Joyce Meyer - Traits of a Perfect Heart - Part 1

TOPICS: Heart

Well, thank you for joining me today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". You know, there's so many wonderful things in the Word of God. I don't think we would ever run out of topics. But I do try to always really search my heart and spend time with God to make sure I have what I would refer to as "A word in due season". And I think that today's message, and I'll be continuing it tomorrow, will be that for you. You know, we cannot have a perfect performance. We have flesh and bone bodies and as long as we have them, we're always gonna make mistakes. And thankfully, Jesus has already paid for every mistake that we ever will make. And so, you might say the blood is in the bank. It's there. And we can make a withdrawal anytime we're willing to repent of anything that we've done. Admit it, take responsibility for it. So, we cannot have a perfect performance, but we can have a perfect heart.

And so, I wanna talk today about what would be the characteristics of a perfect heart. God tells us that he loves a peaceful and a quiet and a gentle heart, one that is not anxious or wrought up. And so, he likes, you might look at it like, if any of you have children now, little children, or you've raised little children, you might remember saying, "I just want some peace in this house". Well, we are the home of God. The Holy Spirit lives in there. And when we're all upset and wrought up and anxious and angry and mad, maybe he would say the same thing to us, "Can we have a little peace in this house"? So, I love quiet, and I love peace and I've learned to love it more as the years have gone by. And God loves that too. And so, I think people try so hard to never make mistakes and to perform perfectly and then fight off the guilt if you do make a mistake. And so, we want to talk about some of those things today.

2 Chronicles 16:9 says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward him". Now that's really a wonderful scripture because it doesn't say that God will show, that he's looking around for somebody who never makes a mistake, so he can find somebody to work through. He's saying that he's looking for somebody whose heart is perfect, so he can show himself strong through them. Jesus said an interesting thing to the disciples. He said, "You are all clean because of the word that I've taught you". Well, if you really think about that, how could he tell them they were clean when Peter was gonna shortly deny him three times?

And, you know, Thomas was doubting Thomas and they all had their different things. They argued amongst themselves about who was the greatest. So, they had weaknesses, but they weren't wicked. And see, that's the difference. We all have weaknesses, but if we're wicked, that's what displeases God. So, I like to say it like this: I believe that God would rather have somebody with a perfect heart and an imperfect performance than to have somebody who had managed to just really do it all right like the pharisees. Man, they had it down. They were some of the pharisees of the pharisees. They were like, they practiced keeping the law and they did it right. But Jesus said, "But inside, you're like rotten tombs". Because they knew what to do and they told everybody else what to do, but they wouldn't lift a finger to help 'em do it. And they even didn't do the things that they told other people to do.

So, you know, something can look really good on the outside, but you never know a person until you see them in different situations. And usually when you see the real person, it's when you see them when they're going through tough times, when they're going through hard times or when they've been treated unjustly, because we never know, not any one of us knows how much faith we have until we have to use it. So, believe it or not, trials, difficulties are actually very good for us because they show us where we need to let God work in our lives. So, I don't know about you, but it takes a lot of pressure off of me. Not that I'm gonna just try to live sloppy and not try to do right. To be honest, I think if you're saved, there's no way you can not want to do what's right. We're not saved by our works, but we are saved for good works.

So, our works don't save us and not doing good works can't keep you out of heaven because you're not saved by your works, you're saved by your belief in Jesus. But they are important that we do them. However, they have to come in the right order. We don't work to be saved, but if we are saved, how can you not want to do the right thing? Because God gives you, his nature. Of course, we also get to keep the old nature, which that's a bummer. I wish he'd just take that one with him when he goes. But that's why many times after a person's born again, they feel like they're in a war all the time. Because things that they once could do, and it didn't bother them at all, now if they try to do them, it really bothers 'em. And so, then they try not to do them and they're trying usually in their own strength, and so that doesn't work out.

We end up sounding like Paul did in Romans 7, where he said, "I wanna do what's right. The thing I wanna do I can't do and the thing I don't wanna do I'm always doing. What is wrong with me"? And I know I've said that more than once in my life, "What is wrong with me? I wanna do what's right, and I can't". Like I always say, I can lay in bed and plan for perfect holiness, and it works until I put my feet on the floor. And I remember how spiritual I could be until my kids came home from school. Man, when I was home alone, I got along with everybody. It was when the people came in that I started having problems. And so, I'm glad to know that it's not my performance. I wanna perform right, but I'm so glad to know that I don't have to in order for God to use me and show himself strong in me. The Bible says to, "Guard your heart with all diligence: for out of it flows the issues of life".

