[8/18/23] Leaving The City of Regret-1 A 15-minute teaching applying practical principles from God’s Word to everyday life. Get Today’s Offer From Joyce: https://joycemeyer.org/store

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– – – – – – – Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives. With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way. #JoyceMeyer#EnjoyingEverydayLife#LeavingTheCityOfRegret

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 Fearsome

four when we feel discouraged defeated

or overwhelmed by the pressures of Life

chances are we’re being hit by what

Joyce calls the Fearsome four fear guilt

worry and insecurity the devil uses

these obstacles to keep us from God’s

calling but with Christ we can defeat

all of them and reach God’s perfect plan

for our life be empowered with today’s

teaching and learn to embrace God’s

Fearless form peace

confidence love and courage now here’s

Joyce with today’s teaching

father thank you for the word today I’m

excited to share about

how we don’t have to live under guilt

and condemnation

Jesus name amen Jesus Jesus Jesus

I said last night I’m talking about the

I’m just calling this series The

Fearsome four

because I believe in each one of these

things that I’m talking about this

weekend

fear is involved the first one last

night we talked about was fear itself

today we’re going to talk about guilt

one of the other two meetings left we’re

going to talk about

worry and one of them in security I

haven’t decided exactly which one I’m

going to do tonight and which one

tomorrow yet but we need them all don’t

we

there’s probably nobody that doesn’t

need teaching on fear

keeping worry out of your life

guilt

and insecurity

how many of you experience guilt in your

life and it’s a heavy burden that you

just are fed up with and you want to

learn how to

live on the other side of that

well I had a massive massive

terrible problem with guilt in my life

and I can stand here today and say that

although it was a tremendous fight

and required a lot of study I have been

delivered

completely delivered from guilt and

condemnation now that doesn’t mean

when I do something wrong that I don’t

grieve over my mistake I don’t I don’t

want to do wrong things I don’t like it

at all when I feel like I’ve hurt the

heart of God

but I think there’s a difference in

having a healthy grief

that you have offended the heart of God

admitting it talking it through with God

getting your forgiveness and moving on

that’s a totally different thing

than carrying around this terrible

burden

of guilt and letting it drag you down

and steal your life day after day after

day after day

and I’ve prayed

very diligently about this session this

morning

because I’m going to try to really teach

you some things that I hope is going to

help you

take a different look at sin I believe

that guilt is mainly caused because of

the way we think

about God’s expectations

and the way we think

about Sin

and its remedy

our thoughts are involved in every

problem that we have do you know that

the way we think about things

is involved in every problem that we

have that’s why over and over and over

in the word of God we’re taught to

meditate on the word because if we learn

to think the way God thinks then things

are going to turn around in our life

we have to learn how to think right and

you do have a certain attitude towards

sin

and we all have a certain attitude

toward what we think God expects of us

and then if we don’t meet those

expectations we automatically feel bad

well God told me one time he said you

know Joyce I’m not nearly as hard to get

along with as you think I am

now that’s good news for somebody here

today God is not nearly as hard to get

along with as you think he is and I have

more news for you

God is not the least bit surprised by

you or your behavior

he’s not shocked

he’s not put off

it’s not something he wasn’t expecting

he knew everything about you when he

invited you to come into relationship

with him

and he’s committed

to work with you through the whole

process if you just won’t give up and

one of the reasons why getting rid of

this heavy burden of guilt every time we

do something wrong is so important it’s

simply because if you keep that burden

you have no energy to try to learn and

grow and serve God

doesn’t do one bit of good

so God I pray that you’ll help me today

preach this in a way that people can

really understand it first thing I want

to say is that some of you need to you

need to get a new address

you need to move out of the city of

regret

and learn how to

live in the kingdom of God

I’m going to read you a little story

called leaving the city of regret it’s a

little bit lengthy but I’ll do a little

teaching along the way

I had not really planned on taking a

trip

this time of the year

and yet I found myself packing rather

hurriedly

this trip was going to be unpleasant and

I knew it in advance that no real good

would come of it

I’m talking about my annual Guilt Trip

by the way this was written by a man

named Larry harp just to give credit

where credit’s due I got tickets to fly

there on wish I had airlines

it was an extremely short flight

I got my baggage which I could not check

I chose to carry it myself all the way

there

it was weighted down with a thousand

memories of what might have been

no one greeted me as I entered the

terminal to the regret City

International Airport I sang

International because you see people

from all over the world live in this

dismal town

as I checked into the Last Resort Hotel

I noticed that they were going to be

hosting this year’s most important event

the annual pity party

[Laughter]

