In Sermon Illustrations: "Last Words"

Yearning For Your Beloved

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Nov 27, 2010

YEARNING FOR YOUR BELOVED Hearing God’s voice begins as a matter of affection. We have to listen for the voice of God the way a lover listens for the voice of the beloved. During the year before my wife and I were married, I lived in a remote city, and what I discovered is that there is no pain ...read more

Tags: Love For God

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Deceiving Ourselves: The Pentium Cover-Up  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 18, 2011

DECEIVING OURSELVES: THE PENTIUM COVER-UP Intel learned that its Pentium processing chip had a flaw. The chip would occasionally give wrong answers for division problems using large numbers. Intel believed this was a minor flaw, something they felt would affect the average user once every ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 7:21-23

Tags: Confession Of Sin

Be Found Doing Your Duty

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 1, 2011

BE FOUND DOING YOUR DUTY The time was the 19th of May, 1780. The place was Hartford, Connecticut. The day has gone down in New England history as a terrible foretaste of Judgment Day. For at noon the skies turned from blue to gray and by mid-afternoon had blackened over so densely that, in that ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 2:8-11

Tags: Judgment

Something Beautiful

Contributed by Barry Edmondson on Feb 5, 2011

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL In 1502, in Florence, Italy there was a large block of marble given to a church in Santa Maria, the church immediately hired who they thought was a professional to sculpt this enormously huge piece of rock. The man was a professional and soon after commencing this great task ...read more

Tags: God Brings Purpose

Denomination: Pentecostal

Fitting In

Contributed by Dale Pilgrim on Feb 13, 2011

FITTING IN I read the prologue to a story called Girl in the Middle. The girl is Kim Satinsky who is in eighth grade. She says, "You would think that being in a clique is fun, but take my word for it...it's not. They make me wear expensive things when I'm not really rich and tell me if something's ...read more

Tags: Friendship General

Denomination: Salvation Army

The Miracle Of Sight  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 15, 2011

THE MIRACLE OF SIGHT For 51 years Bob Edens was blind. He couldn’t see a thing. His world was a black hall of sounds and smells. He felt his way through five decades of darkness. And then, he could see. A skilled surgeon performed a complicated operation and, for the first time, Bob Edens had ...read more

Scripture: Mark 10:46-52

Tags: Beauty

The Key To The Spiritual Life

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 17, 2011

THE KEY TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE At age 16, Madame Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717) was forced into an arranged marriage with an invalid 22 years older. She found her marriage to be one of utter humiliation. Her husband was often angry and melancholy. Her mother-in-law was a merciless critic. Even the maid ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:3-11

Tags: Trials And Difficulties

What Would You Do?

Contributed by Revd. Martin Dale on Jun 30, 2011

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? A number of years ago, a young police officer was taking his final exam for the police academy when he came upon the following question: "You are on patrol in the outer city when an explosion occurs in a gas main in a nearby street. On investigation you find that a large hole ...read more

Tags: Christian Witness

Denomination: Anglican

Risks And Expectations

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 15, 2011

RISKS AND EXPECTATIONS Sohio, the Alaskan subsidiary of Standard Oil of Ohio, drilled a well in the Beaufort Sea in 1983, hoping to tap a geological formation holding several billion barrels of oil. Instead, they hit water, and $120 million went a glimmering. The oil companies know the risk. They ...read more

Scripture: Luke 9:23-26

Tags: Commitment To Christ

The Signet Ring

Contributed by Antonio Silveira on Sep 4, 2011

THE SIGNET RING "...I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,' declares the LORD Almighty" (Haggai 2:23). We don't often hear about signet rings anymore; but in Bible times, they were very significant. f In other words, you knew something was from the king because it was marked ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 40:31

Tags: Attitude General

Denomination: Baptist

Spiritual Acne

Contributed by Antonio Silveira on Feb 29, 2012

SPIRITUAL ACNE Have you seen ads for Clearsil, Proactiv, or other acne treatments? They usually exaggerate things and show the face before and aft the application of the "miraculous" product that makes you look good and perfect. They also make sure you get hooked to the remedy so they can bank on ...read more

Scripture: James 1:22-27

Tags: Sanctification

Denomination: Baptist

Ingersoll And The Patience Of God

Contributed by Guy Mcgraw on Mar 5, 2012

INGERSOLL AND THE PATIENCE OF GOD Robert Ingersoll, an American Agnostic, after delivering one of his addresses, pulled his watch from his pocket and said, "According to the Bible, God has struck men to death for blasphemy. I will blaspheme Him and give Him five minutes to strike me dead and ...read more

Tags: Judgment

Travelers Vs. Tourists

Contributed by Tim Hinrichs on Mar 29, 2012

TRAVELERS VS. TOURISTS Canadian Pastor Mark Buchanan in his book "Your Church is Too Safe" points out the radical difference between a traveler and a tourist. "A traveler literally means 'one who travails.' He labors, he suffers, endures. A traveler -- travailer - ...immerses himself in a culture, ...read more

Tags: Discipleship

Denomination: Lutheran

Running With A Stopwatch

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 15, 2012

RUNNING WITH A STOPWATCH Long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi of Finland was an Olympic champion, winning twelve medals (nine of them gold) in the 1920, 1924, and 1928 Games. Nurmi was famous not only for his achievements, but also for running with a stopwatch in his hand to check his performance. ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-13

Tags: Disciplines General

Listening To God Compared To Listening To The ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 4, 2012

LISTENING TO GOD COMPARED TO LISTENING TO THE DOCTOR We should treat prayer for what it is, a two way conversation with God, and learn to be quiet long enough for him to get a word in edge ways. Nicky Gumbel, in his book Questions of Life compares it to a visit to the doctor, he writes “Suppose I ...read more

Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:10

Tags: Prayer How To

A Surprise Ending For A Couple Who Met ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 16, 2012

A SURPRISE ENDING FOR A COUPLE WHO MET ON-LINE A couple from Zenica, Central Bosnia, are divorcing after accusing each other of being unfaithful following an online affair. “They met online, where he called himself “Prince of Joy,” and she called herself “Sweetie.” Their real names were Sana and ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33

Tags: Marriage Faithfulness

All Moms Know This Stuff  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Sep 7, 2012

ALL MOMS KNOW THIS STUFF One mom was out walking with her 4-year-old daughter when her girl picked up something from the ground and started to put it in her mouth. The mother tells what happens in her own words: "I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that." My daughter quickly ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 31:10-31

Tags: Mother's Day

Match Made In Heaven

Contributed by Ken Henson on Oct 16, 2012

There is a story about a couple that went to heaven and in this life they loved each other, but from a distance. So when they got to heaven, they decided to get married. They said to Peter, "Pete, we want to get married." And Peter says, "You have got eternity, why don't you think of it for 50 ...read more

Tags: Heaven

Denomination: *other

God Is Not An Assistant  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 23, 2013

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR AN ASSISTANT? Tim Keller, a pastor in Manhattan, New York, said that in 1970 a Sunday school teacher changed his life with a simple illustration. The teacher said, “Let’s assume the distance between the earth and the sun (92 million miles) was reduced to the thickness of this ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 1:1-3

Tags: God's Omnipotence

Daddy, What Does It Feel Like To Die?  PRO

Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Feb 19, 2014

Years ago I heard the compelling story of a young pastor whose son was very sick and not expected to live long. Night after night the pastor and his wife would put their boy to bed and say a prayer hoping for a miracle. One evening, the boy looked at his father and said, "Daddy, what does it feel ...read more

Scripture: John 14:1-6, 2 Timothy 3:1-9

Tags: Death, Children, Heaven, Grief

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational