There seems to be a work that He's been doing and a word that He's been giving that seems to usually center around the month's time and it's been interesting to me this month that the Lord really has been drawing us closer than ever before. I want to encourage you if you haven't gotten this month's Harvest Seed to read this. I want you to make this the prayer of your life. How many of you today love Jesus more than ever before in your life?
Turn to Psalms 27:8. This morning I want to speak a message to you that the Lord has laid so strongly on my heart entitled, "Seeking the face of God". I think sometimes when we come to a message like this we might think that seeking the face of God is something referred and talked about through the time that we were saved but I want to challenge you this morning to allow this word, to allow the Holy Spirit to draw you closer to Him than He ever has been in your life. Psalms 27:8 says, "When you said seek my face, my heart said to you, your face Lord I will seek".
Holy Spirit, we know that you're here, we've worshipped you, we've celebrated your presence, we've given you glory for your miracles. Lord, we thank you for your word which is powerful and effective. Let it deeply affect us this morning. May we decrease and you increase, Amen.
Very often we're told that we need to seek God, we need to seek His will. We can seek Him for healing, we can seek Him for whatever we need but the truth is that many times we have pursued God only because of what He can do for us. The times that we find ourselves seeking His face is when we need something or have to have something done but I want you to listen this morning, God longs for us. He longs for relationship with us, He longs to meet with us and be with us and I believe this that for many Christians this has been the cry of their heart. How many of you have sensed the Lord just stirring you like never before, just drawing you to Him? There is this longing that believers have more than ever before for more of God. The truth is that is in the past what we've seen are many people and churches that have become apathetic and you've felt it. It's even happened here, where you have walked in and felt a take it or leave it attitude. How many of you have ever experienced that before? There has been a longing, God has been wooing and jealously wants to spend time with us.
I know that when I go and am away from my wife for just a little while even if it's only for a day or two at a time and we've been married for 18 years, there's this longing for each other's company. We're those people that if we were to go away for months at a time, our lives couldn't hack it, we like to be together. How many of you know that you can't hack it when you're away from Jesus? The truth is there's just this longing that stirs, I'm not talking about away in a sense because there's been sin or because there's been something wrong but because there hasn't been that time spent. I believe that within the body of Christ there are others like David that when God calls, David says, "Lord, I've just been waiting to hear you draw me to you". The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. When I read that I began to pray like that. Early in my life as a Christian I began to say, "Jesus, I want to be like David, if he was a man after God's own heart than I want to be that way. I want you to say that about me if you were still writing this word. How many of you know He's still writing things today? I'd love you to say that about me. There is nothing more important to David than the Lord.
In Psalms 27:4, David says, "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty (that means the delightfulness of the Lord) and to inquire of His temple". David wasn't just saying, "I want to stop my life and go live at church". How many of you know we all have a life outside of church? This is where we come to get filled up. David wasn't saying, "I want to stop and go live in a house of God". He was saying, "In all my battles where I've had victories, in all the successes that I've had, in everything that I've done". Listen to me, David was a man of action. How many of you know that David was a man who lived life? He was a man who had a lot of other things going on, he had a kingdom to run and victories to win and battles to fight but in all that he was doing he said, "There is one thing that I want more than anything in all the world, my heart yearns for God".
I believe that there is a yearning and a hunger for God that He is stirring inside of people today like nothing before, people with a heart like David because they want more. I wonder how many of you have ever felt there's more than just what we're getting? There's got to be and there is, it's that relationship with the Lord. I don't care how many songs you sing on Sunday, I don't care if you dance or kneel on the Lord's day, its what happens day to day that makes all the difference. David was saying that there is a settled place in the Lord that my soul longs for, a place of uninterrupted intimacy with God. I believe that he wanted more than a once a week experience with God. How many of you have ever come to church and it was good but you left feeling that there had to be more? You know you have because everything that we find in God, this is a good starting place but the rest must go beyond this place.
David had seen the experience of the power of God, he had been delivered in battle, in politics, and in a lot of different things. David had even been convicted because of his sin but he was saying, "I know that there is a beauty of God, an excitement in the Lord that I haven't seen yet in my life and I want to know Him. I want to know what it feels like to have that uninterrupted fellowship with God, to just know Him, to be with Him".
