Joel Osteen - Extra Mile Obedience

0:00In the early 1970s, Lakewood started to grow. We had less than 200 people for 13 years. Now my father's dreams were starting to come to pass. We were in the original building, the little feed store. We needed a larger auditorium. One Sunday, my father announced to the congregation that we were going to build a new sanctuary that held a thousand people. He asked everyone if they would pray about what they could give toward it. In a few weeks, he was going to take up a special offering. The whole church was excited. People gave generously. We had enough to get started. There was a small Spanish church down the road. They had been building a new church for months. It was going very slowly. One afternoon, my father stopped by to see how they were doing. He had never met them. Didn't know anyone. He just wanted to be friendly and let them know that we were praying for them. They told how they started their building but it cost more than they thought.

1:01They had some setbacks and ran out of funds. Now it was just sitting there, half finished. Had part of the roof, part of the walls, nothing inside. The next day, my father heard a still small voice saying, I want you to give that money. You took up for your new building to that Spanish church so they can finish their building. His first thought was, get behind me Satan. That could not be God. That's money for our sanctuary. He began to reason it out but he couldn't get away from it. Down deep, he knew he was supposed to give that money. Like Elijah in the widow, it was a test. Will you make Neumiel first? Will you do the hard thing? Something that you don't understand. Give away what you need. After debating it a few days, he finally decided to do it. The Spanish pastor was so thrilled. He couldn't believe it. They were able to finish their building. What's interesting is the funds for Lakewood's building started coming in from all over.

2:02A lady flew into town that had never met my father. Never been to Lakewood. She'd read some of his books but she handed my father a check for more than what we gave the Spanish church. One lady out of the blue. Like this widow woman, there was supernatural provision. The money came in for the foundation, the steel, the walls, the seats, the sound system. The whole building was built debt-free. We never lacked for resources. Not just that building but my father built another sanctuary and another and another. Paid cash for everyone. Never borrow. The provision kept coming. It all started when he did a hard thing. He gave away what he needed. When you have extra mile obedience, you're going to see these extra mile blessings. This really boils down to a question of trust. God was saying to the widow, if you take care of the prophet, if you make the last meal, do you trust me that I'll take care of you?

3:07To my father, if you give the funds to that Spanish church, do you trust me that I'll give you the funds for your church? If you forgive that person that hurts you, do you trust me that I'll make it up to you? On the way to your destiny, God is going to ask you to do things that require great trust. You can't have extra mile obedience if you're not convinced that God is going to take care of you. That he has the favor, the blessings, the funds, the people, the confidence to get you to your purpose. The last Sunday that we were in our former location, right before we came to the compact center, I was driving home after the services that afternoon. It was very emotional pulling out of the parking lot for the last time. I'd spent my whole life at that location. As I was leaving there, there was a rainbow in the sky. It looked like it stretched from the old location to this place. It was like God was saying, I'm doing a new thing. I felt very grateful.

4:08About that time, I passed the Spanish church that my father in the first congregation helped build some 30 years earlier. On their small marquee out front, it said, thank you, Lakewood, for giving us our building. Now, I wonder if I would be standing here, if my father had not had extra mile obedience. Had he not done the right thing when it was hard? Had he not proven to God that he could trust him? I don't know if I would be seeing the blessing and favor on my life. Where will your children be 30 years from now if you will have extra mile obedience? What kind of favor, good breaks, abundance, will they see because you did the right thing when it was hard? You could have played it safe, not taken any risk, held onto the hurts, but like this widow, you said, God, I trust you. Doesn't make sense, but I'm going to do it even though I don't understand it.

5:08You had extra mile obedience. Get ready. You're going to see extra mile blessings. Blessings that not only catapult you ahead, but your children and grandchildren will be better off. They'll walk in favor and blessings because of you. Anytime God asks you to do something hard, that's a sign that something big is in your future. The widow went from getting by each day, having just enough to survive, to having abundance, provision that never ran out. My father went from believing for one sanctuary, hoping to have the funds to pay for that thousand-seat auditorium, to having the funds over the years to build multiple auditoriums. Much bigger than he ever imagined. Don't put off the hard thing. God wouldn't be asking you to do it if he didn't have something much better in your future. But sometimes we let fear hold us back. What if I do it, Joel, it doesn't work out. What if I make the profit, the meal, and I starve? What if I give these funds and I can't build my

6:13sanctuary? David said, I was young and now I'm old and I'll never once seen the righteous forsaken. God is not going to let you down. Don't let fear and doubt keep you from seeing the greatness of our God. He's going to ask you to do things that don't make sense. It's because faith has to do with your heart, not necessarily your mind. That's why the scripture says, lean not to your own understanding. If you configure it out, make it work on paper, you've got it calculated how it can happen, then you don't need faith. But when you're like this widow, you calculate, I have enough flower for one meal. I've made bread my whole life. I'm concluded we're limited. That's when faith has to kick in. God, if you want me to make the profit of meal first, you want me to do something I don't understand. I trust you. Doesn't make sense to me, but I realize I'm natural and you're supernatural.

