Holwick's Sermon Illustration Links

Holwick's Links to the Best Free Sermon Illustrations

Updated November 13, 2021. Please report dead links or new sites to Pastor Holwick.
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Best online illustration sites	Searchable Christian archive sites	Free illustrations by e-mail
Hillcrest Illustrations	Baptist News Global	Illustrations by Brett Blair
	Joyful Heart newsletter	Preaching Now
Bible.org	Heartlight archive	Colson's Breakpoint e-mail
Higher Praise [not working]	Moody's "Today in the Word"	Baptist Press daily e-mail
SermonIllustrations.com	Ron Hutchcraft's "A Word With You"	Christian Quotation of the Day
SermonSearch	Illustration Exchange	Belief Net (Chicken Soup, etc.)
Ministry127		This Is True
	Secular archive sites	Wit and Wisdom
SermonCentral	Motivating Moments
Grace Quotes	News of the Weird archive	Fee-based sites with samples
Sermon Illustrator	Reader's Digest humor archive	Preaching Today
Tim Gibson's online illustrations	Wise Old Sayings and Quotes	Desperate Preacher
More Illustrations		SermonWriter
	Christian Magazines with indexes	SoundFaith (FaithLife)
All My Lessons	Today's Christian magazine
Christian Bible & Research	Mission Frontiers	Free downloadable programs/files
Sermon Illustrations Plus (Tan)	Methodist Discipleship Ministries	Holwick's Illustrations database
Sermons.org
Sheep's Crib

If you know of other sites, or think any of my ratings or comments are off the mark, let me know by clicking HERE.

Comments on Links

All My Lessons A theologically sound Bible object lesson site with object lessons for every age. Probably better for children's sermons than the main sermon. Search by topic or an alphabetical list of lesson titles. Lyle Ratzlaff is the editor. [added March 22, 2018]

(Southern) Baptist Press

Baptist News Global

Two groups of Baptists in the South offer newsletters by email. The Baptist Press is run by the regular Southern Baptists. In my opinion this one has the best testimonies and sermon ideas and their email goes out every weekday. For the free subscription, go here and click on "Subscribe" on the right side of the menu bar.

Baptist News Global, formerly Associated Baptist Press, is run by moderate (break-away?) Southern Baptists (CBF) and sends out an email several times a week to those who subscribe (see right side of main page). It is more liberal than the SBC Baptist Press but has some provocative articles. http://www.baptistnews.com.

For other Christian daily emails, sign up for as many as you want at Crosswalk.com. [updated March 31, 2018]

Belief Net What used to be "Daily In Box" has been taken over by BeliefNet. If you like getting short emails with illustration potential, you will like this page. It includes Bits&Pieces, Quotes From the Masters, Messages From the Masters, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. Some are heavy in the motivate-for-success mindset but I have found good material on a regular basis. Warning: go on vacation and you'll need a shovel to get through this pile. [updated May 13, 2006]

Bible.org Excellent site - hundreds of illustrations categorized alphabetically with most topics having several illustrations. Everything is tied into the NET Bible program so a search for Bible verse brings up illustrations, commentary, Bible studies and other material. There is so much stuff you can get lost in the mountains of data. It was formerly named the Biblical Studies Foundation. [updated January 6, 2013, updated Nov 11, 2021]

Christian Bible & Research Center Online illustrations are presented after you choose from a list of 65+ topics. Most topics have three to five illustrations and they seem to be pretty fresh. It also has an "Illustration of the Week." Site has a very clean appearance and is run by Keith Smith; it is part of the Church of Christ webring.

Christian Quotation of the Day Classic Christian quotes compiled by Robert McAnally Adams. The opening screen offers today's quote and an archive page. He now has indexes and a keyword search of the archive that is extremely helpful. You can have quotations sent to you for free by signing up. If you like daily devotionals he has links to other quality sites. [updated January 26, 2010]

Colson's Breakpoint archives Chuck Colson's pithy "Breakpoint" commentaries are archived at this site, as well as more recent commentaries by their current staff - look on the sidebar under "BreakPoint Commentaries." Excellent for current social issues from a Christian perspective. You can also have Breakpoint commentaries emailed to you.

Desperate Preacher Not an illustration site exactly but a forum for sermon ideas that sometimes contains illustrations. You follow the discussion on specific texts. More resources are available with a paid subscription. [listed Jan 20, 2004]

Gibson's Online Illustrations Searchable online illustration database, plus a topics page. The white box on the left-hand side allows you to type in search words, or you can click "Main Menu" to browse through a list of topics. Each topic has several illustrations and many have links to related topics. It appears that many of the illustrations in his archive program have been adapted to the internet. Site was give a major revamping in early 2005. (Listed Jan. 7, 2002, updated December 15, 2019)

Grace Quotes Archive of thousands of quotes on spiritual topics by noted Christians. Pastor Randy Smith has arranged them by detailed topics (1,200+) with each topic bringing up numerous quotes. He also offers to email you a quote every day. [listed Sept 8, 2008, updated Jan 26, 2017]

Heartlight archive Archive of two-minute devotionals by Phil Ware. Good for sermon ideas. It also has a search engine. [updated Sept 1, 2008]

Higher Praise [Nov 11, 2021 - site says it is under construction. Illustration link does not load.]
Site claims to have 10,000 illustrations which are grouped in topics. No overall search feature, but many of the illustrations are current and quite good. Apparently many of them are derived from Bible.org [updated Jan 26, 2017]

Hillcrest Illustrations An online illustration with a search engine and apparently thousands of illustrations. Many are current. Site is a ministry of Hillcrest Baptist Church of Austin, Texas, and is edited by Tom Goodman. It received my second 5-star rating and is the only one that is currently working. [added March 22, 2018]

Holwick's Illustrations This is my own site. The only online illustrations are contained in the online sermons.
My main offer is a free, and massive, sermon and illustration database. The Kerux database comes in several versions (all have the same sermon and illustration material). The most popular is known as S.I.D. for Sermon and Illustration Database. A different format with many advanced features is called Kerux2010. All versions allow you to enter your own material and download supplements of illustrations and sermons from others. You can search by Bible verse, topic or even phrases.

Everything at my site is free as long as it is used for God's Glory. [updated Sept 5, 2011]

Illustration Exchange This site is a combination forum and archive. Membership is either by monthly fee or by submitting a monthly illustration. Members can search the archive by topic or text. Currently the selection seems to be limited. Dr. Mitchell Dillon and his son Seth run the site. [updated Sept 5, 2011]

Joyful Heart newsletter Searchable index of devotionals by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson.

Mission Frontiers Mission Frontiers magazine has excellent articles on the modern mission movement. Many of the articles are inspirational, as are the illustrations from the lives of missionaries. It is free, and better yet it has a fantastic search engine that shows your search word(s) in the context of the article. An excellent resource. [listed June 7, 2001]

Moody's "Today in the Word" Daily Bread-type devotions which focus on a Bible passage and often lead off with an illustration. The whole collection of devotions can be searched with a decent search engine, so you can look up a particular Bible verse or topic.

More Illustrations A index-style website with around 20,000 illustrations. One quirky feature is a collection of illustrations based on chemistry experiments. Many of the illustrations are from older sources. The site includes collections of object lessons and children's sermons. [updated March 21, 2014]

Methodist Discipleship They used to have a page called Soul Food with a searchable archive of short stories from the United Methodist Reporter (Interactive). Now there is a Content Library with material on many topics. There is also a weekly sermon help section based on the lectionary. Material can be emailed to you. [updated Jan 26, 2017, and Nov 13, 2021]

Ministry127 Over one thousand illustrations, searchable by text or topic (a clickable chart of over 100 topics is on the opening page). A ministry of Dr. Paul Chappell. [updated December 15, 2019]

Motivating Moments User-submitted submitted poems (lots), quotes, and stories (mostly fiction). Much of the material is in the genre of Chicken Soup of the Soul. Organized by category and date submitted.

