Search for sermons - Matthew 6
The Treasure Principle - Matthew 6:19-34 - Apr 17, 2005 - 602
This is the second sermon in a two-part miniseries on God and our money. We're doing this because we're praying that God will help us pay off the remainder of the Legacy Campaign debt by Thanksgiving. Our greater goal is to get free of debt so we can move forward with our dream of becoming a multi-s ... More
The Hardest Prayer You Will Ever Pray - Matthew 6:10 - Oct 26, 2007 - 382
Some prayers are harder to pray than others. I learned that thirty-three years ago when my father died. One October day he felt a pain in his shoulder. The doctors later said it was transferred pain from a bacterial infection elsewhere in his body. It did not seem serious at first, but he got no bet ... More
The Fourth Law: What You Seek, You Find - Matthew 6:33 - Mar 17, 2002 - 551
In this sermon series we are looking at the Seven Laws of the Spiritual Life. These "laws" are not exactly doctrines, not exactly duties,not exactly promises and not exactly rules. Each one represents a major truth that Christians need to know. They are like pillars that hold up a large building. He ... More
Forgiveness and the Lord's Prayer - Matthew 6:12 - May 18, 2003 - 755
"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12 KJV).The fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer seems simple enough, but simple things can sometimes be very deep. Everyone agrees that this is a difficult word from the Lord. It is hard to understand and even harder to apply. Our basic pro ... More
If God is Sovereign, Why Pray? - Matthew 6:8 - Jan 4, 1998 - 523
When we surveyed the congregation last year several people asked this question. I would suppose that most Christians have wondered about it at one time or another. Certainly skeptics have thrown it in our faces to discourage us from seeking the Lord in times of crisis. I would be less than honest if ... More
The First National Bank of Heaven - Matthew 6:19-21 - Nov 17, 1991 - 71
The results are in and the voters have spoken. Last night Edwin Edwards swamped David Duke in the governor's race down in Louisiana. That is not a great surprise, given the avalanche of negative publicity against David Duke in the last few days. Perhaps the margin of victory was something of a sur ... More
Three Things Not To Worry About In 1990 - Matthew 6:25-34 - Dec 31, 1989 - 413
Let's talk about Tom Selleck this morning. You know who he is, don't you? He's the photogenic star of the TV series Magnum P.I.. Tom Selleck is, as they say, a hunk. A few years ago he was unknown and then overnight he became a huge star.A few years ago he made his first movie—High Road to ... More
Full Stomachs and Empty Hearts - Matthew 5:6 - Jan 28, 1996 - 54
"You are what you eat." This is not good news for most of us, especially on Super Bowl Sunday. But it is true. Nutritionists tell us your appetite determines your diet, your diet determines your intake, and your intake determines your health. We know, for example, that too much caffeine harms yo ... More
His Eye Is On the Sparrow: The Doctrine of God's Omniscience - Psalm 145:4-5 - Feb 16, 1997 - 467
"If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer—His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable." John NewtonThis week I was involved in three different discussions regarding one of the thorniest issues of Christian theology&mda ... More
How Can I Learn to Forgive? - Matthew 18:21-35 - Sep 21, 1997 - 531
Here are some of the questions people asked about forgiveness: • What really is forgiveness? • How can one do it? • What does it do for the forgiver? • How do you find it in yourself to forgive when you think you can't or don't even want to because of anger and hate that y ... More
Forgiveness: Healing the Hurt We Never Deserved - Matthew 18:21-35 - May 4, 2003 - 757
This is the first sermon in a series I never planned to preach. The story of how it came to be starts in February when I spent a week preaching at Word of Life Florida. One day I ate lunch with George Theis, former executive director of Word of Life. He told me about a book called Total Forgiveness ... More
Forward-Leaning Defense - Sep 16, 2006
"There is no victory at bargain basement prices." General Dwight Eisenhower"World War IV began in a long string of terrorist attacks, whose real nature went unrecognized until on September 11, 2001, huge billows of black smoke curled above New York City, Washington, D.C., and a field near Gettysburg ... More
The Second Law: God Doesn't Need Us But We Desperately Need Him - Feb 17, 2002
Last Sunday we started a new sermon series called The Seven Laws of the Spiritual Life. In this series we are discovering the basic principles of the Christian life that meet us where we are and take us all the way to heaven. The First Law teaches us a fundamental truth: He's God and We're Not. All ... More
Pressing Needs - Apr 17, 2005
Pressing Needs by Ray Pritchard A few days ago I ran across this quote from Martin Luther on how we should pray: We should pray by fixing our mind upon some pressing need, desiring it with all earnestness, and then exercise faith and confidence toward God in the matter, never doubting that we have b ... More
Nothing Shall Offend Them: A Message for Unhappy, Irritated, and Bent-Out-of-Shape Christians - Psalm 119:165 - Feb 3, 2002 - 399
For our final message in this short series from Psalm 119, I want to look at a verse I first learned in Mrs. Sandberg's British Literature class 30 years ago. As she began class one day, she read a verse of Scripture that had been particularly meaningful to her. Then she quoted Psalm 119:165 from th ... More
The Positive Power of Prayer - Daniel 9:1-23 - Feb 20, 2000 - 157
I suppose that most of us know the final words of James 5:16, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." This oft-quoted promise reminds us that when righteous people call out to God, their prayers actually change things. But we tend to forget the first half of that verse: "Therefore ... More
Elijah and the Ravens - 1 Kings 17:2-7 - Mar 7, 2006 - 185
Until recently, everything I knew about ravens, I learned from Edgar Allen Poe. I don't know when I first read his poem The Raven, but it might have been in Mrs. Graves' ninth-grade English class. All I remember about the poem is the spooky refrain, "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'" And until I read a ... More
