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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?”

23,371 sermon illustrations through the Charismatic lens

Sermon Illustration

The Attorney Who Walked Into Death Row

In 1989, Bryan Stevenson drove his beat-up Honda Civic from Harvard Law School to rural Alabama, where Walter McMillian sat on death row for a...

1 Peter 3:18-22Universal

226 words

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Vivid Retelling

Millstones and Fire: Mark 9:38-50

Cinematic retelling of Jesus' teachings on stumbling blocks and self-denial

Universal

407 words

Sermon Illustration

The Men Who Watched for Shackleton

In April 1916, Ernest Shackleton left twenty-two men stranded on Elephant Island, a barren spit of rock off the Antarctic coast. He promised he would...

Mark 13:24-37Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

The Youngest Inaugural Poet

When Amanda Gorman was a child growing up in Los Angeles, she struggled with a speech impediment that made the letter "R" nearly impossible. She...

Jeremiah 1:4-10Universal

237 words

Movie Analogy

The Candlesticks He Didn't Deserve

In the 2012 film *Les Misérables*, Jean Valjean stumbles into the home of Bishop Myriel after nineteen years in prison. The Bishop feeds him, gives...

Universalforgiveness

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Repair You Never Requested

Every day, without your knowledge or permission, your body performs a quiet miracle. According to research that earned Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich, and Aziz Sancar...

Universalgrace

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Storm Cellar on Maple Street

Margaret Dunhill was hanging laundry in her backyard in Moore, Oklahoma, when the sky turned the color of a bruise. It was May 20, 2013,...

Psalm 91:1-2Universal

259 words

Sermon Illustration

The Mountain You Were Never Meant to Climb Alone

In 2018, a group of hikers attempted the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire during winter — a peak infamous for its unpredictable, deadly...

Hebrews 12:18-29Universal

224 words

Sermon Illustration

Trusting Beyond Our Assumptions - Progressive (Proverbs 3:5-6)

A suburban church decided to partner with an inner-city congregation. The suburban members brought assumptions about what their partners "needed"—food drives, tutoring, career help.

Proverbs 3:5-6Universal

Short76 words

Sermon Illustration

The Telegram and the Hymn

In November 1873, Horatio Spafford received a telegram from his wife Anna bearing two devastating words: "Saved alone." The SS Ville du Havre had collided...

Universaltransformation

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Soup Kitchen That Closed for a Building Campaign

In 2014, a church in Decatur, Georgia, shuttered its Thursday night soup kitchen. The reason was practical — they needed the fellowship hall cleared for...

Hosea 6:6Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Living Sacrifice That Keeps Crawling Off - Traditional (Romans 12:1-2)

Someone once observed: "The problem with a living sacrifice is it keeps crawling off the altar." Dead sacrifices stay put; living ones squirm. Paul's image is provocative—offer your BODY as a LIVING sacrifice. Not just intentions or feelings but actual flesh-and-blood living.

Romans 12:1-2Universal

Short79 words

Vivid Retelling

A Church Divided: 1 Corinthians 1:1-17

Historical reconstruction of divisions in the Corinthian church

Universal

806 words

Sermon Illustration

The Library That Went Dark

In 2004, the city of Sarajevo still bore the scars of the siege that had devastated it a decade earlier. Among the greatest losses was...

Amos 8:11Universal

258 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bridge That Never Closed

On October 24, 1964, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Engineers designed it to last — not decades, but centuries. Sixty years...

Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29Universal

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Woman Who Walked Into the Storm

In 1943, a young Dutch woman named Corrie ten Boom watched her elderly father, Caspar, open their front door in Haarlem to a terrified Jewish...

Ruth 1:16Universal

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man in Black Finds His Voice Again

By the early 1990s, Johnny Cash was a man the music industry had discarded. Nashville had moved on. His record label dropped him. Decades of...

Universalrestoration

227 words

Vivid Retelling

Glory on the Mountain: Matthew 17:1-13

Cinematic retelling of the Transfiguration

Universal

518 words

Historical

The Allegory Born in a Prison Cell

In 1660, a tinker-turned-preacher named John Bunyan stood before magistrates in Bedfordshire, England, charged with holding unlicensed religious services. The sentence was simple: stop preaching,...

Hebrews 12:1-2Universalperseverancefaith

240 words

Sermon Illustration

Twenty-Five Cents and a New Name

On the morning of June 1, 1843, a woman named Isabella Baumfree packed a pillowcase with a few belongings, tucked twenty-five cents into her pocket,...

Mark 1:9-15Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Race No One Finished Alone

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semi-final with everything he had trained for on the line. Halfway...

Universalcommunity

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Message From 240 Feet Below

On a July night in 2002, nine families huddled outside a pasture in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, waiting for news they feared would never come. Their...

Luke 2:10-11Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

Blaise Pascal's Night of Fire

On the evening of November 23, 1654, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal sat alone in his Paris rooms. He was thirty-one years old, brilliant beyond...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

245 words

Vivid Retelling

All Authority: Matthew 28:16-20

Cinematic retelling of the Great Commission

Universal

416 words