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They're listed on the upper left-hand side Every Sunday at 10 30 a.m. Again at 5 30 p.m. Thursdays at 7 will be in 2nd Kings chapter number 10 This week and then we've also got the salvation baptisms the offering totals the attendance for both the month and year I happy birthday to everybody celebrating in the month of November We had the doughnuts this morning and then don't forget later this month on the 24th Thanksgiving We're gonna have our annual Thanksgiving dessert social before the service. That's going to be at 6 p.m. And I'm probably gonna put up a sign-up sheet just so everyone Can get an idea how much desserts gonna be there so that if people aren't just doing it is they feel obligated don't feel obligated to bring a dessert there's always plenty and But do please come in fellowship with us come out and enjoy the day and Spend that with us also on the back we've got the home school field trip coming up on Friday November 18th, and you got the details there and We've also got the home school field trip to the Sonora Desert Museum coming up in December So that's gonna do it for those announcements before we end though We'll quickly count up the soul winning going back to Friday if there was anything for Friday I know the group had one Saturday. Is there anything outside the group on that and then what about today? All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the preaching tonight 4, 7, 2 4, 7, 2 4, 7, 2 Ah, I do know that Oh 4, 7, 2 This is my father's world Number 4, 7, 8, 2 This is my father's world And to my list he bears All nature sings And proudly Brings the music Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of 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spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit Of the spirit So in 1 Chronicles chapter number 22 there I want to start out by just pointing out something in verse 7 and 8 It's probably pretty obvious as you're reading it But it says there in verse 7 And David said to Saul and my son as for me It was in my mind to build a house Under the name of the Lord my God But the word of the Lord came to me saying Thou hast shed blood abundantly and hast made great wars Thou shalt not build a house unto my name Because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight So we see here in these verses That it was in David's heart to build the house of the Lord And that's something I can really appreciate about David David is somebody who when he saw the opportunity to do something great for God He seized it He realized that the inhabitants of the land had been given into his hand That he had this opportunity to do this great work He had the wherewithal to do it He had the craftsmen He had all the vessels He had all of the gold and all the materials Everything he needed to do the work He wanted to do the work But God had his reasons And he said look you're a bloody man You've made great wars You've shed a lot of blood You're not going to be the one to build my house And David was fine with that He understands He gets it But the point is that he saw the opportunity to do something great And he wanted to do it It was in his heart to do it And the thing is a lot of people are presented with opportunities to serve God And they can't see it Or they do see it and they could do something great for God They could do something on behalf of God Do something that would glorify God And they just kind of pass on it They just kind of say you know It's just not something I want to do David as the psalm says Was a man after God's own heart He was somebody that had a heart for God He loved the Lord He wanted to do great things for God Unfortunately for him He wasn't able to do this But he was understanding And still had the heart to do it And he passed it on to his son David wanted to do more And really that's the attitude that we need to have As servants of God today We should be people who want to do more When we see the opportunity to do more We should want to do more We should try to serve God more Do great things for God And not just pass on opportunities that are given to us David there He wasn't able to do exactly what he wanted to do But he still Was prepared so that Solomon could do it He didn't get bitter and angry And upset that he wasn't able to do this great work He said well if I can't do the building Exactly, if I can't Do the actual building Of the temple I'm at least going to prepare I'm going to at least do what I can To lay down that foundation So that my son can step into that And build that temple So David wanted to do more And that's really kind of what I want to preach about tonight Is this idea of We should seek to do more And if you would look there at verse 19 It says Now set your heart and your soul To seek the Lord your God Arise therefore and build you the sanctuary Of course this is the charge that David is giving To Solomon And he's telling him to set his heart And his soul to seek God And not just that but to arise And build the sanctuary of the Lord To bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord To the holy vessels of the house of God That it is to be built for the name of the Lord And I just kind of want to look at a few of these phrases here In these verses and just kind of Make application here as we go But the first thing I want to point out is that You know we've been given a great opportunity To do things for God Simply by the fact that we are saved You know simply by the fact that we are Dwelled by the Holy Spirit That we are sealed by the Holy Spirit You know we have something that the world does not have You know there's a lot of people out there today That might want to do something for God That might be seeking after God But they can't serve God the way that a saved person can You know they can't do anything In their