At the beginning of the book of Colossians, there is a prayer that Paul prayed for a people whom he had never even seen. It is one of the greatest prayers ever prayed, and it is a perfect model on how you and I can pray for people we don’t even know. If we were to write a book called “Prayer for Dummies” you could write the entire book based on this one prayer. Many times you are praying to God because you really don’t know what you should be saying to God. But this is a one-size-fits-all prayer. It is a prayer you can pray for anybody, anytime, under any circumstances, for family members, friends, and employees. I would ask you to pray this prayer for me and it is a prayer we need to pray for our church. Let’s look at the components Paul includes in this prayer specifically.

Prayer For Dummies

The book of Colossians focuses like a laser beam on the one who created the universe and the one who controls the universe – Jesus Christ. Paul has been laying out the Jesus that Christians believe in and the Jesus that Christians belong to. Now, Paul is going to show us how Christians are to behave like the Jesus they believe in and the Jesus they belong to. In Colossians chapter 4 he shares with us in five verses how we should behave toward others so that others might believe in Jesus. We have a responsibility once we give our lives to Jesus Christ. Once the guardian of the galaxy becomes the God of our hearts, we are to behave toward others like a magnet draws iron so that we will draw people to Jesus.

On Your Best Behavior

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.

Thank You Very Much

Good Friday was the day Jesus died, but Sunday was the day that death died. Some women came to the tomb that day to anoint Jesus’ dead body with spices, which was a Jewish custom. Little did they know they wouldn’t need spices that day. Even though they found the tomb, they didn’t find the body. Nothing has ever fascinated humanity more deeply than the question of whether there is life after death. If it interests you at all, and you have never done your homework, then the subject is not finished until you read what happened on that Sunday morning. As we go back and study the account of the resurrection of Jesus, we are going to see one way we can respond (in fact the way most people respond), but then we are going to see the two ways we should respond.

The Day Death Died

What did Jesus mean by “the abundant life” in today’s key verse? I know what He didn’t mean. It is not a life that is found in stuff, money, possessions, or financial security. When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, every one of them left everything behind. Even though He promised them an abundant life, He never offered them financial security, physical comfort, a retirement plan, health insurance, and certainly no health and wealth gospel. He didn’t even promise them a long life because many of them died early. Here is what He meant. The abundant life (the only life worth living) is a life lived in, through, and for Jesus. In this message, we are going to learn from these disciples as we think about how to live the only life worth living.

What Life Am I Going To Live?

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.

Ephesus: You've Lost That Loving Feeling

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 kingdom of heaven?’” (Matthew 18:1). The disciples thought the ultimate success would be to be chosen as the greatest in the kingdom. In fact, two of the disciples even asked if they could sit on either side of Jesus in the kingdom. The disciples were waiting with bated breath, but Jesus as he was very capable of doing, did something totally unexpected. He bypassed their question, and he did this. “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them” (Matthew 18:2). He said to these twelve disciples, these battle-tested harden veterans who had been with him for three years and thought they had it all together and thought they were ready for primetime, “If you want to catch up to me, you’ve got to first catch up to them.”

Catching Up

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 going to see a group of religious people that thought they were close to God and yet didn’t even know God. And then based on this story, I want to give you three practices to avoid that not only make Jesus angry but hurt his heart.

Cutting In

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.

Gender Reveal

As we continue in our series called “From Here To Eternity,” we are going to talk about the time we will all stand before God to give an account for our life. This is when we will have our day in court. As we learn about this text, keep in mind that when it comes time for you to have your day in court, make sure you know the judge. Let’s dive into Scripture and learn more about this judge and all that we are going to experience in His courtroom one day.

Your Day In Court

So often in our society today, the concept of “truth” is up for debate. What is right? What is wrong? What or who determines right from wrong? These are questions that people are constantly trying to answer. But the truth is, if you try to make right and wrong a matter of human choice, human reason, or human decision, you are out on a limb that will break every time. One of two things is true. Either what is right is right in our eyes or what is right is right in God’s eyes. With this in mind, I want to give you three reasons why only with God can you have morality. Only with God can you know what is right and what is wrong, and only with God can you tell the difference.

As God Sees Fit

I want to ask you a question. When people are around you, do they know who you have been with? I want people to know that when they are around me there is one person I have been with, that I walk with, that I live with, that I stay with every day and His name is Jesus. That raises the big question, “How can people know that I have been with Jesus? What will be true of me and true of you if we have been with Jesus? What are the marks of a person who has been with Jesus?” You are going to see in this message that what was true of these men in Acts chapter 4 can be, should be, and will be true of us if we have been with Jesus.

Who Have You Been With?

The psalmist who wrote today’s key passage of Scripture is encouraging the people not to let history repeat itself, to learn from the mistakes of the past, and to defeat them in the present. In these eight verses, we are going to learn three things that we must do to make disciples of every generation. Simply put, we must always touch the next generation by teaching them and
reaching them with biblical truth.

It All Begins Here

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.

Know God

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.

Growing Up In Your Going Up

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.

Carpe Diem Praying

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.

Taking Care Of Business

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.

He's Alive

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.

The Benefit Of The Doubt

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.

Taking God At His Word

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.

Yes, God Is

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…”

Yes, God Loves You

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.

Good God Almighty

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.

There's More To Come

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.

Only One Way

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.

He Gets Us

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.

Don't Beat Around The Bush

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 that miracle 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.

Miracle In The Mirror

The difference between a church attender and a church member is commitment. Attenders are spectators while members are participants. It's easy to see the difference between the two. But sometimes, it's not so easy to join ourselves with other people. Often, we don't feel like we have anything to contribute. But that's not how God sees it. He sees each of us as a key part of His Body. Learn more with the sermon, Calling Your Bluff. Calling Your Bluff is a part of the All In Sermon Series.

Calling Your Bluff

When you become a Christian, God gives you access to everything you will ever need to live out the incredible plan He has for your life.  When you receive Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you.  And if you’ll allow Him, He’ll do amazing things.  He’ll draw you into a deeper relationship with God, He’ll bond you with brothers and sisters in Christ, and He’ll guide you in every area of your life.

In The Body Experience

When David wrote Psalm 23, we don’t know how many more days, weeks, or years he had left in his life. But he definitely closes on a high note of what his life will be like for however long it lasts and what his life will be like after his life ends. He is looking at both now and forever. In this last stanza of this beautiful song, David shares with us what is true of us or can be true of us if the Lord is our shepherd, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). David basically says two things: one about life and one about death or life after death. These two things will be true of you if the Lord is your shepherd.

Now and Forever

Dr. James Merritt is the host of Touching Lives and one of the most dynamic, Gospel-centered preachers on air today. Dr. Merritt strives each week to deliver God’s truths in a clear and concise manner. His pure passion is to reach lost people all over the world with the life-changing and life-saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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