I believe that many people today in the body of Christ are sick and tired of religious ritual. The truth is that there are many things even in our churches that we do that can become a ritual week after week if we're not careful. Things that we do day after day, even the prayers that we pray can become powerless and ineffective because they've become a habit more than a passion. They've become more of a duty instead of something that we need out of relationship. I believe that there has been a holy discontent that God has been stirring among His people. I believe that people want the real thing from God. Listen, when I get with the people of God they talk about it, they long for it. In Pentecost we associate dead religious ritual with Catholic churches or people that have a more formal way of worship but ritual is more than just those things. Religious ritual is simply this, going through the motions. I go to church on Sunday because it's what I do, it's no different than getting up and going to work, it's no different than getting up and doing the same thing we do day after day like cutting the grass, brushing our teeth or eating the same breakfast.
The Bible warns about this in the last days. In 2nd Timothy 3:5, it says "People will have a form of godliness but deny its power". I want to tell you that in the world today there is a form of godliness that has infiltrated the churches, a form that has infiltrated many hearts and I believe that we must be careful of that form. We can deny the power of God not only through dead ritual but through feeling that God is unable to move unless we say great prayers or play certain music or do certain things or have a certain atmosphere. The truth is we can limit God through modern methods and little faith. I want to tell you this week I was thinking so much about what God did for Roy. He was just driving down the street, he had given his life to Jesus, he had no idea what was going on and it didn't matter if he had Christian music on the radio or not, God was still with him. The Bible promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. In the midst of that accident while the truck was out of control, I believe the Lord was with him. A six foot man shouldn't be standing after being in a truck smashed like that.
The faithfulness of God, there is a power that comes with serving the Lord that eclipses any ritual, any little thing that we could ever imagine. When we pray we need to expect results. Sometimes we come to church but there is little relationship through the week. We can go through the motions but we don't live or apply the Word. Listen, so many times Christians will come to church desiring the glory of God to come into the sanctuary and fill the place and knock everybody down then Monday through Friday their prayer life is non-existent. How many of you know what will be reflected in the church is what is reflected in your life through the week?
My prayer has been that we will seek the face of God. People say, "We've been praying Pastor that we don't want this church to ever be the same again". I don't want Jupiter to ever be the same again. I want people to come to Jesus, I don't want my life to ever be the same again. I don't want to have a relationship with God that is boring and powerless. I don't want to come to church and walk out feeling like nothing is different. How many of you know that is a form that denies its power? There is a power that God has and the key is knowing God and seeking Him. The key to revival in a nation, the key to a move of God in the church, the key to a vibrant personal relationship is to seek Him. When the Lord began to stir my heart concerning this message, He kept saying to me, "Seek, Seek, Seek, If my people would just seek". I think sometimes we think that seeking means that there's some kind of mystery that we haven't found yet like we're looking for something that we don't know is there and we think that we have to seek something, that there's something we're not getting. How many of you know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever? He has opened up and revealed the mysteries of His Word to us. We know this Jesus, we know this God, we just need to seek Him.
We talk about revival and in the church many times this verse has become so cliche' that we forget all that it means. 2nd Chronicles 7:14 says, "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from Heaven, I will forgive their sins and heal their land". There's 4 things that God wanted: humble ourselves, pray, seek his face and turn from our wicked ways. I've noticed that many Christians will humble themselves. The truth is that when you come to the Lord, once God has touched your life He'll knock you down a few pegs if you think that you're the man and have it all together. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Christians will humble themselves. I even believe it's the desire of most Christians to stay sin free. Although there has been a lot of temptation going on, I believe that for most Christians when the enemy tempts you with sin it is not your desire to live like that or to be like that. You have chosen to serve the Lord.
I even believe you'll get Christians to pray sometimes. My prayer is that our first Friday prayer meeting will be one of the largest attended services here. Some nights we'll have music, some nights we'll just put a tape on and we'll just pray and seek the face of God. Listen, the one thing that it says, "If my people who are called by my name will seek my face". Sometimes you'll get them to pray, you can get Christians to humble themselves, and I believe that they've repented of sins for the most part, although we struggle, the desire is to be clean.
The issue is not about finding God because you've lost Him. The issue of seeking deals solely with desire. The amplified Bible says, "If my people will seek or crave, require of necessity my face". It deals with desire, "God, I want you". What this word is saying, "If my people who are called by my name are not able to live without Me but desire me, request my presence and want it more than anything else in the world and want me more than life itself". God isn't asking sinners to seek Him, He tells Christians to go to the sinner and lead them to Jesus. We're to bring the life of Christ. He says, "If my people who are called by my name (Christian)". How many Christians are here this morning? The truth is this, my wife holds my name, Dawn Nemitz, she has changed her name and taken mine. How many of you know that the husband and wife relationship is a beautiful example of the relationship that we as believers have with Jesus? I may be Marvin Nemitz but really I am a Christian. Who are you? I am lost in Christ, I've got His name, I am Christian, I am like Jesus. "If my people who are called by my name".
