F4F | Chelsea Smith True-Self Amazonian Women and Viagra

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith here on YouTube. I'm recording in a remote location. Today, if you've ever heard anybody talk about the importance of discovering your true self, yeah, your true self, not sure what that is?

Well, go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below and don't forget to ring the bell. You're being taught false doctrine or at least a real twisting of it that is focused in on yourself in a way that is not healthy and not helpful at all when it comes to Christianity.

Misusing Ezekiel 37 and the Gospel of John for a “True Self” Message

Case in point, we're going to head over to a place called Church Home, and Church Home is the place where Judah Smith holds court as the vision casting leader. They've got campuses in Seattle, down in Hollywood in California, and his wife Chelsea is going to be giving a message.

Now, a little bit of a note, this is a message not delivered as a sermon during a church service. This is a message delivered to a women's gathering, so we're not going to grind too hard on any kind of axes along those lines, but it's the message itself that is really the problem, and I think you're going to see that fairly early and very quickly as we get into this message.

So let's get to it. Here's Chelsea Smith and her message titled, We Are One, and we'll note we'll be in Ezekiel 37 for one verse. And then we're going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 1 for some weird stuff from the message paraphrase, but I'll let Chelsea explain.

Here we go.

Turn with me to the book of Ezekiel chapter 37, as we have been looking at through this time that we have shared together. Ezekiel 37 is awesome, and I'm just going to read a few of the verses, and then we'll show some pictures and tell some stories.

I'm going to talk about Viagra. So random. I'm like, Judah, can I talk about Viagra in church? She's like, yeah, it's a group of ladies. You can totally get away with it. Probably not in the way you think I'm going to talk about it, but it'll be fun.

Okay, this is going to be the weirdest ladies' night ever, because our passage, first of all, is talking about a valley of dry bones, and then we're going to talk about armies and fighting.

Now, we recently did this. We showed this with Paula White, that the valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 gives us the interpretation of the vision itself, and it's a picture of the resurrection. That's what's going on.

So what she's going to do with this, I don't know. It can't be good either way. But she said we were going to look at some verses. And by the way, this is a way in which you can twist scripture. Now, it doesn't always happen that when you're quoting verses, you're twisting God's Word, but oftentimes that can be the case.

This is called proof texting, when you're ignoring the context of the verses in question in order to just kind of roll up your own theology and create your own theology. So that can be a very bad way of approaching the Bible.

Viagra. So welcome to she, which is church home style girls. We do the makeup tips, we can do panels, and we can do war and Viagra. So Chelsea, just get to the Bible. Okay. Ezekiel chapter 37, starting here in verse 10, he says this, So I prophesied as he commanded to me, and the breath came into them, and they—.

So valley of the dry bones, you're going to start at verse 10. Why? It's a narrative. There's something going on there. Why don't you start at verse 1, keep reading until God interprets the vision itself.

So notice we're jumping in to the middle, not even the middle of the valley of the dry bones vision. We're like at the very end of it. This is no way to teach scripture.

And they lived and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army. And I also want to read one other verse from you in the book of John chapter 1, and this is from the Message Translation.

So John chapter 1, Message Translation. The message is a paraphrase, and the opening words of the word message are M-E-S-S. Mess. Stay away from it. You should never, if you are a Bible teacher, be preaching or teaching from the message paraphrase.

I can't even recommend it for devotional studies. That's how far off it is.

It's on the screen back here. It's way too small for my almost 40-year-old eyes to read. So I'm going to turn around. How's the back of my hair look? Oh, I kind of missed a spot. Oh well. Okay. I didn't think we'd actually see the back.

You know you're supposed to take a mirror and look at the back of your head? I never do it. Okay. But now you all get to see.

Yeah, I never do it either. Never thought of it.

John chapter 12. This is a prophecy. This is about Jesus saying that when he comes, it said, but whoever did want him, who believed that he was who he claimed, and would do what he said, he made to be their true selves.

What on earth is this? All right. I have to open up the Bible here. Let's go to the Gospel of John chapter 1, shall we? John chapter 1. She was what? 9 through 13. Let's take a look at a good translation.

We'll be working from the ESV, which is a fantastic modern translation. It has its own faults, but overall it's very faithful to what the original languages say and mean. And here's what it says. John 1 .9.

