Watch Steven Furtick’s DISASTROUS Sermon!

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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 a sermon from, once again, Stephen Furtick. This particular sermon is a massive disaster, and it really demonstrates more than ever how unbiblical the preaching at Elevation Church is.

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But more than that, it also demonstrates how potentially dangerous the preaching from Stephen Furtick is.

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But before we watch the sermon clip, you need to know a little bit more about the mission of Elevation Church.

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Elevation is undoubtedly a self -professing evangelistic church. That is to say, they claim to put a massive emphasis on spreading the gospel to those who do not believe.

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It's the type of church that puts a lot of weight on inviting unbelievers to the church gathering and getting them saved.

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Indeed, Elevation does very detailed reports each year on how many people they've baptized and how many people have made the decision to follow

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Jesus. For example, in their 2019 annual report, they claimed to have orchestrated over 30 ,000 decisions for Christ and over 2 ,000 baptisms.

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And we're not even going to get into the theological problems and concerns regarding why those numbers are so different from one another.

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That's a topic for another video instead. For the purposes of this video, we just want you to know how important evangelism apparently is for Elevation Church and Stephen Furtick.

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In a very old clip, you can actually see Stephen Furtick directly talking about the origins of what

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Elevation exists to accomplish. By the way, ignore the music in the background. The video was screen -recorded from another channel.

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Watch this. If you know Jesus, I am sorry to break it to you, this church is not for you.

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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.

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You're in the army now. We do one thing. We preach Jesus so people far from God can know

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Jesus. And then we train them up so that others can know Jesus. It's called kingdom multiplication.

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It's what Elevation Church is all about. So in that video, Furtick says that Elevation Church exists fundamentally to get people saved.

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It exists to serve and help unbelievers make a decision to follow Christ. And this is such a big deal that Furtick even says when you get saved,

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Elevation Church is quote, no longer for you. It's all about evangelism. It's all about making other believers.

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Thus, it is not a stretch at all to say that Stephen Furtick's preaching is for unbelievers.

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After all, the goal of his weekly sermons should match the overarching goal of his church, which is to help unbelievers.

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And given that this is true by his own admission, it is not a stretch to think that there are a number of non -believers in their congregation every single

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Sunday. There are many people who have been invited or are simply curious, but even by Elevation Church's low doctrinal standards, many of these people are not

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Christians yet. Furtick acknowledges from the very beginning of Elevation Church's ministry that this will be the case.

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In fact, he's hoping on it. This is the most important background info that you need to know for this video.

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There are many unbelievers at Elevation Church, and that's precisely what they want. In fact, Stephen Furtick's message is geared towards them.

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None of that is assumed. All of it has been openly said by Stephen Furtick himself. That's what you need to know.

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So with all of that being understood, let's go ahead and watch a clip from his recent sermon entitled, quote,

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God's Got Your Back. Here we are going to compare it to Scripture and see if it's biblical.

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Watch this. The Lord put me up behind this pulpit today to remind you of something very simple, but very strong.

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He wanted me to tell you, God's got your back.

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God's got your back. And on your way to your seat, just tell three people,

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I can't reach them, you can't say, God's got your back. He's absolutely committed and connected to whatever is concerning you.

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God's got your back. Say it, God's got my back.

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Amen. You receive it, God's got my back. I need 13 people to put it in the chat,

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God's got my back. God's got my back. Amen.

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So in that clip, Stephen Furtick says that God told him to tell the congregation a message.

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So we're off to a bad start. And that message is, quote, God's got your back. In fact, Stephen Furtick tells the entire congregation to tell three people around them in their row that God's got their back.

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And then he goes even further than that, asking the entire audience to collectively say verbally, out loud,

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God's got my back. It doesn't get more obvious than that. But here's the problem. Remember that Elevation has many unbelievers visiting.

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Stephen Furtick himself said that that's their goal. And more than this, I watched the entire sermon, which was about an hour long, an hour that I'll unfortunately never get back.

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And Stephen never once told the audience that this phrase was for believers only. Never did he specifically define the phrase with any kind of theological boundary like that.

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Not one time did he make any kind of qualification about the statement. He simply told everyone, wholesale, believers and unbelievers alike, as long as you were sitting in the

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Church, God's got your back. So here's the important question. Is it biblical or accurate to tell an unbeliever that God has their back?

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Let me put it another way. Is this the most accurate way of describing the relationship of God to an unbeliever?

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Biblically, the answer is a resounding no, especially if you claim to be doing evangelism.

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And this really demonstrates how dangerous Stephen Furtick truly is. More than that, it calls into question how evangelistic

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Elevation Church could possibly be, especially given that this isn't evangelism and it's not biblical.

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There are several reasons why. First, the Bible tells us that the unbeliever is fundamentally at enmity with God.

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Of course, we know that God often graciously chooses to bless unbelievers with things like food, breath in their lungs, children, spouses, land, etc.

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Matthew 5 45 says, quote, He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good.

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He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. This is true. And none of it changes the fact that in an ultimate spiritual sense,

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God does not have the unbelievers back. And suggesting that He does, well, it's a very inaccurate description of the unbeliever's relationship to God.

