There are few things edgy and clever and seeker-sensitive churches like more than using strange and unusual sermon illustrations to make a point, and New Beginnings Church in Bedford, Texas, is no exception.
Following in the footsteps of many who had gone before him, such as fellow Texas pastor Ed Young Jr. who pulled a similar stunt a while back, Pastor Bruno DaCosta can be reaching into a small tank and tossing a couple of live goldfish on the ground, who begin to flip and wriggle in the waterless environment, gasping through their mouths and gills.
Putting a twist on the old classic of “Some of you were more worried about that goldfish out of water and dying than you are people in your lives dying without Jesus.” Costa tells the gathered teens:
You know what the problem is? Yeah, that’s exactly the problem. The same way you see these fishes dying here and you don’t do anything to help them, you see people dying out there and you have the same reaction.
“Oh my God, she’s going to hell. Oh my God.”
We see people dying out there but we don’t take action. We don’t do anything. We don’t care. We truly don’t care about them because if we did, we would give them the hope, the medicine to heal their souls and to save their souls from hell. Because hell is real.
