The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Rejoice in the Lord. I can't rejoice in some of the things that are going on in my life, and certainly you can't either. But we can rejoice in the Lord because the Lord is with us. The Lord has saved us. The Lord will never will leave us nor forsake us. What a wonderful Lord and savior and God that he is.

Learning how to cope with life by rejoicing in the Lord can be a powerful way to find peace and comfort even during difficult times. Pastor Morris is here. He's going to take us to Philippians chapter 4 to reveal how the Apostle Paul cultivated a mindset of rejoicing in the Lord.

Learning to lean. That means we're learning how to cope and make it in this life. You know, this life can be rather cruel, and be difficult. You know what I'm talking about. You've been around long enough to know how cruel and difficult it is. We're learning, we're studying the word, we're praying, we're coming to church. We're learning that the Holy Spirit is teaching us, and he's going to do something very very spectacular this morning as we look to him, believe in him, receive.

We think of this world, and I'm not going to dwell on this, but the the problems and the conflict and the difficulty. I've been praying for some time, for a long time. Lord, particularly the grace that the Beal God help the people of God who do not have food. God help the people in in Ukraine who are without nourishment, without food. God help them. And then I heard, "Hey, a deal came forth." Uh, food's going to go in. Grain's going in. And I began to thank God and praise the Lord. And if the Russians didn't turn right around and bombed bombed the the port that it was supposed to come in. I mean, it I mean, what can you believe in in this world? Friend, don't get too caught up. You're just we're just too busy with worldly things.

But it's the Spirit of God that will give us strength and will help us. I mean, world conflict, national disaster, this climate that we're in, uh people are dying because of the heat. I mean, if it isn't one thing, it's a dozen other things. And they're all beginning to stack up and and pile up together. I wonder what people who do not know the Lord, what do they do in a world like this? Our citizenship is in heaven. We are people of another world. We are redeemed. Somebody say, "Praise the Lord." God has saved us. Not because we are worthy or done anything, but I'll tell you, we are taking it too easy as Christians. We are just too comfortable as Christians. We sort of do it according to our feelings, whether praying, go to church, read the word. Uh, friend, let let's get real serious about our walk with Jesus.

I'll tell you, he was pretty serious when he came down here and he walked on this earth for us. What a savior he is. And then coupled with all that's going on in the world are personal hardships. I obviously don't know about yours, and you know very little about mine, but it's just hardship wherever you look, unless you look up. Did you hear me? Unless you look up. Some of you, I I know are looking up today, and the blessing of God is going to come to you because you're looking in the right direction. You're looking up. You're looking to the Lord.

But it's learning to cope, learning to cope, but the scripture says not only to cope, but to rejoice in situations like we're in. To rejoice, to give thanks to the Lord and worship him. I'll confess to you, sometimes I'm encouraged, and sometimes not so much. It's not altogether easy for anybody to live in this world. It wasn't easy for Jesus to live in this world. I mean, they killed him.

We're still alive, and let us be alive in the Lord and in his might and in his power. But not only do we we we go into these very difficult situations, but we are to rejoice in these difficult situations. Now, when I hear a lecture, I I'm I'm there to hear it, yeah, if I choose to be there to hear it, and I I want to be there, so I go and I hear it. But when I see somebody do the lecture, get out there and do what you're telling me, then I can see it modeled. I I want to see Christianity alive, active, and we have examples. And one of them today we have is the Apostle Paul.

Paul rejoiced. He said in verse 10, listen to this, "I greatly rejoice." Now, notice what he said. "I greatly rejoice." That means, "I rejoice immensely." "I rejoice with overflowing joy." That's what the word greatly means. "I rejoice with with a a gush." It it's not just a little trickle. You know, do I get up? Do I feel like praying and going to church? Am I too tired? You know, we don't you go out and do all that kind of talking. But look, who's here today? You're here. And you're going to get the blessing. We're in Father's house, seated at Father's table, and he has a banquet prepared for us, our God.

"I rejoice greatly." And where, listen, where was Paul rejoicing? In jail. And look where I am today, in a beautiful sanctuary. Rejoicing in jail, in prison. Now, I I thought about him being and he's my model. I'm I'm following him. I thought about him being in jail. I thought, well, I would I would rejoice when I get out of jail, not while I'm still in jail. Maybe he was waiting on the Apostle Peter to come and go his bail. No, he didn't wait. He started rejoicing. And he said, "It it's just not a little bit of rejoicing. I've had," Paul is saying, "I have so much that to be thankful for. I'm going to rejoice immensely. I'm going to rejoice greatly." Come on, Paul. Tell me how to do it. Show me how to do it. And he went in prison and he did it.

