 God created you and He made you. And if you believe that about your life, then when you criticize yourself, you might as well be criticizing your creator. Jesus became bestiality on a tree. I've had God come tell me, he said, this is what I'm gonna do. I've had the Lord listen. What do you think about this? God has asked me for my opinion. If I wanna believe God for a $65 million plane, you cannot stop me. You cannot stop me from dreaming. If they discover life on Mars, if you think a $65 million plane was too much, if they discover that there's life on Mars, they gonna need to hear the gospel. And I'm gonna have to believe God for a billion dollar space shuttle because we got to preach the gospel on Mars. Jesus never reached his potential. Now I know this is messed with a lot of people theology. When you hear the word Christianity, you tend to think of what Christians are, but that's not necessarily the case. Christianity has become lights, has become about stage props and putting on a show, entertaining people with high wire acts and flying through on the stage, things like that. Things that don't seem to be what Christianity was meant to be. Make no mistake about it. Christianity does not necessarily mean the same as being a Christian. Christianity has changed. Miriam Webster defines Christianity as, one, the religion derived from Jesus Christ based on the Bible as a sacred scripture, or two, conformity to the Christian religion. And the first known use of the term Christianity began in the 14th century. What Christianity is, is not what it used to be or what it was meant to be. It certainly doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to the practice of following Christ in the first century church. Ah! This man was high school, placed in the tube to save his soul. This son of a hood girl's the whole world, straight masterpieces, teaching about sin, becoming a loss in the city. Got nailed on across the town, but now he's back and he's living. I got caught, amen. As you look around at Christianity, the one thing that you notice is that it seems as though anything and everything goes. And it's not only proper for a Christian to judge or make assessments about what's happening in the world today, but it's also become that you can't even judge the household. You can't say if another brother or sister who names the name of Christ, if what they are doing is sinful or goes against scripture. So the question is, where did that come from? When you survey the landscape of Christianity, you see liberal Christians. And every time I say covenant, you say an agreement between us and God. We are gathered here for coming out Sunday. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, oh God. And you see more conservative Christians. And then you see those in between. You see Christians who seem to act out in these manifestations that just don't seem like they are biblical. Amnipotent, father, mercy. Christianity has become something where it's more of a circus, more of a spectator sport, and it's all about seemingly how many people you can get to like you, either figuratively or literally. Meaning how many people can you get to like and follow you either on your social media platform, be it YouTube or Facebook or Instagram or you name it. Or how many people will like you enough to send money to support you? I have a feeling that somebody that wants a credit card debt wiped out, that if you'll use your faith as you sow, as you sow the thousand on a credit card, as you use your faith, God's gonna wipe out your credit card indebtedness. So the question is, when did Christianity lose its purpose? But an even bigger question is now, when did Christianity cease to be mainly about being Christian? When did Christianity either die or begin to die? No one person or no one group can take all the blame for what has happened with the American church. And I say the American church because make no mistake about it, there are people across the world who still hold on tightly to the tenets that are taught by Jesus. And who don't think that it is unquestionable or unfathomable to suffer and to do so gladly for the name of Christ. But speaking about Western Christianity here in America, in Europe, Canada, it's become a religion to where it's about how comfortable you can be. And if it's not about how comfortable you can be, it certainly is about how good you can feel. And if it's not about how good you can feel, then it's about how much emotion you can exhibit. And if it's not about how much emotion you can exhibit, it's about how spiritual you look. Just like people have tried to climb the corporate ladder, people have tried to climb the religious ladder. In other words, people have sought to become something more than what they really are with these titles, apostle, prophet, bishop. However, no one seems to be humble. No one seems to want to be what the true sense of the word servant actually is. Though this person is not the cause of the downfall of Christianity, no one person embodies the death or the dying of Christianity like Joel Osteen. You explain God to a non-believer. I would explain God as the creator, a heavenly father of someone that wants to be in relationship with you, just as somebody that's for you, as a friend. Joel Osteen's brand is popular, it's attractive to the world, because it's non-condemning. You said, I like to see myself as a life coach, a motivator to help them experience the life that God has for them. People don't like to be beat down and told you've done wrong. What do you mean? Well, I think that most people already know what they're doing wrong. And for me to get in here and just beat them down and talk down to them, I just don't think that inspires anybody to rise higher. Is