Sermons found for the topic Mercy

Sinners in the Hands of a Merciful God - Romans 11:30-32

Earlier this week I received a copy of John Ensor’s book The Great Work of the Gospel. In the first chapter, he examines the question, What motivates God to make the astonishing offer to forgive all our sins? Ta More

What We Saw In India - Matthew 5:7

About 12 hours ago our plane finally landed at O’Hare Airport. I do not think I have ever been happier to come home than I was last night. During the last 19 days our team traveled 42,000 miles, took eight dif More

What God Remembers That We Forget - Psalm 103:6-18

If you’re wondering what God thinks about you, let’s take a journey through Psalm 103 and discover seven liberating truths about God’s heart. These verses reveal that he shows mercy to those who don’t deserve it, he remembers that we are dust, and he links us with eternity by linking us with himself. More

How Faith Works - Luke 7:1-10

The life of faith is inherently a life of risk. It is not for those timid souls who want to play it safe all the time. As long as we limit God to what we think he can do, we will never see anything great because our faith remains so small. But once we are willing to suspend our disbelief and renounce our skepticism, then and only then do we become candidates for a miracle. More

The Gift that Never Grows Old - Romans 12:8

Some of you have heard this story, but it bears repeating. About 16 years ago some researchers decided to find out if seminarians really were Good Samaritans. In order to conduct their experiment, they enlisted 40 v More

What Christ Does With Failure - John 21

John 21 is in the Bible so that all of us Peter-types would know that though we fall again and again, by God’s grace we can keep on getting back up. If he did it for Peter, he can do it for me and for you. More

Midnight Miracle - Luke 22:49-51

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? More

Letter From a Friend - Romans 15

To understand forgiveness, consider Jesus on the cross. In his dying moments He uttered words that still ring across the centuries: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Even as he said those words, the crowd laughed, mocked, cheered, jeered. They taunted him. When he died, the people who put him to death were quite pleased with themselves. No one seemed very sorry. No one said, “I was wrong. This is a mistake.” And yet he said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” That is precisely what we must say if we are going to follow Jesus. More

How to Kill a New Christian - Part 1 - Romans 14:1-12

Part 1. There are many ways to kill the faith of a new Christian, but the easiest way - and the quickest - is through criticism and a lack of acceptance. We all have a tendency to criticize people who don’t do or say things the way we think they ought to be said or done. Terrible things can happen when we are too quick to offer personal judgments on believers who don’t meet our personal standards. How can we overcome the impulse to criticize our brothers and sisters in Christ? More

How to Kill a New Christian - Part 2 - Romans 14:1-12

Christians have always disagreed - a lot! And it’s not a bad thing. But there is always a danger that our own personal preferences will grow so important that we no longer accept our brothers and sisters in the Lord who disagree with us. The great unifying factor for the people of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has broken down the wall that separated us from God and from one another. In Him we are joined together in the body of Christ. If we truly believe in Him, we can let Him deal with those who disagree with us. In the meantime, don’t forget to treat those who disagree as brothers and sisters in the Lord. More

God's Word Has Not Failed - Romans 9:6-18

For many people no question seems as puzzling as the problem of unanswered prayer. Why is it that some things we pray about are never answered? We could all spend hours remembering times when we prayed and prayed, o More

Living Under the Rainbow: Judgment First, Then Mercy - Genesis 9:1-17

Let’s suppose you are a reporter assigned by your editor to cover Noah’s flood. It’s the biggest story of the ancient world, and it’s your story. So you research it and you write it up. When it More

Faithful to Finish His Work in You - Philippians 1:6

“The life of a Christian is a series of miracles.” So said Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great British preacher of the 19th century. If he is correct, why don’t we ever talk about those miracles? When a More

God's Altar Call - Romans 12:1

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).I must have been about More

Straight Talk About Predestination - Romans 9:19-29

In the history of the Christian church, few doctrines have been so hotly debated as the doctrine of predestination. Since predestination is a biblical concept, we must face this doctrine squarely whether we like it or not. It’s in the Bible, therefore we must first seek to understand it and then to ask what difference it makes. More

The Positive Power of Forgiveness: "I Believe in the Forgiveness of Sins" - Psalm 130:3-4

If you know a bit about church history, you know that before Martin Luther became the father of the Protestant Reformation, he was a Catholic priest. As part of his training, he spent years studying Greek, Hebrew, Lat More

How to be Right With God - Luke 18:9-14

When a friend heard I was preaching on how to be right with God, he sent me this e-mail message:What a great topic for a Sunday sermon. It’s one that is especially poignant for the alcoholic, addict, etc., becau More

To Every Generation: - Psalm 100:5

“Every experience God gives us, every person he puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only he can see.” Corrie Ten Boom Ten years ago today I was sitting in my home in Garland, Te More

A Friend in High Places - Hebrews 4:14-16

If you were raised in Chicago, you no doubt recognize the name of Mike Royko. For over 30 years he was the voice of Chicago to the nation. At the height of his career over 600 newspapers carried his columns. After he More

A Good Man Lost and a Bad Man Saved - Luke 18:9-14

Some of you may have seen a movie last summer called Reversal of Fortune. That would be a good subtitle for this passage because it contains the ultimate reversal of fortune. It’s about two men who were as dif More

