Seeking
From the Series—Journey
June 26, 2003This evotional begins a four-part series titled Journey: The Road to Spiritual Maturity.
Deuteronomy 1:6 says, “The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and take your journey.” Just as God called the Israelites out of the wilderness and into the Promise Land, God is calling you to “take your journey.”
We had a leadership summit last weekend and I said to all of our leaders, “None of us is where we need to be spiritually.” And the same is true of everybody reading this evotional--none of us have arrived spiritually. We’re all works in progress. A.W. Tozer said, “If we feel we are what we ought to be then we will remain what we are.” Or in the words of Henri Nouwen, “He who thinks that he is finished is finished.”
One of the things that I love about following Christ is that it never gets old. There are always new opportunities and new challenges. We can always take it to the next level. And that’s what this series of evotionals is all about. Over the course of the next four weeks we’re going to focus on four dimensions of discipleship: seeking, learning, influencing, and investing.
Investigations
The word “seek” means “to investigate.” Luke 1:3 says, “Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
In the world of criminal law, the way you arrive at a conviction is by doing a thorough investigation. The same is true in the spiritual realm. The way you arrive at spiritual convictions is via thorough investigation.
At NCC, we believe that the most important decisions ought to be the most informed decisions. You don’t buy a house without getting an inspection. You don’t hire someone without checking references. And you don’t blindly commit your life to Christ. Your most important decisions ought to be your most informed decisions and no decision is more important than “the God decision.” Luke says he “carefully investigated.”
A couple Sundays ago a teenager caught me on the way out of the theater. He served as a Congressional Page this past year and he told me that he wasn’t a Christian and he’d never been to church before coming to NCC. Some of his friends invited him and he decided to investigate. To make a long story short, he checked it out and he said that it changed his life.
Some of you subscribe to this evotional as a way of investigating what Christ and Christianity are all about. Keep seeking.
Cravings
The word “seek” means “to crave.” I’ve got to admit that I am a Chai addict. I crave Chai. And if I don’t drink Chai I get “Chai Headaches.” Some of my other cravings include Krispy Kreme donuts, Ruth Chris steak, and Chicago-style pizza.
Craving is that gut-wrenching desire. If investigating is intellectual seeking then craving is emotional seeking. You just can’t get enough to God. It’s almost like the more of God you get, the more of God you want. Seeking God satisfies and intensifies spiritual hunger. My prayer for every weekend service at NCC is that people would walk out of church fuller and hungrier at the same time.
The Pathway of Repentance
Seeking God can’t be reduced to “seven steps” or “ten principles.” There is a mystery to it. But this evotional will describe six pathways to seek God. These six pathways are really ancient spiritual disciplines. They are not ends. They are means to an end--God.
The first pathway is repentance. I’m not sure if this is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of seeking God, but let me just say it like it is: you can’t sin and seek at the same time. Repenting is seeking.
Joshua 3:5 says, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” The word “consecrate” is the Old Testament equivalent of repentance. It means “to purif,” “to dedicate,” or “to make sacred.”
Let me make a simple observation. When I’m not in right relationship with God , I have low expectations. I’m not giving God much to work with so I don’t expect much in return. If you have low expectations, here’s my diagnosis: some part of your life is unconsecrated. You need to put it on the altar. As you consecrate yourself to God, your expectations will rise until you believe God to do “amazing things.”
The Pathway of Retreating
There is a pattern to Jesus’ life and ministry: he was always retreating. Mark 1:35 says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.” Luke 6:12 says, “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” Jesus was always retreating.
In his book, A New Kind of Christian , Brian McLaren makes a great observation about spiritual growth. He says, “I look back over my years of ministry and ask what has really helped people change and deepen spiritually.” McLaren says, among other things, “retreats.” Then he says, “Odd: we try to make our spiritual formation experiences routine, and that maybe guarantees they become less effective. The more intense and the less routine the experience, the greater the impact. More spiritual formation takes place in a weekend retreat than in six months of weekly meetings.”
The weekend of July 25-27 we’ve got our annual Inward Bound Retreat. This is an opportunity to get away for a weekend and totally focus on your relationship with God and the way he has wired you. Then in August, Crossroads is going to sponsor Xtreme Week. It will be an opportunity to take spiritual disciplines to the extreme.
The Pathway of Prayer
Exodus 33:7 says, “Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting.’ Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp...then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.”
During my senior year in college I read this passage and it inspired me. I wanted to be Joshua son of Nun. I spent almost every lunch hour during my senior year praying in the balcony of our chapel. It was my tent of meeting. That’s where I would seek God. I think all of us need a “tent of meeting” --someplace we go to pray and seek God. And it needs to be “outside the camp.” In other words, it needs to be someplace you go to get away --it’s just you and God. Sacred space.
