Touching Lives with Dr. James Merritt Audio Podcast

In the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we see very clearly one of the things that gave Jesus heartburn, that made Jesus angry, and caused him to give his arch-enemies, the Pharisees that “look.” I particularly want those of us who are religious, church- going, heard about God, and dotting religious “i’s” and crossing religious “t’s” to listen very carefully to this story, because you are goin...

If you ever go into a job interview, headhunters and personnel experts will tell you there is one question you will always be asked and you had better be prepared to answer correctly and it is this one, “How do you measure success?” On one occasion, the disciples came to Jesus, and they asked him this question, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who, then, is the greatest in the...

In the last public sermon that Jesus ever preached, He was calling out hypocritical holiness and counterfeit Christianity. Frankly, this is not a seeker-friendly topic. This is not a feel-good topic. This is not your best life now topic, but it is a topic that everyone and anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus and every church needs to hear about, think about, and talk about. In this sermon...

Today, we are going to look at probably the most angry that Jesus ever got. In fact, he not only expressed his anger verbally; he expressed it physically. Probably the most shocking picture of Jesus in the New Testament is when he cleaned house literally. He cleansed the temple. In fact, he did it twice. We are going to be looking at two passages of scripture – the second chapter of John and the t...

I love what President Franklin Roosevelt said: “We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.” In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul gives fathers the best advice and wisdom on how to be the father your children need you to be. In a simple but sublime sentence, Paul shares with us four things we need to give our children to...

The church in Laodicea and the Christians in it were stuck in a spiritual no man’s land. They weren’t hot and they weren’t cold; they were just lukewarm. I believe remaining lukewarm is one of the greatest sins that goes unconfessed, unnoticed, and unrealized in the church today. The average lukewarm Christian is either too proud to admit they are lukewarm or too ignorant to realize they are. My p...

Of all the letters that Jesus wrote, I believe this is the one he enjoyed the most. Of all the seven churches, I could have joined back in that day I could have easily moved to Philadelphia and joined this church. They probably heard of some of the other letters that Jesus had written and they were probably nervous when they opened up their envelope, but they had no reason to be. Jesus had absolut...

The church at Sardis was not a weak church that needed restoration. It was not a sick church that need rejuvenation. It was a dead church that needed resurrection. It was in a sense the church of the walking dead. I can tell you as a pastor my greatest fear is both pastoring a dead church and being a dead Christian. I want all of us today to perform our own self-examination and let’s see what step...

So far in this series, we have talked to husbands, wives, and fathers. Today, we are going to talk to and about mothers. I know from both having one and being married to one that the dad may be the head of the home, but the mother is the heart of the home. I read one time where someone said, “A mother is she who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take.” That being sa...

In today’s message, we are going to look at the church in Thyatira, or as I like to call them, the church that failed the tolerance test. The way you fail the tolerance test is by tolerating what should not be tolerated. This church was tolerating something that it should not tolerate. It was putting up with something that it should have put out and put down. They thought they were broadening thei...

The church of Pergamum was located right in the middle of Hell’s headquarters. Living in the shadow of Satan himself, the smell of satanic influence was everywhere. Satan may have visited other towns, but he made his home in Pergamum and this was his neighborhood. Just like Pergamum, the Church today is always going to be dealing with the devil. The lesson we need to learn from this church today i...

In Revelation chapter 2, there was a church in a place called “Smyrna” that was under tremendous pressure. This church was under pressure to deny Christ, compromise their faith, bow down to Caesar, and join the cult of conformity. But they showed grace under pressure. Like the men in the fiery furnace, they didn’t bend, bow, or budge, all because of one thing this church was taught and this church...

The church in Ephesus was a great church, an awesome church, a tremendous church, but it had one humongous problem that dealt with loving Jesus. What we are going to learn from this church is this – the only way to love Jesus right is to love Jesus best. We need to hear what Jesus says to this first church, to our church, and to us if we want to learn from the mistakes of the church in Ephesus. 

Today, we are going to look at the seventeenth chapter of the book of Acts. In our key passage, the Apostle Paul is in one of the greatest cities of the world at that time, Athens, and while he was there, he had the same challenge of sharing the truth of the resurrection that we have today. He wanted to bring the sunshine of Easter into the darkness of a lost city that is so much like the lost one...

As we wrap up this series, we are going to look at what I believe is probably the most misunderstood, misused, and misapplied verse in the entire Bible. By the way, it is not just unbelievers who misapply it and misunderstand it, but sadly many believers make the same mistake. This verse is in regard to judgmentalism. People equate the church today with a holier-than-thou attitude that screams wha...

Bigotry and prejudice is both an attitude and an action. You either see yourself as superior to someone else or someone else is inferior to you, and this mindset is going to lead you to treat them in a bigoted, prejudicial fashion. Everybody likes to say for the most part, “I’m not a bigot” and pretend that we are always totally objective, but the truth of the matter is we are not, even though we...

When it comes to understanding how Scripture and science are connected, many people simply say that the Bible is not a scientific textbook (which is true), and the Bible was not written primarily to teach us about science (which is also true). So, even if the Bible may be completely wrong when it comes to science, we can trust it when it comes to the more important questions of life and death and...

It is by consensus the number one reason people don’t come to church, criticize the church, and have no use for the church. Every church has hypocrites. Frankly, that shouldn’t really be surprising. The movement that Jesus started produced many hypocrites. As a matter of fact, being the largest religion in the world, Christianity has probably produced more hypocrites than any other movement in his...

Have you ever asked the question, “If God is good, why does He allow evil and suffering to happen in the world?” It’s a question many have asked, and sadly, many don’t know how to answer it. But in this message, I want us to take a look at the story of a man named Asaph as we try to find a way to answer this question that haunts humankind, Christian or not. Asaph was playing by the rules, doing li...

When we get to heaven and we stand before the Lord, I am convinced that one question he is going to ask us individually and as a church is this one simple question, “You only had one job. Did you do it?” We don’t have to wonder what that one job is because Jesus clearly spelled it out. What he is about to say is not just to pastors, preachers, professors, priests or professionals. He is talking to...

We are in a series we have been calling “Lost in Translation.” We have been dealing with some big biblical words that even many Christians don’t really understand the meaning of; they get lost in translation. Sanctification is one of the most important biblical words, but we don’t hear much about it anymore. However, even though this word is not talked about nearly enough, it is so important that...

There is no greater illustration in the Bible of a complete and total conversion than of a man by the name of Paul. In fact, it may be the most famous conversion in history. His conversion is well documented. It is talked about in detail three times in the Book of Acts. In fact, the story of Paul’s conversion occupies more space in the New Testament than any other event except the crucifixion of J...

As we continue our series entitled “Lost In Translation,” we are going to answer the question, “What is repentance?” It is imperative that we understand this concept because the word is mentioned nine hundred sixty-nine times in the Bible. When God talks about something once it is a big deal, but if He talks about it almost a thousand times it had better get our attention! Sadly, the word “repenta...

Today, we’re going to kick this series off by talking about where salvation begins, and that is with regeneration. Regeneration is where God gives a person who is spiritually dead spiritual life so they can truly see the truth with their eyes, hear the truth with their ears, and respond to the truth with their heart. Simply put, without this new birth, no matter what else you do, no matter what el...

Fasting is something we honestly know very little about and we don’t practice it very much. We know a lot about feasting, but we don’t know a lot about fasting, which, in a way, I get. On any given day, I would choose a feast over a fast anytime. Yet, if we want to be on the right side of history, we need to learn about fasting and we need to understand why it is a discipline we should experience....