Welcome to 15 Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, Enjoying Successful Relationships. God wants to bless us, but we must get along. Because where there is unity, there is blessing and anointing. So it's our job to learn how to set aside our own agenda and serve one another through love. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. Take your Bible up to John chapter 13. A picture is worth a thousand words. So, thank you Lord for this word tonight. Help us Lord tonight learn what true greatness is, and it's certainly not what the world thinks it is. If we're going to be famous any where, Lord, let it be in heaven. Help us God to do the kind of things that you would do and did do when you were here on the earth, and let us not get caught up in the big world machine that just sucks the life out of everybody, but doesn't deposit anything. Thank you for your word in Jesus' name, amen. Started talking last night about others, just simply use the word others. Jesus knew that he was called to others. So he didn't get caught up in a lot of the things that we get caught up in. He didn't get tripped up and hindered by a lot of the things that can hinder us sometimes. Some places he was rejected, some he was accepted. He wasn't moved by either. He just kept on going because he knew that he was called to others. He had a goal and a vision. And really every one of us is called to others. That's exactly why we're here. You receive Christ as your Savior. He heals your life. And He doesn't heal you, so you can just sit around somewhere and be healed. Let me say it again. He doesn't heal us, so we can just sit around somewhere and be comfy, cozy, healed. He heals us so he can use us as a living witness and a testimony of what God can do in a person's life. And He uses us then to help open other people's hearts to the same truth that has been in ours. And for one minute that everybody who needs help is going to come to a church so some preacher can help them, you are sadly mistaken. What it's going to take is every single person who calls themselves a Christian, who by the way has been strategically placed somewhere on this planet. Rather you're a janitor somewhere or the president of a company, a nurse, a doctor, a clerk in a store, are all the other hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of jobs that are out there. Dave and I are always amazed. Sometimes we'll see somebody up on this scaffolding cleaning windows on a building that's like 50 stories high and we think who in the world would want to do that? But God gives different people different talents and He gives us all different grace to do something and where He has us we're there for a purpose. And we need to realize that we're there for a purpose and we need to open our eyes and we need to start asking God to help us pay attention to what's going on around us and to believe that God can work through us to do something about it. I would like to add right now that if you do not learn to do what I'm talking about tonight, you will never be happy. Good. This one gentleman here believes me. And he's a handsome elderly gentleman. And you know why he believes me? Because he's lived long enough that he's done it wrong and now he's learned how to do it right. It does help when you get a little bit older, doesn't it? Amen? Oh, I did it all wrong for years and years and years. For years it was all about me. What about me? What about me? What about me? Me, me, me. If I didn't get my way all the time, I got mad and stayed mad and tried to manipulate and control people with my temper. Couldn't figure out why I wasn't happy. Well, God, I don't understand why I'm not happy. I mean, I've done the spiritual warfare seminars. I'm a woman of faith. You know, I bought the t-shirt, got the tapes, been to the seminar. You know, how many of you know what I'm talking about? I mean, I rebuked the devil till I didn't have a rebuke left in me and he still had the upper hand. And I didn't know what my problem was. God, what's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong? And finally, he just told me, if you really want to know what's wrong in your life, God will tell you. I said, if you really want to know, if you really want to know what's wrong in your life, God will be happy to tell you. But most of the time, we don't listen. And I thank God that I was at a point in my life where I was ready to hear truth and He said, you're selfish. You've studied spiritual warfare, but how much have you studied love? You've studied prosperity, but how much have you studied love? You've studied healing. I spent years studying healing. But how much have you studied love? I studied power. I studied the authority of the believer. And how much time did I spend studying love? I wrote a great book last year called Love Revolution. I think it's probably one of the best books I've ever written. And you must be some of the few who read it. And I mean, I just think it's, I mean, I know the power of what's in that book. And we saw less of that book than any book that I've ever written. It's so sad, but it tells us what's wrong. We saw less of that book than any other book because people don't think they need that. Or they think they already know that. Oh yes, praise the Lord, brother. I love you with the love of the Lord. Oh my gosh, if I hear that one more time, I don't think I can stand it. Now go to your neighbor and give him a hug and tell him you love him with the love of the Lord. You ever do that in your church? I don't know if you do that where you go. Anybody ever, okay, a few. If we ever dared to love anybody with the love of the Lord, I mean the real love of the Lord. My gosh, how radically would things change? There'd be no gossip, no judgment, no criticism. Needs would be met. Everybody would be included. We wouldn't have exclusive attitudes in our little groups and our little cliques. I'm feeling kind of full of myself tonight. John 13, verse one. Now before the Passover feast began, Jesus