Do you struggle to walk in love? Today on Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer discusses agape love and the benefits of loving people who might be difficult to love. Get Today’s Offer: 1-800-709-2895 joycemeyer.org/store – – – – – – – Follow Joyce: WEBSITE: https://joycemeyer.org
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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#LovingDifficultPeople
people can really push our buttons
whether they’re part of our lives on a
regular basis like friends family and
co-workers or those unpleasant run-ins
with someone in line at the store but
God wants us to show his love to
everyone Joyce Meyer has practical
advice for us in her book loving people
who are hard to love Joyce shares how
the power of love and acceptance can
lead us to peace and relationships and
truly change everything to help you
apply these teachings to your life
there’s also of study guide it’s full of
questions and challenges to help you get
the most out of Joyce’s teachings you
can get both today for your gift of $30
or more through the Joyce Meer
ministries app or go to joyce.org or
call us at800
79285 this program has been made
possible by the friends and partners of
Joyce Meyer
Ministries I’m Joyce Meyer and I believe
that God can heal you everywhere you
[Music]
hurt hi everyone welcome to Enjoying
Everyday Life Joy to the World one of
the most well-known Christmas songs was
written in 1719 as a poem based off of
Psalm 98 more than a century later music
was added and this classic Carol was
born today we still sing Joy to the
World the Lord Has Come he came that we
might have life and have it abundantly
with joy as we continue to celebrate
Advent together and look forward to
celebrating Christ’s birth Joy is one of
our many gifts from God and it’s not
based on our circumstances it’s based on
our relationship with
[Music]
Jesus Jesus says I have told you these
things that my joy and Delight may be in
you and that your joy and gladness may
be of full measure and complete and
overflowing now if you go back and look
at what these things are that he’s been
telling
them John 15: 1-10 all talk
about abiding in Christ and the word
abide means to live dwell and remain in
not to
visit it’s not a Sunday morning visit is
it this is a hey I’m coming to live in
you and you’re in me we’re one and we’re
going to do life together I’m Your
Divine holy partner I’m sending the Holy
Spirit to be with you he will never
leave you nor forsake
you abide live dwell and remain in him
when you do you will bear much
fruit you will bear much fruit honestly
and truly if you’re
lazy or you really don’t care much about
work to tell you the truth the closer
you get to God the more you’re going to
want to Bear really good fruit in your
life you’re not going to want to just go
through life and be useless and just
take up space and never do anything
worth leaving Hey listen I’m leaving a
legacy when I
leave I’m I’m going to I don’t want
people to just forget about me in 2
weeks I’m going to leave something that
they have to remember that I was here
amen I want God to get fruit from my
life not only while I’m breathing but
after I’m gone
amen I don’t want to just take up space
on the planet if God didn’t have
something for us to do as soon as we got
saved he would have just said come on
up but he left us here because we all
have a part but we can do it with
[Music]
joy there There Is No Greater Joy than
truly realizing what Christ did for us
and being in a relationship with him Joy
isn’t just for other people he has joy
for you the value of learning more and
growing closer to him cannot be measured
so we hope you’ll join us in our free
Advent Bible study don’t worry about the
date it is not too late to do this just
go to our website joyce.org study these
beautiful presence from God go beyond
the season and are our greatest tools to
help us enjoy our everyday lives he
brought Joy to the World and that
includes you now here’s Joyce with
today’s
teaching one of the
signs of the last
days in Matthew 24 it says and then many
will be
offended boy people people are touchy
today and this is just not
unbelievers I’m
talking church
people they will betray one another and
will hate one
another many false prophets will rise up
and deceive many we have to be so
careful
today about
deception you just because read
something online doesn’t mean it’s
true
amen and if you read something unkind
about somebody
else the first thing that should come
out of your mouth is I don’t believe it
just because you said it the Bible says
that every accusation should be proven
in the mouth of two or three faithful
Witnesses
people that actually really know what
they’re talking about when you hear
gossip Chris won’t mind me sharing this
three or four years ago somebody called
me up and told me
something not good about her and you
know what I said I don’t believe
that I said I just do not believe that I
know her and I don’t believe it but I
Saidi tell you what I am going to do
