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HomeIllustrations

9,055 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

The Song That Took Five Years to Finish

Leonard Cohen once confessed that writing *Hallelujah* nearly broke him. He drafted roughly eighty verses over the course of five years, filling notebook after notebook,...

Universalpatience

224 words

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Sermon Illustration

Running Free in the Will of God

In the summer of 1924, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell arrived at the Paris Olympics as the favorite in the 100 meters. But when he learned...

Universalfreedom

229 words

Sermon Illustration

The Road Back from Merion

On February 2, 1949, golfer Ben Hogan and his wife Valerie were driving through thick fog near Van Horn, Texas, when a Greyhound bus appeared...

Universalhealing

233 words

Sermon Illustration

You Don't Have to Finish Alone

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal as a medal favorite. He had trained for this moment...

Universalfreedom

260 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hardest Swing He Never Took

In 1945, Branch Rickey sat across from Jackie Robinson in a Brooklyn office and laid out an impossible demand. Rickey, a devout Methodist, told Robinson...

Universalobedience

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Player Who Refused to Swing Back

In 1945, Branch Rickey sat across from Jackie Robinson and asked him a question that would change American sports forever. Rickey wasn't looking for the...

Universalpatience

235 words

Sermon Illustration

A Father Who Wouldn't Let Him Finish Alone

On August 3, 1992, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semi-final at the Barcelona Olympics. He had trained his entire life for...

Universallove

228 words

Sermon Illustration

The One-Eyed Preacher Who Saw What Others Couldn't

In April 1906, a one-eyed son of former slaves named William Seymour stood in a converted stable on Azusa Street in Los Angeles and began...

Joel 2:28-29Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Runner Who Dropped Her Trophies

In 2019, Olympic gold medalist Kathrine Switzer — the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon back in 1967 — was asked what she...

Philippians 3:4b-14Universal

270 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Sea Had Taken Everything

In November 1873, Horatio Spafford stood at the railing of a ship crossing the Atlantic and stared down at the cold waters of the ocean....

Universaltrust

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Scrapbook in the Attic

In December 1938, a twenty-nine-year-old London stockbroker named Nicholas Winton canceled his ski holiday and traveled instead to Prague. What he found in the refugee...

Isaiah 42:1-9Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Finish Line No One Crosses Alone

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal with everything he had trained for on the line. Halfway...

Universalcommunity

242 words

Sermon Illustration

From Wretch to Wonder

In 1748, a twenty-three-year-old sailor named John Newton clung to the rigging of a battered ship in the North Atlantic, convinced he would die. He...

Universaltransformation

248 words

Sermon Illustration

Nature Illustration: Seeds, Roots, and Fruitfulness

A gardener once discovered a tiny seed nestled in the soil, forgotten yet full of potential. With a heart full of hope, he planted the seed in rich earth, watered it, and surrounded it with care. Day after day, he...

Revelation 21:1-5Universal

260 words

Sermon Illustration

The Music Beyond the Silence

By 1802, Ludwig van Beethoven was losing the one thing that defined him — his hearing. The composer who had dazzled Vienna was going deaf....

Universalidentity

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Luther's Hammer and the Tables of Tetzel

In the autumn of 1517, a Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel rolled into the towns near Wittenberg with a sales pitch that would have made...

John 2:13-22Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Cathedral He Would Never See

In 1883, a young Spanish architect named Antoni Gaudí took over construction of a church in Barcelona. What began as a modest project became his...

Universalpurpose

262 words

Sermon Illustration

The Song Born From a Broken Heart

On the evening of June 6, 1882, Scottish minister George Matheson sat alone while his sister's wedding celebration carried on without him. The joyful occasion...

Universallove

239 words

Sermon Illustration

A Voice on the Steps

On Easter Sunday, 1939, Marian Anderson stood at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and opened her mouth to sing. She had not chosen this...

Universalcourage

220 words

Sermon Illustration

Written Deeper Than Cells

In 2005, stem cell biologist Jonas Frisen at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm made a remarkable discovery. By measuring traces of carbon-14 left over from...

Universalidentity

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Melody That Rose from the Atlantic

In November 1873, Horatio Spafford put his wife and four young daughters on the SS Ville du Havre, bound for England. A successful Chicago lawyer,...

Universalgrace

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Mercy Written Into Every Cell

In 2015, Tomas Lindahl shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a discovery that had puzzled him for decades. He found that our DNA is...

Universalgrace

248 words

Sermon Illustration

Florence Nightingale's Voice at Embley Park

On February 7, 1837, sixteen-year-old Florence Nightingale sat in the garden of her family's estate at Embley Park in Hampshire, England. In her private journal,...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man Who Had the Courage Not to Fight Back

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbets Field as the first Black player in Major League Baseball. But before Branch Rickey signed him...

Universalpatience

260 words