Sunday Sermon: Beware the Prosperity Gospel (2 Corinthians 9:6-10)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the

Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe. In honor of the word of the

King, would you please stand. Second Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 through 10.

The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Now it is superfluous,

I'm sorry, verse 6, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

Let's come again before the Lord in prayer. Our heavenly

Father, your name is holy, your name is great. Your name is over all the earth, incredible in our sinfulness that there are men and women and even children today who rebel against that name and refuse to acknowledge the creator of all things, the giver of all things.

But as we read in the scriptures and we'll even talk about a bit in the sermon today, Romans chapter three says that no one seeks for God.

In our rebellion and in the curse that was placed upon us because of our rebellion against God, you have distanced yourself from mankind.

We are unworthy to be in your presence because you are holy and we are not.

It is only by the gift of Christ that our heart has been transformed into a heart that previously rebelled against God and suddenly we are aware of our unholiness and unrighteousness.

Suddenly we are aware of our need for a savior and that savior was given in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

Our sins are forgiven and we are able to come into the presence of almighty God because of a righteousness that was previously foreign to us has been given to us by the blessing of Christ.

You have poured out riches upon us lavishly through your grace and your mercy, a love that we do not deserve, but you have shown it in the sacrifice of your son.

Jesus willingly laying down his life following the will of his father in heaven and for our benefit that we might live.

And so God, I pray that as we have been blessed with every blessing in the heavenly places that we would not cling to the things of this world, but we see an act of worship in giving what you have blessed us with back to you.

That we might advance your kingdom, that we might grow in holiness, and we might see the message of Christ advance around the world.

May we not cling to these things too tightly, but may we look all the more with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength to God, who is our savior, and long for his kingdom.

Not a kingdom that is of this world, but a heavenly kingdom that has been promised us in the heavenly places.

Humble us, God, and let us not think of ourselves too proudly that we have a knowledge that the rest of the world does not have.

I know God and you do not, but all of us were sinners stumbling in darkness until the light of Christ was shown into our hearts.

So may we be diligent to take the message of this gospel to a lost and dying world, that many more may hear and be saved, the same way that all are saved, by turning from sin and believing in Christ.

It's in his name that we pray, and all God's people said, amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

Not only this passage this morning, 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 10, but we've also considered 2

Corinthians 8, 9, where we read, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

It should become obvious to us here that the richness that Paul is talking about is spiritual richness.

It's not that we would become wealthy here on this earth, but that we would be blessed with all the blessings of Christ.

Ephesians 1, 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Before you became a follower of Jesus, you were as poor as poor could be.

You were spiritually bankrupt. You may have been rich by most common standards, even in the

United States of America, but without Christ, you have nothing in the presence of God. The prophet

Isaiah says that even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy God.

As Romans 3, 10 says, None is righteous, not even one person.

No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become worthless.

No one does good, not even one. When compared to God's goodness, we've got nothing.

We are nothing. As we sang this morning, Nothing in my hands

I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress.

Helpless, look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly.

Wash me, Savior, or I die. And if we come to the

Lord in such humility, he picks us up. He clothes our nakedness.

He makes us his child. Because of our sin, we were worthless.

Because of his righteousness, we are now worthy. We are worthy to call him our heavenly father.

We are worthy to enter his presence with thanksgiving in our hearts. We are worthy to dwell with him forever in his kingdom.

By a righteousness that comes not from ourselves, but was given to us in Jesus Christ.

As Paul would pray for the Ephesians later on in Ephesians 3, verses 14 -19,

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his

Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

If you are saved, my brothers and sisters, you're rich.

You are a rich man or woman of God, higher than any king, sultan, emperor, or president on earth.

The forgiveness of sins, salvation from death, and fellowship with God through Christ Jesus our

Lord are the greatest blessings that you could ever be given.

Nothing else even compares in value. Anything that you can obtain on this earth, you either have to earn by works or by chance, and you lose by death.

But the promise of God's kingdom that we have received from God is a gift, and it's by his grace.

