Welcome to Church | Seeking God | Hebrews 11:6 | Coleton Segars

The teaching text for today comes from two places, Psalm 27, verses 7 and 8, and then Hebrews 11, 6.

Psalms 27:7

David writes, Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me.

You have said, Seek my face.

And my heart says to you, Your face, Lord, do I seek.

And then Hebrews 11, the writer says, Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

This is the word of the Lord.

We've been in a series, and we got two more weeks, this week and next, in a series looking at the vision of our church, hoping to really land in there in this season of time, of like, here's what we're aiming at, here's what we're trying to be, here's what we're uh seeking to develop in the life of our church, which is to develop a community, a true community of people who are together seeking to practice, move in the same direction.

We're seeking to follow the way of Jesus and practice his way, so that we experience what's true in the scriptures of seeing God break out and break into the world through those people's lives.

So that we experience what the writer Habakkuk, the prophet, says are the fame and deeds of God in our time.

We want to see him actually move in our time, to do a new work, a renewed work, not just in our lives, but also in the community around us, the city around us, the world around us.

And so a community of people who are aiming at that direction together to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time.

And we've been looking at specific practices, and today what we want to look at is the practice of genuinely seeking after God.

And so seeking after God can really look like, or what it what it means, I guess, is like you are not just praying, although praying is a way of seeking after God, but you are like with everything in your life, you are trying to align your life to look to Him for every single thing that you need and to depend on Him with every single thing that you need above everything else.

And so any of the things that we seek for shelter, a home, or something like that, the ultimate safety and security would actually be Him.

Anything we seek for, like if it's money, I'm looking for money to make me feel peaceful.

It's like actually that can help, but actually we should look for those things from Him.

It's looking to Him for the things that we actually long for and the things that we actually need.

That's what it means to seek God.

And we'll get to some more practical, specific ways that I want you to actually practice seeking God, because it's bigger than just praying, although that's a huge part of it.

I have talked about prayer at this church, probably to the point where you are like, we get it, you want us to pray.

And I am not sorry about that.

I really do.

At the end of the day, like my pastoral ministry, if it uh if it wound up, there's this man named Daniel Nash that was a prayer warrior for Charles Finney.

And on his tombstone, it was like uh Daniel Nash, and then the only thing that it said about him was like, mighty in prayer.

Like, what an amazing uh definition of the man's entire life.

And so to me, I'm like, I want our church to be defined by prayer, to be defined by seeking God.

And when I talk to people about it, I can, I can, I can, you know, just by God's grace, be able to get people excited about it, but then I also talk to people about it and they're they really struggle to believe that prayer does things and that seeking God does things.

And so I always try and provide evidence that God actually does respond to prayer.

And so this week, here is evidence that God works through prayer.

That's me, and then that's the woman I married.

And this bro with the chin strap hair thing somehow was able to get that girl to marry him.

And I prayed so I went on a three-day silent fasting retreat alone in the woods by myself to be like, God, please, if you've ever done anything in the world, give me rainy ray.

And uh this is evidence that prayer works, fellas.

I mean, this is this is it, this is the whole thing.

Uh, even atheists would look at this and go, there must be a God.

Um and then while while it is kind of funny, and I appreciate the laughter, thank you.

I also had hair back then, look at that.

It wasn't really working for me, but while that is kind of funny, like that is true.

Like, I I experienced God like do something in my and he hasn't answered every single thing that I've asked for because I'm selfish and I ask for selfish things.

But he has like moved in my life and he has answered prayers, and I've seen him move based on if I seek him, he is faithful to respond every single time.

And so that's more joking, but seriously, there's this wonderful, wonderful little um book called The Pursuit of God that I love.

I'd encourage you to read it, The Pursuit of God, seeking after God.

And A.W.

Tozer says this in that book about seeking him.

He says, There are some who will not be content with shallow knowledge of God, but will hunt for some lonely place to pray and say, Oh God, show me your glory.

They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their eyes the wonder that is God.

And I want to deliberately encourage this mighty longing after God.

The lack of it in the church has brought us to our present lowest state.

The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire.

Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.

Acute, strong desire must be present, or there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people, because he waits to be wanted.

He waits to be wanted.

I have built my life over, he waits to be wanted, and he will not wait for me.

And if you're waiting to be wanted, I want you to look no further, God.

Like you can look right here.

I am, I, you do not have to wait any longer.

I want you here.

And so God responds to hunger, he responds to being sought after.

And so my goal in this sermon is to once again do everything that I possibly can by God's power to like really make you hunger and thirst for him, and like actually go, like, oh yeah, I can seek him and find him.

When I seek him, I will find what I'm looking for.

And so I want to look at today the promises relating to seeking God in the scriptures, the testimonies of just people in the scriptures that we see.

They sought after God and like here's what they're here's what defined their life, here are the things.

