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9,055 Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

The Churches That Filled and Emptied Again

During the London Blitz of 1940-41, something remarkable happened in the churches of England. Pews that had sat half-empty for years suddenly overflowed. At St....

Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38Universal

230 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Bridge Builder Who Never Looked Back

In 2017, ultramarathon runner Courtney Dauwalter stood at the starting line of the Moab 240 — a 238-mile race through the Utah desert. By mile...

Luke 9:51-62Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Sun Disappeared Over Carbondale

On April 8, 2024, thousands gathered in Carbondale, Illinois, to witness a total solar eclipse. Scientists had spent years preparing. Photographers had calibrated their equipment....

Isaiah 6:1-8Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Invisible Shield Forty Miles Above Your Bed

Every night, while you sleep, the Earth faces an onslaught you never see. Thousands of meteoroids — some no bigger than a grain of sand,...

Psalm 121Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Ripple in Space That No One Believed

At 5:51 a.m. on September 14, 2015, a faint chirp appeared on the detectors at LIGO — the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory — in Livingston,...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Note From Underground

On August 5, 2010, the San Jose copper mine in Chile's Atacama Desert collapsed, trapping thirty-three miners half a mile beneath the earth. For seventeen...

Matthew 28:1-10Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Relay That Never Ends

In 2018, Kathrine Switzer returned to the Boston Marathon — fifty-one years after she became the first woman to officially run it. In 1967, race...

Hebrews 11:29-12:2Universal

233 words

Sermon Illustration

The Criminal from the Karen Hills Nobody Expected God to Use

In 1828, missionary Adoniram Judson purchased the freedom of a Burmese slave named Ko Tha Byu. The man was a former bandit from the Karen...

John 1:43-51Universal

256 words

Sermon Illustration

The Seed Vault at the End of the World

Deep inside a mountain on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole, sits a concrete vault holding over 1.2 million seed...

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

A Contemporary Holy Spirit Story

In our bustling, modern world, the invitation to embrace the Holy Spirit can sometimes feel daunting, as if we are navigating a stormy sea without a compass. Yet, much like the early followers of Christ, we too are called to...

Acts 2:42-47Black Church

293 words

Sermon Illustration

Eric Liddell's Final Race

In 1924, Eric Liddell stunned the world by refusing to run his best event at the Paris Olympics because the heats fell on a Sunday....

Philippians 3:17-4:1Universal

256 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bristlecone Pine of White Mountain

High in California's White Mountains, at nearly 12,000 feet, stands a bristlecone pine named Methuselah. It has endured for over 4,800 years in conditions that...

Habakkuk 3:17-19Universal

218 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Power Came Back On

On February 13, 2021, Winter Storm Uri slammed into Texas with temperatures the state hadn't seen in a generation. In Austin, a young mother named...

Genesis 1:1-3Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

Augustine's Confession of Being Known

In 397 AD, a bishop in North Africa sat down to write something no one had ever attempted — a full autobiography addressed not to...

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

The Wretch Who Wrote Amazing Grace

John Newton knew exactly what kind of man he was. For years, he captained slave ships across the Atlantic, trafficking human beings in chains —...

Universalforgiveness

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Siren No One Believed

On May 22, 2011, the tornado sirens in Joplin, Missouri, began wailing at 5:11 p.m. Most residents barely looked up. The sirens had sounded twice...

Zephaniah 1:14-15Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Race He Finally Won

In the summer of 1936, a young American named Louis Zamperini finished the 5,000-meter race at the Berlin Olympics with such a blazing final lap...

Universalforgiveness

254 words

Sermon Illustration

The Diver Who Surfaced at Tham Luang

For nine days, families gathered outside Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand barely slept. Twelve boys from the Wild Boars soccer team and their twenty-five-year-old...

Isaiah 52:7-10Universal

253 words

Sermon Illustration

The Runners of the Western Front

On November 11, 1918, at 5:10 in the morning, the Armistice was signed in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne. But the cease-fire...

Isaiah 52:7-10Universal

250 words

Sermon Illustration

The Water Beneath the Drought

In the 1880s, Australian settlers in the parched Queensland outback faced a brutal irony. Their cattle were dying. Their wells had gone dry. The red...

Matthew 7:7-8Universal

218 words

Sermon Illustration

The Priest Who Became Salt on Molokai

In 1873, a thirty-three-year-old Belgian priest named Damien de Veuster stepped off a cargo ship onto the rocky shore of Kalaupapa, a remote peninsula on...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Stradivarius in the Storage Unit

In 2014, a Stradivarius violin worth $5 million was stolen from concertmaster Frank Almond outside a Milwaukee concert hall. Police recovered it three weeks later...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

The Surgeon Who Remembered the Girl in Bed Seven

In 2014, a young woman named Grace Obiago walked into a surgical residency interview at Johns Hopkins carrying a folder of credentials she hoped would...

John 1:43-51Universal

225 words

Sermon Illustration

Three Stirrings Before Aldersgate

In January 1736, a violent storm battered the ship carrying John Wesley to the Georgia colony. While English passengers screamed in terror, a group of...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

214 words