Joyce Meyer - Using Your Gifts Wisely (08/20/2019)
Joyce Meyer shares her testimony of marriage and ministry, promotes her books like Healing the Soul of a Woman, and teaches on Matthew 25's parables of the talents and sheep/goats. We must faithfully use what God entrusts to us—talents, resources, reputation—doing good works from a transformed heart, treating others kindly as unto Jesus, to hear "Well done" and share His happiness, not burying gifts or being selfish goats but loving sheep.
Gratitude and Personal Testimony
Thank you. Well, you guys are awesome. You are just awesome. Good to see all of you, boy. You got them packed in here today. I love it when the church is crowded. Amen? You can be seated. I know you saw Dave walk me up here. And we all appreciate Dave, don't we? You appreciate Dave? You know, Dave and I have been married 52 years. Dave and I only had five dates, and he asked me to marry him. And he was dating. He was ready to get married, prayed about getting married, and said, Lord, make it somebody that needs help. And he got his prayers answered, let me tell you.
But I always laughed, because when I met him, he was already dating, what, two or three different girls? Three. And so I said, he's definitely a man that believed that faith without works was dead. He was going after it. And it's only by the grace and the mercy of God that we met and married, and I know it was a divine connection. And he's been very, very much a major part of the healing in my life.
Ministry Journey and God's Restoration
Well, I've had the privilege of teaching the Word of God now for about 43 years. And I plan to do it until Jesus takes me home, God willing. And I've also had the privilege of writing lots of books. It's always interesting to me, because my teachers in school recognized that I had a gift for writing, and they wanted me to go for a journalism scholarship and go to college. But because of the situation I was in at home, I was unable to do that. I just wanted to get away from my dad as fast as I could and get a job and take care of myself and not ever need anybody again.
Anybody else here ever felt like that? You just wanted to get away and not have to need anybody. But I think it's interesting that I didn't get to go to college for that degree in journalism. But God has allowed me to write about 135 books. So, what you might have missed in life, God can more than make up to you if you trust Him to do that.
Book Recommendations and Prayer
And so, I'm not going to go over all these in detail, but just to mention that my newest book is called Healing the Soul of a Woman. And this is How to Overcome Emotional Wounds. You know, hurting in your soul, feeling bad about yourself when God doesn't want you to, or having been rejected or abused or abandoned, can leave you with a lot of wounds that only God can get to and take care of. And not only do they affect you, but they affect the other people that you're in relationship with. And so, I encourage you, if that's you, or you know somebody like that, this book, I think, would be a blessing.
And I just tell the guys, just get a marker and block off the woe and you're in good shape. They told me we sold out of the secret power of speaking God's Word, but I just want to let you know that we have it for kids now. This is a book of confessions and things to declare over your life. What a great benefit to get your kids speaking God's Word while they're young. And I've also done some commentaries on some of the epistles. And so, we have Ephesians and James, and these are for people that really want to study. You want to do more than just read over the scriptures. You don't want to get in and find out the depth of what they mean. So, lots of good stuff out there for you, devotional, on being a confident woman.
Now, how many of you are ready for some Word? Amen. Well, Father, we pray over the Word this morning, and for all the hearers and for the speaker, bring out of my mouth what you want and let people easily understand it and let it affect them in such a way that there really will be a permanent change in their life for the better. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Overview of Matthew 25 Parables
All right, we are talking today, I started this morning in the first service, about the three parables that are found in Matthew chapter 25. And they are the parable of the ten virgins, the five wise and the five foolish. We found out this morning that the five that were foolish were foolish because they didn't do anything extra. The wise ones took their lamps, but they took extra oil, just in case they had to wait a little longer than they thought they would.
Made a couple of good points about even why people are late. They don't... they plan for perfection. They don't plan for anything to happen that could delay them. And so, we need to be prepared. We need to be planned. And we're living in very difficult times right now where we need to... The Bible says, watch and pray. And that really means to live carefully. Be careful how you live. The devil roams about like a lion, roaring in fierce hunger, seeking whom he may devour. But you don't have to let it be you. Amen?
