Touching Lives With Dr. James Merritt

We have been studying a man by the name of Moses in a series we are calling, “Red Sea Moments.” This great man of God was facing a Red Sea moment when he came to his own level of stress. He is leading two million of his people through wilderness and desert and they are burning up at times at the way he is doing it, and he is burning out trying. In the 18th chapter of Exodus, Moses had a moment and a meeting that didn’t just change his life, but it literally saved his life and helped him complete his tasks. It is not only very practical, but it is very spiritual. If you feel overworked and overwhelmed, now’s the time to admit it, because you will never be the father, the mother, the husband, the wife, the employee, or even the Christian that you should be as long as you stay there. Moses took three simple steps that kept him from burning out that you can take as well.

One of the things that you will see throughout the books of Exodus and Numbers is how much complaining and griping the Israelites did. At different times in Exodus and Numbers, Moses and the Lord had to listen to their complaints. Every one of them had to do with food, drink, and living conditions. You have to wonder why God let his people get thirsty and then in this chapter he lets them get hungry. Why does God let us go through times of need, hardship, and difficulty? Because God is trying to teach us what He is trying to teach them and that is every single day of your life you live from His hand to your mouth. In this message, we are going to learn five things about God and about our daily life that I pray will lead us to be people not of griping, but gratitude, not of complaining, but celebrating.

As we look today in the book of Exodus in chapter 14, we are going to read about the most celebrated event in Jewish history. Two movies have been made concerning this event and two words are all you need to know – The Exodus. If you had been standing where Moses was standing, you would have said, “This is the end of the line. We need to get our affairs in order. It’s over.” Normally, I wouldn’t spoil the ending by telling you what happens, but most of you already know it. God parts the Red Sea. The children of Israel pass through. He then closes the waters back on the Egyptian army, drowns them, and saves the day. The same God that came through for Moses and the nation of Israel is alive and well and wants to come through for you. In this message, we are going to learn what we need to do when our back is against the wall, just like Moses’ was.

You may be asking, “What does a burning bush or a Red Sea or a man named Moses have to do with me?” You will learn the answer to this question throughout this series as we discover that we all have Red Sea moments. We all come face-to-face at times with burning bushes. Moses is a lot like all of us and the God of Moses is still alive today and wants to move in your life the same way He moved in his. You are going to learn three lessons today that will teach you don’t ever beat around a bush that calls your name. If you feel like you are living on the backside of the desert and nobody knows about your life or cares about it, and you even feel like God has forgotten you, take these three lessons to heart.

When Moses was born, Israel had become slaves in the land of Egypt, but that wasn’t always the case. Because of a great man named Joseph, the Egyptian pharaoh had basically adopted them into the nation, giving them favored status and the full rights of citizenship. Four hundred years had passed and now Israel had two big problems. There was a pharaoh that had forgotten who Joseph was, but even more importantly, the nation of Israel had forgotten who God was. It was in that situation that a baby was born that changed everything. Israel needed a miracle, and thatmiracle came in the form of a baby, a baby named Moses. And as we read his story, we will see that three things were true of Moses that are true of you.

Many people have doubts that there is life after death. But in this message, I’m going to show you why I believe there is more after this life than this life. Yes, there is more to come because death is both an end and a beginning. As we look at what the Bible has to say and what Jesus had to say about life after death, we’ll learn three things. Let’s dive in.

What Jesus said in today’s key verses is true: there is exactly a zero percent chance of anybody getting to God if they don’t go through Jesus. It is not that you have a little chance or some chance – you have no chance. At the end of the day, there is only one way to God. If that is true, then we have to draw three conclusions. Let’s look at those conclusions together.

When it comes to all the fights that we face, all the failures that we have, and all the faults that we battle, we have a Savior who is absolutely perfect and who can bring sympathy and empathy to help us deal with how we feel. Simply put, whatever you are going through, Jesus will get you through. In today’s key passage of Scripture, we are told three facts about Jesus that let us know that this is true. Let’s dive into those facts now.

A man named Aleph wrote the longest chapter in the Bible: Psalm 119. In this psalm, he makes a very bold statement about God. “You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees” (Psalm 119:68). He said unequivocally, “God is good and God does good.” So why should we believe him? I can tell you in one simple sentence. There is good because God is good. On the other hand, let me put that negatively. If there is no God, there is no good. With that in mind, I want to give you some reasons why we should believe in Good God Almighty.

