The Healing Word

Announcer: The Healing Word Ministry on one place 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: Listen, today right now Jesus will speak peace into a troubled heart. Jesus will speak healing into a crippled body or sick body. Jesus will speak forgiveness into sin in the heart. Jesus is there.

Announcer: 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: The voice of power. Let me give you just a little bit of a background here about this story. Jesus had been teaching a multitude of people. I don't know how many were there with him as he taught them. And there were so many that they were crowding him. They were at the seashore. They were at the the sea of Galilee. And they were just about to push him into the water. They they were just crowding him. They wanted to hear his word. And a little rain didn't stop them. And a big crowd didn't stop them or a little crowd.

They loved the word of God. He gave them hope. He encouraged them and blessed them and ministered to them. And you see these people were enslaved to the Roman government. But Jesus comes and talks to them about freedom. For he is the way, the truth, and the life. And he that the son sets free is free indeed. And they found hope in his teaching just like you and I are today finding hope in the teachings of Jesus. So Jesus kept pushing back, pushing back until he got to the water. And so he asked to borrow a little boat push out from shore so that the people wouldn't crowd him.

And he could talk to them. And he sat down in the boat. That's how teachers in that day taught that that was their physical position seated. The congregation stood. It would be just like me. There's brother Jay back here today. Like brother Jay was here last week seated. We take out all the pews and all of you would stand and the minister would be seated. Today it's just the opposite. I stand and you're seated. So Jesus, following the custom, taught the people, encouraged their hearts and blessed them. Now the message was completed and Jesus said to the disciples that there are other villages, other people who need to hear the truth.

I mean we we all need to hear the truth. And so Jesus said let's go to the other side so we can reach more people with this glorious gospel. So they got in the boat and they started across the sea of Galilee. Now notice it says in verse 36 that the disciples took Jesus along. You can be sure they glad they were glad that they did take him along when that storm came up. They took Jesus along and I I read that and I thought hey we we need to take Jesus with us in in every phase of our living in our life.

We never know when the storm is going to come. You see the the sea of Galilee was so tranquil, blue Galilee. Who would have thought that there would be a storm? No clouds. The sea was tranquil. But all of a sudden without any notice at all or provocation, a storm broke out. Now here's here's what happened. Here it is now. It still is the same way. The sea of Galilee but it's surrounding the sea of Galilee are mountains. And the mountains have valleys cut into them, cut into them, cut into them. And it happens to this day when the wind begins to blow, the wind will blow down through one of those valleys or all of those valleys.

And the wind gathers a a great voracity. And when that wind hits the water, the waves jump out. And no one knows. That's what Jesus said to Nicodemus. The the wind blows wherever it lists that there wherever it wills, it blows. No one knows where it's coming from. No one knows where it's going. So everything looked peaceful. I thought that isn't that the way we live some of our lives. Everything looks tranquil, peaceful, nice. And all of a sudden, boom, a storm hits. And we find ourselves in a storm, a marriage storm, a family storm, a financial storm, a physical storm.

There was a young man, a good friend of mine. He's from the Caribbean. He's going to go home. He lives in the United States now and he's going to go back to the Caribbean on a vacation. He goes back once or twice the year. And I was happy for him. When he comes home, he tells me he said I asked him I said well how was your vacation? How's everything in the Caribbean? His face was just so drawn. He said there was a storm. I said oh my I hope the houses weren't destroyed and family.

He said oh no, not that kind of a storm. He said I ran into a family storm. He said it was terrible. Friend, you never know when the wind's going to blow right in your face. You know the wind is not always going to be at our back. It's not always going to be a gentle breeze. And we've got to get ready when the storm comes. Some of you are going into a storm now. There's a storm that's on the horizon just waiting to happen. But when you are prepared, sometimes the people of the world are wiser than the children of light, the scripture says.

I hear about a storm down in the Caribbean or down in Florida or out west. And that people know that the storm is coming. We have the radar today. We could predict to some degree. And so I hear them and see them on the tube. They're boarding up their windows and getting water and putting it down in the basement. They're getting ready. Friend, we need to be prepared. The storms are going to come. Whether we're looking for it, whether we want it to, whether we don't want it to, even to Christians. Just because Jesus is in the boat with the disciples doesn't mean they're not going to face a storm.

Just because Jesus is in your heart and in your life, in your family, in your wherever, that doesn't mean everything is going to be just fine all the time. No, life is not a cakewalk even for the children of God. We need to be prepared. Those disciples in some great respect just were not prepared. And the way to get prepared is like they did. They took him along. Verse 33 you've got to take Jesus. You 've got to call on Jesus. You've got to make sure he's a part. Christians through the years I've met so many and I've tried to follow the Lord diligently myself.

