Sermon Illustrations

Category: Uncategorised

  • Chiasm

    A chiasm (pronounced ki-asm) is a literary device that would have been obvious, clear, and artistically appreciated by Isaiah’s original audience. In the same way that a Westerner can say, “Once upon a time,” and we immediately understand that the speaker (or author) is beginning a fairytale, so it’s the same for a chiastic structure…

  • Adversity good for you

    Alexander Solzhenitsyn once observed; “Even biology teaches us that perpetual well-being is not good for any creature.” Adversity does more for our development than possibly any other single factor. Adversity helps us to focus, to eliminate the non-essentials, and to devote ourselves to the essentials. Adversity will cause the truly devoted to work harder, which…

  • Soaring

    Soaring

    One of the faces of the Lord in Scripture is the face of an eagle. It has been said that all of nature fears storms except for the eagle. If a bird faces an opposing wind at the proper angle, it will be carried higher. Eagles learn this early and use such opposing winds to…

  • Berlin wall

    1989 saw the fall of the Berlin wall, which started out a prayer movement where people placed candles in their windows and prayed. Horst Sindeman, a member of the GDR leadership said, “We were prepared for everything, just not for candles and prayers.” Click to TweetWebsite: https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-order/xi-week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity/2017/2017/@@download/file/WPCU2017engCORRECTED.pdfFrom the book “God's Promise of Happiness” Available on…

  • Finding the root

    The story has been told of a mental hospital that many years ago devised an unusual test to determine when their patients were ready to go back into the world. They brought a candidate for release to a room where a water faucet was left on so that the sink overflowed and was pouring water…

  • I am the gate

    One day George Adam Smith, an Englishman who traveled extensively in the Middle East, came across a sheepfold and said to the shepherd, “That is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said the Englishman. “I am the…

  • Dead Church

    A young, ambitious pastor was called to serve in a certain church. He was warned by his predecessor that this congregation was “dead”.. It was not even worth trying to save it. But this pastor accepted the call because he believed with God’s guidance he could bring life to that church. He was an optimist…

  • Anxiety

    Anxiety is one of our modern plagues. Its effects are visible everywhere, interfering with our happiness and our ability to live productively. Anxiety limits our connections with other people, saps our energy, reduces our focus and our skillfulness and undermines our health. (Psychology Today,. ‘Anxiety: A Modern Plague’. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/healing-possibility/201111/anxiety-modern-plague)…

  • Wealthy but tight!

    A very wealthy man came to his vicar and said, “Father, I’m having a problem with this tithing thing. You see I made £500,000 dollars last year. If I gave 10% then I’d have to give £50,000. I can’t do that.” And the vicar took him aside and said, “would you pray with me, “Dear…

  • Future giving

    It’s like the story of the sailor who was shipwrecked on a South Sea island. He was seized by the natives who carried him to their village and set him on a crude throne. They treated him as royalty. Soon he learned that their custom was once each year to make a man king, king…