Notes From My Church

PLACE: Lakewood Church-Houston, Tx
Joel Osteen, Pastor

DATE: Saturday, Dec. 30, 2006
TIME: 7:00 p.m.

THE MUSIC: The worship service was led by Cindy Ratcliffe, Steve Crawford, Da’dra Greathouse and Israel Houghton. Among the songs sung this week were “Turn It Around”, “How Great is Our God” and “What a Wonderful Maker”. The brother and sister team of Steve and D’Adra sung “God is All Around Us” during offering. They have such chemistry between them it is wonderful to watch them perform together. They are totally in sync with each other. Da’dra hit some notes during this song that had me in total awe.

THE MESSAGE: Scripture reference: Romans 12:2, 1 Tim. 1:7, John 8:44
This week Pastor Joel’s brother, Associate Pastor Paul Osteen, was the speaker. He started his sermon with an answer to fellow minister Marcos Witt. On the previous Sunday, Rev. Witt challenged him to sing. Well, he took the challenge and sung a song to his wife. He sounded very nice and the audience loved it.

Rev. Paul’s sermon was about overcoming the critical voice within. He stated that thoughts of negativity and defeat lead to destructive patterns if left unattended. These thoughts could produce thoughts that told us that we were not good enough and that we are destined to fail. He emphasized that if a thought produced fear, it was not from God. He said negative thoughts placed limitations on our lives and dictated our future. Examples of negative thoughts he gave were: you will never get out of debt, no one will ever love you or your life can never change. He said that some of these thoughts can come from people that have a large influence over us such as our parents and other family.

Rev. Paul said to have a changed life you have to have a new pattern of thinking. Replace the lies that you tell yourself with the Word of God. He said that through effort, discipline and training you could change your life. Below are some examples Rev. Paul gave to change thinking patterns:

1)Take inventory of your thoughts. Think about what you are thinking about.

2) Begin to identify the pattern of negative thoughts that are holding you back. (1 Peter 5:9. 2 Cor. 10:5).
a) Find scriptures that say what God says about you. Meditate on these scriptures.
b) Personalize what God says about you by writing affirmations.
c) Speak these affirmations out loud first thing in the morning.
d) All throughout the day capture bad thoughts and replace them with the Word of God.

THE ATMOSPHERE:Full of Hope, Faith and Love!!

……..and that is what happened in my church this week. You can always watch live and archived services at http://www.lakewood.cc/ or http://www.joelosteen.com/.

What was it like in your church this week? The entire universe is filled with God’s love and grace. We would love to hear about your church service. Post a comment or e-mail me at dominique@1800gospel.com and tell us all about the music, the message and the atmosphere at your church.

Dominique

lakewood church joel osteen

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