Unshakeable Trust-FULL SERMON | Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer shares powerful insights on how unshakeable trust in God can bring peace and purpose, even in difficult times. Discover the importance of spiritual maturity, overcoming life’s struggles, and learning to let go of the need for control. Join us as we dive deep into God’s word and explore how true trust in Him leads to everyday life transformation. Discover the resources in this episode Unshakeable Trust Resources: https://www.joycemeyer.org/Unshakeable Unshakeable Trust Book: https://www.joycemeyer.org/Unshakeabl… How Can I Trust God When Study (FREE) (Available 12/1/24) https://www.joycemeyer.org/TrustGod – – – – – – – Follow Joyce: WEBSITE: https://joycemeyer.org FACEBOOK:   / joycemeyerministries   INSTAGRAM:   / joycemeyer   X (Formerly Twitter): https://www.x.com/JoyceMeyer/ – – – – – – – 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

welcome to Enjoying Everyday Life today

I want to share with you about trust you

know when we learn to trust God

completely it allows us to go ahead and

just enjoy our lives even while we don’t

yet have everything we would like to

have Ginger’s going to join me with some

of your questions on trust but right now

be encouraged by today’s teaching as we

discover what real trust

is let’s talk about reasoning for a

minute

how many of you have the kind of mind

where you just like to figure things

out well I have to admit I do too you

know my favorite types of movies are

Mysteries I honestly think if I wouldn’t

have been a preacher I could have been a

[Music]

detective seriously it’s like I just

love

to figure it out I love the surprise and

and the Mystery of it and so it’s hard

for

me not to get into trying to figure out

why this happened and why that happened

and why something else happened and you

know I I had the privilege of being part

of what is known as the word and Faith

movement and I’d been a Christian for a

long time but there was a great

outpouring of the holy spirit in the

church and lot of just a lot of teaching

about faith and a a lot of teaching

about healing and you know it was

wonderful it was a wonderful time but I

also want to tell you and I do it

respectfully some of the truths that

were being taught were taken to such an

extreme that they then began to be a

problem even like the teaching that God

wanted to bless us and he does and God

wants us to have our needs met and he

wants us to have an abundance of things

why would he want every all the sinners

in the world to have all the good stuff

while we sit around and just have

nothing all the time God wants to bless

us but he doesn’t want nor will he bless

us beyond our level of spiritual

maturity I guess I better say that

again think about a

tree first when a tree is planted before

any fruit comes on the branches a long

time has to be taken for that tree to

get deep

roots in the

ground otherwise when the fruit does

come on the branches the good stuff that

you can see when that comes on the

branches it will cause the whole thing

to topple over and fall if God gives any

person more than they are spiritually

ready to handle he’s not helping them

he’s hurting them and so don’t just pray

for God to give you everything you want

pray that God will give you what you can

handle and pray that he will never give

you more than what you can handle

because stuff can take us away from God

if we’re not ready to handle it so the

teaching was great it taught me that God

wanted to bless me and I learned how to

believe God for greater things than ever

before and I learned how to give and I

saw a lot of amazing things happening in

my

life but if I’m truthful I think we’re

still dealing with some of the results

of selfishness in Christians that that

time in church history

caused people

today are addicted to their own

Comfort I don’t you know who Watchman is

anybody ever heard of him well he’s a

Chinese Christian that wrote a lot of

stuff that you better be ready to grow

up before you try to read it if if you

think I’m straightforward you ought to

read a little bit of his stuff and I

don’t know necessarily agree with his

views on everything but I

learned I mean really his material

really helped me see some of the

imbalance of some of the things that I

believed because one of the other things

that we were taught was that really if

you had enough Faith you wouldn’t have

to have

problems well that’s just not biblical

and so when somebody would get sick or

somebody would be having problems in

their life back then we always felt like

we had to find a reason for

it well they must have sin in their life

they must have not had enough faith and

I hate all of that hate all of that just

because you’re having problems that

doesn’t mean that you’ve done anything

wrong the Bible says that the righteous

will

suffer and we can’t always figure that

out but there’s no promise in the word

that we’re going to always have

everything coming up roses all the time

what God does promise US is that he will

do the best thing for us at the time but

he also sometimes wants to use us to be

a blessing to other people is anybody

home today in the

house you know I don’t know what it is

you want to hear every time you go to

church but I one of the things that

Watchman nie said that I really like is

he said we we we don’t go to church to

be

entertained and I I can tell you I can

tell you from

running conferences and we get in these

big Arenas and you have thousands and

thousands of people come

and not everybody but people want to

show and when you’re in this position

you it’s heartbreaking

sometimes when you really want to get in

deeper with somebody and teach them how

to grow up in God and how to really

serve God and all all they want you to

do is entertain them and so keep in mind

every time you go to church you don’t

have to be entertained you don’t even

have to like what the preacher’s saying

that doesn’t mean you don’t need it just

cuz you don’t like

it we don’t go to church to be

entertained we go to grow

up

amen I think that every time we go to

church we should hear something that

encourages us and convicts

us something that makes us feel better

and something that makes us want to grow

and go on so I thank God for what I

learned about faith but the thing that

I’m trying to get across to you today is

you can be a great man or a great woman

of faith and that doesn’t mean that you

are never going to have problems it

doesn’t mean that you’re always going to

get everything the way that you want it

I think it takes one level of Faith to

believe God and get what you want but

this is my opinion I think it takes a

greater Faith to believe God for what

you want and not get it and still love

God just as much

so let me just say if you’re mad at God

today you’re mad at the wrong

person because he is not the author and

source of your problems the enemy

is amen and the only way to get the

devil back is to do as much good as you

can possibly do every day of your

life I can tell you that every time I

get up on the pulpit and I open my mouth

to preach a sermon I’m I’m getting the

devil back for what he did to me in my

[Applause]

