The Healing Word

Guest (Male): The Healing Word Ministry on OnePlace is brought to you by the generous donations of people like 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: Friend, the only thing you can hold on to and you can because he is holding on to you, and he's got a good grip on you, his name is Jesus and he's going to see you through and bless you and help you.

Guest (Male): Today on the Healing Word, Pastor Morris is going to the book of Philippians to continue studying how to cultivate peace in our lives through prayer and gratitude that makes us mindful of how blessed we are and gain God's vertical perspective on life.

Pastor Jack Morris: Listen to this verse of scripture. Philippians chapter four, verse six says, "Do not be anxious," we're going to change that word to worry. Worry is the modern word, that's what we're more familiar with. Do not be anxious or don't worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

When I was in Bible college, the dean told us a story, the academic dean. He said he was on a city line bus going through this large city and there was this big church. It had a nice front yard and a nice sign out in the front yard. He read on that sign, "Why pray when you can worry?"

He said the bus went by and he thought to himself, "Did I read that right? Something's wrong here. I didn't read that right. I can't believe a pastor or a church would put that up." So he said he rang the bell and he got off the bus and he walked back several blocks to see. Sure enough, it said, "Why pray when you can worry?" If we spent as much time praying as we do worrying, I believe life would be a whole lot different. There would be contentment.

You've heard of Albert Einstein, the one that discovered the theory of gravity. Living in his last days in Princeton, New Jersey, a young student ready to write his dissertation went to Dr. Einstein and asked him, "What can I write about?" He said, "A dissertation must reveal something creative, something new. We must add new knowledge to the field of knowledge." He said, "Everything has been written."

This is what the man, Albert Einstein, the genius, said to him. He said these words, "Someone must find out about prayer." That young man didn't expect that from the man who discovered the theory of relativity, but that's what he said. "Someone must find out the answer about prayer."

Friend, I want you to know that God loves everyone of you. Christ died on the cross for you to bring you into his kingdom, to bless your life while you're here on earth, to answer your prayers, to meet your need, to carry you through, and then to take you to heaven when this life is over. But we push God out of our lives sometimes until tragedy strikes, then we think, "Oh, where is God?"

Prayer, petition, with thanksgiving. Everything we have, including the air we breathe, God has given it to us. What a wonderful God to take care of us in this way. So I'm going to be brief today. I'm planning on a very short sermon, but a very important sermon because some of you have prayed and you're wondering, "Where is the answer? It hasn't come yet. I need some help. I've gone to God. He invited me to come to the throne of grace. I've gone to the throne of grace in prayer. Where is that answer?"

So it says here how to be anxious for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. I'm going to talk about how to do that. That is a hard command. That is a command. It says, "Be anxious for nothing." You and I have experienced our share of worry and there's going to be some more worry. Life isn't over yet. I'm going to talk about that just very briefly.

So I pray, and that's why I held the Bible up with you and put it over our hearts, because I don't want to get up here and just preach a Sunday morning boring sermon. I want to help you to live the abundant life. I want you to know that there's a God in heaven. His name is Father. Your name is child. He wants to help you.

But there are some prerequisites we've got to put in line and I'm going to talk about it just very briefly. How do we live in this world with uncertainty and unknown? How much do we really know? We don't even know what the afternoon is going to bring forth, let alone tomorrow, next month, or next year. There's just so much uncertainty.

In addition to all of the difficulties you have in your own personal life, physical needs, financial needs, mental needs, emotional needs, and it goes on. Then this coronavirus, then the race issues. It just goes on and on. Then I look at the computer and it says, "Now here comes monkeypox." It just keeps on coming.

Friend, you're not going to make it without God. You're going to get depressed. You're going to have ulcers. You're going to be so stressed out. Why, when you have a God who loves you and wants to be a father to you? Some of us sing, "I found the answer." Have we really, really found the answer? I hope so. If not, this morning we can find that answer.

We live with roller coaster emotions. Up one day, down the next, or up and down the same day. Life has just jerked us all around. I'm not talking about unbelievers or unsaved people. Christians live in the same world that everybody lives in. The coronavirus, racism, worry, emotional problems, mental anguish is no respecter of persons, Christian or non-Christian. But the difference is we have God. God is the creator, he's the creator of joy and happiness. He'll do great and wonderful things.

Now it says, "Do not be anxious about anything." Dear Lord, how can I listen to that and obey that? I just worry about everything. But he says in the word, "Don't be anxious about anything." That's hard to obey, don't you think so? To live in peace with a rest inside. Do not be anxious or don't worry about anything.