How would I feel if my wife went out every night and didn't want me, not that she was fooling around but if she was just never home. I even found this as a husband and as a pastor, it's easy because I love what I do, I love helping people. I could be gone every night helping everyone else but if I am never home with my wife then there is a problem in the relationship. Why don't you want to be with me, why is everything else more important than being with me? What if my kids never had my time and never had my presence with them, not just quality time but quantity time? God said, "If my people who are called by my name would seek my face, desire me more than anything". God isn't expecting this nation to be healed by people who don't know God and don't want Him, He's expecting this nation to be healed and set free from sin when the people that He calls by His name and they call Him by their name, want Him more than life itself. "God I have to have you, life without you isn't an option for me". You see, our desire makes all the difference in what we know of God and how we're used by God.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart". We like Jeremiah 29:11 that says, "I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you, plans to give you hope and a future, but 2 verses later it says that you can have all that if you will seek me and find me with all your heart, all your heart". The Bible says that we're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength. That means nothing left except for Him, everything. The word search is not so much the sense of trying to find God because I don't know where He is and I have to get on track with God. The word search means worship and live with me and seek me.
I want to ask you this morning, can you take or leave God? Are you so passionate about your relationship with Him, are you seeing God move in your life or have other things become more important? Will we really see revival in this nation, do we want to see people come to Jesus where we see its effect on everything from the schoolyard to Congress, where we see its affect from our churches to our bedrooms, where we see its effect in the marketplace and in the playground? The way it will happen is when God's people will seek Him out because He means more to them than anything, truly knowing God.
The Lord gave me this. I've been asking Him, Lord, give me some things that I can say that if you were still writing things you could put my name on it but you could really put Jesus on it. God gave me this, "Truly knowing God experiences presence, knowing the depths of all that He is, the fullness of His ways and the joy of knowing Him does not happen haphazardly. It is yielding to His work, wanting Him in your life and longing for His appearing more than anything else, seeking Him".
Psalms 42:1-2, David says, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, Oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God". Not just for some God, but for the living God. David was saying, "I'm so thirsty, I'm so hungry, all I want is more of Jesus". Not just in my trials, not just because all of a sudden I need something but because more than anything else, I want Jesus.
Seeking the face of God. Something happens when we begin to seek His face. Seeking the face of God will bring revelation that you never knew, revelation of who He is and sometimes it will happen very powerfully and sometimes it will happen very gently. Listen to me, our fervent prayers accomplish a great deal. Prayer was never meant to be done like a detached petition, "God I'm here, thank you for today, here's what I need, I'm out of here, Amen". The truth is many of our prayers are like that. I find myself saying more and more, "God, I don't want to do this without you. I don't want to come to church to just do church, I don't want to pray daily to just do prayer or to just read the word and walk away empty". When you seek His face it changes the life of the Christian, it changes the way a church worships. By worship I don't just mean music although it will change the music time I guarantee it, but it will change the way we live for Jesus.
Jack Hayford tells a story of how when he was in his first pastorate. They moved there with almost nothing, he was only 23 years old. A physician was moving and they got rid of some furniture including a big overstuffed chair and gave it to him. One day in that little town that needed a move form God and that little church that needed a touch from God, he sat there in that chair that meant nothing to that other family but meant everything to him and it became his prayer place. He remembered praying fervently for 5 or 10 minutes pounding that chair, actually giving it a good dusting. How many of you have ever prayed that way? With all of his heart he would pray, "God, touch this church, do a work in this place, send revival and touch our town, may people be saved". God taught him something that time, we need to earnestly pray. The moment he stopped praying and just got quiet with the Lord, God came to him and said, "Listen, I hear your prayers and the power that I have is in my love, its as simple as that". Divine revelation came, the love of God began to do a transforming work in his life in a very gentle way.
You don't always have to pound a chair to get results but the truth is you have to seek the face of God with all that you are, with all that you have, believing that you will have those things that you asked but not just the petitions. I need your will, I need your direction, I don't want to do this life without you. I don't want to make another decision without you, I don't want to talk to another person without having your words to speak into their life. God I want your presence.
