The Healing Word

Guest (Male): The Healing Word ministry on one place is brought to you by the generous donations of people like 3 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's message, embracing things you do not want to embrace, accepting things you cannot change. How do you do that? Friend, that's how we live in this world and we're going to find out from God how to receive the strength, the insight, the wisdom, the enlightenment to live in a world that is so contradictory and God's going to help us and and bless us.

Guest (Male): 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: Questions for God. How do you respond to circumstances you can't change? Or how do you respond when you ask God hard questions, big questions, and you do not get a clear answer? How do you respond to that? Now, the book of Habakkuk is just a small little book, only three chapters, but it gives us some insight and enlightenment to how to respond in those situations. The word or the name Habakkuk simply means to embrace. There are things in life that I confess I have a difficult time embracing it. But God is a God who loves, who answers prayer, who is faithful.

Today's message, embracing things you do not want to embrace, accepting things you cannot change. How do you do that? Friend, that's how we live in this world and we're going to find out from God how to receive the strength, the insight, the wisdom, the enlightenment to live in a world that is so contradictory and God's going to help us and and bless us. Now, I'm going to turn to the first chapter of Habakkuk. If you have your Bible, you like to turn over and we're going to see how this man starts out so low, so dejected, so mixed up and confused charging and accusing God, and then we're going to follow him over to the third chapter and watch the transformation of grace that takes place in his life.

Look how how he starts out. Chapter one, verse two. How long, oh Lord, must I call for help and you do not answer? You do not listen to me. Boy, that's just telling it like it he thought it was. How long am I going to have to pray and ask and you do not listen? Or notice what he goes on to say, or how long must I cry out to you? Violence, destruction bad things happening everywhere, violence, but you don't save. How long am I going to have to do this? I thought I was supposed to come to you and bring these leads and petitions and situations.

But God, nothing's happening. God, are you there? I 'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but have you ever felt that way? God, are you there? Here's here's what this man was up against. Josiah, the good king, was killed. Jhoiakim, the bad king, was made king. And basically, in just today's parlance, Hezekiah was saying, come on, God. How come the good guy is killed in battle and the bad guy is elevated to being king? God, I can't put it together. Where are you? What's going on? Now, then he goes a little further.

Not only has he been confused by these circumstances, the the good uh being subjected and the bad being prospered does make any sense. God works in strange ways and then he goes on to say, there's a world of injustice all around us. There's pain, there's suffering, there's tragedy. God, why don't you do something? Have has anybody ever said to that said like that? Why are there wars? Why doesn't God stop all of this? Friend, let me tell you something. God didn't start it. God never started it. So, all right, here's here's some questions for God.

I want to ask you a question and you you answer it and you think with me as I go through this. Is it wrong to ask questions of God? Does that reveal a lack of faith when you question God and ask questions? Well, if you read the Bible, you'll find that there's a lot of people in the Bible who ask God a lot of questions and I'm just going to run through some of them very quickly. Let's go back to our father Abraham. He asked God the question, God, I'm a man 100 years old and I'm going to be a new daddy?

My wife is 90 years old and she's going to be a mama and mother? And he's asking God some questions about this. Job asked the question, God, your hands have made me and now I'm going to die and you turn me back to dust. What's going on? Why did you make me to kill me? Why did you give me life and now you're going to take it? Why did you give me a body and now you're going to turn it back to dust? God, a little paradoxical. Jeremiah, here's a man I really I really have sympathy for him.

He was ridiculed by a priest. He was denounced by his family. He was rejected by his friends and then there were a whole lot of prophets like himself who laughed at him and contradicted him. Now, listen, friend, when your church, your family, your peers is there anybody left that I leave out any group, any person at all? I mean, when they all reject you, this dear man prayed to God, why was I even born? That's pretty low, isn't it? Some of God's people have fought some hard battles and friend, some of you are going to go through some time.

Some of you are going through some hard times right now and you're wondering, where is God? It does it seem like sometimes you pray and it seems like God's got his hands in his pocket. Nothing's happening. Is it wrong now to ask questions? How about the disciples when they were in a storm and Jesus was at the hinder part of the boat asleep and they went back and they shook him and woke him up and say, don't you care that we perish? I mean, they acted a little bit agitated with him at that moment. They went back there and woke God up.

One man was going through a very difficult time and he asked me the question. I went to his home and had prayer with him and he said, when is God going to wake up? I need help. I'm in desperate straits at the moment. And then the last question is the question of all questions asked by the Lord Jesus Christ himself when he on the cross turned his eyes toward heaven and he prays, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, I may not understand all the implications of that question that he was asking.

