Ron Dunn Podcast - Seeking The Lord

Episode Date: October 14, 2015

Pastor Ron Dunn preaches a message from Jeremiah chapter 10. He teaches us in this message how to seek and trust the Lord with plans, knowing that he will provide for our every need.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. Jeremiah chapter 29, and I want to read verses 10 through 14. Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 10 through 14. All right, we'll begin reading with the 10th verse.

For thus says the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end, or to give you a future hope. Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And you shall seek me and find me, and you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you,

saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Now the Lord here, of course, is talking about the Babylonian captivity. That because of his people's idolatry, that he allowed Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans and the Babylonians to come in and to defeat the land and to carry off the people into exile, into Babylon. And he's saying that they're going to be there for 70 years.

And he says, at the end of that 70 years, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. Now, the verse that I want us to zero in on tonight, although all of these verses will be referenced, but I want us to look especially at verse 13. And you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. God says, I know my thoughts towards you, thoughts of peace and not evil.

I wonder if any of those people believe that. It would be hard to see an invading army carrying out your TV and your stereo and burning your house to the ground and putting you in chains and dragging you off into captivity and God say, I'm having good thoughts towards you. I think most of the people that day would have thought God has abandoned us. I remember when I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider pillowcases. Does anybody still do that? Any of you ladies still embroider pillowcases? Any of you men embroider pillowcases?

Ah, a lost art. I told Kay I was in the airport the other day and went to the restroom and I said there was a sign of the Times that had a baby diaper changing station in the men's thing. I wonder how often that's used. But anyway, I remember when I was a kid my mother mother used to embroider pillowcases. I recall one day she had left the room for some reason, and she had just taken that pillowcase and embroidery and just laid it down on the couch.

And I went over to it, and I looked at it and kind of picked it up. And all I saw was a tangled mass of threads of different color. Going nowhere, it seemed, and going everywhere at the same time. But it didn't make any sense. Of course, I was looking at it from the wrong side, the bottom side. But when I turned it over, I saw a beautiful thing emerge. My mother was embroidering a picture of a bluebird on a limb on a tree and blossom. Now from one side, it looked like everything my mom was doing was wasted and lunatic,

that it was just lunacy. All those threads, just tangled mass of threads, didn't make sense. Didn't seem to be going anywhere, and yet it seemed to be going everywhere, but no destination. I wonder if your life has ever looked like that to you.

I wonder if you've ever examined the happenings in your life and have wondered what in the world is going on. And that preacher said that God was working in my life, but all I see as I look at my life and the events in my life, all I see is just like a tangled mass of threads, and the things that are happening don't make any sense. They don't seem to be having any pattern. There's no connection. There's no purpose in it. It just looks like aimless, like somebody has taken a thread and needle and just without any thought or plan has just jabbed it in and out, in and out, in and out, and that it doesn't make any sense at all. I wonder if your life has ever looked like that to you.

Well, if it does, it's because you're looking at it from the wrong side. You're looking at it from the bottom. If you could see your life from the top side, you'd see that all those crazy, aimless, tangled mass of threads were actually weaving a beautiful design and picture. You see, perspective counts for everything. Things look different from one direction, from one location to the other. And sometimes a new perspective will give a familiar landscape an entirely new dimension.

And I think that many times what you and I need is a new perspective from which to view what's going on in our life. If we could always see it from God's view, I'm convinced that we'd never waste a moment worrying or fretting. I'm convinced that we would never spend sleepless nights. I'm convinced that we would never shed so many tears as we do over the fear of what's going on or what's happening,

if we could see from God's side I never will forget my dad was not I started to say not until my mother died but that's not gonna sound good my dad was not a real talkative man until after my mother died that could sound you know I didn't mean for it to come out like that most men will become more talkative after the wives that but my dad was a quiet man and at times you would think he lacked any real emotion. But after my mother died, I remember it wasn't long before he himself died. We were visiting, and he was talking to me, and I don't know, he just began to talk in an emotional way.

