F4F | Joel Osteen: Bless Yourself

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseboro. I am a servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. I feel a song about shiny teeth.

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Oh, what makes me happy, fills me up with glee. It's those bones in my jaw that don't have a flaw, my shiny teeth and me.

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If you ever listen to the audio podcast, you know exactly what's coming. We're going to head down south to Houston, Texas, and we're going to check in with Joel Osteen.

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We're going to learn about blessing ourselves. The reason I chose this is because, let's just say that Joel Osteen isn't hiding his

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Word, Faith, Heresy roots anymore. This is probably one of the most concise explanations of the

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Word of Faith heresy that I have ever seen. It is a complete mangling of God's Word. And wow, if you know anybody that is listening to Joel Osteen, and chances are you do know somebody because he is so popular.

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He is one of the most prolific of ear scratchers out there.

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He does not preach repentance and doesn't preach about sin and God's judgment and Christ bleeding and dying on the cross for our sins to save us from the wrath of God.

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This is a guy who teaches you that you, well, you are just inherently worth it or something like that.

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Anyway, you get the idea. So hold on, I'm going to whirl up the desktop and let's head over to Lakewood.

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And again, the name of this sermon, and we've changed the pitch and we've warped everything up because, you know, if you haven't paid attention,

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Mike Winger did a really extensive sermon review on Joel Osteen. And I knew the second he put that video up, it was going to be pulled down.

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Joel Osteen does not allow critics. No, not at all. And so he's above the laws of fair use.

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So we transmogrify things and give them a different pitch and change the video and warp things up in order to talk about to transformation, transformative video making so that we can keep our channel and not have our videos taken down.

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Anyway, all that being said, that's the reason why all the edits have been made. Let's listen in to Joel Osteen, where he talks about, well, you need to bless yourself.

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Here we go. I want to talk to you today about blessing yourself. We hear a lot about blessing others, being good to friends, complimenting a family member, helping a neighbor.

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That's all good. We should bless others, but it's also important to bless yourself. Yeah. Now, in order for a doctrine to be biblical, in order for a doctrine to be biblical, it has to be clearly taught in scripture.

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And so one of the things we note about Joel Osteen is, is that he has this amazing ability to twist biblical texts and make them say things they're not really saying.

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And you'll note, he doesn't really quote or read out large sections of scripture.

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And so he'll read out, you know, just a sentence here, a sentence there. It doesn't quite give us the reference.

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And so you have to kind of hunt and look with him. And so in order for a doctrine to be biblical, it has to clearly be taught in an unambiguous text.

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So for instance, I believe Jesus walked on the water. Okay. Yeah. The Sea of Galilee.

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All right. Do I have any biblical texts that say Jesus walked on the water? Yes. I have biblical texts, plural, that say that.

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Okay. So is there a biblical text that I can go to that says, I need to bless myself.

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And it's clear in context, and that's what it means. Okay. The answer is no.

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So watch what he does. When we hear bless yourself, that can sound odd, self -centered. Yeah.

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That's because your whole theology is odd and self -centered. I can't bless myself. I want somebody else to bless me.

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The greater is blessed by the lesser, scripture teaches. I'm blessed by God.

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More importantly, I want God to bless me. Indeed. But the scripture says in Isaiah, he who invokes a blessing on himself shall do so by saying.

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He who invokes a blessing on himself shall do so by saying. Why didn't he put the reference in there so we can all find it?

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I had to look it up, by the way. Turns out he's misquoting the amplified, which is not a translation.

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And from Isaiah 65, verse 16, from the amplified, so it shall be that he who invokes a blessing on himself in the land shall do so by saying, quote, may the

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God of truth and fidelity, the amen bless me. And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by God of truth and faithfulness to his promises.

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Huh. Huh. Yeah. So it doesn't sound like he's saying that you can, you invoke a blessing on yourself by saying.

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In fact, let's take a look at the ESV on this, which I think is a little bit more helpful.

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ESV chapter 65, and we're going to apply our three rules for sound biblical exegesis, which are context, context, and context.

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That being the case, let's take a look at this. So we're going to back up into 13. It says, therefore, thus says the

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Lord God, behold, my servants shall eat, you shall be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, you shall be thirsty.

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Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame. God's making a distinction between those who believe in him and those who are idolaters and refuse to repent of their idolatry.

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Behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

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You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.

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So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth.

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And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.

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There's an eschatological implication here. This is talking about the new earth. So, what

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Joel Osteen quoted, Isaiah 65, verse 16, amplified again.

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He only quoted half of the sentence. He who invokes a blessing on himself in the land shall do so by saying, this should be a quote here, may the

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God of truth and fidelity bless me. He's pulling a fast one.

