Joyce Meyer - The Anointing (08/19/2019)
This sermon delves into the meaning of the anointing, based on 1 John 2:20 & 27, explaining it as the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer. While the anointing is a free gift, its full release requires a price: the breaking of our self-will through obedience. The preacher concludes that radical favor and power flow when we desire God's presence above all and obey Him promptly.
Christ is the Anointed One and the Anointing
Christ is the anointed one and He is the anointing. The Holy Spirit anoints us with the presence of God. There's nothing more valuable than the presence of God in your life. The word anoint means to smear or to rub all over with. And so, I love that we're anointed with the Holy Spirit because really what that means is that we are just rubbed in and smeared all over with the Holy Ghost. Woo-hoo! Amen. You know, I put a little perfume on me before I left tonight and so that's got a little smell and if I walk by you, you might go, you know, but when you're anointed with the Holy Spirit, woo, when you're anointed with the Holy Spirit, there's something about you that's different.
And the stronger that anointing is, the more people notice that there's something different about you, but they don't maybe know what it is. It doesn't mean that you act weird or you get super religious or you float around on a cloud. It just means that something is different about you. Now, people can kind of tell. You got some character. You got some honesty. You're one of those people that keep your word. And you know what happens when you're anointed? You begin to see radical favor in your life. I mean, God begins to open doors for you that you could not possibly open yourself.
Now, in one way, the anointing is a free gift from God that comes by His grace and mercy. But in another way, there is a price to pay for that anointing. So maybe I could explain it to you like this. There is an anointing that abides in us. Let's look at 1 John 2, 20. But you have been anointed. You hold a sacred appointment. Doesn't say you might get anointed someday if you try real hard. It says you have been anointed. You hold a sacred appointment from and you have been given an unction. I like that word unction. That's like a holy ghost oomph. Everybody in the building just go. It's kind of just that.
Don't know how to explain it, but there it is. So you have been given an unction from the Holy One and you all know the truth. Or you know all things. Let's look at verse 27. But as for you, the anointing, the sacred appointment, the unction which you received from Him abides permanently in you. So it's in you. If you're born again, you are anointed. It is in you. And it abides permanently in you. It's not going to go away. It's there. So then you have no need that anyone should instruct you, but just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is true and is not false, you must abide in, live in, never depart from Him, being rooted in Him, knit to Him, just as His anointing has taught you to do.
How the Inner Anointing Guides You
Now when it says that you don't need to be taught, it doesn't mean that you don't need to be taught like this. It means that you don't need somebody telling you all the time how to run your life, because you have God on the inside of you, leading you and guiding you. The anointing will lead you. The Bible says that in Romans 8 that we are no longer led by the law. We're no longer have a relationship with the law because Jesus fulfilled the law and He died to the law. And when He died, we died. But now we have a brand new way that we live.
We are led by the promptings, by the gentle promptings and urges by the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And what He's talking about, once again, is that anointing that's in you. When there's an anointing, you'll feel peace. When there's an anointing, you will feel joy. When you're following the anointing, you'll do the wise thing. You won't do the emotional thing, you'll do the wise thing. More than anything, we need to protect, yes I said protect, the anointing that's on our life. Now, the anointing is in us, it's been given as a gift, it comes at the new birth.
So how can I say, well, there is a price to pay for the anointing? Well, you remember the woman who came to Jesus with the alabaster box of sweet perfume, and she broke open the box, she broke it and poured out the sweet perfume. Well, just as that jar had to be broken for the oil to be poured out, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the oil of the Holy Spirit that's in us, requires that we allow this clay jar to be broken. So what's in us can be poured out and be a benefit to other people.
What Must Be Broken for the Anointing to Flow?
And one of the things that must be broken in us is rebellion and stubbornness. And independence. And pride. And probably three or four hundred other things. How many of you understand what I'm saying? That whatever is in us, whatever's in me doesn't do you any good if I can't, if God can't get it from in me to you. And the vehicle that carries it is my soul. It's my mind, my will, my emotions. We don't have a spirit problem if we're born again. We've got a soul problem. It's what the Apostle Paul called carnality. And that word actually means a carnal Christian follows animal impulses.
