JOEL OSTEEN QUOTES

Joel Osteen (born March 5, 1963) is an American best-selling author and the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His ministry reaches over seven million broadcast media viewers weekly in the United States and millions more in over 100 nations around the world.

Joel Osteen is a native Texan and the Pastor of Lakewood Church, which according to Church Growth Today is America's largest and fastest growing church. On July 16, 2005 after completing $95 million dollars in renovations, Joel moved Lakewood Church into its new 16,000-seat home - the former Compaq Center. It is the largest regularly-used worship center in the United States. Each week Joel delivers God's message of hope and encouragement to more than 38,000 attendees. According to Nielsen Media Research, Joel is the most watched inspirational figure in America. His weekly sermon is broadcast into every U.S. television market where it is viewed by seven million Americans each week and more than 20 million each month. His weekly broadcast is also seen in almost 100 nations around the world.

In 2004, his first book, Your Best Life Now, was released by Time Warner debuting at the top of the New York Times Bestsellers List and quickly rising to #1. It remained on the New York Times Bestseller for more than 2 years and has sold more than 4 million copies. Most recently, Joel was named as one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2006" and he was selected as the "Most Influential Christian in 2006" by the readers of Church Report Magazine.

Joel, the son of John Osteen, a highly respected minister of the Gospel and the founder of Lakewood Church, attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he studied radio and television communications. In 1982, Joel returned to Houston and founded Lakewood's television ministry where he produced John Osteen's televised sermons for 17 years until January 1999 when his father passed away suddenly from a heart attack.

For many years, John Osteen encouraged Joel to preach, but he always declined preferring to work behind the scenes. But, in early 1999 Joel felt compelled to accept his father's invitation and he preached his first sermon on January 17th of that year. Little did anyone know that would be the last Sunday of John Osteen's life. Two weeks later, Joel began preaching and later that year was installed as the new Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church.

Almost immediately, weekly attendance began to grow at an extraordinary rate and in 2005, Joel moved Lakewood Church into its present location, the former Compaq Center, a 16,000-seat arena that was once home to the Houston Rockets professional basketball team. Now, with his wife Victoria, and the leadership staff of Lakewood, this innovative church is poised for the new millennium.

Joel's extraordinary success can be found in his core message: That our God is a good God who desires to bless those who are obedient and faithful to Him through Jesus Christ. It is Joel's deepest desire that his own life be an example of that principle and that everyone who hears this message of hope and encouragement would choose to accept God's goodness and mercy and to become all that God wants them to be.

Quotes attributed to Joel:

A good thing to remember is somebody's got it a lot worse than we do.

A lot of churches have not moved with the times.

Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you're going to live your life.

Do all you can to make your dreams come true.

Faith activates God - Fear activates the Enemy.

God didn't make a mistake when He made you. You need to see yourself as God sees you.

God wants to bless us where we are.

God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.

I don't go down the road of condemning.

I don't think that a same-sex marriage is the way God intended it to be.

I don't want to just preach to the church. I feel like I have a broader message.

I have always believed in God.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

I think Bible principles are principles for life.

I think God's justice is making wrongs right.

I try to speak in everyday language. I feel like God has gifted me to take Bible principles and make them practical.

I'm going to let God be the judge of who goes to heaven and hell.

I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know.

I've never preached one sermon on money, on just finances. I want to stay away from it.

If Jesus were here today, he wouldn't be riding around on a donkey. He'd be taking a plane, he'd be using the media.

If we say it long enough eventually we're going to reap a harvest. We're going to get exactly what we're saying.

If you give, you will be blessed.

If you want to rear financial blessings, you have to sow financially.

It's God's will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It's God's will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt.

Most people already know what they're doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

Only God can look at somebody's heart.

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

Prospering just doesn't have to do with money.

To me, we're marketing hope.

We were old sinners - but when we came to Christ we are not sinners anymore.

When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance.

You can be committed to Church but not committed to Christ, but you cannot be committed to Christ and not committed to church.

You can be happy where you are.

You can change your world by changing your words... Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

You may make some mistakes-but that doesn't make you a sinner. You've got the very nature of God on the inside of you.