Acts: God's Message to Seekers

If you every Bible has turned with me to Acts Acts.

This morning, Acts seventeen, we're gonna start in verse sixteen.

In just a moment, I want to ask.

You a question this morning, I think is an important

topic for us.

All is what do you seek?

What in this life do you seek to bring you happiness?

Joy, maybe fulfillment. What is it? What do you seek

that you say you know what?

This really this really brings me joy, This really brings

me fulfillment in my life?

What is it? You may say you know what?

I don't know, but you know, there's a lot of

different things I seek happiness in and fulfillment.

You some say you know what? You know.

I work brings me a little bit of fulfillment. My

family brings me some fulfillment. My hobbies I get a

little bit of joy out of them. I get a

little bit of joy being here and being here on church.

And so maybe it's not just one thing. Maybe it's

say a little mix of a bunch of different things.

This week, we went out to a buffet.

You know, I like a good by.

And I went to one of the best buffets ever.

We went to Indian Buffet. It was my first experience. Emanuel,

a future church member friend, took us and so we

went in and this, I mean, this is a massive spread.

I have never seen a buffet quite like this one.

And we walk in this buffet and there is just

like a line of like trays of food. And so Emmanuel,

he's our guide. He knows where the good food is.

We just follow wherever he goes. And so we went

past this whole line of food and I was thinking,

you know me, I'm a foodie.

I like to try everything.

So I'm like, what we're missing out on all this goodness.

He's like, that's vegetarian. We just skipped past all that stuff.

And so we went to this other section and he

like wherever he went, I went, you know, because I

knew he knew the good stuff. So I filled my

plate full of different foods. I don't know all that day.

ATE made a lot of different things. I think I

had a little chicken, I had a little goat, some

things that I can't even name today, to be honest

with you. But at the end of the meal, something

hit the spot. At some point I ate something and

it just mean it just hit the spot. I felt full.

I mean I was good. You know, sometimes we at

times we kind of approach life to like a buffet, right,

I maybe and for finding fulfillment in this life, maybe

I just I have a little sampling of everything, right,

Find a little happiness in my word, find a little

happiness in my hobbies, find a little happiness in Jesus,

find a little happiness, and then maybe just one of.

Those things will will hit.

This morning, Paul comes to as we're in our study

and acts in the early churches on the second missionary

journeys in Macedonia, and he comes to a city called Athens,

and Athens is full of different worship, different idle worship.

And then this passage this morning, they've worshiped all these

different gods, and Paul is basically saying to them, it's

like a spiritual buffet for you. You've kind of just

trying all the different gods. And he says in this

passage just scripture this morning, they have no understanding of God,

they don't have any understanding of the Bible.

They don't know really very little about.

Jesus or anything about Jesus. And Paul presents the gospel,

shares the gospel with them. This is seen besides, maybe

Roman's one is the greatest message in scripture of Paul

sharing the Gospel to someone who doesn't have any background

of the God of the Bible or any background in

the Bible, and he shares it's kind of like one

of the best ways to share the Gospel with people

from other religions, world religions, and so he shares the

Gospel with them, and then sharing the Gospel, he understands

this fundamental principle, and that.

Is everybody's a seeker.

Everybody's seeking something, whether you're seeking fulfillment in a foreign

God or some world religion, or you're seeking God in work,

or you're seeking God, or you're seeking fulfillment in your work,

or seeking fulfillment in your family or hobby, or maybe

a relationship a boyfriend or girlfriend, or maybe something material possession.

He understands this. We're all seeking something. And these Athens,

although they're worshiping all these other false gods, these idols,

at the heart of all of them, they're seekers. And

this is what Paul wants them to hear today. He

wants you and I to hear today, there's only one

true God, and you can know the one true God

and by knowing the One True God, he is all

you need. You don't need to find fulfillment in all

these different things, find your fulfillment and only Him.

So this morning, I want.

Us to look at this passage of scripture and want

us to see, as Paul describes to the Athens how

we can know the God that we seek. Let's stand

together and let's read God's word. There's a lot of

verses here. We probably won't read them all. At one

point we'll save verse sixteen and we'll go through twenty four.