The Pathway of Fasting
I think fasting is one of those lost spiritual disciplines that needs to be rediscovered and reinvented. The Old Testament mentions a multiplicity of fasts. In II Chronicles 20, Jehosaphat fasts as a means of inquiry. In Ezra 8, Fasting is a form of humility. In Esther 4, fasting is a means of interceding. In Daniel 2, Daniel fasts for purification purposes. Jesus fasts in Luke 4 as a means of preparation. And in Acts 14, fasting is a form of comissioning.
All of that is to say this: there are lots of different types of fasts. During this Journey series I’m fasting TV. At the end of a long day it’s so easy to waste so much time in front of the TV. I’ve decided to sacrifice TV and redeem that time with spiritual pursuits.
The Pathway of Service
Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.” How do we keep our spiritual fervor? By the serving the Lord! Let me just say it like it is: if you’re not serving you’re not seeking.
The mystics talked about two paths to God: the via comtemplativa and the via activa. Contemplation is critical to your spiritual growth, but so is service. When you go on a missions trip or serve others it is life-changing. You grow closer to God because you can’t love your neighbor without loving God. In a few weeks we’ll unveil our ministry matrix --an excel spreadsheet with hundreds of ministry opportunities listed. Each ministry is not a slot to fill, but an opportunity to seek God.
The Pathway of Worship
In II Samuel 6 the ark of the Covenant returns to Jerusalem and it says, “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might.” A few years ago I had the privilege of speaking at a church in Ethiopia. I’ll never forget it. There were thousands of people packing a huge auditorium and at one point during worship everybody in the building was jumping up and down including yours truly. The Ethiopian people don’t just worship with their hearts. They also worship with their bodies. That worship service was one of the best cardiovascular workouts I’ve ever had. I felt like I had worshipped with all my might. That’s how I feel after Catacombs. I usually lose my voice because I’m singing my heart out to God.
II Samuel 6:16 says, “As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.” Then David says in verse 21, “It was before the Lord who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel-- I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.”
We need to become more God-conscious and less self-conscious in worship. Eugene Peterson says, “Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves. “ Worship is living for the audience of One. You do everything you do for the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God.”
When C.S. Lewis was asked advice on pursuing God he said he’d never had that experience. “It was the other way around; He was the hunter and I was the deer.” John 4:23 says, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” When we seek God via worship we find that God is seeking us.
Desperadoes
When Survivor first came out a few years ago I was a pretty big fan. And I remember one “immunity challenge.” The immunity challenge is designed to test the “survivors” in different ways. Sometimes it’s a test of strength or speed. Other times it’s a test of memory or intelligence. In any case, the winner of the immunity challenge is given an “immunity idol” and granted immunity at the next tribal council, which means they can’t be voted out of the tribe and off the show.
I’ll never forget one of the immunity challenges because it wasn’t a test of strength or speed or intelligence. It was a test of good old-fashioned tenacity --it was simply a question of who wanted it the most. All ten survivors stood on top of totem poles in the middle of the river. Whenever a contestant fell off or got off the pole they were disqualified. The competition lasted longer than anyone expected. Ten hours after the competition started, three competitors were still standing. They were tired. They were cold. It was dark out. Only one thing kept them up on those poles--the will to win. I knew who would win. Keith was the leading candidate for getting kicked out of the tribe. He was the target and I knew that he knew that if he didn’t win the immunity idol, he was out of the tribe and off the show. He needed it the most. And he wanted it the most. You could see the desire, the determination, the desperation.
After 10 hours and 18 minutes of pure desire, Keith was the only one left standing. He refused to lose. He wanted it more than anybody else. Call it desire. Call it determination. Call it stick-to-itiveness. Call it tenacity. Any way you slice it: desperate people take desperate measures. I love Michael Yaconelli’s definition of Spirituality. He says, “Spirituality is a good term for the place where desperation meets Jesus. “
Here’s what I’ve discovered about spiritual growth--we have to be willing to go out of our way. The path of least resistance rarely, if ever, takes us where we want to go. Are you willing to go out of your way for God?
A tax collector named Zaccheus climbed a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. A prostitute crashed a party to wash Jesus’ feet. Four friends cut a hole into someone’s ceiling so their paralytic friend could get to Jesus. They were desperate and desperate people take desperate measures.
If Jesus was looking for protocol--prim and proper people --he would have chosen the Pharisees as his disciples. But Jesus wasn’t looking for domesticated decorum. He was looking for desperate people who were willing to climb trees and crash parties and cut through ceilings to get to him. That is who God honors. That is who God blesses.
The word “desperado” has a negative connotation. Webster defines desperado as “a bold bandit.” I want to redeem the word. I think God is looking for desperadoes--people who will do whatever it takes and go to whatever lengths are necessary to be in the presence of God.