Transcript
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Joyce introduces herself as uneducated by worldly standards but called by God anyway. She emphasizes that availability, not special credentials, is what makes someone useful to God.
degrees, honorary degrees, and you know, things that I've been given, and I I appreciate all of them, but I have a 12th grade education.And so, let's just say for all intent and purposes, I'm not especially brainy smart.But, I love God, and I've got a lot of common sense.And so, I'm not educated to do what I'm doing.I never went to Bible college.
I don't feel like I have got to have some kind of a fancy title in front of my name.I started out Joyce, I'm still Joyce.I was a mess, and God got hold of me, and he changed my life through his word, and he called me to share his word with people.And today,
the message Jerry hearing here this weekend will be heard around the world in over 100 different languages.
And I almost failed English.
I didn't care if it was a noun or a pronoun or a verb or what it was, I just wanted to talk.And so, now people think I speak all these languages, and I'm still working on English.I'm trying to get a point across that really, to be honest, it's God that makes you special.And you don't have to have a bunch of special stuff going for you for God to use you.All you have to be is available.Here I am, God.Use me.Send me.But you can't be stuck somewhere mourning over every mistake that you've made.You can't have a victim mentality.Well, my parents didn't treat me right.I didn't get the right education.I didn't get a chance to go to college.I didn't this.I didn't that.I didn't something else.It doesn't matter what you don't have if you do have Jesus in your life.
Do you understand that?If you have Jesus, if you have a great personal relationship with Jesus, you have got all that you need to do something great.I said great.Something great with your life.
Using Saul, Samuel, and personal stories of loss, she warns against grief and bitterness becoming a permanent identity. She urges listeners to look ahead to what God can restore rather than staying focused on what was lost.
So, God anointed Saul to become king.And Saul Saul was partially obedient, but he wasn't completely obedient.He did most of what God told him to, but a little bit of what he wanted to.Andhe did this over and over until God finally said, "You're not going to be king."He lost his opportunity because of disobedience.Well, the prophet Samuel had put a great deal of time into Saul, and he loved him, and I'm sure he had prayed for him, and worked with him, and so when Saul lost the opportunity to be king, Samuelwas grieving, very grieving.You know, when we have loss in our life, we grieve over those losses.And it's right to do so, but you have to be very careful that you don't let a spirit of grief
get on your life and keep it the rest of your life because if you do, it will keep you from letting go of what lies behind and pressing on to the things that are ahead.I remember a story a woman told me, a friend of mine, her teenage son got cancer and they did everything, everybody prayed, and they did all the treatments andhe still passed away.And so, naturally she was grieving and hurting and she said one day she was in her basement doing her laundry and she said, "I could just I could feel like the spirit of grief just trying to wrap itselfaround me."And she said, "I grabbed a piece of clothes and threw it around me and said, 'This is my garment of praise and I'm not going to live in grief.'"And she just started dancing around her basement with that piece of clothes wrapped around her.
You know, you got to let the devil know that no matter what he's been able to do to you in the past and no matter what he's taken or stolen, that you are going to put your faith inGod and God is going to give it back to you not one time, but double what the enemy took.And when you've had some mourning and some grief in your life, oh, it's so sweet when the joy comes.Do you know that we couldn't even know joy if we didn't know sadness?One time I went with my daughter to the to a spa to get a facial and somehow or another I got home and didn't have my wedding ring.And uh called the spa, they didn't have it, nobody'd seen it, and so I just figured that I must have left it on the counter on the sink and and uh somebody took it.
And so, I mean,it really hurt me that I had lost it.You know, it meant a lot to me, and and so, there was a a grieving period of time, and then I finally just said, "Well, Lord, it's just a thing, and I can live without the thing."And uh so, I went on about my business, and then uh two or three months went by.My daughter called me one day, the one that had been with me at the spa, and she said, "Guess what I found?"And I said, "What?"She said, "I found your ring.It was in my purse."And I'm thinking, "Why would it be in your purse?"Well, then we realized the purse she had belonged to me at one time, and I had given it to her.So, when I took my ring off, I just looked at the purse, thinking it was mine, put it in her purse.
She went home, took the stuff out of it, and never used it again for months.And then, when she got it out, well, I was so overjoyed that I found my ring.Well, here's the thing.I would have never had the experience of that joy had I not had the loss.And I want to tell you something.I want you to get this and believe it today.Some of you have had some terrible loss in your life.You've endured tragedies, injustice.Things have happened to you that are not right, that are not fair.And it's been hard.But, oh
Oh, come on now.You know where I'm going.
Oh
I'll tell you what, if you won't have a bitter attitude, and you won't take on a victim mentality, and you'll go ahead and love God and be obedient to him, and continue to try to help people, oh, yourreward is going to come, and you are going to be so overjoyed.