Winning Battles as Christians
Matter of fact, my book that's coming out this fall is called Your Battles Belong to the Lord. But that doesn't mean that there's absolutely nothing for you to do. We're partners with God. It's just about learning how to hear from God and doing the right thing at the right time. Lisa talked about praise and worship. Sometimes that's all God wants you to do when you're in a battle. You've done everything you can do. No, He just wants you to praise and worship Him.
Maybe there's something that you need to take care of in your life that's got a door open to the enemy. Maybe there's some bitterness or... You know, sometimes you can have an offense in your heart. And it's been there so long that you don't even really know it's there. And it's bothering you. But God can show us things like that. So, I always believe in asking God, what's wrong? Is there something that you want me to do? Or do you want me just to wait on you and just praise you? We can win our battles if we know how to fight like a Christian. Amen?
And so, the message really in these three talents is kind of all the same. It's about doing what you should do when you should be doing it and not putting things off and losing your reward. Now, we don't earn our way into heaven. We don't earn salvation. It's a free gift given completely by the grace of God. And it's offered to all. Jesus has already paid for your salvation. So, if you haven't received Christ yet, there's a free gift waiting for you today that you can have for the asking. You don't have to go out and try to make yourself better in order to deserve it. It's just a free gift waiting for you.
Transformed Heart and Good Works
But once a person is born again, they receive a new nature. We receive the nature of God. We receive the spirit of God. And we receive the heart of God. In Ezekiel, the Bible says that he takes the stony, hard, cold heart out of us and gives us a heart of flesh, one that is sensitive to the touch of God. And so, I believe that anybody who is truly born again, and that doesn't mean you just go to church on Sunday. That means that you are... your life is all about God now. You've turned away from sin, turned away from being in love with the world, and you want what God wants for your life.
And so, there are good works to consider. However, James said, faith without works is dead. We don't work for our salvation, but if we are truly saved, you cannot have the heart of God and not want to do good things. Amen? So, if you think you're saved, but you just don't care anything about other people, you better back up and do some checking. Because it's not just a matter of saying a certain prayer at a certain time and joining a church and going to church once a week. This is about receiving Christ and letting Him change us from glory to glory and continuing to grow spiritually.
I'm still growing spiritually. I'm learning all the time. And that's what we need to have the attitude that we want to do. But the devil wants to stop us. In case you haven't figured it out, he hates you. Just to put it as plain as I know how to put it. And anything, anytime that you try to do something good, Paul said, when I want to do good, evil always comes. So, there's a little bit of a fighting the devil, so to speak. But we have already won. We just need to know how to fight right.
Parable of the Talents: Use What You're Given
And these parables, all three of them, teach us that it's very important to use what God has given us. The ten virgins was the first parable. And the next one is the parable of the talents. And the third one is the parable of the sheep and the goats. And we're going to get through these last two in this service. We all receive from God what we're able to handle. We don't all get what somebody else has got. Maybe you're jealous of somebody who's got a lot more money than you and you just don't understand it. But there is a possibility, no matter what you think, that if you had what they have, it would be more than you could handle and it could take you away from God. Do you know that? Yeah, you don't want to know that, do you?
Let me tell you something. Money has power. Position has power. There's a lot of people, worldly people, whose lives are ruined by becoming famous. And so, you might finagle around in the world and get more than you really can handle and it'd end up just ruining your life. But as God's child, if you're trusting God to give you what's right for you, it may not always, well, let's just say, it won't always be the same as what somebody else has. Everybody gets something, but nobody gets everything.
No Jealousy – Everyone Has Their Portion
So, it's kind of silly to be jealous of what somebody else has because if that's what God wanted you to have, then you would have that. So, we need to be glad for other people. And let's don't just pray for what we want. Let's ask God to give us what we can handle and still keep Him first in our lives. Could I say that again? Let's ask God to give us what we can handle and still keep Him number one in our lives.
