Just A Little Bit I Joyce Meyers I Social Dallas

Before we jump into today's message, we wanted to take just a moment and personally thank you for being a part of our social global family. - Yes, we are standing in the future home of social Dallas. Demolition has officially started, and every day we're getting closer to making the space a place where thousands of people will encounter Jesus for years to come. - And if these messages have encouraged you, strengthen your faith, or helped you grow in any way, would you partner with us? Your generosity helps us continue sharing messages like the one you're about to watch, and helps us build a permanent home when lives will be changed forever. - To support the Amos Home Campaign, visit socialdallas.com/give and select Amos Home in the Giving Options, or you can text the word "give" to 469-715-3755. - Whether it's a one-time gift or becoming a recurring partner, every gift makes impact, and every dollar moves dirt. - Thank you for believing in what God is doing through social Dallas. - Here's today's message. - We do have another guest in the room, and personally, this woman has impacted my life. This woman has impacted my life. Beyond words, she's a hero.

She mothers from afar, people all over the world. She's gone first in many ways, and paved the way for so many of us. And when I think of a word, if I had to summarize, Mama Joyce, I would say faithful. She's been faithful. She's been consistent. Anyone can start anything for a couple of years, but I just leaned over and asked, "How many years have you been doing your conference?" Oh, for 45 years. And she still loves Jesus, and she still has character, and she still has integrity, and she's still showing up tonight's like tonight. What? But she told me, "I don't have a choice, I want a son, man." So open up your hearts tonight to receive from a hero, a legend in the faith. I know that God and heaven, they're leaned in, and they're ready. I know that I am. So can we welcome Mama Joyce to the States? (audience cheering) (upbeat music) Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Well, you guys are pretty stirred up. (audience cheering) I won't have to work as hard to get you stirred up 'cause you're already there.

Father, I pray that everything that comes out of my mouth, would be a blessing to someone in this room, that the words I speak tonight will encourage, edify, correct. We wanna grow and be just like Jesus. I pray that every person will get something in Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated. (audience applauding) Well, I am Joyce Meyer. (audience cheering) Mama Joyce is a lot of people call me. I feel like everybody's mother. I've been around so long. (audience laughing) And you know, when I started doing this, I maybe knew two other women that were preaching. And it wasn't real popular back. When I started, I actually got asked to leave my church, lost my friends, and everybody thought I'd go and start craving mad. But you know, when God really puts something in your heart, you can't just not do it because a bunch of people don't want you to do it. You cannot be a God pleaser and a people pleaser. (audience chattering) I wanna say that again, 'cause somebody needs to hear that. You cannot be a God pleaser and a people pleaser. You have to make your mind up which it's gonna be.

And if you dare to try to do anything for God, the devil will use people many times. would have your back to be the ones to hurt you. But you know what I learned from people hurting me was not to hurt other people. I learned how bad it felt. So my husband and I, Dave, who's over there wave, he don't like it when I do this. [CHEERING] In January, we'll be married 60 years. [CHEERING] 60 years. And I'm 83. He's 86. [CHUCKLES] [CHEERING] See, when you work for God, you hold together better. [CHUCKLING] We have four grown children, two son-in-law's, two daughter-in-law's, 12 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and more coming. And I love what I'm doing. I've been teaching the word for 50 years. And this year will be our 44th Women's Conference. And it's in Tampa. If anybody wants to run over or down or up wherever Tampa's at, you're welcome to call the office and come on over and join us. I said, I'd even let Pastor Robert in. And very few men get in.

