 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
-John 10:27-30
Becoming a "better ewe" is not about realizing your potentiality, fulfilling your dreams, developing a postitive attitude, or trying to live stress-free while facing life's issues. It is not even about financial prosperity, sculpting a better body, or connecting with your inner "ewe." For the genuine Christian it is really about one thing: becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ everyday (Roms. 8:28-31).
Here are seven keys that brother Joel Osteen unwittingly left out of his most recent book, "Become A Better You", that I humbly submit should have been included.
Seven Truths to Living Faithfully:
1. Apply the gospel to yourself daily by denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Him; counting the loss of things rubbish in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord (Matt. 16:24-26; Phil. 3:7-11).
2. Have a continual life of confession of and repentance from sin (Psalm 66:18; Psalm 32:1-5; Psalm 51; 1 John 2:28-3:9).
3. Read and study your Bible every day (Psalm 119; John 17:17; Jude 3; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Psalm 19:7-11; Eph. 4:11-16).
4. Developing an effective, fervent daily prayer life in the Holy Spirit (Eph. 6:18-21; James 5:16f; Luke 18:1; Col. 1:9-14).
5. Proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and make disciples of all the nations (1 Peter 3:15f; Roms. 1:16f; 1 Cor. 9:1-18; Matt. 28:19f; Luke 24:44-49).
6. Live sacrifically by serving others as a committed member under the accountability of the local church (Eph. 5:21; Phil. 2:1-4; 1 Tim. 6:1-6; John 13; Phil. 4:10ff; Acts 2:40ff).
7. Do all things to the glory of God - living "out loud" the two great commandments (1 Cor. 10:31; Matt. 5-7; Luke 10:27).
"If you do not seek God because you believe Him to be supremely valuable,
then you are a hypocrite. To seek God for any reason other
than His own glory as Creator, Lord and Savior is to be a hypocrite.
It is the reason that the health and wealth gospel
is not simply a deficient view of the gospel,
but actually "another gospel" and will lead people to hell."
-Pastor John Swanson,
River Hills Community Church
Consider This:
I believe what Joel Osteen is offering people is not a Christless Christianity, but a crossless Christianity. His message is not about a biblical view of salvation, but rather a faulty, skewed view of sanctification. In its most simplistic form, once you come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you can have full and complete victory in your outward physical life evidenced by things that are based upon the temporal rather than the eternal (cp, Eph. 5:22-26; Heb. 12:5-12; 1 Peter 1:1-2; Roms. 8:28-31) .
I mostly agree with Mark Driscoll on his analysis here (btw, I was at this service in Seattle a few weeks ago when he preached this). Mark believes that Joel is our brother in the Lord (as do I). But the hope that Joel is promoting is not explicity rooted or fulfilled in Jesus Christ as the Apostle Peter exhorted in 1 Peter 1:3-7. The key to understanding either YBLN or BABY is to understand that he primarily believes that the manifestation of God blessing you is with material, physical, and external things. It is a sanctification that is crossless and capitalistic. IOW, Joel is equating your best life now with a great job, better house, trouble free relationships, no suffering, more money, healing, etc., rather than knowing Christ and living to exalt His name regardless of what you have or have not. This is the true evidence that God is granting you victory and hope--it's not about the stuff. "Your life does not consist of the things which you possess." Amen? This prosperity-lite sanctification is dishonoring to the Lord and not found in His Word. We only need to read 2 Cor. 11, 2 Cor. 6:1-12, 1 Timothy 6:1-6, or 1 Cor. 4:11-13 to see that this is so.
Consider the Lord's servant Job after he loss property, family, wealth--lost it all and he says: "the Lord gives AND the Lord takes away..." (Job 1:21) "blessed be the name of the Lord." It is the life that is hid in Christ (Col. 3:1-12), regardless of what happens to us in this life, that is the best life now. When someone can go through times of privation, financial insolvability, loss of relationships, physical pain and suffering, and still say "blessed be the name of the Lord", then you may know that that person is truly walking with the Lord in victory. True faith will be tested (James 1:1-12); and that testing is to be considered more precious than perishable things like gold (1 Peter 1:7).
I don't believe Joel is malicious in this, beloved, but ignorant. He is not a studied or learned man by his own admission; and I do not believe that his specious convictions on these things comes from a purposed study of God's Word in which he has with cunning fore-thought tried to willingly deceive the body of Christ with false doctrine (as T.D. Jakes and other Word/Faith teachers have tried). But ignorance still doesn't relieve or excuse him of his biblical duty as a pastor of a church to guard the trust (1 Tim. 6:20), instruct in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9); shepherd the flock of God (1 Peter 5:1-4); and most importantly to, "preach the Word" (2 Tim. 4:2). It is a weighty and holy calling to be a pastor entrusted with this privelege and duty. Consider the last words of theApostle Paul to young Timothy when he says: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom to preach the Word..." (2 Tim. 4:1-2a).
I want to encourage you today to pray for Joel; that the Lord would convict his heart of these kinds of aberrant beliefs and that the Lord would bring some solid, biblical, faithful men of God in his life to disciple him in His Word.
From "green pastures... beside still waters..."
Steve
Isaiah 53:3-6 |
