Joyce Meyer - You Are Full of Good Things - Part 1

Let me start by asking, how many of you, in just in the past week have thought about what's wrong with you? Come on stick your hand up nice and high so I can see. Okay. Well, I kinda figured that. But do you know... Now, the Bible does say to examine ourselves, but it's never unto condemnation. When I first started working out with a strength coach, the very first thing they did was test all of my muscle groups to see where my weaknesses were so they could start working with me in my weaknesses. And that's really the only purpose for self-examination is, it's not for condemnation, it's just to think where your weaknesses are so you can begin to pray about those areas and ask God to help you in those areas. But Jesus not only forgave our sins, but he also took care of the guilt.

And so, I spent the first two services this morning talking a lot about, guilt and how you can change and feeling bad about yourself all the time is not only not gonna help you change: it's going to prevent you from changing. Wanna make sure you get that. Feeling bad about yourself all the time and always thinking about what's wrong with you, is not gonna help you change. Matter of fact, it can prevent you from changing. Somehow or another, religion, just dead dry religion, seems to promote the idea that the more we think that we're awful and just a lowly worm and a terrible nothing, the better that is.

That sounds spiritual, you know, to say that you're nothing. I mean, I can remember some of the things that I used to confess out loud in church along with everybody else when I went to a different kind of church than I go to now. And I think back and I think, you know, the things that I confessing were things that I was before Christ. But when you get in Christ, you know, I'm no longer a poor, miserable sinner. I would be if I didn't have Jesus. And I am, but in him, I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. So, God wants us confessing and acknowledging who we are in him, not who we are apart from him. And the devil does not want you to do that. You gotta understand that, he loves it when you sit around and think about everything that's wrong with you. Him and all of his little demons are so... "Oooo"! Because, "As a man thinks in his heart, so does he become".

Now, come on, I want you to get this. The more you think about what's wrong with you, the longer you're gonna stay that way. And see, we think, "Well, it wouldn't be right to think good things about myself, that would be pride". Well, not if you know that you only have those good things because you're in Christ. See, there's a difference in your who and your do. I can do something wrong, but I'm still the righteousness of God in Christ. I'm not what I do. I'm who I am in him. Now, my who needs to change. I mean, my do needs to change. But knowing who I am in Christ is gonna help me change. It's not gonna keep me from changing. How many of you have kids that don't always do everything right? But they're still your kids, aren't they?

Their last name didn't change because they did something wrong. And I'm trying to work into this slowly because I want you to realize what a problem it is to be saying bad things about yourself out of your own mouth. "I'm so stupid. I never do anything right". Well, if you wanna be stupid, just go ahead and keep saying it. I was on the golf course with Dave one time and he played with a man. That man must have said 50 to 60 times in 18 rounds, "Stupid, I'm so stupid". I tell you, I started believing him after a few holes. Come on. How many of you say bad things about yourself out of your own mouth? Don't give me none of this, own up to it.

All right, now. Look at mama. And I'm old enough to be every person's mother in here. Amen? One of the worst things that you can do is to say bad things about yourself out of your own mouth. Matter of fact, the Bible teaches us to, "Call those things that are not as if they already are". So, that means, let's just say you're impatient. Well, don't go around all the time saying, "I'm so impatient. I'm so impatient. I'm just so impatient". You say, "In Christ, I'm patient". Well, I got about a half a clap out of one person. I know you gotta think about stuff like this because it's just so opposite of what we're used to. And I get it, we're kind of afraid to think or say good things about ourselves because we don't want to get in pride. I mean, the Bible warns us over and over about pride. But the two little words in Christ changes the whole thing.

I know that without him I am zero nothing, below nothing, terrible, awful, deserve to die and go to hell. "But the old man I used to be died with Christ and I've been resurrected to a brand-new life," amen. "And now, I live in a totally different place". Paul said, "It's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God". "It's no longer I that live, that old me, that wanted to do all those wrong things, is dead". Now, I still do wrong things, but here's the big difference, I don't want to. I do not want to. If I could, I would do everything right because I love God so much. I want to do everything that he wants me to do.

