Passing the Small Tests

Joel @ Lakewood Church

• God speaks to us in small impressions. A lot of times we know what we should do. God wants to know if you will be quick to obey the "I knows..." God speaks to us about practical everyday things.
• Joyce Meyers: the Lord spoke to her about returning her cart to the place where it should go. She would look around and see other carts and say "Why do I have to return my cart when there are others all over the parking lot." It's because everyone else isn't going where you are going.
• Don't confuse "small" with "insignificant"
• John 9: there was a blind man who Jesus put mud on his eyes. He then told him to go wash it off. That man would be (and was) healed through his OBEDIENCE
• 2 Kings 5: Naaman was a leper and the Lord t told him to wash in the Jordan river. Naaman didn't want to wash there because it was dirty. He didn't want to do it. (2 Kings 5:13 KJV) His servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
• Be quick to obey. If you think too long you would probably talk yourself out of it.
• Joel: led to give a man his tie. Joel finally gave him the tie. That tie became a symbol of hope.
• Partial obedience isn't obedience. When you sew a radical seed of obedience you will reap radical awards.
• Saul was given specific instructions in 1 Samuel 15:3
• 1 Samuel 15:22-23 KJV
  And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord , he hath also rejected thee from being king.
• God is looking for people who are quick to obey.
• Deuteronomy 28:1-2 KJV
  And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
  Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NLT
  "If you fully obey the L ord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the L ord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the L ord your God:
• PRAYER TALK (pastor Joel): victory starts on the inside.
  Ephesians 4:23 NLT
  ...let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

********Victoria Osteen********

• Life has a way of making its tired.
• Galatians 6:9-10 NIV
  Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
• If we don't faint, then we will receive what is due.... (we will reap a harvest)
• When you faint, you become unconscious.
• How to detect spiritual weariness:
  Loss of interest.
  Lack of care
  Negative self-talk
• Waiting is confident expectancy. It is not inactive and it requires trust.
  Isaiah 40:29-31 KJV
  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
• When you feel weary
  Help others
  Get some rest
  Have fun