Welcome to enjoying everyday life with New York Times best selling author Joyce Meyer.
On today’s program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, the book of Ephesians.
When we look at the book of Ephesians, Paul’s words are foundational for every believer, they help us to understand who we are in Christ, how much he loves us and how we can grow a stronger, more intimate relationship with God.
So today, let’s go deeper in God’s word.
Listen, as Joyce walks through Ephesians chapter by chapter showing us how we can apply its truths to our lives.
Now, here’s Joyce with today’s series on the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4: verses 26 and 27.
When you’re angry, do not sin, please notice it doesn’t say never get angry.
It’s not the feeling of anger, that’s sin. It’s what we do with that feeling after we feel it.
If somebody comes and is rude to you, the first thing you’re probably going to feel is anger well, before Christ or actually I was already saved.
But before I knew the importance of really obeying God, if I felt like being angry and shutting somebody out of my life and telling them off, that’s exactly what I did.
But people who are gonna go all the way with God, listen to me.
You don’t have the privilege of doing what you feel like doing.
That’s not an option for us. The world can do that.
They can do what they want, think and feel, but we don’t get to do that.
We have the fruit of self control and we can say no to ourselves and yes to God.
And in the beginning, it’s a lot harder than it is later on when you’ve had some practice, the longer you walk with God, the easier it is to not fight with him because you find out that he’s going to get his way in the long run anyway.
And it just saves you a lot of time to do it his way first. When you’re angry.
Don’t sin. Don’t ever let your wrath, your exasperation, your fury or your indignation last until the sun goes down.
So he’s saying, don’t go to bed mad.
I wonder if I asked how many, if you went to bed mad last night?
What kind of a response I’d get.
You’re looking really innocent out there, looking around to see if anybody is putting their hand up and it’s certainly not.
You, you know what the way you go to bed is, the way you’re going to get up and you don’t want to keep that cycle going in your life.
Leave no such room or foothold for the devil. Give no opportunity to him.
Anger opens a door for the devil in our lives. Amen.
How many of you want your life to be really radically blessed? Ok.
Then you have to stop staying mad. Well, let’s try it again.
How many of you want your life to be radically blessed?
Well, then you have to stop staying mad.
I’m not gonna tell you to never get angry because we all have times where we get angry, but you don’t have to stay that way with God’s help and a good firm decision and the power of the Holy ghost, you can be peaceful all the time in your life.
What goods are going to do you to stay mad at people that are out enjoying their life and don’t even care that you’re upset.
Your anger is not going to change them, but your anger will change you.
And let me tell you something.
If the truth were known, there’s probably more people in this room tonight that are mad at somebody than those that are not.
And some of you have had it in you so long.
You don’t even know it’s there anymore, but it’s still eating away at you.
And so I want to suggest to you that you leave it here tonight and not take it home with you.
Now, I’m not gonna teach on this a long time tonight because I teach on this.
A lot and I’ve got a lot of stuff to cover.
So let’s go on to verse 28 and 29, let the thief steal no more.
But rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands so that he may be able to give to those in need.
And I thought that was pretty interesting.
He’s saying, look, if he used to be somebody who was stealing stuff and really just, you know, whether, whether you were a thief or not, the same principle works don’t steal anymore.
He says, but go get a job so you can give to other people.
Isn’t it interesting that he doesn’t say get a job so you can take care of yourself and stop stealing?
He says, get a job so you can give to other people.
I think that’s, that, that’s really kind of a thought to ponder.
It’s like, am I really just working so I can give to other people?
Well, you know what if we believe the word, if we give to other people, God will take care of us.
Let me tell you something.
If you’ve got an attitude about giving, that is anything other than I’m excited about it.
And I love to do it, then you need to really study the Bible because it’s from Genesis to revelation and there’s no way that we can get away from what God says about giving.
And if we love him, we’re going to want to give. But this to me is a very interesting scripture.
Go get a job so you can give to other people.
Now, that doesn’t mean that we don’t use a lot of the money that we make to take care of ourselves.
But the motivation here has to be I’m gonna give, I’m gonna work and I’m gonna work hard so I can give, well, a lot of people they don’t even want to work, period, let alone work to give to other people.
Now, here we go. Get ready. Here comes all the mouth stuff.
How many of your mouth get you in trouble?
I tell you what I’ve done so much teaching on the mouth and written so many books on the mouth and it’s because I needed a lot of help.
You know, my gift is in my mouth, but it’s also been my greatest problem.
But, you know, God’s really changed me in that area.
Let no foul or polluting language nor evil word, nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth.
But only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others.
Don’t ever, this is saying, don’t ever say anything to anybody that’s going to tear them down, only say things to them that are going to edify them and build them up and make them feel better about themselves.
Amen. Hm. As it’s fitting to the need and the occasion that it might be a blessing and give grace to those who hear it.
