You Wouldn't Believe If This Was Not Recorded...

Hi, my name is God Almighty. I'm in covenant with... Sorry, I meant Stephen Furtick. My name is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church. If you're a Christian, Elevation Church is not for you.

If you know Jesus, I'm sorry to break it to you, this church is not for you. Yeah, but I just gave my life to Christ last week at Elevation. Last week was the last week that Elevation Church existed for you.

The Manipulative Logic of a False Gospel

In fact, if you want to grow in your knowledge of God, we'll make fun of you and tell you to go somewhere else.

If that doesn't get you excited and you need the doctrines of grace as defined by John Calvin to excite you, you're in the wrong church. Let me get a phone book. There are 720 churches in Charlotte. I'm sure we can find one where you can stuff your face until you're so obese spiritually that you can't even move.

We're focused like a laser on just one thing, maximizing conversions. You're in the army now.

We do one thing. We preach Jesus so people far from God can know Jesus. And then we train them up so that others can know Jesus. It's called kingdom multiplication. It's what Elevation Church is all about.

It's what we're all about. We're focused like a laser. We're not perfect, but we know what we came to do. Luke 19 10, seek and save that which is lost.

We maximize conversions by getting people to pray a simple prayer, one that they can always look back on as evidence of their salvation.

At our church, we have people repeat a prayer. It's just a means of allowing them to express their heart to God so that they can have a moment that they look back on and say, I place my trust in Christ.

Our men today are trusting in the fact that at least one time in their life, they prayed a prayer and someone told them they were saved because they were sincere enough. And so in their salvation, if you ask them, are you saved?

They do not say, yes, I am, because I'm looking unto Jesus. And there is mighty evidence giving me assurance of being born again. No, they say, one time in my life, I prayed a prayer.

But of course, we never want to give you the impression that you can believe in Jesus without any doubts or that you can have complete confidence in the truth of the Bible.

But that one parenthetical insert, without a doubt, I told him. Never again, when you stand in the pulpit at elevation, do I want you to put people in a position where you're telling them to pray something that they can't honestly pray.

As a matter of fact, don't put them in a position to pray something that you can't honestly pray.

When a person prays the prayer, we add that person to the impressive number of assuredly genuine conversions we have every month at Elevation Church.

And over 500 people have given their lives to Jesus for the first time in this church in the last five months. That's over 100 per month.

Manufactured Conversions and Spontaneous Baptisms

How do we get so many conversions at Elevation Church, you might ask? Well, we have several tricks. For our spontaneous baptisms event, we meticulously planned for church members to jumpstart the spontaneous baptisms by getting up, walking to the front, and getting baptized again.

Deception helps ensure these kids of events are successful. Another thing I do is hype people up during my sermons. It doesn't really matter what I say as long as I get really excited and we play instruments at strategic moments.

At Elevation Church, you'll hear me say things like I'll throw in crazy things like.

I've been covenant with God Almighty! I am God Almighty! Did you know that quitting is a sin? There is no value in what is lasting. The priority is what is seen. It's not how God sees me. It's how I think God sees me that determines where I end up.

Why do I say such ridiculous things? I don't know. I just really like hyping people up. And sometimes I don't really think about exactly what I'm saying. I'll also get super excited about angels.

My angel said I'm gonna make it! My angel said I'm right on time! My angel said it's working for my...

What? Sometimes I'll even go full circus and shoot water guns at you. You're my toy. You're my toy. You know I like to illustrate stuff.

It's cause I love you. Gaston, aren't you glad you're watching on video? It'll be alright. It ain't sulfuric acid, it's just water. No. I'm praying about whether to follow through on this illustration.

And I hear the Lord say YES!

Entertainment, Emotion, and Manipulation in Preaching

You see, we've found that entertainment and emotion are great ways to get people to make a spontaneous decision that won't last long.

But at the same time, there is a danger in preaching to the affections in a way that becomes manipulative. And so then when we write our sermons, instead of thinking about what it is that we're to communicate and what it is that this text is really getting at, what we start thinking about is how do people respond and how do I get the greatest emotional impact.

I can proudly say that because of these strategies, Elevation Church is filled with professing Christians who don't truly understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the ones who are genuinely converted in spite of my shallow, distorted version of Christianity, will eventually leave when they realize they're not getting real spiritual nourishment here.

So what has happened is this.

We have these large churches filled with many unconverted, carnal people. But in those churches, we also have this small group of people that honestly want Christ. And they honestly want His Word. And they honestly want to be transformed.

The Trusted False Teachers He Cites as Heroes

We can't be doing anything wrong because my heroes are among the most trusted pastors in the world today. Joel Osteen, who stays in his lane.

I think part of my, if you want to call it success, is I've stayed in my lane. And my lane is lifting people's spirits. And there are issues that good, Bible-believing people see on both sides of the fence.

T .D. Jakes, who has never rejected the modalism heresy.

My doctrinal statement is no different from yours except for the injection of manifest instead of persons, which you described as modalist and I described as Pauline.

To reject how God has revealed Himself to exist is going to obviously put you in the position of not being able to worship the one true God.

And Joyce Meyer, the greatest Bible teacher alive today.

The greatest Bible teacher alive today came to Elevation Church, Code Orange Revival, New York Times best-selling author, written over a hundred books. I know this must be revival because God doesn't send Joyce Meyer to us anywhere.

I am not poor. I am not miserable. And I am not a sinner that is alive from the pit of hell. That is what I were. And if I still was, then Jesus died in vain. I'm going to tell you something, folks. I didn't stop sinning until I finally got it through my sick head.

I wasn't a sinner anymore. And the religious world thinks that's heresy and they want to hang you for it. But the Bible says that I'm righteous and I can't be righteous and be a sinner at the same time.

As long as we're all on the same page, you can be sure you're in safe hands. So come visit Elevation Church today. You'll hear my wife preach stuff like this.

And God is not looking for perfection because if he was, he wouldn't have picked us. He wouldn't have picked me and he wouldn't have picked you. He's looking for potential. He is perfectly okay with the space between who you are right now in this moment and who you're going to become.

Because he sees the fighter in you.

Self-Focused Christianity and the Unqualified Identity

Because at Elevation Church, you'll constantly be learning that it's all about you. That God's all about you. It's you who's amazing and we want you to know that. It's always been in you.

It's always been in you. That teaching gift has always been in you. You just had to get past what you would put on yourself. The idea that I'm not a preacher, I'm just a little girl. Stephen Furtick, unqualified.

But what surprised me was that I kind of agreed and I was fine with it. And after I thought through my emotions for a few minutes, it was like I thought, Yeah, that has a nice ring to it. Unqualified.