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Home›Browse by Type›Stories & Illustrations

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Stories & Illustrations

6,717 illustrations — Vivid stories and real-world analogies for sermon use

Browse Stories & Illustrations by Book

Psalm (81)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)2 Corinthians (8)Proverbs (7)James (7)

Sermon Illustration

Sojourner Truth's Sacred Vessel

In 1851, Sojourner Truth stood before a crowd in Akron, Ohio, and bared her arm. The muscle was hard and knotted from years of forced...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Universal

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Sermon Illustration

The Love That Reached Ravensbrück

In the winter of 1944, Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie huddled together on a flea-infested mattress in Barracks 28 of Ravensbrück concentration camp....

Psalm 36:5-10Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Seven Trees That Became a Forest

In 1977, Wangari Maathai knelt in the red soil of her backyard in Nairobi, Kenya, and planted seven trees. It was a modest act —...

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12Universal

Sermon Illustration

When Rome's Gods Fell Silent

In 27 BC, Marcus Agrippa constructed the Pantheon in the heart of Rome — a soaring temple dedicated to every god in the empire. For...

Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Gates of Berlin

On November 9, 1989, tens of thousands of East Berliners surged toward the concrete barrier that had divided their city for twenty-eight years. For nearly...

Psalm 24:7-10Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Lanterns in the Old North Church

On the night of April 18, 1775, a Boston sexton named Robert Newman climbed the narrow stairs of Christ Church — known today as Old...

Mark 13:24-37Universal

Sermon Illustration

Calm Singing on a Sinking Ship

On January 25, 1736, a violent storm tore across the Atlantic and slammed into the small ship carrying John Wesley toward the colony of Georgia....

Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Scattered Anabaptist Missionaries - Anabaptist (Matthew 28:18-20)

Early Anabaptists were hunted across Europe. Wherever they fled, they shared their faith. Persecution became mission; scattering became sending. They called it "missionary through martyrdom"—the blood of the witnesses planted churches. They had no mission agencies, no training programs, no budgets.

Matthew 28:18-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Marathon Runner's Borrowed Shoes

In 2018, Desiree Linden became the first American woman in 33 years to win the Boston Marathon. What fewer people remember is that she almost...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Blacksmith of Gornji Vakuf

In 1997, two years after the Bosnian War ended, a blacksmith named Zajko Hadzimuratovic returned to his shop in Gornji Vakuf, a town split between...

Isaiah 2:1-5Universal

Sermon Illustration

John Newton and the Body No Longer for Sale

John Newton spent years on the West African coast buying and selling human bodies. He knew exactly what it meant to purchase a person —...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Birder Who Learned to Listen at Daybreak

Marcus Chen had walked the trails of Cuyahoga Valley National Park dozens of times with his headphones in. When his retired neighbor, Dorothy, invited him...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Translator Who Moved In

In 2018, Dr. Sarah Shin left her tenured position at Georgetown University to move into a refugee apartment complex in Clarkston, Georgia — a town...

John 1:1-14Universal

Sermon Illustration

Luther's Six-Hour Confessions

In 1510, a gaunt Augustinian monk knelt in a cold Erfurt confessional for the sixth consecutive hour. Martin Luther was cataloguing every sinful thought, every...

Psalm 32Universal

Sermon Illustration

Water from the Last Place You'd Look

In 2010, a severe drought gripped the Turkana region of northern Kenya. Wells ran dry. Livestock collapsed in the dust. Families walked hours to find...

Exodus 17:1-7Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Midnight Shift at Jodrell Bank

In 1957, a young radio astronomer named Bernard Lovell stood beneath the massive dish of Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England, waiting. For years, skeptics...

Luke 21:25-36Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Woman Who Packed Her Bags Toward Famine

In 1943, a young Dutch woman named Corrie ten Boom watched her elderly father, Casper, open their door to a Jewish neighbor trembling on the...

Ruth 1:16Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Marathon Runner Who Stopped at Mile 25

In November 2019, amateur runner Sarah Sellers crossed the twenty-fifth mile of the New York City Marathon and simply stopped. She walked to the curb,...

1 Kings 19:1-4, 8-15aUniversal

Sermon Illustration

Thirty-Six Hours in the Deep End

Dr. Amara Osei still had confetti in her hair from the Emory University School of Medicine graduation ceremony when her phone buzzed at 4:47 a.m....

Mark 1:9-15Universal

Sermon Illustration

The John 3:16 Sign Guy - Baptist (John 3:16)

For decades, a man named Rollen Stewart appeared at major sporting events holding a sign: "John 3:16." Cameras couldn't avoid him. Millions saw those numbers without knowing what they meant—and many looked it up. His methods were controversial, his later life tragic.

John 3:16Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Hooves That Grip the Bare Rock

In Italy's Gran Paradiso National Park, Alpine ibex scale the nearly vertical face of the Cingino Dam — a smooth concrete wall rising 160 feet...

Habakkuk 3:17-19Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Architect Who Moved to His Street

Marcus Webb spent three years designing the Westfield Tower, a mixed-use complex in downtown Cleveland. He drew sightlines and traffic flows, calculated natural light angles,...

John 1:1-14Universal

Sermon Illustration

Nature Illustration: Storms, Refuge, and Trust

On a stormy evening, I stood by the window, watching the dark clouds roll in like a thick, woolen blanket. The wind howled, bending the trees and sending leaves swirling like dancers caught in a tempest. In that moment, I...

Romans 1:20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Memorial Sewn Into the Coat

On the night of November 23, 1654, the brilliant mathematician Blaise Pascal sat alone in his room in Paris when something shattered his ordinary evening....

Luke 9:28b-36Universal