Summary: The Prosperity Gospel is quite a popular brand of Christianity especially in recent times. It is quite controversial in the Christian community. The message is often appealing, as it is about prosperity – “God wants to bless you”, “God wants to show you favour”, “God wants to give you liberty”, “God wants to give you hope!”. None of these words are wrong in themselves. Blessing is good, liberty from the Lord is good, to have hope is good. If we go and listen to these people, it is very similar to inspirational speakers. Very motivational. But is it founded on the sound truth – the Word of God? This evening, we will look at two examples.

224: Search Me, O God

The Prosperity Gospel is quite a popular brand of Christianity especially in recent times. It is quite controversial in the Christian community. Some might date this phenomena even earlier, but the Prosperity Gospel familiar to us would probably be what stemmed from the TV Evangelism era in the 1980s in the US. The speakers were very dynamic and people who watched would donate a lot of money. They were celebrity evangelists, very popular.

The speaker made a friend in the army and tried to preach to him. He was several years older because studied in the US. But when the speaker tried to preach to him, he was very resistant. He said he was a very strong Christian, until he went to the US. He studied Philosophy and there were many questions he could not find the answer to. When he asked his pastor, the pastor brushed him off. One day, when he turned on the TV on a Sunday, he saw a famous TV Evangelist, who sounded more like a salesman than a preacher. What turned him away from Christianity was when the Evangelist made this statement, “Church! If you do not send me 6 million dollars today, the Lord will take me home!” Immediately, people start dialing in, etc. to send money. This put him off greatly from Christianity.

This has evolved over the years and found its way into Singapore. Many Singaporean preachers have gone to the US to be trained, and come back with this brand of Christianity. They establish many mega churches. These kinds of churches usually center around one eloquent leader. Worship in the church is very lively, like a life-entertainment show, with songs and dance, electric guitar, drums, very sophisticated multi-media entertainment equipment. The services are also often very emotionally charged. They will sometimes have miracle rallies. Oftentimes, they are run in a very efficient manner, like an efficient corporation.

The message is often appealing, as it is about prosperity – “God wants to bless you”, “God wants to show you favour”, “God wants to give you liberty”, “God wants to give you hope!”. None of these words are wrong in themselves. Blessing is good, liberty from the Lord is good, to have hope is good. But that is where the danger is, which we will talk about later.

If we go and listen to these people, it is very similar to inspirational speakers. Very motivational. But is it founded on the sound truth – the Word of God?

This evening, we will look at two examples. Actual sermons spoken by prosperity preachers here. They are talked about in social media, posters, etc. You can pay to listen to them.

##1. God’s guarantee for your prosperity

One of them, the title is “God’s guarantee for your prosperity”.

“Church, do you know? God has provided a guaranteed path to your prosperity and good success! It is very simple! Don’t have to focus on your abilities or lack of them. It is by meditating on His word. The more you feed on His word, the more you will be nourished in your soul. The more nourished you are, the more fruits you will bear in due season. And these fruits are such that you expect your health, finance, and all that you do to prosper.”

This was the gist of the sermon. If you listen to it, it tells us to meditate on the word of God. What’s wrong with this? Is this not what we should be doing? And therein lies the danger. Because often, they also quote the Bible. However, they then twist it. And they tell you that it is a fresh insight, a key insight, that many Christians might not realise. To many, these new teachings are interesting.

It is very dangerous. It is easier to discern when someone tells us complete falsehoods. It is a lot more difficult when they begin to quote from the Bible. What makes it even more dangerous? They know what we want to hear. They twist it in a way that appeals to the hidden wants we have in our hearts.

Remember who did the same thing? Remember the temptation of Jesus by the devil? After 40 days and nights of fasting, how did he tempt Jesus? Not by bringing a woman in front of him. He asked him to turn stone to bread – appealing to the hunger of Jesus. For the next two temptations, the devil quoted the word of God but twisted the meaning and took it out of context. These interestingly also appealed to the wants that many humans have. This is the danger. We have to be careful as we reflect on our faith.

Quite a number of such pastors have already fallen to sex and money scandals. This is a big danger to Christianity at-large. Christianity is the true faith, but it has been hijacked by wrong people. When we have wrong people representing what is right, it is dangerous as they might grow in numbers and overtime, there will be a lot more disillusionment, as well as a deeper cynicism against Christianity. In the US today, there are those who are extremely zealous, but also a vast majority who are rebelling against faith, as they see a lot of hypocrisy.

Imagine the many people who follow these messages, meditate on His word, and do not prosper. They will be very disillusioned. Are the promises of God untrue? Is His word untrue? That is the danger of this.

Let’s go deeper.

First question, is it the will of God that all good Christians will prosper physically? And is it true that those who are not prospering, are not blessed by God?

