The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Don't allow even good things or don't allow even the best things to detract you from God. Regardless of how good it is, regardless of how best it is, don't allow anything to take away from your spirituality, your walk with the Lord, the banquet that God has prepared. Don't allow that to happen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for The Healing Word. Throughout the Bible, God continually invites His people to come into His presence, not because they have earned it, but because of His great love and grace. Today, Pastor Jack Morris reminds us that heaven's invitation is still open. The table has been prepared, the Savior has made the way, and God is calling each of us to draw near. Here is Pastor Morris with "Your Divine Invitation."

Pastor Jack Morris: Last week, I said that praise brings the presence of the Lord, and I want to emphasize that again at the very beginning of this message. When we praise the Lord, when we create an environment of praise around us, when that environment is created, the Holy Spirit enters into that environment every time.

For the Holy Spirit to come and enter into your life this morning and give you a taste of glory divine, you begin to remember the blessings of God somewhere in your life, an answer to prayer, and begin to give thanks. When you start doing that, you create that environment. You create the environment and God's presence comes into that environment. You can have the presence of God anytime you want the presence of God.

I think I need to say that again. Too many people have said, "Pastor, I don't feel God like I used to feel God." You feel God when you begin to give thanks, begin to praise the Lord, create the environment, and God comes every time. Everybody say, "Praise the Lord." Already you feel better, don't you? Just by saying, "Praise the Lord."

Last week, in Psalm 34, we talked about how David was fearing for his life, captured by Abimelech. He was going to die, be executed, and he looked to the Lord. He said, "This poor man cried. This poor man called to the Lord." He called to God, and God came to him. God rescued him. God met his need.

David knew that he was poor in resources to deliver himself or to save his life. He just didn't have the resources, the power, the energy, the mindset, the scheme, or the plan. He said, "I was completely bankrupt. I was at the mercy of God. And when I called, God heard me and delivered me." When this poor man cried.

Then he goes on to say, "Magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together." Meaning what God did for me, God will do for you and anybody who will call upon Him. God will come and God will bless. He said, "Let us do this together, not just me alone, but let us exalt His name." That's what praise is: exalting the name of the Lord. You remember the blessing, you lift His name up, you say, "Thank you, Lord, for that blessing," and you reflect on it and you focus on Him who brought the blessing. Let us do this together.

Then David went one step further. He said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Taste and see. You go ahead and taste. Don't just believe me. Don't just listen to me. Come on, get your own testimony going for you. That's what he is saying. You can do this through praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.

Now, David did not write Psalm 34 at the time of the deliverance. It was sometime later, maybe even months or years later. He looked back and he said, "My, God was with me. I didn't realize it as greatly at the time as I realize it now. But God was with me in a great way." Hindsight is good. Look back and see what God brought you through.

If you knew that you had to go through that, you would have said, "Oh God, I can't do that. I'll never make it. Don't tell me what I'm going to have to go through." If you had told me, Lord, I was going to have to face that trial, that temptation, that difficulty, I would have collapsed. I could have never made it. But looking back, You walked me through it, You were there with me, and here I am today. You just start talking to God and praising the Lord in that manner, and God's presence will come every time.

David is encouraging you and me to experience God for ourselves, to taste and see that the Lord is good. Now, you have an outline in your bulletin, and I want you to take the outline. Look at point A in the outline and write down the word "invitation." The invitation has been sent out. Now, God is inviting everybody. We need now to invite Him to come and to minister to us, and He will do that.

Look at Luke chapter 14, verse 17. Let's just read the whole verse together. Verse 17. Let's hold the Bible up and read it together: "At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'" Now, God is ready to bless at any time we're ready to receive the blessing. We don't have to put Him on notice. We just need to begin to praise and give thanks and worship Him, and the blessing of the Lord will come. He is ready to bless us and to give great things to us. He has told us so. He sent an invitation to every one of us that everything is ready for the blessing of the Lord to come. He's done His part. It's now our turn and to come to the Lord.

