Joyce Meyer - The Power Of Words (08/20/2019)
Joyce Meyer warns that constant complaining—like the Israelites did despite manna and miracles—shows spiritual immaturity, opens doors to the enemy (fiery serpents), and blocks maturity. Through Matthew 7, personal stories, Isaiah, James, and more, she reveals how judging/criticizing others while ignoring our own faults hinders answered prayer. The urgent mandate: bridle your tongue, stop grumbling/gossiping/negative talk/unsolicited opinions, speak faith/life/love, and glorify God for breakthrough.
Israelites Complained Despite Miracles – Exodus & Numbers
Exodus 17, verse 3. But the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses. You know, it’s always interesting. It’s always somebody else’s fault. And said, why did you bring us out of Egypt? You just brought us out here to kill us? We’re gonna die of thirst.
So in verse... in chapter 16, they were gonna die of hunger. In chapter 17, now they’re dying of thirst. These guys have got serious problems.
Numbers 21, 4-7. And they journeyed from Mount Hor by way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient, depressed, and much discouraged because of the trials. The people spoke against God. And against Moses. Why have you brought us out of Egypt so we could just die out here? We don’t have any bread. We don’t have any water. And not only that, we are fed up with this miracle manna. That’s coming out of the sky every day.
You Need Maturity More Than Miracles
Now, come on. I mean, come on. You know, that’s why I just feel the urgency sometimes to tell people. More than you need a miracle, you need spiritual maturity. Because you see, if God gives you a miracle and you still haven’t grown up spiritually, then the next time you have a problem, you gotta have another miracle. Then the next time you have a problem, you gotta have another miracle.
But if you’re spiritually mature, then you can be the same no matter what your circumstances are. And that’s God’s goal in our lives. Not to just keep having to treat us like babies, where the only way we can be happy is if we got our bottle and our pacifier and our blankie and all that stuff. Come on now, I’m preaching good, better than you’re acting.
Excitement Over Manna Faded Quickly
I mean, God was sending their food out of the... Can you imagine how excited they were about that manna the first time they saw it? Oh, this is so cool. God, our God is an awesome God. If they would have known that song, then they would have been singing it. Our God is an awesome God. He works. I mean, they would have been doing it.
But after a little bit of manna, we are sick of this manna. See, that proves that you get a miracle and it don’t take long. And if you’ve got a grouchy heart, the grouchy heart is going to come right back out and grouch even about the miracle that you got.
But you see, we pray for something and then we complain about it. They had manna. Now they’re complaining about it.
Progression: Murmuring → Serpents → Death
But now watch verse 7 or verse 6. Then the Lord... Don’t forget verses 4 and 5. They got impatient. They got discouraged because of their trials. Verse 5. They spoke against God, against Moses. We have no water. We have no bread. We’re sick of the manna.
Verse 6. Then the Lord sent fiery burning serpents among the people. And they bit them. And they died. Progression. Murmur. Grumble. Complain. Don’t appreciate the miracles of God. Find fault. The door is open for serpents. They bite you. You die.
23,000 Died Before They Repented
And I love this. This is just like a comedy to me. Verse 7. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. 23,000 people had to die before they got it. And they all dropped dead in one day. It’s like, wow, something’s going on here, folks. People are dying right and left. You think maybe we’ve done something wrong?
Now, you know, it’s comical. But the thing that we have to understand is, this was because of complaining. Something that we don’t even see is a sin. I would venture to say that 99% of people, Christians who complain, don’t ever repent for doing it. They don’t even think it’s a problem. Oh, well, you know, I’m just a human being. Well, yeah, duh, but you’re a born-again human being, full of God, full of the fruit of the Spirit. Spirit, murmur, grumble, find fault, and complain.
Can any of you think of something right this minute that you’ve been complaining about? Come on, let’s don’t fly the flag at half-mast. Okay, well, I’m not even going to tell you to stop it. I’m going to tell you to start praying about it. Start praying about it.
Philippians 2.14. Do all things without grumbling, fault-finding, and complaining against God, and questioning and doubting among yourselves. And then verse 15 goes on to say that you may show yourself to be a bright light in a dark world. That you may show yourself to be children of God.
No Gossip, Judging, or Criticizing – Be Different
So one of the things that God is looking for is a difference in us in the world to where they’re complaining, grumbling, murmuring, and finding fault with everything. We’re not doing that. We’re not to gossip, judge, or criticize.
Judge Sin in Church – But Not Hearts
Now, let me just say a word about this whole realm of judging things before I get into this. Actually, Paul did tell us to judge sin. And he even went so far as to say, if the person won’t repent and be restored and they continue in that behavior, then you should not fellowship with them.
So when I say don’t judge, we don’t all just no longer see sin, or we’re gonna just gloss over things and let all kinds of junk be in the church and we don’t wanna deal with it because we don’t wanna judge. We don’t wanna judge. That’s taking it to the other extreme.
Actually, Paul said we’re not called to judge those outside the church, but we are called to judge those inside the church. However, he’s not talking about judging somebody’s heart. He’s talking about the sin. And I believe that we can hate the sin and love the sinner.
Religious Attitudes Prevent Recovery
And I do believe that we have a problem when somebody does something, we not only judge the sin, we judge them, and then very often, from then on, we have an attitude about them. And our religious attitude won’t even let them recover.
The Bible says that you’re to bear with the failings of the weak. You’re to pray for those that are doing things that are wrong. We wanna remember what Jesus prayed on the cross. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. What they did was wrong, but he knew that they were deceived.
I wonder how many people that we judge harshly and critically are just deceived. And you know, when you’re deceived, you’re believing a lie.
My Personal Experience of Being Judged
I know there were a lot of people that judged me critically and judged my behavior, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I’d been abused by my dad, and I had all these problems in my soul, and man, I was getting up every day and doing the best I could. But truth was, I was obnoxious. I didn’t know it.
And I didn’t need somebody’s criticism. I needed prayer. And more than anything, I needed a good example in front of me to show me what I was supposed to be like because I’d never had a good example.
