“And I (the rich fool speaking) will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.” – Luke 12:19-21
“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.’ But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” – Mark 10:21-22
The hardest person to reach when it comes to presenting the gospel is the person who has everything. They have no immediate needs, they’re not down on their luck, and they certainly haven’t hit rock bottom.
The trouble is that we can often see them in their successful, abundant life and think that God is “blessing” them, and that they are not in as dire straits as others who are desperate for the Good News. Our error is that we are judging them according to this world’s goods. Having stuff does not equal having LIFE!
This is why the Prosperity Gospel fails on both levels.
When presented to the poor and needy they gobble it up because Jesus is presented as a cure-all who can turn them into the most successful people on earth. For someone who is struggling, and looking for anything to rescue them from their current state, this message seems like the best news in the world. Sadly, people who turn to Jesus as their Life Coach or Guru are often disillusioned when they continue to face hardship in their lives. As a result, the Prosperity Gospel often fails to make genuine converts because it is not the Gospel that was preached by Christ or the Apostles. If it was, then they should be considered faithless, since they all endured incredible poverty and persecution because they believed in the True Gospel.
The Prosperity Gospel also fails in that it offers nothing to those who have it all. Many people are so full of other things that they have no room for Christ, and therefore don’t find it necessary to walk with Jesus. When they turn on the TV and hear preachers ordering God to open up the storehouses of heaven to fill our wallets, they turn their noses up at it. And rightly so. But because of the increasing popularity of this false gospel, the social or financial elites are at even greater risk to miss the True Gospel. They see Christianity as a glorified rehabilitation program for poor souls who are limping through life. They think that religion is a crutch and that they can be successful on their own. The reason they think that is because in many churches that is the message they are trying to sell.
No one wants to hear “fire and brimstone” anymore, so churches adapt their message to appease the fickle palates of the hyper-sensitive masses. No one wants to be told that they are sinners who desperately need to trust Jesus as their Savior. So instead we have churches that could double as motivational or financial seminars.
The tragic state of the human soul, even while being covered up with pretty things, is the one factor that links all of mankind together. All of us deserve a criminal’s death regardless of our earthly state of affairs. Rich or Poor. Healthy or Sick. Rich and healthy people die and go to hell and so do poor and sick people, without a saving faith in Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But when the gospel is being distorted how can we be sure that people are putting their faith in a God who saves? Maybe their faith is only in the God who supplies?
Because of the materialistic society we live in, many Christians have adopted an incorrect view of what “blessing” means. We associate “money and possessions” as God’s blessing. These people need to be challenged and corrected by the Spirit of God speaking through the Word of God. But the people who think they have no need of God, and are content in their life without Christ are the most deceived, and desperately need to be reached with the truth of God’s Word.
If you are living life and are fine with the mediocre enjoyment that comes from what this world has to offer then you are being lulled to sleep by the father of lies. Don’t buy the Gospel that is being sold to us on TV, in magazines, or on the radio. The ultimate price has been paid by God’s Son on the cross in order to save lost souls from eternal death. Jesus did not die so that you could “positively confess” your way to CEO or to a Lamborghini. But Satan wants nothing more than to give us “stuff” or other priorities to crowd our hearts, so that there is no room for Jesus to reign over our lives the way that He desperately longs to do.
What it really comes down to is that people don’t think that the real Jesus can provide the same satisfying, abundant life that they can provide for themselves. They fear that a relationship with Christ means sacrificing the life that they have worked so hard to establish. But it is because we have taken our definition of success and prosperity from the Prince of the Power of the Air, rather than from the Prince of Peace.
Relying on our own righteousness does not get us into Heaven. Having an abundant life does not get us into Heaven. Being healthy and wealthy does not keep us from meeting our Maker according to His timeline. Surrendering our lives to Jesus and believing in Him is what secures our eternity. Let’s avoid the tragedy of chasing the “good life” in the name of Christianity and instead live the life of sacrificial service that Jesus demonstrated for us when He bought us with His own blood.
“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 2:11
“If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.” 1 Timothy 6:3-5