Finding What You're Seeking
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Mission and Vision
Finishing up our SEEKING sermon series
Say Seeking
Throughout this Advent we have been talking about the different things that we seek in this world and how they ultimately find their fulfillment in Christ
Meaning that the things that we substitute for Christ in our lives will never live up to their promises
There are things that promise us joy and hope and peace and love but end up leaving us hopeless and restless and disappointed and lost
Now it has only been 4 days since Christmas and I’m sure some of you are already less than enthralled by what you got for Christmas
IF you’ve ever been around kids you get this
They get super excited about the thing that they just got but after a few days they are fighting over some stick they found outside
A lot of times the thing that we think is going to be the answer to all of our dreams ends up just being another thing
The person you thought the sun shone out of…they just end up being another broken person like you
The Job that was once the answer to a prayer is now the thing you’re praying to be delivered from
The thing you just had to have is now outdated and needs to be upgraded
As human beings we are designed to love, worship, and serve
The problem is that we seek things that we can love, worship, and serve that were never meant to be put in that position
The things that we truly are seeking with all intentions… we find
You are seeking more money, more control, more freedom, less responsibility, more happiness, more relationships, less relationships, fame, fortune, sovereignty
Have any of you ever heard the saying be careful what you wish for?
Now this is not a name it and claim it doctrine.
When you are seeking the things of this world you will find what this world offers
I’m not saying that if you seek happiness in wealth then you are going to get wealth, but what i am saying is that if you are seeking wealth above all else you are going to find what kind of taskmaster wealth becomes
says it like this
The things that we seek are the things that end up becoming lord of our lives
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
All of us are either seeking the things of the flesh of the things of the spirit
So what you seek you will find… the question is what is it that you are seeking
We are either sowing in the flesh or the spirit
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Now that we are looking into another decade. We are staring into 2020… what is it that you are truly seeking?
And we will reap either the things of the Lord or the things of this world
Let’s jump into our scritpure
And when you are seeking self. When you are seeking your own idols, your own control… eventually God will allow you to have what it is that you are seeking with all your heart
The truth is that the more you fight for your own way the more you will get it
The truth is that the more you fight for your own way the more you will get it
To the world it tells us that getting what we want is the goal
Sometimes getting what we seek isn’t the blessing it’s actually God’s judgement
And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Think back to the Garden of Eden
Adam and eve wanted to be the Lord of thier lives. THey wanted to have what they wanted… and God said okay. Now you can have your way… which leads to death
If we read the story of the children of Israel… this is constantly the issue
They seek things outside of God and the Lord eventually turns them over to their own desires and they realize that what they really were seeking was God all along
In our verse from today
Moses is about to die
He is giving the Israelites the law again. Telling them to remember all that has been commanded of them and to remember the God that saved them from the captivity of the world and its ways
But in this section he tells them that they will seek after other gods and God will drive them into the lands where they will find what they seek
They will find other gods that are mere creations. That are no gods at all
Context
Children of Israel after leaving the captivity of Egypt… still wanted to serve idols
Aaron and the golden calf
Moses then leads them around teaching them to be the people of God until God allows them into the promised land
Before they go in, Moses give his last instructions before he dies. and he prophesies about what is in store for the future of Israel
After God gave them victory in the promised land they wanted to serve idols...
This time his name was King
God warned them through the prophet that if they sought a human king instead of allowing God to be their king they would find oppression
That the king would overwork and enslave them. That his yoke would be more than they could bear
They Got Saul
God is gracious they got David who was a man after God’s own heart though he still had his flaws
We see this cycle of of the people of God seeking idols and then serving them
Then God allows the people of God to go into exile
In exile the children of israel get what they have wanted… they get the idols they have been seeking
What’s crazy is that God gives the people exactly what it is they have been seeking with their whole heart
Sometimes getting what we want isn’t the blessing
If what you want is found outside of the will of God… then getting what you are seeking isn’t a blessing
When God allows you to fall deeper into the mire and the muck because you continue to buck restraint… that’s not you winning
That is actually the judgement of God
We don’t talk about judgement a ton in churches these day, which is weird because scripture talks about it a lot
Moses is telling the people
Look you are going to get what it is you keep fighting for… and its going to be terrible
You are going to be mastered by something that is never meant to hold that place in your life
This truth is not isolated to the historical Hebrews, but this is the truth for you and I today
There may be times in your life when you fight the Lord so much on what you think you want… that eventually he lets you have it
Remember the prodigal son?
He got everything he ever wanted right? He left his fathers house and went out to be his own master only to be mastered by poverty and shame and brokenness
It was in the return… it was when he was in that far off country… it was when he hit rock bottom
Crazy thing about rock bottom. About the hard times
Its in those hard times that we truly get to see what we believe. When all the comfort is stripped away, when the ease of life is stripped away
It’s in those moments that our hearts are exposed and we get to deal with the mess we find
we get to come face to face with the truth that the things that we followed into the pit don’t have the power to pull us out
The things that we were seeking to fill the void are only temporary distractions that can never live up to the god-like status that we’ve placed them in
It’s from that place of brokennes we are then able to re-allign our hearts and seek who it is we were made to seek
The promise found here in the Deuteronomy is that the grace of God allows us to find him
This isn’t because you’re really good at seeking. It’s because the Lord will draw you to himself
The promise in Deutoronmy is spoken in conditional language.
say covenant
IF
It says if...
This promise is repeated in when the people are heading into exile… the prophet tells them that will call and they will seek and when they seek God with their hearts they will find him
That phrase with your whole heart means
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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!
This isn’t a generic statement. He’s not saying just ask for whatever you want and you get it..
The inner person
But if you are askin
It means the central part of who you are as a person
It means that when who you are is based in seeking the Lord, you will find him. You can’t miss.
The crazy thing about this life is there are times when you get exactly what you think you want and realize that you were wrong.
That the thing you really needed was the thing you were running from the whole time
Response