And then I want to look at what God has done for us and how he has pursued us and why we should seek him based on that.

And then I want to give you some practical stuff at the end.

But the first, number one, we should seek God because of the promises and scriptures on seeking him.

And I just want to give you a handful, but there's so many, so many promises and scriptures about seeking God.

And so, one, I'm just gonna read through a couple of verses, one of the promises in scriptures is that the Lord provides for and helps those who seek him.

And I have all these passages, but David writes, the young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord, those who seek him, they don't lack any good thing.

Young lions, like they will want and hunger.

And we don't know if he's talking about actual lions or just the enemies of people who are stronger than him.

But those who seek the Lord actually don't lack any good thing.

And then David writes again, the Lord helps and delivers them.

He will deliver them from the wicked and will save them because they take refuge in him.

And so those who seek him for refuge, seek him for help.

He helps them because they choose him for their help.

When that when he when they when people run to him and they go, I need your help, I need your refuge, he's like, Because you chose to come to me, and not to another God, or not to any other refuge, or because you chose to come to me, because of that, I will save them and help them because they have chosen to take refuge in me.

Jesus says, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

There's all these things that you could seek in the world.

You could seek money and wealth and food and success and power and security and safety and peace.

You could seek that stuff out in the world.

And he's like, the Father knows you need that stuff.

And so if you will just seek him, align your life to seeking after him, all those other things will fall into place.

He will actually provide you the stuff that you actually need.

But you just need to seek him.

If you chase after those things, it's possible that you'll chase after those things, never actually get them, because they're not the provider of those things.

What you actually need, he's the provider of.

And so Jesus is saying, like, seek him, seek the God of the kingdom, seek his kingdom first and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

And then the Lord says this in Psalm 81.

He says, Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

Open your life up to me.

Like, don't just like come to me for a little bit, like come to me for everything that you need.

Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

The Scottish pastor and theologian Alexander McLaren said this about this passage.

He says, This great saying in Psalm 81, this great saying teaches that God's bestowals are practically measured by our capacity and desire.

The ultimate limit in each individual is our own receptivity.

And the determining factor of our receptivity is our expectancy and our desire.

And so God is saying, don't just come to me for little things.

Like open wide your life to me.

Don't just seek me for like, I can seek my job for this or my relationship for that, I can do this for that.

But from God, I really just need this stuff.

It's like, no, no, no.

Open wide your life to me.

And the wider you open your life to me and look to me for those things.

I'm not discouraged.

God's not discouraged by like the great needs that we have.

He's saying, come to me, needy.

You are needy.

You actually are, whether you want to admit that you're needy or not, come to me with all of those things.

Open wide your life to me, and then I will fill it.

That's the promise that he gives us.

Another promise is that seeking God through prayer and fasting can lead to breakthrough in the spiritual realm and just breakthrough in our lives.

When the disciples are trying to cast out a demon from a boy and they can't do it, they eventually come to him and ask Jesus privately, like, hey, why couldn't we drive it out?

His response was this kind, this darkness, can only come out by seeking God through prayer and fasting.

You're just bumping up against something that has more strength than you have in your own heart and your own life.

Like you need a fresh seeking of God, a fresh chasing after him, a fresh power from him, of praying to him and asking for that, of fasting and seeking it from him.

This kind only comes out through prayer and fasting.

And so it's just true that there are some things in the world that we can't overcome, but in seeking God, it actually provides breakthrough in those spaces, which is why, again, the writer of Hebrews would say, He rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Next, promise is that God responds and he rewards us when we seek him and ask him for things.

Again, the teaching text: whoever draws near to God, whoever draws near to him, must believe that he exists.

It's weird that these two things are paired together, but believe that he exists.

And then he's like, and also if you're going to draw near to him, one of the other things that you need to really make sure that you remember and believe is that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

It's not going to do nothing.

You need to believe that he exists.

And everybody would say that.

Like, what do you need to believe about God?

Like, well, we know that he's real.

We need to believe in his existence.

And it's like the writer of Hebrews says equally important.

You need to know that he rewards you if you seek him, that there is a greater reward that's available.

Not just if you believe in him, but if you actually seek him, you will experience something as well.

Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find, Jesus says.

Knock and the door will be opened.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.

And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

And then James says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

When you seek after him, when you want to draw close to him, when you stick take steps towards prayer, you take steps in fasting, you take steps in reading the scriptures to get to know him, it's like you are seeking to draw near to him.

And when you seek to draw near to him, he is seeking to draw near to you as well.

And then one of the last promises is that God is looking for people who actually are desiring to seek him.

Psalm 14, the Lord looks down from heaven.

He is looking down on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

He's just looking for any is anybody pursuing me?

Is anybody chasing after me?

Is anybody interested in getting to know the creator of the universe who also is their creator?

