5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer

You're constantly looked over or treated unfairly at work. Is all that time and work in a difficult workplace wasted? Pastor Lutzer prompts you to change your attitude and to change your ultimate employer.

If thanksgiving is God's will for you, does that mean you should be grateful for difficult circumstances? Pastor Lutzer unpacks how you can truly give thanks…starting today! Don't give thanks for everything but in everything.

Are you bored or overqualified for a job that was clearly a bad decision? In Exodus, Moses worked an abominable job for 40 years but he learned trust and obedience. Pastor Lutzer guides you to receive everything you can from God as you live out your calling.

You're in a wilderness of debt and financial stress. You feel anxious and all alone. Pastor Lutzer encourages you with practical instructions and hope from God's Word. In the midst of your financial desert, God's hidden stream of wisdom and grace will sustain you.

How do you get oriented after a bad financial decision? Pastor Lutzer provides practical guidance to repent and recover with contentment. God is interested in our lives, particularly related to money. He hasn't forsaken you despite your losses and mistakes.

Could God just forgive your horribly wrong decisions? Would He still allow the full effects of a fallout? Pastor Lutzer identifies 3 more lessons from David's great sin that reveal God's perspective of your moral failure. Right where you are in your brokenness, God is with you.

In the wake of immoral decisions like murder or adultery, you see all kinds of devastation. Only by God's grace can you prevent or recover from a disastrous moral failure. Pastor Lutzer discerns 3 lessons from the great sin of King David that show our need for God's grace.

Breaking a moral boundary is a downward spiral. Whether you've failed sexually, relationally, or ethically, Pastor Lutzer addresses the dangers of covering up your sin like King David attempted to do. It doesn't work. But you can find God's grace even in the midst of your greatest moral failure.

Is it hard to say 'no' when your spouse is crossing the line? In this bonus episode on marriage, Pastor Lutzer counsels you how to establish godly, loving boundaries. When you value the sacredness of your covenant, use wise confrontation, and communicate clear consequences, even bad marriages can experience hope and reconciliation.

In the fifth of this mini-series (Eps. 138-142), Pastor Lutzer prays specifically for you from three Psalms: 32, 40, and 147.

In the fourth of this mini-series (Eps. 138-142), Pastor Lutzer identifies 4 principles for managing conflict in a God-honoring marriage.

In the third of this mini-series (Eps. 138-142), Pastor Lutzer exposes 3 modern myths about marriage that keep us from seeing eternity's perspective.

In the second of this mini-series (Eps. 138-142), discover why we can be sure that God doesn't leave us alone even after an impulsive decision.

Have you ever felt trapped in the consequences of someone else's bad decision? Joshua and Caleb spent an additional 38 years in the wilderness because they were outnumbered by their faithless peers. What hope is there for us when we must reap what we did not sow? Join us for today's episode as we bring these difficult questions under the light of God's Word.

The people of ancient Israel were first-hand witnesses of their own divine rescue every step of the way. Regardless, when they arrived at the promised land, they responded with unbelief. God's discipline meant that entire generation would live out the rest of their lives in the wilderness. Was God finished with them? Would he forsake His wayward people and "start fresh" with the new generation? Th...

Have you ever settled with a choice that was second-best? Perhaps you felt cornered and took "the easy way out." In today's episode we learn that even when we make second-best decisions, messes of our own making, and choices we wish we could take back, God still extends a loving hand to us in our neediness, offering to make our crooked path straight.

In this episode of "Making the Best of a Bad Decision," we draw a final lesson from Adam and Eve's terrible decision to rebel. We learn that we can never truly predict or control the consequences of our sin, but we are also confronted with the unthinkable depth of God's grace. He is always willing to redeem a bad decision that is surrendered to Him.

From the beginning, the inclination of sinful humanity has been to hide from God. When Adam and Eve realized their sin, the last thing they wanted was to be in God's righteous presence. But He was the only one who could address their shame and provide an ultimate solution, a promised descendant who would crush the enemy of their souls forever. Do you need to come out of hiding today and face the G...

Today in our series, Pastor Lutzer examines what he calls "the anatomy of a bad decision" from the story of the fall in Genesis 3. From Adam and Eve's terrible choice to rebel against God, we learn much about our own hearts, and we learn how to apply this insight to escape destructive cycles of our own making.

These days we often talk about "pivoting" when the unexpected occurs. But is God subject to such a necessity? When He found Adam and Eve in the garden after their sin, did He have to pivot and rearrange His plans to account for it? In today's episode, Pastor Lutzer discusses the implications of our limited control over circumstances in light of God's limitless sovereignty.

Do you struggle to accept God's help when you feel that your problems are your own fault? Today, Pastor Lutzer starts a new series, entitled, "Making the Best of a Bad Decision." In it we learn that a bad decision, by God's grace, doesn't have to be the end of the story and no matter how many wrong paths you have taken, there is still a right one just up ahead.

In this last episode of the series, "When You've Been Wronged," we are considering "the why" behind Joseph's seemingly astonishing decision to forgive. Why would he forgive his brothers after they had caused him so much turmoil? The answer is this: Joseph was able to step back and see the bigger picture. He knew that God had been there all along and that He was able to make every wrong right and o...

Born into disfunction, mercilessly betrayed by his own, and wrongly condemned to prison — there seemed to be countless reasons for Joseph to choose resentment and retaliation. Are you and I prone to cling to our wrongs, or can we say with Joseph: "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction?"

Since God always foresees the end of the story, we may never know why He chose to favor King Saul with the blessings and the position that He did. What we can know, however, is that God can use circumstances in our lives to purge each of us of the "King Saul" in our hearts. Are you ready to relinquish your little "kingdom" to God today?

King Saul didn't take it well when God said He was going to give His kingdom to someone else. Saul believed the kingdom was his, not God's – and he was going to hold onto "his" throne at any cost. In today's episode, Pastor Lutzer outlines the characteristics of a "spear-thrower" and how to react to them.