Listen to what he says in Second Corinthians 4. He said, "We are hard-pressed." Now he's not sugarcoating anything. It's just out there in plain vanilla. He said, "We are hard-pressed on every side." Every direction I look in, there's a problem, there's trouble. On every side. He said, "But we are pressed, hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed." Hey friend, here's a man that's showing us the way and how to do it because he had the spirit in his heart. And we have the spirit in our hearts, and he's going to help us, the Lord Jesus is.

Think about it. Here he is chained up in prison. "I rejoice greatly in the Lord." Here he is hunger and want. "I rejoice greatly in the Lord." Here he is trouble and need. "I rejoice greatly in the Lord." Friend, what's your problem today? Rejoice greatly in the Lord. Okay? Rejoice greatly in the Lord. And everyone says, "Praise the Lord." Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. There is blessing for the people of God. So here we are called upon to cope in this troublesome world that we're in. And we're also called upon to rejoice even in life particularly, to rejoice always.

Now, here's here's the source. Here's Paul's secret. Here's your secret. In the Lord. Can everybody say, "In the Lord?" [--Congregation--] In the Lord. [--Pastor Jack Morris--] Rejoice in the Lord. I can't rejoice in some of the things that are going on in my life, and certainly you can't either. But we can rejoice in the Lord because the Lord is with us. The Lord has saved us. The Lord will never will leave us nor forsake us. What a wonderful Lord and savior and God that he is. Jesus said these words. He said, "The Father is in me and I am in the Father." In. I'm in Christ. I'm not going to complain that I'm in trouble. I'm in the Lord who heals and delivers from all trouble.

Here's the thing that we need to do. We need to remember who we are. We we need to remember that once we were lost in sin, a child of the enemy, a child of him who is the father of all lies. But today we're the in Christ, and we're the cherished, listen, you are the cherished children of God. And I I think when next time we pray, we need to and that should be just in a few minutes, right now, to say it out loud to him, "Lord, thank you for cherishing me." I'm a cherished child of God. I'm a child of the Father of compassion.

Friend, come on, you need to think of some words and change your and say those words and experience the freshness of prayer. The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles. Now, I'm not going to ask for a raising of hands, but I would imagine most of us today could raise our hands and say there's there's trouble. But God comforts us in all our troubles.

Now, the word comfort, listen to this. How does he comfort? I I wish I could come down there and just take a mic and go, "How does God comfort you?" How? What what would I say? What would you say? Well, the word comfort means simply means relationship. You have a relationship, I have a relationship with God, and that's how he comforts us. He comes near us. He's with us. He comforts us, our Savior and our God.

There was a thunderstorm one night, much like we had last week, uh and this little girl was maybe five, she maybe six years old. And I mean the lightning would strike and it the the windows would just rattle, and she couldn't go to sleep. She was frightened, she was scared. She's putting her head under the covers and they just kept right on lightning. And she got out of bed in the middle of the night and walked into her mother's room and uh stood by the mother's bed. Just walked over and never said a word, just walked over and just stood there. And I guess the mother intuited that somebody was there. And the mother opened her eyes and there stood that little girl.

The mother never said a word, the little girl never said a word. But the mother did. Just threw back the covers. Little girl just jumped in bed, threw the covers over. Little girl just snuggled up to her mother. Let it storm. She was okay. She was in a relationship. It's always okay when you're with the Lord and you know he is with you. Now, this this did not comfort the little girl. She was in this room, her mother was in that room. She knew her mother was over there. Friend, you know God's at the throne of grace. But do you know he's holding your hand and is with you?

The little girl knowing that the mother they were in the same house. One room here and one room there. I know God loves me. But are you and I truly experiencing it? And when that little girl left that her room and got over to mother's room, then the blessing came and the little girl was comforted. So it is God in a relationship. A relationship. It's you in a relationship, you and God together.

Now, that's how Paul could do it. In the prison he was in, locked up. He wasn't waiting for the Apostle Peter to come and go his bail. In prison or out of prison, it mattered not. He's going to rejoice, and he said, "It's not just a little trickle of rejoicing. It is a great rejoicing. I'm going to rejoice in the Lord." And the other source of his blessing was the church. It's like my friend said to me one time, I was talking to her, a relative, and she said, "You don't have to go to church to be a Christian." Well, I don't know about that. I just don't know about that. It's the church that is a guardian of the word of God. It is the church that is a guardian of prayer. Without the church, I wouldn't know the word. The church is being built by Jesus, and I can't take the church lightly. He said, "I will build my church." It's his church, and I've got to get serious about church. Hey, I am the church. You are the church.