So, don't look at what you've lost, look at what can happen in your future.You know, Martha said to Jesus, her brother Lazarus had died, and she said, "Jesus, Lazarus has died.If you would have been here, he wouldn't have died."And Jesus said, "He will rise again."Martha was looking at what had happened, Jesus was looking at what could happen.Come on, which could you want to do today?Keep staring at everything that has happened, or do you want to get excited about what God can do in your life?
But,
you got to hear all of it, or it won't work.You cannot have a bad attitude,and also have the great life that God wants to give you.
She teaches on forgiveness from Luke 6, stressing that believers must bless those who hurt them and love enemies without expecting repayment. The message centers on obedience, mercy, and trusting God for reward.
Now, either people have hurt you, or maybe you've done some things that have made you sad.And if people have hurt you, the number one thing that God requires is that you forgive them.
And the really painful part, bless them.Oh.Oh.My goodness.Let's read it.Luke 6 beginning in verse 27.
But I say to you who hear,"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."Now, I'm not making this up.This isIt's like you got to be kidding, God."Bless those who cursed you, pray for those who abuse you.To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak, don't withhold your tunic.
Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back."Okay.
"And as you wish that others would do to you, you do also unto them."My goodness, what if the whole world lived by that?Treat other people the way you would like to be treated.
Now, I'm going to take the time to read this because we just need to hear it."If you love those who love you, what benefit is that?For even sinners can love those who love them.And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?For even sinners do that.And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive something back, what what credit is that?Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount.But love your enemies, and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return.
Come on, you you know what we do when when somebody that we've been good to mistreats us?After all I've done for you.
But if I'm reading that right, it says, "No, no, no, no, no."You don't do stuff for people expecting them to do something back for you.You do it unto God and you expect your reward to come from God.You may not get rewarded from the person that you were good to.They may be the very people that take advantage of you and hurt you.But if you keep if
if you keep a good attitude and just do what God's asking you to do, there is no devil in hell that can keep you from being blessed.Amen.Y'all agree with me way up there?How about all the way up in the back, way up there?You agree with me?Make some noise.But Joyce, that's so hard.
You know what?That's an excuse we have to stop using.You know why?Because we're anointed for hard.
We don't need the Holy Ghost to do easy stuff.
But there is nothing that we can't do that God wants us to do.If we will learn how to depend on God and not depend on ourselves and our own strength to pull it off.I'm saying there is nothing that you can't do.God will never allow more to come on you than what you can bear.You may think right now you're in over your head and you just I just can't do this.I can't I can't make it.I'm not going to make it.Well, yes, you will.Because there's been all kinds of things that I thought I'd never get through and I'm still here.And how many of you can say the same thing?You've gone through things that were so hard.You didn't think you'd make it.But you're still here.And your reward will be great.Oh, you.
All these things I've read, he says, "And if you do them, your rewardCome on, some of you right now you're in the you're in the sowing stage of your life.Some of you are in harvest.But you didn't come to harvest without digging up the fallow ground and planting the seed and waiting and going through hard times.Maybe you had a few crops that failed, but you just kept planting and you kept planting and you kept planting.And now you're in a season of reward.And those of you that are sowing and life is hard right now, just keep doing what's right.Saul would have remained king if he would have just kept doing what God asked him to do.But no, he had to have a little bit of his own will in there.Well, I almost did everything you told me to.
Your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High.Why should we do all this?For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.So be merciful, even as your father is merciful.
Joyce shares her painful childhood abuse and the long process of forgiving both parents. She explains how God led her to care for them anyway, showing the power of complete obedience.
I'm going to tell this story just as quick as I can possibly tell it, but I don't see how I cannot tell it, although you've probably heard it.My father sexually abused me.My mother knew it, but didn't She was too afraid of my dad to deal with it.Reached out to other relatives.Nobody wanted to get involved.You know, back when this was happening to me, nobody heard of such a thing.A girl's own father
doing that to her.I mean, you you never heard it.You know, you just didn't hear it.And that was one of the reasons why my mother never took any action to do anything about it.She said, "I just couldn't face the scandal."Well, I'll be honest with you.In many ways, it was harder for me to get over my mother not protecting me than it was what my father did to me.And I still don't can't wrap my head around that one, how you how you can do that, but God gave me the grace to be able to forgive both of them.And one of the things that helped me so much was when he told me hurting people hurt people.So, you know, my dad wasn't raised right, either, and there was incest way back in his family, and on and on and on, and you know, once I got away from them, I preferred to just stay as far
away as I could and see them only when I absolutely had to.Now, I officially forgave them.You understand, I As a Christian, I forgave them.You know, we pray our official I forgive you prayer.
