In Sermon Illustrations: "Self Sacrifice"

How Were The Old Testament Saints Saved?

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 3, 2011

HOW WERE THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS SAVED? H. A. Ironside was traveling and dropped in on a Sunday school class. The unprepared teacher asked how Old Testament saints were saved and somebody answered, "By keeping the law." The teacher said, "Correct!" Ironside raised his hand and said, "Romans ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 3:6-9

Tags: Faith

Feeling A Tug  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 3, 2011

FEELING A TUG A small boy was flying a kite one April afternoon when a low drifting cloud encircled the kite and hid it from view. A man passing by asked the little boy what he was doing with that string in his hand. "I’m flying my kite," the child responded. The man, looking up and seeing ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 11:1

Tags: Faith, Real Faith, Better Faith, Feeling Faith

Years Ago I Read An Autobiography Of A Lady ...

Contributed by Guy Mcgraw on Apr 2, 2012

Years ago I read an autobiography of a lady named Patty Roberts. She had been the wife of Richard Roberts and the daughter in law of Oral Roberts. She and Richard were often the musical portion of Oral Roberts television specials. Patty had a simple faith and struggled with the financial aspect ...read more

Tags: False Teaching

God Is Not An Editor

Contributed by David Tack on Oct 17, 2012

GOD IS NOT AN EDITOR "God is looking for common ordinary people like you and me who are willing to let Him use as He sees fit. He wants to write our story, He doesn’t want to be our editor. But, we want to write the story and then we call God in as our editor. When the story gets messy then we ...read more

Scripture: Luke 9:23

Tags: Discipleship

Denomination: Baptist

Joining For The Perks

Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Nov 13, 2012

JOINING FOR THE PERKS Lay down our lives? You mean total sacrifice? Partial commitment is not allowed. I remember a man in a church I attended long ago who had a grandson who was in the Army and his grandson was about to be deployed into a war zone. This man got up in church and with tears ...read more

Tags: Commitment To Christ

Denomination: Nazarene

Poinsettia

Contributed by David Simpson on Dec 19, 2014

There are a lot of symbols at the Christmas season. All represent something. Santa Claus, mistletoe, wreaths, candles, etc. I’ve always admired the beauty of poinsettias, and decided to do a little research on them. You may know that they were named after Joel Poinsett, who happened to be the ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12

Tags: Christmas, Wise Men, Star Of Christmas, Poinsettia

Denomination: Christian Church

False Prophets Talk Much About The Love Of God ...

Contributed by Matthew Kratz on Feb 2, 2008

False prophets talk much about the love of God but nothing of His holiness, much about people who are deprived but nothing about those who are depraved, much about God’s universal fatherhood of every human being but nothing about His unique fatherhood only of those who are His children through ...read more

Denomination: Other

I Will Never Forget What Missionary Bill Lewis ...

Contributed by Kenneth Trent on Mar 2, 2009

I will never forget what Missionary Bill Lewis told me on my last night in Tanzania in 1963. The national pastor, in whose hut we had been staying while on this particular mission safari, had killed his only pig and had used all the remaining rice in his storage bin to provide our supper that ...read more

Tags: Missions

Denomination: Baptist

It's Father's Day, And The Very First National ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007

It’s Father’s Day, and the very first national celebration of this day was on June 19, 1924, by proclamation of President Calvin Coolidge (But not finalized until 1972.) But it all came about because of the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd. Sonora was sitting in church in 1909 listening to a Mother’s ...read more

Tags: Patriarchs Joseph

A Story From Sports Illustrated. Oklahoma State ...  PRO

Contributed by Andrew Chan on Apr 23, 2002

A story from Sports Illustrated. Oklahoma State Football Coach Bob Simmons, a Coach of the year, who brought a team that was mired in defeat back from the brink, to the place of respectability. But at age 49, his kidneys were failing. By the fall of 1997, his health took a turn for the worst, he ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 3:1-6

Tags: Marriage Commitment

Denomination: Evangelical Free

The Story Of Ernest Gordon

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 26, 2011

THE STORY OF ERNEST GORDON There is a book (and now a movie) called To End All Wars that tells of the extraordinary life of Ernest Gordon, a British Army officer captured at sea by the Japanese at the age of 24. Gordon was sent to work on the Burma-Siam railway line that the Japanese were ...read more

Scripture: John 15:12-14

Tags: Heroism

How Easy It Is To Define Authentic Spirituality ...

Contributed by Brad Bailey on Aug 4, 2004

“How easy it is to define authentic spirituality according to my particular experience and expression of it. And when I do I end up with a very different god from the one revealed in Christ, a god whose transcendent objectivity has been pared down to the contours of my subjectivity, a god, ...read more

Tags: God The Father

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Love My Job: Gallup's Annual Work And Education ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Love My Job: Gallup’s annual Work and Education Poll finds most employed adults in the U.S. enjoy their jobs, including 59% who “like” and 32% who “love” them. Only 9% dislike or hate them. Non-profit organization, government, or self-employed workers are much more likely than those ...read more

Tags: Workplace

Women Purchase More Jewelry Than Men 43% Versus ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Women Purchase More Jewelry than men 43% versus 34%) according to Future Vision: The Jewelry Market by Unity Marketing. Pam Danziger, president and CEO of Unity Marketing, says “To grow sales, jewelry companies must reach out to the self-purchasing woman and meet her in shopping venues where ...read more

Tags: Women

Americans Spend $50 Million A Year On Subliminal ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 17, 2006

Americans spend $50 million a year on subliminal message tapes designed to help them do everything from improve their self-image to stop smoking. But there’s no hidden message in the National Research Council’s verdict on such techniques. The Council’s report, released in September 1992, concludes ...read more

Tags: Character

Though A Friend Be But The Duplicate Of A Man's ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 12, 2007

"Though a friend be but the duplicate of a man's self, yet there may often happen secrets to one, that may not be convenient to divulge to the other. If they be such as the disclosure of them to a friend shall not only not benefit him, but shall bring grief upon him, I cannot think it an act of ...read more

Tags: Compassion

Christian Preaching Begins Only When Faith In ...

Contributed by Clark Tanner on May 1, 2009

“Christian preaching begins only when faith in the message has reached such a pitch that the man or the community proclaiming it becomes part of the message proclaimed…” says James S. Stewart in his work, A Faith To Proclaim “…To be thus taken command of, so that our testimony, when we go out to ...read more

Tags: Preaching

Denomination: Orthodox

C.s. Lewis On A Right Understanding Of ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 31, 2010

C.S. Lewis on a Right Understanding of Self C. S. Lewis put it this way: When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. (Leadership, Vol. ...read more

Scripture: Romans 12:3

Tags: Humility

He Will Demand Everything

Contributed by Kristian Kilgore on Jul 26, 2011

HE WILL DEMAND EVERYTHING Breezy, self-confident Christians tell us how wonderful it is to accept Christ and then have a good time all the rest of your life; the Lord won’t demand anything of you. Yes, He will, my friend! The Lord will demand everything of you. And when you give it ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 19:16-30

Tags: Salvation, Hills, Tozer

Denomination: Church Of God

Author Dwight Small Made An Eloquent Application ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007

Author Dwight Small made an eloquent application of godly love to marriage: "Godly love is not born of a lover’s need, nor does it have its source in the one loved. God’s love empties itself to give what the other needs. "Its motives rise wholly from within its own nature. Godly love lives in ...read more

Tags: Grace