Joel Osteen Podcast - The Extraordinary In The Routine | Victoria Osteen

Episode Date: November 18, 2023

Don’t be limited by what appears ordinary in your life. When you’re faithful in the routine, God will prepare you for the extraordinary.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.From challenge to victory, from heartache to hope, from frustration to favor—it’s only a prayer away. Kick-start your prayer life this November with Praying With Confidence: Guided Prayers for Life's Moments.  Request your copy now and carry inspiration wherever you go https://bit.ly/40sQglR. 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 so much for listening to the podcast. We appreciate your support, and we have a brand new resource we'd like to send you this month. It's called praying with confidence. I'll tell you more about it at the end of the podcast. We love you and we sure hope you enjoy the message. I just want to remind you that you are extraordinary. Nobody wants to be ordinary, do they? We all want to be extraordinary. We want to live an extraordinary life. And I believe that's what Jesus said. He said, I want to come to give you a life and a life of abundance. See, he came so that we could live an abundant life, an extraordinary life, an exceptional life. God doesn't want us to live average, mediocre.

He doesn't want us to be ordinary in our thinking. He wants us to be extraordinary in our thinking. He wants us to expect more, to go for more, to strive for more, to be the very best that we can be. Do you know when you're the very best you can be today? Your tomorrow will be better. See, when you prepare for today, hey, you'll be ready for the opportunities tomorrow. When preparation meets opportunity, it's called success. So I want to encourage all of us to not have just this ordinary mindset, but have an extraordinary mindset. Expect to be full of joy, abundance, creativity, blessing. You know, Joel was just saying to us earlier, and I think it's something

that we need to hear when we come to the house of the Lord, and we need to express to ourselves that we're a masterpiece. We didn't just come off of an assembly line. We're an original. We have callings and giftings that are matchless. See, only you can do what God's called you to do. only you were created to be you. You weren't created to be anyone else. You weren't created to copy anyone else. You were designed uniquely you. So get this down in your heart. Get this down in your spirit today and say, I'm tired of living ordinary. I'm tired of living just mundane. I'm going to start having this extraordinary mindset. You say, but Victoria, my life is just routine. You know what? All of our lives are routine. Most of life is doing the same thing over and over again.

We get up in the morning. We go to work. We do our jobs. We come home. We wash the dishes. We take care of the kids. We cook the dinner. We mow the lawn. We pay the bills. Most of our day is routine. We go to bed, get up in the morning, and do it all over again. But it is our job to not get sucked into that routine, but to cause our life to produce extraordinary in the routine. You see, you were designed to produce extraordinary in the routines of life. Think about this just a minute. Anything that you do well, you have to do often. and it is called routine. So we have to know that when we're in the routine,

we're in the difficulties, we're in the challenges, all the things that we all face, that there's extraordinary being produced. Because I believe when we understand that we're not average and our challenges weren't here to make us suffer, they're here to bring something out of us. Our difficulties are here to bring something out of us. Our routine is here to bring something out of us.

I think about all the years that I've loved my family. My children were born. I took care of them. I changed their diapers. I fed them. I gave them a bath. I taught them. I did everything I knew to do day after day after day.

I've tried to be a good helpmate to my husband. I make sure he gets what he likes. I cook him dinner. I tell him what to do. I give him vitamins. I do my very best. even when they don't appreciate it, day in and day out. But can I tell you, even when they don't appreciate it, and even when it's difficult,

do you know what the routine has done for me? It's given me extraordinary. It is my extraordinary. What is your extraordinary? I can see my life because I was routine and faithful with what God, gave me, I now have extraordinary in my life. I think about challenges and difficulties I've faced. Many times I think I just want to quit. Is this even worth it? Is it even matter? But I have learned when I've pressed through day after day. Those challenges day after day.

It produced extraordinary lessons in my life. Listen, when you are faithful with what God has placed in your hand and you don't allow it to become mundane and ordinary and give it just half of what you could give it. You know what you're doing? You're creating extraordinary. You're creating something to talk about tomorrow. You see, sometimes it's not always easy to talk about it, but if you'll stick with it, you'll have something to talk about. You'll have something to be proud of. So even in the difficult times, I want to encourage you to stay faithful. God is preparing you. You are passing the tests. He wants to give you greater opportunity, greater life, a greater a destiny. So we want to just live with purpose because I know how it feels.

I'm preaching to myself today. I have to get up in the morning and I have to say today is a good day. I've got good things in front of me. You know, what you say to yourself, the moment you get up is going to set the tone for your life. So you've got to get this down in your heart, even when it's difficult, no matter what's going on on the other side of that difficulty is extraordinary. You can all say with me today, I have seen the extraordinary. You're right. It was worth putting my effort into. Even when I didn't see where the routine was taking me, I now see this extraordinary job I have.

I now see this extraordinary family I have. I now see an extraordinary ministry that I have. You see, you may not see where it's taking you all the time, but it will lead you to extraordinary. When Joel's father was pastor of Lakewood Church, in his latter years, I would come and get him and take him to church. I remember one time we were in the back, getting ready for church, and he had a woman who did his hair and his makeup for television because we would broadcast the Sunday services. And when I was back there one morning, this young lady that did his hair looked at him and she said,

Pastor Osteen, I have to tell you some news. She said, my husband is being transferred to another state for his job. And she said, this is going to be the last time that I'm going to be able to do your hair and makeup. She said, I'm so sorry this came so quickly, but this is one of those things where I just have to go. And I remember him just kind of sitting there. He was looking at her and I could just see a thousand things going on in his head. and he didn't know what to say, so he looked at me. And he said, well, Victoria, he said, can you do my hair for TV on Sundays? I thought, I don't have a cosmetology license. I'm not trained in this.

