Joyce Meyer - Do Enough But Not Too Much - Part 1

I’m talking today about God’s answer for stress. Something I’m sure none of you ever have any of. I saw a quote that said, «I don’t have time for stress, my schedule’s already too full». We wanna do enough, but not too much. And it’s always trying to keep that balance because excess is the devil’s playground. He loves excess and he doesn’t really care if you do too much of something or not enough of something. He just wants you excessive one way or the other. In 1 Peter 5:8 says, «Be well balanced». Everybody say, «Balanced». «Be well balanced… For your adversary the devil, roams about like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking whom he may devour».

So, he can’t devour anybody, but apparently if we’re out of balance, that opens the door for him. And it’s very easy to get out of balance. Like as Christians, we know we want to serve people and do things for people and sacrifice in order to do things for people. But then on the other hand, we don’t wanna become people-pleasers. Because if we do that, then we’re not being God-pleasers. And the apostle Paul said in Galatians 1:10, «If I were trying to be popular with people», wow, I would no longer be, «I would not have become an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ».

Look what you can miss just by being a people-pleaser instead of a God-pleaser. Now, you know, sometimes when you make a decision not to be a people-pleaser, it causes you pain and suffering. Because when people wanna hear, «Yes,» they’re not happy when you tell them, «No». When God called me to teach, women didn’t do that. It just wasn’t, there was maybe two other women that I knew of that were teaching the word. But I didn’t know that, I didn’t know women couldn’t do that. So, it’s amazing what you can do if you don’t know you’re not supposed to do it. And oh, I was so excited. Man, I was excited. And I thought that everybody else would be excited for me too. But you know, it don’t work that way.

Moses said that he expected that people would understand that God had called him to deliver them, but «They did not understand,» see? And so, sometimes, God puts something in our heart, and we just can’t understand why other people don’t understand that God put it there. But sometimes you’re better off just to zip your lip and just wait and let God show the fruit. But I didn’t know how to do that, so I was just… And I got asked to leave my church, I got the left foot of fellowship. They said, «The things that», I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and they said, and was speaking in tongues, and they said, «The thing, what you say has happened to you», and to me this is so sad, «We can’t say it’s not in the Bible, but it’s not part of our doctrine».

When we start putting our doctrine ahead of the Word of God we’re in deep trouble. And sometimes people make a doctrine out of their own experience, «If I have an experience, then it can’t be right». And I lost most of my friends. A couple people, stick with us. We kinda became the black sheep of the family, and so for many, many years, every holiday was just misery for me. And I had a decision to make when that happened. Maybe some of you are at that point. I have learned, in the course of my life, and I can look back every single time that God was ready to promote me, I got a big attack of rejection from people around me that I love.

Now, if somebody rejects you and you don’t care anything about them, you don’t care, you know. I mean, none of us wanna be rejected by anybody, but it really hurts you if it’s somebody that you expect to be for you. And I look back at the years of loneliness and not even really knowing in my head 100% for sure if I was right, I was hearing new things I’d never heard before. And I am so thankful that I made that decision to go with God and not people. You just don’t know what you may miss in life, if you don’t go with God and not people. Well, I’m not lonely anymore, so God made up for it. Try to stay balanced in your life. You always have to be straightening out your priorities. They don’t just get straight and stay straight.

You have to always be, and I do that still, I have to look at things and say, you know, «Am I doing too much of this, not enough of that»? You know, «Am I getting enough rest? Am I spending enough time with people? Am I spending enough time with my family»? When our priorities are out of line, it always causes stress because then we’re excessive one way or the other. And the very first thing that we all are told to do, we know it, but we don’t always do it is to keep God first. «Well, I’d like to spend time with God in the morning, but I’ve just got too many other things to do». No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You won’t do any of them right if you don’t spend time with God first.

And whatever that time was that you said you couldn’t spend with God, you will waste that time and that much more if you’re trying to do it without God being all over you before you start the day. Always spend time with God first. If you only think you can manage five minutes, give him that, but let it grow from there. He is more important than anybody. We need order in our lives. We live in a very ordered universe. In Hebrews, it says that, «God upholds and maintains the universe». Just imagine if the earth just tilted on its axis just a little tiny bit the wrong way. I mean, I’m amazed. I don’t know how anybody can look at the world we live in and think there’s no God. It would take more faith to me, it seems like, it would take more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian. I mean, you’d have to really believe some dumb stuff. I mean, the big bang?

