God Rewards Those Who Seek Him

The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6. If there is one theme, one “anchor” statement in this Congregation, and perhaps a common motivation that inspired us to come here—something we may all have in common at one level or another, and this is what we are going to explore—it is that here we believe, above all, that God exists, that He is, and that He is a rewarder, that He rewards those who seek Him.

It is a text many of us know by heart from the Reina-Valera: “But without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” In another version, the New International Version, it reads this way—I use it because of the grammar, and perhaps it will clarify certain issues in that verse: “In fact,” says the International Version, “without faith it is impossible to please God, since anyone who comes to God”—anyone, anyone without exception—“the one who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

The purpose of this message today, my brothers and sisters, is not to establish whether or not God exists—not because I am afraid of that, and not because I have forty, forty minutes left to develop it—but there are and have been great apologetic writers and preachers who have addressed the subject of God’s existence very effectively, and I recommend them. Sean Lewis wrote a famous book, “Mere Christianity,” which I recommend to everyone; also Josh McDowell, in the seventies and eighties, “Evidence That Demands a Verdict”; Robby Zacharias—read him, look him up; Lee Strobel and his book “The Case for Christ.” In fact, it was made into a movie that is now on Amazon, okay? If you are going to watch a movie on Amazon Prime, watch that one. Invite your friends, because this movie is worth watching.

So today’s purpose is not to determine whether God exists, but to consider why it matters whether we believe God exists or not, why it matters whether we seek God or stop seeking Him. I confess to you—and this comes from someone trained in argument and logic—that I am convinced that we cannot truly prove through intellectual and logical arguments alone whether God exists or has ceased to exist, at least not to those determined to deny His existence; let me make that clear.

If someone is—as I have seen from experience, and as you may have seen among your relatives or out in the streets—a rock of doubt and resistance to the Word of God, I believe penetrating that wall requires weapons more powerful than mere logical arguments. What we are talking about now is translogical; it is transintellectual; it goes far beyond the human mind.

I mean, look, for example, at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, which we also know very well: “Now,” this text says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Now, the person who knows, who believes that God exists and has devoted himself to seeking Him, reads that and says, “Amen!” He understands it perfectly well. The I Wanna children understand that verse perfectly well. But read it with a mind completely darkened to faith, a purely logical mind, and if you read Hebrews 11:1 using only the lenses of logic, it makes no sense. Speaking purely logically, this is what such a person sees; the person who limits himself to logic sees this, okay.

If something is merely hoped for, then supposedly there is no certainty that you will receive it. Logical: if it is hoped for, there is no certainty. Pastor: if something is not seen—and the Word here invites us to believe, meaning it is something imperceptible, something that cannot be measured, weighed, or counted—then there is no conviction; that is, there is no evidence. What evidence do you have? You cannot count it, you cannot measure it; it is not logical. In fact, that verse is a bundle of inherent contradictions, and that is as far as the thinker, the person limited to logic, gets.

It may not be logical, but despite the lack of logic, listen to me, multitudes of us in the United States continue to say that God exists. Those determined to deny His existence cannot conceive how there are still people who are certain that God exists and, beyond that, that He rewards those who devote themselves to seeking Him.

In fact, in its September issue, the respected magazine The Atlantic Monthly published an article titled “How America Lost Its Mind,” and I picked it up at the airport in Nashville because I was interested in learning how America had lost its mind. It is very interesting, and part of the author’s argument is: Well, Samuel, America lost its mind partly because of you and those crazy people at Lion of Judah who continue believing in a God and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Translating that portion of the article, he writes: “Two-thirds of Americans still believe that angels and demons remain active in the world.” Wow, they know us, they know us. “And more than half are convinced that heaven exists”—and that same number, apparently the people who came today—“and that same number say they are certain of the existence of a personal God: not a force, an immaterial spirit, or a power, but some guy, a person with whom we can converse.” I love it. Guilty, guilty. There is nothing new about creation denying the existence of its Creator.

The writer of Psalm 14, David, I believe, says, “The fool says in his heart”—what does he say?—“There is no God.” The apostle Paul, who was highly effective in argument, a man with an extraordinarily developed mind, tells the Corinthians: We will never explain the Power of God or the Gospel to you through arguments. He writes to them and says, “For the Word of God is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved—that is, to us—it is the Power of God.” At its most basic level, this Word of God can be reduced to these two truths found in Hebrews 11:6. These two truths are the DNA of faith. God lives: first, He exists; and second, He rewards those who seek Him. God exists and rewards those who seek Him.

