Joyce Meyer - Righteousness - Part 3

Well, thank you for joining me today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". I'm gonna be talking to you today about the importance of stability. If you have the right foundation in your life, how you can be stable in any kind of a circumstance or situation. Now, I spent a lot of years of my life in what I called yo-yo Christianity. I was up when my circumstances were up and down when they went down. And I can remember when the ministry was still very small, and we had a handful of employees, maybe, I don't know, 15 or 20. And Dave and I would go out pretty much every weekend and do some kind of a conference, or seminar, or speaking engagement somewhere. And we would come home and go down to the post office and wanted to see how much mail we had. I had a lot of mailbox faith. Then we'd wanna get the mail and go sit at McDonald's and drink coffee and read the mail.

And boy, I tell you, if there was no mail, which sometimes there was no mail, or just maybe one or two pieces of mail... Down my mood would go. Dave always just stayed the same. He was a lot more experienced Christian than I was when we got married. And he'd already been through enough to know that you gotta put your trust in God. Plus, he's just a real easygoing, cast your care, you know, type person. And I was the absolute opposite. I was like... And, you know, that being up and down and up and down, I mean the devil just plays games with you when you're like that. Because he can work in our circumstances. He's very good at creating circumstances, very good at creating problems. He is the God of this world's system. And he can do all kinds of things, especially if we don't recognize that it's him and know how to resist him.

And so, we need to have a foundation in our life of knowing that God loves us, and he loves us unconditionally. And I wonder if any of us really know how to do that. I mean, if we really can love a person no matter what they do. You know, it's like, I guess, the way you feel about your kids would come about as close to that as anything. You know, "I may not like everything you do, but I can never stop loving you". And so, God often, the Bible says, "Shakes everything that can be shaken until only the things that cannot be shaken remain".

And so, even though God loves us, and we're made right with him through the blood of Christ and through our faith in Christ, and we're precious and we're valued and all those things that I've been telling you the last couple of days, he also has to work in our lives to correct us and chastise us to help us give up some of these wrong behaviors, because we may cling to them if God doesn't deal with us. And you're gonna see here, in just a little bit, that the Bible pretty much says that unless you understand righteousness, you can't receive correction. Because you always take it as rejection. It's like God rejecting you, but he's really not. He's correcting you. And even as an authority here in the ministry, there have been many times when I've tried to correct someone in a loving way, and they take it personally and get all rejected.

And, you know, correction is just trying to get you to go in the right direction. It's not necessarily mean there's something wrong with you or that you need to feel rejected. And hard and disappointing times will not leave you devastated if you have a proper foundation in your life. We had a foundation, one time, the first house that we ever owned and built. We didn't build it, but we had it built in a subdivision. And the foundation had a fairly large crack in it. And we constantly were trying to get the builders to come out and fix it. And they just gave us all kinds of trouble. We tried two or three ways to fix it. And it just, every time there was a storm, guess what? We had a mess in the basement to deal with. So, we really couldn't even finish off our basement or anything because every time there was a storm, we were gonna have a mess.

Well, if you have a crack in your spiritual foundation, or I have a crack in my spiritual foundation, every time there's a storm, you're gonna have a mess. And so, part of what God is trying to get us to do is to let those cracks get repaired through his love and mercy and kindness and goodness. And sometimes God has to deal with us fairly sternly. You know, it's like, how many of you would much rather that your children would just listen to you when you tell them something? It's kind of like you're saying to your kids, "If you'll listen to what I tell you, it's gonna be good. But if not, I will touch your circumstances". See? And so, whether that means taking away a privilege or, you know, time out or whatever you think is gonna get them to listen, we'd much rather, well, God's the same way.

"If you'll listen to my word", or when the Holy Spirit chastises us, and that just means you can, if you have experience with God, you know that feeling. It's like you know that God doesn't approve of what you're doing. But it's a battle when we wanna do it, especially in the early stages of being a Christian, until you learn that God is not gonna change his mind, and you're gonna be miserable until you change your mind. And then you get to the point where it's like you get pretty quickly obedient because you don't want to keep going around and around the same mountain over, and over, and over again.

I always say that God gives us tests to pass before we get a promotion. Just like in school, you may go through first grade, but you don't go to second grade until you take final exams. And so, God wants to promote us in life, and he does it in levels. I can see it plainly in our ministry. I taught 25 people in my living room floor for five years. Then I worked at somebody else's church for five years. And then we started our ministry and we had meetings of 50 people and 70 people. And my goodness, if I ever got 100 people, I thought I'd died and went to heaven. And you know, that went on for years and years. And then, we finally got up to where we were having, in some places, 400 or 500 people, and that was like, "Wow"! "Amazing"! And then, when we went on television, things just exploded. And then, we were having thousands of people and looking for places to rent, to have our meetings in, and things like that.

