Joyce Meyer - Traits of a Perfect Heart - Part 2

TOPICS: Heart

Well, thank you for joining me today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". Yesterday, I started teaching on the characteristics of a perfect heart. And, you know, as younger Christians, we all go through a period where every time we make a mistake, we feel guilty, sometimes for days and days. And I think real spiritual maturity grows up to realize that they may have weaknesses, but they're not wicked, they want what's right. And God knows that you want what's right and he deals with you accordingly. He'll continue to deal with you about the things you need to grow up in, but he does it as a loving father, not as an angry taskmaster. And actually, one of the characteristics of a perfect heart is that you're not full of guilt and condemnation all the time, but that we're gonna do a couple of others first.

So, yesterday, I talked about how just one of the things that a person with a perfect heart does is they pay attention to what's in their heart. They guard their heart with all diligence, and they think about what's going on inside them. They don't just think about putting on an outward show for people to admire them, but they realize that no matter what people think, it's what God thinks is the most important. I remember one time the Lord said to me, "Your reputation on earth is not as important as your reputation in heaven". Amen?

And so, God sees our heart and he wants our heart to be right. Somebody here can admire us for all of our good works or our kind acts or whatever, but God knows why we're doing them. And if we're doing them to be seen or to be noticed, then they're not pure works. Our heart's not pure. We're actually not doing them to give, we're doing them to get something. And then I talked about how a perfect heart is always growing spiritually. The next thing that I want to mention is that a person with a perfect heart is fully committed. They're not just committed on Sunday morning. They stay committed on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They're not just committed when they're with their Christian friends. They're also committed when they're at work with maybe people who don't believe in Christ.

And Revelation says that God would rather we be hot or cold, not lukewarm, "Because if you're lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth". That does not sound very good, does it? I mean, it sounds like something we should take pretty seriously. So, God wants us to be all in. Romans 12:1 says, "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] The mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies". So, this is something that we have to decide. If it's ever going to happen, like Paul said, "My determined purpose is to know him". He made a decision that that was something that was going to be important to him.

And Daniel decided that he was not going to defile himself by eating the king's rich and dainty foods because he'd made a vow to God to eat only water and vegetables for a certain period of time. And so, there's decisions and then there's what we call quality decisions. Like I always say, "It's easy to go on a diet Sunday night after dinner". How many of you have ever been on one of those? But Monday around two o'clock when your tummy starts growling, that's when the first test comes. Are you gonna stay on it? Or are you gonna go back to what feels good to your flesh? So, he says we are to, "Make a decisive dedication of our bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] As a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship".

Sometimes we say, "But it's just so hard. It's just so hard". Well, God never asks us to do anything that's too hard for us to do because anything he asks us to do, he will always be with us to do it and give us the strength to carry through. But we have to be willing to go through some things that are not gonna be comfortable and we're kind of addicted to comfort, whether you know it or not. So, we think suffering is if your air conditioning goes out for two hours. You go to a village in India and they're like, "Huh? What's air conditioning"? You know?

And so, we do have to be careful about getting too addicted to our comfort that anytime God asks us to do something that's gonna require sacrifice or means we're not gonna get what we want, then we have to remember what Jesus did for us. And he didn't want to go to the cross. He asked three times that he would not have to drink that cup of suffering, but if it was God's will, then he wanted God's will. So, nobody likes to suffer, but if we want God's will more than we want our own comfort, many times we will go through things. And I'm not talking about, I'm not even talking about suffering the way some people in certain places suffer because of being a Christian. I'm not talking about being beaten and tortured. That does happen for some people, but I'm talking about just, you know, if God asks you to give away something that you really don't wanna give away.

You know, there's a suffering in your soul if you give up something that you really want to keep. So, there are things that we're gonna have to go through if we want to grow up. I wanna make sure you understand that. It is impossible to mature spiritually and be comfortable the whole time you do it. Matter of fact, that's so good, I think I might say it again. It's impossible to grow up and be a mature Christian if you think you're gonna do it and be comfortable all the time. And you know, we don't hear a lot about suffering or sacrifice today, but if you go back to the 16th, 17th century, that was all they preached. All the time, they talked about it. Matter of fact, if you read a lot of books from back then, which I have a tendency to do, sometimes I gotta lay 'em down for a while. I just tell God, "I'm tired of suffering, I need a break". Go read something that feels a little better.

