The Healing Word

Announcer: 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: Stop it, friend. Whatever you're doing that is contrary to God, I truly believe you already know it that it's contrary. You don't need me to point it out. So, whatever it is, turn to the Lord and give him your heart. Get that person out of your life. Get that habit out of your life. Rebuke it away and say, Jesus, here's my heart, my life, my soul, my all.

Announcer: 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: Now, I belong to Jesus. Do you know there's an innate desire in everyone's heart to belong, to be part of, to be associated with. Every child that is born into this world comes into this world with that desire to be connected. And that's why everybody except Adam and Eve have a belly button. We came into this world because we were connected. And that desire to be connected has remained all our life long. Now, that little fetus that is going to now become a baby it's coming into the world really doesn't want to come into this world.

It is so connected to the mother. Now, you know when those babies come into the world, they come in kicking and screaming, don't they? That's how they come in. And I don't know whether the doctors slap them anymore or not. But who wants to come into this cold world and be slapped the first thing? I mean, what an introduction to life. But that little baby is so comfortable there. It's so warm, so protected, so well fed. It doesn't want to leave that wonderful place that it has grown so so accustomed to. But then the time comes and it'll resist.

The mother will labor. The mother that doesn't want to come, but she says it's your coming and I'm going to push you out. And here it comes into the world. Now, that it's in the world, it still wants to be a part of and be connected. It wants to be cradled in its mother's arms. And if the mother can't cradle it, then it'll second best will be father or or somebody else. But uh when you go to put it down uh in the crib, it'll cry. It'll make some noise. It it wants you. It wants somebody.

It wants its mother. It wants to be connected. But there's a belonging that is greater than all other belongings. And that is belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you belong to him? That's the question. I pray the Holy Spirit will just pound into my heart and your heart this morning. Do I belong to the greatest of all belonging? This isn't a club. This isn't a fraternity. This is a relationship with the almighty God that you and I can have. Ask yourself that question today. Allow the Holy Spirit to talk to you about it. You'll know a fellowship that you've never known before with him and with his people as we come to know the Lord as our personal Lord and Savior.

You see the scripture tells us that Jesus bought us. He bought us. Now, he owns us because we have allowed him to come into our hearts and buy us. The scripture says in 1st Corinthians 6:20, you are not your own. You were bought with a price. Bought with a price. Can I truly say this morning I belong to Jesus? And I truly say that. I know it in my heart. Do I truly know it? Am I someone over whom Jesus can write mine? He knows I belong to him. I know I belong to him. He belongs to me.

Do I in completely without any reservation at all, can I truly say I belong to Jesus? I'm following Jesus. Jesus bought me with his blood. Jesus owns me. Or listen to me carefully now. Is there something or someone in your life that Jesus is competing with? Is Jesus trying to gain control of your life by giving you joy and peace and happiness and blessing? And and there's that other thing, that other behavior, that other habit that you're holding on to, that you won't give up. It's still there on the throne of your heart. It's still dictating to you.

Friend, your life is never going to be happy and filled with joy until you can say, now I belong to Jesus. Is there another person? Listen carefully to me. Is there an illicit relationship in your life? Jesus is the person that desires to sit upon the throne of your heart. And as long as you are going against his word, allowing a behavior, allowing a habit, participating in an illicit relationship that you know is not right, you know it's wrong, you will never have the joy of Christianity. You'll always say, well, I'm a Christian, but you know I'm not getting a whole lot out of it.

No, because Jesus cannot sit upon the throne of your heart because you won't give him a place. You think that something else or someone else deserves that place. You have to ask yourself. You have to deal with your own thoughts, your own heart, your own desires. We have to be transparent before the Lord and ask him, Lord, do I truly belong to you? Now, listen, friend. Jesus paid top price for you and me. Top price. He didn't get you at a discount. He didn't find you in a bargain basement sell out. Not at all. He didn't barter with the devil to get the price down.

