Sermon Notes
Pastor Jeff Stanfill

"One's Life Pursuit - Seeking God"
Asa
September 17th, 2006 - AMService

ONE'S LIFE PURSUIT - SEEKING GOD
TEXT: 2 CHRON. 14:2-16:14
INTRO:
We will read this entire text for four reasons not given in order of importance:
1. It is interesting reading.
2. It is the Word of God
3. We need an overview to see the theme of Asa's life.
4. The theme of his life is his life's pursuit - seeking God. Where we saw the words seek or sought, we can properly use the word "pursuit."

READ TEXT.

I believe that you want to seek God. I understand you to be a people who yearn for God. Your passion is for Jesus Christ.

You take to heart the Lord's promises that "If you seek Him, He will be found by you." (2 Chron. 15:2). You believe that the greatest rewards one can have in life come from a pursuit of Jesus Christ in everything. (Heb. 1:6) You have answered the call of Jesus to "Seek His Kingdom." (Lk. 12:31).

There is a sense in which no one seeks God, but yet we are all invited to pursue. The reality is that God seeks us far more than we seek Him. Jesus let us know that the Father seeks out worshippers. People find God only because Jesus came to "seek and to save those who were lost."

But seeking God is very necessary and crucial for a believer as is confirmed by the promise that God rewards those who seek Him. He assures us that if we do seek Him we will find Him. How can that promise be true if so many educated, logic minded scientists, philosophers, poets, and artists claim to see no evidence for God? It is true because those who seek Him are actually being pursued by God Himself to share with them His life and salvation.

But what is it to seek the Lord? What does it mean? What does it look like when a person is in full pursuit of God? Do they pray all the time? Are they always in church somewhere each night of the week? Does one go about quoting Bible verses for everything that happens?

Asa's life answers that for us. You heard the frequency of the word seek or sought as we read his account. Asa was not a perfect man as we read. He faltered in his seeking God. But his life's pursuit was so God-centered that even his falling down in the pursuit underscores the seeking of God. Would that my life were so set on seeking God that my failures, failings, faults, and flaws only served to further others in their seeking of God!

This account of Asa's life shows the marks of identification of a life in pursue of God. As these marks are seen they also serve as practical means for us to respond to God's pursuit of us.