And that was what God gave me in Dave was a solid, stable, good example. And he just kept being what he was, which was a man of God, until I got it. And that’s what we need to be. We need to be solid, stable, good examples for people to look at so they want what we want. Instead of just, well, what’s the matter with you? What are you doing? You need to change. You need to change.
Judge the sin, but be careful that you don’t turn against the sinner. Now, we do need to be careful who we hang out with. But you know, there’s a difference in having close fellowship with somebody and being downright rude to them. Amen?
You got to be led by God. You just can’t go in like a bull in a china cabinet and let me give you my gospel tracts and three Joyce Meyer books and a new rendition of the Bible and I’m going to straighten you out. So it’s not that we don’t judge sin, but you still have to be careful how you treat the sinner.
Matthew 7 – Why Judgment Hurts Your Prayers
Now, Matthew 7. I think this is a really, really, really important area for Christians because I do think that we get our religious snooty noses up in the air. And boy, somebody does something wrong and they’re like, out. We better remember, but for the grace of God, there go I.
Restudying Words for Better Prayer Answers
Okay, now I don’t know, if you weren’t here last night, but I just got to reiterate that when I first started restudying for myself this whole spectrum of the words again, which I’ve been on this journey for a while now, it was actually through seeking God about wanting to see greater and more powerful answers to prayer. Are you with me? How many of you want to get your prayers answered? All right.
And it led me to a scripture in Isaiah which I read last night where he basically said, you’ll call and I’ll say, here I am, if you take away from you the finger pointed in scorn toward the oppressed or the godly and you get rid of every form of false, harsh, unjust, wicked speaking.
So we see right there that God is saying, hey, I will answer your prayers speedily if you stop judging people and you start getting really careful about what’s coming out of your mouth the rest of the time when you’re not praying.
Matthew 7: Reap What You Sow
Now here’s another scripture that pretty much says the same thing only a little different way. Matthew 7, 1. Don’t judge and criticize and condemn others so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. Everybody say, I reap what I sow.
I wonder if we really believe that. You know what? We really don’t believe that. We really don’t. We say we do, but we don’t because if we really believed it we wouldn’t do some of the stuff we do.
For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others you will be judged and criticized and condemned and in accordance with the measure you use to deal out to others it will be dealt out to you again.
Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that’s in your brother’s eye but don’t become aware of and consider the beam of timber in your own eye? I think it’s a message of the living Bible. One of them says why are you trying to take the toothpick out of your brother’s eye when you have a telephone pole in your own eye?
And you know that’s really the truth because it’s like when we have so many problems of our own and we’re ignoring them and we’re wearing this religious cloak it makes us just look at everybody else through a magnifying glass and here we are trying to fix them and we have no ability to fix them because we’re such a mess ourselves.
How can you say to your brother verse 4 let me get the tiny particle out of your eye when there’s a beam of timber in your own eye? You hypocrite! First get the beam of timber out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother’s eye.
You see once we let God deal with us and there’s a deep degree of humility that comes into our lives because we’ve seen our own sin now we can help restore our brothers brothers and sisters with a spirit of gentleness and a spirit of love that will actually bring restoration in their life rather than condemnation.
How many of you know when you’re dealing with somebody that’s got a weakness in an area if you have also had that same weakness and by God’s grace and mercy you’ve overcome it how many of you know that you are much more gentle in how you deal with them than if well I just can’t believe you did that.
It’s amazing how if we’ve never had a problem we just don’t get it.
Pearls Before Swine – Protect Holy Love
Do not give that which is holy the sacred thing to the dogs and don’t throw your pearls before hogs lest they trample on them with their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.
Now what in the world does that mean? It’s like whoa where did that go? I believe I have understanding of what that means. I believe that we have a holy thing in us. We have the love of God in us. And he says don’t throw that holy thing in front of the devil and let him just trample all over it.
You have the ability to love people so don’t be critical and judgmental and fault finding when you could be merciful and help bring restoration.
My Pregnancy Judgment Reaped Sickness
I’ll give you an example. Years ago when I was still teaching a small home Bible study I had three children at the time and I’d always felt really good when I was pregnant. I’d be a little tired the first six weeks and other than that you wouldn’t even hardly know I was pregnant. I did all my work you know didn’t get sick to my stomach none of that.
And so while I was teaching my Bible study the leader of the Bible study there was a young girl that came all the time that got pregnant. She already had a couple kids and she got pregnant again. And so she started missing Bible study all the time because she didn’t feel good nauseated, tired didn’t feel good well I remember me and two or three others of the sisters there were no brothers just the sisters and we were discussing what a what a shame it was that she didn’t discipline herself and how how ridiculous it was because she needed this word that I was teaching.
You understand she needed my spiritual input in her life. And here she wouldn’t was just you just need to suck it up and just do it. Well we just went on never thought anything about it now mind you none of us offered to help her. None of us offered to go clean her house that day so she could come we didn’t even bother to pray for her. We just had our opinions.
So I got pregnant for the fourth time with my child that is now 29 and I was a woman of faith and I believed God for that pregnancy to be perfect. now I didn’t even pray over the other three because I didn’t know to but now I’m a woman of faith and power and I was so sick I want to tell you I was tired I was nauseated I mean from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet Well, I just don’t understand what’s wrong. I’ve been praying. I’m rebuking devils. I’m believing God. And I just stayed sick.
And one day I could hear my family out in the yard. They was out in the backyard with the kids and they were playing ball or something. And I’m like, I just wish I could go outside with my family. I don’t know why I have to be so sick.
So I said to God, this is such a valuable thing. I said to God, okay, what’s wrong here? I want to challenge you when things aren’t going right. To say that. But be open to God touching something in your heart first.
The minute that I said that to God, it was like I had a vision. And I saw that woman that had been in my Bible study years before. And I saw me in the sisters. And I knew the next thing that I thought of was Matthew 7. I got Matthew 7 out and I read it. And I knew that I knew that I knew that I was reaping what I had sown.
