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Sermon Illustrations: Faith And Works
Anecdotes
Did you hear the story of the girl who kissed frog and she believed that it turned into a handsome prince? The next day she took the frog to school. Her friends asked, "Hey, what's with the frog?" "It's not a frog," she replied. "It's a prince." Meanwhile, the frog is saying, "Croak, croak." The reality is that it didn't matter how often she insisted her frog was a prince, her friends weren't fooled. They just thought she was crazy. The same is true of the person who claims to be a Christian, but doesn't act in a way that honours the Lord. Faith without works is dead.
A few centuries BC, Alexander the Great conquered almost all the known world. One day he and a small company of soldiers approached a strongly defended walled city. Standing outside the walls he demanded to see the king. The king agreed to hear his demands. "Surrender to me immediately," commanded Alexander. "Why should I? We far outnumber you. You are no threat." "Allow me to demonstrate why you should surrender." He ordered his men to line up and told them to march. One by one they marched over the cliff. After ten had died, he ordered the rest to stand by his side. The king surrendered.3 Alexander's men believed in him - totally.
James Berry (1852-1913) was hangman for England for eight years. During this time, he killed 134 men and women. Finally, buckling under the strain of his profession, he became a heavy drinker and constantly ill-tempered. One day, aged 52, he was sitting at a station when a young man walked up to him and started talking to him. Berry accompanied the young man to the mission hall where he gave his life to the Lord. He became an evangelist till he died aged 61.
God said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," before Jesus did any great works or any miracles.
Having faith is like throwing a pebble into a pond. You can't throw it in without creating little ripples. If there are no ripples that's evidence that there was no pebble in the first place.
Faith is giving glory to God when you're in the valley; anyone can do it on the peak.
It's not enough for a soldier to know how to assemble and disassemble the rifle. Eventually they need to pull the trigger.
A man went looking at real estate. The current owners realised that the property didn't look that good and assured him that they would do it up before he took possession. "Forget it", he said. "I don't want the building. I want the site." God isn't interested in our trying to fix up the building before we come to Him. He's interested in the site. Then He can build whatever He wants on it.
You might have a toy dog. It looks like a dog, it's shaped like a dog, it's even got a label on it saying that it's a dog. But it won't bark, play, eat, fetch, lie down and roll over. This is all evidence that it's not the real thing - it's just a lifeless imitation.
Every time a man implements a new idea, he finds ten men who thought of it before he did. Trouble is, they only thought of it.
Quotes
Thanking God is the purest expression of faith. Derek Prince