Joyce Meyer - Having A Patient Attitude

TOPICS: Patience

There's two kinds of people in the world. There's people who do things on purpose and there's people that are passive. Now passive people are people who want something good to happen, but they're not gonna really do too much, if anything, to make it happen. They have a lot of wishbone, but no backbone. And then there's people who read the word, they know what's right, and they purpose with God's help, which we can't do anything apart from God. Let's establish that first.

But here's the other thing we have to remember, is anything that God asks us to do, he gives us the ability to do. Anything that you feel that God is leading you to do, God gives you the ability to do that. All we need to do is just keep leaning on him. "God, I need you, I need you. I can't do anything without you". Give him the praise, give him the glory, and you'll keep that flow of power coming into your life all the time.

And so I decided that I would talk about attitude. Last night, we talked about just the power of an attitude, how to have a nose up attitude instead of a nose down attitude. If you have a nose up attitude, then you're always climbing in life. You'll have an above average life. If you have a nose down attitude, then you'll always be below average. We'll always have less than what God wants us to have. Now everybody wants to have a good life. Everybody in this place wants to have a good life. But not everybody, even in here, is doing what you need to be doing to have that good life. It's really like passivity is one of the greatest deceptions from the devil. It's just that I want it, but they go more by how they feel. They wait to feel it before they do it. They wait until everybody else is doing it.

You know, there's very few people in the world, I think, when you consider all things, that are willing to do what's right even if they're the only one that they know that's doing it. We're far too affected by the crowd and what everybody else is doing. And God is looking for people that will swim upstream while everybody else is floating downstream. It's easy to float, but going against the current is not that easy.

So this morning in this service, I'm going to talk about having a patient attitude. Five areas we're going to mention about impatience. There's a lot of different things that we can be impatient with, and some are impatient with some things but not impatient at all with others. I've overcome certain degrees of impatience in my life because, to be honest, being impatient probably would be my number one weakness. I'm a strong, choleric personality. I want it, I want it now. If I tell you to do it, do it right, do it the first time. Don't make me tell you again. So you know, now I mean, that's the way I started out. Thank God I'm not like that anymore. I mean, I could drift back in that direction if I didn't keep working on this attitude thing. So if you don't need this today, I'll just be happy to preach to myself because I need everything that I say, amen?

So first of all, when I started out, I was very impatient with God. Like man, I just couldn't understand why I could not get God to do what I wanted him to do. And you know, even things that God promises in the word that he will do, he doesn't always do on our timetable. Doesn't it frustrate you when you know that God could do something and it wouldn't be difficult for him at all, but yet he just doesn't? So if you could do it in 5 years, why couldn't you do it in 1 year? Why did I have to go through all of this stuff? Well, eventually you learn that no matter how aggravated you get, you're not gonna rush God. So whatever it is that you're waiting on right now, you might as well learn to wait well because waiting is a fact of life. We all wait, but some people do wait better than other people.

So make it easy on yourself. Say, "My times are in your hands. I know that you've got a plan for me". No devil in hell, no person on earth can keep you from what God has for you in the perfect time when you're prepared and ready. There's a lot of things that God has prepared for us, but he's got to get us prepared for those things that he has us ready for. I tell you, it's tough sometimes when you've got a dream in your heart and you see it so clear. Oh man, you see it so clear and you know it's what God wants for you. It's hard to understand many times that, although that is exactly right, God does have that for you, it is his will, that he's preparing you now for the thing he's got prepared for you. Not everybody is ready for everything when they think they are. We think we're ready, but we're not always.

Now impatience with people. How many of you sometimes get impatient with people? You know, people who, well, let's just think about some of the things that we can be impatient with when it comes to people. Let's just say, how do you act while you're waiting in line? What about if you have a slow clerk? What about a clerk who's new and doesn't know what they're doing? What if the person in front of you has three items with no prices and then they have to go on a search in the store to find the prices? Okay, well now, see, I've gotten good at this. I can do that because I just about lost my salvation over slow clerks 30 years ago. I mean, it was like, I'd have my big, flashy rhinestone Jesus pin on and, you know, all my Christian Jewelry and I'd be in the grocery store line, had three little kids then, and they were all driving me crazy.