Now the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. This is talking about Christ, the Word of God made flesh. He was in the world, though the world was made through him, the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God.

And you can say that this has something to do with the concept of being born anew, born again, because we are born dead in trespasses and sins as a result of Adam and Eve's sin. It's counted against us.

So Ephesians chapter 2 is a great place to go there when it comes to noting our problem as humanity. It says this,. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, and the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires in the body and the mind.

And we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So she's reading from the message, paraphrase. I'm not sure what Ezekiel has to do with anything here. But Ezekiel 37 verse 10 is something that she rolled up.

And then I want to go back to John 1 just to kind of make the point that it's talking about us being born of God. And Eugene Peterson, for whatever reason in his message, paraphrase, decided that it's best to translate that as our true selves.

Yeah, this sounds like the kind of stuff that would scratch itching ears, make me feel really great about myself in an unhealthy kind of demonic, satanic way. Let me back this up just a little bit.

John chapter 12, this is a prophecy. This is about Jesus saying that when he comes, it said, but whoever did want him, who believed that he was who he claimed.

And would do what he said, he made to be their true selves,.

Their child of God's selves, and these are the God begotten, not blood begotten, not flesh begotten, not sex begotten. And I love that phrase that Jesus came to show us our true selves.

Yeah, this almost sounds like new age philosophy rather than biblical doctrine, biblical theology.

And our whole goal tonight as I spend the next 20, 25 minutes up here is that we want to talk about growing and discovering who our true selves really are. And I believe who our true selves are is women who have, if you've decided to follow Jesus, great.

If not, no pressure, but you get to glimpse into who the Bible says we are and you can be once you decide to follow Jesus. Who we are is the God begotten, our true selves. God has raised us up to be part of this huge army that Ezekiel 37 talks about.

Ezekiel 37 is about the resurrection from the dead when God calls people out of their graves. You know, let me show you, I know we did this recently with Paula White, but like I said in the Paula White segment, that this is a common text to misinterpret.

It's like on purpose. Let me go to the explanation from God as to what the bones are all about. So Ezekiel 37, 11, Oh my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am Yahweh when I open your graves and raise you from your graves.

Oh my people. Yeah, like it's pointed out with Paula White, this text is about the resurrection. So I'm not sure what Chelsea Smith is doing here by pulling Ezekiel 37, 10 out of context and applying it to some, well, women's army.

Yeah, you're going to see that here.

Can you just picture us, this awesome army of women who are fighting and doing what God has called us to do. If you can't imagine it, Marvel has really helped us imagine.

Who knew Ezekiel 37 is about God raising up an army of Amazonian women.

We have awesome pictures of...

No, no, no.

How awesome are those ladies?

Neither depiction from the Marvel comic world have anything to do with Ezekiel 37. So apparently it's an all-women army there that God raised from the grave. Forget the fact that back in the day when Israel was a thoroughgoing theocracy and Ezekiel was receiving the prophecies of the Lord that only men served in the army.

Forget that, yeah.

You have these two movies with women who are protecting these worlds that are hidden from the rest of the world, but they have all the resources to protect the world. I'm like, ah, yes, we can be that.

And when I am 50, I will look like that in those kinds of thigh highs. So we have lots of inspiration here tonight. Let's pray.

Yeah, you know, with a setup like that, there's pretty much no way to land that plane without crashing it. Yeah, see, oftentimes Bible twisting, the whole setup sets the message up to fail from its very beginning.

And that's what we got going on with Chelsea Smith here. You gotta discover our true selves. And wouldn't you know it, our true self is an army of Amazonian women that God has raised up. Yeah, no, no way to fix that.

It's broken beyond all repair. And so that's not what this text is about. But hey, you know, I'm a glutton for punishment. Why don't we listen a little further and see where this goes?

We need it, Jesus. Thank you so much for your word. And God, we do thank you that you have come to show us our true selves. And Lord, I pray for every woman who is coming here tonight. And if there's any piece of our true self that has been stolen or a piece that we haven't believed is true.

A piece of our true self that has been stolen.

True.

Lord, I pray that you would put it back together again. God, I pray that...

Or broken, you gotta reassemble it.

