The Healing Word

Guest (Male): The Healing Word Ministry on One Place is brought to you by the generous donations of people like you. At any time during today's message, feel free to send a prayer request or make a donation using the links provided. Now, I pray you will be blessed as Pastor Jack Morris delivers a message from the Word of God that will encourage and strengthen your faith in Him.

Pastor Jack Morris: Whatever is going on, look to the Lord. Don't get too excited. Don't give up. Just stand still. Can everybody say that? Stand still. And you'll see the glory of the Lord.

Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here is Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

A great salvation. A great salvation. I wish I could tell you how I feel about this salvation and how great it is, but those of you who have received, you know from experience. You don't have to have it defined. The Holy Spirit has already defined it to your consciousness, and you know how great it is to be loved by God.

I'm going to look at Hebrews chapter two, verses one through four. There are four key words I'm going to look at with you that come from verses one through four, and we're going to look at the message that these four words bring to us. I'm talking about the word salvation, the word attention, the word drift, and the word escape.

Salvation in verse three: "A great salvation." That's where I got the title of the message. The word salvation in the Old Testament is used when the nation of Israel was at the Red Sea. They hadn't crossed over yet. They had recently escaped from Egyptian bondage. Pharaoh let them go free, and they were on their way to the promised land. Pharaoh then changes his mind and comes after them.

They become very frightened. Naturally, they would. The Red Sea is in front of them, there are mountains on either side of them, and Pharaoh's army is behind them. Pharaoh is going to bring them back into slavery. The people cry out to Moses. They said there were no graves in Egypt, but now we're all going to be killed out here in this strange place, and there are going to be lots of graves out here. Moses said, "Hold it. Just hold everything. Stop that kind of talk. Stop that kind of dismal defeatism."

We're going to believe. We're going to speak faith. We're going to talk faith. We're going to trust God. This is where the word salvation comes in. Moses said, "Just stand still and you will experience the deliverance of God," or the salvation of God. And indeed, they did. Friend, whatever is going on, look to the Lord. Don't get too excited. Don't give up. Just stand still. Can everybody say that? Stand still. And you'll see the glory of the Lord.

In the New Testament, the word salvation has to do with Jesus forgiving sins. He forgives sins, He heals hurts, and He delivers from evil. Deliverance by the mighty power and hand of God is the definition of the word salvation. Now, salvation is in three tenses: past tense, present tense, and future tense. Listen, I'm talking about you and what God has given you. There's something in you today that you can date back. There's something in you today that's working right now, and there's something there in your heart that's going to be there in the future.

May God help us to listen. There's something in us. Let's find out from the Word of God what that something is. That something is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ and the great salvation He has given. I'm going to look at the screen with you. I want them to put on the screen Ephesians 2:8 and 9, and in unison, let us read it.

Guest (Male): For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast.

Pastor Jack Morris: Notice it says, "For it is by grace," God's unmerited favor, God's loving kindness. Absolutely nothing you have done except to believe. It is by grace you have been, have been, past tense. God did something in our past. Now, when were you saved? When did you give your heart to God? When were you baptized? Sometime in the past, a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, ten years ago. You have been saved.

That is salvation past tense. Something wonderful happened when you gave your heart to the Lord. I remember when I gave my heart to the Lord. I was at my grandmother's church. I was on vacation, and I went up to a kneeling altar at the invitation of the pastor and gave my heart to Jesus. That was a long, long time ago, but I'll never forget it. It was such a wonderful experience. God put a spell on me. I'm under His spell still. It is so wonderful what God did.

But salvation is also present tense. This that happened way back there is still here with me and is still here with you. It is there. We're on a journey. Our life is compared to a pilgrimage, and God is keeping us on this pilgrimage. Salvation happened way back there, but salvation is God saving me today. God delivering me today from evil, from powers that I have no control over.

This lady just gave a testimony of how God kept her and blessed her. Look at how alive and spunky she is today. She's truly rejoicing in the Lord. You are being kept by the power of God. God's salvation is still alive and it is still working, and we are celebrating with great thanksgiving what God is still doing right now. There are going to be troubles. They've already come. Disappointments, setbacks. I don't know what has happened in your life, but you're still in the church. You're still serving God.

That means salvation present tense. God has kept you from those troubles from defeating you. There are so many people, and I've pastored so long, and I know that they have said things like this: "Pastor, what's the use? What's the use of going to church? I'm just as much a Christian outside the church as I am in the church. I can get along without the church. Why keep trying anymore?" They take this defeatist attitude. Things have gotten them down.

