GOD IS LOOKING FOR WORSHIPPERS

One of my teacher’s teachers Walter Beuttler back in the late 50s wrote an outstanding article that talked about from God’s perspective the difference between noise and worship. Last month the Banner from Pinecrest Bible Training Center, in Salisbury, NY republished it. As I read the article I was struck when he said, “I regret that in our day there is so much religious entertainment. The Lord is not looking for entertainers, He is looking for worshippers.” Wow if in his day there was an abundance of Christian entertainment I wonder what he would think of today. His article, “Dew on the Roses,” ( I also have the cassette tape) talks about a little town in Gras, France where they grow flowers and process 100,000s and 100,000s of flowers to make genuine perfume, not the synthetic concoctions from chemicals, but the real genuine perfume. Did you know it takes 9,000 rosebuds to make 16 ounces of essence of roses? And once the flowers opens, some of the perfume evaporates, so they harvest the buds very early in the morning. These buds get crushed and boiled and then the perfume is extracted. The higher the altitude in which the roses grow, the greater the yield of perfume. Is that not a great thought? Thus the perfume from higher altitudes are more expensive, so too in our wondrous walk with the Lord. The longer we go with God the deeper we are to go; which is down not up like with the roses. Remember, the way up is down. Yet the cost and price for the fragrant of the Lord, like with the roses, is very expensive and will cost us dearly if we desire to have the genuine Spirit. The essence of perfume; how few people know of the sacrifice and hard work needed to collect and process it, but many greatly want to buy it to smell good. Many then and many more today are willing to settle for the synthetic concoctions as they make their approach to the Lord with their emotions and through a mental assent. They are not willing to go through the crushing and boiling process of the Lord. They are not willing to pay the great price to receive the genuine Spirit. Walter Beuttler made the observation and I very much agree, “there is a great difference between mere noise and worship.” Noise is what we see on stage in most churches today. Words and musical notes that come out NOT from a brokenness and crushing by God, but out from a God-given talent and ability. Now one would say, Dave how can you say this, well my friend it is easy to see and feel the genuine Spirit of God bearing witness in our spirit. Did you know there is a big difference between a broken person and a gifted person? No where is this difference highlighted any more than when a man takes up the things of God to minister life. And yes, there is a big difference between noise and worship. True worship from the heart never leads to defeat in God. Victory is the place God desires for us (we must see and believe this), but this too depends on our ability to walk in the way He has for us to go and are we willing to come down in our hearts and allow Him to work in our lives? In 1 Samuel we see noise does not do much for the children of God. I think in most churches of today there is a lot of look at me noise and God sticks His fingers in His ears until we are done. If the music program, no matter how good it sounds, of a church causes relationship problems among the people how can God be glorified? Unless our words come from a broken and lowly heart they are noise to God. Here in 1 Samuel we read, “So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. 6And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp. 7And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. 8Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 9Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight. 10And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. 11And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.” (1 Samuel 4:4-11) Even the Philistines where not moved by the Israelites’ worship, and why? Please notice the going up in their hearts of the Israelites or the presumption (presuming to think they were right, but in reality they were wrong) they were moving in because God (the Ark of Covenant) was with them. Unless we have the right heart condition God will not be with us. You can ask Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas, and the 30,000 footmen who were slain. My friend do not be deceived by this doctrinal anti-Christ teaching of today like; just reach out in song, dance, whatever, and touch the heart of God. Oh no my friend, we touch the heart of God when we willfully (better us than God bending our knee) lower ourselves in our thinking and willfulness. Now let us please contrast this very sad story with one in 2 Chronicles. “And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; 13That whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14And they sware unto the LORD with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. 15And all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the LORD gave them rest round about.” (2 Chronicles 15:12-15) “True” worship in God will separate those who do not have a “true” heart for God and will always be seen in their lack to be able to give honor where honor is due and in their lack of integrity in their lives. It was not the instruments or shouts that moved God, but it was their desire to seek God in an oath and their swearing with their whole heart, and then God was found. Often times we are not willing to go down to the levels of our heart to worship God, but are satisfied (and think God is satisfied too) with the singing, shouting, and playing of instruments. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. God has told us time and time again in His word He is not after the words from our mouth, “Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:” (Isaiah 29:13) Jesus taught, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9) When will we learn God is after our heart obedience and willfulness to do what He wants us to do?

There is a striking similarity, to be a "true" worshipper of God, that parallels our need to be broken and contrite and us worshipping God. We seem to link our talents and abilities with worship, but God does not care how good we sing, dance, or play an instrument, but He is very concerned “how” we treat our friends and even our enemies. Real worship before God is not a matter of tearfully singing softly or instruments effecting our emotions, but of our brokenness and having a heart that is contrite before God. Watchman Nee said, “the broken alone are useful to God,” the more I see myself not being that broken vessel (even though I so desire) I believe his words with all my heart. Moses learned this lesson 40 years on the plains of Midian and the back side of the desert watching his father-in-law’s (Jethro) sheep in silence and solitude and then learned it again as he led His Father’s sheep 40 years in the wilderness. With each accusing word and accusation he worshipped the Lord. With each goaded misunderstanding and wrongful criticism he worshipped, the One who could save him. I too have recently relearned this again. This seems to be one of those lessons we really never ever learn, but through them all we become a better worshipper. If you serve God long enough He will see to it you learn this lesson too. In Exodus we find Moses interceding for the children of Israel, “And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.” (Exodus 34:5-9) Here we see “true” worship (Strong’s #7812, to bow down, prostrate oneself ) has nothing to do with singing, dancing, flag waving, or any of this foolishness, but bowing down our heads (our thoughts, dreams, hopes, plans, our self, all we desire) before God. You cannot really worship God unless you have been broken by God. And He alone gets to pick the sacrifices. David too knew the key to “true” worship was being broken and contrite before God. He tells us in the Psalms, “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite (crushed and ground to powder) spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) and “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51:17) I wonder where he learned this? Maybe when Nathan stood before him and said, “you are the man” “True” worship brings us before God as we are and not what we think we are, but it strips away our selfishness and self-centered heart condition.

I really like the end of Walter Beuttler’s article. “Oh His presence! Do you smell it? How much nicer when you just sit in that quietness and worship God. That’s the real thing. By the way, when you walk through the town of Gras, you can smell the town before you get near it. And after you come out of those factories, the scent of that perfume stays on your clothes many hours. People can tell, I know where you were. You were down in the scent factory, weren’t you?” “True” worship stays with us all of our lives. What is on our clothes? Written by David Stahl