Prosperity and Jesus

Here's how I'm defining a prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel is teaching that God wants or wills all believers to be physically healthy, materially wealthy, and personally happy. That's the prosperity gospel.

What men will do is they'll open up the Bible, and they'll say, "Here's what God wants for you. He wants you to be physically healthy. That's what he has for you. He wants you to be personally happy, and he wants you to be materially wealthy." That sounds awesome. 

Does anybody want to argue with the awesomeness of how that sounds? 

This is by and large globally speaking the most popular version of Christianity there is, except…it's not Christianity. It's a false gospel. It is absurd, and it is a lie. I'm not quite sure how anybody buys it, because this certainly has not been our experience. How many of you have been in church for longer than five years? 

Of all the people you have met in church, how many could you say, "This person is personally happy, physically healthy, and materially wealthy. They're all three things always. That's a joke! I don't know that I've met more than two who even in just a little season were all three of those things.

Then why not? Well, it has to be their fault, right? I mean, that's the prosperity teaching. They've done something to make themselves sick. They've done something to make themselves miserable. They have done something to rob themselves of wealth. The weight of failure lands on them. 

Since this is exploding… I'll quote a guy later (I'm not going to say his name) who is actually in Dallas. Massive. I mean, this is massive! There are massive churches, massive platforms, global pushing out. In fact, in Africa and South America and other Third World countries, this is ravaging their hopes and dreams. "If you would just do this or you would just believe that or just sow into this ministry, then your crops will grow, and you'll be able to live a life of ease, and your daughters won't get stolen and whisked off and enslaved."

I mean, these false kind of ridiculous promises are made all over the globe, and it's inconsistent with the Word of God. It's inconsistent with people's reality, and it enslaves us to fear. It castrates the gospel. People lap it up because what we want is not God. We don't want God. We don't want to be reconciled to our Creator. Do you know what we want? We want to be personally happy.

That's what we want.

We'll go, "Okay, can God make me personally happy? Because if God can make me personally happy, then I'll take God." You don't want God; you want to be personally happy. "Can God make me materially wealthy? If I give my life to Jesus, do I get to be materially wealthy?" You don't want God. You don't want Christ. You're not in awe of the glory and grandeur of God. You just want money.

You're trying to treat God like some sort of divine bellhop who brings you pillows and bonbons. Nobody treats the Lion of Judah like a butler.

"Yeah, that sounds good. That sounds great. Can I be physically healthy? Because this getting older kind of stinks. Can I be physically healthy? Because this cancer is awful. Can I be physically healthy? Because these migraines…I don't know where they're coming from. How do I get rid of these? Can Jesus do that? Will he take this from me?" What you want is to be physically healthy. You don't want the Lord. You want what you think he can bring you.

How do people fall for this since it's not been our experience, and we don't even really know a lot of people, except for the false teachers who spew this crap who actually seem to operate in it? 

It is funny if you really study it. The only people actually getting rich off this thing are the guys who are preaching you can get rich off this thing, because you have to sow into their ministries in order to be blessed yourself. Meanwhile, we get poorer, and they get richer.
How do people fall for this? 

First, our flesh wants it. 

Second, it takes something that is slightly biblically true and perverts it. 

tj