Sermon Illustrations

Your before and after doesn’t have to be complicated. It is simply sharing from your heart what God has done for you and leaving the results with God.

Listen to the story of Spud Webb. At 5’ 6” Spud was like Zaccheus in the NBA where the average height is 6’ 8”or 6’ 9”. Spud played for 9 years in the NBA. Despite a successful high school career, no major college offered him a scholarship. So Spud attended the little two-year Midland College and helped lead his team to a national junior college championship. North Carolina State decided to give him a chance and he led the Wolfpack to a Sweet 16 performance in the NCAA tournament.

When he graduated from college nobody in the NBA wanted to even look at Spud. He did okay in college but would get killed in the NBA. Finally the Atlanta Hawks gave him the opportunity to play. In the first four seasons he played for Atlanta, the Hawks went to the playoffs four times.

Perhaps one of the greatest moments in Spud Webb’s career came on February 8, 1986. That was when the annual NBA Slam-Dunk Championship was held. Competing against players who were over a foot taller than he was, when the Slam Dunk Championship, ended the shortest guy on the court – Spud Webb at 5’ 6” was the winner.

Spud gave this testimony: “I used to pray that the Lord would make me bigger when I was in Junior High School and Senior High, but every time I went to measure myself or to stand in front of the mirror, I’d always be the same size. And then one day I got the message, so I said to the Lord. “If you won’t make me bigger on the outside, will you make me bigger on the inside? And the Lord liked that prayer, and that’s what he’s helped me become.”

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