Joyce Meyer - Make a Fresh Start - Part 2

Thank you so much for joining me today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". I love teaching the Word of God because I know what God's word has done for me. And I believe if you act on the word and apply it to your life, that it will do the same thing for you. You know, in the Bible, we see the phrase "In Christ" over and over, especially in the epistles. Paul talked a lot about our position in Christ. For example, it says, "In Christ, we are currently seated in heavenly places with him".

You say, "Well, wait a minute, my feet are here on the earth". Well, our feet are here, but our heart is there. And so, I want to talk to you today about "What it means to be in Christ". I believe that it means to have nothing in yourself and everything in him. To know that you're nothing without him, but with him you are everything. That you can do nothing without him, but with him, through him, with him in you and you in him, you can do whatever you need to do in life. I call myself "An everything and nothing". Everything in Christ and nothing in myself. All of our worth and value is in him.

Stop and ask yourself, what do you get? What makes you feel valuable? Well, for a long time for me, it was accomplishment. And I am motivated by accomplishment. We should enjoy accomplishing things. But that my worth and value in Christ is because he died for me and because I believe in him. And Paul wanted to get rid of anything that he had in himself and be found as known in Christ. You have to understand Paul to really understand the impact of this. Paul was highly educated, very brilliant, extremely religious. He was not only a pharisee, but a pharisee of the pharisees. And you'll see in a minute some of the things that he's gonna say in Philippians.

Philippians 3:4-9. He says, "Though for myself I have [at least grounds] To rely on the flesh. If any other man considers that he has or seems to have reason to rely on the flesh and his physical and outward advantages, I have more than all of you"! He said. "I was circumcised when I was eight days old", that was a law for them. "I am of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew [and the son] Of Hebrews: as to the observance of the law I was of [the party of] The pharisees, as to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and by the law's standard of righteousness, (supposed justice, uprightness, and right standing with God)".

See, the law said that you can be made right with God by doing all these things. So, you notice he said, "According to the law's standards of supposed righteousness". It wasn't true righteousness, but they thought that it was under the old covenant. "I was proven to be blameless and no fault was found with me. But whatever former things I had that might have been a gain to me, I have come to consider as [one combined] Loss for Christ's sake". In other words, what Paul is saying is, "I give it all up because I realize now it's really nothing. That's not what makes me right with God. The thing that makes me right with God is faith in Jesus Christ". That is so hard for us to grasp.

Now, obviously, we wanna do good works, but I guess my question is: are you working for approval or are you working from approval? Think about that. If you're doing things: praying, reading your Bible, doing good works, fasting, tithing, whatever you do, if you're doing it to get something from God, to get his approval, then you're never gonna get it that way. Matter of fact, you'll just exhaust yourself and wear yourself out, which many Christians are. They just try and try and try and they do all these things and they still feel like there's this big wall between them and Christ because they don't understand that true Christianity is about relationship first and foremost.

And then, as you receive God's love and you love him back, then you begin to talk to him. And not only talk to him, which is what prayer is, but listen to him, which he will speak to you if you listen. Then, out of that, you can begin to do good things, but you're not doing them to get something from God. You're doing them because of something God has done for you. So, before Paul was doing all these things to make himself right with God, now he's realized that he can never be right with God through that. So, he said, "I'll give all that up. I'll give up my reputation. My education means nothing. My good works mean nothing". He was a persecutor of the church and he thought that he was doing the right thing by actually persecuting the New Testament church. He was chasing them down and having them put in prison where they were beaten and severely mistreated.

So, verse 8 he says, "Furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege, (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with him..." Now, this is the Amplified translation, so it's a little long, but there's some beautiful words here. "[of perceiving and recognizing and understanding him more fully and clearly]".

Do you really understand God's character? Do you know how good he is? How just he is? How righteous he is? And he's your healer, he's your peace, he's everything that you're ever going to need, and you're in him and he's in you. Forget for just a few minutes about what you think you need to do to gain anything with God and just concentrate on your faith. Put your faith in Christ. Put your faith in God. Put your trust in them. "For his sake, I have lost everything and I consider it all to be mere rubbish, (refuge), in order that I might win and (gain) Christ the anointed one".

So, maybe you're a very highly educated person. You have very strong gifts and talents. Maybe you're a singer, maybe you're a speaker, maybe you're just brilliant. I don't know, maybe you invented some great invention that's made you millions of dollars. You may be a gazillionaire, and so you have all these things. You have anything that anybody could want, and so that makes you feel important. But you know what? None of that really makes you important. It may make the world think you're important, but you have to keep this in mind, your time here on this earth is going to come to a close.

