Satan’s Great Lie - Prosperity
“God wants you to be rich”? “The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous”? “Poor people cannot help God’s Kingdom, He needs people with money.” “You are out of God’s will if you are not financially prospering.” “Give one dollar and receive one hundred in return, give one hundred and receive ten thousand – it is up to you”. These statements have been made from the pulpit of preachers who teach and preach the prosperity message. The prosperity message plays on the desires that everyone has for financial increase and freedom. In last week’s message I laid the foundation for the prosperity message – tithing and giving offerings. I told you how some people tell you that you are cursed if you are not giving at least ten percent to the Church. I also told you the history behind tithing and how the blessing is determined by your attitude in giving, not just in a dollar amount. This morning I will conclude this message on prosperity by giving you God’s idea of prosperity as recorded in His word. I do want to say up front thought, that I do not believe that whether you have a big screen TV or a Lexus, a big house or six-figure salary is high up on God’s list of things for you. They may be on our list, but if we truly want to prosper, we need to know what is on God’s list and what is important to our Father.
Prosperity in the Old Testament came with the realization of goals being met, success in labor, living in peace and safety, happiness, enjoying the benefits of family relationships as well as acquiring and possessing material goods. Acquiring and possessing material goods were not the primary focus of their prosperity. Another point about prosperity is that it comes from God. It is not based totally on an investment system where you invest some and receive more back, but primarily on relationship system. Let us look at Job. My brother and I talked about Job this week and what Satan said to God. He reminded me of this as it relates to prosperity. Job 1:9-10 says “Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land.” Satan told God basically “You’re the reason Job is blessed – you’ve put a hedge around him – I can’t touch him! Do you see where I am going with this? God is the one who prospers us, and in true prosperity, Satan cannot touch what we are doing for God in accomplishing His will. He can try to distract us, but he cannot stop us because of our relationship with God. Job was blessed and “protected” because of his relationship with God, as are we. Let it be known today, right now, right here, God wants you to prosper and His prosperity is a lot more than just finances. I want you to keep in the back of your mind what Satan basically told God – “You’re the reason Job is blessed, you put a hedge around him and I cannot him!” Keep this in your mind and I will come back to it later.
Matthew 6:8 & 33 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him…..But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”
2 Corinthian 9:10 Now 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;
Matthew 9:37-38 “Then He said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
Here is God’s prosperity message for us. In Matthew 6:8 & 33 Jesus tells us that we need to establish a relationship with God. By establishing a relationship with Him, we get to know Him and He gets to know us. Our primary job is to seek God and His righteousness so that we can become like Him. His job, in us doing ours, is to supply all of those other things that we need. Things that will enable us to do certain things for Him like working in the harvest. So as we begin to seek Him, god begins to do His part and provide all of the other things that we need. Why does He do this? So that we can be freed us to seek and learn of Him. You see, God wants you to know and develop a relationship with Him and He just removes a lot of things (distractions) off our plate so that we have time to develop that relationship with Him.
Paul comes back to us in 2 Corinthians 9:10 and tell us several things relating to what Jesus said. Remember Jesus said that as we seek God, He would provide the things we need. Now look at what Paul says in this verse in 2 Corinthians 9:10.
First: “Now He who supplies the seed to the sower and bread for food…” The first thing that jumps out at us is that God is the one who provides the seed to the sower and the bread for food. Are you hearing me? As you begin to sow – God provides the seed! If you are not sowing, you do not need seeds. But the truth here is that what you sow (your seeds), God gives it to you for that purpose – to sow. I find this amazing; God gives to us what He wants us to give in support of His work. The problem that arises is that God gives it to us to sow and we keep it. I am not just talking about money, I am also talking about your talents, gifts, service, kindness, charity, love and the list goes on. Whatever God gives to us we should be willing to turn around and give that to others. Look at the second part:
Second: “will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” First God gives you the seed to sow, then after He gives it to you, he multiplies it and increases the harvest of your righteousness. What is the harvest of your righteousness? Souls saved because of your righteousness. When you step into a relationship with God and begins to walk in that relationship, God wants you to bring others in so that they too can have what you have. Your righteousness enables you to do that. That is why it is so hard for someone (so-called Christians) living in the world to bring others to Christ – their righteousness is not being demonstrated. Our righteousness is not just a holy lifestyle, but demonstrated in what we do for Christ. Paul is saying that first God gives us the seed (His word, His blessings) we need to sow into the fields (the world) and then multiplies it so that our harvest (the souls saved) will be great. The true harvest of your righteousness is what you do for Christ – developing your relationship with God and then bringing others into a relationship with Him (saving souls).
