Joyce Meyer - How Your Mind Affects The World Around You (08/22/2019)
Joyce Meyer teaches that people are everywhere, and our thoughts about them shape our relationships and happiness. Instead of judging or being negative, choose to believe the best, smile, listen, help others, forgive faults, and walk in love daily – preparing mentally to be used by God, as true ministry starts with being nice and covering sins with love.
People Are Everywhere – Choose How to Think About Them
Has anybody noticed that people are absolutely everywhere? And you can either let them drive you crazy or you can learn how to enjoy them, and it basically depends on how we decide to think about people.
Now, we do have a lot of thoughts about people. We have thoughts and opinions about people we don't even know. Why are you wearing your hair that way? What are you doing that for? Just silly stuff.
Dave and I got in this huge conversation one day over how the man next door to us should be investing his money, and we didn't even know his name. That's how silly we are. He was a single man living in this big house, and I'm like, why do you suppose that guy wants to live in that big house?
And Dave said, I don't know, maybe it's an investment. And I said, well, I don't think I'd invest it in a house. I think I'd take it. And then all of a sudden, I realized, we're driving down the street planning this guy's financial future, and we wouldn't have even known how to say, hi, Fred, or Sam, or whatever. We didn't even know the man's name.
You're with me? All right.
We All Have Silly Judgments
And so, we are going to think about people, and we need to learn how to think about them right. Like, would you want to be friends with you? I don't know about that giggling. That's like, well, I don't know. I don't know about that.
Because the kind of friend that you are will determine how many really good friends that you have in life. Amen?
So, our thoughts, words, and attitudes affect our friendships in many ways. To be honest, nobody has to be lonely. If you're lonely, maybe it's because you're sitting back and waiting for somebody to come and befriend you.
Well, maybe you need to go out and sow a few seeds, and then that will begin to come back to you.
The Universal Language of a Smile
I will tell you a language that is universal, and I've learned to practice this language. It's the language of a smile. I don't care what language people speak. You smile at them. There are almost no people that won't smile back.
Every once in a while, I'll run into somebody that you smile at them, they look at you like you're crazy. But honestly and truly, and I was not normally and naturally that kind of person. I've always got something on my mind. I'm always thinking about something.
And believe me, I can get out in public and totally ignore everybody and everything that's going on, because I'm always like in China or Paris or whatever's going to happen next.
But I have learned to take the time to just acknowledge and smile at people, and I almost never have people not smile back. So that's a language that you can use everywhere, and I think it's the language of God.
I believe that God is smiling over us right now.
Form the Habit of Smiling
So we're going to start by exercising our face. We're going to form a habit. I mean, not going out and looking like a clown. You know, you don't have to go. But just a nice, pleasant, little smile.
It's amazing. I mean, you get in an elevator and you say, good morning. Everybody will say good morning back. There's very few people that aren't going to say something back.
So we need to take a little more initiative. Come on.
Well, you say, I don't want any friends. I just want to be left alone. No, you don't. And if that's your attitude, then there's something wrong inside that you need to get in there and get fixed.
Maybe you got hurt somewhere sometime, and so now you just think you're not going to mess with anybody at all. But that is not the way that God created us to be. We all are connected, whether we want to be or not. Amen?
Good. I got one person who likes this. I'm happy for that.
Positive Attitude Attracts People
Now, first of all, let me say this. A positive attitude attracts people. A negative attitude usually doesn't win you very many friends.
Now, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but I just want to throw this out for you to think about. Everybody does not want to just hear your problems all the time.
Now, it's great to have a good friend that you can share with. But you don't have to share and share and share and share and share and share and share and share and share. And then when you wear that one out, go find another one and share and share and share and share and share and share and share.
So if you have a habit of just talking about your problems all the time, it's time to make a new habit. And that is to find something good to talk about.
Don't Talk Only About Yourself
And I'll just throw this out for good measure, too. Your friends don't want to just hear you talk about yourself all the time.
Now, I know none of you do this. You're going to buy this teaching for somebody else you know that's like this.
I told Dave this morning, I said, Boy, you are going to learn a lot today about how to be a friendlier person. Actually, if you don't want this, I'll preach to myself.
People used to say to me, You know, when I first met you, I didn't like you at all. And I didn't know what the problem was. Well, I wasn't very likable. I talked about my problems all the time. I was selfish and self-centered.
