The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Friend, don't give up. Just because it wasn't answered today or next week, next month, next year, six years, ten years, don't give up. Hang on, keep praying, believing, trusting the Lord. And when you do, the healing will begin. Things may not happen immediately, but friend, today God has a new story for you and He's going to bless you if you'll trust Him.

Guest (Male): Psalm 107 verse 20: "He sent his word and healed them." Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here's Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: Disappointments come to us all, don't they? Disappointments... let me tell you about one I had. I'll just tell you one because the sermon will be too long.

A number of years ago, I used to go over to Asia and teach for the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, APTS. They had several extension sites, and one of the extension sites was in Surabaya, Indonesia. I was to go there and teach a three-hour graduate course.

We were still working and building and constructing here. The church and the building were all up, but we wanted to finish off that parking lot on the south end. We bought the acreage from the farmers, and we wanted to put that parking lot in. We needed it, and everything was in order. I wouldn't have left if I thought that there was one thing that was not in order.

At that time, Pastor Colonel Bill Wilson was the assistant pastor. I know how everything was just shipshape in his hand. He was a colonel here at the church as well as when he was a colonel stationed at the Pentagon. Everything was in readiness. So I thought, well, it's okay, I can go and teach the course and be with those young pastors and really enjoy myself while meeting them and teaching.

Everything was prepared. The State Highway Commission came and approved the plans. The contractor approved the plans. Two engineers put their stamp on the plans. Pepco stamped and said everything was in readiness. I thought, well, it's okay to go to Asia.

I got the airplane and I flew across the United States, across the Pacific Ocean, landed in Singapore to spend the night in a hotel, planning the next day to catch another airplane and go to Surabaya in Indonesia. In that hotel, I got an email from Assistant Pastor Wilson saying, "There's a man in Baltimore that is over all of the engineers, all of Pepco. He is the top man and he says that we have to redesign the entrance."

When I read that, I have to confess—it's been years ago, but I think the same thing would have happened to me today—I got angry. The adrenaline flowed through my veins. I felt heat in my body. I was in Singapore and I'm a hands-on guy. I want to be there where the action is. What was I going to do in Singapore?

I'm talking about learning to lean on Jesus. There was nothing to do but to spend a whole lot of additional money to redesign that whole entrance on Enterprise Road at the south entrance. There was nothing to do but to do it. We did it. It's beautiful. I trusted the Lord and God worked through Pastor Wilson. Everything was done in readiness.

But a disappointment... do you know what it is to be disappointed? Is there anybody here who has never in your life ever been disappointed? Everything has always worked out the way you thought it should or the way you thought it was going to? We all have from time to time.

Look at what the scripture says. It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Trust is a deep reliance on God. When I got that email in Singapore, I was not relying on the Lord. I was relying on Jack Morris and it wasn't working because there wasn't a thing that I could do about it but to pray, trust the Lord, trust the board, trust the church, trust Pastor Wilson, and believe that everything was going to work out. Sure enough, it worked out.

Trust means the end results are in His hands, that He's going to take care of the situation, and that everything is going to turn out the way He wants it to turn out. Even though I'm disappointed, He is God. He has all power. He's going to do what is right. I can say those words and you can say them too. We can stand and sing, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way." Anybody can say there's no other way but to trust and obey and then, like me, get angry and hot and upset. You still with me? You know what I'm talking about.

We say a lot, but can we really produce? The scripture says, "Trust in the Lord." In the Lord. He is the one that has all power in heaven and in earth. He's the one that is the head of the church, building the church. It says, "With all your heart."

I looked at that—all your heart. Is it possible to trust in the Lord with 65% of your heart? Or 75%? You mean I can have a divided heart? It must be so. It says all your heart, not part of your heart, but all your heart, meaning all your emotions, all your intellect, all your understanding, all your life trusting in the Lord.

And then it goes on to say, "and lean not on your own understanding." Not the way you think it is, not the way you planned it to be. Everybody is leaning on something, using it as a crutch. Let's lean on Jesus. Yoke up with Jesus. Let Him take us through whatever the difficulty is.

I pray right now that you are thinking of the difficulty that you may be experiencing and going through. This scripture and that difficulty are going to come together and link up today, and you're going to see the mighty hand of God move in your situation. I truly believe it. Think with me, pray with me, and stay with me because God's word is coming forth for you and the particular situation that you're in right now.