when I hang this phone up I’m going to
call her and ask her
right that’s
right you remember I called you and you
said that’s not true I called the girl
back and I said it’s not true and
whoever told you you need to call them
and tell them it’s not
true you know how quick you can ruin
somebody’s
reputation just by passing stuff on that
you’ve heard right I just people who
talk about other people they don’t know
anything about him it’s just ridiculous
I read online the other day I don’t I
don’t know why I did this but I decided
I’d look me
up I I normally don’t do anything like
that but I I’ll just say what they’re
see what they’re saying about me today
so I looked it up and the first thing I
read is all of her clothes come from
Gucci
I don’t even have a pair of Gucci
sunglasses I don’t have one thing people
just make stuff up just anything to try
to make you
look like
your stealing people’s money
or the devil doesn’t want people
believing and so he tries to give a bad
reputation to people that are trying to
spread the gospel and you just thank you
even if I had some Gucci clothes you’d
still love me right one time they wrote
about me in the paper that I had a
$225,000 toilet who in the world would
have a $225,000
toilet I don’t even think you can buy a
$25,000
toilet I mean
just stupid stuff
so don’t believe everything you
hear and whatever you
do don’t spread it to somebody else cuz
here’s what
happens when you tell somebody something
even if they don’t want to believe
it they’ve still got it in them and they
got to try to get rid of
it and it makes them just a little bit
more suspicious of that person than they
would have been one of the things we
need to commit to tonight if we’re going
to walk in love
is to say good things about each
other and let me just tell you what your
mama told you if you can’t say something
good don’t say anything at all amen
am let’s protect each
other can we do that we’re family let’s
protect each
other and because of the lawlessness
that will abound in the land the love of
many
will grow
cold another translation says the love
of the great body will grow cold and
that means the
church so what’s happening because of
all the trouble in the world people are
focusing on
that and that you know the more you
focus on trouble the meaner the sour
you’re going to get we need
to let the devil just do himself in and
we need to focus on God and helping
people
and being a blessing to other people and
Walking In Love sometimes we need a
little help I had love tattooed on my
ankle that way reminds me every time I
see my foot to walk in love I need a
little help I need to be reminded
sometimes
amen I got another one too right back
here
the guy said I Dave and I were the
oldest people he’d ever
tattooed and this one says I belong to
Jesus see that devil I’m owned and
bought with the
blood and of course Dave got an American
flag now I know some of you
think getting a tattoo is
demonic
well in the Bible in Isaiah it says
there were people who had tattooed on
their hands I belong to the
Lord in Isaiah it says that God has a
picture of us tattooed on the palms of
his hands so before you get an opinion
why don’t you read the whole book
amen so now all of you that have been
wanting to get one but you wondered if
it was right or not well there you
[Applause]
go God commands us to love
everyone Luke
6:32 if you love those who love you what
credit is that to
you even Sinners can love those who love
them
back so loving people that love
you that doesn’t really tell you
anything about
yourself if you really want to find out
the kind of love God’s talking about you
got to love people that are mean to
you people that aren’t so good to you
you say well that that’s just really
hard to do well the first thing you need
to do is stop saying it’s
hard that’s one of our biggest excuses
well it’s just hard it’s hard it’s hard
in Deuteronomy 30 it says nothing God
has told us to do is too hard
so we need to start saying I can do
whatever God has told me to
do not it’s too
hard in the Bible we see the word love a
lot but there’s four Greek words that
are all translated
love which is kind of a
shame because then we just lump it all
together and we love the cat next door
and we love ice cream and we love our
kids and we we love our house and we
love our car and all of that kind of
love that we’re talking about is
connected to a warm fuzzy
feeling and see when somebody mistreats
you you’re not going to have warm fuzzy
feelings you’re going to want to knock
them across the
room but you know what one of the things
I’ve found out in my 45 years of
studying the Bible you can feel like
doing the wrong thing and still choose
to do the right thing
come on did you hear
me walking in the flesh is walking
according to your feelings or according
to your own carnal mind so I’m going to
say it again you can feel like doing the
wrong thing and still choose to do the
right
thing and after all it is about Choice
God has given us a free will you know
what a chance he was taken when he gave
