This program is paid for by people like you, the partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries. Well, work, family, bills to be paid, these are just a few things that we have to deal with on a regular basis. And stress is a reality in our society, but it doesn't have to dominate our lives. If you're feeling overwhelmed from the daily pressures of life, you should take time to rejuvenate and learn how to deal with these issues. With God's help, you can overcome it. Join me and others in Hershey, Pennsylvania on April 10th and 11th as we share biblical ways to face stress. It's my Enjoying Everyday Life conference. Sign up today. Every day you go out, you're representing God. You all have a pulpit. It may not be up here. It may be your desk at work, maybe your backyard fence. But you've all got a pulpit. I'm Joyce Meyer, and I believe that God can heal you everywhere you hurt. Today I want to talk about the relationships that we have and how we think about people and ourselves. First of all, I want to look at Romans 10, 9, and 10. It's a very foundational scripture about salvation. Verse 9, because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, I don't want you to miss this. If you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe, then you will be saved. So there's two parts to salvation. Believe and confess. Believe and confess. And I'd like to add to that that any time we're walking in faith, it has to include those two parts. And I know people think you're crazy when you start talking about going around your house, talking out loud and confessing scripture. You know, but they just don't know the secrets that we know. I'm always Stunned by what Jesus said when he was Close to going to the cross And he said to his disciples I am not going to talk with you much more Because the evil one comes And he hath no part in me That's John 14 30 He said I'm not going to talk to you much more now Now why would he say something like that? well I believe because he knew the pressure that was going to be coming on him and he decided ahead of time to just keep quiet rather than to even take a chance on saying something that would open a door for the enemy in the situation that he's in in Isaiah it says like a sheep led to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth. And so if we're not talking about confessing the word, then what in the world is that talking about? He's saying that we can say things that will cause problems in our life, and we can say things that will open the door for the enemy. And so sometimes when you're under pressure, the best thing you can do is just be quiet. Amen? Just, it's better to say nothing than to say something foolish. Hallelujah. Verse 10, for with the heart a person believes and hears to trust and relies on Christ. And so he is justified and made right with God. So when you believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, you're made right with God. We are the righteousness of God. In Christ. And I would venture to say that most Christians don't know that. I don't know. What denominational churches teach. But I know the one that I went to for quite a while. Didn't teach me that. But imagine that. We're not wrong with God. We're right with God. I'm going to give you a piece of good news this morning. God's not mad at you. amen he's actually quite madly in love with you and rather than being what you may think he's disappointed with you because you made a mistake he knew you were going to make that mistake before you ever made it and he's already provided all the forgiveness that we need we don't have to beg for it we just receive it because he died for every sin that ever was or ever will be and so heaven is just banked full of forgiveness you don't need to beg for forgiveness promise god you'll never do it again because you probably will and uh so a lot of times when i've done something that i feel like i need to repent of i just i don't ask god to forgive me because he really already has i just say, I receive the forgiveness that you provided for me, and I'm grateful for it in Jesus' name. And then I follow that up with refusing to feel guilty. See, that almost sounds odd, doesn't it? It's like, well, I have to at least feel bad. Why? Can you add anything to what Jesus has already done? I think it's a little bit insulting if we do something wrong ask God to forgive us and then spend the next two weeks feeling guilty we're no good to God in that condition he wants us full of faith and love and joy and peace and righteousness he wants us to know who we are in Christ and he's made provision that even though we are imperfect that he sent a perfect savior for us to take our place to pay the debt that we owed and in Isaiah it says that he forgives all of our iniquities and removes all of the guilt now I suffered unbearably with guilt for years and years and years I say this and it sounds funny but it really was true I didn feel right if I didn feel wrong And I mean that was just my constant companion My dad started sexually abusing me when I was a very young child. And so I always felt like there was something wrong with me. And I had this nonstop record playing in my head. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me. And so I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to wake up and not feel a burden of guilt. Amen. That's one of the greatest privileges that we have. The Lord told me one time I was using my, I'd learned about faith and I was using my faith for everything imaginable except what I really needed. And he said, if you want to use your faith for something really big, use it to live guilt-free. Because it's hard when you do something wrong and you ask for forgiveness, not to punish yourself further by feeling guilty. And, you know, we kind of divide it up into categories. A small sin only requires a day or so. that's the truth we do a medium sin might be a week but boy if you commit a biggie that might stick with you for life so if we if we only knew i just wrote a book called masterpiece and it won't come out for a couple of years i'm i write way ahead of time but it's about who we are in Christ. And that's what the church needs to know. You don't have to go hanging your head down all the time and some burden on your back and how are you doing brother? I'm getting by. I'll tell you what, God wants you to do more than get by. So remember that. believe and confess there's not a day that goes by i don't think that i don't say at least once and maybe more i am the righteousness of god in christ i've already done it this morning he that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him i'm a new creature in christ all things have passed away all things are made brand new. I am the head and not the tail above and not beneath. I lend to many nations, but I never