Joel Osteen (0:00)

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Victoria Osteen (0:03)

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Joel Osteen (0:04)

Could you sign a Sign what? The app? Yeah, sure. Oh, it rubbed off the screen when I touched it. Could you sign it again?

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Joel and Victoria Osteen (joint) (1:15)

Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry.

Victoria Osteen (1:20)

If you enjoyed today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend?

Joel and Victoria Osteen (joint) (1:24)

We appreciate you and pray for God's.

Joel Osteen (1:26)

Very best in your life. Well, God bless. It is always a joy to come into your homes. We love you and we're believing for God's very best for you and your family. We pray for you every day and if you're ever in our area, I hope you'll come out and be a part of one of our services. These are the finest people in all of Houston right here at Lakewood. We'd love to have you be a part. Thanks for tuning in today. I like to get started each week with something funny. And I heard about this man that died and left his wife $20,000. After the funeral, his wife told a friend that she was totally broke. She said, what do you mean you're broke? I thought you had $20,000. She said, well, I spent 5,000 on the funeral and 15,000 on the memorial stone. The friend said, wow, that was some stone. How big was it? She held up her finger and said, three and a half carats. All right. 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 I 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 not being critical toward yourself. So many people have a war going on on the inside. They're not really happy with who they are. They go around thinking, if I was just a little taller, if I just had a more outgoing personality, if I just had green eyes instead of these brown eyes. They're always wishing they were something different. But if you're going to enjoy your life, you have to be happy with who God made you to be. If you don't get along with yourself, you'll never get along with other people. And the scripture says here in Ephesians 2:10, we are God's masterpiece. That means you are not average, you are not ordinary. You are one of a kind. When God created you, he went to great lengths to make you exactly like he wanted. You didn't just happen to get your personality. You didn't just accidentally get your nose, your skin color, your gifts. God on purpose designed you to be the way you are. And you need to see yourself as unique, as an original, as God's very own masterpiece. One time, when I was in my early 20s, I was in India, sitting on the beach watching the sunset. It was a beautiful picture. The water was so crystal clear as far as I could see. To my left and right was just miles of the beach and beautiful palm trees. The sun was huge on the horizon, just about to go down. And as I sat there, I thought about what a magnificent picture that was. And the thought came to my mind about how God is such an incredible painter. As I was just reflecting and thinking about my life, I heard God speak something to me. Not out loud, but right down in here. He said, joel, you think this is a beautiful picture? Do you? I said, yes, God, I think it's magnificent. He said, well, what do you think would be my most prized painting, my most incredible creation? I said, God, I think it would be this. This is magnificent. He said, no, it's not this. I thought about it a moment. Earlier that year, I'd been in the Rocky Mountains, and that was so spectacular. I said, God, I bet it's the Rocky Mountains. He said, no, it's not that. I said, well, what is it? The solar system? The Milky Way? He said, joel, if you want to know what my most prized Painting is the one that I'm the most proud of. It would be you, I thought, me. God, it couldn't be me. I'm just ordinary. I'm just like everyone else. He said, no, Joel, you don't understand. The sunsets are a dime a dozen. When I made the mountains and the solar system and the oceans, that's good. I was proud of that. But when I made you, I breathed my life into you. I made you in my very own image. Friends, you are God's most prized possession. Don't go around feeling wrong about yourself on the inside, wishing you had more talent and wishing you were taller and wishing you could do something that a friend does. No. When God made you, he stepped back and said, that was good. You have exactly what you need. You are not supposed to go around thinking negative thoughts toward yourself. Well, I'm so slow and I'm not attractive and I don't like my nose. No. When God was passing out the noses and the years and the height and the personalities, you did not get in the wrong line. God made you like you are on purpose. I know when I was growing up, I was very short. I graduated from high school at 5 foot 6 and I grew some after that. But in school, some of my friends kind of give me a hard time. And my nickname was Peanut, and don't you start calling me that either. But in school, there were times I was tempted to think, God, that's a disadvantage