
In today’s climate of turmoil and uncertainty, threatening and incapacitating feelings run rampant. Yet the God who created your emotions has also given you everything you need to navigate them. The Bible paints relatable and resonant portraits of women and men struggling with grief, anger, guilt, and despair—and provides divine wisdom for transforming your emotional trials into spiritual triumphs.
Scriptures: 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12, 2:19-20, 3 John 1:4, Acts 20:35, Luke 12:34, Psalm 100:2
At key moments in the life of your church, it's important to take a look back at what God has done, and a look forward at what we are praying for God to do or to continue in the life of His Body. In this unconventional message, originally preached at a church milestone, Dr. Merritt talks candidly about his prayerful wishes for the church he shepherds.
"Pastors think a whole lot more about the church than the church thinks about the pastor. After you leave church, for the most part, most of you don’t give me a second thought the rest of the week. You don’t think a whole lot about me. But I think about you all the time. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about this church and about you people who sit in these seats. I will think about not the last few years, but the next few years. So today I want to share five things I would wish for every one of you that would happen, not just in the next few years, but for the rest of your life. Just as a parent has dreams for their children, I have dreams for you. Just as a parent has wishes for their children, I have wishes for you. If I knew that you would carry out only five things that I would wish for you this would be my list..." --Dr. Merritt
Keywords: wishes, prayer, motivation, purpose, past, present, future, church, body, believers, trust, respond, character
Pastors Edge provides Bible preachers and teachers with ready-to-use resources and materials based on the preaching of Dr. James Merritt, Senior Pastor at Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, GA and host of the international broadcast ministry Touching Lives.