Steven Furtick’s DANGEROUS Teaching!

Fight For Truth

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

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In today's video, we're going to be talking about Stephen Furtick. Furtick is a trendy, seeker -sensitive pastor who is also the leader of Elevation Church.

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And Elevation is also one of the most popular sources of trendy, albeit doctrinally deficient,

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Christian music. But that's a topic for another video. In any case, this video is about a recent sermon that Stephen gave.

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It's entitled, quote, Don't Fight Your Future. And as you can tell from the title alone, this is going to be one of Stephen's signature man -centered motivational speeches, called sermons, that have made him and his ministry so popular.

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This is a style of preaching that is not doctrinally robust or deep. Rather, this kind of preaching is designed specifically to get the audience maximally, emotionally engaged and excited.

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But obviously, we shouldn't be judging a book by its cover. And with that in mind, I watched the entirety of this hour -long sermon and took eight pages of notes along the way.

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Our goal in this video, then, is to look at this sermon and analyze it biblically. But in order to do that, first, we need to know what passage

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Furtick is preaching from. Watch this. And this week is going to speak directly to that.

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So in Ephesians chapter 4, let's just do verses 22 through 24 this week.

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All the messages are online. So first, we're going to see what the passage says. And hang tight, because then we're going to see what

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Stephen Furtick preaches as a result. You don't want to miss this. It's a very important observation. To sum it up, we are in Ephesians 4, 22 through 24, which says, quote,

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Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.

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And be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness.

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End quote. In context, Paul is telling the Ephesian church here to put off the old, sinful, ungodly, un -Christlike self and nature, and instead put on the new self, the new nature, which is

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Christlike in that it is righteous and holy. This section of Scripture is full of warnings against sin and a call to Christian living.

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In verse 17, Paul talks about the darkness and the futility of the minds of those who do not know

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Jesus or obey Him. And in verse 19, he says that this darkness manifests itself in sins like, quote, sensuality and greediness to practice every kind of impurity.

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And it is in this context that Paul tells the church in Ephesus to stop acting as these people do and to instead put on the new self, with righteousness and holiness by God's grace.

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But the next part of the passage makes this even more clear. He continues warning against sinful, old self behavior.

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In verse 25, he calls out falsehood. In verse 26, he calls out sinful anger.

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In verse 28, he calls out stealing. In verse 29, he calls out corrupting speech.

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In verse 30, he tells us not to grieve the Spirit. In verse 31, he calls out bitterness, slander, and malice.

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And conversely, on the flip side, Paul tells the church to do things like tell the truth, forgive one another, and pursue righteousness and holiness.

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In other words, this passage in context is a pastoral call to live like a mature

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Christian. It is a sober -minded plea from the Apostle to stop acting in a way that is unchrist -like by nature and start acting by the

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Spirit in a way that resembles the holy and righteous character of the One who saved us. So now that we understand the passage, let's see what

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Stephen Furtick does with it. Watch this. Amen. High five somebody on your way to your seat and say

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God's not through with you. God's not through with you. I mean that.

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God's not through with you yet. Say it. God's not through with me yet.

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Put it in the chat real quick and say it out loud again. God's not through with me yet.

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So after reading the passage, Stephen immediately says that the audience members should high five each other and say a number of times,

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God's not through with you yet. And this is his main message as a result of the passage. He wants to tell the congregation

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God is not through with them yet. Fundamentally, it is a sort of motivational, inspirational message that is meant to encourage these people moving into their future.

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The only problem is that this is a sort of tangent. It's not describing the main point of the passage that we just read.

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And that's the issue here. As we've already mentioned, Paul gave a warning against sinful behavior and nature, and gave a call to Christlike behavior and nature in the passage.

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He said to put off the old self and put on the new self. But compare that to the message of Stephen Furtick.

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Paul gave a pastoral warning of sorts to the Church, and Stephen uses this and changes it in order to preach a man -centered motivational speech about how you've got a great future lined up because God's not done with you yet.

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You see, the core idea of Paul's writing in Ephesians 4, 22 -24 is completely and totally missed in Stephen Furtick's preaching.

