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Sermon Illustrations I

ABANDON

Steve Lyons will be remembered as the player who dropped his pants. He could be remembered as an outstanding infielder ... as the player who played every position for the Chicago White Sox ... as the guy who always dove into first base ... as a favorite of the fans who high fived the guy who caught ... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ABANDONED

During WWII six Navy pilots left their aircraft carrier on a mission. After searching the seas for enemy submarines, they tried to return to their ship shortly after dark. But the captain had ordered a blackout of all lights on the ship. Over and over the frantic pilots radioed, asking for just one ... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ABILITY

Use what talents you possess: The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. Henry Van Dyke, Bits & Pieces, March 31, 1994, p. 16. It is almost as presumptuous to think you can do nothing as to think you can do everything. Phillips Brooks. Consider the postage sta... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ABORTION

A professor in a world-acclaimed medical school once posed this medical situation -- and ethical problem -- to his students: "Here's the family history: The father has syphilis. The mother has TB. They already have had four children. The first is blind. The second had died. The third is deaf. The fo... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ABSENT-MINDED

Dr. Harold C. Urey, Nobel prize winner in Chemistry, was walking along a sidewalk one day when he ran into another professor. They chatted for a few minutes, then, as they parted, Dr. Urey asked the other: "John, which way was I going when I met you?" "That way," said the other, pointing. "Oh, good.... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ABSOLUTES

At a recent gathering of seminary professors, one teacher reported that at his school the most damaging charge one student can lodge against another is that the person is being "judgmental." He found this pattern very upsetting. "You can't get a good argument going in class anymore," he said. "As so... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ACCEPTANCE

In 1900, the Daughters of the American Revolution elected social reformer Jane Addams to honorary membership. But Addams's antiwar stance during World War I and her insistence that even subversives had a right to trial by due process caused them to expel her. She commented that she had thought her e... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ACCIDENT

Rowland V. Bingham, founder of the Sudan Interior Mission, was once seriously injured in an automobile accident. He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition. The following day, when he regained consciousness, he asked the nurse what he was doing there. "Don't try to talk now, just rest," she r... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ACCOMPLISHMENT

The concert impresario, Sol Hurok, liked to say that Marian Anderson hadn't simply grown great, she'd grown great simply. He says: "A few years ago a reporter interviewed Marian and asked her to name the greatest moment in her life. I was in her dressing room at the time and was curious to hear the ... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ALONE

In the operating room of a large hospital, a young nurse was completing her first full day of responsibilities. "You've only removed 11 sponges, doctor," she said to the surgeon. "We used 12." "I removed them all," the doctor declared. "We'll close the incision now." "No," the nurse objected. "We us... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

AMBITION

Ambition usually progresses through the following stages: to be like Dad...to be famous...to be a millionaire...to make enough to pay the bills...to hang on long enough to draw a pension. Bits & Pieces, September 1989. Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps. D... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ARMAGEDDON

At the end of the 19th century two French writers went to visit the well-known French scientist, Peirre Berthelot. Berthelot was a kind of scientific prophet. He forecast some of the weapons of mass destruction which would appear in the next century. He said to the writers, "We have only begun to li... Read More
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ARMINIANISM

When a Calvinist says that all things happen according to the predestination of God, he speaks the truth, and I am willing to be called a Calvinist. But when an Arminian says that when a man sins, the sin is his own, and that if he continues in sin, and perishes, his eternal damnation will lie entir... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ASPIRATION

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was and still is generally regarded as one of the most outstanding justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was known as the Great Dissenter because he disagreed with the other judges so much. Holmes sat on the Supreme Court until he was 91. Two years later, P... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

ATHEISM

An atheist said, "If there is a God, may he prove himself by striking me dead right now." Nothing happened. "You see, there is not God." Another responded, "You've only proved that He is a gracious God." Unknown As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet lead... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

BABBLE

I have received memos so swollen with managerial babble that they struck me as the literary equivalent of assault with a deadly weapon. Peter Baida, Management Babble, American Heritage, April 1985. I like nonsense -- it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a w... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

BAPTISM, IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

As I shut the door of the office after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It seemed to me that I saw Him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at His feet. I fell down at His feet, wept aloud like a child... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

BELIEF

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first ... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

BIBLE

I was never out of my Bible. John Bunyan. I am a man of one Book. John Wesley. It seems that famed scientist Albert Einstein had more trouble finding his way home from work than he did finding the key to atomic power. One evening as Einstein sat deep in thought aboard the train that brought him home... Read More
Sermon Illustrations I

BIRTH

A little boy asked his mother where he came from, and also where she had come from as a baby. His mother gave him a tall tale about a beautiful white-feathered bird. The boy asked his grandmother the same question and received a variation on the bird story. Outside to his playmate he said, "You know... Read More

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