Sermon Illustrations

Charles Spurgeon, the noted nineteenth-century preacher, once asked, "Is it not a curious thing that, whenever God means to make a man great, he always breaks him in pieces first?"

In a famous study by Victor and Mildred Goertzel, entitled Cradles of Eminence, the home backgrounds of 300 highly successful people were investigated. These 300 subjects had made it to the top. They were men and women whose names everyone would recognize as brilliant in their fields such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Helen...

In the classic comic strip, Hi and Lois, Chip is eating at the table with his family when he announces, "I discovered something new in school today." His mother smiles and says, "Oh, really! What was that?" Chip replies, "A level of boredom I never knew existed." While we hope that is not true of any teacher, we especially hope...

In his book Falling in Love with Prayer (NexGen), Mike MacIntosh writes: "When I was a teenager I wanted so much to be accepted by my peers, and I decided that a foul mouth was a way to act like a man. I noticed that most men swore and told dirty stories. So by the time I was twenty years old, I had developed an extensive...

In the Detroit Free Press, Nancy A. Youssef reports that in response to a wave of violent crime - 104 homicides compared to 68 at the same time last year - the Detroit Police department took an unusual track and scheduled a day of prayer. In fact, the mayor and chief of police mandated that each precinct would honor an...

Michelangelo started forty-four statues, but completed only fourteen. In a museum in Italy, you can see his thirty unfinished works. There are huge chunks of marble with only a hand, or a foot, or a leg completed. Are our lives like those unfinished statues? Is the potential for beauty and purpose still locked up within us as those...

In her book, Sticking Up for What I Believe, Gwendolyn Mitchell Diaz answers questions that teenagers ask about God and life. Question #7 is "Isn't living a good life good enough?" Many people falsely believe that humanity is generally good, and if you try your best, God will just have to let you in won't He? Listen to her ...

In his book, Time Power, Charles Hobbs tells the story of a scullery maid who went to hear a speech by the naturalist Louis Agassiz. After the speech, she waited to speak to him and marveled at his opportunities. The professor replied, "Have you never received an opportunity?" Sh

The wives who lived within the walls of Weinsberg Castle in Germany were aware of the riches it held: gold, silver, jewels -- wealth beyond belief. The day came in 1141 AD when all their treasure was threatened. An enemy army surrounded the castle and demanded the fortress, the fortune and the lives of the men inside the...

In World War I, in a British section of the Western Front, just a few miles back from the front lines, was a hut named Talbot House. It was a meeting place for men going up to the trenches and men coming back. In the loft above they served Communion - truly an upper room and literally a las