Everett Henes: Everyone seeks

Everyone is a seeker. If you are young, you are seeking to make your way in this world. If you are single, you might be seeking a spouse. If you lose something, you seek it. We seek until we find what we are looking for, and then we seek again. The Bible describes this as man’s quest. We are seekers by nature. One of the wisest men who ever lived, Solomon, declared that God has put eternity into man’s heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

The Apostle Paul, speaking to a group of philosophers, proclaimed that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27) But because God made man in his own image, this says something about God himself. God is a seeker. This is why Jesus came from heaven to earth, “to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

It goes further than that though. This seeking in God is what he has been working from the beginning of time. Jesus says it this way in John 4:23-24, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth, for the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The word that Jesus uses for "seek" here carries with it several nuances. The primary meaning is to seek or search for something earnestly or diligently. It implies a conscious effort to find or obtain something. God is not merely meandering through the days, in hopes that he might come upon those who will worship him. He is seeking. Beyond mere searching, the word can also convey a sense of desire or longing for something. It suggests a heartfelt yearning or craving for a particular object or goal. This speaks to the focus of the search.

In a broader sense, the word can signify the act of pursuing or striving after something with determination and persistence. It implies a committed effort to attain a desired outcome or objective. In the opening chapters of Genesis, God made Adam and Eve. They were in full communion with God before sin entered the world. When sin entered they had to be cast out. Nothing unholy can dwell in the presence of a holy God. God drove them out. That wasn’t the end of the story. God promised to redeem a people for himself. Solomon declares that God seeks what has been driven away. (Ecclesiastes 3:15)

What does all of this have to do with anything? The point is that it is everything! God is the seeker, and he is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. This should be the goal of every biblically faithful church, to gather people together to worship God, to be in communion with him. We gather to sing praises to God, to offer up our prayers, to commune with God, and to hear his word.

Sadly, a spirit of the world has long ago crept into the church, especially in the area of worship. Worship is not centered on God, but on man’s likes and dislikes. It is not asked, “What will please the one we worship?” but, rather, “What will bring in the most people? What will bring in the most profit?” It is no wonder that so many churches turn to entertainment in their music and message. The simple singing of praises to God is replaced with a band that performs. The songs themselves are reduced in theological beauty and the Psalms are neglected altogether. The preaching of the Word is replaced with self-help talks that give only a nod to the scriptures.

The situation may seem dire, but it is not new. CH Spurgeon wrote over 100 years ago, “The devil has seldom done a more clever thing, than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them.” What is needed is a recovery of faithful worship, according to the word of God. God seeks and is pleased with such seeker-sensitive worship. We just need to remember that he is the Seeker.

— Pastor Everett Henes, the pastor of the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, can be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Everett Henes: Everyone seeks