Seek the Lord

How to seek

Archeological evidence

This week at VBS we learned many things about the archeological evidence that provides us with some proof of the existance of Jesus,

his miricles,

and ressurection.

We saw how

locations and eyewitness

accounts pointed to more and more detials of the biblical narrative in the New Testement.

How were these site discovered?

What was the purposse of these expiditions and escavations?

Someone wanted to know more.

Someone was in search of

knowledge,

understanding, or

history. Someone wanted to

know the truth about what they had heard.

The Motto for this week was “Seek Truth, Find Jesus”. And the scripture passage was from Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me if you search for me with all your heart”.

In the archelogical digs around the world and in Jeruselem, stories are being uncovered that changes the way we think and understand things.

So, if thats how archeologist uncover new civilizations are we to grab our shovels and pick axes and dig away at the bible or in religious activity until we “find God”? Not nessesarily.

My desire today is to help us indicate any issues in our seeking. First, lets look at the context.

1. Context:

The people of Israel have been taken into captivity to Babylon. God then uses the prophet Jeremiah to write a letter to encourage the people in captivity. 4-9

Build houses,

raise guardens,

build and raise families,

multiply,

live and be present in that culture and place.

v.7 “seek the wellfare of that city.”

What?? we are taken by force away from our homeland and families, and forced to live here in a place that is completly differnt from what we know.

“for when it thrives, you will thrive”

God never asks us to pretend.

but as we live in a foriegn culture. we are to still

live a life that is benificial to our location and

honoring to the Lord, plus pray for its well being.

you know what this is doing?

its proclaiming the God of Isreal to the Babylonians. They live their lives for the Lord in all the dealings with thier captures. It points to the goodness of the God of Israel.

There was a more specific reason for this.

A promise of a future deliverance.

There is a plan.

There is hope.

There is a future beyond what we can see.

God has the plan,

made the plan, and He

knows the plan.

Then God tells them the plan.

Plans for their welfare

their future,

plans of Hope

as you wait, This is what you will do:

Jeremiah 29:12

Pray to me and I will hear you

You will seek me and find Me if you search with all your heart

I will be found by you and I will restore you and your fortunes

I will gather you up together back to your homeland.

These are promises for the future

70 years later!

Trust who holds the plan

its not about believing in the plan, but trusting in the one who holds the plans.

God is going to move, but can I trust him in the present as i wait for the time to comes that he completes his promise.

We see more detail of how this redemption and return plays out in

Ezra, and Nehemiah.

That catches us up to what we learned this week at VBS.

Have you ever heard someone say “Ive been studying the bible, or going to church for a long time and I just cant seem to find God anywhere.” Or, “the bible just doesnt speek to me”, “it’s too old and outdated”. not relevent.

discoveries in and around the

ancient pyramids in Egypt,

Jerulesem, and

South America,

have been very relivent for us today and have help us understand more of who we are as Humans.

Seek truth , Find Jesus?

“But Ive been seeking and I still keep come to the same end.”

Spurgeon

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XXII (No. 1,313))

but you must never suppose that the Lord will break his promise, for that were to dishonour his holy name, deny his faithfulness, and pour contempt upon his truth.

The word of the Lord is sure, there can be no question upon that point;

the questions that we raise must deal with our hearts and our searching,

either we are not seeking or else we seek wrongly.

Always conclude that if a general promise does not turn out to be true in our particular instance there is something in us that hinders it.

We must have fallen short of the character to which the promise is made; the promise itself cannot be suspected.

“Let God be true and every man a liar” Romans 3:3-8

Now, I am not saying that salvation is up to us and our form of seeking God. Im saying that we may be seeking after “a god” with the wrong motives.

Are we harboring sin?

Is there not some idol in our hearts that must be searched for and taken away?

“Are our views of God too small?

Proper nutrition:

Isn’t it a general truth that proper nutrition will build up the human body? But quality food is prepared correctly and eaten, yet no nourishment takes place or even sickness /pain begin, we can conclude that our body has been thrown out of order by some inward disease or issue . The meat is good, it must therefore be the stomach or some other organ may have issues.

The heat of a fire:

If a person is cold yet standing next to a good fire there must be another issue with that person. A sickness which prevents them from feeling the natural warmth of the fire. The failure of warmth cannot lie in the fire, or nourishment in the properly prepared food.

Seeking God?

So what about seeking and not finding God when God has promised that He will be found by the seeker?

This must also point us to

something not right with-in us

in the way we are seeking.

How do we seek?

Is there a right way and a wrong way to seek?

The verse tells us—“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

There are three things I want to point out.

