Joel Osteen Podcast - Enjoy the Journey

Episode Date: June 24, 2020

Many people are living for the mountain top moments, but those moments are few and far between. Life is about the journey, not the destination. Learn to have joy for the journey!Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love. To give visit JoelOsteen.com/GiveHope Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Purdue's online university for working adults Start your comeback at PurdueGlobal.edu. He'll forget about the video game you gave him on his birthday. Wow, thanks, Grandpa. But he'll never forget how you invested in his future with the UNEST app. Wow, thanks, Grandpa. The UNEST app makes it easy for grandparents and family friends

to give funds to a child's investment account for limited time. Download the UNEST app and use the code IHeart50 at sign up to receive a $50 bonus when you fund your account. That's code IHeart50 when you sign up at UNEST.co for a $50 bonus. See terms and conditions at UNES. See you. Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for downloading our podcast. We enjoy spending this time with you. I hope you'll leave inspired. Make sure you subscribe to get new messages every week. We appreciate your support. It helps keep the ministry going. Enjoy the message.

Well, God bless you. Always a joy to come into your homes. We love you. And we know God has great things in store. And if you're ever in our area, I hope you'll stop by and be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make you feel right. at home. Thanks for tuning in and thank you again for coming out today. I like to start with something funny and I heard about this man. Somebody had stolen his wife's credit card. A couple of months later, the company called him and said, sir, we've got good news. We found the credit card. Without missing a beat, he said, tell the thief to keep it. He spends less than my wife. All right, hold up your Bible. Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do.

Today I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess, my mind is alert, my heart is receptive, I will never be the same. In Jesus' name. God bless you. I want to talk to you today about enjoying the journey. Life is not really about the destination. It's about how we live all along the way.

And it's easy to become so goal-oriented and so focused on our dreams, that we overlook the simple things that we should be enjoying. But we have to realize life is a journey. There's no such thing as the finish line. Once you accomplish this dream, God will give you another dream. When you overcome this challenge, there'll be another challenge. There's always another mountain to climb. And if we make the mistake of just living for the destination,

we'll look up one day and realize we've missed out on the biggest part of the life because most of life is routine. Most of us get up every morning, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed, and do it again. There are very few mountaintops where you graduate from school or you get married or have a child or go on vacation. The high times are few and far between. But many people are living for the mountain tops. They're so focused on their promotion that they work night and day. They don't really enjoy their family. They're so stressed raising their children,

they don't enjoy their children. They're so caught up in getting out of a problem their life goes by in a blur. We've got to slow down and learn to enjoy the journey. This is what I had to do. Before I was married, I used to travel overseas with my father a couple of times a year,

and I lived for those big trips. I couldn't wait. I counted down the months. the weeks, hurried through the days, trying to get to that trip. When one trip was over, I'd immediately start looking forward to the next trip. One day I realized I'm hurrying through life just trying to get to my big events. Of course, it's good to have things to look forward to. It's good to have goals in front of you.

But don't put your life on hold until that happens. Enjoy all along the way. I heard Dion Sanders talking. He was a star football player. His dream was to win the Super Bowl. That's what he wanted more than anything else. He trained and trained year after year working tirelessly. One day his dream came to pass.

He won the Super Bowl. He told that night when he went home after the big celebration, he was so disappointed. He thought, is this all that it is? I've worked and reached the pinnacle of my career, and I thought it would be different. Yes, I'm happy. Yes, God's blessed me.

But it's just not what I think. thought it would be. And sometimes we can spend our whole life trying to reach a goal only to find out it's not what it's all cracked up to be. Friends, the real joy in life is in the simple things. It's in being with your family, getting up early and seeing the sunrise, taking a walk through the park, taking your daughter on a date, going on a bike ride with your spouse. And sure, the goals, the accomplishments, they bring us a sense of satisfaction. but they're only temporary. You can't live off your Super Bowls.

You can't live off your big events because after you savor them for a moment, God's going to birth a new dream in your heart, something new to look forward to. And I've talked to a lot of people that have made it to the very top in their field. The one common regret I seem to hear is that they did it at the expense of their family.

