Joyce Meyer - Pardon the Interruption - Part 1

Hi, everyone. Hello, and welcome to, "Enjoying Everyday Life". We have such a great show for you today. Lisa Harper is joining us to take part in a discussion about being interrupted. We've all been interrupted. We hate it. In fact, I bet you've been interrupted several times before watching this program today. Join us now as Joyce and Lisa share why we need to allow ourselves to get interrupted, how we can stay flexible and help others. Coming up next.

Ginger Stache: You are going to not like this when we start but at the end, you are going to love it, because we are talking about being interrupted, which nobody loves the idea of. But there are great things that can happen from being interrupted. Joyce is gonna tell us about it. Erin Cluley is gonna tell us about it. And special guest, who we love having, Lisa Harper's here with us.

Lisa Harper: Thank you all so much for letting me come back.

Ginger Stache: We love having ya.

Lisa Harper: I love it. I'll just keep blowing up your phone until you let me come back.

Erin Cluley: Done.

Ginger Stache: That'll be an interruption at very, very inopportune times, I'm sure. So, let's talk a little bit about what things bother you about being interrupted, because the idea of being interrupted does not sound so great.

Joyce Meyer: I am better if God interrupts me than I am if people do. I don't know why, but I guess, you know, I've just settled in my heart that God is gonna interrupt us. You know, the Bible tells us that we are to be, "Ready in season or out of season". In the Amplified, it says, "Whether it's convenient or inconvenient". And so, if you're gonna hang with God and walk in his will, you're gonna have, it's good to have a plan. I really believe in having a plan. But we have to submit that plan to God every day and say, "If you want me to do something else, I will".

Ginger Stache: Yeah.

Joyce Meyer: And I don't even mind people interrupting me if it's not for something silly and ridiculous.

Ginger Stache: Uh-oh.

Lisa Harper: I know, I was going to say, "I hope she doesn't say something I've done".

Joyce Meyer: No.

Erin Cluley: Let us know what those things are.

Joyce Meyer: None of you have ever done that.

Erin Cluley: Oh, that's good.

Joyce Meyer: But I'm doing a lot of serious stuff, at least it's serious to me, you know. Like, for example, if I'm writing a book, you really get into it. You get like, lost in it. And so, sometimes, Dave will come and say, "Let me read you this". And I'm like, "Dave... I'm writing". Because if somebody pulls you out of that, then it takes you a while to get back to that place where you were at.

Lisa Harper: Kind of stops the flow.

Joyce Meyer: So, I do think that people need to be respectful of other people's times. I need to be respectful of what people are doing, and they need to be respectful of what I'm doing. But if somebody interrupts me with something that's really important, then that's a different story.

Erin Cluley: You're really good at being interrupted, because I watch you. I'm watching you all the time. And so, I sit by you. Our offices are near each other.

Lisa Harper: I'll be watching you.

Erin Cluley: But you are constantly being interrupted. Thank you.

Ginger Stache: It's scary.

Erin Cluley: Yeah. Because people need so much from you. And so, I watch you handle people trying to take your time, in the kindest way, but you have to quickly be kind to them. And it's just, that's hard. You do a really good job with it. And I watch and think, I don't know that I would be so graceful...

Ginger Stache: Oh, thank you. That's nice.

Erin Cluley: That people are coming in all the time.

Ginger Stache: It's not always what's happening on the inside.

Erin Cluley: You hide it really well.

Joyce Meyer: I used to say when I had... I don't have to do this now, because we've got a lot of other people, but when I used to run the office and everything, when I would come in here, I would have so many people wanting a little piece of me, I always said, "By the end of the day, I felt like a bone that had been picked completely clean," you know.

Erin Cluley: "There's nothing left to give you".

Joyce Meyer: "There's nothing left to give you". But we have to develop patience. But you know, people always talk about studying the steps of Jesus. And I think we need to study the stops of Jesus.

Ginger Stache: Oh, that's great.

