The Cross Before the Crown – Part 1

This program is supported by you, our viewers and our partners. Our pain is turned into power. When we can endure trials, continue trusting God and keep a good attitude. I'm Joyce Meyer and I believe that God can heal you everywhere you hurt. Hi friends, welcome to Enjoying Everyday Life. Today, Joyce shares a valuable reminder that God often uses life's challenges for our benefit. He works in ways we don't always see coming. Here's an example. Recently, our outreach arm, hand of hope, dedicated fresh water wells in nine villages in Tanzania, Africa. In a dry land where people were once desperate for clean water, people were so changed through this gift that one thousand six hundred and eight people gave their lives to Christ. One seventy year old villager who had walked miles every day collecting water since she was five years old shared this with us. She says collecting water has taken much of my life. But now that burden is gone and my grandchildren won't suffer like I did. You told us about Jesus and now he lives in our hearts. Today, our lives are changed. Wow, stories like this remind us that even in the hardest seasons through the hard things that can just be so difficult at the time, they can lead to something beautiful because that's how God works. He has a good plan. He leads to lives being transformed, hearts renewed and hope restored and God can use your difficulties for good too. And that's exactly what Joyce is going to talk about today. Here she is. Do you know the Bible says that there are five crowns that will be waiting for us when we leave the earth, five crowns. Now, there are things we need to do to make sure that we get these crowns. And I'm going to tell you what they are. The crown of life, James 112 says, "Blessed happy to be invid is the man who is patient under trial." This is your part, patient under trial. And patients, by the way, is not just waiting. It's how you behave while you wait. And stands up under temptation. It sounds to me like we should not be people that give up easily. We're a two-endurer and be steadfast. The world is full of problems and the enemy does come against us. Sometimes God allows it for our betterment only. We don't realize when we're going through it that is going to make us better. I've never had anybody come and ask me to pray for them that they could endure their problem with a good attitude. Everybody always wants it to go away. But if you really think back, most of your spiritual growth probably came during hard times. Maybe you didn't even feel it while you were going through it. But when you made it through it, you were a different person than what you were when you went in. And that's exactly why the Bible tells us to rejoice in trials. When he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive the victor's crown of life, who loves him. So that's the first thing waiting for you. The imperishable crown. 1 Corinthians 9, 24, and 25. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run their very best to win, but only one receives the prize? Run your race in such a way that you may seize the prize and make it yours. Now every athlete who goes into training and competes in the games is disciplined, exercises self-control in all things, they do it to win a crown that withers, but we do it to receive an imperishable crown that cannot wither. Amen? Now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to wear five crowns on my head. But I don't about you, but I'm going to give it a good go, huh? The crown of righteousness. 2 Timothy 4, 8. As to what remains henceforth, there is laid up for me the victor's crown of righteousness for being right with God and doing right, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me and recompense me on that great day. Not only to me only, but also to all those who have loved and yearned for and welcomed his appearing in his return. So there's going to be a crown waiting for you who did right even when it was difficult because you knew that you had been made the righteousness of God through Christ. The crown of glory, 1 Peter 5, 4. And then when the chief shepherd is revealed, you will win the conquerors crown of glory. And lastly, the crown of rejoicing. I've heard a lot about rejoicing already here in the church this morning. And I've been thinking a lot about it myself this year. Now, you know, I'm a little bit older than probably most of you are, but I can tell you, Dave and I, in January, we were married 59 years. And in a way, it seems like it's just been a minute. We were thinking about the ministry of the day, reminiscing about, we talk a lot about the early days because they were so hard. And how it seems like it's gone so fast, but yet when you think about each thing that you did, then you can see why it took so long to get to where you are. The crown of rejoicing, we need to enjoy every single day that God gives us every day, even the tough days. We rejoice in the Lord, not in our circumstance. Amen. And I think sometimes we don't think enough about what God has done for us. You take just a few minutes every morning and just think about the fact that you've been redeemed, bought back from the devil with the blood of Christ. And then you have been reconciled. That means your account with God is balanced. Jesus balanced your account. You've been justified, made just as if you've never sinned. Isn't that amazing? I heard a while over there. I'll talk to you. (Applause) We have been sanctified, made holy by the blood of Christ. And all of these things God has given to us and they're in us in our spirit, and we are in the process of working with the Holy Spirit to work them out through us so the world can see the light of Christ still shining. They're given to you as a gift, but you still have to work with the Holy Spirit every day of your life to become more and more like Christ. We're destined to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. God gave me this statement, and I hope you can remember it. Do I need to say it again? You guys are looking very serious. And that's really where you get power. When we can endure trials, continue trusting God through them and keep a good attitude. There we find the God. He's a full man, pastor in Texas, who his wife had cancer and they prayed and prayed and prayed for her, of course, to get well. And she didn't. She went home to be with the Lord. And he said the very first thing he said to God was, "God, please let me do this right." And I thought that was so powerful. God, please let me do this right. Even though he knew he was going to be hurting