childhood and every time Pastor Charles

gets up and he ministers the word and I

know you’re starting a satellite church

now and him and his children are going

to be involved in that do you have any

idea how mad it makes the devil when he

throws his greatest punch and you just

take it to another

[Applause]

level we’re going to keep going on with

God

trust is a belief in someone or

something a belief that they’re reliable

good honest and effective

now got a whole bunch of stuff I can’t

get to so here’s a question what if I

don’t get what I

want

H well better have a backup plan I

guess see that’s our problem sometimes

we don’t we don’t get all the way in

with

God we just get in far enough that if he

don’t come through we can still take

over

and find a way to get what we

want that fear of not getting what we

want keeps us from totally trusting

God totally trusting God well what if I

totally trust God and I don’t get what I

want well then I guess you weren’t

supposed to have

it you know somewhere along the line we

have to realize that we don’t know

everything and everything we want may

not be the best thing for us and another

thing that I think we need to remember

is we’re not the only planet person on

the planet that God’s interested in

doing anything with and far he he

doesn’t make all of his decisions just

based on what I want but he makes his

decisions based on a lot of things you

know Jesus said father if you’re willing

take this cup from me

he didn’t he didn’t want to go through

what he was going to go through you know

we don’t have to want to do everything

that we do we just have to know it’s the

will of God and be willing to do

it father remove this cup from me

nevertheless your will be done and not

mine well you know what the father

didn’t enjoy watching his son suffer

like that he may have preferred to save

him from

it but he didn’t because that wasn’t all

he needed to consider when Jesus was

dying on the cross you know what the

father was thinking about yes he saw the

suffering that his son was going through

but you know what he was thinking about

you and me and all the millions of

people that would ever live that had to

have a

savior come

[Applause]

on maybe when I was was that little 10

or 12 year old girl and I was praying

for God to get me out of that situation

maybe he had uh all the other millions

of women that would be sexually abused

in mind and he wanted somebody that

would be bold enough to get up In a

Pulpit and tell

them see for for years and years and

years one of the reasons why my mother

didn’t help me in the situation I was in

was because she couldn’t face the

Scandal nobody talked about sexual abuse

nobody talked about incest in families

you just didn’t talk about it you didn’t

tell anybody and you didn’t talk about

it well I somebody needed to talk about

it and God picked

me but I had to know what I was talking

about and of course now people talk

about it all the time it’s just it’s out

there and people are getting the help

that they need but when you’re asking

God to do

something he he doesn’t just always just

have you in mind

there may be things involved that you

just don’t understand yet we live life

forward but we understand it backward

and what you don’t understand now you

may understand at some point but you may

never understand and that’s okay

too

amen Romans

11:33 and

34 oh the depths of the riches and the

wisdom and the knowledge of God how

unfathomable in screw suable and

unsearchable are his judgments his

decisions and how untraceable mysterious

undiscoverable are his ways his methods

his plans for who has known the mind of

the Lord and who has understood his

thoughts or who has ever been his

counselor so if I would have walked in

here today and if I would have said how

many of you uh are in a time of

confusion right now in your life

uh there would have been a lot of hands

up and you know what you can’t get

confused if you refuse to get into

reasoning that’s the only thing that

confuses us is when we try to figure

things out that only God knows and he’s

not ready to tell yet so how about if we

get comfortable not

knowing hm

come on I already told you don’t make me

work

[Music]

hard how about if we get comfortable not

knowing how about if we trust God so

much that we don’t have to

know well I hope there’s some people

watching by television that you’re

getting this how about if you just don’t

have to know

see I think that’s what real trust is I

don’t have to

know because God

knows and I trust that he will take care

of

me why God why when God when how God

[Music]