David said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." He's inviting us to come. He's saying that everything is ready. And in this parable that the Lord is giving here this morning to us is that everything in this life and in the life to come, every blessing, temporal blessing, eternal blessing, has been prepared. God doesn't have to prepare anything else. It's already like a banquet, like a great dinner, already prepared. All we need to do is to come to the table and begin to partake and experience this blessing that the Lord has for us.

He says, "Come, for everything is now ready." Right now, it's ready for us to receive from the Lord. We don't have to do anything to help Him to prepare it. The table has been set. It's there. It's prepared. You don't have to cook anything. You don't have to even set the table. It's all ready. Dinner's ready. The blessing is ready. Whatever the need is, you don't have to help God. God has done it all. All you and I need to do is to receive and partake of what He has already prepared.

Now, David said, "Taste and see." But I'm sure David realized and God realized that a taste would never suffice. It would only just whet our appetite for more. That's why God made a great banquet and prepared it all, sent out the invitation, because He knew if we sampled it, if we just began to sample praise and sample worship and begin to experience His power and His presence, we would want more. And God is telling us there is more. There is more.

Have you ever gone through the mall or in the eatery somewhere and the person is standing out with a little tray with all those little toothpicks? Taste it. Just taste. They want you to taste it so that they can bring you in and that you would buy the whole meal. And that's what God is wanting us to do. He's got something great and wonderful prepared, already prepared. And the thing is, He's done it. He did it all. There isn't anything left for us to do for our salvation, for the blessing of the Lord. We can't earn it. There's no way we can do something to deserve it. He did it all. God prepared it all. It's already prepared. Say that: "It's already prepared." God already prepared it. Say that: "God already prepared it." It's already prepared.

The other day, I went to the dentist. I had a tooth back here bothering me, and I went in. I have a very good dentist, Dr. Ed Chappelle. This is the man on the camera. Hey, you want to get a shot of him up here? And I'm really difficult with this man. I sat down in the chair, and they put the bib on. Dr. Chappelle came in and he says, "Pastor Morris, how are you today?" very politely. And I said, "I was doing fine until I sat down in this chair." No problem at all.

After it was all over, I saw his mother-in-law, and I told her, I said, "You know, your son-in-law really worked on me and worked on that tooth." And she said, "Yeah," she said, "He's my dentist too." And she said, "Every time I go to him," she said, "He makes the palms of my hands sweat." I said, "He made the palm of my hands sweat, too."

And so, he starts working. Now, I would have been glad to have helped him out. He had some gunk he had to mix up and put in my mouth and take an impression. And then he had the drill, and I thought, "Well, while he's drilling, I could be making the gunk. Or I could be drilling while he's making the gunk."

And he said, "No, you just stay right there. I'm going to do it all. I don't need any help. I'm going to do it all. I know how to do it. I know how to do it right." He got both hands down in my mouth. Both of them. He had an assistant there, and she got both of her hands down in there. He said, "Pastor Morris, you have a little mouth." I thought, "No more. If it'll ever go back into shape." And he fixed it.

But he did it all and he did it all without any of my help. He prepared everything. He did everything. All I had to do was just wait until he got it all done. Now, that's what the Lord has done. The Lord is saying, "You cannot help me bring the blessing. You cannot help me provide you with forgiveness." God says, "You cannot assist me in giving me peace. Your salvation, your peace, your forgiveness, everything is prepared." You say, "Well, if I just knew how." Friends, just receive. Just thank God for what He's already done. Just thank the Lord. The Lord has completed it all. Everything is prepared. All you and I have to do is wait and receive.

Now, let me ask you a question today and you need to answer honestly from a humble heart. Do you need forgiveness? You don't have to wait. Forgiveness is here. The Lord has prepared the forgiveness. On the cross, Jesus called out, "It is finished," meaning your salvation, your eternal home in heaven, everything is completed. You don't have to earn it, work for it, strive for it, yearn for it. All you have to do is say, "Lord, I receive. Thank you for forgiving me. Forgive me of my sins," and your sins are then at that moment completely blotted out.

