The Time Joel Osteen's Advice Helped

I must admit that I do not watch Joel Osteen on TV a lot. In fact, I don't follow him on social media. I just don't have the stomach to do that. However, the times I did watch Osteen, he always said, if you are not in the Houston area, go find a Bible believing church. Interesting words coming from someone who does not teach the Bible faithful and promotes the Prosperity Gospel which he denies. I don't think he knows what the Prosperity Gospel is.

Anyways, one guy in our church has been faithfully attending for sometime, who happen to take Joel Osteen's advice to heart. Yes, we have a man in our church who came because of Joel Osteen's advice to find a Bible believing church. Thankfully, he now knows what Osteen teaches and is listening to sound doctrine from our pulpit.

One question comes to mind as I shared this story, can God use anything to get the gospel to people even when it is not the Biblically appropriate? What do I mean? Take the Judgment House for a moment. Judgment House is a Halloween alternative where people go throughout a church to see the choices people can make will either end on heaven or hell. I have been through one of those and was not impressed. They use a scare tactic to convince people they need Jesus which people have come to Christ, but does it produce true converts.

Christian movies can be another thing God uses as well as TV shows based on the Bible such as "AD: The Bible Continues." What preaching with an alternative motive? The Apostle Paul told the Philippian church:

Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice (Philippians 1:15-18).

Christ is proclaimed and we should rejoice. Sometimes it comes through ways we never expect. Like the man who attends our church because he took Joel Osteen's words to heart. He found a Bible-believing church and now hears the gospel every week, which something he would never get at Osteen's church.