And I’m so grateful for that experience because nothing impacts you like having a personal experience where you know that God has got your number. Amen.
And what I’m going to tell you is the absolute truth. I prayed and asked God to forgive me and I immediately started feeling better and felt good the rest of that pregnancy. I had opened a door through judgment.
Matthew 7 Links Judgment to Prayer
But now here’s what I want you to see. And I’ve been reading Matthew 7. But for some reason, I think I thought when he took off on prayer in verse 7, we were now going to a new subject. But now I know better. Now I know that he’s saying, and so... Let’s just put it like this. If you won’t judge and criticize and condemn. If you won’t point the finger at people and say ugly things about them. If you’ll love people, now you can keep on asking and it will be given you. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking reverently and the door will be opened.
For everyone who keeps on asking receives. And he who keeps on seeking finds. And he who keeps on knocking, to him the door will be opened.
I believe he’s very clearly saying there, if you want your prayers to get answered... Then stop judging and criticizing and pointing the finger at other people. How many of you can see that? I mean, it’s just as plain as it can be.
He wasn’t talking about one subject and then suddenly he went to some other totally unrelated subject. Why all of a sudden after that start talking about how to get your prayers answered?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste my time. I’m not a person who likes to waste time. So if I’m going to pray, I want results. If I’m going to take my time and my effort and my energy and I’m going to pray, I want results.
And if I’m not getting results, then I am going to be bold enough to ask God, what is wrong that I am not getting results? And I know there’s patience and I know there’s waiting and I know there’s the enemy who comes against us. I know all that. But sooner or later, you’ve got to see the whatever that God promises you.
And you can do whatever you want to with this, but I’ve decided to grow up just a little bit more. And hopefully a little more after that and a little more after that. God changes us from glory to glory, little by little. We’re on a journey. We haven’t arrived.
But I’ll tell you one thing we have to do is press. And you have never had an area where you’re going to have to press, like you’re going to have to press with this one concerning the mouth. And I don’t think there’s any hope for us if we don’t put some scriptures up around the house, keep some books in front of us.
You need to get my book, me and my big mouth, and you need to read a few pages of it every day, possibly the rest of your life. But we have to keep things in front of us. Otherwise, we forget them.
I really believe that this is not just a message from me. I mean, I’m going to tell you, I really don’t. And I mean, I preach a lot. I mean, I preach a lot, you know. Sometimes 12, 20 times a month. I mean, I preach a lot. And I don’t say anything that I don’t think is God leading me.
But there are things that I feel stronger about. I mean, even Dave said last night, when I went down the little steps, he’s always there to wait for me. And he said, man, you’re fiery tonight. And that’s the way I feel about this. It’s like I’ve got a real fire on the inside of me about this.
That’s why I don’t want you to take this as just another little sermon on the mouth. You know, when people say, oh, I couldn’t go to the conference. What did she teach on? Don’t you just say, oh, the mouth. You say, a life-changing message on the power of our words.
One girl that works for me told me last night, and I thought this was very funny. She said, well, I just remembered that over the past few years, I have been given five copies of your book, Me and My Big Mouth. When that book first came out, we had people calling the office, ordering them for other people anonymously. And then we would send them, and the people who got them would call us mad, wanting to know who sent it to them.
So we finally had to say, sorry, if you want to send a gift, it’s going to have your name on it. We’re not getting blamed for it.
Father, I pray in Jesus’ name, help us. God, we cannot do this without your help. We’ve got to have your help. Lord, pour your Spirit out upon us. Help us not to grieve the Holy Ghost with evil communication. Forgive us for our sins, Lord. And help us come up higher.
I pray that everybody would be safe as they go this afternoon. They’d have a wonderful, relaxing, fun-filled afternoon. And return safely tonight, in Jesus’ name. Amen. God bless you guys. We love you.
This Message Is a Mandate from God – Part 2
I’ve been sharing with the people that have been here that to me, this is more than a message. I really believe that this is a mandate from God. And I think it’s something that is very vital for the times that we’re living in.
There’s a big push for Christians to walk in love. And worldwide, people are talking about justice. And two of the main scriptures that they use is Isaiah 58 about the fasted life that we should live. And how God says, I want you to take part of what you have and help hurting people. Give it to the oppressed, the needy.
But he also talks about being careful about the words of your mouth. In Isaiah 58, 9, he says, if you’ll get some mouth control, you’re going to get a lot quicker answers to your prayers. Now, that’s not the way he says it, but that’s what he means.
And because I’ve already mentioned it twice, I’m not going to take the time to go over it. In James 1, 26, 27, the Bible says, if your religion is really real, if you’re really spiritual, then you’re going to bridle your tongue. And he says, you’re going to be helping the widows and the orphans in their affliction.
So we see the same thing again, once in the Old Testament, once in the New, that if we’re really pleasing God, if we’re really, truly spiritual, if we’re really living a fasted life like God wants us to live, then there’s a couple things at least that are going to be happening.
One, we’re going to be watching our words, and two, we’re going to be meeting felt needs. Both of those are the love walk, by the way. Love is not just a word that we should throw around and love everything from God to ice cream and each other occasionally, but love is something that can be seen and felt. It can change lives. It can make a difference for people.
We must not forget that Jesus said that was the most important thing. And so, I believe that how we talk about ourselves, how we talk, you know, about what’s going on in our lives, how we talk about our future, I think all those things involve the love walk.
The Bible says we’re to love God, so that means we don’t complain about our circumstances. We’re to love ourselves. That means you need to be very, very careful how you talk about yourself. Do not be saying negative things about yourself. That’s a no-no. Amen?
And of course, we want to be very careful how we talk to other people.
Matthew 12 – Heart-Mouth Connection
Now, Matthew 12 says, if the tree is good, it’ll produce good fruit. If the tree’s rotten, it’s going to produce rotten fruit. It’s talking about a heart-mouth connection here. A heart-mouth connection. What’s in your heart will come out of your mouth if it’s in your heart in abundance.