flesh for God That is something that is unique to us As believers you know we have The indwelling of the Holy Spirit We have our salvation is secured We have the ability to go out And do great things for God If you look there in 1 Chronicles chapter 22 Verse 18 it says Is not the Lord God with you? You know that's something that we can ask ourselves Is not the Lord God with us? And obviously it's a hypothetical question The answer is yes You know the Lord God is with us You know sometimes we might lose sight You say why is it that sometimes people just Pass on opportunities to do great things for God Maybe it's because they don't understand That the Lord God is with them That they have this great ability That they have the wherewithal They have the opportunity to serve God If they wanted to Is the Lord God with you or not? The answer is yes Look the Lord is with us It goes on and says And hath he not given you rest on every side? You know we have rest We don't have to live the rest of our lives Wondering who God is We don't have to live the rest of our lives Wondering what the meaning of life is We don't have to live the rest of our lives Wondering about what's going to happen to us when we die You know we know these things You know I remember before I got saved That night I wanted to know what is the truth Who is God What's going to happen That was something that plagued me That was something that I had to know And the Bible says if we seek we shall find And praise God I found out And everyone that's saved in this room Whether you had that experience before you got saved Whether you felt that same way or not The point is that you never have to feel that way Ever Because you know who God is God is our God And he has given us rest on every side You know we don't have to worry about going to hell when we die We don't have to worry And wonder about what's going to happen to us We have rest We have the Lord God You know David could see the opportunity That was given to him just by virtue of the fact That they were with God You know and that's something that we need to see We need to see that we have the opportunity To do great things for God Simply because of the fact that God is with us You know we have that opportunity because we are saved And he has given us rest You know he's given us rest On every side We have perfect peace We're sealed into the day of our redemption We don't have to sit here and worry if we're going to lose our salvation We don't have to worry about whether or not You know God's going to take that from us We have been sealed, we have eternal life That gives us peace That also gives us the opportunity to move on To do other things in our life To move on and actually begin to serve God You know the natural man He can't serve God He can't know the things of God We, because we are God's people Have been given an opportunity to serve God And you know David was somebody That wanted to seize upon an opportunity To do something for God But for other reasons was not allowed to We have a great opportunity to do something for God And there's nothing preventing us from doing it There's nothing stopping us From serving God with our lives There's nothing stopping us from Seeking the Lord and doing great works The only thing that stops us is us So David sees this And that's the application there Our salvation is secure The question is Not whether or not God is with us The question is What will we do with the opportunity that we have to serve God in this life What will we do with it What are we going to do with the opportunity that we have to serve God in this life Look if you're saved You have a great opportunity You can do something great for God The question is are you going to What will you do with it A lot of people just want to squander Their lives just doing Foolish stupid things People just want to waste their life on just pleasures And other things and distractions We have to ask ourselves What are we going to do to serve God in this life And that's kind of what I'm getting at here This is all kind of introduction But again verse 19 it says Now set your heart And your soul to seek the Lord your God And that's the title of the sermon That's where I get it is set and seek Set and seek You know If we're going to do something great for God in this life We have to get a point in our life Where we just say you know what I am going to do something for God I am going to take advantage of this opportunity I'm going to seize upon the moment And serve God with my life What are you doing there You're setting your heart There has to come a point in your Christian life Where you just set yourself In your ways You just set yourself to be a person Who is in church You just set yourself to be a person who reads the Bible You just set yourself to be a person Who wins souls and prays And studies the Bible And lives the Christian life There has to come a point where you set that up Where you set that down And then you begin to seek the Lord your God We should seek God in our lives We should seek God And if you would keep something there Go to Deuteronomy chapter 4 Deuteronomy chapter number 4 Because here's the thing If we choose not to seek God with our lives It's not like there aren't going to be consequences We can't have this attitude When it comes to serving God It's optional I mean obviously it's optional Obviously we can choose not to serve God with our lives Obviously we can pass on the opportunity That we have to do something great for God But it's not optional to not suffer the consequences It's not optional for us to just pass on that And then just everything is going to be honky-dory Everything is just going to be fine God wants us to seek Him There's consequences for not seeking God in your life There's consequences for not serving Him You look there in Deuteronomy chapter 4 Look at verse 24 It