Somewhere I heard of a preacher who was preparing his sermon on a Saturday afternoon and was stuck for an illustration to complete it. Finally, he told his wife he was going for a drive. “Maybe something will occur to me.”
A half hour later, miles from the city, he came upon a house that was burning. Neighbors surrounded the house, watching it burn, while firefighters ran around trying to extinguish the flames. A weeping family stood off to one side.
The pastor was so touched by that scene, he knew it was the perfect illustration for the next day’s sermon.
The next day, when he got to that point in the sermon, the pastor told his people how he came upon this awful scene in the country. He described the weeping family, the desperate fire-fighters, and the onlooking neighbors.
An hour later, over lunch, he told his wife the story had not gone over the way he had expected. “I felt it was the perfect illustration,” he said, “but they just sat there and stared at me. Something just didn’t work.”
His wife said, “Honey, you forgot to tell them the house was on fire.”
The church today wants to evangelize our world. However, we will never get its attention and merit a hearing until we make them realize the house is on fire. This world has been condemned. Only those who are in Christ will survive. He alone is the Savior.
We were never promised that all mankind would appreciate our message and turn to Christ. But many will, if we tell them and show that we believe our own message by the way we live.
This article on why the good news is not connecting with people originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
