Seeking Great Things

again the message I want to extend my thanks and appreciation for your prayers uh at a bit of a blood pressure issue um seems to be working out uh stabilizing somewhat so that's good and thankful for that thankful for your prayers and uh continued prayers for for me um Had this message prepared for Wednesday.

You know, I don't like holding on to a message, but I think this trial surely caused me more, pressed me more to preach this message. Now, maybe not for you, but for me. I pray that the Lord would bless it. I had covet your prayers and this morning as I desire to preach it. me in prayer that God would take his word and use it.

One thing I am sure of is that no man, no man will receive any glory for it. It is preached aright, all the glory belongs to God. And I pray that God would testify to that today and speak to every heart. Pray that God would take his word and apply it to the hearts of his people everywhere, in every place. Pray for God's men. Pray for our conference coming up. Won't be long now, we're in the month. So, 20, less than 20 days now, isn't it? Pray for the Lord to bless that and bless the men as they come. Let's go to him in prayer. Our gracious Father, we come before you asking for your grace and strength this morning.

That you would give us strength of not only mind and body, but of soul and spirit. That this, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would come and effectually work on every heart as you intend. I know, Father, that the message will not be effectual by the power of the preacher or the ability of the preacher. I pray you would take your word and apply it to the heart of your people as you see fit.

Father, you by grace would root out our pride, our self-sufficiency, that we should lean totally upon Jesus Christ by faith, trusting him and his blood and his righteousness. I pray, Father, this morning, you'd forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of our unrighteousness. And by the grace and power of the Spirit, cast out the cares of this life and let us center upon Christ. Father, I pray for your churches wherever you have your men preaching this morning. These things we're asking for ourselves. We pray for them.

Father, I pray that you would do this for your own glory in Jesus name. Amen. I take your Bible's turn back with me to Jeremiah chapter 45. Jeremiah chapter 45. The text is going to be found in verse 5 with this question that the Lord asks this man Baruch.

He says, And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord. Thy life will I give unto thee, or pray in all places whither thou goest, seeking great things. That's the title of the message, seeking great things. Now this man, Baruch, I'm going to give you, I have to do this.

Now it's going to take a little bit to set this up, so I want you to understand. The book of Jeremiah is very confusing if you try to read it all the way through. And the reason that is because it's not sequential order. This chapter in chapter 45 follows the events of chapter 36. So if you really want to know the events of what's taking place, you have to go back to chapter 36 and read.

This man Baruch was a beloved man. He was a man of God, an elect soul. One beloved of God, redeemed of Christ. And this man was used of God to write most of the book of Jeremiah. He was a scribe. In other words, Jeremiah would receive the word of the Lord and Baruch would be the man that wrote it. At this time, Jeremiah was in prison and he expounded unto Baruch the word of God and he wrote it down and Baruch took it to the rulers of Judah.

The rulers of Judah, after they read this message of doom and gloom, it was a message of God destroying the nation of Judah. He said, I'm going to send king of Babylon in here, and you should surrender. And these rulers knew the king would not like that message, and he did not like that message.

He took it, he tore it up, and he burned it. And then he said this, and get Baruch. He sought his life. And so this man that had wrote the Word of God, this man who had given it to the rulers, who supposed that they would receive it, they didn't. And not only did they not receive it, now they sought his life. And so this message, this time For this man was of great affliction. He was not only going to lose his nation, his home, his family. He was going to lose everything. And not only that, now the prospect was he was going to lose his very life.

Because of the Word of God. This time the righteous would suffer with the wicked. God said, I'm going to destroy them all. I'll destroy them all. And so you see the anguish and despair of this man who was one of the remnant, one of the elect of God, and yet hearing upon this, listen to what he said. God saw this.

You see what God said to him, thou didst say, verse 3, Woe is me now, for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and I find No rest. He is a believer, not only suffered the spiritual trouble of the rejection of God's word, but now he was going to suffer also the physical calamities of losing everything. And he says this, the Lord has added grief to my sorrow.

