Sermon Illustrations for Lent 1 (2014)
Illustration
Object:
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
God has given us free will! Some have said that was his big mistake! But why did he give us free will? So that we could choose between him and "selfishness" (ego). One of the reasons we choose a wife is because she also chose us out of free will. That is not true in some countries in the world where the parents may choose a mate for their children. But doesn't it make you happier to know that your mate also chose you? Doesn't it make our parents happier to know that we obey them out of love rather than just so we don't get a spanking (or lose our inheritance)?
In Little Men, the old father Baer calls into his office one of the boys who disobeyed him. The boy expects to be thrashed! But then the good father hands him the ruler and tells him to hit his father's hand with it. He tells him to hit harder! The boy breaks down and cries because he does love the father. So the father tells him that he is hurt when the boy disobeys him.
We hurt God when we disobey him -- no matter how great the temptation seems.
My mother told me not to play with my ball in the living room, but I thought I would be careful and have some fun. Well! The ball hit one of mom's favorite vases and it smashed on the floor. She did the worst thing she can do. No she didn't beat me with a stick. She cried over her destroyed vase. That really hurt me!
Once I put my wallet on my dresser, as I usually did when I came home for the day. My two boys came to talk to me as I changed to relaxing clothes. I could see them in the closet mirror. I told them they could touch anything they wanted to, but not to dare touch my wallet. Their eyes were suddenly riveted on my wallet. They walked closer and kept checking to see if I was looking. Then Chris reached out and touched it, pulling his hand away like it was a hot stove. I still pretended not to see them, so he came closer and picked it up. He could see nothing exciting about it so he set it back down again, confused as to why I told him to not touch it. He missed the point, as did Adam and Eve: "Because I said so!"
We obey God because he said so -- because we care what he thinks!
Men are often tempted to blame the woman for their sin! "She told me to do it!" But when we disobey, our eyes are often opened to what we have done and we are ashamed (naked).
In other words, just obey! Don't allow yourself to be tempted, no matter how enticing it may be!
We have all disobeyed and committed the sin of Adam, so it took Jesus obedience to bring forgiveness.
Bob O.
Romans 5:12-19
During my seminary career, I was pastor of a rural church with a parsonage for us to live in. My wife and I went on a week's vacation. When we returned I drank some tainted orange juice which made me very ill. I thought it was the flu so I left it untreated, but I steadily became worse. Finally I went to the hospital, and after tests the results were given to the doctor who came in to talk with me. His first words were, "If you would have waited fifteen more minutes to come here, you would have been dead." The tainted juice gave me food poisoning. The doctors and medicine saved my life.
Jesus came to give me the medicine to save my life from the poison of sin through his death on the cross!
Derl K.
Romans 5:12-19
In the year 590, Pope Gregory I, also known as Pope Gregory the Great, established the list that is commonly known as the Seven Deadly Sins, which are: pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. Some 1,400 years later, as we move into the twenty-first century, perhaps we ought to expand the list to eight. This time adding a temptation that had not appeared before but is appropriate for a technological society. The new temptation would be "fame." In the November 11, 2009 issue of the New York Times Alessandra Stanley wrote, "Fame has a spellbinding power in American society, the one thing that can trump wealth, talent, breeding and even elected office. Reality shows and social websites like Facebook long ago knocked down barriers that kept ordinary people trapped in obscurity." For this reason, Stanley wrote, "... some people take huge risks for the freedom to be someone else -- a celebrity." She lifted up as examples the Salahis, who crashed a White House state dinner; the Heenes, who pretended a child was trapped in a runaway balloon; and the Gosselins, who showcased their eight children, all desiring to share the limelight of a reality television show.
Application: It is our disobedience to God's outline for proper living that makes us sinners.
Ron L.
Romans 5:12-19
Americans do not want to hear much about sin. Life is about self-fulfillment (see Charles Sykes, A Nation of Victims). The way we look at life in the twenty-first century is still like famed social commentator Christopher Lasch once wrote: "... the overriding spiritual preoccupation is... 'self-esteem...' Most of our spiritual energy is devoted precisely to a campaign against shame and guilt, the object of which is to make people 'feel good about themselves' " (The Revolt of the Elites, p. 16).
But in fact an awareness of our sin has some very good consequences. It levels the playing field among people, makes us more tolerable because as sinners we are no better than the worst, most difficult people we know. As Martin Luther put it: "Therefore if anyone looks down on another man as a sinner, sin still rules him doubly. For since he himself is sinner, he compares himself as a righteous man to the other person and thus makes himself a liar and does not realize as a sinner that he is a sinner" (Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 301).
An awareness of sin enhances spirituality, is what it takes in order to appreciate what God has done for us and how badly we need him. If you do not know you are sick you will not go to the doctor (see Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 142). Seventeenth-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal expresses a similar point: "Those who have known God without knowing their own wretchedness have not glorified him but themselves" (Pensees, p. 86).
Prominent German theologian Helmut Theilicke offers an excellent summation of the previous observations: "To incur guilt is really only the second worst, the very worst is not to be able to feel guilt anymore" (Nihilism, p. 148).
Mark E.
