In Sermon Illustrations: "Focused Living"

A Keen Eye For Stray Coins

Contributed by Manny Salva Cruz on May 29, 2015

A KEEN EYE FOR STRAY COINS There was a story from the Week magazine regarding a 67 year man by the name of Roger Pasquier. He was a retired ornithologist who has a keen eye for spotting stray coins. In fact, he had found almost two thousand dollars’ worth of coins dropped onto New York City’s ...read more

Scripture: Deuteronomy 4:29

Tags: Seeker, Passion For God, God's Accessibility, Earnestly

Denomination: Nazarene

State Of The Church: "The Fact That There Has Not ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 18, 2006

State Of The Church: “The fact that there has not been any measurable increase in church involvement or personal spiritual depth in the past decade challenges the widespread notion that the U.S. is as spiritually healthy and focused as ever. This has been an intriguing year regarding the spiritual ...read more

Tags: Church General

Divorce Barbie

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 25, 2009

DIVORCE BARBIE Too many times, we are more concerned with what we get out of giving than what we are trying to give in the first place. A father was sitting in his chair one night reading the paper. All of a sudden, he realized it was his young daughter’s birthday, and he had forgotten to get her ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:38-42

Tags: Giving Yourself

Ray Of Light, Ray Of Hope

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 10, 2009

RAY OF LIGHT, RAY OF HOPE There is a story about how the caverns north of Yellowstone National Park were discovered. As the story goes, one of the original explorers was walking along the top of that mountain and fell through a hole, and he dropped down several hundred feet into this cavern and ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:14

Tags: God Brings Hope

Surprise Gift

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 15, 2011

SURPRISE GIFT When Gabriel Hurles turned six a couple of years ago (January 2009), he was so focused on eating his birthday cake, that he hardly noticed the giant package in the corner of the room. When another child pointed out the large gift, Gabriel ran over and began to tear off the wrapping. ...read more

Scripture: John 1:14

Tags: Christmas

The First And Second Great Revival

Contributed by Martin Spoelstra on May 24, 2018

The first recorded revival in Christian history happened from a prayer meeting that took place with a handful of disciples in the upper room (Acts 1:14). The result of that prayer meeting was that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them ...read more

Scripture: Acts 2:2-4, Acts 4:23-24

Tags: Revival, Prayer

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Freckles

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007

FRECKLES Catherine Marshall wrote a book about a school-teacher named Christy who did her best to bring a little education to the foot-hills of the Smokies. In her writings Catherine Marshall details some things that are greatly hilarious and some of the other tales that she writes of are very ...read more

Tags: Peace

My First Major Wall That I Went Through Came When ...

Contributed by Mark Eberly on Nov 9, 2009

My first major wall that I went through came when I got sober. But along the way, I ran into walls that now I know were just small ones. One of these had to do with my expectations of those that supposedly loved. Through the years of drinking and using, I had developed some very unhealthy ...read more

Tags: Emotions, Trust God

Denomination: Church Of God

Some Gifts You Keep  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 20, 2003

*Some Gifts You Keep* Some things you keep. Like good teeth. Warm coats. Bald husbands & chubby wives. They’re good for you, reliable and practical and so sublime that to throw them away would make the garbage man a thief. So you hang on to the older gifts, because something old is sometimes ...read more

Tags: Giving Yourself

Adversity

Contributed by Glynda Lomax on Dec 27, 2014

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” - Mary Anne Radmacher Sometimes life deals us a situation so adverse, a loss so great, we feel unable to meet the challenge of facing day after day in our pain and loss. ...read more

Scripture: Romans 5:3-5

Tags: Adversity, Courage, Perserverance, Trials

Denomination: Charismatic

A Spotlight And A Laser Beam  PRO

Contributed by A. Todd Coget on Dec 30, 2003

[illustration] Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between a spotlight and a laser beam? How can a medium-powered laser burn through steel in a matter of seconds, while the most powerful spotlight can only make it warm? Both may have the same electrical power requirements. The ...read more

Scripture: John 17:11

Tags: Humor, Fear, Forward, Backward, Unity  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Remember! Here Are Some Things You Can Do To ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 20, 2006

Remember! Here are some things you can do to boost your memory from corporate productivity specialist Abby Marks-Beale: Ask, "Why am I reading this?" and "What do I need it for?" If you know the specific answers, you will read more intently keeping you more focused on what you need. Intend to ...read more

Tags: Bible Study

Seven Deadly ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 9, 2009

SEVEN DEADLY SINS In the Roman Catholic Church there is a list of the seven deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Wrath, and Sloth. In 1995 a film titled Se7en focused on the seven deadly sins, a character that thinks of himself as the Sword of God, chooses victims whom he believes to ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 5:19-21

Tags: Sin General

A Man And His Porsche

Contributed by J.d. Tutell on Jan 13, 2012

A MAN AND HIS PORSCHE A New York stockbroker had just purchased a brand new Porsche. He parked it in front of his office to show it off to his colleagues. As he's getting out of the car, an SUV comes speeding along too close to the curb and takes off the door before driving off. The man gets ...read more

Tags: Materialism

Denomination: Baptist

American Knowledge Of Religion

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 5, 2012

AMERICAN KNOWLEDGE OF RELIGION A survey conducted by the Christian Science Monitor found that atheists and agnostics and Jews and Mormons were among the highest scoring groups who took a 32 question survey of religious knowledge. On average Americans scored 16 of 32 correct. Atheists and agnostics ...read more

Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:15

Tags: Religion

The Four Soils: A Physical Illustration  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Sep 11, 2004

THE FOUR SOILS: A PHYSICAL ILLUSTRATION (The following physical illustration is taken from “Heno Head’s Simple Science Object Talks.” If you decide use it, take note that you need to carefully measure out how much baking soda you use, and how much vinegar you place in each jar. Since we have ...read more

Scripture: Luke 8:4-15

Tags: Parable Sower And Seed

There Goes My Life  PRO

Contributed by Scott Sharpes on Dec 17, 2003

THERE GOES MY LIFE Kenny Chesney has a new song/music video out entitled, “There Goes My Life…” It’s a ballad focusing on the life of two young kids in high school that find themselves in a crisis moment of a pregnancy out of wedlock. (I want to say here that I’m not advocating the immoral ...read more

Tags: God In The Hardships, Christmas

Denomination: Nazarene

Some Years Ago, I Had The Sheer Joy Of Seeing ...

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 7, 2008

Some years ago, I had the sheer joy of seeing the movie adaptation of Fulton Oursler’s novel, The Greatest Story Ever Told. I loved the way Max von Sydow brought the personality of Jesus to the screen; it was perhaps the most natural portrayal of our Lord that I’ve ever seen. It was a long movie ...read more

Tags: Easter Resurrection

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Testimony Of Astronaut Charles Duke

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 21, 2013

TESTIMONY OF ASTRONAUT CHARLES DUKE Through the years, I’ve heard people say, "I wasn’t looking for God when He found me." Let me give you a modern example of this process. Astronaut Charles Duke is one of only twelve men who have left footprints on the moon. He was the lunar module pilot for ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 3:1-6

Tags: Becoming A Christian

On The Pharisees

Contributed by Tim Smith on May 11, 2014

Who are the Pharisees? In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East, bringing Greek culture and philosophy to Israel. By 200 BC, Greek philosophy and its worldview called Helenism were significantly impacting Jewish young men. More and more of them were abandoning the Hebrew faith and ...read more

Scripture: Luke 15:1-2

Tags: Pharisees

Denomination: Methodist