Greetings, Northwest Church. It's been over a year now since I retired, and time has really gone by, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Maybe you know what I mean. We've been sheltered in place for the most part here in Arizona. We have a new grandson, and that's been a blessing, allowing us to spend time with them. But we haven't been traveling much or anything. And this is the second time I've preached since the last sermon I preached to you. I even remember my last sermon. It was called "The Way of Peace," and I talked about the Lord Jesus on Palm Sunday. Pastor Dan Benn called up and asked if I would preach, and I said I would do it.

And I have been reflecting on a particular passage during my own Bible reading. And it's moved my heart. It's something that spoke to me. And that's what I thought I would bring to you today. I want to talk to you about Isaiah chapter 6. It's a well-known event if you read the Bible.

Isaiah has his calling from God, and the Lord speaks to him and reveals himself to him. I want to talk about encountering God because that's what happened to Isaiah at that precious time. And I want to look at what happened inside of Isaiah when he encountered God. And then what I'm going to suggest is that each of us needs to encounter God not only once but regularly encounter him. That there's a process, a transformation, a healing that goes on inside us when we're near him.

I love that statement John makes it. He says, speaking of Jesus, in Him was life, and the life was the light of man. Life, he's the source of it. We need to be near him. We need to see him. We need to be close to him. He doesn't simply hand us life. He is life. He radiates it.

And so we want to look at encountering God today. So I'm going to open with prayer. And then if you have a Bible, I would love it if you would open that to Isaiah chapter 6.

Father, thank you so much for your care of Northwest Church and of Mary and me and now Lord, for the precious gift that you have given us of Ben and Bridget Dixon as our pastor. We praise you, Lord, for the good things that you're doing at Northwest and for the faithful way that church is moving forward through difficult times. Times I never had to deal with. And I praise you so much, Lord, for the good leadership.

And we are so grateful and we pray for this congregation. We support this congregation and so pleased with what you're doing. May your hands stay steady and strong upon them. And may this word come alive to those who are listening and to me. Lord, open your word afresh, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, now I'm going to read to you just eight verses from Isaiah chapter 6. I will probably read it again. We'll see. But I want you to have just in the back of your mind the passage that I'm talking about. Beginning of verse 1, I'm going down to verse 8.

In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings with two he flew and with two he covered his feet and with two pardon me, he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one called out to another and said, "Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out."

While the temple was filling with smoke. What do you suppose that smoke was? It would be just almost this vaporous glory of God.

And then I said, woe is me, for I am ruined, because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

And then one of the seraphim, that word seraphim means burning ones, shining, actually on fire. They're just, it speaks of the brilliant light. Flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar. It'd be that heavenly altar with tongs.

And he touched my mouth with it. And he said, behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me.

I want to talk about encountering God. Wouldn't you agree that's a powerful encounter with the Lord that Isaiah had? This is the moment he began his ministry.

So first of all, let's discuss conviction and encountering. Conviction is the natural result of encountering God. To meet him is to discover who I am. And that process of discovery is entirely involuntary. You don't have to try to do it. It just happens. Instinctively, you feel the comparison.

Those who have met God will know what I mean. If you've had an encounter with the Lord where you know he was there, not simply, you know, general awareness of God and you pray and you worship, but you've had places and times and moments in your life where he was there. Whether you could see him as Isaiah had this powerful vision or not, you were having... an encounter. He was there.

And those of you who've had it know what I mean. The one you meet is so different from you. You sense he knows everything about you and that he is completely in charge. And yet you're also aware that he's committed to you as a person and has chosen you to serve him in some special way.

And I don't know how else to put it, but he is other. He belongs to a different dimension. He's a spiritual being, but that in no way means that he's not real. In fact, you realize that the spiritual world is very real and can be right next to us, just on the other side, as it were, of a veil.

All he needs to do is open our spiritual eyes and we see that he is here with us, knowing, listening, watching, everything.

Those of you who've been at Northwest Church for any time at all while I was pastoring have probably heard my story too many times. And I'm not going to go through any of the details, except I want to focus on one thing. I want to focus on that very moment of my encounter with God.

