The Healing Word

Guest (Male): 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: Today, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I believe we're going to see Jesus. I pray to this end. I'm praying now to this end that our spiritual eyes would be opened and we would see Jesus. Today, I pray that our eyes will be anointed with the salve of the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Healing Word, a ministry dedicated to offering strength and encouragement through God's word for anyone facing life's challenges. As believers, we want to serve God and walk in his will, though the path isn't always easy. Today's message is here to meet you at your point of need, bringing hope and renewing your faith now. Here's Pastor Jack Morris.

Pastor Jack Morris: With sanctified contemplation, with faith believing, and we will see Jesus in our lives, in our situation. Sometimes we get into a situation and we just thank God has taken a powder or he's standing over in the corner with his hands in his pocket and we're having this very difficult time. But today, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I believe we're going to see Jesus. I pray to this end. I'm praying now to this end that our spiritual eyes would be opened and we would see Jesus. Now, the scripture in in John 1:29, would you put that on the screen?

And I want us to read it in unison and then I'm going to go back and draw attention to the words that are underlined, but don't look at the underline now. Just read the scripture in unison. Together, the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All right, now go back to the top. The next day, uh this was the very day after Jesus returned from the wilderness where he had been fasting for 40 days and the devil came with three major temptations, the first one being, if you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread.

Three temptations and in every temptation, Jesus defeated the enemy not with any supernatural power that he displayed, only using the word of God. Anybody here can use the word of God and defeat the enemy and the situation that he is presenting to you by taking that red pew Bible out of the back of the pew or the Bible you have at home, you can defeat the enemy. We talked about using the scripture, writing it on a 3x5 index card, putting it again in your pocket, just one or two scriptures are in your purse or or putting it on the dashboard of your car.

And when the enemy comes with temptation and he does indeed come to all of us, read that scripture or quote it. At that time, and you're going to need to do it repeatedly over and over. You're going to need to do what the Bible says, fight the good fight of faith. And sometimes the battle goes on for days and weeks and months, but you'll win because you have the word of God. Now, the next day, the day after Jesus had that experience in the wilderness, John saw him coming and said, Behold the lamb of God.

Now, I don't know whether Jesus was walking toward John to say something to him, to have a conversation with him. I'm not sure, but he saw him coming. Now, if you drop down to verse 35, it says again, the next day, John was there again. That means the second day, they were out together and John may have seen him out on the street somewhere and said again, Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, particularly, I want you to look at the next word that is underlined, the word look.

You've got to look in order to see, right? And in church, when we're singing a hymn with the choir is singing or the sermon is being preached, we can't just sit there and think, well, I hope something turns me on today. Chances are nothing's going to turn you on and this is going to be a very boring service. But if you're looking for a blessing, you're going to get a blessing. All it takes is to look to Jesus. And when I hear his name in a song or a sermon, I just don't sit there and think, well, I've heard that name so many many times.

But when I begin to look with my thoughts and I think, Jesus, meaning savior, Jesus, my redeemer, somebody said, somebody sang, and I heard the name Jesus. Friend, when you begin to think that way, you're going to be turned on by the Holy Spirit and this is going to be the greatest church service you've ever attended in your life. Nobody can turn you on but you. We are always looking for somebody else, not always, sometimes to make us feel spiritual, to make us feel happy in Jesus, to fix things for us. Friend, you're the answer to your own situation and to your own challenge.

So look to the door Jesus. John is saying, look. He's not telling Jesus to look. He's telling the people around him, you look. You came to church to look, so look. And here, be blessed, be forgiven, be saved. Go home rejoicing. It's your day. Look. He's telling you to look. Look to Jesus. Look and see. What do you want to see today? John says, look the lamb of God who saves, who heals, who blesses, who restores, who makes life beautiful and more wonderful than you ever dreamed possible. But you've got to look. Who's got to look?

You do. You do. I can't look for you, neither can I taste food. Someone said, oh, that tastes so good. Somebody else will taste it and say, oof, it's too hot, too spicy. Now, I there are certain things that only you can do that nobody else can do for you. Look. Only through your eyes, through your understanding, through your faith, we you see what God wants you to see, but you've got to stand still to see the salvation of the Lord. And here he is right in front of us to behold him, to see him.

And he comes with healing, with blessing, with goodness when we see him. Look, the son of God, the lamb of God, the lamb of God. He's the one that God gave, the one that God provided. And remember this, God also named him Jesus. And how we can just hear a hymn or and hear the name Jesus and it just I heard it before. It's sort of gotten a little old now, but it's a name that came from heaven to earth. A name came from glory to your helping and to your self salvation. You see, Abraham in Genesis 22 took his son Isaac by the direction of the Holy Spirit to offer him as a sacrifice.