Jesus gave everything to get you. And now you and I are wondering and thinking and debating whether or not we should give everything to him. After he has given everything to us, everything. Now, this is beautiful today, isn't it? So sanctified, so pretty. I am in awe of this holy table. But friends, this is not how it looked at Calvary. That was not something you would want to take your children to to see and to behold when he was executed for your sins. And now I 'm debating, do I really want to put that person out of my life and let Jesus have complete control?

Do I really want to get rid of that habit and allow Jesus to have complete control? Jesus stayed on that cross until the last drop of blood dropped from his veins in order to bring you and me in to the kingdom of God. That's how much he cares. That's how much he loves us. And then we have a tendency to to play around a lot. That I don't know how how else to say it. With with our faith and with our relationship with him and and it's sort of a cat and mouse. Sometimes he's he's there and then sometimes I just have to go do my thing with him or her or that habit or that behavior.

Friend, friend, Jesus won't take anything but your heart. He's not going to take anything but your all. That's what he demands. That's what he gave. That's what he wants. Now that I gave my heart to the Lord, the Lord is responsible for me. Just like my parents were when they gave me birth, they were responsible for me, my my clothing, my shelter, uh my education, my well-being. They took responsibility. If I were mischievous at school and gotten in trouble, the school teacher would write a note or call my parents. Why? They're responsible. Now that I belong to Jesus, Jesus is responsible for me.

He's going to take over my life. He's going to help me. He's going to with every problem, with every trial, he's going to help me through it and get me through it. The trials are going to come. He didn't say that they wouldn't come. They're going to come, but he's going to be there with me to bless me, to comfort me, to give me the strength that I need to get through. Friend, I don't know why how I could live without him. I really don't. I've I've lived with the Lord for so many years and he's lived in my heart and I'm so thankful and thrilled that I gave my heart to the Lord when I was just in my early teens or preteens.

It goes back so very very far. This past week, last week, uh Krena I went to a convention, one that I I felt that I just almost had to go to and and I did. But while I was in the Midwest, I visited the college, uh the Divinity School where I graduated from so many years ago. And adjoining that Divinity School campus, there's another campus called Maranatha Village. And that's where a lot of retired people are living. The beautiful people from all over the United States in in a beautiful setting. I said to Krena, I said that's just about as close to heaven on earth as uh a person can get in Maranatha Village.

There are two people in that village. One man's name is Sai. Now, years ago, he was my best friend and he's still my best friend, but I had hadn't seen him for about 40 years. Uh we were part of the ministry together. We were we're starting out together. He's several years older than I am. See, I'm not ready for Maranatha yet. Somebody said, when are you going to resign? Friend, I don't know that I'm going to. You may have put up with me for a while. Yeah, when when when we built this church and came in, someone said, I thought you were resigning.

Whatever gave you such an idea? Well, I I visited my two friends. This Sai would preach in the churches that I was pastoring as a young pastor and I would preach in his church. And his mother and father operated and owned a funeral home in Baltimore. And Mrs. Schwab knew her son and being in the ministry and pastoring these little churches, she said to me one day, she said, I I started putting aside money every week and every month to buy Sai a new suit. The churches didn't pay very much back then. And she says, and I thought of you, Jack.

And she said, and I thought you need a new suit, too. I thought, oh boy, well, that's why I wear this, you know, so you don't see my new suits or my old ones. And she said, I thought, well, I'll put aside some money for Sai, my son. I'll put aside some money for Jack so that both of them can have new suits. So, that's the kind of friends that I visited when I was out there. And then Lydia, his sister, Lydia's husband passed away. Joe died about 3 years ago. I didn't I knew Joe very well.

When I came back from Divinity School back east to then I started the University of Maryland. I had so much debt on me. All of those bills, all of that tuition that I'd paid out and all the the the credit to to get through school. We were just as Krena and I just as broke as we could be. Well, Joe and Lydia would take us out to dinner once in a while and and just treat us. We We'd had had just nothing. And so they would take us out. And so here was Sai and here was Lydia living out there in that retirement home.

