Sermons & Devotionals by Sermon Illustrations I

"What must I forsake?" a young man asked. "Colored clothes for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don't eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths o... Read More

Almost every age has had its social outcasts, people barred from normal society whether through physical illness or national origin. One person who stepped across these barriers in India was pioneer missionary Mary Reed. Already working in India, Mary visited a leper colony and was deeply moved by t... Read More

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. Richard L. Evans, Bits & Pieces, March 4, 1993, p. 2. Someone has calculated how a typical lifespan of 70 years is spent. Here is the estimate: Sleep................23 years...........32.9% Work.................16... Read More

"They are ungoverned yet unfree," said Walter Lippmann of such morally bereft and helpless souls. One of the most influential and statesmanlike American journalists of this century, acute observer of the domestic scene, Lippmann continued, "They are creatures of the passing moment who are vaguely un... Read More

In The Grace of Giving, Stephen Olford tells of a Baptist pastor during the American Revolution, Peter Miller, who lived in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the friendship of George Washington. In Ephrata also lived Michael Wittman, an evil-minded sort who did all he could to oppose and humiliate ... Read More

Newspaper columnist and minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me." Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan "Go home and act ... Read More

While my wife and I were shopping at a mall kiosk, a shapely young woman in a short, form-fitting dress strolled by. My eyes followed her. Without looking up from the item she was examining, my wife asked, "Was it worth the trouble you're in?" Drew Anderson (Tucson, AZ), Reader's Digest. Mr. Spurgeo... Read More

Openness is essentially the willingness to grow, a distaste for ruts, eagerly standing on top-toe for a better view of what tomorrow brings. A man once bought a new radio, brought it home, placed it on the refrigerator, plugged it in, turned it to WSM in Nashville (home of the Grand Ole Opry), and t... Read More

Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets. Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an e... Read More

In a recent number of the "Sunday School Times" a story is told of an Eastern king which illustrates at once our delusion respecting natural processes, and also God's work and presence in them. The king was seated in a garden, and one of his counselors was speaking of the wonderful works of God. "Sh... Read More

In 1912 William Borden, a graduate of Yale University, left one of America's greatest family fortunes to be a missionary to China. He got as far as Egypt and died of cerebral meningitis. He died--and was only in his 20s--but there was "no reserve, no retreat, no regrets" in his consecration to God. ... Read More

Some years ago, when the news broke that Joseph Stalin's daughter had defected from Communism and Russia, many people were startled. Her statement, given to reporters who met her plane in New York, told why she defected: "I found it impossible to exist without God in one's heart. I came to that conc... Read More

MOTIVATION, INDIRECT In the heyday of the New York Yankees, manager Joe McCarthy once interviewed a coach being brought up to the majors from a Yankee farm team. "How much do you know about psychology?" McCarthy asked. The coach said he had studied it in college. "So you think you're good," said McC... Read More

A philosophical position, empirical in method, that regards everything that exists or occurs to be conditioned in its existence or occurrence by causal factors within one all- encompassing system of nature, however "spiritual" or purposeful or rational some of these things and events may in their fu... Read More

he Cost of Not Putting a Finger in the Dike For most of the last decade, Chicagoans who worked in the Loop, the booming downtown business district, could easily ignore the city's budget crisis; Washington's cutback of aid to cities didn't seem to hurt business. Last week, they learned one price of n... Read More

Catherine Booth was the "mother" of the Salvation Army. "Wherever Catherine Booth went," said Campbell Morgan, "humanity went to hear her. Princes and peeresses merged with paupers and prostitutes." One night, Morgan shared in a meeting with Mrs. Booth; and a great crowd of "publicans and sinners" w... Read More

Q. What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches? A. A nervous wreck. Health, Canada. Back in Boston in the mid-1960s, Bill Russell was the star basketball center for the world-champion Celtics. It was fun watching him and his team play at the Boston Garden. He dominated the boards, and with eff... Read More

About half of the Americans who are familiar with the New Age movement don't take its teachings seriously, and a third of them say New Age thought runs counter to Judeo-Christian teaching, says a new poll by the Princeton Religious Research Center. The poll also shows that the general population's a... Read More

London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains... Read More

Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Proverbs 27:1. Come now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain; whereas ye know not what shall be on the next day. For what is your ... Read More