I was 12 years old. I didn't get raised in a Christian home or anything like that. And I'd been invited, my mother had been invited and dragged me along to a prayer meeting of a few charismatic Episcopalians is what it was, out in the high deserts of California at a place called 29 Palms, which was just 29 Palms and a little hotel at the time.

And we'd gone out to someone's house and there was maybe 10 people there. And in the course of it, God showed up and touched me. There was no event going on. The group was simply having a conversation. But there was power in the room. I was there only because I had to be. I was biding my time waiting to go home.

Off to the side, not in the middle of anything. And as I listened to these people, I realized the Lord was there. And then something happened to me to make it all short. And I fainted. I went out under the power. I know that because I came to. Nobody knew what was happening. I was just sort of propped into a chair.

And when I came to, that's the part I'm really focused on. When I came to, my head was tipped up. My tongue was moving, not vibrating or anything like that. It was as though someone was holding it and moving it. And he was right here. I couldn't see him. I just knew he was there.

And the person I met then was what I'm trying to describe here. He was other. I mean, but not strange. He's a person. But what I met was so big, so strong, so wise. He was no buddy. You know, my little buddy of Jesus, this kind of thing.

When people talk sometimes, it's amazing. He was not my little helper. He was not the man upstairs. You could tell that if this person wanted to create the universe, he could. And yet here's the point. He had come to touch me. A 12-year-old boy from a broken home with a lot of depression and trouble and everything else going on.

He had come and he was here with me. It changed my life. That was 60 years ago. And it still affects me.

I've had numerous, not a lot of this kind of thing, but I've had a number over my lifetime where the Lord has come to me. And I know he's in the room. I know he's there, but I know he's there. And those are transformative.

And I think the point of this sermon today is to just encourage you that that's part of our life. And that you can expect it. You can pursue it. And you're not silly or foolish or emotional to want to experience God. Particularly in Western Christianity, we have downplayed the importance of experiencing God.

We've turned our relationship with God into a rational transaction. If we do certain things, God will do certain things. Salvation is the result of praying a short prayer that can contain several necessary theological elements, and if we meant it when we said it, we're saved.

In fact, Western Christianity is suspicious of experiences. We're taught not to expect any, quote, bells and whistles, and I'm quoting somebody well-known. We quickly psychoanalyze anyone who's had those experiences and give them labels.

We pity people who are emotionally needy, who need such things, ignoring the fact that the Bible from cover to cover is filled with people who personally encountered God and were dramatically changed by that experience, isn't it? Just think for a moment.

We have Christianity portrayed to us now as meant to be sort of a rational transaction, pray these things, don't expect bells and whistles, don't expect a lot of stuff, but just know he's there. Meanwhile, you open the book, and from cover to cover, all the good people, there are bad people, but all the good people are experiencing God.

Moses, did he have an experience? Oh, did he ever? I mean, burning bush, throws his stick on the ground, turns into a snake, sticks his hand in his robe, pulls it out. It's leprous. I mean, come on. The Lord's talking to him. Take off his shoes.

That's an encounter. And that's Moses. And they go right on through. Go right on through. So even what we read about Isaiah is not out of the ordinary. It's gorgeous.

But it's not out of the ordinary. These men and women encountered the Lord. And I am arguing today, so should we? So if you and I are going to strengthen this part of our spiritual lives, we need to realize that we will be fighting an uphill battle.

The secular and the religious cultures are against us. And yes, I know there are people who talk far too much about spiritual encounters. And the course of their lives doesn't bear witness to their words.

But let's not allow the immature to turn us away from pursuing the genuine. Because each of us desperately needs to regularly encounter God. Did you hear what I said? We need to regularly encounter God.

Before we go any further, let me define what I mean by encountering God. Encountering Him is different than believing in Him. Believing is a choice I make to affirm his existence, and that's a very good thing to do though James the Lord's half-brother points out that by itself it is not enough.

Encountering is relational; it involves the meaning of two persons and if God exists and is a person, which the Bible says he is in fact the Bible says we're persons because he made us in his image. Then it should be possible to meet him as one person meets another.

