Sermon Central
-
What Happens When We Learn About A Really Bad ... PRO
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007 (message contributor)
What happens when we learn about a really bad guy repenting? It happens all the time in prison ministry, yet many of us think those people aren’t worth saving. They had more chances than most of us are willing to give them, yet God hasn’t given up on them.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a convicted murderer and cannibal who cooked and ate his victims. You don’t really get much more heinous than that. He was awarded 16 life sentences. While in prison, Dahmer met with Roy Ratcliff, a minister with the Church of Christ in Madison, Wisconsin, and turned his life over to Jesus Christ. He was baptized in prison, knowing that he would never leave prison alive. He had nothing to gain in this life, but everything to gain in the next.
We may scoff at jailhouse conversions, but within months of Dahmer’s baptism, people noticed a Christian spirit in him. His father and pen pals noticed the difference, and his father, who had left the church, has since been restored as a faithful member. Dahmer’s younger brother also had a conversion experience of his own.
Dahmer was killed in prison by a fellow inmate a few months after his baptism. At his memorial service, along with his own family and several Christians, two sisters of one of his victims attended, having grown close to Dahmer’s family after their brother’s death.
That may have been Dahmer’s last chance for repentance, and he took it. But many of us think he shouldn’t have been given another chance. He didn’t deserve it. And that’s true. He didn’t deserve another chance. But neither do we.
Jeffrey Dahmer was like that fig tree that provided no fruit during his life. But he was given one more last chance to repent, and he took it. The fruit of Dahmer’s repentance included bringing at least two people to Jesus and helping to heal the painful wounds left by his transgressions.
How many of us can claim the same? God chose to work through him. God chose to work through David Berkowitz as well. The Son of Sam killer who murdered six people in New York City in the late 1970s was involved in the occult and Satan worship.
Ten years into his prison sentence, Berkowitz met a man named Rick in the prison yard who told him about Jesus. He explained that no matter what a person did, Christ was ready to forgive him if he would turn away from the wrong things he was doing and put his faith in Jesus. Rick gave him a Gideon’s Pocket Testament and Berkowitz prayed to Jesus later in his cell, pouring out his heart to Jesus.
This was in 1987. Since then, Berkowitz has refused to be considered...
Continue reading this sermon illustration (Free with PRO)Related Sermon Illustrations
-
I Read A Story Involving The Butterball Turkey ...
Contributed by Pat Cook on May 16, 2005
I read a story involving the Butterball Turkey company, which set up a hotline to answer consumers’ questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to ask about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. The operator told her it might be safe if the freezer had ...read more
-
Wesleyan Theologian Richard Taylor Says, "The ... PRO
Contributed by Pat Cook on May 16, 2005
Wesleyan theologian Richard Taylor says, “The minds of the Israelites endorsed the Ten Commandments, but their hearts were contrary and perverse to them. The ...read more
-
The Elevator PRO
Contributed by Donnie Martin on Jun 27, 2004
The Elevator A man from the back mountains of Tennessee found himself one day in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman ...read more
-
I Have Learned Quite A Bit About Wolves This Year ...
Contributed by Jane Willis on Dec 25, 2004
I have learned quite a bit about wolves this year in preparation for a winter trip to Yellowstone. One of my favorite photographs of a wolf pack shows them traveling over the crest of a hill, through very deep snow. It is an aerial photograph, which shows an exquisitely organized approach to ...read more
-
Those Who Don't Understand The Food That God ... PRO
Contributed by Eric Stefanski on Aug 3, 2003
Those who don’t understand the food that God gives, those who don’t see how deep their need is for it, also consider the Gospel and Sacrament as ’fleeting’, and they seek some new ’rush’ in worship, desiring an emotional high, no matter how lacking in nutrition such a meal is. It’s like the ...read more
Related Sermons
-
Wade In The Water
Contributed by Harold Miller, Jr. on May 6, 2013
An appeal to have a deeper walk with the Lord
-
The Chosen's Choice
Contributed by Jerry Flury on Feb 23, 2014
As Christians we were chosen by God to be recipients of God's amazing grace. The blessings of having been chosen are unfathomable. Being chosen there are also responsibilities to be fulfilled and choices to be made.
-
8 Words To Change Your Family: Commitment Series
Contributed by Brian Bill on Jun 5, 2011
When we lose that which has always been so important to us, we end up finding that which we've been searching for all along.
-
Stephen Shows Us The Right Way To Live And Die Series
Contributed by Rick Crandall on May 5, 2017
1. We need Stephen's courage (vs. 51-53). 2. We need Stephen's commitment (vs. 54-59). 3. We need Stephen's consciousness (vs. 55-56). 4. We need Stephen's character (vs. 59-60).
-
John Wesley's View On Entire Sanctification
Contributed by Sidney Yuan on Apr 1, 2013
This sermon gives a correct view of John Wesley's doctrine of entire sanctification, and teaches us how to be holy.
