It's Time to Seek the Lord

Well, we are in one of those mornings when there's many things happening, and I want you to move along this morning, turning your Bibles to Hosea chapter 10 and verse 12, Hosea chapter 10 and verse 12. I'll say it three or four times to let you begin to find it, get over your nervousness. If you brought a friend today, you're thinking, oh God, help me find this. Hosea chapter 10, verse 12. How many of you have, this is called a minor prophet. Why is it called a minor prophet? Less important, right? No, it's just shorter. He's under 18, David said. Okay. No, it's just a shorter book. That's all. Didn't have, not less important, just less content. Are you all there? Some of you are flipping in the New Testament. That's not going to help you. Let's flash it on the overhead, shall we? Let's help everyone. There we go. All right. Hosea chapter 10, verse 12. So for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love and break up your unplowed ground for it is time to seek the Lord. Say that with me. For it is time to seek the Lord until he comes and showers righteousness on you. In this book, the Lord is speaking to a nation in decline, a nation that has lost its spiritual underpinnings and now is reaping the consequences. And I want to say right out of the gate this morning, dear ones, it's a spiritual principle. When a nation loses its spiritual underpinnings, it's just a matter of time until that nation goes down the tubes. In this case, it was Israel first. You split off from the larger nation of Israel when Solomon died. Ten, twelve tribes, of course, were there. Ten split off and formed the northern kingdom. Two remained and formed the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom first of all slipped into decadency and rebellion and then the southern kingdom. And as we find Hosea here writing, it's literally the very end of the period before they are about to be overtaken by the Assyrians. And do you know that they never came back together again? They were never restored as a twelve tribe nation. And so the Lord says, it's sort of like one last call. The whole book of Hosea is a call to come back to the Lord. It's a summons from God saying, it's not too late. Return to me. And I sense today that there may be at least one or two or several people here. And if the truth were opened up about your spiritual life, you are far from God today. You are in a season of spiritual decline and you're wondering, is it too late for me to come back to God? And Hosea has a message that it's never too late. If you're hearing my voice today, when we take communion here in a short while, you come back to the Lord. You repent of where you've been and say, God, I want to be restored. I don't want to go over the edge. I don't want to be exiled apart from you. You see, the message of Hosea is that his love reaches to the utmost sinner and rescues the humble seeker. That's the message of Hosea. But I felt compelled to bring this final message in our six week series on prayer to address one specific concern that I have. And that is the subtle inclination that's in many of our hearts to simply be peripherally involved in the life that God is pouring out in this church. See, when God is touching a people, when he is moving, when things are happening, there's a tendency to kind of, you know, when great teachers come around. It was funny. A couple of days ago, we were talking about, you know, that we had the Smith brothers back-to-back. Grant Smith a couple of weeks ago, and Malcolm Smith last week. And we were talking, I forget who it was, but we were, they were saying, yeah, my three favorite preachers, Grant Smith, Malcolm Smith, and Chuck Smith. And I said, oh, come on. Anyhow, so we got over that. But you see, when things are happening, it's sort of the passive smoke principle in reverse. You know, a positive, you know what the passive smoke principle is, don't you? I mean, the basic argument is, if you're in a room with smokers all the time, even if you don't smoke, what's going to happen? That secondary smoke is going to get in your system and cause some problems. Well, some people think, if I'm just in a room with a lot of people who are spiritually up, I'm going to get blessed. And that isn't necessarily the case. In fact, I think it's fair to say that you could come around here infrequently, occasionally, or regularly. And if all you do is just come and sort of be around people who are alive in the spirit, that you're going to, it's not going to rub off on you, dear one. And you could find yourself a couple of months down the road, like many people that I encounter around here, you say, well, you know, I'm just not growing. And I ask them the question, like, well, what are you doing? Where are you plugged in? With whom are you in fellowship? How are you administering your gifts? And they always say, well, and they have this long litany of excuses. Now, the Word of God will bring some change just to sit and hear it preached. It