how come

on how about if we just stop all that

and have a a whole bunch of

peace and a bunch

Joy well we all need to come to the

place where we can be comfortable not

knowing everything in life but instead

trusting God in everything trust is

something that we all want to be

stronger in in our relationship with God

and many of you have shared your

questions on trust with us we want to

take some of the time right now and

answer some of those questions today

well Ginger did anybody have a question

about how to trust God so many good ones

so many good ones and I I want to ask

you about this topic in particular

because you’ve said that you feel this

really is the topic that answers nearly

all of our questions and and issues in

life being able to trust God why is this

so important to you well somebody asked

me

recently how I could trust God or even

expect people to trust God when there’s

so many things in the world and even in

our own lives that don’t make any sense

things that’s how most of these

questions are exactly things that seem

unfair and unjust and first of all

nobody has all those answers only God

has all of them but I think I’ve kind of

come to the conclusion that I really

only have two options and I think really

we all do we can either go crazy just be

frustrated and upset all the time

worried tormented fretting anxious or we

can trust God and after trying both I’ve

decided that trus in God is better you

know whatever Our Lives hold we do need

to try to enjoy them as much as we

possibly can and when we have a problem

that we cannot

solve the only really viable option is

to give it to the person who can solve

it which is God I do want to say before

I try to answer any of these questions

that talking about trusting God is much

easier than doing it when you’re the one

with the problem right and what I’m

going to suggest that people do I have

to do myself on a regular basis when I

have things come up yeah that’s a great

Point well here’s a question from

Kimberly in Philadelphia she says how do

I let go of the fear associated with

giving every aspect over to God I love

him so much and want him to be over all

aspects of my life and trust him so I

decide to surrender it but that fear can

be just physical

well and I understand that you know fear

actually does bring physical symptoms

and a scripture that I go back to is

where David said the psalmist David what

time I am afraid I will trust in you so

he didn’t even say that he didn’t have

fear he didn’t say that he didn’t feel

fear but he was honest with God about it

and said I feel afraid you know I have

to talk my way through things sometimes

you know Lord I know this fear is

ridiculous trusting that God is

good is a big thing for me is yeah you

know that that God is good I mean he

just he is inherently good he can’t do

anything that’s not good yeah and

so we want to control things because we

want them to turn out the way we want

them to but to be honest sometimes what

we think we want is not even really what

we want and so I don’t think we have to

be so concerned about I’m feeling

fear as it as we do about not letting

that fear control us you know I teach a

lot about fear and that that that fear

we’re always going to feel fear from

time to time but courage is doing what

you know you should do when fear is

present right and also your thoughts you

know anytime that I mean all of our

feelings are connected to our thoughts

it amazes

me how true that is and I find it more

and more all the time so if we can I

think sometimes we think about our

problems too much Ginger we just we get

it on our mind mind and we think about

it and think about it and think about it

about stuck like a loop it just gets

stuck and so then it’s hard to get rid

of the emotions and so all I can say to

this uh lovely woman is we’re all

fighting the same fight together but

we’re not going to let fear win yeah

good okay Eric would like to know um I

know as head knowledge that I can trust

God I believe his word to be true and I

know that he has come through for me in

a lot of ways but I don’t always feel it

mhm I know that my feelings don’t always

tell me the truth but am I really

trusting God when I’m still worried

anyway well I think that trust in God

sometimes you have to fight the good

fight of faith and there’s basically

sometimes we all feel like two people

you know we have the spiritual side of

us that is trusting God and believing

the word and then we have the natural

side of us which our enemy Satan plays

on which is done by dumping foolish

things in our head that than cause our

feelings to go haware yeah so I yes I

think that you

can have some of those issues and still

be trusting God trust is a decision and

sometimes I’ll just tell God you know I

can I can decide to put my trust in you

but I can’t do anything about my

feelings only you can do something about

that so I have a teaching actually a

book called living beyond your feelings

and you know even just myself in the

last couple of weeks I’ve had to do that

on several occasions you know you

can’t I think the key is to not let the

way you feel control you mhm to to to

believe what the word says and here

again just be honest with God this is

the way I feel yeah but I know my

feelings don’t always tell me the truth

I’m putting my trust in you and I

believe you’re going to work things out

and you know another thing about

trusting God that I think probably

answers a lot of these questions is that

he said I my mind tells me I can trust

God but my feelings tell me something

different I believe that the more

experience we have with God the easier

it is to trust God I find it much easier

now to trust God than I did 40 years

when I first started my journey with God

and I find that people who have been

through difficult things and and you

know we all find out eventually that we

do come out okay on the other side when

I think about the things that I’ve been

through in the past and and how

frightening they were and yet I’m still

here I’m still serving God he did work

them out God is good and if we just

don’t give up we’ll get to where we need

to be yeah I think what you said is very

reassuring that he is trusting we we are

trusting even when we feel these

questions that you know like David said

what time I am afraid I will put my

trust in right trust is not something

yeah you you put it in him it’s a

decision that you make I will trust the

Lord all right well shaune says I

believe in God and I know he can do all

things but my trust issues are so deep

that I do not wait on God I try to fix

things myself even though I know better

how can I learn to trust God fully well

our little flesh is just so full of

energy it just always wants something to

do it seems like we have this little

record playing in in our head what are

you going to do what are you going to do

what are you going to do yeah how can I

fix this and uh here again I think

experience with God

learning to be

honest sometimes the more we

do the more length of time we add to how

long we’re going to have our problem you

know it’s I mean I’m very my flesh is

very full of energy and I’m the type of

person that would always like to find

something to do and and not always

nearly as patient as I should be and you

really can just make the mess worse and

so here again it’s just growing it’s

it’s learning and you know how we learn

mostly we learn by our mistakes

I was reading a book about how to hear

