In Sermon Illustrations: "Nothing"

Pull For The Shore, Sailor

Contributed by Dwight L. Moody on Jun 11, 2009

PULL FOR THE SHORE, SAILOR A vessel was wrecked off the shore. Eager eyes were watching and strong arms manned the life-boat. For hours they tried to reach that vessel through the great breakers that raged and foamed on the sand-bank, but it seemed impossible. The boat appeared to be leaving the ...read more

Tags: Heaven

Denomination: *other

Decision Without Determination

Contributed by Mark Eberly on Jul 28, 2009

DECISION WITHOUT DETERMINATION Some choose and pray a prayer. This is the great heresy of the last hundred years. I made a choice when I was ten. But there is no determination. I have been convinced by the Lord that a decision without determination and effort is absolutely meaningless. In ...read more

Tags: Discipleship

Denomination: Church Of God

Revenge Vs. Forgiveness  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 18, 2009

REVENGE VS. FORGIVENESS There was once a man who was bitten by a dog, which was later discovered to be rabid. The man was rushed to the hospital where tests revealed that he had, in fact, contracted rabies. At the time, medical science had no cure for this disease and so his doctor faced the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 7:41-50

Tags: Forgiveness For Others

J.c. Penney Born Again

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 19, 2009

J.C. PENNEY BORN AGAIN The late great business man and entrepreneur, James Cash Penney (1875 - 1971), founder of the J.C. Penney stores, in his autobiography entitled "Fifty Years with the Golden Rule," tells of his being in the Battle Creek Sanitarium one night when he thought he was dying. He ...read more

Scripture: Hosea 10:12, Hosea 10:12-13

Tags: Born Again

Laws Of Stewardship, Sowing And ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 26, 2009

Laws of Stewardship, Sowing and Reaping A few of the Laws of Stewardship and of Sowing and Reaping: THE LAW OF RIGHTFUL OWNERSHIP – Nothing truly belongs to us; everything actually belongs to God. THE LAW OF PURPOSEFUL POSSESSION – Wise stewards are guided by lordship, not “hoardship.” THE LAW ...read more

Tags: Stewardship

Frenzied Pace Of Life

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 31, 2009

FRENZIED PACE OF LIFE A lot of these same gods are still worshipped in America today, aren't they? Our culture also seems to bow down to the idol of busyness. In her book called, "Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families," Ann Kroeker writes this: "America, the land of the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 10:41-42

Tags: Culture

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Nov 10, 2009

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst Judith Viorst wrote a popular children’s book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It’s about a little boy whose day starts out bad and goes downhill from there. He gets gum in his hair and ...read more

Scripture: Jonah 4:1-11

Tags: Jonah

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

False ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 1, 2010

False Healers Shortly before I came to the United States in 1983 I attended a “healing” meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. It was winter and the meeting was held outside in a very large tent. We all wore winter coats. The preacher, who had a large following in South Africa, preached a message that ...read more

Scripture: Jude 1:12-13

Tags: False Teaching

Holiness Is Developed In Community

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 23, 2010

HOLINESS IS DEVELOPED IN COMMUNITY In the 3rd and 4th Centuries, and even to some extent today, the popular image of holiness was solitude, silence and severity. The really (quote) "holy people" back then were those who lived like hermits, wandering in the desert alone -- fasting, praying and ...read more

Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-10

Tags: Holiness

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

The Prayer And The Chair

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 22, 2011

THE PRAYER AND THE CHAIR A woman called a pastor to come to the house to see her father. He goes to the house not knowing whether the man is Christian or not but he notices as he talks to him and the man answers back that he must be a Christian and there is a chair sitting close by. An empty ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 6:5-15

Tags: Prayer How To

Vacant Homes, Vacant Lives  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 9, 2011

VACANT HOMES, VACANT LIVES TIFTON, GA — The most interesting thing about Tifton is an abandoned Victorian house filled with thousands of bats. Tift County declared the once-elegant house in the town’s historic district off limits after a bat specialist said that maybe 20,000 bats had moved in, ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 119:11, Psalm 119:11-16, Luke 11:1-13, Galatians 5:22-23, Psalm 84:1-12, John 2:13-23, Luke 7:36-50, John 1:46-56, James 2:14-26, Luke 11:24-26, Matthew 12:43-45, Matthew 12:44-45  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Bible Influence

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

Billy Graham: Growing Old Has Been A Surprise  PRO

Contributed by Josh Hunt on Feb 7, 2012

BILLY GRAHAM: GROWING OLD HAS BEEN A SURPRISE Billy Graham, in his book "Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well" (pp. 1-2, Thomas Nelson), he writes: Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life. The young live for the here and now. Thinking ahead seems to be in the form of dreams ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 16:31

Tags: Aging

Denomination: Baptist

The Stress Of Uncertainty

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 10, 2012

THE STRESS OF UNCERTAINTY Daniel Gilbert (a psychologist at Harvard), citing a recent Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, said "that Americans are smiling less and worrying more than they were a year ago, that happiness is down and sadness is up, that we are getting less sleep and smoking more ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34

Tags: Fear And Worry

John D. Rockefeller's Transformation

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 14, 2012

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER’S TRANSFORMATION John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was strong and husky when he was a youth. He early determined to earn money and drove himself to the limit. At age 33, he earned his first million dollars. At age 43, he controlled the biggest company in the world. At age 53, he was ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 9:1-15

Tags: Giving General

So Many Valuable Possessions  PRO

Contributed by Perry Greene on Sep 26, 2012

SO MANY VALUABLE POSSESSIONS Waylon Prendergast, 37, of Tampa, Florida, committed a spur-of-the-moment robbery while on his way home from a late-night drinking session. A very inebriated Mr. Prendergast forced his way into the house through an open upstairs window, filling a suitcase with cash and ...read more

Scripture: Luke 21:25-31, Luke 23:28-34

Tags: Blessing, Forgive, Nightmare

Denomination: Independent/Bible

During Super Bowl Xxxvii, Fedex Ran A Commercial ...  PRO

Contributed by Raymond L. Johnson on May 27, 2013

During Super Bowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker, whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like Tom Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 25:8-10

Tags: Fulfillment, Discovery, Doing God's Will, God's Sovereign Will, Knowing God's Will  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Baptist

Husband Doesn't Get It

Contributed by Josh Hunt on Jun 19, 2013

TWICE A WEEK After just a few years of marriage filled with disagreements and arguments, a young man and his wife decided the only way to save their marriage was to try counseling. Things had slipped from bad to worse as the months passed, turning their marriage into a marathon of misery. They had ...read more

Scripture: Colossians 3:19

Tags: Communication, Marriage, Husband, Relationships

Denomination: Baptist