The Healing Word

Jack Morris: Dear Lord, how am I straining after you? How am I pressing after you? Or am I? To what degree? About 30% of my energy and life is into my Christian experience or 40%, maybe even 50%? But the other 50% I'm taking care of my net worth. How about my spiritual worth? That that is going to last for—do I really believe it's going to last forever and that I'm part of eternity?

Guest (Male): When we think of the subject of net worth, our minds in most cases focus on our financial situation: income, investments, and so on. But what about our spiritual net worth?

Pastor Jack Morris is here, along with the congregation of the Largo Community Church, and today he explores our spiritual value and the focus we give to it. Here is today's message: Your Spiritual Net Worth.

Jack Morris: I'm not sure where I came up with a title like that, but I was thinking about our monetary worth and what we own, finances, and then I thought, how about our spiritual? What we own spiritually? Not what we earned and accumulated, but what God gave to us and now it's ours, this great and wonderful salvation.

I wonder if we really know. I'm trying to learn. I know Paul the Apostle was still trying to learn all that God had done for him and had given to him. Do we really know who we are in Christ?

There's a businessman who is very wealthy. He had business buildings, large business skyscrapers all across this nation. There was a crisis going on at one of the buildings in one of the regional offices and he had to get there very, very quickly. He called the airline and the airline said, "All of our flights are booked." And he said, "I need the very next flight out." The lady said, "Well, the best I can give you is a standby pass. Maybe somebody won't show up and we'll give you their seat."

So he went to the airport, went up to the ticket counter and the lady told him, she said, "Friend, the plane is just about ready to go. Every seat is filled. Obviously, no one can stand up." He said, "Lady, I have to get there. I have to be there today within a few hours. Can't you bump somebody?"

She said, "Sir, we don't operate like that. These people bought tickets and they're on the plane. They're in their seats. They're fastening their seat belts. We're just about ready to go. The next plane—" He said, "The next plane nothing! I need this plane!"

His voice was getting louder and louder and she said, "Well, sir, you just can't come." Well, his eyes got big and his voice got a little higher. He said, "Do you know who I am?" The lady reached over and picked up the microphone. She said, "Ladies and gentlemen, there's somebody here that doesn't know who they are. And they're asking me who they are. If anybody here has any knowledge, would you come forward, please?"

Do you know who I am? Well, the question is, do you know who you are in Christ? Not just your net worth, but your spiritual worth. We need to do a little thinking about what we're going to enjoy for all eternity, for everything we have here, we're going to leave it. But that which we have in Christ is ours forever and ever.

Socrates, he was born 470 years before Christ, a Greek philosopher from Athens. And he made a statement way back then. It's still relevant to this day. The statement is only two words. Do you know what they are, anybody? Know thyself. I wish I'd have thought of that. I'd have gone down in history. Know thyself.

Back then, people just don't know and neither do I think they know today who we are, particularly Christians in Christ, what we have. We wouldn't be so passive and nonchalant about our Christian testimony if we really knew what Christ has done for us and who we are in Christ. Our spiritual worth.

But our monetary net worth is the value of everything we own minus our debts. We calculate everything we own, then we calculate our debts. And when we get the figure for our debts, we put it under everything we own, our values, and subtract it. And that's our net worth. Well, how about our spiritual net worth?

Everything we own in Christ. Why, we own eternal life. Can you imagine that gift? Salvation, eternal life. But we own Jesus now because he owns us, bought us with his precious blood. We own the power of prayer. We own the church and Christian fellowship. We own the presence of Jesus with us always. Oh, I could go on and on down the line. You've heard it before.

What we own, we are so rich in Jesus. Now, we calculate all of that and then we go over and we look to bring up our debts and there aren't any debts. Because Jesus paid the bill. He paid the debt for us and we are new people in the Lord without any debt whatsoever. There's nothing to subtract. We have gained it all.

Now, this is what Paul was talking about here in Philippians chapter three. And if you have your Bibles, open it because I want to do a little bit of reading. This is more than I'm going to be able to cover today. I perhaps will get to it later on in the weeks to come. This book of Philippians, it has stirred me like no other book in the whole Bible.

But look at these verses. Look at verse 12. I'm going to read it. "Not that I have already obtained all of this." What is he talking about? What hasn't he obtained all of this? Okay, let's go back to verse 10. He'll tell us what he hasn't obtained. He said, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection," number one. "The fellowship of his suffering," number two. "Becoming like him in his flesh," number three. And number four, "somehow to attain the resurrection of the dead."

