Well, let's take our Bibles, if we have them, and turn to the Gospel of John, if you would, in the 12th chapter. John chapter 12. Did you know that for the last 3,500 years, Jewish people have been observing the Sabbath, the Passover Sabbath? Ever since the time of Moses, going back to Moses for 3,500 years, the people of God, the chosen race, if you will, have been observing this thing called the Passover. And Jesus Christ, being a Jew, had done it his whole life. From the time he was a baby, his parents had brought him to the temple there in Jerusalem. They'd observed the Passover together. But now we find the Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem at the temple, and it will be his final Passover. And folks, He won't be there to observe this bleeding lamb, but he will be there to be that lamb, to be that sacrificial lamb. We are days away from that, leading up to that. And we find that Christ has raised Lazarus from the dead in the previous chapter, and now he's made this triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The Jewish people think, this is it, this is our Messiah, time to crown him king. But that's not why he was on the earth the first time. He came the first time to suffer and to bleed and to die. And they miss that. But here they are trying to crown him a king, thinking, you know, anybody who can raise somebody from the dead, that must be our Messiah. And he can deal with the Romans. He can throw off that yoke of Rome. But they're disappointed in why Christ has come. And we saw that last time. We pick it up now in John chapter 12, beginning in verse number 17. It says, the people, therefore, that was with him, what he called Lazarus, out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bear record. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after him. there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philip which was of Bethesda of Galilee and desired him saying, sir we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Now, backing up to verse 21, there's a famous verse here, at least the last half of this verse. Many, many sermons have been preached on this expression, and it's when these Greeks came and they said these words, Sir, we would see Jesus. Sir, we want to see Jesus. You know, I think it'd be a great way to start out the new year with talking about us all having that heart's desire to see Jesus, wouldn't it? And so today we're going to be talking about seeking for Jesus. Let's pray before we begin. Father, we thank you now for this time in your house. Father, we pray that you'd speak to our hearts. I pray that you would prime us for the year ahead and challenge us to make this a year where we really, really seek the Lord. Father, I just pray now all this in his precious name, amen. I think most of us have at least seen or heard of the comedian Jim Carrey. Several years ago, he was being awarded his second Golden Globe Award. And of course, you've seen these Oscars and these awards, and they get up there, and it's a star-studded audience, and all the celebrities are there, and Jim Carrey had just won his second Golden Globe Award. And he got up, he received it, he looked out at the people, and he said, tonight, somebody's going to go to bed and get some shut-eye, Me, he said, but it won't be just old Jim Carrey. It'll be Jim Carrey, two-time Golden Globe Award winner. And he said, while I'm sleeping, he said, I'll be dreaming. And he said, it won't be just any old guy dreaming. It'll be Jim Carrey, who's a two-time Golden Globe Award winner, dreaming of winning his third Golden Globe Award. At that point, everybody laughed. And then he said something after that and he said it would finally be true and I could stop this terrible search for what I know ultimately won't fulfill me." I want you to stop and think about that, because at that point, that star-studded audience kind of chuckled nervously, because he had hit a nerve amongst all of them. In fact, he had gotten to the heart of where they all felt. And his point was, I could win a third one, but he said, I know it won't ultimately fulfill me. And they knew that too, because folks, the things of this world won't fulfill us. And you could reach the very top of the entertainment industry and appear on the silver screen and make $20 million a flick, but it would not fulfill you. and the rock artists aren't fulfilled, and the billionaires aren't fulfilled, and this sex-saturated society in which we live is not fulfilled, they're missing something, and they know it. You know that Jim Carrey has been really searching, spiritually searching. He's tried Buddhism, he's tried Hinduism, he's tried all those religions, mostly Eastern religions, and he's also tried Christianity, and you know what he said? He said, but there was something different about the Christian faith, something I couldn't find anywhere else, and that was Jesus. That was Jesus. Now, I don't know where he's at spiritually, to tell you the truth. I know he's searching, and he's wondering, and he's opening up here, but what he is talking about is something that everybody needs to consider in this life, and that is seeking for Christ, because we live in a society that is neglecting God. We live in a society that thinks it's weird to talk about God. You just leave God out of the picture, don't go overboard with that stuff. It's weird, and so they hide in the shadows, and I know what I'm talking about, folks, because that was me at one time. There was a time when you didn't talk about God during the week. You saved