And the young boy said, listen, young boys can know what it is to be saved, to know the sacrifice of Jesus. They can know it. They can know it. Sometimes we think this is over the young people's head. Friend, don't make the young people stupid. They're intelligent. They know. They can feel the same Holy Spirit that comes to you to all people, even little children. Jesus said, let them come to me. I can teach a Sunday school class. I've been all gray for 40 years, two year olds. The young boy said to his dad, you know, we need some spiritual dads that talk faith and and and and not just side in with with the the negative that is being heard.

The the dad said, the young boy said, we have the fire, we have the wood, but where's the lamb? And dad said, God's going to provide a lamb. God will provide the lamb. And when they got to the place, Mount Moriah, where the sacrifice was to take place, there was the sacrifice caught. There was a missionary. I don't know that I can pronounce his first name, but his last name was Judson who came back from Burma in 1812. Karen and I were in Burma. It's now sometimes referred to as Myanmar. A number of years ago when I was teaching at the seminary in the Orient, we had a an extension class in Burma.

And I remember going there and teaching those young pastors for two weeks. The uh the nation of Burma is 89% Buddhist. Now, in order to become a soldier in the in the Burma army, you have to be a Buddhist or to get a job in the government, you must be a Buddhist. But only 6% of Burma is Christian. And how many of those are really the born again Christian, I don't know. But we had a great time and and we went to a Buddhist place of worship. One of the missionaries took us there and I've never seen anything like it before.

It was almost how many acres. Everything was gold, glittering with gold and worshipers everywhere. Would the God the Christian worshipers would be in their place of worship and we walk through almost in awe looking at these temples and the glittering gold and and the people had had given so much. And then we had a guide that was taking us through and there was a a long plank like a big club. And it was on suspended on two wires or ropes from the ceiling and you would take it and there was like a big drum and you would swing it and it would hit that drum and it would go boom, boom.

And they asked me, the Buddhist guide, said, would you like to take that and swing it and hit that drum? Go ahead, take it, take it, swing it. No, it was a call to worship Buddha. I worship but one. His name is Jesus. He turns me on spiritually when I hear that name, that holy name. Yet I go out on the street or somewhere and I hear them calling his name in vain, using it as a curse word. How low has our world stooped? And yet Jesus has come today to bring blessing and help. Well, Judson was a missionary in in Burma for many years, 40 years actually, 40 years.

It just came back to me. And they showed me some of the places where he administered. It's 1812. This veteran missionary has come home. A large congregation gathered in the general assembly room, hundreds and hundreds to see this man and to hear him tell them something about Buddha or or about Burma, I mean, about Burma. And uh the time came, he got up and he told the people what he told the Burmese. He told them about Jesus. He said, I told them about the blood of Jesus. I told them about the sacrifice of Jesus and he preached a sermon on the cross.

And then he sat down. And when he sat down, a friend beside him leaned over and said, Reverend Judson, the people are very disappointed. I'm sure they are because they expected you to tell some great hair-raising missionary story. And Reverend Judson said, I told the people here what I told the Burmese. What I told the Burmese, the people here need to be told that God loved them and gave his only begotten son. And I told the message, the only message there is is the message of Christ. But the man beside him leaned over again and said, but we've waited so long.

Couldn't you have just told us a story that would excite us? That's what I meant a few weeks ago when I said people are looking for entertainment in church. They want to hear stories about Jesus, but stories that are exotic that will make the hair rise on the back of your neck, that that will that that that they're giving the responsibility of their spiritual experience to the man on the platform. The people in that congregation were looking to Judson to turn them on spiritually. Friend, again, I'll say it again, nobody can turn you on spiritually but you.

You're the only one that can do that. Look. Behold the lamb of God. There's the only message of the whole Bible. The only message of the whole Bible. The lamb of God, the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. The lamb of God, Jesus. Look what it says. He is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 2:2. Propitiation, isn't that a word? I never I never used that word only once in a while when I preach. Propitiation. Propitiation means when it says he is the propitiation of our sin, it means he is the one that have has appeased God's wrath.

Friend, don't you know that God is angry at sin, that God is going to judge sin, whether it's in me, you, or whoever it's in? We need to hear it. Our young people need to hear it. Parents need to hear it. We all need to know that Jesus is the propitiation. He has appeased the wrath of God. But that's not exciting. I don't want to hear things like that. But he has. He's turned the wrath of God into the favor of God. Friend, the whole world needs to hear that. You need to hear it. I need to hear it and I need to hear it over and over again until I take my last breath.

I know in whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Seeing Jesus. And it says he takes away our sins. Not only does does he forgive our sins, but he takes away our sins. Friend, every person, every living person, and as soon as that teenager becomes conscious of of his or her way to make a choice, that child will make a choice toward evil. Just as that child disobeys the parent, that child will disobey God. You've done it, I've done. We have all sinned.

We've all sinned and failed God. We need to hear this message over and over again and come to the Lord. He'll take away our sin. He'll take away the wrath of God and give us hope and give us love and give us life. You see, today the world is looking Listen to me. The world and even churches are looking for a bloodless Christianity, a Christianity without blood, a Christianity that teaches good morals, teaches us to respect one another and treat our neighbor as ourselves, talks about racism and how to overcome it, but never telling us how to overcome it through the blood of Jesus.