You did nothing to earn it. It's by God's providence, so you didn't get lucky. And since Jesus conquered death, death can't take it from you, encouraged by this truth.

You have nothing to fear of poverty, and you have no confidence in wealth.

Nothing you have on this earth you take with you when you die, whether it's the goods that made life easy or the griefs that made life hard, all of it stays here or will be consumed up by the fire of God and judgment.

The only thing that gets you from here to there is the precious blood of Jesus.

One drop is worth more than all of the treasures of this earth together.

As we read again in 2 Corinthians 8 -9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

And again, these are heavenly blessings that we receive, a spiritual bounty, but there are teachers out there who will manipulate passages like these to insist that God means to increase your earthly bounty.

Televangelist and faith healer Benny Hinn said the following on his TV show, Send a gift, and here's why.

The word of God says give, and then the promise says it shall be given.

The word says sow, and then you shall reap. You cannot expect a harvest unless you have sown a seed."

And whenever one of these televangelists uses the term sow a seed, they mean give money.

Whenever a televangelist says, and you will reap a harvest, they mean you will get something in return.

That might mean you will receive more money than you gave, or it might mean that you will receive some kind of physical healing.

In the words of Benny Hinn, it depends on your need. The word of God says if we sow sparingly, then we will reap sparingly.

Only if we sow bountifully, we'll reap bountifully, unquote. A fellow by the name of John Smith, pastor of Celebration Harvest Church in Clarksville, Indiana, was a special guest on Benny Hinn's television program.

I'm going to play a few segments of this interview. The first voice that you will hear is

John Smith's, and the other is Benny Hinn. Listen here. Money is a seed, pastor.

And a lot of people don't understand that money is a seed and that seed is the currency of Heaven. If God wants to pay for something,

He uses seed to do it. Seed is the currency of Heaven. If you go to Israel and you arrive and you want to buy and sell goods in Israel and you have

US dollars in hand, you're going to have to trade or exchange for the new shekel. Now you can legally and lawfully operate in the land of Israel.

So in the Kingdom of Heaven, when we bring our gifts to God, money becomes a seed because we are converting it with God.

We give money in God's sight, it is no longer money, it is seed. It becomes seed.

So we can take our money to the bank and lose it, take it to a store, lose it, we spend it.

But if you give it to God, it turns into a seed is what you're saying. Absolutely. So if you give money to God's Kingdom, it turns into heavenly currency.

If that's the truth, everyone who's poor is in big trouble. Sorry, if you don't have enough money, you can't exchange it for heavenly currency and you're just not worth much in the

Kingdom of Heaven. Ah, but John Smith has a solution to that problem. If you're poor, all you have to do is give

God everything and He will make you wealthy. Listen here. You know, some people have a small measure of money, others have a large measure of money.

Jesus said, give and it shall be given to you a good measure. So the measure you give by will be the measure you live by.

So if you're in a position where, you know, I heard a story recently about a couple who had two pennies and they put it on an altar in a ministry during an altar service.

And a year later came back to the prophet and said, we have just received our first million dollar income in our business.

They went from being broke and having nothing to taking what they had in their hands and sowing it in the

Kingdom. My friends, there's not a single word in the Bible that says if you give all your money to God, He'll make you a millionaire.

Nowhere does the Bible say that. And if somebody can show me where the Bible says such a thing and that's the gospel message,

I'll pack up my things and never preach the gospel again because apparently I'm terrible at it. Oh, but Pastor John wasn't done there.

Not only can you receive a million dollars if you give all that you have, but you can receive a miracle as well.

In 1998, the doctors told me I had multiple sclerosis. And I didn't even really know what it was, but Pastor I didn't want it.

And after going through a battery of tests and the brain waves and the CAT scans and the

MRIs and everything, my wife and I touched and agreed. We said by His stripes we are healed.

But we learned how to take a seed and put it in the soil as a marker of territory by faith saying,

God, this is what we believe in this moment. But that seed went ahead of us, not just what we said, but what we sowed.