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He's intentionally twisting the Scriptures. In fact, I would basically note this, you have to work really hard to twist the

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Bible, really hard. It doesn't take as much effort to rightly handle it.

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So, let me back this up so that you can hear what he did here because he's misquoting Isaiah 65, 16.

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I want somebody else to bless me. More importantly, I want God to bless me. But the Scripture says in Isaiah, he who invokes a blessing on himself shall do so by saying.

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By saying what? Even the amplified notes by saying a certain thing, may the

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God of truth and fidelity bless me. So, even the amplified doesn't teach what you're saying here,

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Joel. The way you bless yourself is to say what God says about you. That I'm a sinner in need of a savior?

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I am strong. I am talented. Scripture doesn't say I'm strong or talented. In fact,

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Scripture says let the weak say I am strong. I am forgiven. I am healthy. I am valuable.

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I am a masterpiece. Words of affirmation. Stuart Smalley here. I am good enough.

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I'm smart enough. And gosh darn, people like me. They're not just positive affirmations.

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Yeah, they are. You just invoked blessing on yourself. No, those are just positive affirmations.

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Listen to what he said there. So, he recognizes that these are just positive affirmations, but he's going to lie about them and say that they're more than that.

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Talented. I am forgiven. I am healthy. I am valuable. I am a masterpiece. Those are not just positive affirmations.

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You just invoked a blessing on yourself. No, Scripture says that. In fact, pride comes before a fall.

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When you speak it out, you give life to what you're saying. Yeah, if that were true, then the devil would be in charge of the universe.

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Let me explain. Isaiah chapter 14. God in describing

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Lucifer. Okay. Um, yeah. So, let's see. Uh, verse 12.

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Watch this. Oh, how you are fallen from heaven, oh day star, son of the dawn.

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Oh, how you are cut down to the ground, you who laid low the nations. You said in your heart,

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I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God.

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I, I will set my throne on high. If, if Joel Osteen's theology were true, then the devil would have dethroned

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God with his words. Right? I will set my throne on high.

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I will sit on the Mount of the Assembly in the far reaches of the North. And I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

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I will make myself like the most high. But you're brought down to shale to the far reaches of the pit.

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I think you get the point here. Um, if what Joel Osteen was saying was true, I'll just speak these positive affirmations.

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You, you invoke a blessing upon yourself. You'll note that it's Satan's pride and this, these self positive affirmations of his delusions of grandeur, which lead to him being cast down to earth because of his rebellion against God.

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Joel Osteen is speaking parcel mouth here, if you know what I mean. It's not enough to just think this.

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You don't bless yourself by just dwelling on positive thoughts. No scripture teaches any of this. Nothing happens until you speak.

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When you say I am blessed, blessings come looking for you. It says who? When you say

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I am prosperous, good breaks start hitting your way. Really? Which biblical text actually says that?

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I can't think of any. When you say I am healthy, health starts tracking you down. No, it doesn't.

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Especially if you're not healthy. If this was a case, I mean, we could, we could solve, we can empty out all the hospitals right now.

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Can't wait till you feel that way. Then you're going to say it. When the medical report turns around, then I'll say I'm healthy.

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It's just the opposite. You have to declare you're healthy before the health is going to show up. Yeah, this sounds like a

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Christian science and the mind science cults. The late Walter Martin used to tell a joke about, he says, how can you tell a

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Christian scientist in hell? And he says the Christian scientist in hell is the one who is over in the corner of the pit going,

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I'm not here. I'm not here. I'm not here. Right.

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And yeah, they're positive words and not going to get them out of that. You have to say I am confident before you're going to feel confident.

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If you'll say it long enough, what happens is those words get down in your spirit. You believe what you say about yourself more than what anyone else says about you.

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When you hear yourself day after day, I am healthy. I am talented. This is a person who is being taught, catechized into losing complete touch with reality, which is not what scripture says.

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My question is, what do you do with like, I don't know, 1 John. Listen to what 1

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John says, chapter one, verse eight. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

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If we confess our sins, he, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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If we say we have not sinned, we make him to be a liar and his word is not in us. Oops. Uh oh.

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Uh, yeah. Uh, you'll, you'll note the scripture teaches us to confess that we're sinners. Oh, is that a negative confession?

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No, it's a truthful confession. In Joel Osteen's theology, one has to wonder if you can even properly say that you're a sinner.

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I am confident. I am valuable. It's changing how you see yourself over time.

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You're going to become what you're saying. You are who you are in part today because of what you've been speaking over your life.

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And all through the day, you need to develop this habit of blessing yourself. You don't have to do it in front of other people, but when you're in the shop, right, don't do it in front of other people because they'll rightly call you out.

