Joyce Meyer - Matthew 5 - Part 1

TOPICS: Bible Study, Matthew 5, The Beatitudes

Well, thank you for joining me today on "Enjoying Everyday Life". You know, the more of God's word that you know and put into practice, the more you will enjoy every day of your life. Today, I'm going to begin a teaching out of Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 is just an awesome chapter in the Bible. There's so many wonderful lessons in it, including one of Jesus' most famous sermons called "The sermon on the mount" or "The beatitudes". And so, we're gonna start with that. First of all, it takes us through the beatitudes, but it always says, "Blessed are the meek," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Blessed are the humble". But the Amplified Bible shares what the word "Blessed" means.

And I think it's good to share this first, because I'm not gonna say it every time that I read one of the beatitudes. It says that blessed means to be "Happy, to be envied," so happy that you're envied. And you know, really, we should have such joy that other people want what we have. "With life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation", I like that "With satisfaction in God's favor and salvation". We don't have to have a lot of other things to satisfy us. We can be satisfied because we know that we're born again and that we're gonna spend eternity with God. "Regardless of their outward conditions". And so, we should be happy and stable no matter what our circumstances are.

Matthew 5:3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," and that means the humble, "For theirs is the Kingdom of God". I like what the message Bible says, "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there's more of God". And that's very true. You know, pride is actually a huge problem. And it's probably one of the biggest problems that we deal with. And if you think you don't have any pride, thinking you don't have any is already pride. And it's something that we have to seek diligently, study, and pray for on a regular basis.

People with a prideful spirit always need to know somebody important, to be doing something important, to have a position, a title. They don't find their importance just in who they are in Christ. They find it in what they do and who they know and the label in their clothes and where they live and things like that. And their worth is in what they do, and they don't know how to just be. You know, we're not human doings, we're human beings. And that doesn't mean God doesn't want us to do anything, but he wants us to know how to be content just being. They think more highly of themselves than they ought to. And any time we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, we always think less of other people than we ought to.

And I really believe that God wants us to, not have a bad opinion about ourselves. We're not to have a lowly opinion about ourselves, but we should never think that we're better than somebody else, or smarter than somebody else, or that we're always the one that's right. A humble person treats the lowly just as good as people that they think are important. But a proud person will always go to somebody that they think is important because it makes them feel important if they know somebody important and they tend to ignore or just have a wrong attitude toward people that are lowly.

When we're out in our conferences, I try to make a habit out of, you know, I'm in the back of the arenas a lot in what they call my green room, which is never green, I don't know why they call it a green room is always in the back and they have people working back there, like security people and people like that. And I always make a habit out of talking to them and being friendly with them and our staff does that. And we've been told many times that, "Nobody treats us as good as you do when they come here". And I think we should all, when you go to church, don't just look for the people that you know that you're going to feel comfortable with, but as much as it might make us uncomfortable, look for somebody that you don't know that's by themselves and go and greet them and try to make them feel better. There's so many ways that we can love people if we'll just seek God about how to do it.

1 Peter 5:6 and 7 says, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you, casting all your care on him, for he cares for you". Now, this may be something you've never thought of, but you know that casting your care on God instead of worrying and trying to figure out how to solve your own problems is a display of humility. Because when we're trying to figure out our own answers, we're basically, it's a prideful thing. It's saying, "If I think about this and worry about it long enough, I can come up with an answer". But if we humble ourselves, we tell God, "I can't solve this. I can't do this. I need you to enable me how to do it, so I cast my care on you".

The truly humble person does nothing without leaning on God for help. No matter how many times I ever teach, and by now it's probably been thousands and thousands, I never go try to teach without asking God to help me. Don't ever think because you've done something a hundred times and you've done it good, "Oh this is a piece of cake, I don't need any help". We always need help every time we do something. Pride was satan's sin, and so he works very hard at trying to get people into pride. And I really want to encourage you to ask God to show you when you're in pride, and purposely humble yourself under God's mighty hand. The proud person is rebellious toward authority. They're very difficult to correct, they can never take correction graciously. They always try to defend themselves. They always think they're right in every situation. They would much rather talk than listen.

Humility is the most difficult virtue to attain and maintain. And it's something that we can pray about every day, "Lord, please help me walk in humility today, and if I get into pride, show me". It has to be a matter of special prayer and seeking. That's the first beatitude that he talks about, and really what all of these are, are attitudes. And you know, just this past weekend I taught a series called "Your life is what you make it," and it's all about the attitude that you have. And you know, we all have difficulties. You know that problems are a promise? Because Jesus said, "In the world you will have tribulation". I never really thought of it just that way, but problems are a promise, however misery is an option.

You don't have to be miserable, and our attitude is what makes all the difference in the world. And when we get to the point where we can have a good attitude, when our circumstances are not good, that's when we're spiritually mature. I wanna say that again. If you wanna be spiritually mature, the Bible says that we should become like Jesus, "Be transformed into the image of Jesus". And, no matter how many problems he had, he never mistreated people. He never had a bad attitude. I think really, not that it's wrong to say you're hurting, or it's wrong to say that you need prayer, or to talk to a friend, matter of fact, I think we should be honest, but you can tell somebody you're hurting and still have a good attitude.

