Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 105 | Plans to Prosper?

Episode Date: April 29, 2019

A recent article in the Financial Times (paywall) about Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church prompts us to analyze the still-growing prosperity gospel and refute its unbiblical claims.   Copyright Blaze Media All Rights Reserved.

Hello, relatable listeners. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Can't believe that we are almost done with April this week. It's going to be May 1st. That is crazy. I, of course, am excited because summer is my favorite season. And also, I'm about to give birth, which is really exciting. I'm going to talk to you guys at some point about what that's going to look like post-baby being born, whenever that is. it's supposed to be the end of June? You never know. Could be a week after that, could be a week before. I'm sure all of you have your variety of birthing stories that you could tell me. This is my first time, so I just don't know. But we are going to be fully prepared for after the baby is born. You are going to have consistent content from me. I am going to be taking a break.

So it'll be a lot of pre-recorded content, but that we are really, really thinking about. And I'm thinking about what is going to be most valuable for my listeners while I am going to It's not going to be a bunch of fluffy podcasts. It's going to be extremely substantive stuff so that you feel like you're learning something, or we're really learning together. Theologically, politically, I'm going to have interesting conversations. And so I'm actually really looking forward to the podcast that I'm going to put out this summer that you guys are going to get to listen to. I'm really, really excited about that. But I will be taking time off to be with my child and to be with my husband.

some of you guys have asked if I'm going to stop working entirely. No, I'm not going to stop working entirely. I love what I do. And thankfully, I'm able to work from home for the most part. And I'm going to take some time off traveling as I have as well at the end of my pregnancy. But I'm still going to be around. I'm sure I'll be at some point on Instagram stories and things like that. And then after I take a few weeks off after the baby is born, we will pick right back up. And like, I said, I still get to spend a lot of time with my family and with my child while I'm doing that because I work from home, save the few weeks every year that I have to travel. And I will navigate that world whenever it comes. A few working moms have any, I guess all moms really are working moms. But if you are a mom who also works outside the home in addition to being a mom of little ones, feel free to shoot me an email with some of your best advice. I would love to hear from you. I have a lot of wise women in my life who have been giving me good sound advice. If you've got good sound advice to give, I would love to hear it. Okay, enough about that. Today, we are going to

talk about the prosperity gospel. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are thinking, gosh, I've heard about the prosperity gospel a million times. I know what's wrong. I've been hearing that it's wrong for the past 12 years, however long it's been for you. I don't need to hear. another episode on Joel Osteen. Some of you are thinking, what's the prosperity gospel? And some of you are thinking, I don't want to listen to this because I like Joel Osteen and the other pastors that a lot of people say are prosperity preachers. And I think that this episode is still for all of you. And the reason why I'm talking about it, the reason why I think it's relevant right now is one, because it is still increasingly popular. And two, I read a very interesting

article in the Financial Times, which, of course, as you can probably deduce from the name, is a secular magazine written by Edward Luce. I actually heard about this article in another podcast. It's an article titled A Preacher for Trump's America, Joel Osteen and the Prosperity Gospel by, like I said, Edward Luce. So this journalist, he's actually the editor for this particular online outlet. He visited Lakewood Church, which is Joel Osteen's church down in Houston, chronicled his experience there. I talk a lot to you guys about hipster Jesus, about social justice, Jesus, about this kind of like feel good, just pat you on the back, self-love Jesus. We talk about that a lot.

