Joyce Meyer - Less of Me, More of God - Part 2

I'll tell you a story that I think's interesting. My daughter went to the grocery store, and she had left her purse in her car. And so, when she got in the checkout, she didn't have her credit card. And so, she told the girl, she said, "If you'll just hold these, just a second, I'll run out and get my credit card and come back". She said, "Oh, no, never mind". She whipped out her own credit card, paid for my daughter's groceries. Now, you know what I like about the story? She was prepared. She took that credit card to work with her, and she intended to bless somebody that day. And she was ready! She didn't have to go get ready, she was ready! And we've taught our kids to do things like that, and they all do. I love it. My son was in shopping, one day, and the young man in front of him was putting a pair of jeans in layaway. My son said, "No, here, I'll just pay for them".

And let me tell you something, when the church starts acting like that and unbelievers see it, there's a lot of things you can argue with, but you can't argue with real love. Not real love. When we really start loving people the way God wants us to love people, the world will change. What if every one of us, who calls ourselves a Christian, just did one thing for one person every day? Do you know I heard that if one family, just one family out of every evangelical church in America, would adopt one child out of the foster system, that they could clean the whole thing out. One family! Just one. But no, we don't wanna, we don't wanna make the effort. We don't wanna, maybe, get some kid that's got a bunch of problems, and we've gotta deal with 'em. Sure is a good thing that God don't look that way about us, isn't it? "No, I just, I don't wanna, I don't wanna mess with anybody that's got problems".

Whew, I would've sure got left out, 'cause I was a mess. In Philippians 3:8-13, there's some of the most heart wrenching scriptures, and I wish I could stay in here and read 'em for you word by word, but they're just, they're very lengthy and long in the Amplified Bible. But I'd really like to challenge you to get these in the Amplified, and I'm gonna kinda ad lib and run through here. But man, Paul was praying a prayer that is so powerful. He said, "I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege of knowing Christ". See, we don't just need to know about Jesus, we need to know Jesus. There's a difference. You know, you can say, "Oh, I know Joyce Meyer. She came to my church once". You don't know me. Now, you talk to Dave. Dave knooows me! You understand?

And we need to know Jesus. He said, "For his sake I have lost everything". And you know, when you're willing to lose everything for Jesus, he'll end up giving you everything. That's the thing, you're not ever gonna lose out on giving your all to God. We're so afraid, we'll end up with nothing. Well, is what you have making you happy? It wasn't making me happy. All I did was think about me, "What about me? What about me? What about me"? And I wasn't happy. I was miserable. Oh, I'm so thankful to God, that he's given me this little secret that's hidden in the Word of God. Romans 12:21, listen to this, it'll change your life. "You overcome evil with good".

You wanna run the devil out of your house? Just be as good to everybody as you can possibly be, especially your enemies. Yeah, one, "Yes," out there. Especially your enemies. "Well, why should I do that? They didn't do anything for me". Well, because you're like Jesus. Amen? And he loved you into wholeness when you weren't worth lovin'. Amen? In verse 9, he says, "And that I might actually be found and known to be in him, not having any self-achieved righteousness". Because our righteousness is "Like filthy rags". That's why even if you do, do something good for somebody every day, you still, you just gotta thank God. Thank God that, "You gave me something to give away". Thank God that, "You caused me to forget about myself long enough to want to care about somebody else. Thank you, God. I give you all the glory".

No self-righteousness. God hates self-righteousness. And we can't just assume. Paul prayed about these things. He said, "I don't wanna have any righteousness on my own, but only that righteousness that's found in Christ". And then in verse 10, I love this. He said, "[for my determined purpose is] that I might know him". That was what Paul was going after. Not prosperity. Not a big position in the church. But, "My determined purpose is to know him and the power of his resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead, even while I'm in the body". You know what that means? There's a place that we can live that no matter what's goin' on in our lives, we're still up here, and happy. Amen? We're too up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and up and down. Get depressed if your dishwasher don't work for two days. Come on.

"My air conditioner went out and I can't get anybody out here to fix it for two days". Well, honey, you'll survive. Okay, now, we're gonna get to something here. I hope they add to the time, today. "[for my determined purpose is] that I might know him [that I might progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understand how wonderful he is]". Phew. "[more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power that flows out of his resurrection", and here comes the part you're not gonna like. "And that I may so share his sufferings", uh-oh, "As to be continually transformed [into his likeness]".

