Are you seeking a SIGN or the SAVIOR?
[0:00] Mark chapter 8, verses 11 and 12. If you got it, say amen.
[0:12] Amen. It says this, Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Jesus, seeking from Him a sign from heaven testing Him.
[0:27] But He sighed deeply in His Spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign?
[0:40] Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank You for Your presence.
[0:54] I thank You for Your Spirit that is in this sanctuary this morning. I thank You, God, that You are more than able.
[1:07] I thank You that it's not over. It's not finished. It's not ending. It's only the beginning. There is nothing that You cannot do.
[1:20] And God, when we get to the end of ourselves, we get to the beginning of You. I thank You for Your strength, God, that Your strength is made perfect in our weakness.
[1:31] I thank You, God, that You're healing and mending and fixing those things that are broken in the hearts of Your people. Lord, I pray that every heart would be open.
[1:44] Every mind would be attentive for Your Word, for Your Spirit to speak to us this morning. Have Your way in us. Have Your way through us.
[1:55] It's in Jesus' name we pray. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. Let me read that piece of Scripture one more time. Mark chapter 8, 11 and 12.
[2:06] It says, Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Jesus, seeking from Him what?
[2:17] A sign from heaven testing Him. I want to tell you that you can ask for the right thing for the wrong reason. Seeking from Him a sign from heaven testing Him.
[2:32] But He sighed deeply in His Spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign?
[2:43] I feel that this is the same question that Jesus is asking to His church today. Why does this generation seek a sign?
[2:54] We even have a thing where people will ask you nowadays, What's your sign? What's your zodiac? Pisces, cancer. They ask me, What's my sign?
[3:05] I'm just saved. I'm born again. That's my sign. We live in a day where we seek signs in the moon and in the stars instead of the creator of the moon and the stars.
[3:18] We want to see what God can do, but we don't want to see Him. We want what He can do more than we want Him.
[3:28] Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, No sign shall be given to this generation. Mark chapter 16, verses 17 through 18.
[3:43] Mark 16, verses 17 through 18. Jesus said this, And these signs, We're going to flip the script here, And these signs will follow those who believe.
[4:07] In my name they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up serpents. And if they drink anything deadly, It will by no means hurt them.
[4:22] They will lay hands on the sick, And they will recover. These signs will follow those that believe.
[4:32] These signs will follow those that believe. We treat our walk with God Like Jesus follows those Who follows miracles, Signs, And wonders.
[4:49] We think that if we will seek after the miracles, And the signs, And the wonders, That Jesus will follow us. That His hand will be on us. But I believe that we should flip That mindset and that belief.
[5:03] Because the Bible says That the miracles and the signs And the wonders Will follow those that follow Him. And if you will follow Him, There are some things that will follow you.
[5:17] So I want to ask you the question this morning, Are you seeking a sign? Or are you seeking the Savior? Are you seeking after signs?
[5:29] Or are you seeking after the Savior? If you seek after signs, You will miss the Savior. But if you can get to a place Where you are caught up in seeking the Savior, The signs will follow.
[5:46] Because these signs will follow those that believe. And many Christians today, They want the benefits of a relationship with God.
[6:00] But they don't want to spend time with God. They want the signs that come along With a relationship with Jesus.
[6:12] But they don't like to spend time In the secret place Come Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. They want the benefits that come along with Jesus.
[6:23] But I'm not so sure that they really want Jesus Himself. I'm not so sure that they really are interested In crucifying the flesh And walking in the Spirit.
[6:35] They just want the blessings that come along with Jesus. They want the signs more than they want the Savior. But if you'll seek the Savior, The signs will be a byproduct.
[6:50] I want to tell you this morning, At the end of Psalm chapter 23, The psalm that everybody knows, The end of it says this, That goodness and mercy Shall follow me All the days of my life.
[7:09] And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We love this verse. It preaches good. Surely goodness and mercy Shall follow me all the days of my life.
[7:21] But if you go back to the beginning Of that same chapter, It says that the Lord is my shepherd. So goodness and mercy only follows me When I follow the shepherd.
[7:34] You can't get it out of order. You can't quote the last part of the chapter And not quote the first part of the chapter. You've got to make Him your shepherd If goodness and mercy are going to follow you All the days of your life.
[7:51] The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. We love the promises that we find in scriptures. But we forget that many times The promises have prerequisites.
[8:08] I said the promises have prerequisites. We talk about how God will keep you in perfect peace. But the scripture doesn't stop there. That's the promise. The prerequisite is that you keep your mind stayed on Him.
[8:21] God will keep you in perfect peace If you keep your mind stayed on Him. You can't fill your mind with junk And with garbage And expect to walk in peace Which surpasses all understanding.
