Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 326 to 350 of 538 results

326. Quicksand Isn't Quick

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Near Watsonville, California, there is a creek that has a strange name: Salsipuedes Creek. Salsi puedes is Spanish for “Get out of it, if you can.” The creek is lined with quicksand, and the story is that many years ago, in the early days of California, a Mexican laborer fell into the quicksand. A Spaniard, riding by on a horse, saw him and yelled out to him, “Salsi puedes!” which was not very hel...

327. Reading A Love Letter

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Mortimer J. Adler, in How to Read a Book, has observed that the one time people read for all they are worth is when they are in love and are reading a love letter. They read every word three ways. They read between the lines and in the margins. They read the whole in terms of the parts, and each part in terms of the whole. They grow sensitive to context and ambiguity, to insinuation and implicatio...

328. Reasons To Obey

Illustration

Michael P. Green

There are many reasons why we may obey someone, including God. What are yours? Fear? Obeying because you have to? Reward? Obeying because you get something out of it? Love? Obeying because you love Christ and your fellowman?

329. Rejecting Pardon

Illustration

Michael P. Green

From the year 1829, comes a true story about a Philadelphia man named George Wilson, who robbed the U. S. Mail, killing someone in the process. Wilson was arrested, brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. Some friends intervened in his behalf and were finally able to obtain a pardon for him from President Andrew Jackson. But, when he was informed of this, George Wilson refused ...

330. Rejoicing in Suffering

Rom 3:3-5

Illustration

Michael P. Green

It is clear from Scripture that “rejoicing in suffering” is not simply stoicism. It is not simply a grin-and-bear-it attitude of tough-it-out-and-see-how-much-you-can-take, or just-hang-in-there-until-it’s-over-and-don’t-let-anything-get-you-down, or keep-a-stiff-upper-lip. Many people feel that if they do this, they are obeying God and “rejoicing in suffering.” But they are not. If your sufferi...

331. Remember Christ's Suffering

John 19:17-27

Illustration

Michael P. Green

An unknown author has written these very appropriate words about suffering: “It is well that we should think, sometimes, of the Upper Room, and of the Last Supper, and of His soul ‘exceeding sorrowful unto death’; of Gethsemane, the deep shadow of the olive trees, his loneliness, prayers, and disappointment with his disciples, his bloody sweat; the traitor’s kiss, the binding, the blow in the fac...

332. Remove the Law, Remove the Temptation

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The USS Flagship Hotel in Houston, Texas, which was torn down in 2011, was built on the water. Large plate-glass windows adorn the dining room, which is on the lowest floor. However, the windows kept getting broken by guests fishing from the balconies above. Heavy sinkers had to be used to cast to the water, but the lines were often too short and so would crash against the windows below. They need...

333. Reputation

Illustration

Michael P. Green

A reputation is built by: What we want most What we think about most How we use our money What we do with our leisure time The company we enjoy Who and what we admire What we laugh at

334. Response To An Atheist

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The best reply to an atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a chef who prepared it.

335. Revelation

Rev 22:7-21

Illustration

Michael P. Green

A janitor would wait patiently each week for a group of seminarians to finish their basketball game. While he waited, he would study his Bible. One day, as the seminarians were leaving the gym, they noticed the janitor carefully reading the text in his lap. One young man asked which biblical book was the subject of the janitor’s study. The old man answered, “The Book of Revelation.” The ballplayer...

336. Ripples Through History

Illustration

Michael P. Green

At the base of the Tetons in Wyoming lies Jackson Lake. Sometimes, early in the morning when the lake is perfectly calm, the reflection of the Tetons is magnificently duplicated and mirrored on the lake’s surface. The interesting thing is that if you were to take one little flat stone and skip it across the surface of the lake, the image of the Tetons would be distorted and marred. In the same way...

337. Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28

Illustration

Michael P. Green

All afternoon a little boy tried to put together his birthday gift from his father, a picture puzzle. Some of the pieces were bright, some dark; some seemed to go together, others seemed to fit nowhere. Finally, frustrated and exhausted and with nothing to show for his efforts, the boy gathered the pieces, put them in the box, and gave it to his dad. “I can’t do it,” he explained. “You try it.” T...

338. Room For Me

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

A little boy and his younger sister were riding a hobby horse together. The boy said, “If one of us would just get off this hobby horse, there would be more room for me.”

339. Rumor Is A Pipe

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In King Henry IV, Shakespeare observed: Rumor is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, And of so easy and so plain a stop That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still-discordant wavering multitude, Can play upon it. And how certain Christians can play that pipe!

340. Said the Robin to the Sparrow

Matthew 6:26

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Said the Robin to the Sparrow: “There is one thing I would really like to know, Why these anxious human beings Rush about and worry so.” Said the Sparrow to the Robin: “Friend, I think that it must be That they have no heavenly Father Such as cares for you and me.”

