Free Sermon Illustrations for May 30, 2010 from SermonStudio
Illustration
Clips And Quips For Midnight Oil Sermons And Last-Minute Sunday School Lessons
366 Language Tools For Preachers And Teachers
Object:
Instead of the triune, self-giving God at the center of our lives, the self-seeking god we idolize and adore as the real focal point of our personal worship is often the all-too-familiar, self-centered trinity known as "me, myself, and I."
***
Like a drug addict driven by out-of-control compulsions, we perhaps could plead "the devil made me do it" when we fall into what Paul describes as the predicament of being captive to the law of sin, and we end up "doing the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). There are times when our enslavement to sin compels us to reject God's hand outstretched to help us, but sooner or later we are held responsible for our decision to grab or reject whatever lifeline God extends to pull us out of the depths of despair.
***
We may feel like our "real selves" six days a week, but perhaps on Sunday morning at church we feel instead like our "religious Sunday selves." When on Sunday we honestly don't feel like our real selves, is it any wonder that God doesn't seem for real either?
***
In many ways life can leave us feeling that we are so near and yet so far -- almost but not quite succeeding in things that truly matter, such as:
* one more near-miss in trying to smooth carefully and delicately with fine sandpaper the rough edges for two people who always rub each other the wrong way;
* one more close defeat from someone who always outdoes us in playing bridge or golf, especially if this person never minds telling us with a condescending smile "the error of our ways";
* one more carefully planned strategy that comes close but doesn't quite succeed for pushing the heavy boulder of a long-existing problem to the top of the steepest hill before once again it slips away and tumbles back to the bottom.
***
Without God, history could only remain totally under the devil's heavy-handed administration as a meaningless, tortuous treadmill, a cruel and hazardous sweatshop for barely minimal survival, and an endless birth-to-death grind from cradle to casket. But regardless of the devil's plans for our destruction and downfall, God is continually at work to transform or replace the world's dehumanizing treadmills, sweatshops, and daily grinds. Instead of the devil's many vicious circles leading nowhere, God's potter's wheel goes round and round, shaping and reshaping the raw material of human lives into finished and beautiful works of art.
***
Like a drug addict driven by out-of-control compulsions, we perhaps could plead "the devil made me do it" when we fall into what Paul describes as the predicament of being captive to the law of sin, and we end up "doing the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). There are times when our enslavement to sin compels us to reject God's hand outstretched to help us, but sooner or later we are held responsible for our decision to grab or reject whatever lifeline God extends to pull us out of the depths of despair.
***
We may feel like our "real selves" six days a week, but perhaps on Sunday morning at church we feel instead like our "religious Sunday selves." When on Sunday we honestly don't feel like our real selves, is it any wonder that God doesn't seem for real either?
***
In many ways life can leave us feeling that we are so near and yet so far -- almost but not quite succeeding in things that truly matter, such as:
* one more near-miss in trying to smooth carefully and delicately with fine sandpaper the rough edges for two people who always rub each other the wrong way;
* one more close defeat from someone who always outdoes us in playing bridge or golf, especially if this person never minds telling us with a condescending smile "the error of our ways";
* one more carefully planned strategy that comes close but doesn't quite succeed for pushing the heavy boulder of a long-existing problem to the top of the steepest hill before once again it slips away and tumbles back to the bottom.
***
Without God, history could only remain totally under the devil's heavy-handed administration as a meaningless, tortuous treadmill, a cruel and hazardous sweatshop for barely minimal survival, and an endless birth-to-death grind from cradle to casket. But regardless of the devil's plans for our destruction and downfall, God is continually at work to transform or replace the world's dehumanizing treadmills, sweatshops, and daily grinds. Instead of the devil's many vicious circles leading nowhere, God's potter's wheel goes round and round, shaping and reshaping the raw material of human lives into finished and beautiful works of art.
