In Sermon Illustrations: "Assisting Others"

Junk-Food Addictions  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 10, 2011

JUNK-FOOD ADDICTIONS If we’re going to get our appetite back for the pure, spiritual milk of God’s Word, then we need to get rid of the junk food of broken relationships. We need to put away those wrong attitudes of the heart that keep us from loving each other. The five things listed here are ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:1-3

Tags: Growth In Christ

What Occupies Your Heart?

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 12, 2011

WHAT OCCUPIES YOUR HEART? I squirmed a bit as I forced myself to listen to my friend cataloging her problems. After three hours, I interrupted her gently to ask, "If you were to draw a circle to represent your life, what would be in the center?" She thought a moment, then said, "My problems." My ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 26:3

Tags: Death Nearness

God's Promises And Urban Legends  PRO

Contributed by Scott Carson on Nov 20, 2011

GOD'S PROMISES AND URBAN LEGENDS Do you really believe that being godly is great gain and not financial gain, but something that really matters and lasts? If you believed that, wouldn’t it change your life? Most people believe that if you smoke, you’ll get lung cancer. Many of you quit smoking ...read more

Tags: Christian Values

Denomination: Independent/Bible

Praying In Agreement

Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Nov 30, 2011

PRAYING IN AGREEMENT Our individual prayers have great power. But there is even more power when we come together as a church and pray in agreement. Now, we know that in human terms total agreement is impossible. No two people can be in complete agreement … much less a whole congregation of ...read more

Tags: Prayer General

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

First Phil And First Phyllis

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Feb 11, 2012

FIRST PHIL AND FIRST PHYLLIS Some years ago, I asked the leaders of our church to do a little exercise with me. I fabricated two imaginary people, one a man and the other a woman. Since this is First Presbyterian Church, I named the man "First Phil" and the woman "First Phyllis." I suggested that ...read more

Tags: Discipleship

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

It All Goes Back To The Head

Contributed by Tim Smith on Feb 26, 2012

IT ALL GOES BACK TO THE HEAD Mike Slaughter tells the story of his dog Luka, a giant schnauzer. Luka had an infected toe for several months on his back leg and one of the things that he noticed is that Luka will tend to drag that back foot causing him to scrape his toe. Their vet couldn't figure ...read more

Tags: Church Body Of Christ

Denomination: Methodist

Ownership Of The Gift  PRO

Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 27, 2012

OWNERSHIP OF THE GIFT A humanitarian group in Africa, noticing the filthy water, sewage, and disease, built clean water and sewage system for a village. Months later, they visited the village, but it was back to square one with filthy water, sewage and disease. [from Pickthebrain.com] The chief ...read more

Scripture: Jeremiah 8:20

Tags: Stewardship

Denomination: Independent/Bible

The Importance Of Friends  PRO

Contributed by Josh Hunt on Feb 29, 2012

THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDS One of the most thorough research projects on relationships is called the Alameda County Study. Headed by a Harvard social scientist, it tracked the lives of 7,000 people over nine years. Researchers found that the most isolated people were three times more likely to die ...read more

Scripture: John 15:12-15

Tags: Friendship General

Denomination: Baptist

What Happens At Home

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 2, 2012

WHAT HAPPENS AT HOME Howard Hendricks used to say to us men in seminary preparing to lead churches, "If your Christianity isn't working at home, don't export it." It was his way of saying, "If you can't make your faith work in your own family, then please don't try to make it work in the family of ...read more

Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:4-5

Tags: Parenting

Self-Image

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 15, 2012

SELF-IMAGE There's a story about a girl who was the daughter of one of the royal families of Europe. She had a big, round nose that destroyed her beauty in the eyes of others--and especially in her own eyes. She grew up with this terrible image of herself as an ugly person. So her family hired a ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:1-11

Tags: Self

The Master And The Child  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 17, 2012

THE MASTER AND THE CHILD The folklore surrounding Poland's famous concert pianist and prime minister, Ignace Paderewski, includes a story, which though fictional, provides a true picture of what God can do with us: A mother, wishing to encourage her young son's progress at the piano, bought ...read more

