In Sermon Illustrations: "Small Gifts"

Comedian Shares How That When The Airline Lost ...

Contributed by James Crain on Mar 27, 2009

comedian shares how that when the airline lost his luggage, he goes to the counter where lost luggage is reported. Now how would you like that job? People come up to the counter and you say. How are you today, Let me guess, you are not happy? Or maybe you angry. Really really angry, Livid. Anyway, ...read more

Tags: Meeting Needs, Worship Purpose

Denomination: Baptist

All Part Of God's Plan  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 28, 2009

ALL PART OF GOD’S PLAN In the opening pages of his autobiography, "An American Life," Ronald Reagan writes, I was raised to believe that God had a plan for everyone and that seemingly random twists of fate are all a part of His plan. My mother - a small woman with auburn hair and a sense of ...read more

Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11

Tags: God In The Hardships

Addicted To Unkind ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 19, 2009

Addicted to Unkind Words Joseph Telushkin, author of Words That Hurt, Words That Heal, lectures throughout our country on the powerful and often negative impact of words. He often asks those in his audience if they can go 24 hours without saying any unkind words about or to another person. ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 4:29

Tags: Words

A Simple Hose Clamp Causes Failure Of Balloon's ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Nov 9, 2009

A Simple Hose Clamp Causes Failure of Balloon’s Attempt to Circle the Earth Piccard and Richard Conniff writes in National Geographic that on January 12, 1997, two Swiss men, Bertrand Piccard and Wim Verstraeten, set out to be the first to CIRCLE THE EARTH in a balloon. Their aircraft was called ...read more

Scripture: James 3:1-6

Tags: Tongue

Peer Pressure In The ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 9, 2010

Peer Pressure in the Classroom A few years ago psychologist Ruth W. Berenda and her associates carried out an interesting experiment with teenagers designed to show how a person handled group pressure. The plan was simple. They brought groups of ten adolescents into a room for a test. Subsequently, ...read more

Scripture: Romans 12:2

Tags: Youth

Some Years Ago In Whitsunday Baptist Church A Few ...

Contributed by Ross Cochrane on Apr 28, 2010

Some years ago in Whitsunday Baptist Church a few men got together and started a prayer meeting. We met every week on a Monday morning at 6 am at Wyn’s place. It was high up on the side of a mountainous hill that overlooked Proserpine and back towards Airlie Beach. They were great prayer meetings. ...read more

Tags: Leadership General

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Parental Influence On Children Compared To Sunday ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 8, 2010

Parental Influence On Children Compared To Sunday School It is well known that crabs and small shellfish of the same class walk in the “sideways” fashion. Once upon a time, the other fishes resolved to teach these mistaken fellow inhabitants of the deep the proper mode of locomotion, namely, to go ...read more

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Tags: Parenting

Matryoshka Doll

Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Aug 30, 2010

I purchased this doll a few years back when I visited in Russia. It’s called a Matryoshka doll (Russian Nesting doll). (taking dolls apart) If you’re familiar with these dolls, you know that you open up one and there’s another inside … and so on and so on. This continues until you get to the ...read more

Tags: Salvation

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

A Greater Hero Than You Think

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 1, 2011

A GREATER HERO THAN YOU THINK One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with ...read more

Scripture: John 15:13

Tags: Hero, Heroism, Culvert

A Better Pitcher

Contributed by Sermon Central on Mar 28, 2011

A BETTER PITCHER "There's a story from the late 1800s of English evangelist Henry Moorhouse who made several trips to America to preach. On one of these occasions, he was taking a walk through a poor section of the city when he noticed a small boy coming out of a store with a pitcher of milk. Just ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 2:4

Tags: Compassion

Pizarro's Critical Moment

Contributed by Dennis Davidson on May 19, 2011

PIZARRO'S CRITICAL MOMENT All great undertakings begin with a critical moment--a moment when a decision is made and someone launches himself into a never-to-be forgotten enterprise. FRANCISCO PIZARRO, the noted Spanish explorer, faced such a moment. He languished with his men on a small island ...read more

