Pursuing God

Tonight we want to cover four things with you about the pursuit of God. Before we actually get into talking about God's nature, His attributes, I thought we would begin by helping understand What it means to pursue God and why that is so important. And so I want to cover four things with you this evening. Basically, one is we pursue God because it is life's most important pursuit. Number two, it's because it is life's most imp pursuit.

And thirdly, because it is life's most impressionable pursuit. And fourthly, because it is life's most Impassioned pursuits. Point number one.

Hopefully, you're ready. Hopefully, you got your notes. Hopefully, you're ready to understand what the Lord has to say for you this evening. Life's most important pursuit is point number one.

The most important message the Church of Jesus Christ can present is the truth. About who God is. It says in Psalm 50, verse number 21: God says, You thought that I was just like you.

You thought that I was just like you. Man is so busy making God in his likeness, entertaining thoughts about God that are unworthy of him, that believe it or not, most of us. Including Christians, are idolaters because we have a wrong conception of God. And so we want to help you understand that pursuing God is life's most important pursuit. For many reasons, but I'm just going to give you two this evening. Number one, because of its supremacy.

Turn with me in your Bible to Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9, 2 great verses. Listen to what the word of the Lord says, verses 23 and 24. Thus says the Lord: Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this. That he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises loving kind, justice, and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24 express the importance of pursuing God.

Somehow, getting to know our God. Hosea 6, verse 6 says, This: For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. God says, this is what I delight in.

I delight in the fact that you know me. He said in Jeremiah the same thing. I delight in these things. I delight in justice. I delight in loving kind. I delight in righteousness. The question is: do you delight in those things? Do those things make you joyous? If not, then you've got to ask yourself the question: do you really know God? It's life's most important pursuit because God says it is the supreme Thing.

Nothing is higher than know God. Number two. It's life's most important pursuit because, number one, its supremacy, number two, its significance.

John 17, verse number 3 says this. And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. The significant thing about pursuing God so that you might know God is because knowing God is eternal life. Most of us, if we took a three by five card before we came in here and said, you know what? This is what eternal life is. Eternal life is living with God forever after I die. Wrong answer. Eternal life is knowing God. The minute you give your life to Christ.

When eternal life begins for you. That's knowing God. Eternal life is more than just living forever, right? Everybody lives forever. You're either going to live with God or you're going to live apart from God. One of you or some of us will be damned. Others of us will live forever with God because we've given our life to Him. That's what knowing God is all about. Now, God says this: this is eternal life.

That they may know me. Jesus Christ says, John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 10 says that Jesus Christ came to give life and to give it more abundantly. So, real, true life. Real authentic life, real genuine quality kind of life, is knowing God. That's why it is so sign. You need to know God if you want to live as God wants you to live. You see, we want quality life. Without a quality Lord dictating how that life should be lived. Doesn't happen that way. Because the Lord who created life knows what you need.

And unless you live the way he wants you to live, you're never going to be happy. You're never going to be joyous. You're never going to know the true significance, true meaning of life. Because the one who created life knows what life means. He says, I've come to give you the abundant life. Therefore, you must pursue me. You must know me, because that's what eternal life is all about. Eternal life, we got if you've given your life to Christ, you have eternal life. That's knowing God. It began when you gave your life to Jesus Christ.

I like what David said to his son in 1 Chronicles 28, verse number 9. He says, As for you, my son Solomon, know the God Of your father. That's good. Son, listen to me. You need to know God. You need to know my God. You need to know the God that I have operated with all these years, Solomon. That needs to be your pursuit in life. He says, I want you to know God and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts if you seek Him.

He will let you find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Wow, those are powerful words. Question is: are you pursuing them? It's life's most important pursuit because, number one, of its supremacy, number two, because of its significance.

Peter said in 2 Peter 3:18, grow in the knowledge of God. 2 Thessalonians 1:8 says that Jesus will return in flaming fire. Taking vengeance on them that know not God. I trust that you being here this evening. You know God. You know him intimately. You know him as the scriptures speak of him. So, not only do we need to understand that it's life's most important pursuit, but number two, it's life's most impenetrable pursuit.

I like that word. That means he can't be pierced. That means that he cannot be solved. That means he cannot be understood. God is incomprehensible. God is infinite. And fin minds can never understand the infinite God of the universe. Turn with me to Romans chapter 11.

