The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: You've got to look to Jesus. You've got to pray to Jesus. You've got to say, "I am poor in my spirit. I am weak. I am famished. I have no help and no strength. I might be as strong as an ox physically, but inside there are things that I've got to move beyond and overcome, and I can't do it."

Until you are that honest with yourself and with God, then you're not poor in spirit and you're not going to receive the kingdom of God. But when you humble yourself and say, "I need God. I need that anointing. I need that one who has the divine enablement to help me."

Friend, when I come down before God in all transparency, openness, and honesty, then the divine favor, then I'm experiencing the year of the Lord's favor. Then I'm in that period of time when God is doing great things and he's doing great things for me.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Healing Word. 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 year of God's favor. What does that mean, the year of God's favor? It means God's doing great and beautiful things for his people today and for this world. That's exactly what it means. In the Old Testament, we read about the year of Jubilee. In the New Testament, we read the year of God's favor. Now, these are synonymous. Think about it with me: the year of Jubilee, the year of God's favor.

The year of Jubilee happened every 50 years in the Old Testament to Israel. Every 50 years, they would take out their silver trumpets and they would call out a sound like a siren throughout the land of Israel—its length, its breadth—that this is the year of Jubilee. All prisoners go free, all slaves go free, all debts are canceled. Everyone who has lost property now can go back and their property of their ancestors are restored to them. It's a year of Jubilee.

Now Jesus comes along in the New Testament and talks about the year of God's favor. Now what happened in the Old Testament—debts canceled, property restored, slaves and prisoners go free—now in the New Testament, this is happening in a greater measure in a spiritual way. Now there's a little you might look and think there's a discrepancy here from what is said by Isaiah in Isaiah 61 and what Jesus is talking about in Luke chapter 4.

Jesus stops at verse 19 in Luke 4 and says to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. In Isaiah, there's one more sentence talking about the day of God's vengeance. Look, the day of God's vengeance up against the year of God's favor. Now the year of God's favor is not a 12-month year, but it's a period of time. There will come a day of vengeance. Jesus is not here to talk about the day of vengeance right now. He's here to talk about the blessing of God's favor.

The blessing of the Lord's favor started with the birth of Jesus Christ. It has come down 2,000 years. We are still living in the year of God's favor. The day of vengeance is out there somewhere in the future. We're not even going to deal with that right now because Jesus didn't deal with it right now. Jesus wants us to know that he is favoring us, that his favor is upon all who will believe in him.

Last week, we talked about the visit of Peter to Cornelius. Do you remember that? You don't have to raise your hand. Well, if you weren't here last week, you're going to have to do some catching up now and it might be just a little bit confusing because we're interfacing with each lesson, each sermon as we go along. We're not a miss and hit Sunday congregation. We come to church on the Lord's day because the spirit tells us to be here, because our souls need fed, our souls need strengthening, because we're going out there to face a hostile world. We need Sunday worship. Come on!

We need God. We need God's word. God knows we need God's word. This is the year of God's favor. God is favoring us and we're not even here to get the favor. That's funny, isn't it? No, it isn't funny. But last week, we talked about Peter going to Cornelius' house. Cornelius was a Roman. He was a Gentile. Peter didn't believe that God had any good thing or any favors for Gentiles. Peter only thought that it was for Jews.

But God is no respecter of persons. He loves all people. But it takes a divine revelation from God in order to put down racism and prejudice. It doesn't happen easily, and it does happen in the church, but there is racism and prejudice even in the church. Peter was a racist. He believed God's blessings were for Jews only, all the apostles up until that time. But God came with a divine revelation to show Peter that the Gentiles are also included.

God gave to Peter, Jesus did, the keys of the kingdom to unlock God's favor to all people. Peter was the one that unlocked that experience of the favor of God to Jewish people, to Gentile people. Friend, we're all included in this. We're all included. Now just give me just a moment. And I don't want to talk about racism today. That's not the purpose of my message. But racism is alive and well and sending its chill throughout the land.

The church has been around for over 2,000 years and racism is still alive and well. We are the light of the world. Who just sang that just a moment ago? We sing about it, we preach about it, and yet we have feelings still inside that the Holy Spirit hasn't touched yet. But God spoke to Peter and said, "You go to those people that you think are beneath you, those people you think are more ignorant than you are, those people who are less valued than you are." Peter says, "Me?" It took a divine revelation on the roof for God to come down on Peter to reveal this to Peter.

Now this past week something—well, it happened on February the 26th—this 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin, was killed. I don't know whether that racism was involved in that. It may have been, it may not have been. But racism is still here. It's still ugly. It's still detestable. And friend, I'm convinced that there are Christians today who still are racist. Racism, prejudice is not only out there in the world in sinners, but the church is still experiencing it. Peter experienced it.

