Joyce Meyer - Grow Your Faith - Part 2
![Joyce Meyer - Grow Your Faith - Part 2](/uploads/posts/2022-07/joyce-meyer-grow-your-faith-part-2.jpg)
You know why God doesn't tell us a lot of stuff? Because to be honest, mystery is what makes life exciting. Now, Dave and I kinda have a thing, we're a little turned around backwards. He watches hallmark movies all the time. And I just, God bless 'em, but I don't do well with something five minutes after it starts, I know how it's gonna end. I don't do good with that. And with hallmark, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but the kiss always comes at the last scene. You wait the whole thing to see this one kiss at the last minute. I like mysteries. I like something that's gonna keep me kinda on the edge of my seat. And I was thinking about that the other day. I think that's part of the reason why God doesn't tell us all this stuff we'd like to know, because there are mysteries. "The mystery of the ages is Christ in me, the hope of glory".
How many of you agree God's a little mysterious? He doesn't, you know. I mean, you could ask him anything you want to, but a lot of stuff he's not gonna answer you. And some of the stuff you ask, you'd probably better be happy he's not answering you, because you might not like what you find out. "Well God, why did this happen"? "Well, because you". Believe you have received it, and you will get it. Can't tell you exactly when, that's where the test of faith comes in at. But here comes really the most important part of this, that we haven't dealt with much this weekend, verse 25 "And", see, we get all excited about praying you're gonna get it. "Yeah! Whoo, glory"! Tell the mountain to move and it has to move. "Whoo, Jesus! I feel the Holy Ghost"! "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them".
Well, where's the noise at now? Man, it got deathly quiet in here. I didn't hear one, "Amen". Not one, "Hallelujah". Not one person even quietly agreed with me. This is one of the most important scriptures in the Bible. "And when you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone". Anything against anyone, you don't even get to be mad at the post office. "Forgive them". Yeah, now you're gettin' it. "Forgive them, so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins". Well, now, look, what are we gonna make out of that, other than what it says? If I don't forgive you, God's not gonna forgive me. Whoa, that's scary! Isn't that what it says?
Do you know how many Christians there are that are mad? If I would ask, and I won't, I won't bother, 'cause I've done it enough that I already know. If I would ask, "How many of you are mad at somebody," there's a good 60-80 percent of the people in this room right now, that are mad at somebody. And then, you're gonna wanna take the part of my message about this praying and getting everything, and being powerful in prayer, and defeating the devil. We like that stuff. "Man, that's right the devil's not gonna walk all over me"! But then, when it comes to forgiving that person that hurt you, you're gonna say, "Well, that's not right, they don't deserve my forgiveness". Well, you know what? Even if they don't, you deserve peace. Did you hear me?
Let me ask, which one of you in here deserves God's forgiveness? No, you don't. Have you not learned anything? There's not... Half the people in here, Charles, put their hand up. We don't deserve anything that God gives us. What we deserve to do is die and go to hell. We don't deserve God's forgiveness, but he's gracious, and he's kind, and he's loving, and he forgives us. And he expects us to forgive other people. And he says, if we don't, he won't forgive us. Well, I could just say, "Amen," and go home and leave you with that, and see what you do with it. "Well, you just don't know what they did to me"?
Well, I know what my dad did to me, and I know that my life was goin' nowhere, till I forgave him. And I'll tell you something that'll help you do that. Remember this, this helped me when God told me this, "Hurting people hurt people". My dad had something all messed up in his life. He grew up in an incestuous situation. And to be honest, I think he was demon possessed. He told me when he was 80, when he finally apologized to me, he was 80! And he carried that burden around with him his whole life. And this is what he told me. He said, "There's no way, when you were young, and I was young, there's no way I could've prevented myself from doing what I did to you". He was controlled.
Now, that doesn't make it okay. That doesn't make it right. But, we can be merciful. I mean, would you rather be merciful or be mad? And here again, this is where we get in trouble. You say, "I've tried to forgive them". But this is where we get all mixed up with the feelings thing again. You can pray, "God, in Jesus' name, I forgive them. Lord, I forgive them. I wanna forgive them. Help me to forgive them. I forgive them". And then, the next time you see 'em, you wanna punch 'em in the face. So, now, listen to me, because when you see them, you don't feel any differently about them, you assume that you didn't forgive them. I'm not leaving till you get this. But if you make a decision, and you do what God tells you to, you pray to forgive them, and then you pray for them to be blessed.
Ooh my... Well, I'll be honest with you, I told God, "I don't want 'em to be blessed". But see, here's the thing, when you pray for God to bless somebody that's hurt you, that doesn't mean he's gonna give 'em a my new car and a new house. The first thing he may bless them with is some truth. And then, I'm about to tell you how to add some real power to your life. You want me to tell you? That person who hurt you, who treated you unjustly, that you're now praying for, and your blessing them, even though it's hard, and you maybe still don't feel any differently about them, but you keep saying, "I did my part, I did what God told me to do".
See, our part is obedience, God's part is the feelings. But, no wait. Now, if you wanna add some real power to your life, then if they need help, you help them. Let's just say, Charles, you pastor this church here for all these years, and you've worked so hard. And let's say somebody on your staff, and this is not gonna happen, I'm just making stuff up, I'm not, somebody on your staff that you trusted and loved and mentored, goes behind your back and they stir up strife. And so, they leave and take about 60, 70 people with 'em, and start a church down the street. Well, man that's gonna hurt, hurt, hurt. And the first temptation is gonna be to get mad, mad, mad.
