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.

The Healing Word program is a ministry of the Largo Community Church where Christ is honored and people are loved.

Pastor Jack Morris: We like to look at those pictures or those mental pictures of Jesus being a gentle shepherd. The pictures of his gentleness carrying a little lamb in his arms or putting his arms around the children and putting his hand upon them and blessing them. But I want you to know this is the same Jesus, not another Jesus. He's the Jesus that moves in, throws out, and overturns anything that's in you that you don't want in you. He'll come in, he'll take possession, and you'll be the happiest, most victorious Christian ever.

Welcome once again to The Healing Word. Pastor Jack Morris is going to lead us in a study of the events leading up to Resurrection Sunday. So I invite you now to listen to today's message, "When Jesus Comes."

The day Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he did two great and wonderful things. The first thing he did was to cleanse the temple, and this was the second time he cleansed the temple. The first time was at the beginning of his ministry, the time we're reading about today is at the end of his ministry. Also on that very day, he cursed the fig tree, and the next day the disciples noticed that it had withered.

There are many things that Jesus did in the next seven days that are going to lead us right up to Easter. I don't have enough time, there are not enough Sundays to deal with each one of those specific events, but I'm going to just select certain ones. But I felt that the Holy Spirit would lead us to talk about the cleansing of the temple and what that means to us today, how relevant it is.

But now as I go, I just want to digress here just a moment. If you'll look at verse 10, it says when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?" I read that and I thought to myself, people have been asking that same question for 2,000 years, and some of us haven't, or some of us have come up with the right answer.

You see, when we get the answer right, what is written in verses 14 and 15 will happen. In those two verses, it says the blind could see, he healed the blind. He healed the lame and they could walk. He blessed the people and the children sang, "Hosanna." You see, when we get the answer right, when we stop guessing, when we know Jesus in a personal way.

There's a friend of mine, he said that he graduated from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. An old Presbyterian minister became his very close friend, and the Presbyterian minister said to him, referring to him as an evangelical, said, "We Presbyterians teach people the Bible, you evangelicals help people to experience the Bible." So that's what I'm here to do today and what the Largo Community Church is all about. We want to know the Bible, but we want to experience the Bible. We want to experience Jesus, the living word. We want to know the written word, but we also want to know the living word.

Now it says in verse 12, Jesus entered the temple. This is Palm Sunday. There had been the Hosannas, the waving of the palms, the little donkey that he rode. He dismounted that donkey, he goes into the temple. He entered the temple. In Deuteronomy, it says the place God put his name for his dwelling. Now we know the church is the people. We're the church.

A number of years ago, Corene and I were in the Philippines, and we were out in a jungle area. We gathered under a big tree that had big branches, and about 80 or 85 Filipino men and women and children gathered there. Corene gave a testimony, we were standing on the soil and on the grass, and then I had an opportunity to preach. There's no edifice, no building there at all, but we were a church. The church was there gathered under that tree. The church is here today. We're the church, the people.

But you know, there's something about the building also. I want to say something about 1701 Enterprise Road. People tell me they drive by and they read the sign, and sometimes the sermon title is right, sometimes it's wrong, like today. But sometimes I get it right. Jesus had great respect for the temple, the house where people gathered to worship. This is the house of God. We are standing on holy ground. There are angels all around. Jesus is here to bless us and to do something.

I can come in this place anytime during the week and I feel awe, I feel reverence. No one is here, but the house is here. I remember here's where I preach and the choir sings and people praise these choruses and hymns, and I know I'm here. I know this is a holy place. Holy communion, the Lord's supper is taken here, and I reverence this place.

Jesus reverenced the temple. There had been many temples. Temples started with Solomon and had been destroyed. Now this temple was referred to as Herod's temple, and Jesus reverenced it because he was taken there when he was an infant and circumcised and brought under the covenant of Abraham and Moses. I bless the parents when they bring their babies here to the altar and we can bless the babies. We also bless the parents.

Then sometimes when those children get to be teenagers and get a little bit rambunctious and there's a lot of prayer pressure, the parent can bring out that dedication certificate and say, "I gave you to God when you were just an infant. You belong to God. You don't belong to that crowd out there. You belong to God." And we can use that to bring witnesses. This is a holy and sacred moment when this happens. Well, Jesus went to the temple taken by his parents when he was just an infant.

