Sermon Illustrations Archives - Page 5 of 51

Sermon Illustrations

A “Perfect” Community

Community, Evil, Fallen World, Jealousy, Sin

The movie The Village shows the struggle to create a “perfect” community in a fallen world (directed by M. Night Shyamalan [Touchstone Pictures, 2004])….

Branches

Bear Fruit, Dependence On God, Fruit, Growth

John 15 is a continuation of Jesus’s “I am” statements from John chapter 14. Jesus is making a connection between the one true God…

The Importance of Honesty

Failure, Honesty, Perseverance, Struggle, Transparency

It’s important for Christians to realize and express with humility both their failures and their perseverance to grow as believers. It is easy to…

Expectation vs Reality

Christian Life, Christian Walk, Difficulty, Expectations

The Christian life can be like an expectation vs. reality meme or a DIY show, where people think they have it all figured out,…

Confessional Booth

Confessing Sin, Confession, Humility, Hypocrisy, Repentance, Responsibility

Christians are so hypocritical! We’ve all heard this statement before—and sadly, it’s often true! “In his book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller tells the…

Confronting Failure

Change, Conformed, Confrontation, Failure

The Holy Spirit guides us and changes us. But we must be willing to be conformed to the image of Christ. Sometimes the Holy…

Radical Change

Change, Character, Loving Others, Path of Life, Sanctification

The best stories have a character arc, in which a character changes throughout the events of the story. The movie Iron Man (directed by…

Time Set Aside

Christian Life, Christian Living, Holiness, Sanctification, Time

Do you ever set aside something for a specific purpose? If you are a parent, you might tell your kids, “When Mom gets home…

Failure Precedes Success

Christian Life, Failure, Sin, Success

For every successful person we admire, there is failure preceding the success. In a famous Nike commercial, Michael Jordan stated, “I’ve missed more than…

“Giving has to Mean Something!”

Charity, Giving, Meaning, Purpose

Giving has to mean something! In the 2002 movie About a Boy (directed by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz [Universal Studios, 2002]), the cynical…

Training

Discipleship, Discipline, Following God, Training

We desire to be changed and to follow God’s way of living. That transformation comes through being trained (discipled) in his ways. If you…

Task Lists

Disciplines, Faith, Goals, Grace, Works

Many of us are list people. We love to organize our charts. If salvation came through works and not grace, some people would have…

“What’s in it for me?”

Gain, Motivations, Self-Centeredness, Selfishness

Raymond Reddington (“Red”) is an infamous television character and the villain/hero of The Blacklist (NBC, 2013–present). Reddington is a smart, dangerous career criminal who…

Beating Foreman

Being Used By God, Faith, Small, Weakness

We like underdog stories—stories where the smallest person stands up to a bully, or when the odds are stacked against a group of people…

An Invisible Bridge

Belief, Certainty, Confidence, Faith, Trust

A scene from the 2020 animated movie Onward (directed by Dan Scanlon [Walt Disney Pictures, 2020]), shows the timid brother Ian being encouraged on…

The Offensive Line

Humility, Quiet, Recognition, Serving

Most people can name famous quarterbacks—people like Joe Montana, Brett Favre, and Tom Brady. But fewer people can name the offensive line that snapped…

Part of God’s Story

Being Used By God, Faith, God's Plan, God's Will, Perspective

In the book The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf reminds Frodo that difficult character Gollum’s life was spared for a reason: “My heart tells…

Using the Least Likely

Being Used By God, God's Plan, God's Will, Helping others

Rahab the prostitute might have been the least likely person to help God’s people. Prostitution was not something that the Hebrew people practiced and…