Stop Complaining

Joyce Meyers @ Lakewood Church

• If you're going to complain about something, then don't bother praying about it.
• A lot of people will never get to where they want to be If they keep complaining about where you are.
• You have to be disciplined about walking in the spirit. Being thankful is a powerful way to do that.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 NIV: Rejoice always,pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  Do not quench the Spirit.
• You don't have to feel something to be something.
• The Lord's response to Habakkuk's Complaints
• Habakkuk 2:2-3 NIV
• Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.  For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
• When you have a complaint get a vision.
• Philippians 4:6 NIV
• Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
• Learn to go with the flow and be happy where you are because complaining isn't going to solve anything. Joyce wasted crackers on the floor and no matter how upset she would have gotten, that wouldn't have gotten the crackers off the floor.
• Is your problem your problems or is your attitude toward your problem your problem?
• Numbers 21:4-8 AMP
• And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient (depressed, much discouraged), because [of the trials] of the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and we loathe this light (contemptible, unsubstantial) manna. Then the Lord sent fiery (burning) serpents among the people; and they bit the people, and many Israelites died. And the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that He may take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent [of bronze] and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.
• Obedience is better than sacrifice: It's great to have access to forgiveness but why can't we get out right the first time.
• 1 Corinthians 10:9-11 NIV
• We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.  These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
• You have to be thankful on purpose.
• We can't blend in, we have to stand out.

• Philippians 2:14-15 NIV
• Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky

Going Further Faster

Joel Osteen @ Lakewood Church

• Things have shifted and God has given me grace to go further faster. ByJRochelle is going to grow and Gregory is going to get his dream position.
• Part of the shift it's acceleration. God is breathing in my direction causing things to fall into place.
• The Osteens wanted to purchase the Compaq Center. A building like this would cost $500,000,000 but they bought it for $7.5 million when the situation shifted into their favor.
• 1949 Billy Graham would travel the country and one day William Randolph Hearst attended a meeting. Hearst owned newspapers all over the world and posted favorable articles about Graham in many if the papers. Graham gained notoriety over night. God will send the right people to you when you honor Him.
• Jerry and Jana Lackey run the Lorato House Rescue Center in Botswana.
• Chinese Bamboo develop its root system for 5 years. On the surface it looks like the plant isn't growing. But seemingly all of a sudden it can grow up to 80 feet in a few months.
  http://www.therelationalmarketer.com/2011/08/16/lessons-from-a-chinese-bamboo-tree/
• Ruth, in the Bible, was living off of leftovers from a field that she worked in but she ended up owning that field because she honored God with her relationships.
• Nehemiah 2:8 NLT...And please give me a letter addressed to Asaph, the manager of the king's forest, instructing him to give me timber. I will need it to make beams for the gates of the Temple fortress, for the city walls, and for a house for myself." And the king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me.
• There will always be opposition.
• Stay in agreement with God. The first place you lose the battle is in your mind.

*****Victoria Osteen*****
COMMUNION

• Christ died that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
• God asked us to do this in remembrance of him because he knew that we would need to remember our decision to live.
• Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

OFFERING

• 
  10% is God's standard.
• Malachi 3:10 NLT...Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!
• The store house indicates the local church.

A Flood is Coming

Joel Osteen @ Lakewood Church

• Expect a flood of God's goodness.

1 Chronicles 14:11 NLT
So David and his troops went up to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. "God did it!" David exclaimed. "He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!" So they named that place Baal-perazim (which means "the Lord who bursts through").

• When God releases a flood nothing will be able to stop me.

Exodus 34:10 NLT
The LORD replied, "Listen, I am making a covenant with you in the presence of all your people. I will perform miracles that have never been performed anywhere in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people around you will see the power of the LORD—the awesome power I will display for you.

It's easy to focus on how big red problem is but the opposition is only parking trickle.

Isaiah 59:19 KJV
So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.

Isaiah 59:19 NLT
In the west, people will respect the name of the LORD;
in the east, they will glorify him.
For he will come like a raging flood tide
driven by the breath of the LORD.