See, in Deuteronomy 26, they came, they gave to the priests. They not just gave, but they said to have a confession over their giving.

So when the doctors told me this, I had to come in for the reading of the MRI. They had 31 pictures to show me.

On the 31st picture, the doctor tells me what my wife said 15 minutes earlier in the waiting room.

She whispered in my ear. She said, honey, you have a beautiful brain. They were looking for the lesions on top of the brain connected to the nerves.

When he holds it up, the doctor turns around and points at me and says exactly what my wife said.

There's no way he could have known that except the Holy Spirit whispered in his ear. I attribute that to understanding the promise of God's Word and how that money is a seed.

And when I released it into the kingdom and I sowed a significant seed and I sowed obediently, it was a strategic seed.

I had this seed targeted for a miracle. He confessed that he would be healed.

He gave money even when he didn't need healing so that when the day came, he would be able to cash in on his miracle.

And I know that this message sounds wonderful to people. They love this kind of thing, which is why

Benny Hinn takes in over $150 million annually. After doing this interview on his program, they'll do a pitch at the end.

If you would sow a seed and give a faith offering, the

Lord will turn it into a bounty for you. The only thing

I appreciate about this minister that Benny Hinn was talking with is the irony of his name,

Pastor John Smith, because he really does encapsulate every false prosperity gospel preacher in the

United States of America today. They all preach exactly like this. What we've just heard is the leading evangelical export in America today, known as the prosperity gospel.

It's also known as name it and claim it. And you can probably tell why Pastor Smith named what he wanted and he claimed it.

That's what these false teachers tell you to do. It's also called word of faith or word faith or seed faith theology.

And you may have also heard it called the health and wealth gospel. By the way, one of the things that you couldn't tell from the audio that I just played, because you only heard the audio, you didn't get to see the video of it,

John Smith wears glasses. So he's talking about proclaiming healing for himself and he was healed.

He sowed money and he received a reward. Then why is he still wearing glasses?

My friends, if I could give you a little piece of advice, never trust a faith healer wearing glasses, okay?

The prosperity gospel, health and wealth gospel, whatever you call it, it's not the gospel.

It's a different gospel. Not that there is another one.

As Paul said in Galatians 1, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

And that's what this is, a distortion of the gospel. Amen, Pastor Dwight? Before talking about this topic, it was important for me this morning to begin with the true gospel of Jesus Christ so that no one would be confused.

It's the good news that Jesus Christ has left his throne in heaven. He came to this earth.

He lived the perfect life that we could not live. He died the death that we were supposed to die, the death that we deserved for our sin.

We had sinned against God. We deserved his wrath. Christ took the wrath of God upon himself on the cross.

As we had read previously in 2 Corinthians 5, he became sin who knew no sin so that for our sake we might become the righteousness of God through him.

By faith in Jesus, we are forgiven our sins, and it's by his wounds that we are healed.

You heard John Smith in that clip reference Isaiah 53 .5, by his wounds we are healed.

That does not mean you will be healed of your physical diseases, at least not while you exist on this side of heaven.

It means that we will be cleansed of the infection of sin. Romans 6 .23

says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. By his stripes we are healed in this way. My friends, you're going to get old and you're going to feel it in your body, and the aches and pains that you feel have nothing to do with you not having enough faith to overcome your aches and pains.

The reason why you're feeling aches and pains in your body is because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And because of our sin, as we read about in Genesis 3, God cursed creation.

As it says in Romans 8, he subjected all things to futility. But we, as the children of God, await a deliverance from this futility, which we will receive on the day of glory.

Jesus died in our place and he conquered death by rising again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish, but will receive his life, his eternal life.

Between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven, he was alive on earth for 40 more days and was seen by hundreds of brothers, according to Acts 1 and 1

Corinthians 15. Over a hundred people on a hillside, not just 12 as is commonly depicted, saw

Jesus taken up into the clouds where he is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, interceding, mediating, and advocating for us, his children.

