Pastor Joel Osteen invites Houston Mayor Whitmire and Police Chief to speak to congregation

Lord these are not tears of sadness but tears of of of your goodness and overwhelming just your grace and your mercy protecting us all but Lord we know what it could have been but here we are and Lord like I already declared I thank you that Lakewood is strong and that you bless us with awesome people and Lord that we're moving from glory to glory from Victory to victory in jesus' name amen and amen today hey it's so awesome to have you in the house of the Lord I'm a crybaby y'all but I I can't help it but again you know it's not tears of sadness or fear it's just wow look at the goodness of our God and he brought us through and so we thought we'd just take this service uh go ahead and take a seat if you don't mind we thought we would take this service and just you know it's good to remember what God has done and thank him for what he what he did and how he protected us and want to want you to meet some of the heroes you know God uses people he uses angels and he uses people too so I want you to meet some of the heroes and just hear some Reflections but very honored to have you all here I'm ask my team come on up my my family and some of our team Gloriana and U Danilo pass through the spish service and awesome people Victoria my brother Paul and Lisa yeah I was up in the lobby last Sunday you know I meet visitors afterwards at you know it was a little the Spanish service starts at 2: and I'm usually done a little after 2 but that day I got through a little early and came came back to my offices over here and know I was changed and I was going back up to Media where I edit the programs and some of the technicians came running out pretty alarmed and said that there was some kind of incident that took place and you know it's it's something that we never dreamed we'd have to deal with I mean this is our home you know somebody to come in and you kind of feel violated but again I'll go back to God's on the throne and you I can't tell you all the details but I can tell you this there are so many there are so many things you can just see the hand of God God if this had not happened and just you know I don't know it's just um I I was back there and I'll I'll tell you you're going to meet Chief fer in a minute the police chief but I went back there and you know when they came and of course I'm kind of a little bit in shock like you know what and so I'm back there and you know 30 seconds later I feel my phone buzz and I look down it's Chief fer two words you okay and you know I thought man something's going on I text back I'm okay but I don't know what's happening so next 20 or 30 minutes we're just back there kind of hold up not knowing what was going on but again that's when you have to come back and say God it's out of my control but I know you're in control so God my trust is in you and you know like we were singing earlier God didn't bring us this far to leave us where we are and I know sometimes things happen we don't understand but we got to come back to that place of peace and that place of trust and anyway it's a longer story but you've seen it on the news I mean you know that that lady came to do a lot of harm but by the grace of God we're all here it wasn't I tell you what somebody said I thought it was interesting it was you know it was a shooting but somebody said didn't have the word m SS before it and that's the grace of our that's the grace of God so I I thank God for that and I I thank you for your support we felt the outpouring of support and so again this service is about to honor God and to thank him for what he's done and thanks for coming out it means a lot that you come my beautiful wife Victoria thank you baby we are so glad that y'all are here today you know you are the Church of Jesus Christ yes he gave us this amazing building so that we could be a lighthouse of Hope but he knew he he was going to fill it with he knew the people that were going to be faithful to him so I want to thank you for your support because really what today is about reclaiming reclaiming what is ours reclaiming the space that God has provided for all of us to come to worship him to pray for one another to find Community we want to reclaim that space you know the truth is we need to reclaim what God has for us every day when we wake up we need to reclaim our joy we need to reclaim Our Heritage we need to reclaim our family we need to reclaim what the enemy is trying to steal see this is a time to reclaim what God is doing you know it's interesting because fear distorts our perceptive perception you know when something happens bad sometimes you look at that thing whether it's a relationship whether it's a tragedy what happened last week and it begins to try to work on your mind and distort your feelings and your perceptions you wonder well God what's going to happen God Is it safe God can I get into that relationship again God I want to protect my heart whatever it is maybe it's a sickness maybe it's an illness maybe you hear of someone immediately fear tries to grip you I think about David and how the Giant stood in front of the people of God and tried to taunt them tried to yell insults at them tried to throw fear at them what they didn't shrink back David stepped up and I'm going to tell you something I'm looking at some Davids today I'm looking at some Davids that aren't shrinking back but they're going to step up you see fear wants to enslave that's exactly what the giant wanted to do he wanted to enslave them yes by making them fearful leaving