have to borrow. On and on and on and on and on. If you know the word, the Bible says, let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. Amen. So just a little refresher course that maybe you need to get back to confessing the word a little bit more because sometimes we let that slip bible says we're to be constantly renewed in the spirit of our mind constantly renewed verse 22 ephesians 4 22 says put off the old man and 24 says put on the new man and 23 tells you how to Get there. Be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind. We are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We've got everything we need in us. And we need to work with the Holy Spirit to let him bring what's in us out of us. Because the Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5.20, that we are God's ambassadors. the amplified says he is making his appeal to the world through us what a job every day you go out you're representing god you all have a pulpit it may not be up here it may be your desk at work maybe your backyard fence but you've all got a pulpit and that doesn't mean that we have to preach in words to everybody you don't want to try to cram jesus down anybody's throat if they want to hear tell them if they don't want to hear just act like jesus i can't even imagine how wonderful it would be if everybody that calls himself a christian actually got out in the world and acted like one. I think if you want to know the truth, we'd all already be in heaven. This would be over. Always think more about what you do have than what you don't have if you want to be happy. Let me say it again. If you want to be happy, always think more about what you do have than what you don't have. The Bible invites us to pray, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you. Keep on asking. Keep on knocking. God wants us to be persistent. Not come with some kind of an attitude, you owe me something, but I tell God sometimes, I'm not going to shut up. Until we see victory here because your word promises. Amen. And he says to remind him of his word. He didn't forget it, but he wants to know that we didn't either. Amen. Well, you know, my mother lived an absolutely miserable life. Because she knew that my father was abusing me and she didn't have the courage to do anything about it. Back in those days, that was something nobody talked about, abuse. I think I was one of the first people that actually started talking about it openly 50 years ago when I began. And I can't just get up here and be religious. I have to be real. And see, so much happens in the beginning formative years of your life. and there's a lot of people that have been hurt in their childhood and they're still sick and wounded and bruised and they don't even know that's what it's from but god you know i had a lousy beginning but i'm having a great finish i mean i said my autobiography is coming out next fall and uh i think it's going to be a really good read anybody who can read my story would have to believe when you were done that god could do anything that needed to be done in your life Because I am absolutely the least likely person on the planet to be doing what I'm doing. Almost failed English. Didn't like it at all. I thought, I don't care if it's a verb or a pronoun. Just let me talk. you know you can you can speak well without having to know all that i mean i was a good student i did good in other subjects but i think it's funny that i didn't do very well in english and now around the world i speak about 130 languages i was in a hotel hall one night getting ready to go to our room after a meeting and there was a man cleaning out in the hall and he spoke Spanish and he heard me speak in English and he said to one of the people with me, oh, does she speak English too? Because he hears my program translated into Spanish so he thought that's all I could speak. We actually have translators that are speaking like me and we try to get the best ones we can. But my mother lived a miserable life, and she trapped my brother and me in that same life. My brother sadly committed suicide about 10 years ago because he couldn't stand to live in the house any more than I could. I left when I was 18. He joined the Marines when he was 17 and was sent straight to the jungles in Vietnam. and he got hooked on drugs over there, and he never was able to get off of them. They say sometimes when you take a lot of drugs that your mind stops progressing at that point, and he was always kind of like a 17-year-old teenager. He never would take responsibility, and we even brought him one time, and he lived with us for four years, and he would do good if you told him what to do. but on his own he always fell back into those old patterns and we we sent him out to the dream center in la to after the four years with us he disappeared another eight years and then he wanted to come back and i you know i i can't just keep taking care of him all my life so i sent him out to the dream center in la he stayed there for a while i was doing good they were getting ready to put him to work as a plumber. And he just said one day, I want you to take me and drop me off at the VA. You guys are great, but it's just not for me. And then I got a call about 10 years ago that he had hung himself in an abandoned building. And that's awful. He had the same opportunity I did, but he just couldn't get away from the drugs he was born again filled with the spirit and yes i believe he went to heaven because i believe that god understands things that we do not understand amen i know that he loved god he believed in god i know he was born again I heard him pray in the spirit with me he worked for our ministry for a few years and the one thing they found on him of his personal effect was his wallet and all his wallet had in it was his employee card from when he worked for Joyce Meyer Ministries that was the one thing in his life that he was really proud of and he still carried that around with him all those years later and it saddens me how many people could have such a great life if they only knew and would apply the truth to their life. You can know it all you want to, but if you don't apply it, and you're going to have to be diligent. It's not easy. You know, I remember a woman who came to the altar and she put her hands on her hips. She said, I want my money back. And I said, what do you mean you want your money back? She said, well, I've been doing what you said to do for two weeks and nothing's changed. It was all I could do to keep from laughing at her face. I thought, honey, you have no idea. You have not been hearing what I've been saying. So here's the interesting thing. My mother never apologized to me until 30 years after I had left home. By then, we were taking care of my mom and dad because God told me to, not because I wanted to. You