Close Encounters
Joel Gorveatte · Tidal Church Moncton · June 12, 2022 · Supernatural series
Joel Gorveatte shares his own turning point from doubt to faith, then looks at Acts 4 and Isaiah 6. He shows that praise, bold prayer and expectant hearts open us to meeting a holy God, which leads to confession and commitment.
More from Joel Gorveatte · The Supernatural series
Topics: Prayer, Holy Spirit, Worship
Transcript
[0:00] Alrighty, ready to say to God's Word today. All right, in just a little bit we're gonna be in Acts chapter 4, if you want to go ahead and find that today. We celebrated our graduates. Congratulations, and here's what you'll find. If you're one of those graduates, whether it's from high school or university or grad school or whatever, this is the time in your life. In fact, it's the month where everybody feels welcome to give you their piece of advice. Am I right? Everybody's telling you what you ought to do, what you shouldn't do, what you should watch out for, what you should look for. And so can I just add to that today? You see, if there's anything that I could wish and pray for you today, graduates, especially, but this applies to everyone, it is that you would experience an earth- shaking, knee-quaking, powerful and personal encounter with a holy God.
[1:16] I think back to the years when I first went to university. I had come to a point where I did not believe in God, as happens for many students graduating in high school and going out into the world, and I had come to the point where I decided that all this religion stuff seems like a lie, that it's just too much to be believed. And like many college students, I came to the conclusion that I would not believe in something that I could not quantify evidentially with science and prove it to be true. And here's what's interesting: that crisis of faith happened while I was at a Christian university. And so it meant that I was surrounded with Christians everywhere who were filled with faith everywhere I went, and so as a result I felt alone in these struggles.
[2:13] The lone skeptic in the room. Until then came a night that changed everything in my life. That night there were a group of my friends who were going to a worship service, and so with the power of positive peer pressure, I went along, and people were really into the worship and, you know, just singing their hearts out, and people had their hands lifted and worshiped and praised, and they were feeling the move of the Spirit. And as people were lifting their hands, I was standing there with my arms crossed and my jaw set. And while all around me people were worshiping God, I was ripping Him apart.
[3:02] While everybody else was singing, all of my doubts and my confusion and my skepticism was just tumbling to the forefront. And I stood there and I said, "God, if You are real, then You have to prove Yourself to me. It's now on You. I'm tired of all this faith stuff. I want to believe that there's a higher power. It seems nice, but I cannot believe what is not proved." In my life, and that night Dr. Danny Gordon got up to speak, and he shared a story of a family that he knew personally in Upstate New York. And as he started, I looked at my watch and I thought, "Oh great, another story. We're never gonna get out of here."
[3:51] And he told of this friend of his, a strong Christian family who had two teenage girls and these teenage sisters were actively involved in their church youth group, and this particular night a number of the teens from the church were gathering together at Pizza Hut. And so they laughed and were chatting and were having a great time, and they stayed all the way through the evening, right up until the close of the restaurant at 11 PM. And when everybody got up to leave, one of the sisters said, "Wait, I need to go to the restroom," and so her sister waited for her. And by the time she came out, everybody else was gone. And so they made their way out the door onto the sidewalk in front of the Pizza Hut, and as they did, they noticed at the corner of the building there was a group of young men who were standing there.
[4:46] These young men were looking at them, making them feel uncomfortable, and then started to make comments and whistle at them. And so they started to pick up the pace. They walked across the parking lot. And the problem is, when they had come in that evening, the parking lot was full, and so they had parked in the very back, all the way as far as you could possibly get on the other side of the parking lot. And so they started to pick up the pace, and when they got about halfway across the parking lot, they looked over their shoulder and they realized that these young men were actually coming after them. And so they began to run as fast as they could. It was a full-blown chase, and they made it to the car just in time, and they opened the doors and they jumped in and they slammed the doors closed and clicked the locks as the young men surrounded the car.
[5:40] And so the older sister, she took her keys and she put the key in the ignition, and when she turned the key, she heard that sound that no one ever wants to hear, especially not in that moment. She heard click, and nothing. And she turned the ignition again. Click, nothing. And the boys outside of the car heard the click too, and as they surrounded the vehicle, they started knocking on the window, saying, "Haha, you'll never get it started. We've got you." And as the older sister turned the ignition, click, nothing, click, nothing, the younger sister sitting in the passenger seat cried out, "Oh Lord, help us, Jesus."
[6:27] And at that moment the ignition caught. In the ignition, the engine roared to life, and the sister put the car into drive, and they flew out of that parking lot and made it home safely at about 11:30 PM. And so when they arrived home, they went into the house and went into their parents' bedroom to tell them what had happened, still obviously shaken and frightened. They cried as they told their parents exactly what had happened that night. And so the mother, as she listened to the story, she finally asked, "What time did this happen?"