News of the Weird Skeptic Chuck Shepherd has an interesting site with very strange real-life stories of stupid criminals, ignorant politicians and lots of other folks you will recognize. You can use his search engine to look up stories matching keywords, such as the state you live in. [updated Sept 8, 2011]

Preaching Preaching magazine is no longer published and all the material on the site is now free. It offers a search engine for material on the website that finds that word or phrase in their articles and illustrations (they do not seem to have keywords associated with them). [updated July 26, 2017]

Preaching Today Fee-based site offers one free illustration each week by email. A searchable illustration database, a journal, and others articles are available by paid subscription.

Reader's Digest humor archive Laugh Bank of Reader's Digest with 4,000 funny stories. [Link takes you to their main page because the Laugh Bank moves around.]

Ron Hutchcraft's "A Word With You" Archive of Ron Hutchcraft's radio messages which now has a search engine. Devotional length and each has his energetic style. One site notes that these make great sermon starters. Daily emails are offered. [updated Jan 26, 2017]

SermonCentral Illustrations The illustration page of what is probably the world's largest online sermon site. You can search for illustrations by Keyword, Scripture, Topic and Date. Topics are pretty much Keywords selected from a drop-down list. One quirk is that some of the illustrations break off in the middle and require a paid subscription to get the rest, which is why I limit it to three stars. The quality is a mix of old and new and appears to be generated mostly by user contributions. [updated January 6, 2013]

SermonIllustrations.com Methodist pastor Brett Blair offers a free weekly e-mail of sermon illustrations and his site contains online illustrations accessed from an alphabetical page. There seem to be hundreds and they tend to be current. There is no search engine. More complete resources are available with fee-based membership to eSermons.com.

The signup for the weekly illustration email is at the upper left corner of the page. [updated Sept 8, 2011]

Sermon Illustrator 6,000+ illustrations accessed with a search engine which does a bulk search rather than just for topics. Illustrations are fairly standard but some are quite good. Promoted on July 12, 1999 to three stars. This site makes consistent improvements. A daily email is also available. [updated Jan 26, 2017, updated Nov 11, 2021]

Sermons.org Good source of online sermons and illustrations. The main page is a list of topics but only the ones in blue (a decided minority except for "A") link to illustrations. Very little has been added in the past four years [2021]. Links are also given for Parson's Biblical Illustrator and supplements, the Illustration Exchange, Sermon Illustrations.com and Leadership; each of which is commented on separately in my links. When you go to the links from here, the original program continues to frame it. There is also an extensive sermon index which highlights Baptist Bible Fellowship preaching. Site maintained by Pastor Shelton Cole. [updated Jan 26, 2017, updated Nov 11, 2021]

SoundFaith (FaithLife) A service of Logos Bible Software. Membership is now required though a free one is offered for 30 days. Type in a keyword or Bible reference and lots of material pops up. Tens of thousands of sermons and illustrations and a forum for users as well. (updated Jan 26, 2017]

SermonSearch Free illustrations on a for-fee sermon site. Several thousand illustrations accessed from a topic list with at least 1,325 entries. They are not associated with any Bible verses. [added Mar 10, 2014]

SermonWriter 4 free back issues of a paid illustration service. Richard Donovan specializes in "True Stories" which tie in with a lectionary reading. For each reading he suggests a sermon title, sermon idea, and an appropriate true story, which is usually contemporary. I was impressed by several of them. [updated Jan 26, 2017]

Sheep's Crib Pastor (and blogger) John Gillmartin's illustration page with a blog format. About 100 topics are on the right-hand side, often with multiple illustrations. You can type in search words as well. No new material has been added since 2008. [listed April 7, 2005, updated Jan 26, 2017]

This Is True Weekly email by Colorado humorist Randy Cassingham. It is secular but has very funny stories that will grab your congregation's interest.

