illustrations
Enhance your next sermon.
The Double Life in the Small Group
Updated:Use to teach integrity from 1 John 1:6 and to call for confession over pretense. Helpful before communion or in messages on repentance and accountability.
The Lobby Straw Poll: Where Does the Gospel Begin?
Updated:Use as an opener to challenge assumptions and introduce holiness as essential to gospel clarity. Works before teaching on the cross, repentance, or 1 John 1:5.
The Three-Strand Rope at the Climbing Wall
Updated:Use as a visual when outlining a series or pathway to assurance. Ideal at the start of a discipleship emphasis or as a summary picture for 1 John.
Noise-Cancelling and the Roar of the Engines
Updated:Use when teaching spiritual conflict and victory: “empowerment over elimination.” Ideal in discipleship settings to set realistic expectations about temptation and Spirit-enabled obedience.
Out of the Theater Into the Sun
Updated:Use for confession and sanctification: walking in the light reveals remaining sin. Encourage response over denial—“illumination over illusion.” Good before a corporate confession or communion.
The Amen That Reassures
Updated:Use as a humor-tinged challenge to authenticity: “response vs. repentance.” Great before a prayer of confession or when urging honest small-group accountability.
The Clean Room and the Morning Sun
Updated:Use to teach ongoing sanctification: “remaining sin vs. reigning sin.” Encourage regular confession and dependence on the Spirit, even among mature, disciplined believers.
The Rope That Holds
Updated:Use this when teaching assurance or discipleship: assurance is a braided cord, not a single thread. Emphasize “process vs. miracle” and call people to weave in gospel clarity, obedience, and confession.
Following the Headliner
Updated:Use this to address comparison and calling. It’s a humility-over-hype moment that frees people from performance pressure and re-centers them on obedience to what God asked them to bring today.
The Default Answer: Busy
Updated:Use this to open a message on margin or Sabbath. It reframes busyness as an identity trap and invites the congregation to exchange activity for abiding—perfect before an altar call to receive Christ’s rest.