The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: He loves you. He wants you to stop hurting. He wants you to be glad who you are. He wants you to know who he is. He wants you to experience his forgiveness and coming back.

Host: There are seasons when we pray, read God's word, and try to follow him faithfully, yet wonder if anything is really changing. But growth is often taking place long before we can see it. As we conclude our series, Growing in Grace, Pastor Jack Morris encourages us to trust the one who planted the seed, patiently receive his word, and allow God to complete the work he has begun with us. Here is the conclusion of Patience in the Process.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now, can you still say amen with me? Okay, stick with me just a little bit here. Look at point B. Point A, the word is planted. Now, point B, the word is growing. God planted the word, and the word now is growing. We are going to read verses 27 and 28. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself, the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

I don't know how it's growing, but it's growing. Here comes the farmer, number one in your outline. You write down the word farmer. The farmer needs patience in the process. It doesn't take long to sow the seed, so the farmer doesn't need a lot of patience in sowing the seed. That can be seen. That can be done rather quickly. On the other end, the harvesting, it doesn't take many days to harvest. The farmer can see that. But between sowing, the planting, and harvest, this waiting period is where I need the patience.

Lord, I'm growing. My plans are growing, but I need to wait. So, the farmer waits almost helplessly, looking up at the sun, thinking, "I hope it doesn't get too bright and burn up the crop." I hope the rains come. Then the rains come, and then he says, "I hope that we don't get too much rain because we do need a balance of rain and a balance of sun so that the seed in the ground will germinate." The miracle of life will happen, but the miracle of life, the germination, takes place out of sight.

Remember that little boy that goes up and measures himself? He didn't see when he grew, but he has grown a half inch. I love to drive down through these farms and I see the little stalk of corn. It seems like a day or two later I go by and I say, "Look at that corn and how fast it's coming up and how high it's come up in just a few days." No one saw it grow. It grew while the farmer was sleeping. It grew while the farmer was tilling and weeding. He didn't see it growing, but it's growing.

Some of you are growing, but some of you are not growing. All of you can grow depending on you preparing your hearts for the seed to come in so it will grow. If the seed gets in, I can guarantee it will grow. You have got to open up and let the seed come in.

Number two, the mother needs patience. Mothers, are you listening to me now? The mother needs patience. She's pregnant. How long does it take approximately to give birth? About nine months. That's a long time. Patience in the process. All of a sudden, I'm pregnant. She didn't know when she got pregnant. Sometimes she goes to the doctor and the doctor says, "Your problem, lady, is that you're pregnant."

So then she gets larger and the clothes don't fit. Patience in the process. Pretty soon the feet swell a little bit and it's hard to get the shoes on. Pretty soon she tries to get in the car, and especially try to get out of the car. How do I know all that? You wives can tell me. It takes a little bit of time, doesn't it? But then after the process, a beautiful child is born and the mother sees the child being born.

Back when Corrin and I had our children, we didn't know whether it was going to be a boy or whether it was going to be a girl. They tell me now you can find out. There are ways of finding out. We had to pick out a boy's name and pick out a girl's name. It's a boy! People just getting pregnant not long ago would say, "Oh, we're going to have a boy." How do you know you're going to have a boy? I don't even see you showing yet. You're going to have a little girl. But it's still whether it's going to be a boy or whether it's going to be a girl, it's going to be a process. Patience in the process.

Number three, write down the word "I" need patience in the process, or "we." You see what's happening, friends? God is forming Jesus in you. That's what's happened. And if you fail, it's because he's allowed you to see the failure that was already there. If you do demonstrate the character of Jesus, he already knew the character of Jesus was there and he allowed circumstances to come so that you could demonstrate the character of Jesus. When that is demonstrated, what he's doing is a little harvesting, just a little bit of harvesting to let you know what's growing in your heart.

If the wrong thing is growing there, confess it out. That's the only way to get out of it. You have got to confess it out and say, "Yeah, I may have been hurt. That man may be wrong, but I'm more wrong than he is because I'm allowing that to grow like a cancer inside me and soon to kill my life." God is forming Jesus. He wants me to love as Jesus loves, to be as patient as Jesus is patient. We're in the process of becoming the person that God wants us to be.

We're in the process time. The seed has already been sown. We have become a Christian. The full harvest isn't here yet. We're in the process. Be patient with yourself. Come to church, go to Sunday school, read your Bible, and have your devotions. Every time you get into the word, the seed is being sown. Let the Holy Spirit sow the seed, but you prepare your heart making sure the seed is actually sown.

