Joel Osteen - No More Excuses (03/14/2019)
Joel Osteen challenges believers to stop making excuses for staying stuck in unhappiness, mediocrity, or defeat, using stories like young Matthew’s spider incident, his own reluctance to learn typing, Wilma Rudolph’s triumph over polio, Joseph, the blind man, and the crippled man at Bethesda to show that ditching excuses unleashes God’s vindication and leads to new levels of destiny.
Excuses Hold You Back
I want to talk to you today about «No More Excuses.» It is easy to come up with a reason why we cannot accomplish a dream, why we cannot be happy, why we cannot overcome a problem. Excuses are a dime a dozen.
We think, «I have got an excuse to be sour. Traffic was bad. My boss was rude. My coworker left me out. I have got an excuse to be offended. These people hurt me. They did not keep their word. They betrayed me.»
Or, «I have got an excuse to settle where I am. I had a bad childhood. I lost a loved one; went through a breakup.»
No, as long as you are making excuses, you will justify staying where you are. Excuses give us permission to settle for less than God’s best. And you can find an excuse about anything.
A Child’s Classic Excuse
When my nephew Matthew was about four years old, he was out walking through the woods with my father down this trail, and they came upon this big granddaddy longlegs spider on the ground.
Matt was about to stomp it with his shoe. My father said, «Matt, do not do that. We are out here where he lives. He did not do anything wrong. Let us leave him alone.»
Matt contemplated it for a little while, and he was not fully convinced, but he finally turned and walked off. He got about fifteen steps away. He turned around and ran back and smashed that spider as hard as he could with his foot.
My dad said, «Matt, why did you do that?» He looked up and said, «Granddaddy, the devil made me do it.»
It is easy to find an excuse.
«I cannot lose this weight. My metabolism is too slow.» One man said, «My metabolism is not slow. It is in a coma.»
«I cannot break this addiction. Everybody in my family has it. It is in my genes. It has been passed down to me.»
Yes, it may be in your genes, but the good news is you can turn off those genes. You have the power to overcome it, but the only way it is going to happen is if you get rid of the excuses.
As long as you are blaming the past, blaming a neighbor, blaming the traffic, the weather, then you are going to get stuck.
I am asking you to throw out the excuses.
It may be a valid excuse: it was not fair; you went through a disappointment, a sickness, a betrayal. But you have to draw the line in the sand and say, «I refuse to live my life with a chip on my shoulder—angry, upset, with no passion.»
If you will get rid of the excuses, God will be your vindicator. God will pay you back for the unfair things.
This is your year to step up to a new level, to see God’s favor in a new way.
Now have this attitude: «No more excuses. No excuses to be unhappy. This day is a gift from God. I am going to enjoy it in spite of what is going on. No excuses to settle for mediocrity, give up on my dreams. I am pursuing my goals, overcoming obstacles, breaking these bad habits.»
Or how about, «No more excuses to go around feeling inferior. I know who I am—a child of the Most High God.»
You Have Exactly What You Need
«Well, Joel, I do not think I could accomplish my goals. I am not that talented. I do not really have the connections. I did not get what my friends got. They have the looks, the personality, the good breaks.»
Here is the key: if you did not get it, then you do not need it. You have exactly what you need.
If you needed what they had, God would have given it to you.
Now quit comparing yourself and start running your own race.
You are anointed to be you. Nobody can beat you at being you.
You are fully loaded, totally equipped, uniquely designed for the race that has been laid out for you.
And get rid of those excuses: «I am too tall, too short, too old, wrong nationality.»
You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. Step up to who you were created to be.
When my father went to be with the Lord, I knew I was supposed to step up and pastor the church, but all of these excuses flooded my mind: «I do not have the training. I have never ministered before. My personality is too laid back. My voice is not strong enough.»
If I would have held on to those excuses, I would not be standing here today.
Anytime God is about to take you to a new level, there will be excuses you will have to first get rid of.
Before you see promotion, you have to get rid of that excuse, «I am not qualified. I am not that talented. I cannot do that.»
Before you break the addiction, get rid of the excuse, «I have had it too long. I am not disciplined enough.»
Before you meet the person of your dreams, you have to get rid of the excuse, «I am not that attractive. I do not have a good personality.»
Friends, God wants to do something new in your life. He wants to take you to a new level of your destiny. Are you allowing excuses to hold you back?
Learning to Type: No More Old Ways
When I stepped up and started ministering, I would write out all my sermons by hand. I would have twenty pages of notes scribbled here and there, all over the desk.
On Saturday, I would try to put them all together and hope that somehow it made sense.
