Illustrations are a key part of every sermon. If done correctly, they make the sermon interesting, understanding and memorable.

Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, was a master at how and when he used illustrations in his sermons. He described what illustrations are and do in a sermon in the following way:

A building without windows would be a prison rather than a house, for it would be quite dark, and no one would care to take it upon lease; and, in the same way, a discourse without a parable is prosy and dull, and involves a grievous weariness of the flesh. . . . Our congregations hear us with pleasure when we give them a fair measure of imagery: when an anecdote is being told they rest, take breath, and give play to their imaginations, and thus prepare themselves for the sterner work which lies before them in listening to our profounder expositions.