You would use these moments to show us our true selves, who you've truly made us to be. An army set apart and called to fight on your behalf and to fight with you. Jesus, I thank you for your word. God, I know it's not me that makes it powerful.

It is your weight and it is your spirit.

Yeah, God's word is a lot more powerful when you actually preach it and teach it in context and actually rightly handle it so that those you're teaching may properly understand it. You know, just something I've noticed.

Purpose, Good Works, and Ordinary Christian Vocation

...would be behind every part of this message to make it count to every woman who has taken the time to be here tonight. In your name, amen. Have you ever discounted something or thought, eh, something wasn't valuable because you didn't realize what its purpose was?

And then as soon as you discovered its purpose, you were like, oh, this is amazing. Okay, this is where the Viagra comes in. Shoot, I'm giving you the punchline, I just couldn't help it. So, I love random facts.

I cannot remember my three kids' birthdays. You know when you go to the doctor's office and you have to fill out the forms? I can't remember any of all those numbers. I have three kids and that's three numbers per kids.

That's nine numbers and they all get jumbled. And so I can't always remember the most significant details of life, but I remember random facts. The random things I read in Reader's Digest 15 years ago.

Somehow that gets stuck in my mind and I remember that. So when I was trying to think of a story to exemplify this question and this thought about knowing something's purpose and how this increases its value, I remembered a story I read about a drug that was being tested.

And this, now you guys know the punchline, but this drug that was being tested, it was being tested, it was on clinical trials for low blood pressure and for heart failure. And so they did this clinical trial, you know, through thousands of people all across the country and as they did it, they were monitoring blood pressure and they were monitoring heart, people's heart function to see if this drug was helping it work.

And as they got through it and the trials were coming back, it was negative, negative, not working, not working. And so they were about to shut down the drug trials and say, this isn't working, we're just gonna have to close shop on this.

So they asked all of the participants to give the drug back and say, hey, it's not working, it's time to recall it. And oddly enough, none of the older males wanted to give the drug back. They all wanted to keep it.

So upon further investigation, the researchers found that what they were just about to throw away has now become the most successful pharmaceutical ever created. By five years ago, it sold, reached the $2 billion mark.

So what they were about to throw away is totally invaluable, was actually extremely valuable and I'm sure a lot of people have claimed it has helped their lives. Chelsea, what does a Viagra story have to do with us?

It's this, knowing our value and our purpose is what gives us, sorry, knowing our purpose is what gives us a sense of value and fulfillment. And as we can read here in Ezekiel 37, you know, we've been talking about it throughout the year, if you can remember back in November, if you can't, it's okay because I can't remember yesterday all the time.

But we've been talking about the story and this process that God goes through of bringing to life these bones that had been dead and they had been shameful bones and he brought them to life from the inside out and all of a sudden.

Shameful bones?

What? Yeah, and maybe that's the reason why she didn't read the previous verses because, you know, if she had actually read it in context, nobody would be saying, oh yeah, those are shameful bones. No, they're dry.

Dry?

How is dry shameful?

He didn't just raise them up so that they could walk around and look good. He raised them up. He gave Ezekiel this vision that, yes, it was for natural Israel, but we've read that there's also scholars who say we can take this vision and apply it to our spiritual life and journey and what happens to us today.

Again, it's talking about the resurrection. It's coming. It still hasn't arrived yet.

He raised them up for a purpose and when God breathed life into these dry bones that had been dead and they came alive, the picture that the prophet saw was this. They stood up and they were a huge army.

And if we live our lives without that purpose in mind.

What purpose exactly are you referring to?

We live our lives thinking, oh, my job is just to fight for myself. My job is just to make myself comfortable. My job, the reason I'm here in life is to meet my needs and meet the needs of my family and just try to keep everything good and secure and hope that everything can work out and we can all make it to heaven with our college educations intact and our relationships intact and so that is my core purpose of life.

If we believe that is our core purpose, we're gonna end up not fulfilled, not really doing what God created us to do, what God resurrected us to do, what God had in mind when he saved you.

Yes, he loves you.

