Joyce Meyer - You Belong to God - Part 2

Well, when Jesus saves us, how much of us does he save? All? There's that word I'm after, "All". The word "Salvation" means, "Deliverance, something saved, to give aid, to give victory, prosperity, health, help, and welfare. It further means deliverance, preservation, material and temporal deliverance from danger and apprehension which is fear". It further means, and this all came out of the Greek dictionary, "Health, safety, spiritual and eternal deliverance granted immediately by God to those who accept his conditions of repentance and faith in the Lord in whom alone it is to be obtained". You see, when we receive Christ as our Savior, we immediately become new creatures in Christ but everything that we have is buried deep in us in our spirit. Now the journey begins. You've got everything you need to be an awesome, amazing, powerful, influential person because a little seed of everything that God is has been planted in the womb of your spirit.

See, I don't even think this we know a lot of times what it means to be born again. What does it mean to be born again? It means that you receive the nature of God into your spirit. In Ephesians it talks about how we're stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit, "marked and branded as God's own," it says. marked and branded as God's own. Everybody say, "I belong to God". See, I think we need a greater sensing of that. I think we need to live our life with this awareness that "I'm not my own, I belong to God. God, what do you need me for today"? Not, "Here's my list of everything you need to do for me to keep me happy today, but what can I do for you today"? You know, if you'll start asking God every morning, "What can I do for you today? Use me, how can I serve you"?

Let me tell ya something, your problems will start getting solved one right after the other and you won't even know how it happened. Well, it's true, amen. Just going to church and going home, going to church and going home. I did that for years and years and years, but Jesus didn't save us so we could just do that. He said, "I came that you might have life and have it abundantly to the full until it overflows". I want all of you in my life, God, I want you to have all of me. Now, maybe that sounds scary to some of you, maybe you're not ready to give up all. Well, you got in the service tonight so, if you're not ready, maybe you best get ready or maybe God's getting ready to do some things in your life and he wanted you to have maybe just a tiny bit of understanding about what's gonna happen before it happens. Who's ever had God deal with you about something, it was so hard for you to give it up, so hard, but then when you did, you saw how much better things were in your life? Wow, wow, wow. We've all got that testimony. Our walk with God is a journey. The path of the righteous grows brighter and brighter.

Now, as we walk with God, one of the things that happens, and I love this promise in Isaiah 49:8 through 10, "Thus says the Lord, in an acceptable and favorable time I've heard and answered you, and in a day of salvation I've helped you: and I will preserve you and give you for a covenant to the people, to raise up and establish the land [from its present state of ruin] and to apportion and cause them to inherit the desolate [moral wastes of heathenism, their] heritages". Now, the next verse, verse 9, "Saying to those that are bound, come forth, and to those who are in [spiritual] darkness, [come into the light]". See, he's saying, "I can change your life and then I can make you useful to other people". What am I doin' here tonight? I'm sayin', "Come out, you no longer have to be bound. Come out of the darkness into the light. God's got a better life for you". Let's look at verse 10, now, I love this: "They will not hunger or thirst, neither will mirage [mislead] or scorching wind or shame smite them:"

Now, how many of you know what a mirage is? I find this so interesting. A mirage is like something that you think you see that's not really there. It happens to people when they're in the desert, which you might as well say that in the world we're living in, a desert, and they see something out in the distance that they think is water. They see something they think is gonna solve their thirst and so they go for that. And then when they get there, they find out it was just a mirage.

See, three or four of ya are gettin' this already, and I haven't even told ya what it means yet. You guys are smart. Well, you know what? Until we really understand what God's wanting to do in our lives and we stop chasing after things that we think are going to make us happy that then we get and find out they have no ability to make us happy. And I love this 'cause he said, "When you're truly saved, you'll no longer be led by mirages, but I'll do a work in your life and I will use you and cause you to bring other people out of darkness". How many of you don't wanna just keep chasin' big and empty wells that have no water in 'em? Boy, I spent so much of my life diggin' empty wells that had no water in 'em. "Oh, this'll make me happy. Oh, this'll make me happy. Oh, this'll make me happy. This'll make me happy. If I quit this job and get another job, it'll make me happy. If I lose 10 pounds, it'll make me happy. If I get more money, it'll make me happy. If I have a bigger house, it'll make me happy".

You know what? I had no intention of bein' happy because I was not happy with myself. And until you get happy with yourself there's nothing in the world that can ever make you happy. And the only way you can be happy with yourself is to get in agreement with God. Life gets tough when we're not in agreement with God. It takes a while to get there, but you can come to the point where you just absolutely don't care what happens in your life, as long as you're in God's will. Now, a big thing that needs to happen when we're saved is we need to have our minds renewed. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:17 that we're to: "Put on the helmet of salvation". Well, what in the world does that mean? I think it means that we need to learn how to think saved. Not just be saved, but think saved. Like I shared that scripture this morning about hope: "[what, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living"!