Today's Christian magazine Formerly called Christian Reader magazine, then Today's Christian, now Christianity.com.. Good for personal testimonies of well-known evangelical personalities and has some helpful articles. Search engine for keywords and of course a free daily email is offered. [updated Jan 26, 2017]

Wise Old Sayings 800+ clickable categories of quotes. You can also use their Google "custom search" feature to find quotes by specific people. [added Apr 17, 2016]

Wit and Wisdom Due to Richard Wimer's health, this site ceased to add new material in 2007 but you can search the archives. Each entry has short illustrations, quotes and trivia. [updated Sept 8, 2011]

Discontinued Illustration Sites (now on a page of their own)

(Return to Sermon page)

(Return to Illustration database page)

All My Lessons	A theologically sound Bible object lesson site with object lessons for every age. Probably better for children's sermons than the main sermon. Search by topic or an alphabetical list of lesson titles. Lyle Ratzlaff is the editor. [added March 22, 2018]
(Southern) Baptist Press Baptist News Global	Two groups of Baptists in the South offer newsletters by email. The Baptist Press is run by the regular Southern Baptists. In my opinion this one has the best testimonies and sermon ideas and their email goes out every weekday. For the free subscription, go here and click on "Subscribe" on the right side of the menu bar. Baptist News Global, formerly Associated Baptist Press, is run by moderate (break-away?) Southern Baptists (CBF) and sends out an email several times a week to those who subscribe (see right side of main page). It is more liberal than the SBC Baptist Press but has some provocative articles. http://www.baptistnews.com. For other Christian daily emails, sign up for as many as you want at Crosswalk.com. [updated March 31, 2018]
Belief Net	What used to be "Daily In Box" has been taken over by BeliefNet. If you like getting short emails with illustration potential, you will like this page. It includes Bits&Pieces, Quotes From the Masters, Messages From the Masters, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. Some are heavy in the motivate-for-success mindset but I have found good material on a regular basis. Warning: go on vacation and you'll need a shovel to get through this pile. [updated May 13, 2006]
Bible.org	Excellent site - hundreds of illustrations categorized alphabetically with most topics having several illustrations. Everything is tied into the NET Bible program so a search for Bible verse brings up illustrations, commentary, Bible studies and other material. There is so much stuff you can get lost in the mountains of data. It was formerly named the Biblical Studies Foundation. [updated January 6, 2013, updated Nov 11, 2021]
Christian Bible & Research Center	Online illustrations are presented after you choose from a list of 65+ topics. Most topics have three to five illustrations and they seem to be pretty fresh. It also has an "Illustration of the Week." Site has a very clean appearance and is run by Keith Smith; it is part of the Church of Christ webring.
Christian Quotation of the Day	Classic Christian quotes compiled by Robert McAnally Adams. The opening screen offers today's quote and an archive page. He now has indexes and a keyword search of the archive that is extremely helpful. You can have quotations sent to you for free by signing up. If you like daily devotionals he has links to other quality sites. [updated January 26, 2010]
Colson's Breakpoint archives	Chuck Colson's pithy "Breakpoint" commentaries are archived at this site, as well as more recent commentaries by their current staff - look on the sidebar under "BreakPoint Commentaries." Excellent for current social issues from a Christian perspective. You can also have Breakpoint commentaries emailed to you.
Desperate Preacher	Not an illustration site exactly but a forum for sermon ideas that sometimes contains illustrations. You follow the discussion on specific texts. More resources are available with a paid subscription. [listed Jan 20, 2004]
Gibson's Online Illustrations	Searchable online illustration database, plus a topics page. The white box on the left-hand side allows you to type in search words, or you can click "Main Menu" to browse through a list of topics. Each topic has several illustrations and many have links to related topics. It appears that many of the illustrations in his archive program have been adapted to the internet. Site was give a major revamping in early 2005. (Listed Jan. 7, 2002, updated December 15, 2019)