that for Sunday mornings. But there came a time in my life when I started to search, and I started to seek, and I wanted to know. And may I say to you that seeking Jesus Christ is the most noble pursuit that you can seek in life of all things. You know, I think it'd be a blessing at the beginning of the year to talk about seeking Jesus this year, and if you look at the back corners of our wall, and you see it throughout our facilities here, our new motto for the year is, Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. And it just happens as we're talking about this series in the Gospel of John that we come across this passage, and here's these Greek fellas, and they come to the Feast of the Passover, And they say, we want to see Jesus. Sir, we would see Jesus. We want to see Jesus. That is the most noble pursuit that you can undertake in life. Here's our motto for the year. Our verse is Jeremiah 29, 13. It says, and ye shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. Now, we find God talking here, and He's given to us one of 7,500 promises in the Bible, and it's true. He says, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. I want to challenge us all in this coming year to seek God, not half-heartedly, not three-fourths heartedly, but with all your heart. Because there are a lot of pursuits in life. There are a lot of people pursuing money and things and jobs and titles and degrees. They're seeking fulfillment and entertainment and music and sex and all kinds of things that will not fulfill. God says, if you'll really seek me with all your heart, you'll find me. And we want to talk about that as we talk about seeking for Jesus. Now, we see in our passage here, first of all, what I call a powerful testimony. And if you'll look at verse 17, the Bible says the people, therefore, that was with him, when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead, bear record. It mentions here the people with him. Christ always, I believe, had this entourage of people following him, and can you blame him? I mean, he's raising the dead, he's feeding people, he's preaching amazing things, and so there's these people that were with him, but these people were actually there in Bethany, just a couple of miles away, when Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, and they remembered that. Now, who was Lazarus? Well, Lazarus was one of three siblings. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. It appears they weren't married, but they stayed together, and they were probably prominent people there in the village of Bethany. And so Lazarus dies, and Christ, after four days, raises him from the dead. And there were some people who saw that. And verse 17 says they bear record of that. Now, what's it mean to bear record? Well, bear record means you testify of that. You tell the story. And those words, bear record, we find them actually together five times in the Bible. In John 1, we find the same writer, John. And he's talking about John the Baptist. He says, and John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove at the baptism of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist says, it was amazing that the Spirit of God fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ like this dove. And John bear record of that. And John the Apostle writes about it. And in his very last book of the Bible, John writes this in Revelation 1-2, John bear record of the Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, notice, and of all the things he saw. So to bear record of something, it's talking about what we saw, telling people what we experienced, and testifying of that. And folks, that's our calling as Christian people. If we've experienced a new birth, if we've been born again, as Christ called it, we are to bear record of that and testify of that. That is good news, and God wants this good news proclaimed. The word gospel means good news, and God wants us to tell folks out there this good news. We read in Revelation 14, 6, it mentions the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation of and people. This is good news that people need to hear in every people group and in every nation out there around the world. What is this good news? The good news is that you can know for sure you're going to heaven when you die. The good news is you can have the salvation that changes your life. The good news is that this is a salvation that you can never lose. Once you've been born again, you can't be unborn spiritually. Have you been born again? Have you been saved? Have you been converted, as it's called in the Bible? You say, what's that all about? Well, it's not this osmosis where you just generally kind of slowly get better and improve and become a better person. It's a conversion. It's when you realize you're lost, on the road to hell, unable to save yourself, a sinner in need of a savior. And in that condition, you change your mind about your sin. You realize those sins are an offense to God. And it's called repentance in the Bible. And in faith, you turn and you place all your trust in what Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross to save you, plus nothing, minus nothing. All your faith must be in that blood that he shed, that sacrifice that he made for you. Not your baptism, not your church membership, not your good works, but that sacrifice of Christ on the cross of Calvary. Because if you could work your way to heaven, why did Jesus Christ have to go through all of that? And so you place your faith in Christ and the Bible calls