The Healing Word

Guest (Male): Psalm 107, verse 20. He sent his word and healed them. Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here is 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: We wouldn't know what we know today if it were not for what you're holding in your hand: the word of God. You pray this prayer after me: Thank you, Father, for your holy word. Thank you; it is the bread of life. Feed my inner person with this word. Bless your word to my heart today, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

Unimaginable blessings. I just can't even imagine the love that God has bestowed on all of us. It is beyond measurement, beyond boundaries. The love of God knows no limits. Friend, we have all been blessed. We've all had hard times, and there will be more hard times, but we're all blessed of God, greatly, wonderfully blessed of the Lord. God's been good, hasn't he? God is good. Say it the way we're supposed to say it: God is good. All the time, God is good.

There was a testimony meeting, and this lady stood up in the testimony meeting and she was doing the right thing. She was telling about how good God had been to her. She said, "God has been good to me. God is good to me." And she just went on and on, and it was beautiful. And then she said, "God has been so good to me." Then she stopped and she said, "Well, after all, I've been pretty good to him, too."

Notice what the psalmist said and how he begins. He said, "I will bless the Lord at all times." Notice those first two words: "I will." I will. You see those first two words? I will. That's something that I'm going to do. I've made up my mind. My mind is fixed. There is resolve within me. I'm going to praise the Lord. I don't know what others will do; that's between them and God. But I want to tell you what I'm going to do.

Can you say in your heart today, "I will. I will praise the Lord"? It is a decision, a resolve based on what God has done, how he has manifested himself, how he has demonstrated, how he has kept us, but never more so than when he saved my soul and yours. He came into our heart, forgave our sins, gave us new life, life in the now and life everlasting, life forevermore. Life. I will. My inner power of choice.

Let me take a moment to talk about this will that every person here has. Every human being has a will, provided they have normal mental health. They have that decision-making power, that power to initiate behavior. Friend, you can basically do what you want to do, and what you want to do, that's what you're going to do. What you begin to image in your mind, pretty soon you're behaving that image.

No matter what we do, it happens so quickly. Everything a person does, if I'm deciding to go back to my office, in hundredths or thousandths of a second, my mind has a picture of me going back there, which motivates me to move and put energy into going. Everything you do. If you're going to go on a cruise, on a beautiful cruise ship, all of a sudden you see yourself walking up the gangplank, going to your room, seated at the dining table.

Now, those pictures flash through your mind. You're not even aware that they're flashing through your mind, but everything we do goes in pictures through our mind. Now, if we see ourselves praising God, if we see ourselves in church, in the house of God, we're going to be in church in the house of God. If we see ourselves praising the Lord, we're going to begin to praise the Lord. All we need to do is reflect on the blessings that God has already given to us.

What he has already done. When we begin to remember and reflect on that, we begin to behave in that fashion. There's a song, "Count Your Blessings, Name Them One by One." So when you start counting them, you're remembering them. You're reflecting upon them. There's so much truth there. So let us think of what God has done because when we think, we thank.

I was going to hold off on this message until Thanksgiving and I thought, no, I've got to thank God now. And I've got to thank God then, and I have to thank God all year long. I will bless the Lord. That's something that I'm going to do, whether my spouse does it, my kids do it, or my parents do it; it makes no difference. I'm going to serve God. I'm going to praise the Lord. There is a resolve in my heart. I've made a decision. My mind is fixed. I'm going to bless the Lord. I'm going to praise the Lord. I cannot do otherwise.

Now notice it says, "I will bless the Lord." Put the word "bless" or "extol." The word "extol" brings enlightenment to the word "bless." It helps me to understand. You say, "How do I bless the Lord?" Well, I bless him by extolling him. The word "extol" means praise enthusiastically. I glorify him. Praise him highly. Beat the drum of praise and keep beating that drum of praise.

When I'm praising the Lord and blessing the Lord, then I'm blessing him. That's how I bless the Lord: by serving him, loving him, joyfully obeying him, speaking forth his praise. He is being blessed at that time as I reflect on the blessing that has come to me. Now I can truly bless the Lord by worshiping him, praising him, thanking him, service to him, my love, my heart, my devotion. When I do these behaviors, I'm blessing the Lord.

Friend, think about it. Just take a moment and think about it. You can bless God today. We think about God blessing us. Isn't that awesome that I can turn this thing around and do to him what he has done to me and is doing to me? Can everybody put up at least one hand, the right one or the left one, and say, "Praise the Lord"?

Guest (Audience): Praise the Lord.