But I didn't want anything to do with them.I didn't want to be around them.And so as they started to getting older and older and needed more and more help,one morning I was praying
asking God, "What's your will for my life?"You better be careful when you pray that.
And God started putting it on my heart that he wanted me to move my parents from where they lived in Southeast Missouri to St.Louis where I live, buy them a house, because they didn't have any money,and take care of them until they died.Ugh.I rebuke you, Satan, in Jesus' name.
Yeah, and some of you're trying to rebuke the devil and it's not the devil.
Just because it's hard, that doesn't mean it's the devil.Anyway, long long long story short, I tell it often, but it's it's just such a great example.I don't know how, but God gave me the grace to do what he asked me to do and the thing is, I can tell you I think as far as power against the deviland power with God, I think that's probably the greatest thing that God has ever given me the ability to do.When you can find the grace of God to love somebody who's done that to you, and to spend your money on them and to take care of them, and to do it for a long period of time.Now, that takes a lot of God.But, if you do what God tells you to do, your reward will be exceedingly great.Come on, I'm trying to push a few people over the edge today.
Come on, let's stop with a part-time obedience.
How many of you think there's power in the name of Jesus?
Well, guess what?I didn't get Dave's name while we were dating.
It wasn't until I said the I do, till death do us part,
then I got his name.You know, a lot of good stuff happened.I didn't have any money when I married Dave, and he had a little money.But, once I said I do, I had money.
I didn't have a car, Dave had a car.As soon as I said I do, I had a car.But, I didn't get that while we were dating.Come on, if you're JUST DATING JESUS,
COME ON.
NO, NO, you got to sign on the dotted line.I do, and I don't even know what I'm saying yes to, but God, the answer is yes.
Why?Because I trust you enough to know that whatever you want me to do, whether I like it or not, no matter how hard it is, it will be the best thing for me.
She turns to Lamentations and teaches that hope is a daily choice that renews strength. She also argues that nothing in a believer's past is wasted if surrendered to God.
Every day you can have a brand new start.
I want to read you Lamentations 3:17-25.
This is actually so good.My soul is bereft of peace.I have forgotten what happiness is.So I say my endurance has perished.
And so has my hope from the Lord.Well, you can everything I've been saying you can see it right in here.My endurance has perished.I'm I feel weak.I'm going to give up.I just don't think I can do it anymore.And it's because my hope is gone.And hope is a positive expectation that something good is going to happen to you at any minute.When you think like that, it keeps you strong.Every morning when you get up, or even before you get up, whisper to yourself, "Something good is going to happen to me today."
Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall.My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.So he's saying, "I keep remembering all the bad things that have happened.And my soul is just heavy.It's bowed down within me."But now watch this transition.But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.You can call things into your mind.And you can tell things to get out of your mind.The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.His mercies never come to an end.They are new every morning.Great is your faithfulness.The Lord is my portion, says my soul.Therefore, I will hope in him.The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.So as long as Jeremiah kept thinking about his losses, he just kept getting in a worse and a worse and a worse condition.
But, as soon as he decided to call to mind the good things in his life, all of a sudden everything started changing.God's mercies are new every day.And you know what else God promises us?Nothing in our life, not even the dumbest thing we've ever done, will be wasted if we give it to him.
I mean, I can honestly tell you when God started with me, I didn't have anything, but everywhere you looked it was a mess.My mind was a mess, the way I talked, the way I felt about myself, how I treated other people.I mean, everything was just a mess.I was selfish, self-centered, rebellious.You I mean, it was awful.I don't know how in the world or why God would have chosen to use me.About the only thing I had going for me was I really did love God.I didn't know much about him, but what I did know, I loved.And I wanted to have a relationship with God from the time I was a little girl.Even while I was married to my first husband who was very abusive, too, not physically, but he ran around with other women all the time, wouldn't work, and was always stealing what little bit I did have, and I
woke up one night and caught him trying to get my wedding ring off my finger.He'd go sell it.And it probably wasn't worth 10 cents anyway.Oh, no.So,
I mean, I I I had a lot of a lot of pain going on in my life.I had a lot of things.A lot of messes in my life, a lot of hurt.Bad attitude.I mean, I I just I want you to understand that
when I look at what God's done in my life, I am passionate about what God can do in yours.
I mean, I really do believe that with God all things are possible.Amen.I just dare you to turn yourself over to God.Stop trying to get God to give you what you want.And tell God you want what He wants.I might have to say that again.Stop trying to get God to give you what you want and tell Him to give you what He wants.God, your will be done in my life.I'm saying yes to whatever you want and I don't even know what it is.