Scripture: James 1:2-4

Tags: God In The Hardships

Ray Bradbury's Message

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 28, 2012

RAY BRADBURY’S MESSAGE Avid readers often will credit this or that writer for luring them into a lifelong love of a genre. For those who love science fiction, it offers grand, cosmic landscapes on which to project the boundless possibilities of life. Yet for one writer, Ray Bradbury (August 22, ...read more

Scripture: Romans 5:12

Tags: Sin Fall Of Man

What Kind Of Heart Do You Have?  PRO

Contributed by Ken Henson on Sep 23, 2012

WHAT KIND OF HEART DO YOU HAVE? I was reading this week an article by Bryan Doyle. It talks about hummingbirds. Hummingbirds have race car hearts that eat oxygen at an eye-popping rate. Their hearts are built of thinner, leaner fibers than ours. Their arteries are stiffer and more taut. Their ...read more

Tags: Heart

Denomination: *other

What Happened To King Neb Was Unique --- ...

Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Oct 17, 2012

What happened to King Neb was unique --- I’ve never heard of anything quite like it --- a King eating grass for 7 years like an animal. But on the other hand, the spiritual experience it represents is more common than we’d like to think. I remember a father of one of my youth group kids years ...read more

Tags: Sin Bondage To, Temptation General

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Bitter & Better - The Two 'b's

Contributed by Paddick Van Zyl on Jul 21, 2014

When the water at Marah was bitter, Moses had to cast a tree into the water stream to sweeten the water or make it drinkable. The words: Bitter and Better both start with a B and end with Tter. The only difference is: the letter I and E. Bitter has the focus on I, me, myself, flesh. Better has ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 15:22-27

Tags: Water, Sweet, Bitter

Denomination: Pentecostal

All Our Lives God Works On Us, Chiseling Away...

Contributed by Davon Huss on Oct 9, 2015

All our lives God works on us, chiseling away those parts of our life that hinder us from fitting into His eternal temple. Our Christian life is a work in progress. Jesus Christ is changing us from a useless stone to a useful one. Before Michelangelo created the masterpiece we know simply as ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:4-5

Tags: Sculpture, Living Stones, Living Stone, God Is Working

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Marriage

Contributed by Don Berry-Graham on Feb 29, 2016

A story from Warsaw, Ohio, is catching some attention today (August 13, 2014). It seems the dancers at Foxhole nightclub decided to picket a church that had been hassling them for years. Apparently the members and pastor of New Beginnings Ministries felt called by God to try to rid their community ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 7:1-39

Tags: Sex, Intimacy In Marriage

Denomination: Baptist

Take It First To The Lord In Prayer  PRO

Contributed by Palitha Jayasooriya on Apr 3, 2017

Take it to the Lord in prayer My mobile phone crashed a few months ago and I had to switch to my wife's old one as a temporary measure. On the first day of using the phone, there was one particularly important feature that neither I nor my wife could grasp, though we tried to figure it out for a ...read more

Scripture: John 16:24

Tags: Prayer, Trusting God, Trusting Christ

Denomination: Assembly Of God

The Laws Of Spiritual Motion!!!

Contributed by Suresh Manoharan on Aug 13, 2017

THE LAWS OF SPIRITUAL MOTION!!! The Fundamental Laws of motion designed by the all-wise God (discovered and revealed to us by Sir Issac Newton) says that we move forward whilst walking or running not just by exerting the force on earth with our feet by ourselves but by the propulsive force which ...read more

Scripture: James 1:2

Tags: Persecution, Action Reaction

Denomination: *other

Follow The Light

Contributed by Tim Baker on Jan 5, 2018

When I flew airplanes regularly landing at night was very different than daylight. I would use the instruments to guide me to the airport over most of the trip, but since I was a VFR pilot I would use my eyes outside of the cockpit to land the plane. In the daylight using your eyes to land was ...read more

Tags: Light, Light And Darkness, Light For Our Path

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational