Jackie Hill Perry EXPOSED the Problem with Christian YouTubers!

Jackie Hill Perry’s Warning About Christian Platforms and Stewardship

You ever hear someone say something so true, it just slices right through the noise? That's what Jackie Hill Perry just did. And she did it right to Lecrae's face. They were talking about Christian platforms, podcasts, YouTube, all of it.

And Perry dropped this biblical bombshell that honestly checked me as a content creator. Watch this.

This is teaching and the Lord will judge us for how we handle this influence, how we steward this position. And I think if people had a concept of the fact that if I am positioning myself as a leader, then God will judge me as one.

I think we would be slower to speak.

Did you just gently rebuke me?

Okay, we need to talk about this guys because Perry just opened the door to something that's been bothering me for a very long time. So let's get right into it. Welcome back to Wise Disciple. My name is Nate and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be.

Before I jumped into this ministry full-time, I was a pastor and a Bible teacher. And it's from that experience that I make these videos. Make sure to like, sub, and share this one around because I think we all need to hear this message.

I think what we are seeing is envy. I think what we are seeing is potentially, I think there are some people who are gifted prophetically, but they are functioning in ways where they don't have to submit to leadership.

Prophetic Gifts, Impatience, and Submission to Church Leadership

So this is about 45 minutes into the full conversation between Perry and Lecrae. And I'll give you the link below because you can take a look at the whole thing. I think you should. But right now Perry is talking about a lot of quote unquote, modern day prophecy.

She's saying a lot of it is just people making videos, but not submitting to church leadership.

And so, and because you can see that with teachers, I can see people who have the gift of teaching and because their pastor did not affirm that gift or position them at the pace that they would prefer, they went to social media because it's like, no, I'm gonna walk in my gift.

It's like, I waited and submitted myself to my leaders and still do when I function in certain stuff. And so I think some of this is people who are legitimately gifted, but just impatient.

That's good. Cause there's teachers like that. Like you're a great communicator, great teacher.

That's a lot of podcasting.

Facts.

Is you have people who might be gifted with exhortation and teaching, but they're moving out of order because they are impatient.

That's good.

Nah, that's facts.

So you're exalting yourself prematurely. And that's scary. I got to say that because even with the podcast space, it's like James says, not many of you should be teachers for you will be judged more harshly.

You cannot think that just because it's not a pulpit, you're not positioning yourself as a teacher.

Uh, is she right?

If someone starts a YouTube channel and they start giving a word, or again, let me say it this way, quote unquote, a prophetic word. Does that mean that they are teachers in the sense that the scripture describes?

By the way, look at what James says. Cause Perry brought him up. James 3 .1 says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Is Perry right? Let me know in the comments, what you think, you know, and I'll tell you in a moment, what I think.

Is teaching and the Lord will judge us for how we handle this influence, how we steward this position. And I think if people had a concept of the fact that if I am positioning myself as a leader, then God will judge me as one.

I think we would be slower to speak.

Did you just gently rebuke me? Is that what just happened?

If the Lord convicted you, that's between you and him.

I think that's what you did. I think you gently rebuked me. I think you did that. It's fine, I receive it.

You want to process that?

I receive it. I receive it. I receive the gentle rebuke. Reason why I receive it is because I know you care.

I wasn't coming for you.

I know you wasn't coming for me, but the Lord was.

Cause I'm trying to broaden it. Cause people can get caught up in like, oh, she coming for the prophets.

No, no, no.

I think all of us who use words have to think through, am I using my words in a way that are faithful? Or am I using these words in a way that is coming from a different place than what God has called me to?

And I just, I, the Lord care, he cares about, especially now in the last day. Like he cares about his glory.

Love, Character, and the Marks of a True Disciple

Now that's interesting because initially it seemed like she was more narrowly focused on those who would give a prophetic word. Now she's just talking about anybody who's a podcaster or a YouTuber or whatever, right?

Who is speaking to an audience in some way, shape or form. In other words, she's suggesting that the utilization of your platform comes with a lot more responsibility than you think. Now this gives me pause because social media has been primarily used as a way to curate your own life, right?

This is what Facebook and Instagram are supposed to be. You post a picture because you got married, right? You post a picture because you moved. You know what I mean? You got a new job and you're excited.

So you post a picture, right? You get a new family pet or something. So you post a picture. You post these things on social media. But wait a second, along those lines, what if a Christian creates a YouTube channel to essentially film vlogs of their life?