running back so that they could conquer them but the people of God are not going to be conquered by fear because God hasn't given us the spirit of fear God said I've given you power love and a sound mind and I speak sound mind to each and every one of you right now I speak you have the mind of Christ no matter what you're going through no matter what's happened in your life you are the people of God you are The Davids and you know the thing is David didn't run out there in his own strength he didn't put on Saul's armor he didn't try to be something he wouldn't you know what he did he ran straight to that giant and said you come at me with a spear and a and a shield and a sword but I come at you with the word of the Living God and so that's how we're going to fight fear with Faith from God's word so this is a reclaiming service listen you're not a people that would shrink back but you're a people that walks with the word of God in their mouth and you are ready to take on any giant because I can tell you what there are giants in the land but we're going to face them all with the word of God Amen we love you guys you mean the world to us beautiful Paul how about my brother Dr Paul share something Paul you know for most of us this has been a difficult thing a lot of emotions sadness heartbreak a sense that a Sacred Space has been been violated some of us were close to the event or trapped in rooms for hours some of us are suffering more than others and I would never want to minimize all that we're going through but this is also a day to remember remember the faithfulness of God remember remember his miraculous protection remember his Supernatural help in the scriptures after God parted the Jordan River the people walked across on dry land and he instructed the people to gather 12 Stones from the middle of the Jordan River right where the miracle happened and those stones commemorated the great thing that God had done in their midst those stones were a memorial to help the people remember God's faithfulness and that's what we're doing this morning we're Gathering a memorial stone from the place where the miracle happen to remember what God's done for us think about some other memorial stones here how about 1959 when Lakewood was founded how about when my mom was healed from cancer or Lisa was spared from the pipe bom how about when when Joel took over the church how about when God gave us the compact Center those were memorial stones that's exactly what we're doing today first Samuel after the defeat of the Philistines Samuel had the people gather memorial stones and this time he had them do something different he had them take those stones and build them into an altar of worship again that's what we're doing this morning worshiping in the place of the miracle making the place of the miracle a Sacred Space to remember all that God's done in our midst that's beautiful beautiful so good Paul first of all I just want to say we love you so much and we appreciate all your words of encouragement your love and your support and we're just so glad you're here today and you know this week sort of in the middle of the week when I was thinking about everything you know just the I felt stressed I felt you know concerned just everything T thinking about all the details and it's like the Holy Spirit I just sense the Holy Spirit say to me Lisa don't miss my faithfulness and goodness in all of this don't miss that I protected you that I watched over you that my angels had charge over you and the whole Lakewood Family I did just what I promised in my words and that that helped me so much and it just shifted my focus because we can focus on the event so much that we allow fear to take hold of us or we can focus on the fact that God was faithful to us just like he said and here we are together standing together praising God and thanking him for the Victory and the Miracle of protection listen God is faithful you may be going through something right now but can I remind you that God is faithful and and he will give you the grace even though we felt the the stress at times didn't you just feel the grace of God upon your life his grace is sufficient to help us he will give us the strength that we need to do whatever we need to do to continue in this walk with him in this journey with him I was thinking about how you know the enemy Satan is not happy about what we're doing here at Lakewood Church he he's not happy that hope and the hope of Jesus is going all over the world he's not happy that we've been here 65 years and haven't given up for 65 years he's not even happy that we got up today and we came to church and we said I don't care devil what you did we have the victory because our God God is faithful our God is bigger than anything that the enemy would throw at us no weapon formed against us shall ever Prosper think about that in your own life what you're going through right now no weapon formed against you will ever Prosper I've been meditating on this scripture Psalm 112 and I'll just leave it with you sort of declare it over you even in darkness light Dawns for the upright you will never be shaken you will not fear the the evil days to come you will never be shaken your heart is secure and you will look in triumph over your enemies in Jesus name amen that's so good Gloriana Gloriana and Danilo run our Spanish Ministry and that was um an amazing day but Gloriana thank you Pastor thank you I want to say thank you publicly to Pastor Joel and Victoria Pastor Victoria for this amazing support to our Church to our staff to our volunteers what we experienced