Joel Osteen (1:18)
Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoyed today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend? We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Well, God bless you. It's a joy to come into your homes. We love you. If you're ever in our area, I hope you'll stop by and be a part of one of our services. I promise you we'll make you feel right at home. But thanks so much for tuning in today and thank you again for coming out. And I like to start with something funny. And I heard about these three pastors. They were in a boat together one day fishing. And one pastor said, you know, we never get to let our hair down. Each tell the area that we struggle in the most our greatest sin so we can pray for each other. First pastor said, well, I hate to say this, but I've got a problem with gambling. Sometimes I sneak out at night and gamble. The second pastor said, well, I hate to say this, but I've got a problem with cheating. I hardly ever pay my taxes. The third pastor just sat there quietly. They waited and waited. He wouldn't budge. They said, we are not leaving until you tell us your greatest sin. He said, all right. My greatest sin is with gossip. And I can't wait to get off this boat. Hold up your Bible. Say it like you mean it. This is My Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess. My mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about helping others to win. I've heard it said, you will always have what you want. If you will help others get what they want, if you will use your influence to help others to succeed. And you take time to give them advice and you introduce them to people you know, you make a phone call and put in a good word. When you help others to win, you are sowing a seed for you to come up higher. I had a lady tell how her supervisor wouldn't train her on this new computer program. The company had sent this supervisor a way to learn how to use it, but when she came back, she wouldn't share any of the information. She was afraid her co worker might get promoted over her, so she was keeping it to herself. But when we try to hold people back, all we're really doing is holding ourselves back. If you will live unselfish and help people get to your level, God will make sure somebody will be there to help you get to the next level. I heard about this professional mountain climber. He was on his way to the top of the mountain. It was very cold and hard to breathe. Even some of the most experienced mountain climbers couldn't make it. And along the way, about six hours from the top, his team encountered an incredible snowstorm, a blizzard, making it extremely difficult. At one point, he saw a man on the side of the trail curled up, laying there asleep. He was basically freezing to death. He had a heartbeat, but he could barely breathe. And his team looked at him and kept going. They said, if you stop and try to help him, you could lose your own life. This man could not leave him there. He told the team to go on. He started massaging the man's arms and rubbing his legs and patting his face, trying to get him to wake up. Miraculously, about 15 minutes later, the man came to and they walked down the mountain. He saved his life. The doctor that examined them both said to the man that stopped to help, your arms and legs were starting to go numb. You were starting to suffer from frostbite. You wouldn't have made it much further. But when you started massaging this man, it increased your own circulation and you probably saved your own life. It's easy to get so caught up in our climb to the top that we're too busy to help anybody else. We think, I can't stop. Other people are going to get ahead of me. The truth is, when we take time to help other people win, what we're really doing is. Is helping ourselves to win. In the scripture, the Apostle Paul would have never become who he was without a man named Barnabas. Barnabas was one of the disciples. In a sense, he had already won. He was in the inner circle. You could say he was in management. He was in the corner office. His friend Paul came along. You remember Paul. At one time he hated believers. He was having them thrown in jail and God touched his life and he became the apostle Paul. Well, now Paul was wanting to go to Jerusalem and join up with the other disciples. But in Acts 9:26, it tells how the disciples were afraid of Paul. They didn't know if he had really changed. The next verse says, barnabas stood up for Paul. Barnabas put in a good word for him. He said, in effect, hey, I can vouch for Paul. I know who he is. He's the real deal. If it had not been for Barnabas using his influence to open that door, Paul probably would not have written over half of the New Testament. We don't hear a lot about Barnabas. Paul greatly overshadowed him. But if you were to talk to Paul, he would say, I won because Barnabas helped me to win. I succeeded because Barnabas dared to take a risk and opened a door that I could not open on my own. Barnabas believed in me when nobody else did. Every life that Paul touched, do you know Barnabas will get a reward as well? Friends, there's no greater legacy than to help someone else win. And God has so blessed me. I am constantly looking for ways to use my influence to help other people come up higher. Had a pastor call a while back and they're trying to buy a building from their city like we did. There was a man that was very instrumental in this whole process. I said, I'll get in touch with him. I'll put in a good word for you and I'll make sure that he gets on board. We've won. I'm not going to keep it to myself. I'm going to help somebody else win. The truth be known, he probably never would have found that contact. This man is not in a phone book. He doesn't have his own company. Here's what I've learned. When you do for others what they cannot do for themselves, you will never lack God's favor. You will never lack God's blessing. And yes, it's good that we accomplish our dreams. That's important. But there's no more rewarding feeling than to have someone say, I succeeded because you helped me succeed. We got our building because Lakewood gave us their contacts. I rose to a new level because he stayed late after work and taught me and