[8:34] I understand that the promises of God Are yes and amen. But there are some prerequisites That you will have to apply On your part If you're going to walk in The promises.
[8:46] There's prerequisites. There's prerequisites to this thing. The things of God In your life The things of God Will not follow you Until you follow the God of the things.
[9:02] The things of God won't follow you Until you follow the God of the things. The favor of God Won't follow you Until you follow the God of favor.
[9:17] The blessings of God won't follow you Until you follow the God of the blessings. The increase of God Won't follow you Until you follow the God of the increase.
[9:29] We cannot be more caught up In what God can do for you Than we are in who He is. We've got to get caught up In His presence.
[9:41] We've got to get caught up In who He is. Not what He can do. We can't just go to Him When we need something. Doesn't it bother you When you have a friend Who only comes to you When they need something?
[9:57] It doesn't feel like Really that much of a friendship. I can't help but think That God gets frustrated When His children Only come to Him When they need something.
[10:10] The most meaningful time That you will ever have In the presence of God Is when you come to Him Just to be with Him. Not because you need something.
[10:20] Not to present your requests And make them known. Although that's important. But if you can get to a place Where you just get alone with God Just to be with Him. You'll step into a place That you've never stepped into before.
[10:32] But you've got to get to a place Where you want Him More than you want What He can do For you. There's a scripture That we love to quote.
[10:46] Psalm chapter 37 Verse 4. If you'll go there in your Bible. Psalm 37 verse 4. We quote this scripture a lot Where we say God will give you the desires Of your heart.
[11:05] And we leave it at that. We take it out of context. But if we would put it back In its proper context The meaning of it would change. Yes, God will give you The desires of your heart But there's a prerequisite.
[11:19] The first part of the verse says Delight yourself also in the Lord. And He will give you The desires of your heart.
[11:30] Delight yourself in the Lord. And then He will give you The desires of your heart. He won't give you The desires of your heart If your desires Don't line up with His desires.
[11:44] He doesn't give you The desires of your heart If what you desire Is contrary to what He desires. It is only when your heart Gets in alignment with His heart That He will give you The desires of your heart.
[12:00] Because your heart Can desire some wicked things. Your heart can desire Some sinful things. So it is only when your heart And your desires Come into alignment with His That He gives you The desires of your heart.
[12:17] So what I'm trying to say To you this morning Is that what you pursue Determines what pursues you.
[12:29] What you follow Determines what follows you. If you follow the shepherd Goodness and mercy Will follow you.
[12:44] If you follow Jesus These signs will follow you. Don't seek after the signs More than you seek after The Savior. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 6 Verse 33 But seek first The kingdom of God And His righteousness And all these things Shall be added To you.
[13:14] Seek first the kingdom of God And His righteousness And all the things Will be added To you. We get more caught up In seeking after the things And we miss God.
[13:30] But if we would seek first The kingdom of God And His righteousness All of the things Would be added As an automatic byproduct.
[13:42] And we get stressed out And we get caught up And we waste a lot of time In prayer Praying about things. Praying about what God Can do for us.
[13:53] Praying about what He provides. He said if you'll seek me first If you'll seek my kingdom My righteousness I'll take care of All of your needs. It says that all of your needs Are met.
[14:05] You don't have a need In Christ Jesus. But if you will seek after Him He'll take care of What's on your mind. We have to keep the main thing The main thing.
[14:18] We've got to keep Seeking after Him. We've got to become people After God's own heart. We've got to keep the main thing The main thing.
[14:32] I want to tell you That there are Two aspects Of your relationship with God. Two aspects Of your relationship with God.
[14:44] Number one Essence And number two Elements. There is the essence Of your relationship with God And then there are elements Of your relationship With God.
[15:03] The essence Of a thriving relationship With God Is a heart That pursues Him. And without the heart That pursues Him There is no thriving relationship With God.
[15:23] So the essence Of a thriving relationship with God Is the heart That pursues Him. And a lot of us Are living off of elements Of our relationship with God But we don't have the essence Of a thriving relationship with God Which is the heart That pursues Him.
[15:46] There is nothing wrong With listening To sermons And podcasts. But you can't live Off of sermons And podcasts Because those are only An element Of your relationship With God.
[16:01] I understand that it can be helpful Because faith comes by hearing And hearing by the word of God But it's only an element Of your relationship With God And you need more than that.
[16:13] There are some things That you can't learn about God In a sermon. There are some places In God That you can't go By just going to a church service.
[16:27] And I believe That we should be Attending church service Because the Bible says Not to forsake The assembling of ourselves Together But there are some places In God That you cannot go In a church service.
[16:41] Why? Because it's only an element Of your relationship With God. There are some things That a preacher Can't teach you. There are some things About God That a pastor Can't teach you.
