The Pursuit of God

The Pursuit of God

George Berkey

2/2325

With the prospect of Allen being away most of the week, Allen asked if I would give a sermon this week.I said sure.He was like you don’t want to pray about it first.I said no I’m good with doing it.Behind that response though was I thought I could recycle sermons from about 10 years ago when my former church was without a pastor for 5 years and we had an interim pastor for a while but there were times we needed coverage.So, there was a number of us that would give a sermon on a rotating basis.I had stored them in my Corning, Inc. sermon file.Well, when I opened the file, it was completely empty.Ouch!Corning has this policy where everything is deleted automatically after 2 years.I didn’t keep up with refreshing the file.Now I am in trouble…got to start from scratch. My thoughts were to start with one of Tozer’s books as a kick starter.

Outside the Bible there is no author that has more affected my life than AW Tozer.Pick anyone of his books and you will be blessed. If the only thing you get out of this sermon is the urge to read one of his books, this sermon will be a success. Iam going to use his classic book The Pursuit of God as a launching point for my sermon.I will read some chunks of it and then expound further with some thoughts.Before I do that let’s pray:

O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.

It was Canon Holmes of India who more than 25 years ago called attention to the inferential character of the average man's faith in God. To most people, God is an inference and not a reality. He is a deduction from the evidence which they consider adequate, but he remains personally unknown to the individual.He must be they say therefore we believe he is.Others do not go even so far as this;they know of him only by hearsay.They have never bothered to think the matter out for themselves but have heard about him from others and have put belief in him into the back of their minds along with the various odds and ends that make up their total creed.To many other God is but an ideal, another name for goodness, or beauty, or truth; or he is law, or life, or the creative impulse back of the phenomenon of existence.

These notions about God are many and varied, but they hold them have one thing in common, they do not know God in personal experience. The possibility of intimate acquaintance with him has not entered their minds.While admitting his existence they do not think of him as knowable in the sense that we know things

or people.They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mereprinciple.

That passage so resonates with me.That was me the first 18 years of my life. Ibelieved that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, that Jesus did miracle, that he died on the cross for sins and was resurrected from dead.These were historical facts like other event or person in history.I am a Christian right?But I did not know of the possibility of an intimate relationship with God.Didn’t think of him as a knowable person.Picking up again with Tozer; one more paragraph:

All social intercourse between human beings is response of personality to personality. God is a person and in the deep of his mighty nature he thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and grieves as any other person may.In making himself known to us he stays by the familiar pattern of personality.He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds our wills and our emotions.The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thoughts between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of the New Testament religion.

This gives you a flavor for his writings.Amazing for someone who only finished the 8^th grade.So, Tozer is sayingif we settle for mere mental notions as doctrine, we shall have no transforming power.Without experiencing God, you have a one dimensional God, a cartoon God if you will.John Owen, the old Puritan warned people in his day:“You have an imaginary Christ, and if you are satisfied with an imaginary Christ, you must be satisfied with an imaginary salvation.”

I am going to dwell on the aspect of pursuing God.Think about the most favorite location during a vacation that you've had personally. I think of the 144 mile stretch called the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper of Alberta Canada. There is such amazing vistas and abundance of wildlife.If one just drove it, you could do it in 3 hours. But No chance.Every turn is something new and you stop and take it in. And then also a close second is southern Utah with Arches National Park, Monument Valley, Zion National, etc. Again, the vistas and topography are so different and amazing. Where is that for you?

But when I think of those experiences, they don't compare to communion with God. Connection to God in prayer is fundamentally about connecting to a person. It is relational.It's conversational.

Prayer is harder when you focus on the words you're supposed to say, or the structure of the mechanics. To a certain extent one has to do that with public prayer.That is exactly why I would rather not volunteer for public prayer. In any case whether public or private, prayer flows much easier when we focus on a person that person being your heavenly Father. Sometimes we focus on prayer as a spiritual discipline. Something we need to incorporate in our life.Prayer of course is not less than that but is much more. If prayer is a chore, burdensome, a drag, like I need to add 1 more thing to my schedule…like Do you feel that way when you talk to your closest friend? When you sit across the table from your family is that like a chore. No…When you are with your friends in conversation, it just flows.You want to know what's happening in their life. How are you feeling?Prayer is fundamentally just that.It's about connecting to your heavenly father. It is relational in its essence.

Sometimes we treat prayer like it is a foreign distant experience. How do you talk to your friend closest to you? The conversation comes out raw and unfiltered. You're not thinking about the words you're saying. You just express what is on your hearts. Sometimes we don't feel that close to God.You say God is your father, but it is so abstract. So much of our Christian journey is coming to that reality that he is our father both in fact and experience.