well I wasn’t going to miss that great

social occasion

because most of the leading citizens

would be there

first

attending would be the Dunn family

you know

should have done

would have done and could have done

then came the I had family

you know old wish I had and his clan

and then of course the opportunities

would be there missed opportunities and

lost opportunities

but the biggest family the biggest plan

of all would be the yesterdays there

were far too many of them to count

but each one had a very sad story to

tell

then Shattered Dreams would surely make

an appearance and it’s their fault

would Regale us with stories and excuses

about how things had failed in their

life each one would be loudly applauded

by don’t blame me and I couldn’t help it

you getting this

well to make a long story short I went

to this depressing party knowing that

there would be no real benefit in doing

it

now that deserves a sealer right there

you know when I finally stopped feeling

sorry for myself

when I finally realized it wasn’t doing

me one bit of good

and I think one of the things that

really helped me get over my guilt trips

that I took on a daily basis was

realizing it was totally completely

useless it did not help me behave any

better if anything all it did was break

the heart of God and make me act worse

as usual I became very depressed but as

I thought about all the stories of

failures brought back from the past it

occurred to me

that all of this trip and subsequent

pity parties could be canceled by me and

me alone

Jesus had done everything for us that

he’s going to do he’s waiting for us to

believe it

and I’m going to show you evidence in

the word of God today

that he has not only forgiven our sins

but he has removed the guilt

and it’s up to us whether we’re going to

believe it or not and stop living by how

we feel but start living by the word of

God

I started to realize that I didn’t have

to be there I didn’t have to be

depressed one thing kept going through

my mind I can’t change yesterday but I

do have the power to make today a

wonderful day

maybe you did something wrong yesterday

and if you don’t have revelation of what

I’m talking about today you you may have

brought your sack of guilt to this

meeting with you today

and you might set it under your seat and

forget about it just for a little while

while I’m preaching to you but sure as

I’m standing here you’ll pick it up and

take it home with you

well we want you to get rid of that

I can be happy joyous fulfilled

encouraged I can be encouraging knowing

this I left the city of regret

immediately and left no forwarding

address

am I sorry for my mistakes yes but

there’s no physical way to undo them

so if you’re planning a trip back to the

city of regret please cancel your

reservations

instead take a trip to a new place

called starting again

I liked it so much that I’ve taken up

permanent residence there now

my neighbors the I forgive myself and

the new starts have been very helpful to

me

come on

by the way you don’t have to carry

around any heavy baggage there the load

has been lifted from your shoulders

God bless you as you search for this new

town if you find it please look me up I

live on I can do it Street

now you know guilt

enters as a thought creates a Feeling

and we live

by that feeling just like I said last

night about fear it comes in as a

thought creates a Feeling

we can’t always do anything about the

feelings that we have but we’re more

than feelings

you’re so much more than feelings and

the truth is is you don’t have to make

decisions based on your feelings and if

you’re smart you won’t even believe your

feelings you’ll even say I don’t care

how I feel this is what I know and when

you begin to live by the word of God and

what you know instead of how you feel

guess what your feelings will change and

begin to line up with the word

when I finally saw how Satan had stolen

from me

through guilt that was really false

guilt because I had repented asked God

to forgive me and even believe that he

had forgiven me

and yet I would still go around and feel

guilty and bad and I carried that burden

on my back everywhere that I went I did

not feel right if I didn’t feel wrong

I want to say it again I did not feel

right if I didn’t feel wrong

I began to almost think that that was

the religious way to feel like an old

worm and somebody that just

could never

do it right

and please God

and every morning when I would go to

have

my prayer and time with God

I would go over one of two things all of

my problems

and all of my mistakes

oh God I’m so sorry God I’m sorry I’m

sorry I’m sorry God I know I’m a mess

I’m so sorry sorry sorry

but you know the Bible says ask and

receive that your joy may be full I was

asking but I never took the time to stop

and receive

and I’d like to encourage you from now

on when you ask God to forgive your sins

for anything that you’ve done wrong take

a moment and say and I receive your

forgiveness right now

don’t just ask but ask and receive why

that you can take that next step so your

joy

can be full

and one morning as I was doing my

regular routine I really remember the

Lord speaking to me and saying are you

going to fellowship with me this morning

are your problems and your sins

do you spend more time with your sins

than you do with God

do you spend more time thinking about

what you’ve done wrong than what he’s

done right

where sin does abound Grace does much

more

abound thanks for listening overcome

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