at Lakewood Church Sunday 2 Feb 2014 11 am service. This message focuses on the need to have an unselfish attitude. I am not affiliated with Joyce Meyer Ministries other than being a partner and volunteer. These are my personal notes, not an exact transcript.
Joyce is talking about attitudes.
Attitudes are your thought life turned inside out.
We can decide what kind of attitude we will have.
God said I set before you life and death choose life.
God has set before us the ability to choose a good attitude or a bad attitude.
Choose a good attitude.
We all want an above average life.
Passivity versus purposefulness.
Aggressive versus waiting to see what will happen in your life.
Some are drifters and floaters.
God has many benefits but you can’t just want them; you have to go after them.
If you want financial peace resist the temptation to buy things you can’t afford.
Think about yourself.
Are you aggressive and purposeful?
Or like ‘whatever’ I wish I had…
We don’t need wishbone we need backbone.
A good attitude is such a benefit.
If Joyce had to choose to work with someone super smart with a bad attitude or average with a good attitude she’d choose the good attitude.
It’s much easier to maintain a good attitude than to regain it after you’ve lost it.
It’s better to just keep a good attitude.
A good attitude is a very valuable thing.
Today Joyce wants to talk about maintaining an unselfish attitude.
Those who will do for others if forced.
And there are those who look for someone to bless.
God told Joyce to give someone $10.
3 weeks into it Joyce was still asking for confirmation.
God is it really you?
God said even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t get mad at you for blessing someone.
Realize God has called us to be a blessing.
We need to do it purposely.
Selfishness comes naturally.
You have to be purposefully unselfish.
I’m going to love people today.
Colossians 3:2 And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.
Set your mind and keep it set
Joyce is writing book “The Mind Connection”.
She wants to get the point across that our thoughts are connected to everything in our lives
Don’t receive negative thoughts in your life.
If you wake up with a bad thought and keep it then you’ll be depressed all day.
God has given free will to do the right thing.
Joyce is old enough that she’s tried it all every which way.
She’s tried every way to be happy.
And there’s only one that works.
And that’s to be unselfish.
Christians need an upgrade in unselfish behavior.
If you were serving food and there are 3 pieces of food, one is usually bigger.
Joyce struggles not to take the larger piece
Which piece of cake do you take?
We watch out for number 1.
2 Samuel 9:1-3
And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?
2 And of the house of Saul there was a servant whose name was Ziba. When they had called him to David, he said to him, Are you Ziba? He said, I, your servant, am he.
3 The king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the [unfailing, unsought, unlimited] mercy and kindness of God? Ziba replied, Jonathan has yet a son who is lame in his feet.
David was looking for someone to be kind to.
Is there anybody out there that I can bless for Jesus’ sake?
Not who earned it, but who can I bless?
The fact that he was lame indicated he had a weakness.
Is there anyone out there that has weaknesses, or don’t deserve it, etc.
Look for those who need the undeserved unsought favor mercy and kindness of God.
What if your coworker has been mean to you?
Now you hear the engine on their car failed.
God prompts you to offer to give them a ride, and it’s out of your way.
If you’re dead to self then you might readily agree.
Most of us would say “Why should I do that after the way they treated me?”
The best way is to be good to someone who knows they don’t deserve it.
When you start giving to people who haven’t treated you right and don’t deserve it then that is when you’re like God.
Blessing your enemies.
He lets the sun shine on the just and the unjust.
If you want an upgrade in your power and joy.
Then try this stuff.
Be good to those who weren’t good to you.
Love will melt a cold hard heart.
Then your Christian jewelry and bumper sticker have meaning.
A friend overheard clients talking about Joyce in a restaurant.
Joyce planned revenge on the people that were talking about her in the restaurant.
God said “You’re going to give them gifts”.
The joy of the Lord hit her.
She realized you don’t return hatred for hatred and bitterness for bitterness.
We have the ability to be good to people that aren’t good to us.
The only way to overcome evil is with good.
And you’re going to have to do it on purpose.
It’s not about what you think is fair.
It’s not about how you feel.
