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Joel Osteen (1:33)

Thanks so much for listening to the podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. We believe you're going to have an awesome 2024 healthy, productive and favor filled. God bless you today and enjoy the message. Well, God bless you. Always 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 thank you so much for tuning in and thank you again for coming out today. I would like to start with something funny and I heard about this new pastor. He was in town going from house to house inviting people to come to church. He knocked on this one door and he could tell someone was home, but no one would answer. He took his business card and he wrote on the back the scripture reference. Revelation 3:20. He left it at the door. The next Sunday after service the usher handed him that same card and it had the scripture reference written under it. Genesis 3:10 here's what they say. The pastor's words Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone answers, I will come in. The reply Genesis 3:10 it says, I heard your voice, but I was afraid because I was naked. Hold up your Bible and 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 recognizing what you have. So often we focus on what we don't have and how big our obstacles are and how bad the economy is. Joel, I don't have the connections. I've got this problem, but I don't have anybody to help me. I've got this dream, but I don't have the resources. Now here's what I've learned. Everything you need to fulfill your destiny is. Is within reach. God will always use something that's close to you. It may not look extraordinary. All David had was a slingshot and five stones Looked ordinary. He could have thought, I'm not going to face Goliath. That would be foolish. I don't have a chance. No. David recognized what he had. He knew those stones, that slingshot. Even though they were ordinary, when he placed them in God's hands, they would become extraordinary. All Moses had was a stick. It wasn't a fancy stick, wasn't covered with jewels and made out of marble. It was just a plain old ordinary stick. Here, Pharaoh and the enemy army was chasing the Israelites. They were backed up at the Red Sea. There were mountains on both sides, the sea in front of them, the army behind them. It was a dead end, I'm sure. Moses said, God, please send 10,000 angels to defend us. God, please rain down fire on heaven. God, do something big. Yes, God was about to do something big. But it started with something small. And sometimes we're looking far away when we should be looking close to us. God said, moses, pick up that stick and hold it up in the air. I can imagine Moses thinking, God, I'm asking you to do something supernatural, something big. And you're telling me to hold up a stick to do something ordinary. Here's the key. If you'll do the ordinary, then God will do the extraordinary. If you'll do the natural, God will show up and do the supernatural. Moses held up the rod, an ordinary stick. You know the story. The waters parted, the people went through on dry ground. But notice two things. God used something ordinary, and God used something close to him. Could it be that you're looking far away? When the answer is right there, close to you. Could it be that you have the people that you need? That you have opportunity for promotion? You have the answer, but you're looking for something supernatural, Something that will give you goosebumps when the answer is very ordinary. Now our prayer should be, God, open my eyes so that I can see what I have at my disposal. God, help me to recognize the people you put in my life. Help me to see the opportunities, the resources, the ideas that will help further me toward my divine destiny. All through the scripture, we can see how God used ordinary things. One time, Samson had thousands of philistines coming against him. Samson didn't have any armor. He didn't have a sword. No troops were backing him up. Looked like he was as good as dead. What did Samson do? Complain? God is not fair. They've got these swords and shields. God, they've got all this equipment, and I don't have anything. Now Samson understood this principle. He immediately began to look around. He knew what he needed would be close to him. What did he see? A machine gun? A case full of hand grenades? No. He saw the jawbone of a donkey. Something ordinary didn't look like much. But Samson believed that what God gave him would be exactly what he needed. The scripture says Samson took the jawbone of the donkey and defeated 1,000 Philistines that were better equipped and had more expertise. I've learned it's not so much what you have as it is. Does it have God's anointing on it? You can have average talent. But with the anointing of the most high God, you will go further than someone that has exceptional talent. Today you may have an extra extraordinary problem. But because of the blessing and favor of God on your life, he can take an ordinary solution and cause you to be victorious. Here's the question. Do you recognize what you have? Are you looking around at what's at your disposal? At what's close to you? The solution, the breakthrough, the new business, the idea. It is within your reach. It may not seem like much compared to your situation. It may look very small. But if you'll just dare use what you have, you can defeat a giant with less equipment. Both David and Samson went to the battlefield without a shield, without a sword. They didn't have helicopters backing them up. All they had was a slingshot, the jawbone of the donkey. But when you recognize God is the one that gave it to you, you'll put your shoulders back. You'll go out with confidence, knowing