Joyce Meyer - God Is Not Mad at You

TOPICS: God's Love

Well, thank you for joining us today on, "Enjoying everyday life". And my prayer for you today, is that you will really enjoy the teaching, but not just enjoy it, put it to work in your life, right away. You know, the apostle James said, "To be a hearer and not a doer of the word, we're just deceiving our own selves". And so, make sure that as you prepare to listen that you've already told the Lord, "I'm ready to do whatever it is, I hear today".

Alright, today, I wanna talk to you about the perfect love of God, or what I'm gonna call, "God is not mad at you". One time, I put that as a Facebook post, God is not mad at you. And I mean, within just a few minutes we had literally, thousands of clicks or acceptances or whatever it is you call 'em, I forget all the time. And a lot of comments coming in, "That was exactly what I needed". And you know, I think a lot of people do live with kind of a vague feeling or even a wondering, "Is God mad at me"? "Is God pleased with me"? I know that I did for a long, long time.

Now, part of that was because I grew up in an abusive home where my dad was very abusive, alcoholic, mean. He sexually abused me. He beat my mother. And he was just a very angry, angry man. And so, you always wondered when he was mad, if he was mad at you. "Did I do something that made him mad"? Because sometimes you could do something and he'd be fine with it and you could do it another time and he wouldn't be fine with it, and he get angry. Did anybody else in here grow up in a situation like that where you just never knew if your parents were happy with you or not? And if we don't really get the Word of God and realize that our Heavenly Father is not like that at all, then it can affect us adversely for many, many, many years of our life.

So, I wanna start the program today by just telling you, God is not mad at you. And I could tell the first pass just went right over your head. So, let me say it again. See, here's what you thought, "But after what I've done". But see, the point is, is that God loved you before you ever did that. And not only that, you didn't surprise him when you did it. He already knew you were going to do it before you did it. And so, the Bible teaches us that God's love is a perfect love. And I love this, God doesn't love us because we deserve it, he loves us because he is love and that's what he wants to do. So, whether you like it or not, whether you think you deserve it or not, the good news of the Gospel is, is that God loves you unconditionally.

Now, that doesn't mean that there's not punishment for sin. We can repent. And that means turn around and go in another direction, not just be sorry that you sinned but be willing to turn away from it and learn how to do the right thing. And God forgives us, and many times he shows us mercy and we don't have to bear the penalty. But there's also a principal in the Bible called, "You reap what you sow". And we're a little bit like little kids, sometimes if you let 'em off too easy, too fast, they'll go right back and do the same thing all over again.

So, however God chooses to discipline us, he always does it out of his love. And he always does, always, God always does what is gonna work out best for us in the end, even though it may not seem like that. Or many times, God doesn't deal with us the way he's dealing with somebody else, and so, we think, "Well God", you know, "Why are you being so hard on me"? Well, you just need to trust God that however he deals with you, it's the best way for him to deal with you. Trusting God gives a tremendous amount of peace.

So, we make a lot of laws and rules in our life. Even though we're new covenant believers, and Jesus fulfilled the law and we're no longer under the Old Testament laws, the moral law was not done away with, but all the legalistic codes of: do this, don't do that, don't touch this, gotta do certain things on certain days, and you can't this and that, and something else. I've heard a couple of different figures, but I've heard that the Ten Commandments, didn't take very long and they were turned into 2200 different laws that they had to follow.

To be honest, I couldn't imagine being an Old Testament Jew who love God and was trying to please God by following all of those rules. And God never gave the law because he ever thought anybody could keep it, he gave it to show them that they couldn't keep it, and that they needed a Savior that he had prophesied would come. Well, we're on the good side of that. We have the Savior. He has come. And really the new you, 'cause the Bible says you have a new nature, the new you doesn't want to sin, you want to do everything right, and God sees your heart. But still, the flesh seems to like laws, and rules, and regulations.

