Chuck Swindoll’s Advice on Sermon Illustrations
By IFL Staff
Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s sermons are full of illustrations—and it’s completely by design.
He doesn’t take the interest or attention of his listeners for granted. He loves them and wants to meet them where they’re at—and one of the best ways to do that is through effective illustrations. Thankfully, doing so is both an art and a science that we can learn, and Chuck has a lot to say about it.
So in this article, we want to offer some of his best insights on this essential component of the sermon. First, let’s read what he said in a sermon called “Righteousness Is a Five Letter Word” from his series on Romans. Chuck stated:
“The body of John Milton Gregory lies buried beneath the sod at the campus of the University of Illinois. The great old nineteenth century educator spent his life in higher education. Fourteen years before his death he left, in my opinion, his finest legacy of all the things he left for us to enjoy. It is a little book not that impressive to look at, not that large in size, but mine is well worn and often read. It’s entitled The Seven Laws of Teaching in which John Milton Gregory names those laws that help the one who teaches connect best with those who hear the speaker or read the writer’s words. These laws are the salient points of good communication and sometimes I go back to the old book just to review to see if I’m staying on target.
I was reminded again this week of the fourth of the seven laws that says, “Truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known.” We all learn the new and the unfamiliar from the old and the familiar. Knowledge is not a mass of information dumped into the creases of our brains suddenly by a person who gives us information and then we have it grasped and now applied. Doesn’t work like that. I think of knowledge as links in a chain connected by stories and similes, allegories, analogies, illustrations that tie us in with the familiar. And based on the familiar, those links connect and lead us to the [unfamiliar] information.
I think it was Spurgeon who first described a sermon as a house and the illustrations are the windows that let in the light. A house without windows is a prison. And a message without illustrations is dull and boring and disconnected because we need the familiar to tie in so that we can move toward the unfamiliar.
“Illustrations (writes John R. W. Stott) transform the abstract into the concrete, the ancient into the modern, the unfamiliar into the familiar, the general into the particular, the vague into the precise, the unreal into the real, the invisible into the visible.” And then he punctuates all that with this great sentence: “The best communicators turn ears into eyes, enabling the hearer to see what is being spoken.”
Isn’t that the truth? We listen to someone as they are teaching and they are connecting with us and we say to ourselves, “I see it.” Actually you only heard it but what enabled you to see it was your imagination. Within your mind the lights were turned on by the use of story or example or illustration. “Truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known.””
That alone would be enough to stop and chew on for a week, but we have a few more insights to offer. If we were to boil it down Chuck’s teaching on illustrations to one principle, it would be this:
Illustrate frequently without making illustrations your point.
We take that principle from Chuck’s book, Saying It Well. In it, Chuck writes:
“I can’t imagine preaching without using illustrations. Those who don’t illustrate are saying, in essence, “I don’t care if you don’t understand; that’s your problem.” That may sound overly harsh, but I actually heard a seminary professor say to students, “You’re speaking to a lot of people who don’t think very deeply; that’s their problem.” That was many years ago. Today, I would be tempted to push him aside, take over the class, and say, “No, actually, as a proclaimer of truth, you must make the audience’s shortcomings your problem. It’s your job to help them understand God’s truth and think deeply.”” (Saying It Well, 181)
You can feel how important this is to him. The need to illustrate is a strong conviction with Chuck because it’s a loving thing to do as a preacher. For many preachers, it’s easier and takes less work and is more personally interesting to stand behind the pulpit and unload the theological dump truck. It’s all great stuff but it’s too heavy to carry and there’s too much to carry so folks walk away with nothing.
But then some preachers discover the power of illustrations and become intoxicated by it. They see how it compels attention, creates laughter, and cultivates connection. So they err by making illustrations the whole message—neglecting to offer biblical substance.
Chuck teaches:
“While I make copious use of illustrations in every message, I want to be careful not to leave the wrong impression. The illustrations are not the message; they merely convey the message. We have to be careful not to let our illustrations take over.” (Saying It Well, 162)
Before we look at Chuck’s six occasions for illustrating, I want you to read an example illustration from him. He delivered this one in a sermon titled, “Discouragement: Its Causes and Cure” from his series on Nehemiah:
“Mrs. Monroe lives in Darlington, Maryland. She’s the mother of eight children. And except for a few interesting experiences, she’s just like any other mother across America.
She came home one afternoon from the grocery store and walked into her home. And everything looked pretty much the same, though it was a little bit quieter than usual. She looked into the middle of the living room and five of her darlings were sitting around in a circle, exceedingly quiet, doing something with something in the middle of the circle. And so she put down the sacks of groceries and walked over closely and looked and saw that they were playing with five of the cutest skunks you can imagine.
