Have you ever had the, ahem, ‘privileged’ opportunity to have more than one member of your family sick at the same time? Well, the most recent bout in our family came in early December this past year. Our youngest daughter and I both were stricken with a stomach bug. While I didn’t miss work, I was nevertheless nauseated. The cause of this was not merely a simple virus, however. No, it was due to Joel Osteen’s book, I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life, released August 2013. Ever since its publication, this book has been making the rounds in the “lack of discernment, grab whatever comes down the pike that sounds religious, or even evangelical, crowd.”
Several years ago I was invited to visit and preach at another church. During the message I exposed Joel Osteen for not meeting the criteria for what a pastor ought to be doing. This conclusion was based upon my text, which was 2 Timothy 4:1-5. At the end of the service the pastor of the church told me that one of the men sitting in the front row was not very happy because he is a big Osteen fan. My response? “Good, because he needed to hear what was said.”
Here are a few samples from Osteen’s book I Declare, as well as my responses:
Day 1 – “I declare God’s blessings over my life.”
God sovereignly chooses to bless whom He wills. After all, that is the whole point of Jesus’ parable of the generous landowner (Matthew 20:1-16).
The master of the vineyard hired laborers early in the morning who agreed for a denarius a day. Then the master hired more laborers at the 3rd hour (9am), at the 6th hour (12pm), at the 9th hour (3pm) and at the 11th hour (5pm). At the end of the day, when the master payed the laborers their wages, they each received a denarius. Those hired first complained because they received the same amount as those hired last at the 11th hour (5pm).
And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
Matthew 20:11-12
What was the master’s response?
But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?
Matthew 20:13-15, emphasis added
Question: Have God’s dreams for your life come to pass? If not, why not? Did you not read Osteen’s book? Did you skip over Day 8? Let us think seriously about this for a moment.
Day 8 – “I declare God’s dream for my life is coming to pass.”
About this point, one may argue, “they are not ‘my’ dreams, but ‘God’s’ dreams for me.” Do you really want to abase and dethrone and degrade and strip the Almighty of His supreme and divine essence to nothing more than a puppet in the hands of His earthly puppet master?
Let me cut to the chase and burst your bubble. God does not have a dream for your life. If you can extract that God has a dream for your life from studying the Scripture, then you may need some more help in hermeneutics (the art and science of biblical interpretation).
Rather, the Bible testifies to this: God is perfectly, eternally and infinitely holy, righteous and just. And our sin, which originates in our heart, is so putrid to Him, that He cannot stand the smell of it. So much so that He will punish and execute His judgment on sinners like you and me. The good news, the Gospel, is that Jesus Christ died for sins to appease the wrath of God and rose on the third day to declare His Deity. Those who put their trust and confidence in Jesus Christ by abandoning any and all self-righteousness and embracing Christ for all that He is, namely Savior, King, Lord and Sovereign, will escape the wrath of God and enjoy peace with their heavenly Father.