And when he thought he was free of it, the Apostle Paul had to confront him on one occasion and said, "You still eat with the Jews, and if there's a Jew around, you still go to the Jew and leave the Gentiles." Years after Peter had this experience. Friend, we think we're rid of racism only to find out we're still involved. God help us! We need help. We all need help from God and it's all of us. When I was in Ethiopia, I was verbally accosted by two different individuals, two different occasions.

One man walked up to me and said, "Why are you over here breathing our air?" Got right in my face. Some of the missionary friends had to take me and put me in a room and close the door to get me away from that person. I was out in the street talking to Karen on the phone on satellite. She was sick and ill. I was talking on a phone, another man walked up into my face and said, "What are you doing over here? Who are you? Who do you think you are?"

I said, "Mister, I'm talking to my wife. She's ill, she's sick." He said, "What is that to me? Get out of my country!" I'm talking about racism. Not in some people, but in all people. We have it. Come on, we all ought to say amen to it. God help us and only he can help us and only he can get that out of our hearts. Only he can do it. He got it out of Peter's heart, but it had a way of coming back in after a period of time.

But he goes to Cornelius and he says to Cornelius in all honesty, "Now I perceive that God loves all people and he is no respecter of persons." We think it's in them and not in us, but it's in us just as much as it is in them if we're honest. But only Jesus can put his love in our hearts and cause us to love all people. God so loved the world. Yeah, we say it, but do we really believe it? Do we really practice it?

God help us. If we don't who are in the church, who then is going to love the world? Who then is going to be the light of the world? Who then is going to be the salt of the earth? If we don't produce that love, it just won't be produced. But in Christ—can I say it again? In Christ. Not by might, not by power, not by your effort, not by my effort. I can't be educated into it. I can't be convinced into it by argument.

I can't read myself into it. It's only by a divine infilling of the Holy Spirit can I love all people. I want to love all people. Amen. Now what is the purpose of this holy anointing, this divine enablement upon the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor." Now Isaiah identifies who the poor are, not simply those who are without resources and means, who don't have money and don't have houses and lands.

Poor people, people in poverty. But the poor are identified by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount, his very first sermon, his all-inclusive sermon, when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit!" Those people who say, "I need help. I need God. I need his blessing. I need his favor." Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is a kingdom, a wonderful kingdom, a holy kingdom. The kingdom of God is theirs.

To preach meaning Jesus came to herald it out, to tell everybody. Listen, there's good news. The kingdom of God has come. The light of the world, the light of the world, the light of the world! We can talk about it and sing about it and still live in darkness with bad attitudes, unforgiving spirits, hurt feelings. We can't get over it. You can't get over it until the light of the world shines in, enabling you with a divine anointing.

You've got to look to Jesus. You've got to pray to Jesus. You've got to say, "I am poor in my spirit. I am weak. I am famished. I have no help and no strength. I might be as strong as an ox physically, but inside there are things that I've got to move beyond and overcome, and I can't do it." And until you are that honest with yourself and with God, then you're not poor in spirit and you're not going to receive the kingdom of God.

But when you humble yourself and say, "I need God. I need that anointing. I need that one who has the divine enablement to help me." Friend, when I come down before God in all transparency, openness, and honesty, then the divine favor, then I'm experiencing the year of the Lord's favor. Then I'm in that period of time when God is doing great things and he's doing great things for me. God wants to do something for me today.

He wants to do something for me, he wants to do something for you, and he is here to do it. Now listen to what he goes on to say in Isaiah. We're going to jump over to Isaiah now. Isaiah prophesied that what he's going to do, he's going to help the poor in spirit, strengthen the poor in spirit, give the poor in spirit ability and strength to do spiritual things: overcome, forgive, move beyond, change personality, change attitude, a new creature, born again.

Friend, there's something wrong when we're born again and we still have old habits, old ways, old dispositions, old attitudes, old unforgiving spirits. Then, friend, we are not born again. We're a good law-abiding Christian but the spirit of the enablement of Jesus, something's wrong, something is missing. Friend, it's time to come down before God in all humility and say, "It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer." And then the blessing will come upon us.

But then he goes on to say—Isaiah says in Isaiah 61—this one who has coming, this one who did come in Luke chapter 4 and opened the scroll and said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Isaiah said he will bind up the brokenhearted. The brokenhearted. Who can bind a broken heart? What is he talking about, a broken heart? I've heard people say, "Oh my heart is broken." What does that mean, a broken heart?

He said he will bind up the brokenhearted. Now if I break my bone in my arm or break my bone in my leg, a physician, a doctor can bind it up, bandage it up, put it in the cast, wait for it to heal. A doctor can do that for physical brokenness. But who can reach a broken heart and bind it up? A shattered life, a broken life, who can take care of that? The scripture says he has come, he is anointed, he is empowered to bind up the brokenhearted.

