In Sermon Illustrations: "Love Your Enemy"

Let's Say You And Your Spouse Are ...

Contributed by Bill Burress on Jan 21, 2010

Illustration: Let’s say you and your spouse are going away for a couple of days and you leave your teenager at home by their self. Now before you go you give instructions that you don’t want any parties, they are not to drive dad’s sports car, and they are not to be out after midnight the nights ...read more

Tags: Sin General

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Roots: Freedom From Your Slavery

Contributed by Gregg Bitter on Jan 25, 2010

Roots: Freedom From Your Slavery Kunta Kinte lived free among the Mandinka people of West Africa, becoming a Mandinka warrior at fifteen. But then as he gathered wood for a drum outside his village, slavers captured him. Stacked away on a slave ship piled up with a hundred seventy other slaves, he ...read more

Tags: Guilt

Denomination: Lutheran

What Is Your Greatest Frustration With Reading ...

Contributed by Jim Kane on Feb 27, 2010

What is your greatest frustration with reading and understanding the Bible? • Lack of time • Lack of a road map to help you get the big picture • Lack of desire • Lack of some ...read more

Tags: Bible Study

Denomination: Church Of God

Leaving Home Without Your Kids

Contributed by Ross Cochrane on Aug 27, 2010

LEAVING HOME WITHOUT YOUR KIDS When we left to Pastor a Church in the Whitsundays we left our children, Ben and Rachel, behind in Sydney. Rachel was still in her late teens, but both of them were already involved in Hillsong Church and did not want to leave. We remember the pain of driving off ...read more

Tags: Divorce

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Making Your Life Count For Something

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 7, 2011

MAKING YOUR LIFE COUNT FOR SOMETHING Many years ago at a Presbyterian retreat center near Asheville, NC, the annual summer conference was being held. An elderly man with a neatly clipped white goatee and resonant voice rose to speak. He explained that he was a medical doctor and he had a story to ...read more

Scripture: Luke 14:25-33

Tags: Missions

What Comes Out Of Your Mouth  PRO

Contributed by Alan Perkins on Apr 10, 2011

WHAT COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH How carefully do you monitor what goes into your mouth, compared to what comes out of it? For example, do you follow a low-fat diet? Do you obsessively track the grams of fat going into your body? Do you watch the number of calories that you consume? Do you avoid ...read more

Scripture: Mark 7:14-23

Tags: Relationships, Tongue

Denomination: Baptist

Don't Waste Your Life

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 20, 2011

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE In his book Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper recounts a story his father often told of his days as a fiery Baptist evangelist. It is the story of a man who came to saving faith in Jesus Christ near the end of his earthly existence. Piper writes: "The church had prayed for ...read more

Scripture: Acts 20:24

Tags: Conscience

God Wants To Live In Your House

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 9, 2011

GOD WANTS TO LIVE IN YOUR HOUSE C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: "Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:4-5

Tags: Sanctification

God Will Lift Up Your Head

Contributed by Ken Pell on Jun 12, 2011

GOD WILL LIFT UP YOUR HEAD During the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century, German pastor Paul Gerhardt and his family were forced to flee from their home. One night as they stayed in a small village inn, homeless and afraid, his wife broke down and cried openly in despair. To comfort her, ...read more

Tags: God Brings Hope

Denomination: Nazarene

What Makes Your Face Shine?  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 2, 2011

WHAT MAKES YOUR FACE SHINE? A Hindu trader in India once asked a missionary, "What do you put on your face to make it shine?" With surprise the man of God answered, "I don’t put anything on it!" His questioner began to lose patience and said emphatically, "Yes, you do! All of you who believe in ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 2:14-16

Tags: Christian Witness

Am I Still Your Child?

Contributed by Guy Mcgraw on Dec 6, 2011

AM I STILL YOUR CHILD? What if Lynne and I adopted a child and brought him/her into our home. That child might be so thankful that every day they might ask, "Can I mow the lawn today, can I do the dishes for you, do you need a foot massage?" That would be great, but it would break my heart to ...read more

Tags: Adoption

Knowing Where You're Going

Contributed by Larry Allen on Jan 9, 2012

KNOWING WHERE YOU'RE GOING Remember Alice in Wonderland when she comes up to the fork in the road and asks the Cheshire cat which way to go. He asks her, "Where are you going?" Then she replies, "I don’t know," at which he replies, "If you don’t know where you are going, what difference does it ...read more

Tags: Preparation

Denomination: Nazarene

Do You Know Your Business?

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 15, 2012

DO YOU KNOW YOUR BUSINESS? There was once a sign on a door that read: "Gone out of business. Didn’t know what our business was." Do you know what your business is in this world? More than anything it should be the pursuit of holiness by ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 12:14

Tags: Holiness

God, You're In My Way.  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 28, 2012

"GOD, YOU'RE IN MY WAY." A California pastor, Kyle Idleman, talks about his last move in his book, Not a Fan. In that move, he saved the heaviest piece of furniture for last -- the desk from his office. And as he was pushing and pulling the desk with all his might, his four-year-old son came over ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 4:6-8, Philippians 4:4-7

Tags: Anxiety

How Big Is Your Frying Pan?  PRO

Contributed by Paul Casteel on Jun 9, 2012

HOW BIG IS YOUR FRYING PAN? Adrian Rogers tells the following story, "I heard of a fisherman who was fishing; and, if a fish was over 18 inches long, he just threw it back. And, somebody asked him, 'Why do you do that?' He said, 'Well, I only have an 18-inch frying pan.'" Well, I ...read more

Tags: Men's Day

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Sorry You're Too Late

Contributed by Tim Spear on Dec 3, 2012

A young man, after a revival service, came up to the visiting evangelist and they were getting ready to put up everything for the night. The young man had left after the invitation, under conviction, he had returned at the conclusion of the service and went up to the evangelist and he said, "Sir, ...read more

Tags: Salvation

Denomination: Baptist

Your Sin Will Find You Out

Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 4, 2013

YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT ORANGE CITY, Fla., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said they arrested a man who accidentally called 911 while allegedly talking about selling drugs. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office said dispatchers contacted deputies around 9:42 p.m. Tuesday and told them an ...read more

Tags: Sin Exposed

Denomination: Independent/Bible

Kyle Idleman On Carrying Your Cross

Contributed by Kevin Karhoff on Mar 18, 2013

There is no comfortable way to carry a cross; I don’t care how you position it. I often talk to people who are convinced that some suffering or pain in their lives is an indication that they must not be following Jesus. After all, if they are following Jesus, the Son of God, doesn’t it follow ...read more

Scripture: Luke 9:23

Tags: Surrender, Jesus Christ, Commitment To Christ, Carrying Your Cross

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Abraham Lincoln: Merit Your Freedom  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 8, 2013

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: MERIT YOUR FREEDOM In the last days of the Civil War, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, fell to the Union army. Abraham Lincoln insisted on visiting the city. Even though no one knew he was coming, slaves recognized him immediately and thronged around him. He had ...read more

Scripture: John 21:3-14, Romans 6:1-23, Galatians 5:13-15

Tags: Christian Liberty

How To Find Your Mom In A Supermarket

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 3, 2013

HOW TO FIND YOUR MOM IN A SUPERMARKET I read a story about a six-year-old boy who was separated from his mother in a supermarket. So he frantically called, "Martha! Martha! Martha!" That was his mother's name and she came running to him quickly. "But, honey," she admonished, "you shouldn't call ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-3

Tags: Mother's Day