6 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.” (Isa. 6:1-6)
What happens when God becomes REAL?
You heard the passage read so you know that this very thing happened to a prophet named Isaiah. He wrote…
“In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord…”
And of all places for this to happen it happened in the Temple. He goes into the Temple to worship and he meets there possibly the last person he thought he would meet.
HE MET GOD!
We go to church and we expect to meet our friends, to see people we love, to hear some great music maybe get an encouraging word.
We expect all that.
What we probably don’t expect is to SEE GOD!
But that is exactly what happened to Isaiah.
So… Why are you here today?
-Not on the planet
-or in the city
but WHY are you in that chair?
Why did you come here?
What do you want from this gathering?
More than anything else what I want for each one of you is that you would meet God here.
What do you mean meet God? I already know God.
This is a cliché but I will use it anyway because it summarizes the point effectively…
THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWING ABOUT GOD AND KNOWING GOD!
In other Words…
There is a huge difference between God as a CONCEPT and God as a REALITY!
Isaiah already had God as a concept. He knew there was a God He believed God was creator and in charge of the universe.
But he never met the real God until this day.
And on this day for Isaiah God moved from being a concept to being a Reality.
And that is what I want to happen for you. That God would become real to you.
Let’s look at how it happened for Isaiah so we can know how it can happen for us.
How do I know if I have God as a concept or if I really know Him?
The First Two Tests:
- When God becomes real you finally understand His glory
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
When most of us think of the glory of God we think about rays of light impactful music with a big bass sound. Bright Lights!
What is God’s Glory?
The Hebrew Word used here for Glory literally means:
WEIGHT or HEAVINESS
The weightiness, heaviness of the presence of the Lord.
We see it in this passage of scripture where it says…
“the doorposts and thresholds shook”
This is a common theme in scripture when God’s presence comes down.
-When God’s presence comes down on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19 the Mt. trembles violently
-When God’s presence comes down in Acts 2 the day of Pentecost the room shakes
When God’s presences comes down on the earth it quakes.
WHY?
Because God is heavy. If you drop something heavy on the ground it shakes.
If the real God comes down into your life your life will quake. Your life will shake.
This is the first test of whither God is a Concept to you or a reality.
HOW IS YOUR LIFE SHAKING?
To be more accurate ask this question: Who is heavier in your life You or God?
When it comes to your opinions and beliefs who has more weight You or God?
In our Home cities what we have is people who say…
Yes, I believe in a God but I am not going to believe something that is ancient or out of touch with modern thought.
If what He says seem illogical to me I am not following it.
In other words… I AM HEAVIER THAN GOD!
What you think is more important than what He says.
But when God comes Down into your life it shakes your opinions and changes your beliefs!
Because God is Heavier and More glorious
So many people believe their life as it is now is really quite great.
What they want from gatherings like this is for God to bless their agenda.
Sprinkle a little pixy dust over their plans and add the finishing touches of fine art to their works.
BUT…
-The real God changes your agenda
-The Real bulldozes your plans
-The Real God exposes your cheap forgeries
-The Real God makes everything new again
If this hasn’t happened to you than you have not met the REAL GOD!
When God becomes real you finally see His beauty
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
In the Hebrew language the intensity the magnification is brought into the language by the doubling or repetition of the word.
HOLY, HOLY, HOLY
In Genesis 14
There were many tar pits in the Valley of Siddim. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their armies ran away, some of the soldiers fell into the tar pits…
In the Hebrew it reads they fell into pit pits.
These were not just pits but deep and dangerous pits
The intensity and magnitude is conveyed by doubling
The same thing in II Kings 25 it says in our English version that something was made of purest gold
In the Hebrew the language is doubled to read Gold Gold.
This was not just gold it was the goldest gold.
But nowhere in the Bible but here is any quality tripled…
Holy, Holy, Holy
The idea is that here are creatures who have been around God’s glory and beauty for eons and they cannot get enough of it.
It never gets old, tired, boring, seen it, done it have the T-Shirt.
They are anxious to be in His presence and moved a fresh by the beauty and glory of God.
Question is…
HAS THIS HAPPENED FOR YOU?
Are you still coming to hear about his glory and beauty or have you experienced it?
Concept or Reality which is it for you?
Is he just someone who is useful to you or are you in Love with Him.
Did you marry God for His Money or are you here today because of the beauty of who God is?
Have you ever just loved Him for who He is?
Jonathan Edwards: “the Beauty of God is the only quality that is useless to us”
If you ever come to see the real God you will see Him in His beauty.
As I recall, Lt. Dan exclaimed something in anger like "Where's God anyway!"
And Forrest Gump commented, “About that time, Gawwwwd showed uuuup.” A fierce storm hit their ship and threatened to destroy it, but ironically, the storm resulted in their sudden prosperity.
WHY DID YOU COME TODAY?
What will you do or who will you become if God shows up for real?
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