1:59 Mhm. >> Our brothers and sisters, let's start 2:29 this song. Let's start by singing this song. It's a song that we sing to Jesus. So, let's try to do that. It's a choice that we make. We can just sing words and tunes, but we can also just turn to Jesus in our hearts and talk to him. 2:49 O name of might and favor all other names above. We worship thee, we bless thee. Thee alone we sing. We praise [singing] 3:05 [music] thee and confess thee, our holy [music] [singing] Lord and King. >> [music] >> O Savior, [singing] precious Savior, whom yet unseen we [music and singing] 3:24 love. O name of might and favor >> [singing] >> all other [music] names above. We worship [singing] thee, we bless [music] thee, to thee alone we sing. 3:43 We praise [music and singing] thee and confess thee, our holy Lord [singing and music] and King. Brothers, sing me. O bringer [music and singing] of salvation, who wondrously [music] has wrought, 4:02 thyself the revelation [singing] >> [music] >> of love beyond [singing] our thought. Join in, join in. We worship [music] thee, we bless thee, to thee [music and singing] alone we sing. We praise thee 4:21 and confess thee, [singing and music] our gracious Lord and King. Sisters, sing. In the awfulness >> [music and singing] >> of all grace and power divine, >> [music] 4:39 >> the glory that excelleth, O >> [singing] >> Son of God, is thine. >> [music] >> We worship thee, we bless [singing] thee, to thee alone we sing. 4:55 We [music] praise thee and confess thee, our glorious [singing] Lord and King. >> [music] >> Just the voices. O grant the [singing] consummation of this our song above, >> [chanting] 5:15 >> in endless [singing] adoration and everlasting love. >> [singing] [music] >> Then shall we praise and bless thee, where perfect [music and singing] praises reign. 5:33 And evermore confess [music] thee, our Savior and our King. Then shall we praise. Then [music and singing] shall we praise and bless thee, where perfect [music and singing] praises reign. me and >> [singing] 5:51 >> evermore confessing [music] our savior and our [singing] king. Please be seated, brothers and sisters. >> [music] 6:18 [music] >> We want to see Jesus lifted high. We want to see [music and singing] Jesus lifted high, the banner that flies across the sky, [singing] that all men might see the truth and [music] know that he is the way to heaven. 6:36 We want to see [music and singing] Jesus lifted high, the banner that flies across the sky, that all men might see the truth and know [music and singing] that he is the way to heaven. We want to see him. We want to see. 6:52 We [music] want to see. We want to see Jesus lifted high. We want to see. We want [music] to see. We want to [singing] see Jesus lifted high. Step by [music] step we're moving forward. [singing] Little by little we're gaining ground. 7:12 Every [music and singing] prayer a powerful weapon. Strongholds come tumbling down and down and [music and singing] down and down and down. We want to see Jesus [music and singing] lifted high, the banner that flies across the sky, that all men 7:31 [music and singing] might see the truth and know that he is the way to heaven. We want to see. We want to see. We want to see [music and singing] Jesus lifted high. We want to see We want to see We want to see Jesus lifted 7:49 [music and singing] high. >> Once more. We want to see We want to see We want to see Jesus [singing] lifted [music] high. He's my Lord and [singing and music] my Redeemer, 8:08 the bright and morning star. He's the fairest of 10,000 [singing and music] to my soul. I have found a friend [music and singing] in Jesus, he's everything to me. He's the fairest [singing] of 10,000 to my soul. 8:28 >> [music] >> My Lord and my Redeemer, in Him alone I see all I need [music] to cleanse [singing] and make me fully whole. In sorrow, he's my comfort. [music and singing] In trouble, he's my stay. He tells me every care on 8:45 [singing] Him to roll. He's [music] my Lord and my Redeemer, the bright and morning star. >> [music] >> He's the [singing] fairest of 10,000 to my soul. >> In sorrow. In sorrow, [singing] he's my comfort. In trouble, [music] he's my stay. 9:02 He tells me every care on Him [singing] to roll. He's my Lord and my Redeemer, the bright and morning [music] star. He's the fairest [singing] of 10,000 to my soul. Sisters, [music] sing. He all my grief has taken 9:22 and all my sorrows borne. In temptation, [singing and music] he's my strong and mighty God. I have all for Him forsaken and all my >> [music] >> idols torn. From my [singing] heart has now He keeps me by His word. Brothers, sing. And 9:39 oh, all [singing and music] world forsake me and Satan tempts me so, through [singing] Jesus I shall safely reach the goal. >> [music] >> He's my Lord [singing] and my Redeemer, the bright and morning star. He's the fairest [singing] 9:54 of ten thousand [music] to my soul. Okay, brothers, sing. He'll never, [music and singing] never leave me, nor yet forsake me. No, while I live by faith and do His blessed will. [music and singing] Oh, wall of fire about me, 10:13 [music and singing] I've nothing now to fear. With His manna He my hungry soul [singing] shall fill. Join on and sing. And crowned at last [music] in glory, I'll see His blessed face, where rivers [singing] of delight [music] shall ever roll. 10:30 He's my Lord [singing] and my Redeemer, the bright and morning star. He's the [music and singing] fairest of ten thousand to my soul. In sorrow, He's my comfort. In sorrow, [singing] He's my comfort. [music] In trouble, He's my stay. 10:45 He tells me every care on [singing] Him to roll. He's my Lord [music] and my Redeemer, the bright and morning star. He's the fairest [music and singing] of ten thousand to my soul. Just the congregation sing the chorus in 11:00 sorrow. In [music] sorrow, He's >> [singing] [music] [music] 11:26 >> Now, we want to join with the hosts of heaven sing to our King of kings, >> [music] >> his name is the highest. His name stands above them all. Holy. [music and singing] 11:51 Holy. >> [singing] [music] >> Thousands of generations falling [music] down in worship to sing the song of ages to the Lamb. >> [music] >> All who have gone before us 12:13 and all who will believe [singing and music] will sing the song of ages to the Lamb. >> [music] >> Your name is the highest. [music] [singing] Your name is the greatest. Your [music] name 12:33 stands [singing] above them all. All thrones and dominions, all powers >> [singing and music] >> and positions, your name stands above them all. >> [music and singing] 12:50 >> And the angels cry, "Holy." >> [music and singing] >> All creation cries, "Holy. >> [music] >> You are lifted [singing] high." "Holy. 13:09 >> [music] >> Holy [singing] forever." >> [music] >> If you've been forgiven, [music] if you've been [singing] redeemed, sing the song >> [music] 13:29 >> forever to the Lamb. If you [music] walk in freedom, and if you bear His name, sing the song [music and singing] forever to the Lamb. >> [music] 13:48 >> We'll sing the song forever [singing] and amen, and the angels cry. >> [music] >> Congregation sing. All creation [music and singing] cries. >> [music] 14:07 >> You are lifted high. [singing] >> [music] >> Holy [singing] forever. >> [music] >> Hear your people [singing] sing. To the King 14:28 >> [singing and music] >> of kings. You will always [singing and music] be holy [music and singing] forever. Your [music] name 14:52 is the [singing] highest. Your name is the greatest. [singing and music] Your name stands above them all. >> [music] >> All thrones >> [singing] >> and dominions, all powers >> [music] >> and positions, [singing] 15:12 your name stands [music] above them all. >> [singing] >> Praise the Lord. He is the name above all names. >> [music] 15:42 >> The sands [music and singing] of time are sinking. The dawn >> [music] >> The summer morn [singing] has sighed for the fleeting gone Dark, dark [music and singing] 16:02 has been the midnight, but [music] day's breath is at hand. And glory, >> [singing] >> glory dwell in Immanuel's [singing and music] land. Oh, Christ, He 16:22 is the fountain, [singing] the deep, sweet well [music] of love. The streams [singing] of earth have tasted >> [music] >> no draught we bring above. There [music] to an ocean fullness 16:42 >> [singing] >> His mercy doth expand. >> [music] >> And glory, >> [singing] >> glory dwell in Immanuel's [singing and music] land. Sister sing. I am His 17:01 beloved's and my beloved's He brings >> [music] >> me to His banqueting house of wine. I [singing and music] stand upon 17:19 His breast >> [singing] [music] [singing] [singing and music] >> Brothers sing. 17:37 >> [singing and music] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing and music] 18:09 [singing] [music] >> Let's sing the last verse together, just the voices. >> [singing and music] [singing and music] [singing] 18:32 [music] [singing] [singing] [singing] 18:50 [music] >> Praise and glory, [music] wisdom and thanks, >> [music] >> honor 19:08 and strength. Salvation [music] and glory [singing] to our God Join in brothers and sisters. who >> [music] >> reigns above the and onto the [singing] lamb. 19:32 >> [music] >> Praise and glory, wisdom >> [singing and music] >> and thanks, honor and power and strength >> [music] >> be to our [singing and music] God 19:53 forever and ever. >> [music] >> Be to our [singing] God forever and ever. Be [music] to our God forever and ever. >> [music and singing] 20:12 >> Amen. And we the redeemed shall [music and singing] be strong in purpose >> [music] 20:30 >> and declaring [singing and music] our love. Praise [music] and glory, [singing] wisdom and thanks, >> [music] 20:50 >> honor and power and strength Just the voices [music] sing. >> [singing] >> Be to our God forever and ever. >> [singing] >> Be to be to God, forever [singing] 21:08 and ever be to our [singing] God, forever and ever. Amen. [music] Praise [singing] and glory, [music] wisdom 21:27 and [singing] thanks, honor [music] and power and strength. Congregation, sing. be to our God, >> [music] >> forever and ever 21:43 be to our [music and singing] God, forever and ever be to our [singing] God, forever and ever. >> [singing and music] >> Amen. Shall we all stand, brothers and 22:01 sisters? Hallelujah. 22:32 Hallelujah. >> [music and singing] >> For our Lord God almighty reigns. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. [music] 22:54 [singing] For our Lord God almighty [singing] reigns. Hallelujah. [music] [singing] Holy. 23:15 >> [music] >> Holy. [singing] Are you Lord >> [singing and music] >> God Almighty? Worthy is the [music] lamb. Worthy is the lamb. [singing] 23:35 You are [music] holy. Holy. >> [singing and music] >> Are you Lord God Almighty? >> [music] >> Worthy is the lamb. >> [music] 23:55 >> Worthy is [singing] the lamb. Amen. [music] Holy. Holy. Holy. Are you [singing] Lord God 24:18 >> [music] >> Almighty? [singing] Worthy is the lamb. >> [music] >> Worthy is the lamb. You are [singing] holy. >> [music] >> Holy. [singing] Are you Lord [music] God 24:41 Almighty? [singing] Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the [singing] lamb. Amen. >> [music] [singing] >> Brothers and sisters, let's 25:32 continue to turn our hearts and our thoughts to our Lord and Savior. Words [snorts] are not enough to express his power, 25:54 his wisdom, his love. We see a faint glimpse in our spirits of the beauty of his holiness. And we are transformed. Let there be a longing in each of our 26:15 hearts. An openness. Where are we going to hide from the love of God, brothers and sisters? Humble ourselves and come before him. He's holy forever. 26:49 I want to read from Psalm 62 and 63. My soul wait in silence for God only. For him is my salvation. 27:09 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be greatly shaken. My soul wait in silence for God alone, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be shaken. 27:28 On God my salvation and my glory rest. The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, oh people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. One thing God 27:48 has spoken, two things I heard that power belongs to God. And loving kindness is yours, oh Lord. For you reward a man according to his work. Oh God, you are my God. I shall seek you 28:07 honestly. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory, because your loving kindness is better 28:23 than life. My lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. Brothers and sisters, let's open up our mouths and give thanks and praise to our God, king of kings, the lord of lords, 28:42 >> [snorts] >> the fountain of life. Let's praise him. Let's praise him together. Yes, Lord, we praise you. Heaven and earth belongs to you, Lord. You are the glorious one. You're our father. You love us with an everlasting love, Lord. 28:57 You are holy. You are holy forever, Lord. We praise you. Oh, father, there's no one like you. There is no one. There's no other name in heaven or on earth, Lord. It's in your name alone that we have salvation, Lord. Yes, Lord, you're the giver of every 29:14 good gift. In you all the fullness dwells, Lord. We want to bow down before you in our spirits and acknowledge that you alone are worthy. You alone are worthy of praise and glory and honor and wisdom and thanksgiving, Lord. It 29:27 belongs to you forever and ever, Lord. Thank you for this moment in time, Lord, when we know that you are looking at us and we can praise you and worship you and give thanks to you and exalt your name, Lord, and come to you as children boldly, 29:41 Lord, boldly, that you will feed us, Lord, from your banqueting table, Lord, because your banner over us is love. We thank you, Lord. We praise you. Yes, Lord, you want to come with that faith, Lord, because you are faithful. You are 29:59 faithful, Lord. We praise you. You've done all things well. We want to acknowledge that. We thank you, Lord, for this time and this opportunity. We pray in your mighty name, Jesus. Amen. Please be seated, brothers and sisters. 30:23 Let's go over our memory verses together. Last 4:6. He will restore the hearts 30:46 of the fathers to their children. And the hearts of the children to their fathers. Amen. And this week's verse is a command from 31:05 Acts 3:19. You can repeat after me. Acts 3:19. Repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may 31:23 come from the presence of the Lord. What a precious verse this is, brothers and sisters. Let's take it to heart. Acts 3:19. Repent and return 31:42 so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Amen. Brothers and sisters, we want to listen 32:02 to a message today. I will ask Brother Danish to come and tell us more about Um beloved brothers and sisters, good 32:22 morning. Today we're going to hear message spoken by Brother Santosh, the the title of that message is the importance of encountering God. And don't get scared by the word 32:40 encounter. Because when we hear of encounter, we think of Paul and the prophets had had in their times. But God knows our level and God can meet us. 32:58 And in fact, God can come down to our level. And we can never climb ourself up to God's level. But God can come and lift us up as we say read in that verse, underneath are the everlasting arms. I want you to turn to a verse in 1 33:15 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse uh 20. Here Apostle Paul's Paul writes to the 33:37 Jews, I became as a Jew so that I might win the Jews. And to those who are under the law, as under the law, though I I know that I am not under the law so that I might win those who are under the law. 33:55 And to those who are without the law, I was as without the law. And uh again it says to the weak, I become weak so that I might I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that I by all means I may I may all by 34:13 all means save some. Now this is the man who would not compromise on his conviction. And he was not afraid of people, even the kings. But see his heart. To the Jews, he would become like the 34:33 Jew. Another verse, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7. I was sharing this verse in Electronic 34:50 City last week. It was Mother's Day. Let's see Paul how he was with them. But we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother 35:06 tenderly cares for his own children. Here is a verse uh our sisters who are mothers who can understand the depth of this words more than us. But the way Paul conducted himself, the Paul, how he 35:24 dealt with the people it is just like a a nursing mother. What a precious heart we need to covet, brothers and sisters, and and all this without having diluting his understanding of God his doctrine. 35:44 And one more verse. Um John 17:23, all of us know these words. John 17:23. It was Jesus was speaking to his father. And uh 36:02 in the last portion of that word it says so that the world may know that you love them you loved them even as you have loved me. Now think of Jesus and the disciples. 36:20 It's like it's like uh heaven and earth, the difference in their spiritual understanding. And Jesus had no log in his own own eye. He could see the things in their heart. But see the thought in Jesus' heart. 36:39 He didn't feel that I'm so precious. Yes, I we are all precious, but not in a way that is a They are so precious. The Father, you love them just as just as you loved me. And how What is the difference, brothers and sisters? Is it 36:54 Is it a new doctrine? No, it's not doctrine. The secret lies in Christ. It's not in a a specific doctrine. I believe, brothers and sisters, those of us are in the church, we hear the sound doctrine. 37:11 But we must have encounter with God. I mean, I sometimes have encounter with godly men. And I see what is the freedom and the liberty and the freedom from condemnation and guilt. How much we experience when we have an encounter with godly men. 37:31 And how much more when we meet God. And I pray that as we listen to this message, don't just take it just as a message. But sit as the one who's sitting at Jesus' feet. Lord, and as we just had this memory verse today, don't look forward to a 37:49 refreshing time for future. Look for that today. And say, "Lord, I need that times of refreshing in my heart." And as he as I hear these words, please speak to me. Please meet with me, Lord, inside my heart. May the Lord touch many of us this 38:05 morning. Amen. Brother, that video. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are seated there as our Father. And yet you're here in our midst. Your dwelling place is there high in 38:25 heaven and with the lowly. And so Lord, here we are lowly people. I believe that you want to be near every lowly person. You are near every lowly person. And we lowly people cry out to you for a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit 38:41 today that will touch our hearts that will stir us up, Lord, to follow you more wholeheartedly, to be done with the things of this world and the things of self. Oh, Lord, we cry out to you. Send outpouring of your Holy Spirit. Send 38:56 that fire into our hearts this morning. Open the windows of heaven, Lord, like you did on Mount Carmel and sent that fire on the sacrifice. Oh, look down upon the altar as we've laid our all and send the fire, Lord, upon our lives. 39:11 Burn up all that is of dross, all that is of self, all that is not of Christ. Burn it up, Lord. You can take anything away from us, Lord, except yourself. We mean that, Lord, and if there's something we're holding on to, some 39:25 thing, some person, some relationship, some attachment, oh Lord, I pray you'll come and burn that up. Convict us of sin. Convict us of righteousness. Convict us of judgment, Lord, I pray. Thank you that you will condemn sin in 39:40 the flesh so that the fulfillment the the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the the flesh but after the spirit. Lord, give us this life of walking after the spirit. And so Lord, make us people who 39:54 walk after the spirit because we're filled with the spirit and that every requirement that you have of us will be fulfilled. You promised it, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is operating in us. 40:08 Not the law of sin and death, no longer sin and death, but life in Christ Jesus. Give us this life, we pray. And so Lord, we open our hearts to you. We open our mouths wide. We open our ears, Lord, so we all and pray that your spirit will 40:22 come and write your law in our hearts. In the same way that your finger wrote on those tablets of stone, the law that would exist for eternity, Lord, will you write now that new covenant law on our hearts, the law of love, love for you, 40:38 love for each other, love for even our enemies. Write that law in our hearts, Lord. We can't do it. This is an eternal work that you must do through the Holy Spirit. We can never do it in a million years. So Lord, come through your Holy 40:50 Spirit and give us marriage love. Give us family love in our homes. Give us church love, Lord, that divine love in the church. And a love for you foremost, Lord, the divine love in our hearts. Pour out shed abroad your love in our 41:04 hearts. We believe you will. You're here to do that. You are near. May there be a spirit of reverence, Lord, knowing that you, Lord Jesus, are here in our midst. And you are going to speak to us. So when we hear your voice, we will receive 41:17 faith, faith that will cause us to be overcomers this week, never again to wallow in defeat and unbelief and discouragement and worry and fear and lust and anger and jealousy and bitterness and the love of money. Lord, thank you that you will do that. We 41:33 shall overcome. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I've had a bit of a burden on my heart this week and that's what I'm going to share with you all. But 41:50 um and in in line with that, I recently heard a story of a young young woman who uh quite young, a young mother, who was diagnosed with a uh terminal disease. And um was uh 42:08 and in in what she said, there was um I I think been given months to live, a young mother with two small children. And uh it was very very touching, very moving to hear just um 42:25 the the cry of her heart and um that sense of it was was this unfairness as it were that somebody so young with children so young who probably will barely remember their mother. And something she said at the end of 42:44 that piece um that I came across really touched my heart and I don't know if this person knows Christ and it seemed like they didn't. And uh but that something she said at the end was uh I paraphrased it a little bit. 43:02 Since I don't know what death is like, she was saying, and there's no one to tell me what comes after. I'll keep pretending. I'll keep trying to remember. That's what she had left. All she could hold on to was memories 43:20 that she had and wanted to die with that sense of memory. It really broke my heart when I came across that story. Since I don't know what death is like and there's no one to tell me what comes after. This is why we're here on this earth, 43:39 brothers, sisters, and children. We're here on this earth to tell the world that there we can know what comes after. And so often we can get so caught up with our own circumstances. Oh, I don't have this or I don't have that or I 43:56 don't feel like this or I wish my life was like that and and so taken up with and I'm not here to minimize any suffering that any of us is going through. Please know that. But what a tragedy it will be if in the midst of the 44:12 suffering and the affliction and the difficult trials that we go through on on Earth, God's people suffer greatly. All who live godly will experience suffering. We're told in 2 Timothy 4. So, you can expect suffering if you're a 44:31 child of God. But, what a tragedy it will be if we get to eternity and realize that God in the midst of our suffering was hoping that with everybody we came across, we would leave them with a taste of eternity, that there is hope after this 44:49 life. I believe you know it. But, you know that the vast majority of people around us, whether they sit in churches or not, don't know that. Don't know that you can know what happens after death. 45:07 I hope that nobody sitting here is afraid of death. It starts there. Children, I hope that you're not afraid of death. You know that you don't have to be afraid of death. If you are in Christ Jesus, if you really have come to know this Father we 45:24 sang about, you don't have to fear death at all. Death is just the passage to being with Jesus forever. And it's wonderful. But, you know that your classmates, whether you school at home or online or go to a school, you know that the vast 45:42 majority of those children will grow up not knowing what happens after. And you have a few months, a few days, a few years maybe if they're in your class, to leave them with a little taste for them to know, I know a Father in heaven, a God who 46:02 loves us so much. And he's made a home for us. And Jesus is coming back. You can do that, children. It starts by you knowing God yourself. And I want to start by asking especially you children, but maybe this is for some 46:19 of you adults as well. Are you sure that you will be with Jesus for eternity? Are you sure? Let me ask you seriously, are you sure that you will be with Jesus for eternity? If not, why not? 46:39 Is there a reason that you're not sure? God has done everything. He's done everything for you to be sure. And I believe if you've been in this church for even a few weeks or a few months, which is almost everybody here, 46:55 you've heard us preach on it. That it's a very simple step of asking Jesus, "Come and forgive my sins and put your spirit within me so that I can be sure." Why not today then? Why not make this the day that you can be sure? Children, I believe that most 47:14 of you are old enough to know that. And you will have such peace. You'll have an assurance. You don't want to grow up like the rest of the world uncertain, afraid. Some of you Some of you, I'm not I'm not trying to scare you, please know that. But 47:31 somebody sitting here, could be me, could be one of you, may get that news one day. As a young boy or a young girl or a somebody in their 20s or in their 30s, that you only have a few more months to live. And will you live in fear of what's 47:47 going to happen after that? I just want to tell you if that was me, sometimes I worry if if if if I got that news that I've got a few months to live, I I've no fear about myself. No, not even a little bit. I'm excited to see 48:03 Jesus, but there is a little bit of uncertainty. What will be of What will happen to my family? What will happen to my children? Of course, the Lord will provide for them. If the Lord allows that to happen, he will take care of everything else. 48:17 And I'm growing in that faith, but certainly I'm not afraid of death. And none of you children should be afraid of death. None of you adults should be afraid of death. If there's a reason that you don't are not sure that you will spend eternity with Jesus, 48:34 why not? And why not today be that day when you can be sure? I want to ask you all another question as I've been asking myself. Are you sure that you have been filled with the Holy Spirit? If not, why not? Are you sure that the Holy Spirit has 48:53 filled you? Filled your heart at least as much as you're aware. He's going to continue to fill you. Yes, there's a lot more filling every one of us, but are you sure that every room in your heart that you're aware of he has filled? 49:08 If not, why not? Cuz God has promised to fill us and he wants you to have a life of not only being sure that you will spend eternity with him, but that you're living here on this earth full of the Holy Spirit. He wants that for us, 49:27 brothers, sisters, and children. I want to read something that I wrote in my journal this week. I'll just read it as I wrote it. I woke up last night. This was a few days ago in the middle of the night. The initial thoughts that started to 49:42 come to my mind were regarding my children. What our family's future would be like. How I would be able to set them up for that. I think any of you who are parents know can relate to that. This was probably a result of conversations I'd had the previous day 49:59 with someone about these topics. Almost instantly the Lord spoke a clear word to me. I am coming soon. I couldn't sleep for some time after that, but my thoughts and prayers changed to 50:18 Yes, Lord, come soon. And may your grace be with me to keep me ever ready for your return. I'm going to read that again, but will you turn with me to the last page of your Bible? The last chapter. The last few verses. Revelation chapter 50:35 22. I'd had a conversation with somebody and just thinking about how, you know, there's so much uncertainty. Uh it was around the context of that I, back in the day, I chose computer science because it seemed like a good 50:51 field to go into and now I'm not so sure. And uh like with their jobs are fewer because AI's taking it over and so there's so many other jobs that seem to be less affected these days, and so I'm not sure that I would recommend my children to go into 51:06 that and on all that and so that was there in the back of my mind, not in a fearful way, but it was there. Uncertainty. Cuz I don't know what the world's going to be like when my children are my age. No idea. It's changing so fast. Just in 51:21 the last year it's changed so fast. How much more in 30 years? Revelation 22, verse 20. He who testifies to these things, that is Jesus, 51:35 says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." And John's response was, "Amen. Let it be so. Come, Lord Jesus. Let let read that again. After I'd had these thoughts about my 51:53 family's future, almost instantly the Lord spoke a clear word to me, "I am coming soon." Please remember that, dear family, as you go through this week. Jesus is coming soon. Very, very soon. And so, my prayer changed to 52:10 I Yes, Lord, come soon. And may your grace because then he says the last verse of the Bible, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all." May your grace be with me to keep me ever ready for your return. I go on to write in my journal that that 52:30 I wrote it the next morning. I also had a burden that everyone at RLCF would have an encounter with God through the filling of the Holy Spirit. And I prayed that way for some time, even as I fell back to sleep. When I woke up this morning, the first 52:45 word the Lord spoke to me was, if you'll turn with me to Luke 1 verse 37. Luke 1 verse 37. And I'll read it in the Amplified Bible. 53:05 Luke 1:37. When I woke up this morning I wrote, "The first word the Lord spoke to me was, for with God nothing" and here it is about seeking for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. In the same way that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and into Mary and formed 53:24 Jesus in her supernaturally. The Holy Spirit came and formed Jesus inside Mary's womb, a picture of how the Holy Spirit is now going to come inside you and I and form Christ in us spiritually. And in this context the angel says, and 53:44 Mary's like, how can it be? And you think, how can I be filled with the Holy Spirit? What does that mean? I've prayed or I don't know what to pray. And children, you're perhaps thinking, how can I be baptized in the Holy Spirit? What does that mean? 53:57 Then you read verse 37, for with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment. 54:14 No word of from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment. I go on to write, it strengthened me that the word from God, that he would fill us with the Holy Spirit, that's Acts 1:8, has power and is certain to be 54:30 fulfilled. That's the burden on my heart now as for the last few days, especially this week. And how I would express it this morning, dear brothers, dear sisters, and especially for you children, young people, the most important thing is that you 54:48 have an encounter with God. Have you had an encounter with God? Maybe you're an adult and you grew up in a Christian home and you've said the prayer and really Christianity is just a a religion and it's a way of living your life and 55:04 you read your Bible and you say your prayer and you do this and you do that and you come to the church meeting and you come to the Bible study and but it's not you haven't had an encounter with God. And that's why the Christian life is 55:17 boring and heavy and sometimes seems like a drag and you're not sure about things in life. You're not sure if being a living a life that's devoted to Christ wholeheartedly is the only life worth living. And if you haven't had an encounter with 55:33 God, all that you hear in the Christ in the in the church will just be head knowledge. The memory verses you could get up here week after week and say your memory verse and please don't stop doing that. That's an exercise of faith. 