You may not have grown up with a dad or when you think about your father you don't have positive feelings that well up. I personally had a father who could not express loving emotions like “I love you” or give hugs. Sadly, I never saw him hug my mom or kiss her.Naturally we take the experience we have on the ground in this life and project it to God to makes some sense of the person we cannot see. We make sense based on the experience that we have in our lives. And that starting place may be very tenuous and very broken and cluttered. That version of our earthly father you had may be emotionally painful. But our father in heaven is the one you've always wanted, but never had. He is the perfect father.Even the best father on this side of heaven can't come close to matching our heavenly Father. He knows you.Whether you feel it or not. He knows all your insecurities, all your brokenness, your inadequacies, your flaws, your weaknesses.He knows all that.Yet he still calls you his beloved son; his beloved daughter.

These areas of your heart you can never express to anyone else even those closest to you, well your father knows them. Yet he stillloves you with perfect unconditional love.That is the kind of love God offers you. Is there anything better than that? Is there anything in this world to compare about that feeling in prayer? You wake up to the reality that God's your father in heaven.You begin to see prayer as a conversation with a person who is closest to you. Who knows you better than you know yourself.

I heard this story that in 1928, there was a Syrian farmer who was plowing his field. And as he was plowing, he hit a rock. He thought it was just a rock. But as he was digging around it, he discovered it was a tomb. And inside this tomb were all these artifacts and he would go on the sell some on them for a nice profit. Overtime some archaeologists out in the marketplace traced out where these artifacts came from. And they started to swarm that area and did a long term excavation project. Over time they discovered there was an entire ancient city that was underneath his farm.

And that farmer just going about his business plowing his field not realizing that there is an entire ancient civilization hidden right beneath his feet.The kingdom of God can be like that. It's right there in front of us.But often we don't excavate the ground to feel it and experience it. To know what it means to live in the kingdom of God.

One of the keys is seeking God’s presence.Moses in Exodus 33: 15-16 “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.How will anyone know you are pleased with me and your people unless you go with us.What else will distinguish me and your people on the face of the earth?Moses is saying I need your presence in my life. No reason to go otherwise. He wants to go on to experience God even more in what I call the “cliff experience”. And God entertained that request and was pleased with Moses wanting to see his glory. Moses pursued God. Moses couldn’t get enough of God. Are we satisfied with just drips of God.

Wilbur Reese wrote a poem along that line (this is only partial)

I would like to buy$3 worth of God, please.

Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,

I want a pound of eternal in a paper sack.

I would like to buy $3 worth of God.

When I found the Lord and became a Christian, my mom didn’t know what to make of it.She was like don’t get too committed and watch your money.She meant well.Basically, she was saying be satisfied with $3 dollars worth of God.

Jacob in Genesis had a close encounter with God and was never the same.In that encounter he hangs on to this angelic being all night.Jacob says:I won’t let you go till you bless me. After the encounter he says: “God must be in this place.” The Bible says in Geneses 28:17He was afraid and said: “How awesome is this place”.That may seem odd…afraid and awesome.But Isaiah would say the same thing.Afraid but awesome.Jacob pursued God. What blessing do you want from God?How badly do you want it?

Then there is David.He was all about seeking God and his presence.In Psalms 51: 11-12 he says: “Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me and restore unto me the joy of my salvation. This is David’s fervent prayer.

David is saying without your Holy Spirit to strengthen me I have no power.

There is the aspect of sin.David says in Psalms 19:12-13“Forgive my hidden sins.Keep your servant from willful sins.May they not rule over me.Then I will be blameless; innocent of great transgression.” In this verse you see all sin is not equal. When David refers to “willful sin” that would be analogous to our modern day first degree murder where there is premeditation involved. So that is sin where you know it is sin, you plan it and then commit it. We all have done it. Don’t look at me like that. You know what I’m talking about. Then 2^nd degree sin is where the situation comes about, and you go ahead and sin, no premeditation. Then there is the voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. Sothe manslaughter sin may be you put yourself in a situation where you will be tempted. Should have known better. An example of Involuntary manslaughter is when a heavy object falls on your foot and a crude or vulgar word comes out. Could be upgraded to voluntary manslaughter if you keep at it. And finally, there is misdemeanors. That would be referring to you coffee drinkers.It doesn’t go on your permanent sin record, but it is potentially harmful to his temple.

