Hi everyone.
By now, you've already heard about the Carl Lentz scandal,
about the Ravi Zechariah scandals,
and all the other Christian leadership scandals over these last few years.
Why are there so many Christian leadership scandals?
And more importantly, how should we look at it from a Biblical perspective?
That's what we're going to talk about in this video,
and it is a very important video and a sensitive one at that, as well,
because we look up to some of these leaders with a lot of respect.
And then, when the scandal hits, it's a shock to many of us.
But we should not lose faith.
We should not look so much at the teacher, the messenger.
We should look more at God Himself because He will never let us down.
Now, I grew up with the teachings of Ravi Zechariah.
These teachings meant a lot to me as a young Christian,
and that's why I cannot stay silent any longer. I cannot ignore it.
And I have to tackle it head-on as a Christian leader.
So, let's not waste any more time.
Let's get right into the video.
And just very quick; If it's the first time that you're here on my channel.
Welcome to DLM Christian Lifestyle.
I'm Daniel Maritz, and you can follow me on Instagram, and also subscribe here to my channel,
So you won't miss any of the future videos and also all the ones that are already here.
Now, you've heard about preachers, teachers, certain Christian leaders,
that resign because of sexual misconduct and also because of leadership abuse.
Why does this happen and how should we as the church look at it and handle it?
Well, to answer this question I want to talk about four things that you need to know.
Let's start with the first one.
The few do not present the many.
You need to understand that there are thousands of Christian leaders out there.
There are many God-fearing preachers and teachers who teach the Word in all truth.
Who serves God with their whole heart, soul, and mind.
The few do not present the many.
So, these scandals that you hear of some Christian leaders,
and some celebrity leaders, do not present the many.
It doesn't mean that the whole church and all the church leaders are bad.
Do you know how many Christian organizations there are in the world?
There are more than 30 000 Christian organizations in the world.
More than 1 200 in the US alone.
Christianity is still the biggest religion in the world.
And you need to remember that we do not serve leaders, celebrities, pastors.
We serve God.
So, I want you to listen up, especially young Christians.
Don't go and be naive, and just go and listen to every pastor and preaches,
and say, 'Yes, this guy, this person, he is from God.'
And you listen to, 'Yes, pastor, I'm gonna do exactly what you say.'
No, your responsibility is to hear what God wants you to hear.
To study His Word and to test Christian leaders.
When I speak, when I say something, when I teach you something, don't just believe it.
Go and test whether it is true.
Go and test it with God's Word.
That is your responsibility.
Even what I say on all my videos and all my sermons.
Don't just say, 'All right, Daniel, yes, we/I agree with you.' No, you have to test it.
You have to go and read God's Word, and then you can see,
'All right, what Daniel said is true, or man, I'm not sure, maybe I should study a little bit more.
Maybe Daniel is not right'.
You alone are gonna stand in front of God one day, judgment day.
And you will have to give account for everything that you did,
and the devil will deceive you, easily, by using false preachers.
Study God's Word. Don't follow pastors, preachers. Follow God and Him alone.
Stop gossiping.
The church needs to stop gossiping whenever new allegations come out
of a new pastor that did something.
People don't even have the facts yet and already the gossiping is just ...
The whole world knows about it, and every time I log into youtube, I see all these videos about it.
Oh, this happened. There are allegations this happened.
It's sad when other Christian YouTubers just jump on this trend.
Because they know they're gonna get views. So that's all they're after.
Instead of just waiting to see the facts, and even then, it doesn't mean that you should speak about it.
You should only speak about it if the Holy Spirit leads you to do so.
1 Timothy 5:13 says, "Besides that, they learn to be idlers going about from house to house,
and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not."
Look, I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm trying to say here.
it is good when the truth comes out because it should.
But it is foolish to talk about something before you have all the facts.
And then you just go ahead and judge someone.
James 4:11 says, "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.
The one who speaks against the brother or judges his brother,
speaks evil against the law and judges the law."
So wait until you have all the facts, and even then,
even if you know the whole truth, only speak about it if the Holy Spirit leads you to do so.
Not when your fleshly nature wants you to do it.
For example,
We know that the allegations of Ravi Zechariah are true
because the Ravi Zechariah ministries confirmed it.
And so, there were already a few videos about it.
But then other YouTubers saw it,
and they just went ahead and made more videos about it in more detail.
And they can't stop talking enough about it because it is trending and so they're getting views.
That's wrong.
Let me ask you this question.
You...
If you talked to other people about scandals.
You... let me ask you a question.
Did you ever pray for that person?
Did you ever pray for the church?
Did you ever pray for the people involved, the families involved, or did you just gossip about it?
1 Timothy 2:1 says, "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and thanksgiving be made for all people,
for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life,
Godly and dignified in every way."
As the church, as a family, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to pray a lot more for the church.
Because you know, the devil is walking around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour, and Christian leaders are at the top of his list.
No one is righteous.
Not one of us is perfect.
Not one of us are righteous.
We all fall short of the glory of God.
And yes, that includes Christian leaders.
Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
So none of us are perfect.
Even the most elect, even the most mature Christians, can fall into sin at certain times in their life.
Even backslide.
A good example is David, and David was a man after God's own heart.
Acts 13:22 says, "He raised up David to be their king, of whom He testified and said,
'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after My heart, who will do all My will.'"
And even a man, a leader, like David fell into sin.
Because just like all of us, he had a sinful nature, and he gave into temptation. So he backslid.
And you know the story about Bathsheba, he saw her bathing on the roof.
Temptation, and then he slept with her.
He gave in to his temptation, and then he tried to hide it.
She got pregnant, and he tried to hide it, but it didn't work.
So, he had a plan to kill her husband, and his plan worked.
Her husband, Uriah, died, and then he married her.
I am going through the story very quickly, but in the end, David repented.
He asked God to forgive him, and God did.
But God still judged him for it.
And so, the thing that you need to learn here from this story is that even the most mature,
elect Christians can fall into sin.
And here's the thing.
It is our responsibility as the church, as a family, Christian brothers, and sisters in Christ,
to restore Christian leaders in gentleness and in love.
But yet, most of the time, we all do the opposite.
It's easier to just judge.
Paul says in Galatians 6:1, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression,
you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."
To be honest,
I wasn't shocked at all when I heard about Ravi's scandal or about other Christian leaders.
Because I know that Scripture says that not even one is righteous.
Meaning we all can sin. Every one of us. Even me.
I'm able to do every kind of sin if it is not for the grace of God.
If I don't act through the Spirit, then I can fall into sin.
And when real Christian leaders sometimes fall into sin,
that doesn't change the truth that they taught all the years.
For example, these scandals about Ravi don't change the truth that he spoke about God,
and I learned so much from him over the years.
Let me explain this to you in another way.
David, he fell into sin, right? But does that mean that we should not read all his Psalms?
And his son, his second son, which he got from that relationship that started so wrong with Bathsheba.
His son, Solomon, he was... God blessed him.
And he wrote Proverbs. Does that mean that you and I should not read proverbs anymore?
Of course not, and that is how it is with Christian leaders today as well.
Focus on the message and not so much the messenger because the messenger is not perfect.
Just like all of us, they are flawed, but God is not flawed.
God is perfect, and His Word is perfect, so you can trust it.
But then, very important, test what preachers, these messengers say.
Test it, and see if it is in line with Scripture.
If it is the truth
Because apart from good preachers who may fall sometimes into sin,
there are also false teachers out there, false prophets.
And when they keep on preaching the same things, over, and over, and over.
And you can clearly see that it is in contrast with God's Word, then you know that they are false.
And that brings us to the next point.
False teachers.
There are many false preachers out in the world, in churches. And the Bible warns us against them.
A while ago, I made a video about five signs of a false preacher, teacher, church
that you can watch at the end of this video.
But before I really go into false preachers.
There's something that you need to know about Christian leaders as well.
There's also a very, big difference
between someone who preaches with the power of the Holy Spirit in them.
Between that.
And that person sometimes sinning at times.
Between that.
And someone who preaches just words of the Bible,
and sometimes false teachings in the flesh, not in the Spirit.
There's a very, big difference.
And you need to understand that when you hear about leadership scandals,
It doesn't mean that that leader is a real Godly leader.
He might just be a false preacher.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:15,
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
Now, I want you to understand something, and this is very important.
Because there are a lot of churches today, that's just all about prophecies and miracles,
and all of these things.
But I want you to understand, and even if they do prophecies,
even if they do miracles and signs of wonders. It doesn't mean that it is from God.
Few verses later, Jesus says in Matthew 7:21,
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven."
Now, listen carefully to this.
"On that day many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
There were false prophets then, and there are false prophets here today as well.
And there are many.
The devil is always going to try and mislead people to bring division into the church.
He's been doing it for years, thousands of years, and he's still doing it today.
And we still fall for the same trap, over and over, again.
One of his biggest weapons is to preach a lot of the truth,
maybe 90% or 99%, but he just brings in a little bit of false doctrine.
That is a different gospel. It's close to the truth, to the real gospel, but it's a different gospel.
Paul says in Galatians 1:6,
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ
and are turning to a different gospel not that there is another one,
but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ."
Now, listen to this.
"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one
we preach to you, let him be accursed."
Today there are so many voices out there.
So many different and new things. The truth never changes. Nothing is ever new.
The Bible is still the same.
But with all these voices, and things going on, all the information,
especially for young Christian, it's very hard to know the truth.
So, what is the truth, absolute, rock-hard truth?
This Scripture has been here all along, and you need to study it. You need to know it.
And always trust Scripture over the church.
Always trust Scripture over teachers, and preachers, in the church.
It is time for the church as a whole to come back to Scripture because at the end,
truth is all that matters.
And if you're still young, a young Christian.
if you're still new to the faith,
and you don't know if you can really trust God's Word as the truth, then you need to learn.
And I want you to please watch this playlist here, and it's going to help you out.
And always remember, God loves you, and I love you too.
Bye.