know, you don't have to want to do everything that God tells you to do. We're supposed to do what's right, not what we want to do or what feels good. And I'll tell you something. when you do what's right, when you still feel wrong, that's when you're growing spiritually. That's a good one to take home and think about. And this is what she told me 30 years after it happened. she said I'm sorry that I didn't do anything to get you away from your dad I thought I couldn't financially take care of you and your brother I didn't think I could face the scandal and I didn't think that I could handle what people would think of us if they knew the truth. So it was her own thinking that kept her from ruining her life and almost ours. But what if she would have thought, which she could have, because we're free to think what we want to think. See, nobody's forcing you to think bad things. Maybe you just don't know That you can choose your own thoughts I didn't I never I never thought about Where did that thought come from Whatever fell in my If I woke up in the morning And thought I'm depressed I was depressed I agreed with my thought My thought said I'm depressed And so the first person I would see They say how are you this morning I depressed Isn that what we do But see God wants us to call things that are not as though they are according to his word. And so, I mean, I could have said I'm feeling kind of down, but I know God's going to lift me up and get me over it. I don't believe in lying. We don't have to say we're okay all the time when we're not okay. But if you read the Psalms, David, I read them all slowly and I did a book on them. David told God exactly how he felt about everything. When are you going to deliver me? Why are you waiting so long? And he would just tell them how I feel. I cried all night. I don't know if you're ever going to show up. But then he would always, every song, he never ended it that way. He always turned it around. But I know that you are faithful. And I know that you will not leave me in the situation that I'm in. And I think we would be so much better off if we would tell ourselves and other people the truth. But then turn it around to what God can do. What we're believing for. This is the way it is. But this is what I believe is going to happen. And I know it's true because it's happened in my life. what if she would have said well I believe with God's help I can take care of my children and I believe he will take care of my reputation and I think good things will happen in the future if I take responsibility to make this change I need to make thinking Romans 12 2 says don't be conformed to this world this age fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind. We can't change unless we change our thinking. Can you get that? You cannot change just by struggle and effort. You can only change by renewing your mind according to the word of God asking him for help and then believing and saying what he says. Amen. This is going to turn a few people around today I believe. Sometimes we know what's right but we get lost in the middle of it. How should you think when life gets difficult? Well first of all never make your most important decision when you're in your worst mood. Emotions go up and they go down. So I always say, wait a little while and then decide. We wouldn't get in trouble financially a lot of times if we would just let our emotions settle down. Stay in the Word, stay in the Word, stay in the Word, stay in the Word, stay in the Word, stay in the Word, stay in the Word, stay in the Word. Well, I'll say it again. We need to stay in the Word. We need to stay in the Word. There's nothing more important than studying God's Word. It's the foundation of life and the answer to everything. We can never have too much of the Word. Strengthen your relationship with Jesus through my Battlefield of the Mind Bible, a beautiful, amplified edition filled with my notes, highlighted scriptures to speak over your life, and personal questions to help guide you on your journey with Christ. I think it'll really bless you. Get into God's Word one verse at a time with the Battlefield of the Mind Bible. Arm yourself with more than 200 mind-renewing scriptures targeted to crush that stinking thinking and transform your words. Simple to read and easy to understand, it includes Joyce's practical insights, prayers for victory, and proven strategies to conquer mental and emotional battles so you can maximize your study time and strengthen your personal connection with God. This is a time for us to say, I love this book. I love what's in it. It's full of life. It's full of health. It's full of healing. It's full of wholeness. Do you know that every answer to every problem that you could possibly have is in the Word of God? There is not a problem that you have that you can't find an answer to in God's Word. Well, I believe you're really going to enjoy studying with my Battlefield of the Mind edition of the Bible. It's an amplified edition, and I think you're going to love it. And remember, when you purchase a Bible like this or you send in an offering, it allows you and I together to reach out to hurting people all over the world. The Bible has a lot to say about not ignoring the needs of the poor. and I hope that you will join me in reaching them and alleviating their suffering. The gospel is reaching more and more people all the time, but it takes people like us to work through to get it done. So join me and enjoy your new Bible. Experience God's word like never before and fight back with the Battlefield of the Mind Bible. Yours for a gift of $55 or more. Contact us at 1-800-331-8000. Go online to JoyceMeyer.org or use the QR code on your screen. How do we navigate all of life's pressures? Well, God's Word has much to say about it. So I thought we could all get together with some of my friends and talk about it. Join us for the Enjoying Everyday Life Conference with Joyce and her guests, Dr. Henry Cloud, Nona Jones and Worship with Naomi Rain. April 10th and 11th in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Register today. Go to JoyceMeyer.org. Real life, real friends, no pretense. Joyce Meyer's Talk It Out podcast. Join Joyce, Aaron Cluey, and me, Ginger Stockey, along with some amazing friends as we honestly share the hard stuff, laugh through those unpredictable moments, and learn to apply what God says about it all. Watch or listen to new episodes every other Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts. We hope you enjoyed today's program. We are so grateful to our Joyce Meyer Ministries partners who make this and all we do possible, including sharing God's word and offering help to people in need all over the world. This program has been paid for by people like you, the partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.