it being born again. That is the good news. That is what the whole world needs to hear. And we have a great God who graciously offers eternal life freely. We read in Isaiah 45, he says, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God. It is God's desire that you are saved, that you go to heaven when you die, that you spend eternity with him. That is God's desire. But that is a gospel that needs to be taken to people. And God works through believers. And if you have been born again, as I have been born again, we have this wonderful privilege to take this good news to people, to explain the gospel to people. In Luke 24, Just before Christ went back to heaven, He said that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations. All nations. So the world needs to hear this message. The world needs to hear this gospel. We need to bear record of this. We need to testify of this. If you've ever been in court, you know that it's a hearing, basically, where you have somebody accused of something, and you have some witnesses that are credible, and they say, well, this is what we saw. Here is a firsthand account. Well, if you've been born again, you have a firsthand account of what you experienced, what you went through when you were born again. I remember The day after I was saved back in March of 1981, I didn't know where all the verses in the Bible were, but I knew how I'd been saved, how I'd been born again. And I worked with this guy the next day named Jack, and all day long I was trying to tell him what happened to me. That's called a testimony. I was giving him my testimony. Until finally, about the middle of the afternoon, he says, Kevin, I've heard enough. But do you have a testimony? And are you trying to tell people how to be saved, how to go to heaven when you die? What has happened to you? You say, well, I don't know those verses either. Well, you know, the Apostle Paul knew all the verses, had it memorized. But I find him in the book of Acts giving his testimony over and over again of how he was saved. If you've been saved, you have a testimony. Share that testimony with people because that's God's method. You know, angels have not been saved. Angels cannot bear witness, they cannot testify, well this is how I was born again. They have nothing to testify because they have never been saved, they never needed to be saved. But you needed to be saved, I needed to be saved, and with salvation we now have a testimony. You know that for nearly 21 years I didn't have anything to tell people? And so I never told people anything. Oh, I went to church every Sunday. I had a religion. I believed in the Trinity and the virgin birth and a lot of orthodox things spiritually, but I had never been born again. And so there was not one time I tried to tell somebody, well, you need what I've got, because I didn't have anything. But boy, after I got something, and you know what I'm talking about, if you've been saved, you should want others to know about this. And for the past 43 years plus, I've tried to encourage people. This is what God requires of us. This is how to be born again. And I want to encourage all of us today to take this new year and take our testimony to a lost world outside of these four walls and tell them the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Psalm 107, let the redeemed of the Lord Say so. Say so. Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. from the hand of the devil. And so we find these folks bearing record. We see the powerful testimony. Verse 18 says, for this cause, the people also met him for that they had heard that he had done this miracle. They heard about the raising of Lazarus. It was a catalyst. It was all they needed to seek the truth. And folks, there are some lost folks out there. All they need is something. God needs something to work with, maybe a track, maybe an invitation to church, maybe just a word from the Bible, whatever it might be. Let's have a powerful testimony this year, shall we? We see the powerful testimony, but secondly, we see the prevailing truth. In verse 19, It says, the Pharisees therefore said among themselves, perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after him. Now the conversation goes from just the regular folks talking about Christ there in the temple to some kind of a meeting with just the Pharisees. This is just the religious clan now, the elders if you will. And in verse 19, they're chiding each other. The Pharisees therefore said, notice, among themselves, perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. In other words, guys, you don't get it. We're evaporating. We're shrinking. We're losing our following. We're prevailing nothing. The whole world is going after Him. And we find here they cannot stop the message of Christ from going forward. It's a prevailing truth. You know, I've been to the ocean a number of times, and I've stood on the seashore there as the waves are coming in, and I've thought of that expression, trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. You ever thought about that? What do we talk about? He's trying to hold back the ocean with a broom, meaning you might as well forget it. You're never going to hold back the ocean with a broom. It's a losing cause. Folks, there are some things out there that are unstoppable. They're unstoppable. You know, there's a lot of anti-Semitism in the world right now, a lot of people against the Jewish people. Ironically, even in our nation, protesting and holding rallies and so on, it's unbelievable. But the Jewish nation