#osteen

As long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.

-Galatians 4:1

It’s easy to make excuses in relationships. “I was rude to her because she was rude to me. I shouldn’t have said it, but I was so tired.” No, you have God’s grace to always treat others with love and not say hurtful things.

You can either feed your flesh and say and do what you feel, or you can feed your spirit and keep your mouth closed and do the right thing. The problem is that if you keep saying everything you want, you’ll stay a child. The Scripture says that even though you’re an heir of God with an incredible inheritance that belongs to you—joy, peace, favor, promotion, and abundance—if you remain a child, it won’t be released.

Sometimes we let small things keep us from the big things God has in store. In the big picture, it’s a small thing to tame your tongue. God is simply asking you to use your words and actions to bless and not curse, to build up and not tear down.

Joel Osteen is the pastor of the largest church in the United States, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His wife, Victoria, is co-pastor. The Osteens teach a message of “hope, healing, and forgiveness” (from the official Lakewood Church website). Osteen’s television program is viewed by 20 million people each month in almost 100 countries around the world. In 2004, Joel published the best-selling book Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential. Joel Osteen’s parents, John and Dodie Osteen, founded Lakewood Church in 1959 but, when John died in 1999, Joel accepted the position of senior pastor of Lakewood.Joel Osteen is a people pleaser vs a God pleaser.  Joel Osteen is a false teacher that teaches the prosperity gospel and never teaches about sin. According to Lakewood Church’s official website Joel Osteen teaches that physical healing and wellness were provided in Christ’s atonement.

“Jesus came that we might have a more abundant life. He came to carry our weaknesses, our sickness, our pain, so that we can walk in total freedom, peace, power and purpose”  (from the official Lakewood Church website)

Joel Osteen also teaches name-it-claim-it or word-faith theology: Osteen writes. 

 “We have to conceive it on the inside before we’re ever going to receive it on the outside, If you don’t think you can have something good, then you never will. The barrier is in your mind. . . . Your own wrong thinking can keep you from God’s best. . . . To experience [God’s] immeasurable favor, you must rid yourself of that small-minded thinking and start expecting God’s blessings, start anticipating promotion and supernatural increase. You must conceive it in your heart before you can receive it. In other words, you must make increase in your own thinking, then God will bring those things to pass” (from Your Best Life Now, chapter 1). 

There is nothing biblical about this teaching. There is no power in positive thinking, and we do not create our own realities. God is not our servant, standing by and waiting for us to imagine something so He can grant it to us like a genie.  This teaching is a total opposite of the teaches of scripture.  Jesus told His followers to “give up everything you have” (Luke 14:33) In many interviews and writings, Osteen has failed to proclaim that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  He has repeatedly refused to agree with the teachings of the Bible that certain behaviors are sinful. (Videos Below) In one interview Joel was asked by Fox News Anchor— Chris Wallace: "Are Mormons Christians? Joel's shocking answer to Chris Wallace was this:  "Yes, In my mind they are...." Joel then continues to share his Unbiblical Beliefs about this. Joel apparently doesn't know that Mormons believe that Jesus was merely a created being who came from Planet Kolob. So Mormons are not Christians! Joel Osteen fails over and over again to preach the whole gospel of Jesus Christ and fails to preach on sin. When Joel doesn't talk about sin he is not preaching the whole gospel. Joel Osteen is not helping anyone when he refuses to talk about sin.  He is damning people to hell. Joel Osteen teaches that we are being saved from unhappiness and failure in life, not from sin and God’s wrath. Osteen does not teach that we need a divine rescue from judgment, but rather simply a self-improvement plan. Which is horrible and will send many to hell. Joel has many missed opportunities to present to the world biblical truths and warn people of the coming judgments (John 16:8). Sadly, Joel and Victoria Osteen are not preaching the gospel, and their ministry should not be supported. In steed we should be praying for Joel and Victoria Osteen because they are clearly preaching and teaching a different Gospel than what Jesus preached.

Videos

Joel Osteen On Mormons

Joel on Healing Prosperity

This is My Bible, I Am What it Says I Am?

Victoria Osteen Said Worship Is for Yourself?

Paul Washer & Joel Osteen on the Gospel!

Your Best Life: Now or Later? (1 Peter 1:3-5) 

John MacArthur on Joel Osteen

Palm Bluff Conservation Area, Osteen, Florida. November 2017.