The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: It seems like the world, money, and success seem to be the attraction even for Christians. They're getting caught up in it. God help us today to get caught up or raptured in Jesus, in His life.

Guest (Male): In the book of Exodus chapter 17, we read about a battle that took place, and the outcome was not determined by who had the mightiest army, but something entirely different. Welcome to The Healing Word. Today, Pastor Jack Morris is here. He's going to expound on this unique conflict and how applying the same faith that brought about victory then can help us win our battles today.

Pastor Jack Morris: We're going to look at the battle that the Amalekites had with the people of Israel, and it was a passage battle. You see, the Israelites had just come out of Egyptian bondage, slavery for 400 years. They kept trusting God that God was going to bring them through, and God brought them through. They had crossed the Red Sea, they had gotten water out of the rock, and now they hit this fierce nation called the Amalekites.

These people were a fierce nomadic people and they just killed and plummeted just for the pleasure of it. They were located in the northern peninsula area. Now the Israelites were coming up out of Egypt on the way to the Promised Land, and they had to pass through that area. Friends, we walk in dangerous, slippery places. Only God knows who's out there or what's out there. We don't know. The Israelites weren't expecting it, but they were ready for it.

Let's get ready for the battle. Let's have a strategy. Let's have a plan. Let's get our brain connected with the word. God gave us this book for a purpose and here it is. You want to win? You want to get to the mountaintop? Okay, the three of you are going to make it. We're all going to make it as we trust the word of God, for we are word of God people.

These Amalekites saw the people of Israel coming, about a million and a half to two million people, and they thought with all of these women and all these children and all these men, they're going to be an easy prey. We're going to go in there and kill them and take everything they had. The Amalekites had the power to do it, at least they thought they did. So they moved against the people of God, but they moved against the wrong people.

The battle that's coming against you, if you're following this strategic plan, if you have a strategic plan, what would you do if you were really hit with a big problem today? How would you handle it? Do you have a strategy? Do you have a plan? If you don't, you will succumb. I know the times that I've succumbed, I wasn't ready for it. But Israel was ready for it. Friend, you can get ready for it.

This is just the beginning. I'm so thankful we're going to come to the Lord's table, but it's going to take this and a continuous remembrance of His broken body and shed blood and where I am in that plan and program of God. God's going to take me through. God's going to take you through too. We're going to see it. Here it is.

The Amalekites moved against the wrong people. The enemy wants to bring us down, discourage us, and he's been after us ever since we've been here on this earth to go after us. Look at verse eight, Exodus chapter 17, verse eight. The Amalekites came and attacked Israel at Rephidim. Israel was just passing through. If these people had just backed off, stepped aside, Israel would have passed through. They were on their way to the Promised Land.

Friends, you're going somewhere in 2022. We're passing through this day and then another day, another month, another year. It will soon be gone. It happens so quickly. But the Amalekites weren't ready to allow them to go through. The Amalekite said, "We can just scare the daylights out of them and then go in there and kill them and rob them."

That's what the enemy wants to do: rob you of the glory of God that's in your life, rob you of your joy, rob you of your faith. That's what these battles come from and come for. These battles have a purpose. These battles already have a strategy and a supernatural mind behind what's going on. May God give us the mind of Jesus so we will have a supernatural mind that is more supernatural than where these battles are coming from.

Friend, I can guarantee you you're going to have battles. So let's get to the word and let the word of God impact us, fill us, strengthen us, and equip us. We will win the battle and we will go to the mountaintop. Can you say amen? Come on, you can do better than that. Amen. We're going to make it.

Okay, here's the battle. They came against and attacked the Israelites to rob them and plunder them. Now, I want to tell you two things before I go on. One thing: what the Christian faith will not do for you. You say the Christian faith will do everything for me. Well, I'll tell you something that it will not do for you. And then I'm going to tell you something that it will do for you. Are you ready for it?

The Christian faith will not shield you and protect you and keep you from battles. It didn't keep Jesus from battles. It didn't keep the Apostle Paul from battles. He wrote over half the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, if he wrote the book of Hebrews, and many of them were written while he was in a stinking, sopping dungeon prison. He was in a battle. You're going to have battles. "In the world, you will have tribulation." Who said that? Jesus. What he says always comes true. You will have them.

Now, the Christian faith will not save us from the battles. No, it will not. Let me tell you what it will do. It will cause you to win the battles that come and overcome them and get to the mountaintop. That's what the Christian faith will do. Come on, be a fighter, a soldier for Jesus. Take up your cross daily and follow Him. You'll know victory. You will know victory.

