Sermon Illustrations

A man was hired to paint the lines on the highway that divide the lanes. Now the company didn’t have a lot of resources so he had to do his painting on foot. After the first day at work his supervisor was very impressed when he learned that this new employee had painted three miles’ worth of lines.

Unfortunately, the next day his results were not quite as impressive. He was only able to extend the lines for two miles. The third day he only painted less than one mile of lines.

The supervisor went from being impressed to being concerned. He called him into him into his office and said, "I’m going to have to let you go." The employee dropped his head and got up to leave. As he was going out the door he turned and said, "I’ve never worked so hard in all my life! Its just that the paint bucket keeps getting further and further away!"

We laugh at this man’s problem. His problem was that his paint bucket was too far from where he was doing his work! His supply source was too far from where the brush hit the road! What he needed to do was to take the bucket with him! How is it that things can be so glaringly obvious in a story like this and, yet, they can be so hard to see in our own spiritual lives? When we find ourselves reading the bible handed out in S.S. or reading the bible provided in the pew and then not opening our own bibles during the week, are we not working too far from our buckets?