Paul put it like this. He said, you follow ordinary impulses. Follow your own thoughts, your own mind, your own will, the crowd. Just kind of do what you want to. Do you know how many people there are that march off to church every Sunday and spend the whole rest of their life doing exactly what they want to do? Millions. It's sad. It's sad indeed. But we don't have to be like that. And thankfully, with all the word that's available to so many people today, people are learning every single day the importance of growing up, maturing in Christ, and being what God wants them to be.
So we have an anointing, and we need to learn not to dare try to do anything without that anointing. Saul had to be anointed before he could be king. And the Bible says about him that when the Spirit of God came on him, he was turned into another man. Do you know when the Spirit of God comes on you, you can be completely turned in to something that will absolutely shock and amaze not only everybody else but you. Just amaze you, the things that God will anoint or enable you or equip you to do. If the word anoint sounds too spiritual for you, it just means enablement. It means equipment.
It's a gifting that comes to you to be able to do something that you don't naturally know how to do. It's the greatest thing in the world, to watch God use you or to use somebody else that you know full well does not have the ability to do what they're doing in the natural. It's beautiful. And by the way, we're not just anointed for spiritual things. Now please listen to me. We're not just anointed to preach. We're not just anointed to lead worship. We're not just anointed as evangelists. You have to have an anointing for anything that you do in life.
You Need God's Anointing for Every Role
You better cry out to God for an anointing to be a parent. You better cry out to God for an anointing to be a husband or a wife. You cry out to God if you have a business. You better have an anointed business if you want that business to succeed. So there's an anointing for everything. God anoints people for business. He anoints people for organization. He anoints people for helps. I mean, there are some people that just, they're so anointed for help. I mean, all they want to do is help somebody. David was anointed. Saul was anointed. Saul lost his anointing, but David didn't lose his.
We read this morning about how Saul disobeyed God. He thought he obeyed God, but he didn't really obey God. He gave a sacrifice instead of the true offering that God asked him to give. God told him to kill the Amalekites and everything there, the sheep, the oxen, the men, the women, the babies, everything. Well, that, he just like couldn't wrap his head around that. There was a lot of good stuff there. So he decided to just keep the good stuff and get rid of the bad stuff. And then he tried to tell God that he had done what he said that he had done.
Then he went out and was so proud of himself that he built a monument to himself. And God said, I regret making you king. Well, then he anointed David to be king. Remember, you've got to have an anointing. Well, then he put David in Saul's house and Saul spent the next, I don't know how many years, throwing spears at David trying to kill him. When he lost the anointing on his life, or when that anointing was blocked and he was no longer able to use it, he just went basically totally wacko. Just weird as he could get. And he was constantly throwing spears at David.
David kept his anointing, however, because no matter how many spears Saul threw at him, he never learned how to throw spears back. Hmm. Come on, where are you guys at? I said he never learned how to throw spears back. Some of you need to give up spear throwing. When somebody throws a spear at you, and you know what I'm talking about, when somebody hurts you, and somebody talks about you, and somebody doesn't treat you right, you need to not give them what they've given you, you need to treat them the way Jesus tells you to treat them. Well, that's hard. No, that's obedience. No, that's not hard. That's obedience.
The Key to Releasing Your Anointing
And that's what breaks the alabaster box, because it's not easy for our flesh. That breaks open that alabaster box, and then that anointing can be poured out that is in you. When I learned how to be submissive to my husband and stop talking back to him, even though I still did not want to do everything he told me to do, nor did I always think he was right, I learned to disagree agreeably, and to be respectful, and to not go yakking to all my girlfriends about everything that went on, you know, everything I didn't like about Dave, and you're not going to believe it, he's out playing golf again, and yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, yam. Come on, ladies.
Well, you know, I just need to vent. Well, you better be careful that you don't have more vents on your head than you got anything else. Don't let all the wisdom go out of your vents along with all your other venting. So when I got enough sense to know that there was anointing of my life, but it was being restrained until I became more responsible, it's not that I wasn't experiencing any of it, but I didn't have the fullness of the power of God in my life that I wanted to have because there were things that God was asking me to do that I so far was not willing to do.
