Joyce Meyer - What Is Love? - Part 4

TOPICS: Love

Now, I don't know if you believe me or not, if you think this'll work, but I tell you what, I made a list of 65 things that I wanted to see happen in my life, and I said all of them were a reality and not one of them was a reality. And right now, I can tell you, honestly, every one of those things is a reality in my life. Every single, solitary, one of them. You've got to change your thinking, because what's in your heart comes out of your mouth and "Words carry the power of life and death". It's not that hard to put this together. The Bible doesn't say talk about the mountain, it says, "Talk to the mountain".

Now, I'm gonna talk to somebody that's understanding what I'm saying. Now, you take anything that is a bondage, a habit, a problem in your life, let's say, you have a problem with jealousy, or you have a problem with envy, or pride, or whatever. There's so many problems out there, we could never count them all. But whatever your problem is, take the word like medicine for that area. If I've got a headache, I don't put a band-aid on my head. If I cut myself, I don't stick an aspirin in it. We have enough sense to know what kind of medicine to take for our physical ailments. Well, the Word of God is medicine. It is medicine for your soul. And refills are free. There's no limit on refills. Dr. Jesus says you can refill this until you are completely well.

Come on. But let me tell you something, you can't be lazy and be victorious. You can't just keep goin' somewhere and sitting there hoping somebody else says something that sets you free. But you need to do something. You need to put some work and effort into it. "The measure [of thought and study] That you give [to the truth that you hear] Is the measure [of virtue]", which is power, "That will come back to you again". Okay, now look. Love is kind. Wow, this is so important. Kind. Ephesians 4:32, "Be kind and compassionate". I love the scriptures that say, "And Jesus was moved with compassion". When you have compassion, it moves you. It's not pity. You can feel sorry for somebody and never do anything for them. But if you have real, true compassion, born out of love, it will move you to help somebody. You'll sacrifice to do it. You hear things about random acts of kindness.

How many have ever heard that term, random acts of kindness? I love it. I love doing stuff like that. I love to see how people react. And I believe that a lot of people could be brought to Christ, if more Christians would just do random acts of kindness. One of the things that agape is, is doing something kind for someone that you don't know, that can never pay you back. Doing things in secret. I told you yesterday, somebody bought our lunch, here. We went to pay for our lunch, we were at Houston's and they said, "Somebody's already paid your bill". They did it anonymously. Well, you know what I do? I take those things as winks from God. It's like God's saying, "I gotcha. I'll take care of ya". Just a little something to let me know that he's there.

You say, "Well sure, people would pay for your lunch. You're famous and on tv," you know? No, I pay for people's lunch that I don't know, and they never know that I did it. Sometimes, I'll see a young couple with four or five kids eating at a table. And I remember when Dave and I, maybe, could eat out once a year. Maybe. You need to remember where you came from. And start helping people that are still where you used to be. Amen? Luke 6:35 says, "Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked".

Colossians 3:12 and 13, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience". These are the attitudes that a believer in Christ should be wearing. Don't you leave this meeting, after hearing me preach like this, and get out in the parking lot, and give somebody some bad sign. And don't go out to that resource table and nearly knock somebody down because you're in a hurry. See, that's a problem, we can hear this kind of stuff and just walk out. Hearing it is not what's gonna change you. It's doing it. If you got a bad temper, you need to make a college course out of learning how to walk in love. Go to the college of the Holy Ghost. Examples of random acts of kindness.

Now, I can only tell you examples from my life and maybe some from my kids, because that's all I know, so I'm not bragging on us, but I'm trying to just show you the power of this stuff. Random act of kindness is doing something good for someone you may not know just for the purpose of showing kindness. You have no other motive in mind. You just wanna bless 'em. And for me, I want to bless 'em because God has done so much for me. I just, he's done so much for me. So, I've told these stories a couple of times. I don't know if I've told 'em here, or if you've seen them on tv, but they're still good stories, so you just have to listen again. You know, we have ideas about people and sometimes we don't like to hang out with anybody that's not like us. And some of the young people, today, just are not like us.

You know, they've got, they might have five different colors in their hair and body piercings all over the place, and everything tattooed, and wearing black lipstick, and you know, whatever. And so, if you're a "Religious" Christian, which are the absolute worst. I mean, religious people are some of the meanest people on the face of the earth. They're like the pharisees. You cannot do anything right. They're gonna find something wrong with it. So, I was at a Starbucks, and I wanted what's called a pour over and I'm a coffee snob, it's gotta be a certain way or I don't want it. And she said, "Oh, let me make you a cup of coffee out of this new press that we have". I said, "Ah, I don't really like a press, the coffee's always too strong". She said, "No, let me make this for you". She said, "And if you don't like it, I'll make you anything else you want".

Well, her hair was going in about every direction, and every piece of it was a different color. Wouldn't have been, you know, like somebody I would have hung out with, but by now, I'm learnin' to have a little bit of brains, that just because they're not like me, that doesn't mean that God doesn't love 'em. Did you hear me? Just because they're not like you. And some of you have an attitude about tattoos. Do you know the Bible says in the Old Testament that people had tattooed on their body, "I belong to the Lord". "Well... Well, I just think that's wrong". Well, I'm about to get one. And I'm gonna do it just to make the devil mad and just to make religious people mad. I'm gonna have it put right back here, a cross and under it, it's gonna say, "I belong to Jesus".