It says in First Peter chapter two, like newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. Come on, grow up in your salvation. You're still letting things get you down, little things. You're too touchy. You wear your feelings on your sleeve. You're still remembering the past hurts and you're bringing the past into the present. Grow up in Christ. Desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

In Second Peter chapter three we read, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grow, baby, grow. That's what God is saying. We need the word of God in order to grow. Now, this is what the word grace means. I'm going to go back and pick up the etymology of this word. The word grace is not a Bible word in the original sense. The word grace is literally a pagan word that the Christians adopted and brought over into the Bible.

They went all the way back to Aristotle in Greek mythology and they found a word the closest that they could find that would describe what God did for them. Aristotle used this word in a heathen sense, simply meaning favor conferred freely with no expectation of return, its sole motivation being the bounty and free-heartedness of the giver. The Christians thought, "How can we describe our salvation? How can we describe the blessing of God?" They found this old Greek word, grace.

When Aristotle used it, he used it to describe what a person would do for a friend. You would give your friend a free gift without expecting anything in return, simply coming from your bounty free-heartedness. The Christian says, "We're going to add a definition to it because God no longer only gave his gift to his friends. Even while we were yet sinners and we were his enemies, Christ died for us."

God came with his gift when we were not his friends. So, the Greeks had a limited explanation and definition where the Christians took a great huge light-year leap ahead and said God doesn't only do great things for his friends, Jesus dies for his enemies, for sinners. On the cross he says, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that a marvelous gift that God has given us?

Our Christian life is a gift from God, 100 percent gift from God. God sowed the seed. Some of us weren't even really ready or expecting, mentally ready, but somehow the seed got through and it began to grow. We accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior. God did that. The seed is his, the sowing is his, the growing is his, and the harvesting is his. Only the preparing of our hearts is ours. Friend, you have great power to keep the seed out or to let the seed come in. You have that power to do that.

I think of that mother that's going to give birth to that little baby boy or that little baby girl. The time has come. The labor pains are there. The contractions begin and that little baby waits passively, not cooperating yet, not resisting. It's passive for the moment. And the mother begins to travail to bring that baby forth. She became pregnant. She built a little body out of sight. No one could see it. Only as she got larger, but nobody could see the little body inside. She couldn't see it, at least she couldn't see it.

And the baby's body was built, and now the baby must be born. The contractions begin. The mother begins to push the baby out into a new world, into a new environment. The baby is passive. There you can hear her sobs, you can hear her groans. She feels the pain. There is sweat, there is blood. The baby waits and the baby begins to move forward. Why is it moving forward? Not because it's moving forward, but everything is going on in the mother's body. It's the mother's body that's moving it forward 100 percent. The doctor waits. Push a little harder, try again. The mother groans and she sobs. There's more sweat, there's more blood. Finally, the baby is born out into the light of this new world.

Now, that's what God has done for us. We had nothing to do with your salvation. We were lost in darkness, doomed forever. But God, bountiful as he is and free-hearted as he is, gave us the greatest of all gifts, an eternal gift, the gift of his son on a hill called Calvary, a barren hill called Golgotha. You weren't there, but he knew you were coming.

Jesus begins to groan in the spirit. Can you hear his sighs and his moans? Do you see the blood and the sweat mingling coming down? What's going on? He's birthing a Christian. He's birthing the Christian church into the world. Not your sweat, not your blood, not your hell—all his. And you come forth a Christian all because of his bounty, all because of his free-heartedness, and all because of his gift of love. And here you are. What did you do to get saved? What did it cost you? Nothing. All you had to do was say, "Jesus, you died for me. You groaned for me. You bled for me. You sweat drops of blood for me. Oh, Jesus!"

All you need to do is receive. But the receiving, that's what you where you have to decide. You received him as Savior. Now you have to decide whether you're going to continue to receive his word and grow by his word. Now the mother takes that little baby. Have you ever seen a little baby at the mother's breast? Its little cheeks are going as it suckles. Do you know where it's looking? Look at its eyes. Where's the baby looking? Right into the mother's eyes, right? The mother looks into its eyes. That little baby just suckles away, looking, focusing upon the mother.