Is anybody interested in this?

And then one of my favorite passages in 2 Chronicles is that the eyes of the Lord search the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to his.

The eyes of the Lord search the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those who hearts.

He is looking to do strong things.

He was mighty in the past, he wants to be mighty in the present.

He is looking for hearts that are like, is anybody seeking after me?

Is anybody after my heart?

Is anybody actually committed to me?

And not just gonna, as soon as I don't do it, and they're gonna run to somebody else.

Are they fully committed to me?

And if they are, I am looking for people who are fully devoted to me.

He is searching for people like that.

And then it's always good to have a John Piper quote.

This is what he says.

He says, the great promise.

The great promise to those who seek the Lord.

The great promise to those who seek the Lord is that he will be found.

If you seek him, he will be found by you.

And when he is found, there is great reward.

God himself is our greatest reward, and when we have him, we have everything else.

Therefore, seek the Lord in his strength.

Seek his presence continually.

And so there's just constantly the great promise is that those who seek the Lord will find him.

Just constantly these things, like these promises that exist in the scriptures where God is going, I promise you, if you seek me, something different will take shape in your life.

You will experience something different with me if you seek me than if you don't seek me.

Now the difficulty with a promise is it's implied.

Like someone, you only have to promise if it looks like the thing's not gonna happen, right?

So for instance, you I probably didn't have to promise you today that like I'm gonna preach today.

I don't need to promise you that.

It looks like I'm gonna preach today.

Got the mic on, it looks like that.

I could have to promise you that I'm gonna finish on time and not go long, because the pattern has suggested that I'm not gonna do that.

And so a promise makes sense because it's like probably not though, right?

But if I promise, now I'm not promising that I'm gonna be short on this, um, but if I the promise is like I have to promise because it doesn't look like the thing is actually gonna happen.

And so the reason that promises are given in the scriptures that are sitting there going, like, I'm I'm promising, because you're gonna be walking in situations, you're gonna be dealing with situations where you're gonna, it's gonna feel like seeking the Lord is gonna do nothing.

You're gonna be walking through times where it's gonna look like prayer doesn't do anything.

It's gonna look like something else.

And so the promises, no, no, no, but pro I promise, trust me, I promise you, even though it doesn't look like this does anything, even though it doesn't feel like bowing the head and closing the eyes and praying to me is gonna actually affect a change.

I promise.

Those who seek me find me.

Those who earnestly seek me, there's a reward available to you.

I promise these things are true.

But the promise has to be given in times where it's hard.

If it felt like this is always gonna work, there's no promise needed.

And so he knows that God knows that we're gonna be walking through times where it's gonna feel like, is this actually working?

Is this actually gonna affect a change?

Is seeking him actually worth it?

He's going, I promise you it's worth it.

The great promise to those who seek the Lord is that he will be found.

If you seek me, I will be found by you.

And so that's the promises.

The promises of the scriptures encourage me so much to go like, even when I pray and nothing happens, and pray and nothing happens, and seek him and nothing happens.

I encourage myself by the promises or by the song, he is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

The same God that helped them will be faithful in my present currently.

And so encourage myself to go like, don't stop, don't give up on believing that these things are true.

Because the promises exist four times that are hard when it feels like nothing's gonna happen.

Number two, the testimony.

The testimony of the scriptures is that people who seek God and people who sought God in the scriptures, they received more from God, they received better from God, they just had a completely different experience than those who didn't.

People in the scriptures, the story, it's mostly the stories that we love to tell the people.

The story, if we read the Bible, you're like, ooh, I'm excited about this story.

That's normally someone that sought the Lord.

Or the big, exciting explosions and stuff like that, where you know bad things happen to bad people, that's normally because they stopped seeking the Lord.

But the stories that are huge are like these are these ones where people were seeking the Lord.

But I love what A.W.

Tozer says about the difference between people's experience and seeking God.

He says, why do some people find God in a way that others do not?

Why does God manifest his presence to some and let multitudes of others struggle along in the half-light of imperfect Christian experience?

Certainly the will of God is the same for all.

He has no favorites.

All he has ever done for any of his children, he will do for all of his children.

The difference lies not with God, but with us.

Why is it that some people experience God breaking into their lives?

It's like, why is he their special favorite?

Are they just more righteous than me?

It's like, no, everybody's covered in the exact same righteousness of Jesus.

The difference lies not with God and what he's choosing to do, but the difference lies with us.

And he's getting this from the Bible.

The testimony of the scriptures is that God is available to everyone.

What God can do for everyone is available to everyone.

But those who seek him for it actually find, and those who choose to go, I don't think this does anything, don't find because they chose not to seek.

Moses, I'll give you a couple of him.

Moses wanted to see God's glory, and he asked for it.

He sought God for it.

I want to see your glory.

