F4F | Joel Osteen and The Danger of Dry Places

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith here on YouTube. If you've ever been taught by a popular televangelist, preacher, teacher, conference speaker, maybe even your own pastor, that those dry places, they are very dangerous, yeah, to your

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Christianity, go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below and don't forget to ring the bell.

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You've not been taught God's Word correctly at all. Case in point, we're gonna be heading over to Lakewood out in Houston, Texas, where Joel Osteen holds court, and we're gonna be listening to a portion of his message titled,

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The Danger of Dry Places, Danger of Dry Places, and not only will we note that,

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I mean, he cannot rightly handle a biblical text to save his life, he couldn't, but that the

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Christianity that he's teaching, the question I have is, what exactly did

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Christ save us from? Did Christ save us from stinking thinking?

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Did Jesus save us from a life of insignificance? What exactly did he save us from?

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Because Joel Osteen is like Stuart Smalley on steroids, and I'm good enough, and I'm smart enough, and gosh darn, people like me.

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It's all about the power of positive thinking, creating positive results in your life, and this is not

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Christianity, because Jesus didn't save you from, you know, an insignificant, non -specific, purposeless existence in the middle classes of Western society or America.

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He saved you from the dominion of darkness, from the consequences of your sin and eternity in hell and the lake of fire, things like that, but I don't ever hear

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Joel Osteen preach or teach like that. So, I mean, at the end of the day, I always kind of scratch my head going, what does he think

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Jesus did for us again? Anyway, let's head over there, and let's dive into the message, see if we can make any sense out of this.

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Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says

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I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today, I will be taught the Word of God.

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No, you won't. I boldly confess my mind is alert. My heart is receptive.

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I will never be the same in Jesus' name. God bless you. I want to talk to you today about the danger of dry places.

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It's easy to lose our passion for... It's so absurd.

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You mean like the desert? Oh, yeah, those deserts are very dangerous places. You need to bring some water with you.

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Whether it's the Sahara Desert, it's the Mojave Desert, oh, it doesn't matter, or even the

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Sonoran Desert. Those are some very dry places, and you need to bring some water.

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Here in North Dakota, where I live, a couple of months out of the year, it's really super cold, like way below zero, and because of that, it's really dry outside because all the moisture has been frozen, and it's really dry in my house.

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So, I mean, my house turns into, get this, a dry place. Yeah, really dry place.

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So, we solved the problem to avoid the dangers of having my home be a dry place by strategically placing in several places within my home humidifiers.

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You see, once you've turned the humidifier on, then your house is no longer a dangerous dry place. I don't think that's what he means though.

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At one time, we were excited. We looked forward to each day. We were believing for our dreams.

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We loved to laugh. Yeah, one time, I was believing for my dreams, man.

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Now, I'm just dried up. I'm not believing for my dreams no more, man.

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Again, I just asked the question, what does he think Jesus saved us from exactly? But over time, if we're not careful and things haven't turned out the way we thought, we'll become dry.

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When you're dry, life has lost its flavor. You smile, but there's no real joy behind it.

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I don't know. Beef jerky is pretty dry, and that's some flavorful stuff. I'm just saying, you know. You laugh with your friends, but it's not genuine.

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You act normal in front of people, but alone, you're discouraged. You wonder, what's wrong?

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All by myself. This isn't

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Christianity. I don't know what this is, but okay. Sometimes we're dry because we're tired.

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The battles have taken longer than we thought. We can be dry. Just rehydrate during the battle, and you'll be fine.

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Because we've been hurt. Somebody did us wrong. Instead of letting it go, we've held on to it.

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Let it go. Let it go. Some people are dry because they have the wrong perspective.

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They think their challenges are too big that they'll never work out. But there's a problem with being dry.

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It doesn't just steal our joy. It doesn't just affect our attitude. It's deeper than that.

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The scripture says, when an unclean spirit leaves a person, it walks through dry places seeking rest.

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When we're dry, we've stepped into the enemy's territory. This is absurd.

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Oh, I gotta pull myself together. That is one of the most absurd things

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I have ever heard. It almost doesn't deserve a like biblical correction here.

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Okay. Luke 11. Luke 11 24.