I can't just live by myself. I have to live spiritually with God's people. And God's people lives with me, and I have fellowship divine. What a fellowship. What a joy divine. You see, the church, let me let me read this to you. I I'm going to turn over to Philippians chapter 4, uh verse 1. Let me let me find it. "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love." Listen to this. "You whom I love." Oh, Paul, you're you're just putting me on. Do you really love me? "You whom I love and long for. I long to be with you. I I long for the people of God. I draw strength from the fellowship." Just that's what he's saying.

"Whom I love and long for, my joy and crown." You're my joy. You're my crown. That is how you should stand firm in the Lord, my dear friends. That's how we should think of each other, as our joy, as our crown, as the people of God and that I'm the people of God. The church is the guardian. You see, the church was born in the womb wombs of Christ. The song says, "See from his head, his hands and feet, joy, sorrow and love flow mingled down." No, I I just can't take and leave what he died for, nailed for, pierced for. No, I can't do that. The church is the apex of his living even to this this very day.

Paul's joy was in the church. Paul's joy was in remembering his identity. "I know in whom I have believed. I am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day." You know, "I'm somebody." I'm a child of the king, a child of the king. His royal blood now flows in my veins. I'm part of him. He is part of me.

Now, the church gave Paul a gift. I talked about that several weeks ago. How the church would send food to him. He was without food. They would send his coat to him because he was cold. They they did all that they could do to help him and to encourage him. And Paul was grateful, and in response to that he is writing back, and the book of Philippians is a thank you note to his joy and to his crown, the Philippian church. He sent this back to them. And he said this, he Paul said, "I I'm not rejoicing. I'm thankful for what you have done, but the gift that you sent, my coat, the parchments and the food, I thank you for that. But I'm not rejoicing in that. I'm rejoicing that you love me and that I love you, and God loves all of us and all of us together love the Lord. We know in whom we have believed."

And he said, "That that you have sent to me, he said, God's going to credit that to your account." You know, God has a ledger in heaven that he sees everything we say and do, and he said, "I'm going to credit, God's going to credit that to your account." That's laying up treasure in heaven. The church. Look at that scripture again. Look at it. Read it in unison. [--Congregation--] Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown. Stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends. [--Pastor Jack Morris--] Wow. My joy and my crown. This is what he is saying.

What a savior. I think of Patricia Robertson, who just this funeral was it this week? Yeah. I'm I'm losing some of the track of time right now. But what a dear Christian lady she was. I I thank God for her. And I thank God for all of you. Not only did she send cards to created me, but you send cards to us too. And I I thank every one of you for your prayers and for the cards, for the recognition. You're my joy and crown. I hope I'm your joy and crange your joy and crown also. You can't ignore your joy and crown, can you? Can the Queen of England ignore her palace, ignore her crown? No, of course not. No. Neither can the children of God if we are truly children of God with the Spirit of God within us.

And I I what I remember about her, uh is that we had a moon moon bounce. We had a a Sunday school picnic down here on at the pavilion. And we're going to have Sunday school picnics again. And they're coming. We're going to do some great things and wonderful things. But we're doing some great and wonderful things right now. And uh there was the moon bounce and a lot of the kids were up there jumping and it looked like fun. So I crawled up in there with those bunch of kids and I started bouncing. And she saw me. She was down under the pavilion and she come walking up that hill and with power and authority in her voice, "Pastor Morris, you get out of there!" She said, "You're going to hurt yourself and then not be able to preach." She said, "Get out of there." Then she took my picture in there.

But she told me just a couple of three or four weeks ago, she said, "It was in the winter time and the snow had come down and it was deep, and I believe it was her father's memorial service." She said, "I couldn't get out get in my car and and drive out of the parking lot." She said, "The snow was so deep." But somehow the Largo Community Church men heard about her situation and they got in their cars and they went down to Upper Marlboro and they shoveled and shoveled and shoveled until they shoveled her out. I have seen Christianity in action here at the Largo Community Church. And Paul saw it in action from the church he founded, the church at Philippi. Friend, this is your day. Let's bow before him.

Guest (Male): You can find peace and comfort even during difficult circumstances by cultivating a mindset of rejoicing in the Lord. It takes practice and effort, but the rewards are worth it. Start your week with encouragement from God's word. Sign up today for The Healing Word Weekly Devotional. Delivered every Monday morning right to your inbox. It's a powerful way to begin your week with hope, scripture, and inspiration for your daily walk. Go to thehealingword.com. That's thehealingword.com and sign up today. Let God's truth speak to your heart every Monday morning. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.