You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
9 sermons cite this verse
… This is the word of God. And you will seek me and find me. When you search for me with all of your heart. If you make these few verses your life's marching orders, you'll do just fine. Pursue him. Seek after him. This is all the binding. And this is all the writing of the neck and of the heart of the word of God upon us. Is that it will transform your life. And if your life is seen by others as a life that is touched by God. Graced by God. What a wonderful witness that is. And people will have to ask. Which I think is the best question of all for us to be asked. Is who's your God anyway? Why is your life like this? All these things are happening to all of us, but you are not succumbing. You're not rolled up in the corner, balled up in the corner in a fetal position, freaking out. What's with you? And that's your moment. …
… you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart and I will be found by you. And the name of this man was Cornelius and he was a centurion. And this is a pivotal moment with his conversion because now the church is going to leave not just bringing the gospel to their fellow Jews but to non-Jews or Gentiles as well. To go out there and impact everybody. This reminds us that the early church was not perfect. They were people like us. They fell short of what God called them to do. They made mistakes. They had false doctrine. They had division. They had issues that still infect the church today. And in some quarters of the church, there was even prejudice where they were unwilling to go to people different than them. So God was changing the heart now of Simon Peter, who at this moment is, for all practical purposes, leading the church along with James. And so Peter is being impacted by a couple of events that take place in his life. The first one is over in Acts chapter 9 verse 34 where he encounters a man named Aeneas. He's in a non-Jewish city called Lod, which by the way is modern Tel Aviv, and he's a paralytic. And so Peter goes to him and says, Aeneas, Jesus heals you, make your bed. And Aeneas got up and walked. And so that touched Peter's heart. He's thinking, wow, this guy's not a Jew, …
… and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. I love that. Now, yes, that original promise, and it still stands true today, is regarding the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. But God's truth is immutable. That means it never changes. That means it's good for us too. Grab it. God says, call to me, pray, seek me. I'll be found by you. I'll leave the handle out. and then finally it's this in verse 5 completion the way of wisdom will save your life and my life when we wise up by being complete you know God wants you to be complete you know this is one of the big problems in our world today is mankind wants to be made complete they don't even know how to articulate that though and no one's ever told them, you can be complete. …
… Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you. I will restore your fortunes. I will gather you from the nations. I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. I know many of you, all of us, I hope, love Jeremiah 29, 11. The plans I have for you, declares the Lord. I think I probably went through a season. You're a young Christian and, yes, Jeremiah 29, love that. Put it on a pillow. Put it on a bumper sticker. put it on a coffee mug. And then somewhere along the way you learn, well, this is really a promise for God's exiles in Babylon. And you're not in exile in Babylon, and you're not having Cyrus. And so, whoa, whoa, whoa, just hold off here on Jeremiah 29 11. Oh, shame on us educated folks who get too smart for our own good. Well, of course, there's an immediate context, but you don't think that you're an exile here, a stranger in a strange land? You don't think that God calls the worldly system Babylon for a reason? Yes, you can claim Jeremiah 29, 11 for yourself if you're walking with Christ, if you'll call upon His name, that He has plans for you as His people, and they're plans for good. …
