Joel Osteen Podcast - Find Your Worth Through Jesus Christ | Victoria Osteen

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

Your value is not found in temporary things. Your identity and worth are found in Jesus. 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.

Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoy today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend. We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Amen. I know all heaven is cheering us on. You may be seated. It is so good to be in the house of the Lord.

Thank you for being here today. God has made us worthy. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. See, we don't have to find our worth in. anything but Jesus Christ. See, that's where we need to place our identity. Our value is in Jesus Christ, because that's an eternal value. We can't place our value in temporary things. We have to place our value in the eternal things. See, Jesus overcame so that we could overcome. See, he's the forerunner. He made a way. So we have to follow his lead. He knows who he is, and he became.

everything he was created to be. He now sits at the right hand of the Father. See, there is something that we can identify with. There's so many things in this world that are trying to steal our identity, or we're trying to put our identity in other things. Maybe you know a celebrity that you want, do you want to be like them, or you want to see what they're doing, you want to do what they're doing. But I'll tell you, the greatest celebrity there is is Jesus Christ. And the enemy He knows that we have value in Jesus Christ. He knows what he's up against. He knows that he has temporary solutions on this earth.

He is not eternal. His days are coming to an end. He only has a limited amount of time, and he's on that time limit, working overtime, to try to get us off course. But see, he has no place in our life. He'll never stop us. He may slow us down,

but he's never going to stop us because we are marked with a purpose and a destiny in Jesus Christ. That's the good news today. That is the good news today. But he does know this. And so he's always trying to get us off course. And I think one of the greatest temptations that he uses is to place a counterfeit on our value. He tries to decrease our value and our worth.

Because, see, he knows if he can tear down our value and our worth, that it will deteriorate our purpose. See, think about this just a minute. If you have something and you tear it down and it has no value, you really have no purpose for it. Think about when you clean out your closet. Well, I don't like this anymore. I guess I can just give it away.

It has no purpose. You begin to lose your purpose. And see, if you can lose your purpose, you won't shine brightly on this earth. So I just want to encourage every one of us. us, we don't have to look for our identity, we can find it in Jesus Christ. We can find our worth in Him. It's an easy answer, but we have to take time to feed on the Word of God. We have to take time to feed on the Creator and letting build up our spirit. You see, we can't find our strength in our possessions in this outer world. We have to find our strength in our eternal

world, in our inner world. See, Jesus in Matthew 4 tells us that when he was just baptized, he came up from the Jordan River, a loud voice from God boomed from heaven, a dove landed on him to represent the power of the Holy Spirit, and God said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. He was anointed that day. With power and might, he was the son. He was the son. He was the of God, and the whole earth knew it. He went into a fast, a deeper relationship with his father. The Bible says he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. He sought the father's will.

He got to know the father. Now, I've never fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Have you? I have fasted between meals, but never for 40 days or 40 nights. So you know he was hungry. He had a physical need. He was very, very hungry. And the Bible says that the spirit of God led him into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy.

He had a physical need, and guess what? The enemy tried to move in on that need. So he offered him a temporary solution. He said this, if you are the son of God. If you are the site, right there, right there, he's questioning who he is. He's also trying to find out who he is, and he's also trying to bring confusion into the situation. Just like he did Eve, do you remember? He brought confusion into Eve.

He said, now, Eve, if God loves you so much, why can't you eat of this? This is a beautiful fruit. If you can eat from any fruit in the garden, why can't you eat from this? Does God not love you? See how the enemy comes and he tries to work on our insecurities? He tries to steal who we are and our identity. If God loved you so much, why did you lose that position? Why did your husband walk out on you?

See, he wants to devalue you. He wants you to not have the worth that Jesus Christ came to make you worthy. He's trying to take your worth. And you know what? He's not going to do it. We might take the bait every once in a while. But listen, he may try to slow us bound, but he'll never have our life. He'll never have our life. He said, if you are the son of God, he wanted to play off his insecurity. He wanted to see if he even knew who he really was. He said, take these stones and turn into bread. Aren't you hungry? You can eat right now. But Jesus didn't operate out of a place of insecurity. He didn't try to become independent from God. He was connected to the Father. You know he

could have turned those stones into bread. You know he could have because we see later on that he took two loaves and he multiplied the bread to feed 5,000. See, Jesus can do anything. He can turn anything into anything. It wasn't a matter if he could. It was a matter if he would. Was he going to take the temporary bait? No. He wasn't going to operate a place of insecurity because he was connected to the father. He says, listen, I do what the father tells me to do. Whatever the father says do, I do. And the father didn't tell me to do that. See, this is a temporary pleasure. But I am rooted and established in the Father. And see, it's that inner world that Jesus had going on.

