Joyce Meyer - Live 2 Love

Our faith comes to life through love, receiving God's love and loving other people. So it's important for us to be generous and to reach out to other people as much as we possibly can. The only way people have an authentic experience with God's love is through someone showing them love. So we should always be looking for opportunities to do good. Watch this teaching about loving others, and then I'll be back with a special report that I believe will really bless you.

We need to realize that just our daily attitude can help people or can hurt people. It can lead people to Christ or it can drive them away from Christ, amen. Acts 10:38 says: "See how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power: who went about doing good and, in particular, curing all that were oppressed of the devil". That's acts 10:38. I love that about Jesus, that he just went about doing good. Jesus, our amazing, powerful, awesome God and Savior just got up every day, had breakfast with the boys, and went about doing good. Well, you know, I've decided that I can went about doing good. You don't even have to have a college degree to do that. You don't have to go to seminary. You can just went about. To the grocery store, in traffic, in your neighborhood, at school, at work, you just went about and serve the Lord with gladness. Be a blessing everywhere that you go.

This is Christianity 101 made simple. "For God so loved the world, that he gave". He cared for the poor. They always carried money with them to give to the poor. And Paul, after many years not being with the other apostles because he didn't know if they would receive him because he had formerly been persecuting the church, when he finally did present himself to the other apostles to see if they had any instructions for him, the Bible says that "They did not require him to do anything at all, other than they just reminded him to make sure that he helped the poor, which thing he said, "I was very happy to do".

Now, when we think about the poor, what do we really envision? Are poor people just the people who live on the streets and have no money, have no food, don't have proper clothing? Yes, those are poor people, but I've taken a new definition of "Poor" because it gives me a wider base of people to help, and I don't ever wanna run out of people to help. So I've decided that anybody poor, at least as far as I'm concerned, is somebody who has a need and has no way of meeting that need themselves. A poor person is someone who has less than you do. And you know why I've decided to look at it like that? Because although they might not be poor in the true definition of the poor, I remember when Dave and I never had the money to go out and eat. I remember when I never got a new outfit, maybe for a year. I remember when I had to take a calculator to the grocery store with me and I could not spend 1 penny over $35 a week for groceries. And when I got to the checkout lane, if I had more than that $35 worth, or $70 for 2 weeks 'cause we only went every 2 weeks, then I had to start takin' stuff back and puttin' it back where it belonged. And it was in that grocery store that God taught me a lot of lessons about his nature and how he wants us to be excellent.

Little things you've heard me talk about, putting my grocery cart back where it belonged. When I got somethin' in my cart and I got to the checkout lane and realized I couldn't keep it, not stickin' the lettuce in the cleanser, but goin' and puttin' it back where it belonged. Let me tell you somethin'. If you wanna go to the school of the Holy Ghost, he will teach you and use you everywhere that you go. You don't have to go to church to find God, he's everywhere. And you don't necessarily have to go to Bible college to learn how to minister. All you have to do is say, "God, teach me in my everyday life how I can serve you and do everything that you want me to do". This is what the church is missing. Being a Christian is about more than going and parking your little behind on a pew every Sunday morning for 45 minutes while you sleep through half of it and can't wait for it to get over and go out and not do anything for anybody else.

That is not Christianity. And I hope nobody misunderstands this. I love local church. I think it is amazing, but I wanna say somethin', and I want you to take it in the right spirit. I think sometimes we make too much out of, "I go to church," and not enough out of, "I live the life," and that's what we need to do. "Are you a Christian"? "Well, I go to church". Well, that doesn't tell me you're a Christian. Some of the meanest people in the world are in church. I've had the benefit of their meanness over the years, let me tell ya. And we need to go to church to be instructed, to fellowship with other people, to learn, to be accountable to somebody, but it is useless if we just keep it in the church. We don't just act like God on Sunday morning and then go act like the devil the rest of the week. "Peter, do you love me? Help somebody".

Ask yourself a few hard questions: "What have I done for anybody lately"? "How many things do I still have in my possession that God told me to give away"? What about the last time you decided to sell all the junk in your house and you kinda got this little nudge that you really should just give it away, but you wanted to make 3 or 4 bucks, and so you? Okay, all right, I won't go there. Whoo, okay, I'm really trying not to go there. Oh, mercy, I remember workin' days puttin' together a garage sale. Days of hard labor, make 35, 40 bucks, 50 bucks, and I finally thought, "I'm takin' the easy route. I'm sowin' this as seed and gonna believe God for a harvest".

Now, you know, if you enjoy it, do it. Don't write me letters about garage sales. I used to live at 'em. I thank God that they were available when I needed 'em because I didn't have the money to go anywhere else. And I would buy all my kids' clothes there, but what I'm talkin' about is when you know God, and you know people that... I mean, do we really think that the church should have to exist on rummage sales? No, bring your tithes and offerings, and there won't be any need for a rummage sale. Oh, I'm not behaving very well, am i? You say, "Well, what's wrong with it"? You know what? I'm not tryin' to really make anything wrong with it. I'm trying to just get across a principle that we're so much better off to give any time we can give than to try to labor to get it in some natural way. Be generous, have a generous spirit. Don't give the least amount that you can and try to make a few bucks off of everything you do, give.

Yeah, I know why you're quiet, 'cause you're thinkin', "Hmm. Well, is it wrong to have a garage sale"? I don't care how many garage sales you have. But I mean, I think there is a point where we need to think, "How much time am I gonna put into this"? Yeah, it's like I used to drive all over town tryin' to find a sale, and finally, one day realized I was spendin' more in gas than I was gettin' on the sale. When I finally got there. All right, I'm veering off in other areas. I need to behave and get back here. I believe that we see things a lot differently than God does. You know, Moses was referred to as, "A servant in all of God's house". Jesus is referred to as, "A servant". Now, most of us, if somebody said to you, "Are you a servant"? And it wasn't in a church setting like this, I mean, naturally, you'd give the right answer if I'd ask you now, but, you know, we always wanna have a title and feel important.

