24 Sermon Illustrations on Greatness

Heart is what separates the good from the great. — Michael Jordan, Former pro basketball player, Cited in BITS & PIECES

The really great person is the person who makes every person feel great. — G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

“Failure is always a safe, familiar, no-risk refuge, a known experience; it focuses no new of testing responsibilities upon one. Success, on the other hand, is unknown territory and a high-risk business; the very life-style it imposes if full of relentless demands for even better performances and achievements.” — Alan H. Olmstead, author

Questions to Ponder

• Am I willing to risk to succeed?

• Do I have a clear picture of the benefits of the success I strive for?

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #3835]

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”

-- Henry Ward Beecher

“Think like a man of action and act like a man of thought.”

-- Henri Bergson

“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”

-- William Blake

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.”

-- William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), politician, B&P 4/18/03

“He who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below.”

-- Lord Byron

“Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

-- Thomas Carlyle

“The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.”

-- Herbert N. Casson

“Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.”

-- Miguel de Cervantes

“Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.”

-- Edwin Hubbel Chapin

“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”

-- Gilbert K. Chesterton

“When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.”

-- Cicero

“The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.”

-- Cicero

“A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he’s not a man of action. You must act as you breathe.”

-- Georges Clemenceau

“When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn’t a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.”

-- Georges Clemenceau

“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.”

-- Joseph Conrad

“A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn’t particularly feel like it.”

-- Alistair Cooke, writer, QFTM 4/26/03

“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”

-- Benjamin Disraeli

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.”

-- George Eliot

“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Hitch your wagon to a star.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.”

-- Thomas Dunn English

“It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.”

-- Anatole France

“The best way out is always through.”

-- Robert Frost

“Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi

“Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.”

-- Giuseppe Garibaldi

“Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.”

-- Heinrich Heine

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.”

-- Horace

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.”

-- Elbert Hubbard

“Some folks can look so busy doing nothin’ that they seem indispensable.”

-- Kin Hubbard

“Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions.”

-- David Hume

“We grow small trying to be great.”

-- E. Stanley Jones

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

-- Robert F. Kennedy

“Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.”

-- William Lilly

“The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.”

-- John Locke

“Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.”

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“We have not wings we cannot soar; but, we have feet to scale and climb, by slow degrees, by more and more, the cloudy summits of our time.”

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, QFTM 4/26/03

“Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”

-- Niccolò Machiavelli

“Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.”

-- Peter Marshall

“You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say.”

-- John N. Mitchell

“Ambition is not a vice of little people.”

-- Michel de Montaigne

“A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward.”

-- George Jean Nathan

“Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.”

-- Jawaharlal Nehru

“Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.”

-- Thomas Otway

“The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune.”

-- William Penn

“Mix a conviction with a man and something happens.”

-- Adam Clayton Powell, congressman, QFTM 4/26/03

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”

-- Pat Riley, basketball coach

“Someone once asked me what I want on my epitaph when I pass away. Just the

words - ‘I tried.’ That’s what this game of life is all about. Trying. There’s the tryers, the criers, and the liars.”

-- Mickey Rooney, entertainer, QFTM 10/25/03

“We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

-- Theodore Roosevelt

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.”

-- Theodore Roosevelt

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst knows that if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

-- Theodore Roosevelt

“It is the constant fault and inseparable evil quality of ambition, that it never looks behind it.”

-- Seneca

“Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.”

-- William Shakespeare

“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

-- William Shakespeare

“The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”

-- William Shakespeare

“To be ambitious of true honor and of the real glory and perfection of our nature is the very principle and incentive of virtue; but to be ambitious of titles, place, ceremonial respects, and civil pageantry, is as vain and little as the things are which we court.”

-- Philip Sidney

“There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves.”

-- Arthur P. Stanley

“Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices: so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.”

-- Jonathan Swift

“If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest.”

-- Publilius Syrus

“Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.”

-- Daniel Webster

“Periods of tranquility are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.”

-- Alfred North Whitehead

“Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.”

-- William Wordsworth

“Too low they build who build below the skies.”

-- Edward Young

“You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.”

-- Booker T. Washington

“Ambition is the last refuge of failure.”

-- Oscar Wilde

Benjamin Franklin believed that the measure of a person's greatness was the person's goodness. He did not believe one could exist without the other. In 1729, in the "American Weekly Mercury," Franklin wrote:

"If we were as industrious to become good as to make ourselves great,

we should become really great by being good, and the number of valuable

people would be much increased.

"But it is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness; and

I pronounce it as certain, that there was never yet a truly great person

who was not at the same time truly virtuous."

