Charles Stanley - When We Seek God
If God were to offer to give you the three strongest desires of your heart, what would they be? Would it be something that has to do with your physical being, maybe how you look or your health? Would it be something that has to do with something, maybe material possession that you'd like to have? Maybe some pleasure that you've sought, maybe some goal that you've tried to accomplish. Or could it be that the greatest desire of your heart would be your relationship to Him and something about that?
Well, more than likely, you could come up with those three desires, but what they are would probably tell more about yourself than you realize. It could be that all of us, all of those desires would be in one of those categories or the other, or it may be that they're scattered out over all the rest of them. There's nothing wrong with having desires, not only for things as well as people, whatever it might be, as long... it depends upon the nature of that desire. It depends upon how it affects your life and it depends upon the fact: How does that desire fit into God's will and plan for your life? All of us have those desires.
The tragedy is that many people are gonna seek things all of their life they're never gonna find. There are a lot of people out there who are looking for peace, that is, they're seeking for peace without God. You can't have such a thing. They're looking for contentment without having Christ in their life. There is no such thing. They're looking for security and just absolutely ignore the Savior Himself. There is no such thing. The only security there is security that comes in a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what we call eternal security because everything else you put your hopes on in this life could dwindle away very quickly over a period of time.
If I should ask you: What is it that you're seeking most in life? What would it be? What is the one thing that's paramount, zenith, pinnacle? It's the thing that, above everything else, stands out above all the rest if you could just have this. If you could just get this. If you could just accomplish this. If you could just go there. What is the one thing? Well, that's what I want to talk about in the message this morning because you see, a lot of people will seek those things in life that are sorta like phantoms. The truth is, no matter how long you seek it, you'll never really find it.
And even if you find those things that you think are so very important, without God, what you're gonna find is this. You're gonna find disappointment, you're gonna be discouraged, and you could ultimately be depressed if you spend your whole life seeking for something that you find, and when you get it, it's like mercury, you can't hold onto it. It just goes right through your fingers. Well, there's one thing that you can find that'll never slip away, and that is Almighty, loving God. I want you to turn, if you will, to a passage of scripture in the Old Testament, Second Chronicles.
Now, if you're not too familiar with that, if you'll just flip through those pages and go back beyond the Psalms and you'll see Samuel and King and Chronicles. There are two of each of those words, First and Second Chronicles. This is Second Chronicles. And I want us to read beginning in the twentieth verse, just two verses. Give you a little background here. Hezekiah was a great king of the nation of Israel and he served the Lord faithfully. God blessed him and honored him. God used him to bring his people back to God.
And the scripture says about him, and here's the key to what we're gonna talk about, in the twentieth verse, and the twenty-first verse of this thirty-first chapter of Second Chronicles. The twentieth verse says, "And thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, what was right, and what was true before the LORD his God". Now, watch this, "And every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered".
What I want to talk about is seeking the Lord, seeking God. Now, when you think about that, let's think about what we mean by the very idea of seeking something. If we're seeking something, we're exploring it, we are looking into it, we're following after it, and we are serious about it, and we're pursuing it, and we're turning up everything possible, trying to find out: What does this mean? And how can I achieve this? Whatever the object that you're seeking, if you really want it bad enough, you will energetically go after it.
Well, the Bible talks about seeking God. And oftentimes we hear that phrase and we read that phrase and we ask ourselves the question: Well, what does it mean to seek God and how am I seeking Him? If I don't understand what it means, I won't know whether I'm seeking Him or not. I think a lot of people think that they're seeking God by going to church when the reason they're going is not necessarily to learn something, to find out something new about God, or to find out how they can apply truth in their life. Oftentimes people go because it's convenient, because they sort of enjoy it. It's a social kind of thing. We're not talking about that. We're talking about seeking God. We're talking about something that goes on inside the human heart that is more than just something casual and convenient and occasional.
