The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Tell me the story again. Tell me about Gethsemane. Tell me about Calvary. Tell me about the resurrection. Tell me about it. I want to hear it again. It's ever new, it thrills my soul. All that thrills my soul is Jesus.

Guest (Male): Problems in this life are unavoidable and seem to keep coming. But there is a way we can rejoice amidst the worst situations. And Pastor Jack Morris will take us to God's word today to discover how you can be an overcomer with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: Problems and rejoicing. Problems, that's the stuff life is made of. Problems. I want to tell you about a minister that I met and he tells the story of himself and his family after church on a particular Sunday. They went home and they were having dinner and while they were eating, his teenage son spoke up and he said, "Dad, I enjoyed your sermons, plural, sermons this morning."

And the dad looked at him and he said, "Sermons plural? What are you talking about?" He said, "Well, I enjoyed the sermon you prepared and preached. And then when you got to the near the end, to the conclusion, you said, 'And now for the conclusion,' and you went on and preached another sermon. I enjoyed both of them." He said that they all had a big laugh.

This was a very popular preacher. He's in heaven now, but I'm thankful that I had the privilege of meeting him. He preached at conferences all over the world when he was alive. He said that his wife's name, Mary Jane, every time he would get ready to go and preach at some conference, Mary Jane would say to him, "Now John, when you get to the end of the sermon and say 'and now for the conclusion,' conclude."

I hope I don't preach another sermon when I get to the conclusion today or any other time. But I want you to look at the title again. It's a strange title, to say the least: Problems and Rejoicing. But the Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit, who loves the word of God, the beautiful words, the wonderful words, the wonderful words of life, that person can rejoice even in the midst of problems.

The scripture starts this way: Philippians chapter three, verse one, the very first word. What is it? Finally. That's an interesting word. Now Paul is not concluding the book of Philippians. He's already gone through two chapters and he has two more chapters to go. There are four chapters in the book of Philippians and he's not going to take half of that book in order to conclude. So that word "finally" does not mean conclusion.

He's not going to preach another sermon. He is basically shifting gears to another subject. He has written 13 books of the New Testament. We have them today. We are blessed by them, encouraged, strengthened. We have overcoming joy all because this man yielded to the Lord and the Holy Spirit spoke through him. Paul started writing scriptures in AD 48 and he wrote them to AD 64.

I believe that's about 16 years. Now he spent a lot of time in prison, but prison didn't win the battle. The Holy Spirit gave us the word of God and we are still rejoicing in it and strengthened by it. We love it. The word of God loves us. God loves us and he comes to us through his word and empowers us by his spirit. So when he used the word "finally," this is exactly what he meant: as for the rest of my letter.

He's only halfway through, but now he has something so very important. The first two chapters were very important. The whole word of God is, but he has something very important and he needs to write it to them. He's in prison in Rome. His little church in Philippi is hundreds of miles away suffering, experiencing problems. And over and over again in these chapters, he says, "Joy, joy, rejoice, rejoice." Repeatedly he talks about it to that little church.

That was his very favorite church. He was the founder. He planted it. It was his child and he heard that they were suffering. No parent likes their child to suffer, so he writes to them since he couldn't go. He was in prison. It was a time of transition, a time of shifting gears, a time of bringing the word of God to them that would bless them. Now Paul had written many other letters to that church. We don't have them. They're gone.

But everything he wrote to them is in the book of Philippians, these four chapters. So we're going to look at them very seriously because they're there for us to look at them seriously. Only will we get the blessing of God if we are seriously intent and intentional about being in the house of God, intentional about being a child of God, intentional about receiving the word of God. You come in very reverently. Some of you get here early and you pray and you wait on God.

You get your heart ready. You're very intentional about the word of God. God's going to use you this week. Now problems are going to come and you better get intentional because only the word of God is going to help you and me in these times of difficulty and problems when they come. And they are going to come. Now look at it. "Finally," meaning as for the rest of my letter. What does he say here? Look. "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord."

That's the only way you're going to rejoice, in the Lord. Now he's going to deal with some of the most serious problems, problems that are coming in from the outside. They had some internal problems, but nothing compared to what was coming in from the outside. There were Judaizers trying to disrupt that church and Paul was writing to them to give them the holy word of God to bless them, to help them, to strengthen them, and to cause them to rejoice. Rejoice. Keep on rejoicing. And again I say unto you in the next chapter, rejoice.

We can start talking problems. We can hear about something and it will lodge in our mind like a seed that has been planted. Pretty soon we find ourselves involved in talking about that problem. And Paul says, "Come on, come on, you can talk about the problem and rejoice. And if you don't rejoice, you're not going to have strength to fight the problem and to overcome the problem."