Doing the Right Thing in the Wrong Way - Genesis 16 - May 5, 1996 - 22
This week my friend David Puckett was in town. I have known David ever since our days at Dallas Seminary. After we graduated I took a pastorate in California and he entered a doctoral program at the University of Chicago. Our paths crossed again a few years later when he attended the church I past ... More
No Graven Images - Exodus 20:4-6 - Jun 7, 1992 - 718
"Idols? You must be kidding.""That's what they have in Africa, right?" "Me? An idol-worshiper? What do you take me for? A pagan?""The only thing I worship is my brand-new car." What is an idol anyway? The dictionary offers this definition: "an image used as an object of worship." That sound ... More
This Same Jesus: The Blessed Hope of the Church - Acts 1:10-11 - Apr 5, 1998 - 638
"They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,' they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you ha ... More
From Temptation to Triumph - Nov 12, 1996
Playwright Oscar Wilde once jokingly remarked, "I can resist everything except temptation." We smile when we read those words because they speak an important truth about the human condition. Temptation pays a visit to each of us every day and most of us struggle to say no."Pastor Ray, what do I do ... More
Allied Force Questions - Various - Jan 4, 1998 - 522
When we surveyed the congregation asking for their questions a few months ago, our high school ministry (called Allied Force) turned in their own set of questions. On October 12, the students joined me on the platform and participated in a live question-and-answer session. The questions that follow ... More
Homemade Gods: A Warning Against Modern-Day Baal Worship - Acts 17:29 - Jul 19, 1998 - 243
"Idols? You must be kidding.""That's what they have in Africa, right?""Me? An idol-worshiper? What do you take me for? A pagan?""The only thing I worship is my brand-new car."What is an idol anyway? The dictionary offers this definition: "an image used as an object of worship." That sounds like thos ... More
The Sin No One Will Admit - Exodus 20:17 - Aug 16, 1992 - 723
We begin the final message in this series with the text of the Tenth Commandment: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." The key word "covet" is repeated, ... More
Who Is Jesus Christ? Article D: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ - Various - Mar 15, 1992 - 751
Tonight we are coming to the most critical doctrine in the Articles of Faith. Other doctrines are important as establishing foundational truth (the inerrancy of the Bible, the Trinity) or as explaining what we believe in a particular area (eternal security, the premillennial return of Christ), but ... More
Here Am I … Send Aaron - Exodus 4 - Mar 27, 1994 - 805
Sometimes the mental pictures we have of certain Bible characters are all messed up. We get a particular image in our brain and it's almost impossible to get it out. Take Moses, for instance. When I think of Moses, I think of Charleton Heston about to part the Red Sea. It's Moses and then it's Ch ... More
40 Amazing Days: The Original Founders Week - Acts 1:1-3 - Feb 1, 1998 - 628
If you are a regular listener to Moody radio, you know that the annual Founder's Week Bible Conference begins tomorrow night. What you may not know is that this historic conference started in the 1890s when D.L. Moody asked that the students at the Institute be dismissed from class on his birthday ... More
"One Little Word Shall Fell Him": What the Cross Meant to Satan - Colossians 2:1 - Mar 14, 1999 - 673
By 6:00 p.m. the party had started in earnest. It was Friday evening and that meant the party would probably last all night and perhaps even into the next day. Everyone who heard the news could hardly believe it, but they knew that if it were true, this would be the party to end all parties. So they ... More
Marriage Conference - Various - Jul 19, 1993 - 428
The Keys Of The Kingdom - Matthew 16:19 - Sep 10, 1989 - 328
It was the the most important game of the season. The score was tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 10th inning. Andre Dawson reached first base with a walk. Up came Luis Salazar. He slams the ball into right field, way back into the ivy-covered walls of Wrigley Field. Meanwhile, Andre Dawson takes o ... More
God's Promise to You - Philippians 4:13-23 - Jan 10, 1999 - 361
With this sermon we come to the end of our series from the book of Philippians. I have mentioned several times that this book is essentially a thank-you note from the Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi. He is writing to thank them for the gift they sent when they heard he was a prisoner in Rome. ... More
The Tragedy of Double Vision - Matthew 5:8 - Feb 25, 1996 - 57
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."This beatitude stands alone. It is unlike all the others. In many ways, this is the most unexpected thing Jesus ever said. It is not difficult to believe—like Blessed are the meek. It is not difficult to apply—like Blessed are t ... More
The 53rd Sunday - 1 Chronicles 28-29 - Nov 17, 1996 - 72
This morning I am interrupting my series in 1 Thessalonians to preach two sermons on the subject of Christian giving. If you're here as a visitor, please understand that we don't always talk about money on Sunday morning. In fact, we rarely talk about money, but from time to time the subject comes ... More
When You Pray, Never Give Up - Luke 18:1-8 - Jun 5, 2007 - 778
My goal in this sermon is very simple. I hope to convince you of the importance of persistence in prayer. I want you to see that God is greatly glorified when we continue in prayer over a long period of time. Or to say it another way, I want us to understand that we ought not to give up when we pray ... More
Peace, Be Still!A Short Sermon from the Sea of Galilee - Mark 4:35-41 - Jan 29, 2007 - 495
It was only a week ago, though it seems much longer, that I awoke on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. We were about to start Day 5 of our Holy Land tour, and already we had seen so much that the mind could not take it all in. After landing in Tel Aviv, we paid a quick visit to Joppa where Jonah too ... More