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Home›Traditions›Missional-Theological

Missional-Theological Illustrations

Interpreting the Bible through the framework of God's mission to restore His kingdom and bless all nations.

Key question: “How does this passage reveal God's mission to redeem and restore all of creation?”

23,463 sermon illustrations through the Missional-Theological lens

Sermon Illustration

The Rescue Diver's One Instruction

In 2004, a cave diver named Dave Shaw descended into Bushman's Hole in South Africa — the deepest freshwater cave on Earth. At 886 feet...

Romans 10:9Universal

231 words

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Sermon Illustration

When Love Rewrites the Song

In 1972, Roberta Flack heard a young songwriter named Charles Fox perform "Killing Me Softly with His Song" at a small Los Angeles club. The...

Universallove

239 words

Contemporary

A Love That Many Waters Could Not Quench

On a July night in 1958, Sheriff Garnett Brooks and two deputies burst into a bedroom in Caroline County, Virginia, flashlights cutting through the darkness....

Song of Solomon 8:6-7Universallovejustice

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Wired Like No One Else

In 2015, neuroscientist Emily Finn and her team at Yale made a remarkable discovery. Using brain scans from the Human Connectome Project, they found that...

Universalidentity

242 words

Sermon Illustration

Samuel Morse and the Message That Arrived Too Late

In February 1825, Samuel Morse was in Washington, D.C., painting a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette when a horse messenger delivered a letter from...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

250 words

Sermon Illustration

The Download That Changed Everything

Every smartphone user knows the frustration of a major software update. When Apple released iOS 17 in September 2023, millions of users watched that progress...

Universalpatience

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Burden That Rolled Away

In John Bunyan's *The Pilgrim's Progress*, a man named Christian has carried a terrible burden on his back from the moment he first became aware...

Universalfreedom

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Search That Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

Every time you type a question into Google, something remarkable happens behind the scenes. Google's PageRank algorithm — originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey...

Universalpurpose

235 words

Contemporary

Landing on One Foot

The Georgia Dome roared with 32,000 voices on July 23, 1996, as eighteen-year-old Kerri Strug stood at the end of the vault runway in Atlanta....

Philippians 4:13Universalcouragesacrifice

253 words

Sermon Illustration

The Code That Was Always There

In 2003, scientists completed the Human Genome Project — thirteen years of painstaking work to map every gene in the human body. What they discovered...

Universalpurpose

237 words

Sermon Illustration

Seeds on Robben Island

In 1977, Nelson Mandela persuaded the guards at Robben Island prison to let him cultivate a narrow strip of ground in the courtyard. He was...

Genesis 3:9-15, 20Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Planted Before the Rain

In 2012, a wheat farmer named David Brandt in central Ohio faced a brutal drought. Neighbors held off planting their cover crops — why waste...

Proverbs 16:3Universal

241 words

Contemporary

The Hands That Could Not Hold Her Back

On April 19, 1967, twenty-year-old Kathrine Switzer pinned bib number 261 to her sweatshirt and lined up at the start of the Boston Marathon. She...

Hebrews 12:1Universalcourageperseverance

237 words

Sermon Illustration

The Richest Man in Russia Who Couldn't Buy Peace

In 1879, Leo Tolstoy was arguably the most famous writer alive. *War and Peace* and *Anna Karenina* had brought him international acclaim, a vast estate...

Isaiah 55:1-9Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Song Beneath the Static

In 1841, a Welsh weaver named Joseph Parry was born into crushing poverty in Merthyr Tydfil. By age nine, he was working in the ironworks,...

Universalidentity

237 words

Sermon Illustration

Each One a Living Book

In the final pages of Ray Bradbury's *Fahrenheit 451*, the fugitive Guy Montag stumbles upon a ragged group of wanderers camped along abandoned railroad tracks....

Universalcommunity

229 words

Vivid Retelling

The Desert Road: Acts 8:26-40

Cinematic retelling of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch

Universal

703 words

Contemporary

Fifty-Four Miles on Tired Feet

On March 21, 1965, approximately 3,200 marchers set out from Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama, walking toward the state capitol in Montgomery. They...

Isaiah 40:31Universalperseverancejustice

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Protocol That Keeps Us Connected

Every device on the internet relies on something called TCP — Transmission Control Protocol. Designed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in the 1970s, TCP...

Universalcommunity

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Runner Who Found Freedom by Letting Go

In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Eric Liddell faced a decision that looked like the end of his athletic career. The devout Scottish sprinter refused to...

Universalfreedom

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Update That Unlocks Everything

Every smartphone ships with software the manufacturer already installed — a camera, a compass, a voice assistant — but most of us never open half...

Universalpurpose

246 words

Sermon Illustration

From Caterpillar to King: Eustace's Undragoning

In C.S. Lewis's *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*, there is a scene that every pastor should know. The boy Eustace Scrubb — selfish, greedy,...

Universaltransformation

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Race He Never Trained For

In the summer of 1924, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell arrived at the Paris Olympics as the favorite in the 100-meter dash. But when he learned...

Universaltrust

251 words

Sermon Illustration

Written in the Blood

In the world of bone marrow transplantation, something remarkable happens to a patient's identity at the cellular level. After a successful transplant, the recipient's blood...

Universalidentity

244 words