from God and he said the biggest

question I’m always asked is how do we

hear from God how do we learn to hear

from God he said you learn by making

mistakes yeah and so here again the

every time you get involved in

something which that you should be

leaving alone and you see that you just

made the mess worse then the next time

it gets a little bit easier to say you

know what as hard as it is I’m going to

stay out of that and I’m going to wait

on you to do what needs to be done

waiting’s hard it is hard it’s hard but

and it’s harder for some of us than

others my husband let me just say for me

my husband seems to love it I don’t know

oh you know Dave Mr Laidback patient

Dave he’s like well we’ll see and I’m

like I don’t want to wait and see I want

to know now I want to know what’s G to

happen so yeah okay Sam asked this

question how can you put all of your

trust in the Lord when you are so full

of scars especially when those scars

cause you to create walls that you don’t

allow in anyone including the Lord to

break down well it takes a lot of time

and it takes a lot of uh experience with

God you know I mean I I don’t know what

he’s gone through but I know that I was

abused by my dad growing up and I had

all those walls and all those issues and

it takes time for the soul to be healed

and the more that the each time you take

a chance and trust God which you’re

really not taking a chance when you

trust God but you feel like you are you

feel like you’re saying well if I trust

you and you don’t come through then what

but really I think a a a root of our

problem is we’re afraid we’re not going

to get what we

want what if what God wants is not what

I want yeah so it really comes down to

it really comes down to a control issue

and people that have been hurt like I

was raised by parents who obviously

didn’t care about me they cared more

about what they wanted than what I

wanted

and then I married when I was 18 years

old the first guy that showed any

interest in me and he didn’t you know by

the time you’ve had a lot of years of

everybody taking advantage of you even

though you may want to trust this good

heavenly father that you’re hearing

about it takes time to come to the point

where you I remember God told me one

time you just need to retire from self-

care and throw yourself a big retirement

party so we we spend so much time trying

take care of ourselves not realizing

that God can do a much better job if

we’ll let him none of this is easy

nobody has any easy answers to trusting

God but like I said I’ve come to the

point where that really is my only

viable option if I want to have any

peace at all is to trust God well you

said that you’ve tried it both ways and

you found that trusting is the one that

really works what is it about God’s

character what is it about what he does

in your life that makes that trust pay

off well you know there’s a lot of

wonderful things about God’s character

and it’s it’s such an amazing thing to

study the character of God God is good

he’s merciful he’s kind but you know one

of the things if I was just going to

talk about one thing that is one of my

favorite things about God’s character

that really helps me in trusting God is

that God is a God of

Justice and that means that he always

makes wrong things right that’s great

don’t you love that I do so if somebody

treats me wrong I can either try to go

get them back I can try to talk them

into treating me right which is useless

or I can trust God to be my

Vindicator and it may take a while it

may not happen when I want it to it may

not happen the way I want it to it may

not even happen through the person I

would like it to happen through but God

is a God of Justice and he will always

take wrong things and make them right

and no matter what is happen happen to

us if we put our trust in God even

though it’s challenging if we put our

trust in him ultimately he will

vindicate us and he is our rewarder

we’ve had a good start last night we

talked about dealing with doubt this

morning we talked about a lot of

foundational and basic things about

trusting God

especially in our challenges in life and

not spending all of our time trying to

figure things out and so

this afternoon I want to get into some

of the reasons why we suffer although we

cannot always figure it out there are

some things that we can learn but first

I want to say that you’re never going to

trust anybody if you don’t believe that

they’re

trustworthy and so in order to trust God

we need to know more about God’s

character studying the character of God

is a very good thing to do and it’s

actually something that I really love

to preach on one of the one of the main

things about God is that God is good you

know if you can’t figure anything else

out the devil’s bad and God is good amen

we can do that and God said I set before

you life and death good and

evil choose

life that you and your descendants might

live now

God is of course Sovereign and he can do

anything he wants to anytime he wants

to but when God gave man free

choice he opened up the door

for sin to come into the world through

making wrong choices God did not want a

bunch of robots that loved him and

obeyed him because they had

to he wanted us to make right choices

and so we want to get into the question

this afternoon that so many people have

and especially people that maybe um are

On The Fringe they’re kind of looking

for a reason not to believe in God

they’re looking for a reason not to

serve God uh but also this can get into

the hearts and minds of Believers and

that is well if God is good and he can

be

trusted then why do we have so much

suffering in the world today

why do bad things happen to good godly

people Joy does God cause suffering I

get asked these

questions well if he doesn’t cause it

does he allow it if he’s Sovereign and

he can do anything then why doesn’t he

stop child abuse and disease and world

hunger and things like that why do

little children suffer uer with

cancer why do the goods sometimes Die

Young while mean people live to be

old why did I lose my job in all my

retirement why did my child die when I

were praying for them to be

healed you know why can almost drive a

person to insanity if they can’t come to

terms with it and one of the things that

we tried to make very clear this morning

is we need to get

comfortable not

knowing and if you weren’t here this

morning I want to make sure that you get

to hear that and even if you were here I

want you to hear it again we need to get

comfortable not knowing because that’s

part of serving God is even when we

don’t know he

does and there’s if we have all the

answers there’s no reason to trust

God you understand that if we have all

the

answers the the one thing thing that

makes God God is we don’t know what he

knows if we ever knew as much as he did

then we wouldn’t need him we’d have it

all figured out so you’re never going to

have all the answers you’re always going

to have unanswered questions and there

will be things happen in your life and

to other people that you just cannot

wrap your brain around and you’re going

to have to get comfortable saying well

God I don’t know the answer but I trust

you and I trust that if and when I need

that answer that you’ll give it to me so

if I try to answer these questions and

others like it if you were to come to me

and ask me all those questions here’s

what I would have to say to you I don’t

[Music]

