This special message was given at North Christian Church in January, 2024. To watch the video, please visit nccdighton.org
Good morning! God is good… another day to be alive; amen?? 🙂
Another day means another opportunity to bring glory to God, right?? (hopefully we all look at our days that way… every day truly is a gift from our Heavenly Father)
So, if you’re listening to this message right now, and He’s given you another day, then….
Seek the Lord While He May Be Found! On Thursday, we branched off from our recent messages in Hebrews.
One thing that’s come up lately is God’s conditional promises.
The Bible does give us unconditional promises to cling to, such as “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. (Heb 13:5) and thank God for that!! Phew!!
But the Bible also has many conditional promises.
A conditional promise means there’s a promise from God attached to a certain condition or requirement placed upon us, such as faith and obedience.
And the title of our message is a rip off from a passage that suggests this.
There’s a lot in the Bible about seeking the Lord, and also about the consequences of NOT seeking Him.
Let’s again start in Isa 55 for an illustration of this:
(Isa 55:6) “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
(Isa 55:7) let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
In vs. 6, we see people should seek the Lord WHILE He may be found, WHILE He is near so the condition is seeking Him and calling upon Him, and the promise is in vs.7, the Lord will have compassion and pardon this person.
Let’s read this one more time, in case you missed it. (If you listened to Pt. 1, you know the purpose of this.)
(Isa 55:6) “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
(Isa 55:7) let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
This passage appears to be a call to salvation; a call to repentance to turn to the Lord while there’s still time; while it’s still called “Today” even does that sound familiar??
It’s the same overall attitude we’ve been seeing lately in Hebrews 3.
So, my friends, whoever you are listening to this message right now…If you’ve been on the fence in your soul, turn to the Lord while there’s still time/opportunity! (tomorrow may not be there for you!… and TODAY is the day He’s given you to turn to Him from the heart)
And, even as believers, we are called to seek the Lord every day as He sanctifies us.
Seeking has conditional promises attached to it!
We all want to have peace, right? but let’s face it, sometimes we don’t want to do it God’s way.
We all want to stay in the sphere of God’s love, right?!… what believer wouldn’t?!… but sometimes we look to the world for substitutes!IF we humbly obey the command to diligently seek Him, He will reward us with supernatural blessings that go beyond our imaginations.
We saw Mt 6:33 in Pt. 1, let’s go there this time.
Mt 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
We are promised all the things we need in life if we seek God first. Our Heavenly Father promises to fulfill our needs, supernaturally even, as only He can.
Maybe that’s why Jesus went on in vs. 34 to say don’t worry about tomorrow, because if you seek the kingdom of God first, you will be provided with these things from our good Father above, so why would you worry?? IF we humbly obey the command to diligently seek Him, He will reward us with supernatural blessings that go beyond our imaginations.
And how about the fact that God’s greatest blessings that He has in store for us are spiritual blessings, soulish blessings?? Wouldn’t you rather have a peace that’s unflappable than riches on earth?? (wouldn’t you rather have the ability to be happy and carefree at all times than to have possessions that don’t bring happiness??)
I hope you’ve said “yes” in your soul, because those are the TRUE blessings like the virtuous woman’s ability in Pr 31 to “laugh at calamity”.
But that only comes from years of diligently seeking the Lord, humbly, through His Word.
Eph 3:14-21 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
But if we disobey God by making Him second fiddle in our hearts, do you think you’ll get to see and experience these great things in Eph 3??
I think maybe we should read this one again, what do you think?? 🙂
Eph 3:14-21 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
But again, my friends, if we don’t diligently seek the Lord, we will not find these things… we will not discover these treasures for the soul.
How about James’ encouragement we’ve seen in the past??
Jas 4:8a Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
There’s a condition there, right??
If we want a closer relationship with the Lord, He requires we draw near to Him.
So, again, we’re not only to seek the Lord, but to seek Him DILIGENTLY…
Pr 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. (AGAIN) Do you see the condition to “finding” the Lord??
(Psa 119:1) Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!
(Psa 119:2) Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,
(Psa 119:3) who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!
(Psa 119:4) You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
(Psa 119:5) Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
(Psa 119:6) Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
Now let’s see a few passages about the consequences of NOT seeking the Lord!
Remember, these are CONDITIONAL promises the promises are only granted to those who humbly obey His Word.