And as we were going to the place of prayer,

they met, I'm sorry, I'm in chapter sixteen, not seventeen.

Here we go.

And now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens,

the spirit will provoked within him as he saw the.

City full of idols.

He reasoned in the sent of God, with the Jews

and the devout persons in the marketplace every day, with

those who happened to be there. And some of the

Epicureans and historic philosophers also converse with him.

Some says, what does this babbler wish to say?

And the others says, he seems to be a preacher

of foreign divinities, because he's preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

So they took him and brought him to the air pagus, saying,

we may know this new teaching that you're presenting, for

you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish

to know, therefore, what these things are. Now, all the

Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their

time in nothing except telling or hearing something new, all

st airing in the midst of the air pagans, said,

men of Athens, I perceived in every way you're very religious.

For I passed along and deserved the objects you worship,

and I found an altar with this inscription to the

unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown?

I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and everything in it,

being Lord of the heaven and earth, does not live

in temples made by men, nor is he served by

human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself

gives to all mankind breath and everything, and he made

from one man every nation of mankind to live on

all the face of the earth, having determined a lot

of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling.

Stop there, you pray with me. Father. We thank you

Lord for this morning. Lord.

Today we come in this place and the Lord we

come to seek you.

Lord.

I pray today that through your word, Lord, that we

would find you today, that we would know you.

God.

Lord, I know that in the sound of my voice

there are those who are seeking you. They've sought happiness

and fulfillment and joy and other things, and they hear

in this place and they're empty because they've been seeking

their own thing.

Lord, I pray today.

Or that me we might meet with you, we might

hear from you, Father.

Or today.

I do not have the words for the hearers today. Lord,

they need not mine, they need your word. So Lord, Father,

today speak through me feel me, Father, that you might

pour me out, that they might hear your word, not mine.

In your name, we pray, Amen, you maybe seated. How

can we know that God we seek? First? We can

know that God we seek by seeking the creators. We

come to this passage scripture pauls in Athens and again

this is the next city, was at Bria last week.

He comes into the city of Athens. The scripture says

he's coming into the Athens. At the beginning the Bible

says in verse sixteen, his spirit was provoked when he

saw the city was.

Full of idols.

So here he goes into Athens and there's idols everywhere.

And the Bible says that Paul's spirit is provoked. That

actually means the word like angry.

He's he's really.

Disturbed, if you would, He's disturbed by all the false

worship of these people.

But it doesn't leave Paul.

I think it's very important just to understand as you

look at Paul and you look at his character, Paul

is not so disgusted with the idle worship that it

leads him not to do something about it.

That him being disgusted.

Or disturbed by the idle worship leads him to say,

I need to reach these people for the Lord. They're

seeking the wrong things that I want them to know

the true God. The Bible says, it's his custom. He

goes in the send of God and he shares the gospel.

We've been seeing that's his pattern. He goes into syn

of God, he shares. But the Bible says he also

is in the marketplace. And so you go in the marketplace.

And he'd begin sharing scriptures, been sharing Jesus.

He says, he's preaching Jesus and the Resurrection, so he's

sharing the Gospel in the city. As a result, the

Bible says that verse eighteens of Epicuring and the historic philosophers,

these are different major thoughts at the time they come

up and they're asking him questions. Series want to ask

me some questions, I think in the middle of this

messages of looking down at my notes. So stowarks at

the time there were more numerous in the city. They

followed the teachers of Zeno. Zeno was a was a Pentheus.

The Stoics kind of believed everything was God. You were God,

They were God. Everything was God, so everything was just

you just worshiped kind of.

Everything that was Stoics.

Epicureans were were much like what we would understand today

as agnostics. They a quote from one of the Epicureans

at the time, would say, nothing to fear in God,

nothing to feel in death. Good pleasure can be attained,

evil pen can be endured. There's just there's really nothing

to this life. There's nothing to death. They didn't even

believe in life after death. They were very agnostic in nature.

So the Bible says these two groups were there, and

the Bible says that they have a response to Paul.

Look at verse eighteen that says the picurean historic philosopher

also conversed with him, and some of them says, what

does this babbelor wish to say? Scripture also says he

and others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign.

