Steven Furtick EXPOSED Yet Again!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. The video you're about to see is of Stephen Furtick at Elevation Church, and it's very revealing.

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This is not a Freudian slip, it's not an accident, he has not apologized, he didn't come out and correct himself immediately.

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When you watch the video, you will quickly see that Stephen Furtick is not into throws and pangs of one of his famous nonsensical rants.

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He clearly has his wits about him, and what he says is just plain shocking. Watch this.

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And I thought it was interesting that the Apostle Paul, who showed us the power of starting, now you gotta remember,

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Paul knew how to get something started. He started, by some calculations, 14 churches in a time when the concept of church was foreign.

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Chunks, I'm gonna need some different people in the room this week, it's kinda dead out there. He knew how to start a church in a city that had never even heard the name of Jesus.

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He would walk into a church and step into a synagogue and start preaching, and before you know it, there would be such an uproar in the city that it would start a riot in the streets.

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Now this video is not meant to be a doctrinal analysis of the sermon he was giving, although I will say it's ironic to me that Stephen Furtick would bring up the

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Apostle Paul's church planting when the church growth strategies that Stephen Furtick himself uses would be completely foreign, if not diametrically opposed to those used by the

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Apostle Paul in the Scriptures. But again, that's not what I'm here to talk about. What I'm here to talk about is that little comment in the video that you may have missed.

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In fact, it may be best if you watch it again. He started, by some calculations, 14 churches in a time when the concept of church was foreign.

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Chunks, I'm gonna need some different people in the room this week, it's kinda dead out there. He knew how to start a church in a city that had never even heard the name of Jesus.

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So if you were paying attention, you saw that Stephen Furtick said the words, I'm gonna need some different people in the room this week, it's kinda dead out there.

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Think about the implications of that comment. We need new people in this church praising me while I preach because they're not excited enough.

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That's what he's saying. Imagine your pastor saying that out loud. Do any of you guys remember the good old days when sitting quietly and listening to a sermon reverently was just called what you did in church?

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Nowadays, quietly listening to a sermon is enough to get you thrown out of Stephen Furtick's church apparently and replaced by other volunteers.

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Now I have a question. Where in the Bible exactly does it say that your congregation's volunteers have to constantly yell, go

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Pastor Stephen, you tell him, and amen at everything you say? Since when was that a requirement to serve the church?

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I'll give you a hint. The answer is never. Stephen says that he's gonna need some new people listening to his sermon next week and praising him because the audience, well, they're just not loud enough.

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This is a dreadfully unbiblical statement, and with it we can make a few strong observations, most of which we already knew.

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Let me present these observations in the form of some very pressing questions because I think that's the best way to understand this.

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And then let's answer the questions with Scripture. Question 1. What is the measure of a good sermon?

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What makes one sermon good and another hypothetically bad? Well, by Stephen Furtick's statement here, we can deduce that according to him, a good sermon is one that gets the audience on their feet and riled up.

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A good sermon is one that solicits the most emotionally positive reaction possible.

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The quality of a sermon in Stephen Furtick's church is directly measured by the excitement it gives the people who are listening to it.

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It's all based on emotion. But this is absolutely untenable. In fact, this is not biblical in any way, shape, or form.

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It's actually blatantly anti -biblical. What does the Bible say is the measure of a good sermon, a good

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Bible teaching session? Well, let's look at the Word for the answer because, after all, the Word of God is what pastors are supposed to be preaching from.

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That is where the authority of the preacher comes from. And 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17 talks about the

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Word. It says this, "...all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

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Some of the major outcomes of preaching the Word of God are to teach, to reprove, to correct, to train in righteousness, and to equip for good works.

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The passage does not say, however, that the goal of preaching the Word is to get the crowd loud and on their feet and excited, or to solicit the most powerful praise and applause possible.

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That's nowhere in the text at all. This is supposed to be a church, not a Coldplay concert. But Stephen Furtick has elevated these emotional reactions to the utmost importance.

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And he's done this to the point that people who do not properly exhibit these emotional reactions in his opinion, they shouldn't even be allowed to be his little preaching cheerleaders.

