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Hope is our story. We believe that no matter where we start, god determines our destiny, In 1999, Joel Osteen was faithfully serving behind the scenes at Lakewood as he had for nearly 2 decades.
For a year, Joel’s father had asked him to preach at the church.
And then one day, Joel said yes.
I feel like the day of miracles is not over. They got me up here. But
Little did I know that would be the last Sunday of my father’s line.
I didn’t think this was in me, but when my dad passed, it’s got god put that desire in me.
All of a sudden, I wanted to pastor the church.
I wanted to step And then 6 months later in October or so, I was officially made the pastor of Lakewood.
New pastor of Lakewood Church. Our son Joel Osteyn, and is what? Vicari.
Looking back now, 25 later.
I think how did I do that?
Getting up in front of the people, learning to minister, putting a sermon together.
But I believe our best day our head. We’re gonna miss daddy, but the vision continues. Right? Yeah.
You know, it was hard, but he knew, and there’s no doubt he said, you know, those guys are ready.
They’re ready to fulfill the vision?
I tried to be like my dad. Well, I was reading the scripture about 6 months later.
It was in the book of acts, and it says that David fulfilled his purpose for his generation.
And I felt like god said to me, Joy, your dad fulfilled his purpose, quit trying to be like him and just be who I’ve called you to be and fulfill your purpose.
Let me challenge you again. Don’t settle for mediocrity.
Fight life through, and you too will be able to say the dream is true. Amen?
Friends god has a great life of victory in store for every one of you.
No matter what you’ve done, no matter what you’ve been through, let today be a time of new beginnings in your life.
Our commitment to you is that every time you walk in the doors.
Every time you flip us on television, we will build you up and not tear you down.
We will focus on the love and the mercy and the goodness of god. Out on judgment and condemnation.
Joel’s message resonated with me because I tried to listen to other people and some of them were like Hellfire and brimstone, but I had already lived in Hellfire and brimstone.
I didn’t wanna hear about it. I wanted to hear how to get out of it.
I wanna challenge you. Don’t water down your dreams. Don’t accept less than gods put in your heart.
Dream big dreams. Dare to believe that you can do great things in life. We had a wonderful time.
New beginning for the 3 West.
My prayer for each one of you is that before you leave this earth, all of your potential will be released.
Not one dream, not one gift, not one promise, not one god given desire will go left unfulfilled.
I stood up in house. I was watching him on, you know, on his service, and I stood up in my house, and I just say I’m gonna give my life to god, and that was it.
You’re gonna come through breakthroughs in your health to where you’re gonna recover and get well a lot quicker than the medical experts say.
You’re gonna see that family member get back track a lot sooner than you thought. It’s your year of Jubilee.
God is releasing what has your name on it.
As I’m going into the machine, Joel starts playing, and it’s the sermon on praying bolt prayers and not limiting God.
And as I was laying in the machine, I wondered if praying for surgery was not bold enough and that I should be praying for complete healing.
And I claimed complete healing in that machine.
Jesus rose up and said I am he that lives. I was dead but I’m alive forevermore.
Because he lives, we can live. As we celebrate 60 years here at Lake would.
I can sum up how I feel with one phrase to god be the glory.
Let him increase and let us decrease. God, may we make your name famous?
I was going through some things, um, in my life where I wasn’t where I needed to be.
And I needed my mind to be transformed.
And I just knew that Pastor Joel’s message, uh, of hope and encouragement was gonna be right for
me. God never does his great work in your yesterday’s, they’re always in your tomorrow’s.
Your greatest victories, your most rewarding moments, the big achievements in your life are not in your past.
They are still in front of you. People in India
are listening to Reverend Pastor Taylor Stone. They listen to his preaching.
They’re listening every Sunday, making Jesus as the first serious.
Every message carries the power to uplift, transform, and ignite the flame of hope.
I think everyone that knows him knows he’s a great speaker, but personally, what I’ve experienced is that he’s a great listener.
And some of the biggest impacts he’s had on me is not so much the things he said, but the times he’s taken to listen and care and understand and
for myself. The most impactful thing I’ve seen has been the way he lives his life, the way he honors god and everything he does, the way he puts god at first and lets everything else fall into place has been the biggest, most impactful thing that I’ve seen.
I would describe Joel as the kindest person I’ve ever met.
He’s got this amazing way of seeing the best in situations. Even when it’s hard to find the best.
He can I can count on him to always turn it around and find the good in it, find the good in that person
all through my childhood when I was at home, I would wanna go see my dad in his office, and he was doing something very important?
But as a five year old, you don’t realize that. So I would just go in there.
I would hang out. I would color, and he would never tell me to leave.
I would be doing gymnastics 5 feet away from him, and he’s just writing his message.
He loves to see people overcome to see people, um, reach their dreams to see them, uh, make it through a hard time and can see how much it matters to him and see how deeply that impacts him.
I hear all the time. I got saved under your your brother’s ministry. This is another one.
I quit going to church. But when I heard your brother,
I started back again. When I think of a 1000 sermons, first off, I can’t believe it.
That’s a lot of sermon. That’s a lot of hours. That’s a lot of work.
But I believe that it’s part of his legacy.
And what it’s gonna be is that he’s teaching god’s people how to live out there salvation.
I still stand in awe. That’s why I weep so much.
Just the goodness of god, just overwhelmed, be here in the former Compact Center, who would have ever thought.
So it just reminds me of the faithfulness of god, unless we know the next 1000 are even gonna be better.