Pursuit Message 1

We printed in the notes yesterday that you would be able to access some of the sermon content on my blog this week. Well, here are some of the key verses and takeaways:

There are many places in the Bible that we see God going after people. He goes out of His way to seek and save people. But, what about people going after God? Are we supposed to? Are we doing it?

A.W. Tozer: Come Near to the holy men and women of the scriptures and you will soon feel the heat, of their desire after God. They mourn for him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found him, the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking period.

Moses: In Exodus 33 and 34, he used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing him better! Show me your glory, Lord!

David: David’s life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and his Psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder. (Psalm 42:1, Psalm 63: 1 and 8)

Paul: Paul confessed the main spring of his life to be his burning desire after Christ. “That I may know him” was the goal of his heart- Phil. 3:10. And then, Phil. 3:8 is also amazing!

Then, there is Jesus…In Matthew 16: 24, Jesus says to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my FOLLOWER, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and FOLLOW me.

Some key concepts:

• Journey of discipleship is ACTIVE, not PASIVE!!
• We are not called FOLLOWERS of Jesus for nothing!!!
• Too often, when we find things we no more SEEK them.
• Believing in Him and Following him are 2 different things!
• Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.
• Jesus seeks lost! But, the found are called to seek Jesus!
• Pursuing God is about HEART transformation, not MIND information. We can fill our heads with the words of scripture and our hearts be as cold as ice.
• God is not interested in our programs! He is waiting on us to be hungry for his presence.
• If we fill up with junk food, we will not have room for dinner!!!
• Satan’s ploy is to keep us so FULL OF JUNK, that we are not hungry for GOD….and it has worked magnificently for centuries!!!

(Next week, we will discover the things that are filling our "spiritual bellies" and robbing us of an appetite for God!)

Some more verses about going after God:

• Deuteronomy 4:29
 "But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him."
• 1 Chronicles 16:11
 "Search for the Lord and for his strength;
 continually seek him."
• 2 Chronicles 7:14
 "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."
• Psalm 105:4
 "Search for the Lord and for his strength;continually seek him."
• Isaiah 55:6
 "Seek the Lord while you can find him.Call on him now while he is near."

A prayer for you: Oh God, I have tasted your goodness and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. Oh God, the Triune God, I want to want you; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me your glory I pray, so that I may know you indeed. 

Father, I want to know you, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. Please root from my heart anything that I have cherished that has become a very part of my living self so that you may enter and live in my heart without a rival! Begin in mercy a new work of love in me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then, give me the grace to rise up and follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen.