Joyce Meyer - Once and for All

You know, you grow little by little. And I started out in the basement of my home. That's where my ministry started in the basement of my home. And I did little, tiny, Bible studies for five years and then I worked at a church for five years and then God told me to take the ministry and go north, south, east, and west. And I did so many meetings of 25 people, and 50 people, and 70 people. If I got a crowd of 100, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. And I'm grateful that I never gave up and made it to where I am now and I'm anxious to see what else God does with me before he takes me home. Amen?

I just had my 80th birthday this year. So kind of interesting how you feel when you know that you've lived most of your life. I kinda think, well, even if I lived to be 100, which I'm not sure I want to, but even if I did, I would only have 20 years left. And so, I've decided to make the most out of the ones that I got left. And so, I pretty much just say whatever I want to now when I'm in the pulpit, and do what I please. Give a shout out to Dave, over there. I'll tell you, Dave's a good-looking guy. He takes care of himself. He still wears the same size clothes he did when we got married. And he's a good guy. We've been married, in a few weeks, 57 years. We have 4 kids, 12 grandkids and 6 great grandkids. So, I said, "All I do is write checks. I just stay busy". I don't even bother with the gift bag and the tissue paper: whoever does that. I just write checks. That's easier. Checks and envelopes.

So, let me ask you a question. If I said to you, "While you're here, at church, today, somebody has come in and cleaned your house and it's gonna stay clean forever. You'll never have to do it. It's been done once and for all". How would you like that? Wouldn't that be awesome? Or if I said, "While you've been here today, somebody went to your house, and they gathered up all your bills and they paid all your bills. And not only did they pay all your bills that you had: they're taking care of all your bills that you ever will have," how many of you would think that would be good?

Well, there's somebody that's done something for you that you'll never have to do again for yourself, and that's paid for your sins, once and for all. I was reading Hebrews and I kept coming across that statement in the Amplified Bible, "Once and for all, once and for all, once and for all". And I thought, man, we don't get it. You know, he didn't just do it once. The one time he did it, I mean, he did just do it once, but the one time he did it, it shall avail for all time. You never have to beg God to forgive your sins. They're already forgiven. All you have to do is admit you've sinned, confess your sins and say, "I receive. I receive the forgiveness that you've provided for me in Jesus' name. Amen".

Now, you know, I'm not gonna tell you that there's never consequences for sin because there is. Let's just say that somebody murders somebody. Well, they're gonna go to prison. Now, they can be forgiven by God, and they can still have a good life even inside those prison walls because it's not outer freedom that gives us a good life. It's inner freedom. It's knowing who you are in Christ and being free and not having to live under the weight of sin and guilt and not having to be mad at everybody and being able to forgive people. Those are the things that really make you free. And so, even a person in prison, and I've preached in many prisons, and I tell 'em this, "You can be freer in here than some people are out there because your real freedom comes from within you".

So, I wanna talk to you today about some of these scriptures that say that Jesus has done this for us once and for all. And I wanna talk to you about how we continue to try to do something that Jesus has already done, and how it steals our joy, and steals our peace. Once and for all means: "Now and for the last time, finally, positively, and absolutely never needs to be done again". Earlier this year, I had a boo-boo. I had a minor back surgery and ended up getting a blood clot at the surgery site. And had to have a second surgery. I never had any kind of pain like you have from a blood clot. I would have rather had three babies. I mean, it was so bad, I don't even remember it. My kids said I was on my hands and knees screaming, "Get me to the hospital". Because it was, it affected all the nerves in my, down my back and down my leg.

And so, this leg was traumatized or damaged to a certain degree, the nerves in it from the blood clot. And so, I couldn't move it after the surgery at all. I mean, I could barely just pick it up off the bed. So, I had to spend two weeks in a rehab hospital, and they got me to the point where I could walk on a walker barely. And I got home, and my own fault, thinkin' I could do things I couldn't do, I fell and broke this leg. And now, you gotta be talented to tear up both legs, at once. And so, long story short, two and a half months in a wheelchair, that was a lot of fun. To go to the bathroom, they have to put a board under your bottom, and you slide across that board onto the wheelchair. And you go to the bathroom, and you let down the side of the wheelchair, you slide onto the toilet, then you gotta slide back and you go slide back in your chair.

I tell you, I got so good at sliding, it was absolutely amazing. And it was pretty hard on my family, too. Somebody had to stay with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And so, my family really stepped up and my kids all took turns staying on four hour shifts and Dave did everything he could do to help me. But it was quite an ordeal. And let me tell you, when I went to the doctor for the last time, and he said, "Okay, it's over. You never have to come back again". Whoo! I was so glad to hear that I never had to do it again. Amen.

Same way when I had cancer 32 years ago, I had breast cancer and I had to have a surgery and I was very blessed. None of the cancer had gotten to my lymph nodes. And so, when I went to the oncologist to find out what was next, she said, "I've got good news for you. You don't have to have any treatment, no chemo, no radiation. You never have to come back again". Whoo! I was so glad to know that I never had to do it again. And I hope you can get that excited when I tell you that Jesus has paid for your sins, and you never have to try to pay again. You know what that means? When you... Yeah, come on. Whoo. Ooh, this is gonna be a happy message today. Wow. Let me tell you something else that you never have to do again. After you sin, you never have to feel guilty. Yep. You reacted about like the second service did. "Huh"?

Can you find one place in the Bible where it tells you to feel guilty? Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And even after you sin, and you've repented, and you've been forgiven, he'll come back around and try to accuse you. Have you ever woken up one morning and had the devil tell you what you did right yesterday? But I bet you there's plenty of mornings you wake up and the first thing you think about is what you did wrong yesterday. He wants you to not only have a miserable day yesterday, he wants to assure you that you have a miserable day today by thinking about the miserable thing you did yesterday. Amen? Now, I don't live like that anymore. I used to. For years, I lived like that. Guilt was my best buddy. I just took it with me everywhere that I went. From being abused as a child sexually, I guess somewhere along the line I got the idea it was my fault.

And so, I always felt guilty. You know, I didn't feel right if I didn't feel wrong. I always felt like something was wrong with me. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me"? And it took me a long time, a long time to get over guilt. It was like this vague presence that was with me all the time. Not like right in my face, but this vague feeling something's wrong with me. Does anybody in here have any idea what I'm feeling, what I'm talking about? And boy, I pray, right now, in Jesus' name, you get this today because if you do, it'll change your life forever. And I finally learned that I'm not supposed to live by how I feel, but by what the word says. And I started applying that to this thing about guilt. And when I would feel guilty, I would say out loud, "I feel guilty, but I'm not guilty because the Word of God says I'm forgiven, and the sin and the guilt are removed".

And then I'd still feel guilty, and I'd say, "I feel guilty, but I'm not guilty because the Word of God says that my sins have been forgiven and all the guilt has been removed. I'm not guilty. I don't care how you make me feel devil. I am not guilty. I am forgiven". And you know what? When I did it enough times, I started to believe it. And see, when you believe it, we have a lot of information, but what we need is Revelation. And I want what's in your head today to fall down in your spirit. I want you to get it. If you've asked God to forgive your sins and you meant it, you are not guilty. I pronounce you: not guilty. Amen? I don't know if you have any idea how wonderful it is for me to live like this after all the years that I suffered with always feeling like there was something wrong with me and always feeling that I kept trying to do something to make up for it or do something to make sure God was pleased with me.

We did a survey at our office, which I thought these answers were so amazing. We asked, "When you get to heaven, or if you could ask Jesus three questions right now, what would they be"? And you know what the number one thing was that came in? "How can I know when I've done enough"? These are all Christians that work for me. "How can I know when I've done enough"? And see, that's totally the wrong question for anybody who really understands the word because we can never do enough. That's why he did it for us. Amen? It depends on whether you want to live in Christ or in yourself. And see, "He that knew no sin became sin that I might be made the righteousness of God in Christ".

If you just go through the Bible and you really pick out all the scriptures that say, "In Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ," I've got something online you can look it up. It's like, you just put in "Knowing who you are in Christ, by Joyce Meyer" and you'll get this big, long list of scriptures that tell you who you are in Christ. The Bible says, "I am complete in Christ". Whoo. "I'm holy in Christ, sanctified in Christ, justified in Christ". You know what it means to be justified? Made just as if you never sinned, just as innocent as a newborn baby. I'll tell you really the truth, in Christ, I am somethin' else. I even had Santa Claus ask to take his picture with me, the other day, in the mall. That was funny. Santa Claus is like, "Can I have my picture with you"? "Eh, sure".

Oh. I don't know. I got something stirring in me. I hope y'all get this, today. When Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished". He was talking about the law. He fulfilled the law. And guess what? We are no longer under the rules and regulations of the Old Testament law, so, stop trying to drag them into your New Testament life. You make rules and regulations for yourself. "I have to pray". "I have to do this". "I have to read the Bible". "I have to, I have to, I have to, I have to". You don't have to do any of that. You get to, and the truth is, you want to. In Ezekiel 36, it says, "I will give you a new heart. I will take the stony hardened heart out of you and give you a heart of flesh," the Amplified says, "Sensitive to the touch of our God, and I will put my spirit within you".