If you think about something, a little bit, I’m not saying that everything that goes through your mind is going to come out of your mouth, but if you think about it, if you’re meditating on it, it’s going to come out of your mouth. And when you say it, then you’re likely to get it.
Words are full of power. They can heal. They can wound. They can minister death. They can minister life. They can encourage. They can discourage. They can build up. They can tear down. People get divorces over words. Families are split apart over words. People lose jobs over words. People have insecurity and a poor self-image over words that have been spoken to them.
Words are containers for power. And we need to choose our words very carefully. And it’s time for us to step up to the plate and be accountable for the words that we allow to come out of our mouth.
No man can tame the tongue. We need God’s help. So you want to pray every day for God to help you with your mouth.
Verse 34, you offspring of vipers, this is Jesus talking, Matthew’s recording him. How can you speak good things when you’re evil and wicked? For out of the fullness, the overflow, the superabundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man, from his inner good treasure, flings forth good things. And the evil man, out of his evil storehouse, flings forth evil things.
And that’s kind of what happens when we open our mouth. We just kind of fling something out of there. And then, if it’s something that we get in trouble for, we like to say, oh, I didn’t mean it. I was just kidding. But that’s not really true, and we need to start facing that.
Now, verse 36 is kind of a scripture we ought to be a little concerned about. It says, but I tell you, on the day of judgment, men will have to give an account for every idle, inoperative, non-working word they speak.
So, there’s a lot of idle conversation that we just talk to fill up airspace. We just say a lot of stupid things that just doesn’t do anybody any good at all. And we’re really bad about saying dumb stuff in trials. I tell you, this is just killing me. This just makes me sick. I’m just sick of this weather. I’m just sick and tired. Sick and tired. Sick and tired. And then we wonder why we’re sick and tired.
So, I’m sure you understand exactly what I’m talking about.
Six Things Not to Do with Your Mouth – Review
Now, I had a 12-point message that I got nowhere with last night. I laid a foundation, didn’t get to the first point. This morning, praise God, we got to one point and one half of the second point. And so, we’re going to try to pick up in the middle of this.
And if you weren’t here, I’ll tell you what the first point was. These are six things not to do with your mouth. The first one was murmur, grumble, find fault, and complain. We’re not going to go back over that again. Except to just remind you that when we complain, we open a door for the enemy.
The Israelites complained and they murmured. And they spent 40 years trying to make an 11-day journey. And the Bible says plainly in Numbers chapter 21 that they kept murmuring. They kept complaining. And God allowed serpents to come into the camp. And the serpents bit them. And 23,000 of them died. And they finally got a revelation. Oh, we have sinned.
So I can hope, by reading that, that we can be a little smarter than that. Actually, over in Corinthians, there’s a scripture that repeats those scriptures in Numbers 21. And basically says, I’ve recorded this here for you. So you might not do the same thing that they did and fall in the wilderness through the same kind of sin. Which is named in 1 Corinthians as complaining.
Now, the easiest thing in the world to do is complain. I think if we could make it past noon without complaining, that would be a pretty good-sized miracle. How many of you agree?
So we talked about that. We can’t go back and talk about that anymore. Except to just simply say that I really believe that we open doors for the enemy through complaining.
God gave us our mouth for one reason. And that’s to glorify Him. You have a mouth to glorify God. Amen? And that’s what we need to use it for.
Second: Gossip, Judge, Criticize
Then I was talking about the second thing that we shouldn’t do is gossip, judge, and criticize. And I got through one scripture. But there’s one more that I want to share in Romans chapter 14. So if we could go there, please.
Now, we know we shouldn’t gossip. And that means tell tales and repeat stuff about people that we know that are negative. Or things that we’ve seen people do and we just want to go tell somebody. We need to cover one another, not uncover one another.
You will get blessed if you will stop telling people stuff. Now, how many of you know we love to tell something? We love to know something. It’s amazing how we want to tell what we know. And we have to be very careful about this.
Now, I’m just telling you this so you can pray thing. There may be times when that’s the truth. I do ask people to pray about things sometimes. I always make certain that it’s somebody that I know that I can trust. But even then, you have to really check with your own heart and say, now, do I really want their prayer or am I just telling something and using prayer as some kind of a spiritual excuse to cover up my sin?
I shared this morning how important it is to realize that when we say don’t judge people, we’re not talking about not judging sin. If somebody’s in adultery, you know that. You don’t say, oh, I can’t judge that. Yes, you can judge that. It’s sin. But you can’t judge the person’s heart. And you can’t get a judgmental attitude toward them.
I think the biggest mistake that Christians make is when they do see somebody sin, not only do they judge the sin, but they write the person off. And for the rest of their life, they have an attitude toward them that makes it very difficult for that person to ever be restored and to totally get over that.
So, we have these things that it’s very obvious that we have to say that’s sin, that’s sin, that’s sin. But I think a lot of judgment comes in, in areas that really are just personal opinion. They’re not even things that the Bible covers. It’s just the way I do something versus the way you do something.
And so, you can judge me for that and say, well, you know, I wouldn’t do that and I don’t think you should do that and I believe you’re wrong in doing that.
But let’s look at what Romans chapter 14 says about this kind of stuff. And I’m going to read just a little bit here. We’re going to start in verse 1.
As for the man who’s a weak believer, welcome him into your fellowship. Don’t criticize his opinions or pass judgment on his scruples or perplex him with discussions. One’s man faith permits him to believe he can eat anything, while a weaker one limits his eating to vegetables.
Now, I know we don’t get into a lot of religious discussions over what people eat today, but that was a big deal in the days that the Bible was written because there was a whole issue over whether or not they could eat meat that had been offered to idols as Christians.
And Paul said, it’s not a problem for me because I know the idol’s nothing, therefore I know that even if the meat’s been offered to the idol, it’s been offered to nothing, so I have the faith to eat it. But he’s saying, if you don’t have the faith to eat it, then don’t eat it because if you eat it and you’re not eating in faith, then to you it’s going to be sin.
