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: Hey, some of us maybe just sort of shook hands with Jesus. We sort of had an introduction, and that's the extent of it. Now we go do what we want to do and until we want to go to church again someday. And I want to know him, not just a handshake or an hello on a Sunday morning, but to truly know him.

Announcer: Are you interested today in knowing Christ more deeply? Pastor Jack Morris is here to lead us in a study of how we can accomplish that through Bible study, prayer, attending church, and serving others. We pray that today's message, Knowing Christ More Deeply, will energize your faith as you grow deeper in your relationship with God.

Pastor Jack Morris: This morning I want to talk about the great Apostle Paul. Paul wrote just about half of the New Testament, and here's a man who is telling us that he wants to know Christ. Now, I wonder as I read that, you want to know Christ? You wrote about half the New Testament? And if he wrote the book of Hebrews, and I'm not sure that he did, he may have. We don't know for sure who wrote it, that he wrote over half the New Testament. And he is telling us that he has a desire to know Christ. I want to know him. I believe you want to know him. I believe you're here because of that hunger and desire. And those of you who are streaming, you too have a desire to hear the word of God.

So let's, for the next 20, 25 minutes, let's listen with an open heart to hear and receive, whether we're here, whether we're home, whether we're in an institution, a jail, a hospital, or wherever we may be. May the Holy Spirit descend upon us, and may we receive the Holy Word of God, that we might know Christ deeply. In verse 10, Paul the Apostle says, I want to know Christ. Categorically, emphatically, no wavering. I want to know Christ. How much clearer could that be? That's as clear as statement that I've ever heard. I want to know Christ. This is what I want. I want to know Christ. And now he tells us in verse 7 that there's a profit and a loss.

Christ is the profit, but I'm willing to give up anything and everything. Anything to get to know him. I want to know Christ. And now in verse 5, he talks about the privileges of his birth, and we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But he said, I'm willing to give it up that I might know Christ. And then he talks about his attainments, his graduation, his education, his zeal, but he said, I'm finished with that. There's only one thing that really counts, and that's Jesus, and I want to know Jesus. I want to know Christ. Let me read verse 8. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

The surpassing greatness. There, there's something that is immeasurable when one really comes to know Jesus. Now everyone, not, well, I'll take that back, not everybody that goes to church, but we all hear about Jesus. We all know about Christmas. We all know about Easter. We go to church on occasion, but to know the man, to know the person. Oh, wonder of wonders, when that happens, you will be blessed that I want you blessed. You're my spiritual family. I want the best for you, but that desire in my heart for you is placed there by God because that's his desire for each one of us, that we might know him more sincerely, more deeply, that he might know us in the same way.

But I wonder if I could have a conversation with the Apostle Paul. this is some of the thoughts that going through my mind, particularly as I was preparing the message. In verse 10, he comes out very clearly, very emphatically, I want to know Christ. No playing around, no pussyfooting around, no church anity, no religion. I want to know the person, the man that died on the cross, shed his blood, brought salvation to me. When I die, I'm going to go to heaven all because of him, and I'm going to have an abundant life here now in the meantime before I go to heaven. I want to know that person. He's done so much for me.

So I would say, Paul, I hear what you're saying. You tell me unwaveringly, I want to know Christ. Paul, I thought you knew Christ. Didn't you meet him on the Damascus road? Paul, remember the light from heaven? Remember when that light surrounded you, you fell to the ground? Remember there was a voice? Hey, Paul, where's your memory? Remember that voice saying, I'm Jesus whom you persecute? And then remember you saw Jesus, not a vision of Jesus, you saw the man Jesus appeared. Don't you know Christ? That very few of us, if any of us, have ever had a conversion experience like that. He knew Christ.

He met Christ. Now he's on death row. He's in a Roman prison. He's soon going to be executed for his faith, and he says, I want to know Christ. Isn't that what he says in verse 10? He said, I want to know Christ. The word know Christ is genisco. I want to know geniscoen. That's the Greek word. I want to know Christ intimately, sincerely. The Hebrew word is Yada, Y-A-K-A. I want to know Christ. The scripture says Adam knew Eve, and she had a son. Friend, do you really know him? Do I really know him? Let's examine our hearts. Let's look deep within. Let's come to terms with the greatest of information and blessing that you could possibly have on earth, that I could possibly have.

To know him as our own personal Lord and Savior, not just to know facts about him, not to have a crucifix on the wall or a cross on a table, a communion table, but the man, the Son of God, Jesus, to know him. Now Paul answers back and he says, hey, Pastor Morris, I know what you're talking about. I remember the Damascus road, the light from heaven falling to the ground, the voice from heaven, seeing the man. That was wonderful. I shall never forget it, and I'll always rejoice in that conversion experience. But Pastor, there's a deeperness, deep more deepness that I am yearning for, yearning for.

