The Healing Word

Guest (Male): Read the word of God. Hear it taught. Hear it preached. Become equipped spiritually, mentally, because you will end up being blessed physically in the end. God cares. God loves you.

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: Never forgotten. Sometimes, I suppose we feel like God has forgotten us, but he never has forgotten us. Never has God forgotten us. Wherever we are today in our spiritual walk with the Lord, we're not forgotten.

I think it was this past summer. I was visiting in Pennsylvania, my home area. Every two or three years, I drive back up and go to my father's grave and visit my two cousins that are still living in that area.

One of my cousins, Ronnie Morris, has a nice family. I was told before I went out to visit his home that Ronnie was ill, that he'd lost a lot of weight, and that I was going to literally be shocked when I saw him. Ronnie is younger than I am. We grew up together, played together, went to school together.

I wouldn't have recognized him when I walked up into the yard if he hadn't been standing outside in the yard. If I had seen him on the street, I wouldn't have known him. I suppose when I saw him, my reaction was, "Does he recognize me?" because I didn't hardly recognize him. I asked him, "Ronnie, do you remember me?" He smiled real big and said, "How could I forget you?"

God will never forget us. We may forget one another and be absent-minded in certain areas of our life, but God will never forget us. He never will. He is with us always. He remembers us.

Last week, the sermon title was, "God Gives Help for the Troubled Heart." There were a number of you who stood on your feet and you prayed. You took your troubles to the Lord. Some of you didn't stand, but that was okay. You were still taking your troubles to the Lord.

God knows about us. He knows about our problems. He knows about our troubles. Friend, if you don't remember anything else from this sermon this morning, remember this: All that concerns you concerns him.

I wish I could get that across to myself and to you, that everything that concerns you—what is it that's concerning you today? Everybody has some concerns, but whatever it is that concerns you concerns God.

The scripture says, and we read the very same passage, John chapter 14 verses 1 through 4, again this morning that we read last Sunday. But it's that first sentence. Do you see the first sentence? Read that with me: "Do not let your hearts be troubled."

Why would Jesus say that to the 12 disciples? We think of them as saints, and they were, but they were not perfect and they had troubles. If they had troubles, we have troubles, too. Friend, trouble is going to find you. Trouble will hunt you down and attack you. You cannot flee and hide from trouble. Someone says, "Well, I need to move to another city or another state. I need to whatever," but trouble finds us. It hunts us down. It attacks us.

Notice that: "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Now, he's putting the onus on us. He says, "You don't you let." Don't pray to me and say, "Heavenly Father, don't let trouble find me." No, Jesus turned that thing around and he said, "That's not my responsibility as a Christian. That's your responsibility. Don't you let your heart be troubled."

How about that? Now, we're to take our troubles to the Lord. That's one way to insulate our hearts against trouble, to keep trouble at bay, to keep trouble from getting on the inside. Once it gets on the inside, it will destroy your joy, your happiness. It will cause stress, and the stress, in turn, will affect you physically.

The Lord is telling you, you have a responsibility. You have the Bible. You have a church. You have Christian fellowship. Come on, get involved. Don't let trouble find you. Do not let your hearts be troubled—your hearts, your mind, your thinking, your intellect, your planning for the future. That's your heart.

Trouble. There's so much sorrow. I think of the trouble that is going on in Florida today, the trouble that is going on in America, the trouble that is going on in our government. There's threats of financial shutdown. I mean, there's just trouble, trouble. People are sick. People are hurting. Families are breaking up. There's trouble at home. There's trouble at work.

Thank God we can come to church. This is an oasis. There ought to be at least one person, one place where there's no trouble. We can come into this place and find peace and find rest. And we do. I know I do. I look forward to coming here, shaking your hands, hugging you. You impart strength to me.

So, he's saying, "Don't let your hearts be troubled." There's some things, a whole lot of things that I can do, that you can do, to keep trouble at bay. Zechariah chapter 2 verse 8 says, "He that touches you touches the apple of my eye." The apple is the pupil, the most sensitive part of our anatomy. That's how important you are to God.