has been around since the time of Abraham and will be around until Christ comes back. It's unstoppable. And there are those like the Hitlers who've tried to annihilate the Jewish people. You can't. They will prevail. There are some things that will prevail. You know, Christianity cannot be stamped out. And there have been the Nero's who have tried to do that, tried to put the Christians to death, fed them to the lions and the Colosseum and all that, and it's a lost cause. It's like trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. You are not going to stop the cause of Christ. You are not going to stop the New Testament Church, a church like this. You know that our Lord promised perpetuity, that means perpetualness, if you will, this ongoing existence to the New Testament Church until He comes back. And throughout the ages there have been those who have tried to stamp out the New Testament church. But Jesus said in Matthew 16, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not, what, prevail against it. There's our word again. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Well, the Pharisees had a dilemma. They were trying to get rid of Christ, trying to stamp out his message. And finally, in verse 19, the Pharisees therefore said among themselves, perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after him. This is a lost cause. And folks, trying to stop the message of Christ is a lost cause. You cannot stop it. In fact, there was a wiser elder Pharisee, if you will, by the name of Gamal. And after Christ had gone back to heaven, the same crowd, the Pharisees, were threatening the apostles, saying, we don't want you preaching in this name anymore. And they were beating them and threatening them and throwing them in jail. And finally, they had their little secret kind of a clandestine meeting in there. And this elder Gamal is there talking to the crowd. And he's speaking of Christianity. And he says, if it be of God, You cannot overthrow it, lest happily you be found even to fight against God. He says, fellas, you're trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. You shall not prevail against it. And that's thrilling to my heart, because you know what that tells me? It tells me that ultimately we are on the winning side. Now, we might be losing some battles here and there, I get it. But the ultimate war belongs to God, and we cannot lose because You cannot fight God and win. You cannot fight God and win. Ask Jacob. I find a fellow back in the Old Testament by the name of Jacob, and he's wrestling with God. Now, Jacob had been a schemer and a surplanter and kind of crooked, and so one night, he spends wrestling with the Lord Jesus Christ. And by morning, he's not winning. He's not gonna win. And finally, Christ reaches out, he touches the thigh of Jacob, and all of a sudden, he's crippled for life. You can't fight against God and win, I'll guarantee you that. And if there is somebody here, as we start a new year out, and there's some issue right now you're wrestling with God about, may I say to you, you cannot fight with God and win. You might as well hoist that white flag. You can ask Jonah. Jonah fought against God and he lost. You know, there comes, I call them holy moments. Holy moments when you're wrestling with God about something and you finally give up and you go, okay, uncle, that's it. You know, I remember my call to preach. I remember resisting God at first, digging a little bit, but it was a quick battle. And pretty soon I put up the, hoisted the white flag and I realized, you're not gonna win. You're not gonna win. It's foolish to grapple with God. because he's stronger than you. Here's the Pharisees, and they're fighting with God, and they say, you know what? We're not prevailing. You guys, we're prevailing nothing. And it's true, because God will prevail. Truth will prevail. By the way, you can't destroy truth. That's what the Pharisees were trying to do. They were trying to gag the truth here, and you're just not going to do that. You cannot win. Now, the devil is a liar, and he's a deceiver, and he's deceived the masses, but I'm telling you, one day he will be not only exposed, but he will be punished, and through it all, the truth will prevail. The truth will prevail. Now, Jesus said this in John 14, 6, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me." So we find a connection here, a vital connection between Christ and truth. He says, I am the truth. And so here's the Pharisees in verse 9, trying to get rid of Christ, trying to get rid of the truth. And all they're doing now at this point is lashing out against each other, saying, don't you get it? Don't you get it? The whole world's gone after him. We're nothing now. that's because the truth will always prevail. In John chapter 8 and verse 32, Jesus said, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. You shall know the truth and and the truth shall make you free. So you can't fight with God and win. It just doesn't happen. There was a French writer years ago back in the 1700s by the name of Voltaire, who was an atheist. And he was doing everything he could to poo-poo the Bible and debunk Christianity and get rid of the gospel. He at one time held up a Bible. He said, within 25 years, I'll have this book lodged in a morgue. Well, within 25 years, Voltaire was dead, lodged in a morgue. The Geneva Bible Society bought the house and the print shop and the printing press of Voltaire and used him to print and distribute Bibles all over Europe. And it's like God having the last