#5 You Find What You Seek

Welcome back. If you're a first time viewer, I want to bring you up to speed. Today, a sermon five in a series of Ten Things Every Christian Should Know. Week one was "God Is Bigger Than You Think." Week two, "God Is Closer Than You Think." Week three, I talked about how it's important to know how to stop. Week four, last week, was "My Salvation Is Based on Facts, Not Feelings." And today, "You Find What You Seek."

Next week we'll stop this series for two weeks. I'll do a sermon for Palm Sunday, and then we will celebrate Easter on April the 4th. We'll resume this on the 11th of April.

It was the fall of 1983. I was newly married and I was Christmas shopping. I was in a jewelry store in Aberdeen, Mississippi, and I was looking at a gold necklace as a guest for Genie. Since it was our first Christmas, I wanted to do something nice, and I asked the jeweler, "Do you think this will make her happy?"

From behind me came a voice responding to "Do you think this will make her happy?" And the voice said, "In a few years you won't care." I turned around, and there behind me was the mother of one of the kids in my youth group. At the time I was the minister of youth at First Baptist Church of Aberdeen, Mississippi.

I felt sorry for the woman who said, "In a few years you won't care." I surmise that she was in a marriage that didn't care too much about the happiness of her husband, and likely vice versa. I wanted more than an average marriage in 1983. I didn't want to live a life of mediocrity. Well, I've gotten more than an average marriage because I, I should say we, have worked at it.

So this leads me to the great thought that I believe every Christian should know, and you already know this: you find what you seek. This is true in our marriages, in our health, in our finances, and in our faith. In Matthew 7, beginning at verse 7, Jesus said this: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

Ask, seek, knock are simple things that we must do. If we do them, we receive, we find, and we have things opened for us. To grow in the faith there are things we must do. It's not automatic. We're told here by Jesus that we will find what we seek.

Back in the 1960s, a friend of mine was in her freshman year at the University of Kentucky. She saw a young man on campus that she wanted to get to know, so she did something that to me was ingenious. She got a large poster, painted the young man's name on it, and hung it out her dorm window. All it said were two words: the young man's name.

I don't know how long it took, but some of the young man's friends told him that his name was hanging off the side of the girl's dorm. He thought they were kidding, but eventually he saw for himself. Naturally, he wanted to find out why, so he made inquiries, and soon he and my friend met face to face. It worked.

The story has a happy ending: they were married. Now, that's an interesting way to meet, but Karen was seeking, and boy, did she find. Had she done nothing, it's likely that history would have been different.

The second chapter of the book of Hebrews begins this way: "So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it." This scripture is a warning to keep on seeking. And while it's true that you find what you seek, isn't it also true that you lose or grow distant from what you ignore? If you ignore your faith, it will suffer.

Spiritual growth is a pursuit that must be kept up always. During this pandemic, many of you are watching church online. I am too. But think of all the people that have gotten away from church and are not watching anything. Our world suffers because some have quit seeking all together.

I love going to the beach. You ever set your chairs up and then waited out to play, and after an hour or so of standing in the ocean and swimming around and walking, you decide to head back to the shore to your chair? You look at the beach and suddenly realize that you're nowhere near where you were. You drifted, and you didn't even realize it. Our faith can be the same way if we're not vigilant.

Remember the story of the prodigal son? It's found in Luke chapter 15. The story begins telling us a man had two sons, and the youngest son wanted his inheritance before the father even died. Amazingly, the father agreed and gave his son his share of the estate.

A few days later this young man took off, and we're told that he wasted all of his money on wild living. He was seeking a party, and he found it. It didn't last long, and as the story goes, the broke boy was hungry. He got a job on a farm taking care of the pigs, and we're told that even the pig feed looked good to him.

His seeking landed him in trouble. The evening news is filled with stories like this, of people seeking trouble. Fortunately, the boy came to his senses. I read now from Luke 15, beginning of verse 17.

"When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I'm dying of hunger. I'll go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant."'

"So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I sinned against both heaven and you. I'm no longer worthy of being called your son.'

"But his father said to servants, 'Quickly, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. Kill the calf we've been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and now has returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.' And so the party began."

The real party. It's interesting what the son did. He disqualified himself from being part of the father. Sometimes we do that too, don't we? But I love how the father ran to meet the wayward son and brought him home.

But notice, the son had to come to his senses. The father didn't go and drag him out of the pigpen. The father waited for the sun to seek. Seek, and you will find.

My friend who placed the poster at her dorm window in the late 60s is in heaven now. She sought more than a husband. She sought God, and is now reaping the rewards. You find what you seek.

Bless you this week as you seek. I'll close with these words of Jesus from Matthew chapter 5, verse 6: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

Let us pray. Lord, thank you for these friends that are watching and that are seeking. We thank you for being there for us and being patient with us. Father, in these next weeks, with Easter approaching, we have so many opportunities to seek. Thank you for promising already that we will find. In the powerful name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God bless you.