Touching Lives With Dr. James Merritt

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 we’re going to look at, Jesus says there are three things that we need to do as we call out counterfeits, including the times we may be counterfeit ourselves.

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 twenty-first chapter of Matthew. In John, he cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry and in Matthew he did it at the end of his ministry. This story answers the two questions, “What made him angry?” and “Who was his anger directed toward?”

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 be the parents we ought to be. 

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 prayer is that you will listen to this message with an open heart and sensitive ears to what God has to say in order to avoid getting stuck in no man’s land. The sermon in a sentence is this – in the Christian life, sitting on the fence is the wrong side of the fence.

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 absolutely nothing negative to say about this church. It wasn’t a perfect church, but it was a blameless church. So as we take a closer look at the church in Philadelphia, we are going to learn this lesson: when you stand true to God, God will come through for you. When we stand true to God, three things happen. Let’s look at those three things together.

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 steps we must take first of all to determine just how alive our Christian faith is and what we must do to be resurrected. Death may be fatal, but it is never final if we turn back to Jesus. As we examine ourselves, notice the fourfold prescription Jesus gives to get a church (or your faith) off the machine and alive again.

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 said, it’s a tough task to be a mom, but thankfully Scripture gives us a great picture of what it looks like to be a model mom. In this message, we’re going to look at this example and learn from this model mom how to navigate through the tough times of life in such a way that the peace of God will comfort you, the joy of God will bless you, and the power of God will strengthen you.

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 their thinking, but what they were really doing was stretching their conscience. They were choosing compromise over conviction. They were choosing comfort over confrontation. They were choosing peace over principle. In light of this, we are going to learn that when you tolerate what is wrong, you will always contaminate what is right. So in order to help us not fail the tolerance test, the Lord does three things that we need to know how to respond to correctly.

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 is how to deal with the devil and not succumb to his tactics and schemes. So as we dive into this section of Scripture, we’ll learn that lesson by looking at three specific things Jesus addressed in His letter to the church in Pergamum. 

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 remembered. It is this sermon in a sentence - Whatever you are going through, remember who you are coming to. I don’t know what you are going through right now, but whatever it is, I want to give you four things to remember and to live by in the midst of whatever pressure you’re currently facing. 

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 we live in today. As we study his words, are going to learn why that empty tomb has such grave significance and how we can most effectively present the gospel to the world. 

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 what they are against and whispers what they are for. They hear the criticism, but they don’t see the compassion. They hear the condemnation; they don’t feel the care. And I humbly admit for a good bit of this we are guilty as charged. So, we are going to dive into what Jesus said and what Jesus didn’t say about this whole matter of judging so that we can make sure we’re not only interpreting Scripture correctly but that we’re also living out Scripture correctly so as not to turn others away from the church. 

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 want to be. This is not a problem just for the modern church. The early church dealt with the problem of prejudice and the bias of bigotry a thousand years ago. James, the brother of Jesus, actually dealt with this problem in a book he wrote by his name. Today, when we think of bigotry we think primarily in terms of race, but in this particular case this was the prejudice of affluence and achievement, not of ancestry, but as you are going to see what James said to the church applies perfectly to any kind of bigotry including racial prejudice and racism. James does us a huge favor. He shares with us, not just what a b

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 eternity. That sounds good in theory, but it is completely wrong. When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about the physical process of birth, He makes this incredible statement, “If you won’t believe what I say about earthly matters, why would I expect you to believe what I say about heavenly matters?” It is a fair question. If I cannot rely on the Bible when it touches on any subject like history, science, morality, or philosophy then how can I trust it when it comes to theology? Those are the questions I want us to consider as we dive into this message. 

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 history. The word “hypocrites” is used seventeen times in the New Testament and every time it is used by Jesus. Nobody used it or talked about it as much as he did, who first critiqued religious hypocrisy in a way that shaped the way we look at it and made it such a negative term. In the Sermon on the Mount, He dealt with this issue of hypocrisy head-on and shared with his disciples then and his followers now how to avoid holy hypocrisy. If we are going to break down barriers and build bridges to unbelievers and especially the next generation, Jesus tells us three things we have to do. 

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 life by the numbers, went to church, paid his taxes, didn’t cheat on his business deals, was a good dad and husband, and always tried to do the right thing and yet he said, he was “Afflicted, and every morning brought new punishments.” We don’t know whether he struggled with physical disease, financial ruin, or family problems. His thinking was, “What is the use of living right if God is not going to do right and I’m going in the wrong direction?” When we find ourselves in a similar situation, wondering the same things, there are three things we must do. 

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 people of all stripes, all colors, all ethnicities, men, women, rich and poor. We all have the same job. As a follower of Jesus, you are going to understand why we only have one job and why we should always be doing it. 

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 we understand what it means to be sanctified or we are going to be out of the will of God. The word literally means to be set apart. But how does God set us apart? Well, that’s what we’re going to look at in this message – three ways God is working to accomplish our sanctification while we are still here on this earth. 

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 Jesus. It may be the most intense, in-your-face, radical encounter with Jesus in all of the New Testament. But even though Paul has one of the most talked about conversion stories of all time, that doesn’t mean our own stories of conversion are any less miraculous. With that in mind, I want us in today’s message to look at three things that happen anytime someone experiences conversion.