Joel Osteen - Explosive Blessings

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to
our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you
enjoy 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.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, God bless you.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's a joy to come into your homes. We love you.
We may not know you by name, but we're praying
for you, believing for God's very, very best in your life.
If you're ever in our area, I hope you'll stop
buying pe'll 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 today. I
like to get started each week with something kind of funny,

(00:46):
and of course these are just jokes. Please don't be
offended by it, especially this one today. But I heard
about this man. He was sitting in a dark restaurant
and he leaned over to the ladies sitting next to
him and said, Hey, would you like to hear blonde joke?
She said, before you tell me, you should know that
I'm blonde, six feet tall and a professional bodybuilder. And

(01:07):
the lady sitting next to me is blonde, six foot
two and a professional wrestler, and the lady next to
her is blonde, six foot five and the kickboxing champion
of the world. Now, would you still like to tell
me the joke? He thought about it a moment, said no,
not if I'm gonna have to explain it three times.
All right, hold up your Bible, say it like you

(01:29):
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.

(01:51):
I want to talk to you today about letting God
be involved in your everyday life. Too many times we
think God is on interested in the big things. When
we have a major crisis or when some big problem arises,
then we don't have any problem going to God and
asking for his health. But the fact is God is

(02:13):
interested in every area of our lives, not just the
big things, even the smaller things. God wants to help
you be more productive at the office each day he
wants to make that trip to the grocery store more fruitful.
God wants to help you raising your children, cooking dinner
at night, wants to give you favor with your clients,

(02:34):
give you a protection out there on the freeway. But
here's the key. God will only be involved in as
much of our lives as we allow him to. And
the scripture says here in Proverbs three six, if you
acknowledge God in all of your ways, notice not just
some of your ways, not just the big things. But

(02:55):
if we can learn to acknowledge God in all of
our ways, then he will guide and direct our path. Well,
how do we acknowledge God by letting him know that
we're depending on him, by relying on him, in other words,
by involving Him in every part of our lives. And
all through the day we should be saying things like, God,

(03:17):
help me to have a safe trip to the office. God,
give me favor with these clients. Thank you Father for
protecting my children at school. God help me to find
just what I need in this grocery store. Just under
your breath, not a long prayer five or ten seconds.
All throughout the day, we should constantly be acknowledging God.

(03:38):
When we do this, we're showing our dependency on God.
We're saying, in effect, God, I need you, I'm counting
on you. God, I know this day is not going
to be as fruitful without your help. And if you'll
acknowledge God before you go to the grocery store, he'll
help you to get the best deals. If you'll acknowledge
Him before you meet with those cloths, allience, he'll give

(04:00):
you the words to speak. If you'll acknowledge Him before
the trip home, he'll guard you and protect you. He'll
make sure you're at the right place at the right time.
But too often we have God in our Sunday morning box.
That's when we think about him. That's when we come
to church, that's when we pray, or maybe we pray
a few minutes in the morning, pray over our meals.

(04:23):
But then we go about the rest of the day,
never really thinking about God. After all, we kind of think,
what's so spiritual about going to work, Joel, what's so
spiritual about picking my children up from school or mowing
the lawn. God's not concerned about that, sure he is.
God knows the number of hair on our head. He
knows our words before we even speak them. Why don't

(04:45):
you allow God to be involved in every area of
your life. I'm talking about developing a habit to where
in everything we do we're acknowledging God. We're either asking
for his help, or we're thanking him for his goodsiness,
or we're meditating on his scriptures. When we keep God
involved in our lives, it not only pleases him, but

(05:08):
it allows him to guide us and show us more
of his favor. And of course it's good to pray
in the morning. It's great you came to church today.
It's great to worship, but don't leave it here. Acknowledge God.
When you're taking your children to school in the morning,
just say, Father, thank you for this day. Thank you
for blessing my children at home in your everyday life. God,

(05:30):
help me to get this house cleaned up today. God
give me wisdom cooking dinner tonight, about to mow the
lawn instead of complaining about it. Father, thank you for
giving me strength. Thank you for my health. Pulling out
of the parking lot, tempted to get upset, tempted to
get frustrated. Know God, I acknowledge you. Help me to
keep my cool, help me to not run over my

(05:50):
prayer partner. In all your ways, let's acknowledge God. I
found the more we appear on God, the more of
His blessings in favor will see it. Jesus said in
John fifteen, Apart from me, you can do nothing. That's
the attitude we should live with God. I need you.