Oh yeah, «Bang. Here we are». Everything is so neat and orderly and the sun comes up every morning and when it goes down the moon comes up and the stars come out and it happens every single day, day after day after day. But because God is a God of order, not a God of confusion, we need order in our homes. Do you know the main reason why God established lines of authority is not so one person can tell everybody else what to do, but so you can have order. If everybody’s in charge or nobody’s in charge, you can’t have anything but chaos. And we have such a huge problem in the world with rebellion and rebellion is the spirit of antichrist. Rebellion is like witchcraft, the Bible says. God wants us to be submissive to whatever authority is over us.

I came in here as a guest today, but let me tell you something. If the pastor told me not to do something, I would not do it because I’m here as a guest under their authority and we need to have that attitude everywhere that we go because you’re in charge in your home, but you’re not in charge in my home. Amen? And a humble attitude is so precious to God rather than a proud and a haughty one that says, «I don’t have to listen to anybody». We need order in our homes, in our schedules, in our closets, in our garage. I know those laughs. And to be honest, I mean, we all have different habits and, you know, I like things really neat.

Some of you maybe can… I do have some organized mess. Like when I’m writing a book, if you came in my office, you would think I was the Messiest human being, but I know what’s in every one of those piles. And I just don’t want to put them away every night because I just had to get them back out the next morning. But take care of what God’s given you. There’s no chaos in heaven. When you get there, you won’t need anxiety medicine, blood pressure medicine, headache medicine. I can’t even imagine. You know, the Bible doesn’t tell us a lot about heaven. Not really. I mean, there’s some things, but it doesn’t tell us a great deal. And I think that’s because it is gonna be so wonderful that anything that God would try to describe would be beyond anything we could understand. I think it is gonna be absolutely awesome. And I’m kind of looking forward to it myself. I don’t know about you, but God tells us to live in peace.

So, there must be a way to do it, huh? Now, there’s four words that I wanna talk to you about today, that they’re all Bible words, and they’re very important to our life, but they need to be done in a certain order. The words are «Sit, stand, walk and run». Sit, stand, walk and run. Now, under the old covenant, the high priest went into the holy of holies only once a year. And when he went in, he had bells sewed on the bottom of his garment and he had a rope around his waist and it was a long rope. Part of it stayed outside. And under, there was no rest under that old covenant. It was all works oriented. «You keep the law and I’ll bless you. You don’t. You’re gonna be cursed».

And what all the different things were that were in the holy of holies, there was no chair. And there was no chair because the high priest was not allowed to sit down. It was all works, works, works, works, works. And if he stopped moving, the bells stopped ringing and they knew he had done something wrong and fell over dead. So, they’d pull him out. If you don’t believe me, look it up. Not everybody knows this, but to me, that’s very intriguing. The representation that God puts in the word, but of our high priest, it says after he had accomplished what he came to do, «He ascended on high and he sat down at the right hand of God». Well, you know, several years ago I started to see, I started noticing that word «Sat,» sat. And I’m like, «Why are you always making a big deal about the fact that he sat down»?

Because it was very significant that he being now our new high priest who never had to go into the holy of holies every year and offer sacrifice for his own sins and sacrifices for our sins, but he offered one sacrifice that was good for all times, for all people and never had to be done again. And so, he sat down there to wait until «His enemies would be made a footstool for his feet». «He entered the rest of God,» that’s what it means to sit. And the Bible says in Ephesians 2:6, that «We are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus». Not we will be, we are.

So, legally and positionally, even though I’m standing here, I’m seated in heavenly places. And what that really means is I can do this work and yet at the same time be in complete rest in my soul. It’s amazing that the kingdom of heaven is so vast. There’s no end to it, no limit to it. It’s so big we can’t even imagine it, but small enough to fit inside of us. Man, you are so awesome. If you only knew how awesome you are. Wow, you would never get up one day and ever feel bad about yourself. If you just even began to understand what God created when he created you and how much he loves you. And, «He loved us while we were still yet in sin». So, it’s not something you can earn or deserve.

The Bible says, «He loved us because it was his kind intent and he wanted to». God just loves you because he thinks you’re cute. I better not get off track here, but I love to tell people how much God loves them. It’s easy for us to tell other people that, but I’ve formed a habit out of… In the morning I say, «I love you, Lord, and I receive your love for me». I’m not so sure, you know, why did God create man? He didn’t need us. Some people say, «Well, they wanted somebody to fellowship with». Well, God is a Trinity. He wasn’t by himself. He had a son, he had the Holy Spirit, but yet he wanted us. He wanted you, and he wanted me. And then some people say, «Well, he wanted us so we would worship him».