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Cited in More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES

Ilion Jones writes, "On the great biographer Ida M. Tarbell's 80th birthday, someone asked her to name the greatest persons she had ever met. She responded, 'The greatest persons I have ever met are those nobody knows anything about.'

"Once the New York Times was asked to help a group of club women decide on the twelve greatest women in the United States. After due consideration, the editors replied, 'The twelve greatest women in the United States are women who have never been heard of outside of their own homes.'"

Jones concludes, "I ask you, who was greater, Thomas A. Edison or his mother? When he was a young lad his teacher sent him home with a note which said, 'Your child is dumb. We can't do anything for him.' Mrs. Edison wrote back, 'You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself.' And she did, with results that are well known."

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Morning Glory, January 8, 1994

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A striking comparison:

“Socrates taught for 40 years,

Plato for 50,

Aristotle for 40,

and Jesus for only 3.

Yet the influence of Christ's 3-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity.

Jesus painted no pictures; yet, some of the finest paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci received their inspiration from Him.

Jesus wrote no poetry; but Dante, Milton, and scores of the world's greatest poets were inspired by Him.

Jesus composed no music; still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection of melody in the hymns, symphonies, and oratorios they composed in His praise.

Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched by this humble Carpenter of Nazareth.

“His unique contribution to the race of men is the salvation of the soul! Philosophy cold not accomplish that. Nor art. Nor literature. Nor music. Only Jesus Christ can break the enslaving chains of sin and Satan. He alone can speak peace to the human heart, strengthen the weak, and give life to those who are spiritually dead.”

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SOURCE: "Enriching Every Sphere" by Henry G. Bosch from Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Tan, Signs of The Times, Assurance Publishers

Marianne Williamson [*] wrote, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented or famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world."

___________________

from A Third Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul

[*] This quote is usually attributed to Nelson Mandela, as it was in the original illustration and later in the movie Invictus. In fact, it was written by Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Ch. 7, Section 3 (1992), p. 190. About the mis-attribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people." See .

"There aren't any great men. There are just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet."

-- Admiral William "Bull" F. Halsey

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right. You'll be criticized anyway."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."

-- Peter Marshal, QFTM 12/27/03

"Great crisis produce great men and great deeds of courage."

-- John F. Kennedy, QFTM 6/5/04

Now we come to look at a section of the psalm which suggests that the reason why the ungodly continue to prosper as they do is because God is asleep. Listen to the psalmist’s exact words: “As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies” (Psa. 73:20). The truth is, of course, that God does not sleep, but the psalmist has used a figure of speech [anthropomorthicis] which pictures our limited human perception of God’s actions. God does not sleep, but at times He appears to do so. But what happens when God stirs from His apparent sleep? The ungodly man, who has seemed so eminent and prosperous, vanishes as a dream. It is as if he had been a phantom or an illusion. The passage before us today puts this whole matter in context when it tells us that the nations are but “a drop in a bucket” to the Creator. Now they may look powerful and mighty, with their stockpiles of nuclear weapons, but when God arises they are as “grasshoppers”.

Do you remember being told in your history class at school about Alexander the Great? He was one of the greatest generals of all time and conquered almost the entire known world. Did you know that he is referred to in the Bible? You will not see his name written in the Scriptures, but reference to him can be found in Daniel. Look at what the Bible calls him — a “goat” (Dan. 8:5-8). Walter Luthi puts it like this: “He who to the world is Alexander the Great, is to God nothing more than a he-goat.” When God arises, the great become nothing.

PRAYER:

Father, thank You for reminding me over these past few days of Your greatness and eternal power. I so easily forget that I am linked to a God who is not just powerful but all-powerful. Let the wonder of that fact sink deep into my soul today. Amen.

Study: Psalm 121:1-8; 2 Chron. 6:20; 16:9

1. What does the psalmist assure us?

2. How does God show Himself strong?

If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith? — Matthew 6:30.

God is great in great things, but very great in little things. A party stood on the Matterhorn admiring the sublimity of the scene, when a gentleman produced a pocket microscope, and having caught a fly placed it under the glass. He reminded us that the legs of the household fly in England were naked and then called attention to this little fly’s legs which were thickly covered with hair, thus showing that the same God who made the lofty Swiss mountains attended to the comfort of His tiniest creatures, even providing socks and mittens for the little fly whose homes these mountains

were. This God is our God.

Great God of wonders! all Thy ways

display Thine attributes divine;

But the bright glories of Thy grace

above Thine other wonders shine:

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?

