Seek The Lord And Experience His Presence

SERMON: Seek The Lord And Experience His Presence.

Opening Verse:

Lamentations 3:25

The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

Today, I would like to take you back to biblical times and examine closely how God blesses those who seek HIM and why it is crucial for us in our modern day to seek him too. As we enter a new month, the month of August. Let it be a month where we can renew our minds and tune it with Gods mind. Are you ready? Alright, lets pray! Father, in your name, your glory and presence , we come into your throne room to hear from you, to commune with you, to learn from you oh Father! Grant us the grace and understanding of your word this morning in Father! Open our hearts, make it fertile ground ready to receive. In your son’s name we pray, the name that is above all names, Jesus!

Alright! Open your good bible with me to Acts 17:24 and we are going to read to v 28

A bit of a background here, the Apostle Paul is invited to speak in a public arena, his audience were very varied, many of them intellectuals, scholars, pagans. Its a mix bag of people from various backgrounds and he’s there to talk to them about GOD, the one and true God. Lets take it from Verse 24:

Acts 17:24-28 NIV

“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 human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

God, the creator, author, maker, giver of life, the very breath we have, our very existence is from GOD. And in these verses He did this, meaning he created us all for us to SEEK HIM.

WHAT is seeking GOD?

Seeking the LORD is the intentional and purposeful pursuit of GOD.

Seeking the LORD is the intentional and purposeful pursuit of GOD. To seek GOD is to pursue GOD. It’s that internal longing to commune from God, to hear from HIM. Seeking God is pursuing GOD!

ONE It’s intentional meaning we prioritize seeking him, we put it first and foremost in our lives. That’s intentional seeking.

TWO Its purposeful meaning the reason we seek him is actually 4 fold: to know him, to draw close to him, to build a lasting relationship with him and finally to walk in his perfect will!

So pursuing GOD is Seeking God ajd seeking God is both intentional and purposeful.

Seeking the Lord opens up a gate into the mind of GOD! Is an exciting privilege to get to know how God operates. And God operates by His great attributes or divine characteristics. If I ask you, to define who God is to you? What would be your answer? I knew it: God is loving! God is merciful, Good is kind, God is good, very common attributes, but there’s more. So much more! He is just, immutable meaning unchanging, he is perfect, no one can compare. He is just, his justice is righteous, he is also incomprehensible - we will never dully understand the Lord. He is immortal - he wasn’t created, as BT would always say, he was there before the beginning even began. God has over 20 attributes and as we seek HIM he reveals himself, his attributes to us fully and wholeheartedly!

Jeremiah 29:13

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with ALL your heart.

Key here is we seek the Lord with all our heart. Its not out of obligation, not a ritual, it has to be a lifestyle. An automatic part of life!

1 Chronicles 16:11

11 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

1 Chronicles 2:19

19 Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God.

Let me ask you this. Are we really devoting our heart and soul to seeking the Lord! I don’t think so. If you look through research reports most people seek the Lord only when they’re in trouble, when they need help, when they’re looking for miracles! Seeking the Lord is not a lifestyle for many, it’s only when the need arises. Am i right? Kilala natin si Marites? Yes! Second name na nang karamihan yan. Maritess, Maria Marites prudenciano, Lourdes Marites Gonzales, puro tayo Marites. Pero kilala nyo ba si Jan MayKel? Jan lang pag may kailangan! That’s who many of our have become Jan lang pag kailangan ang panginoon. We’ve put the LORD in a box! Parang tool kit, power up, only when needed only when necessary!