Now, when we talk about seeking God, let's apply that, first of all, to a person who is not a Christian. For a person who's not a Christian, when they're seeking God, ultimately, here's what's happening. God has created an awareness of their sinfulness in their life. He's created an awareness that they need Him. He has created an awareness in their heart that in order to find this peace and this joy and this contentment and this sense of security, He and He alone is the source of that. And so therefore, the Spirit of God begins to work in their heart. They become aware of the fact that they've sinned against God, violated His law, and that they have offended Almighty God by their sinfulness.
And so, in their genuine confession and repentance, that is, turning away from their sin toward God, they turn to Him, confessing and acknowledging their sinfulness, willing to understand and believe that Jesus Christ's death at Calvary paid their sin-debt in full. And therefore, now if they're willing to trust Him as their Savior, they can be saved. And so they are willing by faith to place their trust in Him for the pardon of their sin, they become a child of the living God. What happened was the Spirit of God began to work in their heart, their interest began to move them toward God, and in their search, which was really God pulling them toward Himself, revealing Himself to them, they discovered Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and they find Him.
Now, so we understand how a lost person comes to know Christ, comes to know God. But now what about those of us who are believers? When we talk about seeking God, what do we mean by seeking God? Well, first of all, it's finding out what He's like. That is, look at this now. It is a strong desire to find out what He's like. Who is this God that I've placed my trust in as my personal Savior? What is He like? Who is this God? So I want to find out what He's like.
Secondly, I want to fellowship with Him more intimately. There's a strong desire to fellowship with Him more intimately when I am seeking Him. Thirdly, there is a strong desire to follow Him more closely. That is, what's the will of God for my life? What does He want me to do in this given situation? How does He want me to respond to this? So there's a strong desire to follow His will more closely. Likewise, there is a faithfulness, listen, there's a strong desire to faithfully claim His promise and believe Him and trust Him that He will indeed fulfill every single promise that He's given us. So, likewise, there is a strong desire to forsake those things that keep me from following our Lord.
So when we ask ourselves the question: What's involved in seeking the Lord? To find out what He's like and to have a strong desire for an intimate intimacy with Him, a strong desire for intimate fellowship with Him, a strong desire to follow Him carefully, and not just occasionally, but consistently. And you see, when I think about people who say, "Well, I've, you know, I've read the Bible and yes, I've read some scriptures and yes, I am saved". And they don't seem to have any real, genuine interest, they're not excited about God. Let me ask you something. How could you not be excited about God who is infinitely, listen, infinitely and, listen, and absolutely, unsurpassably and infinitely so glorious that there are not enough words in all the dictionaries that have ever been written to even begin to describe this God.
And what is He saying? He says, "I want you to seek Me because I want to show you what I'm like. I want you to understand Me in all the fullness of what I am". Because God knows that the more you and I understand Him, the more we're gonna love Him. The more we love Him, the more we're gonna want to obey Him. The more we obey Him, the more fascinated we're gonna be about the ways that God operates in our life. So, when we think about what's involved, we say it is finding out what He's like. It is a strong desire to faithfully claim the promises of God and a strong desire to forsake all that junk in our life that would keep us from doing that.
Now, the question is this. How do you seek God? That's the attitude, what are the actions? How do we go about seeking the Lord? What do we do when it comes to seeking the Lord? Well, number one, I want to give you several words. Number one, if I'm gonna seek the Lord, this is where I begin. I begin by meditating upon His Word. Now, what do you mean by meditating? I mean, let's put it this way. And this is probably not the best example in the world, but it may catch some of you and you say, "Oh, well, I sorta know what that means".
I do not happen to drink coffee. I never have drunk a cup in my life or even tasted it, for some reason, not because I think it's a sin. I don't know why, but when I hear people saying, "I get up in the morning and have myself my cup of coffee," I can just, I understand what that means because I can see them sitting there, relaxed, and they have something that satisfies them. And so they have a cup of coffee in the morning, whatever. When I think about meditating upon the Word of God, I sorta think about that.