Now, why is that so hard to obey? Because, listen, because we live in a world of loss. In this world, we are losing everything. Oh, we think we gain a little bit only to have two steps backward. Gain one step, then three steps backwards. We keep losing. This is a world of losing that we live in. We're losing our health. We just fight to stay alive only to die in the end.

We keep losing our health and there's monkeypox and coronavirus and all kinds of difficulties out there. People shooting each other, families killing one another. We lose our age. How many of you are getting younger and younger? You're getting older and older. You're losing your youth. It's a world of losing that we live in.

Sorrow comes when we lose something. Disappointment comes when we lose something. You name it, we're going to lose it and in the end, we're going to give it all up and leave it all behind. Friend, the only thing you can hold on to and you can because he is holding on to you, and he's got a good grip on you, his name is Jesus and he's going to see you through and bless you and help you.

In Hebrews 4:16 it says, "Let us then approach the throne of grace," meaning come on, take your need to heaven in prayer. Approach the throne of grace. Now think about it. The throne of grace, that big throne, and the word grace means kindness. It's a throne of kindness. So when you pray, you go to a kind God. He's not going to badger anybody. No, he is a kind God. It is a throne of grace. Don't be afraid to pray. He answers prayer. He's there to minister and to help you.

Guest (Male): Pastor Morris will return in a moment with the conclusion of today's message following this important invitation to join us in worship this Sunday at the Largo Community Church in Bowie, Maryland. The Church of Friendship and Joy where Christ is honored and people are loved. That's what you'll experience at the Largo Community Church. So we invite you to come to church this Sunday and experience a service full of music, hymns, prayer, and a special message from God brought by Pastor Jack Morris.

If you choose to join us virtually for the live service, simply go to largocc.org at 9:00 AM this Sunday and click on "Watch Live" at the top of the homepage. No matter what way you choose to join us in worship, know that you're loved and welcomed at the Largo Community Church. Now, let's join Pastor Jack Morris for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jack Morris: In Revelation chapter three, verse 20, Jesus says, "Friend, if we've ever needed to listen to what Jesus says, Jesus says, 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and will eat with him.'"

Now let me go back and look at that again. I have used that verse, and most of us have, that Jesus is at the sinner's heart door and he's trying to get into that sinner's life. But read it closely. It's a message to the Laodicean church who at one time loved God. I'm talking about the people in the congregation.

The Largo Community Church will love God when each person in that Largo Community Church loves God. The church is people. So Jesus is saying to the Laodicean church, "You had it, but you have grown cold. You're neither hot nor cold. You're just a passive Christian. It seems like you're putting on a pretty good show, you're still together, but there's no real spiritual enthusiasm there."

This is what God is saying, Jesus is saying to the church. He said, "I'm standing at the heart of each Christian, knocking on the Christian's heart, asking the Christian, the believer, the born-again person, the person that was baptized, I'm asking them, would you open up and let me in?"

Listen, if the Christians are kicking Jesus out, what about the rest of the world? Are things going on out there that's now getting our attention? God wants us. He loves us. He wants to help us. Jesus is there. I'm not knocking at his door, he's knocking at my door. And why? Because I've sinned, yes, and I only have hope in him. He's the only way out of this situation.

Now notice what it says. Oh God, help me. God help you to notice what it says. To notice what it says. Says, "Do not be anxious about anything." Okay, now here is the answer. "But in everything by prayer." Don't worry about anything, but everything that comes your way that causes you to worry, and there's going to be a lot of those things and there's going to be a whole lot more if you live a whole lot more days, by prayer.

Then it says "petition." Now prayer in this situation, in this verse, simply means that we are to place our lives in God's hands. Before you go on to petition, petition is when you present your needs. Very often we'll get down by our bed and say, "Dear God, I need healing, I need money, I need this." We just jump right in telling him what we need. If we pray at all, we get over to petition here before we do the prayer.

So here, it's so simple, friend. Listen to me. It is so simple. Listen to what it says. It says, "Put yourself in God's hands," meaning when you get ready to ask God for financial help, physical help, mental help, emotional help, marital help, relational help, when you get ready to do that, first tell him how glad you are and how thankful you are that he saved you, that he heard your confession, he heard your repentance, and he accepted you into his family.