7:13You control the universe. You spoke worlds into existence. You stopped the sun for Joshua. You gave Sarah a baby at 90 years old. You parted the seafar Moses. You opened prison doors for Paul. You brought water out of a rock for the Israelites. I recognize your Jehovah Jairah, my healer, my deliverer, my promise keeper, my waymaker, my miracle worker. Jesus was on the shore of Galilee about to teach the people so many were gathered that he didn't have room. He saw boat over on the side. The owner, a man named Peter, was cleaning his nets. Jesus had never met Peter, but he asked a bar of the boat. He pushed out from the shore and started teaching. The scripture says Peter had fist all night and caught nothing. He was a little frustrated, tired, ready to get home. As soon as this man gets out of his boat, when Jesus finished, he asked Peter to do something that didn't seem

8:15logical. He said, Peter, launch out into the deep and you will catch a great haul of fish. I can imagine Peter thinking, excuse me, I'm a professional fisherman. You're a teacher. I didn't tell you how to teach. I've been doing this for years. I know when to fish. This is not the right time. Everything in his logic said, don't do it. It's going to be a waste of time. He could have said, sir, I appreciate your suggestions. Thanks for your advice, but that doesn't make sense. He could have walked away and we would have never heard of Peter. But I love the fact that even though Peter didn't understand it, even though it went against his logic, he said, Jesus, we fish all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, we will go back out. He threw out his net and caught so many fish that his net began to break. When you have extra mile obedience, God will give you net breaking blessings. Blessings that you can't explain, increase it,

9:18doesn't make sense. You weren't the most qualified. You didn't have the seniority, but the promotion came to you. The healing came to you. The right people came to you. It's significant that there were no fish there a few hours before, but God knows how to bring the fish to your nets. What you tried before may not have worked, but when you hear God say, do it again, don't reason it out. Don't talk yourself out of it. Go back out. God is putting the fish, the provision, the healing, the good breaks, right where you need it. Wasn't there last time, but it's going to be there next time. A couple of years after Victoria and I were married, we sold our townhome. It was a beautiful place backed up to the woods. We made a good profit and we're looking for a house. One day, Victoria called me at work, said, Joel, I found our new house. Come see it. It was this old rundown house. It had been abandoned. Doors were missing, had holes in the roof. There were buckets inside to catch the water.

10:24Had made your foundation problems, the floor was all crooked. Nothing about the house was good, but it was on a nice piece of property close into the city. Victoria was so excited. She said, Joel, we can fix this up and do this and do that. We will love living here. I thought she had lost her mind. It didn't make sense. We just came out of this beautiful townhome. This place was a tear down. But when I would get quiet, I would hear that still small voice saying, she's right, this is your property. I felt peace about it. We bought it and fixed it up. A year later, a builder knocked on our door and asked if we would sell the property. I said, no thanks. It's not for sale. He said, how about if I give you this amount? I said, like I said, we'd love to sell it. We sold him half of the property. He built two houses, one for us and one for him. A year later, we had a brand new beautiful home, something more than we ever imagined. When you have extra mile

11:26obedience, you're going to see these extra mile blessings. Don't talk yourself out of what you know, God is asking you to do. It's not always going to make sense. Make the profit a meal first. Give the funds to the Spanish church. Go back after. We've fished all night. Buy this old rundown house. Trust that God knows what's best for you. He'll never ask you to do a hard thing unless he has something amazing coming. Sometimes we miss God's best. We miss the extra mile blessing because we don't want to take a risk. We don't want to forgive. We don't want to give what we need. That's what's going to take you to the fullness of your destiny. That's where you'll see the greatness of our God. My friends, Craig and Samantha had their third child a while back and for a couple of years, everything was great, but they begin to notice little Connor wasn't developing like normal. He was diagnosed with autism. They're people of faith. They know that God's in control,

12:28but it was still difficult. They could have sat around defeated and bitter. God, why did this happen? But in the midst of their pain, Craig heard God say to him, I'm going to use your son Connor to help people all over the world. Craig said, God, my son, can't even talk. He can't even ask for a drink of water. How's he going to help people? Wasn't long after that that Samantha walked in his room one night about to put him to bed. Connor had his Bible in his hand. He held it up and said, this is my Bible. I am what it says. I am. He quoted the whole saying. He had been watching our videos. Those were the first words that he ever spoke. They were so thrilled. Craig was the head of our children's ministry at the time. He realized we didn't have any programs for children with special needs. Parents couldn't attend church with these children that are not able to sit through a service. He felt God telling him to start a ministry for special needs children. He could have

13:31thought God is hard enough to raise our own son. Our hands are full. That doesn't make sense to take all more challenges. God was asking him to do a hard thing, to birth a ministry out of his pain. Craig and Samantha started the Champions Club for children with autism and special needs. The first month 300 new families joined the church. Today there are over 100 champions clubs in churches around the world. Craig had extra mile obedience. What happened? He has seen extra mile blessings. Just like God said, Connor's influence is impacting people all over the world. Is God asking you to do a hard thing? Something that doesn't make sense? Doesn't seem fair? If you'll take that step, you'll see God show out in your life. It's easy to make excuses, reason it out. It's not logical. What if I fail? They don't deserve it. I'm not qualified. If you could

14:36see what's on the other side of that obedience, the joy, the favor, the victory, then you wouldn't put it off. There are extra mile blessings waiting for you. Blessings that will thrust you ahead. The way you release them is by having extra mile obedience.