Pastor Jack Morris: You have just blessed God. And the more you do it, the more you bless him, and the more you bless him, the more blessings are going to come to you. Let's praise the Lord. Let's give our tongue and lips and mouth to glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is an example: In Luke chapter one verse 46, Mary, who became the mother of our Savior, became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

She must have been maybe 15, maybe 16 at the most. She was just young. That's how it was back then. And when she knew what God had done to her and she knew that she was going to bring the Savior into the world. You know, that's why God saved you. That's why God saved me. That's why Jesus is in you: so you can bring Jesus into the world. You have a ministry very similar to the Virgin Mary. You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth.

You're the most precious people who've ever lived, you who have your name written in heaven in the Book of Life. And so Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, pregnant with Jesus, goes to the high country, mountain country, to her cousin Elizabeth. Some think that Elizabeth was her aunt or her mother's sister, but she more likely was her cousin. And when Elizabeth saw Mary coming, her young cousin coming, Elizabeth spoke out and said, "Blessed are you among women."

Somehow she knew that Christ was in her. People know when Jesus is in you. They can see the love and the joy, the smile, or they can see the frown and the scowl on your face. From the abundance of the heart, the face reveals it; the tongue reveals it. Just take a moment and think about what do you talk about a lot? What do you keep talking about? All of a sudden you talk about it, you haven't gotten it out of your system yet, and pretty soon you're talking about it again.

What is it? That's what you're full of. If you're talking about Jesus, if you're praising about Jesus, you're full of Jesus. Praise the Lord for what God is doing. And so Elizabeth said, "Blessed are you among women," and Mary then, all of a sudden, she just burst forth with praise, with blessing to God. God had so blessed her. She didn't know what the future was going to hold. Maybe Joseph was going to reject her, divorce her.

Maybe she was going to be stoned to death. She knew the family wouldn't accept what had happened. But she was so full of Jesus in her womb; she was filled, and she began to praise the Lord. She said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Now notice two things: my soul, my spirit. My soul, my spirit. This is not put on. This is not ritual. This is not ceremonial.

This is my spirit. This is my soul, and he is in my soul and in my spirit. With him being in my soul and in my spirit, I can't help but bless him and shout his praises and extol him. She began to talk about the things of Jesus, the things of God. My soul, my spirit. She was talking about that eternal part of her. That is what your soul is, the very breath of her life. This is what she was talking about, her very blood.

It just didn't start with her lips; it came out of her bloodstream. It came out of her breath. It came out of her soul, her spirit, and she began to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Now when God has so wonderfully blessed us, how can we help but give praise and give thanks back to the Lord? This is what God has done for us. This is what God did for Mary, and we can praise God just as she did.

She with her mouth because it was first in her heart. But friend, if it starts with your mouth, though it has to start with a realization that I have been born again, that I'm a child of God, that I have been redeemed. Friend, you start talking about it, you start counting those kind of blessings; they'll come. Friend, I think we have an identity crisis today. I really do. I think people who are Christians don't seem to realize that they're Christians.

That they're to live different, act different, smile different, love different. There's an identity crisis. We just don't seem to know what God has done for us and who we are. He says, "My help comes from the Lord." He knew his source. His source was the Lord. Somebody said, "All that I have, all that I am, all I shall ever be, I owe to him. I owe to him. I'm here because of him. I breathe because of him."

I have life and enjoy life because of him, and when I die, I'm going to go to heaven because of him. It's all because of him, all because of Jesus. James said in James 1:17 that every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no shadow of turning, meaning what God is, God is, God always was, God always shall be. God's never going to turn from how he cares for you and me and how he blesses you and me. He's never going to turn from that.

Notice every good, not some of the things that happen in life, but everything. Think of something good right now. Can you think of it right now if we just stop for a moment? Think of something good. Well, you're in church, aren't you? You're seated by a Christian. That person is seated by you, another Christian. We're in the house of the Lord. We've sung some songs. We've had the word of God. We've had a group of young people. There's been so much good that's been going on here today.

When we stop to start counting it, we'll begin to give praise and give thanks to God. But every good and every perfect gift. Somebody might say this: "Well, Pastor, I have good health." I've never heard a Christian say this, but I think I've heard some others say this or at least I have read their thoughts. "I eat nutritionally. I don't have any unclean habits. I get adequate rest. I do all these things, so I've got good health."

Well, you should do all that. You should eat right, sleep right, exercise right, do all those good things so you can have good health. That's wonderful. But if the foundation isn't there, if you're not born with the capacity, these other things that you're doing... a person that has cancer, they can eat right, sleep right, exercise right. If they have heart trouble, they can eat right, sleep right, exercise right.

