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: Friend, don't worry about it. God's going to get into that bank account. God's going to get into that home. He's going to get into that place where you live and work. God's arm is reaching. God's arm is not short. God's arm is long enough for your situation.

Guest (Male): Today, we continue our focus on God calling Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and how His love for the people was demonstrated through this action. In the message, "God's Arm Reaching," Pastor Jack Morris is going to focus on another action that was driven by His unfailing love for mankind, sending His one and only Son to die on a cross for our sins, freeing those who believe from a life of bondage.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now, before I get into the message proper, I'd like to turn our attention to Luke chapter 18. Jesus is in the synagogue at His hometown, Nazareth. It's the Sabbath day, and as His custom was, listen, Jesus went to church every Sabbath day. That was His custom. He loved the house of God and He said, "My Father's house shall be called the house of prayer."

We need to know that we're part of the church, a wonderful body of believers, a strengthening body of believers. I receive strength from you, and we receive strength from one another. Well, Jesus was there on the Sabbath day and the ruler handed Him the scroll. Jesus turned the pages, rolled it out to Luke 4:18. But He turned to Isaiah chapter 61, where this scripture is first recorded. It's recorded in Isaiah for the people of Israel who were in Egyptian or Babylonian bondage at that time.

But Jesus brought it over into the New Testament to say what God was to the people in the Old Testament, He's going to be to the people in the New Testament. Jesus is going to be somebody to you today and every day. Let me read the scripture for you. Jesus read these words: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord."

Jesus takes this scripture and applies it to Himself. In reading what I just read and what He read to the congregation in the synagogue, He applied it to Himself and told them all His ministry and what it was going to be like here on Earth. So if you want to know what Jesus is about, read Luke chapter 4 verse 18. It'll tell you the whole story.

Now, just quickly let me go through this. If you fall in one of these places, one of these categories, that means you're the person that's here for the miracle. You may find yourself in several of these places, and then I'll move into the message proper. Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me," meaning that He is present with power to do the impossible. Whatever it is that you might need, as impossible as it might seem, He is anointed to fix it for you. Any impossible situations? Think about it.

Notice He said He is here to help me to preach good news to the poor. Jesus has always been concerned about those in poverty who physically, materially lack food. He supplied. But He's also talking about another poor, people who are in poverty spiritually speaking, to help to encourage, to minister to. You see, we don't have the strength to get to God, but God has the power and the anointing to bring Jesus to us. We have but to ask and He's going to bless and minister to us.

Spiritual poverty, to preach the gospel, good news. This world is filled with so much bad news, negative news, but there is good news in the gospel. That's what the word gospel means. So Jesus is here to help the poor, people who are too poor to reach out to Him, too weak, too spiritually poverty-stricken, and He is here to bring good news that He is the one that can help you reach out to Him. But more importantly, He's the one that's reaching out to you and me.

Now, let me go on. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, simply meaning that there are those who are imprisoned by sin, people who are imprisoned by habits that they don't want to have those habits and participate in those habits anymore. They're imprisoned by an unforgiving spirit or a grudge they're holding towards someone and they want freedom from that. It's like prison bars around them. They're in this condition. They behave in ways that they don't want to behave. I mean, they are slaves to all of these negative, sinful, worldly, carnal experiences and they don't want it. But here He comes to preach freedom.

So, friend, if there's something going on in your life that you don't like, Jesus is the one that can get you out of there. He's here today. He's here every day, wherever you are. Then He goes on to say, "and the recovering of sight to the blind." Are you listening well enough to know whether you're falling in one of these categories or not? Listen to me now. Listen to the word. The recovering of sight to the blind.

There are Christians who are godly Christians, wonderful Christians, people whose names are written in heaven. They're going to go to heaven when they die. But the promises of God are still very vague to them. They're unable to see themselves being blessed by those promises and Jesus is saying they are blind to some of these promises and these are the very promises that He wants to fulfill in your life. You're a good Christian, but you're still suffering under some of these situations that He doesn't want you to suffer under. He wants to bring you out and to help you. You just can't quite grasp the power of Jesus to help you in your situation. But today's your day.