[16:52] I believe in preachers. I believe in pastors. But there are some things That they can't teach you About your relationship With God. Why? Because those are elements Of your relationship With God.
[17:06] And you can't live Off of elements. You can't live Off of elements. I want to tell you Something that I learned From Hurricane Helene.
[17:22] After the storm Came through It filled our yard With leaves And limbs. Filled our yard With leaves And limbs.
[17:35] So what I did To clean up the yard Is I took all the leaves And all the limbs And put them In a big pile Right beside Our fire pit Outside. Put it in a big pile And what I did To attempt to get rid Of that big pile Is I had a bunch of fires And slowly but surely I would throw the leaves And the limbs Into the fire And try to get rid Of that big pile Little by little And just for a moment If you can do this for me Imagine This is what I feel like The Lord gave me During that time Just for a moment Imagine that the leaves Are symbolic Or representative Of your Sunday morning experience The leaves represent Your Sunday morning experience At church And for a moment Imagine that the limbs Are representative of Your daily walk With the Lord
[18:36] Your daily time With God Monday through Saturday The leaves are your Sunday morning The limbs are your Monday through Saturday time With God I noticed That the leaves Could start the fire But only the limbs Could keep the fire Burning I noticed That the leaves Would burn big They would burn bright And they would burn quick But they wouldn't burn good And they wouldn't burn long I noticed that the limbs Took longer To catch flame But once they caught flame It took a while To put it out And what I noticed Is this I want you to get this What I noticed
[19:38] And this is the scarier part If you put too many leaves And not enough limbs All you would get Is a smoldering smoke And we've got a lot of Christians Who've put too many leaves And not enough limbs And all they're doing Is blowing smoke Because they look the part And they act the part But come Monday Y'all ain't helping me preach today Come Monday through Saturday They're not living intimately With the Lord They've got a form of godliness But they deny the power thereof Come on Y'all put your hands together And give Jesus praise In this place Leaves and limbs Leaves are not bad They can help the fire
[20:38] But they can't sustain the fire I said they can help the fire But they can't sustain the fire And we have too many Christians Who try to live Off of a Sunday morning experience And I believe That there is something That you can't tap into Outside of this gathering I believe that I believe that there is a such thing As a corporate anointing But what I'm saying Is that you can't live Monday through Saturday Off of this You can't seek God One day a week If there's an enemy After you Seven days a week You can't just try to walk In the spirit One day a week If there's an enemy Tempting you Monday through Saturday As well Away with the days Of Sunday to Sunday Christianity May we become a people That are after his heart Monday through Saturday I heard somebody say this The other day We think That we should come to church
[21:40] Empty And leave full We should come to church Full And leave empty But you can't come to church Full And leave empty If you don't get full Monday through Saturday Can you imagine The experiences That we would have In this sanctuary If we would spend time With God Monday through Saturday Can you imagine What we would walk into The miracles That would take place The wonders That would take place The signs That we would see If we would get with God In our prayer closet And then come in Can you imagine What we would walk into And what we would see And what we would experience But we would have to keep The main thing The main thing I am going to read One more scripture Then I am done Mark chapter 8 Verse 34 Mark chapter 8 Verse 34
[22:41] This is what The word of the Lord says When Jesus Had called The people To himself And I love that Because there is many times In the gospels Where Jesus will call them To himself Before he sends them out God is not sending you out Unless he has first Called you to himself We had called the people When he had called the people To himself With his disciples also He said to them Whoever desires To come after me Let him deny himself Take up his cross And follow me Deny himself If you desire to come after Jesus Deny yourself
[23:42] Take up your cross And follow Him If you'll bow your heads Close your eyes Just for a moment If you're in here Today And You realize that you're after The things of God More than you're after The God of the things If you realize that You've wanted what he can provide More than you've wanted him This is an opportunity This morning To make it right With him To repent For coming to him Only when you need something I pray that God Would make us a people That desire him On Monday And Tuesday And Wednesday And Thursday And all throughout the week And not just on Sunday morning That we wouldn't come into The house of God And put on a front
[24:43] Like we've been good all week Like we've been where we need to be With God all week Where we come in And we say I'm blessed and highly favored And God's been good But we've not been walking with God Where we say And talk about how much God loves us But we forget how much We need to love him back I pray that God Would make us people After his own heart That we would understand That there are some promises Of God That we absolutely believe in And adore But there are also Some prerequisites That we must apply If we're going to see Goodness And mercy Follow us All the days Of our life I pray that we would Seek first The kingdom of God And his righteousness So that all the other things Can be added
[25:44] I pray that we would Set our minds on him So that he could keep us In perfect peace That peace of God Which surpasses All understanding purpose of art Absolutely Now we have to But the first thing That didn't sign It was One thing Whichbaaro code Will in perfect peace And for us Come to dico Money Because