If you came today, or if you have tuned in to our website, I have good news for you. Even if this is your first time here, if you got up this morning and said, “Goodness, things aren’t going very well for me. I’m going to church; I’ll see how it goes,” by saying that you are saying, “God exists,” because why did you come? It is a joke in our family: Why did you come, then?

God exists and rewards those who seek Him. And you might say, “But Pastor Samuel, that would never occur to me; I have never said those words.” Yet perhaps you have spoken these words in a moment of desperation, in a moment of crisis. And if you find yourself in such a moment today, do not feel bad. You will see: that may be precisely the best thing that could have happened in your life.

And it is the reason God is dealing with you. Perhaps you have not said, “God exists.” Perhaps you have not said, “He rewards those who seek Him.” But perhaps at some point you have said, “God, help me. My God, please, help me.” And by saying that, you have already declared this. By saying that, you said, “He exists. God, Elohim, God. He rewards those who seek Him. Help me.” There, within that word “God,” is contained the declaration “He exists.” By saying “help me,” this is contained within it: “Perhaps He rewards those who seek Him—perhaps even me.”

And here you are, perhaps shedding tears in the Presence of an invisible God, embracing and being embraced by a God whom you neither see nor are supposed to feel—yet you felt something. You conversed with someone. There is someone you are seeking today.

And our purpose today, our purpose as a Church, the goal of this message, is for you to recognize the little seed of faith that is already within you. Recognize it; develop it consistently, consciously, and intentionally.

As the apostle declared in one of his key verses: “Fan into flame the gift of God that is already within you.” That little flame—fan it into flame. He exists. What does this mean? He rewards those who seek Him. What does that mean?

It means, at the very least, that God is a being. He is a Person, and His existence—He exists, right?—if that is so, His existence does not depend on our opinion of Him, or even on whether we know Him or cease to know Him.

You can explain to the officer who stopped you for running the red light, “I don’t believe you exist. In fact, I doubt that any of this is real,” and the officer will write the ticket anyway and go on his way. Then you can explain to the judge that he does not exist either (laughter). That which exists does not need your opinion of it in order to exist; it already exists. In other words, God is not an idea. God is not an idea you can mold to suit your taste or convenience, or exchange for other ideas, mixing in your own ideas by adding this here and leaving that over there.

It is important to do that with ideas; that is how we grow, that is how we develop our minds. But you do not do that with a person. If He is a person, you don’t do that. In other words, God is not an idea. One develops and exchanges ideas, but understanding a person requires us to get to know Him, communicate with Him, enter into a relationship with Him, and seek His friendship.

What do you do to get to know a person? Right? Isn’t it logical? You know, like any person, God has His own personality. He has a divine personality, and God made sure that we could discover His personality through the Word, through the Bible. And if you want to know God, the key questions are these: Who is He? What is He like? As with any other person, those are the questions that must be asked in order to know His divine personality, because there are things God loves and there are things God detests. There are things that drive Him away, things He considers abominable, and there are others.

Did you hear the first twenty minutes of this message? Okay (laughs). There are things He loves, glory to God; there are things God detests; there are things that drive Him away, which He considers abominable; and there are things He finds irresistible. A contrite and humbled heart He will never reject. He is addicted to that.

If God exists, get to know Him, get to know Him. Study His Word, what God has said about Himself. Learn about Him from Him. Enroll in a discipleship class. Surround yourself with others who, like you, are seeking to know God better.

You know, the Reina-Valera version translates Hebrews 11:6 literally from the original, and I love it. “It is necessary,” it says there, “that He is.” Do you see that? Now, it sounds a little strange because we do not use that grammar in modern speech. What it is actually saying is that one must believe that He is—translated, that He exists. Translated that way, it makes much more sense in modern grammar; but to the Hebrew ear—and this letter was written to the Hebrews—the Hebrew ear would recognize “He is” as an objective reflection of the declaration, “I am, I am.”