And I had my plan. I wanted to get those groceries, get through that line, get them in the car, get them home, put them away, and then do something else. I had my plan. Don't mess up my plan. Anybody like that? All right. And so I don't care, I mean, I got to the point where I would pray about which line to get in. I mean, I would stand back, "Okay now, Lord. You know ahead of time what's going to happen. You know I'm in a hurry, Lord. Which one of these lines is going to go the fastest"? And I don't care what I did, I'd always get in the one that was going to be slow, something's going to be broke, there's no prices. And I'm telling you what, I mean, if you could have died from frustration, I would have been dead because that's how aggravated it made me. I just didn't get it. "God, what are you doing to me"? And then I would go into the, "I rebuke you, satan. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. You are not going to steal my joy. You are not going to steal my peace".

I finally got it. God was using that on me because the word "Patience," actually if you study in the vine's Greek dictionary, now get this, it says it is a fruit of the Spirit that only grows under trial. We can't pray this on you. It only grows under trial. So obviously people don't want to get stuff on patience because they figure when they start praying for patience, they're going to get trouble. And actually, that is true. However, the Bible says when you are perfect, when you have this perfect patience, when a man is patient, he is perfect and entire, wanting nothing. I can be in this line and not want to be through the line and somewhere else. I can just be there and enjoy it.

So I finally managed to master the slow clerk thing. Then we went to no clerks. I mean, I'd get to the point where I'd want to pay for something in a store and couldn't even find anybody to take my money. And I thought this is escalating to something that's not gonna be pretty. How do you act when you tell somebody to do something and they don't do it the first time you tell them? And you have to tell them again and again. And it's like, "Can you not hear? Did you not hear me tell you that"? How do you act when you ask somebody for something, they bring you something totally different than what you asked for? See, then the attitude comes out. It doesn't even have to be words. It's on your face, it's like... Don't you love it? Just like... So what are we saying with our facial expressions? "You are so stupid".

And what we do many times with our bad attitude is we make people that are really, honestly, truly doing their best. Just because people don't have the same gifts or strengths that I do or you do doesn't mean that they're not valuable. And to be honest, God does put us with people that irritate us, and he does it on purpose. It won't do you any good to try to get away from the batch you've got now because you'll get a new batch wherever you go. Because the thing is, is God uses those things on us to polish the rough edges off of us. And here's a flash for you. He's using you on somebody else. So let's just don't go thinking we've got it all together because if you think that other person's personality bothers you, you ought to get them to tell you the truth about how they feel about you. Mmm, so God's got a plan. Impatience.

So I finally got that one. I really think, by and large, most of the time I treat people pretty good and I've really kind of gotten the deeper revelation from God that it really offends him when we mistreat people, and so we really do need to get out there and try to be decent to people because everybody's got a story, we just haven't heard it. And everybody's hurting and everybody's going through something. And you know, even somebody who just seems to be purposefully mean, if they're like that, they've got something in their life that's hurting them or something that has hurt them. And if we're going to represent Christ, then we really need to develop a more patient attitude with people.

So I dare you to start praying about patience. And then you can also be impatient with yourself. And I went through a lot of that, and I've pretty much gotten over that. I finally just told God one day, "Look, this is what it is. You knew what you were getting when you got me. If you didn't want to put up with me, you should have picked on somebody else. And I'm tired of apologizing for myself," not that God was ever asking me to. But the thing is you got to learn how to enjoy where you're at on the way to where you're going. You have to learn how to enjoy yourself while you're in the process of growing in God.

Can I say this again? Learn how to enjoy yourself. Learn how to enjoy yourself. Learn how to enjoy yourself with all of your imperfections and your weaknesses, knowing that you are no surprise to God. He knows dumb stuff that we're going to do that we haven't even done yet and he's already pre-decided to love us unconditionally and to work with us all the way through and never give up on us. So just be patient with yourself. Then there's the area of being patient with objects and things. Now I'm not so good at this.

Can I have my little props there? There is something that I have a big problem with and I'm going to ask you to pray for me, and that is packaging. I just cannot, I mean, I can almost lose my salvation over packaging. Okay, this is just a bottle of eye drops. I got these out this morning, went, "Oh no..". Come on, any of you do that? And then I'll go like, "What is the matter with people? They sell you this stuff and don't expect you to get into it and use it". Well, now Dave says, "Why don't you just get a pair of scissors, cut that off"? Well, because that would take patience for me to walk across the room and find the scissors and come back and do that. I don't like that. Then you go to the mouthwash. Oh my gosh, not again. I just, and see, I have these, ooh, that one's coming, yay. Oh, but it's still not working. So this year, packaging is my goal. I'm going to get to the point where I'm free from being upset by packaging.

Now you know, the way that you get free from something is you go through it over and over and over and over until it just don't bother you anymore. You finally die to it. See, I can get in a line now where somebody's slow and it's just like, "Not this time, devil. Been there, done that. I'm keeping my peace, aha". But the packaging thing I still have to master. I also have another little issue that I'll let you in on. I have one piece of hair right here and I'll show you what it does. You see that? Okay, I don't care what we do to that, it's going to stick out, so I'm always going like that. Okay, yesterday I got mad at it and I thought, "I'm cutting that dude off".

So I got my scissors out, well now I've got it really way too short, so I just made it a whole lot worse. How many of you have things in your life like this? Just some little thing that you just can't hardly stand. And then there's this whole area of, and this is also a goal of mine. These last two are like my things. You can't fully enter into what you're doing because you're mentally already onto the next thing. And see, some of you are here this morning, but you're not here because you're already thinking about what you need to do when you get home. And so we're never anywhere unless we've got our mind where we're at. Just because our body's there, that doesn't mean that we're there. And I don't know, I guess it's just part of the choleric, aggressive personality, but I have trouble staying where I'm at. I always am kind of like moving onto the next thing because I'm purposeful, I'm aggressive, and I've got a plan. We're doing this. Let's get to that.

So I have this thing where when I'm riding in a car, when we get close to our home and it's in view, I take the seatbelt off and start preparing to get out of the vehicle. Not too long ago, my daughter said to me, "Mother! Would you let me park the car before you get out of it"? When we park at a parking lot, I am out of the car, got all my stuff and in the store, and Dave is still gathering his stuff up out of the car. I'm like, "How could anybody take that long to get out of the car? What are you doing"?

How many of you are real fast, quick people? Okay. How many of you are like more easygoing, slow, and you get tired of all of us that are fast? And I can pretty much guarantee you that a fast one's married to a slow one, and a slow one's married to a fast one. Come on now. I mean, it's like, "Okay God, are we having fun yet or what? I don't, this is, after 47 years, this isn't funny anymore". I tell you, that whole scripture in Genesis that, "A man shall leave his father and mother and he shall cleave unto his wife, and the two shall become one flesh," doesn't that sound beautiful? But I tell ya, it's the, "Becoming," that's the problem. And it's an ongoing, never ending problem.

Alright, now, let's get down to business. We've had some fun. First of all, if you don't have any patience with God and if I don't have any patience with God, I'm going to get into what the Bible calls works of the flesh. And works of the flesh are my bright ideas on how to get what I want in my timing instead of waiting on God. And I tell you, we all make some of the most ridiculous messes in our lives getting ahead of God. We see it in Genesis. I'm not going to take time to tell the whole story, but surely you'll realize that when God promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child and the child wasn't coming, child wasn't coming, child wasn't coming, they're getting tired of waiting, Sarah gets a bright idea.

Ladies, have you ever had a bright idea? Okay, well, I was very good at bright ideas. And they come something like this. You're going along, you're like, "I know what God wants me to do". Your husband's not saved or maybe you're married to somebody that's got a bad attitude. You've already decided you're going to buy those five books on attitude and you're going to open those dudes up and lay them everywhere you can in the house because now you have a plan on how you can get his attitude fixed. How many of you know nothing works unless it originates with God? Listen, he is the author and the finisher. And he told me a long time ago, "I am not obligated to finish anything I didn't start". If you start it, it's your baby.

