Sermon Illustrations on Convictions
Background
Disregarding God’s Prohibitions
Some years ago I had a pastoral relationship with a couple of people who were deeply in love with each other. They believed that God wanted them to get married so they could consummate their love. There was a problem with this plan, however, since they were each married to someone else. Their relationship was an adulterous one, something clearly forbidden in Scripture.
Yet, they were truly convinced that God was bringing them together, so they acted on this conviction. Later, after they were married, they confided in me that the pain they had brought upon themselves and their loved ones was so great that, knowing what they knew then, they would not have pursued the course they chose.
Had they taken seriously God’s prohibition of adultery in the first place, they might have spared themselves and their loved ones much hurt. Of course, God’s grace is wide and God’s redemptive ability is immense. Yet, it is wrong to disregard God’s prohibitions of sin because God’s grace is abundant (Romans 6:1-2). If we wish to live our lives as worship to God, and if we desire to live abundantly, then we will receive God’s prohibitions as gracious guidance that point us toward the positives of kingdom living.
Taking Convictions Seriously
We might say that convictions are firmly held moral or religious beliefs that guide our beliefs, actions, or choices…[M]ost Christians attach their convictions to Christ personally. In other words, we form our convictions in order to please Jesus, not ourselves. Convictions do not express what we think or feel or like but rather our best understanding of what we believe Jesus thinks or feels or likes.
Therefore, fellow believers who dispute our convictions are not saying that our convictions are displeasing to them; they are effectively saying that our convictions are displeasing to Jesus. Of course they would never put it that way, but it is natural for us to hear it that way. Christians are invested in their convictions and see them as an expression of their personal devotion to God, not merely as an expression of a personal preference.
Furthermore, Christian convictions are not just deeply personal acts of devotion, they are also grounded in absolutes. Christians usually grow their convictions in the soil of God’s Word. For us, God’s Word is infallible and authoritative, so conflicts would seem to arise from one of two unsavory possibilities: first, that our Christian opponent is actually not very Christian because he or she is denying the authority of God’s Word. Unsavory, indeed!
The other possibility is that our opponents are misrepresenting God’s Word. If it is done unintentionally, these people are simply negligent. If done intentionally, it is a matter of false teaching, and one might even say they are false prophets since they offer a false belief but claim it is coming from God. Christian disputes about convictions are easily supercharged with transcendent significance. It is fine to say we should major on the majors and minor on the minors, but for Christian convictions, nothing seems to be minor!
Adapted from Winsome Conviction by Tim Muehlhoff & Richard Langer Copyright (c) 2020 by Tim Muehlhoff & Richard Langer. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
The Spectrum Of Conviction
So how can we form deep Christian convictions without dividing the church? Let’s take a deeper look at convictions themselves. Convictions are like light: they come in many colors and form across a spectrum. Consider the belief that God created human beings in his own image—a timeless theological truth grounded in Scripture (Gen 1:26). This sort of conviction could be called a confessional belief—an absolute that all Christians should share in common. A few chapters later, in Genesis 9:5-6, this truth is formed into a moral mandate which prohibits killing a person because all humans are made in the image of God. This moral mandate can be further expanded into a set of positive claims that actively value human life. Unpacking this a bit, we would see that valuing human life would probably mean more than just being “pro-life” in the sense of opposing abortion. Instead, one might think of a “consistent ethic of life,” a phrase coined by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. Such an ethic shuns abortion but also euthanasia, war, and violence.
It would likely have positive entailments such as access to basic human freedoms that image bearers require, such as the freedom to worship according to one’s conscience and have basic necessities such as food and shelter. These increasingly refined judgments do not emerge because we are finding more and more explicit teachings of Scripture, but because we are unpacking more and more implications of our confessional belief that human beings are created in the image of God.
These implications might be summarized in a core value statement such as, “Every human being should be protected from life-threatening harms and provided access to essential goods needed for a flourishing human life.” …
Ultimately, we must discern specific guidelines for conduct. We must decide if the prohibition against taking the life of an image bearer means that we should oppose both abortion and capital punishment or only abortion. Does a pro-life commitment mean we should favor pacifism rather than a just war? We must decide if access to basic human goods includes only food and shelter or if it also includes access to basic health care. And if it does include access to health care, does that mean we should advocate for universal health care, or are there better ways to meet this basic human need?
Adapted from Winsome Conviction by Tim Muehlhoff & Richard Langer Copyright (c) 2020 by Tim Muehlhoff & Richard Langer. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
Stories
The Elderly Contractor
An elderly master carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.