know and I think one of the biggest

mistakes that teachers and preachers

make is trying to answer questions that

they really don’t know the answer

to because they think they got to sound

smart and to tell you the truth I don’t

have the answer to all these things I

mean there’s some answers that I could

give and I am going to give you some

reasons this afternoon why people suffer

if there are things that we can do about

it then we should do it we can learn

from our mistakes and make some changes

but I don’t have all those answers but

I’ll tell you what I do know I do know

that I know that I know that God is good

I know that and just because bad things

happen that certainly is not an

invitation for us to blame

God the reason why bad things happen is

because of sin in the world it’s not

necessarily our own personal sin it can

be to be honest sometimes we have

trouble in our life just because we do

stupid

stuff and anybody just agree with me on

that I mean sometimes we just I mean how

much better would life be for example if

we just followed

peace I set before you life and death

choose life that you and your

descendants might

live how many times do we make bad

choices and then when we get ourselves

in trouble we want God to get us out of

it and then if he doesn’t we’re getting

mad at

him and if we backtrack we didn’t do

what he told us to to start with now

that doesn’t mean that we lose our

relationship with God that doesn’t even

necessarily mean that he’s mad at us but

we do have to take a fresh look today at

what the Bible says about if you sew to

the flesh you’ll reap from the flesh

ruin Decay and destruction if you s to

the spirit you’ll reap from the spirit

life and life eternal you see God loves

us and that is not based on anything we

do or don’t do and when we get ourselves

in trouble it hurts God more than it

even hurts us us let me tell you

something if you have a child that’s in

trouble I heard an interesting statement

I believe it a

mother is never any happier than her

most unhappy child let me tell you when

your kids are hurting you would rather

take it on yourself than to watch them

go through the things that they go

through and especially if it’s because

of their own bad choices you’re just

like I just want to open up your head

and cram the truth in you and I don’t

know why you just won’t listen but

sometimes we just have to stand back and

let them find out for

themselves and sometimes that’s what God

has to do with us he tells us what to

do if we don’t do it he still loves us

but there is a principle at work in the

Earth from Genesis all the way through

to the end of time and that is is that

if you sew a good seed you’re going to

get a good result and if you sew a bad

seed you’re going to get a bad result so

yes some of our problems are the result

of our own sin but when I have trouble

when I have problems in my life I’ve got

a good enough relationship with God that

I can go to him and say is there

something I did that opened the door for

this because I want to learn if I’m you

know sometimes sometimes I can act dumb

and I don’t know that I’m acting

dumb sometimes I’ve done something that

you know God needs to show me because to

be honest sometimes we do things and and

we do them so quick that we don’t even

really realize that we did them one

night I was having a real hard time

sleeping and I wish I would have asked

God this question sooner but I waited

till 5:00

a.m. after tossing and turning all

night

God what’s

wrong and I mean just like that he

showed

me somebody that I was rude to the day

before and I just that happened so quick

and I just glossed over it so

fast didn’t even remember that I did it

and it really was something I needed to

go and apologize to that person for and

that wasn’t going to happen if God

didn’t reveal to me what I had done and

so in his goodness everybody say

goodness goodness in his goodness he was

disturbing my sleep until I got smart

enough to say what’s going on here and

he showed me not to make me feel bad but

so I could go and take care of it so

it’s smart sometimes to just say God did

I open a door here is there something

that I’ve done that you need to show me

if he doesn’t show you anything then

don’t go on a digging Expedition trying

to find out what your sin was that

caused you to have problems in your life

can you hear me today that is the worst

thing in the world to do well God must

be punishing me or I must have done

something wrong you know what

God will let you know if there’s

something you need to see and if he

doesn’t show you then you don’t need to

try to figure it out can anybody say

amen amen and so

um sometimes our own sin causes our

problems many times the sin of other

people causes us pain and

unhappiness it was not my sin that

caused my father to sexually abuse me it

was his sin and I just was there and got

hurt by it it was my mother’s passivity

and her refusing to do her Duty and do

anything about it that caused my pain

and yes that’s unjust and yes that’s

unfair but here’s the good news once a

person is old enough to start making

their own

choices my father’s bad choices hurt

me and I wish that God would have got me

out of it but he didn’t

however as soon as I was old enough to

start making my own choices every good

choice that I made started reversing the

results of every bad choice that he made

did you hear me so instead of spending

the rest of your life being mad and

bitter because somebody didn’t treat you

right and spending all your life trying

to figure out why why don’t you just

leave all that with God and trust him to

do something else that I know that he

does and that is he works good out of

anything in our life no matter how bad

it was if we trust him to do it so two

things I know about God God is

good the devil’s bad God is good and no

matter what happens in our life if we

trust God he will take it and work

something good out of it for our benefit

it doesn’t have to be good for God to

get good out of it amen and so my dad

hurt me just like many of you have been

hurt many of you have been mistreated

and chances are you may be again you

know we’re in the world and there’s a

lot of mean people out there that are

very selfish and self-centered and to be

honest we hurt other people too

sometimes and we don’t even know that we

did it or it’s maybe on a day when we

really just don’t care all that much

because we’re going through something

oursel and we’re not being sensitive to

the way other people feel and so

everything doesn’t always go the way

that we want it to go in our life but

that doesn’t

make God bad so we can suffer because of

our own sin we can suffer because of

somebody else’s sin

or a lot of times and this is just a lot

of it we just suffer because of the sin

principle that’s in the world I mean

they’re just I don’t even think that we

can

imagine the difference there will be in

in the atmosphere of Heaven compared to

the atmosphere that we live in here I

don’t think we even understand the

pressure that we’re under and the

oppression that’s around us let me tell

you something if you

worked in some worldly profession and

you worked with a lot of people that are

unbelievers and a a lot of gossip and a

lot of criticism a uh a lot of

complaining and murmuring and grumbling

and fault finding and you know a lot of

people that were out drunk the night

before and now they’re at work and

they’re mad couldn’t get any sleep and

so on and so forth if you work

there for 5

years and you came to work for

me I mean one of the things I tell our

employees and they all recognize this

just the

atmosphere because every place you work

there’s a

culture and so we have built a culture

in Joyce Meer Ministry of being positive

and and being able to trust each other

and and happy people and we don’t put up

with Strife if you’re going to work for

me and you’re going to cost Strife

you’re not going to work there very long

because you cannot have strife and also

have

success amen

and and one of the things that Pastor

Mike Shepard does is is he does rotating

teachings in the departments on our core

values at Joyce my Ministries which is

if you’re going to do it do it with do

it right or don’t do it at

all be an excellent person because God

is excellent be a person of Integrity

keep your word do what you say you’re

going to

do use wisdom with God’s money the money

that he gives us we don’t waste it we

use wisdom with it and we keep the

Strife out of our personal lives and we

keep the Strife out of the ministry

there is no basis for me to ask God to

bless my min Ministry if I’m not going

to do those basic things that he ask us

to do let me tell you something so many

homes are full of

strife I mean you can come to church and

put a smile on your face get your church

face out when you hit the parking lot

praise the Lord thank you Jesus glory to

God and we’re so happy YY YY happy and

get in the car and fight all the way

back home well that’s you

know come on I know Dave and I used to

do it we did it for

years fight all the way to church I mean

I can remember standing in the right

down here where Pastor Charles is

sitting that was my seat at the church

that I went to years ago and I can

remember having my hands lifted up

mouthing the words on the overhead

thinking if Dave thinks I’m cooking him

anything to eat today he’s got another

thing coming

I bring the sacrifice of praise into the

house of the

[Applause]

Lord come on how many of you know that

[Applause]