And don't write me a letter and tell me how wrong you think it is, because I don't have to get permission from you. It just makes the devil so mad when you get free. "Well, well, mAbel, I never heard of anything... I mean, we're not coming back this afternoon. That woman's crazy". Can you imagine that, 78 and a half years old and going to get a tattoo? Angels' mouths are... Anyway, this gal had tattoos all over. She had her tongue pierced. She had her eyelashes pierced. So, she says to me, she said, "Yeah, I just love this coffee pot". She said, "You can just use it anywhere". She said, "I'm gonna save up my money so I can get one. It's just gonna take me a while to do it". Well, it was about $100. So, she made me a cup of coffee and sure enough, it was really good. And so, I started to walk away, and I just sensed that I was missing an opportunity, and I felt like the Lord said, "Buy her the coffee pot she wants".

Okay, now listen. You feel really stupid, going up to somebody you don't know and saying, "I'd like to buy you that coffee pot," especially today. So, I walked around a little bit, and get my nerve up. And I went back, and called her over, and I said, "Listen, I just, I wanna bless you. I wanna buy you one of those coffee pots". And so, I just gave her $110. And she's like, "Well, no, wha...Wha..."? And she starts crying. And so, of course, I'm wantin' to get out of there as fast as I can. "Here's the money for your coffee pot". I've obeyed God, I'm gone. Done and gone. And things like this don't just happen. So, it's two hours later and I go to the bathroom in another store. And I start to come in the door, and she is coming out the door. And she looked at me... Now, this is the effect this can have on people. She looked at me and she said, "Why are you the kindest person in the whole world"? Which, obviously, I'm not, but. Nobody had ever showed her that kind of kindness.

Do you know how many people there are in the world who have never seen kindness? They've never, nobody's ever really loved them. The world is full of people that nobody has ever loved them. And you have the love of God in you. You have the ability to change people's lives. And so, I said, "Well, tell you what". I said, "God's been really good to me and you just look to me like you could use a blessing and so I just wanted to bless you". And she said, "Well, to tell you the truth, I've been kind of mad at the man upstairs". I love it when people call him the man upstairs, that tells me right away they don't know him. And she said, "My mother died with cancer and I've been mad at him ever since". But she said, "After this, I may have to rethink it".

Now, she didn't get saved right there on the spot, but that had to have an impact on that woman's life. Another story, you'll give me a few more minutes, right, if I'm telling you good stories? Another story, my son is in line waiting to pay for some jeans that he got. See, you can teach your kids this kind of stuff. And there's a young man in front of him that was putting one pair of jeans in layaway. Well, my son, didn't even have to think about it. He just said, "I'll pay for the jeans, let him have 'em". This is the kinda stuff we ought to be doing. I remember when I used to have to put stuff in layaway. I don't have to put it in layaway, now. I can pay for it. Amen? My daughter does this stuff all the time. She'll be, if she's in the grocery store and somebody realizes they've got more than what they can pay for and they start trying to take items out, I've been there. She says, "No, nope, I'll pay the whole bill. Just give 'em to her".

Why do you think God blesses you? He doesn't bless you just so you can be blessed. He blesses you so you can be a blessing to other people. And it doesn't have to be somebody you like, or know, or somebody who can do something back for you. It's even better if it's somebody you don't know. Then story, after story, after story. We were in a restaurant sometime this year. And, you know, everybody's been short on workers and so we had to wait, like, a long time to even get a glass of water. And since I'm so patient, you know? I looove waiting. Finally, this girl comes over to wait on us. She said, "I'm so sorry you had to wait so long". She said, "We just, we're short on workers". And she said, "I've been working 14-hour days". And you know, "I'm just really worn out". She was sweating. You could tell she was really tired. And so, we talked to her a little bit, in the course of the conversation, she said, "I have to work these hours because when everything was closed down during COVID, I got behind on my bills". And she said, "I'm way behind on my electric bill and I'm afraid they're gonna turn my electric off, and I've got a child".

Well, see, once you get good at this, you don't have to go have a 25-minute prayer session to see if God wants you to do something. So, we left her a $100 tip, but no, that didn't suit God. We left and on the way home, I said, "Dave, we need to pay her electric bill". So, we were already almost home. So, I was gonna send one of my employees back the next day to do it, 'cause I thought, "I'm gonna feel stupid". And God said, "No, you're gonna go do it yourself". Okay, so I went back, and she wasn't working that day. But I said to the girl, the hostess, I said, I kinda described her, I said, "Do you know who this girl is"? And she said, "Oh, yeah, I know who she is". And she said, "I know who you are, too". And I said, "Okay, I need you to help me with somethin'. She was telling me yesterday how she thought her electric might get turned off and I want to pay her electric bill. Can you give her this email address"? Gave her my daughter's email address. And I said, "Tell her if she'll send the electric bill to my daughter, we'll pay it". Well, she did, and we did. And I haven't seen her since. But I'll tell you one thing that happened, that lady at that hostess desk knows that I'm not a phony. That I'm not just preaching something that I don't love.

Now, I'm not just trying to say, "Oh, I am so good," because, you know, you know where I started 40 years ago? I felt like God was putting it on my heart to give somebody $10 and I didn't wanna give 'em $10. I wanted to keep my $10. And I said, "Now, God, if this is really you". C'mon, you ever been there? I mean, "If this is really you". You know, we wanna have angels appear and three prophecies and four confirmations to give away $5. "If this is really you, I'll do it". And you know what the Lord said, "Even if it's not really me, I won't get mad at you if you bless somebody"? See, you don't have to have a prayer meeting every time you wanna bless somebody, just make a decision that you are gonna walk in love. And part of that is you are gonna be a blessing to everybody that you can. Amen.