F4F | The Fall of Stoval Weems

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So, we have a problem, and I'm going to talk about the problem in broad terms first, and then we're going to find yet another very specific quintessential example.

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I have been warning the body of Christ for a decade and a half, dedicated decade and a half, about the seeker -driven movement, you know, the so -called attractional church and their vision -casting leaders.

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Nowhere in Scripture are we told that we are to have vision -casting leaders.

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And what we've seen in the megachurch movements, in these big megachurches who have adopted this model, the vision -casting leader, that, well, it doesn't go very well.

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And where there's smoke, there's fire. And the smoke is always in the message, all right?

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The smoke is in the message, and when they're not handling God's Word, they're not calling people to repent. They're not calling people to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

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They're not calling for people to, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bear fruit in keeping with repentance and to be sanctified.

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But instead, they're scratching itching ears. They're twisting up the biblical text to make them all about you. That's fruit.

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Jesus says you can always tell a tree by its fruit. A good tree doesn't bear bad fruit.

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A bad tree doesn't bear good fruit. So that being the case, you can always check doctrine, and when the doctrine and the preaching doesn't line up with the

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Word of God, you know you've got a problem. And here's the other issue. Scripture describes false teachers as always going from bad to worse, exploiting people in their greed and things like this.

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So false doctrines, ear -scratching messages, are not capable of producing the fruit of the

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Holy Spirit in the lives of people, especially the vision -casting leaders. By the way, there is no such thing as a vision -casting leader.

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That office doesn't exist. There are pastors, for sure, that's mentioned in Scripture, and there are qualifications to be a pastor.

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These vision -casting leaders don't meet those qualifications. And there are duties of the pastoral office, and these vision -casting leaders are not interested in fulfilling the duties of the pastoral office.

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The vision -casting leader is a different thing altogether. And I can definitively say that in the time that I've been doing

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Fighting for the Faith and warning and warning and warning, this person is twisting the Scripture, you're dealing with a wolf here.

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Many times people just say, yeah, yeah, yeah, that Rosebud, you're just too tightly wound. Doctrine divides and things like this.

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You're just a Pharisee. But I can say that the long game has actually vindicated me in this sense.

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And that is that just look at the illustrative list of all of the major vision -casting leaders who 10 years ago were all the bee's knees.

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The church couldn't get enough of them. They got feature articles and front -page coverage and Relevant Magazine and things like this.

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Let me give you a couple of names to see if these ring some bells. Perry Noble, Mark Driscoll, Pete Wilson, Tommy Sparger, Carl Lentz, Brian Houston.

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Do any of these names sound familiar to any of you? If you've listened to Fighting for the Faith, the podcast, for any length of time, you know we've covered these guys, right?

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And the latest to have a spectacular moral failing, and let's just say

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I'm having a heart attack of not being surprised, oh, I'm not surprised, is

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Stoval Williams, another fellow that we covered at length on the Fighting for the Faith podcast. In fact, let me do this.

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I'm going to whirl up the desktop and we are going to head over to the archives of Fighting for the

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Faith, April 9th, 2018, April 9th, 2018, eight days prior to this installment of Fighting for the

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Faith. We'll put a link to it down below. We covered the fact that Stoval Williams claims to have met the risen

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Christ, important note here. Until very recently, Stoval Williams was a member of the board of directors for Stephen Furtick's Elevation Church, right?

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So he claims to have met the risen Christ, and I went back and reviewed what I said in this installment of Fighting for the

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Faith, the podcast, and I can say this definitively. Not before or since have

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I seen anything quite like this. This was an outlier as far as claims by vision casting leaders.

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And the claim was that during their Good Friday service, you know, at the end of March of 2018,

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Jesus appeared on stage with Stoval Williams and he had an encounter with Christ.

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Well, we'll talk about that. In fact, we'll even take a look at some of the claims. But Stoval Williams has recently resigned, and coverage in his neck of the woods,

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I -Team Celebration Church releases findings of explosive investigation into founding pastor

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Stoval Williams denies reports, findings of embezzlement, narcissistic behavior, and emotional abuse.

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It's like he took a page out of the Carl Lentz leadership playbook.