Now you're making a commitment.See, a lot of people today don't want to get married.They just want to live together.You know why?They don't want to make a commitment.
They want to have an easy out if things don't go right.Oh, we need to get committed.
We need to be faithful.We need to be loyal.We need to endure difficultiesand come out on the other side joyful.None of the junk that I went through in my life has been wasted.You've heard me today use lots of it to encourage you.
Nothing in your life will be wasted if you'll give it to God.
The focus shifts to emotions, warning that feelings are unstable and should not govern major choices. She urges listeners to do what is right even while hurting and to avoid relationships that poison their lives.
Now, let's talk about emotions for a few minutes.Anybody up for that?
I got 25 minutes left to tell you about your feelings.
First of all, let's talk about the nature of feelings and emotions.By the way, we'll just take a praise break.823 people gave their lives to the Lord last night.
Praise break.
823 NEW babies to train up.
First of all, feelings are fickle.
They're ever changing.You cannot depend on them.
They're They're when you don't want them and gone when you do want them.Amen.Don't let your emotions vote when you're making decisions.Especially important decisions.Don't go get married on a goose bump.
Cuz they will go away.
Well, I could say stuff, but I won't.
Emotions can't be trusted.
You can't make your decisions based on how you feel.You got to look beyond that to what does the word of God say?
Thank you.
Learn to talk back to the devil.When he tells you nobody loves you, open your mouth and say, "God loves me."
When the devil says you're never going to get over this, your life is ruined now, say, "Liar."
God's going to take this and he's going to do something great with it.Why?Because he works all things together.
He can take anything and make good out of it.
We have to learn to do what's right when it still feels wrong.As far as I'm concerned, that's one of the best statements God's ever given me.If we keep keep waiting for everything to feel right before we do right, the enemy's always going to be in control.Bad feelings come when we don't want them and good ones leave when we do want them.Yeah, you got to learn to press past the pain of feelings.You hurt my feelings.I feel offended.I feel I feel.We've all been hurt.There's not a person in here that hasn't been hurt by somebody.And more than likely will be again.I'm not trying to just prophesy doom and gloom, but if you're going to deal with people, you know, we don't know what to do with them and we can't seem to do without them.
They are absolutely everywhere you go.
Someone or something has hurt all of us.Abuse, rejection, abandonment, betrayal, disappointment, judgment, criticism.We all have to start making right choices while we are still hurting.And so you may be here today and you may be wounded and you're hurting and you just you just wanted me to preach some nice message about I don't know, something that would comfort you and just make youfeel warm and fuzzy all over and here I am telling you, no matter how you feel, do what's right.
While you're hurting, do what's right.
I'm telling you that because I know by the word of God and by experience that if you ever want to get over
Come on, somebody agreed.I got you.How many of you have gone through some terrible stuff in your life and you now have victory?Well, look at you.
Awesome.
You're welcome.
We have to start making right choices while we are still hurting.Mhm.
It doesn't feel good now, but oh, later on.
Hebrews 12:11 says, "For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant."But later.
Does anybody in here care anything about later?
Cuz you know, later will come.And you know, you're 20 now.
I love what the psalmist said, "Once I was young and now I'm old."And I thought, "Yep, it happens to everybody."No matter how young you are now, later on is going to come.And listen to me, later on, you're going to have to reap the seeds that you sow now.So, today is the day for a turnaround.Today is the day to make a decision.
And if it feels like it's going to rip your flesh in apart, do what God is asking you to do.If you're in some kind of a wrong, ridiculous relationship that you know is wrong for you, get out of it.And I'm not talking about walking away from a marriage, so don't go home and say, "I'm leaving you cuz Joyce told me to."That is not what I'm talking about.I mean, there are people in here today, you are romantically involved with other people that you know are poisoning your life.
Come on, don't slink down under your seat.
Well, I'm just trusting God to change him.Oh, honey.
I'm not saying it can't happen, but you might want to see a little bit of evidence before you
You just even a little bit of evidence.We make up all kinds of excuses, tell ourselves all kinds of things so we can do what we want to do.Don't do things that you know are poisoning you.You've only got one life to live and you have to make right choices for yourself.
Joyce confronts self-pity, victim thinking, and the temptation to demand repayment from people instead of God. She points to reward, repentance, and follow-through as the path out of pain.
Does anybody need to hear this today?
You're the only person you know who's doing what's right.You keep doing what's right and you'll be the only one who'll end up happy later on.Now, change is painful.I'm not going to tell you that it's not.Doing the right thing when you're hurting is painful.I'm not going to tell you that it's not.But I am going to tell you that you only have three choices and here they are.Press past the pain now.Just go ahead and say, "God, whatever it takes, I want to do this and get it over with."Press past the pain later and be miserable until then.