Do you need peace? Then the Lord has that for you also. There are people with troubled hearts, troubled conscience, troubled homes, troubled marriages, troubled in their family, troubled at where they work. There's just unrest and unpeace. Do you need peace today? Fret no more. He is the Prince of Peace, and He's provided it all. There's nothing that you have to do to receive it.

Do you need strength? You say, "Oh, I feel so weak. I'm worn out. I'm tired. I don't know how to fight back anymore. I've just been fighting this battle, and my energy is now completed." Friend, you don't need to fight or struggle or resist or pressure anymore. The Lord Jesus Christ becomes your strength.

Now, in the book of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament, there's a story about David and Goliath. Remember that story? You learned it as a child in Sunday school. A beautiful, beautiful story. I read that story again just last evening, and I thought that's just about how our troubles are sometimes. Our problems, our difficulties. We feel like we are pigmies before the giant. That giant problem, that giant difficulty. If I could just ever get beyond this, everything's going to be all right. If I could just get over this, everything is going to be all right. You just feel that how can I win?

The scripture told us, tells us in 1 Samuel 17 how that this great giant Goliath, 9 feet tall. Every basketball company or team in the world would want him, wouldn't they? 9 feet tall. Would come out every morning and every afternoon for 40 days. Now, you know, that'd get on anybody's nerves, wouldn't it? 40 days he'd come out. "Give me a man that I might fight with that man. If I win, then Israel serves the Philistines. If that man wins, then the Philistines will serve the Israelites." 40 days he kept saying that, and every time he'd come walking out, all the soldiers of the Israelites would retreat and run for fear.

Well, David, just a shepherd boy, he came one evening carrying his brothers' lunch, and he heard that giant come out. The first time he had heard it. The rest of the people had heard it over and over and over like a broken record. And here David comes out, here's that big giant. And David said, "Why are you letting him get away with that?"

That's what Jesus is asking today. "Why are you allowing those problems to do to you what it's doing to you?" Now, you have a victor today: Jesus. And David said, "Why are you letting that giant do that to you?" He said, "He's an uncircumcised Philistine," meaning he's an unbeliever. He's a heathen. He's a pagan. You are the people of God, David was telling his brothers. You belong to God. You're the people of God's name. And they said, "What do you know? You're just a kid." But the Bible is the Bible, no matter who speaks it.

And David said, "Well, let let me take him on, let me take him on." And he went down to the brook and he gathered five stones. I don't know why he gathered five stones. He only needed one, right? I mean that God will bring the devil down with one shot every time. He really will. He picked up five stones. I suppose that David really truly believed God, but there must have been just a little bit of unbelief there. He thought if I don't get him with the first one, I'll get him with the second. If I don't get him with the second, I'll get him with the third. If I don't get him with the right, I'll get him with the left. But I'll get him! Because he's a heathen.

And we are all intimidated by that giant. But he said, "I'll bring him down." Friend, you don't have to have perfect faith. I think that's what it's telling us today. You don't have to wait until you're just a 100 percent super-duper Christian. You can win today. You can win right now. Say that with me: "I can win right now." I can win right now.

Right now. Right now. And David looked at that giant, and that giant took a look at David, and he couldn't believe what he saw. He looked out at David and he looked at him, and that giant became so embarrassed and humiliated. He said, "You're sending a boy out here against me?" And then he got angry. He said, "You're not going to mock me by sending a child out here. Don't you mock me!"

And he started toward David. Well, that's all he had to do before. All he had to do was just start walking toward the armies and the armies ran. David was way down there in the valley and he saw that giant coming. And David said, "Hey, I'll meet you halfway! Come on, man, I'm ready for you!"

And David called out and he said, "You come on over here." He said, "I'm going to meet you halfway." David said, "You know what I'm going to do to you? I'm going to give your carcass to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field, and then I'm going to cut your head off!" That giant said, "Let me get that boy, let me get ahold of him!" And David wound up and fired that shot in the name of the God of Israel, and down comes Goliath and off goes his head. Friend, cut the head off of that problem today. You can win. You can be victorious. You do not have to be a defeated, whimpering, whining Christian. Come on, say, "Amen." You can win. You can win in the name of the Lord.