But I've even found out that there's a time we we just begin to get a little bit lax. We just sit back a little bit. The the church is going to be there. Every Sunday the church is going to be there whether I'm there or not. It's going to be there. If I miss this Sunday, I can catch it the next one. Or I don't need to read the Bible. I'm so tired tonight or you know I I don't need to pray and I'm so hungry I don't need to say grace over the meal. I mean we we just we we are still Christians.

But we're just a little bit nonchalant. And we and all of a sudden bang the storm hits and we're not ready for it. And we start crying out why me Lord? I belong to you. Why me? Hey he didn't forget you belong to him but maybe I forgot I belong to him. Maybe he has a way of getting to me and reminding me. He waits for an invitation. He stands on the outside and he waits. And he waits. Come in Lord Jesus. Come in. A violent storm. Verse 37 says it was a ferocious squall. Do you know what a squall is?

Like a little baby sometimes squalls, cries, screams. That's exactly what this word means. A ferocious squall. It seemed as though and maybe it didn't just seem as though but it was really so that that storm began to scream. It began to make a sound. It began to make a noise. It was a ferocious violent storm that hit. And these these disciples were seasoned fishermen. They made their living out on the sea of Galilee. This was their home. They had been in plenty of storms but not a screaming storm like this storm was. It literally screamed.

And so they thought they were going to drown. Yes, they were afraid. But they somehow remembered that Jesus was in the stern of that boat. And they went to him. Friend, whether you're ready or whether you're not ready, if you're in a storm, go to Jesus. Even if you've been slow and drawn in your Christian walk, go to Jesus. He knows you. He loves you. He's going to take care of you. He's going to bless you. Come on to me, he says, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. There was a man on the eastern shore born in Berlin, Maryland.

Some of you may have been there. Small town. Name is Charles Albert Tinsley. A a black gentleman. He was born in about 1855 thereabouts. And he never had any formal education to amount to anything. I I mean this man has has quickly become one of my heroes. The more I read about him, the the more I thank God for him and the more he becomes my hero. He taught himself how to read. He didn't know how to read. And do you know how he taught himself how to read? He picked up scraps of newspaper found on the on the road, on the highway or in a trash bin.

And he picked those pieces up and he taught himself how to read. He married he married when he was only 17 and his wife had eight children. They moved to Philadelphia. He got a job as a janitor in a Methodist church there. But he kept studying. He he started taking a a correspondence course. He wanted to become a Methodist minister. This man had to be a a genius. Just had to be a genius. Through a correspondence course, he taught himself Greek and Hebrew. Now Greek is hard enough but Hebrew, wow. He taught himself. And when he went before the the last had his orals was the young preachers were there.

He had one of the highest scores among all those young ministers. He became a Methodist minister. They sent him to a church in like Cape Cape May, New Jersey. The Methodist Church back then and I think they still do. I the younger ministers they moved them around rather frequently every few years. So they that was his first charge, this church. And it was a snowing blizzard of all things. He and his family got in the house and they only had one bite of bread between all of the kids and all of them. They got on their knees and began to pray.

And while praying, a knock came to the door. They opened the door and there were several members of the church that he had become a a pastor of. They didn't know him. He didn't know them but they knew that this was the parsonage and this was their pastor. And they brought in all the provisions that he needed. Well, I'll I'll quick quickly move on. The story goes on that he moves back to Philadelphia. And the church that he had been a janitor in elected him to become their pastor. Now he had a little storm because some of the people didn't want him of all things.

But most of the people did want him. And he became pastor. He had 135 members. And I had to read it several times. That church grew to 10,000 10,000. He started a soup kitchen and every night he fed 500 street people and made provision for them to take a bath. He cared for people. He loved people. No wonder he's becoming my hero. He was truly a man of God. People is what mattered. People he served. Wherever there was a need, and he wrote a hymn entitled The storm is passing over. And then he wrote a and our choir is some of these days are going to sing that, right?

I already talked to her about it. I don't know when. But if some of these days the storm is passing over. And then he wrote another hymn. Oh he wrote a lot of hymns. Uh the pastor did. And one of them is um well I'll think of it in in a moment uh what what it is um Stand by me. When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. When I do the best I can and my friends misunderstand, stand by me. When I 'm growing old and feeble, stand by me. He had a God that stood by him.

And you have that same God. And Jesus said call him father. He's your heavenly father to love you and to provide for you and to bless you in every way. This is the first verse of The storm is passing over. Listen to it. It it it just blessed me so much. Courage my soul and let us journey on. Don't give up. This is what the pastor from Berlin member Maryland said. Courage my soul. Come on, take courage. We all get discouraged at times. But courage my soul. Let us journey on. Though the night is dark, it won't be very long.