The Second Law: God Doesn't Need Us But We Desperately Need Him

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 More

The Blessed Benefits - Psalm 103:1-5

Many of us need to give God a “one-minute praising” for all his blessings. We’re sure good at telling the Lord what we want him to do for us. We need a good dose of Psalm 103 to wash out that complaining spirit and replace it with a heart of gratitude to the Lord. More

God's Freedom - Romans 9:6-18

While studying Romans 9, I was struck by Paul’s question in verse 14: “Is God unjust?” In our hearts we already know the answer. God is not unjust. But oftentimes he seems inconsistent. The very exam More

When God Prays for You

Many years ago when I pastored a church in suburban Los Angeles, I attended a weekend youth leaders’ conference featuring messages by a pastor from a large church in a nearby city. The night I attended the pasto More

God Guarantees Our Salvation - I Peter 1:3-5

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that More

What God Wants For Christmas - Micah 6:6-8

There are only ten days left until Christmas. Have you done your shopping yet? Be careful, because there are some crazy people out there. Have you heard about this new doll called Tickle Me, Elmo? Every year there More

Amazing Grace - Ephesians 2:1-9

Since this is a sermon series on the gospel, I would like to point out that my text contains the whole gospel message in just six words. If you know what these words are and what they mean, you will know the gospel. A More

Farewell to Paradise: Cast Out That We Might Someday Return - Genesis 3:20-24

Have you ever said something, and the moment the words flew from your lips, you said to yourself, “Oops"? To ask the question is to answer it because we’ve all had those moments when we knew even as the w More

Welcome to the Priesthood - I Peter 2:4-10

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual s More

Where Are the Nine? - Luke 17:11-19

It is a tribute to modern medicine that most of us know very little about the disease called leprosy. Most of us have never seen a leper. We know only what we read in the Bible.If we had lived in those days, we would More

The Final Difference Between the Church and the World - Hebrews 11:29

At the Red Sea, the Hebrews were delivered while the Egyptians were destroyed. From this we learn that the church and the world have two different destinations. This is the final difference between them. More

God's Simple Plan of Salvation - Romans 10:5-13

This is a very familiar passage of Scripture. Most of us know certain parts of it by heart. I have asked the Lord to do me a favor and not let me say anything new. I don’t want to say anything you haven’t More

How God Revealed the Ingratitude of My Own Heart - Romans 1

“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.” ( More

Blueprint for a Healthy Church - Romans 12:3-8

What makes a great church? We hear that expression often–"a great church"–but no one knows exactly what it means. How do you know when a church has truly become “great?” To begin with, humility, participation, cooperation and the exercise of the spiritual gifts are signs of a church that is healthy and on track. More

But God Remembered Noah: Hope for Those Who Feel Forgotten - Genesis 8:1

The story of Noah is very exciting until you get to Genesis 7. At that point, the story seems to get bogged down in details. There is information about the various animals brought on board, and also a very specific ac More

The Jesus Prayer

THE JESUS PRAYER by Ray Pritchard Recently I read Elisabeth Elliott’s fine book, Keep a Quiet Heart. One of her chapters describes the “Jesus Prayer.” It is a prayer that arose in the Orthodox tradition over 1,000 years ago. Though the prayer appears in various wordings, its most basic form goes like this: &#… More

Propitiation: God's Not Angry At You - Various

You never know where you are going to find spiritual truth. I found some the other day in the pages of USA Today. It was about a month ago during the height of the questions surrounding Newt Gingrich’s book deal More

Resurrection Hospital - 1 Kings 17:17-24

Of all the episodes in the life of Elijah, this is probably the most troublesome. There really isn’t anything else like it in the Old Testament. In our text Elijah lays himself out over the body of a dead child More

No Place for Pride - Romans 11:17-24

Tell them, Pastor Ray, tell them that nothing matters except Christ. The young people need to know this before it’s too late.” So said my friend Jim Johnsen on my visit with him in the hospital shortly be More

Dear Sarah: A Letter About Forgiveness at Christmastime

(A few days ago I received a letter that took over a month to finally reach me. It came from someone I have never met. Because of the unusual nature of the letter, I began to think about the question, “What does More

Good News for Poor Performers and Splendid Sinners - Luke 1:5-20, 57-64

This afternoon I read a bit from Faithfulness and Holiness by J. I. Packer. The book consists of Packer’s short biography of J. C. Ryle, the 19t5h-century Anglican bishop, and a reprint of Ryle’s justly-fa More

Unworthy - I Corinthians 11:27

There are two dangers we face whenever we come to the Lord’s table. The first danger is that we will feel that we are not worthy to be here. And the second danger is that we will feel that we are worthy. The fir More

How Can I Learn to Forgive? - Matthew 18:21-35

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 forg More

The Third Law: What God Demands, He Supplies

In this sermon series we’re looking at the basic laws of the spiritual life that apply to all Christians everywhere. These are the principles that every Christian needs to know because they meet you right where More

A Forgotten Doctrine: The Wrath of God - Romans 1:18-20

Sometimes the title tells the whole story. My sermon today is about the wrath of God. It is truly a forgotten doctrine, even in the evangelical church. I’ll dare say that many of you have never heard a sermon on More

God Is So Good! - Psalm 107:1

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.” 1 Chronicles 16:34a “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” Psalm 145:9 “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the More

WMBI Commentaries - Various

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Mr. I.M. Okay Meets His Maker - Romans 2:1-16

No statement is regarded as more elementary to the student of the Bible than the statement that a day of judgment is coming for the human race. Hebrews 9:27 says, “Man is destined to die once and after that to f More