Pulled this from the Lakewood Church site. It is the church that Joel Osteen preaches. This is from a Wednesday night service.

 

http://lake2.convio.net/site/DocServer/July_27.pdf?docID=122

What Every Believer Should Know

1. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Bible says that we were saved and justified.

Romans 10:9-10, Ephesians 2, Romans 6:11

♦ What does it mean to be saved and justified? What did God save us from? He saved us from His wrath

and the punishment we deserved. To be justified means we were made right with God.

♦ Freely say this about yourself: I see myself as God sees me. I am no longer a sinner – I have been saved by

the grace of God. I have peace with God. I have a personal relationship with God – He is my Heavenly

Father.

 

2. When we accepted Jesus, the Bible says that we were born again. John 3:5-8, I Peter 1:3 & 23, Titus 3:4-7,

II Corinthians 5:17, I John 4:4, Romans 12:2

♦ It is your responsibility to develop a daily relationship with God, to read the Word of God so that you can

begin to think like God thinks.

 

Three Kinds of Believers: Baby, Carnal & Mature

A. Every believer starts out like a baby. I Peter 2:1-3

♦ In this stage you are learning how to walk the Christian walk. You need mature Christians to spoonfeed

you the Word of God because the Christian walk is new to you. You need others to pray for you

and encourage you when you fall. But, you don’t want to stay in this stage, you need to grow up and

learn to feed yourself.

B. Some believers are carnal Christians. Romans 6:12, I Corinthians 3:1-4, Romans 8:6-7, Hebrews 5:11-14

♦ In this stage you are saved, but you are not taking time to grow spiritually. You are not allowing your

spirit to control your flesh. You are allowing your emotions and desires to control you.

♦ To be carnal means that you are worldly, you choose often to gratify your flesh rather than to please

God, you are preoccupied with bodily pleasure.

 

3. When we accepted Jesus, all of our sins were forgiven and erased. Romans 3:23, Acts 10:43, Jeremiah 31:34,

Isaiah 64:6, Psalm 103:12, Isaiah 1:18

♦ Jesus paid the price for our sin once and for all – that includes our past sin, present sin, and future sin. You

may not feel forgiven, but you are. Freely accept God’s gift of forgiveness.

♦ Boldly say this about yourself: My sins are forgiven and my past has been erased! I will not focus on what I

used to be – I will focus on who God wants me to be. In Him, I have great potential. God has great plans

for me!

 

It does not seem to me that his church is teaching a watered down method. I have heard Joel make a comment that they feel the hard stuff is better taught in smaller group settings. It seems that they are doing this.

Because I don't think anyone can promise God will lavishly bless you if you turn everything over to him. "In this world you will have troubles..." Osteen seems to ignore that quote from Jesus.

 

It doesn't look like that they neglect that. Found these sermon notes from a Wednesday night message.

 

There are plenty of Scriptures in there. Was a concern of some.

The church addresses hard times. Was a concern of some.

 

http://www.lakewood.cc/LCH_custom/wednesdayoutlines/TheGodWhoDeliversAndRestoresOutline112807.pdf

 

The God Who Delivers And Restores!

In the trials of life, He is faithful to deliver us! Psalm 119:50

1. Psalm 40:1-3 – God promises to deliver you from the pit you are in.

2. Psalm 9:9-10 – God is a Refuge for those who are oppressed.

Oppressed in the Hebrew language implies those who have been injured and crushed by the

trials of life – those who have collapsed in the midst of trouble.

3. Psalm 55:16-18 – God hears your voice. When you call out in your distress, He hears the cry of your

heart.

4. Psalm 116:8-9 – No matter what you’re going through, God can deliver you. (Psalm 30:11)

Four Things We Must Remember In The Trials Of Life:

1. The battle belongs to the Lord.

God will fight your battles for you.

What is impossible to men is possible to God! II Chronicles 20:15-17

2. God is a God who fulfills His purpose and plan for your life. Isaiah 46:9b-11

If God has put a dream in your heart – hold on to it. If you will cooperate with God, nothing can

keep you from fulfilling your God-given destiny. In fact, many times what we think is an

obstacle to our destiny is the very thing God is using to prepare us for our destiny.

3. The miracles that God has done in your past. Psalm 77:11-14

Every one of us can look back and see the faithfulness of God in our lives – and that’s what we

need to meditate on in the trials of life. II Timothy 4:17-18

4. God is a God of restoration. Joel 2:25

The word restore means:

to give back something that has been taken away or lost.

to bring back to a former or normal condition.

to put back in place, position, or rank.

to bring back to health and strength.

With that restoration comes three things:

A. Increase! Psalm 71:20-21

B. Redemption! Psalm 130:7, I Samuel 30

C. Abundance! Psalm 66:12, Exodus 12:36

Our Responsibility In The Trials Of Life (II Kings 6):

1. Fear not! Psalm 34:7, Isaiah 43:1-2

2. Hold your peace. John 14:27 (Amplified)

Don’t lose your peace in the trials of life.

3. Worship and praise God. Philippians 4:4, I Thessalonians 5:18

One of the greatest acts of faith in your time of need is to give radical praise and worship to God.

