Full textual sermon "40 Things the Word Does for You!" by Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer: welcome to "enjoying everyday life." I'm so glad that you have joined us today. And you know, when you make studying the word of God a priority in your life, I believe that you will enjoy your life much, much more. Matter of fact, I think it's about the only way that you're ever gonna be able to enjoy your life. So, we've got our studio audience with us today, and just wanna continue to share with you how important I feel the word of God is in our everyday lives. And you know, it's great to hear somebody else teach the word. That's always beneficial. It's great to listen to cds or things that you download from your computer. Whatever format you can get it into, get it, but it's also good for you to study the word of God yourself, to get with God yourself and to trust him to bring understanding that will be life-changing to you. And so, I have a devotional that's out called, "wake up to the word," and I want people to form a habit of just making that first thing. And devotionals are great for that because they're not really very long, and it's a good way-- well, I call it like a little spiritual vitamin. And so, I put together, and we actually have this online. If you feel like that you can't keep up with me today, and you want to get copies of this, it's online. It's called, "forty things the word of God does for you."
So, I probably won't get to every single one of them, but you're gonna get the point that I'm trying to make. You know, I believe if we know that there's a reward at the end of our effort, it encourages us even more so to make that effort, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know, I don't study the word just to get a reward. I study the word because Jesus is the word, and I love him, but he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And the bible says that he's coming soon, and he'll have his wages and his rewards with him. And so, studying the word of God and obeying the word of God does bring many, not just a few, but many rewards in our life, and I quickly found 40. Now, there's much more than that, but it's kind of an interesting thing to do. So, let me start with this. This is a peach seed. Now, the bible says that the word of God is like seed, that the Holy Spirit sows the seed, and that's the word of God, and depending on what kind of heart it's sown into, which is us, that determines what kind of fruit and harvest that we're gonna get. So, this is a peach seed, and if I were to sow this in some good, fertile ground, I would ultimately have a peach tree with lots of peaches.
So, it's interesting to think that I can study the word of God and get not one kind of fruit, but all kinds of fruit, especially, and I want you to get this, especially if you're consistent. You know, 2 Corinthians 3 says, "if you continue in my word." If you continue, then you will be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. And so, it's not what we do right one time that changes our life but what we persistently do right. Now, I've been studying God's word, seriously studying the word for over 40 years, so I now have a great deal of victory in my life, and you have no idea what kind of a mess I was when I started. So, no matter how bad you feel like your life is right now, let me assure you that the word of God has the answer to every problem that you have. So, the very first scripture is John 8:32. The word of God is truth, and John 8:32 says, "if you know the truth, the truth will make you free." Now, it's not just head knowledge, but it's actually applying the word in our lives. And so, I really encourage you, any time you hear the word, listen to it having already made the decision, "I'm gonna do what I learn today." It doesn't do us any good at all to just have a bunch of information. We need revelation, and we need a heart that's willing to do what God tells us to do. And one thing about the truth is it confronts the lies in our life, and satan is a liar. He's the father of lies. He does nothing but lie. And from the time we show up on planet earth, he's trying to bring deception into our lives by giving us wrong thinking. Well, the word of God, the truth of God's word, actually will renew our mind, and it shows us a new way to live. How many of you have found, after you started studying the word, that you were believing things in your life that absolutely was not true at all? Did any of you discover that? Well, boy, I had lots of that in my life. Proverbs 4:20-22 says the word of God is life, it's healing, and it's health to all of your flesh. Now, that's really interesting, because there's a whole lot of people in the world today that don't have any energy. They don't feel good. They might be breathing, but just breathing isn't the kind of life that he's talking about here. This is like the God kind of life.
So, the word of God brings life. There's life in the word. It brings health and it brings healing in every area of our life. And I just wanna tell you today that no matter what's going on in your life, Jesus is interested in healing you everywhere you hurt. When I talk about healing, I'm not just talking about your physical body, although I will say that feeling good is extremely beneficial to every area of our lives. But I'm talking about he can heal you mentally, emotionally, financially, socially. Maybe you don't feel like you have good relationships. Well, there's answers in God's word for every single problem that you have. So, this is what proverbs 4:20-22 says. "my son, attend to my words." Now, to be attentive, it's not a glance. To be attentive means that I look, I read, I study, I ponder, I pray. I might do it over and over and over. "attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings." So, it doesn't just say read, it says submit to what the word says. "let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart." Meditate on the word. "for they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."