Now, all believers know this too well. that we are in constant spiritual warfare. The world despises our message, it despises our Lord. We are in constant warfare with our own sin, feeling the guilt and shame of our own sin. And not only this, we would suppose that God would, when we feel these difficulties and trials, we suppose that God would give us some rest. But we find different, don't we? We find that God seems to add grief to our sorrows. He adds physical calamities to our spiritual troubles.

We feel wave after wave after wave, billow after billow of sorrow and grief in this life. And we say, woe is me. Woe is me. For the Lord adds grief to my sorrow. I faint at my sighing. And I find no rest. What believer has no experience in that? You got experience in that? Every believer has this experience.

But in our text, our Lord here, He sees His sighing saint, and notice this, He doesn't give him a reprieve, but He digs deeper. In our text, the Lord sees deep into the heart of His servant. Even what this man could not see. So God here exposes the secret character of His heart and asks the most piercing question in verse 5.

Seekest thou great things for thyself. Are you sighing because you seek great things for yourself? This is a question every believer should ask concerning everything he experiences in this life. Am I seeking it for my old self? Or is it for the glory of God?

It seems that Baruch had longed for some great thing for himself. I can imagine what he longed for. He longed to be received. He longed for his message to be received. He longed for his people to repent. He longed for God not to bring destruction on his nation. Those seem like good things to me.

But the Lord, looking deep in his heart, knew that he was not seeking it for the glory of God, but rather for the great things for himself. For himself. Here God, by this grief, is rooting out his pride. By this sorrow in the Lord's providence, he destroys the secret ambitions of his servants.

God had taken his dreams and thoughts and future plans that he kept in his heart, all the hopes that he had, and God crushes him. How often do we think something would be so good? If this would just happen, it would be great, wouldn't it? And we dream and we scheme and we plan All the while not knowing this, that we're not seeking it for the glory of God, but for the good of our own selves.

I think of Peter, when Peter stood there on the Mount of Transfiguration, what a glorious sight that was. He saw the Lord transfigured. He saw Moses and Elijah standing there, and they were talking. Well, what a sight. And he said, Oh, I got an idea. Let's build a temple for you and for Moses and Elijah here. And why would he do that? Why would he say such a thing? Sounds glorious. All the world would approve. What'd our Lord say to him? Get thou behind me, Satan. Why? Thou seekest great things for thyself. Thou savorest not the things that be of God. Why does God seem to destroy this man's ambitions? Because it was not for his glory. It was for the good only of this man's own ambitions.

So I want to divide our thoughts this morning into two parts. Seeking great things for ourselves. I'm going to give you a few things that are that we're naturally prone to seek after. And some of these things are good things in themselves, but the motive is the problem. Then I want to comfort you, the last part of this text, he's asking this piercing question, and he tells him why he's not to seek these things, and then he gives him a comforting solution, this matter of his life being preserved. So first of all, the evil of seeking great things for ourselves. The heart of this man was evil in that it sought these things for himself. The heart of Baruch, these evils lurked in his heart surely as it lurks in our hearts.

We're both sons of Adam. Yes, saved by the grace and mercy of God, but yet the old man still resides. He still abides. And what is he constantly doing? Constantly he is seeking great things for himself. The first great thing that the natural man seeks is temporal things.

Temporal things for ourselves. Such as riches. Comforts of this world. Well, I love air conditioning. Especially when it's hot. You know, you seek these comforts. We have these comforts. I'm thankful we have comforts. Riches, fame, esteem among men. Family. I thought about that often this week, my family. I've wanted such things for my children, but did I want them for the glory of God or did I want them for myself?

Now the world's openly desires these things, but believers know that we are to temper these things. We're to be moderate in these things. But yet, we like every man seek better things for ourselves, constantly seeking better things for ourselves. Believers secretly desire these great things.

