One of the largest free collections of sermon illustrations, organized by topic, scripture, and theological tradition.

Stay updated

New illustrations, features & occasional discounts

Website

Browse

By Topic
By Scripture
By Tradition
By Emotion
By Source Type
Sermon Slides

Resources

Sample Illustrations
About
Premium
Contact Us
SermonWise AI
PewSearch
ChurchWiseAI

Support

Contact Us
+1 (888) 603-0316
support@churchwiseai.com
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Refund Policy

HomeIllustrations

9,167 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

Search, filter, and discover the perfect illustration for your sermon

All Stories & Illustrations Poetry & Verse Quotes Biblical Insights Historical Examples Movie Analogies Devotionals Tradition Perspectives All types →

Top Rated Newest Oldest|All Sources Biblical Illustrator Spurgeon Maclaren

Free to browse · Sign up free to unlock most illustrations · Premium ($9.95/mo) for the full library of 50,000+ illustrations

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

PreviousPage 366 of 382Next

Sermon Illustration

The Slave Who Returned as a Shepherd

In the early fifth century, Irish raiders tore sixteen-year-old Patricius from his family's estate in Roman Britain and dragged him across the sea. For six...

Genesis 45:3-11, 15Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Blacksmith's First Commission

The first time twelve-year-old Samuel Whitfield stepped into his grandfather's forge in rural Tennessee, the heat nearly drove him back through the door. The furnace...

Isaiah 6:1-8Universal

273 words

Sermon Illustration

Chosen Like Caesar's Son

In 45 BC, Julius Caesar did something that would reshape the Roman Empire forever. He adopted his eighteen-year-old grandnephew, Octavian — a sickly young man...

Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Girl Who Walked Twenty-Five Miles for a Bible

In 1800, a fifteen-year-old Welsh girl named Mary Jones set out barefoot from her village of Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, walking twenty-five miles across rugged mountain terrain to...

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Woman Who Thanks God for Tuesdays

Margaret Chen was fifty-three when the oncologist in Portland gave her eight months. That was six years ago. She'll tell you about the morning she...

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24Universal

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man Who Taught the Dust to Bloom

In April 1935, Hugh Hammond Bennett stood before a skeptical United States Senate, pleading for a radical new approach to saving America's ravaged Great Plains....

Isaiah 43:16-21Universal

261 words

Sermon Illustration

The Thank-You That Couldn't Wait

When Marcus Rivera's truck slid off an icy bridge outside Duluth, Minnesota, in January 2019, he hung upside down in the cab, pinned by the...

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Kitchen Is Spotless but the Family Is Starving

Every Sunday morning, Margaret Chen arrived early at Grace Community Church in Naperville, Illinois. She arranged the altar flowers just so, ironed the communion linens...

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Star You Never See at Night

On a clear night in the high desert of New Mexico, you can see roughly five thousand stars. But there is one star you never...

Colossians 1:15-17Universal

218 words

Sermon Illustration

The Coach Who Had Already Watched the Game Film

In 2019, a high school point guard named Marcus Davis from Gary, Indiana, showed up uninvited to a basketball camp at Valparaiso University. He had...

John 1:43-51Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

Thirty Seconds on the Gymnasium Floor

Marcus DeLeon was seventeen years old when his heart stopped during the third quarter of a Friday night basketball game in Waco, Texas. He crumpled...

Romans 1:16Universal

233 words

Sermon Illustration

The River That Brought the Dead Sea Back to Life

In 2011, researchers from Ben Gurion University discovered something remarkable along the shores of the Dead Sea. Fresh water springs were bubbling up from beneath...

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

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Key She Already Had

For eleven years, Maria Santos carried a secret through the doors of her church in San Antonio. She smiled during worship, volunteered in the nursery,...

John 8:32Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

Michael Faraday and the Invisible Force That Holds Everything Together

In 1845, Michael Faraday stood in his basement laboratory at the Royal Institution in London, passing a beam of light through a block of heavy...

Colossians 1:15-17Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Songs That Crossed an Ocean

In 1871, nine young men and women from Fisk University in Nashville — most of them formerly enslaved — set out on a desperate concert...

Psalm 98Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Parlor Maid Who Could Not Stop Hearing China

In 1930, Gladys Aylward was scrubbing floors in a London townhouse when something she could not name kept pulling at her heart. She had no...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

257 words

Sermon Illustration

The Lighthouse Keeper Who Improved the Light

In 1916, a lighthouse keeper named Amos Holbrook at Point Reyes, California, grew dissatisfied with the old Fresnel lens that had guided ships safely through...

2 John 1:9Universal

223 words

Sermon Illustration

The Letter in Margaret Chen's Mailbox

Every Tuesday for eleven years, a letter arrived at Margaret Chen's apartment in Seattle — handwritten on cream stationery, postmarked from Topeka, Kansas. Her college...

1 Corinthians 1:3-9Universal

250 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bee That Lost Its Sting

Margaret Chen had been terrified of bees since she was seven years old — the summer a yellow jacket crawled into her Kool-Aid and introduced...

1 Corinthians 15:55-57Universal

266 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 Parlor Maid Who Trusted the Impossible Call

In 1930, Gladys Aylward was a parlor maid in London — small in stature, unremarkable in the eyes of the world. When she applied to...

Luke 1:26-38Universal

233 words

Sermon Illustration

The Quakers Who Fed a Starving Nation

In 1846, as the Irish Potato Famine tightened its grip, Parliament debated policy and churches held solemn days of prayer and fasting. Meanwhile, a tiny...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

219 words

Sermon Illustration

The Telescope at Griffith Observatory

On a Friday evening in Los Angeles, a line of visitors snakes up the steps of Griffith Observatory to peer through the Zeiss telescope. A...

1 Corinthians 2:1-16Universal

253 words