The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Once the word of God is implanted within you, here comes the action. Your behavior now is going to change. David had faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In other words, David saw that giant dead on the ground with his head chopped off before he flung the first stone. David takes that stone, he brings that giant down.

Guest (Male): 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.

Pastor Jack Morris: No one knows what a day is going to bring forth. We don't even know what the next hour is going to bring forth. Our dear sister here on the second row, weeping yesterday in the narthex, just got word that her 19-year-old cousin was killed in a car wreck.

You don't know when the news is going to come, and when it's going to be very close. Some of these people we don't know, but we know our own family. We know ourselves. We know our extended family and our friends. No one knows, but this we do know. Listen, this we do know, that we serve a God who knows tomorrow. And He knows what's going to happen, and He's going to care for us. He's going to take care of us.

You see, we tend to anticipate bad things happening. We really do. There are so many uncertainties about tomorrow, and we worry about it. And we'll tell ourselves, "No, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay." And as soon as we're done saying it's going to be okay, those thoughts come back, "I wonder if they're not going to be okay. I wonder if things are going to turn against me."

And so we anticipate. We think about tomorrow, and we are anxious about it. We have some concerns, and we worry about it. Well, the message that I preached last week, I'm not going to preach that message exactly like I preached it last week. We did read the same passage of Scripture that I read last Sunday, which was Easter Sunday, but look at what happened.

Sabbath is over. That means it's about 6:00 Saturday afternoon or past sunset. The ladies who had been the last at the cross were also the first at the tomb. When Sabbath was over, they bought the spices to go anoint the body of Jesus. No one asked them to do that. There was no obligation to do that. It was just out of devotion to Jesus. They were still attached to Jesus, particularly to His physical being, and they went to the tomb and it was very early in the morning when they went.

Now, here's the thing that perplexes me about their going to the tomb and the conversation they had among themselves. They began to talk about that great stone that was covering the mouth of the tomb, the entrance to the tomb, and they asked each other, "Who's going to roll that stone away?"

Well, I read that, and I read that, and I thought about it, and I thought about it. They knew the stone was there. They had no idea who was going to move it, but they had already purchased spices, and they were on their way to the tomb. I'm glad they didn't talk themselves out of it. I'm glad they kept on going.

There are obstacles that we're going to face that are up ahead of us, at least we think they're ahead of us, but friends, don't allow the obstacle to stop you. Keep your eyes focused in the direction of Jesus, and keep moving toward your goal. Something beautiful and wonderful is about to happen.

What if those ladies had stopped halfway there and said, "That's right, that big two-ton stone. Who's going to move it? There's no use. Let's go see if we can get the money back for our spices. Let's return it and go on home." But they didn't stop. They kept going to the tomb.

And when they got to the tomb, they looked up. The stone was already moved away, and that which had been an obstacle, an angel was using it as a recliner. He was sitting on it. Friends, some of the things that you're thinking about right now that are big and gigantic in your life, in your marriage, in your family, with your children, with your finances, they're looming as a great big stone, almost impassable.

But I want to help you before I finish this message today and invite you to this table, to know that God is the God of tomorrows. He's the God of the things that you don't know about, and He's going to take care of these things. We sang that just a moment ago. He's everything to me. But you can't sing it with all honesty until you are significantly aware that you are everything to Him, and He's going to take care of you.

Jesus taught us to call Him Father. We are His children, and He's going to look out for us. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that He's going to look out for you? He is, and He's going to take care of all your needs. And when they got there, this is what the angel said, "Go tell His disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you." He is going ahead of you.

Friends, He's up front. I'm going to turn over to John. Let me turn to John just a moment. John chapter 10, Jesus is talking about Him being the good shepherd, and He said that His sheep listen to His voice. We listen to His word. And then He calls His sheep by name, and then He leads them out. He doesn't drive them out.

Listen friend, God's not going to drive you to do anything. But He's going to lead you to do some things, and those things that He leads you to do, if you will obey and follow, you're going to be abundantly blessed. He calls His own sheep by name, and He leads them out. And verse 4, He goes on ahead of them.

Friends, God is up front. He's already ahead of you. We don't know what tomorrow is going to hold for any of us, but when you step into tomorrow, Jesus will already be there to welcome you into tomorrow. He's there for you. He cares for you that much. You are precious in His sight.

Now, here's what we tend to do. I have observed Christians all my adult life. I've observed them, and I've observed myself, and so I'm talking about myself. When things get rough, and things do get rough, we pray. Christians will always pray. I hope we do at least.

But this is how we do it when we pray. We will put forth an effort to get God's attention. Somehow we're not really up to speed on our thinking that God already has us in sight. He's already ahead of us, knowing what's going to take place, and He's already, as I said, gone ahead of us and fixed it. He has moved that big obstacle.