Pastor Troy and I came in on Monday at 8:30 and began to seek the face of God and pray over the life of this church. We prayed that God would heal, that God would touch but the one thing we prayed more than anything is, "God we don't want to do this unless you are here". I'm not going to play church, I came to see people come to Jesus. Lord, let your presence be in this place, we're going to seek you. Even in our own lives, God help us not to just do things because we've done it this way every week. God, do our days, lead us to the right people, whatever needs to be done, let it be done, empower us to do it. We want to seek you, there's nothing that we want more than you Jesus, nothing that we want more than you. God has been answering, God has been speaking. Listen, How many of you know something powerful happens in the life of a believer who will say, "God, we want to see you and we want nothing more than you". Wonderful things begin to take place.
I want to challenge you, we're about to go into a new building. Right now in the 2nd week of August there's not many seats empty and you realize in a couple weeks as everyone is done with their vacations and winter residents come back, every seat will be filled and we'll be in the hallway again. Listen to me, my prayer is that this church and this city will never be the same. We're saying, "God, we want a new building". It's not about the building, it's not about property. It's about nothing but having the presence of Jesus. If we have that then everything we do is worth it, every soul that is brought to Christ will be changed, every one that is in sin will be set free, everyone that has sickness will be healed but not without the presence of God. What will change a community is when His people will seek His face. I want to challenge you, more than offerings that are given and I'm going to be thankful for everyone that shows up on the first to help paint. I believe that what God is looking for in this church is people who will seek Him daily. God said, "Seek my face" and David said, "Your face Lord will I seek".
I want to speak this to you and maybe you didn't realize this, God calls those who seek Him a special generation. They're a whole breed of people, a different type of person. They're not just someone who walks around and says, "I'm a Christian" in name only. The Bible actually calls them the Jacob generation. Take your Bibles real close and turn with me to Psalms 24:3-6. I want to tell you that I believe this message is a pivotal day in the life of this church. I want to speak this in your heart because I believe God is drawing people to Him. God calls those who seek Him a special generation. Psalms 24:3-6, "Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idle nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face".
Many Christians don't understand the significance of 2nd Peter that says, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation". Those who seek God are clean and pure but the Jacob generation are those who seek His face. That generation spans centuries, it's not an age group. As a matter of fact the Jacob generation spans generations, it spans age groups even those who have already died and gone before us. The truth is that the generation is trans-generational because they are God's people. It is a generation that transcends time and has gone on through the ages. These are people who through the ages have wanted to know God more than anything else in this world. Why did they call him Jacob? Because one day God showed up and Jacob said, "I'm going to hold on to you, God, and I'm not going to let go until you bless me, I'm going to seek your face, I'm going to wrestle with you face to face, I'm going to hang on tight until you bless me. I hurt, I'm tired, I've been through a lot of things but there's nothing more that I want than to see your face. I know that I'm with you, I'll stick with it through the night and I'll hang on until you touch me". Jacob got so touched by God that He moved him. At the end of the night it was nothing for God to touch Jacob's leg and he got a little out of joint but something happened to him that night. He went from being a deceiver and a liar and a conniver to someone who knew that he met with God face to face and he wouldn't let go. He said, "This is what I've been waiting for, this is my time with God and I'm not going to let go until after I've seen that He's blessed me".
From that time on in his life Jacob walked differently and God said, "This is the Jacob generation, those who are clean, those who are pure, those who will seek His face". Those are my kind of people is what God said. I want to tell you, you meet someone who wants God more than anything and they're 15 years old, immediately their spirit will click with that person who is 80 years old who's been seeking God like that all their life. Immediately there is that brotherhood and that bond, it doesn't matter if their music is different or the same. It doesn't matter if the food that they like is different or the same, it doesn't matter if the clothes that they wear are different or the same. We're talking about style, we're talking about substance, we're talking about people who recognize each other because they belong to God and God belongs to them and they want nothing more than to seek Jesus, nothing more.
I want to ask you this morning, which generation do you belong to? Are you a part of the Jacob generation? Are you a part of those who seek the face of God? Listen to me, do you understand what I'm speaking about? "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves", people of the same heart. Seeking God's face helps us to know God but it also produces the benefits of knowing God in our life. I'm closing with this verse, Psalms 27:11-14 says this, "Teach me your way O Lord and lead me in a smooth path because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries for false witnesses have risen against me as such breathe out violence. I would have lost heart if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart. Wait I say on the Lord". Wait on Him, seek Him.