Divinities.

It was kind of two reactions to Paul's message as

they heard him speak on Jesus the resurrection. Some say

he was a babbler. The word for babbelor in the

Greek is literally the idea of a bird picking up

seed from multiple places. They're saying, Paul, this Paul, this pastor,

this preacher who's in the cities. He's taken some ideas

from all different and he's just kind of putting them

all together. He's just a babbeler. Some would say he

seems to be teaching a foreign deities. And that was

around the idea because they did not Epicureans and Storks

didn't believe.

In the resurrections.

The Epicureans didn't believe it in the life after death,

so resurrection they did not believe in actually toward the

end of the message today you see when he talks

about the resurrection at the end, some absolutely just shut

him off at the end of his message. So Paul,

they call him someone who just picks up different things.

If you read the passage of scripture.

Look at verse eighteen or verse nineteen. They took him

and brought to the vegas and saying that we might know.

So they brought him to this air pagus. Air pagus

was kind of the center of all these different worships.

It would have been idols all around him, and Scripture

describes it. They would own this air pagus, they would

they would have different speakers, different philossers come in and

just give different they Scripture describes him. They love nothing

more than hearing a new idea. So they think Paul

would be a great person. He's been in the marketplace,

telling said, let's bring him up to the main stage.

Let him have the thought before of all people and see.

And so Paul takes advantage of that, and look at

the passage of scripture. In verse twenty, they said, may

he bring some strange things to our ear, wishing to

know more what these things mean? Now all the Athenians

and the foreigners who live will spend their time except nothing,

nothing except telling or hearing something new. So verse twenty

two says they bring Paul. So Paul sting in the

midst of the air, Pega says, men of Athens, I

perceive in everywhere.

That you're very religious. This is what it says.

For I passed along and I observed the objects of

your worship. Paul comes in. He says, you say, I'm

one of the babblers. I'm the one who just picks

up different things. He actually in turns this, it's actually you. You're

the ones that's really religious. You're the ones who have

gods all over the place.

They're everywhere. You are one of the seekers. And he

describes something that he finds as he comes into Athletes.

Look at what it says in verse twenty three. As

I was passing along, I observed the objects of your

worst I found an altar with this inscription to the

unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown?

I proclaim to you. There was.

Terrible six hundred years before Paul came in, there was

a terrible pestilence that came upon the land.

It was so severe. They didn't know what to do.

They didn't know what to do to stop it.

They would all worship their all many different gods, but

it just never stopped, and so many people were dying

in the city. There was actually a poet at at

the time, and it was a Cretan poet, and he

had that idea.

He had an idea to take a flock of sheep.

And to send them out and let them just go

come to the air pagus, let them go from there,

and let them just spread out over the town and

wherever they got tired and they finally lay down to rest.

Wherever they rested, you sacrifice that animal, that sheep at

that place, and whatever idol that closest to that, you

would sacrifice that sheep to that idol. And with the idea,

the poet had this idea that if we just send

them all out and the sheep comes all the different

idols that we've got throughout the city, and then we

sacrifice to all the idols in the city.

Maybe maybe one of them will work.

Maybe we've angered one of these different gods and will

sacrifice to one of the idols.

And then maybe we'll appease them. But there was a problem.

There were some sheep would go some areas and there

was not an idol, there wasn't a god. So they

determine if that happened, they would sacrifice and they would

make an altar to the unknown God. So as Paul

goes through the city, he sees these altars to the

unknown God. And Paul says, listen, Athens, you've been seeking

an unknown God. And I'm here to tell you that

there is a one true God, and I want to

tell you who he is, and I want to tell

you today how.

You can find him.

It's interesting as you come to this passive scripture, he

will get to that. I'm about to get ahead of myself.

Listen to how he describes this unknown God. Now you

think about it for a minute. These gods that they

worshiped there, these with the sheep would lay down and

they'd sacrifice to create this altar. Its altar they made,

or maybe there was a temple there near God, and

there was a temple that they made with their hands.

In that temple they would offer something in serving this God.

In that temple they made it with their hands.