Her flesh was trying to find a way to say I know what you did and look at how good I am.
Our flesh wants recognition and revenge.
She sent the gift and a letter of appreciation.
The minute she did that she was totally free.
If you’re ready to stop bleeding over what mean people have done to you then bless your enemies.
Bless those who curse and abuse you.
That’s one level.
Another level is aggressively being a blessing.
Mark 8:34 And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and [a]lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and [[b]joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow [c]with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me].
It would be taking it too far to say you never do anything for yourself.
There are things we want and need.
You’ll get burned out if you’re only giving and never receiving.
Breathing illustrates the principle we take in and we let out.
If you only do one you’ll faint.
We have a lot of fainting saints in church pews every Sunday morning because all they do is take in.
I want my word, my blessing, my breakthrough.
The best way to get your problem solved is to do something for somebody else.
Purposely be a blessing for someone else.
Decide “God won’t have to make me bless people”.
Joyce will make sure she has peace but she doesn’t have prayer meetings over whether to bless someone.
We only do that because we want to keep our stuff.
Jesus was making a point to Peter that you can’t care more about what you want than about doing the will of God.
We need balance.
We have needs.
God doesn’t expect us to not have our needs met.
You’ll be a martyr.
Joyce has a plan for her flesh when she leaves here.
If you only give out without ever taking in pretty soon you won’t have anything to give.
We tend to be extremists.
All for others and nothing for ourselves or nothing for others and everything for ourselves.
Learn to say no.
Joyce feels like she is in a good place of balance.
You don’t have to have your emergency on my one day off.
You’ve been in emergency mode for 40 years.
If it’s genuine Joyce will help.
There’s a difference between helping people and letting the devil suck everything out of you.
Mark 14:3-8
3 And while He was in Bethany, [a guest] in the house of Simon the leper, as He was reclining [at table], a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment ([a]perfume) of pure nard, very costly and precious; and she broke the jar and poured [the perfume] over His head.
4 But there were some who were moved with indignation and said to themselves, To what purpose was the ointment ([b]perfume) thus wasted?
5 For it was possible to have sold this [perfume] for more than 300 denarii [a laboring man’s wages for a year] and to have given [the money] to the poor. And they censured and reproved her.
6 But Jesus said, Let her alone; why are you troubling her? She has done a good and beautiful thing to Me [praiseworthy and noble].
7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you will not always have Me.
8 She has done what she could; she came beforehand to anoint My body for the burial.
It sounds holy and spiritual; why didn’t you give it to the poor.
Jesus was about to go through the worst agony ever.
God sent someone to do something outrageously kind to Him to prepare Him.
In this instance I’m worthy of waste.
There are 2 seas in Palestine: Galilee and the Dead Sea.
Galilee has water flowing in and out.
The Dead Sea only takes, water flows in but there’s no outlet.
A selfish person is dead while they still live.
You can be saved and selfish and that’s what ruins our Christian witness.
This time on the platform isn’t the most important part of Joyce’s life.
How tragic if she was preaching this stuff but not living it.
2 Corinthians 5:15 And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake.
Jesus didn’t just die for us so we could go to heaven, but so we wouldn’t have to live selfishly.
He went so far as to make us a blessing to our enemies.
Joyce has already set her mind she’s going to be a blessing.
Galatians 6:10 So then, as occasion and opportunity open up to us, let us do good [[a]morally] to all people [not only [b]being useful or profitable to them, but also doing what is for their spiritual good and advantage]. Be mindful to be a blessing, especially to those of the household of faith [those who belong to God’s family with you, the believers].
Be mindful to be a blessing.
Pay more attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 7:6 But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].
God prompts us to quit being selfish all day long.
A clock tells her how long she has to preach.
She can choose to obey or ignore it.
You won’t lose your salvation over choosing self but you won’t be happy.
Promptings
We have so many opportunities to be a blessing.
Joyce shared the story Are you God’s wife?
She didn’t take the boy out front where people could see how “good” she was and embarrass him; she took him to the back room and washed his feet.
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