I have a desire, I have a hunger. I want to know Christ. Hey, some of us maybe just sort of shook hands with Jesus. We sort of had an introduction, and that's the extent of it. Now we go do what we want to do and until we want to go to church again someday. No, friend, I want to know him, not just a handshake or an hello on a Sunday morning, but to truly know him.

Announcer: We'll be back with the conclusion of today's message in just a moment, but first, here's an invitation for you to make an impact on reaching souls with God's Word.

Unidentified Speaker: Hello, friends. I'm Pastor Jack Morris. I just want to take a moment to thank you for your prayers and your donations, in that order, prayers and donations. I need both from you, and if this ministry is to continue, and I believe it's God's will for it to continue, I'm going to need your partnership more so than ever before. I thank God for you. I trust that the Healing Word is a blessing. Pray that God's Word will go forth in mighty power to the saving of souls and to the healing of lives, emotions, and bodies. God bless you, dear one. In Jesus' name, amen.

Announcer: If the Healing Word has blessed you or someone you love, we invite you to prayerfully consider pledging your financial support. Simply visit thehealingword.com and click on donate now to make your tax deductible contribution. Together, let's continue to share the beautiful blessings of God's Word with a world in need. Now, let's join Pastor Jack Morris for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jack Morris: I think of a man that Cred and I met so many years ago, Reverend Tannenbaum, a Jewish man who became a Christian. We were in Philadelphia and we saw him. He invited us to his church to preach. I never made it, never got there. But that man had a testimony. He said when he accepted Christ so many years ago, that his family disowned him. He said they literally begged him to come back into the faith that he had left. And when they knew that he wasn't coming back and that he was going to be a minister of the gospel, they went to the cemetery and bought a plot of a burial spot. They went to the funeral director and they bought a casket.

They took all of his belongings and put them in that casket, went to the cemetery and had a funeral service and said, you are dead. Never come back. You know, some people have paid some serious prices for their faith. We don't know very many of them. That's the man next door that lives next door to us, good friend of mine, talking to him and about the church. He came here one time years ago and his wife, and he told me, he said, my wife will never leave her religion. We were outside in a cul-de-sac. My wife will never leave her religion. And it's a Christian religion. And I had the privilege of telling him, it's not the religion, it's not the church, it's not your baptism, it's not communion, it's a man, Jesus.

Jesus. Can you say Jesus? Jesus. I said, if we know him, nobody's asking you to change churches or change religions. Or I guess religion would change if you were of another religion other than the Christian religion. But I said, it's Jesus. And so I asked, I said, do you believe in life after death? He said, no one's come back and told us that there is life after death. Well, Jesus has, Moses has, Elijah has, Abraham has, and down deep in your heart, you know and I know that this is not all there is to life. There's something more after this life, something more. Like they say, there's no atheist in foxholes.

I don't know, but this same man and I met out in our yard just a few weeks ago. We were under a big tree and we were talking. He told me, he said, my dad died in Florida. But prior to that, I got a little bit ahead of my story. I, he told me his dad had been ill, his dad had been sick in the hospital, and I mentioned I'll pray for him, and he acted as though he appreciated that. But now he meets me and he said, my dad died. Ah, is he gone forever and ever, world without end? Nobody has ever come back, he said one time. And do you know what he said? Would you pray for the family? Oh, there's somebody that hears prayer.

Oh, the Holy Spirit is moving. I've been praying for him. And I said, yes, I will. He said, my wife and I are going to Florida for the memorial service. And he was about ready to turn to leave, and I told him I'd pray, and I said, what, would you like to have a prayer right now? He smiled a little bit, and he said, okay. And so I prayed, and he thanked me. He left. He comes back home, and in a few weeks, his brother comes up from Florida. I met his brother years ago, and the three of us are now standing out in the yard under the tree, and my neighbor says to his brother, who's came on a visit, he said, Jack prayed for me under this tree.

He prayed for our family. Now, he didn't have to tell him that, but I see him, my neighbor, moving closer and closer. How many in this country are members of churches, but they don't know Jesus as their Savior? You may be here this morning, or you may be streaming. You know about him. You sort of shook hands with him. You had a handshake introduction, but I mean a born again experience, and even after the born again experience, that hunger and that desire to know the Lord, putting him first, serving him, not when it's convenient to go to church, but knowing him. You see, the church is the people, and you carry the church inside you in your heart.

That's the church. You are the church. You're carrying Jesus with you. To know him in the power of his resurrection, to personally raise from the dead with him when he arose. Now it's mine. To know him in the fellowship of his suffering. And three, to become like him in his death. How can I become like Christ in his death? Jesus prayed in the garden, not my will, but thy will be done. Can I pray that prayer and then do his will even when I have something else to do and I'll get around to going to church next week or the week after, or I'll read the Bible sometime in the weeks to come, or hey, I want to know the man.

