Trusted With Power | Joel Osteen

God bless you, it's great to be with you today. And I hope you stay connected with us during the week through our daily podcast, our YouTube channel, social media, and you can come visit us in person. We'd love to have you be a part of one of our services. I like to start with something funny. And one Sunday morning, this man walked into church wearing blue jeans, t-shirt, and an old cowboy hat. Some of the members were appalled. They sent notes to the pastor expressing their concern. Afterwards, the pastor told the man he needed to pray and ask God what he should wear when he came back to his church. The next week, the man came back wearing the exact same thing. The pastor said, I told you, ask God what you should wear before you came back to my church. The man said, I did ask God, but he told me he didn't know what to wear because he's never been here before. (audience laughing) That one got a message to it, but here we go, y'all. 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 wanna talk to you today about trusted with power. We've all had people do us wrong. Friend that talks behind our back, co-worker that stole our client,

family member that ignores us, you can't live very long without offenses and hurts and people that are unfair. And we know to not let that poison us, we have to forgive and not hold on to it. That's the first test we have to pass, but there's another test. This is the one that holds many people back. When God turns things around, when he vindicates you and now you have the upper hand, how will you treat those people? Will you use that power to get even, to pay them back, to make them feel what you feel? They embarrass you in front of the office. Now you're in charge, you can embarrass them. They tried to ruin your reputation. Now they work for you, you can keep them down, make sure they never get any good breaks, or they walked out of a relationship when you needed them. Now the tables have turned, you're healed and whole and they're hurting, they need help. Are you gonna walk away and think good for you? Now you can see how it feels, how you handle power when you have the advantage will determine what God can trust you with. He will not promote you to get even. He will not vindicate you so you can pay someone back. He'll not give you greater influence if you're gonna use it to get revenge to settle old scores and punish those who did you wrong.

Paul said in Romans 12, never avenge yourselves, but leave it in the hands of God. Payback doesn't belong to you. Getting even is sinking down to their level. Trying to make them feel how you felt is not the way to win. God sees what they did. He knows the pain, the hurt, the injustice. If you'll leave it to him, he'll vindicate you better than you can vindicate yourself. The next verse gives us the key. If your enemy is hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. This means you have the power now. You have what they need. They're hungry, they're hurting. What are you gonna do? Get even, show them how it feels, ignore them. Be the bigger person and be good to them. Feed them, bless them, help them to move forward. Well, Joel, that doesn't make sense. You don't know what they did to me. Before God will trust you with greater levels, he'll put you in these situations to see what you did. When you could embarrass them, will you bless them? When you could expose them, will you cover them? When you could push them down, will you show mercy and lift them up? These are tests we all have to pass to reach our destiny because along the way, there will be hurts,

betrayals, people that lie. You can't stop that from happening. Many people get better and angry. They hold grudges. They're looking for ways to retaliate, hoping the other person has trouble, praying they have bad breaks. They don't realize that's keeping them from rising higher. The next verse says, "Never overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good." If you'll be good to those that were not good to you, you are passing the test. And it's one thing to forgive. That's important. That's the first step. But we can forgive and think, "I'm not going to be good to you. Don't ask me for a favor." Getting even may feel good to our flesh. If God can trust you to handle the power, the influence, without being vindictive and revengeful, but instead you shall mercy. You're good to those who weren't good to you, then he can promote you and take you to new levels. And I know this is not easy, but you have the grace to do it. God knew what you would face. He knew who would do you wrong, who would betray you, who would lie about you.

He wouldn't have allowed it if you couldn't handle it. Yes, it's hurtful, it's not fair, but God is fair. He knows how to not only vindicate you, but to promote you in the presence of your enemies. But here's the key, the promotion is not to gloat, not to pay back, to humiliate, but to be good to them. The scripture says, when you're good to your enemies, it's like keeping coals of fire on their head. I always thought that meant to make them hurt, to make them burn, make them feel some of that pain they made us feel good. You're gonna get what you deserve. That's not what it means. Coals back in that day represented purification. Coals were used for softening metal. Coals brought warmth to a cold home. Your kindness is softening them. Your mercy melts their hardness. Your goodness is conviction. It's not burning, hurting, punishing. God is using you to change them, to purify them, to make them better. Years ago, there was a pastor in another state, and we had been friends practically our whole life. He's a good man, a strong leader, but there was a political issue that he felt strongly about. This was his new mission. He wanted me to get on board and help him. He reached out to our team, but my plate was full, doing what I'm called to do.

