Joyce Meyer - 3030 Challenge Questions And Answers (08/17/2019)
This sermon focuses on the transformative power of truly studying God's Word, based on John 8:31-32. The speaker argues that freedom comes not just from reading scripture, but from abiding in it and applying it. She challenges listeners to a 30-day, 30-minute daily study commitment, promising it will change their lives.
The Life-Changing Power of God's Word
You know, the Bible, which is really why we're all here, right? I mean, you know, we really are here about the Word of God. And worshiping Jesus, who is the Word made flesh. And I can truly say that the words in this book, the living words in this book, have completely, dramatically changed my life. And they have definitely healed what was a very wounded and broken soul. And one of the first scriptures that I recall really seeing, you know, I've been looking at the Bible for a long time, but you know, you can look at the Bible and not really see anything that's in it. It was John 8, 31 and 32, which says, If you continue in My Word, then you are My disciples and you will know the truth. And the truth will make you free. But in the Amplified Bible, I like what it says. It says, So then Jesus said to the Jews, those who had believed in Him, If you abide in My Word, hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them. Not just if you read the Word, or even just if you hear the Word, but if you hear the Word, if you study the Word, if you live in it, if it becomes part of you, and if you begin to guide your life by what it says in here.
And you know, there's a lot of people who honestly never get around to that. And if you happen to be one of them, then I hope that you're going to make a great change tonight. Because before you can have a change of life, you have to have a change of mind. We have to always recognize kind of like where we're at before we can get to the next place that we want to be. And I do this because I want to see people's lives changed. I want to see people be all they can be to glorify God. And I really want to see people have everything that Jesus died to give them. And I think sometimes we are so wealthy in so many spiritual things, and yet we live in such spiritual poverty, far below the level of people who are referred to by God as kings and priests unto God. And I believe that God has shown me just even recently what part of the real problem is about why there's so few people that really are truly free. And I believe it's because we read the Word, but we don't really study the Word.
Now when I say we, that's not everybody. You know, many of you have studied the Word for a lot of years. I've studied the Word for a lot of years, and that's why the Word has changed me. But I went for years reading a chapter of the Bible every day out of duty and obligation. And I'm concerned that a lot of people do that. We hear, read the Word, read the Word, read the Word, almost like it's an obligation for believers to read a little bit of the Word every day just so they can satisfy God and say that they've put their little bit of time in. Is anybody tracking with me? You know what I'm talking about. And yet how many after they've read their chapter or five or six or whatever it happens to be can tell you anything at all that they've learned? And even worse than that, how many people really go to the Word of God to really learn something and having already decided that what they understand from the Word they're going to, with God's help, apply to their life?
In other words, how many people even come to something like this and think, I can't wait to get over there and hear what God wants to say to me about my life and whatever God shows me, I'm willing to do it? You know, you can be as close to God as you want to be, but it's going to take some time. We all know that relationships, good relationships require time. You can't have a good relationship with anybody if you don't put some time into it. And I know that when I approach this subject that there are lots of people who have all kinds of excuses for not spending that time studying the Word. But I hope tonight, if you're one of those people with excuses, you're too busy, you're this, you're that, you're something else. Even the excuse, well, I try to read the Word, but I don't understand it.
You know what? If you will really lay aside all excuses and say, God, I'm going to study Your Word. I'm going to put You first, and I'm going to study Your Word. You know, 30 days, 30 minutes a day. Of course, why just 30 days? Well, because I figure if I can get you to do it for 30 days, for 30 minutes a day, you'll get such benefit out of it that after that, you would never quit. So all I'm really trying to do is challenge people to just go on like a sort of a word fast and say, I'm going to put this first in my life, and I'm going to fast this 30 minutes a day unto God. I'm going to put it before TV. I'm going to put it before whatever, before sleeping late in the morning. I'm going to put it before doing anything else that I do. I'm going to just give God that 30 minutes, because after all, He did give me His only Son that I could be set free and forgiven of my sins.