If you never did anything for him, he would love you just the same but you know, he created you and so he knows what's best for you. He wrote the owner's manual. He has the owner's manual. He is the owner's manual and so he knows that for you to live at optimum fulfillment is for us to all be a part of this army, this army of women who are fighting for things that are beyond ourselves and who are living beyond ourselves and as we begin to get that Amazon wonder woman, Wakanda warrior just happening, that there's just gonna be this fulfillment that is going to be inside of us that realizes.

Yeah, who knew that Ezekiel 37 really can only be fulfilled by Amazonian women. All right, now a little bit of a note here. You'll note that she was pretty much talking about the importance of finding your purpose and somehow eschewing as if it was a bad thing the work that we do in our vocations.

Now, let's come back to Ephesians 2. I wanna show you this and I'll show you then from Ephesians 5 and 6, the good works that we're called to as Christians and so Ephesians 2, we already read out the first part where we're dead in trespasses and sins but there's more to it and that is even though we're dead in trespasses and sins, this is how each of us is born.

We're actually, this is the effect of original sin on all of us but it says this in verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ and by grace you have been saved and then we get to, you know, I'll skip over to verses 8, 9, and 10, very famous verses, for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it's the gift of God, it's not the result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his, that's God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, listen, for good works, plural, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So one of the dangers of the doctrine that you heard Chelsea Smith teaching is that we've got to somehow find our unique purpose and now it has something to do with being an Amazonian warrior, army woman thing, which it doesn't but the idea here is that you're not going to be fulfilled until you discover and get to applying yourself to your unique purpose and as if somehow the Bible then is the user's manual to figuring all this out, that's not at all it, none of us were actually created in Christ for a singular purpose, each of us were created in Christ Jesus for good works and works are plural, purpose is singular, we're not created for a purpose, we're created in Christ Jesus for good works, which kind of then begs the question, what would be considered a good work by God and so many people, they are deceived into thinking that the good works that God has called us to require us to ignore our children, go fly halfway across the universe and dig fresh water wells in Nairobi or something like that, that's not what we're called to do primarily, no, digging fresh water wells for people in third world nations who need fresh water is a good work but your good works are far more normal and ordinary than you could possibly imagine, in fact, here's what it says, Ephesians 5 .22,.

Are you ready?

Wives, submit to your husbands. Yeah, as to the Lord, the husband's the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its savior. Verse 25, husbands, love your wives, as Christ has loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her.

So being a good spouse, husband or wife, biblically defined, is a good work. Children, obey your parents. Honor your father and mother. Slaves, obey your earthly masters or in our modern day context, we can talk about employees, do a good job at work.

And so you'll note this part here, where it says, bond servants or slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ, not as way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bond servant or is a freeman.

So you get the idea here. So our good works then are done in our vocations. As husband, wife, child, you know, if you have parents, each of us have a mommy and a daddy, a child, and then that then bleeds into then our job at work.

You're doing a good work at work, this is a good work and it's pleasing in God's sight. But what Chelsea is preaching causes us to literally despise, despise the good works that Christ has called us to and that we were created to do.

We were not created with a singular purpose, we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. So you can do your good works as a child, you can do your good works as a young adult, as a parent, you can do them as somebody who's retired, you can even do good works if you're bedridden and not able to get out of bed and living, you know, in an assisted care facility.

Yeah, you say,.

How is that possible?

Well, you're gonna do the good works of praying and for other people. You're still in the vocation of, you know, somebody who's a member of the priesthood of all believers, you know, we are a kingdom of priests and so we pray.

So the idea then is, is get this idea that you've got a singular purpose, just knock that out of your head altogether. We are not created in Christ for a singular purpose, we are created in Christ for good works and then you will see.

That the very things.

You're already doing for the most part, the ordinary, the things that Chelsea kind of poo-pooed, well, those are the ways in which you are serving others, loving each other, loving others as Christ has loved us and doing the good works that you were created in Christ Jesus to do.

So don't despise those and think that they are getting in the way of your purpose. No, you were created in Christ Jesus for those exact good works. So see them for what they are as pleasing unto the Lord.

All right, if you found this helpful, please feel free to share this video, all the information on how to share it as well as the software that I use in these videos. The link to that is down below, all the information on how to support us financially.

We can't do what we're doing without your financial support. That's also down in the description below. So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.

Amen.