Sermon Illustrations

  • Evangelism

    All Christians

    Mother Teresa:
    In India I was asked by some government people, “Don’t you want to make us all Christians?” I said, “Naturally, I would like to give you the treasure I have to you, but I cannot. I can only pray for you to have the courage to receive it.”

  • Evangelism

    I See People Going To Hell

    While speaking in London, evangelist D. L. Moody was approached by a British companion who wanted to know the secret of Moody’s success in leading people to Christ. Moody directed the man to his hotel window and asked, “What do you see?” The man looked down on the square and reported a view of crowded streets. Moody suggested he look again. This time the man mentioned seeing people–men, women, and children. Moody then directed him to look a third time, and the man became frustrated that he was not seeing what Moody wanted him to see. The great evangelist came to the window with watery eyes and said, “I see people going to hell without Jesus. Until you see people like that, you will not lead them to Christ.” What do you see in five o’clock traffic, a busy restaurant, a crowded waiting room, your neighborhood, or your extended family?

    From The Sermon Fodder Email List

  • Evangelism

    The Maravian Brethren

    There was a group of missionaries from a couple of centuries called the Maravian Brethren. They heard of various needs, and two of the most impressive stories, these are young people just like ourselves, with the same hopes and the same desires for comfort and joy. They heard of a leper colony in Africa, where there was a huge wall built around it and it was guarded by soldiers and once you were found to have leprosy you were taken in and you never got out. There were farms, there were shops, and there was a graveyard in there. And these guys asked the obvious question who shares the gospel with them? So they didn’t write books and send them in which they could have. Two of the young men went in and they never came out. That is the level at which they cared. Another couple of the young men, were trying to reach out to the slaves in the Carribbean. And they found that they had no time where they could actually find the slaves and speak to them. So two of them where sold as slaves and they lived and died as slaves. Not just for a week or two, they shared themselves, they went in amongst them. Now I’m not telling you that to make you feel guilty, I’m saying it’s that sort of thing that says I want to be able to reach these people, I want to share myself with them so I can get the gospel to them.

    Ian Powell : KYC 1990 “Learning the game by watching others play”

  • Evangelism,  Prayer,  Witnessing

    Lord Is This A Sign?

    Norman Cates shared the humorous story of a guy who prayed this prayer every morning: “Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is.” One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him. The bus was nearly empty but this guy sat next to our praying friend.

    The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get very nervous about the man next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep. He then cried out with a loud voice, “I need to be saved. I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?” He turned to the Christian and pleaded, “Can you show me how to be saved?” The believer immediately bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, is this a sign?”

    Are you looking for a “sign” to start witnessing? It can be found in Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8.

    (Deacon, Jan.-March 1995, p. 34) By way of the Gospel Radio Group

  • Envy

    A Fable

    There is a fable that Satan’s agents were failing in their various attempts to draw into sin a holy man who lived as a hermit in the desert of northern Africa. Every attempt had met with failure; so Satan, angered with the incompetence of his subordinates, became personally involved in the case. He said, “The reason you have failed is that your methods are too crude for one such as this. Watch this.”

    He then approached the holy man with great care and whispered softly in his ear, “Your brother has just been made Bishop of Alexandria.” Instantly the holy man’s face showed that Satan had been successful: a great scowl formed over his mouth and his eyes tightened up.

    “Envy,” said Satan, “is often our best weapon against those who seek holiness.

    Michael Green, Illustrations For Biblical Preaching, Baker 1993, p. 121.

  • Easter,  Resurrection

    Some Of Us Stay At The Cross

    Some of us stay at the cross,
    some of us wait at the tomb,
    Quickened and raised with Christ
    yet lingering still in the gloom.
    Some of us ‘bide at the Passover feast
    with Pentecost all unknown,
    The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place
    that our Lord has made His own.
    If the Christ who died had stopped at the cross,
    His work had been incomplete.
    If the Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb,
    He had only known defeat,
    But the way of the cross never stops at the cross
    and the way of the tomb leads on
    To victorious grace in the heavenly place
    where the risen Lord has gone.

    Annie Johnson Flint

  • Easter,  Resurrection

    It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’

    Tony Campolo tells the story of a black Baptist preacher in the inner city of Philadelphia who preached a sermon Tony says he’ll never forget. Tony preached first. He was “hot,” so “hot” he says, that he even stopped and listened to himself. He sat down and said to his pastor: “Now see if you can top that one!”
    “Son,” said the black pastor, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” For an hour and a half the pastor repeated these words over and over again: “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’.”
    “I’ve never heard anything like it,” Tony said. “He just kept saying it. The congregation was spellbound by the power of it.”
    “It’s Friday. Mary, Jesus’ mother is crying her eyes out. That’s her son up there on the cross. He’s dying the agonizing death of crucifixion as a criminal. But it’s only Friday,” the preacher said. “Sunday’s a comin’.
    “The apostles were really down and out. Jesus, their leader, was being killed by evil men. But it was only Friday. Sunday is a comin’.
    “The Devil thought he had won. ‘You thought you could outwit me,’ he said, ‘but I’ve got you now.’ But it was only Friday. Sunday is a comin’.”
    “He went on like that for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour. Each time he said, ‘It’s Friday,’ the crowd began to respond, ‘but Sunday’s comin’. An hour and 15 minutes.
    “It’s Friday and evil has triumphed over good. Jesus is dying up there on the cross. The world is turned upside down. This shouldn’t happen. But it’s only Friday. Sunday’s a comin’.
    “It’s Friday. But Sunday is comin’. Mary Magdalene was out of her mind with grief. Her Lord was being killed. Jesus had turned her life from sin to grace. Now he was dead. But it’s only Friday. Sunday is a comin’.”
    The place was rocking. For an hour and a half. “Friday! But Sunday is a comin’. Friday. But Sunday is a comin’.
    “The sisters and the brothers are suffering. It just isn’t fair…all they have to go through, but it’s only Friday. Sunday is comin’.”
    “I was exhausted,” Tony said. “It was the best sermon I’ve ever heard. The old preacher was saying it and the people were with him. ‘It’s Friday, but Sunday is a comin’. It was powerful,” Tony said. “It was personal.”

    Quoted from www.mthollywood.org/sermon12.htm