And that becomes popular. Does that count according to what Perry is saying? I don't think so. I think what Perry is more concerned about is when Christians use their platforms to speak to their audience in ways that are persuasive.

This is why a subset of people on social media are called influencers. I think Perry is talking about these types of folks, right? Which by the way, that's me. That's me too. I'm on the hook for this kind of a thing.

And I know a lot of people in the same pond as me who are also on the hook as well. So Perry's comments, they're aimed at people like us. And the question is, does she have a point? And the answer is 100 million percent yes.

Now I said this at the outset. This has been bothering me for quite some time. So let me put it this way. What is more important to Jesus? Your ability to speak or your ability to love? Think about that.

Take a look at this. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. This is John 13. By this, now here it is. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.

If you communicate the gospel in the most articulate way possible. If you're a great speaker and a communicator and you can destroy people in a debate. That's how they'll know that you're a disciple of Jesus?

No.

If you have love for one another, that's how people will know that you are Jesus' disciple. This is why the apostle Paul puts it like this. First Corinthians chapter 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I'm nothing. You realize like this applies to everything, right?

Like you could potentially be the greatest communicator in the world. You could have, again, the greatest prophetic powers known to man that anyone has ever seen, right? But if you have not love, it's all for nothing, all of it.

You're just a bunch of noise. You're a bunch of noise adding to the noise that's already present in the world. See, I think a lot of people, a lot of us, we know about passages like this, but we haven't really thought about it.

We haven't really let that sink in.

You know what I mean?

And we have to, I think it's a absolute prerequisite. We have to be thinking about these things, particularly those of us who want to get out there and we want to engage others on behalf of Jesus Christ, right?

Actually, let me give you one more because I mean, my goodness, this is all over the place in the scripture. Watch this, Matthew chapter five, verse two, or verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

These are the beatitudes that Jesus gives right at the outset of his sermon on the mount. Actually, there's one more verse, verse 11. There's another beatitude. By the way, beatitude is a, it's a Latin word that simply means blessed or happy.

And that's how these all start, right? Blessed are you when you dot, dot, dot, right? Blessed are those dot, dot, dot. Now here's a question for you, right? Take a look at this. Did you notice where it says, blessed are you when you communicate well?

Did you notice the verse where Jesus said, blessed are those of you who have really great marketability and you can leverage your platform to influence people. Right, blessed are you, those of you who have the gift of teaching and you can do it like no other, right?

You can spit bars all day long, right? Jesus doesn't say that.

Why?

Because what Jesus is concerned with more is the quality of your heart, the quality of your character. As it turns out, the Bible is way more concerned about your imitation of Christ than your influence for Christ.

I mean, by the way, that's what a disciple is, right? Ladies and gentlemen, I mean, Luke 640 says that a disciple is someone who is fully trained to be like their teacher. This is imitation language that the Bible uses, right?

Imitation of the person of God, not information about God. I mean, listen, so I'm getting worked up. I get emails sometimes from people and I'm not even saying that the desire is wrong here, but I get emails and I get DMs sometimes from people and they asked me to help them start a YouTube channel and to do what I do essentially.

And guess what? A lot of these folks don't even go to church. They don't even go to church. They don't even have a pastor that they're submitted to. Hey, don't start a YouTube channel then. You know what I mean?

Because you're gonna do more damage than you're gonna do good. And that's not me saying it, that's what the Bible teaches. The Bible is very clear about this. What must be inside of everything that we do, which by the way, which some of us, you know what I mean?

That is a gift that some of us have. For some of us, we should get up in front of the brothers and sisters. We should preach. We should give a word or, you know, stand up in the public square and provide a defense of the faith, right?

Or maybe even call out false teachers or whatever it is, right? But what must be inside of all of that is the quality of character that identifies you as a disciple of Jesus. In John 13, Jesus calls it love.

In Galatians 5, Paul calls it the fruit of the spirit,.

Right?

In the last video on the prodigal son, I said that we all need to be gracious party throwers,.

Right?

In the spirit of our heavenly father. This is all getting at the same thing, ladies and gentlemen. If you do not have those qualities of character, where people can see those qualities in you and think of Jesus, if you've not developed this type of fruit, and certainly if you have no desire to even try to develop that, you need to sit down and shut your mouth.

We don't need you.

You will not bless the brothers and the sisters. You will actually do the exact opposite.

Why?

Because you're disobeying the word of God, period. Now, does that mean that you should never say anything, that you should do nothing to learn about the scripture and the teaching of Jesus because you'll never speak at all?

