Hey everybody, this is Andy Wood, and I'm the pastor here at Saddleback Church, and this is our podcast.

Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new messages every week, and I hope you enjoy today's message.

Let's dive in.

I wanted to tell you about this program that I saw on HBO.

Actually, I've never watched it, and I'm not promoting it by this little advertisement here.

But it was something that came to my attention, I should say.

And it's this show called The Righteous Gemstones.

Righteous Jimstones.

Has anybody ever heard of that show before?

Okay, it's basically a satire, like a comedy that's kind of poking fun at all the dysfunctional aspects of church culture.

Okay, so we have a picture for you today. You can see the tagline here that says, serving the Lord and themselves. And so it's like all the stuff that makes your

skin crawl when you think about the dysfunction and the corruption that sometimes gets exposed

in church culture. So this show's all about like celebrity

pastors and expensive shoes and private jets and worship services that are like a staged

production instead of an encounter with God. And it just kind of makes you feel gross on the

inside. And so like I said, I've never watched the show, but I did see

an Instagram post about it this week. And it made me literally feel sick to my stomach. So I wanted

to read it to you so that you also could feel sick to your stomach. Okay, so it says, if your pastor has a book deal, a YouTube channel, and a fit that looks

suspiciously like Kanye's Donda era, the righteous gemstones might hit too close to home.

This show nails how some churches blur the line

between faith and fame,

turning spiritual leaders into personal brands.

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