And so, I hope one of the things that you get out of this is that you will pay a little more attention to what's going on inside you. What have you been thinking? What kind of attitudes do you have? Do you have a tendency to judge other people that aren't like you? Or do you have jealousy when you see somebody that has more than you or maybe that has what you want and are praying for and in your estimation they're not nearly as spiritual as you are? So of course, they don't deserve it. So, then that aggravates us. So, some people perform well, but they have wicked hearts. And some people make mistakes, but they have pure hearts. And so, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God".

Well, that doesn't mean you're gonna see him with your physical eyes, but it does mean that you're gonna hear from God more, you're gonna recognize his presence, you're gonna have more discernment. You know, when we have pure hearts, it's much easier to discern what God is saying or what he wants us to do. And so, let's just read a little bit of this where Jesus rebukes the pharisees. Matthew 23:1-4, "Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 'the teachers of the law and the pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So, you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach'". And you know, that's a big responsibility for anybody who teaches the word.

You know, I remember one night Dave and I were going to a speaking engagement. It was in Florida, and I was gonna preach some message, I'm sure, about how to behave. That's usually what I do. And we're on the way there, and we got stopped by a train. And I was so concerned we were gonna be late, "We're gonna be late! We're gonna be late". And so, the train went by, and we went a block or two, and then there was this person that wanted to get in the line of traffic, and Dave decided to stop and let him in. And I said, "Dave, we do not have time for that". He said, "Well, I'm just trying to be nice". I said, "We don't have time to be nice. I'm trying to get to the church"! And that's about the way we are sometimes, isn't it? "I don't have time to be nice. I'm trying to go to church". And I always wonder about the two religious men that passed by, the man on the side of the road. I have a feeling they might have been trying to get to church.

Now, I don't know that according to the Bible, but they were in a hurry to get somewhere in such a hurry that they actually crossed the street, so they didn't have to deal with the man. So how often do we get religious, and we tell other people what to do, but then when it comes down to doing it, we don't do it ourselves? "They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to help them". And then Matthew 23, if you ever just want a good lesson on how not to be a pharisee or what Jesus says about them, just read Matthew 23. It's strong. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you're full of greed and self-indulgence".

Just what I'm talking about. You can clean the outside of the cup, but it's what goes on inside of us that really makes the difference. "Blind pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 'woe to you...'" and woe is like one of the worst things you can get. It's like, "Woe, man"! "'woe to you, teachers of the law and pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside you're full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean'". Ick. "'in the same way, on the outside you appear to be people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness'".

So, how often do you think about what's going on inside you? You know, I can remember being mad at Dave standing next to him in church with my hands lifted up, singing "I surrender all". Because they put the words up on the screens for us now, and so you can just sing and sing, but you don't have to engage your mind to sing. And I'd be thinking, "If he thinks I'm gonna cook him anything to eat when we get home, he has got another thing coming". And so, isn't it true that you can be doing one thing and thinking another, or you can be smiling at someone, "Oh, praise the Lord, sister, how are you"? And inside thinking, "That outfit looks really stupid on you". Or "That haircut you've got just really does not do you justice".

And one of... we're laughing 'cause we've all done it. The thing that's sobering is the Bible says that the day will come, it's called Judgment Day, when everything is gonna come out into the open. Everything. And what's done behind closed doors will come out in the open. And our works will pass before the eyes of God, but it won't just be what we've done, but why we've done it. And so, it's amazing how good we can behave when there's somebody around that we want to impress. And how badly we can behave when there's nobody around, at least we think there's nobody around that knows us. That doesn't work too well for me because pretty much everywhere I go, I can be assured that somebody may know me even if they don't say they do.

And so, doing what I'm doing is a big responsibility. If you have a bumper sticker on your car claiming to be a Christian, it's a big responsibility. Amen? If your neighbors know that you are a Christian because you've gotta bumper sticker on your car, it's a big responsibility. Because if we're not going to do what Christians are supposed to do, which is to be a follower of Jesus, what does it mean to be a Christian? It doesn't just mean repeating a prayer at an altar. It means following Jesus. Somebody said to me recently, "Well, what does that mean"? I said, "Well, that means to study how he behaves in situations and follow him". Jesus said, "Anybody who wants to be my disciple must take up his cross and follow me".

And if you read the whole thing, the cross that he's asking us to carry is to live an unselfish life. Wow. There's so much selfishness in us, inbred in us, that if it's not something that you purpose every day to be unselfish, it just sneaks up on you before you know it. And pride is the same way. You know, we sometimes, we think we've got a little humility and then we get proud of our humility and then we're right back to where we started from. Amen? "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it".