55:48 But if you continue to do that and you haven't had an encounter with God face to face with God. You're missing out. And God wants you to come to that place, dear family. Dear friends listening online where you have an encounter with God. 56:07 We've read the stories of godly men and women in that book that we read. They found the secret. Men and women, some of them were very useful in ministry. Some of them were already pastoring churches. And they had an encounter with God. 56:21 Read the testimony of Brother David Wilkerson in um in his book The Cross and the Switchblade where he was pastoring a church and one day he had an encounter with God and it revolutionized his ministry. It's like everything else was 56:35 minuscule compared to that experience he had. When the Lord filled him with the Holy Spirit and and you see he lived until the end of his life so filled. Story after story, Samuel Logan Brengle pastoring a church here and he knew that something was lacking. 56:51 He hadn't had that encounter with God and yet people thought he was a wonderful preacher and people were already packing his church. And he heard about William Booth who had had an encounter with God. He said, "I want that." And so he said, 57:05 "I'm giving up my pastoral ministry and I'm going to go to England." William and here here he came as this respectable pastor and William Booth had heard of him. And he said, "Oh yeah, you're that pastor, right? Yeah, I have a job for 57:18 you. You're going to be shining boots." Famous pastor. Samuel Logan Brengle thought, "Lord, is this what you called me to do? I thought I was going to be saving lives, joining Brother Booth in the streets preaching to the prostitutes and the drunkards. 57:35 And now all you are doing is shining boots. And he had an encounter with God while he was shining boots. And he was used powerfully in the Salvation Army. And story after story like that. And dear RLCF family, especially, the 57:49 burden of our hearts as elders is that not one of us should go through life or sit here week after week without having that encounter. Children, there's one prayer we pray for you. Not that you'll have a successful life or even that 58:06 you'll get up here and say your memory verses every week or all these other things or that you'll be healthy. Those are secondary prayers. There's If you could boil down one prayer that we pray for you, dear children, please listen to me. 58:19 Look up at me if you will, dear children. Look at me for a minute. There's one prayer we pray for you and that is that you will have an encounter with God. And if you have that encounter with God, you could be 4 years old. 58:33 You could be 8 years old like little Samuel was. He had an encounter with God. Little boy that he was, God spoke to him. God's not just wanting to speak to the old people like us. He wants to speak to you children. And please, when you sit here, 58:48 I pray that a spirit of reverence will be here in the meetings. That you'll You know, I I know sometimes the meetings are long and we don't expect you to pay full attention. You might get a little distracted and you might bring some 58:58 coloring, but keep your ears open. Cuz God wants you to have an encounter with him. He'll change your life. It's changed my life to have that encounter with God. My personal encounters with God came when I was at my lowest point. 59:15 I've had a a number of them. And I'm not just talking about meeting with God like I I meet with God every time I'm in this place, honestly. Every meeting [clears throat] I'm sitting here, not a single one for the last number of years. 59:28 I experience God. I see Jesus. I pray with all of my heart, "Lord, I want to see you." And I do see him a little bit more clearly. I'm not saying that proudly, please don't misunderstand. I'm not more special or anything than that. 59:42 God has given me a gift to teach. He's called me to be an elder, but that in terms of seeing Jesus, you and I are in the same place. We're all equally entitled to see Jesus. But I've just made it the passion of my heart that I never want to go a single 59:56 day without seeing him. I never want to sit 1 hour even, 1 minute in my seat there without seeing Jesus. And if you'll make that your prayer, you can, too. And you can say, "Every time I come into these doors and I sit down, I see Jesus 1:00:12 a little bit more clearly. I hear his voice a little bit more clearly." That must be our life. But I've had specific encounters with God that I I just feel undeserving of. And that's why I want to share that as an encouragement for you. It's not that 1:00:28 I attained some level of spirituality and went on the mount of transfiguration and saw God. And that was not my experience, not even once. It was always shortly after I had failed the Lord. After I dishonored his name. After I 1:00:44 felt so unworthy that he would speak to me, that he actually met with me and filled me afresh with the Holy Spirit. And so, if you're here and you're discouraged and you're feeling unworthy and uh thinking, "Lord, I I I don't 1:00:58 know. I don't connect with some of the others. They seem so spiritual around here at RLCF." I want you to know that forget about all of that. Cry out to the Lord. If you're in a place of emptiness, in a place of loneliness, 1:01:10 he's near the lowly. He's near the broken-hearted. Sometimes it can be possible that sitting here in RLCF that you hear the language of the church and you seem seems like, "Well, they all have this language and let that never be a 1:01:24 hindrance. If if if you speak a different language, and by language I mean not another earthly language, but you use different words. We try to use biblical words. That's why that language comes from. When we when we use certain phrases, 1:01:38 it's because they're written like that in God's word. And that's good because that's how God chose to word it. >> [clears throat] >> But if you express it differently, that's fine. But in the midst of that, don't let that lack of if you feel a 1:01:53 little out of place in some way or lack of connection, that might happen with some of you children or some of you adults. Don't let that prevent you from seeking to have a personal encounter with God. You must have that, dear family. 1:02:08 Otherwise, sitting in this church will be misery. You'll always feel like this this I don't quite get all of it. I don't fit in. And oh, what a difference an encounter with God will have. You'll grow up and you'll find that 1:02:22 fellowship actually happens, not just friendship, not just coming here and having a good time, but something's happening. Our fellowship, dear family, must be on the basis 100% only on the fact that each of us has had an 1:02:36 encounter with God. If you're not having an encounter with God and you're not seeking for it, please I want to say this very carefully. If you're not seeking for a personal encounter with God, I want to tell you you and I will probably not have 1:02:51 fellowship over time. It'll just get more and more distant. Because I'm headed in that direction. That's the passion of my life. The only way I want to go is to continue to have a continual encounter with God. And I hope that you'll join me and that 1:03:06 you'll join the others here who are seeking that. That's what our fellowship is going to be based on. And we're not a special group of people. I don't do that looking at others at other churches or people who have left this church or anything like that. I 1:03:19 don't even think about that much anymore. I say, "Lord, I want to focus my devotion and my affection on you and having an encounter with you continually. And Lord, build a church out of such people." And I pray that not one of you sitting 1:03:34 here will choose a different path. You know, there's nothing special about this church and the Lord may lead some of you elsewhere. Or I I perhaps I'm not saying that all of us will be sitting here or that you must sit here, but wherever you go, if 1:03:49 you leave this church, let it be because the Lord has called you to have an encounter with him somewhere else. Not because of some earthly thing. "Oh, I want this I want that or my relatives or I better job or anything like that." 1:04:03 Let it be that God, you're calling me to have an encounter with you there, in that other church. Sure, ABSOLUTELY. THAT'S WHAT I WANT for you. If the Lord gives you a clear word that he is going to give you an encounter 1:04:17 with him somewhere else, I will open that door for you and say, "Please go there, brother." It won't I won't be offended. We won't stop having fellowship. But let it be because you want an encounter with God. And he's leading you there. And 1:04:31 children, he might lead you somewhere where you'll have an encounter with him somewhere else. You become young people. You may go somewhere else. You might marry somebody that you go live somewhere else, but let even that marriage you're seeking a marriage, 1:04:44 young young people. I hope that all of you young people, not those of you that are below 18, too early for that. But the rest of you, I hope that you have your aspirations to someday be married to a godly person. Make this your prayer, dear young 1:04:58 sisters, dear young brothers. Lord, lead me to that spouse, that bro- that man, that woman to who with whom I can have an encounter with you. Let our marriage be one where we can have an encounter with you together as a 1:05:13 husband and wife made one meeting with Jesus. This is the marriage you will have if you make it the passion of your heart. But as I was saying the encounters I had always came when I was at my lowliest, when I failed the Lord. 1:05:28 But you know I I thought about it like this that what I found on the other side of it that is is that that experience, the Lord breaking away some relationships from me, some attachments to certain things or certain people that the Lord 1:05:43 saw was hindering me