Bonded by Belief

In the vast landscape of modern Christianity, there exists a silent epidemic. It is a condition that afflicts millions of believers who sit in pews every Sunday, listen to worship music, and mentally assent to the truths of the Bible, yet live with a gnawing sense of spiritual hollowness. It is the phenomenon of the "distant God." You know you are saved. You know heaven is your destination. Yet, as Pastor Sam Merigala poignantly articulates in his sermon, "God feels far away most of the time. Your prayers feel like they hit the ceiling. Your Bible reading feels mechanical". Why is this? Why does a faith that promises "abundant life" often feel so dry? In his transformative sermon titled "Knowing God Vs. Walking With God," part of the Walking in Agreement with God series, Pastor Sam Merigala performs a spiritual surgery on this very issue. He exposes a critical theological and practical confusion that has left countless believers living in ...

 In the darkest moments of human experience - standing beside a hospital bed, navigating the wreckage of a financial collapse, or mourning at a funeral - there is a phrase that echoes through the corridors of our churches and homes. It is whispered with good intentions and received with a desperate hope for solace: "God is in control." On the surface, this declaration feels spiritual and comforting. It serves as an emotional anchor in the storm, suggesting that a benevolent hand is steering the ship of our lives through chaos. However, Pastor Sam Merigala presents a radical and potentially life-altering challenge to this widely accepted sentiment. He posits that while this statement is repeated without examination, it may actually be only half true, and the missing half is the very reason why so many prayers remain unanswered and why faith often feels passive and powerless. In his sermon, Pastor Merigala uncovers a profound theological problem: the phrase "God is in con...

Beloved brothers and sisters, as we gather in the presence of the Lord, we must address a silent epidemic that has swept through the Body of Christ. There is a reason you often feel a distinct pressure to remain quiet during corporate worship. There is a reason that, even when your spirit leaps within you, your throat tightens when you want to shout "Amen" or lift a cry of praise. We have been conditioned to believe this hesitation is merely social anxiety or a desire to be polite, but Pastor Sam Merigala identifies this phenomenon as something far more sinister. Satan knows something about your voice in corporate worship that the modern church has largely forgotten. If you walk into most sanctuaries today, you will witness a strange and troubling sight: a congregation sitting in near silence, observing a single person preach, a single person pray, and a select few sing. Over the decades, this passivity has been "baptized as reverence," packaged as "respect,...

Dear brothers and sisters, and to all seeking the deeper truths of existence, I welcome you. Today, we must address a spiritual tragedy that has quietly unfolded within the sanctuary of our hearts and the halls of our churches. We stand upon the precipice of a revelation that has the potential to alter the trajectory of your prayer life and, indeed, your very walk with God. As we journey through the profound theological insights presented in the sermon by Pastor Sam Merigala, we find ourselves confronted with a question that demands an answer: Have we taken a weapon of war and turned it into mere punctuation? For too long, the Body of Christ has suffered from a dilution of its vocabulary. We speak words of immense heritage and power with the casual indifference of a routine greeting. Pastor Sam Merigala opens our eyes to a startling reality: the word "Amen" has been reduced by the modern church to a "period at the end of a sentence". It is treated as a signal that ...

Dear brothers and sisters, and to all seeking the truth of the Kingdom of God, grace and peace be multiplied unto you. As a student of the Holy Scriptures, I have often wept over the condition of the modern church. We see a landscape populated by sincere, distinctive lovers of God who, despite their fervor, live in a state of perpetual defeat. Every Sunday, across the globe, millions of voices rise to heaven, pleading for provision, begging for a touch of healing, and hoping for a drop of favor. Yet, for so many, the heavens seem as brass, and the breakthrough remains elusive. Why is this? Is God stingy? Is His arm too short to save? Or is it possible, as we journey through the profound insights delivered by Pastor Sam Merigala in his sermon "Blessed Beyond Earthly Limits," that our entire approach to God has been fundamentally flawed? The Crisis of Unanswered Prayer In this recent sermon, Pastor Merigala exposes a misunderstanding that is robbing believers of the abundant l...

Beloved friends, brothers, and sisters in Christ, and to all who are seeking truth: grace and peace be unto you. As we stand at the precipice of our lives, constantly moving from one season to the next, we are often consumed by the desire for progress. We want to move forward. We want to advance. Yet, in our spiritual haste, we often neglect the fundamental mechanics of spiritual motion. We attempt to run before we have learned to stand, and we attempt to journey before we have established our bearings. The Eternal Question In his profound sermon, "Walking in Agreement With God," delivered at the threshold of a new year, Pastor Sam Merigala confronts us with a piercing interrogative from the prophet Amos: "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3). This is not merely a poetic musing; it is a theological anchor. It suggests that spiritual intimacy is not a product of accident, but of alignment. As we delve into the depths of this teaching, let us ope...