Have God Esteem & Keep Growing

****Victoria Osteen****
Have God-Esteem

1. Proverbs 18:14 NLT....The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit?
   The bible says that the spirit of a man sustains the man. Your spirit is constantly trying to change you and that's why you have to be careful of what you let get stuck in your head.
2. Hebrews 4:16 NLT...So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
   When you go boldly before someone it's a reflection of what you think about that person. You trust that person and respect their admonishment.
3. Acts 13:22 NIV...After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’
   David was a man after God's on heart but he wasn't perfect. He was confident in God and took time to meditate on God.
4. Romans 14:22-23 NIV So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
   As long as you don't condemn yourselfyourself you can ask God for anything.
5. When your perspective changes then everything Looks different.

*****Joel Osteen*****
Keep Growing

• You Have to take responsibility for your own growth. You can't coast through life on what you already know. 50% of the people who graduate high school will never read another a book.
• I Have a responsibility to myself, to my family, and to God to develop my hidden treasures. I Have tooin much in me to not be proactiveproactive.
• Pablo Casals continued to practice guys cello for 5 hours daily well into his eighties so that he could continue to get better.
  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Casals
• The Tale of 2 Lumberjacks
  Two lumberjacks, a younger one and an older one, raced to see who could cut down the most trees in a single day. At the end of the day the winner was obvious. The older lumberjack had won. The younger man could not believe it!"How could you have cut down more trees than I did?" he asked. "Every hour you sat down while I kept right on cutting. I don't understand. How could you have cut more trees while sitting so much?""When I sat down, I was sharpening my axe," the older lumberjack said. "Why didn't you stop to sharpen your axe?" "I didn't have time," the younger man said. "I was too busy cutting!"This story reminds us that in order to be an effective servant, to make our lives count for Christ, we should take time regularly to "sharpen" our lives.
• If you sharpen your skills you may not Have to work as hard.
• God has shifted things in my favor and it's up to me to be prepared.
• David was a shepherd: He had a minimum wage job and no friends. David's brothers were in the army: they had Huigh praying jobs. David could have drowned in self pity but instead he took time to work on his skills and become a skilled marksman devoted to his flock and when God needed someone to kill a giant, David was ready!
• Proverbs 18:16 NIV...A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.
• Don't use your position as an excuse to slack off: Proverbs 22:29 NIV...Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.
• Joseph in the Bible is a good example. He didn't wait until he was at the top he started from the bottom.
  After many setbacks, Joseph learned humility and wisdom. He was a hard worker, even while a slave. Joseph loved his family and forgave terrible wrongs done to him.
  The account of Joseph in the Bible is found in Genesis chapters 30-50. 
• Never present only a problem. Don't have destination disease.
• People won't always care who the popular kids and athletes were.
• Use the time that you have wisely: you can use your drive time, workout time, waiting time, and etc to grow. During your downtime read the Bible, listen to the Bible, read a book, take an online course, and etc.
• Be careful of who you spend time with.
  Who you associate with matters.

Joel Likes To Start With Something Funny...

A young girl is standing on a street corner, preaching about God to whoever will listen. A businessman stops to listen, and can't believe what he's hearing.Finally, he interrupts the girl and says, "Excuse me, but are you saying that EVERYTHING in the Bible is true?"The girl responds, "Why, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."He says, "So you're saying that the story of Jonah and the big fish is a true story?"The girl says, "Yes, that's what I'm saying."He says, "Okay, so tell me how Jonah could survive for three days inside of a big fish!"The girl thinks for a moment, then says, "Well...I'm not sure. But when I get to Heaven, I'll ask him."He says, "But what if Jonah went to hell?"The girl says, "Then you can ask him!"

Releasing the full you

05/05/2013

Joel @ Lakewood Church

Romans 12:2 KJV
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The caterpillar goes from being one of the most plain insects to one of the most beautiful,  a butterfly. Like that caterpillar,  we may start plain but we aren't meant to stay that way.

That caterpillar has to push himself out of the cocoon.  In the same way,  it's up to me to push myself out.  Negative thoughts can impede the full you from coming out.

● You have to change your thinking because
inside of you is everything I need to be that beautiful butterfly soaring to places that I never imagined.

● John Osteen grew up in a plain lifestyle but he felt the urge to do something more.  His family discouraged him but he had to ignore those thoughts and renew their minds.

● A lot of the time,  we get programmed by the words that other people speak over us but we need to reprogram our thoughts with what God says about us

● The enemy fights you for where you are going.

Judges 6:11-12 KJV

And there came an angel of the Lord , and sat
under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi–ezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
● God calls you what you will become,  not what you are.  It's up to me to come into agreement with what God knows about me not my circumstances or what I think about myself.

● A Plantation owner was throwing out dead wood when a sculptor asked if he could have the wood. The plantation owner laughed and told him to take it since it was useless. The sculptor carved an eagle.  A few weeks later the Plantation owner saw the Eagle displayed at the sculptor's hut and offered to buy it for $500. The sculptor told him that it was the dead wood. The sculptor saw the Eagle on the inside it wasn't useless.
Micah 4:9 KJV
Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

● We are children of the most High God, there are kings and Queens on the inside and it's time for them to come out.

*********Victoria Osteen***********
The Season of Graduation

When God prepares you for a challenge you get stronger in the midst of it.

It is what it is as I get better over time.
You don't need to take from others because they don't have what I need, that's why I can rejoice when others rejoice.

This is a season of graduation. When you finish with one thing, it's hard to see what God has for you but like Abraham we have to follow God even though we don't know where he's going.

Hebrews 11:8-10 MSG
By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by
God.
-Sometimes like Abraham, things take a long time! In this times when we have a front row seat to the longest wait we have to remember that God has perfect timing.

Nehemiah 8:10 NLT
And Nehemiah continued, "Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the L ord is your strength!"
-In that time of waiting we have to praise God to strengthen ourselves. That praise needs to be stored up so it can minister to me.