And so, we can make up laws of our own. Other people can make up laws and rules for us. It's amazing how often even in a friendship the message comes to you whether silently, but you still know it's there, "Well, if you do this, I'm not gonna like you". "And if you don't do this, then you're gonna be out of my group". And so, we still fall into this feeling like that we have to do things. And we use the term, I have to, all the time. "I have to read my Bible". "I have to pray". No, you don't. You're not reading your Bible for God, he already knows it.

You read it because you need to learn and you need to grow. And you don't pray because you have to. Doesn't help God when you pray. But you have the privilege of going to the Creator of all the universe and asking him to help you, and meet your needs, and to praise him, and to thank him for all the things, or even to pray for, intercede for other people who don't know how to pray for themselves.

And so, how many of you agree that we make a lot of rules, and regulations, and laws for our self? Well, the Bible says, "The letter kills but the spirit makes alive". So, as soon as you turn, let's say, Bible reading into a law, where if you don't read a certain number of chapters everyday you feel guilty, then all of a sudden it ministers death to you and it's not ministering life to you because now it becomes something you have to do, when the truth is, you really want to do it but the enemy's managed to turn it into a law, and you feel like you have to.

And I remember years and years ago, the Lord saying to me, "Joyce, I don't want you doing anything else for me that you feel is an obligation". God wants us to spend time with him because we want to, and to study his word because we want to, and to give because we want to, to be a blessing to other people because we want to. He's not sittin' up in heaven with this heavenly checklist of, "Did you do everything that I want you to do today? And if you did, I'm gonna love you and help you when you get in trouble, but if you don't, man, I'm mad at you". We think like that, but God doesn't think like that.

Galatians 3:10 says, "All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written: 'cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law'".

James 2:10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles even in one point is guilty of breaking all of it".

And see, that's what we have to understand. If we're going to make laws out of our relationship with God and think that every time we break one of these laws, or every time we fail, that God is now mad at us, then there's no way that you can enjoy your relationship with God. I want to read you a story out of the book that I wrote which is now called, "Perfect love". And this is in the first chapter of this book. It's a little bit long, but it'll help make a good point.

A woman I know tells a story about the time she burnt out the engine of her father's car, which he had loaned to her when she was in college. It was the end of the semester break and she was going to head back to school on the bus, a seven-hour ride with a lot of stops on the way. Ellen had been given a lot of Christmas gifts that were bulky including a down-filled comforter and a new desktop computer. Her dad told her rather than deal with so many big items on the bus, she could drive his car back to school and return it the next time, she came home for a visit. What a wonderful gift that was.

Well, the trip back to college was a breeze. Ellen parked the car in a safe spot, planned to drive home and return it within a few weeks. In the meantime, every now and then, she'd drive to the grocery store or the mall. Pretty soon, she was taking her friends on short trips here and there just for fun. On one of those trips Ellen noticed a red light blinking on the dashboard. She didn't think it was anything serious, after all, her father took great care of his car and it was in good condition.

So, she just kept driving it. Soon she noticed some smoke coming out from under the hood, and decided she'd better get the car back to campus. Next came a few loud sputters and then the engine died. When she had a tow truck come, the driver arrived, didn't take him long to figure out the problem. The red light on the dash was an oil indicator. Ellen had neglected to check out the light and now, the engine was beyond repair.

How many of you can imagine how Ellen felt right then and probably how scared she was?

A few days later, when her father arrived in his remaining car, she met him at the gas station where the car had been towed, and Ellen was terrified. She had abused a privilege and ignored a simple warning. There was no excuse for her neglect and now she had destroyed her father's car. She knew he was furious and there was no defense for her behavior. Ellen told her father how sorry she was in her carelessness. But he just told her to sit in the car and wait until he assessed the damage. After learning that the car was now worthless Ellen's father arranged for the gas station to dispose of it. He actually had to pay them to take it off of his hands.