Now, I know if you're in your 30's or 40's, you don't think about that. But every year you live, you get older, and one of these days, you're gonna be old, and you'll be at the point where you are gonna only have a certain amount of time left. Then you're gonna come to the point where you have no time left, and you're gonna leave this world. We're all just passing through. This is not our home. And then you have eternity to deal with. And when you pass before God on Judgment Day, and he says, "Why should I let you into heaven"? You better have only one answer, and that's "Because Jesus Christ died for me, and I put my faith in him".

If your answer is, "Well, I did this, and I did that, and I did this, and I did that," you're not gonna get in. Because, "We are saved by grace, not works, lest any man should boast". Read Ephesians 2:8-9, if you're not familiar with those scriptures. And then he goes on and says, "And that I might [actually] Be found and known as in him, not having any [self-achieved] Righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the law's demands, (ritualistic uprightness, and supposed right standing with God". He said, "I can follow all the rituals, all the rules and regulations", and believe me, under the old covenant, they had hundreds of them, maybe even thousands.

You couldn't do this, you couldn't do that, you couldn't do this, you couldn't do that, you had to do this, you had to do that. You read Leviticus and see everything they had to do, and it wears you out just reading it, let alone trying to do it. "But I want to possess that [genuine righteousness]", you know what righteousness is? It's being in right relationship to God. How wonderful does it feel to say, "I'm right with God"? Because most of the time, all we do is think about what's wrong with us and how God's probably mad at us because it's wrong with us and what we need to do to try to fix it.

Oh, my gosh. I lived like that for years and years and years, and it just exhausts you. That's why you hear yourself saying, "I just can't do this any longer. I can't do this much more". And it gets so frustrating because no matter how many good things you do, you never feel any different. But it's so great to know that we have that as a gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ, and then I want to do good things, and I do as many of them as I can, but I don't feel like a failure because I don't have any quota of good works that I have to keep up with.

Can you imagine when Jesus left the earth saying to his disciples, "Now boys, here's what I want you to do, go to church every Sunday at 11 o'clock"? Well, that would have been impossible because there was no church till the year 300. "I want you to read your Bible". That would have been impossible because there were no Bibles and most of them couldn't read. "I want you to tithe. I want you to fast". All these rules and regulations we think that we have to follow. Well, it wasn't that. He said, "We've had relationship. I want you to go tell people about me. Tell them about having a relationship with me, about putting their faith in me".

Yes, we want to read our Bible. We wanna go to church. We wanna fast. We wanna tithe. We wanna pray. But we should not do them because we have to. Don't ever say, "I have to go to church. I have to pray. I have to read my Bible". You don't have to do any of that to get to heaven. If you're smart, you're going to want to because reading the Bible and studying the Bible is how we learn how to live. But don't get the cart before the horse because if you do, you're going to be frustrated all the time. You're gonna always feel that you come up short. You're going to read the Bible and feel like, "Well, I don't even know why I read it. I don't even understand what it says". "But I want to possess that [genuine righteousness] Which comes through faith in Christ, (the anointed one), the [true] Right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] Faith".

Boy! You know, you can probably watch this again on-demand. And some of you need to hear this over and over and over. Most believers probably never walk in the fullness of Christ because they don't ever empty themselves. And he can't fill you up if you're full of yourself, if you're full of your own good works and your own good record. So, you need to empty yourself of all that and ask him to fill you. Here's a great story in 2 Kings 4:1-5. "Now the wife of a son of the prophets cried to Elisha, 'your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. But the creditors have come to take my two sons to be their slaves'. And Elisha said to her, 'what shall I do for you? Tell me, what have you [of sale value] In the house'? And she said, 'your handmaid has nothing in the house except a jar of oil'".

Now, I believe that this has a spiritual meaning to us, that when we realize we have nothing but the Holy Spirit who is represented by oil, then God can start doing something in our lives. So, she said, "I have nothing, I have nothing but one jar of oil". And he said to her, "'go around and borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels-and not a few'", empty vessels, "'and when you come in, shut the door behind you and your sons and start pouring out [the oil that you have] Into all those vessels, setting aside each one when it's full'. So she went from him and shut the door upon herself and her sons, who brought her the vessels, and she poured the oil". She poured the oil until she ran out of vessels.

Well, here's what I think. I think that what we can make out of that is when we finally come to God and say, "God, I have nothing to offer you, I have the Holy Spirit". And see, when I started in ministry, that was all I had. I didn't know anything else. I just had the Holy Spirit. Nobody ever taught me how to put a message together. Nobody taught me how to preach. Nobody taught me how to write a book. The Holy Spirit taught me. That's all I had. I didn't have money. I didn't have the education. I didn't have friends to put me in places. I had the Holy Spirit. And God has allowed me to take the oil of the Holy Spirit and find empty vessels all over the world and fill 'em up, fill 'em up, fill 'em up, fill 'em up, fill 'em up.

