In Sermon Illustrations: "Graduation Gift"

Wesley: God's Will For Marriage

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 6, 2011

WESLEY: GOD'S WILL FOR MARRIAGE When John Wesley was thirty-two years old, he was a bachelor missionary in the colony of Georgia. While he was serving a church in Savannah, he met a young woman named Sophia Christian Hopkey. She was pretty and intelligent, and Wesley fell head over heels in love ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6

Tags: Knowing God's Will

God Steps In Where Our Fathers Fail

Contributed by Bret Toman on Jan 31, 2012

GOD STEPS IN WHERE OUR FATHERS FAIL John Eldredge, author of Wild At Heart and Fathered By God among others, writes of fishing with his dad as a boy. Spending hours together on a Saturday morning trying to catch fish. "But" he writes, "the fish were never the issue. What I longed for was his ...read more

Tags: Father's Day

Denomination: Baptist

Examples Of Generous People

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 4, 2012

EXAMPLES OF GENEROUS PEOPLE In a country where getting and having more seems so normal, people who choose to live with a lot less so they can help others seem, to put it mildly, less than sane. Zell Kravinsky is one of those people. Kravinsky got rich in the real estate business, and then gave ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 6:7-10

Tags: Giving General

James Dobson's Faith-Full Parents  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 29, 2012

JAMES DOBSON'S FAITH-FULL PARENTS "Of all the values transmitted to me by my father, none made a more lasting impression than his attitude toward money. As an evangelist, he could never depend on the compensation he would be given. The local church would collect a freewill offering for my father, ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 13:5-6

Tags: Father's Day

The Orphan Train

Contributed by Sam Mccormick on Dec 15, 2016

THE ORPHAN TRAIN In the history of the westward migration in the United States, part of the story has been largely passed over. From 1850 to 1930, tens of thousands of those who populated the west were orphans--children from eastern cities who were without parents because of disease or the death ...read more

Scripture: John 14:18

Tags: Adoption, Rebirth, Orphan, Train

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Sifted Like Wheat

Contributed by Sam Mccormick on Dec 15, 2016

A rooster’s crow announced the dawn. This dawn was not the sunrise, still hours away, but the dawn of Peter’s realization of what he had done. Like the first rays of the sun slicing through the night’s darkness, Peter awakened to his sin and its gravity. It cut him to the core of his being, and ...read more

Scripture: Luke 22:31-32

Tags: Peter, Betrayal Of Christ, Sifted, Rehabilitation

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

False Converts

Contributed by Rick Palmer on Oct 5, 2018

As an archery deer hunter I walk a lot out in nature. Yesterday as I was walking across a corn field I found a small branch of pretty colored leaves. My wife loves collecting leaves and doing crafts with them. I looked around and there were no trees with in a great distance from the leaves. How ...read more

Scripture: John 14:6, Matthew 4:17, John 3:16-18

Tags: Grace, Believe, Salvation, Repentance

Mom Left Us More Than Her Insurance Policy

Contributed by Jonathan Spurlock on Jun 2, 2020

Around April 28, 2020, my mother completed her earthly journey and went to be with the Lord. I have to confess, part of me was glad she wasn’t suffering any longer (she had several serious health issues) but of course there was the grief that comes along with losing someone you love. Yes, I know ...read more

Scripture: Luke 12:15

Tags: Insurance, Mothers, Inheritance

Denomination: Baptist

An Observation About Aging—and Baseballs

Contributed by Jonathan Spurlock on Jul 7, 2022

Introduction: You just can’t change some facts. Aging is one of those facts! Text: Ecclesiastes 12:1, KJV: 1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; Thoughts: Like most good ...read more

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12:1

Tags: Aging, Baseball, Sports

Denomination: Baptist

An Observation About Eternity

Contributed by Jonathan Spurlock on Feb 5, 2024

Text, Ecclesiastes 3:11, American Standard Version: He hath made everything beautiful in its time: also he hath set eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end. Every day we live takes us one day closer to the end of our ...read more

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:11

Tags: Hell, Eternity, Salvation

Denomination: Baptist

A Good Start Matters

Contributed by Todd Catteau on Mar 19, 2024

I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was my sixth-grade field day when all the elementary schools gathered for a series of track and field events at the town’s high school track. It was a sunny New England spring morning and I was representing Glen Forest Elementary School in the 50-yard ...read more

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:17, 1 Timothy 2:8, Ephesians 5:15-17, Colossians 4:5

Tags: Prayer, Meditation

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

[062c]. A Message From A Poem – Does Suffering Cancel Out A God Of Love?