says for the Lord your God is a consuming fire Even a jealous God I mean that right there should tell us something God is a consuming fire He is a jealous God God is jealous Over where we set our affections If we set our heart to seek after the things of this world That's going to make God jealous God is the one who purchased us With His precious blood He's the one that laid down His life He's the one that has redeemed us unto Himself We are His workmanship Created in Christ Jesus Unto good works God is going to be jealous For us If we choose to say I'm not going to serve God I'm not going to do the things that I should I'm not going to seek Him You're going to make God mad Think about a jealous husband That's not just He acts on that He takes action A jealous husband isn't just going to sit idly by And let things play out He's going to say Hey this is making me upset He's going to talk to his wife And maybe somebody else But that's the same way God is with us God's not just going to sit back and go Well it'd be great if you guys would serve me It'd be great if the people that I died for Actually wanted to do something with their lives To serve me But I get it It's not for everybody and just let us pass It's going to make God mad Because God is a jealous God It goes on and says in verse 25 When thou shalt beget children and children's children As ye shall have remained long in the land And shall corrupt yourselves And shall make a graven image Or likeness of anything And shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God To provoke him to anger I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day That ye shall soon utterly perish off the land Where ye go over in Jordan to possess it So does it sound like the children of Israel Could just go into the promised land and just do whatever they wanted? No, he's saying look, if you don't serve me If you serve other people I'm going to destroy you And I'm calling heaven and earth against you as witness today He says Ye shall not be prolonged your days But it shall be utterly destroyed Verse 27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations And ye shall be left few in number among the heathen Where the Lord shall lead you And there ye shall serve God The works of men's hands and wood and stone Which ye neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell He's saying look, you want to dwell in this good land You want to dwell in the land that flows with milk and honey You want to dwell in the promised land You want to have God's blessing in your life Well then you have to serve me You have to serve these false gods If you do that, I'm jealous You're going to make me mad and then I'm going to scatter you into all nations But notice verse 29 But if from thence thou shalt seek The Lord thy God Thou shalt find him If thou seek him with all thy heart And with all thy soul So he's saying look, if you're going to seek God If you're going to try and, you know, when this happens You want to get right You can't just have this half-hearted attempt at serving God You can't just have this, you know, half-hearted You can't have that kind of attitude When it comes to getting right with God When it comes to serving God He's saying look, if you want to make me mad Make me jealous and serve other gods And not serve me I'll cast you into all the other nations And then if you come to your senses out there And you want to come back and serve me here in this land You know, I'll bring you back If you seek me with all your heart and with all your soul If you seek me with all of your strength And not just halfway You know, this is the type of seeking that I'm talking about If we find God with our whole being With all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength And then we'll find God And then we'll have the presence of God And then we have the blessing of God You know, God is to be found Of those that seek Him You know, it's not like God is hiding from us You know, God wants to have fellowship with us God wants to have communion with us God wants to bless us But, you know, God is only going to be found by people That seek Him sincerely Obviously, you know, that's not going to happen I'm talking beyond salvation You know, people, they just believe the gospel They get saved, that's the easy part Right? Living the Christian life, that's the hard part You know, having a walk with God That's deep and sincere Requires a great deal of effort on our part But the good news is Is that God will meet us If we draw nigh to God He will draw nigh to us Right? Remember the first part of that equation If we draw nigh to Him He is found of those that seek Him Not those that seek Him Just kind of, you know, half heartedly Not just kind of, you know, well I'll serve God when it's convenient You know, He's found of those That seek with all their heart And with all thy soul He said, you shall seek me and find me When you shall search for me with all your heart That's what He said to Jeremiah And here's the thing Go to 1 Chronicles chapter 16 You know, seeking God in your life Is a constant thing It's not like you just do that once in your life You just kind of get serious with God once You know, you just kind of develop some good habits And then you can kind of just let it go You know, seeking God is a constant discipline It's a constant perpetual habit It's something that we have to be always doing Seeking God, seeking God I mean, that's what I see with David You know, David is somebody that sat out seeking God And sat out seeking God And was found, and found God Right? But even when things are He finally has rest in the land He's reigning over the whole kingdom You know, all his enemies have been subdued You know, he continues to seek God He's like, hey, I want to do more for God Let me build a temple for God Let me build him a house You know, he had this in his