Sermon Illustrations

John the Baptist lived a simple life, even by their standards. In Luke 3 he gives us an important teaching that tends to get eliminated in our society. Luke 3:11

John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Think about that. I am sure that all of you have two coats. If you see someone who doesn’t have one, John says that it would make sense to give one of yours away. That applies to coats, but I think we can do it with other things too. If you are buying your 5th Nintendo game, it might be time to give some of the others away. I am not talking about the junky one that doesn’t work. Give away a good one. That will be good discipline for you, and also could be a blessing for someone else.

But that doesn’t just apply to kids games. I have seen golfers with three great sets of clubs. Isn’t that a little selfish? You can only use one at a time.

So if you are going to buy newer and better, maybe you should give the item that is still in good shape away.

Now I am not saying that to give you an excuse to buy the newest, but it is a good practice with some things. I am not sure that it is really a word, but de-accumulate. It is a biblical teaching.