And really, in reality, let me say that differently. You're not even giving it to God. You're giving it to yourself. It's a gift to you. We don't need to read this for God. He already knows everything in it. We don't study this to, you know, to teach God something. We study it for Him to teach us something. I'm not going to embarrass anybody here tonight and say, how many of you really don't study the Word? I already know that a large majority of people don't study the Word. That doesn't mean you don't love God. But you know, you can love God all your life and still never have any victory. Do you know that? You can love God. You can just love God. You just love Him so much, you just want to pop. And yet, you can still never really have any victory in your life. Because this is where it comes from. If you continue in my Word, you will know the truth. And the truth will make you free. Come on, give it a big shout if you believe what I'm saying.
Answering Your Questions About Bible Study
Some of our media crew has gone around and taken some questions from many of you out there. And I'm going to spend about 20 minutes here trying to answer some of those questions. I don't know what they are. So you can pray for me now that I've got the answers. But we do this on TV sometimes on different subjects. And so we're going to let you help us get this ready for our little 30-30 challenge on TV. How many of you would like to help us get something ready for TV and learn something at the same time, okay? Well, so Ginger's going to come out and she's going to do what she does for me on TV. She's going to ask me questions.
Ginger Stache: Hi, everyone. Well, I may be just a little biased because I'm an Indiana girl. But I do get to ask Joyce a lot of questions, and I think this crowd has the best questions we've seen in a long time. Good, great. So, yeah. We have a lot of good questions. And I love how honest and transparent these questions are. So the first one is from Mike in Columbus, Indiana. And he says, "How is what the prophets and Paul and everyone taught so many years ago relevant to my life today?"
Joyce Meyer: Well, because really everything that's in the Word of God is there for a reason. God wouldn't put anything in there that's not relevant to us today. And much of what we see in the Old Testament is a type and a foreshadow of what Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament. And I'm going to admit to you that there are things in the Old Testament that are more difficult for me to understand. I still have a challenge getting through the "begats" and some of the things that are in there and some of the legalistic things. I'm going like, "You what? Why? Huh?" You know? But I study it believing that it's going to minister something to me. I probably spend more time in Psalms and Proverbs and in the New Testament even than I do in the Old. But there's great things in Genesis and great things in Deuteronomy and Numbers. And I mean, there's just wonderful things in the prophets. And because some of those things are a little bit more difficult to understand, I just bought a whole series of 14 books by a great Bible teacher that's not even alive anymore. And my next book to study is all of the minor prophets because I want to have greater understanding in that area too. And so really the truth is, if you don't understand something, there's plenty of good quality help out there in books and CDs and DVDs that can help you get the information that you want to have. But everything in here is relevant to our, really to our everyday life.
Ginger Stache: Alright. Nicole asks, "The Bible can actually be quite overwhelming just to tackle it start to finish. So what is a better way to tackle studying this book?"
Joyce Meyer: Well, I think that Psalms are pretty easy for everybody to understand. They're very comforting. Proverbs are pretty easy to understand. And you can read one chapter of Proverbs and Yana said you can get 15 lessons out of one chapter in Proverbs. That sometimes can be good and sometimes not, because there's so much in each one of the chapters of Proverbs that probably by the time you get to the end, you've forgotten what you learned in the beginning. One of the things that I'm going to be encouraging people to do is to take a chapter, and it'll take you 30 minutes probably to get through a chapter if you really study it the way I want you to study it. And that's really just going to be... going to this and saying, "God, now I want to get something out of this for my life. I want you to show me something here that I can apply to my life today." And I'm going to suggest that people keep a notebook and they just jot down the things that really stand out to them. I've done that with Psalms. I've done it with Proverbs. I find for me that writing things down helps me get it in me. And I even do it in longhand. I mean, I'm sure a lot of you would rather use your computer, but I do it in longhand because it helps me get it in me. So Proverbs are good. Psalms are good. The New Testament is usually easier. The Gospels are easier for people to understand. It's all about Jesus. But one of my fondest and most loving places in the Word, and probably where I spend a large majority of my time, is the Epistles. Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, Galatians. I love those. You know why? Because they are practical instructions for my everyday life. It's pretty clear. Do this and be blessed. Do that and have a problem. Do this and be blessed. Do that and have a problem. Honestly, the whole book is just a recorded record of people's lives who did what God told them to do, and their life worked out good, and people who didn't do what God told them to do, and life worked out bad. Dave's been studying 1 and 2 Kings, and he came to me the other day. He said, "I cannot get over how dumb some of these kings were." He said, "It is absolutely amazing some of the ridiculous things that they did," because you could see very clearly that as long as they were worshiping God and not idols, and as long as they were doing what God asked them to do... And you know what? That's not even being perfect. It's just basically having a heart that says, "I want to do what God wants me to do. I'm going to make an effort to put God first." We don't have to try to be perfect, because Jesus died for imperfect people. We do the best we can, and we know that He's going to help us be what we're not. He's going to stand as an intercessor in our place. And so really, it's just amazing what you get out of here. The thing you need to do is not give up. Don't read something that you don't understand, and then say, "Well, I don't understand that, and so I'm just going to quit and give up." You need to get into areas that you *can* understand. The book of John is a great place to start. Matter of fact, when I taught my very first Bible study, very first time, there were 12 people there, and it was kind of funny, because I was an office manager where I worked, and I invited all the people that worked for me, which was 12 of them, not realizing they were afraid not to come. And so, I thought I was having a great success, but I went to my pastor—I was in the Lutheran Church at that time—and I said, "If you were going to teach a Bible study, where would you start?" And he said, "The book of John." So I took John chapter 1, verse 1, and went at it. And you know what? I didn't have a clue what I was doing. But if you really, really, really want to learn the Word, God will teach you by the Holy Spirit.
Ginger Stache: Okay. Another really good question. Amanda says, "I'm a new Christian, and I'm so hungry," which is great to hear. "But I just don't know how to study the Bible. So what would you suggest? I know you just mentioned John. That's a great place for a new Christian. Anything else for a new Christian, starting at the beginning?"
Joyce Meyer: Well, if you start in John, you're probably going to stay busy for quite a while. You know, 99 times in the book of John, he talks about believing. And so as a new believer, one of the things that's very good for you to do is just approach this like you're going to believe everything in it. Not have some kind of selective theory about what you're going to believe and what you're going to not. But if God said it, I believe it. If He said, "Give and it shall be given unto you," I believe it. If He said, "You're going to reap what you sow," I believe it. If He says "the merciful are blessed," I believe it. If you are hungry, really hungry to learn, and you won't make silly excuses like, "I can't understand the Word, I don't have time..." If you'll go to it and say, "God, I am... I'm trusting you to teach me. The Holy Spirit, I'm a teacher, the Holy Spirit is the teacher," and He will teach you the Word and give you understanding. And another good thing to do for a young believer is get in a good Word-preaching church and get in a good small group Bible study where you have room to ask some questions and really learn and grow.
Ginger Stache: That's great. That's good. All right, Natasha says, "I have a lot of doubts right now in my life. I just don't know how to hear from God clearly in the midst of the chaos of a crumbling marriage. My attention is divided, so how can I focus during this difficult time?"
Joyce Meyer: If you have a lot of problems in your life, certainly the enemy wants to use those to keep you from finding the answers and the comfort that you need in the Word of God. We not only get instruction in the Word of God, but we receive comfort in the Word of God. It's pretty obvious that when the psalmist David wrote the Psalms, that he was writing them out of great agony of soul. And he was talking about how God comforted him in his turmoil. And so I would say that no matter what is going on in your life, if you take just this 30 minutes a day—and I'm, you know, please understand, I'm not saying 30 minutes is any kind of a law. I don't believe in trying to tell people what they have to do and how they go about studying. I'm just telling you, this is just a challenge to get you started. But if you will set aside that 30 minutes a day and go to God and say, "You know what, I've got a mess in my life right now. To be honest, God, I don't even feel like I can focus long enough to hear from you. But I don't care if you do nothing else but say, 'God, I'm going to sit here and look at ink on white pages until you give me some kind of revelation.'" I'm going to be diligent to do this and God is faithful and He will meet you right where you're at. The enemy is using your problems to try to keep you from the very answer that you need.
Ginger Stache: Okay. Bobby Joe would like to know, "So many things are happening in my life. I'm very busy—my job, my marriage—and I just can't seem to make the time to dedicate to spend with God. So what do I cut out?"
Joyce Meyer: Well, you don't cut out the marriage or the job, but you cut out anything before you cut out God because none of the rest of it is going to work if you cut out God. You know, God is not a sideline. He's a mainline. He is everything that we need. And I fought that same battle, the same as everybody else in here has. And for many years, even as a woman in ministry, I was rather proud of myself that I was working for God, but one morning I heard the Lord speak to me. I was actually driving my car, I was parking in my parking place at the office getting ready to go into the church where I work. And I heard the Lord speak to my heart very clearly, and He said, "You're so proud that you're working for me, but you're not spending any time with me." And so see, even doing church work, even doing good deeds does not replace that time spent with God. I actually believe that when we give God time, it's one of the greatest honors that we can give Him. And perhaps in this society more than any other, because everybody is so busy, but you know what? If you're too busy, let me share with you what God told me. "Joyce, don't complain about your schedule. You're the one who made it, and if you don't like it, you're the only one that can change it." Amen? And I prefer to spend my time in the Word first. Not everybody can do that. If you've got young children, that may be difficult for you to get out of bed before the first one starts crying and go spend 30 minutes in the Word. But I'll tell you what, if I were you, I would be so hungry for the Word... if you had to pay a babysitter an hour a week, or an hour twice a week to come and give you time to study the Word. You know, we'll pay a babysitter to go out and eat. We'll pay a babysitter to go to a party. Why not pay a babysitter to come and give you time to spend with God? I mean, we need to be desperate to learn what we need to learn and to honor God first in our life. And I'll just tell you, I fought this same battle, and it's kind of too long for me to... And this is what God said to me. It might be a little severe for you guys, but you know, I'm... because of all the people I'm teaching, I mean, the devil hates my guts. And he would love anything to just do me in. And God just told me, "You cannot do what you're doing and even stay alive if you don't spend time with me."
Ginger Stache: Deanna would like to know, "How do I get God's Word from my head to my heart? And really start applying what I see."
Joyce Meyer: By studying. Reading gives it to your head. Studying gets it down in your heart. How do you get the nutrition out of your food? You chew it. You don't swallow it whole. If you swallow it whole, it chokes you. You don't get any nutrition out of it. We're told to chew our food and chew it well. And a good nutritionist will even tell you to eat it slowly and chew it slowly. Well, when you meditate on the Word, and just in case you wonder, meditation is not some kind of an offbeat, eastern religion word. The devil stole that from the kingdom of God. The Bible says all over the Bible to meditate on the Word. And that means to roll something over and over and over in your mind and ponder it and think about it and think about how it applies to your life and think about how things would change if you put that into action in your life. And now somebody is saying, "Well, I don't understand how to meditate." How many of you know how to worry? Well, if you know how to worry, then you know how to meditate. When you worry, you're meditating on a problem. And when you apply that same principle of going over it and over it and over it and over it... talk to friends about it. Instead of gossiping about somebody at lunch, find another believer and talk about what you're studying in the Word with somebody else and ask them what they think of that and what they get out of that. The more time you put into the Word, the more you're gonna understand it and the more you're gonna get it into your heart. And go to God and ask the Holy Spirit to grant you revelation. Pray for that revelation. We don't need information. We need revelation.
Ginger Stache: That's great. Final quick question because I think this is so important. And they didn't even want to give their name, but I think it's just so sweet and transparent. And it says, "I don't feel as though I'm smart enough to study and dig really deep. How deep is enough?" And we don't have to be scholars for God's Word to seep into our heart, do we?
Joyce Meyer: I love it because basically the Bible even teaches us that. You don't have to be... You know, there's a difference in head smarts or brains and wisdom. And every child of God is made wise through Jesus Christ being on the inside of them. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1 that Christ is our wisdom from God. And you have wisdom on the inside of you and that beats any number of degrees that you can get. And there's a lot of people that maybe never even graduated from high school, but they have got wisdom and they can understand the Word of God. I believe the enemy is lying to you and telling you that you are not smart enough to understand the Word. Actually, the Word is extremely, extremely simple. You reap what you sow. Give what you want to get. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Believe like a little child. Come to him like a little child. Pray. Ask God for what you want. He'll meet your needs. It's really very simple. I think the enemy is lying to you and so we rebuke him in the name of Jesus. And I declare that you can learn the Word of God. Amen.