Problems have so wrapped themselves and entangled them. We met a young couple down in the mall. They used to be a member of our church, very active in the church, on the board of directors of the church, leadership. I'm talking about this church many, many years ago. They didn't have any children. Now they have three. We ran into them and talked to them. "Where are you? What's going on?" "Oh, we don't go to church anymore."

They don't go to church anymore. I preached to them. I have talked to them. I have loved them. They said, "Well, what about your children? Well, we send them to a Christian school. They're being taken care of. But we don't go to church anymore." Things happened in their lives. Things entangled them. Things upset them until they just finally gave up. Friend, there are things going to upset you even in the church. We want everybody to be perfect, don't we? Because we think we're perfect.

But we're just human and we all make mistakes and we all fail. We forgive and we go on because God has forgiven us and cleansed us from all of our sins. Now, I want you to put on the screen for me, please, Hebrews 12:1. Let's read that together.

Guest (Male): Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Pastor Jack Morris: That "therefore" refers back to the 11th chapter where Paul, or whoever the writer of Hebrews is, talks about Noah and Abraham and all the patriarchs. He's likening these patriarchs to being up in the bleachers at a football stadium, and we're down there on the field playing the game of life. They're up there in the bleachers rooting that we'll win, that we'll overcome every temptation and every problem.

They're in heaven pulling for us, looking at us right now. Friend, there are Christians who have gone on that I believe see us and know about us. We don't talk to them; they don't talk to us. But they are hoping and praying and pulling for us that we'll make it through. There are those who are falling by the wayside, but thank God there are those who are persevering. Notice it says, "Run with perseverance." Say that: Run with perseverance. Run with patience. Run with determination.

That's how it's done. It says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders." There are problems, there are troubles, there are difficulties that are going to try to hinder you. Keep you out of the choir. Keep you out of the church. Keep you out of the small group. Keep you out of Sunday school. Keep you out of worship service on Sunday morning. There are all kinds of things that are going to come in. Now you have a choice whether you're going to serve the Lord, put God first, and put His commands first.

Friend, there are opportunities to do everything. There are opportunities right now at nine o'clock Sunday morning for you to be out there doing something. There's going to be opportunities next Sunday morning for you to be out there doing something. You have a choice. Tell me how much you love God. No, show me how much you love God. Put your body where your mouth is. I didn't plan on saying that, but it's time it be said, right? We're not fooling God. He sees the heart. He knows the dedication that is there. It says, "Let us, therefore, throw off." There are some things that you have to just get rid of. Those unimportant, superficial, superfluous things that care nothing for your soul. They really don't love you. God loves you. The one who loves you, love Him back by putting Him first.

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Pastor Jack Morris: So salvation, the new birth experience. Salvation, God is keeping me. I think this is just as powerful as when He saved me. It takes just as much power to keep me saved. And then someday He's going to put me in His presence. What a wonderful day that's going to be. I'm not going to be able to say, "Lord, I just can't come right now. I've got so many things on my smartphone right now, in my notebook. There's just so many things. God, I'll get back to you."

Now we're going to look at the second word: the word attention. The word salvation. Now look at verse one. We'll go back to verse one. Let's read this again.

Guest (Male): We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard.

Pastor Jack Morris: Notice, we must pay more careful attention. There are some Christians today, just like in the book of Hebrews. God was using a writer to talk to the Hebrew people who weren't paying a lot of careful attention. They were being sloppy with Christianity. They're sloppy with their church attendance. They're not careful with their tithing of their money. They're just sloppy with it, but they're praying, "God bless me financially. God bless me physically. God bless me emotionally."

Friend, God can only bless you when you're in a position to be blessed. But when you move yourself out of this position of blessing, then God's not going to do it. He can't do it. He won't do it. We can't work God like we do a yo-yo. No, God wants our heart, our love, our devotion. Now he said we must pay careful attention to what we have heard. Otherwise, we're going to be entangled. Things are going to get to us, wrap themselves around us, and pull us away.

Things we have heard. Friend, are you hearing, and are you careful this morning of hearing what I'm saying from the Word of God? Pay careful attention to what you have heard. Listen to it, obey it. If you don't pay careful attention and if you're just sort of hit-and-miss, and you're careful sometimes and you're not careful other times, then you're not very careful and you're not paying very careful attention. So God's going to be absent at that time when you're going to possibly need Him the most.