terribly, he wanted to continue to represent God. The same as he always would. And that really is spiritual maturity. If you want to know what spiritual maturity is, That's what it is. It's growing to the point where when you have a trial, you're going through something you can still be good to other people. You still study your word. You still do your giving. You still keep loving Jesus. Otherwise, we're always on this up and down, what I call it, yo-yo Christianity. We're Christians, this is what everything's good. When it's not, we can turn into another kind of human being. And it takes a long time to learn that. The title on my message today is the cross before the crown. See, all those crowns are waiting for us, but. There are crosses that we bear in life. And the Bible tells us that we're going to have problems. Jesus went to the cross before He wore the crown, but the people tried to put the crown on Him before He went to the cross. And sometimes people will try to put a crown on you because you have a gift that will take you somewhere, but you don't have the character to keep you there once you get there. And that's why we need to listen to God. Amen. And it's so important, even for people in leadership, not to put somebody on a platform just because they have a gift. Everybody that God chose, Paul chose men to help Him serve. He didn't just look for gifts, he looked for character. Moses chose men to help Him. He chose men's character, not just somebody with a gift. And I remember one of the first times I got invited to go speak somewhere was out in California, and been a long time ago because I've been 50 years in ministry now. But I was the first five years I just taught home Bible studies and then God told me to lay those down, behold, I do a new thing. And his new thing was for one year I did nothing. Oh, that was hard. That was one of the hardest years. And the devil told me during that time, he kept telling me I needed to just settle down and be a regular woman. Why don't you just act normal like other women and forget all this preaching, teaching, casting out devils. And so I had a neighbor that was as close as I knew to a normal woman. She did wallpapers, she painted, she mowed the grass. I couldn't even start the lawnmower. She had, she grew tomatoes and canned tomatoes. And I thought, why would you want to canned tomatoes when you can go buy them three cans for a dollar? I didn't understand that. All that work. And she made her family's clothes. And so she talked me into buying a sewing machine and take sewing lessons. And I tried to make my family some clothes. Have you ever tried to be like somebody else because you thought that's what you were supposed to be doing? There's something wrong with me I need to be like you. Now you need to be yourself because everybody else is already taken and God's not going to help you be somebody else. And so I tried during that year, I took sewing lessons. They'll buy the sewing machine. Made Dave of shirt and a pair of pants and pair of shorts. And when I got done, the pockets on the shorts were longer than the shorts. I wish I would have kept those shorts. I don't know why in the world we got rid of those. They would have been such a good joke. Amen. I made him a shirt and I hemmed the sleeves going up instead of under. So and I hated that sewing machine. So here I am sitting in the basement, sewing, hating every minute of it, just because the devil is telling me that I need to be a regular normal woman. You know what a regular woman is? It's whoever you are. We don't all have to be alike. When we planted tomatoes, we were going to can tomatoes and right before they were, we were going to harvest them the next day in my neighborhood. We had our canning jars, we had everything. We were ready to roll. And overnight these big black bugs came in and ate big holes in my tomatoes. And she only lived like maybe far from here to over there from me and they didn't touch her tomatoes. And I got really upset. And I went to God and I said, I pray over my tomatoes. She probably didn't even pray over hers. What? And he said, I never called you to grow tomatoes. Therefore I have no obligation to protect your tomatoes. (congregation applauding) Amen. God is not going to help you do something you're not called to do. So whatever it is, you feel that you should be doing, that's what you should do, but I'm here to give you, I guess a little bit of bad news today. It's going to take a lot longer than you think. Oh, we all want to be promoted so fast. And I made myself so miserable because I thought, when God spoke to me, that I was going to go all over the world and teach His word, I thought surely the next day I'd be on the road. And it was, well, when I went on television daily, started going on all kinds of foreign TV, we're on 115 languages. That's when I started teaching the word all over the world, but I was 50 when I went on TV. 50. Now some people would think at 50, they were too old to start something new. But I had a new project on getting started right now. You know, you always, you have to have a purpose. You cannot be happy if you don't have a purpose. Everyone needs a purpose and it needs to be something besides trying to make yourself happy. Matter of fact, you'll never be happy till you learn to live to make other people happy. I said, you'll never be happy until you learn to live to make other people happy. So of Jesus and John 6, 15, it says, then Jesus knowing that they meant to come and seize Him, that they might make Him king with Jew again to the hillside by Himself. They had witnessed Him feed 5,000 people with just a little bit to start with. And so they got all excited and wanted to make Him king. But He knew it wasn't the right time. And so He slipped away off into the mountains to pray. He knew He had to wait for God's timing. As a first speaking engagement, I had was out in California and I remember a promoter coming to me. And He said, tell me how good He thought I was and all that. He's like, if you sign with me to be your manager, I can have you speak in all over the US in just a few months. Well, you have no idea how bad I wanted to say yes. They're like, I was ready to go. Normal or not, I was ready to go. And, but I knew God didn't want me to do that. I knew that if God didn't put me there, then I couldn't keep myself there. You say where God puts you, He'll keep you. But if you put yourself, won't be long and you'll wear yourself out. And so I told Him, no, I wasn't interested. I was waiting on God because the Bible says that truth, promotion only comes from God. Doesn't come from