And when that happens, we intuitively recognize qualities about him that no one needs to teach us. We know them because we become aware of them. And afterward, they naturally become part of the way we think about him.

And therefore, they change the way we think about ourselves. We now see ourselves in the light of who we met. And how he treated us.

Who we meet when we meet the real God is someone far bigger, wiser, and better than us. You just feel it. You just know it. Nothing needs to be said.

And in that instant, we also discover who we are. By comparison to him, we are sinful, weak, and confused, which is why it is at this point in the encounter that some people decide to flee from his presence.

And some decide to remain and become vulnerable.

I actually, in that moment that I described earlier, I turned around when I finally got a hold of myself and told my mom, "I'm sick, let's get out of here." She was having the same thing and we fled. I can say with great gratitude, he chased after us and wouldn't let me go.

And I'm so grateful.

I have another clarification I need to make. We also need to make sure we understand the difference between the presence of God and human emotion. I say this because that distinction isn't clear in the mind of some people. They think becoming very emotional about God is the same as being in the spirit. But it is not.

God's presence is real. It's tangible. He's either present or he's not. And it's not something we can stir up in our imagination.

So before we pursue the idea of experiencing God, let's be very clear about what we are not suggesting. We are not suggesting that we all try to become more emotional more often. Though to be fair, when God really shows up, human emotions naturally respond.

The important distinction to make is to note that which comes first. We want to begin with the reality of the Lord. Actually being there, not with self-generated emotion.

And then this watch as Isaiah encounters God. I'm just going to remind you of what we just saw in Isaiah 6, so I'm back at the text.

Isaiah is looking. It appears to be there in Jerusalem. And as I look at the text, it seems to me he's somewhere in the city and he's looking toward the temple. Maybe he's even in the temple area, and he sees God over the temple, seated in his throne, and over him he sees these seraphim, these burning ones, some sort of angelic beings.

It says they have two wings that they cover their face, I would suppose because they are not worthy to look on God. With two of their wings they cover their body because they're not worthy to be looked on.

And with two they fly and do his bidding he sees coming down from that throne the robe of the Lord, and I would suppose it was some sort of light that came down from the Lord on his throne and went right into the temple and then he hears the seraphim and what did they call out? "Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out."

He's seeing his majesty, but he's hearing of his holiness. And holiness is his purity. It's perfect love. There's no compromise, no evil, no selfishness, no cruelty. There's nothing in God but pure goodness.

Wisdom, power, strength, purely good. And so the angels are singing of it and calling out. And then it says the foundations of the threshold trembled. I would suppose that's the earthly temple there.

And the smoke filled the temple. And the smoke being, in this case, it would be the glory of God. Just as the high priest would wave the censer and have the smoke.

But now you have just the glory of the Lord. This, I suppose, smoke-like glory filling.

And what is Isaiah's response? Woe is me, for I am ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips. His encounter of God produces in him conviction. He becomes deeply aware of himself. He sees who God is, and then he sees who he is.

And nobody's scolded him. Nobody's talked to him. He's just aware.

And that's a point I really want to have us see. When God's present, we become aware of ourselves. We become aware negatively, and we also become aware of something very powerful positively.

And I want you to see that too. The angel, the seraph, comes and takes from the altar with a pair of tongs. A glowing coal and touches Isaiah's lips. Obviously, it's glowing with the fire of God and it cleanses his mouth.

What a vivid cleansing. And then Isaiah, then he touched my mouth and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away." Notice the announcement of his cleansing and your sin is forgiven, actually is atoned for in the Hebrew.

And then, notice there's a sequence here. Then Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And then he said, "Here am I, send me."

This chapter describes the moment in 740 BC when God called Isaiah to be his prophet. It happened 18 years before Israel was conquered.

Before the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, and 39 years before Assyria conquered the southern kingdom of Judah.

But this remarkable encounter is much more than an interesting personal reflection. It explains why Isaiah knows that there will be mercy for the nation.

When God called him, he revealed to him his holiness, but yet he also revealed that he is merciful. And he ministered these truths to him before he called him into his service.

