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Sermon Illustrations on sin avoidance

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  • illustration

    A Biblical Understanding of Sin

    Author
    Richard Plass
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Galatians 5:17, 1 Peter 2:25, Romans 8:7, James 4:4, Ephesians 2:1-2, Isaiah 59:2, 1 John 3:4
    In the New Testament sin is not merely an individual, privatized transgression of a moral standard (sins is typically used for specific transgressions). It is far more radical than that. Sin is a mist...

  • illustration

    Taking Sin Seriously

    Author
    David Platt
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 10:26-27, Matthew 5:22, Romans 3:23, 1 John 3:4, Psalm 51:4, James 4:17
    In his short publication, What Did Jesus Really Mean When He Said Follow Me? author and pastor David Platt describes an encounter between a friend of his and an American Taxi driver regarding the ...

  • illustration

    Sin and Trees

    Author
    John Stott
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 6:6, Galatians 5:16-17, Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 17:9, John 8:34
    Sin not only alienates; it enslaves. It separates us from God and it also brings us into captivity. We need now to consider the ‘inwardness’ of sin. It is more than the wrong things we do; it is a dee...

  • illustration

    Sin in the New Testament

    Author
    Richard Plass and James Cofield
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Galatians 5:17, 1 Peter 2:25, Romans 8:7, James 4:4, Ephesians 2:1-2, Isaiah 59:2
    In the New Testament sin is not merely an individual, privatized transgression of a moral standard (sins is typically used for specific transgressions). It is far more radical than that. Sin is a mist...

  • illustration

    One of the Great Ironies of Sin

    Author
    Timothy Keller
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 23:12, Romans 12:3, 1 Peter 5:5, Daniel 4:37, Philippians 2:3-4
    One of the great ironies of sin is that when human beings try to become more than human beings, to be as gods, they fall to become lower than human beings. To be your own God and live for your own glo...

  • illustration

    Where Sin Comes From

    Author
    Thomas Merton
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Proverbs 14:12, Philippians 3:7-8, James 4:1-3, Matthew 16:26, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
    All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universe is ordered. T...

  • illustration

    Disregarding God’s Prohibitions

    Author
    Mark D. Roberts
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 6:1-2, 1 John 1:9, 1 Corinthians 6:18, James 1:14-15, Matthew 5:27-28, Hebrews 13:4, Proverbs 6:32
    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. The...

  • illustration

    Hanging Out in the Dark

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Colossians 1:13-14, Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 13:12, Isaiah 9:2, 1 John 1:5-7, Ephesians 5:11
    A few years ago, a journalist named Joseph Blackman wrote an Op Ed on an interesting subject, “Why Clubs are Dark.” That is, why is it when you walk into a nightclub or a bar, the lights are off, or a...

  • illustration

    “He Was Against It”

    Author
    Paul Tan Lee
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Ephesians 5:11, Galatians 5:19-21, Proverbs 6:16-19, 1 John 1:8-9, James 1:14-15, Isaiah 59:2
    President Calvin Coolidge returned home from attending church early one Sunday afternoon. His wife had been unable to attend, but she was interested in what the minister spoke on in the service. Cooli...

  • illustration

    Accepting Guilt and Sinfulness, A Psychologist’s Perspective

    Author
    Hobart Mowrer
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Colossians 1:13-14, Romans 5:1, Isaiah 1:18, Micah 7:18-19, Proverbs 28:13
    Hobart Mowrer was Research Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. Mowrer critiqued Freudian psychology and its assertion that guilt was merely a pathology to be dispensed with. In this...

  • illustration

    The Enemy is Us

    Author
    The Pastor's Workshop
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Galatians 5:17, 1 John 1:8, Proverbs 4:23, Romans 7:18-19, Mark 7:21-23, James 1:14-15
    In a famous Earth Day 1971 Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly, the titular Pogo and his companion Porkypine are enjoying nature when they come upon a clearing filled with trash. Pogo says the iconic line,...