Psalm 107:20, "he sends forth his word and heals them and he rescues them from the pit and from destruction." Boy, I tell you what, a lot of people living in some kind of a pit, like a low, depressed area where there's no life, there's no light. I was in a pit. You know, joseph was a young man in the bible who was thrown into a pit, and he ended up living in the palace, and I believe that we can have that same experience. He lifts us up out of the pits of life, and he sets our feet on solid ground. He sends forth his word, and he heals us and he delivers us. You know, a word can change your day. A word can change your life. A word can encourage you. A word can discourage you. God's word is full of healing power that never does us anything but something good. Psalm 18:30, the word protects us. I like that. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff going on out there that's after us all the time. There are people that don't like us and they wanna talk about us and say all kinds of things, and there's just-- there's disease, and there's the devil and demons and all kinds of stuff, and so I love this, that the word protects us. Psalm 18:30, "as for God, his way is perfect! The word of the Lord is tested and tried." Now, here it comes, "he is a shield to all those who take refuge and put their trust in him." So, you know, I think it's safe to say that we are in a war. The bible says that we are soldiers in the army of God and that we war not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and wickedness in high places, and God's given us armor and he's given us weapons. And so, who in their right mind would wanna go to battle without a shield? A shield would be very valuable. Let's just say it's a big shield that covers you, front, sides, and behind. Well, the word of God is a shield to all those who take refuge and put their trust in him. We gotta pay attention to some of these little words, "who take refuge and put." You know, the word "put," p-u-t, is a huge word in the bible. It says, "put on the full armor of God. Put off the old man. Put on the new man." We're partners with God. We can't just passively sit by and think, "well, I own a bible. I hope it works in my life." The word's not gonna help you just because you've got it on your bookshelf somewhere. We've have to study, study, study the word of God. And we don't have to, like God's not gonna love us if we don't. Something I learned a long time ago, I was studying and kinda doing it out of obligation at that time. Felt like, you know, God was gonna not be happy with me if I didn't study the word. And one day he whispered in my heart and he said, "stop acting like you're doing me a favor when you study. I already know the book, I wrote it. You're the one that needs to learn it." See, so we-- this is something-- honestly, when I share with you to study the word, this is something I'm asking you to do for yourself. I mean, if we have any intelligence at all, and we have a problem, and somebody says, "do this and you'll get better," then we don't have anybody to blame if we don't do this so we can get better. What good would it do you to go to a doctor if he said, "here, take these. Take this pill, you'll get better," and we take 'em home and set 'em on a shelf and say, "i don't wanna take those." Well, the word of God is medicine for every area that heals us. I mean, it's actually medicine for our soul. It heals our soul. The word brings stability, fruitfulness, and fulfillment, and all that we do will prosper. Is there anybody here who enjoys wasting your time? Is there anybody here who wants to just work and work and work at something and never get a good result?
Well, no, we don't wanna do that, but listen to this scripture. "and he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; and its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything," everything, "he does shall prosper [and come to maturity]" who is this he? He who gives the word of God first place in his life and who studies, meditates, ponders, and lives out the word by day and by night. If you have not given God's word a place of priority in your everyday life-- you say, "every day, Joyce Meyer?" Sunday morning's not enough. How many people believe in God, they really do believe in God, they've received Christ as their savior, they believe that Jesus died on the cross for them and that he was resurrected from the dead? They're hoping that someday they'll go to heaven, which really, if you know the word, you can know that you're gonna go to heaven, not just hope that you will. So many people, you can ask 'em, "do you believe you'll go to heaven when you die?" And it's amazing how many people say, "well, I hope so." Well, see, that person doesn't know the word of God, because if you know the word, then you can have assurance of that. But how many people just, they believe, they may go to church every single sunday, and yet they have no victory in their life. They don't know the word at all for themselves. You know, there've been times in the past in history when large denominations encouraged people not to try to study the word for themselves because they felt that the pastors and the priests were the only ones that could possibly understand it.
Well, this is how God communicates with us. Jesus is the word made flesh who came to dwell among us, and every word that is written here is not just black ink on white pages. It's power. There's power in the word of God, inherent power in the word of God. This seed has life in it. There's power in this seed. It doesn't look like much, but I'll tell you, there's power in this seed to produce enough peaches for all of us. Wouldn't that be good? We could even take some home, but it has to be planted, and it has to be nurtured, and it has to be cared for. Well, the word of God is the same way. There's power in the bible. There's power in the words in here that can change our lives, and these are some of the things that it says that it does for us. Now, I'm particularly fond of Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. It's a bit long, but it just-- man, it encourages me when I wonder, "can God take care of this?
