The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: We're in a spiritual battle, and Christians, some of you are losing. But today you can get back in good graces with God, be restored, blessed, healed, leave rejoicing, and rejoice all week long. And then next week when the devil comes back again, you're going to rejoice again.

Guest (Male): Rejoicing in the Lord during difficult times can be challenging, but it's possible. Join Pastor Jack Morris today as he shows us how to maintain a positive perspective by focusing on God and His Word, praying consistently, and possessing an attitude of gratitude.

Pastor Jack Morris: Rejoice always. Can you say that with me? Rejoice always. There it is in Philippians 4:4. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice." I'll say it again, rejoice. Now that is a tall order. Rejoice in the Lord. That's a grammatical imperative. In other words, that's a command. Now God is commanding me to rejoice always. Not just me, but you too. Rejoice always.

What's going on? Are you rejoicing, or is there sort of a shadow over your rejoicing? Watch God move today. The Holy Spirit is here. He has given me a very special message, and you're here to hear it and to receive from the Lord. Praise be to Him. Now how do we do that? I want to obey everything the Word tells me, and it tells me that I'm to rejoice. I want to obey that.

How do we rejoice when there are difficulties on the job, or there's a situation there that is causing me grief, or there's a person there that I'm just not getting along with? Have you ever met somebody you just don't get along with? Guess whose fault that is? You can rejoice in those situations, and the Lord says rejoice always. How about school? For those who are in school, there's a faculty member, or maybe more than one, or there's rules in that school that cause me to doubt and to question whether I'm in the right school or not. But I'm to rejoice.

How about my location? Where I live, where my house is, or my neighborhood. How about that? Is that something I can rejoice over? Now I don't need to change my job. Maybe I do, but that isn't always the answer. I don't need to change schools. That's not always the answer. Or to sell my house and move into another neighborhood. Those are just a few circumstances that sometimes we are confronted with.

Friend, listen to me closely. It's not the circumstances. It's me. It's you. You see, God is more interested in you than in what is happening to you. What is happening to you is coming to you from the outside. But what's on the inside, that's where God is looking, and that's where Jesus has set up His throne. Now what kind of a throne is He sitting on? Circumstances. It's what's in us, not what's happening to us.

If we're going to cope in this world with all the conflict and problems that are there, we're going to have to have a change of heart. We're going to need the intervention of the Lord. We're going to need something other than our own wit and our own know-how. We're going to need a power that is beyond us if we are to cope. But a lot of people aren't coping. But Christian, listen to me today, we are to cope in the power of the Lord.

We're to cope by His strength. We're to cope because we have allowed Him to do something. The problem is not out there; it's in here. And when we turn the "in here" over to the Lord, watch the healing take place. He will do a great and mighty thing. Praise the Lord. Can you say amen? Amen. Now with what's going on at the job, at the school, in the neighborhood, and in all of these other circumstances, we begin to focus on it because we focus on the negative. That's human nature.

Friend, you need to crucify human nature. You need to nail it to the cross. But we're focusing on that, and that's what sells newspapers. That's what keeps the Washington Post going, NBC, ABC, and all the rest of them. It's the negative. It draws us in, and we begin to focus on that, and then that shadow comes over us. And now we read the Scripture "rejoice in the Lord." I don't feel like rejoicing in the Lord. I just am not in the mood.

When I do try to do that, and I'm referring to rejoicing in the Lord, I feel so insincere. I feel like a hypocrite. And so it's better not to rejoice than to try to rejoice and make me feel bad. That's how our reason goes right back to the negative. The needle goes from full back to empty again. Friend, God wants to bless, to heal, to restore, to forgive, and to do something beautiful. And He's here to do it.

Well, let me get on with the message. I believe I have something from the Lord for me and for you. The Scripture says rejoice. That simply means to brag, boast, and celebrate Jesus. When you talk about Jesus, you're not talking about me or somebody else. Isn't that right? That's right. Rejoice in the Lord. Say that. Rejoice in the Lord. Now say always. Always. That means always. Do you understand what always means? Rejoice in the Lord.

Now I'm going to turn over to Psalm 34. It says, "I will extol the Lord at all times." That's always, isn't it? "His praise will always be on my lips." There that word "always" is again. "My soul will boast in the Lord." That's what I mentioned just a moment ago. When it says rejoice in the Lord always, that is meaning I'm going to brag about Jesus. I'm going to sing about Jesus. I'm going to rejoice in Jesus.

