The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: It's time that we look to the Lord Jesus Christ and do some sowing for eternity.

Guest (Male): Would you be surprised to know that you have a great deal of control over your life? Let's join Pastor Jack Morris for the introduction of today's healing word message, life in the making, as he takes a look at the subject of control and what the Bible has to say about it.

Pastor Jack Morris: Just a moment we're going into the sanctuary and I'm going to be bringing a message entitled life in the making. Friend, listen to this message. You have more control over your life than maybe you realize. God loves you, he cares for you, he wants you to have the very best life. You make the right decisions, God will bless you, you'll have the life that you want and the life that God wants. We're going to go to Galatians chapter 6 where it says in verse 7 do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked and man reaps what he sows.

So if you sow to the spirit, you sow to the worship of almighty God and obedience to him, you're going to reap in this life. Not only will you reap in the life to come, but the blessings of God will flow abundantly upon you. Let's go into the sanctuary, hear this message and be greatly and abundantly blessed. Life in the making. The scripture tells us that we make our own life what it is for the most part. 99 99% of what we are now we have made for ourselves. The scripture clearly says what a man or woman sows, that man or woman will reap.

I've heard people say things like when their marriage went wrong or something like that, well, uh, she made her bed, now let her lie in it. You ever hear anything like that? Not an awful saying. But we're making us ourselves what we are and who we are and who we're going to become. Now last Sunday, the sermon title was reap the blessing. Everywhere in the Bible, everywhere, God is telling us he wants to bless us and make our lives beautiful and wonderful. He tells that over and over. Everything in the Bible, not condemning us, not hurting us, but to bless us and to help us.

The problem is we're just not listening like we should listen and receiving and doing, uh, as we should receive and as we should listen. Now in Mark chapter 4 last week, I talked about the sower that went forth to sow, the farmer. He sowed seed, the seed went into the soil, the seed germinated, the seed grew and, uh, in the fall he reaped a great harvest. He got what he sowed, but he got more than he sowed. He was so wonderfully blessed with what God had given to him. Now Jeremiah chapter 4 verse 3 said let us break up the fallow ground or let us plow the unplowed soil.

That is get your heart ready to receive the word of God. Let the word of God dwell in you richly and you will have a rich and fulfilling life. That basically sums up all that God is telling us throughout his word. It all starts with Jesus yielding to the savior and allowing him to come in. But you and I have a part in this to get the word ready to come in. Now years ago, there was a man in Great Britain by the name of uh, G. K. uh, Chesterton. A great, brilliant man, great philosopher and a great theologian, wise man.

Many people would go to him and ask him practical questions and he would give wise answers, wrote books. A brilliant man and a good Christian man. Someone went to him and asked him and said, Dr. Chesterton, if you were stranded on an island and you had just one book, just one, what would that book be? He said a practical guide on how to build a ship. Well, friend, this is a practical guide on how to build a life.

Guest (Male): Amen.

Pastor Jack Morris: This has a rudder and a sail that will get us off in the right direction and keep us going exactly where you want to go and you have the greatest, most successful life of all. Exactly what you need and what you want. Now sowing and reaping. If you have your Bibles open, I'm going to read from Galatians chapter 5 uh, verse 7. Do you have your Bibles open? Would you like to read that with me in unison together? Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. How how plain can that be?

Can that be said another way, plainer than what it is there now? No. Now notice, do not be deceived. Simply meaning don't misunderstand. Don't become confused. What is going on in the natural world also goes on in the spiritual world. In the spring, you're going to see the farmer on the tractor. He's breaking up the fallow ground, getting ready to sow the seed. Then he'll sow the seed and then he'll wait and believe God for the sunshine and for the rain and then in the fall he'll reap what he sowed, but he'll reap a whole lot more and he will rejoice.

So the scripture is telling us don't be deceived. This is how it is, this is how it always has been. Seed time and harvest, this is the way it always will be. And then he goes on to say do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. Simply meaning God says what he means and he means what he says. He doesn't speak a whole lot of idle words. Uh, he he speaks very meaningful words. Uh, don't don't be deceived in thinking that that God is just talking to talk and we can ignore it, but we are the ones that will not receive the blessing if we ignore what God is saying.

So don't be deceived, don't be don't misunderstand. Uh, God cannot be mocked. God isn't just talking to hear himself talk. A man reaps what he sows. Seed time, harvest time. In every little seed, there is a force. In every little seed, there's a life. That's why when it goes into the ground, it looks you don't see any life in that seed. It doesn't looks dead, but when it goes into the ground buried somewhere inside that seed, there's a life. And the Lord is telling us in Mark chapter 4 as he goes on to explain to his disciples that he is the farmer, that he is sowing his seed.

