Taking Control of Your Happiness

Joel Osteen @ Lakewood Church

• A lot of people are sacrificing their own happiness to keep everyone happy. We are not responsible for anyone else's happiness. If someone gets upset because you don't help them then they are trying to manipulate you. That person will never be free if you keep being a crutch. If that person is not taking responsibility and you keep giving in you are not dealing with the real problem.
• You need to cut the strings. It's like a toddler throwing a fit. As long as someone can pressure you they will keep doing it.
• Life is too short to go through life sacrificing your dreams for people who make poor decision.
• I am not the potter, God is. The best thing sometimes is to not rescue the person.
• You have to put your foot down and say I love you but I'm not going to feel guilty because I'm not making someone happy.
• Luke 15:17 NLT
  "When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
• Sometimes people have to come to a place where no one is bailing them out.
• Be careful of high maintenance people.
• Lift, thrust, weight, and drag are the factors of flight. People will usually fall into one of these categories. Make sure you spend the majority of your time with lifters and thrusters.
• You can't go where God is taking you with certain people on board.
• Get prayed up, praised up, and encouraged before you go to places where you have to be around weights and drags. You can't go into the day in neutral.

******Victoria Osteen @ Lakewood Church ******

Psalms 44:5 NLT
Only by your power can we push back our enemies; only in your name can we trample our foes.

We need to take the pressure off of ourselves, it's not our work, it's God's power.

Victoria sat there for a day waiting for the fog to lift so that they could enjoy themselves. What made it worse is that the weatherman said that it would be sunny. Finally they went down to the lobby to find something to do and the concierge told them that 10 minutes down the road it was clear and sunny. It had only been a pocket of fog. That's what a lot of people do, they sit in a fog waiting to enjoy life when they really need to get up and move around.

Thank you for the S-O-N, he's always shining.

Compass Class: Laugh Yourself to a Better Marriage

What's Sex Got to do With It?

There are some so uptight about sex that they don't want to say sex, they say intimacy.

Ezekiel 23:21 NLT
She lusted after lovers with genitals as large as a donkey's and emissions like those of a horse. And so, Oholibah, you relived your former days as a young girl in Egypt, when you first allowed your breasts to be fondled.

Sex shoyld be used to build love and not consummate.

Why would God use sex as a metaphor for Christ and the church if it were a filthy or naughty thing.

Sex is the only form of love exclusive to marriage.

Sex shouldn't be based on hormones or desires that come and go.

Get Over It

JOEL @ LAKEWOOD CHURCH

• A lot of people go through life thinking that people owe them something. Your poor upbringing, that bad relationship, none of it was a surprise for God. God wasn't having a bad day when he made me.
• Psalms 139:14 NLT
  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
• You can be pitiful or you can be powerful but you can't be both.
• God has given me the grace that I need to run my race. So I don't need to start comparing myself to others because I'm anointed to be me.
• God had already arranged a comeback for every setback.
• If anyone had a right to have a chip on their shoulder it was Job. There he was living right and he lost everything.
• It's very easy to make an excuse for being bitter. Sometimes we want things from people that they don't have. If you only look to people, they will always let you down. No one person can meet all of your needs, they will always fall short. Let people off of the hook. When you are bitter it poisons every area of your life.
• It's easy to remember what we didn't get.
• Psalms 27:10 NLT
  Even if my father and mother abandon me, the L ord will hold me close.
• Matthew 5:45 NLT
  In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
• A bitter root will always produce bitter fruit. If the whole world stinks then maybe you need to make some changes on the inside. When we don't let things go it doesn't hurt the other person, it hurts you. You forgive for your own sake.
• Hebrews 12:15 AMP
  Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it--
• Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown(October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948), nicknamed "Three Finger" or "Miner", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher at the turn of the 20th century. Due to a farm-machinery accident in his youth, Brown lost parts of two fingers on his right hand[1] and eventually acquired his nickname as a result. Overcoming this handicap and turning it to his advantage, he became one of the elite pitchers of his era.
• Your handicap can become your advantage if you just get over it.

The Cry for a Kingdom MAN

Pastor Bobby @ Hope Alive

Luke 17:21 NLT
You won't be able to say, 'Here it is!' or 'It's over there!' For the Kingdom of God is already among you. "

Matthew 13:44-46 NLT
"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls.  When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

1. A kingdom man is over who is pursuing the Kingdom of God.
A. Usually men are associated with pursuing women, money, and power. Those things are normal but should be under the subjection of the Lord.
B. A man's man is always pursuing treasure.

2. A kingdom man's goal is to advance the kingdom of God for the betterment of those within it.

3. A kingdom man rules according to God's rule.
A. Visually demonstrates the comprehensive rule of God in every area of his life.
B. In authority because he is under God's authority.
C. Is under the covering, protection, and provision of God.

There is no neutral: a man is either a hero or a villain.

When God went looking for a person to answer about the fall he went looking for a man.

The Instinct to Increase

T.D.Jakes @ Lakewood Church

• "If you don't break up with fear you can miss your destiny."
• "Jesus died not to give us religion, but to give us relationship."
• Matthew 25:14-29 KJV
  For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
• Consider the culture and the context of the time. 

1. This was being told in a caste society: whatever you are born into is what you are supposed to be. 
2. There was no responsibility in a caste system for anyone to uplift anyone or I interact outside of your circle.
3. Slaves were forbidden from owning anything.

• The servants had been gifted.

1. We all have things that we did not earn.
2. I'm an asset not a liability.
3. In spite of...

• God assesses your abilities.
  

1. Not equally... (people who compare themselves to others will never be happy. You should be comparing what you got to what you had.)
2. God is not fair, but he is just. He only gives you what you can handle. (All three men received an opportunity; God wouldn't give me the opportunity if I couldn't handle it)

• Most extremely gifted people are also lonely.
  

1. The gift set them apart from the other slaves.
2. The isolation is an opportunity for you to work your magic.

• Matthew 25:19 NLT...After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money.

1. I don't need to give an account for what he gives me.
2. You have to be excellent on your own level. If you are excellent on your level then God will allow you to break some walls, shatter some ceilings, and step into another dimension.
3. Winners don't bury their talent and expose their fear; winners burt their fear and expose their talent.
4. All 3 servants received the same information but they processed it differently.

• The determining factor for the outcome is not the command, it's the instinct.

1. Though they were slaves, at least 2 of them weren't thinking like slaves.
2. Slaves only obey orders, masters follow their instincts.1

Being Good to People

Being Good to People

Being good to people includes small things like bringing a co-worker coffee, letting someone get over on the freeway. Being Good to people is the best ministry we can exercise. If you love someone then you will be good to others.

You need to be sensitive to the needs of the people God has placed in your life.

Galatians 6:10 KJV
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Proverbs 11:17 KJV
The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.

2 Corinthians 8:7 NLT
Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.

A lot of times we are praying for a miracle when we can be a miracle. 

When you are kind to people in their time of need, someone will be waiting in your time of need.

Psalm 37:3 NLT
Trust in the LORD and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Kind deeds will never be forgotten.

* Victoria Osteen *

God spoke the world into existence. We have that same power to combine God's word with our own. Without faith it is impossible to please God and faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. When will we see? Only God knows, but he promises that I will reap if I faint not.

God promised that he will perfect things so it will help to write down my concerns and search the Bible for what the word says.