So we need to be careful to the truths that we hear. Careful to the truths and the promises that we listen to. We need to take those truths and those promises and work them into our mind, work them into our heart, work them into our emotions, and then we can call out to the Lord at any time. Any time, any place, any situation or circumstances, and He's going to be there when that trial comes. Friends disappoint you, life turns against you. It happens to everybody. No exception. The Lord will be there. God is a faithful God. Let Him teach us how to be faithful and to follow Him, faithful in every way, in every respect, in every phase of our life. And He, you know He will be faithful and He will bless. So if we're going to have this salvation that's going to keep us today and bless us and watch over us and protect us, then we have to pay some careful attention to what we've heard, right? We have to pay careful attention.

Now notice point C in the outline, and I want to look at verse one again, Hebrews 2:1. Let's read it again.

Guest (Male): We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Pastor Jack Morris: Friend, listen to me. There's not a Christian in this world that has decided ahead of time, "I'm going to drift away. I'm going to backslide. I'm going to grow cold and indifferent." Nobody has ever come up and said that. We don't know that we have drifted until we don't see the shoreline anymore. Until we don't feel the presence of God anymore, until we don't have a desire to be with God's people anymore. If we're not careful and hear the Word of God, it's like I'm told that somebody that starves themselves, after a few days of starving physically, not eating any food, after a while they lose their appetite and they don't want to eat any food.

And so it happens. Listen, you go without the Spirit of God, the Word of God, the worship with God's people very long, pretty soon you won't feel like you need it anymore. The desire won't be there. You will have just drifted away. Now notice it said, "We must. We must." Say it: We must. That's an imperative. We must pay. It's essential. I urge you by all means. This is the Word of God. There were Hebrew people who were leaving the faith. People today do the same thing.

Why? Why is it? We get entangled with things of this world. Making a living, making more money, getting ahead, doing things we want to do. Thinking that we're making life pretty, beautiful, wonderful, comfortable for ourselves, only to become entangled, wrapped around like seaweed until all of a sudden God has gone out of our life. Spirituality. Now I'm not talking about losing your salvation. No, I'm not talking about that at all.

I'm talking about just losing your desire for God. Losing your desire for spiritual things. Losing that closeness and that dear relationship with the Lord. You haven't lost your salvation, but there's something that is missing now in your life, and when you call for it, it's not there. That's what I'm talking about. See, God wants to love you and take care of you. You don't know how important you are to Him. You're so important to Him, and God wants to take care of His babies, His children.

He said we must, we must. The consequences of not paying careful attention is that we're going to drift away. Just drift away. No sail, no oar, no rudder. Friend, that's what the Word of God is. It's the sail. It's the oar. It's the rudder that holds us and keeps us on course. We go way out here, and then we come back, but we don't stop. We move way out here, and pretty soon we keep going further that way and further that way and further that way. And then maybe I meet you in the mall and say, "Where are you? Where have you been?" "Oh, we don't go to church anymore. Oh, I know I should." Friend, there's a lot of things we know we should. We know we should.

This drifting away starts so small. Little by little. Little by little. There is that first glance, then the next time there's the longer look. The wooing, the enticement, the becoming engrossed. It just so happens so imperceptibly. You and I don't know it's happening, and the devil's serpent is working himself in and taking over your life and destroying your spirituality and that wonderful, dear relationship with God. Oh, you may go to heaven when you die, but I'm talking about this present-day living salvation today. God's watchful care in a world that is so wrong and has done so wrong.

And the last word I want to look at with you is the word escape. Point D in your outline. Let's look at verse three, there it is on the screen. Let's read it together.

Guest (Male): How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?

Pastor Jack Morris: Look at that. I looked at that. "If we ignore." Do you know you can ignore God? You can just ignore Him. You can put Him out of your mind and put Him out of your heart and just go on living your life. But you're in trouble. Friend, I want to tell you, you are in trouble. You're in danger of eternal separation from God.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for The Healing Word with Pastor Jack Morris. We hope this message has been a source of strength and inspiration for you. To listen to more messages or to learn more about our ministry, visit us online at thehealingword.com. Join us again next time as we continue to explore the life-changing power of God's Word. Until then, may God bless you and keep you in His grace.