Sermon Illustrations

Lloyd Ogilive tells a story about when his family took a vacation by sailing from New York harbor to Quebec.

They were going through the locks that allow ships travel up the river where they have to move to higher elevations. You come into a lock at the level of the water where you are. Then the gates are closed behind you. The gates in front are opened, and the water rushes in and raises you to a higher level. Lloyd Ogilive and his family had decided to take a nap as they sat in one of the locks, he says that he woke up to the sound of a voice yelling" hey mate are you ready to move on?" It was the lock master yelling at him, he said you can’t stay here forever, now tell me are you ready to move on? After Lloyd Ogilive had gotten awake and ready the lock master opened the door to the lock and the water rushed in and lifted them to a new level in the river. Life is kinda like going through locks, there are times that we think that we have gone as far as we can go. The gate behind is has closed, because we have come far enough that we couldn’t go back to where we were. But the problem is, that the door to the future is closed too, and there seems to be no way to go anywhere. Then the eternal lock master ( Jesus) says "hey are you ready to go on?" And the minute that we are ready and sincere about moving to a new level the gates open . And the living water of Jesus rushes in and raises us to a new level. The important thing is opening the new flood gate? Where God’s power is concerned, the word power is spelled C-O-M-M-I-T-M-E-N-T.

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