  • illustration

    Thirty-one New Testament Descriptions of Sinful Mankind

    Author
    L. Meredith
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Ephesians 4:18, John 12:40, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 John 2:11, Romans 8:6, Matthew 7:17-18, 1 Timothy 6:5, Matthew 6:23, John 3:19, Romans 1:21, 1 John 1:6-7, John 5:24, Colossians 2:13, 1 Timothy 5:6, 1 John 3:14, Titus 3:3, Isaiah 64:6, Titus 1:15, 2 Peter 2:20, Revelation 22:11, Romans 1:18, Matthew 7:23, Ephesians 2:3, James 4:4, Matthew 6:22, John 3:20, Matthew 7:26, Ephesians 5:15, 1 Peter 2:25, Matthew 6:2, Romans 2:5, Hebrews 3:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:12, 2 Timothy 3:4, 1 John 2:15, Romans 1:30, 1 Timothy 6:4, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5, John 3:35, 2 Timothy 4:4, Acts 7:51, John 8:44, 2 Timothy 3:2, Revelation 3:17, John 3:34, Romans 6:16-17, Romans 1:25, John 8:33, Romans 7:7, 1 Corinthians 6:9
    Alienated from God (Eph. 4:18). Blind (John 12:40; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 2:11). Carnally or fleshly minded (Rom. 8:6, 13). Corrupt (Matt. 7:17-18; 1 Tim. 6:5). Darkened (Matt. 6:23; John 3:19; Rom. 1...

  • illustration

    A Different Approach to Baptism

    Author
    Bob Beasley
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Romans 6:3-4, Galatians 3:27, 1 Peter 3:21
    Pastor Bob Beasley recounts this story: Our three-year-old daughter, Rena, sat with us during the baptismal service last Sunday night, which was a new experience for her. She exclaimed in surprise, ...

  • illustration

    The Center of the World

    Author
    Christianity and Social Order
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Colossians 3:5, Philippians 2:3-4, Galatians 2:20, Jeremiah 17:9, Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 5:12, Isaiah 53:6
    Former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple describing original sin I am the centre of the world I see; where the horizon is depends on where I stand…Education may make my self-centeredness less ...

  • illustration

    Are All Sins Equal?

    Author
    Kevin DeYoung
    Keywords
    Scripture
    James 2:10, Hebrews 10:26-27, Romans 2:6-8, Matthew 12:31-32, Luke 12:47-48
    Like many popular adages, this one about all sins being equal before God is not entirely wrong. Every sin is a breach of God’s holy law. And whoever fails to keep the law in one point is guilty of bre...

  • illustration

    Coming to Grips with the Reality of Sin

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 John 3:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, Matthew 13:19, 2 Corinthians 11:14, John 8:44, James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:8
    The psychotherapist M. Scott Peck spent many years of his practice as an agnostic. He, along with thousands upon thousands of his colleagues were taught that evil was a social construct, and therefore...

  • illustration

    Merton’s Turn to Christ and Virtue

    Author
    James Bryan Smith
    Keywords
    Scripture
    James 3:17, Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 1 Timothy 4:12, Titus 2:7-8
    In The Seven Storey Mountain , Thomas Merton describes his life of sin and his eventual turning to God in his early years. He despised and ridiculed the word virtue, which had come to mean “prudery p...

  • illustration

    The Symptoms of Moral Disease

    Author
    John Stott
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 6:6, Galatians 5:16-17, Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 12:33-34, Romans 7:18-20
    Sin not only alienates; it enslaves. It separates us from God and it also brings us into captivity. We need now to consider the ‘inwardness’ of sin. It is more than the wrong things we do; it is a dee...

  • illustration

    The Four-Letter Word

    Author
    Brett McCracken
    Keywords
    In today’s world, holy is the most offensive of all four – letter words. It’s far more acceptable to say, “My life is so messed up,” than it is to say, “I am striving to be holy.” For many, Christiani...