Then He goes on to say, "and to release the oppressed." The ministry of Jesus is a ministry of healing, a ministry of forgiving, and a ministry of social justice. There are whole groups of people who live under oppression, individuals, but the Lord can lift that that the government can't. The government has been trying—the Democrats, the Republicans, the Independents—and we're still living under oppression. Friend, there's only one person that can give that release and lift that burden, and that's Jesus.

Then He says, "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." What does that mean? In Isaiah chapter 61, when Isaiah prophesied that, the people of Israel were living in Babylonian captivity under severe, punishing taskmasters. Every 50 years—it would take 50 years to get the blessing that Isaiah prophesied—at the end of 50 years or when that date would arrive, the trumpets would sound all over the nation, and the people would be released from their debts.

They would be free from their bondage. They could go home. The land that had been taken from them would be ancestral land would be restored to the families. It was a wonderful time. Well, Jesus is saying that was for the people back then, but this scripture is also for the people today. It's no longer a calendar year. It is a period of time for believing and trusting and receiving from the Lord. Can somebody say praise the Lord? This is what God is doing.

Now, let me go over to the message proper. I want you to look to the anointed one. He has anointed me. God has anointed Jesus to bless, to help, to encourage, to minister, to heal, to save, to forgive, to release. This is your day of freedom in Jesus. He is the one, He that the Son sets free is free indeed. His arm is reaching. He's reaching out to us today. Sometimes it's difficult to reach out, but He finds it very easily to reach down and here is Jesus.

Guest (Female): If today's message from The Healing Word spoke to your heart, we'd love to hear from you. Visit us online at thehealingword.com, a place where you can connect, share your prayer requests, and know that others are praying with and for you. And while you're there, you can also listen to more messages from Pastor Jack Morris and learn more about how his ministry is reaching lives around the world with the hope of Jesus Christ. That's thehealingword.com, where faith is strengthened, prayers are lifted, and hearts are healed through the power of God's word.

Pastor Jack Morris: So the sermon title is God's Arm Reaching. I thought I was pretty clever in this outline: God knows, God shows, and God glows. God knows, meaning He knows who you are, He knows where you are, He knows the circumstances you're in, and you have His full and intimate attention. Jesus said your Father knows. I have, and you have, I'm sure, from time to time we felt like, God, do you know what I'm experiencing? Do you know what I'm going through? Do you know about the hurt and the pain and the confusion?

There's a song, "Yes He Knows, I Know He Knows." He does know. He is aware. God does know. Your Father knows. But then God shows up. He's going to show up. I don't know how He's going to quite do that, but He's going to show up. He's going to somehow in His way reach out and touch your life, your ministry, reach right into those circumstances that you have no control over or you feel you have no control over. He's going to reach right into those circumstances, and then you're going to see what God's going to do.

It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be wonderful. You're going to be blessed abundantly. Let's trust Him today. We're candidates for that miracle. God shows. Now, my friend Dr. Harold Sala, from one of his books, he said these words: that God is seldom early but He's never late. He's going to get there. He's coming. He's here. He's reaching out. He is seldom early, but He's never late.

Here are the children of Israel in bondage in Egypt. It was a terrible time. We just cannot describe the situation, the circumstances that they were in, and they were crying out to God. Thank God they were because God heard them. And God sent a leader, and that leader was Moses. Now, Moses was watching the sheep of Jethro, his father. By the way, he was 80 years old when this started. God usually, it seems like to me at least, calls younger people into the ministry. But he was 80 years old. I read that and I thought, hey, there's hope for me.