last Sunday it was a real Miracle it was a real miracle and a lot of you are heart heart in because even though you wen't here this is our house this is our church and I want to thank you all the officers who came very very quick because this is our chch as well this is our city and but I I was thinking during that time that each song that we sung during the service each prayer that we do in advance is like a rehearsal for the day of trouble Psalms 20 1-5 verse 1 to5 says that when the Lord says when you are in the day of trouble the army of Heaven is going to come and defend you and listen maybe you are in your rehearsal time equip equipping yourself getting this muscle of Faith because in the day of trouble you need to be still and see that he is God that who defends his people his church so maybe today is your day of trouble every Sunday for some of for some of us it's a rehearsal but for some of you it's a day of trouble but let me tell you you are not alone as we experience as soon as people Ned because we were online as soon as people noce around the world online they started praying God raiseed an army of prayers and but we thought it was a great miracle we love you and we say thank you for your support for your prayers and we are going to continue strong preaching the Good News of the gospel God bless [Applause] you I want to emphasize one thing uh and that is how grateful Gloriana and myself and all the team for the Spanish Ministry is for pastor Joel and Victoria and the whole family uh because the that incident took place right about the start of the service the Spanish service but they have not dealt with this just as a an event for the minority service they did it as we are we are lquid all of us and that makes us feel amazingly grateful to you toward you and I want to read this is in Psalm 84 that says what joy for those who can live in your house always sing singing your Praises it's talking about the people that love the house of God and there's a blessing here for for those people it says what joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord who have set their minds on pursuing God for when they walk through the valley of weeping listen the valley of Sorrow the valley where Israel is Was Defeated once and where the enemy in a couple of times later on tried to defeat them again God show up and instead of letting the enemy to repeat his plan God in his Mercy show up and give them on the very same day that the that the enemy planed to bring destruction he God took place and God intervened and he turned that into a day of praises and victory so that's the promise for all of us I believe this is a work for all of us it's a blessing for those who are here who are watching and following us it will become a place of refreshing Springs they will continue to grow stronger and they will see God in their lives and I believe this is that day and this is the blessing for all of us we are getting stronger we are getting wiser we are getting from glory to glory we're going to walk in Victory in Jesus name thank you beautiful thank you Danilo we had hundreds of children's children here during the event last Sunday and my friend Monica Monica runs our Monica runs our children's Department a strong strong leader and I was talking to her on the phone this week and what she was telling me was so powerful I said Monica you got to share that with the people of Lakewood and I'll let you do the talk in Monica but we appreciate you and all of our kids workers and our volunteers and your spirit of excellence and pouring into the Next Generation we love you very much throughout all of kids life n conv Champions club and Lakewood Youth we are committed to giving hope to kids students and their families it's our joy and our calling to minister to the youngest and the most vulnerable of our church members our first priority is the safety of all in our care it's because of this that we've built out specific safety protocols and policies for any situation through the wisdom and knowledge of Mr Bruce our head of security we carefully prepared and trained every team to be able to act quickly and calmly the Bible tells us that God is our Shield his protection and his wisdom was overwhelmingly evident and displayed last weekend the protocols were put in place Mr Bruce equipped us the team carried it out Bruce you and your teams are heroes [Music] it was God ordained that you are here for this moment at this time in this [Applause] [Music] place in the moment of Crisis the mindset of our teams is best illustrated by a kids's leader who calmly told a parent I know what to do they trained me for this they told me what to do I've got this to the heroic leaders of Champions Club ninos canva kids life and Lakewood Youth in Psalm 46 we read that God is our refuge and our strength an everpresent help in time of trouble that day throughout this building you were the tangible reflection of the protection of the almighty God you showed the compassion and love of Jesus and you led with the wisdom of Solomon you calmed and you soothed you distracted and you sh shielded you safely communicated while you quoted scripture and you sang and finally you calmly reunited each family member we are so proud of you we are humbled by your sacrifice and we are honored that you daily take up a mantle of leadership and love protectors servants Heroes I know the way weight that you carry is heavy but God's spirit lives in you and works through you and surrounds you you have an army of people praying over you supporting you standing with you I am honored to ask you to