Joyce Meyer - How Do I Get Into Heaven? (08/18/2019)
This sermon presents the gospel as a divine exchange: our sin for Christ's righteousness. Using the analogy of marriage and a coat, it illustrates how salvation is received by grace through faith, not earned. The call is for surrender—inviting Jesus in, receiving forgiveness, and beginning a new life as a born-again creation, free from condemnation and empowered by God's love.
The Divine Exchange of Salvation
Now, when I married Dave, I did not have any money. And Dave had a little bit of money. And an amazing thing happened: as soon as I married Dave, all of a sudden, I had money. I didn't have a car, but Dave had a car. And an amazing thing happened. As soon as I said, "I do," the minute that we entered into that marriage union, suddenly I had a car. It wasn't a matter of whether I deserved one. I just got one. Now, you know, when you enter into a relationship with God through Christ, and by the way, let me just say that Jesus did not die so you could have a religion. I think that's the first thing we all have to know.
Religion is often about rules and regulations that we think we have to follow in order to get to God. But true relationship with Him is based on what Jesus did, and us knowing that we can never be good enough to deserve a relationship with God. But when we enter into a relationship with God, it's the greatest exchange in the whole world that takes place. We get to give Him everything we have, which is usually less than nothing. Our worries, our troubles, our agonies, our pain, our miseries, our broken hearts, our sin. And He, in turn, gives us everything that He has and everything that He is.
And He doesn't do it because we're good or because we deserve it. As a matter of fact, He does it because we finally come to the place where we admit what a terrible mess we are without Him. We have a tendency to be very independent. We want to feel like that we've earned and deserved. We grow up learning that system. But in God's economy, everything comes by grace through faith. Even your great faith is not the price that buys the blessings of God. Your faith is the hand that simply receives what Jesus has already paid for.
All Have Sinned, All Can Be Forgiven
Now the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All. Now just think about a power line. If you have a power line coming into your house and it's cut one time, you have no power. If that same power line were cut 2,000 times, it wouldn't make any difference. You still would just have no power. So if you've sinned one time and you've not repented and asked for God's forgiveness, then you have no power. If you've lived a whole lifetime of sin and never repented, then you have no power. So I don't want you to think that you've done too much and you're too bad and it's too late for you because if you've been a sinner for 35, 40, 50 years, and I mean even an especially wicked sinner, you're no worse in God's eyes than somebody who maybe just committed their first sin. The power line has still been cut and only God can restore that power line.
When you're born again, you admit that you're a sinner, you ask God to forgive your sins, and you invite Him to come and live in your heart. You must be willing to turn away from sin. You don't just receive Jesus and kind of tack Him on to your mess like a magic charm. You have to be willing to turn away from sin. You can't do it on your own, but if you're willing to do it, God will help you and He will teach you how to live the way that He wants you to live. When you receive Christ, you never have to solve one of your problems alone. Again, not ever. You never have to feel like you're not loved. You never have to feel like there's nobody to help you because He promises that He will never leave you nor forsake you.
Becoming a New Creation in Christ
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man is in Christ," and that any man means any woman, any boy, any girl, if any man is in Christ, any person is in Christ, "he is a new creature, a new creation all together." You become something totally different, something the world knows nothing about. You're born again. You don't get back in your mother's womb and come out again, but you're born again spiritually. You become a new person inside. And what you have inside, if you feed it and nurture it, will get big enough that it will overcome anything on the outside. You can have more money than anybody in this city and be the most miserable person in this city.
Because no matter what you have, no matter who you know, no matter what your position is, no matter what label is in your clothes or what make of car you drive, if you do not have an intimate relationship with God, if you don't know that you're loved and accepted, if you don't know that, you will never have peace and you'll never have joy. And without that, no life is really worth living. Amen? 2 Corinthians 5:21. "For our sakes, He made Christ virtually to be sin who knew no sin. So that in and through Him we might become endued with, viewed as being in and examples of the righteousness of God, what we ought to be, approved and acceptable in a right relationship with Him."
Trading Your Sin for His Righteousness
Now let me show you how it works. Can I have my coat of sin here? This is my coat of sin. I'm in chains, in bondage. Everything's a mess. It's ripped up. It's filthy dirty. And this is my life. I have this terrible, heavy burden, bondage, no hope, depression, fear, discouragement, despondency, despair, every kind of misery that you can possibly have. And I can keep it unless I'm willing to humble myself and cry out to God and say, "Oh God, help me!" And when I do, something marvelous happens. Dave only gets to play God. Trust me, He's not God. But, come up here, babe. But here's what happens. And I love to do this. I use this example all over the world and people get it.