If I talked about anything, I wanted to talk about myself. And people will always respond to you if you ask them about them. Well, tell me about your life. You learn how to say that, tell me about your life.
You probably won't have to say much else. Do you have children? Where do you live? What kind of work do you do? Act interested in people.
But then that's giving, isn't it? To give our time to really listen to people that maybe we really don't even care about.
True Spirituality Is Being Nice
You know, I was in a doctor's office one day, many years ago. I'm always glad when I tell these bad stories about me to be able to say it was many years ago. So this is many, many years ago.
And I was just really getting started in ministry. And I'm sitting in his doctor's office and this little old man who broke his leg on the snow, he kept wanting to tell me about his leg.
Well, I wasn't. I didn't want to hear about his leg. I had my Bible. And I wanted to be spiritual. I didn't want to be nice to that man. I wanted to be spiritual. Is anybody out there today? Come on.
I said, I did not want to be nice to the little old lonely man who had broke his leg. I wanted to sit there and pray under my breath and read my Bible and think how pleased God was with me because I was studying and praying in the doctor's office. Come on.
What is true spirituality? You can have your whole Bible underlined but if you're not nice to people then the Bible says no matter what you do if you have not love all you are is a big noise and a loud clanging cymbal.
One new commandment I give unto you that you love one another just as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples.
Let me tell you something. Every single one of you is in ministry. Don't sit and say well I wish I was in ministry. You are in ministry. Everywhere you go you're in ministry.
We are what? The light of the world. And in case you haven't noticed it's pretty dark out there. So everywhere you go you need to let your light shine.
And that doesn't mean that you have to preach a three part series to everybody you come in contact with. We can start by just being nice. Love is not rude.
This is going to be a better day than I thought it might.
Love Is About Giving
So anyway I didn't really want to listen to that guy. And because you see love is all about giving. It's not about getting. It's about giving.
And then this thought came to my heart and I must assume that it was God because I doubt that I would have thought this in the middle of my plan there. And this was what came to my heart.
If that was Billy Graham sitting there would you be happy to talk to him? Let me tell you what if Billy Graham would have been there he could have told me about his leg every follicle of his hair his fingernails I mean I wouldn't have I'd have been like Because if Billy Graham would have talked to me it would have made me feel important.
But that little old guy wasn't doing anything for me God had opened up a door for me to do something for him.
How do we think before we go out every day? We need to prepare ourselves to be used by God every time we go out our door.
And part of your prayer life and part of your time with God that you don't know what to do with can be actually mental preparation thinking thoughts on purpose that will prepare you to go out and be ready to pay attention to what's going on around you and be used by God any time that God wants to use you. Amen?
Do you have a joy draining effect on other people? Are they glad when you leave? Or are they sad when you leave? When they see you coming and say oh boy here comes John or do they think oh no here comes John.
You know Dave is very positive and in general everybody likes Dave and Dave likes everybody now this this is going to sound like it couldn't possibly be true but I'm telling you that it is in the whole 40 years that I've been 48 years I've been married to Dave in 48 years maybe I can remember two times in 48 years when he told me he didn't like somebody twice in 48 years He didn't like somebody.
I'm glad I'm talking about Dave and not me, because... Oh, buddy.
His thoughts toward people are positive. He sees the good in people. Every Christian's a good Christian. That guy's a good Christian.
I don't know why that bothers me, but I'm like, you don't know if they're good. You don't know what's going on behind closed doors.
And not only that, when somebody called Jesus good, he said, why do you call me good? There is none good but God.
So the bottom line is, any goodness we have is only in Christ. It's not in ourselves. So that has nothing to do with anything, but there it is.
Think on These Things – Philippians 4:8
Philippians chapter 4, verse 8. Isn't Jesus so much fun? For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence, whatever is honorable and unseemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there's any virtue and excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things, fix your minds on them.
So we only get to think pretty thoughts. We don't get to think ugly stuff.
How does love behave toward other people? Well, honestly, I believe that all loving action begins in our thoughts about how we're going to see people, how we're going to determine the worth of people.
Just because everybody out there is not like me, that doesn't mean there's something wrong with them. But I spent a lot of my years thinking that. And some of you are probably still stuck there.
Well, what's the matter with you? How could you think that? How could you possibly want to wear that? How could you possibly think your hair looks good?