1. Whole-heartedness is the requirement.

2. Secondly, Why is whole-heartedness required;

3. Thirdly, What can hinder us from seeking with our whole heart? once we notice these things, we can pray for the Lord to remove it.

There is a requirement that the seeker is whole-hearted: he must search for the Lord with all his heart.

Matthew 27:37

Love the Lord your God with.......All your heart, soul, mind,

What dose that look like?

There is a

1. Focused desire

There is one object we are seeking and only one.

We are seeking God and what He has done for us through Jesus.

Can we seek both God and the world?

How can a man run in two ways at the same time?

he must focus on one path.

to stay focused we must completely put away desire for sin and world whatever it takes.

Matthew 5:30

Jesus said : Cut off your arm,

pluck out your eye if it causes us to sin.

Sin is serious.

We must have Focused Desire and *Awakened energy:

2. Awakened energy!

We Must Wake up!

We are busy about a thousand things in this world,

but sluggish about our souls.

We can’t keep lie-ing to ourselves.

If people are to be saved it will not be accomplished while they sleep spiritually,

Can mercy be found by a listless,

careless,

lackadaisical search after it.

No, when the Spirit of God sets a man to searching,

he becomes

earnest,

intense,

fervent, vehement, and

strives to enter, and know the presence of God.

Dig-In

To seek the Lord we must have perseverance,

to follow hard after him until we see his face, in peace.

If you have read the Scriptures to find Christ in them,

then read them again and again,

and dig in the field of the Word over ten times till you find that hidden treasure.

If you have prayed for grace and peace, please will you

pray again and again, and again, and again,

till your knees are sore and bruised, rather than miss the pearl.

Focused Desire, Awakened Energy, and Focused Energy

3. Focused Energy:

Focused energy with our entire nature.

David said, Psalm 63:1 “My soul thirst for you, my flesh Faints for you.”

Where does his spiritual energy come from?

All his energy depended on God.

How, If one part of the man refuses to seek the Lord, and the other remains living for sin? If this is the case,

Then the evil one has a control over the whole man.

We must refocus our thoughts and renew our minds, and let our thoughts search the Scriptures.

Waking up in our understanding as we seek and know the dangers as well as the remedy.

Setting our wits to work using our

ingenuity and

research capabilities to lead us to heavenly things, and things of the Spirit.

2. Secondly, Why is whole-heartedness required;

Story of Shop Keeper

There was a story of a man who had a business, but if you called to see him about any matter you seldom found him within the buisness. he was taking a day off, or vacation, or else he had overslept. He would make an appointment with you, but he never kept it, or came in so late that you were tired of waiting. Tasks and jobs that he was asked to do were often left undone, or done very slowly. Would it be a surprise to passed by his shop one day and see the lights off and the door locked, then learning that his buisness had failed?

Doesn’t success in life depends upon the effort we put in it?

Don’t we teach our children this important lesson? And if it be so in the lower things of this mortal life, how much more is it in the

matters of the world to come?

Sleeping with books

No man becomes intelligent by sleeping with a book under his pillow, or

famous by sleeping in the streets of Nashville or Hollywood.

So Why do we run ourselves ragged for the pursuits and treasures of this world yet

crawl and expect to gain a victory for the next? We must seek him with all our heart.

Spiritual laziness leads to spiritual starvation; we must labour, for the meat that last into eternity.

Whats the need?

Yet there needs to be and understanding of our need and the wrath that awaits us.

Consider for a moment our situation and the overwhelming nature of it.

The unsaved man lies under the wrath of God,

Fully understand the wrath of God?

and if any man truely knew what the wrath of God is, he would think

Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace to be cool compared with that burning oven.

The un-repentent man is in instant danger of

death and of the

judgment, and complete

banishment from the presence of God and the glory of his power.

Once we understand the depth of the wrath to come,

we seek after a way to be removed from that wrath.

This expands the Grace of God that much more.

It is none other than pardon of all our sins, a

perfect righteousness found only in Christ Jesus,

safety through his precious blood, being

adopted into the family of God, and

eternal enjoyment of the presence of God in heaven.

The more we understand this, the more earnest we become in our seeking. The more energy we want to put into it.

Not to gain more but because we have already gained everything

through Jesus.

This process does’nt stop as we live on this earth.

Hidden Treasure

Matthew 13:44 CSB

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.

Priceless Pearl

Matthew 13:45–46 CSB

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.

Everthing else is Loss

Philippians 3:8–10 CSB

More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

The Devil is diligent

Yet the devil is also putting in a lot of energy and is diligent in his desire to keep us from seeking the Lord.

We must also be on guard against his skeems,

lies, and

false prophets. I’ll touch on that in a moment.

If we are not whole-hearted in our seeking of the truth, then our efforts are in vain.