Because so many people try so hard to be righteous. And they don't realize that they're made righteous. And then they have to learn how to live inside out. So what happens when I say, "God, I'm so sorry for the life that I've lived and I know that I'm a mess without you. And I'm a sinner. And I can't help myself. Would you please help me forgive my sins?" So then I take... He takes my sin. And He gives me His righteousness. Now... Admittedly, it's a little big. And I do this on purpose because the point is, is once God gives you His righteousness, it seems overwhelming to even think about it. But we spend the rest of our walk with God, the rest of our days, growing into what God has already given us to be on the inside. We learn to live inside out. Amen?
Now, anybody who wouldn't want to trade this for what I just gave away would have a big problem. Now, don't you start thinking, "but I'm not good enough." That's the good news. That's why the gospel is called the good news. "Well, what am I going to have to give up, Joyce?" Misery, wretchedness, worry, guilt, condemnation, self-hatred, self-rejection, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, all the things that kill people. All the things that steal the life that Jesus died to give you. And here's the thing that you have to understand. I'm not going to tell you that there won't be some things that God's going to ask you to walk away from.
God's Grace Changes You Gradually
But I will tell you this. He'll do it in a way that will be doable for you. It won't come all at one time. So don't listen to all the religious people who try to tell you everything you got to do now that you're saved. You got to change your hairstyle. You got to change your clothes. You got to get rid of this and get rid of that. You can't talk like that anymore. And you can't do this and you can't do that. You let God deal with you. You get good teaching. Let the Word of God convict you. Let the Holy Spirit convict you. Because He knows how to fix whatever's wrong in your life. And He'll do it one thing at a time. Then another thing. Then another thing. Then another thing. And I can promise you, you won't run out of things. I haven't run out yet.
But when you understand that there's no condemnation to those who really love God, you don't have to feel bad about everything you do wrong. You just get more excited every time God shows you something because then you're like, wow, another thing God's going to change in my life. And it gets to be exciting. God loves you. And that's what you're looking for anyway. Unconditional love. Somebody to love you the way you are. Accept you the way you are. And then you will respond to that love by wanting to be what they want you to be. But you get the love first. You get the righteousness first. Your account can have "paid in full" stamped on it tonight.
A Call to Surrender Tonight
So now, there are hopefully millions of people watching by TV all around the world. And this is not just for the people here in Albany, New York, but this is for you. I want you to respond to this altar call tonight the same as I want the people in this room to. Do you want to trade your sin for His righteousness? Do you want to trade your misery for His peace? Do you want to know that you have a future? Do you want to have a best friend that will never leave you nor forsake you? Do you want to have wisdom itself come to live on the inside of you? So when you need to make a decision, you're just not making a dumb one off the top of your head. But you've actually got a source, a resource on the inside of you that you can seek direction from in your life.
Remember, no matter how many times the power line's been cut, it's still cut. Unless you ask God to forgive you. And the moment you do that, He will. So whether you're here in this building tonight, or you're somewhere watching by television, or you're on the web somewhere around the world. If you've never received Christ as your Savior, you've never invited Him to come into your life, you've never come to that point of saying, "I am a miserable sinner, and God, I do need you, I cannot help myself," then you need to surrender tonight. And that's really what it's all about. It's about surrender. It's about letting God get in the driver's seat of your life. It's about you discontinuing trying to run the show, and telling God what all your plans are. It's you giving Him the reins, and saying, "You lead, and I'll follow."
Renewal and True Faith
If you're backslidden, you've tried to serve God, you didn't really understand even what happened, but you fell back into sin, and the devil's been lying to you and telling you God would not have you back, then tonight you can renew your relationship with God and never lose it again. And then lastly, I just want to say a little word to what I call the religious people in the world. People who do probably go to church, and you have a certain kind of love for God, but you have mistakenly thought that your relationship with God was more based on what you did than what He's already done. If somebody says, "Are you a Christian?" The only answer you can say, to be one, is to say, "Yes. I have received Jesus Christ as my Savior. He has forgiven my sins, and I am a wretched mess without Him. Every day of my life, I depend on Him." Amen?
And you should go to church, but you don't need to brag about it. You should serve, but you don't need to brag about it. You should give, but you don't need to brag about it. You should pray, but you don't need to brag about it. Because none of that makes you any better than anybody else. Your only worth and value is in who you are in Christ. So if God's talking to you tonight through my voice, and you say, "I'm ready to make that commitment, Joyce," I want you to stand up right where you're at, nice and bold. Do not be cowardly or sneaky. We're not going to sneak into the kingdom of God. We're going to be bold about it. Thank you, sir. Come on. Up, up, up, all over the building. Get up on your feet. Get up on your feet. Hallelujah. Amen.