Steve Harvey On Ways To Heaven

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. It's always a privilege to come to you each week, and I want to thank you for tuning in with us.

My name is Brian Thomas, and I greet you in the name of our great and wonderful, the mighty one, the loving one, the sacrificial one, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to this fallen earth and died for our sins so that we could have a way for eternal life. And I want to just give praises and thanks to our almighty Lord today as we honor him. Well, folks, before I get into the topic of today's message, I want to first give a big thank you to all of you who have supported us over the years with your sacrificial financial donations. It means so much to us.

Words cannot truly express how grateful we are here at God First Bible Fellowship that your your gift goes towards helping us with the expenses with with producing the show, getting out material and just fulfilling the Great Commission. And I pray that God would bless you mightily bountifully for your sacrificial gifts. Please know how grateful we are for it. And there are some of you out there who maybe you're unable to give financially, but you pray for us. Prayer is so important. We need prayer. We do not take prayer lightly.

We did not put prayer up on the shelf as a secondary thing. We ask that you would pray for us first. And we are just so grateful for all of you who pray for us because it goes a long way. And then there are those of you who also share our show through the on demand portal.

You share it with others. And that is also helping us to fulfill the Great Commission. So, no, we are very appreciative of what you are doing as well. So to all of you, I wish I could reach out and put my arms around you and hug you.

Please know how appreciative, how grateful we are for all of your support over the years. Well, folks, we are going to look at an interesting topic today. But before I get deep into it, I want to ask you the question, are you a lover of the truth? I mean, do you really crave the truth? Do you really desire the truth?

And a lot of people will say yes. But the truth test is, do you still want the truth, even if it means you get the short end of the stick? Because sometimes it happens. For example, let's say that someone, a woman or man, whoever it may be, they have a strong suspicion. There's a lot of evidence that your spouse is having an affair. Your spouse is going in and out at odd times of the night and and acting strange with certain phone calls, sneaking away.

And so you have so much evidence and you pretty much know for sure that he or she is having an affair. And then there are people who try to come to you out of love to to warn you about what's going on. But you don't want to hear it. You don't want to know the truth because you are afraid of the pain. So you just try to mask it by ignoring it, hoping that it'll go away. And then there are some people out there who they'll feel things going on in their bodies. They know that something is going on with their health, but they don't want to go to the doctor because they are afraid of what the doctor may say, that it may be some terminal cancer or something very serious. And so they will ignore it and instead allow the problem to get worse and worse until it really gets to the point of becoming fatal at times.

And it's something that could have been prevented had you sought care from a doctor. But because you are afraid of the truth, because maybe the truth would not be in your favor, you chose to ignore it. You know, back in 2007, 2008, when Senator at the time, Barack Obama came on the scene and a lot of people rallied behind him. Obviously, as he won the presidency twice and a lot of blacks who profess to be Christians rallied behind him. And as I looked into Barack Obama and what he stood for, I raised my hand and I said, hold up, wait a minute.

This man's principles, his legislation goes in opposition to our Christian faith in a lot of ways. And there were people who got upset with me about it. They got angry and they chose to ignore the truth because they wanted to support someone because he has the same skin color, the same ethnicity as they are. So the question is, are you a lover of the truth? Do you really want the truth? Well, I want to talk with you today about the truth. And I want to share with you a story about Steve Harvey. You've probably heard about this by now, but Steve Harvey had some interesting things to say recently concerning how to get to heaven.

But before I get to that, I want to first play a clip so you can hear Steve Harvey and how he came on the scene a little over 10 years ago in terms of the Christian scene, when so many Christians embraced him as sort of being a spokesman for the Christian faith, especially a lot of people of the black ethnic group. And so I want you to listen to this and then we'll talk about Steve and what he recently had to say concerning how to get to heaven. If I had the pleasure of bringing out Christ, this is just how I would do it. It ain't got to be the way you do it.

You might not think it's just right, but this is how I would do it. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce a man who needs no introduction. His credits are too long to live. He has done the impossible. He has, out of a manger in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, by way of heaven. His mother is still headlining in the Catholic Church today. His daddy is the author of a book that has been on the bestseller list since the beginning of time. He holds the record for the world's greatest fish fry. He fed 5000 hungry souls with two fish, five loaves of bread.

