Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Chronicles chapter 16. 1 Chronicles chapter 16. I cannot think of a better way
to begin a year than being here, worshiping our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ together. And I can't think of a better
scripture to open the year worshiping Him with than 1 Chronicles 16
verse 34. It says, O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. I have wonderful news this morning.
I really do. I very sincerely do. I have some wonderful news. His
goodness And His mercy did not end with the end of the year
last night. It started over brand spanking
new this morning. All of His goodness, all of His
mercy, brand new every morning. Brand new. Verse 34 says, Oh,
give thanks unto the Lord. For he is good, for his mercy
endureth forever. Give thanks, give thanks. Last night, we looked at this
verse. We opened last night's message
with this verse. And we looked at the two verses
after it. This morning, I'd like to look at the verses before
it. Some of them for this Bible study, some of them for our message
here in just a moment. But this psalm is a psalm that
David penned. David wrote it, and it begins
in verse 8. Look at verse 8 with me. It says,
Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his
deeds among the people, sing unto him, sing psalms unto him,
talk ye of all his wondrous works, glory ye in his holy name, Let
the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord
and His strength. Seek His face continually. Remember His marvelous works
that He hath done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth.
O ye seed of Israel, His servant, ye children of Jacob, His chosen
ones, He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the
earth. Be ye mindful always of his covenant,
the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, even
of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath
unto Isaac. He hath confirmed the same to
Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of
your inheritance, when you were but few, even a few, and strangers
in it. And when they went from nation
to nation and from one kingdom to another people, he suffered
no man to do them wrong. Yea, he proved kings for their
sakes, saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no
harm. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Show forth from day to day his
salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen. His marvelous works among all
nations, for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He
also is to be feared above all gods. Every verse that we just
read right there deserves its own message. Every verse, every
line deserves its own message. We just read a lot. A lot was
just said. But I believe if we want to get
to the focal point of what David is saying in all of that, it's
this right here. Look at the end of verse 10.
He said. Seek the Lord. Verse 11, he said. Seek the Lord. And his strength. Seek His face
continually. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Look at the first
few verses again with that emphasis, okay? Verse 8 says, Give thanks
unto the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known
His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him. Sing psalms unto
Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works.
Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his face continually. Remember
his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments
of his mouth. Oh, ye seed of Israel, his servant.
You children of Jacob, his chosen one. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the
earth. Be mindful always of his covenant. Seek him. Seek him. Seek him. It's him. It's him. That's what
David is saying. I want to begin the year 2023
with this exhortation to all of us here. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Everybody's about
to make a New Year's resolution. And it's something worldly. It's
something fleshly. Everybody's going to lose weight
and everybody's going to get in shape and everybody's going to,
you know, this and I'm going to by the end of the year, I
want to acquire this and I want to, okay, here's a new year's
resolution. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Let's seek the Lord. If we want to start this year
off, right? Let's seek the Lord. Our question for the morning
is, what does that mean? That's always the question. What
does that mean? What does that mean? You hear people talk about
seeking the Lord. Well, now I'm trying to seek
the Lord. I want to seek the Lord. The scripture commands
us to seek the Lord. Well, what does that mean? What
is it to seek the Lord? David gives a very good answer
to that. And he gives a definition of
what it is right here in this text. And I don't want to be
confusing, but we're going to bounce around a little bit. I
try to, I try to go in order on things, but for this morning
and what I just read, we're just going to bounce around a little
bit from these verses. I want to see what it is to seek
the Lord. And we're going to start with
this right here. Look at verse 15. It says, be ye mindful always
of his covenant. The word, the word, which he
commanded to a thousand generations. Thank God it goes out to a thousand
generations. Number one, to seek the Lord
is to seek His Word. Seek His Word. Seek His Word. Solomon said, of the making of
many books, there's no end. Here's the conclusion to the
whole matter. Fear God. Seek His Word. His Word. If we're going to seek the Lord,
we're going to start right here. His Word. The desire of every child of
God is to hear his voice in his word. That's my desire. That's
your desire. We seek the blessing of hearing
his voice in his word. Sometimes you'll hear people
say, well, the Lord spoke to me. Not out loud, he didn't. And not in a dream, he didn't.
