Behold, The Man-Centered “Teaching” of Rich Wilkerson Jr…

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

In today's video, we're going to be talking about a sermon clip from Rich Wilkerson Jr., who is the son of Rich Wilkerson Sr.,

and both of these men are well -known pastors in the sort of flashy, modern, evangelical, TBN -style

Christian community. But Rich is perhaps best known for presiding over the marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Many celebrities have been involved with Rich over the years, and alongside his pastor wife, Dawn Cherie, he runs a popular church in Miami called

VU Church. The clip you're about to see comes from a sermon entitled, quote, Stop the

Bleeding, Start the Blessing. And as you can imagine, it is riddled with doctrinal issues. More than this, the sermon comes from a broader sermon series being done at VU Church that is called,

I kid you not, Daddy Issues. And that title is a good indication of the level of teaching that you're going to see offered at VU Church.

In this first clip, Rich Wilkerson Jr. introduces the text of his message. Watch this.

So today, I don't just want you to heal. Today we're going to go a little bit deeper.

I want to look at Ezekiel chapter 16 for a moment. This is a powerful, powerful prophecy that we don't have nearly enough time today to put it all the way into context, but it really is a judgment from God and it's coming to God's people.

Now, what is fascinating here is the fact that Rich actually mentions the context of the scripture he's going to be preaching about.

This is not something you'll see often from modern celebrity pastors, yet he immediately follows this up by saying this, quote, this is a powerful prophecy that we don't have nearly enough time today to put it all the way into context.

And at this point, we need to notice something important. His sermon, in total, is 47 minutes long.

That's almost 50 minutes of preaching. And in 50 minutes, there is absolutely no reason that you can't have a fully meaningful and satisfactory amount of teaching about the context of a passage, especially when it's a single verse.

The real reason that Rich doesn't have enough time to go deep into the context here is because he's about to abandon the context in favor of a man -centered motivational speech.

That's the problem. And the irony is that he mentions the context of the passage at hand, and what he says about it is relatively accurate.

He knows that it's about Israel, he knows it's about God passing judgment on them, but again, he abandons any meaningful discussion about the context in order to pursue hype and inspiration over and against sound biblical teaching.

And in the end, he tells us that he wants to talk about Ezekiel 16, verse 6. That text says this, quote,

And when I passed by you, I saw you wallowing in your blood. I said to you, In your blood, live.

I said to you, In your blood, live. I made you flourish like a plant of the field, and you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment.

This verse comes at a time of judgment for Israel. It tells us that the Lord found Israel having been beaten and bloodied, and He restored them to life and maturity.

In response, it is said that the people of Israel turned to other gods. They were unfaithful to the

Lord, they pursued idols, sinful practices, and man -made false gods and betrayed the

Lord their God in favor of these things, leading to His divine judgment on them. Ezekiel 16, 22 says, quote,

And in all your abominations and your whorings, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

So the whole point here is that the Lord saved them from their bloody and beaten state, and yet they still turned away from Him.

And again, Rich Wilkerson knows this, he told us as much, and he acknowledged the true context.

Yet watch what he does with the passage nonetheless. Watch this. And the reality of it is, is that when we carry pain, there's so many things that we can do with pain.

Like pain can hold us back from stepping into the future. Eventually, over time, the wound did heal, and now today

I have a scar. How many of y 'all know there's a difference between wounds and scars?

Wounds are continuing to bleed, they can get infected, but scars are an indication that you have a story.

That yeah, you had a struggle, yeah you had some pain, but now you have a story to tell.

The scar lets me know that I'm still strong, that I didn't just survive, but I overcame.

So as you can see, none of this has anything to do with the actual text at hand.

Rich Wilkerson Jr. says that Ezekiel chapter 16 is about you recovering from the wounds and the pain of your past.

He triumphantly says that your scars tell you that, quote, you're still strong. You didn't just survive, but you overcame.

But this passage doesn't say that Israel are strong survivors who overcame, does it? No, the passage says that the

Lord found them helpless, wallowing in their own blood, and He restored them and gave them a new life.

Then they responded by abandoning Him and going after other gods. That's what it actually says.

It's not about them being super amazing awesome individual overcomers and getting through the pain of their past.

No, it's about what the Lord did for them and what they did to the Lord afterwards.

There are a number of accurate things that could be taught through this passage. We could say that the

Lord saves, or that we are helpless and dead in our sin without the Lord. Or we could emphasize the importance of covenant, or we could emphasize the danger of idolatry, etc.

All of these things are present in the passage. But of course, Rich Wilkerson Jr. instead decides to teach you through this verse that you are a super strong overcomer who has faced the wounds of your past and won the day.

This is very motivational, very happy, very triumphant. But it's not what the passage says.

The actual text gives God all of the credit. And it actually uses this to heap further judgment on Israel.

It's not meant to praise them or recognize how strong they were. No, it's the exact opposite.

The fact that Israel was helpless and lying in their own blood shows us how truly weak they were.

But instead of actually teaching the Bible, Rich Wilkerson Jr. is using the Bible as a springboard to tell people what he really wants to say.

And the saddest part of all of this is that when Rich offers this manufactured and shallow inspirational message, the audience is missing the actual encouragement present in the text.

You see, Ezekiel 16 isn't all bad news. Verses 59 and 60 say this, "...for

thus says the Lord God, I will deal with you as you have done. You have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

Yet I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant."

This passage shows us the loving -kindness of the Lord, even though mankind deserves none of it.

As Christians, we know that the new covenant offered by Jesus Christ is an ultimately powerful and saving one.

Jeremiah 31 verses 31 -32 expand on this idea, saying, "...behold, the days are coming, declares the

Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant

I made with their fathers, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the

Lord." In other words, we should look at the covenant breaking between Israel and the Lord in Ezekiel chapter 16, and this should cause us to dwell on the glory of the new covenant.

In Matthew 26 verse 27, Jesus offers the institution of the Lord's Supper, saying this, "...and

He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is

My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

You see, Ezekiel 16, Jeremiah 31, Matthew 26, these are all part of the glorious redemptive story of God.

This is true motivation, this is true inspiration for the Christian life. But it's been totally and completely missed here by Rich Wilkerson.

Why? Well, because he wanted to tell you instead how strong you are. This is the danger of man -centered teaching.

The danger is that we utterly miss the point. When we do not see what the Bible is actually saying in both the specific and ultimate context, we are missing out on the truth of God's Word.

We're missing out on true motivation to live the Christian life. And unfortunately, this is what many celebrity pastors, just like Rich Wilkerson Jr.,

do all the time. We must lovingly mark and avoid them as false teachers. Let's turn to true teaching of the

Word instead, rather than these empty man -centered inspirational TED Talks. They are simply not biblical.

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.

And let's pray for Rich Wilkerson Jr., that he would stop this man -centered false teaching by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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