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So we'll take a look at this video. But also, they followed up. They followed up by having a fraud, former prosecutor, fraud prosecutor, take a look at some of the information coming out of this report.

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We'll take a look at that. And then it's connection to, of all things, the

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April 1st, 2018 Easter sermon message where Stoval Williams claimed that he had an encounter with the risen

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Christ. So let's just do a little research. Shall we go back into the past?

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So what I'm going to do here, I'm going to, I'm going to hit the play button, but I'm going to, I'm going to basically put a little bit of context in this thing, fast forward.

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So this was their Easter message back in 2018, Easter fell on April 1st, and it makes me think if this is some kind of a sick

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Easter, you know, not Easter, but the April fool's joke played by Stoval and his wife, because his wife's wife is also implicated.

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But let's, let's, let's listen to a portion of this, shall we? Let's give God a big, big hand, huh? Yeah. Wow.

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Wow, wow, wow. What a savior we serve, huh?

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You know, and that clap was for Jesus, but it was also welcoming in all of our locations right now, those of you watching online.

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And, you know, we have been in an amazing three months of revival here at Celebration.

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Yeah, I remember their 2018 revival, and they even invited

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Furtick. We've, one of the words that God gave us was when this started.

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One of the words God gave us. God doesn't give individual words to individual congregations like this.

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Back in January with our season of prayer and fasting, was He was going to restore in three months what the enemy has had held up for three years.

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That makes Him a false prophet, by the way. And He has done that for so, so many. So notice,

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He's exploiting them with false words. And He's done so many wonderful things, miracles and healings and families being restored, finances like you saw.

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There's so many things. False signs, false wonders. And what I'm going to talk to you about, if I can go ahead and be seated, thank you very much.

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Now, look at this face here. You know, I'm not an expert in body language, but I think that's a tell.

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He doesn't, it's like he's got this weird nervous smirk thing going on, like he knows what he's about to say isn't true.

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You can go ahead and be seated. What I want to talk to you about today is an experience that I had this past Friday, a couple of nights ago at our

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Good Friday service. You know, it's kind of exactly three months today, April 1st.

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It's interesting how Easter was exactly three months since God spoke that word to us.

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And I had a very powerful experience Friday night that I want to talk to you about.

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How many of you were at the Good Friday? So this is their Easter service, 2018.

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He's not going to preach from a biblical text about the resurrection of Christ and what it means biblically.

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The job of a pastor is to preach the word, by the way. Instead, he's going to rely on his dream or vision that he had.

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I think the scriptures warn us about things like this. Service. And so you'll be able to connect.

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You heard me try to put into words some things that I had experienced, but it was too overwhelming.

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I got a few things out and I just need to go back to the green room and process it. It still hasn't processed it.

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It's Sunday morning and the event happened on Friday night. And then go home to the other

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Holy Spirit in my life, Carrie, and process things with her.

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By the way, when I originally reviewed this, I made the claim in this episode, that episode of the podcast, that he probably had an encounter, but it wasn't with the biblical

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Jesus. Looking back on this now and knowing what we know, I think that this was an intentional deception on his part.

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Yeah, I think he was. It is my opinion that he was totally making this up.

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That's educated. But the one thing I can rule out, he didn't actually see the biblical, real

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Jesus. Let's keep going. So it's going to be a great day, but I want to share. Listen, I had a message to preach to you about the resurrection, and it was an awesome message.

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But instead of preaching about the resurrection, I want to tell you about my meeting with the resurrection, okay?

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Now, words of Christ. Matthew chapter 24, starting at verse 24,

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Christ warning us about the last days. False Christs and false prophets will arise. They will perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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See, I've told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he's in the wilderness, don't go. If they say, look, he's in the inner rooms, don't believe it.

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For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

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Christ specifically told us not to believe people when they talk like this. Specifically said not to believe people when they talk like this.

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I'll find another passage here. Exploit. Hang on a second here. We're going to look for the word exploit.

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And I guess I should probably spell it correctly. X -P -L -O -I -T. There we go. Peter, writing about false prophets, false teachers in the last days.

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So here's what he says. False prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

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Many will follow their sensuality because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. In their greed, they will exploit you with false words.

