Tag: sin

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Jeremiah’s nasty underwear sermon

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Some “through the bible” thoughts from Jeremiah 13.

Jeremiah preached with cool object lessons. In Jeremiah 13 God tells him to get a pair of your tighty-whities (a loincloth in Old Testament times), bury them under a rock in a river for a while, and then retrieve them when they were wet, dirty, moldy, rotten, stained, and smelly.

The outline of Jeremiah sermon goes like this: “You won’t listen to God’s word, you do whatever you please, and you worship idols. You are as useful as this nasty pair of my underwear!” (Jeremiah 13:10). (Hold up the boxer briefs for effect.)

It’s a vivid, concrete, offensive, clear, and memorable image. Worthy of a handshake and, “Nice message, Jerry!” How many of us picture ourselves in that way?

You prefer the “God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life” message, don’t you? I know I do. Who wouldn’t? (Can’t I at least be a nice clean pair of underwear?)

Jeremiah was faithful, but he wasn’t a popular prophet. He cut to the chase, no matter how insulting, gloomy, and insensitive the truth was.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

One bad apple

Posted on by William Douthwaite
I wonder how the neighbors feel living next to this?

A “through the bible” devotion from Joshua 7.

My wife and I drove down many streets in various neighborhoods looking for a lot on which to build a house twenty-eight year ago. We liked a few lots on one street but decided not to build there because of one house on the corner.

Irrigation left brown stains on the side of the house. The circular driveway was moldy. The lawn was more weeds than grass. We crossed that street off our list of possibilities because of that one poorly maintained house. In hindsight, we made a wise choice. Lots of people built houses on that street since then. But cars parked in the circular driveway haven’t moved in years. And the first thing you notice: irrigation stains on the walls and driveway.

One person can ruin it for everybody.

After routing and destroying the city of Jericho, Joshua is confident of victory against Ai. So everyone is puzzled when they lose. But one person, Aachan, took some plunder from Jericho and hid it in his tent (Joshua 7:20). But God had told them to destroy everything. Aachan’s personal sin ruins it for everyone. Israel has disobeyed God and violated the covenant.

One stupid driver gets in a wreck and now everyone is stuck in traffic. You went to work with a cold instead of staying home to rest. Now everyone in the office is coughing and sneezing. One person steals something from a store, and now a whole display is under lock and key.

Perhaps sin isn’t as private and personal as we like to think. If it affects a whole family, community, or even a nation, take it seriously and pursue God’s grace and forgiveness.

Posted in Grace, Ministry

Is anger a sin?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Film Title: The Incredible HulkA couple of Sundays ago, my Church 101 membership class was challenged with the question, “Is anger a sin?” Along with that was the observation that Jesus was angry when he cleared the money changers from the temple in Jerusalem. So the follow up question is, “Is there such a thing as righteous indignation (or anger?)” Continue reading “Is anger a sin?” →

Posted in Ministry

Bacon

Posted on by William Douthwaite

The thing most people will remember about my sermon today is “bacon.” I can tell because that’s what everyone mentioned to me on the way out. I talked about bacon in the context of dying to sin and rising to new life in Romans 6. I said that forgiveness can sometimes make us take sin too lightly. I compared that to the attitude that you can eat as much bacon as you want, and if your arteries get clogged, you can just get bypass surgery and be just fine. We forget how drastic bypass surgery is, and how hard the recovery is. Just ask anyone who’s been through it. In a similar way, sin is destructive, too. If you can avoid it, you do. Just look at the cross to see the consequences. The comparison made perfect sense to me. But I fear that all people will remember is “bacon.” After all, who doesn’t like bacon?

I’ve had a couple of other one word sermon remembrances, too. Maggots. Slut. Hell. You have to be so careful what you say. What might seem like a passing reference in an illustration might be the one thing your hearers remember.