Now, when you're in trouble, but you can think, "Something good is about to happen to me at any moment," now you're thinking like a saved person. When somebody offends you and you can think, "I am not gonna waste my day bein' mad at you, I have power from God to forgive you," now you're thinking like a saved person. C'mon. But now, if you're still tryin' to run your own life, if you haven't committed that part of your life to God yet, I wonder if there'd be some people here tonight that maybe need to commit their temper to God. I love 1 Peter 2:23: "When he was reviled and abused, he did not revile and abuse in return. When he was reviled and insulted, he did not revile or offer insult in return: [when] he was abused and suffered, he made no threats [of vengeance]: but he trusted [himself and everything]to him who judges fairly". Right there, that's the place of peace. "God, no matter what happens, I trust you. I trust you". And you know what? Jesus never, he didn't give people back what they gave him. He gave them back true love, which was something they couldn't get anywhere else.

Now that's when you're free, when you don't have to spend your life bein' mad at people who hurt you all the time. The world is full of people that are gonna do nothin' but try to offend you and hurt you. And as long as you keep buyin' into it, the devil will just love, love, love, love it. But you can think differently. And when you think differently, it will cause you to behave differently. I have a book that I wrote called "Power Thoughts" and it's got 12 different basic foundational thought principles that I've encouraged people, take each one of those and meditate on that and stick with it for like, 30 days, and let it get rooted on the inside of you. What if you took the next 30 days and you pondered and thought and spoke, "I'm quick to forgive. I don't stay angry. It's almost impossible to offend me". Instead of sayin', "Well, I can't help it. I'm just touchy. I can't help it. I'm just a tender person that gets my feelings hurt easy. So, now, everybody else in the world needs to tiptoe around me because I'm touchy".

We can change the way we feel and we can change the way we behave by changing the way we think and learning how to think the way God thinks, but we have to do it on purpose. It's not gonna happen accidentally. So, I'll just throw out a new way you can think that will help you. God's dealing with you about somethin'. He wants you to, I don't know what, you know, stop goin' out after work on Friday night and hangin' out in the bar with your friends, hmm. Now, you know, you're not gonna do anything you shouldn't do. You just wanna hang out. You don't want people to think you're unfriendly. But you kinda know down deep inside that that's not really where you need to be. It's not the best atmosphere for you. I'm just throwin' out examples. You can apply this any where you want to. I mean, it's not really the best place for you. It might not keep you from goin' to heaven, but it's not really the best place for you. It's kinda like a waste of your time, and you kinda know that, but you don't really wanna go home and just sit at home by yourself on Friday night.

And so, the thing we think is, "It's just so hard. It's just so hard". Or maybe God's dealing with you about, let's pick somethin' that you really won't like, tithing. "Well... That tithing stuff, that's Old Testament. That's under the law". Well, if they could give 10% under the law, I wonder what we oughta be doin' by grace. Now, you don't wanna have that argument with me. So, you know, I'm not tryin' to do it. Let's just say God's been dealin' with ya. "But it's so hard. It's so hard. The government already gets most of what I make, and now God wants me to give the rest of it to him. Well, what's gonna happen to me? It's just so hard". How 'bout if you change your thinking and you start thinkin' like this, "I can do whatever God asks me to do through Christ who is my strength? Nothing is too hard for me because I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me".

And that's just not a sermon that somebody preaches to you once in a while and you get all excited and clap and cheer in the church. These are ways that you need to think when you go home. "I can do whatever I need to do and I can do it with a smile on my face". Paul never prayed for the church that they wouldn't have any problems. He prayed that they would be able to endure whatever came with good temper. So guess what? I'm not gonna pray for you tonight for your problems to go away. "Oh", 'cause here's the thing. We gotta learn how to deal with stuff. Even if the problem you have right now goes away, there will be another one right on its tail.

See, some of you are like, "Man, I wish I wouldn't have come tonight". Hey, I'm just tryin' to help ya. And the only way people can really help ya is to tell you the truth. You don't have to be afraid of trouble. You don't have to be afraid of problems, because you are more than a conqueror and you have what it takes to overcome anything that comes against you. C'mon. We don't have to spend our life bein' led around by mirages and, "Oh, it's this. That's gonna make me happy. Oh, it's that". Anything to avoid lettin' God deal with us. Why not stop chasing what you think is gonna make you happy and just say, "Here I am, God. I want all of you, and I want you to have all of me"? Oh, we just have no idea what's gonna happen in our life when we just really put our self on the altar and say, "God, you do what you want to do in my life". The truth will set you free, but it can also be a little hard to handle. Your joy will increase the more you surrender to God.

