GOD ISN’T HIDING BUT SEEK HIM ANYWAY Isaiah 55:6-9 NASB.
When we were kids we liked to play “Hide And Seek.” We all had our favorite hiding places. Under a bed, behind a couch, in a closet, behind a shower curtain.
We didn’t want to be the first one found because it meant we’d be seeker next, but at the same time we kind of hoped we’d be found pretty soon for a restroom break and to get out of our stuffy, crowded hideaway.
If you think you have looked everywhere and can’t find God, let me tell you, kindly, you’re looking in the wrong places.
He is not found in alcohol or narcotics; He is not found in immorality; He is not found in secular riches; He is not found in religions, He is not found in transcendental meditation or trances.
The Lord is not playing Hide and Seek, but seek Him anyway! He desires that everyone seek and find Him. Isaiah spoke God’s words. “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, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:6-9 (NASB).
And Jeremiah wrote, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 (NASB).
Let us seek the Lord and let us:
I. SEEK HIM EXCLUSIVELY:
A. You can readily see that’s what He means: “Seek the Lord; Call upon Him; Return to the Lord.” Not Baal, Molech, Ashera, Dagon, or Isis.
1. The Bible all the way through expounds the exclusion of gods who are not God.
2. So how does something become a god to us?
a. Something becomes a god to us when it lessens our attraction, commitment, and obedience to Jesus.
b. Something becomes a god to us when it becomes more important than Him. It could be good things out of proportion.
(1) Participation in Sports to the neglect of your spiritual life.
(2) Pursuing Recreation to an obsessed level.
(3) Possessions that we think form our basis of security.
(4) Popularity and social status even if we compromise to attain it.
c. Something becomes a god to us when it displaces Jesus as our master: Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Matthew 6:24 (NASB). He truth is you can put anything in place of wealth and it’s still true:
(1) You cannot serve God and sexual promiscuity.
(2) You cannot serve God and addictive substances.
(3) You cannot serve God and Christless religions or philosophies.
(4) You cannot serve God and Self.
(5) You cannot serve God and popularity or status.
B. Hear these words:
1. “Serve only the LORD your God and fear Him alone. Obey His commands, listen to His voice, and cling to Him.” Deuteronomy 13:4 (NLT2).
2. Samuel said to the people who had sinned by demanding a human king when God was already King, "Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile.” 1 Samuel 12:20-21 (NASB).
3. Satan was tempting Jesus to worship him. “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the LORD your God and serve only Him.’” Matthew 4:10 (NLT2).
4. I found this article on Sermon Central, and though I can’t vouch for its authenticity, the final statement is right on. “Following the news of ex-Beatle George Harrison’s death, ‘Today’ show anchor Anne Curry interviewed Anthony DeCurtis, a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. DeCurtis talked at length about Harrison’s search for a meaningful spiritual life. Curry said, ‘Apparently Harrison was the most spiritual of the group. In a recent interview, he said, “Everything else in life can wait, but the search for God.”’” Whether or not he said that, it is a true statement.
C. Why do we seek other things to the neglect of seeking God?
1. It’s a control thing. “If I don’t seek God, I can run my life as I please.”
2. It’s a fear thing. As a small boy the thought of God brought up images of someone like the Wizard of Oz or the Queen of Hearts. The old hag who ruled Wonderland with an iron fist. The Queen is severe and domineering, continually screaming, “Off with his head!”
3. It’s a pride thing: We want to appear to be self sufficient. Needing God makes us appear to peers as a weakness or as needing a crutch. We are all crippled people and crippled people shouldn’t shun a crutch.
D. How do we seek? We don’t run from place to place, hollering, “Are You in there, Lord? Ready or not, here I come!”
1. We go where He speaks to us and so we read His words in the Bible.
2. We go where He listens to us and so we pour out our hearts in prayer.
3. We go where He serves others so we assist Helping Hands, the soup kitchen, the homes of the broken, lost, and weary.
4. We go where He meets His people so we gather in assembly as His church.
E. When He is our greatest desire, we will turn our hearts exclusively to Him. We’d be like a woman who lost her purse somewhere. She was desperate to find it because all the money she possessed in this world was in that purse.
She checked with the neighbor in whose home she had visited that day. She called the doctor’s office to see if she had left it there. She looked inside her old car, she looked under the bed. She was so focused on finding that purse that she missed 5 calls from friends, family and spam callers. She was exclusively seeking her purse. At last she cried out, “Oh, Lord, You know where my purse is. Please keep it out of evil hands and restore it to me.”
Hastening from place to place, crawling under and running to and from various possible places made her thirsty. She went to the freezer to get ice for ice tea. Much to her amazement, she realized that she had mindlessly put her purse in there when she deposited the meat. Talk about cold cash – and a satisfied search.
Seek Him Exclusively – He isn’t hiding – He will be found if we:
II. SEEK HIM EARLY:
A. “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.”
1. Don’t:
a. Procrastinate.
b. Put it on the back burner.
c. Prevaricate as did Felix, until a convenient time.