I think sometimes about Rachel and Leah, two women in the Bible that were sisters, and Jacob loved Rachel. She was a beautiful woman, and he loved her, and he worked for his uncle Laban for seven years to get her as a bride. And she had a sister, Leah, and the Bible says of Rachel that she was beautiful to behold, and of Leah, it says she had weak, dull eyes. Now, I guess that means she wasn't very pretty. It's just kind of a nice way of saying she was not the good-looking sister.
But the thing that's interesting is Rachel had a difficult time becoming pregnant and bearing children, but Leah could just have them one after the other, one after the other. And so, back in those things, they did things a little different. And he worked for seven years for Rachel, and then he got tricked and deceived, and on the wedding night, they got him drunk, and he woke up the next morning and had Leah. The weak-eyed, dull-eyed Leah. But Leah could give Jacob sons and daughters right away. He worked another seven years and got Rachel, but it was many, many, many years before Rachel ever had a child, and then she finally had Joseph, and then she had Benjamin.
And I get a lot out of that because I look at it like nobody gets everything, but we all get something. And our job is to find out what our something is and put it to good use in our life. Now listen to me, without comparing what we have to what somebody else has. That's a big thing. Because here's the thing, it doesn't matter if what you have or can do seems big or little to you or to the world. The only thing that God holds us accountable for is to do the most we can with what He's given to us. And if we do that, the janitor in the building gets the same reward as the CEO of the company.
Faithfulness in Stewardship
God never expects us to do anything He hasn't given us the ability to do. So maybe a few of you could just calm down today and stop comparing yourself with other people and tormenting yourself, wishing that you were something you're not or that you have something you don't. And I'm not going to stop until you clap on that because that was good. Well, I wish I looked like you. You know, it's hard to look at Lisa up here and not wish you had her waist. It's like, my goodness. I think the top of my leg is bigger than her waist is. But you know what? I've learned a long time ago that it's just total waste of time to be jealous of what somebody else has. That's never going to help you get what they've got.
So the parable of the talents, Matthew 25, 14, again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. And this is exactly what God has done with us. I don't know if you know it or not, but Jesus has entrusted us with his reputation. Think of that responsibility. Do you know, you may be the only Jesus that your neighbors will ever see. So what kind of a Jesus are they seeing? Are they seeing somebody with a bumper sticker on their car? Are they seeing somebody that's got the good fruit of the Spirit being displayed in your life?
We're not owners of anything. We're stewards. Everything that we have is a gift from God. And what he gives us, we need to invest, take good care of, and give him a good return. From the beginning of Genesis, the Bible says, be fruitful and multiply. Don't just give me back what I've given you. Go out there and put my gift to work.
God gave me a mouth. And I have a gift of communication. That is my gift. I am a good communicator. I seem to be able to make my point fairly easy in a practical way that people can understand. Now, I'll be honest with you, I'm not extremely intelligent. I'd say I've got average intelligence. I'm not dumb, but I'm intelligent. Somewhat intelligent. And, like, you know who Chris Cain is? All right. Chris, she is brilliant. She is very smart. Always got real high grades in school. Well, I wasn't like that. But I got to give the high school graduation speech. See? I could always talk. And so, I talk. And I let other people do what they can do.
Avoiding Comparison and Jealousy
And when God, you know, I used to sit out there and I'd be jealous of somebody who had a great voice. I wish I could sing like that. I wish I had hair like that. I wish, I wish, I wish. And really, God puts gifts in other people for us to enjoy them, not to be jealous of them. Because if we're jealous of somebody else's gift, see, you're enjoying my gift this weekend, but it's making me tired. I mean, by the time I go home, you'll go home, oh, that changed my grasp. Boy, is that ever good? I'm going to go, Jesus, am I still alive?
So, it's silly to be jealous of other people. The gift that's in them is for you to enjoy. So, to one, he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one. And I love this in verse 15, each according to his ability. And you don't have to feel bad about yourself because your ability is not what somebody else's is. You're not responsible for anything except what God has given you to be responsible for. Amen?
If a pastor's watching this by TV and you've pastored a church that's got 150 people and you've been pastoring it for 40 years and here you look at this church on TV, Joel Osteen's church and you know he didn't even want to preach and God just pushed it on him and the church just grew like crazy and now he's got this big arena that seats 16,000 people and they have multiple services on the weekend. Well, how easy would it be to think, well, God, what's wrong with me? Why do I have to just deal with these same 150 people year after year after year?
You know what? Because that's what God has assigned to you and this is what God has assigned to Joel and the thing is is if you try to do what Joel's doing, all it's going to do is make you unhappy. And he couldn't do what you're doing if he tried because God's got a different anointing on him.
Faithful Servants' Reward
You know, this is why Dave and I get along good in this relationship that we have even though normally the situation would be reversed where he'd be up here and I'd be down there and he had a conversation with God about this in the beginning because he really didn't want to be in ministry and he really didn't understand why God chose me to teach and not him. But Dave's smart. He gets things quick and he's big on being happy and being peaceful. How many of you are big on being happy and being peaceful? Well, so Dave likes it so much that he'll make whatever change and adjustment he needs to make really quick to keep it.
So the things that were happening in him were not making him happy will always have joy. This is what I've called her to do. This is what I've called you to do. You'll both be happy if you both do what you're supposed to do. And you know really the bottom line is none of our business why God chooses one for one thing and another for somebody else. All we need to do is be sweet little sheep which we're going to learn about today the sheep and the goats and just do the part that God has given you.
Now the man who received five bags of gold went at once. There you go. He's not the procrastinator we talked about this morning. He went at once and put his money to work and he gained five more bags. So also the one who had two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
God entrusts us with talents abilities wealth his reputation and unbelievers and skeptics look at us to see if the claims about Jesus are real. He gives each according to his ability and I'll tell you what people want more than anything in this world they want peace and they want joy and that's the main thing that they should see consistent in any believer's life is peace even in the midst of a storm and joy that doesn't make any sense.
See you don't have to have a lot of something to be happy. Money doesn't make you happy sometimes it can make you very unhappy. Do you know that everything you own is something else you've got to take care of? Yeah well. God won't give us more than we can handle and we should never be jealous of somebody else who Special needs child, I'm sure that challenges your life. But God will give you grace for that place.
If you're in a marriage that's not yet what you want it to be, and it's hard and challenging, and you're married to an unbeliever or somebody that was a believer and fell away from God, but you believe that it's what God has assigned you, what if Dave wouldn't have married me? I wouldn't be here doing what I'm doing. Because I didn't need somebody to preach to me, I needed somebody to live Jesus in front of me. And that's what he did. And eventually it changed me.
So God will give you the grace for your place. So it's pretty obvious to see why he gave the first man five bags of gold and the last man only one, because the guy that got the most did the most with it, and God already knew that he would be like that. So do the most you can with what God has given you, and stop being jealous of people that you think have more than you do, because really, you both just have what you can handle, and that's the thing that's important.
Use It or Lose It
That man could handle less, and so he got less. I'm so glad to know I don't have to compare and compete with other people. The last man received less than anybody else, and it's obvious why. He did nothing with the little bit that he had. Therefore, he would have done nothing with a lot if he would have had a lot.
See, we think, oh, I mean, I have people tell me this. Joyce, if I had a million dollars, I'd give it to you. No, you wouldn't. If that was true, I'd get a lot more million-dollar offerings, because I've had a lot of people say that to me. If you won't give the ten dollars you got, you won't give a million if you had a million. And God tests our faithfulness. He starts by giving us something small, and if we're faithful to use that properly, then he'll promote us. And then we'll stay there for a while, and we'll be tested on that level.
I can look at my ministry. The first two and a half years, I taught a home Bible study. Twenty-five people in my living room floor every Tuesday night. Two and a half years. I quit a full-time job to study. Every month, we had to have a miracle just to pay our bills. I remember buying my kids' shoes at garage sales, and we had some very tough, lean years. And then after a while, somebody asked me to teach another Bible study in their home, and so for two and a half years, I taught two Bible studies. So, first five years of my ministry was just teaching these home Bible studies.
And I would study six, seven hours for each message that I got back then, because I didn't know anything. I just knew that I was a mess, and Jesus loved me, and I was learning and just trying it out on everybody else to see if it would work for them like it was me. It's a good thing that, you know, and to be honest, I could preach back then pretty much like I can now, and I didn't understand why God kept me confined to that small amount of people.
But I can remember watching other preachers on television thinking, I don't know why you're on TV. I could preach circles around you. Okay, that's why I was still in my living room floor. It wasn't because of what I could do, it was because of a wrong attitude that needed to be worked out of me.
And so, instead of being jealous of what other people have, maybe we should do an attitude check. Come on. Maybe you're a goat and not a sheep. We're going to talk about them in a few minutes. Goats are more intelligent than sheep. But sheep are sweeter. I wish sometimes that I could accurately sit somebody down and make them understand what the early days were like. Dave and I talk all the time about driving to places to speak and not even having money to stay in a hotel at night, having to pull over and sleep in a McDonald's parking lot till he could wake up and drive a little bit more.
That's why it's so dumb to be jealous of what somebody's got, especially if you don't want to do what they did to get it. Amen. So, after a long time, the master returned and settled accounts. I love that. He's coming back to settle accounts. The man who'd received five bags of gold brought the master the other five. And he said, you entrusted me with five bags of gold. Here, I've gained five more.
I'm in Matthew 25, 21. And his master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. But here's the exciting part. Come and share your master's happiness. See, that's much more important than the fact that he got natural rewards. Share in your master's happiness.
The second man with the two bags of gold, the exact same thing. Well done, now good and faithful servant. You handled a little bit well. I'll give you more. Come and enter into your master's happiness.
You know what? Really what we want is to be happy. Everybody's out shopping today, just trying to buy a little happiness. It's really... And we're only going to be happy if we're doing the part that God has given us to do to the best of our ability and not being concerned about everybody else. Amen?
Come on, some of you single girls wish you were married. Some of you married women wish you were single. You know, being married has its benefits, but being single has its benefits. You know, if you're single and you want to go out to that resource table and buy everything on it, you don't have to call home and get somebody's permission to do it. You can do what you want to. So maybe you don't have it as bad as you think you do. Come on.
The Wicked and Lazy Servant
After a long time, the master returned. That was the same way with the ten virgins. After a long time, the master returned. And our job is to just keep doing what's right, keep doing what's right, keep doing what's right until he finally shows up. The man who took his bag of gold and buried it, he immediately was afraid and he took it and he hid it. But when the master came back in Matthew 25, 26, his master replied, you wicked, lazy, idle servant. Wicked. Wicked. Called him wicked because he hadn't done anything with what he had.
You know what? I don't want to make anybody mad, but I'm leaving. I won't be back for six months so I can take a chance. If all you're doing is coming and sitting in church a couple times a month and you're not really doing anything with your gifts and talents, you're not doing anything to make anybody else's life better, you never have time for anybody else, you don't encourage other people, you don't help, you're not the one to help when somebody needs to move.
You know, if you're not doing anything for anybody else, then... Should I say to you what Jesus said to that man? You wicked, lazy. And you know what? You won't be happy. A lot of people wonder why they're not happy. Sometimes I wonder how so many Christians can be so unhappy. But I know because God had to teach it to me. He said, you are unhappy because you are selfish. What you care about is Joyce Meyer and until you get Joyce Meyer off your mind and you start paying attention to what you can do for other people to make them happy.
