Sermon Illustrations

If you’re still wondering about the word’s power to do this converting alone, consider again Paul. Still not enough? Think of David, a prisoner serving a 365 year sentence for murder. An inmate gave him a Gideon New Testament and Psalms. One night in his cell, he picked it up after ignoring it for the longest time and began reading Psalm 34. By the time he got to v. 6 it melted his heart. There he read, “this poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and saved him from all his troubles.” David remembers that night well and later wrote, “It was at that moment, in 1987, that I began to pour out my heart to God. Everything seemed to hit me at once. The guilt from what I did... the disgust at what I had become... late that night in my cold cell, I got down on my knees and I began to cry to Jesus Christ. I told Him that I was sick and tired of doing evil. I asked Jesus to forgive me for all my sins. I spent a good while on my knees praying to Him. When I got up it felt as if a very heavy but invisible chain that had been around me for so many years was broken. A peace flooded over me. I did not understand what was happening. But in my heart I just knew that my life, somehow, was going to be different.” Sixteen years later David Berkowitz, a.k.a. The Son of Sam, leads Bible studies inside the walls of his prison, devoted to spending the rest of his life in prison where he now the Lord has placed him so he can reach still more.

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