Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 126 to 150 of 538 results

126. Einstein Failed - You Can Too!

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In 1879, a child was born to a poor Jewish merchant. In early life the lad suffered a haunting sense of inferiority because of the anti-Semitic feeling he encountered on every hand. Shy and introspective, the boy was so slow in learning that his parents had him examined by specialists to see if he was normal. In 1895, he failed his entrance examinations at the Polytechnicum in Zurich, Switzerland,...

127. Eluding Death

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The story is told of a certain man who was walking in his neighborhood when he came face to face with Death. He noticed an expression of surprise on the creature’s horrid countenance, but they passed one another without speaking. The fellow was frightened and went to a wise man to ask what should be done. The wise man told him that Death had probably come to take him away the next morning. The poo...

128. Enough For Fifty Hopes

Illustration

Michael P. Green

There is nothing like nature to unfold truth about God. Nature is constantly shouting to us about the wisdom and the power of God. It gives a sense of awe and mystery to life. Even atheists cannot fully escape this. Robert Browning has written a verse about a certain young man who has determined that he is going to build his life without God. He has his philosophies all worked out, and none of the...

129. Essence of Peppermint

Illustration

Michael P. Green

One of the hardest things for the Christian of our day is to recognize the presence of sin in his own life and all around him. In fact, we often try to minimize the presence of sin and to make light of its effects on us. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman told of a distinguished Methodist minister in Australia who preached on sin. One of his church officers came afterward to talk with him in his study. He sai...

130. Essential Faith

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Faith is central to all of life. For example, you go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce and whose degrees you have never verified. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you do not know. He gives you a chemical compound you do not understand. Then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle. All in trusting, sincere faith!

131. Ethics Rooted In...?

Illustration

Michael P. Green

"But one has to have an ethical base for a society. Where the prime force is impulse, there is the death of ethics. America used to have ethical laws based in Jerusalem. Now they are based in Sodom and Gomorrah, and civilizations rooted in Sodom and Gomorrah are destined to collapse” (The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Time, Nov. 21, 1977). So it is also with individual lives.

132. Evangelism - The Church's Life Blood

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Evangelist Vance Havner stated: “Evangelism is to Christianity what veins are to our bodies. You can cut Christianity anywhere and it’ll bleed evangelism. Evangelism is vascular, it’s our business. Talk about majoring on evangelism, you might as well talk about a doctor majoring on healing. That’s our business.”

133. Expecting Less, Getting More

Illustration

Michael P. Green

A thriving divorce lawyer found himself on the brink of divorce, even though he strongly believed in family life. As he began to ponder why his marriage was falling apart, he asked a friend the following question: “Max, how did you stay married for thirty-five years?” Max, being older, had a rather illuminating answer: “I guess in our generation we didn’t expect as much from each other—and we end...

134. Facts And Figures Not Enough

Illustration

Michael P. Green

There is a story about a teenage boy who was deeply interested in scientific subjects, especially astronomy. So his father bought him a very expensive telescope. Since the young fellow had studied the principles of optics, he found the instrument to be most intriguing. He took it apart, examined the lenses, and made detailed calculations on the distance of its point of focus. The youth became so a...

135. Faith Does Good Works

James 2:17

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Martin Luther, who had made himself the apostle and champion of faith alone, wrote the following: “Faith is a living, busy, active, powerful thing; it is impossible for it not to do us good continually. It never asks whether good works are to be done, but has done them before there is time to ask the question, and it is always doing them.”

136. Faith In The Future

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Some years ago a hydroelectric dam was to be built across a valley in New England. The people in a small town in the valley were to be relocated because the town itself would be submerged when the dam was finished. During the time between the decision to build the dam and its completion, the buildings in the town, which previously were kept up nicely, fell into disrepair. Instead of being a pretty...

137. Fake Augustine Story

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Augustine was in Milan when God touched his heart and changed his life. He then left his former life of license (he even had an illegitimate son). When he returned home, his former girl friend called to him: “Augustine, Augustine, it is I.” He turned and said: “Yes, but it is not I.” Note: This story has been retold and published many times but it is wrongly connected with Augustine. Go here for ...

138. False Doctorin'

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In an examination at a Christian school, the teacher asked the following question: “What is false doctrine?” Up went a little boy’s hand, and there came this answer: “It’s when the doctor gives the wrong stuff to people who are sick.” Although the little boy had obviously confused doctrine with doctorin’, he arrived at the correct definition.

139. False Grace

Illustration

Michael P. Green

An elderly woman was standing in the checkout line ready to pay for her merchandise: a quart of milk and a loaf of bread. She opened her purse. No money was there; neither was her checkbook. As she was about to ask the clerk to put her things back, suddenly a gentle voice said, “It looks like that is your lunch.” A gentleman was standing right behind her, smiling. “Don’t worry,” he continued. “Tod...

140. Fame Doesn't Shoo the Flies

Illustration

Michael P. Green

A reporter asked Walt Disney how it felt to be a celebrity. “It feels fine,” he replied, “when being a celebrity helps me get a choice reservation for a football game.… As far as I can remember, being a celebrity has never helped me make a good picture, or a good shot in a polo game, or command the obedience of my daughter, or impress my wife. It doesn’t even seem to help keep fleas off our dogs a...