We don't talk very often about the prosperity gospel. Now, I have talked about it before, but we haven't talked about it in a really long time on this podcast, mostly because I assume that most of my listeners who are believers already know that this is an unbiblical message, that this is an unbiblical gospel. It is not a real gospel. It is a false gospel. But every time I have in the past posted something about the prosperity gospel or just alluded to how unbiblical the prosperity gospel is, I'm always surprised at the number of people in my comments who are very incensed, who are extremely angry, who are very confused, it seems like, and I don't mean that in a condescending way, truly confused about what the Bible says, about what the gospel is, really. And so,

I do think that this is important, especially since this is an article that just came out, and as we'll get into, it is a very popular doctrine. It's always important to talk about false doctrines. Don't worry, I will explain exactly why it's a false doctrine. For those of you who already know that it's a false doctrine, it's still good to be refreshed in what the Bible actually says and what the gospel actually is. You've heard me say that I heard from a pastor a long time ago that totally changed my life and how I approached theology, you never graduate from the gospel. You never graduate from the gospel. It's not this thing that, okay, you understand that Jesus saves you. Great, you're not going to hell. Let's move on to the more complicated, applicable,

pragmatic stuff. No, the gospel is in everything. It's from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of revelation. It affects everything we think, everything we do, and everything we say. It is a part of every lesson that we should be learning in church. It goes back to the gospel. And so this message is for you, no matter who you are. The prosperity gospel has been around for a long time. I kind of want to just set up a little bit of context for those of you who don't know. It is a pseudo-Christian message. And what I mean by that is that it is a message that poses as a Christian message.

It ensures better health, more wealth, greater job prospects, healthier relationships, etc. If by faith, and I'm kind of paraphrasing what they would say, because I've heard so many of these sermons from these kinds of teachers, if by faith you believe. If you are faithful to do what God tells you to do in the Bible, if you think positively, and if you dwell on things optimistically, and if you ask for these good things, good things will be brought to you. If you do your part, essentially, then God will do his. God, they would say, is a good father. Therefore, like any good father, it makes him happy to do good things for you, to do nice things for you, to give you abundant

blessings. Like any good father, they say he does not want you to suffer. He does not want you to go without. He does not want you to be miserable. He wants you to be happy and healthy. He wants you to live in abundance, to live in optimism. God wants you, they would say, to be successful in your job. He wants you to be rich. He wants to expand your territory and give you more influence. He wants you to be self-confident. He wants you to even be fit and to feel good and to feel good about yourself and your body. Now, some scripture that they would use to back this up because they do call themselves Christians and they call themselves Christian teachers. And so they very often will make a point and then they go back to scripture to prove their point. And so they might say

Jeremiah 29-11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. They might use a different version that says plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Psalm 8411, no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Sorry, I lost my place for a second. Matthew 7.7. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be open to you. Matthew 7.11. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him. James 117, every good and perfect gift is from above. So these are the Bible verses that they would probably use to support their doctrine and to support their version of the gospel. They are also known as word of faith teachers, people that teach that you can access the power of God by saying a word. They are also called name it and claim it teachers that say that you can speak something that you want into being and

God will make sure that it happens for you. They are also called health and wealth teachers. This kind of doctrine, the prosperity gospel, as it is called, is typically associated with a few people. Of course, Joel Osteen, Benny Hin, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Eddie Long, there are many, many others. Some, you will probably see if you research this. Some may even include people like Bethmore and Stephen Ferdick. Here is how Joel Osteen's church is described in this Financial Times article that we referenced in the beginning. It says, quote, optimism, hope, destiny, harvest, bounty. These are Lakewood's buzzwords.

Prosperity, too. Words that are rarely heard include guilt, shame, sin, penance, and hell. Lakewood is not the kind of church that troubles your conscience. If you want to feel bad, Lakewood is not the place for you, said a member. Most people want to leave church feeling better than when they went in. It also says that Joel Osteen during his sermon told the Pact Stadium that each and every one of us was a, quote, masterpiece. We should, quote, shake off the shame and open our hearts to God's bounties. The article goes on to say, Osteen knows his audience.