The place to begin being more obedient to God is in all the little things in your life, the little things in your life. "It's the little foxes that spoil the vine". If we practice on the little things, then the big things will get easy. C'mon, why don't you step into the school of the Holy Ghost and just say, "Okay, Holy Spirit, you teach me how to be the person you want me to be. Every time that God brings conviction". You've probably heard these stories, but a couple of 'em are comin' up in me and so I'm gonna tell 'em to ya again. And it sounds funny now, but it was a big deal to me at the time. You know, I was not an excellent person. I did what everybody else did. You just do what you have to do to get by. But God wants us to be excellent. And if someday I was gonna stand up here and represent him like I am tonight and reach not only you but people all over the world, wow, you know, that is a great privilege. But there's a great responsibility that goes along with that.

And so, way back over here 40 years ago, I went into the school of the Holy Spirit and he started teaching me, teaching me. And you don't have to be in some special class somewhere to be taught by God. He'll teach you wherever you're at. And he uses all the little ordinary things of daily life to do it. "Why were you late for work this morning"? Well, the person of integrity's gonna say, "You know what? Just to be honest, I just didn't leave my home in time. It's my fault. I'm sorry, it won't happen again". Now, you know what? A person can respect that. But when we make excuses that everybody else knows is not true... All right, I'm gonna go talk to these guys for a while. I went to the grocery store like everybody else does every week for years and years and years. But when the Holy Spirit got serious with me, all of a sudden, things that I did started bothering me that never bothered me before.

And I remember when I left my grocery cart out in the parking lot like I did every other week, you know, we prop it up against somebody's car, and I started to get in my car, and I remember, I just sensed, "Go put that back where it should be". I just, "Well, nobody else does". "Well, that's the problem isn't it? Nobody does, so somebody's gotta start". We're not called to do what everybody else does. We're not called to fit in. We're called to stand out. We're called to be the odd person who does what's right. Well, I'm really kinda, it's not really easy to tell you this, but it took me 2 whole years to get to the point where I put that silly grocery cart back where it was supposed to go every time I went to the store. I would do it for a little while, and then if the weather was bad, I wouldn't do it. I'd do it for a little while, and then if I was in a hurry, I wouldn't do it. Sorry, now you have to start putting yours back.

One lady told us a funny story. She said, "I went to the grocery store the other day and put my groceries in the car and I started goin' back with my grocery cart 'cause I listened to your preaching. There was a lady over here goin' back with hers, and she looked at me and said, 'Joyce Meyer, right?'" and she said, "That's right". But see, here's my point. If we can learn it on that level, if we can learn it right down in our Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then when the big things come along, we've got a lot of practice. God wants us to be people of excellence. He wants us to be people of integrity. Let's just don't go to church and sing, "I surrender all," and then go out and do what we want to all week. Let's learn how to listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and start doing what the Holy Spirit shows us to do. It doesn't matter if you're the only person that you know that's doing it right, you keep doing what's right if it costs you every friend that you've got. Somebody needs to make a move tonight. You need to move just another step closer to God.

I can feel it in my bones. C'mon, somebody needs to make a decision to stop lyin'. Man, it's hard to tell the truth all the time if it's gonna get you in trouble. Well, probably shouldn't have done what you did to start with, then there wouldn't be any trouble. Hey, I know, been there, done that. I mean, some time last year I told a lie. I did, I told a lie. They asked me a question on some medical papers I was fillin' out, and I thought it was none of their business so I just didn't tell 'em. Actually, I wrote down somethin' that wasn't correct. And so I got home later and the Lord said, "You know, you lied". Well, see, I'd have been better off to have just said, "I don't really think, I don't think it's any of your business. I'm not gonna answer it". But see, we don't wanna just come out with the truth.

And then I was one of those people that I'd go in the grocery store hungry and I'd get my cart full of everything imaginable and then figure out by the last aisle I couldn't pay for it all. And instead of goin' and puttin' it back where I'd got it, I'd just pile it all, you know, put the lettuce in with the cleanser. Yeah, I was, you know, I was like, "Who is the nutcase who put that here"? I didn't wanna go put it back. I didn't want to. "I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to". And the Holy Ghost would say, "Put it back. Put it back. Walk it all the way". "But God, I'm in a hurry". "Put it back. Put it back". Oh, yeah, went out shoppin', bought a pair of shoes and looked at the purse that matched the shoes, decided I didn't want the purse. Got home and the sales clerk had accidentally put the purse in with the shoes. I had a free purse. No, God wasn't tryin' to bless me. He was testing me.

Now you're understanding. He was testing me. So I had to use my time, my gas money, to take it back. And the clerk said, "This is amazing". He said, "Do you know that there are not very many people that would have brought this back"? Well, I had an opportunity. I said, "Well, you know what? I serve God, and he told me to bring it back, so here it is". Now, all of a sudden, your bumper sticker's got some power behind it. God wants to do such an amazing work in our life. But it's time for us to come up higher. Let's be excellent. Let's be people of integrity who do what's right because it's right. Even if we never get a right result, we're gonna do what's right because it's right. Amen? Let's be committed to doing what's right.