Now, I've been reading the Bible for 50 years. But you know, there's so many things in there that we skim over, and you just don't get it. And I found one of those, I don't know, a couple of months ago, when I put this message together. And in Philemon 1:6, probably a little book that you don't pay that much attention to, in the King James version it says, "That the communication of your faith might become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus". Wow! You didn't get it. I'll have to read it 20 times. It says our faith is not even effectual, whew. If we're not acknowledging the good things that are in us in Christ Jesus. I've been waiting to pull this message on the right group, and I hope it's you. I can tell, you... You don't... Come on, I'm reading it out of the Bible, I ain't making this up.

Now, the Amplified Bible gets a little fancier. It says, "[and I pray] that the participation in and the sharing of your faith may produce and promote full recognition," in other words, God wants you to recognize, "And appreciate and understand, precise knowledge of every good [thing] that is ours in [our identification with] Christ Jesus [and unto his glory]". You know this is a wow message. I mean, if you would just take this for the next two weeks and just go over this and over this and keep looking at that and see what it says. It's saying our faith doesn't even work if we don't acknowledge the good things that are in us through Christ. Don't work.

So, if you think you're walking in faith and you're saying all this junky stuff about yourself out of your mouth... It don't work. Just doesn't work. I'll tell you a quick story. I don't know if you believe in demons or not, but they are real. The devil's real. He has a lotta little helpers called demons. And many, many years ago, matter of fact, I guess it was 43 years ago because I was holding my baby who's now 43. And I had been learning about righteousness, and I don't think it was a Revelation yet, but I knew that I had been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and God was teaching me to declare that and confess that. That's part of meditation, by the way, is declaration. It actually means to mutter softly under your breath, to rotate over and over in your mind.

And we are taught all throughout God's word to meditate on his word. That's part of how it becomes part of you is to think about it and to roll it over and over in your mind. And that's what I want you to do with what I'm teaching you today. For the next couple of weeks, three weeks, four weeks, just think, "I need to acknowledge the good things that are in me in Christ. I need to acknowledge the good things that are in me in Christ. I should not say bad things about myself out of my own mouth". If you don't do that, you'll lose what I'm telling you by lunchtime. Somebody will ask you tomorrow, "What did Joyce preach"? "It was good, but you know, I can't remember what it was". Mark 4:24 says, "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".

Did you get that? You have to do something. I've done my part. I've studied. I've prayed. I've studied and studied and prayed and prayed. And I'm here and I'm delivering this with passion. But don't be one of those Christians who just come and park yourself in the pew and just... And think you have no part in anything. Your life's not gonna change just because you sit and hear something. You've gotta meditate on this and make it part of you and think about it. You know, don't just hear a message and never think about it again. Go home... I think sometimes we have too much available to us. You can listen to this right now and you can come back to church tonight and you can hear something different and then you can watch my program Monday morning and hear something different again.

And so, we hear so much sometimes that we, we never really, nothing ever really gets deep down inside of us. And the only way that it's going to is you gotta put a little time into this. So, Mark 4, "The measure [of thought and study] that you give [to the truth that you hear] is the measure [of virtue and power] that will come back to you". So, I'm just asking you to take just this one thing for a week and just meditate on it: speak it out loud if you're where you can, mutter it under your breath, "I should acknowledge the good things that are in me in Christ. I should not say bad things about myself out of my own mouth".

Can you imagine how much it must hurt the heart of God having sent his son to pay for our sins so we could have a good life and not have to think bad things about ourselves all the time, to have to listen to us say some of the things that we say? You're not stupid. You have the mind of Christ. "I have the mind of Christ. I am creative. I am talented. I am gifted". Come on. Come on, this is my third time to do this this morning and... I'm gonna get it to you. I gotta read this again, "That the communication of your faith may become effectual by acknowledging every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus".