As it looks into the eyes of the mother, that little baby is looking into an eternity of love. That mother looks at that which she has done with the help of God. She and God together. And she looks and there's a bonding that begins to happen. Now, that's what's going on. You're a Christian. You're suckling this morning at the breast of the Almighty. You need to grow.

That's why it grieves me when we sing and when we're late, you just can't run into the Lord's table. You're at his table today. You're suckling, and I want you to look into his eyes. I want you to focus. You're looking upon the Lord. That little baby just focuses, just keeps suckling and keep looking right into its mother's eyes. It's bonding, it's growing. That baby may grow up and make all kinds of mistakes, but that will forever be that mother's baby.

John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, you've heard the story plenty of times. How that young man drifted from God, drifted from home, turned on his mother. He was gone for years. Every night that mother lit a candle, put it in the window of the house, and pulled the curtains back. Johnny might be coming home tonight. And she waited one year, five years, ten years, fifteen years—every night. You see, a mother's love never quits. That's what I'm trying to say. God's love is forever.

You may have made some mistakes. I'm going to ask you to come forward in just a little while and ask God to help you with those mistakes because he wants you to grow up. He wants you to look up into his eternal eyes of love. He wants to look down into your eternal soul because you have an eternal soul. He loves you, I don't care what you've done or where you've gone. He cares for you. He loves you with an everlasting love.

That's how much he loves you. He wants you to grow in him. He wants to help you. He sees why you have been stunted. Midget Christians, deformed, crippled Christians. Christians, yes, but so crippled in your faith, faith that you just haven't allowed the seed. If the seed gets through, it'll be because you've opened your heart and you've taken the grids away. How do you take the grids away? You confess them away. Christians need to confess their sins—sins of the past, sins that have bothered them, sins that have stunted their growth, sins that are keeping them from being all that God wants you to be.

You're here today because you're loved, and God loves you and wants to help you and wants to forgive you. That's what God did for Mark. Mark made a terrible mistake. His missionary life absolutely fell to pieces. But Peter the Apostle and Barnabas came back to him, put their arms around him, embraced him, and nurtured the seed in him. That's what I want to do today. I feel what I'm feeling right now. I think I'm feeling the emotion that God is feeling. I feel like I want to come out and put my arms around you and say, "Don't you know I love you? Don't I have to tell you that I miss you when you're not here?"

This sermon, I prepared it on my knees before God for you, and you didn't come to hear it. There was seed there. There was growth potential there. I yearn to see you and have you back. I think what I'm feeling is exactly what God's feeling today. God wants to put his arms around you and love you back into his kingdom.

Now, the scripture clearly tells us that God has a mother's heart. It says in Isaiah 66:3, as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. Then we turn over to the New Testament in First Thessalonians chapter two, the Apostle Paul said, with the comfort and gentleness of a mother, have I comforted you and nurtured you. Then he went on to say in the very two verses down, with the encouragement and the comfort and the guidance of a father, I have comforted you and encouraged you and guided you.

So, there it is: the mother heart of God, the father heart of God. He loves you. He wants you to stop hurting. He wants you to be glad who you are. He wants you to know who he is. He wants you to experience his forgiveness and coming back. The last verse in the outline is "the word is harvested." I've already covered that. The last verse is Philippians 1:26. We are confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. Shall we bow?

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us with a love that is so tender, so gentle, so encouraging. Come to us today and all who are here who have failed you, who are down on themselves, who don't like what they have done. They know they have failed you and they don't like that about themselves, and they're discouraged with themselves. Help them to know that you love them, that you care for them, that you will put your motherly, fatherly arms about them, for you love them with an eternal love. Lord, help us today to grow up in Christ, to mature in Christ. God, we want to prepare the soil of our hearts for the receiving of the word that we might mature in Jesus. In his name, amen.

Host: God is still working in you. The seed is his, the growth is his, and the grace that sustains us is his. Our part is to keep our hearts open to receive his word and patiently allow him to form the character of Christ within us. If this series has helped you grow in grace, we hope you'll continue the journey with us at thehealingword.com.

There you'll find more teaching from Pastor Jack Morris, devotionals to encourage your faith, and a place to share what's on your heart with our prayer team. The Healing Word exists to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ, and we could not do it without faithful partners who pray, give, and share these messages with others. If the Lord leads you, we invite you to become part of this ministry through your financial support. And wherever you may be in your journey today, remember this promise: the God who began the work has not abandoned the process. Keep listening, keep receiving his word, and keep growing in his grace. Thank you for joining us on The Healing Word.