He went back there at age 12. We know the story, how he was missing for several days and the parents found him there in the temple talking to the doctors of the law. Many of his miracles were done in the temple. He healed people, he did much of his teaching in the temple. So Jesus loved the house. He loved the location. He loved the ground that the mortar was on. Actually, at the end of his ministry, he wept over Jerusalem and he wept when he knew what was going to happen. He prophesied that Titus was going to come with his Roman legions and tear down the temple, that there would not be one stone upon another. So he reverenced the house of God with great respect.

When the house of God becomes the house of prayer, like Jesus said, he said to those people, "You've made it a den of thieves. You're treating this like a bus station or a commercial place. This is the house of God." And he said you've made it a den of thieves. But when they make it a house of prayer, and only we can do that, and we do indeed make this a house of prayer, then the blind will see, then the lame will walk, then the children will sing Hosanna to the Lord. Isn't it something? You saw those children up here this morning? Isn't that something? God has worked in our church.

God is doing something here today. Linda Teal said something about Pastor. She said there's a holy fire, I'm not quoting you exactly verbatim, but she said there's something happening in our youth. Friend, there is. God is doing something, and we're praising and giving him thanks for what he's doing. To hear children, to hear children sing Hosanna to the Lord. The children can't be here unless the parents bring them. Get them here in the house of God. Get them here. You make sure they get to school Monday through Friday and they meet some of the people that maybe you don't even want them to be with, and those people are having a great influence on them. Get your kids here where God's Spirit can have an influence on them and they can have the right kind of peer pressure.

Jesus loved the house of God. But let me say something now. The temple went down, not one stone was upon another. It has never been rebuilt. But something happened. God changed his thoughts about the temple, and now God said it's not brick and mortar, it's not earth, it's your body. Your body is the temple. Let me read it to you. 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." I'm going to respect the church, but I'm going to also respect my body. You respect your body. The Holy Spirit now lives in our bodies.

Guest (Male): We will return for the conclusion of today's message following this important update on how you can make a difference in lives across the world by supporting The Healing Word ministry. Would you consider partnering with Pastor Morris and supporting The Healing Word ministry with your prayers and donating to keep the gospel of Jesus Christ reaching thousands? Go to thehealingword.com and click the donate button to pledge your support. And remember, the faith-building message you heard today is our gift to you. Your donation is your gift to God. Now, let's join Pastor Jack Morris for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jack Morris: The things that happened in Jerusalem need to happen in the name of the Lord. I pray the Holy Spirit will open our ears now that we will hear because when we make the house of God the house of prayer, when we make this house the house of God, the house of prayer, this is truly then the temple of the Holy Spirit. Friend, your eyes are going to be opened to spiritual things. You're going to see things and appreciate and value. The eyes of the blind are going to open. The lame, there have been so many people who have been crippled by problems and by difficulties and by hardship and they're still living in the past and their lives today are crippled because of things back there. But when we know that we're the temple of God and the Holy Spirit is living within us, that this body, this temple has truly been cleansed. Truly cleansed.

Friend, listen. The Lord comes. When Jesus comes, he can cleanse all of that away. He can. He entered the temple at Jerusalem and he cleansed it and he said, "Now this is my house and it's a house of prayer." Friend, talk to the Lord today about whatever it is that's back there that has blinded you, that has crippled you, that has hurt you. Tell it to the Lord, take it to the Lord, let him cleanse it away. You've been trying to get rid of it for a long, long time. You're unable to do that. You're unable.

One man said, "Smoking is a bad habit." And he said, "I'm going to try to stop smoking." The other guy said, "Well, you can stop smoking." He said, "I've stopped smoking a hundred times." Friend, there are some things that you just can't get rid of. Some attitude, some disposition, some habit, and you don't want that habit. You don't want that disposition. You don't want to keep remembering something back there. You have tried to forget it and get it out of your mind, get it out of your life. You're the temple of the Lord. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus dwells within you. Let him do for you what you can't do for yourself, and he'll do it. He'll do it.

Now the scripture said in Matthew 12:29, listen to this, this is so important: "For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man like Satan and plunder his goods?" Did you hear that? Who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man? Only somebody stronger, and you know who that person is that is stronger. When it says and plunder his goods, Satan comes in and he plunders, he takes your joy, he takes your happiness, he takes your peace, your contentment. He's a robber, and there are a den of demon robbers. There are things that will cause you to not function like you would like to function, think like you would like to think, do like you would like to do. There are things that are out there just to absolutely destroy your day. But there's a stronger one. You can't get it out, but there's a stronger one who can get it out and his name is Jesus. Can you say his name is Jesus? His name is Jesus.

