The Healing Word

Guest (Female): 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, let's be right with God. And when you're right with God, you're going to be right with one another. We don't have to keep trying to get right with one another, just get right with God. The right with one another automatically comes. The peace will automatically come. The joy will automatically come.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here's 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: That's a strange sermon title I have out here on the street. I pulled in today and I said to Corinne as I came in, I don't know that I really like that sermon title a whole lot, Meeting God's Needs or Blessing God. Does God have needs? He does. Jesus went to the woman at the well in John chapter four. Now, listen to what he said to her. He said, "I want you to meet my need." What? Jesus has a need? He said, "Give me a drink of water."

He was tired, he was weary. His disciples had gone into town to buy food, and Jesus needed something from her. Now, I think that sometimes and very often, we can meet the needs of Jesus. When he said to her, "Give me a drink of water," I have read that scripture so many times and I've preached so many sermons from it. Then I looked at it again with freshness of heart and mind, and I thought, Lord Jesus, you are asking humans. You need something. And here's this woman of ill repute coming to draw water, and Jesus says, "Give me a drink."

Now, when we bless others like you have blessed Corinne and me, you were giving him a drink. You not only refreshed us, you refreshed him. This is his word. This is what he says. Now, notice he said in Matthew 10:42, "And if anyone, listen, listen, and if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he or she is a disciple, a Christian, you're going to have a reward." You mean to tell me God pays attention when I bring a glass of water to my wife?

Now, that's what he says. He says there is nothing that you do or everything you do, you bless me because you do it. And he saw what has happened, and now he promises a reward. Now, notice he said to one of the least of these little ones. That means people of little standing, not necessarily a prominent leader. Now, most people, and I have seen humility here, but most of us, we want to wave a flag and say, "Hey, I'm doing something. Everybody give me credit."

I want you to see what I'm doing. I want you to hear about it. I want you to spread the word. I want my glory and praise now. Everybody start patting me on the back. When I was just a teenager, there was a pastor in Baltimore building a new church building, and I helped him a little bit that I could do some of the work there. And then when the building was done, he gave me a job as a janitor. That was one of my very first jobs.

After church one day or before church, he came up and handed me a five-dollar bill. I didn't ask him how much he was going to pay. I didn't even think about that part. I just wanted to be in the house of God. I loved the house of the Lord. And I told him, he's a big man, real tall fellow, and he handed me that five dollars. I was in high school. And I said to him, "Oh, I don't want that." I didn't have a dime in my pocket at that moment, and I didn't even have a wallet to put a dime in if I had a dime.

I said, "I don't want that. I want to wait until I get to heaven because God's got a reward for me up there." That minister never opened his, he looked at me and never said a word. He looked at me like he never heard of such a thing. And he pushed that five dollars on me, and I took it. But I got my reward. He rewarded me then. So, this is what the Lord says. If you do it to the one of the least of these, the woman at the well giving Jesus a drink. And I think of every time we do something to bless another person in Christ, to bless a brother, to bless a sister who has a need, whatever it may be.

When I was putting this message together, I couldn't help but think of my good friend, Dr. Robert Rhoden. He was pastoring a church in Richmond, Virginia. He later became district superintendent for all the churches in the Potomac District, and he's retired now. But he was working on a doctor's degree at Union Theological Seminary and he eventually got his doctor's degree. But there was an elderly Presbyterian minister, very old, and the old gentleman couldn't cut his toenails.

He says to Dr. Rhoden, he called him Bob because Bob was so much younger. He said, "Bob, my toenails need cut. My toenails." Does Jesus look at a person when they're cutting somebody's toenails? And Bob got a pan of water, brought it in, put that old gentleman's feet, that old Presbyterian minister's feet, soaked his feet, then lifted up his foot and cut his toenails. No wonder Bob, Dr. Rhoden, was elevated to become the leader that he became.

Inasmuch as you do it unto the least of these, Jesus says, "Do you know you're doing it as unto me?" I'm going to read from Matthew chapter 25, verse 31. "When the Son of Man comes in his glory." Now, something's going to happen some of these days, and it's not going to be very much longer, I don't think, that the Son of Man is going to come in his glory, and that's when he's going to give the ultimate reward.

Now, what you sow you reap. If you sow goodness, you're going to get goodness. If you sow love, you're going to get love. If you sow whatever, you're going to get what you sow. And if you don't sow anything, you're not going to get anything. Wouldn't that farmer be a stupid guy to go out there and look at his cornfield and say, "I don't have a crop this year," and his wife said, "But you didn't sow any seed."