It is important that you understand this because of what Jesus said in Matthew 9:37, “…The harvest if plentiful, but the workers are few.” Some seeds have been sown and multiplied, and ready for the harvest while other seeds are still being sown. The seeds that have grown and ready to be harvested need workers to do the harvesting. This is why God prospers us – so that we can bring in the harvest while others continue to sow. As a child of God you are sowing and reaping the harvest simultaneously. Are you seeing the relationship? God is looking at this backward to forwards. He knows the harvest He wants; He knows what it will take to get the harvest; He knows the seeds that need to be planted. Because He knows this, when we are ready, He gives us everything that we need to bring about His will – His harvest. That is what God’s prosperity is all about – bringing souls (His harvest) to Him.
Let me give you this analogy that my brother gave me. Remember the story of the prodigal son as recorded in Luke 15:11-32? In the story that Jesus told, a man had two sons. One of the sons came to his father and asked for his inheritance. When his father gave it to him, he went out and spent it all. When he fell on very hard times, he decided to go home. In the mean time, the father continued to look for his son, hoping he would come home. One day while he was looking – he saw his son. He did not wait for his son to get to him; he ran to his son and hugged him. Then he prepared a feast in the honor of his son. The brother who stayed with his father became angry with his father because he was celebrating the return of his brother. You see the son that stayed did not know the heart of his father as it related to the son who left. Maybe he assumed that his father wrote his brother off because he had left, I do not know. What I do know is that when his father gave the celebration, it upset him because his father never gave him one and he was the one who had stayed with him. Now here is where I want you to use your imagination. Imagine that the son who stayed understood his father and what he felt for the son who left. Imagine him going to his father, after seeing how hurt he was at his son leaving, and asking him if he wanted him to go and find his brother and bring him home. Now imagine what his father would have said. His father would have said “Yes son, go and find your brother and bring him home!” Now, in order for him to do this, his father would have to provide for him everything that he needed in order to search the land for his brother. He would have given him servants, food, transportation, everything. If they ran out of something, the son would have sent one of his servants back to ask his father for more. The good father would send whatever they needed and more because he wanted their journey to find his other son to be successful. Whatever the one son needed in order to find his brother on behalf of his father would have been give to him.
This is God’s prosperity for us. When Jesus left heaven (where He was rich) and came to earth (poor), He was on a mission from His Father. God gave Him everything that He needed in order for Him to accomplish His mission. All of the miracles that Jesus did had one end result – bringing sinners back to God. Everything that Jesus did all of His energy and every blessing given was focused solely on His Father’s mission. God made sure that He had everything at His disposal to do the job that He had sent Him here to do. When Jesus was leaving this earth having completed His Father’s mission, He turned that mission over to us. Just as God ensured that Jesus had everything He needed to fulfill His mission, he has transferred that mission to us through the work of Christ. Remember the great commission found in Matthew 28:19-20? “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
If you are doing this, you will be prospering. God will make sure that you have everything you need in order to do what He has called you to do. We quote Philippians 4:19 often about how God shall supply all of our needs. This is very true, but as you look at the context for which Paul made the statement, he was talking to those who were about doing God’s business. If you are about doing God’s business, not only in actions but also in heart, you will prosper.
The prosperity message that some use to justify the attainment of wealth and possessions is not of God. Jesus always referred to our prospering in our work for completing God’s mission. The other New Testament writers made it clear that God wants us to prosper, not as a get rich (financially) quick scheme, but as a reality based on our relationship with Him. Our motivation and focus is to do His will, saving souls, not using His word to increase our own financial portfolio. Again, it is attitude. We quote scriptures relating to everything dealing with finances, but not in reference to how we give mercy and love to one another. Our relationship with God is not the same as you have with an investment firm. Investment firms want is your money and they will try and make more money for you. Of course you may lose your money, but the goal is to make money. The way we talk about prosperity and how to gain wealth, we act like God operates like this. God cares about your heart, what you give from your heart. Our Father desires for us to seek Him and as we do, He provides everything else so that we do not have to worry about the other things. All we have to be concerned about is seeking Him and doing His will.
Remember what I told you at the beginning that Satan said to God in reference to Job. Now take out Job’s name and replace it with yours. God is prospering me and has a hedge around me and Satan can’t touch me. That is prosperity. In closing think about this, if having riches was the end of all problems, why do rich people suffer from more depression and have a higher suicide rate than the “average” lower-middle class person? It is not about the money, it is about you heart, your attitude and your relationship with your Father. Are you prospering? If not, I can tell you how you can start.
