Illustration results for 1 corinthians 9
Free Memorial Day Resources
Sermons & Illustrations: Top SermonsTop Illustrations
Sermon & Worship Packages: Time to Remember
Marathon runners often reach the point where they wonder whether they can keep going. They hit the wall. They doubt they can finish the race. Their muscles burn with pain; their strength is gone. They feel defeated.
As we run our Christian lives, we can reach that point too. Faced with our sin, we begin to doubt God’s forgiveness. “Will I really finish the race and receive the prize or are my sins too great?” Faced with the burning pains and troubles of life, we begin to doubt God’s love. “Why doesn’t God take this away from me?” We feel defeated.
At those times when you hit the wall, turn to these words that the Holy Spirit gave the Apostle Paul to write (Romans 8:31-39) and believe that in Christ Jesus, you more than conquer. For in Christ Jesus our Lord 1) no accusation can rob us of his forgiveness, and 2) no force can separate us from his love.
In Discipleship Journal, Carole Mayhall tells of a woman who went to a diet center to lose weight. The director took her to a full-length mirror. On it he outlined a figure and told her, "This is what I want you to be like at the end of the program." Days of intense dieting and exercise followed, and every week the woman would stand in front of the mirror, discouraged because her bulging outline didn’t fit the director’s ideal. But she kept at it, and finally one day she conformed to the longed-for image.
Daily Bread, August 8, 1990.
For eighteen fruitful years, Dr. H.A. Ironside pastored the Moody Church in Chicago. When he got ready to take the offering, he would often say, "We ask God’s people to give generously. If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, we do not ask you to give. We have a gift for you - eternal life through faith in Christ!" (Source Unknown)
One Sunday morning an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn and ragged. In his hand he carried a worn out old hat and an equally worn out bible.
The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and accessories. As the cowboy took a seat, the others settled down in areas away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all dismayed at his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.
The preacher gave a long sermon about Hellfire and brimstone and a stern lecture on how people ought to be finding more people to win to Jesus because baptisms were down. As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. "Before you return next time, maybe have a talk with God and ask him what He thinks would be appropriate attire for worship. You might find that would help you fit in a little better and feel more at home with us."
The old cowboy assured the preacher he would. The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat. Once again he was completely shunned and ignored.
The preacher approached the man and said, "I thought I asked you to speak to God about your attire and get his input on the m...
NFL OK’S SUPERBOWL PARTIES AT CHURCHES
Churches can now host Super Bowl parties without opposition from the National Football League. The League will not object to live showings of the Super Bowl by a religious organization on a routine and customary basis. The League will implement this policy unilaterally beginning with the 2009 Super Bowl.
(Pastor’s Weekly Briefing 2/29/08)Super Bowl Parties
THE CREW OF LIFE-SAVERS
Nantucket, Massachusetts is located next to important shipping lanes running along the East Coast. Toward the end of the 1800s sailing ships were in their heyday. Nantucket Island saw hundreds of vessels passing by each day—all navigating without the advantages of modern technology. Treacherous shoals and stormy weather led to over 700 shipwrecks in the surrounding waters of Nantucket, causing the area to be dubbed “a graveyard of the Atlantic.”
Prior to the advent of organized life-saving, sailors involved in a wreck were likely to perish. Even if fortunate enough to make it to shore, the limited shelter offered by the dunes didn’t significantly improve the sailor’s chances of survival. Faced with the large number of shipwrecks and loss of life, the people of the surrounding communities began efforts to save the lives of shipwreck victims. They built lifesaving huts along the shores, gave swimming lessons to Boston public school students, produced instructional posters on resuscitation methods, and developed volunteer life-savers that would row out to the ships to rescue shipwrecked sailors. They were incredibly brave and heroic men.
On March 31, 1879, a violent storm swept across Nantucket Sound, bringing powerful winds, freezing rain, snow, and heavy fog. By April 1, over sixty-eight vessels lay wrecked or disabled around the island. This led to the largest rescue effort in the island’s history.
Captain Thomas F. Sandsbury and his crew of volunteer lifesavers rowed their surfboat toward the schooner John W. Hail. They rescued the crew and rowed them back to the safety of the shore. Then they went back out to the stormy sea and made their way to the schooner Emma J. Edwards. She was rolling from side to side. Her masts would thrash the sea with every turn, making it impossible to get near her. A sole survivor was visible. George Coffin tied a line around his waist to prevent himself from being swept away and jumped from the surfboat. George Coffin rescued the survivor.
For thirty-two consecutive hours Sandsbury and his crew endured the hardships of the storm, and moving from wreck to wreck they rescued more than a dozen sailors. Other crews were doing the same. By the time the storm began to break, Nantucket’s volunteers had rescued over forty sailors. The U.S. Congress recognized the courage of Sandsbury. Captain Sandsbury was given a gold medal and silver medals were awarded to each of his crew. There’s a museum dedicated to all these brave men that served as lifesavers (www.nantucketlifesavingmuseum.com).
The motto of this group was: “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.” Though they were never paid, they never lacked for volunteers. They risked everything to save lives.
The apostle Paul was a man like that. He was willing to risk everything for the sake of the gospel.
(From a sermon by Ed Sasnett, For Example, 6/30/2010)
WINNING IN LOSING
Both teams that play in the Super Bowl think they will win, so both teams have special t-shirts and hats designed that declare them the victors. It costs about $2 million to have the apparel made--which means for the losing team, $2 million goes to waste, right? Wrong.
A recent article on ChristianPost.com points out that the items are "sorted and shipped to various countries where World Vision workers distribute them to needy children and families, many of whom have never owned new clothing in their lives." This year all the Colts apparel is heading to Haiti. I’d say this a good look at how a loss can become a victory.
(From a sermon by Terry Blankenship, Running and Serving with Passion, 5/16/2011)
Imagine a group of people coming to your home and interrupting your Twinkie-eating, TV-watching routine with an urgent message: “Good News! We’re from the United States Olympic Committee. We have been looking for someone to run the marathon in the next Olympics. We have statistics on every person in the entire nation on computer. We have checked everybody’s records – their performance in the president’s fitness test in grade school, body type, bone structure, right down to their current percentage of body fat. We have determined that out of two hundred million people, you are the one person in America with a chance to bring home the gold medal in the marathon. So you are on the squad. You will run the race. This is the chance of a lifetime.”
You are surprised by this because the farthest you have ever run is from the couch to the refrigerator. But after the first shock passes, you are gripped by the realization of what’s happening in your life. You picture yourself mingling with the elite athletes of the world. You allow yourself to imagine that maybe you do have what it takes. At night you dream about standing on the podium after the race and hearing the national anthem, seeing the flag raised, and bending low to receive the gold medal.
You begin to feel a sense of urgency. It will be your body wearing those little racing togs, with a billion people watching on television. But greater than any external pressure is the internal drive that says, “This is the race I was created to run. This is my destiny. This is why I was born. Here’s my chance!”
This race becomes the great passion of your life. It dominates your mind. It occupies every waking moment. To run the race – to win if you can – become the central focus of your existence. It is what gets you out of bed in the mor...
In the early days of the Southern Confederacy, General Robert E. Lee was severely criticized by General Whiting. It might have been expected that Lee would wait for a time when he could get even with Whiting. A day came when president Jefferson Davis asked General Lee to come for consultation. The President wanted to know what Lee thought of General Whiting. Without hesitation Lee commended Whiting in high terms and called him one of the ablest men in the confederate army. An officer present motioned Lee aside to suggest that he must not know what unkind things whiting had been saying...
Pastor's MediaVault
