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, The Fiercem Four. When we feel discouraged, defeated, or overwhelmed by the pressures of life, chances are we're being hit by what Joyce calls the fearsome four. Fear, guilt, worry, and insecurity. The devil uses these obstacles to keep us from God's calling, but with Christ, we can defeat all of them and reach God's perfect plan for our life. Be empowered with today's teaching and learn to embrace God's fearless four. Peace, confidence, love, and courage. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. I bet you that this place has got people in it today and there's probably even more watching by TV that you feel so guilty about the way your kids have turned out. And you're just sure it's your fault. What can I tell you something? Even if you didn't do everything right, you made some mistakes and could have done some things better as a parent. You know what? Your kids can recover if they want to. My parents didn't raise me right. I had a nightmare for a childhood. But when I was grown and I chose God for myself, He resurrected everything in my life and gave me back double for my farmer trouble. One of my own sons. When my children were young, I was kind of a nightmare. I didn't know what I know now and I was pretty hard to get along with and did a lot of ranting and raving and screaming. I mean, I didn't beat him a mistreat him, but I mean, like it was just like... And one of my oldest son was trying to put a load of guilt on me one day and I was correcting him for the way he was. He said, well, if you wouldn't have treated me the way you treated me, I wouldn't be the way I am. Oh man, I felt bad for days. And then God spoke to my heart and he said, you know what? You go tell him he's got the same opportunity you had. Maybe you didn't do everything 100% right. But he can recover through the Word of God just like you did. And actually, he didn't have near the problems I had when I started. And either way, you know, I wish that I knew now. I wish that I would have known then what I know now. I wish that I could have done a better job than what I did. But you know what? All my kids are serving God. They all love God. We all get along good. We all have time together. And my boy still teased me all the time. The youngest one will say, every time he does something I don't like, he'll say, I get that after you. And every time he does something that I do like, I'll say, you know, you got that after me too. And my oldest son is always teasing me saying, yes, if you wouldn't have mistreated me when I was so little, then I wouldn't have all these problems that I have today. So now we just turn it into a big joke. But the point I'm trying to make is maybe you weren't a perfect parent. But I can guarantee you if you were mistreated, there's a possibility that you passed a little bit of that on to somebody else. But every generation that chooses to serve Christ, less of that gets passed on to the next generation. Verse 5, if we become one with him by sharing a death like his, then we shall also be one with him in sharing his resurrection by a new life lived for God. Don't think so much about everything you do wrong and think more about living for God. We know that our old unrenewed self was nailed to the cross with him in order that our body, which is the instrument of sin, might be made ineffective and inactive for evil that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a man dies, he is freed, loosed, and delivered from the power of sin among men. Now, I believe that the power of sin is the fear of sin and all of the guilt and condemnation connected to sin. If you really know that you can get up every day, pray and ask God to help you. Do the very best that you can. And when you make mistakes and you're convicted of them, which you will be by the Holy Spirit, immediately you agree with God and repent. There is no point in arguing with God. It is not going to help you at all because he is right and he will get his way in the end. If God says you're wrong, you're wrong. You don't need to make an excuse. You don't need to blame anybody. You're just wrong. And all he wants you to do is say, you're right God, and I'm wrong, and I'm sorry, and I need you not only to forgive me, but to help me do it, not to do it again. And then you immediately, not only as a favor to yourself, but also as a favor to God, you walk away from it and move on to the next thing that God has for you. You don't drag it with you and then make another mistake and drag that one with you and make another mistake and drag that one with you. Some of you are still feeling guilty about things from 30 years ago and 20 years ago and 15 years ago and 10 years ago and a week ago and yesterday and this morning. Come on. Religious people don't like it when I preach like this because there's something weird and almost sick about that religious spirit that tries to get on people, that just wants to almost feel like the worse you feel about yourself, the more godly you are. Well, I'm going to make all the religious demons mad by saying... I stand here today before you and I do not have one ounce of guilt about anything. Just don't have any. You say, well, don't you do anything wrong? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if I think one selfish thought that's wrong, if I think one judgmental thought about somebody else that's wrong, sure we do things wrong. But what does it mean when the Bible says, be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect? Oh, I thank God for the amplified Bible because that scripture was messing me up. Let's put up Matthew 5.48 for just a minute. We'll get back to Romans here in just a minute. Oh, this was tearing me up. Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. And I would get up every day and try to be perfect. And the more I tried, the worse I acted. And then I'd go to bed every night and feel guilty. Okay, now let's look at this. Watch, you therefore must be perfect. And here's where the amplified Bible helped me. Growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height, the virtue, and integrity as your Father in heaven is perfect. So perfection involves growing. So I've not arrived, but thank God I'm on my way. Amen. And you've not arrived, but you know what? You're growing. Today you're growing. I don't believe you can sit here all day and not grow. And so the good news is, is stop thinking about what you're not and think about the progress you're making. Today we're growing. Hallelujah. I mean, this is awesome. We got here early, we worshiped God. That was glorious. And now we're receiving the word. We're growing. Let me tell you something. God is proud of you that you're here today. And in the right way, you can be proud of yourself that you're here. Not in like a haughty, proud way, but just that God has worked in your life enough that you've made a good choice. You could have done something else today, but you're here. So why would you ruin being here by sitting there feeling bad about something you did this morning or yesterday or last year or 10 years ago? It's time to leave the city of regret and get a new address. Is anybody being helped yet? I wasn't planning to get this excited. I thought I was going to be calm today. But I just can't help it. Oh gosh, I remember how I suffered with guilt. Oh, it's horrible. I would get up and wish it was time to go to bed and go to bed and wish it was time to get up. Because it was always there lurking. You didn't. You're not. You should have. You shouldn't have. You should know better. You did it again. You're never going to be nice. What do you think you're doing? Preaching to other people. If you think you get hit when you misbehave, you ought to be doing this and see what happens. Come on. I'm growing. Everybody say, I'm growing. Back to Romans 6. I'm going to read verse 7 again. For when a man dies, he's freed, loosed, and delivered from the power of sin among men. Now if we've died with Christ, then we believe that we'll also live with Christ. Because we know that Christ, the Anointed One, being once raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has power over him. And can I tell you that if you're a born again Christian, you are never going to die. You're just going to go through a revolving door into another world. And I might add that this silly body that gives us so much trouble is going to turn to ashes and dust, and we're going to get a new one. One that doesn't hurt. One with no hormones, ladies. Hallelujah. No hot flashes in heaven. Yes, amen. I don't call them hot flashes. I say they're power surges. There's another one. Sorry if you haven't had one. You just have to guess at what I mean. I'm going to say it again. Verse 10, for by the death he died, now remember when he died, you died. Everybody say, when Jesus died, I died. When he was resurrected, I was resurrected. When he was raised, I was raised. Now, let me try to get this to you. See, like what I've just shared with you is a spiritual fact. It's not a hope so could be maybe. It's a fact. So it's something that like over here in heaven is completely finished. It's already done. It's finished. Your name is there. Your mansion is being built. Amen. All that good stuff. So we're over here just walking it out. I'm dead to sin alive to Christ. Dead to sin alive to Christ. Wait a minute. There's no condemnation of those who are in Christ. I'm sorry. I've repented. I'm forgiven. I'm none of your business devil. I'm a keep on making progress, walking the word by relationship with God. But what normally happens is people just get stuck somewhere and they stop growing. They never really have the joy that Jesus wants them to have while they're here. He that knew no sin became sin. He took all of our sin. He took it and paid for it. Then we don't need to keep it and pay for it. Not just the sins that we committed before we asked Christ into our life, but every sin that we ever would commit as long as we're alive on planet Earth. All sin was taken care of on the cross. All sin. Thanks for listening. Despite the challenges we may face in life, when we put our trust in God, we receive an incredible promise from Him. 2 Timothy 1.17 says that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but a power of love and of a sound mind. This promise gives us the strength to look at our problems and know that God is on our side. He wants to give us His peace as we face whatever lies ahead. For more resources from Joyce, visit JoyceMire.org. Our instruction book for life. Spending time in God's Word will change our lives, but consistent and effective study can at times be challenging. That's one reason why Joyce is here to help. At JoyceMire.org slash Bible study, you'll find ways to make your study time come to life with helpful resources, study suggestions, and encouragement from Joyce. Get the most you can out of your time study in God's Word with everyday study. Sign up today at JoyceMire.org slash Bible study. Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.
