In Sermon Illustrations: "Giving Out Of Need"

Resisting The Temptation To ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 9, 2010

Resisting the Temptation to Lie It’s the only thing we can do when we can’t see ahead – follow the Lord step-by-step. That means doing what we know HE wants us to do, even if it doesn’t always make sense to us. Jim George, in his book, God’s Man of Influence, talks about trying to sell a used ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6

Tags: Temptation Resisting

My Wife Loves Hgtv. (It Drives Me Nuts, But She ...

Contributed by Grant Sisson on Apr 17, 2010

My wife loves HGTV. (It drives me nuts, but she doesn’t watch football with me either.) But once in a while I will sit down with her and watch it. The other night there was a show about the HGTV “good guy” construction expert going into a home that was left supposedly 95% complete when a ...read more

Tags: Repentance

In The Movie Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood Plays ...

Contributed by Bret Toman on May 20, 2010

In the movie Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood plays the part of an aging gunfighter who lost his taste for killing many years before. He and his old partner, played by Morgan Freeman, are lured by the rumor of a bounty of gold being offered for the arrest of some cowboys who had disfigured a young ...read more

Tags: Depravity, Sin General

Denomination: Baptist

Girl Born ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 5, 2010

Girl Born Blind There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, ’If I could only see the world, I will marry you.’ One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the ...read more

Scripture: John 9:1-41

Tags: Compassion

Can't Stop Crying  PRO

Contributed by Charles Jones on Dec 16, 2010

CAN'T STOP CRYING Consider this there was a story about a little boy who would not stop crying. No matter what his mother did, he would always cry. So one day this lady next door after hearing the baby cry thought she knew the answer to the problem and assured the mother that she could stop her ...read more

Tags: Trials And Difficulties

Denomination: Pentecostal

Tozer: God's Tools

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 21, 2011

TOZER: GOD'S TOOLS A.W. Tozer once talked about God's tools: "The HAMMER is a useful tool. But the nail, if it had feeling and intelligence, could present another side of the story. For the nail knows the hammer only as an opponent a brutal, merciless enemy who lives to pound it into submission, ...read more

Scripture: Jeremiah 51:20-24

Tags: Discipleship

The Train Whistle

Contributed by Davon Huss on Mar 7, 2011

THE TRAIN WHISTLE "I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian.  I attended Church since I was a small boy.  We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really ...read more

Tags: Compassion

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Slaves To Our Words  PRO

Contributed by Jason Bonnicksen on Mar 15, 2011

SLAVES TO OUR WORDS Noted statesman Sir Winston Churchill once said: "We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out." Churchill's words echo those penned by King Solomon almost three millennia ago. We're all guilty from time to time; I know I am. There's been times ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 12:22-28

Tags: Wisdom

Denomination: Lutheran

Just Follow Directions  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 5, 2011

JUST FOLLOW DIRECTIONS Robert Kupferschmid was an 81-year old man who had no flying experience. However, due to a tragic emergency, he was forced to fly an airplane. On June 17, 1998, he and his 52-year-old pilot friend, Wesley Sickle, were flying from Indianapolis to Muncie, Indiana. During the ...read more

Scripture: James 2:14-26

Tags: Faith Vs. Works

The Story Of Catherine Lawes

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 26, 2011

THE STORY OF CATHERINE LAWES "Don’t set foot in the prison," people told her, but Catherine Lawes, whose husband was the warden at Sing Sing in 1921, went anyway. The first time there was a prison basketball game, she went, 3 daughters in tow and sat in the bleachers with the inmates. When she ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 7:12

Tags: Jesus Teachings

When To Save A Drowning Man  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 4, 2011

WHEN TO SAVE A DROWNING MAN Watchman Nee tells the story of his stay in China with twenty other Christians. The bathing accommodations were inadequate in the home where they were lodging, so they went for a daily dip in the river. On one occasion, one of the men got a cramp in his leg and began ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-9, Isaiah 14:12-18, Philippians 2:6

Tags: Salvation, Rescue, Deliver

The Bill Always Comes Due

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 12, 2011

THE BILL ALWAYS COMES DUE Bob Harris, weatherman for NY TV station WPIX-TV and the nationally syndicated independent Network news, had to weather a public storm of his own making in 1979. Though he had studied math, physics and geology at three colleges, he left school without a degree but with a ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 19:5

Tags: Lies

White As Snow  PRO

Contributed by Jason Bonnicksen on May 15, 2011

WHITE AS SNOW Ash Wednesday — it’s kind of a solemn day. It’s the start of Lent —a word which means “spring” in German. But more than this, it’s the time each year when we intently focus on the path Christ Jesus laid out for us to follow — to be true to his word, true to his calling, and ...read more

Scripture: Joel 1:14, Joel 1:14-27

Tags: Deception, Confession Of Sin

Denomination: Lutheran

One Rascal Among Honest Men

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 19, 2011

ONE RASCAL AMONG HONEST MEN A king visited a slave ship, and there was a slave galley where they chain men to the oars and they row and a man beats the drum and another man has a lash to make them row. And they would take the prisoners of the state and put them to use, pulling on the oars. The ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 1:8-10

Tags: Confession Of Sin

We All Have To Run

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 11, 2011

WE ALL HAVE TO RUN First of all, let’s establish one immutable fact--we all have to run; we have no choice. An intelligence far above our own; and the circumstances which have been placed upon us, dictate that we all must run just to survive. Out on the grassy plains of the African Savannah lives ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-2

Tags: Christian Disciplines

Our Lives Are Like A...

Contributed by Chuck Sligh on Jun 14, 2011

OUR LIVES ARE LIKE A... Listen to what the Bible compares our lives to, and as you do, notice that the central theme of each comparison is the idea of the BREVITY of our lives upon this earth: * First, our lives are compared to A VAPOR (James 4:1) - Think about the vapor from a teapot. It is ...read more

Tags: Death

Denomination: Baptist

Works-Driven Rituals

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 4, 2011

WORKS-DRIVEN RITUALS Every year a great throng of people make pilgrimage to the Shrine of Guadalupe in Mexico, a site where supposedly the Virgin Mary once stood...however unlikely that is. They go there hoping to get her attention, and to get her to intervene for them with her son Jesus. They ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 1:7-10

Tags: Action

Dying For Someone Like That

Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Aug 12, 2011

DYING FOR SOMEONE LIKE THAT During the war in Vietnam, a young West Point graduate was sent over to lead a group of new recruits into battle. He did his job well, trying his best to keep his recruits from ambush and death. But one night, when they had been under attack, he was unable to get one of ...read more

Tags: God's Love

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

The Last Letter Of Karen Watson

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 18, 2011

THE LAST LETTER OF KAREN WATSON Our International Mission Board is working on a project called "The Last Letter." It’s actually an old tradition of soldiers and missionaries who as they boarded a ship, wrote their family and friends a letter that they think might be their final ...read more

Scripture: Mark 8:34-38

Tags: Missions

Life's Deeper Meaning

Contributed by Larry Wilson on Aug 29, 2011

LIFE'S DEEPER MEANING Examining life for deeper meanings is a twentieth century preoccupation. We assume that things are not what they seem. Words disguise Hidden Feelings. Actions symbolize Something Else. We sometimes try too hard to discover the hidden meanings when there just might not be ...read more

Tags: Dealing With Conflicts

Denomination: Baptist