[CHEERING] Anyway, I love you. I love all the people that I teach. And I'm not just saying that just to have something to say. I really-- I have a special connection with the people that I teach. And I want to share something with you tonight that I think is urgent for the hour that we live in. I believe that too many Christians are compromising too much. And they may not even realize they're doing it. Because you know what happens? If you don't keep going forward, you will begin to just kind of drift backwards. You don't hardly feel it when you're drifting. And I'm certainly not accusing anybody of anything, but I'm going to just talk to you like we all need this. And if you don't need it, I do. So I'll talk to myself. Right after we started our ministry, I went to the drugstore one day, and I was-- I left, and I was walking across the sidewalk. And there was some dirt there, and I looked down. There was a penny. And I thought I was just a penny out, most with that. And God stopped me. And he said, if you pick up pennies, someday you'll be very successful. Well, I knew that it wasn't about the penny. I knew God was telling me, you've got to pay attention to little things.

Because it is the little foxes that spoil the vine. You see, it's easy in here to be thankful. There's nothing to complain about in here. We all have a church face, and we don't dare come to church without it. Amen? And we love each other with the love of the Lord. Whatever that is. But the key is, is what do we do behind closed doors? The key is, what do we do when nobody's looking? Do we pick up the penny? Or do we just say, oh, it's just a little bit? And that's the title of my message tonight, just a little bit. But I brought two messages to watch out. Let me tell you, read your story first. This is by a woman named Annette Nay. It's called Brownies with a Difference. Many parents are working hard to explain to their children in Keynes, why some video games, music, movies, books, and magazines are not acceptable material for them to see or bring into their home. One parent came up with an original idea that was hard to refute. He listened to all the reasons his children gave for wanting to see a particular PG-13 movie. It had their favorite actors, everyone else was doing it. And it was only rated PG-13 because of the suggestion of sex. They never really showed anything. The language was pretty good.

Down it took the Lord's name in vain three times in the whole movie. The video effects were fabulous and the plot was action-packed. Yes, there was that one scene where a building blew up and a bunch of people got killed. But you know, it was just the normal stuff. It wasn't very bad. Even with all these explanations for the rating the father wouldn't give in. He didn't even give them a satisfying explanation for saying no, he just said no. And you know, sometimes God just says no. And I remember one time wanting to see a certain movie that was out and everybody I knew was going to see it. My pastor and his wife were going to see it and God just said no, it had just a little bit of this and just a little bit of that and just a little bit of something else. And so I was a little bit miffed. It's like, well, if everybody else can go see it why can't I? And this is what the Lord said to me. He said, look, Joyce, you've asked me for a lot. Do you want it or not? See to whom much is given, much is required. And I'm not standing here tonight or on television around the world because I just wished that I could do it.

This part is the very smallest part of everything I have to do, to do this part. A little later that evening, the same father asked his teens if they would like some brownies he had prepared. He explained that he had taken the favorite family recipe and added something new. And they asked what it was and he calmly replied, I have added a special ingredient, just a teaspoonful of dog poop. He said, it's just a little bit, just a little bit. All the other ingredients are gourmet quality. I baked them so carefully at the precise temperature for the exact time. I'm sure these brownies will be superb, even with all the explanations of the perfect attributes of the brownies. The teens would not try one. Not one of them would even try one. Well, I think you get the point of where I'm going, right? Yeah. The minute we start thinking that a little bit doesn't matter, we're on our way somewhere where we don't want to go. And there's a lot of wonderful churches and a lot of wonderful Christians, but... I mean, I have people kind of regularly. I mean, I said to somebody the other day, she was talking about this man like a husband, and I said, I said, are you guys married? And she said, no, we haven't gotten around to that yet. But they go to church every Sunday.

And see, when we stand before Jesus, which we all will, by the way, the Bible says that we will all stand before God and give an account of our life. God's only going to require you to answer for you. Not anybody else. You know how many people do that today and don't even see a thing wrong with it? I mean, I'm a minister. She knew that. She didn't mind telling me. I mean, I can remember a time at least if you were doing that, you certainly wouldn't have told your preacher. But she wasn't embarrassed at all to tell me that. And I'll tell you, I can stand up. I mean, I am really heartfelt concerned. And I feel like God has given me a mission to really help people to understand that we are not playing games here. I mean, the devil is real, and he's alive on planet Earth. And the Bible says, "Do not give him a foothold," because if you give him a foothold, he's got to take a stronghold. You said, "Well, the Bible says we can rebuke the devil and he'll have to flee." No, it doesn't say that. In James 4.7, it says, "Be obedient to God, rebuke the devil, and he will flee." Come on, you have no power. I have no power to rebuke the devil if I'm not being obedient to God.