So we really need to learn how to work the works of God and not get into works of the flesh. You say, "Well, how can I tell the difference"? Well, works of the flesh are works that don't work. It's us trying to make something happen that is just not happening, and we just don't understand why it's not happening. And we sound like this. "God, I've just done everything I know to do. And I just don't understand why this isn't working". And then sometimes we get very dramatic, which doesn't impress God at all. And we will even fall on the floor. "I just give up. I just, I just give up. What do you want me to do"?

Come on, sound like anybody you know? Well, the truth is, is God's not really asking us to do anything except believe. And then when we do get an instruction from him, to obviously then do what we believe that God is telling us to do. We have to learn how to stay out of works of the flesh. I absolutely just about killed myself with works of the flesh, trying to make my ministry grow, trying to change my husband, trying to change my kids, trying to change myself, trying not to try. I mean, it was just like... Truly, if anybody could have died from frustration, it would have been me. And I finally realized that frustration equals works of the flesh.

Anytime you feel frustrated or I feel frustrated, it's because I'm trying to make something happen that only God can make happen. Did you hear me? Come on, that's worth putting up on a sign. I had one in my house for a long time. "Works of the flesh equal frustration". I had to put that thing on my mirror, I had to put it on my refrigerator because I was just a very aggressive, active get a plan, get an idea, go for it type person. Well, I've finally gotten over that, but some of you here probably have not. You're probably still in that area and you're frustrating yourself trying to get rid of things that only God can get rid of, trying to change people, which is something only God can do.

Can I tell you something? You can't make one of your relatives love God. I don't care how much you want the right thing for them, if they don't want it for themselves, you are just spinning your wheels and you are going to ruin your life and miss your joy. And the far better thing to do is pray for them and let God work. And let me just tell you, when you pray for somebody, don't expect them to act better. They're probably going to act worse before they act better. You say, "Why"? Because when you pray for people, God begins to deal with them. And when God deals with us, if we're not ready to give in, it makes us act worse instead of better.

You ever prayed for anybody and you're like, "Well, that didn't work, they're worse than ever"? I used to pray for Dave not to love sports so much because I didn't like them and so I didn't want him to like them if I didn't like them. And you know, you've heard me say it probably. He loves anything that rolls or bounces, I don't care what it is. And when I grew up, my dad never let me do anything. I was just basically manipulated and controlled and could never even remember being happy when I was in my 20s.

And Dave played all these sports growing up and he just loves it all. I mean, anything, he loves it. And I mean, I started praying for him not to do so much of this and not to do so much of that and trying to get him to change. And honestly, and this is true, I walked in the room one night where he was sitting and he was watching a football game, listening to a baseball game, and shining his golf clubs. And I thought, "You know what? This isn't working". Come on, could somebody get a realization today that what you're doing isn't working? Anybody? It's just not working, so why not take a vacation from works of the flesh and let God be God in your life, amen?

Only patience and nothing else allows us to enjoy the present moment that we have. If I'm somewhere and I don't want to be there, and I'm wanting to be somewhere else, let's just say I'm waiting at the airport. I don't want to wait at the airport, but my plane's late. I don't want to wait. Well, too bad. The plane's not here, so I'm gonna wait. So I can either sit there and be frustrated, or I can say, "Well, God, I believe my times are in your hands, so I'm just gonna find some way to enjoy this".

I believe that one of the things that drives the devil absolutely mad, how many of you would love to give the devil a nervous breakdown? I think one of the things that just drives him mad is when we can learn how to enjoy every single thing that we do, no matter how mundane it is. A lot of you ain't so sure about that. You're like... I love it when you get three people clapping. You know, God doesn't want us just to enjoy Fridays and vacations and parties and when we're getting to buy something that we want. He wants us to enjoy every single, solitary moment that he gives us, every moment, because the greatest present that God ever gives is the present moment that we have, the present moment that we have.

So I want to ask you to, not right now while I'm speaking, but later on today or some time in the next couple days, take the time and get really honest with yourself, and ask yourself, "How much of my life do I really enjoy"? See, a lot of times, we don't even think about it. Well, I've actually been on this journey for many, many, many years, because I got a real revelation out of John 10:10, "The thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus said 'I came that you might have and enjoy your life, and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows'". So although Jesus died primarily for our salvation, he also died that we might be able to enjoy every single, solitary moment of our lives. Not just a few here and there, but every single, solitary moment of our lives. I believe that one of the greatest tragedies in life is not to enjoy every single moment that God is given us.