Everything else must be placed second to our truth seeking.

We can’t be half hearted seekers, or double hearted seekers.

“Their heart is divided, now shall they be found faulty.”

Hosea 10:2 (CSB)

Their hearts are divided;

now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord will break down their altars

and demolish their sacred pillars.

If only half the heart is separated from sin,

it is but a deception;

the man’s whole heart in truth still loves his sin.

And how can there be half-hearted faith?

He that only half believes,

doesnt believe not at all.

If you say, “I almost believe,” where is thy faith? you dont believe

It Must be with all your heart

Obedience to God in the believer is to be a whole-hearted endever.

What does David say?

Psalm 119:69 CSB

The arrogant have smeared me with lies, but I obey your precepts with all my heart.

man must seek after God in Christ Jesus with his entire being.

“My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee.”

Again, the greatest commandment.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul”? To love God with half your heart would be another name for not loving God at all.

What hinders us?

There are hinderances to this.

3. Thirdly, What can keep us from seeking with our whole heart?

Once realized we then pray for the Lord to remove it.

Arrogance

I believe that a principal hindrance is an attitude of arrogance

The ungodly may say to themselves, “God is very merciful and always

ready to forgive.

We like to hear the preacher tell us of the

abundant mercy of God; we are pleased to hear him show how

willing the Father is to forgive, and how he

delights to receive returning prodigals.”

Yes, this is true

But after saying this we continue in sin?

when we do this, we are taking the mercy of God and the death of Jesus

and stomping it into the ground.

Paul askes:

Romans 3:5–8 CSB

But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

do we continue to sin & receiving more of Gods grace? NO!

How arrogant is it for those who say,

“Because God is so merciful, we will go on in sin!”

Are we not ashamed of ourselves?

It is so ungrateful,

To continue in sin because God is merciful is a step lower than even the devil has descended.

Because of this way of thinking

Will never lead to seeking.

but they will continue in sin.

You hear believers continually say that who ever believes in Jesus is not condemned: and some say to themselves, “This is very easy. Only believe, and I shall be saved; “Because the way of salvation is so simple, therefore I will not worry with it now. I can do that at any time. So I will put it off”?

Will we always have time to repeat the words of the tax collector?

Luke 18:13–14 CSB

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

“God be merciful to me a sinner”

Arrogance About the mercy of God is the reason why so many wrap themselves up in

false security

Secondly, many are hindered by self-confidence.

If they knew that they could not save themselves they would be in earnest to seek after God and his righteousness;

But they still hold on to some vain notion that there must be at least

a little good thing in them; even

a spark that will turn into a

great fire.

I never was as bad as some—

not swearers or drunkards,

never plunged into outlandish sins.

Somehow we think we have

hoarded up a little storehouse of goodness,

and upon this

we do not cry out to God with the energy of those who Must find mercy in Christ.

Those who think that they can swim will never grab the life buoy with the grip of a drowning man.

Dispair

But some struggle by the very opposite, despair.

Some do not believe that they can be forgiven, that they could never be a child of God.

“I have gone too far and sinned too great”

Do we not see the examples in scripture of all the many sinners who

yet still recieved the great mercy of God?

None are too far gone to recieve His Grace and Mercy

The prodigal, when he was returning home, did not doubt that his father would receive him somehow or other, even if it were as one of his

hired servants.

He knew that he would be received somehow, and

he was willing to be received anyhow.

But I dont have the Focus,

The desire,

the energy,

the faith, that you are talking about.

Come, with your whole heart and the Lord will receive you,

he will empower you and show you how to trust,

he will give the faith,

He provides the increase. Its a process called

santification.

The Lord will give you what you need and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart?

False Prophets

Lastly, I am afraid that

some people have been kept from whole-hearted seeking by the

conduct of others who profess Christ.

A genuine and healthy Christian is one who is so

full of love

Grace,

forgiveness,

compassion,

patience.

that his heart boils over with an These,

and others can feel that fire of God which is burning in his soul,

for others can see and feel the effects. Is this perfection? No.

But there is something different and

it draws people.

But, if we are halfhearted,

the chill which surrounds us

can freeze the hearts of many who are seeking the Saviour.

Parents, I pray that we not are never a hinderence to our children?

Sunday school teachers, if you go to your class

like blocks of ice every Sunday morning, you will have

cold attention as you speak of Christ.

If a pastor or minister preaches with

icicles hanging on his lips,

how can he expect that the hearts of men will be thawed by his icy words?

No; we must set the example of how to seek God with our whole heart—

The church,

God’s people; and then

God by the Holy Spirit will bless our example to others, and they will come to seek him with their whole hearts too.

Only God will grow His church.

Let us not be a hindrance in that work.