us free
will
man every choice that we
make has some kind of a an
effect and I’m just going to go ahead
and say this early we have way too many
disobedient
Christians well everybody does it these
days well you’re not
everybody and if you’re the only person
that you know that does it right if you
love God Jesus said if you love me you
will obey me he did not say if you obey
me I will love you he’s already made up
his mind to love
us but one of the ways that we show our
love for God Is by being obedient to him
and I have found out that when you do
the right thing while it’s still hurting
you that’s when you’re you’re
growing when it’s easy to do the right
thing then you’ve already grown you’ve
already gone through the hard parts and
now that has become part of you and the
longer you will walk with God there will
be more of that and more in that of more
of that so we just keep growing in our
walk with God it’s called spiritual
maturity amen amen and as far as I’m
concerned after you’re born again that’s
the most important thing to do is start
growing spiritually but there’s four
words Greek words trans translated love
there’s Aeros which is a romantic
love it’s the love you feel
for this goodlooking man man that you’ve
met
and you’re just like oh every time you
see them your heart beats hard I love
you I love
you well I want to tell
you you better get married on something
other than
that
because the way I love Dave now is so
much
deeper my god I didn’t even know what
love was when I married
him you don’t know what love is until
you go through some things with people
and
you put up with some stuff and you
forgive them over and over and over and
you learn how the two can become
one
there’s storage s o r g and that’s
family love that’s the kind of love you
have for your kids or your mom and dad
that kind of
love fileo is brotherly love the Fe the
love that we all feel for one
another and all those are good but the
love that we’re after is
agape and that’s Divine
love the kind of love that God has for
us now right away we think that’s
impossible but it’s really not because
the Bible says
that the love of God is poured out into
our hearts through the Holy
Spirit when we’re born again so anything
we have in us we can give
away if you have it in you and somebody
needs it you can give it so God would
not require us to love people with that
divine kind of love which means they
didn’t do anything to deserve
it God is not just doing love he is
love that’s why while we were still yet
in our sin he died for
us that’s why on the
cross having had Nails driven into his
hands and feet and been
beaten he could say father for forgive
them for they know not what they
do that’s
love when we can stop looking at what
people are doing to us and understand
what they’re doing to themselves by what
they’re doing to
us you understand
me I’m going to say it
again we need to be more concerned
about when you mistreat me
it’s I get I can get through that I’ve
got the Healer living on the inside of
me
but you’ve hurt
yourself and I need to pray for you
because now you’ve you’re messing up
your
life by not treating me
right three of the four kinds of Love
involve emotion but God’s Divine love
does
not it may be there but it may
not and God is requiring us to treat
people the same
way whether we have that fuzzy feeling
or whether we don’t now I know right
away some of you are thinking well
surely you’re not just telling us that
God wants us to be a doormat and let
people walk all over us and mistreat us
and abuse us and blah blah blah well no
and depending on how far I get which is
usually not as far as I’d like
to
I will tell you that some people you
have to love from a
distance I had to love my father from a
distance for a long time because he was
a sexual
abuser and it wasn’t wise or
safe to be around him nobody’s asking
you to be abused or beaten
on or just let somebody totally trash
talk you and downgrade you and
disrespect you all the
time but God is requiring us to love
people and it’s really not what God is
asking us to do is not that hard but the
one main thing I have to try to get
across is love the kind of love God’s
asking for is not a feeling so we we
have to get that through our heads or
we’re never going to be able to do this
it’s not a
feeling
amen it’s the God thing on the inside of
you how many times should I forgive my
brother for the same thing or however
many times it
takes love is
longsuffering let’s say it like it
should be said
long
suffering amen I would imagine those
first five or six years Dave and I were
married that he did a lot of long
suffering and and I can tell you one of
the reasons why I’m here today is
because Dave showed me this kind of
love and
he um man God had the right guy picked
out for me and when I was still married
to my first husband that was running
around on me all the time and
mistreating me I would lay in bed at
night with him and pray that someday God
would give me somebody that would really
love me and I always said make it
