Victoria Osteen (0:00)

Victoria and I are believing you're going to have a blessed summer, praying for you guys every day. And thanks for being with us today. Hey, I'm excited. Victoria's got a new book out. It's called Grace to Go, and I know it's going to bless you.

Joel Osteen (0:13)

I'm excited because in this book, you will see how you are strengthened, that you are prepared and you are ready for anything that's in front of you. You are Grace To Go. Enjoy today's message. You were expecting to see Joel up here, but you got me. Okay. Oh, wow. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. So, you know, in the tradition of Joel's joke telling, I was gonna tell a joke. So I was telling him, I'm gonna tell a joke, Joel. And he was like, wait a minute. You never get the punchlines right. And I said, what? You never get the punchlines right. So you know what I thought, since Mr. Positive was so encouraging to me, just tell a funny story about him. You know, when Joel first started ministering, one Sunday, before he went up to speak, we were in the worship service, and I noticed that his hair was sticking straight up in the back. I'm telling you, if you looked at him from the front, it looked like he had an antenna. And so I leaned over and I whispered to him, I said, you need to push your hair down. It's sticking straight up in the back. He said, I did, and it won't stay down. And I said, well, go to the back. In the bathroom, there is some hairspray under the sink. And if you take that hairspray and spray it really good and then push it down, it'll stay. So he slipped out of service during the worship service and walked back. And I noticed when it was his time to speak and he got up on the platform, his hair was sticking up even worse. It was sticking straight up like a peacock feather. So after the message, I said to him, I said, joel, that was an amazing message, but why didn't you spray your hair? He said, I did spray it, and it didn't work. He said that hairspray was no good. And I said, what did you use? I said, show me. So we walked back, and he showed me the can of hairspray, and I looked at it, and I said, joel, this isn't hairspray. This is air freshener. His hair was sticking up, but he smelled really good. Let's hold up our Bibles and make our declaration. This is my Bible. I am what it says. I Am I have what it says I have and 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. Well, I want to share with you a few minutes on legacy in the little things. See, it's easy to think we're not making much of a difference. We're just going to work, raising our children, helping a friend, just our normal routine. But the truth is, most of life is ordinary. We can never underestimate the power of our everyday actions. Jesus said in Matthew, if you give a cup of cold water to someone that's thirsty, you'll be rewarded. He was talking about helping people. But the principle is, everything you do matters. Not just the big things, but the small acts of obedience. Every smile you give, every kind word you speak. When you go the extra mile at work and no one seems to notice your faithfulness and your generosity, the sacrifices you make. God sees it all. Nothing goes unnoticed by him. He sees you getting up early, making breakfast for your family. He sees you checking in on that friend who's been struggling, bringing your children to church week after week. These may seem ordinary, but they're moments that are shaping your home and forming your children. You're planting life, producing seeds that will impact generations to come. It's in the ordinary obedience. When you're serving, giving, loving, that you're creating legacy. You don't need to be in the spotlight or have a large platform. If you do, that's great, but your impact is just as real and it's just as powerful. See, it's not always the big moments that build legacy. It's the small steps of daily faithfulness. The things you do quietly when no one applauds those actions that seem small. God's keeping the records. What you do in secret, what nobody gives you credit for. God said he'll reward you openly. There's something known as the butterfly effect. A mathematician and weather expert named Edward Lorenz came up with this thought theory that a butterfly fluttering its wings in Brazil could set off a chain reaction that could create a hurricane in Texas. That small, insignificant motion had the power to set off a major shift. Of course, people thought it was ridiculous and they discounted it. But he was able to prove scientifically how that slight change in the atmosphere created by a simple flutter of a butterfly's wings could lead to this incredibly impactful weather pattern. The principle is small. Ordinary actions can create a ripple effect that will cause Much larger events to occur. Well, you say, victoria, how does that apply to us? When you flutter your wings, you go about your routine each day. It can seem ordinary, like not much is happening, but your obedience is setting in motion things you can't see. There's a ripple effect taking place. God is orchestrating things that will have a greater impact and more significance than you could ever imagine right now. That's why the enemy works so hard on trying to make us feel insignificant. But don't believe those lies. Your life is making a difference. People are watching you. Your family, your friends, your co workers. They're being influenced. In John 6, there was a woman that had no idea how much she mattered and how God was going to use something routine in her life to have such a tremendous impact on others. See, it was just an ordinary morning. She woke up and started her day. Her