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It's genuinely bizarre how someone could read the Bible and come up with this stuff. 2 Timothy 2 .15

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says this, "...do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker, who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."

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Paul instructed Timothy in Scripture that in order to be a good church leader, he needed to handle the word of truth rightly.

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Again, there's nothing here that says the measure of a worker of the Lord, one who is approved by God in their work, is the emotional reaction of their congregation.

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So why is Stephen Furtick so concerned with getting an emotional reaction? In fact, he actually stops his sermon, this is how concerned he is with it, and he interrupts his train of thought in order to warn the people listening to him that if they don't perk up soon, they'll be replaced by next week.

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What kind of message is that sending? This is unbiblical in every way. And it clearly demonstrates how different, how opposed

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Stephen Furtick's priorities are to those presented in Scripture. The next observational question is this, what is the measure of a good congregational attitude when listening to a sermon?

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In other words, when a sermon is being preached, what is the right response of the Christians who are listening to it?

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Stephen Furtick's reaction seems to indicate his view on this. He is implying that the best and most honoring way one could listen to a sermon is by being loud and emotional.

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The more yeses and amens you give, and the louder they are, the more points you score.

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So you see, when these people were not reacting with enough enthusiasm, with sufficient excitement,

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Stephen Furtick decided that another hand -picked audience would be better for his next sermon. His priority is clearly emotional, external reactions of those listening to the sermon.

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There's no getting around that. That's why the usual sermons at Elevation Church include a whole lot of yelling, stomping, applause, and sensational affirmation.

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As a general rule, you get more of what you ask for. And in this case, they're asking for temporary emotional reactions, and that's exactly what they get.

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But what does the Bible say that a good response to preaching is? James 1 .22 puts it clearly and briefly when it says, quote,

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But be doers of the word, and not hearers only. End quote. And this echoes what Jesus himself says in Matthew 4 .24

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when he says, quote, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

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End quote. And at the risk of belaboring my point here, I will also quote the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28, 19 -20 when he says this, quote,

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Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the

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Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. End quote.

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So you see, the teaching of the apostles was meant, according to Jesus, to accomplish a specific goal.

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But that goal was not the emotional reaction of those listening to their preaching. Rather, Jesus says to teach these people to do everything he commanded.

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It's about obedience to Christ, not emotional sensationalism. The mark of a good sermon listener in Scripture is crystal clear.

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It is the degree to which a person listens to the word of God and puts it into practice with obedience, with humble service to the

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Lord. Nothing here about emotion. Nothing here about yelling and screaming. Just submission to God.

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And that's really the issue here, guys. Obedience isn't cool. It's not loud. It's not hip.

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It's not fun. It's not trendy. It's not seeker -sensitive. Obedience is self -denial.

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And it's really difficult sometimes. That's why Stephen Furtick wants to do nothing but preach excited nonsense to the people in his church while they wave their pom -poms around and say,

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Go, Stephen, go. That kind of thing is self -indulging and temporary. But Christian obedience, well, that's self -denying and consistent.

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But obeying God's word will always yield more spiritual fruit in the end than this seeker -sensitive nonsense being preached at Elevation Church and others like it.

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It's really vain. It's absolutely fleeting, not to mention incorrect. The fact is, Stephen Furtick was preaching what he calls a sermon.

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And his sermons prioritize emotions and sensations being sent out by him and then returned back to him by the crowd's reaction.

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You see, it's a never -ending loop of emotional gratification. So hearing people quietly listening to a sermon reverently, that's foreign to him.

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It feels like, to him, nothing's getting done spiritually, nothing's happening in the room. Because he has unfortunately only learned to gauge spiritual success, spiritual progress, by temporary feelings and outward excitement.

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And when people don't give him the reaction he's fishing for, well, that's some sort of defect in them. And they need to be replaced next week with new people, new people who will hopefully see how to respond in the right way.

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If only he recognized, though, how completely unbiblical this entire system of thought is.

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It needs to be done away with, demolished to its very foundations. So stay away from the false teaching and bizarre priorities of Stephen Furtick and the seeker -sensitive movement, and pray earnestly that he would repent and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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Thank you so much for watching. If you liked that video, please like, comment, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so that you never miss another one.

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you, and God bless.