MORE Of Elevation Church’s UNBIBLICAL Preaching!

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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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In today's video, we're going to be talking about a guest pastor at Elevation Church, Robert Maddew. And as always, before we begin, let me establish, this is not meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique.

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Now for those who don't know, Elevation Church is usually occupied by Stephen Furtick, but in this case, his stage is occupied by someone else,

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Robert Maddew, pastor of Social Dallas. He's filling in for Stephen Furtick.

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In the video you're about to see, he's talking about the story of Naaman. And Naaman was a mighty man of valor, spoken of in 2

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Kings 5. I would highly recommend that you read the whole story. Naaman was the commander of the

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Syrian army, and he had leprosy. He also had a servant girl who was taken from the land of Israel in a raid, who was made to work for Naaman's wife.

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This servant girl says that if Naaman would go see the prophet Elisha in Israel, then surely he would be healed.

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Naaman is then told to wash in the Jordan River seven times to be healed, and that's precisely what happens.

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Here's what Robert Maddew says about this story. Watch this. He got low.

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Why? Because servants always start the miracles. Maybe you're missing out on the miracle because you become so narcissistic and so consumed with you that you're not serving somebody else.

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But if you would serve, you would see the miracle. This girl started the whole miracle.

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Be careful who you look down on, because you don't know where God will send the miracle to you from.

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So there's a few moving parts here. The first thing to note is that Robert Maddew is clearly an engaging speaker.

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He's much like Stephen Furtick in that way. He's very exciting, very good at public speaking in a way that could easily distract you from how incorrect his teaching is.

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And you need to know that. You need to be made aware of it. Part of the operation for false teachers, according to 1

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Timothy 4 .3, is that they will tickle people's ears. They will suit these people's passions.

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But this is not a reason to believe what they say. No, it's actually a reason to flee from them, because they're still speaking falsely.

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Now let's talk about that part of the equation. The first quote from Robert that should have made you squint at your computer screen and tilt your head was when he said, quote,

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Maybe you've been missing out on the miracle because you've become so narcissistic and so consumed with you that you're not serving someone else.

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But if you would serve, you would see the miracle. End quote. This is yet another version, a light version, a diet version, if you will, of the word of faith teaching that's sweeping the nation, really sweeping the world right now.

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There's this idea that if you would just do the thing, if you would just have enough faith, then you would have your breakthrough.

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Then you would get your miracle. In other words, the advice here is effectively stop being narcissistic, and then you'll get your miracle.

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Then you'll get what you want. But there's an inherent problem in this so -called solution. To stop being narcissistic for the sake of achieving your miracle is a self -contradictory statement.

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You see, a narcissist struggles with making things all about them. And this idea, this concept basically still makes it all about them.

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It's not stop being narcissistic because you're a mere human being who has fallen and sinful, and you shouldn't be looked at that way.

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It's not stop being narcissistic because God has commanded you to be humble before him. No, in this view, in the preaching at Elevation Church, it's stop being narcissistic so that you can get what's really yours.

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This will not work because it makes no sense. It's pretty much the same as saying, look, man, you need to stop being so prideful.

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You won't get everything you want if you're too prideful. Again, the problem is that you're putting all of their hopes, their aspirations, above everything else.

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And that's what caused them to be prideful in the first place. They were exalting themselves too highly.

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You cannot help a self -centered person by putting even more focus on them and what they want.

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Romans 12 .3 says this, quote, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.

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End quote. Paul does not say stop thinking so highly of yourselves. You're blocking God's blessing for your life.

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No, he simply says, stop thinking of yourself so highly in a way that's improper, but instead use sober judgment.

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The goal is not your personal miracle. The goal is to be wise and sober minded before the

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Lord. The goal is to think less about yourself and more about others for God's glory and the building up of his church.

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Philippians 2 .3 says, quote, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves.

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Let each of you not only look to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. End quote.

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So we should not serve ourselves fundamentally, but instead humble ourselves and serve others.

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But do we do this in order to get our miracle? No. The passage goes on, telling us exactly why we ought to do this.

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Quote, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.

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End quote. So why should we humble ourselves? Well, because Jesus did, and we follow his example.

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Then the passage says this, Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

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End quote. And of course, in turn, we should know that when we humble ourselves before Christ, we are raised up in the last day with him and will worship him for all eternity.

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It is true that the humble will definitely be exalted, but we are humble because Christ was humble and in the way that he was humble.

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And we seek to be like Christ as believers in him. Contrast this with what Robert Maddow says.

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He says that we should stop being so narcissistic and prideful because we might be blocking our personal miracle.

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This is a very self -centered way of reading the scriptures, and it actually has nothing to do with the story of Naaman, believe it or not.

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That story is about the power of God being displayed through his prophet Elisha. It's not about accomplishing your miracle for your life.

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It's not about getting your wildest dreams. It's not about getting your healing. Our response to this story should be, wow, look at the power and sovereign healing of God.

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Not, wow, now I can finally get my miracle. I'm so glad I figured out how to do it. Jesus himself connects his ministry to the story of Naaman in Luke 4 27 quote.

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And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only

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Naaman, the Syrian end quote. This is when Jesus was talking about a prophet not being accepted in his hometown.

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But if we look through Robert Madu's framework at this passage and that of Elevation Church, this makes no sense.

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You see, if the story of Naaman is actually a blueprint about how to get your miracle from God, then why is it that out of all the lepers during the time of Elisha, Naaman was the only one healed?

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Why would there be laws in the Old Testament, and there were, about quarantining people with leprosy from the rest of the people of Israel?

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Why not simply tell them to do what Naaman did? Well, because this is a type and shadow of the ultimate healing of Christ, the ultimate cleansing of Christ.

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Like in the story of Naaman, Christ came as a servant sent by someone else, his father. Also like the story of Naaman, Christ preached the message that he was given.

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John 12 49 says, quote, I, Jesus, have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak, end quote.

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And like the story of Naaman, those who obey this servant do so by being immersed in the waters, but this time by the waters of baptism.

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Notice also that without this servant sent, Naaman was dead and completely hopeless, just as we are dead, just as we are unclean in our trespasses before we accept

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Christ. It is also notable that an Israelite was not asked to wash and be cleansed, but rather a seemingly random

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Gentile from Syria. In the same way, the ordinance of baptism did not come until Christ's new covenant, which would start the inclusion of the

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Gentile Christians. The parallels are absolutely clear. In short, the story of Naaman does not point you to your personal miracle.

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No, it points to something much greater, the finished work of Jesus Christ. And as long as Elevation Church continues to preach their man -centered message and see every biblical text through this man -centered lens, they're going to miss the point entirely.

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It's about Christ, not about your personal goals in life. 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 please, let's pray for Robert Madduh and for Elevation Church, that they would stop this false teaching, and by God's grace, that they would 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.