Sermon Illustrations

BILL HYBELS: WHY PEOPLE ARE LONELY

Why do we have a sense of loneliness today? Bill Hybels explains it this way:

"It is a "me-first” mind-set. This mind-set says indulge yourself, fulfill your desires, satiate your appetites, pursue pleasure, take off all restraints. As much as we might want to pretend that this value system died in the eighties, let’s be honest: it is alive and still thriving.

With this mind-set comes an elusive promise: If you seek first your own good and satisfy your own desires, then you will be happy. In print, on television, and in the movies, over and over we hear the lie. The road to contentment, satisfaction, fulfillment, and true joy is marked with a street sign flashing "Me First." ... People are pathologically self-centered and ignore the needs of others.

The "me-first" mind-set is controlling many lives, even the lives of those who call themselves followers of Christ."

(Source: Bill Hybels "Descending into Greatness," p. 11. From a sermon by Michael McCartney, Experience the Spirit in Service, 4/14/2011)

Related Sermon Illustrations

Related Sermons