The holiness of God convicted Isaiah of his sinfulness, especially the sinful words he had spoken with his lips. But when he confessed his sin, the Lord gave him grace.

He ministered to Isaiah at the point of his shame. And only after that did Isaiah hear God's call and feel at liberty to offer himself for service.

It's significant that Isaiah felt convicted about the sin of his lips. What was this? Unbelief? Harsh criticism? Vulgarity? We don't know.

But when he confessed it, the Lord touched his lips with the fire of his holiness and announced that he was forgiven and clean.

Then Isaiah heard God's call and felt free to volunteer to speak for him.

Do you see a pattern? Something's going on here. And I think this beautiful passage is preserved for us.

Conviction is the natural result of encountering God. To discover who he is is to discover who I am. But in the process, I also discover what he thinks about me.

Yes, Isaiah was ashamed of his sin, but he was also greatly honored. He was being allowed to see the glory of God. What an amazing privilege that God valued him is indisputable.

That God was personally interested in him. It was dignifying

Here is the cleaned and formatted sermon transcription:

Beyond words. Let me carry on a little bit with my story for a minute. I talked about how I encountered the Lord. But that encounter, actually, the presence of God remained on me for weeks. Many weeks after that. But I had no help. My mother didn't know what she was doing. She was having her own struggles because the Lord had met her too.

And so pretty much this 12-year-old boy is just navigating this by himself. We didn't have a church. We weren't part of anything. Nobody knew what was going on. I was just sort of going to school and then coming home and having this power hit me.

Finally, my mom was trying to help me, and she said, "You know, God won't make you do something you don't want." Which isn't true at all, but she didn't know that, neither did I. And she said, "Why don't you ask him to take it away?" I thought, "Take it away." And I went into my room, and I closed the door, and I sat down, and I had one of the most important moments in my life.

Let me tell you about that moment. When I was 12 years old, my parents were divorced when I was two. My mother was pretty badly depressed on and off, and we had all kinds of struggles. I was struggling. By 12 years old, I'm already getting in trouble with the police and everything else.

I have no purpose, no direction. My grades are terrible. I don't care. And all of a sudden, somebody cares about me. See, in that encounter, God came to me and he touched me. And what it did is it gave me, it suddenly somebody wanted me. Somebody loved me. Somebody was interested in me.

I didn't even know. I didn't have a theology for this. But whoever this was, and I knew it was God, he cared about me. I mattered. I can't underscore this enough for our young people and our children. When the power of the Holy Spirit touches that child, that youth, it dignifies them.

All of a sudden, God reaches out and he cares. He touches. It's not just a truth they hear. It's an encounter they have. He has come and he has touched me. Can you imagine that leper? When Jesus reached out and you weren't supposed to touch lepers. And Jesus, he came and he said, "Would you heal me?" Jesus touched him.

The first person that has touched him and who knew? It could be decades. Jesus touched him. He not only healed him. He dignified him. I don't know how to say this strongly enough. How deeply, not only we, our youth, our children, everyone we minister to, they need this just as much as you do, as I do.

The question is, is this passage meant to teach us something, or is it just a beautiful memory? Is it a model for us to follow? I think it is. We aren't likely to have visions as vivid as Isaiah's, though some people actually do. But are you and I able and even expected to encounter God in whatever form it might take as genuinely as this great prophet?

And I believe the answer is yes. This passage is meant to be a model, not just a memory. People not only can, but desperately need to encounter God personally and not only once at salvation, but regularly.

Did you hear that? I think what we're watching in some form needs to be going on in our lives over and over and over. This isn't just an event. This isn't just a salvation event. This needs to be part of our life if encounter with God precedes conviction if real conviction flows from meeting him then the first step in leading someone to Christ isn't shaming them for their sin but allowing them to experience the presence of God and when they do they will behold his greatness and holiness as Isaiah did and they will either flee or fall under conviction.

