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: Come on up from discouragement. Come on up from conflict. Rise up from sadness. Come on hope in the Lord because as you pray and believe God, things are not always going to stay like they are right now.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Healing Word, a ministry dedicated to offering strength and encouragement through God's word for anyone facing life's challenges. As believers, we want to serve God and walk in his will. Though the path isn't always easy, today's message is here to meet you at your point of need, bringing hope and renewing your faith. Now, here's Pastor Jack Morris.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now, you have an outline and I hope you'll follow along, you'll pull it out, look at it and go with me through this passage and be blessed as the passage is expounded that the word will be light to us. In verse one, notice Paul says to the church of the Thessalonians. The the church, the ecclesia, the body of Christ, the assembly of God's born again people. That's what the church is. A group of Christians emerged in this town of Thessalonica because the word of God was taken. They heard the word of God. It brought light to them and they turned to God from their idols to serve the living and true God.

That was the message I just preached it to a few weeks weeks ago to serve the living and the true God, the church, the church for which Christ died, the church that Jesus is building. Those of us here this morning who really truly know him are part of that church. Now, we are a local church, but the church universal or the church Catholic is throughout the world, wherever God's people are worshiping and serving him, turning to him, that's the church. So, he writes to the church at Thessalonica. Now, notice verse two, he said, we always thank God for all of you.

Now, the church is is a special people. It the church people like you who know the Lord. And Paul is saying it is people like you that causes me to thank the Lord. I thank the Lord for you. Now, I need to ask you a question, a personal question. You have to answer it in your heart. Don't want to see a raise of hands or or an amen or anything. Be very silent on this. But ask yourself the question, when did you say thank God for my brothers and sisters at the Largo Community Church? Without the Largo Community Church, you and I might be in a very difficult situation spiritually.

So, well, I could go over to another church. Not if God put you in this church. Not if the Holy Spirit called you to to to pasture here. This is is your pasture. And I think I feel and know just a little bit about what Paul was saying when he said, I thank God for you. Did you see that in verse two? We always thank God for all of you. Now, this was an ongoing thing. Paul knew that he was blessed by the church and he was giving thanks to God for the church that blessed him.

Just last Sunday after the the Sunday worship service, Cran and I on our way home, we stopped to get lunch and while I was up at the salad bar getting some salad, one of our girls from the church, a seventh grader, walked up to me and she said, Pastor Morrison, I turned and it was York and Josh the Cooper's granddaughter, Diamond. And she said to me, now this is a seventh grader. How old is she? 12, 13 years old? 12 12 years old. She said, Pastor Morris, I enjoyed your message this morning. I'll tell you, Diamond gave me a diamond.

I have been enjoying that and feasting on that all week long. A seventh grader. I I was I I keep every time I think about it, I think well, thank God she heard me. Thank God she understood me. Thank God I didn't preach over her head. Praise the Lord. Yeah, you know, I thank God. I I look at these young people today. When's the last time you said, thank God for the voices of praise. I mean, anybody can complain, but when you see some young people who love the Lord, I mean, how many seventh graders go to church and how many seventh graders go up to their pastor and say, pastor, thank you for that message this morning.

Now, she first went to her grandparents and told them she said, I enjoyed Pastor Morris's sermon this morning. And so Jocelyn said to her, well, why don't you go up and tell him? It'll mean so much more coming from you. Believe me, it meant a lot. It meant a lot. And I I think of you and I thank God for you. And I think the right now and I'm I not wanting to be funny and do some activity. I want you to be very serious. And to the person in front of you, the person in back of you, the person on your right and the person on your left, say thank you.

They are gifts from God to you. Now, we're going to take a moment. That's four people. Go for it. Go for it. What's your We need to do a whole lot more of that, don't we? You know, people who are thankful are not people who complain because you can't complain and thank at the same time. Bitter water and sweet water doesn't come out of the same mouth. You hear a complainer, you know that person does not get on his or her knees and give thanks to God. You just can't do it. Just mark it down, that person is in trouble spiritually.

A thankful person is a happy person, a successful person, a person who is strong in the Lord. Giving thanks to God always for all things in Christ Jesus. In verse three, he said, we continually remember you. Now, what was he remembering? Now, that's where the sermon is, what Paul was remembering. Number one, their work of faith. Write down the word faith. In verse three, he says, your work produced by faith. Now, you're a a working church, Paul said to the Thessalonians. But I know what's causing you to do what you're doing. It's because you have faith.

You have faith in God. It's your faith that is motivating you and causing you to do the work that you're doing. So, he thought of their salvation. These people came into the light of Christ. They accepted Christ as their personal savior and now they're growing in the Lord. They're developing spiritually in the Lord. They're they're they're doing something that is invisible and they're allowing the Holy Spirit to do it. It's within their hearts and they're growing in salvation. In Philippians chapter two verse 12 we read again the words of Paul. He said, work out your own salvation.

