Sermon Illustrations
Farmer Can't Find the Water Supply on His Land
In the classic French film Jean de Florette, townspeople in a small village in Provence, France conspire against a local landowner named Jean who has just inherited a plot of land. They want to force Jeans's little farm to fail so they can possess the land. The land receives only scant rainfall so they sneak on to his property and plug a healthy stream, cementing it shut and covering it with dirt.
Jean does not know about the nearby spring, but he knows of another, more distant water supply over a mile away. He initially makes progress, but eventually getting the water and dragging it from the distant spring becomes a backbreaking experience. Sadly, he never discovers that he already has an inexhaustible supply of water underground but nearby.
Possible Preaching Angles: Holy Spirit; God, power of—In the same way, Christians have an inexhaustible supply of power—the Holy Spirit—living within us. Sadly, some of us are like Jean in this film—you spend our lives in backbreaking effort trying to haul another supply.