My Eyes Have Seen the King — Shane Idleman

My eyes have seen the King. And so I want to ask a question. If you had just one shot, one opportunity to lay hold of God, what would you do? Did you hear that? One shot. I've got one opportunity. Young adults, one opportunity sometimes.

That time to draw closer to God. A man by the name of Wesley Duvall said it takes more than a busy church, a friendly church, or even an evangelical church to impact the community for Christ. It must be a church ablaze.

Pursuing an Authentic Experience of God

A church on fire. And for most Christians, experiencing God is either elusive or frightening. It's impossible or improbable. But to the thirsty pilgrim, God's presence is a wellspring of life. A desire to truly experience God runs deep within our veins.

So here's the question. Do we fight for that experience or do we let it fade away? Do we contend for that experience or do we leave here complaining? Do we pursue that intimacy with God or do we postpone it?

Spiritual Awakening and Holy Dissatisfaction

The greatest hindrance, I want you to hear this, the greatest hindrance to a spiritual awakening is our satisfaction without it. The greatest hindrance to a spiritual awakening is our dissatisfaction, or actually I should say, our satisfaction without it.

What I mean by that is, did you know you can experience God at a very deep and profound level? Doesn't mean life is easy and you're walking on clouds all day. But it does mean there's a joy unspeakable.

There's a filling of the Holy Spirit. There's a heartbeat for God and you want to do more for Him. And like we just sang, Lord, send me. Send me, Lord. D .L. Moody, many of you know this. Before God called him, he heard a preacher preaching and the man said that the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully surrendered to Him.

And D .L. Moody said, I aim to be that man. And I think you have to find something deep within you that says the same thing. Lord, I won't do it perfectly. I'll have to fight the flesh, but I aim to be that man or I aim to be that woman.

The world has yet to see what God will do with a person fully surrendered to Him. Now I'm not talking about being perfect because I don't think we could fully surrender in the sense of being perfect, but there is a surrender that needs to take place.

Isaiah's Vision of the Holy King

And I'm going to put Isaiah 6 up on the screen. This verse is profound. It is life changing. And here's what we don't know because it's later on in Isaiah. Was this the moment that God called him? Was this the moment God wrecked His life and rebuilt it?

Was this the moment He experienced God? And now we know of Isaiah. Without this moment, is it possible we would have never heard of Isaiah? So let's read this. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the entire temple.

Isn't that interesting? Because the train of a robe, usually whether it's 6 feet, 12 feet, it would usually resemble the authority and the power of that king. But this train filled the entire temple, this huge temple, Solomon's temple.

The whole train of God's robe, meaning complete dominance and authority. And above it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings. And with two, he covered his face. And with two, he flew. And with two, he covered his feet.

And there's a lot there because they were standing in the holy presence of God. No man can see God and live. And they were covering their face and even covering their feet due to modesty. And there was this wonderful picture of the seraphim.

And they cried to one another. What did they cry? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And this is what is interesting. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of Him who cried out, holy, holy, holy.

And the whole temple was filled with smoke. Now these aren't doorposts. In Solomon's temple, they were probably 25 to 30 feet tall, six feet in diameter. So these huge, massive posts would just shake.

Holy, holy, holy is Your name. I'm gonna shock you right now. Holiness is said of God 400 times in the Bible compared to four times that God is love. 400 times our God is holy. His name is holy. They cry holy, holy.

Holiness, Repentance, and Revival

And we've gotta get some holiness back in our lives. We've gotta get some holiness back in our nation. And I love the love of God. Don't get me wrong, but we're so busy talking about the love of God that we forget about the holiness of God.

And without holiness, there's no repentance. Without repentance, there's no spiritual awakening. And that is the only hope for our nation. Our nation has to be awakened. And after those posts were shaken, and they cried out, and the house was filled with smoke, what did Isaiah do?

Oh, this is so cool. Wow, this is incredible, God. No, He didn't do that. So I said, woe is me. I can picture Him even almost falling on the floor. Woe is me, for I am undone. That means I am completely ruined.

I am broken. I am bare before You. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Let me tell you, we say if Jesus walked in here, we'd just applaud. No, you wouldn't. You'd fall on your face, and you'd say, oh my God, I am not worthy. I am completely undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a perverted nation.

Oh God, we are so perverted, so lost. Jesus, have mercy on my soul. And you're tears would stain this carpet, because you're undone. Just this week, a lady had a complaint about my messages. She said I get too loud.

But what do you do when your eyes have seen the King? Woe is me, I'm undone. I'm completely ruined. I dwell in the midst of a perversion and sexual sin. And God, would You touch my lips and cleanse me?

And if I time, I would take you to where the seraphim actually flew and grabbed the coals. It's actually probably a hot stone from the fire that was burning the sacrifice. And He took that, and He touched his lips, and He said, you are cleansed.