(06:13):
I know this day is not going to be as
successful without your help. So driving to work in the morning,
not a twenty minute prayer, just under your breath, God,
help me to have a safe trip to the office.
When you do that. You know what you just did.
You acknowledge God with that one little statement you said
in effect, God, you are the lord of my life.

(06:35):
You are in control. And I humble myself to you,
and I admit that I'm not going to be as productive.
I admit this day is not going to be as
good as it should have been without your blessings and
your favor in my life. This shows our dependency on Him.
And again, God will be evolved only in as much

(06:55):
of your life as you allow him to. You can
keep God in your Sunday morning BOK for twenty years,
or you can learn to acknowledge Him throughout the day. Really,
this should be a lifestyle that we develop. Going to
lunch this afternoon, God, I acknowledge you. Help me to
have a good lunch. God, help me to bump into
somebody I can bless, somebody I can encourage. You'll be

(07:18):
amazed at how your days will go smoother, how you'll
see the hand of God's favor in your life when
you get into a habit of acknowledging God. And again,
it doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to
be loud. Most of the time, I just do it
under my breath. If I'm about to make an important
phone call where i need God's wisdom, I'll just whisper God,

(07:42):
I acknowledge you. I'm asking for your help. About to
get on a plane, about to take a trip. God,
our lives are in your hands. We're asking for your protection.
Need to deal with an issue at the office. God,
I'm asking you to give me the words to speak. God.
I need your help about in your everyday life. If

(08:02):
you're working on your car, you need to run up
to the auto supply to buy a part. Well before
you do, acknowledge God, God, help me to find the
right part about to meet with some clients, just take
an extra ten seconds. God helped this meeting to be successful. God,
I'm asking for your favor in my life all through
the day. Twenty thirty forty times. We should constantly be

(08:26):
acknowledging God. I wonder how many times we don't have
a productive day. Things don't go our way. We go
to the store and we can't find what we're looking for,
or we buy something only to get it home find
out it's got a spot on it, it's torn, so
we got to take it back. Now it's a big hassle.
And you know, maybe that could have been avoided if

(08:47):
we would have just acknowledged God first. And I'm not
saying everything, of course, is going to go perfect if
we do this, but when we're doing everything in our
own strength without recognizing the truth so of our strength,
things are not going to go as smoothly as they
should have. Now. I heard somebody say I never meet
with another person without first meeting with God. I like

(09:11):
that before you meet with anybody else, make sure you
first acknowledge God. This is what I do every morning
before I leave the house, I get on my knees
and I say, God, I know you have given me
this day. You've given me my breath, You've given me
my strength, You've given me my life. And God, I
give this day back to you. Let everything I do

(09:33):
bring honor to your name. Ride at the start, I
acknowledge the true source of my strength. I admit that
I'm depending upon God. We may have some natural talent,
you may have some natural ability, but it will always
be limited. We will never reach our highest potential without
learning how to acknowledge God in all of our ways.

(09:56):
I like to run a lot of time in the mornings.
Before I do, It's a habit now. I don't even
really have to think about it. I just say, Father,
thank you for giving me a good run. Thank you
that my legs work. Thank you that I'm healthy, thank
You that I have strength, Thank you that I'm alive.
Just under my breath, I'm acknowledging God. A lot of times,
when Jonathan comes home from school, we'll go out and

(10:16):
throw the football. God, thank you for giving us a
good time. God, thank you for giving me a great son.
In everything we do, if we'll acknowledge God, it'll go smoother,
even things we've been doing a thousand times you can
practically do in your sleep. You've been cooking dinner for
twenty years, but under your breast you should be saying,
thank you Lord for this food, thank you for guiding me,

(10:39):
thank you for helping it to taste good. If you'll
have that kind of attitude, God will remind you when
you left an ingredient out. He'll remind you when something's
about to burn. You'll hear that still small voice, Hey
go check the oven. This will save you frustration, make
your food taste a lot better. I'm believing Victoria's taking
notes this morning, you say, Joel. Oh man, I'm not

(11:00):
gonna bother God with those little petty things. He's got
more pressing issues to deal with. Now. This is where
we miss it. God wants to be involved in every
part of our lives. It's his joy, it's his delight
to know that we're depending on him, that He is
the source of our strength. I know people give me
a hard time about getting good parking spots, Joel, I

(11:22):
don't believe God's interested in something as small as us
getting a good parking spot. I'm not gonna bother him
with that. No, you're not bothering God. It's just the opposite.
It's the principle when you depend on God, when you
realize this day is not gonna be as good as
it could have been without God's favor and blessing. It's
this dependency. It's this relying on Him that causes God

(11:45):
to work. And really, when we don't acknowledge God, it's
a form of pride. We're saying, in a roundabout way, God,
I don't need you. I can do this on my own.
I can handle this by myself. That's when God has
to just backle way and we don't see his blessings
in favor like we really should. But if we can
just develop this habit of constantly acknowledging God throughout the day.

(12:09):
When you get up in the morning, just say Father,
thank you for giving me a good day. Thank you
for helping me be a good parent to my children.
When you pull up to work, Father, thank you for
that parking spot driving home. God, help me to be
patient in traffic, help me to be kind to my
family tonight. What we're really saying is God, I need you,
I'm depending on you. That's when God will show up.

(12:32):
We see this even as parents, when our children need
our help. It draws it out of us. We're glad
to do it. The other day, Jonathan was in the
backyard hammering something. He's our eleven year old son. He
couldn't get the nail to go in straight, kept bending
it over this way and the other way. And I
was inside the house watching the ball game. But I
could hear all the hammering, all the commotion. But I

(12:54):
figured he was okay. He wasn't saying anything about it.
But in a few minutes he came in with one
one of his friends. He was kind of frustrated. He said, Daddy,
I need your help. I can't get this nail to
go in straight. And as a father, that made me
feel good. I thought, I like that he needs me.
In other words, he thinks I'm smart, he thinks I
can do anything. And I put my shoulders back, held

(13:18):
my head up high, and I kind of went out
there and wanted to show off. I wanted to do
my best, knowing that he believed in me, knowing that
he was counting on me. I didn't do it for him.
I just gave him a little guidance, a little advice.
I could see he didn't have the board on something solid.
He had it on the grass. We moved it over
to the concrete. He took four or five swings. It

(13:39):
went right in, no problem at all. He was as
happy as can be. In fact, he said, here, Daddy,
hold this next nail, and I'll nail another one in.
I said, no, Jonathan, I don't have that much faith
you hammerh it yourself. But this is the way God
is when we need him. It's his joy for him
to be there to help us out. And I thought
about how simple that was for me to fix, just

(14:03):
one word of advice from his father, just moving it
from here to there, getting it off the grass onto
the concrete made all the difference in the world. When
you acknowledge God, many times, just like that, he'll give
you just a little bit of wisdom, just one idea
here and there. All of a sudden, you get a break,
another break, and the whole day turns out much more productive.