I'm sure that this man did not want to see destruction of his country. That's pretty good. We'd say that's a good thought. But why did he think it? Why did he want it? Was it really for the glory of God and the good of His country, or was it for Himself? He desired the king to listen, and the people repent. Why? Was it for the glory of God, or was it for Himself?

Ambitions and passions affect every man in every situation. This desiring better things for ourselves, it's across the board. It doesn't matter if you're rich or you're poor, if you're a king, if you're in poverty. I was thinking about a monk. A monk separates himself from everyone else and all things in the world. He goes up into this lofty place. Why? Is he doing it for the glory of God or the good of himself? Is he doing it for his own righteousness? We're all seeking better conditions for our own selves.

But God has purpose for the believer, the child of God, that we are not to have the great things of this world. I will say it again. God has purpose for his children not to have the great things of this world for the simple reason that the temporal things of this world draw us away from him.

They draw us away him. Therefore God is always taking these things from us. He's always pouring contempt on all our pride and ambitions. He crosses our schemes and our dreams and worldly ambition and for the most part his people are poor and needy and destitute of the things of this world. Now this is offensive to the modern religion. They believe God wants you to have everything. They believe God wants you to be healthy. God wants you to be happy. God wants you to enjoy the pleasures of the things of the world.

Scriptures are totally opposed to that. The Apostle in 1 Corinthians 1 says Verse 26, He says, For you see your calling, brethren, not many wise according to the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world.

You see what He called us? Foolish. What are you? Foolish. God chose the foolish things of the world. To what? Confound the things that are wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world. See what he called you? Weak. To what? Confound the things that are mighty. We are confounding to the things of the mighty. We don't, they don't understand us. I don't have any clue how it is. So then believer, do you seek the things of the world? Do you seek the honor of the world?

Our Lord says to his people, you shall be hated of all men for my sake. Do you seek to be liked? God said you'll be hated. And the more we draw near to Christ, the more we preach the gospel of Christ and will not consent to the false works religion of this world, The more we will be hated. The more we will be despised.

Paul says, Yea, they that will live godly in Christ. That's very important. They that live godly in Christ. Not in the flesh. If you live godly in the flesh, everybody will love you. But if your godliness is based solely on Jesus Christ, they that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution.

Therefore, believer, let us lay it to heart, whatsoever schemes we devise to prosper in this world, God rarely allows them to come to pass. And when He does, the only thing that ends is hurt and pain and sorrow. Why? Listen to this. Where a man's treasure is, there will his heart be also. God will not suffer his sons to have their portion in this world. This man Baruch did what all of us are guilty of doing. He sought his portion in this world. And God says, Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Do you seek a great family? Seek it not. Riches? Seek it not. Why?

These things draw us away from Christ. Another thing that men seek is religious ambition. Religious ambition. Well, I don't seek the things of the world. But I seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I seek the things of the gifts of God. There is a great ambition and desire for gifts. And what I mean by gifts are outward manifestations. of the work of the Spirit. Outward manifestations of the work of the Spirit.

It's always the longing of the flesh to look for signs of our salvation, isn't it? Isn't it natural for the natural man within every believer to want to look at something to prove my salvation? It's the flesh that remains in us. We long for something and we say, give me such gifts by which I may determine whether I'm His or I'm not.

Men may have these gifts. Now I want you to see this. Men can have these gifts and still not be saved. I'm going to give you an illustration, a very simple one, Judas. Judas had every power of the disciples. Every power that was given to every one of the other apostles, he had it. And yet he had not life in himself. You see, gifts aren't determinate. They don't determine whether we have salvation.

And religious gifts often draw the ambitious of this world. And they are pleasing to the flesh and sought for even by the lost. But even God's people are prone to seek these religious gifts, not for the glory of God, but for the glory of self. And I'll tell you this, when we ask for gifts, you that believe in Christ, you ask for God to give you gifts. And when God doesn't give you, how do you feel? You feel distraught, you feel disappointed, you begin to doubt and fear.