The scripture says, "In all your ways acknowledge Him." Now it says all your heart, which means maybe not all my heart is in what I'm doing. Then it says, "In all your ways acknowledge Him." Maybe I'm not acknowledging Him in all my ways, only part of my ways. Maybe the problem is not what's going on out there, but the problem is in here.

In all your ways give it to Him. Acknowledge Him, His love, and His power, meaning be ever mindful of God and what God can do and how He can change. The scripture then says if I trust in the Lord with all my heart, if I acknowledge Him in all my ways, and if I lean my weakness on Him, what does it say? All of that comes with a promise. Come on, you tell me what it says. What's going to happen if I trust Him with all my heart?

Guest (Multiple): He will make your paths straight.

Pastor Jack Morris: And He will make your paths straight. He will do it. Notice that there are three things I need to do: I need to trust, I need to acknowledge Him with all my heart, and I need to lean my understanding on Him. If I do one, two, three, He'll do four. He'll come through every time. And He's going to come forth and through in your situation.

The scripture says in Isaiah chapter 30 verse 21, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.'" We're moving along in a straight line, but we have a tendency to veer off and to lose sight of our goal and to miss the mark.

He's the shepherd out front, leading me. But if I get ahead of Him—which often we do—we're going to fix it, we're going to make it right, and we're going to make it happen. I get ahead of Him and instead of Him being ahead of me, shepherding me, and leading me, I'm ahead of Him. All of a sudden He's behind me. I hear a voice behind me. That voice should have been out there. How did it get back there? Where did I miss?

It's so easy to get caught up and to miss the Lord and His plan and to veer off to the right or the left. But He is faithful. I'll hear a voice behind me. Friend, I hope and pray you're hearing a voice this morning, either in front of you or behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it."

A lot of us know Kay Isinger. She just had a tumor removed from her brain. Kay has been very ill, going through a 12-hour surgery. I've been talking to Don and Kay and she is doing just fine. She was weary, she was seeing double, and had very little energy. Now she can see well and she can walk. She's still in the hospital and in rehab, but they're talking about coming up here to the church.

Kay was a member of this church ever since we were down at the school. Then Don came along, they got married, and Don became one of our board members. They're very much part of the Largo Community Church. Kay followed the Lord. Things started happening in her life and I have to tell you the story. I told her, "Kay, I'm going to tell your story." She said, "Tell it. Go ahead, tell it."

One Sunday morning, we were down at the high school, 40-some years ago—had to be about 42 years ago. We were worshipping in the multipurpose room. Here comes this older lady, Kay's mother, and there was Kay and these three children. Kay apparently took one of the children or all of them to the restroom and her mother stood in the narthex and walked over to me. I didn't know her.

Her mother walked over to me and quietly she said, "That's my daughter and grandchildren. Her husband died three weeks ago." They were living in Kettering. Her husband Gary was a veterinarian working in Alexandria, Virginia. He was only 33 years old. He left Kay with three children: Tony, nine years old; Denise, eight years old; and Diane, six years old.

Before he died, he saw one of our signs. Churches need to get out there and advertise—radio, television, street signs, people inviting people into church. He saw one of our signs and he wasn't even sick and he said, "Kay, we need to take the kids and go to that church one Sunday morning." Because Gary wanted to go to the Largo Community Church, she decided they were going to come to church.

Kay and her children walked over to me and I was just stunned by what the mother had told me. I asked Kay, "Ma'am, do you believe in prayer?" I must have had my arm out because she reached up and very forcefully grabbed my arm and she said, "Yes, I believe in prayer. I truly believe in prayer."

Then we began to talk about the Lord and share. The story goes on that Kay joined the church, became a Sunday school teacher, sang in the choir, and was part of the church, raising those three children by herself. She continued to work as a nurse in that Alexandria hospital.

Several years went by and she met Don. Don had gone through a divorce and he had his children. They fell in love. Don was a fine Christian man. I know the Lord led her. I'm talking today about trust and following the Lord. There's a path that God has chosen, but we have a tendency to choose our own way. Friend, listen to me, you're going to miss God's best.

If you have veered off to the right or to the left, hear that voice behind you saying, "This is the way." Get back on course again. It's never too late. You're still breathing, aren't you? It's never too late to get back.

There's a man that I know who was a United Methodist pastor at one time. He's maybe in his 60s now. He told me a story about when he was driving in Florida. He pastored a church of 3,000. In Cincinnati, Ohio, he pastored a church of 1,400. While pastoring one of those churches, he was driving the car one day and had a head-on collision.