He doesn't do that anymore. But he does speak to his people
by his own spirit through his own word. And when he does, this
is what he says. If you want to know whether or
not the Lord has spoken to you through his word, this is how
you can know. When He speaks, He says two things. When His Spirit, the Spirit of
Christ Himself speaks, He says two things. Number one, He says,
you're a sinner. That's the first thing He says.
When the Spirit comes, the first thing He does is He convinces
of sin. That's the first thing He says.
You're a sinner. who through the wickedness of
your own sinful flesh has secured eternal damnation for yourself.
You know, we all think we're doing good and living right and,
you know, in a good place with God and all that kind of stuff.
And then when the Spirit speaks, He says, damnation. That's what you've earned. The second thing He says is,
I came into this world to save my people from the wicked damnation
they secured for themselves. If you've heard that from this
Word, you're a sinner. You read that Word and that Word
says to your heart, thou art the man. You see that sin right
there? That's you. That's you. If you've heard that
from the Word, you're a sinner. He's the Savior. He's the only
Savior. You can't help Him. He's the
only Savior. The only hope of salvation you
have. And He came, and He accomplished,
and it's finished. If you've heard that, and been caused to believe it,
and been caused to look to it, and been caused to hope in it,
I believe He's spoken to you. Lord, speak to us. Speak to us
to seek Him. is to desire to hear from Him
through His Word. Lord, speak to us. Look at verse
10 right here. It says, glory ye in His holy
name. Glory in His holy name. Look with me at verse 24. It
says, declare His glory among the heathen. His marvelous works
among all nations. To seek Him is to seek His glory. Seek His glory. His glorification. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us. Unto Thy name give all the glory. All of it. Even in our seeking
Him. We talk about seeking the Lord. Even in our seeking Him.
That's to His credit. David said, when you said, seek
ye my face, that's when my heart cried, thy face will I seek.
The Lord himself said, I am sought of them that asked not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me. Behold me. So to seek the Lord is to, in
all things, seek his glory, his credit, is to seek his honor,
his praise, and everything that he has done. Everything he has
done. Look at the end of verse eight.
It says, make known his deeds among the people. The end of
verse nine says, talk ye of all his wondrous work. Don't talk
about the things we're going to do for him. Talk about all
the things he's done for us. Look at verse 12. It says, remember
his marvelous works that he hath done his wonders in the judgments
of his mouth. Verse 25, look all the way over
at 25. It says, for great is the Lord
and greatly to be praised. He's worthy to be praised. To
seek the Lord is to seek his glory, his honor, his praise,
his worship. To seek the Lord is to seek worshiping
him. I want to worship him. I don't
want to show up to church. If that's all I'm going to do,
I don't even need to be here. It's not good enough. I want
to worship him. We need to worship him. Lord,
let us worship you. Let us hear your voice in your
word. Let us see your glory. Let us see you. Let us worship
you. For who you are, what you've
done. Look at where we were last night
in verse 34. It says, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for
he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Say ye save us, O God
of our salvation, and gather us together and deliver us from
the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory
in thy praise. In Exodus 33, Moses said, show
me your glory. He said to the Lord, show me
your glory. And the Lord said, this is my
glory. I will have mercy. He said, that's my glory. I will
have mercy. It's sovereign glory. It's sovereign mercy. I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. But he said, I will have mercy
to seek the Lord is to seek his mercy. To seek his glory is to seek
his mercy. It's to seek merciful salvation
through his blood alone. Merciful deliverance through
his sacrifice alone. As we get into 2023, let's strive
to seek. His blood, His work, His sacrifice,
and nothing else. Nothing added to it. Nothing
else. Him alone. His work alone. His salvation alone. His word,
His glory, His honor, His praise, His works, His salvation, His
blood, His mercy, His grace, His fellowship. Communion with
Him. Look at verse 8. It says, give thanks unto the
Lord, call upon His name. Call upon His name. Call upon
His name. Verse 9 says, sing unto Him. Sing unto Him. When we sing songs
here in our worship service, what are we doing? We're just
going through, well this is our format. We do two, we read scripture,
we do another one, sometimes somebody does a special. No,
we're singing to him. Our singing is to him, let those
refuse to sing who never knew our God. When we sing, we're
singing to him, we're not singing to each other. The middle of
verse 10 says. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord him. Verse 11 says, seek the Lord. and his strength, seek his face
continually. To seek him is to seek fellowship
and communion, union with him in the heart. One man said it
this way. He gave five things that declared
what it is to seek the Lord. Number one, he said, it's to
discover that by nature, I don't have him. But I need
Him, and I need His grace. You're not going to go seeking
something that you already have. To go seek something is to say,
in this flesh, in my nature, I don't have Him. Number two,
he said, it's to desire His mercy and His fellowship more than
anything else in this world. What is it? To seek the Lord.
