I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Text: Jer 29:13, Matt 7:7-11

Central Idea of the Text: God promises he will be found by all who truly seek him!

Proposition: Don’t settle for the temporary: Seek the eternal … and keep on seeking!

Purpose: All who are curious about God ought to seriously seek him, and all who have sought him should keep on seeking him.

It’s a new day, a new sermon series, and so I simply want to center our hearts first and foremost here … in Ephesians 5:18–21. There, Paul is giving a series of connected command to the church. He writes: “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He says there for the church to address one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Now, we know what the Psalms are quite clearly. There’s 150 of them, and we read from them often at the beginning and end of all our services. Clearly, David and the other Psalm-Writers have given us MANY words to encourage each other in faith. We also know what a Hymn is. We have a full book of them, and their purpose is both to praise the Lord and to help the church stand firm in what we know to be true. Over the past few years, You’ve heard me preach a series on both of these types of songs that ought to be commonly sung among believers. But today brings us to Spiritual Songs.

Churches of the last few decades have chosen to fight something that is often referred to as a worship war. They said: Let’s choose up the exact songs that are our favorite. Let’s shun the rest, no matter how much effect of truth or encouragement that they may have on the current generation. New=Bad in the view of some. Old=Crusty to others. But these battles have rarely proved to be fruitful, and churches that have not left room for all three types of songs are churches that have neutered the benefits that Paul speaks of: that the music of the church ought to be the thing that urges the church forward. It ought to encourage our faith, our growth and our fellowship.

So, I want to welcome you for these next few weeks to our “Spiritual Songs” series. But I’m choosing to tackle it in a bit of a different way than some would. Some might just use it as an excuse to talk about the songs that we often sing more in second service: songs that sound more modern, use the band, don’t follow the hymn structure of lyric writing, and sound a bit more vocally dynamic, some songs you’re likely to hear on your worship playlist in your streaming app or on K-Love. We do enjoy and love those songs. They help us express our worship in the here and now to God.

But I would also offer you this: All music is spiritual. It is simply a question of if it is spiritual to the Good, spiritual to the Evil, or trying to navigate some gray area. It’s got a message it’s trying to push and some message to think about. To those ends, the church is to encourage one another with spiritual songs that build us up and fill us with good things, rather than tearing us down. Songs that fulfill the Philippians 4:8 standard: “8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” One of my favorite musicians, the late Dana Key, once wrote that regardless of whether we call a song sacred or secular, we ought to build up ourselves and one another with music that lives up to this standard.

It is with all this in mind that I offer you in the Summer of 2026 something of a pastoral mix tape. A mix of the sacred and secular that are certainly (to one degree or another) make us think about spiritual truths, remind us of the scriptures, and “encourage us” toward faithful Christian living today. And maybe, if any of these songs ever comes up in the course of your day, you’ll reflect on some of these truths we’ve learned.

First up on the playlist, I want to take you back to the year 1987. I had only ever had Christian music at my house (unless you count my parent’s Carpenters or Perry Como records). I’d had lots of Gospel records I’d listened to in my parents house, plenty of Gaither’s records. I’d had some Christian rock Cassettes we’d enjoyed, and had been cutting my teeth on some DeGarmo and Key. But I knew there was one band who sold records and got played on the radio that also had written some very bold lyrical choices into their lyrics. That band was U2. One of their most popular songs with their fans was a direct quotation of Psalm 40, when the lead singer Bono sang without apology: “I waited patiently for the Lord, he inclined and heard my cry, he lifted me out of the pit and the miry clay, I will sing, sing a new song.” The Christian rock magazines were raving about their new record, The Joshua Tree, and I had to get a copy.

It was there, on the second track that they shared today’s song with us: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. This song went through a variety of iterations over the years, including ones sung with full choirs from African American churches. As Bono sings the song, the basic gist of the lyrics are these: I’ve been everywhere, But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. I’ve sinned some great sins, but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. I’ve visited with the angels and devils, but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. He sings to say that he’s got a longing in his life for something that he can’t seem to satisfy. He’s got a God shaped hole. He’s looked for it all over the planet. He’s looked for a woman, a relationship to fill the void. He’s sought answers for all kinds of religions, sources of darkness and light. But above it all, he sings these lyrics to someone familiar to us: “I believe in the Kingdom Come, where all the colors bleed into one. Yes, I’m still running. You broke the bonds, and loosed the chains, carried the cross, of my shame, you know I believe it.” At the core of all his searching, he confesses that there are some NorthStar truths that guide him. But some might ask, if he’s really settled on somebody who carried the cross for his shame (Jesus), then why does he keep singing “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for?” It is because he’s looking for the Kingdom coming, the thing that we are all praying for when we pray: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” As we pray those words, we are praying for the end of history, the return of Christ, and that we would finally have eyes that would see and we would find the one that we are looking for and be with him forever.