Thanks be to God, the morning light appears and the storm is passing over. Hallelujah. What a song. We're going to be having it here at the church later on. Well, an appeal was made to Jesus by those disciples during that storm. And they went back to him and they said master, one version says teacher teacher don't you care that we're about to drown? Sometimes you myself we feel in our situation we have prayed and prayed and prayed and we don't see anything happening. And we're attempted to say God, don't you care? Now he cares. When Karen was working down at the Department of Commerce, she would get the bus over here to Largo very early in the dark on Monday through Friday and go down to the bus station, get off the bus, walk 10 blocks to the Department of Commerce.

And then in the evening walk 10 more blocks back, catch that bus, come back to Largo and she said that and I didn't know until years later that she became so discouraged. But she kept on. Anybody can quit and give up. But she kept on. And she said at noon hour there was a an Episcopal church right across the street from the Department of Commerce. And she said I went in and I sat down. And I talked to the Lord and I said Lord, don't you care for us? We're trying to start a church and nothing is happening week after week, month after month.

The years are passing but the people aren't coming. Don't you care? And she said I was so desperate. Friend, when you get desperate, you're going to do strange things. She said God, we live it. And she said I gave God our house number and street number and address. And our telephone number is she was weeping and crying and broken. Years later that was one lady that didn't complain. She just kept on keeping on. Friend, listen to me. The Ned, the choir and numbers are going to grow. Just keep on. Oh oh you're the choir director.

That Sunday school class is going to grow. Keep on. The men's fellowship and the women's fellowship it's going to grow. Keep on. Don't give up. Courage my soul. Courage my soul. God answers our prayers but he has a plan, a great plan, a wonderful plan. And it's all going to be well. Courage my soul. Let us journey on. First Peter he cares for you. Well, then Jesus went to the stern of the boat. And the waves were tossing about to throw him overboard. These seasoned fishermen were were frightened just like Karen was down at the Episcopal Church.

And Jesus spoke. What did he say? Peace be still. I want everybody to say that.

Guest (Male): Peace be still.

Pastor Jack Morris: Three words. It doesn't take him long when he goes into action things begin to happen. Come on, let's go into Christian action, Christian living action, Christian praying action. Friend, peace be still. Three little words. Friend, there's things that are going to happen even in a church. Listen to me. And someone will say well you know I can always go to another church. There's a church on every corner. There's just dozens of churches up and down Enterprise Road. Anybody can give up and quit and go. And it's happened in every church. Certainly it's happened in the Largo Community Church.

But friend, if we will ride out the storm like Pastor Tinsley said, courage my soul. Courage my soul. When a person gives up, that person is a shallow, none praying, none word attention giving Christian. They're a Christian. I'm not saying they're a Christian and a very nice person. But they're just so shallow in their walk with God. Friend, the light is dawning. The wind is dying down. Jesus is going to speak peace. There's some things that you and I can't fix. But in prayer he'll come he'll stand up. He'll speak into that storm. Listen, today right now Jesus will speak peace into a troubled heart.

Jesus will speak healing into a crippled body or sick body. Jesus will speak forgiveness into sin in the heart. Jesus is there. When the world is tossing me says Reverend Kindle Tinsley. When the world is tossing me like a ship upon the sea, thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me. Friend, come to Jesus today. Don't just get up and rush home and and run right back into that difficult situation again. You have a savior. Talk to him. We're going to bow in just a moment. Tell him the situation. You say well he already knows but he wants you to be on the same plate he's on.

He wants you to be united with him. He wants to hear your voice. He wants you to talk to him. He's been talking to you all morning. So now talk to him. He cares for you. He loves you. He wants to bring blessing to you. And he's here to do it today. Oh thou who stillest wind and water waves, stand by me. The Lord is here. His presence is here. Are you ready for Jesus? Well, go to the stern of the boat. He's on the boat. He's in your heart. Bring him to the foremost. Say come Lord Jesus.

Come to the foremost. Come and make yourself known. But tell him in specific terms. Don't just say heal me. Heal you of what? Don't just say fix my marriage. Fix it of what? You have to talk to him like a friend like you would talk to a therapist. You have to tell the whole story. Just give it out and watch what he does. He will go into motion. Watch what he does. He's here to do it right now. Are you ready for the your miracle?

Announcer: 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: Hello friend. I just want to take a moment to thank you for listening to the Healing Word. You're a blessing to me. Your prayers, your financial gifts are making this ministry a reality. And I want to thank you. If you have a prayer request, if you'll send it to me, I will personally pray over it. Thank you also for sending an offering to help support this ministry. You are a blessing and I trust this ministry is a blessing to you. God bless you. I will see you next time.

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