See, just because I don't like something, that doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with it. We are not the standard. Come on, this is better than you're acting.
We are not the standard for everybody else in the universe. We have rights, and they have rights.
Love Believes the Best – 1 Corinthians 13:7
1 Corinthians 13, 7 says, love bears up under anything and everything that comes. Now, here we go. It is ever ready to believe the best of every person.
Love thinks good things about people, and love believes the best.
Now, if we can get this love believes the best, thing. You see, I think that's the way David's, you know, where I started out many, many, many years ago as a judgmental, critical, fault finder.
Do I have any relatives in here today? Let me add one. A suspicious, critical, fault finding, judgmental person. I didn't believe the best. I believe the worst.
And that was because I'd had a lot of bad things happen to me. And I had seen a lot of some of the worst of people.
But just because I had a reason to be that way, I didn't have a right to stay that way.
Now, I want to say that again. Just because you have a reason to be negative because of things that have happened in the past, once we know the truth, then we have no right to stay that way, because God is offering us a better life.
But it's got to be according to His way of getting there, not our own way.
And the more we love people, the more we get ourselves off of our minds, the more we smile, the more we take time to listen to other people that we'd really rather not even mess with the happier we're going to be.
Well, I just want to be left alone. Well, you're not going to get left alone. They're everywhere. Everywhere.
I get up really early in the morning just so I can have like an hour in the house before Dave gets up. And Dave is one of the good ones. But I'm telling you, when I get up, I don't want to hear nothing for a while. It's like, give me my coffee and leave me alone.
And he gets up and starts singing. I'm like, oh, really?
The other day, I told you a little story before about how he dribbles the soap and all the dishes at night. And I accidentally put my shake and something that had Dawn dish washing liquid in it. And I drank the soap.
Well, Dave is going around in the rest of the day singing that old song. I'm forever blowing bubbles. Oh, yeah.
It's quite humorous at our house. We have our own brand of entertainment at this stage.
See, when we decide to believe the best, and it does start with a decision. You could make a big change today if you're negative just by saying, you know, God, I really don't want to be negative anymore. I'm sorry that I've been negative.
And I want you to start convicting me every time that I'm negative and help me change.
You know, when we have bad habits, habits are things that we do without even realizing that we're doing them. And so the first thing we need to do is ask God to start making us aware of what we're doing so we can ask Him then to help us do it the right way.
You can train yourself to believe the best of people because it only hurts you when you don't.
What we believe helps us or hurts us. Doesn't hurt the other person, it hurts us. Many times they don't even know what you're thinking. They may feel the weight of your thoughts if they're negative, but they don't really know what you're thinking about them.
But you know, and God knows, and it affects us.
Believing the Best Makes Forgiveness Easier
When we believe the best of people, it's so much easier to forgive people when they hurt our feelings.
Oh my gosh. You can either say, well, you did that on purpose and I'm not going to put up with it anymore. Or you can say to yourself, I'm going to believe the best. I don't think they really knew that they were hurting me.
Or I bet they're having a bad day today and something's hurting them. You know, hurting people hurt people.
Most people don't get up every day just to go see how mean they can beat everybody. They've just got problems in their own life.
And when we see people acting that way, it's a great opportunity as a believer to pray for them.
First Peter 4.8 says, above all things, all things, have intense and unfailing love for one another. For love covers a multitude of sins, forgives and disregards the offenses of others.
When you believe the best of people, it's so much easier to do this. I love this part about love covers faults.
Are you the kind of person that tells everybody's secrets? Or are you the kind of person that keeps people's secrets? If you had a secret, would you feel safe telling it to you? Hmm.
Love goes out of the house, mentally prepared to help people. Think about it.
I have trained myself to do this. And if I can train myself to do it, anybody can train themselves to do it.
This morning, as part of my time with God, as well as studying to get ready to come over here, I sat and I purposely thought, you can think on purpose. You don't have to wait to just see what falls in your head.
Take control of your thinking and think according to the way you want your life to be. You don't have to sit and just think about what you've got, and the way things have always been, and how mean people are, and how...
So I sat this morning and thought, now today when I go out, God, I want to be usable for you. I don't want to be used in my normal life, my other Joyce life, not this Joyce life.
I don't think it's enough just for me to do what I'm supposed to in this pulpit. If you want to know the truth, I think God is much more concerned about my private life than He is my public life.
