Sermon Illustrations on Daily Life

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The Slowness is the Point

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 , Matthew 11:28-30, Luke 10:38-42, Philippians 4:6-7, Psalm 131:1-2

[T]he old adage “it’s the journey, not the destination that matters most” is particularly true of modern pilgrimage. If the destination is the point, I can get to Santiago from anywhere in the world i...

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Is That Enough?

Author

Dan Baumgartner

Keywords

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, Colossians 3:23-24, Proverbs 16:3, Philippians 4:11-13, 1 Timothy 6:6-8

The award-winning and now venerable filmmaker Wim Wenders recently put out a new movie called “Perfect Days.” It was filmed in Japan and follows the daily life of Hirayama, a cleaner of public t...

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What is the Meaning of Life?

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:10, Luke 12:15, Matthew 5:14, Proverbs 3:5-6, Ecclesiastes 3:11

Recently I was watching a children’s television show on YouTube with my kids, when the host asked, “What is the meaning of Life?” His response was typical: “I don’t know,” but what he said next made m...

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Dorothy Day: Read Books-Not the News

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 2:1-6 , Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Philippians 4:8, James 1:5, Psalm 119:105

A common question I’m hearing from folks these days is whether it is beneficial (or a moral imperative) to pay attention to the news. The Catholic nun and social activist Dorothy Day asked the same qu...

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Nearly Amish

Author

Andy Crouch

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1, Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Proverbs 25:16 , 1 Corinthians 6:12 , Psalm 101:3, Philippians 4:8

Our family is radical, but we are definitely not Amish—although we love to eat the fruit, vegetables, meat, and cheese produced by our Amish neighbors forty miles away in Lancaster County, Pennsylvani...

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Martin Luther on His Last Day on Earth

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 29:5-7, Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, Matthew 6:34, Colossians 3:23-24, Psalm 46:10

There’s a well-shared (though probably apocryphal) story that took place about the morning, the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther was having a theological discussion with a few of his friends. One...

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Just a stain in the soil

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Genesis 18:27, James 4:14, Psalm 90:12, Psalm 39:4, 1 Peter 2:24-25, Psalm 90:10, Psalm 78:39, 1 Chronicles 29:15, Psalm 39:5, Psalm 144:4, Job 14:1, Psalm 103:15-16, Job 7:6-7, Genesis 2:7

I love a British TV show called Time Team. Hosted by Tony Robinson, a team of archeologists descend on a site in Britain and excavate for three days. Inevitably, the archeologists unearth the dead...

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Different Seasons, Different Challenges

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Luke 15:11-32, Proverbs 20:29, Psalm 90:10-12

Someone once quipped that we spend the first half of our lives struggling with the sixth commandment ( Thou shalt not commit adultery ) and the second half of our lives struggling with the fifth comma...

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Through the Seasons

Author

Gene Edwards

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, John 15:1-2, Psalm 1:3, Galatians 6:9, Genesis 8:20-22, Mark 4:26-29, James 5:7-8, 2 Timothy 4:1-7, Hosea 6:3, Daniel 2:21, Acts 1:7, Psalm 104:19, Genesis 1:14

I have observed through the years that most Christians have little understanding of the word ‘season’. Our Lord is a seasonal God; He comes, He departs. His faithfulness never changes, but His seasons...

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If This isn’t Nice, What is?

Author

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, Nehemiah 8:10, Genesis 2:8-9, 15, Philippians 4:4-7 , Luke 10:38-42 , Psalm 118:24

In a commencement speech at Rice University around the turn of the century (the 21st century to be precise) the author Kurt Vonnegut shared some of the wisdom of his life. He went on to share a story ...

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The Messy Middle

Author

William Bridges

Keywords

Crises

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Hebrews 10:23, Romans 12:2, Psalm 37:23-24, Philippians 1:6, Isaiah 43:19, Ecclesiastes 3:1

The Messy Middle In his classic work Transitions, author and professor William Bridges shares an excellent anecdote about life in crisis: it can happen at any time and in a myriad of ways. It also de...

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Discerning Sense of Call By Paying Attention to Our Bodies

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 1:9, Ecclesiastes 3:1, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Psalm 23:3, Philippians 2:13, Romans 12:1-2

As I have worked to clarify my calling, I have learned to pay attention to my energy levels in response to different activities. If I experience a particular activity as being inordinately draining, I...

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A Runner Misses the Forest for the Trees

Author

Louie Giglio

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 28:10–17, 2 Kings 6:15–17, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Luke 24:13–35, Ephesians 1:18–19, Psalm 19:1–4

The author and pastor Louie Giglio isn't the type of runner who enjoys the scenery—he's just trying to survive his workouts. And when he's running in freezing rain? He's barely thinkin...

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God is a Gentleman

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 11:2, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Matthew 7:12, Philippians 2:3-4, Psalm 138:6

Frank Buchman, an American Lutheran who founded the First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921, later renamed the Oxford Group in 1928, was known for his belief in divine guidance. One evening, Presid...