Sometimes that word wait we think just means being still, like a waiter in a fine restaurant who takes a towel, puts it over his arm and becomes a servant. Serve the Lord. I want to challenge you, I want to encourage you, is there nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing more important to you than Jesus? Have you felt that longing that draws you to Him? Have you felt Him calling? Have you felt the yearning? Lord Jesus we thank you today that you're our Savior, that you're our friend. We thank you that we're your people, called out and brought to you, a chosen generation. Jesus, as a church, we've wanted nothing more than you. As a church, we've seen what you're doing in the life of this place and we're excited about it. As believers we're thankful for the faithfulness that we've seen of you everyday in our lives. Lord, we declare this morning that we hear you calling us. We sense that drawing and we sense that yearning and desire. Jesus, today we want nothing more. How many of you more than anything would say, Jesus, in this church we want you more than anything? In my life I need you more than anything. If you're going to say, "I want to be like David, I want to have a heart after God, I'm going to seek Him, I want that change in me and I've been sensing Him drawing". This isn't a call for salvation, this is the call as a Christian who has been sensing God drawing them closer and closer. If it's been you and you're going to say, "Pastor, you know what, I'm going to stand with you as we seek the face of God for this church, as we seek the face of God for our lives, we need nothing more than Jesus". If you're willing to say, "I'm going to be that generation that seeks the face of God". Would you just step out and come up to the altar this morning?
I want to pray over us as a church and I want to pray over you as an individual. You have just sensed the calling of God, you have sensed that yearning. Listen to me, you have watched Him do miracle after miracle, all the benefits of God are for you. My prayer as a church is that we're going to seek God and that nothing would be more important in our life and everything would be surrendered to Him.
Listen, here's the deal, nothing should be more important than Jesus.
Father, as we come before you this morning, we come in unity to say this, "We want you more than anything". Jesus, we're tired of church as usual, we're tired of prayer as usual in our personal days.
We sense you drawing us, Lord, we miss you, we long for you. The times that we've been in prayer have been so sweet. The times that we read your word have been so powerful and meaningful. You've always been faithful, your word never changes and every time we speak it or read it, as you minister to hearts, we recognize the difference. Lord Jesus, today we take a stand at Harvest Community and say, "We're a part of the Jacob generation, a people who will seek your face and Lord and that nothing, nothing, nothing will be more important to us than you, nothing. Jesus, we've been changed, we've been set free, we've shouted and sang, we give you glory because you set us free from sin, because you've changed our lives.
We know how you've changed us. God, we thank you for the victories we've won. We thank you for the battles we've fought together with you and there's been victory. We thank you for the provision that you've brought. Lord, all those things and all we want is Jesus. Lord, we know that when we come to you all the benefits are there but God, if you were never to do another thing for us again, you're more than enough.
Jesus, we come corporately as a church to you at this altar offering our lives to you as a living sacrifice, people who call ourselves by your name. Today Lord, we thank you for forgiving us of sin. Lord, we commit to being a people of prayer but more than that, we want to see you heal our land, we want to see you touch this city, we want to see people come to Jesus. Lord, we want you to guide our every step not only in the decisions we make but the people that you lead us to and that they'll know you as the Savior so that in the same way you've touched our lives many others will be coming but God we know that doesn't happen until you become more to us than anything else in this world.
Thank you for our jobs, thank you for our families, thank you for your provision but Jesus, all of that pales in comparison to knowing you. Lord, I thank you today for those who have felt far from you, that they're not walking through some blanket of fog to search you out because you can't be found and have hidden yourself and want to keep an air of mystery about you. I thank you, Jesus, that that word, seek, means we're going to worship and come to you.
Father, I pray from this point on for everyone of us in this place that that will become our life. Lord, we pray together that our church services will never be the same, never the same. Let your presence come. Lord, there's a desire that's stirring up. I pray that our hearts would be filled with that desire and not just a take it or leave it attitude and a desire not just in church but in our whole lives, daily.
Thank you Lord for even marriages with highs and lows but that the desire for each other never changes. Lord, let that be the same in our walk with you. Today, we'll thank you for doing it Lord. God, touch this church, let us never be the same again from this day on. Let us know that we're part of those people who seek your face, regardless of age or experience or style, everything Lord we come and bring to you and we'll thank you for it in the mighty and precious name of Jesus, Amen. How many of you believe the Lord is going to do something special in this place and in your lives?
Listen, I expect, I really do over this next year as we seek God to see miracles. I expect that the things that you've been longing for in your heart, that fullness to be fully met. How many of you believe that? I believe it too. The Lord bless you. If you'd like to come to the altar and pray a little bit and seek His face a little more. I know it's hot, some of you need to go eat, that's ok. This isn't like some test of your spiritualness that if you stay at the altar you're more spiritual than those who go home. We're not going to play that game in the house of God. If you want to stay and seek the face of the Lord, the altars are open. If you need to go and you're hungry and you'd like some cool air, go get it. The Lord bless you and have a marvelous, marvelous week.