Or you can have a third choice, keep the pain forever.Okay, you know what helped me to press through the pain?
Oh my gosh, it was so hard for me to learn how to have a decent attitude.And you don't know what a wrestling match I had with self-pity.
I mean, I just felt sorry for myself because I'd been abused.And who wouldn't feel sorry for themselves if they had the stuff happen to them that I had happened to me.But see, what I was doing was I was using what had happened to me as an excuse for bad behavior.Come on now, I'm talking to somebody.
And I kind of had this everybody owes me something mentality.Well, I was due something, but only God could pay me back.You see, that's the thing you got to realize.If somebody stole something from you, they stole your childhood, they stole your joy, they stole something that should have been yours, don't try to get them to pay you back.They have no ability to pay you back.Go to God and ask him to pay you back.
I mean, I just felt so sorry for myself and you've heard me say it.Uh God said to me, "You can be pitiful or you can be powerful, but you can't be both."There's always choices.You want to be a victim or do you want to have the victory?
You want to sit around and feel sorry for yourself day after day and just keep looking at all the things that happened to poor old you?
Or do you want to give all that mess to God and say, "Now, let's just let's see you.Come on, I want to really see you show out in my life.
But that promise of reward kept me going.When I was going through the hard times of trying to get over the abuse that I went through.Man, I hung on to Isaiah 61:7 and 8.Instead of your shame, there shall be a double portion.
Instead of dishonor, they shall rejoice in their lot.Therefore, in their land, I love that part.You don't even have to wait till you die and go to heaven.God will start blessing you right now while you're alive.In their land, they shall possess a double portion.Double.Double for your trouble.And everlasting joy shall be theirs.Why?For I, the Lord, love justice.I hate robbery and wrong.God hates it when people mistreat you.And he hates it when you mistreat other people.And I will faithfully give them their recompense, which means reward.How many of you are looking forward to the reward?
See, when you're hurting, that's what you got to remind yourself of.This is not right.It's not fair.It is so hard.But God, help me act right, and I know that I will have a reward on the other end.Are you with me?
But see, it's so hard to not just act the way you feel.
God, help us.
Help us be nice to people that aren't nice to us.If you hold unforgiveness toward people, you are doing nothing but hurting yourself.You're not getting them back.Hebrews 11:6, God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.Guess what?You chose to take your Saturday
and be here.
Come on now.And you're going to hear some stuff and are hearing some stuff that's going to keep you out of trouble next week.
Come on.Has anybody
since you've been here last night and this morning, and I'm not just trying to get you to make me feel good.I want truthful answers.How many of you have made some kind of a decision because of something that you've heard that you know is going to be life-changing for you?Well, then it's worth every bit of effort that I put into thisto come here.Now you've made the decision, now you got to go home follow through.
She uses Abraham and Terah to show that many people start well but settle before reaching God's best. The warning is not to stop short, because settling can lead to a diminished life.
When there's no pretty music and no lights and the party's over.
Abraham was presented with a very hard choiceand an opportunity for a reward.And I think I think this comes to us all the time.I think more than we realize we're being presented with choices, choices, choices.God said I set before you life and death, good and evil.Choose.Choose life that you and your descendants may live.Why did God give us a choice?Because he doesn't want robots.He doesn't want people that have no choice but to love him.He wants us to love him because we want to.He wants us to say yes to him, but that requires saying no to other things.
And I love this story that I'm going to relate to you out of the Bible.It just I get so many different messages out of this, but in Genesis 11:31, 12 through 2, Abraham was not the first man that God offered an opportunity
to go to the land of Canaanand do something great.Terah, who was Abram's father, took Abram his son and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarah, his daughter-in-law, and his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldees to go into theland of Canaan.Okay, so they started out to do something.
But
when they came to Haran, they settled there.
How many people start out for the best and they settle somewhere along the way?Cuz it gets too hard.I'm not doing that.
If there's any blessing to be had, I'm going for it.Amen.
They settled
in Haran.I'm asking you not to settle.Why did they not go all the way?I don't know.The journey got hard, they got tired.Maybe the devil was telling them you're never going to get there, this taking too long.For some reason they made a choice and they settled.And I want you to look at this.This This amazes me.And the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran.So where he settled was where he died.
Again, I tell you this, if you settle for less than what God's best is for you, you may not fall over physically dead, but there will be a type of death that will come to your soul because youwill know that you are living less
than the large life that God has for you.
Joy is defined as something deeper than happiness and not dependent on circumstances. She explains that joy grows through gratitude, right thinking, and choosing healthy surroundings and relationships.