But this I do know, it was not a question that lacked faith or revealed the lack of faith because it was only just a short time later he cries out his last words, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Now, how about your questions? Let's let's deal with some of your questions right now. The struggles that are going on in your life that are are raising questions in your mind. But you're here. You're still serving God. I see faith. You wouldn't be here if you didn't have faith, but you still have questions. You you questioned, you prayed.

The situation hasn't changed. It's not changing and all of a sudden now it seems like it's never going to change. Why did God let this happen? Why didn't God stop this? I've lived a good life. I've been a good woman. I've been a good man. I've attended church. You know, why did this happen? I think of a person, a family. They prayed that the lady, the wife, the mother would get pregnant. She got pregnant. Oh, they were so happy. She has a miscarriage. God, you answered prayer only to take it away. Or the the family that had a baby and the baby died.

I think of my wife, a a twin and uh one baby dies and Karen lives. You know, there are things that go on. You you just can't fathom some things or figure them out or why the answers to these situations or the lady and her husband who came to my office some years ago has been so long ago I I don't hesitate to tell you now because I don't think anybody remembers them. Uh they wanted this little baby girl and the doctor said it's going to be a girl and all they were so happy and the baby was born with Down syndrome.

The mother being a new Christian and I tried my best to help her and to help her husband and they came to my office and we were over there in that little building and uh she had started drinking and she came to my office and she was the liquor was there she didn't know how to cope. I mean, how do you cope with situations like that? And I don't condemn her. I pray for her. I haven't seen this couple for so many years, but I mean, some people have gone through some hard times, confusing times, times that they can't even uh address.

They don't know how to address it. Where is God?

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Pastor Jack Morris: One day I I walked out into my outer office here and there was a lady seated there and I knew she was coming. She had called made an appointment, but I walked out and I shook hands. I introduced myself. I'm Pastor Jack Morris and little grin came on her face and she said, you don't know me, do you? I said, no ma'am, I don't know you, but uh apparently I should know you. You think I should know you. Come to find out this lady as when she was just a a young girl played the piano in a church that I pastored before I came here to Largo Community Church.

She fell in love with a a fella uh in a church not too far from where we are right now. I knew the pastor very well. Both churches were in the same denomination. We had the same beliefs and and uh so they're going to get married and that pastor and myself and I've brought my member and he brought his member and we cooperated in in the ceremony and it was a beautiful marriage. This fellow she married was was a just a great guy. Well, they had vacation time and they went up to Ocean City and while they were there on the beach, he went out into the water.

There were people with their umbrellas all up and down the beach and something happened, a rip tide or undercurrent, I don't know what you call it, caught him, pulled him down. They dragged him up onto the beach the uh he turned blue. He died. And here she is with these little babies. Uh she's sitting there wanting me to answer the question, why? How do you deal with life situations like that? Friend, how are you dealing with what you're going through today? I'm going to talk to you about that in just a moment. God comes with such healing love and he heals us back to spiritual healing.

God will do this. Life is crude and life is difficult and there are no guarantees. The only guarantee we have is that there's a savior who loves us, who will keep us, who will never leave us nor forsake us. Our spouse may leave us nor forsake us. Our children may leave us nor forsake us. Our spouse and children may die. Uh uh this life is filled with one loss after another loss. But there is one that will never leave you nor forsake you and will help you. Now, God never intended it to be this way.

He never intended you and me to suffer like we have suffered. That's why he sent Jesus down here to go through some of the sufferings and and perils of life so that he can know and understand and sympathize. For they all forsook him and fled even his mother and brothers came and knocked at the door and tried to get him to come home because they thought maybe he was deranged, misunderstood, rejected, crucified. Friend, he knows where you are today. He knows where you are. He knows what you're going through. He knows what you're experiencing. Struggles.

We're forced to deal with situations that we can't deal with. But let me tell you something. It's those struggles that have forged you and me into the people we are today. Friend, listen to me. In the name of the Lord, listen to me. That trouble is there. It it may go away. You cannot go back and change anything. God doesn't even rewrite history. It's forever done. But you have a God who loves you. We need to say thank you for loving me. Would you say that thank you for loving me, Lord? You have a God who is with you.

Say it with me. Thank you for being with me, Lord. You have a God who will never leave you nor forsake you. Thank you, God, for never leaving me nor forsaking me. Come on, say it. Have you said that in private anytime? Have you prayed that in private at anytime? Friend, you can't be a person of a of an unchrist-like disposition and pray those kind of prayers. Out of the same mouth does not come sweet water and bitter water. Someone you're judging me. No, the Bible is judging you and you have condemned yourself. It's not your questions that show lack of faith in God.

