In Sermon Illustrations: "Christian Patterns"

Byron Deel, Grew Up With An Alcoholic And Abusive ...  PRO

Contributed by Ian Biss on Oct 1, 2001

Byron Deel, grew up with an alcoholic and abusive father. Byron had two brothers and three sisters, a large family, but his dad spent the family income on alcohol, and he drank and ranted and raved and hit them. When Byron was twelve, his father walked away from the family, and did absolutely ...read more

Scripture: Mark 7:6

Tags: God The Father, Forgiveness For Others

Denomination: Grace Brethren

The Gospel Perspective On Thanks  PRO

Contributed by Rex S. Wignall on Nov 28, 2002

The Gospel Perspective on Thanks Because of the great sacrifice Jesus made for each of us on the cross, Christians should have an additional, very personal perspective on thanks. Max Lucado shares this moving story of sacrifice to remind us what Jesus has done in giving His life for us: It’s ...read more

Tags: Joy

Denomination: United Methodist

While I Was Working In The V Corps Chaplain's ...  PRO

Contributed by Julian Silva on Jan 9, 2003

While I was working in the V Corps Chaplain’s office in Frankfurt, Germany; I came in contact with many wonderful Christian individuals. One of the most inspiring was a German by the name of Carl Scholz. In speaking to him one day, he related to me of how that during the Second World War he served ...read more

Tags: Forgiveness In Jesus, God In The Hardships, Evangelism How To

Denomination: Baptist

Even A Snake Has A Heart!  PRO

Contributed by Mark Brunner on Jun 2, 2004

“Even A Snake Has a Heart!” 1 John 1: 1-10 Key verse(s): 9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” We recently endured the effects of a fairly major windstorm here at Beech Springs. It happened as we were out of town ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 1:9-10

Tags: Sin General, Faith

Denomination: Lutheran

Not A Mountain Top Experience!" 1 Peter 1:13-25 ...  PRO

Contributed by Mark Brunner on Mar 2, 2005

“Not A Mountain Top Experience!” 1 Peter 1:13-25 Key verse(s): 15-16:“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” Blending in! Some of us prefer blending in to sticking out in a crowd. Then again there are others who are quite ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-25, Luke 24:1-50

Tags: Love Of The Disciples, Distract, Focus

Denomination: Lutheran

The ‘holy Grail' Of Super Glues!" John 17:1-5 ...  PRO

Contributed by Mark Brunner on May 15, 2005

“The ‘Holy Grail’ of Super Glues!” John 17:1-5 Key verse(s) 4:“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” It takes a special hand to deal with glue! Some are born to handle the sticky and others not. I am one of the latter lot. While, like most men, I find the ...read more

Scripture: John 17:1-5, Ephesians 4:1-6

Tags: Holy Spirit Attributes, Holy Spirit In Believers

Denomination: Lutheran

A Fair Piece To Go!" Zechariah 12:10-14 Key ...

Contributed by Mark Brunner on May 16, 2005

“A Fair Piece to Go!” Zechariah 12:10-14 Key verse(s) 10:“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.” Restlessness! When we were children it was not unusual for us to be restless. In fact, it was that restlessness that often got ...read more

Scripture: Zechariah 12:10-14

Tags: Holy Spirit Attributes, Holy Spirit In Believers, Cleansing

Denomination: Lutheran

God's Algebra!" Romans 8:9-17 Key Verse(S) ...  PRO

Contributed by Mark Brunner on May 25, 2005

“God’s Algebra!” Romans 8:9-17 Key verse(s) 16:“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” One of the unchangeable and mysterious laws of mathematics is that whenever you multiply a positive number by a negative number you will always get a negative number. I ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:9-17

Tags: Wait, Promises Of God, God's Love, God's Omniscience, Perseverance, Patience  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Lutheran

Seventeen Years Ago I Was Keenly Interested In A ...