(14:25):
Sometimes you may not even realize what happened, but because
you took time to acknowledge God, he protected you from
an accident. He caused one of his angels to just
slow another car down, keep that from harming you. Or
he had one of your clients think about you out
of the blue and give you a call. He let
his favor shine down on one of your children because

(14:46):
you took time to bless him on the way to
school that morning. You may never know, but the day
went more productive, the day went smoother because we had
the attitude God, I'm depending on you, I need your help.
But too often we do just the opposite. I don't
know if you've ever been helping your child do homework.
They're struggling, they can't figure something out, and you know

(15:09):
exactly what they're doing wrong. You know exactly how to
correct it, but they won't take your help. Their attitude
is I can figure this out on my own. I
don't need your help. Let me do it by myself.
Even though as a parent we know we could make
their life easier, we have to just step away. Same
way with God, when we don't acknowledge him, we're saying, God,

(15:31):
I'm fine, I can handle this business meeting on my own.
I've been doing it for twenty years. Well, God, I
don't need your help raising these children. I'm fine. I
don't need help mowing the lawn, cooking dinner. I've been
doing it a long time. But if we could just
learn to depend on him. If we'd start acknowledging him,
we'd see things go smoother, We'd get things done quicker,

(15:53):
we'd have more joy and more peace. The Holy Spirit
is called our helper, but we have to be willing
to risk his health, and even in things that we've
done again and again, we have to still remember to
rely on God. I've been doing this now for about
seven years, since my father went to be with the Lord,
and I've spoken several hundred times, and I guess in

(16:14):
one sense, I've kind of got it down. I've kind
of gotten into my routine. But I can tell you
every time before I come out here, I say, without
fail God, I need you. I'm depending on you. God.
I know I can't do this in my own strength,
so I'm asking for your health. I don't take for
granted the source of my strength. I realize without his

(16:37):
blessings and his favor in my life, I'm never going
to become all God's created me to be. And it's
this dependency on him that activates God's power. It's when
we're self relying, when we're independent, we only stop God's progress.
So every morning, when we first get up we need
to say God, thank you for this day. Help me

(16:59):
to make good choices. God, thank you for your wisdom,
thank you for your strength. And then all throughout the day,
before you meet with that person, God, I'm asking for
your help. Before you teach your students. God, give me
your favor, before you play in that ballgame. God, I
acknowledge you. I recognize you're the source of my strength.
I'm asking you to protect me, help me to excel.

(17:22):
I talk to a very famous baseball player the other day,
one of the best in the league. He's a superstar,
and said all kinds of records and I've seen him
on television. Before he gets up to bat, he goes
through a certain routine and I ask him what it
was all about, and it's exactly what we're talking about.
Before he steps up to the plate. Every time he's

(17:43):
bat in thousands of times, he's extremely talented. But each
time before he gets up there, he closes his eyes
and says, God, I need you. He's acknowledging God. The
fact is he's not telling God, I want a home run.
He's not telling God how to do it. He's simply
admitting God, I need you. When he faces Roger Clemens.

(18:04):
He says, God, I really need you. But what's he doing.
He's showing his dependency on God. He's humbling himself and saying,
in effect, I may be a quote superstar, I may
have some talent, but God, I recognize apart from you,
I can do nothing. I realize God, You've given me

(18:24):
the strength, the talent, the favor, and I don't take
for granted your goodness in my life. I acknowledge you
in all of my ways. Another translation of that same
verse in Proverbs says, in everything you do, put God first,
and he will crown your efforts with success. I think
we'd be amazed at how much more success we could

(18:47):
have if in everything we did we put God first.
That should be our attitude everywhere I go today, everything
I do, I'm going to acknowledge God. I'm saying, get
God out of that Sunday morning box. When you go
to the mall, God, I acknowledge you. Help me to
have a productive time. When you do that, God will

(19:08):
direct your path. He will crown your efforts with success.
In other words, he'll help you to find what you're
looking for. He'll help you to get the best deals.
He'll help you to not waste your time, not waste
your money. I remember my mother used to come home
growing up and tell my father, look, John, I got
twelve dresses for the price of six God's favor. My

