2008 Sermons by Ray Pritchard

I Am a Sinner Too: What Pastors Need to Remember (Jan 15, 2008)

Have a Blast While You Last (Jan 15, 2008)

How to Be a Leader People Want to Follow (Jan 22, 2008)

When God Prays for You (Jan 31, 2008)

Trapped! (Feb 09, 2008)

Some Advice to the Discontented (Feb 19, 2008)

Why You Need Your Enemies and Your Enemies Need You—Part One (Mar 01, 2008)
Our sovereign God allows enemies to enter our lives for our ultimate good. They are often people we are close to; family, people at work, or even in our church. God’s message to us is to love, bless, and pray for them. In doing this, He will bless us. We cannot be set free until we set them free to be blessed by the Lord.

Why You Need Your Enemies and Your Enemies Need You—Part Two (Mar 09, 2008)
Our enemies are a gift from God. If we didn’t need them He wouldn’t send them. God has a beneficial purpose in sending enemies our way - to make us more like Christ. Therefore, the person we might consider an enemy is, in reality, our best friend.

Midnight Miracle (Mar 18, 2008)
When Jesus is betrayed and arrested, Peter impulsively strikes with his sword to try to protect Him. Jesus rebukes Peter, heals Malchus’ ear and quietly submits, knowing that in the end, God’s will must be done. What should Peter have done? How does a follower of Christ react when all is lost?

What If (Mar 24, 2008)
This sermon reveals the four disastrous consequnces if the resurrection is not true. If Christ did not rise from the dead, our preaching has no purpose, our faith has no forgiveness, our death has no deliverance, and our service has no significance.

How to be Happy in Babylon (Mar 30, 2008)
Life constantly presents us with the choice of the hard way versus the easy way. Suriving difficult times requires that we reject short cuts, embrace God’s promises, and trust completely in his goodness.

God Has a Bigger Plan (Apr 08, 2008)
We serve a trans-generational God whose purposes span the centuries. He does not confine himself to our timetable or limit himself to our puny understanding of what he intends to do. If you have eyes to see beyond your own problems, look up and you will see the hand of God at work.

Rock Bottom Truth (Apr 21, 2008)
When we find ourselves struggling with discouragement, we need to be reminded that God is thinking about us, and his thoughts toward us are good and not evil. When we hope in God, we can be happy even though we find ourselves in Babylon.

What You Seek, You Find (Apr 30, 2008)
God uses the hard experiences of life to bring us to the place where our trust will be in him alone. Through those hard times, we learn to seek him and to rejoice even when life doesn’t make sense.

Strength for the Journey (May 10, 2008)
In this message Pastor Ray reminds us everything we believe rests on the sovereignty of God. Salvation starts with God, not with us. Because he has chosen us, we can stand firm amid the trials of life. By standing firm we prove to ourselves and to the watching world what we truly believe.

Why God Chooses Splendid Sinners and Lovable Losers (May 12, 2008)
When God chooses people for his family, he picks those the world considers losers. This means that imperfect people make excellent candidates for the grace of God. Since we are all imperfect, when we boast, let us boast only in the Lord.

Be Still and Know (May 19, 2008)
Why did the deadly cyclone hit Myanmar and the earthquake devastate the Sichuan Province in China? Our first response to questions like that is critical. Psalm 46:10 teaches us to be silent, and in our silence we will know God in the midst of great tragedy.

Come Before Winter (May 27, 2008)
Procrastination destroys many good intentions. Some things must be done “before winter” or they will not be done at all. There are doors of opportunity that open before us today, but if we do not take advantage of them, tomorrow they will be forever shut.

By Faith (Jun 12, 2008)
Faith is the law of the kingdom. It is “belief plus unbelief and acting on the belief part.” Every blessing of the kingdom is available to those who put their faith to work by “acting on the belief part,” moment by moment, day by day, one little step at a time.

It’s the Faith, Brother (Jun 19, 2008)
There are those who have faith and those who don’t. And if you don’t have faith, you cannot please God. True faith, faith that rests on God and his Word and believes all that he has said, true faith sees the unseen and say, “Yes, it is true.”

The Incredible Journey (Jul 10, 2008)
Our focus in this message is on the man we often call “Father Abraham.” Hebrews 11:8-10 tells how he obeyed God’s call at great personal sacrifice. It tells us what he did; more importantly, it tells us why he did it. And it clearly shows us that obeying God doesn’t always work out the way we think it will.

The Blessing of a Believing Spouse (Jul 23, 2008)
God may arrange things so that your faith bears vast fruit in the years to come. Your legacy will be most clearly seen after you have gone to heaven. Sarah never lived to see the world-changing impact of her faith in God, but we still remember her 4000 years later and honor her example.

Why We Keep Believing (Aug 12, 2008)
Because Christians are aliens and strangers on earth, we are destined to live and die feeling slightly (and maybe more than slightly) out of place. But we will not quit, give up or go back because our home is in heaven. We have expectations of something much better than anything the world has to offer.

What Is Your Isaac? (Aug 27, 2008)
From the story of Abraham offering Isaac, we learn that God calls us to yield our dearest treasures to him. Anything good can become an idol when it becomes too important to us. What is your Isaac? Are you willing to lay it down for Jesus’ sake?

Angry Man Alert (Aug 29, 2008)
In this message, Ray Pritchard talks about the five character qualities that relate to a man and his anger. When our power is not under God’s control, we hurt ourselves and those closest to us. We need God’s help so that we might become like Jesus who was both gentle and strong, a true “gentle man.”

If I Should Die Before I Wake (Sep 10, 2008)
The stories of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph show us what faith looks like at the end of life. Here is one mark of genuine Christianity. When you come to the end of your earthly journey, you still hold on to what you believe. Because Jesus died and rose again, we can face our own death with confidence, knowing that the Lord will not abandon us when we need him most.

The Mystery of the Little Scroll (Sep 16, 2008)
An expanded outline of Revelation 10 with explanatory comments and application.

Shall We Kill Our Children Today? (Sep 23, 2008)
The amazing faith of Moses’ parents shows us the high value that God puts on children, including those children that are born in less than ideal circumstances. Christians love children because God loves children. Ours is true pro-family religion.

The Great Refusal (Oct 02, 2008)
Because Moses said no to the riches of Egypt, he suffered greatly with the people of God. He shows us what it means—and what it costs—to say no to the world and yes to Jesus.