You recall Paul in chapter 14 of Corinthians, he's actually trying to correct the Corinthian church because they're all speaking in tongues real loud and all at once and just in real chaos. And it's scaring off visitors and unbelievers. And Paul's trying to stop it and get them in order so that they continue to be evangelistic.

But he says, "If you'll stop that noise and if you'll just go into, indecently in an order, one at a time prophecies, he said, those who come and visit you will recognize that God is among you and they'll fall down on their face and declare he is among you. Notice the presence of God, the active working of God will evangelize.

And I'll tell you, I have found for many, many years, if the anointing of God, the power of God was in the room, when I gave an altar call, I'd have numerous people receive Christ. If it was a dry room and I gave an altar call, almost nothing would happen. Quite a difference.

Are you getting the point? It's the presence of God that brings conviction. It's that very intuitive thing that's going on in our hearts. It's the sense he's here. He knows me. He's powerful. He's big. And suddenly the human heart either flees or falls and receives him.

Pleading and warning may produce rational assent. You can scold people into all kinds of responses, but not genuine conviction and surrender. And remember, in that encounter, God did not leave Isaiah under conviction. As soon as he sincerely confessed, God ministered grace to him in such power that Isaiah was able to hear God call him into service.

Then, after that, the transformed Isaiah had the boldness, the assurance to volunteer for service, to use his now-cleansed lips to speak for God. Did you get the paradox or the irony in this? Here's a man with unclean lips being called to be a prophet of God. Right?

He took it very plain where he had so stumbled and sinned and turned that into the very place he ministered and spoke. The glorious words that Isaiah spoke.

And this type of personal encounter is not meant to be a one-time event. It's a pattern we go through often when we worship into God's presence. When we encounter him, we often experience genuine conviction. We become conscious of our sins and wrong attitudes, which naturally leads to heartfelt confession.

And then the Lord ministers fresh grace to us. And cleanses our conscience and restores the awareness that we are called to serve him. What I'm suggesting is we all need to go through the basic pattern that we see there. It will be part of our lives.

I, when I was pastoring, I would frequently, almost normally, well, it was normal, once, twice, sometimes three or four times on a weekend. I would take communion. But it was a similar thing. In worship, and one of the lovely things is there at Northwest Church, you have such a sweet presence of the Holy Spirit.

And as we all know, sometimes it's stronger than others, but the Lord would show up sooner or later. And when he did, I would become aware of him and aware of me. And sometimes I have something I need to confess. An attitude, words I said, something went on. I need to confess it.

And I would go and take communion, and I'd give it to him, and he would cleanse me. And then when I stood up to speak, I had a clean heart. I was not troubled or bound by that. Often, what I was confessing to him was my weakness. I'm tired, Lord. I need your help.

Without you, I can't do this. So I bring him my weakness in that, and then he gives me his strength. This exchange of encounter, conviction of who he is, who I am, then confession of my need, and then cleansing or strengthening or healing, because I also believe healing goes on in this process very much.

Healing, and all of that transfer is going on, and then we are free to step out and move forward in our calling. We're clean, we're strong, we're able to do what he asks. There's a pattern to it. And I would suggest we need to go through this pattern over and over again.

This is part of our life. It's a key to longevity. The lack of it explains the loss of anointing and abandoning of call. It goes on in people. You'll have people talk about burnout. But what they generally mean by burnout is, you know, they've ministered, and if this isn't going on in their life, if they're not having this kind of exchange where they're coming in contact with the giver of life, they get weary, they get wounded, they get exhausted by it.

No one can continue ministering for any period of time, and I mean over two days, without retouching. Coming back to him. Notice Isaiah had to personally experience the grace that he was to proclaim to others.

Here's the prophet going to proclaim to Israel, yes, a judgment on their sin, but the offer of grace. Boy, which Isaiah just does so gloriously. But he had to experience it himself. Here he is, a sinner. I'm aware of my lips. God touches his lips and announces, you are atoned for.

And then Isaiah says, here's a call, who will go for me? Isaiah says, I will. Send me. Now he's bold. Now he can do it. He's not shackled by his sin anymore. By regularly going through this process of encounter, conviction, confession, cleansing, and call, We continually receive the same grace we minister to others.

