Joyce Meyer - The Small Adjustment That Makes A Big Difference, Part 2

TOPICS: Attitude

The title of what I wanna bring you tonight is "One small adjustment that makes a big change in your life". I wanna talk to you about one little, little, little, little, tiny thing that you can do. You may have to do it every day, but one little, tiny thing you can do that can literally just turn your life completely around. How many of you would like to know what it is? Attitude. The Israelites were commanded to celebrate, and if you can be patient here and listen to me for a few minutes, I think that you're gonna learn something. There were seven feasts that the Israelites were commanded to keep every year. Every year. And every one of the feasts was a time to remember something that God had done for them.

So, let me tell you, there must be power in remembering and there must be power in celebrating, or God would not have told them that they had to do it. And here's the thing that I think. I think the things they had to do by law we can just live in now. It doesn't have to be like a, "Oh boy, we're having this celebration and that celebration". We can live with that attitude of always celebrating what God is doing in our lives. The first one was passover, and that's a big, big, big holiday for anybody that was or is still Jewish. Seven feasts were commanded by God. The first one was passover, and that celebrated the night in Egypt when all the firstborn were killed, but God calls the angel of death to pass over the Israelite homes because they put the blood of a lamb on the lintel and the doorposts of their house.

Well, my, my, my, I wonder what happens to us now when we trust in the blood of Jesus to protect us from things that wanna come around and destroy us. Come on, if they could celebrate for seven days, we ought to live in celebration because we've got the blood of Christ over our lives. Okay, I'm just gonna tell you what I'm gonna do here in the next few minutes, because it's gonna be a little bit of a turn and something that we're maybe not always so used to. Instead of talking to you about your circumstances, and the breakthrough you need, and your kid needs to be saved, you need to get a promotion at work, you need to have your back healed. I'm not gonna talk about any of that for a few minutes. I'm gonna talk to you about what God has done for us spiritually.

Now, you see, the reason why you didn't jump on that right away is because we focus way too much on the outside stuff and not nearly enough about what God has done for us inside. Look at me. You are a person that is born again. You have the nature of God living in you. You've got a new heart. The Spirit of God lives on the inside of you. Your sins are forgiven. God's protection is over your life. You have the privilege of praying. You have the privilege of praying, and God always listens, and he cares, and he answers our prayers. And how do you like this one? You're never alone. Never, ever, ever, ever alone. I hope I can get through all seven of these without just getting into preaching mode, but I can't promise. Passover lasted eight days. That celebration lasted eight days.

So, I'm just asking you, could you celebrate one weekend, for 44 hours? That the spirit of destruction also has to pass over you when you put your... See, and some of you think, "Well, now wait a minute. I had this problem and that problem". Stop it, don't make me come out there and get you. No, you're gonna think about not how bad it was, but how bad it could've been if God wouldn't have helped you. You know what? Okay, I've had three surgeries in the last three years, and it's not easy on you to go through that, but you know what? I am 74 years old and I am still preaching all the time. I'm on television all over the world. I am not thinking about what I didn't get, what I had to go through that I didn't wanna go through.

Let me tell you something. Victory is in your attitude, it's not in having perfect circumstances. Come on, victory is in your attitude. Because I can't promise you that you'll go home next week and not have a problem. I don't know. You might, but I can tell you, we need to be like Paul. He said, "I am determined. My determined purpose," Philippians 3:10, "Is to know him and the power of his resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead, even while I'm in the body". So he said, "Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm not looking for a life with no problems, but I'm living above it. There's a place in Christ where I can live above it", and you know what? I believe that a lot of that has to do with focusing more on what God has done for us spiritually and letting that soak into your attitude so you're not so concerned about everything in your daily life that's going wrong.

Listen, even if you live to be 100, which I'm not even sure now that I would want to. I used to think maybe I'd like to be 100, but you know, I don't know. I'm like, "Eh, things are getting pretty messed up here". But, you know. But the thing is, is even if we all lived to be 100, that's like one half of one grain of sand from all the beaches in the whole world and all the whole ocean floor full of sand. That is nothing compared to eternity. That's nothing compared to how long we're gonna live in God's presence. And you know what? We talk about heaven sometimes, not enough. We talk about it sometimes, but I honestly really believe, if we really believe it's gonna be as good as the Bible says it is, because if we did, I don't know how very much could keep us down for very long. No more sorrow, no more crying, no more tears. Streets made of gold. A sea full of crystal. One gate, 12-15 feet high, made out of one pearl. Living in his presence. Perfect love. Perfect peace. I mean. And a mansion. A mansion.

