Joel Osteen

1 Cor 5
I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.[a] 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.
3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit.[b] And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church.[c] I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus.5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed[d] and he himself[e] will be saved on the day the Lord[f] returns.
6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.[g] 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread[h] of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread[i] of sincerity and truth.
9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin.10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. 11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer[j] yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.
12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

We are called to discern between spirits. I don't believe Joel is a preacher moreso than a teacher or motivational speaker and that isn't a bad thing. The thing about this whole "don't judge me" and "we're not supposed to judge" slap in the face that has been going on for years is that people don't understand what judging is.

I would be judging a person if I passed sentence on them. I.E. your attitude is horrible and you're going to go to hell for it. That is judgment. Looking at someone's life and saying that something they are doing is not godly or that we don't feel that they are speaking truth is not judging, as we are not passing sentence on them, we are looking at the fruits of their life and responding accordingly.

Many times on here, people who speak truth are accused of judging and condemning. I daresay, why does my opinion matter so much? The only reason one feels 'judged' or 'condemned' is because of Holy Spirit moving in conviction and they choose to fight against His voice, thus the 'judged' and 'condemned' feelings. Truly, my opinion matters not in the grand scheme of things. What matters is the word of God and if we are speaking that, then who can stand against it?

So, I say that unless someone here plainly said that Joel was not saved or that he is going to hell, there is no judgment going on, merely discerning of spirits and speaking of fruits. If someone did say something that passes judgment, then, yes, by all means, there is judging going on.

(Note: I am a writer and words matter to me. I tend to annoy people with my over-zealous looking at words and their meanings. Lately, I have been acutely aware of how words have been incorrectly passed on to each Christian generation, leading to false labels, false accusation and false guilt. If I annoyed anyone with my word madness, I do apologize.)

Has he ever even used the word "sin"?

So I've re-listened to Joel, visited his website, read his blog, and some outside articles. I don't know, this is a tough one. I don't find anything wrong in what he's saying, it just seems like he's omitting a whole lot of critically important stuff. Like sin, repentance, purification, etc. He talks a lot about what God can do for us, yet he never tells us exactly how we 'lay claim' to any of it, nor does he ever talk about what we can do for God. After spending an hour listening to him, I feel more that I've had happy smoke blown up my rump, than that I've been taught the Word of God. And while he does make allegory to scripture (thank you again proverbs35 for your labor of love, it was very helpful), if he's not going to attribute them, they tend to become more Joel's words than God's. And again, I find his materials to full of praise praise praise - but more for him, not God.

I'm going. To make a fair assessment I think I must see the assembly, to get the bigger picture of what's going on in order to better discern the spirit behind him. Should be interesting!

Thank you all for your insights. You guys are great, and I thank God He brought me here to this assembly. We may bicker and butt heads, but there is still some powerful work going on here.

And thank you for those who touched on the issue of judgment. It's a gray area between opinion and judgment, an area we must tread carefully in. Thank you mistdancer50 for some very insightful commentary on that.

Love you all! Thanks!

question, does love cover a multitude of sins because we're all so loving and never looking at the negative stuff in life, or because of the love of God who gave us his son that by his blood we might be free from sins. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more, not go and look on the bright side.

if this guy helps your daughter, she probably needed some extra care, like a mentor in real life, not a pretty face on the idiot box.

Hmmm now why would the enemy not want us to look at negative things...is it maybe so we dont catch him doing them? If you want to fall for the anti-christ in stead of watching with vigilance and sobriety so as not to be deceived, have a freakin party cuz it's your day.

Very good points. Have you all noticed, when truth is pointed out, there is balance.

God certainly does tell us to look on the bright side. Scripture tells us what to think about, it says if there is any virtue and if there is any praise. To go and sin no more takes looking on the bright side.

Scripture says we not only aren't to murder but not to say "you fool", as in "a pretty face on the idiot box" to sum up a fellow believer in Christ. I think, by judging, looking at negatives, being sober instead of filled with the joy of the Lord, you are more open to being deceived than those who look to Christ.

I wonder if he preached the sermon, or if it was a ghostpreacher.

[video=youtube;pKF_QgNezBY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKF_QgNezBY[/video]

Pretty enlightening. I think he just straddles the fence because he never wants to appear offensive. It is true about God judging the heart, but it is also true that if they don't have Christ, their heart/motives/intentions don't matter.

You can see on my second video, Mark Driscoll is adressing the same idea/ sermon... The one you retorted on is basically part 2...

Here is (what I take as) the first part.

[video=youtube;BpNBhJvWpoQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpNBhJvWpoQ[/video]

I wonder, where the Bible says we will be hated, hunted down and killed for Christ, is that looking at the bright side? My fear is that Christians who are taught only the good stuff and not the 'bad' are going to be unprepared and turn away when the bad stuff hits the fan.

I'm not buying into Joel's ministry, I just think (for me at least) it deserves a closer look. One cannot make a fair discernment of an issue if one does not have all the info and facts, and we all know that TV programs provide all the info and facts - NOT! Better to see it live, with the audience/assembly, and get the whole picture.

THEN we'll hang him!

JK

If you go, I hope you are walking in obedience and love and that you are wearing your spiritual armor, and that you mind your brains and emotions that they aren't manipulated. That's part of how they get some people (they being whatever spirit thought this up), they use psychology and religion, the result is a form of terrorism. It comes over people and shakes them all up and they are told it's the Holy Spirit, so to them, that's the Holy Spirit of Jesus and they get to go to "heaven". They still talk about Jesus but the snakes love to twist the words of God, have been since the creation.

And Redtent, if you had actually read what you quoted before you reacted to it, you would know I was talking about an electronic device and not a believer. If saying we need more people and less television is calling someone foolish than I plead guilty.

Joel Osteen vs Paul Washer (Preaching compared) - YouTube

Why not take her to see Paul Washer instead?
Joel makes me cringe but Paul tears my heart apart so Jesus can put it together again.

Paul Washer on Joel Olsteen.Benny Hinn,and Maybe A Preacher near You! - YouTube

I hope this helps.

4 tickets in the nosebleed section were about $100.

I think Joel Osteen models his sermon in such a manner because he caters to such a LARGE audience, some people aren't familiar with scripture so he needs to try to find another way to communicate with his viewers. I don't agree with his methods necessarily, nor do I support some of the prosperity gospel he so profoundly has espoused on the air. But I believe that he has a message that should be heard none the less, and it should be interpreted by the scriptures accordingly.

So, I would go, if it makes you wife feel good then why not? It certainly can't harm anything in my opinion. I really don't have anything against Joel Osteen but I certainly don't tune in to him every night.

Just saying, people like Francis Chan are in the same boat... Huge Mega Churches... So... I don't know, maybe I have a huge prejudice against Joel Olsteen, but I believe I don't because I have reasons for my disliking of him and his 'preaching'.

Joel Osteen is famous for preaching and holding a bible but never reading from it. He is an ear tickler and getting rich of of it. He hates to say offensive words like sin, evil and never condemns anything. I would never listen to his sermons or buy his books.