… want to have a personal relationship with God. And I want more than anything, I want to know who God is. Jeremiah 29 13, and you will seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all your heart and soul. When you search for me with all your heart. In other words, I don't read my Bible so I can get up and go, yep, was religious today. Check the religious box, read it. Yep, I was, yeah, I read it. Yep, I'm religious. I'm Christian. I'm holy. I read the Bible. No, no, no. I'm trying to know God with all my heart. I am searching for, have you ever lost something in your house and searched for it with all your heart? Who am I preaching to today? last night my seven and nine year old lost the remote control to our living room you have never seen such commitment in all your life my guys you know you're looking for something when your eyes get big and they came into my room they're like have you seen the remote to the living room tv and i was like my guys chill little bug guy come on man you need to fast and pray that came in again. Have you seen the remote? And lo and behold, the 11-year-old was hiding it in his sweats. Brotherhood. But they were searching. When was the last time you opened your Bible and looked for God? What is your will? What is your plan? What is your dream? What is your vision? …
… and then let's think about what they mean. So Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 11 through 13. Let's read it together out loud. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Now, I mentioned these words are well-known, often quoted. people have them in frames around their houses, on their desks, in places where they can be reminded of these words, particularly verse 11. And this is good. The problem, though, is that many of us don't know when God said this, who he was speaking to, and what it meant at that time. And if we don't know what it meant when God said these words, then we can easily make them mean things today that they were never intended by God to mean. …
… you, declares the Lord, you will call on me and come and pray to me. Notice how this shifts. You will call on me and you'll come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be founded by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place. So he does want to bring you to the place. God's got a good and spacious place for you, and he wants to bring you into that place. But he wants you to understand that it's not about the place. It's about the person who is bringing you into the place. The hope isn't a destination. The hope God has for your life is a relationship with him. And that's the promise. The promise isn't just, I'll get you somewhere. The promise is me. And we see this in the larger title of this collection, Though One thing. There are five places in scripture where we see the one thing or one thing. And one of those I want us to look at today because it helps us get into the place where we understand that it's about a relationship with God that's so substantial and real that it gives us hope, unshakable hope, when everything around us is uncertain. And that's found in Psalm 27. This is one of the one things …
… And the last and fifth thing is that the hope in a future, the promise, is a person, not a place. Jeremiah 29.11 is incredible, but so is Jeremiah 29.12 and 29.13. And 29, 14. I want to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me. And I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. So what is the promise? What is the hope? And what is the future? The promise and the hope in the future is God. It's not a place. It's a person. It's not a destination. It's a relationship. And this is what he's saying to everyone in exile. You can find me. You can get me. You can come to me. You can pray to me. You can be found in me. I am the hope and I am the future. Yes, yes, I will bring you back from captivity. Yes, I'll gather you from all the nations and places where I banish you. And I will bring you back to the place. Anybody had God bring you back to the place? Anybody testify today at Trillith or Cumberland or 515? God brought me back to the place. …
… THEREFORE ALSO NOW SAITH THE LORD, TURN YE EVEN TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH FASTING AND WITH WEEPING AND WITH MOURNING. YOU WANT TO TURN TO GOD? ONE OF THE INGREDIENTS OF TURNING TO GOD IS FASTING. PUT DOWN JEREMIAH CHAPTER 29 AND VERSE 13, AND YE SHALL SEEK ME AND FIND ME WHEN YE SHALL SEARCH FOR ME, NOW LISTEN TO THIS, WITH ALL YOUR HEART. HALF-HEARTED PRAY IS AN ABOMINATION TO GOD. HEAVEN BENDS AN EAR WHEN WE PRAY WITH FASTING. WHEN WE FAST WE'RE GIVING HEAVEN NOTICE, THAT WE'RE SERIOUS, THAT WE ARE SEEKING GOD WITH ALL OF OUR HEART. LISTEN, FASTING STRENGTHENS PRAYER. AND BECAUSE IT DOES, IT HOLDS BACK JUDGMENT. I'VE TOLD YOU, AND PREACHERS ACROSS AMERICA ARE TELLING US, WE ARE RIPE FOR JUDGMENT. BUT IF WE FAST AND PRAY, GOD WILL HOLD BACK THE JUDGMENT THAT WE DESERVE. PUT IN YOUR MARGIN, JONAH CHAPTER 3, VERSE 5, SO THE PEOPLE OF NINEVA BELIEVED GOD AND PROCLAIMED TO FAST AND PUT ON SACKCLOTH FROM THE GREATEST OF THEM EVEN TO THE LEAST OF THEM." NOW JONAH HAD COME TO NINEVEH AND HE PREACHED JUDGMENT, BUT THE PEOPLE HAD RATHER BEEN, HAVE FORGIVENESS. …