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When an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, we're talking about exorcism here. It passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none.

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It says, I'll return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.

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And then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there.

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And the last state of the person is worse than the first. I'm not sure where these dry waterless places are, but this is where demons go when they're exorcised from the devil.

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But you are, Joel Osteen are talking metaphorically about dry places.

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And now you're taking your metaphorical, allegorical dryness and somehow comparing that to the literal waterless places that demons go when they're cast out of a person.

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You can't mix the two together like that. That's not how the Bible works.

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Oh man, this is bizarre. Pulling myself together.

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We continue. That's where he lives. Sometimes he doesn't have to come to us.

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We go to him. You do know that sound biblical exegesis is not rocket surgery, right?

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You know, it just basic reading comprehension gets you really far in rightly handling a biblical text.

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So here's what Joel Osteen did. He wants to talk about dry places.

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All right. So he goes to Bible gateway. And so he's already got this all sorted out.

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We got to talk about the dangers of dry places. And so then he goes D R Y and he does a search there and he finds all of the different verses that talk about dryness in one way or another.

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And then he finds the one that he wants and rips it out of its context. No effort on his part to actually meaningfully tell us anything about what

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Luke 11 is saying. No, it's not that at all.

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So as a result of that, we're not learning actually what the Bible says. And, you know, he just found a passage that in one translation uses the word dry rather than waterless and see voila, he now looks like he's teaching the

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Bible, but he's not teaching the Bible. I don't know what this is.

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You feel the blouse, no passion. Thoughts tell you nothing good is in your future.

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You'll never meet the right person. This is

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Stuart Smalley, you know, Stuart Smalley, you know, going on a negativity binge.

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Poor fellow. He's just raided his refrigerator and consumed 6 ,000 calories of pizza and yogurt.

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Anyway, this is not what Luke 11 is talking about.

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We get out of debt, recognize that's the enemy trying to get you into his territory.

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No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Now. Yeah. So as a question earlier, what does

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Joel Osteen think that, you know, Christ has actually saved us from?

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And so, you know, I think of passages like this, you know, from Colossians chapter one, talking about Christ.

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He has delivered us from the domain or the dominion of darkness, transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved

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Son, in whom we have redemption. And listen to this, the forgiveness of our sins.

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Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. And so talking about what

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Christ has done for us. Another text, if you kind of want a summary text of like Christianity and, you know, the basic narrative is that Ephesians 2, good place to go.

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And you, you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Notice, dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sense of disobedience among whom we all once lived.

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And listen, in the passions of our flesh. Okay. So following the passions of our sinful nature, and we were carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

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And so, I mean, this gives you a pretty good picture of what it is that, you know, we're being saved out of.

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Okay. And it's not stinking thinking, you know, it's not even purposelessness.

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It's something way deeper than that. Because if our sin causes us to be, well, children of wrath by nature, that's a bad thing.

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Because ultimately when you tease out that theme of God's wrath in the scripture, you realize

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God's wrath results in people spending an eternity in hell. So yeah, what

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Jesus has saved us from is not a bad hair day, not stinking thinking, not the bloth, you know, or anything like that.

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But by the way, the text goes on, but God being rich in his mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace, you've been saved. And he has raised us up with him, seated us up with him in the heavenly places, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace, you have been saved. Saved from what? The wrath of God. You have been saved through faith.

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And this is not your own doing. This is the gift of God. It's not a result of work so that no one may boast.

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I think you get the idea. But yeah, whatever

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Joel Osteen thinks that Christ has saved us from, it's minuscule compared to what

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Jesus has really saved us from. When you're positive, hopeful, full of praise, that's

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God's territory. The enemy can't touch you. He can't cross that line. That's why he...

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Where does it say that? Works overtime in our thought life. His goal is to get us down and discouraged.

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He knows when we're dry... Don't bring me down. We're giving him access.

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We're coming... Oh man, I got to back that up. You've got to listen again. Our thought life.

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His goal is to get us down and discouraged. I'm pretty sure the goal of the devil is to drag us into hell.

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You know, I just see the devil. I have a plan. I'm going to bring this person down into negativity.

