Joyce Meyer - The Voice Of Conscience (08/20/2019)
In John 17:15, Jesus prays for us to remain in the world but be guarded from evil, set apart by God's truth. We're called to be salt and light, showing His nature through our lives, and to keep a clear conscience by following peace, so we can effectively witness to others.
Starting with John 17:15
I'd like us to start in John chapter 17, verse 15. John 17:15. Jesus is praying His great prayer and He said, "I do not ask that You take them out of the world." He's praying for us. "I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one." So God wants us to be in the world and yet protected from the evil that's in the world. "They are not of the world, worldly." Can you say with me this morning, "I am not worldly." "They are not of the world, worldly, belonging to the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them, purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself and make them holy by truth. Your word is truth."
Now we learned last night that when we receive Christ, we're made holy, but then that holiness needs to be worked out through us so people in the world can begin to see what God is like. And it's done by the truth, by knowing the truth of God's word. Now, I love verse 18. "Just as You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world." Well, how did the Father send Jesus? Why did He send Him? Jesus said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father."
Being Different in the World
And I believe that when people see us, anybody that's around you or around me for any period of time should, without us even having to tell them, begin to realize that there's something different about us, that there's a flavor on our life that just makes everything better. And that somehow we're bringing light into darkness. We bring peace, where there's turmoil. We bring joy, where there's sadness. We lift up, we encourage, we don't tear down and destroy. We're thankful people who don't complain about something 24-7. We're different.
And you know, honestly, different places where I go, there's certain people without even asking them, I already know they're believers. And you should be able to tell. People should know us without having to look to see if we've got a cross hanging around our neck or a bumper sticker on our car. They should be able to know us by the way we behave. Amen?
Salt of the Earth
Matthew 5, 13. "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, its strength, its quality, how can its saltiness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer, but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men." Now, you know, that's a pretty straightforward, serious scripture. He's saying, look, you are the flavor in the world. I like to put it like that, rather than thinking about it like salt. We all know that something that has no flavor, the first thing you usually reach for is a salt shaker. And anything that is flavorless and bland is just kind of like, bleh. And so we are the... that's really an interesting thought to me. We are the salt of the earth, the flavor in the earth.
But if salt has lost its flavor, then what good is it? It's no good. What if you had a very bland bowl of soup you're getting ready to eat, you reach for the salt shaker, and you put salt on it, and it still tasted the same way. If the salt had been sitting there so long that it had lost its flavor, then it wouldn't do anybody any good.
Light of the World
"You are the light of the world. My, my, my. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but they put it on a lampstand and give light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds, and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Somebody shout. That's it.
Now, we don't do good things to be seen of men. That is not our motive. Our motive needs to be to simply bring glory to God and to try to help people know how amazing that He is. To try to make them believe there's hope for me. There's a better life than what I have. Somebody show me that there's a better life than what I have.
Personal Testimony: Marrying Dave
You know, I think often about, especially when I'm talking about things like this, about when I married Dave. When I was a young woman in my twenties, Dave, I was 23 when Dave and I got married. And I can honestly tell you that at that age, I do not ever remember in my whole life being happy. I was never happy. Didn't know what it felt like. Never had any peace. Didn't know what peace felt like. It was totally foreign to me. Do you know that there are people out there that don't even have a clue what peace is? They don't even know what it feels like. They don't know what joy is. So they try to replace joy with having some kind of fun. And many times sell their soul to have that fun. And they need us.
Well, when Dave married me, I had lots of problems. He didn't know how many problems I had, but he had been praying for God to give him a wife. And he said, "God, please make it someone that needs help." Well, you pray that if you want to, but make it someone that needs help. I wonder how many people today who want to get married would dare to pray something like that. Oh no, we want Mr. Perfect. We want him spirit-filled, walking with God, ready to go in ministry, you know, man of the house, this and that, so tall and on and on and have a great job.
Dave's Prayer and Character
Dave said, give me somebody that needs help for the life of me. I don't know why the man said that, but I think he was being led by the Holy Spirit. Dave was a strong, spirit-filled Christian, really loved God and had a deep relationship with God. And here I was, I received Christ when I was nine years old. So I'd been born again as a little child, but I was in the situation of being abused and my father wouldn't let us go to church. And occasionally he would let me go to church with some friends down the street, mainly because he just wanted to get me out of the house on Sunday morning. So he and my mother could have the house to themselves and he was just mean.
And so even though I received Christ when I was young, I never had any teaching or any training. And so Dave came into my life, not just as a husband, but as an example to me. And all those early years when I was so messed up and had such a temper, Dave was just peaceful. He kind of just like had this attitude. I'm going to love you if you'll let me, but if you won't let me, I'm going to keep loving you anyway, but you're not going to make me not enjoy my life.
Witnessing Through Example
Now I'd really like you to hear what I just said, because some of you are dealing with unbelievers, even maybe in a marriage relationship and you don't quite know how to witness to them. Well, it's not going to help them. If you try to beat them over the head with your Bible, you can play your Joyce Meyer tapes very loud when they're in the house. That probably won't help them either. You can take my books and color under something and leave it laying on the table, hoping that they'll read it. Maybe some of that will help. You can ask them to go to church. You can ask them to do things, but if they won't have any of that, then you still have a wide open door because really what God is asking you to do is be a consistent, can we say consistent? To be a consistent example by just calmly, beautifully, and joyfully living your little Christian life.
Not being religious. Not preaching all the time. Not having a body language that shows you're disgusted with all of their behavior. I just remember how, I just didn't get it. It's like, why don't you slap me or something? But I tell you, one of the best things that Dave did for me was he would not let me make him unhappy. Now, I don't think you heard what I said. He would not let me make him unhappy. And people don't know what to do with you. The devil doesn't even know what to do with you when they throw their best shot to make you miserable. And you forgive them, you stay peaceful.
Consistency Changes Others
And I think this is a teaching that really needs to be brought out more fully. And I'm working on some things in my heart now that when you have pain from people, the best response you can give is to just continue to be who you are. Don't let the people change you. You stay the same and your consistent witness will ultimately change them. I had never seen consistency and Dave was consistent. I didn't know what peace was and Dave was peaceful. And finally, I thought, I got to have that. And I was already a Christian. I went to church with Dave all the time.
But because I didn't have the power of God functioning in my life like I needed to, I didn't know how to overcome my problems. And Dave's example to me was extremely important. I mean, the Bible even speaks about women. And if your husband is an unbeliever, then, you know, he may be saved by your godly life. Just, you know, don't preach to him all the time and be a nag. Just live your godly life. I can see you're happy about that.
Introduction to Conscience
Now, two scriptures we're going to look at real quick here. We'll get to say a little bit more about them later. But you have to see both of these. We're going to talk this morning about the voice of conscience. Because how can we get out in the world and be the right example to people without the Holy Spirit working in our lives all the time to let us know the moment that we start to do something that's displeasing to God. We have no way, really, now we know the word, but, you know, as much as I know the word, I'm still able to get mad.
And you know, if I'm out in public and somebody's rude to me, the first thing that rises up in me is, but then I know in my conscience, it's not right. Settle down. Be stable. We have to learn to obey our conscience. Another way of saying it is to obey the Holy Spirit, the leading of the Holy Spirit. But our conscience is enlightened by the Holy Spirit to let us know when we're doing something right and when we're doing something wrong.
Following Peace
We must learn, and I want this to be a key note of this message today, at all times to follow peace. If you don't have peace about what you're doing or the way you're behaving, then just don't do it. Okay. I better say that again. If you don't have peace about what you're doing or the way you're behaving. And I'm, this is, this is for you. Don't worry about what everybody else is doing. If you don't have peace about what you're doing, you don't even need to judge them. What we need to do is just make sure at all times that we maintain peace.
And we talked last night about holiness, and I'm going to show you that peace is really the pathway to holiness. As long as we stay peaceful, we are on our way to letting that holiness that God has placed in us be worked out. So we're going to look at some more scriptures here. So Acts 23, 1. The Apostle Paul. Then Paul, gazing earnestly at the council of the Sanhedrin, said, "Brethren, I have lived before God, doing my duty with a perfectly good conscience until this very day." I love that. How powerful is that?
A Clear Conscience
People judge you and criticize you to be able to say or to think my conscience is clear before God. I have a clear conscience. You can judge me. You can criticize me. You can accuse me. But if I have a clear conscience before God, I've got something that nobody can take away from me. Come on. Acts 24, 16. I love this scripture that we're coming to right here. "Therefore, I always exercise and discipline myself." This doesn't just happen automatically. You're going to have to discipline yourself and do some exercise in this area. "Mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites, and worldly desires." I know that doesn't sound too exciting, but it's worth it in the end.
"Endeavoring in all respects to have a clear, unshaken, blameless conscience, void of offense toward God and toward man." Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I love that scripture. So what Paul is saying is the minute that I feel that I've offended God, I set things right because I got to have a clear conscience. If I feel that I've done anything to offend a person, if I've hurt someone's feelings, if I've mistreated them, if I've talked to them in a way that I shouldn't have talked to them, if I haven't been there for them when I should have been, if I've disappointed them, if I haven't kept my word, if I've let them down, if I've been rude.
Making Things Right
I don't just blow it off and say, well, I'm busy. I had a rough day today. No, he said, I make it right. And you know how you make it right? You go humble yourself and you say, "I should not have acted that way. I'm sorry. Please forgive me." "I should not have acted that way. I'm sorry. Please forgive me." "I should not have acted that way. I am sorry. Please forgive me." Without excuses. Not making any excuses. Just simply look. "I'm sorry. I should not have acted that way. Please forgive me." It's amazing what those few words will do to set you at peace again in your conscience.
And even if the person wants to be obnoxious and not forgive you, or start some kind of an argument with you, your conscience is clear because you've done the part that God asked you to do. I'm not responsible to make them be at peace with me, but I'm responsible to be at peace with them. Amen.
Function of Conscience
Now, the function of conscience is to correct and reprimand us so as to render us uneasy when we do something that displeases God. I love that. That uneasy. This is what Vines says. It's... it renders us uneasy. In other words, you know, you're not going to hear a voice screaming at you, "No!" You just get a little bit... uncomfortable. This is why we need to learn how to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. It... it just... It saddens me when I think about all the years that I mistreated people and didn't even know I was doing it. I can't do that now.
The closer you walk with God, the more you know His Word, it becomes a light in your life and it shows up any darkness. And I prayed even again this morning, God, if there's any darkness in me, shine your light on it. Please, God, don't just let me... do things that are stupid and not even know that I'm doing it. We need to pray for ourselves. We don't need to just pray to get everything we want all the time. We need to pray that God will work in us. That God will change us. That He will put His finger on things in our life.
Praying for Change
Just begin to pray, "God, I want to be what you want me to be." Maybe you've started your walk with God and you've had a lot of problems in your life and you've been asking Him to fix all these problems and meet all these needs. Well, hey, you know what? We all start that way. But I can't let you finish that way. If I'm going to be your teacher, I cannot let you finish that way. I have to tell you that it's time for a turnaround here. It's time to start saying, "OK, God, I'm not gonna worry about what everybody else is doing. I'm not even going to worry about getting everything that I want. I want things to be right with me and you. I want to grow. I want to be everything that you want me to be."
I even say to God, "Tie me to the altar if you have to, but don't let me get away from you until you've accomplished everything in me that you want to do. I'd like it to be easy, but if it's not, please don't let me run." It's easy to run away. Very easy to run away when things get uncomfortable. And we do it in many different ways.
Definition from Vines Greek Dictionary
The Vines Greek Dictionary goes on to say that conscience is a knowing or to know. A witness born to one's conduct by conscience. The faculty by which we apprehend the will of God. And that which is designed to govern our lives. The process of that which distinguishes what it considers morally good or bad. And prompting us to do the good and avoid the bad. In other words, if I'm doing something that is wrong, my conscience will not approve of it. Until I decide to stop doing it and start doing the right thing.
So, now here's the bottom line. A lot of people and even a lot of Christians walk around with this low level misery on the inside of them all the time. "I don't know why I've lost my joy. I don't know why I don't have any joy. I don't know what's wrong. Would you pray for me, sister? Could you lay hands on me? I've lost my joy. I don't know what it is. I just don't feel right." Well, why don't you stop for just a minute and ask God, have I done something to offend you? I mean, that's the first place I would go.
Low-Level Uneasiness
Well, not that, well, there must be some evil spirit lurking around here that's disturbing me. Amen? People walk around with this low level uneasiness. Simply because, to be honest, so many Christians, and I'm not saying it's you, but so many Christians just constantly do things that their conscience disapproves of. Let me tell you something. Please get this if you don't get anything else. Your conscience is a great gift that God has given you. And it can be your very best friend. It can be the one thing that will keep you out of trouble.
Now, but in order to talk about this and be balanced, we have to talk about what is a healthy conscience. What happens if you have an overactive conscience? Then you're going to feel guilty about things that there's really nothing wrong with. Or what happens if you have a seared or a hardened conscience? Then you're going to be able to do things that should bother you that don't. So we don't come into this thing totally healthy. And this is why, in some ways, this is a little challenging subject to teach on.
Healthy Conscience
Because I know full well that some of you have an overactive conscience. And you feel guilty about absolutely everything. I was like that. I grew up in fear. My father was angry most of the time. And nobody ever really knew about what. And there was a lot of rules. A lot of even unspoken rules that we had to follow to keep him okay. And you never knew exactly what day the rules were going to change. So it was a very tense atmosphere.
Not only that, because he was sexually abusing me, I had a shame-based image and nature of myself. I felt guilty. And I was always afraid that I was going to get in trouble. So when I came into a full-blown relationship with God where I really started wanting to please Him. I said this last week. I don't think I've ever said this. But the last conference I did, I said this. I don't think that I was as miserable in my sin before I started seriously trying to follow God as I was after I started seriously trying to follow God.
Growth Through God's Light
Because before then, I just went to church and thought everybody else was a problem. "Well, you need to treat me better. Well, you need to do this and you need to do that." It was never about me. It had nothing to do with me. Oh, man. But when the light of God started shining in my dark soul. When I really started studying this and not just hearing one verse read or a couple of verses read on a Sunday and a 15 or 10-minute sermon. Let me tell you something. You can't live on snacks. That ain't going to get it. You're not going to survive on snacks. We're going to have full, meaty meals.
You can't live on dessert either. And one of the things that's kind of frightening today is the Bible even says that in the last days, people will heap unto themselves, teacher after teacher after teacher, finding people that will tell them what they want to hear. And that's possible to do today. If you don't want to hear straightforward teaching like this, you can avoid me on TV. You don't have to come to my conferences. You can flip around and find somebody that's just going to tell you what you want to hear all the time. But you won't grow that way. We need it all. We need the encouragement. But we also need the little Holy Ghost spankings from time to time. To kind of help us grow up.