The Focus That Brings the Greatest Joy – Part 2 | Joyce Meyer | Enjoying Everyday Life Teaching
The Focus That Brings the Greatest Joy – Part 2 | Joyce Meyer | Enjoying Everyday Life Teaching
True freedom is seeing ourselves the way our heavenly Father sees us. On this episode of Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer shows us how special we are in His eyes.
Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives.
With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way.
I do what I do because I’ve seen god’s power transform my own life, and he will do it for you.
The key to everything is found in god’s word.
I’m Joyce Meyer, and I believe that god can feel you every foyer you heard.
We should learn to see ourselves in Christ to see ourselves the way our heavenly father sees us.
Let’s look at acts chapter 19 verse 11.
And god did unusual and extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that handkerchiefs or towels or aprons, which had touched his skin were carried away and put upon the sick and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
Wow. Then some of the traveling Jewish exorcists, there were people back then that were professional exorcists.
They actually professionally were paid to cast demons out of people.
They undertook also to call on the name of Jesus over those who had evil spirit saying I solemnly implore and charge you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.
Now if you missed that, you missed the whole point. Here’s the point.
They didn’t know Jesus. And the devil knew they didn’t know Jesus.
And they’re saying, we command you to come out in the name of Jesus whom Paul Preaches.
Now, let’s look at the next verse, please.
7 sons of a certain Jewish chief priest named Skiva were all doing this.
But one evil spirit spoke up and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you?
Let me tell you something.
The devil says that does. Who do you think you are?
How many terms in my life do you think I heard that, especially in the beginning when I was trying to start this ministry, who do you think you are?
You are nobody from nowhere. You don’t have enough education. You don’t have the proper degrees.
You’re not a theologian. Who are you and who is gonna listen to you.
Well, let me tell you something.
When god puts his finger on you, When god puts his hand on your life, it doesn’t matter what you know or who you know or what you don’t know or who you don’t know it’s god’s anointing that makes all the difference in the world.
What does a healthy self image look like?
If I said to you today, I want you to go home and I want you to have a healthy self image.
What would that look like? Let me give you a few points.
A person with a healthy self image can say, I know that god created me.
You’re not an accident. You are created.
Purposefully, carefully, intricately created in your mother’s room with god’s hand.
With god’s hand.
You have a set of fingerprints that’s not like anybody else’s in the whole world.
You are unique and anything that’s unique is more valuable than something that’s just the same as everything else.
God has a purpose for you.
And he loves you unconditionally.
And I love this scripture, Ephesians 1, 45.
Even as in his love, he chose us Can everybody say I’m chosen?
Chosen. Say that again. Chosen. God then just get stuck with you.
He chose you. He picked you out, actually picked us out for himself as his own in Christ.
He didn’t pick us out because we deserve to be picked out, but because we believe in Jesus, and he sees us as in Christ, he picked us out for himself as being someone who is in Christ.
And he did it before the foundation of the world So that means before you did anything right or wrong, he chose you.
Now, you know, I don’t know about you, but
I think everybody likes to be chosen.
Everybody wants to be the one that’s picked.
You know, the Bible says that we’re the apple of his eye.
And if you don’t overly spiritualize that and you think about it, if you go to the store and you’re hungry and you’re gonna buy one apple, you just don’t go in and pick one up and go to the register and pay for it.
You pick several up and you look them over really good and you get the one that you think is gonna be the very best.
And god says, you’re the apple of his eye.
You’re the apple that he would choose.
You say, well, how can we all be the apple of his eye?
Because god is god, and he can do everything for everybody all at the same time.
That’s why he can say, you’re special. You’re the best.
You’re the most important and really mean it because he can have that kind of an intimate special relationship with every one of us all at the same time.
Come on. I’m not letting you out here today till you decide to like yourself.
You just would be amazed at all the things that will fix in your life.
If you decide to love yourself in a balanced way and know who you are in Christ, Not tell you what, if you’ve heard this over and over, then this is a good reminder for you, but if this is the first time you’re hearing anything like this, it’s gonna take you quite a while to let it sink in.
Because somehow or another, we think that it’s almost spiritual to think that we’re no good.
I’m just a poor, miserable, wretched center, and I just I’m just this awful person, and Oh, god.
I’m sorry. God. I’m sorry. God. I’m sorry.
You know, sometimes we get so I I mean, I actually did this the other morning.
We get so accustomed to being sorry.
And I said the other morning, I don’t even know why I said, I said, Oh, god.
I’m so sorry, and it was almost like he said, for what?
I think it’s like we’re always apologizing for ourselves because we just We know that we fall short, but that’s exactly why we need Jesus.
And I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be sorry for our sins.
The Bible says to weep and grieve and even mourn over your sins, but I’ve learned that I can do it really quick and get right back to knowing who I am in Christ and pressing on with the good things that god has for me.
It shouldn’t, you know, what one of the One of the holidays and celebrations that the Jewish people had that I didn’t get around to the other night when I taught at one of their feasts was something they called 10 days of all, and they repented for 10 days.
