Joel Osteen Preaches 1000th Sermon; Fleecing the Flock With The Same Trashy Theology
On May 19, 2024, prosperity-gospel heretic Joel Osteen preached his 1000th sermon before a packed crowd at Lakewood church, giving a message of health and wealth in a sermon titled A Thousand Times More.
Osteen was ordained through his father’s church in 1983 and preached his first sermon on January 17, 1999. He was a stand-in for his father, John Osteen, who was in a hospital bed at the time and passed later that day. Bristling with nervous energy and wearing a suit and jacket too large for him, a mulleted Osteen fumbled his way through 1 Corinthians while encouraging his listeners to “Run your race with purpose in every step” in order to accumulate all the blessings.
For his thousandth sermon, 25 years later, Osteen was much more confident and rehearsed, effortlessly preaching his usual shtick of therapeutic moralistic deism in the form of a “thousand times blessing” telling congregants that “God’s dream for your life is much bigger than your own and he wants you to have prosperity beyond compare”
