My belief as a Christian is when we receive Christ as salvation, that that gives us a guarantee for Heaven.
— Joel Osteen
You were not created to just get by with an average, unrewarding, or unfulfilling life. God created you to leave your mark on this generation.
I don't mind saying, you know, that I don't take a salary from the church, and God has blessed me with more money than I could imagine from my books. It's been printed all over, so I don't feel like I am hiding anything.
I believe God's keeping the records, and I believe you will be rewarded even in this life. Somehow, some way, God will make it up to you. It may be He protected you from an accident you never knew. You can't give God something without God giving you more in return, whether it's peace or joy or satisfaction.
I always try to put a seed of hope into people's hearts. I'm not there to teach them doctrine necessarily, but to let them know that God is a good God, and has a plan for their lives. Hopefully, that will restore their faith, or draw them into faith.
I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don't know anything about.
We need to, you know, restore people. We need to show mercy. I mean, because as much mercy as you show people, that's the mercy you're going to be receiving.
I just think that it's strong and it's important that we recognize what the Christmas season is about; it's about the birth of our Savior, and there's a lot of pressure today to be politically correct, but people are realizing, too, that you have to be open to express your faith what you want believe.
Sometimes we look back and 10 years from now we think, 'Boy, those were great old days.' Well, you know, we're living in the good old days.
The ultimate connection is when you are connected to the creator of the universe.
There's a belief that you're supposed to be poor, and suffering, and show your humility. I just don't see the Bible that way. I see that God came and Jesus died so that we might live an abundant life and be a blessing to others.
I don't know what can be so dangerous about giving people hope. Causing people to have better relationships. I'm not leading them to some false God or something like that.
We think when God speaks to us, there's going to be a boom out of Heaven or we're going to get some chill bumps, but I really believe God's talking to us all the time. He's talking to us right in here. I call it our heart, our conscience, but it's the Holy Spirit talking to us.
I feel like my message is to let people know that God is a good God, that He's on their side, and no matter what happens, He has a great plan for them.
If you don't let people flourish in their jobs, why are they going to stay?
It's easy to get negative because you get beat down. You go through a few disappointments and it's easy to stay in that negative frame of mind. Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is a whole cliche, but your attitude is going to determine how you're going to live your life.
I purposely don't talk about money, because people are already skeptical about TV preachers. But I do say that I want you to be blessed. To me, prosperity is having health, having great children, having peace, good relationships. It's not about the money.
Let go of yesterday. Let today be a new beginning and be the best that you can, and you'll get to where God wants you to be.
Sometimes you need faith and victory spoken over your life. Words have created power. When you receive them into your spirit, they can ignite seeds of increase on the inside.
Faith is about trusting God when you have unanswered questions.
I believe that when you think of the negative, and you get up discouraged - 'There's nothing good in my future' - I really believe it almost ties the hands of God. God works where there's an attitude of faith. I believe faith is all about hope.
I believe that God's dream is that we be successful in our careers, and that we be able to send our kids to college. I don't mean that everyone is going to be rich, and I preach a lot on blooming where you're planted. But I don't have the mindset that money is a bad thing.
When I used to play sports, I'd be the one cheering the team on, 'Come on, we can beat these guys!' That's just in me.
It's flattering to people who stop you and say that you've helped them and all. But, again, you know, you've got to stay humble because as quick as you came up, you can come down.
I don't argue when people say that my message is simple, but I believe Jesus' message was simple. Jesus didn't go around condemning people.
I'm trying to make God more relevant in our society. And I think talking in everyday terms and making sure people can understand it - I think that's important.
I want get across to not just the church world. I want to get outside those walls to everyday people.
Every setback means you're one step closer to seeing the dream come to pass.
I believe if you keep your faith, you keep your trust, you keep the right attitude, if you're grateful, you'll see God open up new doors.
When I grew up, the Devil was a reason why I had a headache or the Devil was the reason I got mad today. We always blamed the Devil. I think today when I say the Enemy, I like to make it broader. Sometimes the Enemy can be our own thoughts.
Sometimes we look at gay being a bigger sin than being proud or not telling the truth. I don't think God categorizes sins.
I don't focus on the critics. Everyone who is making any difference in any field has critics. As long as I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, then I don't worry about it.
A lot of psychological principles and even medical principles, you see them coming around to what the Bible said hundreds of years ago: a merry heart is good like a medicine.
I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life's not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.
Bottom line: God will not allow any person to keep you from your destiny. They may be bigger, stronger, or more powerful, but God knows how to shift things around and get you to where you're supposed to be.
God can cause opportunity to find you. He has unexpected blessings where you suddenly meet the right person, or suddenly your health improves, or suddenly you're able to pay off your house. That's God shifting things in your favor.
I think God gives every one of us our own will, and unfortunately, some people choose to do evil things with it.
I wouldn't ever say if you're having tough times then there must be something wrong with you or your attitude. Life's a fight. It's a good fight of faith. I encourage people to stay up, stay hopeful, stay faith-filled.
You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won't receive the good things God has in store.
See, when you drive home today, you've got a big windshield on the front of your car. And you've got a little bitty rearview mirror. And the reason the windshield is so large and the rearview mirror is so small is because what's happened in your past is not near as important as what's in your future.
When you give up yourself, that's when you will feel the true spirit of Christmas. And that's giving that's serving others and that's when you feel fulfilled.
So many people are looking at what's wrong, and I try to encourage them to look at what's right in their life. A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.
I think sometimes the critics want me to beat people down, and that's not in me. I want to lift people up.
I always want to listen to people and receive good criticism, but I just don't have to answer to them; I have to answer to God.
When the negative thoughts come - and they will; they come to all of us - it's not enough to just not dwell on it... You've got to replace it with a positive thought.
I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you're a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.
I like to take every day just searching my own heart, making sure that I'm on course, and I'm doing what God wants me to do. I'm real good with not looking to the critics and looking straight ahead.
I want the services to look and sound like the Grammys. It's not showy, but we represent God, and it should be first class.
It's in the difficult times that we're growing and you can't just rebuke everything hard. We've got to endure it and fight the good fight of faith and pass the test.
I think how you start the day many times determines what kind of day you're going to have.