"I'm hurting, I'm going through stuff, but I know God's gonna deliver me. He's my deliverer, he's my healer". I could not find one scripture in the Bible that talks about trials and tribulations that doesn't always put a positive spin on it. And a lot of times what you get out of a problem is you get experience, you gain compassion, because it helps you understand what other people are going through. I don't think anybody can really have compassion on other people that are hurting if they've never been through anything themselves. And so, I know, for me, that I've gone through a lot of things in my life just so I can really relate to the people that I teach and minister to. So, I wanna say that again. Real spiritual maturity is seen when we can be stable, still be good to people, when we're hurting.

I love Psalm 37:3. Well, it starts out by saying, "Fret not yourself over evildoers, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass". And then it says, "Trust in the Lord and do good". And I love that. I think a lot of times we just tell people, "Well, trust God". But there's another aspect, "Do good". You see, when we do good to other people while we're hurting, that's the seed that we're sowing for God to bring a harvest in our life or the answer that we need. Matthew 5:4 says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted". Those who mourn over their sin, they're deeply sorry for them.

Now that doesn't mean that you need to grieve for days and weeks on end. But when we do sin, we need to not just take it glibly, but we need to know that it hurts God's heart when we sin. And we need to be deeply sorry and deeply penitent when we sin. And when we are, God will comfort us. He is the God of all comfort. Those who are hurting should have this attitude, "I'm really hurting, but I'm gonna bounce back. This is going to end well". I try to say that all the time when I have a problem, "This is going to end well". You know, I had quite an ordeal in the last year and a half. Well, actually, it's not even really been a year yet, because it was last April when I had the blood clot at the surgery site, and then the leg that wouldn't work, and then broke the other leg, and blah, blah, blah.

And then about five or six weeks ago, I fell backwards on a marble floor in the middle of the night. I think I must have fainted. I don't know what I did. And so, it's taken a while for my back to get well. But, you know, three days ago, it stopped hurting. So, it took a while, but it's ending well. And I think that that's, you know, if you take life one day at a time. And I really felt an urgency to just impress on that today that, you know, how can you get through difficult things and not murmur and complain? Take 'em one day at a time. You know, we can all do what God wants us to one day at a time. I think when we start to feel overwhelmed is, we start thinking, "I can't take this forever". Well, it's not going to last forever.

Think of how many other things that you've been through that were very hard that you thought you couldn't stand, and look at you, you're still here. And you're still doing good. They're comforted by God, which prepares them to comfort others. And the thing that the Bible teaches us in several different places is that when we go through difficulties, if we have the right attitude, we grow spiritually. If you think about when did you grow spiritually, it wasn't in all your good times when nothing was bothering you. It was when you couldn't fix your problems yourself, and you needed God, and you really pressed into him. So, if we can remember that when the problem starts, it's gonna make it a lot easier to say, "I'm gonna grow spiritually through this. God's gonna teach me some things that's gonna help me in my future".

2 Corinthians 1:3 and 4 says, "Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort". You know, when we're hurting, we usually look to people to comfort us. And then sometimes we get mad at them if they don't comfort us, and we feel like nobody understands how we feel. But we really should go to God right away and say, "You know, my feelings are hurt, and I need you to comfort me". Or, "I just heard that my friend told my secret to somebody else, and I'm hurting. I need you to comfort me". Or, "I'm sick, I need you to comfort me". We need to go to God instead of running to people. God works through people, but if we don't go to him first, then he may not work through anybody. So, it says, "Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort".

You know, I can't even imagine how many people watching television or watching YouTube or whatever you watch on, I can't imagine how many of you probably are hurting right now. For different reasons, you've been rejected, you've been abandoned, you're sick, you feel alone, you've lost your job, your kids are in trouble, it can be any number of things. And I just want you to know that God sees you, and he knows you're hurting. And if you will ask him to, he will comfort you. Just ask God to comfort you, and then just go sit somewhere nice and quiet where you can be comfortable, close your eyes and just receive the comfort of God.

So, I'm gonna read this one more time, "Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our troubles", now, listen to this, "So that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort that we received from God". I love that. See, God never asks us to give away anything he didn't give us first. Right? I like that. You know, he gives us righteousness and then he tells us to do right things, but he never, he doesn't expect us to do that, he doesn't expect me to be merciful to somebody else if I've not received his mercy. So he gives us grace, he gives us mercy, he gives us forgiveness, he gives us all these wonderful things, and part of the reason why he gives it to us is so we can then be used by him to give it to other people.

You know, we work for God, every, single one of us. It's not just the people in the pulpit. Actually, the people who aren't in the pulpit, who are in normal everyday life, are the ones that can reach more people than anybody can, because I often say people who need God the most aren't going to church to find him. They're not turning on a Christian TV program to find him. They're in all the places where you go. And everywhere you go, whether it's to the marketplace, or to work, or to school, or just in your neighborhood, everywhere you go there are people that are hurting that need to be comforted and lifted up. And I think we all need to see that we work for God. Are you ready to go to work with God? He is the God of all comfort. When you have trouble, don't get into self-pity, don't blame God, or think that God doesn't love you.