Now a couple of months in, Victoria came and said, «Joel, you are wasting so much time writing this all out by hand. You need to get a computer and start typing it. That way you can cut, paste, move it around. It would be so much easier.»
Well, I had taken typing in high school, but I had not typed in twenty years. And I reached into my excuse bag and pulled a couple out.
I said, «Victoria, I cannot do that. I do not know how to type.» I was saying in effect, «I am limited. I am not up to par. I cannot learn anything new.»
She looked at me and said, «Joel, you are thirty-six years old; you can do anything you put your mind to. We are going to get a computer, and you are going to start typing out these messages.»
She did not ask me; she told me. All I could say was, «Yes, ma’am.»
But sometimes you need someone to speak the truth in love to you.
Maybe you are coasting like I was, thinking that you cannot step up. You have reached your limits.
No, you have gifts and talents on the inside that you have not tapped into.
I am telling you like Victoria told me—no ifs, ands, or buts—it is time to lose the excuse bag.
Step up to a new level. Start learning something new. Start training for that next position. Start taking on more responsibility.
Or how about start writing that book, start writing those songs, start developing that business plan.
You have potential lying dormant on the inside right now. It is seeds of greatness.
The enemy would love to use excuses to keep it from ever coming out.
You have to stir up what God put on the inside.
Quit telling yourself what you cannot do, how you do not have the discipline, the training, the education.
You have everything you need. You are well able.
God has already put it in you.
I started typing my messages on the computer, and it was like night-and-day difference.
A couple of weeks in, it all came back. I remembered how to type; it saved me hours every week.
Since then, I have typed seven books, hundreds of messages—and I am so glad I got rid of that excuse.
Old Dogs and New Tricks
You have heard that saying, «You cannot teach an old dog new tricks,» but I have learned it depends on what kind of dog you have.
If your dog thinks, «I am limited, I am lacking, I cannot learn anything new,» then that dog will get stuck.
But if you have a dog that says, «I am well able, I am equipped, empowered—nothing is too hard for me,» that dog will learn new tricks.
My message: make sure you are the right kind of dog!
Are you stuck doing something the old-fashioned way because, like I did, you think you do not have the talent, the know-how, the ability to step into the new?
Well, quit discounting yourself. You have what you need to live in this generation.
Quit shrinking back. Do not let those excuses convince you that you are lacking, you are too old, too young, not up to speed, not up to par.
God put in you what you need for this day. This is your time to shine.
Get rid of those limiting excuses and stay open for new ideas and new ways to do things.
The thing I love about my mom—she is eighty-one years old. She sends us kids group texts all through the day. Most of them make sense, but I love the fact that she is not intimidated to learn something new.
I am just praying she does not discover Instagram.
But seriously, when we keep making excuses, they become a crutch. That way we can justify why we are not where we are supposed to be.
Excuses as Crutches
«Well, they hurt me. They did me wrong.» Now I have to use this self-pity crutch to hobble along. I have got a reason to be this way.
Or, «My friend is more talented. They got the looks, the personality.» So I have got to use this inferior crutch, this not-up-to-par crutch.
Or, «I made some mistakes in life, did not raise my kids right, blew my relationship.» That is why I am using this regret crutch, this guilt crutch.
Every time you make an excuse, it is slowing you down. It is causing you to hobble.
And the tragedy is some people spend their whole life on crutches.
Do not let that be you.
If you will get rid of the excuses, believe that you have what it takes, trust God to make your wrongs right, then instead of hobbling, barely getting by, you will keep stepping into new levels of your destiny.
Wilma Rudolph: Triumph Over Adversity
That is what a young lady did named Wilma. She was born prematurely back in the 1940s—the twentieth of twenty-two children.
When she was four years old, she developed polio in her left leg. It shriveled up so badly that doctors told her parents she would probably never walk again.
When other kids were out playing and having fun, she was at home, not able to walk. She spent two years bedridden.
She could have thought, «Hey, this is my lot in life. I have had a bad break. Got a good reason to settle where I am.»
No, Wilma had this no-excuses mentality.
A caring doctor made her a special leg brace and a shoe. Against all odds, she learned how to walk.
At eleven years of age, without her parents knowing it, she started taking off the brace and going out and playing with the other kids.
She developed a great passion for running. Some days she would go out and run for hours at a time.
One day a coach from Tennessee State University noticed how much she loved to run and how fast she was. He invited her to try out for the team.
She not only made that team, but at sixteen years old she qualified for the 1956 Olympics and went on to win a bronze medal.
Four years later in the 1960 Olympics, Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals and went on to become a national hero.