knew in being fully aware that the time had come for him to leave this world and return to the Father. Now, there's some things I want you to get. He knew that his time here on earth was just about over. And you know, usually if you're a parent, a brother, a sister, and if we would happen to know that our time here was about over and we had loved ones, whatever our last time was spent with them or whatever we would say to them or tell them in those last few days would certainly be the things that we felt were the absolute most important things that we could impart to them and leave them. And if you don't understand that going into this, we're not going to get the impact of what Jesus was saying here in John 13. And as he had loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the last and to the highest degree. Now this is so beautiful because he says, now what Jesus is about to do is his way of loving them to the highest degree that he could ever possibly love them. And so it was during supper, Satan already having put the thought of betraying Jesus into the heart of Judas. Verse three, that Jesus knowing and fully aware that the Father had put everything into his hands and he had come from God and was now returning to God, we have to stop there a moment, because what we're about to see Jesus do would not have been possible had he not known where he came from and where he was going. You cannot do what Jesus is about to do if you don't know who you are in Christ. If you're looking for security, if you're looking for some kind of worth and value and you don't know that you already have that in God, then you are not ever going to be able to do what I'm going to share here tonight. Because you're always going to feel like that you have to do what the world thinks are important things so you can be important. But you have to know that you will never be more important than you are at this moment if you are in Christ. God will never love you any more than he does at this moment if you are in Christ. I read a book recently that said something that I think is wonderful. He said the most important thing in the world is knowing God. And the second most important thing is to know who you are in Christ. And I can tell you if you don't learn that then you'll never get any of the rest of this. You'll always be struggling because until we know that we came from God and we're here for a purpose and through Christ we're going to return to God and that our everything is in his hands. We cannot really do what God has sent us here to do. Is everybody with me so far? If you don't know that God loves you and you don't know who you are in Christ, why don't you just take a nice long Holy Ghost vacation and get that straight? Because that's got to be first. So he got up from supper, took off his garments, and he took a servant's towel and he wrapped it around his waist. Not knowing what they looked like then and probably not nearly as pretty as this. We're going to give it a try here. Well, they'd probably fall off, but you get the point, right? Okay. He got up from supper, took off his garments, took a servant's towel, and it was much more impressive than what you just saw me do because they actually had people then who washed the feet of guests because everybody wore sandals and the roads were very dusty and dirty and you can imagine if it rained what a mess their feet must have been. But these people who washed feet, or I'm sure considered the lowliest of the lowliest, even of all the servants in the house, the one who washed feet was probably considered the lowliest of the lowliest. And so here we have Jesus, the Son of God, who was actually God himself, the Word of God who had taken on flesh, who is now about to pay the price for our salvation and do the thing, bring to culmination the thing that God had sent him to do. And when he got up from supper and took that servant's towel and wrapped it around himself, it must have brought a shockwave into the room. What are you doing? And then he poured water into the basin and he began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel which he was girded with. So I'm going to do a little object lesson here tonight and I'm going to wash three people's feet and each one of them represents a group of people and we'll see that even if we ever get around to being willing to wash feet, then we might be willing to wash some feet but not other feet. Now I guess I shouldn't assume that you all know what I'm talking about but surely you know that this is not really about washing feet, don't you? I mean you do know that he did this as an example to show people how they were to live and the message here is learn to be a servant. Learn to serve other people. You say, well I want to be in the ministry. Now the word minister means servant. Most people want to be famous and that's okay as long as you want to be famous in heaven and you're not concerned about being famous here. People are all different so we need to learn how to relate to everyone, not just those who are like us. We must learn to avoid strife by trying to keep unity and oneness with the people in our lives. If we truly want to be like Christ, we need to become a servant. We cannot become so busy that we refuse to be interrupted when someone needs help. Most of Jesus' miracles took place when we stopped along the way. A sincere deep desire to help people is one of the most godly attitudes we can have. Galatians 513 says this, You, my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love. We all go through hard times and it's so easy in those moments to focus on the problem. But what if you were able to see the trials of your life the way God sees them and respond to them the way He teaches us in His word? Joyce Meyer wants to show you how in her new book, Blessed in the Mess, even in the middle of life's difficulties God's kindness shines through. Blessed in the Mess, order your copy today at joysemire.org. Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.