and why am I so short and how can I keep playing sports? But one day I read where short people live an average of six years longer than tall people, and I started thanking God, if you're tall today, don't be discouraged. Just know you're gonna beat us to heaven. My brother Paul, when he was growing up, he always felt like his nose was kind of large. And me being his younger brother and the great encourager that I am, I used to tell him, paul, when God was passing out noses, you thought he said roses and said, I'll take a big red one. I've always been an encourager, but what am I saying? You didn't get in the wrong line. Quit wishing you were you were taller, had more hair or different personality. If God wanted you to be taller, I can guarantee you he would have made you taller. If God wanted you to be a different skin color, he would have made you that way. But it seems like these days we're always wishing that we were something different. I've known dark skinned people that put cream on them to try to become lighter. Then I know light skinned people. Go lay in a tanning bed all day. Try to become darker. Now I'm not saying to go overboard. If you want to get a tan, get a tan. If you have straight hair and you want curly hair, permit. If you have gray hair and you want brown hair, dye it. If you have no hair and you want hair, buy it. Oh boy. But my point is made myself laugh today. My point is we have to accept who God made us to be. Don't you dare go through life with that negative recording constantly playing in your mind. You have been painted by the most incredible painter there could ever be. God not only designed you, but he breathed his life into you. When he got done, he stepped back and said, wow, another masterpiece. He stamped his approval on you. You know how in the back of our shirts we have a tag, it says made in America, Made in China, Made in Mexico. Well, somewhere on you you've got a tag that says Made by Almighty God. When you get up every morning, you need to remind yourself I have the fingerprints of God all over me. The way I walk, the way I smile, my personality, my gifts. I am God's masterpiece. That's a whole lot better than going around thinking, man, I'm slow, I'm unattractive, I'm not talented. No, quit criticizing God's creation. Some of you, this is exactly what's holding you back. You're not at peace on the inside. You smile on the outside, but on the inside you're constantly beating yourself up, thinking negative thoughts toward yourself. I'm asking you today to put a new recording in your mind. Don't allow another negative word to come out of your mouth towards yourself. Don't lie in bed every morning thinking about everything wrong with you. Celebrate who God made you to be. Start meditating on the fact I am God's masterpiece. I am one of a kind, I am equipped, I am anointed. I'm not average. I'm God's very own creation. Because so many people today live with this nagging, vague feeling on the inside. They've done it so long, now it's in their subconscious mind telling them I'm not up to par and I never do anything right and I've made so many mistakes. It's their own self defeating thoughts that are keeping them in mediocrity. The scripture tells us our faith is made effective when we acknowledge everything good. You cannot go around acknowledging the wrong and expect your faith to work properly. You may have a dozen things you feel like are a disadvantage. A Dozen things that you dislike about yourself. Well, I'm so shy, and I don't like my nose, and I didn't finish college. As long as you're dwelling on that, you're adding fuel to the fire. Your faith is working, but it's working in the wrong direction. Those things will get bigger and bigger, and eventually there'll be stumbling blocks that'll hold you back. But if you can just learn to retrain your mind and acknowledge the good things about you. In other words, I may not be as talented as they are. I may not be as attractive as they are. But you know what? I'm organized. I'm good with my family. I'm a hard worker. I'm disciplined. If you will acknowledge the good things that God has put in you, then you'll see the good begin to increase. A while back, I was in someone's home. They had all these paintings on the wall. And I'm not an expert in art, but they were not very impressive to me. In fact, some of them looked like they'd been painted by a child. They were very modern and abstract. Paint thrown here and paint thrown there. But later that evening, they told me how they had paid over a million dollars for just one of those paintings. All of a sudden I thought, wow, that is beautiful. Isn't it? My eye for art really came out. Come to find out, it was an original Picasso painted by the famous artist Pablo Picasso. What dawned on me that night was it's not necessarily what the painting looks like. It's who the painter is. The painting gets its value from its creator. Somebody that halfway knew how to paint could have copied that and tried to sell it, but they wouldn't have gotten 1%. The painting was valuable because it had Pablo Picasso's fingerprints on it. It's the same way with us. We don't get our value from what we look like or what we can do. Our value comes from the fact of who our painter is. Almighty God has breathed his life into each one of us. I love the way David said it. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. I wish you could get that down. In your spirit. You are extremely valuable. You are one of a kind. Go around criticizing yourself, wishing you were something different. Accept yourself, approve yourself. You've been wonderfully made. I wonder what would happen if all day long we would focus on that instead of the negative. We'd go around thinking about, I'm God's masterpiece. I'm talented, I'm creative, I've been wonderfully made. One thing I Can tell you for sure is the enemy does not want you to feel good about yourself. You can do a thousand things right and do one thing wrong and that mistake will play over and over. You can have a thousand good things about you, but one thing you dislike, and that'll stay on the forefront of your mind. I dare you to get up each day and look in the mirror and say, good morning, you wonderful thing. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. I read a story about a man, extreme poverty. He had been homeless at one time, living on the streets. But now he had this small run down apartment. After the funeral, the family came over to take care of his belongings. He had this picture on the wall and they took it down and ended up selling it at a garage sale. The person that bought it took it up to the local art gallery. Come to find out it was extremely valuable. It had been painted by an artist that lived back in the 1800s and he was very famous. They had it auctioned off at this worldwide auction. That painting sold for over $3 million. Sometimes we're living in defeat because we don't recognize the value of what we have. Every one of you has been painted by the most famous painter there could ever be. But if you don't understand your value and you go around thinking, well, Joel, I'm not that talented and I'm just kind of ordinary. I've made a lot of mistakes. If you let that negative recording keep playing just like this man, even though you have what you need, you'll never tap into it. Every morning when you get up, you need to remind yourself, I am not average, I'm not ordinary. I'm one of a kind. I have God's fingerprints all over me. Start the day off by getting your mind going in the right direction. Don't focus on what you don't have and the mistakes you've made and the chances you've blown. And no, let all that go and start focusing on the good. I think it's interesting. When God created the heavens and the earth, he said, let there be light. And light came. And God said it was good. He separated the waters from the sky and God said it was good. He made night and day, and again, God said it was good. What's my point? When God did something good, he praised himself. He looked back and said, I like that. That was good. We need to learn to do what God did. When you accomplish something, when you give it your best, you need to look back and say, I'm proud of what I did. That was good. I know people that cannot compliment themselves. They're so hard and critical toward themselves. They can work hard and give it their best, but it's always, well, I just didn't do it good enough. If I just had a little more time, if I could just do it again, then I would feel good. No, you've got to learn to not acknowledge what you didn't get done. Don't acknowledge the mistakes you've made. Find something you did right and acknowledge the good. And it may not be what you're going to end up with. But still, after you work hard all day and give it your all, you need to be able to say, I did good today. I gave it my best and I feel good about what I accomplished. Think about this. When God made the heavens and the earth and he first said it was good, the fact is he hadn't separated the waters from the sky. It was still kind of a mess. It was still chaotic. He hadn't made the fish and the other animals. He hadn't created the beautiful mountains, the beautiful oceans. Yet. God still paused for a moment. He still took time to say, you know what? It's not perfect. I'm not done yet. But it's still good. In other words, it's not where it's going to end up, but so far, so good. In the same way, you may not have reached all your goals just yet. You may not be exactly where you want to be in life, but you need to learn to pause on a regular basis and say, I did good today. I gave it my all. May not have got as much done as I would like to, may not have kept up with my co worker, but bottom line is I did my best. And I have to say it was good. Have a lot of people tell me, joel, I can't feel good about myself. I've got these addictions, things I'm struggling with. I'm so impatient. I'm kind of hot tempered. That's why I go around feeling lousy on the inside. But you have to recognize God is still working on you. You are not a finished product. Little by little, God changes us. As long as we are pressing forward, as long as we're doing our best, God is pleased with us. You need to take time every