{"id":9636,"date":"2018-08-30T09:27:10","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T06:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=9636"},"modified":"2018-08-30T14:32:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T11:32:23","slug":"the-best-worst-sermon-ever-preached-at-stephen-furticks-elevation-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/the-best-worst-sermon-ever-preached-at-stephen-furticks-elevation-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best\/Worst Sermon Ever Preached at Steven Furtick&#8217;s Elevation Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re at all familiar with Elevation Church and Pastor Steven Furtick then you know that Furtick&#8217;s preaching and his church generally downplay the role of doctrine, discipleship and Bible teaching while emphasizes numbers, evangelism, and over the top\u00a0 attention getting methods to draw in big crowds. That&#8217;s exactly why I\u00a0was surprised to see that a few years ago Furtick invited Pastor Matt Chandler to speak at Elevation Church&#8217;s &#8220;Code Orange Revival.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you know anything about Matt Chandler and The Village Church, then you know that these two pastors and churches represent nearly opposite ends of a man-ward versus god-ward spectrum in their approach to ministry. Pastor Chandler is obviously heavily influenced by the Reformers and their focus on God&#8217;s glory rather than simply on man&#8217;s happiness. Of course this is a Biblical focus that is found throughout Scripture. It is also an emphasis that flies in the face of much of the &#8220;church growth&#8221; movement and &#8220;seeker sensitive&#8221; approaches to ministry.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve listen to a few sermons from Elevation Church and Chandlers is by far the best I&#8217;ve heard. However, I also entitled this post the &#8220;worst&#8221; sermon. That is because Elevation Church doesn&#8217;t seem to agree with my opinion of Chandler&#8217;s sermon. You will not find the sermon on Elevation Church&#8217;s website, nor on their YouTube channel. Furthermore their approach to ministry indicates that they are not in agreement with what Pastor Chandler preached. Thankfully someone downloaded the sermon before Elevation Church had the time to delete it and then they uploaded it to their YouTube channel.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9yqQuTT1S40?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Chandler&#8217;s sermon points out the problems in making man the center of our theology and exhorted the people to make their lives about God&#8217;s glory.<\/p>\n<p>Below are a few quotes from the sermon but I highly recommend that you take some time and listen to the sermon for yourself.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If we\u2019re going anywhere tonight, we\u2019ve got to get to the bottom of what\u2019s going on here and so, we\u2019ve got to get past code orange revival, we\u2019ve got to get past Elevation Church, we\u2019ve got to get past Pastor Furtick. I\u2019m not saying those things are bad or wrong, I love all of those things. What I\u2019m telling you is we\u2019ve got to get underneath all of that so we can gaze upon what\u2019s actually going on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Commenting on Psalm 23 Chandler explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So God&#8217;s motivation behind his shepherding you, his provision for you, his love for you, his passion about you, really the motive in all of that isn&#8217;t that you&#8217;re great it&#8217;s that he&#8217;s great! So the motivation is his glory, his name, his renown and this is what you&#8217;re going to see over and over and over again in the Bible in a way that God does not feel a need to apologize for.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chandler realized that much of what he was saying went against popular culture and even church culture.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Everything in our cultures says, &#8220;you&#8217;re the man&#8221; everything in our culture says, &#8220;you&#8217;re intrinsically valuable, you are varsity, that&#8217;s what you are. You&#8217;re not JV, in fact if someone tells you you&#8217;re JV, that&#8217;s a slap in your spectacularly unique and beautiful face<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One of the biggest indicators of a man-ward focus is the tendency to read ourselves into every Biblical hero.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You keep infusing yourself into the stories of the Bible like you\u2019re the hero. Now this happens all the time. Right, so I want to be straight, I love you enough to be straight. You\u2019re not David. Alright, your trouble in life is not Goliath. And if that\u2019s true, you\u2019re in a lot of trouble bro, because you miss. You fling your stones and you miss and Goliath\u2019s still there, and now what? Well, I had five. You\u2019ll miss all five.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Understanding the god-ward focus of the Bible actually frees of from the frustration of trying to make everything including God about me.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If God is about God, then you are not the center of the universe. Almost all of your problems in life is predicated and built upon your belief that the world is about you! &#8230;. And the more the world is about you the more angry and tired you&#8217;ll be and the more it&#8217;s not about you the more free you are!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When it comes down to it it&#8217;s all about God because everything good, even our faith is from God!<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Even the faith that I had to believe in the grace was given to me by God so honestly I have nothing to boast in. I couldn&#8217;t even say &#8220;well I believed&#8221; because the belief given to me was actually a gift! So that God so owns the glory that everything is his! That&#8217;s why no one should walk with a swagger in the Kingdom and no one should walk with a limp.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re at all familiar with Elevation Church and Pastor Steven Furtick then you know that Furtick&#8217;s preaching and his church generally downplay the role of doctrine,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[508,510,228,511],"class_list":["post-9636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-elevation-church","tag-matt-chandler","tag-preaching","tag-steven-furtick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_Elevation.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-2vq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/new-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":0},"title":"New Life","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"May 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is past weekend was our last in Minnesota. We have had a great time staying with Dick and Joy Ivance. Christina translated for the Ivances about 15 years ago when on one of their first trips to Ukraine. They have continued to travel to Ukraine several times a year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":282,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/preaching-duo\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":1},"title":"Preaching Duo","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"June 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This Sunday my father and I had the wonderful opportunity of preaching together in our church \"Hope for People\" here in Odessa. Pastor Petr, my father and I at the start of the AM worship service. Christina interpreted for my father when he preached. God blessed and about 6 people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":268,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/kirovograd\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":2},"title":"Kirovograd","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"March 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This past weekend Mishael and I traveled about 180 miles north of Odessa to visit a small church in the city of Kirovograd. There are a number of people in the church that have finished our first level courses. Unfortunately they are currently without a pastor and as a result\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12083,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/pastor-al-franklin\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":3},"title":"Pastor Al Franklin","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"October 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I was 19 years old when I began my first year at Shasta Bible College, which I was sure would be my only year at the time. I had just returned from 6 months with missionaries in the jungles of South America, I had a desire to serve God but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC07951.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC07951.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC07951.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC07951.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC07951.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC07951.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11811,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/pastor-fedor-bespalov\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":4},"title":"Pastor Fedor Bespalov","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"God uses some of his children in unique ways to encourage, to inspire, and to equip others for the ministry. Such was the case with dear Brother Fedor, who moved into the presence of his Savior on March 28th 2019. I found in him a rare passion for God, love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ministry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC02592.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC02592.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC02592.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC02592.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC02592.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DSC02592.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4289,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/a-surpising-lesson-from-the-mark-driscoll-debacle\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":5},"title":"A Surprising Lesson From the Mark Driscoll Debacle","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"September 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve never been to a service at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. However, I do have family who attend Mars Hill and a few other friends who are involved in the church. So I\u2019ve been watching the unfolding drama of Mark Driscoll from a far with some interest. It\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/driscol.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/driscol.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/driscol.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9636"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9639,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions\/9639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}