Isaiah 61:2 NLT
He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the LORD's favor has come, and with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies.

Ephesians 1:18 NLT
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

Honor God by dealing with the issues that God brings to light.

• Take the limits off of God.

****Victoria Osteen****
Don't forsake what you have to go after what you want.

Coming into a Shift

Joel Osteen @ Lakewood Church
God can shift things into the right place. Because you honor God he will put you ahead.

Don't give up on past dreams because it's a new day.

-after years of unfair treatment God caused the Egyptians to change their minds toward the Israelites.
Exodus 12:36 NIV
The Lord  had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

Psalm 18:29 NIV
With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.

You can't have faith of you don't have hope.

Genesis 48:19 NIV
But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations."

Numbers 11:31 NIV
Now a wind went out from the Lord  and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day's walk in any direction.

Zechariah 4:6 KJV
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

Victoria Osteen
"Set the Pace"

Before we put on our natural clothes on we should put on our spiritual clothes.
Ephesians 6:11, 14-17 NIV
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Daniel 10:12 NIV
Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.

Daniel 9:23 NIV
As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:

Just because we don't see it in the natural doesn't mean it isn't on the way.

When we speak negative words it's like pushing the stop button. We start to think negative because we don't see the results.

Decide to set your mind and keep it set. Everything that I want is out there.

Hebrews 10:25 NIV
not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Get rid of people who are draining your time. God has already set me apart so. I need to act like it.

There's power in agreement.

Houston We Have A Promise

John Gray @ Lakewood Church
2012 Was the Launch Pad

2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT
For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "Yes!" And through Christ, our "Amen" (which means "Yes") ascends to God for his glory.

2 Corinthians 1:22 MSG
Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God's Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.

Isaiah 43:19 KJV
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

God is so concerned about launch that he is deeply concerned about the preparation.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Launch window is a term used in spaceflight to describe a time period in which a particular launch vehicle (rocket, Space Shuttle, etc.) must be launched. If the rocket does not launch within the "window", it has to wait for the next window.

WEIGHT CHECK
Hebrews 12:1 KJV
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Anything not on board wasn't supposed to be there.

There is a perimeter around the rocket. The devil can talk but he can't touch.

I'm a unique representation of God's creative genius and if there is a problem I can check the training manual.

WAIT CHECK

Sent from my Galaxy S®III because Jeniro is on the go!

Remembering the Good

Negative memories take up more space and that's why we gravitate toward those.  That means that I need to be proactive.  Just because the memory comes up doesn't b mean that I can't change the channel.

Quit dwelling on the negative.

Stay on your victory channel.

****Victoria Osteen at Lakewood****

God's love isn't based on performance. So all we have to do is ask for forgiveness and then receive it.  The goodness of God leads you to repentance. God isn't holding my past against me. 

Not Giving Away Your Joy

Joel Osteen@  Lakewood Church

• There will always be something that interrupts your day.

• Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond.

• You have to decide ahead of time that you will keep your peace because this is the day that the Lord has made and you will rejoice and be glad in it.

• John 16:22 NIV

• So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

• Identify what is making you unhappy and choose to react to it differently.

• Proverbs 14:30 NIV

• A heart at peace gives life to the body,

• but envy rots the bones.

• John 14:27 NLT

• "I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid.

• Psalm 94:13 NIV

• you grant them relief from days of trouble,

• till a pit is dug for the wicked.

• 2 Timothy 4:5 GNT

• But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances; endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Good News, and perform your whole duty as a servant of God.

• When we get upset about someone else's bad attitude we just may take their garbage and dump it on someone else.

• Be aware of the garbage trucks in life.

• Matthew 5:5

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

Be more of a problem solver than a complainer. Rejoicing in the lord is a good way to guard against complaints.

40 years to take an 11 day journey.

Philippians 4:4 NIV
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

When you complain you distort the beauty of the moment.

When you complain you remain but when you rejoice you hear his voice.