And God responded.

And he was like, okay, you can see my glory.

Not all of it, it'll kill you, but I'll show you some of it.

And he got to see more.

All the kings in Judah and Israel, all those kings, there's really like eight good ones, all of them who were the good ones for the most part, all of them, their lives were defined by they sought after the Lord.

And so I'm going to just give you a rundown of some of them.

So King David, this is his testimony.

He goes, and we sang this song earlier.

I sought the Lord.

That came from David saying this.

I sought the Lord and he answered me and he delivered me from all of my fears.

And so he's like, I sought, here's my testimony.

What does it look like to seek the Lord?

Should people do it?

It's like, well, I sought him and he delivered me from all my fears.

And anyone, those who look to him will experience, anyone who seek him and look to him, they'll be radiant.

Their faces will never be covered with shame, which means that they'll never be sorry that they actually sought the Lord.

They will never get to the end of their lives and go, I trusted him too much.

They'll never get to the end of their lives and go, I think I spent too much time seeking after God.

They'll never do that.

Their faces will never be covered in shame.

He says, This is my testimony.

This poor man called, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles.

Solomon, while Solomon sought the Lord, his kingdom was blessed.

He was made the wisest man ever to live and experienced the blessing and favor of God in his kingdom.

Asa, Asa, this is what it says of Asa's life.

Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord, his God, and he commanded not only himself, but Judah, all of Judah, to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands.

And then the kingdom was at peace under him, for the Lord gave him rest.

He experienced a very different kingdom because he sought the Lord and he encouraged the people around him to seek the Lord as well, and the Lord responded.

Jehoshaphat says that he sought the God of his father and followed his commands.

The Lord established his kingdom under his control, and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so that he had great wealth and honor.

His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord.

And so he experienced something from the Lord.

King Uzziah says he sought the God during, he sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of the Lord.

And as long as he sought the Lord, notice the no notice the like the implication, the thing that's being said right there, like it's it's holding on this fact.

As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.

There is something connected to seeking him.

And as soon as you stop doing that thing, all of a sudden the world begins to break around you because it's not upheld by you or those other things.

It's upheld by him.

And so when you're seeking the one that can actually hold all things together, it makes sense that things are being held together because you're seeking the one that holds those things.

Jotham, Jotham grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the Lord his God.

Hezekiah, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly, and so he prospered.

Josiah, in the eighth year of his reign, this kid was 16.

He was eight years old when he began to reign.

Sixteen when he began to seek the God of his father David.

He began seeking God at 16.

And from that space of him seeking God, turning the nation back to the Lord, God postponed the exile and the invasion that was going to come.

And he was like, Because you have sought me, like no one's ever sought me before, I'm going to withhold destruction that was going to come on this land because you have turned people back to me.

They are now seeking me, and I cannot continue with the plan that I have of the destruction that's going to happen because these people are seeking me and I must respond to being sought.

And that's just a handful from the Old Testament.

But on and on and on again, the people who seek him have a very different experience.

And the testimony of, like, what was it like when you sought the Lord?

And it was like, it blew my mind.

I experienced his fame and I experienced his deeds in my time.

The testimony of the Bible is that if you will seek him, you will find him.

And again, that's just the Old Testament.

When you get to the New Testament, everyone who sought Jesus for help and healing, people that went to him and like, I need you to do this thing for me.

Everyone who sought him experienced something happening and breaking out in their lives.

Everyone who sought him.

The lepers who went to him, the blind who went to him, the sick who went to him, the demon-possessed who either went to him or were brought to him.

The Lord constantly responded.

Jesus responded to being sought.

Jesus did not move into the world and just go, I'm going to cure all of blindness, but he cured all the blindness of people who sought him.

He did not cure all of leprosy, but he cured every single leper that came to him.

Even the ones that were ungrateful.

Like he did he didn't just cast out all the demons of the world, but anybody that was brought to him that was demon possessed that sought his help, he cast out that demon every single time.

There was even space where he goes back to his hometown and it's like, they have no faith in me.

They're not seeking me.

And so I can't do many miracles here.

But there was a handful.

There was a handful of people that did believe in him.

There was a handful of people that didn't believe in him.

Seek him.

He's like, he was only able to heal a few of the sick.

He's just like consistently, those who sought after him experienced far more from God than those who chose not to.

And so the testimony of the scripture is like we have the promises, and then you have people's experience.

And both of these actually align.

The promises seem to be true, and most of the promises about seeking God are given by people who have testimony from him.

David is telling us to seek the Lord based on his own testimony.

You should seek him because I did, and things changed in my life.

I love what Billy Graham says about just this idea of like people who sought the Lord.

He says, John Knox prayed, and the results caused Queen Mary to say, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the armies of Scotland.