Joyce Meyer: Because he always let people stop him. I don't know of a time when he said, "Don't bother me".

Lisa Harper: That's right.

Joyce Meyer: He always took time for people. And I think we need to remember that in our time. My daughter told me a story about something she did that I think just makes a good example. She was leaving the grocery store, and an elderly man was waiting at the curb to cross. And there was a lot of traffic, so they both had to wait a while. And he started talking to her. And she really was kind of in a hurry and wanted to get home. But she said, "I kind of sensed in my heart that he really needed, that he was a lonely man, and he needed somebody just to take time to listen to him for a while". And so, she said, "I felt like God wanted me to do that". And see, these are ways that we can serve God that maybe are not big, everybody's clapping for it, but heaven is clapping for it. Because that's what God wants. He wants us to pay attention to the little things that people need that we're maybe not gonna get credit for here, but that are important to him.

Ginger Stache: Well, the wonderful things that can come from interruption only come if we allow our heart to let it. You know, otherwise, we're pushing people away. We're even pushing God away and saying, you know, "I don't have time for that right now". And we are a culture that kind of has a "Do not disturb" sign on us quite often. So, Joyce is gonna tell us a little bit more about the danger of that "Do not disturb" sign. So, let's listen to that. And then we'll talk about being interrupted by God and by people, and the good things that can come of it.

Joyce Meyer: I wanna share with you, a message tonight that is, it's been one that's been very important to me and something that has really helped me in my life. And I hope that it will help you. It has a funny, little title. It's called, "Don't disturb me". You might be thinking, "Well, what in the world is that about"? Well, you know, I think a large majority of the people in the world today, that's just their attitude. "I'm busy. I'm going somewhere. I've got my plan. I've got my thing. I've got my day figured out. And so, if you've got a problem, don't bother me with it". Well, you know, Jesus wasn't like that. Now, we stay in a lot of hotels. And in hotels, they always leave us one of these to put on our door. But today people are wearing 'em on their bodies.

Now, I'll just wear thisle around for a little bit, just so you get the picture. We have such a huge opportunity in front of us today. But we're gonna have to get more like Jesus. And a lot less like a carnal, selfish, self-centered Christian, who just goes to church, and thinks that's all there is to it. Do you know, just because you go to church, that doesn't make you a Christian. I could go home and sit in my garage all night and it wouldn't make me a car. Jesus said, "I want you to go and bear fruit". So, maybe, I'd just like to ask you, tonight, to think a little bit this next week about what kind of fruit are you bearing in your life? Are you coming here and just being fed? And you love that. You love for somebody else to do all the work. And dig out all the messages. And just feed you all the good stuff. But what are you doin' with it? I hope a lot.

I'm not accusing anybody. I hope that every message you hear, you hear it with the intent that you're going to do something with it. Now, we're gonna use the parable of the good Samaritan, tonight. And I want you to listen to it, like, maybe, you've never heard it before. There was a pharisee, and he said to Jesus, "'what must I do to inherit eternal life'? And he said, 'you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and all your strength: and you shall love your neighbor even as you love yourself'". I say those two scriptures, out loud every morning. Because that's what God has called us to do, is to love him and to love people.

Joyce Meyer: Well, I think, sometimes, we think that what we're doing is so important. But, you know, part of it, when God interrupts us, may just be a test. But I think a lot of times, too, is just we want everything to be convenient for us. You know, "I don't mind doing that if I get to plan for it, but don't bug me with it right now". I've got a definition here for "Convenient". "Suited to personal comfort and ease". "Suited to your own personal situation". And I think we can pretty much say today that in our western lifestyle, we're pretty much addicted to comfort and ease. We don't mind doing it, "But I don't want it to be hard. I don't want it to be uncomfortable. I want it to be on my timetable". And we do have to be ready to be interrupted if we're gonna serve God. When you think about the disciples, that before they were disciples, they were fishermen. And it's interesting to me that when Jesus said, "Follow me," they were all doing something.