He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you.”
Source Unknown
Hearing the Confessions of the Poor
Angela’s Ashes took the publishing world by storm when it was released in September 1996. It won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in the category of Biography/Autobiography. It was also a massive commercial success, eventually selling over 10 million copies across the globe. It tells the story of Frank “Frankie” McCourt, born 1930 into the severe, brutal conditions of the Great Depression in Limerick, Ireland. One particular story from the book is quite compelling.
Frankie is a small boy when his mother gives birth to a new child. His grandparents have given the family $5 to buy milk for the new baby. Unfortunately, McCourt’s father, an alcoholic, takes the money to go on a bender. Frankie’s mother sends the boy to find their father and bring him home.
He is unsuccessful in his attempt to find his father. But in his search, he comes upon a man, drunk and asleep with an entire plate of fish and chips lying in front of him. Frankie is famished, and, giving in to temptation, brings the food outside and stuffs himself with the unsuspecting and unconscious patron’s meal.
Afterwards, the boy feels pangs of guilt and regret, and decides to go to confession and receive penance for his sins. Frank enters a Dominican church and confesses to the priest. The priest gently prods him, asking why he stole the man’s meal.
You can imagine the emotions rushing through the boy as he explains how the cupboards were completely empty, that his father had spent their only money on alcohol and the deep hunger he experienced as he came upon the meal. The priest was silent for a moment. Frankie expects a verbal lashing from the priest. Instead, he responds with a gentle word of compassion. This is McCourt’s retelling of the moment:
I wonder if the priest is asleep because he’s very quiet till he says, My child, I sit here, I hear the sins of the poor, I assign the penance. I bestow the absolution. I should be on my knees washing their feet.… Go. Pray for me. He blesses me in Latin, talks to himself in English and I wonder what I did to him.
Stuart Strachan Jr, Source Material from Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes (New York: Scribner, 1996), 185.
John Perkins’ Childrens’ Convictions
I’ll never forget one Sunday in 1964 when a bunch of kids met up together and decided they were going to integrate the movie theater in Mendenhall. This was fairly early on in the integration efforts, but they had a pretty good idea that integrating meant going to jail and getting beaten up. The kids tried to keep it a secret because they knew their parents wouldn’t want them involved.
But word got out, sending numerous parents into a fearful panic. They feared not only for their children’s safety but also for their own livelihoods. People whose kids went to jail for trying to integrate a whites-only facility risked losing their jobs, their insurance, and their homes. I attended the meeting, not to try to talk them out of anything, but to listen.
My eldest children—Spencer, Joanie, Phillip, and Derek—were there. Vera Mae and I wanted the kids to go even though, like the other parents, we were concerned for their safety. We didn’t have to worry about the other threats because we didn’t work for white folks, the bank didn’t have a lien on our house, and our insurance agent was a fairly decent white man.
At the meeting, I listened to the organizer talk to the kids. He told them the truth—they might go to jail, get beaten, or, worst of all, killed. Finally, he said, “It’s time to go.” The way he said those words was as powerful as if he were saying, “Even if no one comes with me, I’m going.”
As I recall, Spencer, who wasn’t more than eleven at the time, was the first to stand and go with him. (Although it may have been Joanie—she was always a rebel.) Derek also was a rebel, and Phillip would do anything Spencer did. All four of my children, along with fourteen others, tried to integrate the theater.
That event was a pivotal moment in my life. I had to make a choice, and that choice revealed a lot about who I am. If my kids are ready to give their lives for the cause, I’m willing to let them do it. Some parents might not have agreed with that decision, but my children understood that some ideals are important enough to risk their lives for. I was proud of them for that stance. The theater owners must have also recognized the determination of these young protesters. When they heard the kids were coming, they closed the theater. Permanently.
John M. Perkins, Dream with Me, Baker Publishing Group.
Pro or Anti-Slavery?
Upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, President Lincoln was purported to have said that it was nice to meet the woman who started the Civil War. Stowe’s father was among the northern evangelical ministers who preached against slavery.
Other preachers from the south penned equally eloquent pro-slavery sermons. The church, like the country, found itself split by the slavery controversy. How could church leaders come to such different conclusions while reading the same Bible? Can we draw lessons from this defining moment in our history, or are we doomed to repeat it?
Analogies
The Elderly Contractor
An elderly master carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.
He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you.”
Source Unknown
Humor
The Clever Husband
The drunk husband snuck up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife.
When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife. “You were drunk last night weren’t you!”
“No, honey.” “Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the band-aids on the bathroom mirror?”
Source unknown
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