Seeking the Lord – Part 1: Beyond the Surface

SPEAKER 01 : 0:01

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, February 4th. To know Christ intimately requires both desire and commitment. Today’s message challenges you to fix your heart on God and follow Him without turning back. Discover more in Seeking the Lord.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:20

We are a nation in pursuit. We pursue just about everything you can imagine. Not only wealth and relationships, clothing, gadgets, just think about all the things that we pursue, sports, all kinds of situations and circumstances that crop up in our life. We’re after this and after that and after the other. That’s who we are. And somehow amidst all of these things that are out there in front of us that so distract us, I wonder sometimes where God fits in the way we position things in our life. Is He first and foremost, or is He an afterthought? Is He the most important person in our life, or is He just one of the many people in our life? Where does God fit? And I want you to turn to the 105th Psalm for a moment, and I want us to look at this passage. 105th Psalm, in just a few verses, it’s a psalm of real action. And, of course, look to see what is the object of this and who it’s all about. Listen to what he says beginning in verse 1. O give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him, speak of all of His wonders. Glory in His holy name, let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord in His strength, seek His face continually. So notice, it’s a psalm of action, giving thanks, calling, making known, singing, speaking, glorying, seeking. All of these things have to do with what? With who God is, what He’s all about. So I’d ask you this. If somebody said to you, do you ever seek the Lord? What would you say? Would you have to say, well, what do you mean by seek? And why should I seek somebody I already have? But it’s interesting in the Scriptures that many times we’re admonished to seek. You go back in what Moses was saying to Israel about seeking the Lord. what david was saying to israel about seeking the lord and isaiah and jeremiah and all through the old testament we’re admonished to seek him and when we come to that 11th chapter of hebrews that whole biographical sketch of people whose faith was so outstanding and the scripture says when we come to him we must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him So, when we think about seeking Him, what are we thinking about? So, when I think about that, I think about it in this light. If I’m already a believer and I’m seeking the Lord, it means that I want to go further in my relationship, not just to be saved. And you probably trusted Jesus as your Savior some time ago and you said, well, you know, when He forgave me of my sins, wrote my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, came to indwell me with the Holy Spirit, what else is there? That is just the beginning, only the beginning. When we are admonished to seek the Lord, that means we’re to come to Him. Asking for direction. seeking to build a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him because that’s what He’s up to. He said He predestined that you and I would be conformed to the image of His Son, and that would involve our having an intimate relationship with Him. So, when I seek Him, I want to know more about Him. I want to have a more intimate relationship. I want to talk to Him. I want to listen to Him. I want to have a conversation with Him. I want to be able to observe Him working in my life in some fashion. If I’m seeking Him, I want to know Him better, more deeply, more intimately. than ever before. For example, when you and I say, that’s just getting in the door. Our name’s written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We’re on our way to living it out. But the truth is, in the mind of God, that is just the beginning. He wants us to get to know Him. Why? Because, for example, He desires that you and I seek Him. That is, He does not ever want us to be satisfied. where we are in our Christian life. There is a sense of satisfaction and peace and contentment and joy. At the same time, here’s the paradox. The more satisfied I become with Him, the more dissatisfied I become. The more satisfied I am with Him with what I learned in my relationship with Him, then all that does is just create more hunger, more yearning, more desire to know Him because when will you and I ever, ever fathom all that God is? We never will. He’s fathomless. You and I will never know Him to the fullest, but He desires that you and I begin the moment we are saved. So, to seek Him is to pray to Him, to listen to Him, to talk to Him, to grow with Him, and to have a more intimate relationship with Him. And many people, sadly to say, are very satisfied trusting Jesus as Savior, joining the church, getting baptized, living out the Christian life casually with no sense of real purpose, no sense of direction. And listen, and willing to live it out as if it’s a casual acquaintance with Almighty God. That’s not what the Christian life’s all about. The Christian life is serious business about having a serious relationship with the God who created every single one of us, has absolute power of all things, knows all things, and has made us these awesome promises. That’s who He is. And this is why throughout the Scripture He says we’re to seek Him, and we’re to seek Him with all of our heart. Now, let’s think about it from the point of view of a lost person. So, if a lost person says, what am I to seek? Why should I be seeking God? I have a nice home, I have a good family, or I have a good car, I have a good job, and everything’s going fine. Why do I want to seek God? I’m not a Christian. Why do I want to seek Him? Here’s what you tell them. You say, well, let me give you some very biblical reasons why you should seek God, beginning in Isaiah chapter 59, if you want to follow some of these verses. Isaiah chapter 59 is a good reason you should seek the Lord. Well, what is that? Well, here’s number one. Because the Scripture says, your iniquities have made a separation between you and God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear you. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, you don’t have a relationship with God. And he says, besides that, standing between you and God are all these sins. You may whisper prayers in your emergencies, but He does not hear you. A second thing he says in Romans chapter one, if you want to turn there for a moment, awesome chapter in the Bible. And here’s the second reason I would say to someone who is not a Christian that you ought to be seeking the Lord because here’s what he says. He says in the eighteenth verse of Romans one, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and women who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them and God has made it evident to them. That is, he says, God’s wrath. God’s wrath exists upon those who have turned away. But a third reason you should seek Him is this. In this first chapter and this 28th verse, a very serious verse in the Bible, when He says, And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. A depraved mind is a mind that cannot form right judgments. When a person lives in sin over and over and over again, refuses the gospel, rejects the gospel, here’s what happens. Their heart begins to harden. And he says, a depraved mind is a mind that cannot form right judgments. And what they don’t realize when the person says, well, you know, I’m not concerned about religion, not concerned about church, you need to get concerned about God. Because God’s wrath rests upon you. And when you live in sin and deliberately will to reject Him, refuse to seek Him, turn a deaf ear to the gospel, what’s happening all the time, as he says in Hebrews, and that is the heart begins to harden. When you hear the gospel over and over and over and over again, there can come a time when you can’t feel it. And that would be the most tragic thing that could happen to anybody, to sin against God to the point that all feeling for God, all desire for God, all sensitivity to God, all interest in God whatsoever is gone and you’re walking like a dead man. So, somebody says, well, why should a lost person be seeking God? I’m answering that question for you right now. And that is simply for the reason it is a dangerous thing not to listen to God and to seek Him. It is a dangerous thing. Listen, it isn’t just temporarily dangerous. It is eternally dangerous to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. I would say, if you’ve never trusted Jesus, there is a very specific, definite set of reasons you should be asking God to speak to you and to surrender your life to Him. Okay, so somebody says, well, now wait a minute. I understand that for the lost person. But here I am, a Christian. And you have explained that when you trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, He comes into your life. The Holy Spirit comes into your life and seals you as a child of God. So, why should I be seeking God when I’m already a Christian? What am I looking for? Why am I seeking anything? Well, let’s think about it for a moment. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, Paul puts it this way, he says, you’re like a babe in Christ. So, you’re born again, Jesus said. And so why should you seek the Lord? Because God does not intend for you to remain in babyhood in your Christian life. That is, you can quote John 3.16, that’s the only verse you can quote. So you know that you’re a Christian, you say, here’s what I did and I got baptized. I know that I’m a Christian. What am I looking for in life? You’ve missed the whole point. Because, listen, He said He predestined, He predetermined that when you were saved, you began at that moment to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. God knows us. He wants us to know Him. He wants us to know Him intimately. He wants us to know Him personally. Because what He’s saying is this, look, I want a relationship with you. I want a relationship with you so that I can reveal to you who I really am. I want you to understand how much I love you. I want you to know that I have made a promise that I will cause everything to work together for your good if you will follow Me and love Me and obey Me and trust Me. I’ll turn everything, difficulties, hardships, trials, suffering, I’ll turn it all for your good. I want you to get to know Me. Because, listen, if you love Him, you will seek to know Him better. And if you’re a brand new Christian, you should be seeking to know Him better. And seeking to know Him isn’t just getting information and reading the Bible, but it’s also listening and watching. And observing, how does God act? That is, when I think about all the things that I would like to know about God and am beginning to know in my life, one of the things that I treasure most is I love to observe how He works. I want to know how God thinks. I want to know how He works. I want to know why He does this, why He does that, why He does the other. Do I have all the answers? No, I do not. But I have enough to keep me so excited and searching and seeking and listening and observing what He does, not only in my life, but in the lives of other people. And one of the ways that God shows us what He’s like and what He wants to do in our life is He will open your eyes to see what He’s doing in other people’s lives. We watch how He operates in other people’s lives and say, well, Lord, You’re blessing them, and I certainly want to be obedient to You so You can bless me. He wants us to know Him and to know Him on a level that most people have no interest or even idea that they can know Him on that level. Listen, we know