“This sermon had people walk out because they got way too convicted,” Nik Keswani said in a recent video recap.
The message, delivered by Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell at 2819 Church, wasn’t filled with polite encouragements or soft-spoken life tips. Instead, it was a direct call to repentance that hit like a spiritual wake-up call.
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“He addressed [sin] directly and unapologetically,” Keswani explained. “He spoke about the hidden sins that lukewarm Christianity likes to excuse as well as the cultural practices that it flirts with, but most importantly the spiritual counterfeits that people entertain while still claiming Jesus.”
Those counterfeits included what Mitchell called demonic practices: “Your little tarot cards, your little sage, your little crystals, your little readings, all that stuff is… demonic. It’s demonic.” He continued, “How you praying to God and got crystals next to your Bible at the same time? How you trying to send up the incense of prayer and got sage burning at the same time?”
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Spiritual Adultery and False Peace
Pastor Mitchell didn’t stop at identifying occult practices, he explained the spiritual deception behind them. “These demons that been watching you since you was young… they whisper in the ear of the psychic, they tell your age and the last boyfriend you had and what city you was born in because they’ve been watching you.”
The issue, Mitchell said, isn’t just ignorance. It’s mixing the holy with the profane. “This isn’t consecration. It’s confusion,” he declared. “Spiritual adultery dressed as self-care.”
Keswani noted, “The early church didn’t flirt with idols. They burned them. They didn’t consult mediums and then go to prayer meetings afterwards.”
The Evidence of Real Faith
The conviction intensified when Mitchell challenged the very definition of a Christian. “You can’t find the description for Christian in the Bible,” he said. “It was a derogatory term that was given to us.” He continued, “Anybody in society could put Christian in their profile, but we checking for… fruit.”
Mitchell wasn’t trying to please the crowd. “I ain’t up here to get your approval. I don’t care if half of y’all don’t come back next week. The Lord… your blood is not going to be on my hands in the judgment.”
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Keswani closed the video with a powerful reminder: “This is real accountability in preaching. No pandering, no entertainment, just a call to holiness.”
If that kind of preaching offends you ask yourself why: “Is it because it was actually harsh or because God is trying to convict you and you’re resisting Him?”
James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
