4 Sermon Illustrations on Lordship Of Christ

Someone said to Bishop Talleyrand, one of the most astute men who ever lived: "The Christian religion-what is it? It would be easy to start a religion like that." "Oh, yes," replied Talleyrand. "One would only have to get crucified and rise again the third day." In Tune Have you at sometime watched a symphony orchestra as a performance is about to begin? The musicians sit and stand about, strumming on strings, blowing into horns, beating on drums. There is a lot of noise, but no music. Then the conductor enters. He walks to his podium and steps up onto it. His eye sweeps the scene before him-all the musicians and all their instruments. He lifts his baton, pauses there for a moment, then he gives the downbeat. Instantly there is music; all instuments blend into one harmonious whole. Our human spirits are a lot like symphony orchestras. Within us there may be discordant elements, warring factions that pull this way or that, and we are out of focus, out of tune-we are just not together within. As an orchestra needs a master control, so do we. When we turn the whole focus of our attention to our Lord and acknowledge that He is in command, our lives will give forth harmonious music.

I used to think the Lord's prayer was a short prayer; but as I live longer, and see more of life, I begin to believe there is no such thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying that prayer, were to be stopped by every word until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take him a lifetime. "Our Father,"—there would be a wall a hundred feet high in just those two words to most men. If they might say, "Our Tyrant," or "Our Monarch," or even "Our Creator," they could get along with it; but "Our Father,"—why, a man is almost a saint who can pray that. You read, "Thy will be done;" and you say to yourself, "Oh! I can pray that;" and all the time your mind goes round and round in immense circuits and far-off distances: but God is continually bringing the circuits nearer to you, till he says, "How is it about your temper and your pride? how is it about your business and your daily life?" This is a revolutionary petition. It would make many a man's shop and store tumble to the ground to utter it. Who can stand at the end of the avenue along which all his pleasant thoughts and wishes are blossoming like flowers, and send these terrible words, "Thy will be done," crashing down through it? I think it is the most fearful prayer to pray in the world. Beecher.