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HomeIllustrations

10,079 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

A Father's Arms on the Track

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal. He had trained for years, endured multiple surgeries, and finally...

Universalhealing

232 words

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Sermon Illustration

The River That Jumped Its Banks

In the spring of 1927, the Mississippi River swelled beyond anything the Army Corps of Engineers had planned for. For decades, they had built levees...

Joel 2:28-29Universal

233 words

Sermon Illustration

The Open Gates of Mukti

During the devastating Indian famine of 1896, Pandita Ramabai — a Sanskrit scholar turned Christian — threw open the gates of her mission compound in...

Isaiah 55:1-9Universal

219 words

Sermon Illustration

Life Returns to the Gray Zone

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted with catastrophic force, flattening 230 square miles of old-growth forest in minutes. Everything was buried under ash...

Universalrestoration

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Finish Line He Wouldn't Let You Miss

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

Universalfaith

224 words

Sermon Illustration

The Runner Who Felt God's Pleasure

In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell faced a decision that baffled the sporting world. His best event, the 100 meters, was scheduled...

Universalpurpose

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Father Who Became His Son's Legs

In 1977, Rick Hoyt told his father Dick something that changed both their lives. Rick, born with cerebral palsy and unable to walk or speak,...

Universallove

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Finish Line He Never Expected to Reach

On July 27, 1992, Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal at the Barcelona Olympics. He had trained for years, overcome five surgeries, and...

Universalhope

250 words

Sermon Illustration

The Race That Nobody Won and Everybody Remembers

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal. He had trained for years, surviving five surgeries just to...

Universalperseverance

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bird That Flew Without a Map

In September 2007, a bar-tailed godwit known to researchers as E7 launched from the mudflats of Alaska and flew 7,145 miles non-stop to New Zealand...

Universaltrust

250 words

Sermon Illustration

The Promise Kept in Room 4B

In 2019, a seven-year-old girl named Eliana sat in a hospital room at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, coloring pictures of houses she...

Jeremiah 33:14-16Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Slowest Drip in the World

In 1927, Professor Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland in Australia set up one of the most peculiar experiments in scientific history. He heated...

Universalpatience

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Already Designed for Flight

Inside a chrysalis, the caterpillar doesn't simply grow wings. Scientists have discovered something far more radical. The caterpillar's body releases digestive enzymes that break down...

Universalfreedom

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man Who Was Chosen to Wait

In 1945, Branch Rickey sat across from Jackie Robinson in a Brooklyn office and asked the question that would change baseball forever. But it wasn't...

Universalpatience

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Capsule That Carried Them Through the Fire

On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 command module Columbia hit Earth's atmosphere at nearly 25,000 miles per hour. The exterior temperature reached 5,000 degrees...

1 Peter 3:18-22Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Priest Who Became a Leper

In 1873, a thirty-three-year-old Belgian priest named Father Damien de Veuster stepped off a cargo ship onto the shores of Molokai, Hawaii. He had volunteered...

John 1:1-14Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Note From Camp Hope

On October 17, 2010, a billion people watched a television feed from the Atacama Desert in Chile. But the real moment had come weeks earlier,...

Isaiah 52:7-10Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Father Who Ran

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond was considered a strong contender for the 400-meter semifinals. Midway through the race, his hamstring snapped...

Universalredemption

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Tree That Thrives on the Heights

High in the White Mountains of eastern California, bristlecone pines cling to limestone ridges where almost nothing else survives. One of them, named Methuselah, has...

Habakkuk 3:17-19Universal

232 words

Sermon Illustration

Sixty-Four and Still Swimming

In 1978, a twenty-eight-year-old distance swimmer named Diana Nyad attempted to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Key West, Florida. She failed. The currents,...

Universalperseverance

222 words

Sermon Illustration

The Old Slave Trader Who Taught a Young Man to Listen

In December 1785, twenty-five-year-old William Wilberforce knocked on the door of an aging clergyman in London, unsure why he had come. He had been a...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man in Black Behind the Walls

On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash walked into Folsom State Prison carrying nothing but a guitar and a voice that sounded like it had been...

Universalfreedom

236 words

Sermon Illustration

No Junk in God's Design

In 1972, geneticist Susumu Ohno coined the term "junk DNA" to describe the roughly 98 percent of human DNA that doesn't appear to code for...

Universalpurpose

222 words

Sermon Illustration

The Morning Robert Gould Shaw Stepped Forward

On a January evening in 1863, Robert Gould Shaw sat at his family's dinner table in Boston when a letter arrived from Governor Andrew offering...

Isaiah 6:1-8Universal

239 words