An old man lay sprawled across three entire seats in the movie theater. When the usher noticed this, he whispered, “Sorry, sir, but you’re only allowed one seat.”
The old man just groaned but didn’t bulge. The usher became impatient.
“Sir, if you don’t get up from there, I’m going to call the manager.” Once again, the old man just groaned.
The usher marched back up the aisle, and in a moment returned with the manager. Together they tried repeatedly to move the old man, but with no success.
Finally they summoned the police. The officer surveyed the situation briefly, then asked, “All right, buddy, what’s your name?”
“Fred,” the old man groaned.
“Where you from, Fred?” asked the police officer.
With terrible pain in his voice, and without moving a muscle, Fred replied, “The balcony.”
A pastor friend e-mailed me that story. Here were people so caught up in the details of their own agenda, they completely missed the big picture.
Revelation has all kinds of details that can quickly bog things down. I’m convinced that what it wants to tell us is big-picture. Let me give you an example.
Starting in Chapter 2, Jesus has a message for each of seven churches. In every case that message is relatively easy to understand even though there are details that might remain confusing.
We can clearly grasp what our Lord’s message is to the church in Pergamum even though we’re not sure what the“hidden manna” or the “white stone” refer to in verse 17.
Be willing to overlook some of the details as long as you have the big picture clearly in mind. The guy needs to be taken to the hospital. At the moment, the detail of the “one seat per customer” rule isn’t all that important!
———————————————
Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.
You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.
