In Sermon Illustrations: "Unknown People"

A Father's Legacy

Contributed by Sermon Central on Aug 30, 2012

A FATHER’S LEGACY Ken Hemphill tells the story of what took place at his church when he was pastor of FBC of Norfolk. He was out on the sidewalk welcoming people as they got out of their cars. About 3rd in line was a father & his teenage son. The father had a golf shirt on, and he evidently was ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 22:6

Tags: Father's Day

Tarzan Story: Failure To Recognize

Contributed by Suresh Manoharan on Sep 3, 2012

TARZAN STORY: FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE Johnny Weissmuller, the champion Olympic swimmer who donned the role of Tarzan the Ape Man in the silver screen with as much aplomb in 1930s and 40s as he dominated the Olympic swimming lanes in 1920s, had "a close encounter of a different kind" with the ...read more

Tags: Second Coming

Denomination: *other

Statistics On Prayer

Contributed by Troy Borst on Sep 8, 2012

STATISTICS ON PRAYER Barna research says slightly more than four out of five adults in the U.S. (84%) claim they had prayed in the past week. That has been the case since Barna began tracking the frequency of prayer in 1993. A Newsweek poll titled "Is God Listening?" indicated that, of those who ...read more

Tags: Prayer Persistence

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Ridiculous Gifts  PRO

Contributed by Ken Henson on Sep 11, 2012

RIDICULOUS GIFTS There is a program in the US called “Good Morning America.” This was about 10 years ago, there was a lady named Joan London, who did a segment on Christmas Gifts and made some suggestions about the list: “You may want to include these in your list: • Jaguar 220 – this is a ...read more

Tags: Christmas, Gift, Value, Gifts General

Denomination: *other

Inspiration: Ten Feet At A Time

Contributed by Dave Clark on Dec 11, 2012

INSPIRATION: TEN FEET AT A TIME Being a provoker doesn’t mean you have to be a perfect person, it just means you have to be a person doing your best in the situations where you find yourself. Several years ago after a devastating California earthquake, the news camera panned a devastated ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 15:1

Tags: Restoration

Denomination: Disciples Of Christ

The Boat Is On Fire

Contributed by Jerry Thorpe on Mar 8, 2013

THE BOAT IS ON FIRE Robert E. Lee pleasure boat. Steamed out of Vicksburg. Hundreds of people were aboard. After midnight the boat caught fire. The captain discovered it and told his first mate to rush down through the saloon and down every corridor to wake everyone up. He didn't have time to ...read more

Tags: Rapture, Evangelism Urgency

Denomination: Church Of God

How Not To Build

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 4, 2013

HOW NOT TO BUILD I grew up around construction and building material people. My family, for several generations, was in lumber and building materials. In 1998 we opened a new hardware store in Lake Mary. I ran it from the time it opened, until I went to seminary. Part of my responsibility was to ...read more

Scripture: Luke 6:46-49

Forced To Kill  PRO

Contributed by Davon Huss on Jul 1, 2013

FORCED TO KILL Around the time of the Korean War, Kim Joon-gon had seen 2,000 out of 20,000 people on Chunnam Island murdered by the Communists. They dragged he and his family outside their village where Kim’s father and wife were beaten to death and Kim was left for dead. When he revived and ...read more

Scripture: Romans 12:17-21, Matthew 5:7

Tags: Mercy, Salvation, Revenge, Vengeance

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

The Hilarious Baptism Experience!

Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Mar 2, 2014

I remember the time I came to the platform to officiate in a formal wedding. I had just come out of the bathroom and didn't realize until I was in front of all those people that stuck to my shoe and trailing behind was an eight-foot stream of toilet paper I remember the time I looked down in ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 28:19-20

Tags: Baptism, Easter, Humor, Pastors

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Don't Blame The Judge

Contributed by Tim Smith on May 11, 2014

God has done everything He possibly can to keep you out of Hell and still leave you as a person with free will. Now some Christians argue otherwise that it is in fact God who sends people to hell. Peculiar Pilgrim blog writes, "No one would choose to go into hell ... Not one person would decide to ...read more

Scripture: 2 Peter 3:8-13

Tags: Hell, Judgement

Denomination: Methodist

Offering Story

Contributed by Gerald Manning on Nov 23, 2015

Words of Offering: A rich, but cynical businessman said to one of his staff, "Show me a truly unselfish act and I will give you a $100 bill." The staffer, said, "OK, walk with me at the lunch hour." They went to that part of town where there were lots of street people. The staffer said, ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 9:7

Tags: Offering, Giving, Generosity

Denomination: Nazarene

Bobby Richardson - Witnessing In The World Series!

Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Apr 17, 2017

Bobby Richardson is one of my spiritual heroes. What a blessing to meet this awesome witness for Christ who led Mickey Mantle to faith in Christ before he died. This story makes me love Bobby even more! It was the seventh game of the 1962 World Series between the New York Yankees and the San ...read more

Scripture: Acts 4:1-20

Tags: Evangelism, Eternity, Gospel, Witnessing

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Preaching Fluff Versus Quality

Contributed by I. Grant Spong on Jun 8, 2017

I once lived in a town where there were two preachers who were polar opposites. The one was very charismatic and enthusiastic. But, he did not preach the Bible. I asked him one day why he didn't preach the Bible. His answer was that the people could read their Bibles at home. He preached ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20

Tags: Great Commission, Preach Christ, Teach Jesus

Denomination: Baptist

Recognising Conflict, Where An Enemy Sowing Bad Seed

Contributed by Gordon Mcculloch on Jul 24, 2017

1. Be Perceptive to the enemy. The first way to deal with conflict is to be perceptive to the enemy. Verse 25 “but while everybody was asleep, an enemy, (that is Satan), came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away”. Notice he went away, he was sly; he did not stay to watch, or say, “I ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 13:25

Tags: Satan's Deception, Bad Seed, Satans Tactics

Denomination: Episcopal

Inspired To Share Your Faith

Contributed by Tim Smith on Aug 13, 2017

Tom Mercer writes, “Years ago, I heard an incredible story about a guy who, while walking through an intersection in a large city, noticed a police officer directing traffic in the middle of the street. As he walked by, the man sensed the Holy Spirit prompting him to go up to the officer and tell ...read more

Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4

Tags: Witnessing, Sharing Your Faith, Evangelism

Denomination: Methodist

Telemarketers

Contributed by Edward Hardee on Aug 28, 2017

IRS Spam Call - I wanted to share an experience that I just had on the phone. I got that dreaded spam call from the IRS. I knew it was false but I felt like I wanted to talk to a person about it. So I called the number. A young lady answered. She gave me a name and told me I owed $4800 on my IRS ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 28:18-20

Tags: Witness, Opportunities

Denomination: Church Of God

Seperated But In The Presence Of The Lord

Contributed by David Goering on Sep 13, 2018

Going to a zoo is educational, for people of all ages, and when you are there you might be in the presence of a lion, tiger or a bear, but at the same time you are separated from these ferocious animals. The scripture teaches us that in the world to come unconverted men will be separated from the ...read more

Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, Revelation 14:10-11, Isaiah 66:23-24

Tags: Separation, Lake Of Fire, Judgment, Unrepentant, Damnation, Torments, Hell  (view more)  (view less)

Is Your Light Shining

Contributed by Steve Kinnard on Feb 15, 2019

IS YOUR LIGHT SHINING? Many years a missionary employed a Chinese scholar to translate the New Testament into the Chinese language. The scholar was a Confucian and had never heard of Christianity until the missionary had hired him. The scholar was a painstaking person and wanted to produce a ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16

Tags: Reputation, Complacent

Denomination: Pentecostal

Wiretap Into Your Home

Contributed by Davon Huss on Aug 22, 2020

The church is the bride of Christ. If we love the groom (Jesus), we will look for positive things to say about the bride (the church). Bob Russell tells a story about how years ago, when there were multiple party telephone lines, a preacher picked up the telephone to make a call but couldn’t get ...read more

Scripture: John 13:35, 2 Corinthians 11:28-29

Tags: Evangelism, Love For The Church, Speak Positively

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Never Surrender

Contributed by Dr. Ronald Shultz on Aug 28, 2020

Acts 5:29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. When the 101st Airborne was surrounded in WWII the Germans asked them to surrender. General Anthony McAuliffe replied, "Nuts!" The Germans tried to figure what that meant and while they ...read more

Scripture: Acts 5:29

Tags: Ministry, Victory, Surrender, Defeat, Calling  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Baptist