If you are a good Christian, God will bless you, and you will be prosperous. If you are not prospering, better reflect on your faith. It is not glorious to God if you are a Christian and are not prospering.

3 John 11
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

They use this verse, and say that this is what John prayed for Gaius about. Their preaching style is that they will pick one word and keep emphasizing it. They will ask the church to repeat after them, will flash the word on the screen, highlight it, etc. to hype things up.

“Church, say ‘all things’!”
(Congregation echos ‘all things’)
“Does ‘all things’ include your finances?”
(Congregation responds with a resounding ‘yes!’)
“Here says just as your soul prospers. Of course, as Christians, your soul must prosper, and it prospered once you accepted Christ. But after that, He wants you to prosper in all things! This is what they preach. Jesus wants you to prosper, Jesus wants you to be rich. (Of course, healthy etc. too, but fundamentally, be rich).”

Nothing wrong being a good Christian, prospering in your soul, your health, and also to be rich. Sounds good right?

Genesis 26:12-14
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.

They will often then quote this passage as well!

“See? Look at Isaac! The LORD blessed him, and church, how did the LORD bless him? He reaped a hundredfold! The man began to prosper! And continued prospering! Until he became very prosperous!”

This is how they preach.

All of these are from the Bible, and we cannot deny that these are from the Bible. So what is the problem here? It is the way they twist the actual meaning behind what the Bible is saying. Yes, John prayed for Gaius, but is there anything wrong with praying for Gaius in that manner? To prosper in all things? Not at all! Joseph also prospered in all things, and Potiphar prospered as a result. But let’s not forget that he was a slave. Joseph prospered while in prison. But let’s not forget that he was a prisoner.

We do not pray for people to be sick, to be poor. It is okay and good to pray for people to prosper. But does the prayer of John itself, mean that God guarantees our prosperity? This is a heresy and is wrong teaching.

Did God bless Isaac? Yes! Can God bless people in the same way he blessed Isaac? Of course, He can! And He has done so! But this is only one side. We cannot use this to say that all Christians will hence be blessed by God in that way.

Proverbs 22:2
The rich and the poor have this in common,
The LORD is the maker of them all.

The LORD makes the rich, and the LORD makes the poor. Who says that there is a guarantee of prosperity for every good Christian? Is God only the God of the rich and not of the poor? Here says God makes them all!

Proverbs 14:31
He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker,
But he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.

The Maker of the poor is God! Why did He put the poor and the rich together? For the rich to help the poor and not oppress them! If they oppress the poor, they are offending God.

Proverbs 17:5
He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker;
He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

Here reinforces the fact that the rich and poor are made by God! It is all in God’s control, God has His purpose! Where in the Bible does it say that if you are a good Christian who meditates on His word all day, you will be guaranteed to prosper? If this is the reality, many will eventually become disillusioned in their faith, as they have been deceived and have not truly grasped the truth in the Word of God.

Luke 16:19-25
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.

Lazarus led a very miserable life. Was God with him? According to those who preach the prosperity Gospel, Lazarus was one whom God was not pleased with, one who was not faithful. But what does this passage say? If we were to read this, did God make Lazarus rich before he died? Of course, this is a parable of Jesus, but this nevertheless is still a teaching of Jesus! Lazarus died a beggar, but this beggar went into the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man went into the torment of Hades.

Isn’t this clear? Can God bless people and make them rich? Does God bless people and make them rich? Of course, but only in some cases, not all cases! This is the danger of someone who takes the Bible and twists it’s message to suit their purpose.

When Jesus came into the world, the Bible says the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. When the Apostles preached, Peter said “silver and gold have I none”. The speaker is not trying to say that all Christians must be poor. There is no such teaching in the Bible! However, we must be careful to not embrace the wrong concept preached by the prosperity Gospel, because it is neither true that all good Christians will be blessed with prosperity, nor is it true that Christians who are not prosperous in this world are ungodly or are not good Christians.

There was a person quite disillusioned with Christianity as his pastor always flew around in first class. He was managing the finances and told the pastor that times are not very good, there is an economic recession. However, the pastor responded by saying that his schedule was very packed, he was very busy, and hence he had to fly first class. This person said, didn’t Jesus enter Jerusalem on a colt? The pastor replied, “Don’t you compare my ministry with Jesus’ ministry”. This guy was so shocked, he walked off and never came back.

This is what I mean by people becoming disillusioned, because of these pastors.

Another pastor was asked by a newspaper, why do you go around in a 7-seater BMW? However, he responded with “my believers drive bigger cars than me”. The reporter was so shocked and published it in the newspaper.

