Touching Lives With Dr. James Merritt

One of the greatest character qualities you can possess is humility. If you see good character in yourself, then you will be humble about it. Nothing will take you lower than pride, and nothing will lift you higher than humility. In this message, we are going to take a look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and how she was an amazing picture of humility. What made her most blessed and most favored was not just that she was the mother of the Son of God, it was that she was incredibly humble. As we study this story, we are going to see time and time again how God places a supreme value on the sublime virtue of humility. We enjoy the greatest blessings of life today because of a woman who did not go as high as she could, but got as low as she could and because she went as low as she could, she went higher than any woman ever before or since.

Unfortunately, we are living in a world where lying is common, practically expected, and seemingly just the way we do business. But at the end of the day, character is still important, and it still matters. It matters not just morally, ethically, and spiritually, but practically. We began by saying that the foundation of character is integrity. In this message, we are going to learn that the first fruit of integrity is honesty. Integrity is more than just honesty, but there can be no integrity without honesty. There is a man in the Bible who exemplified this trait in an incredible way, and that is Samuel. What elevated Samuel, both in the eyes of God and in the eyes of his people was his absolute, unfailing, uncompromising honesty. What distinguished him was not the high positions that he held, but the honest person that he was.

The first thing that people would know about you if you truly have the right character would be integrity. We are going to study a man who was the epitome of the word “integrity.” It is because of his integrity that we even know who he was and why he has a book in the Bible. His name was Daniel. Anyone familiar with the Bible thinks about Daniel and the lion’s den. But what is important about this story is not that Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den. What’s more important is what happened beforehand that resulted in him being thrown into the lion’s den. This story teaches us three tremendous truths about integrity, why it is so important, and why we must have it.

There are two words in our vocabulary that carry very negative connotations: conflict and confrontation. Now, with few exceptions, most of us don’t like conflict. But we are going to learn from Jesus that neither conflict nor confrontation has to be negative. God can use conflict as an opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ, to bear witness to the Gospel, and to teach other people how to work out their differences. The negativity comes in when the conflict is unresolved and the confrontation that is needed never takes place. The reality is that there are no problems too big to solve, only people too little to solve them. If we would just follow the simple instructions Jesus gave, we could defrost cold marriages, resurrect dead friendships, and restore broken relationships quicker than we could ever imagine.

One of the reasons why we have so little influence with those outside the church is because we are experts at condemning those who are on the outside while cutting slack for those who are on the inside. When people outside the church see us do this, it is no wonder that our light has become a flicker and the salt has lost its flavor. The same exact thing happened to the church at Corinth. And to make matters worse, everybody in the church knew about the problem, but nobody was doing anything about it. The result? The character of the church was compromised, and its witness was weakened. The church needed to lose some baggage. When a church today is in that same situation, there are three steps it must take.

One of the most widespread criticisms of Christians is that we are judgmental. We are told that we sit in the judge’s seat far too often, pointing fingers at those we deem unworthy. But if you think about it, as human beings we’ve all sat in both seats. We’ve sat in the seat of the judge, and we’ve sat in the seat of the judged. While we can all admit that it’s must easier to judge than it is to be judged, the truth is that nobody should be sitting in either seat. Jesus was very clear when He said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). Unfortunately, most people don’t understand what Jesus meant by this statement. Thankfully though, He goes on to explain what He means, and He has a message that those inside and outside the church both need to hear.

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul talks about the importance of ridding yourself of bitterness and instead being kind and forgiving towards others. He says, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind of one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32). The word “forgiveness” literally means “to let go” or “to send away.” It refers to a cancellation of debt. In essence, when somebody does you wrong, they are in your debt. So, forgiveness is your willingness to simply write off that debt. Now, there is not a more difficult decision to make in life than to decide to forgive someone. But Paul is making it clear that God took the biggest debt ever incurred, which are the sins of everyone who has ever lived, and let Jesus Christ pay for them and cancel them. Therefore, we must understand that we should be forgiving people because we are forgiven people.

Franklin D. 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.”  As followers of Christ, we have a divine plan from God himself, to enable us to be the parents, that our children need and to give our children the guidance they deserve.

The word “doxology” comes from two weeks Greek words, one which means “praise” or “glory” and the other one which means “word.” A doxology is literally a word or an expression of praise and glory. To understand Christmas doxology, we turn to a man who unlike the shepherds and (a little later on) the wise men, was not at the birth of Jesus. This man is the apostle Paul. As a writer of Scripture, he never explicitly talks about the birth of Jesus. Unlike the disciples, he never physically met Jesus, but he did meet the risen Jesus. Though he never mentions of the biology of Christmas and doesn’t dwell on the theology of Christmas, he does record the greatest doxology of Christmas. He shows us the full meaning of Christmas. He shows us Christmas completely unwrapped. He tells us the rest of the story.

