A Fresh Encounter

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Be and Become podcast, featuring Francois Carr, a hardcore life and connected life ministry. Francois's international ministry equips and encourages pastors, ministry leaders, and fellow Christians as they discover what it means to truly be and become the followers they were meant to be. Thank you for joining Francois today as he offers a few words of encouragement from God's Word.

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Thank you for listening. I trust that the Lord will speak to us through His Word, and it may be a great encouragement for you. Sometimes when we reach the bottom in our Christian lives and walk with God in a place of hopelessness and despair, we become a candidate to find the Lord Jesus. It is during these days of Easter that we remember the death and the crucifixion of Jesus, but celebrate especially the resurrection and the risen Christ. I want us to take a look today at whom Jesus appeared and why. We have seen already from the life of Mary Magdalene that Jesus came to her because she loved him and she was utterly devoted to the Lord Jesus. The two men that walked on that Sunday towards the place called Emmaus, Jesus came to them when they were bewildered but still seeking in their heart, and he touched them, he spoke to them, and he spent some time with them. But on that same day, the Sunday, we find that Jesus came to visit with his disciples. Ten of them find themselves sitting behind a closed door in Jerusalem. Judas wasn't there anymore, and Thomas wasn't in that moment in the same room. Now I can just imagine when Mary came back and tell the disciples that she has seen Jesus in John chapter 20, and he told them, uh told her to go tell them that he's alive because she has seen him. That maybe because of the excitement, the rumor can spread. Have you heard? Have you heard? Have you heard that Jesus Christ is alive? And then Sunday night we can bring them all together, we can have a festival, we can have a banquet, we can bring some food, we can have fellowship, and just a wonderful evening together to celebrate the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead. But instead, they find themselves sitting behind closed doors. A locked door, the Bible says, because of fear for the Jews. And as you look at that, suddenly there was no opening of the door, there was no the noise of a key that was turned inside the lock, and then Jesus appeared right in their center, and he speaks to them, he breathed upon them, he restores them, and he sends them out once again. When Jesus blows the Holy Spirit upon them, he did not offer them something that they did not know because their names was in the book of life. They walked with him, they saw him, they experienced him day by day. But there is times in your life and my life as Christian people who are saved and born again, or even people who are filled by the Holy Spirit, that we need a moment like a fresh touch and an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Because sometimes we also find ourselves just like the disciples at the bottom of hopelessness, with fear, our peace is the stirrup, the joy, not knowing what to do and how to do it. But then Jesus needs to come to us too, just like with his disciples. And when he comes, he restores what we call a lost sense of his presence in our lives. Because we sometimes start to live in a way as if we are not aware of the fact that Jesus Christ is living within our hearts and standing next to us through the Holy Spirit. And so he has to restore that, that we can become aware once again of the fact that we are with God and God is with us every second of the day. The promise I will be with you appears 282 times in the scriptures in the Bible. And sometimes we lose a sense of his presence, and God has to restore that. Like in the case of David, because of sin, he said, Lord, do not cast me away from your presence. The man called Joab in the Old Testament, when you go through some difficulty in his life and hardships, he said, Lord, if I only can find him, I was looking for him to the left, the right, the east, and the west in Job chapter 23. And so there are moments in your life and my life that we tend to forget about or we lose a sense of his presence and awareness of that, and the Lord Jesus has to reappear and to touch us afresh and anew that we can walk in the awareness of his presence. God restores, he took away their fear. In verses 19, he restores their peace, verse 19 and 21. And when they lost their joy, verse 20, Jesus restores their joy, and then he sends them out to give them a passion for Christian service in verses 21. Just like the Father sent me, I will send you, he says, I'm sending you. And then he blows with the Holy Spirit upon them. And so I want to encourage you in this day. Just like the disciples finding themselves sitting in that room in utter despair and in fear for their lives, when Jesus came to them. They had reached the ultimate depths of fear and hopelessness and despair. But as a man called Neville Talbot put it, when you get to the bottom, you will find God. They had reached the bottom, but they were still thinking about Jesus. He was still the center of their lives. He came to them because even in their fear and despair and hopelessness, they were still thinking and loving him and remembering what Jesus has done for them. And so I want to encourage you in this day, because of Easter weekend and because of the risen Christ, sometimes when you find yourself at the bottom, not knowing what to do and how to do it, and in despair with fear, and your peace and joy seems to be gone, we become a candidate for a fresh touch and a fresh encounter and a fresh appearance of the Lord Jesus into your life, in my life, and a fresh touch that we can have joy and peace, and God removes the fear, and we can have a fresh awareness of his presence in our lives and renewed passion for Christian service to go out and to be like him in the world that needs to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. So I want to encourage you in this day. If you find yourself at the end of the rope, just like at the bottom, not knowing what to do and how to do it, it's time for a fresh encounter with Jesus and to ask him to speak to you, to blow upon you, to restore you, to renew you, and to send you out once again, just like in the days of his disciples. And so when you find yourself at the bottom, we will find Jesus. When we find ourselves in a time like this, we can thank him for a fresh breath and an infilling and a touch and an encounter with him, which is available for all of us. Because Jesus said, Come unto me, all of you who are heavy laden and burdened, and I will give you rest. May you find the rest and the peace and the joy that you are looking for because you have found Jesus in these days. May God bless you.

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Thank you for listening to this be and become episode with Francois Carr. For more information about the ministry, visit the website at ConnectedLifeministries.com. We hope you'll join Francois next time as he continues the conversation on what it means to be and become the follower you are meant to be.