Now, what's he talking about here? Work out your own salvation. This is what he saw that was going on in the Thessalonian church. And me thinks I think this is going on at the Largo Community Church also. Work out your own salvation. He certainly was not talking about coming to Christ and being born again because we cannot work for our own salvation. Jesus did all the work for us on the cross of Calvary. But when he says, work out your own salvation, he said, now God has done something for you. He's put his spirit within you.

He's given you a gift. Now, you do something with what God has given you. You still with me? Now, we have have a part to do in working out our own salvation. Work out your own salvation. He didn't say work for your salvation. He says, work out your salvation. It's like taking a problem in mathematics and you you work out that problem. It's like in Paul's day there were were minds. People were having mind mining in the earth. And it's like taking the ore out. And Paul is saying, you know, go in there and take all the the valuable ore out that you can.

It's like a field that a farmer has. And the farmer goes into the field to to reap a harvest and and to get the best harvest he can. God Paul is saying here, God has done something beautiful for you. Now, get the most out of it. Get the most out of it. God has done something. Now, you take it and go forward with it and enjoy the blessing of God and become the mature Christian that God wants you to become. Paul had gone to this people. He told them about Jesus. These people of this Thessalonians were idol worshipers.

They were unsaved. They were heathens. They turned to the Lord and they gave their hearts to Christ. They were born again and God had done something great for them and Paul was now saying, now you take it and go with it. You take this salvation and do something beautiful with it because now God has your life. You've given your life to God. There is potential in you. There is is ability in you. There are gifts in you. Now, let God develop those gifts. Put yourself in the place, cooperate with God and become the mature developed Christian that God would have you to be.

Don't just be saved. Now, there's some people they're just they're going to go to heaven, but they're going to go to heaven but the skin of their teeth, you know. They're just going to get in. But God has a full and purposeful life for every child of God. And he is now wanting us to develop into that person that we we could become. I I just feel in my heart and I'm so thankful we're going into this 40 days of purpose that that people are not realizing and experiencing their purpose in life. They were put here for a purpose.

God saved them for a purpose. God put his spirit within them for a purpose and they're not doing anything with it. They're not developing and their life is not is a is enriched as God wants it to become. And we can become all that God wants us. We we're just a a a gift of potential. And now we need to go forward and develop that potential. You see salvation is not just so we can go to heaven when we die. It's that. Yeah. Thank God we're we're saved and we're in Christ and and when death comes, we expect to go to heaven because of Jesus.

But salvation is also for living here and developing into the full potential. You know, the worst thing I can think about I can think up is to live a life wasted. To live a wasted life. To come to the end of my life and think, what have I done with myself? What have I done with all these years? I know God saved me. But what have I done with this great and wonderful salvation, this great and wonderful gift? This is what Paul was saying. Paul said, you turned from idols to the living and true God.

You are now saved and in Christ, but I see something else happening in your life. I see you growing. I see you developing. I see the character of Jesus in you. Your behavior is changing. Wonderful things are taking place. And every time I think of you and remember you, Paul says, I thank God for you. That's what was happening. Now, that's what God wants in every church and in every Christian, in every believer. He thought of their missionary work. He said, you people are active. You Thessalonians are active. You're out there on the front line.

You're reaching others with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He thought of their acts of goodness. They were loving each other. They were serving each other. They were in touch with each other. This wasn't a group of strangers in the church. These people were brothers and sisters in Christ. They they were united in the Lord. And he said, you love one of you care for one another. You help one another. I see what's going on. You're not making a big thing of it. You think it's done in secret and it is done in secret, but I know you people truly love each other, not only in word, but also indeed.

This is Jesus. This is the love of God. This is agape love. This is the kind of love that Paul saw in the Thessalonian church. And again, I think I see some of that love here at the Largo Community Church. I do. I do. But some of us don't know what I 'm talking about today. Now, I'm glad you're saved, but friends, there's so much more to being saved. So much more. And God wants you now to take that salvation that he's put within you and to work it out into full maturity, to grow and develop into the man or the woman that God wants you to be.

I think of a mother giving birth to a child. Is that fun, ladies? But it's love, isn't it? She labors. Oh, I can only imagine. Thank God I'm not a woman. She labors to bring that child of love out of the darkness of her womb into the light of life and she brings it forth. When Jesus was on the cross, he was going through labor pains. You and I needed to be saved. We needed to be into the kingdom of God. We were lost. And if he would were to stop anywhere along the way, you and I would have been stillborn.

And we would have died and forever been lost. But he labored and labored and labored and sweat and bled as the people spit and cursed. But he brought you in. And you're in today. And now he wants to fill you with his love that you and I might labor for others and see others brought into the kingdom of God. Other brothers and sisters who are hurting to reach out and to meet their needs, to take care of our teens and our youth. We need to do something. Something that is measurable. We need to see a change in our attitude, in our behavior, in our character.

This is what Paul was saying. I see a church that's growing not only numerically, but it's growing spiritually. And Paul says, I I thank God for you. I see your work of faith. I see your labor of love. And number three, I see your endurance of hope. Write down the word hope. Verse three again. Your endurance inspired by hope. You're a people of hope. Now, what is hope? What is he talking about? Now, hope is not optimism. Hope is not wishful thinking. People says, you know, I hope someday to really take that vacation or or you know, I hope someday to build that house or I hope I can buy that new car.

