So those things about my preaching ministry have not changed. On the other hand I'm more determined than ever to do everything I can to communicate to a generation which — unlike the generation I grew up in — does not accept the concept of absolute truth, that does come to the Bible with a lot of questions, that is continuously asking the question, "that's all great and that's all good but so what? how does that help me hack it on Monday?" And I'm trying be more sensitive in that area of my preaching.

Preaching: In this particular series are all the sermons doctrinal in nature?

Merritt: No. Well, yes and no. The message I did last week was out of 1 Peter 2:1-3 and the title of it was "Got Milk?" Where Peter talks about milk of the Word. If you want to call it a doctrine, it was on the doctrine of Bible study and the importance of reading your Bible. I even made the statement that of all the series of messages this is the most important one because no matter what else you do — no matter what you take from the other three messages — if you don't put into practice what I'm going to tell you today then none of the rest of it works. I do believe the greatest weapon and the greatest resource we have to handle stress in our lives is getting a hold of God everyday in His Word and letting God speak to us.

So out of 1 Peter 2:1-3, I said that there are three things that you must do consistently if you are indeed going to let this book be a maximum benefit to you. Number one, we must develop a hearing for the Word of God. Peter begins that chapter by saying, "laying aside all malice, evil speaking," The reason why Peter did that is you don't only read the Bible with your eyes — you read it with your heart. If you've got a dirty heart, the Bible will be a closed book to you. Psalm 66:18 says if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me. In other words, if I've got a dirty heart I can't talk to God until I get rid of that dirt. The same thing is also true the other way around: God won't speak to me. If there is sin in my life God's says I've got nothing to say to you until you get rid that sin problem in your life. So I must develop a heart for God's Word.

Number two I must develop a hunger for God's Word, like a new born baby's desire for the milk of the word. I talked about practical ways that you could develop that hunger. Then number three, we must develop a hearing for God's Word. The point I made is that there are only two kinds of babies that don't have any hunger for milk — sick and dead. If you don't have any hunger for the Word of God then it doesn't mean you're not saved necessarily, but if your saved you're a sick Christian and you need to develop an appetite. But it may be the reason you don't have an appetite for God's word is because you've never been saved. You're not a new-born baby. You've never been born again.