THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF OUR CHURCH AGE

One of the greatest tragedies of the modern Church age is a widespread belief that all the glitz and glamour of our lights, big screen TVs, cameras and smoke machines actually enhances the worship of our Lord, rather than distracts from it, and distracts from Him. There is a belief that hype, comfort and a feeding of the body will make the spirit within us more in love with Jesus. No one needs to admit to it to see this, because the evidence of it is flooding the Church at the moment. More and more, Churches believe they are actually serving Him by spending massive amounts of money on those things that ARE NOT NEEDED. Let me say it again in case you missed it. MOST OF THOSE THINGS THAT ARE USED BY THE CHURCH NOW ARE NOT NEEDED AT ALL. What saves men? What sustains and encourages their worship? What reveals Christ to them? What if, tomorrow morning, all those things the Church now uses in order to 'enhance' the worship and following of Christ, DISAPPEAR because they are lost from the Church? The Bible says that riches are fleeting, so one day all of the things above may go. The Bible says to expect persecution in this life. So what happens if those things are taken away by men that hate Christ? Is Christ still enough for His people? Is the Spirit still enough for His people to ignite their hearts and open their eyes? If Christ and the Spirit are enough, why do we buy luxury things on mass and believe that we do a spiritual service for the worship of God?

How deceived we've become! How little we know of our own weak nature and that fallen part of us that enjoys becoming distracted from Christ! If we worship because of the feeding of the natural body, and the excitement of our senses, how short will our following of Jesus be! When Jesus ceased to feed the multitude with what they really wanted- a feeding of their natural hunger, how few remained! When famine comes, what shall remain of our gatherings and of our places of worship when those desires aren't met! When persecution breaks out, how much will our pretty buildings help our souls in that day! Do we know for sure what our hearts are trusting in? Do we know what we've fallen in love with? What will come of our adoration of men and their personalities! When we are faced with poverty, where will the false teachers run? Where will turn to get those things we treasure so highly? When we are faced with lack, where will the prosperity doctrines go? On what foundation shall the piles of merchandise leave us? What value is really in those things we hold in such high esteem? Do we realise that a worship that involves Jesus, plus our idea of what worship should look like and how it should be conducted is IDOLATRY?

In the Old Testament, rather than give His people an image of Himself, our Lord gave them the sound of His voice. This was done for a very specific reason, and if we miss this lesson, we endanger ourselves greatly. He did it so that we wouldn't begin to IMAGE HIM in a way that was LIKE US AND OUR NATURAL DESIRES. God knew just how apt HIS PEOPLE were to begin imagining that God was like themselves and like the natural things around them. God also knew that the most important thing for His people was to HEAR HIS VOICE:

Duet 4v10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”
v12...You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
v15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape..

Even on the mountain in the New Testament, just before the cross, when Jesus was on top of the mountain, God spoke to James and Peter and said, "THIS IS MY SON WHOM I LOVE, HEAR HIM." God wanted them to focus on hearing Him, and hearing His voice. For this we need to train our ears to hear that voice, not to hear the noise of natural things and natural phenomena! God speaks THROUGH MEN. God uses men BY HIS SPIRIT. God speaks in a still small voice. He doesn't speak in the blaring wind to raise our emotions, neither does He reside in the earthquake to move us, He doesn't use the whirlwind to overcome all our senses and to disturb our minds from peace, and he doesn't use the fire of sight to hype up His awesome presence. And if you doubt any of that, JUST ASK ELIJAH (1 Kings 19v11-13), who God spoke to in a STILL, SMALL VOICE. This was to teach us that God speaks to us in the secret place of our hearts, and that He is jealous for our full and undivided attention.

The great tragedy of our modern day is that most of the Church now believes that we must now build great and pretty buildings and adopt many loves of the world's methods in order to worship Christ and be effective ambassadors for Him. Despite all the evidence to the contrary in His Word, we still believe, whether we admit it or not, that God needs OUR HELP, and OUR WISDOM to build HIS CHURCH, even when He said, NOT BY MIGHT, NOR BY POWER, BUT BY MY SPIRIT SAITH THE LORD. The bricks are His Word, the cement is the Holy Spirit, the workmen have their instructions from the words of His mouth, and all our fed and sustained by His presence with them. All else is adding where no addition is needed. In the Old Testament, God used a temple and a tabernacle to give evidence of His presence with His people. In the New Testament however, God never built such a thing, not even one temple! Rather, Christ made His people His temple, and dwelt within them. This was to show us that the glory of Christ, His voice and His presence is a matter of the spiritual, not the earthly. In the worship of Himself, God pointed to what truly mattered, and made a point of ignoring what didn't. Will we do the same?