that you've been equipped by the creator of the universe. Well, you say, joel, this sounds good, but I don't have the resources. I don't have the money. I don't have the talent. No. Do you have as much as the jawbone of a donkey? Do you have as much as a slingshot? Today, we are talking about two people that simply took what they had, and with the anointing of God, they made history. We're still inspired by their stories. There is something in your life right now that can cause you to be a history maker. God has destined you to leave your mark on this generation. You are not supposed to come and go, and nobody even knew you were here. You have seeds of greatness on the inside. When your time is up, the world should look back and say, wow. They were a giant killer. They were a history maker. They took new ground for the kingdom. They left a legacy of faith. And today, your dream may be big and your resources may be small, but don't get discouraged. God is saying, if you will use what you have, I will multiply your talent. I'll multiply your resources, I'll multiply your influence. Let me prophesy. You will defeat giants with less equipment. You will accomplish goals with less resources. Those obstacles that are holding you back are not permanent. They are temporary. The giant may be big, but the power of the most high God in you is much, much bigger. Now, this is not the time to make excuses. This is not the time to let people talk you out of it and settle for mediocrity. No, this is the time to rise up, look around, recognize what you have. Everything you need to fulfill your destiny is within reach. The prophet Joel said, not me, but another one. He said, wake up the mighty men. Wake up the mighty women. Who are the mighty men? The mighty women. It's the people that realize they have the creator of the universe breathing in their direction. It's the people that recognize what they have. I have a friend that had a dream to start his own business. He needed a bank to get behind him, to loan him the money so he could get it off the ground. So he went to his own bank that he'd used for many years. But they turned him down. They said it wasn't a good idea. He. He went to another bank and another and another. They all said the same thing. It's never going to work. But understand, God didn't put the promise in somebody else. He put the promise in you. Somebody else may not be able to see what you can see. Don't get discouraged and let Them talk you out of it. 31 banks told him no. 31 banks said it's not a good idea. It's never going to work. Decide. Are you going to believe the report of people or are you going to believe the report of the Lord? All he had was $150. Really. He needed several hundred thousand dollars to get it off the ground the right way. But he took what he had and bought a few supplies and got the business started. His first client liked his work so much that they gave him a one year contract. He took that contract to the bank. 31 banks had said no, but Bank 32 said yes. Today he has a multimillion dollar growing successful business. What happened? He defeated a giant with less equipment. When he recognized what he had and took steps of faith to use it. That's when God showed up and started breathing in his direction. You may have a dream right now, but like him, every voice is telling you it's never going to work. It's not a good idea. You don't have enough people behind you. No, listen. God wouldn't have given you the dream. He wouldn't have put the idea in your heart without giving you the resources to see it come to pass. Now you've got to look around and understand when God gives you a dream, he gives it to you in seed form. In other words, if you have a dream to have a big oak tree, God's not going to give you a big oak tree. He's going to give you an acorn. He's going to give you something small. But what God has given you, what's within your reach right now, those resources, if you will use them, they have the potential to become what you're dreaming about. As long as you sit back and think, well, I don't have the connections, Joel. Everybody tells me it's not a good idea. And all I've got is $150. All I've got's this little bitty acorn. Big deal. Use what you have. God's in control. He's already lined up the right people. The breaks you need are already in your future. 31 banks may have told you no, but let me tell you, bank number 32 is coming. 31 banks may have said not a good idea, but bank number 32 is going to say, great idea, we're on board. Don't let people talk you out of what you know God put in your heart. I remember when I was a little boy, we moved to another house, a brand new house. And it was on the north side of Houston, close to the new airport back then in the 60s. And all around us there were trees and woods and just big open fields. There were only a few houses in our whole neighborhood. Nothing was really built out. And right behind our property there were two 1 acre lots that my father really wanted to buy, felt very strongly about it. You could purchase them for practically nothing, about $2,000 an acre. My father told the man that built our house what he wanted to do. And that builder said, why would you want to do that? This property is not going anywhere. Plus you're going to have a bunch of taxes and upkeep. It's not going to be a good investment at all. My father thought, well, he's the expert. He knows what he's talking about. The whole time down in here, an alarm was going off telling him, don't listen to him. This is a God given opportunity. Purchase the property. In his heart, my father knew he was supposed to do it. But he made the mistake of letting his head override his heart. He let the so called