This is His word. Now, Jesus never lost a battle. He had battles all the way from the moment He was born. We just celebrated His birthday. Herod killed all of those little boys two years old and under. From the day Jesus was born, the devil wanted to kill Him. And now the devil sees Jesus in you, and he doesn't like Jesus anymore now than he did then. And he sees the problem and the battles that you're fighting, and he's going to help you.

Jesus' Spirit now lives in you. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's the same Jesus, but a different body, your body. And the enemy sees Jesus there, and he has hated Jesus. But Jesus overcame every battle. And the last battle, the greatest of all battles, was the battle of death. And Jesus said, "Let me show you how I can handle that. I'll stay in the grave three days and then I'll come alive again. I'll be resurrected."

Every time throughout the New Testament, every time Jesus talked about the cross, He also talked about the resurrection. The disciples heard the message of the cross so much so that Peter said, "Oh, Jesus, that's not going to happen to you." Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan. Get behind me. That's the work of the enemy." They would hear the message of the cross, but in that next sentence, He talked about the resurrection, and somehow they never caught that. They became despondent after He was crucified.

Friend, you're going to hear and see what you're listening to hear and what you're looking to see. So God give us open eyes, spiritual eyes to see, to give us ears to hear. He'll do that when we pray that prayer. And so the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. And then in Revelation chapter 1, verse 18, Jesus gives his testimony. Jesus said, "I am the living one. I am he who was dead and behold, I am alive forever and ever and have the keys of death, hell, and the grave."

You see, friend, Jesus can unlock anything that imprisons you or tries to imprison you. This is His testimony. This is what He is saying, that He has the power and that He has been doing it and He will continue to do it forever and ever for those who trust Him and believe in Him. So the battles are going to come. The battles are on. But we're fighting in the name of the Lord with the spirit of Jesus within us, and we will overcome. We will overcome in the name of Him who is the living one. Say that: in the name of the living one.

He lives in you and thank Him and praise Him every day. Continue to thank Him and praise Him. So the Amalekites are whatever comes against you, whatever or whoever attacks you, that's your Amalekite. We're not fighting flesh and blood, but principalities, spiritual wickedness in high places. Friend, the war is on, but Jesus overcame. And now He lives in your body, the overcoming Savior. And what a Savior He is.

So I don't know what Amalekite has attacked you, but you're only passing through this world one time. You're on your way to the land that flows with milk and honey. Right now, you have a foretaste. You have that joy within of that land that you're going to go to. It'll ever be lighter than day. You're on your way there.

So here's what to do. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. He lives in you. Friend, let me put it this way: you carry the church in your heart and in your mind all day long every Monday, every Tuesday, every Wednesday. You carry the church, but more than carrying the church, you carry Him who is building the church, and He's building you spiritually. And you have come today to hear the word, to sing praises to the Lord, and to be built up in the most holy faith.

Trust Him. Trust the one who went to the mountaintop for you. Listen, we've been talking about you going to the mountaintop, me going to the mountaintop. But we're going to trust Him who went to the mountaintop ahead of us. I'm talking about the mountaintop, Mount Calvary. He went all the way to the top and now He's going to take you to the top because He lives in you.

I enjoy that old song. I don't sing it very often, but on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross. It was the emblem, the song says, the emblem of suffering and shame. But Jesus transformed that old, rugged, ugly instrument of death. He transformed it into an emblem of beauty and life. And the song goes on to say, "And I love that old cross for that cross the dearest and best and blessed." Oh friends, how precious is the dearest, the best.

I love that old cross and the one who died. Yes, I will cherish that cross. I will cling to that cross. And someday, I'll exchange it for a crown. Praise be to the Lord. This is the hope that I have within me and that you have within you. This is the hope, the word of God that what God is saying.

And Moses said, "I'm going to go to the mountaintop and I'm going to take the rod, the rod that he uses to care for the sheep." Since I am an undershepherd under Jesus, this is the rod that I use to care for the sheep. And he took the rod, when he got to the mountaintop, and he lifted up his hands and he put it over his head.

Remember when we started the service this morning? For years prior, I said, "Would you take your Bible and hold it up? Hold it up. Hold it up. Honor it and say to me and to one another: this is the word of God." And you say it. Now bring it down and put it over your heart and pray this prayer with me. Yes, I've got to live under the shadow of the rod, the shadow of the cross. I must. I can't be nonchalant with this book, with this word.

