Sermon Illustration

Travelers in the North Atlantic Ocean traffic have frequently observed icebergs traveling in one direction in spite of the fact that strong winds are blowing the opposite way. The icebergs were moving against the wind. The explanation is that the great bergs, with eight-ninths of their bulk under the water, were caught in the grip of mighty currents that carried them forward, no matter which way the winds raged. So the ideal Christian leader has the greater part of his being thrust down into the deep places of God. The currents move him toward righteousness no matter how the winds of passing opinion blow.

Many in this day set God aside, and hold the view that each man, in some sense, is another little god in himself. I have no sympathy with such a view. None shall go further than I in estimating the sacredness of man; but to my thought, what man is, he is by virtue of his connection with God. Broken off, he is like a branch broken off from the vine. No matter how fine those leaves are, no matter how beautiful those clusters are, they at once begin to wither and shrink, and tomorrow will be severed from the branch, fit for nothing but to be gathered up and burned. The man in whose veins flows the sap of the vine; the man who carries in him the blood of Christ; the man whose reason is daily summoned by the inspiration of God; the man whose affections are daily purified by the inflowing affections of God; the man who has the dependence of weakness and love jointly, and lies in the bosom of the great All-father, and is strong because God is strong, though weak in and of himself—that man is ...

Two workmen were busy repairing the roof of a factory near the opening of a large chimney. All of a sudden their scaffolding shifted and they plunged fifteen feet through the black, sooty chimney to the level below. Both men scrambled to their feet unhurt. But, in the process of falling, one man’s face had become smeared with soot. The other man had thrown one arm over his face to protect it as he fell, so his face was clean. Now, before they returned to work, the man with the clean face went and washed, but the man with the black, sooty face went back to work directly without washing. You have probably already realized why these men made the mistake they did. They looked at each other. The man with the clean face looked at the soiled face of his friend and assumed that his was sooty, too. The man with the blackened face saw the clean face of his fellow worker and assumed that his face was also clean. Both men were wrong because they were looking at each other. They were judging them...

It was chilly in Manhattan but warm inside the Starbucks shop on 51st Street and Broadway, just a skip up from Times Square. Early November weather in New York City holds only the slightest hint of the bitter chill of late December and January, but it's enough to send the masses crowding indoors to vie for available space and warmth. For a musician, it's the most lucrative Starbucks location in the world, I'm told, and consequently, the tips can be substantial if you play your tunes right. Apparently, we were striking all the right chords that night, because our basket was almost overflowing. It was a fun, low-pressure gig -- I was playing keyboard and singing backup for my friend who also added rhythm with an arsenal of percussion instruments. We mostly did pop songs from the '40s to the '90s with a few original tunes thrown in. During our emotional rendition of the classic, "If You Don't Know Me by Now," I noticed a lady sitting in one of the lou...

A man was once asked, "Are you a believer in the Christian religion?" "Oh, certainly!" "You are a member of some church, then, I suppose?" "Member of a church? No, indeed. Why should I be a member of a church? It is quite unnecessary; the dying thief wasn't a member of a church, and he went to heaven." "But of course you have been baptized; you know the command—" "Been baptized? Oh, no; that is another needless ceremony! I am as safe as the dying thief was, and he never was baptized." "But surely, since you will not join a church or be baptized, you will do something in acknowledgment of your faith. You will give of your means—you will help the cause in some way?" "No, sir; I do nothing of the kind. The dying thief—" "Let me remark, my friend, before you go any further, that you seem to be on pretty intimate terms with the dying thief. You seem to derive a great deal of consolation ...

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner. As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck. Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head, and killed it. He was shocked and grieved. In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch the next day Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen." Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?" So Johnny did the dishes. Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, "I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally just smiled and said, "Well th...

When there's a serious accident and cars are banged up and people's bodies are battered, cut, bleeding, and lying there in the street, there are two types of emergency vehicles that arrive on the scene. The first to arrive is usually the police, and their job is to develop a safety zone to control the traffic. Then they get out their pads and look at the positions of the cars. They measure the skid marks and start interviewing witnesses. Their job is to find out who violated the law. Who's to blame for this tragedy? Their chief concern is to determine what laws were violated and who is at fault for what happened. The second type of vehicle contains the paramedics. They could care less who is to blame. There are people bleeding in the street. Their job is to minister to those bleeding people, check the heart monitor, put bandages on them, look to see if there are broken bones, get them on the stretcher, and lift them into the ambulance. They're not thinking about whose...