In Sermon Illustrations: "Saying Grace"

My Daddy Is Here!  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 6, 2010

MY DADDY IS HERE! David Elkind, a psychologist, tells the story of visiting his middle son's nursery school class, at the request of his teacher. She wanted him to observe a "problem child" in the class. While he was there, he caught a conversation between his son and some other boys. There ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-4

Tags: Father's Day

Everybody Loves Raymond: Why Are We Here First?

Contributed by Davon Huss on Nov 8, 2010

EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND: WHY ARE WE HERE FIRST? In the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond, little Alley begins asking some questions about babies. Raymond, the father, gets nervous and refuses to answer her questions. Later on, Raymond realizes that he needs to answer his daughter’s questions. ...read more

Tags: Hardship Of Life

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Losing Jesus

Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 13, 2010

LOSING JESUS For about 14 years, I have been teaching AWANA. I teach each of our three division, beginning with a puppet skit and then a flannel graph lesson with felt figures. I taught the Christmas Story to the Sparks, K-2nd grade, then I moved everything into the auditorium to teach the Flames ...read more

Tags: Birth Of Jesus

Denomination: Independent/Bible

Pain Passes, But Beauty Remains  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 26, 2011

PAIN PASSES, BUT BEAUTY REMAINS Pierre Auguste Renoir is a famous French artist who lived in the late 19th century to the early 20th century. He was known for his paintings, mostly depicting family life. But there was one disease that tormented this gifted artist -- he had arthritis that plagued ...read more

Scripture: Romans 5:1-5

Tags: Suffering Joy In

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

Why Did God Make Mothers?

Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on May 10, 2011

WHY DID GOD MAKE MOTHERS? Consider these answers given by elementary-age children to the following questions. "Why did God make mothers?" "Mostly to clean the house." "To help us out of there, when we were getting born." "How did God make mothers?" "God made my Mom just the same like he made ...read more

Tags: Mothers

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

You Can Make Him Drink

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 12, 2011

YOU CAN MAKE HIM DRINK Howard Hendricks, one of my professors at Dallas Theological Seminary, sometimes talked about his days when he was a student at the same seminary. In one of those stories, he tells about the time he was invited to preach in west Texas. "You've all heard of Nowhere? Well," ...read more

Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Tags: Evangelism How To

God Picks The Unlovable Ones

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 15, 2011

GOD PICKS THE UNLOVABLE ONES Anne Lamott described a time when a fellow church member told about adopting her son through an organization called A.S.K. -- Adopt Special Kids. Part of the adoption process included filling out a questionnaire checking "yes" or "no" for one's willingness to adopt ...read more

Scripture: John 4:1-42

Tags: Adoption

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

Knowing The Sound Of His Voice  PRO

Contributed by Tim Smith on Oct 8, 2011

KNOWING THE SOUND OF HIS VOICE Brian Brown tells the story of being at the community pool with his family. Kids were screaming, playing, and splashing in the pool, music was playing, the lifeguard whistles were blowing and in the midst of the conversation, his wife shooshes him. He said, "What are ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, John 10:4

Tags: Prayer General

Denomination: Methodist

History Of Israel Stands As A Witness...

Contributed by Suresh Manoharan on Nov 27, 2011

History of Israel stands as a witness... About 300 years ago, the King of Sweden was having personal doubts about God’s existence and the Bible's divine nature. He called for Count Von Zinzendorf, who was the bishop of the Moravian Church, to provide evidence about God’s existence and Divine ...read more

Tags: Bible Truth

Denomination: *other

Forgive And Forget

Contributed by Josh Hunt on Feb 15, 2012

FORGIVE AND FORGET There's a wonderful story about the cardinal of the Philippines, named, oddly enough, Cardinal Sin. When Cardinal Sin was a bishop, a young woman in his parish claimed that she had visions of Jesus. Bishop Sin was given the task of determining if these visions were authentic. He ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 1:9

Tags: Forgiveness General

Denomination: Baptist

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

Erased

Contributed by Tim Hinrichs on Jul 25, 2012

ERASED When we lived in Poland, I walked through one of the cemeteries in one of the cities. And as I was looking at the stones I was surprised to see many of the smooth stones scarred with a roughness right in the middle. Later I found out that the names had been gouged out because they were ...read more

Tags: Sin Separates From God

Denomination: Lutheran

Bertoldo De Giovanni Is A Name Even The Most ...

Contributed by Perry Greene on Aug 2, 2012

Bertoldo de Giovanni is a name even the most enthusiastic lover of art is unlikely to recognize. He was the pupil of Donatello, the greatest sculptor of his time, and he was the teacher of Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor of all time. Michelangelo was only 14 years old when he came to Bertoldo, ...read more

Tags: Discipleship

Denomination: Independent/Bible

We Should Be Striving On A Daily Basis To Worship ...

Contributed by Mark Thometz on Aug 27, 2012

We should be striving on a daily basis to worship God in new, loving and exciting ways. It's very easy to become comfortable in our worship. We have that thing on Sunday and sometimes Wednesday and we may even dust off our Bible every now and then to read it. What about feeding the hungry as ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

Denomination: Christian Church

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

A Teacher With Morals

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 8, 2013

A TEACHER WITH MORALS It's a true story; only the names have been changed to protect the embarrassed. Little Tommy attended first grade Sunday School faithfully. He loved his teacher, Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith told great Bible stories, and she would always end the story by saying, "And, boys and ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 13:1-23

Tags: Morality, Parable Sower And Seed

Daddy, What Does It Feel Like To Die?  PRO

Contributed by Garris Hudson 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

Foot Of The Cross

Contributed by Steve Kinnard on Feb 15, 2019

AT THE CROSS Many years ago, I got a job at a paper mill. There was an older man working there who was a very dedicate Christian. My first few weeks there they had me working with him, He was the greatest guy I’d ever known. He asks me if I was a Christian, I replied that I was. One day I let words ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Tags: Commitment, Shame

Denomination: Pentecostal