Repentance Archives - Sermon Illustration Ideas

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,…

Impossible Survival

Bomb, Colombia, Explosion, Impossible Survival, Paul, Persecution, Redemption, Repentance, Salvation, Saul, True Repentance

The true story of a modern-day persecutor that found salvation. “Everybody thought he was dead. He simply had to be dead. Nobody could have…

Before & After

Death, Destruction, Fixer UPper, God's Love, Grace, Life, Mercy, New Life, Repentance, Restoration, Salvation, Sin

This before-and-after photo comparison from the TV show Fixer Upper shows the incredible restoration of an old, dilapidated house (https://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper/fixer-upper-takes-on-a-vintage-tiny-house-pictures). This isn’t just an…

Dangerous Facades

Change, Fake, Forgiveness, genuine, Inner Life, Repentance, The Heart, Transformation, True Repentance

Imagine being walked into an exam room at your doctor’s office by someone wearing scrubs, carrying a clipboard, and using the correct rhetoric as…

Silent Sacrament

1 John 1:9, Acts 3:19, Compassion, Condemnation, Confession, Evangelism, Forgiveness, Galatians 6:2, James 4:8, James 5:16, John 15:12, Psalm 32:5, Reaching the Lost, Repentance, Romans 10:9, Romans 3:23-24, Sin

We have the ability to share the presence of God with others and to impart the comfort God provides. Pastor Skye Jethani tells the…

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

1 Corinthians 11:28, 1 John 1:9, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Deception, Examination, Galatians 6:4, Honesty, Lamentations 3:40, Mirror, Philippians 2:5-10, Psalm 119:59, Refelection, Repentance, Self-Deception, Self-Evaluation, Self-Examination, The Heart

Without taking the time to reflect on our desires and thoughts, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are exempt from repentance—or even become…

Take Down The Flag

1 Corinthians 1:10, 1 Peter 3:8, Amends, Apology, Change, Colossians 3:13-14, Division, Ephesians 4:11-13, John 17:23, Love, Rebuke, Repentance, Resolution, Unity, Welcome

In the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptists passed a resolution calling for Christians to stop displaying the Confederate Flag so as to be…

The Prodigal Returns

2 Corinthians 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 1:21, Connection, Enemy, Grace, Love, Luke 15:24, Mercy, Prodigal, Repentance, Romans 5:10, Sin, Support, Welcome

A recent episode of the podcast Invisibilia covered a story of how one small Danish town responded to young Muslim men leaving to go…