And he said, you remember back in the, he named the years, he said, when you were having all those problems and all those troubles. And I said, oh, yeah, I remember. He said, you know, I used to cry every night. I'd come to bed and I'd lay here and think about what's happening, what's going on,

and wishing that I could solve the problems and do something about it, but he said I couldn't. He said, I just cry every night. I couldn't sleep. I'd spend sleepless nights just crying. And he said, one night I went to bed and I lay there, and I was thinking about your situation and all that was going on, and I began to cry about it. And then he said, all of a sudden, I just sat bolt upright in the bed. And as clear as day, God said to me, I've got to do these things in his life

to make him what I want him to be. My dad said he laid back down, never gave it another thought. I wish he had told me back then. It's seeing things from God's side. What is the message on the other side of the pillowcase? I think the message can be boiled down to this one statement. He says,

Then shall you call upon me, you haven't been doing that lately, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I believe that if we could look at that pillowcase of our life and see it from God's perspective, we would see the message there is, seek the Lord with all of your heart. Because the fact of the matter is,

God always calls us to Himself. We talk about being called into the ministry, and that's true. But actually, God does not call us to the ministry or to service primarily. He calls us to Himself. All Christians. Jesus said, come unto Me.

Follow Me. Be imitators of Me. God always calls us unto Himself. And so He's saying to these people of His, He said, I have caused you to be carried off into captivity. I mean, folks, this is God's doing. This isn't an accident of history. This isn't simply because one nation is more powerful than another.

He says, I have caused you to be driven from this land. Why? Well, we're going to get to that in a minute, but basically because they kept worshiping other gods. Do you realize it was only after the captivity of Babylon that the Israelites became true monotheo... oh, I'm not going to be able to say this word... monothoistic one God. Now while they did worship God, yet they had room for worshiping other gods. And even when Solomon's temple was built with all of its glory, there were around that place altars for the worshiping of other gods.

Now they believed that God was the most important God, but there were so many of them that had inherited these other gods, and in Egypt they'd picked up these other gods, and they worshiped these other gods. And God said, I am the Lord. There's no one beside me. And so finally, because the people could not see that or understand that, and for another reason, because they thought God was localized in the temple, God had the temple destroyed, had them carried off into captivity so they could learn something. And what they were to learn was, you shall seek me,

for I and I alone am the true God. And it was only after that that Israel truly became monotheistic. That sounded pretty close, didn't it? It means worshiping one God and one God only. I was in Florida earlier this year and a young man, college student, came up to me and he said, Brother Dunn, I know that I, he said, I'm a Christian and I want to grow

and I want to mature in the Lord. Tell me what I should do. Well, at first I started to say, well, you know, read your Bible and pray and do all of this and such as this. But I stopped and I thought, oh, he's heard all that before. I said, I'll tell you the best advice I can give you

is just to seek the Lord with all your heart. Turn your heart to seek Him. You say, well, what does that mean? God will show you you just determine you're going to seek Him revival is simply finding the Lord after having sought Him God speaks many times to His prophets that I have turned my face from you and until you seek my face.

What is it He says in 2 Chronicles 7, 14? If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, and what? Seek my face. I want to talk to you tonight about seeking the Lord. And I want to say to you that there's no problem that this church may have that would not be solved if the heart's desire and one trained aim was to seek the Lord with all of your heart.

So let me talk to you about that for a few moments. Seeking the Lord. First of all, we are to seek the Lord exclusively. Now you say, preacher, what does it mean to seek the Lord? I mean, haven't we already found Him? And if we're saved, of course, that's true. We have already found Him. And yet He's saying to us who've already found Him to seek Him.

Well, that doesn't make much sense. Well, it makes about as much sense as Paul's words in Philippians when he says, he said, I gave up everything to know him, and now I continue to give up everything that I may know him. Now, Paul, how can you know somebody you already know? In other words, Paul already knew Jesus. And now he's saying, I'm striving, I'm pressing on so that I may know him that doesn't make sense that's like trying to catch a bus once you're on it

well it's like this there is knowing the Lord and then there is knowing him. When Manly Beasley was alive, we used to travel with him quite a bit over to Switzerland and other places to have these international conferences on revival. We flew into Rome once. And then at one time we flew into Geneva. And then we took a bus from Geneva

and went on into the mountains of Switzerland where we were meeting. When we flew into, no, it was were meeting when we flew into to Noah's Paris when we flew into Paris that first time we just stayed there in the airport waiting to catch a flight to Geneva are you you you follow me I kind of got that messed up but if somebody were to say to me have you been to Paris? Oh yes I've been to Paris.