People can say that songs like this one have lyrics meanings that are subjective, that the lyrics can mean whatever they want to the listener. Some can even question the musicians that wrote it and whether they believe it. But on the face of things, this spiritual song reminds us of a deep yet simple spiritual truth of the Christian faith: that those who seek the Lord will find the Lord.

The word of God is clear that this is true: That those who truly seek the Lord will find the Lord. To be reminded of this, I want to read two scriptures today: one from the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:10-14; the other the words of Jesus from Matt 7:7-11. [Read Texts]

Jeremiah 29:10–14 ESV

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Matthew 7:7–11 ESV

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

These are the words of the Lord for His People today.

Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for every good song that points us to you and reminds us of spiritual truth. We thank you ultimately for the truths of your word and the truth of who you are. I pray that those who have settled would seek you, and that those who seek you would keep seeking you so that they may find you in the fullness of who you are. Lord, make yourself apparent to those who see you today. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

“Where is the God of Justice?” That was one of the big questions we saw God’s people asking as we wrapped up our study in the book of Malachi over the past couple weeks. Because they people were not tangibly seeing God, and because they were reading the evidence around them from doubt and skepticism, they were were therefore camping in the place of doubt. Where is God, they would wonder, as they would look at their gentile neighbors yacht or beachfront condo? Why are we following God? What tangible evidence to we have that God is real and that he hears us? This is the place that Israel had gone to camp out, and it was a place where many had stopped seeking God. But is God so hidden? Is God simply engaged in a divine game of hide and seek, where we may believe in him one day and not believe the next, depending on the evidence before our eyes?

What the Jews had forgotten was God’s words to them through the prophet Jeremiah. The first passage that we have read this morning gives warning to the faithful of Israel. It comes to the people of Judah nearly 200 years before Malachi, and in the years leading up to the destruction of the temple in 587 BC, before the captives of Judah would be taken into 70 years of exile. It’s in that moment that God says that famous inspirational verse … Jeremiah 29:11 “11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” And within a few short years of the Lord saying that, where were the people? They were in captivity. Their temple was torn down and their God was mocked. But God was giving them this promise as a reminder of his faithfulness, in spite of the immediate challenges ahead. Note verse 9: “When the 70 years are completed, I will visit you and fulfill my promise.” When Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were taken as captives to Babylon, they had this promise. God has not forgotten you. He will remember you. He has plans for you.

Do you think it would have been easy for them to lose hope and faith if they forgot these prophetic words? Certainly, it could have been. But, what do we find people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego doing in the book of Daniel during a season when they could be doubting? They are not doubting. They are remembering God’s promises. They are seeking to be faithful in what they eat as obedient Jews, as they serve in Nebuchadnezzar’s court in Daniel 1. They are refusing the bend their knees to idols, as we see the faithful 3 stand strong against the king’s edict in Daniel 3. And they are praying three times daily as Daniel did, which wound up getting him thrown into a Lion’s Den in Daniel 6. In each of those cases, do you think that God’s people had doubts? Perhaps. But then? They would remember his promises. He would not forget them. He would lead them through it. AND he would give them these words of Jeremiah 29:13 “13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” In spite of all doubts, all questions, all contrary opinions, all the difficult spaces of the inbetween, what did God want them to do? Keep seeking him. The principal and the promise here are quite simple. You want to know God is real? God is present? God is keeping his word and promises? Keeping coming! Keep praying! Keep looking! Because when you do, you will find him.

This was a concept enforced that the Jews would need to help them endure through the trials they faced, but what would Jesus say about this type of seeking and pursuit of God? Well , he did speak to it! We see in the second passage this morning from Matthew 7. As Jesus is giving his sermon on the Mount, the opening salvo of his teaching in his ministry, one of the key concepts he drives home to those who may be wondering if the Lord is real and his is with them … Jesus says to them Matthew 7:8 : “8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” He says this accompanied by his statement in the beattitudes in Matthew 5:6: “6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

For all who seek to fill the God sized void in us, which is all of us, The Lord reminds us that we must seek him. So what might this seeking the Lord look like for you and I? If we are truly looking to know that there is a God, that he has desires for us, intention for us and purpose for us … How will you and I find him? To those who are looking for him and looking for clues as to where your looking may lead you toward the Lord, I’d offer a few hot tips for your seeking.

