 Here's the problem with being a celebrity pastor, especially on social media, is there is a continual push to come up with something new and fresh to push your influence forward, to garner you more popularity, more fame, and more influence, and you're doing that by coming up with new quotes, new ideas, fresh takes, fresh analogies. The pressure is real. One such example from this week was a tweet from Steven Furtick, and I quote, Following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. It reveals who you've been all along, what it would be like to see the you that God sees. Now, if you're just listening to this on the surface level, you might be thinking, okay, look, this is a little pithy, you know, it's a cute little quote that can go into Twitter that's a fresh take on something. Oh man, it stirs the pot a little bit. But as we examine further, this is not a biblical tweet. Now you guys know my mission on here is to help you follow Jesus daily. And part of that I see is just helping you discern some of the content that's coming out online, especially from some of the most popular Christian influencers out there today. Steven Furtick has a huge young adult audience, and it is really harmful when they encounter tweets like this that aren't from the scriptures. Let's just think about this for a second here. So following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. Okay, this first statement is completely wrong, okay? Like, you don't have to spend too much time in the Bible to realize this. And some will say, oh look, they're taking it out of context. And honestly, if you're tweeting out something that needs so much context, that you couldn't understand it, that you're going to basically, if you read it plainly, you're going to get a completely different idea of what the tweet actually is. It's not a good tweet, right? Like there's no excuse to that. If we're just looking at that first sentence there, following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. Well, it literally says, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. Like I know others have pointed this out, and if you exist on kind of Christian media, you've seen a lot of other people address this. But I just want to talk a little bit about this next part. It says, he says here, it reveals who you've been all along. I think there's something significantly detrimental about what he's trying to put forward here. Because what I've seen is within a lot of people that maybe were raised more conservative with this idea that, look, you know, they're really pushing sin, the idea of sin and the idea of repentance. And that's important, right? That is completely and thoroughly in the scriptures, of course, right? But it can go to the extent where once you were in Christ, there is still that kind of nagging and the kind of smashing of shame on their shoulders. A lot of these young people, a lot of young people walking around that grew up more conservative in really generally theologically sound churches are walking around with the tremendous amount of shame because they still feel like they are who they once were. This is what Stephen Ferdic is proposing here is very similar to what we see in progressive Christianity. This idea that we don't need to change, that our shame is purely a result of the societal pressure or parents in our lives or churches or religion. It's anything but God. And so if that's the truth of it, if that's real, then OK, yeah, you're right. I don't shouldn't feel any shame because I've been OK all along. I just haven't seen it and the gospel is all about helping me, my eyes being open to see that I'm actually good. No, that's not what it's about at all. You see, going back to the point about a lot of young people walking around with this shame on their shoulders, even though they are in Christ, it's not that we should say you shouldn't feel shame because shame is just a societal construct. And it's just put pushed on by religion and legalism. It's like, no, you need to understand your new identity in Christ, where he takes your shame on him so you are free. That's what we need to be preaching. That's what we need to be teaching. That's how we need to be discipling because I'm sick and tired of so many people trying to ease the pain that a lot of young adults feel in the mental health issues that they're experiencing and say, look, you just need to feel better about yourself. You just need to, you know, you just need to have better self-esteem. It's like, no, we need to point them to the gospel to see to see who they are newly in Christ, that new identity, because that new identity provides freedom. It provides acceptance. It provides love all by the grace of God. That is a healing thing. It is not healing to live in deception, to think that I've been good all along and I just couldn't see it. It's healing to know that, look, I was once this person. I was once in this place, but God has brought me into his family and he loves me and he accepts me and it's not out of all the stuff I need to do for him. It's not about who I've been all along because I've just been this great person. That's why I should feel good about myself. It's like, no, look, the pressure's not on me anymore. The pressure's not on me to measure up. It's all placed on Christ. So now I can just rest in his grace and his acceptance. Part of the way that I've been sharing the gospel is sharing the good news, the bad news and the good news. The good news that we were created in the image of God that God said it was very good. The bad news is that we rebelled against God and are enslaved to sin. And the good news is that Jesus came to this earth fully God and fully man without sin to live the life that we could not live to die on the cross, the death we deserve to die for our sins against God. And he rose again on the third day, defeating sin and death. One might say that Stephen is trying to point to the kind of good news that I shared at the beginning, that we were created in the image of God. And that is good news. But when Stephen says, oh, well, it's just, you know, Jesus is showing you and revealing to you who you've been all along. It's like, no, we were actually born in sin. We have a sin nature within us. So yes, we were created in the image of God, but who we've been all along, we've been dead in our trespasses and sins and to neglect that, to wash over that in an attempt to create a pithy tweet or have a fresh take. It's not right. Perhaps Stephen Furtick thought that this tweet would be healing for people, that when they understand, look, Jesus is revealing to us who we were all along and see ourselves as God sees us, that it would be healing. But it's not healing to live in deception. We need to come to terms with where we're actually at. And if you are not in Christ, then you are in desperate need of salvation, that you are guilty before God. You need help, but Jesus in his goodness, in his grace, he gave his life for you, so that you could be free, so that you could be a new creation, so that you could be accepted. That's the beauty of the gospel. And the heartbreaking nature of some of these pithy tweets from these pastors is that they take away the beauty of the gospel in order to water down the consequences of sin and the reality of our own brokenness. Look, we are broken, and we need Jesus, and we need to be transformed. And to take that away, that's like taking the Christ out of Christianity. At that point, you're just left with a book club. If we're all just okay, and if Jesus is just showing us that we're alright, man, what's the point? But no, we are being brought from death into life, and in that there is so much fullness, and wholeness, and healing. And that's a beautiful thing. And I'm thankful for each one of you that's watching this video, and I just want to invite you in on that, to understand the true gospel, and to begin this process of sanctification and healing. There's truly so much more to be said, and I know many other people have spoken on this topic, so I'm sure if you want to hear other people's takes, or you've perhaps already heard their takes, you can get a lot of different perspectives on this to fill in the gaps. But that was just some of my thoughts with this. I'm passionate about this. I'm passionate about God's word. I'm passionate about the gospel being preached in its fullness, and not being watered down. And if you're passionate about that too, I just encourage you, follow along with what I'm doing, if you want to. I'm putting out videos every single day, helping people follow Jesus daily. So thank you so much for watching, guys, and I will see you next time. God bless.