Steven Furtick’s Man-Centered Preaching EXPOSED!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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As ever, please know this video isn't a sinful attack, but rather a Biblical critique. In today's video, we're going to be talking about Stephen Furtick.

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Now, Stephen is the pastor of Elevation Church in North Carolina, and it's one of the biggest, most successful churches in the entire world at the moment.

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At least, that's true if you're measuring success in attendance numbers and cultural influence.

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Long story short, Furtick is the perfect example of a more hype church pastor who works hard to get the crowd excited on their feet, clapping, and entertained.

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He can often be seen preaching trendy sermons with modern buzzwords flying about to pique your interest.

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In fact, he is very skilled in doing this. But more than that, one of his central tactics is to make every passage of Scripture all about you.

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You see, it's not adequate to simply read a passage of Scripture and praise God for His attributes if they are revealed in that passage.

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No, every text of Scripture has to be about you in some way when it comes to Elevation Church.

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And if you're looking for a good example of this inaction, watch this clip of Stephen Furtick preaching on Sunday morning at Elevation Church.

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Check it out. When God said, I am to Moses, you know, my name is,

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I am. He was trying to get him to see you are as I am.

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In case you're wondering, yes, you heard that correctly. Furtick directly said that when God told

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Moses he was the I am, he was actually telling Moses that he is as God is.

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And as you may expect, that is absolutely not what this passage of Scripture is teaching at all.

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Let's go ahead and read the passage to see why. Many of you will know that here Stephen Furtick is referring to the account of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus chapter three.

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In this passage, Moses asks God why the people of Israel should believe that he is sent from God. In fact, he asked specifically in verse 13, quote, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the

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God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is his name? What shall

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I say to them? End quote. And God answers Moses immediately to that specific question in verse 14, quote,

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God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

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End quote. You see, Moses asked God a question about who God is, and God's response directly answered that question of who he is.

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This passage, in other words, is all about God. And yet somehow Stephen Furtick has managed to make the passage all about man.

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In fact, all about you. When God was specifically talking about himself, what he really meant to say was something about you, says

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Stephen Furtick. And in saying this, he has artificially manufactured a sermon to make it more self -centered for his audience.

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Simply put, everything Stephen Furtick said in that clip is the exact opposite of what God said in Exodus chapter three to his servant

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Moses. Instead of taking the opportunity to be in awe of God's eternally self -sufficient nature and glorify him as the

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I am, Furtick has to make the passage all about you are. So you see, one of the main issues here is that Furtick does not recognize a proper distinction between who is the creator and who is the creature.

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This distinction is essential to proper worship and really proper development of a Christian worldview.

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And it permeates virtually all of the scriptures. Genesis 1 .1, the very first passage of the scriptures, says this, quote,

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, end quote. And from this we can see many, many things.

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One, God is above all that which is created. Two, God existed eternally before all of creation.

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And three, God has the authority to designate what will be part of the created order and what will not be.

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Indeed, there are probably thousands of more incredible biblical conclusions that we can come to about God's nature and attributes when we rightly understand even this first passage of the

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Bible. But importantly, with relationship to the clip you saw, it's important that you know that God is the creator, infinite, all -knowing, all -powerful, holy, and righteous, and you are his creation.

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Though you are made in the image of God, you are still a creature, which means that you are finite, weak, feeble, and unrighteous and unholy compared to the living

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God. When we understand this, we can see how amazing and incredible it is that the

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God of the universe would reveal himself to his humble creation, Moses, and later through this passage, to the rest of us.

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Having a distinction, you see, between creature and creator leads to awe, admiration, and worship of God.

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But Stephen Furtick seems to be ripping all of that away. In his view, there seems to be very little distinction between you and God.

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He says, did you hear that God is the self -sufficient I am? Isn't that cool? Well, guess what?

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You're also sort of the I am because you are as God is. You are the you are.

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In fact, the whole point behind God telling you this in the first place was to actually give you your name and show you how great you are.

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Don't be deceived, though, folks. This kind of preaching is nothing other than self -worship. When you make a passage that is all about God as if it's all about you, that demonstrates where your attention and focus and effort is directed towards, especially if you do this every sermon every week.

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Hebrews 13, 15 says, quote, Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name, end quote.

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You see, there must be a solemn respect and acknowledgement of the mighty name of the Lord and how it is above every other name, including ours.

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It's part of our praise of God, according to this passage. Therefore, this should tell you something about the kind of so -called worship that is being promoted at Elevation Church, where they seem to be making the name of the

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Lord into the name of man, specifically into the name of their audience so that they can grow their church.

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This is very, very dangerous. So just to be clear, there are several reasons why this statement on behalf of Stephen Furtick is utterly unbiblical.

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First, he is preaching the exact opposite of what the passage actually said. He is twisting the

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Scriptures to come to a conclusion which the Scriptures clearly do not support. Second, he fails to make proper biblical distinctions between God's nature and our nature.

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And of course, this leads to the kind of irreverent and flippant preaching that you saw in that clip.

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And finally, Furtick demonstrates in the clip that he is effectively leading Elevation Church in a form of self -worship.

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That might sound harsh, but the fact is, deliberately applying a name of God to yourself without any biblical basis for such a thing can hardly be called anything other than self -worship.

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At the very least, Furtick has demonstrated time and time again that his priorities when preaching to Elevation Church are completely out of step with the biblical framework.

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And it is for that reason that you should run as far away as you can from Furtick and his teaching and his church.

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They are simply not doctrinally sound or biblically accurate, and many are being led astray by their man -centered false teaching.

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I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know this, I do not offer any of this correction from a high and mighty position.

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I am nothing but a wretched sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. So let's pray for Stephen Furtick and for Elevation, that they would stop this false teaching by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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Truth Army today, and until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open.