Luke 5:12-13. I want to speak to you this morning on the touch of God. I believe we've already experienced the touch of God in this place, he's here this morning.
Luke 5:12-13 says, "It happened when he was in a certain city, a man that was full of leprosy saw Jesus and he fell on his face and implored him saying, Lord, If you are willing you can make me clean. Then Jesus put out his hands and touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed, and immediately the leprosy left him".
Father, we thank you that you are in this place. Lord, as we gather on this first service of the new year, we want to thank you for being here with us because nothing means more to us than you. Holy Spirit, may we decrease this morning and may you increase. Have your way in us, Amen.
There's power in touch. I want to talk to you about the touch of God on our lives in different ways. The truth is that everybody needs to be touched. Touch is essential to the proper development of children. It's been proven that kids who are held and are loved and nurtured, it means so much as they grow and mature as whole and healthy individuals. Touch is essential in marriage. Romantic and non romantic touch is vital to the health of a marriage. They say that a husband and a wife should have at least 5 non-sexual touches a day. What an amazing thing it is to know that someone loves you and is there for you and cares for you.
From babies to adults we need to hold and to be held. When Jesus ministered on the earth, he went about healing and restoring people simply with his touch. How many of you have ever experienced the touch of God in your life? As a matter of fact, we know that wherever Jesus went, whenever he spoke to people, whether it was a physical touch or an emotional healing, the simple touch of God in someone's life began to change them. Jesus said, not only should the adults come to me but let the kids come to me. Everyone can come to Jesus for a touch from Him. Everyone who brought their sick to Jesus received a touch. Everyone who came to the Lord was never held back.
It's important to understand that the touch of God is a very personal and precious thing. When God touches a person, I believe it doesn't only answer the area of their need but it truly transforms their life. How many of you have found that when God comes into your life when you need healing, that God has healed you but something else took place inside of you as well? Not only did God come and meet the immediate need but God also began to touch every area of your life. The touch of God is a powerful thing. Each touch from the Lord is gentle and kind. Sometimes the touch of God is very forceful. I have been in meetings where I have watched the power of God come into a church service and people couldn't even stand. I have seen people as we've come to lay hands on them and pray, that before we even got near them the power of God swept over them so marvelously that they couldn't even stand before God, they fell over backwards and couldn't get up for hours at a time. It's amazing to see, as forceful as God came in, he's never harmful, always gentle, always sensitive to the needs.
The touch of God is felt so unquestionably and so deeply that you know what it is because you recognize who he is even if you never knew that there was a Jesus before. I have watched God touch people that would deny him and didn't think He loved them, who have never experienced the hand of God in their life but when He came they knew immediately that it was Him touching them.
The other day I was changing channels and I stopped at a program I don't normally watch, "The Hour of Power". Robert Schuller brought a guest up, a girl who was from Holland. She said, "I was going through a really hard time in my life and I was flipping channels on the tv and came across "The Hour of Power". After her testimony, Dr. Schuller looked at her and said, "Jesus loves you and so do I". That girl was about to commit suicide and she came to a place where she was about to take some pills and turned on the tv and there was that program. Again the word came out, "God loves you and so do I". That girl stopped before taking the pills. A couple weeks later she found herself standing on a bridge ready to jump, life had been so difficult and as she was standing on that bridge the Holy Spirit began to speak to her and play that through her mind again, "God loves you and so do I". She said, "In that moment I felt the touch of God in my life and I decided that if God would love me and Robert Schuller could love me and his son could love me then that's 3 people in this world who love me and that's enough for me, I'm not going to jump". There she was giving her testimony, standing in the Crystal Cathedral telling everyone what God had done in her life. How many know that God knows how to personally touch our lives no matter what it takes?
My sister had bought me a pack of all the superbowls that the Steelers had gone to and their history. As I was watching it the one thing that struck me was what the Coach said, "Whatever it takes". That used to be their slogan. How many know that whatever it takes, God will reach out to touch your life so that you know that he loves you and that he cares for you?
The touch of God always results in complete healing. As we begin this new year and as God is working in our church and as God is causing us to reach out, the touch of God always results in complete healing, spiritually, physically and emotionally. When God touches someone's life he never does it half way. We have been living in a time where churches are going half way with God. I don't know about you but when I believe that we're going to reach out and touch people's lives he never does a halfway job.
How many know the song, "He touched Me"? "He touched me and Oh the joy that floods my soul, something happened and now I know, He touched me and made me whole". The power of God in someone's life is an amazing thing.