You know, I say, "Well, Lord, I want, I just, here's my favorite book and this is the thing that fills my heart. And so, God, I just want You to speak to me. I just want You to fill my heart. I just want You to do something in my heart this morning," or this evening, or whatever it may be. And so, it's a time when you open the Word of God and you just allow the Lord to speak to you. Now, we're not talking about Bible study, I'm coming to that. I'm talking about you come to a passage of scripture or you turn to one that you are familiar with or God just brings one to your heart and you just begin to meditate upon it. You read it, you talk to Him about it, you ask Him how to apply that to your heart. You ask Him what He's saying.
"God, what is it, what's going on in my life at this point"? Or, "Lord, here's what's going on and how does this apply to my life"? And so what happens is that God very lovingly, sweetly's what I put it, and kindly, will say something. Or sometimes it may be a fiery arrow of conviction. Whatever it is, it's gonna be for our good. Meditating upon the Word of God is reading it, praying it back to Him, just letting it, absorbing it into your heart. And it may be that He'll bring you back to the same cup of coffee, same kind, every single morning for several mornings or whatever it may be. But God knows exactly what you and I need.
If I am going to seek God, I am going to fall in love with His Word. My friend, you will not seek Almighty God and occasionally, conveniently, comfortably read the Word of God. You will make it a priority in your life. It is far more important than anything else we do in life. Continuously seeking Him, I'm gonna have it in part of my menu every day. I would challenge anybody to tell me you close your Bible, listen carefully, you close your Bible and you stay off your knees and don't talk to God, don't say another word to Him for ten days.
I guarantee you, you will not be the godly person at the end of ten days you were when you started. You cannot. You and I live in a world that's full of filth and wickedness and vileness and all the rest. To be able to do that would be like taking a young lady in her wedding garment, in all of its white and purity and say, "All right, now, we're taking you down in this coal mine with 300 feet deep. We're gonna take you down there and want you to just walk around and stay two or three hours and then come out". There'd be no way for her to come out with that dress as white as it was when it went in there because the coal dust would darken her. I'm telling you, sin will get into the life of a person who is not in the Word, who is not in prayer. And so, if I'm gonna seek God, the first thing I do is I want to start meditating upon His Word.
Number two, not only am I gonna meditate upon His Word, but because I want to know Him, follow Him, know His will, have an intimate relationship with Him, and claim His promises, I'm not just gonna meditate upon His Word, I'm gonna study His Word. Now, somebody says, "Well, I, you know, I never have been into Bible study". Get into it! You say, "Well, how do I get into it"? Well, for example, let's say that you came to a passage of scripture like "seek," and you say, "Well, I don't know what to do". Well, you could just go back in a concordance of your Bible and find the word "seek", and look up all those verses. Or, most Bibles now, study Bibles, have verses along the edge that you can turn to.
And sometimes they can take you all through the scriptures that has that particular word, whatever you happen to be thinking about. Or you may just read a particular epistle. Four chapters of Philippians. I want to tell you something, you could read that every day of your life, and you know what? By the time you got to be a hundred, you'd say, "You know what, I still don't think I have fathomed these four chapters". I'll tell you, the most wonderful thing about the Word of God is you will never be able to glean all the truth out of it. And so, what happens is that God wants, listen, He wants us drinking from the well. He, listen, He wants us eating from the manna that satisfies the human heart, that brings contentment and joy and direction for our life.
So that means studying the Word of God. And sometimes you may come to a passage and you think, "Well, I don't know what that means and I'mma skip over that". No, you don't skip over it. Listen, if, listen, if you are seeking God, you don't want anything to go by that you don't understand. And so, if you don't have a concordance, then buy yourself one. Listen, ask somebody to give you one as a gift, your next birthday or Christmas or whatever it might be. Just say, "Well, if you want to know what I want, I want a one-volume commentary on the whole Bible that'll help me understand the Bible," or a whole set or whatever it might be.