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Hang on to those words. I think that's kind of an intentional bit on the part of the

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Holy Spirit in having the Apostle Peter write this. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle.

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Their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved

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Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, if the rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

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Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, especially those who indulge in lust of defiling passion and those who despise authority.

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Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones. Whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the

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Lord. But these like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, they will also be destroyed in their destruction.

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Suffering wrong is the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, their blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you.

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They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed.

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They're accursed children, forsaking the right way. They've gone astray. They've followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor.

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Balaam, the prophet for profit, remember that guy who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression by a speechless donkey.

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And he spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs or waterless rain clouds, right?

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Mists driven by a storm for the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for them. For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passion of the flesh.

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Those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.

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Whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our savior,

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Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, are again entangled in them and overcome while the last state has been become worse for them than the first.

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For it would have been better for them if they had never known the way of righteousness and after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

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So what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire.

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Jude picking up on words of the basically similar in this manner,

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Jude talks about that we need to contend for the faith. Although I was eager to write to you about our common salvation,

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I found it necessary to write to you, to appeal to you, to contend for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Certain people they've crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

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They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

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And so he talks about their coming judgment.

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And then he also says, yet in like manner, these people also rely on their dreams. They defile the flesh.

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They reject authority. They blaspheme the glorious ones. Job of a pastor, by the way, is to preach the word.

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And I would remind you here in this context of the words given by the apostle

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Paul in his prophecy. Hang on a second here. I'm just going to switch that over to verses.

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There we go. Second Timothy chapter three. Why is this not working? Two. Not sure what

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I'm doing here. Two Timothy three. All right. We want verses there.

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Here's the prophecy of Paul. Understand this in the last days. There will come times of difficulty.

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People will be lovers of self. Narcissists, right? Lovers of money. Yeah, we're going to find out that both of these are going to apply to Stovall.

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At least that's what the allegations are. Proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.

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Yeah, avoid such people. Avoid them all together. And so, you know, I'm just going to come back then here and I'm going to fast forward a little bit.

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We're going to drop the play head. Yeah, maybe about right here. And this is their sermon. And I would remind you that his wife is teaching with them.

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This, the very setup that they have here on stage is forbidden by the

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Word of God. Yeah, yeah. This is, just see 1 Corinthians chapter 14, tail end of the chapter, 1

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Timothy chapter two. I think you get the idea, but let's keep going here. Now, one of the things you said, and I think one of the things that, that the reasons that, one of the reasons that we both believe that one of the reasons that this happened to him on Friday night is because there's a lot of people here who

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Jesus would like to introduce himself to. This is one of the most absurd things

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I've ever heard in my life. So, one of her explanations as to why Stovall had this, this vision of Jesus, and based on her nervousness, makes me wonder if she was complicit in the lie, is because Jesus also wants to introduce himself to other people.

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I would say I've been introduced to Jesus quite well, thank you, in the writings of Scripture by the actual apostles of Christ who wrote the

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New Testament. Yeah, I've been introduced to him very well, thank you. But I don't need a vision of Jesus.

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And I can honestly say no one else has had these visions like you claim that you had, and we'll see how they use them too, by the way.

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And he would like you to know what he's like, and he would like for us to tell you what he's like. Really, I know exactly what

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Jesus is like, by reading the Bible. And so... And everyone's clapping and she looks nervous, because I think she knows she's not telling the truth.

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And so I want to ask you a couple of questions that are really cool. So you said that this personality, when you met

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Jesus, and you met him like as he was on earth, that is what you feel like you're meeting, his personality, not...

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Okay, yeah, so... And listen to this explanation. He says nothing.

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This is the first of many what I would call dichotomies that are two things at once that's hard for the human mind.

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Yeah, they're opposite. So in our human mind, it's hard for us to merge these two.

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So the first thing that I was taken back with is like Jesus' personality.

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Like, this is how Jesus was when he was on the earth. Like, I heard his voice, the tone of his voice, the cadence of his voice.

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Yet you claim you heard him in Hebrew, which means you didn't understand what he was saying. I could sense his mood.

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I could sense his presence. Like, he has a personality.