And I love that description in 1 John of Christ being our advocate before the

Father. You know what that means? That means Jesus is standing before God the Father, speaking favorably of us on our behalf.

And that is a wonderful, wonderful blessing that we have in Christ that no money can buy.

It is a gift of God by his grace. While we are here on earth, we are to, as Jesus commanded in Matthew 6, seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness.

As our heavenly Father makes us more into the image of his Son, as we walk in holiness, we grow in sanctification.

And then we look forward to a day that is coming when Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, and then we receive our healing, and then we receive his kingdom, and we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him, 1

John 3, 2, and we will dwell with him in his glory forever. I remember one time quoting this passage from Philippians chapter 3 where it says that our bodies will be transformed to be like his glorious body, and one of our elder ladies here at church who is not with us anymore, she came up to me after service and she said to me, you mean

I have to come back to this body? I said, good news, it won't be the same body.

And she said, that is good news. That's the gospel.

That is the good news. And accept no imitation. That is the gospel and we are to preach no imitation.

But these false teachers and deceivers who twist the gospel to benefit themselves, give people false hopes, scratch their itching ears, the only person who prospers from the prosperity gospel is the prosperity preacher.

And even then, the prosperity that he gains on this side of heaven will only be temporary and he will still have

God to face on judgment day. Everyone else is troubled by this preaching.

According to what we've read here in Galatians 1 -7, a woman by the name of Bonnie Parker found out that she was dying of breast cancer and she told no one that she was sick.

She told only Kenneth and Gloria Copeland's ministry, Believer's Voice of Victory, BVOV.

And she sent them money hoping for a miracle. Refusing medical treatment or help from anyone, inevitably

Bonnie died of cancer. After she passed away, her daughter Christy found her mother's letters from the

Copeland's ministry and the notebooks where she would write her prayers for healing. According to what she wrote, she believed that if she sowed enough money, the greater amount of money she sowed, the better chance she had of being healed.

So she started buying Powerball tickets and praying that God would let her win the

Powerball, believing that's what needed to happen in order for her to be healed.

She didn't have enough money to be healed, but if she won the Powerball, she would be healed. Christy found

Powerball tickets stuffed in her mother's Bible. Christy said that had her mother told someone that she had breast cancer and received proper medical treatment, she'd probably have lived a lot longer than she did and in much less pain than she had when she died.

See, the Copelands don't just tell people to believe in healing, they actually tell their viewers and listeners that if you get medical treatment, you lack faith and God will not bless you.

If you get help from doctors. In February of this year,

Gloria Copeland made headlines when she claimed that you don't need to get a flu shot because Jesus is your flu shot.

Listen here. Well, listen, partners, we don't have a flu season.

We've got a duck season, a deer season, but we don't have a flu season and don't receive it when somebody threatens you with everybody's getting the flu.

We've already had our shot. He bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases. Flu, I bind you off of the people in the name of Jesus.

Jesus himself gave us the flu shot. He redeemed us from the curse of flu and we receive it and we take it and we are healed by his stripes.

Amen. You know, the Bible says he himself bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases and by his stripes, we were healed.

When we were healed, we are healed. So get on the word, stay on the word and if you say, well,

I don't have any symptoms of the flu. Well, great. That's the way it's supposed to be. Just keep saying that I'll never have the flu.

I'll never have the flu. Put words, inoculate yourself with the word of God.

He himself bore my sicknesses, carried my diseases and by his stripes,

I was healed. I am healed. How many times did she say by his stripes, we are healed?

Something like three times in that particular clip. She's taking what is the actual gospel message and twisting it into a different gospel every time she does that.

You know, I'm curious if Gloria can successfully bind up the flu in Jesus name, who keeps letting it loose every flu season?

You know who's at fault for that? According to Gloria, it's everyone who says everybody's getting the flu.

If you say you're going to get the flu, you'll get the flu. If you say you won't get the flu, you won't get the flu.