We want fatted calves slaughtered in our honor. There was no hint in his message of the fire and brimstone of a Billy Graham or a Jerry Falwell. Osteen is more like Oprah Winfrey in a suit. he is not peddling the opium of the masses. It is more like therapy for a broken middle class. If God had a refrigerator, Joel Osteen said in his sermon, your picture would be on it. If he had a computer, your face would be the screensaver. So there are some other quotes from Joel Osteen that just kind of give you a good picture

of who he is. When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance. He also says, do all you do all you do. can to make your dreams come true. And lastly, God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny that he has laid out for us. When the writer of this article asked Joel O'estain, how did you manage to keep sin and redemption out of a Christian message? I'm guessing that this author himself, I'm assuming that he's not a Christian, I don't know that. I'm assuming he's coming from a secular perspective. And so I think it's interesting that he is the one to bring up

sin and redemption? He says, how do you manage to keep sin and redemption out of a Christian message, Joel? And Joel said, look, I am a preacher's son, so I'm an optimist. Life already makes us feel guilty every day. If you keep laying shame on people, they get turned off. Now, you can probably guess that this is a massively popular message. It's obviously a massively popular church. a 16,000 in his congregation. He draws 7 million TV viewers a week and many more on satellite radio podcasts and online streaming. It is also, as you would probably guess, massively lucrative.

Joel Osteen has a reported net worth of over 15 million. A recent book received a $13 million advance, which is really incredible. That's just a tiny bit more than the advance that I got from my book. He and his family live in a 10.5.5. million home with a variety of luxury cars. So he's doing pretty well. He doesn't any longer take his $200,000 salary that he used to get paid from the church. I'm guessing that he probably gets a lot of his money from books and other media, speaking engagements, things like that. Now, like I said, most of you probably already know the dangers of the prosperity gospel. You listen to his quotes

and you just kind of cringe. Or maybe it makes you really mad. Maybe you're like, oh my gosh, why are so many people buying into this because you know what the Bible says. But as I said in the beginning, it's still important for us to talk about it right now because as crazy as it seems, it is growing. It is popular. And we will discuss why a little bit more. Many of you might not understand you're listening to this and you're just kind of nodding along and saying, amen. What he's saying sounds great. Doesn't sound like it's false to me. You don't really see a problem with Joel Osteen's ministry. and I understand that. I actually do. I was raised by entrepreneurs. My parents came from nothing. They became very successful from working hard using a lot of the principles that you hear someone like

Joel Osteen talking about. And that is because he has good practical business advice that if you apply probably will help you in some way. It probably will help you to think positively. It probably will help you to do the things that he says to achieve your goals. I used to watch Joel Osteen growing up. I thought that he was great. I didn't think there was anything wrong with what he said. I was raised in a very up by your bootstrap's family, which, by the way, I'm very thankful for and was instilled with wonderful principles

because of that. But I didn't see a problem growing up with conflating this kind of up by your bootstraps health and wealth thing with the Bible. I thought that that's kind of what we were supposed to do. And so you might be like I was growing up. You don't see anything wrong with that. And in fact, it makes you feel good. It makes you feel motivated.

It makes you feel inspired. That's the thing that you want to listen to on a Monday morning so that you can seize the day and really succeed it at work. And you feel like God is on your side. I totally get that. Some of what he says or certain things in what he says in some ways is true. God does love you. He loves you so much. You should think positively.

You should not dwell on your misery. You should work hard. You should be responsible with stewarding your money. It is not bad to make money. It is not bad to have a job. So we listen to what he says and we think, great. It's true. And scripture seems to support it.

So this must be it. This must be the empowering message of God that I am meant to hear, that I am meant to internalize and use as I go forward in my life. It must be God's will that I'm successful and I'm going to figure out how to do that and I'm going to feel good about it. But here's the problem. Here's the problem that I had to realize. So as someone who believed in this at one point in my life, I want you to know that if you are listening to this and you're like, you don't agree with me, you agree with Joel Osteen, know that I'm coming from a place not of condescension or coming from a place of telling you, wow, you're so stupid. How could you believe this? I believed it too.