To remember how much you are cared for and how much you are loved. When the enemy comes and trouble comes and it touches you, it also touches him because everything that concerns you also concerns him.

Isaiah chapter 43 verse 4 says you are precious in his sight. I hope this is getting through to you. We prayed just a moment ago that the Holy Spirit would breathe the word of God again as he breathed it in the beginning. Friend, are you hearing what the word is saying today?

Trouble. Now, God turns trouble into blessings. He has miracle-working power. He turned water into wine. He turned ashes into beauty. Listen to this. Isaiah 61 verse 3: "And provide for those who grieve in Zion." Now, notice this is a promise. God is going to provide for those who are in Christ, in the family of God.

"And provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the garment of praise." These are the things that God is giving: gladness, praise, celebration. The enemy, the world, the family, the job giving trouble, trouble, trouble, but God comes, the Prince of Peace, and he gives peace.

During times of trouble, we grow in the Lord, and we grow in character, and we grow in maturity. If trouble doesn't come, we are very surface all our lives. We live on the surface of living. We never really grow in the Lord. We never really mature in God.

We live in a culture that is skin deep. Did you know that? Everything is about appearance and how it looks. What we call beauty, we project it. Someone wrote this: "Our culture glorifies clothing, fashion, makeup, tummy tucks, nose jobs." We live on a very surface world, a skin deep world.

We live in a world that is so cosmetic conscious. But we also live in a world of difficulty and trouble. If we receive it as God would have us to receive it, we're going to grow in his grace and develop in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Yes, don't let your heart be troubled. Trust in the Lord.

Loneliness comes. I suppose everybody has experienced loneliness sometime or another. Loneliness can be very, very troublesome. But when I think of being lonely, and when I do feel lonely, and when loneliness does come, I think of that scripture: "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you."

Never. Never is a long time, is it not? Now, that's what he's talking about when he says, "Let not your heart be troubled." I need to go back to the scripture. I need to know it enough to be able to quote it back to him, to be reminded, to be blessed, and to be helped.

When sorrow and sadness come, I think of the scripture: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow." Yes, we walk through those dark, shadowy places, but thou art with me. Did you hear what it just said? "Thou art with me" in the sorrow, in the shadow.

Financial concerns. Why do we hesitate to take our problems to him? Why do we try to get it all fixed ourselves? But we don't get it fixed, and the problem remains. Do I need to stand in the pulpit and tell you again that the Bible is alive with the spirit of the Lord? That Jesus is here to bless and to help? That you have a savior who cares for you and loves you?

Friend, listen to me. Whatever concerns you concerns him, and he cares for you and he loves you so very much. God has not forgotten you. Let me turn back here to the scripture that was read just a moment ago. Isaiah chapter 49. Here's a question. You answer it in your mind, in your heart: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?" Can she do that?

Then he becomes very realistic and he says, "Though she may forget, I will not forget you. I will not forget you. I will not forget you." Hey, put your hand over your heart and say, "God will not forget me. God will take care of me. God's concerned about me."

You spoke biblical truths just now. A lot of years ago, when I first started this church, I was a young pastor and it was back at that time a mother came to me. I never saw her before, never saw her again.

She was weeping. She had had two abortions before giving her heart to the Lord, and she was weeping because she'd had those abortions so many years ago. Now she's a Christian and she thinks of those two little girls that she aborted. She wondered, "Would God take care of me? Would God forgive me?"

I told her, "Yes, God has already forgiven you. God loves you. He cares for you." Now, I'm not sure whether I was right or whether I was wrong or I can't explain what I'm going to tell you now, but I said to her, "There were two little girls. The first one was 16 years ago you aborted the first one. 15 years ago you aborted the second one." I said, "How old would those little girls be today?" She said, "Well, they'd be 16, the other one would be 15."

I said, "You have two little daughters in heaven waiting for you." You see, life begins at conception. I do believe, according to the Bible, that all babies go to heaven because there's no sin there. Do they stay a baby all through eternity? That's hard to conceive.