I've got a newsflash for you. Viruses don't speak English. They could care less about your positive or negative confession.

Gloria Copeland wears glasses, by the way. Remember what I said about faith healers wearing glasses?

They are literally looking through their failure. In 2013, the

Copeland's church became the site of a measles outbreak in which 21 people became sick, apparently due to lack of vaccination.

One church member told the Associated Press to get a vaccine would have been viewed by me and my friends and my peers as an act of fear that you doubted

God would keep you safe. So we simply did not do it. The Copeland's preach what many health and wealth preachers preach.

If you're sick, it's because you don't have enough faith. In fact, Ken Copeland, Gloria's husband, has even preached that if you're not making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, you're doing something wrong.

Here's Kenneth Copeland. Think about this. Think about this.

We live in a trillion dollar economy and you're broke.

Something not right about that. A trillion dollar economy and you can't get a hold of a couple of hundred thousand a year?

What is wrong? And you a child of God? Peter, Jesus is your

Lord and joy and heir and your heavenly father is the same God that blessed Adam. What on this earth is wrong?

Something is bad wrong. So while he was talking about that, did you hear Gloria say, and you're a child of God?

Think of the implications here. If you're sick or you don't have enough money, there's a possibility you're not even saved.

According to these people. My friends, Psalm 20 verse 7 says, some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the

Lord, our God. Prosperity cannot be the sign of God's favor.

I know for a fact that prosperity is not the sign of God's favor. You know how

I know that? Because prosperity is exactly the thing the devil promises.

In Matthew 4, 8 through 9, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

John Piper has said, do not measure God's love for you by how much health, wealth, and comfort he brings into your life.

If that were the measure of God's love, he hated the apostle Paul. I mentioned to you a moment ago,

Paul's letter to the Galatians. Do you know how the Galatians came to hear the gospel in the first place? Paul, while he was traveling through Galatia, got sick.

And he had to stop there in Galatia. And he preached the gospel, and a whole bunch of people got saved.

Galatians 4, 13 and 14. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first.

And though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Jesus Christ.

God used Paul's sickness to bring about the salvation of many people.

And people are still getting saved through that incident, by the way. Because Paul wrote the letter to the

Galatians, who were saved by the gospel that he preached, and we read Galatians to this day, and people are getting saved from it.

How God used Paul's bodily ailment to bring the salvation of many.

One of the most devastating passages against the health and wealth gospel is in 2 Corinthians 12.

We'll get to this passage sometime around Thanksgiving. Starting in verse 7, Paul writes, to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations that I had received.

A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me,

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. My friends,

Christ would be saying to every single one of us, What are you willing to give up for me?

Well, Jesus, I'll give up this, and I'll give up this, and I'll give up this, and I'll give up this. Would you be willing to give up comfort for me?

Would you even be willing to give up a comfort in your own body for me?

I don't know, Lord. Anything but that.

What are we willing to give up for Christ? Does our desire for Christ supersede even our desire for comfortable living?

If it doesn't, then it could be that the heart of the prosperity gospel has already infected us to the core of our being.

Need I play the Romans 828 card? And we know that for those who love

God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to His purpose.

That terrible thing that happened to you this week. God works for your good and for His glory.

My friends, whether you are rich, poor, sick, healthy, short, tall, young, old, wearing underwear or a diaper, if you are a follower of Jesus, rejoice.

God is working all things together for your good and for His glory. My goodness, doctors have been taking pieces off of Archie for as long as I've been in this church.

Yet almost all of you in here, when you first set foot in this building, he was probably the first hand that you shook.

There aren't many people who'd be willing to come over to your house, sit and pray with you, or do whatever you need done, and expect nothing in return, but Archie is one of those people.

It was about this time six years ago, and many of you probably didn't know her, but Lucy Cadle, here in this church, passed away.

And it was very sudden, got sick and passed away in October of 2012. And my friends, she did not get sick and die because she didn't have enough faith.

Rather, it's because of her faith in Christ that she is with Him now in glory.