Friend, sow the seed of love, the love that Jesus has put in your heart. Continue to do it for one another. It'll be worship to him. He'll keep a record. He'll bless you in this life. But oh, in the life to come, what he's going to bless. Someone called me on the phone just the other day and asked me, said, "Pastor, do you think we're living in the last days?" And I said, "Yeah, I do." He said, "But I've been hearing that for a long time, that we're living in the last days."

I'm kind of kind sometimes, not all the time, but I was kind to this man. And I didn't say what I'm going to tell you, but I felt like saying, "We're living in the last days, and if Jesus doesn't come, you don't have many more days. You're living in the last days. At your age, you're going to go soon." So, yes, one way or another, we're living in the last days. Now, I didn't say that. And right now, I hope he's not present. And I hope you edit that out of the television because he may watch my program.

But Jesus is coming, and in that day, we're going to receive an abundance of a reward. Now, in verse 34, it says this, "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Come.'" Then the King will say. Who is this King that is coming? Why, he's the same one that the wise men followed the star from the east and went to Jerusalem to Herod's palace and said, "Where's the man, the one born King? Where is the King? We have come to worship him."

Remember the story how Pilate stood before all of those Jewish people after he had Jesus lashed? Then he puts the purple robe on him, and I'm sure the purple robe was blotting the blood. Pilate turns to Jesus and said, "Are you a King?" Jesus says, "You're the one that says so." And he takes him and he said to the Jews, he said, "Behold your King."

John, the Revelator, on the isle of Patmos, a man who followed the Lord Jesus, who wrote the gospel of John, who wrote all the epistles of John, first, second, third John, who wrote the book of Revelation, this is what he said in Revelation chapter 19. He said, "I saw heaven open, and I beheld a white horse, and the horse had a rider, and the rider's name is called Faithful and True. And on his head were many crowns. His name is called the Word of God."

And he said, "He had a robe, and on the robe and on his thigh was written King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Friend, we have a savior. He is the King. May we bow before him and crown him King of our lives and allow this King to make us his subjects. He can't make us a subject until we yield and become his subject, and he will rule and live and reign within us. On his head, many crowns. I remember hearing the Messiah, written by Handel, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. He repeats it, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

Handel said, singing the Messiah chorus, he said it was as though heaven opened and I saw the King, I saw him upon the throne, I saw the glory of God, and that Hallelujah Chorus flowed from him in words that we can understand, but words that can never exalt the Lord in the way the Lord is worthy to be exalted. Now, would you put on the screen verse 34? Now, look at this, read it. It's one verse, I broke it down into little paragraphs, but just read it all and then I'll come back. Read it.

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." Now, notice, this is the King. This is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords speaking. This is our savior. He is saying to those who have served him, who have followed him, and particularly those, who as I've already said, served him by serving one another. When we serve one another, he said, "You're serving me. You're giving me a drink."

Now, notice he said, "Come, you who are blessed." Blessed. Now, everyone who has helped Corinne and me and who has helped others in the church or other Christians, you have now the title of being blessed. Clinton Corbin, are you here? There he is. Would you wave? Everybody turn and look at Clinton, put his hand up. Oh, he's shaking his head. When I brought Corinne home from the rehab, we were home a day and a half and the electricity went out.

That meant no heat and no water, and she needed attention. And I called Clinton, and Clinton came very quickly. We have a propane insert, there's a fan in the ceiling. I said, "Clinton, if you can get that fan going," and I had an outside generator but I had to pour gasoline in it. I was up in the nighttime pouring gas in that thing. And Clinton came, hooked that thing up, got that fan going, that would keep two rooms warm. And he got it.

He leaves and he goes home, the water cut off. I tried to call Clinton, couldn't find him. Left a voicemail. Cynthia, are you here? She'll be here at 11 o'clock. I called Cynthia, the wife, caught her at home. She said, "I know where he is. He's gone to get a haircut." And it was dark. When you see Clinton today, tell him how nice that haircut is, will you? He's got a nice haircut.

It wasn't long until he called me. And then when I called back his wife and she wanted to know if he called, she said, "Because I'll get in the car and I'll go after him. I'll find him." And so I called back and I said, "How did you get him so quickly?" She said, "I called and I left the number 911." You don't know what that means? Oh, you do. Okay, 911. Now, she's a resourceful woman.

