illustrations
Enhance your next sermon.
Faith Works Like a Muscle
Updated:Use to call people from passive belief to active obedience or service. Emphasize that assurance and resilience come as we exercise faith in hard, concrete situations.
Finding Your Way in the Fog
Updated:Use to stress diagnosis before prescription. In counseling or a sermon on doubt, urge people to name the source (grief, confusion, sin, fear) so they can apply the right discipline rather than flailing in confusion.
Graduate Questions, Kindergarten Tools
Updated:Use when urging serious study—apologetics classes, Bible reading plans, mentoring. The takeaway is to match spiritual effort to the weight of your questions.
Not a Painkiller—A Prescription
Updated:Use when teaching spiritual disciplines. Emphasize perseverance over quick fixes—God often heals our doubts and habits through patient practice, not instant fireworks.
John Bunyan’s Workshop Was a Prison Cell
Updated:Use to normalize ongoing struggle among mature Christians and to encourage perseverance under pressure. Ideal for sermons on suffering, calling, or producing fruit in hard places.
Preaching the Hardest Message with a Measured Voice
Updated:Ideal for urging leaders, parents, and small-group teachers to speak hard truths with tenderness. Emphasize courage with restraint—truth and love together—when addressing sin, judgment, or sensitive topics.
When Earth’s Courtroom Fails, Heaven’s Courtroom Won’t
Updated:Use during messages on God’s justice, the fear of the Lord, or pastoral care for the wounded. Application: entrust vengeance to God; pursue righteousness now because judgment is real.
The Beatles Chorus in the Church Foyer
Updated:Use this humorous, relatable moment to challenge cultural slogans that shrink the gospel. Sermon pivot: “Love is essential, but love tells the truth—including warnings.” Works well in messages on truth in love, discernment, or doctrinal clarity.
The Membership Class Line That Makes the Room Go Quiet
Updated:Use this when calling a church to doctrinal integrity and sober unity. Application: membership isn’t joining a club; it’s owning Scripture’s witness even when it costs our comfort.
From White Bread to Whole Grain
Updated:Use to contrast a stripped-down, minimal gospel with the rich, whole message that nourishes daily life. Great when calling people from convenient familiarity to deeper discipleship and a fuller understanding of identity in Christ.