And that's what God wants to do through you. But first, before God can use you, you have to realize that you have nothing in yourself. And whatever you can do, you can only do it because God has given you the gift. There's a scripture in the New Testament that says, "What can we give God that has not first been given to us"? Everything that we have, my speaking gift is a gift from God. If you're a great singer, it's a gift from God. So, don't feel proud of yourself because of it. Thank God that you have it. Only empty vessels are fit for the master's use. You wanna be used by God? Then empty yourself of all your good works. Don't stop doing them, but do them for the right reason.

2 Timothy 2:21. "So whoever cleanses himself [from what is unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] Will [then himself] Be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable for the master, fit and ready for any good work". What you should be doing right now is letting the Holy Spirit work with you and make you fit for the master's use. Proverbs 28:1 says, "The righteous are bold as a lion".

When you know who you are in Christ, it makes you bold. And you know, all the things that we do wrong, all of our mess-ups, our fall-ups, our sins, our mistakes, Jesus understands them. And I have good news for you today, God's not mad at you. And I spent years with this vague feeling that God was mad at me. Hebrews 4:15-16. I love these scriptures. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but we have one", we have a high priest, "Who has been tempted in every respect just like we have, yet he never sinned", imagine that. Jesus has been tempted in every way that you have been tempted or that I have been tempted or ever will be tempted.

So, he understands what we go through. "Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace, (the throne of God's mercy, his unmerited favor to us sinners), that we might receive mercy [for our failures]", would you receive God's mercy today? It's being extended to you. Receive God's mercy. Quit punishing yourself for the things you've done wrong in the past and receive God's mercy. "That we might receive mercy [for our failures] And find grace to help in good time to meet every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]".

You know, I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like I'm... Well, I don't feel any more that I'm weird. Now, I know I'm unique. But I used to feel like I was just so weird because I just wasn't like everybody else. I don't know what makes us think we have to be like everybody else, but we tend to think that. And I felt like nobody understood me. And I love that scripture because it says, "We have a high priest who understands".

Let me tell you something today, Jesus understands you. He understands everything you've been through, everything you're going through, everything you ever will go through. And he is for you and not against you. Pray boldly. Stop just taking what you can barely get by with, but pray boldly. God is able to do more than we can imagine.

Ephesians 3:20. "Now unto him who, by and (in the consequence of) the [action of his] Power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out his purpose and] Do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] To ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]", do you get that? He is able to do so much more than what you could even possibly come up with. Your wildest dream and imagination, God can do more than that.

And then, the Amplified Bible, the last part of this says, "Through the power that worketh in you". How does he do it? "He does it through the power that worketh in you". He does it through you. In other words, when you pray, it's very likely that God is not going to just do something for you, but he's going to show you something to do. But he'll give you the power to do it. Yes, it might be something you need to give up. Maybe there's something that's in your way between you and God. Maybe a hidden sin, something you need to repent of. Maybe something you're doing in your life that's keeping God from working in your life, like unforgiveness.

If you're harboring unforgiveness in your life, that can keep God from working in your life. Don't be afraid to meet with God and be honest with him and let him be honest with you. Read the Psalms and you'll see how honest David was with God. I mean, he talked to God, he told him just exactly how he felt, but he always came full circle and came back around and said, "But I put my trust in you. I put my trust in you". Our own righteousness is like filthy rags, but what God offers us is the righteousness of God in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21. "For our sake he made Christ [virtually] To be sin".

Jesus didn't just take our sin: he became sin on that cross. Man! That holy Jesus hanging on that cross, becoming sin. I cannot even imagine how terrible that was for him. And you know what? He killed the power of sin right there on that cross. He took it to the grave. He buried it. He went to hell and took the keys of hell and death away from satan and he rose victoriously on the third day. And he is alive today and he is alive in you if you want him in your life.

If you haven't asked Christ into your life, there's no better time to do it than right now. And we have a number on our screen, you can call and talk to one of our operators about it. Just simply say, "I wanna be saved. I want to be born again". "For his sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in and through him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] The righteousness of God in Christ". You know what I wrote on my notes to end this message? "Wow, wow, wow". No, "Wow, exclamation Mark, wow, exclamation Mark, wow, exclamation Mark, we are right with God".

I pray for you right now in Jesus' name that if you have been feeling guilty and let that guilt separate you from God because of past sins, today you'll receive forgiveness, and you'll receive mercy and make a brand-new start. God bless you.