laugh. You will not win if you fight God. I think of Saul of Tarsus. Saul was doing everything he could to stamp out Christianity. And finally, he realized it's a lost cause and he switched teams. And I love that. By the way, there was a time in my life when I resisted truth. And when I realized it's a lost cause, I switched teams, if you will. These Pharisees would spend decades trying to stamp out Christianity, and it would not work. We read in Acts 19, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed, because it always will. Truth, God, Christianity, the New Testament church, will always prevail. We've seen the powerful testimony. We've seen the prevailing truth. And finally, we wanna get to our subject of what I call pursuing tenacity. What is tenacity? Tenacity speaks of a determination, a determination, an unction. You just, you gotta do this. And we read about it in verse 20 and 21. The Bible says, and there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast, that's the Passover, the same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsidia of Galilee, and desired him saying, Sir, Sir, we would see Jesus. Sir, we want to see Jesus. Sir, can we see Jesus? What a contrast this is. What a contrast between the Pharisees who are saying, how can we get rid of him? To these folks who are saying, we want to see him. Now, the rejection of the Pharisees, that was foretold. Back in Hosea, you find it. You find it also in Isaiah. And so it's a given these Pharisees would reject. Jesus Christ when he comes to this earth. But here we find the contrast to it, and you wonder why did John put this in his gospel? Here's a gospel probably written 50 plus years after the time of Christ, and you find here that John mentions something that nobody else mentioned, and it's on the heels of these Pharisees who are having this meeting, grumbling about what we're going to do with Jesus. He wants to show us here, I believe, that there's a interest with the Gentiles. That's the Greeks, non-Jews, if you will. There's Gentile interest here. At the same time, there's Pharisee rejection here. Folks, that has always been that way. There are some who say yes to the truth, some who say yes to Christ, and then there are always some who say no. We have a lot of folks here today, you've said yes to the truth. We may have some folks here today that are stiffening up saying, I don't believe any of this. I believe you get baptized, you do good works, and you join a church, and when you die, your good will outweigh your bad, and God will let you into heaven. And so there's always those who embrace the truth, those who reject the truth. And it's put this way in 2 Corinthians 2, to the one, Paul says we are the savor of death unto death. They reject the truth. To the other, the savor of life or the odor of life unto life. I have said many times that the same sun that melts wax hardens clay. Why is it that this wax can sit under this sunlight and it melts and at the same time this clay sits out in the sun and it hardens? What a picture of the human heart. Well, here's these Greeks, and they're looking for the Son of God. They've come a long ways. They're at this Passover, and they're kind of outsiders here. They're not Jews. They are Greeks, maybe part Jew, I don't know. But I do know this, they have one desire. They have one desire, and that is to seek Christ, to find Christ. What about you? If you'd have been there that day, would you have been amongst that group or the Pharisees? Would you have been hardening your heart or softening your heart saying, I want to know the Lord. I want to seek Him. Imagine having the one who created all the seas on the earth. the one on the earth who created all the creatures inside the sea, the one who created all the mountains and all the lakes, the one who created the stars, yea, the whole universe is walking the earth. He's there in Jerusalem. He's walking the Temple Mount. It's Passover time and he's on the earth. Wouldn't you want to meet him? Wouldn't you want to see him? And we find these Greeks and they say, sir, we want to see Jesus. And they had the right desire. That is the right desire. And that's a famous line. I love that line. Has that ever become the greatest goal of your life? To find Jesus Christ. Nothing else really mattered but finding God, if you will. You know, I mentioned a celebrity a moment ago. There was another celebrity by the name of George Harrison, who lived years ago. And those of you who would go back to the baby-booming generation, like myself, would remember the Beatles, the four mop-top lads from Liverpool. And you even know their names, and you recognize their lead guitarist, George Harrison, who sadly died some years ago of cancer. And after George Harrison died, Ann Curry of the Today Show was interviewing a close friend of George Harrison and asking some things about Harrison. And the man said, well, he's very spiritual. Of all the forebears, he was definitely the most spiritual. And so he's trying to find God. And the friend of George Harrison said that Harrison had said this, everything else in life can wait but the search for God. Everything else in life can wait, but the search for God. Sadly, he was searching in Eastern religion and mysticism and new ageism and all those kinds of things, but he did recognize this, everything else in life can wait, but the search for God. You know, I grew up and I saw the importance of getting an education, and so that was my world. I was into sports, playing some sports. I was doing stuff on the side, auto