The seed that he is sowing is the words that he is speaking and those words that are received into a heart that has been prepared, those words are going to burst forth with a great force and a great life and it's going to be beautiful and it's going to be wonderful. This is what God is saying. This is what God has for all of his people. Now sowing seed and reaping in this life and sowing seed and reaping in the life to come. We sow deeds of kindness, acts of love, friendship. There's there's a lady at the place where they work in the pharmacy where Karen and I take our prescriptions.

That woman, we've been meeting her and seeing her for a long time. She never smiles. And so I thought, well, I'm going to try an experiment. There I go again. I'm going to do what I can to get her I mean it's like it's frozen. It's like a face of ice. It's going to crack, you know. And so, uh, she was working and I thought, well, I'll I'll talk to her. I said you you know, you've got a lot of business, there's a lot of activity here. You're and I don't know what all I said and I thought maybe she might smile and she said, yeah, it's it's been a busy day today.

Nothing, just nothing. She said, yeah, we work hard, but I like it that way. And and, uh, so I I I couldn't communicate, I couldn't And so I walked away and I said to Karen, I said, you know, that woman, no matter what you say or what you do, she she's just going to be stoic and just stare and never say anything, be very efficient, do her job. Dear Lord, I hope she's not streaming this today. I'm in trouble next time I go. She might give me a prescription I don't want. But she just doesn't smile.

Friend, smile and somebody's going to smile back at you. So an an act of kindness, act of love and and it'll it'll come back for the most part. Now there there are always going to be exceptions. And I found this exception there at the pharmacy, but I found it at other places also. It can't be all that bad, friend. Hey, won't you turn to a neighbor and say good morning and smile. Will you do that? Good morning. Hey, can't life be wonderful? Now what you sow, you're going to reap. There was a minister at Marble Collegiate Church in New York, Dr.

Norman Vincent Peale, gone on to glory now. Karen and I had an opportunity to sit under his teaching, uh, in Pawling, New York at one time and there was a ministers meeting and we went up and he wrote many books and he tells the story. He said I went in he he he went into a barber shop and he he had to sit down and wait. Now I go to Phil's barber shop. I don't have to sit down and wait anymore because he put me first. And so if I get there on time, I I get out early, don't have to sit down and wait, just just go right to the chair.

Well, Dr. Peale said he had to sit down and wait. And he said while he was waiting, the barber was cutting another man's hair and the man that was having his hair cut, the man that was in the chair, he was very negative and all he could say was how bad things are in his life, how bad things are in the country, how bad things are in the government, how bad, how bad, how bad. And Dr. Peale said it was depressing. And he said I thought I'd try a test. And he said I I I was sitting off behind him off to the side and he said I could look at the back of his head and I just looked at his head and smiled.

That's all I did. I just kept smiling and he said he kept that negative talk going on and on and he said I just kept smiling at the back of his head and he said all of a sudden he said the man stopped, turned around and looked at me and smiled. Friend, it works. What you sow, you reap. That's the Bible, that's the word of God, the unchanging truth of God's holy word. Now it says in verse 9 let us not become weary in doing good. Didn't it say that? We're not to quit along the way because somebody doesn't smile back.

Most of the people will. Uh, most of the people will thank you for a deed that is that is done that blesses them. They will thank you for that. But most but there are those those exceptions. But he said don't become weary in doing good. Do good and keep on doing good. The scripture says Jesus went about doing good. That's all he did, just good. He went about doing good. Now no no not everybody accepted his goodness, but that's what he did. He went about doing good. Now reaping comes at a time that's going to bless you the most.

Now I want you to hear this very clearly. God has your best interest at heart. God's looking out for you. He really is. That why he says sow goodness and goodness will come back, sow kindness and kindness will come back. Whatever you sow, you're going to reap. That what the Lord says. So if you want some goodness to come into your life, you sow some goodness, it'll come back to you. God will bless you and it'll come back in the time that's going to bless you the most. So when the farmer sows the seed in the ground, the farmer doesn't get up the next morning and go out there and say, well, I don't see anything happening.

I'm looking for it to happen. I don't see anything happening. No, the farmer knows their seed time and harvest. The farmer is wise. He knows there's a time for sowing and there's a time for reaping and God knows the best time for you to receive what you have sown and what you need to have come back to you. So we're sowing now and we're reaping in this life, but we're also sowing now and we're going to reap in the life to come. Friend, do you know that someday we're going to stand before God and we're going to acknowledge to him and he's going to receive an account from us.

There is seed time and harvest. Soon we're going to go to heaven and we're going to be face to face with the Lord. And and God doesn't pull any punches and don't be deceived because God can't be mocked. You can't you you can't pull the wool over so to speak of God's eyes. He sees our heart, he knows where we are, he knows how we're functioning. He knows all. He sees all. So we're going to reap also in eternity as well as in this life and we are moving steadily and unstoppably toward eternity. Now there are some things in this life that we can slow down and maybe even stop including gravity.