See, the only way you're going to be happy is to try to make other people happy. Come on, you got to get this quick because as usual, I've taken too much time on the first half and... He says, well then... See, he had a wrong idea about God. He said, I was afraid of you. I thought you were a hard master. If you know God, you know that you don't have to be afraid. You can step out and try and if you fail, you're normal. That was our message last night. Anybody here last night? Did you come last night? See, some of you are just being little piggies this weekend. You're getting everything you can get.
The best kind of spiritual warfare to do is the warfare of love. Two of the most important things the Bible says is faith and love. Continue strong in faith and walk in love. And in Psalm 37, it's talking about evil people and you don't need to fret about all the evil in the world. And in verse 3, it says, trust in the Lord and do good. And if you just concentrate on that, you're going to have a good life. You don't have to get up every day and worry about everything that's going on in the world. You don't have to be jealous of what other people have. You don't have to be all wrought up about whether you're married or you're not married or you have this or you don't have that. You just need to get up every day, trust God, and do good.
Come on, this is Christianity 101 made easy. Joyce, what's wrong with my life? No matter what, I seem to be unhappy. What's wrong? Why can't I be content? Well, get your mind off yourself and start seeing what you can do for other people. Sheep and goats. By the way, the guy who buried his talent, the master took it away from him and gave it to the guy who had the most. So, the message is use it or lose it. Amen.
Parable of the Sheep and the Goats
All right, the sheep and the goats. Now, to me, this is, this has a deep, deep meaning that is so beautiful if we can just grasp this. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels are with him, he will sit on his throne and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
In the Bible, the right hand is always the side of power. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God in heavenly places. Then the king will say to those on the right, come you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.
Then the righteous will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you? And the king will reply, truly I say unto you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it for me.
Oh, my God. People say, I'd love to see God. Well, look in the eyes of the person next to you. God's in people. And please get what I'm going to say. He is very picky about how we treat people. And I can tell you that I believe from my own personal experience that nothing grieves God more than when we, as Christians, mistreat other people. Belittle them, are rude to them, have no time for them.
You want a ministry? Most of you, it's not going to be a platform ministry. But you can have a ministry that's even more important than what I'm doing up here right now. My daughter, thankfully, we've taught our kids this and we see them doing it. My daughter said the other day, she said, I don't know what it is with me lately, but she said, I seem to be, God seems to have assigned me to talk to all the elderly.
And she told me how she was coming out of the grocery store and this older gentleman was coming out and he just started talking to her and talking to her and telling her all about his cat and his this and that and something else. And she said, you know, I really wanted to get my groceries in the car and get home. But she said, I knew God wanted me to just stand there and listen to that man.
Now, you want to put a smile on God's face? That's the way to do it. I remember a long time ago, I was in ministry, had my bumper sticker, had my rhinestone Jesus pin. I was on staff at the church, had my own parking place with my name on it. Had a seat in the church with my name on it. I want you to understand I was important. I knew the right people. I was on the staff.
One day I was in the doctor's office and an old man was trying to talk to me about his leg and why he was there. And he kept going on and on and on about this leg and the snow and on and on. And I had my Bible and I had my plan. And I actually said, Lord, will you please shut him up? So I can pray and read my Bible. I wanted to sit there and be religious.
Oh, how religious I would have looked in the doctor's office reading my Bible and being spiritual. And I tell you, the Lord got me. He said, let me ask you a question. If that was Billy Graham, would you take time to listen to him? Ooh. Yes. Why? Because he could have maybe done something for me. This old man couldn't do anything for me. So I had no interest in him. Come on now. This is how I've learned stuff. The hard way. I don't give you anything to eat that I haven't had to eat myself.
Are you understanding this? Oh, you have a ministry. Every one of you has a ministry. There's not a person in here that doesn't have a ministry. But maybe you're so intent on having a ministry where you can be noticed and seen and have a title and be well thought of that you're totally missing the joy of the Lord. You're missing the happiness of the Lord because you won't just give yourself to those little things in secret that God would have you do and maybe never tell anybody.
