An Audience of One

 

Introduction

What goes through your mind as you enter the church building? Are you looking forward to approaching the throne of God? Or Are you looking to be uplifted and entertained? Too many people today go to worship for the wrong reason and with the wrong mindset.

 

Now Performing…

Congregations today see themselves as the audience rather than the participants. If they aren’t preaching or leading the singing, they consider themselves the audience.

They go with a need to be uplifted; made to feel good about themselves so that when they leave the service, they feel better than when they came in. On the surface, that’s not a bad thing. After a week long of trudging through life with job, family, and whatever the news is giving us, we look forward to heading to worship to be encouraged by the message and the general atmosphere. They say they want to be edified but it’s more of a physical desire than a spiritual one.

If you look at the megachurches or even the community churches, you’ll see an atmosphere of joy and upliftment not found anywhere else. However, these same places give you a feeling of being an audience member where you’ll clap along to musicians on stage, singing praise songs, waving your hands, and laugh at the comments made by those talk about spiritual edification.

Not one of these people ask themselves, did Jesus die on the cross so I can be entertained? Did he suffer in agony as he was scourged so I might laugh at the antics of the preacher who regales us with anecdotes of the family holiday meal? Did all of the apostles die so I might hug myself in a false righteous behavior not knowing I’m still in sin? The answer is No to all of these questions. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-3, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

 

We are Participants!

If we say we are going to the church building to worship God, then that is an action and we, then, are not the audience members. There is only one member of the audience at any given time and that is God the Father. The purpose of worship is just that…worship! We previously looked at the Acts of Worship and know that each one is doing something; including following along in scripture during the sermon.

When I grew up in the denominations, I never once saw anyone open a bible to follow along with what the preaching was saying. No one was checking up on him to see if he was preaching the truth. The Bereans did it when Paul came to them. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

Just because Paul was an apostle, and represented God, the Bereans also knew that he was a human being prone to make mistakes like anyone else. That’s why they followed along to make sure what he said was from God’s word. You can’t trust an individual who’s studied more than you to tell you the truth from God’s word. He has to be held to the standard as your soul is needful of what the scriptures say (Jn. 12:28). If you assume, he’s telling you the truth from the bible, then you’ve put your soul completely into his hands; trusting that he will do what’s right for it.

 

Conclusion

If you want live entertainment, go to the theater but not worship. God is the only audience member in the worship assembly and He will not be overshadowed by the ignorance of the congregation or preacher. If you are at church to be entertained, you’re going for the wrong reason.