Either you have a problem right now or you are just now coming out of a problem or you are about to go into a problem. But problems are going to keep coming. You have the word of God and you need to make sure it keeps coming because you'll win every time when you trust the Lord and believe his word. Thank God we can rejoice and celebrate Jesus even in the midst of sickness and pain.

I'll just talk about myself, but I'm talking about you, too. I was in and you were, too, in Jesus at Calvary. When he was nailed to the cross at Calvary, he had already absorbed me into himself and there being nailed, that was me being nailed. That was you being nailed. Your sins were nailed to the cross. They were left there. He went into an open tomb and he came out the third day victorious because the sin had been killed, your sin, not his.

My sin was absorbed into Jesus. I was in Christ when he was nailed to that cross. Although I was born 2,000 years later, yet all the sins of all the world and he knew I was coming, knew you were coming, and he took us unto himself. For God so loved the world. That didn't mean just the world 2,000 years ago, but that's the world today. Everyone that confesses and believes on him and desires him, receives him, and is absorbed into him.

We are baptized, the scripture says, into the body of Christ. It happened spiritually and then the pastor takes the person, the candidate, standing in water and down they go. The water covers them. They're out of sight. The water absorbs them. That's what happened. You were absorbed into Jesus. He has you in his heart. He's not far from any of us. Matter of fact, he's closer.

Years ago when I was going through a difficult time thinking how we're going to establish the Largo Community Church, we didn't have people, we didn't have money, we didn't have a place, we didn't have a hymnal. I called Pastor Blair. I've told this story over and over, but I can't help it. That's me. That's what I went through. Thank you for your patience. It was dark on the outside, a little lamp by my bedside. I called him in Denver.

I told him where I was. I said, "I want to start a church without walls. I don't want to be catering to any race or any denomination, just Jesus, just Jesus, only Jesus, a church without walls." He wrote the endorsement of my little history book of the Largo Community Church that I wrote many years ago. He said, "The only thing I can remember that night was Pastor Morris saying, 'A church without walls, a church without walls.'"

He said that's all he could remember. That's what I desired. I know that's what you desire also. I really truly believe it. Jesus doesn't have walls. Come unto me all ye that labor. I'll give you rest. I'll give you peace. You will rejoice. That's the outcome. I was in Christ. Now let me read just a little bit more. "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord." That's the only way you're going to rejoice, in the Lord.

Now here's the part I want to give to you. "It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you." To write the same things to you again. What is he referring to? He's referring to those letters that he wrote for part of that 13-year period to the people. We don't have them today, but we have the book of Philippians that contains the solid message of all of those little letters that he wrote to them years ago.

But he's writing to them again. Now he's writing to them again for a purpose. He knows there's problems out there. These are his spiritual children. They're going through a very difficult time. 16 years he's been writing. Repetition, this is what Paul is doing. He's repeating himself. I do that sometimes. I'll repeat myself. I think maybe we all do. Maybe I do it a little bit more now than before. I don't know.

But Paul is repeating himself to the Philippians. He's telling them the old, old story again and again. Paul was a good teacher, an excellent teacher, a brilliant man who committed his brilliancy to the Lord. He gave God his mind, his heart, his thoughts, his all. Now he's repeating. Any good teacher, and I know we have some teachers here today, you know the value of repetition. If you tried to memorize a scripture, you have to repeat it and repeat it.

At least I do. I don't get it the first time out to memorize it. Paul was repeating to them what he had given to them. He said, "It's no trouble for me to give you this again." The world loves novelty. The world loves something new. The world is always trying to invent, and it does invent new things all the time. How about John 3:16? I know that by heart. Do I need to hear another sermon on John 3:16? Do it in a new way that would capture my attention. Novelty.

Paul is writing and he's saying to them, "It's no trouble for me to write the same things." On Christ the solid rock I stand. There I have security and perpetuity. I'm in Christ and Christ is in me. On Christ I stand. I'm in Jesus. Tell me the story. Tell me that God loves me. Pastor, I've heard you say it for years that God loves me. Why do you keep saying it? Because I want you to know it. I hope you love hearing it. I love hearing it. You tell me that God loves me.

Say it again. I want to hear it again. There's not a whole lot of love out there. My God, my God, let there be love in here, in his church and around the world wherever his church is. "I will build my church." God is love. That's what John says in his book, First John. God is love. And where there is love, you'll find God. You'll find strength. You'll find rejoicing. You'll find hope.