somebody that’ll take me to church I
like re I I was born again when I was
nine and I really wanted to serve God
but I just couldn’t pull it off without
some help I tell you love real love the
god kind of love has some
characteristics that we don’t know very
much
about there’s a lot of prickly people in
the
world John ortberg calls them porcupine
people you know a porcupine has 30,000
quills comes out to protect them you
know we give away every kind of stuffed
animal but I’ve never given anybody a
stuffed
porcupine somehow they’re just not real
loving but you know what in Mating
Season
even porcupines find a way to get
together which tells me that if desire
is strong
enough you’ll even put up with a little
[Music]
pain
so you see I really want to do this love
thing I mean I want to do it
and
so God helped me I print it on my
foot I confess it I read about it I
preach about
[Music]
it and I am not going to shut up until I
can do it
[Applause]
amen now there’s a tough love that’s the
word they call it and it really just
means you know you’re not helping
somebody when you keep doing for them
what they should be doing for
themselves so if you got a 40y old kid
that’s still living off of
you well then you might help them more
if you ask them to
move
and I think the church is all mixed up
about love well we just want to show
them
love
what you
know there was a guy in the church that
was in incest and he wasn’t repenting
Paul put him out of the church and he
said he did it to wake him
up that he couldn’t more or less have
his cake and eat it too in other words
if you want to be part of this
Fellowship you can’t keep living in
incest but no we don’t do that anymore
today well we we just want to show them
love that’s not always
love sometimes you love somebody more if
you do confront them but then
[Music]
continue having a loving attitude toward
them what happens is a lot of times if
we confront somebody then we shut them
out of our
lives and that was the thing that Dave
never
did I didn’t know what love was and he
showed it to me and a lot of people need
to see it and that’s why this message is
so important to me and cuz I’ll tell you
this is the answer to the world’s
problems they asked Jesus what is the
most important
commandment
you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart soul mind and strength
and a second is like it you shall love
your neighbor as you love
yourself that’s
it you say well joy what about faith
well Galatians 5:6 says faith only works
and is energized through
love Jesus tell tells us
in Mark 11
that we can ask for anything and God
will do it we can pray prayers that’ll
move
mountains
but we need to pay attention to the
butts and ifs in the
Bible if you have anything against
anyone drop it leave it let it
go or your prayers won’t be answered
yeah so I can just say I don’t care if
you intercede 5 hours every day if
you’ve got unforgiveness in your heart
you’re wasting your
breath Jesus had one new commandment I
give unto you one everybody say
one love love people the way God loves
you it’s so much fun to love
people
people can really push our buttons
whether they’re part of our lives on a
regular basis like friends family and
co-workers or those unpleasant run-ins
with someone in line at the store but
God wants us to show his love to
everyone Joyce Meyer has practical
advice for us in her book loving people
who are hard to love Joyce shares how
the power of love and acceptance can
lead us to peace and relationships and
truly change everything to help you
apply these teachings to your life
there’s also of study guide it’s full of
questions and challenges to help you get
the most out of Joyce’s teachings you
can get both today for your gift of $30
or more through the Joyce Meer
ministries app or go to joy.org or call
us at 1
800709
2895 you know it’s my prayer that our TV
program and the books that I write are
helping you but it’s also my prayer that
I can reach out and help people that
really need to know the Lord and how to
live for the Lord you know so many
people would say they’re saved but they
really haven’t changed much at all since
they accepted Christ as their Savior and
so I really want to help people and I
need you to help me do that so I want to
ask you today if you’re not a partner
with our ministry and partnership means
that you support the ministry on a
regular basis you pray for us and you
financially support us on a regular
basis and regular to us is monthly or
you know quarterly however you want to
do it but but that you’re a regular part
and not just every once in a while if
you partner with us it means that you
become part of everything that God is
allowing us to do around the earth and
we need you we need you and you can help
me help other people so ask God if this
is something that he would have you do
and then please contact contact us right
away and become a partner with us today
for more information visit Joyce
meyer.org
[Music]
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