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But this wasn't the only time that happened. Watch this next clip. Touch three people, say God's not through with you,

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He's not through with you, He's not through with you. God is not through with you. God is not through with you. What you've been through won't be wasted.

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God is not through with you. People throw you away, but God is not through. People talk about you like a dog, but God is not through with you.

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So again, you'll notice a huge difference between how Stephen preaches here and what we read in Ephesians chapter 4.

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Stephen emphasizes the fact that you have been hurt, people have disregarded you, talked about you like a dog.

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But God is not done with you yet, Stephen says, that's the inspirational message. But in Ephesians 22 -24, if you recall, the problem was not how other people have treated you.

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The issue is not some sort of mistreatment that you have received. No, what is consistently called out in the passage is your own sin.

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Your own old nature that brought it about. The problem is our own directly unchrist -like behavior that is not in alignment with the new self.

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Remember, in verse 17, Paul emphatically says, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk, as the

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Gentiles do. This is what Paul is warning against so clearly in the passage. This is the problem that needs to be solved by putting on the new self by God's grace.

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And Stephen Furtick seems to have completely missed the point. The problem is not that you need to have a pity party because everyone else has been so bad to you.

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That's not what the text is saying. So let me ask a question. Is the main message of Paul genuinely being represented by Stephen Furtick's preaching?

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Is Paul's actual point being preserved and explained and expounded and taught, or is it merely being changed and morphed into something more appealing?

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I think the answer is pretty clear, but as always, feel free to watch the sermon for yourself and decide.

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Regardless, the fact still remains. The message of the text here is a pastoral warning against unrighteousness and a call to Christian maturity.

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But the message of Stephen Furtick is fundamentally a man -centered motivational speech about how you can rise from the ashes because God's not done with you yet.

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About how you've been treated so poorly, but don't worry, everything's going to be alright because you're super special and all that.

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But let's pause there. Because I thought the whole point of preaching and teaching is to represent the biblical text that you are teaching from.

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Otherwise, you are merely offering your own agenda and then forcing the Bible to defend it. As we saw in the video, that's exactly what happened.

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Stephen turned a sober -minded exhortation into a motivational speech with you at the center of focus.

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And again, I watched the entire sermon, guys, and this was essentially the message throughout the whole thing.

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It really was more like an inspirational speech than a serious attempt to teach the passage he quoted.

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But you see, it wasn't just the sub -par teaching that concerned me. It was the general posture while it happened.

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In 2 Corinthians 4 -2, Paul tells Timothy this, I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead.

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Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

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You see, there is a seriousness, a sobriety here that needs to be recognized.

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Paul didn't just tell Timothy to make his preaching entertaining and lukewarm so that he can reach as many people as possible, because it's all about the seeker.

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No, the passage says that he charged Timothy in the presence of God to take his job seriously as a shepherd and preach the word diligently.

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And this is seemingly missed by most modern churches these days, including Elevation. You see, preaching the word to the

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Lord's people on Sunday isn't stand -up comedy or motivational entertainment. It is a task that has serious spiritual implications.

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Contrast that with this sermon from Stephen Furtick. As I watched it, I noticed that there were lots of jokes.

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Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that your pastor isn't allowed to make a joke or make an amusing comment every now and then.

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That's all well and good. We don't want to be stuffy, legalistic Christians who stick up our nose at anything that makes someone smile.

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That's fair. But I think we can all agree that there's a certain amount of jokes that would be, let's say, inappropriate for something as biblically important as a sermon in church.

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And just to give you an idea of what I mean, I actually tracked to see how many jokes Stephen Furtick made throughout the sermon.

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The answer shocked me. By the end of the sermon, I had made note of at least thirty -six times where Stephen Furtick made a legitimate attempt at a joke.

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And again, it was an hour -long sermon. In other words, for about every two minutes of sermon time, there was at least one attempt at a joke.

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And again, I'm not saying that it's sinful for your pastor to make a joke or two. But I am saying that there comes a time where it becomes difficult to tell if this is a sermon or a stand -up comedy routine with a few inspiring

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Scriptures thrown in there. And just so you can see what I mean practically, let me show you a few examples of many.

