The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: You're just treading water right now. You're a Christian, okay, yes, why? But you're just keeping your head above. There's no joy, there's no hope. Compared to what you used to have, there's nothing there right now in comparison.

But I want you to look up this morning. We're not going to end this sermon on this note because Jesus never ends until He comes. And He comes walking on the water, and I want you to see that, Him coming to you today.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Healing Word. Pastor Jack Morris is here with us again today. Life can change as quickly as the weather. A season of calm can suddenly give way to uncertainty, disappointment, sorrow, or loss.

Jesus never promised that storms would not come, but He did promise that we would never have to face them alone. Today, Pastor Jack Morris shows us how staying close to Christ prepares us for life's storms and enables us to emerge with renewed strength, hope, and faith. Here's "Emerging from the Storm."

Pastor Jack Morris: I want to talk about life and how unpredictable it is. Life being as volatile as the weather. Who can predict the weather with any degree of accuracy? Who can? Really.

The weather men and women try, the meteorologists trying to predict where Floyd will make landfall. Will it be here? Will it be in the Carolinas? Will it be in Florida? Will it be on the Outer Banks? Who can predict? And so is life.

Even James says we don't know what a day is going to bring forth. We need to say, "If the Lord is willing." Friend, I feel in my heart today, we're making too many decisions without very much prayer.

We're doing things that we want to do, that we feel like doing, but there's a Shepherd that we need to bow before that knows the ways of life and that will guide us in the ways that lead to everlasting and abundant life.

May I choose His will, not my will. May I pray until I know His will, for His will will be made clear to me and I'll know the path that I should follow. Otherwise, I'm going to go down a dark street that's going to end up in a dead end and I'm going to weep and wonder, "How did I get here? How did my family get here?"

Friends, life is so unpredictable. You and I need a Shepherd, and we have Him. We need to look to Him and let Him guide us. Life is going to have its storms. It's not "Will life have its storms?"

The scripture clearly says life will have its storms. They will come. And knowing that they're coming, we can ready ourselves to meet the storm and be prepared when it does come.

Now, it comes to everyone, the storms of life. No one is exempt, not even Christians are immune. Everyone experiences storms, those times of restlessness, of trouble. In the world, Jesus says this, "In the world you're going to have trouble. In the world you'll have tribulation."

Now Jesus told you that. So why should you and I be surprised when the trouble comes? He's already told us that trouble will come and that we will experience it. Many of the biblical heroes experienced great difficulty, great times of trouble.

I want to name just a few of them. I don't have time to go into all of them, but here's a few of them. Listen to them as they tell of their trouble and the storms, storms that literally sent them reeling into the darkness.

Naomi cried from the middle of life's reversals in Ruth chapter 1, verse 20. Naomi said, "Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me." She changed her name. She said, "My name is no longer Naomi. My first name now is Bitter.

You call me Bitter because life has turned bitter on me. Everything in life has turned to vinegar. There was joy, there was rejoicing," but she said, "it's bitter. Call me Mara."

Then there was Hannah. She cried out of the depths of her barrenness. She said, "Oh Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me. Lord, I feel forgotten. Have mercy on me. Can you see me? Can you find me?"

David the Psalmist cried out of the great spiritual need. Listen to what he said. He said, "The troubles of my heart have multiplied." I don't have one trouble, I don't have two troubles, we're not adding trouble, the multiplication of troubles.

Listen to him: "The troubles of my heart have multiplied. Free me from my anguish." Paul the Apostle talks about the thorn in the flesh. Even the disciples of Jesus spoke of the darkness that they felt in their own soul following His crucifixion.

Now I want you to look at Psalm 137 with me. I want you to hold your Bible up and read verses 1 and 2. Would you do that together in unison? "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps."

Babylon. This was a literal city, a geographical place. These were people, the Babylonians, people who were enemies of God. They marched against Jerusalem, spoiled the city, literally sacked the city, and marched off all of those Jews to this foreign land of Babylon.

Babylon had many waterways, tributaries, rivers, and in the evenings when the Jews were finished their slave work, they would gather in little groups, in little companies, little pockets by these rivers.

