[8/18/23] Leaving The City of Regret-1 A 15-minute teaching applying practical principles from God’s Word to everyday life. Get Today’s Offer From Joyce: https://joycemeyer.org/store
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– – – – – – – Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives. With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way. #JoyceMeyer#EnjoyingEverydayLife#LeavingTheCityOfRegret
welcome to Enjoying Everyday Life with
New York Times best-selling author Joyce
Meyer on today’s program Joyce will be
teaching from her series The Fearsome
four when we feel discouraged defeated
or overwhelmed by the pressures of Life
chances are we’re being hit by what
Joyce calls the Fearsome four fear guilt
worry and insecurity the devil uses
these obstacles to keep us from God’s
calling but with Christ we can defeat
all of them and reach God’s perfect plan
for our life be empowered with today’s
teaching and learn to embrace God’s
Fearless form peace
confidence love and courage now here’s
Joyce with today’s teaching
father thank you for the word today I’m
excited to share about
how we don’t have to live under guilt
and condemnation
Jesus name amen Jesus Jesus Jesus
I said last night I’m talking about the
I’m just calling this series The
Fearsome four
because I believe in each one of these
things that I’m talking about this
weekend
fear is involved the first one last
night we talked about was fear itself
today we’re going to talk about guilt
one of the other two meetings left we’re
going to talk about
worry and one of them in security I
haven’t decided exactly which one I’m
going to do tonight and which one
tomorrow yet but we need them all don’t
we
there’s probably nobody that doesn’t
need teaching on fear
keeping worry out of your life
guilt
and insecurity
how many of you experience guilt in your
life and it’s a heavy burden that you
just are fed up with and you want to
learn how to
live on the other side of that
well I had a massive massive
terrible problem with guilt in my life
and I can stand here today and say that
although it was a tremendous fight
and required a lot of study I have been
delivered
completely delivered from guilt and
condemnation now that doesn’t mean
when I do something wrong that I don’t
grieve over my mistake I don’t I don’t
want to do wrong things I don’t like it
at all when I feel like I’ve hurt the
heart of God
but I think there’s a difference in
having a healthy grief
that you have offended the heart of God
admitting it talking it through with God
getting your forgiveness and moving on
that’s a totally different thing
than carrying around this terrible
burden
of guilt and letting it drag you down
and steal your life day after day after
day after day
and I’ve prayed
very diligently about this session this
morning
because I’m going to try to really teach
you some things that I hope is going to
help you
take a different look at sin I believe
that guilt is mainly caused because of
the way we think
about God’s expectations
and the way we think
about Sin
and its remedy
our thoughts are involved in every
problem that we have do you know that
the way we think about things
is involved in every problem that we
have that’s why over and over and over
in the word of God we’re taught to
meditate on the word because if we learn
to think the way God thinks then things
are going to turn around in our life
we have to learn how to think right and
you do have a certain attitude towards
sin
and we all have a certain attitude
toward what we think God expects of us
and then if we don’t meet those
expectations we automatically feel bad
well God told me one time he said you
know Joyce I’m not nearly as hard to get
along with as you think I am
now that’s good news for somebody here
today God is not nearly as hard to get
along with as you think he is and I have
more news for you
God is not the least bit surprised by
you or your behavior
he’s not shocked
he’s not put off
it’s not something he wasn’t expecting
he knew everything about you when he
invited you to come into relationship
with him
and he’s committed
to work with you through the whole
process if you just won’t give up and
one of the reasons why getting rid of
this heavy burden of guilt every time we
do something wrong is so important it’s
simply because if you keep that burden
you have no energy to try to learn and
grow and serve God
doesn’t do one bit of good
so God I pray that you’ll help me today
preach this in a way that people can
really understand it first thing I want
to say is that some of you need to you
need to get a new address
you need to move out of the city of
regret
and learn how to
live in the kingdom of God
I’m going to read you a little story
called leaving the city of regret it’s a
little bit lengthy but I’ll do a little
teaching along the way
I had not really planned on taking a
trip
this time of the year
and yet I found myself packing rather
hurriedly
this trip was going to be unpleasant and
I knew it in advance that no real good
would come of it
I’m talking about my annual Guilt Trip
by the way this was written by a man
named Larry harp just to give credit
where credit’s due I got tickets to fly
there on wish I had airlines
it was an extremely short flight
I got my baggage which I could not check
I chose to carry it myself all the way
there
it was weighted down with a thousand
memories of what might have been
no one greeted me as I entered the
terminal to the regret City
International Airport I sang
International because you see people
from all over the world live in this
dismal town
as I checked into the Last Resort Hotel