The lips of God say, “I am”; the Word of God says, “He is”; and you say, “God, what are You like?” Ask Him, and He will tell you: “I am a jealous God; you shall worship no other god but Me.” “I am the good shepherd; I lay down My life for My sheep.” “I am,” Jesus said, “the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me”—God exists and rewards those who seek Him—“whoever believes in Me will never thirst.”

Jesus declares to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life.” “I am.” “Whoever believes in Me”—you persist; your reward is what you seek—“whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and everyone who believes in Me”—you persist; your reward is what you seek—“will never die.” And He ends with this question to Martha, and this question to you: “Do you believe this?” Glory to God.

And as worshipers, God loves for us to address Him in the second person, as we did today. The Word says, “He is”; His lips say, “I am”; and the worshiper says, “You are, You are without equal! You are worthy, You are powerful, You are my answer, You are God without rival!” He loves to hear that from you! He is a person. Who does not love to hear that? That is worship; that is praise. And with that, you are already taking the first steps toward becoming a seeker of God, someone who seeks God. What does that mean?

It means that it is worth investing our time, our energy, our everything in drawing near to God, seeking His side, opening ourselves to Him, winning His heart. It is worth it. “We believe” means believing that somehow our lives will be blessed by seeking God and drawing near to Him. This is seeking God in its essence.

Let us say that we separate those two ideas, if that were possible: He exists; He rewards the one who seeks Him. Separate them for just a moment and keep merely “God exists.” What do you have? You do not have much. A faith capable of transforming us requires more than passively believing in God or passively believing that God exists.

Out in the streets there were very many hearts receptive to the Gospel, but also many people who already have their answer. They see someone with a Bible and already have their automatic response: “I believe in God. I believe God exists.”

I love the way James puts it. It would have been difficult to bring James along for personal evangelism because of what he might have said to these people in the street. James might have told them, “Oh! You believe God exists? Oh, how lovely, how lovely, yes! Even the demons believe—and tremble! Great, big deal!” You know?

What demons are not capable of doing is seeking God; what they are not capable of doing is longing for God. The word the author of Hebrews uses here does not refer to some passive, halfhearted kind of search, if you will, but to a serious, diligent, wholehearted search. In fact, it is the same word used to translate Amos 5:4 into Greek; you know that verse: “The Lord says: Seek Me and you will live.” It is seeking God as though your life depended on finding Him. And what does that mean, Pastor? What does it mean to seek Him like that?

For this, we have to look at the biblical trajectory and learn from those who learned to seek God in this way. That is the purpose of Hebrews chapter 11: a catalog of lost and imperfect people, sinners who have an encounter with a sovereign and holy God and have enough faith for God to turn that person into an Enoch, a Noah, a Rahab, a Moses. That is it: let us learn from these saints.

Seeking Him is the woman with a certain reputation in her city who barged into the gathering at the home of Simon the Pharisee, who had actually received Jesus with a lukewarm, proper greeting: Welcome, Rabbi, we have a place for you; would you prefer white or red wine? Perhaps a little cheese? Thank you; will you excuse me while I greet the other guests? Make yourself at home.

By contrast, this woman enters the house: Where is Jesus? Where is He? Show me your invitation. Get out of my way. Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus? Where are they keeping Him? This woman sees Jesus with all her—and before they could throw her out of there, she dives headlong at Jesus’ feet, grabs His feet, begins washing the mud from Jesus’ feet with her tears, and dries them with her hair, pouring out her heart there, melting away her chains, and receiving grace from Jesus. And instead of rebuking her, Jesus says to Simon, more or less in these words: Simon, this is how you seek God; this is how you greet Him; this is how it is done. Do you understand?

Seeking Him is the woman with the flow of blood, who lost everything seeking healing and, with no more options, no other remedy, no more answers, desperately pushes her way through the crowd—and again! What is it with this woman throwing herself at His feet? Boom! She hurls herself at Jesus’ feet, struggling just to touch the tallit, His garment, knowing that this was enough.

Seeking Him is blind Bartimaeus, who, upon hearing that Jesus was passing near him, shouted at the top of his lungs: Jesus, son of Levi, over here, have mercy on—Young man, you are making a scene. Why do they tell him that? Jesus! Jesus! He had a personal audience with Jesus and was healed—healed!—because he knew.

