The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Do you need spiritual renewal and physical renewal and new strength today? The world's beat up on you? Worship the Lord.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us for The Healing Word. Have you ever left a time of worship feeling renewed, encouraged, and filled with fresh hope? That's no accident. God delights in meeting people when they come before him with sincere hearts.

In today's message, "The Wonders of Worship," Pastor Jack Morris explains how genuine worship opens the door for God's renewing power, bringing strength, peace, and fresh perspective for life's greatest challenges.

Pastor Jack Morris: The wonders of worship. Wonderful things happen in worship. My prayer, my expectation is that wonderful things are going to happen in this worship service. Wonderful things in your life. Wonderful things.

The word wonder comes from the word wonderful, meaning something astonishing, something that is beyond expectation. Something almost unbelievable happens and it becomes believable. Now, are you expecting something unbelievable to become believable to you this morning? When that happens, that will happen when you are in an attitude of worship because worship is of the spirit within an attitude.

Now, if you have the attitude of worship, something wonderful, something extraordinary, perhaps something that you didn't even expect to happen will indeed happen and you will rejoice in the Lord because of it. The feeling of wonder is a feeling of awe. Awe meaning that attitude of reverence, of fear, of wonder. It's a mixture. The feeling of awe is a mixture of wonder, of reverence, of fear. It's sort of those three mixed together until you just stand and you gaze, you look, you're speechless, you're overwhelmed, you're transfixed.

Have you ever had a worshiping experience like that on a Sunday morning? Then you have worshiped in spirit and in truth. That's what I want to talk about today. Remember two weeks ago I talked about an experience of worship and I defined the word worship and I defined it from Psalm 99 verse 5. There are two words in Psalm 99 verse 5: the word exalt and the word worship.

Now, this is what happens when we worship. We exalt the Lord. He becomes elevated. We begin to lift him up. We look seriously at the words we're singing in the hymn. We're very conscious of the words we're using in prayer, and we're listening to the words from the pastor from the Word of God. We're exalting the Lord.

As we exalt the Lord, we worship. The word worship comes from the Hebrew, which means to bow down, to submit, to surrender. Remember two weeks ago I said that in Psalm chapter 2, we read the words, "Kiss the son." Kiss the son lest he be angry, meaning submit to him. I have come to church today or in my family devotions or in my private devotions to go down before God, to lift God up, to submit myself to him, to kiss the son, submission to him.

That's worship. That's what I have to have in mind. My thoughts must be on that. You have to worship with your thoughts. You've got to put your thinking into this thing. You've got to worship intelligently. You can't come in and plop down and say, "Well, I wonder if they're going to hit a note, sing a song, something that's going to turn me on. If not, maybe I'll go somewhere else where there's some other church that's doing it." No, the church doesn't do it. You do it. It happens in you.

Let us worship in spirit and in truth. Not let them cause me to be turned on to a worshiping, exciting revival experience. No, they don't turn you on. If that happens, that's carnal emotion. That's you just having a good fling, a good time on a Sunday morning. I'm talking about worship in spirit and in truth. Authentic worship. Bowing down worship, submission, coming into the presence of Jesus and kissing the son of God in submission. That's what we're talking about today.

And we talked about also, remember, I talked about the worship of Abraham, how he had to come with a sacrifice. He couldn't worship without a sacrifice. Even Isaac said, "Father, we have the wood, we have the fire, we have everything to worship, but we don't have a sacrifice." And Abraham said, "God himself will prepare a sacrifice."

Every time I worship, I must think of Jesus. I must see Jesus on the altar of the cross. I must be worshiping him. I can't come into his presence because of me, because I've done right, because I've done good, because I haven't. I have sinned and so have you. We have all sinned. I can only come in Jesus' name, in the person of Jesus, in the sacrifice of Jesus, with the blood of Jesus.

Do you think of blood, the blood of Christ, when you worship? If you don't, you're saying a hundred thousand words and it's just words puffing into the air. That's why many of our prayers are not answered. That's why we're so stale. That's why we're out of victory. That's why there's no joy. That's why we wonder what's going to go on in our church. We're not worshiping the Lord.

