Podcast
Touching Lives with Dr. James Merritt Audio Podcast
Hosted by Dr. James Merritt · EN
Under the leadership and dynamic preaching of Dr. James Merritt, Touching Lives exists to touch the lives of the lost and enrich the faith of the found. Our goal is to present the eternal, never-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ to all who would hear and pray for the Holy Spirit to move mightily among His people.
Touching Lives is currently broadcast in all 50 states and in over 140 countries around the world. All sermons, articles, and other content is made available through various digital media formats on the web. Literally millions of people have been affected through the ministry of Touching Lives with thousands responding to the Gospel of Jesus for the very first time.
32episodes
Episodes
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Sin Can’t Win
2w ago00:40:31Tap to summarizeIf you have truly given your life to Jesus, there is a question you have probably asked more than once: If I am really saved, why do I still sin? The fact that the question bothers you is itself a mark of genuine faith. A person who doesn’t know Jesus wouldn’t be troubled by it. Augustine gave the best answer over 1,600 years ago: “During this earthly pilgrimage our life cannot be free from temptation, for none of us comes to know ourselves except through the experience of temptation, nor can we be crowned until we have come through victorious ….” The battle is real, and the Apostle John knows it. But the fantastic news is that in the end, sin can’t win. Salvation comes in three tenses: We have been saved from the penalty of sin (our past), we are being saved from the power of sin (our present), and one day we will be saved from the very presence of sin (our future). John gives us three truths in 1 John 3:4–10 that show why daily victory over sin is not just a hope but a real and present possibility for every believer.
Transcribe →Total Package
3w ago00:44:19Tap to summarizeImagine being a child in an orphanage. You have no name, no family, no certainty about tomorrow. Then one day a family walks in, looks across a room full of children, and points to you. “We want you,” they say. In that moment, you might think only of the bare minimum: a roof, food, someone looking out for you. But you wouldn’t yet understand the total package of a permanent name, the unconditional love, and the full inheritance of being truly adopted. That is the picture John is painting in 1 John 3:1 when he writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (ESV). That first word, “See,” is better translated “Behold!” or “Stop everything and look at this.” The word John uses for “what kind” of love means literally “out of this world.” In three verses, John answers the three deepest questions every human being carries: Who am I? Where am I going? Why am I here? The answer to each one is bound up in what you receive because of Jesus.
Transcribe →Bulletproof
4w ago00:41:06Tap to summarizeOn September 19, 2010, Army EOD technician Brian Mast stepped on an IED in Afghanistan and lost both legs above the knee and a finger. He lived because a Level IV body armor plate stopped a large fragment from reaching his heart. He said, “That plate took the hit so my heart didn’t have to.” He calls September 19th his “Alive Day.” We too walk through a world with an unseen enemy—the spirit of antichrist—always looking to fire weapons we never see coming. In 1 John 2:18, John gives us fair warning: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (ESV). Antichrist is not only a coming person; it is a philosophy alive in the world right now, and its whole purpose is to deceive the sinner and defeat the saint. John’s answer is one word he uses several times in this passage: abide. There is a bulletproof vest available to every believer, made of three layers: the Word of God, the Son of God, and the Spirit of God, and putting it on is a daily choice.
Transcribe →Do You Know God?
Jul 500:37:25Tap to summarizeThe quiz show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? reminded millions of Americans of the humbling truth that the average person knows less than a ten-millionth of one percent of all available knowledge. Even the greatest genius walks through life with only a small bucket of understanding in an ocean of what could be known. But John cuts through all of that and asks the one question that actually determines where you spend eternity: Do you know God? In 1 John 2:3, he writes, “And by this we know that we have come to know him …” (ESV). In fact, of all the things you could know in this world, the only one that ultimately matters is Who you know. Knowing God is not just possible; it is meant to be certain. John gives us three signs, visible in how we live, how we look, and how we love, that confirm we truly do.