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Our father. Thank you that I am creative. I am attractive. I am a great father. Self -absorbed narcissism.

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What on earth? I have a good personality. Drive me to work. Lord, thank you that I'm forgiven. I'm redeemed.

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That your mercy is bigger than my mistakes. They're called sins. They're not mistakes. Before you. Notice he can't even bring himself to saying that he's a sinner.

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I, I'm a, I'm a mistaker. Go to bed. I am valuable. I am one of a kind. I have seeds of greatness.

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Seeds of. Oh, Jesus says to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him.

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The one who exalts himself will be humbled. Jesus says the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

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Joel Osteen is teaching you to exalt yourself. Every time you say that it's getting deeper in your spirit.

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It's becoming more ingrained in your thinking. And studies tell us that we move toward what's in our subconscious mind without even thinking about it.

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You're being pulled toward what you're saying. That's why it's so important to pay attention to what you're speaking over yourself.

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Uh -huh. Yeah. All right. Let's fast forward a little bit. All right. Let's see here.

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Now people may tell you that you're average, nothing special about you. The good news is what you, the good news is that Christ died for your sins.

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That's the gospel, the good news, right? Let's see what he says. The good news is that you're average, nothing special about you.

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The good news is what you say about yourself overrides what other people say.

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Are you just making this up? I mean, this is, this is a joke, right? I feel like he's like punking us here.

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Yeah. You just totally making this stuff. He's like, just reached into his magical hat and pulled out these words.

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None of this is taught in the Bible. Don't let what someone spoke over you, keep you from becoming who you were created to be.

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Don't go around repeating those lies. I'm not that talented. I've reached my limits.

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I'll never accomplish my dreams. Zip that up and speak blessings over your life.

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It's like the, you know, seriously, could you imagine living in a neighborhood where everybody there watched

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Joel Osteen? I mean, nobody would be able to speak the truth about what's going on.

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It's like, you know, there you are, you're sitting out there talking with your neighbor, right? And you sit there and go, yeah, you know, um, you know,

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I, I, things are not going well at work. Don't say that you're cursing yourself. Right.

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And all the women are like, you know, they get together like in a witch coven, like, you know, the Stefford wives or something like that.

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And they only speak positive things. And there's some poor lady, she's struggling and she knows she's struggling internally, but she can't vocalize it because she'll be shouted down.

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Don't say that you have marriage problems. Oh, what a mess that,

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I mean, that would be a nightmare of a, of a neighborhood to live in. The scripture said, it's like a twilight zone.

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With our words, we can bless or we can curse. We can lift up or we can push down.

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My question is, are you blessing yourself or are you cursing yourself? Are you speaking words of faith, life victory, or are you speaking defeat mediocrity?

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Are you speaking mediocrity? I'm so undisciplined. I'll never lose this weight. What about those poor alcoholics who go to AA man?

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The first thing they got to do is raise, stand up and say, my name is Joe and I'm an alcoholic. You just said, you can't say that.

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I'll never break this addiction. Yeah. Using this theology, I think I've said this before, but bears repeating.

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Uh, there's a, there's a jingle, a jingle for a particular thing that you cannot sing.

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Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener. And then everyone would be in love with me, right?

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Can't sing that. No, no, no, no. I'm unattractive. I'll never meet the right person. You may not realize it, but you're cursing yourself.

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No scripture says that. You're speaking defeat into your future. No scripture says that.

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Future. You have enough people in life against you. Don't be against yourself.

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I don't know. Being honest with yourself is a good thing. Yeah. Let's throw another biblical text into the mix about a guy who spoke the truth about himself while somebody else was, well, let's just say sounding a lot like Joel Osteen.

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All right. So here's our text. Uh, let's see here if this works. Okay. Justified by the way, dikaios in the, in the

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Greek means to be declared righteous or to be declared not guilty.

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It's a judicial term used by judges. If you were declared, you know, dikaios, right?

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You were declared righteous, justified. That means you are pardoned, forgiven.

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You've been found not guilty. Okay. Keep that in mind. So Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves.

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That's a misplaced trust. And that they were righteous. Yeah. I'm the bee's knees.

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I've got all kinds of stuff. Right. And, and they treated others with contempt, which happens to be the way that goes.

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So two men went up into the temple, one, a Pharisee that they went to pray when a Pharisee, the other tax collector, the

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Pharisee standing by himself, thus prayed. Now listen to these words. God, I thank you.

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We've got to do this in a Joel Osteen voice. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, the unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

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I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Yeah. Now, by the way, if Joel Osteen's theology were true,

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I mean, this guy just brought a blessing on himself by saying these words.