It's your lack of believing and praying and trusting and giving thanks and praising him. That's your lack of faith in God. Your present situation, God will help you. He will deliver you. He'll bring you through. He's a God who cares. So, what are we to do when life crushes us? What do we do when life spins out of control? What do we do when there's nothing left and we've experienced a disappointment we thought we would never experienced? We couldn't imagine going through. And yet we're going through it. Well, number one, the just will live by faith.

Say those words. The just will live by faith. In Habakkuk two, four, Habakkuk says the righteous will live by faith. That means those people who are right with God will trust God, will walk with God because they know God is walking with them. The righteous will live by faith. Now, the apostle Paul picked up on those same words in the New Testament in Romans one and in Hebrews 12 10, he said, the righteous will live by faith. The righteous will do that. They will live by faith. They will trust. They will follow. They will keep on believing even when they do not understand.

They will keep on trusting the Lord with their faith and focus on him. Jude. Jude 24, listen to these words. He says, to him who is able to keep you from falling. Friend, that trial, that difficulty, it'll cause you to stumble. You may be about ready to fall all over yourself, but listen, listen to me. Listen not on don't to listen to me. You you got your eyes too much on the pastor, on the instrument. Listen to the word of God. Listen to it. Okay, I want you to look up here and read these words.

Rejoice in the Lord. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will I will rejoice in the Lord. I will rejoice in the Lord. Say those three words in the Lord. Say it again, in the Lord. Say it again in the Lord. It's in the Lord. It's in the Lord. Remember, Peter began to sink on the water when he was walking with the Lord Jesus, when he got his eyes off of the Lord. But it's in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Yet I will rejoice. The true blessing is not the gifts that God gives.

Yes, we are to thank God and receive those gifts, but the true blessing is him. It's him. Friend, you can look at the circumstances. You can look at the impossible situations, but I want you today to look at him who makes all things possible, who blesses, who helps, who heals. You might not be able to straighten anything else. That husband that went away and married that woman and had those children, he's gone. He's never going to come back. That woman that had that miscarriage, that other lady that lost that baby, things happen. They're gone forever.

And we're sorry. We sympathize. We we are to weep with those who weep and we are to rejoice with those who rejoice and we we do that. But there's only one who gives ultimate rejoicing, only one and that is Jesus. Oh, I've heard people say, you know, my church failed me. Friend, your church is just human. Your church is just people. How somebody is that he failed me. People are people. Come on, let's love. Let's forgive. Hey, didn't you fail him? Did you hear what I just said? You mean you've been perfect? You've never done one thing that displeased God or failed God?

Now, God would pout and sock over you forever? No, he loves you too much. He forgives you. If you had the spirit of God and I had the spirit of God, we would do the same thing. We'd love, we'd forgive, and that love would bring back a spiritual healing. That love would do that. Love covers a multitude of sins. I will thank him for the blessings he bestows, but I will rejoice in him. Now, notice I just said two things. Did you catch it? I will thank him for the blessings he bestows, but my rejoicing is in him.

I'm not going to rejoice because everything is right in my life because it it usually never is. Not rejoice because I got a new house or new car or new wife or new husband. I don't rejoice over those things. I give thanks over those things, but I rejoice in him. He's the source. He's the one that never changes. He's our God forever. This is listen to what what this man says. I go back to chapter one, verse two. Here's how he starts out. This is about where we all start out. He starts out he's saying, God, there are no figs to eat.

There are no grapes to juice to drink. There's no oil in the cruse. There are no sheep in the pen. God, what are we to do? Well, listen. This is what he says. Are you there? Are you listening? There is nothing to eat, God. No figs, no grapes, no sheep, no oil. And then he goes on to say, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Now, he says this on one end. Here's my problem. Here's my difficulty. Here's the starvation that is going on. But three chapters later, he says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

Then he says, Lord, there there's violence. There's destruction. There's problems. I think if you were living today, he'd say there's war. There's bloodshed. There's racism. There's prejudice. But then over here he says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Can you say amen? He says there is strife. There is hate. There is ill will. Friend, I'm quoting from Habakkuk chapter one, verse two. And then I go over here and I quote from Habakkuk chapter three verse 18. So, you see the change. You see the healing. You see the difference. Friend, when you look to God, God makes a difference.

And let me ask you, where was Habakkuk the happiest? Over here when he was complaining, when he was saying, God? Aren't you listening? God, do you have your hands in your park pocket? Don't you see what's going on in my family? Don't you see what's going on in the nation? Don't you see all of this destruction and strife and starvation? Was he happier over there? Three chapters later, he's over here saying, yet yet I will rejoice in the Lord. It's in the Lord.

Guest (Male): 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. I also invite you to check out all the ministry resources available for you at thehealingword.com. There you can search and listen to messages that match your need and send your prayer request directly to the pastor and he will pray for you and return an encouraging note.

You'll find all these gifts waiting for you at thehealingword.com. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.