to do list was as long as usual. But first she had to make lunch for her young son. She only had two small fish left over from dinner and five loaves of bread. As she began packing his lunch, doing what she always did, she never imagined what would happen later that day. There was a huge crowd of people listening to Jesus teach. And it was late in the day. So his disciples said, jesus, should we dismiss the people so that they could go find food? But Jesus said, you feed them. They looked puzzled and said, that's impossible. We could never feed this many people. Jesus asked, what do you have? After searching the whole crowd, they came up with this little boy's lunch his mother had packed him earlier that day. Five loaves and two fish. They gave it to Jesus. He blessed the food and it multiplied and ended up feeding over 5,000 people with 12 baskets left over. See, we hear a lot about the miracles of multiplying the food and I'm sure you know that story. But think about where it all started. A mother being faithful. She thought it was just an ordinary routine day checking off her to do list. But it was part of a bigger plan. Something she couldn't see right then. A divinely orchestrated moment that years later would still be inspiring us. That's the butterfly effect, the relationship between small movements and big events. This mother's ordinary sandwich making skills created an extraordinary effect. She was fluttering her wings, doing her best, and God used it. How could something as routine as taking care of your family have that kind of effect? Going to work, being your best, doing it all over again. It feels so normal. If this mother were here, she would tell you, you never know the impact of your faithfulness. Keep honoring God, being good to people, going the extra mile, you're making a difference. I can imagine how this mother felt when her son came flying in the door that night with the news of what happened. He was probably talking 90 miles an hour as he told her about his lunch. She thought, you mean the five loaves and two fish? That little lunch I made you? The scripture says, don't despise the day of small beginnings. God loves to take our small and do big things. He'll use what we consider insignificant or ordinary to have a tremendous impact. Just like that little boy's lunch. Think about David's slingshot and how he used it to defeat Goliath, Moses rod that he held up in obedience to God and parted the Red Sea. Or the widow with their last bit of oil, sacrificing it to make the prophet Elijah dinner. And the oil never ran out. That's the butterfly effect. They were all part of a bigger plan. You are too. Your steps are being ordered by the Lord. God has these destiny moments. It can seem ordinary, but you don't know what God's up to. As you keep fluttering your wings. Things are happening behind the scenes. And it's not always those big events. It's the small acts of obedience. Being faithful in your everyday life is what God uses. In 1939, in a small East Texas town, a young man named Sam Martin would go to high school early each morning and write scriptures on the chalkboard. The other students, they thought it was a little odd, but that didn't stop Sam. He loved sharing his faith. It became a routine part of his morning. He would go to school early and write scriptures on the blackboard. One night, a student that was in Sam's class was home alone and thinking about heaven and if it was real. He randomly opened a big Bible that had sat on the coffee table for as long as he could remember, and it fell open to a picture of Jesus standing at a door, knocking. The caption read, if anyone opens the door, I'll come in. This teenager's heart was stirred, and he began to think about the scriptures that Sam had written on the blackboards. The next day, he asked Sam about what he'd seen in the Bible and how it made him feel. Sam explained to him that was God drawing you to himself. That Sunday, Sam was able to take his classmate to church. And it was that day that John Osteen, Joel's father, gave his life to Christ. If it wasn't for Sam Martin, there may not be a John Osteen or A Joel Osteen, the way we know them today. John and Sam, they remained close friends. And 50 years later, Sam Martin wrote a book called I Touched One, But He Touched Millions. That's the butterfly effect of Sam Martin's faith. Don't ever underestimate the small acts of obedience and the times that you honor God, even when it seems ordinary. Sam was a quiet high school student simply shining his light, writing scriptures on the chalkboard each morning. It didn't seem like it was making much of a difference, but in God's hands, it had an incredible ripple effect. I want to remind you, your life is not ordinary. It may at times seem small or routine, but in the hands of God, you're extraordinary. You may not be in the spotlight, but you will be rewarded for every good deed, every act of obedience. Your generosity and the people you encourage, your deeds are seeds. And they're going to come back to you and spill over to future generations. When you read about the heroes of faith in the Bible, it's like seeing their highlight reel. You know, we're amazed when Moses parted the Red Sea with his staff and how impressive it was when David killed Goliath with just his slingshot. But we don't know much about their ordinary days. The 40 years Moses spent in the wilderness, the time David spent just with sheep out in the shepherd's fields. The ordinary days were far more than the miraculous days. We can't discount that time, because in the ordinary, things were changing. Everything was changing. The truth is, we're going to have more ordinary