expert talk him out of it. Twenty years later, all the houses in the neighborhood were built out. There were no more empty lots. Do you know that property increased in value 50 times what my father could have bought it for? It went from 2,000 an acre to 100,000 an acre. My father was kicking himself the whole time. He never did speak to our builder again. What's my point? God has already put everything you need to be victorious within your reach. Sometimes, like my father, we let people talk us out of it. Sometimes because it's ordinary. We miss what God wants to do. I'm asking you to look around at what you have. Don't think that it's way off in the future. One day I'll get a good break. One day God will rain down manna from heaven. One day I'll meet the right people. No. Can I tell you, the right people are in your life right now. The opportunity for promotion is close to you. The solution you're looking for is within your reach. I know this gentleman. He's an attorney. He's always had a desire to be in the sports industry. His dream was to become an agent where he would represent these ball players. But he didn't have any connections. He didn't know the right people. He was working in the small town that he grew up in. Several times a week he would go to the gym to play basketball. He'd been playing with a group of men for some time. One day after the game, an Older gentleman said to him, what are you doing? He explained, I'm an attorney and I practice corporate law. But my real dream is to become a sports agent. That man's eyes lit up. He said, really? My nephew is the number one college basketball player in the nation, and he was just asking me about someone that could represent him. I'll have him call you. It was that one open door, that one connection that led him to start his business. He represented that young man, and today he is considered one of the leading sports agents in the world. Friends, God has already planned out the right people for you. He's already put in place everyone you're going to need to get to where you're supposed to be. Now quit telling yourself I don't have the connections, I don't know the right people. No, you may not, but God does. You have friends in high places. And I believe today that God has placed people in your life, that he's ordained to be instrumental. But if you're not careful, you'll miss them. We should go out each day with this understanding. What I need is close to me. It's not far off in my life right now are the right people. The breaks, the opportunity for improvement. It's all within my reach. So I'm going to be on the lookout. I know this family. They had a strong desire to help people in India. Their dream was to build Bible schools and orphanages so they could help the needy people. But this family, they weren't wealthy people. They owned a scrap metal business and they made a modest living. But in their heart, they believed that one day they would be able to make much bigger of a difference. The seed was planted on the inside. The owner of the company, this man, at one point, he bought this huge supply of old discarded lead batteries. They were from World War II. He paid 2 cents a pound for them. There was all kinds of batteries, car batteries, tank batteries, motorcycle batteries. It was literally hundreds and hundreds of truckloads worth of batteries. They were piled several stories high, several hundred feet long. This man thought that God would increase him, but it was always way off in the future. But one night, this man had a dream. In the dream, he saw himself digging through that pile of batteries. And he found this one unusual small battery. It was very distinct looking. He woke up and heard the thought, the treasure is in the batteries. The next day, he and his teenage son went out and started digging and digging through that mountain of batteries, trying to find that battery that he had seen in the dream. Three days later, toward the middle of the pile they found that exact battery. He took it to the expert and had him examine it. The expert said, this is a motorcycle battery from World War II. There's nothing special about it, just a lead battery worth about 2 cents a pound. The man wasn't convinced. He asked him to go back, take the COVID off of it and examine it more thoroughly. The man did. Much to his surprise, he discovered that it wasn't filled with lead. It was filled with silver. These were batteries that the Germans tested to see if the silver would do better in the cold than the lead. The experts said, this is not worth a few cents. This is worth thousands of dollars. Well, that man had thousands and thousands of batteries piled up back at his shop. It was just like he won the lottery. God did. Exceedingly, abundantly. Above and Bey, what am I saying? You don't know what God has put in your path. You don't know what's close to you. One idea, one phone call, one connection, and you'll go from dreaming the dream to living the dream. I'm asking you to look around at what you have. It's within reach. It's not far off in the sweet by and by. No, right now, God has opportunities in your path. Right now, the right people are in your life. God has deposited into you gifts, talents, ideas, creativity, resources may not seem like much, but when you open them up, so to speak, you're going to discover what God has given you is not lead, it's silver. It's going to thrust you to a new level. It's going to be one of those explosive blessings that catapult you higher than you ever thought possible. Can you get a vision for it? Will you look around at what God's put in your life? Well, Joel, I don't have a big pile of batteries. I don't have a bunch of resources. No, you just don't realize what you