heart to do it You know, David was somebody that continually sought God He didn't just get to a certain point in his life And then just say, well, I'm done Okay? And even after he's told Look, you're not going to build the temple He goes ahead and says, well, what can I do? You know, and he's getting everything together He's this guy that's always seeking God That's the type of people that we have to be That's what it means to seek God With all your heart, with all your soul And with all your strength Not to just seek God when it's convenient You know, but seek God constantly 1 Chronicles 16 Look at verse 7 It says, then on that day This is when they brought the ark back David delivered first the psalm to thank the Lord Into the hand of Asaph and his brethren Give thanks unto the Lord Call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him Talk of his wondrous works Glory he in his name Let the heart of them that rejoice That seek the Lord Let the heart of them rejoice That seek the Lord You know why some people have no joy in their life? It's because they're not seeking God You know, you'll know people They'll go through all kinds of difficulty They'll have all kinds of struggles They'll have all kinds of trouble in life And they just go through it with such a great attitude They go through it, they're able to face trials They're able to face tribulations They're able to go to hard things And it seems like they have such a great attitude about why Because they seek God You know, we're all going to have troubles in our lives You know, some people are going to be able to handle it better than others You know, and the difference is going to be Are you seeking God or not? Because people who don't seek God Bad things happen And then it's like They can't make sense of it They don't understand They might get bitter at God They might get angry Whereas the person like Job, right Who continually sought God Who sacrificed constantly to God Even on the behalf of his children You know, he's constantly seeking God He goes through, you know, some of the worst afflictions You'll ever read of in the Bible And yet is blessing God through it He is not charging God falsely You know, he says that which is right concerning the Lord Is seeking God That wasn't an accident That wasn't something that just happened It wasn't just, you know, his character It's because Job is the type of person That learned to seek God Even when times are good to seek God It's a constant seeking That's why he says in verse 11 there Seek the Lord and his strength Seek his face continually We should constantly be Seeking God You know, always And, you know, trying to make God A priority in our life It ought to be that way And look, again, I think sometimes The reason people don't do it is because The idea of that bores them It's really that carnal They just get bored with the idea of praying They get bored with the idea of reading the Bible They get bored with the idea of going to church And I just, I kind of scratched my head and said What do you think Heaven's going to be like? I mean, if you're so bored With the presence of God, you know Heaven might not be the place for you Because I have news for you It's not going to be just a bunch of fun and games in Heaven It's going to be the Lord It's going to be seeking, we're going to be looking at him We're going to be seeing him, singing praises on him Being taught out of his word We're going to be serving God in Heaven, I mean, that's what Heaven is You know, this is just us Kind of getting a jump start on Heaven down here You know, so if these things Bore you, then, you know The presence of God in Heaven might not be What you're looking forward to, I don't know Obviously when you get there, you'll come to your senses Real quick, obviously And I'm kind of, you know, being silly about it But, you know, people Don't seek God because they just think Well, there's just so many other more entertaining Better ways to spend my life And even that It's like, really, there's What's so boring, what's so dull About coming before the throne of grace What's so boring, what's so Dull about speaking to the God of Heaven And having him speak to you You know, and what's so dull About reading the Bible You know, I mean, 1 Chronicles Right, right, wrong You know how I got to this passage? By reading 1 Chronicles You know, there's some great stories In 1 Chronicles I mean, some of the last Couple of chapters, you know Are some of the most moving passages In the word of God I'm not going to say in all the word of God But they are powerful Life is being wrapped up there in chapter 28 I mean, it's powerful stuff Makes you stop and just ponder And think about God It might even bring a tear to your eye But you know what, you'll never know that If you just think, oh, 1 Chronicles is so boring You know, and I don't know how many times I've heard people say that over the years Oh, 1 Chronicles is such a hard book And I've probably even said Things like that And I get it, there's long lists Of difficult names And I'm telling you, those lists Have a purpose There was obviously a very practical purpose back then But even in those lists If we really wanted to God would probably show us Great and wondrous things Even out of some chronology There's probably some great nugget of truth In there that we could get out of it But if our attitude is just, oh, the Bible Bores me The church bores me, praying bores me Well, you know what, then you're not somebody Who's going to seek God, are you? And what I'm saying is this Is that there will be consequences That God's not just going to be like, oh, okay Well, I'm sorry I bore you God's going to say, well, I'm jealous, God I'm a consuming fire I'm jealous for your attention God wants our attention, God wants us to seek Him So he says there If you want to go back to 1 Chronicles Again in