So, what does that mean to "Dedicate all of your members"? Well, the Lord told me, one time, "Joyce, it's time for your mouth to be saved". See, I was saved. I'd given my heart to the Lord, but I hadn't given him my mouth yet. He can be your Savior without being your Lord. We need to give him our mind. We have the mind of Christ, and we need to think with it. Everything that we have needs to be offered to God. You know, the money you have, it's not yours. You wouldn't have it if God didn't give it to you. And so, we act like we're doing God a big favor if we just give 10%. You know, my Bible says in the New Testament to be generous, and that means a lot more, I think, than just tithing. I think it means that everything we have needs to be available to God. And that's a scary thought when you think about it, because you think, "Well, what if he asks for everything"?

Well, you know, there was a young man in the Bible that said, "What must I do to be perfect and follow all your commandments"? And Jesus said, "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor". And it says he went away sad because he had great possessions. Right after that, the Bible says, "Anyone who gives up houses, brothers, sisters, lands, for my sake in this lifetime will receive a hundredfold in this lifetime". It doesn't even say you have to wait till you go to heaven. So really, when Jesus asked him for everything he had, if he would have been willing to give it, he would have gotten so much more back. So, it was really a test for him, and it was intended to show him that his possessions meant too much to him.

And I found that sometimes God will test me in that area, just a little check to see, "Does your stuff mean too much to you"? And he'll ask me to give something that I really don't want to give or to do something that I really don't want to do. Your eyes should belong to God. You don't look at things that would be improper. Your ears, don't listen to gossip. Don't listen to people saying bad things about other people. You know, sometimes we just need to tell people, "I'm sorry, but I don't wanna hear that". "Well, I don't wanna offend 'em". Well, are you gonna let them use you as a garbage dump? You know, when somebody tells you something bad about somebody else, even if you don't wanna believe it, sometimes it's hard to get rid of it. It puts a little suspicion in there of, "Well," and you begin to think about that person a little differently.

So, in John 17:10, Jesus said, "All I have is yours, and all you have is mine". I love that. Everything that Jesus has is ours, and we need to be able to say, "Everything that I have is yours". 1 Peter 2:9 says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light". There's nothing mediocre, lukewarm, or compromising about what God has called us to. We are to live separated lives, and that doesn't mean to separate yourself from everybody else and think you're better than them. It just means that to follow Christ, you can't do what all the rest of the world does all the time. Maybe some things. We're free to enjoy anything that God's created, because everything he created, he said is good.

But we have to be careful, especially it seems like the more the world compromises, the more normal it seems to be to people. And we have to be careful, because the world changes, but God never changes. Clothing styles may change, people change. We change, but God never changes. And so, our morals, no matter what century you live in, our morals should still be the same as they were in the days when the Bible was written. None of that changes. So, a person with a perfect heart is fully committed. A person with a perfect heart is not guilty and condemned.

I remember, one time, when God spoke to my heart, and he said, "If you wanna use your faith for something big, use your faith to stay free from guilt". That was a big problem for me. I don't know about you or how many of you watching on your computer or tv, but I would say a large majority of people, even though they believe they're forgiven, they still feel guilty. And I've learned a lot about that. I'm happy to say that I'm now free from it. I don't spend five minutes a year feeling guilty. I sin, but I know how to repent and believe that I'm completely forgiven, and that God has forgotten my sin and moved it as far as the east is from the west. He remembers it no more.

There's a scripture, I think it's in Zephaniah, that says that he doesn't keep recalling past sins and bringing them up to us. That's good to know. But you know what guilt is? If you've repented and you're truly sorry for what you've done, guilt is our way of trying to pay for what Jesus has already paid for. That's really what it is. It just sounds wrong to think that you can do something wrong and just ask to be forgiven and then just walk away from it as if you didn't do anything. It's like, "Oh, that can't be right". I mean, if it was a little sin, you might only have to feel guilty for a few hours. A medium sin maybe takes two or three days. But boy, some of those big ones, you might be in for a month or two. And the thing that's interesting is we eventually receive forgiveness and stop feeling guilty about it.

So why not now? Why waste God's time? He needs you. He wants to use you. And when you're full of guilt and condemnation, you shrink back from God, you shrink back from his presence. You don't pray boldly like you should be praying. There are things that you need to ask God for. You won't even ask for his help because you still feel guilty about the last thing that you did wrong. And you know, the apostle Paul, he goes through his whole thing in Romans 7 about, "The thing I wanna do, I can't do. The thing I don't wanna do, I'm always doing. Oh wretched man, who will deliver me from this body of death? Oh, thank God, he will through Jesus Christ". And then the very next verse says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus".

And so, if all God really wants us to do is be honest with ourselves. I recently read that spiritual integrity is the ability to be brutally self-honest with yourself. Wow. Brutally self-honest with yourself. "Yes, I did that. It's my fault. It's my responsibility. I'm not gonna blame it on somebody else. I'm not gonna make an excuse. I did it. I'm sorry. I don't wanna do it again. Please help me". And then if you're really full of faith, you can walk away from that. But that's hard to do, isn't it? See, we think we have to pay. "Well, surely, I got to pay for this somehow". But so many places it says that he made one final sacrifice that's good for all time and for all people. And there's no more sacrifice that ever needs to be made.

