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Main Idea
We must seek the right thing, with the right motivation, and in the right way.
When Anna Gray was a toddler, she loved to bobble around in the grass outside. We live on a family compound that is a couple of acres with a flat yard, a pond, and a creek behind our house. It is a great place to raise a family. All three of my kids like to play in and around all of that. As a toddler, Anna Gray loved exploring and investigating everything around our house.
While the three of us were outside one day, Anna Gray did just that. And, as most parents would say in this situation, “I only turned my back on her for a second.” If you have ever said those words, then you understand the full-on panic attack Kelly and I were experiencing at that moment. The three of us were in the front yard, and within seconds, only Kelly and I were there. Immediately, Kelly and I sprinted to the pond because the worst-case scenarios had already started to play on a loop in our minds. We screamed her name and frantically searched around the pond and the creek. Thank God she was not there. I’m sure the search lasted less than a minute, but it felt like an eternity. After searching near the water, we went around the back of the house, where we saw her turn the corner, still exploring and utterly oblivious to our panic-infused search.
We covered her in hugs and kisses when we saw her, which I’m sure she was thoroughly confused about, but it didn’t matter. In our love for her and desire for her safety, we earnestly sought her out and were elated to have found her safe and sound.
If you can relate to or understand that story, you are beginning to grasp the nature of biblical seeking.
Passage
Luke 12:22–34 ESV
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Outline
I – We seek what is valuable to us
II – We seek because we were sought
III – Seek God
IV – Seek of God
V – Seek what benefits others
I – We seek what is valuable to us
I know that sounds obvious, but sometimes, we must remember that only the seekers find. We can’t expect God to plop our desires into our laps. Biblically, we cannot be complacent in receiving from God.
Matthew 7:7 ESV
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
The fundamental truth behind seeking is that we only search for what is valuable to us, so as we begin today’s study on seeking, I want us to take a few minutes to assess what we search for in our lives.
So, what do you search for? What do you pray about? What do you want out of life? How do you want God to move in your world?
From the passage, many had concerns about:
• What you will eat or drink
• Clothing
• Provision (like the birds)
• Health or Quality of life (you can’t add time to it)
• Security for the future
Jesus mentions these because they are our basic needs. We all need to eat, and wear clothes, and we all want to know that the future will be fruitful and optimistic.
Does that describe you?
Or what about modern-day concerns, such as:
• Career advancement
• Financial prosperity
• Healing from sickness
• Where to live
• Direction in a personal crisis
• Salvation for lost friends and family
• Comfort in a tragedy
• The kid’s future
• Your retirement
Many of these are good to pray for (except for the ‘health and wealth type prayers that only seek personal gain and privilege). We all need God’s direction for important life decisions and to see loved ones come to a saving relationship in Christ.
Don’t Seek
However, the Bible doesn’t shy away from exhorting us to avoid being too self-seeking. Consider these examples:
• Your own good – 1 Cor 10:24 / Luke 17:33
• Worldly needs – Luke 12:22-34
• Worldly wisdom or signs – 1 Cor 1:22 / Matt 12:39
• Man’s approval – Gal. 1:10
While we all have needs, God does not want us to become self-absorbed and blinded to everything else around us. Denying self, following God, and pursuing others is a high calling in scripture.
Re-calibrate what’s most valuable
In that light, I want to spend the rest of our time re-calibrating what is most valuable. Not only will we find greater fulfillment, but we also have the promise that proper seeking is an all-inclusive package.
It is human nature to desire good things for our lives, but we must remember that we are all citizens of God’s upside-down Kingdom, where human intuition fails, and God’s wisdom prevails. What if I told you:
1. Not seeking your own good or needs is the quickest way to get what you need?
2. Your motivation is just as crucial as your action?
3. Your zeal is just as important as your motivation and focus?
That is what we need to learn today.
So, if we are learning to seek things outside of ourselves, let’s discuss the motivation behind it.
II – We seek because we were sought
Because He sought us to save us – Luke 19:10
Luke 19:10 ESV
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
It must begin here. This one verse in Luke is Jesus’s mission statement for the whole gospel account. So, swim in that for a moment. Reflect on who is seeking you out. Meditate on how passionately and sacrificially He is seeking you out. And take time to think about what it means when He finds you.
Motivation
Being sought by God is our key motivation to seek Him.
When we see how fervently He sought us, it should create a passionate pursuit in us to seek after Him.
Think about our search for Anna Gray. What were our motivations that day?
• Love
• Safety
• Well-being
• Compassion
God’s pursuit of His people must become valuable to us. The more you understand God’s great love for you and how He sought you out, the more you will seek Him out. Before we move to the next point, I want to ask you again to assess your pursuits. What do you strive for? What do you pray for?
To truly understand the answer to these questions, we need to discern what we really care about.
