Blessed Out Of Season

Pastor Joel @ Lakewood Church

Sometimes circumstances will say that it isn't our season but God doesn't wait for all of the conditions to line up...He isn't on a "normal" timetable.

It's important to be faithful but be careful not to endure without expecting.

Sarah gave birth to a son passed the normal age.

David was a teenage shepherd annointed as the next king.

But Moses responded to the Lord , "There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, 'I will give them meat for a whole month!' Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?"
Numbers 11:21‭-‬22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/num.11.21-22.NLT

Moses was looking at things practically in response to God's promise.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!"
Numbers 11:23 NLT

So the people went out and caught quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels ! They spread the quail all around the camp to dry.
Numbers 11:32 NLT

Quail don't usually fly so far away from the sea but God controls the wind.

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
John 5:4 KJV

Jesus healed him in a way that he wasn't expecting. He didn't have to wait for the angel or find someone to help him into the pool. It was also the Sabbath.

God will make rivers in the desert.

Just because you don't feel favored doesn't mean that you're not favored.

Pastor Joel was living a country western song and in the middle of that he received a lucrative media deal.

Mrs. Dodie received a terminal prognosis.

When you speak negative words they get into your spirit.

Don't put God in a box. God isn't waiting on "the angel" to stir anything. God might be planning to use people and means that you never imagined.

Peter was a seasoned fisherman so it would have been understandable for him to disregard the advice of a carpenter.

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.  And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.  And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
Luke 5:4‭-‬6 KJV

For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken:
Luke 5:9 KJV

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
2 Timothy 4:2 KJV

Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.
2 Timothy 4:2

Victoria Osteen @ Lakewood Church

God Always STARTS Small

God does things with seeds that multiply so when you put small things in God's hands he can do big things.

Learn to handle the small first.

And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.  But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.  And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.  He said, Bring them hither to me.  And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.  And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
Matthew 14:15‭-‬20 KJV

What the disciples thought they couldn't handle a big task with such little resources. But God blessed it and they had leftovers.

Don't overlook the small things because ALL things matter to God.

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
Song of Solomon 2:15 KJV

Even negative things (bitterness, envy, etc...) can go big if we don't give them to God.

We'll never get rid of the small stuff and when we handle that, He will increase our capacity.

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
1 Corinthians 3:6‭-‬8 KJV

Even the largest tree started from a seed.