Her husband, Brother Jim, another one of our faithful folks who has spent years serving this church, and he's expected nothing in return.

He's put Band -Aids on so many things in this church just to keep the building from falling apart. The man has hearing aids and probably can't even hear half of what

I'm saying. But God loves him no less than He loves any of His children because of the goodness of Christ our

Savior. Justin Peters is a great brother in the

Lord, and I've had the privilege of meeting Justin and eating lunch with him. In fact, before this sermon this morning,

I asked for his help, and he sent me one of the resources that I've used today. Justin has cerebral palsy.

He can't walk without the help of canes, and most of the time, at least when I've seen him, he's gotten around with the help of a motorized wheelchair.

Justin has said the following, Next to my salvation, my cerebral palsy is one of the greatest gifts that God has ever allowed me to have because I've come to know the

Lord and experience the Lord through my cerebral palsy.

And I may have never known Him or experienced Him in any other way.

The Lord has used it in my life, and I see it as a tremendous blessing that He has given to me.

Listen to this clip from Joyce Meyer. I've got fire in my belly tonight because I know,

I know that there's power in life, in right words, that words are containers for power, and I don't care what kind of a mess you've got.

I am begging you tonight to stop talking about it and start talking about what the

Word says and what you can have. Make yourself a list. Do some work. Do some homework.

Make sure you've got a scripture to back up every one of your confessions. We're not talking about some magic, goofy, you know, weird,

New Age thing. I'm talking about doing what the Bible says, calling those things that be not as though they are, prophesying to the dead dry bones in your life.

Oh, you dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. Maybe you need to get your checkbook out and say, Oh, you checkbook, hear the

Word of the Lord. You are not going to stay empty all of your life. Oh, somebody says, well, this is just too weird for me.

Well, then just stay broke. What you're doing is not working.

You listen to me, checkbook, the first 10 % of everything that goes into you is going to God's work, and you are going to be full to overflowing.

And I am going to be blessed. Now, why are the people clapping there?

It's because Joyce is telling them exactly what they want to hear. She is scratching itching ears.

As Paul warned Timothy in 2 Timothy, that there would be false teachers, and people would accumulate for themselves these false teachers who tell them the things that they want to hear.

All you have to do is say a few magic words over your checkbook, and you'll be rich.

She said, calling those things that be not as though they are.

Where did she get that from? It's from Romans 4 .17. Here it is in context. As it is written,

I have made you the father of many nations, God talking to Abraham, in the presence of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Who calls into existence the things that do not exist? God does. You don't.

You can speak to your checkbook until you're blue in the face, but, my friends, just like viruses, checkbooks don't speak

English. It doesn't understand what it is that you're saying. Your checkbook is not going to be full just because you spoke to it.

Another passage that she used there, she said, Oh, you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. And then she changed that into,

Oh, you checkbook, hear the word of the Lord. You're not going to stay empty all of your life. What was she manipulating?

What passage was that coming from? That was from the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel looks out over this valley, just full of dead men's bones.

And God says to Ezekiel, Can these bones live? And Ezekiel says,

Oh, God, you know. And God says, So speak to the dry bones, prophesy to them.

And that's what Ezekiel does. He speaks the word of the Lord to the dry bones, and they stand up.

And so God says, Speak to them again. And so Ezekiel prophesies again. And the wind blows and comes from every direction and starts to fill up the bones.

They have sinews on them. Skin and muscle and everything starts coming on the bones, and here they are a living army now.

What was this a vision of that Ezekiel was seeing? It was a vision of the gospel. That the gospel of Jesus Christ might be spoken into the world, and people who were dead in their sins and their transgressions would be brought to life in Jesus Christ by the

Holy Spirit of God poured into their hearts. Jesus even borrowed from this exact vision in John chapter 3 when he talked about how the

Spirit of God does what he wishes. No one knows where he comes from or where he is going.

The work that the Holy Spirit of God does. Exactly what Ezekiel saw when he testified the word of the

Lord to dead men. They came to life because of the word of God.