Tell me all about it. Well it's a big glass thin place. And it has these tubes escalators that go up and down and up and down and their airplanes all about it and that's Paris yeah that's Paris you don't sound like you've been to Paris tell me about the Eiffel Tower. I never saw it. Tell me about the Palace of Versailles.

I never saw it. All I saw was the inside of the airport, but I was there. I qualify. I put her down. Boy, I have been to Gay Paris and walked through the duty-free shops somebody said have you ever been to Switzerland oh yes I've been to Switzerland what's it like oh let me get my 250 pictures out and I'll show you what Switzerland's like show you the Alps let me take you up to Zermatt and let's go up to the Matterhorn. I can show you all of that. Why?

Because I have traveled in that country. Now I was in France and I was in Switzerland. But when I was in France that first time, all I saw was the inside of the airport. But I was truly there. But I was was in France that first time, all I saw was the inside of the airport. But I was truly there. But I was also in Switzerland, and I got to know the country. I went out into the country,

and I lived in the country, and I saw and experienced and explored the country. You see what I'm getting at? A lot of people can say, Oh, I know him. Yes, I know him. But all you know about him is the airport. And that's what Paul is saying. I gave up everything to know him,

but I am continually counting all things as garbage so that I may what? That I may know him. Kay and I were married 40 years ago this December. We were what, juniors in Sunday school when we married? You know. Now, I met her when she was 15. Somebody said, do you know Rita Kay Mitchell?

I said, yes, I know her. Yeah. said yes I know her yeah after 40 years I say that you know okay I said boy do I ever know her somebody asked me on the day we were married do you love her I said absolutely love her with all my heart somebody asked me today do you love her I say as though I've never loved her before what I thought was love 40 years ago nothing compared to what it is now you see that's what it means to seek the Lord. We stand fathomless. We stand just ankle deep in a fathomless

ocean. There is far more to Jesus folks than we've ever experienced. You heard about the two hippies that were taking an ocean voyage and they were standing at the rail of the ship and one hippie said man look at all that water.

And the other guy said yeah and that's on to the top. But you see, you can look at all that water out there, and you think you've seen the ocean. No, you haven't. You've just seen the top. There are marvels and mysteries and beauties that you would never dream of if you were to plunge into that ocean. And the same way with the Lord. We are to set our heart upon Him. He's to become the focus

of our attention and the object of our affection. above everything else, above everything else, to know Him, to please Him. So we are to seek the Lord, and we're to seek the Lord exclusively. He said, you shall seek Me. Now, you know, there's an interesting thing here. These people were in captivity. They were being carried off to Babylon. They had lost their homes. They had lost their businesses. They had lost their land. They had lost their freedom. You would think that God would have said to them, seek your deliverance, or seek your freedom, or seek your land, or seek the restoration of your goods, or seek wealth, or seek healing. But he doesn't say all of that. Those are the things that they need, but he says, seek me.

Our problem is that we seek the things that He can give. Oh, yes, we are sick and we seek healing, but there's something more than you need than healing, and that's the Lord. We are to seek Him exclusively. Exclusively. That means that we are to seek for nothing more other than Jesus. You know, we've been talking, Michael and some others,

we've been talking about how to the extreme some people are going in their churches, you know, even now to where they're crawling on all fours and barking like dogs and this laughing revival and such as that. What's behind that? What's behind it? What's behind that? It's people seeking more than Jesus.

They're not satisfied with just Jesus. They want something extra, you see. They're living in the realm of their emotions and it's like a drug addict who starts out with just a little bit, and then he craves more and more and more, and there's no satisfying of it because he's seeking some kind of emotional fulfillment. And the fact of the matter is that so many people today are seeking everything but Jesus. And I will be honest with you, sometimes I think we need to be careful about our emphasis

upon seeking revival. Truth of the matter is, the Bible doesn't tell us to seek revival. We're to seek the Lord, and in finding Him, friend, you'll have all the revival you can handle. But if we're not careful, you see, we will take objects and seek them,

and thinking that we have found them, we've found the Lord. But you don't need anything other than Jesus, you see. I mean, listen folks, you don't need anything other than Jesus. Why seek anything other than Him? I did a study one time and found that Jesus is called by over 250 titles, names in the Bible. Isn't that amazing? Do you realize that Jesus is called by everything that is essential to man's life? He's the bread of life. He's the water of life.