And so there came this whole argument between the people who felt like you could eat it and the people who felt like you couldn’t eat it. And the people who could eat it felt like the people who couldn’t eat it didn’t have strong faith. People who felt like they couldn’t eat it felt like the people who did eat it were in sin.
And so we don’t have the who’s going to eat the meat offered to idols issue today, but we got plenty of other issues, just like that, where we can apply this same principle.
And the bottom line is, is that stuff is between a person and God, and we don’t need to even get involved in it.
Verse 4, "...who are you to pass judgment on and censor another’s household servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he shall stand and be upheld, for the master of the Lord is mighty to support him and make him stand."
Now, let’s just say that you were blessed enough to have a housekeeper. One of you over here, just, you’re, you know, let’s just say everybody here in this section is blessed to have a housekeeper. And let’s say that everybody in this section lives next door to the people in this section. And these people over here come and knock on your door, and they don’t like the way your housekeeper’s cleaning your house.
Now, what would you say to them? Well, I really don’t think that’s any of your business at all. I’m the one paying them.
Well, you know what? When we don’t like what other people are doing, they belong to God, they’re His children, and that is His exact attitude with us. It is none of your business, what they’re doing. It’s before me that they’re going to stand or fall. They’re going to stand before me on Judgment Day, and you don’t need to be concerned at all.
You know how much more peace you’d have if you’d just get out of everybody else’s business?
Well, I don’t know about you, but I was a real nosy person. And I have to still resist that a little bit. And I’m pretty sure that I know how to do most stuff. And so, you know, I’m not only a teacher when I need to be a teacher, but I have to be careful about not teaching when I don’t need to be teaching. And not teaching people that are not wanting me to teach them.
Like, you know, God had to tell me, you know what? You’re not your husband’s teacher. Well, that was a blow to my ego, because I really love to tell him what to do. Come on now. Don’t be thanking God publicly either, Dave Meyer.
Do you have any other people here that are teachers of any kind? You’re school teachers or Bible teachers or something like that? Now, let me ask you a question. Don’t you sometimes have a little bit of a hard time knowing when you should be teaching and when you should just be... Come on. Three people have a hard time. I’m going to get to the lying part in a minute. You might as well get straightened out before I get there.
Now, I’m serious. If you are any kind of a teacher, then you do need to pray about this, because you need to know when to function in your gift. And when it’s not a gift to anybody, it’s actually a curse.
I’m in authority a lot of places where I go. I’m in authority in these meetings. I go in my office and I have a lot of authority. But I need to realize when I come down off this platform, I’m Dave Meyer’s wife. Amen?
I need to realize when I go to somebody else’s church and I’m going to minister there, they’re in authority. And I thank God that I’ve learned those things, but I didn’t learn them easy.
So, even if you’re a boss and you’re in authority somewhere, you’re not in authority everywhere. If you’re a teacher and you teach at certain places and certain events, that’s cool, but you’re not a teacher everywhere you go.
And we need to learn when to function in our gift and when to zip our lip and not be trying to tell everybody something. Everybody say, good preaching choice. Good preaching choice.
Verse 7, none of us lives to himself but to the Lord and none of us dies to himself but to the Lord. If we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
Verse 10, why do you criticize and pass judgment on your brother? Or why do you look down on or despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me. Every tongue shall confess to God and acknowledge Him and honor Him.
I love verse 12. And so each of us shall give an account of himself, give an answer in reference to judgment to God. Then let us no more criticize and blame and pass judgment on one another, but rather decide and endeavor never to put a stumbling block or an obstacle or a hindrance in the way of a brother.
Third: No Unsolicited Opinions – Part 2 Continued
Now, my third point is kind of part of what I’ve been saying, so it’s going to be real easy to transition right into that because we’re kind of already talking about it, and that is the third thing you don’t want to do with your mouth is give your opinion when nobody wants it, which is most of the time that we give it.
And to be honest, I mean, I’m serious. I think we really need to learn to not be giving our opinion when people don’t want it. And so often people say, well, I just wanted to help you. Well, what if I don’t want to be helped?
I know a woman that I dealt with for a long time, and I’m telling you what, that woman drove her kids crazy. She wanted to have a good relationship with them, and she was just ruining her relationship with them right and left, and she just didn’t see it. She could not stop trying to tell them what to do. And they didn’t want that from her. They didn’t want her opinion all the time.
And she would say over and over, well, I’m just trying to help them. I’m just trying to help them. But we need to realize that people want liberty. They want freedom to make their own decisions.
Now, I’m not saying you go to the other extreme where if you know somebody’s doing something that’s going to hurt them that you won’t bother to tell them because you think, well, it’s none of my business. But I think we do have to ask ourselves, am I really trying to help you, or am I just trying to tell you what I think that I know?
So often, if somebody’s not doing something the way we would do it, we feel like we have to try to straighten them out. Amen? Amen?
And a lot of times, even when people do ask for your opinion, they don’t really want it. I know sometimes I ask for people’s opinion, and I’m trying to really learn this because, you know, a lot of times when you ask for somebody’s opinion, all you really want them to do is agree with you. And if they don’t agree with you, then right away, you’re like, well, I don’t see how you could think that.
But how many of you think that we need to just come up a little bit higher and just keep our opinions to ourselves unless somebody really wants them?
And I might as well just go for the gold here and tell you, I believe personally that’s a symptom of pride. I think the more that we have to try to tell everybody else what to do, that means that we’re already convinced we’re right and that they need our advice. And I just think we need to give people more freedom.
Let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 4.11. Just want to make sure you know I can back up what I’m teaching with Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 4.9. Now, I kind of tell you what I want to show you here so you’re getting the main point out of it.
You know, the Bible tells us that at all costs we’re to avoid strife, which is bickering, arguing, disunity, disharmony, disagreement. And very often, strife is started, well, it’s always started with the mouth. Somebody says something they shouldn’t say or they tell something they shouldn’t tell or they do something they shouldn’t do.