No, that's not what I'm saying. When you want to get out there and engage others on behalf of the Lord, I'm just saying, you need to think of two things, right? Calling and character. That's what God desires.

It's twofold, okay? This is a twofold enterprise, but a lot of us only think it's one. And that's the problem. We got a lot of people online right now that get all kinds of likes for saying true things about Christ without being Christ-like.

Do you understand? The Bible says that simply being a good speaker and teacher is not enough. We have to be like Christ when we speak, when we teach, when we engage others. And for some of us, when we leverage our online platforms, right?

Or else we need to be quiet and sit down. And look, I got news for you, ladies and gentlemen. There are people on social media with tons of influence, tons. And they say they're Christians and they say true things about the Bible and they say true things about God, but they have zero desire to look like Jesus.

The thought of evaluating themselves in light of the Beatitudes or Galatians 5 has never once crossed their mind. And that really bums me out. Some of us need to realize that we jumped into ministry too quickly.

And we need to go sit under an older, wiser Christian that can disciple us properly in those particular fruits before getting back out there.

You know what I mean?

I've said this before, but I started this ministry back in 2013.

You know?

So do the math. I'm a 12 year old overnight success, you know? I mean like, and those 12 years were extremely hard. They were extremely difficult. A lot of trial suffering, testing happened in those 12 years.

A lot of failure, all of which forced me to get on my knees and trust the Lord to get to the point where, cause if you had asked me like when I first started this ministry, hey, do you want to like have a large reach?

Do you want to do the things that your heroes, you know, like Greg Kokel, Francis Schaeffer, you know, Jay Warner Wallace. I mean, who can you, Sean McDowell. Like, do you want to do what they're doing?

To the level of success that they're doing? I would have said, absolutely sign me up. Can I do it today?

Right?

But the Lord knew better. The Lord knew better. Had I just gotten out there with, you know, where I'm at right now, 12 years ago, this would have been a disaster. I would have ruined it. And the thing is like, I'm still striving to be extremely careful about my character and how I, my tone.

And I mean, to me, I don't even do it perfectly. Like I'm trying to walk this balance and I think I do it imperfectly actually trying to, you know, set that tone, particularly at the end where I remind us all, please let's pray.

Let's keep praying, right? We have an answer to whatever challenge has been thrown our way from the culture, but let's continue to pray for these folks. It's not too late. You know, that's, that's the real takeaway.

The love and the grace and the mercy that extends from the father must come through. And like I said, I do that imperfectly, but I'm really trying, but that's what I mean. Like, you know, five years ago, I wouldn't have done that.

It took time and patience and the Lord's grace to grow me and mature me. And like I said, I'm not even there. I'm just saying like, don't let that be you.

Amen?

Understand what Jesus desires for you. Whether that means, you know, you're an influencer now or you're gonna be one tomorrow, right? Or whether you'll never be one. Jesus wants you to give this world the light of the gospel of the glory of God that flows from him and him alone.

Because guess what? Jesus says, there are those who will see that light that shines through you, and they will give glory to our father in heaven.

Amen?

That's the goal. It's not about how intelligent you are. And let's face it, in this fear, there are a lot of intelligent people out there. A lot of intelligent men and women out there. Praise the Lord, by the way, but it's not about that.

It's about how well you can love people when you tell them the truth.

Amen?

Closing Appeal, Ministry Updates, and Sponsor Reads

All right.

That's enough out of me. Hey, this was a great conversation between Lecrae and Perry. And I thank Jackie Hill Perry for calling this out because it's incredibly important, all right? But now it's your turn.

What do you think about what Perry said? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to get your thoughts. As always, if you enjoyed the insights here, you should come over and check out the Patreon community.

There's a lot of cool stuff. I keep mentioning all the cool features. You just gotta go check it out for yourself. There's just about 14 ,000 people over there. And the biggest thing for me is we're doing a Bible study together, but there's a lot of other great features.

You should come check it out. The link for that is below. Hey, if you're into deep Bible study, I encourage you to check out Logos. That's the Bible app that I use to read the word with you here. I've partnered with Logos and I've partnered with Biblingo.

Both of these tools are game changers for you as a serious student of the scripture. So just do me a favor, go to the links below and check them out for yourself. Download the app, tool around with them yourself.

If you check out Biblingo, make sure to put in the code wisedisciple10 at checkout for that. And I hope it blesses you. All right, everybody, I'm gonna return soon with more videos, but in the meantime, I'll say bye for now.