days than we do miraculous ones. But that's okay, because those ordinary days have purpose. They're creating an atmosphere for God to work and setting the stage for him to do extraordinary things. A friend of mine discovered this. She thought her job of writing letters for a company that she worked for was mundane. She knew she had more in her, and this just felt so insignificant. Even though she was tempted to slack off, she continued to have a good attitude and kept giving it her best. One day, she received a phone call from a man who had received one of those letters. He specifically asked for her because she had signed her name on behalf of the organization. He told her how much he appreciated the letter and how it brightened his day. Then she went on to help him with what he needed. To my friend, this was just an ordinary call, but she had just walked into the extraordinary. She had a sister that had a serious liver condition and was in need of a transplant. Typically, it takes a long time to get on the list, and it didn't look good. As they talked, the man told her how he worked for a medical supply company and he was connected to doctors all over the community, even the country. When she mentioned her sister's condition, he said, I know just the doctor who can help. He went out of his way to introduce her to a specialist. This doctor took her sister under his wings and made her a priority. It just so happened they found the perfect match. They were able to give her the life saving transplant that she needed. And today she's perfectly healthy and whole. This all started by being faithful in the ordinary. What looked routine and felt mundane was setting my friend up for a divine appointment that saved her sister's life and changed their family forever. Like my friend, you may know there's more inside you, but you feel stuck in the ordinary. Can I remind you there is no ordinary in God. When you keep giving your best each day and you have a good attitude, you go that extra mile. You're showing God that you trust him in the mundane and the magnificent. In the valley and on the mountaintop, you're in the preparation season. Things are changing that you can't see right now. That fluttering is creating ripple effects. God sees your obedience and your sacrifice. And it's only a matter of time before you cross over from the ordinary to the extraordinary. My friend not only saw a huge impact on her family, with her sister's life being spared, but now, my friend, she owns her own business and she's thriving in ways she never could imagine. See, that's God's favor. He has the right people, open doors. It'll seem like it happens suddenly, but in fact it was all those days of being faithful in the ordinary, being best in the routine. There's a woman in scripture. Her name is Naomi. After losing her husband and two grown sons, she was grief stricken and decided to move back to her hometown of Bethlehem. Years earlier, she had left because of a famine, but now it was time for her to return. She told her two daughters in law to go back to their hometowns and build a new life for themselves. One of them did. Orpah. She left and went back to her people. But Ruth, she didn't leave. Naomi, she said, naomi, where you go, I'll go. Your God will be my God. She was loyal and she was kind and she took care of her. In Bethlehem, they didn't have any food or income. So Ruth would have to get up in the morning and go out in the fields and pick leftover grain that the workers had missed. I'm sure she was disappointed and at one time she had big dreams. She was going to do great things with her husband and have a child one day. But now all that's gone. She could have been discouraged and thought, I don't want to go out in the fields today. I'm tired of having to be the sole provider. But she just kept doing the small thing, consistent, even when it was difficult. What she didn't realize was that her kindness and faithfulness was planting seeds. Those small acts of obedience, they don't go unnoticed by God. When you're faithful, even when it's hard, making sacrifices, doing the right thing, even if you don't know if things will ever change, it is setting you up to see the winds of change. God is working all things out for your good. One day while Ruth was out in the field faithfully picking up leftover wheat, Boaz, the owner of the field, noticed her. He had heard about her kindness and her loyalty and how she cared for Naomi day after day. So he told his workers, leave handfuls of wheat on purpose for her. Now she didn't have to work as hard. She had more than enough wheat with less effort. That's what it looks like when God rewards you openly. That's the kind of blessing Jesus spoke about when he said, if you give a cup of cold water to someone in need, you'll be rewarded. When you make sacrifices to be good to your family and take care of your neighbor, you give that cup of cold water. It matters more than you think. Ruth thought being out in the field was her destiny. That's the way it would always be. She couldn't see it at the time, what God was up to. You don't know the ripple effects you're creating by just being faithful and showing up, being your best when you could take the easy way out. See, the owner of that field, he not only noticed Ruth, he was not only good to her, but he fell in love with her. They ended up getting married. They had a baby named Obed. Ruth never dreamed she'd have a child. She was so excited. She not only had a son, but she also became the great grandmother of King David. That meant that she was in the family line of Jesus Christ. Her small humble acts of love and obedience, those quiet choices