It was made of gold.

Their idol that they made was an image that they

made with their own hands, the altar that they made

with their own hands, and they served these gods that

they had made. Paul says, these athens today, He says,

the god that you seek, the unknown God that you're

trying to appease, is the God God Creator. He's not created.

He is the creator.

And listen how he describes that in this passage of scripture,

in verse twenty four, the let's go to verse twenty three.

He says, to the unknown God, what therefore you worship

as unknown? I proclaim to you the God who listen?

And he's drawn upon the imagery. He's send the God.

Who made the world and everything in it. The God

you seek is not a god that you can make.

He's a god who made you.

Listen to the imagery there he created. He is the creator.

He's the creative of all things. He created the world

and everything in it. He's the Lord of heaven and earth.

The earth is this world right, heavens is the stars

in the galaxy.

He's made it all.

He is the creator script He says, he's being the

Lord of heaven and earth.

He does not live in temples.

Again, you think they took the sheep, and they sent

him out, and when the sheep laid down, it was

near the pro semody of where that God lived. He's saying,

listen to God that you're seeking. The God that you

don't know is not a god that you can create.

It's a God who created you. And it's the God.

That cannot be contained in the temple, cannot be contained

in a place. He is a god that's bigger than

any temple, to any location. He is the God of

all God, and you cannot. He cannot reside in your location.

He is omnipresent. He is not served. Scripture says God

who made heaven in the world and everything in it,

being the Lord of heaven. He does not live in

temples made by man verse twenty five, nor is he

served by human has as though he needed anything, since

he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

And not only is he a god who created the world,

now is that he doesn't reside in the temple that's

made by man. He's also a god who created all people.

The imagery there is. He's the God of He's a

creative of all mankind. And it's the idea from Adam.

It means that he created every individual from every tribe,

every tongue, and every nation. He's a creator of all people. Know,

he's a creator of all people. He scripture says, he

determines their days.

This passage, he gives himself.

To all mankind life breath, life breath and everything. He

made from one man, every nation of mankind to live

over all the face of the earth, and he has

determined a lot of periods and boundaries of their dwelling place.

Created all people, created all men, created all nations, and

he created a time.

For everyone to live. You know, you think about these

Athens that had this idea that.

They were in trouble, that a problem passilence was destroying.

It's taking life. They've got to do something, sacrifice something,

and then maybe they'll make God happy and God will.

Turn things around for them.

And in the end, Paul says, the God that you

seek is not a god that you can that needs

you to serve him.

It's a God who created you.

God doesn't it's not bound to a place.

He's everywhere.

He's with you, he says, God who created you and

every person on this earth. It's a God who determined

your days.

That's the God that you seek, seek, the Creator.

Have you ever done that you ever thought of? You could

do something for God and maybe he'd make your life better. Now,

sure we have, right, we all have.

I have.

You know if I maybe if I go to church,

my life will be better, Things will be better in

the home. Maybe maybe you know, before I go on

this trip, just to make sure it's everything goes okay,

I'll say a little prayer. Or maybe I'll start reading

my Bible and things will get better at work. Or

maybe if I'll give some money to the church, maybe

my marriage will be better.

Or maybe if I do this, then God will do

something for me. Can I tell you today? God created you,

He numbered your days.

Simply for one thing, that you might seek him. You

know what God wants from you. He wants you. He

wants you. He doesn't want you to think that he's

a genie that can be served, or that you could

bid that he might do something.

He just wants you to say.

I love you God, I want you God, and I

want to know you. He's a God who seeks He

created you that you might seek Him, seeks to creator.

How can we know that God we seek by seeking

the Creator. Secondly by knowing he's near. This amazing passage

of scripture. In verse twenty seven, Paul gives the imagery

of them.

He's describing them in a way, he says, but he says,

God created you and created.

All the nations, that all people, all men, throughout this

entire world that we live, and might look at what

first point? He says that they should seek God and

hope that they might.

Feel their way toward him and find him. The word

feel there is the word for like. The word is

group in the Greek.

It means it means to feel around, to find something,

to touch something it and acts. It's the expression of

spiritually groping after God, looking for God in an uncertain,

uncertain way.