They say, Joel, if I could do it over again, I would take time to do it. stop and smell the roses. I would be there at my children's Little League games. I would take more walks through the park with my spouse. I wouldn't live so stressed and uptight, thinking if I can just get to the next level, then I'll slow down and enjoy my life. No, slow down and enjoy the journey right now. Take time for the people God's put in your life. They're not always going to be there. The scripture says in James, our life is like a mist. We're here for a moment, and then we're gone.

Every day, we should tell our spouse, our children, the people that mean the most to us, how much we love them. I told Victoria the other day, how much I appreciate her coming and listening to me speak every service. A while back, we were out of town holding services. Then we came back and did the three services on the weekend. And I figured up she had heard my same message that week eight times in a row. Listen, after eight times, I'm even tired of it. But she sits there,

three services a week, and she laughs at my same jokes like it's the first time she ever heard them. I know she's faking it, but at least she's faking it to make me feel good. I don't take that for granted. Make sure the people in your life know how much you appreciate them sacrificing and being behind you. after all, you wouldn't be where you were if somebody wasn't paying the price to get you further down the road. I think about my mother. Every service when I'm up here,

I can hear her agging me on right there on the front row. Under her breath, she's constantly whispering, that's good, Joel. It doesn't matter what I'm talking about. I'm her son. She thinks everything I say is good. I can say, you may be seated.

Oh, that's excellent today, Joel. But I realize I wouldn't be where I am today without the people that have sown into my life. Now, I'm not going to take for granted those who are closest to me, my family, my friends, my coworkers that are making sacrifices so I can fulfill what God's put in my life, in my heart. A lot of people today, they're making a living, but they're not really making a life. They're working all the time, living stressed out. bringing the tension home, too busy to enjoy what God's given them. We have to understand when we come to the end of our life, most likely there will still be work to do at the office. Your inbox will still be full. It's never going to be all done. And if we don't make our family

and those that we love a high priority to enjoy, to spend time with, to invest in, then we'll end up missing out on the thing that matters most. Because in your final days here on this earth, the job won't keep your company, your family will. But if you spend all your time just investing in a career and giving the best of your life and energy to build a business, then your lack of investment in what matters most. Your family could leave you a very lonely person. And it's good to be focused and driven.

It's good to be a hard worker, but you've got to know how to walk away. and say, you know what, this work is still going to be at the office tomorrow when I show up. So I'm going to be my best today. I'm going to work hard, but I'm going to play hard. I'm going to enjoy my family. I'm going to have fun with my children. If you don't make this decision, then your family will always only get your leftover time and leftover energy. They deserve better than that. Don't take the stress from the office home to where you show up. The whole house tenses up. don't let how somebody treated you or what you didn't get done, sour your day to where you take it out on your family. Leave that outside the home.

I don't know about you, but I would rather make less money and be able to enjoy my life and enjoy my family than to be so overworked that I never have any extra energy. There are plenty of opportunities I say no to because I don't want my life to go by in a blur. I don't want my children to grow up without knowing me. I don't want to be so busy that I can't come home and work out or take a walk through the park or stay up and look at the stars or get up early and hear the birds singing. You've got to realize I'm a very goal-oriented, disciplined person. I've got to do just what I'm asking you to do. I train myself to slow down and enjoy the journey.

I read about Frank Lloyd Wright. He was a famous architect. and when he was a young man in his early teens, he was walking through a snow-covered field with his uncle. They were headed to a house up in front of them. But along the way, Frank veered off and stopped by the barn to see the animals. Then he went over to the pond and took a look at that. Then he saw a fort off in the distance that they had built.

He went out of his way and went and saw that. When he finally caught up with his uncle, way across the snow-covered field, his uncle said, now Frank, I want to teach you a lesson. Look back at our footsteps in the snow. Mine came straight here. I never ventured off and I got here much quicker than you. But Frank, look at yours. You zigzagged all over the place. Wasted so much time stopping all along the way. Frank Lloyd Wright said that was one of the best lessons he ever learned. But he took it just the opposite. His philosophy was, I still got to where I was going, but I enjoyed all the sights along the way. And in life, there will always be a balance between working

hard, being focused, accomplishing dreams, and taking time to stop and smell the roses. Some of you today, you don't zigzag enough. You need to start venturing off here and there and appreciating and enjoying the great things God's placed in your life. You're all work and no fun. but if you would change your approach and slow down and enjoy the journey, you will not only still get to where you're supposed to be, but your life will be so much more fulfilled. I learned a lot of this from victorious side of the family. They love to laugh. They love to have fun.

