God Seekers
Notes
Transcript
Rogers Birthday!
George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matthew McConaughey get together to make a movie.
Clooney says, “I’ll direct.”
DiCaprio says, “I’ll act.”
McConaughey says, “I’ll write, I’ll write, I’ll write.”
Last week we started a message series called “Fast Forward” in 2024. I preached a message to you from Hebrews 6 in which we found that it told us to grow up spiritual and move forward to further understanding of the things of God.
In order to fulfill the purposes of God we must be committed to His will in our lives. Distractions will try to get us off track. We’ve got to be determined to move forward in our walk with the Lord.
I have 6 things that I think we can do that will help us Hit Fast forward in our understanding of God’s purpose for our lives. Over coming weeks, I’m planning to reveal each one of these secrets to hitting the fast forward button in your life.
It’s important for our church to have people looking to accomplish God’s will in the world. I want our church to dream big. I want us to do all we can, for as many as we can, knowing that our plans and hopes will only be accomplished if God is on our side!
The modern church is determined to fill a calendar with EVENTS! Here’s the deal, I like church events, but I want MORE. I don’t want our church to measure success by how busy we can be and how many events we can fit into our calendar. No way! I want our church to be about equipping people to do the work of ministry. I want to do my very best to get you ready to accomplish God’s will for your life.
So, over the next six weeks of my messages, I hope you’re ready to hit the fast forward button. I’m going to share with you the six things that I hold as my personal values. Things I personally won’t compromise on in my life.
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God Seekers - seeking God’s face (Ps 27:8)
Big Believers - faith that moves mountains (Matt 17:20-21)
Love Givers - defined by the grace and mercy we’ve received and freely give (Gal 1:3)
Truth Tellers - we speak the truth of God’s word in love. (Eph 4:11-16)
Go-Getters - we are doers of God’s Word (James 1:22)
Open Handers - generosity is who we are. We give from what we’ve been given with a pure heart. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5)
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Up first, is that we should strive to be God Seekers!
Let’s be God Seekers!
Let’s be God Seekers!
There is a very famous verse in the book of Jeremiah. Who knows what it is? You ALL know this verse. It’s in Chapter 29.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Now, that’s a verse to hang your hat on right? Well, before you get too carried away with that verse, let’s take a look at who God was talking to in that chapter.
The prophet Jeremiah was writing to the the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled from Jerusalem to the land of Babylon. These people who had been conquered by a foreign King, taken to a foreign land, and they really had no hope.
But here’s the thing, they were in Babylon as a punishment from God for worshipping idols and turning their backs on God. They deserved the punishment even though it was terrible.
Imagine this happened to you. Another country invades the USA and they destroy everything we know. Then they rip you apart from your friends and family, send you to another country that you’ve never been, and they tell you to start over.
It’s a terrible thought! But, you know, our country isn’t too far off from behaving like the nation of Judah. Hasn’t our nation chosen to worship idols and behave as if God doesn’t even exist? It’s only Gods grace that judgement hasn’t been rightfully given.
So, that’s that context. People had turned from God, and they were living in punishment. Jeremiah writes to these people a message from God that tells them:
10 For thus says the Lord: When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 Then you shall call upon Me, and you shall come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 You shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back into the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.
So, they messed up, but God says even though they are going to be punished, I am still with you. He says I love you and have a plan for your future.
Then we see what they should have done to have avoided this punishment. AND we see what they are going to do in the future after they are allowed to return home.
I want us to learn something important here. If we do, we can avoid a trap of the enemy. We can fast forward in our walk of faith!
Become a Seeker of the Lord!
Verse 11 says to call on me in prayer.
Verse 12 says to seek and search for God with your whole heart
Verse 13 says if you do then you will find God!
He promises the people that if they would just seek Him above everything else then we will restore them!
This is so so so important for us to see. The Lord does not want us to live in judgement, He wants us to be free from sin, destruction, and hell! How do I know this?
Just like he told the people Jeremiah was writing to, He has a good plan for people. That’s why Jesus lived, died, and lived again! He was God’s plan to bring salvation to people who didn’t deserve His great love.
We have only one response to this good news. Surrender! We must turn to God in humble surrender to His generous offer of Salvation.
We must look to Him. We must seek Him. Pray to Him with our whole heart.
My hearts verse is and will always be Psalm 27:8
8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Another version says it like this:
8 My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
How can we hear the Lord calling us and not respond with running to the sound of His voice.
This is why I love the Word of God. It’s alive. I love worship because in worship we can feel the presence of the Living God.
If you want to fast forward this year. It’s not about doing more and more and more. No, it’s got to start with falling on your knees in surrender to the one who is calling your name.
We must be God Seekers! Each and every day. Seek the face of God by spending time with Him. Do what those people in Jeremiahs day forgot to do - get rid of the things that try to take the place of God in your life.
Now, let’s shift gears to the New Testament.
Jesus told us something that I feel will answer that question in an even more practical way.