verse 19 22 Now set your heart He's saying now Set your heart And seek the Lord your God You know, this idea of setting your heart Right? It's this idea of being determined It's about this idea of desiring To seek God Set your heart Choose that direction, I'm going to seek God Desire it Set out to do it You know, we need to make God, you know, a priority In our lives And I know I kind of, I feel like I Probably preach this quite a bit But we're just living in a world right now Where it's just, it's so easy to get distracted It's so easy to get busy and caught up With all these other things It's so easy to just get caught up with work Caught up with family Caught up with all the entertainment that's out there That it's real easy To just not seek God And to be real busy doing a lot of other things That's just the nature of our world Hence why sermons like this must be preached You know, we have to Set our heart And very practically, you know Meaning, you know, you need to set a time To seek God This idea of setting your heart I don't know about you, but I'm not the type of person that can just live day to day Without a schedule Like, if I were to open up my calendar And show it to you Like, literally every minute of my day is accounted for And I'm not saying that to say I'm some hyper productive guy Like, obviously, you know, things change But I'm just saying I have to live my life that way Like, I have to have things planned I'm a person that needs structure Or else I'll just kind of flounder And waste time, okay And probably other people are like that But, you know, in that schedule There are set times to seek God There's a set time for prayer There's a set time for Bible reading There's a set time for soul winning There's a set time to go to church It's all set, you know This is what I'm talking about Seeking God This is the real practical aspect of the sermon You know, you need to set a time to seek God And make it a priority You know, make it one of the first things you do during the day To seek God Or whenever it's convenient, whenever you can Seek God Go to Psalm 27 Psalm 27 And again, we need to do this because of the fact that Jesus gets us so distracted Life can get us so distracted We can get so caught up in other pursuits That we end up not seeking God You say, what's the big deal about that? God is a jealous God God wants to bless us And if we don't seek Him He's not going to bless us But He's actually going to try to get our attention One way or another Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God And His righteousness And all these things shall be added unto you You know, the food, the raiment The cares of this life, all these other things The things that the Gentiles seek, the things that the world Naturally just Concern themselves with I'm not saying we don't concern ourselves with those things But if we seek first the kingdom of God You know, God is going to add those things to us You know, if we seek first the kingdom of God God will help us in our finances If we seek first the kingdom of God God will help us in our family God will help us in all these areas If we're seeking Him It boggles my mind sometimes How people can live this life without God With just no concern about who God is No concern about the afterlife Just not even think about it It's like, how do you even get up and live? How do you even get up and face the day? Not knowing where you're going to go when you die Unsaved Well, what about the Christian? What about the Christian who gets up and just Lives their whole life, goes through their whole day Goes through their whole week, month, year, whatever With very little thought to God We have this promise that if we seek Him first All these things shall be added unto you The same things that people bite their nails over And worry about and stay up at night And have heartburn and indigestion And all those other things that come along with Worrying and caring about things You know, all those things would be added unto us And we could stop worrying about them If we would just seek God first If we would just put God first You know, and that would happen If we would set our heart To seek the Lord The Bible says in Psalm 27 verse 8 When thou settest, seek my face My heart said unto thee Thy face, Lord, will I seek You know, that's That's a pretty good response, isn't it? And look, the Bible's telling us I mean, I didn't There's so many verses about Seek the Lord, seek the Lord, seek the Lord Seek the Lord, it's just all over the Scripture You know, at least here There's the proper response When thou settest, seek my face My heart said unto thee Thy face, will I seek You know, but if If we were to ask ourselves that same question If that same If that was proposed to us If we were told, hey, seek God What would our response be? Would it be, thy face, I will seek You know, would it be something that's from the heart Notice he said, my heart said unto thee You know, a lot of times It's gotta go from just like It's gotta go from here to here That's the difference between You know, a genuine walk with God Is about this much Getting it from here to here It's like, we all know these things We know we should pray We know we should read the Bible We know we should go to church We know we should go soul winning We would all agree with that But it never gets here That's the problem It needs to go about 12 inches We need to understand in our heart that this is something we have to do From our heart to seek God And that's all I'm trying to do tonight Is just try to get it from here Down to here That's all I'm ever really trying to do Is just try to get people to serve God With their heart And not just, you know, some intellectual assent On what it means to serve God But actually do it from their heart He said, my heart said unto thee Thy face will I seek Go to Psalm 100 Get that down