They enjoy each other. At dinner, they can sit there and talk for hours. My personality is, I can eat in 10 minutes, and I'm done. Let's get busy. Let's go do something. We got goals, we got dreams. The other day, Victoria and her mom and brother and some of the family came over after church, and we had a late lunch.

After I got through eating, I went to the back and watched the football game. Two and a half hours later, I came back out, and they were still sitting at the table in the same seats, laughing, talking, having fun. I was so amazed. I said to Victoria, what are y'all talking about? She said, oh, nothing. Let me tell you, they can talk about nothing better than anybody I know. Why is that?

They enjoy each other. They've taught me how to take time to smell the roses. Think about this. God gives us a sunrise every morning. Do you ever enjoy it? He gives us stars every night. Do you ever look up and appreciate it? Maybe you have your mom and dad living close by.

Do you ever stop by and spend time? Do you ever call them and talk about nothing? Many of us, God is blessed with beautiful children. Do you enjoy them? Or are you so busy raising them and cooking their dinner and making sure they're doing their homework and making sure they're cleaning their room that you don't really appreciate the gift

that God has given you? I know people that love their children, no doubt about it, but they don't really enjoy their children. They let the pressures of raising them rob them of what they have to offer. when our daughter Alexandra was about three years old, she used to wake up at night and come down the stairs and come into our room. Of course, we'd have to get up and take her back to bed. For a period of three or four months, she was waking up two or three times a night and

coming down. This was not long after I took over for my father and started pastoring. So I was learning to minister. There was a lot of stress and changes just with that. And now I wasn't getting that much sleep. And one time I was telling Victoria, we just got to do something about Alexandra. She's coming down so much. And, you know, I'm just so tired and I'm not getting enough sleep on and on. Victoria said something I'll never forget. She said, Joel, just remember 20 years from now, you'll give anything to hear those little footsteps coming down the stairs.

You'll give anything to have her wanting to come into your room. That changed my whole perspective. I started looking forward to it. I started treasuring those moments that we could spend together. Your children may be a lot of work right now, but make sure you're enjoying them. They're not always going to be there in the house with you. I heard Dr. Ed Young tell about something that happened with his son.

Dr. Young is a good friend of ours, a great leader, the pastor of Second Baptist Church here in town. When Dr. Young was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, he received an invitation to go to the White House and have a personal meeting with the president. It was a big deal, and he was very excited about it. But his son's basketball team won their division, and they kept advancing.

And it just so happened that the state championship was on the same day he was supposed to go to Washington. So he had to decide, was he going to stay and see his son? Or was he going to go and see the president? I'm sure he could have thought, well, I can watch the game later by video. I can call and get updates. I can probably hear it on the radio.

No, Dr. Young didn't think twice. He had his staff and formed the president's office that he would not be able to attend. He went to his son's game and it was very exciting, very close. The score kept going back and forth. Toward the end of the game, his son's team was down by one point. Looked like they'd come up short. But in the final seconds, his son hit the game-winning shot and they won the state championship. Dr. Young said, I would not have traded that moment for anything in the world, not even a meeting with the president.

Friends, we have to realize some things we cannot get back. Our children will only be this age once. Take time for the people in your life. Don't rush out of the house without giving your spouse a hug. Don't be so busy that you can't go on the date that you promised your little daughter. Don't come home so tired that you can't go to the park and watch your teenage son skateboard. Make memories together. 20 years from now, we're going to look back and say, those were the good old days.

You remember when you hit the game winning shot? You remember when I used to go to the park and chase you around? You remember when we used to sit around the dinner table and laugh and tell stories? Friends, we are living in the good old days. Don't take it for granted. Your family needs what you have. have. They need your smile, your encouragement, your support, your wisdom. They need to know that you

care and that they mean the world to you. And it's important not to just be in the house. Don't just show up. Be involved. Be engaged. I heard somebody say, it's not the time we spend together that really matters. It's the moments we ignite to make a memory. And I know plenty of people that are living in a house full of family, but they're very lonely. Everybody is busy. Everybody's doing their own thing. Nobody is stepping up to say, you know what? We're going to be a family.

We're going to take time to sit together at the dinner table and see how we're doing. We're going to go to the ball game or to the dance recital and cheer that other person on. We're going to lift each other up when we're falling. We're going to enjoy what God has given us. See, it's easy to be too busy. it's easy to become disengaged. But if you want to get the most out of life, you've got to draw the line in the sand

and say, I'm going to slow down and enjoy the journey. I'm not going to take for granted what God has given me. I'm not going to be a workaholic and not see my children grow up. I'm not going to live so stressed out that I can't appreciate the simple things in life. A few years ago, I was rounding everybody up at our house to leave. We were headed to church

and we were running late, and I was in a big hurry, all stressed out about it. Our son Jonathan was about eight years old. Somebody had given us a label maker, one of those little machines that you can type a message and it'll print out a little label that you can stick on somewhere. Jonathan was there by the back door and he was typing in a message. I said, Jonathan, you got to put that up. We're late. We've got to go right now.

He said, hang on, Dad, I just need another minute, just another second. I said, Jonathan, we don't have another second. We're not going to get to church in time. You've got to put it up. I was getting more and more stressed out. About that time, he printed out the message and handed it to me. It said, you're the best dad in the world. I thought, well, maybe we can stay here a little longer.

Print out a few more of those, but sometimes we get so caught up in our goals and so focused on the end result that we miss the miracles all along the way. Take time to smell the roses. Enjoy the different personalities God's put in your life. I've found it's the simple things that mean the most to us. You don't have to take an expensive vacation to make a memory. You can make a memory sitting at the dinner table. You can make a memory watching your children play in the backyard,

getting up early with your spouse and taking in a beautiful sunrise. Some of my best memories growing up were when all of us kids, there were five of us, would sit with my father early in the morning and drink coffee by the fire. When my father would take his first sip of coffee, he would always let out a long ah. All of us kids from 4 to 14 would do the same thing. We'd have a contest to see who could do the best ah. We'd sit there and laugh and have fun together. My brother Paul tells how he and his children still get up today and drink coffee early in the morning.

sip it and say their awes. I don't drink coffee anymore. I'm a little bit holier than he is. But growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, but my parents were very innovative. We lived close to the big airport. A couple of nights a month, when it wasn't busy, they would take us up to the airport and we would ride the train together. That was free. We loved it. You would have thought they were taking us to an amusement park. We would go back and forth between Terminal A and Terminal B for an hour or two.

I'm sure people thought that family is so lost. They don't know what they're doing. Now, you know what we were doing? We were making a memory. We were having fun together as a family. It's not how expensive it is or how exciting it is. Life is all about what we

make it. When our children were younger, we took them to Disneyland. land. Alexander was about five years old, I would guess, and it was very much a struggle getting there that day. There was a lot of traffic, and we were in the rental car, and hard finding a place to park, and a long line to get on the tram to catch it to the park. And by the time we got in the park, I was very stressed out. We weren't there 15 minutes until little Alexander said, Daddy, I want to go back to the hotel and go swimming. I said, no, no, no, Alexandra. We can swim anywhere. We can swim at home.

We're at Disneyland. She said, Daddy, I don't want to be at Disneyland. I want to go swimming. I said, no, Alexandra, we may see Mickey Mouse. We're going to go find snow white. We're going to have so much fun. She said, I don't want to have fun here. I finally had to say, listen, Alexandra, I pay 50 bucks for your ticket.

You're going to have fun whether you like it or not. What am I saying? It doesn't take a lot of money to have fun. many times it's the simple things that we remember the most. I heard about this man that was a huge baseball fan. For his son's eighth birthday, he bought him a baseball that was autographed by all of the New York Yankees. They had just won the World Series, paid a lot of money for it, and he was sure his son would treasure it for years to come.

