The God Who Seeks

``But I want you to hear this, and the gospel doesn't start with our search for God. It starts with God's search for us. And if you're here this morning and not sure what you believe, this sermon matters more than you realize. Christian faith doesn't begin with you getting your life together. It begins with a god who comes looking for you. [00:04:50] (27 seconds)  #GospelBeginsWithGod

In every parable, the lost thing does nothing heroic. The movement begins with the owner or in the case of the prodigal son, the father. It always begins that way. You see, grace moves first. [00:11:58] (22 seconds)  #GraceMovesFirst

And if you're with us this morning, you feel like you are the one who's been overlooked or forgotten. Jesus is telling you that the father sees you. He knows that you're missing. And by his grace, he is calling you back home. And what happens when the one is found? What happens when the one is found? Jesus says in the parable that all of heaven rejoices when one returns. You see, heaven doesn't receive people reluctantly. We don't find all the angels, all the host of heaven's armies up there going, oh, they let that one in. Now we might say that in our broken sinful self, but heaven doesn't say that. Jesus says, all of heaven rejoices. [00:14:21] (66 seconds)  #HeavenRejoicesForOne

See, we have to have a shift in our heart to start seeing the world this way. We have to develop heaven's heart because when we think about so often the church today, I hear the term religion. Can I just say I hate religion? I have no interest in religion. I I have full devotion to Jesus Christ and wanna live this life as a Christian. I don't care about religion because religion measures crowds. Heaven measures returns. [00:15:40] (30 seconds)  #HeavenMeasuresReturns

We can pursue as an investment to give time, energy, or presence to someone else's own good. You cannot pursue what you are unwilling to eat, inconvenience yourself with. That one sting anybody? We're in a culture that wants to move fast. I got to move from point a to point b. I got to do this, got to do that. I got things to do, people to see, blah, blah, blah. You can't pursue when you feel inconvenienced. Pursuing is a compassionate persistence. It means to refuse to give up on someone even when others would. [00:18:50] (55 seconds)  #CompassionatePersistence

We can think of pursuing as a movement, to move towards someone who is not moving towards you. That's the very definition of pursue. That's exactly what the shepherd does in Luke 15 in the parable. The sheep isn't headed home. Right? The shepherd has to go after the sheep. He's pursuing them. [00:16:48] (23 seconds)  #MoveToTheLost

We can think of pursuing as alignment to care about what heaven cares about. You see, pursuit without heaven's heart simply becomes pressure. It's like something we have to do. I spoke about that last week. It's something we have to do. It's an activity and it's inconvenience. No, no, no. Pursuit with heaven's heart becomes compassion. [00:20:15] (28 seconds)  #PursuitBecomesCompassion

We pursue as intercession. We pursue someone in prayer before we pursue them in conversation. I said last week that evangelism begins on our knees, not on our feet. [00:22:21] (21 seconds)  #EvangelismStartsOnKnees