Preach "The King Has Come" 3-Part Series this week!
Preach Christmas week

Sermon Illustrations

Doug Wilson wrote about food fads among Christians, noting how frequently we imagine that what we eat or do not eat pleases God: “There is no more defilement in ‘eating healthy’ than there is in stopping by McDonald’s. The only defilement possible is a defilement that comes out of the heart, and not what goes into the mouth. However this does create a caution for those who are heavy into ‘eating healthy.’ To say that one food over against another puts you closer to God is false religion, and that does defile…. Americans have a long tradition of thinking that we can deal with sin by means of false sacraments” (Credenda/Agenda, Summer 2008, 16).

We do, you know. John Harvey Kellogg, a Seventh-day Adventist, developed corn flakes because he felt a meatless breakfast would reduce sexual drive and promiscuity. Thomas Bramwell Welch created unfermented grape juice because, as a Wesleyan Methodist, Christians were not to drink wine. The Reverend Sylvester Graham invented the Graham cracker to suppress carnal urges and promote sanctification.

All this in spite of Colossians 2.20-23: Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”

It offended Graham and Welch and Kellogg for Jesus to say that he had to wash away daily the filth of sin; they would solve the problem for Jesus by eating healthy.

Related Sermon Illustrations

Related Sermons