He's the way. You see, you go all through all those. If a man is hungry, Jesus is the bread of life. If he's thirsty, he's the water of life. If he's lost, he's the way. If he's ignorant, he's the truth. If he's dying, he is the resurrection. If he is a zoologist, he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. To the geologist, he's the rock of ages. To a lawyer, he is the judge that sits upon a throne. To a soldier, he is the prince of peace. You think about all of those things. Everything that is essential to man, Jesus is called by.

What's he saying? He's saying, you don't need anything but me. What does Colossians say? In him, in him, in Christ are treasured all the riches of the Godhead. Well, now, if all that is good and godly is in Jesus Christ, why do I need to seek something other than that, something more than that? No.

No, Jesus is the way and he's what you find at the end of the way. He's the fountain and he's what you drink when you drink from that fountain. He is the priest and he is the sacrifice. He's everything. We're to seek for nothing more. Say what has been impressed upon me so much lately and I talked to you about it yesterday morning briefly

about Isaiah and seeing the material dissolve and seeing the true God behind it all. You see, there are two things essential for worship. Symbols and substance. The word symbol comes from two words which has the idea of bringing something that is transcendent above us and beyond us down into the imminent something we can see and touch and feel.

You see. Now, when you and I come to worship God, we need symbols. The choir, the hymn books, the worship, the singing, the reading of the Word of God, the worshiping in God's house, the sanctifying of this place as a place of worship. These are symbols. But they are symbols not in the end of themselves,

but they are symbols of the substance which is God. And we understand that, that these things are just symbols that help us to worship God, that music is just a symbol to help us to worship God, that the singing is a symbol to help us to worship God, that the singing is a symbol to help us to worship God. But you see what happened to the Jews? They began to think that the symbol was the substance too. And so as long as they were in the temple

and worshiping in the temple, then they thought everything was just fine. See, that's why Micah could say, you can go out here and oppress the poor and rob people, and yet you say, is not the Lord among us? Nothing bad shall happen to us.

That's why Jeremiah can say in another place, you go out and you steal and you rob and then you run to the house of God and say, we are delivered. He said, you treat the house of God as a robber's cave, a place to hide out between crimes. And so we often, no matter, there's no real relationship between what we do out here in the world and what happens here. And whatever we do out there in the world, we come into the worship on Sunday and we go through all of the symbols and we

say we are delivered. We are good people. God has forgiven us. My dear friend, if you and I are not careful, we will begin to worship the symbols rather than the substance. That's why God had the temple torn down, because the people came to believe that God could only dwell in one place. And when God released them from Babylon, you remember this? When God released them from Babylon, there was a group who chose to go back to the land and try to rebuild the temple, Ezra and Nehemiah,

but there was a large number who stayed in Babylon. Why? Why did they stay in Babylon because they had discovered that God was not a geographical God and that you didn't have to be in the Holy Land to worship him you didn't have to be in a temple to worship Him, that you could find God as real in Babylon, in exile. And folks, isn't that what the Christian life is all about right now? Isn't that what it's all about right now? Aren't we exiles upon the earth?

Isn't that how the Bible describes us, pilgrims and strangers on the earth? And yet, even in exile exile we are to what? Find the true substance of God and realize that even in the midst of enemy territory we can worship God and find Him. Seek the Lord exclusively. That means you seek for nothing more, but it also means you settle for nothing less. You remember Elisha and the woman who was without a child, and Elisha visited her house, and she built him a prophet's room,

and he said, you've been so good to God's prophet, God's going to give you a son. You remember that, the Shumanite woman? Well, that son grew into a fine young boy, and the Bible tells us that one day that boy was out with his dad in the fields, and all of a sudden he cried out, my head, and he had a sunstroke is what he had,