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And once they are negative, I have them. That's ridiculous.

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He knows when we're dry, we're giving him access. We're coming... Folks, you better buy some lotion and keep a lot of water handy.

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You need a lot of water because you don't want to get dry because as soon as things dry out, man, and you're starting to get dehydrated, you're giving the devil access.

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Save yourself. On to his field. That's where he has the right to control and manipulate.

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And maybe you have a good reason to be dry. Life has thrown you some curves. You don't see anything good up ahead.

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That's when you have to dig down deep and say, no, I am not going to live discouraged, dragging through the day, focused on what's wrong.

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I know God is on the throne. I know he's bigger than these problems. I know his plans for me are for good.

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So I'm going to live this day in faith, expecting his favor. You have to take control of your thoughts.

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Now notice he literally believes that if you engage in positive thinking, that positive thinking will create positive results in your life.

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But no Bible text teaches this. Life, that's where the battle's taking place.

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Thoughts will tell you things like, you're a victim. Life hasn't treated you fairly. Thoughts, yeah, they'll tell you that, man.

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Gotta beware. Oh, they're very dangerous things, those thoughts. Spouse doesn't love you like he should.

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That company doesn't appreciate you. If you let those thoughts play long enough, they'll keep you from your destiny.

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Yeah, you better get those thoughts under control because you don't want to miss your destiny, do you? Paul said in the book of Acts, I think myself happy.

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Okay, I'm gonna back this up. I know where this passage is, and I know what translation it's from.

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Let's let him kind of spin the thought out a little bit, and then we'll go back and clean this up. Here we go again.

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Paul said in the book of Acts, I think myself happy. You can think yourself out of a dry place.

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Yeah, that's not what Paul said. Yeah, so King James Version is where we're gonna go to right now.

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Acts chapter 26, and then we'll just compare it to the

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Greek and a good English translation, modern translation. Acts 26 one, then Agrippa said unto

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Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself.

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I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof

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I am accused of the Jews. Yeah, say that five times fast. I mean, we need like a

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Shakespearean actor to pull this off. So there's the phrase, totally out of context. I think myself happy.

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Hegemi, I think, amaton, this is myself, and then makourion, this is from the

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Greek word makourios, either blessed or fortunate. That's one way you can kind of think of makourios.

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When Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are, he uses the word makourios.

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So that's, okay, so if we were just to translate this into kind of modern

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English, you can say that Paul says, I think myself blessed.

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I think myself fortunate. That would be a legitimate translation.

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Let's check some modern translations. So this is the ESV translation,

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English Standard Version. I consider myself fortunate. That works.

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Okay. And let's try the old NIV 84, see what that one does with this.

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I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against the accusations of the

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Jews. Yeah, see, even the NIV 84 is not bad here, and I think you get the idea.

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I consider myself fortunate in the ESV that it is before you, O Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the

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Jews. So when you put the whole sentence together, Paul is not saying,

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I'm in a dry place, and so I'm going to think myself happy.

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And voila, now he's no longer in a dry place and outside of the danger zone when it comes to the attacks of the devil.

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No, he's just simply saying, I consider myself fortunate that I'm pleading my case before you today,

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King Agrippa. That's the point of the sentence. So Joel Osteen has ripped another passage totally out of context, and we're not learning nothing about what

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God's Word says at all. You got into discouragement by thinking about how wrong something was, thinking about who hurt you, thinking about how things aren't going to improve.

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You've thought yourself into defeat. Have you ever noticed that sometimes really awful time seasons in your life, they're not the result of you engaging in stinking thinking.

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It's just life throws those kind of curve balls at us because we live under a cursed creation.

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Why? Because we're all sinners. Joel Osteen, something bad's come your way.

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Well, it's because you weren't thinking good and happy thoughts. Turn it around and start thinking yourself into victory.

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Thinking myself into victory. No biblical text teaches us to do that either.

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Apparently, I'm a deity and my positive thoughts create positive ripples throughout the universe and create amazing outcomes.

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And no, that's not, this is not a biblical teaching. This is like Christian science. God started in my life, he's going to finish.

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No good thing will he withhold because I walk uprightly. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

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Now, that little litany of biblical verses, sentences were all ripped out of context, and none of them teach this theology that he's teaching.