that being a pastor, or is that being Dr. Phil or Oprah? In his view, you don't have to be strong in your beliefs. As a matter of fact, it's looked down upon, it's frowned at. To tell someone what the Word of God says, if it's gonna make someone not feel good about themselves, not feel positive, well then we shouldn't do that, because after all, who am I to judge? Go on ahead. No, I don't. Well, here's my thing, Larry, is I can't judge somebody's heart. I don't know, only God can look at somebody's heart. And so I don't know, to me it's not my business to say, this one is or this one isn't. I'm just saying, here's what the Bible teaches and I want to put my faith in Christ. And I just, I think it's wrong when we go around saying, you're not going, you're not going, you're not going because it's not exactly my way. And so why is that a problem? Well, if it becomes about how I feel and about me becoming something important, something special, about as he says, having my best life now, well then all bets are off. And if there are no rules to be held to, then I can do anything in Jesus' name. If I want to hold to bad doctrine and act as though I'm very spiritual, even though nothing that I said and I'm doing is very spiritual or very biblical. Emotion de la rosa, I am. Emotion de la rosa, I am. Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory. Who cares if these tongues aren't really biblical tongues? I can't hear the voice of God. They say they are, and since I don't read my Bible, and so who am I to judge whether that's the real move of the spirit? Who cares if I'm a pastor who wants to be worldly? Or who cares if I am an effeminate pastor? I feel mine now. I feel something happening right now. Out, now, he's talking to me about what's happening now. As a matter of fact, who cares if I'm a male pastor at all? I can be a female pastor. My spirit went up and I literally went to the throne room of God. I won't say much, but I'll say something that's important for me to teach you here today. So in that divine encounter, I don't know how long I was there. I just know that kind of power is almost impossible for a natural body to contain. I can even claim to be so spiritual that I have the power, not the Holy Spirit, to deliver someone from whatever stronghold has them in their grips. Out, out, out of the mouth, come out right now. In Christianity, is homosexuality a sin? Well, for now it is, but we're not gonna be too loud about it. Have you ever read the gospel and heard Jesus say anything about homosexuality? Why are you so angry? Jesus never said a word about it. As a matter of fact, Christianity ought to be about making sure that we live socially responsible. Being a political Christian is also a plus. America's largest church is okay with anything as long as you don't offend, hurt, or diminish, or demean the next Christian. The word of God is not to be used to correct. The word of God is not to be used to rebuke. The word of God is only to be used to love someone, to make them feel good about themselves. Do, and that's to bring hope to people, to try to lift people, and to try to get people interested that are not necessarily churchgoers. And I think that's where, we've seen a lot of favor, and like I mentioned earlier, a lot of people that watch don't go to church. And so, I just feel like that God's given us all different gifts, and I stay focused on what God's called me to do. When I talk about it, I talk about how we can become better, how we can overcome. And I just, I probably categorize it bigger, but I don't feel like I'm supposed to go and beat people down. Most people know what they're doing wrong. The scripture I come back to, it says the goodness of God leads people to repentance. And so, when I tell people, like I will tomorrow night, but you know what, you may have made mistakes. You may have done wrong, but you know what, God is on your side. You can receive forgiveness. He's got mercy for every sin. You know, that's how I do it. And you know, we've seen thousands of people come to know the Lord. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness, that the man or woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And then he says in chapter four, verse two, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wonder off into myths. Clearly we are realizing those warnings. People do not endure sound doctrine. Why? Because sound doctrine doesn't make me feel good, but let's be clear. Don't confuse Christianity with what Christians are. True Christians. Christians are bold. Christians don't waver. Christians do not treat the word of God as something secondary, but as something primary. Christians don't mind being rebuked if it's done so by the true word of God. And though the true number of Christians are shrinking, we're not dead. As a matter of fact, we are very much alive. So to those people who might be confused about what a Christian looks like, it's not this. See, Jesus was man until God touched him and put the spirit of the living God on the inside of him. Don't confuse someone who says they're a Christian with someone who's not. Just like you should not confuse someone who says they are a woman or someone who does know what the definition of a woman is with an actual woman. You provide a definition for the word woman. I can't. Don't confuse the imposters with the actual possessors of Christ. The Bible says that you will know them by their fruits. You'll know us by our fruit. And we will reveal to you that we are really, truly Christians. We may not be the nicest all the time. We may be bold. We may be a little bit strong. Sometimes we may even be offensive but make no mistake about it. Though Christianity might be dying, real Christians are not. Amen.