song now go un hug somebody and tell

them you love them with the love of the

Lord and I’m thinking if we go home and

he turns that stupid football game on

one more time one more Sunday there’s

going to be trouble in the

house so yeah I mean that’s just a bunch

of phony

baloney religion it’s not I mean all

we’re doing is throwing the door wide

open to the enemy and things like that

and so there’s there’s just our own sin

there’s the sin of other people there’s

just the sin principle in the world and

so we just we don’t even begin to

realize

I mean I just can’t I mean I don’t want

to leave before my time but I can’t wait

to get to heaven and just see how

wonderful it’s going to be to not hurt

anywhere amen

nowhere I walk five miles a day and

that’s one of the things that helps me

stay strong and and

um my daughter came over to walk with me

a couple weeks ago on a Sunday and

something was bothering her something

was hurting her and she said how are you

today you know is cuz I’ve in the

last three years I’ve had both hips

replaced and you know it’s so great

today if you wear something out you can

just get a replacement part I mean they

just man they can replace everything

today I mean you can get your shoulder

replaced your ankle replaced your knees

replaced man you can get heart

transplants it’s just pretty cool you

know you just

however when our time’s up there’s

nothing we can do about it but anyway

so you know what I mean I’ve had back

problems different times in my life so

on and so forth so you know yada yada

that’s just part of life and so she’s

something was hurting her and she

mentioned it and she said um how how are

you today is everything okay I said oh I

don’t know something you know it’s

always something one thing or another I

don’t pay any attention to it I just

keep on going and so we don’t even know

what it’s going to be like to have a

glorified body and to not have anything

that hurts or anything that bothers us

and to be in an atmosphere of total and

complete love and Trust so let me tell

you something it’s a little harder to

live in this world and be happy than

what we might think it is sometimes just

because of all the junk going on around

us can anybody say Amen to

that I mean if you watch television

today you better do it with a remote

control in your hand so you can fast

forward past all the stuff that you

don’t want to poison your

soul thank you for your good

response so there’s a lot of different

reasons why things happen to us and we

can ask God for some explanation for

some things but we’re not ever going to

get the answer to all those things

so say God is good God is good the

devil’s bad Devil’s bad and God works

good of anything if we trust

[Applause]

him how many of you believe that and

you’ve experienced that in your

life man I’ve seen that over and over

and over and over okay let’s talk about

some reasons why we suffer how many of

you want to at least eliminate some of

the things if you can

amen 1 Thessalonians

5:18 thank God in

[Music]

everything wow no matter what the

circumstances might be

be thankful and give thanks for this is

the will of God for you who are in

Christ Jesus the revealer and the

mediator of that will you know being

thankful for what we do

have really helps us get through the

times when we don’t have what we’d like

to have I’m going to say it again being

thankful for what we do

have helps us make it through the time

when it’s difficult because we have

needs that are not being met

yet our words of

gratitude I wrote this down and I

colored it in because I said it and I

like it our words of gratitude in the

face of suffering especially unjust

suffering are a stronger proof of our

trust in God more than any other thing

that I know of when you’re going through

something unjust unfair unkind is just

not right and you can still thank God on

those days and really mean it that’s a

very strong proof that you have your

trust in

God Psalm 103:20 says that angels

hearken to the word of

God they don’t hearken to our

complaining you’ve got a lot of angels

that you could put to work in your

life by just complaining a lot less and

giving a lot more

thanks we’re all so much more blessed

than what we think that we are many

times a wise man suffers much less than

a

fool Proverbs 186 and 7 going to talk to

you for a minute about our

words a self-confident Fool’s lips bring

contention

and his mouth invites a

[Music]

beating you know that that’s actually

just worth reading

again a self-confident Fool’s lips bring

contention starts arguments starts

fights causes Strife causes

problems how many times have you said

something dumb or have I I’ll just blame

it on me how many times have I said

something dumb cuz I know you don’t do

that and I’ve just started some big

ordeal with somebody and just thought

later why didn’t I just keep my mouth

shut it’s so hard for us to just keep

our mouth shut I often say God gave us

two ears and one mouth that must mean

we’re supposed to listen more than we

talk but we fail to do

that Proverbs

12:18 there are those who speak

rashly that means they just say whatever

floats around in their head and they

don’t really give any thought to what

they’re about to

say there are those who speak rashly

like the piercing of a sword but the

tongue of the wise brings

healing isn’t that

good Proverbs

18:21 the power of life and death is in

the

tongue and get this and those who

indulge it must eat the fruit of

it uh-oh

come on I’m not making this up this is

real

stuff you know I didn’t know this I was

a Christian for many years and nobody

told me this and I don’t care how many

times you’ve heard messages about the

power of your words you’re going to get

a little refresher course this afternoon

because we still it’s one of the areas

that we have one of the biggest problems

with is we just say a bunch of dumb

stuff and then we get in trouble and

we’re mad at God because he’s not fixing

it

we have to be especially

careful how we talk when we’re under

pressure how we talk when things aren’t

going the way we want them to go in John

14:30 I love this what a lesson this is

it was getting close to the time when

Jesus was going to

begin to go into

his suffering and Gethsemane and and he

was trying to convey to the disciples

some of the things that were getting

ready to happen and in John 14:30 he

said I’m not going to talk with you much

more after

this because the wicked one is coming

and he has no part in me now what are we

going to make out of that other than

Jesus said look what’s going on right

now is really important the decisions

that I make

now there’s a lot based on these

decisions and so even Jesus in his

Humanity decided that he was going to

just be quiet during his time of

suffering because he did not want to

open a door for the enemy that would

give him any access to anything that was

going on how many of you think sometimes

when you’re going through trouble you’d

just be so better off to just go lock

yourself in a room somewhere and just

not say anything to anybody

[Applause]

oh we’re not done with you yet we still

got tonight to

go and then I love this in in uh Isaiah

53:7 he was

oppressed yet when he was afflicted he

was submissive and he opened not his

mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter

and as a sheep before her shears is dumb

so he open not his mouth now how many

years did I read those scriptures and I

didn’t have a clue what that meant and I

think it means exactly what it says when

Jesus was under pressure he kept

quiet because although he was God he

also was man and do you know he was a a

God man and that’s what the Bible calls

him and you know what that’s exactly

what we are today you’re a God man or a

god woman you have a human flesh but God

Lives in You and the Holy Spirit is in

you guiding you and directing you and

he’s in me guiding me and directing me

if we would just slow down just a little

bit and just when the Lord says keep

quiet just keep quiet how many of you

think how many of you agree with me that

you could change a lot of things in your

life if you just change some of the

stuff you

say okay so then it’s not God’s fault is

it

a wise

man has a lot better things going on in

his circumstances than a foolish man

does another thing that we should not do

that we do just trying to be real

practical here this afternoon the Bible

says in Matthew 71 and2 do not judge and

criticize and condemn other

people well well well

has anybody managed to get to I don’t

know what time is it 2:30 something I

have no idea has anybody managed to get

to this time of the day and you haven’t

judged or criticized anybody

yet I don’t know you may have had some

opinions about me already

today and I’m up here trying to help you

wellow that’s the second outfit she’s

had on today

well I’m going to have another one on

tonight so you should come back and see

that

[Applause]