And there they would talk to each other and console. They were in a foreign land, a land they didn't want to be in. It was a strange land, a land of many rivers and waters. It seems as though the rivers and the waters and the tributaries and the waterways seemed to call for their tears and it seemed to be a good place to cry and let the water come from their eyes.

Look at what it says: "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and we wept." Now why did they weep? I want you to look at it, I want you to help me now. Why did they weep? When we what? Remember Zion.

They didn't weep because of the cruelty of the Babylonians. Why did they weep? They remembered what they had lost. It's what we are remembering. The good old days back at Jerusalem with the people of God singing in the sanctuary, worshipping the Almighty, feeling spiritual rapture in our soul.

All this is bad, slavery is bad in Babylon, but we're not crying about this. We're crying when we remember. You see, good things can be lost and sometimes it never comes back as good as it was before we lost it.

We remembered Zion. Zion, the city of God, the city that we were citizens in, that we were part of. We don't know where we are now. We don't know this strange place. We don't like this strange place. We don't even know these people.

We are Zion's people. Again friend, I've said from the pulpit so often: Do you know who you are? Do you know you're a Christian? Do you know you have a Shepherd? Do you know you have somebody that will lead you and guide you?

It's more than saying, "I submit." How can you submit until you pray and know what to submit to? They were lost. Look at verse 2. "There on the poplars we hung our harps." We can't sing anymore.

Singing is a time of rejoicing and singing is celebration, but the instruments of music, the instruments that brought us into the presence of God that evoked worship in our hearts, we don't worship anymore.

We just gave up and they looked at those drooping branches hanging. And it reminded them of their own drooping spirits. Now I know the Holy Spirit has already told me there are people here today who have drooping spirits.

Has your spirit ever drooped? Sure, mine has. Some of you today have drooping spirits. Prayer isn't joy anymore, church isn't joy anymore, singing isn't joy anymore.

Now what is wrong? Has God changed? No, we want to look and say, "Because of that." No, it's because of that. Come on, look into the fountain of life, your own heart. Something's gone dark on the inside.

You're not the man you used to be, the woman you used to be. We need to remember and find our way back to the Lord. Look at what he is saying: "We hung our harps." And look at verse 3.

"For there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy. They said, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion. We want to hear you sing. You're the person that talked to us about the joy of the Lord. Where's your joy?'"

Come on, I want to hear it, I want to see it. The captors are saying that. But look what it says, look at verse 4. Come on, read it with me, look at it. "How can we sing the songs of Zion while in a foreign land?"

You're not where you're supposed to be and you're not the one to choose where you're supposed to be. You and I have been baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit of God. Don't take things in your own hands, not even your life, because the storm's coming. I can guarantee it.

How am I so sure? Because Jesus said so, and His word is infallible. You and I are headed for hard times, or hard times are headed for us. Hey, Floyd's coming. You know Floyd? He's coming up the coast, he's going to get you. Get ready, he's coming.

He said, "We hung our harps." And the enemy had stolen their song, and the singing of authentic worship and praise was gone. They can't sing in a strange land. Friends, some of us in our hearts, the storm has blown us off course and we're over someplace where we shouldn't be inside.

Now physically we may be sitting where we're supposed to be sitting. I'm not talking about the geographical location, I'm talking about the heart, the spirit within you. You're off course. You're going to crash on the rocks.

Hear the word of God today. Be wise, don't be a fool. Listen to the word of God. Know that you have a Shepherd. Pray and seek His face. Bow and submit to Him and you will find safety in His pavilion, in His place.

Listen to the word of God. Floyd, just a week ago, was it? The radio was telling us, the newspapers were telling us, Floyd is coming. The meteorologists were telling us Floyd is coming. It's whirling, 155 miles an hour.

It's whirling, it's whirling, but it's moving forward at 25 miles an hour. Now my mother lives in Titusville, Florida. She lives right on the coast, right across the river from the big silos where the spaceships go off.