have in the scripture. There were four lepers that were sitting outside the city gates. I'm sure they felt much the same way. All the odds were against them. An enemy army had cut off the supply lines to the city. It was just a matter of time before the whole city would starve to death. These lepers had two strikes against them. They not only had leprosy, but they were outside the city gates because of their disease. That meant when the enemy attacked, they would be the first ones to be killed. And I'm sure for a while they sat around and complained about how bad life was and about how they were mistreated. If I just didn't have this disease. If I was just born into a different family, if the economy wasn't bad. No. Remember, the answer is always within reach. One of the lepers rose up, said, you know what? If we're going to die, let's don't die sitting down. Let's get up and do something. Let's march toward the enemy's camp and see what's going on. They rose up and began to march toward the enemy. In the natural, they didn't have a chance. But no. When you do, the ordinary God will do the extraordinary. The scripture says as they were marching, God multiplied the sound of their footsteps and caused them to sound like a mighty army. When the enemy heard it, they got scared to death. They thought tens of thousands of troops were coming against them. They took off running. Those four lepers not only spared their own lives, but they saved the lives of everyone in the city. They went from being outcasts to being heroes. What's my point? The answer was close to them. It was their footsteps. You may not have much, but I bet you have your feet. You have your voice. You have your vision. You have your spirit of faith. I'm trying to light a fire on the inside. You have everything you need. It's close to you. Quit saying this problem is too big. This legal situation's going to sink me, Joel. I'm never going to find the right property for my house, for my business, for my church. Listen, the Creator of the universe has already lined up everything that you need. God can cause the sound of your footsteps to be multiplied. That means God can make you bigger and more powerful than you really are. God can multiply your strength and multiply your talent and multiply your influence. Friends, you have what you need. You may have been through some bad breaks, like these lepers. Life may not have treated you fair. You can either sit around and complain and let that defeat you, or you can rise up like this one leper and say, hey, wait a minute. I'm a child of the most high God. I've got a destiny to fulfill. Those that are for me are greater than those that are against me. I'm not going to sit around complaining about what I don't have. I'm going to start marching toward my destiny, knowing that the Creator of the universe is breathing in my directions. Knowing that almighty God is multiplying what I have. And if God be for me, who dare be against me? You got to rise up with that spirit of faith. I love the time in the scripture when Moses was Complaining about what he didn't have. He said, God, we don't have the water. We don't have good food. We don't have proper protection. God said, wait a minute, Moses, what do you have in your hand? Moses said, God, I've got this same stick that I had before. It's just an ordinary stick. It's not much. God said, moses, throw it on the ground. He threw it down and it turned into a snake. God said, now, Moses, pick it up. Don't you know it took more faith to pick it up than it did to throw it down? Now, it was a snake. He picked it up and it turned back into a stick. God was saying, I can take something ordinary and turn it into what you need. It may be a stick, but if it needs to be a key to open a door, I can turn it into a key. If it needs to be a shield to protect you, I'll turn it into a shield. If it needs to be silver instead of lead, I'll turn it into silver. God is asking you today, what do you have in your hand? Well, Joel, I just have this high school diploma, and I just don't have the can. No, get out of that defeated mentality. If you'll use what you have, God will get you to where you're supposed to be. He will become what you need. He is called the Great. I am. In other words, I am anything you need. I am your peace. I am your restoration. I am your breakthrough. I am your deliverer. I am your increase. I am your victory. My challenge is look around at what you have. What you need is close to you. It's within reach. Don't write it off because it's ordinary. David would have never defeated Goliath. He would have never made history if he had not recognized an ordinary slingshot was sent by Almighty God. Samson would have never defeated the Philistines if he had not recognized the jawbone of a donkey. Something ordinary would be instrumental in his destiny. It wasn't a coincidence that the jawbone was there. God put it there. And in the same way God has put people in your life, he's put opportunity. He put resources. May look insignificant, but with the anointing of God, it will become significant. It will help you accomplish the extraordinary. I want to declare this over each one of you. Like David, you will defeat giants with less equipment. You're going to overcome obstacles that look insurmountable. You're going to accomplish dreams that you thought were impossible. You need to get ready. God is about to open doors that no man can shut. You're going to step into a new level of your destiny. Explosive blessings are coming your way. Blessings that are going to thrust you to a whole new level. I believe it and I declare it in the name of Jesus. If you receive it, can you shout Amen. 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.