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I think my son was about four the first time we played baseball together, and I taught him with a plastic Wiffle bat and Wiffle ball. I remember telling him rule number one of baseball even then, and really of other sports too. I said, "Now, son, keep your eye on the ball." Well, I've told him that lots of times over his growing up years, and it wasn't always about baseball. Whenever he's had trouble with his hitting, which has improved, it usually was because he wasn't watching where he should be.

Now, of course, he's a grown man with a family of his own. We recently went outside with a ball and bat. He threw and I attempted to hit the ball. You can probably guess what's coming. I wasn't connecting. So he gave me a little advice, "Hey, Dad, keep your eye on the ball!" The tables have turned.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Eyes - Where Sin Begins."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 6:22-23. Jesus is talking about the importance of our eyes in following Him and what we should be keeping our eyes on and off of. It's a lesson in how not to strike out spiritually. Listen to His words: "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness."

Now, Jesus here is not talking about your need for an optometrist or getting stronger glasses. He's talking about the fact that your eyes are the point of entry for everything you think about, and what you think about is what turns out to be the beginning point of the actions you commit. So your eyes gather input that is sent to your brain and stored there, and then as the Bible says, "As a man thinks in his heart so is he." But it all begins at eye level.

Do you remember what Jesus had just said in the previous chapter, Matthew 5:28? He said, "I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." There are the eyes again. The place you have to stop sexual sin is at eye level. It's like baseball. If your eye is on the right thing, you'll be okay. If your eye is looking at the wrong thing, you're going to fail. No Christians have ever had to live with the bombardment of sexual images that we get daily. Nobody's ever had the media we have, and we get so much we're almost numb to it.

See, a fundamental discipline of a Jesus follower has to be training your eyes. It's a firm resolve that you just won't look at what is suggested. When a billboard appears with a provocative picture, you just commit yourself to instantly look the other way; you don't even consider what you'll do. When a magazine ad, or a TV channel, an Internet website; maybe you're jumping around and you're looking at all kinds of channels or websites and suddenly there's this sexually attractive image in front of you. You could linger. But no, you can't afford to do that. You move on quickly.

Training your eyes is as practical as simply not allowing your eyes to wander beyond the face of the opposite sex or just turning away. There's a powerful temptation isn't there to linger, to fanaticize, to kind of work it over in your mind, to let your eyes sin? You say, "Well, I didn't do anything." And yet the Bible says that if it's gotten to your eyes, then through them you are full of darkness. That's what Jesus taught us.

Every time you linger on a sexually tempting image, you send ammunition to your enemy - ammunition you can be guaranteed he will use to defeat you spiritually. So you've got to avoid spiritual strike outs, and that begins with training your eyes.

According to a 2024 Real Clear Opinion Research poll, 70% of U.S. adults believe in hell, and roughly the same percentage believe in the devil. But believing and behaving are two different things. Dr. Karl Payne will join us to answer the question of why so few Americans let belief in the supernatural impact the way they live. Plus, we open the phone lines to take your questions. Call in early because there are always lots of questions on the topic of spiritual warfare.

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Far from being a blind or naïve leap of faith, Christian belief is rooted in evidential reality. Todd Hampson will join us to discuss his newest book, The Apologetics Guide to Trusting the Bible. He will provide evidence across multiple disciplines including science, archeology, history, and Scripture itself to help us discover the many ways you can have confidence that the Bible is true and trustworthy in every sense.

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Noah did not merely say he believed God—he acted on God’s Word. In this forceful message, Dr. Michael Youssef explains that Biblical faith is demonstrated through costly, visible obedience.

Though Noah was mocked and misunderstood, he trusted the inerrant Word of God, warned his generation, and built the ark before there was any visible sign of judgment. His faith moved him to act when others refused to listen.

Noah’s ark also points forward to Jesus Christ, the only refuge from judgment and the only Savior of sinners.

This episode calls believers to:

In days like Noah’s, faith cannot remain passive. Genuine faith listens to God, obeys His Word, and acts before it sees.

Scripture Focus: Hebrews 11:7

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Risk is unavoidable in investing—and in life. But not all risks deserve equal attention.

It is easy to focus primarily on the probability that something will happen. If an investment, career move, or financial strategy has a high likelihood of succeeding, we may assume it is a good decision. But Mark Biller, Executive Editor at Sound Mind Investing, suggests another question may be even more important: If things go wrong, how wrong could they go?

That shift—from focusing on probabilities to considering consequences—can help us make wiser financial decisions and protect ourselves from risks that could permanently derail our plans.

Suppose someone told you there was a 99% chance an opportunity would succeed. Those odds sound compelling.

But what if the remaining 1% chance of failure meant complete financial ruin? Suddenly, the decision looks very different.

A simple illustration is crossing a busy street. The probability of being hit by a vehicle may be relatively small, but we still look both ways because the potential consequence is catastrophic. A low probability does not make a severe consequence irrelevant.

The same principle applies to investing. An outcome may be statistically unlikely, but if it could wipe out your savings, destroy your retirement plan, or leave you unable to meet your obligations, it deserves serious consideration.

Financial thinker Peter Bernstein summarized the principle well: the consequences of being wrong can matter more than the probabilities of being right. That leads to two important questions:

Financial history offers plenty of reminders that even highly intelligent investors cannot anticipate every outcome.

One famous example is the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. The hedge fund was run by some of the brightest minds in finance and relied on sophisticated mathematical models. Those models worked under most circumstances—but a combination of leverage and extraordinary market conditions caused enormous losses.

The lesson is not that investors should avoid risk altogether. Risk is part of investing.

Rather, wise investors recognize the limits of their knowledge. We cannot predict every market decline, economic shock, or unexpected life event. That reality should lead us toward humility and encourage us to build financial plans with room for error.

One practical way to prepare for uncertainty is to maintain a margin of safety.

That begins before investing. A strong financial foundation includes reducing burdensome debt and establishing adequate emergency savings. Then, as you invest, diversification can help reduce the danger of concentrated bets, while avoiding excessive leverage can protect against losses that permanently impair your financial position.

The goal is not to eliminate every possible risk. That would be impossible.

Instead, margin allows your plan to survive when circumstances do not unfold as expected. Biblical wisdom encourages this kind of prudence. Proverbs 22:3 says:

“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”

Wise stewardship does not require us to live fearfully. But it does call us to recognize potential danger and prepare appropriately.

An emergency fund may seem separate from an

In spite of the fact that eternal life is a free gift from God, paid for by Jesus’ death at Calvary, some accept that gift and some don’t. That’s startling to believers: “heaven or hell, take your pick.” “Yeah, I just don’t think heaven’s the right fit for me.” Today on A NEW BEGINNING, we’ll take a look at that choice and how people each make the choices that lead to life or death. Pastor Greg Laurie is presenting an enlightening series in the book of Acts called The Upside-Down Life.

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