2. Do:
a. Grab the opportunity to find the Lord while there is still opportunity.
b. Grasp His hand now, because the day of His return is nearer today than it’s ever been and it gets nearer every second.
c. Get ready because once He comes there is no more opportunity – don’t wait to seek Him when it’s too late.
B. Why do people delay?
1. They think they are too busy.
2. They want to sow wild oats first.
3. They think they have years in which to seek and will do just before they die.
4. They think they need to clean up their lives first.
5. They think they can’t keep living a Christian life.
6. They are waiting for someone else.
7. They are afraid God will refuse to accept them.
8. They are afraid of rejection by peers.
C. Let us reject the idea planted by Satan, “He won’t return for many years because He is patient – relax, take your ease and enjoy life.”
D. The problem is that though some seem to think there is always going to be a tomorrow out there somewhere.
1. the truth is none of us is guaranteed any more days, so we’d best make the most of our limited and unguaranteed time.
2. Peter alerts us, “The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 1 Peter 4:7 (NLT2)
E. It is said that Colonel Rahl, commander of the British troops in Trenton, New Jersey, was playing cards when a courier brought an urgent message stating that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware River. Rahl put the letter in his pocket and didn't bother to read it until his card game was finished. Then, realizing the seriousness of the situation, he hurriedly tried to rally his men to meet the coming attack, but it was too late. His procrastination caused many of his men to be killed, and the rest of the regiment to be captured. Only a few minutes delay cost him his life, his honor, and the liberty of his soldiers. Tomorrow’ is the excuse of the lazy, and the refuge of the incompetent!
Seek Him early and:
III. SEEK HIM EXPECTANTLY:
A. There is no waffling, reneging, forgetting, or failure about God’s promises.
1. He promised that if we seek Him wholeheartedly, we will find Him.
2. If we seek Him exclusively, we won’t be misled.
3. If we seek Him early, the day of salvation will not fade into the dark night of lostness.
4. If we seek Him expectantly, we will receive His promises.
B. If God makes a promise the only conditions are trusting Him, claiming that promise, and obedience to His commands. Any failure to receive His promise is caused at our end of the deal, not God’s.
C. Each and every and any promise He makes holds true.
1. That’s true for His promise that you will find Him if you seek.
2. But to guarantee our finding Him, He also seeks for us, which includes:
a. Those who trust their own works and goodness to save them. They are misled.
b. Those who think they are beyond saving. They are not.
c. Those who imagine they are too insignificant for Jesus to care about them. They are mistaken.
d. Those who are indifferent to their spiritual condition. They don’t know and they don’t care. They are foolish.
D. We are to seek Him and He is seeking us. And if two people are earnestly seeking one another they, given time, will surely find one another. We were at Riverside Park in California when I was in high school. We saw a little boy looking this and that way and running around in panic in one direction after another. We asked what he needed and he said, “I can’t find my Dad.” We took him over to the refreshment shack and told him not to go anywhere.
In a few minutes we saw a man who was obviously seeking for someone. We asked if he was looking for a little boy and then directed him to the refreshment shack and witnessed a joyful reunion. Two mutual seekers are sure to be two mutual finders.
E. A small boy and his Dad loved playing hide and seek. It always played out the same. Dad always counted to 100 by 5’s and then would shout out, "Here comes Daddy to find you Timmy." And Timmy would always hide in the same room and the same spot but of course Dad always went through the motions of looking in just about every other room.
He’d go into one of the bedrooms and loudly proclaim "I wonder if Timmy is under the bed?" Down the hall he could hear the barely suppressed giggles of his child as he lifted up the sheets. "I wonder if he’s in the closet?" Again giggles from the other room. Making his way into the bathroom, Dad would say "I wonder if he’s in the shower?" Giggles. "I wonder if he’s in the toilet?" as he lifted the seat. The giggles were getting louder. Out in the hallway now, the father proclaimed "I wonder where Timmy could be?"
And at that moment Timmy would burst out of his parents’ bedroom hollering "Here I am Daddy, here I am!" and he’d throw himself into his Dad’s waiting arms. When one sought the other they were overjoyed that each one found the other.
How much more joyful and fulfilling will be our coming together with God because we sought Him exclusively, and we sought Him early and we sought Him with expectancy.
It is disheartening to look eagerly for something and then be totally disappointed when we find it. As a little boy I had always enjoyed whiting, that was a mild, kind of flaky, tasty to eat fish. Only once did I find whiting as an adult but when Marlene cooked it, I was severely disappointed because it was nothing like what I remembered as a boy. I need to say she cooked it right, it just didn’t taste the way I remembered it.
But there is no disappointment in finding Jesus Christ, so seek Him exclusively, seek Him early, and seek Him with expectancy because when you find Him and He finds you, you will not be sorry!
This is the time, this is the place, right here, right now, “Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” Isaiah 55:6 (NKJV). Those who seek will find – those who fail to do so will have eternity to regret it.
