Illustrations

There is an old story of a king and his clown or “jester” who sometimes said very foolish things. One day the jester had said something so foolish that the king handing him a staff, said to him: “Take this, and keep it till you find a bigger fool than yourself.”

“Some years later, the king lay on his deathbed. His courtiers were called: his family and his servants also stood round his bedside. The king, addressing them, said, “I am about to leave you. I am going on a very long journey and I shall not return again to this place: so I have called you all to say goodbye.”

Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brains; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusements but not happiness; religion but not salvation; a passport to everywhere but Heaven.

Source: Unknown

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

A young man, who was to return home and be married, came sooner than was expected. He did not notify his bride-to-be of the exact time. He desired to please her with a surprise. He loved her devotedly and had worked hard and saved his earnings in order to purchase a home for her. It was about midnight when he arrived, but, with a happy heart, he felt he must go by her home. However, when he came near he saw the house was all lighted up. As he came nearer he heard music. Still nearer he saw dancing.

A father and son arrived in a small western town looking for an uncle whom they had never seen. Suddenly, the father, pointing across the square to a man who was walking away from them, exclaimed, “There goes my uncle!”

His son asked, “How do you know when you have not seen him before?”

“Son, I know him because he walks exactly like my father.”

If we walk in the Spirit, the world should know us by our walk.

Source: The Gold Mine, Lee Roberson

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

William Carey, who is called the “Father of Modern Missions,” served the Lord in India for many years. He gradually became very concerned about the attitude of his son, Felix. The young man had promised to become a missionary, but he reneged on his vows when he was appointed ambassador to Burma by the Queen of England. Carey wrote to his friend, asking prayer for his son with these words: Pray for Felix. He has degenerated into an ambassador of the British government when he should be serving the King of Kings.

Why is our walk with God sometimes a crawl with God?  Why the lack of passion for our Saviour who gave His all for us? Why the lack of victory over sin in the average Christian’s life? Why the lack of power to shake this world for Christ? The words of Billy Sunday ring true: “He that is a stranger to prayer is a stranger to power.”

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Our God is a holy God and prayer is the vehicle that God has given us to approach Him. Indeed, prayer offered by a Christian harboring sin is akin to a plane without wings, a car without wheels or a boat without a rudder. Make no mistake about it—God wants to hear our prayer but flagrant disregard for the commandments of God will quickly stop His ear.

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Sin at the door of your life is more persistent than a Jehovah’s Witness, more tenacious than a vacuum cleaner salesman, more widespread than girl-scouts selling cookies and more intrusive than a burglar. Sadly, sin has more takers, meets a higher quota and is more successful than any solicitor or door-to-door salesman has ever been!

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Christian, beware lest thou think lightly of sin. Take heed lest thou fall little by little. Sin a little thing? Is it not a poison? Who knows its deadliness? Sin a little thing? Do not the little foxes spoil the grapes? Doth not the tiny coral itself build a rock which wrecks a navy? Sin a little thing? It girded the Redeemer’s head with thorns, and pierced His heart! Could you weigh the least sin in the scales of eternity, you would fly from it as from a serpent. Look upon a sin as that which crucified the Saviour, and you will see it to be exceeding sinful.—Charles Spurgeon

Napoleon made a mistake when he said that God is on the side of the strongest battalion. This statement has been proven wrong many times in the Bible and throughout history.

Abraham took 318 men and defeated 4 kings and their armies. Gideon with his 300 dedicated men defeated an army of thousands. David, a shepherd lad, untrained for war and armed with only a sling, killed a giant nine feet tall.