Well, God doesn’t have an ego. I don’t think that he has to be worshiped. You know, we really do that more for us. I think he created us because he wanted somebody to love. You see, love has to be giving all the time. It can’t be still. It can’t be a stagnant pool. That’s why we need to be giving out all the time. We need to, God gives in, he pours in, and we’re supposed to pour out. He pours in and we’re supposed to pour out. And so there you keep the water fresh. You keep it flowing all the time. But if God pours in and we put a stop on it and won’t give anything out, then we just become dead, stinking. Then there’s no room for God to pour in anymore. A story a woman told me that I think is really good. She said, «You know, I wasn’t getting anything out of your conferences anymore, even though I’d come to them for years».

And so, she said, «I was praying for you because I thought you’d lost your anointing, 'i don’t understand what’s wrong with Joyce. Lord, I used to get so much out of her teaching, and now she must be losing her anointing. Maybe she got sin in her life'». So, she’s praying for me. And she said, «God stopped me one day and he said, 'Joyce isn’t the problem'». He said, you’re not getting, now, listen to this, he said, «You’re not getting anything out of her teaching anymore because you’re so full, there’s nothing else that will fit in there. And until you start giving out some of what she’s put in». And I think that happens to a lot of churchgoers. They sit and they receive, and they receive, and they receive, and they receive, barely put anything in the offering, but just receive, and receive, and receive, never have time to serve, never have time to take part in anything. And then, pretty soon there’s no place for you to put anything else.

So, you start to get dissatisfied. And I’ve seen it happen. You start thinking there’s something wrong with the pastor. Maybe better look at home base first. I don’t think a Christian can be happy and be selfish. It is not possible. So, that’s another story altogether, too. So, God said, «There’s still a sabbath rest, a waiting and you can enter it today». And when the Bible talks about sitting or being seated, it’s talking about that sabbath rest. But the sabbath rest with God it’s not a rest from work. It’s a rest in work. So, I’m working now, but I’m resting. I’m here, but I’m seated in heavenly places. Now, legally and positionally, I’m there as far as God’s concerned. But practically, I have to take the steps here that allows me to live that life of rest, which means I have to look at my life on a regular basis and I have to cut out things that are causing stress, putting me on overload, causing me to be grouchy and cranky and blame everything on everybody else. Hmm…Hello?

So, the Bible tells us to sit. It also tells us to stand, to stand against the enemy, stand against temptation. It tells us to walk, to walk in love, to walk in God, to walk in righteousness, to walk by faith, to walk on the narrow path. And it also tells us to run, to run your race and run it to win. But have you ever seen a baby get out of its crib and immediately start running? Of course not. What do they do? First, they learn how to sit. Now there’s a real lesson here if you get it. First, they learn how to sit and that takes a while. They’ll sit a little bit and fall over. They may cry a while and then they’ll get back up. It takes them a while to learn how to sit. And then finally they’ll learn how to pull themselves up on something and then it’s a big deal to…

And oh, that first step is so hard. I know because I have a great grandbaby that’s just started walking and man, he thinks he’s really something now. And he isn’t doing it yet, but before long he’ll start running. And we have to do it in that order. And here’s what happens. This happened to me. I think it probably happens to most pastors, people in ministry. I knew I was called to minister and so I started a ministry. And right away the first thing I thought of was big. Isn’t that about the first word we get interested in? Big. I wanted it to be big and to grow. Can I tell you that God is not nearly as interested in size as he is in quality.

You need to be so thankful that you have pastors that are the real deal, that are committed, that walk what they talk, who really care about you and really care about helping people and that’s proven by the amount of money and effort they put into missions. I don’t believe you can call a church a church if they don’t have outreach. God hasn’t called us to in-reach. He’s called us to outreach. Amen? And so, I started this ministry and I was trying to run. I was trying to run my race and I was so stressed out, unhappy, stressed out, sick a lot because I was so stressed out. Well, God didn’t call me to that. So, something had to be wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. I just kept trying to run. But what I needed to do was learn how to sit first. You can’t do anything and enjoy it if you don’t do it from a place of resting in God.