from an encounter with him. And he had to break away those things. And I got this picture of a rocket, the way I understand rockets. I'm not a rocket scientist. But a little bit that I know is there's 1:05:56 a process called staging where parts of the rocket fall away. And that falling away is because that extra weight is slowing it down. Yes, it needs that initially. It's that extra uh portion of the rocket provides that initial thrust to move it 1:06:13 forward, but now that needs to be stripped away and you see parts of the rocket just falling up falling away from the rocket so that it can propel up into the stratosphere and continue to move in its orbit. And that's exactly what those 1:06:29 experiences of failure, loss, pain, suffering did for me. The the the break the tearing away and it has nothing to do with who or what the Lord took away, but it the purpose that the Lord had for my life. And so I'm here to encourage you, church 1:06:48 family, if you're in a place where the Lord's tearing away something or allowing you to go through some loss or pain or suffering in some way, and if it is his doing, trust him that he's looking for you to have an encounter with him. That's my 1:07:05 testimony. >> [snorts] >> I want to show you from scripture a few examples in the time left from the Bible of men who had an encounter with God and the difference it made in their lives. And I'd like to start with um the story of Abraham. If you'll first 1:07:23 turn with me to Hebrews chapter 6. If you remember nothing else, children, young people, and all of us as well. I often speak to the children primarily so that all of us can understand. And if it means writing it down, that's why we 1:07:42 give you bulletins where there's a little blank page on the backside of it so you can write this down. Write this down. Write this prayer down. Lord, I want to have an encounter with you. Make that personal. Lord, I want to have 1:07:55 an encounter with you. Encounter means uh deep meeting, one-on-one, just you and God. In Hebrews 6, we read in verse 13, When God made the promise to Abraham, 1:08:12 since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, "I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you." And why is the writer of Hebrews reminding us of this story? It's already recorded in Genesis 22. 1:08:29 Why is he reminding us of this story? Continue reading. And so, having patiently waited, verse 15, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves. And with them, an oath or swearing given as confirmation is an end to every dispute. 1:08:49 That means that settles it. In the same way where Here's why the writer of Hebrews has recorded reminded us of this story. In the same way, God, desiring even more to show to Santosh, put your name there, the heirs of the promise, that's you and 1:09:08 I, the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath. That means he decided to swear. Why would God swear? It's the only time that I know of in scripture where it says that God swore. And the writer of Hebrews reminds us of 1:09:27 that. Interposed with an oath, so that, verse 18, by two unchangeable things, that is, God said it, and he never lies, in which it is impossible for God to lie. He said it first of all, promised it, that's the first thing. 1:09:43 That's unchangeable. And just to be absolutely certain, he says, "I swore." He took an oath. And that makes it all the more unchangeable. Two unchangeable things. He promised it, and he can never lie, and then he swore it. 1:09:57 By two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to like we, you and I, put your name there, who have taken refuge, would have strong encouragement. And to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have is an anchor of the 1:10:16 soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So, something happened. And you know when 1:10:34 God swore to Abraham? Let's go back and read that in Genesis chapter 22. See, God made promises to Abraham multiple times. You the journey with Abraham actually begins in Genesis chapter 12. Uh or chapter 11. 1:10:53 Right. Right after you see the descendants of Shem, and then you see Abraham's Abram, he's called at that time, showing up towards the end of chapter 11, and God's promise to Abraham starts in chapter 12. But this is that first unchangeable 1:11:07 thing. The promise of God, and in chapter 12, and chapter 13, and chapter 14, chapter 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, it's God's promise. It's God's promise. It's God's promise. He's reminding him, reminding him, and reminding him. 1:11:23 But he hasn't sworn yet. The swearing, and I we use that word carefully. It's not swearing like using a bad word, but it's God taking an oath. And he did it with an intentional purpose. After chapter 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 1:11:41 18, 19, 20, 21, Isaac has come now. Abraham has seen the fulfillment of the promise. He sees his little boy now, not so little. By the time you get to chapter 22, Isaac is, I believe, 16, 17, 18 years old, probably. Certainly strong enough 1:11:57 to carry wood. So he's a strong young man, the darling of Abraham's heart, the promise that he held on to, his only son at this point, but God has still not sworn. God wants to swear. God wants to take that oath to make it 1:12:14 absolutely sure, so that you and I, who have fled to God for refuge, might have strong comfort and encouragement, and lay a hold of the hope that is in us. And before God can do that, he says, "Abraham, I want you to have an 1:12:28 encounter with me, so that I can take an oath." And you know the story. Where's chapter 22? This is God about to take that oath and make it absolutely certain for you and I today. See, it wasn't just about Isaac. It wasn't just about Abraham. It was so 1:12:44 that Abraham and Isaac going through that experience could give us, that's what the writer of Hebrews says, could give us strong encouragement, brother, sister, child, do you have strong encouragement in your heart to lay a hold of the hope 1:12:59 that is before us? If not, meditate on Abraham and Isaac and see God taking an oath. Came about after these things where God has promised and promised and promised and promised and promised and promised and he's fulfilled the promise. He says, 1:13:15 "Listen, I want to take an oath about what I said. I know you see I uh Isaac I know you see the fulfillment of the promise, but there's much more, Abraham. After these things that God tested Abraham. If you want to have an encounter with 1:13:31 God, it's going to require a test. God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham." And he said, "Here I am." "Take now your son, your only son, the one thing you have, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer 1:13:53 him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." So, Abraham rose early in the morning. You know what happened between verse two and verse three? I believe Abraham came God spoke to Abraham in the middle of the night. 1:14:12 11:00 at night, Abraham's falling asleep. And God says, "Take Abraham, take Isaac, your only son. I know I've given you the promise, but I'm going to test you now that even the fulfillment of the promise is not going to come between me and you, Abraham." 1:14:31 Now, you think Abraham slept a wink that night? He tossed and turned. He was like, "How can it be? Lord, this is the promise. You want me to kill the promise?" That's what happened between verse two and three. Abraham had a sleepless 1:14:45 night. Tormented his soul. And if you want to have an encounter with God, it's going to cost you something. It's going to cost you giving up that which is most precious to you. And but he woke arose the next morning and you know the rest of that story. 1:15:01 And he verse 9, they came to the place of which God had told him and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and it's tormenting. He's eating it up little by little as he's putting that more wood. He's like, "What is this wood 1:15:15 for?" Isaac is still confused. Abraham's putting another piece of wood and with each piece of wood, he's just is a little bit more of his heart is just being eaten away, eaten away, eaten away. Think about that thing which is most 1:15:29 precious to you. The Lord asking you to give it up. And it's not just an instantaneous taken away from you in a moment. It's a process. And he's taking it away. He's taking it away. He's taking it away. And then he starts to tie Isaac up. And 1:15:43 with each time he bound put that rope around Isaac's wrists, he's thinking, "This is my son." And Isaac's confused and I can imagine the tears flowing down Abraham's face. Thinking, "Lord, you're asking me to give up this son of mine?" And Isaac's 1:15:59 probably looking with pleading eyes saying, "What's happening here?" Abraham built the altar in the middle of verse 9 and arranged the wood and bound his son. Seems like just small words on on paper. But walk through Abraham. Walk with 1:16:18 Abraham through the emotions he went through there. And laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and to that very moment, see, the devil's coming at Abraham now thinking, "What are you doing, Abraham? Don't do this. 1:16:31 Your only son. HOW COULD GOD ASK YOU TO GIVE up that one thing that he promised you?" And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham, 1:16:49 you've had an encounter with me." And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad. Do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God." This is the encounter God wants you to have with him, brothers and sisters, to 1:17:04 know that you reverence God above everything else. He is everything to you. Reverence for God means that God has become so precious to you, so much your everything, that you're really willing for him to take away everything else 1:17:19 around you. Take away whatever you might whatever your life look like, whatever you thought your future was going to look like, he could snatch that up, and you say, "Yes, Lord. I fear you. I reverence you alone." "Now I know that you reverence me, since 1:17:36 you have not withheld your only You have not withheld your only." Then, verse 15, the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven. Oh, the delight in this encounter that Abraham had with God, and said, "I have sworn. 