And, you know, I could have came in here tonight and just preached a message that would have made you scream and holler all the way home. But Monday, you wouldn't have been any different. And, see, I'm determined, if I'm going to do this at 83, I'm sure not going to waste my time, amen? And so I want you to remember that whoever else is not seeing you, God does, all the time in everything. I wish we had a little more holiness preaching like they used to have years ago. A little more hell-firing brimstone, maybe. Well, Joyce, this is a different era. And we just--everything's a little more casual now. Well, that's a truth. It sure is. And, you know, with the onslaught of everything becoming casual a few years ago, doesn't matter how you dress, when you go to work, doesn't matter how you dress, when you go to church, we're just casual. We get a casual attitude toward God. He's my buddy. Yeah, well, he is also to be reverently feared, amen? Yes, God is your friend, but he is also your God. And we all say Jesus is coming soon. I don't know how soon that soon will be, but we're sooner than we were yesterday or the day before. And I feel like every day we're getting sooner and sooner. And he says he'll come like a thief in the night

when you least expect it. Watch and pray. Open your eyes and see the direction the world is going in. And don't drift along with them, thinking because it's just a little bit that it won't hurt. I think there are some things that God calls sin that we have let become acceptable sins, things that we don't even look at as sin anymore. For example, I've got a bunch. [LAUGHTER] And that beautiful pastor Taylor made a mistake. She said, you can preach as long as you want to. [LAUGHTER] But I won't keep you here all night. I'll get my point across. I can tell when you've had enough that if I say anything else, I'm going to lose you. How about jealousy and envy? You jealous of anybody in your life? Maybe you have a sibling that you're jealous of, because you were always a little fluffy and they were really skinny. Or they were just real smart. And you just had to work as hard as you could to get seized. Or they were real athletic. you have a family member that you're jealous of you need to get before God and get it straightened out because God is God and he can do whatever he wants to do and he can give people whatever he wants them to have and it's none of our business. You know when John the Baptist of course had been baptizing and then when Jesus came along, him and his disciples were baptizing a few people and

John's disciples went to John a little bit afraid I guess that Jesus was going to get ahead of them and he said that that man that you said was the Lamb of God they're baptizing and more people are flocking to them now than they're coming to us. Come on you know what if you're what if you're a pastor and you've been faithful in your area for 15 years and you've got 200 people and somebody comes along that you don't know they don't even know you're there but a mile away they start a church and in three months they've got a thousand people. How are you going to feel about that? What are you going to say to God about that? How are you going to treat him? What are you going to say about him? Because see when we get jealous we get judgmental and it's amazing how many people judge somebody and they know nothing at all about them or where they've come from or what they've been through and God wants us to love each other. Love is the central theme of the Bible. People ask me sometimes what do you want to be remembered for? A woman that loved God and loved people and Jesus said if you love me you will obey me. Amen? You said well Joyce there's nobody jealous in the church. Let's just say you're on the worship team. A lot of people on the worship team and the worship leader husband got a job out of town and they're moving so now they're going to need to be a new worship leader. Well I wonder how many people on the worship team think it ought to be them but only one person can get it. So what do you do when God doesn't pick you? Hm? What we should do is congratulate them and if there's anything I can do to help you let me know. Now I want you to listen to what I'm going to say. Actually my husband said this first several years ago and he said he felt like it was a word from God. You are never going to get yours until you stop being jealous of the people who have what you want that you haven't gotten yet. That's worth writing down. You're never going to get yours until you can be happy for the person who has what you want that God hasn't given you yet. A delay is not a denial and many times God will not give you what you want but he'll test you first by giving it to somebody when I was stupid which I'm not stupid anymore thank God. Well when I was stupid and I first got into learning what faith was