Now some believers, they covet different gifts. Some believers covet the gift of prayer or the gift of preaching. I remember somebody asking me, man, they wish they could just memorize scripture. You know, they keep it in their head. They wish they had that gift. Now gifts, I want you to see this.

The gifts of God are, there's nothing wrong with the gifts. There's nothing wrong with desire. The Apostle Paul said, if a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired the good thing. Nothing wrong with desiring the office to preach the gospel. Nothing wrong with desiring the gift to pray. There's nothing wrong with memorizing scripture or being bold in your testimony.

Whatever gifts you want from the Lord. These gifts themselves aren't bad. What is it? Seekest thou great things for thyself? Is it for the glory of God we seek these gifts or is it for our own benefit? For our own selves? Many covet the gifts to fulfill their pride and not for the praise and glory of Christ.

Now gifts of preaching is a gift. It is a gift given to few. It's not given to many. It's given to few. But it's not given for the preacher. In other words, it's not for me that I'm called to preach. It's for you. He gives gifts unto men for the edification of the body, not for the glory of the man. There is no glory in this for me. There's no glory in it. To all who possess the gift of preaching, God takes great care that we find no glory in ourselves.

I'll tell you this, when I first became a desire to preach the gospel. I spent a lot of times thinking and considering this, and I said, here am I, send me. Boy, I thought that I said that. I thought I said that in all humility. I did not fully understand the amount of pride that I had when I first asked. I didn't understand that I was seeking great things for myself and not the glory of God. But when God calls a man to preach, that's the first thing he begins to root out. Pride.

Often time God shuts our mouths. We want to speak and we want to preach and God just shuts our mouths. And most of the time God puts a veil upon the preacher eyes to not see anything that's taking place. We have no idea what God is doing with the messages we preach. We are gifted to preach. God sometimes, most of the time, shows us the barrenness and darkness of our own heart so that we grow up in the dark as to what to do. All I know is this, to preach Christ. What God does with it, I have no clue what God does with it. We're blind to see those things. Why? Because we're not here for ourselves.

We preach for the glory of God. Some men say, well, man, I'd like to learn how to pray. You hear somebody pray and somebody's somebody has the ability to pray and they pour out their heart before God. He said, man, I wish I could do that. You know, you don't know what you're asking for. You don't know what you're asking for. The man is gifted to pray, that man is shut up to know this, that all the words he prays doesn't come from himself. The man gifted to pray is made to feel the powers of great temptation that bring his soul into great despair and doubt and fear so that he feels he has little access to God. You want to pray?

That's how God brings you to a man. That's the gift of prayer. God brings you to nothing. So these gifts, if they are of God, always are accompanied with trials. Anybody want gifts? I want you to know this, if God ever gives you any gifts, it will come with great affliction.

Why? Because it is our natural tendency to use these to seek great things for ourselves. I can't tell you how often I want to go in that office and bury my head in the sand. Knowing that my heart is filled with hypocrisy. So full of pride. In every attempt I try to preach Christ, I find in myself no ability, no power. Why? Because no glory belongs to me. No glory belongs to me. The gift of knowledge. Knowledge is good.

Knowledge is required. You must have knowledge. The old believers harbor the desire of the great gift of the mysteries of God. The knowledge of the gospel of Christ is essential to salvation and for our spiritual growth. But often men aspire to be great theologians. They read and they study and they work and they labor for what?

For knowledge. Look at Proverbs. knowledge is essential Proverbs chapter eight verse ten Proverbs 8 and verse 10. Receive my instruction, and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. Knowledge is vital. Paul said, I know whom I have believed. Knowledge is important. We must understand who we are. We must understand who Christ is. We must have knowledge, spiritual knowledge. Look at chapter 10 and verse 14.