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Conversion: Total Transformation
Jun 2800:46:30Tap to summarizeWhat if understanding one biblical word could change everything about your relationship with God? In the comic strip Peanuts, Lucy fears a thunderstorm might flood the world, but Linus reassures her by explaining God’s promise to Noah and the rainbow as a guarantee. Lucy says Linus has really reassured her, and Linus says, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.” Indeed, the church desperately needs sound theology today, especially about salvation—what the entire Bible is all about. In our “Lost in Translation” series, we’re defining key biblical words that many Christians don’t really understand. Today’s topic emerges in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, a highly religious Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, to whom Jesus delivered a shocking message: “You must be born again.” This conversation reveals where salvation begins—with regeneration, the miracle where God gives spiritually dead people spiritual life.
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Don't Kid Yourself
Jun 2100:47:35Tap to summarizeHave you ever heard of the placebo effect? It is what happens when a person’s health improves not because of any real treatment, but simply because they believed it would work. Most delusions are harmless, but Jesus warned about one kind that carries eternal consequences. And He is not talking to atheists or agnostics in this passage. He is not talking about those who are far from God; He is talking about people who walked an aisle, filled out a card, said a prayer, got baptized, and were absolutely convinced they were on the right road. As He closed the Sermon on the Mount, He said the most sobering words I have ever read: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21, NIV). Three warnings from Jesus will help you make absolutely certain you are not kidding yourself.
Transcribe →Counterfeit Prophets
Jun 1400:47:37Tap to summarizeIn 1971, a boy named David Vetter was placed into a germ-free protective bubble within seconds of being born. His immune system just did not work, leaving him with no ability to fight off even the most common germ or illness. Reading that story, I found myself wishing I could put the Church in a bubble just like it, where every piece of false teaching would be automatically filtered out. But Jesus made it clear that that is not the world we live in. As He neared the end of the Sermon on the Mount, He gave His highest spiritual alert, not about a danger coming from outside the Church but from within it: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matthew 7:15, NIV). Three steps from Jesus Himself will equip you to recognize a counterfeit prophet, reject their teaching, and never be fooled.
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Knowing God
Jun 700:41:00Tap to summarizeWhat if the most brilliant mind of the 20th century was completely wrong about the most important question in life? Albert Einstein was named “Person of the Century” by Time Magazine, and his influence is everywhere you look today— from the atomic bomb to your smartphone. But as brilliant as he was in scientific theory, he unfortunately missed it when it came to spiritual theology. Even though Einstein believed in a being with “superior reasoning power,” he said, “There is a God, but we could never know Him.” I’m certainly no Einstein when it comes to IQ, but I thankfully and joyfully disagree with what he said. There is a God, and His Word declares that He can be known. The incredible truth is this: You don’t have to be a pastor or have outstanding character to know Him. Anyone can know God. That is the beginning of understanding the truth about yourself and the world. But first, you’ve got to remove the one barrier that keeps most people from ever knowing God, discover the one thing God actually wants you to boast about, and understand exactly who this God is that you can know.
Transcribe →Battle Stations
May 3100:32:20Tap to summarizePresident Calvin Coolidge, known as “Silent Cal” for how rarely he spoke on anything, was once asked after church what the preacher had talked about in his sermon. “Sin,” Coolidge said. The reporter pressed: “Well, what did he say about it?” Coolidge replied: “He was against it.” That covers it pretty well. God is against sin. His Word is against sin. His holiness is against sin. And the cross of Jesus Christ is what God did about sin. In I John, the Apostle writes to two groups of people: those who believe they’re saved but aren’t, and those who are saved but aren’t sure they are. John is now going to deal with a problem that vexes every believer, and the closer you walk with God, the more it frustrates you: the daily battle with sin. Every single day of your Christian life is a battle. And John has three profoundly encouraging truths to take with you to your battle station and help you win.
Transcribe →Is Your Light On?
May 2400:44:50Tap to summarizeDid you know that if the sun’s light ceased, the earth would freeze within days? All plant life would die, the oxygen would collapse, and humanity would perish within weeks, leaving our planet a frozen, silent slab of rock. That is how foundational light is to every form of life. One of the greatest statements Jesus ever made speaks to how essential He is to the cosmos, the culture, and our own souls: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12, NIV). John picks up that truth in 1 John 1:5–10 and makes it deeply personal, asking us to do something harder than just flipping a switch for illumination. We are to honestly ask whether we are walking in the light or just saying that we are. There are four things John tells us we must keep doing if God’s light is truly living in us.
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