
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: Acts 2:42-47, Galatians 5:13-15, Romans 15:2, Philippians 2:4, 1 Peter 3:8, 4:10, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Hebrews 6:10
The early church was a picture of people working together. They looked after each other, met one another's needs, put their neighbors before themselves and were more interested in giving than receiving. By their example of serving others, their impact was explosive. In this message, Dr. Merritt helps believers to understand the role of serving others in the body of Christ. What we see in the early church is faith, but not just faith--we see faith in action. Faith is not just something you believe. Faith is something you live. What we observe in Acts 2 is a living, breathing, faith that walks and talks and loves and touches and ministers and shares and serves.
"It is just not our nature to want to focus on someone else’s needs rather than our own.When you take the time and energy to quit focusing on your own needs and start ministering to the needs of others, do you know what you will find will happen? We will all have our needs met together. What God will do is bring someone in to your life that can meet your needs. You’ve got some needs I can meet, but you can’t. I’ve got some needs that you can meet that I can’t, but together we can see that each other’s needs are met if we will have a selfless attitude." --Dr. Merritt
Keywords: serve, service, helping, volunteer, assisting, sincere, love, care, concern, help, share, understand, selfish, selfless, spirit, harmony, sympathy, sacrifice, needs, doing, life, together
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.