I wrote a book a long time ago called "Enjoying where you're at on the way to where you're going". My goodness, when I think about even my ministry, there was so much of it that I didn't enjoy, because I was so intent on trying to get it to grow. I recall one time being in a meeting much smaller than this. There were maybe 4 or 500 people there, and there were a lot of leaders there. And so I just thought, well, I would just pray for all the ones who weren't enjoying the ministry. And so I said, "I would just like to offer to pray for any person who's in ministry that you can honestly say you're really not enjoying it," and I could not believe it.

There were literally hundreds of people in ministry, called to do to greatest job on the face of the earth, but they weren't enjoying it. You know why? Because they were trying to get somewhere where they weren't. "If my church could just be a little bigger. If I could just have a new building". We're always gonna be happy "When," when we get married, when the man we married stops telling us what to do, when we get a bigger house, when we get a housekeeper to clean the bigger house, when we get a housekeeper that doesn't irritate us while they're cleaning the house. Come on, anybody with me? When we get a different job, when we get a promotion on our job. No, no, no, no, if you can't enjoy life right now, you're never gonna enjoy it "When," because it's not about what we're doing. It's something in our attitude.

And I'm pretty intent at this point, and I would imagine a lot of the rest of you are. I'm pretty intent on really trying to glorify God in my everyday life. I can tell you, God is not so interested about who's in this church building this morning. It's not that he doesn't care that you're here or see that you're here, he loves the whole thing, but it's more about what we do when we leave here that God cares about than how we behave in here. And we can jump up and down and shout and clap to every song that we sing, but it's still about how I act when I'm in the line at the grocery store.

How do I behave if God's not moving as fast as I want him to? What happens when I have somebody working for me that is a valuable person, but it just takes them longer to learn, and I have to tell them over and over? How am I gonna act then? Am I gonna write them off because they're not as fast as me, or am I gonna make an investment and work with them a little bit more? Am I gonna have enough wisdom to not compare one of my children to the other, because one of them actually suits my personality better than the other one? You know, we can love all of our kids and not like all of 'em. Come on, a lot of you wouldn't admit that, but I mean, my older son, I just didn't like him. And he knows it. I mean, he's 48 now, so that's all cool, you know.

You're thinking, "My gosh, 48, how old are you"? Old enough to know what I'm talking about, so that means, listen up. I've been there, done that. I've tried it every way you can try it, and I know what works and what doesn't. I know what's gonna make you happy and what's gonna make you miserable. Let me save you about a thousand trips around the same, stupid mountain by just listening real closely this morning. You're not gonna rush God. You're not gonna change people. Only God can change people. Pray for people. Learn how to enjoy sitting next to that person at work that you really aren't that crazy about their personality, but remind yourself that God loves 'em anyway. Learn how to do that job that you're not real crazy about, and you just think, "Well, I'd be happy if I could get a promotion".

You know how many people are bed-bound and would love to have your job? And you know what? You come to church on Sunday and be reminded of these things, and everybody agrees. We all know it's right. But I'll tell you where you gotta remind yourself, when you're by yourself. Have a meeting with yourself and talk to yourself. We read that scripture last night in Ephesians 4 that says, "Set your mind and your attitude every day". Every single day, we have to set our attitude. You know, I believe that we are people that are anointed to live ordinary, everyday life in a very supernatural way. I don't think that we can expect something spectacular going on all the time. God is in the ordinary. He's there in all the simple, little things that we sometimes just rush through, and then we miss what God is doing or the opportunities that God is giving us to be a blessing to somebody else, because we're already hating the ordinary thing.

Let's look at James 5:7, "So be patient, brethren, as you wait...", not if you wait, "...be patient as you wait until the coming of the Lord". Now, watch this, "See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. And how he keeps up his patient vigil over it until it receives the early and the late rain". You know, we can just speed past that verse and never really get too much out of it. But through my efforts to study patience over the years, I've taken a lot of these scriptures apart and really dug into 'em. And so if you think about this farmer, he digs up fallow ground, he puts his seed in the ground, and he waits and he waits and he waits and he waits.

