Sermon Illustrations

-I was a groomsmen at a wedding once. It was a formal wedding, the place was packed and everyone was looking there finest. The wedding coordinator put a piece of tape on the floor for me to stand and said, “this is your spot, do not move”. The wedding was going beautifully until something awful happened. Out of the corner of my eye I watched in horror as a bridesmaid lost her balance and fell onto the ground. A gasp was heard in the audience like air being let out of a raft in the middle of the ocean. Nobody knew what to do, she laid there so pitifully weeping at her own embarrassment. I was the closest to her, but all I could do is look at her and then my piece of tape and then at her again. I remembered the words that the wedding coordinator said to me “this is your spot, do not move”. She didn’t give me instructions on what to do if anybody did a face plant on the stage.

Then, I saw something that I will never forget for the rest of my life. I saw her father. . . He was running down the aisle. He did not have a piece of tape to stand on, what he had was a hurting daughter with a world of idiots standing around her. He had to get to her out of there. He ran up the steps and scooped his weeping little girl off of the floor as if she weighed nothing at all. And, in an instant, they were gone.

This made me think about what Paul said, “when I am weak, He is strong”. A young girl whose life seemingly fell apart. Could there be a greater horror for a teenager? She was weak, but her father was strong. He removed her from the situation because she was not strong enough to do so.

-When I am weak, He is strong. I know that my father’s strength is greatest when I am at my weakest.