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May 23, 2021 08:00am

Seekers Part Three: God Seeks and Saves

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This is the third post in a series on “seekers.”

Sinners do not seek God naturally (Romans 3:10-11).
God seeks and saves sinners (Luke 19:10).
The Holy Spirit draws sinners to seek Him (John 3:8).

But that does not mean sinners are automatically converted without being evangelized. That leads to the question:

What is the Church’s Role in God’s Mission?

If unbelievers are seeking God, it’s because God has sought them and is moving in their hearts. And if the Holy Spirit is doing the work, then we do not need to lure them in with a barrage of marketing and gimmicks.

Perhaps a better way to identify genuine seekers would be to sow the pure, unadulterated gospel indiscriminately through gospel-saturated hospitality, relationships, and preaching. Those who respond to the truth of the gospel can only do so by the power of the Spirit. Those are true seekers. And the church must continue pursuing them.

We never stop spreading the gospel to everyone, and we never stop pleading with the lost to repent and place their faith in Christ. However, we must keep our eyes open for opportunities where it is evident God is working in someone’s heart. That’s what Jesus often did when He left the crowds to focus on a seeker like Zacchaeus.

But Christ is doing more than seeking mere converts. He is seeking worshipers, making disciples, and shepherding His people (John 4:23, Matthew 28:18-20). How we go about evangelizing unbelievers impacts how we make disciples and shepherd believers. Conversely, how we minister to believers impacts how we evangelize unbelievers. The “how” is just as important as the “what” and the “why.”

That’s what all of these posts about seekers are driving towards: how the church should perform its role in evangelizing unbelievers. We will dive into that question in the next post.