What we have freely received, we freely give. Now, I'm going to go through that again. See if you have it. There's five of them. Encounter, conviction, confession, cleansing, and call. I'm going to do them again. You can even say it with me. Encounter, conviction, confession, cleansing, and call.

We need to go through that, that pattern over and over again, that encounter. But notice it starts with encounter, pressing in, being in his presence. This is why you and I need a Sabbath where we can draw into his presence. Busy, tired people, however we work it out, need at least a chunk of time working moms. However we work it out, need enough time to quiet down and let their soul rest.

Until He comes close and they can go through the cycle of encounter, conviction, confession, cleansing, and a refreshing of their call. Or they will grow burned out, weary. This is why you and I need to start our days by fixing our mind on God's Word and awakening our spirit to the fact that the Lord is with us.

This is why you and I need to gather with the Lord's church and praise Him and worship together until His sweet presence comes and strongly upon us and we encounter Him. Of all the things that I miss since I've left Northwest Church, and I go to church, we aren't physically attending church now, but we watch.

At least three services a weekend, sometimes more, and we have our own time and all. But of all the things I miss, it's worshiping with you. At Northwest, the power of the Holy Spirit comes because you're a worshiping people. Lord Jesus says, when two or more of you are gathered in my name, there am I.

And when we press through like that, there's a power that comes and a presence that comes. It's just like oxygen. Never take it for granted. And right now we're in that COVID season where not everybody can.

And as I said, I'm not going right now because I've got a grandchild and I just cannot be contaminated and near that grandchild and my children and all of that. So we're not going to church, so I'm not scolding anybody. In fact, I think you have to do this very much based on what you feel.

But understand that underneath of all this, however we work it out, whatever the future does look like, we must get together in whatever numbers we can. And part of our assignment is to worship into the presence. Not just worship, not just sing, and certainly not sit and listen, but to praise Him and glorify Him and press in until that sweetness of His closeness comes and He does His wonderful things to our heart.

We need Him. I've said for so many years, the Bride of Christ needs the bread of the Word and the wine of His presence. That's how we, without, we need both. We need both. And I think right now with the separation of all of this with the COVID disease and all, that second part, being together in worship, I do worship and I'll stand and I'll do all of that when I'm watching a video, but it is harder on a video.

It just is for me. The other day, and I'll close with this, I was watching Northwest and it had a good worship service. And Pastor Ben stood up, and he stood there, and he just sort of had that look, which I recognized, just sort of looking forward.

And he said, "Boy, he said, the Lord's here." He said, "I don't even want to start preaching. I was so jealous." That's what I meant. I know exactly what he means. I've stood up, and I had to wait a minute because I was literally drunk in the spirit, you know?

The Lord comes and he comes to you I want to encourage you Northwest Church don't let that go and I know you've got I I want to say from Mary from our hearts Mary and I we are so pleased with with Ben and Bridget as your pastors we listen we know what's going on and we are we are deeply supportive of them pray for you all we pray every day we go through and we go through a list we're praying for you we're and we're grateful beyond words that god has taken you and carried you forward so beautifully to mice but i everything i see spiritually you're on the same track and so what a joy for us to have spent the years helping to lay a foundation now for a for for a new season for you a younger season a dynamic season a season harder in some ways and more amazing in some ways than anything we ever experienced during my years.

We had normal church. Now, you're having to do church so many different ways. It's powerful and it's beautiful to watch what's happening, to watch the strength in the body of Christ. I've never felt more hopeful, never been aware that the God is working and laying something great. Don't you sense it? God isn't through. He's reviving his church.

And our awareness of his power and presence and of encounter and of how much people need to encounter him, not only hear about him, encounter him, will be a key part of that revival. May God be with you. We love you very much and miss you a great deal, but are so pleased with what he's doing among you.

Mary's not here. She's here, but on her behalf, God bless you, and we'll see you soon. We're so glad you were able to join us today. We would like you to find out more about Northwest Church by going to our website, nwcfoursquare.org, or downloading our app in any of the app stores by searching Northwest Foursquare Church.