transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[00:30] Welcome to 15 Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series Never Give Up. Did you know the only way we can lose in life is if we quit? The hard part is learning to keep going and trusting God, even when we're in the midst of difficulties. When we're determined to never give up, there is no limit to what God can do in our lives. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching.

Speaker 3:
[00:59] Well, we're talking about never giving up. That's very, very important because if we give up, then there's not much God can do. We have to stay in the program and sometimes fight that good fight of faith, and stand our ground, and have an attitude, and your attitude is yours to command. That's something nobody can direct but you. Have an attitude of I'm going to finish my course, I'm going to enjoy the journey, I'm going to fulfill my destiny, and everything that Jesus died for me to have, I'm going to have it. Not a little of it, not half of it, not 80 percent of it. Everything that Jesus died for me to have, I'm going to have it. If you don't have that attitude, then the devil will steal from you. Now, today we're going to talk about defeating doubt and unbelief, and let's start in James 1, verse 8. James 1, verse 8 starts out talking about trials and tribulations. And you know, sometimes, I mean trials come for different reasons, but sometimes they're just a result of our own poor choices, our own lack of wisdom, just doing foolish things that we shouldn't be doing. Does anybody agree with that? That you do have the ability to get your own self in trouble, amen? But I love what the Bible says in James 1, 5. It says, if any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God, who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly without reproaching or fault-finding, and it will be given him. That gives me so much comfort because it's basically telling me if I've got trials and tribulations and I need to know what to do, I need to know how to get out of this situation, that all I need to do is ask God. Give me wisdom. And it says he'll do it without reproaching or fault-finding, which tells me that even if I've gotten myself in the mess, God's not going to come around and say, well, this is your fault and try to make me feel bad. He's just going to help me. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering, no hesitating, no doubting. For the one who wavers, hesitates and doubts is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and tither and tossed by the wind. For truly let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything that he asks for from the Lord. So we have to make our minds up what we want God to do for us, and we have to stand firm and be steadfast about that thing and not be changing our mind all the time. Well, I believe God will do it. Well, I don't think he'll do it. Well, maybe he'll do it. Well, I hope he'll do it. Well, I'm not sure he'll do it. Well, I'm afraid he won't do it. Well, you know, then we go to church on Sunday, we get all built up. I believe he'll do it. And then by Tuesday, we're not sure again. And this is a challenge for all of us. We all know that doubt interrupts faith. And we know that the things that God has for us comes into our life through faith. But what Satan has for us can come into our life through doubt. So naturally, the devil is going to try to make us doubt. He's always going to try to make us doubt. And it's amazing that sometimes we can believe that God will do something for somebody else, but we have a hard time believing that he'll do it for us. And why is that? Because we still, way down deep inside, still believe that some way, somehow, what God does for us is connected to our works. Well, I can't really believe that God will do this for me because I haven't been this great superior person that I should have been. And actually, God works through faith, not your perfection. Amen. So he's saying here, even if you haven't done everything right, you can still come and ask me for wisdom. I won't find fault. I won't reproach you, but I do need you to do one thing. I do need you to believe. I do need you to have faith. I need you to have a hopeful, positive attitude. I need you to be expecting me to do something wonderful in your life. Last night we talked about hope and we said that the definition of hope is a confident and a joyful expectation that something good is going to happen in your life. Did any of you do what I told you to last night? Have you been saying something good is going to happen to me? Anybody been saying that? All right, we'll see not all of you did your homework. So a lot of people will hear what they're supposed to do, but for some reason they never connect the dots and start doing it. You need to say many times every day, something good is happening to me right now, and I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do in my life today. You especially need to say that when the enemy is trying to flood your mind with doubts. The way you fight the devil is by opening your mouth and saying what God says, not just standing there passively and letting the devil use your mind as a garbage dump. For being as he is, verse 8, a man of two minds, hesitating, dubious, irresolute, he becomes unstable, unreliable, and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, and decides. Now, unbelief is a big problem, and it's one that we need to address. Doubt is a big problem and we need to address that. But I believe that we can defeat doubt and unbelief if we know how to do it. Matthew 13 58, Jesus could not do many works of power in his hometown because of their unbelief. God works through faith, not unbelief. I don't want to be in a situation, I don't imagine you do either, where God can't do anything in my life because of unbelief. You agree with that? You want God to be able to do as much in your life as he possibly can do. So we need to find out how to cooperate with him and get our faith working. Now in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 19, that I want us to look at, it says, so we see that they were not able to enter into his rest because of their unwillingness to adhere to and to trust and to rely on God, unbelief had shut them out. Now, I think a lot of times we think, well, I just can't help it. You know, I wish I could believe, I wish I didn't have doubt, but I just can't help it. Well, you know, really, that's not true. And if we keep making that excuse, we'll never get on the other side of doubt and unbelief because God