So, I recall, one time, when the Lord said to me, "How are you gonna get over this sin"? I said, "Well, I'm just gonna receive the sacrifice that you made for me". I knew the answer, but I wasn't doing it. And the thing that came to my heart was, "Well, if you don't mind, would you just go ahead and do it now"? "So, we don't waste several weeks until you're done with this". Because you see, God needs you now. And he needs you full of faith and full of boldness and full of courage, not, "Oh". But the devil will tell you, "Who do you think you are? You can't just walk away from this". And it's not a matter of being prideful. It's like, "God, you are so good to completely forgive me and to remove the condemnation".

You see, when God forgives our sin, if there's no more sin there, then how can there be guilt? Because the sin is gone. It's moved as far as the east is from the west. God has forgotten it. So, we talk to God about a lot of things he forgot a long time ago. Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly". How does God want us to come to the throne? Fearlessly, confidently, boldly. "The throne of his grace, the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners". Go and get that favor that you don't deserve. "I know I don't deserve this, God, but I'll take it". We don't deserve anything that God does for us, but I'm willing to take it because he wants to give it. Why does he love us?

The Bible says because he wants to. It's not because we're lovable. God actually created us because he wanted somebody to love. It wasn't even just so there'd be somebody to worship him. I mean, he's not like, "Oh, I need to be worshiped". You know? He wants us to worship him because it's good for us, but really everything that God asks us to do is because it's good for us. And he created you because he wanted to love you. He wanted somebody to love. Love must give itself. It has to be active and give itself, otherwise it becomes a stagnant, stale, stinking river. And we're supposed to receive God's love, love him back, love other people, and just keep that flow going. Receive, give out. Receive, give out.

The first thing you should do every morning when you pray is before you start anything else, take some time and just receive God's love. Know several scriptures about God's love and meditate on them or confess them. Remind yourself how much God loves you. And I love this scripture in the Amplified, Ephesians 3:12, "In whom, because of our faith in him, we dare to have the boldness (the courage, and the confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear)". That's so good, so good. The next one is a perfect heart is at peace.

1 Peter 3:4, "But let it be the inward adorning", the verse before that says the thing we should not be overly concerned about is how we're dressed, our makeup, our hair, our Jewelry. It's not the outward thing that God's concerned about. "But let it be the inward adorning and the beauty of the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible and unfading charm of a gentle and a peaceful spirit that [is not anxious or wrought up, but] Is very precious in the sight of God". I say, quite often, when I'm teaching, if we would spend as much time getting ready inside as we do getting ready outside, we'd be in good shape. I mean, it took a lot for me to get here looking like this. I mean, I had a hair person, I had a makeup person, you know, I got all the skin creams and how many of you it takes a while to get it all together before you go out? And so, if we just spent equal time getting ready inside as we do getting ready outside, just think how much better off we would be.

2 Peter 3:14 says, "So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him". At peace. "Don't be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace that passes understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting". And Paul said in Philippians 4:11, "I have learned how to be content no matter what my circumstances are". And the Amplified Bible says that to be content means "To be satisfied to the point where you're not disturbed or disquieted".

It doesn't mean you never wanna change. If I tell you right now, you need to be content where you're at and you say, "Well, wait a minute, you know, I need money". "I'm not married. I want a husband". "I've got a husband. I don't want him". Whatever. Paul said we need to be content. That doesn't mean you never want anything to change, but it does mean that you are content in God because you believe that wherever you're at right now is the place that you're supposed to be in for right now. And that's hard when we don't like the place we're in, isn't it?

When we don't like that place, we don't want it. But we keep our mind too much on the circumstances of our life and not enough on God and enjoying the life that he's given us. You know, you can be having a circumstance you don't like and still enjoy your life. That's what I saw Dave do. I was doing everything I could to make him miserable. I mean, I wasn't purposely trying to make him miserable but, you know, I was miserable, so when you're miserable, you make the people around you miserable. And I saw him stay happy anyway, and that just made me madder. But it's what changed me in the long run. And so really, his ability to be content, God was using it to work on me, to change me.

So, when we let other people make us unhappy, then we're not helping them by doing that. We're playing right into the enemy's hands. Amen? And so, I got through five of my points. And so, we'll see if I give you the rest of 'em, or not. All right, we gotta close for today. Thank you so much for joining us and being with us. And I want you to know that God loves you so very much. And he does have a good plan for your life. Even if you don't see it right now, you will if you don't faint and give up. God bless you.