Sermon Illustrations
Florida Inmates Use Theft Skills to Rescue Baby
When people are incarcerated, they often yearn for ways to help repay their debt to society. For five men, the opportunity came sooner than they expected. While working on the side of the road repairing concrete medians, their group was approached by Shadow Lantry, a motorist whose one-year-old daughter had been accidentally locked inside the car. The girl’s father had strapped her into the rear car seat, threw the keys in the front seat and closed the doors, not realizing they were locked.
Providentially, these men had experience getting into locked vehicles without the key. As the deputies oversaw and Lantry stood by recording video, they used a clothes hangar to jimmy the lock of her Chevy Tahoe. The child was freed in less than five minutes.
“Thank God for the criminals in the world,” Landy was recorded saying. “I respect all y’all.”
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco agreed. "There's only a very small percentage of those criminals out there that want to fight us and want to attack us, but a lot of them, like these individuals, they know they made bad mistakes, bad choices, but they want to do the right thing in life."
Potential Preaching Angle:
God can use even our sinful ways for redemptive purposes, so what people intend for evil God can use for good.
Source:
Amir Vera, “Florida inmates use their criminal skills to rescue a baby locked in an SUV” CNN (2-17-19)