(19:29):
dad would say, God don't do any more favors like that.
But when we acknowledge God, he causes us to be
at the right place at the right time. When we
put God first in everything we do, that's when his
blessings will chase us down and overtake us. That's when
we can outrun the good things of God. The other day,

(19:50):
our little daughter, Alexandra came in. She's seven years old,
and she asked me if i'd take her to buy
a cell phone. And I'd promised her one months and
months before. Her brother Jonathan has one, and her little
cousin was going out of town and they wanted to
be able to talk on their phones. And I didn't
really feel like going. I was kind of tired, but
I just couldn't turn her down. I said, Okay, let's go. Well,

(20:11):
about that time Jonathan heard where we were going. He said, oh, Daddy,
I want to come too. And I said, well, Jonathan,
that's fine, but you already have a cell phone. He said,
I know, Daddy, I just want to go. Look. You
got to know, Jonathan's not a looker, he's a buyer.
As we were leaving, Victoria said, well, I don't want
to be here by myself, and so she said I'll
come along, so man alive. It turned out to be

(20:33):
a family affair going to the cell phone place. As
we were driving there, I did just what I'm asking
you to do today under my breath. Nobody heard me.
I simply said, God, help us to find just the
right phone. Alexandra had a certain style, a certain color,
a particular model. And we got there and the people

(20:54):
were so friendly, and sure enough they had the exact
right phone that she was looking for. She was just
so happy. Then Jonathan came up. I knew his coming.
He said, Daddy, he said, I really want to get
a new phone, and I got some money saved up.
I said, Jonathan, your phone is barely a year old.
That'd be a waste. The man behind the counter hurt
us talking and he said, Jonathan, let me see your phone.

(21:15):
He took it and he looked up his number, and
he told us for one hundred and fifty dollars, we
could turn Jonathan's phone in and he could get a
new one. I said, well, I don't think we want
to do that. Then he said, what kind of phone
do you have? I gave him my phone. He looked
it up and he said, oh, you're way overde you
can pick out any new phone free. And so I
let Jonathan have the new phone, and I took Jonathan's phone,

(21:37):
which was much better than mine. Then just as we're
about to leave, he asked Victoria what kind of phone
do you have? And her phone wasn't that old, but
it was real beat up. She had dropped it several
times while she was driving and tried to put on
her makeup at the same time. And I told him, no,
we've already checked it out. It's going to be a

(21:58):
couple hundred dollars we're going to pass. He said, no,
she's not going to leave without having a new phone.
He looked at his assistant and said, just give her
a phone. He said do what he said, Yeah, I said,
just give her a phone. We walked out of there,
and I thought to myself, we went in to buy
one phone. We came out with three brand new phones.

(22:19):
Plus mine was practically new. And we only paid for
one phone. I was scratching my head. I didn't see
how that turned out. You know what, That was God
causing us to be at the right place at the
right time. That was God directing our steps, his blessings
chasing us down. When we got in the car. First
thing I said, thank you Lord for your favor, Thank

(22:41):
you Lord for your goodness. If you'll acknowledge God in
all your ways, in everything you do, put in first place,
you won't be able to outrun the good things of God.
All through the day we should be saying, thank you
Lord for your favor, Thank you Lord for a safe
trip home, Thank you Lord for your peace, Thank you
Lord for a good night's rest tonight. In all your ways,

(23:03):
acknowledge God. And it's great to pray in the morning.
It's great that you are so faithful to come to church.
But the scripture says to pray without ceasing. That means
all through the day, under our breath, we should be
talking to God, asking for his help, thanking him for
his goodness, acknowledging him, making him a part of not

(23:24):
just Sunday mornings, not just of our devotional time, but
all throughout the day. Now a lot of people don't
realize prayer is just talking to God when it says
pray without ceasing. Really, that's an attitude. It means we
have God constantly on our mind. We are grateful, we
have His praise is always coming out of our mouths
throughout the day. Thank you Lord for your peace. Thank

