 A few weeks ago, well-known Christian speaker and podcaster Tim Ross preached at Michael Todd's Transformation Church. A clip from that sermon has been making the rounds on social media for their polarizing people in support of Transformation Church or people continuing to call them out for their unbiblical teaching and practices. Let's watch the clip and I'll share my thoughts. We only reverence one stripper and that's the one that took off glory to put on humanity and then get butt naked on a cross to die for both you and me. The only stripper I'm in love with is Jesus and he's the one that puts that bread in my pocket. That bread in my pocket. Seriously, some of these church services, like what are we doing? Like what is going on? Okay, I'm sorry. I need to compose myself. Okay, nobody's really arguing with the theological contents of what he's saying. In Philippians 2, it highlights it well, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Okay, but that's not what the controversy is about. I just got to be straight with you guys. I do not think it is appropriate. I do not think it is respectful, biblical, or wise in any way to compare Jesus to do a segue from a stripper to Jesus. It just, like, I don't understand. You put it on paper. Like, how is that a thing that you do? I just don't get it. It's like something an atheist podcaster would say to mock Jesus. Now, this highlights a bigger problem with trendy church pastors. They always need to come up with something cool to say, something to put on a t-shirt, or some sort of shocking analogy to get your attention. But this tendency exemplifies a lack of reliance on the sufficiency of Scripture to bring about transformation within a person. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians when he's talking about his own mission. He says, For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. People focus so much on the eloquence of their words or the way that they say something, or just trying to come up with something that's going to catch people's attention. But in so doing, they actually lose sight of the truth at its foundation. Is there any substance to what you're saying, or in this case, are you utilizing a really shocking comparison in order to try to make a point? I do know, though, that these type of churches fuel off the controversy. They love it. They eat it up because it helps them grow more. It draws more people and attention to them. And they deliberately say things that they know are going to upset people. That's for sure. They're going to do some absurd illustration or analogy. And they're going to spit on somebody's face. They're going to do a wild Easter service just to try to get as much media buzz as they can. They're going to compare Jesus to a stripper because nothing's off limits. Now, to be honest with you, making this video was kind of a tough decision because I don't want to play into outrage culture. I don't want you to go away from this video merely feeling frustrated and angry and outraged. My goal here is to not just get you riled up and angry at Tim Ross. How could you say that kind of thing? But I do think there's a place for righteous anger when it comes to seeing our Savior disrespected in this way. I do think it's disrespect. Well, I do think it's dishonoring to Christ to compare him to a stripper. I can't even believe I'm saying that. But ultimately, I want you to go away from this with the lesson learned that we need to be focused on the sufficiency of scripture to transform hearts and to utilize that in our preaching and our teaching and sharing with people in our lives that it's not about us coming with some new hot take or saying the perfect thing or coming up with some kind of shocking analogy to get people's attention, but rather focusing on God's power in using his scripture to bring about transforming work. If you feel yourself getting angry, talk to God. Make sure that's coming out of place of humility and not of pride. You want your anger to be controlled and to be grounded in truth. You know, guys, we don't need cute little sayings. We don't need bumper sticker theology. We don't need controversial hot takes to get our attention. We don't need you to make some sort of gospel comparison to the newest Drake song. Look, as Christians, we just want to be attentive to be fed by the Word of God. That is a message that us as laypeople should be sending towards our pastors that, hey, you don't need to come up with the newest, the coolest thing. We just want to be fed from the Word of God. That is enough when cultural relevancy becomes more relevant than God's revelation. We'll compromise our convictions to be connected to the culture, but we'll ultimately be consumed by it. I don't do this very often. My ministry is not about culling out false churches. That's not what I'm about. But I would caution you heavily to not watch anything from Transformation Church. There are plenty of other solid biblical churches that put out their sermons on YouTube that you can be fed from, but ultimately being connected to a local body in your neighborhood that you should be pouring into, that you should be being fed by. That's where you're going to be fed. And yeah, they won't have the light show. And yeah, they won't have the cool Easter service. And yeah, they won't have the cool, you know, bread in my pocket. Bread in my pocket! I got bread in my pocket! I got bread in my pocket. I got bread in my pocket! I got bread in my pocket! I got bread in my pocket! I got bread in my pocket! I got bread in my pocket! I don't even know what that's about. I don't even want to know. But they won't have that. But that's okay because they're focused on the Word of God. And that's what's most important. That's what you want. Thanks so much for watching this video, guys! If you got something from it, or enjoyed it, subscribe because I'm putting on new videos all the time. A huge thank you to my patrons on Patreon that enable me to continue to make this content to equip people to follow Jesus daily. You can head on over to link in my description and sign up there for all sorts of perks and benefits. I'd love to see you there and it is a huge blessing to my life and this ministry. So thanks so much and I will see you next time. God bless.