Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 26, 2007
Illustration: Before making Sony one of the most consistently inventive companies in the world, founder Masaru Ibuka suffered a number of setbacks. Remember the electronic seat warmer? Or the first electronic rice cooker? These were from the same mind that dreamed up the pocket-size transistor
...read more
Contributed by Sam Peters on Mar 1, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 2,444 views
(If available, use the clip illustrated here)
In the movie City Slickers, Mitch (Billy Crystal) is on a Baby Boomer cattle drive in search of the real meaning of life. In one scene he is out riding with the gritty trail boss, Curly (Jack Palance). Curly realizes why Mitch is on the trip and
...read more
Illustration of our responsibility: April 19, 1995 at 9:02 a.m., the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed resulting in the death of 168 people. Three men were ultimately arrested and tried in what was at the time the worst attack ever on United States soil, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols,
...read more
Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007
based on 19 ratings
| 5,949 views
Illustration: General Robert E. Lee was a devout follower of Jesus Christ. Although he was raised in the south where prejudice was a daily way of life, Lee seldom practiced it or revealed it in his life. Although his family owned slaves at one juncture, the slaves were always treated with respect
...read more
Scripture:
Tags:
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 4,231 views
John Hess Yoder writes in Leadership magazine:
While serving as a missionary in Laos, I discovered an illustration of the kingdom of God. Before the colonialists imposed national boundaries, the kings of Laos and Vietnam reached an agreement on taxation in the border areas. Those who ate
...read more
Tags:
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 1,938 views
A disease left Helen Keller blind and deaf as a very young girl. Her family hired Anne Sullivan to take care of Helen. Through Anne’s tireless and selfless efforts, Helen finally learned to communicate through touch and even learned to talk. When Anne first told Helen about God, the girl’s response
...read more
Tags:
Contributed by Warren Lamb on Jul 15, 2007
Philip Yancey, in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, gives this illustration: "George Buttrick, former chaplain at Harvard, recalls that students would come into his office, plop down on a chair and declare, ’I don’t believe in God.’ Buttrick would give this disarming reply: ’Sit down and tell me
...read more
Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Herman Abrahams on Aug 14, 2007
based on 2 ratings
| 3,811 views
Matthew 11:29-30:
"Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light"
Jesus’ yoke (his commandments) fits us well. The life that he gives us to live is not a bitter, heavy burden;
...read more
Denomination:
Charismatic
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 5, 2007
based on 3 ratings
| 1,461 views
Illustration: A young camel asked his mother “mother why do we have very large feet with three large toes?’ The mother camel answered “in order to walk on the sands of the desert!” The young camel again asked his mother “mother why do we have very long legs?” again the mother camel replied in
...read more
Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Richard Goble on Oct 31, 2007
While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around.
"It was the most hideous face I had ever seen," Hinton said. "The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. She
...read more
Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Todd Pugh on Jan 14, 2008
A horrifying event took place in San Fran last week. A tiger escaped and mauled one man to death and seriously injured two others. They are not yet sure how the tiger got loose. But some of the evidence suggests the wall was too low and the victims were taunting the tiger.
The zoo’s
...read more
Denomination:
Pentecostal
based on 1 rating
| 3,890 views
James S. Hewett, former pastor of Saratoga, California’s Presbyterian Church, tells this story: “A class of high school sophomores had been assigned a term paper. Now the day of reckoning had come, the papers were due. The teacher knew that a particular student, named Gene, had not been working
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Eric Ferguson on May 16, 2008
ILLUSTRATION: Imperial Hotel
Years ago, Frank Lloyd Wright was given the impossible task of building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.
No comparable construction job ever before had been undertaken.
With patience he laid plans for the immense building in this land of earthquakes and terrible
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Rick Pendleton on May 20, 2008
ILLUSTRATION: AS a child I remember watching a movie about a little boy who got sprayed by a skunk. His parents nearly scrubbed the skin off him but they could not get rid of the odor. So for a couple of days, he had to sleep in the barn and eat his meals outside the house. He could see his family
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Thomas Cash on Dec 17, 2009
Listen to part of the June 2006 editorial of Christianity Today, written when The Da Vinci Code was being released in theaters:
“The tendency to grasp at excuses for not making a commitment to (God) was illustrated by National Public Radio commentator Peter Manseau. He compared the Gospel of Judas
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Timothy Brown on Feb 7, 2010
Illustration: A man found a cocoon of the emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn't seem to force its body past a certain point. Deciding something was wrong, the man took scissors and snipped the
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Baptist