Sermon Illustrations
Choosing to Live in Darkness
At first glance Steve and Kathryn's home might look like a dingy basement apartment. But then you notice that everything rests on crates. You see, Steve and Kathryn live in an underground flood tunnel in Las Vegas. And get this—around 700 other people live in these tunnels, too. Day in and day out, they deal with black widow spiders and mosquitoes, but they say it's cooler than the streets, and the cops don't bother them.
An article profiled these flood-tunnel dwellers, saying "they've formed a community, united by a collection of graffiti drawn by resident artists that they call their art gallery." And what else holds them together as a community? "A fear of flooding, which has killed 20 underground dwellers over the last two decades."
In some ways it's a vivid picture of life in this world—the dark, the danger, the community, evading the law. Jesus told Nicodemus, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."
That's life in Sin City.