stand as we show you our love and our gratitude Church please help me show our love and honor to the heroic leaders of Champions Club ninos kin kids life and Lakewood Youth with love you thank you thank you so much thank you Monica thank you so much and our beautiful children's workers thank you all so much for what you do well Monica mentioned Bruce Bruce alpie is a head of our security here I'll say this in the right sense not bragging but let me tell you the security plan worked you know this person never got into the auditorium a lot of other things go into all the details but we believe you know again we believe in the power of God but God gives us wisdom and understanding he gives people's skill and expertise and God's allowed us to hire some of the best people in the world when the Super Bowl was here in town a few years back uh Mr Bruce alpie was in charge of all the Super Bowl security for the FBI well a couple of years ago Bruce came on board with us and he's done a fantastic job his partner Alvin as well thank you Mr Bruce and Alvin Richardson too we we honor you guys and thank you for your service and your sacrifice and uh you guys are awesome let me tell you I tell you we're going to thank y'all y'all have a y'all are like me you have a heart of gratitude but be seated because you're going to stand again in a minute but anyway cuz we're going to bring up all a bunch of the a bunch of them but there were and he'll mentioned there were a couple of them these these these are heroes I'm telling you if you know the story it's people that use their god-given talents courage rose up in them they fought fear and they saved us all and so it starts with you guys the leaders and we honor you today but thank you Bruce thank you Pastor I hope I can adequately convey how much Lakewood Church cares about everybody in this building they care about your safety for us in security it's a calling there's a couple of groups that I would like to recognize and if you you would you'd hold your applause but on behalf of Alvin Richardson our assistant security director Robin Smith Ruby Paratus there were some security officers in the immediate aftermath that played key roles supervisory security officer Ashley Harris supervisory security officer Danny bout their assistance was invaluable in the immediate aftermath we have a great group of medical professionals that accompany us to each service and everywhere we go they performed admirably next we have a group of ministry assistance the Mas are an integral part of our security program the Mas prefer to operate in the shadows they quietly serve without recognition but today they're all in front of you and these are the ones that serve you each Su day [Music] these guys all of them thank [Music] you the the Houston Police Department's response was Swift it was courageous and it was effective they were assisted by hu Harris County sheriff's deputies came Houston fire department came and responded as well and they assisted the HPD SWAT team and rendering the area safe so that we could safely evacuate lak one employees and volunteers we train on an annual basis for critical incidents like this while we may have a plan and we may train and we may have exercises it's just to prepare us but if it was not for the heroic actions of TABC off duty officer Adrien Herrera and hpd's Chris for Marino they're the ones that helped us to get past this they were heroes in the face of danger they went to evil and good prevailed thank you thank you thank you so much we appreciate y'all they were Heroes gentlemen stay with us if you don't mind can I invite mayor whtm up and and chief fer come on up gentlemen if you don't mind very honored to have the new mayor of Houston Texas Mayor Whitmire mayor thank you so much and congratulations thank you for serving our city and we're honored you you you all and and the the whole city and the fire department all of Y y'all make us feel so at home and so safe here and we just thank you for all for what you do thank you Pastor and I want to thank the God for bringing us together to allow us to praise him and to thank so many First [Music] Responders you know you never question God's will but certainly after the tragedy of last week he had a purpose in bringing us together to show how United our city is and let's not forget that I must spend my time to thank our First Responders I was on the scene and to watch these professionals come together assure everyone that they were safe in Houston and its surrounding communities was safe because our First Responders were doing their job thank you Chief fer Chief NCI our EMS thank you Pastor oin for being on the scene and comforting us let me close by saying thank you for allowing me to be in this service I feel the Holy Spirit as I stand before you I know what the Holy Spirit feels like and I feel it show [Applause] it I will leave here I will leave here a better father a better Christian and a better mayor than the one who got here thank you let's praise [Applause] God that's so good I love that man I didn't know you could preach come back I don't have enough time to pray to to preach today but if he'll have a guest Minister I'm I'm I'm ready thank you I love that oh that's so good mayor that's so good man have him we don't have to use a sound system I don't know how Chief thank you you know how God works I was talking to Chief earlier mayor um my mom and I we go we go out to dinner every Monday night after my radio show and my mom likes to go to a certain cafeteria that we love and May and chief goes over there A lot of times oh y'all