141. Far, Far Better Thing I Do

John 11:25

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities, a young French aristocrat was condemned to die by the guillotine during the bloody French Revolution. His punishment was based solely on his forefathers’ crimes against the peasantry. The hour before his execution he was visited by a young English friend who could have passed for his twin. After the guard had left, the friend overpowered the doomed man with...

142. Fasten, Confine, Dam

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Loose wires give out no musical notes, but when their ends are fastened, the piano, the harp, or the violin is born. Free steam drives no machine, but harnessed and confined with piston and turbine, it makes possible the great world of machinery. An unhampered river drives no dynamos, but dam it up and you generate sufficient power to light a great city. So our lives must be disciplined if we a...

143. Faster Each Lap

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Faithful progress in the Christian life is a necessity. We should get “better” as time goes on. This is illustrated by what many consider to be the greatest horse race ever run. When Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, each successive quarter-mile in the race was run faster than the one before. The longer the race went, the faster the horse ran.

144. Fear Is A Great Motivator

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

A farmer looked out his window one day and saw several young fellows stealing watermelons from his field. He pulled out his gun and fired over their heads once or twice to scare the thieves off. Later, when the boys met, one said, “Did you hear those bullets?” Another replied, “I heard them twice, once when they passed me, and once when I passed them!” The farmer accomplished his purpose, since f...

145. Fear of F

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

Scrawled in a nervous hand across a blackboard at Southern Methodist University during finals week was this message: “We have nothing to fear, but F itself.”

146. Feeling, Faith and Fact

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Three men were walking on a wall, Feeling, Faith, and Fact. When Feeling got an awful fall, Then Faith was taken back. So close was Faith to Feeling, That he stumbled and fell too. But Fact remained and pulled Faith back, And Faith brought Feeling too.

147. Fellowship Over Things

Illustration

Michael P. Green

After many months of waiting, a Russian girl finally obtained a visa to visit her relatives in Canada for three months. She arrived in Canada and was shown around the various attractions, amusements, and entertainments. The young Russian seemed immensely impressed by the amount of things that people were wrapped up with. As the three months drew to a close, everyone expected her to defect and seek...

148. Filled With Fulness

Ephesians 3:19

Illustration

Michael P. Green

To be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” is like filling a glass with water from the ocean. The glass is filled with the ocean, but the ocean is not fully in the glass since the glass of water does not diminish the ocean. Yet, the glass has the “fullness” of the ocean in the sense that it contains every ingredient that makes up the ocean. All the essential characteristics of the oc...

149. Finding God when I Want Him

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

Karen’s mother was startled to find her five-year-old going through a new Bible storybook and circling the word God wherever it appeared on the page. Stifling her first reaction to reprimand the child for defacing a book, she quietly asked, “Why are you doing that?” Karen’s matter-of-fact answer was: “So that I will know where to find God when I want him.” Wouldn’t it be nice to have her confiden...

150. First, Get Their Attention

Illustration

Michael P. Green

There is a story about a man who wanted to train his mule. The first thing he did was to pick up a big stick and hit the mule a resounding wallop between the ears. As the mule staggered about, someone said to the owner, “What is the matter? Why did you do that?” And the man said, “In order to teach a mule, you must first get his attention.” That may not be true of mules, but there is a good deal ...

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Showing 126 to 150 of 538 results

126. Einstein Failed - You Can Too!

Illustration

Michael P. Green

127. Eluding Death

Illustration

Michael P. Green

128. Enough For Fifty Hopes

Illustration

Michael P. Green

129. Essence of Peppermint

Illustration

Michael P. Green

130. Essential Faith

Illustration

Michael P. Green

131. Ethics Rooted In...?

Illustration

Michael P. Green

132. Evangelism - The Church's Life Blood

Illustration

Michael P. Green

133. Expecting Less, Getting More

Illustration

Michael P. Green

134. Facts And Figures Not Enough

Illustration

Michael P. Green

135. Faith Does Good Works

James 2:17

Illustration

Michael P. Green

136. Faith In The Future

Illustration

Michael P. Green

137. Fake Augustine Story

Illustration

Michael P. Green

138. False Doctorin'

Illustration

Michael P. Green

139. False Grace

Illustration

Michael P. Green

140. Fame Doesn't Shoo the Flies

Illustration

Michael P. Green

141. Far, Far Better Thing I Do

John 11:25

Illustration

Michael P. Green

142. Fasten, Confine, Dam

Illustration

Michael P. Green

143. Faster Each Lap

Illustration

Michael P. Green

144. Fear Is A Great Motivator

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

145. Fear of F

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

Scrawled in a nervous hand across a blackboard at Southern Methodist University during finals week was this message: “We have nothing to fear, but F itself.”

146. Feeling, Faith and Fact

Illustration

Michael P. Green

147. Fellowship Over Things

Illustration

Michael P. Green

148. Filled With Fulness

Ephesians 3:19

Illustration

Michael P. Green

149. Finding God when I Want Him

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

150. First, Get Their Attention

Illustration

Michael P. Green

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