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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 Nine Who Became One

In 1936, nine young men from the University of Washington did something no one expected. They were loggers' sons, farmhands, and factory workers — nobody's...

Universalcommunity

226 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Quiet Champion

In nineteen years with the San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan won five NBA championships, two league MVP awards, and three Finals MVP trophies. He is...

Universalhumility

229 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man Who Walked When They Said He Wouldn't

In February 1949, golfer Ben Hogan and his wife Valerie were driving through fog in West Texas when a Greyhound bus crossed into their lane....

Universalperseverance

231 words

Sermon Illustration

Sweetness and the Offensive Line

Walter Payton rushed for 16,726 yards over thirteen seasons with the Chicago Bears, earning the nickname "Sweetness" — not just for his fluid running style,...

Universalhumility

224 words

Sermon Illustration

The Circle That Gave Us Narnia

In 1930s Oxford, a small group of friends began meeting in C.S. Lewis's rooms at Magdalen College on Thursday evenings. They called themselves the Inklings....

Universalcommunity

215 words

Sermon Illustration

The Light That Was Always Traveling

In December 2021, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope from a launchpad in French Guiana. It took twenty-five years to design and build. Engineers...

Universalhope

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Freedom Simone Biles Found by Walking Away

In the summer of 2021, Simone Biles stood on the world's biggest stage at the Tokyo Olympics and walked away. The greatest gymnast in history...

Universalfreedom

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Letter Before the First Day

When Marcus Chen graduated from medical school in 2019, his father handed him a sealed envelope. Inside was a letter dated twelve years earlier —...

Mark 1:4-11Universal

254 words

Sermon Illustration

Real-World Comfort

In our fast-paced world, Comfort can feel like a mirage—seemingly within reach yet often elusive. Just as the early disciples faced uncertainty and fear after the Ascension of Jesus, we too grapple with our own doubts and challenges today. Picture...

Acts 1:8Progressive/Social Justice

308 words

Sermon Illustration

The Comeback That Changed Everything

In the summer of 2021, Simone Biles stood on the world's biggest stage at the Tokyo Olympics and did something no one expected. The greatest...

Universaltransformation

260 words

Sermon Illustration

The Invisible Mending

In 2015, Swedish scientist Tomas Lindahl shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a discovery that had puzzled him for decades: how does DNA survive?...

Universalperseverance

233 words

Sermon Illustration

Written Deeper Than Skin

In 2005, Dr. Jonas Frisen at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm made a remarkable discovery. Using carbon-14 traces left in the atmosphere by Cold War...

Universalidentity

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hidden Generosity of the Tallest Trees

In 1997, ecologist Suzanne Simard published a groundbreaking discovery in the journal *Nature*. She found that trees in a forest are not competing with each...

Universalhumility

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Notes That Aren't Counted

In music theory, there is a small, elegant ornament called a grace note. It appears in the score as a tiny notation — almost an...

Universalgrace

260 words

Sermon Illustration

The Comeback Composition

In 1741, George Frideric Handel was a broken man. At fifty-six, he had suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right side. His operas were failing....

Universalperseverance

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fracture That Becomes the Strongest Point

In 1892, German surgeon Julius Wolff published a remarkable discovery that orthopedic medicine still relies on today. Known as Wolff's Law, it describes how bone...

Universalhealing

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Heart's Hidden Conductor

In 1907, anatomist Arthur Keith and medical student Martin Flack were dissecting a mole's heart at the London Hospital Medical College when they discovered something...

Universalpurpose

251 words

Sermon Illustration

The Body That Cannot Feel

Dr. Paul Brand spent decades treating leprosy patients in India, and what he discovered changed how we understand the disease. Leprosy does not cause fingers...

Universalcommunity

219 words

Sermon Illustration

A Voice on the Steps of Freedom

In 1939, the great contralto Marian Anderson was denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The Daughters of the American Revolution refused...

Universalcourage

252 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Translators Wept

On December 14, 2022, translators for Wycliffe Bible Translators gathered in a conference room in Orlando, Florida, for what they expected to be a routine...

Acts 2:1-31Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Trees That Refuse to Die

In 1957, scientist Edmund Schulman discovered something astonishing in the White Mountains of California. Growing at nearly 10,000 feet, battered by freezing winds and rooted...

Universalperseverance

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Telescope That Took Twenty-Five Years to Find Its Place

In 2021, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope after twenty-five years of design, delays, and nearly being canceled. Engineers built it for one breathtaking...

Universalpurpose

227 words

Sermon Illustration

Thirty Thousand Invisible Dots

When Apple introduced Face ID with the iPhone X in 2017, they built something remarkable into the front-facing camera: an infrared dot projector that maps...

Universalidentity

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Sound of Freedom

In 1871, a group of formerly enslaved students from Fisk University in Nashville set out on a desperate concert tour to save their school from...

Universalfreedom

236 words