Lisa Harper: That's right.

Ginger Stache: Yeah.

Joyce Meyer: Every one of them was busy doing something, and they dropped everything and followed him. And so, I think there's a deeper message there that we need to get for our lives. You know, is Jesus saying to some of the people that are watching today or listening today, "Follow me," but you're too busy following your own plan to really hear what God's saying? And let me just add, before I be quiet and let somebody else talk, is that you may think that the path you're taking is gonna lead you to happiness, but there's no path that's better to follow than the one that God wants to take you down.

Lisa Harper: Amen.

Erin Cluley: That's really good. I was just reading Luke 1, the other day, and then I was talking to some people about it yesterday, the story of Mary. And angel Gabriel comes to Mary, and he says, "You're going to have a baby". So, first of all, whoa, that's kind of big. And then he's going to be the Savior of the world. And so, I'm reading this passage, and she asks one question. She's like, "How is that possible"? Which feels like a fair question to ask, because she's engaged.

Lisa Harper: Especially, since she's about 14.

Erin Cluley: Yes! And she's engaged to be married, not yet married, and she's pure. And so, that feels fair. But that's the only thing she says. And then she says, "Ok". She accepts that, and she's ready to go. And I thought, I don't know that I would, no, I don't know it, I know that I would not have responded.

Joyce Meyer: Maybe if an angel appeared to you.

Lisa Harper: This is true.

Erin Cluley: Ok, fair. That's true.

Joyce Meyer: That brings it into perspective. That might have put a little instant fear of God, "Ahh... okay".

Lisa Harper: Right.

Erin Cluley: "Ok, sure, Lord".

Lisa Harper: A glowing guy with wings tells me I might be persuaded a little more than I would in the natural.

Erin Cluley: That's a good point. But then she goes to Elizabeth, and she's just all in on this. And God has totally changed the plans he had for her, because before the angel came, she was engaged. She was gonna have this life that she has planned ahead of her. And now, the whole thing spins, and she's in, in to go. And I thought, "I wanna be like that. I wanna be that interruptible".

Joyce Meyer: Well, when you think about it, all the heroes, the big people we read аbout: Abraham, Joseph, Esther, Ruth.

Ginger Stache: Saul.

Joyce Meyer: Saul. I mean, they all had other plans...

Lisa Harper: Absolutely.

Joyce Meyer: For their life. I mean, God comes to Abraham and says, "Walk away from everything that you know, and go to a place that I will show you after you go". Well, most of us would say, "Show me, and if I like it, I'll go".

Lisa Harper: That's exactly right.

Joyce Meyer: And but he... what a test of faith. "You go, leave everything". And why did Abraham have to leave everything? Because his family were idol worshippers, and God had to get him away from that influence.

Lisa Harper: Right.

Joyce Meyer: And sometimes, you know, God might be asking you to leave a group of friends you have, or leave a job you have.

Ginger Stache: That can be hard stuff.

Joyce Meyer: And we don't want to leave the places where we're comfortable. But sometimes you've got to leave to get to the place where God really wants you to be.

Lisa Harper: That's right. I think it goes back to, I love that you started with that definition of comfort and convenience. Because in my own tiny little world, it's been in the places where he has rocked me out of a comfort zone, that I'm actually most alert. Because I'm kind of thrown. I don't have my bearings, and I need his voice. I can't step without breaking my ankle if he doesn't tell me where to step. So, I think some of it is his kindness going, "I know if you stay in that place where you figured it out, you're going to be less likely to turn to me for direction. And so, I'm gonna basically mess things up so you can't walk out your plan. Because if you walk out your plan, you're not gonna walk in mine".

Ginger Stache: I must be one of those people that God really has to jump in front of.

Lisa Harper: He does that a lot to me.

Ginger Stache: Yeah. It's like, I just must be one of those that he knows, "I'm gonna have to make it big and obvious for this one. Because she's not real quick at the take up, sometimes".