I remember one day praying for my ministry to grow, and I'll tell you what I was after. Oh, God, I rebuke the devil in Jesus' name. You've called me to something much bigger than doing these little Bible studies, God. God, I pray that my ministry would grow. Oh, God, I pray that my ministry would grow. And I heard just as sweetly and gently, you know, God don't always yell at you. Now, I guess he knows how to if he needs to, but, you know, he's gentle. And you just sometimes have these little whispers in your soul. It's just like, yeah, I know, I know, I know.
And I just, just as gentle, the Lord just said, now Joyce, until you do what I've told you to concerning your husband. I cannot do anything else in your ministry. Oh. Now, come on, let me ask you a question. Let's get honest. Are you waiting on God, or is God waiting on you? Well, I'm just waiting on God for my breakthrough. Well, maybe honestly and truly, God's waiting on you. Well, I don't know what God wants me to do. I haven't heard anything for the last five years. Well, have you done the last thing He told you five years ago when you did hear something? Hmm.
Is God Waiting on Your Obedience?
Boy, this Friday night crowd, you're not very feisty. I don't know. You know, in Haggai, there's a story about people that God had told them to rebuild the temple and 18 years had gone by and they were still busy building their own houses. It's interesting because it says in Haggai that they just felt like people that everything that they had, it was like putting money in bags with holes in it. You ever said, I don't understand, man. Every time I get a little something, the devil takes it away from me. Hey, nothing ever works out for me. Well, sometimes we just need to ask God if we're doing what He's asking us to do. Hello.
You know, when God asks you for one thing, don't try to give Him something else. God told Saul, He said, you're giving me a sacrifice and I don't want to sacrifice. I want obedience. So let's just imagine that Dave and I were at the mall shopping and I saw a bracelet and my birthday was coming up and I said, man, I really like that bracelet. Kind of hinting, you know, that would be something. You could get me for my birthday if you wanted to. Well, so he's looking around and he says, well, you know, I like this other one better and I noticed, well, it's a little cheaper too. No wonder you like it. Well... Which Dave wouldn't be like that.
He's very generous, but this is just a made-up story. So, well, no, no, yeah, that one's pretty, but I like this one better. Well, he says, I like that one better. I said, well, yeah, but, you know, I like this one better. It's my birthday. I like this one. So, let's just suppose that a couple of months go by and he comes home with, I got you something. It's something you saw. And I can tell by the... And I open it up and it's the bracelet he liked. How many of you know that would not make mama happy? How many of you don't like it?
Now, I don't know about you, I like my meat cooked. I want it dead when I get it. I don't want it bleeding. I want it dead. So, I order well-done meat and a lot of chefs just almost will not cook well-done meat. They're just... So, they bring it to you the way they want you to have it. Well, that aggravates me. Don't give me what you want me to have, give me what I ask for. Amen? So, how many of you think that God is probably the same way? Don't give me what you want me to give me. God is saying tonight, don't give me what you want to give me, give me what I've asked for and do it quickly and promptly without arguing. Amen.
Jesus' Path to a Powerful Anointing
The anointing. Luke 4, 14. Let's take a look at it. Then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the Holy Spirit into Galilee and the fame of Him spread throughout the whole region roundabout. Interesting thing happened to Jesus before He began His public ministry. And some of you, how many of you want to be used by God? Okay. I hope you all do. Well, before Jesus began His public ministry, a couple different things happened. One, He was tested in the wilderness. Led out there by the Holy Ghost where He spent 40 days and nights being tested and tried in every way that you could be tested and tried by the enemy.
At the end of that time of testing, the Bible says, when the entire cycle of temptation had ended, the devil went away to wait for a more opportune time. Hello? That means He's not ever going to completely go away. He'll leave you alone for a while and then try to find an open door and come back again. The very next thing that happened was what I just read to you. Then Jesus went out full of power, full of the Holy Ghost and the fame of Him spread like wildfire. Why? Because now He had obeyed God, He'd spent those years learning, He grew in the Word of God, He grew in wisdom, He grew in stature, He was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit came on Him, He was tested by the enemy and came out, every one of them tried and pure as gold.