And I have told Jesus, "I want my mansion decorated really, I mean, blinged out". I'm hoping to get to do a seminar with Moses and Elijah. And I really hope if we have chariots in heaven that I get to drive Dave around. I have a few plans for when I get there. Oh my. They had the feast of unleavened bread and they couldn't have any leaven in their house at all. Leaven represented sin, so it was all of a type and shadow type thing. And one of the things that the parents did, which I thought was interesting, was they might hide little bits of bread around the house that did have leaven in it, and then the kids had to go find all those little pieces of bread and get rid of them, indicating that they were searching for and getting rid of sin in their life.

But you know what I appreciate today? I don't have to go around looking for my sins. Let me tell you, when I do it, I know it. But you know what a blessing that is? Do you know what a blessing the conviction of the Holy Spirit is? Because I spent years mistreating people and didn't even know I was doing it. And even if I would've, I probably wouldn't have cared. Well, I can't do that now. If I'm even minutely rude to somebody and I know it, I can't stand it till I go make it right. And you know, sometimes when we're... God is letting us know, "No, you shouldn't act that way. That's not a good attitude. You shouldn't have said that," sometimes we can get like, "Ugh, can you just stop telling me something I'm doing wrong". But you know what? I have discovered it is the greatest blessing in the world to have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us, convicting us of sin and convincing us to do what's right. I don't have to go examine myself every day to find out what's wrong with me. If something's there, God will show me. And here's the really good news, I can repent and it's all taken care of just like that.

Now, are you getting anything out of this? All right. There was the feast of first fruits, and they had to bring the first fruits of their harvest. They couldn't eat any of it until they brought the first fruits to God. If you're bringing the first fruits of all your increase to God, we call 'em tithes and offerings, you're hurting yourself. And I didn't expect it to get real loud in here and hear a bunch of clapping, but you're... I mean, we cannot stop talking about giving. The worst thing in the world that can happen to us is if we let ourselves get selfish. And let me just share something with you. If you have a bad attitude at offering time, you can feel it. "Well, there they go, talking about the money". Everywhere you go, people talk to you about money. Why do you get mad about it in church? Anyway, that was one of the feasts.

Oh, and I love this one, the feast of Pentecost. Oh Jesus, Pentecost. Fifty days after the feast of first fruits, it represented the end of the harvest. And we see the New Testament fulfillment, "When on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit". Oh my gosh, they were acting so crazy that everybody thought they were drunk at 10 o'clock in the morning. You know what? The general rule is when people get drunk, they get happy. Well, Ephesians 5 says, "Don't be drunk with wine wherein as excess, but be ye ever filled with the Holy Spirit". So, we've got something available to us that's never gonna go away. You don't even have to go to a bar and get it. It's living on the inside of you, amen? Do you have any idea how wonderful it is to have the Holy Spirit living in you?

The helper, the comforter, the strengthener, the intercessor, the one who will never leave you, the one who convicts you of sin, convinces you of righteousness, the one who helps you remember things, and the older you get, the more you're gonna appreciate that. Amen? You know you have a problem when you're looking for your phone and you're talking on it. John, don't you laugh, you'll get there. The day will come, brother. Okay now, one of the feasts was the feast of trumpets, and they blew trumpets to announce the next two feasts. I mean, it sounds to me like these people just lived in a party. I don't know, it was just from feast to feast to feast. And I can tell you one thing, if they had something to celebrate, wow. If they had something to celebrate and they lived under the law, what should we be doing today with what Jesus has done for us?

So, trumpets for centuries have been used to herald good news, to wake up soldiers in the morning. And we're gonna talk about that. It's time to wake up, sleepy church. It's time to stop playing dead. Getting out there and being a good soldier. Soldiers in the army hear the trumpet blow every morning saying, "It's time to get up. Time to go to work". In battle, many times the trumpet was sounded to urge them on, to keep them from giving up. So, I just thought, I called my office and I said, "Can you find me a trumpeter somewhere? I need a trumpeter for the conference". So, they scurried around and found me a nice trumpeter here, so he's gonna come and help, okay?

Okay so, here's the thing. Tell me your name again. Brian foot, okay. Brian played in this building how many years ago? Every year of high school, which how many years ago has that been? Ten years? You are so young, my goodness. I didn't make it to the dome until I was 65, and here you are, you know, your age. So, we're just gonna party. I'm gonna have him blow the trumpet, and I'm gonna give you guys some good news. You ready for some good news? Okay. Your sins are forgiven! Washed clean in the blood of Jesus! You're going to heaven! You're gonna live forever! God lives inside of you. Wow! You're the home of God. You're never alone. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. I mean, how good can it get? I'll give you one more piece of good news. Go ahead. You didn't hear the good news yet. Jesus is coming back soon! Whoo!