But, oh, the wonders of worship. When worship begins to take place, wonders begin to take place. I mean wonders in you, in me, in my heart, in your heart. It's a marvelous thing. That's true worship. I come into his presence, I bow down before him, I begin to exalt him. There's an attitude, there's a feeling, there's an emotion, there's an awareness of him and his blood and his sacrifice.

I keep thinking it. I keep thinking it. I keep thinking it. Every word, every prayer, every petition, I keep thinking of Jesus. Jesus opened the gate. Jesus rent the veil. Jesus made it possible. Jesus, Jesus, redeemed me. Jesus, now I'm into the presence of God. That's the only way to get into the presence of God, through the rent veil, through the blood of Jesus, through the stone rolled away.

It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Are you thinking Jesus this morning? Are you thinking Jesus? Then you're moving into the realm of worship. That's true worship. And that only happens within. That's not something that's turned on from without. It's in spirit, and spirit is within. It's a very natural thing. Well, not natural in that it's carnal, but it's an acceptable thing because God is spirit. You've got to get into God and God's got to get into you. It's an inside thing because we have become inside people. We have been redeemed and brought into the body of Christ.

Now, there's an outline. I haven't even started preaching yet. That was the review for those of you who were here and those of you who were not here. But now we're going to go into the sermon and talk about the wonders of worship. You see, when you worship, not only is God benefited, but you're benefited. When you worship, wonderful things start happening to you. Things that you more than likely will be able to say when you leave the church, "My prayer has been answered. I didn't even think it was going to be answered. Now I know it's answered. I know it in my heart. I came into church so tired and worn out, so disgusted and frustrated with life, and I feel like I could go out and conquer now."

You didn't come expecting to go away feeling that way, but now you're going away with that feeling. That's a wonderful thing. You've experienced one of the wonders of worship. That's what's happened. That's what God desires for you and me to experience today.

Here are one of the benefits. Okay, you have your outline open? Write in the word renews. Number one, God renews our physical energy in worship. Now, let me talk very practical now. We live in a stress-filled world. Every week is filled with stress. Every day is filled with stress. You're just drained, drained, drained. Many of you have come today, you've been beat up by the world. You're just beat up. You're just tired. The world has bruised your spirit, has bruised your emotion.

People have criticized you. People have blamed you. People say, "Why do they do that to me?" For the same reason you do it to them. We do things like that. And you're feeling it. It's really gotten through to you. Now, that stress might be coming from family relationships. It might be coming from a marital relationship. It might be coming from your children or your parents. It might be coming from your work.

But you have had deadlines. You have had schedules. You have had appointments, and you have rushed to try to keep up with it all. It's just been a very hectic week. And I'm almost convinced that next week is going to be just about like this past week. It isn't going to change that much. So if anybody needs a worshiping experience and some renewal, you do and I do. We need that.

The scripture says in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31, "Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." Say that with me. "Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." I've had people say to me, "Pastor, I didn't come to church last Sunday because I was just beat. I was just whipped. I was just tired." And I hear people saying things like chronic fatigue syndrome. I'm not sure that I know exactly what that means, but I think I've felt that sometimes.

But the chronic tiredness, you go to bed tired, you get 8 to 10 hours of sleep, and you get up and you're still tired. Life has just done a terrible job on you and you have depleted all your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual energy. But the scripture says, "Those who wait on the Lord." Now, the word wait simply means expectant hope. Expectant hope. You expect anything to happen different today? Expectant hope.

Now, you've got to think this way. You've got to put your mind and your thoughts into it. You've got to look at the Word and see what the Word says because here's a formula for your spiritual, physical, mental success. Those who wait on the Lord, what'll happen to them? They shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

Some people are content to live with the chickens. Other people aren't content until they soar with the eagles. Come on, rise up today. Let the Lord lift you out of the mundane and the muck that the world just seems to smear itself all over us. And we come in here just filled up on the inside with just the world and what the world has done. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. So God wants to renew your strength.

Some of you today, when you leave and you walk out to the parking lot, you're going to go, "Whew! I feel so much better. What happened?" Well, one of those wonderful things happened. One of the wonders of worship happened. You waited on God and God touched you and renewed you and you're stronger on the inside. Spiritually, you're stronger on the outside. You are a trinity: body, soul, and spirit. And these three parts of you is but one, and they interact with each other. But you can have your energy renewed. How many need an energy renewal today? Okay, this is what happens when you worship.