1:17:55 This is where God takes that oath. You gave up that which was precious. I've sworn it will come to pass." My dear brothers, dear sisters, God has promised this hope. This is our hope. We read in that we read in Hebrews 6, 1:18:10 an unchangeable hope, where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. It enters within the veil. What is that? That you and I will be conformed into the image of Jesus. And unless you have that encounter with God, you will always face that 1:18:25 uncertainty. You'll think, "Well, I don't know. I just failed. How Is God really going to do that? Am I really going to become like Christ?" But if you have that encounter with God, and you're willing for him to ask you to 1:18:36 lay that which is most precious to you on the altar and you do, you will have that encounter with God. You think Abraham regrets it today? You know, you read in in I think it's in Romans that he he actually thought that 1:18:50 Isaac was going to die. He didn't expect the angel to stop him. He thought, "I'm going to kill him, but Isaac is going to be raised back from the dead." That's how much hope he had and faith. You read that that he was sure that God 1:19:03 is able to resurrect Isaac from the dead. And so even if God causes something to die in your life, he's able to bring it back to life in his will and in his way. What is the Lord asking you to lay on the altar and you know, sometimes we go 1:19:19 into it thinking, "Well, Lord, you're going to stop the knife, right? I'm not really going to have to give it up." Lord, I give it up. I really do. Like Abraham. See, he didn't have the advantage of there was no Abraham before Abraham 1:19:33 that he knew not somehow, but he said, "Lord, I don't care what it looks like, but you're able to bring back Isaac from the dead cuz I saw you do that in my body. My body was as good as dead. Sarah's body was as good as dead. You 1:19:45 can bring back Isaac from the dead. Why not? Sure, Lord, I give it to you. And when you give that which you have promised back to me after I had given it up, then you'll know that you are more precious to me even than that gift and 1:20:01 that promise. That encounter with God. Now, I don't read that Isaac had such an encounter with God. I'm not going to read too much into it. But you know, Isaac's story is kind of sad. At the end of his life, he's blind. 1:20:18 And he can't tell the difference between his own sons, Esau and Jacob. And he he he's not listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit to to tell him. He got deceived. I mean, have you ever thought that such a thing is possible that somebody could put ca- 1:20:33 goat's hair on his hands and his father could be so fooled and deceived into feeling that goat's hair and thinking, "Yeah, this is human hair." That's how blinded and deceived Isaac became and 1:20:50 blindly gave the blessing to I- to Jacob thinking it was Esau. Isaac loved food. There's a lot I'm not here to make it about Isaac. But I don't see that he had that encounter with God. But you know who did? Jacob. The deceiver. Let's turn to Genesis 1:21:08 chapter 28. Sometimes it skips a generation. It doesn't have to. Genesis 28. After Jacob is deceived by by cunning, 1:21:27 by his own ability, Jacob is main is main means grabber, deceiver. Take advantage of others. I'm going to grab it. Take, you know, trick you while you're sleeping, while you're not looking. And after that, he has to run for his 1:21:42 life. And so, verse 10, he knows Esau will kill him if he doesn't if he stays there. And so, he goes away. Jacob departed from Beersheba and went down toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. 1:22:00 And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he had a dream. And behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on 1:22:15 it. And behold, the Lord stood above it. Now, where's the Lord? He's way up there at the top of the ladder. A far away God. This isn't the encounter that Jacob's going to have yet. This is him seeing God. And perhaps that's where you and I have 1:22:31 been. But perhaps that's somebody sitting here where God I've seen him. I hear him from a distance. I sit in the meetings and his voice a little faint. I think this is the word of the Lord. The Lord stood It says um The Lord stood above it and said, 1:22:49 "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants." Here's the promise of God. But Jacob hasn't yet had an encounter. You know why? 1:23:02 He goes on from that place. The place is called Bethel. The the house of God is the literal meaning there. And perhaps your experience with God is that house of God experience. I come to the meetings, not this physical house, 1:23:15 but the gathering of God's saints, and I hear God. Yeah, one or two lines from the sermon or one or two lines from the songs or I I get it a little bit. It's God at the top of the ladder speaking far away. And saying, "I'm I promise you I'll do 1:23:33 it. I'll make you like Jesus. I'll fulfill that promise in your life." But it hasn't changed Jacob. Perhaps it hasn't changed you. Years after year sitting at RLCF, God is far away. You hear a little bit. And now and then 1:23:49 it it clicks, but then you just continue to live the same old life. Jacob continued to be a deceiver for years after that. And then he got tricked by his father-in-law to marrying the wrong person. Then he had got tricked into 1:24:02 serving extra years and so he tries to get his father-in-law back by by trickery to get more sheep to make his flock bigger. And this trickery goes on and then he deceives his father. He gets his wives, his father-in-law's children to join 1:24:18 him. And they run away. You know, he he goes. He says, "Let me go far away." He tells his father-in-law, "Let me live from a distance so that you can have your space and I'll have my space." What's he thinking? I'm going to bolt. 1:24:30 And he tricks his father-in-law. Laban is tricked and Jacob escapes, but then Laban finds out and he's chasing after him. This Jacob still tricking others, still trying to grab. God, he hasn't had that encounter with God and then he finally does. 1:24:47 Let's skip to verse chapter 32. Here he is on the run where he Laban finally tells him, "Hey, why were you trying to run? These are my daughters. I'm not going to harm them. I'm not going to harm you. Just go your way. Okay, you want to 1:25:02 run." But now he knows he's got to go meet Esau. And no matter how long it's been, decades, he says, "I'm sure this brother hasn't forgiven me. I remember that look of hatred on his face and I know he's he's going to kill me. I 1:25:18 know Esau, man, a hunter that he is. Red-blooded, fiery, redhead that he is, he's going to Nothing wrong with redheads, by the way. Please [laughter] understand. Is I I'm secretly a redhead. I think you guys know that in my heart. Um but he it says 1:25:34 his Christian heart is angry man. Um and um and he Jacob is is is uncertain. And he's afraid. Then we get to chapter 32 verse 24. Jacob was left alone and their family. This is where 1:25:52 you'll have that encounter with God. Most often, I'll tell you, the encounters I've had with God that are those stagings, like I said the rockets have, that propelled me were almost never in this room. It was always somewhere at home, 1:26:07 somewhere by myself where God met with me. Jacob was left alone. Now, you don't have to You could There could be others around you and perhaps it'll happen here. That's part of the reason why we we don't really do altar calls cuz it's 1:26:19 difficult I find. Now, there's nothing wrong with them. Some churches do them and if that's where it happens, but I found even through altar calls that there can be that a little bit of oh, people I'm aware that people are looking with me and I 1:26:30 I find I'm just self-conscious and maybe you're you know, you're able to get past that. But more often than not, certainly having an altar call in public should never should never stop you or prevent you from having those alones with God. 1:26:46 And seek for that dear family, brothers, sisters, and children. Seek for that where you're left alone. That means everybody has left you. And you nobody can stand with you. You have no friends left perhaps. And you feel lonely and you feel like Lord, who 1:26:59 else is going to leave me now? And that's where God will have that encounter with you and that will make all the difference. Jacob was left alone and now God comes down to him. He's no longer God at the top of the ladder speaking from heaven. He's come 1:27:15 down and he's fighting with him. He says, "Jacob, I want to break you." For years I've been trying to break you through allowing circumstances, but now it looks like the only thing that will break you is an encounter with me. 1:27:27 Face-to-face wrestling with God. Have you had that, brothers, sisters, children? Say, "Lord, I want you to come down from being far away. I've heard enough at RLCF and I feel like you've been speaking to me from there, but will you come down? Will 1:27:42 you come down and meet with me? Oh, dear young people, I want to challenge you afresh. If you're listening, please listen. This is the encounter that will preserve you. When you leave home and you go whether you go to college or you go and 1:27:54 get a job or you go somewhere else, you must have an encounter with God. The knowledge that you get in your mind of the Bible and of prayer and the teaching will never preserve you. The encounter with God alone will. And it will protect you from so many 1:28:10 mistakes and so much failure, God will give you all that he wants to give you in life. If you have that encounter with him. You don't have to fail. You don't have to make mistakes. You don't have to wait till you leave home. Let this be the 1:28:24 day. Cry out from your heart and say, "Lord, I want to have that encounter with you like Jacob had." And when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh. And you know that from that moment on, Jacob walked with a 1:28:38 limp. That man that wrestled with God, a picture of God himself, poked him in his thigh and broke him. Broke his thigh, his hip so badly that he could never walk straight again. He needed a a crutch. There may be things God will break in 1:28:55 your life that will have a permanent effect. Forever you will carry that pain in your body or in your heart perhaps. But you will have had the encounter with God. You think Jacob re- regretted it? Every time he got out of bed and needed 1:29:10 to lean on that staff, >> [snorts] >> it was like, "I've had that encounter." I'm holding onto God. He was holding onto that staff. That staff was a picture of God. That he'd had that encounter with God. Let's continue reading. 