Brokenness Before God and Spiritual Sight

And now we hear of Isaiah, because my eyes have seen the King. And so it begs the question, have yours? As a Christian, have your eyes truly seen the King? Have you had a radical experience with God where you say, I am undone?

Because most people don't do that. That is deep repentance. We're too arrogant. We're too puffed with pride. But what I notice is this was an unforgettable day in the year that King Isaiah died. It's unforgettable.

His spiritual eyes were open. We don't know if it was a vision, a spiritual vision, seeing into the unseen spiritual world. We don't know, but the Bible often talks about that. He who has ears to hear, let him, he's not talking about physical ears, taste and see that God is good.

There's a spiritual experience that needs to take place. Guys, you need to know that. You can experience God in deep and profound ways. It doesn't have to be weird. We have conservative churches on this side.

It's like, no, no, we don't talk about any of that stuff. And then you got churches out here that are just crazy and weird. You don't have to have either. Balance, balance. I don't want to be a circus or a cemetery.

But you can experience the living God. Shouldn't we get excited when God is healing and setting free and removing suicidal thoughts, restoring marriages, breaking addictions? Yeah, you get a little bit excited.

Amen. And we see here, he experienced God, the place shook. Woe is me. Woe is me. Let me tell you, this is a missing ingredient in many, many lives of Christians. Woe is me. Brokenness is not cool. Humility is passé.

And arrogance is ruling and reigning in the lives of many believers. We come in stagnant and dead to the things of God. We leave stagnant and dead to the things of God. There's got to be a complete breaking down of pride.

Pride assassinates the soul. We are puffed with knowledge, prideful with power and arrogant with abundance. And Isaiah said, I am completely broken. I like what the Hebrew scholar, Dr. Brown said. The brightness of this experience is blinding.

The sound is deafening. The purity is devastating. The lights have been turned on with blazing intensity and we stand trembling, naked, unclean and ashamed before God Almighty. And that's exactly what is done when you truly experience God, that there's a sense of his holiness, a sense of his purity.

Revival as a Renewed Focus on Holiness

And we too should agree with the heartbeat of the angelic beings. Holy, holy, holy is our God. Holy, holy is our God. And it's been no secret here. Revival has been a theme on my heart for years, meaning a spiritual awakening where God awakens his church, where you're hungry, you can't wait to get to church.

Churches maybe even a couple nights a week and the services go on. That's historical, historical church history records many, many spiritual awakenings because you're so hungry for God, you want more of God.

Just like you're craving fast food. Did you know you can crave God? Just like you go, oh, King's Stomach, King's Stomach is talking. Oh, I got to get home and get it. You can crave the things of God. But what I've always noticed is revival is always a renewed focus on holiness.

Holy, holy, holy is our God. You want a spiritual awakening, you got to get on your face before God. There's got to be deep repentance, a desire for holiness and purity to come out from among them and be separate because if there's no holiness, there's no separation.

And we don't do it out of rules and regulation and legalism. We do it out of love for that relationship with God. And that's why I asked earlier, do we fight for this relationship or do we just fade away?

Do we contend or complain? Do we pursue God or do we postpone intimacy? And then finally, that word seraphim is interesting. I think we have the spelling there at the bottom where that word comes from.

It's a Hebrew word and guess what it means? To set on fire. Talk about the parallels. The seraphim flew, they touched his lips with the coal and set him on fire. And what's interesting is purity, holiness towards God sets you on fire.

There's a desire for God. And so I want to leave you with that thought. Isaiah said, I have seen the king. I have experienced God. For my eyes have seen him, I've experienced God. And we had time, I could go into what he said after that, the Lord of hosts.

That word host means the God of the armies of heaven. That's powerful. My eyes have not only seen the king, my eyes have seen the God who rules the armies of heaven. And as we all know, Jesus is coming back again, but He's not coming as a lamb, He's coming as a lion.

Christ's Return as King and Lord of Hosts

And we can read even in Revelation where John actually saw Jesus coming on a white horse. And he said, his eyes were flames of fire and on his head were many crowns. No one knew his name except himself.

His name was the word of God. And the armies of heaven follow after him. Out of his mouth goes a sword that he will rule the nations with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress and the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God.

And so that is King of kings and Lord of lords. The armies, He controls the armies of heaven. And with the youth here tonight, at least some of you, I want to wake you up a little bit. And even adults, of course.

Genuine Encounter Versus Dead Religion

But this is why you hear of many people walking away from God. Have you heard that? There's studies and people are walking away from God and nine times out of 10, it's because they've never genuinely experienced Him.

They've never had this Isaiah moment. So yeah, they walk away from a boring, dead, stifled religion that their parents forced down their throat. Or adults leave because this is boring, it's dead, doesn't mean anything to me.

I see hypocrites in the church. You know there's hypocrites in the church, but really what you're confusing with hypocrites is strugglers. A hypocrite is deceitfully trying to be one thing and then the Greek word is a mask and they're changing, they're trying to trick you.