Perhaps for you, perhaps for many here, seeking God like this is not something that comes naturally to us, is it? What do these people have in common? The woman at Simon’s gathering, the woman with the flow of blood, Bartimaeus—they were desperate; they were desperate. Sometimes this God who loves us, who loves us, allows circumstances that inspire us to seek Him, that drive us to seek Him. An invisible God who loves us imposes His existence upon us out of love, and if you are here going through this, I embrace you, I welcome you, I even congratulate you.

In those moments, God is shaking our world and showing us how fragile we really are: what we feel when we see buildings tremble in Mexico and be reduced to dust; what we feel when we see wind and water sweep across entire islands, leaving thousands and millions without power, without shelter, without anything. In those moments, it is no longer all the same to us whether God exists or does not exist. In those moments—a negative diagnosis at the clinic, a note your wife left informing you that she has gone and is taking the children, a job you are about to lose—in that moment, we desperately need God to exist; in that moment, we desperately need to seek Him.

That search often begins with this simple exclamation: God, my God, help me; my God, help me. Know this: the moment that exclamation left your lips, God inclined His ear to you. The Lord already—what is more, the Lord has been waiting for you, and now the spiritual rules—Satan loses authority. Now the machinery of heaven is set in motion: Find him for Me; bring Me that Bartimaeus; bring Me the woman who has just kissed My feet. I want an audience with her. Instead of rejecting you, God is drawing you near, and that I do know; that I do know. I invite the musicians to accompany me as I finish here with a testimony that may put all this theology into context.

One night in February 1989, Pastor Samuel learned what it meant to seek God under these circumstances. Just so you know, I come from a good family. Of course, I was raised in a Christian home, knowing the fear of God, unquestionably believing in God, even serving God, but still treating God as an idea, I admit—using Him, molding Him to suit my tastes and convenience. And suddenly, at the age of 25, I found what was then my life shattered to pieces, taking refuge in my grandmother’s apartment in the neighborhood in New York. She went to be with the Lord only about six months after that moment, and she took me in with nothing but the little bag containing what remained of my belongings.

Psalm 139 declares: “If I made my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.” The Lord brought that verse to mind: Here I am, Lord; I am in Sheol. He was there with me when I no longer had anyone else. He was there, seeking me, waiting for me. That night I knelt beside the little bed my aunt and cousin had prepared for me. That night Samuel Acevedo learned to seek Him.

My prayer went something like this: God, You win. I am nothing special, but if You want this life—what remains of it—I give it to You. At least what remains of it. You are my only option, my only hope. My life depends on Your existing and rewarding those who seek You, not because I deserve You, God, but because You are who You are.

At that moment, it was as though scales instantly fell from my eyes. At that moment, I began to see my life clearly. It was as though I were in a dark tunnel and suddenly someone turned on the light, and suddenly, for the first time, I was able to look at my life with a sound mind.

It was the light of Christ that had visited me; it was the hand of God upon me. I was incapable of seeing the value of my life or what was going to happen after that night. Never, brother, never can you conceive of what God has in mind for you; you have no idea, trust me. When the Word says “reward,” we are talking about winning the lottery. We are not talking about a little fix-up; we are talking about a life you cannot imagine.

That night—I had never visited Boston in my life—that night God had already seen Boston; that night God had already seen Lion of Judah, which was not even called Lion of Judah yet; God had already seen Marina; God had already seen the career; God had already seen the ministry. And that night began a journey of, “My God, help me,” which brought me to September 24, 2017—today—but it began in that moment of desperation when I learned to seek Him.

You know? Ever since then, I love it, and perhaps now you know why Samuel is the way he is. I love it—look—when the enemy says to me: Can your God deliver you from this? Can your God, Samuel? Are you kidding me? You have no clue who my God is; you have no idea. (Applause.)

He rewards. Believe Him, believe Him, believe Him. He rewards those who seek Him; He rewards those who cry out to Him. On that, I am willing to stake my neck, and I promise you it is so. Let us close our eyes for a moment.

This entire message, I admit, may be considered one long altar call. It is not a call to convert to a religion; it is a call to live for the first time in your life—to live as one ought to live, to live as a human being who knows his Creator, to live knowing the God who opens prison doors, to live knowing the God who raises the dead and brings them back to life, to live knowing the God who takes madmen—madmen—puts our minds back together, and makes us kings and priests.