Grace Quotes	Archive of thousands of quotes on spiritual topics by noted Christians. Pastor Randy Smith has arranged them by detailed topics (1,200+) with each topic bringing up numerous quotes. He also offers to email you a quote every day. [listed Sept 8, 2008, updated Jan 26, 2017]
Heartlight archive	Archive of two-minute devotionals by Phil Ware. Good for sermon ideas. It also has a search engine. [updated Sept 1, 2008]
Higher Praise	[Nov 11, 2021 - site says it is under construction. Illustration link does not load.] Site claims to have 10,000 illustrations which are grouped in topics. No overall search feature, but many of the illustrations are current and quite good. Apparently many of them are derived from Bible.org [updated Jan 26, 2017]
Hillcrest Illustrations	An online illustration with a search engine and apparently thousands of illustrations. Many are current. Site is a ministry of Hillcrest Baptist Church of Austin, Texas, and is edited by Tom Goodman. It received my second 5-star rating and is the only one that is currently working. [added March 22, 2018]
Holwick's Illustrations	This is my own site. The only online illustrations are contained in the online sermons. My main offer is a free, and massive, sermon and illustration database. The Kerux database comes in several versions (all have the same sermon and illustration material). The most popular is known as S.I.D. for Sermon and Illustration Database. A different format with many advanced features is called Kerux2010. All versions allow you to enter your own material and download supplements of illustrations and sermons from others. You can search by Bible verse, topic or even phrases. Everything at my site is free as long as it is used for God's Glory. [updated Sept 5, 2011]
Illustration Exchange	This site is a combination forum and archive. Membership is either by monthly fee or by submitting a monthly illustration. Members can search the archive by topic or text. Currently the selection seems to be limited. Dr. Mitchell Dillon and his son Seth run the site. [updated Sept 5, 2011]
Joyful Heart newsletter	Searchable index of devotionals by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson.
Mission Frontiers	Mission Frontiers magazine has excellent articles on the modern mission movement. Many of the articles are inspirational, as are the illustrations from the lives of missionaries. It is free, and better yet it has a fantastic search engine that shows your search word(s) in the context of the article. An excellent resource. [listed June 7, 2001]
Moody's "Today in the Word"	Daily Bread-type devotions which focus on a Bible passage and often lead off with an illustration. The whole collection of devotions can be searched with a decent search engine, so you can look up a particular Bible verse or topic.
More Illustrations	A index-style website with around 20,000 illustrations. One quirky feature is a collection of illustrations based on chemistry experiments. Many of the illustrations are from older sources. The site includes collections of object lessons and children's sermons. [updated March 21, 2014]
Methodist Discipleship	They used to have a page called Soul Food with a searchable archive of short stories from the United Methodist Reporter (Interactive). Now there is a Content Library with material on many topics. There is also a weekly sermon help section based on the lectionary. Material can be emailed to you. [updated Jan 26, 2017, and Nov 13, 2021]
Ministry127	Over one thousand illustrations, searchable by text or topic (a clickable chart of over 100 topics is on the opening page). A ministry of Dr. Paul Chappell. [updated December 15, 2019]
Motivating Moments	User-submitted submitted poems (lots), quotes, and stories (mostly fiction). Much of the material is in the genre of Chicken Soup of the Soul. Organized by category and date submitted.
News of the Weird	Skeptic Chuck Shepherd has an interesting site with very strange real-life stories of stupid criminals, ignorant politicians and lots of other folks you will recognize. You can use his search engine to look up stories matching keywords, such as the state you live in. [updated Sept 8, 2011]
Preaching	Preaching magazine is no longer published and all the material on the site is now free. It offers a search engine for material on the website that finds that word or phrase in their articles and illustrations (they do not seem to have keywords associated with them). [updated July 26, 2017]