body work and carpentry, making stuff. And I followed the hit music parade all along. I followed what was on television, knew all the characters, the movies, all of the worldly stuff. I wanted to make money. I was into all that stuff. And when I was about 15 years of age, there was an electrician who helped my dad wire a small project of his. I helped him out, and I said, you know, that's what I want to do. So I made up my mind, I'm going to go to a state college, I'm going to learn to be an electrician, and then I'm going to start my own business shortly afterwards and be self-employed. I had it all mapped out. And when I was age 20, somebody witnessed to me for the first time. And of course, I dug in. I stiff-armed it, I refused it, and I thought, I'm fine, I'm good, I go to church, and I did. I went to church every single Sunday, but this person was relentless, they just wouldn't quit. They were giving me literature and things to read from the Bible and Bible verses, and eventually it started to eat at me, and I had to figure this thing out, and so all the other things I was living for faded. or at least were fading. And I kind of went on a spiritual pilgrimage, if you will, to find God and to wrap my mind around this stuff because it was beginning to consume me. I mean, I was spending my lunch hours knocking on the doors of churches around town, trying to talk to a minister and find out what the truth is. And it finally came to a head in the early spring of 1981. And I knocked on the door of this Baptist preacher, and in so many words said, sir, I want to see Jesus. I want to see Jesus. How are you born again? What's this all about? I don't know if you've ever had a time like that, where you made it the priority of your life to find God. I heard about a lottery winner of the state lottery in Kentucky. And his name was Mark Perdue, and he won the lottery. And he got this call from this convenience store owner, and he said, congratulations, Mark, you won the lottery. And Mark goes, oh, I wish. He said, no, you did. I got it on camera. You have the winning ticket. Mark said, I got the winning ticket. It was worth over $50,000. And so he starts looking for it, and he cannot find it. It's not in his wallet. It's not in his pocket. It's not on his dresser. It's not in his car. He begins, what would you do? $50,000. Wouldn't you turn everything upside down to find this? Well, he finally found it. It took him weeks, but he found it. And I thought, you know, if people would search for God the way we would search for a lost $50,000 lottery ticket, I wonder how many more people would find him. Remember our motto for this year? God says, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Have you ever done that? We find examples in the Bible. I find a really sweet, sincere man in Acts chapter 8. He's Ethiopian, he's from Africa, and he comes up to Jerusalem trying to seek the one true God. All he sees there are the Pharisees and their ceremonies and their rituals and their deadness, and he goes back as dead as he went. But on the way, God sends the truth to him. An evangelist by the name of Philip brings the gospel to him, and he's born again. I am talking about a journey of faith. Now, where does this begin? Well, how do you get faith? We're told in Romans 10, 17, so faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. What are you doing right now? Right now, you are hearing the Word of God. This is God's method, God's age-old method of preaching, hearing the Word of God. In a solid New Testament church, if you're seeking truth, If you're seeking faith, I want to challenge you with this new year to get into a New Testament church and seek the truth. And don't go to the one closest to you. Go to the one that's closest to the truth. That's where you want to be attending church, a solid biblical church. It's that important. It's a vital connection. You know, in Psalm 27, The psalmist said, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. You get under the sound of biblical preaching. God will do something to your heart, the house of the Lord. I read in 1 Chronicles 29, David said, I have set my affection to the house of my God. I have prepared for the holy house. If faith comes by hearing the word of God and the word of God is preached in the New Testament church so that you can hear it and receive that faith and come to the knowledge of God, then church is a vital connection. important part. Jesus actually said this, it's quoting him in the Old Testament, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. And so may I encourage you to ask God to enlarge your heart for the New Testament Church, the importance of the church. Psalm 84 to the psalmist said, my soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of of the Lord. This year, make that a priority. Make that a priority, lost or saved. We live in a world of people who are looking for joy, they're looking for peace, they're looking for purpose, but they're looking in all the wrong places. And honestly, Jim Carrey was honest enough to say, it's not here, it's not here. People try entertainment, they try sex, they try all kinds of things. You know, the American dream, so-called, has a lot of young people, especially, seeking fulfillment in money and all the trimmings that go with it. You know that Andrew Carnegie said that millionaires who laugh are rare. My experience is that wealth is apt to take the smile away. Isn't that odd? Isn't that odd? But it's true. There are a number who found it does not fulfill. Let me say this about