trained me what he knew. I think about our friend Michael. He's one of our main guitar players here at Lakewood. And Michael loves to help other people win. He's one of the most talented musicians you could ever meet. He's played with some of the most famous artists in all the world. Michael is at the top of his game. He's already won. He could be sitting back saying, boy, look how great I am. God, you blessed me with a lot of talent. No, Michael's not keeping it to himself. He's sharing it with others. There's nobody that invests in young people any more than Michael. Michael took our son Jonathan under his wing years ago and started teaching him how to play the guitar. We never really asked him to. He never lets us pay him for it. He just did it because he wanted to. This has been going on for seven or eight years. And now Jonathan is a great guitar player. On Friday nights. On Friday nights, Michael is not out partying like he used to. He's not strung out on drugs. Do you know where he is? He's here at our Celebrate Recovery classes, leading the worship he's won. Now he's helping other people overcome addictions. When our son Jonathan is 60, 70 years old, he'll still remember. I'm successful in part because Michael helped me to win. Michael helped me to develop my gifts. Michael helped bring out the best in me. See, when you help someone to win, you become a friend for life. You'll always have a special place in their heart. I remember a few months after my father died, I stepped up to pastor the church and I was ministering most Sunday mornings. But I was very unsure of myself. I'd never pastored before and I was nervous and intimidated. I didn't really know if I had what it took. One day I got a letter in the mail from a man by the name of John Maxwell. Many of you know John. He's an expert in leadership and great communicator and just a very well respected man. I'd never met him before. I'd only admired him from afar. And boy, I opened that letter as quick as I could. It said, joel, I watched you on television on Sunday and you were outstanding. I've got to tell you, you've got what it takes. He went on to list several things that he liked. You keep it simple. You've got a good personality. He listed several suggestions. Here's some advice. Here's what you can do to be less nervous. Here's what I do when I'm getting prepared. Sharing his secrets, giving his encouragement. 40 years of experience and now he's pouring it into a young man that he's never even met before. He didn't have to do that. He has already won. No, he understands this principle. True success is when you reach back and bring somebody along with you. Do you know I still have that note. A few weeks later I was able to meet John. And I got to tell you, John Maxwell will be a friend of mine for life. He spoke into me at a very critical time on my journey. Look around this week. Who has God put in your life? They're not there by accident. God brings people across our path on purpose. We should live with this awareness that I am here to add value to people. I'm here to help them succeed. Don't go around thinking, I wonder what they can do for me. I wonder what they have to offer. No, we should have the attitude, what can I do for them? How can I help them come up higher? Can I teach them something I know? Can I connect them with a colleague of mine? Don't make the mistake of going through life ingrown. That's very shallow. Be a dream releaser. Do like John Maxwell and look for opportunities to call out the seeds of greatness that God's put in every person. Use your talent, your influence, your experience, not just to accomplish your goals, but use that to help release a dream in somebody else to give them more confidence to help them go further. There's nothing more rewarding than to lay down at night knowing that you help someone else become better. You not only fulfilled your purpose for that day, you did your best, you worked hard, but you also took time to invest in someone else. It may have just been a two minute phone call where you encouraged somebody. Or maybe you spent five minutes after work teaching a co worker or you just gave a good idea to a friend working on a project. When I look back over my life outside of my family, I can think of four or five dream releasers. People that took special interest in me. A coach in high school when I was the smallest one on the team. He spoke faith into me. He made me think I was the biggest, baddest, toughest Like I was Michael Jordan. I remember one of my Sunday school teachers when I was a little boy. His name is Larry. He still attends Lakewood. He invested in me. He taught us young boys like we were paying attention. He made it fun. He didn't just go by the lesson. He always went the extra mile. I can say now I'm successful in part because Larry helped me to win. You may not see Larry up here on the platform, but let me tell you, he's up here with me. That coach is up here with me. John Maxwell's up here with me. I'm succeeding because people weren't just interested in their goals, their dreams. They became dream releasers. They knew the value of helping somebody else win. There's a lot of people that have success. They've accomplished their goals. But being successful doesn't necessarily make you great. What makes you great is when you reach back and help somebody else become great. When you realize, God has blessed me not to just sit on my throne and let everybody see my accomplishments. No, I know God has blessed me to become a blessing. God has helped me to win so I can help somebody else to win. In other words, God helped me to overcome this addiction. Now I'm going to go find somebody that's addicted and help them overcome. God's blessed me with a happy, healthy family. I'm going to go find a family that's struggling and help them get back on track or God's helped me pass this course in high school. Now I'm going to go to my friends and help him study so he can pass too. Reach back and bring somebody else up with you. You've won. Now make it your business to help somebody else win. In 1936, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin, Germany. Hitler's influence could be felt so strongly, Hitler didn't want any blacks to compete, much less win. There was a young American sprinter there by the name of Jesse Owens. Jesse was black. He had already won three gold medals. And now he was attempting his fourth gold medal by competing in the running long jump. Jesse told how the crowd was very much against him. He could feel their hostility, so much so he began to lose focus. On his first attempt, he crossed the line and faulted. Second attempt, crossed the line, faulted again. One more fault and he would be disqualified. This was very much out of character for Jesse, but he had let the crowd get to him. And they were still jeering at him and shouting against him. He was very rattled. Jesse's main competitor was a tall German athlete named Luz Long. Luz Long had never met Jesse, but he could see he was all shaken up. In front of tens of thousands of people, this hometown favorite, Luz Long, did the unthinkable. He went over and put his arm around Jesse Owens and began to give him advice. He said, jesse, the qualifying distance is only 23ft. You've jumped 26ft many times before. Just move your starting mark back three inches. That way you'll make sure to not cross the line. Disqualified. Jesse took his advice, and on the next jump he qualified. Jesse went on to break the world record and win his fourth gold medal. Jesse Owens said later, you can melt down all the gold from those medals, and it will not compare to the value of the friendship I have found in Luz Long. See, Long knew there was something greater than just winning a medal he could win a friend for life. I've heard it said, no one stands taller on their climb for success than when he bends down to help somebody else. If you will live unselfishly and be willing to give advice like Luz Long, even if that means somebody's going to pass you up, let me tell you, you will always have God's blessings. When you are a dream releaser, God will make sure your dreams come to pass. I found the greatest legacy is not what we leave for people, but what we leave in people. Luz Long left something in Jesse that he'll never forget. They became lifelong friends. One time, a very generous businessman offered me 500 movie theaters to use every Sunday morning. He said, joel, you can have them free of charge if you'll just pipe your message in by video and have a service with our television coverage, I'm sure we could have thousands of people all over. Many churches are going to multiple campuses, and I thought, wow, overnight we could have 500 campuses. And while that was very appealing to the ego, when I prayed about it, I knew it wasn't something I should do. My focus is to pastor this church and to spread hope around the world through the media. But I've never felt called to pastor people in 500 different locations. Our desire is to encourage the people that watch us on television to get into a good church that's already established in their city. And I say this very humbly, but God's already helped us to win. We have 52 years of history here at Lakewood, some 50,000 people that come out. Our kingdom is big enough. I want to build God's kingdom. I want to help other pastors to win. I want to use my influence not to put people in one of my 500 churches. But to put people in one of their churches, they've been raised up, established and called for their city. Here's my point. When you live unselfishly and you're more focused on helping someone else get ahead than you are on feeding your own ego, it's amazing how God works. The more we help other pastors, the more God increases. Lakewood like a boomerang. When you help somebody else come up higher, it's going to come right back and you're going to come up higher. We've got to get outside of ourselves. Who are you investing in? Who are you making better? Who are you pushing up? Your destiny is tied to helping others. And we should never get so big in our own mind that we're too good to reach down and help somebody under us. Some people, when they walk into a room, they suck all the oxygen out of it. You can hardly breathe. They're so great. They're so big. They're talking about their accomplishments. They got 27 titles behind their name. That just means they're insecure and they have to impress you like that. No. If you really want to impress people, come down off your throne and help somebody else get to their throne. Do what you can to push somebody else up. Here's the key. Learn to believe in people before they succeed. Anybody can believe in them after they're successful, after they graduate, after they're promoted, after they break the addiction. It's easy to be people's friend when they all got it together and they're blessed and prosperous. But when they need us the most is before. If you're going to be a dream releaser, you have to look past their faults, look past what they're doing wrong and see their potential. Most people, all they need is a little push, a little advice, a little encouragement. Bottom line, put yourself in their shoes and do for them what you would want somebody to do for you. You may have some good advice that could save them a lot of heartache and pain. Don't keep it to yourself. Pick up the phone. Call them. Help them to win. Maybe you excelled in that college course that they're struggling in. Don't sit back and think too bad they got to learn it the hard way. No, God's counting on you to make it easier. Nobody may have helped you, but if you want God's continued blessing on your life, you can't be selfish. You've got to be willing to be inconvenienced. You've got to be willing to make some sacrifices to Teach to train, to share what you know, to help somebody else come up higher. I have a friend that grew up in the projects. Very poor. He was raised by a single parent. Mom didn't look like he had much of a future. But through a series of good breaks and really it was God's favor, he got a scholarship to a university. In fact, it was an Ivy Lee College. Most of the students there were from white well to do families. My friend was a black young man from a low income family. His roommate was a sharp young man. He had traveled the world and here, my friend, he had hardly ever even gotten out of his neighborhood. It was a night and day difference. He and his roommate hit it off and became best friends. He told his