And I know lots of wonderful people who do believe it. So know that I'm speaking from a place of love when I tell you that is not the gospel. That is not the message of Christ. That is not the hope, the good news that God offers us. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. And we're going to get to why. God wants you, by his grace, to come to faith in Christ and to follow him. Period. Following him, as we read in scripture and as I will specifically cite in just a little bit, entails. It entails. It entails. It entails. It entails. It entails. It entails sorrow. It entails discomfort. It entails hardship, always in some way. And following Christ does not relieve you from becoming sick. It does not relieve you from dying physically. It does not relieve you from

suffering loss as we see throughout the Bible, as we've seen with martyrs throughout history, with missionaries throughout history, as we've seen through everyday Christians, throughout history, that suffering, physical suffering, worldly suffering doesn't go away when we become Christians. Life does not become easier when we become Christians. In fact, in many ways, if not in every way, it becomes much harder. Following Christ asks you to deny yourself, to take up your cross, which is, of course, a form of crucifixion, and follow him. If that does not sound easy or convenient to you, that's because it is not supposed to be. It was never supposed to be. If you hear that and you say, well, that's not for me. Okay, that's fine. That means that

Christianity isn't for you. There's not another brand of Christianity. There's not another way. Being a Christian who seeks to avoid all suffering is like being a swimmer who seeks to avoid all water. Doesn't work. It's impossible. So remember that scripture that I gave you in the beginning that seemed to support the prosperity gospel, Jeremiah 29-11, Matthew 7-11. Let's take a look at some other scripture and then we'll get back to those verses. Luke 923. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 1426, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

John 1633, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. 2 Corinthians 1210, for the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with hardships, with persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. In Philippians 310, Paul says that I may know him and the power of His Jesus's resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death.

2 Timothy 1 8 therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our lord nor of me his prisoner but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of god 1 peter 314 but even if you should suffer for righteousness's sake you will be blessed 1 peter 413 but rejoice in so far as you share in Christ sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed because we should ask ourselves what Jesus asks in Mark 836 for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul. So we will suffer. We are guaranteed it as Christians.

Jesus says that part and parcel of following him is that we will have to give things up. Not just a few things, but everything that he asks us to, We aren't just denying parts of us. We are denying us. I am denying me. You are denying you. You are now to be everything and do everything that God asks you to do. This is no longer about expanding my kingdom.

This is no longer about making myself great. This is not about me at all. This is about Jesus. My life is about him. Your life is about him. Your life is about making him great. Jesus is not a genie to give you what you want. God is not Santa Claus.

Joel Osteen said in his sermon that if God had a refrigerator, my picture would be on it. Your picture would be on it. If God had a screensaver, our pictures would be the screensaver. No. If God had a refrigerator, he would have a picture of himself on it. God does not worship us. God does not stand back and admire us. God does not need us.

God is self-sufficient. God alone is worthy of admiration. God alone is worthy of our worship. It is not the other way around. So, okay, how do we reconcile this? How do we reconcile these verses about suffering with the verses that say, God wants us to prosper and is going to give us good things like any good father? How do we reconcile that? Well, I'll tell you what I do. So when I see two verses or two passages that seem in my finite mind, to contradict each other. I look for reconciliation in scripture. I don't ignore one verse in favor of the other. That'd be a lot easier. I could just say, well, this one kind of is more attractive to me. This one's more appealing to me. This one makes more sense to me. So I'm just kind of kind of forget that

the Bible said that over there. And I'm just going to take this one and apply it to my life because that feels a lot better. That unfortunately is what the prosperity gospel does. It takes things out of context, doesn't look at the rest of the Bible, doesn't look at a verse in light of Scripture, doesn't look at a verse in reflection or in the context of the character of God. It says, well, this sounds good. This kind of fits what I feel. And so I'm going to go for that. But that's not what we're called to do. So when I see something that seems like a contradiction in scripture, I default to my misunderstanding, not God's confusion, not the Bible's wrongness, but my misunderstanding because 2 Timothy 316 says that the Word of God is sufficient for everything.

