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HomeIllustrations

10,079 Illustrations

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Top Rated Newest Oldest|All Sources Biblical Illustrator Spurgeon Maclaren

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Sermon Illustration

The Night Shift at Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue

When a thirteen-year-old Boy Scout named David Ralston wandered off trail in Colorado's San Juan Mountains in 2019, his scoutmaster radioed for help before sundown....

Psalm 121Universal

221 words

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Sermon Illustration

Shackleton's Promise Kept

In April 1916, Ernest Shackleton stood on the rocky shore of Elephant Island and made a promise to his twenty-two stranded men: "I will come...

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Home Inspector Who Missed His Own Roof

In 2019, a home inspector named Gary Redmond in suburban Columbus, Ohio, made his living walking through other people's houses, cataloging every crack in the...

Luke 6:39-49Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Coach Who Wouldn't Leave the Parking Lot

In 2019, a high school basketball coach in Memphis named Penny Hardaway noticed that Marcus, a quiet sophomore who had been showing up faithfully to...

Luke 15:3-7Universal

221 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man They Stopped Recognizing

In 2014, a photograph circulated online of a homeless man named Patrick Hardison from Senatobia, Mississippi. Burns had destroyed his face years earlier while he...

Luke 8:26-39Universal

224 words

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Tried to Feed the Landlord

In 2019, a young tenant farmer outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania named Marcus Behr wanted to impress the landowner who had generously leased him four hundred acres...

Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23Universal

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Last Twenty Dollars in Margaret's Purse

Margaret Thornton sat in her kitchen on Elm Street in Decatur, Illinois, staring at a single twenty-dollar bill. It was January 1983. The plant had...

Hebrews 13:5-6Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Phone Call After the Diagnosis

When Marcus Rivera got the call from his oncologist in March 2023, the first thing he did was phone his mother. Not because she could...

Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38Universal

247 words

Sermon Illustration

The Desert That Remembered How to Bloom

In March of 2016, hikers arrived at Death Valley expecting the usual — cracked earth, pale rock, the silence of a landscape that seems to...

Joel 2:28-29Universal

258 words

Sermon Illustration

Finding Leading Toward Peace in Everyday Moments

In the heart of our bustling modern world, we are challenged to pursue peace in ways that may seem daunting, yet this task can also be transformative. Imagine a small community in the midst of a sprawling city, where tensions...

Luke 8:1-3Reformed

275 words

Sermon Illustration

Finding Science and Faith in Everyday Moments

In a small town not far from here, there’s a vibrant community garden that has become a sanctuary for people of all ages. Each Saturday morning, diverse groups gather there—young families, retirees, and even local teens who might otherwise spend...

Acts 2:44-45Black Church

286 words

Sermon Illustration

The Voice That Burned So Others Could Read

William Tyndale spent twelve years in hiding across Europe, translating the New Testament into English from the original Greek. He worked in cold rooms in...

Acts 13:22-26Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

The Girl Who Got a New Name

In 2019, a thirteen-year-old girl named Daysha stood in a Michigan courtroom wearing a white dress her foster mother had bought her the day before....

Psalm 45:10-12, 16Universal

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Night the Sky Opened Over Tromsø

In January 2023, photographer Shang Yang traveled to Tromsø, Norway, hoping to capture the Northern Lights. He had seen photographs, watched documentaries, studied the science...

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

222 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Clouds Break on the Summit

In 2019, mountaineer Sarah Maguire spent three days climbing through dense fog on the trail to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal. The clouds hung so...

Matthew 17:1-9Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

A Modern Story of Grief

Grief can feel like standing on the edge of a chasm, staring into an abyss that seems endless. I remember a dear friend of mine, Sarah, who lost her husband unexpectedly. In the days following his passing, she found herself...

Acts 1:8Pentecostal

291 words

Sermon Illustration

With the Grain

Martin Okafor had been building a cedar hope chest for his daughter Amara's sixteenth birthday — and he'd finally agreed to let her help sand...

Ephesians 6:4Universalparenting

238 words

Sermon Illustration

Nature Illustration: Soil, Tending, and Cultivation

Imagine a small garden nestled behind an old wooden fence, its soil rich and dark, cradling the promise of life. Each spring, a seasoned gardener arrives, not with grand plans or elaborate designs, but with humble tools—just a trowel, a...

Hebrews 11:1-3Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Body That Knows How to Begin Again

In 2016, Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his decades of research on autophagy — a process whose Greek...

Universalredemption

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Atheist Who Couldn't Escape God's People

In 1927, American journalist and committed atheist H.L. Mencken traveled to Dayton, Tennessee, to cover the Scopes Trial. He arrived with pen dipped in acid,...

Psalm 14Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Grace That Taught Wilberforce to Say No

In 1785, William Wilberforce was a young Member of Parliament with everything the world could offer — wealth, charm, political influence, and a calendar full...

Titus 2:11-12Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Night Shift at Cape Hatteras

In 1999, Kevin Duffus interviewed one of the last living lighthouse keepers from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The old keeper described his nightly routine with...

Mark 13:24-37Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Echo That Fills the Universe

In 1964, two Bell Labs engineers in Holmdel, New Jersey — Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson — couldn't figure out why their radio antenna kept...

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Congregation That Opened Its Doors on a Monday

For years, Grace Community Church in Dalton, Georgia, held a January prayer-and-fasting week. Members skipped meals, filled the sanctuary for midday devotions, and posted scripture...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

230 words