Listen, we're talking about discovering an infinite God who desires to reveal Himself to us and here's what He's done. He says, "I love you so much, I'm gonna give you at least a portion of My thinking. Some of it's gonna be history, some of it's gonna be narrative, some of it's going to be poetry, some of it's gonna be letters here, the Apostle Paul, and some of it's gonna be prophecy, all of these things. This is a portion of what I've done. This is a little bit of what I've done in history. Here's what I'm up to". And you know what, God has given us this awesome book. And so this is why He says in this passage, when He says, "To this one I will look," God will look to us and He will honor us and bless us, if we have a humble and contrite spirit and we tremble at the Word of God, we acknowledge His wonderful, wonderful Word and live in it.
Well, as we said, first of all, there's meditation. Secondly, getting in the Word of God, studying it. Now, listen parents, if you don't study it, don't expect your kids to get excited about it. The third word is prayer. There's no way in the world to seek God without prayer because so much of our seeking is asking, "Lord, what are You doing? What are You saying to my heart? What is it that You are trying to say? Help me to understand, God, what's going on".
And you see, the most important thing in a person's life: seeking the Lord, their personal, intimate, personal relationship with Him. What's the things that most affect that? The Word of God and prayer. Those two things, those are the two most important events in a person's life. And the reason I usually put 'em together and call it meditation is because that is exactly, listen, that is exactly how God wants us to do it. In His Word, on our face. But there's something else, another thing that I think is so very important, and that's this. And that is, look at this. Looking at the circumstances in our life, how God is operating in our circumstances.
Remember we said a few moments ago, there are patterns that God operates by. So if I want to know Him, and that is, if I want to seek God, one of the things I'm gonna do is I'm gonna look to see how God's operating in the circumstances of my life. And as I do that, and I am certain these kings certainly did the same thing for the simple reason that they were going through difficulties and trials just as Hezekiah and Josiah and Uzziah and all of these men about whom the Bible says, "They sought the Lord, they sought the Lord, they sought the Lord".
They were seeking after God. Why? Because they were wanting to understand how God was operating and how they were to rule and reign in their kingdoms. And as we've said before, they all made mistakes. All of them, every single one of them made mistakes. One of the things, that's so very important in growing in the Lord and seeking God, listen, is listening to God's messages. Now, if you listen to the message that comes from this place, then you should come on Sunday morning with your Bible and with a piece of paper, a notebook or something, and asking out, "Okay, God, speak to my heart".
A lot of people go to church, they're not seeking God. They're just going for different reasons, as we've said. But if I'm seeking Him, I'm gonna listen very carefully and I, listen, I'm gonna listen with application in mind. I'm gonna listen with discovery in mind. I'm gonna listen with a motivation that I want to understand what are the principles? How does God work? What am I to do? How can I glean the most out of my Christian life? How can I make my life count the most? What will bring me joy and peace and happiness and contentment? And at the same time, I can walk in absolute obedience to God, believing and trusting Him. So I'm gonna listen. I am to listen with a keen interest, saying, "What can I discover"?
Satan, listen, he will steal every principle he can. He'll steal everything he can from us so that we will drift like the world drifts and act like the world acts. You and I are to seek God. If we seek God, we'll have everything in life that we need and we'll have those things in life that we want that fit into God's will for our life. Or you can spend your life, listen, you can spend your life seeking all those things, miss God and miss what life's all about.
So I'm going to be listening carefully. But there's something else that's very important in seeking God, and that is this. Not only am I gonna look at the circumstances and the patterns that God works in my life, I'm going to be very observant of how God works in other people's lives. If I, listen, if I'm gonna seek God, I'm going to be very careful to observe how He works in other people's lives. The thing that I am sure set my heart to seeking God as a kid, as a young man, early in my life. I was saved at twelve, and I know as I look back, that the Lord started something happening in my life very soon after that, was spending that week with my grandad. My grandad told me how God worked in his life. I listened very carefully.
