transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[00:22] 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:
[00:50] 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. You know what happens when you've entered the rest of God? No matter what kind of problem you've got, you're not worried about it. You're not trying to figure it out. You know God's in control. You know he's working on it. You know he's going to do something. You don't know what it is. You don't know when he'll do it. And to be honest, you don't really care. I mean, you really don't. You know, I can hear it like, well, how could you just not care? But see, that's faith perceives as a real fact what it does not see. And faith grabs a hold of something with its heart. And even though Satan might pound your mind with doubts and unbelief, if your faith is strong enough and you understand how the devil functions, that he functions through deception, and that the mind is the battlefield, and you can't just believe everything that falls into your head. We got to live deeper. We got to go deeper than what we think and what we feel to what's in our heart. What does the word of God say? What does God say about this? When you do that, you enter a place called the rest of God, a place to be honest with you that probably very few Christians live in. Some probably never even experienced, but then there may be some who do experience it from time to time, but they're never able to stay in that place. If you study the word rest in the Greek, it's not like laying down and taking a nap. It's not the kind of rest we're talking about. It's not a rest from work. It doesn't mean that you get out of work. It's a rest that you enter into during work. In other words, everything that you do is done while you're resting in God. You can raise your children in peace and confidence, believing that if you do your best, that God will take care of the rest. I love that statement. If I do my best, God will take care of the rest. We're partners with God. We have a part. He has a part. He expects us to do our part. He's not going to do our part for us. We can't do his part. He won't do our part. But God wants us to enjoy our life. And the only way to do that is to know how to have faith in God and to trust him with the things that are way beyond where we're at. I love what Matthew 11, 28 says. Jesus said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, overburdened and wearied. And I will give you what? Rest. I will ease, relieve and refresh your souls. To be honest with you, I've tried to run this ministry not being in the rest of God. And now we run it living in that place of rest. And I can tell you, rest is better. And we have, I mean, one ton of responsibility. I mean, financial responsibility, a workload. You know, God's blessed us and worldwide now we have 900 employees. We've got like 13 offices around the world. I mean, there's plenty, there's plenty of stuff to get bothered about. And when you're dealing with that much stuff and that many people, listen to me, let me tell you something, there is always every day something going on. Always, every day, there's something going on. And it's taken me a long time to get here. But we just got some news about something last week that could really make you get bothered and upset. And the first thing out of my mouth was I am not getting upset about that. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not getting upset about it. God will take care of it. And immediately, Dave and I prayed a very simple prayer about it while we were driving down the road in the car. And I haven't really thought about it all that much since then. You know why worrying about something never changes it. Worry never brings an answer. If it does anything at all, all it does is prevent an answer because we're not in faith, we're not in God's territory, we're over in the devil's campground opening a door for him. And I made this statement last night, but I want to say it again today because this is just something that God just recently put on my heart and I, I think there may be more to it than what even I might think at this point. He said, when you hear bad news or you get disappointing news, or you hear of a trial that you weren't expecting, the first thing that comes out of your mouth may very well set the tone for the whole rest of the situation. Now, I don't mean to say, you know, if you're not mature enough yet to always say the right thing at the right time and you make a mistake and get negative about something that you can't overcome that. But I do know that if I hear bad news and I'm like, well, here we go again, another big mouth, that's all we ever have, one mess after another. I am so sick and tired of this. When are we ever going to? You know, we all know that doesn't do any good. How many of you know that doesn't do one bit of good? I mean, that's not something God can work through. All that is, is us not controlling our emotions. It's us not disciplining ourselves and just saying what we feel like saying. And I did that for years and years and years and years and years, going around the same mountain, same mountain, same mountain, same mountain. And I can tell you, when you do that, you go from upset to being more upset to being more upset to being really upset. And it's been kind of interesting to me to begin to realize how different the rest of the day goes if I can discipline myself by the grace of God to respond properly with that first little bit of conversation that comes out of my mouth