And I think this thing about opinions very often does start trouble. Have you ever had an argument with somebody just because they gave you their opinion about something you were doing and you didn’t want it? All right. I mean, it happens all the time, to be honest.
And so, I believe that’s why it’s covered in Scripture. And 1 Thessalonians 4.9 says, But concerning brotherly love for all other Christians, you have no need to have anyone right to you because you yourselves have been personally taught by God that you should love one another. And indeed, you already are extending and displaying your love to all the brethren throughout Macedonia. But we beseech and earnestly exhort you, brethren, that you excel in this matter more and more.
Now, this is my heart and my spirit right here. And I believe this is good for us. I’ll be honest with you. I think that God appreciates a person who has a spirit that’s not satisfied with status quo or is not satisfied with good enough.
And so, Paul wrote to them and he said, Look, I’m not even writing to you because I think you don’t have a love walk. He said, I believe that you are walking in love. But he said, I’m writing to you because I want you to press on. And I want you to excel in love. And this is not the first place where Paul said this. He said it to the Philippians. He said it in many other places. Hey, you’re doing good in your faith, but I want you to excel in faith. You’re doing good in love, but I want you to excel in love.
And so, maybe you’re saying, well, you know, I’m not too bad at giving my opinion. Well, you know what? Not being too bad is not good enough. You need to come up higher.
And maybe you need to just stop before you give your opinion and just say a quick little prayer. Lord, is this something you want me to do? Is this you or is it just me? And I think it’ll be amazing if we just submit things to God for just a second. How much vain conversation we can avoid and how much strife we can avoid in relationships.
Now, I know that giving our opinion and telling people what we think is all part of relationship and it’s all part of communication. And I’m not saying that we don’t talk and we don’t ever tell anybody what we think of anything. But I just think we have to be particularly careful. It’s one thing if we’re having a conversation, I tell you what I think of the tree or I tell you what I think of, you know, the government or I tell you what I think of the post office or something. But if I start telling you what I think about what you’re doing or what you’re wearing, now I’m treading on more dangerous ground and I’m a lot more likely to cause a problem than if I’m just talking about some abstract thing that nobody cares all that much about.
And I’ll tell you, I need this preaching, so if you don’t want to hear it, I’ll take it. Because I’m telling you that I have been an opinionated person in my life. And I do believe that I’ve improved a lot, but I want to excel in this area. I want to mind my own business and have more peace than I’ve ever had in my whole life.
I’ll tell you one of the things that I believe happens. If you’re in a relationship with somebody and you’re giving your opinion all the time, they get to the point where they don’t pay one bit of attention to anything you say. And I mean, there’s certain people that I’m around at some times that are like that. I’ve had friends that have been like that. It’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me again what you think. I don’t care what you think. You know?
So I think if we’re a little less generous with our opinion, when we really have something to say, then the person might respect us enough to listen to it because we’re not just yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, and all the time.
Verse 11, make it your ambition and definitely endeavor. This means you’ve got to try really hard to do this. To live quietly and peacefully, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands. So it’s in the Bible. Mind your own business.
Words Are Powerful – Part 3
Words are full of power. They can heal. They can wound. They can minister death. They can minister life. They can encourage. They can discourage. They can build up. They can tear down. People get divorces over words. Families are split apart over words. People lose jobs over words. People have insecurity and a poor self-image over words that have been spoken to them.
Words are containers for power. And we need to choose our words very carefully. And it’s time for us to step up to the plate and be accountable for the words that we allow to come out of our mouth.
No man can tame the tongue. We need God’s help. So you want to pray every day for God to help you with your mouth. Because to be honest, we can say some really dumb stuff when we’re upset.
Talk Faith – Not Just Troubles
But James 1 verse 2, if we can go there, we just talk about our troubles way too much and we don’t talk about what God has done enough.
When David faced Goliath, he didn’t stand there and talk about Goliath and how big he was and all about his armor. He talked about all the great things that God had done. Well, I’ve slain a bear and I’ve slain a lion, so who cares about Goliath?
We talked too much about the issue at hand, and what we should be doing is remembering the great things that God has done for us in the past.
Some of you are at a place in your life right now where the devil’s gotten you convinced that there’s no way that you can stand this. You’re not going to make it, but the truth is you have felt that way about other things in your life, and here you are tonight in living color.
And I can promise you that you will make it because God has already said He will never let more come on you than what you can bear. But with every temptation, He will provide the way out.
So stop saying, I can’t do this, this is too much for me. Because every time you talk like that, all you do is make yourself weaker and weaker and weaker.
We need to say, I can do whatever I need to do in life through Christ who strengthens me. He will not leave me or forsake me, and I can do this through Him.
Help yourself with your words, don’t hurt yourself.
Joy in Trials – Treasure Hidden There
James 1, 2, you’ll love it. Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, when you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Consider it joyful. Why? Because there is a treasure in your trial.
Somewhere, if you’ll look for it, there’s a treasure in that trial. And I would really like to encourage you to adopt that phrase and start to say that. When you face a struggle, when you face a disappointment, when you face something hard, learn to let one of the first things that comes out of your mouth be, God, help me find the treasure in this trial. There’s something good in this if I can find it, and I’m going to talk about that. I don’t want to talk about the yucky stuff. I don’t want to give the devil glory.
I think so often we talk more about what the enemy’s doing than we do about what God’s doing. We don’t need to talk fear. We need to talk faith.
Why? Because our words are powerful. Our words are containers for power. Your words can carry your faith to the kingdom of God and release angels to help you. Or your words can carry your fear to the kingdom of darkness and just release more trouble in your life.
We have faith, but it has to be released. Every man’s given the measure of faith. You’ve all got faith, but your faith does you no good if you don’t release it. How do you release it? Through words. Through prayer. You release your faith through prayers of faith, through words of faith, and through actions of faith.
What good does it do to say, oh, I’m a woman of faith, and then talk fear, doubt, and unbelief all the time?
And I’m not telling you not to ever talk about your problem. I think we went too far with that and made people feel like they can never talk to anybody or never say anything.
I actually had a woman come to me for counseling one day and said, well, I can’t tell you my problem because I can’t talk about it. I said, well, then how in the world am I supposed to help you? I mean, see, she was so far off in left field that it was ridiculous.
I said, don’t talk about your trials without a purpose. If you need to talk to somebody because you really need some prayer, or even if you really need to talk to somebody to get some advice. I said, and to be honest, I do believe that there are times, and here again, maybe especially for women, where we just need to vent for a few minutes to a friend.
But you better make sure you’re not venting 24 hours a day. And you better be careful when you’re venting, how you do it, and what you say. You better keep throwing in there, hey, this is what I feel like, but I’m not bowing down to my feelings. I know God’s in control. I know He’s on my side. There’s a way to say things and a way not to say things, so let’s pray for a little wisdom in our mouth. Amen? I will speak words of wisdom.
Ask Wisdom – Avoid Double-Mindedness
So then He goes on and He says, hey, God will help you. No matter what kind of a mess you’ve gotten yourself into, God will help you. Verse 5, He says, if any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God who gives to everyone liberally, ungrudgingly, without reproach or fault, finally it will be given him, only it must be in faith that He asks, with no wavering, no hesitating, no doubting.
Then He goes on to say, if you’re a double-minded man, don’t think you’re going to get anything you ask for, because you’re unstable.
So I bring that up to simply say this. Whenever you fall into trials of any sort, first thing He says is be joyful, look for the treasure in the trial. God will help you no matter, even if you did something wrong that got you in the mess that you’re in, if you admit it and face it, God is good, He’s faithful, and He’ll help get you out of the mess.
That doesn’t mean He won’t teach you anything about how you got into it, and teach you some things. He may even leave you in it a little bit longer than you’d like to be in it, just to show you that you don’t want to do that again.
But while we’re waiting for God’s deliverance, we must not get double-minded and talk faith on Sunday in church around our Christian friends, and talk doubt and unbelief on Monday when we go to work around our unbelieving friends.
Because when we do that, what happens is we got a lot of mixture. Some people are just super faith when they’re around their Christian friends, and at home, they are a nightmare. And I’ll tell you the truth, it’s what goes on behind closed doors that affects our circumstances even more than the little bit of show that we put on on Sunday morning. Whoo! You’re not all clapping.
How many of you know when we go home and shut the door, the real us emerges? Come on.
Jesus Stayed Silent in His Trial
The Bible teaches us plainly that even Jesus, in His time of trial, decided not to talk much. Isaiah 53, like a lamb led to the slaughter, when He was oppressed, He opened not His mouth.
In John 14, 30, He told His disciples, the hour that I’ve been talking to you about has come. And this is what it says in John 14, 30, I will not be talking much with you from now on. I used to just marvel at that until I finally understood why He said it.
He said, on purpose, I’m going through a lot right now. It’s very hard. I’m under a lot of pressure. Got a lot of emotions going on. You think He didn’t have any emotions going on? Look at Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Bible says that He said to God, take this away. If there’s any way you can take this away, take it away. But if you really want me to do it, I’ll do it.
But He was fighting a battle, an emotional and a mental battle that was so intense about whether He was going to run from the call of God or obey the call of God that His sweat became like blood.
We don’t, we don’t not know what it means to resist sin until we’ve resisted like that. So He knows a battle.
But it’s so interesting to me that when He was in that mental and emotional battle, He decided to keep His mouth shut.
And if you read John 14, this is what He says further. He says, the devil hath no part in me. And so what was the rest of what He was saying? It was obvious. He was saying, and I’m not going to open my mouth and give Him one. I’m not going to give Him anything to work with.
The plan of salvation was on the line. I wonder how many times we blow the whole plan that God’s got because we just won’t zip our lip. Come on now, you need to buy this CD and listen to it once a week.
When you get in a trial and emotions are running high, go lock yourself in a room and have a chat with yourself. Get down on your knees and say, God, give me the grace to say positive things. You know how I’m hurting. You know how hard this is.
Maybe you’re going to be going somewhere where everybody’s going to be asking you, how are you doing? How are you feeling? What’s going on? I heard about your situation. You’re going to have to have some right answers.
Because in those times, man, it’s easy to want to tell it all so somebody can feel sorry for you. Y’all are just sitting there going... I get it. We know. Hey, man, I got a long way to go. Well, so do I.
You know, I think most of us that have been in church very long, we’re pretty good until the trials come.
But I will tell you, and I said this today at lunch, we had lunch with, with Darlene and we talk sometimes about what we think is going on in the world and what we think is going to happen. And she was telling me she was excited to see what God’s going to do.
And I said, and you know, I, I can tell in my spirit by what God’s kind of stirring me up to teach. I can tell some things by that. And I’m telling you, God’s got me teaching what I’m teaching on the mouth. This is ordained from heaven. This is not a message I went and just pulled out of my drawer. I believe this is more of a word from God than it is just a teaching.
And even Dave said this morning, he said, this is so fresh and new. This is really strong. And so it’s not like I’m saying something I’ve never said before, but I sense that there’s a real strong presence of God on what I’m saying.
And why? Because we are in intense times. And I mean, the devil is coming on strong and we better get the wisdom Jesus had and say the hour has come and I am going to shut my mouth because I am not giving the devil an open door to tramp all over my life.
So we’ve got a choice to make. We can have the emotional thrill of running our mouth off. Or we can remember that no man can tame the tongue and we can pray, pray, pray, pray, pray for God’s grace.
Hey, I’m praying several times today. God, give me grace to not say stupid stuff. Help me not to speak vain, useless words that are not doing me or anybody else any good.
And I find sometimes the quieter I am, the more I’m sensing God’s presence. It’s awesome. The quieter I am, the more I hear other people. If you get quiet, you can learn something.
Somebody else may say something of value if you weren’t talking all the time. We can hear people tell us what they want and need and where they’re at in their lives so we can pray for them.
And I’m not saying go to the other extreme where you don’t talk. I’m talking plenty, believe me. But I’m trying to just use more wisdom in what I say.
