Joel Osteen, This is Why You Never Mock God

Joel Osteen takes down YouTube videos that criticize his ministry, even if they fall into the category of fair use.

I've experienced this with two of my videos, but these two videos were reinstated after I appealed

Osteen's copyright takedown. Mike Winger also received a copyright strike for his video that analyzed one of Osteen's sermons.

All of a sudden their copyright claim, they didn't want the money anymore, now they wanted it removed from the internet. But because Osteen had a case that Winger's video was not fair use,

Winger's video was not reinstated. And so I have a good solid case in many ways, except for one.

I used like 95 % of his original video. I knew that this could be an Achilles heel for me.

I didn't think it was, like I thought in all like clean conscience. I thought this is safe because I am doing this and I'm checking all the boxes of fair use.

I didn't check this one as well as I'd like to. I used 95 % approximately of his original video. So when you reproduce the entire work or almost the entire work, this is a red flag.

And this is why my case isn't 100 % or 95%, it's like 70%. So let's just go ahead and play with fire by doing exactly what

Winger did. Except we'll try to make sure this video is fair use. Will Joel Osteen take down this video and give me a copyright strike?

We shall see. Step 1. Choose a Joel Osteen sermon to analyze.

Let's just choose the most recent one. Your reputation is in God's hands. Step 2.

Let's watch through and analyze this sermon together. Except we'll just show the highlights and summarize the rest.

David said God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. God says, no,

I have a better way. I'm going to promote you while they're still talking. As we continue watching, we're going to see that for Osteen, God's blessings are primarily material and earthly, not spiritual.

Instead of God preserving our faith while we are being persecuted, God gives us things like promotions.

I'd like to start with something funny. This is how Osteen starts all of his sermons. Because it's always about making the audience feel good about themselves, never about convincing them of their guilt and sin before a holy

God. Peter said, we have dozens of popes, but you're the first lawyer. Even in Osteen's light -hearted joke, we already see serious theological error.

Osteen says that dozens of popes have gone to heaven. But the truth is that Roman Catholicism teaches a fundamentally different gospel that is not the true gospel at all.

Go to our Catholic friends. Listen to this. Council with Trent, Session 6, Canon 9. If anyone says that by faith alone the sinner is justified, so as to mean that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, let him be anathema.

They do not preach the same gospel. I want to talk to you today about your reputation is in God's hands.

Osteen's sermons are always topical, never expository. He always chooses the topics he preaches about.

This is why we practice, for the most part, what is called expository preaching. We are exposing what

God has said in the text. There are times when our preaching takes on different forms.

For example, when we're preaching about different doctrines, we may take a more topical approach.

But we are still expounding upon what we find in the text of Scripture.

So essentially, preaching that is faithful to the Bible is preaching that is expository in nature.

And as usual, his topic for today is about tips on how to live a happy life, not about the gospel.

I know I'm not a traditional pastor in terms of I'm just going down teaching Scripture by Scripture because, you know, a lot of my, you know, what

I would teach would just be more how to live a great life. But what happens when you're being your best, you're honoring

God? Osteen really seems to believe in work's righteousness. He says that when you're being your best, you're honoring

God. But no, we can only honor God through faith in Jesus and then through the new life

God gives us. But other people do things to tarnish your reputation. Here's the key.

You have to put your reputation in God's hands. Let Him defend you. Osteen never makes any qualification that God only defends

His people who have repented on sin and trusted in Jesus alone for salvation. He always applies

His pragmatic principles to everyone, regardless of whether a person is saved or not. That I really am a good person, then that'll fix it.

Osteen believes that pretty much everyone is a good person. In dealing with people for several years, thousands of people, one thing

I can tell you is 99 .9 % of people are not bad people.

They may make poor choices, but deep down they've got a good heart. But of course, this is a shockingly unbiblical thing to teach.

Friends, 99 .9 % of people are not good people. 100 % of people are bad people.

They may keep spreading lies, slandering, putting you in a bad light, but they cannot stop your purpose.

Does Osteen ever teach that our purpose is to repent of sin, trust in Jesus, glorify

God, and make disciples of all nations? For Osteen, our purpose isn't gospel -centered, but rather it's about our own worldly success.

You keep seeing favor in promotion. Again, Osteen keeps focusing on worldly things like promotions, not about preserving in faith amidst true persecution.

God says, no, I have a better way. I'm going to promote you while they're still talking. And this is what we saw in the intro.

Osteen wants you to know that Psalm 23 5 is about God giving you worldly things like promotions when people slander you.

Osteen doesn't even say that people are slandering you for being a Christian. He said, touch not my anointed.

You are his anointed. Again, Osteen never qualifies anything with, you are his anointed if you repent and believe in Jesus.

No, Osteen seems to always be speaking to absolutely everyone in his audience when he says things like this.

