When I first enrolled in seminary, I found an apartment room next to a railroad crossing. I wondered why the apartment rent was so cheap—and found out the first night. A train came through in the middle of the night, blasting its horn. It didn’t just wake me up, but also nearly gave me a heart attack!

            Every night when the train came through, it blew the horn. At first I thought about changing apartments, but then I started getting used to the nightly awakenings. I would wake up for a few seconds, then go right back to sleep. Eventually I got where the train horn didn’t even wake me up. I hardened my heart to the train and couldn’t hear it any more.

            The same hardening process occurs when God speaks to our hearts and we don’t respond. Eventually, we stop hearing His voice because our hearts have become hard.

“Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).

Kent Crockett’s Sermon Illustrations

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