Joyce Meyer - Faith vs Fear - Part 1

TOPICS: Faith, Fear

There's faith and there's fear. Fear presents as a feeling. But the word fear actually means to take flight or to run away from. And you can feel fear and yet not be afraid. Now, maybe you have to think about that a little bit. You can feel fear and yet not have to be afraid. I'm gonna ask you tonight, this is the decision that I want you to make this weekend. All the money we spend to come to do these things and the offerings that we receive here, don't go to pay for these conferences. They go for exactly what we tell you they're going for. They all go for outreaches.

If I can just get you to make this one decision this weekend. If God can use me to help you make this one decision, it'll all be worth it. And here's what I want you to decide. Are you going to continue to let your feelings be the basis on which you make decisions or are you going to go beyond that, live beyond your feelings, and live by the Word of God? "I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel, and I don't feel". Emotions are the believer's number one enemy, besides the devil, but he uses emotions, feelings, to either keep us from doing the right thing or to get us to do the wrong thing. How many of you agree that feelings get in your way a lot? And feelings, out of control, can cause you to make a lot of wrong decisions that you do things because of those feelings that you then regret for many, many, many years.

You know, one bad decision, if it's a big enough decision can alter your entire life. Amen? There are opposing forces: faith and fear. Fear gives the devil access to our lives. Faith gives God access to our lives. I wanna say that again. I don't plan to hurry because I want you to get this. Fear, which if you want to make a little anagram out of, it means false evidence appearing real. Fear is what gives the devil access to your life. He lies. If we believe it, then we're deceived. That's what deception is: to believe a lie. But the thing that's interesting is whatever you believe, even if what you believe is not true, it becomes true for you. That's kind of scary when you think about it.

Now, I've learned a lot of the truth over 45 years. But I can tell you, standing here right now that I'm still learning every day, and I probably still believe things that aren't true, but they're true for me because I haven't found out the truth about them yet. I wonder how many things you believe about yourself that aren't true or how many things you believe about God that aren't true. You know, God's not the source of your problems. And when something bad happens in your life, it's not because God is mad at you and he's punishing you. Believe it or not, good preachers are not just out to get your money.

It's interesting to me that people talk to you about money everywhere you go, and the only place you get mad about it's in church. We ate one of your nice restaurants today and they brought us the bill. All we ask you to do is give something to help somebody else around the world. Why is it that people will pay 60 and $75 to go to a concert, not think a thing about it, but when somebody's giving you life-changing word, "They're just out to get your money. There they go, talking about money again". I don't know why I got off on that, but somebody must've needed it. You know why I said it? Because the devil comes and whispers that stuff in your ear and you believe it. I'm gonna say it again.

How many lies do you think you believe? It's pretty scary, really, when you think about it. See, because I was abused, I always thought that I would have a second-rate life. I just planned it. I remember when I was a kid, and my dad was abusing me week in and week out sexually. I remember thinking, "Well, I'll never have a really good life, you know. Maybe an ok life, but I'll never have a really good life". But see, that was a lie from Satan, because what God has given me is a better life. I mean, seriously, not only did I not have a bad life because of it, but God took what Satan meant for harm, turned it around to my good. And I've been able to use it to help millions of people all over the world. The devil is such a liar. And we need to not forget that.

The Bible says we have to, "Fight the good fight of faith". And sometimes, you do have to stand firm and hold on to your faith because everything that you see looks like it's not working and everything that you feel seems like it's not working. And so many things happen to us that just don't seem to be fair. And life isn't fair, but God is. I love to teach on the character of God. And I love every part of God's character, but I think, my favorite part is that God is just. And you know what that means? He makes everything that's wrong, right. I love that. So, you see, people really can't mistreat you and get by with it. Not if you handle it God's way. And I have to throw that in there, because if you don't handle it God's way, then, yes, they can hurt you.