You can stand at her front door in the night, see the sky light up when they go off on the other side of Indian River. They were predicting that Floyd's going to hit right there. Then after a while they changed, they said, "No, it may hit on up the coast about up near Cape Fear or Myrtle Beach."

Well, I have a son and daughter-in-law and two grandchildren up there. I called and I told them, I said, "You better get out of there, you better evacuate." They said, "The roads are gridlock with cars."

They say, "We couldn't get out of here if we wanted to get out of here." She said, "The cars are just bumper to bumper." Every road, every highway, people trying to get out.

The stores, the Johnson's Market and Home Depot, they sold out of plywood. They were boarding up. You know why they were doing that? Because they were smart. Somebody told them the storm was coming and they were getting ready for the storm.

Jesus wants Christians to be smart. The Lord says the children of the world are wiser than the children of light. You and I need to prepare ourselves. The storm is coming. It's coming and we need to be ready for it.

We just heard of the terrible earthquake in Turkey. The death toll is expected to be 50,000. But that's way over there, that's not here. 50,000, leaving 200,000 homeless.

We heard of another earthquake in Taiwan, nearly 2,000 dead, another 8,500 injured. We heard about Columbine High School. Someone says, "Oh, if I could just get my children in a good school, just a good school. That's what my children need, a good school."

How many children were killed in that good school? Then I heard them say, "Oh, if I could just get my children in a good church, a good church." And then last week in Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, a lone gunman walked in, shot 14 of them in a prayer meeting.

In a good neighborhood, a good church, real close to the seminary. Seven of them died. Hey, where are you safe anymore? Where are you safe? Where is safety? Where can it be found?

I'll tell you friends, safety is not some place. Safety is not moving there or here. Safety is in here when Jesus Christ becomes your covering. This is the word of God. We are the sheep of His pasture.

He wants to care for us. He told us, He told us, "In the world you're going to have trouble." Your spouse is going to have trouble, your children are going to have trouble, your grandchildren are going to have trouble.

Why? Because every person I've mentioned are in the world, and this is the place of trouble. We need help. We need Jesus. Jesus said, "When trouble and persecution come."

Now notice, He said when it comes, He didn't say if it comes, do this. He says when it comes. In 1 Peter 5:8 He said, "Be self-controlled and alert. Don't stick your head in the sand."

The devil like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5:8, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for somebody." He doesn't care who that somebody is, saint or sinner. It doesn't matter to him.

He's just looking for somebody. And when you get out from under the covering of God's care, you become a prime target. Some of God's people are just standing out there, blowing in the wind.

They have no pastor, no church, they don't know where they belong. They're just waving in the wind like a broken reed, standing there exposed and the devil is going to put his gun on you. And he's going to open his fangs on you.

You can't play with sin, Satan. You can't make up your own mind, do your own deciding. If you do, you're just an orphan in the dark, a child in the woods. This is how it is.

Some people said, "If only." Yeah, if only. If only I had prayed first. Seek first the kingdom of God. Not what you want, what He wants. Seek first the kingdom of God.

It's easy to say seek first the kingdom of God, it's a hard thing to seek first the kingdom of God and to do it. But they saw my son and daughter-in-law saw Floyd coming, my mother saw Floyd coming, and everybody down the coast saw Floyd coming, and they began to get ready.

So on point A in your outline, mark down: The storm is coming. Write down the word "coming". The storm is coming. Jesus said it's coming, not Pastor Jack, Jesus said. And if it hasn't hit you, it will hit you.

Okay, under point B, write down: A shelter from the storm. Now we have been warned. We need to heed the warning. We need to be smart. You know, good information needs to be acted upon, right?

And the words of Jesus is about the best information that we can possibly get. We need to be ready for it. Be active and act upon it. It says in 2 Corinthians 2, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant concerning his devices."

We are not ignorant. Jesus has informed us. You know, Floyd just didn't hit us. We had plenty of warning and that's why all the plywood and all the boarding up and all the evacuation.

Jesus has warned us. You know, Satan is predictable. I'd better say that one again. Satan is predictable. I can tell you right now what he's going to do. If you're not spiritually careful, I'll tell you what he's going to do.