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That's really the problem here. First Corinthians 6 9 says, quote, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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So unbelievers will not dwell with God forever in the way Christians will. In fact, they will be actively separated from God forever.

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The Bible says that. So again, I will ask, how is it biblical or helpful to tell unbelievers that God has their back?

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In what sense is that even true? And this brings us to another problem. Words have definitions. Words mean things.

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That's why we have language, in order to accurately communicate our ideas. So let's ask ourselves, when we say to someone else,

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I've got your back, what does that mean? What are we trying to communicate? Well, in English, it means that you support someone.

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It means that you're on their team, in a sense. You approach them with support and affirmation.

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That's what it means to have someone's back. But this does not accurately represent what the Bible says about non -believers.

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Not even close. Unbelievers are not on God's team. In fact, quite the opposite. They are against God's team.

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John 3 36 says, quote, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the

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Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. So God has wrath saved up for the unbelievers such that God's wrath justly sits upon Him.

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So once again, I will ask, how on earth is it helpful to tell a massive group of people, including unbelievers by your own admission, that God has their back unconditionally?

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Telling someone who has wrath upon them that God actually has their back? That's just cruel.

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Frankly, it's deceptive. This is not what evangelism looks like. In order to give someone the

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Gospel, you must first help them understand that they are separated from God. Otherwise, why would they need to be made right with God?

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Matthew 25 41 says, quote, Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

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Again, ladies and gentlemen, read this statement from Jesus about the accursed ones going to eternal fire.

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Then listen to the evangelist Stephen Furtick tell a room full of unbelievers that God has their back.

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How sweet. That God offers unlimited support and affirmation to you, regardless of your level of faith.

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There is absolutely no comparison here between the message of Scripture and the message of Elevation Church.

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In fact, they contradict each other. This brings us to the third problem. Stephen Furtick's preaching here is so vague that it can be applied to anyone in any way they want.

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In the clip, he said this, quote, To whatever is concerning you, God's got your back.

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End quote. This kind of statement is extremely irresponsible. There is no proper boundary placed down here at all.

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He does not say that if you believe in Christ, then God has your back in the sense that He will adopt you as His son or daughter by faith.

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That kind of statement would be totally Biblical, because those words all have real, concrete meanings and Biblical boundaries.

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This is what we might call a covenant. Covenants are agreements that have objective terms and definitions.

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We understand specifically what they're talking about, what they mean. But the problem is, that kind of statement narrows what

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Stephen Furtick is saying. And Stephen doesn't want that. You see, most importantly, Furtick wants you to leave his

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Church motivated and happy. It seems that he doesn't want you to think that God having your back is conditional on anything or that there are any limits to it whatsoever.

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With his preaching, you can think about any situation you want in your life and say in response to it,

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God's got my back. This allows the audience to be maximally entertained and to experience as much positive emotion as they can.

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The question of whether or not the audience leaves with a proper understanding of Scripture or of the New Covenant is just an afterthought, if it even matters at all.

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You see, all that matters is that you drive away from Church saying, God's got my back, with a smile on your face.

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1 Timothy 4 .3 says, "...the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.

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But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions."

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If there is a better passage to describe Elevation Church, I've certainly never read it. The fact is,

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Stephen Furtick is leading these people down a very dangerous path. This is the issue with his

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Church. They're not just modern. They're not just trendy. They're not just popular. Those aren't the real issues.

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The true problem is that their teaching is so watered down, so man -centered, so vague, and most importantly, so unbiblical, that it threatens to utterly deceive anyone who believes it.

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That is the problem. Stephen Furtick says that Elevation Church exists to serve unbelievers, but it's hard to see how it serves unbelievers to tickle their ears and make them smile as they approach an eternity separated from God.

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In fact, it seems to be very cruel, especially when you claim to be an evangelist. The Bible says that unbelievers need to know that they're sinful, separated from God, approaching

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His just wrath. They need to know the problem so they can be given the solution. Then, they need to know that Jesus lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and rose again triumphantly.

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That by grace through faith in Him, they can be made whole. They can be brought into the family of God. It is at this time that the believer can say, within biblical parameters,

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God's got my back. There are various ways in which God graciously blesses unbelievers too, yet ultimately, spiritually, they stand under the wrath of God.

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They are alienated from Him, they're lost, blind, without any hope other than Jesus Christ.

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This is what the Bible says. But Stephen Furtick, on the other hand, he seems to skip over all the proper doctrinal steps leading to true salvation.

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He wants to jump past repentance, sin, hell, wrath, law, sacrifice, etc.,

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and just fast forward to the good part, to the God's got my back part. Even if you're an unbeliever, no limits, no qualifications, no definitions, who needs that stuff anyway?

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All that matters is that you feel good about yourself. So here's a question that I'll leave you with. If Stephen Furtick and Elevation Church really care about lost people, why don't they tell them the truth?

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This teaching is at the very least dangerously irresponsible, at the very worst, it's intentionally deceptive.

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Either way, Stephen Furtick is a false teacher. We don't need to ascribe motives, we just need to lovingly and biblically mark and avoid him as a false teacher.

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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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And let's pray for Stephen Furtick, that he would stop his false teaching by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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