I'm going to do it regardless of what's going on at the job or the school or in the neighborhood. It says, "Glorify the Lord with me. Let us," you and me, "exalt His name together." Psalm 34. Does the Scripture touch your heart? Does it cause you to think and believe and feel good and lift you up? Rejoice in the Lord always.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, heard the angel come and tell her that she was going to be the mother of the Savior of the world, and she was greatly troubled. Sometimes the Word of God will do that. It'll trouble us. So we stay away and don't listen to it because it'll trouble us if we get too close to it. But she got close to the Word of God. God got close to her. And you know where she went? She went to somebody who is spiritual, who loved her, who was going to lift her up.

That was Aunt Elizabeth. She had a spiritual aunt. And she went there and sure enough it happened, and this young girl of about 15 years old was impregnated with Jesus. Now listen to her. She said, "My soul magnifies the Lord." That's me, my soul. That's inside me. And if it doesn't happen on the inside, it's going to be phony and hypocritical if you try to do it on the outside. But my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Friend, you can have a rejoicing experience always if you seek the Lord always. The Holy Spirit is there to help and to bless.

Guest (Male): Pastor Morris will return in a moment with the conclusion of today's message following this important invitation. You can now access audio versions of The Healing Word anytime by going to oneplace.com and searching for The Healing Word. Video versions of the messages are available at lightsource.com. So why not go there today and receive your blessing? Again, that's oneplace.com and lightsource.com and search for The Healing Word. Now let's join Pastor Jack Morris for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jack Morris: So it says rejoice. Rejoice, and then it says in the Lord. Do you see that? In the Lord. Say those words: in the Lord. There are times you're not going to be able to do it in yourself. But you're going to have to say, "Jesus, I don't feel like it. I feel hypocritical. I feel insincere. I want to praise You. You're worthy of praising. I'm going to just do it anyway."

You're the lily of the valley. You're the bright and morning star. You're the rock of ages. You're my Savior, my Redeemer, my soon coming King. You're at the Father's right hand. You're right by my side. Talk to Him. Praise Him. Let's talk about Jesus. Come on friend, talk about Jesus. You need a hot coal from the altar of God, like Isaiah had, to put on your lips and burn out all that trash and let Jesus be the subject of your life and the subject of your conversations. Rejoice in the Lord.

Now verse one. It says this in Philippians 4:1, "Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, this is how you should stand firm." Friend, you're not going to stand firm on your own. You're going to be wishy-washy. You're going to walk around with a little bit of dizziness in your soul. But you're going to be able to stand firm in the Lord. In the Lord you're going to stand firm. Only in the Lord. Friend, we're just people.

We're just humans with human aspirations and desires. Human aspirations, thoughts, and desires are not the spiritual Word of God breathed by the Holy Spirit that He's breathing into us this morning and every time you open the book and begin to read out of it. But notice it says stand firm in the Lord. There it is, in the Lord. You can only stand firm in the Lord. In other words, come on, be consistent.

Don't be in and out, up and down. And if you do go down, remember He's down there. He's that lily. He's going to bring about a sweetness even in that which is sour and bitter. Some say, "Well, it's people making me that way." No, no. It's not what's happening to you; it's what's happening in you. And if Christ is in there, then you have the lily of the valley in there. You have the rock of ages. You have the rose of Sharon. Remember who you are and what God has done for you and let your mouth sing praises to the Lord, and He will lift you up in resurrection power. This is our God. This is His blessing.

Now that says stand firm in the Lord. Let's go down to verse four. "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all. The Lord is near." Let your gentleness show, not your forcefulness, not championing your cause. I mean, your cause is a dead cause from the very beginning, and you'll die with it if you don't repent and get it out. That's why we're coming to this table again today to remember that the Lord was crucified.

There are things in you and me that need to be crucified if we are to be able to rejoice in the Lord and rejoice in Him always. Notice it said stand firm in the Lord, in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord. Everywhere it keeps saying it over and over and over: in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord. Friend, you can't be the Christian God has called you to be or the person He has saved you out of the world to be. No one can. Only in the Lord.

He is saying it repeatedly. Come on friend, when are you going to get it, or when is He going to get you? Oh, I think I ought to have heard an amen on that one. In the Lord meaning in His power I'm going to be able to rejoice, not in any other way. In the Lord by His strength I'm going to be able to rejoice. In the Lord, no other way. In the Lord, with the Lord, by the Lord, I'm going to be able to rejoice even when it seemingly on the outside there's nothing to rejoice about, only a whole lot to complain about.

