1The Quest
The Christian life is more than a day to day walk with the Lord, it is a “Quest.”
2The Bible is a treasure map.
Have you heard of Rick Warren and his “Purpose Driven Life” series? It is a movement within the church today that has inspired many Christians to find meaning in their existence. It has motivated otherwise lacadazakle Christians to wake up and allow God to direct their lives through His purpose. This is the Nazarene version, based on a similar principle but going farther. The Sub-heading of the book is “Discovering Life in the Spirit of Christ”.
3Know this: It will take a lifetime to explore all that God has in mind for you.
Acts 17:25-34 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the
4 God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with
those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. Moving on to verse 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed.
There were men who sought the truth the truth. They wanted their lives to mean more that a superficial religiosity.
5What is the purpose of your life? Have you ever wondered why you are
present in this world today, in this moment of time, even sitting in the chair this morning?
God has promised us that if we seek Him we will find Him.
The goal then is to develop a close personal relationship with God. Augustine:
6“Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee oh God.”
Years ago a young black child was growing up in Cleveland, in a home which he later described as “ materially pour but spiritually rich”
7One day a famous athlete, Charlie pact, came to his school to speak to
the students. At the time paddock was considered “ the fastest human being alive”. He told the children, listen! What do you want to be? You name it and then believe that God will help you be it. That little boy decided that he too wanted to be the fastest human being on earth.
The boy went to a track coach and told him of his new dream. His coach told him, it’s great to have a dream, but to retain your dream you must build a ladder to. Here is the latter to your dreams. The first-rung determination! The second rung is dedication! The third rung is disciplined! And the fourth rung is attitude!
The results of all that motivation is that he went on to win four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He won the 100-meter-and broke the Olympic world records for the 200 m. His broad jump record lasted
(8)for 24 years. His name? Jesse Owens.
The quest for God is one that will and should consume you for a lifetime.
9We must be careful that we do not fall into the trap of complacency.
God has so much to offer you that you cannot be the same today as you were yesterday if you put your trust in Him. Think of the things in your life, your home or garden. You add things change colors, plant new trees or flowers. You read, listen to your pastor, things on the radio, but always in transition, trying to be better at what you do.
For many in our society the quest is self serving and self seeking.
Romans 2:8 says
10“But for those who are self seeking, and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” Romans 2:8
This verse is preceded by the words; “God will give to each person according to what he has done.” If you seek Him you will find Him. If you seek the world you will find it.
The quest must be something that you want to do.
11) 1) God purposefully created us.
Have you bought into the politically correct assumption that evolution is true. Do you really believe that we crawled out of a soupy chemical marsh and developed into who we are today? Does it make sense that in
12)our current evolutionary process all things
tend to degenerate rather than pro-generate, and evolutionist tend to skirt the issues that they cannot explain with vague terminology. I am not ashamed of my faith and belief in a God that is real and alive. A God that is the one and only God, and as one of His created beings I want to know more about my creator. I want to be more like Him, and I want to be obedient to Him. He was and is my creator. He purposefully created me and you.
2) God has a purpose for us living on planet earth. The Bible if full of Gods plan for us. Let me read a few of them.
Gen 1:26 (NIV)
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Gen 9:11 (NIV)
I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
1 Cor 10:25-26 (NIV)
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, "The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it
Psalms 24:1-4 (NIV)
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
13) 3) God placed clues about himself throughout His creation.
Read Psalm 19,
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice
goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
And it continues. Open it at home and read it through a few times.
14 Science can only explain refraction as the reason we have so many colors and can enjoy so much beauty. Why the sky is blue and the ocean
Is green, and why it is so beautiful when we see it set on a clear day. We can understand the concept of condensation and how water changes from a liquid to a solid at 32degrees, but we can’t explain how it came about to be just that way. Newton theorized about gravity, but it really does not fully explain how it came into being and why we aren’t thrown into space with the rotation on the sun. God is all around us and declares himself to all who want to see.
15) 4) God searched for us long before we got the idea to look for Him. Read Ezekiel 16: 1-9 - 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man,
confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices 3 and say, ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.
6 "’Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and
16 as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!"[2]
Ezek 16:1-6 (NIV)
This allegory of Gods love for Jerusalem can be applied to every individual that turns to Him. He sees us in our nakedness, and out of his love he clothes us in righteousness. God is always seeking the unsaved, desiring to reach out and hear them. This should be the utmost desire of our hearts, if we have the heart of God.
5) God wants to enter into daily personal relationship with us. This relationship involves communication on a two-way street. We know that
17 God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve, We see where he
appeared to the prophets, Jesus would take certain apostles to go with him, our God is one that wants a relationship.
6) The quest for God satisfies the deepest longing of our hearts, Yet
18 challenges us to get out our shovels and dig deeper at the same time.
When Thomas put his hand into the side of Christ, he said, “My Lord and My God., Steven when he was being stoned for his faith in Christ said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!”, Saul when he was struck down on his way to Damascus Asked the question we should all be forever asking, “Who Are You Lord”, and when we hear the answer our response must be “Lord What do you want me to do?”
I ASK YOU TODAY, “Did you seek God this week? Do you seek him as
19 a man or woman on a quest. If you feel disjointed or separated from
God, do you earnestly seek after the closeness you must have to maintain your relationship with Him?
If you have not, because of the business of this life, the beauty is it is never too late. If you can hear these words as I speak you have the time you need to be directed to God and By God.
20 Do you remember the story of Jesse Owens that we began with?
The beauty of service to God is that he has provided us a helper, the
20 Holy Spirit, to enable us, to provide a means to enable us to be
everything he wants this to be. But there is some that we must do, we must climb the ladder that Jesse Owens coach told him about we must be determined, we must be dedicated, we must be disciplined, and we must have an attitude that is godly.
Read A ships Challenge by James Michener pg. 14