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It's like, you know, he was fully God, but many times we forget, you know, the man Christ Jesus. Like, he came as a man.

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Like, so he has his own unique personality, and that... Do say.

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I mean, obviously, Jesus' personality doesn't even remotely come through in the gospel text.

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Note the sarcasm, right? Of course his personality comes through in the biblical text. God's Word is living and active.

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We can get a very accurate picture of Christ from the Bible, thank you. And you're not actually adding any information here that none of us already didn't know just by reading the biblical text.

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More proof that something's really off here. It was... So watch. So what's overwhelming is like, it's like, he was new in that way, but at the same time,

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I felt like I'd known him forever. Like, I can't describe the closeness, the closeness that I felt with Jesus.

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Like, he didn't look at me. Like, I never saw the front of his face. You know, if you want to know, I mean, maybe this is no surprise.

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He was wearing a white garment, you know, he had on a white garment. He had brown hair.

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If there was a sketch person, I could describe it. I'm looking at the side. It was like this.

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He never welcomed me. He never turned and said, hey. You didn't really see the biblical

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Jesus. Stovall. He never, anything, like it was, I wasn't a guest.

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I was supposed to be there. He's like, it's a closeness that you can't describe at the same time.

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Like, this is the first time I'm kind of meeting the personality side of Jesus that the disciples were familiar with because he walked the earth.

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So what are some things, some impressions that you got? Because one of the things you said that was so incredible was that his personality, all the attributes of it are communicated through his voice.

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When you hear his voice, you just, you can just know his character almost through his voice.

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Describe his voice. Like, was it calm? Was it soft? Loud? Well, he spoke in Hebrew.

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And I don't really know what that means. Oh, you know, I don't know how to interpret that.

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But the best way I can say this is his voice was a reflection of his attributes.

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He's not saying anything. It's like he's taking great pains to describe an event that didn't really happen.

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So the one thing that stuck out to me was, was Jesus was very, he was passionate.

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He was not emotional, but he was passionate. What was he passionate about exactly?

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You don't know Hebrew, do you? And he was the, you know, the strength, the authority.

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I mean, we've got the authority. His authority and his strength.

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And this is just his personhood. You know, so all these things are the gentleness, the authority, like all these many times.

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And everyone there is like, you know, they're clapping, they're hanging on every word. We as humans consider competing virtues.

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Somehow they're all in one. And the authority.

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So like when I was in his presence, I'm telling you right now, the fear, watch, the fear of God was so, it was such a fear of God, but it was clean.

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The fear of God. It was such a fear of God, but it was clean. It was pure. It was accepting.

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Like it was this holy fear. Like, I can't believe I'm included. Like, I'm so unworthy.

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He's so worthy. I'm so small. He's so big. But his love, his overwhelming love, the love, like, so it's this, it's hard for, his overwhelming, his love overwhelms everything.

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Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Again, you'll note, I'm speaking completely cynically here.

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As I did all the way back in 2018, four years ago, this isn't the biblical

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Jesus. And his description of what's happening to him, he's struggling to find words.

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But the words that he's using are, you know, standard stuff we can find in any Bible, you know?

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So all these other things, his love is the overriding thing. So now I know what that scripture means.

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Perfect love casts out all fear. I experienced... Right. No one else prior to you could possibly have experienced this, unless, of course, they've been in the presence of Jesus like you are.

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I experienced that in that heavenly vision.

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And look at, again, look at the body language of his wife. She doesn't look okay.

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They know they're pulling a fast one. And the authority, like the authority that he carries, and he's not passive.

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Really? Yeah. I don't read anything about a passive Jesus in the Gospels either. But he's not aggressive.

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No, she's filling in words for him now. She didn't even have the experience. You're walking out of here.

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Okay, great. He's not this. He's not that. He's not... He's, um, it's like he's a leader.

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Like he's a... Yeah, it's like he's a leader. All authority in heaven on earth has been given to Jesus. Yeah, it's just like he's a leader.

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He's, uh, his strength. Okay, let me see. His strength, his authority, his strength.

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So I can totally see. You know, the stories in the Bible, like the woman with the issue of blood. And she's like, if I can just grab a hold of,

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I'm telling you, like, like I didn't touch Jesus. He didn't touch me. I didn't feel like he needed to.