What day is something gonna come up out of the ground? Only God knows. So what does he do? He just keeps doing what he should do. He waters it. He pulls the weeds. He looks at it. He gets up. He goes to bed. He gets up. He goes to bed. It's Monday, it's Tuesday, it's Wednesday, it's Thursday, it's Friday. Nothing's happening. He starts the same thing all over next week, next week, next week. But there's a little word in here that I don't know if it's in the other translations, but it's become a huge, huge word in my life. And it says, "He waits expectantly".

Now, come on, you're about to get something here. The big reason why we're unhappy many times is not because of our circumstances. It's not even that we're having to wait. It's that we're waiting without expectancy. Something amazing happens in my soul, and I believe it will in yours, too, when I start aggressively, purposefully, expecting that something good is gonna happen in my life at any moment. "Today may be the day when my harvest is coming. Today may be the day when I'm gonna see a change in my children. Today may be the day when I'm gonna feel better. I've put up with this physical thing for yea and how long, but today may be the day".

You see, the devil wants us to be hopeless. We sang that beautiful song earlier about hope. Be full of expectancy. I've trained myself every morning, when I get up, I am not up 5 minutes, probably now it's down to a minute or 2 minutes. And this is what you hear me say now, "I'm expecting something good to happen to me today. I'm expecting something good to happen through me today. Today I'm gonna be strong, I'm gonna feel good, I'm gonna be energetic, and I'm gonna be creative. I am excited about today. This is gonna be a great day". And I can tell you the absolute truth, if you will do that, your body will respond. Your physical being will respond and you are gonna start to feel better, and life is gonna look better to you. We'll work on it a while till you get it. You see, passive people are just like, "I don't know. I don't know. We'll see".

I taught a message recently called, "Has your get up and go got up and gone"? And we all have times when we get tired of doing what we're doing, everybody. You think if you had a more exciting job, you wouldn't get tired of that one? Yes, you would. You never get one side of anything without getting the other side. If you get the promotion at work that you want, you're gonna have more responsibility. They're gonna expect more out of you. The higher you climb the ladder and the more people that are under your authority, the more people there are gonna be that aren't gonna like you. Come on, now. Do you know when you're the boss, I don't care what decision you make, everybody's not gonna like it? You know, "Well, I'll just be so glad when my kids are grown and they're gone".

Now, let me tell you, when they're grown, they just cost more money than they did when they were little. And then, you not only have the kids, you have the sons-in-law, the daughters-in-law, and then all the grandkids. It's like, "Oh, my gosh". Junior's gotta go to college, and Sammy's gotta do this, and somebody else has gotta do something else. And you know, so anyway. I put a sign up in my house, "I child-proofed my home, but they keep getting in". And hey, I love my kids. My kids are my life, but I'm just telling you that, you know, we're always wanting something that we don't have, and in the process, we miss what we do have. Stop being so upset about what you don't have that you forget to enjoy what you do have. When somebody does something wrong, don't forget all they've done in your life that was right.

How about if we start really celebrating what we do have, instead of being bothered all the time by what we don't have? Expectancy. When I have one of those days where I feel like my get up and go has got up and gone, and I'm just telling you the truth. I'm letting you into my personal life. Do with it what you want. I get up. I'm out in another hotel. You know, listen, I love what I'm doing. I'm so grateful to serve God, but I got a soul just like everybody else. You think Paul and his family don't ever get tired of being in Africa or somewhere for 3 months?

I told Dave this morning, I said, "I so admire them for doing that". You know, I'll go to the mission field, but I want to go and get back home. I want my stuff. I want my coffee. I want my water, you know. So I'm like a five-star missionary. I'll go, but we better, you know. I'm not the tent type. It don't work for me. And I mean, I've been in these places where they're going and living, and I just want to tell you what. You guys have my appreciation and my respect, amen? When I have one of those days when I get up and I'm like, "Uh... Oh Jesus. Lord, do you know how old I am? Uh, okay".