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Watch this. I was driving 80 miles an hour by the time I got to thinking about it. Because I'm like, let's go

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Jesus. What are you going to do in this season? I remember that rear -view mirror. What seemed so big.

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Y 'all remember Meat Loaf? Objects in the rear -view mirror may appear closer than they are.

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And I would do anything for God. A mash -up.

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A little Meat Loaf mash -up. Let's get back to the message from the Apostle Paul, right? So he actually stopped the sermon here to sing a silly song to make the audience laugh.

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Here's another example where Furtick says that if his son ever tried to wrestle him, he would hit his son with a shovel.

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Watch this. Right now he could beat me and I outweigh him by 25 pounds, but don't tell him that because he might try it.

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If we had to play according to the rules. I mean, I hit him with a shovel if he really comes at me, but if we had to do the rules and there was a riff.

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So that was obviously a joke. And here is yet another example where he jokes about people texting during his sermons.

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Watch this. Wow. Look at you in church. Wow. Look at you in an e -group.

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Wow. Look at you not even texting or scrolling during my sermon. Wow. Look at God doing a new thing.

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So there's another joke. And by the way, that little anecdote about him and his son wrestling, that wasn't just a little side story.

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I kid you not, Stephen actually uses his son and him wrestling on stage as a sermon illustration.

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Watch this. And so it's something like this. Don't hurt me. And then.

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And then. All right. So maybe he has the big, the bigger guy has his forearm in the back of his neck.

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So do that. Yeah. And then the lady at the top of the bleachers is yelling, stand up to the spider on the bottom.

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And by the way, that wasn't just a short little clip taken out of context. Stephen spent about five or six whole minutes of the sermon while he was preaching on the ground.

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While his son laid on top of him again, I'm not cherry picking. Here's yet another example of the almost constant joking in the sermon.

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Watch this. It in the message. Give me the message. The message translation makes it so clear. When you mount an attack on a town and the siege goes on a long time, how many have been struggling with something for a long time, praying for something for a long time, believing for some, okay.

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Three people in this whole section. Everybody else just go to heaven. Why you come to church here?

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Just go to heaven. So just put this in perspective. I just took you through five practical examples of jokes made during his sermon, but there are 36 examples

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I found in total, and that's probably less than the actual number. Now I want to make this crystal clear.

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Making a joke during a sermon is not inherently a sin. Smiling in church is not inherently a sin.

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Being amused in church is not inherently a sin. I don't know how much more clear I could make it.

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You can be a serious and diligent pastor and still make a joke or have a personal anecdote every once in a while.

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The problem is that, as we've already covered, Stephen Furtick did not actually preach the core message of the text.

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Rather, he took Paul's sober -minded statement about holiness and righteousness and he turned it into a motivational speech about how

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God's not through with you yet, even though you've been terribly mistreated and that whole deal. So here's what

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I'm getting at. There was a lot of effort put into making that sermon funny, as you could see. There was a lot of effort put into making that sermon entertaining, as you can see.

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But notice that there was little or no effort put into actually expositing the text and telling the audience what it meant in context.

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The priorities seem to be way out of alignment here. When preaching, the focus should be on the

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Bible, not on the charismatic personality of the celebrity pastor who happens to be preaching. This is the problem with Stephen Furtick's teaching.

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It's not that it's all false at every single point. In fact, Stephen made plenty of true and biblical points throughout his talk.

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The problem isn't that it's all wrong, it's that there seems to be a disregard at Elevation Church for proper exposition of Scripture.

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To put it concisely, sound teaching consistently takes a back seat to entertainment. And it shows in their teaching.

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It shows in their theology. It shows in their culture. And it shows in their style of ministry.

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And we hope this video has demonstrated that to you in some practical way. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know that this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique.

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Please pray for this channel and for anyone discussed in the video. And if you're looking for teaching resources or trying to find a new church, check out the teaching ministries and church networks linked in the description.

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And by God's grace, let's move forward joyfully, holding to the truth of God's Word. Thank you so much for watching that video.

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