John Wesley prayed and revival came to England, sparing the nation, the horrors of the French Revolution.

Jonathan Edwards prayed and revival spread throughout the colonies.

History has been changed time after time because of prayer.

I tell you, history could be changed again if people went to their knees and believing prayer.

Even when times are bleak and the world scorns God, he still works through the prayers of his people.

He still chooses to act on behalf of those who seek him.

And so the promises are one thing, then the testimony is like, here's like look at other people's stories and go, like, they gave their life to seeking him.

Did their life look different?

And the testimony of people's lives in the scriptures, like, did it look different?

It looked substantially different.

My life is substantially different.

The stories that I could tell about seeking God are substantially different than the stories of those who are atheists who do not seek God or Christians who are just culturally or nominally a Christian and don't seek the Lord.

I just I just believed in him for salvation, then I really just went about my life.

My experience is deeper, richer, and better than yours.

And it's not a brag, it's just because I the promises are true.

If you seek him, you will find him.

If you knock, doors will be open.

If you ask, you will actually have somebody respond.

And so the promises and the testimony.

And then number three, we should seek God because he's pursued us.

And he is still pursuing us.

You should seek him because he's actually done this for you.

He's chased you down.

He has tried with everything that he has, even his own life, to actually seek you.

John Ortberg says this.

He says that the story of the Bible isn't primarily about the desire of people to be with God, but it is the desire of God wanting to be with people.

You just read the scripture, and it's him chasing after us.

It's Adam and Eve that chose to go the other way, and God begins pursuing them.

The nation of Israel is constantly prostituting themselves to other gods, and he says that about them.

Like you have left your husband and you have gone away to go do other things, but I will chase you down, I will continue to seek you.

Like he has constantly pursued us, even to the point of coming himself.

God in the flesh comes to earth to go, I have come, and Jesus says this I have come here to seek you and to save you, to save the lost.

That's why I'm here.

I have come to seek and to save the lost.

I'm seeking after you.

And he seeks us to the point of his own death, choosing to actually pursue us in order to bring us back to God.

I love what David says.

In one of his Psalms, I think it's Psalm 23, and Liz read it last week.

But it's like, surely your goodness and your mercy will follow me.

You will always seek me.

Your goodness and your mercy, you're constantly seeking me.

Sometimes we sing a song, Your goodness is running after me.

It comes from that psalm.

It's like, all my life you've been faithful, and all my life you've been running after me with goodness and mercy.

He is seeking us.

He has sought us in the death of his own son and God dying on the cross.

He has sought us to bring us back into relationship with himself.

And he is still seeking us today.

He is still currently, right now, pursuing you.

Tozer explains this in his book, The Pursuit of God.

It's a little uh theological, but just stay with me.

But he says, uh, Christian theology teaches about God pursuing us, teaches the doctrine of provenient grace, which briefly stated means this that before a man can seek God, God must have first sought that man.

So we pursue God because and only because he has first put an urge within us that spurs us to that pursuit.

No one can come to me, said Jesus, unless the Father who sent me draws him to me.

And so the impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after him.

The outworking of that impulse is to actually move forward.

He has put the urge in you, but then we do have to act on that thing.

But the beauty of what he's saying is like any desire, what this what this means is that any desire that you have to pray, any desire that you have, like, hey, maybe I need to fast and seek the Lord.

Maybe I need to take some time and quiet and just like be with him.

Maybe I need to, maybe I need to read the scriptures and see what God says about this.

Maybe I need to turn from this sin and actually turn back to God.

Any time we ever feel any of that, just the smallest urge, that did not originate with you.

It's not just like, oh, I was just naturally thinking about seeking God.

That was put in there by him.

And so if it is in, if it is in you, you feel this urge to pray, it's because he wants you to pray at that moment.

He actually has something for you and he's like, so I need to, I need them to pray.

They're not gonna think of it themselves.

And so I'm gonna put an urge in them to pray so that they can then turn to prayer and then receive what I have for them.

He gives us an urge to seek him so that we will find what he has for us.

This is why Jesus is so confident.

If you seek him, you will find.

Because the only reason you're seeking him is because he's made you want to seek him.

And the only reason that he's made you to want to seek him is because he has something for you that he can only give to you when he's wanted.

He is waiting for your permission.

He is waiting for your consent, he is waiting to be sought.

And so he is still pursuing you.

Anytime you're like, I feel like I need to pray.

It's not you coming up with that, it is him calling you and drawing you into this thing that's like, yes, please step into this space.

Because I have something that I want to give you.

And so I've placed the urge in there, in your heart and in your soul, to seek me, so that you will find the thing that I have for you.

It is something that he's doing for us.

No one will come to him unless the Father draws them.

And when he draws us to seek him, we should respond.

Because we can stop it and go, like, no, I don't have time to pray.

No, I don't have time to do that stuff.