I was very respectful, but he was so upset with me. They interviewed him in the local paper, and he spent half the article talking about how I wouldn't help and how that wasn't right, honing on. It's one thing to not agree, but another to start blasting somebody in public, especially someone that's been your friend for years. I wanted to set the record straight. I've learned though, it's better to let God fight your battles. Let God be your vindicator. A couple of years later, one of his staff members sent a request asking me to make a video for his 25th anniversary of being at his church. It was a surprise. They were gonna play it in front of the whole congregation during their service. This staff member didn't know this. Man, it said all these negative things about me. My first thought was, yeah, I'd love to make a video. I have a lot to say, especially in front of the church. But seriously, I thought God, making a video, that's too much. I'll bless him privately, but not publicly. He doesn't deserve it. He tried to make me look bad, and now they want me to make him look good. It was a test. Could God trust me to bless my enemies? Now they need something for me. I could have easily withheld it.

I had a good excuse, but I could hear that still, small boy, San Joel, overcome evil with good. Be the bigger person. I didn't feel like nothing in my human nature wanted to do it, but if you go by your feelings, your whole grudges, try to pay people back and live vindictive. Get out of your feelings. Don't let them dictate your decisions. Let your character determine your decisions. You're a person of honor, a person of integrity. You can do the right thing when it's hard. I made the video congratulating him and thanking him for all his meanness, I mean all his faithfulness and a friend of mine was in attendance when it played. He said, as soon as I came on the big screen, this man put his head down and started weeping. Blessing your enemies not only shows God that you have the character to go higher, but it shows other people who you really are. Anyone can be good to someone that's been good to them, but when you can be good to someone that's done you wrong, you're an exceptional person. You're the kind of man, the kind of woman that God can entrust with greatness that he can use for his highest purposes. And sometimes the way to bless people that have done you wrong is to simply not talk bad about them. When other people bring them up, you could share all the dirt,

all the ways they hurt you, man. They're so too face. They lie, they don't keep their word. Stay on the high road. Be a person that covers a fall, not exposes a fall. A person that has mercy for failures, not magnifies failures. who did your own, embarrass those who made you look mad? Many people have the talent to rise higher, but they don't have the character. They have the personality, the looks, the experience, but they're holding grudges, looking for revenge, waiting to pay somebody back. God loves you too much to promote you like that, because if He gives you more influence, it would expose your weaknesses in a greater way. Promotion amplifies what's already in you. If revenge is in you and God gives you a bigger platform, you'll be more revengeful. If getting even, paying people back is in you, and God promotes you, then you can be more vindictive and more hurtful. That's why God puts us in situations so we can see what's in us. He already knows what's there, but if you'll recognize it and make the adjustments, then you're proving to Him that you have the character to be promoted. God will test you in private before He'll promote you in public. How do you handle that co-worker that always ignores you, doesn't give you the time of day, but now they need your help? They ask you for a favor. It's easy to say sorry, I'm busy, loser. No thanks. You don't give me the time of day. It's a small thing, but it can keep you from something big. It's revealing what's in you. Pay attention to your attitude toward hurts, offenses, being wrong.

It doesn't mean you're a bad person to feel offended or to want revenge, you're human. Those feelings come to us all. What I'm saying is there's a better way to live when you make that choice to override those feelings and bless those who have done you wrong, cover them when you could expose them, be good to them, even though they weren't good to you, you were positioning yourself for promotion. We see this in the life of Joseph in the scripture. As a teenager, God gave him a dream that he would lead a nation and people would bow down before him, this great promise spoken over his life. What's significant is Joseph had many brothers. God could have chosen Lubin. He was the firstborn Psalms. This was important in those days. He had the seniorities. He could have chosen Judah. He was the strongest or Simeon and Levi, they were warriors known for their skill and courage. Here Joseph was the youngest. He didn't have the most talent, most experience. The connections, but God chose Joseph because of his heart. He had a forgiving spirit, a willingness to bless and not retaliate, a refusal to let bitterness take root. God promotes based on character, not position. He'll elevate you based on integrity and not seniority. Long before Joseph ever got to the palace, he proved to God that he could handle the power. When Joseph's brothers heard about his dream, they were jealous. Joseph wasn't bragging. He wasn't saying, "I'm better than you." He was excited and wanted to share it with the people that meant the most to him. But sometimes the people closest to you won't understand. You thought they'd be happy for you and celebrate, but they tried to find fault and tried to