Verse number 33 and 34. Listen to what Paul said. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearch are his judgments and un His ways. Wow. Paul says, Look, our God, number one, is unsearchable.

He is unsearchable. The psalmist said in Psalm 145, verse number 3: Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, and his great is unsearch. Paul, trying to trace the path of God and the greatness of God and the wisdom of God, specifically on how he dealt with the nation of Israel, came back and said that God is unsearchable. That's why it's life's most impenetrable pursuit. You're going to pursue God, and the more you pursue Him, the more you're going to realize you can't penetrate Him, you can't really get to know Him because He is unsearchable.

Number two, he is unfathomable. That's what the text says. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. It's a word that literally means unt. That is, you can't trace him. The psalmist said, Well, in Psalm 77, verse number 19, thy way was in the sea. And thy paths in the mighty waters, and thy footprints may not be known. You see, you can seek after God and you can look for God, but you're not going to see his path because it's untraceable. That's why the Lord said in Isaiah 55, that my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

And never will your ways and my thoughts ever come together. For as far as the heavens are from the earth, Are my ways and my thoughts from your ways and thoughts? See that? God is unsearchable, unfathomable, and thirdly, unimaginable.

Look what it says in verse number 34. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counsel. We can read our Bible, we can look at nature, and we can begin to kind of get an idea of what God is like, but you are never really fully going to understand God.

And so're going to, Now, wait a minute. If that's the case, what are we doing this for? If that's the case, why go on the journey? If that's the case, why even engage in the effort? That's point number three.

It is life's most impressionable. pursuit. There is not that is going to shape and mold your life more than the pursuit of God. And I have listed five things in which your life is going to be changed. How God is going to impress your life in such a way that you're going to gain at least five ke elements. Number one is strength.

Turn with me to Daniel chapter 11. Daniel chapter 11, verse number 32. Daniel was a captive in Babylon, an ungodly nation, and was constantly under oppression, victimized. But there was something about Daniel's life that set him apart from other people. And that was this: he knew God. It says in Daniel chapter 11. Verse number 32, these words. The people who know their God will display strength. And take action. Isn't that good? The people who know their God are going to display strength. You can't display strength if you don't know God.

If you need strength, God is a solution. Point number two, security. Security is a result of knowing God. Psalm 46. Listen to what it says. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake, At its swelling pride. The psalm had security. He was unshakable. He was immovable. He was not going to falter. Why? Because he knew God.

He would go on to say in verse number 10: cease striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Because God is with me, I have security. So, no matter how much the earthquakes around me, no matter how deep the sea is upon me, I will never have to shudder, nor will I have to shake, because I live in the realm of security because I know my God, and my God is my God. Stronghold. Isn't that good?

Do you have security this evening? Do you have great strength this evening? It comes from knowing God. Knowing who he is, knowing that the God of the universe is the all-controlling God who orchestrates all the events of life just as he wants them to be. And you fit in there. And you're so important to Him that He would give His life just for you, that you might be redeemed, that you might know Him and live with Him and walk with Him and experience His strength. And experience his security, life's most impressionable pursuit.

Number three, satisfaction. Satisfaction. Turn with me to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 2 and 3 says this: Grace and peace be multiplied to you. In the knowledge of God. If you know God, both grace and peace are multiplied in your life. Read on. And of Jesus our Lord, seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Everything you need to know about life, everything you need to know about godd, everything you need to know about having the peace of God and experiencing the grace of God.

Is that which is going to satisfy your deepest longings? Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneg. Okay. You can throw us in the fire if that's what you want to do. You can do anything you want, but our God will deliver us. And I don't imagine seeing Shad, Meshach, and Abedneg doing too much sweating. Those men were beadless up top, even when they got toward the fire. And the guys who threw through them in were consumed with that fire. And Shad, Meshach, and Ab, though, were able to walk around that fire because the angel of the Lord was right there, one like the angel of the Lord.

