Joel Osteen Podcast - Experience the Fullness of His Love

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

Sometimes we think we need to clean ourselves up before we can allow God into certain parts of our lives. But God’s love does not condemn us. His love for you never changes. When you draw near to Him, you’ll experience the depths of His never-ending grace and mercy.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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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 Victoria. Thank you so much for downloading this podcast. I believe God has amazing things in your future. I hope you enjoy this message. When Joel and I first started dating,

many years ago, we had a mutual friend. And I didn't know this at the time, but my friend was talking behind my back with Joel. She would say things like, she likes you. She told me she did. and Joel would say, well, tell me what she said. What did she think about our first date? He began to question her, and she began to tell him, just keep doing what you're doing. She really likes you a lot. See, he began to hear how much I liked him at the very start of our relationship.

And so it gave him the confidence to pursue this relationship. and as he began to pursue a relationship with me, he found out something very important. He found out that I liked him too, a lot. So as we continued with our relationship, discovering things about one another, learning things about one another, and it began to grow and it began to flourish. And 29 years later, it's still growing and it's still flourishing. You see, Joel went from hearing. that I liked him to experiencing that I liked him. He went from hearing to literally knowing by my words

and by my actions. And too often, we sit on the sidelines of life because we hear something is good, but we don't allow it to develop a confidence in us to pursue what is good, to pursue those things that we want. It's like that with the love of God. Your family, your friends, maybe you heard about Jesus when you were young, but you know what? There's just some areas of your life you cannot pursue him. You've let him in maybe a little bit, but there's areas that you think, I don't want him to get to know me in that area. He may not like me anymore. You feel condemned. Sometimes people think they need to clean themselves up. They need to to fix themselves up nice and shiny before they can develop a relationship with Jesus. Well, they know

that he loves them. They've heard it. But they've never taken the next step. Or maybe they have served God. But like I said, there are those doors that they just won't open. And you know when that happens, our relationship doesn't deepen and strengthen. We don't develop all that we can in the relationship. Listen, if I shut some doors to Joel and wouldn't let him in, there would be some problems. But I had confidence that he wasn't going to judge me. He knew I wasn't judging him. We were in this together, and we love each other, and we developed it. And that's what we have to believe about the love of Christ.

God does not condemn you in Jesus Christ. He loves you in Jesus Christ. There is no door that you cannot open to him. There is no sin too great. there is nothing that you've done that he will not forgive you for. The Bible says when you were yet sinners, he came and gave his life for you. See, before we wherever even knew him, he already fell in love with us. Let's go from just hearing about the love of God to truly developing and experiencing the love of God. If you're sitting here today and you've got some condemnation or some shame,

Can I tell you that is not Jesus? That is the accuser. And Jesus is not the accuser. There's a story in John 8 that exemplifies this so very well. Jesus was teaching one afternoon near the temple. And the scribes and the Pharisees, that's the religious leaders of that day, dragged a woman to him in front of everybody, and said, Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

Now, in the law of Moses, it says that such an act and such a woman should be stone to death. I'm sure they came. They came with stones in their hand and dragging that woman along. They stood her there at Jesus' feet. I can only imagine a hush, hush, that came over the crowd. Because they said, Jesus, what do you say about this? the Bible says that he kneeled down. Now wait a minute, that woman is standing there.

I can only imagine, as she has her eyes glued to Jesus to see what the verdict is, when he began to kneel down, I can only imagine her heart beginning to flutter in her chest, thinking, oh no, what is he going to do? Is he going to pick up a rock? Is he going to start this execution right now? because see, we read that story quickly. But when it's happening to you, it's happening in slow motion. You've got time to think about it.

Why else would he bend down if he wasn't going to pick up a rock? Can you imagine that going on in her mind? But the scripture says that he knelt down and he began to write in the dirt. Then he stood up again. And he looked at those accusers. And he said, those of you without. in, you cast the first stone. He looked at them, and then he knelt down again. The scripture says that one by one, one they begin to walk off, from the oldest to the youngest. You know, that's just like

Jesus. He gives you time to think about it. He tells you something, and then he gives you time to think about it. He stood up again, looked around. It was no one, just he and the woman. Can you imagine that woman standing there still trembling? She's standing there thinking, what just happened? You know, the law that they talked about was the law of Moses that was given to Moses by God, and it was written on tablets of stone by God's own finger. It was written on Mount Sinai. Jesus, when he knelt down, we don't know what he wrote.

He didn't come to abolish the law. The scripture tells us he came to fulfill the law. And I find it quite interesting that the same law that was written by God's finger, he sent his son to write something else with his finger in the dark. And that was mercy. We don't know what he wrote, but it had to have been mercy. Because he looked at that woman and said, where are your accusers?

Is there anyone here condemning you? She said, no, sir. And he said, I don't condemn you either. He said, go and sin no more. as she stood face to face with mercy. She went from hearing about Jesus. Everybody in the town knew about Jesus. They had heard something about him.

She probably heard, yes, he performs some miracles. Yeah, he's a nice man. But she went that day from hearing about Jesus to experiencing the love of Jesus. She went from hearing to knowing this love, standing face to face with mercy. Can you imagine that day her heart was opened in such a way that when she walked off, she didn't walk off condemn,

she walked off convinced. This is a man of love. This is a man that just touched me. I mean, mercy opens the door of our heart for repentance. He told her, go back and sin no more. I'm empowering you and I'm strengthening you by my mercy and my grace to stand against sin. You see, grace does not give us a license to sin. Grace gives us the power to stand against sin, the power to say no to sin. That day, Jesus was in a very

intimate place with that woman, a part of her life she wouldn't want no one to see. But everyone saw. And they saw Jesus not pick up a rock. but take his own finger and write mercy in the dirt. If you're here today, I want to tell you, Jesus isn't condemning you. Rocks, they hurt. Jesus' love, it heals. No today. If anybody's throwing rocks at you,

if there's condemnation in your mind because there's areas of your life, you really don't want to expose to Jesus. No today, but he is not going to condemn you. He wants to convince you that, yes, there is power to turn that thing around and go another way. He wants to strengthen you and give you the power you need to live the life. He's called you to live. Amen. Amen. 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 joelosteen.com slash give hope to give a gift today. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you can get all of the latest messages. Know that we pray for you. God bless you. More than ever before, people are turning to the church for their mental health struggles. Unfortunately, the church has largely been ill-equipped to help.

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