He can walk on water, turn water into wine, no special effects, no camera tricks. He has a head shot on every church fan across the country. Even before the kings of comedy, he was held the king of all kings, ruler of the universe.

Alpha and Omega beginning at the end, the bright and the moaning start. Some say he's the Rose of Sharon and some say he's the Prince of Peace. Get up on your feet, put your hands together, and show your love for the second coming of the one and only. All right, so that was Steve Harvey, actor, comedian, host of Family Feud. That was him speaking a little over 10 years ago at an event.

And you can hear the dramatic music going, you know, the church music, and you can hear the people celebrating and cheering. And he, you know, Steve Harvey sprinkled a little comedy in there. But that was the time in which a lot of people in the church embraced Steve Harvey as sort of a spokesman for Christianity, being a famous person and speaking out like he was doing as far as declaring Christ. And really what he was saying, everything that he said there was, I'm in agreement with it, what he was saying.

But recently he made a trip to overseas, he made a trip to the United Emirates, and he had some interesting things to say. So I want you to listen to this video, soundbite from the video. And the title of the video is How Steve Praise. And the description of the video is, there's many ways.

And this is from his official Steve Harvey YouTube channel. There's many ways to serve God and keep your faith. My trip to the Emirates always reminds me how we can live in harmony and in much needed peace.

We all crave globally. See what continues to uplift and inspire me. So in light of what we just heard from Steve Harvey, a little over 10 years ago with his introduction, if he could introduce Christ. Now I want to hear, want you to hear what he had to say on a recent trip to the United Emirates. Today, I want to tell you about a guy. You may know him for his comedy. You may know him for his mustache, but today I want you to know him for his religion. Hey, I'm Steve Harvey, stand up comedian, entertainer, television host, family man.

But most importantly, I happen to be a man of faith. Steve is a very successful guy. He has made more money than he ever thought.

He has become more famous than he ever thought. But at the same time, he managed to keep his relationship with God closer than ever. Why did you not lose faith as you became more successful? If I could make myself successful, I would have done it a long time ago.

I would have skipped so many of the lessons I had to learn. But it's not that. It's a process. Success and happiness is a process, man. And in this process, I was very aware of the amount of faith that was needed. And as a matter of fact, it really took more faith than I even thought I had. OK, so let's pause there for a moment.

OK, so up until this point, everything sounds good. He's talking about faith, the amount of faith that it takes. And we should have faith in God.

And again, he's being interviewed by a tourist guide during his recent trip to the United Emirates. So let's continue. See, oftentimes people who are religious think their religion is right and everybody else is wrong. There is only one way to God. But Steve's faith is unique because it's really not about that.

There is no one one way to heaven, no one way to paradise. It's like television. Now it's over 800 channels of cable.

And they're all pretty entertaining. So I'm pretty sure, man, that to get to heaven, there's got to be more than one route. Because somebody watching another channel or taking another channel than you, they're still getting entertained and they're probably still getting to heaven. OK, so remember, folks, at the beginning, I asked, are you a lover of the truth?

Do you seek the truth that you crave the truth? Now, as you hear Steve Harvey, who is a professing Christian, and he's saying that there has to be more than one way to heaven, he's making a correlation or an illustration by using entertainment on television. And he's saying, because you have all these different television shows, these different channels, and you can be entertained by all of them.

You can choose any channel, but yet still come to the same end result, which is to be entertained. So he's saying then also you can also have many different routes to get to heaven. But let me remind you that are listening and Steve Harvey that in John Chapter 14, verse six, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me. Folks, that is very plain and simple. You know that that is not something that you can interpret in any kind of different way other than what it says. Jesus Christ says, I am the truth.

And that is what I asked you earlier about. Do you love the truth? Are you a lover of the truth? Because that means you are a lover of Jesus Christ because Christ said, I am the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father, except through me. It amazes me how people today can just ignore and dismiss what the Bible says. People who claim to be Christians. And I ask myself the question, is it that they're really in rebellion? Are they just truly in rebellion of what the Bible says?

