Comedians know this, so they base their humor on things that cause a flash of recognition in their audience. They joke about the way people feel territorial about their shopping carts even though they haven't actually bought anything yet, or the hairnet on the lunch lady in every elementary school in America, or men who still wear 32-inch jeans even though their bellies are twice that size. Every time you hear something like that, you feel connected. You've been there. You can relate. And isn't that the point?

By the way, this is why most books of illustrations are worthless. They are filled with weathered and well-worn clichés that everyone has heard and no one cares about. Some books or illustration services are refreshing exceptions, but not many. Wherever you find them or create them, be sure they are relevant to the culture.

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Make them vivid. One of the keys of power in preaching is focus. The more specific, the more intensely focused the details of a story, the more you pull the audience in, creating "involuntary listening" and drawing them into the story and ultimately the application and meaning.

Refer back to the earlier illustration about George Mallory. Notice all of the detail. Frankly, the oral presentation of that story in an actual sermon is even more vivid than the one we have included here. We actually trimmed it for the sake of space. But contrast it with this version of the same illustration: "In 1924 Sir George Mallory, arguably the greatest mountain climber of his day, mysteriously disappeared on Mt. Everest. For years climbers and students of high-altitude climbing wondered what had happened. They assumed that he fell because his inexperienced partner fell and Mallory tried to save him. Finally, just a few years ago, some men found his body and were shocked to discover that he had fallen to his death, even though he was such a great climber."

What that illustration gains in time, it more than loses in effectiveness. Vivid language is a secret to powerful stories, illustrations, and even preaching. Word pictures, vibrant description, and strong action verbs are the life blood of engaging preaching. The great preachers and sermons of the past, from Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" to R. G. Lee's "Payday Someday" to W. A. Criswell's "If We Live or Die" (and just about anything Spurgeon preached) relied heavily on vivid images and language.

To get into the habit of using picturesque speech, read a great sermon or two every day. Listen to great preaching on tape, CD, or in streaming audio from the internet. Enroll in some type of personal program to enrich and increase your vocabulary. Learn a new word or two every week and force yourself to use them. Finally, read a lot. And when you read, keep a running list of new words that you encounter. Look up their definitions and make them your own. Remember that learning big words is not the goal. You are not out to impress others with your knowledge. Learning useful words that vividly describe what you want your listeners to picture is the goal.