I mean all I did was believe God for something for myself and one of the things I was believing God for which is really dumb was a fur coat. 'Cause a lot of ladies in the church were wearing fur coats back then. I remember we're talking 45 years ago. And I prayed for that fur coat. Now, the girl that lived next door to me, we went to church together and I loved her with the love of the Lord. (congregation laughing) Okay. (congregation laughing) I just really am glad that you didn't do that tonight. I don't like it. You're somebody that you don't even know and probably wouldn't do anything for them if they ask you to. I love you with the love of the Lord. (congregation laughing) Well, dear God, if we all loved each other with the love of the Lord, the world would already be one. (congregation laughing) And we'd be home with Jesus. Amen. One day she rang the doorbell at this big box and she said, "Wait until you see what God gave me." And it was my coat. (congregation laughing) And I honestly thought the angel

has delivered it to the wrong house. (congregation laughing) There is no way God gave that to her. This is what I thought. She is not nearly as spiritual as I am. (congregation laughing) She this and that and I'm fasting and praying and, you know. (congregation laughing) Well, you know why God gave it to her? To pull an attitude out of me (congregation laughing) and make me look at it. (congregation laughing) Because I was, "Oh, praise God." (congregation laughing) Thank you, Jesus. Oh, I'm so happy for you. And inside I'm thinking, "God, if you don't get her out of my house, I am gonna have a fit." (congregation laughing) And she left and I just like, I was so mad. (congregation laughing) And the stuff, the jealousy, the attitude. See, that's what God wants us to deal with. (congregation clapping) Not praying for the next big thing. God wants to bless you. He wants to give you things. Delight yourself in the Lord

and He will give you the desires of your heart. It's not that we can never ask God for anything that we want, but we don't need to camp there and do nothing but that. And I'm telling you, just like kids get tested, they get final exams before they're promoted to the next grade. Some of you, the stuff that you're going through right now that doesn't make any sense to you at all is a test. (congregation clapping) (congregation laughing) I'll keep it up to you, agree with me. (congregation laughing) It's not just, well the devil's just after me. Well, did you open a door and invite him in? (congregation laughing) Come on, who are you mad at? The Bible says, if you don't forgive people, you give the devil a foothold in your life. (congregation laughing) Oh, we need to get good at forgiveness. - Yes, yes, thank you. - I'm at the point now where, while you're still offending me, I can forgive you. (congregation laughing) Because I'm not gonna take that poison anymore. I swallowed it for years and years and years. I hated my father who sexually abused me for a long time after I was in ministry. And I didn't even think it would be reasonable

for God to ask me to forgive him. And see, people think, well, you just don't know what they did. (congregation laughing) (congregation clapping) But I say to you that are listening now to me in order to heed, make it a practice to, make it a practice to love your enemies. Treat well, do good to, act nobly toward those who, of those who curse you, implore God's blessings upon them who abuse you, who revile reproach disparage and high-handedly misuse you. So what do you think about that? I mean, just reading that can make you sick. Pray for the happiness of those who abuse you and curse you and say the thing that we have not figured out. Well I've figured some of it out by now, but I've been doing this a long time. And I did it all the wrong way before I did it the right way. Romans 12-21, one of the most powerful verses in the whole Bible, we overcome evil with good. No, you're not happy enough about that. How can you get rid of the devil? Just go be good to somebody. Did you hear me? It's very simple. I mean, the devil comes after me, but I don't pay too much attention to him anymore because I already know that I've got the victory. I know he can't stand it if I love people. So if he gets after me good and hard, I'll go give somebody something. And probably if I ask, and I don't, I'm only saying this because of my years of experience. Probably at least 70% of the people in here right now are mad at somebody.