Contributed by Ron Ferguson on Mar 14, 2025

[062C]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM – DOES SUFFERING CANCEL OUT A GOD OF LOVE? THE POEM AS IT IS WILL NOT FIT IN THE ILLUSTRATION SPACE AVAILABLE. I HAVE HAD TO SPLIT IT INTO THREE PARTS. THIS IS THE THIRD PART. THE INTRODUCTION FOR THE POEM IS IN PART 1. PART 3 SECTION C - PART 1 (GOD ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 45:6-7, John 3:16, Exodus 34:6-7

Tags: Tragedy, God Of Comfort, God Of Love, Pain, Love, Christ, Compassion, Comfort, Suffering, Hurt  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

[153]. A Message From A Poem – Jesus Christ Is Lord And King

Contributed by Ron Ferguson on Aug 3, 2025

[153]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM – JESUS CHRIST IS LORD AND KING There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and the writers of the Psalms, and Jeremiah, made use of what we call “Alphabetic Poems”. That is where you begin each new paragraph with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. I think ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 2:9-11, John 20:20, Matthew 27:37, Matthew 2:2

Tags: Christian Poetry, Christian Poems, Lord, King, Jesus Is Lord, Jesus Is King  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

[223]. A Message From A Poem - Our Boast Is In The Lord

Contributed by Ron Ferguson on Oct 10, 2025

[223]. A MESSAGE FROM A POEM - OUR BOAST IS IN THE LORD Last Sunday I preached on this verse - {{Galatians 6:14 “MAY IT NEVER BE THAT I SHOULD BOAST, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”}} Then we looked at how ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:31, Luke 18:10-13, Galatians 6:14

Tags: Boast In The Lord, Christian Poems, Darwall Tune, Paul, Glory, Hymn, Cross, Boasting, Boast  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Margaret Was In Her Forties And Suffered From ...  PRO

Contributed by Mark Eberly on Dec 17, 2007

Margaret was in her forties and suffered from bouts of depression and despair resulting mainly from an extremely poor self-image. She just couldn’t see herself as a person of worth. Over the years of her adult life, this image steadily grew worse. Finally reaching out in desperation, she sought the ...read more

Denomination: Church Of God

For Almost Forty Years, Margaret Lived With The ...  PRO

Contributed by Brian Atwood on Jan 12, 2008

For almost forty years, Margaret lived with the memory of one soul-scarring day in the one-room schoolhouse she attended. From the first day Margaret came to class, she and Ms. Garner, her bitter and harsh teacher, didn’t get along. Over the years, the animosity between them only worsened until ...read more

Scripture: John 9:1-41

Tags: Love, Healing, Encouragement, Depression

Denomination: Baptist

The Box ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 18, 2010

The Box Boy My third job as a teenager (the one right before I went into the Air Force), was as a box boy for McCoy’s Markets, in hyderabad, andhra predesh. One of the other box boys was named David, and I remember him well. We nodded and said "Hi" to each other, as guys do, and that was pretty ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Tags: Security

The King  PRO

Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Jul 19, 2011

THE KING What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase, “The king is dead - long live the king!”? It is an historical phrase coined in France and said after the death of a monarch through the streets and the countryside of their realm. Phil Morgan recalls: "Not too long ago I watched part of ...read more

Tags: Memories

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

I Sure Do Miss St. Sanity

Contributed by James Snyder on Aug 17, 2019

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and me recently celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. It sure does not seem we have been married that long. I guess, as you get older, according to my grandmother, time goes faster. If that is true, I must be getting older. We met in September, became ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:6

Tags: Politics, Humor, Sanity

Denomination: Christian Missionary Alliance

Getting Old Is Not For Sissies

Contributed by James Snyder on Nov 9, 2019

I will not admit to being old, but I am older than I was 10 years ago. Those 10 years have been filled with all kinds of things helping me to get older. I saw an article that said that 60 is the new 40. I have no idea what that means, but I think out in our culture there is an obsession about age. ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 145:7

Tags: Memories, Growing Old

Denomination: Christian Missionary Alliance