1:29:26 Um then he said, the the man said, 26, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." I want that encounter with you, God. I want that blessing that you promised. I want to be a vic- victor. I want to have 1:29:44 victory. I want to be an overcomer. I want to have the gifts that you want me to use in your body. I want the fruit of the spirit. I want love in every circumstance. I want rejoicing in the Lord always. I want peace that passes 1:29:56 understanding. Lord, you promised it. I WILL NOT LET YOU GO UNTIL you give me this life, the life of Christ. And so he said to him, "What is your name?" He says, "Well, I've been grabbing. I'm Grabber. I get everything by grabbing. Nobody 1:30:12 will give it to me, so I trick them into giving it to me." And he says, "No longer. Your name will no longer be Grabber. You will no longer be the same person as grabbing this and grabbing that and complaining against God because you 1:30:26 don't get what you want. And complaining against God and grumbling, no longer Grumbler. How about that? No longer will your name be Complainer. No longer will your name be one who is anxious. No longer will your name be one 1:30:40 who is discouraged and condemns yourself. No longer, your name will now be Israel. You have because you have striven with God, verse 28, you've and had an encounter with God. And have prevailed." He blessed him there. This is the 1:31:01 encounter. And you leave read later on that he actually comes back to Bethel. You read a few chapters later, and he builds an altar for God there, but this time it's different. This is Jacob in the house of God as having had an encounter with God. Peniel 1:31:15 is the place where he had he wrestled with with God, and that place means the face of God. Have you seen, dear brothers and sisters and children at RLCF, let's make RLCF not just the house of God, but the place where we're seeing 1:31:31 the face of God. Are you coming here? Will you come here? If not, if it didn't happen today, will you make it your goal in life? Lord, every time I walk in these doors, at least these doors, it can happen throughout your life, but every time I 1:31:44 walk in these doors, this is the place where I'm going to see the face of God. A lot of people want to go to the house of God, but you can be sitting in the house of God and God is far away at the top of the ladder speaking from a 1:31:55 distance. But can you sit here in that chair and see God face to face? This is the longing of his heart, and if you have that encounter, your life will be one where you're seeing God face-to-face. May it be so, and he never grabbed 1:32:10 again. You read in Hebrews 11 that he worshipped leaning on God. Leaning on his staff, a picture of God. You read the stories of Isaiah and Ezekiel. I don't have to time time to show you, but in Isaiah 6 you read about Isaiah. 1:32:26 Uh the time when King Uzziah died, and I believe Isaiah had counseled Uzziah. And Uzziah started out as a good king, but then he got proud. You read in um I forget the exact passage in 2 Chronicles where Uzziah got proud and 1:32:43 thought he was because he had had so much success and all he had had so much wealth, he thought, "Well, I'm a king, I might as well be the priest, too." And God had forbidden any king to be a priest. And he went into the temple and had that 1:32:54 censor, and God judged him. All the priests uh came in and confronted him, and then he yelled back at the priests, and God gave him leprosy in that moment. Here was Isaiah the prophet mourning over this Uzziah who had fallen, seeing a 1:33:10 leader fall like that. Isaiah was a prophet of the Lord, and in the year Isaiah 6 of Uzziah's death, God gives Isaiah of an encounter with him. Those first five chapters of Isaiah you read him preaching. He's preaching, 1:33:26 but I believe his preaching lacked anointing. The words lacked authority. He was condemning, "Woe to them, and woe to them, and woe to you, and woe to you." And it was just a lot of good preaching, and then he has an encounter with God, 1:33:38 and the first thing on his mouth lips are, "Woe is me." Read that in Isaiah 6. No longer do I have a finger to point at anybody else. Look at how they treat me, or what are they doing to me, or they spoke about me like that, or this person 1:33:51 doesn't treat me right, they didn't include me in that. No, woe is me, Lord. I've had an encounter with you. Now it's no longer about how other people treat me, but woe is me because I've seen the living God. I've seen his holiness. 1:34:05 Woe is me. You know what? Often when I leave the meetings here, I'll tell you every time I have that kind of an encounter with God, I leave the place thinking, "Lord, why did you pick me? Woe is me. Why Why did you pick me to 1:34:19 include me in your family?" That's one of the marks that you've had an encounter with God. You no longer have a finger to point at even one other person, no matter what they've done to you or how they've treated you, because you've seen the 1:34:32 living God. Ezequiel, you read in chapter 1, his vision, he sees the glory of God, and that transforms. He was preaching to people who were in captivity in Babylon. You could be a a slave like Ezequiel was and see the glory of God, have an 1:34:47 encounter with him, then lead God's people. Ezequiel died in Babylon in captivity, but his words are preserved until this day and we read it. The promise of the new covenant was given to Ezequiel all the way there in captivity in 1:35:00 Babylon because he'd had an encounter with God. Before I close, I want to speak about some of the New Testament. Turn it with me to Acts chapter 1. This encounter with God is more than just 1:35:19 knowing Jesus, having asked him to forgive you for your sins and having your hearts cleansed through the blood of Jesus. This is something deeper. This is a touch with God. I've seen some of you brothers and sisters and children 1:35:32 even. I've seen some of you have those encounters with God. I tell you it's precious. I've seen God move in your hearts and I I think about that and I pray that those encounters that you've had where I've seen tears coming down 1:35:44 your eyes. I've heard the pray prayers coming from your hearts, even little children, where I know you've had a touch from God. And that's what I'm trying to remind you of. Paul encouraged Timothy with this, "Don't forget the 1:35:56 anointing you received when I laid hands on you." Now, dear young people, if you've had those moments of encounters with God, don't neglect that. Don't lose sight of that. I know you've had that. I've seen it happen in our prayer meetings. I've seen 1:36:09 it happen here. And if it hasn't happened, I seek for it. Seek for those moments when you just couldn't stop singing and you didn't want the prayer meeting to end cuz God had touched you. And you look back on the past and you 1:36:22 were so grateful for his love. This is what I'm speaking about, an encounter with God. Oh, that you'll seek for it and long for it. And dear young people, especially, that will transform your life. That will preserve you in the dark world. And this 1:36:36 was the experience of the disciples. They'd walked with Jesus. Jesus was far away in the sense that they were here and he was here. Next to them physically, but not in them. Jesus was somebody that they he could handle situations for 1:36:53 them, but he was a distinct person from them. And if Jesus was ever in a moment not around them, then they all hell broke loose, literally. The boat they got into a panic. The boat was going to sink because Jesus wasn't 1:37:07 there. Or if he was there, he was asleep in the bottom of the boat on a on a pillow. Is the Jesus that you believe in sometimes asleep in your life? Then you need to have an encounter with God. Are there moments when you feel like God is 1:37:22 not present and you start to lose your way and like, "Lord, I haven't heard from you. What do I do? I've got to make these decisions for my family. I've got to make these decisions for my life, but I don't hear your voice." 1:37:32 Oh, that you will have an encounter with God. And the disciples remained these fearful men and then the women you read in chapter 1 cuz they hadn't yet had that encounter with God. Acts 1 verse 12, "Then they returned to 1:37:46 Jerusalem from the Mount Called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they did enter the city, they locked themselves up in an upper room. Afraid of what's going to happen next. Jesus is gone. We saw him. 1:38:02 And we we stayed there, you read earlier on just a few verses, they watched the heaven and then we can't see Jesus anymore. I I don't know what it was like, you know, sometimes you see these balloons going up, helium-filled 1:38:13 balloons, and you see, I can still see it. I can still see it. Uh, it's a little dot. I think that's it. I imagine that's what it was like for them seeing Jesus slowly ascending up. And they're like, "Ah, he's gone." He was just here. I held his hand. I 1:38:27 leaned my head on his shoulder, but now he's gone. He's far away. I can barely see him like a dot in the skies. The clouds have hidden him. Then the angels came and said, "What are you doing still looking up in heaven? God wants you to have an encounter with 1:38:42 him that will change the way you think about Jesus." And sure enough they did. What did they do? They obeyed Jesus. He said, "Go and wait in Jerusalem. Lock yourselves Put aside all the other things. Don't move from this place until you've had 1:38:55 that encounter with me." That's what happened in Acts chapter 2. The Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, and now Jesus was in them. And now all heaven broke loose. You couldn't stop Peter from getting in front of that crowd multitudes and say, 1:39:12 "This Jesus whom we preach is the source of salvation. You must repent and you must be baptized." And then they got beaten a few days later, and they got thrown in jail, and they went through suffering after suffering after 1:39:24 suffering. And one day Peter was hung upside down as he finished his life at a very young age, but he died having experienced the true Jesus in him, having had that encounter with God. And dear family, I don't know when the end 1:39:40 of our your life will be. I don't know when the end of my life will be, but I pray it will be as ones who have had that encounter with God. Don't reach the end of your life without having had that encounter with God. And I don't know 1:39:53 what the eternal destiny will be for those who just knew Jesus far away. At the top of the ladder. Somebody who was with me every now and then and fell asleep every now and then. Another Jesus. The Jesus of today is one who 1:40:08 wants to live in your heart through the Holy Spirit, who wants to fill you with the same spirit of Christ. This is the life that you and I are called to live. This is what it means to be a disciple. And that encounter made them bold 1:40:21 witnesses. One last example. Paul, Acts chapter 26. I think we know that Paul was alive on the day of Pentecost. He was a young young man. And then he grew up and became a Pharisee a few years later. He started to persecute the church. 