roommate that his dream was to become a television news journalist. He knew from the time he was a little boy that's what he always wanted to do. His roommate said, you'll never become a journalist with your vocabulary like it is. It's too limited. We got to do something about it. Instead of just seeing where he was, this roommate saw his potential. He got a dictionary. And every day he taught this young man, my friend, a new word. He made him use that in a sentence. This went on day after day, week after week for four years. He taught him a new word every day. What was that roommate doing? Being a dream releaser. He had won. God had blessed him with a good family, a good upbringing. He had education, he had resources. Now he was passing it on, helping somebody else to win. And today that young boy from the projects is an award winning journalist seen by millions of people every week on probably the number one news program in America. He told me, joel, I would never be where I am if it were not for my roommate. I would have never made it this far if he had not taken time to invest in me. That's true success. When you reach back and you bring somebody with you. Where are the people that will make sacrifices to help somebody else win? Where are the people that will be willing to be inconvenienced, to invest in someone so they can become all God's created them to be. Let's do like that roommate and be dream releasers. Let's believe in people before they succeed. Let's call out their seeds of greatness that God's put on the inside. I heard a story about a little boy named shay. Shay was 10 years old and both physically and mentally challenged. He and his father were out walking one day and they went by a baseball field where a bunch of young boys shae's age were playing a game. Shay loved baseball. He said to his dad, do you think they would let me play on one of their teams? Shay's dad knew that he couldn't play at that level. He was very uncoordinated and couldn't hardly run at all. Shay's dad didn't want to disappoint him. So he went over and he asked one of the young boys in the dugout if Shea could play. The little boy looked around at his friends, trying to get some advice. Finally he said, well, sir, there's only two innings left and we're down by three runs, but sure he can come play. We'll put him in the outfield. Shay was so excited, he could not believe he was out there playing baseball with those other young men. In the last inning, their team was down by one run. There were two outs and it was Shea's time to bat. Deep down, those other teammates wanted to put in a pinch hitter. They wanted to send their best batter up, but they knew that wouldn't be right. So they sent Shea up to the plate, basically knowing that they had already lost the game. I mean, Shea didn't have a chance. He was facing their star pitcher. This pitcher wound back and fired the first pitch so fast, Shay didn't even have a chance. He swung so late and so uncoordinated, he missed it by a mile. At that point, the pitcher realized that Shea had some physical challenges. The next pitch he threw about half the speed. But once again Shea swung and missed by a mile. This time the pitcher stepped off the mound and walked much closer to home plate. He threw the ball as soft as he could and believe it or not, Shea hit the ball. It went about 5ft right in front of the home plate. The pitcher ran and picked it up just out of instinct. He was about to first base and win the game. But out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shay running the best that he could. He didn't have the heart to throw it on purpose. He threw the ball over the first baseman's head into the outfield. The dad stood up and said, run, Shea, run. Kind of like, run Forest, run. Shea went to first, headed towards second. By this time all the other boys knew what was going on. And on purpose they kept throwing the ball over each other's heads, letting it go through their legs. And Shay rounded third base and the whole crowd was going. Shay, Shay, Shay and Shay came in with a game winning run. Father had these big tears running down his cheeks. But that day, those Boys deposited something in Shea that he'll never Forget. When he's 70 years old, he'll remember the time he scored the game winning run. See, sometimes you have to give up winning so somebody else can win. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to let someone else get ahead. Sometimes you have to put your own dreams on hold temporarily so you can help release a dream in somebody else. Here's the key. What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you. When you live unselfishly and you help somebody else get ahead, God will make sure somebody's there to help you get ahead. My challenge is make every day a shay day. Find somebody to invest in. Somebody you can help come up higher. Don't go to bed without knowing you did something for someone to help them win. I'm asking us to to become dream releasers. Believe in people before they succeed. Call out those seeds of greatness. When you do for others what they cannot do for themselves, you will always have God's favor. You will not only accomplish your dreams, but God will take you higher and higher. And I believe and declare. You will become everything God's created you to be. You will have everything God intended for you to have. Amen. Do you receive it today? We never like to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. Friends, if you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. Get in a good Bible based church. Keep God first place. He's going to take you places that you've never dreamed of. When we face challenges, it's easy to feel like God has forgotten about us. We don't see anything happening. Thoughts tell us it's not going to work out. But God is not called the great I was or the great I will be. He's called the great I am in my new book, he is I am. You'll discover that God is with you in every area of your life. I am is always in the present, not at a later time. God is working in your life right now. I am means I am your healing. I am your provider. I am your waymaker. Whether you're facing a challenge or pursuing your dreams, stay in faith. The great I am is right there with you.