And so I I told Sai, I said, Sai, we're going to go out to eat tonight and I want to take you and Lydia to the restaurant that that you like the best, but you don't go very often because you can't afford it. I said, you you take me to that restaurant. I want to take you there. So, we got in the car and he kept directing me and directing me, turn right, turn left. You know where we ended up? On the parking lot of Cracker Barrel. All right. We went in and we had a wonderful meal, a wonderful time of fellowship.

But I'm telling you the story because when I gave my heart to the Lord, I'm so thankful that I I was so young that I knew nothing more than to give him my whole heart. There wasn't very many things in life that was competing uh for my heart at that time. And so I went forward and I I gave you my heart. When I got I I went it was just a little tiny church and I was just a small just a young just preteen. Maybe I was in my teens. But I knelt at a at a kneeler like this.

Put my hands over my face. I did everything the pastor told me to do. Confess your sins. Tell the Lord Jesus you want him to come into your heart, into your life to sit upon the throne of your heart. Just give the rest of your life to him. And uh and I did. Oh, I broke and I cried and I repented and I confessed. And I got up from there. Now, I didn't know theology. I didn't know any theological words. My grandmother had been very instrumental in helping me along the way and and and getting me to that place and preparing my heart to for that experience to happen.

And then when that pastor said, anybody wants to know Jesus, you come forward. I went up there. I knelt down. I wanted to know Jesus. I I I would just so desirous to know him. I didn't care who was looking. I I I wasn't embarrassed at all. I really wanted to know the Jesus that my grandmother knew, the Jesus that the pastor was talking about. And I prayed and I cried and I wept and I confessed and I repented. I got up from the what we called the altar and I stood there and people were gathering around.

Some people had left. It was just a very small church. And it was Lydia, the one that directed me to the Cracker Barrel. It was Lydia that came up. And she was an adult uh a grown woman at that time. But uh her hair was dark and she was still young and vibrant. And she walked up and she looked at me and she said, Jack, do you know that the Lord saved your soul tonight? I don't know that I'd ever heard the word saved. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know I had been saved.

I only knew that I felt so good, so clean, so wonderful, so new. It was just a joy. But I didn't know how what to call it. And she was the first person. She's out there at Maranatha Village now. Now, I could truly say at that time, now I belong to Jesus. I've been able to say that all these years. I can say it today. I know I belong to Jesus. It's been a wonderful journey, a wonderful life, a wonderful experience. And it's not over yet. Yeah, what'd you say? It's still going on, right? Just beginning.

It's it it's just wonderful in the Lord. Now, there are two terms, at least two in the Bible that talks about our relationship to Christ being one of them is born again. That's a scriptural term. I talked about that just a couple of weeks ago. Jesus said, you must be born again. That was the experience that I had and Lydia came and told me that I had received Jesus and that Jesus had saved me, that I had been born again. I didn't know what to call it. Now I knew what to call it because Lydia told me what to call it.

And she told me what the Bible calls it. I was truly born again, born of the spirit of the Lord. Now, to come into the Christian faith, that's really the only way to come in through your heart, through your mouth of confession, uh through your heart of repentance, turning away turning away. Stop it, friend. Whatever you're doing that is contrary to God, I truly believe you already know it that it's contrary. You don't need me to point it out. So, whatever it is, turn to the Lord and give him your heart. Get that person out of your life.

Get that habit out of your life. Rebuke it away and say, Jesus, here's my heart, my life, my soul, my all. It won't be just for time alone that you have experienced the Lord, but it'll be also for eternity. It's an experience that won't fade away. It'll never go away. That's after all these years. I'm still excited about what the Lord has done for me and the joy he brought to me. But the the scripture says that Jesus paid a tremendous price. And we're going to come to the table and remember that price. It says in Isaiah 53:11, just listen to these words.

