So what came first, the chicken or the egg?  Let me ask you another question, what comes first, the Biblical text or the illustration?  I believe the text should come first.  The primary issue of preaching is to get God’s heart across as revealed in scripture.  So that should be the basis from which all of our series ideas or message flow from.  Do you have a great illustration, or a movie that you want to build a series of messages around?  I think that’s fine, but be careful that the tail doesn’t begin to wag the dog.  When you decide to teach a series of messages, is the thing burning in your heart a desire to get a truth across, or is the desire to play off of a movie or book driving the creative process?  I believe we should start with a book of the Bible or a passage and say, "This is what God wants me to teach.  Now how do I express this in a way that is relevant to the culture today."  When I build a message or series around an illustration, I am looking for verses that match my illustration, instead of starting with what we are here in the first place to hear, which God’s word.  Don’t misunderstand, we need to be creative.  Truth without creative communication and presentation is, in my opinion, an abomination!  But that’s the seasoning on the meat, not the meat itself.  And speaking of dinner, the chicken came first (Genesis 1).