Wise men lay up what? Knowledge. But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. Proverbs 12 and verse 1. Whoso loveth instruction loveth what? Knowledge. Knowledge. But he that hath reproof is brutish. This knowledge of Christ is essential, isn't it? Who among the believers does not desire more knowledge? We do. We desire to know more. But are we asking for knowledge for knowledge sake? Or do we seek knowledge for the glory of God? Do we seek great things for ourselves? Or do we seek for the glory of God?

What did the apostle say about his knowledge? He said, I count all things but dung. All my earthly wisdom but dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of the faith of Christ. In that same text he says that I may know Him. That I may know Him. When a believer stores up knowledge for knowledge's sake, it breeds worms. You ever been around a know-it-all? You ever been around somebody who just knows everything about the gospel? Boy, he just, he knows everything. Most obnoxious people, aren't they? They don't think so, but they are. Why?

Because knowledge for knowledge's sake, like the old manna, breeds worms and stinks. What is it that we are trying to know? If we desire the gift of knowledge, I know this, God will always temper it with sorrows and griefs It would cause us to know the vile corruption of our old nature. Why? So that we may seek to know Him, to know Christ. There's a difference between knowing about Christ and knowing Christ. Isn't there the great difference?

What do we want to know? What we should seek is we should seek to know His person. That we should seek to know His work. We should seek His mercy, His pardon, His grace, His forgiveness. We should seek to know His blood, His righteousness, what it accomplished at Calvary. These are the gifts of God. And you know, every one of these, the more we know more about Him, the less we esteem ourselves. The more we know about Him, the more we esteem ourselves and the less we esteem Him. Here's another one, a great gift of assurance.

Now tell me, what believer doesn't desire assurance? You want assurance? I remember Tim James told me this one time, he said, the moment a believer looks for assurance, he's lost it. Isn't that right? I mean, if you're looking for it, you obviously ain't got it. Assurance. And so what do we look for for assurance? Where do you find assurance? The carnal flesh seeks assurance, which is a great thing. It seeks assurance in its circumstances. It seeks assurance in its conduct. It seeks assurance in how it feels and what it thinks.

And the moment you lean on any of those, you lose it. You lose it. But for one to have assurance of faith, you understand what you're asking for. You're asking for God to break open the fountains of your corruption. He breaks it open. pours out of every pore of your body is nothing but corruption. Why? That you may seek your all in Christ. If that's not broken up, you won't seek your all in Him. You won't find assurance only in Him. But if you look for assurance anywhere else but Christ, you find fear and sorrow.

Believer, We are, are we not all guilty then of seeking great things for ourselves? Temporal things, religious things, things that are good in themselves, and yet we seek them for our own corruption, our own benefits. Our Lord said to Brooke, as he says, does look back at your text. Seekest thou great things for thyself? What? Seek them not. Seek them not.

Pastor, doesn't Paul tell us to seek the best gifts? Yes, he does. But what are the best gifts? Is preaching the best gift? Prayer? Is that the best gifts? No. Here are the best gifts. Listen, if you want to covet any gifts, these are the gifts. Faith, hope, and love.

Why? Because none of these come from you. You didn't believe on your own, did you? By grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourself. You want something that glorifies God? Seek faith. Faith in Christ alone. Hope. Not in the things of the world, not in the anticipation of the things of the world, but hope in Christ alone. Love. Love for God. You want to seek something good? Seek love.

Why? Because love vonneth not itself. It's not proud. It doesn't boast. Why? Because it is a gift of God and it is for the glory of God. You want a gift? Here's a gift. Love one another even as I have loved you. You want a gift? Now that's a gift. Why? Because it is abasing self and exalting everyone else. It gives no glory to self. Seek these gifts because they glorify God.

Therefore, believer, let us desire to have the smiles of God's countenance. Let us desire to have the blood of Christ constantly cleansing us from all our sins. Let us seek to have His righteousness cover us from head to toe so that we can stand before God. These are the great things that God has laid out that every believer should seek for.

