“However, one Friday evening, let’s say Andre is simply beat. He’s exhausted. It’s been a long week at work, and, after picking Angela up and playing with her, he just wants to crash on the couch, watch a movie and go to bed.
“So, on that Friday evening, after watching his movie, as he walks by the kitchen and sees the dirty dishes still out from dinner, he keeps walking, gets ready for bed and falls asleep. When Jennifer arrives home at 11:45 p.m. that Friday evening, as you can guess, she’s not a happy camper.
“The next morning, Andre gets up around 6:00 a.m., heads down to his office in the basement and gets started on his Saturday morning routine of paying the bills and catching up on his reading. Life is good. Around 8:00 a.m. he hears Jen opening a cabinet in the kitchen, so he starts up the stairs to greet her.
“Unfortunately, when he arrives at the top of the stairs, he begins to feel a cool breeze. As he enters into the kitchen and says, ‘Good morning!’ he feels the temperature in the kitchen drop precipitously as she barely acknowledges him. Not to be deterred, he walks up behind Jen, puts his arms around her and promptly experiences frostbite.
“Not the smartest guy on the planet, Andre asks incredulously, ‘What’s wrong?’ Jen simply turns around, looks him in the eye, points to the mass of dirty dishes and says, ‘What does this communicate to me?’
“Well, as you know, those are fighting words. So Andre jumps into excuse and defense mode and says, ‘Hey, I had a hard week at work. I put in 52 hours this week, and, by last evening after I put Angela down, I was exhausted!’ Now, if that response wasn’t bad enough, Andre goes the extra mile and says, ‘Plus, I’m the main breadwinner here. I worked M-F. I went in early each day. And still I did my part taking care of Angela. I don’t get what the big deal is.’
“Undeterred, Jen simply said, ‘You didn’t answer my question. What does this communicate to me?’
“Without responding, Andre picks up the car keys, walks out the door and starts driving. At first, he’s fuming mad. The conversation in his head is, ‘So, who does she think she is? I work hard all week. I make most of the money. She only works two or three days a week. And she has the nerve to give me a hard time about some dishes being left out. I can’t believe it.’
“But then, right in the middle of this mental rant, God pops a thought into Andre’s head: ‘But what does you leaving dirty dishes out communicate to your wife?’
“Slowly, he responds, like a man hit with a 2×4 over his head, ‘That what I do is more important than what she does.’
“Then, God reminded Andre of Philippians 2:3-4: ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others.’
“To which Andre finally responded, ‘From now on, God, I won’t selfishly put my needs before Jen’s or devalue her or what she does. From now on, I’ll put her needs before my own.'”
That’s what Phil. 2:3-4 looks like.
Now, can you do that? Absolutely! In fact, you can do this on any given week for any given message or point. You can create a scenario (an illustration from the present) that will perfectly fit the passage you’re preaching on, the point you’re trying to make and the people to whom you’re speaking.
It just requires a little thought and some creativity, but your people will be grateful that you took the time to create the perfect scenario for them. Why? Because when you take the time to create the perfect illustration, you’ll be creating a “window to the soul” for them that will not only help them understand the point, but help them know how to apply it as well. Like I said, what more could a preacher ask for?