and just say, I am not going to worry about this. See, because then you're declaring where you stand. You're not just waiting to see how you feel or what you think or what the devil is going to jump in your head, but you are declaring with the words of your mouth where you stand. And so you need to say, I am not going to worry about this. I am not going to get upset. God is in control. God is in charge and I trust him to take care of this. When we're really in the rest of God, we know God's gonna take care of it. We don't know how we know. We don't know when he's gonna take care of it. We don't know how he's gonna take care of it. But the good news is, we just really don't care. We just really don't care. And that's called the rest of God. First Peter 5, 7. Now some of these scriptures that I'm reading you, when you are being attacked with worry, these are some of the places you want to go in your Bible and read these scriptures. Look at them. Read them out loud. Write them down in longhand. I find for me that sometimes if I'm trying to get something in me, that just writing it out, taking a pen and a piece of paper and just writing it out helps. Casting the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all on him. For he cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. Everybody say, all my worries, all my concerns, all my cares, once and for all on him. Okay, well, what can we do about doubt? Is there anything that can be done about it? I mean, if my faith is not strong and doubt attacks me, give me a plan here, Joyce, give me a step one, two, three. What can I do? Let me just be a how-to preacher this morning for a little while. Not just tell you what you ought to do, but give you some steps on how you can do it. Let's go to Romans chapter four, verse 18. For Abraham, human reason for hope being gone, hoped on in faith. He had no reason whatsoever in the natural to hope, and yet he became a prisoner of hope, like we talked about last night, and he hoped on in faith. That he would become the father of many nations, just as it had been promised to him. Now, if you're not familiar with the situation that Abraham had, he had no heir, and everything he had was going to be left to a servant in his house unless God gave him a child. But there was a little problem. He was already, and his wife were already past childbearing age. In other words, to make it really plain so nobody misses it, Sarah had already had the change of life, and Abram was impotent. They weren't having kids. You got it? Just so you don't think, you know, this is just a little cute Bible story and nobody relates to it. They had to have a miracle. Now look at verse 19. I love this. He did not weaken in faith when he considered the utter impotence of his own body. I think sometimes we make a mistake telling people, don't pay attention to your circumstances. Don't pay attention to your circumstances. Well, you know, we don't want to stare at our circumstances and just fellowship with the circumstance all the time. To be honest with you, when you sometimes you've got a circumstance, you can't just not pay any attention to it. And I don't think that avoidance is always the way to stand firm in God. It says that Abraham considered the impotence of his own body. Just in case you think I made that up, I didn't. It's right here. He did not weaken in faith when he looked at his circumstances. He didn't, he didn't weaken in faith when he considered the utter impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about 100 years old. Or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's dead womb. Verse 20. No unbelief or distrust. It did come against him. Doubt and unbelief came against him, warred against his mind just like it does yours when you're attempting to believe God for something. No unbelief or distrust made him a favor and doubtingly question concerning the promise of God. Why? But he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he did what? Gave praise and glory to God. As he gave praise and glory to God. Now, praise is much more than just singing a song that you look at on the overhead. Praise, actually, if you study the word means a narrative or a tale. It's telling a story or remembering something that reminds you of the power of God and the goodness of God in your life. So every situation that you're in, when doubt is coming against you, one of the things that you have to do if you're gonna defeat the doubt is you have to not just think about the problem you have, but you have to remember other victories that you've had in the past. Now, is there anybody here that can think of anything at all that God has ever done for you? Alright. Well, when you're having problems, what you need to do is not talk about your problem, you need to talk about the other victories that you had in your life.

Speaker 2:
[13:26] 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 with the strength you need to make it through to the finish.

Speaker 4:
[14:09] The Bible, our instruction book for life. Spending time in God's Word will change our lives, but consistent and effective study can at times be challenging. That's one reason why Joyce is here to help. At joycemeyer.org/biblestudy, you'll find ways to make your study time come to life with helpful resources, study suggestions and encouragement from Joyce. Get the most you can out of your time studying God's Word with everyday study. Sign up today at joycemeyer.org/biblestudy.

Speaker 2:
[14:39] Thank you for listening to 15 minutes in the Word with Joyce.