The Healing Word

Guest (Male): 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: Are you ready to step into life? In the happiness and the heavenly bliss, to be the hero that he has birthed you into this world to be.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Healing Word, a ministry dedicated to offering strength and encouragement through God's word for anyone facing life's challenges. As believers, we want to serve God and walk in his will. Though the path isn't always easy, today's message is here to meet you at your point of need, bringing hope and renewing your faith. Now, here's Pastor Jack Morris.

Pastor Jack Morris: If you have your Bibles open to John chapter 1, we're going to look at two times John the Baptist points to Jesus, and the second time he points to Jesus, his disciples, at least two of them, are attracted to him. They didn't get it the first time, but they got it the second time, and they never left him. I tell you, once Jesus touches your heart, your heart changes. Look at this. Look at verse 29. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now, this is the the next day or after Jesus returned from the temptation in the wilderness, that's the passage that I spoke from last Sunday. And now look drop down to verse 35. It says all basically the same thing. The next day, John was there again, again, and with two of his disciples that when he saw Jesus passing by, he said basically the same thing that that he said the day before, Look the Lamb of God. Now, when he said it the second time, on the third day, two of his disciples started following Jesus, and Jesus turned around, saw them following him.

Can you can you imagine somebody follow you wherever you're going? Wouldn't that sort of raise your curiosity a little bit? And so Jesus turned to them and asked them, What do you want? Isn't that what it says here in verse 38? Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, What do you want? Now, what did they ask him? Look at the last part. Where are you staying? Now, at first, that seems like a very dumb question, doesn't it? I mean, look at look at it for just a moment. Think about it for a moment. He has been designated the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And then somebody says, Where do you live? The Lamb of God? Where do you live? Couldn't they have thought of a better question than that? But that was the question that they asked him. Where do you live? Strange question, but that must be interpreted in light of the culture of that time, and a little bit it goes on even to this day. The culture of that time is an was an oriental type culture in the Middle East. And it is so that a person that is being designated as one of esteem, their background, their father's image, their family history is so absolutely important.

That's what what Nathanael when was pointed out to Nathanael, uh this is the Lamb of God from Nazareth. He said, Can any good thing come from Nazareth, a city like that? No one ever heard of that little village cabbage patch up on the mountain somewhere. There there's nothing good that's ever come from there. So when a person in that culture uh looked at a individual, that individual was esteemed depending upon that individual's father, his father's accomplishments, uh his father's wealth. Uh now listen, even today, even today, somebody came on the parking lot here years ago, years ago.

They they spoke to me after the service and they said, Wow, you have a lot of expensive automobiles out there on the parking lot. Well, don't we look at a person and say, Wow, do you see the house they live in? Do you know the neighborhood they live in? Do you see the car they drive? Do you know what kind of job they have? Either that person is going higher and higher depending on all of these external trappings. That's even so here in America. So these disciples of John starting to follow Jesus asked, Where do you live?

Where you live? Your family background? Where you're from? What kind of work you do? If you are the Lamb of God, tell us, show us. Well, Jesus said, Come and see. Come and I will show you. I wonder what he showed them. On one occasion, Jesus said, The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has not where to lay his head. So what did he show them? The scripture clearly indicates that he never owned any property, never owned a house. I don't know whether where he took them under a tree somewhere and talked to them, but all day and all night he talked to them about the kingdom of God and the word of God.

They became so enchanted, so impressed, so attracted. You see, friends, some people love the word of God. And when the word of God is being taught and preached, they're there because I just can't get enough of the word of God. It feeds my soul. It stretches me on the inner man. It reveals Jesus to me. It brings me into the greatest fellowship on earth. And on I could go telling you about the word of God. So Jesus gave them the word of God, and these two disciples came back. One of them was named Andrew. His name is given in this chapter.

The other's name is not given, but we assume that his name was John, the writer of the Gospel of John. These two disciples came back, and Andrew finds his brother Peter and says, We have found the Messiah. And then Jesus finds Philip. Philip finds Jesus. Philip finds Nathanael. All of a sudden, there are five of the 12 disciples already lined up to follow Jesus. Friends, this question is today, How attracted are we to Jesus? If we are attracted to him, we're going to follow him. And we're going to love following Jesus. Loving Jesus makes it easy to follow him.

Everyone of those disciples, except the Apostle John who wrote the book of John, the Gospel of John, the book of Revelation, and was one of the disciples of John the Baptist who followed Jesus on that first following. That is the only disciple that died a natural death. All the rest of them were crucified or stoned to death or died. But when you're following Jesus, nothing can keep you from loving him, serving him, and worshiping him. Hey friend, how tied in are you? Come on, we need to look at ourselves. How attracted are we? These men were attracted to Jesus.

Now, when they came back, they were telling everybody about Jesus. They didn't come back and say, Oh, we found where he lives. We know who his dad is. His dad's a carpenter. Well, if they'd have started talking like that, a carpenter was not a person of high professional esteem. And his dad was not an officer in the synagogue. It was not anything about Jesus culture, his personal culture that attracted them. It was Jesus. It was Jesus that attracted them. And they came back not talking about what the man had, what Jesus had, what he possessed.