Come on.Now, when I say joy is defined as a shout, that doesn't mean that we all have to go around shouting all the time in order to say that we have joy.I find a lot of times that I just live with a calm, quiet delight.Joy is not based on our circumstances.Happiness is based on what's happening, but joy is something different.Joy is something that God puts inside of us when we're born again.It's one of the fruit of the spirit along with love, joy, peace, patience, and other things.They come into us as seeds and the more we water them with the word and the more we practice them, the stronger they get.Joy is like a deep, deep well on the inside of us.Not, let me say again, not based on our circumstances.While I was working on this message and putting it together, I had probably half of it done and I was using my computer, of course, and I did something and lost the whole message.
And never could find a way to get it back and had to start all over.Well, I thought, this is definitely a test.Here I am trying to put together a message on joy and I lose my message on joy, but I didn't lose my joy.See, you can have a problem and still not lose your joy because a lot of it is based on a decision that you make about how you're going to look at a situation.And one of the things that always helps me is to believe that God is in control and that even though I don't understand it, there's a reason for everything and that if I keep a good attitude, and that'sthat's a big if, if we keep a good attitude, remain thankful because no matter what kind of problem you're having, there's always plenty to be thankful for, then God will cause everything to work out for our good.
Joy is also based on having a right relationship with Jesus.A lot of people have a relationship with Jesus, but it's not a right relationship.And
what I mean by that is they don't really know who they are in Christ.I'll tell you, if you feel bad about yourself, you don't like yourself, or you feel like God's not pleased with you, that he's mad at you, it's going to hinder and block your joy.And it's very important for every Christian to understand, to learn, and to believe that we're made right with God because of our faith in Jesus, not because we do everything right.Even when I do something wrong, I'm still in right relationship with God.I need to repent.I need to receive God's forgiveness because if I have sin hidden in my heart, that can block my joy.But you need to understand that God loves you, that he's not mad at you, that he has a good plan for your life.I spent so many years thinking God was mad at me most of the time, and that came from my childhood because my dad was a very angry man, and it didn't take much at all to make him mad,
and a lot of times he was just mad and you didn't even know why, so I assumed he was mad at me.And so when I got into my relationship with God, I carried that over into that, and it took me a lot of years to realize that God was not only not mad at me, he was pleased with me.God is not pleased with us because we do everything right, but he's pleased with us because we have faith.In John chapter 6, some of the people that were listening to Jesus teach said, "What must we do to please God?What is the work that he requires of us?"And Jesus said, "This is the work that God requires of you, that you believe in the one whom he has sent."Sometimes we can't believe that believing is all God really wants us to do.
He wants us to believe, and you see, if we do believe, then we will begin to obey God more and more.And the closer you get to Jesus, the more you love him, the more you will obey him.But you can't produce right behavior if you don't have rightness in you.So God gives that to us at the new birth as a gift.Second Corinthians 5:21 is the proof for what I'm saying.He that knew no sin, Jesus, became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ.And 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.All things have passed away and all things become brand new."Spending time with God releases joy that's on the inside of you.The more you think about Jesus, the more joyful you get.The more you think about his word and the promises that he's given you, the more joyful you will get.
The more you think about your problems or your enemies, the more it's going to hinder and block that joy.Psalm 16:11 in the amplified translation says, "You will show me the path of life.In your presence is fullness of joy.And at your right hand, there are pleasures ever more."Spend time with God and you'll find your joy increasing.You know, it's so important to be in the right atmosphere and we have the privilege of hosting a lot of Bible conferences throughout the year.And um I find that people just they're more joyful in those conferences.I mean, you I can always ask maybe after a couple of sessions, "Well, how many of you felt pretty sad when you came in and now you feel more joyful?"And well, all the hands will go up.Well, why is that?It's because they're in a good atmosphere.
And if you want to have joy in your life, it's very important that you place yourself in a right atmosphere.Now, maybe you have a situation in your home where you have other people that are grouchy and cranky and they don't want to get along and they're always arguing.Well, then you need to find a way to at least part of the time be in an atmosphere where people are positive, where they love you, where they encourage you, and they're not grouchy and angry about something allthe time.Our surroundings do affect us.So, choose an atmosphere and choose people that are going to increase your joy and not those that are going to decrease your joy.Some of you right now, if you just think about it, if you would just get away from some of the people that you're friends with, it could change your whole attitude.
She teaches that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy, and that guilt blocks joy. Using Psalm 32 and other scriptures, she explains repentance, forgiveness, and joy as a witness to others.
