{"id":4374,"date":"2021-09-18T17:33:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T17:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=4374"},"modified":"2021-09-18T17:33:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T17:33:08","slug":"seeking-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/09\/18\/seeking-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity<\/strong>| <strong>October 18, 2009<\/strong>| <strong>Rev. Rolf Preus| <strong>Isaiah 65:1-2<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/TrinityTwenty2009.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, \u2018Here I am, here I am,\u2019 to a nation that was not called by My name. I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts.\u201d Isaiah 65:1-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every once in a while it appears to us that the Bible contradicts itself.&nbsp; Of course we know that this is impossible because the Bible is God\u2019s word and God cannot speak falsely.&nbsp; It is not possible for God to contradict himself.&nbsp; Therefore, it is not possible for the Bible to contradict itself.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about apparent contradictions in the Bible because it may appear to us that the Bible contradicts itself.&nbsp; These are not real contradictions.&nbsp; They only appear to be.&nbsp; God cannot err.&nbsp; He is incapable of making a mistake.&nbsp; He cannot be anything but truthful, reliable, and entirely faithful.&nbsp; When it appears that there is a contradiction in the Bible we should bow before the majesty of God and believe everything he says just because he said it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God says through Isaiah, \u201cI was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me.\u201d&nbsp; But God also says, \u201cSeek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.\u201d (Isaiah 55:6)&nbsp; Jesus himself says, \u201cSeek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.\u201d (Matthew 6:33)&nbsp; What are we to make of this?&nbsp; How can God on the one hand tell us to seek him and on the other hand tell us that those who did not seek him found him?&nbsp; Which is it?&nbsp; Should we seek God or not?&nbsp; Should we try to find him?&nbsp; Or should we not look for him and just sit and wait to be found by him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In point of fact, there is no contradiction at all here.&nbsp; It is true that we must seek God while and where he may be found.&nbsp; It is equally true that we will not find God by looking for him where he cannot be found.&nbsp; When God says that we must seek him out he is not saying that we must find our own way to God.&nbsp; When we try to find God on our own terms we fail.&nbsp; In fact, when we try to find God by ourselves we end up creating false gods for ourselves.&nbsp; This is idolatry.&nbsp; Idolatry is false worship.&nbsp; When Aaron made the Golden Calf for the children of Israel to worship, he called it Jahweh, which was the name of the true God.&nbsp; The people then said that this god had delivered them from Egypt.&nbsp; They wanted to worship God in their own way, to seek him on their own terms.&nbsp; God said no.&nbsp; In fact, he punished them for it.&nbsp; They were not to choose for themselves how to find God.&nbsp; This is God\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>True worship and praise do not originate in us.&nbsp; They originate in God.&nbsp; True, it is we who do the believing and the worshipping.&nbsp; But it is not we who establish the true faith in our hearts from which true praise flows.&nbsp; That is God\u2019s work.&nbsp; It is a wonderful work.&nbsp; He does this work in those who cannot do it in themselves.&nbsp; In us is nothing but doubt and fear and unanswered and unanswerable questions.&nbsp; Spiritual confusion is our native condition.&nbsp; Then God seeks us out with his holy word and elicits faith where doubt and confusion ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who seek God in their own way don\u2019t really seek him at all.&nbsp; God says, \u201cI have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts.\u201d&nbsp; They walk according to their own thoughts.&nbsp; They seek out God, truth, and eternal life according to their own thoughts.&nbsp; They despise the teaching of God because that gets in their way in their search for God.&nbsp; St. Paul rightly describes this attitude with the words, \u201cever searching, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People become enamored with their own religious thoughts and then they attribute these thoughts to God as if they came from God.&nbsp; But they don\u2019t.&nbsp; Their thoughts come from themselves.&nbsp; They don\u2019t come from God.&nbsp; As God says elsewhere through the prophet Isaiah,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.&nbsp; For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the time the devil asked Eve, \u201cDid God really say?\u201d people have sought the truth about God apart from the word of God.&nbsp; We call such people enthusiasts.&nbsp; Enthusiasts think they can know the truth about God directly without the written or preached word of God telling them what the truth is.&nbsp; Enthusiasts are very religious.&nbsp; They imagine that God is leading them into all sorts of wonderful spiritual discoveries, but when you ask them where in the Scriptures they have learned this they cannot say.&nbsp; \u201cOh, the Lord told me,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where?&nbsp; How do we find God and learn to know his will toward us?&nbsp; The enthusiast will insist with a pious air that he only wants to know the will of God.&nbsp; But when you ask him to prove it to you he cannot.&nbsp; He instead appeals to some kind of religious or spiritual experience that he has had and who are you to question it?&nbsp; God has led him, and who are you to deny it?&nbsp; Should you refer to the teaching of the Bible, the enthusiast will dismiss it and say that the Bible is subject to different interpretations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But any effort to seek out and to find God on our own will inevitably lead to failure.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because we are by nature fallen creatures.&nbsp; Our own notions of spirituality are bound to the sinful flesh.&nbsp; We haven\u2019t got that spiritual wisdom we\u2019d like to think we have.&nbsp; Unless we are led away from our own thoughts to God\u2019s word we will remain hopelessly and helplessly lost in our own spiritual folly.&nbsp; We don\u2019t know the truth because we found it.&nbsp; We know the truth because he found us.&nbsp; It wasn\u2019t on account of our striving; it was on account of him who came to seek and to save that which was lost.