into our hearts And again, this is something that I have to constantly remind myself of This is something I'm preaching to me too Is that we have to remember It is our privilege to seek God It is our privilege to seek and to serve God It's kind of what I started out saying In the beginning of the sermon There's a lot of people out there That are seeking for God And they're not finding Him Because they're seeking for Him in Allah, they're seeking for Him in Buddha They're seeking for Him in some false God They're seeking for Meaning and some vain pursuit They're seeking for God in all these other places They're seeking for purpose in all these other places And they're not finding it We have the privilege To seek God and be found We get to seek God We get to seek His face and find it We get to seek fellowship with God And have it We get to seek that and it will be found And that's a reason to rejoice That would bring joy into our life That brings contentment and peace When we seek God And we find Him We find the presence of God Look at Psalms 100 Verse 1 he said Make a joyful noise on the Lord All ye lands Serve the Lord with gladness Come before His presence with singing I mean maybe our prayer life Would be a little bit more consistent Maybe it would be a little bit more I don't know what the word is exactly Meaningful It would have some more substance if we understood That we were coming before God If we really let it sink in That when we're praying we're serving to God We might come with His presence with singing Sometimes you say I don't know how to pray Well you could start with singing That's what he says here Come before His presence with singing That's what we do when we come to church We don't come here to sing To impress one another We come here to sing because we're coming into the presence of God That's why we sing out Knowing ye that the Lord He is God It is He that hath made us And not we ourselves We are His people And the sheep of His pasture Think of what he's saying there What does he say? We didn't make ourselves into the children of God He did We didn't make ourselves into His sheep We didn't make ourselves into His sheep He did that for us We were on our way to hell When we got saved And if Christ hadn't come and died for us That's exactly where we'd be going We all know that But sometimes we lose sight of that don't we Is that you know It's our privilege to serve Him Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise Be thankful unto Him and bless His name For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting And His truth endureth to all generations You know we don't want to live our Christian life And act like every time we pray Or every time we read the Bible Or every time we go to church Or go soul winning or serve God in whatever way We don't want to have this attitude that Oh when we do something for God We're kind of throwing God a bone So here you go God here's a little bit of my time You know I'll break off a little bit for God too You know give Him His fair share That's a wicked attitude We need to understand that it's our privilege To serve God And when we start to see it that way When we start to see how privileged we are To be able to serve God To come into the presence of God To have fellowship with God You know when we see it that way as a privilege We'll probably be more prone to do it We'll probably be more prone to go ahead And seek God's face and serve Him When we understand that it's our privilege That He is the Lord God It is He that made us And not the other way around Not we ourselves And the sheep of His pasture The other thing I want to draw attention to Is what happens When we set and seek God You know when you set your heart To seek God When you say look I'm going to serve God To the best of my ability I'm going to have a time of prayer I'm going to have a time of Bible reading I'm going to be in church I'm going to do the soul winning I'm going to serve God When you finally set that in your heart What happens here is giving this charge In 1 Chronicles 22 if you're still there And there's things that come as a result Let me just turn there because I don't think I have it in here exactly What happens when we set our hearts And seek God Yeah he says there in verse 19 Now set your heart and your soul Seek the Lord your God Arise therefore what happens And build ye the sanctuary of the Lord When we set our heart to seek God That should lead to action Right He said hey set your heart, seek the Lord Then he says and arise therefore You know if people are really Setting their heart to seek God It's going to come out It's going to show up in their actions People that are really seeking the Lord That want to please God That want to have fellowship with God Obviously they're going to do the things That God asks of them Believe it or not God asks the things of us God wants us to preach the gospel God wants us to be in church God wants us to serve him God wants these things from us And he has every right to ask them And again I'm preaching this because That's what people need to understand It's God that expects this It's not me Do whatever you want And I said this earlier in a previous sermon Go ahead and disappoint me all day That's fine But just understand that you know Ultimately we're disappointing God And God has a right to ask things of us And we set our heart And we seek God You know things are going to happen We're going to build the sanctuary Hmm I wonder how we can apply that today It'd be like building the church wouldn't it You know we would be involved in the program At the church Seeking God leads to action in the church Seeking God also leads to the presence of God Because he says there Set your heart and seek the Lord your God Arise therefore build thee the sanctuary of the Lord God To bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord You want to know why sometimes God doesn't feel like he's a part of your life You want to know why sometimes God feels so far away It's because you're not seeking him You know if we seek God What does the ark represent? The presence of God You know if we seek God The more we set our hearts and seek him The closer we will feel to God You know isn't it nice To the idea that you could be close to God I mean that's a That's a very comforting thought I mean that's a powerful thought To think that someone like me That someone like you Could be close to God They could have a fellowship with the Lord God almighty They could have a fellowship with the God of the Bible That they could sense his closeness And you know if you're sitting there scratching your head And have no idea what I'm talking about It's time to set your heart and seek God You know it would be a real shame To live your whole life and never know what it is To have the presence of God in your life You know but there's plenty of Christians out there That's exactly what they're going to do They're going to live their whole Christian life And never know what it is to have the fellowship with God In the spirit You know let it not be said of anybody in this room You know because God is there to be found If we will seek him Set your heart and seek him and what We'll bring the ark closer We'll have the presence of God And he says bring the ark and what else He said set your heart and seek the Lord And bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord And the holy vessels of God You know we are vessels aren't we You know there's a lot of vessels out there In this city There's a lot of vessels in You know that surround us That need to be made holy and brought in To the house of God don't they There's a lot of people we need to go out there And get saved and get in church They're out there You know and I'm not saying it's going to be easy I'm not saying it isn't going to be hard work I'm not saying that we're going to show up at their door When they told us that they were going to come Like they did this morning And then come to the door and say oh not today Which was not a shock to me I just drove away saying there's going to be a lot of that There's just going to be a lot of it There's going to be just a lot of people that are going to say Oh you know I'll come to church tomorrow and then we're going to show up With the van ready to go and they're going to go oh not today You know but there is going to be one There's going to be some there's going to be a few There's going to be some you know Rare precious vessels that are out there Somewhere that if we keep going If we keep seeking if we keep going after them You know they will be brought into the house of God They will get saved They will come to this church And they will be used in the house of God To do great things themselves I believe that You know that's what's going to keep me going That's what's going to keep me going back out there You know week in and week out knocking those doors Trying to get people saved trying to get in a church Because why? Because we're seeking God here We're not just trying to have a social club You know we're trying to get something done for God This is a church that has set its heart collectively To seek the Lord And as a result we get involved in the work of God He says you know go out and bring the vessels And bring them where? Into the house That's how the church is built You know and maybe it might not even be The exact people that we try to bring in here That end up coming to this church But you know there might be other Zealous Christians out there That see what's going on in this church and say Man I want to be a part of that Not people that we've wanted to say Man they're out there they're doing the work You know they're trying to get people They're seeking God they're seeking the holy vessels They want to get them here I go there And it's the presence of God is there There's real genuine servants In that church and people we don't even know Might show up here And that's a possibility And this is the charge that was given to Solomon Right this is what he's telling him Go to 1 Chronicles 28 I'll wrap it up in verse 9 Or chapter 28 in verse 9 You know we need to seek God in our lives For several reasons You know one we're missing out on You know the presence of God If we're not seeking him We're missing out on fellowship when we don't read our Bibles We're missing out on a blessing That God has for us that day You know we might turn to a certain passage We're just making our way through And God's Spirit will show up and just speak to us That happens folks Anyone that's read their Bible faithfully For any length of time knows what I'm talking about You know if we seek God We're going to get down on our knees and pray And be able to you know pour out our hearts Before we're going to be able to speak To God We're going to be able to you know pour out our hearts before him We're going to be able to cast all our care upon him And know that we're heard of God We're going to be able to get up Off our knees and back on our feet And know God heard me Why? Because I set my heart to seek him Right But when we don't seek God You know we can't say that We can't expect to have God speak to us We can't expect to have the assurance that God has heard our prayers If we're not praying I mean it just makes sense But if you look there in 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9 He says And thou Solomon my son Know that thou the God of thy father And serve him with a perfect heart And with a willing mind You know this is how We should want others to serve God This is what I want From people in this church To serve God with a perfect heart And a willing mind What does he mean by perfect? Meaning all of their heart They want the whole heart serving God And with