one and you know what I’m not trying to

impress you with my many outfits but if

I wore the same thing all day today I

can tell you something you don’t know I

would have the same thing on on TV for

six days in a

row so poor me I have to shop for

TV what a burden I carry

[Applause]

and you know what here’s the other side

of it if you’re jealous because I got

more than two outfits then man you need

to watch my program four times a

day we have so many opinions about what

everybody else does and we get so caught

up in what we think of other people

should do when our own lives are much

more of a mess than theirs

are and if you don’t need this I’ll

preach to me because I’m pretty

opinionated do not judge and criticize

and condemn others so that you may not

be judged and criticized and condemned

okay so when you hear that somebody’s

been talking about

you boy it makes you

mad but let me ask you a question

question are they sowing a bad seed or

are you reaping off of a bad seed that

you sowed in somebody else’s

life

oo some of you didn’t even get that

we’ll make another pass at

it if we gossip and judge and criticize

other people then the Bible says that’s

what we’re going to get

back

so we’re so quick to do that and I

really wasn’t kidding what I said as

anybody made it till 2:00 this afternoon

and you haven’t judged or criticized

anybody yet chances

are there’s not too many in here that

have and so we do it so much to be

honest we don’t even really see the

problem with it it’s just like we just

think that’s fine to just try to run

everybody else’s

life well let me just throw this out I

haven’t got to say this for a while you

know what you can improve your life a

lot if you just mind your own business

man we get involved in other people’s

stuff and it’s just so silly we have so

many opinions about what other people

should and shouldn’t

do save yourself a lot of trouble and

just mind your own business and if you

really feel like that somebody’s doing

something that’s against the word of God

pray for them and don’t go tell somebody

else what they’re

doing come on this is just good plain

Bible

teaching and so here’s the

thing the devil’s not just looking for

an Open Door in your life he’s looking

for any little tiny crack he can crawl

through and the more opportunity you

have to do things for

God the narrower your path is going to

become

can I tell you something there might be

things that you could

do and you wouldn’t have the same

repercussion that I would if I did it

because of what I’m doing and what I’m

teaching the Bible says don’t let many

of you become teachers because there

will be much greater condemnation for

those that are telling other people what

to do if they don’t do it when I stand

up here and tell everybody else how they

should run their life lives my path gets

narrower and narrower and narrower the

Bible says in Matthew 7 stay on the

narrow path that leads to life and off

the broad path that leads to destruction

and I remember one time murmuring to God

like well you know I just feel like my

path gets narrower and narrower all the

time he said that’s right there’s no

room on it for your fleshly baggage so

just drop

it you know we want to have all the

privilege and still do dumb stuff and

that’s just not going to work now none

of this means God doesn’t love us he

loves us but nonetheless a parent who

loves us is not going to stand by and

just let us do all kinds of goofy stuff

and not bring any kind of Correction in

our life whom the Lord loves he

chastises and in Revelation it says be

enthusiastic when God shows you your

faults in the Amplified Bible in

Revelation 3 so be enthusiastic and full

of zeal when God shows you your faults

because it’s just a sign of his love

well sometimes I’ve thought could you

love me a little less maybe go love Dave

a little

more wouldn’t you like it sometimes if

God just loved your spouse a little more

than he loves you and tell them what’s

wrong with them instead of it always

being

you come on I got to have fun at this

part if you want me to make it through

tonight

[Applause]

don’t judge and criticize and condemn

others so that you may not be judged and

criticized and condemned

yourselves for just as you judge and

criticize and condemn others you will be

judged and criticized and condemned and

in accordance with the measure that you

use when you deal out to others it will

be dealt back out to you Galatians 6:7

be not deceived and deluded God is Not

mocked for whatsoever man Seth that and

that only is what he shall reap if you

sow to the flesh you’ll reap from the

flesh ruin Decay and destruction if you

sow to the spirit you will reap from the

spirit life and life eternal

now let me give you an

example concerning the words of your

mouth I believe that when we talk the

way we’re supposed to being careful not

to be critical and downgrading of other

people and being more careful about just

saying negative things I think it adds

to our

joy I think we just have happier days

you know the Bible says a man has joy in

making a right and an apt answer and I

also believe that sometimes when people

are depressed and they’re just having a

bad day and they just feel all down

they’re like I don’t know what’s wrong I

just got a heaviness yeah going to

rebuke the

devil I think a lot of it’s caused just

by the way we

talk come on you’re not going to go to

church on Sunday sit at the lunch table

at work on Monday and gossip about

everybody at the office and then go home

and feel

[Applause]

