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Home›Browse by Type›Stories & Illustrations

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Stories & Illustrations

9,837 illustrations — Vivid stories and real-world analogies for sermon use

Browse Stories & Illustrations by Book

Psalm (82)Luke (49)Matthew (42)John (36)1 Corinthians (31)Romans (29)Isaiah (29)Genesis (25)Acts (24)Hebrews (17)Ephesians (16)Revelation (14)Jeremiah (14)Galatians (10)Colossians (10)Mark (9)Philippians (8)Deuteronomy (8)2 Corinthians (8)Proverbs (8)

Sermon Illustration

The Runner Who Laid Down His Fists

Louis Zamperini ran in the 1936 Berlin Olympics at just nineteen years old. But it wasn't the race that nearly destroyed him — it was...

Universalforgiveness

247 words

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Sermon Illustration

Written Into You

In 1996, researcher Diana Bianchi at Tufts University made a discovery that stunned the scientific world. During pregnancy, cells from the developing baby cross the...

Universalidentity

215 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bird That Flies Without a Map

In 2007, a U.S. Geological Survey team led by wildlife biologist Robert Gill Jr. attached a satellite transmitter to a bar-tailed godwit in Alaska and...

Universaltrust

229 words

Sermon Illustration

The Silent God: Encountering Divine Mystery - Contemporary Example

The sermon illustration emphasizes the importance of contemplative practices in fostering a deeper connection with God through silence and stillness. It highlights the transformative power of being present with God, moving beyond words to encounter the divine mystery, and how this engagement can lead to greater compassion for others in the world.

1 Kings 19:12, Psalm 46:10, John 1:5Roman Catholic

213 words

Sermon Illustration

God's System Restore

In 2001, Microsoft introduced a feature in Windows XP called System Restore. When a computer becomes corrupted — sluggish from bad software, crippled by a...

Universalrestoration

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fellowship We Were Made For

In J.R.R. Tolkien's *The Fellowship of the Ring*, there is a moment at the Council of Elrond when the fate of Middle-earth hangs in the...

Universalcommunity

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Invisible Repair Crew That Never Stops Working

In 2015, Swedish scientist Tomas Lindahl shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a discovery that should stop every one of us in our tracks....

Universalperseverance

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Skin He Could Not Shed

In C.S. Lewis's *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*, a selfish boy named Eustace Scrubb falls asleep on a dragon's treasure hoard with greedy, dragonish...

Universaltransformation

248 words

Sermon Illustration

The Telescope That Took Twenty-Five Years to See

When NASA first proposed the James Webb Space Telescope in 1996, engineers believed it would launch by 2007. Instead, it took twenty-five years. Twenty-five years...

Universalpatience

228 words

Sermon Illustration

Finding God in Everyday Moments

In our rapidly changing world, where uncertainty often looms large, we are called to navigate the waters of faith with both courage and grace. I think of a dear friend, an elderly woman named Maria, who faced the challenge of...

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18Reformed

281 words

Sermon Illustration

The Trust Button

Every iPhone user knows the moment. You plug your phone into a new computer, and a small prompt appears on screen: "Trust This Computer?" Until...

Universaltrust

248 words

Sermon Illustration

The Phoenix Capsule

On August 5, 2010, the San José copper mine in Chile's Atacama Desert collapsed, sealing thirty-three miners seven hundred meters underground. Engineers studied the fractured...

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Teammate Who Stayed

In 1958, Cincinnati Royals forward Maurice Stokes collapsed on a basketball court and never walked again. A head injury during a game left him permanently...

Universallove

233 words

Sermon Illustration

The Garden He Refused to Stop Painting

By 1912, Claude Monet's world was dissolving. Cataracts clouded both eyes, turning the sharp edges of his beloved garden at Giverny into smears of muted...

Universalperseverance

235 words

Sermon Illustration

One Millimeter per Day

When a peripheral nerve is damaged — from a deep cut or a crushing injury — the body begins one of its slowest repair jobs....

Universalpatience

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Last All-Clear

On May 8, 1945, Margaret Collins stood in her kitchen in London's East End when the church bells began to ring. Not the frantic, warning...

Revelation 21:1-4Universal

218 words

Sermon Illustration

The Jewel and the Setting

Isaac Watts stood barely five feet tall. His head was disproportionately large for his frame, and by most accounts of the day, he was not...

Universalhumility

220 words

Sermon Illustration

The Telegram That Became a Hymn

In 1873, Horatio Spafford stood at the railing of a ship crossing the Atlantic and stared down at cold, dark water. Somewhere beneath those waves,...

Universalperseverance

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Telescope That Taught Us to Wait

When NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope on Christmas Day 2021, the world held its breath. After twenty-five years of development, setbacks, and budget...

Universalpatience

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Gold in the Broken Places

In fifteenth-century Japan, a practice emerged called *kintsugi* — "golden joinery." When a bowl or teacup shattered, the artisan would gather every fragment and bind...

Universalhope

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fellowship We Never Would Have Chosen

In J.R.R. Tolkien's *The Fellowship of the Ring*, the Council of Elrond brings together representatives of every free people of Middle-earth — hobbits, elves, dwarves,...

Universalcommunity

247 words

Sermon Illustration

What Love Makes Real

In Margery Williams's beloved children's story *The Velveteen Rabbit*, a stuffed rabbit asks the old Skin Horse what it means to become Real. The Skin...

Universallove

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Book Born in a Prison Cell

In 1660, a tinker and unlicensed preacher named John Bunyan was arrested for holding religious services outside the Church of England. He was told he...

Universalperseverance

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Comeback They Said Was Impossible

On February 2, 1949, golfer Ben Hogan and his wife Valerie were driving through thick fog in West Texas when a Greyhound bus slammed into...

Universalperseverance

234 words