&nbsp; It wasn\u2019t on account of our brilliance; it was by the grace of Him who said that we must become as little children.&nbsp; It wasn\u2019t on account of our virtuous living; it was on account of the robe of righteousness that Jesus so graciously gave us to wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We Christians are those of whom God says in our text:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me.&nbsp; I said, \u201cHere I am, here I am,\u201d to a nation that was not called by My name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God chose the ancient nation of Israel out of all the nations in the world.&nbsp; He did so purely by his grace.&nbsp; She didn\u2019t deserve God\u2019s name but she was given God\u2019s name.&nbsp; Then she rebelled.&nbsp; She despised God\u2019s grace.&nbsp; She thought that there was something about her that made God love her.&nbsp; But he did not love her because she was so lovable.&nbsp; He loved her because he was her God, as he said, \u201cI am the LORD, your God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A dim illustration is how we parents love our children.&nbsp; We don\u2019t love them because of what they do or achieve.&nbsp; We love them because they are our children.&nbsp; We treasure in our hearts the good that they do because they are our children.&nbsp; Were they to deny their relationship with us, whatever good they did wouldn\u2019t mean a thing.&nbsp; It never was the good they did that made us love them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so it is with God\u2019s love.&nbsp; It never was and it never could be the good that we do that would make him love us.&nbsp; God loves us because God is love.&nbsp; We did not know him.&nbsp; We could not find him.&nbsp; But he found us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He cried out to us: \u201cHere I am!&nbsp; Here I am!\u201d&nbsp; Where?&nbsp; Jesus says, \u201cLo, I am with you always, to the end of the age.\u201d&nbsp; He says, \u201cWhere two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.\u201d&nbsp; God is where Jesus is.&nbsp; God is where his holy word is preached, confessed, and believed.&nbsp; We gather in Jesus\u2019 name.&nbsp; We gather around his holy word.&nbsp; We find our identity in what he teaches us even when what he teaches us runs directly contrary to our own thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God doesn\u2019t see as we do and he doesn\u2019t judge as we do.&nbsp; God comes to sinners mired in the blindness and helplessness of their sin and he lifts them up and washes them clean and provides them with a clean white robe to wear.&nbsp; And they wear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They wouldn\u2019t dream of attempting to stand before God on their own merits asking what they deserve.&nbsp; They live alone by mercy.&nbsp; They seek God where God\u2019s mercy is revealed.&nbsp; They look to Jesus on the cross.&nbsp; There they see God and hear his invitation, \u201cHere I am!&nbsp; Here I am!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God is everywhere.&nbsp; But you don\u2019t find him anywhere but where Jesus reveals himself.&nbsp; We might say that we can find God by looking into our hearts because, after all, we have faith.&nbsp; Yes, but within us is also sin and doubt.&nbsp; The Bible teaches that we are all unsound and that our own notions of spirituality are anything but spiritual.&nbsp; The only solution for us is to find God on God\u2019s own terms, and that is where he comes to us and finds us.&nbsp; That is in the gospel of Christ.&nbsp; Jesus is not just an answer among many.&nbsp; He is the only answer for sinners seeking God because he is the only one who has taken sin away.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our thoughts will always direct us to trust in ourselves because that\u2019s really what sin is: it is a self-love and a self-worship that blinds us to the love of God.&nbsp; God\u2019s love can only be seen when we stop looking at ourselves and begin to look to Jesus.&nbsp; Look at him where he wants you to see him.&nbsp; Look at him in the manger as he leaves behind the glory of heaven to live a life of humble poverty.&nbsp; Look at him in the Jordan as he is identified as the Lamb of God appointed for slaughter.&nbsp; Look at him as he shows compassion toward those who are despised by the world, even the religious in the world: thieves, adulteresses, lepers, and the demon possessed.&nbsp; He feels the pain of their sin.&nbsp; He goes to Calvary to bear that sin, indeed the sin of the whole human race.&nbsp; Look at him!&nbsp; See him dying for you and ask yourself why he did it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you know why?&nbsp; Did he die for you so that you would go out to find him on your own?&nbsp; So that you would, by your speculations, moral exercises, philosophical brilliance, or spiritual contemplation find God your own way?&nbsp; Oh, no!&nbsp; Your own thoughts will only lead you away from God.&nbsp; Jesus died for you so that your own wisdom might be shown to be folly and that the wisdom of God might becomes yours.&nbsp; From his crucifixion comes our life because it has taken away our sin, our guilt, our punishment, and our death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We sure do love our own thinking though, don\u2019t we?&nbsp; Our opinions matter!&nbsp; We want them to be heard and embraced.&nbsp; But when it comes to spiritual matters \u2013 our eternal relationship with our God \u2013 our own thinking is nothing less than rebellion.&nbsp; That\u2019s why we need to be bound to the word of God and to it alone.&nbsp; There is no spiritual wisdom apart from that revealed in the Sacred Scriptures and that wisdom is the preaching of the cross.&nbsp; As St. Paul put it so plainly,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.&nbsp; Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:23-25)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amen&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity| October 18, 2009| Rev. Rolf Preus| Isaiah 65:1-2 \u201cI was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, \u2018Here I am, here I am,\u2019 to a nation that was not called by My name. I have&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/09\/18\/seeking-god\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,81],"tags":[580,238,224],"class_list":["post-4374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-20","tag-isaiah-65","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-20"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4376,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4374\/revisions\/4376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}