In Sermon Illustrations: "Suffering Joy In"

A Family Celebrated Christmas Every Year With A ...  PRO

Contributed by Aaron Burgess on Dec 14, 2002

A family celebrated Christmas every year with a birthday party for Jesus. An extra chair of honor at the table became the family’s reminder of Jesus’ presence. A cake with candles, along with the singing of "Happy Birthday" expressed the family’s joy in Jesus’ presence. One year on Christmas ...read more

Tags: Christmas, Birth Of Jesus

Denomination: Independent/Bible

An Instrument Of Peace  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Mar 24, 2003

AN INSTRUMENT OF PEACE "Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-15

Tags: War

Good Friday  PRO

Contributed by Rodney Killam on Apr 18, 2003

Dennis Bratcher said, Good Friday is not a day of celebration but of mourning, both for the death of Jesus and for the sins of the world that his death represents. Yet, although Friday is a solemn time, it is not without its own joy. For while it is important to place the Resurrection against the ...read more

Tags: Easter Good Friday

Denomination: Holiness

Life At Its Best An Extensive Survey Was ...  PRO

Contributed by Ed Wood on Jul 6, 2004

LIFE AT ITS BEST An extensive survey was conducted in the United States by a leading polling agency. Questionnaires were distributed to people of various ages and occupations. The key question was this: What are you looking for most in life? When the results were compiled, the analysts were ...read more

Tags: Evangelism Urgency

Denomination: Baptist

Psalm 59:16 Says, As For Me, I Will Sing About ...

Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Apr 3, 2007

Psalm 59:16 says, As for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress. (NLT) One of my fondest memories of my Grandma, Mary Skidmore is how she sang hymns every day as ...read more

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

As A Third-Century Man Was Anticipating Death, ...

Contributed by Ajai Prakash on Mar 27, 2008

As a third-century man was anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend: "It’s a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any ...read more

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Have You Ever Been Lost? I Am Not Talking About ...

Contributed by Jim Kane on Sep 27, 2008

Have you ever been lost? I am not talking about being lost on our way to another destination. That is frustrating and sometimes scary. I am talking about being lost here in our heads (point to head) and here in our hearts (point to heart.) David Damico would probably call this kind of loss "a ...read more

Tags: Faith

Denomination: Church Of God

How Do Your Eyes See It?  PRO

Contributed by Wade Martin Hughes, Sr on Jun 6, 2002

How do your eyes see it? By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com so you are a Mother? I see alot different than you do, you see the mud all around you, Ha! I see the diamond in you. You compare yourself to others, and say I can never acheive that level. I say, you are beyond where most ever ...read more

Denomination: Assembly Of God

Apollo 13 Lifted Off 2:13 Pm April 11, 1970 ...

Contributed by Tom Doubt on May 17, 2004

Apollo 13 lifted off 2:13 PM April 11, 1970 [Apollo 13 web site]. James Lovell, John Swigert, Fred Haise read their instruments at 55:52:31 into the flight. The master caution light was triggered by low pressure in hydrogen tank #1. At 55:54:57 oxygen tank # 2 read off-scale; in plain language, ...read more

Tags: Hardship Of Life

Denomination: Baptist

Blankets Or No Blankets  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 10, 2011

BLANKETS OR NO BLANKETS A good Presbyterian minister of Old Scotland, of the staid and orthodox type, had a poor old woman in his congregation who was in the habit of saying, "Praise the Lord," "Amen," when anything particularly helpful was said. This practice greatly disturbed the minister and ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 92:1-5

Tags: Worship General

Self-Sufficiency Is An Insufficient Legacy

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 8, 2008

Self-sufficiency is an insufficient legacy. Frankly, a lot of churches in the 1950s had to face this question. The people had just come out of the Great Depression and understood the value of having a lot of money. When the baby boom came, they were able to use that money to build bigger ...read more

Dr. Robert Seizer, In His Book "Mortal ...

Contributed by Ronald Franklin on Aug 7, 2008

ILLUS: Dr. Robert Seizer, in his book “Mortal Lessons: Notes in the Art of Surgery,” tells the story of a young husband and wife. He had operated to remove a tumor from the wife’s face, but in the process had unavoidably cut a facial nerve. It left her mouth permanently distorted. She asked him, ...read more

Tags: Compassion

Denomination: Baptist

C.s. Lewis On The Difference Between Heaven And Hell  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 11, 2014

LEWIS: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL C. S. Lewis once provided a powerful image of the difference between heaven and hell. He described hungry people sitting at a huge banquet loaded with delicious food. Every person had a meter-long fork and knife attached to their hands (that’s about ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 22:1-14

Tags: Jesus Parables, Wedding Banquet, Heaven And Hell

What Does "All" Mean?

Contributed by Chuck Sligh on Apr 14, 2013

WHAT DOES "ALL" MEAN? I know people who are carrying around a load of guilt over the past and they're loaded down with this extra weight God doesn't want them to have. I remember a lady in my church in Wiesbaden I'll call Jill. Jill had rebelled against her parents, had been on drugs, had had ...read more

Tags: Forgiveness In Jesus

Denomination: Baptist

Lewis Smedes Writes In Forgive & Forget: Healing ...  PRO

Contributed by Jim Luthy on May 14, 2001

Lewis Smedes writes in Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve, "If we say that monsters (people who do terrible evil) are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have…they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give ...read more

Tags: Forgiveness For Others

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Matthew

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 15, 2002

Matthew Whose occupation was that of a toll-gatherer, was born at Nazareth. He wrote his gospel in Hebrew, which was afterwards translated into Greek by James the Less. The scene of his labors was Parthia, and Ethiopia, in which latter country he suffered martyrdom, being slain with a halberd in ...read more

Tags: Disciples, Apostles General, People In The Gospel

The Report Has Been Given About A Man In Beijing, ...

Contributed by Dixon Olu. David on Feb 12, 2004

The report has been given about a man in Beijing, China, who, at 82 years of age, suffered a devastating financial loss. Mistrustful of banks, he had dug a hole in the ground 5 years earlier and deposited his life savings in it. When the man needed some cash, he dug up the money. To his dismay, ...read more

Tags: Kingdom Of God

Denomination: Foursquare

In "Share Jesus Without Fear", Bill Fay Speaks ...

Contributed by Robbie Peay on Apr 19, 2004

In “Share Jesus Without Fear”, Bill Fay speaks very bluntly about the sin of silence. He states that believers sin when they remain silent and do not share Jesus with others. He says that the sin of silence is a deadly sin and he’s right. We erroneously think that by remaining silent about our ...read more

Scripture: James 2:14-20

Denomination: Baptist

C S Lewis Wrote, "God Whispers To Us In Our ...

Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Dec 19, 2004

C S Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our health and prosperity, but, being hard of hearing, we fail to hear God’s voice in both. It’s then that God turns up the amplifier by means of suffering. Then his voice booms.” We mustn’t be surprised at the means that God uses to teach us the lessons ...read more

Tags: God's Omniscience

Denomination: Baptist

The Wesleyan Bible Commentary Puts It This Way: ...

Contributed by Pat Cook on May 16, 2005

The Wesleyan Bible Commentary puts it this way: “The eternal one, caught in a moment of time. The Omnipresence corralled in a cave manger. The Omnipotent cradled in a helpless infant who could not even raise His head from the straw. The Omniscience confined in a baby who would not say a word. The ...read more

Tags: Christmas

Denomination: Baptist