When the disciples returned after Jesus sent them out two by two to heal the sick and preach the word and save the lost, they came back overjoyed telling Jesus, "Even demons were subject to us." Jesus patiently listened to them go on and on and on, and then when they were finished Jesus said, "Don't, you just love miracles. You're just looking for miracles. Rejoice because your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rejoice because you are a citizen of heaven."

Every day I get down, and I've been a Christian for so many years, but every day repeatedly I thank God, "You saved my soul when I was a boy about 14 years old." You say, "Well, pastor, can't you thank God for something greater than that?" There is nothing greater than that. I'm in God's family. I'm in God's church. My name is in heaven. My citizenship is in heaven and I rejoice over that and I thank God over that.

So that's the prayer. Now when Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer, the very first word was "Our Father." You've got to recognize a relationship with God. You must know that you have a heavenly father, that you're his child, that your name is in the Book of Life, that you've been redeemed. You haven't just joined a church, been baptized, and then you very seldom go. That's not the religion where prayer is answered and miracles happen.

No, you give God thanks. You thank him for blessing you with life, health, family, finances. You take some time to give thanks. Notice he says, let me read it. "Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving." Thanksgiving has to be in there. It must be a vital part.

And now after I've recognized that I have a relationship with God, the creator of heaven and earth, that Jesus taught me to call him Father. Every prayer, if you've ever read the New Testament and I know many of you have read it through a number of times, you'll find out that every prayer that Jesus prayed, he called God Father. Every prayer.

And he called God Father 170 times in the New Testament. Even Jesus celebrated his relationship with the Father. And if you can't celebrate your relationship with the Father, then you do not have a relationship. But you can by going to the Father and asking him, "I want a relationship with you. I want my sins to be forgiven." We've all sinned. I have, you have. And then repent and turn to the Lord.

He'll be there quicker than that. He's already there, knocking at your heart's door. The latch is on the inside. If you've ever seen that picture of Jesus knocking, there's no handle, there's no latch. Meaning it's not up to Jesus, it's up to you to open the door and say, "Come into my heart, come into my life, come into my family, come into my career, come into my finances." Invite him. He will anxiously enter in and bless you and minister to you.

And now, after you have turned every care into a prayer, now you give thanks to the Lord for previous blessings. Think of the things he's already done. How many blessings. I think of that couple that are coming at 11:00. Their son's charred body hasn't even come in yet, and yet they are going to be baptized, giving a testimony that they have died to this old life of sin.

And they're remembering that little boy. Last night they were telling me on the phone, "My little boy grew up in the church with Grant Cooper. They all went to Sunday school together up here." This man and his wife are thankful, thankful, thankful that they know they're going to see their boy again, that God saved him and kept him saved all these years. And they're not going to wait three months or six months before they come back to church. They're going to come back to church and go to a baptismal class even before their boy's body gets here.

I don't know whether I could do it or not. I just don't know. But God gives grace when grace is needed. God gives strength when strength is needed. And he's here to bless you and to help you. Now when you prayer, petition, with thanksgiving. When you get down to pray and you begin to say to God, "I love you. You're my father. Thank you for saving me. Am I all right? Is everything okay between you and me, God?"

And if something comes to mind, that's the Holy Spirit answering your prayer. God wants to be in fellowship with you and have that relationship more than anything else. He wants that relationship so badly, so greatly, that he sent his son down here to get you and to bring you to him. Friend, it works. It works because he works. He answers prayer. What a mighty God he is. Praise him forevermore.

Friend, God cares for you and we're going to pray. Now, I'm going to put this message into action right now with you. I want you to bow with me and I want you to pray. Now, in your prayer, why don't you pray it this way? Pray after me. I'm going to try to do a general prayer, but also specific. So in unison with your heads bowed, I'm going to give you opportunity to pray your own prayer using your own words. It's really not the words, it's the heart.

Say, "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for saving my soul. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins. Thank you for putting my name in the Book of Life. Thank you for God my Father. Thank you for loving me. I love you." Now take a moment and whisper to the Lord your own words. You may want to say those same words over again, but whatever comes to mind, that's the important thing. You can only get it out by honest, transparent confession, or it'll come back, or it'll stay there, it won't even leave. Okay, go ahead, pray.

Guest (Male): Prayer and thanksgiving can help you develop a more positive outlook on life, leading to greater peace and contentment. By connecting with God and expressing gratitude for your blessings, you'll find that your worries and anxieties start to fade away, leaving you with a sense of peace and well-being.

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. Again, Pray Now at thehealingword.com.

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