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In Sermon Illustrations: "Surprise"

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  • Six-Word Memoirs  PRO

    Contributed by Ed Sasnett on Jan 19, 2009
    based on 5 ratings
     | 2,468 views

    Six-Word Memoirs One of the surprising best-selling books of 2008 is "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure." Notice that the main title is only six words: "Not Quite What I Was Planning." People were asked to succinctly sum up their life in six ...read more

  • Look At This: Three Times Balaam Beats His ...

    Contributed by Terry Barnhill on Jan 28, 2009
     | 2,726 views

    Look at this: three times Balaam beats his reliable donkey because he was too wrapped up in himself to see God’s road block in front of him. By the 3rd time he got his staff out he was going ballistic!!! Red-in-the-face and spitting mad! Then, right there in the middle of Balaam’s donkey-beatin’ ...read more

  • Liberals Give Less Than ...

    Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 16, 2009
     | 1,582 views

    LIBERALS GIVE LESS THAN CONSERVATIVES A couple years ago, a Syracuse University professor named Arthur C. Brooks wrote a book called "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism". He was not particularly excited about the outcome of the study he’d done (he’d been raised ...read more

  • To Win Them, You Must Weep For Them  PRO

    Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 27, 2009
    based on 2 ratings
     | 3,851 views

    TO WIN THEM, YOU MUST WEEP FOR THEM A woman went to her pastor and said, "I’ve been a Christian for 20 years. I’ve read books on how to win souls. I’ve memorized scripture. I’ve taken courses on how to win the lost. And yet I haven’t won one person to the Lord. Why?" The pastor’s answer ...read more

  • Strangers Have Devoured His Strength - From Hosea ...

    Contributed by Dwight L. Moody on Jun 11, 2009
     | 2,395 views

    Strangers have devoured his strength - from Hosea 7:9 What gives spiritual weakness like allowed sin? It was so with Israel, it will ever be so with us. Yielding to unhallowed association (with) strangers devour our strength. If you ever saw a cake not turned, baked only on one side, ...read more

  • Spiritual Fruit: "This Has Been Plastered"  PRO

    Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 24, 2009
    based on 2 ratings
     | 4,480 views

    SPIRITUAL FRUIT: "THIS HAS BEEN PLASTERED" Benjamin Franklin learned that plaster sown in the fields would make things grow. He told his neighbors, but they did not believe him and they argued with him trying to prove that plaster could be of no use at all to grass or grain. After a little while, ...read more

  • Potato Piles

    Contributed by Sylvester Fergusson on Aug 21, 2009
     | 2,606 views

    POTATO PILES A young man came to a farm looking for work. So the farmer set him to the task immediately. He had a barn that needed painting. So the task was handed to the young man. The farmer said to himself that it would take at least three days to finish the task but in two days the young man ...read more

  • Christian Love Impacts A Heartless World  PRO

    Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 18, 2009
    based on 2 ratings
     | 4,125 views

    CHRISTIAN LOVE IMPACTS A HEARTLESS WORLD We live in a heartless world. The last United States census missed at least 5.7 million people who were anonymous even to the census takers. Every year thousands of unidentified and even unidentifiable bodies are found across North America. And only one out ...read more

  • Compassion For The Elderly, Post Office ...

    Contributed by Sermon Central on Nov 5, 2009
     | 2,825 views

    Compassion for the Elderly, Post Office Style [FINDING MAMIE IN YOUR CHURCH] Mamie was an elderly woman, plagued with arthritis and a number of other ailments. So people were surprised to see her going regularly to the post office to buy stamps. One Christmas the lines were particularly long, but ...read more

  • When I Was In Seminary, The Administration Asked ...

    Contributed by Curry Pikkaart on Dec 24, 2009
     | 1,143 views

    When I was in seminary, the administration asked me to go on a recruiting trip back to Central College, from which I had graduated. So one of the professors and I flew into DesMoines, Iowa, where the college chaplain picked us up. He started to drive us to Pella, a trip of about an hour. The three ...read more

  • On December 7, 1941, A Japanese War Plane Piloted ...