more than likely, and he fell down. They carried him up to the prophet's room and laid him there on the bed, but he was dead. And that mother said, saddle the donkey, I'm going to see Elisha, and I'm going to bring Elisha back here, and he will raise my boy from the dead. Well, she made that journey. And as she was approaching the camp of Elisha, Gehazi, Elisha's right-hand man, Elisha's servant, saw her and said to Elisha, that Shumanite woman is coming. And Elisha said, go down and find out what she wants and so he did and she told him the story of what had happened and she said I've come to see elisha so she comes to elisha and she tells elisha my boy has died and you promised me a son and God

gave me a somebody's died and I want you to come in and raise him from the dead not not when I watch it remember You remember what Elisha said? Elisha gave his staff to Gehazi and said, Gehazi, you go back with her and you handle this. And that woman fell and grabbed the feet of Elisha and said, as I live and as the Lord liveth, I'm not leaving here without you. And so Elisha went along. Elisha, Gehazi, and the Shumanite woman. Now when they got there, Elisha

was still operating on his original plan. And so he said to Gehazi, go up, take my staff and go up and deal with that and raise that boy. And you know, Gehazi went up there and tried and tried and tried and tried, and nothing stirred. The boy remained dead, and he came back down, and he said, I can't do anything.

So Elisha said, well, I've got to do everything for myself. And so Elisha went up there and gave the first CPR you find anywhere in the Bible. He stretched out on that boy, put his hands and feet matching his, and put his mouth over his mouth and breathed into him. And that boy, what? Became alive again. Now, here's my point if that woman that mother had started out seeking Elisha

but having met Gehazi settled for Gehazi that boy would be dead yet but she said I have come seeking Elijah and I'm not going to settle for anything less and I'm afraid that many times you and I we seek the Lord and seek the Lord and we say I'm going to seek Jesus with all my heart

but along the way we meet a blessing or a gift and we settle for that now there was what they call the Welsh revival in the early 1900s in Wales start about 1904 and lasted about three or four years and went haywire and died. Two men, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, who was one of my idols, and F.B. Meyer, Baptist preacher, they decided to travel to Wales to be in the Welsh revival.

I don't know where it is now, but years ago I found, there came into my possession a monograph that they had written. And it was on the subject of why the Welsh Revival failed. And they said the Welsh Revival failed for two reasons. Number one, speaking in tongues and an overemphasis on the devil and demons. You see, people got so carried away with lesser things. Isn't that interesting? Don't you find that interesting? And the modern Pentecostal movement was born in 1904 in Kansas. We had revival in this country in the 1970s.

Do any of you all remember that? Remember the fellows from Asbury that traveled everywhere? Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord. And we had glorious revival. We did. And in our church, we had revival. It started in 1970 and began to die out about 1974.

I'm just giving you my opinion, which I greatly respect. But do you know why I believe the revival died out? If you would go back and look at it and recall, it was about that same time that spiritual gifts were discovered, rediscovered, and came to the forefront, and everybody got excited about spiritual gifts. What is your gift? What is your gift?

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in spiritual gifts, and I think it's a wonderful thing for the church to discover those things, but there was such an emphasis, an emphasis, an overemphasis on spiritual gifts, and we got so caught up in spiritual gifts. I think we stopped seeking Jesus.

That's just my humble and accurate opinion, but I think we stop seeking Jesus. That's just my humble and accurate opinion, but I think. You see, if we're not careful, we'll start off. Say, oh, my heart is so hungry and I'm so thirsty. Only Jesus can satisfy. But along the way, somebody offers us a glass of lemonade or Kool-Aid, and we say, this is good enough.

But you know, nothing refreshes your thirst like water. Anything else, you'll get thirsty again. So we're to seek the Lord exclusively. Now y'all are going to have to listen a lot faster than you're listening for me to finish. I promise the next two points won't be nearly as long.

We're to seek the Lord exclusively. Secondly, we are to seek Him earnestly. And you shall seek me and find me when? When you shall search for me with all your heart. A Hebrew phrase that indicates intense, earnest, determined longing and expectation.

