Created to seek God
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22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
The Athenians were people who were very religious (superstitious).
They were open to alot of things, they sought after many things and hence their land was filled with all types of idols (acts 17:16).
The people spent their times in nothing but to hear and tell something new.
The Athenians were people who were lost in the pursuit of all this things that could not give life, and hense Paul begins to reveal to them the unknown God and the purpose for which he created them.
Verse 26,27
God has created each every person from one blood (adam) and determined their times and boundaries for the purpose of seeking after the Lord.
27 You put my feet in the stocks, And watch closely all my paths. You set a limit for the soles of my feet.
God has placed in man a desire to seek after God, it is there by design. When he follows that desire and begins to seek after the lord, he will find him and God will manifest himslef and his will for his life through that process of seeking him.
However, man can also ignore that desire or misdirect that desire to seek after other things
God has given man a choice.
Therefore, Man’s main purpose in life is to seek after God and take hold of him.
Jesus makes this clear in Luke 12:22-31
Luke 12:22–31 (NKJV)
22 Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.
23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?
27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
28 If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?
29 “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.
30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.
31 But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.
23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
Life is not about food or the body about clothing.
In other words, seeking after material things will not bring life to one’s soul. Life is not about material things
Rather life is found in seeking God.
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live;
God has commended us to seek him then we will live.
32 The humble shall see this and be glad; And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
29 “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.
30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.
God know you need them, but you were not created to seek after them.
Your life, your satisfaction, your identity, your purpose is not attached to material things
God calls this material things vanity, they are things that will perish.
God did not create man to spend his limited time on earth seeking after this vain things.
15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
When man seeks after these vain things he becomes vain
5 Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
People are fealing like their life is vain, meaningless, because they spent their life seeking nothing but vain things expecting that it will give them life, it will give them meaning.
Solomon figured it out in the Old Testament
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.
17 Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
our purpose, the meaning of our life is not derived from any earthly things it is derived from God who is life
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
God is searching for people who may be seeking him
Psalm 14:1–4 (NKJV)
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
2 Chronicles 12:14- King Rehoboam did evil in the eyes of God because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord?
God is always searching among men, to see if there is any hint of seeking after the Lord.
When God find’s somebody that is seeking after him, he will reveal himself and manifest his will and purpose for that man.
1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,
2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.
3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!”
4 And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?” So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.
5 Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter.
6 He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.”
7 And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually.
8 So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa.
Cornelious was a man who sought God, according to his knowledge he made prayers to God, he was searching after God.
God saw him and he began to manifest his will for his life. The first thing he did was to reveals to him what he must do to be saved.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
God continues to manifest his will in our life as we continue to seek after him
12 Jacob fled to the country of Syria; Israel served for a spouse, And for a wife he tended sheep.
Then Jacob was angry and rebuked Laban, and Jacob answered and said to Laban: “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me? Although you have searched all my things, what part of your household things have you found? Set it here before my brethren and your brethren, that they may judge between us both! These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
Jacob tried to get the things of God without seeking him, by other means and that led him to a rabbit hole. He had to flee and leave behind him the promise land.
Jacob life in the house of laban, was a life that was futile. The only good thing that came out from it was his wives and children.
Even then he had to serve laban fourteen years for his wives and 6 years for his own wages. In comparison to Isaac who remained in the promise land, and who sought God for himslef, he did not even go to fetch his wife. It came to him
When we leave our life and make the pursuit of God our focus, the other things that orinary men pursue will pursue us.
He began to live for God after his sought the Lord and found him. His name was changed to the name that God had for him.
6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah
Jacob symbolises those who seek the Lord
Jacob was born under the covenant, he was a child under the promise of God. He grew up learning about the almighty God from his father.
He had to seek God and find him for himslef so that God would begin to fullfill his will upon his life
4 Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel, And there He spoke to us—
12 Jacob fled to the country of Syria; Israel served for a spouse, And for a wife he tended sheep.
Jacob life in the house of laban, was a life that futile. The only good thing that came out from it was his wives and children.
Even then he had to serve laban fourteen years for his wives and 6 years for his own wages. In comparison to Isaac who
He began to live for God after his sought the Lord and found him. His name was changed to the name that God had for him.
Seeking God will bring deliverence in the day of Judgement
3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the Lord’s anger.
God will deliver those who seek him from the judgment that is to come.
36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Those who pray always( seek God always) will be counted worthy to escape the judgment that is to come upon this world
Limited time to seek the Lord
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
10 So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
11 And they offered to the Lord at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought.
12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
13 and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
14 Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns.
15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around.
Let us make a covenant with the Lord today to seek him, and renew our covenant today to seek the Lord.