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HomeIllustrations

10,079 Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

The Fingerprints on the Window

When Margaret Chen moved into her first house in Boise in 1987, she spent an entire Saturday cleaning the picture window in the living room...

Psalm 127:3Universalparenting

254 words

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Sermon Illustration

Twenty-Six Days

On the morning of October 31, 2003, thirteen-year-old Bethany Hamilton was lying on her surfboard off the north shore of Kauai when a fourteen-foot tiger...

Universalfaith

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Garden Behind the Locked Door

In Frances Hodgson Burnett's *The Secret Garden*, ten-year-old Mary Lennox arrives at Misselthwaite Manor as a sour, neglected child — unloved and, by her own...

Universaltransformation

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Unlikely Weaver

In E.B. White's *Charlotte's Web*, a young pig named Wilbur learns a terrifying truth: come winter, he will be slaughtered. He is helpless to save...

Universalcommunity

216 words

Sermon Illustration

A Modern Story of Environmental Justice

In the heart of a bustling city, there lived a grandmother named Ruth. Every Saturday morning, she would rise before dawn, don her worn gardening gloves, and tend to a small patch of earth behind her cramped apartment building. It...

Matthew 6:25-34Anglican

293 words

Sermon Illustration

The Warmth That Saved Them

In 1978, Dr. Edgar Rey Sanabria faced a crisis at the Instituto Materno Infantil in Bogota, Colombia. Premature babies were dying. Incubators were scarce, overcrowded,...

Universallove

219 words

Sermon Illustration

The MVP Who Wouldn't Stay Home

On December 31, 1972, Roberto Clemente had nothing left to prove. The Pittsburgh Pirates legend had just collected his 3,000th hit that September — a...

Universalsacrifice

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Long Wait of Tim Duncan

In 1997, the San Antonio Spurs finished with the worst record in franchise history — 20 wins and 62 losses. It was a brutal season....

Universalpatience

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Don't Be Hasty

In J.R.R. Tolkien's *The Two Towers*, the hobbits Merry and Pippin encounter the Ents — ancient tree-shepherds who have guarded the forests of Middle-earth for...

Universalpatience

229 words

Sermon Illustration

Ten Thousand Repairs Before Noon

In 2015, Swedish chemist Tomas Lindahl shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a discovery that had quietly stunned the scientific world. He proved that...

Universalperseverance

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Player Who Had the Guts Not to Fight Back

In 1945, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey sat across from Jackie Robinson and asked a question that would change American history. But it wasn't...

Universalpatience

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Gift That Built the World

In 1989, a British computer scientist named Tim Berners-Lee, working at a research lab in Switzerland, invented the World Wide Web. He created the protocols...

Universalsacrifice

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Jailbroken Phone

In the world of smartphones, "jailbreaking" is the process of removing a manufacturer's built-in restrictions. When someone jailbreaks an iPhone, they bypass Apple's security architecture...

Universalfreedom

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Code That Was Given Away

In 1991, a twenty-one-year-old Finnish student named Linus Torvalds wrote an operating system kernel in his Helsinki bedroom. He called it Linux. What he did...

Universalsacrifice

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bishop Who Knew Which Throne Mattered

In 155 AD, the Roman proconsul in Smyrna gave the aged Bishop Polycarp one simple command: say "Caesar is Lord," sprinkle a pinch of incense...

Psalm 110:1-4Universal

228 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

The Divine Powerwash

Every Chromebook has a feature Google calls "Powerwash." It doesn't just delete your files or clear your browsing history. It wipes the entire machine —...

Universalforgiveness

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fox Who Taught a Prince to Wait

In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's *The Little Prince*, a lonely fox asks the young prince to tame him — to make him unique in all the...

Universalpatience

230 words

Sermon Illustration

Stored Where You Cannot See

Every night, while you sleep, your phone is quietly at work. If you use Apple's iCloud or Google Photos, your device encrypts your pictures —...

Universaltrust

232 words

Sermon Illustration

When Hospitality Meets Real Life - Contemporary Example

In our modern world, the call to hospitality can feel daunting, yet it remains a profound opportunity for us as people of faith. Imagine, for a moment, a weary traveler arriving at a bustling city — bags in hand, eyes...

Proverbs 3:5-6Reformed

309 words

Sermon Illustration

The Power of Wisdom - Quote

There’s a story about a wise old woman in a small village who had a garden that flourished like no other. Every spring, her garden burst forth with vibrant colors and life, drawing people from miles away. They would come...

John 3:16Christocentric

249 words

Sermon Illustration

When Digital Discipleship Meets Faith - Quote

In our fast-paced, hyper-connected world, the notion of discipleship has taken on new dimensions, particularly in the realm of digital engagement. Picture a young woman named Sarah, navigating her faith journey in the vibrant tapestry of social media. With every...

Proverbs 3:5-6Progressive/Social Justice

276 words

Sermon Illustration

Fifteen Billion Miles from Lost

In late 2023, NASA's Voyager 1 — the farthest human-made object from Earth, sailing through interstellar space fifteen billion miles away — went silent. After...

Universalredemption

221 words

Sermon Illustration

The Wisdom Written in Every Cell

In 2016, Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize for discovering how autophagy works — the process by which our cells break down...

Universalredemption

225 words