Tag: John Ortberg
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Life with GOD | John Ortberg Sermon Illustrations
Blessing in the ancient world was the highest form of well-being possible for human beings. The Greeks referred to the blissful existence of the gods as “blessed.” For Israel, blessing included not just gifts from God but especially life with God. Blessing would include all areas of Abram’s life: his family, his finances, his work,…
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Big Father On The Beach | John Ortberg Sermon Illustrations
A few weeks ago, when I was out surfing, there was no one else in the water. In fact, there was no one around at all, except a guy the size of Goliath doing tae kwon do on the beach. After I’d been out a little while, a tiny wisp of a kid came paddling…
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His stigma has become his glory | John Ortberg Sermon Illustrations
Sociologist Erving Goffman wrote in his classic study Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity that the term stigma originated with the ancient Greeks, roughly during Jesus’ time. Initially a “stigma” was a mark branded on the body of a disgraced individual—a criminal or a slave. The term came to refer to any characteristic…
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Keep Showing Up | John Ortberg Sermon Illustrations
My friend Eugene has a black belt in martial arts. During a sermon taping, I once held a block of wood as tightly as I could, right in front of my face, while Eugene did a 360-degree spin and splintered the wood with a roundhouse kick. I will never do that again. I did not…
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Not So Far to Fall | John Ortberg Sermon Illustrations
In grad school, although I was studying to become a clinical psychologist, I started working at a Baptist church. I discovered then that I loved to preach . . . until one weekend when the sermon wasn’t going well and I started to feel anxious and dizzy, and the next thing I knew, I was…