It wasn't the temporary pleasures. It wasn't the things for the season. It wasn't that just feel my belly right now. Because he knew, you know what, I could eat that right now, but I'm going to be hungry later. Unless God feeds me, I am always going to be hungry. And that's what the enemy wants us to think, that these temporary things can give us eternal things.

satisfaction. But they cannot. We have to be willing to go in and find out who we are, remember who we are, and establish our identity in that and that alone. Jesus' response to him was, man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He was saying, if God tells me to do it, I'll do it. But if you tell me to do it? I'm not going to do it. Because I don't respond to you out of insecurity. I know who I am. I have worth and value. Hey, this is hard because I'm hungry. The easy thing to do would be to turn the stone into bread. That would be easy. That would be quick. How many of you know sometimes the easy way out is the quickest way out? But it doesn't always work for us. Sometimes we take

that easy way out, and we realized it was really the long road to hoe. But if we'll just sit back and we say, who is questioning me? Who is the one that's trying to bring confusion? Who's the one that's making me feel insecure? Like I have to respond. Like I have to do this on my own. Like there's a temptation, and if I'll take the easy way out, I'll get out of the situation. But is it God telling you to do that? Are you consulting the inner voice, the inner world, the inner strength? The Bible says it's the spirit of the man that sustains the man. God has got you. Listen, you don't have to make any quick decision. God has got you. He will help you. He will lead you. See, Jesus was not willing to be disconnected to the father.

because he knew that if he would answer the wrong way and he responded the wrong way, then Satan could say, see, he's not even worthy to save the world. And that's what he wants to do to us. He wants to make us feel unworthy to receive the gift of God, the grace of God, our salvation. Look what you did yesterday. How could God accept you? How could you take this free gift of grace, this unprecedented favor? You're unworthy of it.

What is your answer? Hey, I am not the one who's worthy. It's not my identity. It's the identity of Jesus Christ and what he did for me. That's almost too simple, isn't it? It's almost too simple. But I want to encourage you, don't diminish your value. Don't diminish what Jesus did because he did it for you.

He did it because he loves you, because he was willing to trade places with you. He was willing to say, I'll give you my honor and I'll go through it all. See, when we realize we can worship the Creator, we do not have to worship the creation. The creation will never give us eternal satisfaction. Only the creator can do that. Only the creator. That should let us know we should take the time to get the Word of God in us.

Do like you're doing today. Get in church. Fill yourself up. Remember, when you hear those voices of confusion, that accusation, that questioning your identity and your worth, that is not from God. That is from the enemy. And you have the answer.

I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. God's got me in the palm of his hand. He's not going to let me fall. He's not going to let me go, because I am stamped and heaven-bound. Amen. Amen. We love you so much. It's a new year.

Time to see the impossible become possible. It's a new year. Life setbacks are about to become God's set-ups for new opportunity. It's a new year. Cherished dreams will become unexpected reality. The start of the new year is the perfect time to reset your focus, release disappointments of the past, and get ready for the new things God has in store.

Every January, we create a new 365-day devotional calendar. I'd love to send it to you. Each day is filled with inspiration, scripture, and uplifting declarations to fuel your faith. When you begin the day, thanking God for what He's done, and speaking victory over your future, you're positioning yourself for a blessed favor-filled year. Amazing things happen when you keep God first place.

As our way of saying thank you for your gift of any amount this first month of the year, we would like to send you a copy of our brand new 365-day 2026 devotional calendar. Do you want to overcome your most pressing challenges in 2026? Do you want to see your life take off in new direction? of influence, favor, and provision in the year ahead. With this daily encouragement, you'll not only smile at your day, you'll be reminded that God is smiling on your entire life. Each day will be a fresh new day.

Turn discouragement to encouragement, frustration to fulfillment, anxiety to overcoming. Start each morning knowing that it's God's desire to turn what seems like an ordinary life in two extraordinary favor, strength, and opportunities. Using this devotional calendar is as easy as one, two, three. One, wake up with an expectancy in your heart. Two, reflect on the daily scripture verse and devotional from Joel.

Three, capture the Lord's promises to you on journaling lines for writing and reflection. 2026 is going to be one of your best years ever. We're going to help you stay in faith so you can see the goodness of God in new ways. Victoria and I pray for you and your family every day. We want to thank you for your prayer and support. Your generosity is impacting lives around the world. A special thank you to our Champion of Hope Partners for your monthly gifts. If you're not a partner, I hope you'll consider becoming one.

Remember, you can watch the services online, live every Sunday morning, download our daily podcast, watch on YouTube, the new Joel Osteen Network 24 hours a day. Of course, listen live on Sirius XM as well. But until we meet again, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Be sure to request your copy of the 2026 devotional calendar available this month by simply visiting us at joelosteen.com or calling 888-567 Joel. Also, no matter what season you're in, joy, sorrow, waiting, growth. God wants to into each and every moment. God's Word for every season is a guided journal series designed to help you slow down, write out scripture, and reflect on its truth one verse at a time. As you engage with

His Word, you'll discover fresh strength, deeper peace, and timely encouragement for every step of your journey. You can request these inspiring resources by calling 888-567, Joel, or logging on to Joel Osteen.com today. Call or click anytime, 24 hours a day. Request these resources today.