A life in pursuit of God is a life marked by:
I. RELIANCE ON GOD.
1. Asa had a great army that was well-equipped. Almost 600,000 strong, his army was larger than our own standing infantry today while our total forces are more than twice as much. When opposed by a vast army, Asa did the responsible thing and met the enemy strategically with set positions of battle. And then he does something else. He calls to the Lord.
2. "We rely on you." (14:11) When living in pursuit of God, we responsibly manage our money, ethically work hard for our employer, study diligently for the test, plan and prepare for whatever it is we face. Yet we do not rely on our ability to manage, our hard work, our study, or plans and preparation to make the difference between ultimate failure and eternal success. Ps 147:10-11. His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; 11 the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
3. ILLU: "The way this is going the truck won't be there either." Relying on God is expecting Him to be there when I am doing all I must do. It is not sitting home waiting for Publisher's Clearinghouse to call; it is working and relying on Him to supernaturally provide through His means.
4. Relying on God as a mark of seeking God is basic even to salvation. I am relying on the fact that God will allow me into Heaven based on what Jesus has done. What did He do? He, the Son of God, became a human being and lived a perfect life of righteousness. Then He died with the guilt of my sins upon His perfect being as the substitute for my dying for my sinfulness. He, being the Son of God, made the perfect sacrifice that would satisfy God's justice against my sins. So I am relying on this historical event now and when I stand in front of God as my judge. I am relying on Jesus' life, death, burial, and resurrection to get me into Heaven.
5. It was when Asa relied on alliance with other kings that he slowed in his pursuit of God.
II. RESPECT FOR HIS WORD.
1. As Asa came home victorious against the Cushites, God sent a word to him through a prophet. It was an encouraging word that Asa was going in the right direction. It was a promising word that as long as Asa continued as he was going in seeking God that God would be found by him; and it was a warning word that if Asa forsook God then he would become God forsaken. And Asa respected God's word.
2. How? ILLU: Mamaw never put anything on cover or on top of her Bible. But respect is more, deeper than a religious conviction. Asa respected God's word by drawing from it what he needed. In verse 8, Asa took courage from the Word of God. The courage is not the point as is where the courage came from.
3. For Asa, he drew courage not from a bottle of booze or from over stimulated male bravado but from the Word of God. We seek God as we respect His Word by drawing from it according to our need. ILLU: Parents experience being respected when a young adult child asks for their input with something in their lives. That makes the long sleepless nights with fever, the orthodontist's bills, the overpriced clothes they never wore - it makes all that seem worthwhile! When we draw from God's Word, we are respecting Him and His Word.
4. There are other sources to draw from. The Internet has more information than can be managed - and it's not called the Fact Highway but the Information Highway because no one can certify how truth anything is out on the Internet. But one of the most significantly growing demographic groups is that of people who draw from the Internet for religious belief and practice. TV is a source people draw from. Magazines are a source people draw from. Seemingly every month every publication has its syndrome/disease/condition/disorder of the month. And the way the articles are written and the self-test set up after reading it, you find that you've got it, too!
5. A life in pursuit of God is marked by respect for God's word drawing from it what one needs. We must be attentive to the Word of God by reading it, thinking on it, listening to it, memorizing it for meditation, and most of all obeying it. And later, Asa, slowed in the pursuit as he disrespected both the prophet and the word from God.
III. RENEWAL.
1. Asa's pursuit of God was marked by renewal. Notice the two things verbs of verse 15:8. "He removed ...", and "He repaired... ". ILLU: Major work done on our house this month. Stabilized an end of our foundation and started renovating a bathroom. Both of these projects were extremely expensive and labor intensive. Guess who wrote the check and provided the labor?! But both projects involved 'removing' what was there. And both projects involved repairing. The old had to be removed before repairs could renew the house.
2. A life lived in pursuit of God is continually experiencing some degree of renewal. There is the removal of the detestable. The reason removing the detestable is a continual mark and not a one time event is that as we gain in our pursuit of Jesus Christ, we see more clearly the condition of other things in our lives. When we first come to Jesus Christ we understand and accept that we are sinners needing our sins washed from our lives. And the good news is that Jesus does just that! Then, while seeking God as a lifestyle, we notice that there are some things we still do or attitudes we have that are just as sinful. Listen, the closer you get to the sun, the better the light to see how things really are. ILLU: I have, fortunately, never been a curser. It has not been a habit that needed removing from my life. But cursing is not due to a lack of intelligence or vocabulary; rather it is due to the condition of one's heart. Jesus reminded the Pharisees how they condemn someone who called out to another with the term raca, which was considered a vulgarity of scorn. But He further revealed that anyone who says, "You fool!" is under the same judgment as one who spoke with vulgarity. Why? Is it the use of words that condemned the person? No, it was the anger in the heart. Now, having godly parents I never developed the habit of vulgar speech. But seeking God has brought me nearer the Light, and I see where I speak with anger when I call the driver next to me an idiot! The closer I get the more has to be removed from my life. That is a mark of pursuing God, seeking Him.
3. Repairs must be made. ILLU: The shower stall became a point of spiritual liberation for me. This day, if Jeff had his way, I would still be gluing and reattaching old broken tiles. But Mary Ann being a woman of influence prevailed. While pounding away night after night for weeks to get all of the old removed, I realized that I am doing what I am doing, not because the house needs updating. I am doing what I am doing because the house is under the same curse as the rest of the material universe and I am fighting the affects of the fall of mankind. So In was liberated in the act of depleting my lifelong savings to repair a shower stall and a foundation. I life lived in pursuit of God is marked by repairs. We all need psychological repairing when even the emotionally healthiest of humans. We all need intellectual repairing for our minds must be recalibrated to think God's way.

CONCL I:
If you think that the best way to describe your life is as one continual renovation project, then you are on spot in pursuing God! For renewal is a mark of chasing after God. God is repairing you! He is doing that right at this moment as we preach the Word of God. He is repairing you. He is removing the detestable rot of sin and repairing its affects. The most discouraging time of a renewal project is when everything is torn down and nothing is yet built back. And until we stand in the glorious presence of Jesus Christ we will be in the phase of renewal when God is remodeling, renovating, renew us by removing from our lives those things detestable to Him. And He is repairing our lives using His material. What are we but His workmanship.

Are you marked by reliance on God? Respect for His Word? Renewal?

IV. ABANDON/PASSION
V. JETTISON
VI. CELEBRATION
VII. DISCERNMENT
VIII. INVESTMENT