[7:18] And she said, "About 11:10." And here's the miracle part. Her mother said, "Sweetheart, your father and I were both asleep and woke up at 11:09, and felt like God was prompting us to pray for you, and at that moment we were here on our knees beside this bed, praying for you." That's a miracle. And the family prayed together and thanked God for this protection, and the girls went on to bed. And so later that night, their father couldn't get to sleep. He just stopped, you know, couldn't stop thinking about what had happened and why the car wouldn't start, and it didn't make any sense, because it sounded like a dead battery, and he had just replaced the battery in the car the week before. And so finally, unable to sleep, he got up and put on his slippers and shuffled out to the garage to inspect the car.
[8:19] And when he did, he popped the hood and he looked down at the engine and couldn't believe his eyes. The battery was gone. The boys had stolen the battery, and that's why they had said, "You'll never get it started." And let's be honest for a second. Normally I would have heard a story just like perhaps you hear it right now, with skepticism. Normally I would have thought, "Oh, yeah, I'm sure that was just made up. There's no way that that's real," even though he says he knows these people. And I would have disregarded it with skepticism. But in this moment, on this particular day, it didn't matter, because it wasn't the story that mattered. It was what God spoke to my heart.
[9:07] In that moment, God spoke to me like I had never heard Him before, and God said, "Joel, you think you've got it all figured out, but you're not nearly as smart as you think you are. Joel, you need to know that I have loved you before you were even formed in your mother's womb, that I had plans for you, You have seen miracles. You have seen the evidence that you need, but you have just come to a point in your life where you have chosen to disregard it. And so now the choice is yours to believe or not. It's called faith." And in that moment, tears trickled down my cheek and I cried out, "I believe. Thank You, Lord."
[9:53] And it's crazy as it may sound, that night God revealed Himself to me in His grace and mercy. He took a smarty pants little college student who thought he knew it all, and He filled my heart. And for the last 30 years, God has continued to prove Himself to me through miracles and revelation again and again and again in ways that I could never even begin to deserve. You see, knowledge of the Bible is never enough until you have an earth-shaking, knee-quaking, powerful and personal encounter with a holy God.
[10:44] And so today we're going to look at Acts chapter 4, if you want to find that in your Bible. And before we do, I promise we're eventually going to get there. But before we get to Acts 4, researcher George Barna found something surprising about what people look for in a church. Now, I'm speaking here of unchurched people, adults who have no church affiliation, and obviously if that's the case, most of them are not looking for a church. But they said if they were, there were five reasons that came to the top that people said they might possibly be willing to consider a church. And today I want to share with you the number one factor in that survey.
[11:30] Two out of every three non-churched adults said they would likely consider checking out a church if they thought it was possible they might experience God there. That is 66% who said the possibility of meeting with God might convince them to consider church, but they think it is unlikely. So why should they bother? And you know what? They might be right. Because Barna then surveyed church people who describe themselves as Christian, Protestant, or Catholic, and asked how often they experience the presence of God at their churches.
[12:19] And among the regular church attenders, nearly two out of every three, 61%, said they experience God's presence only occasionally, rarely, or never. And so what you often get in church is people talking about God but not actually experiencing Him. And why is that? Shouldn't we be concerned about that? Because God has promised that where two or three are gathered together in His name and call upon Him, that His Spirit will be among them. And so is God not fulfilling His promise, or are we not doing something right sometimes in calling on His name? And so let's look for answers in the Bible. Are you ready? We're in Acts chapter 4, and we're going to read verse 23 down to verse 31.
[13:22] Acts 4:23 says, "On their release from being arrested for teaching about Jesus," they were in jail because they had been proclaiming the name of Jesus, "Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer," not just one person praying. They all raised their voices in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "You made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Lord, You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
[14:15] The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed one.' Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats as they threaten us, and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Lord, stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus."
[15:13] And after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Ah, come on now. Isn't that what we want? And there are a couple of keys here that we don't want to miss. There are a couple of things that I want to highlight here today, some secrets that I wonder if they might give us some revelation as to why so many people and so many churches fail to have this kind of earth-shaking, knee-quaking, powerful and personal experience with the Holy Spirit.
[16:00] And here's the difference. Are you ready? Here in Acts 4, notice number one: they prayed with praise rather than pity. So often our prayers come from a posture of pity. "Oh Lord, my life is so bad, and look at all my problems, and here's all the stuff that You need to do for me." And listen, we do have the right and the responsibility to bring our requests to God. I'm not saying we shouldn't. I'm not saying we shouldn't but sometimes we miss that there is power in our praise. And in the posture of our praise, because when we get our eyes off of the pity of our problems and turn our praise to the Prince of Peace, who rules over all things, when you get your eyes set on Jesus, all of a sudden that's what starts to change and shift and rearrange the things that need to change in our lives. See, praise is when we take the spotlight off of ourselves and take the spotlight off of our problems and turn them on to the Prince of Peace, who can actually do something about them.