So, two things happen at the new birth. You get a new heart. Old things pass away, and all things are made new, and God gives us his Holy Spirit. I love the fact that he says, "I'll take the hardened stony heart out of you". The law, the Old Testament law came on stone tablets, but now we don't need those stone tablets anymore. You know why? Because the law is written in our hearts. And we know right from wrong. We know, now, we need the teaching of the Word of God, but you know, even without that, we've got a sensing of what's right and what's wrong, because God has written the law in our hearts. Then he's given us his spirit, his Holy Spirit, to teach us how to let him work with us to get what's in us out of us so people can see it. That's all right. Hold on.

I learned in the second service everybody was so quiet. And I thought, "Okay, you guys just be as quiet as you want to: I don't care". There's no more additions that we can make to what Jesus has done for us. He's done everything that ever needed to be done and the Bible says that when he ascended on high, he sat down at the right hand of the father, there to wait for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. Wow. And then, wait! You know what else it says in Ephesians 2:6? "And we are seated in him". Somebody got it! So, you know what that means? I can run this ministry while I'm on vacation. I don't have to worry about the bills. I don't have to worry about what people think of me. I don't have to worry about whether they like me or they don't. You know, all I care about is I'm in Christ. If you don't like me, take it up with him.

See, we get to enter his rest. I get up every day and I do the best I can, not because I think I have to, but because I love the Lord so much, I can hardly stand it. I don't try to do right to get him to love me. He loved me before the foundation of the earth. He loved you before he ever even created the earth. You can never get God to love you any more than he does right now. No matter how much, many more things you do right, he'll never love you anymore because his love is perfect. He loves you, period, end of the conversation. You might as well just accept it. God is not for sale. You can't buy him with good works. I try to be good every day because I love God not to get him to love me. I want you to try to be good, but not to earn something from God. You can't earn your salvation. It was given to you as a free gift by the grace of God. Mmm.

So, you don't have to pay for it either. It's a free gift. You don't have to pay for it by feeling bad about yourself. You don't have to pay for it by guilt. You don't have to pay for it by not enjoying your life. That was another way that I tried to pay for my sins. I would not let myself enjoy my life. I didn't think I deserved to because after all I wasn't good. I hadn't been good that day. I remember, one night, I was laying on the couch watching a movie and I could feel that vague sense of guilt that I was talking to you about earlier. And I finally just, I thought, "God, what is wrong with me? Why do I lay here? Why do I feel guilty"? Movie's clean, the popcorn's low fat, the ice cream's no sugar added. "What am I doing wrong"? He just said, "You feel guilty because you feel like you don't deserve to enjoy yourself".

See, Jesus said, "I came that you might have and enjoy your life and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows". I wonder how many people here are not enjoying their life. And I'm not talking about enjoying a vacation. I'm not talking about enjoying a shopping trip. I'm talkin' about enjoying plain, old, ordinary, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and back to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And do it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and go to work, and go to work, and clean the house, and go to work, and drive the car, and get gas. You know how you do that? You get in Christ, and you stay there.

And you just keep the one commandment he gave you, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength. And in doing that, loving yourself and others, you'll keep all of the commandments that God ever gave". And I wanna tell you something, you haven't had any fun until you start focusing on just loving other people. What our brother said about acts 20:35, "It's more blessed to give than to receive," is 100% true. It is amazing how happy you get when you actually focus on what you can do for other people. I'm so proud of this congregation that 27, did they say, families stepped up to foster children?

This is something God's doing. Because you know what? On the 13th of this month, we've got a chapel, we've got somebody coming. I called my son, I was just, think, you know, the Bible says a lot about orphans and widows. It specifically calls out those two groups of peoples, orphans, and widows. And so, it's people that are lonely. People that are by themselves that have nobody to help them. And so, I try to make sure that we do nursing home ministry and I try to make sure that we, I thought about orphans. I thought, "Well, we've got, you know, a few orphanages around the world, but what about my own city? What can we do for the orphans in our city"?

So, you know, if you really wanna help people, sometimes you gotta get aggressive. You can't wait for, you know, God to come beat you over the head and make you help somebody. You gotta ask a few questions and dig around a little bit. So, I called my son, who's over on missions, and I said, "I want you to contact the orphanages in this city and see what we can do to help 'em. Is there something we can do to help them"?

And so, somebody that works for us met with all the orphanages and we found out all about fostering and this, and that, and something else, and different supplies they needed. And so, we've got a man coming in that represents all the orphanages to talk to our staff. And I hope that some of our employees will want to foster. Do you know that I read...? And this sounds almost impossible, but I read that if one family out of every evangelical church in America would adopt a child, we could completely clear out the foster care system.