1st Thessalonians 5:23 says, "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ". He is a God of wholeness, not of halfness and not of halfway. The touch of God is a marvelous thing. If you truly know the Lord, If you know Him intensely and intimately, you have known and felt the touch of God. In our times of loneliness and our times of despair, in our times of discontent or discomfort, even in times of confusion and in our most painful times of life, how many of you have known and felt the touch of God? Listen, it is a powerful thing that will transform your life and it's there to touch other people as well. God strengthens and heals every area.
We describe sometimes those who's minds aren't working at full speed as a little touched. The truth is that some people need a fresh touch from God on their life. More and more what I see happening in this world are people and even Christians dealing with mental anguish like never before. That confusion, loneliness and hurt, Satan has been overburdening people's minds and has been harrassing many people with Hellish thoughts. Things keep going through their mind and they are living in such misery and hurt that they don't know what to do with themselves. They begin to have unbelieving thoughts that God doesn't love them and God doesn't care for them. Even as Christians they begin to feel guilty because they're having these thoughts of doubt. They even begin to have unchristlike thoughts where they are dealing with things and with people and not only are they angry with life and at others but are beginning to hear things go through their mind that they haven't even said out of their mouth in a long time. How many have ever found yourself in a place like that where you're just ready to curse everything that comes your way and you could find yourself as a believer ready to just utter things that you know would never normally go through your mind. The enemy attacking thoughts, people who feel worthless, people filled with worry, feeling that they are objects of God's displeasure and thinking they are coming under attack by the Lord instead of by the enemy. I believe that in these days when we expect Jesus to come back anytime soon, it is no wonder that the enemy is messing with people's minds. Those who are honest will tell you that we all have experienced these attacks in our minds. Satan is determined to destroy our faith and our dependence on the Lord but I believe that not only can God touch a body and save a spirit but God can touch a mind and give us peace of mind and life so that our thoughts reflect his thoughts, so that our words become his words, so that our hearts desire become his, and so that the enemy is defeated. It takes the touch of God to deeply affect personally someone's thought life and God is going to do that more and more in these days.
In the Bible, the touch of God always came in response to a cry. God will never ignore or reject a cry for his touch, never. Whenever someone cries out, God will always answer. Psalms 34:4 says, "I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears". God always hears our cries and If you need a touch from God the Lord will answer you. Seeking God is as easy as crying out to Him. All it takes is, "Jesus, come now, I need your touch, I want your will in my life, I need you to intervene". When we will cry out to God, the Lord will answer. God is so close, he so desires to reach out and touch and all we need to do is ask.
Psalms 32 says, "Oh Lord my God, I cried out to you and you healed me". Psalm 34:6 says, "This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles". I believe 2009 will be better than 2008 but here's what I know, it really doesn't matter. I don't have to be in a new year because I serve a God whose mercies are new every morning so as long as that is the God I serve I'm ok and it doesn't matter. He is faithful time and time again. All I need is to cry out to Him, it doesn't matter how bad it gets. Psalms 107:6, 13, and 19 says 3 times, "Then they cried out to the Lord in their troubles and he saved them out of their distress". So whatever distresses you, just cry out to God, he will save you out of it all. That has to be the conviction of the people of God, that must be the certainty of our heart because in this life there will be trouble. It's going to happen so when you cry out to the Lord he is there in the midst of it. What better way to start this year as a church than to know that the touch of God is there for us and with us.
The quickest way for a touch from God is to call out for Him. Ask Him like a child who calls out because they're scared, a child that calls out because they're lonely or hurting or in need. We cry out to our father in the same way, "Lord, I need you". The touch of God is not the "Midas touch", it is the touch of the master, it is the master's touch. God is not so much interested in our lives being golden as he is in our lives being lived to their full potential. God is not there to make all of us the golden child. If everything we touched turn to gold we'd have no reason to depend on the Lord. When we depend on God and we cry out to Him we begin to see the potential of God come out through us. It says in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them".
I used to keep this particular plaque in my office and I'm running out of room so some things I've just moved to different places. It was a story of an auction going on and out came this violin. It was an old beat up instrument and when the auctioneer started out he couldn't even get a $5 bid for it. Out of the back a man who understood what that violin was walked up to it. He was a master violinist and picked up that instrument and began to play it and beautiful music began to come out. It took a master violinist to realize that instrument was really worth something. When he set that violin down there was silence in the room and the auctioneer began to auction it off and that violin went for about $350,000.