And I don't think I'm going to have any power in this pulpit if I don't keep my private life, the one I live behind closed doors straight.
Love Looks for Ways to Help
Love always looks for people to help. But you've got to be mentally prepared before you go out of your house to do that, or you're not going to pay any attention.
I'm not even going to ask for a show of hands, but I just wonder how many people in here this morning even spent 30 seconds mentally thinking about asking God to help you notice people today that were in need and setting your mind to go out, be an encouragement, be friendly, be nice, help people.
Jesus, who was actually love in a body, and I love that, always took the time to help people. And he told a story letting us know how we should live.
Luke 10, 26 through 34. Jesus said to him, what is written in the law, how do you read it? And he said, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.
And you must love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said correctly, you have answered, Jesus said, you have answered correctly, do this.
I draw a circle around, do this. Because see, a lot of times, we know the answers, but we're not doing.
I mean, it doesn't matter how much you clap and cheer for my message today, if you don't go home now and do this.
So, if you would just even take a few minutes this afternoon, sit down somewhere and think on purpose. This is one of the ways that you renew your mind, is by thinking on purpose according to the Word of God.
I want to walk in love today. I'm going to walk in love today. Help me, Lord, walk in love today. I want to help somebody today.
Boy, let me tell you what, you start praying that every day. God, I want to help somebody today. You're going to be the busiest person you can possibly imagine.
I'll tell you one thing I'm not is bored. And frankly, I don't know how any Christian could be bored.
Do this and you will live, enjoy, active, blessed, endless life in the Kingdom of God. Is that not wonderful?
Now, do this and you will enjoy your life. I love it. We can just stop right here and have a shouting party.
And the man determined to acquit himself of reproach said to Jesus, well, who is my neighbor? Like he didn't know.
So Jesus, taking him up. I love that. It was like Jesus said, okay, I'll take that challenge.
A certain man was going from Jerusalem down to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him of his clothes and belongings and beat him and went on their way, unconcernedly leaving him half dead as it happened.
Can I tell you that you run into people like this every day? People that have been beat up by the world, they've been hurt, they've been abused, they've been mistreated and they're lying somewhere if not physically, mental and emotionally on the side of the road of life with no hope and no help.
And now we have some options about what we can do about it.
And now by coincidence, a certain priest, a religious man, was going down the road and when he saw the man lying there in such a mess, he passed by on the other side of the road. He crossed the street to get away from him. Oh my goodness.
Do we ever pull up to a stoplight and we hope that the light changes and we can get away before the guy begging gets to our window? You know, sometimes we just don't want to mess with the people in life that make us uncomfortable, we're not real sure.
Well, it's very simple. If you feel like God wants you to help him, help him. And if you feel like he doesn't, then don't. We got to use wisdom.
Not everybody out collecting money is actually really poor. Some of them are just getting rich. But you know, you're led by the Spirit. You'll know.
And I'll tell you what, I'd rather help somebody and be wrong than to not help somebody than be wrong. Amen?
I'd rather give somebody a couple of bucks and then have God say later on, you shouldn't have done that.
And then a Levite who was also another type of religious man came down to the place and saw him and he passed by on the other side of the road.
But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled along, came down to where he was and when he saw him, he was moved, everybody say moved, with pity and sympathy.
We need to just stop saying, I feel so sorry for them. It's okay to feel sorry for people, but we also need to be ready to move.
Where are you at? I'm going to keep just preaching just to you. You know, if nothing else, when you think of somebody that's hurt, then say a prayer for them. Be moved to say, God comfort them today.
Any little thing, anything other than nothing, the one thing we cannot keep doing is nothing. Nothing is no longer acceptable.
I tell you, I live an exciting life because I never know what God's going to have me do next. I don't like all of it, but I'm happy about working with him to bring help to people.
So he was moved with pity and sympathy, verse 34, and, and he went to him and dressed his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine.
And then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and he took care of them there.
And we had to go and finish some business that he had to do. He said to the inn owner, whatever it costs.
Now, I love that. Whatever it costs, you take care of him. And when I come back, I will pay you. Whatever it costs.
We don't have too many believers like that anymore. It's like, whatever is required, whatever it costs, whatever it takes, you can count on me.
Oh, you're not liking this like you ought to. Well, for crying out loud, Joyce, I've only got a certain amount of money.
