This loss of the concept of majesty has come just when the forces of religion are making dramatic gains and the churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses are wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field (A.W. Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy)
These words of Tozer have the ring of a prophet to them. In the modern day we are inundated with church growth books and practices. We are told that successful churches follow certain models and do certain things. But who is defining success? A successful church in Scripture is a group of people who are holy and do the will of God. This is to say that these people worship God with reverence and awe (Heb 12:28). There is no acceptable worship without reverence and awe. It matters not how many people attend a meeting on Sunday and call it church, if there is no reverence and awe there is no worship. Without the concept and reality of majesty there will be no reverence and awe in the meetings of churches. The loudness and quality of the music cannot give the sense of majesty in the service of the living God. A sermon laced with humor and anecdotes cannot give a sense of the majesty of God.
While it may sound absurd to many, the truth of the matter is that the Church in the United States is probably as weak as it has ever been. Indeed there are large numbers of large churches and there is a lot of money being given to various things. But all those are external and do not deal with the internal aspect of true worship. If you have an unacceptable worship to God and add huge numbers to the total of people who worship unacceptably that makes the situation far worse instead of better. So the Church in America today is seeking to make the churches better with gimmicks and outward activities. This is no better than the worship of Israel. They were not always appreciative of the way things went at the Temple, so they set up high places and did what they wanted. God hated that and called it “idolatry.” When the Church in America in the modern day does the same thing in principle, is it anything less than idolatry now?
God commands the church to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:22-24). The church cannot do that of its own will, so instead of seeking God for the heart to worship with and the truth for the worship to be guided and driven by, it sets aside doctrine and hard teachings in order to make things easier. It focuses on man and what man can do. However, does God ever command things like this? Has He ever been pleased with so-called worship if He has not commanded it Himself?
Amos 5:20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings.
23 “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
Should Americans think that God is pleased with our worship today? With no heart for God and no sense of His majesty in worship, do we think that our worship is something other than a noise to Him? Does it take loud guitars and amplifiers in order to get the all-knowing God to hear our worship? No, it takes hearts that have a sense of awe and reverence before Him. It takes a sense of His majesty and glory to move the heart to true worship. What the churches lack in reverence and sense of majesty they try to make up for it with new things and as entertaining and possible exciting atmosphere. It would appear that a lot of services are all about getting people in the door and once there to be sure that they enjoy the show. When that happens, as Tozer says, those types of gains are really losses. We have traded away the presence and majesty of God for larger numbers of people and outward success. This must be truly an abomination to the living God. How the Church needs to repent and seek God to come to her services rather than hordes of people who just may keep God away. What is success after all? Is it God and those He brings or the largest and most prosperous church in the world without God?
God Loves... Himself 
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