Tell me the story again. Tell me about Gethsemane. Tell me about Calvary. Tell me about the resurrection. Tell me about it. I want to hear it again. It's ever new, it thrills my soul. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. Tell me those stories again. I'm not tired of repetition. I want to cry out to the preacher, "Oh man of God, you preached it before, preach it again. I want to hear it again. I need to hear it again."

I've been hearing so many other things about sickness and COVID and Ukraine and on and on it goes. I hear it all the time. It's bombarding me. Let me hear the story of Jesus again. I've heard about wars again and again all my life. I've heard about the flu and the COVID and I've heard about divorce and I've heard about church conflicts. I've heard that stuff. I don't want to hear that anymore, but I know I'm going to continue to hear it.

I want to hear that old, tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Tell me that story again. Tell me about amazing grace. Sing "Amazing Grace." Quote John 3:16. Let me hear it again. Bring strength to my soul. Choirs sing it. Congregations sing "Amazing Grace." Sing it again over and over again. Sing it as a solo, sing it as a duet, but keep telling me about Jesus and his love. This is the only place I hear about Jesus and his love.

I don't want to come and hear something else other than Jesus and his love because I will be strengthened when I go. I won't leave the church hearing garbage and go out defeated. I come in loving everybody, talking to everybody. When the time comes, hugging just about everybody I bump into. Tell me that story. What had happened to that church in Philippi? It was only ten years old. Ten years ago, Paul had planted that church.

Christians in that church that were Christians had only been Christians ten years, but there had been some that had been saved eight years ago or three years ago or just a month ago. It was a weak church because they didn't have the word. If you want to be strong, you have to have the manna from heaven, the word of God, the water of life. Paul knew that. He couldn't go. Oh, how he wanted to go and see his child, the Philippian church.

But he could write to them and he wrote to them. There were a group of people called Judaizers. These people came in from the outside. They were claiming to be Christians, but they also said it was necessary to follow the law of Moses. They said, "Yes, be a Christian, believe on the Lord, but now you have to be circumcised. You have to adhere to certain days and keep those days, certain days that are more sacred than other days and do ceremonies on those days. You have to eat these foods and abstain from other foods."

They were telling those brand new Christians who didn't know better all of that stuff. And these new Christians were thinking, "I want to be closer to the Lord. Maybe I should take that in." Paul said, "No, no, what you need is Jesus. In the Lord you rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. It's in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord." Don't build up those walls. Those people are coming in and they're wrecking your church.

Don't let them do it. Turn to Jesus. He's the one who will cause you to rejoice. Problems, turn to Jesus. He will cause you to rejoice. Notice what it says: "It is no trouble for me to write these things to you again." I'm writing them again. I'm preaching them again. You've heard it before, hear it again. Don't get bored with church and look for some new different way to hold your attention, to bring a little bit of entertainment to you.

It's the word. And the word is Jesus. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Jesus. This is what it is. He said, "It is a safeguard for you," meaning it's spiritual food and drink. The word of God is a covering for you. The word of God gives you strength and joy. Don't listen to certain people. Don't listen to certain doctrines. Don't listen to certain teachings. Listen to the word.

Love the word. Demand the word. Come to church not to socialize and talk about all the activities of the week and all that's going on out there in the world and share, then all of a sudden it's church time, I've got to run in and sit down. No friend, you're not getting it. My heart is aching for God's people today. I'm only feeling just a little bit of what Paul felt for that church. There is so much more for you. I want you to have it. Jesus wants you to have it.

The word is your safeguard. Write on my heart every word. Thank you for the word of God. Friend, are you really ready to embrace God's word? Are you ready for the word of God to put a covering over you, for the Lord Jesus to encircle you, encompass you with his arms? He's here to do something. I hope I haven't made anybody sad today. I hope I've said something that makes you think. And as you begin to think, gladness comes into your heart. I hope so. I pray so. I believe so. Hope thou in the Lord and your future will be well in Christ, in the Lord. Amen.

Guest (Male): Problems in life are unavoidable, but they cannot remove the joy of Christ that lives in those who follow him. Let us always rejoice in the Lord no matter our circumstances. If today's message from The Healing Word spoke to your heart, we'd love to hear from you. Visit us online at thehealingword.com, a place where you can connect, share your prayer requests, and know that others are praying with and for you.

And while you're there, you can also listen to more messages from Pastor Jack Morris and learn more about how his ministry is reaching lives around the world with the hope of Jesus Christ. That's thehealingword.com where faith is strengthened, prayers are lifted, and hearts are healed through the power of God's word. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.