{"id":37005,"date":"2021-11-26T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T11:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/colin-farrell-helps-homeless-man\/"},"modified":"2021-11-26T11:40:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T11:40:00","slug":"colin-farrell-helps-homeless-man","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/colin-farrell-helps-homeless-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Farrell Helps Homeless Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While Colin Farrell was in Toronto promoting a film, he befriended a homeless man called Stress. Stress told the Irish actor that he was struggling with depression and alcohol and he didn&rsquo;t know how to straighten out his life. Farrell said he would check on him soon to make sure he was getting better.<\/p>\n\n<p>Several days later, a local radio station offered listeners $2,000 if they could get Colin Farrell to come in for a chat. When Farrell heard this, he located Stress and headed to the radio station, pretending that Stress had found him. As a result, the station gave Stress the $2,000 reward.<\/p>\n\n<p>Four years later, Farrell found himself in Toronto again and decided to meet up with Stress again. This time, Farrell took him on a shopping spree and gave him rent money. Farrell made him join an addiction recovery group. Years later, Stress (who now goes by his real name, David Woods) made a full recovery and got a roof over his head. Woods said he would&rsquo;ve been completely lost if it wasn&rsquo;t for Farrell&rsquo;s intervention.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Possible Preaching Angle:<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>Jesus said, &ldquo;The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor &hellip;&rdquo; (Luke 4:18). He calls us to follow in his footsteps&mdash;bringing good news to the poor, setting the captives free.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3376,3380,3483,3548,3552,3648,4057,4076,4080,4095,4140,4142,4161,4281,4321,4403,4535,4808],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,395],"class_list":["post-37005","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-action","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-benevolence","tax_ctp_tags-caring","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-compassion","tax_ctp_tags-giving","tax_ctp_tags-good-deeds","tax_ctp_tags-good-samaritan","tax_ctp_tags-great-commandment","tax_ctp_tags-help","tax_ctp_tags-helplessness","tax_ctp_tags-homelessness","tax_ctp_tags-involvement","tax_ctp_tags-kindness","tax_ctp_tags-loving-others","tax_ctp_tags-neighbor","tax_ctp_tags-rescue"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Colin Farrell Helps Homeless Man - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/colin-farrell-helps-homeless-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colin Farrell Helps Homeless Man - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While Colin Farrell was in Toronto promoting a film, he befriended a homeless man called Stress. Stress told the Irish actor that he was struggling with depression and alcohol and he didn&rsquo;t know how to straighten out his life. Farrell said he would check on him soon to make sure he was getting better. 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