And this is what God is telling us today. This is the promise that He has for us. Look at point B in your outline. Write down the word "those." Those who receive the invitation. Now, we're going to look at who the invitation goes to, who the promises go out to, and I want you to turn to Luke chapter 14, and I'm going to ask you to read this verse with me. Luke chapter 14, verse 13. Come on, you got your Bibles? Just hold them up and read it out loud with me. Together: "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind."

The poor. Invite the poor. Now, that's exactly what the Lord is doing. That's exactly what David said happened to him. David said, "This poor man cried to the Lord." See, when you're at the end of your rope and you're at the end of yourself, that might be and that is indeed a good place to be. Then you can't depend on yourself, you can't depend on another. You have only the Lord to depend upon. And that's where God is trying to get us, and maybe that's where some of us are today. Poor. We have no more resources in ourselves. We're just empty. We're poor. We just have Him to look to, and that's who He wants.

God said, "Those poor people, those hungry people, those people that are really in need." Now, that's where you need to be. You need to get to the place where you say, "I need God. I need help. I really need God. I'm too poor. I can't fight this anymore myself. This situation is too big for me."

Then He said, "The crippled." Invite the crippled to come. The crippled. I read that word, and I thought, "You know, that's just about what life has done to a lot of people." Life has crippled a lot of people. A lot of people are really crippled. They just don't have the will anymore. They're just crippled. Life has just taken the spirit out of them. Life has crippled them. That's what problems will do when they hang around too long, when you don't deal with them in the name of the Lord. Now, that's the only way to deal with your problems: in the name of the Lord. If you don't deal with them in the name of the Lord, those problems will just hang over you, and finally they'll cripple you. They'll break your will down. They'll just take the very spirit out of you. You won't be able to go forward at all.

But this is the one the Lord says, "Let me have that person." See, it's to the poor. It's to the empty. It's to the crippled. It's to the people whose wills have been broken. The people that really don't have anything to give, anything to put into it. The Lord says, "I don't want you to put anything into it. I want you to allow me to put into it."

Now, who's the other one? He said, "The lame." You invite the lame people. That's the deformed. There are people today who are deformed in their thinking. There are people that you see a baby born deformed. Life has deformed a lot of Christian people. They have an unforgiving spirit. They have a difficult time trusting anybody. They believe everybody's against them. They believe everybody's out to get them, to subdue them, to bring them down. They just can't even trust anybody, not even their spouse or fellow Christians. There's a deformity in their thinking, and they're always uneasy, always tense. Their life is just deformed. They want to believe, they want to have friends, but there's a deformity there. The Lord says, "Those people need help. I want to help them. You bring those people in."

And then the people, the blind. He said, "I want to talk to the blind people. I want to help the people that are blind." Those people that really have not just a shadow over their life, but they're just blind to spiritual blessings and spiritual things. They just don't seem to see the truth. They have the Bible, they read it, they hear the word, but they're just blind to spiritual things, heavenly things, good things. They're blind to direction in their life. They're just stumbling along before they fall. Just come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Come to me: the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame.

Now, look at point C in your outline. Write down "excuses." Excuses for rejecting the invitation. I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I have seen it, I have been with people who have done it, and I've perhaps done it myself, I'm sure. But all of this banquet, this beautiful, sumptuous banquet for life and for eternity that God has prepared for us, and look at the excuses that they bring. Now, Jesus said these are the excuses. And if Jesus says these are the excuses, then these must be the excuses because Jesus knows life. He knows personality.

Look at these excuses that they bring. Look at verse 18. Come on, read verse 18 out loud with me: "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'" Now, you know, we can turn Jesus off in a very polite way. I mean we can go to church and sing the hymns and then turn Him off right then. We can hear the message and the invitation and just say, "No. No. I'd just rather stay crippled, I'd rather stay poor." Maybe not use those exact words, but by not responding to the invitation, then we are making an excuse not to receive.

