Seek God's Direction

Before The Sermon

before we dive into the message, I just want to take a moment and remind you why we still have the tables up. I’ve had a few people asking and I just wanted to address it as a family.

I know that sitting around tables on Sunday morning is not typical church practice. But I also want to remind you that church is not an event to be consumed, but a community you participate in. So instead of sitting in rows and just enjoying the worship or listening to the sermon, tables encourage you to worship together, to pray together, and to talk about the message together. God’s design for church is that we would grow together, challenge and encourage one another, and really be a community. It is easier to build a relationship with someone face to face then it is with the back of their head.

And for those that are worried about new people; most the new people we’ve had since the tables went up have loved the tables. They found it inviting and easier to get plugged in.

The tables are here to stay. If you want the tables to go away, there is a really easy solution: Just invite enough people that there’s too many for the tables to stay up. We’ve got 10 tables, and we can seat 8 to a table, so when we hit 80 people coming to service, we’ll have no choice but to put the tables away.

Intro

this morning we are wrapping up our series our Seek series, and I hope you have been challenged or encouraged as we’ve been going along.

to kick it off, I have a table question for you:

If you needed advice, where would be a bad place to go?

let’s hear some of your answers

now I want to remind you that some of your answers may be considered good places to go by others

Being about God’s Business

There has been an underlying theme that has been coursing through this series and it actually comes from Matt 6:33

Matthew 6:33 NLT

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Seek the Kingdom

If you want to find God, you need to be where God is and do the things God does. Last week, we talked about seeking the lost. Why? Because God is constantly seeking out those sons and daughters that are far from Him. The parable of the shepherd leaving the 99 to find the 1 is about the way God seeks those who are far from Him. If we are seeking God’s kingdom, we need to take His method of kingdom growth. Find the lost and hurting and bring them into the kingdom aka go make disciples.

If we are doing what God does, and we are putting it first in our lives, we should expect our loving Father to be proud of us. The beauty of our Father is that He does not withhold His love, but He is willing to inform us and encourage us. How do we know? Because throughout scripture, He has declared His pleasure with those who have been about His business.

So as we become about God’s business, walking in step with Him, and our Heavenly Father cheering us on, we discover something amazing about God. Not only is He pursuing the lost and hurting, He never stopped pursuing us. He is never far away. In the same way He continues to pursue us, we are called to pursue Him and His kingdom.

So as we conclude our series, seeking God’s direction and wisdom in our life, it should come as no surprise that we start with Pr. 3:6

Proverbs 3:6 NLT

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Seek God’s Will

Solomon, the author of Proverbs, tells his son that he is writing to, that if he wants to experience God’s directing in his life, he needs to be pursuing the will of God.

here in lies the great challenge that each and every believer must wrestle with all the days of their life. God has given you free will, and that free will has been corrupted by sin. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, you must decide to lay down that free will and choose to follow the perfect will of God. Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 NLT

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

You Don’t Have...

but in order to choose to do things God’s way, it requires a lot of humility, and as much as we may not like to think it, pride can be a big problem in our lives.

It is why we get to a verse like Matt 7:7-8

Matthew 7:7–8 NLT

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Because You Don’t Ask

and wonder why God hasn’t answered all our prayers. I’ve been asking for this for a long but I haven’t seen it. I’ve been seeking this answer for as long as I can remember and I still haven’t found it.

James 4:1–3 NLT

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

With a Right Heart

The apostle James points out the human condition. We have these sinful desires within us, trying to grab the reigns of our life. It is why people are manipulative, condescending, and flat out mean. Believers have the same struggle but God gives us the Holy Spirit to help us overcome.

James concludes this passage with what I’ll call two really important questions.

Are you even asking for it?

I think sometimes we are expecting God to move and we haven’t even asked Him to yet. Does He know you want Him to move? Ya, the same way you know when a kid needs to go to bathroom but doesn’t want to miss the show.

God wants to move, but He is waiting for you to ask.

Why do you want it?

Remember, your Heavenly Father is in the kingdom building business. So is what you are asking for going to build God’s kingdom or yours? Is what you are asking for going to draw you closer to Him or push you further away?

Whatever it is that you are asking God for, why do you want it?

Psalm 10:4 NLT

The wicked are too proud to seek God. They seem to think that God is dead.

Pride Gets in the Way

The words of the Psalmist can be easy to disregard because he starts off by calling these people wicked. Well I’m not wicked so whatever comes next doesn’t apply to me.

Well let’s take the wicked out of the verse and just look at the people he is describing. They don’t seek God and seem to think God is dead. Why would he say they seem to think? Because they are probably living in such a way that suggests God has no say in their lives.

Pride makes it all about me. I’ve got this, I’ve got nothing to worry. I’ll figure it out on my own.

Humility acknowledges that there is probably somebody out there who could help me out. Humility is willing to admit when it is wrong. Humility is actually great strength.

Closing Prayer

I want to close this morning by doing something a little different. I want you to pray at your tables, and everyone online you can do this rght where you are with whomever you are gathered with.

I’m going to put 2 Chronicles 7:14 up on the screen. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land.

Can we all agree that our land, our country, could use some healing? That our country needs some forgiveness? God doesn’t say everyone, just those called by His name. That you, his sons and daughters.

God wants to forgive. In Ezekiel, God says his desire is that a sinner would turn from his ways, not to pour out wrath on him. God wants to forgive our country. He wants to heal our country, and our country needs some healing.

So this morning, around your table, I’m asking you to put aside what is going on in your life; that’s the humbling, the recognition that you are part of something bigger then just you.

In prayer, would you seek your Heavenly Father. He’s already told you what He wants to do, so seek Him and ask Him to do it. If He reveals something in your life that needs to dealt, repent of it.

But this is what it is all about. It is walking in step with God Almighty, your Heavenly Father, and being about your Father’s business. He wants to heal, so let us take up the burden and pray that He would heal our land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.