Then He became full of the power of the Holy Ghost and went out to do what God had called Him to do. We cannot be full of the Holy Ghost and His power and do what we want to do all the time. I started last night and I said, how many people in the building have an area of known disobedience in your life? An area that you know God is dealing with you about and you're still just resisting and being stubborn. I only saw about five or six hands that didn't go up. Now that's sad. And I don't mean that under condemnation, I'm just saying it so we can locate ourselves and see why we're not seeing the power in the church that we need to see.
Power is connected to obedience. Anointing is released when the alabaster box or the clay jar is broken and we get rid of our selfish, self-centeredness and our independent attitude before God. Boy, some of you are doing some thinking, man. This kind of preaching gets on your nerves because now you're thinking, oh man. Couldn't you just talk to me tonight about love and mercy? The anointing part would have been okay but you've got to talk about that jar-breaking thing. Do we have to talk about that? That alabaster, brock box, clay jar-breaking thing. I don't want to, let's just, could you get on to something else.
The Attitude That Carries the Anointing
Philippians 2, 5. Let this same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Let him be your example in humility. What's an example in humility? When he was reviled and abused, he did not revile and abuse in return. He never gave people back what they gave him. He always remained the same. And I believe that God is calling the body of Christ to stop letting the way people act dictate their behavior. Did you hear me? I believe that God is calling us to get to the point where we stop letting what other people do dictate our behavior.
Jesus never changed no matter what anybody else did. And there's power in that. When other people cannot control your attitude and your mood and your behavior, you are one of the most powerful people on the planet. Come on. There's no power at all in somebody else being a smart aleck with you and all of a sudden you come right down to their level to get them back. That's not what God wants from us. He didn't give us the power of the Holy Spirit so we could just react emotionally. Let's continue in Philippians 2 who although being essentially one with God and in the form of God possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God Jesus is God.
He's not just like another person. He's one of the three parts of the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God manifested in three different persons. So when He came here it was God in Christ coming to redeem us. So here God comes. He comes in the form of God having all the attributes that make one God and yet He still chose to humble Himself under the mighty hand of God and let those people beat Him and crucify Him and spit on Him and accuse Him falsely. Well no, that don't sound like much fun but let's just wait here a minute and see what happens.
But He stripped Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity so as to assume the guise of a servant and a slave in that He became like men and was born a human being. Do you know Jesus becoming a human being would be like you or I deciding to go be an ant or even a bug that's smaller than that and that's not even a good example. And after He appeared in human form He abased and humbled Himself still further and carried His what? His what? What He is. One more time His what? What He is. Oh you mean... Here's what He wanted. He wanted to obey His Father He did not want to suffer and die. And He wanted to obey His Father more than He didn't want to suffer and die. Amen?
Loving God More Than Your Own Will
When you love God more than the thing you're holding on to you'll be able to give up the thing. Come on now. I said when you love God more than you love the thing you're holding on to then you can walk away from the thing. We have to come to the point where we will do anything other than not have God in our lives. You will be you will be blown away by what God will do through you for you in you if you will seek Him more than you seek anything else. Christ is the anointed one and He is the anointing. The Holy Spirit anoints us with the presence of God.
There's nothing more valuable than the presence of God in your life. The word anoint means to smear or to rub all over with. And so I love that we're anointed with the Holy Spirit because really what that means is that we are just rubbed in and smeared all over with the Holy Ghost. Woo-hoo! Amen. You know I put a little perfume on me before I left tonight and so that's got a little smell and if I walk by you you might go you know but when you're anointed with the Holy Spirit woo! When you're anointed with the Holy Spirit there's something about you that's different and the stronger that anointing is the more people notice that there's something different about you but they don't maybe know what it is that doesn't mean that you act weird or you get super religious or you float around in a cloud it just means that something is different about you people can kind of tell you you got some character you got some honesty you're one of those people that keep your word and you know what happens when you're anointed?
When you're anointed, you begin to see radical favor in your life. I mean, God begins to open doors for you that you could not possibly open yourself. I don't want to do anything to harm God's anointing on my life, because to be honest with you, that's pretty much about all I got. I'm not really all that bright in myself. And I have some senior moments now in my life. The other day, I was in my TV studio, and I wear a microphone in there, you know, for the recording, and I was back in the back room trying to plug my microphone into my telephone. I do some unusual stuff these days. But thank God I'm anointed.