Oh no, that's not gonna do anything.

I feel like I might need to, but I it's I don't think it's gonna change much.

But the urge that we felt was given from him, and then by our own flesh or our own will, we can just stop that thing.

And so any time that you feel like, I just feel like I need to do this, what is that?

That is God still pursuing you, still seeking to draw close to you, still seeking to go like I have something for you that I want to give you.

And so I'm placing this urge in you so that you will find it.

And so that's what I want for us.

I want us to experience what God has for us.

And so the promises that are given to us in the scriptures, the testimonies of people that talk about like, here's what it was like when I sought the Lord, and then the fact that God is still pursuing us and he has pursued us, even in the death of his own son.

Like that should lead us to this point, like, why should we seek him?

It's like we should seek him because he promises and the testimonies of people, and that he has sought us.

We should seek him for those reasons.

Now, I want to close with just a couple of ways, practical things to think about.

Ways that you can seek God.

Um, the first is um prayer.

Obviously, I I want you to pray.

I want you to press into prayer.

Uh, we do a prayer room uh every week.

We have four hours of prayer.

Mondays, I think I have a slide here, let's see.

There's a prayer room, yeah.

Uh Mondays from 12 to 1, Mondays from 5:30 to 6, Wednesdays 12 to 1, Thursdays 12 to 1, Sundays, 8:30 to 9 a.m.

We the point of these is because we bel and we're just adding.

When I first got here, we had Mondays at 12.

And thank God we're three years into this of me being here, and now I'm thankful at least.

I think we have four hours of prayer.

And I just want to keep adding more.

I want to create more space where people have more opportunity to seek the Lord.

Not because like I'm trying to win some bet of like, how many, how many hours of prayer can you get at your church?

I just genuinely believe these things are true.

I'm gonna bank my life and my pastoral ministry on the fact that the Bible is true and that Jesus wasn't lying.

And so I just constantly want to create space where people can jump into this and enter in to go, like, I just want to seek the Lord.

And so all the prayer room is is like show up, sit quietly, or pray if you want, but it is just time for you to seek the Lord.

And so you can just worship, you can have headphones in, you can read the scriptures if you want, you can use this time as your own personal quiet time, or you can pray and you can pray out loud, or you can pray quietly.

It is a space for you to actually seek the Lord.

And then uh one of the things that uh I wanted to create for you that I I talked about uh months ago was I wanted to create um a way to where if you want to learn how to pray, uh like through guided prayer and stuff, you could actually click on a podcast and like just learn how to do guided prayer.

And so I created uh a C3 prayer podcast um where you could just be guided in prayer and you can go to um this podcast, and if you want to pray for seven minutes, you can pray Psalm 23 through guided Lectio Divina or through other guided prayers.

But it's it's my right now, it's just it's my voice.

We're gonna add Rainey's voice and other voices into it.

But it's basically like if you're in the car and you got five minutes, like I only got five minutes to pray, just pop it on.

You do not have to generate stuff on your own, you can just be guided through prayer.

But the idea was like, I just want to resource you with everything you possibly can to be able to press in to the to prayer and to actually seek the Lord.

And if you're like, I don't know how to pray, I don't want to go to a group and pray because I'm nervous about praying out loud.

Great.

Press into this, and we're just gonna keep adding to these.

We got Psalm 35, Psalm 23, we got the Lord's Prayer in there as well, that you could just be guided through these things.

And there's all these different minutes that you can choose.

This is a five-minute, this is a 30-minute, but I just want you to pray.

And so I'm gonna give everything I can to try and get you to pray.

Uh, but that's prayer.

Uh repenting uh and and turning from sin.

This is a way of actually seeking the Lord.

It's going like, I've been living my life this way, and now I'm gonna turn from doing things my way, I'm gonna seek your way.

I'm gonna seek to follow after you by turning from following my path to actually following you.

And so this is like if I've been doing, uh I've been using my money and spending my money the way I want to spend it.

I'm gonna seek to spend my money and use my money the way that God wants me to spend it.

I've been operating in my relationship the way that I want to operate in my relationship.

I'm gonna turn from that and operate my relationship the way that God wants me to.

I've been dealing with work or whatever, or parenting, or I've been doing it the way I want to.

And I'm gonna turn to do that the way that God wants me to, in every way of just turning from the way of you doing it to the way that God actually wants you to do it.

If you read in uh 2 Chronicles, God says this about turning to Him.

He goes, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and then notice, and they will seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

This is a contingent promise.

I will do this thing if they seek me.

And here's how they can seek me.

They can seek me by humble themselves and praying and actually acknowledging you need me and being needy before me.

You can also turn to me by just turning from the evil things that you're doing, the sinful things that you're doing, and turn back to me.

And I will respond.

I respond to be sought.