There have been times in my life where God has been doing something in me or teaching me something or showing me something and I shoot my mouth off about it too quick and it just kills it.
When & How to Share Testimony
Here’s a lesson about when to give your testimony and when to zip your lip. When somebody else is obviously half dead with the flu that’s not when you need to tell them, you know what I almost got that last week but I prayed and God healed me. Come on.
I get so weary of people who don’t know when to give their testimony and when not to. Because sometimes all your testimony is is a bragging session.
Everything we say is supposed to edify and encourage. So, you’re not really testifying sometimes you’re bragging. And when you’re bragging you lose the power, the secret that’s between you and God and the area that He’s keeping you in by His grace and mercy now all of a sudden we’re talking about what I did and how great I am and what my faith got and God says, okay time for a demotion.
So, testimony’s great. We need to give our testimony but we need to give it when we know that it’s right and it’s really going to help somebody else come up higher.
We need to be more sensitive not to be telling people our victory if it’s only going to make them feel worse and not better.
Proverbs 27, 1 and 2. Do not boast of yourself and tomorrow for you know not what a day may bring forth. Let another man praise you and not your own mouth a stranger and not your own lips.
When we’ve done something good the Bible says don’t even let your right hand know what your left hand’s doing. Everything that we do we should do it under the Lord. We should be willing to do it in secret unless it would be good for somebody to know it.
I do believe that there are times when it really blesses somebody to know that something has come from you or that you’ve done something for them so here again I’m not suggesting that we go to extremes.
The Bible actually says in Matthew 5 which seems like a contradiction of some of these other things about doing things in secret it says to do good works for people that people might see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
So it’s not that we have to go overboard trying to hide everything but we just need to make sure that our heart’s right and that when we do things that we’re not doing them to get attention the Bible says when you pray pray in your closet so you’re not praying to be seen of men because if you do it to be seen of men you will lose your reward.
Another thing that really bothers me is when people are constantly dropping names about all the important people they know. For some reason that’s just really irritates me.
You know I actually try to work with God to go to the other extreme because I think that’s something that’s important with God and I could drop some names and tell you people I talk to and know and probably impress you but I think I would lose the power of that secret relationship that God has given me and the door that He has opened unto me to be able to speak into their life and to help them.
And nobody needs to know it but God and the person. It’s not anything that anybody else needs to know because if I told it I would only be telling it for one reason that would be to impress you.
How many things do we say just to impress somebody and to get them to look at us with wide eyed wonder but how many of you are with me don’t lose me but we’re killing the power of the secrecy that we can have between us and God and I don’t think we even begin to know the things that God would do for us and the things that He would let us participate in if we would learn to keep things between us and God unless He specifically gives us permission to share it.
Come on, I think this is important. I want more intimacy with God in my life. I want Him to trust me with His secrets.
There’s a time to tell things and there’s a time not to. In my position as a teacher I tell a lot of things that maybe somebody else shouldn’t tell because I’m using them as an example in teaching and even then I try to be careful what I tell because I’ve got a personal walk with God as well as His teaching ministry and I want to make sure that I’m having and enjoying intimacy with God.
No Negative Talk – Give the Good Report
James 3, 5 says the tongue is a little member but it can boast of great things and it starts fires. And then there’s just to take this a step further James 4, verse 13 if we could go there for just a second. This was something that God called me to task on years and years and years ago.
James 4, 13 Come now you who say today or tomorrow we’re going to go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money yet you don’t know the least thing about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You’re really just a wisp of vapor a puff of smoke a mist that’s visible for a little while and then disappears into thin air. Kind of puts us in our place doesn’t it?
You ought instead to say if the Lord is willing we’ll live and if He’s willing we’ll do this or that but as it is you boast falsely in your presumption and your self-conceit all such boasting is wrong.
Another thing that you don’t want to do with your mouth very simple but probably along with complaining this is one of the biggest issues issues that we have and that is we must not be negative.
Just negative talk gets us in so much trouble. Numbers 13 Why not give the good report? Why not find something good to talk about? There’s enough bad news out there Christians don’t need to add to it.
Don’t be coming around telling me that everything is going under and the world is falling apart. God is in control. And even if some things do fall apart it’s because what God needs to do to wake some people up. And in the midst of that He’ll still take care of the remnant those that are trusting Him.
We may not have everything exactly to our comfort level but so what? God will take care of us and give us grace to have joy in the midst of any situation. Amen?
You better get a mindset right now that you don’t have to have everything your way.
Numbers 13 most of you know this if you’ve studied the Bible but this is such a good 12 spies to scout out the land to see if it was as good as what they’d been told it was.
So they went in there and they spied out the land and they came back out and 10 of them had a bad report and 2 had a good report. That’s about the percentage we get. 10 negative people 80% negative 20% positive.
Wonder what would happen if everybody in the church would get positive. Wonder what would happen if everybody in the family would be
Verse 27, they told Moses, we came to the land to which you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and here’s its fruit. But, King James says, nevertheless, you know, negative people, no matter what’s good, they’ll find something bad.
But the people who dwell there are strong, and the cities are fortified, and they’re very large, and moreover, we saw the giants, and there’s giants in the land, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, they’re all there, the Canaanites.
Verse 30, Caleb quieted the people. Caleb said, shh, don’t talk like that. And he said, let us go up at once and possess the land, because we are well able to conquer it.
But his fellow scouts said, we are not able. We cannot go up there, the giants are too big.
Well, obviously, only Caleb and Joshua were seeing God, the rest of them were seeing the giants. They said, we cannot conquer them. And Caleb said, let’s do it at once. Let’s don’t think about it. Let’s don’t look at the giants. Let’s keep our eyes on God.
I love that when he said, let’s go up at once and do it. And I love what David said when he was facing Goliath. The Bible says he ran quickly toward the battle line.
Sometimes we stare at our circumstances too long. We talk about the giants too much. We look at the giants too much, and we scare ourselves.
You need to see what’s in your heart and go for it.