If somebody hurts you and you spend your life hating them, then the devil has gotten just exactly what he wants. But if you forgive them, no matter how you feel and you pray for them like the Bible says, and you bless them, and you would even go so far as to help them if they needed help. An enemy, helping an enemy, I mean, how dumb does that feel? But we live in what seems like to be an upside-down kingdom that's actually right side up. The last will be first and the first will be last. If you want more money, you gotta give away some of what you got. I mean, you just go ahead and try to compute some of this stuff in your brain. You'll drive yourself crazy trying to figure it all out. You either get around to saying, "Look, I'm not trying to figure any of it out anymore. God, I just believe it. You said it, I believe it". Period. Amen?

And I love the fact that God is just. I have seen him take so many things in my life that were unjust and turn them around for good. And I tell you what, he will do the same thing for you, but not if you're bitter, and have a chip on your shoulder, and feel sorry for yourself. Let me tell you something. Everybody has been hurt. Everybody's been hurt. Everybody's had a loss. Everybody's had unfair things happen to them. And if you walked in here tonight feeling sorry for yourself because your life has not been the way you thought it would be, then I beg you to please just leave it tonight. Don't attend one more pity party. Just tell the devil, "No, thank you. I'm turning my life around. I'm gonna get thankful and grateful for what God is doing in my life".

Now, faith is extremely important because the Bible says without faith, it is impossible to please God. Wow. Because anyone who comes to him must believe, everybody say, "Believe". They must believe two things. Number one, that God exists. And number two, that he's good that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Now, don't miss it. He's not just a rewarder for anybody. Not just anybody will experience the goodness of God, but those who diligently seek him. Not just those who seek him, on Easter and Christmas, but those who diligently seek him. Come on. Not just those who seek God when they have an emergency. It's amazing how when we have big trouble in our life, how we find time for God, and how somehow, we're too busy the rest of the time when things are going good. Oh, if we could just learn that whether we know it or not, we're desperate all the time.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Without faith, we cannot receive and walk in God's good plan for our life. God has already got a good plan for your life. It's already planned. Before you ever even showed up here, on planet earth, God planned a most awesome, amazing life for you, if you would walk in it. And the way you walk in it is by learning this wonderful book, that I love, with all my heart. Learning what's in it and doing what it says. You know, God's plan is so simple that a two-year-old could get it: read it, believe it, do it. I like the song that they sang tonight, "God's way is better". Boy, is that ever true. Man, I tried it my own way for so long.

How many of you tried it your own way for so long? Some of you still are. And that's why you're here tonight. Guess what? Your way is not gonna work, and God is not gonna change his mind. And he's not gonna feel sorry for you. Oh, come on. We try to get God to feel sorry for us. "Well, God, I just can't take any more of this. God, I'm just gonna give up". Well, no, you won't. What happened to my pretty crystal glass? Well, I drink tea a lot of times, before the meetings. It kinda keeps my throat clear. But when I get lipstick around the rim of the cup, and then I drink it, I get these little lines that go up here. So, you got my cup over there? So, my brilliant team had me a sippy cup made. Isn't that cool? I said, "Where in the world do you get", you can get anything on the internet? Anything at all.

So, I have a sippy cup. Don't you love the word? I mean, I really love God's word. You know, the Bible says to meditate on the Word of God. In Joshua, it says, "Meditate on the word day and night that you might observe and do according to all that's written there in. And for then, you shall make your way prosperous and have good success". Meditating on the word is like chewing on it. It's like, you know, if you don't chew your food well, if you swallow it whole, you don't get any of the nutrition out of it. But the more you chew it, chew it well, you not only get the flavor, but you get the nutrition, you get the vitamins. And the word is like that. The Bible says that "The measure of thought and study that you give to the truth, that you hear is the measure of virtue and knowledge that will come back to you again".

So, I'm glad you're here tonight, but I'll be honest with you, if you go off and never think again about what was said here tonight, it won't do you too much good. And that's part of our problem. We go and plop down in a seat somewhere and we want some preacher or some teacher who's done all the work to feed us, and we get lazy and don't do anything our self. I'm glad you're here, but if you said, "Look, I'm gonna do one of two things, I'm either gonna come and hear you, or I'm gonna study, myself". I'd tell you, "Stay home. Study, yourself". You know why? Because you gotta have a personal relationship with God. You gotta get up close to God yourself. Spend time thinking about the word, meditating on the word, roll it over and over in your mind. All that downtime you have when your mind goes to places where it shouldn't go, instead, just think about the word.

