Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

1 Chronicles 16:11 Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Psalm 27:8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Seeking is part of the life of a disciple. In many ways, when we come to Christ, we’re just starting out on our journey, taking the first step on the adventure that lies before us. It’s an epic quest. The treasure is a great reward worth the pursuit.

What are we to be seeking? Look at the verses above. List the things they say to seek.

God, His presence, His strength, the kingdom of God, His righteousness, God’s face

I would say these are all the same thing! We seek God; we seek His presence; our desire is to be with Him, to have His life in us by the Spirit. His righteousness is ours by the Spirit dwelling in us. His strength is ours because the joy of the Lord is our strength and in His presence is the fullness of joy. It’s His presence that we need to receive strength. It’s His life in us that’s our righteousness, Christ’s righteousness in us.

We seek to be with God. By faith we receive the Holy Spirit when we come to Christ. His seed is planted in us, and we’ve talked about asking for the Holy Spirit to fill us. That’s not what this lesson is about. We can be Christians but not see Him, not know His presence, not have Him set before us, not see Him or hear Him or know His continual leading.

Sin separates us from God. We can separate ourselves from close fellowship with the Lord where we know we are always in His presence, where we know we can talk to Him anytime and He’s hearing and answering, where we see Him with us. You need to seek and find that place of fellowship so that you can recognize when it’s missing, so you can seek what’s happened and repent and get back to that place.

If you don’t know that kind of fellowship with the Lord, where you are walking and talking with Him (and He’s walking and talking with you!), then seek it. Seek Him. Ask Him to shine His light on your heart and expose any harmful way that’s hindering the relationship. We need to remove sin. We need to remove the love of the things of the world.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

The deeper our repentance, the deeper the “house cleaning,” removing these things, the more room we make for being filled with the fullness of God, the more alive in Christ we’ll be. Anytime you are in need of a personal revival, this is the key. Repentance. Get rid of sin. Get rid of the things of this world. Make Jesus your all in all. Seek Him. He promises to be found. Go after Him until you find Him. Never give up on the epic quest. You pursue Jesus until you have Him. You pursue His presence until you have it. You pursue His righteousness until you are experiencing it.

There is a place of no condemnation in Christ. It’s not because sin is now okay because of the cross. Sin was never and will never be okay, but a heart broken over sin because it’s truly set on loving and obeying God will not be condemned. There’s a place of no condemnation in Christ because we’ve been set free from sin, because we live in His presence. How could you choose sin if you knew God was right there with you, if you really believed that?

Romans 8:1 (NKJV) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

There’s a place of freedom where we can just live and know we’re on the right track because if we start to get off, Jesus will stop us and turn us back on path.

1 John 5:18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

If you can choose sin and not suffer a loss of fellowship with Christ, then you aren’t experiencing fellowship with Christ. Seek it.

James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Believe He’s there to be found. He wants you near to Him, but it’s for the seeker.

Hebrews 11:6-7 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

How much do you want to be with God? Are you willing to give up your life to have Him in your life? This is the Christian life, dying to self and living to Christ.

Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Follow Me. That’s the command to a seeker. Keep your eyes on the prize, Jesus. If you lose your focus and can’t see Him before you leading you, pick up that cross again to die to self and self-seeking and go after following Jesus. Walk His way until you are walking in step with Him. Then there will be no more seeking. The search will be over. He promises to be found.

Lesson Point: God wants you to pursue being with Him. He pursued being with you! He promises to be found, so there is great reward at the other end of the search.

Challenge Question: Are you seeking or have you found?