All those little giggles mean something, you know that, don't you? I love to. Well, well Joyce, you don't know what, it doesn't matter what they did to you. It just doesn't matter because you're only hurting yourself if you say mad at them. And if you do, you hurt your prayer wife because the Bible says you can ask God for anything. And if you believe you will get it, doesn't say when you'll get it, says you will get it. When you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, let it drop, leave it, let it go, that your father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Now if you want to use your faith for something big, use it to live in this world and not stay angry and bitter or be jealous of what other people have. You know, I've realized from study that everybody gets something but nobody gets everything. For example, I have great skin. But my hair, not so much, it's cute but you don't know how long I have to work on it. I mean, I probably got a pound of hairspray on it just to get it to do this. My hair is soft. I mean, it just seems like the older I get, the softer it gets. So I got good skin, but my hair is a bit of a problem. Well, if we look at Jacob in the Bible when he went to his Uncle Laban's house and when he laid eyes on Rachel, oh, she was beautiful and she had a fine figure. And he wanted her. And so he made a deal with Laban. I'll work for you for seven years if you'll give me Rachel as my wife. Leah had weak eyes, that was a really nice way of saying she was ugly, shed weak eyes, but Rachel was beautiful and well-shaped. She must have really been a knock out. Well, you probably know the story, but Laban tricked him, and after the wedding they got him drunk, and he woke up the next morning and he had Leah in his bed. Well, Leah had weak eyes, but she could have children. Rachel was beautiful, but she was barren. Everybody gets something, but nobody gets everything. Amen. Don't be jealous of what somebody else has got. If you

think they're better looking than you, don't be jealous. If they've got more money than you, don't be jealous, because jealousy rots the bones. That's what the Bible says. Maybe jealous people get arthritis more than other people, I don't know. Or how about this? God tells Noah to build an ark. Nobody knew what rain was. And so he obediently built this three-level ark, and I can't even imagine how much fun people made of him and thought he was crazy and a lunatic. And sure enough, the earth flooded, and when the waters finally receded and the ground got dry, God made a covenant with him. He said, "I promise you that I will never flood the earth again completely." And he sealed it his covenant with a rainbow. How many of you could use a rainbow day? Three people up there in the top, that one. Come on, I'm the one that's 83. You ought to be able to... Pastor Taylor asked me tonight. She said, "How do you do this? How do you feel? Do you feel okay?" And to be honest, I was pretty tired today because I was at TV and all day yesterday. But you know what? When I get in the zone where God has put me, I feel like I could fly all over this building. And then I'll probably be tired when I get done. And tomorrow I'll be. But you know what? It's worth it to me. It is worth it to me to spend the rest of my life. And I will do this as long as I can stand up. And even if I can't stand up, they might lay me down. I could still talk. I'm determined to finish what God has given me to do. So now I got a rainbow. We still love seeing that rainbow today. Well, 292 years later, Abram comes along. And God asks him to do some really tough things. Leave your family. Leave your father's house. Leave everything you're familiar with. And go to a place that I will show you. Now, who would buy into that? I'm like, "You show me." And then I'll go. He leaves everything and just... Well, I tell you, when God called David and I into ministry, we were kind of like that. I mean, I had a 12th grade education, a very unusual voice. Nobody to help us. No, we didn't have a clue what to do. People asked me all the time, "How did you do all this?" I got one thing to say. We followed the leadership of the Holy Spirit by two little kids. (applause) My memoir is coming out September the 15th. (audience cheering) It's called "My Battle Ground." And I tell the whole story with details