Many of us remember the song, “Jesus Loves Me.” If you remember the song you know that famous line, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” I want to change that slightly and give you this sermon in a sentence. Here it is, “God loves me, this I know, for the cross shows me so.” In a book called “Romans,” an apostle named Paul wrote down one of the most incredible sentences in the entire Bible which forever puts to rest the question as to whether or not God loves us. God’s love is not just a “say-so” love. It is a “show-so” love. I can say with 100% confidence, “Yes, God loves us, for the following reasons…”

As we continue to address different doubts that people struggle with, today we’re going to tackle the existence of God. I love the way Albert Einstein said it when he stated, “You look at this world and you will see outstanding evidence for God.” I am going to show you today why I believe that is true and that he knew what he was talking about.

Today, we are going to be addressing this specific doubt that so many people have: “I doubt the Bible is the Word of God.” If that is a doubt you’re struggling with, you should at least consider the case of why 2 billion people absolutely believe the Bible is the Word of God. My point is this, “The word of God is as good as God’s Word.” Jesus Himself believed you not only could take the Bible as God’s Word, but God is as good as His Word because he said, “Your word is truth,” (John 17:17). So, if the Bible is God’s Word, there are certain reasons why we should believe it is when we examine it. Let me give you five of those reasons right now.

There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt asks questions while unbelief won’t even listen to answers. In this message, we are going to study a man in the Bible who had such a problem with doubt he was even given the most famous nickname of any disciple. He is called “Doubting Thomas.” I feel sorry for Thomas because I think he has gotten a little bit of a bad rap. He was a doubter, but he teaches us how to deal with doubt. He is able to starve his doubt and feed his faith and he shows us exactly how to do this. If you’re struggling with doubt today, I would encourage you to take notes on these five steps.

Today, we are going to deal with the doubt people have about Jesus being raised from the dead. Either like every other person who has lived and died, Jesus is still dead or he is physically still alive. A man named Paul went through unbelievable torture, hardship, and finally a beheading because he preached and believed and would not deny that Jesus Christ was alive. In a letter he wrote to a church in Corinth, he laid out what would be true if Jesus was not alive and if everything he said was either an intentional lie or a bad mistake. If Jesus is not alive it has a tremendous impact on whether you are a believer or not. If Jesus is dead nothing else matters, but if He is alive it is the only thing that matters. Knowing that either He was raised or He wasn’t, I want us to answer two questions in this message. When we are finished, I can assure you that your doubt will be destroyed and your faith will be fortified. 

A man by the name of Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. And in that book, he was saying that all that you do for God and with God is serious business, so you had better be serious about what you choose to do. Then he tells us how to do serious business with God and what that looks like practically as followers of Jesus. In this message, we are going to look at Solomon’s instructions and learn more about how to take care of business with God.

The prayer we are going to study today is found in a book called Colossians. This prayer is particularly unique because, in the first two prayers that we examined, Paul was praying for churches he had actually founded or visited and for Christians that he personally knew. In today’s prayer, Paul is writing to a church he has never visited. He has never met one Christian in this city. Yet, without knowing a single name or a single need he prayed a perfect prayer for not just this church and not just these people, but for any church and any people. I call it a “Carpe Diem” prayer. If you are familiar with that phrase, you know it means “seize the day.” I don’t know of any prayer that we could pray daily that could do more in us, for us, with us, and through us than this prayer. We all want to pray the types of prayer that we are one hundred percent convinced that God not only hears, but God would agree with and God would answer. This prayer fits the bill.

In this series, we are learning that Paul prayed about things most of us never even think about. I know his prayers got to heaven because they began in heaven. And one of these things Paul prayed about was the fact that God wants us to be growing up in our going up. In today’s key verses, the prayer that Paul prayed (if prayed and answered) will radically change any life, any church, and any denomination. The way Paul prayed for the Christians in Philippians is the way that we should all be praying for our church, our spouse, our children, our families, and ourselves.

In today’s key text, Paul is writing from a Roman prison, and he tells the Ephesians how he is praying for them. He also tells them how they can pray for themselves. It’s this type of prayer we know is a prayer that will connect with God. This is a prayer that God will hear, and God will answer. Interestingly, the prayer is all about one simple thing – knowing God. There are four things we should pray for on a daily basis, and when we pray these four things, we will be praying a life-changing type of prayer.

Today, we are dealing with the phenomenon of transgenderism. The percentage of people that identify as transgender in the United States varies somewhere between 0.3 and 0.6%. To deal with this issue, in my study, I’ve determined as a follower of Jesus that there are three things we have to consider as we talk about this issue: feelings, fact, and faith. Or to put it another way, you have to talk about transgender and psychology, transgender and biology, and transgender and theology. We’re going to look at all three of these in today’s message, so let’s dive in.

When you read the phrase, “pro-life” you think about two things – right? Abortion and politics. Well in this message, I am going to leave the politics out of it. I want to make the case today that the pro-life position is truly the only logical, biological, and theological position that you can take if you are willing to face the truth. The thing I want you to keep in mind today is this – the right to life is the right side for life.