But I'm going to talk about Jesus. I'm going to lift Jesus up. I'm going to celebrate Jesus. By His authority, I'm going to rejoice in Him. Now listen to me closely. Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried. But it didn't end there. Friend, don't stop where you are now. Don't let things end where you are now. Don't go out of this church like you came into this church.

Jesus died, but there's a stone to be rolled away. A stony heart to get all that out of there and to allow the Lord's Spirit to come in. Now He died. Everybody was glad He was gone. No, He wasn't gone. He came back, and He's coming again. And He's here right now to do a great and mighty thing. The third day the stone was rolled away and Jesus came forth victoriously.

You see, what happened was by His authority, death bowed before Him. Death is the greatest power on Earth. No one has been able to conquer death. There's no such thing as the fountain of youth, only in Jesus. But He conquered death, and by His authority, He made death kneel down. He rose up. He is the resurrection and the life. He rose up. Death, you have reigned from Adam and Eve. You have reigned from Cain and Abel. But death, get on your knees. And death got on its knees. The stone rolled away and He walked out victoriously.

Come on, He wants you to share in His victory. He wants you to share that victory. You have to ask and receive and open your heart, and then the reception will come. By His power, by His strength, I want you to know today whatever it is that is troubling you, once taken to the Lord, Jesus will say, "Bow. Bow. Get on your knees." The Scripture says every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

Watch out where your tongue is because your tongue must confess Him. And if you don't do it on your own, He'll do it for you someday, but it won't count then. Death, get down. Sorrow, get down. Grieving, get down. They'll all bow before Him. We're going to bow before the Lord at this holy altar in just a few moments. And everything that's in your heart and my life, once we give it over to Him, it too will bow by His authority.

Friend, you can't put it out. You can't shut down that tongue. It's beyond your power. You've got to say, "I'm weak, but He is strong." Watch what He does. He'll come. He's here today, and He'll be with you always because you are rejoicing always. He'll ever be there with you. Every difficulty, bow. Every trouble, bow. Friend, let the Lord kick it out of your life and get rid of it so you can be the happy person you once were at one time.

The Lord will come and He will restore. Now it says in point C in your outline, look at the word: rejoice. We already looked at that. In the Lord, by His authority, by His power, that's the only way it can be done. We already looked at that. Always. Always. I said it in the beginning of the sermon, always means always. What is there about that word that you don't understand?

Rejoice in the Lord always. Let me read this Scripture to you. Second Timothy 2:19. This is for all of us today. Listen to it: "God's solid foundation stands firm." You and I may not always be standing firm, but there's a foundation when you get on it, you'll stand. "God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: 'The Lord knows those who are His.'" Did you hear that? The Lord knows those who are His.

He also knows who are not His. And He also knows who used to be His. He is not a stupid God with a blindfold over His eyes. He sees every heart, every love, every hate, every anger, every murder. Anger is murder, the Scripture says so. Let's come to Jesus, seek His glory, and then it says rejoice again. Now I'm finished with this.

Jesus was in the wilderness, and He was tempted of the devil, and you're going to be tempted of the devil. I'm going to be tempted. You already have. Some of you are really going through it right now. God made sure you got here today. He was tempted of the devil, and how did He put the devil to flight? He only quoted Scripture. No supernatural power. He didn't perform any miracles whatsoever, not even turning the stones into bread.

The same Scriptures that He quoted, you can quote. You have the same authority now that He has. It's called the Bible, the Word of God. You can take that and believe that and receive the Word of God. And the Scripture says the devil left Him for a season. Now whatever it is you unload on Jesus today, look out. The devil's going to try to put it back on you next week.

The Scripture says the devil only left Jesus for a season. You're going to think, "Well, I got over that last week at the communion altar." You did. But the devil's going to come back again. And that's why Paul, anointed of the Holy Spirit, said, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say." It means you're going to have to do it again and again and again. That's why we keep reading the Bible.

That's why we keep going to church. That's why we keep loving the saints. We have to do it again and again. We're in a spiritual battle, and Christians, some of you are losing. But today you can get back in good graces with God, be restored, blessed, healed, leave rejoicing, and rejoice all week long. And then next week when the devil comes back again, you're going to rejoice again. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen.

Guest (Male): As Pastor Morris just shared today, rejoicing in the Lord doesn't mean we ignore or dismiss our struggles, but rather that we choose to trust in God's goodness and faithfulness despite our circumstances. Look for the lesson you can learn from situations in your life and how it can make you stronger and more resilient. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.