Selling The Sizzle; Tossing The Steak

When an individual threatens to cease participating in the services, threatens to withdraw support of the advance of the Faith through investment of goods or spiritual gifts, threatens to quit praying for the welfare of those who father for worship, that person is exposing herself as a fraudulent follower of the Master. Perceptive members of the assembly will recognise what she has in fact always been. If the assembly will honour the Master, they will refuse to follow the lead of such an individual to focus again on those actions and attitudes that glorify the Master.

One can only imagine how a modern church growth expert would have counselled Jesus. “Listen! You’re never going to go anywhere if you don’t make the message exciting. Maybe you need a little more excitement in your routine. How about a different praise band? Perhaps your Apostle should be more stylish in their dress. You need to get with the times! You have to quite insulting people by demanding that they sacrifice; You’ll need to give them something.” Jesus could have had some great crowds if He had listened to the counsel of the devil. “The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me’” [MATTHEW 4:8, 9]. I’m glad Jesus didn’t take that advice.

Jesus didn’t come to make us better people; Jesus came to redeem us from our sin. When we look to Him, we are transformed. The process will take a lifetime, but it will be a thorough process. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” [ROMANS 12:1, 2].

Christ offers steak; the world offers sizzle. Tragically, the self-centred and the unwary will look for sizzle, tossing the steak. When hard times come, and hard times always come, the unthinking individual will turn aside, seeking an easier path, seeking a more pleasant life. Let us not fall under the condemnation that says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” [HEBREWS 5:12-14]. Amen.

[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] “Elmer Wheeler – Don’t Sell the Steak, Sell the Sizzle,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUmxGqsuKmY, accessed 26 September 2017; Attila Sary, “Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak,” March 1, 2015, Bandwidth Productions, http://bandwidthproductions.com/blog/2/sell-the-sizzle-not-the-steak, accessed 26 September 2017