[17:10] In fact, this was such a big deal in the Bible that there are seven different words for praise in Hebrew in the Old Testament. Let me run through some of them really quickly for you. Yada is a word for praise, which means praise with open hands. One of the words for praise literally means not with your hands in your pocket, not with your hands clasped behind your back, but literally to have your hands open in front of you. Let me see. Let me see you yada with your hands out in front. Yada is the opposite of sorrow or groaning. Yada. I kind of picture, like, what happens when you're at a game in sports and your team scores a goal.
[17:57] And what does everybody in the crowd do? Yeah, and they put their hands up. Yada, and praise tell dah. Another Hebrew word for praise also has to do with your hands out, but this time as a testimony of gratitude. This one has to do with a spirit of thanksgiving and gratefulness, like raising your hand in testimony. For example, if I were to ask how many of you have had your lives transformed by Jesus, and you put your hand up as a testimony of praise, that is called Todah. Todah. Halal is another word for praise in Hebrew. And can you think of a worship word, a word that we use in worship that has anything to do with this, that starts, sounds kind of like that? How about hallelujah?
[18:52] Right. That's the root of hallelujah. Halal means to boast or rave about something to the point where you're kind of celebrating foolishly, kind of making a fool of yourself, losing all of your dignity, where people kind of look at you funny. Maybe you're just raving and talking about something that you're so excited about that you can't stop. Halal. Hallelujah. Shabach is a Hebrew word for praise, which means to loudly and triumphantly glorify. It literally has to do with shouting in worship. Again, when your team scores a goal, when you're at a hockey game, when you're at a baseball game, and you score. What does everybody do? They go, "Ah!" They shout. That is Shabach. Now notice something: many Christians do more worship at sporting events, like the Hebrew, than they do in church.
[19:49] Am I wrong? Is there more shouting by Christians in sports or in church? Are there more hands lifted triumphantly, declaring in sports or in church? Barak is the one, though, that's more solemn. A Hebrew word for praise that means to kneel down. Worship is a full-body experience. Kneel down as an act of adoration. Zamar is a word for praise that means to touch the strings. It's often used in the Old Testament to refer to instrumental worship. In other words, this is like a guitar solo for Jesus.
[20:38] And then what I think is probably the most significant Hebrew word for praise is Tehillah. Now, this one is special. And let me show you why. At least I think it's special, and here's the reason. Tehillah is the Hebrew word for praise found in Psalm 22. Now, why does that matter? Because Psalm 22 tells us where you can find God. Psalm 22:3 says that God is holy and enthroned on the praises, the Tehillah, of Israel. The King James Version says here that God inhabits the praise of His people. Now, what does it mean to inhabit something?
[21:29] It's where you live, right? And so Tehillah is the word for the kind of praise that God inhabits, that God lives in, that God is enthroned upon. And so how many of you say, "Well, we better figure out what that is"? Right? If that's where God inhabits and is enthroned, and so what does it mean? Tehillah is singing praise together, publicly. Guess what? Tehillah is the form of praise that most closely approximates what we do here together in church.
[22:15] When together in unity we lift our voices, together lifting up the name of the Lord, where it says, when we read in Acts 4, when the walls were shaken with the presence of God and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. It wasn't just one person. They were all lifting their voice in praise. I'm sure it sounded like a holy chaos amongst them. See, that is the kind of praise that God is enthroned upon. He inhabits the corporate, public worship of His people, which is why it is so good and pleasing when we come together. And so in Acts 4 they prayed with praise rather than pity, and number two, they prayed for power rather than protection.
[23:01] We pray, "O Lord, my finances are tight. Fix them. Oh Lord, my kids are disobedient. Straighten them out, straighten them out, Lord. My spouse is driving me crazy. Do whatever You want with them." So many of our prayers are, "Lord, protect me. Lord, help me. Lord, do all this stuff for me." But notice in Acts 4 they prayed, "Lord, give us the power to be the ones who overcome the evil in this world." Notice, they didn't just pray, "Lord, help us." They prayed, "Lord, use us." Come on now. "Lord, help me" is not nearly as powerful as praying, "Lord, use me. Use me to make a difference. Lord, use me to help other people. Use me to share the love of Jesus, to accomplish Your purpose in this world."
[23:57] And number three, they prayed with expectation rather than apathy. Let me ask, what do you expect when you come to church? Do you expect the walls to shake? Do you expect for miracles to happen? Do you expect revival? Do you expect a movement of God? Because guess what? You generally get what you expect. When you come expecting little, that's exactly what you get. But when you come hungry, prayed up, expecting miracles, expecting a move of God, expecting to put away your dignity, and fall on your knees before God and put your hands in the air and rave about Him. Foolishness leads to the point where we're, people think that maybe you've got a screw loose, but you don't care because you have come hungry to receive from God. Guess what happens when a people become like that.