And Clinton called me right away and I said, "Clinton, we have no water." And in the snow, I couldn't hardly load Corinne up and get her out of there to a house. I know I could knock on anybody's door, a motel or anything, but Clinton said, "I'm on my way." He got there, he got the water going. He came three or four times. Finally, I told him, I said, "Clinton, you're going to join another church. That's what you're going to do. You're going to say I'm going to join another church."

When I talked to him, do you know what he said to me? He said, "I'm blessed of my Father. I'm blessed of my Father." It took him about 25 minutes to come out, 25 minutes to come back. And all the time he was out there working, getting things going, but that's what he said. "I am blessed by my Father." Friend, everyone in this building this morning, you're blessed by your heavenly Father. Do you know that?

And when we do it unto the least of these, we do it unto the Lord and the Lord blesses. That means he puts his favor upon us. That's what Clinton was saying, "God has put his favor upon me." That word also means God is celebrating me. It's like a parent you see on the bumper of their car, they'll put on there, "My daughter or my son is on the honor roll." I look at that and think, I don't know your son, I don't know your daughter, I don't even know you.

But he's saying, "Mine is on the honor roll." That's what God is saying. "Mine, mine! Those washed in the blood of Jesus whose names are written in the book of life, you are mine and I'm going to celebrate you because you are serving as I have served. You are washing feet like I have washed feet. You are doing good deeds with your time, your energy, your resources. You are blessed by my Father." Friend, God Almighty blesses you, blessed by my Father.

Then he says, "Take your inheritance." What? You mean I have an inheritance? What is my inheritance? Many parents have an inheritance for their children. Now, God is going to bless us in this life, but in that time when the Savior comes back, he's going to say, "Take your inheritance." What is that inheritance? Are you looking? You are part of a kingdom. You're going to rule and reign in a kingdom with power and authority with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he said that kingdom has been prepared for you. Listen, friends, God doesn't do things on a spur of the moment. From since the creation of the world, God had you in mind preparing an inheritance for you. Friend, all of us have no idea. It is not in the mind, in the heart, in the thoughts of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love him. How do we love God? When we love one another.

That's when we're loving God. That's when we're loving God. We live in a very selfish, self-centered, egotistical world. Everybody wants what's coming to me. Well, some people are going to get what's coming to them when the Lord comes. But you're going to get an inheritance, a blessing. Heaven is keeping a record even if you give a cup of cold water to another person simply because that person is a Christian, simply because that person is your sister or your brother in Christ. Just a little cup of water. Jesus says you'll get a reward.

Can you believe that? A little insignificant thing. Prepared for you since the creation of the world. God has been preparing for centuries, thousands of years, for a blessing to come upon his people. That's what I said last week when I said the hardest thing to believe is that I matter to God. That's the most difficult thing in all the Bible. No, not performing miracles, moving mountains, walking on water, but that you matter to God, that God cares for you.

Now, listen to this. This is what he says. A kingdom. Now, that kingdom that he has prepared, an inheritance as a kingdom. In Romans 14, it says the kingdom of God, now listen to this, is righteousness, it's joy, it's peace in the Holy Spirit. That's the kingdom. Righteousness, that means you are right with God. You are right with God. People who are right with God who have a humble mind, who does not care who gets the credit as long as he's pleased.

If you're right with God, your thinking is right with God, your humility is right with God. If you are right with God, then you're due an inheritance. You're going to get it. Righteousness. Now, if you're not right with God today, by all means, give your heart to the Lord. Get right with God. Christians, if there is something amiss in your life, you say, "But I am a Christian." But there are times when the world will do things and we will cooperate with the world, we'll yield to certain desires or emotions, things that will cause us to not be right with God.

That's what righteousness means, being right with God. Get right with God. Don't allow this to continue. Righteousness. Peace, that's the second thing. Peace, this peace that transcends all understanding. God will give you peace. You can be in the midst of a hundred wars going on in your home, in your career, in your finances, in your body physically, but God will give you a peace and you will live in peace, you'll walk in peace with all the troubles and all the difficulties that are going on. You can know and experience God's wonderful peace in this life and in the life to come. Heaven is peace forevermore.

And joy. Joy is not contingent upon circumstances. Happiness is. Happiness you have to have something given to you. You have to have some kind of a thrill, something that will touch the flesh, the emotions. Happiness is contingent upon something in your circumstances or your surroundings. But joy, your surroundings and circumstances can be absolutely blah and even be against you, but that joy will abide. And the Lord says, "I'll give you righteousness or a right standing with God." If you'll confess, if you'll repent, if you'll acknowledge me, I'll put you in right standing with God.