August/12/ 2018
Pool of Bethesda
We need an encounter, not just an explanation.
We need power not just words.
1 Corinthians 2:3-5 “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
John 5:1-9 “Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.’
1. The longer you wait, the more DISCOURAGED you become
2. The longer you wait, the more EXCUSES you make
verse 6 “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
3. The longer you wait, the more you learn to LIVE WITH IT.
verse 6 “Do you want to be well?”
1. Remove the excuses
2. Release your past experiences
3. Respond to Jesus
verse 8 “Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.’
August/05/ 2018
Encounters
Part 1
Isaiah’s Encounter
We need an encounter, not just an explanation.
1 Corinthians 2:3-5 “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Isaiah 6:1-8 “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
3 things about An Encounter with God…
1. Changes the way I see God
Isaiah 6:1 NIV “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple”
verse 2-3 “Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
2.Changes the way I see me
verse 1 “I see the Lord and He is high and lifted up”.
verse 5 “I’m doomed for I am a sinful man…”
2 Chronicles 7:14 “14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
verse 6-7 “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
3. Changes the way I see the world
Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
How do we prepare for God’s presence?
Matthew 18:19-20 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
1. Agree in faith:
verse 19 “if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
2. Gather faithfully:
verse 20 “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
3. Trust in God’s faithfulness
verse 20 “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
