Sermon Illustrations

The story is told of two brothers who grew up on a farm. One went away to college, earned a law degree, and became a partner in a prominent law firm in the state capital. The other brother stayed on the family farm.

One day the lawyer came and visited his brother, the farmer. He asked, “Why don’t you go out and make a name for yourself and hold your head up high in the world as I do?” The brother pointed and said, “See that field of wheat over there? Look closely. Only the empty heads stand up. Those that are well filled always bow low.”

Said differently, “The branch that bears the most fruit is bent the lowest to the ground.”

An old ditty goes, “It needs more skill than I can tell/ To play the second fiddle well.”

Leonard Bernstein was once asked which instrument was the...

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