would not tell me to believe if I was going to be a prisoner of unbelief and couldn't do anything about it. And so it's interesting to note in Hebrews 3.19 that it doesn't say they were not able to believe, it says they were unwilling to believe. You see the difference? Everybody say, I can believe the word of God. Why do some people find it so difficult to believe? Well, the number one reason that a lot of people in the world don't want to believe God or believe in God or believe there is a God or believe the principles of God is very simply because they do not want to change their lifestyle. It's amazing how many people that claim to be atheists would stop being atheists if they thought that they could still live the way that they live. And believe in God. Who wouldn't want to believe in God? Well, you'd have to be crazy not to want to believe in God. I mean, even if there was a 90 percent chance that he wasn't real, I'd still take the 10 percent chance that, I mean, if he is, I don't want to get caught without knowing him. I tell people sometimes, if I'm wrong, when I come to the end of my life, if I were wrong and found out, well, gee, I just believed in God all my life and he's not there. I mean, I still haven't lost anything, but if you believe all your life that there's no God and then at the end of your life he is, you're in big trouble. Amen. So if nothing else, I would just buy a little insurance and believe in God. Amen. But a lot of people don't want to believe in God. To be very honest, they don't want to believe in God because they just frankly don't want to change the way they live. And I'm not saying that so much for the people in here today, but I am specifically saying that to a lot of people watching my television right now, and especially those of you maybe who have just sort of accidentally turned the program on and really didn't intend to be watching me and maybe you haven't even decided yet if you like me or not or if you want to watch me anymore. But the truth of the matter is you need to ask yourself if you are claiming not to believe in God or you're an agnostic and you're not sure that God exists, why is that? Is it because you might be afraid that if you let God into your life, he might start messing with your lifestyle? Well, you're right, he will. But it needs to be messed with. Because if you have the idea that being a Christian is some boring miserable thing, you are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Are it's possible sometimes that people don't want to believe in God because they're impatient, and they don't want to wait for God to work in their life, they'd rather just take matters into their own hands and go get something done right now? Or perhaps they're prideful, and they just want to do it all themselves. You know, some people are just independent, and they've just got so much pride that they are not about to lean on anybody else. You know, I've heard people say that, you know, Christianity is just a crutch for wimpy people. Well, that is about the stupidest statement. I mean, if you know anything about what it takes to really be a victorious Christian, you would never say that, because you cannot be wimpy and live in victory in this world today. And I can tell you, it takes a lot of courage to get out there and forgive people that have hurt you, and be good to people that are mistreating you, and to not try to get your own justice when somebody has done you wrong, those kind of things are not easy, and to be able to do that because you love God takes a great deal of strength. And certainly, we are not the weak wimpy bunch, but we are the army of God, and we are more than conquerors through Christ. And then to be honest with you, some people have all kinds of problems with doubt and unbelief simply because they're lazy and they don't want to do what it takes to develop their faith. Now we're just going to stop right there for a minute, let you think about it. Well, I wish I had more faith. Well, I wish I had a strong faith like you do. Anybody who has a strong faith did not get it wishing, and you won't get it wishing either. You're going to have to do your due diligence and do your homework. And to be honest with you, there are a lot of lazy Christians. They want everything to spoon-fed, put it on me, pray for me, make it happen. Where's this scripture? Look your own scriptures up. That's how I found out where they were at. I don't say that to be mean, but you know, when you put a little effort into something, you won't forget it. Come on now. I wish I knew the word. Well, you're not going to get it by wishing. So some of the things I'm going to talk about today are kind of some real basic things, but I don't apologize for that because a lot of times it's the simple basic things that we let go of that causes us the most problems in our life. Unbelief shut them out of the promises of God. Look at Hebrews 4, 2, and 3. It says that, indeed, we've had the glad tidings of the gospel proclaimed to us just as truly as the Israelites of old did. When the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because it was not mixed with faith. No matter what you hear, it's not going to help you if you don't mix it with faith. Look at verse 3. For we who have believed, adhered to, trusted, and relied on God do enter the rest of God. Oh, hallelujah. The rest of God, that Sabbath rest that Hebrews 4 talks about is just the most desirable place to be.

Speaker 2:
[13:34] Thanks for listening to today's message. Jesus reminds us that we will have challenges in our lives, but he also promises he will never leave us, and to remember he has already won our victory. We need to trust him and keep moving forward. Regardless of whatever may be going on right now, God's plan is unfolding. We need to be full of hope, believing, expecting, and anticipating great things from him. Romans 12 12 tells us to rejoice in our confident hope, be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. So next time you feel weary, remember that God is with you, and that he is the strength you need to make it through to the finish.

Speaker 4:
[14:17] Get your daily dose of encouragement with the Joyce Meyer Ministries App. Catch up on seven days of enjoying everyday life episodes. Grow deeper in God's Word with the daily devotional and question of the day. And enjoy all your favorite teachings from Joyce in your digital library. Find all this and more with the Joyce Meyer Ministries App. Search Joyce Meyer in your app store and download it today.

Speaker 2:
[14:47] Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.