On Sunday, famed Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen stood beside Kanye West and let him finish all his thoughts about his newfound affection for the Christian faith.
The Jesus Is King rapper took to the pulpit at the megachurch in Houston for a powerhouse Sunday Service, PEOPLE reports.
West gave his personal dissertation about why he’s walking with Jesus now, and putting Hip-Hop on the back burner. And in West’s signature style, he was unapologetic about designating himself as the “Greatest artist that God has ever created.”
“I know that God’s been calling me for a long time and the devil’s been distracting me for a long time,” West confessed.
The rap artist also spoke candidly about his mental health issues.
“When I was in my lowest points, God was there with me and sending me visions and inspiring me, and I remember sitting in the hospital at UCLA after having a mental breakdown and there’s documentation of me drawing a church and [wanting to] start a church in the middle of Calabasas,” he added.
West continued, “all of that arrogance and cockiness that y’all have seen from me, God is now using for him,” he said.
“Because every time I stand up, I feel that I’m standing up and drawing a line in the sand and saying, ‘I’m here in service to God and no weapon formed against me shall prosper,’ ” he said.
“Jesus has won the victory. I told you about my arrogance and cockiness already. Now the greatest artist that God has ever created is now working for him,” he added.
West still, however, had some of that cockiness on deck when he silenced someone off-camera. He told them to stop talking while he was speaking because sometimes he gets a stream of consciousness, and needs to concentrate.
“I go into these streams of consciousness when I’m talking, and when you speaking in the middle of it, it distracts me,” he told someone. “I really appreciate the support, but I would like for everybody to be completely silent so I can let God flow through me as I speak to you guys today.”
Some 15,000 free tickets were distributed for the service which were gone in a record seven minutes.
The church itself welcomes some 50,000 people a week, Chron.com reports.
Kim Kardashian, West’s wife, was front and center smiling watching him from the audience.
“He reaches people that we will never reach in the church world,” Osteen told ABC after the service.
Story credit to Kia-Morgan Smith/The Grio.