anywhere else. It only comes from God. And John chapter three, it says that the only gifts that we can really get are the ones that come from heaven. John's disciples were upset and jealous because more people were flocking to Jesus than to John. And they went to John complaining, well, you know, he's, but all of our people are flocking to him and John said, I must grow less and he must grow more. You see, he knew what he was called to do and what he wasn't called to do and he wasn't Jesus. He was the forerunner to Jesus. And then he told them, no gift comes from anywhere but heaven, you must be content. Boy is that ever a word. You must be content with the gift that God gives you. You must be content. As you know, there's an awful lot of Christians that aren't content. They're always wanting something else. They don't even know what they want, but they're wanting something else. Another one, a bigger one, a better one. If you're in ministry, more people become to your meetings, more people, more people, more people. No matter how many people you get, you want more people. And God wants us to be content. It's an honor to God if we can be content. Amen? I want you to think about that. Stop wanting something all the time. When are we going to get happy with what God has given us? Now, you can ask God for more, but you know, I have to live on top of it and just camp on top of it. Just tell God this is something I think I'd like if it's your will. And then you go ahead and be happy right where you're at. Be faithful to whatever it is you're called to be doing. That's why my husband has been okay with me doing what I'm doing and him doing what he's doing and he's done a lot. That's really helped the ministry has just been behind the scenes and so everybody gives me all the credit. But he said, God told him a long time ago, I've anointed her to do this. You let her do it, do your part, and you'll always be happy. If you don't have to be jealous of somebody else, you don't have to want what somebody else has. If you want to sing on the platform and you sit out there every week and you're jealous of who's up here, you're never going to get promoted. You might have a gift, but the fact that you're jealous of these people means you don't have the character yet. And guess what? Another trip around the mountain. A little more growing to do. See, God has to have people that are mature enough that when they get promoted, because there's honor that comes with that, there's power that comes with that, that they won't get prideful. One person over here that. You see, I'll just be honest with you. I go out pretty much anywhere I go, somebody recognizes me. I mean, I've had people in the bathroom with me saying, can I take your picture? I'm like, would it be okay if I come out of the stall first? When I was much younger in ministry, that would happen. I'd feel just a little puffed up. And so then it wouldn't happen again for a long, long time. And then it would happen again. A pretty soon-learned is not even really me that they like. They like the Jesus in me. And I can tell you with an honest heart that none of this puffs me up anymore. I've arrived and been here a long time, so you can't say anything about me that's going to disturb me. And you can't make on over me enough to disturb me. I'm God servant. I'm 83. I could sit and retire. But I. Why in the world would you want retire when you can still have enough energy to do this? Yeah, I get tired of it than I used to, but I told God, whatever energy I've got, you're getting it. Well, we're all getting older every day, but you know what? Age is just a number. Old is the mindset. I wish that someone would have told me when I was 20 or 30, the things that I'm trying to tell you now. You see, early on, my mode was to get as much done as I possibly could. Nobody was going to tell me you can't handle life. Until one day, I was forced to slow down and rest. This go-go mentality was not sustainable. And it was taking a toll on my body and threatening how many years I had left. That's why I'm happy to share with you what I've learned in my book. How to age without getting old. I share with you some things that I've gone through personally and the things I believe I could have done that would have helped me to avoid some of those painful experiences. How to age without getting old is available to you today for a gift of any amount. Contact us at 1-800-331-8000 or visit us online at joysmire.org. Getting older doesn't have to be a downer or a dread what's ahead mindset. In fact, it can be something that you look forward to. Find joy for the future by taking these steps to a stronger you. There's one thing about getting older folks you know more. And we all say, "Oh, if I could just be young again and know what I know now." Now you know this isn't just a book for someone that is 65 or 70 years old. I want to share with you practical ways to live this incredible life that God has given us at all ages. We can change the way we think about getting older. You may not be able to do all the things you used to do but you can still do something. And equipping yourself with knowledge now can help you put effective practices into place as you age into your lighter years. I believe each season of your life can be absolutely wonderful. Receive how to age without getting old for your gift of any amount and join the support of our partners to make a real difference around the world, meeting physical and spiritual needs as well as spreading the gospel. Call us at 1-800-331-8000 or visit us at joysmire.org. The aging process is a normal part of life. And developing the right attitude toward early in life will benefit you later. Again, call us today at 1-800-331-8000 or visit us online at joysmire.org. Our stories, they matter. Your gifts, your passions, even your corkiness. They were designed with intention. He can use every twist and turn of your journey to create something new. Out of brokenness, beauty, out of struggle, a life transformed. Join us for the 20-26 Love Life Women's Conference and discover how God can bring transformation to your story. With Joyce and her guests, Christine Kane, Lisa Harper, and worship with Natalie Grant and Hope Darsd. October 22nd through the 24th in Tampa, Florida. Register today and say, go to joysmire.org/lovelife. Register now. We hope you enjoyed today's program. We are so grateful to our Joyce and my ministry's partners who make this and all we do possible, including sharing God's Word and offering help to people in need all over the world. This program is supported by you, our viewers and our partners.