Roll scriptures over and over in your mind. Oh, you got more stuff in you than you could even possibly imagine. If I just wanted to start doing it, I could stand up here and just probably quote scripture the rest of the night. Not because I've memorized it, but because I've got it down in me. And the Bible says that the Holy Spirit will bring things out of us when we need it. In John, 6:28 and 29, the disciples asked Jesus, and this is a question that we all ask a lot: "'what must we do to please God? What must we do to be working the works that God requires'? And Jesus said, 'this is the work that God requires of you, that you believe in the one whom he has sent'".

It's not our works that God's after. He wants us to believe him, and if we believe him, we will do the good works. But here's where religion gets it mixed up. You don't do good works to get God to love you. You receive his love as a free gift. And then, you want to do good works because you love him and because he loves you. And if you never learn that, then you spend all your time, maybe, struggling to do good things, but the reason you're doing 'em is not right, so, you lose your reward. Because if our motive is not right, then we don't get the reward that God wants us to have. It's not so important, what we're doing as why we're doing it. Amen? Why did you come here tonight? Did you come to just see what I look like in person? Yeah, sounds like some of you did.

Well, now that, that's over with, you can learn something. Boy, if I were you, I don't care what your plans were, I'd get myself here in the morning, tomorrow morning. I'd make a day out of it, stay here, get tomorrow afternoon. Make the devil mad. Say, "I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna grow up. I'm gonna be a strong Christian. I'm gonna get you back for everything you've ever done to me". You say, "Well, I just wish I had more faith". Let me tell you something. Wishing will not get you anything in the Kingdom of God. You don't need wishbone. You need backbone. You have all the faith that you need. Every single one of you, have all the faith that you need to do anything and everything that God has asked you to do. And you have all the faith that you need to go through anything that this life throws at you.

"I can't do this. I can't do this". Oh, yes, you can. You could amaze yourself. It's our thinking that defeats us. If you believe you can, you can. You believe you can't, you can't. "By the grace of God, I say to every one of you", Romans 12:3, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith that God has distributed to each one of you". So, what he's saying here is, whatever you can do, if you can do a good thing, if you have a talent or a gift, don't ever think that makes you better than somebody else, because the only reason you can do it is because God has given you the faith to do it.

And let me tell you something. Humility is one of the hardest virtues to come by, and it is one of the most important ones that we can develop. To not think you're better than other people, to not look down on other people, to not critically judge other people, to not look at people and think, "Well, I would never do that". Yeah, well, that's just about when God's gonna let you fall on your face. Come on. This is good for you. We're not having dessert tonight. We're having some grow up groceries. Amen? And you want it. You love it. You wanna grow. Dessert tastes good, but you can't live on it. It'll make you sick if that's all you ever have.

Well, we're given enough faith to do anything God wants us to do. Do you believe that? That you have, right now, enough faith to do anything that God wants you to do. "Eh," I said you have enough faith to do anything God wants you to do! I went through hell when I was growing up. You want to get the devil back for everything he's ever done to you? Well, you just start being good to as many people as you can be good to. You bless everybody you go near. You learn the word, and you live by it. Amen? But we've got to choose to walk in faith. The Bible says, "Walk in faith". And a walk is just a whole bunch of different steps put together. And so, to me, those are like choices. We have to always be choosing, "Am I gonna walk in faith or am I gonna walk in fear"? "Am I gonna walk in faith or am I gonna walk by how I feel"?

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When I see it, I don't need faith anymore. Faith is for the in-between. Mark 11:24 says that "Whatever we ask for believe that you receive it, and you will get it". But it doesn't tell you when you'll get it. Eh, God's smart. I just think that's the cutest scripture once you get it. Believe you have received it, even though you can't see it. "It's mine. It's on its way. I believe it". Every time you get discouraged and the devil tries to tell you, you're not gonna get it. You say, "Yep. It's on its way. It's on its way. God is faithful. It's on its way".