Here he was in his seventies or eighties or something, and to me in those days, he was like Moses. I mean, in fact, he passed, I mean, when you're that age, when you're sixteen and somebody's eighty, you think, you know, "Here's Moses for sure," or whatever it might be. My grandad in one week's time told me how God had worked in his life and the result was, God used that to create within me this deep, abiding, insatiable, ever-living hunger and thirst, to thirst and to seek after God because I said, "Lord, if You can work in my grandad's life that way, could You work in my life"? So what had made me do it?
I began to observe how God had worked in his life, and that week, I began to look and say, "Well, how does God work in other people's lives". And I saw some things that upset me greatly, some things that encouraged me greatly. But the most important thing is I wanted to know: What would He do in my life? And so what we're to do, we, listen, we are to observe how God works in other people's lives. So we said, now first of all, it begins with meditating upon the Word, studying the Word of God and in prayer, looking to see how God is working in the circumstances of your life, listening to God's message and being able to interpret how it applies to your life, and observing how God is operating in the lives of others.
Listen, don't shut out other people who are godly. Don't shut other people, listen, you can learn what to do and what not to do by watching the ungodly. And the Bible says we're to observe how the ungodly works and how God works in their life in order to prevent ourselves from doing the very same thing. Now, one last thing. Watch this one, now. Sounds like a contradiction. I want to give you a couple of verses of scripture here because the question, the last question is: When do you seek the Lord? What we saw a few moments ago, the wisest thing to do is to seek him early in life. But some of us are not early in life anymore, we've already passed that stage.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to Isaiah fifty-five. This is the last passage. Isaiah fifty-five. Look to what he says here. Sounds like a contradiction, but it's a key. Isaiah fifty-five. When do you seek the Lord? Isaiah fifty-five, verse six. Look at this. He says, "Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near". Now, wait a minute. What do you mean, "Seek the Lord while He may be found"? Now, what do you mean, "Seek the Lord while He is near"? Listen carefully, you cannot, listen, if you're not a believer and you say, "Well, I'm gonna get saved when I choose". No you're not. I want to show you why you can't.
Turn to, while you're holding Isaiah, turn to John chapter six for a moment. No, you're not gonna get saved just when you please. Look, if you will, in verse sixty-five, "And He was saying, 'For this reason I have said to you, no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.'" You will be saved when you respond to the wooing of the Spirit of God. Now listen, when he says back here in Isaiah, "Seek the Lord while He may be found". Can He be found anytime? No, He cannot. You say, "You mean to tell me that if I want to be saved, I can't be saved"? No, I didn't say that. "Are you saying to me that God won't save me"? Didn't say that. "Well, what are you saying"? I'm saying this: You can't be saved just any old time you please, and I want to show you why.
Turn to Hebrews chapter three for a moment. Hebrews chapter three. Look at this very important, Hebrews Chapter 3. And if you will notice, three verses of scripture I want you to notice they're all say the same thing, or they wouldn't all be this important if they weren't all in here this close together. Look at this. Verse seven, chapter three, "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness.'" Verse fifteen, "'Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.'"
Chapter four, verse seven, he says, "He again fixes a certain day, 'Today,' saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before. 'Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.'" Listen carefully. My friend, as an unbeliever, you can say "No, no, no, no, no" to God. You can spurn the wooing of the Spirit. You can reject His call. You can turn off the TV, you can turn off the radio, you can shut the tape down, you can refuse to hear somebody else's witness to you and say "No, no, no, no, no".
After a while, you know what happens? Here's the possibility. Here's what happens to some people. They reject the Lord Jesus Christ so long that their heart becomes hardened to the things of God until finally they lose their very feeling for anything that is godly, anything that is holy, anything that is spiritual. Their life is wrapped up in the things that have consumed them. They cannot feel it, they cannot hear it, and they will finally get to the place in their life where, oftentimes, not always, that what is absolutely evil they say is good, what is wrong they say is right. So it's not a matter of the fact that God won't save you. He says, listen, "Seek the Lord while He may be found".