day to find something where you can say, I did good. I may not have done it as well as my neighbor, but I did it to the best of my ability and I know it was good. And especially when you're struggling with something that you need to overcome, you have to Stay positive toward yourself. And when that negative recording comes back telling you, oh, you're just a failure, you're never going to change. You're never going to get over that. You need to just turn it around and say, no, I may not be where I need to be, but at least I'm not where I used to be. At least that's good. Too often we tend to focus on how far we've got to go. But sometimes you've got to look back and thank God for how far you've already come. Don't go around beating yourself down. Well, I went to work, but I didn't get enough done. I cooked dinner, but I burnt the bread. I gave in the offering, but I didn't give enough. No, get out of that critical frame of mind. Have the attitude, I may not have done perfect today. I may have made some mistakes, but I am not going to live negative toward myself. I'm going to find something I did right so I can say it was good. In other words, I may have burnt the bread, but the meatloaf was pretty good. I may have lost my temper in traffic this morning, but I did take time this afternoon to go help a friend in need. That was good. Years ago, Victoria and I built a home. This was before our children were born. We didn't have a main builder. We decided to contract it ourselves, and overall, the home turned out great. We were very pleased. But after living there a couple of years, I noticed that part of my fence was sagging a little bit. I found out later that I didn't put the right size piers underneath my brick column, and it caused it to be a little bit crooked. And, you know, year after year, it gotten worse and worse. And every time I drove up to my house and saw my sagging fence, a voice would say to me, why did you try to build this house? You are not a builder. You didn't know what you were doing. Now you've got a crooked fence. Your neighbors are probably laughing. And how much is that going to cost to fix? I mean, for a while, for months, every time I pulled in, I let that one mistake kind of sour me. But one day, I learned what I'm telling you. Instead of focusing on one thing that was wrong, I looked at all the other things that I did right. Yes, it was a mistake. But overall, in the big scope of things, I did good. And so when I drove in, I quit focusing on that and I started focusing on the fact that my driveway is straight, my garage doors work, I've got Hot water. The air conditioner is perfect. The floors are holding up. The windows are beautiful. The doorbell rings. The design is great. There are a thousand good things that I did right. I made a decision. I wasn't going to let that one mistake cause me to lose my joy. You got to learn to focus on what you did right and not the few things that you did wrong. A while back, I was in another state doing an interview with this very well known journalist and a friend of mine met me there. He's a pastor as well. He has a real gift of encouragement. Anytime you're around him for 15 minutes, he makes you feel like you're the greatest thing in the world. He's always building people up. And so I did the interview. We got in the car together with a group of us, and we were driving back to the hotel. One of the first things I said was, man, I feel like I really did good. I wasn't trying to brag, these were all people I knew very well. But I said, I think I answered really great. And the Lord helped me. And I just don't see how I could have done it any better. He told me later that conversation changed his life. When he saw how positive I was toward myself, he recognized what his problem was. He could compliment everyone else, but he couldn't compliment himself. He would call me on Sunday afternoons and spend 15 minutes telling me how great my message was. But driving home from his own church after he had spoken, he would think, well, I just didn't do it good enough. And I wasn't clear on this point. And if I'd just done a little better over here, then I would feel good. Why is that? Very often we have two sets of lenses. We look at other people a certain way. We can compliment them, we can see the good that they do. But then we put on another set of lenses to look at ourselves. Usually we're much more critical. We tend to pick ourselves apart. We focus on the little things that we didn't do right. You need to give yourself the same credit that you give other people. It's all a part of our internal dialogue, the recording that's playing in your mind. When I walk off the platform each week after I get done speaking, I say to myself, that was good, I gave it my all and I'm pleased with what I've done. I've found it's healthy to approve yourself. It's healthy to look back like God and say, I did good. But too often we have to have this outside validation, this outside approval. So we can feel good about ourselves. I know when I first started ministering, seven or eight years ago, when I was done, if I didn't get a dozen