Lesson 1 – Seeking God

Study Goals:

• To communicate God’s desire to bless your student through a close, personal relationship with Him. (Key Passages: Jeremiah 29:11-14, John 10:10)
• To give hope by showing that God has arranged this time and place so that He could provide a future filled with hope. (Key Passages: Acts 17:26-27, Jeremiah 29:11)
• To make clear what seeking God with all their heart involves. (Key Passages: Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 13:44, Acts 8:26-40)

Jeremiah 29:11-14
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

NOTE: This passage was written at a time when God's people were enslaved. Israel had forsaken God in almost every way imaginable and as always they paid the price for their disobedience. Even so, God had not given up on them. They had rebelled against God, but there was (is) hope!

v.11

From verse 11 what do you think God wants your future to be like?

• (Plans to prosper, protect, a hope and a future)

Do you have a hard time believing that God wants to bless you or that He has great plans for your life? Why?

• NOTE: Ones previous behavior can make it difficult for them to believe that God still desires a relationship. Be sure to let your student know that this passage is speaking to a group of people whose behavior had been incredibly evil! Your student must understand that their rebellious or embarrassing past will not prevent God from giving them an exciting future. He is more concerned with their future than their past.

John 10:10 “A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.”

• Let the person know that Jesus came to give them a full life!

12-14

• God’s promises are always based on a premise.
• In these verses God gives promises and the premise that must be understood if the promise is to be fulfilled.

What are some of the promises that God offers in this verse?

• I will listen to you
• You will find me
• I will rescue you

What is the premise, the condition? (I will do this providing you…)

• You will find me when… you seek me with ALL your heart.

What does God mean when he asks you to “seek Him will all your heart”?

What is something that you have sought after with “all your heart”?

• NOTE: This kind of “seeking God” is rare and probably foreign to your student. Helping them understand what it means to seek God with all their heart in a practical way is difficult but essential. It is safe to assume that while they have never committed to God in this way they have committed whole heartily to athletics, education, achievement, being popular, or to a dating relationship. Use whatever “whole heart” commitment they have made to clarify their understanding of what it means to seek God with all their heart.

How could someone tell that you were “seeking” ____________ “with all your heart”?

• It was my first priority
• I thought about it all the time
• I talked about it a lot
• I hung around people who shared the same goal or interest
• I sacrificed for it
• I persisted, refusing to give up
• _______________________________________________

How does seeking in that area relate to your seeking God?

• God wants me to seek Him like I sought ______________

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

• NOTE: Jesus’ promise to take care of our daily needs is predicated on our willingness to “seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness.”

We have discussed seeking first, that is “seeking with all your heart”, but what do “his kingdom and righteousness” mean?

• To seek his kingdom means I seek his ruler-ship in my life; seeking his righteousness means I seek to do right the things he wants.
• NOTE: Allowing Jesus to control your life is an exciting, positive thing. He wants to bless you, knows how to bless you, and has the resources to bless you. Jesus can and will bless your life if you will allow him to “call the shots.” He can provide for you if you are committed to doing what he says. Remember God cannot bless that which he cannot control. This next verse discusses just how valuable Christ’s ruler-ship is in our lives.

Matthew 13:44-46
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

What did this man have to sell in order to get the field?

Why would anyone do what he did? Was it a sacrifice?

What might this man’s friends or family have thought about his radical actions?

• NOTE: This man sold everything because he knew that the treasure he had found was more valuable than all he had. In the end he comes out ahead. If he didn’t put the treasure first, he would lose the treasure! If he did not “sellout” he would have missed out. Let your student know that others may think your new found priorities are over the top simply because they don’t realize what a treasure you have found.

Acts 8:26-40
²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” ³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. ³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. ³³ In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” ³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” ^{[37] 38} And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

• NOTE: Set the stage that in this passage we see God pulling Philip the Evangelist away from a very successful Samaritan revival, one that was reaching multitudes so that he could teach one individual. Why? I believe that God had a promise to keep: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you declares the Lord.” In this passage we find an incredible example of a “with all your heart” God seeker. This man can help move your student from concepts about seeking to practical application of those concepts. Before you read the text ask the person you’re studying with to stop you when he/she notices something that shows that the Ethiopian was seeking God with “all his heart.” Many times your student will see only the very obvious, if that. Let them know that you will add any seeker traits that they might miss. This may result in this part of the study being more of a monologue than a discussion. Be sure to emphasize personal application of this section. Your student must know how to be like the first century Eunuch in this century. Remember the goal is transformation not simply information.

Four traits from this Ethiopian God seeker that you can and should imitate.

• A “whole heart” seeker of God will…

v.27

1. Sacrifice to get close to God.

• This ‘God seeker” travels over 1000 difficult miles and will not get to enter the temple courts.

(see Deuteronomy 23:1)

How could this trait show up in your life?

v.28

2. Read / Study your bible (the verses we give you) on your own.

• Not just doing it as an assignment or requirement!
• Not just relying on a teacher’s words or effort.

How could this trait show up in your life?

31-34

3. Be humble enough to ask for help.

• "How can I…” “Come help me." Great Humility.
• More interested in becoming good than looking good.

How could this trait show up in your life?

v.36

4. Quickly do whatever God wants you to do.

• Doesn’t procrastinate – He does what he knows to do, now!
• Does in spite of the potential consequences.
• Note: This man had just come from Jerusalem where he would have been taught by the leaders of his tradition that Christ was a heretic and false teacher. He would also have been fully aware of the persecution of Christians that began and was centered in Jerusalem. Making God his number one priority was more important than holding to his tradition or personal comfort.

How could this trait show up in your life?

• NOTE: The eunuch was reading from Isaiah 53 as he traveled on his long journey. One could assume that the Ethiopian continued to read from Isaiah after his encounter with Phillip and conversion to Christ. If the assumption is correct, imagine how excited and honored he must have been to discover the following text only a few pages ahead of where he had been reading:

Isaiah 56:4-5 “For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant-- 5to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.”

Acts 17:22-27
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

23-25

How could someone who was/is “very religious” not have a true relationship with God?

• By not knowing about the true God (god of our fathers = tradition)
• By not being willing to seek Him out.

26-27

What did Paul think was the reason those in the Areopagus had been given the opportunity to hear his message?

• God wanted a relationship with them & was giving the man opportunity to seek Him.
• NOTE: Paul did not think that his presence at the Athens was an accident or coincidence; he believed God arranged it!

Why do you think that we met?

• God wants a relationship with YOU & is giving YOU an opportunity to seek and find Him.

CLOSE EACH STUDY BY CALLING THE STUDENT TO A COMMITMENT AND A CHALLENGE.

• COMMITMENT: Will you commit to being a “with all your heart God seeker”?
• CHALLENGE: Set the date and time to study again. ________________?