discourage you. How are we going to respond? Get bitter, get angry, get even? That's the low road. One day Joseph's father asked him to go check on his brothers. They were in another city feeding their flunks. When they saw Joseph coming, they thought, "This is our big chance to get rid of him." They threw him into a deep well, and we're going to leave him there to die until their father had been eaten by a wild animal, but they saw this caravan of Ishmaelites coming. They decided to sell him as a slave. He spent years in Egypt against his will, couldn't speak the language at first, didn't know anyone. This was all done to him, not by some bandits, not by a foreign army, but by his brothers. Imagine what Joseph was feeling, the hurt, the betrayal. There were lonely nights, longing for home, wondering why all this has happened. He went from bad to worse. He was falsely accused and put in prison. Now he's a slave, incarcerated, in a foreign country, all because of these brothers. One night the Pharaoh, the leader of the country, had a dream, didn't know what it meant. Joseph interpreted the dream. The Pharaoh was so impressed, he brought Joseph out of prison and made him the prime People may try to push you down, but when it's your time, God will lift you up. What He has spoken over your life cannot be stopped by bad breaks, by delays, by people. He has a final say. When there was a great famine in the land, Joseph was in charge of the food supply. They had more grain than any nation because God had given Joseph the wisdom to store it up.

Joseph's father told his brothers to go to Egypt to see if they could buy grain. They showed up at the palace. Joseph came out to oversee the distribution. The moment he saw them, he knew exactly who they were, but these brothers didn't recognize Joseph. The last time they saw him was 13 years earlier when he was in the well, afraid, begging for mercy. Now he's dressed in royalty, speaking another language with all this staff around. At first, he kept his identity hidden, gave them some instructions and things they had to do. When they returned the second time with their youngest brother, Joseph saw them standing there and he couldn't take it any longer. He was so overcome with emotion, he ran inside, closed the doors and begin to weep and weep. The scripture says you could hear sobbing throughout the whole palace. It's interesting, he didn't weep when they threw him into a pit. He didn't weep when they sold him as a slave. He didn't weep when he was falsely accused or when he was put in prison. Joseph was a strong man, determined and courageous, but when he saw these brothers, all this emotion flooded his heart. He didn't just see them, but he saw the betrayal, the trauma, the lost years, the pain. You would think he would be hard, angry, full of revenge. But sometimes you don't weep because you're hurt, you weep because you're healed.

These tears showed how much he still deeply loved his family, weeping over people who betrayed him, weeping over brothers that took his freedom. Joseph shows us you can be powerful and still be tender. You can be strong and still keep a soft heart. You may have had people that did you wrong. In your mind, you wanna be angry, hold a grudge, pay them back, but in your heart, you're a Joseph. There's a tenderness, a voice saying, forgive, have mercy, be good to them. You never go wrong by taking the high road. These brothers, they still didn't recognize Joseph. They were standing there, afraid, foreigners, needing food, not sure how he's gonna work out. Was this tense emotional moment. He finally looked at his brothers and said, "Guys, I am Joseph." They were stunned. Their jaws dropped. They thought, we're doomed. We threw this guy into a pit. We ruined his life. Now he's in charge. The tables had turned. 13 years earlier, they had the upper hand. They were in control. This was Joseph's big chance to get even. The moment finally came where he could pay them back for all the trouble, the misery. All he had to do was say the word

and they'd be put in prison. They'd be killed. Their families would be taken. But Joseph wouldn't do it. He was good to them. He didn't just give them food and say, "Okay, I'm not gonna hurt you. "Get out of here." He had them go get their father and all their families and come move to Egypt to live with him. 70 people. He gave them the best land. The city of Goshen was the most fertile and prosperous land in the nation. He provided protection for them. He would have them come eat at the palace. He made sure their children and grandchildren were taken care of. No wonder God could give him such favor and authority he was trustworthy. None of this would have happened if he had been vindictive. Wanted to retaliate and pay people back. I'm not saying that you're excusing people's behavior that what they did was okay. They'd just get over it. No, I'm saying let God be your vindicator. Don't let that bitter spirit take root and poison your life to where you live hoping they fail. Hoping you can make them look bad.