So Joyce Meyer is taking something that points to the gospel of Christ which brings dead men to life, and she's saying, no, this passage is about speaking to your checkbook so you can have money.

Again, they take what is actually the gospel and manipulate it into a different gospel.

Another thing that she said was that, listen to me, oh checkbook, the first 10 % of everything that goes into you is going to God's work and you will be full to overflowing.

Where did she get that from? Well, she's manipulating Malachi chapter 3 where it says, bring the tithe into the storehouse and see that I won't pour out a blessing upon you.

But as I talked about related to tithes last week, that is not an instruction for us to tithe 10 % of our income to the church.

God was rebuking the priests for robbing that which belonged to God.

What is a tithe in the Bible? A tithe. That word tithe appears 35 times in the scriptures between the

Old Testament and the New Testament in every occasion. It's referring to crops or livestock.

It's food. It's never money. In fact, Jesus mentions the tithe only two times.

One is when he's giving the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple.

The Pharisee comes before God and says, oh God, thank you that I'm not like this tax collector.

I'm not like those extortioners or those prostitutes. I pray,

I tithe of all that I get. He's praising himself because of his tithe.

But the tax collector beats his breast and says, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And Jesus said, I tell you, this one the tax collector will go down to his house justified and not the other one.

The other time Jesus mentions the tithe is in Matthew chapter 23 when he's rebuking the Pharisees for boasting in themselves about tithing dill and mint and cumin.

Big deal. You don't need that stuff unless you're cooking. And Jesus said, you have forgotten the weightier matters of the law.

Justice and righteousness. There is no command to us that we would give this amount of our income and if we don't, then

God is not going to bless us. The scripture doesn't say that at all. Rather, what we've just read this morning from 2

Corinthians 9, 6 is this. The point is, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things, meaning you're satisfied in whatever

God gives you. Having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in what?

Riches? Wealth? Prosperity? You may abound in every good work.

There is no promise in scripture that we will have health and wealth this side of heaven.

But I tell you, my friends, you will have more health than you know what to do with and more wealth than you will ever be able to count when you enter into the kingdom of God.

But that's still not the point. The point of God's kingdom is we get to be with God.

You know why the book of Revelation describes streets of gold? Because it's worthless.

It's pavement in heaven. You know why the book of Revelation describes pearly gates of the finest pearls that we'll walk past as we walk through?

Because we're going to walk right past it. It won't matter.

We'll go into heaven looking for and praising God. That's the point. We won't care about streets of gold or pearly gates.

We will get to dwell with God forever in his kingdom. My friends, there are many preachers, even within our

Southern Baptist denomination, who preach this same kind of prosperity gospel that we must be aware of.

And they partner with these folks, some of these names that I've mentioned already this morning, and they speak just like them.

There's probably not a Southern Baptist preacher among men or women more popular right now than Beth Moore.

And she talks just like Joyce Meyer. And she speaks at all of Joyce Meyer's conferences.

And my friends, I know she's a favorite. I know, and I almost always make someone mad whenever I tell them to avoid her teaching.

You may not find a clip of Beth Moore telling you to make a confession over your checkbook, but just this month

I heard her preach a message on how to receive your land of promise here on this earth.

Is that what the Bible says? That there's a promised land for us here on this earth?

Actually, here's what the Bible says in the context of the Old Testament faithful to whom

God promised a land for their inheritance. This is Hebrews 11, beginning in verse 13.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

If they had been thinking of that land from which they were sent out, they would have had the opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desire a better country.

That is a heavenly kingdom. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their

God, for He has prepared for them a city.

And what is that city that God has prepared? Revelation chapter 21, verse 1.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And by the way, what's being described here is not a location, it's a people. A holy city,

New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That's us. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be

His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

That, my friends, is the treasure we look forward to in Jesus Christ our

Lord, the very dwelling place with God forever.

Wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Always be white as snow, the blood of Jesus.

Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.