The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: If you and I have ears that are blessed and anointed of the Holy Spirit, we will hear Jesus speaking to us and we will receive the same healing that he imparted to them that they received.

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: I have a special message that God has given me and I believe he has given it to me for you. So listen with your heart and hear the message. The message is entitled "Healing for a Troubled Heart."

Jesus said in John chapter 14, verse one, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. Do not let your hearts be troubled." He knew that in this world there is going to be trouble, and a lot of it. You may be experiencing some trouble right now, but you are going to hear the message of Jesus, his words. He has the formula that will bring healing and wholeness to you. Let's go into the sanctuary, hear this message, and may God bring healing to you. This is your day for healing for a troubled heart.

If you are having a troubled heart, this message is for you. Trouble, you don't have to go looking for it. It comes looking for you and then it attacks you. But there is God's holy word to give us strength, to help us to overcome, to pass through the troubled situation and to receive healing from the Lord.

Just this past week, putting this message together only a few days ago, I read a report that was given by the New York Times regarding a situation at Yale University. Yale University is well over 316 years old, one of the oldest, most prestigious universities in America or in the world. And here these teenagers and those who are between 18 and 35, we call them maybe the millennials, they are experiencing all kinds of mental, emotional problems.

The New York Times said that over half of the undergraduate students, over half of them in the four years that they are there, go to the university clinic for mental health emotional difficulties. Over half of them. If over half of your family needed mental help, that would be disturbing. But we think of these teenagers, these millennials, they have their whole life ahead of them. They are at one of the very premier universities. It costs a lot of money for them to get there. When they get their degree, they are no doubt going to get wonderful positions and make lots of money.

But they are troubled. You see, age group has nothing to do with trouble. Whether you are young or whether you are old or middle-aged, trouble comes. But you and I have a secret way of overcoming trouble and difficulty in our lives, and that's God and his holy word. We have the means.

Undergraduates, here in our own church, we have a host of young people, we really do. Teenagers, millennials. We are addressing this subject on the Board of Directors about our millennials, our teenagers. And some have asked, where have they gone? Well, I have found out that every church in America is addressing that or hoping they will address that situation between ages 18 and 35. Many of them go away. Many of them after they are married and start having children come back into the church again.

But this is a difficult world and we need strategy how to get out there and live among the world. That's why we are having Saturday seminars for our educators. That's why we are having snow camp for our teenagers. That's why we are having 11:00 worship service for teens and their parents next week. We are doing things because they need to be done and we're not just doing things to do things. We're thinking, we're praying, the Holy Spirit is leading. This is a church that is blessed and on the move for God and you people are listening to the Holy Spirit and things are beginning to happen. Oh, you need to congratulate yourself. Come on, congratulate yourself. Be blessed of the Lord.

Troubled hearts, even the Apostles had trouble in their hearts, in their mind. They had trouble. The Apostles, listen friends, listen to me today, the Apostles were not perfect men. They were just people like us, subject to difficulties and problems exactly like we are subject to problems and difficulties. Their situation may have been somewhat different. 2,000 years ago, things may have been a little bit different, but their hearts were troubled and Jesus had to address their troubled hearts, just like I'm talking about it today.

I believe what Jesus said to them, he is saying exactly the same thing to us. And how he healed them, if you and I have ears that are blessed and anointed of the Holy Spirit, hearts open to the word of God, we will hear Jesus speaking to us and we will receive the same healing that he imparted to them that they received. Friend, you're in for a healing today, a blessing. And if you hold it in your heart, in the days to come as difficulties arise, you'll be able to move forward and overcome these difficulties and troubles.

Jesus loved the Apostles. He truly did. He had such sympathy for them. The love that he had for them, that love still is in his heart for his people today. Great sympathy. And he addressed their needs. Well, this is the thing that so blesses me when I read this story of Jesus addressing the Apostles and their troubled hearts, is that he too was troubled. How about that?

But he ignores his own trouble to address their trouble. For only in a few days he's going to be crushed with unimaginable pain called crucifixion. But he didn't say to those fellows, "Gentlemen, you think you've got problems, let me tell you about mine. Mine's worse than yours." He ignores himself to come to us and to help us with our needs.

I think of some of the things that were troubling them. I don't know what is troubling you right now, but something is or something soon will be. But think about it. Judas left their company. Judas was a very popular disciple, a very popular Apostle. The Apostles loved Judas and they elected him to a very high office in their little organization. They made him their treasurer. Now you talk about trusting him. Now in parenthesis, I'll put this in. Judas was dipping into the bag, helping himself to that money. Jesus knew he was helping himself, but Jesus didn't do anything about it and he certainly didn't tell the other disciples.

