Sermon Illustration: How to Murder Your Husband

Nancy Brophy, a sweet looking granny is in jail for murdering her husband. Yep. A granny who looks like someone who could make a mouth watering apple pie and famous turkey and dressing is now behind bars because she didn’t want her husband around anymore.

The crazy thing?

She is a novelist who, years earlier, wrote a fiction novel about murdering your husband and getting away with it. Later she wrote an essay on how to write a compelling novel about this very topic.

Yep. She wrote books and essays on how to murder your husband and get away with it.

Nancy Brophy murdered her husband. . . .

But here’s the thing.

She didn’t get away with it.

Nope.

It’s one thing to write about it, fictionally. It’s another thing to actually try to carry it out.

But this points us to a fascinating, and scary, reality: What you believe will drive how you behave.

Your beliefs directly impact your behavior.

If you believe the truth, it leads you to act accordingly.

If you don’t believe the truth, it leads you to act accordingly.

Nancy believed it was true that one could murder their husband and get away with it. It wasn’t true, but she believed it. . . therefore, she acted.

It’s true for Nancy, and it’s true for you.

What you believe about yourself, God, God’s story, and where you fit in God’s story will directly impact how you live your life.

So, what habits and disciplines and routines and rhythms are a part of your daily life that guarantees immersion in the truth?

How would you answer this question: “How are you being changed by Jesus?”