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What was meant for my harm? Lord, I want to thank you right now. You're turning to my advantage. And that's not even a biblical concept right there.

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Get your mind going in the right direction. Think yourself into joy. Think myself into joy.

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Think yourself into a good mood. Think yourself into a positive, faith -filled attitude.

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You cannot live on autopilot and just think whatever comes your way. If you do, negative thoughts will dominate.

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You have to be proactive. Don't wait for thoughts of faith and hope to come.

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Think them on purpose. If you'll fill your mind with the right thoughts, there won't be any room for the wrong thoughts.

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Yeah, he's just making up stuff now. The Bible won't teach none of this. This is a totally different religion altogether.

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You feel the blahs, you need to get into an environment that's uplifting. Yeah, those blahs, man, you're in satanic territory, apparently, if you've got a bad case of the dry blahs.

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Come home from work and sit in a dark room and watch sad movies, listen to sad songs, and think sad thoughts, and eat sad foods, and hang around with sad people.

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Sad times five equals real sad. Oh, that's really bad, apparently. Yeah, that's totally demonic right there.

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Anyone's sad. Oh, boy. Yeah. Oh, they're really, they're really leading you down the path to hell, apparently.

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Open up the windows. Let some light in the room. Put on some inspiring music.

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Do I need a crucified and risen savior for this religion that he's spewing? Maybe go outside and take a walk.

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Exercise. That's not bad advice. I mean, exercise is an important thing, yeah, and there's positive benefits to exercise.

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But again, I just have to ask, do I need a crucified and risen savior for this? Or maybe just, you know, a good life coach, you know, a personal trainer or something.

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Endorphins kicking in. God has put certain hormones in us. When we activate them, they give us a boost and make us more passionate.

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They help to take away the negativity. But it's easy to live a very sedentary lifestyle.

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You can't override natural laws and expect to feel good. You need to exercise.

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You need proper sleep. You need to eat healthy. Yes, mom. Thank you. Yes, I'm sure

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I do. Yes. Practical things can keep us from being passionate and having the vision and energy that we should.

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When you're dry, it's important who you spend time with. You can't afford to hang around other dry people.

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It's like you need an app, you know, the Joel Osteen Humidity, you know, testing kit.

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Hang on a second here. Let's see. I'm going to test this out. Oh, oh, oh, whoa.

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I'm sorry. I know we've been friends for the last 20 years, but according to my Joel Osteen Humidity Verification app, you're way too dry.

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I fear that your presence in my life can can really, really mess things up.

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So we're not going to be able to hang out anymore. Misery loves company. Find some friends that are happy, positive, energetic.

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You need people around you that brighten your day, that lift your spirits, people that get rid of all the negative people in your life.

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If they have any negative opinions or negative thoughts or if they're just being sad and stuff, dump them.

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Dump them because they're doing the work of the devil. Like I said, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with biblical

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Christianity and what the Bible teaches. Joel Osteen, this is a religion that he's preaching here, but hey, in Christianity, yes, it's more akin to the mind science cults and self -help guru kind of stuff.

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This is Stuart Smalley's religion. This is not the message of scripture that tells us that Christ has come to set us free from the dominion of darkness by bleeding and dying for our sins, calls us to repent of our sins and to be forgiven in him.

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And he offers us eternal life as a gift. You can't earn it. It's a gift given by Christ, by grace through faith.

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So repent, believe, be forgiven, live, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance by fervently loving

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God and serving and loving your neighbor as yourself. I mean, this is what Christ has called us to, but I don't hear any of that in Joel Osteen's preaching.

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And it's weird. Every time he seems to touch the Bible, what he says the Bible says ain't even close to what it actually says.

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That's the work of the devil. That's the work of a false teacher, somebody to be avoided according to scripture.

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So hopefully you found this helpful. If you did, all the information on how to subscribe to our channel is down below.

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And of course, you can share this with your friends and family, you know, via social media and other places, whatever that, and all the information on how to share it is down below in the description as well, as well as how to support the

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Ministry of Fighting for the Faith and Pirate Christian Media. So 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.