Okay, now, I'm just gonna give it to you straight, if you wanna be like Jesus, you're gonna have some suffering. And I'm not talking about car wrecks, and disasters, and cancer. I'm talking about suffering in the flesh. You're gonna have to do some things you don't wanna do. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. Don't forget this. You don't have to feel like doing what's right, to do it. Now, that's when you're starting to grow up. When you know what's right and you feel like doing what's wrong, but you'll do what's right anyway because you love God. Man. Wow. "I don't feel like forgiving you, but I will, because Jesus told me to. I don't feel like loving you, but I will, because God told me to love my enemies. I don't feel like helping you, you never did anything for me, but I will, because God told me to".

Come on. You know, in each one of the gospels, there's a rendition of the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. But in Matthew, three separate times, it says Jesus went off and prayed, "Father, if you can take this cup from me". Three times! You know what just struck me a few weeks ago? Jesus did not want to go to the cross. He didn't wanna do that. But he always quickly followed it up with, "Nevertheless, your will be done and not mine". Now, that's what we're after. "I don't wanna to do this, God". "I don't wanna do this". "I don't wanna help them. They've never done anything for me". "I don't wanna forgive them. They don't deserve it".

Well, even if that person doesn't deserve your forgiveness, you deserve peace. And they probably don't care if you forgive 'em or not. When you forgive somebody, you're doin' it for yourself. You're doing yourself a favor. You set yourself free. I'mma tell you a quick story. And God gave me the grace to do this, but it's probably the single most powerful thing God has ever allowed me to do. And probably has opened more doors for us to be able to help other people than any other thing. My father sexually abused me for about 15 years on a regular basis. My mother knew what he was doing, but she was afraid of him, and she wouldn't do anything about it. And so, that's the way I grew up. I grew up in fear. That's all I ever remember is fear. And I had a lot of problems in my soul. And God calls me to do this.

Well, obviously, you know, somewhere along the line, before I get to this point, I gotta change. And it was hard. It was hard to learn to be submissive to a man. It was hard to learn how to love my parents. And love is not a feeling. It's how you treat people. So, I'm gonna do a fast forward on this, but my parents lived about a couple hundred miles from us and that just suited me fine. I didn't have to see 'em very often. And we'd go and stay as long as we had to on Christmas and send a little money every once in a while. I thought I was doing my good deed, doing that. And I prayed the forgiveness prayer. But I didn't want nothin' to do 'em, you know. And that's understandable, you know. And so, now, they're gettin' older. They're both sick. The area where they live doesn't have good doctors, not good health care. And I'm praying one morning, "Oh, God, will you use me? God, use me".

Oh, yeah. Are you sure you really want God to use you? Well, you just go right ahead. You pray and ask God to use you and then see if you're ready to really let him use you when he tells you what he wants you to do. Boy, you're gonna have such a much better church. I'm tellin' you what. If we can get anybody to listen this morning, this place is gonna be set on fire. You quit coming to church to get something. Come here to give something. And I'm not talking about the offering thing, wherever it's at. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about. I mean, that's a given. You should give to support the church because you can't run things like this without money.

They don't let me on TV free. They don't even give me a preacher's discount. Amen? And everybody claps when I say, "I'm on TV all over the world". Well, try to pay those bills. But God takes care of it. Amen? I'm proud to tell you that we don't owe anybody anything. Amen? We're not behind. We're not in debt. And it's all to the glory of God. Amen? But when I talk about coming here to give, don't come and just get with your little groupies. Look for somebody that's by themselves. Look for somebody that's hurtin'. "Come sit with us". Find the single mom that never has the money to take her kids out to lunch and give her 50 bucks and tell her to take her kids out to lunch.

Come on. I don't know what's gonna happen if we don't start loving one another. Oh, the world is in such a mess. It's in such a horrible mess. And I don't know what the whole answer is, but I do know that if we start loving each other, it's gonna make the world sit up and take notice. Well, anyway, I'm praying one morning, "God, what's your will"? And it came to my heart that we were to bring my parents to St. Louis, buy them a nice little house, put them in it, and take care of them until they died. I rebuked that. I did. I said, "I rebuke that. That's the devil. God would not ask me to do that". I didn't believe it was God. I thought it was the devil trying to deceive me. I said, "God would not ask me to do that. They never did anything for me". God said, "You're breathing, aren't you"? God's not always easy on you. "They gave you life. You're here, aren't you"?