It's full. It is also infallible. I know that. That means that everything in it is useful for me. That means that I can't contradict each other. That means that I can't throw one thing out because I don't feel like it's helpful. The Bible tells me that it's all helpful and it's all useful. Okay. So it's not contradicting each other. So there must be another way that I can look at this that is also illuminated by the Word of God in order to gain complete wisdom that is informed by God. So a few passages do that for me. When I look at the passages about seeming prosperity and I look at the passages about suffering, I find reconciliation in some other passages.

One is Romans 5.3 through 5. Not only that, Paul through God or God through Paul says, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. James 1, 2, through 3, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of many kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness,

and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Romans 831 through 39, a passage that all of us love, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword or danger? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So what I find then is that suffering does occur. And the hope in our suffering is not that God's going to take it away in this life, but that He is going to be present with us. He is going to be faithful with us until the end. And we can look forward to eternal glory as 2 Corinthians 417 says 417 through 18 for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us

an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal if you want more on biblical suffering you can go back a few episodes a few weeks ago i did an entire episode on biblical suffering and what god has to say about it so in light of what we're talking about now, the question is, it's really a statement, it's a rhetorical question, I guess. So in light of the rest of scripture, when we look at these verses that seem to say that God is going to give us prosperity and success, whatever we want, we can just name and claim and he'll give it to us, just like a genie in a bottle. When we look at those verses, and we look at

the verses that guarantees suffering, and then we look at the reconciling verses that say it is suffering that is good. It is suffering that is sanctifying. It is suffering that is doing something with you, doing something in you, through you, and God is going to be with you, and you are going to be glorified with him one day. Could it be, could it be that these things that are promised to us, this prosperity that is promised to us, is eternal prosperity rather than temporary prosperity? could it be that God guarantees us eternal glory after this life, not worldly comfort? It seems that the answer is yes, in light of all of Scripture, that that is the case. It seems that the good gift that God gave us is His Son, Jesus Christ.

And though we will suffer, we will suffer. Not we might. Not if we pray hard enough, we'll avoid it. We will suffer because of him. we will also live with him forever. And nothing, no amount of struggle in this life will ever stop that from happening or ever diminish that. Maybe that is the proof that God is talking about that he is faithful and not your job promotion. And in fact, I would venture so far as to say in light of scripture, yes, that's exactly what he's talking about. Eternal glory. And that's more than we could

ever deserve. Now, let me say a few things. God does give us tangibly good things in this life. He does. He does choose to give us spouses and children and jobs and even allows promotions and influence. He does. I have this podcast. It's a good thing. I have an audience. It's a good thing. I do have influence. That's a good thing. I have a job. I have a husband. I'm pregnant. I thank God for these things. These are beautiful, wonderful gifts from him that I rejoice over. But these are gracious gifts, not guaranteed gifts. And if God never gave you. us an immaterial thing. If we lived an absolute squalor forever, he would still be more merciful and more gracious than we ever deserved simply because he sent his son to die for us and he didn't even have to do that. He was completely justified in wiping all of us out because all of us

are guilty apart from him. That that he offered redemption for us through Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing. That is the only blessing that really matters. That alone is, is so far beyond what any of us could possibly earn or deserve that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, that that is all we need for gratitude. That's all we need for joy. You want to talk about the power of positive thinking. Dwell on that. You want to talk about optimism. Dwell on that. You want to talk about what you can do to make your life better. You want to talk about what you can do to make yourself feel more successful. dwell on the beauty of the gospel and the grace that God has given you through Christ.