He's going to eat you alive. I know what he's going to do. Jesus knows what he's going to do. The Apostle Peter said, "He's like a roaring lion. He's thirsting for your blood." Oh, he's predictable.

We need the shelter of the word. We need the shelter of prayer and the nearness of God. We need the shelter of the church. We need to know that we belong. I'm part of the family, I'm not an outsider.

Now on point C, write down: Emerging from the storm. You know, the kids here last week, I call them the kids, the Voices of Praise, they sang the song, "The storm is passing over. Hallelujah." Can you remember that?

"The storm is passing over." Storms come, but storms don't last. Storms come but they don't come to stay, but they can do terrible havoc when it comes. But the storm is passing over, hallelujah.

Say that: "The storm is passing over, hallelujah." The storm does not last forever. That sky will turn blue again. In Jesus Christ, because of Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ.

Now here's something so important I want to say to all of us today. A man by the name of Paul Billheimer wrote a book entitled "Don't Waste Your Sorrows." Now those of you who are in a storm and going through a storm, and those of you who will soon be going through a storm—that includes all of us, right?

You weren't listening to me, were you? Those of you who are in a storm and those of us who are going to soon be going through a storm, now that includes everybody in here this morning: Don't waste your sorrows.

Don't waste that storm. The one meteorologist I was watching on the weather channel, he said, "We have learned some valuable lessons from the storm. We can be better ready for the next storm."

But that's the problem so often. I see some Christians, they go through one storm after another storm after another storm and the same thing that trapped them and got them down the first time got them down the second time, trapped them and got them down the third time. They are still as dumb as they were.

Twenty years, twenty years, and they still don't know they need to pray and seek the Lord and come under His care and guidance. My heart goes out, but what can I do but to say what Jesus said and find that place and help the people of God to find that place in the Lord.

In the storm, one thing you can learn—one thing to learn—you can find Jesus in the storm. Or better and more important and more correct, Jesus can find you in the storm.

Now Jesus will do one of two things in the storm. In one storm, the disciples were about to go under because the billows were coming into the boat and they looked up and they saw Jesus walking toward them.

In another time, they were about to go under and Jesus got up and said, "Quiet, peace be still." But you have to be living close to Jesus to see Him and you have to be living close to Him to hear Him.

When the storm hits, that's not the time to say, "Oh, pray for my children. Pray for my marriage." You should have been praying for your children and your marriage and your job and yourself months and months and months.

You should have had such a clear vision of Jesus already that you'll see Him coming. A clear sound of His voice that when He speaks, "Peace," you'll know it's Him that is speaking. Jesus, the presence of Jesus.

The storm comes, but the storm can be very valuable in that you and I can learn to experience Jesus in a way that we have never experienced him before. We can experience Jesus in that storm and we can emerge from that storm not in defeat but in victory.

We can emerge not crying but singing. We can emerge not in weakness but strong. Yes, the storm's coming, Jesus said it's coming. Now it's up to you to decide and determine how you're going to come out of it and emerge out of it.

You can come out of it broken, defeated, and in shambles, or you can rise out of it with the songs of Zion in your heart. You can rise out of it with victory within your being, with strength in your soul.

But it's all because of your connection and your relationship with Jesus. When sick, when the sickness comes, and sickness comes to all of us. There's physical sickness and there's mental sickness. It'll come.

That can be called a storm. It's coming. No one is well all the time. We live in deteriorating bodies. We live in bodies that are made of the earth, and it's on its way to earth to earth, ashes to ashes, this body of ours.

But in that time of sickness, even then—mental sickness, emotional sickness, family sickness, physical sickness, spiritual sickness—whatever the sickness is, there's a Great Physician and you can feel the touch of His hand on your fevered brow at that time.

And if you're close enough, you can hear Him say, "I will, be thou made whole." You can emerge okay, but you must emerge in the presence of Jesus. But to emerge in the presence of Jesus, you need to go into the storm, you need to enter into the tunnel with Jesus there with you, then you'll come out with Him.