    Contributed by Ajai Prakash on Jan 13, 2010
     | 1,885 views

    On December 7, 1941, a Japanese war plane piloted by Mitsuo Fuchida took off from the aircraft carrier Akagi. Fuchida led the surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Through the war years to follow, Fuchida continued to fly—often narrowly escaping death. At war’s end, he ...read more

  • The Sheep Dog  PRO

    Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 9, 2011
    based on 4 ratings
     | 5,791 views

    THE SHEEP DOG A man by the name of Keith Miller told of the time when his daughters were very young. They’d drop them off at the church’s children’s chapel on Sundays before the 11 am service. But one day Keith chanced to be in the class when the preacher was telling the story for the day to the ...read more

  • Researchers Find That Multi-Taskers Perform ...

    Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Sep 27, 2011
     | 1,530 views

    RESEARCHERS FIND THAT MULTI-TASKERS PERFORM POORLY So you think you can multitask? Texting while driving? No problem. Watching television and reading the Bible? No problem. Checking your email while listening to a spouse, a child, or a friend? No problem. In reality, however, according to a team ...read more

  • The Lost (And Found) Baptistery

    Contributed by Davon Huss on Nov 21, 2011
     | 2,078 views

    THE LOST (AND FOUND) BAPTISTERY Supposedly, it was constructed around 1828; sometime between then and about 1930 it was forgotten and unused till discovered in May of 2002. No one knows for certain when the open air baptistery of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church in Fort Gaines, Georgia, was last used. ...read more

  • Wishing Vs. Hoping  PRO

    Contributed by Thomas Clawser on Dec 3, 2011
    based on 2 ratings
     | 4,885 views

    WISHING VS. HOPING Eugene Peterson (Living the Message: Daily Help for Living the God-Centered Life) points out that what a lot of people call hope is in reality something different. It's wishing, not hoping: and wishing and hoping are not the same thing. "Wishing," Peterson says, "is something ...read more

  • A Lesson From A Light Bulb  PRO

    Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 5, 2012
    based on 5 ratings
     | 8,881 views

    A LESSON FROM A LIGHT BULB A missionary in Africa lived in his central mission which had a small generator to supply current for his church and a small rectory. Some natives from an outlying mission came to visit the pastor. They noticed the electric light hanging from the ceiling of his living ...read more

  • A Few More Hours

    Contributed by Jerry Cosper on Jan 23, 2013
     | 3,612 views

    A FEW MORE HOURS A young lady busied herself getting ready for a blind date. He had promised dinner at an exclusive downtown restaurant with live music and dancing. Wanting to make a good first impression she had taken the day off work. She cleaned her apartment; she went out that afternoon to ...read more

  • The Umpire's Revenge  PRO

    Contributed by Josh Hunt on Mar 6, 2013
    based on 8 ratings
     | 5,200 views

    THE UMPIRE'S REVENGE Forgiveness begins when we give up the quest to get even. This is difficult, because getting even is the natural obsession of the wounded soul. Stories about getting even always capture our attention. It wouldn’t surprise me if revenge is the theme of as many as half the ...read more

  • Rent A Family…?

    Contributed by Sermon Central on May 14, 2013
    based on 3 ratings
     | 6,989 views

    RENT A FAMILY...? I read a recent article about how people in Japan are so busy that older people can now rent a family. Here’s the quote: "In Japan, you can rent a family. Elderly Japanese who are isolated from their children by the frantic pace of modern life can rent a 'family' for lunch and a ...read more

  • Women And Proverbs

    Contributed by Michael Mccartney on May 16, 2013
     | 3,757 views

    WOMEN AND PROVERBS From Chronological Life Application Bible: "Proverbs has a lot to say about women. How fitting that the book ends with a picture of a woman of strong character, great wisdom, many skills, and great compassion. Some people have the mistaken idea that the ideal woman in the ...read more