If you can kind of ever.

You ever been somewhere, you know, like I know there's

times where something will fall underneath the like the bed

at the house, and I'm like trying to reach it,

but I can't look and reach. I just don't reach

my hand and just kind of feel around until I

maybe feel it and then didn't get my hand on

it and then get it out right. That's the idea here,

and Paul is saying, you Athens.

That's what you've been doing.

You've been blindly just reaching out, trying to just find God.

And he says, and you're missing it.

And he's saying to them, listen the God that you're

seeking your feeling around. Listen the way he says in

verse twenty says that they should seek him and hope

that they might feel their way toward.

Him and find him.

But listen to what he says. Yet he's actually not

far from each one of you. He even goes He says, listen,

you're groper around trying to feel him and you can't

find him. And he says to him, here's the good news.

He's near, He's close. He even quotes some of their

philosophers that they quote and they believed him, and in

verse twenty nine he quotes one of them. He says,

one of the statements you say is in him we

live and we move, and we have our being. And

even some of your poets have says, for we.

Indeed his indeed his offspring being. Then God's offspring.

We ought to think of the divine being as like

gold or silver or stone, the image formed by the

art and the imagination of man. He says, you've been

looking for God in these things that you've made with

your hands.

You've been seeking him. But can I tell you He

is near you?

Ever had We've all done this too, all right. You

ever look for something and you're looking, looking, looking, and

you eventually find in and it's like right underneath of you,

like you walk by it like five times.

My favorite story is my grandma.

Back in the days when cordless phones is before cell phones,

you had cordless phones in the house, you know, Mom was.

Grandma was on phone with Mom, cordless phone.

I do not know what I did with that cordless phone, Janet,

I just don't know what I do with it.

She's on the phone right, And so I know we've

all done this too. You know.

Now you got I watch this and you can ping

your phone, you know, if you can't find it.

Have you ever like pinged your phone in this in

your pocket? Right? I know some people who have done

that once or twice. I say that to say sometimes.

We seek all these different places to try to find

fulfillment in something, and.

God is here.

He's right here, He's right here in this place, and

he says, listen, you're feeling around all the wrong places.

You're seeking fulfillment and all these different things. And he says,

I'm right here, I'm right with you. How can we

know that God we seek by seeking the Creator?

By knowing he's near.

Paul continues to say, how do we How can we

know that God we seek by third by following his commands?

Look at the.

Passage of scripture, Verse thirty says times of ignorance. The

times of ignorance God overlooked, But now he commands all

people everywhere to repent because He's fixed a day in

which he will judge the world by righteousness, by a

man who he has appointed. And of this He's given

assurance to all by raising him from the dead. How

can we know that God we seek by following his command?

And this passage he this portion of the sermon, Paul

really turns to application. We talked about this last week

about you know, all of us God speaks, but we

have to determine how we're going to respond. How can

we respond to God's word? This is a chance in

the sermon where Paul was telling the congregation who hears

him speak, got to respond to this. God created you

that you might seek him, God's ear that you might

find him. Now, how are you going to respond? How

are you to respond? You're respond by obeying his command?

What is command?

Repent? You repent, term from your for.

Worshiping these other idols, term from worshiping these other gods.

He actually does something very bold in this passage scripture.

You got to think these were the stoic philosophers, epicureans,

these ones who thought they knew every god under the sun.

Even in the air pagus, there would be gods all

surrounding where Paul was. They're everywhere around him. And Paul

says to them, God has ever looked your ignorance. You

think you know all about God and all about the

thoughts of the day.

I tell you you're ignorant. You're ignorant to who God is.

You may know a lot of things, but one thing

you don't know.

You don't know the true God. But God is near.

God's created you that you might know him. God's created

you that you might seek him. God is near that

you might find him. And now that you have found him,

now that you've heard the truth.

You've got to respond. You're not ignorant anymore. You know

about who God is.

You know about what Jesus has done for you, You've

got to respond.

How do you respond?

Respond in repentance, turn from this idle worshiping and worship

the true God. That's what he calls them to do.