But after a while, you know sin will find you out, and Judas left the company. They loved Judas. I never heard a mother name her son Judas, have you? Or a mother name her daughter Jezebel. Now, I've known families name their cat Jezebel, but never Judas. But Judas was popular, a beautiful name, but look what happened to him. Well, they were sad when Judas left. You see, Jesus even had some to walk out of his church.

Then there was Peter. All the disciples heard Jesus tell Peter, "You're going to deny me before the rooster crows. You'll deny me three times." How could a believer who lived with Jesus all those years, who spoke up on one occasion and said, "We have left all to follow you." On another occasion he spoke up and he said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said the Holy Spirit revealed that to you, Peter. And now, friend, never, never please never trust yourself. Trust him and trust him alone.

Say, "Oh, I've been saved a long time. I'm not going to do anything wrong anymore." Here was Peter and Jesus said, "Oh, Peter, you've got so much confidence in yourself you're going to take an oath and deny me three times." Friend, look out how your disposition, your attitude, your behavior, your words, your relationship with others may change quickly even imperceptibly before you're ready and know. We need to come back to the Lord and confess and heal, forgive. He's a sympathetic savior.

So there was Judas walking out, there was Peter denying. Now the people who were with Jesus, those twelve, heard that Peter, this great strong man, great leader. Friend, when your leader falls, the organization goes down. And they were disturbed. But more than anything else, this is what disturbed those people, those twelve, those Apostles and troubled their hearts. I'm now over in John chapter 13. Now the text came out of John 14. Let's just back up to John 13, verse 33.

Jesus called them children. Sometimes I want to call you children. You feel like you're my family. But anyway, he said listen to what Jesus says. Here is what truly troubled their hearts: "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me and just as I told the Jews, so I will tell you now, where I am going you cannot come." They're going to look for Jesus. They had been looking in his face, into his eyes. He had been speaking into their ears. And when he told them, "I will be with you only a little longer," now what are you going to do?

It was hard enough when Jesus was with them, but how are you going to live, be happy, experience joy, blessing and healing without Jesus? What is life like without Jesus? Not very much life there at all. No life. And when he said he's going away and they're not going to see him, that is what really upset them. And now look at verse one of chapter 14. He quickly speaks up and he says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me." He goes right on to try to help them to look to the future, to that relationship that is going to be there in the future with him.

But for a while they were going to live without him. Friend, come to church, read the word, have your devotions, go to Sunday school, go to a small group, take in as much of God's word as you can. If you try to do it without Jesus, you're not going to live the Christian life at all. It can't be done by human effort. It can only be done in the power of the word and God breathing.

I wrote a little note to my preacher friend every Sunday morning before I came to church. He writes me a little note, I wrote him a little note back. And I said to him, he goes into his little congregation, I said, "May the Holy Spirit breathe on you. May the Holy Spirit speak through you to your congregation." There's a world out there that is troubling us. Physically we're having problems, financially we're having problems, family problems, work career problems. There are problems. But God knows how to heal and he will heal troubled hearts. The Holy Spirit is with us, God is alive and well, Jesus is as sympathetic and loving now as he ever was.

Now on one occasion Jesus went to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. This was Lazarus who had been dead and raised from the dead. Jesus went to their house. He took all twelve disciples with him. Twelve big, strapping, hungry men. They were ready to eat. And could they put away the food? Then there was Jesus, then there was Martha, then there was Mary, then there was Lazarus. How many? 12, 13, 14, 15? About 16 people. And Martha was in the kitchen cooking for 16 adults that were hungry.

And she was doing the best she could, she was working as hard as she could, and finally she said, "Enough is enough." She goes in there to Jesus. She said, "Look at my sister sitting there on the floor at your feet listening to you and I'm in there slaving, working my fingers to the bone trying to get a meal together for 16 adults, one person." She said, "Ask her to come in there and help me. I need some help. I need some help."

Well, Jesus said, "Martha, Martha," listen, I'm quoting the scripture verbatim, "you are worried and troubled about many things." She no doubt had other things on her mind. But what I'm saying is trouble comes to the home, legitimate trouble. It doesn't have to be something bad or evil. It can be something very ordinary like cooking a meal for unexpected guests that walked in on you.

So here, now Jesus loved the home. He loved the family. Every time he could get to Martha and Mary and Lazarus' house, it appears in the scripture he would go there and show up there. He was raised by a family. He was a family man. After the virgin birth, Mary and Joseph had other brothers and sisters. He was raised in a family. I'm sure there was some conflict in that family from time to time. But Jesus loved family life. But on one occasion he said, "Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man doesn't have a place to lay his head." Yeah, I guess he had some trouble trying to find a place to sleep.