1:40:40 I think he was in his late 20s or early 30s by time Acts chapter 9 and by the time this incident happened. Here was Paul being a zealous for God. Zealous for God. Being zealous for God. And then he has an encounter with God. 1:40:59 Acts chapter 26. He says, "While so engaged, being zealous for God, doing lots of things for God, a good member of RLCF, not having had the encounter with God. But here every meeting, coming to the prayer meetings, coming to the Bible 1:41:14 studies, helping out when there's anything that needs to be done. Haven't yet had that encounter with God. That's where Paul is. Acts 26:12. I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest at midday, O king. I saw on the 1:41:28 way a light from heaven brighter than the sun shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when he had when they we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew, in his own language. 1:41:44 I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul. This is what it means to have an encounter with God. Santosh, Santosh, Samuel, Samuel, you read in the book of 1 Samuel. 1:42:02 Put your name there, God calling you specifically. Paul had an Saul had an encounter. His name was changed after that. Why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goats. I said, "Who are you, Lord? 1:42:17 You're calling me by name. Until now I I revered you as the God who dwells in heaven, Jehovah Jireh, the provider and and all that and I I revered you revered your law and this was God to me, the law was everything, but now you're calling me by 1:42:33 name, YOU'RE A PERSON. WHO ARE YOU?" And he says, "I'm Jesus. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Jesus and Saul wrestling. Jesus welcoming Paul and saying, "Paul, you're mine. Get up, stand on your feet because I for 1:42:56 this purpose I've appeared to you. I brought you to this encounter, Saul, for this purpose, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, 1:43:11 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sin and an inheritance among those 1:43:27 who have been sanctified by faith in me." This encounter with God revolutionized Paul's life. He was so filled with the love of God that it compelled him. It constrained him. Dear family, this is what God wants to do at RLCF. 1:43:45 That every single one of us sitting here will have that encounter with God. You don't have to be a preacher. You don't have to have a outwardly visible gift, but there are people like the story I just started out with who 1:44:02 don't know what death is like and don't have anyone to tell them what comes after it. And God is looking for those who've had an encounter with him. So, he can stand you up and say, "Stand on your feet and quit being so 1:44:14 self-centered and occupied with your own life and your own future and your own things and self because I've called you and I've appointed you to be a minister for me." That applies to you, brothers. It applies to you, sisters. 1:44:28 And all children, young people, it applies to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that the words that you've spoken, not my words, will sink deep into the hearts of every one of us, myself first of all, Lord. I need this 1:44:42 encounter with you even today. Lord, will you bring us to that place, whatever it takes, whatever it is we're still holding on to, whatever um baggage we're still carrying, whatever grievance we still have, whatever whatever it might be that's holding us 1:44:58 back, whatever things are entangling us, whatever sin is still besetting us, oh Lord, bring us to this encounter with you and set us free that we might fulfill the purpose for which you placed us here on this earth. I believe you will, Lord, and may we not 1:45:12 quickly lose. May we never lose, Lord, the word that you've spoken to us this morning. May we live as those who are seeing you face to face, the face of God. We believe you'll do that, Lord. Oh, fill us with your spirit, I pray. 1:45:28 Don't be in a rush to move on, dear family, dear children. You'll go to your Sunday school class, don't worry. But, pause for a moment and make seal it now before you go. The devil's going to come rushing in and try to steal it from you. 1:45:41 God wants you to have an encounter with him. Build an altar for him now and say, "Lord, I'm not going to let go of you until I see your face. I've heard your voice from a distance. I hear you every now and then, but I want to see your 1:45:51 face, Lord, that will change me for eternity." Oh, Lord, do that, I pray. That not a single person at RLCF will miss it, Lord. And I pray for those who have chosen to join us online as well. I believe you want them as well to have an encounter. 1:46:08 It's not just in this place here in Loveland, Lord, that you're doing it all over the face of the world. Your spirit is moving, seeking for those whose hearts are completely yours, that they might have an encounter with you, so 1:46:19 that you can strongly support them. Lord, do that, we pray. I believe you will. Thank you. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your spirit who's with us until the work is finished. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, give him praise. Pray to him and say, "Thank you, 1:46:36 Lord, that you're going to send you're going to do this in my life. I refuse to remain in unbelief. I refuse to remain ungrateful, but I thank you, Lord, that you who promised the Holy Spirit are sending him even now into my heart. 1:46:48 You're moving, Lord, here in this meeting right now, I believe, and you're sending the Holy Spirit that we will see Jesus, will have an encounter with him that will change our lives. We won't go back to the same old defeated life. Oh, 1:47:00 Lord, do that, I pray. Send a revival into this church, Lord. Not an emotional revival, not an earthly stirring, Lord, but a a move of your Holy Spirit, a revival to repentance, a revival to true humility, a revival to setting things 1:47:15 right that need to be setting right, a revival to unity in our homes, and a revival to holiness, Lord, in our young people, in our children. Lord, you'll do it. I believe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. We praise you for what 1:47:29 you've done. We praise you for what you are doing. We praise you for what you will do. Thank you, Lord. We give you thanks. We give you thanks, Lord. We haven't seen all of it yet, but we believe. We see with eyes of faith what 1:47:40 you're doing. Praise you, heavenly Father. We praise you. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We praise the Lord for what we heard. 1:48:59 May the Holy Spirit preserve this word and this longing in our hearts and continually fulfill this promise in our lives. Let's sing this song together as a prayer, 1:49:16 as an encouragement to each other. >> [music] >> You have [music and singing] longed for sweet peace and for faith to increase >> [music] 1:49:35 >> and have earnestly prayed. But you cannot have rest or be [singing and music] perfectly blessed until all on the >> [music] 1:49:51 >> altar is laid. Is your all >> [singing and music] >> on the altar of sacrifice [singing and music] laid? Your heart does the Spirit control? You can only [singing and music] 1:50:12 be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield [music] him [singing] your body and soul. Would you walk [singing and music] with 1:50:31 the Lord in the light of His word [singing and music] and have peace and contentment always? >> [music] >> You must do [singing] His sweet will to be free from all [music] ill. 1:50:51 On the [singing] altar your all you must lay. >> [music] >> Is your all on [music and singing] the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart [singing] does the Spirit [music] 1:51:08 control? You can only [singing and music] be blessed and have peace and sweet rest [music] as you yield [singing] him your body and soul. >> [music] >> Oh, we never [music and singing] 1:51:32 can know what the Lord will bestow of the blessings for which we have prayed. Till our body [singing] 1:51:46 and [music] soul he doth wholly control and our all >> [singing] >> on the >> [music] >> altar is laid. Is [singing and music] your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? 1:52:06 Your heart does the Spirit [singing and music] control? You can [singing] only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield [music and singing] him 1:52:23 your body and soul. Who can tell all the [singing] love he will send from above and how happy [singing] our hearts >> [music] >> will be made. Oh, the fellowship's [singing] 1:52:46 [music] sweet we will share at his feet [singing] when our all on the altar >> [music] >> is laid. Is your [singing] all on the [music] altar of sacrifice laid? >> [singing] 1:53:06 >> Your heart does the spirit control. >> [singing] >> You can only [music] be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you [singing and music] yield him your 1:53:25 body and soul. We'll have the announcements. 1:53:49 Welcome to the CFC India website. Explore the wealth of free resources available to help you grow in your walk with God. >> [music] >> The content here in the website is broadly classified under two sections, who am I and [music] our message. The 1:54:05 categories under who am I represent the kind of audience that we hope to cater to. Similarly, the categories under our message portray the various facets of the truth that we emphasize here at Christian Fellowship Church. We shall 1:54:17 quickly touch upon how you can navigate easily to the articles, word for the week, books, and sermons. To view all the available articles [music] within the resources tab, click on articles. We, Christian Fellowship Church, [music] 1:54:33 send out short articles every week through email to those who have subscribed for it, titled Word for the Week. You can find an archive of all the Word for the Week articles [music] under WFTW. Clicking on books shows you all the 1:54:49 books that are available. 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Books, articles, [music] word for the 1:55:51 week, sermons are just a few of the types of content that are showcased on the home page. Visit the daily devotion section to spend a few minutes each day around God's word with Zac Poonen. You can receive the daily devotions on 1:56:11 WhatsApp or by email. CFC's content is available in over 50 Indian and international languages. Share these resources with [music] anyone who may benefit from them. Visit cfcindia.com/languages to learn more. 1:56:35 As you explore these resources, we trust they will encourage you in your walk with God and help you become a blessing to others. >> Mhm.