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I felt, I felt such oneness, such closeness. I felt... What does oneness feel like?

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But I can see how this Jesus, if he's walking on the earth, even for totally self -serving purposes, somebody like me,

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I'm going to touch... If I can just grab a hold of any part of him, that strength, that power, that authority, it's going to...

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He hasn't said anything. So like, I understand that. I cannot wait to read through the

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Bible again. I totally understand why the centurion said, Hey, I understand authority.

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I have guys under me. He sensed that authority in Jesus. He's like, you don't need to come back here.

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I sense you have authority. So just go ahead and say the word and it's going to happen. That, that authority and the strength is...

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So like, you know, when we pray for things, like we want to pray for healing or pray for something we, you know, it's okay.

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We all do it, but we work for it in a sense, like Jesus, in Jesus name, we command this, you know, we get, you know, we, our emotions get into it.

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And because we're, we're... She didn't even have the experience. Rousing our faith up, right? We're, we're activating our faith.

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And she's not allowed to be preaching anyway. That's a prohibition from scripture.

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Jesus would never have to do that. He would, would he? He just... No, he would never, he would never.

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Never, never. He doesn't, no, he would never have to work it. He just is. It's almost like he's containing it.

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Like he would never have to raise his... I don't know if he did. He did not while I was there, but he would never have to...

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His power is not in the raising of the voice or whatever. It's just him.

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It's who he is. Again, he's saying nothing. He has authority.

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He has authority. So when God, in the Bible where it says, all authority has been, when he said, all authority has been given to me.

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Yeah. Christ actually said that. It's recorded for us in the gospel of Matthew chapter 28. Don't need

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Stovall to have an experience to know that. It is literally all... Yes.

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So I'm going to point this out. It's one of the points I made in my original podcast back in 2018.

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So the people there at Celebration, they are, they're not pondering the veracity and the truthfulness of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

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They're not focused on his victorious rising from the grave on the third day after he had been crucified on Golgotha for the forgiveness of your sins and mine in order to redeem us, purchase us, die in our place, suffer

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God's wrath so that we can be forgiven and reconciled to God. They're not focusing on that.

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Now, the question before them is, did Stovall really have this encounter with Jesus?

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Is this true or not? I would note that the leadership team of Celebration that exists currently,

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I don't think they believe it anymore. At the time, they fell for it hook, line, and sinker. And you'll see why, because there's a specific thing that Stovall did with this claim that he saw the risen

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Christ in the weeks and years afterwards that is vital to pay attention to.

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It is all authority. It is. That's what the authority.

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It's overwhelming. The authority is overwhelming. Okay. Which, you know, speaks to his death and resurrection, because he conquered death, hell, and the grave.

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He has the keys to death and hell. He has all authority in heaven and earth.

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Yeah, he says that already in the Gospel of Matthew. I'm familiar with what he said. Something else that you mentioned, too, is about Jesus's personality, was that he is the kind of person that you just want to be around?

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He is like attractional. Jesus is attractional. You just want to be around him.

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Okay, so this is overwhelming.

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Okay. So like, I'm next to Jesus. I think you get the idea.

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Let me introduce you to the first of two stories recently put out by news4jax .com

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in Mississippi. And the lead is, Celebration Church releases findings of explosive investigation into founding pastor.

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Now, this is not the one, this is not the news story that addresses Stovall's use of this claim that he saw

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Jesus. That comes in the second story. But let's do this in the proper order.

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News4jax .com has been digging deeper into an internal investigation into the founding pastor of Celebration Church, one of the largest churches in Jacksonville.

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The church released an explosive report today. Sorry, Jacksonville, Florida. Let's keep going.

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It includes allegations against Stovall Weems. The claims include embezzlement, emotional abuse and narcissistic behavior.

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And the church says it will turn over its attorney's findings to authorities to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

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News4jax, I -team investigator Renee Benignotti combed through the report for us and joins us live from outside the church on the south side.

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Renee. Mary, tonight I went through this 22 -page report.

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And in it, Weems is described as the complete opposite. You think of a pastor, many called him a narcissist.

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But tonight, he tells News4jax that these allegations are not true.