It's the blood. It's the blood. It's the blood. And without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins, no remission of sins. None. Where are the Christians coming to the table of the Lord, worshiping God, saving the Lord? I went to a church for years where we took communion every Sunday morning, but little did I know of what it meant. I went through a road ceremony but all thank God the day came. When did it come? Somewhere between 12 and 14. Just as I was entering in to that useful stage in life. Oh yes, I had the intelligence I was smart enough to hear and understand.

Believe me, I was intelligent enough by the grace of God to say yes to Jesus. And I went to that altar and I knelt and I prayed and I cried. The pastor came. It was just a little tiny church. Knelt beside me. It was my grandmother's church. And what a change came in my life. That was so many many years ago. And I've been a new person in Christ. Oh, I've had troubles. I've failed. I've slipped, but I've had a savior that is the propitiation. He's taken away the wrath of God and given to me the favor of God over and over and over again.

I wonder what my life would have been like if I didn't have turned to him at that young age and turned to the Lord. But I did by the grace of God. He takes away sin, the sin of the world. You see the last line, the sin of the world. All people. You see, God's no respecter of persons. I'm not here in this church. This does not exist to lift up a certain nationality, a certain race. This is a church without walls. We are the body of Christ. We are one in him. There's neither male nor female, bond nor free.

We belong to Jesus. We are to love one another. We are the family of God. We sing, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. Are you more concerned about being part of the family of God than being of a particular race? What is the most important to you and me today? It's Jesus. And he loves everybody equally. And we're not to lift up ourselves, our nationality, our race. We are to lift him up. He said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. This church is seeking with all of its heart to see Jesus and Jesus alone.

He's the salvation of our soul. Paul the apostle said, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning I'm not going to talk about anything else but the cross. I'm not going to lift up anything else but the cross. I'm not going to lift up anything that separates people from people. It's the cross. The cross. The one who went to the cross, died on the cross. Friend, are we Bible Christians? Are we a Bible church? Then we have to stand for what the Holy Spirit has us standing for. And that's Jesus.

Do you know him as your savior and Lord? Do you really Do you really do I really know him? Talking to myself. Many years ago, a young woman by the name of Charlotte Elliot wrote a great hymn called Just as I am. Just as I am. Charlotte at the age 30 was stricken with a terrible disease that left her bedfast for 50 years, the next 50 years. 50 years. She became so bitter, so outraged. Her life turned ugly and she was a very attractive girl up until the age 30. Everybody loved her. She was the life of every party.

Everybody wanted her whatever gathered. They wanted Charlotte there. But now Charlotte couldn't go anywhere. She was bedfast. And she remembered the good days, but she thought and called the good days. But now bedfast for 50 years? 50 oh? 50 years? And uh a minister decided he would go by her house, make an appointment, go by R and try to talk to her and help her. Her life was lost. Her life was ruined. And she was so bitter. And he talked to her and she she railed on that minister. She said, you tell me God loves me.

If God loves me, why did he do this to me? Yeah, go ahead and tell me about the love of God and now look at me. Look at me. But he kept talking. He didn't give up. He had prayed earnestly before going to that house. And after a while, she began to soften and she said, okay, pastor, you tell me what the cure is. And do you know what he told her? Basically what I told you this morning. There's a savior who is the propitiation of our sins, who turns the wrath of God into God's favor.

And then she after he went on and talked for a while, he said, she asked me. She said, well, he he mentioned to her. He said that God will accept you just as you are. In all your bitterness, hate, unforgiveness, anger against God, he will he will take it all away and take it out of your heart. There's nothing more miserable than an angry, unforgiving person. They're miserable from morning. They're miserable when they go to work. They're miserable when they come home because unforgiveness has conquered their lives. Jesus is the one that takes it all away.

Notice it said, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then Charlotte asked the minister. She said, well, what can I do? And she said this to him. Shall I come to the Lord? Here it is. Just as I am. And he said, yes, just as you are. Stop trying to figure it out. And friend, stop trying to make everything right. Get on your knees and say, Lord, I don't understand this about my marriage, about myself, why I think the thoughts I think, about my church. There's a lot of things you don't understand and I don't.

But I know that he understands me. He understands you. He forgives our sins and takes our sins away. Seeing Jesus. I hope you've seen Jesus today. I hope you seen when you come and take the wafer that you'll see his body broken. Take the fruit of the vine. You'll see his blood that you'll see something today. You'll see him differently than maybe you've seen him before.

Guest (Male): We pray that you were blessed by today's message. But before we go, here's an invitation for you to make an impact on reaching souls with God's word.

Pastor Jack Morris: 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 it 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 for the saving of souls and then the healing of lives, emotions, and bodies. God bless you, dear one, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Guest (Male): 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 the world in need. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.