Sermon Illustrations

Oscar Cervantes is a dramatic example of the Spirit's power to transform lives. As a child, Oscar began to get into trouble. Then as he got older, he was jailed 17 times for brutal crimes. Prison psychiatrists said he was beyond help. But they were wrong! During a brief interval of freedom,

"He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much." (James Allen)

The Toyota television commercial is interesting. It shows someone in a sport utility vehicle heading for the beach or the slopes, driving through the city on a Tuesday. An onlooker is amazed. It is Tuesday. He must go to work. Then the last line appears on the screen, "Make Your Own Rules."

10. "Look! Let's stop that car and ask those folks how we can become Christians." 9. "Don't worry, Billy, those people are Christians - they must have a good reason for driving 90 miles an hour." 8. "What a joy to be sharing the highway with another car of Spirit-filled brothers and sisters." 7. "Isn't it wonderful how God blessed that Christian couple with a brand-new BMW?"

In September 1997, newspapers in Wellington, New Zealand reported the story of rescue workers who worked heroically to save lives after a landslide. Officials honored the rescue workers at a luncheon. All of them got sick from food poisoning!

If you throw a cat out a car window, does it become kitty litter? If corn oil comes from corn where does baby oil come from? Why do they put Braille on the number pads of drive-through bank machines? If it's tourist season, can we shoot them?

"One of the best ways of describing our relationship with God is to think in terms of the human relationship of courtship and marriage. Those of us who are married can remember when we fell in love with that person to whom we are now married. We remember how focused our thoughts were on that other person.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center studied 1700 older Americans and discovered that those who regularly attended religious services had stronger immune responses that those who did not.

James Emery White has a new book being released next month, called Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day (InterVarsity). I particularly enjoyed one of the illustrations he shared: "I once ran across an old book that has become a prized part of my library.

John Huffman observes, "God smiles when we use our abilities. You saw the movie Chariots of Fire. Remember the Scot Olympic runner, Eric Liddell, who declared,