He shall see the travail of his soul, the labor of his soul. And then listen to this one. John 16, we'll go to the New Testament now. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a child has been born into the world. When Jesus was on the cross, well, even before he went to the cross, he went into the garden of Gethsemane. And I want you to see now how he's going to birth you and me into the world.

The labor pains had already started. He knew his hour had come. This was his hour. He had waited. The hour was now. Watch him now as he begins to sweat like a mother giving birth. Watch him now as he the the labor goes even beyond that. The scripture says his sweat became as it were great drops of blood. The Now, there there are very few scriptures in the Bible that talks about the emotions of Jesus. Very few that refer to it. But here in the Gospel of Mark, we read these words. He was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

That's love to get you birth into the kingdom of God. He was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. And then it says he was exceedingly sorrowful, meaning in the Greek distress or terrified. What would cause Jesus to become terrified? Have you ever thought about Jesus being terrified? He looked into the cup and he saw your sin and my sin, the very thing that you are flirting with, the very thing that keeps you from enjoying the full blessing of God and the joy of the Lord. And you think that that's the way to go.

That's the way to get it. That's how to have life. You want that kind of excitement, friend. Jesus looked into the cup and he saw those illicit relationships, all those bad broke evil habits, all of the sin, all of the transgression. And the scripture said, he became sin for us. He took my sin. He took your sin. Three times the father put that to his lips and said, drink that sin. Drink that damnation. Drink that poison that will damn the soul forever and ever. Drink it. Jesus backed away and said, I can I can't. He went back to the disciples.

You're sleeping. You can't watch with me 1 hour. He went back again and the God put it to his lips and said, here is the rot and the corruption of mankind. You drink it. You become their their sin. You become sin for them, Jesus said. He was terrified. He backed away. The third time he went back again. And the scripture said he fell on his face. Friend, it's not an easy thing to give birth. Your spiritual birth, your born again birth, your born from above birth. This time he put it to his lips and he drank the slime and the corruption, adultery, fornication, uh homosexuality.

He became sin. Oh my God. Jesus became sin. The sin that I confessed as that little boy, that young man, the sin that some of us are going to confess this morning. Jesus put it to his holy lips. You talk about someone said, you know, I'm I don't I don't want to catch a germ when I take communion. I don't want to catch a germ. Listen, Jesus didn't catch a germ. He caught hell. Yours and mine with his lips. And he drank it in. And then he went to Calvary and paid the price and shed his blood.

2nd Corinthians 5:21, God made Jesus to be sin for me. He who knew no sin. That's what he did. He took us in. He sealed our redemption. The second word is the word adoption. The word that is used for adoption is meaning sealing, the seal. The Lord used these metaphors to help explain to us. He said, I'm writing over you now mine, your mine. I'm not only birthing you. Now I'm going to seal you into this relationship. And that's what he did. Friend, do you know him today as your personal Lord and Savior? If you don't, this is the day the Lord has made for you to come to him and to receive him.

And Christian Christian, listen to me. Are you walking with Jesus today? Or do you have sort of one foot in and the other foot out? You You can't walk the fence. You're going to fall off one way or another. It just won't work. No wonder your life is filled with with misery like it is. No wonder it can't be otherwise. We're going to bow our heads now. I want you to bow with me. And I'm going to call out to those who want to be saved. That's a term I didn't know. Born again, didn't know those terms.

You've heard me say it often and I'm saying it again now. But you want Jesus to come into your life. You want to give him your heart, your all. If so, I want you to stand up right where you are right now.

Announcer: Do you need Pastor Morris to pray with you about a struggle or decision you're wrestling with? The pray now app is available to you right now. Go to thehealingword.com. Click pray now and select the topic that matches your request. Pastor Morris will provide encouragement, pray with you and deliver a brief message on overcoming and living in victory. Again, pray now at thehealingword.com. Join us tomorrow for another healing word message. Until then, blessings on you.