Paul is saying, "I'm a Christian. I'm an instrument of God in writing most of the New Testament, but I'm not there yet spiritually. There's opportunity for me to grow and I want to grow. I want to learn more. I want to hear what the Bible has to say and what Jesus is speaking. I want it to come back. I want to remember."

Here the Apostle Paul is admitting that there is room for growth. Now, who is as spiritual as the Apostle Paul among any of God's people anywhere? And he is saying, "I want to know Christ." He knew him as Savior, obviously, but there were things about Jesus that he didn't know.

Friend, I'm talking about your spiritual worth. What do you know about Jesus? Do you know everything about Jesus? Of course not, none of us do. There's room to grow in the Lord. But now look what he says. There it is on the screen. Philippians 3:12: "To take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me."

To take hold of that. You see, Christ reached out, Paul is saying, and it happened to each of us. Christ reached out and took hold of us. When we were still in our trespasses and sins, Christ took hold of us by his grace, by his mercy, not by any persuasion on our part. I don't know why he came and convicted me of my sins, convinced me that I needed him, but he took hold of me.

Paul is saying, "And now since Christ has taken hold of me, I need to take hold of him." God made you an individual. He made you a wonderful person. He had something in mind when he made you, when you came into this world. And then it all really started coming together when he reached out and took hold of you.

Now, he took hold of you so that you could reach back and take hold of him and go all the way, forgetting those things that are behind and going all the way to where God wants you to be and where he wants you to be. You're an individual. Now, one of the things as an individual that he has done for each of us is he has given us freedom. I mean, tremendous freedom. You can choose to do anything with your life, your days, your hours that you want to. Freedom, tremendous freedom.

But the world—now here I am, I'm getting into it now, stay with me, dear friends—the world is trying to squeeze you into its mold. And it's trying hard from every announcement on the radio, television, newspaper, your friends. The world is trying to compress you into what it thinks you should be. You should be this, you don't have that, you need this, and it goes on. Keep telling you, brainwashing you day in and day out, year in and year out, life in and life out, what you ought to be.

Now, Paul is saying, "I need to be like Jesus and I'm not there yet to where I want to be." Now, when I talk about the world, the world is trying to squeeze you, I'm talking about society, culture, and even the religious world, the church world. I'm going to be as honest and as transparent as I possibly can be today because we need to know who we are.

Know thyself, Socrates said. The man said, "Do you know who I am?" He didn't know who he was and a lot of Christians don't know who we are even now in Christ. Okay, let me show you what I'm talking about. There are classes of people, or groups of people. Let's name just a few of them so you get what I'm talking about.

Baby boomers. You've heard that expression? Baby boomers. The age of baby boomers, age 55 to 75. How about millennials? Have you heard that term before? Millennials. Sometimes referred to as Gen Y, ages 25 through 38. How about teenagers? They haven't been given a name yet, but they're now referred to as Generation Z.

Now, when you go back into the encyclopedia, you look up baby boomers, millennials, Generation Z, it is already outlined what those groups believe, how they practice life, their political persuasion. It's all right there. And so many people are thinking, "Oh, I'm a baby boomer. I'm falling somewhere between age 55 and 75 and I want to be part of the group. I want to be part of the herd. I don't want to stand out and be different. I want to be like my friends that age."

"So I'm going to vote this way, I'm going to be of this political persuasion, I'm going to have this idea about marriage, I'm going to believe this way about sex marriage." Look in the encyclopedia. Now we'll go to the millennials. That's age 25 through 38. The world, the culture, society, it's all written in the encyclopedia telling the millennials what they should believe politically, how most millennials are voting.

And these millennials and these teenagers—the teenager is not voting yet, for the most part unless they're at least 18—they're being told by society, by culture who they are. They're being molded, they're being squeezed into, and it is so prevalent that it can be written out and talked about, put in encyclopedias.

Then we look at the Gen or Generation or Gen Z, the teenagers. Well, they're picking them up now in age seven through age 22. And they said they're coming on so strong that they are more prevalent now, even right now, than the millennials. They're being told exactly how to live life. And these teenagers, teenagers want to dress like other teenagers. They want to think like other teenagers. They like the music of other teenagers.