Eighty years old, and as he was moving along, he found this bush that was burning and he turned aside to see. Friend, sometimes you just have to turn aside, don't you? You just have to get on your knees somewhere or open the Bible or go to church or stream in. You've got to give God some attention. And when Moses gave God some attention, God called for his attention. God was there in an intimate way to talk to him. God was on time. Now, let's put it on the screen now.

God shows. He shows up on time. In the fullness of time, the scripture said Jesus came. But notice the words that have been emboldened and the words underlined. The Lord said, come on, you read it with me in unison: "The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows." There are three things that God is telling us. God help us to believe. He says, "I have seen." Sometimes we wonder, hey, God's like I have said so many times, standing over in the corner there with His hands in His pockets. No. God sees where you are. He sees your circumstances.

Then He says, "I have heard them crying out." Friends, your prayers are being heard. They're going right to the throne of grace. Long before I get to the throne of grace, my voice has gotten to the throne of grace. Friend, you can go to heaven anytime you want to go to heaven, not physically, not in death, but when you talk, your voice is in heaven long before you're in heaven. God has heard because of the taskmaster. He said, "For I know their sorrows." God knows what's going on. And how encouraging that is to know that we know a God who is intimately concerned about our problems. "I have seen their misery, I've heard their cry for help. I'm concerned." And He said, "I've come down to rescue them."

God is on time. Well, after all of those plagues, Pharaoh finally gives up and he lets the people of Israel go. But then he regrets that he let them go because he had all this free labor and he goes after them. They weren't too far out of Egypt, the people of Israel. They were up to the Red Sea, and here comes a scout telling Moses the armies of Egypt are coming to take you back. Friend, whatever it is, when God releases you, that demon will come back and try to get back in and bring you under control again. You think you're free, indeed you are free. But don't be surprised if the demon doesn't come back again.

But the demon cannot conquer you as long as you're looking to the one who freed you in the first place. He that the Son sets free is free indeed. But the people of Israel became extremely frightened because in front of them was the Red Sea, over to the left of them were steep mountains where the women, the children, the elderly, they couldn't make those mountains, and there was Pharaoh behind them. They were hemmed in. There is no way out. Somebody here feels like you are hemmed in. There's no way out. Let me tell you, God's going to fix it for you.

He's going to take care of this situation. Oh, I need to tell you that over and over again and I'm going to because I'm thrilled, because I'm happy for you what God's going to do for you because God's arm is reaching. He's going to touch you. He's going to minister to you. He's here to do this great and wonderful thing. Well, Moses heard from heaven. And I pray that I'll hear from heaven, that you'll hear from heaven when I'm seated there while the scripture is being read. I'm praying, Holy Spirit, I believe in you. Because if I don't preach and give the very words, the illustrations, the definitions that the Holy Spirit wants, then I'm up here as a lecturer and not speaking prophetically.

But today I know in my heart that God is going to bless and do something great. God spoke to Moses and said, "Moses, take that rod and just put it out over the Red Sea. That's all you have to do." Friend, you don't have to do much to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. You don't have to do very much to be free from whatever it is that's holding you back from going forward with your life. Just trust Him. Talk to Him. Ask Him. Cry out to Him. Notice, "I have heard them crying out." And Moses heard, put the rod over the sea. You may go home today and find the situation exactly the same as it was when you left—the situation that you don't like or approve of. You may go to work, find the situation the same as it was when you left Friday. Or you look at your bank account, it might be way down like it was when you last looked at it. Friend, don't worry about it. God's going to get into that bank account. God's going to get into that home. He's going to get into that place where you live and work.

God's arm is reaching. God's arm is not short. God's arm is long enough for your situation. And when God comes in, God glows. This is what I meant. He glows with the brightness of His presence. There will be a presence there. You will feel warm in your heart, a brightness of His presence and illumination of His glory, a radiance of His power. You see, God brought them all out—Daniel, the three Hebrew children, the people of Egypt—He brought them all out. The scripture says with an uplifted hand and a mighty power. Now, this is all in the Bible for our edification and for our believing.