Zech 6:15 “And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
Pr 1:28-29 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, (there does come a point when God says “enough”, as we’ve seen in Hebrews)
Let’s read this one more time, in case you missed it.
Pr 1:28-29 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, Hos 5:15-6:4
I (the Lord) will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.
6 “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
As we know, God wants our hearts.
And love being the motivation of our hearts is what He desires and requires.
And this brings us back to the idea of losing our first love.
The Spirit brought up Rev 2 & 3, written to the churches.
And as we see, we can be doing a lot of good and right things, but if we don’t have love what good is it in God’s eyes?!
Remember what the Spirit motivated Paul to write us about the need for love???
1 Co 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Talk about humbling!!
Talk about a reason to seek the Lord diligently!!
God wants our hearts, meaning He wants our motivation to be love after all, He did come down and love us FIRST!
Let’s again consider the passage about losing our FIRST love what’s the consequence of not loving Him like we did when we first realized He loved us and forgives us???
Here we see another conditional promise laid before us, which involves a potential loss, not a gain:
(Rev 2:1) “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
(Rev 2:2) “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.
(Rev 2:3) I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
(wow, what a great church, huh?? and Jesus is complementing them!!)
(Rev 2:4) But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
(Rev 2:5) Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not (there’s the condition), I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
And what’s the lampstand?? – The local church itself! (see ch. 1)
My friends, let us not test the Lord remember that Peter wrote that judgment begins with the house of God let’s obey His call here, to repent where we need to, especially if we’ve lost our first love.
Let’s repent, and do the deeds we did at first, as the Lord commands. (when’s the last time you thought about the deeds you did at first???)
With the faith of a child, we can go back there and regain our first love for Him.
If not, there will be consequences in our lives.
As came up in Pt. 1, how many churches have closed down in our country in the last 20 years???
As Pastor often brings up; it’s the law of supply and demand.
If enough people don’t want to hear the words of the Lord, the churches providing such a service will close down, and there will be a famine in the land.
May WE not be part of the problem in our country, but part of the solution!
May WE repent and obey the Lord and His Word every day, that we might help preserve a precious little church like this, making His Word available to the people in our community.
If not, we might be subject to the following in our lifetimes.
(Amo 8:11) “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.
(Amo 8:12) They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
Let’s read this one more time, in case you missed it. 🙂
(Amo 8:11) “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.
(Amo 8:12) They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
We’re back to the title of our message, taken from Isaiah 55; seek the Lord while He may be found!!
The implication is there will be a time He cannot be found if we don’t seek Him.
Finally, the Spirit brought up the idea of reading God’s Word with intentionality.
This has come up in the past from our dear Pastor, if you remember.
And the Spirit has had us read passages more than once “in case we missed it” as an illustration to us.
How many of us can say we’re glad we reread them because our mind was drifting the first time??
(I received a text from someone yesterday thanking me for reading the passages more than once!)
The point of the Spirit is this:
It’s not just that we read His Word, but it’s HOW we read His Word.
Do we read His word with the intention of getting to know Him better???… SEEKING to get to know Him better??
Or do we read it just to read it??
What did we see in Hosea??? –let us press on to know the Lord.
There’s an activity and desire there.
We must be careful to read God’s Word with intentionality otherwise, we just might be guilty of NOT seeking Him diligently, and be subject to the consequences.
This is a similar idea to having our reading the Word “united by faith” in what we read.
What should we expect to receive if we don’t read God’s Word with an attitude of faith, seeking Him from a humble heart??
NOTHING, acc. to James 1.
Let’s be diligent to draw near to the Lord, by faith.
He’s given us all the tools, my friends.
His Holy Spirit indwells us. His Word is more than available to each one of us. Its no one’s fault but our own if we don’t take advantage of His great provisions.
Its no one’s fault but our own if we don’t receive His promises by obeying the conditions of our dear Heavenly Father.
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
One more time, shall we???
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
And this brings us back to our main passage in Hebrews 4. We see a conditional promise.
The condition is faith. The promise based on obeying that condition is rest.
Heb 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
Heb 4:2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, [Why?] because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
My friends, let us seek the Lord while He may be found!!
Let’s not take for granted that His Truth will always be available to us.
The minute we start to take it for granted, we stop seeking diligently as He requires.
And WE are the ones who miss out, missing out on the greatest blessings imaginable, such as truly possessing His peace and His love.
Amen?!