You know, will I make it through this? Am I strong enough to do this?" You know, you can always go back to God and trust him to hold you up. Thank God you don't have to make it on your own. You can trust God to hold you up. If you're in a problem right now in your life and you feel like you're gonna cave in, just say, "God, I trust you to hold me up." And one of the ways I know that he can hold me up is when I read Hebrew 1:3. It says, "he," he being Christ, "is the sole expression of the glory of God [the light-being, the out-raying or the radiance of the divine], he is the perfect imprint and very image of [God's] nature," now listen to this, so powerful, "upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by his mighty word of power." So, what's keeping the stars in the sky?
Why doesn't the moon fall on us and crush us? What's keeping the sun up there today? What's making the earth rotate on its axis? What keeps the ocean from going further than the sand? God told job, he said, "who can say to that ocean, 'you'll go this far and no further?'" Let me tell you something, that we make a big mistake when we forget about how powerful God is. And if we--just look around at the world, just look around at nature. Look at the sun and think, "God, you're keeping that up there," amen? Just look at the stars, "God, you're keeping those up there. You're making all this work." How in the world does this universe work? God is upholding, maintaining, propelling it, how? He speaks to it. God said and it was. Well, see, the cool thing about the word is we can learn to say what God says. Come on now. That's the awesome thing. We can be a mouthpiece for God, and when we not only learn his word but we start speaking his word, listen, I don't get up now and start my day and think, "oh, I'm never gonna have anything." I say, "no, everything I lay my hand to today is gonna prosper and succeed. I'm the head and not the tail. I'm above and not beneath. I lend but I never have to borrow." Well, you can start saying that when you don't have two pennies in your pocket. And trust me, if you not only say it, but you do the other things that the word tells you to do, like be a generous giver and trust God, and you know, don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, you know. Do the things that the word of God tells you to do, then you will come to the day where everything you lay your hand to will prosper and succeed. And that doesn't mean that you'll never have a problem in your life, but it does mean that God will see you through those problems and he will uphold you and guide you and maintain you by the power of his word. Uh-oh, now I'm starting to get excited. We gotta be careful when I get excited. God's word has the power to create. We just kinda talked about that, you know, the creative power of the word. And honestly, when we speak God's word, and I don't--you know, I'm not trying to take this out of context or out of balance.
Our words have creative or destructive power. So, I always say that words are no different than this cup. They're a container. And I've actually got some nice sparkly, fizzy water in here that I like to drink when I speak, but I could put mud in here if I wanted to. So, our words are containers for power, and it's up to us whether we're gonna put good, positive, life-bringing power in them or if we're gonna put something in 'em that's gonna just steal our life and energy. Psalm 119, verse 2, those who order their conduct and their conversation according to the word are blessed. Are you ordering your conduct and your conversation, or are you letting your emotions order what you say and what you do? "blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) are they who keep his testimonies, and who seek, inquire for and of him and crave him with their whole heart." The word cleanses us and purifies us. It's amazing.
Psalm 119:9, "how shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to your word." So, what happens if you have a young man or a young woman who learns the word when they're young, and they can begin to apply that word to their life, even when they're young? And perhaps they're very passionate, and they're making decisions about how they're gonna live their life and who they're gonna follow and what they're gonna do. The word of God is a guide. It leads us, it guides us, and it keeps us from getting in trouble. If we follow the word of God, there's no way we can not have an awesome life. Now, here again, that doesn't mean you're never gonna have a problem. Jesus said, "in the world, you will have tribulation." But he also said, "cheer up, because I have overcome the world." And I may not get my breakthrough that I want exactly when I want it, but God will come through for me. And I'll tell you, worst case scenario, if you have your problems when Jesus comes back, the good news is you're not going to hell. You're gonna spend eternity with him.
And so, I think it's worth the commitment if we never saw a breakthrough this side of heaven, although I don't think that's going to be the case. I mean, I've got five scriptures here just about how the word cleanses and purifies us. The word reduces the capacity to sin and it strengthens us against temptation. You know, before you know the word, you can just sin all you want to and it won't even make you uncomfortable, but boy, when you start studying the word, you can't do the same stuff you used to do, because now all of a sudden you've got another law on the inside of you that's kinda rising up and saying, "not so much." And you know, I love and I believe that there's scripture for this. Jesus told his disciples to pray that they would not to come into temptation. How many of you know, right now, you know a weak area for you? How many of you know a weak area for you? Okay, well I do too. So, you know what? I've been aggressively praying. Just even in the last couple of weeks I've started doing this real strongly, 'cause you know, sometimes we get tired of going around the same stupid mountains all the time, don't we? It's just like, been there, done this. You know, when, when, when, when are you gonna change this?
