Touching Lives with Dr. James Merritt Audio Podcast

If you're going to follow Jesus, you're going to have to live a second-mile life. I will tell you right now it's not a popular mile. If you walk this mile, you'll be in the minority. If you walk this mile, it will tax you and test you and try you like no other mile you'll ever walk. But if you do walk this mile, which is over and above what everybody else walks, it will lead you to the greatest joy, the most fulfilling achievements, the finest rewards, and the approval of your Heavenly Father. It's a higher road. It is a tougher road, but it is the better road.

We’ve all had to put on a brave face at some point in our lives when we received a Christmas gift that wasn’t exactly what we wanted. But then, we’ve all received those perfect gifts too: the ones that show someone really saw us, really knew what we needed. In a way, these gifts remind us of the perfect gift that all of humanity received in Jesus—a gift prepared for us personally and purposefully. Today, let’s look deeper at our Savior, our greatest gift, as we reflect on Luke 2:11.

As Christmas approaches, it’s easy to feel surrounded by cheer— festive songs, colorful lights, and gatherings with loved ones. But for many, this season is far from “the most wonderful time of the year.” Studies show a majority of Americans feel loneliness and sadness during the holidays, and the post-Thanksgiving Monday is a peak day for appointments related to anxiety and depression. In this series, we’re learning how Christmas can bring comfort amid the hardships of life. The message of Christmas is not just joy, but comfort—rooted in God’s light and His invitation for us to be eternally right with Him.

John’s letter in 1 John opens by diving straight into the significance of Jesus. John’s focus is on the true comfort and joy that Christ’s coming brings. With this in mind, we’ll explore three ways to take joy in Christmas: the historical reality of Jesus, the heavenly identity of Jesus, and the holy community Jesus invites us into. These truths are foundational to experiencing a joy that goes beyond the Christmas season.

Being thankful is so important to God that He actually commands us to be thankful. A man in the New Testament by the name of Paul went through a tremendous amount of suffering and heartache that would cause anybody to be bitter and ungrateful and maybe even mad at God. He wrote these words, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thessalonians 5:18) You may not feel very thankful right now because of where you are in your life. Even though you may not feel thankful you can be thankful. This great man tells us how to be thankful and why to be thankful. 

When it comes to the gospel, silence is sinful. When we've experienced the love of God, surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ, been fed the bread of life, and tasted the living water, we can’t keep what we’ve experienced to ourselves. It's time for us to say something for the sake of growing God’s Kingdom. In today’s message, we're going to learn today how to make sure we speak up and don’t shy away from sharing our faith.

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes on the matter of honesty, and we desperately need it. As we look at this passage in Matthew 5, here is the key thought that Jesus is giving us. Let the words “you” and “true” always go together. To help us make sure that happens, Jesus tells us three things to remember not just on telling the truth, but how to do it.

In Jesus’ day, divorce was more commonplace than you would have imagined and there was a great debate about when divorce was even allowed. It wasn’t incidental that Jesus had just finished talking about lust when He started to talk about divorce. Lust causes adultery and now shockingly, He is going to say that divorce and remarriage can do the exact same thing. Jesus is going to remind us that God’s ideal is one man and one wife for one life. It should be “’til death do us part.” There are two things that Jesus asks us to do when it comes to the topic of divorce. Let's dive into those together.

From today’s key passage of Scripture, we’re going to see how adultery is not only a sin in the bed, but it is a sin in the head. Adultery can be both physical and mental. It can be both on the inside and the outside. In a day and age where sexual immorality is running rampant, not only are marriages being ruined, but even the very concept of a biblical marriage is being tainted. Thankfully, Jesus gives us three principles to remember so we can guard against this terrible sin of adultery and avoid the look that kills.

In today’s key passage, Paul reminds Christians then and now of an important truth to remember. The God that gives us grace also gives us government. So with that in mind, how are we to relate to the government? That’s exactly what we’re going to discuss in this message. Let’s dive in.