Joyce Meyer - Exposing and Eliminating Strife - Part 2

TOPICS: Strife

"What's the most important commandment," they said. And Jesus answered in Matthew, I think starting in 36 or 37, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength". "And a second is like it: 'love your neighbor as you love yourself'". Come on, make peace with yourself. And stop wanting what everybody else has got. "I wish I looked like you". "Well, I wish I had a ministry like Joyce's". Well, I didn't get it wishing. And you probably don't want it anyway, 'cause there's a whole lot more to it than this, I'll tell you that. This is the one little fun part. You know how much time I spend alone, studying and writing and trying to hear from God, about the things that you need to hear? It's a big responsibility, and we always just look at the fun part of stuff, you know. God is looking for laborers. He said, "The harvest is ripe, pray for laborers for the harvest".

But remember, without that peace, you're not gonna carry any anointing on your life. You know, let's just say you work in an office and you're the only Christian there. Well, if you live the right kind of life, and you carry that sacred anointing on your life, that presence and power of God, you can go in there and not open your mouth and they're gonna know there's something different about you. Your very presence may convict 'em. But you be sweet, don't get all religious on 'em, be nice to 'em. If they need help, help 'em. Show 'em what it really means to be a Christian, and you might get salty enough to make somebody thirsty. Amen? The Bible says we're salt and light. Well, salt makes you thirsty.

Yesterday I got a meal that was kind of salty, and I was thirsty all night. Well, be a salty Christian, make people thirsty. Not a Peppery Christian, a salty Christian. Ooh, it's a shame I like doing this so much, but I just really do. So, a lot of people's problem really are, they just don't like themselves. So, you need to get with God and get that straightened out. He didn't make a mistake when he made you. Just because you're not like somebody else, does not mean there is something wrong with you. And just because somebody doesn't like you, that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. Maybe there's something wrong with them. Amen? 10% of people aren't gonna like you no matter what you do, that's a known statistic. So, you might as well go ahead and be free to be yourself, because no matter what you do, somebody is not gonna like it.

I don't care how hard I work on one of these conferences, there'll be somebody that won't like something. The bright lights were too bright. The music was too loud. I changed my clothes too many times. You know, it's just, please don't write me and tell me that, they don't give me the letters anyway, you're wasting your time. They don't give me all the grouchy stuff, you've gotta protect my spirit. I don't need to get all that junk in me, amen? I just go around and act like everybody loves me. I don't know if they do or not, but I have fun believing they do. Okay, now the apostle Paul in Philippians 2 verses 2-5 says, "Make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind". So, he's basically saying, "Make me happy by getting along".

How many of you have more than one child? Okay, if those two children are fighting, does it make you sad? I mean, I have grown kids and, you know, if they get a twist between a couple of 'em, it's like, it hurts me. I want my kids to love each other and to get along. So, I can imagine how it hurts God's heart when we don't get along. So, Paul said, if you want, if you appreciate what I've done for you, if you wanna make my joy complete, just get along. Verse 3, "Do nothing out of a selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility", and we talked last night about what humility is. It's: not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to. Don't think you're better than other people. The word means low-lying, but it's not in a negative sense, it doesn't mean that you have to think badly of yourself, but you value other people. Everybody has value, and we need to treat every person like they have value. Amen? Jesus died for every person.

And let me say it again, they all are valuable, and God wants us to treat them that way. People need that. The devil works hard trying to make people feel bad about themselves. "Value others above yourselves". Now, I don't think that means you have to think bad of yourself. He's basically just saying, put other people's interests before your own, don't be selfish and self-centered but think about what you can do for other people. I do that on purpose. If you don't do that on purpose, you need to form a habit every day, take a few minutes and say, "God, what can I do for somebody else today"? It won't take long and he'll show you something. Call somebody, encourage 'em, buy a Starbucks card and give it to the single woman at work that has got three kids, and can't afford some of the things you can. Matter of fact, you ought to carry gift cards just to give away. And you should carry money just to give away.

Well, I already give at church. Oh, come on. We get in such a snoot over tithing 10%. Nothing you have belongs to you. Not one thing that we have belongs to us. We are stewards. That means that God lets us have this stuff to manage it for him. And someday he's gonna come back and require an accounting of what we did with it. It's not my money, my car, my ministry, my, my, my, my. Everything belongs to God, and he's loaning it to us. Verse 4, "Not looking to your own interest, but each of you, to the interest of others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus".

Well, that's a tall order, isn't it? So, put aside your own agenda, and pray and find out what God's plan is, and how you can cooperate with what he wants from you. You know, I hope you can get this little part of this. You know, when we receive Christ as our Savior, not all the time but a good part of the time, it's because we've come to a place of desperation in our lives, where we've got all kinds of problems, and we figured out we can't solve 'em ourselves, and we want God's help. And that's okay. You know, he doesn't mind starting a relationship with you like that. But your relationship with God is just pathetic, if all you ever do is just want him to do something for you. That shouldn't even be the largest part of your prayers. Make your petitions, but God knows what you need before you even ask him. And I'll tell you, if you'll stay busy doing his will, and finding out what he wants from you, and what you can do to cooperate with the growth of the Kingdom of God... You know, there's two ways you can get what you want.

"Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these other things will be added unto you". That's the first way. And Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart". Come on, that's fun. I just told you how you can get what you want. Seek first the Kingdom of God and he will add the other things. It's perfectly fine to ask God for what you want and need, but that really should just be a minor part of your prayer life. Your prayer life should really be how you can help other people and, "God, what can I do for you"? And, "How can I be a blessing to you"? And, "How can I serve you"?

And I know for some of you, this is like standing at a new gate, because we really do just, we think God is just there for us to meet all of our needs. "Well God, I just can't put up with this one more day, if you don't do something about this, I just don't think I can stick with this". Oh, baloney! Come on, I went through all that. "I give up, God, I just give up. I can't take it anymore: I just give up". You know, fall on the floor. "I just, I quit, God! That's it, I quit"! One day, honestly, I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Really"? And you know what he showed me? The only time he gets to work in our lives, is those few minutes when we quit.

Now I gotta get up, don't I? Well, I can do it, watch this. Boy, there were so many great things going on in the Book of Acts and the Bible plainly says that they walked in unity. And not only that, the apostles dealt with junk in the church. Thank you! And we let too much garbage go on, and just sit with us and never deal with it. Sapphira and Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost, and fell over dead. They had power all right. But if we want that kind of power, we've gotta live the life that goes along with it. If you encourage me just a little.

Okay, 1 Corinthians 3:3, once again, the Amplified Bible. Paul is talking to Christians, the Corinthian Christians that had the gifts of the spirit. They spoke in tongues. You know, just because you speak in tongues, that doesn't mean you're spiritual. It could mean that, but it doesn't necessarily. He says to the Corinthians church, "You are still [unspiritual, you have the nature] of the flesh because you're [under the control of ordinary impulses]". In other words, they did what they felt like doing. "Yay, you get mad". "For as long as [there is] envy and jealousy and wrangling," which is strife, "And factions," which is divisions, "Among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourself after a mere human standard and like mere (unchanged) men"? Jealousy, envy, strife, division, that's not supposed to be our testimony.

And I said last night, but I'll say it again, I think that we have gotten a lot of things that the Bible refers to as pretty serious sins, we have let them become acceptable to us. See, how many people really understand the danger of gossip? If we did, we wouldn't do it. What about going to bed angry? The Bible says, "When you're angry". It doesn't say you'll never get angry. "When you're angry, don't let the sun go down on your anger". Do whatever you gotta do to get it straightened out before you go to sleep. You sleep with it, you're gonna wake up with it. I prefer to get mad early in the morning, so I've got all day. It's really rough if you get really mad about bedtime. Oh, Jesus, I'm now on page two.

Ephesians 4:1-3, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then", see, Paul called himself a prisoner of the Lord, but he made himself that, a bond servant of Jesus Christ. "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain". "It's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God". "I die daily". This is what it means to be the real deal. Now, don't lose me. "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received". Wow! "Be completely humble and gentle: be patient," Lord, help me. "Bearing with one another in love". What does it mean: bearing with one another? It means if you're gonna have peaceful relationships, you're gonna have to put up with some stuff. "Now, I'm not putting up with that. If you think I'm putting up with that, you've got another thing coming". Oh, that was my attitude, "You ain't pushing me around. I'm out of here"!

You can run away from it one place, but you'll run into it somewhere else. God uses people to crucify your flesh. Do I need to say it again? "Well, you are so hard to get along with". "Make every effort," verse 3, "Effort..." it's not all easy. "Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace". I wanna know how many of you will sign up today to be a peacemaker? Now, are you serious? 'cause God will test you. Not just hope for peace, or wish for peace, or even just pray for peace, but take action to be a peacemaker. Say you're sorry even if you don't think you were wrong. Just say, "It's important to me that we walk in peace, and I'm sorry that I upset you, I'm sorry if I was wrong".

You know, you can believe 100% that you're right, and surprise! You find out you were wrong. I don't remember the exact details of this story 'cause it's been a long time ago. But I know one time the key to our safety deposit box could not be found. And I think it was the second time we'd lost one. And they charge you quite a bit to remake those things. And I told Dave, I said, "You are the last one that used that key. Now, what did you do with it"? He said, "I'm pretty sure I gave it to you". "You did not give it to me... What did you..."

I got so upset. About a month went by, and I found that key. In a box in my drawer, where I had put it for safekeeping. But I'm telling you, I knew that it was him. And I've learned that no matter how much I think I'm right, I could be wrong. Okay, let me just throw this in there, lest I forget it. You not only don't get to be mad at people, you don't get to be mad at things. Huh? I wanted to tell you this because, it's not only people that causes us to lose our peace. Come on, it may even be more so all the stupidity that's going on in the world today. Of nobody doing what they say they're going to do. And I wanna urge you to make the devil really mad, and even in those situations, keep your peace.