Well, nobody's expecting anybody to do what they can't do. You know, God's even challenged me and it's... I hesitate to even tell you this because you're not going to like it. You're not going to want to apply this to your life, but I'll just tell you anyway.
Oh, God, help so and so. God told me one day, why don't you stop asking me to do things for people that you could easily do yourself and just don't want to.
A group of Christian men, many of them in ministry and some in business, were praying one day together and they began to pray about a certain conference that they were going to be having.
And one man began to pray that God would provide the sufficient funds needed for that conference. And they went on for a little bit and another man stopped and said, you know what? We don't really need to pray about that.
We don't even need to bother God with that because between us, we've all got what it would take to pay for this conference with no problem. Woo, buddy.
Oh, but you know what? We've got our little giving money and boy, if God wants anything besides that, it's going to be rough.
Well, I've done my giving this month. Now, how would we like it if God said that? What? Now, look, you've already been here three times this month and I've done my giving to you.
So, I'm having fun today. I don't know about you, but I'm having fun.
Would You Want to Be Friends with You?
Okay, so here's one of my questions. If you had a need, would you want to be friends with you? I can finally say yes, but there would have been a lot of years in my life when I would have had to have thought, eh, not so much.
How do we think about people when it comes to determining, judging them? You know, I don't know about you, but I mean, I have to work at this stuff. This don't all come naturally to me.
I mean, Dave maybe was born naturally nice and he loves everybody, but I ain't like that. And I mean, I can go sit in Starbucks and think, I don't think I like you.
Uh, look over here. Man, you look really weird.
And why don't we like people? Let me tell you something. Even if you just see a woman that's skinnier than you, you cannot like her.
One of my favorite things used to be to go sit in the mall and just judge people as they walked up and down the aisle. I mean, I'm telling you the truth. Just sit there and just... Well, what is a good looking guy like you doing with that woman? Huh?
See? You've done it too. Man, I don't get that at all. Well, maybe he's one of those people that cares more about the heart and the spirit of a person. Maybe he's actually acting a little more like God.
Okay, here it comes. Luke 6, 37. Judge not. Neither pronounce judgment, nor subject yourself to censor, and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn and pronounce guilty, and you will not be condemned and pronounced guilty. Acquit and forgive, release, give up resentment, let it drop, and you will be acquitted and forgiven and released.
Okay, here comes my question. If you made a mistake, would you want to be friends with you?
Well, okay, we better back up and go at that one a different way. In other words, how merciful am I when someone doesn't do it right the first three times? And how many times am I going to have to tell you the same thing over and over?
Look at life like a wheel. What you put on it always comes back around.
Dave and I have this little saying. He'll say to me, well, you put it on the wheel. You put it on the wheel.
Think ahead of time. I am not going to lose my temper today. When I go out of the house today, everything is not going to happen the way I want it to, and I'm going to be calm and even-tempered.
I'm not going to get upset every time. You think I'm kidding? I am not kidding.
Sit down and think like this on purpose. Don't sit there and think, if this happens, I'm going to be mad. And if that happens, I'm going to be mad.
Boy, if I don't get that promotion at work, I am going to be ticked off. And if you do that one more time, I'm out of here.
Avoid Stupid Arguments – 2 Timothy 2:23
2 Timothy 2, 23. 3. But refuse, shut your mind against. You know, everything gets back to the mind. Shut your mind against trifling, ill-informed, unedifying, stupid controversies over ignorant questions.
Don't you love the Amplified Bible? In other words, when stupid starts, just say, I'm out of here. This is going nowhere good, and I'm not participating. Amen?
Oh, my gosh. I remember how I used to argue with Dave just to get to be right about something. I used to start so many fights over that kind of stuff. Trifling, ill-informed, unedifying, stupid stuff that didn't make any difference to anybody.
Hello, is anybody home in your house?
Have you ever had an argument with anybody over who an actor or an actress was on TV? Probably most of you are too young to even know who Henry Fonda was, but Dave used to think everybody was Henry Fonda.
And I finally thought, you know, one night I was arguing with him, we were going to stay up real late and watch the credits on the movie to see who was right. Get in no sleep and be tired the next day.
And I mean, the Spirit of God spoke to me. Joyce, would it really make any difference to anybody's salvation if Dave lived his whole life and died thinking that was Henry Fonda? I don't know.