I can take care of all that now in Christ in just a few seconds.
See, and I come on.
Don’t get super duper religious on me. Well, well, now wait a minute.
You know, I just don’t think that you should feel that good about yourself.
You’re forgetting a couple of little words in Christ. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ.
Listen, I know what I’m not without him, and it is less than nothing.
But if you wanna have any victory in this life, you better also get around to knowing who you are in him.
Paul, I know Jesus, I know, but who are you?
Come on. Somebody better get free.
I wanna hear some good old fashioned shouting in here this afternoon.
Give any idea how wonderful it is, and I have to hate yourself anymore or not to have to compare yourself with somebody else You don’t have to pray like somebody else.
You don’t have to study the Bible like somebody else.
One of the most fearful things in the world is that we won’t be chosen.
And when I was in grade school, they did the dumbest thing And this was just the way they did it back then.
We played softball as for one of our gym activities and What the teacher would do was he’d take the whole class and she’d pick 2 people to be captains of the two teams, Some of you’re shaking your head.
You remember, don’t you? And, uh, then the captains would stand there and choose I want you on my team.
The other one said, I want you on my team. I want you on my team.
I want you on my team.
Well, the most fearful thing in the whole world was to the thought of being the last one standing there and knowing that nobody wanted you.
I still remember I still remember how awful that was. Anybody remember that?
Well, that means a lot of you are like, we’re back there from another era.
And I wasn’t I mean, I was I was a mediocre ball player, but I certainly wasn’t good.
So I wasn’t ever one of the ones that got picked first, our second or third or even in the middle, thankfully, I usually wasn’t the last one standing, but I remember how awful it was to be afraid that I might be.
And here’s the thing that you can go out of here with this confidence today you will never be the last one chosen by god.
He has already chosen you.
He already believes you’re special. And he wants you.
You never have to feel nobody wants me because god wants you.
You’re his favorite child. You’re the apple of his eye.
And you don’t have to sit out there anymore in church and look at the people up here and think they’ve got something you don’t have.
I’ll tell you what they’ve got. They’ve got a gift that god put in them.
You’ve got a gift that god put in you and are all equal in god’s sight.
All you have to do is the part that god has given you to do.
Stop sitting on the sidelines of life and just sitting there and at trying to admire all the people that you think have got it all together because none of us have it all together.
We better thank god. We don’t.
Alright, Joyce.
Let’s talk about the world today. And Oh, what it needs.
Do we have to?
We’re gonna have a candid conversation on your your feelings of what the world really needs most.
And there are so many possibilities, but what’s heavy on your heart for the world today?
Well, I could make this a short day and just say the world needs Jesus.
So true.
Goodbye. And I hope you enjoyed the show. Um, let’s break it down into 2 categories.
Well, now we we can make it 1. First of all, the world needs truth.
And, uh, there’s so much deception.
Deception is the perfect word.
Deception. But the Bible says very plainly that in the last days, look it up, Matthew 24, that in the last days, deception will be great.
And the devil is the great deceiver. He’s he lies.
He puts things in your head that are not true.
He he lies to so many people that everybody can believe something that’s not true.
And if you don’t know truth which is only the word of god.
Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the father, but by me.
So Jesus who is the word made flesh is the truth.
And if like even ginger, when I watch television, very often, I I just say, God, thank you that I know the the word.
Mhmm. Because there are so many things even that come on television that are just against the word of god.
And people in the world just think there’s not a thing wrong with them. You know?
I mean, things that people used to be a they aren’t even ashamed of anymore.
They’re just like, well, yeah, everybody does it. Well, you know, just because everybody does it.
Right.
Doesn’t make it right. And if if people had any idea how many things they believe that aren’t true, they would be amazed, you know.
Uh, Christians should know better, but even some Christians fall into that deception.
And they begin to go along with, you know, things that really are not in the word.
And I think sometimes because it’s just it’s hard to stand up to people and your friends and maybe take a chance on losing your friends.
To to stand with god, but god expects us to do that.
We need to stand with god if we lost every friend that we had.
But In addition to that, if a Christian let’s just say they do know the truth, they stand up for the truth, I think what Christians need more than anything is to die to self and begin to really live for Christ.
The Bible says in Romans 829 that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
And that means that the Christian’s goal from the time they’re born again is to Let the Holy Spirit work in their life to change them to become more and more like Jesus.
And Jesus said, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
And the cross that we take up is not disasters and devastation and, you know, every kind of bad thing that you can imagine.
You know, some people say, oh, it’s just my cross to bear.
Well, the cross that he wants us to bear is to live an unselfish life.
And you’re not ever gonna have a bigger challenge than that.
Because we all have a flesh and we just want what we want when we want it and we usually don’t act too pretty when we don’t get it.
And god wants us to trust him that if we don’t get what we want, that we know that he still has our best interest in mine.