Waiting for that big chance to get revenge, it won't come. God won't trust you with more power and influence if you're gonna use it to settle old scores, to get even. You have to dig down deep and over it. Your character is revealed when you have the advantage. Not so much when you're in the pit, you've been wrong, but how about when your enemy is hungry, when they're thirsty, what are you gonna do? Well, the last thing I'm gonna do is help them. They're my enemy. You know what they did to me? Be a Joseph. Be kind to someone that's not being kind to you. Help that coworker that always leaves you out, but now they need you. Be good to that family member that said negative things about you, but now they're asking you for a favor. That's a test. That's where Joseph was. If a God can trust you in these small areas, things that don't really matter, pettiness, offenses, being left out, that's life. But if we let our pride get the best of us, well, that's not right. I'm gonna show them. Now I'm in charge, you'll see how it feels. That's a shallow way to live. That'll keep you from your destiny. If Joseph would have been bitter in the pit and planning revenge as a slave

and hoping his brothers were miserable while he was in the palace, we wouldn't be talking about it. Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. When you keep your heart pure, not vended, not revengeful, when you're a Joseph, you trust God to vindicate you. You don't live to settle scores, to get even, then you will see greater influence, greater favor. Sure, you may get hurt in the pit, but you'll end up in the palace. People may do you wrong, but there will be a day when they're down and you're up. Your kindness, your mercy, you being good to them, when you had every right to ignore and push them down, that's heaping calls of fire on their head. God is using you to refine them and to show them how to live a life of character, honor and integrity. 1959, my father left the church he was pastoring and started Lakewood. He didn't feel like he still fit in that denomination anymore. Some of the people didn't like his new message of faith in victory. Lakewood had less than 200 people. Daddy didn't have a big platform, not a lot of influence, but this prominent minister wrote him a scathing letter, berating him, telling him how that was wrong, how he wasn't qualified for ministry.

He should resign on and on. That made my father so mad, so offended. He wrote a letter back saying, "Listen here, brother, "you don't know what you're talking about. "You don't know the facts, "you're just full of a lot of heart of air. "I don't answer to you. "You need to mind your own business." He sealed that envelope, put the stamp on it, felt so much better. As he was walking out to the mailbox, he heard a still small voice saying, "You paid him back, didn't you?" Daddy said, "I sure did." The voice said, "You let him have it." Daddy said, "Yes I did." You said him straight. My father said, "You got that right." Then the voice said, "You returned evil for evil, "insult for insult." My father felt convicted. He knew it wasn't right. He tore up the letter, went back in, never did send it. 20 years went by and no more contact with that minister. Life went on. One day, the minister was involved in a big controversy. Had to do with an improper relationship, getting a lot of news, and everyone was down on this minister. He was seen as a hypocrite, a fake, no integrity. Now my father was a prominent pastor,

that people loved and respected. The tables had turned. My father wrote this minister a letter, telling him that he loved him, that he was praying for him. How God's mercy is bigger than our mistakes. There's still a bright future up ahead. Couple years went by. My father didn't hear anything. But one morning, they were at an event together, and this man came up to my father, weeping. He said, John, your letter was what kept me going. Was your encouragement that gave me the strength to get back up and try again? He says, I'm so ashamed at that letter I sent you, will you forgive me? The scripture says, love never fails. It doesn't say being right never fails. Proving your point, getting even, that's the low road. That's letting pride and ego run your life. Living bitter, angry, offended, that's letting feelings determine your actions. You're bigger than that. You're a josa. You have an anointing on you to be good to people who are not being good to you. Or could it be that you're not seeing new levels because God can't trust you to handle the influence, the power correctly? You'd use it to pay people back

to embarrass those that embarrass you. What if the person that hurts you walked into your office tomorrow needing your help? Would God be able to trust you with that moment? What if the one that criticized you now needs your recommendation? What if the one that walked away is now looking for your compassion? Be a Joseph. Blessing your enemies reveals your character. It shows who you really are. It's not about being right, being vindicated. That's all fine. That feels good, but the bigger picture is that God can trust you with power. The fact that you have offenses, somebody did you wrong, that wouldn't have happened to you if you didn't have a Joseph anointing. God's giving you the grace to handle it with kindness, with mercy, to be good to those that weren't being good to you. Now be the bigger person. Keep your heart pure and let God be your vindicator. If you'll do this, I believe, declare, like Joseph, you're gonna see God show out in your life. New levels of favor, influence, resources, the fullness of your destiny in Jesus' name. And if you receive it, can you say amen today? I'd like to give you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life.

Wouldn't you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins, come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. We'd love to send you some free information on your new walk with the Lord. You can text the number on the screen or go to the website. But I hope you'll get into a good Bible-based church and keep God first place.