Why? Because they glorify God and not self. And we should seek these things regardless of circumstance. Regardless of circumstance. Seek for these revelations of grace and His power, His presence to break our hearts and cause us to lean more to Him. Here's something to seek. Seek the greatness of God's electing grace. You want to find something that's great. God's electing grace. Seek that. Seek to know that. Seek to trust in His mercies. Seek the blood and righteousness, the person and work of Christ. That He came to save all that the Father gave Him.

You want to see something great? Look at the cross. You want to see something great? It was there that all the sins of all His people were fully redeemed, fully atoned, fully pardoned, fully forgiven by His one offering for sin. Now that's great. That's great. You want to see greatness?

Look at His righteousness, how perfect His righteousness is. Behold the greatness of His resurrection. Behold the greatness of His ascension. Behold the greatness of the power of the Holy Spirit who quickened us who were dead in sins and given us life and faith.

Consider those great things. Set your mind and heart on those great things. Why? Because all of those things glorify God and abase me. The glorious gospel of Christ is great and greatly desired among God's people. But all who God touches with the hand of his grace, all of these things cause us to see the vileness of our own hearts. So when that question is asked, seekest thou great things for thyself, does it not pierce you?

It does. Why? Because God has revealed this about our old nature that resides in our breast. He exposes it constantly. Does this speak to your heart? Listen to the words now. Just listen for a minute to the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to his words to you and me who believe. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth. Isn't that the same thing? Seek not great things for yourself.

Why? Why? Because moth and rust doth corrupt. Thieves break through and steal. In our text, Baruch was seeking the things of the world and God said, I'm going to destroy all that. You want the favor of the king? The king is going to be dead. You want your home, your family, it's all going to be gone. Why seek it? Lay not up for yourselves treasure. Listen, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Where are all the treasures in heaven found? Tell me. How do you lay up for yourselves treasures? Where are the treasures found? Are they not found in Jesus Christ? Are they not all in Him?

Listen to what He says in Matthew 6, 25. Take no thought for your life. Tell you what, I've been sick this last week and I don't think I've spent a minute that I didn't think about my life. Take no anxious thought for your life. You'll lose it anyway. Don't worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to put on.

What does he say to the believer? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and God will add all these other things. Believer, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. May God keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. We sing that hymn often. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. Amidst flaming worlds and these arrayed with joy, shall I lift up my head.

Let us therefore forsake the vain thoughts and ambitions, the vain dreams of this world. and seek only for the glory of God that's found in Jesus Christ. There is no greater thing. There is no greater thing. I'm gonna tell you this. When Newton asked the Lord, he said, I asked the Lord that I might grow in grace and love and faith, that more of His salvation know, and seek more earnestly His face." Isn't this the desire of the believer? Isn't that what I just told you? That that's what you should seek? How do you suppose you get it?

He said, I thought in some favored hour He would come, subdue my sins, and give me rest. That's what we think. We think it should come without affliction, without trials. Listen, if we are to seek for the glory of God and not for the things of ourselves, listen, it's going to come through suffering. Through suffering. He said, instead of this, He made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand he seemed to aggravate my woe, crossed all my fair designs I schemed, cast out my feelings and laid me low. Isn't this the experience of everyone who wants to seek the glory of God? That's the experience.

If you want to seek the glory of God and not the glory of self, listen, this is the way God does it. Look at your text. Go back there. Look what God says he's going to do. He says, In verse 4, saying to him, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted will I pluck up, even the whole land. These things you're seeking. Listen, I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to destroy them. You see, in doing this, God roots out our pride, stripping away our vain hopes, so that we fall at His feet for all our needs. Has God stripped you? Did you seek great things for yourself? Has God brought you to despair?

I'm gonna give you the comforting part now, look at this. In verse, in your text, look at this in verse three, verse five, last part, he said, but. He said, but here's the comforting part. Thy life will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. A prey, a prey. You know what that is? You have birds of prey, beasts of prey. See a little mouse running along. You see an eagle come down and swoop down and grab it. That's a bird of prey.