Depending on the Anointing, Not Programs
I'm anointed. I might lose some other stuff as the years go by, but thank God I'm anointed, and that anointing will always bring me through when push comes to shove. We need more teaching on the anointing. You know, we got great music, and I got a nice outfit, and we got nice media presentations, and oh, I tell you, we just work hard to make this a nice experience for you. But you know what? It's all just a bunch of nonsense if nobody's got the anointing. We don't need a slick program, and a fancy bulletin. I mean, it's okay to have them, but we can't let our dependence get on them.
Our dependence has to be on God and God alone. God, if you don't help me, I am gonna make one big mess today. I cannot raise these kids, God, without your help. I cannot be a good wife without your help. I cannot manage a business without your help. I cannot get through school without your help. I actually encourage people, I haven't done this for a while, but I encourage you, and this is just an encouragement, not laying down a new rule, but maybe ask God to help you when you first get out of bed in the morning. Just kind of do it like this. God help me today. It doesn't even have to be long. God help me today. I can't do it, I can't do anything without you. I need you.
Right away in the morning, get that fresh presence of God on your life. You will be, you will be blown away by what God will do through you, for you, in you, if you will seek Him more than you seek anything else. Let me tell you something. We need to walk away from anything that's keeping us separated from God. I mean, Jesus said, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. If your arm offends you, whack it off. And he was, it sounds violent, but he was making a point. If there's something in your life that is between me and you, then you deal with it violently. Don't you put up with it. Don't patty cake with it. Don't nursemaid with it. You just get rid of it so you can fully and completely belong to me.
Well, Joyce, it's hard. I'm going to have me a Holy Ghost fit up here. Quit saying, it's hard. It's so hard. It's so hard. No, what's hard is what we're doing. What's hard, there's nothing more frightening to me than staying the same. Nothing frightens me anymore than to think that there's nowhere to go. Let me tell you something. When you're hopeless, your soul is full of darkness. When you have hope, your soul is full of light. The anointing, the anointing, the anointing, the anointing, the anointing. It's vital.
The Downward Spiral of Disobedience: Jonah's Story
Let's look at Jonah. Dear old Jonah, I think we can learn a lesson from him right quick here. Jonah 1, 1 through 6. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish. Now, if you look on the map, it's the exact opposite direction from where God told him to go. And look what it says. He fled to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord. So when we run from God, we don't just run from what God wants us to do, we also run from his presence.
And he went down. I love that. Anytime that you flee from God, you go down. Right away. And he went down. And he found a ship going to Tarshish, the most remote of the Phoenician trading places at that time. So he paid. The fair. And he went down. I underlined all this stuff in my Bible today. I love it. He paid, and he went down. And he went down. And then if you continue to read the whole thing in Jonah, he went down further into the belly of the ship. And then he went down into the sea. And then he went down into the fish's belly.
As soon as we start running from God, everything from then on is down, down, down, down. But Jesus said, I am your glory. I'm the lifter of your head. He's the one who lifts us up out of the pit. Everything else drags us down, down, down, down, down, down, down. You say, well, I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm just so down. Your name ain't Jonah, is it? Has God told you to do something? You went the exact opposite direction? Oh, come on. Look friendly. Jonah 1, 17. Now the Lord had prepared and appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Chapter 2, verse 4. Then I said, I've been cast out of your presence, Lord, and out of your sight. And I will look again toward your holy temple. Verse 6. I went down to the bottom and the very roots of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. You have brought my life up from the pit and corruption, O Lord my God. I mean, he talks about I had seaweed wrapped around my head. Can you imagine being in the belly of this whale for three days and three nights? Down, down, down, down, down, down, down. Now finally he got sorry and he said, God, I want your presence back and, you know, I want to get out of this fish's belly.
So God commanded the fish and the fish vomited him up on the ground. I bet that was exciting, too. Jonah chapter 3, verse 1. I love this. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Saying, arise and go to Nineveh. All that for nothing. He's still got to go to Nineveh if he's going to have any peace. He didn't get out of nothing. All he did was have a trip down, down, down, down, and he paid the fare. Come on. How many of you are paying and paying and going down, down, down, down, and every time you go to God, he says the exact same thing he said the last time.
