You Will Seek Me

Text: Jeremiah 29:13

I. The Prophecy:

1. How would you react if you read those words?
   1. Would you adopt a fatalistic attitude: “what difference does it make then what I do? God has already said what is going to happen, and when; I’ll just sit back and wait for it.”
      1. Perhaps a more pertinent question is: how do you read, and respond to, the prophecies and promises of God, when you come across them in Scripture?
      2. Are you moved to fatalism or enthusiasm? Do you pitch in the towel or do you pitch in to help? Do you quit working or do you redouble your efforts?
   2. When Daniel realized the implications of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and the fact that the time foretold was drawing near, he was moved to more than resignation – he was moved to action.
      1. As he journals his intensely urgent response, notice the clear correlation between the prophecies of God thru Jeremiah and the prayer of Daniel.
2. After Daniel prayed (that’s key!), the Lord responded to Daniel’s prayer by sending the angel Gabriel – who appeared to only 3 saints in history, as far as we know – to come and comfort/inform Daniel that the time was, indeed, near.
   1. Daniel is not the only faithful saint who has attached prayer to prophecy.
      1. After David heard that his kingdom and throne would be forever preserved by God, his grateful answer to this majestic prophecy included this entreaty (2 Sa 7:25).
         1. When the ascended Christ concluded His words to John with “surely I come quickly”, John eagerly rejoined, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Re 22:20).
      2. Is this how we respond to the sure proclamations of Scripture?

II. The Promise:

1. Perhaps what incited Daniel to such a passionate pursuit of his God was the recognition of the promise that was embedded in the prophecy: those who do seek God will find God.
   1. What he read in Jeremiah’s prophecy was certainly and clearly a foretelling of the events that would transpire after the Jews had endured 70 years under the Babylonian yoke – but it was also a two-fold promise to them.
2. God assures us that when we seek Him, He will be there—where He has always been—and we will find Him, not because He was hidden before, but because we never had the desire to look for Him before.
   1. Once the desire comes, the finding will follow. That’s a promise!

III. The Prize:

1. It is worth noticing – in fact, it is vital to a true appreciation – that what God promised his people, first and foremost, was more than deliverance from captivity and more than the destruction of their enemy: it was Himself.
   1. Notice the inescapable centrality of God in His own promises: you will seek me…you will find me…I will be found of you (Jer 29:13,14). The treasure at the end of the rainbow of my prophecy, God says, is me.
2. Paul apparently had an accurate appraisal of this great prize. That is why he unhesitatingly affirms that to him, everything else is considered loss/nothing, if he could but “win Christ” (Php 3:8).
   1. Not strength, not happiness, not health or wealth – Christ!
   2. Is that the way that you perceive the promises of God? Is that what encourages you the most, whets your appetite the best, strengthens you for the test?
      1. In all the promises of joy, of love, of mercy, and even of heaven, do you allow the ultimate prize to be obscured?
         1. Do you realize that God has, above all else, promised you God?
3. I hope I never forget the evening when, sitting on my couch the year I graduated from college, God lifted the scales from my eyes that had so long been confusing my estimation of His promises.
   1. Until that night the various gifts of peace/forgiveness/wisdom/etc. had alternated as my chief spiritual goals, depending on the need or circumstance of the moment.
   2. Then I came across Ps 37:4, and read its promise for the first time without filtering it thru my preconceived ideas of what makes for the “best blessings”: Delight yourself also in the Lord, And he will give you the desires of your heart.
      1. Did you catch that? The promise is there, big as the sun; but do you see it? The promise is that, when you make the Lord your chief delight, He will give you Himself (the desire of your heart)!
         1. He is the prize, He is the promise. Everything else, all the other graces, are simply the overflow, the inevitable result of having the fountain gushing in your heart.