When Sermon Illustrations Go Horribly Wrong
Everybody loves a great sermon illustration. I mean, that's why you're on this site right now, isn't it? A great illustration has the ability to drive home a point, make a lasting impression, and provide visual imagery that will linger in the minds of congregants long after the sermon is over.
But what happens when a sermon illustration goes terribly wrong — driving home the point, all right, just the wrong point driven in just the wrong place.
Well that's what happened to Pastor Scott Thomas of Free Life Chapel in Lakeland, Florida.
Cindy and I spoke on “Building A Marriage” and used a wedding cake for our illustration. To close the teaching, we stressed that if we build our marriages outside of God’s order… the whole cake (marriage) crashed!
All went well… until I slammed the cake upside down and SURPRISINGLY DISCOVERED that the cake company had implanted a dowel inside to hold the cake layers together.
When I slammed the cake upside-down the dowel pierced through the bottom of the cake and traveled completely through my hand! When I looked down… the dowel was sticking 5 inches out the back of my hand! I immediately pulled the stick out of my hand and tried to wrap my head around what just happened!
Cindy immediately slid me a towel… I wrapped my hand, finished the message and prayed to close out the session in the next 5 minutes.
Fortunately, Pastor Thomas is fine, with no lasting injury. And he and his wife were both able to laugh it off in the end. Yet it's an illustration that won't soon be forgotten.
Click here for video (ouch!).
As pastors and teachers we are all called to, "Do [our] best to present [ourselves] to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV).
To that end, we often employ sermon illustration to "drive home" our "point," even as Pastor Thomas so literally (albeit painfully) did. The right illustration can make just the right point at just the right time.
They won't all land quite the way we intended. They won't all be as memorable as we'd hoped. They certainly and hopefully won't be as painful as poor Pastor Thomas' was!
But a great bible teacher is always looking for ways to more dynamically communicate the truths of God's Word. To this end, if you've landed on this site, we applaud you! And we are blessed beyond measure to partner with you to that end!
Your Illustration Exchange Team
Know Your Value
Take out a new crispy $10 bill and ask the students or congregation what you are holding . Ask if anyone would like it. All would raise their hands. Then take a another $10 bill out of your pocket that is dirty and crinkled up and ask what you are holding now. Ask if anyone would like to have it. All would raise their hands again.
Each one of us is so valuable! We were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Just like the $10 bill didn't lose its value and was still worth $10 no matter how dirty it was, so too our value doesn't change even though we may have gotten dirty with sin. We need to look at ourselves through God's eyes, knowing that we are loved, we are chosen, we are the most precious creation of God!
Luke 12:6-7 says "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God." If God does not forget about the smallest of his creations, he certainly is not going to forget about you his son/daughter.
In 1John 3:1 it says "Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God." We are his children made in his image.
The problem isn't us losing our value (child of god), it's us not realizing our value at times.
Just like the $10 no one minded when I asked the question would you still take the $10 that was all squished up and dirty because the knew the value. The value does not diminish because of the circumstances it was in. It could be a crispy new $10 bill, an old one that is a little ripped, one that is a different older design, one that has been used a lot or a little. They all are worth $10.
My prayer is that you live with the knowledge of knowing your true value and don't let someone else or your circumstances dictate what your value is. The $10 only gets its value from one place: the US Treasury when they printed it. If I told you that the $10 in my hand is actually $5 you wouldn't believe. In that same sense, don't let others or the devil fool you about your true value.
Don't Step on the LEGOs
Did you know there is a scientific reason for why it hurts so much to step on LEGOs? According to one report:
As it turns out, a LEGO won’t squish under your foot unless you weigh 953 pounds. Each brick can take 4,240 Newtons of force.
And it doesn’t help that the bottom of your foot is one of the most sensitive areas on your body. Your feet have up to 200,000 exteroceptors, or nerves, that connect directly to your brain.
Careful stepping, America!
In an effort to illustrate allowing the light of the Lord to guide your path you can lead students to "feel" how it is to to walk in the light of the Lord vs.walking in darkness.
Ask for a volunteer (make it clear their participation may not be totally comfortable!). Then have them blindfolded.
PART 1:
Scatter a bunch of LEGO bricks in their path. Have them take off their shoes and socks, and then have them slowly walk toward you (over the path of the scattered LEGOs).
As they walk on the LEGO bricks they will begin to "feel" the pain of walking in the darkness. No doubt, the other kids will begin to giggle, watching their freind walk through this minefield of LEGOs!.
PART 2:
Now have them take off their blindfold and walk back toward you. They will "feel" how much more comfortable it is to walk that same path when they can see how to avoid those pesky LEGO bricks.
Take the students to Psalm 119:105. Expalin that the Lord wants to guide our paths through the light of His Word. Explain how the LEGO bricks illustrate various temptations in our lives. Giving in to these tempations can result in really painful or harmful consequences. Ask for some examples of bad experiences with sin and giving into temptation. Examples: Getting caught for cheating at school, and thus receiving a bad grade; trying drugs and having a bad reaction or getting addicted; stealing and having to go to jail; lying, and thus people not trusting you anymore.
Living with the consequences of giving in to temptation can lead to a really sad and painful life. By asking the Lord to guide our paths, we are able to avoid these painful temptations.
BONUS ILLUSTRATION for this verse can also include a slight variation of this exercise:
Have all the kids take off their shoes and socks and walk around on the LEGO bricks. Then explain that, over time, their feet would begin to toughen up and get used to the feel of the bricks, so they won't hurt so much.
When it comes to temptation and sin, this can be very dangerous. We may get numb to our sin, and no longer respond to the conviction of God's Word.
Ask the Lord to guide your path in life ("And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one," Matthew 6:13, NIV). Use the light of God's Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide your decisions in life. Live in the light and not the darkness.
"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 199:105, ESV).
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7, ESV).
"For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!
For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them" (Ephesians 5:8-11, NLT).