Well, I've started praying, and I suggest you do and all of you, "God, strengthen me in my weak areas before I'm even tempted." I know I will be tempted, because temptation comes to all of us. The word of God says temptation must come. So, it comes, but if we pray ahead of time that when we're confronted with it, we'll be strong enough to resist it and not get into it, I think we're gonna have a lot more victory that we do waiting until we're so loaded down with temptation that our emotions are all tied up in it and we don't seem to be able to resist doing the wrong thing, repenting. Thank God for repentance. Thank God that we can recover, but it's much better to not have to go that route if you don't have to. So, I believe that we can pray and, at the word, we'll reduce the capacity to sin. Psalm 119:11, "your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Isn't that good? "that I might not sin against you." Oh, I love this one. How many of you sometimes feel like you need to be stimulated and revived, amen? You know, we pray for revival in the world, but how about a personal revival? And you know, a lot of people today take stimulants, things that will perk them up, make them feel better, make them more alert. Well, this says that, "your word revives and stimulates us," amen? You could use the word instead of caffeine. Although, I kinda like having my caffeine with the word in the morning.
Joyce Meyer: but I'm just trying to make a point that, you know, we don't have to depend on all kinds of artificial things. You know, I can actually feel enthusiasm entering my soul as I study the word of God. It actually gets me excited. Now, I don't get so excited when I read the news. You know, I don't spend much time on it, but I've got this little app on my phone, and it's really easy to just see what the highlights are of the day. And I mean, it's amazing. Out of 20 things, there's usually not one good thing there. It's all murder and devastation and liars and cheats and all these kinds of things. But you know, that's not the case when I get in here. When I get in here, I'm stimulated, and I'm revived, and you know what I feel? I feel I can face another day. How many of you feel like that? You know what? Just sitting in here today listening to this, I can promise you you are gonna be more excited, more stimulated, and more revived as you leave here today, and the same thing for those of you that are watching right now. And so, you know, I really want to encourage all of you to avail yourself to this devotional that we've written called, "wake up to the word." And actually, what we've done is we've taken a word, just a word, just a normal word. It might be "energy," it might be "peace," it might be "joy," it might be "stress," just a word. And we start with that word, and then there's a scripture attached to that, because I honestly believe that we don't have a problem that we can't find an answer for in the word of God. Then there is a devotional for you, and then a prayer or a confession. You know, reading one of these, I don't know, it might take less than a minute, two minutes. These are good things to have, because we need all the help that we can get. Now, you know, we're offering this today for your offering to the ministry of any amount. Where you gonna get a deal like that?
Here's 365 pages of life, and all we ask you to do is just do your best. Send in the very best offering that you can. Be as generous as you can be. And you know, maybe somebody watching doesn't have much, you do the best you can. But maybe somebody else watching has been a lot more blessed financially, and you could send in enough to cover what three or four people get. This is a great way to bless yourself and be a blessing to us at the same time, because this will help us keep these messages on the air for you. Thank you for being with us today. Have a great day, and remember, the word of God, first place in your life. announcer: some mornings everything just goes right. Others not so much. But let's face it, how you wake up each morning has a tremendous impact on your day. That's why Joyce Meyer wants you to "wake up to the word." Today we're offering Joyce Meyer's devotional, "wake up to the word," for your donation of any amount. Call right now... Or visit joycemeyer.org. Ginger: Tampa, Florida, the site of the 2018 women's conference, where the sun always shines, the weather's beautiful. There's going to be so much excitement right here, and where the seats are sold out.
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Joyce Meyer: trust him all the time. Joyce Meyer: your walk with God is not about everybody else.
Joyce Meyer: if you wanna make the devil mad, get happy. He has to get the credit. He has to get the glory. Well, you've spoken and picked your favorite "enjoying everyday life" shows from 2017, and now we're going to reveal the winners. So, watch every day to see your winners.
Joyce Meyer: I've written a hundred and probably fifteen books now. That was another whole work project that was going on in the midst of all these other things is writing all these books. You know, I really want to leave a hundred big, solid books as a legacy to the body of Christ, and so we're still working on them. And then hopefully, out of all the ones that we have, the very best will remain. Because a lot of the books that I read now are 200 and 300 years old and they've just helped me tremendously. So, I hope a long time after I'm gone, if Jesus tarries, that people will still be continuing to read my books. Announcer: we hope you have enjoyed today's program. Please contact us or visit joycemeyer.org to share your prayer requests, see the conference schedule, or partner with us in sharing Christ and loving people all across the globe. announcer: this program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Joyce Meyer ministries