Or is it just that they simply do not understand or have they not read it? And there are some things that I say, OK, maybe these are secondary issues, so to speak, that you may not know what the Bible says about. But on an issue such as this, which is so easy to understand that Jesus Christ says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me. It leads me to conclude that more than likely, you're just flat out dismissing what the word of God says. And it brings me back again to are you a lover of the truth?

Because the word of God is truth because it is Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. So we're going to continue on the other side of the break with this interview with Steve Harvey, in which he again is declaring that there must be more than one way to heaven. And this is nothing new. We've heard so many declare this through the years, but we're going to speak more about it on the other side of this break.

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Box 266, Knightdale, North Carolina 27545. So let's pick up where we left off and continue listening to this recent interview with Steve Harvey. And he's speaking on There Are Many Ways to Heaven.

This isn't just talk. Steve lives by these words. He has three sons. Two of them, he gave them Christian names like Broderick. And one of them, he gave a Muslim name, Ali, as a sign of respect and appreciation for the Muslim religion and the Muslim culture. I named him Ali because I knew, I knew then. That he might be different.

I knew. And you have no problems with it. No, because when you come here, you understand Islam is a religion of peace. Why you got a problem with peace? It's just a name, but it's a big step to showing respect to people of other cultures.

OK, so where we hear folks here is what you often hear today in the world where you see a merging of religions. Now, Steve, again, he claims to be a Christian, but yet he's in this nation and he's speaking highly of Islam. And he's saying there's nothing wrong with it. Why should you be offended by it? Why should you have a problem with it? He says it is a religion of peace.

So you see the watering down and the trying to merge it. He's already said there must be more than one way to heaven. So he's saying, well, Christianity can be one way.

Islam can be one way and there can be multiple ways. This is a very dangerous thing that we are hearing. And I'm speaking on this topic, not to beat up on Steve Harvey, but I'm addressing this because he is a very influential figure. He's very famous. He's very well known. And there are a lot of people out there that will take to heart what he says. And so I want to debunk some some untruths that I'm hearing from him and that you hear in so many different locations.

So let's continue to listen to the interview. What Steve did reminds me a lot of this mosque. This mosque in Abu Dhabi belongs to people in the Islamic faith. But as a sign of tolerance to the churches next to them, they renamed the mosque to Mary Mother of Jesus Mosque. Can you imagine a mosque with the name Jesus on it?

Yeah, the world could use a little bit more of that. It's just a name, but it's a big step to showing respect. You know, when I named my youngest son and I gave him the name Ali, I never really understood exactly what I was doing. I had a feeling about it. But now when I look at this name right here and it says Mary, the mother of Jesus mosque, it kind of gives me a little bit more of the understanding.

Maybe it was something I didn't quite know at the time, but now it's starting to make a whole lot more sense. And it's not just about Christians and Muslims, it's about Christians, Muslims, Jews and everybody else. At a time when religious intolerance is on the rise, we need many, many more of these mosques. Many, many more of people like Steve. After hanging out with Steve for a week and visiting mosques, churches and museums in the Emirates, I am convinced religious harmony, religious respect, religious tolerance is the most important thing.

And we need to promote that every single day. OK, folks, so did you hear the end of this video, the end of this interview, how it turned into propaganda? You know, the Bible tells us that as we get to the last days, that when the Antichrist comes on the scene, there will be a one world system, there will be a one world religion trying to merge all the religions of the world to be the truth. And you see that taking place here in which Steve Harvey is speaking of this mosque that has the name of Jesus on it.

And he's saying that's a good thing. But Jesus Christ says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but through me, not through a mosque, not through any other way. But it has to come through Jesus Christ.

In the book of John, chapter 10, verse seven, we find the end. Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers.

But the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and he will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.

I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Jesus Christ says he is the way, the truth and life. He says he is the door, the door by which you can the days of the shepherds. They would lie at the door when they would put the sheep into their location where they would settle for the night inside the fencing area.

They would actually lie at the door. And the only way the sheep could go in and out would be through the shepherd. And so Jesus Christ is saying that is the only way you can get into heaven is by going through me, accepting my sacrifice, the shed blood at Calvary, accepting me as Lord and Savior as the payment for your sins. Not any other way. But yet here we hear Steve Harvey, who is saying there has to be many ways.