Come on. Oh, I believe those things that we do are some of the most important. You know, then he turns this around and I don't have time to sit here and read it all but he says and if you have not done it to the least of these, my brethren then you have not done it unto me. So, it seems to me that God takes it very personally how we treat people.
Sheep vs. Goats: Sweetness Over Stubbornness
And I can tell you if you just go out of here today and spend the rest of your life trusting God and doing good. Not to earn salvation. We don't do good to earn anything from God. We want to do good because of what he has done for us. If you want to put a smile on God's face put a smile on somebody else's face.
Now, sheep and goats are very different in nature. Goats are more intelligent but sheep are sweeter. You know, I always say I'd rather have I love low maintenance employees. You know, people who don't always want and need something else to keep them on the team. And I say, I'd rather have somebody that's not quite as talented but has a really good heart than somebody who is brilliant with a stinky attitude. Amen.
And I believe God feels the same way. Let's just put it like this. Goats are stubborn and they head-butt their way through life. Come on. You can always be head-butting something. I always say, goats say, but, but, but, but. But, and sheep just say, bah, bah, bah.
How about if we make a decision today that we're going to give ourselves to just doing more good works? Not, not to get something from God. He's already given us everything He can give us. We don't need Him. I don't do what I do for God to give me something. I want to give something back. And the thing He's asked me to do is treat other people good, especially the ones that are hurting. Amen.
Closing Prayer and Altar Call
Father, I pray for everybody here, including myself, that we would walk in love in a greater way. And that we would really care about things that most of the world don't care about. Listening to somebody that maybe doesn't interest us at all, taking time to do something for somebody that we really don't want to take the time to do. Father, I pray that we would follow Your guidance and Your leadership instead of our own will. I ask it in Jesus' name.
Now, if you're here today and you've never surrendered your life to God, you want to receive Christ today, you want to be a Christian, you say, I want to be a follower of Christ. We want to pray with you. God's already done everything that needs to be done. All you need to do today is just receive it. You don't need to do anything except just receive it. You say, but I'm such a mess. You know what? You're never going to get yourself changed without God in your life. Don't wait to try to change thinking you have to change for God to have you. He wants to take you just the way you are today. Amen?
Now, please listen and not so much moving around, you know. Somebody's soul here may depend on you being still for a few minutes. If you're here today and you say, I've never received Christ as my Savior, but I'm ready to surrender my life and receive Him. Or if you say, I was serving God at one time, but I've walked away from God, fell back into sin, and I want to renew and rededicate myself to God. Or maybe you're here today and you say, Joyce, I just don't know if I'm born again. I go to church, but I don't really know that I'm saved. I'm one of those people that just go to church, but I can't really say that I'm doing much for anybody else.
I want to pray with you if that's you today. So if you just slip your hand up nice and high and let me see where it's at. None of these little down here. Let's see you out there. Okay, I see lots of hands. Now, I'm going to ask you to... If you mean it, I'm just going to ask you to stand up right where you're at. I'm not going to bring you down to the front, but just stand up. You say, I don't want anybody to see me. Well, why not? Come on. Come on. Very good. Come on. Take a stand for Jesus. Come on. Amen. Come on. If you won't take a stand in here, you'll never go out there and take one.
All right. Remain standing. This is good for you. It may be a little hard, but it's so good for you. So many people up in the balconies and the upper areas. Now, let's all pray this prayer with them. Father God, God, I love you. Jesus, I do believe in you. I believe that you died for me. You took the punishment I deserved. You paid for my sin. And I am a sinner. And I'm sorry for my sins. I'm sorry for the way I've lived. But I want to turn around. I repent. I want to follow you with my life now.
Jesus, I receive you into my heart as my Savior and my Lord. I believe I'm forgiven. I believe you love me. I know there's work to be done in my life. But I believe you'll do it. I surrender myself to you. Take me just the way I am. And make me what you want me to be. Now, I believe I'm saved. I'm a child of God. And God loves me. Amen. Come on, give God a praise.