Friend, if the health isn't there to begin with, these other things aren't going to help a whole lot. But if the health is there, then by all means, let's go ahead and do it. Now, I've heard people say something like this: "You know, I'm a self-made man." Ever hear somebody say that? "I did it. I did it. I wasn't born with a golden spoon in my mouth. I'm a self-made man." Really? Really. You're breathing God's air.

You didn't choose to be born into this world. Who gave you your intelligence quotient? Who gave you the aptitude that you have? I know you developed it, but if you didn't have it as a God-given gift to begin with... someone says, "Well, I built this house, I bought this fine car, I went on these vacations, I worked hard, I've done all this. I have a right to all of that." Friend, you have. I want you to have all these things. God wants you to have all these things.

But we have to remember the source. Every good and perfect gift, every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord, comes from God above. Now he says this: "I will bless the Lord on occasion, if I don't have to go to Ocean City." No, at all times, I'm going to bless the Lord. In church and out of church, at Ocean City, on a cruise, wherever I am, I'm going to bless the Lord in every situation under every circumstance, before every trial, after every trial, bright days, dark days. I'm going to bless the Lord at all times.

All times. Friend, I'm going to say something, and I think I'm going to say it two times. If you don't get it the first time, that's okay; I'm going to say it again the second time. He who praises God for blessings shall never want a blessing. Now, those that didn't get it the first time: He who praises God for blessings shall never want a blessing. Friend, I can't be silent. I have to praise the Lord. Mary the Virgin, her heart was inflamed with praise.

When I begin to think of what God has done and how he has blessed, my heart too begins to burn within me with flame. Now I'm going to turn over quickly to Hebrews chapter two verse six. The last three weeks I've been preaching from Hebrews one and two, but there is something here that I just can't move beyond. God has me and he has you on his mind. Do you know that? God doesn't have you on his mind one day a week or on occasion when he thinks about you.

No, he has you and me on his mind. We're in his thoughts. God is paying attention to us. Now this is awesome. This is awesome. Job, it is thought maybe the Book of Job was the first book in all the Bible. I don't know for sure, but it could be, and I suspect that it was. But Job was absolutely nonplussed when he began to think about God and contemplate what God... now this is what Job said. Now listen to this: Job. "What is man that you make so much of him? That you give him so much attention? That you fix your heart on him?"

Go figure. What is man? Who am I that God pays so much attention to me, blesses me, that I can talk to him? Man, I can't... there are people that I can't talk to: the CEOs and the presidents and the people in high places. I can't get to them. They don't even know I exist. But God knows you exist. God knows you. And here is this man saying what he did about God paying attention to him.

Verse seven in Hebrews two says, "You made him, man, a little lower than the angels," simply meaning that God, in our status of life and the authority that we have, we're made a little lower than the angels. We don't have the status they have; we don't have the authority that they have. But this is only temporary. This little lower than the angels is only for this life only. It's only temporary. But then it quickly goes on to say in verse seven, "But you crown man that you made a little lower than the angels, you now crown him with glory and honor."

Now you tell me: why is God crowning you, crowning me with glory and honor? What did I do to deserve that? I sinned. I broke his law. But then Jesus came, spoke to my heart, convinced me. Somehow he got through and convinced me and you that God loves me and you, and asked us to come into his family, into his kingdom. Now when God made you and me a little lower than the angels, do you know he did the same thing to Jesus?

He made Jesus a little lower than the angels, meaning that when Jesus became human, he didn't have the status of an angel. He was lower. He didn't have the status of an angel; he didn't have the authority of an angel. But then what did God do? God turned things around and crowned Jesus with glory and honor. Now God says, "I'm going to do the same thing for you that I did for my only begotten Son. I made you a little lower than the angels; I made Jesus a little lower than the angels."

"I crowned Jesus with glory and honor; I'm going to do the same thing to you that I did for my Son. I'm going to now crown you with glory and honor." Now friend, you talk about being a blessed, blessed person. Crowned with glory and honor. And then the Lord goes on to talk about that we are now in the same family, and Jesus calls us brothers and sisters. How about that? In the family of God, this is what God has done for us.

You talk about a journey of faith and coming a distance from where we were to where we are right now. This is what God has done for us. Now let us bow before the Lord and I want you to think of all God's blessings as you leave, as you go home. This worship service has just begun. You're going to keep praising God all day long, tomorrow on your way to work when you don't feel like going. Just start praising the Lord. You'll find him so faithful and so near to you. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Guest (Male): If today's message strengthened your faith, we invite you to stand with The Healing Word through your prayers and your generous support. Every gift helps us take the Gospel to more people who desperately need to hear that Jesus still saves. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.