can be seated sorry y'all Chief is over there A lot of times so I've got to know him over the last few years and we always go to the cafeteria the first thing my mother says I wonder if the chief is here and then we'll find the chief but we've got to visit and talk but I'm telling you he's not just an an exceptional you know man of law enforcement but he's an exceptional man and father and and just a a friend of ours and a friend of this city and like I said when this incident happened first text I got was from the police chief and I thought wow you know what that's somebody that you know that that cares but you know guys you you made us feel at home thank you so much Chief we love you thank you so much and uh give an honor to [Applause] God thank y'all I know my mayor was a man of God but I didn't know he was a preacher so I don't I don't know how I follow that but none of us have the answers to uh what God allows to happen sometimes but I can tell you this and I want you to think about this when has he ever brought us through any difficult time and did make us better and stronger as a people and that's what Lakewood is about that's what the city of Houston is about about I'm so proud of everyone all the security teams all of our First Responders but in a few days we're going to release the videotape and I'm going to tell you you're going to be proud of it and you're not going to be able to understand everything because it's it's just a snippet of what happened but when God put men and women in place to protect people that's what happened on last Sunday and when I first got the calls pastor and you know the prank calls and the swatting calls that come in but this one was for real and I knew it right off and I was grabbing my stuff trying to get together and I say let me pause let me call and check on our pastor but my brother and also I thought about my mother in this entire congregation but what was amazing the reach that that Lakewood has immediately I start getting calls and texts from Chiefs all over the nation asking about hey how is lak wood doing how are y'all doing that's the beauty and that's the reach that y'all have and I want to just say claim this right now this incident is making us stronger but I want us to pause for just a second L Samuel an inocent little seven-year-old boy make sure that we continue to pray every moment for he and his family because they are hurting and everybody that's involved but continue to pray for our First Responders and I know one thing for sure factual God is going to have us strong standing stronger as a city as a congregation as a department everything and the final thing and the most important thing God Comm commanded us all and he gave us a spirit a gift of forgiveness don't ever forget about that as we move through pain we have to forgive people and all he's asking us to do is stand up and love one another and pray for one another and even if you they're different that's the message and thank y'all so much for inviting me in I want to thank those officers that TBC a agent agent Herrero and our officer Marina thank you so much and everybody for what you did because I can tell you as Chief in almost 34 years I've seen so much and if that person would have gotten into the sanctuary it would have been a mass it was a shooting incident that people stepped up so thank y'all so much thank you a thank you so much come on y'all thank you mayor thank you so much for being with us can y'all tell the mayor and the chief how much we love them thank you so much thank you so [Applause] [Music] much it's all sand and if you don't mind let's let's let's do something I'm going to ask you something a little bit unusual do you mind joining hands with each other and you know I just thought it'd be a good time to rededicate this building to God I know we did it back in 2005 when we moved in but let's just let's just rededicate it Lord we know you gave us this building it was a basketball arena but Lord you turned it over to us and I know Lord we're standing on Holy Ground right now this is not just an ordinary building this is the place that you gave us to bring hope to the world and healing to our community and help us to to walk in your way so Lord we commit it back to you we thank you for your protection we thank you for watching after us thank you for off offer Adrien and Moreno and Lord all these others and Lord we know it was your spirit in them rising up big and so Lord we recognize that and we also recognize your angels watching after us you brought us 65 years down the road Lord I Thank you there's another great 65 years ahead we commit Lord to walk humbly and holy before you but Lord You've entrusted us to carry a lot of influence to speak to the world to help our community and we don't take that lightly and Lord like Paul said we put down another a memorial stone to to worship you on this Sunday one week after that incident it could have been so much worse but your hand of mercy and favor Lord we know it wasn't a lucky break you were watching after us and so Lord we all put your first place in our lives right now and we thank you Lord that we are standing on Holy Ground we dedicate our lives and this building back into your hands in jesus' name and if you don't mind let's just take 5 minutes just to worship here for a moment if you don't mind just we are standing on Holy Ground

Channel: FOX 26 Houston

Views: 1,063

Keywords: News, fox_26, kriv, fox_26_houston, Lakewood Church shooting

Id: q211tvnUGVU

Length: 34min 7sec (2047 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 18 2024