He said
Jesus told us to Ask, Seek, and Knock
Jesus told us to Ask, Seek, and Knock
Hitting the fast forward button means that we have a responsibility to do more than just waitinon something to happen. Let’s look at the words of Jesus:
7 Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.
8 Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks.
These two verses can seem a little confusing, but Jesus was telling us how to advance in our faith. He was not saying that believers get everything they ask for, but He was letting us know that as we spend more time with God we will start to understand God’s will.
He tells us to Ask. This means that we need to pray. When we spend time in prayer we are laying down our own strengths and abilities. We expose our dependence on God. We speak our needs that can be met in no other way Than through Him.
Fasting for the month of January.
God loves it when we come to Him with our needs. He loves it when we come to Him in faith. After all, it’s only faith in what God can do, and what Christ has done, that brings true salvation. We have nothing without having faith in God.
6 But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for him.
Faith begins when we ASK God. Jesus is telling us to pray! To seek God by talking to God about everything in our lives. Don’t go to bed without praying. Don’t get behind the wheel of a car without praying. Don’t sell your house without praying!
Shoot, don’t leave a meeting without praying for the other person!
You’ll never get very far in your faith this year if you aren’t increasing your prayer life! Start tonight before you go to bed. Maybe kneel beside your bed and pray. Get a journal and write out your prayers.
Keep a journal.
7 Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.
He said to ask, that’s prayer, next up He says to search or seek. What could that mean?
What is it a believer should be seeking? It’s GOD himself!
10 Young lions may go hungry or even starve, but if you trust the Lord, you will never miss out on anything good.
I have always loved that verse! Even the king of the jungle isn’t always strong enough, and he’s at the top of the food chain. But as weak people, if seek God we will find rest and fulfillment in our lives. We are better off than Lions! And they are a pretty good football team right now.
God is NOT playing hide and seek. He is easily found. His desire is for us to have a real relationship with Him. Passionately seek His presence. Don’t leave until you’ve communed with Him.
Personally, I won’t stop worshipping, and praying until I know I’ve been in His presence. Sometimes, I’ll be driving with the speakers turned to the max to clear out all the other thoughts from my mind so that I and truly start to focus completely on Him.
There are other times, that I have spend days fasting, praying, and worshipping so that I know that I know I’ve been in the presence of the Lord.
He can and will be found if we seek Him!
17 “I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me.
Earlier in Matthew 6 Jesus said that we should seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Seeking God means putting HIS plan before our own; seeking God’s righteousness means setting a priority being more like Jesus! It’s a commitment to sanctification. (That’s a fancy word for being setting apart from this world.)
So, Jesus told us to ask, seek, and to knock.
Ok - Let’s go back to Jeremiah for a second. Those people had lost it somewhere along the way. They turned away from God and they had to walk through a terrible time, away from God’s best for their lives. Remember those terrible times away from their homes could have been avoided. How? If they would have prayed and sought God.
Jesus said that very same thing to the people listening to his sermon, but He adds something new. This part is new because He was bringing a new element to our relationship with God.
Jesus came to make us right with God, but He also came to give us the Holy Spirit. That Spirit is what gives us the authority and power to work in the Name of Jesus.
The people of Jeremiahs day didn’t have this yet. They only had that promise that one day God would send a Messiah to save them. WE have the Messiah now.
So with that in mind, let’s look at the last thing Jesus said again.
7 Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.
Knock. Jesus used a metaphor for the action a desire can produce.
If you need something from someone behind a door, what do you do? you knock first. And if they don’t come right away, you knock some more! You keep knocking until they come to the door.
If we are empowered by the Spirit of God then we have this ability to discern God’s will and we have right to request it to be done here on earth! We should pray in faith for God’s provision in and be persistent in our prayers.
1 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.
Look at this all together. Ask, Seek, and Knock.
Asking is verbal; Christians are to use our mouths to speak to God about needs and desire.
Seeking is mental and spiritual; this is more than asking, it’s setting our priorities and focusing our heart to align with the will of God.
Knocking is different. To knock involves physical movement. It involves action. We are called to DO something if we are going to seek God! Prayer and Seeking are important, but they must be paired with DOING!
Knocking is doing! Doing is being empowered by the Spirit of God!
The Apostle John told us that we need to love people and prove that love in our actions.
18 Children, you show love for others by truly helping them, and not merely by talking about it.
Talk is cheap. Action counts.
Being a God Seeker is about doing God’s will.
If you want to hit the fast forward button in your life this year then I would tell you that first and foremost you must Seek God. When you spend time in prayer and in His word, then you won’t be able to help yourself, you’ll find yourself doing and saying things you never thought you would for His sake.
This year, I am praying for Seekers. Folks, we need to be like those people in Jeremiahs day who were getting a second chance.
God looks at us and he says:
11 I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering.
In spite or our past He is saying, if you turn to me, your future will be great. Seek me. Know me. Go with me! You won’t regret it. I promise a future of great success!
Let’s God with God.
Let’s Seek His face. He is SOOOO worth our lives.