But I tell you what you could do, you could buy 'em a sound system. You're not smiling yet. I'm talking about, do you wanna know how to break the devil's power over your life? You buy 'em a sound system, and you pray for God to bless them, just as much as he wants to. And don't think for one minute, that anybody can mistreat you, and succeed. Now, c'mon, you got me going in a different direction, than what I'm supposed to be going in here. God says, if we obey him, he will be an enemy to our enemies. Mmm, when God taught me this, I felt like I had found a secret bomb. "Bless your enemies," the Bible says, be good to those who have used you and abused you. That's what it says!
Luke 6, be good to 'em, bless 'em. If your enemy is thirsty, give 'em something to drink. If he's hungry, give him something to eat. Meet his need, help him. If you work with somebody that's just been a jerk to you, and let's just say you hear the engine in their car blew up. Their car's gonna be in the shop for a month. They don't know how they're gonna get to work, they're gonna have to take public transportation. Well, what if you offer to go out of your way, and pick them up every morning, and take them home every night? I love these Patty-cakes things I get. Oh, that would hurt! That would be so hard! But every time you do the right thing, when it feels wrong, you're growing. You're growing. And I am not joking one bit, I have done this. And I wanna tell you what, the minute that you do it, you are set free.
You say, "Well, I just can't do that". Yes, you can. Because the Bible wouldn't tell us to do it, if we couldn't do it. There's nothing that God tells us to do, that we can't do. And everything that God tells us to do, is for our benefit. But now, remember what I said about the feelings, 'cause that's the thing that mixes people up about this forgiveness stuff. You think because you don't feel any different, that you didn't forgive 'em. So, you keep going to the altar one more time, gettin' prayer to be able to forgive somebody. You need to say, "I did forgive 'em, God, I sincerely prayed to forgive them. I'm praying for them. I'm praying for you to bless them. If they need help, you show me and I'll help them". And I will tell you what, it won't take very long and your feelings will catch up with your decision.
Oh, that was worth you coming today. And I could give you examples from my own life, but I really wanna go on here, so. Yeah, that's a great scripture in Mark 11, "Whatever you ask for, believe that you have received it, and you will get it". Yeah! Whoo! God is so good. And "Whenever you're praying, if you have anything," anything, "Against anyone, forgive them, (leave it, and let it go) so that your Heavenly Father may forgive you your sins and trespasses". I wanna tell you what, this thing I'm talking to you about right now, this is why the church is so weak.
I've been reading the Book of Acts, and I know this 'cause I've read it before. But the reason why they had such miracles and such power, was because they were in unity. They weren't all mad at each other and hating each other. They all sold all their stuff and had everything in common. They made sure that nobody had needs, they were taking care of each other. They were sacrificing for each other. I mean, back in those days, if you lied to the Holy Ghost, you fell over dead. Well, we could probably use a little bit of that today. You know why? And I'm not joking, because you know what's missing? The fear of God. I'll tell you something, and I'm telling you the honest to God's truth, I would be, where I'm at in my life right now, and what God is letting me do, I am well aware the devil hates me.
And I can't play games and even stay alive. And I would be afraid to stay mad at somebody. You know why? Because I know better, and I would open a door for the enemy to do me harm. Now, you may not agree with that, but I'm telling you, that's what I believe. I believe that we are responsible for what we know. We are responsible for what we know. To know what is right to do, and to do it not, it is sin. And, you know, I talk to you like this because I care about you. Oh, I hope and pray before I die, I can see the church in power. I wish that people were afraid to disobey God, in a right way. Not afraid that God will hurt you, but just having that reverential respect and awe, that God is so awesome, and mighty, and so powerful.
I was reading yesterday morning, something about when God was on the mountain, giving the commandments to Moses, that nobody could even touch the mountain. If an animal even went near the mountain, they would die, because God's holiness was there. And when God appeared in that burning bush to Moses, he said, "Take the shoes off your feet, because the ground you stand on is holy ground". And we go to church and sit there and while the pastor's preaching, text our friends. Get up and walk out during the altar call, climb all over the people that need to be saved.
See, I can say what I want to now, I've got 10 minutes I'm leaving town. And by the time I come back, you'll love me again. It's true. I mean, we even need to tell people how to dress. You know, if you're a woman, everybody doesn't need to see up your skirt and down your blouse. "Well, it's fashion". I remember trying on a dress or something in a store, and there was a slit that came up to about right here. And I said, "No, that won't work for me". The lady said, "Oh, honey, that looks great on you, that's fashion". I said, "It's not fashion where I work".
The Bible says, "Come ye out from among them, and be separate". It doesn't say go out there and be like 'em. And it is my personal opinion that pastors need to tell people this stuff. Because honestly, sometimes people just don't know, their parents didn't teach 'em, nobody's taught 'em. And we need to be practical in the church and teach people things that will keep them going in the right direction. Before you go out of your house in the morning, go look at yourself in the mirror. And say, "Do I look like a godly woman"? And that doesn't mean you... I dress nice, but you can be pretty and be holy.