Now you notice I brought it down. Now I'm going to put it back up. Why did I bring it down? My arms got heavy. And as long as Moses held that rod, Israel won, which I'm trying to tell you today about a strategy, about a formula. As long as you live under the authority of God's word and you must know the word to know the authority of God's word, you're going to win. Amalekites can't win. Don't be afraid of the Amalekites. Don't be afraid of the battles.

When you're under the word, and this old man, his arms got tired, and he started lowering it and he lowered it, the rod, he lowered it some more. And he's standing. After a while you get tired of standing, don't you? And so here comes two men, godly men. They put a big rock under him so he could sit down and they got on each side of him and lifted him up. I thank God for the people who pray for this church and pray for me.

Friend, we are just flesh and blood, but there is a Holy Spirit that indwells us, the very spirit of the Lord Jesus. Friend, if Largo Community Church wins the battle and we all get back together again, which we will, I don't know when, but we're passing through this world. The rapture may take place. But whether we get back together in this life or the life to come, we're going to get back together again.

Let's not fight each other. Let's support each other, hold each other up. I'll hold you up when you're in a battle. You hold me up when I'm in a battle. We'll hold each other up when we're in a battle. And we'll win and we'll go to the mountaintop. But the battles, I mean the battles the people are fighting today.

And somebody said, "Well, we need more than just preaching." Do we really? Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." Now listen to this: "For it is the power of God unto salvation." This is the power of God unto salvation. This is your strength. This is your victory. This is your wholeness. We need more than... yeah, what we need more of is to obey the word of God. We need more of the love of the God who is love in the word of God.

Friend, we're just too light with it. Just too light. Help us today. This is my prayer. The Holy Spirit is going to help us. The Amalekites, the word of God became effective. It kicked in when Jesus died and rose again. We're going to celebrate that in just a few minutes at this altar.

You know, I can just imagine the Amalekites, those warriors looking up on that mountain, looking at Moses when he was holding that staff up. I can imagine them sort of joking among themselves and laughing. "Does he think that that piece of wood, that stick is going to give him victory? Is that what he thinks?" Do I think the preaching of the word is something that I need something else?

What else is there beyond the eternal word of God? Jesus was the word of God. The word became flesh. Friend, watch your mouth. This is what Tony Evans wrote in his book. Be careful what you're saying. "Does he think that that sermon, that book in his hand is going to help?" Not only help, it'll save your soul, heal your mind.

You can't speak that kind of language from a fountain. Salt water and sweet water doesn't come forth. People speaking words that reflect on the word of God, they don't know what they're saying. Friend, we need a strategy. And that strategy is found in the word of God, the message of the word.

God saves us through that piece of wood, through that stick. God saves us. Nobody goes to heaven without the word of God. Without the word of God, we go to hell. What do you mean we need more than just preaching? Just preaching. If it's the message of the cross, "God forbid that I should boast in anything, far be it from me to boast in anything save in the cross."

Thank God for the word, for the people of the word, for the church that the word is building. This is our manna from heaven. And I'm going to submit it out by saying some ungodly statement like that. Oh, Lord help us. Friend, only God knows what's up ahead. And if we don't have the word now, we're not going to be ready for our Amalekites coming against us. We need Jesus. We need the promises of this word and we need the power of the cross.

Here's our strategy. Listen to this. I'm going to read... what am I going to read? Verse 17. The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites, the war from generation to generation. The Lord will be at war. Let Him fight the battle. The power of the cross, the power of the word, the power of the church, the power of united believers in Christ. Let Him be the word.

First Peter 2:24 and I close: "He himself bore our sins in his own body on the cross." You are what you are because you believe the word. And when we have the word, we have Jesus, the word became flesh. Amen. Praise God.

Guest (Male): We hope that today's message has been a blessing and has strengthened your faith in God. But before we go, here is Pastor Jack Morris.

Pastor Jack Morris: Thanks, Eric. There's a mountaintop experience for all of us. God's way to the mountaintop experience is to fight with faith, fight with the word of God, fight with God's promises, and fight with prayer. There will come a divine intervention into your life giving you victory. You will win the battle. God bless you. I'm Pastor Jack Morris. See you next time.

Guest (Male): As we conclude today's program, I want to invite you to pray for the ministry of The Healing Word and ask God on our behalf to bless these messages as they minister to hearts all over our nation's capital area and the world. And if the Lord lays it on your heart, would you consider partnering with Pastor Morris in financially supporting this ministry? To stand with us today, simply visit thehealingword.com and click on the donate tab. Together we can share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Be sure to tune in tomorrow at this same time for another edition of The Healing Word. Until tomorrow, blessings on you.