But we tend to think, "Now I've got to get God's attention." And we will say some things to God. We will pray some things to God, and we will try to compliment God and embellish that prayer. We will then think of, "Now if I could just pray the right kind of prayer. If I can just choose and select the right words. If I can just say the right thing."

Friend, God's not looking to listen to your words. He's looking at your heart. Is your heart in it? Are you truly seeking the Lord with all your heart? But this is how we're trying to get His attention. He's aloof. He's afar off. There's an emergency. I haven't been thinking a whole lot about prayer and God, but oh my, something's happened to my family.

Now I've got to get His attention. Now I've got to get God on my side. I've got to convince God that I really need Him. And we get all flustered and sweaty trying to get involved and get a quick fix and a drive-through McDonald's answer to our prayer right now. We've been waiting for a while. Now's the time.

Here are three things that we need to do. Number one, accept your status as a child of God. You are a child of God. You have been redeemed with the blood of Jesus. God paid a tremendous price for you. You did not come cheap. When we buy something, it's normally if we pay more for it, we value it more and prize it more than something that we paid less for.

Well, God didn't buy you at a cheap price. It was the blood of His Son. You are precious in His sight. You're on His radar. He has you on His schedule. He's waiting for you to come to Him in humble, open obedience so He can bless you, answer your prayer, and do something for you.

But God will expect obedience out of you and putting Him first. Not when it's just convenient, but He's on my radar, and I'm putting Him first. He's put me first. Look up here. If you don't think He's put you first, He's put you first. He loves you. He cares for you.

In the Scripture, it says in Exodus chapter 19 that God's people are His special treasure. Whoa. Can you believe that? That you are a treasure to God? Well, you are. So that's the first thing you need to do when it comes to believing God and praying. Accept your status. You are a child of God. Your name is written in the Book of Life in heaven.

Secondly, believe God's promise. Now read that Scripture with me, Mark chapter 11. "Have faith in God, I tell you. Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it and you will have it. It will be yours." Believe and you will see the glory of God. Has it been several days since you read a Scripture? Aren't you glad you came to church today? You could read some Scripture.

I'm bad. I'm a bad man. I'm being bad. But this is what happens. We must believe. Now, how do we believe? It's more than just reading that Scripture and saying, "I believe that. Yeah, I believe that." But your prayers aren't answered. Your sick loved ones aren't healed. Your financial condition isn't met, but you say you believe that? Well, there's a big disparity here.

If He says that and you believe that, and yet nothing happens, what gives? Let me tell you how it works, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Taking a Scripture like that, reading it over and over and over and over again out loud. And then you whisper it over and over and over again. And then you memorize it, and then you think it silently hour after hour until that Scripture actually lays hold of you, and you lay hold of it.

You can't just read a Scripture and say, "I've got faith. I believe that." Friend, if you believed it, something then would happen. But too many of God's people are trying to get on God's schedule, wondering if they can really afford God, wondering if their project is big enough. I had so many people say to me, "Well, Pastor, I don't want to bother God. God's got bigger things to take care of." No! When you have a problem, God's going to come. You're the best thing to God in all the world right now. He cares for you.

So we read that Scripture over and over again. We may even tape it on the dashboard of our car. That Scripture has to get into our mind. And when it gets into our mind, then it goes into our central nervous system. And then when it goes into our central nervous system, it goes into our immune system.

That Scripture's got to get in you, not just on your lips. So many of us, the Scripture never gets any further than our mouth, but it has to get in you. And the only way it can get in you is repetition over and over and over, repeatedly saying that Scripture until it now has entered into you. That Scripture must, listen to me, it must invade your mind.

It's got to invade you, and only you can cause it to come in and invade your mind. That Scripture will lay hold of you. You are laying hold of that Scripture. That Scripture now is becoming flesh and blood, your flesh and blood. That Scripture now has become incarnate within you.

Now you are believing the Scripture, but it has taken hours and maybe days for that one Scripture. And you don't need a whole lot of Scriptures, one or two. Now that Scripture has gotten into you. Now it's in your bloodstream. Now your heart is pumping it into every cell of your body. You have become incarnate. That Scripture has become you. Now you can speak to God His own word, and God will hear His own word, and God will bring an answer to you.

Believe, the Scripture says. How do I believe? I believe by hearing the word of God and making the word of God my word, and my word myself becomes God. David didn't know what was happening, and he happened to just be there when that big monster of a man came out. And when Goliath spoke, the armies of Israel cowered back and retreated. And David said, "Hey, what goes on here? What's happening? You are the armies of God. Don't you know your status?"

Friend, you are the church of God. Don't you know your status? David says to those army men, those soldiers, his brothers, "Who is that uncircumcised Philistine?" meaning, who is that foreigner who is not under the covenant of God? You are under the covenant of God, but you're defeated. You're afraid. You don't know what's going to happen.