had life changing effects, even history shaping impact. What feels ordinary or routine is producing extraordinary effects. Being faithful, even when you feel like nothing's changing, it's in those times you're creating ripples that are going to affect not only you, but your family line and have a Generational impact. I have such fond memories of my grandmother. She was a remarkable woman. She loved God, and she knew the power of prayer. When I was a little girl, we would visit my grandmother's house, and I would look out the window and see her in the morning in her garden on her knees, praying for her family. I can still remember the smell of her homemade biscuits baking in the oven. One of her many talents was designing clothing. She loved to make dresses for my mother. She'd put unusual colors together and mix patterns. When my mother was growing up, every Sunday she had a new dress hanging on the back of her door to wear to church. It gave my grandmother such joy to see my mother in those dresses. My mother learned to love fashion and design growing up watching her mother simply using her gift. To my grandmother, those sewing projects may have seemed ordinary. She was just taking care of her children. Little did she realize that example and that labor of love was planting seeds in her daughter. Years later, that same love for design, my mother stepped out in faith and opened a fine jewelry store. She was the first female independent jeweler in Houston. She was inspired so much by her mother in so many ways, and I can truly say that my mother's life has been an inspiration to me. Because my grandmother did what she did with excellence. I felt the winds of change in my life. Many years later, I worked in that jewelry store. As I grew up, I learned the business, but I never dreamed. One afternoon in that very store, this tall, dark, and handsome young man would come in needing a battery for his watch. With my amazing salesability, I ended up selling him a whole new watch. A few days later, he called me and asked me out on a date. Joel's story is that I couldn't keep my hands off of him. So we got married. The truth is, I was so fine that he couldn't stand it. 38 years and we're still going strong. You never know the effects you're having by using your gifts and living as an example to your family. Twelve years later, Joel's father went to heaven and we stepped up to pastor the church. Today we had the honor of bringing hope to people around the world. But this all goes back to my grandmother's faithfulness in Sam Martin's obedience. That's the butterfly effect of their faith. All those mornings, my grandmother praying for her family, making those dresses. What she thought was ordinary was in fact planting life, giving seeds and affecting future generations. She couldn't see it at the time, but God was using her as part of a bigger plan. Every day you stay faithful, pray for your family. Invest in those you love. Take time to make those dresses. Your fluttering wings are changing the atmosphere. You're making a difference. You may not see it now, but like my grandmother, like Sam Martin, you're influencing generations to come. Years ago, I was visiting my cousin who lived in Georgia. One morning, we decided to go see my grandmother's house. We were just going to drive by and reminisce about old times. But when we pulled up, we saw a lot of cars out front. And as we got a little closer, there was a sign on the front of the house. We couldn't believe it. They had turned my grandmother's house into a small church. We could hear the music, so we decided to go in, and we sat in the back. It was her main room, the one we remember spending so many Christmases in. My cousin and I were so touched, we began to weep. We could feel the presence of God. And one of the members noticed us crying and came over and asked us if we needed prayer. We told her how this was our grandmother's house growing up and how she was a godly woman and loved to pray, and how proud she would be to know that her house has become a place of worship. You know, after the service, we talked to the pastor, and when he was looking for somewhere to meet, he said, the moment my wife and I found this place, we could feel such peace. We knew this was a house of prayer. Look at the ripple effect of one woman, my grandmother, being faithful in the ordinary. She didn't have a big platform. She was never well known. But her life of kindness, sacrifice, and honoring God was still impacting people long after she was gone. There's legacy in the little things. Every cup of cold water, every prayer, providing for your family. God sees that. And many of you, like my grandmother, have been good to your family. Faithful at work, always serving, giving. But maybe not getting much recognition. Thoughts would whisper, does it matter? It's not making a difference. No. I believe your time is coming. You're going to see the ripple effects of your ordinary obedience, being faithful in the mundane. Those seeds you've sown are going to come back to you and your children. God is faithful. He's keeping the records, what you've done, in secret. He's going to reward you openly. Your labor, those cups of cold water, they don't go unnoticed. He's promised you will surely be rewarded. Everything you do matters. Keep being your best each day, pouring into your family, excelling in school, stepping into those dreams that God's put in your heart. Your small acts of ability obedience are setting miracles into motion. The winds of change are happening. And because of your faithfulness, you're not only going to be a great blessing, but you're going to be blessed in greater ways. Amen.