that included an unusual exercise. The teacher brought to class a shopping bag filled with lemons and gave a lemon to each class member. The assignment was for the student to keep his lemon with him day and night, smelling, handling, and examining it. Next time the class met, without warning, students were told to put their lemons back in the bag. Then, each person was asked to find his lemon. Surprisingly, most of the students did so without difficulty.
When you pray do you seek His Face or His Hand?
In most of our praying we are not seeking God’s Face, but rather seeking His hand, looking for God to provide something for us. While Jesus instructed us to pray,
“Give us today our daily bread.”
(Matt 6:11 NIV)
I believe He intended our prayers to become something more than a presentation of our “shopping list” of needs and wants. If that’s all we pray about, it is no wonder that we become disappointed with God and disinterested in prayer because God does not always give us what we ask for.
When you pray, do you seek His Face or His Arm?
In some of our prayers, if we are honest to God, we will find that rather than seeking His Face we are simply seeking His Arm. We pray because we find ourselves in a position where we need His Strength. We believe that