Romans 14:17 tells us that the kingdom of God is righteousness, Well, first of all, it says it's not meat and drink, so it's not things.The kingdom of God is not just going to God and asking him for a new car and a new this and I want to get married and I want my kid to change and I want my husband tochange and I need a new house.It's not It's not all about things.If we seek God first, he'll add the things.So, we don't have to just constantly go to God asking him to give us something.What we need is more of him.So, it says the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it is righteousness, having a right relationship with God, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.And so, when I read that and understood it many, many years ago, I thought, well, you know, I'm not enjoying the kingdom of God because I felt guilty most of the time.
I didn't have peace.I was always upset about something.And I didn't have joy.And I believe that they have to be worked out in our life in that order.I don't think I can have peace if I'm not in right relationship with God, and I can't have joy if I don't have peace.So, first thing, if you are not joyful, or like people say, I've lost my joy, you need to make sure that your relationship with God is right.If there's something between you and the Lord, then you need to talk with him about it.You need to repent.You need to get it out in the open.Receive your forgiveness.Don't spend the rest of your time feeling guilty, and then you'll have peace, and then work with the Holy Spirit to maintain that peace.Don't argue with people over petty stuff that doesn't make any sense.
Stay out of strife.Stay out of all the gossip and junk at work, and just remain peaceful.When you have situations that are upsetting, trust God, keep your peace, and if you if you have that right relationship with God, you hang on to your peace, joy is going to bubble up on the inside of you,and the Bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength.Some of you have been praying for more strength.But what you probably need is more joy.We cannot experience joy without peace, and we can't have peace without righteousness.It is impossible to sense joy if you're under condemnation.And you know, we really need to understand that when we ask God to forgive our sins, he he he not only forgives them, he forgets them and removes them.Imagine that, he forgets it.He forgets it.Removes it as far as the east is from the west.
Bible says he remembers them no more and he also deals with the guilt.If the sin is gone, if it's forgiven and not remembered and moved as far as the east is from the west, then if there's no sin, there's nothing to feel guilty about.And oh my gosh, I wasted so many years being sad and downtrodden because I felt guilty about something all the time.And here again, that came from my childhood.I felt guilty about my father sexually abusing me even though it wasn't my fault.The devil, of course, lied to me and convinced me that there was something wrong with me, otherwise he wouldn't want to do that to me.And so, the guilt that I carried for years and years and years stole my joy.Right relationship with God requires facing our sin and true repentance.Admit your sins, repent, and receive forgiveness.
In Psalm 32, the psalmist David, who had committed sin with Bathsheba, spent a year not repenting.I don't know what kind of excuses he was making to himself or how he was covering that up, but he spent a whole year not facing truth.And you know what the Bible says in John 38 John 8:32, that the truth will make us free.Well, it's not the truth about somebody else that will make you free, it's the truth about you that will make you free.And you know what?The Holy Spirit is sent into our life to guide us into all truth.So, if you don't have joy, why don't you start by just asking God to reveal to you why you don't have joy.I don't know.He might say you have a bad attitude.Or he might say you're selfish.Or he might say you you have sin that you've not dealt with or there may be some things that you're doing that are not things that you should be doing and God wants you to eliminate those things.
I found out that if I ask God questions, he usually answers me and I don't always like the answer, but nonetheless, at least I've come face to face with the truth.I remember when I was unhappy as a Christian, there was no reason for me to be unhappy.I had a good ministry, I had a good family, good kids, good husband, didn't have any money problems.And I said, "God, why am I unhappy?"And he just It just came up in my spirit, "You're selfish."Wow.Well, that didn't feel very good, but it was the truth.And you know what?You can't be selfish and happy at the same time.God didn't create us to always be trying to get something.He created us to give out to other people and to sow seeds and trust him to take care of us.So, David said, there's seven verses here in Psalm 32.
"Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered."Now, this is Old Testament.So, in the Old Testament, sin was just covered.But thank God in the New Testament, they're completely removed.We have a much better covenant than they did."Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit there is no deceit.That's so important.Don't deceive your own self.When I kept silent, David said, "My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long."Well, he sounds like a pretty miserable guy."For day and night your hand was heavy on me."God was dealing with him."My strength was sapped."He had no joy, so he had no strength."As in the heat of summer."Now, listen."Then I acknowledged my sin to you.""I did not cover up my iniquity.""I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord."
"And you forgave the guilt of my sin."One translation says, "And you instantly forgave the guilt of my sin."Isn't that good news?God is so good.He is so good to us.Some of the things that we do, you would think that God just would never want to have anything to do with us, but if we sincerely repent, I mean, we're really sorry.And that means That doesn't just mean you're sorry you did it, but it means that you're going to turn away from that kind of behavior.You don't want to do that kind of behavior anymore.And you may need God's help.It may may be things you need to work through, but you sincerely want to live the way God wants you to live.Psalm 32:11, "Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you righteous.""Sing, all you who are upright in heart."