That'll change your life. That'll transform your thinking. That'll transform everything. It doesn't mean that life is going to be easy. In fact, as we've talked about so many times in this episode, it means that life is going to be really hard in a lot of ways. And it's going to guarantee a lot of sacrifice. And it's going to guarantee and demand of you absolute and total self-denial

and obedience to the God who saved you. and it is all worth it because this life is like that. Wealth, I will say, because I know people are thinking about this, wealth in itself is not bad. Money is not bad. The love of money is the root of all evil, but money in itself is not bad. Jobs aren't bad.

Spouses aren't bad. Things in this life aren't bad, but the worship of them is. We view all that we are given as things to be stewarded for the glory of God. All of our money, all of our titles, all of our jobs, all of our marriages, our children. None of it is ours, ultimately, our time. It is all gods to be used as he wants us to use them. And we are all learning, gosh, me included, I would say me the foremost, me the most.

I don't know if that's grammatically correct, but me the most. I am learning what that looks like. And I am so grossly and perfect at that every single day of using my time and everything God has given me wisely stewarding it well, stewarding my talents to the glory of God and not my glory. That is so much of what I on a daily basis need to work on and get better at through the power of the Holy Spirit. so I'm not speaking to someone who has come even close,

come even close to perfecting this in my life. But I am telling you what the Bible says and what the Bible says about the things that we have and how we should learn through his wisdom and through his power to use them. That means we do not pursue being rich. We do not pursue being famous. We do not pursue having everything the world tells us that we need to be happy. We pursue Jesus and we are glad with whatever he chooses. is to give us. Whatever that means, you do what you're good at or what you're called to do.

A lot of times it's what you're good at, but I guess maybe that's not always true. I always say do what you're good at for the glory of God, but hey, God can call you to do anything and equip you to do anything. So do whatever you do for the glory of God, work hard at whatever you work at for the glory of God. That's what we're called to do. Let me just be really clear. The prosperity gospel isn't just an imperfect gospel. It's not just an incomplete gospel. It's not just a decontextualized gospel. It is a false gospel from hell.

It is from Satan. And if you believe it, you will not find Christ. If that is what you believe, if that is what you center your life on, this prosperity gospel, that will lead to hell. End of story. That's it. There's no gray. it's black and white what the bible tells us is the gospel is the gospel what joel ostein tells you is the gospel

is not the gospel and my heart breaks for the hundreds of thousands millions of people who follow that and think if they just pray a little bit harder if they're just a little more faithful if they do a little bit more than god's going to do his part and they're going to he's going to grant them that promotion you are missing out on so much freedom you're missing out on so much joy you're missing out on eternal life. You are missing out on the riches of following Jesus in this life and the next. And my heart breaks for you. My heart breaks for those people. The good news is that Jesus came to die and rise again to save you and we get to share in his sufferings and then we get to share in his glory. It does not guarantee us anything material in this life. And that's okay. God is still good.

He's amazingly good and merciful and gracious. 2 Timothy 4.3 says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Now, there is a similarity to this prosperity gospel in the hipster Jesus gospel, in the feel good gospel, in the self-love gospel that is typically associated with the progressive left. and I would say that the prosperity gospel is typically associated with the right. Probably, I would guess. But here are the similarities in these two false gospels.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about, when I talk about hipster Jesus, there's actually an episode titled Hipster Jesus that I would go back and listen to. There are some old episodes from about a year ago where I talk about self-love and all of that stuff. I have lots and lots of episodes on that particular topic. anything with the title woke in it, you'll probably listen to that, understand what I'm talking about. But the similarities between the prosperity gospel and the hipster Jesus gospel is that both gospels are all about you. They're all about worshiping you. They're all about God serving you. They're all about the Bible being about you. They're all about you being glorified and you being comfortable.

And that's not, that's the opposite of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the gospel or that's opposite of the gospel in the Bible, the only gospel that exists. They have very, very strange similarities. I guess you could say that really about any religion or any false doctrine is that it's on you and your feelings and not on God in his well. God calls us to be holy, not necessarily healthy, or that doesn't guarantee our health. God calls us to be his. God calls us to be obedient. God calls us to be sanctified. He doesn't necessarily call us to be rich and he certainly doesn't guarantee those things. God does not exist for you. You exist for him. That's what people who either ascribe to the hipster Jesus narrative or the prosperity gospel narrative need to understand.