Stop Venting and Start Obeying
Lose the attitude. Quit murmuring and grumbling. Be submissive to the authority that I've placed over you. Lord, help me. You better be glad there's still somebody willing to preach to you like this. Amen? You can't just have dessert messages all the time. We've got to have some meat. I love to think about the guy that we call the prodigal son. He said, give me my inheritance. That's how we all start out with God. Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. And he took it and he wasted his fortune on loose, reckless, uncontrolled, loose, undisciplined living. He didn't want any bosses. Didn't want anybody to tell him what to do. Want to do my own thing.
Well, he spent everything. He wasted everything. He had nothing. He was starving. He had to go to work for a pig farmer. Things got so bad, he ended up eating the same mess that the pigs ate. Then the Bible says he came to himself. I love it. I hope somebody in this conference comes to themselves. I hope somebody has an epiphany and they get it. It's like, oh. Maybe that's my problem. And it says he came to himself and he said, I know what I'll do. I will go back to my father and I will say, now listen, he started out with give me. I will go back to my father and say, make me one of your servants.
One trip in the pig pen. But after losing everything he had, he finally got from give me everything I want to make me what you want me to be. Is anybody home in God's house tonight? I love it. I love it. I love it. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit, the Bible says in Ephesians 4.30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of the living God. I don't have time to go there and do everything that I'd like to do tonight. But if you read verses 29 through 31, it basically talks about how anger grieves him. And foul language and arguing and bickering and gossip and all the stuff that gets in his way.
Choosing Between "Give Me" and "Make Me"
The anointing gives us peace. I just so enjoy peace. Oh my gosh. I lived in turmoil and frustration for so many years and nothing made me happy. You know why? Because I was living for me. I went to church, but I was still living for me. Come on, if you're going to church, you got a little bumper sticker, you got a little cross you hang around your neck. Got the Joyce Meyer Library. Maybe you've even got the Enjoying Everyday Life Study Bible. You may have even colored it up real nice with pink and blue and underlines and stars. But who are you living for? Are you saying, give me or make me?
Some of you really just don't need to ask God for another thing for a couple of years. I mean, you just need to get a new prayer life instead of saying, yeah, I need you to change my husband and I need you got to do something about these kids and I need a bigger house and I need a better car and I need and I want and I want. The number one reason for disobedience, which does affect the anointing on our life. How many of you know that? There's an anointing that abides in us and it comes with a free gift from God, but there is a price to pay also.
And that's to let God do the work in us that he wants to do so the good things in us can be poured out. All the fruit of the Spirit's in you. You have love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, humility, self-control. It's all in you. Christ is in you and he's all of that. The Holy Spirit's in you and he's all of that. We all have a seed of everything we need on the inside of us so we can say, I got it. You don't try to go get it. You say, I got it. I've got it, I've got it, I've really, really got it. I've really, really got it.
When You Have It But No One Sees It
And people are saying, yeah, where's it at? If you got it, nobody else knows it. That's when you say, okay, God, make me what you want me to be. Break the clay jar. Your will be done and not mine. I don't want to go to that cross. Nevertheless, Lord, your will be done and not mine. I'll do anything rather than miss the will of God for my life. We can't be rebellious. We've got to have an attitude that we're not afraid to do a little bit of suffering if that's what we need to do. Not suffering tragedy and disasters and things like that, but just the suffering that you go through in the flesh when you really don't want to do something, but you do it anyway, and you do it with a good attitude.
Now, that really hurts. It's not easy to be nice to people that aren't being nice to you, but we can do it because God has anointed us to do it. It's not easy to give what you want to keep, but we can do it because we would rather do anything other than disobey God. Remember what our goal here is tonight? To get you to the point where you desire more than anything to be promptly and wholly obedient to God. That honors Him when we do that. Every one of you know that you want your children to be obedient to you.