You'll find me when you seek me with all your heart. Reminds me of the verse, what is it, Hebrews 11, 4, that he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who what? Diligently, earnestly seek him. We're going to the outback afterwards. I'm going to get me a good old steak. I hope I didn't spoil my appetite with those few little crackers I ate before

I came to church. That can sort of take the edge off your earnestness. That can kind of take the edge off your desperation. Folks, I have news for you. A half-hearted search of Jesus will never find him. Well, I'll do it at my convenience. Let's look at my schedule and see if I can squeeze in this time. Oh, it's not that way. And it's not a matter of how much time you spend on your knees. It's an attitude of the heart and of the life.

It's determined that you're going to seek Him. And you're desperate, you see. We seek Him out of desperation as well as determination. These people are going to get desperate. Notice, it's interesting how he says it in verse 13, And you shall seek me. He's stating the fact. He said, You will. you shall seek me. He's stating a fact. He said, you will, you'll seek me.

You seek me first with determination, with all of your heart, but you seek me out of desperation. He said, I'm going to put you over there in Babylon and remove you from this land and strip you of everything you have and put you in a strange land and you'll get so desperate over there you will seek me yes you will

seek me we're to seek the Lord earnestly diligently with determination out of desperation now I have to tell you I wonder sometimes how desperate do we Diligently, with determination, out of desperation. Now, I have to tell you, I wonder sometimes how desperate do we have to get before we seek the Lord? How desperate does our nation have to get? Well, that's a big question, isn't it? I'm sure Michael has quoted Vance Havner on this he said trouble with us today is the situation is desperate but we're not well finally

we're to seek the Lord expectantly you shall seek me and find me. You will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. And in verse 14, and I will be found of you. We're to seek the Lord expectantly. In other words, folks, I want to tell you something.

Time spent seeking the Lord is never wasted. My sister-in-law was on a pulpit committee just recently, and I think they narrowed it down. What was it, the three men? The three men. And they didn't know how to eliminate these, you know, the men and land on the right one. And so they sent these three men a questionnaire.

It really wasn't a it was just one question actually but had 15 answers and it was something like this I want we want you to list in order of your priority you know the 15 most important things in your life as a minister. Number one, what you think is top priority in your life as a minister. They eliminated one guy fairly easy because you know what number 15 was for him? Prayer. Now, that might be for me, but I'd still, to get to church,

put up there number one, just to impress the people. I guess I ought to admire the man's honesty. But when they met with him, they said, why do you consider your last and least priority prayer? He said, because there's too much to do. Yes, sir. I don't have time to waste my time praying.

There's too much to be done for God. Boy. I mean, that guy has missed, he's missed the whole point of everything. Folks, I want to tell you something. God is saying, you never seek me in vain. He said, you will find me. I love Psalm 130. He says, those who wait upon the Lord are like those who wait for the sun,

the morning, the sunrise. Have you ever waited for the sunrise? I remember the night back in 1984 when I was robbed and shot at and everything. I was never so terrified in my life. And Kay was terrified. And we were in our motel room. And I remember we huddled together sitting on the floor because the guy had escaped and he knew where we were

and our names and everything. And we didn't know if he might not come back and show up. And it was dark. And we waited and waited and waited. And the most blessed sight, folks, frankly, I don't care to see sunrises. Sunsets are all right, but sunrises, they ought to schedule those for noon. But I was never in my life so happy to see the sunrise.

Daylight come. Now there are two things about waiting for the sun to come up. Number one, you can't rush it. Waiting for the Lord is like waiting for the sun to come up. You can't rush it. Oh, I'm going to trick the sun. I'm going to set my watch ahead five hours. It'll come up earlier.

No, it won't. No, it won't. You can't rush it. And the same way you can't rush it. And the same way you can't rush God. You can't rush God. That's the first thing about waiting for the Lord. The second thing about it is the sun do rise. Doesn't it?

Well, it has ever since I've been around. I expect it will rise in the morning. I don't plan to be there to see it, but I take it by faith. When I get up and I see the sun up there, I say, hey, the sun rose. Those who wait for the sunrise, friend, never wait in vain. Why? Because the sun will rise. And those who wait upon the Lord never wait in vain. Because the Lord.

Oh, what does he say? Yeah, verse 14. Well, you've got to watch these things. They're tricky. He says in verse 14, and I will be found of you. And I will be found of you. Now here he doesn't say you'll find me. He says I'm going to let you find me.