It would be offensive if he explicitly limited his pragmatic principles to Christians who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You're an eagle. You were created to store. Typical Osteen motivational nonsense.

It's all about human goodness, human potential, never about human sin and rebellion against God, never about humans deserving

God's wrath and judgment. No repentance, no gospel, no sin, no wrath of God, no nothing.

People can't stop your destiny. If you like this video, a subscribe helps spread the truth.

For Osteen, our destiny is to live a great life, to get a promotion, not to be like Jesus and be persecuted for proclaiming the offensive truth of the

Bible. You would think with all the negative talk, all the rumors, slander, lies, he would have missed his purpose.

Osteen is talking about Jesus here. But what was Jesus' purpose? Jesus taught about sin, hell, and everyone's need to repent and trust in him alone for salvation.

But this is not at all the kind of purpose Osteen is talking about. Promote you in front of those that tried to push you down.

Why does Osteen keep bringing up getting promoted? Because it's this kind of worldly, pragmatic success that Osteen focuses on and really cares about, not proclaiming an offensive gospel that the world hates.

They will see you promoted, honored, in positions of influence and respect.

Again, it's all about the promotions. You're going to miss the promotion that God has for you. Promotions, promotions, promotions.

It says in Psalms, Deal with me, O sovereign Lord, for the sake of your own reputation.

Because you belong to the sovereign Lord, because you're his child. Again, Osteen never makes qualifications about this.

He speaks to everyone as if they are God's child. He never excludes people who have not repented or trusted in Jesus.

God gave Nehemiah a dream to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They questioned his motives, cast doubt on his integrity.

It's no different today. For Osteen, it's primarily about Nehemiah's dream and people obstructing his dream, not about Nehemiah obeying

God and people being against God's sovereign purposes. She's not that talented.

She can just manipulate people to get that position. Osteen never talks about being criticized or persecuted for proclaiming the gospel of sin and salvation.

It's always about pragmatic, worldly things and success. You're making a difference. You're leaving your mark.

You're doing great things. You're amazing. Osteen's preaching is extremely man -centered.

It's all about your amazing potential, the amazing things you can do. Some people are so small -minded, so insecure, they'll never celebrate the favor on your life.

For Osteen, everything is about favor, about worldly blessings. But we criticize

Osteen, not because we're jealous of his worldly success. We criticize him because he's completely mangling the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He not only doesn't tell people they are sinners who deserve God's wrath, but he is actually teaching people the exact opposite.

Nehemiah was honored and esteemed as one who helped save the Israelites. Again, for Osteen, it's about what

Nehemiah did, not about what God did through Nehemiah. Osteen has a tendency of making everything in the

Bible man -centered rather than God -centered. With flashy speakers who tell us everything we want to hear so that we can have our best life now because that is indeed what we want.

More than God. You keep striving for excellence, following that dream in your heart.

What dream is Osteen talking about? Some dreams are worldly. Other dreams are

God -honoring. But Osteen never distinguishes between sinful dreams and God -honoring dreams.

Just follow the dream in your heart. There will be a time when the noise has stopped and you're being promoted.

Again, with being promoted. It's always about worldly, pragmatic success, not about the gospel.

We'll see the best in you. They'll want to stand up for you, help you move into your purpose.

Notice that Osteen never explicitly says that repentance, faith, and salvation are our ultimate purpose.

Our purpose is always some vague purpose related to worldly, pragmatic success.

It's interesting that it wasn't someone on the outside that tried to keep Joseph from his purpose.

Like with Nehemiah, Osteen focuses on Joseph's dream. Joseph's purpose, not

God accomplishing his purpose through Joseph. He makes the stories about the people, not about God.

Now he was respected, honored, influential. People bowed down before him.

God knows how to vindicate you. But Joseph's story isn't really about Joseph at all.

It's about God using Joseph to accomplish his purposes. But as is typical, Osteen makes it primarily about Joseph, not

God's sovereign purposes. When they realized it was him, they all bowed down low before him.

That was the table in the presence of his enemies. This is a gross misapplication of Psalm 23 5, which is primarily spiritual in what it's talking about, not worldly.

Joseph's story was unique. Paul and the apostles experienced suffering and death as a result of their faith.

But Psalm 23 5 applies to them just as much as it applied to Joseph. If you'll do this,

I believe and declare like Joseph, you're going to see vindication, promotion.

Word of faith nonsense here. If you declare like Joseph, you're going to see promotion.

Scripture simply does not promise this. They all claim the same thing. As a Christian, you have the personal power to recreate life's reality and do exactly what you want it to be.

And they do it in the name of Jesus. 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.

Osteen ends all of his sermons with this simple prayer. And it really means almost nothing. Since Osteen never defined sin, repentance, or being born again.

I almost got whiplash. Where did that come from? Where did we get that? And here's the other thing.

People start walking to the front. And I'm going, where are they going and why? There's been no gospel preached.