She was instantly terrified and she said, “Run, children, run!” And each child grabbed a skunk and ran (laughter) in five different directions. One of them went into the bedroom. One went into the kitchen. One went into the bathroom. Another stayed pretty close. And she was beside herself and screamed louder, more frantically, with great gusto, and it so scared the children that each one squeezed his skunk. And as the writer put it, “Skunks don’t like to be squzzed.”
And when I read that story I cannot help but think of Nehemiah. You may wonder, why in the world does that remind me of Nehemiah? I think Nehemiah is just like Mrs. Monroe. He took on a project that had all the appearance of being harmless and innocent and simple and quiet. I mean, what could be very exciting about building a wall around a city? Every city ought to have a wall, at least cities that were built in that day. And it seemed as though he would be able to go and in the passing of just a very few weeks he’d have the wall built and go back to the capital there in Persia and take up where he left off. But not so. He looked over the shoulders of those workmen, if you please, and he found all of a sudden a can of worms. Or, if I could press it, a real problem with a stink.”
You can see how he got the attention and interest of his hearers and then tied the story straight to the text. It’s a good example of illustrating without making the illustration your point.
Now, here are Chuck’s 6 key occasions, reasons, when you may want to use an illustration (adapted from Saying It Well).
First, you may want to use an illustration or story to introduce your message.
Second, if you’re making an important point, then you might want to pause and take time to illustrate it so that it can be more memorable.
Third, sometimes the Bible is just confusing because we are so distant from the culture and language of its authors, so illustrations are vital for clarifying the mysterious or obscure.
Fourth, Chuck says to illustrate to show the relevance of something. For example, show what life looks like if we don’t pray. Show how life is better when we do pray. This fourth reason puts flesh on your point.
Fifth, since the Bible is so full of history, you may want to use illustrations to elucidate history. For example, you might want to quote Herodotus if you’re preaching through Esther. King Xerxes makes some bad decisions in Esther and it would be good to mention that Herodotus, maybe jokingly, said that Persians don’t make decisions unless they’re drunk.
Sixth, Chuck says to illustrate in order to kindle the emotions. A modern example of your point in action has a way of motivating people. They see the proof of your point at work.
Let’s end with one more example from Chuck. This statement is taken from Chuck’s sermon, “Leading As Paul Led,” which he preached in his series on Paul. Teaching on 1 Thessalonians 2:4, he shared:
“Second, good leaders are not people-pleasers. That’s in verse four.
“but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak (here’s the negative), not as pleasing men, not as pleasing men but God, . . .”
A sure sign of personal insecurity is wanting to be liked by everyone. Peace at any price. Remaining neutral lest someone be offended or someone in the group feel alienated. Telling people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. Paul said, “As you look back over those weeks I was with you, you can’t name a time that what I did was prompted by wanting to be liked. I wanted to be right.”
I’ll tell you an experience of my own life that I refer back to on a number of occasions and maybe have mentioned before. I was serving another church, and I was caught in the middle. We say in Texas, “between a rock and a hard place.” There were seven of us on the elder board. Three were voting in one direction. Three were voting in another. And they reminded me that whenever there was a tie, the pastor cast the deciding vote. And I was caught there. I would not win. And I remember, we took a 24-hour break so that I could screw up the courage to do what I ought to do. As I look back, I think that was probably what prompted them to do that.
I went home and said to Cynthia, “I’m going to spend some time alone. I’m going to spend the night at such-and-such a place. And I had a good friend who was a pharmaceutical salesman. And I knew where he was on the road. And he was an awfully wise individual. And I thought I would spend some time in prayer with him and some counsel. But on the way there, I was reading my Bible. We drove a little Volkswagen at the time. I remember propping my Bible up on the windshield. I mean, on the steering wheel, not the windshield, on the steering wheel. People love it when they hear that story that I’m driving along reading from the Bible in Galatians. And I got to Galatians 1 and verse 10 (you got to turn to it) and I pulled off the shoulder of the road, and I read it aloud about 5 times. And I thought, If this isn’t a direct answer from God, I don’t know what is. Listen to 1:10 of Galatians.
“Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”
You cannot be a faithful bond-servant of Christ and spend your life making people happy, telling people what they want to hear.
I turned around. I never went to my planned destination. I drove into the driveway and Cynthia met me at the door and was surprised. I said, “I know exactly what I need to do. I know what my heart’s telling me and I just didn’t want three of the men not to like me.” And I was told, by the way, by the board that I could easily split the church, depending on how I voted. That’s always encouraging when you hear that from one of your friends. Not only did we not split the church, our church doubled in about the next two, two and a half years. I realized that I needed to please God.”
Additional Resources
First, sign up for our Swindoll’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you Chuck’s best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-age checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.
Second, check out our Preach the Word video series on YouTube where we’re posting Chuck’s best insights on this important calling. Coming early 2026!
Third, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.
Fourth, peruse more articles in this church leaders section.
About the author
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IFL Staff