But before each one of those promotions, if I had the time, and I'm not gonna take the time to do it today, I could go back and tell you different tests that I had to pass and obediences that were different, diff-difficult, I can talk, yes, that were very difficult for me. And so, God, sometimes, would have to deal with me rather sternly, but he does it for our own good because he has a plan for our life, and it's a great plan. And the only way we can have that plan is if we're obedient to God. The Bible says that Jesus was extremely obedient "Even unto the death of the cross". It's in Philippians. "And there was given unto him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee must bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord".

That's gonna be a beautiful day, you know it? You know that. Especially when all the people who don't believe and some of the silliness that goes on. I mean, trying to watch, and, you know, I believe in science, and I respect scientists, but sometimes when you try to divorce science from God, they can come up with some of the stupidest things. I mean, "This all came about by a big bang". Well, okay, who created the bang? "Oh, well, no, it wasn't that". "There was some kind of a cell that crawled out of the ocean on the beach and millions and millions of years later, here we are". Okay, who created the ocean? See, you can't go back far enough to not run into God. Sooner or later you're gonna run into him because he's without beginning and without end. He just says, "I am". Well, figure that out. "I am. And I'm not going anywhere".

And so, you have to really, we really need to pray for people that believe some of the stupid things that they believe because they are deceived. Satan is a great deceiver. And to be deceived means to believe a lie. But you see, if you believe it, it becomes your reality. And so, have you ever tried to talk to anybody that they just, they believe they were right about something? I mean, you could prove to 'em, you could show 'em proof that they were wrong and they're still gonna believe that they're right. And that's the way deception is. So, we want to learn to be promptly and quickly obedient. We do have authority over the devil, but in James 4:7 it says, "Resist the devil and he will flee". Well, no, it really doesn't say that. That's the way we quote it. But it says, "Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee".

And so, we can't be so foolish as to think that we can live a disobedient life and have unforgiveness in our heart and be critical and judgy and, you know, all these different things, and then when the devil attacks us, say, "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus". Well, you know, you can use that name all you want to, but there's no power in it if you're not being obedient. I use an example that, when I married Dave, I got his name. I legally got the use of his name. But I didn't get it when we were dating. And a lot of people are dating Jesus, they're not married. In other words, it's an on and off thing, and "When I need you".

You know, it's beautiful, when Dave and I got married, I didn't have any money and he had some money, and all of a sudden, I had money. I mean, it's a cool thing to really get committed to God. And I didn't have a car, he had a car, and all of a sudden, I had a car. It's a great thing. And you know, Jesus has got everything that you could ever possibly want. And so, why not make a full commitment, instead of just having a little Sunday morning date every once in a while, and then forgetting about him the rest of the time. When you have that proper foundation in your life, nothing can really shake you too much.

Now, I'm not saying that, you know, trials and tribulations don't ever bother us. But if you know how to talk to yourself, you can talk yourself off the ledge pretty quick. That's what I call it. Like, sometimes, I can feel myself about to have a tantrum, and it's like, I'll take myself and have a talk with myself. "Okay, Joyce, been there, done that, you know it's not gonna do any good. Calm down, settle down, put your trust in God". And you really can talk yourself into behaving the way that you should behave if you want to.

Romans 8:35-39, some of the most beautiful scriptures in the word. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'for your sake we are being killed all the day long: we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered'". And I think that deserves an explanation. To me, it's kinda like saying some of the things that we go through, as believers, it may look to somebody else like you're a sheep being led to the slaughter, because you sure don't look like you've got any victory in your life. But if you know who you are in Christ and you know who he is, this is getting ready to say that we're "More than conquerors," and I think to be more than a conqueror means that you know you've got the victory before you ever get the problem.

So, therefore, when problems come, it's not that you like 'em, it's not that they don't hurt, it's not that they're easy, but if you really trust God, you know that in the end it's going to work out okay. And even if it doesn't work out the way you want it to, it's still going to work out okay. Amen? One of the first things I say when trouble starts is, "This will end well". And you gotta believe that you can go through whatever you need to go through until you get to the end of it. You all know that earlier this year, I had a back surgery, minor back surgery, got a blood clot at the surgery site, caused damage to the nerves in my right leg. So, I was two weeks in a rehab hospital until they got me to the point where I could get on a walker. I couldn't put any weight on my right leg. I couldn't, at first, I couldn't lift it that far off the bed, I mean I had no strength in it at all.

So, they had me doing exercises and rehab, and I got to the point where I could go home on a walker, and I got home and got a little full of myself and thought I was doing better than I was and I fell and broke my left leg. So, I ended up being in the hospital a total of 23 days out of 27, but for six and a half weeks, two and a half months, I couldn't walk. But I'm happy to say, and I'm not bragging, from day one I said, "God, please help me do this right". And I wanted to trust God, stay in peace. I didn't wanna complain, I didn't wanna murmur about it, I wanted to stay thankful. And God really, really helped me during that time, and I believed that it would turn out good.

