Even though it is cold outside there is a real warmth of the Spirit in here tonight.
Tonight is Encounter Night and the format is a little different to other evening services. At the end of the service you have four options,
The first option is the option for you to remain here, sit quietly, listen to the band play some beautiful music and take the opportunity to Encounter the Lord.
The second option is for you to come forward to the front row of seats and be prayed for.
The third option, if you want to enjoy a chat and some refreshments then please go to the back hall.
The fourth option is that you can go home - and that's fine too.
So tonight is Encounter Night and I am assuming that you are here tonight because you want to Encounter the living God.
Somewhere within each of us there is a deep desire to experience an encounter with God.
And tonight you can Encounter the living God and move forward in your walk with Him.
Tonight is the night for you to move from walking with God to living for Him!
Tonight is the night for you to Encounter the living God and grow in your relationship with God.
Everyone of us needs to reach the point where our relationship with God is personal and intimate.
Tonight is about Encountering a loving God on a personal level not just singing about him.
In your life there is probably someone that you have admired or looked upto on a human level from afar.
Maybe it’s a politician, a cricket legend, a great musician, or a TV chef.
Maybe you can even talk quiet knowledgeably about them, Maybe you even Sing Their Praises.
Maybe you even met the person once and got their autograph on your hand (and you have not washed since).
But do you really know the person?
Do you know them as well as their spouses, or their family?
Listen, Having an encounter with God,
is more than a distant admiration or
an emotional 5 minutes sometime in your life.
An Encounter with the living God,
a true encounter with our Savior!
An encounter with Jesus should not just excite us;
It should change us forever!
We should come to Encounter Nights because we want a living relationship with the Lord.
A relationship that isn’t based just on “head knowledge” or “lip service”
but based on a true “heart transformation”.
Real worship isn’t just some religious method that we go through.
Its not about always playing the right note on an instrument or singing a song in tune, but
It’s having an actual encounter with the Lord of Lord, and King of Kings!
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Tonight I want us to look at a passage that clearly demonstrates what happens to a person that has an encounter with God.
In Isaiah 6:1-8, is recorded an account of when the man of God had an encounter with God.
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “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.”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 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!”
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Its an amazing moment when Isaiah says : “I saw the Lord”
He was not dreaming, He didn’t have a nightmare or vision caused by eating cheese before going to bed the night before.
He was not making up a story nor was this his imagination running riot.
Isaiah experienced a true, life-changing encounter with the Lord of Glory!
Where he was praying, like an earthquake, the doorposts and the thresholds shook.
The room filled with the smoke.
This happened and he was there.
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I was first saved when I was 17 years old,
I’m now 40 and over the last 23 years
I’ve seen lots of people have a real encounter with God, I’ve also seen some great pretenders.
How do I know they were just pretenders?
Because after they stood, went forward, prayed, wept, cried, shed tears, or appeared to be slain in the Spirit,
they got up and carried on living and acting the same way they did before.
I believe when we really encounter God,
it changes us!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that in many churches throughout this world there are people who have never had an emotional encounter with God, let alone a true life changing encounter with him.
There are people who outwardly may even try to appear holy and righteous but there has never been a real change in their life.
They have never really encountered God.
They really haven’t changed yet!
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Think for a moment about when you were saved.
That moment when you truly repented
and turned to God,
you were not the same as you were.
You realised that you had sinned against God,
and understood that God must Punish Sin.
You cried out to God with all your heart,
you felt anguish,
you knew you had sinned against your creator,
the one who gave you life in the first place.
You made a firm commitment to turn from your sin, and turn to God,
and sell out to him, and you meant sell out,
give your heart and life to him forsaking everything else
“Old things are passed away..”
You Encountered God
You were ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, born again, changed, Saved!
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Friends if we really want to encounter God
we need to get emotional about serving the Lord
We have to be willing to give God our feelings and emotions
There is a place, a line in the sand, that we step over and our life is changed forever!
This isn’t a shallow place - it’s a deep encounter in God.
Sometimes when you get to this place all you can do is speak in the spirit.
-words can’t describe what happening to you
-but when you stand up, you’re different!
-you’re not the same anymore!!!
The chains of this world have fallen off and the Devil has no grip on your life.
You have a new purpose and desire to please the Lord like you’ve never had before!
Some encounters with God cause an overflow of emotions, and that is ok,
An emotional encounter may not change your life,
but there is a deeper place in God.
There is a place of deep encounter
Deep encounter is what produces change.
Do you desire this, this evening?
Are you willing to let an Encounter with the King of Glory really change your life?
Do you yearn for an intimate Encounter with God?
Tonight is the night it can happen for you!
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God is here to meet with you in an intimate way this evening!
Let God touch your life, and you will be changed!
When God touches you, you’re changed!
You’re new! Old things are put away!
You can’t Encounter God and walk away the same!!
Joy is renewed. Peace in God is restored
When you have a real encounter with Him, even the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you think is different! -it’s a spiritual walk!
We all need to be able to say, “I saw the Lord”
We need to ask the Lord this evening,
and I am talking to everyone, to open our eyes
so that we might see him working clearly!!
One of the biggest problems in many churches is people not being able to see in the Spirit what is going on.
People all wrapped up in their own desires and goals.
People who care more about personal things,
and don’t care about Encounter God.
When Isaiah encountered God, he said:
“Here am I, send me”
He got involved in what God was doing
He put aside his own priorities to and let God take control
In 2 Kings 6:17 Elisha prayed for his servant
“O Lord open his eyes that he may see”
If you want to be used by God;
-you need to be able to say “I saw the Lord”
Its time we ask the Lord ourselves,
“Lord Open my eyes that I can see”
-let me see the lost as you see them
-let me see how I can encourage others
-let me see you Lord, more clearly so I can do things the way you would do them.
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Do you remember the first thing that Isaiah said after coming in contact with God?
He said in vs. 5 “Woe is me!”
When we enter into the Lords presence and behold his glory, his majesty, his beauty, his purity and holiness;
When we encounter his mercy, his justice and perfection, we come face to face with our own sad reality of imperfection!
His light, reveals the flaws in our lives.
In the light of his presence, we can see all those things that are against his desires and his ways.
We immediately recognize the changes he wants to make within us and we can say is:“Woe is me”
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Imagine your in a restaurant where the lighting is poor.
And you drop or spill some food on your shirt, blouse or tie.
You take some water and a napkin and try to wipe it off and think you’ve got it.
In the dim light of the restaurant, you think you’ve taken care of the problem.
But later on, you get home and the lighting is better, you see the problem is still there.
The original stain is still there, and there are all other stains caused by you trying to fix it.
Without proper light, without proper vision we end up making the problem worse!
That’s why we need to encounter the Lord in His perfect light.
We must encounter God with an open heart.
We must encounter God with a desire to be changed.
Many people resist changing!
They refuse to admit they need to change!
So they only have an emotional encounter with God from time to time but they continue to live, talk, and act the same way they always did.
Encountering Gods presence should make us sensitive, open, willing to be different!
Let me close with this verse from
2 Chronicles 7:14 God is speaking to his people:
“If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear form Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”
Do you want to Encounter God?
Do you want to Encounter God?
Then pray - seek His face
Encounter Him and be changed.
Will everyone please stand.
Lord we stand in your presence......
We admit we are not perfect!
Cleanse us.
Cleanse each and every heart in this place
We want to encounter you.
And then get to the place that we say:
“Here I am Lord, use me”
We want to be changed by you.
