So can we welcome Mama Joyce to the stage?

[cheering]

[laughs]

Well, you guys are pretty stirred up.

Yeah.

I won't have to work as hard to get you stirred up, 'cause you're already there.

Yeah.

Father, I pray that everything that comes out of my mouth would be a blessing to someone in this room.

Right.

And, uh, we got them a really cute home that was maybe 15 minutes from us and got them a new, a car because their car was shot.

And, um, course they had to have somebody get their groceries and cut their grass and do all the repairs, and so we always paid for that.

Then their health got bad enough that they really needed to be in assisted living, so we went to an assisted living situation.

And, you know, those are very expensive.

And, uh, I think it was about $3,000 a month per person.

Mm-hmm.

Just a Little Bit.

[laughs] Sorry about that.

You know, you can only do so much about what other people are gonna do, and generally that's nothing And so everybody has to be responsible for themselves, and a lot of our family works together, which is another whole dynamic.

And I'd say out of 100%, we've maybe hit at about 80%.

We-- And that's because you gotta be quick to forgive.

Your gift today helps Joyce Meyer Ministries spread the gospel to people all over the world.

My reason for writing this book is very simple.

I want people who have been hurt, abused, damaged, or broken in some way to know that their story isn't finished.

No matter how painful the past has been or how long the struggle has lasted, you can redeem it.

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delta.comAnd then, you know, there's those pieces that you're just fed up with this thing, and so you're just like, "That's going in there." [laughs] [applause] I don't care if this fits or not.

[laughs] You know what I'm talking about.

Amen? Yes.

[applause] But let me tell you something.

Sometimes there's those pieces in your life that just don't make any sense, and you can't find any place to put it.

That's right.

RaceTrac, whatever gets you going.

can.

And so you have a gift, you have something that you can do that probably nobody else can do just exactly the way you can do it.

And as I said in that little clip, some of the most important people in my life are the people that just help me.

because I couldn't do what I'm doing the way I'm doing it if I didn't have a lot of people helping me.

I have one woman that's prayed for me every day for 42 years.

How much trouble has she kept me out of or how many accidents have we avoided because God has already protected us through her prayers.

And I know that there's other people probably that pray for me like that, that I don't know and never will know until we get to heaven.

A lot of people

[applause]

You gotta know you're loved.

You gotta know that your confidence can be in him.

You gotta know that you don't have to live under the law.

Here's the thing, and I'll show it to you in Hebrews 5.

Let's go there.

Hebrews 5, uh, 13.

[laughs]

Have a break, have a Kit Kat

Everything that I've been through, which is a lot, has been so worth it.

And even though I tell you these difficult things that you're going to have to make it through, it's not meant at all to be discouraging.

It's meant to encourage you not to quit and not to give up because God needs you and he's preparing you for something amazing.

God gave me this as an example a few years ago, and I just love it.

You know, when God speaks something to your heart, gives you a dream or a vision to do something, whether it's business or ministry or whether you need a complete overhaul and you've got a vision of being the person God wants you to be, you usually buy into what God shows you based on the picture you see.

It's kind of like when you go out and buy a puzzle.

Sprite.

Joyce, how about you?

Well, probably at this point, the two things that would stress me out the quickest would be having to hurry.

It's, "Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry." And, um, but you know, I'm the one that has to slow down.

I think that's a large part of all of us making progress this weekend, is to realize we have to take the responsibility for where we're at.

[audience applauding] Yeah, go ahead.

'Cause, you know, we always love to blame it on our circumstances or blame it on other people, and Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, you'll know the truth." But it's not the truth about somebody else, it's, he wants to teach us truths about ourselves, and we have to become accountable.

That and noise.

I have 12 grandchildren, Dave and I, and 12 great-grandchildren.

She doesn't have her hearing aid in.

We have a lot of little changes that are barely noticeable in our life.

But, you know, age is one of them.

It's like every day you're getting a day older.

And then those days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and months turn into years and then years turn into more years and more years.

And then someday you look at yourself and you think, wait a minute.

Everything that used to be up here fell down there.

her.

[laughs]

We have a lot of little changes that are barely noticeable in our life, but you know, age is one of them.

It's like every day you're getting a day older, and then those days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, and months turn into years, and then years turn into more years and more years.

And then someday you look at yourself and you think, "Wait a minute.

Everything that used to be up here fell down here."

Mm-hmm

... that, um, because you allow these things to happen." And then I w- there's several scriptures, but I would write them down.

"God is light, and in Him there is no darkness." Now, I had to sit with that for months to go, until I got it into my heart.

Mm-hmm.

Or I would, uh...

One thing I found out with Dave, for example, that, that relates, we were on the golf course one day, and he was playing bad golf.

And I, uh, I know it's a sur- surprise, but he was playing bad golf.

And so I put my hand on his back and was patting him, and, you know, he took my hand and pushed it away.

He said, "Don't do that."

Mm.

I only felt good about myself if everybody was approving or if I had done a good job.

Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching.

I tell you what, I had a lot of one-sided relationships in my life, people who used me.

They took and put nothing back.

And about five years ago, I got tired of that, and I thought, "I'm either gonna have real friends or I'm not gonna have any." Right.

[applause] I'm not gonna ha- I'm not gonna hang out with takers.

[cheering] Woo.

[applause] I'm not gonna hang out with users.

Now, here she is.

All right, the search for self-worth.

You know, everybody wants to know that they matter.

Everybody.

And a lot of people feel they don't matter.

They feel like they don't have any purpose.

They don't know what their purpose is.

Yeah.

[laughs]

He's just like, "God knows, and He'll take care of it.

I'm casting my care." And I've gotten there.

It's taken me 40 years, but I've...

I have a breakdown every once in a while, but I'm, I'm doing good.

You know, in 1 Corinthians 13, the Bible says that we know in part.

We know in part.

[laughs]

Amen.

If you don't mean it.

Because God is on a serious mission, and He wants you, and He wants all of you.

He doesn't just want a Sunday morning you.

He wants all of you.

In Him we live and move and have our being.

I'm liking that scripture more and more and more the more I think about it.

Yeah

Amen.

As he gave praise and glory to God.

Now, praise is much more than just singing a song that you look at on the overhead.

Praise, actually, if you study the word, means a narrative or a tale.

It's, it's telling a story or remembering something that reminds you of the power of God and the goodness of God in your life.

So every situation that you're in, when doubt is coming against you, one of the things that you have to do if you're gonna defeat the doubt, is you have to not just think about the problem you have, but you have to remember other victories that you've had in the past.

Now, is there anybody here that can think of anything at all that God has ever done for you?

Yeah.

[laughs]

And Jesus, I'm sure, was disappointed, but there's no evidence that he even got angry at him.

He called Judas friend, [laughs] knowing what he was gonna do.

Even after Peter denied him, kind of had a momentary backslide and started using bad language and all kinds of stuff to prove that he wasn't with Jesus.

Even after all that Peter did, when Jesus arose from the dead as he promised, and Mary saw him, he said, "Go and tell my disciples and Peter." I think it's interesting that he specifically mentioned Peter by name, almost like, "And make sure you let Peter know that I'm not mad at him.

Go and tell my disciples and Peter that he is risen." Well, how could he do that? Sure, he was disappointed, but you see, when you have your expectation in, in, in God and not people, you may get disappointed, but you won't get devastated.

[clapping]

Our sins can be forgiven.