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So he's claiming on all the things in that report, they're just not true.

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So the church's attorneys, you know, conducted an internal investigation.

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And this is what they found. A new chapter in the bitter battle between Celebration Church and its founder

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Stovall Weems. Church attorneys interviewed more than 20 current and former senior leadership members, staff and trustees.

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When asked how to describe Stovall Weems, investigators say the word used most frequently was narcissist.

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They say Weems constantly berated others if they challenged him or made minor mistakes.

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In one case, it was reported that the pastor told an employee to drive to a liquor store late at night and deliver a bottle of bourbon to his house because he didn't want to be seen buying liquor.

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News4jax reached out to the pastor who responded, saying this report was a, quote, character assassination without real basis.

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So everything, apparently all the people on staff that were interviewed about their experience with Stovall, they all colluded together to assassinate his character.

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But he's, you know, pure as the wind driven snow. The findings also say as the church became more successful, the

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Weems' lavish lifestyle grew, including private jets to exotic locations and house.

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Private jets to exotic locations use church funds for extravagant lifestyle.

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This is starting to sound like a recurring theme when it comes to these large megachurch vision casting leaders.

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to help with their mansions. Their home on Shellcracker Road near the Nassau River, seen here on Sky 4, is also in the report.

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It says Weems Group, LLC, which is solely managed by Weems, purchased this home for $855 ,000, then sold it to the church for more than $1 .2

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million a few months later. Without the board of trustees approval, the report says the

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Weems' kept the profit. The investigation also reveals Weems used $500 ,000 of federal

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Paycheck Protection Program money to invest in Turncoin, a digital currency.

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All of this while records show the church's cash balance dropped millions from year to year since 2020.

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The report says Weems never had a grasp of where this money went. Never had a grasp.

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That's report number one. Let's take a look at report number two, where they actually take some of this evidence and have it put in front of a fraud prosecutor.

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Investigation of the founding pastor of Celebration Church. Today, we had a formal federal prosecutor examine the findings from an internal investigation of Stovall Weems and whether there's a chance the clergyman could ultimately face criminal charges.

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A report prepared by church attorney. I would correct her at this point. Stovall was never a clergyman.

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He was always a vision casting leader. And there's a difference between the two. Difference between night and day, by the way, between a real shepherd of Christ's sheep and a wolf.

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Accuses Weems, among other things, of misusing government funds intended for COVID relief and pushing

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Celebration Church to the brink of insolvency. That former prosecutor spoke with News for Jack's I -Team investigator,

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Anne Maxwell, and he said the potential charges could bring years in prison. Mary, he told me that report does not look good for the former pastor here at Celebration Church.

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It was earlier this year when the board retained this law firm to investigate that pastor and his wife after allegations of financial and other impropriety rose to the surface.

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The board has confirmed they are going to forward the results of this investigation to the appropriate authorities to see if criminal charges should be brought.

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Wow. They didn't just put him into retirement and force him to step down.

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They actually want authorities to have this fellow prosecuted because these were crimes.

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Okay. Deception, spiritual abuse, and financial crimes. Now, note the video here is the video of the

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Easter service from April 1st, 2018. That plays into the report.

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Listen carefully to how Stovall and his wife used that vision of Jesus. These allegations leveled against former

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Celebration Church pastor Stovall Weems in an explosive 22 -page report.

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This looks like a classic fraud. Curtis Fallgatter spent 17 years as a federal prosecutor.

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Given what we read here, assuming it's accurate, it would seem to be a foregone conclusion that the pastor is going to face criminal charges.

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The report found Weems used the church to enrich himself and broke church bylaws by making major financial decisions without the board's approval.

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The report says Weems bought this home on the Nassau River and sold it four months later to the church for a $430 ,000 profit and then pocketed the money without board approval.

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The report calls it embezzlement. That's a prison time case. The report also alleges Weems spent $500 ,000 of government

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PPP loan money, meant for church operations and salaries, for a risky digital investment called

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TurnCoin. The report says if funds are knowingly used for unauthorized purposes, the federal government may seek fraud charges.

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The report also accuses Weems of fraudulently manipulating about $1 .3 million of debt on another ministry connected to the church to obtain a loan.

