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HomeIllustrations

7,545 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

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Top Rated Newest Oldest|All Sources Biblical Illustrator Spurgeon Maclaren

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Sermon Illustration

The Blessing She Carried for Forty Years

Every Sunday morning for thirty-one years, Pastor Ruth Gonzalez stood at the doors of Grace Community Church in Amarillo, Texas, and spoke the same parting...

Numbers 6:22-27Universal

251 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Key That Unlocked the Ancient Stones

For nearly fourteen centuries, the hieroglyphics carved into Egypt's temples and tombs stood in magnificent silence. Scholars gazed at the intricate symbols — birds, eyes,...

John 16:12-15Universal

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Safe Room She Didn't Know Was There

In 2011, a massive EF5 tornado carved through Joplin, Missouri, leveling entire neighborhoods in minutes. Bethany Stover clutched her newborn son in a hallway closet...

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10abUniversal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Night the Endurance Died

In October 1915, Ernest Shackleton stood on the frozen Weddell Sea and listened to his ship die. The Endurance, trapped for nine months in Antarctic...

Psalm 29Universal

220 words

Sermon Illustration

The Earl Who Went Underground

In 1842, Anthony Ashley Cooper, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, did something no British nobleman was expected to do. He read the testimony of children...

Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14Universal

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Mother Who Never Stopped Praying

For nearly thirty years, Monica of Tagaste wept over her son. Augustine had abandoned the faith of his childhood, taken a mistress, fathered a child...

Psalm 103:1-4, 8, 10Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

Finding God in Climate Change & Stewardship - Story

In a small town nestled among verdant hills, a church youth leader named David felt the weight of the world’s climate crisis pressing down on his heart. He watched as storms grew stronger, seasons became erratic, and the beauty of...

Psalm 23:1-6Anabaptist

318 words

Sermon Illustration

The Morning After the Longest Night

In January 2010, Stephanie Decker of Henryville, Indiana, heard the freight-train roar every Midwesterner dreads. She threw herself over her two children in the basement...

Psalm 30Universal

258 words

Sermon Illustration

The Power of Peace - Contemporary Example

There was a young woman named Maya who lived in the heart of a bustling city, her life often feeling like a whirlwind of noise and distraction. She had dreams of pursuing her education, but the weight of financial struggles...

Matthew 28:19-20Christocentric

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Mirror in the Neonatal Ward

Elena Vasquez had not slept in thirty-one hours. She sat in the NICU at St. Joseph's in Denver, her fingertip resting in the curled fist...

Psalm 139:14Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

The Example of Self-control - Quote

There’s a story from history that beautifully illustrates the essence of self-control and love in action. In the early 20th century, during the height of the suffragette movement, a woman named Emmeline Pankhurst stood boldly for her beliefs. She faced...

Matthew 28:19-20Arminian/Wesleyan

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Lafayette, We Are Here

In the summer of 1777, a nineteen-year-old French nobleman named the Marquis de Lafayette sailed across the Atlantic at his own expense to fight for...

Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29Universal

248 words

Sermon Illustration

A Story of Joy - Story

There was a little boy named Samuel who lived in a small town. Samuel had a magnificent garden in his backyard, filled with sunflowers that towered over him like cheerful, golden giants. Every morning, he would race outside, watering them,...

Psalm 23:1-6Lutheran

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Letter She Already Knew by Heart

When Margaret Chen's husband David deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, he left a handwritten letter tucked inside her nightstand drawer. "Read this when you're afraid,"...

John 14:23-29Universal

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Night Shift at Cape Canaveral

In March 2024, a small team of technicians at Cape Canaveral sat through the dead hours before a SpaceX launch. The countdown clock read T-minus...

Mark 13:24-37Universal

249 words

Sermon Illustration

Charles Templeton and the Danger of Assumed Immunity

In the late 1940s, Charles Templeton was the most electrifying young evangelist in North America. He preached to stadiums of thousands, served as vice president...

1 Corinthians 10:1-13Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Corrie ten Boom and the Hidden Place

In February 1944, the Gestapo raided the ten Boom home in Haarlem, Holland. Corrie ten Boom and her family had been sheltering Jewish refugees for...

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10abUniversal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Interfaith Dialogue Challenge

In our increasingly diverse world, the call for Interfaith Dialogue can feel overwhelming, much like the moment when Peter stood on the rooftop in Joppa, contemplating his vision of a sheet filled with unclean animals. The tension between his traditional...

Luke 4:18-19Lutheran

263 words

Sermon Illustration

A Modern Story of Economic Justice and the Kingdom

In our bustling world of economic disparity, the call to economic justice can feel like a daunting wave crashing against the shore of our faith. Yet, our journey mirrors those biblical figures who faced their own storms. Imagine for a...

Matthew 22:37-39Arminian/Wesleyan

311 words

Sermon Illustration

The Judge Who Remembered the Widow

In 2018, a municipal judge in Providence, Rhode Island named Frank Caprio went viral for something almost unheard of in American courtrooms — mercy. An...

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

The Power of Gentleness - Quote

There once lived a great artist, known for his incredible paintings that captured the essence of beauty and truth. He was deeply admired not just for his skill, but for the gentleness with which he approached his craft. Every stroke...

Ephesians 2:8-9Arminian/Wesleyan

247 words

Sermon Illustration

Real-World Preaching

Imagine a small fishing village nestled along a rocky coast, where the waves crash fiercely against the cliffs. Each morning, fishermen set out into the churning sea, their boats small and vulnerable against the vastness of the ocean. They know...

Titus 3:5Arminian/Wesleyan

326 words

Sermon Illustration

The Jersey in the Stands

In 2019, before Zion Williamson played his first official NBA game for the New Orleans Pelicans, cameras caught something in the crowd at the Smoothie...

Mark 1:4-11Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

Rembrandt's Final Confession

In 1668, in a cramped Amsterdam apartment, a bankrupt old painter picked up his brush one last time. Rembrandt van Rijn had once been the...

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32Universal

255 words