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HomeIllustrations

7,545 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

The Wardrobe Was Never the Point

In C.S. Lewis's *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*, four children stumble through an old wardrobe into a frozen world they never expected to...

Universalpurpose

223 words

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Sermon Illustration

When Courage Has a Name

In Harper Lee's *To Kill a Mockingbird*, there is a scene that stops the neighborhood cold. A rabid dog staggers down a quiet Alabama street,...

Universalcourage

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Rip Current at Cocoa Beach

Every summer along Florida's Atlantic coast, lifeguards respond to the same tragic scene. A swimmer gets caught in a rip current — that narrow, powerful...

Exodus 14:13-14Universal

261 words

Sermon Illustration

The Architect Who Holds It All Together

In 2015, structural engineers discovered that the Millennium Tower in San Francisco was sinking — tilting inches per year into the soft soil beneath it....

Colossians 1:15-28Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Mantle Tyndale Left Behind

In October 1536, William Tyndale was led to a stake outside Brussels, strangled, and burned. His crime was translating the New Testament into English so...

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14Universal

223 words

Sermon Illustration

The Monarch's Last Crawl

Every September, researchers at the University of Kansas tag thousands of monarch butterflies migrating through the Great Plains. Dr. Orley "Chip" Taylor has led this...

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

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Brain That Rewrites Its Own Wounds

In 2004, neuroscientist Dr. Fred Luskin at Stanford University published research showing that the practice of forgiveness physically changes the brain. His Stanford Forgiveness Project...

Universalforgiveness

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fisherman's Grandson at the Marine Biology Conference

In 2019, a marine biology symposium in Monterey, California invited local fishermen to join a panel on coastal ecosystems. Among them sat Carlos, a third-generation...

1 Corinthians 2:1-16Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Teacher Who Knew Her Before She Had Words

In 1887, Anne Sullivan arrived at a farmhouse in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to meet a child the world had given up on. Seven-year-old Helen Keller —...

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

The Code That Ships Before It's Perfect

Every software developer knows the terror of clicking "Deploy." You've tested your code, reviewed it line by line, but there's always that moment of raw...

Universalcourage

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Refugee Who Planted a Garden

When Hawa Abdi arrived in Clarkston, Georgia, in 2016, she wanted to go home. The Somali Bantu refugee missed the red soil of her village,...

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Developer Who Deleted His Own Code

In 2003, Linus Torvalds faced a crisis. The licensing tool his team used to manage Linux — the operating system running on billions of devices...

Universalsacrifice

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bridge They Almost Tore Down

In 1998, the city council of Greenville, South Carolina voted to demolish the Reedy River Falls bridge downtown. The area was an eyesore — abandoned...

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man Who Found the Invisible Force

In 1845, Michael Faraday stood before the Royal Institution in London and demonstrated something no one had ever seen — because it could not be...

Colossians 1:15-17Universal

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Secret Gallery Beneath Rome

Beneath the streets of Rome, early Christians carved miles of tunnels — the catacombs — where they buried their dead and gathered in secret during...

Colossians 3:1-4Universal

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Night Shift Ends

Maria Delgado worked the overnight shift at Mercy General in San Antonio for eleven years. She clocked in at ten and clocked out at six...

Ephesians 5:8-14Universal

248 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bible She Never Hid

Rosa Gutierrez walked three blocks to the bus stop every morning with her Bible tucked under her arm — not in a bag, not covered...

Romans 1:16Universal

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Professor Who Sailed Back Into the Dark

In June 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood on the deck of a ship bound for New York, watching the German coastline disappear. Friends had arranged a...

Matthew 4:12-23Universal

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Murmur Only Dr. Patel Could Hear

During her first clinical rotation at Johns Hopkins, medical student Anya Krishnan pressed her stethoscope to a patient's chest and heard nothing unusual — just...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Lion Who Died on the Stone Table

In C.S. Lewis's *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*, there is a moment that has stopped readers mid-sentence for over seventy years. Aslan, the...

Universallove

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Unplayed Notes of Keith Green

In the late 1970s, Keith Green made a decision that baffled the music industry. At the height of his popularity, with albums selling briskly and...

Universalobedience

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Voice He Hadn't Heard in Years

David Chen hadn't spoken to his father in twelve years. Not since the argument that ended with a slammed door and silence that calcified into...

Mark 1:4-11Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Antivenom

Every year at the Australian Reptile Park in Gosford, New South Wales, handlers carefully grip the heads of eastern brown snakes and taipans — two...

1 Corinthians 15:55-57Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

Ignaz Semmelweis and the Offense of Simple Obedience

In 1847, a young Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis made a discovery that should have revolutionized medicine overnight. At Vienna General Hospital, mothers were dying...

2 Kings 5:1-14Universal

248 words