Sermons & Devotionals by Sermon Illustrations II

In 1904 William Borden, heir to the Borden Dairy Estate, graduated from a Chicago high school a millionaire. His parents gave him a trip around the world. Traveling through Asia, the middle East, and Europe gave Borden a burden for the world's hurting people. Writing home, he said, "I'm going to giv... Read More

These words of the Master warn against spiritual vagrancy, against intermittent consecration, against a spasmodic religious life. These are some people who visit Christ, and others who abide in Him. To the one class religion is a temporary expedient; to the other it is a permanent principle. "Not go... Read More

When H. B. Macartney, an Australian pastor, visited Hudson Taylor in China, he was amazed at the missionary's serenity in spite of his many burdens and his busy schedule. Macartney finally mustered up the courage to say, "You are occupied with millions, I with tens. Your letters are pressingly impor... Read More

BreakPoint Commentary - November 2, 1998 Question Authority When Christians Should Disobey by Charles W. Colson A few years ago the journal "First Things" ran an article with a startling title: It was called "When the Court Should Not Be Obeyed". The author, Russell Hittinger, argued that the Suprem... Read More

HUNTSMAN, returning with his dogs from the field, fell in by chance with a Fisherman who was bringing home a basket well laden with fish. The Huntsman wished to have the fish, and their owner experienced an equal longing for the contents of the game-bag. They quickly agreed to exchange the produce o... Read More

John Wesley one day remarked to Dr. Adam Clarke: "As I was walking through St. Paul's Churchyard, I observed two women standing opposite to one another. One was speaking and gesticulating violently, while the other stood perfectly still and in silence. Just as I came up and was about to pass them, t... Read More

In "The Whisper Test," Mary Ann Bird writes: I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech. W... Read More

Evangelist Paul Rader has often urged a banker in New York State to receive Christ, but the man would not make the decision. One day the preacher sensed that God wanted him to go immediately and speak to him again. So he took a train to the town where the man worked, hurried to the bank, and found h... Read More

One morning a Christian farmer in Rhode Island put two bushels of rye in his wagon and started to the mill to get it ground. On his way to the mill he had to drive over a bridge that had no railings to the side of it. When he reached the middle of this bridge his horse, a quiet, gentle creature, beg... Read More

Have you ever played pencil break? There is quite an art to the game. I tried once. This is the main sport on my school bus. One day a little boy said, "Mr. Woods would you play pencil break with me?" I said, "Sure. . . only I don't have a pencil." He assured me he would supply all the pencils we ne... Read More

n the movie "PAINT YOUR WAGON," Lee Marvin plays a philosophical drunk named Ben Rumstead. During the closing scene, Ben Rumstead is standing in the rain of a muddy street talking with the proprietor of a local store. The store owner looks at the passing wagons, loaded with people and furniture movi... Read More

A tourist lately, whilst crossing a mountain height alone, over almost untrodden snow, felt a drowsiness stealing over himself, to yield to which he knew would be fatal. As the night closed in the snowflakes fell thick and fast, and the freezing blast grew apace; he tried to reason with himself, and... Read More

ears and Roebuck is the best known name in American retailing. It's 103 years old. Roughly there are 875 stores. The Sears Roebuck catalog is one of the traditions of American culture for the last century. 60 million Americans hold Sears credit cards. And yet Sears doesn't know where it fits. . . . ... Read More

When a believer considers how much God has forgiven him, he is able to extend pardon to others no matter what they have done. A Christian husband found this to be true when his wife, who had become an alcoholic, told him of an affair she had had with his best friend 10 years earlier. She said she ex... Read More

In Rome for the first five hundred and twenty years of the Republic there had not been a single divorce; but now under the Empire, as it has been put, divorce was a matter of caprice. As Seneca said, "Women were married to be divorced and divorced to be married." In Rome the years were identified by... Read More

Since the Portuguese withdrew from Angola over twenty years ago, the country's roads, bridges and transportation systems have fallen into disrepair while the country engaged in civil war. Trucks sit beside the roads lacking the replacement parts that would enable them to run. Bridges have collapsed ... Read More

OBSERVATION Are there people, or things, that get under your skin? If so, consider this poem about an oyster. THE OYSTER There once was an oyster whose story I tell, who found that sand had got under his shell; just one little grain, but it gave him much pain, for oysters have feelings although they... Read More

A lady visiting the Holy Land came upon a sheepfold located high on a hilltop. Her attention was drawn to one poor sheep lying by the side of the road bleating in pain. Looking more closely, she discovered that its leg was injured. She asked the shepherd how it happened. "I had to break it myself," ... Read More

The Christian Worker's Magazine tells about a young man who decided to grow peaches. He went all out, investing everything he had to develop an orchard. But disaster struck one spring when a heavy frost wiped out most of the peach blossoms. When Sunday came, he wasn't in church. The next week he was... Read More

Professor E.C. Caldwell ended his lecture. "Tomorrow," he said to his class of seminary students, "I will be teaching on \reference{Romans 8}{Romans 8}. So tonight, as you study, pay special attention to \reference{verse 28}{Romans 8:28}. Notice what this verse truly says, and what it doesn't say." ... Read More