That is what happens when you do not let self-pity become a crutch.
You do not sit around thinking about what you did not get, how you do not measure up.
You will beat the odds. God will get you to where you are supposed to be.
We have all had bad breaks, things we do not understand, but if that was going to keep you from your destiny, God would have never permitted it.
Do not let it become a crutch. Do not use it as an excuse to settle where you are.
Do like Wilma: stir up what God has put on the inside, and you will go places that you have never dreamed.
The Blind Man and God’s Display
In the scripture there was a man that had been blind since his birth. Some people asked Jesus, «Why was he born this way? Whose fault was it—his or his parents'?»
They wanted somebody to blame, an excuse, a reason.
Jesus said to them, «It is nobody’s fault. He was born this way so that the goodness of God might be displayed in his life.»
Jesus touched his eyes, and instantly he could see.
When you have a bad break, a disadvantage, do not get stuck looking for someone or something to blame.
You are not always going to understand why things happen in life, but if you will stay in faith, it will not work against you; it will work for you.
God will use it to show out in your life.
But like these people, it is easy to want to blame the parents: «It is their fault. That is why he is blind.» Blame the man. Blame the neighbor. Blame a friend.
All that is going to do is give you a reason to feel sorry for yourself. Before long you will have that crutch.
But nothing that has happened to you is a surprise to God.
You have to take the hand you have been dealt and make the most of it.
It may not have been fair, but God is fair. He is a God of justice.
He sees every wrong that has been done to you, every hurt, every disadvantage.
And if you will not let it become an excuse to get bitter, to have a chip on your shoulder, then God said He will take that wrong and turn it around and use it to your advantage.
He will pay you back for the unfair things.
See, people cannot stop your destiny. What they said about you, what they did to you, how they tried to make you feel—it does not have to affect you.
The only power that has over you is the power that you give it.
If you sit around nursing your wounds, thinking about the wrong, about how bad it was, that is going to become a crutch that will hold you back.
But if you will let it go, God will fight your battles. God will be your vindicator.
Joseph: From Pit to Palace
We see this principle in the life of Joseph. He went through one unfair situation after another.
His brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery. He could have become bitter, thought, «I have got a good excuse to live my life angry.»
He was lied about, falsely accused, and put in prison. Another excuse to have a chip on his shoulder.
He spent years in that prison for something that he did not do.
He could have come up with excuse after excuse to settle where he was, but Joseph knew those excuses would become crutches that would keep him from his destiny.
He had this no-excuse mentality.
He kept shaking off the disappointments, overlooking the offenses, doing the right thing when the wrong thing was happening.
In the end he came out vindicated, promoted, in a place of honor, prestige, influence.
You may have had some bad breaks, things you do not understand, but do not get stuck looking back, reliving the negative.
That is a distraction.
If you will do like Joseph and keep moving forward, taking the high road, doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are supposed to be.
No bad break can stop you—a disadvantage, an injustice. God has the final say.
But you say, «Joel, they hurt me. They did me wrong.»
I say this respectfully: everybody has been hurt. You have to get over it.
«Well, they left me out.» Everybody has been left out.
«They lied about me.» Everybody has been lied about.
It is not worth missing your destiny over.
I am not saying what they did was okay. What I am saying is it does not have to control the rest of your life.
It would be easy to live with a chip on your shoulder, thinking about how wrong it is.
Before long you will have that crutch that will cause you to hobble when God created you to run.
You have got to draw the line in the sand and say, «That is it—no more excuses. Cannot do anything about the past, but I can do something about right now. I am going to live my life in faith, trusting God to make it up to me.»
Friends, this day is a gift. Once we live it, we can never get it back.
Life is too short to waste another day angry, offended, in self-pity.
Like Joseph, you may have had a rough start, but you do not have to have a rough finish.
God wants to pay you back. He wants to give you beauty for the ashes, double for the injustice.
Jesus and Judas
Now realize it is not always easy to get over it. It is not necessarily easy to move forward.
But here is the key: the pain of letting it go is less than the pain of holding on and missing your destiny.
In the scripture it tells us to be imitators of Christ. His life should be our example.
If we are going to be like Jesus, that means we are going to have people come against us, trying to make us look bad.
It means we are going to be misunderstood and criticized.
We are going to have a Garden of Gethsemane—times we feel alone and abandoned.
And yes, we may even have a Judas—people that betray us, turn their back and walk away.
It is interesting: when Judas came with the soldiers to betray Jesus, Jesus said to him, «Friend, what have you come here to do?»
Jesus knew he was going to betray Him, but He still called him «Friend.»