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Right. All right. Let's see here. All right. But here's this tax collector. So the tax collector standing far off, he wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven.

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He beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

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Oh, he just cursed himself. Did he know? I tell you, this man went down to his house.

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This man, the tax collector, to his house justified rather than the other one.

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For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted.

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Joel Osteen's teaching a theology of self -exaltation, self -blessing, by self -positive affirmation, which are really, it's not, it's the opposite of humbling yourself.

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I mean, this is the devil's theology through and through. There are forces of darkness trying to keep you from your destiny.

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No, there are forces of darkness trying to send me to hell. Don't give them any fuel.

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Pay attention to what you're saying about yourself. You can't talk. Yeah, that tax collector just didn't seem to be keen on your theology there,

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Joel, and Jesus doesn't seem to be on in step with what you're saying at all, dude. Defeat and have victory.

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You can't talk lack and have abundance. You can't talk sickness and have hell. You may be undisciplined right now, but the way to change is not by telling how bad you are, putting yourself down.

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You mean telling how bad I am, like the way the tax collector said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner?

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Jesus said that guy went home justified, not the guy who engaged in all that positive self -affirmation nonsense.

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That's inviting more difficulties. Start speaking victory. Don't curse yourself anymore.

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Start blessing yourself. I am disciplined. I am determined. I am strong.

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You are out of your mind. You are suffering from delusions of grandeur.

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This isn't what the Bible teaches at all. I hate to say this, but every one of Joel Osteen's sermons, they're pretty much this.

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It's just that he's saying it so clearly here. I'm sure you can think of other passages of scripture that contradict this nonsense, because that's all this is, is utter nonsense.

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Let me give you another warning from scripture, because the Bible does warn us about the last days.

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And let's see here. Let's see. I want to go. All right, here we go.

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Two texts in particular. First Timothy four, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons.

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So, the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. So, note, the warning about the end times, which we happen to be in and we've been in for a while now.

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You'll note that we're warned against people following after doctrines of demons.

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And any doctrine that would teach you to exalt yourself rather than humble yourself and say the truth about yourself, that's from the devil, because the devil doesn't want you to confess that you're a sinner and cry out to God for mercy, because he knows that Jesus will forgive you.

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So, he teaches something like this. Well, watch what Paul writes in second Timothy three. Understand this in the last days, there will come times of great difficulty.

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People will be lovers of self narcissists, right? Lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control, brutal, not loving the good, treacherous, swollen, reckless, swollen with conceit.

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You're right. The one who sits there and says, I am full of seeds of greatness. I am all of this.

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Oh, God bless me because I'm saying all of these wonderful things about myself. Oh, they're full of conceit.

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They're like the devil. Lovers of pleasure, right? Rather than lovers of God, having an appearance of godliness, like Joel Osteen, right?

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But denying his power, avoid such people. Among them are those who creep into household, capture weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

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And Joel Osteen, I mean, how long has he been the pastor there at Lakewood? More than a decade.

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It's coming up on two. Always learning, never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. He's only gotten worse, right?

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Yeah. And just like Janice and John, they oppose Moses. So these men, they oppose the truth. Men who are corrupted of mind, they're disqualified regarding the faith.

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They're not going to get very far. Their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. And I hate to say this.

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Most unbelievers, they know that this theology of Joel Osteen is bovine schizology.

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And I don't know what it is, but people who call themselves Christians, they think this guy is blessed, that this guy is teaching him the truth.

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This guy is teaching you doctrines that are going to send you to hell. Repent and speak the truth about yourself.

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You are worse than mediocre. You are ungodly.

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In fact, let me give you another text now that I think about it. Romans chapter four, all right?

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What shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? If Abraham was justified by his works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness.

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So, the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as is due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Did you catch that part? The one who believes in Jesus is just because God justifies the ungodly.

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You're in that category. So am I. And Joel Osteen's false theology keeps people from speaking the truth about themselves, that they are ungodly, that they need to be forgiven, that they need to turn away from their wickedness and evil, and that they need to trust

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God and Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, denying themselves, taking up their cross daily and following Christ.

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Joel Osteen, there are no crosses to bear, only glory to glory. You can have your best life now, but if you have your best life now, that means you're going to hell.

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So, keep that in mind. Yeah. So, sorry, that's about all I can handle with Joel Osteen, but you get the point.

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And, you know, every single time he alluded to a biblical text, completely twists it, takes it out of context and doesn't even pay attention to what it actually means.

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You know, if you were to look up a wolf in sheep's clothing in the Merriam -Webster's dictionary,

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Joel Osteen's face is right there, right there on the page. Hopefully, you found this helpful.

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If so, all the information I have you can share. The video is down below. And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.