But somehow we get in the tunnel in the darkness, in the sickness, in the down time, and we want Him to come and find us. We need to walk with Him and He will walk with us.

We need Jesus with us and He'll be there. In the time of deep sorrow, when the feelings are so down and you feel so depressed, you just feel like Naomi that your name ought to be changed to Bitter.

Call me Mara. You feel like Hannah who cried out, "Oh God, where is Jehovah to remember me? God has even forgotten me." You get to that place where David said, "My anguish has multiplied, my troubles have increased."

Things aren't getting better, things are getting worse. And then the two disciples on the Emmaus Road. Their heads hung low. There was no song. They had already hung their spiritual harp on the poplars.

Their spirits sagged. Little did they know that that was Jesus walking with them, the stranger. It's a shame that Jesus and prayer and love and fellowship has become a stranger to us. That's a shame, isn't it?

We've been saved all these years and we feel like a stranger to spiritual things and to spiritual people. What's happened? The storm has hit you and you didn't even know you were hit broadside.

The devil like a roaring lion wants you back. You once belonged to him but now you belong to the Lord. And those two disciples were walking. They said, "We had hoped. We don't have any hope now."

Listen, without hope you have no song, and if you're not singing today, that means you don't have hope. Sir, listen. Lady, listen. If you can't sing, that means you don't have hope, and if you don't have hope, you don't have faith, and if you don't have faith, you just about have nothing.

But thank God the crucifixion was not the end of the story. When Jesus is dead, yeah, we'll hang our heads, we'll cry, we'll weep. But He wasn't dead. He was there with them.

And at evening time, at table time, their eyes were opened. Their eyes were opened and when they saw Jesus, that hope—wow—it all just came right back into their hearts again and they began to rejoice.

You see friends, you're going to stay sad until you see Jesus. And the church—this church or no other church—is going to help you see Him. You've got to look upon Him with your own two eyes of faith.

The church doesn't see Him for you, the church doesn't confess for you, the church doesn't repent for you. You're your own priest. You're the captain of your own ship. If you close your eyes and you run it on the rocks, then not even God can help you.

But God wants to open your eyes like He did those two on the Emmaus Road, that you'll see Him and rejoice again. You'll see Jesus. Jesus wants to come to you. He wants to walk with you.

He sees you in your sad, depressed state right now. He sees you and He's reaching out to you. He's coming to you. You didn't know where to find Him no more than those two disciples who were walking the road.

They didn't know where He was. As far as they were concerned, He was still in the tomb. And Jesus found them. And that's how it always is, isn't it? Someone says, "Oh, I wish I could find Him today."

Friend, you've heard the word. He's already found you, you just need to talk to Him and turn to Him. He's right here to bring blessing and healing and help to you. Some of you today are in the worst storm of your life.

You can't ever remember feeling this low. You're in the worst fight of your life. Now listen to me friends. You're no match for the roaring lion, Satan. You're no match for Floyd. You're no match for sin.

The devil doesn't want you happy and he's got you right now where he wants you. Your drooping spirit is glorifying Satan. Remember all the family members and people you used to testify to?

They don't want what you have today. They want what you used to have, what you used to testify about. They said when they remembered Zion, when the Israelites in Babylonian captivity remembered Zion, they wept.

They should weep. There's nothing to sing about. It's all over until they turn their hearts toward home, their spiritual home, toward God, and there is healing. But some are fighting some very serious battles today.

The Holy Spirit has been talking to my heart and speaking to me about the situation in some of your lives, in some of your homes. But Jesus is coming. Say it: Jesus is coming.

Jesus is coming. I'll tell you this fight that some of us are in, the storm is raging and blowing, you're just trying to keep your head above water. There's an undercurrent trying to suck you under and destroy you forever and pull you down into the darkness of that watery grave.

The undercurrent is there, you're feeling the pull and you're just treading water right now. You're a Christian, okay, yes, why? But you're just keeping your head above. There's no joy, there's no hope.

Compared to what you used to have, there's nothing there right now in comparison. But I want you to look up this morning. We're not going to end this sermon on this note because Jesus never ends until He comes.