To seek the Lord. He said it's to desire his mercy
and his fellowship more than anything else in the world. Number
three, he said, it's to be made willing to be saved on his terms,
that he might be just and justifier. And God's people are, they're
willing to be saved on his terms. His will, his way, his righteousness,
not mine. His holiness, not mine. Number
four, he said, it's to be willing to part with everything that's
opposed to Christ. And it's to cleave to him alone,
him alone. And number five, he said to seek
the Lord is just that it's to seek him, not his, not what he
has. And everybody talks about golden
streets, mansions is to seek him. Not his, him. The best way that I know to illustrate
all this is, many years ago now, a girl named
Hannah Mahan caught my attention. Been quite a few years now. And
she caught it hard. She caught it pretty hard. I
was living in Franklin, Tennessee. There are a few people here who
can attest to this story. But to a small degree, I had
some roots there. I had a business there. I owned
some property there. I had friends there. I had a
church family there. And as I look back on it now,
I realized that I was seeking a life there. I was, I was going
about seeking in the life I lived. I was seeking a life there. I was seeking a career there. I was seeking a whole bunch of
things there. But the moment my heart saw her,
this is what I realized. Number one. I didn't have her,
but I needed her. And there's a couple of other
people who can attest to the same story. The moment my heart
saw her is the first thing I realized. Number one, by nature, as I was
born into this world, I don't have her, but I need her. Number two, I desired union with
her more than anything else in this world. Everything I had attained to
that point, I counted it all dung. I counted it all loss that
I might win her and be found with her. Everything else was
nothing without her. Nothing. Number three. I was willing to have her on
her terms. Oh man, you were whipped. You
got it. I was. Any way I could have her,
I'll take her any way I can have her. The fourth thing I realized was
I was willing to part with everything and everybody. I was willing
to sell out, sell all, leave all, just to have her. And the fifth thing I realized
was, it was her, not her things. It was her. After Hannah and
I dated for a while, Paul told me a hundred times, they had
16 acres, and he said, if you and Hannah get married, I'll
give you five acres to build a house on. He told me that a
hundred times. The moment we got married, they
sold the farm. I didn't get a blade of grass. But here's the thing about it,
I wasn't in it for the grass. Everything beside her is just
grass. It's just grass. I was in that for I was in it
for her. When people talk about heaven,
what is heaven? It's Christ. What was anything
without her? What's anything without Christ? Just to be able to say. You know,
I still think about it to this day. I hope everybody, I hope
all you men can feel this way and all of you women can feel
this way. Seek a loving marriage this year. Ask God to join your
heart. And I'm doing the same thing.
I'm not saying this in pride. We'll probably be fighting in
two hours. I hope not. Let's all seek a loving union
with each other. What God has put together, let's
nourish it, cherish it, respect each other, love each other.
But just with Christ, just to be able to say, oh, he walks
with me. He talks with me. I'm so glad
she's my best friend. We travel together and do these
things together, and I'm always thinking, I'm so glad you want
to be with me. Just to be able to say, he walks
with me, he talks with me, he tells me I'm his own. I'm yours,
you mine. Brethren, let's seek the Lord. Let's seek the Lord. Let's seek
a union with our Lord, starting today, the first day of 2023,
while he may be found. May God give us a heart to seek
the Lord. It'll be his doing. We're gonna
give him the credit for it. and the glory for it. But if
he does, we'll get Christ. All who seek, find. All who are caused, if he causes
us to seek, he's going to cause us to find. Let's seek the Lord. Alright, you're dismissed.