Joyce Meyer: I can say, "Amen" to that. We had to offer her a job here four times before she finally accepted it.

Ginger Stache: That is a great example. It's just almost all the major things in my life, I had a different thing goin' on. Tim and I were not gonna have children, because, you know, I just knew that that's not what God had for me. And that just changed like, one day, when God basically, I thought I was pregnant and found out I wasn't, and just had such disappointment that shocked me. And it was God saying, "You see, if you open your heart to some of the things you think you don't want".

Erin Cluley: Wow.

Ginger Stache: God has to jump in front of a lot of us to just kind of stop us in our tracks and show us that "My plan for you is different, but it's good, and it's so much better".

Lisa Harper: And better than anything you could dream.

Ginger Stache: Yes, so much better.

Joyce Meyer: Well, instead of planning and then praying that God will make our plan work, we need to pray first, and find out what God's plan is.

Lisa Harper: Wait, ms. Joyce, it's wrong the other way?

Joyce Meyer: When we offered Ginger a job, she said, "No". Second time we offered her a job, she said, "No". Third time, she said "No". The fourth time, her and her husband said, "Well, maybe we should pray about this".

Ginger Stache: It did. It took us that long.

Joyce Meyer: And that was 20 years ago.

Ginger Stache: Yeah, yeah. And when we did it, we kind of told God, "How 'bout three to five years"?

Joyce Meyer: Yeah.

Ginger Stache: And then...

Erin Cluley: I love that you told him your timetable. He listened so well.

Joyce Meyer: Yeah.

Ginger Stache: You know, it's like obedience in moderation.

Joyce Meyer: That's good. Obedience in moderation. You know that, I can use that for a title, that'll preach.

Ginger Stache: When you find out the goodness of God and what he has for you and how it's so much better than you ever knew, then it changes your plan, and it changes who you are. And Lisa, I know this has been something that's kind of been on your mind as well, is about being interrupted by other people to be there for what they need.

Lisa Harper: Oh, 100%. I was sitting in a class a couple of years ago, and was just landbasted because our professor said, "Jesus' ministry took place at three miles an hour". And you think, "What"? And he said, "He walked everywhere he went". And then he said, "How interruptible are you"? And I'm a planner. I'm gonna get it done. And some of it's personality, and some of it is gifting, and some of it has been sin, because when I was growing up, I kind of balanced my worth and my work. I thought, "If I'm not productive, God has already lowered the bar to let me into the kingdom, and so I've got to just keep my head down and be a good girl". I could talk about grace, but I just, I really didn't think God liked me very much. I knew he had to save me because it was in his job description, but I already felt so dirty, you know, by the time I gave my heart to Jesus, I just thought, "I'd better behave". And so, I've always been a worker bee. It's hard for me, I'm much more Martha than Mary, stereotypically. But when this professor said that, I thought, "Oh my goodness, here I am in my late 50s, by the grace of God, I get to talk about Jesus for a living". I think I'm running too fast. But I think I'm just racing right past miracles. And I did a deep dive into what Joyce has preached so beautifully, so many times, into how interruptible Jesus is. And a couple of the passages, you know, Mark 10, Bartimaeus, Jesus is on his way to Easter. He's made the turn. He's headed to Jerusalem. And there's a blind guy: it says the crowd tells him to shut up. And the word there, epitimao, in Greek, says basically it means "You better hush up or we'll hush you up". I always say, "Every parent has epitimao'd you know, when you aim the rear-view mirror so that you can smack their knee". So, the crowd didn't just say, you know, "Bartimaeus, hush". They said, "If you don't hush, we'll hush you up". Jesus is passing by. A crowd has formed, not 'cause they trusted him as Messiah, but because they wanted to see if he did tricks. They had gotten the, you know, old-fashioned Facebook forwards that wherever he went, paralytics did cartwheels. So, this crowd has formed. He's on his way to Jerusalem, to the cross. It's the very last time he stops before that week of passion. And Bartimaeus in their culture, because he's blind, he's completely ostracized. Because it was assumed in the first century if you had an ongoing medical condition, you had unconfessed sin. And so, Bart is, one commentator says he's basically sitting on the curb. It says he's away from the crowd. But he hears Jesus is passing by. Obviously, he doesn't see him. He's blind. And he starts hollering, "Son of David, have mercy on me". Obviously, he believes the prophecies that Jesus would come through the lineage of David. So that's kind of like his profession of faith. But Jesus is on his way to Easter. And the crowd tries to hush him up. Bart keeps hollerin'. And truly, one of my favorite verses in Mark chapter 10. It says, "And Jesus stopped". And Jesus stopped. And of course, he goes on to heal Bartimaeus. And it says Bartimaeus followed him along the way. He's counted among the early Christians who started the church. But you go, "Jesus puts Easter on pause for this one man nobody else will give the time of day to". As a matter of fact, they threatened to beat him up if he doesn't shut up. And you get their story, after story, after story of the king of all kings would set aside his agenda, or were people his agenda? You know, he always put people over protocol.