You can turn from other things that you're depending on more than God.

Uh if you read Josiah's life at 16, he or he began tearing down all these other false gods and all these other idols.

There's all these different things, like you could worship at you know this pole or you could worship at this altar or whatever.

And he just like just tore down everything and was like, which God can we worship?

It's like, well, there's only one more, there's only one available, so you're gonna worship that God.

And he just removed every other possible option.

Now we don't really have that in our society.

We're not rolling around seeing a bunch of things that we can go and worship at and bow down to, these poles on the streets and stuff like that.

But we can still worship our phones, we can still worship our money, you can still worship your relationship, you can still worship your house, your car, your job, success, you can still worship all those things.

And so when you find that you're depending on your money more than you're depending on God for your peace, you need to switch from that and repent from that and go like, I'm actually worshiping this thing more than I'm actually worshiping God.

I'm depending on this relationship to give me everything that I need from life versus actually seeking those things from God.

Relationships are fine, money is great, all those things are fine.

But when they become ultimate things, when they become like this, I depend on this thing.

I need this thing more than I need God in my life.

I crave this thing more than I crave God.

I believe that my life will only be perfect if I get this thing versus my life is completely satisfied and full from God.

Whenever anything shifts to that point, you have begun worshiping that thing.

And part of the way of seeking God is going, I'm not gonna worship that stuff anymore.

I'm not gonna worship idols, I'm not gonna look to the president, I'm not gonna look to a government to provide for me the things that I actually need because he is the one.

It's seek his kingdom first and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added to me.

Not make sure you vote correctly, and then all these things will be added to you.

So you have to like make sure, because these things fight for worship in our lives, and we have to make sure that we're actually worshiping God Himself and not created things.

And then you can fast, you can read the scriptures.

Fasting is a great way of just denying yourself.

It's difficult, it's really hard.

But when you read Hebrews 11 6, it's like he rewards those who earnestly seek him, who go after it, who do the work.

There's just something there where it's like, man, fasting is earnestly seeking me.

Giving up food, y'all know me, I'm a celebration guy, I'm a feast guy.

I'm a Sabbath and eat more, drink more guy.

So to fast is like, God, seriously, I really need you here.

Like I'm actually seeking you in this space.

And so fasting and those things is a way of seeking God.

I've been reading the scriptures and like, God, I want to hear your voice, I want to know you.

I want to get to know you.

I need you to speak into my life in this situation.

I need you to talk to me here.

So I'm gonna read, I'm gonna seek you.

These are ways that you can seek him.

And then just a couple of other things.

One, I would just encourage you as you seek him, seek him more in the secret place rather than in the public space.

Um, I love what we're doing here.

I love that you're here at church.

I love that we are publicly gathered for worship and prayer and the reading of scripture and the preaching of the scriptures and learning.

I love that.

And I believe God calls us to that.

But the majority of the promises of when you seek God are not in public, they're in secret.

And so a couple of these things, Jesus says this, he says, When you pray, we can pray in public, we can do that.

That's a wonderful thing.

But when you pray, you should go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen.

Then, then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

He says the same thing about fasting.

When you fast, don't let it be known to other people.

Don't make a big show of it and tell a bunch of other people.

But just let it be known between your father.

Only your father knows.

And then he who is unseen, sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

And so there's two promises related to actually experiencing, you are going to experience reward from him, but it's not in the public space, it's in the secret place.

And so if you're only ever worshiping here, if you only primarily pray here, if you only ever hear the scriptures read here, study the scriptures here, I think you'll get a lot out of that.

We want you to keep doing that.

But you will experience more if you do it in secret.

If you seek him in secret.

He sees what is done in secret.

It's just between you and him, and he will reward what is done in secret.

And so I do think that you should come to prayer rooms.

I want you to.

But the primary space the prayer room is serving is this is a space to seek God, to learn how to do that, to fall in love with it, so that you want to do this in your private life, so that you are actually experiencing the reward that's available with him.

So seek him more in secret than you do in public.

And then last and most important, um, when you turn to seek the Lord, if you were going to do this, if you're gonna seek him in any way, please expect opposition, expect discouragement.

I've led a prayer room.

The first prayer room I started was May of 2020.

I've led a prayer room every week for six years, minus holidays.

And every single time I the Lord's been faithful.

I've been able to encourage people to show up and pray.

Get in here and pray.

Like he responds, he rewards those who are earnestly seeking, get in the prayer room, and people will show up.

And then people show up and they're so excited.

But they what here's what they believe.

They believe that as soon as I show up, it's gonna Amazon me a two-day delivery of like whatever I'm gonna get from God.

It's gonna be real fast.

Something's gonna happen real fast.

And that's on me.

That's that's my bad in explaining.

And some of those things actually do happen.

They just showed up one time, they got whatever they wanted, they left, I never saw him again.

