Repentance – Sermon Illustration Ideas

Helpful Life Filters

Filter, harmful things, regular practices, Relationship with God, Repentance, Self-Examination

Household filters can be a simple illustration of the need for repentance. Heating and air conditioning filters, water filters, and even car air filters…

If It Doesn’t Serve its Purpose it’s Useless

Forgiveness, Redemption, Repentance

Have you ever jumped in a pool on a hot day expecting to be refreshed by coldwater? The worst thing is to jump in…

Gaging our Commitments

Forgiveness, Redemption, Repentance

Parents don’t generally give their child massive responsibility without firstensuring they can handle it. We have multiple conversations with them. We askthem the same…

Unmerited Gifts Lead to Uncontainable Joy

Forgiveness, Repentance

Whenever gas gets extremely expensive, people’s spending habits change.When the prices are low, most people don’t pay that much attention to the slightdifferences in…

A Forgiven Person is a Blessed Person

David, Forgiveness, Repentance

Have you ever received a gift you know you did not deserve? Doesn’t itcompletely change the way you think of the person or source…

Hope For Prodigals

Compassionate, God's Love, Merciful, Prodigals, Repentance, Restoration

At the end of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (directed by Dean DeBlois, DreamWorks Animation, 2019), Hiccup and his family set out in search…

A New Creation In Christ

Baptism, New Creation, Relationship with Christ, Repentance, Savior, Sin, Struggles

T. B. was homeless after his struggle with alcohol led him to lose multiple jobs and destroy his relationships. But when a believer of…

Dormant Volcanoes

God's Judgment, Grace, Judgment, Repentance

Volcanoes can lie dormant for years before erupting. However, many times there are warning signs, and local residents can be evacuated safely beforehand. Iceland…

The Magnifying Glass of Truth

Confession, Evil, Humility, Mercy, Repentance, Truth

The film Promising Young Woman (directed by Emerald Fennell [Focus Features, 2020]) provides a powerful example of what it looks like when the magnifying…

God’s System of Justice

Forgiveness, Justice, Redemption, Repentance

In some of the states in America, if you commit a felony and are found guilty, you lose your right to vote. It doesn’t…

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…

The Forgiveness Cycle

Confession, Forgiveness, Grace, Repentance, Sanctification

Dissonance is a musical term that indicates a lack of harmony. Cognitive dissonance is having disharmony in our thoughts. It happens when our idea…

Hand in the Cookie Jar

Consequence, Consequences, Fear, Guilt, Mistakes, regret, Repentance, Wrong

Have you ever been caught in wrongdoing? Maybe it was something small like the age-old stealing a cookie from the cookie jar, or maybe…

The “Anxious Bench”

Anxiety, Anxious, Conviction, Guilt, Repentance, Sin, Sinful Nature, Sorrow

Imagine being in a church service. Everyone is praying or singing songs of praise as the pastor loudly proclaims that people need to get…

Treated As Children of God

Children of God, Conviction, Correction, Discipline, God Our Father, Repentance

“If a parent leaves a child without training, without discipline, without checking and correction, we begin to wonder … if they have a problem…

Forgiven

Forgiven, Forgiveness, Repentance, Salvation

Bernie Siegel tells of Edward, a nurse at a nursing home, who took special care of a woman who hadn’t walked for six years….

Coming To The Father

Child of God, Confession, God Our Father, Mercy, Repentance

Admitting we are wrong is an incredibly hard thing to do. And when we are in the presence of someone who is powerful and…

White As Snow

Forgiveness, Grace, Redemption, Repentance, Salvation, Sin

Charles Spurgeon described his experience of forgiveness this way: “My life was full of sorrow and wretchedness, believing that I was lost. But, oh,…

What We Deserve

Discipleship, Examination, Lent, Repentance, Sacrifice, Suffering

We do not live in a culture that elevates self-denial. Most often we are told we “deserve” to indulge, to be happy, to put…

Son Of Hope

Criminal, David Berkowitz, God's Saving Grace, Grace, Love, Lover Our Enemies, Paul, Persecuter, Persecution, Prison, Prisoner, Redemption, Repentance, Salvation, Saul, Shooter, Shooting, Son of Hope, Son of Sam

The grace and love of Christ can still change a persecutor of Christians, as with Saul who became Paul, to the vilest of sinners,…