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Home›Traditions›Charismatic

Charismatic Illustrations

The present-day operation of all spiritual gifts and the experiential dimension of the Holy Spirit.

Key question: “How is the Holy Spirit actively manifesting His power and gifts in the church today?”

23,093 sermon illustrations through the Charismatic lens

Sermon Illustration

The Unflattering Portrait

In London's National Gallery hangs a small painting that has stopped visitors in their tracks for over three centuries. It is Rembrandt van Rijn's *Self-Portrait...

Universalhumility

238 words

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Sermon Illustration

Where the Break Becomes the Strongest Point

In 1892, German anatomist Julius Wolff published a principle that still guides orthopedic medicine today. Wolff's Law describes how living bone continuously remodels itself in...

Universalforgiveness

226 words

Sermon Illustration

When Forgiveness Became a Song

In 2002, Renee Napier received the phone call every parent dreads. Her daughter Meagan, just twenty years old, had been killed by a drunk driver...

Universalforgiveness

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Slave Trader Who Cried Out in the Storm

On March 10, 1748, a violent storm battered the slave ship *Greyhound* in the North Atlantic. John Newton, a twenty-two-year-old sailor hardened by years of...

1 Peter 3:18-22Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

John Newton's Long Road Home

In 1748, John Newton was a wretch by his own admission — a slave trader, a blasphemer, a young man who had squandered every advantage...

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Spring Beneath the Stone

In 1841, workers drilling near the Parisian village of Grenelle struck an artesian aquifer after eight years of boring through 548 meters of rock. The...

Zechariah 13:1Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

Nature Illustration: Trees Planted by Streams

On a brisk autumn morning, I found myself wandering through a quiet forest, the sun just beginning to rise. The trees, draped in vibrant hues of orange and gold, stood tall and majestic, their leaves whispering secrets to one another...

Psalm 19:1-6Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Orchard on Meridian Road

In 1998, a late frost swept through Margaret Ellison's apple orchard outside Traverse City, Michigan, and killed every blossom on her forty-year-old trees. The next...

Joel 2:25Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

John Newton and the Mercy That Would Not Let Him Go

In March 1748, a young sailor named John Newton clung to the rigging of the HMS Greyhound as waves tore across the deck off the...

Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The New Pathway

A cochlear implant is a device no larger than a paperclip that has given the gift of sound to over a million people worldwide. But...

Universalhealing

247 words

Contemporary

What the Shark Couldn't Take

On the morning of October 31, 2003, thirteen-year-old Bethany Hamilton lay on her surfboard off Tunnels Beach on Kauai's North Shore, her left arm trailing...

2 Corinthians 12:9-10Universalresiliencefaith

229 words

Movie Analogy

Toy Story: You Are a Toy! (Psalm 139:14)

In the beloved film *Toy Story*, we meet Buzz Lightyear, a valiant figure, adorned in his shiny space suit and emblazoned with the words “To Infinity and Beyond.” He believes with all his heart that he is a fearless space...

Psalm 139:14Universalidentitypurpose

296 words

Movie Analogy

Her: Made for Real Relationship (Genesis 2:18)

In the film *Her*, we meet Theodore, a sensitive soul navigating the labyrinth of loneliness in a future where technology reigns supreme. Picture him, sitting in a dimly lit apartment, surrounded by the echoes of his own solitude. His only...

Genesis 2:18Universalrelationshiptechnology

317 words

Sermon Illustration

A Rival's Gift in Berlin

In the summer of 1936, Jesse Owens stood on the long jump runway at the Berlin Olympics with the weight of the world on his...

Universalgrace

260 words

Sermon Illustration

Recalculating: The Hope That Never Gives Up on You

There's a moment most drivers know well. You've missed the exit, taken the wrong turn, or stubbornly ignored the GPS one too many times. The...

Universalhope

253 words

Movie Analogy

Through the Pipe and Into the Rain

In *The Shawshank Redemption*, Andy Dufresne has been wrongfully imprisoned for nearly twenty years. Night after night, he chisels through his cell wall with a...

Universalfreedom

236 words

Contemporary

The Schoolgirl Who Would Not Tremble

On September 4, 1957, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford put on the black and white dress her mother had sewn for the first day of school and...

Isaiah 41:10Universalcouragedignity

268 words

Sermon Illustration

The Handoff After the Touchdown

When Walter Payton scored a touchdown — and he scored 125 of them across thirteen seasons with the Chicago Bears — he did something unusual....

Universalhumility

217 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hymnal That Survived the Fire

On March 14, 1990, a fire swept through Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, gutting the sanctuary that had held generations of worship since 1808. Firefighters...

1 Chronicles 16:34Universal

219 words

Sermon Illustration

The Safe Room That Held Everything

In 2011, a massive EF5 tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri, flattening entire neighborhoods in minutes. Wind speeds exceeded 200 miles per hour. Houses became kindling....

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10abUniversal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Inverse Wave

In 1978, engineer Amar Bose boarded a transatlantic flight and slipped on the airline-issued headphones. The roar of the engines swallowed every note of music....

Universalgrace

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Letter That Took Twenty-Three Years to Open

In 2015, a Detroit man named Ronald Cotton finally opened a letter his estranged brother David had mailed him in 1992. For over two decades,...

Genesis 45:3-11, 15Universal

258 words

Historical

The Cost He Already Counted

On April 9, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was led to the gallows at Flossenbürg concentration camp in Bavaria. He was thirty-nine years old. Just two weeks...

Revelation 2:10Universalcouragefaith

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Eight Thousand Songs from Darkness

When Fanny Crosby was six weeks old, a man claiming to be a doctor applied hot mustard poultices to her inflamed eyes. The treatment destroyed...

Universaltransformation

243 words