So anyway, back to the demon. So, I knew that I'd been made the righteousness of God in Christ. I don't think it was a Revelation yet, but I was beginning to confess it. I was starting to get it. And I knew some things about confession and how important it was to confess right things out of my mouth. And I was sitting and feeding my baby, and Dave and I had some kind of an argument before he left for work. And so, as he left, I started talking out loud in the house by myself, "That's it. I'm just a mess. Everything's my fault. I'm a big jerk. Can't do anything right". And I felt an evil presence coming across the room at me. Now, I don't say things like this if I don't mean it. I felt that, and man it scared the daylights out of me. And I started saying, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am the righteousness of God in Christ".

And I felt that evil presence backing away. I felt it backing off. And I'll tell you what, that scared the tar out of me. And I realized how dangerous it is. What I'm telling you today is not just a good idea. It is dangerous to say bad things about yourself out of your own mouth because when you do, it opens a door for the enemy. Mmm. It says, "We are to acknowledge every good thing in us". And that word means "To own," you need to own this stuff, possess it, "To avow, admit to be true by declaration or assent as to acknowledge the being of a God to own or notice with particular regard, to admit, accept, grant, allow, concede, confess, own, appreciate, recognize, and notice".

And one definition of the word is "To declare". And the Bible teaches us that we should confess the Word of God. We should agree with God. If the devil says, "You're stupid". Don't agree with him. You know the word and you tell him, "You're a liar and I'm not stupid, I have the mind of Christ". I don't know how many of you talk out loud back to the devil, but if you've never done it, you need to start. You say, "Well, that would be kind of weird". Well, Jesus did it. In Luke chapter 4, the devil said to Jesus and Jesus said to the devil.

A woman told me one time, "The first time I ever heard you, you were on television screaming, 'and Jesus said to the devil! And the devil said to Jesus'"! And she said, "I thought you were a total nut". "But," she said, "For some reason I couldn't turn you off". And she ended up becoming, she became an on-fire Christian. Man, the devil talks to you. Why do you just stand... "I'm stupid. I'm fat. I'm ugly. I'm", ew! We have no problem thinking about what's wrong with us. Everybody in the room's done that, but there may be some people in here today that have never one time in your whole Christian life ever actually purposely sat and thought about what's right with you. I don't know that for sure, but I gotta believe. And if not, people watching by online or from one of the other locations.

There's too many people that don't know this and who even think that it would be wrong to do it. Well, you know, there's a false humility that a lot of people have. And it is not pride to say about yourself what God says about you. You are just agreeing with him. That's it. You're just agreeing with him. The Bible says in Romans 12 that we should have our mind renewed according to the Word of God. Until we come into agreement with God, we are not going to have the plan work in our life that Jesus died to give us. And I love what Paul said. He said, "I am determined to take hold of those things for which Christ Jesus died to take hold of me".

And if you want to know the truth, I think that's my mission in the body of Christ is to teach people who they are in Christ and keep working with them through the word until they really take hold of what Jesus died to give them. Salvation is wonderful and that's where we start. But Jesus died so we might have and enjoy our life. Enjoy your life and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows. But I talked in the other services about how many years I spent feeling guilty all the time, always feeling bad about something. I didn't enjoy my life.

I was always punishing myself for my sins. I wouldn't let myself enjoy anything. I always felt bad about myself. And it was just works of the flesh. It was wasted time because Jesus already paid for our sins. You can't pay for something that's already been paid for. "But I feel guilty". Well, there's our big problem: we live by what we feel instead of what the Word of God says. And I don't feel guilty anymore. But you know where I had to start? When I would feel guilty, I would say out loud, "I don't care how I feel, that is not what the Word of God says. I have been forgiven and I am the righteousness of God in Christ". Now, you can do what you want to with this message, but if you don't start doing a little warfare, and you can do warfare with the Word of God. The greatest weapon you have is the Word of God: it's a two-edged sword.