happy we’re in the world we’re not of it

you don’t get to act like everybody

else amen amen woohoo we’re having

fun okay now a person can do everything

right though and still

suffer 1 Peter 2:19 and

20 are some scriptures that I just

really wish were not in

here but they

are for one is regarded favorably is

approved and acceptable thankworthy if

as in the sight of God he endures the

pain of unjust

suffering after all what kind of Glory

is there in it if when you do wrong in

your punished part you take it patiently

but if you bear patiently with suffering

which results when you do right and that

is undeserved now this is acceptable and

pleasing to God and I wrote out beside

that scripture very

painful what kind of a God is it that

would be

happy if I’m suffering

unjustly it doesn’t really say that he’s

happy if we suffer unjustly it says he’s

happy if we keep a good attitude when we

suffer

unjustly come on let’s don’t misread

it he says look anybody can have a good

attitude if things are going their

way but when you’re suffering when

you’re doing right when you’re on your

best behavior and you’re the one serving

God

and you give offerings and you walk in

the fruit of the spirit and and you help

other people and now you the wrong

things are happening to

you God has pleased us even in those

times if we keep a good attitude and we

hold our temper I’m going to tell you

something that I learned a long time ago

and I think this would be up on the top

part of the list of some of the things

that God’s given me to say to people

that I think are important and very

helpful in Galatians it says be not

weary and well-doing

for in due season you shall reap if you

faint not and we don’t know what that

due season is it’s whatever time God

feels is the right time in our life and

there are times when God will let things

go on longer than we would like them to

go on because for whatever reason you

know he’s doing something in El he’s

doing something in somebody else but I

want you to remember what I’m getting

ready to

say when you can keep doing what’s

right while you’re still not yet getting

the right

result you’re growing

spiritually can I give you a secret when

you’re growing

spiritually it usually really hurts

amen a lot of things that feel good may

feel good but they don’t really maybe

help us all that much but I can tell you

sometimes when you’re going through

really really hard

stuff stuff like Pastor Charles and his

family went through stuff like I’ve gone

through stuff like you’ve gone through

even though you decide to trust God you

can have a pain in your

soul that you just sometimes feel like

you just can’t

stand and one of the things that I’ve

come to realize is it’s almost like I

can feel that digging a deeper place in

my soul for God to come and reside

in you’re never alone in your

suffering and when you trust God in your

times of suffering they will never be

wasted because God will take them and he

will work something good out of them and

he will make you a better person than

what you ever thought that you might

possibly

be

amen how many of you could say right

now that you are the person you are

because of some of the painful things

that you’ve gone through in your

life I mean I absolutely have to say

that the things that I’ve gone through

is part of what has qualified me to help

you you know all we got to do is look at

Jesus it says that

the things that he went

through this is in Hebrews

58-9 he learned obedience through the

things that he suffered well how could

you learn obedience when you’re never

disobedient well he learn the cost of

obedience and you know obedience is

costly when you do the right thing when

it doesn’t feel right there’s a pain

involved in that and we do that because

we love God

the reward may come later but right now

I’m doing this I’m doing the hard thing

because I love God and then in the

Amplified Bible in Hebrews 589 it says

that he learned obedience through the

things that he suffered and his

completed

experience equipped

him our experience equips us his

experience equipped him to become the

author and the source of our

Salvation I preached a message earlier

this year in a few places and I really

enjoyed it called the value of

experience you know if nothing else what

you’re going through right now is giving

you

experience and it’s going to be

something that you can tuck away that

nobody can ever take away from you and

one thing is for sure when you go

through something hard and you watch God

deliver you and you watch him bring that

reward in your life honey let me tell

you all the pain that you went through

and all the waiting that you went

through is worth it when all of a sudden

God’s reward comes in your

life

amen let me tell you something the

people that hurt you will someday have

to watch God reward you

amen 1 Peter 4:15 and 16 but let none of

you suffer as a murderer or a thief or

any sort of criminal or a Mischief maker

and here it comes are a meddler in the

Affairs of other

people uhuh see you thought I was making

that up it’s right here in the

Bible mind your own

business now you know the thing that I

find interesting with this is all of a

sudden we’re talking about murderers and

thiefs and criminals and in the same

sentence now he talks about not meddling

in the Affairs of other

people well wait a minute Jesus I mean

that’s not a big

[Music]

thing I mean yeah I may gossip some and

maybe I could mind my own business a

little bit more but I mean I didn’t kill

anybody I didn’t Rob the gas station

I mean I’m doing good no he’s got it all

in the same

sentence you know one of the mistakes

that we’ve made in the church is we have

sins and then we have acceptable

[Music]

sins we’ve got a whole list of these

things that we just get so used to doing

that we don’t even really recognize what

they are anymore and that’s why we need

to pray if you’re bold enough to pray

this God I don’t want to get by with

anything come on how much courage do you

have how much do you want to grow God I

don’t want to get by with anything I

want to be exactly what you want me to

be and if I’m doing things in my life

that I’m not seeing open my blind eyes

and unstop my deaf

ears and how does this suit you and deal

with me however you want

[Music]

to I’m going to preach the rest of this

turn

[Applause]

backwards deal with me however you want

to but don’t let me get by with nonsense

[Music]

have you been looking for a

365-day devotional well look no further

than the promises for your everyday life

devotional from Joyce Meyer there’s a

focus verse for all 365 days of the year

along with a prayer starter get your

copy of promises for your everyday life

devotional at Joy meyer.org

365 devvo the biggest thing that we need

to do is learn how to think like God

thinks and the only way you can do that

is by knowing the word of God in words

to live by Joyce Meyer shares how

studying the word of God transformed her

life experience a deeper and more

meaningful relationship with God through

the captivating collection of verses in

this beautiful hard cover book by Joyce

Meyer discover the transformative power

of His word words to live by from Joyce

Meyer get your YouTube exclusive offer

today go to joyce.org wordss and the

number two

have you ever been trapped in a

never-ending frenzy where every passing

moment feels like a blur leaving you

gasping for a chance to pause and catch

your breath in her insightful book

pursuing peace Joyce Meyer explores the

importance of seeking peace at all costs

this beautiful hard cover Edition is

filled with meaningful scriptures and

uplifting quotes from Joyce providing

valuable guidance for living a peaceful

lifestyle so grab a cup of coffee find a

comfortable spot and embark on your

journey journey to find peace remember

this limited time YouTube offer won’t

last long go to joyce.org pursuit to get

your copy today and start your Pursuit

Of

[Music]

Peace the Mind actually is the

battlefield that’s where we win or lose

the war with Satan he said all he gets

to

say rest of the day is mine you start

asking God to heal you and he will

restore he the God of all comfort and I

am so grateful that I know how to call

on God

[Music]