He said, that's how you're gonna live. You're gonna live like that. He said, I'll give thee thy life. Isn't that you that believe? Don't you have life? Who gave you life? Where'd your life come from? It was a gift of God, wasn't it? You were born again of the Spirit of God and you have been given life. But ever since you've been given life everything and everyone around you has been trying to take it.

And the worst beast of prey is right here. The flesh is always stretching its talents, longing after the lusts and passions and things of this world, constantly trying to snatch us away from God. The world is a beast of prey, alluring us with all of its comforts and treasures, and when we reject it, it despises and hates us and would kill us if it could.

False religion seeks to tempt us as the whore of Babylon, dressed in scarlet and purple, seems to allure and draw us away. Look at us! Look at our success! But every believer knows that the bed of that whore leads to hell. And when we're rejected, she opens her mouth and seeks to devour us. We're surrounded by beasts of prey.

Listen to this. God says, I will give thee thy life as a prey. In other words, as they're trying to take it, God says, I'll keep it. I'll keep it. This is your hope. This is your hope. You that have life is that God says, I will give thee thy life and no man shall take it. It is what our Lord says in John chapter 10. He said to his sheep, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Listen, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. Here is the comfort in the midst of every affliction, in the midst of every trial, in the midst of every bird of prey trying to lure you and take you from Christ. No man, no angel, no demon, no circumstance, not even your failings can remove you from His love.

Paul said, I am persuaded. I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, listen to this, nor any other creature, in case I missed one, shall be able, now that, no, listen to that, shall be able.

Now if they're not gonna try, they're just not gonna be able. You know this man Baruch lived through every trial until God gathered them 70 years later. They tried to kill him. His whole life they tried to kill him. And they weren't able. See that spiritually. There is no man can take you from Christ. When Jesus said this, I shall lose nothing. You know what he meant? That he should lose nothing. Not one of us will be lost. Not one of us shall be lost.

Therefore, is it not reasonable then to seek the things that glorify God and not ourselves? Isn't that reasonable? Isn't it reasonable for us not to seek the things of the world, the things of the flesh? Isn't it reasonable not to seek the gifts of God for the glory of self? Isn't that reasonable?

See, all these faint things that we seek in this life are all soon going to be gone. And tell you this, you that believe, if you lost everything, what have you lost? I mean, seriously, if you lost everything, what have you lost? The great thing is I've lost nothing. Matter of fact, All things are mine. Is that real? Is that true?

Therefore, J.C. Philpott wrote this, he said, Therefore, let us go and weep with a broken heart and softened spirit, seeking the Lord our God, seeking the secret manifestations of his mercy, the visitations of his favor, the lifting up of his countenance, Let us seek the revelation of His love to know Him by spiritually divine revelation. Let us be thus minded, not seeking great things for ourselves, but for the glory of God. Seek not to establish our own righteousness. Seek not the applause of the world. Seek not the opinion of professors. Seek not the smiles of saints.

What are we to seek? We're to seek the Lord our God. We're to seek his face day and night, seek his favor, seek his mercy, seek his grace, seek his love, seek his glory, seek the sweet visitations of his presence and power. Seek him until you find him. When you find him, you find all you need.

God, keep us from seeking great things for ourselves. And seek only the glory of our God. Let's stand and be dismissed. Our Father, dismiss us with your own blessings and mercies. Pour out your spirit upon us and keep us. Keep us from the things of our mind, the things of our flesh, seeking glory for ourselves. Let us seek only the glory that's found in Christ, that we may be found in him. In him is all our salvation. I pray this in Christ's name.

Seeking Great Things

Sermon Transcript

About Fred Evans

Comments

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Seeking Great Things

Sermon Transcript

About Fred Evans

Comments

More from Fred Evans

Related Sermons

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book