Or who has grace so rich and free?

”The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this?’” (Mark 8:27)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus is never referred to as Jesus the Great? We speak of Alexander the Great, Charles the Great, and Peter the Great but never Jesus the Great. And why? Because He dwells in a sphere where no real comparisons are possible. It simply doesn’t seem right to use the designation “the Great” of our Lord as we would of others. Our Lord has no peers, no rivals, and no successors. He is so different from every other leader, so unique, so superior, that He qualifies for a place on His own. The things He said about God are not the same as the sayings of any other religious teacher. The claims He made for Himself are unparalleled. His analysis of human society goes deeper and is more devastating than that pronounced by any other man. The challenges and demands He made on His followers are more searching than those put forward by anyone – past and present.

As James Francis said of Him: “He never wrote a book, never held an office, never had a family, never went to college, never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness. But … He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of its column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that have ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of people upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

PRAYER: Jesus, my Lord and my God, all the descriptions of You fall short of defining Your real glory and worth. Yet my soul recognizes, even though it cannot put it into words, the glory that belongs to You by sovereign right. I love You Lord Jesus. With all my heart. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:

Isaiah 40:1-31; Psalms 89:6; John 1:34

1. What question did Isaiah pose?

2. What was John’s testimony?

Human power is commanding. It makes the powerless shake in the face of its

awesome displays. And it makes the powerful drunk with the abilities it bestows.

But human power has an Achilles heel. It is mutable. It is changeable. It ebbs and flows from one empire, or company, or individual, to the next. And this, despite the greatest efforts of men to maintain it.

The Romantic poet Percy Shelley masterfully betrays the Achilles heel of human power in his ironic poem Ozymandias. The title of the poem comes from the reported inscription on the largest statue in Egypt in the century before Christ. It read, “I am Ozymandias, king of kings; if anyone wishes to know what I am and where I lie, let him surpass me in some of my exploits.” [1]

Shelley crafts his poem around this bit of information, except he slightly alters the inscription and considers the great statue after centuries have passed. As Shelley writes it, the statue is now torn in half so that the legs stand as two pillars erect in the desert dunes, and the body lies half sunk in the sand. The inscription reads, “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” But all that is left of Ozmymandias' mighty works is the desert sands. Shelley bitingly describes the scene, “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.” [2] Ozymandias' monument to his great works turns out to be a monument to his laughable pride. The irony is rich. His statue proclaims to the sands that all his works have withered away like, the sands. Human power, for certain, is mutable.

Consider another man's incredible claims to power and authority. Jesus of Nazareth twenty centuries ago claimed that by His own power His kingdom would be founded and that not just the sands of time but even the gates of hell, would not overcome it. Those are heady claims, motivated by absolute megalomania, lunacy, or incredible superpowers.

Amazingly Jesus' claims have not become like Ozymandias' decaying statue. For two millennia Jesus' has reigned in the hearts of men and woman around the world, and indeed, the Scriptures declare that He is seated at the right hand of God the Father. That is a living monument far more glorious than Ozymandias could have dreamed.

Notre Dame in Paris, and St. Peter's in Rome are incredible testimonies to the enduring potency of Christ. But more awesome than these structures is the army of saints that Christ is leading through the centuries.

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1. M. H. Abrams, Ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition (New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1996), p. 1696.

2. Ibid.

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Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5122]

In a recent edition of his TIPS newsletter, Philip Humbert writes, “Harry Truman didn't find a career until late in life. He didn't marry until well into his thirties, and before that he tried a variety of jobs and ventures, including farming and selling men's clothing. His clothing store went bankrupt and he referred to himself as a 'failed haberdasher' for the rest of his life. Because of poor eyesight, he barely made it into the Army, but served with distinction and courage in World War I. In his 40's and 50's he drifted into politics and served as a county commissioner, mainly dealing with road repair.

“He never had money and he and his wife spend most of their married life living upstairs in his mother-in-law's home. When he was elected to the U.S. Senate, he was seen as a party hack and given little respect. In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt selected him to run for Vice President after the 'better' candidates were all rejected. FDR thought so little of him, they never had a serious conversation and Truman was told nothing about the atomic bomb until several days after he was sworn in as the new President.

“And yet this 'common man' is often viewed as one of the greatest Presidents of the 20th century. How can this be? Truman himself often said that there 'are probably a million people more qualified than me to be President, but I'm the one with the job, and I'll do my best.’ Throughout his life, he was always known for doing his best, and often astonished people by exceeding their expectations....”

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Copyright C 2006, all rights reserved.