will. But not the kind of thing that most of us want to see happen. You see, the Lord has ordained that change happens, that the power to change comes from the Spirit. The promise to change comes from where? We're the promises in the Word of God. So it's the Word as the promise to us. It's the Spirit as the power. But what's the third ingredient that must be there if change is going to happen? It's prayer. It's prayer. Prayer is the invitation. Prayer is opening and throwing the welcome mat to the Spirit of God to cause the promises of God to come alive in your life. Let me ask you, if God were to walk up to the door of your heart today, would there be a welcome mat out there? Have you prayed and asked God to make His Spirit come alive in you this week? Or are you just kind of living on some sort of general, vague, sort of in-between life that maybe is and maybe isn't in the center of God's will? You see, I don't understand it, but God has sovereignly decided that He was going to limit His activity in this church and in your life and in my life to prayer. Could God come in and just simply take over things? I mean, I believe He could do that and do a decent job of it. But He has determined to let us extend to Him that welcome in prayer. And I believe part of the reason is that He's fashioning us for eternal rule. It's part of the partnership theology where God is fashioning sons and daughters to rule with Him forever. And so we need to learn it right here, right now. We need to learn how to partner with God's promises and the power of His Spirit. And Hosea says, it's time to seek the Lord. I just want to comment on the three key words in that sentence. It's time to seek the Lord. First of all, in the overhead, please, it's time. It's time. Now is the time to seek the Lord. Why? Well, first of all, because the Spirit of God is moving right now. He is alive in this body and He's doing things that I haven't seen Him do in quite some time. This Wednesday, I think it was Wednesday morning, one of the women in our church stopped by with their kids to go to the bathroom. It was kind of funny. They were out shopping and they said, well, we're near the church. Let's go to the bathroom there. We have all kinds of ministries, and I just happened to be coming out of the bathroom. Anyhow, so she said, oh, Pastor Jay, this had to be the Lord. It's a little much from my theology, but anyhow, she said, I just want you to know how excited I am about what's happening in prayer platoons. I sense this is God's season. And she began to recount a couple of answers to prayer that they'd experienced in their prayer platoon, and she was being wonderfully gracious and exciting about that. I wanted to read a couple of things. We now have little platoon leaders. Don't forget these field reports. Just a couple of them for you. Last week, this is a gal in our church. I'll use the name Sally. It's not her name. Asked us to pray about a mole under her arm that was sore and bleeding. She had had thyroid cancer several years ago and was greatly concerned. We prayed about it in our prayer platoon. Our home group was also praying about it, and she had been anointed by one of the elders. Well, this week, she shared that not only was the soreness and bleeding gone, but the mole itself had actually disappeared by the power of God. Here's one. Several of our high school students met with their high school teacher and had a prayer platoon in one of the local high schools. We prayed and followed the marching orders specifically, and also prayed for the senior high school community. We prayed for our friends. We prayed that God would open doors of opportunity for us to share our faith, and we prayed for God to be glorified through our lives. High school kids meeting with their teacher. These are exciting things. There's another one up in Butler. There's definitely a change in how we are praying for our families as well as our church body. God is on the move, and I could go on and on and detail some of these things. Isaiah 55 says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. You see, there's a time you can seek the Lord, and it just doesn't seem to be happening, and there's a time you can seek him when he may be found. Dear ones, I want you to know it's time to seek the Lord. It's time. Did you know that 25 people made first-time decisions for Jesus Christ in the month of January? It's time to seek the Lord, and I've already shared about our property expansion how very excited we are about the possibilities that are just around the corner for us there. It's also time right now to seek the Lord because our nation desperately needs the church to step in and intercede. Dear ones, I don't know about you, but I have to resist every week getting on a bit of a tangent about the need we as a church have to raise up a light in this nation. I've never seen so clearly how the fabric of the moral underpinning of our nation is just ripping apart. I have to admit, I get caught up in it like