But for the most part, what happens for the most part?

Six years, and it's happened in that in the church I did it before, and it's happened in this church.

Get a bunch of people to show up, and they're so excited.

But then what happens is their life doesn't get easier, it gets harder.

And so what begins happening in their brain is I'm seeking God.

Like I'm doing the right thing.

Why is life getting harder for me?

Why is why is this this this must not work?

I'm seek, I'm doing the thing.

I'm seeking you, God, I'm doing the thing, I'm showing up to think.

Why isn't this working?

And so what they come to the conclusion of, and it's happened here and it happened to the old church.

This doesn't work, this doesn't do anything, this doesn't matter.

I started to seek the Lord, and life got harder, my marriage got worse, my kids got worse, my job got worse.

Things started happening in my life that got worse, not better, and I'm seeking the Lord.

This must not do anything.

And what they don't realize is that there is an actual enemy out there that wants to oppose you seeking the Lord and wants to discourage you and get you to do exactly what you just did.

He wants to make it so difficult for you in seeking him and to feel so discouraged that like this doesn't work, to where you go, like, this must not work, I'm gonna do something else.

There's an actual enemy seeking to do that thing.

And it got them to do exactly what he wanted them to do.

Let's make their life harder so that they believe this doesn't do anything and then they won't do it anymore.

Opposition and discouragement are not evidence that it doesn't work, it's evidence that it does have power and that it does work.

Because when you're a bystander in a war doing nothing, no one needs to aim guns at you or attack you in any way.

They're just you are useless.

You do nothing.

But as soon as you become a threat and you start fighting back, now we can aim things at you, and attack needs to come your way.

And here's what happens when you begin seeking the Lord.

If you weren't seeking him, Satan does not give a rip about you.

He's like, whatever.

We don't need to make their life harder, they're not doing any damage to my dominion.

But as soon as someone begins to seek the Lord, all of a sudden we put a target on our back because now we're fighting for a kingdom that's gonna crush his.

And bel, and you can choose not to believe this, but this is true.

And you will receive attack.

You will be opposed, you will be discouraged, things will happen in your life from seeking the Lord.

Now, I don't think we need to live in fear of that thing.

I just think we need to know about it and press through it.

And then take what the enemy meant for evil and take that to the Lord and go, I am being attacked, I'm seeking you based on your promise, I'm seeking you based on your word.

I and Lord, I need you to fight for me in these things.

Life has gotten harder.

I need you to press through those things.

And so you do need to expect opposition and discouragement when you turn to seek the Lord because now you've hit a radar that otherwise before nobody cared.

You're not an enemy, you're not a threat to me.

Why would I ever?

You're not doing anything for God's kingdom.

Why would I even bother with you?

There are plenty of people that are actually doing work in God's kingdom.

I need to focus my energy on them.

But as soon as you shift, now you want your family to experience God's kingdom breaking into their life.

You want to see your city, you want to see your work, you want to see your life, your your all these things, you want to see God doing stuff.

All of a sudden, you click up on a radar and you will experience opposition.

And so you should expect that and then know that it's not evidence that it's not working, but it is evidence that you were doing something that's powerful.

We don't have this quote, but Samuel Chadwick says that Satan trembles when we pray.

He does not want us to pray.

Because as soon as we start praying, we turn to a power that he has no idea how to conquer.

Like, he can defeat us all day long.

But like turning to God, he's like, I hate him, but I have no idea.

I obviously am powerless compared to him.

He trembles when we pray.

And so he will do everything in his power to keep us from praying.

Duncan Campbell says this.

He says, the prayer life, because of this opposition, the prayer life must be fought for.

Everything will militate against it.

The world with its pressures and speed will give us no time.

The flesh with its appetites and weaknesses will rob us of concentration.

Satan will concentrate his subtle powers to contend every inch of our prayer route.

And that is because the tide of the battle turns in the closet, the secret place.

This is where the real warfare is accomplished.

And so you will experience opposition because you're actually doing warfare.

You've actually entered into a battle that we will win because of what Jesus has accomplished.

But you need to know that that's possible and that's true.

It doesn't mean that it's not working.

It means that it's something that actually does have power.

So, for you, for me, for this church, for the rest of as long as I'm here, I want us to seek the Lord.

I want us to be defined by it.

I want to be those people that uh Tozer talked about at the beginning that said, like, there are some who will not be content with shallow knowledge of God, and we will hunt the place to go, like, oh God, show me your glory.

I want that for us.

We just long to actually experience the wonder that is God.

And so that's what I want for us.

I want us to trust in the promises, to trust in the testimonies of people who aren't lying, and then believe it like He is urging us to seek Him because He has something for us.

And so, as much as it concerns you, seek the Lord.

Expect the opposition, but seek the Lord.

Let me pray.