Everybody is trying to run with a pack and it's even coming into the church. Now, the religious world or the church world is doing something very, very similar. The church world is now telling people within these particular age groups the millennials worship one way, the baby boomers worship another way, the teenagers worship this way. They have their own style of worship, they have their own music. Where's this coming from?

Now, let me tell you something. The baby boomers never named themselves baby boomers. Millennials never came up with the name, "I'm a millennial." There are two men in America that are doing this and we are buying it hook, line, and sinker. The two men, William Strauss and Neil Howe, came up with the word, the name, the nomenclature, millennial, Generation Y. Two men!

Now, here's the Apostle Paul, here are all the apostles, here's the words of Jesus Christ telling us that we can live an abundant life. And these men are coming up telling us, "Hey, you're a millennial, you don't worship that way, you don't believe that way, you're not of that political view, this is what you're to believe about marriage, this is what you're to believe about same-sex marriage." Even sports!

Baby boomers, millennials, teenagers. Now teenagers, now listen to this. Teenagers, over 25% of Americans are now in that group between age seven and 22. They're overtaking—read it yourself in the encyclopedias—they're overtaking the millennials and the millennials are going to fade out just like the hippies did years ago. Remember the hippies? Long hair, beard, the dress, the attire.

Oh, they were here, we have to comply to win them to Christ. We have to do it differently, we have to do it their way in order to get them into the kingdom of God. What would the Apostle Paul say? What would Jesus say? Jesus would say repent and be baptized and wash away your sins. Jesus would say for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The scripture says there's no name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ. This is what the word of God teaches us. These two men, but a whole lot of other men now are on board. They're even telling the baby boomers, the millennials, the teenagers what parts of the Bible to believe and what parts not to believe.

You believe these things about marriage. Oh, I don't care what the Bible says about marriage and the sacredness of marriage. You accept same-sex. But the Bible—oh, the Bible is out of date or that part of the Bible is out of date. We're allowing two men and a whole lot of others now to tell us what to believe, telling our children what to believe.

Friend, parents, my God, my God, help you parents to cause your children to follow your example, to be sacredly oriented toward the church, toward God, toward the word of God. The word of God that will never pass away. The word of God that came right out of the mouth of Jesus. I can't say, "Jesus, what you said back there doesn't really work today."

Society, culture, even the church is saying it's all right now. Jesus is saying, "My word will abide forever." It'll never be all right. It'll never be all right. God created each of us with tremendous freedom. We can say no. But no wonder Jesus called us sheep. Sheep run with the herd. Today it's mass everything. We've got to do it because everybody else is doing it and we don't want to stand out and be different.

It's mass everything, it's a cookie-cutter style. But you and I and our kids and our grandparents, we all have the freedom and the strength, inner enablement, to say no to what is wrong. All the world has to do today is get our eyes off of Jesus. Not to tempt us with drugs and tempt our teenagers with dope. Oh, it's happening all over the area and some of them are yielding to it.

But all our teenagers have to do is say, "Oh, I don't like to pray this way. I don't believe in that passage of scripture," and there's a lot of churches that don't believe in that passage of scripture. And just get us—the devil doesn't mind us being a religious people. Not at all. The scripture says even the devil knows the scripture and trembles.

Friend, I tell you, it's time that we know who we are. It's time that we take inventory of our spiritual life and know our spiritual net worth. We're just drifting along with the stream, the current, relaxed like on an inner tube floating down the stream, paddling once in a while. Once in a while getting religious a little bit. No, friends, this is the real thing. This is seriousness.

Say no. Listen to this, please listen to his scripture. First John 4:4: "You, dear children"—he's not talking to sinners, he's talking to the church—"dear children of God, you are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

You have the power to say no to sin, to that that is distracting you away from Jesus, to that that is taking your time, your energy, your finances, whatever it is. The devil is a thief and the thief comes to rob and to steal. But you have the energy, you have within you the energy, not in yourself. And you're not going to have that energy within you until you get the word of God in you.

And all you need to do is have it. It's right in your hand, it's in every pew rack. Many of you have carried it in in your hand today. You have the strength, the inner strength to say yes. You see, you're the person that God created just as surely as he created Adam and made him a distinct individual. Each person here and each child that you have and each grandchild that you have are distinct individuals and they're making up their mind.

And there is William Strauss and Neil Howe and a whole lot of others out there trying to help them to make up their mind. God, we need to rescue them for the kingdom, for the Lord. You're valuable to God.