The hardest thing to believe about Jesus is not how He got here or what He did while He was alive on the earth. The real difficulty is truly understanding Jesus Himself and who He was as God in the flesh. The hard message for many to swallow is not the Good Friday message of atonement, or the Easter message of resurrection, but the Christmas message of incarnation. The first Christmas gift ever given was given by God Himself, and it is the greatest Christmas gift ever given because the gift was God Himself. As we move from Christmas Biology to Christmas Theology, we will learn that Christmas doesn’t just celebrate how Jesus was conceived, but Christmas also celebrates who Jesus was when He was born.

The story of Christmas begins with the virgin birth of Jesus. This virgin birth remains the second-most controversial miracle in all of history, second only to Jesus’ resurrection. Unfortunately, this miracle has been under intense scrutiny by scientists, physicians, and people who simply say common sense tells us this isn’t possible. But as you will see as we begin this study, the virgin birth is essential to Christianity, and if you understand Christmas biology you will see why.

As we conclude our series on Galatians, let’s remember how Paul has emphasized from beginning to end how the cross of Jesus that delivers us from the burden of sin and the bondage of religion. While the entire world wanted to take the focus off of the cross, Paul wanted to put it front and center. So how do we follow Paul’s lead? Well, he gives us three tremendous reasons why all of our focus should be solely on the cross of Jesus Christ.

If I could give one piece of advice to every human being that is born as they begin their life and I knew they would take it, it would be in four words – “don’t waste your life.” It’s not that there is anything wrong with retirement or having nice things and enjoying life. The point is we shouldn’t spend our life majoring on those things or those activities. We should spend our life sowing, serving, and sharing. Paul urged the church in Galatia to not waste their lives as well as he was closing out a letter he wrote to them. Keep in mind the words you are about to read were written by a man who was in prison many times, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, went many times without food or shelter, was robbed and wound up being beheaded. He endured all of it, because he was determined not to waste his life. He gives some tremendous advice which will show you how to be sure you live not a wasted life, but a worthwhile life.

The book of Galatians was written to show how we are not only free from having to keep rules and regulations to be right to God, but we are also free to love others who either don’t know God and need to come to God, or they have come to God but have fallen away. How do we treat people who are broken down, burdened down, and breaking down? How do we make sure as it has been famously said, “We don’t become a museum for saints; we become a hospital for those who are sinning and suffering.” The scripture gives us three pieces of advice.

Whether we think it’s fair or not, there is an increasing antipathy, apathy, and antagonism toward the church and modern Christianity unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our nation’s history. A big part of it is our fault, and it is exactly why a man named Paul wrote the book of Galatians, because the church that had been taught the liberty that comes from faith in Jesus was being tempted to replace it with legalism that comes from trying to keep the law. This problem is still a major issue in the church today, because many Christians believe you have to add “do’s and don’ts” to following Jesus if you want to be a true Christian. But that’s simply not the case. When people walk into a true New Testament church, they ought to find two things: the God of grace and the grace of God. As believers, we must be about the only thing that counts so that unbelievers will see that we understand the only thing that counts.

Every religion is basically trying to answer the same two questions: 1) How do you relate to God?2) How can you have a relationship with God? Not only do all religions ask the same two questions, but they all basically give the same answer – how you live before you die determines where you go after you die. Paul wrote the book of Galatians to show all religious people that if you want to be rightly related to God, you have to lose your religion. Surprisingly enough, focusing too much on being religious and trying to follow all of the rules and laws can actually keep you from ever finding God. Jesus did not come to introduce us to a new religion. He came to deliver us from religion so we could enter into a relationship with God.

The church was meant to be centered around the message that focused on three words: God, grace, and Gospel. The Gospel says everyone can have a relationship with God and be accepted by God because of his grace. Grace was provided by the death, burial, and resurrection of his son, Jesus. However, there were religious leaders in the early church who came in and wanted to add to the list rules, regulations, and restrictions. To this day, there is this battle going on between the relationship crowd and the religion crowd. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he shares the revolutionary message that God wants to accept everyone into his family by grace and the only ticket needed is faith. Because of God, and the grace of God, and the Gospel of God, we are free from the shackles of legalism. We don’t have to be good enough for God, because we can never be good enough for God. Jesus was good enough for all of us. Once we accept Jesus and his free gift of grace, through faith in Him, God completely and totally accepts

There is a phenomenal quote from the movie “Braveheart” that says, “Every man dies, but not every man truly lives.” There is so much truth in this statement because the vast majority of people who live on this earth will live and die in slavery and bondage – in bondage to lust, pornography, jealousy, anger, bitterness, pride, or arrogance. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he talks about how to be free – free from sin, free from self, and free from shame. He explains that this kind of freedom can only be found in Christ, saying, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” (Galatians 2:20).