The man that hit him head-on was only driving 40 miles an hour, but when they hit head-on, it put this pastor friend of mine in the hospital and he had to have immediate surgery. It's so easy to say, "God, why?" The story doesn't end there by a long way. While he was on the operating table having surgery, he had a stroke.

He became blind in both eyes, lost complete function of his hands and his feet, and he could just barely speak. When I say he lost the functions in entirety of his whole body, I mean nothing functioned that he had control over. This went on for several years.

Because he was in the shape he was in and had no control and could do absolutely nothing for himself, his wife had an affair with the man next door. They eventually married. The pastor told me that he begged his wife not to stay with that man and not to go with that man. He said, "I'll forgive you. We'll put this marriage back together again. It's because I can't be a husband to you."

He understood and he wanted the marriage to go on, but she wouldn't, and so they divorced. 10 years ago, he remarried. After about six years, this man started regaining the use of his body. He now has control over his body. He is still blind in one eye, but he can see out of one eye, and he's back in the ministry again. He's preaching almost every Sunday.

There are things that are going to happen in our lives—small things, big things. But whatever happens, if you know Jesus and He's your shepherd and you're trusting Him and you're leaning on Him—I mean trusting the Lord with all your heart. All, not a percentage of your heart. You're not going to lean on your own understanding. You're not going to be like my pastor friend wondering why this happened.

I know she left because of the functions of his body and that he couldn't be a husband to her anymore. But he regained everything except blindness in one eye. He's preaching today. In the condition that man was in, the board of directors of his church asked him, "We want you to still be our pastor." He said, "I can't drive, I can't walk, I can't even talk."

But the church believed that he was going to get well again. If 800 to 1,000 of us, or 1,200 like here at the Largo Community Church, believe, we can move mountains by our faith. There's nothing impossible with God.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. Stop trying to figure it out and pray, believe, and trust in the Lord. He will make your path straight or He will direct your ways. This is what God is going to do. Let's learn to lean on Jesus. I know today someone here needs to start leaning on Jesus.

And when you do, the healing will begin. Today God has a new story for you and He's going to bless you if you'll trust Him. But so often, we'll pray a prayer and if it doesn't happen like that, we think that must not be God's will. We give up and we turn our attention somewhere else or we get passive in our spiritual thinking and our spiritual ways.

Friend, don't give up. Just because it wasn't answered today or next week, next month, next year, six years, ten years, don't give up. Hang on, keep praying, believing, and trusting the Lord.

Many of you know about my son and how we had such a difficult time. it was so difficult that Corinne made the statement, "Jack's going to have to resign the church, he's not going to make it." Almost gave up. Friend, don't give up.

The other day I got an email from my son and he said to me, "Dad, thank you for introducing me to Jesus." That was last week. I should have brought that letter and read it to you and told you how they drove for an hour when they moved to another city in South Carolina just to go back to their church because they loved their church and the pastor.

He said, "Dad, we needed to get a church closer." He said, "We found a church." He said they went to that church and it's meeting in a gymnasium somewhere, just like this church started out in a multipurpose room. He said the pastor's preaching the word of God and he and his wife and two daughters are going to church together every Sunday morning, loving the Lord, serving God, and living for Jesus.

Friend, God is real and He wants to be real to you. There's a way, a straight line for you. You don't have to go zigzagging through life, up and down and in and out. When you turn to the right or you turn to the left, you'll hear a voice behind you saying, "Come on, get back in line again." I pray today that some of you will get back in line. We'll trust God and we'll move on to great victories in Jesus.

The path of life is a path, maybe a journey, but it's not always straight and it's not always level. There are turns and twists and ups and downs, but the Lord Jesus will take us to where He wants us to go to the place of peace and victory when we put our complete trust in Him.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. That's all your heart. He's looking for all of you. So put your trust in God today, friend. If there is confusion or disappointment, or if you're in any way mixed up mentally, come to the Lord Jesus Christ with that burden, express your heart to Him, and He will lead you out of that place of confusion to a place of peace and rest.

Guest (Male): We'd like to invite you to join Pastor Jack Morris and the Healing Word family in both prayer and support of this ministry. Your prayer strengthens us and your gifts, large or small, help us extend the reach of God's word to more people who need His hope.

Every gift is deeply appreciated. To stand with us today, simply visit thehealingword.com and click on the donor tab. Together, we can share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.