Don't ever say, "Well God, don't you love me"? Just because you have problems does not mean that God doesn't love you. This is the most important time to trust God, and the most important time to be a blessing to others. This is why we have faith. We don't have faith for the good times when there's no problems. We have faith for the times that are difficult, when we feel like we have nobody but God. Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth". Well, the meek are the mild, the patient, and the long-suffering. Let's say that right, the looooong-sufferiiiiing. I think we say it too fast and we don't get it, you know? Sometimes things take a lot longer than we think that they're going to, and God always says, "Soon," but his soon and my soon are not the same thing. Meekness, I want you to understand this, meekness is not weakness, it's power under control.

And so, maybe somebody hurts my feelings and I could go tell them off, which is our natural tendency. "Well, you're not gonna treat me like that". But what God wants us to do is to wait on him and let him take care of it. He wants us to pray for people and let him take care of it. And the best example I know to give you is when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and after he had prayed and sweated great drops of blood and his disciples went to sleep on him and you know, he went through a very difficult time. He asked God three times to take the cup from him and yet I find it very interesting because he always said, "Nevertheless, your will be done and not mine". So, he did not want to go to the cross, but here's the thing that I find, he wanted God's will more than he wanted his own.

And that's such a good thing for us to remember is I can really want something, or I don't wanna do something, but "God, I want what you want more than I want what I want. And so, if what I'm asking you for is not the best, then please don't give it to me". We need to always want what God wants. But then the soldiers came and they were gonna take him and Peter, who was always a little bit ahead of God, got out his sword and cut off one of the soldier's ears and Jesus had to put his ear back on and heal him. And he said to Peter, "Don't you know that if I wanted to, I could call 12 legions of angels and they would deliver me"? Well, a legion is 12,000, so that means he could have called 72,000 angels, but he said, "But then how would the will of God had been accomplished"?

So that's what it means to be meek. He wasn't weak. He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to go through that. And you know, there's a lot of times when we can get out of circumstances, we can get out of situations. Maybe you want to get away from somewhere, but God wants you to stay there. How many people pray to be used by God and then they'll come and say, "Well, I'm the only person at my job that believes in God, and I need God to get me another job". Or "I'm the only person in my family that believes in God and it is so hard". And, you know, God's gonna use us in hard places. He's not gonna put us somewhere where it's always gonna be easy. I know, for me, I was in even a couple of church situations. One church in particular I remember, it was one of the first so-called "Charismatic" churches that I went to, and the pastor there didn't really believe that I should be teaching the home Bible study that I had.

So, he told Dave one day, he said, "You know, brother, you need to be teaching that Bible study, not your wife". And so, Dave tried to teach, and I tried to shut up, and neither one worked very well. And he was telling us his will, he wasn't telling us God's will. God had called me to do it. And so, man, I wanted to get out of that church. I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to leave there. But God said, "No, you stay. You don't go until I tell you to go". And so, that's what meekness is. It's doing what you don't want to do because you know it's what God wants you to do. Amen? Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I'm humble, gentle, meek, and lowly".

Now, I don't know about you, but none of those are natural for me. Because my personality is a little fiery and I relate to Peter really well. I woulda been cutting off ears too. And so, I actually at one point, I cut Matthew 11:28-30 out of my Bible and I carried it around in my wallet because I needed to take it out sometimes and read this real quick before I do something I shouldn't be doing here. And so, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am humble, gentle, meek, and lowly". Then the Amplified Bible says, "I am not harsh, hard, sharp, and pressing". Wow.

You know the Bible says that when God called Moses, he was the meekest man on the earth? And you know, Moses had taken matters into his own hands prior to that and he killed an Egyptian and then somebody had seen him do it and he ran from Egypt and ended up in the wilderness where we always end up when we run from God. And he spent 40 years out there and after 40 years in the wilderness he was the meekest man on the face of the earth. When God didn't tell him to do something, he was doing things on his own and then when God called him, he didn't wanna go. He said, "Who am i? I can't talk". You know, "I'm this, I'm that, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not". And so, he had learned meekness out in that hard place. We learn things in hard places. Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, completely satisfied".

Somebody sent me a little page of some jokes the other day and one of them was, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they are sticking to their diets". If we hungered more after righteousness instead of dessert we'd be in better shape, wouldn't we? Hunger and thirst after righteousness, "God, I really want to do what's right. Help me, God, do what's right". That would be something good to pray every day, wouldn't it, before we go out of the house, "God, help me do what's right, today. Help me treat people right. Help me act right. Help me remember to lean on you in every situation". When you really wanna do what's right, you will. We have a free will and we can use that free will to choose God's will. Now, we're gonna pick this up tomorrow, right here, where we've left off, so I hope that you'll tune in again tomorrow.