Preaching Today	Fee-based site offers one free illustration each week by email. A searchable illustration database, a journal, and others articles are available by paid subscription.
Reader's Digest humor archive	Laugh Bank of Reader's Digest with 4,000 funny stories. [Link takes you to their main page because the Laugh Bank moves around.]
Ron Hutchcraft's "A Word With You"	Archive of Ron Hutchcraft's radio messages which now has a search engine. Devotional length and each has his energetic style. One site notes that these make great sermon starters. Daily emails are offered. [updated Jan 26, 2017]
SermonCentral Illustrations	The illustration page of what is probably the world's largest online sermon site. You can search for illustrations by Keyword, Scripture, Topic and Date. Topics are pretty much Keywords selected from a drop-down list. One quirk is that some of the illustrations break off in the middle and require a paid subscription to get the rest, which is why I limit it to three stars. The quality is a mix of old and new and appears to be generated mostly by user contributions. [updated January 6, 2013]
SermonIllustrations.com	Methodist pastor Brett Blair offers a free weekly e-mail of sermon illustrations and his site contains online illustrations accessed from an alphabetical page. There seem to be hundreds and they tend to be current. There is no search engine. More complete resources are available with fee-based membership to eSermons.com. The signup for the weekly illustration email is at the upper left corner of the page. [updated Sept 8, 2011]
Sermon Illustrator	6,000+ illustrations accessed with a search engine which does a bulk search rather than just for topics. Illustrations are fairly standard but some are quite good. Promoted on July 12, 1999 to three stars. This site makes consistent improvements. A daily email is also available. [updated Jan 26, 2017, updated Nov 11, 2021]
Sermons.org	Good source of online sermons and illustrations. The main page is a list of topics but only the ones in blue (a decided minority except for "A") link to illustrations. Very little has been added in the past four years [2021]. Links are also given for Parson's Biblical Illustrator and supplements, the Illustration Exchange, Sermon Illustrations.com and Leadership; each of which is commented on separately in my links. When you go to the links from here, the original program continues to frame it. There is also an extensive sermon index which highlights Baptist Bible Fellowship preaching. Site maintained by Pastor Shelton Cole. [updated Jan 26, 2017, updated Nov 11, 2021]
SoundFaith (FaithLife)	A service of Logos Bible Software. Membership is now required though a free one is offered for 30 days. Type in a keyword or Bible reference and lots of material pops up. Tens of thousands of sermons and illustrations and a forum for users as well. (updated Jan 26, 2017]
SermonSearch	Free illustrations on a for-fee sermon site. Several thousand illustrations accessed from a topic list with at least 1,325 entries. They are not associated with any Bible verses. [added Mar 10, 2014]
SermonWriter	4 free back issues of a paid illustration service. Richard Donovan specializes in "True Stories" which tie in with a lectionary reading. For each reading he suggests a sermon title, sermon idea, and an appropriate true story, which is usually contemporary. I was impressed by several of them. [updated Jan 26, 2017]
Sheep's Crib	Pastor (and blogger) John Gillmartin's illustration page with a blog format. About 100 topics are on the right-hand side, often with multiple illustrations. You can type in search words as well. No new material has been added since 2008. [listed April 7, 2005, updated Jan 26, 2017]
This Is True	Weekly email by Colorado humorist Randy Cassingham. It is secular but has very funny stories that will grab your congregation's interest.
Today's Christian magazine	Formerly called Christian Reader magazine, then Today's Christian, now Christianity.com.. Good for personal testimonies of well-known evangelical personalities and has some helpful articles. Search engine for keywords and of course a free daily email is offered. [updated Jan 26, 2017]
Wise Old Sayings	800+ clickable categories of quotes. You can also use their Google "custom search" feature to find quotes by specific people. [added Apr 17, 2016]
Wit and Wisdom	Due to Richard Wimer's health, this site ceased to add new material in 2007 but you can search the archives. Each entry has short illustrations, quotes and trivia. [updated Sept 8, 2011]
Discontinued Illustration Sites	(now on a page of their own)