There is also another pastor who used to live in Sentosa cove, went to prison for a while, and now lives in a house with a swimming pool.

We need to be discerning. May these trends never enter into the true Church.

##2. Investments

The second kind of teachings from the prosperity Gospel is about investments. A famous pastor once talked about investments.

Matthew 25:14-28 talks about the parable of the Talents. When the master returned, the one who was given five earned another five and gave to the master, the one given two earned another two and gave it to the master. The one given one talent buried the talent in the ground and did not do anything with it. Verse 27, the master says ‘So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.’ They focus and emphasise on this verse.

“These are the words of God, not my own words. The Lord says money, see, the Lord talks about money! Intentionally! There are people who like to intimidate us by saying we should not talk about money in church!”

But what is the truth?

“The Lord could have said, 5 bunnies, 2 bunnies, 1 bunny. Why did He not say this? Jesus did not say ‘bunny’, He said ‘money’! These are not my words, these are the Lord’s words!”

See how dangerous these teachings can be?

“There are 500 plus verses in the Bible talking about prayer, but more than 2000 plus verses in the Bible about money! 15% of His teachings are about money! There are 37 parables of Jesus, and 16 of them are about money and possessions!”
(Don’t bother counting, don’t waste your time)

The NLT translation, verse 27 says “the least you can do is put money in the bank”. This pastor then says, putting money in the bank is the least you can do. So, what more should you do? Invest. Christians must invest your money, and God can make you rich.

This was his sermon. Very dangerous.

What really is this parable about? Is it about investments? Is it about how the least we can do is put our money in the bank, and the best we can do is to invest? We know that this is not the case! The parable tells us that this person with one talent did not even bother to do anything! Jesus never says if have five, must make five. He did not even say if you have one, must make one back! This person was wicked and lazy because he did nothing! He wasted the talent given to him! But the pastor talks about investment here. So, we have to be mindful.

But nevertheless, as Christians, we should still talk about investment. Can Christians invest? Should Christians invest? Must Christians invest? Is it a sin to invest?

Of course, we can invest. But as Christians, we must be careful when we start to dabble in what we think is investment. The key is to examine our motives.

First and foremost, is it good to save? It is good to save! The Bible tells us to make such preparations as well!

Proverbs 10:5
He who gathers in summer is a wise son;
He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

Here tells us to be diligent, but also to save for the future, as we cannot gather food in winter. So, while we can gather in summer, we gather more so that in winter we can eat. Saving is a good virtue. Yes, we spend on what we need, but we do not overspend.

Do not be like what some people are, spending the money that they do not have, to buy the things they do not need, to impress the people that they do not know.

Don’t overspend, and save whatever we have in excess. This is good. This is what the Bible teaches us.

If we really have a lot of extra savings, are we allowed to invest? We can invest! But the question is, invest in what? And what mentality do we have? What motive do we have?

Proverbs 21:2
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
But the LORD weighs the hearts.

This is an important principle to keep in our hearts when we want to invest. We are strange creatures, good at deceiving even ourselves. We tell ourselves that we do things for good, noble reasons. But remember one thing, we may be right in our own eyes, but when He weighs our hearts, are we true and sincere? So, what is our true motive of investment? If our motives are right, then it is okay! But we must be very careful to not deceive ourselves, that is, motives are not wrong.

Some invest because they think it is the easier and faster way to make money. Sometimes, it may be true. But it also is the easier and faster way to lose money, when you get it wrong! Do we realise this? Are our eyes and hearts open when we make those decisions?

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10
But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.
For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

Paul says, if anyone does not work, let him not eat! If we invest with the motive that investing is how God will bless me, then I do not need to work anymore, then this is a wrong motive! If we are supposed to work, but choose to not work and instead speculate on the stock market, be careful! If it is out of our laziness, be careful! This is a wrong motive.

1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

If we invest and speculate out of our greed for money, it is wrong as well. We have to be very true to our hearts and true to God.

There is much more to say, but there is not much time left. Let us take a look at some concluding verses.

Proverbs 10:22
The blessing of the LORD makes one rich,
And He adds no sorrow with it.

The blessing of the LORD can make one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it. If we go and invest, and we become stressed, cannot eat and cannot sleep, it is a problem. Turn back before we get into trouble.

1 Timothy 6:17
Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

It is very easy for those who are rich, to become haughty in an unknowing manner. Those who are very successful in investing, who made money in a quick way, are in danger. They enter into a deception of their invincibility. The speaker hopes none of us are in this state. If we think we are very smart and can always catch the market at the right time, we are in danger. Recently, there was the whole incident with GameStop, where the stock price rose to $300+, before crashing 80%. If we think we are smart and can always catch the market, be careful. This is not the will of God.

256: There Shall Be Showers of Blessing