Heard of a story of a I don't know if

you heard this name. It's the name from the nineteen fifties.

He was a gangster. His name was Mickey Cohen. He

was very infamous at the time, and one night Cohen

decided he was going to go to an evangelistic meeting,

a Revival of Swords, And when he came into the revival,

all the leaders of the revival saw him there and

they knew how infatinous he was and what he had done.

His name was all through the community, so they thought, man,

what kind of impact it maye he get saved.

So they kind of.

Sought him out after the service and talked to him

and share with him, really urged him to get saved,

and they read Revelation three twenty with him, and that

night he responded. But months later it passed and Cohen

was going about his gangster lifestyle, continuing to do all

the corruption and the things that he had been doing

in the past. Nothing changed in his life. So they

confronted him. So, Cohen, what are you doing. We talked

to you about coming to turn your life over to Jesus,

giving your life to Jesus, and you've not changed. You've

not repented from your sins, your lifestyle. He responded, He said,

no one told me how to give up my work

and my friends.

He said, you know, I thought there.

Was Christian football players, Christian pund ticians, Christian cowboys. I thought,

why couldn't they be a Christian gangster. It's so actor

that he wouldn't repent, he wouldn't turn from his ways,

and therefore never wanted anything.

More to do with Jesus.

I tell you that story to tell you here's the

one who found God. They found the one he was

seeking that he was not willing to respond, say, that's

some of you here today. You know who God is.

He's brought you here that you might find him. You

know he's near the one step that's missing in your

life if you're not been willing to turn from the sin.

That separates you from him.

You know, it's what's send us and separates us from

a God who loves us and The one step you're

missing at this point of knowing the God that you

seek is saying, God, there's some sin in my life

I'm really to repent of because I want to be

near you God. Lastly, how can we seek the How

can we know the God we seek? By seeking the creator,

by knowing he's near by, following his commands. Lastly, by

preparing for his judgment. Paul in this passage tells these

Athens Athenians, hey, listen, He's near as you find it.

He created that you might seek him, respond, respond to

his command of repentance. And then lastly he gives the

reason why why must you seek this God? Why must

you find him? Why must you repent? And the reason

why is cause the judgment is coming. He says in

this passage, read it with me verse thirty six.

Time of ignorance God over looked.

But now he commands all people everywhere to repent because

verse thirty one, because he is fixed a day on

which he will judge the world in righteousness by the

man in whom he has appointed. And of this he

has given us assurance to all by raising him from

the dead. Paul had already preached Jesus and Jesus had

resurrected that they might be saved from their sins. Now,

he explains that same Jesus demonstrated his power to save

through the resurrection. Now he explains that the same resurrection

that demonstrated that Jesus had power to save also demonstrated

that that same.

Jesus has power to judge.

So, just to be very clear, he's saying judgment is coming.

He uses the term that God has fixed a day

in which he will judge the whole world. Do you say, pastor,

do you believe there is a day that God's going

to judge the world? Absolutely? Do I believe there is

a certain day that God's going to do it? Absolutely?

Why?

Because God says so word right here in his word,

there's coming day that God will judge all the world,

all the world, of the nations that he created. He

will judge every man He created all this world, that

everyone in this world.

Might seek him.

He is near to every man in all creation, that

they might find him. And he calls all men, all

nations now to repent, and of all.

Understanding all that one day.

He's fixed a day and he will judge all mankind

for how they responded to.

Him, and Jesus will be the judge.

One of the most gripping passages of the judgment of

God is Revelation of just reading this in my Bible

reading yesterday, and I felt like it was just God's time,

and to share it with you.

Revelation I mean fourteen.

Verse six describes Jesus' final judgment on unbelievers. I'll read

it to you, Revelation fourteen six. I saw another angel

flying directly overhead and with the eternal Gospel proclaimed to

those who dwell on the earth from every nation, tribe,

and language and people. And he said, with a loud voice,

fear God and give him glory, because the hour of

his judgment has come. That's the day that was fixed right.

And worship Him who've made heaven and earth, the sea,

the springs of water. You see the parallels to the

day's passage. Another angel of second followed him, saying, fall

and follow in his Babylon the Great.