about my sexual abuse from my dad. And my two uncles and my grandfather and had a weird family. Very dysfunctional. My mother knew what my dad was doing, but she was too weak to do anything about it. Just scared, scared, stupid of my dad. And I was scared of him. Anyway, if you wanna know the story, you buy the book. (audience laughing) But I talk about how, when God called me into ministry and how we got from there to here. And yesterday I was at TBN and Matt Crouch read the book before he interviewed me and he said, you know what I love about this book? He said, about this much of it is your testimony from your abuse. And he said, most people say I went through all this, I received Jesus, and now everything is wonderful. He said, but you got this much of the book that tells the true story of what you had to go through to get through and to get real soul healing. Say, we don't need a bunch of wounded healers. (audience applauding) You gotta get yourself straightened out before you can help anybody else. Amen? And you're still with me, right? So, Abraham obeys God,

does everything that God tells him to. And then God said, I'm gonna make a covenant with you and I'm gonna bless you and all the earth is gonna be blessed through you and anybody that blesses you, I'll bless them. And this is what you must do to seal the covenant. You have to circumcise yourself and every male. Not, he probably, even though I'd been 292 years later, he probably had heard about the rainbow. (audience laughing) Now, I might have said, why did he get a rainbow and I get a circumcision? (audience laughing) Don't you ever feel like that? Everybody else was getting rainbows and you're getting a circumcision. (audience laughing) You're going through something that feels like it's gonna pull your guts out and you don't understand it because you're trying to be just as good as you can be. Abraham, the Bible says he was a righteous man. I think Abraham deserved a rainbow personally. I looked up, I don't know if they'll ever let me come back or not. (audience laughing) I looked up, what does a circumcision feel like if there's no anesthesia? (audience laughing) Because they didn't have no numbing stuff back then.

It says it causes acute, severe, and extreme pain. Now, why would God do that to Abraham? Beats me, but I bet he didn't get to be jealous of Noah. (audience laughing) And the Bible's full of situations like this. All of David's brothers, it's not him, it's not him, it's not him, it's not him. And then it turned out to be the one they didn't even consider enough to bring him in for the prophet to look at him. And they had to stand there and watch David be anointed while they watched. But you know what, David was anointed 20 years before he wore the crown. Did you hear what I said? Some of you are probably so anointed. [BLANK_AUDIO] you can just taste it. And you don't understand why it's not happening now. It's not time. There's still some stuff God's gotta work out. We have to trust God's timing on things. But, you know, these are not just stories, these were real people and you have to, they had emotions and feelings and thoughts, just like we do. Joseph was his daddy's favorite. He was the baby. I have three older children, and then when the youngest one was 10, we decided to have a baby.

Well, actually God directed us to have a baby. And that baby is now running the ministry. (audience applauds) It was hard for my kids because they felt like he got things that they never got. Well, we didn't have two pennies to rub together and we had the other three. At the time he came along, we were able to do more for him. And yes, he is my baby. And yes, I love him. And yes, he can talk me into almost anything. But all my kids are not hurting. Trust me. And it's so silly. Joseph's brothers were jealous of him because of a situation just like I just described. He got the beautiful colored coat. For those 20 years, a mad king tried to kill him and he had to hide in caves. Oh yeah, he got to be king eventually. But he paid the price. I can tell you, I've paid the price to stand here. Amen. (audience applauds) Nobody is more surprised than me at what God's done in my life. It is absolutely 100% true that God uses the weak and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Because in the natural, I'm just not qualified to do this.

But yet, I preach to millions of people every day. Our television program is broadcast in 114 languages around the world. God's letting me reach a lot of people. Are you guys up here 'cause I'm supposed to be quitting? (audience laughs) 'Cause I'm not ready to quit just yet. (audience applauds) But you can stay here if you want. Okay. (audience laughs) Okay now, I got to tell you a few more of these just a little bit plans. (audience laughs) I'm so glad she told me to take my time. (audience laughs) All right, here's a big, big, big, no, no. Not keeping your word. You know what that is? That's lying. If you tell somebody, I'll call you back this afternoon. Oh, we're hitting home now. (audience laughs) Hey, I'll give you a call next week and we'll go to lunch. You know more intend to go to lunch with them than a man in a moon. You don't even like 'em. (audience laughs) How many can think of something