III – Seek God
As we have seen recently in Acts (when Paul is giving his famous sermon in the Athen’s Areopagus), all of mankind is supposed to seek God:
Acts 17:26–27 ESV
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
We are promised that we will find God, IF…
Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Jeremiah 29:13 ESV
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Oftentimes, we seek what God gives, but how much do we seek HIM?
And, as the verses above confirm, if we genuinely want to find Him, we need to seek within specific qualifications:
1. Make Him more valuable than all other pursuits.
2. Pursuing Him with the right motivations.
3. Not pursuing flippantly, but with all our heart and soul (don’t ½ heart many things; whole heart 1 thing)
As the primary pursuit, we seek after God Himself.
That is, we seek HIM, not His stuff (blessings, wisdom, healing, etc…). I don’t want my kids to come to me because they want money or food. I want them to come to me because they want to spend time with ME. God desires that as well.
And, we should search for God with the same focused pursuit as Kelly and I searched for our daughter (minus the gut-wrenching panic). Or, to use another illustration, we search for Him like the people in the three parables of Luke 15 (the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son) with the same eager excitement of the man who sold all he had to buy the field with the hidden treasure.
Seek His Kingdom
Luke 12:31 / Matt 6:33 / Col. 3:1
King-dom = King’s Dominion
• The Kingdom is not physical, so it doesn’t pertain to borders and territories.
• The Kingdom is where its citizens are, so the battlefield is in the hearts and minds of human beings.
• Seeking His standards and principles (kingdom parables).
• To honor Him in our conduct as Kingdom citizens and Ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:11-21) and please Him (1 Thess 2:4-6).
• Seeing the Kingdom’s territory expand.
• To see His glory on display.
• To see His rule and reign recognized and authoritative on earth.
In essence, we are to seek our role in God’s Kingdom, taking root and growing in the world as we obediently live out its principles and morals to glorify our King.
The first step in self-less seeking is to seek out the one greater than us. Then, and only then, should we seek of Him.
IV- Seek of God
This is where most of us live. We want certain things from God.
God’s Will
There are aspects to His will that are apparent in scripture (don’t commit adultery, love one another, etc…).
Then, there are aspects that we must seek out on a personal level (how to help this person, should I take that job, May I buy that house).
If God has a plan, we want to align with it, but we need to seek it out. Those who seek will find.
God’s Provision
We want to live lives demonstrating our dependence on Him, so we seek His provision in many different ways.
• Protection – Matt. 6:13
• Peace – 1 Peter 3:11
• Wisdom – James 1:5-6
• Restoration & Renewal – Isa. 40:31
• + many other examples.
You can easily remember these points by remembering the order of The Lord’s Prayer.
Seek Him:
• Our Father in Heaven, your name be honored as holy.
Seek His Kingdom:
• Your Kingdom Come
Seek of Him:
• Your will be done (on earth as it is in heaven)
• Give us our daily bread (what we need to live)
• Forgive our debts
• Guide us in how to forgive our debtors
• Protect us (keep us from temptation and deliver us from the evil one).
Another simple way to remember how to see is in the Great Commandment: Love God… Love others, so as we conclude our time together, we will finish with the outward focus on seeking the benefit of other fellow human beings.
V- Seek what benefits others
Paul’s Position
This was Paul’s pursuit. He wasn’t seeking out fellowship with other believers to meet his spiritual and emotional needs. Instead, his posture was…
Philippians 4:17 ESV
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
• I am in chains for you
• I’m willing to be removed from eternal life if it means my Jewish brothers and sisters come to the truth…
Paul was others-focused, and he trusted in child-like faith that his needs would be met and that all these things would be added to him by God.
We are to seek out the fruit in one another as we invest in them. We seek the good in others.
1 Thessalonians 5:15 ESV
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
And that command leads us, as New Testament believers, into 47 different ways that we are to treat one another, which are called the One Another’s of scripture.
One Another’s
We seek to do good, love, mourn with, confess sins to, and so on… because we are one body with Christ as the head.
This is also the catalyst for discipleship and dovetails perfectly into our second mini-series: Declare-Disciple-Multiply, which is being actionable in the world AFTER we have been filled through the growth process of Abiding-Beholding-Seeking.
So, as we come to a close, I want us to be open and honest with ourselves and each other.
Conclusion
We must learn to be a holistic church body that seeks God and one another’s welfare together. So, as we close today, I want to ask you to be vulnerable with your brothers and sisters. We don’t need to put on a facade with family. There are many here who are hurting… many who are broken… many who are afflicted.
If God is impressing something upon your heart right now, I want you to step out in faith and come. We have people at the front who want to pray for and with you. There are others in this family who you know. Why not find them right now and pray together? This is where the rubber meets the road… where you stop going to church and start being the church.