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WEEKLY
Volume 4 Number 35
24 January 2010
A God-Seeking Heart
(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the
Worship Service, 2:00 pm, Jan 24, 10)
Text: 2 Chron 7:13-14
Everyone has different purposes,
ambitions, motives, desires, or pursuits in life. Many are spending
their time and energy in seeking for fame, popularity, wealth, position,
power, and so on. Many are seeking for worldly pleasures and
entertainments. Many are seeking after what to eat, what to drink and
what to put on, “For after all these things do the Gentiles seek”
(Matt 6:31-32). Many are still seeking for the truth and true happiness
in life as they cannot find it in this world outside of Christ and God’s
Word, the Holy Scriptures. We can see many “Christians” nowadays seeking
for God’s material blessings like those in Jesus’ days, “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but
because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled” (John 6:26). How
about you and me? Who or what are we seeking for? Jesus still asks you
and me, “What seek ye?” (John 1:38). Is it the Lord Himself and
His Word?
What Does It Mean to Seek God?
When we ask unbelievers, “Are you
seeking God, your Creator?” This may be a strange question to them. They
may even think that we are dreaming and impractical, saying, “You live
on earth but have your head in the clouds! Where is God? No one can see
God. It is a waste of time to seek Him!” Many religious followers are
seeking for their own “gods” for material blessings and good luck, but
sadly their “gods” are not the living and true God. Therefore, when we
say that we are seeking God, we must mean that we are seeking the living
and true God of the Holy Scriptures. We have to search the Holy
Scriptures to know the truth about God and man, and about God’s
revelation to mankind and His salvation for them. Then, through the Holy
Scriptures, we know what it means to seek God.
Seeking God’s Word:
Seeking God means seeking His Word. Many think that they are seeking God
but not seeking God’s Word! They are just deceiving themselves. How can
we seek God without His revelation through His Word? How can you and I
seek for a person whom we have never known nor met without any
information about him, without his ID, his address, his contact number,
etc? We must seek God through His written Word the Holy Scriptures and
through His living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, “God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds”
(Heb 1:1-2), and “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”
(John 1:18). Truly, we must seek the Lord and prepare our hearts “to
seek the law of the LORD, and to do it” (Ezra 7:10), and
“keep and seek for all the commandments of the LORD your God”
(1 Chron 28:8; cf. Ps 119:45). Failing to seek God’s Word, we shall
perish, “Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy
statutes” (Ps 119:155).
Seeking God’s Presence:
Seeking God means seeking His face, His presence, His name, His will,
His kingdom, His righteousness, His guidance, His strength, and His
approval as the Lord our God is All we need, “Seek the LORD and
his strength, seek his face continually” (1 Chron 16:11; Ps
24:6; 27:8), and “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”
(Matt 6:33; cf. Zep 2:3). Seeking God’s righteousness means seeking how
to have a good and right standing acceptable unto God. As no one is
righteous (Rom 3:10), we have to seek God’s righteousness by grace
through faith in Christ, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung,
that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil 3:8-9).
Are you and I seeking God and His Word and His presence now and
continually?
Why Ought We to Seek God?
God is our Creator and the Giver of
all the blessings, so He has all the right and authority to command us
to seek Him and His Word so that we may be blessed. God loves us and
wants us to be saved and blessed, so He commands us to “seek ye the
LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Isa
55:6) and “But seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you”
(Matt 6:33). God’s Word tells us that “The LORD looked down from
heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did
understand, and seek God” (Ps 14:2), and it is a serious sin when
you and I fail to seek God and His Word, “The wicked, through the
pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his
thoughts” (Ps 10:4), and “And he (King Rehoboam) did evil,
because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD” (2 Chron 12:14).
Then, you and I must seek God and His Word and His presence, and failing
to do so, we have sinned against God and His commandment.
God’s Blessings for Those Who Seek
Him
God will surely bless those who seek
Him and His Word and His presence “Blessed are they that keep his
testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart” (Ps 119:2).
God’s Eternal Life:
“For thus saith the LORD unto the house of
Israel, Seek ye
me, and ye shall live”
(Amos 5:4; Ps 69:32).
God’s Joy and Peace:
“Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such
as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified” (Ps
40:16; cf. 1 Chron 16:10), and “And all Judah rejoiced at the oath:
for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole
desire; and he was found of them: and the LORD gave them rest round
about” (2 Chron 15:15).
God’s Sovereignty:
“The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his
power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him” (Ezra
8:22).
God’s Wisdom and Understanding:
“Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD
understand all things” (Prov 28:5).
God’s Deliverance:
“I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my
fears” (Ps 34:4).
God’s Provision:
“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the
LORD shall not want any good thing” (Ps 34:10).
God’s Prosperity:
“And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God,
and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with
all his heart, and prospered” (2 Chron 31:21), and “And he
(King Uzziah) sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had
understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD,
God made him to prosper” (2 Chron 26:5).
God’s Victory in Spiritual Warfare:
“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in
Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every
place” (2 Cor 2:14). David could overcome the giant Goliath because
he sought the Lord and trusted in Him, “Then said David to the
Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a
shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of
the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. And all this assembly shall
know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is
the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands” (1 Sam 17:45,
47). Truly, “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and
the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the
heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou
art exalted as head above all” (1 Chron 29:11).
How to Seek the Lord
As having the Lord, we shall have all
His blessings. Then how should we seek the Lord? God promises to His
people, “If my
people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray,
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from
heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”
(2 Chron 7:14). Then, God requires you and me (1) to humble ourselves,
and (2) to pray, and (3) to seek His face, and (4) to turn from our
wicked ways.
Wholeheartedly and Diligently Seek God
and His Word with a Humble, Trusting and Submissive Heart:
We can receive nothing without the Lord, so the first step to seek the
Lord is to humble ourselves as “God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble” (James 4:6). We truly humble ourselves before
God when we sincerely, diligently and wholeheartedly seek Him and His
Word with our faith in Him, dependence on Him and submission to Him and
His Word, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb 11:6) and
“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find
him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul”
(Deut 4:29; cf. Prov 7:15). Are you and I wholeheartedly seeking God
with a humble, trusting, and submissive heart?
Put God First and Seek Him in
Prayer Daily and Always:
Acknowledging that without the Lord we can do nothing (John 15:5), we
must seek God first (Matt 6:33) and early, “With my soul have I
desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek
thee early” (Isa 26:9) and “Yet they seek me daily,
and delight to know my ways” (Isa 58:2), and “And I set my face
unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with
fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Dan 9:3). Do you and I early and
daily seek God in prayer?
Seek God’s Presence:
Knowing what it means to seek
the Lord, we must seek Him, His presence, His Word, His kingdom, His
righteousness, His will, His guidance, His glory, His strength, etc in
all situations of our lives and ministry.
Depart from Sin and Evil:
As God is holy, we must depart from sin and evil, “turn from their
wicked ways” to maintain His holy presence in our lives.
Conclusion
Dear friends, God commands you and me
to wholeheartedly and diligently seek Him first and early, daily and
continually so that we may be blessed. May God graciously help you and
me to humble ourselves, seek Him and His Word and His presence and keep
ourselves pure to maintain our fellowship with Him always. Amen.
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