Okay, number two. Look at number two. The wonders of worship. A second wonder of worship is that it resolves our questions. Say that. Resolves. Resolves our questions. We have questions. All of us do. Questions, lots of questions, unanswerable questions. Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to good people? Have you ever gotten a real, real good answer for that? You have some suppositions and some guesses and maybe a few seem to temporarily satisfy you, but bad things happening to good people. Wonderful people. A Christian dies of cancer. Why didn't the Lord heal them? A believer, a fine person, dies in an accident.

My sister, 26 years old. What a fine girl she was. Just a fine girl. Why did that happen? My mother's been asking me that question for many, many years. "You're a preacher? You're a theologian?" She doesn't put it quite like that, but she sort of does too. She lays it right on me. Jack, she says to me, the Bible says that if you honor your parents, that's a statement with promise, that you'll have long life. Your sister honored her father, your sister honored me, but she died at 26. Jack, can you answer that? Tell me what about that. What does the Bible say?

Have you been asked any questions like that that you can't answer? I'm not even going to pretend to answer some questions because I don't know the answers to many, many questions. Listen, Job asked 288 questions in the book of Job. You go home and count them this afternoon. 288 questions! And do you know how many answers he got to those questions? Not very many.

But he ended up being happy. He ended up with joy. He ended up with prosperity. He ended up so much far better off than when he was asking those questions. How did he end up with all of this blessing and all of these good things in his life? Because his questions were answered? Absolutely not. Most of his questions were not answered or neither were they ever answered.

Do you know why he ended up with joy and happiness? Because he believed in God. Because he worshiped God. Because he came into the presence of God. When you come into the presence of God, everything seems to be alright. When you come into the presence of God, or when the presence of God comes into your life, it seems as though you know at that moment that he's in charge, that he is God, that he is omnipotent and ultimately everything's going to turn out alright.

I've had people say, "Boy, when I get to heaven, am I going to ask God some things." Why don't you ask him now? You're as close to him now as you will be then. You mean he doesn't talk back to you? Of course he talks back. But the answers to your questions will not bring you the happiness, the satisfaction, the joy. You see, if I could answer that question to my mother regarding my sister, she might have an answer, but she still wouldn't have her daughter, would she? She might have an answer, but that still wouldn't stop her grieving and mourning, would it?

So answers don't really resolve anything. They certainly don't bring joy and happiness and prosperity of spirit. You see, when you have a question rolling around in your mind, it drains off your energy because it keeps repeating itself, repeating itself, repeating itself. You obsess over it. Why? Why? Why? Why? And you keep searching and you keep looking and you keep asking. You're asking when you're driving the car. You're asking when you're eating breakfast. You're asking at church. That question just keeps going on and on. You ruminate it, you ruminate it on and on, and it exhausts you. It tears you down. It wears you out. And you don't get an answer.

Hey, listen, you're not going to get an answer. I need to say that one again. You're not going to get an answer. You're not. What God wants to do is answer that question wordlessly. He wants to answer your questions with his presence. Somehow in the presence of Jesus, I know everything's going to be alright. Say that. Everything's going to be alright. That assurance comes. I just know that he's in charge, that ultimately he's going to triumph, that ultimately his will is going to be done, that ultimately everything's going to be alright and I don't need an answer to that why that happened.

So today you worship in spirit and in truth, and what I have down here in the outline listed as number two, your questions will go away because you don't need an answer, you need Jesus. When you have Jesus, you have the joy, you have the peace, you have the happiness, you have the prosperity spiritually that you need. Isn't that wonderful? All because of Jesus.

Now, number three, write down the word regulates. Regulates our lives. That's what worship will do. It will regulate our lives. God gives guidance, God gives direction. We're no longer out of control. Somehow, listen to me, right now you can get a grip on things in the presence of Jesus. You can get direction for your life. You can know that I'm not going to walk out here and go home blindly and just be open to whim and circumstances. No, I've got a shepherd. I have a God. My life is under his regulation, under his control. He is regulating my life. I'm not going off in all directions and spinning my wheels, getting nothing accomplished. I have a regulator, Jesus Christ. He is regulating my life.