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Lessons in Slowing Down: Grapes and A Ford Model-T

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, Mark 6:31, Psalm 23:1-3, Mark 1:35, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Matthew 6:28-29, Isaiah 30:15

One winter break in college, I was spending some time at a friend's house. This friend's father had recently purchased a Ford Model T and he was excited to take me for a spin. Now, If you’ve n...

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BE SHORT

Author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:19, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Proverbs 10:19, Proverbs 17:27, Ecclesiastes 3:7, Proverbs 15:23

The Puritan preacher Cotton Mather, hard at work over the business of ministry, prayer, and writing, wrote over his study door in large letters, “BE SHORT.” Today, he might well have written "MAK...

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Sad Will Be The Day

Author

Phillips Brooks

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:11, 2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 11:16, Psalm 42:1, Isaiah 6:8, Romans 12:2, Philippians 3:14

Sad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is living, with the thoughts that he is thinking, with the deeds that he is doing, when there is not forever bea...

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Famous Atheist Richard Dawkins Argues that You are an Accident

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:7, Jeremiah 1:5 , Ecclesiastes 3:11, John 1:3-4, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 139:13-14

The atheist author Richard Dawkins, who wrote, “The universe, at the bottom, has no design, no purpose, no evil, and no other good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor care...

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Autumn: The Conclusion of our Ordinary Time in the Land

Author

Sylvie Vanhoozer

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2, Leviticus 23:39–41, Ruth 2:2–3, Galatians 6:9, John 4:35–36, Psalm 126:5–6

And so we arrive at autumn, the conclusion of our ordinary time in the land. The seeds planted at the start of our pilgrimage have produced a harvest in fields, homes, and towns. Farms display God’s a...

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Settling Accounts

Author

William E. Brown

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 6:33-34, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 37:25-26, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Galatians 6:9

The story is told of a farmer in a Midwestern state who had a strong disdain for “religious” things. As he plowed his field on Sunday morning, he would shake his fist at the church people who passed b...

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“Do it Again”

Author

G. K. Chesterton

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:28, Psalm 90:2, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Psalm 136:1, Genesis 8:22, Matthew 18:3

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it...

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Stein's Law

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, James 4:13-15, Matthew 24:42, Psalm 90:

Have you ever heard of "Stein’s Law"? Named after University of Virginia economics professor Herbert Stein, it states: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." Do you...

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“Does My Ash Look All Right?”

Author

Tish Harrison Warren

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Daniel 9:3

One Ash Wednesday a decade ago, when I was new to Anglicanism, I knelt at a rail as Fr. Thomas, my priest, smeared a black cross on each forehead. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall ret...

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Remember it Ends

Author

Annie F. Downs

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, John 16:33, 1 Peter 5:10, James 1:2-4, Psalm 30:5, Romans 8:18, Ecclesiastes 3:1

I saw a live podcast a few weeks ago, and the host, actor Dax Shepherd, gave the audience a couple minutes to ask questions. One young woman in the front row asked him, “How do you get through the har...

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The Evangelist Wasting his Time

Author

Richard J. Mouw

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 25:11, Ecclesiastes 3:7, Isaiah 50:4, 1 Peter 3:15, Colossians 4:5–6, Psalm 19:14

As a college student, I was returning to school one year on a Greyhound bus. One of the other passengers was a middle-aged man who seemed to be making the rounds, engaging various people in quiet conv...

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Change or Die

Author

Anne Lamott

Keywords

Scripture

Lamentations 3:22-23, Hebrews 12:11, Ezekiel 36:26, Philippians 3:13-14, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Isaiah 43:19

Why is change important? Why do we avoid it, even when it means experiencing much more pain staying stuck? Writer Ann Lammott explains: If we stay where we are, where we’re stuck, where we’re comfort...

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False Narrative: You Are An Accident

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Job 33:4 , John 1:1-4, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 139:13-16

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy describes a view (not his own view, because Tolstoy was a Christian) of the human person, based on a theory of reality he saw emerging in his day. It is a narrative that...

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The Good News or the Bad News

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 39:, Exodus 7:, Exodus 8:, Daniel 6:, Ecclesiastes 3:1, 1 Peter 5:7, Isaiah 43:2

I read in a book recently about a young pastor who was fired from his church over a theological controversy. When he went to share the news with his wife, he said, “I’ve got good news and bad news, wh...

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Ash Wednesday & A Public Faith

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Joel 2:12-13, Romans 3:20-26, Job 42:5-6, Ezekiel 9:4, Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 3:20

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always enjoyed the public nature of Ash Wednesday. That is to say, what happens when we leave an Ash Wednesday service and there is the sign of the cross, for all who ...

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We Are Dust

Author

Luke A. Powery

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Psalm 103:14, Job 42:5-6, Joel 2:12-13, Hebrews 12:1-3, Romans 3:20-26, Ecclesiastes 3:20

At the beginning of this season of Lent, on this Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return. We are reminded of human fragility and failure. We are reminded that we are...

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