It was Jesus that they were attracted to and that they loved. Andrew, Philip, Nathanael, John. These men were coming in attracted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Years ago, Chris and I visited London, England. We were on a vacation. And I had the privilege of going to Westminster Chapel on a morning worship service. You know, I just can't stay away from church. I've got to be with the people of God. And if it's in England, fine. And when I went to Africa to teach, it was there. When I go to the Philippines, it's there. The people of God are my people.

That's that's the strongest binding family on earth, the spirituality, because I'm going to live with you throughout all eternity. Now, what is that spell? What is there about Jesus? What is there about him? Well, number one, what is the number one? Number two, three. All right, let's go back to number one. Jesus is a man alive and life is it actually what all of us want. We want to be alive all our life. There are many people, I'm sure, who are living physically, but they're not living spiritually. They're they're truly not enjoying life. They're truly not alive.

They're really not alive. They they look like they're alive. They go to work. They go to even some of them go to church, but they're really not alive because they have not experienced him who is the resurrection and the life, the Lord Jesus. But Jesus is a man who is alive. They they felt these disciples Andrew, John, Philip, Nathanael. Uh these men felt that Jesus had the secret to the keys of life. In his presence, they didn't feel alive, but they felt that he was alive and he that he also knew how to give them life and to unlock life to them.

How often reading the New Testament the word life is on the lips of Jesus? There was a rich young ruler that came to Jesus on one occasion and asked him, Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, think about this young man for just a moment. He was a young, wealthy ruler. We live in a culture of youth. This is a youth culture. It has been. People want to be young. People want to look young. We buy all kinds of cosmetics, men and women, to make ourselves look young. Yeah. I remember my mother telling me before she died, she said, Why don't you get some of that stuff and put it on your hands and run it through your hair, get rid of that gray?

Well, look young. Well, this man had youth, and he also had wealth, but he didn't have life. If he had life, he wouldn't have gone to Jesus and asked, What can I do to get life? The very thing that most people think that is so important in this world is youth and money. Those two things. If you have youth and you have money, you can buy anything. You have youth, you have your health, you can do anything and go anywhere. But this man was honest enough to know that he didn't have life. He had everything that the world longs for and is attracted to.

But he knew he didn't have life. Friend, you've got to look at your own heart. How alive are you? Are you really enjoying this abundant life that Jesus has come to give? This young ruler didn't have it. He had everything else, but he didn't have life. A man alive. People are attracted to life. And when I go into a hospital, one of the very places I always enjoy is going down by looking at the newborn babies. Why? They're alive. It 's new life. Life has come. Don't you like babies? Okay. Life. We're attracted to life.

We're not attracted to death. I remember years ago as a little boy when I was with my cousins, we were driving down the road and um we went by a cemetery and I said to them, I said, Oh, look, there's a graveyard. They said, Hey, don't say that. Don't look that way. Don't look that way. Well, people aren't attracted to death but to life. But many people are dead in trespasses and sins, but they're still young like the rich young ruler. Their their wealth, they've got good jobs, they have a great income, but they don't have life.

But Jesus offers life. And these men were attracted to Jesus because he was a man alive. They were attracted to him because he was a man who knew. He he spoke like no other man. He he his words rang true. And they were interested in hearing the word of God and every opportunity. I mean, they stayed up all night and listened to him talk. And what did he talk? The very thing that I have in my hand and that you have in your hand this this morning. Life. He talked the word of God. Friend, listen, and I know you are, and I thank you for listening.

You know and I know there is so much falsehood in the world today. When I'm what looking at my computer, there's advertisements pop up, pop up, pop. I'm continually clicking them away because I can't read the email because the advertisements are coming over the email or over the thing that I'm trying to find and and and search for. And and they're telling me all of this that that's going to make life beautiful and wonderful. And if I'd only buy if I'd only buy this, if I'd only order that, and on and on it goes. And what can I say about the politicians today?

I I'll say nothing. How about that? You've already heard it in your own heart. Who can we believe? But Jesus spoke and his words were true. They entered into the heart and his words were alive and it made those men feel alive. No wonder they came back and said, We have found the Messiah. And my question is, friend, ask yourself today, Have you found the Messiah? Have you drifted away to any degree? Uh the world has an attraction and it will attract us, but he has a greater attraction if we'll turn to him and look to him, he will draw us to himself.

And he was a man who cared. A man who cared. You see, Jesus was so alive and Jesus spoke such great truth. On one occasion, the Pharisees asked the officers, the police officers, to go arrest him and bring him back. Go arrest Jesus and bring him back. Well, the officers went. Now, the officers weren't prejudiced at all. They had they didn't care one way or another. They were just following orders. That's all they were doing, just following orders. So they went to arrest Jesus. And after a considerable amount of time, they came back without him.