And I think that that comes from experience with God. And some of you have that experience, some of you, sadly, are still getting it. And I know how you feel. I know you feel like throwing the towel in about 200 times a day, but if you just won't quit and you won't give up, the longer you're in relationship with God, the more you know how much he loves you, the more you watch him deliver you from situations. You understand that he's faithful, and the more we can put our trust in God, the easier life gets. If we can trust God in every situation, then there's really nothing that can shake us. We may have to go through things, but it's so much easier to go through something if you already believe it's gonna end well, than if you go through it afraid that something bad is gonna happen.

"No, all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us". That's the foundation, "God loves me. He loves me, I'm made right with him through the blood of Christ, I'm precious in his sight, he values me, he's gonna take care of me because I belong to him". "And I am sure," Paul said, "That neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers", he was saying, "I don't know what the future holds, but it doesn't matter what it is". "Nor height nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that's found in Christ Jesus". So, there it is right there. We don't have to let anything separate us from the love of God. Proverbs 10:25 says, "When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous are established forever".

I love that. But buildings without foundations, man. You know, foundations are not very exciting. When we were building, I think we built like three houses in our 57 years of marriage. We never invited anybody to come out and see the basement. You know, but I can remember inviting people, "Well, they've got the frame up, you wanna come and see the frame"? But I really don't remember ever asking anybody to come and see the foundation. And yet, the foundation is what the building stands on. And so, our life has to be built on a strong foundation. And unless it is, we are always gonna have a mess in our lives. And so, if you don't have a Revelation on how much God loves you, then I suggest you just set everything else aside for a while and do nothing but study that till you get it. Amen?

And then, go on to righteousness, if you don't know who you are in Christ. Or if you're still one of those people who even after you repent you feel guilty, then let that be your next college assignment. You know, we need to study the word in the areas where we're having problems, not just randomly study the word. The Bible is like a... it's got a prescription in it for everything that ails you. It's like Isaac Leeser's translation says that "He's our physician and the medicine is his word".

And so, there's medicine in there for anger, there's medicine for hatred, there's medicine for guilt and condemnation, there's medicine for sin. And when you go to the doctor, you get a prescription filled, you'll go get it refilled however many times you need to, until you get rid of what's bothering you. And you're faithful to take your medicine too. You don't take it and just set it on a shelf. Well, if we would treat the Word of God the same way, we might get well a little bit quicker. The milk of the word is for those unskilled in righteousness. You have to be able to hear the meat of the word. And today, yesterday, the last two days and today, it's easy. I've been telling you how wonderful you are. You're the righteousness of God in Christ and he loves you and you're precious and you're valued.

And all of that is important. That has to be the foundation. And once that's settled and you've got that foundation, there's no cracks in it, then we can start to build a life. Then God can start dealing with us. But if we don't have that, every time God tries to deal with us, we're just gonna feel guilty. You see, you have to understand there's a difference in conviction and condemnation. And I used to feel, every time the Holy Spirit convicted me, let's just say that I went to lunch with somebody, and we ended up gossiping about somebody else the whole time. And of course, as soon as you shut your mouth and get quiet, you know. We usually know while we're talking. Then when the Holy Spirit would convict me, immediately I would feel condemned.

And boy, the devil loves that. Because when you feel condemned, nothing changes. But if you receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then with his help, you can make those changes. And now, I love it when the Holy Spirit convicts me of something, because I know that's a sign of his love. And I'm grateful that he cares enough about me that he won't leave me the way I am the rest of my life. How many of you're hoping for a little change in your life, see? So. Isaiah 54:14-17 says, "In righteousness you shall be established: you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear: and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me: whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you".

Then I'm gonna skip from verse 15 to 17. "No weapon that's formed against you shall prosper, but every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will show to be in the wrong. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord". The Amplified Bible says, "[righteousness, peace, security, and triumph over opposition] Is our inheritance from God". Let me go through it again. Righteousness, peace, security, and triumph over opposition is what you can expect in your life, if you know who you are in Christ. It's so wonderful to not have to live with fear. The Bible tells us that we should "Be rooted and grounded in Christ, and rooted and grounded in the love of God". Roots. We're called "Trees of righteousness," the planting of the Lord.

Well, a tree with no roots, we all know what's gonna happen to that in a storm. Very simple analogies that God gives us. If I'm a tree with no roots, any storm that comes along, even a little one's gonna blow me over. But when you've got roots, I mean, we've got a huge oak tree in our backyard that's been there, I don't know, maybe 100 years, 50 years. And I tell you, that baby's got roots. And I'll tell you, no matter how hard the wind blows, the trunk on that tree, the leaves may blow, but the trunk on that tree does not move. Because it's roots that go way down into the ground, they even come up over here and then they go down again, and the roots are big. And that's the way we can be through enough study of the word and experience with God. We can be the kind of people that are rooted and grounded in Christ and have that stable, sure foundation in our lives. Amen?