You know what helps me more than anything? "I'm expecting something good to happen today. I'm expecting God to show up and show out. I'm expecting somebody to be healed physically today while I'm preaching the word. I'm expecting salvation. I'm expecting to get to be a blessing to somebody today. I am full of expectancy". And you know what happens when I do that? I start to get excited. I start to get enthusiastic. You know, we need to have a little more fire. What looks better in a fireplace, cold ashes or a blazing flame, amen? I believe that we need to be more excited, and the way to do that is to live with expectancy.

Now, after I taught this in my chapel a couple weeks ago, I got a report the next day that one of the girls at the office was on her way home and she thought, "Well, I'm just gonna try this," 'cause she has a son that just really gives her a lot of trouble. And she said, "I just have a tendency to dread going home". How many of you know sometimes, when you got trouble at home, you can just dread walking in the door one more time? It's like... She said, "So while I was driving home, I said, 'i am expecting something good to happen tonight with my son'". She said she wasn't in the house very long, and her son looked at her and he said, "Mom, I just want you to know I love you". She said, "I have not heard that in months and months, and possibly years".

Let me tell you something. What we think and what we say, the attitude that we live with, does affect our circumstances. Now, I'm not gonna tell you that you can get anything you want just by saying, "I'm expecting it," but I will tell you that you can put up with so much more than what you can even imagine if you will have some enthusiasm, some fire, and be excited. And don't expect somebody else to come along and do this for you. Paul told Timothy, "Stir yourself up in the Lord". You stir yourself up. What I have given you here in the last 2 minutes is so valuable.

I'm telling you, God has called me to preach the word, and I believe that I hear things from him for the body of Christ, and this expectancy thing is not a little thing. It is a big thing. And God is waiting to bring your harvest. You may have to put your seed in the ground and get up and go to bed, and get up and go to bed, and get up and go to bed, and get up and go to bed, and get up and go to bed until you think you can't stand it anymore. But if you do it with expectancy, wow, some good things are gonna happen in your life, amen? Come on, give God a praise. I'm expecting something good to happen to me, and I'm expecting something good to happen through me.

Now, listen, everybody be real still for just a moment. If you're not right with God today, if you have not received Christ as your Savior, it's so easy. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to straighten yourself up before God will have you. He wants you right now. He brought you here today for this purpose. This can be the best decision that you will ever make in your life. All you have to do is say, "Yes, I believe in Jesus, and yes, I'm tired of living the way I'm living. I want peace. I want joy. I want to have a really good friend". Jesus wants to be your friend.

You know, becoming a Christian doesn't just mean that you get this list of ten things you need to do now that are all religious things. It means that you're invited into an intimate, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and that he wants to be involved in every single thing that you do. It's wonderful, just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. So if you're here today and you've not received Christ as your Savior yet, and you want to make that commitment today, or you're backslidden. You've tried to serve God and fallen back into sin, just slip your hand up.

Let me see where you're at. Come on, nice and high all over the place. Let's see your hands. I see lots of hands. More, I see your hands over there, okay. This is easy. You don't gotta do anything. You're gonna get something. You're gonna receive. All right, now, I can't see where all the hands are at, and I'm gonna ask you to do something for a couple reasons. One, we got a book we want to give you, and two, I'm gonna ask you to stand right where you're at, those of you who raised your hand. Come on, just be brave. Give the devil a big black eye. Come on, stand up. That's it, come on, come on, come on. Come on, do it. Don't be embarrassed. That's right, do it. You can do it. Be bold. Be bold for Jesus.

Now, listen. You can stand up at any point if you decide that you want to join us. We're gonna pray this prayer, and something amazing is gonna happen. The book of life's being brought out in heaven right now, and you're about to get your name put in it. All your sins are gonna be forgiven. Can everybody pray this prayer with them, please? Nice and loud so they feel comfortable.

Father God, I love you. Jesus, I believe in you. You died for me. You were raised from the dead. You took the punishment I deserved. You paid for my sins. I'm so sorry for the way I've lived. But today I turn and go in a new direction. I turn away from sin. And I turn toward you. Jesus, I receive you. Come and live inside of me. You're my Savior. And I'm your child. Take me just the way I am. Now make me what you want me to be. Thank you. I'm saved. I'm loved. And I'm on my way to heaven. Amen.