I noticed that they were going to be
hosting this year’s most important event
the annual pity party
[Laughter]
well I wasn’t going to miss that great
social occasion
because most of the leading citizens
would be there
first
attending would be the Dunn family
you know
should have done
would have done and could have done
then came the I had family
you know old wish I had and his clan
and then of course the opportunities
would be there missed opportunities and
lost opportunities
but the biggest family the biggest plan
of all would be the yesterdays there
were far too many of them to count
but each one had a very sad story to
tell
then Shattered Dreams would surely make
an appearance and it’s their fault
would Regale us with stories and excuses
about how things had failed in their
life each one would be loudly applauded
by don’t blame me and I couldn’t help it
you getting this
well to make a long story short I went
to this depressing party knowing that
there would be no real benefit in doing
it
now that deserves a sealer right there
you know when I finally stopped feeling
sorry for myself
when I finally realized it wasn’t doing
me one bit of good
and I think one of the things that
really helped me get over my guilt trips
that I took on a daily basis was
realizing it was totally completely
useless it did not help me behave any
better if anything all it did was break
the heart of God and make me act worse
as usual I became very depressed but as
I thought about all the stories of
failures brought back from the past it
occurred to me
that all of this trip and subsequent
pity parties could be canceled by me and
me alone
Jesus had done everything for us that
he’s going to do he’s waiting for us to
believe it
and I’m going to show you evidence in
the word of God today
that he has not only forgiven our sins
but he has removed the guilt
and it’s up to us whether we’re going to
believe it or not and stop living by how
we feel but start living by the word of
God
I started to realize that I didn’t have
to be there I didn’t have to be
depressed one thing kept going through
my mind I can’t change yesterday but I
do have the power to make today a
wonderful day
maybe you did something wrong yesterday
and if you don’t have revelation of what
I’m talking about today you you may have
brought your sack of guilt to this
meeting with you today
and you might set it under your seat and
forget about it just for a little while
while I’m preaching to you but sure as
I’m standing here you’ll pick it up and
take it home with you
well we want you to get rid of that
I can be happy joyous fulfilled
encouraged I can be encouraging knowing
this I left the city of regret
immediately and left no forwarding
address
am I sorry for my mistakes yes but
there’s no physical way to undo them
so if you’re planning a trip back to the
city of regret please cancel your
reservations
instead take a trip to a new place
called starting again
I liked it so much that I’ve taken up
permanent residence there now
my neighbors the I forgive myself and
the new starts have been very helpful to
me
come on
by the way you don’t have to carry
around any heavy baggage there the load
has been lifted from your shoulders
God bless you as you search for this new
town if you find it please look me up I
live on I can do it Street
now you know guilt
enters as a thought creates a Feeling
and we live
by that feeling just like I said last
night about fear it comes in as a
thought creates a Feeling
we can’t always do anything about the
feelings that we have but we’re more
than feelings
you’re so much more than feelings and
the truth is is you don’t have to make
decisions based on your feelings and if
you’re smart you won’t even believe your
feelings you’ll even say I don’t care
how I feel this is what I know and when
you begin to live by the word of God and
what you know instead of how you feel
guess what your feelings will change and
begin to line up with the word
when I finally saw how Satan had stolen
from me
through guilt that was really false
guilt because I had repented asked God
to forgive me and even believe that he
had forgiven me
and yet I would still go around and feel
guilty and bad and I carried that burden
on my back everywhere that I went I did
not feel right if I didn’t feel wrong
I want to say it again I did not feel
right if I didn’t feel wrong
I began to almost think that that was
the religious way to feel like an old
worm and somebody that just
could never
do it right
and please God
and every morning when I would go to
have
my prayer and time with God
I would go over one of two things all of
my problems
and all of my mistakes
oh God I’m so sorry God I’m sorry I’m
sorry I’m sorry God I know I’m a mess
I’m so sorry sorry sorry
but you know the Bible says ask and
receive that your joy may be full I was
asking but I never took the time to stop
and receive
and I’d like to encourage you from now
on when you ask God to forgive your sins
for anything that you’ve done wrong take
a moment and say and I receive your
forgiveness right now
don’t just ask but ask and receive why
that you can take that next step so your
joy
can be full
and one morning as I was doing my
regular routine I really remember the
Lord speaking to me and saying are you
going to fellowship with me this morning
are your problems and your sins
do you spend more time with your sins
than you do with God
do you spend more time thinking about
what you’ve done wrong than what he’s
done right
where sin does abound Grace does much
more
abound thanks for listening overcome
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