I need to circle back to first degree premeditated sin. You don't want to go there seriously. I personally do not quote I john 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness in that situation.You don’t want to feel like …God that is your job to forgive me when I sin. That is to presume on God. Such a dangerous position. You want to mourn and repent to the extent you can. You grieve the loss of fellowship. It is a terrible place to be. That is why you see the earnestness in David "Don't take your Holy Spirit from me" There is grieving involved. It is a process and process by definition takes time. Again, you hurt the person closest to you, your heavenly Father. God will let you know He has forgiven you. You don't want to go there again.

Paul in Philippians 3: 7-12

“But whatever gain I had;I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

Paul says that “knowing Christ is of surpassing worth”. If we want to serve one master, we need to see his surpassing worth. What stands in the way of us knowing and seeing the surpassing worth of Jesus? What do we need to count as garbage?

If someone offered you $100 million if you would sell your soul, would you take it? Of course, most likely the tempter would not be so bold as to say it that way but that would be the effect. A lot of people sell out for a lot less.Like the poem $3 worth of God is enough.

Forget the $100 million, Jesus ups the ante and says “What gain is it if you gain the whole world but lose your soul”?Jesus is saying do the accounting….the profit loss statement with eternity in mind.Paul is saying “Count all as loss for the sake of the cross”. You don’t want to regret this.

These men, Moses, Jacob, David, Paul wanted to taste, to touch God with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes. Iwant to deliberately encourage this mighty longing after God. Jamie Smith in his book “You Are What You Love”. In it he talks about the central goal of desire. Jesusis about trying to reshape our desires. What are your desires?

I would like to end with a testimony as told by Sheila Walsh. Sheila is a Christian singer and co-host of the 700 Club. In one of her lowest moments, one morning she says I was sitting on national TV with my nice suit and big hairdo. But that night I was locked in a ward of a psychiatric hospital. She says, “It is the kindest thing God could have done”. The first day in the hospital, the psychiatrist asked me “who are you?” I am Co-host of the 700 club. That is not what I asked.Who are you…“Well, I'm a writer and a singer.” That's not what that's not what I meant, “Who are you”?“I don't have a clue” she said.He replied, now, that's right. That is why you are here.

She had lost her sense of identity in Christ because so much of what she banks on;her success,her approval by others,validation that comes from the outside.In God’s economy these are idols, false gods in her life that God exposed. On the first night there, she was in the corner of the room, one of the attendants came by and handed her a stuffed lamb. He said, “The shepherd knows where to find you”. As she processed the experience, she realized, I measured myself by what other people thought of me. The 700 staff said don't go or you will never regain your platform. If people know you are in a mental hospital and on medication it will be over. She said,“You know what, it's overanyway”.So, I can't think about that.Isn’t that painful to hear the staff’s reaction.If you need that kind of help there is stigma associated with it.Even though Jesus says he came for the sick not the healthy. Can’t show our weaknesses. She said:I actually thought I would lose everything.

Walsh in her lowest moment, God was there.In her lowest moment she experienced the deepest fellowship and the most intimacy with God. Sheila’s story is actually a story of God pursuing her. Our Father is loving, merciful and gracious.Sometimes he needs to strip away idols in our lives.He pursues us to transform our hearts.Sometimes being in the valley is His mercy toward us.As the song saysWe are prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. His Loving discipline is designed to bring us to repentance. All the time we think we are pursuing God, actually He is pursuing us.Isn’t that the real story of the Bible. God pursued Moses in the burning bush.His response pick someone else.No, I want you. God pursued David, the lowly shepherd boy.God pursued Saul, the killer of God’s people” and transformed him into Paul.

I started off with Tozer’s“The Pursuit of God”. But the cover on your Biblecould be titled “TheHoly Bible” with the subtitle “The story of God pursuing you and me”.Our pursuing God is actually our response to Him pursuing us. He pursues us with His goodness and in his mercy.

Let’s pray:Oh, Father open our eyes to see. May our response be like Moses, “Show me thy glory”. Begin in mercy a new work of love within us.May we experience you daily. Satisfy us with your presence. Demolish in our lives what you have to in your mercy and kindness. Help us to lay hold of eternal things.In Jesus’ name we pray.

Take a moment to reflect on God’s presence and work in our lives with these two songs.

Song:Goodness of God by Bethel Music

Benediction

May the love of God the Father who calls us his sons, who calls us his daughter not based on anything we have done but simply because of his love and embrace; may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord and creator to this universe has called you his friend, brother and sister;may the fellowship of the Holy Spirit who alone can fill our needs and makes the presence of the Father known in our life;may this triune God be with you both now and forever.Amen