Let's look at one more area of Scripture, and then I'm going to give you one great reward promise. Matthew 20, 20 and 21, and also 22. Then the mother of Zebedee's children came to Him with her sons and kneeling. She worshiped Him and said, can you do me a favor? And He said, what do you want? And she said, give orders that these two sons of mine might sit, one on your right hand and one on your left, when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus replied, you don't even know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
And they write away in their mental foolishness, oh yes, we're able. They didn't have any idea what they were talking about. Let's look at Luke 9, 57 through 62. This one kind of says it all. And it occurred as they were going along the road that a man said to Him, Lord, I'm going to follow You wherever You go. Well, it's easy to say that when we're at that altar receiving Christ. And Jesus said, foxes have lurking holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. And He said to another, you come and be my disciples, side with my party and accompany me.
The Cost of True Discipleship
But He said, oh Lord, let me first go and bury and await the death of my Father. If you don't even have a place to sleep, I think I'll wait a while. And Jesus said, you let the dead bury their dead, but as for you, you follow me. You know the story, one excuse after another. Then another one wanted to go take care of his animals, and another one wanted to go do something else and something else. Oh Lord, I want to follow You. He said, okay. It's going to be great, but it's not all going to be easy. It will be easier than what you've been doing, though. Because at the end of bad decisions, there's only more pain.
Now listen to me. But at the end of good decisions, there is reward. Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9. Y'all doing okay out there tonight? Is anybody going to go home and start praying God? God help me, God, help me, help me. Help me, help me, help me, God, help me. Oh God help me. Help me God. Oh God help me, help me, help me, God, help me. Woo! Help me, Lord. I like the help me prayer. I think it's one of the most anointed ones we can pray. You can't do it without God. Apart from Him, you can do nothing. I'm not suggesting you just go home and try to be obedient.
Yeah, you're going to have to make an effort, but it's not going to do you any good if you don't seek God first and tell Him, I know this is what you want me to do, but I cannot do it without you. What did Jesus do when He was in the garden? And He knew He was going to have to go to the cross, and He said, Father, if possible, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, Your will be done and not Mine. Then He got down and He prayed some more. And then it was so hard He began to sweat great drops of blood, and He prayed some more.
Pray Through to Your Breakthrough
And He couldn't even get anybody to pray with Him. All the people that He had traveled with and been so good to, they all fell asleep. They couldn't even stay awake and pray for one hour. But He prayed through, and then He got up, and the Bible says that angels came and ministered unto Him. We don't have to give up because it's not easy. Pray some things through. Lock yourself in a room with your Bible and say, I'm not coming out of here, God, till You give me the grace to go out there and act like I'm supposed to act. I'm not going to stay mad. I'm not going to stay bitter. I'm not going to have a bad attitude.
I'm not going to spend the day feeling sorry for myself when You've blessed me so much. And boy, when you get that kind of a, this is what I want more than anything, God. I want to be what You want me to be. You know what happens? Holy Ghost, oomph. Boy, that anointing is released, and all of a sudden, it's not that hard. Love it. 1 Corinthians 2, 9. But eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man all that God has prepared, made, and keeps ready for those who love Him. And look at what the Amplified Bible says it means to love Him.
To hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits that He has bestowed. It is yet to be seen what God is going to do for His people. But we live in desperate times. God has chosen us to be alive on the planet at this time. He's chosen me and given me the privilege to preach the Gospel at this time in history. What an amazing responsibility we have, and what an amazing privilege that we have. The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few. Let's not be out in the world and just act like the rest of them and not care that people are slipping into hell by the multitudes every day.
Your Life as a Sermon
You say, I'm not a preacher. You don't have to be. Let your life be a sermon. Just go out in the world and act like Jesus. Come on. I said, just go out in the world and act like Jesus. That's all you have to do. Get out there and say, God, make me what you want me to be. I hope it's easy, but if it's not, I'm not going to run away. Father, I pray for everybody here tonight, including myself, that these messages that you're giving us would really deeply impact our lives. God, please, please, please, please, please. I do not want to have wasted my time here in Hershey.
I want people to get more serious with you, more committed, more dedicated. I want you to be able to use them in amazing ways. And I want them to have victory in every area of their life. And so I bless them tonight in Jesus' name. I thank you, Lord, for the anointing that's on their lives, for the anointing that's in this place tonight. And I thank you, God, that we are going to see tremendous fruit from our time together. In Jesus' name. Amen.