He can come. I think of that word broken and it takes me back to the upper room when Jesus took bread, and what did he do with that bread? Come on, say it, he broke it. He took bread and broke it. And what did he say when he broke that bread? He said, "This is my body, broken for you, broken for you." Now in Christ, my brokenness is taken care of. Jesus' body was broken so that I might be healed of brokenness.

Jesus' body was broken because he cared for me and he cared for you and he loved us. Jesus' body was broken and now he comes with love that is whole and complete and he wraps my brokenness, the pieces of my broken life, the pieces of my broken heart, he wraps it in his love. He binds it up. He binds up the brokenhearted with his own broken body and his shed blood which is love poured forth. He binds up the brokenhearted. Only Jesus can do that.

Broken lives, broken marriages, broken homes, broken careers, broken, broken, broken, there's brokenness everywhere. Broken testimonies, broken Christian lives, broken. But let him come, let him put the wrap you up in love today through his brokenness. He will bind up the brokenness. And then the next thing he will do, he will free the captives and release from darkness the prisoners. Isn't that wonderful? This is the year of the Lord's favor.

This is the year of Jubilee in the Old Testament. This is the year of the Lord's favor in the New Testament. This is what God is doing, freeing the captives. People so bound today, so bound, so bound with an un-Christ-like disposition, un-Christ-like attitude, unforgiving spirits, bound up. People bound with habits that are unclean, bound up. We don't want to be bound by any of those dispositions, any of those emotions, any of those habits.

We don't want to. How do we get free from it? Jesus. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me, he has enabled me, he has empowered me." He can do what you want done that you can't get done. Friend, stop being miserable. Every time I see that person I just... Friend, get rid of that and get the love of Jesus in your heart. Get rid of old you! He has come to loose the captives.

People are enslaved and you're carrying that enslavement. Where are you carrying it? Right here in your broken heart, your broken life. It's not always been that way, was it? But you can be restored and you can get back to where you used to be through Jesus, through Jesus, through Jesus. Can you say amen? It's all through Jesus. Listen, this binding, this captivity, this enslavement, I'm not even thinking about the unsaved out there.

I'm talking about Christians, church people, baptized people. That's where judgment must begin, in the house of God. That's where it starts in the church, in the house of the Lord. And then we take that sweet spirit of Jesus and we go out there into the world and let our light shine and let him shine through us. Jesus. Binding. Oh, how long, how long, how long are we going to be bound by something we don't want to be bound by anymore?

How long? We heard the story just a few weeks ago when Dr. Rob Rodan was here. How that this young missionary, young girl about 27, 28 years old from Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, went to Afghanistan. Not as a church missionary, but in civil service. And she was captured by the Afghans, captured. A young girl, can you imagine being a young girl, a woman, in that situation, that ungodly, detestable, evil, diabolical situation that she was in?

An American. And then the Navy SEALs were sent in. The Navy SEALs were sent in and they rescued her. They brought her out. She's now being rehabilitated. Friend, I think today of those of us who need rescuing. We need rescuing. We need somebody to throw us a lifesaver. We need somebody to come down from heaven. We need a redeemer to be born into this world. We need Michael the Archangel to bear his sword, to come in with ten thousands of the saints of God.

Jesus could have called ten thousands for himself but he didn't do it. But he will call ten thousands to redeem you if you will call upon him and ask. He will not ask for himself, but he'll ask for you. And the warrior from heaven will come and release you, deliver you, restore you and make you a whole, complete believer in Jesus Christ. I think of people who are mourning today, who are grieving over past mistakes, over past failures, things that have happened.

Friend, none of us—at least you're smart enough and I am to know—that none of us can go back and undo anything. But we can forgive what was done. We can look to the Lord who forgave us and he will bless, he'll restore. Friend, we've got to move on from here. We are stuck in a no man, a no woman's land, in quicksand, and it's not getting any better. He will bless those who mourn. He will comfort those who mourn over wrongs.

"What have I done wrong in the past that haunts me now? What memories do I have that are tormenting me?" Those memories that are dark memories. "Oh if I could push them out of my mind, if I could just forget, forget, forget and go on from here." Friend, you can't forget. The only thing you can do is confess and repent. That's the only way to move on. But when you do, when you do, you're in the year of God's favor.

Remember that. God's blessing will come. He'll make you a brand new person. You will look and act and behave just like Jesus, just like Jesus. This is what he'll do.

Guest (Male): We pray that you were blessed by today's message. But before we go, are you seeking a way to start your week filled with hope and inspiration? Every Monday morning, receive a fresh devotional delivered right to your inbox to uplift your spirit and encourage you throughout the week. Pastor Jack Morris carefully crafts each message with scripture that speaks to the heart, reflections to inspire growth, and practical steps to help you live out your faith every day.

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