A really good way to check your theology is to, one, verify it with scripture in light of all of scripture. And as I've said before, when you read the Bible, the question to ask is, what does this mean? And what does this say about God? Not what does this mean for me? Or how do I apply this to my life? Now, what the Bible verse means, period, and what the Bible verse says about God will have implications for how you live your life. But you don't need to constantly place yourself in the place of Bible characters in order to know the truth that he is saying through his word. You ask yourself, what does this mean in context? What does this mean in light of scripture? What does this say about God? And in light of that wisdom, that objective wisdom, what, how does, how do I apply that to my life to be more

like Christ? So when you're reading scripture, those are the kinds of questions that you ask. I use, a lot of people ask me this. I use ESV study Bible. I also, I have to look, I use a keyword study Bible, a Hebrew, Greek study Bible. I don't use that every single day. But I also, I also, I also, have systematic theology by Wayne Grudem. So if you want to know more about how to read your Bible, which is a totally legitimate question, you can email me about that. I probably answer those kinds of emails every week. And I, of course, take the wisdom from other people who have been doing this much, much, much longer than I have in order to answer those questions as adequately as I can. But I say all that to say a really good way to check your theology is to, one, align it with

scripture, see if what you believe is actually true. That's something I do on a daily basis. on a daily basis. I am reading scripture and saying, well, okay, I believe this. The Bible says this. I will, the question, the answer is always I'm wrong. If I believe something differently than what the Bible says. But there's also a lot of questions of, okay, well, I thought the Bible also said this. How do I reconcile that?

And then like I said, I go into scripture to find that reconciliation. And of course, we are also always praying for wisdom. So that's a really good thing for us to do on a daily basis. Check what we believe in alignment. with scripture. We always defer to what the Bible says and what the Bible actually means. Also, just a really good, I think, rule of thumb when you are trying to figure out theologically what you believe, of course, that it aligns with scripture, but also does what I believe make myself bigger, make myself better, or does it make God bigger and better?

I always defer to the latter. I always say, okay, if what I believe, if a certain section of My theology is making myself seem awesome and God seem more as this kind of like partner who is coming alongside me to make my life great, then that part of my theology is wrong. You are going to be on a really good track if you defer in every theological belief you have to God's glory. If you ask yourself, what brings God the most glory and reminds me of how small I am? I found that that's a really good question. again, always in deference to scripture. But I mean, that's how, for example, and I won't get into this

right now, because this is going to be one of my subjects for my summer series. I mean, predestination. That's a really good, that's a really good way to kind of understand predestination. What gives God the most glory and takes all of my human effort out of it in order to understand what in Ephesians it says, why it says that man should not boast, that we have nothing to boast when it comes to salvation. Oh, that's because God chose us before the beginning. of time, as Romans 9 and other passages elsewhere say. So I think that's a really good way to understand your theological beliefs. Does this give God more glory? Or does this give me more glory? If it's giving you more glory, it's probably not theologically correct. Like I said,

always defer to scripture and pray for wisdom. So it's important that we have a proper theological framework when we are approaching things like the prosperity gospel, we are approaching things that any pastor says to make sure that it is right, to make sure that it is in line with who God says that he is, any pastor, no matter what. And that's how I want to approach this prosperity gospel as well. And of course, the hipster Jesus gospel, not deferring to my own feelings, but deferring to what God's word says. And that's exactly why I ask you guys to always email me if I've gotten something wrong in light of scripture. Because I want to know that. I want a remedy that immediately apologize for it and make it right. So please,

let me know. Thank you so much for listening. I hope that you guys have a great rest of your day, and I will see you back here on Wednesday.