Then the question is, do we grow up? I'm not sure how it's going to be. But somehow I felt that those girls are teenagers in heaven, and I told her, "You have two little girls in heaven who love you. They're waiting for their mother to come to heaven. You tried to forget them, but you can't forget them. You're remembering them now, the keenness of memory is so strong, but they remember you."

I said, "When you get to heaven, there's going to be two little girls. They're going to love their mother. They're going to hug their mother." She was crying. She said, "But have they forgiven me?" I said, "Oh yes, they've forgiven you and they're waiting on you to get to heaven."

Now look at this: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you." Listen, if that mother could remember, don't you think God could remember you? Listen to what his word says. God paid a lot of money for you. Do you know that?

The money he paid was the blood of his son. When you pay a lot of money for something, that becomes precious to you and you take care of what you paid a lot of money for, right? So, God paid a tremendous price for you. Do you think he's going to leave you with your heartbreak and your trouble and all the difficulty that is going on in your life? Absolutely not.

For emphasis, he goes on to verse 16 and he says, "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." The very hands of Jesus with nail scars on them has your name written across. I told you years ago and I've told you repeatedly, and I cannot forget, right when I was coming here to start this church, there's no guarantees. No guarantees at all.

I had no money, Fran and I, and we had two children. No guarantees. We never received an offering from another church or a congregation or a foundation. This church was built only and fully and completely when we passed the offering plates on Sunday morning. You made it happen.

But I remember talking to Pastor Blair, who is in heaven now, and he told me, "Jack, God is closer to you than your hands and your feet." On the hands that were scarred at Calvary, the Bible says your name is written, engraved there. You are not, you cannot be forgotten by God. You cannot. Can you say, "Praise the Lord"?

You are loved. How much you are loved? I don't know how much God loves me. I know he loves me with a great love. I try to comprehend it, but I can't. It's too great. I only know that I'm loved, greatly loved. God loves us all equally.

This is what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. Everything that God has done, he did it with you in mind. There isn't a thing that he did that he didn't have you in mind. When he created the heaven and the earth, and he started creating light and dark, separating light and darkness, dry land and the sea, and vegetation and animal life, he was preparing, getting it ready.

Everything, everything God has done, he did it with you and me in mind. When Jesus was lashed with the whip, with the 39 lashes, he was able to keep his mouth shut like a lamb to the slaughter and a sheep before her shearers is dumb. He opened not his mouth because he had you in mind.

When he carried that cross up Golgotha, he carried it. He fell beneath it, but he kept going. He kept going because he had you in mind. The memory, the thoughts of you gave him the strength to keep going.

When they put the nails in his hands, the nails that made the marks that he'll carry for all eternity, he was able to keep his mouth shut and maintain it. Friend, we're so quick to open our mouth at something that we don't like or offends us in the least. We feel that we just have to say something.

When Jesus was on that cross suspended, and the people on the ground taunted him, they said, "If you're the Christ, come down from the cross." What kept him on that cross? What held him there? You did. Thoughts of you, engraving your name across that nail-scarred hand.

Now, with our heads bowed, sometimes it and very often is so important to have somebody to hold our hand, to have a brother or sister there with us. It strengthens us. They can relieve some of that pressure just by their touch. When they touch you, it's the hand of God touching you.

So, we're going to take just a moment. We're going to invite you to slip out of your seat now and come up. There's five prayer counselors here. Friend, come and receive your miracle. Come and receive your miracle. Let a saint of God touch a saint of God.

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: Have you ever asked God, "Why?" Why this sickness? Why this divorce, this disappointment? Why these troubles and problems? Why, God?

Friend, I've just completed an ebook entitled *From Asking Why God to Trusting Him*. It's a faith journey. I'll be glad to send it to you free of charge simply for asking. Some of the life situations addressed in the ebook are God's timing in answering prayer, a journey of faith through suffering, reasons for unanswered prayer, and more.

For your free copy, go to thehealingword.com and sign up. That's thehealingword.com, and I'll send you a free copy of *From Asking Why God to Trusting Him*. I'm Pastor Jack Morris.

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