you do, and I accommodate and struggle with it. We start thinking, well, we are a pluralistic nation. Did you know that for the first time in 200 years, the United States Congress was opened by prayer of a Muslim. Is he praying to the same God you pray to? Well, this is a pluralistic nation. We have to be open to all faiths. Will you explain how for 200 years that meant something different than it means now? What enlightenment has come upon us that we didn't have 10, 20, 30 years ago? It's the same enlightenment that ripped the Bible out of schools and made things better. You see, things are happening in our nation. There's something wrong in a nation when one of its national heroes is a promiscuous, flaunting kind of sexually active person. And one other thing, it's time to seek the Lord in our nation's behalf. If you don't read the paper, wake up and understand something. We are so far in debt. You know, have you in your own personal finances discovered that if you don't pay your bills, somebody comes and takes your stuff? I mean, that's about the way it works. And when you don't have enough money, this week in USA Today, I mean, I know you can't see it very well, but here's these little blocks represent the national debt. You need to know that just in case you're not in tune with this, in the last five years, our national debt has doubled. By the end of this year, 1992, it will be $4 trillion. The national debt this year alone is going to grow by $400 billion. Folks, we are on the precipice, as Larry Burkett says, of an economic disaster. We better pray, or life as we've known it won't exist beyond the next year or two. We need to pray. It's time to seek the Lord. I could go on with lots of other illustrations. It's also an election year. It's time to seek the Lord. I've already mentioned the third reason why it's time, and that is it's time because the enemy has raised up slander and gossip and accusation, and it's time to seek the Lord because the only way to stop that is just to come to the shelter of his wings in prayer and ask God to be your refuge and strength. It's time to seek the Lord. Secondly, the second word there, it's time to seek him. Seek him. Now, our friend Sandy Kolkin, our Jewish friend, has taught us one Hebrew word we all know. Let's say it together. It's yach. Say it. Yach. Kind of gets down in the guttural part of the back of your throat. Well, here's another one. Here's your second Hebrew word. It's darash. It's in your little teaching outline. Darash. Want to say it? Never face someone when you speak Hebrew, okay? You can embarrass yourself. Darash. Okay? This word, as it says in your notes, means to tread frequently upon, to go back again and again. It also means the beginning of a new day. That's another way it's translated. A new start. It's time to seek because there are new possibilities to go back again, and I want to say a word to those of you who maybe have, you know, had times when you sought the Lord and now it's kind of gone and you're dry and you feel a little bit. Do you want the word to seek means come back again frequently. Come back again. Get before the Lord. I think there's no better illustration of seeking something than those Olympians these days who we see on television, most of us who watch TV. Now, I don't know how into the Olympics you are. It doesn't really matter, but you can't help but be impressed when someone says, you know, I've practiced for six hours every day for the last 48 years or whatever, you know, or the last four years, anyhow, to get my shot at the Olympics. And I think, well, that's a good definition. That's seeking. How many believe that's seeking? What are they seeking for? The gold medal. It's strange, if they don't get the gold medal, you know, they don't really make it with the announcers, but, you know, they seek the Lord for the gold, or they seek the reward of the gold medal. Paul writes and says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, he says, everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. I was struck by an interview. I just saw a glimpse of an interview. Did you read or see, read about or see the woman that was a cross-country skier? Because she had children and a full-time job, and we're talking about, you know, the woman who has it all. The only time she could do her workouts was at night, and so she'd go out cross-country skiing at night, and she was America's best hope for the gold. And they interviewed her after the, her main race here last Friday, wherever it was. She finished 41st, and I love it, you know, the announcer stuck the microphone in her face. She said, well, tell us, you know, was it worth it? All that seeking, all that discipline, all that strict training, all those nights out there going like, she said, I don't know. I guess it was. That's a quote. I don't know. You know, it wasn't hard for me to discern. She was totally disillusioned. 