But when he gave the ball to his son, his son wasn't excited about it at all. In fact, he just looked at it and put it off to the side. The dad was so disappointed. He said, son, don't you like the ball? His son said, yes, Dad, but I'd like it a lot better if somebody hadn't written all these names on it. Friends, we've got to learn to enjoy the simple things in life. Today, everything is so complicated. We have 500 channels on TV, the Internet, cell phones, PDAs.

Everywhere you look, there's something to do, some kind of entertainment. And if we're not careful, we'll fall into the trap of thinking that we've always got to be busy. We can't have fun. We can't enjoy our life unless we're doing something big and exciting. Slow down and enjoy the simple things. Turn off the TV and spend more time with your family. Take a walk, go for a bike ride, play games together. That doesn't cost anything.

Growing up, we used to play hide and go seek as a family. My mom and dad would chase us all through the house. It's one of the highlights of my day. My favorite memory is when my sister Lisa got stuck in the dryer. Thank God we had it on permanent press. But it's not about what we have or don't have. Life is all about what we make it. You can have all the money in the world and not be happy and enjoying life.

Plus, you can have very little and be just as satisfied and fulfilled as you can be. It's all in our approach. Now, I read about this family that was very wealthy in. The father wanted to show his seven-year-old son how the, quote, poor people live. And so he left the big home in the city and they drove to a little farm in the country where this family they knew was and they spent the night with them. And it's just a little frame, woodhouse and didn't have any TV, no fancy furniture, no carpet.

And at night, this family, since there was no entertainment inside, they would go out on the front porch and sing and laugh and tell stories together. together. After being there a night or two, the father and son headed back home. The father was very curious as to if his son had learned his lesson. He asked him how he liked it. The little boy said, oh, Dad, I really loved it. He said, well, son, do you see how poor people can be? The son said, yes, Dad, I did. He said, well, son, tell me what exactly did you learn? The little boy said, well, Dad, I learned that we have one dog at home and they have four. We have a swimming pool in the middle of our backyard, but they have a stream with no end. We have fancy lanterns

on our house, but they have the stars. We watch TV by ourselves at night, but they sit around as a family and have fun. His dad was shaking his head. He knew it had backfired. About that time, the son said, Dad, thank you so much for showing me how poor we really are. Friends, if you have people in your life to love, you're rich. If you have your health, you're rich. You're rich. You're If you can hear your little girl's footsteps coming down the stairs, you're rich. If you can talk with your family about nothing, you're rich. Keep the right perspective. Slow down and enjoy the simple things in life.

Take more walks through the park. Look at the stars at night. Think about God's goodness. When you get up in the morning, don't just drink your coffee, sip it and say, ah. Make a memory. Ignite that moment. I'm asking us today to slow down and enjoy the journey. There will always be another dream, another goal, another challenge.

Take time for what matters most. And some of you are so focused and driven, so busy with what you have to do each day, you're missing the miracles all along the way. You need to do like Frank Lloyd Wright and start zigzagging, start enjoying the different things that God has put in your life. I heard somebody say, it's not that life is so short, it's that we wait so long to begin. Why don't you begin today? Take time to smell the roses. Appreciate the people in your life. Hug your children before you leave each day. Give your spouse a kiss.

Call your parents and tell them how much you love them. Go visit those relatives you've been meaning to. Life is short. We're not always going to be here. And it's good to work hard, but you've got to learn how to turn it off, stay in balance, and play hard as well. We're living in the good old days. And if you'll make this decision that you're going to slow down and enjoy the journey, then you will experience the fullness of what God has in store. When you come to the end of your life, you'll have no regrets. You'll be able to say, I made the most of my life, I enjoyed my family, I enjoyed my friends, I finished my course with joy. Amen. Do you receive that today? We never like to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me?

Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins, come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Savior. Friends, if you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. Get in a good Bible-based church. Keep God first place. He'll take your places that you've never dreamed of. Thank you for listening to the Joel Osteen podcast. Help us continue to share the message of hope with those all over the world. Visit Joel Osteen.com slash give us.

hope to give a gift today. Thanks so much for listening to today's message. I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest podcast to keep you inspired all through the week. We're praying for you. I know God's best is still ahead. We'll see you next time. More than ever before, people are turning to the church for their mental health struggles.

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