transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[00:31] 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:
[00:58] Let me ask you a question. Why do you believe what you believe and why? And why do you not believe some things that you ought to be believing and why? For example, a lot of people have a real problem believing that God loves them unconditionally. I was one of those people. I grew up being abused by my father, and so anybody who ever said they love me just hurt me or used me. And I didn't even have a good concept of what love was and certainly not any kind of unconditional love. So I married the first guy that came along when I was 18 because I thought nobody would ever want me, and he had more problems than I did if that was possible. And so we just gave each other problems and were separated more than we were together. And he'd run around with other women and ended up going to prison. And so I just had another five years of pain and torment. I didn't know how to love anybody. I didn't know how to receive love. Well, when Dave Meyer came into my life, and Dave and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this year. When Dave came into my life, he really did love me, and he knew how to love because he was a strong, spirit-filled Christian, but I didn't know how to receive love. And so, through my relationship with God, I learned what love is. But when I first started preaching publicly, I remember praying and asking God what he wanted that first message to be. I mean, I'd done home Bible studies, but I mean, the first time I really started like a public thing, I really wanted to kick it off with a bang. And I remember praying and praying and praying, God, what do you want me to preach on? He said, tell my people I love them. I said, you know, Lord, they learn that in Sunday school. You know, I want a word of power. And he said, no, people don't know that I love them. If they did, they'd act a lot different than they do. First of all, the Bible says perfect love casts out fear. Well, we really know how much God loves us. And how can we be afraid of other things? I mean, if God is for me, who can be against me? We read it in the Bible. Well, we still don't totally believe it. Well, I didn't have that revelation in my own life. And obviously I needed to get it because to be very honest with you, the foundation for everything else in your Christian walk really is dependent on you having that deep, deep, deep knowing that God loves you and that he loves you unconditionally. And that there is never anything that you can do that will ever make God stop loving you. You have to know that. And that's not something you're going to get just because somebody said God loves you. Especially if you're somebody who's been mistreated in the past, and you never really got an opportunity to really know what real love was. In the world, we think about love and acceptance through earning it and deserving it. And people will treat us one way if we give them what they want, but then another totally different way if we don't give them what they want. And so we kind of take that into our relationship with God. When I listen to what I'm going to tell you, because if you're not willing to do this kind of stuff, you're not going to have victory. I spent one year, not a day, not a week, one year studying the love of God for me. And I would go around, I mean, I got to almost wondering if there was something wrong with me. I would just go around muttering, God loves me. God loves me. I wasn't totally convinced yet, but I was on my way. God loves me. Not the milkman, not the postman, not the mailman. God, the creator of the universe, all powerful, all knowing, created me and my mother's one with his very own hand. And he knows every day of my life before I ever showed up here. He knew everything. He has one eye on me all the time. The Bible says I'm the apple of his eye. God loves me. He loves me unconditionally. And it didn't happen in a week and it didn't happen in a month. But about toward the end of that year, man, all of a sudden it was like somebody dropped a concrete block down in my spirit. And I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that God loved me. And from that day to this, the devil has never been able to take that away from me. No trial, no tribulation, nothing threatening, nothing impending. No amount of rejection, no trial, no trouble. Has ever been able to take that away from me. I don't understand everything that happens, and everything may not seem right, it may not seem fair, but I know one thing. This woman knows one thing. God loves me. And he feels the exact same way about every person on the planet, but you can't benefit from it if you don't know it. Why do we believe some of the things we believe? Why do some people, for example, why are they so against speaking in tongues? Well, you know, that's from the devil. You know what, I defy any person to read their Bible and see what the Bible says about speaking in tongues and then come back and say that it's not a gift for today. But see, so often, we believe stuff that don't even make any sense because somebody else has told us something, or maybe that thing is offensive to us. You know, I mean, there's a stigma today attached with speaking in tongues. I mean, you know, there's other gifts too, knowledge, wisdom, nobody has a problem with that. Matter of fact, knowledge is a big thing in the earth today. Not too many people have a problem with miracles or healings if they get to the point where they need one. That's okay, you might not believe in healing till you're about to die, then you'll change your mind on that. Nobody has much of a problem with faith, the gift of faith, we'd all like to have that. We don't have too much problem with discerning of spirits. We'd like to kind of know what's going on in the spirit and not get deceived, but boy, when you get around to some of those others like prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, eww, no, I don't believe that. Or some people don't believe in tithing. Well, why? Because they don't want to do it. That's pretty