Llewellyn - Hot Sermon Illustrations

Ararat, Victoria, Australia: Aussie Worship, 2011. – 195 p.

ISBN 978-1461168508

 

Tony Llewellyn is the Pastor of Ararat Church of Christ. He is an author, Bible teacher, musician and composer, and has released several albums of original gospel music. Since coming to Christ in 1975, he has held positions of leadership in most facets of church life, and began pastoring in 1989, having previously been Music Director at other CLCI churches for a period of thirteen years. He has taught privately, as well as running songwriting and guitar courses at various colleges. Several of his piano pieces were published in 1997 by Australian and New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited.

 

Pastor Tony has a heart to see God’s Word loved, understood, and lived out in the lives of Christians everywhere. He believes that when God’s people live God’s Word they become the fruitful people God wants them to be.

 

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This book is written for those who deal with words. Although the title suggests that it is for preachers, it is equally useful for other public speakers, trainers and writers.

 

For those of us who believe that we have a teaching gift, putting together a message that will last thirty to forty minutes is not really that difficult. In fact, preachers are professional public speakers, and many of us do this every single week.

 

The most difficult part, however, is not figuring out the main points, or developing a theme in logical order. That’s what the teaching gift does. The greatest challenge is to make sure that what we say is interesting.

 

Jesus Himself was an expert at this, and employed a technique that every speaker worth his salt should also use. He told stories, and lots of them.

 

For those who speak regularly on a variety of topics, the greatest task is finding anecdotes that will illustrate your point adequately, spice up your message, and help it to stay in the mind of the listener.

 

That’s what this book is all about. The intention is to provide you with relevant anecdotes, quotes, jokes, and statistics that will help you in preparing your message.

 

With that in mind, I need to explain some things. First, as the Scripture says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” So many stories have been told, and retold, that it is often difficult to find out where they originated. I have now been collecting the contents of this book (and much more!) for over thirty years, and I never thought that I would one day be putting them into a book.

 

Which means that some of the anecdotes may have originated elsewhere and I can no longer remember the source. Acknowledgements have been made if I have that information; otherwise, the oversight is not intentional. If the details become available, I will correct this in future editions. Naturally, this is only relevant if I am using exact quotations.

 

Second, as you look at the references, you will notice that there are some rich sources of great stories that you can easily access yourself. These include Time Magazine, Reader’s Digest, books, newspapers, and more. I encourage you to do the same as I have been doing all these years: Start your own collection. It’s really not that hard.

 

Third, although this book is alphabetically categorised throughout (which is why there is no Table of Contents), some of the anecdotes are relevant to more than one topic. As a preacher, I hate having to think of alternative subject headings when looking for sermon illustrations. I’ve tried to save you the trouble and so some items are listed more than once.

 

Finally, don’t forget that words have power. The spoken word, as well as the written word, can change lives. The sole purpose of the contents of this book is to help you to do that in the most effective way.

 

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Honesty

Pepe Rodriguez was one of the most dangerous bank robbers in the wild, wild west. He would sneak over the border into Texas, rob a bank, and then flee back to Mexico. The Texas Rangers got so frustrated they decided that they would cross the border illegally and track him down. There was a long search, and finally they trapped him in a Mexican bar. All the lawmen had their guns drawn. Pepe was terrified. He could speak no English and the Rangers couldn’t speak any Spanish. So they asked Pepe’s friend, the bartender, to translate. He explained to Pepe who they were. The Rangers asked the barman to tell Pepe that they wanted to know where he had hidden all the money. If he didn’t tell them, they would shoot him down like a dog. The bartender translated, and Pepe began to tremble. “Tell them the money is hidden in the well. Count down twelve stones from the top, and that’s where all the loot is.” The bartender turned to the Rangers and said, “Pepe is not afraid to die. He says that you are a bunch of filthy dogs, and he will never tell you where the money is.”

 

Pleasing God

The triumph of Jesus Christ at the very juncture over the powers and principalities of evil is a major theme of the New Testament. He was tested by persecution at his birth and throughout his life. He was tested by false friends, by hostile religious leaders, by Jewish and Gentile civil authorities. He was tested in the healings, the exorcisms, the temptations in the wilderness. The principalities and powers attacked him through opposition from within his own circle. His own family assigned his notoriety to the devil (Mk 3:20-35) and one of his intimate friends sold him for thirty pieces of silver. No man was ever tested like Jesus Christ. He faced it all, and overcame it all, as no man before or since has done. The secret of his life was his determination to please his heavenly Father at all points. (John 8:29)