You know, I and we use it in that way, but that's optimism. That's wishful thinking. That's the kind of thinking that is built on a platform of air. You know, that's there's no platform. There's no nothing there. But what is Paul saying about this church that he established? He's saying here, your endurance inspired by hope. See hope. Let me tell you what hope is. And some of you this morning, I know you're in a you feel hopeless. Your situation feels so hopeless. But God has a word for you today. He wants to inspire you. Hope will endure.

Hope will be steadfast. Hope has a solid platform. Hope won't quit. Faith in hope are just about the same thing. Let me tell you the difference between. Faith is for now and what's going on right now. I have faith to do something right now. I have faith to love you. I have faith to to help you. I have faith to bring food to you if you need food. I have faith to bring money to you if you need money. I have faith to to build that building over there that needs building. I have faith for the present, but hope is faith projected into the future.

That's what what hope is. And Paul is saying, I see you people in Thessalonica being persecuted, severely persecuted and abused. But you have hope that is causing you to be the church, be the child of God, to endure. That's what's causing your endurance. You're able to keep going because you have faith or you have hope. You have faith in the future. You can endure hardships. I have I've seen homes. Woman in particular. Her husband was drinking. He wasn't kind to her. He was absolutely abusive. He'd drink and tell her to get out. Some Christians wondered, why don't you get out?

Why take all of that? But she had hope that someday the Holy Spirit was going to convict him. Someday the Holy Spirit was going to open his eyes to his sinful behavior. And she endured. She saw what was going on right now, but she didn't pay a whole lot of attention. Hope. She looked out there and she saw a man saved and in Christ, born again, cleaned up, going to church, leading the family and all in a family altar. And so she was able to endure. I thought to myself, I couldn't endure it. No. What she was in, but she had faith to hold on, to keep praying, to keep enduring, to withstand the hardship.

And she made it. And she made it. And that man today is in the kingdom of God because that woman had faith, faith that would endure hope in the future. That I want you to have hope today. I want you to believe and God's going to help you. That's what was going on in the church of Thessalonica. Some of you going through some hard times in your relationship, in your family. I just sense it in my heart, but hope will hold you steady. Hope will will keep you anchored when the storms of life are blowing on you.

Francis or Ivan is is about ready to rip your coast apart. There there is hope in the Lord that will hold you. Just hope in the Lord. See faith is for now to help me right now, but hope looks over. You know, the last evening Cran and I watched a football game from beginning to end. First time that I remember ever doing that. Never did that before. All the way through. We got it turned on before it started or right at the beginning. We didn't turn it off until hours later, I guess. I don't how long that thing went on.

It was South Carolina and Georgia. How many saw that game last night? Okay. You know why we watched it because our son and daughter-in-law were x-ray x-ray technicians. When that guy walked off the field like that, you know, he'd gone back there to Jack Morris to x-ray. That's my son, you know. Fixing up and getting back out there. And when we kept watching, did you see him yet? Did you Jack, my son Jack. Did you see him? No, we didn't see him. All we watched that thing all the way through. Not to watch the game.

We were looking for Jack. And he was hit back there beyond the dugout somewhere. He told us, I'm going to you look for me, look for we looked for him for two or three hours. And if I look a little tired today, you know why. Boy. South Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, 16 up there on the board, Georgia, nothing. Wow. My son. My son's doing that. 16. All of a sudden that thing turned. Those of you who saw it. Cran went to bed depressed. It would turned out there was 2016 favor Georgia. And that thing turned.

Well, now this is what faith is. When they got in a huddle, that was faith. They were they were making their plans. Faith had to do with the immediate plan and execution of that plan. But Georgia must have had hope. South Carolina had faith, but Georgia had hope. Georgia looked beyond and saw 20 up there. Now, that's how faith and hope works. Notice what he says here in verse three. He said, your endurance inspired by hope. Hope in what? Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is your platform. This is your foundation. So, Paul is saying, come on up from discouragement.

Come on up from conflict. Rise up from sadness. Come on hope in the Lord because as you pray and believe God, things are not always going to stay like they are right now. God's going to turn it around and make it happen. Now, that is a church that is growing and developing in Jesus. And that's what I have seen here at the Largo Community Church through the years and then numbers of people. Faith, love and hope, the basis for a mature Christian life. The work of faith, the labor of love and the endurance of hope.

Brothers and sisters, we're going to make it. And those of you are in homes and in godly situations, let me tell you hope in the Lord. Not wishful thinking. You've got a platform to stand on today. Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look beyond. Have faith. God's going to help you. God's going to change it. God's going to do it. Not your wishful thinking, not you, not your wisdom. You need to just stop trying and say, God, I give it all up to you. Just give it up to him today. You can't fix it. You can't change that man.

You can't change that woman. You can't change that child. You can't change that parent. But you give it to the one who can. That's your sure foundation. The immovable rock Jesus. Let's bow before him.

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