Now, it was time for Ellen to face his wrath. As they drove away from the trashed car, her father asked Ellen, 'what's the best restaurant in town?' well, that was the last thing she expected to hear but she directed him to it. And as they sat at the table and looked at the menu, Ellen couldn't think about food. Fortunately, her father ordered for both of them, boiled trout almondine. They sat in silence while they waited for their food, and every minute felt like an hour to Ellen.

When the man arrived, Ellen's father said to her, 'tonight, I want to teach you a lesson you will never forget'. She knew it was coming and she knew she deserved whatever she got. Will he make her pay him for the car? Well, that would take forever. Would he yell at her? Maybe he would just tell her how disappointed he was in her and in some ways that would even be a worse punishment.

Then, he took his knife and fork in hand and said, 'I'm going to teach you how to remove the skeleton from this cooked trout'. Not a word was said about the car that night or ever again. Ellen's father had been angry about her behavior, who wouldn't be? But he also knew that Ellen had learned her lesson without retribution from him. Ellen is nearly 60 now, and her father died many years ago, but she has never forgotten the lesson that she learned that night.

Now, let me read you a scripture that is absolutely, jaw-droppingly amazing. Zephaniah 3:17, in the Amplified Bible, "The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a mighty one, a Savior who saves! He will rejoice over you with joy: he will rest in silent satisfaction and in his love he will be silent and make no mention of past sins, or even recall them". Wonder if I need to read that again? Because it's like, "Huh? What"? "He will be silent and make no mention of your past sins, or even recall them".

I recall, oh, this has probably been 50 years ago, when I was a very young Christian and not even in a real serious walk with God. Every night, I would kneel down by my bed and I would pray the same prayer. "God, forgive my sins. Help me be a good wife, a good mother, and most of all help me be a good Christian because if I can be that then I know everything else will turn out okay". That was the limit of my prayer life. And one time, I heard God say, "I've already forgiven you for the sins that you're praying about. Now, you need to forgive yourself".

You see, God forgives us the first time we ask him if we're sincere. But receiving that forgiveness literally means you have to forgive yourself. And how many of you know sometimes we don't do that? Even though God is not gonna punish us, we find many different ways to punish ourselves. I know I did.

Psalm 103:12-14, once again, in the Amplified translation, "As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us". Well, how far is the East from the west? I don't think any of us could find it. "As far as the east is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear him with reverence, worship, and awe. For he knows our frame, he earnestly remembers and imprints on his heart that we are but dust".

You know, we were all created out of a handful of dirt. And nobody is a surprise to God. He knew what he was getting when he invited you into relationship with him. Now, this doesn't mean that we should not take sin seriously. Sin is a serious matter. But you see, the thing is, is anyone who truly loves God, they're gonna want with all their heart to not sin. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey me". And I think the more we love Jesus, the more we do obey him.

So, I tell people sometimes, if you're dealing with a repetitive sin, something that you just can't seem to get free from, instead of fighting with it all the time, spend more time with God. Spend more time loving him and letting him love you. Read everything you can in the Bible about God's love. And the more you fall in love with Jesus, the more you're not going to want to do that thing. And as soon as you really don't want to, you'll be willing to suffer even if you have to, to get free.

A girl wrote in recently, she was addicted to drugs and she said, "I keep praying and praying, but so far, God hasn't delivered me and I don't know what else I can do". And I said, "Well you may have to be willing to be uncomfortable for a while". And I think sometimes that's what we don't want. We want God to rescue us without any discomfort to us or any discipline to ourselves.

And you know, I've never been on drugs but I was a cigarette smoker from the time I was nine years old until I was in my early 30's. And I had myself convinced I could never quit smoking because I always said, when I was a teenager, I was always a little bit on the chubby side and I always thought, "If I ever quit smoking, I would just probably eat everything in the house and I know I'd gain weight". So, I buried myself in my own confession by saying, "I could never quit smoking. I could never quit smoking".