So, the second thing that I would say is a trait of a pure heart is a person with a perfect heart is always desiring to grow spiritually. They're not satisfied to just be where they're at, "I'm okay". They're not satisfied with mediocre, and they always want to know Christ better and deeper and more intimately. I love what Paul said in Philippians 3, "My determined purpose is to know him". And the Amplified says, "To become more intimately acquainted with him and to know his character". To really know him. You know, we say we know Jesus, but do we really know him? Do we really know his character? A great Bible study is to study the character of God. God is good. He is just. He is kind. He is humble. He's full of grace, full of mercy.

And so, the more we study about the character of God, the more we know him, the more we're gonna want to be like him, which we should be. And Jesus said in Matthew, it's recorded in Matthew 11, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me". So, what's he saying? "Stay close enough to me that you see how I do things". You know, that yoke is a representation of two oxen being yoked together. And so, I guess if you were yoked to somebody and couldn't get away from 'em, you might learn a little bit of what they're doing.

I know even in my marriage, when Dave and I got married, I was such a mess from being sexually abused in my childhood. And I didn't know I was a mess. I thought everybody else had a problem. And Dave was really a very mature Christian. And a lot of what provoked me to change was seeing how he behaved. Because he always kept his peace, he always loved me, if I would let him, he wouldn't let me make him unhappy. He was just very, very stable. Where I was just like, "Argh"! You know, all over the place. And so, finally, I got hungry for what he had. And that's what the effect that we have on people. But it doesn't come just because we go to church or have some Christian jewelry or carry a Bible. It comes from the way we behave.

And the Bible says that we're living in a time of darkness and that we are to go out into the world and be lights in a dark place. And one thing that people cannot resist is if you keep loving them long enough, they'll cave in. The Bible says, "Love never fails". But see, we want to, we want people to, we're not willing to love them the way they are. We want to love them the way we want them to be. Amen? And so, you gotta be willing sometimes to suffer somebody else's faults for a period of time. And instead of trying to correct them every time they do something wrong, pray for them. How many of you believe that if we prayed every time, we want to instruct somebody and kept our mouth shut, we might get a lot further along. Amen. Ooh, we love to teach people though, don't we? Always growing spiritually.

Matter of fact, the Amplified Bible in Matthew 5:48 says, "You, therefore must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of Godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], even as your Heavenly Father is perfect". I love the Amplified Bible for this reason. It brings out things that, you know, I mean, it used to almost scare me when I would read, "Be perfect," because I would try so hard, and I couldn't do it. But really, the amplification of it means to be growing into spiritual maturity. And so, God's never angry with us if we haven't arrived. Even the apostle Paul said, "I've not arrived, but I'm pressing toward that place of perfection".

And you know what? You will be growing spiritually as long as you're on this earth, and so will i. If any one of us knew everything that's still wrong with us, we'd probably pass out in a dead faint. So thankfully, God only reveals to us one thing at a time, and he deals with us about those things. And he doesn't just deal with us to make us feel guilty and condemned. He deals with us so we will face that about ourselves. So, we will face the truth about it. You cannot make any progress as long as you're blaming the things you do wrong on somebody else or something else.

"Well, if I just didn't have all this pressure in my life. Well, if I just didn't have such financial problems". You know, we've always got a reason for our bad behavior. But the bottom line is, is "I have to take responsibility for this," because we all are going to stand before God and give an account of our life, Romans 14:12. God's not gonna ask you about me. He's not gonna ask me about you, but he is gonna ask us about ourselves.

"And all of our good works will pass before the eyes of fire," the Bible says. And any reward that we would have for a good work done, if it's done with an unpure motive, we lose that reward. Although, we, ourselves, will be saved, we lose that reward. Well, I don't know about you, but I mean, I wanna have the good stuff when I'm outta here. Amen? I don't know what... I mean, the Bible says that, "Eye has not seen, and man has not heard all the good things that God has prepared, stored up and made ready for those who love him".

I can't even imagine what God has prepared for us. Can you? But I know I don't want to miss it. And I know part of it has to do with the motives that I live with while I'm here on earth. If I do something good for you, but I do it for somebody to impress somebody that's watching, then I lose my reward. And I don't wanna do that. So, honestly and truly, we need to be checking our hearts on a more regular basis and not just thinking about what we do, but thinking about why we do it. Might be good at the end of every day, just to ask yourself, "Now, what have I thought about today? What's my mind been on today"? Because where the mind goes, the man follows. Amen? Well, thank you for today. And we're gonna continue this tomorrow. Thank you for watching.