She was made the nation's drink.

The wine of passion of her sexual morality. Verse nine

says another angel a third followed them, saying with a

loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image

receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand,

he will drink of the wine of God's wrath, poured

full strength in the cup of his anger. He will

be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of

the Holy Angels and the presence of the Lamb, and

the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever,

and they have no rest day and night, these worshippers

of the Beast and his image, And who ever sees

the mark of its name.

And describes that day of judgment that God will Jesus will.

Come, and on that day he will judge with the

fury of God's wrath, to be tormented in fire and sulfur,

and their torment goes up. Listen that forever and ever.

God created you that you might find.

Him, that you might know him, she might seek him.

He's near, He said that you might find and he

calls you to repent, because he doesn't want to judge

that he wants to save you. I ask you today,

have you found him?

Have you found what you've been seeking. I'm gonna close

with this story.

In nineteen seventeen, I asked pen if you want to

make your way.

And Greenwich Village in New York.

There's a bar there, huddled in the back, and it's

called the hell Hole, no kidding.

There intellectuals from the city of New York.

Would come and they would drink and party and have

a good time.

There.

On nineteen seventeen, there was a playwriter. His name was

Eugene O'Neill. He had a friend. Her name was Dorothy Day.

She was a journalist. He was there were drinking buddies

that night. It was they are drinking and having a

good time, and the hour passed, and sometime in this

mix of his drunkenness, O'Neill quoted a poem by Francis Thomas.

The poem's called the Hound of Heaven. It describes someone's

running from God, who lovingly pursues them. He says, I

fled him down the nights and down the days. I

fled him in the arches of the years. I fled

him down the ways of my own mind. In the

midst of tears, I hid from him. Darthy Day never

spoke to him again about that poem. She would go

on to live her life. She struggled with different things.

Shortly after decades would go by, she would write about

God who would pursue her.

But she was so full of sin and shame.

She actually married twice, She conceived twice, she aboarded twice.

She finally had a daughter from a man that she

never married. In December nineteen twenty seven, she got saved.

She finally surrendered to the hell hound that was coming

after her.

But Paul O'Neill we don't know of.

She would write poems about the Lord and how she

found the Lord and what God did for her. But

O'Neill's soul was it never awakened.

The only thing we know was in Boston in nineteen.

Fifty three, as he was dying, she brought a She

came to where he was, and by his eye there

was a priest, and Dars was praying and praying that

he would come to the floor. She says in her

writings that she prayed at last that he would unclinch

his fists and grasps the.

Hand that has been reaching out for you.

She would say that she cried out in the one

of the final words of that poem, rise and clash my.

Hand and come.

Can I tell you there may be some of you

today You've been seeking a lot of things. That can

I tell you today, on the confidence of the word

of God, that you might be seeking other things?

But can I tell you God has been.

Seeking you, Jesus says in Luton nineteen ten, for the

Son of Man came to what seek and save that

which was lost? Can I tell you God's been seeking you,

He's been pursuing you. And today listen, He's reached out

his hand to you. To today, would you reach out

your hand him. You've been trying to feel around and

find this God, to know the God who created you.

Today he can be found. Would you reach out him?

You pray with me, Lord, we love you.

I thank you Lord for your word. God is humbling

to hear your word today, that you created us that

we might seek you, that we would not find our

fulfillments and the happiness and things of this world, that God,

we might find you and know you.

God.

God, your word tells us that you are near, that

we might find you. And today you are in this place.

We feel your spirit here. Today, your hand is reaching out.

Lord. I pray that as you're near, we would find you.

Today you call us, You command us to turn away

from sin, and turn to you. I pray to be

those today that would turn from their sin and turn

the repentance to you.

God.

We thank you that your resurrection tells us that you

have power of our sin, and you have power of

our death, and you have power to save.

Lord.

I pray today there will be those who receive Lord

you as Lord and savior.

Today.

Lord, I pray, Lord, however you lead us today in

this time of response, that God, we would give you

Lord our hearts.

Today.

We respond to you according to how you've called us today.

Lord, we love you. We thank you, Lord for this

word and your name. We pray Jesus to