compliments, if I didn't have a dozen people tell me they thought it was good, I would drive home feeling condemned, thinking, oh, I didn't do good. I got to do better next week. But now I've learned I don't have to have other people's approval to feel good about myself. I know I've been made in the image of Almighty God, and as long as I do my best, I can put my shoulders back and feel good about who I am. Now I'm kind of naive when I get done each week. I think that was my best one so far. That's better than last week. Well, Joel, that's kind of arrogant, isn't it? No, I don't announce it to anyone. I'm talking about on the inside. Your internal dialogue has got to be positive towards yourself. We cannot rely on outside approval and outside compliments to feel good about who we are. Most of the time we fall into one of two categories. We're either a self validating person, it's the way we should be, or we need this outside validation. That's when we have to have people constantly complimenting us, telling us we're okay, telling us we did good in order for us to be secure. But when you're not a self validating person, life is a roller coaster. You're up when people are complimenting you and you're down when they're not. When we live this way, we end up sacrificing who we really are to try to please other people so we can win their approval. That's where we're getting our worth and value. Do they think that I did good today? Do they approve the way I look? Did they compliment me after my presentation? No, that's the wrong approach. Be secure in who God made you to be. I know now, sometimes people come up to me after a service and I don't think they really mean it, but they'll say things like, joel, I didn't get anything out of that today. And I just didn't understand that point. I'm not sure you're right on over here. Five years ago, that would have ruined my whole week. I'd have gone home so depressed. Now I've learned to just smile and say, God bless you. I hope you come back next week. On the inside, I'm thinking, I can't help it if something's wrong with you. Too often we let one negative comment cancel out a dozen positive comments. Why is that? The negative voices always sound the loudest. When we're insecure and we're trying to get our approval from the outside rather than the inside, we let other people and their opinions control us. There's such a freedom when you realize, as long as I'm doing my best being who God created me to be, I don't have to have other people's approval. And it's great when you get it. But if you start depending on it and it doesn't happen, if you're not careful, you'll start changing and trying to be something that you're not. You got to be secure in who God made you to be. You want to honor God, Accept yourself. You want to make God happy? Approve yourself. Don't go around feeling wrong on the inside. The apostle Paul said we should be to the praise of God's glory. In this passage, he's not saying that we should give God praise with our words, although that's important. The point he's making is our life should be a praise. When you understand your value and not only who you are, but whose you are, then your very presence is giving God praise. You're saying, in effect, God, thank you for making me me. I don't wish I had green eyes. Thank you for these brown eyes. I don't wish I had a different personality. I like my personality. I don't wish that I was taller. I believe I'm the right height. When you're secure in who God made you to be and you go out each day being your best with a smile on your face, your life is giving God praise. In other words, driving to work, you're giving God praise. Mowing the lawn, you're giving God praise. Going to the grocery store, you're giving God praise. Walking through the mall, you're giving God praise. I can hear Victoria now. Joel, I'm going to the mall. Got to give God praise. I'm asking you today to honor God by accepting yourself. You are valuable. You are one of a kind. Be the best that you can be. Don't ever wish that you were something else. If God wanted you to be different, he would have made you that way. Get up every morning and make positive affirmations over your life. I'm the apple of God's eye. I'm his masterpiece. His fingerprints are all over me. Get your mind going in the right direction. Remember, we don't get our value from what we look like or from what we can do our value comes because of who our painter is. God breathed his life into us. So don't ever go around thinking, well, Joel, I'm just a business person. I'm just a schoolteacher. I'm just a stay at home mom. No, you're not just anything. You're a child of the most High God. Put your shoulders back, hold your head up high and be secure in who God made you to be. If you will learn to accept and approve yourself and not have that negative recording playing in your mind, but instead have a right opinion about who you are, then you're going to rise higher, God's going to pour out his blessings and you will live that life of victory that God has in store. 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 you've never dreamed of.