And so the Pharisees said, We sent you to arrest Jesus. Where is he? And you know what those disciples said? Something that I hope you and I can say. They said, Never a man spoke like that man speaks. We've never heard anything like it. You see, what happened was they went to arrest Jesus. They heard the words of Jesus and his words arrested them. Friend, come under the arrest of Jesus. Let him take you and put you into his kingdom of life and joy. And he was a man who cared. Friend, those three things should attract anybody to him.

A man who is alive, a man who knows about heaven and earth and how to live the abundant life, a man who cares. You see, Jesus was always attracted to sickness, to suffering, to sorrow. It it seemed to pull him in. And every funeral procession, you read it if every funeral procession that he came in contact with, he broke it up by raising the dead to life again. He doesn't like death, not even spiritual death. But he's alive and he brings life. There was a funeral procession of the widow of Nain. Her young son died.

He was her only possession. He was her only support. And she was deeply grieved. And they passed by Jesus. The funeral bearers, they were on their way to the cemetery. And Jesus walked over, touched that casket, brought that man back to life again, gave him back to his mother and said, Here's your son who loves you. Here's your son who's going to support you. Jesus cares about people and he sees grief and he knows who's grieving and he knows what's causing grief. But he will enter into that grief because he cares. He's a Christ of compassion, the Jesus of compassion.

The sisters of Lazarus were weeping and Jesus knew he was going to raise Lazarus, but he identified with their grief. And he wept with them. Friend, Jesus cares about you today. If I could only communicate that that Jesus cares about you and where you are and what you're experiencing. He's a man alive. He's a man who speaks truth. Come hear the word and let your faith be built up and be acquainted with him. You can only be acquainted with him through his word. And if you ignore the word, you're never going to get acquainted with him.

Come on, we need to make a few changes. These disciples said, Where do you live? Where do you stay? Let's sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of him and allow him to excite us and turn us on. And then he said to the disciples, he said, Follow me. Follow me. Come on, put it on the screen. Point C. He'll lead you to life, will he not? He'll lead you to life, the very thing that you and I want and long for. Life life everlasting, life now and life forevermore. On one occasion, the Italian sculptor Michael Angelo was chipping away at a big stone of marble.

And someone it is said walked by and asked him, Oh, what are you doing? He said and he kept chipping away. He said, I'm releasing the angel in that block of stone. He designed an angel. Friend, God wants to release something in you. He wants to make you the hero that he born you into this life to be. Stop living the dead life. Say it's Jesus and I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to do his will. I'm going to serve him. You see, Jesus sees us not as we are, but as he can make us to become the hero that's in there.

He's going to release by his words, by his power, by his truth. He will speak words of life. Will he not? As he said, Lazarus come forth. Friend, if you don't hear the word of God, if you don't read the word of God, you're never going to hear him call your name and say, come forth. But today, I believe you're hearing him call your name. He's calling you into that person, that being that he birthed you into this world to be. And he cares about you. He says, come and you will see. That's what he said to the disciples, those two disciples.

Come and you will see. Come and I'll make you the man that I designed you to be. We're trying to make something out of ourselves, enhance our life, lift ourselves up, glorify ourselves, make ourselves young again. We can't do that, but sometimes with the right makeup, we can look a little younger than We're we're we're trying to do all of this and we just keep failing year after year after year. Friend, this is the day the Lord has made. This is the day that God's going to cause you to rejoice and be happy in him.

This is the day provided provided you're attracted to Jesus. And the way to get attracted to Jesus is to draw near to him. And you're under the sound of his word this morning. Now, the decision is yours to make. The scripture says in Psalm 142 verse 4, it talks about the person who feels alone, lost. No one cares. There's a song that is has been written. No man careth for my soul. No one cares for me. This can become a very lonely world. Oh, we have a lot of people that we know by first name, but they're so distant.

They have their own troubles, their own worries, their own concerns. I remember hearing that song. No man careth for my soul. Yes, there's someone who does. Psalm 142 verse 4, no one is concerned for me. No one cares for my life. Yes, Jesus does. Follow me, he says, and he'll lead you into life. You'll step right into happiness. You'll step right into heavenly bliss if you give your heart to Jesus. And if you've drifted and been attracted and the attraction has caused you to be somewhat dim in your vision and there's been a film over your spiritual eyes.

Come on, he has a new set of lens for you to look through today. His word, his life. Are you ready to step into life? Into happiness, into heavenly bliss, to be the hero that he has birthed you into this world to be.

Guest (Male): We pray that you were blessed by today's message. As we close, here's a final word from Pastor Morris.

Pastor Jack Morris: Christ is calling us to follow him. Friend, follow Jesus and he will lead you to life, abundant life. He came that we might have life and have it to the full. We're attracted to life. I'm so thankful you were here today to hear this message and know that God loves you and he has life, abundant life for you. Come alive in Jesus.

Guest (Male): If this ministry has blessed you, would you consider standing with us in prayer and financial support? Visit thehealingword.com to give today. Together, let's share the healing hope of Christ with more people than ever before. Join us tomorrow for another healing word message. Until then, blessings on you.