Refuse, shut your mind against. In other words, when the nonsense starts, when you can ask God to start showing you, when I am getting into something that makes no sense at all, please show me before I get in so deep I can't get out.
Shut your mind against. Have nothing to do with trifling, ill-informed, unedifying, stupid controversies over ignorant questions. For you know that they foster strife and breed quarrels.
Strife is bickering, arguing, heated disagreement. But the part I hate about strife the worst is it's an angry undercurrent.
Where everybody's smiling, praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Need to go home and fight all afternoon.
Oh, Dave and Joyce, how are you? Oh, praise God. Oh, the kids, yes, the little darlings, they're just wonderful.
And all the way coming to church, you were ranting and raving and screaming and yelling.
Proverbs 20 verse 3 says, It is an honor for a man to cease from strife and to keep aloof from it, but every fool will quarrel.
How about making a decision that you're going to be... From now on, I set my mind that when I have a problem with anybody, I'm going to be the first one to apologize.
Oh, this is good. I'm watching some of you are going... Well, I guess that's an idea.
Yeah, ladies, can I give you a piece of advice? The men can just check out here for a minute. Do not wait for your husband to apologize. Because he doesn't even think that he did anything wrong to start with.
So, therefore, he is not going to apologize. You will be the one that will do most of the apologizing in your life. And so you can just do it unto God and be happy.
I would go around mad for three weeks and Dave didn't even know what he did. He didn't even know what he did.
And whatever it was, he would cast his care about it two seconds after he did it anyway. And, you know, I'd be mad and have a stomach ache and not sleeping at night.
It's all foolish. It's silly. Think about it in a different way.
Here's how you can think. You know what? I'm just going to let that go. I'm just going to let that go.
Oh, but no. I wanted him to at least know that I was letting it go. I mean, if I'm going to let it go, you're going to know that I'm letting it go.
And I want you to at least admire me because I'm letting it go. And I may turn the light off in the closet that you leave on every time you go in there, but I am going to tell you that I turn it off every time I go in there.
Don't think that I'm just going to cover your sin like the Bible says.
All right, guys, you can join back in now. Am I right?
We got to just mention how forgiving we are. Let's just start thinking different. I'm going to let it go. And I'm going to cover people's faults. I'm not going to tell anybody else. I'm not going to mention it. I'm just going to pray about it.
Yeah, just going to keep a lot of stuff between me and God now.
David Learned Not to Throw Spears
I was reading something about David who ultimately became king. You know, he was anointed to be king 20 years before he wore the crown. Boy, that's a lesson in itself right there.
Just because you're anointed to do something... Come on now. Just because you're anointed to do something, that doesn't mean that you're going to get to do it until you've had your time with King Saul and lived in the caves.
You know, one of the things that David learned from King Saul or that he never learned from King Saul, which was great.
You see, King Saul was a spear thrower. He was an expert at throwing spears. And David didn't know how to do that. He was a sweet little shepherd boy that had just been out singing hymns and spending time with God.
Everybody knows what you do when somebody throws a spear at you. You pull it out of the wall and you throw it back. But David didn't know how to do that.
Oh my gosh, I wish that I would have never learned how to throw spears. How peaceful life must be if you never become an expert spear thrower.
But boy, I tell you, I could hit my target. But now over the years, I've learned how not to throw spears. And as I read on this thing that I was reading, which was... I had a very deep lesson in it.
It said that... David, after all the time he spent in the caves and all the time he spent... hiding from King Saul while he was trying to... steal his life.
You see, what God was really doing was... there's a little bit of Saul in every one of us. And especially sometimes people that God's going to use, He's got to put you around a Saul to get the Saul out of you.
Oh yeah, God gave me many Sauls in my life. But I had to learn how to not throw spears. How to not touch God's anointed.
I was anointed. I could have preached... very good, a long time before God let me loose on anybody. But it wouldn't have been pretty. Because I would have been preaching it, but not living it. Come on now.
Just because you're anointed... doesn't mean you're going to be released... until there's a brokenness. That's another word we don't care much about. Independence, self-will, do my own thing.
You throw a spear at me, I'm throwing one back. Listen, before we get worried about God using us publicly, we need to make sure that we know how to behave at home behind closed doors, and especially when things are not going our way.
If you're good at throwing spears, then you've got to unlearn that bad habit first.