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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?”

23,210 sermon illustrations through the Charismatic lens

Sermon Illustration

The Elder's Bow

In Fyodor Dostoevsky's *The Brothers Karamazov*, there is a moment that stops every reader cold. Father Zosima is the most revered monk in the monastery...

Universalhumility

216 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Update Is Still Installing

You know the moment. Your screen reads: "Installing update — Do not turn off your device." The progress bar inches forward, then appears to freeze...

Universalpatience

214 words

Sermon Illustration

Twenty-Five Years for First Light

When NASA began designing the James Webb Space Telescope in 1996, engineers estimated a 2007 launch. What followed was twenty-five years of setbacks, redesigns, and...

Universalpatience

208 words

Sermon Illustration

The Music Born from Silence

In 1968, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt made a decision that baffled the classical music world. At the height of his career, he stopped composing. Completely....

Universalpatience

224 words

Sermon Illustration

The Voice on the Steps

In 1939, Marian Anderson stood on the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial and sang. The Daughters of the American Revolution had barred her from...

Luke 1:39-56Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Last Morning in Pompeii

On August 24, 79 AD, the residents of Pompeii woke to an ordinary summer day. Bakers slid loaves into stone ovens. Merchants arranged figs and...

Matthew 24:36-44Universal

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Guardian Who Never Sleeps

In 1964, a seventeen-year-old San Diego student named Randy Gardner stayed awake for eleven consecutive days as a science fair experiment. By day three, he...

Psalm 121Universal

254 words

Sermon Illustration

The Call Only She Knows

Every winter in Antarctica, a mother emperor penguin returns from months of feeding at sea to a colony of tens of thousands — a roaring,...

Luke 15:3-7Universal

237 words

Historical

The Valley of Shadow: Where God Leads Us Into Conscious Faith

He ascribes his peaceful happiness not to his own skill, but to Adonai's kindly guidance—the same God who once led his flocks to green pastures.

Psalms 23:4UniversalGod's guidance through adversityspiritual maturation through sorrow

Joseph S. Exell

216 words

Sermon Illustration

The Weight of an Empty Room

Marcus Webb had written his resignation letter three times. The small congregation in Huntsville had dwindled to thirty. The budget was nearly gone. His faith...

Isaiah 6:1-8Universal

260 words

Sermon Illustration

The Foxe's Fire at Vilvoorde

On an October morning in 1536, guards led William Tyndale from his cell in Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels to a stake surrounded by bundled wood....

Romans 1:16Universal

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hidden Anointing of a Queen

On June 2, 1953, inside Westminster Abbey, the most sacred moment of Elizabeth II's coronation was deliberately hidden from view. As the Archbishop of Canterbury...

Psalm 110:1-4Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

Light in the Cottian Alps

In 1655, the Duke of Savoy ordered the extermination of the Waldensians, a small community of believers who had clung to the gospel in the...

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

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Nature Illustration: Seasons of Growth and Rest

There is a small garden at the edge of my backyard, a patch of earth that tells a beautiful story each year. In early spring, it bursts forth with life — delicate buds unfurling, the earth awakening from its long...

Revelation 21:1-5Universal

237 words

Historical

The Bed Too Short and Covering Too Narrow

Jewish beds were merely mattresses laid upon the floor, covered by a sheet or carpet in which the weary person wrapped himself seeking rest.

Isaiah 28:20Universalfutility of self-relianceinadequacy of false comfort

Joseph S. Exell

214 words

Sermon Illustration

The Night Margaret Didn't Come Home

In the small fishing village of Crail, on the eastern coast of Scotland, everyone knew Margaret Beattie. Eighty-three years old, sharp-tongued, fiercely independent, and in...

Luke 15:3-7Universal

252 words

Sermon Illustration

When Her Face Was All He Needed

In the neonatal intensive care unit at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, a premature baby named Elijah weighed barely two pounds. Monitors beeped warnings. His oxygen levels...

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19Universal

220 words

Sermon Illustration

A Hymn of Thanks from the Valley of Death

In 1637, the Saxon town of Eilenburg was a place of unrelenting grief. The Thirty Years' War had driven refugees behind its walls, and plague...

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29Universal

221 words

Historical

Pride as Universal Passion: The Heart's Abomination

Exell's 1887 analysis reveals pride's devastating universality: it spares neither age nor circumstance, neither the healthy nor the diseased, neither public nor private life.

Proverbs 16:5UniversalGod's abhorrence of pridepride's universal reach

Joseph S. Exell

206 words

Sermon Illustration

The Ophthalmologist Who Couldn't See

Dr. Marcus Chen had performed over three thousand cataract surgeries at his clinic in Portland, Oregon. He could restore sight in under fifteen minutes. His...

John 9:1-41Universal

235 words

Historical

Temperance and Mastery: The Athlete's Discipline in Christ

This contradicts the hollow modern notion of "the rest of faith" as mere inaction.

1 Corinthians 8:25Universalspiritual disciplineperseverance through struggle

Joseph S. Exell

215 words

Sermon Illustration

William Wilberforce and the Promise That Outlasted Reason

In 1787, William Wilberforce stood before the British Parliament and declared that the slave trade must end. He was twenty-seven years old, physically frail, and...

Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22Universal

232 words

Historical

Wisdom Surpasses Gold: The Imperishable Treasure

Exell's Victorian exposition illuminates this distinction through precise categories.

Proverbs 16:16Universaltreasure of the soulthe limitations of material wealth

Joseph S. Exell

220 words

Historical

The Crumbling Wall: Sin's Inevitable Collapse

The Prophet compares Israel's transgression to a high wall that begins with a small rent, or breach, in its lower section—a structural weakness that seems manageable at first.

Isaiah 30:13Universaldivine judgmentmoral decline

Joseph S. Exell

214 words