simple. Oh yeah, there are people in here today, you don't believe in tithing. Why? Because you don't want to do it. But see, it doesn't really matter what you think about it. God's word will stand. And every, everything in the Bible has a promise attached to it. If you will tithe and bring offerings, I will open the winds of heaven and I will pour you out of blessings so great that you can't contain it. So if you decide that you don't want to believe it because you don't want to do it, then you're going to miss the blessings. Ask yourself why you believe what you believe or why you don't believe what you don't believe. You know, if you've got a problem with anger and you can't seem to get your temper under control, then you make a college course out of it and you study anger and you buy books on anger and you read everything you can get your hands on until you find out what the root of your problem is and you refuse to stay that way. Our problem is we just put up with stuff. Well, I can't help it. I just got this problem with anger. Yes, you can do something about it. You can, you can, you can't. Because the Word of God will heal you. The Word of God will get inside of you and it will rip those roots of anger out of you and it will pour the balm of Gilead into you and heal those wounds and bruises on the inside of you. I have given my life to preaching the Word of God because I am 100% convinced that the Word has the power to save you and to heal you and to deliver you. Jesus said, my words, they are spirit and they are life. Study the word, listen to the word, read the word, believe the word, do your due diligence, do your homework, renew your mind according to the word of God. Don't just think every stupid dumb thing that falls in your head. Study, study, study. The word of God is medicine for your soul. So, what do we say to hear about doubt and unbelief? You can defeat it when it comes. Praise God! Remember the good things that he's done. Now, see, you're going to have to make a choice because you may feel like talking about your problem, but I'm telling you, if you want to overcome the doubt and get it out of your brain, then you've got to talk about the good things that God's done in the past. How many of you understand that talking about your problem feeds your doubt? Doesn't feed your faith, feeds your doubt. Study the Word of God because when you study the Word of God, it's medicine for your soul and it's food for your spirit. The strong spirit of a man, the Bible says, will sustain him in bodily pain and trouble. If you're strong inwardly, then no matter what comes against you outwardly, you will defeat it. Amen. You have weapons. Now, the last thing I want to tell you that will really help you as far as your faith is concerned, and it will help you to defeat doubt and unbelief is to pay a little more attention to who you hang out with. Need to ask yourself, who are you spending time with? Now, you know, I have some people that I spend time with that are not spiritual giants. And, you know, some of them I enjoy. They're, you know, they're great people. They're they're nice people, some people that I've done business with or things like that. You know, most of them are what I would call maybe nominal Christians are not like fully radical, nutty, crazy like I am, but. And, you know, when I'm with those people, to be honest, we don't always talk about things concerning God because that's just not where they're at. But I will tell you one thing, I don't spend a lot of time with them because I know that I have to be around people that feed my faith. I can't be around people that just want to talk about the world and the economy. And, you know, that's cool. You know, we all get a little interested in that. And I don't think that we have to just do nothing but talk about God all the time. And I don't think you're committing a sin. If you listen to a song, that's not a Christian song. I think it needs to be a clean song, something that's going to build you up and edify you. But I don't think that everything that we do has to be full of scripture. But you better make sure one thing, you better make sure that the scales are balanced in your direction and that you are not spending too much time with people that don't feed your faith. You need to be with people that will encourage you. You need to be with people that believe God, that when you have a problem, are gonna encourage you to believe God. There are some of you in this place today and probably millions watching by television that you could radically change what's going on inside of you and ultimately it would change what's going on in your life if you would just choose who you hang out with more carefully. Amen. So you can defeat doubt and unbelief. You don't have to give up. Get started going in the right direction, full of faith, here comes doubt and unbelief, you're defeated. Truckload of Christians come along, pick you up off the side of the road of life, get you in the game again. Yes, I believe God, praise the Lord. Everything's going to work out good. Rah rah, here comes trouble. That doesn't have to be your existence. You can say, I'm setting my face like flint, I'm digging in both heels, and now here this devil, the war is on and I am going to have victory in every area of my life. Amen? Alright, let's all stand up. Everybody say, I'm not a lazy Christian. I'm going to do my part. I will never quit and I will never give up. I will never quit and I will never give up.

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] 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 Joyce meyer.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 Joyce meyer.org/biblestudy.

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

Speaker 5:
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Speaker 6:
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Speaker 5:
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Speaker 6:
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Speaker 5:
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Speaker 6:
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