Prosperity Verse Misunderstood (Podcast)

Introduction

Jeremiah 29:11 CSB

11 For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Body

Why is this verse so appealing for so many people?

This is a verse that is so often used by prosperity preachers to say that “God desires for you to have health and wealth and glory”

The reality is that God having plans for you in this passage is not to be understood in this context at all

Why do you think this verse is used out of context by particular prosperity driven false teachers and misunderstood Christians?

MILLION-DOLLAR HOME SALES SOAR

Buyers in 2000 smashed records for homes sold for more than $1 million. The analysis is based on sales of residential real estate recorded with local governments across the USA:

1995: 2,520 (estimate)

1996: 3,380 (estimate)

1997: 4,895 (estimate)

1998: 7,155 (estimate)

1999: 10,300 (estimate)

2000: 15,595 (estimate)

Citation: Bob Laird, “Million-dollar Home Sales Soar,” USA Today (12-06-00); source: DataQuick Information Systems

Over time homes have gotten more expensive, people have become increasingly materialistic the closer the statistics get to today. It is interesting but not shocking to me that while the level of materialism in America has increased, the level of committed Christianity has decreased drastically.

Hope itself is like a star—not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.

Charles Spurgeon

What do you think of Spurgeon’s view on prosperity?

Mark 10:23–27 CSB

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were astonished at his words. Again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were even more astonished, saying to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.”

It is difficult for us to see our need for Christ when we have everything the world could offer or that we could ever need.

Does anyone know some of the traits that the Jews had expected in their messiah?

They expected it NOW. They expected earthly victory over the oppression of the Romans. They expected to be conquerers of the world and to rule as God’s chosen people.

They expected prosperity, not adversity

Conclusion

But Jesus came for different reasons. He came to get people’s eyes off of earthly victory and wordly glory and to fix their eyes on eternal things. He died on the cross so that we could go to heaven and be rejoined with God. His people died cruel deaths to defend the faith. In areas of the world today they still do. Jesus came to be the victory from the sin that conquered our people since the time of Adam and Eve.

God desires for us to prosper in the sense that he desires for us to feel genuinely fulfilled in him. That’s why we live out the Great Commission. Jesus is the answer.

Jesus is the hope that seems so much easier to find in adversity than in prosperity.

The next time you go through adversity remember to look for Jesus and allow him to guide your life and to fulfill you. If you lean on the constant hand of Christ for your fulfillment you will never be let down.

Things of this world pass away, but God never does.