[25:13] So to drive this home, let's look at Isaiah 6 in the Old Testament. This is possibly the most amazing close encounter with God story in the whole Bible, where Isaiah literally saw the glory of the presence of the Lord. And as he tells us about it, I want you to notice a couple of things that stand out. Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1 through 8. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord, seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe." The train is the whole back part of the robe, is so big that it fills the temple. "And above Him are seraphs," which is a type of angel, "each with six wings.
[26:00] With two wings they covered their faces," because the holiness, the glory of God, is too much to behold. "With two wings they cover their feet, and with two they were flying. And they're 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,' Isaiah 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.' And then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
[26:57] And with it he touched my mouth" with this hot coal from the altar. And said, "See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for." And then, "I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And Isaiah said, 'Here am I. Send me.'" There are two things that are true here in this experience, that are true of any experience in the presence of a holy God. See, when you have one of these, these overwhelming encounters with the Holy Spirit, those breakthrough moments always lead to two things. Number one, confession.
[27:56] Isaiah cried out, "Woe to me. I am ruined. I am unclean, and I live in an unclean culture." Because listen, whenever you catch a glimpse of the glory of God, whenever you see His holiness, whenever you behold His beauty, whenever you perceive His perfection, the more you see of God, the more you begin to see of the sinfulness of our human heart. In fact, I think sometimes that's why we avoid the presence of God, because when we come into His presence, He begins to shine the spotlight into the dark places of our heart that we have tried to keep hidden from Him, and He starts revealing things that need to be confessed in our lives, things that need to be surrendered to Him. These earth- shaking, knee-quaking, powerful and personal encounters with a holy God lead us to confess.
[29:07] And number two, they lead us to commit, because being in God's presence, Isaiah said, "Here I am, Lord, send me." And remember the church in Acts, in Acts 4, when the whole building shook with the presence of God, what did they pray? It wasn't just, "Lord, do a miracle for us." It wasn't just, "Lord, help us." It was, "Lord, use us." For both the church in Acts, when the walls shook, and the prophet Isaiah, when he comes into the throne room of God, their response was, in the presence of God, when they had this supernatural encounter, number one, to confess, as God reveals the things that need to be confessed in our lives, so that we can be purified and made holy like Him.
[30:03] And then number two, "Lord, we commit ourselves to You, to do Your will, to do Your work." Just as Isaiah declared in the presence of God, when he confessed and was purified, he then said, "Lord, here am I. Send me." And when I was a goofy, self-righteous, smarty- pants college student who thought I knew it all, that is when God showed up and gave me a personal encounter that absolutely wrecked me. "Woe to me," I cried. I was undone and unraveled in the presence of God. And in that moment, I confessed my sin and I committed to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. And if there is one thing that I want for you, it is this, that you would have an earth-shaking, knee- quaking, powerful and personal encounter with the Holy Spirit of God, because apart from that, none of the rest of this stuff matters.
[31:25] Would you stand? And Holy Spirit, we invite You to speak to us today. And even more than that, to show Yourself today, to peel back the curtain that we might see into the Holy of Holies, into the throne room of God, and like Isaiah we know that being in Your presence, while it is exactly what we need, it is far from comfortable and affirming.
[32:29] That it drives us to our knees and confession. And so, Lord, anything that You want to reveal to us in Your presence today, we invite You to speak, that we would confess and be made right before You. Just as Isaiah had an angel that flew from the altar with a flaming hot coal to place on our lips, that we would be purified by the blood of Jesus, who washes away our sin. And Lord, for anybody who, like me, was skeptical and doubting, maybe today that You would reveal Yourself.
[33:22] As we worship today, I want to offer a suggestion to you that you can use here and now, but it's also something to keep in mind from this point forward, whenever you are coming before the Lord in worship, to allow the Holy Holy Spirit to inspire your imagination. to begin to see God throne room vision of Isaiah. Can you picture the throne room of Heaven? Right now, just would you close your eyes as I read it again? And Holy Spirit, that You would inspire our imagination to see what Isaiah saw.
[34:13] The Lord seated on a throne. Isaiah says that seated on His throne, the Lord is high and exalted. And His magnificent robe is so long that the train fills the temple. And above Him are seraphs, the type of angel, each with six wings, with two wings they cover their faces, with two they cover 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, and of the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds of the room shake, and the temple is filled with smoke. And woe to me, Isaiah cries. He says, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among the people of unclean lips. But today my eyes have seen the King, the glory of the Lord God. All Mighty Lord. We lift up and declare our praise to You today. We lift up and declare our praise to You today. We'll be lifted higher, the wings.