Well, I just went on about my business and forgot all about that. And a couple of months later, I was praying again, "Oh, God use me". He told me the same thing again. I thought, "I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go ask Dave. Dave's not gonna wanna buy them a house". I went and told Dave. He said, "Well, that's what God said, we better do it". I thought... Come on. So, I thought, "Okay, we're gonna buy 'em a cheap house". God said, "No, you're gonna buy 'em a nice house". They had to have a car. They didn't have a decent car. Well, I just, man, we moved 'em to St. Louis. We put 'em in this cute little house, and made sure the grass was cut every week, made sure they got groceries, made sure they went to, we didn't do it all, but we had to pay somebody to do it, a lot of times, because we traveled so much and we're gone a lot.

So, we made sure they were well taken care of. Okay, then they get sicker. So, they go into assisted living care. On top of my mom and dad, I've got my widowed aunt, who my uncle, I promised my uncle I'd take care of. So, now, we've got three people. And then I got a brother who was in the Vietnam war and got hooked on drugs over there, and he couldn't take care of himself, so we were just taking care of all these people. And I did not want to! Do you understand that? I did not want to do it! You have to understand today, that you don't have to want to do it, to do it! And it's okay if you tell God you don't wanna to do it, "I don't want to". Jesus said, "Take this cup from me. I don't wanna drink this cup, but your will be done and not mine".

Come on. Is anybody getting this today? "Your will be done and not mine". Well, then they got sicker and sicker and so they went to the nursing home. Now, all this is costing money. Lots of money. Every month. Every month. And I just wanna tell ya that we have longevity in our bloodline. We live a looong time. Well, I thought, "I can handle this for a couple of years". Thirteen years! Thirteen years! And I'm gonna tell ya something, and this is the truth. And maybe, I should be embarrassed to say it, but I'm just gonna tell you the truth. Once every two weeks, I went to the nursing home and visited my mom. And there was not one time that I went, that I wanted to. And she would say things to me like, "Well, you should take care of me, you're my daughter". Whew. "Well, you owe me that. You should take care of me". And I'd just think, "Ew, what did you ever do for me"?

Is anybody getting this? Then we're getting somewhere. Now, see, that's what love is. Love is helping people. It's not how you feel. You pray for people, it's very simple. You wanna love somebody: you pray for them, you bless them, and you help them. "If your enemy's hungry, you give 'em somethin' to eat. If he's thirsty, you give 'em somethin' to drink". If we can just understand that love is not a feeling, wow, how it's gonna change things. And Jesus, I mean, Jesus said, himself, he said, "What good is it? What credit do you get if you love those who love you? Anybody can do that. But if you love your enemies", that's what God does.

I tell pastors, all the time, if somebody in your church takes half your congregation and moves down the street and starts a church, don't hate 'em and be mad at 'em. Go buy 'em a sound system. That's when you break the power of the devil. There's only one thing that'll set you free, and that is if you're good to people that aren't good to you. Paul said, "Not that I have attained this ideal, or have already been made perfect, but I press on". I love that. "I press on to lay hold of and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me and made me his own".

See, I like that. He's saying, "I wanna be what Jesus died to make me". Amen? Not a professional Christian. "Are you a Christian"? "I go to church". Well, big deal! I can sit in the garage all day and I'll never be a car. People can only know us one way. And it's not by our bumper sticker. It's how we behave. Amen? When you come to church, it's practice. You're learning what you're supposed to do, when you go out there. That's all this is. This is just a practice run. Somebody has studied, and giving you some instructions on how to live, but what good is it to hear the word if you don't do it? Your joy comes in doing it, not just in hearing it.

You can turn your whole Bible into a coloring book, it doesn't matter. Man, I loved to underline, red and yellow, and checkmarks, and stars, and whoo! You know, secretly, when we open our Bibles in church, we hope the person next to it sees how spiritual we are. Now, you're only clappin' 'cause you know what I'm talking about. Amen? "Ooh, they're gonna think", that don't mean nothing. Are you doing it?! Are you doing what it says?! "Well, it's hard. It's just hard". Yeah, honey, it is. Takes an effort. It takes dying to self, it takes the crucifixion of the flesh, it takes hurtin' a little. But oh, if you wanna be happy. Man, if you wanna be happy, mmm... Just get your pretty, little self off your mind, for just a little while, and just go do somethin' for somebody else. Amen?