41st? Dear ones, it's time to seek the Lord, because you're never disappointed in the reward that God gives you. You don't finish 41st with God. If you seek Him, you finish first. That's the grace and the love of God. Hosea 10-12 says, it's time to seek Him. It's time to seek Him by turning over your fallow ground or unplowed ground. How many farmers here today? I have more than last night. We only had Scott last night. Any other farmers? Two. Boy, this is a very non-agricultural congregation. Well, what is fallow ground, someone? Is it barren ground with nothing but dirt? No, not necessarily. It could have a lot of weeds and, you know, just old clumps of grass and so. Fallow ground is ground that has not been turned over. It's not been plowed. And that very clear image is here. It's an image that it's possible that your heart has a lot of stuff in it, maybe a lot of weeds and a lot of growth and a lot of things happening. But it's been a long time since you've taken the sword of God's Word and turned it into a plowshare and let it scrape over your heart. Got the image? The sword of God's Word into a plowshare, turning over the fallow ground of your heart. Because you see, you'll grow a few things. Even if I went through some seed out there in that little bit of fallow ground to my left outside of our building, a few little stalks would come up in the spring. But what if I took a plow and went over that a whole bunch of times and then broadcast some seed and then fertilized it and watered it? What would happen come summer and fall? I mean, we'd have substantial harvest. The same with your heart. It's time to seek the Lord. It's time to seek Him. Number three, it's time to seek the Lord. And this is the one thing that I fear we may miss today. It's not time to seek answers. It's not time to seek healing. It's not time to seek stuff or things or strategies. It's time to seek the Lord. We're such an achievement-oriented people, aren't we? I mean, in America, it's the gold medal, you know. It's more stuff. It's more recognition, more accomplishment. Hosea says it's time to seek the Lord Himself. Seek the person of Jesus Christ. Seek God for a touch from Himself alone. Very few of us really fully understand that. You see, real life only exists in relationship, not in reputation. Real life only exists in relationship, not in reputation. God is not that interested in what He did for you 10 years ago. Hello? What's your relationship with Him now? He wants you to know Him. That's why Paul writes so powerfully in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10. I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection that I might share in the fellowship of His sufferings, that I might somehow receive the resurrection from the dead. I want to know the Lord. That's why Jesus said so clearly in Matthew's gospel, the very thing that Rick Brennan just sang. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons and perform many miracles? And then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you apart from me, you evildoers. See, it's time to seek the Lord. Now, there are quite a number of you here in this service. Listen now. Now, you've come to North Way in the last 6, 12, 18, 24 months perhaps. And you enter in here and you say, you know, I love this church. Now, this is my church. And you need to know that what's here today is a function of the fact that many people in the past 9 or 10 years have spent hours passionately seeking the Lord. It wasn't just, you know, you're not here experiencing the blessing of God because people are. It's time that you step right up alongside of those of us who've been here a long time and take your place and become a seeker of the Lord with us. Enter into it. Now, I realize that some people are here today and you say, you know, Pastor Jay, I have been seeking the Lord. You know, there's one thing I don't want to be and that's a condemning pastor. You know, that's not in my spirit. There are people here today, Grant Smith and others, Paul Gregg, that have been with us here for 11 years. And I think they would affirm, I'm not a condemning person. But if there's one subject in all the Bible that you can start to feel, I mean, that's a good weapon for condemnation, it's, you know, it's prayer and seeking God. Because how many of you know, all I need to say is you need to seek the Lord more. How many of you know that's true? And I mean, when I say it, you could say, oh, you know, boy, that's all he's just like laying it on me today. I mean, go ahead, hit me with it, Jay. I need to seek you more. I mean, beat me with it. Hit me over here. Hit me over there. Seek you more. I'm not saying that today. You understand? I'm saying to you, it's a privilege that we have. Not to get up out of our seats and walk out of here and say, well, you know, hey, what great music, David, Rick, wonderful. Good sermon, Jay. No, it's time to seek the Lord. Turn over your fallow ground. Bring your heart before the Lord. And in his face, we'll find the fullness of his grace. David, if you'll come, let's stand together.