The truth is that everyone of us are a masterpiece of God. The enemy may be messing with your mind and you may think that you're not worth a whole lot. When I begin to pour out what I believe God's vision is for this church you need to understand, believer, that at some point the enemy is going to try and come in and make you feel like you're not worth a whole lot, that you're not worthy of what God wants to do with you, that you must be a mess up in some way and that God must have made a mistake. The truth is God knew exactly what he was doing when he made you, he knew what he intended for your life and if you will just put your life in his hands you will be amazed what will be accomplished through it. Every Christian who has ever set out to do anything for God, anyone who has ever set out to live their life for the Lord has had the attack of the enemy in that way. But the truth is this, there is a work that God has made inside of you that is unparalleled to anyone else. There is a reason why God has placed you here and there is a work that God wants to do through each of us. It's His touch that helps us to see the master work that God has for us.
To me it is fascinating to see the ways that God would touch people's lives throughout the Bible. God touched Jeremiah's mouth so that he could begin to preach and to prophesy. Jeremiah 1:9 says, "The Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and said, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth". There were those who were deaf. Jesus walked up and stuck his fingers in a man's ears who couldn't hear and told them to be open and they were. There was another man who couldn't speak and Jesus came and touched his tongue, literally grabbed a hold of it so that it would begin to work and function. There's another whose eyes were blind, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud and put it on his eyes. He began to touch him so he could see. In the Old Testament when Elijah's servant and him were under attack, God opened his eyes so he could see that there were more angels than there were enemies surrounding the city. In 1st Samuel 10, God touched a band of men who were with Saul. He touched every one of their hearts so that God could do a work and they could follow Saul wherever he would go and do what God desired.
Everyone of us have different areas of our life that we need God to touch.
God touches areas of our lives for different purposes but when he touches one area, every area of our life becomes affected. When you cry out for the touch of God I want you to understand. There were times in my life when I needed one area, like finances, touched and God came in and did a work and began to change so many other things in my life. It worked in my faith, it worked in my health, it worked in other areas of ministry. There were times when I needed God to heal my body but what he did in that area began to change the way I was in other areas of my life. Listen, when God's touch comes it will change everything about you. When the Lord touches someone, many times we are driven to our knees.
My prayer is that in 2009 at Harvest Community everyone of us will be driven to our knees. I pray that as Christians and as a people, no longer would we be able to confidently stand cocky in God's presence because we've got our life so together. I pray that the Lord would come in so dynamically that we'll be driven to our knees. When God touches us we see the refreshed revelation of heaven of who God is. We begin to forsake our sin and we long for purity. "God, let there be nothing about me that is impure, let there be nothing in my life that is evil, let there be nothing in my life that strikes a compromise, let there be nothing". I pray that there will be times that God will come so strong in our worship that I don't even get to preach and I pray that you'll want it. I'll pray that his presence will come in so much that the instruments will have to be set down because we can't
even sing, we'll just be in the presence of God. I pray he'll come in and touch us corporately that we'd know we've met with the living God. The truth is we need a fresh touch from God today in our lives and in our church. I believe that we've seen God do great things in this place, I believe we have a touch from Jesus, I believe we have a heart for the Lord. How many of you are thankful for what God is doing in this place? My prayer is that we will never ever just rest on what he's done in the past, that we will always long for a fresh touch from him.
It was Moses who had a touch from God in his life and the reason for it was because he treasured the presence of God. In order to have a fresh touch of God in our life and in our church, we must treasure his presence. It's not an ordinary thing, it's not a right, it's an honor to be with the Lord. In all of Israel Moses was the only one who would pay the price. In Exodus 19:20 it says, "Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up". Most people stay in the valley because it's in the valley where we live, it's in the valley where the tasks of everyday life goes on. It takes work to go to the mountaintop and be with God. Even the priests back in Moses day only went halfway up. They wouldn't go to the top to the presence of the Lord, they only went part of the way. They said, "We love God, we want to serve the Lord, we're grateful for what he did but it's alot of work to get up to the top. You live in the valley but you go to the presence of the Lord to meet with him and then you go back down to live life. Moses even had a place in the camp called the tabernacle of meeting where he would go in to talk with God. When he would go in to meet with the Lord he would close the flap behind him and only Moses would go in to talk with God. Each of us today have a Tabernacle of meeting with the Lord, it's called prayer. It's where we go in to meet with Jesus. Not only a select few can go into the presence of the Lord, everyone of us can but we have to be willing to do it.