riches. They're unstable anyway. The Bible calls them uncertain riches. Did you know that in October of 1929, the stock market crashed? One week before that happened, one week before that happened, There was a professor at Yale by the name of Irvin Fisher who said this, stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. Oh, didn't that sound encouraging? But it didn't come to pass. The bottom fell out in less than a week. Seek the Lord, seek the Lord. In Proverbs 8, God says, I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. These Greeks had the right goal. These Gentiles had the right goal. I hope you have the right goal in this coming year. I hope this is your consuming passion, the thing that energizes you. You want to get closer to God. The reason you get up in the morning is to get closer to God. Paul put it this way, that I may know him. Well, Paul knew him in salvation, but he said, I want to know him better after salvation. You know that Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God. and his righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. and his righteousness. All the rest of it is just stuff. All the rest of it just weighs you down. I read something this last week about Alexander the Great, that Greek commander. He conquered the world at age 33. And they were marching on Persia. They'd been winning battle after battle. And along the way, they'd been spoiling the enemy as far as taking booty and loot and treasure and all that stuff. They were walking slower and slower and slower because that stuff was weighing them down. Can you imagine that? They had all this treasure here, all this spoil. But there came a critical moment when Alexander the Great recognized what it was doing to his men. And he said, fellas, bring all that stuff here and let's make this huge pile. And they had this huge bonfire. His men were furious. because all that spoil had been burned up, and then they realized the wisdom of their leader, and that it would keep them from winning the ultimate war. May I say a Christian should be wise enough to realize there's something that outweighs all that stuff that this world has to offer. And there might come a critical moment for you when you say, you know what? God's all that matters. And He is. He's all that matters. You know, we talk about the wise men from the East coming to seek the Lord. What made them wise? They were seeking the Lord. They were seeking the Lord. And by the way, they didn't come seeking because it was convenient. It would have been more convenient for the wise men to stay home, just watch that star. Oh, that's nice. But they uprooted everything to come and find Jesus Christ. In Deuteronomy 4 and verse 29, God says, but if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. What is the most important thing you can do in the long run? It's to know God, to know God. Nothing else really matters. I heard something this last week about the gold rush at Klondike and there were some prospectors who had gone up there and found this old cabin and they were seeking gold and they went in the cabin and they found these two skeletons, two men. sitting at tables there with all this gold around them, and a note explaining what had happened. What had happened is those two prospectors had been mining for gold. They hit this rich vein, and they're hauling out all this gold. They knew winter was coming, but they said, man, we've hit it rich. Let's just do another day of digging, another day of digging. Every day, they saw the clouds getting worse and the snow about to come, and they pushed and they pushed, and they didn't get out of there. And one morning, they woke up to a horrible blizzard. And they were socked in. They were snowed in. They couldn't get out. And they only had so much food. And they realized the inevitable was going to happen. They could not get back to civilization now. It was too late. There they were in that cabin with all that gold. And they wrote this death note explaining what had happened. And that's why the other prospectors came upon the skeletons there. Let me just say this. Don't glory in gold. Don't glory in gold. I read this in Psalm 105, glory ye in his holy name, let the heart of them rejoice that seek. the Lord, first in salvation. If you've never been born again, get on that spiritual pilgrimage, get that settled. And if you have been born again, make it your greatest pursuit in this coming year to get closer to God, closer to God. You know, we talk about David being a man after God's own heart. What's that mean? It means he's always seeking the Lord. Well, I close with this verse that he wrote. In Psalm 42, 1, he said, as the heart, that is the deer, panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. We have some Greeks and They want to see Jesus. Here's the Pharisees who say, we want to get rid of him. And oh, you see the contrast here. As these Greeks show up and they seek out Andrew, they seek out Philip, and they say, sirs, we would see Jesus. We want to see Jesus. What about us? Is that the desire of our heart, to see Christ? You've been listening to Pastor Tony Skeving of the Fargo Baptist Church in Fargo, North Dakota. If you would like a CD of today's message, you can obtain one by sending a gift of $2 to Fargo Baptist Church, 3303 23rd Avenue South, Fargo, North Dakota, 58103. That address again, Fargo Baptist Church, 3303 23rd Avenue South Fargo, North Dakota 58103. We hope you'll join Pastor Skeving next time right here on Pulpit Power. Pulpit Power is a production of Heaven 88.7.