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HomeIllustrations

10,079 Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

Ripped Open

In January 2019, David Hernandez got the call at eleven p.m. His daughter Sofia, a first-year teacher in Anchorage, had been rushed into emergency surgery....

Mark 1:4-11Universal

211 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Fast That Fed Tenth Street

Every January, the congregation at Redeemer Fellowship in southeast Portland held a twenty-one-day fast. They printed devotional booklets, organized prayer chains, posted their progress on...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hymn That Wouldn't Let Him Go

George Matheson was a Scottish minister who had been losing his sight since childhood. The woman he had loved in his youth parted from him...

Universalredemption

244 words

Sermon Illustration

Modern Examples of Safety

In our fast-paced modern world, the concept of safety often feels like a double-edged sword, cutting both ways amid our longing for security. Just a few weeks ago, I sat down with a dear friend, a skilled nurse working in...

Ephesians 4:29Traditional

257 words

Sermon Illustration

The Earthquake Drill That Wasn't a Drill

On March 11, 2011, students at Kamaishi East Junior High School in Japan had practiced tsunami drills so many times that some rolled their eyes...

Luke 21:25-36Universal

256 words

Sermon Illustration

Three Words at 3 A.M.

Elena Vasquez spent three days waiting for a biopsy result. She described those seventy-two hours to her pastor as "living inside a fog you can't...

Isaiah 41:10Universalanxiety

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bombardier Who Came Back to Bless

In April 1942, Corporal Jacob DeShazer climbed into a B-25 bomber for the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo. Shot down and captured, he spent forty months...

Genesis 45:3-11, 15Universal

226 words

Sermon Illustration

Modern Examples of Environmental Stewardship

Imagine a sun-drenched Sunday morning in a vibrant community in California, where the congregation of Green Valley Church gathers not only to worship but to embrace a calling that transcends their sanctuary walls. In the heart of this church, dedicated...

Galatians 3:28Traditional

322 words

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Sang Through the Drought

In 2012, Tom Neuhaus watched his corn wither across 1,200 acres outside Lincoln, Nebraska. The worst drought in fifty years had turned his fields to...

Habakkuk 3:17-19Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Open Door at Station 12

On the night of September 14, 2003, Hurricane Isabel tore through the Virginia coastline. Eight-year-old Maya Hendricks huddled with her mother in their darkened living...

Hebrews 4:16Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Cross in the Ruins of Coventry

On the morning of November 15, 1940, Provost Richard Howard picked his way through the smoldering skeleton of Coventry Cathedral. German bombers had reduced six...

Isaiah 11:1-10Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man Who Refused to Simply Listen

William Wilberforce sat in the British Parliament for years, hearing impassioned speeches about the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade. He knew the statistics —...

James 1:22Universal

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hand Extended in Munich

In 1947, Corrie ten Boom stood in a church basement in Munich, having just spoken about God's forgiveness to a crowd of defeated Germans. A...

Genesis 45:3-11, 15Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Mother Who Knew Before the Phone Rang

In 2019, Maria Gonzalez was washing dishes in her kitchen in San Antonio when she stopped mid-scrub and told her husband, "Something's wrong with Daniel."...

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Harvest Is Gone and the Praise Remains

Marcus Briggs had farmed the same 340 acres outside Lubbock, Texas that his grandfather had broken ground on in 1948. In the spring of 2011,...

Habakkuk 3:17-19Universal

266 words

Sermon Illustration

The Stump at Ground Zero

In October 2001, workers clearing the wreckage at Ground Zero discovered a Callery pear tree buried beneath the rubble. It was barely alive — an...

Isaiah 11:1-10Universal

226 words

Sermon Illustration

The Signal That Never Stopped

In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 into the unknown. Nearly fifty years later, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena still send commands to...

1 Corinthians 1:3-9Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

The Green Jacket Nobody Expected

On April 14, 2019, Tiger Woods stood on the eighteenth green at Augusta National and did something the world had stopped believing was possible. He...

Universalrestoration

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Diver Beneath Winchester Cathedral

In 1905, engineers discovered that Winchester Cathedral, one of England's longest medieval churches, was slowly sinking into marshy Hampshire soil. Its ancient foundations, laid nearly...

1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17Universal

251 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

Florence Nightingale's Lamp in the Darkness

When Florence Nightingale arrived at the British military hospital in Scutari, Turkey, in 1854, she found soldiers dying not from their wounds but from the...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

Corrie ten Boom and the Light No Darkness Could Extinguish

In the winter of 1944, Corrie ten Boom huddled on a thin mattress in Ravensbrück concentration camp, surrounded by lice, disease, and the ever-present stench...

Psalm 27Universal

249 words

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

Sermon Illustration

The River That Brought the Fish Back

In 1858, the River Thames was so polluted that Parliament hung lime-soaked curtains over their windows just to endure the stench. They called it "The...

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12Universal

230 words