Hey, have you ever tried to find the Lord when he didn't want to be found? I've been in services like this, like that. I remember one year in Switzerland, Kay, you'll remember this. There was a pretty well-known preacher who was to preach one night. And I don't know if, you know, normal people can recognize these things,

but preachers can recognize. You know when a preacher is searching for something that'll go. You know? He got up there and had his notebook and his notes and read his text and he started along. I could tell he was struggling. And after a while, I could tell he had moved to another sermon.

And then he moved to another one. And to another one. I forget how many, several. I knew exactly what was happening. This fellow was searching for something that would go. He was trying to find God, and God wasn't about to be found, and he finally finished to everybody's relief,

but mostly to his relief he sat down and he wrote in big letters across his notes abandoned folks you can't find God if he doesn't want to be found preachers are bad about this singers are kind of bad about it too you know you know we try to whoop it up nothing here God's not within a million miles of this place but we're going to whoop it up

I mean you know and we do all this stuff trying somehow to get God to show up but I have news for you friends God can't be found if he doesn't want to be found. He says, you seek me with all of your heart. And he said, I'll let you find me. I'll let you find me.

You know, things like this are hard to put into words and seem a little bit ambiguous. When I tell you just to seek the Lord, what we want are some steps, one, two, three, a formula, but I can't give you that. I'm not a formula person. Matter of fact, the Bible's not a formula book.

Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever noticed that the Bible never sets out 10 steps to be filled with the Spirit? Nevering puts down one, two, three, the ABCs of salvation. Have you ever noticed that? Did you know the Bible's not complete? I don't see how Paul and the others made it.

Thank goodness we've been saved and the Bible's been completed by all these books that have come along that we've written, you know, telling us how to do this, how to be filled, how to have a successful marriage, and how to do this, how to be filled, how to have a successful marriage, and how to do this, how to do this,

how to live the Christian life. Boy, I'm telling you, I've always wondered why God just didn't go ahead and finish the Bible and tell us how to do all those things. Have you ever noticed that? It's not a formula book. It doesn't put it out step by step.

Why? Because God says there's some work I want you to do in this. You see, when I was a pastor, I found myself in a dilemma. Here's a person who comes in for counseling. They've got a problem. Now, all they want is an answer. I remember I struggled with algebra when I was in school. My dad, you know, was a great mathematician,

and so I'd help him with my homework. And Dad, you know, he always, you know, wanted to tell me how it worked. I said, I don't want to know. Just tell me what the answer to the question is. I never did learn any algebra from a teacher or from my dad dad dad was a very methodical person you know he he would want to go back and explain to me how we either I don't care about that just put down the answer and

that's what we want isn't it and I'd find people come in for counseling and they won't tell me three things to do solve my problem well I'd tell them what to do and they'd be happy and go out six months later they come back with a different problem and they want me to tell them what to do, and so I'd tell them what to do, and then they'd go out and do it, and then six months later, they'd be in another crisis. They'd come back.

You see, I was making a mistake. I was doing them a disservice. I was telling them too much. So those people never learned how to find God on their own they never learned how to seek the Lord on their own because I told them what to do every time and most people most the average Christian I believe does not believe that he can get out there all by himself alone

and get hold of God and get the answer for himself. Scares him to death if he thinks he's got to do that. Let's go to a counselor. Let's go to the preacher and have him tell us what to do. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not against counseling, but I'm against some forms of counseling that simply give you one, two steps

so that you never have to do any work yourself. What I need more than for you to tell me what's wrong with me and what to do, what I need more is to be able to go out and get hold of God myself and have God speak to me. Or God can speak to me just as well as He can speak to the preacher, can't He? That's what I want.

I need to do that. Well, you've listened good. And I appreciate it. Would you bow your heads with me? now tonight and tomorrow night I am not going to give a public invitation if there's somebody here that's lost and you want to be saved you come up to me or the pastor

or one of these other staff members and we'll certainly talk to you and help try to lead you to Christ. I won't give a public invitation though. I want to let the Holy Spirit just give whatever invitation He wants to to our own hearts. We're just going to meditate for a moment, then we're going to pray, and that's it.

Let's see if God can speak to you without any help from me. Let's see if you can find God without an invitation. Dear Lord, we know you. But there are so many ways in which we do it.

Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.