Psalm 33:1, "Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you righteous."You see, it keeps telling us over and over that we we have to be right with God if we want to have joy.It's God's will that we have and express joy.I actually think joy is our way of advertising Christianity.There's so many people in the world that are sad and sour and they do nothing but complain and murmur.But if we have joy, if we're just pleasant and happy and are not complaining and have a good attitude, people notice that.And it may not be long and they'll ask you how How can you be so stable and so happy all the time?Well, then the door is wide open for for you to tell them about Jesus.
The closing section focuses on abiding in Jesus, prayer, and asking God for help instead of striving alone. She ends by contrasting joy with the Israelites' complaining wilderness journey and urging believers to live in God's presence.
I already quoted John 10:10, but it's such a great scripture, let's hear it again.The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.But Jesus said, I came.Thank God Jesus came.That they may have life and have it to the full.The amplified says have and enjoy life.And I like that.I spent a lot of years not enjoying my life.You know, we might enjoy some segments of our lives, but God wants us to to enjoy all of our life.We can learn to let to enjoy every phase of life.I mean, you can enjoy your work, you can enjoy going to the grocery store, you can enjoy cleaning house, you you can enjoy everything you have to do if you stay in contact with Jesus and he's the centerof your life.In John 15, about the first 11 verses, Jesus talks about abiding in him and how a branch abides or stays on the vine and it will produce fruit without any effort if it just stays there.
And Jesus says "He's the vine and we're the branches.And if we abide in him, there's a couple of really great promises.If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you can ask what you will and I'll do it."Now, obviously, it needs to be God's will, also.But if you abide in him, you're going to know his word, you're going to know his will.And he also says, "If you abide in me, you will bear much fruit."And one of those fruit is joy.Well, what does it mean to abide?It means to live, dwell, and remain in.You know, so many people think that being a Christian is just going to church on Sunday morning or once a week, whenever you go.And that that's all there is to it.I mean, I just I don't like it when I ask people, "Are you a Christian?"
and they tell me what church they go to.There's so much more to being a Christian than just going to church.We go to church to fellowship with other people and to learn the word of God.But then we should take that back out with us into our lives and live it out in front of people.And so if you abide in him, you will bear much fruit.But that doesn't mean a a little 35 or 40-minute visit on Sunday morning.Jesus wants to be involved in every area of your life.Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will direct your path.Talk to him all throughout the day.You don't have to be on your knees with your hands folded to pray.Prayer is just talking to God.Include him in everything that you do.So often you hear people say, "When I pray, I'll pray about that."
Well, you know, just pray about it right now.You don't have to wait until sometime when you think that you're going to be in a certain posture to pray.Learn how to abide in him and let Jesus be your best friend, be involved in everything that you do.As believer, we are as believers, we are full of so many good things that God puts in us at the new birth.But we have to let those things develop by letting the Holy Spirit work in us.John 16:24 says, "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.Now ask and you will receive and your joy will be full."You know what we do a lot of times?Instead of asking God to help us with something, we work at it and try and try and try and try and try to work something out ourselves.
We try to change ourselves instead of asking God to change us.We try to change the people in our lives.We try to figure out our problems and try all these things that don't work.And many times, we just forget about prayer.Prayer is the greatest privilege that you have and it is the most powerful thing.It is the most powerful privilege and gift that God has given us.Ask and receive by faith that your joy might be full.And then Jesus says in John 17:13, and this just is amazing.I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.In the amplified, it even brings it out more clearly.He says, "I want my joy, the joy that I have to be filling your souls."
Well, you know what?I don't know how joyful Jesus is, but I have a feeling it's pretty joyful.And I would love to participate in that joy, cuz I tell you there's nothing worse than spending a day just being sad and mad and discouraged and depressed and downtrodden.Joy is wonderful.You know, I'm going to use the word happy, although happy is based on what's happening and it's not really what I'm talking about, but so often we think just about being happy.And I can remember as a young woman in my 20s just praying God, someday I just want to be happy.I think really when you get right down to it, that's what people want.They may go They may think they're going to get that through buying something or through doing this or doing that or doing something else, but really we just want to be happy.
We want to enjoy our lives.Nehemiah 8:10 says, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."You know, in Deuteronomy and in Numbers, we read about the journey that the Israelites made through the wilderness.And it was really pretty pathetic.It took them 40 years to make what could have been an 11-day journey.And the biggest reason why they spent so much time out there was they just kept complaining and murmuring and grumbling and always finding fault with Moses and Aaron and even with God.