Sermon Illustrations

There was a young boy named John and his favorite past time was playing marbles. John was out in the playground one day when he saw Susie carrying a box of chocolates.

Now John also loved to eat chocolates. So he thought for a while before saying to Susie:

“Susie, if you give me your box of chocolates, I’ll give you all my marbles in return.”

Susie replied:

“You want to swap all your marbles for all my chocolates?”

John nodded yes.

“It’s a deal.” Replied Susie.

As Susie handed over her only box of chocolates, John reached deep into his pocket and felt for his favorite blue marble with its distinguishing size and chip. Scooping up everything except for the blue marble, John handed over the rest of his marbles to Susie. Then snatching the box of chocolates from Susie, John snickered and whispered to himself, “Sucker!”

As John was walking away he began rolling his most precious blue marble in his pocket. Suddenly John stopped, as a disturbing thought came to him

He turned around, he shouted out to Susi who was walking away:

“Susie! Are you sure that you have given me all your chocolates?”

You see, John doubted Susi’s honesty because he himself had been dishonest. John doubted Susi’s generosity because he himself had not been generous.

This is how it often is in our relationship with God. We begin doubting Him, not because he is untrustworthy, but because we ourselves are!

We can Apply this illustration to Blood covenant where both parties have entered into a most sacred agreement. Each party has committed to make everything they have available to the other person if the need should arise.

God has entered into the New Covenant with us through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He has committed to give us “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3). We were supposed to surrender everything we have to Him in exchange.

But so often we are just like John. We are holding something back from God. And then we begin to doubt what God has said and done. The real problem is not with God but with us! We all have blue marbles that we love to much to surrender it to God. And it really causes us all kinds of disturbing thoughts about God’s goodness to us. So I invite you to come and surrender your blue marbles to God so that nothing will mar your relationship with him.

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