a willing mind You know not because they got browbeat Into it by the preacher Because they heard The preaching of God's word And were moved to do these things To serve God They did it with a willing mind For the Lord searcheth all hearts And understandeth all imaginations of the thoughts This is what he's saying I mean get what's going on here He's saying hey Solomon Know thou the God of thy fathers Get to know God And serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind Why? Why should I do that? For the Lord searcheth all hearts And understandeth all imaginations of the thoughts Because God knows Because God knows everything God knows whether or not we're seeking him or not Again And there's consequences for not seeking him You know we already went over that And there's consequences for seeking him He goes on and says If thou seek him He will be found of thee Isn't that great? I mean that's something that's to Solomon But you know that's a promise that we have too You know that if we seek God We will find him That if we desire fellowship with the Lord We can have it You know if we want but if But we set our hearts And we seek his face You know he will be found He's saying if thou seek him he will be found of thee But So many of us would like to just put a little period right there And just go See well if I don't seek him Then the worst that's going to be happened Is you know I'm not going to have these blessings He says but if thou forsake him Does it sound like there's only two options here? Seeking God Or forsaking God It's not like there's this middle road In the Christian life Of well I'm not seeking God I haven't forsaken him either Jesus said if you gather not with me you scatter abroad You know if you're with You know you got to be on our part And he's saying here look If you seek him you'll be found of thee But if you forsake him Meaning if you don't seek him And look that's what ends up happening to people Who don't seek God They forsake him Because if all we're doing in the Christian life Is just serving out of You know just because we know That's what we're supposed to do If we're not seeking out of With our heart and out of a willing mind We will forsake God Because you know The Christian life is difficult The Christian life is hard The Christian life you know Requires discipline And it requires effort on our part You know what's going to make it all worth it What's going to make it worth living the Christian life Besides just the blessings that God gives us It's the presence of God And if we're not seeking God You know that everything else we're doing Eventually is just going to go by the wayside If we don't want to have a real Authentic genuine Walk with God that is our own In life you know everything That we've been taught everything that we've learned Everything that we even do Eventually will fall by the wayside We'll fall out of church If we're just here serving God If we're just in church because our parents Drug us here If we're just in church because our spouse Drug us here If we're just in church because we don't want to Upset the deacon If we're just in church because If for any other reason than for God Eventually we're just going to quit coming If we're only reading the Bible So that we don't have to get nervous And get sweaty palms every time the preacher Brings up Bible reading During the sermon So we can say yeah amen Eventually Eventually we're going to stop reading it Eventually we're just going to quit But that's why we need to seek him Seek him Seek God And he will be found but if thou forsake them Forsake him Well you know you just won't be blessed No he will cast thee off forever Obviously that's very specific To Solomon And Solomon was cast off in a sense The whole kingdom was divided as a result of him Going after other gods We get that But it sounds like God is going to take action isn't it That God doesn't just sit idly by And let us just ignore him God wants our attention So we might as well just set our heart to seek him And just say you called Lord Like David said When thou said seek my face Thy face I sought I know I'm paraphrasing But that's what we read earlier in Psalms He said hey when you told me to seek you I sought you But that's the attitude that we should have He says in verse 10 Take heed now For the Lord hath chosen thee to build a house for the sanctuary Be strong and do it He's saying get to work Take advantage of the opportunity You know David's really emphasizing this And he's saying look this is something that I wanted to do But I wasn't allowed to But you can do this You have an opportunity to serve God So do it And that's the same thing that can be said of all of us You know we all have an opportunity to serve God So do it You know so let's do it You know we're here we got the church We got the building We got the King James Bible We got the Holy Spirit inside of us We got a whole city full of sinners We got a whole city full of unsaved people There's no shortage of opportunities to preach the gospel Let's go do it Let's get it done We know God let's serve him You know but we're not gonna do that if we don't what Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Let's pray Dear Lord again thank you for the great opportunity That has been given to us Lord in salvation And through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit To serve you in this life Lord I pray you would help us all To take full advantage of that opportunity Lord to preach your word And to learn more about you And to grow in the knowledge And grace of our Lord We ask these things in Christ's name Amen Alright we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go Turn our hands to the song of 246 The song of 246 Redeemed The song of 246 Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed Redeemed 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