Look at God’s Creation! When Paul is highlighting the one factor that all humanity has seen with regard to God’s existence and intentions for all people, he says in Romans 1:20, that God’s eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen in the things that have been made, so that men are without excuse. When we look at all of creation, we see a universe beyond the human mind, and a design beyond the human plan. There is great order, care, beauty and power displayed in what is made. As your travel and touch the grass, look up and out at what the creator has made.

Look at the Book! If we want to know God, there is a powerful Word that has been given to us: the Holy Bible. 66 books! 1500+ years! 40+ writers! with one Author in God and one message of Good News to mankind to hear! There is a great and gracious God who forgives and saves. If you want to know him, you should seek his revelation and what he has done. Psalm 119:105 “105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Read it, ask questions and gain understanding!

Look at the people! If we want to know what the wind does, we need to see the movement of the grass, the branches, the water. If we want to know that God exists, there is a group of people upon which his power has had and continues to have great effect. This is the church! They are a living and active evidence of God’s action in the World. They are the city on the hill and light of the world that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5:14-16. Want to see God at work? get to know His people!

Look to the Lord! At the end of the day, seeking God isn’t simply about seeing external interactions among others. God is seeking you. His desire is for your heart and your soul. He wants you to repent and believe the Good News of Jesus. He wants you to receive it in a personal way. It is in Jesus that we have the blessing of being called God’s children and being heard in a covenant relationship with Jesus. 1 John 3:1 “1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” As you place your faith in Him, you daily rely upon him and you pray to him. You engage in conversation. His word speaks to you. You respond in prayer to seek his will accordingly.

Look to the skies! As we are Christ’s followers, we do not stop seeking him. We keep at it, because we know that something better is coming. 2 Corinthians 4:18 “18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” We are not simply meant for a life of Jesus, with him there preparing a place for us, and us here longing to be with him! We are meant to one day be with him! Jesus promises it in John 14:3 “3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” We must look forward to it! It is what we are looking for!

So, I’ve shared a few ways that you can be a seeker for God this summer and come one step closer to finding what you’re actually looking for. And I hope that you will seek the one who promises the kingdom that will come, who broke the bonds, loosed the chain and carried the cross of our shame. His name is Jesus Christ. And we are pointing you to him today.

But for some in the room, you may be wondering: I’ve heard of Jesus, I’ve tried him, yet I still felt unsatisfied. I want to point you back to the Word one more time. Look again at Jeremiah 29:13:“13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” That phrase there “with all your heart” is very important. It is not a haphazard, half-hearted searching. It is an “I’m all in to look for you God, because there is nothing else for me here.” So how will you and all of us be this people that seeks God with our whole heart?

First and foremost, if you’re not seeking him, note the Emptiness of Temporary Things that are around you. Where this sermon finds you today, you may be in a place of complacence and settling. It may also find you in a place of desperation. Sin is like that. It seeks to get us to stop chasing God, to be satisfied with self-medicating on drugs or alcohol, satisfied with time-wasting pursuits in binging shows or gaming, settling for the feel-good in the now, rather than the satisfaction in the eternal. But remember that story of the Prodigal son that Jesus told in Luke 15? The son took his father’s inheritance. He ran off and used it on wild living for a while. But when it was gone? He sat in the mud with the pigs. He came to the end of his rope, and he wondered: would that father ever even think of taking him back? He had to hit bottom, to see how vain all his other temporary pursuits had been. It was from there that he got up ...

To seek God with your whole heart, you must truly devote yourself to the search: As I’ve named several ways of observing and pursuing God, you jump in with both feet. You don’t go half-way. If you want to dabble with the world while you seek the Lord, you will be forever distracted by the world’s toys. Porn, Alcohol, trivialities and distractions will continue to linger. You must go ALL in after God. Turn from your sin and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Lay the other stuff aside. Get rid of it and go fully after the God who loves you.

And if you as a believer find yourself complacent in your seeking, Keep Your Eyes on the Great Reunion. Look and work for the things that are to come. Serve, grow and give like someone who knows that this is not my home, and that I want others to find that eternal home in heaven with me.