So he would go to their house. He enjoyed those two sisters and that brother. He really felt comfortable there and they loved having him. They would have allowed him to have moved in and gave him the best room of the house. They loved him. But what I'm saying is today, troubles find us. Have you ever gotten upset with somebody in your family? Raised your voice? Said something you wish you hadn't of said, or they said something they wish they hadn't of said? How about at work? Yeah, it happens.

So notice, troubles come. Now he said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." The heart. Are you ready for the remedy? Okay, there it is on the screen. Say it: Trust, believe. Now when we read the scripture here, it says Jesus said, "Do not let your heart be troubled. Okay, tell me Jesus quick, quick, tell me, I want to know how." He says, "Trust in God, trust also in me." Meaning believe in God, believe also in me. These words are used interchangeably. In the King James or the New King James the word is "believe." In the NIV the word is "trust." Both of them are correct.

What it means is believe or trust, the Hebrew word is *eis*, I suppose you would pronounce that *ace*, meaning believe into. Say, "Oh, I believe in God." Yeah. "I believe in the Bible, I believe in Christmas, I believe at Easter, I believe." That's all up here. But he says believe into. I've got to get into the word, I've got to get the word into me. It's like when a person is baptized in water, particularly those that choose to be baptized by immersion, when they are baptized, they are baptized into the water. They go out of sight.

That's what Jesus is saying. Trust in me, just lose yourself in me. Be immersed in me. Notice he said, "And now watch, watch what he says." The first thing he says: "Trust in God, trust also in me." Meaning you believe in God, believe in me. I'm in the Father, the Father is in me. I want you now to be in me and in the Father. Now he goes on to verse two. He said, "In my Father's house are many mansions." Right away, see what he's doing? He's lifting our eyes, our attention, up to the Father's house. To the Father's house that we enjoy here, to the Father's house that we're going to enjoy forevermore.

We need to move beyond terra firma. We are so caught up with our home, utility bills, repairs, family issues, until we begin to lose out on the Lord and our relationship with the Lord. Same thing at work. It starts happening at work. Sometimes we just need to stop and lift our thoughts, our prayer, our eyes, our words, our prayers, lift them up to the Father's house.

He said, "In my Father's house are many rooms," or the scripture also says many mansions, or it also means many dwelling places. In other words, there is room enough for everybody in God's house. There's room enough for you. God wants to take care of you and me just as much as he wanted to take care of the Apostles, and he is here today to do it and to bless us.

Now notice he said, "Trust, look to," remember you have a Father, he's Abba Father. You're in his house and personal preparation. He said, "I go to prepare a place for you. I am going away to do something very special." Jesus went to the cross to prepare salvation. Jesus arose from the grave to prepare eternal life. Jesus ascended to heaven to make us a place up there. Friend, don't get so caught up with every little thing down here.

We need to take care of matters. Martha knew she needed to take care of the food and the preparation, but she needed some help. Thank God she went to Jesus, and Jesus had the answer. He always has the answer for us. Now what the Lord is going to do, he's going to lift up every valley. You're sometimes going to go down into a valley. But watch what he does as you look to him and you're prepared. He'll lift up that valley. Every mountain that you face and come up against, he'll bring that mountain down. When the way gets rough, he'll make that way, the rough way, smooth.

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. If I can get Jesus in my mind, Jesus in my thoughts, Jesus in my heart, Jesus in my home, Jesus in my church. If I can get Jesus. It's Jesus. Can you say "Jesus"? Keep your mind and your affections, Jesus said this, set your mind and your affections on things above. That's why Jesus started saying, "My Father's house, I'm going to prepare a place for you."

It's Jesus, friend. And you have him and he has you and you're going to make it, you're going to overcome. He is saying today as clearly and plainly, and you and I are hearing it, what is he saying? "Let not your heart be troubled." Friend, whatever it is that's troubling you, we're going to bow in just a moment. We're going to look to the Lord. He's going to help us. There's a lot of things to do, but friends, sometimes we just leave, let them go and let Jesus take it. He's a preparing Jesus. Let him prepare for you today. Will you? All right, let's bow before him.

Guest (Male): Are you seeking a way to start your week filled with hope and inspiration? Every Monday morning, receive a fresh devotional delivered right to your inbox to uplift your spirit and encourage you throughout the week. Pastor Jack Morris carefully crafts each message with scripture that speaks to the heart, reflections to inspire growth, and practical steps to help you live out your faith every day. These are words of hope and strength meant to meet you right where you are. Ready to begin? Just visit thehealingword.com and click the banner to sign up. Start each week with renewed purpose, feeling connected to God and ready for what lies ahead. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.