Tags: Action

Denomination: Baptist

Invalids' Prayers Bring Revival  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 4, 2011

INVALIDS' PRAYERS BRING REVIVAL Max Lucado told of a church in Scotland back in the 1940s that was struggling to keep the doors open. A couple of its members were two older ladies who were invalids and couldn’t get out for worship any longer. But these ladies refused to allow their infirmities to ...read more

Scripture: James 5:13-20

Tags: Prayer Persistence, Serving

Prayer For Thieves  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 4, 2011

PRAYER FOR THIEVES About 12 years ago, three men broke into our church building here. They didn't steal much, and they didn't really damage all that much (they broke a couple of doors, and stole a few small items) but we called the police and reported the incident. After the police left, our youth ...read more

Scripture: Colossians 4:2-6

Tags: Prayer Answered

Improving On A Good Design...or Not

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 8, 2011

IMPROVING ON A GOOD DESIGN...OR NOT Years ago I bought a Chevy Caprice at a used car lot. It was a thing of beauty. It was big and stylish and it purred as I drove it down the road. Well, it purred for the first few days. Then it began to cough and sputter and I had difficulty getting above 30 ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 1:27-30

Tags: Church General

How Far Was Jonah Running Away?

Contributed by Brad Henry on Oct 14, 2011

HOW FAR WAS JONAH RUNNING AWAY? Let me give you a little perspective on how far Jonah was running away. Joppa was on the far eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea. Tarshish was on the western side of the coast of Spain bordering the Atlantic Ocean. That is approximately 2,200 miles away. That ...read more

Tags: Doing God's Will

Craving Milk

Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Oct 26, 2011

CRAVING MILK I remember our grandkids had ravenous appetites towards mother's milk and they all grew fat as over-stuffed ticks. All 4 of them were roly-poly by 3 months of age. There was an obvious direct corollary between milk ingested and weight gain. Likewise, spiritual infants who crave ...read more

Tags: Basics Of Christianity

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Saved Covered By Wings

Contributed by Jerry Cosper on Dec 13, 2011

SAVED COVERED BY WINGS An article in the National Geographic several years ago provided a picture of God’s love for us. After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, ...read more

Tags: Salvation

Denomination: Baptist

Greed: The Cat And The Vase  PRO

Contributed by Josh Hunt on Feb 9, 2012

GREED: THE CAT AND THE VASE A man wanders into a small antique shop in San Francisco. Mostly it's cluttered with knickknacks and junk. On the floor, however, he notices what looks like an ancient Chinese vase. On closer inspection it turns out to be a priceless relic from the Ming dynasty whose ...read more

Scripture: Luke 12:15, Luke 14:7-14, Luke 14:1-6, 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Daniel 6:1-28, Luke 10:38-42, Romans 6:1-4, Isaiah 7:10-14, Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 10:1-11, 1 Samuel 12:1-41, John 20:18-31, 2 Thessalonians 6:1-10  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Greed

Denomination: Baptist

Love Your Neighbor

Contributed by Josh Hunt on Apr 16, 2012

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR I stepped outside my hotel room yesterday and saw a thin elderly woman taking small steps in a circle. She seemed to be mumbling. Our eyes connected. She said, "They left me here and I don't know where they have gone. I don't know what room I am in." I held out my hand. She ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 23:4-5

Tags: Neighbor

Denomination: Baptist

My Friend Will Find Me

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 16, 2012

MY FRIEND WILL FIND ME Sam was a great bird dog. If he pointed to a clump of bushes, there surely was a bird in there. He was much more than just a bird dog. Often we’d share together lazy lunches in an abandoned apple orchard, and the snooze that followed. Late one afternoon, Sam and I became ...read more

Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:7-9

Tags: Trust