Sermon Illustrations

A woman in our diet club was lamenting that she had gained weight.

As the Union Pacific Railroad was being constructed, an elaborate trestle bridge was built across a large canyon in the west. Wanting to test the bridge, the builder loaded a train with enough extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was then driven to the middle of the bridge, where it stayed an entire day.

Two New York city slickers tired of life in the city and bought a West Texas ranch. They wanted to live like their ancestors. These New Yorkers asked their neighboring rancher if he had a mule for sale. He didn't, but they started chatting, and the slickers noticed some honeydew melons piled up against the barn. They asked what they were, and the rancher decided to have a little fun. He told them they were mule eggs; if they wanted to buy one, it would hatch, and they would have a mule. The asking price was $50. Boy, what a deal!

In his new book The Prayer God Longs For (InterVarsity), James Emery White says, "When we pray, we are to pray for God's kingdom, God's will, not only to come into our lives and take root, but through us to spread throughout the earth. God's kingdom was announced by Jesus and makes its way into the world from that beachhead as individuals give their hearts and lives to Christ. In that sense God's kingdom has arrived, and we have brought into that kingdom as believers; but the full consummation lies ahead. So to pray the kingdom will come is to pray His kingdom will grow as we pursue our witness to Jesus and live lives of salt and light. So with the Great Commission comes a cultural commission. We pray for the kingdom to take hold on the planet, in governments and institutions, judicial systems and media."

Two men -- Joe and Tom -- were sharing a hospital room. Joe turned to see that Tom was covered with bandages from head to toe.

G.K. Chesterton once observed, "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."

Some people have a tough time recognizing themselves as sinners. Joel Hunter tells of a friend who "once found himself in a conversation with a prison inmate who was serving time for robbery. My friend mentioned he recently read in the paper about a man who had robbed a house and killed the family. 'You know,' the inmate replied, 'it's people like that who give robbery a bad name.'"

The scene is a courtroom trial in South Africa. A frail black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is more than 70 years old. Facing her from across the room are several white security police officers. One of them, Mr. Van der Broek, has just been tried and found guilty in the murders of first the woman's son and then her husband. He had come to the woman's home, taken her son, shot him at point-blank and then burned the young man's body while he and his officers partied nearby.

Two young engineers applied for a single position at a computer company. They both had the same qualifications. In order to determine which individual to hire, the applicants were asked to take a test by the department manager.