Romans 5:12-19
You can make a call without first having to build your own telephone. You don't have to invent the television or even write a script and hire a bunch of actors every time you want to sit down to an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Someone else made your car. Someone else refined the gasoline. Someone else came up with the medication you use to regulate your blood pressure or to get over your cold. It's not up to you to do it yourself.
You and untold millions of others rely on, depend upon, and benefit from work that other people did long ago. Your life looks the way it does because of those many "one time" events where someone made a discovery, noticed a truth, had an idea.
The world is deeply and forever changed by the one time that one man rose from the dead.
Scott B.
Matthew 4:1-11
This was a sequel to the fall of Adam. Adam was tempted and fell. If Jesus was the second Adam, then he had to be tempted also. He was led into the desert. I live in New Mexico and know what a desert can be like without food or water for miles. It was a good place to be tempted. Forty seems to be the number of completeness.
We can never tell God that he should understand what we are going through! Our complaints would seem puny compared to what Jesus had to endure for his desert trip. I am frustrated when my computer doesn't work and I have to waste a whole morning trying to get it fixed! Maybe four hours -- not forty days! Keep this passage in mind the next time you have a complaint.
The tempter is trying to entice Jesus by pointing up all the power Jesus has! Temptation is hardest when we know we have the power to end our problem with just a few words. Sometimes our problems don't have simple ethical solutions. Sometimes we read about people in government or business who take a simple solution and accept a bribe or are able to "borrow" cash from one of their "accounts." It sounds so simple -- like that old movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, where he is told that all he has to do is bend a little here and there if he wants to be elected. All these questionable bends catch up with him when he is elected and finds that he has trapped himself in a quagmire of obligations.
All Jesus has to do is say a word and his hunger will be ended. Simple! But then he will be of no use to us or his Father in heaven! This passage does tell us that "he was tempted in every way such as we are."
What PR if all the people saw Jesus jump from the temple and be saved by a bevy of angels! Then the Pharisees would believe him and he would not have to face a cross! How simple! He had the power, but he chose to resist the temptation. I'm not sure I would be able to resist if I could solve my problems so easily! Especially if the alternative were a terrible, agonizing end!
No day goes by when I am not tempted. As President Carter said, "I have lusted." All those who have never lusted, please raise your hand now!
I believe that Jesus must have been tempted by Mary Magdalene. If he wasn't, then he wasn't tempted in every way that I have been tempted. But I think he may have been "tempted" to settle down and raise a family and be a carpenter like his dad.
We have been given the power of the Holy Spirit to resist temptation, just as Jesus was. We need to memorize this passage and call on God to save us in every temptation!
Bob O.
God has given us free will! Some have said that was his big mistake! But why did he give us free will? So that we could choose between him and "selfishness" (ego). One of the reasons we choose a wife is because she also chose us out of free will. That is not true in some countries in the world where the parents may choose a mate for their children. But doesn't it make you happier to know that your mate also chose you? Doesn't it make our parents happier to know that we obey them out of love rather than just so we don't get a spanking (or lose our inheritance)?
In Little Men, the old father Baer calls into his office one of the boys who disobeyed him. The boy expects to be thrashed! But then the good father hands him the ruler and tells him to hit his father's hand with it. He tells him to hit harder! The boy breaks down and cries because he does love the father. So the father tells him that he is hurt when the boy disobeys him.
We hurt God when we disobey him -- no matter how great the temptation seems.
My mother told me not to play with my ball in the living room, but I thought I would be careful and have some fun. Well! The ball hit one of mom's favorite vases and it smashed on the floor. She did the worst thing she can do. No she didn't beat me with a stick. She cried over her destroyed vase. That really hurt me!
Once I put my wallet on my dresser, as I usually did when I came home for the day. My two boys came to talk to me as I changed to relaxing clothes. I could see them in the closet mirror. I told them they could touch anything they wanted to, but not to dare touch my wallet. Their eyes were suddenly riveted on my wallet. They walked closer and kept checking to see if I was looking. Then Chris reached out and touched it, pulling his hand away like it was a hot stove. I still pretended not to see them, so he came closer and picked it up. He could see nothing exciting about it so he set it back down again, confused as to why I told him to not touch it. He missed the point, as did Adam and Eve: "Because I said so!"
We obey God because he said so -- because we care what he thinks!
Men are often tempted to blame the woman for their sin! "She told me to do it!" But when we disobey, our eyes are often opened to what we have done and we are ashamed (naked).
In other words, just obey! Don't allow yourself to be tempted, no matter how enticing it may be!
We have all disobeyed and committed the sin of Adam, so it took Jesus obedience to bring forgiveness.
Bob O.
Romans 5:12-19
During my seminary career, I was pastor of a rural church with a parsonage for us to live in. My wife and I went on a week's vacation. When we returned I drank some tainted orange juice which made me very ill. I thought it was the flu so I left it untreated, but I steadily became worse. Finally I went to the hospital, and after tests the results were given to the doctor who came in to talk with me. His first words were, "If you would have waited fifteen more minutes to come here, you would have been dead." The tainted juice gave me food poisoning. The doctors and medicine saved my life.