There can come a time in your life when, listen, when there is no desire for Him whatsoever, no feeling whatsoever, no fear of God, no fear of death, no fear of hell. Listen, it's not a matter of whether God wants to or not, it's the fact that you have reached the stage you have absolutely no desire because you have hardened your heart against the things of God. Well now, what about the person who's a believer? Can a person who's a believer have a hardened heart? Yes, indeed. My friend, listen, you can hear and you can listen, you can read the Bible, you can pray. But God can work in your life, and you say, "No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna have it my way". And oftentimes these are major decisions in life.
You say, "No, I'm gonna have it my way, God, gonna have it my way. Gonna have it my way, gonna have it my way, gonna have it my way," till finally you're no longer hearing the tugging of the Holy Spirit. Somehow it seems like the Spirit of God's gotten softer and softer and quieter and quieter. What's happened is that your heart's gotten harder and harder and harder until finally you as a believer, even though you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, even though you have, you have so hardened your heart by absolute, total rejection of the will of God for your life, even you also can come to the place that, listen, you don't have any feelings. And you will find yourself saying that which is wrong is right, that which is evil is good because you have hardened your heart toward the will and purpose of God for your life.
That's why he says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near". We're always in the presence of God, but you can't sense His need, you can't sense His presence, you won't feel His presence when you have hardened your heart toward God. That's what it means. That's why it is dangerous to sit in church, sit in your home, sit somewhere and watch the television. It's dangerous to listen to a tape, dangerous to listen to a message, dangerous to listen to a radio program that talks about God. When you feel the Spirit of God, listen, when He gets to working inside of you, you feel the tug, you feel conviction, you feel God wooing, you feel God speaking to you, you feel uncomfortable, you feel upset, you feel restless.
What's God doing? God's working in your heart. He says, "When you get that feeling, do something. Do not ignore that because it will not always be there". So I want to ask you a question. Have you felt anything? Has God said something to your heart? Have you ever been saved? Have you ever trusted Jesus as your Savior? You're gonna die one of these days, then what? "It's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment". What about it? You're a Christian. God's spoken to your heart about being baptized. You're not baptized. Spoken to your heart about joining a godly church where you can hear the Word of God. Too busy. God's spoken to your heart about your finances. Not gonna listen.
I want to tell you something, my friend. There's not a single verse in the Bible that says that the Holy Spirit will tug, plead, woo, convict, work, scream, yell, holler at you all your life until you finally give in. It doesn't say that. Here's what He says, "My Spirit will not always strive with man". I pray in Jesus's name, do not ignore the message of the gospel of Christ. It is to your eternal destruction that you ignore the message of God. And I want to encourage you to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. Tell Him that you're placing your life in His hands, you believe in His death at Calvary, atone for your sins, and you're trusting Him here and now as your personal Savior.
You tell Him that, mean it with all of your heart, and immediately you become a child of God. You're a child of God. God's been working in your life and you don't hear the Spirit much anymore. You've decided you're gonna live your life the way you want to live it. It's time God has His way in your life. And I want to encourage you that whatever God has been speaking to your heart about, you say to Him, "Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I do want to seek You. I do want to discover who You're like. I do want to walk in Your ways. I do want to position myself so that You can be good to me, Lord. I want to position myself so that You can," because I need that fellowship and I need You, Lord.
I'll tell you one thing. You don't ever have to beg God. Listen, you don't have to beg and plead with God because the Father who is loving wants the best for you and has already provided it for you. "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near," and you know what happens? Think about this, the highest pursuit in life is the pursuit of knowing God, seeking Him. That's the highest goal you could ever set for yourself. I'll tell you something else. It is the most rewarding, the most fulfilling, and the most blessed of all.