Gravity can be slowed down and stopped momentarily, but not for long. But life is moving, life is moving. While we're sitting here in this chapel, in this sanctuary, the world is turning on its axis, time is clicking away, we're moving and nobody can stop moving. And neither can nobody stop you from acting, behaving, smiling, not smiling. We're we're sowing seed all every day, all life long. And we need to become a little more aware and a little more conscious of what we are and who we are and what we sowing. Now there's one thing that cannot be stopped and that is time.

We can't stop time. I I brought this with me this morning. This the Washington Post magazine, the parenting issue. Most of us equate money with success. If you make money and lots of it, then you're a success. If my child gets that PhD degree, then he's or she's going to make a lot of money and be very successful. So I hardly did a little bit of reading out of this magazine and it was, uh, entitled, um, how to raise successful kids. And I thought, well, I need to read that although mine are all grown and Karen's not pregnant, but uh, um, I'm happier about that than you are.

So this this particular parent says you work hard as a parent and they work hard. Now this is what parents are valuing from their children and from themselves. Hard work pays off. It does. I agree with that. It does. Okay, but I thought, well, maybe I'll turn on. And it says the next parent says to raise a child successfully, you have to give your child a voice. Let your child have a voice, make some decisions. And so it has pictures of the parents with their family and all of their children. And then the next parent says be strict about right things at the right time.

And I agree with that. There wasn't a thing in here that I disagree with. The next person says help your children find themselves. They tell me all these things, but they don't tell me how to do it. Not one of them, not one of them spoke about their child in eternity or themselves in eternity. Not one of them. Everything was about getting ahead and getting ahead simply meant making money and being successful and achieving what you can number, what you can count, what you can weigh in your hand. Friend, now let me tell you a story.

It's an old fable that comes from the Far East. It is about how to test what your child's going to be like and what going to happen in your child's life. The fable is and I understand that some of them have done this. They they will they will take a uh and this while the child is still just a little toddler, they're going to now put this child give this child a test. And so they'll go to a the coffee table and they'll put a bottle of wine on the coffee table. They'll put a Bible on the coffee table and then they'll put some money on the coffee table and then the parent will walk out and just peep around and send the little toddler into the room about 3 years old and watch to see what what he picks up first.

And so this one gentleman said his son came toddling into the room and he walked over and he and he watched from a distance and the little toddler picked up the Bible. Now if he picks up the Bible, that's a sign that he's going to have a spiritual vocation. Maybe he's going to be a priest. And he was happy to see that. Then the little boy surveyed the coffee table and he he reached up and he picked up the money. Well, when he picked up the money, well, maybe the child is going to be an entrepreneur, or he's going to be a businessman.

And then the child put the money in the Bible. And then he looked over at that big bottle of wine and he reached up and he got a hold of that. Put the Bible under his arm and then he toddled off with all three. And the father looked and he said, oh no, he's going to be a politician. So you're sowing and I'm sowing. And we may have another year. Won't that be wonderful? What did you sow last year? Some of you are going to have a lean year this year because you didn't sow much last year.

Or there are things that are going to come back. You've made your bed last year, you're going to lie in it this year. Friend, if God gives you another year, be thankful, seek the Lord, ask God to give guidance and direction to you that he'll help you to sow what needs to be sown so that you'll reap what you need to reap, what you want to reap, what he wants you to reap. God has your best interest at heart. He really does. He cares for you greatly. So let's live for the Lord. We're going to have a big payoff.

There was a preacher a number of years ago, Dr. Truett of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. He preached the sermon all over the United States. It was just the same sermon. And that was sermon was titled payday someday. Friend, we're going to get it back. Whether we're sowing our money, our tithe, it works just the same way. What you do with what God has given you, you're going to reap it back again. It's coming home. It's coming back. And the life that you live it's going to be reflected in your sons and your daughters.

Well, I don't talk about them things in front of no, but somehow you're mysteriously, wonderfully connected, your DNA, your flesh, it's going to happen. Friend, some of us need to pray, seek the Lord and say God help me to sow good seed, good seed because then I'll have a good harvest. Amen. Amen. Shall we bow our heads in prayer?

Guest (Male): We hope that today's message has been a blessing and has strengthened your faith in God. But before we go, here is Pastor Jack Morris with a special invitation.

Pastor Jack Morris: I want to thank you for your past support to the healing word ministries. Your prayers and financial gifts have kept this ministry on the air. You have been a great blessing because you have a passion for souls. Friend, your prayers and generosity will take the healing word into the future where eternal souls wait, souls who need Christ, souls who need healing, need forgiveness, need his love. I'll be frank, I can't do it without you. I need you. I love you and I thank God for giving you to me to pray and support this ministry. Together we're soul winners for the Lord.

Please send an offering and help me with this ministry. Thank you and God bless you. I'm Pastor Morris.

Guest (Male): Go to the healingword.com and click the donate button to pledge your support. Join us tomorrow for another healing word message. Until then, blessings on you.