The key to God's presence is to draw near to him. Moses was willing to go up so that he could know the glory of God's presence. He treasured it and he wanted it. I believe that one of the reasons why many are so spiritually dry is that they don't have a hunger for the presence of the Lord. I believe that in 2009 we will never be a dry church, we will never be a place without the presence of God, we won't have a service where you think you've wasted your time, if we will treasure the presence of the Lord.
I've been in church for a long time, I grew up in Pentecostal churches. I started at 8 years old and I know there's times when you come to church and ask, "Where's God, why did I come today?" Churches that don't feel that are those that will seek the face of God and draw near, that take the time personally to daily go in and seek the Lord, a church that will daily draw close to the Lord not only individually but corporately as we come together for times of prayer and as we come to meet in this place. I want to challenge you when you come to church during this new year not to come because it's a duty and it's something to do. How many believe that God is doing something special here and we should expect to see even greater things. I want to see God reach this city. The touch of God comes as we draw near to the Lord, it comes as we seek his presence and we're filled with him. James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and he will draw to you". If you feel like you're far from God, stop waiting for God and you just run to Him. As you run to Him, he's running to you. It's that easy. Many want to be touched by God but won't pay the price. At Harvest we desire the touch of God and to draw near to Him. The price is prayer.
Psalms 127:8 says, "When you said, Seek they face, my heart said to you, your face Lord I will seek".
I want to challenge you, January 25th is when we're going to have a week of prayer and fasting where we're going to seek the Lord. I'm going to develop a prayer list for that week that we can go through, not only asking God for growth in the church but for God's blessings and miracles in lives. I don't believe that growth is the key in a church, the key is souls being saved and that we would see his presence in this place. Our youth need a touch from the Lord. I want to see pastor Rick come in and say the kids were laying hands on people and seeing miracles happening like that girl who came in whose eardrum was restored last year. How cool would it be to see kids laying hands on other kids and seeing miracles, or our young people going in to their High Schools and seeing sick people get healed and having revival in the hallways. You don't think it can happen in Jupiter High School or Dwyer but it can happen. These things come by prayer and fasting. I want you to understand, I hate to fast, I like to eat so fasting is a hard thing for me and it probably is for most people. The truth is even with diabetes its going to be a challenge. Those pills are going to go for me and I'm going to claim that now sometime in 2009. Just like I did with the needle I'm going to bring the pills. I'm praying that not only will we see these things happen to us but that this kind of ministry will happen outside of our church and people will be saved.
The only things that makes a church different from other buildings is the presence of God. The only thing that makes a Christian different from other people is the presence of God in their life. John Wesley, the great american pastor, before the 2nd great awakening longed for the presence of God in his life. He was hungry for more of God. He found himself getting stale and kind of bland in his walk with the Lord and something struck him and he said, "I need Jesus, I need that touch from the Lord". He began to pray and to seek the face of God then John and Charles Wesley began to take America and England by storm as they began to seek the Lord in every area of their life. We know that he was like a dying man, a man dying of thirst who wanted a drink from the Lord. He was like a man who was malnourished who needed to be fed by Christ. He began to cry out for the touch of God.
Psalms 42:1-2 says, "As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, so pants my soul for you, Oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before the Lord?" I love God but I want more of God, when shall I come back and be in the presence of the Lord? Christians who long to be in their prayer time, who long to come to church not only because they love being with other people but because they love to see what God does in that place. Christians who can't wait to see God work through their life and in their life as they go into the community and lives are changed. Will that be our cry as a church? May this hunger and thirst for the Lord be something that so permeates us. I pray that we come in and worship and just get down to business with God. I pray that when we come into this house this will be the place where we're comfortable because we love his presence so much. When we come to prayer I pray that we just lose the formality and just get busy with the Lord.
How many know Palm Beach County needs a touch from God? Last year there were 105 murders in Palm Beach County alone. There were 17 in Martin and St. Lucie County. I believe that we need the touch of God. My prayer is that this church will see the touch of God not only on us though I want that touch of God everyday. I pray that we'll be his hands extended and that this community will be so touched that it will shake. My prayer is that we'll see no murders. With God all things are possible. I'm asking God to start with us, young and old, rich and poor. I'm praying we'll see old people praying with gang members and that we'll be able to reach the rich people out on Jupiter island who think they don't need God because they have all the money they need. We don't want them to think that we want them because we need to build a building. I pray that we'll see gang members walking in here, I pray that we'll see it all.
The presence of God isn't about a spiritual feeling in a church. I pray that we'll have that spiritual feeling but the touch of God changes lives, that's the difference. I pray that the touch of God will come and change lives and it will be so dynamic that we will know He has done a work in us and through us.