And, you know, I've told people that work for me, like, "When somebody asks you, 'well, what do you do for Joyce?' why don't you just tell 'em, 'I help'"? Why are we all so overly interested in having our title? You know, people ask me, "Well, how would you like us to introduce you? Reverend, doctor, bishop, apostle"? I said, "Well, I started out as Joyce. I think that's who I still am". And, you know, there's nothing at all wrong with titles for honor, but we sure should never insist that somebody give us one. It should be something that they confer on us if they want to, but we don't need to need it, amen? Okay, you guys are wearin' me out. Let's look at... Oh, man I've gotten so lost. I don't even know what I'm doin' anymore. See, Dave lost his place up here this morning and I said, "Just do what I do. Just tell 'em you forgot what you were sayin' and go on about your business".

People like it when they think you're a little dumb. It makes 'em feel good. Yeah, sometimes I still have to find one of the books in the Bible in the front, and 37 years I've been studyin' the word, and I'm like, "Where is that little prophet? Where's he at"? See, now you like me better. Matthew 20, verse 20: "Then the mother of Zebedee's children came up to him with her sons and, kneeling down, she worshiped him and said, 'could you do me a favor?' and he said, 'well, what is it that you want?' and she said, 'give orders that these two sons of mine might sit, one at your right hand and one at your left when you come into your kingdom.' But Jesus replied, 'you don't even realize what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?'"

Now, look here. If you wanna sit with Jesus, then you gotta be willing to be a servant like Jesus was a servant. This woman didn't know what she was talkin' about. She wanted her sons to have titles and positions and to be well thought of, and Jesus said, "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Are you able to live the self-sacrificing life that I'm gonna live? Are you able to forget yourself and meet the needs of other people"? Isn't that what Jesus did? So what are we really sayin' when we say, "I wanna be like Jesus"? I mean, it can't just be this floaty, cloudlike, "Oh". "Yes, just make me like you, Jesus. It's all about you, Jesus, whoo-whoo-whoo". I just don't do well with that kinda stuff. I mean, look, we're havin' fun in here, but here's the bad news, you gotta go home. And when you do, I want you to go home and act like you got somethin'. I want you to go home and be so changed that next year, if anybody hears I'm anywhere in the vicinity, they'll pay you to go back. And get some more of that God help you got the last time 'cause you came home in better condition than you were when you left.

"You do not know what you're askin' for". "He said to them, 'you will drink the cup that I drink, but seats at my right and left hand, those are not mine to give, but they are for those for whom it has been ordained and prepared by my Father.'" And I love this part. "Then when the other ten disciples heard this, they got indignant". They're like, "Well, who do you think you are? Those seats are gonna be ours, surely". "You guys are way down the list when it comes to those positions. Huh". That's what it means to be indignant, you know? It's like, "Hmph, who do you think you are"? See, I've had a lot of practice with all this. "And Jesus called them to him and said, 'you know that the rulers and the gentiles Lord it over them, and great men hold them in subjection tyrannizing them.'" verse 26: "'not so shall it be among you: but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant.'"

Good, I got three people clappin' over here. And what does this mean? It doesn't mean that you have to go scrub the floor before you leave. Although, if it needs to be scrubbed, you're not too good to. But that doesn't mean that that's what I'm asking you to do. What I'm asking is for myself and for all of us to realize the great importance of where we're at in society today and what is going on in the world today. And there is no hope for society without us. It's getting darker. And when I say, "Us," I mean God working through us.

If I said to any of you, "How many of you believe that God is the answer"? You'd all say, "Yes". But how do we think that people are gonna see God. Well, yes, we'd love for him to appear. I'd love that. Jesus, come on down here and straighten this out. But until he does, he's got us. We've got him, but we're all he's got. You and me, we are all that God has got. And if we are gonna be easily offended, and touchy, and keep a list of every little wrong thing that everybody does to us, and get out in society and rant and rave on people, and be impatient with every little mistake that they make, how can we expect anybody to want what we have? How can we expect the church to do anything, but decrease in size week by week by week, and worldwide, and I'm sure this church is growing, and there are many churches that are growing, but worldwide, there are less people going to church now that at any other time in history, and that is spooky scary.

And you know why? Because a lot of people don't really see anything real about the life of a Christian. And I am determined that as long as I've got breath, I am gonna teach people, "If we're going to do this, then let's not let it be a name only. Let's bear the fruit and live the life. Amen? I mean, we are living in desperate times. Don't pray for God to get you out of the place where you work because you're the only Christian there. "Well, God, I just can't stay here any longer. I'm the only Christian here". Well, did you pray for God to use you? Well, good, then he put you somewhere where you're needed. Now just get there and forget about your sweet little self and just be a light in a dark place. Show everybody the love of God. And when you need to get out of there, God'll get you out of there if you need to get out of there. How many of ya understand what I'm sayin'? I needed this today. I don't know about you, but I needed this today.

Now, let me read you a couple stories. You know, we all know that somethin' needs to be done. We're just not sure that we're the ones that should do it. They, "The government needs to take of everything". Well, we've seen how that's workin'. They, whoever they are. I've yet to figure out who they are yet, but they're the ones that need to do it. Here's a story that I heard about four people named everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody. There was an important job that needed to be done, and everybody was sure somebody would do it. Anybody could've done it, but nobody did it. Somebody got angry about it because it was everybody's job. And everybody thought anybody could do it, but nobody realized that everybody wouldn't do it. And in the end, everybody blamed somebody, when nobody did what anybody could've done.