I want to walk with him, and I want him to walk with me, becoming like him in his death. Lord, thy will be done. Remember how you prayed here just a moment ago? Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. What is the will of God that you're asking him to do for you? And I'm asking him to do for me. That is to live for him, to be obedient to him, to serve him, to know the joy of his new life that he has placed within me. He said, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly, more abundantly. God has great desires for his people, great ambitions for his people. We have ambitions for him. He has ambitions for us.

He wants it to be better for you, better and better and better. So much trouble in this world, so much rioting. Oh my. There's so much. It just goes on and never stops. Racism, abortion. It's going to be something else. It's never going to be over. We live in a fallen world. A world that is ruled by the passions of man. God help us that our lives will rule, be ruled by a passion for Jesus, and we will seek after him with all of our heart. On the cross, Jesus gave his all, and he said, it is finished. He has submitted to the Father's will. This is what it means, becoming like him in his death.

Regardless of what happens in life, I'm going to seek to do his will. I want to know what it is. Here it is. I'm going to do it. And so at verse 12, Paul said, I press on. I'm going to press on. And then it goes on to say, Paul says, I strain forward. How much effort, I would just talk to myself now, is Jack Morris putting into his spiritual life? Am I straining forward? Am I pressing on, where I'm just sort of okie dokie about Christianity and about Jesus? Passive. Come what may, it'll be Christmas again. I'll have to buy presents. Oh, that's Jesus' birthday, isn't it? Yeah, I shook hands with him.

But to really, truly know him, I press on. And then in verse 13, look to what he says. One thing I do. I would say, Paul, there's a dozen or more things that I do that I'm caught up with, and Jesus is just one of them. I got 12 other things, and Jesus is maybe number 13. He's sandwiched in there somewhere. One thing, one predominant thing, one overshadowing thing, equivocally, one thing I do that I may know him. I'm going to forget the things that are behind. I'm going to forget that I was born into a Jewish Hebrew family, meaning that I wasn't adopted or I'm not a convert to the Judaism. I was born into it.

That means I'm a pure blood, not a mixed race. I'm a pure blood. It's all in verse 5 in your Bible. And then he goes on to say, my parents took me to the temple when I was 8 days old. Parents, you've got to bring them. You have to bring them. They can't bring themselves. 8 days old, not a year or a year and a half old before I can take them to Sunday school. 8 days old to bring me under the law of the Old Testament. He said, these are things that made me stand out among my Hebrew brothers and sisters and friends. I was born into the tribe of Benjamin. Now that was a small tribe, but that was the aristocratic tribe.

That was the elite tribe of Israel. And he says, and then they gave me the name Saul after the first king they named me, after the first king of Israel. He said, I'm going to forget it all. It's as rubbish nothing. And he says, and then for my own zeal, persecuting the church, I was on my way to Damascus to arrest the Christians and to bring them back to Jerusalem. I'm the one that consented and motivated the guys on to stone Stephen. I stood there and held their coats, thinking that I was doing the right thing. Go ahead and hit him hard next time. Kill that Christian. He said, legalistic righteousness, fallenness.

He said there wasn't one sin or one fault that anybody could accuse me of. He said I lived an exemplary Hebrew life. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was telling us that even though I grew up in the city of Tarsus, which was a Gentile city, my parents spoke Hebrew in the house. We followed Hebrew customs, just like I would have if we had lived in Jerusalem. He said, but all of that that made me so popular, I had the very best education at the University of Gamelia. He said, but it is as rubbish. One thing I want, I want to know Christ. Paul was saying, I really got ahead in this world. I had everything, and I gave it all up, just like Reverend Tannenbaum.

Put my belongings in a casket, take me to a cemetery, take it all to a cemetery, put up a headstone. Don't you ever darken this family again. You are dead. Dead. Friend, I want to die to self and be alive in Christ. I want to know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his suffering, and being like him in his death. Forgetting what is behind, straining forward, pressing on. There's some thoughts and some sins, some wrongdoings that keep crowding into our memory, even now, causing us to be tormented, bringing about an ugly spirit. God doesn't want you to feel that way anymore.

He loves you. Look to him, press toward him, strain after him. He will heal this mental anguish, any conflict, anything that is going on. He's the man. I want to know the man who brings about the healing. Friend, I pray that each of us now will strain forward, seek after Christ, look to him.

Announcer: As we draw today's message to a close, remember that developing a deeper relationship with Christ takes time and effort, but it is worth it. Keep seeking him, and he will reveal himself to you in new and profound ways. 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.