Contributed by Bobby Scobey on Mar 27, 2007

Seventeen years ago I was keenly interested in a widow in our church. Renfro laughed at me for saying she and I had a conversation in which we negotiated whether we could date or not. Listen, if there are things on which you do not agree, either negotiate a lasting change or else keep on ...read more

Denomination: Pentecostal

Pastor Bob Schmidgall Said Of Super Bowl Sunday, ...  PRO

Contributed by Bobby Scobey on Mar 27, 2007

Pastor Bob Schmidgall said of Super Bowl Sunday, "That’s a pastor’s nightmare. What do you do on Super Bowl Sunday night? Go watch the game? I’m not worried about watching it. I’m worried about all those people don’t come to church." Then he quoted this, written by a minister: "As a minister ...read more

Denomination: Pentecostal

The Word Of God—the Owner's Manual

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 21, 2009

THE WORD OF GOD--THE OWNER'S MANUAL As a kid, I remember a very popular game. Simon Says. Usually played at school or parties, several of us would do whatever "Simon" told us to do, as long as it was preceded by the phrase: "Simon Says". It seems to me that we have become a society of "Simon ...read more

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Tags: Bible Truth

Barna On Parenting

Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Oct 22, 2009

BARNA ON PARENTING George Barna in his book "Revolutionary Parenting" gives us the bad news about the family today -- especially many Christian families: What does God measure? In other words how does God evaluate what is a healthy family and an unhealthy family? Barna states: What does God ...read more

Tags: Family

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Looking For Purpose In Life? Then Serve ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 22, 2009

Looking For Purpose in Life? Then Serve Others We need to ask ourselves on a daily basis the following questions: "What are we going to do to be a better Christian? What are we going to do to make our homes happier? What are we going to do to make our church better? What we are going to do to help ...read more

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7

Tags: Servanthood

Relay Team Wins Race By Yelling

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 27, 2009

Relay Team Wins Race by Yelling "Stop" during Final Baton Pass I ran track in High School and my thing was running the sprints, 100, 200, hurdles, relays and such. In my Junior year the School hired a new track coach. At every practice this coach would give a short talk on strategy and tactics for ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1

Tags: Sports, Finishing The Race

Popular Ideas Of Jesus  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Nov 5, 2009

POPULAR IDEAS OF JESUS As we consider the risk of following Jesus, we must acknowledge the same thing; we must acknowledge that Jesus is THE Christ, not some popularized version we hear about today. In a posting just this last June, Kevin DeYoung, in his Restless and Reformed blog, describes ...read more

Scripture: Mark 8:27-29

Tags: Faith, Christ, Jesus, Culture, Jesus Christ  (view more)  (view less)

Cuban Missle Crisis Compared To Spiritual ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 1, 2009

Cuban Missle Crisis Compared to Spiritual Brinkmanship It is October 14th, and the sun is reflecting mirages of water on an Air Force base runway in southern Florida. The silence of that scene is interrupted as a long-winged plane touches down on the runway and taxies to the hanger. A thousand ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 7:1

Tags: Holiness

We Lost The Farm

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 8, 2012

"WE LOST THE FARM" Richard Culp worked in the hot California sun as foreman of a large ranching operation. He and his wife, Geneva, also owned their own farm, consisting of 200 acres of almond trees. Then years of bad weather and skimpy harvests forced Richard to take on additional work, but even ...read more

Scripture: James 1:2-4

Tags: God In The Hardships

The Thessalonian Error  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 22, 2012

THE THESSALONIAN ERROR The Thessalonian error was misunderstanding the purpose of end-time prophecy. The purpose is not to identify the anti-Christ or to inform us of events. Others have misunderstood the purpose of second-coming prophecy. Many people have been identified as the anti-Christ. ...read more

Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Tags: Second Coming

Power And Discipline  PRO

Contributed by Jeff Strite on May 5, 2013

POWER AND DISCIPLINE Over here is a wall socket. There is power in that socket. Because of that power, I can plug lamps, fans, microwaves and phone chargers into it and magically empower those devises. I can even plug a car charger into a wall socket and revive a dead car battery (like I’ve had to ...read more

Tags: Experience

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Prayer

Contributed by Tim Smith on Sep 25, 2016

Chris Jeffries tells the story of Roy who was feeling frustrated that he was not able to do what he felt he was born to do. So he prayed for Our Father to change something. Then there was a knock at the door and they met two strangers, a married couple. They invited them in and sat them down at ...read more

Scripture: Luke 11:5-8

Tags: Prayer, God's Will, Confidence In Prayer

Denomination: Methodist