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HomeIllustrations

10,079 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

Each One a Living Book

In the final pages of Ray Bradbury's *Fahrenheit 451*, the fugitive Guy Montag stumbles upon a ragged group of wanderers camped along abandoned railroad tracks....

Universalcommunity

229 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Richest Man in Russia Who Couldn't Buy Peace

In 1879, Leo Tolstoy was arguably the most famous writer alive. *War and Peace* and *Anna Karenina* had brought him international acclaim, a vast estate...

Isaiah 55:1-9Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Planted Before the Rain

In 2012, a wheat farmer named David Brandt in central Ohio faced a brutal drought. Neighbors held off planting their cover crops — why waste...

Proverbs 16:3Universal

241 words

Sermon Illustration

Written in Someone Else's Code

In 2015, Chris Long, an employee of the Washoe County Sheriff's Office in Reno, Nevada, received a bone marrow transplant from a German donor to...

Universalidentity

223 words

Sermon Illustration

Twenty-Two Years of Listening

In 1978, Dr. Amar Bose boarded a transatlantic flight and put on the airline-provided headphones, only to find the roar of the engines drowned out...

Universalpatience

221 words

Sermon Illustration

The Cells That Keep You Alive

In 1907, British anatomist Arthur Keith and medical student Martin Flack discovered a tiny cluster of cells in the upper right chamber of the heart....

Universalpurpose

244 words

Sermon Illustration

A Grain of Sand and Three Thousand Galaxies

In 1995, astronomer Robert Williams made a decision that his colleagues considered foolish. He pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a tiny patch of sky...

Universalpatience

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Enzymes That Never Stop Repairing

Every day, the DNA inside each of your cells sustains between ten thousand and one hundred thousand points of damage. Ultraviolet light, the oxygen you...

Universalperseverance

256 words

Sermon Illustration

John Wesley's Twenty-Eight Pounds

In 1731, a young Oxford fellow named John Wesley began keeping careful accounts of his finances. That year he earned thirty pounds and found he...

Luke 6:38Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Notes That Aren't Earned

In music, there is a term that should make every Christian's ears perk up: the grace note. A grace note is a small ornamental note...

Universalgrace

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Album That Was Never Rehearsed

In 1959, Miles Davis walked into Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York with an audacious plan. He handed his musicians — John Coltrane, Bill...

Universaltrust

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hymn That Unpacked the Wagon

In 1772, a young English pastor named John Fawcett faced a decision that would define his ministry. He had accepted a prestigious call to Carter...

Universalcommunity

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Running Into Who You Really Are

In the summer of 1924, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell arrived at the Paris Olympics as Britain's fastest man. He was the gold medal favorite in...

Universalidentity

230 words

Sermon Illustration

Handel's Triumph from the Deathbed

In the spring of 1737, George Frideric Handel suffered a devastating stroke that paralyzed his right side. Doctors in London declared his career finished. The...

1 Corinthians 15:55-57Universal

233 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Darkness Is Full of Light

In 1995, astronomer Robert Williams made a decision his colleagues called reckless. He pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a tiny patch of sky near...

Universalhope

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Courage to Let Go of Your Own Heart

On December 3, 1967, Louis Washkansky lay on an operating table at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, and did something no human...

Universalcourage

236 words

Sermon Illustration

Running to the Wrong Finish Line

In 2019, Simone Biles stood before reporters at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships and said something that reframed her entire career. She had just performed two...

Universalidentity

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Prayer from Platform B

In 1987, a Scottish fisherman named Callum Hendry fell overboard into the North Sea thirty miles east of Aberdeen. The water was forty-two degrees. His...

Jonah 2:1-2Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Song Born from a Mother's Forgiveness

In 2002, a drunk driver named Eric Smallridge killed two young women in a car accident. One of them was Meagan Napier. Her mother, Renée,...

Universalforgiveness

226 words

Sermon Illustration

The Carpenter's Pencil Mark

In 2019, a furniture maker named David Chen nearly closed his workshop in Asheville, North Carolina. Orders had dried up. His savings account showed eleven...

Proverbs 16:3Universal

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Wounds We Cannot Heal Alone

Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, an immunologist at Ohio State University, conducted a study that should make every congregation sit up and take notice. Her team gave...

Universalcommunity

219 words

Sermon Illustration

Knowing Whose You Are

In the summer of 1924, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell arrived at the Paris Olympics as the favorite to win the 100-meter dash. Then came the...

Universalidentity

253 words

Sermon Illustration

The Blueprint You Were Given

In 2003, scientists completed the Human Genome Project, mapping all three billion letters of human DNA. What they discovered reshaped our understanding of the body....

Universalpurpose

253 words

Sermon Illustration

The Singers Who Gave Everything to Save a Song

In 1871, a handful of young men and women — most of them formerly enslaved — left Fisk University in Nashville with nothing but their...

Universalsacrifice

256 words