Then the next thing I know, they're both looking at me. So I quickly just said, sure, I'll do it, if you trust me. Well, little did they know. I had a little experience when I was in junior. year high school, I used to cut some of my friend's hair and attempt at highlighting. But that day, I was given a promotion. I was now the hairstylist for John Osteen, Lakewood TV television productions. My family, a lot of my mother's side of the family lives in Georgia, and they were preparing a family reunion, and they had made plans, gotten hotels, gotten locations. They put a lot of work into it.

and they called me up and they gave me the date and they said, listen, we're going to have the best family reunion. You've got to be there. This is the date. So I checked the date and it fell on a weekend. And I said, look, guys, I can't come on the weekend. I have to do my father-in-law's hair. And they were like so disappointing. They were like, what? You can't come and we've done all this planning. And I said, no, I'm committed. We tape on Sunday and I have to pick him up and I have to Bring to the church I have to do his hair. Well, later on, I got word that they were talking about me. I found out that they didn't think my job was very important.

And they said, I can't believe that's all she does in the ministry. I think she should be doing more. You know, they weren't trying to be mean. They just thought my job description should be different. Well, you know what, that hurt my feelings. And I got to thinking about it and I got a little discouraged about it. But then I made a decision. I thought, you know what?

I'm going to let that go. Because deep down on the inside of me, I hear, be faithful in the small. Be faithful in the small. Just be faithful in the small. So I let that go. And I decided to be the best TV production hair person there has ever been. So for several years, I'd pick my father-in-law up, bring him to the church, and get him TV ready.

I was committed to that job. I was faithful. And in the routine of all those Sunday mornings, all those weekends, I didn't realize that I was building extraordinary into my life. You see, I believe it built commitment in my life. I believe that it was doing a work in me.

It was causing me to be able to understand the ministry life, giving me vision. It was showing me what it took to do this job. And I believe just through those years of what some people may not have thought was important, God did think it was important, it was building extraordinary in me. And I believe that I can do what I'm doing today. I can be with my husband and help him push this ministry forward because of the commitment and the faithfulness that I showed then.

You see, in many ways it prepared me. I encourage you today. Don't let the definition of someone else's success determine your future. See, someone might not think what you're doing is very important. They may look down on it. They may not realize what God is doing in your life. He is preparing you for greater opportunity. You see, because someone doesn't see what you're doing doesn't mean that God doesn't see

what you're doing. Just because they don't think it's important doesn't mean God doesn't think it's important. And I'm telling you, God blesses faithfulness. We have to pass this faithfulness test if we're going to go on to greater things. You know, one thing that I realize that really can reduce this extraordinary life that God's given us down to ordinary is when we compare ourselves. You know, we all know that social media these days can make your life feel like it's going to nowhere. You look at these vacations, you look at all the stuff these people are doing, they're high light real and you think, man, my life is just ordinary, routine. I go to work,

I come home, I go to work, I come home. When do they have time to do all this stuff? Well, little do we realize it took them 29 tries just to get that picture right. And then after they filtered it, corrected it, worked through it, then it was perfect. We know this, don't we? We cannot fall into the trap of comparing ourselves because we're originals. We're masterpieces. We're one of a kind. The assignments that you're called to do are distinct to your calling.

You fit your destiny. No one else can do what you've been called to do. Don't shrink your life down to mundane and ordinary. stir up the gifts of God within you. What do you have in your hand that is going to be your extraordinary tomorrow? I encourage you, just like I encourage myself. God is a faithful God. Give it your all. Be your best every day. Listen, when you prepare today, you're going to be better off tomorrow. Know that when you're faithful, you're going to have something to talk about later on. Amen? Amen. He's an awesome God.

Life can make you feel like you are just living in the dark. Even your prayers don't feel like they are making it to heaven. But God is listening, and his light is about to shine. We know God is all powerful, that he can answer any prayer, but sometimes we don't know what to pray. We don't think we deserve God's goodness. Maybe we're inconveniencing him, or he has more important things to deal with. But God is concerned about every detail of your life.

He's waiting to hear your prayers. I have a new resource called praying with confidence, guided prayers for life's moments. When you face challenges or obstacles that seem too big, you'll find prayers that will build your faith, prayers that will move the hands of God. There are prayers you can pray for peace and comfort, prayers for your family and health, prayers for your dreams and goals. As you make these prayers your own, pray with confidence, that's when you'll see the creator of the universe go to work. I hope you'll request your copy today. With a gift of any amount this month, we would like to immediately send you a copy of praying with confidence, guided prayers for life's moments. In this new resource, Joel shares how to pray,

when you need a breakthrough, when you need strength. Yes, when life's moments happen and you're not sure how to pray, praying confident prayers will put you on the right path. You'll enter new seasons in your prayer life that will turn challenges to victories, heartache to hope, frustration to newfound favor. Be sure to request your copy of praying with confidence, guided prayers for life's moments today. Visit joel osteen.com or call 888-567 Joel.