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Home›Browse by Type›Stories & Illustrations

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Stories & Illustrations

7,545 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 Assist That Changed Everything

On June 8, 2014, San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan did something remarkable in Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. With...

Universalhumility

243 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Condemned Highway That Saved a City

In 2019, engineers inspecting the Hernando de Soto Bridge connecting Arkansas and Tennessee discovered a critical fracture in a steel beam — a crack that...

Matthew 3:1-12Universal

254 words

Sermon Illustration

Maximilian Kolbe and the Body Freely Given

In the summer of 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. The SS guards selected ten men from Block 14 to die by starvation as punishment....

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Universal

251 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bridge Builder Who Never Looked Back

In 2017, ultramarathon runner Courtney Dauwalter stood at the starting line of the Moab 240 — a 238-mile race through the Utah desert. By mile...

Luke 9:51-62Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Wretch Who Wrote Amazing Grace

John Newton knew exactly what kind of man he was. For years, he captained slave ships across the Atlantic, trafficking human beings in chains —...

Universalforgiveness

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Text That Changed Everything

On January 15, 2009, passengers on US Airways Flight 1549 braced for impact as Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger glided their crippled Airbus onto the Hudson...

Luke 2:10-11Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

Finding Culture in Everyday Moments - Quote

In the heart of our bustling lives, we often find ourselves wrestling with the complexities of culture, much like the biblical figures who navigated their own tumultuous times. Picture a small boat on a stormy sea, tossed by waves of...

Hebrews 11:1Traditional

290 words

Sermon Illustration

The Handshake That Changed Baseball

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbets Field as the first Black man to play Major League Baseball. The abuse was relentless —...

Universalforgiveness

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Victory Already Won

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and read aloud General Orders No. 3: all enslaved people were free. The...

John 20:1-18Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Ground Opened and Light Poured In

On October 13, 2010, shift foreman Luis Urzúa sat 2,300 feet below the Atacama Desert in Chile, where he and thirty-two other miners had been...

Acts 12:1-11Universal

253 words

Sermon Illustration

Gold Tested in the Furnace of Greensboro

In 2018, a small jewelry shop on Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina, caught fire. When firefighters cleared the wreckage, owner Marcus Hadley sifted through...

Wisdom 3:1-9Universal

226 words

Sermon Illustration

Science Illustration: Wise Use of Data and AI

Imagine a scientist in a high-tech lab, surrounded by screens displaying a sea of data points. She is analyzing information to solve a critical problem—how to predict and mitigate climate change. Each data point tells a story, a whisper of...

Revelation 21:1-5Universal

256 words

Sermon Illustration

The Retired Firefighter and the Sound of His Own Name

For thirty-one years, Captain Ray Muñoz slept with one ear open at Station 14 in San Antonio. He could distinguish the pitch of a smoke...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

264 words

Sermon Illustration

A Story of Salvation - Story

Deborah was a woman of remarkable faith, a leader in a time when her people were struggling under oppression. One day, she found herself at a crossroads. The enemy was closing in, and despair lurked in every shadow. Yet, instead...

1 Corinthians 13:4-7Lutheran

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Cells That Refuse to Let You Stay Broken

Every second of every day, your body is performing an act of quiet redemption. Scientists estimate that the human body repairs roughly 70,000 DNA lesions...

Universalredemption

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Colonist Who Finally Saw

In 1514, a Spanish colonist named Bartolomé de las Casas stood in his church in Cuba preparing a Pentecost sermon when a passage from Sirach...

Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Woman Who Walked Toward the Storm

In 1943, a young Polish nurse named Irena Sendler could have stayed safe. She had papers. She had connections. She could have kept her head...

Ruth 2:12Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

The Diver's Message From the Dark

On July 2, 2018, twelve boys from the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach vanished into the Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand....

Isaiah 52:7-10Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Siren No One Believed

On May 22, 2011, the tornado sirens in Joplin, Missouri, began wailing at 5:11 p.m. Most residents barely looked up. The sirens had sounded twice...

Zephaniah 1:14-15Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The First Man Up from the Depths

When the Phoenix capsule broke through the surface of the San José mine on October 13, 2010, Florencio Ávalos stepped out into the Chilean night...

1 Corinthians 15:20-27Universal

217 words

Sermon Illustration

The Marathon Runner Who Crawled to the Water Station

In 2019, during the Badwater 135 ultramarathon across Death Valley, runner Shannon Farar-Griefer collapsed at mile 72. Temperatures had reached 130 degrees. Her crew had...

Psalm 63:1-8Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Barracks That Became a Sanctuary

In 1944, Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie huddled with other women in Barracks 28 at Ravensbrück concentration camp. The fleas were so thick...

1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17Universal

219 words

Sermon Illustration

When Love Learns to Sing Again

In 1829, Felix Mendelssohn was just twenty years old when he did something audacious. He revived Johann Sebastian Bach's *St. Matthew Passion*, a masterwork that...

Universallove

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Priest Who Stepped Into the Colony

On May 10, 1873, a thirty-three-year-old Belgian priest named Damien de Veuster stepped off a cargo ship onto the rocky shore of Kalaupapa, Molokai. The...

Matthew 3:13-17Universal

221 words