341. Saints, Let The Light Shine Through

Illustration

Michael P. Green

A little boy attended a church that had beautiful stained-glass windows. He was told that the windows contained pictures of Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, Saint John, Saint Paul, and other saints. One day he was asked, “What is a saint?” He replied, “A saint is a person whom the light shines through.”

342. Satan's Strategy Session

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The story is told of a time when Satan held a strategy session for subverting those who were close to salvation. “What shall we do?” asked Satan. A daring demon stood and shouted, “I have it! I know what we can do! We can tell men that there is no life after death, that they die like animals.” Satan’s face fell as he answered, “It will never work. Man is not ignorant; even atheists admit of times ...

343. Satan's Success

Illustration

Michael P. Green

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 thi...

344. Scandals Fly

Illustration

Michael P. Green

John Dryden, a seventeenth-century British dramatist and poet, commented on man’s propensity to gossip: There is a lust in man no charm can tame, Of loudly publishing his neighbor’s shame. Hence, on eagles’ wings immortal scandals fly, While virtuous actions are but born and die.

345. Self-pity: The Devil's Comfort

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Self-pity weeps on the devil’s shoulder, turning to Satan for comfort. His invitation is: “Come unto me all you that are grieved, peeved, misused, and disgruntled, and I will spread on the sympathy. You will find me a never-failing source of the meanest attitudes and the most selfish sort of misery. At my altar you may feel free to fail and fall, and there to sigh and fret. There I will feed your ...

346. Selling Yourself As A Slave

Romans 6:16

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Well before Paul was born, there had been a Roman law stating that no freeborn man could be enslaved. Therefore, a man could literally sell himself into slavery, collect the proceeds, then have a friend come and attest to his status as a freeborn man, and he would have to be released at once. This caused havoc with the Roman economy, which was well oiled by its slave labor. Therefore, just before ...

347. Send The Shoes

Illustration

Michael P. Green

A shoe salesman, upon finding out that in his new territory no one wore shoes, wrote his company and said, “Don’t send any shoes, because no one here wears them.” Another salesman in the same territory wrote the company and said, “Send all the shoes you’ve got; nobody here has any.”

348. Sequoias Need Fire

Illustration

Michael P. Green

As everyday experience often shows, stress and trials can strengthen a person. A seed that falls into a mere handful of soil next to a boulder can sometimes grow into a large tree by sending its roots down to the earth, roots that firmly wedge it onto the rock. The sequoia, the greatest of trees, grows best when forest fires periodically threaten its existence. The park service will actually start...

349. Set Free To Obey

Illustration

Michael P. Green

When a man is released from prison, he is not free to do anything he feels like doing, but he is free to obey the law. In the same way, when we are freed from sin by trusting in Christ, we are not given a license to sin, but rather are set free to obey him.

350. Sex Outside of Marriage

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Sexual intercourse outside of marriage is always wrong. Why? Because those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one aspect of union—the physical—from all the other aspects that were intended to make a total union of two people. There is nothing wrong with sexual pleasure, any more than there is with the pleasure of eating. However, just as attempting to enjoy the pleasures of eating and tasting...

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Showing 326 to 350 of 538 results

326. Quicksand Isn't Quick

Illustration

Michael P. Green

327. Reading A Love Letter

Illustration

Michael P. Green

328. Reasons To Obey

Illustration

Michael P. Green

329. Rejecting Pardon

Illustration

Michael P. Green

330. Rejoicing in Suffering

Rom 3:3-5

Illustration

Michael P. Green

331. Remember Christ's Suffering

John 19:17-27

Illustration

Michael P. Green

332. Remove the Law, Remove the Temptation

Illustration

Michael P. Green

333. Reputation

Illustration

Michael P. Green

A reputation is built by: What we want most What we think about most How we use our money What we do with our leisure time The company we enjoy Who and what we admire What we laugh at

334. Response To An Atheist

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The best reply to an atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a chef who prepared it.

335. Revelation

Rev 22:7-21

Illustration

Michael P. Green

336. Ripples Through History

Illustration

Michael P. Green

337. Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28

Illustration

Michael P. Green

338. Room For Me

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

A little boy and his younger sister were riding a hobby horse together. The boy said, “If one of us would just get off this hobby horse, there would be more room for me.”

339. Rumor Is A Pipe

Illustration

Michael P. Green

340. Said the Robin to the Sparrow

Matthew 6:26

Illustration

Michael P. Green

341. Saints, Let The Light Shine Through

Illustration

Michael P. Green

342. Satan's Strategy Session

Illustration

Michael P. Green

343. Satan's Success

Illustration

Michael P. Green

344. Scandals Fly

Illustration

Michael P. Green

345. Self-pity: The Devil's Comfort

Illustration

Michael P. Green

346. Selling Yourself As A Slave

Romans 6:16

Illustration

Michael P. Green

347. Send The Shoes

Illustration

Michael P. Green

348. Sequoias Need Fire

Illustration

Michael P. Green

349. Set Free To Obey

Illustration

Michael P. Green

350. Sex Outside of Marriage

Illustration

Michael P. Green

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