Laziness
Dont Just Sit There . . .
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." --Will Rogers
The Easy Way
"For every person who climbs the ladder of success, there a dozen waiting for the elevator." --unknown
Premature Resting
"Laziness is nothing more than resting before you are tired." --Jules Renard
Waiting to Eat
"Man stand for long time with mouth open before roast duck fly in." --Chinese Proverb
Ashes to Ashes
A visitor said to her
hostess, "What a beautiful vase. What's in it?"
"My husband's ashes," she replied.
The visitor said, "Oh,
I'm sorry. I didn't know he had died."
"He hasn't died. He's
just too lazy to find an ashtray."
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Was Work in the Job Description?
A boss called in his
summer employees and said, "We're going to change the way we do things around
here!"
One kid replied, "Whoa,
dude, you mean were supposed to do things around here?"
Leadership
How to get them to follow
"A platoon leader doesn't get his platoon to go by getting up and shouting, 'I am smarter. I am bigger. I am stronger. I am the leader.' He gets them to go along with him because they want to do it for him and they believe in him." --Dwight D. Eisenhower
Being President
"Being president is like running a cemetery; you've got a lot of people under you, and nobody's listening." --Bill Clinton
Leading & Learning
"All leaders are learners. If you ever stop learning, you will stop leading." --Rick Warren
Magnet & Compass
"A leader is a person with a magnet in his heart and a compass in his head." --Vance Havner
Pride Disqualifies You
"The Christian who is ambitious to be a star disqualifies himself as a leader." --David Watson
The Price for Leading
"When you lead the pack, you can get shot in the back!" --Dudley Hall
The world is controlled by 2%
"At any moment in history the world is in the hands of 2% of the people--the excited and the committed." --Winston Churchill
Boss vs Leader
"Remember the difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says 'GO' and a leader says 'LET'S GO!' "--E. M. Kelly
Gives You Courage to Follow
“A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn’t go by yourself.” --Joel Barker
Getting Someone Else to Want It
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." --Dwight Eisenhower
Follow ME!
"If you have to remind people that you're the leader, then you're not the leader." - Rick Warren
John Maxwell Quotes
• A leader is one who
knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.
• The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The
leader adjusts the sails.
• Leaders must be close enough to relate to others but far enough ahead to
motivate them.
• Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
• The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.
The Power of Leadership
An army of deer led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a deer. --Attributed to Philip II of Macedon
Molding the Consensus
"A genuine
leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus" --Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Legalism
Long-Sleeve Dresses
I knew a
lady who attended a legalistic church. The church made her feel guilty because
she didn't wear dresses which had sleeves that came down to her wrists. They
told her someone might lust after her because her arms were exposed.
She tried
to explain to them that it was unlikely this would happen since she was almost
eighty years old. They continued, however, to make her feel condemned for
wearing short sleeves.
Finally she
bowed to their pressure and bought a pretty dress covered with strawberries with
sleeves down to her wrists. She was excited to go to church that day, thinking
the guilt trips would be over. She asked the pastor's wife, "Well, how do you
like my dress?"
She
answered, "Those strawberries are much too red. The dress is worldly. You are
just trying to attract attention to yourself!"
Legalism
always uses guilt to make other people change their beliefs. (Kent Crockett, The
911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 179)
Jesus Did Not Work With the Pharisees
"If Jesus had thought the
kingdom could be built through law, legalism and fundamentalism, He would have
worked with the Pharisees rather than calling disciples." --David Currie
Life
Only One Week to Live
A doctor
told his patient, “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that you
only have one week to live.”
“That’s the
good news? What’s the bad news?”
“The bad
news is I was supposed to tell you last week, but I forgot.”
If you
found out that you only had a week to live, how would you view life? (Kent
Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers,
2004, 153)
What Makes Life Unbearable
"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose." --Viktor Frankl
Quality, not Quantity
"The measure of a life,
after all, is not its duration, but its donation." --Corrie ten Boom
Light
Darkness cannot snuff if out
"There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle." --Robert Alden
Sharing is not Losing
"No candle loses any of its light when it lights another one." --Charles J. Milazzo
Lighten Up
"You can't shine your
light until you first lighten up!" --Kent Crockett
The People in the Dark Room
If you are sitting in a
dark room with no windows, you can't see the objects in the room. Even though
the objects are there, you aren't aware of them because you're in darkness.
However, if someone turns on the light switch, the things previously hidden from
your eyes are now obvious.
Don't get angry at people
in spiritual darkness for not being able to see what's obvious to you. Instead,
bring them some spiritual light. (Matt. 5:14-16) --Kent Crockett
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Cursing the Darkness
"Jesus didn't say to be
cursers of darkness, but be the light of the world." --Kent Crockett
Suspicious of the Light
"I'm afraid of the dark and suspicious of the light." --Woody Allen
What is a Saint?
During a sermon, a pastor
asked a reflective question to the congregation, "And what is a saint?"
A little boy looked up at
the stained glass windows of the apostles and blurted out, "People who let the
light shine through!"
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Two Ways to Spread Light
"There are two ways of spreading light: to
be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." --Edith Wharton
Little Things
Small Beginnings
"Always remember that this whole thing was started by a mouse." --Walt Disney
Do Small Things Bother You?
"People who say that small things don't bother them have never slept in a room with a mosquito." --Dennis Rainey
Little Things Can Be Significant Things
"Little things are big
things." --Kent Crockett
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Be Faithful in the Small Things
"No matter how small and unimportant what we are doing may seem, if we do it well, it may soon become the step that will lead us to better things." - Channing Pollock
Big Consequences
"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous
consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little
things." --Bruce Barton
Lords Supper
Understand part 1 before part 2
A number of years ago, my mother came to
visit with us for several days. I thought she might like a particular movie, so
I rented it. After thirty minutes of watching the movie, my mom said, “I’m
sorry, but I just don’t understand this movie at all.”
I picked up the video case and realized I
had mistakenly rented part 2, the sequel to the movie, instead of the original
movie, part 1. She couldn’t understand part 2 because she hadn’t seen part 1.
In same way, we can’t comprehend Part 2
(the Lord’s Supper) until we first understand Part 1 (the Passover Feast). The
Old Covenant is part 1. They killed a Passover Lamb and ate the Feast of
Unleavened Bread to remember their deliverance from Egypt (Deut 16:3).
Jesus ended Part 1 and replaced it with
Part 2.
The New Covenant is part 2. Jesus became
the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). We are to partake of the Lord’s Supper to
remember our deliverance from our sins.
Kent Crockett
This is My body
Show the congregation a picture of your
wife and say, “This is my wife. Actually, this picture really isn’t my wife
because she’s sitting right there.” Then point to your wife.
When Jesus held up the bread at the Last
Supper and said, “This is my body,” He meant it was a picture of what He would
do on the cross, not that it was His literal body, which they could
see was holding the bread. He was giving them an object lesson to remember
His sacrifice. "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19).
Kent Crockett