The One Thing - Welcome to the Big Show

Christ Church of Ballenger Creek

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“Welcome to the Big Show”

The 1 Thing, part 3

Matthew 6:5-7

I. Introduction – we’re in the middle of a series of sermons called “The 1 Thing.”

A. We’ve been challenged to ask, “As a church, are we doing the 1 Thing?”

1) If you’ve missed us during the last couple of weeks you may be asking, “What’s the 1 Thing?”

2) We’ll help you out. What’s the 1 thing?

3) That’s right – the 1 Thing is a growing, close relationship with Jesus.

B. Last week we talked about applying the Friendship Filter to our ministries and to our lives.

1) We showed how the Friendship Filter could help us keep the 1 Thing the 1 Thing.

2) We also talked about how some churches get distracted and caught up by other things.

a) For example, some churches are like police departments that spend more time on do’s and don’ts than on relationships.

b) We know that it’s easy to do; and we asked God to help us to be about building relationships not just setting rules.

c) Today let’s see what happens when a church takes on other characteristics.

II. Can you guess what that first distraction will be? If not, let me help you out. It’s when church becomes a theatre. Hence today’s title, welcome to the big show.

A. We love a great show, we love to be entertained, and we love the excitement of being part of something larger than life.

B. In all the years of theatre, from the Greek stage to now, the formula hasn’t changed much:

1) It’s primarily a spectator event.

2) All the action takes place on the stage.

3) Most are highly scripted, rehearsed and predictable.

4) The stars provide box-office draw.

5) The object is to fill seats.

C. What’s happened is that some of us love theatre so much we’ve transformed our churches into theatres where filling the seats becomes the primary objective. (And that distracts us from the one thing)

D. Let’s look at the theatre church a bit more closely.

1) It’s primarily a spectator event.

a) The stars do all the talking, leading, and directing.

b) There’s no room for personal relationships to occur. That would mean that the stars lose face time.

2) All the action takes place on stage.

a) If you’re not the star you settle in to be “wowed.”

b) We start hoping that each performance will outshine the last.

c) We focus on what we “get out of” the service; not what we give to it.

d) It becomes a vicious cycle.

3) They’re scripted, rehearsed and predictable.

a) If you really think that our worship is scripted, rehearsed and predictable – we’re faking it pretty well.

b) There’s no room for relationships to begin and to grow when every moment has been planned down to the last detail.

c) Sometimes you can smother the working of the Holy Spirit by crowding him out of a service.

4) The stars provide box-office draw.

a) Worship leaders, pastors – talk to our wives; they know we’re not stars.

b) Especially pastors; there’s got to be more than that.

c) Otherwise, we’re drawn here by a dynamic or charismatic personality not the 1 Thing.

d) I want to be entertaining, but I don’t want to be fake and shallow.

5) It focuses on filling up seats.

a) Notice that Jesus didn’t spend his ministry in a theatre.

b) Spent most of his time pouring his life into relationships with 12 men.

c) He built relationships.

6) Even when Jesus was taking advantage of a gathering of people (a crowd), he always directed them to a relationship with the Father.

a) Even the crowds became ways to build relationships

b) When Jesus fed 5,000 people he used a young boy and his lunch.

c) That was typical for him.

III. Quickly, let’s take at what happens when the theatre moves outside the church walls; when the Big Show goes on the road.

A. What I mean is that for some churches social, political and public issues become the 1 Thing.

1) Sermons, classes, small groups, sometimes whole denominations us all their resources to “get the word out” about political or social issues.

2) As important as some of these issues are to our society and our faith; and as important as it is for Christians to influence the world for Christ; they’re not the 1 Thing.

B. Even good things, as good as they are, are not the 1 Thing.

1) Good things can become those Martha-like distractions.

2) And those distractions make a growing relationship with Jesus begin to pale.

3) Homosexuality, abortion, free speech, homelessness, disease, addictions, presidential elections – all great issues for us to be concerned about.

a) Some of them even parallel the issues Jesus faced in his day -- but let’s remember Jesus’ mission – seeking and saving the lost.

b) Let’s remember Jesus’ purpose – deepening his relationship with others.

c) Look at Jesus in John 11. He raises Jesus from the dead for one reason and one reason alone – “I know that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” To deepen a relationship with Jesus.

d) In John 12, he does it again. A woman anoints his feet instead of selling the expensive perfume to the poor. Jesus says, “You’ll always have the poor, but you won’t always have me.”

e) It’s always about relationships.

C. Jesus calls us to love one another and in doing so we show our love for him.

1) But our serving others through social and political activity should come from our deep relationship with him; not a replacement for him.

2) When we “take the show on the road”, we must make sure that our acts of service don’t cause us to lose our focus on the 1 Thing.

IV. The 1 Thing always has to be the 1 Thing.

1) Even the best show is no replacement for a relationship with Jesus.

2) Even the most valid cause isn’t a replacement for the 1 Thing.

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