Yeah. But I think overall, if we’re gonna talk about this subject, the main thing that people need is to first of all, we need to be careful.
I mean, the Bible says to live carefully and to to be sober minded to don’t just go along with everything that comes along, you know, but is this right?
I mean, is it really right according to the word of god.
Now people who don’t believe in god don’t care.
You know, they don’t they don’t care about the word of god because they don’t believe in god.
You know, the Bible says in the old testament, it’s and its prophecy about the days we’re living in.
That the time will come when good will be evil and evil will be good.
And that’s really exactly what’s happening today.
I just as an example, I was watching a TV program, and you know, sometimes you’re washing them and they’re good and then all of a sudden they get weird.
And so you have to know when to turn the thing off or get away from it.
But In this program, all of a sudden, something these people are being questioned about something and And they said, well, we we have an open marriage.
You know, we we both have other sexual partners and we’re okay with that.
And, So it was a police detective that was questioning them, and and she kinda came across like a little judgmental like what, you know?
Like, it wasn’t right?
Yeah. Like, like, it’s not right. Yeah.
And This is what they said, and you have to pay attention to get this. According to today’s standards,
And that’s the problem. Difficult phrase right there.
According to today’s standards, you judging us for what we’re doing.
Is more wrong because you’re judging our right to do what we please and what makes us happy.
And so what’s happening in the world today is people are doing just that.
They’re doing whatever they please and whatever makes them happy. And they actually think that that’s alright.
You know, people people have they’ve got this notion that, well, it’s my right to have whatever I want Well, you know, it’s also your right to go to hell.
I mean, people say that, oh, I don’t believe a loving god would send anybody to hell.
Well, God doesn’t send anybody to hell. He doesn’t, but we can choose to go.
You know, a lot of people say, I don’t believe in hell. Well, the Bible believes in it.
And here again, you know, I gotta go back to what the Bible says.
You’re gonna you’re gonna live for god, receive Christ, and live for and go to heaven when you die, or you’re gonna ignore god all your life, and then you’re gonna stand before him on judgment day, and he’s gonna Yeah.
Send you to the other place.
And what what you said is that the the world right now is facing a culture where it is worse supposedly to judge.
And judging isn’t the right word because we’re not talking about making decisions about people.
We’re talking about making decisions about god’s word and sin.
Well, making it So
you love the people, but Yeah. But the action Right. Is a different thing.
So we
We should never judge people, but we are called upon by the word of god to judge sin.
Yes. So where it’s wrong to call something wrong.
I I mean, that that is such a dangerous place for us to be.
Right.
But I I Love that you distill it down to what the world really needs is truth.
Yeah.
Because there are so many hurting broken, confused people.
Oh my gosh.
And with the truth of god’s word that, you know, that comes with the fact that he loves them and has salvation and a plan for them, and and it comes with.
Exactly. It comes with peace.
It it’s so wonderful.
With so many good things that our world needs so desperately.
Uh, it’s just if people just knew people peep the only thing people think about when it comes to being a Christian, if they don’t wanna be one as well.
I can’t do everything I wanna do.
But the things that you think you wanna do are the things, the very things that are making you unhappy.
And people think, well, if you’re Christian, you can’t have any fun. That’s not true. We have fun.
We just have good clean fun.
And, you
know, there there’s a difference in holiness and legalism.
And I was just thinking this morning, I need to do a teaching about holiness versus legalism because legalism means you can it it’s always what you can’t do, what you can’t do, what you can’t do.
But living a holy life, there’s still a lot of things you can do you just choose to do them the right way.
You know? And, uh, people just There’s so much confusion in the world today. People are so confused.
And if you just
And Jesus is the hope in all of it, and the only hope
the only hope that people have.
And so I just would really encourage people to not just believe everything that the world says or the government says or, you know, I mean, the government can even make something legal.
Well, it’s legal. Well, it may be legal, but it might still be wrong, you know, just because the world says it’s legal to do something doesn’t mean the Bible says it’s okay to do
It definitely gives you a burning need to pray, to pray for everything happening to pray for our kids.
Pray for our grandkids to pray against that deception
Right.
And to pray for the truth of Christ to one out.
Yeah. Every day, people that are praying need to pray that people will see what real truth is, what real truth is.
And, you know, today, people would you hear a lot while truth is relative.
Well, relative to what?
Relative to me because I wanna do it, you know, truth is truth.
I mean, there can’t be one truth for you and one truth for you and another truth for you and another truth for me.
That’s not truth. You know, that’s just I’m doing whatever I wanna do in calling it truth.
I mean, there can only really be one truth in Jesus that I’m at.
I am the way, not a way, among a bunch of ways, are a truth among a bunch of truths, I am the way the truth period.
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The mind act
she is the battlefield.
That’s where we win or lose the war with Satan.
He said all he gets to say.
Today’s mine.
You start asking god to heal you, and he will restore.
It’s the god of all comfort, and I am so grateful that I know how to call on god.