(23:47):
you Lord for helping me deal with that situation. Thank
you Lord for giving me wisdom in life. See, it's
okay to simply talk to God. I know people anytime
they pray, it's like they turn into another person. They
get very formal, very stiff, very rigid. They pray in
the King James version of the Bible. Oh God, thou

(24:09):
art so great. I'm asking THEE to help thy humble
servant today. No, you don't have to pray in Old English.
And I know God sees your heart. You want to
be reverend, you want to be respectful. But it's okay
to talk to God, just like you talk to one
of your good friends. He's a friend that sticks closer
than a brother. And you know, it's kind of funny.

(24:34):
The same people that I see praying, Old God, Thou
must help thy humble servant. They're saying to their friends,
what's going down, homeboy? And I'm not saying it's okay
to call God homeboy. I don't think I do that.
But here's what I'm saying. There's nothing wrong. You're not
even listening to me. Now. There's nothing wrong with getting

(24:55):
up in the morning and saying, good morning, Lord, I
love you today. Think for the good things you have
in store. God. I acknowledge that you've given me my strength,
You've given me my life, and I'm here to say
I need you God. I'm counting on your favor, on
your strength, on your wisdom, on your guidance in my
life today. Then all through the day you're talking to him,

(25:18):
you're thanking him for his goodness. You're making him a
part of your everyday life. The word depend in one
translation of the Bible, means to hang down. Think of
a piece of fruit on a branch. It's hanging there
like an apple and orange. In other words, without the
strength of the tree, it's going to fall. It's not
going to make it. Jesus said, I am divine, You

(25:41):
are the branches. If you abide in me, you will
bear much fruit. Just the opposite would be true if
we don't abide in him, we're not going to be fruitful.
Not being fruitful means we're not as productive. We're not
as successful as God wants us to be. You've all
had days when you've driven across town to pick up something,
only to get there and find out that it's closed.

(26:03):
Or you work all day on your computer and something
goes wrong and you lose your information. You go to
workout and the place is packed, or you forgot your
tennis shoes, just little things that cause us to not
be productive. Not every time, of course, but sometimes it's
because we're not acknowledging God, we're not abiding in Him.
We've gotten off to where we're doing everything in our

(26:24):
own strength. Now God has to just back away. He's
not guiding us, directing us, giving us his favor like
he would if we'd start relying on him. Once again,
that word abide indicates it something that we continually do.
In other words, you don't get up in the morning
and say, Okay, God, I prayed, I read a chapter
in the Bible. I'm set for the day, went to

(26:45):
church on Sunday, I'm set for the week. Know all
through the day under your breath God, I need you.
Something good happens. Father, Thank you for your goodness at
the office. God give me your wisdom driving home. Thank
you Lord for protecting me. In him, You'll be fruitful,
you'll be productive. You'll see your days go much much smoother.

(27:05):
So let me challenge again today. Get God out of
your Sunday morning box. Make him a part of your
everyday life. Learn to talk to him often. Get in
that habit all through the day. God, I need you,
I'm counting on you. Remember, Apart from Him, we can
do nothing. If you'll learn to acknowledge God. If you'll
put Him first in everything you do, God will crown

(27:26):
your efforts with success. He'll guide you and direct you,
and I know you'll live the life of victory he
has in story. Amen, do you receive it today? I
know you do. 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

(27:51):
make you my Lord and savior. Friends, if you prayed
that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. Get
into good Bible based church, keep God first place. He's
going to take your places that you've never dreamed of.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
Thank you for listening to the joel Ostine podcast. Help
us continue to share the message of hope with those
all over the world. Visit jolostein dot com slash give
Hope to give a gift today.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Thanks so much for listening to today's message.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest
podcast to keep.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
You inspired all through the week. We're praying for you.
I know God's best is still ahead.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
We'll see you next time.