In Sermon Illustrations: "Poor People"

A New Evangelical Movement: Rick Warren Recently ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

A New Evangelical Movement: Rick Warren recently sent an open letter to President Bush saying, “I deeply believe that if we as evangelicals remain silent and do not speak up in defense of the poor, we lose our credibility and our right to witness about God’s love for the world. Endorsed by Billy ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

O.g. Wilson Wrote, "I Murmured Because I Had To ...

Contributed by Bill Butsko on Oct 17, 2006

O.G. Wilson wrote, “I murmured because I had to walk four blocks from the parking lot to my office. Then I saw a man who was sick, hungry, and unable to take a step and yet whose smile was as cheery as the chirp of the first robin of spring. I complained because the light was poor. Then I met a ...read more

Denomination: Christian Church

William Booth Once Put It Like This, " I Will ...

Contributed by Aubrey Vaughan on Feb 7, 2007

William Booth once put it like this, “ I will tell you the secret: God has had all that there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, even with greater opportunities, but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with me ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Andrew Carnegie Made Millions In The Steel ...  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 20, 2002

Andrew Carnegie made millions in the steel industrial. He worked hard helping the poor and underprivileged. Once a socialist came to see him in his office and soon was railing against the injustice of Carnegie having so much money. In his view, wealth was meant to be divided equally. Carnegie asked ...read more

This Week In Preparation For This Sermon I Came ...

Contributed by Tim Richards on Sep 2, 2004

This week in preparation for this sermon I came across statistics for how much Proctor and Gamble spends on TV advertising each year. Guess how many of their dollars go to television? You couldn’t guess if you tried. They spend $3 Billion each year. To put that figure in perspective, it’s 50% more ...read more

Tags: Money

Denomination: Baptist

William Booth Put It Like This, " I Will Tell ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007

William Booth put it like this, “ I will tell you the secret: God has had all that there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, even with greater opportunities, but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with me and ...read more

Tags: Faith General

If There Is Anything Good In Us, It Is Not Our ...

Contributed by Dr. Madana Kumar, Phd on Apr 28, 2009

If there is anything good in us, it is not our own, it is a gift of God. But if it is a gift then it is entirely a debt one owes to love. And if it is a debt owed to love, then I must serve others with it, not myself. Thus my learning is not my own, it belongs to the unlearned and is the debt I ...read more

Tags: Servanthood

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Our Love So Faint, Thine So Great

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Jul 28, 2011

OUR LOVE SO FAINT, THINE SO GREAT The great hymn writer, Isaac Watts, once asked in a hymn: "Dear Lord, and shall we ever live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to Thee, and Thine to us so great?" Likely so, unless God himself startles us and shakes us free from our complacency. ...read more

Tags: Love For God

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Tertullian (160–230 A.d.), The Theologian Of ...

Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Dec 10, 2007

Tertullian (160–230 A.D.), the theologian of Carthage, wrote about heathen husbands being angry with their Christian wives because they wanted to kiss martyrs’ bonds, embrace Christians, and visit the cottages of the poor. Often when an unbelieving spouse wants to leave the marriage the believer ...read more

Denomination: Other

Bad Attitude

Contributed by David Swanger on Jan 24, 2024

A mother and daughter, trying to make the most of the sales before Christmas, spent the day shopping. As they went from store to store in the mall, the mom complained about everything: the crowds, the poor quality of the merchandise, the prices, her sore feet. After the mother experienced a ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 118:24

Tags: Choice, Attitude

Four-Hundred-And-Fifty Years Before Christ Walked ...

Contributed by Jonathan Twitchell on Dec 7, 2006

Four-hundred-and-fifty years before Christ walked the earth there lived a philosopher by the name of Zeno. Zeno was best known for his mathematical paradoxes…situations that appear to be impossible or self-contradictory. One of his most famous paradoxes could be stated this way: Let us suppose ...read more

Denomination: Nazarene

Bishop Blake Of The Oklahoma Area Conference Told ...  PRO

Contributed by Greg Buchner on Jul 15, 2004

Bishop Blake of the Oklahoma Area Conference told this story at General Conference… “In 1999, the Oklahoma Conference met soon after the tragic tornadoes that swept thought the area, the most severe ever calculated by measuring devices. Many homes and many lives were destroyed. That conference ...read more

Tags: Giving General

Denomination: Methodist

Peter Hopkirk Tells A Great Story About The ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007

Peter Hopkirk tells a great story about the folly of a faulty proclamation. It was 1919, and Russia was in the midst of its own Civil War to establish Communism as its official ideology. While Moscow had been “liberated” two years earlier, farther flung parts of its empire, such as what is now in ...read more

Tags: Sin Bondage To

My Wife Christina And I Always Get Up Early To ...  PRO

Contributed by Chris Surber on Dec 7, 2007

My wife Christina and I always get up early to shop the day after Thanksgiving. This year we drove to a hotel that evening so that we could get up at 3:00 A.M. to get in line at Toys ‘R’ us to catch the door buster sales that morning. This is something that we started doing years ago when we ...read more

Denomination: Christian Church

16,743 Yards Of Persistence  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Nov 1, 2004

16,743 YARDS OF PERSISTENCE God has always honored persistence. I have always appreciated Emmitt Smith. I was glad to see him set the NFL rushing record last Sunday. He isn’t as flashy as Walter Payton or Barry Sanders, and he never possessed true break-away speed. But his strength lies in his ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1, Luke 20:27-38, Luke 18:1-8

Tags: Prayer General, Prayer Persistence, Parable Widow

Income Tax  PRO

Contributed by Ted Sutherland on Apr 3, 2001

From Reader’s Digest: It’s time to pay my income tax And, brother, that’s no joke. For after paying IRS I find that I R broke! —Jerry Henderson in Lubbock, Texas, Avalanche-Journal As April 15 draweth nigh, My spirits start to droop. A poor, downtrodden slave am I, In short, an income ...read more

Scripture: John 8:36

Tags: Money, Poverty, Giving General

Denomination: Baptist

Senator Mark Hatfield Writes Of Touring Calcutta ...  PRO

Contributed by Kevin Weeks on Dec 18, 2001

Senator Mark Hatfield writes of touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the “House of Dying.” It was a home where sick children are cared for in their last days and where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Hatfield was watching Mother Teresa and her companions ...read more

Tags: Giving General, Christian Disciplines, Compassion

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Suffering  PRO

Contributed by James Pless on May 22, 2006

SUFFERING 12433. Beaten Into Higher Value A bar of steel is worth five dollars. When it is wrought into horseshoes, it is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars. If wrought into penknife blades, it is worth thirty-two thousand dollars. And if it is ...read more

Tags: Christian Values

Denomination: Baptist

One Man Once Said These Words "I Will Tell You ...

Contributed by Aubrey Vaughan on Feb 26, 2007

One man once said these words “I will tell you the secret: God has had all that there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, even with greater opportunities, but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with me and them, ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Malcolm Muggeridge Explained With The ...  PRO

Contributed by David Green on Dec 19, 2004

Malcolm Muggeridge explained with the speculation of the scenario of Christ’s birth in our post-modern world, “.....in our day, with family-planning clinics offering convenient ways to correct “mistakes” that might disgrace a family name, “It is, in point of fact, extremely improbable, under ...read more

Tags: Humanity Of Christ

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