Now, I'm going to turn to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Look at this scripture with me. I'm going to read beginning at verse 1. In the church at Antioch—now, this is a Gentile church, a Greek church, this is not a Jewish church. In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. Prophets were like at that time they were evangelists. They would go, they would plant churches, they would win souls. Teachers were the pastors. They were the elders who stayed put and tried to develop spirituality in the people.

Now let me go back. In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas—now Barnabas we know was a Jew. Simeon, called Niger. Lucius of Cyrene. Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch—now he had been a foster brother to Herod Antipas, Manaen, he was a Greek. And Saul. Saul we know was Paul the Apostle.

Now look what happened. Look at verse 2. While they—these Greeks, these Jews, these Africans—while they were worshiping the Lord. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said. Friends, do you want God to talk to you? While they were worshiping, the Holy Spirit said. People say, "Oh, if I could just hear God say something to me." Worship in spirit and in truth and he'll talk to your heart.

While they were worshiping. Let me get back here. The Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." The Holy Spirit talks in worship. Now, look at this. There's Barnabas the Jew, there's Simeon called Niger. Now, Simeon is thought to be the same Simon the Cyrene who first met Jesus and upon meeting Jesus, carried the cross of Jesus. When Jesus was carrying the cross going to Mount Calvary and he fell beneath the cross, one of the Roman soldiers found this African and said, "Now you carry his cross." Simeon did not want to carry the cross. He did not want to do it. He resented with a passion carrying the cross of Jesus.

But now look, here he is poised with the cross to take the message of the cross to the people of the world. The church was on the verge of going into missions. And the thing that he resented doing then physically, now with joy, with prayer, with worship, with fasting, with joy, he says we will carry the message of the cross. I literally carried his cross. Now I'm going to carry the message of the cross so that others might know him and might worship.

The very first missionaries went out on that missionary committee. There was this man Simeon, Simon called Niger. The word Simeon is a Hebrew word, a Jewish word. The word Niger is a Latin word meaning black. There is no question about it that there were Jews, Gentiles there, and some of those Gentiles were Africans. They had the message. It burned in their heart. They were overjoyed and they wanted to share it, the good news, with the world.

It all came about, that church, not because they had a business meeting, not because they went by the Robert Rules of Order, not because they followed parliamentary procedure. It is because they worshiped, fasted, and prayed, and God spoke. Listen, who runs the church? We need to pray. We need to come down before the Lord.

Now we're going to go back to Psalm 99 verse 5. "Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool for he is holy." Do you need spiritual renewal and physical renewal and new strength today? The world's beat up on you? Worship the Lord. Do you have questions? Unanswerable questions? Questions that you cannot answer? You see, life is so mysterious and so unpredictable. Who knows what a day's going to bring forth and how many more things that are going to happen and you're going to wonder why and seek an answer? Friend, all you need is Jesus.

You're never going to be able to resolve the issues of life, solve the problems and answer the questions. You see, sometimes we say Christ is the answer to everything. You and I go around boasting that Christianity has all the answers. Listen, only in the presence of Jesus does Christianity have all the answers. Not because you're a smart Bible student. You can't answer them. But the presence of Jesus. Christ is the answer and only Christ.

And do you need direction for your life today? You're wondering, you're searching, you're looking, you're even groping and you're saying, "Oh, if I only knew what God wanted me to do." Stop asking. There's a time for asking. But there's a time for worshiping. While they worshiped, the Holy Spirit said. Have you heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling you today? Then you've been in worship.

These are the wonders of worship. Only some of the wonders of worship. But in worshiping God, answers come, energy comes, healing comes, blessing comes. Ultimately, you know that everything's going to turn out alright. Ultimately, his will is going to be done. Ultimately, he's going to triumph. And that is enough to satisfy any Christian. Can you say praise the Lord?

Guest (Male): When we enter God's presence with humble hearts, worship becomes more than a weekly routine. It becomes a place where weary hearts are renewed, questions begin to find answers, and hope is restored. The Lord still delights in doing wonderful things for those who seek him.

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Next time, Pastor Morris is here and continues this inspiring series with "Divine Worship of Almighty God," showing us what it truly means to be in the church rather than simply attending church.