4. Stand your ground. Ephesians 6:13

Don’t give up. You may not feel like you are making a lot of progress, but don’t go backwards!

5. Resist! I Peter 5:9

6. Maintain your joy. Psalm 43:4, 35:9

It’s a choice. You may not be where you want to be, but you can still walk in the joy of the Lord.

Don’t be dejected or sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength! Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. And, to be honest, I'm glad to hear you give it a good review and a thumbs up. I initially liked Osteen, and still do really, but I had become a little skeptical of him...partially from the fact that it seems most of his sermons on TV are basically the same, and partially from other reports and such that question his use of scripture and accusations of a "watered down" gospel. It's nice to hear from someone who has seen him live speak of his use of scripture. Perhaps Osteen's call is to spread a positive message...I should focus more on the good he's doing, rather that nitpick about the things I don't agree with, and especially things that I'm not even sure about and am just skeptical of.

I'll try and listen the next few days and I'll see what he says.

I will be attending the Louisville stop.

When I went to purchase my ticket, the only ticket price I saw was $15. That is all I can report on.

 

here is the event schedule

http://joelosteen.lakewood.cc/site/PageServer?pagename=JOM_events

 

When you hit buy tickets, it gives you one price option, $15.

 

Now I guess that a scalper or one of the ticket agencies may have gobbled up front row tickets and reselling them at that price but it does not seem that Joel's organization was.

 

I find it completely fascinating that a scalper could get over in such a big way at a religion-based event. However, it is further proof of my contention that absolutely nothing is sacred.

 

I will be attending the Louisville stop.

 

Normally I would eschew passing judgement on anyone, but in this case feel free to pass along a few "for shame"s to anyone scalping tickets outside.

I'll try and listen the next few days and I'll see what he says.

 

I wonder if the message of his church comes in twofolds. His sermons are for an outreach and a positive message of what being faithful to God holds in our life.

 

The deeper study and maturity comes in the small group studies and Wednesday sermons. On the Lakewood website, they push the small group studies and deeper studies.

 

So, I think you have to look at his messages in that light. It is not meant to be the meat, the potatoes, the dessert, the appetizer, the drink, the rolls, etc, etc.

 

I am wondering if he does not see the meat as the small groups studies that allow you to get deeper in the study.

I find it completely fascinating that a scalper could get over in such a big way at a religion-based event. However, it is further proof of my contention that absolutely nothing is sacred.

 

 

 

Normally I would eschew passing judgement on anyone, but in this case feel free to pass along a few "for shame"s to anyone scalping tickets outside.

 

Are you against scalping in any setting? I'm pro-scalping so I don't have a problem with scalping at this type of event.

Are you against scalping in any setting? I'm pro-scalping so I don't have a problem with scalping at this type of event.

 

As an avid concert-goer, I have been on both sides of the scalping issue. I don't particularly care for it, but I can appreciate its reflection of the supply-demand chain at its most basic. At a religion-based event, however, something seems kind of especially seedy about it. I keep coming back to the whole "money-changers in the Temple" feel of it.

I emailed his church with some questions, but never got a response. I'm sure they get a lot of them. Which reminds me...I wonder if I'm still banned from Margie Phelps and the westboro cult.

Listened to one of his messages on CD this morning with my daughter on the way to school. About an 18 minute message.

 

I counted as I listened because I was curious on the Scripture usage since it was raised as a concern.

 

In the sermon having Motives from a Pure Heart, he quoted Scripture 8 times. In addition, while he did not give the Scripture, he twice told stories from the Bible and then referred back to those stories 3-5 times each. The first story was on the religious leaders of the day who did a lot of religious things but never did them with a pure heart and for the right reasons. He also retold the story of Jesus telling the disciples they were fishing from the wrong side of the boat and not catching anything to try their nets on the other side.

 

So, I guess at minimum he used Scripture 10 times in an 18-20 minute sermon.

 

It would be interesting for comparison to see this Sunday how many times the ministers/preachers at our local churches use Scripture and see if Joel is on pace with our local churches, in front or bringing up the rear.

I emailed his church with some questions, but never got a response. I'm sure they get a lot of them. Which reminds me...I wonder if I'm still banned from Margie Phelps and the westboro cult.

I emailed Promise Keepers about 4 years ago with questions on baptism and why they don't mention it. Still haven't heard back from them.

^^^I can't even start on people/programs/church leaders I've contacted and haven't heard back from. I know you remember the Cartoon(?) about the weird kids and the nature of the show. I never heard from those people and that was a direct phone call. I did hear that the same program was edited the last time it was aired.

 

I like Joel and have his book and plan on reading it some day. I just was concerned when I watched him several times and the scripture quanity. I had my bible out one program and looked at Momma and said something about not needing it. Now, that was several years ago.

I will be attending the Louisville stop.

 

I'm going!

I didn't like how he dodged Larry King's tuff questions about abortion and homosexuality with a "well we pray for them Larry" answer. I felt like he didn't want to offend any of those people putting the money in those big buckets being passed around.