Return to Ellerslie / Majesty Lost

Well, I'm back here in Colorado now. So far, some incredible things have happened. We had a group from HomeschoolAlumni.org, or HSA, come and help us with some projects around campus. I saw concrete poured for the first time ever. It was pretty awesome. All the people who came were from all over the United States, but we were all of one accord in seeking after God. Eric came and did a "bonus" session for the HSA group to give them a taste of Ellerslie. He actually did "Majesty Lost", which was a sermon, so if you want to hear the sermon, it's on the Ellerslie website. It is a very incredible message.
Also, with the Ellerslie Advanced Leadership Training (EALT), I'm doing a bunch of reports on various sessions. I may end up posting quite a few on here, but we'll see. Here's the first one I did on the sermon "Majesty Lost" -

Something is deeply wrong.

After returning from Ellerslie, I began attending my church and youth group as once before. However, something was different this time. I was not happy with anything that I saw.

It is important to note that I am not a typically critical person.

After listening to my pastor preach on Sunday, I felt empty. It wasn’t that the sermon was necessarily full of outright lies, but it was weak. Unwittingly, I found myself comparing my pastor to Eric. It’s not a “style” thing – yelling versus calm speaking – it is an “unction” thing. Eric is not the only preacher with power in his words: Steve Gallagher, Paul Washer, Paris Reidhead, A.W. Tozer, David Wilkerson, even Corrie ten Boom, to name but a few. They all have something in common: a life yielded to Jesus; a vision of the glory of God upon their eyes. This heart yielded to Him comes out in the way they speak and in what they speak. It was the difference between having a steak dinner and a bowl of skim milk. There was no substance in my pastor’s preaching and I could have lived in flagrant sin and not felt convicted during his message.

Then I returned to youth group. There are certain things in my youth group that I wouldn’t have thought twice about, but now I see as disturbing. The level of focus on fun is astounding to me. We run from hang out time and games, to a short dance party, to a funny video, to worship. Casually, we enter into the presence of God and sing a few lines. It is ridiculous, and a mockery. There is no reverence, no holiness and no stillness before our King. And when it is all said and done, what do we have to say for it? “Man, that video was hilarious.” No one could retain what was spoken. It wasn’t entirely their fault either, because the messages were weak like my pastor’s, except on the level of youth, likely degrading the truth even further.

Again, it’s not a style thing. There was simply no presence nor power in the words spoken. It was fluff, like whipped cream. It’s likely there are people in that youth group on their way to hell, and all we talk on is self-esteem and pointless things like that.

Something is deeply wrong.

A.W. Tozer writes in the preface to The Knowledge of the Holy, “The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic. […] With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.”

Yes, the church has lost its greatest treasure: the majesty of God. However, we have been born in this time for a purpose. I will not go down without fighting for the glory of my King. This is war, and I will draw my sword. There is hope, but it does not reside in men or in most of modern Christianity. It resides in the person of
Jesus Christ and the return of His power to the church.

I challenge you to correct your view of God if it is low or erroneous. We need to see the glory of God return. He is so massive, so mighty, so grand, that our human minds cannot even fathom. He is the God who created stars and galaxies. He is the God who humbled Himself to become a man, so that He might die for us and set us free of all sin. He is the God who reigns then, reigns now, and will reign forever.
Give everything and follow hard after the Lord Most High.

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
Isaiah 58:8 (KJV)