But it's nothing new, folks. We heard it from Oprah Winfrey for decades. She's been saying there are multiple ways to heaven that people have their own God and you can go through whatever your God is. I spoke on Barack Obama earlier.

He said the same thing, that there are many paths to heaven. And again, I years ago, I spoke up about Barack Obama because there were so many in the black community that were rallying behind him. And I say, hold, wait, wait a minute. We are Christians first. OK, our ethnicity comes second. And to be honest, I don't even factor my ethnicity into things in life. I'm just a human being. I am of the human race. And the word of God comes before anything else.

But there are so many who decided to, well, we're going with the man who has the brown skin like like we do. And so they chose to ignore the words of God. But Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

You know, the Bible tells us in Matthew, Chapter 24, when the disciples came to Jesus and they asked him about what will be the sign of his second coming in the end of the age. And Jesus said in Chapter 24 of Matthew, verse four, and Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you. Jesus, he warned repeatedly to not be deceived. And we see so much deception that is going on in the world today. People are saying that you can get to God, you can get to heaven. The true God, the God of the Bible, that you can get there through many different paths. And in Second Timothy, Chapter four, verses three through five, we find for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Folks, we see clearly from the scriptures that a day would come when people would not endure sound doctrine. And we see that taking place in our society today. And some may say, oh, that's been going on for for for centuries. And it is true.

There's been false doctrines out there for a long time. But it's getting worse. It's getting more widespread.

It's becoming more intense. You find it in so many more places as we go into the future. And Jesus said, be ye not deceived. But we see today that in so many churches, I mean, they're putting people like Steve Harvey up to speak to the people, someone that's well known, someone that's famous, that the people will accept, that the people will gravitate to. But people that are speaking false doctrines, people that are speaking untruths, people who are deceiving. So my question to you today is, are you a lover of the truth? And, you know, when I think about Steve Harvey, as I said earlier, this is not a show to bash him.

You know, my heart goes out to him because he's obviously deceived. But I look at the Family Feud show. I flip flip through the channels and came across it. And it is a very vulgar show. It's not always been that way.

But over the years, it's degraded so much to where in the few minutes that I sat there to watch it, there's some question about immoral sexual behavior and the people are carrying on and laughing as is as if it is so funny. But that is not of God. And of course, Steve Harvey is not a preacher, but I'm addressing this because, again, he can influence so many. And there was another interview in which I heard Steve Harvey speaking and he said that and this was recent, just two years ago, he said that he wanted to go to heaven. And the reason why he got right in the way that he put it was because he wanted to see his mother again, who had passed away and gone to heaven. He said that had it not been for that, he would still be out there headed towards hell.

And the people in the audience all laughed. And I thought to myself, there's nothing funny about the idea of anyone going to hell. But he said that he wants to go so that he can see his mother again. There was nothing said about because of Jesus Christ, because of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made, that he died for his sins, that he died for my sins, that he died for all of our sins to be with our Lord. No, he only said that he wanted to see his mother and to see his mother is a good thing.

I mean, but that's a byproduct. The ultimate goal is to be with Jesus Christ because you should want to be there even if your loved one is not there. So again, I'm not here to bash Steve, but I want to speak to this issue so that people are not deceived. And I want to pray for Steve because I want him to come to know the truth. So in the closing minutes, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I ask, Lord, that you would touch the heart, touch the mind of Steve Harvey right now, Lord, and show him the truth, Lord, that you are the way, the only way, the truth in life, and that no one comes to the Father but through you. It is my prayer that he would truly come to know you as Lord and Savior and really see and understand that there is no way that he or anyone else can get to eternal life if they do not come through you and accept your sacrifice on the cross. This is my prayer for not only Steve Harvey, but for any out there in the world who do not know you as Lord and Savior, that they would come to know you and accept the gift, the great sacrifice that you, our great Lord, has made. These things we pray in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, I hope you said that prayer with me. I also would like to ask for you to share this message with others because again, there are so many people out there who are being deceived by great influential people out there. And we as believers in Jesus Christ need to share the truth of God's word. I want to thank you for joining me this week. Please come back again next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel, and to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website, GodFirst.org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel, and to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel, and seek first the kingdom of God.