He said, "My house." He said, "You were bought with a price." 1 Corinthians 6, you were bought with a price, so glorify God with your body. How about that? We think about glorifying God with our spirit, worshipping God in spirit and in truth, but here the scripture says you can worship God with your body, with your brain, with your intellect, with your habits. You can worship God, worship God with your body.

Now Jesus comes with authority today. I don't have the authority to get this mess out of me. I don't have the authority. I have tried, I have stomped, and it just won't go away. I don't want to feel the way I feel. I don't want to remember some of the things I remember. I don't want to have that feeling toward that person. I just wish it would go away, I wish it would go away. It won't go away. But here comes a stronger one than me. He's going now to plunder Satan. He's now going to sanctify this body and this memory. He's going to do something that I could not possibly do, and then he's going to come over to me and say, "My house. My house." Put his hand on every one of you. "My house. You're not the enemy's house, you're not the world's house, you're not the house of hurt and pain, but you are my house." Can you believe that for yourself, that you are the house of God? Then believe it because it is true. The Lord Jesus is here to bless you and to help you and to minister to you. We can live in communion with God. We can live in ongoing communion with God.

You know friend, let me ask you something. Do you know that you're a walking sanctuary? Do you know you're a walking church? You know the church, the worship Sunday, it's not a weekend getaway. I thought I'd have a standing ovation on that one. We come to church. You are the church. You're a walking sanctuary Monday morning. You know the Lord God Almighty, your heavenly Father, whose son is named Jesus, he does not differentiate between Sunday morning at 9:00 and 11:00 and Wednesday afternoon at 2:00. He doesn't differentiate. You belong to him. You are the church, you are his house.

Listen to this one, and I'm going to close now. John 14:23, "If my people love me," now if they do, apparently there are some people who really don't love the Lord. Oh, they say they love the Lord. "If my people love me, they will obey my teaching." Now here's the part, get this. If this doesn't help you, I don't know what will. He said they will obey my teaching, "Then my Father and I will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them." You are the home of the Holy Ghost. Your body is the temple of the Lord.

And as the psalmist said, it's a permanent dwelling. God didn't come just to visit like we come and visit 1701 Enterprise Road. No, he didn't come just to visit you. The psalmist said, "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Sunday I'll dwell there, Monday I'll dwell there, Tuesday I'll dwell there. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because I am the house of the Lord. God has cleansed me, he has renewed me. Praise be to him forevermore.

We like to look at those pictures or those mental pictures of Jesus being a gentle shepherd. The pictures of his gentleness carrying a little lamb in his arms or putting his arms around the children and putting his hand upon them and blessing them. But I want you to know this is the same Jesus, not another Jesus. He's the Jesus that moves in, throws out, and overturns anything that's in you that you don't want in you. He'll come in, he'll take possession, and you'll be the happiest, most victorious Christian ever.

Let's read the conclusion. My physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus bought me, body, soul, and spirit, and now resides within me. My body is his house. Amen.

Now, would you bow your heads with me for just a moment? And I want you to think of that that is there that you don't want there in your mind, those thoughts, in your heart, those dispositions, those attitudes, those memories. You don't like all of that being in there. Let Jesus come in and cleanse the temple today. Talk to him. He hears your prayers. You belong to Jesus. He's your savior, your redeemer. With his blood, he bought you. You now not only are in Father's house, you are Father's house.

Tell him what you want him to overthrow. Something has overthrown you and crippled you and blinded you. Now he comes to overthrow it and bring light and life. Now if anybody would like to come down and pray with me today, I'll pray with you before you go. Because you're here in the church, but when you walk out, you're still going to be the church. If there's something there that you really need an intervention, a divine intervention, he's here.

Thank you for coming down, Devon. Thank you, John. Thank you. Oh, hallelujah. What a day. What a day. Truly this is the day the Lord has made, and he's here to do great things for you. You're his child. He doesn't like the things that have been hurting you. He loves you, but he doesn't like what's hurt you. You talk to the Lord.

Now for those of you who are standing here and those that are in the congregation, if you'd like to pray along with me, you do that. Say, "Dear Lord Jesus, come into my temple, my body. Amen."