So, I had to change my confession first and start saying, "I quit smoking while I was still smoking". I said, "I don't smoke. I don't like it. It's expensive. They stink". And God helped me quit. But I was not comfortable for about 30 days. It was hard. Every week it got a little bit easier. Every week it got a little bit easier. But I think a lot of times, people don't want to be uncomfortable and so, therefore, they keep thinking that God's not delivering them because they're waiting for something that's not gonna cost them anything. How many of you understand what I'm saying?

You know, it's not comfortable to love somebody who has really treated you unjustly. But if you're willing to do it just because you love Jesus, he sees your heart and he'll help you do that. You know, I think unbelief is a much bigger problem than our sin, if you just stop and think about it. I love 1 John 2:1, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin", that's the point of the whole Bible. I'm writing this to you so you'll make good choices. "Stay on the narrow path and it leads to life, get on the broad path, it leads to destruction. Do you what I tell you to, your life will be blessed. Do what I tell you not to do and you're gonna have all kinds of trouble".

So that's what the whole book is about, is about not sinning and doing what God wants us to do. So, he said, "I write to you that you will not sin but if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous". So, here's the thing I get out of that is that God's already provided for our forgiveness because he already knows that we are but dust. I don't know about you, but I don't go very many days without making some kind of mistake. I mean, sin is sin in thought, word, or deed.

So, you don't even have to go out and do something. I mean, for example, in the Old Testament it says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery". Jesus said, "But I tell you, don't even think about it. Don't even look at a woman to lust after her". And so, man, it's tough. We think we're doing good if we wanna do something wrong and we discipline our selves, and it is good. And the devil put thoughts in our mind, but if we take a thought and we meditate on it, and meditate on it, and meditate on it, and we plan how we're gonna get somebody back for what they've done to us and you know, all the things that we can let get in our brain and stick there, then that's sin.

Every day when I ask God to forgive my sins, I always say in thought, word, and deed. And I even, do what David did I ask him to forgive me for sins that I'm unaware of. Because a lot of times we do things and we're not even aware that we did them. And you know, "Then Jesus said", in John 11-40, "'did I not tell you if you would believe, you would see the glory of God'"? The amplified says, "If you would only believe, you will see the glory of God". So, why don't we start acting like we believe that God loves us unconditionally? And that the moment we sincerely repent, he forgives our sins, he removes them as far as the east is from the west, and when they come back to your mind, it's not God bring them back, it's the enemy.

So, let me just end with a couple of thoughts here. Are you trying to pay for your sins? Well, to be honest, I think that's kinda like slapping Jesus in the face 'cause he already paid for them completely, fully, perfectly. And the Bible says in Hebrews that once and for all he paid the price and there's no more sacrifice needed.

So, you say, "Well, how would I be trying to pay for my own sins"? Well, feeling guilty all the time. You know, guilt is just a way of trying to pay for your own sins. "Well, I'm just gonna feel bad for a week or two". Refusing to enjoy life. Depriving yourselves of things you'd like to have because you say you don't deserve them. Downgrading yourself with your own words.

Let me tell you a little story, then I'll close. "In some places, the Grand Canyon is nine miles wide. Well, I could jump maybe twelve inches". I had down two or three feet, but then I thought that's a stretch. I don't think I'd make it. I'm not even sure about the twelve inches and I didn't have the nerve to try. "Maybe Dave could jump eight feet, I don't know. But a broad jumper can jump 24 to 26 feet. But we're all, even the broad jumper, still very short of the nine miles".

And so, you see, maybe you know somebody else that doesn't make as many mistakes as you, but they're still short of what's required to meet God's standard. That's why we all need Jesus. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, all are justified and made right with God through faith in Christ". And so, wherever you're watching from today, you can be assured that if you want a relationship with God, you love him, and you've asked him to forgive you that he has. And even, if you don't feel like he has, he still has.