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Is that criminal? Yes, and the federal authorities have jurisdiction over bank fraud, false loans and it could be multiple victims.

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The bank could be a victim and of course the church itself could be a victim. According to the church's financial statements, the report says

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Celebration's cash balance fell from $9 million in October of 2020 to $6 million two months later and then dwindled to $2 million the following spring.

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Former state attorney John Rockwell says a pattern of multiple allegations would help bolster a criminal case.

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This is a very attractive case for whatever prosecuting authority decides to look at this, assuming all of these things pan out in document pulls and financial disclosures.

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The report says a pivotal moment for Celebration Church came in spring of 2020. Now here's the pivotal moment.

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Watch how he uses the vision of Jesus. In 2018, when Weems became transfixed on a piece of bread at a service, he later described seeing

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Jesus Christ on stage and said it felt like - We're taking the Lord's supper with Jesus. After that, the report says witnesses described a dramatic change in Weems' behavior, with Stovall Weems telling anyone who questioned his authority,

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God was giving him directions through the encounter. So he used his so -called vision of Jesus, which now really looks like he just made the whole thing up.

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His wife was in cahoots with them and they were making lots of money, lots of money. And he didn't want to get caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

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So he invoked having a vision with Jesus and then used it for the purpose. Anybody who challenges me, anybody who questions me,

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I had an encounter with Jesus, your opposing Christ. I'm his man.

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Yeah, it's best if we point out the reason why all of this happened is because people didn't know their

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Bible. They exchanged the true pastoral office for the vision casting leader.

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And of course, Stovall being an ambitious narcissist and things like this, I mean, that's the allegation, right?

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You know, he exploited them with false words and gave everybody what they wanted to hear.

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And all he wanted was a little bit of fraud and embezzlement on the side. That's the allegation, right?

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But the one thing, again, Christ is very clear on this. In fact, let me do this. I'm going to come back here.

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And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us, he explicitly warns us, beware of false prophets.

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Beware of them who come to you in sheep's clothing. Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves.

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You're going to recognize them by their fruits. I would note that narcissistic behavior, attacking people, and just tearing them down if they dare oppose you, that's fruit.

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Twisting God's word and not rightly handling a biblical text, that's fruit.

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Claiming to have a vision of Jesus when Jesus says, when somebody talks like that, don't believe them, right?

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That's fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? No. So every healthy tree bears good fruit.

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The diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

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Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits.

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And I will note that vision casting leaders who twist up God's word and scratch itching ears, all to grow a big crowd and make lots of money and power and influence, they're not capable of producing the fruit of the

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Holy Spirit. That comes through humble penitence. Recognition that you're sinful and that you've fallen short.

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Crying out to God to have mercy on you for the sake of Christ, and he does. And then by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, which you have to ask for, asking the Holy Spirit to give you the strength necessary to mortify your sinful flesh, then bearing fruit, you are capable of doing by the power of the

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Spirit. And then when the Holy Spirit produces his fruit in you, you don't get to brag about that because God produced it, not you.

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So not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. The one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

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And I would note, thou shalt not steal is a clear commandment given to us by God that's still in play today.

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And Stovall Weems, stealing, large amounts of money.

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Looks like potentially millions. At least that's the allegation, right? That stealing, that's a sin.

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That's the exact opposite of what a pastor should be doing. That's contrary to doing the will of God.

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On that day, then many will say to me, oh Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not see you standing on our stage?

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Did we not cast out demons? In your name and do many mighty works in your name. It says,

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I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

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So let's just put it this way. The account of Stovall Weems doesn't stand in isolation. The account of Stovall Weems and his fall stands alongside of all of the big groups.

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They've put together these big mega churches whose pastors twist and mangle

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God's word. They exploit people with false words and they make merchandise of people and legitimately pilfer and, you know, in their greed, exploit them.

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You get the idea. What do we need? We need to repent. The whole vision casting leader, you know, large mega church model, it's corrupt at its core and contrary and opposed to what

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Christ has established in his church. It's a form of Cora's rebellion, but I'll save that for another episode of Fighting for the

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Faith. Hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description. Until next time, may

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God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.