All right, we're gonna read it right here. Get ready to shout. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an Archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first. Then we, the living ones who remain [on the earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and always shall it be (throughout all of eternity)". Yay! Thank you.

Okay now, I'm gonna give you a homework assignment, and I hope that you'll do this. I've been doing this and I think it's gonna make a huge difference in your life. I wanna ask you if you will take five minutes every night, maybe when you go to bed and it's quiet. If you're one of these people that your head hits the people and you fall asleep, then I guess you better do it sitting up. I'm not like that. I can think a little bit when I go to bed. And you know, sometimes the stuff we think about in bed at night and the stuff we think about early in the morning is the stuff that gets us in trouble. But I am so convinced after studying this, and just talking to a few people, and the way I feel about this inside. I feel like by now, I can tell when I'm saying something that God really wants said.

I believe with all my heart that we do not think nearly enough about the amazing reality of who we are in Christ, what it means to be made right with God through the blood of Jesus, what it means... I mean, they had one feast that they called the days of awe, and I think for ten days they repented. We can get it done now in just one sentence. I mean, we live in such amazing times under the grace and the mercy and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? You are gonna live forever. You are going to live forever, and it's not gonna be like it is now. It's gonna be wonderful, amen? Absolutely wonderful. So, I'm gonna ask you to just take five minutes and lay in bed at night, and just think, "I'm not ever really gonna die. I'm gonna leave here, but I'll be ready by the time I go. And man, what's it gonna be like when Jesus meets me at that gate? What is it gonna be like? Oh my gosh, it's gonna be so good. And while I'm here, I've got the guidance of God in my life".

How man of you get what I'm saying? Instead of laying there and thinking about... And I'm telling you, if you will do this, starting tonight, if you will do this, and when you go back to your rooms, or whatever you do after this, you go eat or whatever, please don't sit with your friends and just talk about your problems. Now, you can if you want to. I can't force you not to, but at least if you're gonna talk about 'em, try to talk about 'em in a positive way, amen? Can we at least do that? If we can't not talk about our problems, can we try to talk about 'em in a positive way? Now, I don't mean to be mean when I say this, but some of you are not gonna wanna do this message because... Well, it's probably nobody here. This is probably for somebody that's not here that you might need to share this with, 'cause I don't think it'll be any of you. But some people don't want to stop talking about their problems, because if they do then nobody'll feel sorry for 'em.

It's so hard when I tell Dave how bad I feel and he just says, "Oh, you'll get okay," and he goes on off to play golf. It's like... We want somebody to go, "Oh, poor baby. I feel so bad for you. Let me stay home today and just feel bad with you. We can be miserable together". Come on, am I telling the truth? Yeah, well they think I am. You haven't made your mind up yet, right? I'm likin' these sleeves better all the time. I have to get me some more of them. Here's what I believe. I believe if you think more about the spiritual realities of what you have in Christ, I mean, really, in light of eternity, how important is all the things we get upset about? How important is it really? And you know what? God will help you with your problems. I mean, I promise you, God will help you with your problems. I can't promise you how long it'll take. I can't promise you exactly when it will be or how he will do it. I can't even 100% promise you they'll go away, but if they don't go away, God will give you the grace and the strength to deal with it. Amen?

God is faithful. He is faithful. How many of you will do that homework assignment? You'll just take five minutes, just lay in bed, and maybe just think something like, "God, I wonder how many accidents you saved me from today. I wonder how many times there's a thief roaming around the neighborhood, and they just, for some reason, just look at our house and think, 'no, I'm not interested in that one,' 'cause your blood's protecting me," amen, amen? C'mon. Can you get up on your feet tonight? We're gonna live with an attitude of celebration. How many of you have something that you can celebrate? How many of you believe there's power in celebrating? One little, tiny adjustment that can turn your whole life around. Now, we're just starting, just getting started and we're already in party mode. You ready?

Father, we thank you for everything, everything. I think I'll even just be radical, and thank you even for the challenges that we have in life, because they help make us who we end up being. And I pray that everybody would understand this message and take it seriously. That they would find every little thing they can find in their life to be thankful for, and to live with an attitude of celebration. And I know that will strengthen them to be able to deal with other things in their life. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.