that you've lied about recently? (audience laughs) Or you make a commitment to, I don't know, give a certain amount of money to the building fund here. Well, God expects you to do what you said you were going to do. And listen, the Bible says, And what that means is if you give your word on something, even if it costs you or it hurts you to do it and follow through, you still have to do it. Give you an example. We're in Florida, ministering, really like the pastors. I said one day without, you know, I just said, do you ever just say, you don't even think about what you're saying, it just sounds. So I said, hey, you guys need to come to St. Louis sometime and spend some time with us and we'll take you to see all the sites and eat at some good restaurants. And so two or three months went by in the past, they're calling me and he said, well, we're ready to come. (audience laughs) I said, where are you going? (audience laughs) He said, well, you know, you invited us to come to St. Louis and spend some time with you and I went, oh God. (audience laughs) How can I get out of this? (audience laughs)

I didn't want them to come. (audience laughs) I didn't have time to entertain them for a week. And so I said, okay, well. (audience laughs) When I got the phone, I said, God, what am I gonna do? He said, I'll tell you what you're gonna do. You're gonna bring them and you're gonna put them in a nice hotel and you're gonna go to the arch and you're gonna go to the zoo and you're gonna go to first park and you're gonna spend your money taking them out to eat and you're gonna learn not to tell things that you don't intend to do. You're gonna learn to think before you speak. (audience laughs) Amen. (audience applauds) Now, see, this is all fun and it's easy to hear, but they're just little things. But remember back to the penny that I wasn't gonna pick that up, it was just a penny. Let me tell you what, I would dig a penny out of the dirt. If I saw one, I have dug many out of dirt. So it kinda got to be a wink from God. We found pennies everywhere we went. Couple times I found a dime and I thought maybe God was gonna up the ante. (audience laughs) Are you understanding that it's not what you do in here?

It's not how you act when you go to lunch with Pastor Taylor. It's how you act with the people at work, with the people in the grocery store, when they run out of tape and don't have prices on the items. (audience laughs) (audience laughs) How long is this gonna take? (audience laughs) Oh, I just don't have enough time. (audience laughs) Has anybody not heard my grocery card story? (audience laughs) See, I couldn't go to Bible school. I went to the school at the Holy Ghost. (audience laughs) And he taught me so much in the grocery store because I had to go there a lot. And one of the first things he told me, I put my groceries in the car, did what everybody else does, took the cart, propped it against the, kicked the wheels when we started. (audience laughs) And he told me, you can put that back in the space marked off for carts. Well, why should I do that? Everybody else, everybody else leaves, there's out in the parking lot. Well, that's the thing we gotta get through our head. We're not everybody else.

(audience applauds) We are God's personal representatives in the earth. (audience applauds) The amplified by was that he is making his appeal to the world through us. And that we're to go out and be like bright shining stars in the midst of the darkness. And so it took me two years to get to the point where I would put that grocery cart back every time. (audience laughs) I wouldn't have started putting my grocery cart back. Now people all over the world put their grocery cart back. Well, what would you want somebody to do if it was your store? Well they pay people to do this, well they wouldn't have to pay people to do it if everybody did what they were supposed to. Or another thing I did was I'd go in hungry and we were on a very tight budget and I'd get stuff that by the time I got to the last aisle I knew I wasn't going to be able to pay for. And so I'd take them out of my cart and just put them in the aisle where I was at. That's how the lettuce gets in with the cleanser. People like me. And so he started telling me, "Uh-uh, now go put it all back where you got it." Well I got it at seven different places. I don't have time to walk all over the store and put this stuff back. What would you want somebody to do? Doesn't the Bible say something about that? Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? God meant that when he said it. I feel like some of you are fading. I better get finished. Gossip? The Bible says don't even associate with him who talks too freely. Don't even associate with people who talk too freely. Proverbs 2019. Now why is it that if we know something bad about somebody that it is so hard not to want to tell somebody? And then we get spiritual about it. Now I'm only telling you this so you'll pray. Now that makes it really bad. Now we're getting God in the middle of our sin. Wish that we would be so anxious to tell good things about people. Oh did you hear what Mary Jane did? She helped that new girl in the neighborhood clean her whole house last week. Now we wouldn't tell that. Oh and then there's pride which

