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First Principles: Seeking God – Discovering what it means to seek a relationship with God with all our hearts.

Purpose: To determine what it means to pursue a relationship with God with all our hearts.

Q: What are you looking for in life? What are you pursuing with all your heart?

1. PSALM 119:1-2 1Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. 2Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart – NIVUK

• “Blessed” is a term we don’t often use. Do you know what it means? (To be very happy!)
• What does it mean to be blameless? (To be above reproach and do what is right.)
• On a scale of 1 (no effort) to 10 (with all your heart), how would you describe your efforts to seek God?
• To seek God, you must seek His Word (the Bible) with all your heart.
• How do we seek God? (By keeping His statutes.)
• When you seek God with all your heart, the result is happiness!

2. MATTHEW 6:25-34 25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – NIVUK

• Many people do not seek God because they don’t believe He has the power to change their lives.
• What are some areas in your life that you are tempted to worry about?
• What does it mean to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness?”
• What does God promise if you do?

3. ACTS 17:24-28 24‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28“For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.” – NIVUK

• What is God doing to develop a relationship with people?
• Why does God go through all this trouble? So that people may seek Him and have a genuine relationship with Him — even though there is no guarantee that they will.
• Do you want a deeper relationship with God? If not, why?
• Meeting a Christian is not a coincidence. God has a great plan for your life.

4. JOHN 4:23-24 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’ – NIVUK

• What does a true worshiper of God do?
• God is seeking those who want to worship Him in spirit and truth.

5. JEREMIAH 29:11-13 11For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – NIVUK

• In this passage, God shares His vision for His people, who were in physical captivity to their oppressors. In the same way, we can be held captive to sin in our lives, and God wants to set us free from spiritual slavery!
• God wants us to give us hope and future, but to discover these plans, we must first draw near to Him. The only way to do that is to seek Him with all our hearts.
• Prayer is how we seek God.

6. ACTS 8:26-39 26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian#8:27 That is, from the southern Nile region eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’ 30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ Philip asked. 31‘How can I,’ he said, ‘unless someone explains it to me?’ So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: ‘He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.’#8:33 Isaiah 53:7,8 (see Septuagint) 34The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’ 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptised?’ 37#8:37 Some manuscripts include here Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ The eunuch answered, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. – NIVUK

• A case study of someone seeking God. Are you seeking God like this Ethiopian eunuch? Three important character traits of the eunuch to consider:
• Sacrifice: He travelled 2,414 kilometres from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to seek God.
• Humility: Although he was an important and religious man, he humbly listened to someone capable of teaching him the Scriptures.
• Obedience: He responded immediately, saying, “Why shouldn’t I be baptised?”
• He rejoiced after his baptism because he now had a relationship with God!

7. MATTHEW 7:7-8 7 ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. – NIVUK

• If you seek the Lord in prayer, you will find Him!

CHALLENGE

Pray and read the Bible daily. The book of John is a great place to start. Come to a church service, and let’s set up our next Bible study!