Him about that thick, and He’s fathomless. He’s absolutely fathomless. You’ll never exhaust who He is. It’ll always be that, as we said before, and I’ll say it again. Here’s what happens when you begin to understand who He is, what He’s like. You want more and more and more and more, and you say, well, when will I get enough of Him? Never. And I think many people, somehow in their thinking, it never dawns on them. That if I love Him, I’ll talk about Him. If I love Him, I will pursue Him. That He’ll be my number one pursuit. Watch this carefully. Whatever is your number one pursuit, other than God, sooner or later, listen, you’re going to lose it, or you’re going to hurt it, or you’re going to be damaged by it. Whatever is number one, ahead of God in your life, I can tell you something. He already has His hand on it for the simple reason He loves us too much to let us get by with it. He says we’re to seek Him. So, it’s a daily challenge in all of our lives, and we have to ask ourselves the question, Lord, Am I in one of those stages where I’m just sort of casually living the Christian life? Am I serious about following You and being obedient to You? He says, we’re to seek Him. Now, which leads me to what I want to consider here for a moment, and that is, so we talk about listening to Him, seeking Him, and all this. What’s required of me? What’s required of us if we’re to seek the Lord? Listen, we’re talking about having a relationship with Almighty God. Well, what’s required of me? Can I say, well, you know, when I decide to pray, I will. When I read the Bible, I will. And when I go to church, I will. Or is this serious business? So, first of all, let me say, we’re to seek Him with all of our heart. And that means He’s a priority. He’s number one. He’s first. He’s the most important person in our life. Listen to this. Jeremiah 29, verse 11. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, that’s for our good, not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I’ll listen to you. Listen to this now. I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart. Here’s what that says to me. It says to me in my seeking Him, it’s not a casual thing. A deep, abiding, hungering, thirsting yearning within you. Listen, to go deeper and further in your relationship. Look at one more passage here, Isaiah fifty-five, and because this is very, very, very important. If I’m going to seek the Lord with all of my heart, here’s something I have to remember. In this fifty-fifth chapter and the sixth verse says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord. Now watch this carefully. I cannot seek the Lord over here and be living in sin over here. In other words, that doesn’t work. I’m either going to live in sin or seek the Lord, I’m not going to do both. There may be a time in your life when you’re seeking Him and maybe there’s some weakness in your life, but listen, and you’re having to struggle with something. But listen, if you’re seeking the Lord and there’s a struggle, that’s one thing. If you’re seeking the Lord and living in sin and not connecting the two, you, listen, you can’t seek and find what you’re looking for and hold on to some sin in your life because He says your iniquities have separated you from Him. That doesn’t mean you’re going to be lost if you’re a Christian. But you cannot play both sides at the same time. If I love Him, if I’m seeking Him, I’m willing to get rid of all the stuff and things in my life that don’t fit who I am as a follower of Jesus. Then when I seek Him, I’m going to discover, I’m going to find out something. I’m going to have a relationship that is so deep beyond my comprehension. But I must seek Him with all of my heart. Now, you have to ask yourself this question. What other desires are in your life? Here’s a very interesting passage in Deuteronomy chapter four. Listen to this, verse nineteen of the fourth chapter, And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven, and see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the hosts of heaven, and be drawn away, and worship them, and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heavens. Now, you say, well, I’m not, I’m not worshiping anything up there. Well, let me ask you a question. What is that piece in the paper that has your month of birth on it? What’s that piece? The horoscope. You know what it is? You say, well, now, that doesn’t mean anything. Why do you read it? Did you know that if you read that seeking guidance, he says don’t do that? Because what are they talking about? You know, what’s in the heavens and if you were born under this and under that, you need to be born again, you get out of all that. What I want you to see here is this, that from God’s perspective, that doesn’t fit who we are. He says we’re not to be looking at those things. We are to be doing what? With all of our heart, we’re to be seeking Him. And you remember what David said? He said, my heart pants after the Lord God like the deer pants after the water brook. So, I would ask you, what are you the hungriest for today? What is it that really stirs you up? What is it that motivates you? Who is it you want to know? What is it you want to accomplish? What do you want God to do in your life? If God said, okay, here’s a blank paper, write it out. What would you write down? And after you wrote it down, would it fit His will and purpose and plan for your life? Would it fit the Word of God for your life? Sometimes somebody says, well, I just don’t know how to live. Well, I can tell you how to live. Just decide you’re going to be obedient to God and you say, well, how am I going to know what that means? In the Word of God, He makes it very, very clear. We are to seek Him with all of our heart.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:04

Thank you for listening to Seeking the Lord. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.