And He comes walking on the water, and I want you to see that, Him coming to you today. He's walking on your storm. You got in the boat and went out to sea and left Him behind.

It's a wonder He doesn't let you drown and everybody in your house, your boat drown with you. But He's not that kind of Jesus. He's coming. Jesus is coming. He's walking on the billows.

The very thing that's getting you down, He's stepping over them. He's walking right toward you today. Do you see what's going on? Do you know how much you're loved? Do you see Him coming?

Hey, you can be healed today. You can be healed today. There was a man, he was called the Philippian jailer, and when Paul spoke to him and he said, "Thou shalt be saved and thy house."

Mister, you get right and your house will get right. You're trying to get your house fixed and thinking that you'll get fixed along with it. It's not that way. It doesn't work that way.

Jesus is coming, stepping on the billows, bringing to you His blessing. It was one week ago Sunday, four days before that, was that terrible shooting in this Baptist church in Fort Worth, Wedgewood Baptist Church.

Four days later it was Sunday, it was a week ago today. The people came into the sanctuary and they saw some of the aisles bare. The floors were concrete. They could look at the concrete.

Some of the pews had been taken out and folding chairs had been placed there because the carpet had been soaked with the blood of some of their children and their teenagers. The cushions on the pews had been stained with blood and they took the pews out and put the chairs up.

And when the people came walking in, there was a great big banner. You know what that banner said? "Let the healing begin." Let the healing begin. Come on, say it.

Now look at your own heart and put a banner there. The scripture says His banner over me is love. Put a banner over your own heart that says: Let the healing begin. Let the healing begin.

That's exactly what began happening at that church last Sunday afternoon. Corinne and I went home, we turned on CNN, and we saw 10,000 people gathered at the Texas Christian University.

And there was the pastor of that church, some of you saw it, and they were looking to God singing the praises of the Lord, turning their hearts toward Christ. No longer Babylon. Now Zion.

Children of God, children of the church, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Let the healing begin. This is what happens when the storm comes, when you turn your heart toward God, toward that heavenly home, toward that spiritual place, toward that Savior.

Then the healing begins. Jesus Christ is the Shepherd who leaves the 99. Yes, He's come looking for you today. I'm convinced. I started praying for the service this morning and I started praying, "Lord, I want you to move among the aisles in this church this morning."

Move among the aisles. There's people here who are hurting, people who are going through some very serious places. The Holy Spirit turned my prayer and had me pray, "Let the Lord now move among the hearts."

The Holy Spirit is moving among your hearts. He's moving. Jesus has left the 99 and He's come looking for you today. Why does He want you? Because you're His little lamb.

He wants to gather you up in His arms. You've staggered off somewhere, you don't know where you are, but He's found you. He wants to gather you up, His little lamb, in His arms and carry you back home to Father's house.

And do you know what happens when Jesus leaves the 99 and finds the lost sheep and brings that little lamb home? Do you know what happens? The scripture says there is rejoicing and singing.

Hey friends, go get your harp. Take your harp down off that tree. You're going to play it again. You're going to sing again. You're going to rejoice again. Why? He left the 99 and He found you.

That's why. He has come to you, He's here this morning. Let the healing begin. The Healer is here. Let the healing begin. But turn to Him with all your heart today and make a stalwart commitment.

And say as for me and my house. Don't let people make decisions for you. You can't let your wife decide your salvation, you can't let your husband decide your salvation.

Remember we're each one a priest unto God. You make a decision. Paul says, "Thou shalt be saved and thy house."

Guest (Male): Storms come, but storms don't last for ever. And as Pastor Jack Morris reminded us today, when we walk through them with Jesus, we can emerge stronger, wiser, and with a deeper experience of His presence.

The sky can become blue again. If you're facing a storm today, we'd be honored to pray with you. Visit thehealingword.com to send us your prayer request and find more encouragement from God's word.

Join us next time as Pastor Jack Morris challenges us to look beyond our circumstances and discover seeing what cannot be seen.