You're sick. You have financial problems. You're broke. There are relationship problems. You're being so stressed, and things are tearing you down. You're living in defeat. And here's Goliath marching around, defying the people of God. He's a foreigner. He's not under the covenant of God. You're not a foreigner. You're the people of God under the covenant of God.

Here is a teenager. Now, I'll tell you something, when a teenager gets on fire for God, look out. The word of God was in David. It had been in David. It just didn't get in him when the crisis came. Friend, if you wait to pray, you wait to believe, you wait to read the word of God, you wait until the crisis comes, you'll go down in defeat.

You'll go down in defeat. You're not going to be able to stand up. But if you're prepared like this young boy was, he was prepared. The word of God was in his mind. The word of God was in his central nervous system. The word of God was in his immune system. And because of that, his behavior changed. Here comes now the action.

Once the word of God is implanted within you, here comes the action. Your behavior now is going to change. David had faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In other words, David saw that giant dead on the ground with his head chopped off before he flung the first stone. David takes that stone, he brings that giant down.

Now, in our bodies, there's what is called white corpuscles. They pump through our body all day long, all night long. They're there to ward off viruses and flu, influenza, anything that is foreign. When stress comes, difficulty comes, hard places come, those white corpuscles are depleted. There are fewer of them. They die.

And now there's a virus in my body. A virus attacks me. The white corpuscles, those little soldiers we'll call them, in my bloodstream aren't strong enough to ward it off. And so I come down with the flu. I've got to go to the doctor. I've got to get antibiotics to build myself back up. I don't have it within me.

Now, there's going to come a virus. Let's call it doubt. It's going to get inside your mind, and you're going to wonder, "Is God with me? Is God going to answer my prayer? Is God aloof and afar off? What's going to happen next? What is the next step that I should take?" Well, those white corpuscles, the word of God, is now flowing in your brain, your central nervous system, your immune system.

And those white corpuscles, the word of God, spots that doubt. That doubt is the Goliath. That doubt shouldn't be there. That doubt is not under the covenant of God. That doubt is a foreigner, and the word of God, or those white corpuscles, will attack that doubt and expel it from your body.

But if you do not have the word of God in you, and you're not living according to the word of God, and you're not obeying the word of God, you don't have the power to resist temptation. You will fall, you will succumb, you will have doubts, you will be depressed, you will be sad, you'll be defeated. You live a Christian life, but it isn't a happy Christian life. It isn't a joyous Christian life.

Friend, you've got to have the word of God in you. How do I get the word of God in me? Have faith in God. I tell you, Jesus is talking. Are you listening to Jesus? I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it and it will be yours. Read it over and over and over until it possesses you, until it gets in you, until it conquers you.

You are now conquered by faith. Now you can fight those doubts, those unbeliefs, those things that are in your heart and in your mind and in your life that are getting you down. Friend, you'll rise up in resurrection power. You will live the abundant life in Jesus Christ.

Just coming to church, even though you come every Sunday, and some of us miss a lot, friend, you might say with your mouth you believe the word of God, but the evidence is not there. The evidence is not there. Let the word of God dwell in you richly, and it will conquer every foreign element.

And those doubts are foreign elements. Those doubts are trying to get into your mind all the time. "Will I make it? Can I afford it? Will I overcome? What's going to happen? What should be my next step?" Those doubts, those questions. You're walking around, you're driving the car, you're talking to somebody, those doubts are there.

How do you get those doubts out? Only the word of God is the antibiotic that will attack that doubt and get it out. You can get it out. You cannot get it out. So the first thing to do is accept your status as a child of God. The second thing to do is believe the promise.

But it's going to take some hard memorizing, reading, quoting, thinking, laying hold, letting the Scripture lay hold of you. Now you're believing the word of God. Now you can go out and move that mountain in the name of the Lord. Now you can pray the prayer of faith, and victory be yours. Accept your status, believe the word of God, and lastly, trust the one who made the promise.

Read Numbers 23:19. Read it with me in unison. "God is not a man that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and then not fulfill?" Read the next one. "The Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."

Will God truly open the Red Sea for me? Will God truly move that mountain? Will He truly do it? I believe He will, but yet my actions say no. But look, God is not a man. That's how men are. God's not going to change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and then not fulfill it?

Friend, God's going to do exactly what He said. How about you and me doing exactly what we say? Let's make a promise to God that we're going to give Him our heart, and we're going to take His word into our heart. I hold the Bible symbolically over my heart with you on Sunday mornings, but friend, it's going to take more than that.

It's going to take some effort on your part. Some planning, some thinking, some strategizing. Now you're beginning to believe the word of God. It's in your mind, it's in your bloodstream, it's in your central nervous system, it's in your immune system. Now you are more than conquerors through Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Amen.

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