Proverbs 1821, the power of life and death is in the tongue and those who indulge it will eat the fruit of it rather for life or death.
So tell the person next to you, you’re gonna eat your words.
All right, Lord Jesus, help us with our mouths.
Can anybody say amen to that prayer? Lord Jesus help us with our mouths. my mind.
You know the amplified Bible.
When it talks about sin, it talks about forgiveness for our sins and thought, word and deed.
So we not only sin with our deeds, but to be honest, the things that we do wrong start in our mind and then our mouth gets involved and then we complete the process and really get ourselves in trouble.
No man can tame the tongue. Bible says, no man can tame the tongue.
We need a lot of help.
Lord put a guard over my mouth lest I sin against you with my tongue.
Help me Lord to say nothing. If I can’t say something that’s gonna have life in it.
Now verses 30, verse 30 not verses 30 says, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.
Wow, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
Do not offend or ex or sad in Him by whom you were sealed, marked and branded as God’s own and secured for the day of redemption of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin.
Now, I shared with the people here last night because it’s such an important point.
I’m going to take a moment to share it here again, this ceiling of the Holy Spirit, this being marked and branded has a real significance that we may not fully understand just like I would talk to you today based on the culture that we live in.
Paul, talked to the people in his day based on the culture that he lived in.
And so many of the examples that he uses, we don’t fully maybe grasp them to the fullest that we should because we don’t always understand the historical background.
But this is such an important thing that I want to unfold it for you a little bit.
Ephesus and corn were both lumber towns.
They had a lot of people in those towns, they had businesses in those towns that dealt with the lumber industry.
And so it was a big business for them and they were on the Black Sea.
And so logs would be cut down in places where there were forests and things like that and they would be floated down the Black Sea and then they would be held in the harbors at current our emphasis and then people from these different companies, representatives would be sent out from the companies to go and pick out the logs that they wanted.
Now, I know you weren’t all here last night.
But in Ephesians over in the, the first, I think it’s chapter two says that we were chosen and picked out by God.
You didn’t just get pushed off on God.
It’s not like you were his last person that he could have a relationship with.
He actually looked at you and picked you out for himself to be his own in Christ.
Everybody say I’m picked by God.
You know, the world has picked on you, but God has picked you to pick you up and to make your life better.
And so just like those logs were picked, Jesus has picked us, but he’s not here to take us home to be with him yet.
We gotta be here in the world for a while.
And so the next thing that happened to those logs was when the people who worked for the companies, the representatives came, they put a mark on the logs that they wanted.
Each company had their own mark and they would put a mark on the logs that were going to be theirs and they made a down payment on those logs.
And then sometimes they would be held in the harbor for months and months and months, but nobody touched them, nobody harmed them, nobody stole them, nobody bothered them because they were marked and branded and sealed by the person who owned them.
Well, this scripture says that we are marked and branded and sealed by the Holy Spirit.
Isn’t that awesome? He chose us?
And picked us out while we were floating along in the river of life.
And now we’re being held in reserve marked and branded by the Holy Spirit waiting for that final day when he comes back and claims us as his own.
I want you to feel safe. God wants us to feel safe.
He wants us to feel protected, to know that he’s gonna watch over us and all any of us need to do to put all of these promises into action is to believe them, just believe them.
Everybody saying I’m marked and branded by the Holy Spirit.
So he says, don’t grieve the spirit of God.
Now, verse 31 and 32 goes back to the mouth again and anger and a few other things.
So we’re just gonna read through this real quick.
If you need any part of it, you can just take it and then we’ll go on by and go do something that maybe you will need.
If you don’t need this, I’m joking, we all need this.
You’re supposed to laugh at my jokes that makes me feel better that all bitterness and indignation and wrath, passion, rage, bad temper, resentment, anger, animosity, quarreling, brawling clamor contention.
Anybody found anything on the list yet that suits you slander, that means talking bad about other people, evil, speaking, abusive or blasphemous language.
Let it be banished from you. Get it as far away from you as you can possibly get it.
Away from you with all malice, spite, ill will or base of any kind and instead become useful and helpful and kind to one another.
Thanks for listening, renew your mind while learning how to better understand God’s word with today’s offer, step by step, how to study God’s word and battlefield of the Mind.
New Testament with coral cover this Bible study booklet and New Testament Bible are available today for a gift of $30 or more in us funds.
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You can order today’s offer from our website at Joyce Meyer dot org or call us toll free at 1 807 890089.
Again, the number is 1 807 890089 in our world. Today, there is an epidemic of anxiety.
There’s so much coming against us and for many it’s causing not just worry but an overwhelming and frightening state of panic.
And I want to help you use God’s word to fight and win the battle for inner peace.
My book, The Answer To Anxiety will help you through the process of eliminating tormenting thoughts and replacing them with the peace that passes all understanding the answer to anxiety.
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