Joyce Meyer: Were people his agenda? That's... I like that.

Ginger Stache: I've found, when we go into other countries to see our hand of hope outreaches, one of my very, very favorite things is to be interrupted by the kids.

Lisa Harper: Oh, yeah.

Ginger Stache: It makes me so happy because they have such need, and they have such hardships in their life. And we're very busy. So, everyone's running and doing their thing. And then, someone will just come up, and like, grab my leg or, you know, pull on my shirt. And you look down, and you have a friend for life.

Joyce Meyer: Right.

Ginger Stache: I mean, so often, at these times, I'll have at least one, if not several, that are just kind of my sidekick for the rest of time.

Lisa Harper: Right, your Velcro kids.

Ginger Stache: Yeah, exactly. And it's the most wonderful thing. And it would be so easy to just keep doing what we know we need to do and pat 'em on the head, and go on because that's our job. That's the ministry. That's what's supposed to be happening. But I would miss out on such joy. It's not about what we're giving them. It's so often about what they're giving us. So, those interruptions that you think are an inconvenience sometimes are the greatest things that can ever happen.

Lisa Harper: Are so holy, when you're modeling Jesus. I love that even the disciples told the kids, I always imagine that story, ms. Joyce, 'cause I like to put things in modern context because they are real stories. So, if they were to happen today, what would it look like? And so, I always imagine Jesus and the disciples in the food court of the mall. And Jesus and the disciples, I mean, the disciples have gone down to sears, if they even have sears anymore, to get some camping equipment. And Peter and Jesus are standing in front of Chick-fil-A 'cause it's a Christian company and they're about to order. And these little kids, their moms are homeschool moms. And so, they're in comas. They just have gone to the mall for a lesson on capitalism because they're so tired of these children. And the little boys are over here in a table. They're, you know, eating sugar. And one of 'em recognizes Jesus. And they make a beeline for Jesus. And Peter, one of the three closest to Jesus says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Y'all hold up. Y'all are all sticky. You got apple pie goo on your shirt. You go to the bathroom, clean yourselves up. And when you come back here, you form a single-file line". And Jesus says, "No, Pete. Let 'em pass". And those kids just launch themselves, messy, sticky kids, into the lap of the Messiah. And you go, "My goodness". And of course, we have to get our work done. If you're at a conference, you have to make it to teach to the 20,000 people who are there. You can't talk to every single person. But I've seen you, ms. Joyce, over and over again make time for people and for that one person, I have so many stories of people who go, "You know Joyce Meyer"? And I'm like, "Well, not real well, but I sure do like her". And they'll say, "One time", and then they'll go back to a date 20 years ago. "She looked me in the eyes, I'd watched her on television for years. She's shaped my walk with Jesus. But she said, 'Hello, and how are you doing'"? And that moment for them, you were Jesus with skin on. Because you stopped, and you said, "You matter".