His attitude was, «I have already gotten over what you are about to do. Your poor choice is not going to steal my joy nor stop my destiny. My Father has the final say. It may get a little rough, but I know in the end I am going to come out wearing that victor’s crown.»
If we will do like Jesus and not get bitter when unfair things happen, trust our Father to make it up to us, at some point we too will be wearing the victor’s crown.
Like Joseph, you will come out vindicated, promoted, in a place of honor and influence.
The Crippled Man at Bethesda
In John chapter 5 there is this story about a crippled man. He had been lying at the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years.
Every once in a while an angel would come by and move the water. The first person in would be healed.
The Amplified Version describes this man’s condition as a deep-seated, lingering disorder.
What is a lingering disorder? It is not just physical, but when we stay focused on negative things of the past, we keep making excuses and not move forward—those lingering disorders can keep us from our destiny.
And one day Jesus came by and saw the man lying there. It was obvious that he was crippled.
Jesus knew the reason he was by the pool was to try to get well. But He asked him what seemed to be a strange question.
He said to the man, «Do you want to get well?» One version says, «Are you serious about getting well?»
By the way this man responded, it shows us why he had been that way for so long.
He said, «Yes, but I do not have anybody to help me. I am at a disadvantage. I am all alone. You see my legs. When the angel comes, everybody gets in in front of me.»
He used excuse after excuse.
And he had used those excuses so long they had become a crutch.
And I love the way Jesus answered back. He did not respond to the man’s sad story.
He did not say, «Well, I feel sorry for you. You have had a rough life.»
He looked him in the eyes and said in effect, «If you are serious about getting well, if you are serious about moving forward, then pick up your bed, get up, and be on your way.»
He spoke faith over the man.
And for the first time when that man heard that, something came alive on the inside.
He thought, «You mean I do not have to keep making excuses? You mean I do not have to just sit here and wait for something to change? I can make something happen?»
This man got up, took up his bed. He walked out of there healthy and whole.
I wonder how many things we would get out of—defeat, depression, bad habits—if we would just quit feeling sorry for ourselves, quit making excuses, and start moving forward.
God is asking us today what He asked this man: «Are you serious about getting well? Are you serious about overcoming that addiction, about finishing school, about moving past that disappointment?»
Then there is something that you have to do: get up on the inside—in your attitude, in your thoughts, in your countenance, in how you talk.
In other words, shake off the self-pity. Quit reliving the negative.
You are waiting on God, but God is waiting on you.
If you will get up, take up your bed so to speak, start moving forward, that is when you will see things begin to change in your favor.
God said in Isaiah 42, «The former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare. Sing a new song unto the Lord.»
God is saying the things you have been struggling with are coming to an end—the discouragement, the loneliness, the bad breaks, the depression.
God is about to put a stop to it. He is going to do a new thing.
But there is one requirement.
The last part of this verse is the whole key: if you want to see the negative end and God do a new thing, then you have to sing a new song.
You cannot keep singing that old song of who hurt me and «I have been by this pool thirty-eight years. I am never going to get well.»
No, throw out that song of self-pity. Get rid of that song of defeat; erase that song of «It is never going to work out.»
Start singing a song of victory: «I may have had some bad breaks, but I know this is my due-season year. Things are changing in my favor. I am armed with strength for this battle.»
«I will overcome this illness.» «I will break this bad habit.» «I will finish school.» «I will live healthy, whole, victorious.»
If you want to see the new, you have got to start singing the new song.
In other words, no more sad songs. No more talking about who hurt you, what did not work out.
God knows everything you have been through. You do not have to constantly remind Him.
If you will lose the sad song and start singing a new song, God will turn your mourning into dancing.
He will take the setback and use it as a setup to take you somewhere greater.
But I wonder how many of us today, like this man, have these lingering disorders?
We went through a hurt, a disappointment. Instead of letting it go, moving forward, trusting God, we started making excuses.
Now it has gone on year after year.
The good news is if you will get rid of the excuses, it is just a matter of time before those lingering disorders will leave.
That is when God will show up and begin to turn things around.
Is there something you need to get over today—a childhood that was not so great, a friend that betrayed you, a business that did not make it?
Now you are using it as a crutch to stay where you are?
Why do you not make this decision with me: no more excuses.
You cannot do anything about your past, but you can do something about your future.
And because you have this new song, I believe and declare that things that have held you back are coming to an end.
God is doing a new thing.
You are going to see beauty for those ashes. You are going to overcome the illness, see new relationships, new opportunities, a new level of your destiny.
In Jesus' name.