Jesus came to give me the medicine to save my life from the poison of sin through his death on the cross!
Derl K.
Romans 5:12-19
In the year 590, Pope Gregory I, also known as Pope Gregory the Great, established the list that is commonly known as the Seven Deadly Sins, which are: pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. Some 1,400 years later, as we move into the twenty-first century, perhaps we ought to expand the list to eight. This time adding a temptation that had not appeared before but is appropriate for a technological society. The new temptation would be "fame." In the November 11, 2009 issue of the New York Times Alessandra Stanley wrote, "Fame has a spellbinding power in American society, the one thing that can trump wealth, talent, breeding and even elected office. Reality shows and social websites like Facebook long ago knocked down barriers that kept ordinary people trapped in obscurity." For this reason, Stanley wrote, "... some people take huge risks for the freedom to be someone else -- a celebrity." She lifted up as examples the Salahis, who crashed a White House state dinner; the Heenes, who pretended a child was trapped in a runaway balloon; and the Gosselins, who showcased their eight children, all desiring to share the limelight of a reality television show.
Application: It is our disobedience to God's outline for proper living that makes us sinners.
Ron L.
Romans 5:12-19
Americans do not want to hear much about sin. Life is about self-fulfillment (see Charles Sykes, A Nation of Victims). The way we look at life in the twenty-first century is still like famed social commentator Christopher Lasch once wrote: "... the overriding spiritual preoccupation is... 'self-esteem...' Most of our spiritual energy is devoted precisely to a campaign against shame and guilt, the object of which is to make people 'feel good about themselves' " (The Revolt of the Elites, p. 16).
But in fact an awareness of our sin has some very good consequences. It levels the playing field among people, makes us more tolerable because as sinners we are no better than the worst, most difficult people we know. As Martin Luther put it: "Therefore if anyone looks down on another man as a sinner, sin still rules him doubly. For since he himself is sinner, he compares himself as a righteous man to the other person and thus makes himself a liar and does not realize as a sinner that he is a sinner" (Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 301).
An awareness of sin enhances spirituality, is what it takes in order to appreciate what God has done for us and how badly we need him. If you do not know you are sick you will not go to the doctor (see Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 142). Seventeenth-century French intellectual Blaise Pascal expresses a similar point: "Those who have known God without knowing their own wretchedness have not glorified him but themselves" (Pensees, p. 86).
Prominent German theologian Helmut Theilicke offers an excellent summation of the previous observations: "To incur guilt is really only the second worst, the very worst is not to be able to feel guilt anymore" (Nihilism, p. 148).
Mark E.
Romans 5:12-19
You can make a call without first having to build your own telephone. You don't have to invent the television or even write a script and hire a bunch of actors every time you want to sit down to an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Someone else made your car. Someone else refined the gasoline. Someone else came up with the medication you use to regulate your blood pressure or to get over your cold. It's not up to you to do it yourself.
You and untold millions of others rely on, depend upon, and benefit from work that other people did long ago. Your life looks the way it does because of those many "one time" events where someone made a discovery, noticed a truth, had an idea.
The world is deeply and forever changed by the one time that one man rose from the dead.
Scott B.
Matthew 4:1-11
This was a sequel to the fall of Adam. Adam was tempted and fell. If Jesus was the second Adam, then he had to be tempted also. He was led into the desert. I live in New Mexico and know what a desert can be like without food or water for miles. It was a good place to be tempted. Forty seems to be the number of completeness.
We can never tell God that he should understand what we are going through! Our complaints would seem puny compared to what Jesus had to endure for his desert trip. I am frustrated when my computer doesn't work and I have to waste a whole morning trying to get it fixed! Maybe four hours -- not forty days! Keep this passage in mind the next time you have a complaint.
The tempter is trying to entice Jesus by pointing up all the power Jesus has! Temptation is hardest when we know we have the power to end our problem with just a few words. Sometimes our problems don't have simple ethical solutions. Sometimes we read about people in government or business who take a simple solution and accept a bribe or are able to "borrow" cash from one of their "accounts." It sounds so simple -- like that old movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, where he is told that all he has to do is bend a little here and there if he wants to be elected. All these questionable bends catch up with him when he is elected and finds that he has trapped himself in a quagmire of obligations.
All Jesus has to do is say a word and his hunger will be ended. Simple! But then he will be of no use to us or his Father in heaven! This passage does tell us that "he was tempted in every way such as we are."
What PR if all the people saw Jesus jump from the temple and be saved by a bevy of angels! Then the Pharisees would believe him and he would not have to face a cross! How simple! He had the power, but he chose to resist the temptation. I'm not sure I would be able to resist if I could solve my problems so easily! Especially if the alternative were a terrible, agonizing end!
No day goes by when I am not tempted. As President Carter said, "I have lusted." All those who have never lusted, please raise your hand now!
I believe that Jesus must have been tempted by Mary Magdalene. If he wasn't, then he wasn't tempted in every way that I have been tempted. But I think he may have been "tempted" to settle down and raise a family and be a carpenter like his dad.
We have been given the power of the Holy Spirit to resist temptation, just as Jesus was. We need to memorize this passage and call on God to save us in every temptation!
Bob O.