But there's a lot of people struggling. That's a lot different. The person struggling says, my mask is off. I'm bare before you, I'm undone. Help, I need a little help. And they're struggling and we come alongside and we help those, but that's why a lot of people fall away, they don't have this encounter with God.

This encounter with God, when you experience God, you will become a more humble person. Anybody struggle with pride in this room? Oh, I wasn't expecting a response, but that's good. But it will crush your pride, it will crush hypocrisy.

And this is why many people walk away, they don't want to have anything to do with God because they've never experienced Him. When you experience God through a massive, mighty filling of the Holy Spirit, you can't go back, there's nothing to go back to.

It might be difficult, it might be challenging, but you are sealed, you are filled. The Holy Spirit is given to you as a guarantee until the day of your salvation. Yes, life is challenging, yes, it is difficult.

Yes, you may fall a few times, but God says He will uphold you with His right hand and put you back on the right path. And when Jesus, He was calling His disciples and even talking to the lady at the well, He said, if you drink of this water, you will never thirst again.

There's a water of which you can drink and never thirst again. When you experience God, it's an all-consuming passion within your heart. And we don't have time, but we sang the song actually. After Isaiah has this experience, he's undone, his sin is taken away, and then he says, Lord, send me.

The Holy Spirit's Filling Precedes Christian Service

Send me. Now I'm ready. Could it be that God is not sending some of you because you're not yet ready? He has to fill you before He sends you. You have to have that filling of the Holy Spirit. That life surrender to His work.

Then from that, you can go out and truly make a difference. So we want to do something a little bit different with this worship night, is we're going to open it up for baptisms. Even if you're baptized as a young adult or a child, it didn't really mean anything to you.

You're just going through the motions. We want to give you the opportunity tonight to dedicate your life completely to Jesus Christ. And this is a command, to be baptized, to publicly declare your faith before others.

And so I know maybe there's some in the youth. Ignite, I know there's a couple of baptisms. So what we're going to have is ask that the men, boys, will go through this side. Exit. And we'll baptize you here.

I'm going to open the gates here. And then women, you can go on this side, and we would love to baptize you as well. We're just going to do it during closing worship, so there's no rush. There's no hurry, but this is a wonderful time that we can rejoice with you in this area.

Personal Testimony of Surrender and Spiritual Renewal

And let me just share one minute or two. The reason this subject is so personal and why I'm so passionate about it is because I was a Christian at 12, but you wouldn't know it. My teen years, I walked away from God.

In my 20s, I chased everything but God. Success, recognition, money. Built a custom home in Courtsill in my 20s. And had everything, and then God took everything. And I finally got to a point where I said, woe is me.

I'm completely undone. I want you and you alone. And this mighty, incredible filling of the Holy Spirit came upon my life. This isn't something we should be worried about. This is biblical. This is thoroughly biblical.

The reason many churches don't talk about it is because they've never experienced it. They've never experienced this incredible, deep work of God. And we're afraid of what we've never experienced. And we'll mock what we've never experienced.

And the greatest need in the pulpits of America today is a mighty filling of God's Spirit. A mighty downpour of God working in your heart and your life. And really where it comes from is surrendering.

Full Surrender and the Transforming Word of God

Full surrender. I empty myself of self. Lord, I'm a wretch. I'm a sinner. I need You. I'm broken. I'm prideful. I'm arrogant. I have ulterior motives. Lord, I lust and addiction, all these things, whatever is in this room.

Lord, I give it to You tonight. I empty myself of self. And there's an incredible cleansing aspect that comes in, and it fills your life. Listen, I hated reading. I never read. I couldn't read really with dyslexia.

Now I love to read. I listen to all the wrong music. And now I love the worship music. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? I mean, I can date myself with Metallica, ACDC, Judas Priest, Dio, Ronnie James Dio.

Why do I remember all those lyrics? But I have a hard time remembering God's Word. And now I'm reading the Bible and it's coming alive. And I told my mom, I didn't know all this was in here. This is amazing.

God is speaking to me through His Word. Look, His Word is living and powerful, sharper than any double-edged sword. It pierces, it discerns the thoughts in the depths of my heart. Now the Bible comes alive.

Now I wanna worship. Now I wanna go to church on Sunday, Sunday night, Wednesday. What's happening? The infilling, indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's crying, Abba, Father, not get away from me, Father.

Lord, I want more of You. I have to be surrendered to You. I want, listen. I don't wanna play church. I wanna experience God or I don't wanna have anything to do with religion. And that's why we often tell people, we didn't come here to play church.

This isn't a social gathering. We don't have a couple songs, a couple announcements, quick message, let's get you out of here before the buffet closes. No, no, no, we have came here to hear from God and to humble ourselves before Him.

And also the altar's gonna be open. I mean, there's nothing special about this other than it's a time of surrender to come up and say, Lord, I give you everything, my marriage, my finances, my addiction.