Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near:
9 sermons cite this verse
… Isaiah 55, 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found. upon him while he is near. By the way, that Hebrew word implies he may not always be near to you. So call now urgently. Your time may run out. Matthew 6, 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not your own, his. And all these things shall be added to you. That verse 13 in Proverbs chapter 3 goes on is the man, look at this, who gains. Gains understanding. The word understanding is a powerful word and we need it so much today. By the way, the word understanding is almost inseparable from that great word discernment, but it means having the knowledge of discernment, to have the skill to see what is not readily seen, skillful insight, supernatural. God says, I'm going to give you, listen, you want to be happy? Here's how you're happy. It's not going It's not going to be this moment or that moment. It's who you know. …
… Because you've hardened your heart. The Bible says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to our God who will abundantly pardon. Notice, seek the Lord while he may be found. Jesus is here with us right now. He said, when two or more gather together in my name, I'm there in the midst of them. He's here. And Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins and paid the price for every wrong we've ever done and then rose from the dead, stands at the door of our life and he knocks and says, if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. Here's my question. Have you ever asked Jesus to come into your life? This is what you need. This is what you've been looking for. And only you can open the door of your heart, so to speak, and ask him to come in. …
… And I want you to see something ahead of time. Isaiah 55 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. He will have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. That part we understand. The next part is so surprising. For my thoughts, this is God speaking now. He steps in as Isaiah continues to write. My thoughts are not your thoughts. neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord well are they really that different are they really that far apart verse 9 as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts as far as the distance between heavens and earth, so is the distance between my thinking and God's thinking, your ways and God's ways. If you were raised like me, you were usually taught that God speaks in a still small voice, that he comes tippy-toeing on the scene, and he always sort of whispers. …
… and I will cure you of backsliding. The Bible says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on the Lord while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to our God who will pardon abundantly. Do you need to return to our God? Do you need to come back to the Lord? Have you failed like Peter? Maybe not by denying him, but in other ways. Have you backslidden? Are you backsliding? Or maybe you've never known Jesus at all. You know all about Jesus. You were raised going to church. But have you asked Christ to come and live in your heart as your Savior and your Lord? You say, well, I think so. You think so? if Christ is living in you, you'll know it. If someone moved into your house at three o'clock in the morning, do you think you'd know? They're cooking fish in the morning. What's going on here? I'm not implying becoming a Christian is like having someone move in your house and cook fish. …
… today because you don't know if you have tomorrow. God's will for your life. You want to know what God wants? Believe in the one whom he has sent. The Bible says, call on him while he is near. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Let's pray together. Father, we come before you and we're so grateful for the just hope of your word. It gives us, it is the anchor to our soul. when we start to feel like we have nothing under control we're right but you do and I love the fact that nothing disturbs you in the sense of moves you from your purpose the moment in heaven when Satan rebelled against you, you knew it was coming. The moment that Adam and Eve took of the fruit, you knew about it. And you always had this plan of redemption. And we could ask, why did he allow it? If he knew it, why did he allow it? And we can take that same question, Lord, we can ask it to so many things in our life and yet Lord we might not know the direct answer to that question we do know the general answer which Lord we know that you do what you do that we might fear you that one day you would get all the glory because you will not share it with another Father I pray for my brothers and sisters here tonight and Thank you. …
… and I want you to see something ahead of time Isaiah 55 6 seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord. He will have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. That part we understand. The next part is so surprising. For my thoughts, this is God speaking now, he steps in as Isaiah continues to write, my thoughts are not your thoughts. neither are your ways my ways declares the lord well are they really that different are they really that far apart verse 9 as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts as far as the distance between heavens and earth, so is the distance between my thinking and God's thinking, your ways and God's ways. If you were raised like me, you were usually taught that God speaks in a still small voice, that he comes tippy-toeing on the scene, and he always sort of whispers. …
… And then a few verses down he says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Augustine said, you have made us for yourself, oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you. And there's somebody in every single room, probably on every single row today at our church, Thank you. and you're laboring for food that spoils and wondering why you're more hungry today than you were yesterday. I know what that's like. Everybody in this room knows what that's like. There is bread that can satisfy, and it's a person named Jesus Christ, that thing you've never been able to fully grasp, that hole that you can't seem to fill. it can only be filled by the person of Jesus Christ he is bread that truly satisfies verse 28 then they asked him what must we do to do the works that God requires you're telling me don't labor for food that spoils and labor for eternal life okay well then okay fine tell me what do I have to do to labor for that what must we do to be doing the works of God and Jesus answered the work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent. This is the line of thinking that the gospel opposes. What must I do to be doing the works of God? Religion is about doing. Jesus is about believing. So here they are. Okay, okay, okay, okay, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Tell me what to do. …
… understand why. Isaiah 55, verse 6. Now listen to me. This is an invitation to all of you who have been sinking in the storm. The Lord offers you an invitation. The wind is the trigger, and the sinking is the trap. Sometimes you feel like you're drowning in it before you even know what it is, but this is the word of the Lord, and this will be very rich to you for the trials you're going through. The Lord says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let's read that again. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. I'm coming back to that. Call on him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. This is interesting language. I'll read the whole passage, but that's where I want to camp out around verse 6 or 7. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. …
… Listen to verse 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Seek him while he may be found. upon Him while He is near. It may not always be that He is so available. So how did the people to whom He said this respond? Well, sadly, you know the story. Go over to verse 23, you'll get an answer. Luke 13, 23, someone said to Him, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? It was apparent to his followers that even with the severity of the message of death and judgment to the impenitent, there seemed to be only a few who responded. Why in verse 24 he says, "'Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." It's not easy to repent. …