And a lot of us will say, "Well, Pastor, you don't know the problem I have." Yes, I do. I may not know exactly what you're going through, but I know Him who can handle the problem and bring the giant down. I know Him, and I want you to know Him. But here they come and they turn Him off with the nicest way. "Please," "Please excuse me," that's what they're saying. And He has a great banquet there to see.

Now, this person in verse 18 asked about buying a field, and he said, "I must go and I must see it." Now, this person is saying, "I have something else to see." Now, notice it says he bought a field. Here are the people who are allowing their businesses to come before the Lord. Their business comes before spirituality. "I have to go take care of my business. Pastor, I'll tell you, I had to work so late Saturday night or I have to get up and go to work Sunday morning. I just don't have an hour and 15 minutes to put in. When I do, I will, but when I don't, I won't. Now, you know I have to provide for my family." Now, here it goes into the excusing.

But Jesus is saying they bought a field. I mean these are people who buy and sell. These are the people who are out there in the marketplace, but they need to be excused, and they really seem to have a legitimate excuse. But they don't have the blessing of the Lord. They have excused themselves in the name of their business, in the name of their enterprise, right out of receiving a blessing. Now, is it there or is it there? Is it? Okay.

Look at verse 19. Here are the people who say, "I have something else to do." Now, come on, read verse 19 with me: "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'" Now, here's a very nice, polite person. These, we might call them a real Christian gentleman, a real Christian lady. "Please excuse me." What are you going to be able to say?

The Lord has an invitation. He's not going to come out there and handcuff you and bring you in and make you eat. It's an invitation. It's an invite. He's mailed out the invitations, and all who receive it will look at it. And I know there are times I'll look at some invitations, I say, "Man, Fran, I'd really like to go, but I don't know how we're going to be able to do it. There's just so many things on the calendar right now." And there are people today who are doing the exact same thing with the blessing of God. They're making excuses.

Now, here's the person that has something else to do. They're full of activity. These are people who are interested in novelty, novelty. "I've got something to do. I've got a new boat, I've got to try that out. I've got a new set of clubs, I want to get out on the golf course and try that out. I've got a new vacation home, I've got to get up and go see that."

Now, look at what it's saying there. Look at verse 19: "I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out." He's going to try them before he tries the blessing of God, before he tries the Word of God. He's got something else to do. He's just interested in novelty, in novel things.

Now, look at the third one here in verse 20. Come on, read verse 20: "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'" Now, that fellow was rude. He didn't even say, "Please excuse me." He just said, "It's a closed book. My wife won't let me go. My wife won't go to church with me. My husband won't go to church with me. My husband won't let me tithe. My wife won't let me." Have you ever heard those kind of things? Want to put it on the spouse.

Now, really what this is saying, now, marriage is an honorable thing. It's the most honorable of all relationships. A man is to love his wife like Christ loves the church. But I'll tell you this right now, your marriage can make you a better Christian or it can detract from your spirituality. It'll build you up or it'll take you down. Come on. You know it's true. You know it's true.

But what it is saying here in so many words, it's talking about the affections of the heart. Don't allow even good things or don't allow even the best things to detract you from God. Regardless of how good it is, regardless of how best it is, don't allow anything to take away from your spirituality, your walk with the Lord, the banquet that God has prepared. Don't allow that to happen. Just don't make excuses. Now, you can if you want to. Here's a group who did. They made excuses and they lost out.

But look at verse 15. Luke chapter 14, verse 15. The last part, Jesus said, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."

Guest (Male): What an amazing truth, that the Lord has already prepared every spiritual blessing we need and simply invites us to come. His grace is not reserved for a select few, but for every heart willing to receive His invitation. If you would like to grow deeper in your walk with Christ, visit thehealingword.com. You'll discover encouraging Bible teaching, inspiring devotionals, and opportunities to request prayer from our ministry team. Your generosity helps make this ministry possible. Together, we are proclaiming the hope of Jesus Christ to countless people searching for peace, purpose, and eternal life. Thank you for standing with us. Next time, Pastor Morris explains how to approach God, revealing how every believer can come confidently before the Lord in prayer.