is the root of all judgment and the root of all sin. And a couple of months ago God corrected me about a situation where I had gotten into pride. And I repented right away but I felt like I need to get some teaching on pride again. The Bible says don't let the foot of pride overtake you. So that means that little demon called pride is chasing you around all the time. So I thought well I'm going to look on YouTube and see what kind of teachings I can find on pride. And so I got on there looking and there wasn't very much and then I got proud because I had more teachings on pride than anybody else did. So if you want some good teachings on pride I got a bunch. Go on I got one last thing I want to talk to you about. Are you ready? Complaining is a sin. It's not just I was just expressing myself. No complaining is a sin. And if you do it enough it will open the door for the devil. You want me to prove that? (crowd murmuring) [ Laughter ] were traveling through the wilderness. They complained and complained and complained until finally God got fed up with it and he let poisonous serpents into the camp and 23,000 of them fell dead in one day and they went to Moses and said, "We have sinned." I thought, "Well, duh." You found that out a little too late, didn't you? And so in the New Testament he's saying, "I'm reminding you of that so you know that you should not tempt the Lord and try His patience and become a trial to Him by critically appraising Him and exploiting His goodness as some of them did and were killed by poisonous serpents. How many things can you go through without complaining? I think it would be a pretty major miracle if we could get through one day without complaining. God doesn't answer complaints, He answers prayers. Amen? God doesn't answer complaints, He answers prayers. Be happy in your faith, rejoice and be gladhearted always. Be unceasing in prayer, praying, perseveringly.

Thank God in everything no matter what the circumstance may be. Be thankful and give thanks for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus. And Philippians 2, 14 and 15 do all things without grumbling and fault finding and complaining against God and questioning and doubting among yourselves. Now these are just a few pennies, it's the little things, just a little bit. Please remember what I've said tonight and start paying more attention to the little things in your life. And instead of majoring on what you can get God to do for you, tell them what you want and then forget it, get it off your mind, let God set you free from yourself. You know in 1 Corinthians 5, 15 it says that Jesus died so that we no longer have to live to and for ourselves, but we could live for Him. The greatest thing that God has set me free from is me. From pity parties and feeling sorry for myself and being jellos when I'm mad when I don't get what I want and having to get in a pity party every time I have a trial or a difficulty in my life, you know what's going on in my life, I got stuff going on, heavy stuff. But I'm doing the best thing I can do. I'm here doing what God called me to do, amen? And I'm even in a good mood about it. Now I want to pray for you. If you, if you've been convicted tonight that you've been letting some little things go, I want you to stand up and I'm going to pray for you. Well I am so glad that somebody stood up so I can go home going, I hit it right. And now I'm going to pray for you. And well it's going to be a special prayer. Father I pray that when we let little things go that actually are sinned but we have forgotten our sin that you will correct us, Holy Spirit you convict us, convict us when we tell people Convict us when we start to gossip or to be judgmental. Help us walk in love, real love, all the time love. Help us forgive our enemies, God. Anybody here who's angry at someone, help them, let it go.

It is not worth it. We don't make our enemies unhappy by being mad at them. We just keep letting them hurt us. So Father, I pray for an outpouring of your grace in this church, this social Dallas church that you are blessing so mightily. And I pray that they would love one another. And help one another and serve you in whatever way you tell them to. Let the anointing fall for a deeper commitment to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. (audience cheering)