  • illustration

    Confession is not…

    Author
    Max Lucado
    Keywords
    Scripture
    John 8:1-11, Romans 5:20, Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:9, John 21:15-17, Luke 18:13
    Confession is not telling God what he doesn’t know. Impossible. Confession is not complaining. If I merely recite my problems and rehash my woes, I’m whining. Confession is not blaming. Pointing finge...

  • illustration

    "I Don't Remember"

    Author
    Ron Lee Davis
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 4:7-8, Ephesians 1:7, Jeremiah 31:34, 1 John 1:9, Hebrews 8:12, Micah 7:18-19
    In A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World , Ron Lee Davis shares a powerful story of forgiveness about a priest from the Philippines. The clergyman had carried the weight of one particular sin that ...

  • illustration

    Fearing to Want

    Author
    Jen Pollock Michel
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Ephesians 5:18-21, Proverbs 20:1, 1 Corinthians 10:23-24, Colossians 3:5, James 1:12-15, Matthew 6:19-24, Ecclesiastes 6:9
    In her thought-provoking book, Teach us to Want , Jen Pollock Michel describes the tension in listening to our deepest desires: some of them these desires are integral to our identity, but they a...

  • illustration

    Reclaiming the Problem of Eye-Sin

    Author
    Tony Reinke
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 John 2:16, Colossians 3:2, James 1:14-15, Job 31:1, Psalm 119:37, Proverbs 4:23, Matthew 5:29, Matthew 18:9
    “If your eye causes you to sin…” is one of the boldest phrases from the mouth of Jesus, appearing three times in the gospels. Our eyes not only leads us into sinful behaviors, but also to take in sinf...

  • illustration

    The Two Conflicting Instincts with Shame

    Author
    Heather Davis Nelson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Genesis 3:7-8, Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:7-9, James 5:16, Galatians 6:1-2
    Shame has two conflicting instincts. It needs to isolate and hide, and it needs a community in which to be transparent. Hiding, of course, usually wins. It is the easier and more natural of the two. B...

  • illustration

    Equivocating on Promises: Pierre from Tolstoy’s War & Peace

    Author
    Leo Tolstoy
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 119:11, Proverbs 3:5-6, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Galatians 5:16-17, Matthew 5:37, Proverbs 14:12
    In this excellent little character study, Tolstoy describes the inner monologue of the character Pierre Bezuhov from War & Peace , who is able to justify and convince himself that a promise made ...

  • illustration

    Acknowledging our Shadows

    Author
    Chuck DeGroat
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 51:3, Psalm 139:23-24, Jeremiah 17:9, Luke 18:3, Romans 7:18-19
    Almost every parent experiences that lovely moment when small child says, “Mommy, Daddy, my shadow is following me. I remember my daughter Maggie, maybe two or three years old. Dancing around our driv...

  • illustration

    Don’t Look Down But Up

    Author
    Rowan Williams
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 10:24-25, Philippians 2:3-4, Ephesians 4:2, Romans 12:10, 1 Peter 5:5
    In his excellent book on the desert fathers, Where God Happens , former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams tells of an encounter between two monastic fathers. The first was Macarius, famous in...

  • illustration

    Repentance for the Religious

    Author
    John W. Rilling
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 3:25, Hebrews 9:28, Matthew 4:1-2, 1 Peter 2:24, Psalm 51:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:21
    Written almost a hundred years ago, this excerpt from the Reverend John W. Rilling points out one of the main reasons we continue to observe Lent, a period of repentance and discipline for many who ca...

  • illustration

    Everyone’s Guilty

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 17:9, Isaiah 53:6, Romans 7:18-19, Proverbs 28:13, James 5:16
    A few years ago, HBO released a gritty (surprise!) crime drama called True Detective . The show starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as the two detectives responsible for catching a serial...

  • illustration

    Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) in Detail

    Author
    Timothy Keller
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Exodus 30:10, Hebrews 7:27, Leviticus 16:11, Hebrews 10:19-22, Leviticus 16:32-34, Hebrews 9:7
    A week beforehand, the high priest was put into seclusion—taken away from his home and into a place where he was completely alone. Why? So he wouldn’t accidentally touch or eat anything unclean. Clean...
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