GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT PRAYER The little boy was accustomed to having a night light in his bedroom. His parents decided he was old enough to sleep in the dark. His mother told him about their…
Sermon Illustrations
COURAGE is just the technique of keeping secret the fact that you're scared to death. Funny, Funny World, Oct 21, 1985
SURE-FIRE OBEDIENCE A mother had a particularly trying day with her young son. Finally she flung up her hands and shouted, "All right, Billy. Do anything you darn well please! Now let me see you…
ARE THE TATES IN YOUR CHURCH? Do you know how many members of the TATE FAMILY belong to your church? There is old man Dic Tate who wants to run everything. While Uncle Ro Tate…
OFFENDING THE LITTLE CHILDREN One of the most arresting statements ever made by Jesus during his sojourn on earth was concerning the offending of children. He said it would be better for one to have…
AUTUMN RITUALS Fall has a great deal of ritual about it in our country. Football games, school starting up again in full force, and Lucy offers to hold the football for Charlie Brown. Every year…
ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST The following excerpt is taken from Lee Iacocca's autobiography, Iacocca, pgs. 314-315: Shortly after I joined Chrysler, I flew over to Japan for a series of meetings with the top people at Mitsubishi…
CLEARING ACCOUNTS A fellow went to the hospital to visit his partner, who was dying of some unknown malady. Suddenly the dying man said, "John, before I go I must confess some things to you…
STRATEGIC TIMING OF THE TRUTH A New Hampshire farmer took his horse to see the veterinarian. He complained about the horse: "One day he limps, the next day he doesn't. What should I do?" The…
TAKING STOCK When I went to jail, nearly two years after the cover-up trial, I had a big self-esteem problem. I was a felon, shorn and scorned, clumping around in a ragged old army uniform,…
EMOTIONAL TRAP There is an old story that tells how to catch a monkey in the jungle. You take a hollowed-out gourd and put some choice nuts and berries inside. Leave a hole in the…
CRITICISM Just finished reading A Time for Remembering: The Ruth Bell Graham Story by Patricia Daniels Cornwell (Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1983). I found a number of items I'll be using in coming days…
EXCUSES A class of High School sophomores had been assigned a term paper. Now the day of reckoning had come, the papers were due to be handed in. The teacher knew that a particular student,…
SPECIAL SCALES FOR FISHERMAN When President Cleveland's second child was born, the doctor asked Cleveland for a scale to determine the baby's weight. Cleveland searched through the house without success. Finally, he remembered that he…
THE IRREPLACABLE YOU Webster also tells the story about one other modern fast lane type, Dick Jones, who lived as if everything in the whole community depended upon him. One morning he woke up early…
RESURRECTED TO GIVE LIGHT AND LIFE Some forty-five years ago a clergyman was sitting in his office. Unknown to him, several blocks away, a bank was being robbed by three men. As they departed from…
INTIMIDATION One of the early novels of William Thackeray first appeared as a serial in a magazine. After a few chapters had been published, the novelist was summoned to the editor's office. The editor said,…
WAIT AND TREAD WATER Sometimes it is better to do nothing. There are times when any attempt to do something with one's own strength or effort proves to be counterproductive. God can sometimes demonstrate His…
RESPONDING TO CRITICISM And speaking of Peanuts, one of my favorites shows Charlie Brown looking over the shoulder of his sister Sally as she starts to write something on a piece of paper. Her first…
THE LEGEND OF RICHARD THE LION HEART Some pastors are crusaders. They have a cause that is larger than life. And occasionally they touch home base and do some knitty gritty pastoral work. I'm sure…