The Lord, God Himself, was right there amidst it, walking with him. Those men experienced peace because they knew their God. They knew God would sustain them. They knew the grace of God. That's why knowing God is life's most impressionable pursuit. Because Because strength is yours, security is yours, satisfaction is your. And fourthly, the spirit of wisdom is yours. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 17, Ephesians 1: Paul says this: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge. Him Paul says, Look, I want your mental attitude to be altered. I want everything to be changed about the way you think. I want you to have spiritual understanding. So I'm praying that God Through the knowledge of him, will grant to you the spirit of wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to comprehend God's truth and appropriate that truth.

To live out that truth. That's what wisdom does. Wisdom puts into practice knowledge. The fifth thing impressed upon your life is spiritual fruit. Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Verse number 9 and verse number 10, Paul says this: For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, We have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So that you may walk in manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

The knowledge of God is going to change the way you walk. Once you're controlled by that knowledge, it becomes your impetus to produce spiritual fruit. And God is going to impress His life upon your life in such a way that fruit is going to exude from your life. Now fruit has two basic characteristics. One is to reflect the character of the tree of which it is a part. God wants you to reflect his character. And so he's going to impress upon your life, his life, that you might look like him. That gives us a second characteristic.

Fruit was never creat for itself. Fruit was born so that someone else could partake of it. Point being is that when God impresses his life upon your life because you have come to know who your God is, your life is going to produce fruit because your life will be like God's life. And because fruit is not designed for you, but for everybody else, they're going to look at your life and it's going to be awful good tasting, and they're going to come up and pick that fruit, and they're going to bite into that fruit, and it's going to affect Everything about their life.

See that? That's why we have fruit. Life's most impressionable pursuit. Is this strength is received, security is reinforced. Satisfaction is realized. The spirit of wisdom is reflected. And spiritual fruit. Is reproduced. That's what happens when you pursue God. So, not only is it life's most important pursuit. And not only is it life's most impenetrable pursuit, it is life's most impressionable pursuit. But there's one more. And it's this: Knowing God is life's most impass pursuit. Life's most impassioned pursuit.

And let me give you four concluding principles before we leave this evening. The first is this. If pursuing God is going to be your passion, then it requires totality of person. It requ totality of person. Jeremiah :, God says, You will seek me, and you will find me when you search for me with all Your hearts.

We throw ourselves into our work. We throw ourselves into our marriage. Well, we throw ourselves into knowing God. It requires totality of person. Number two, it reveals tenacity of purpose.

It reveals tenacity of purpose. One of the men that was with us on Monday night shared this verse with me as he was describing his efforts to know God. It says this in Proverbs chapter 2, verses 3 to 5. For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasure. Then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. It's life's most impassioned pursuit because it requires totality of person. It reveals tenacity of purpose.

If you're looking for some great philosophical answer, there isn't one. It's very simple. They just don't know me. That's man's problem. If you don't know God, you've got major problems. That's what we've been trying to tell you. It's life's most important pursuit, most impenetrable pursuit, most impassioned pursuit, and most impressionable pursuit. It requires totality of person. It reveals tenacity of purpose. Number three, it reflects authenticity of passion.

It reflects authenticity of passion. David said in Psalm 42, verse number 1: As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for thee, O God. Paul would say in Philippians 3. 10 that I may know him. Why? Because Philippians 3. 8 says, I count all things rubbish in view of the surpassing value of knowing God. Everything else is excrement. Everything else means nothing. Compared to knowing God. And lastly, it results in maturity of people. It results. In the maturity of people. Psalm 73 As was in bad shape spiritually.

In fact, he said in verse number two. As for me, my feet came close to stumbling, and my steps had almost sl. He was on the verge of spiritual defeat. And listen now to what he says. This is so good. Nevertheless, verse number 23: I am continually with thee. Thou hast taken hold of my right hand with thy counsel thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee I desire nothing. On earth. Besides the, I don't desire anything else. My flesh, verse number 26, and my heart may fail.

But God is my strength and my heart, or the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. And then he says, verse number 28: But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. Those who pursue God will have a life result in maturity. They will know God's strength. They will know God's ways. They will say, as As said, whom Do I have but thee? Can you say that? Can you say it's God and no one else? It's God and nothing. Else. And if you can leave saying the nearness of God is my good, then you can leave saying God's rubbed off on me.

I'm starting to know my God. In the next few weeks, all that's going to change. You're going to see him as you've never seen him before. God's going to open your eyes, and you will leave, I promise, saying, The nearness of God is my good.