Sermon Tone Analysis

Open: Video clip from Creflo Dollar message: Succeeding in Everything you Do (2015) clip is from 20:12 - 21:50

Transition: Creflo takes the biblical account of Joseph being blessed and successful, even when he was a slave, and then he misapplies the meaning by “prophesying” blessings and promotion on everyone, regardless of their circumstances.

[As an extra blessing, Creflo speaks in tongues, clearly violating the Scriptural principles laid down in 1 Cor.

14:26-28]

The Word of Faith teaching on wealth and Prosperity - Sow a Seed

Explanation: One of the major emphases the WoF teachers promote is that of wealth and prosperity for believers.

They teach the heretical doctrine that Jesus paid for the “sin of poverty” on the cross, and they also misuse to teach that it is a sin for a believer to be sick because believers “have already been healed by His stripes”

It is important to remember that their conclusion is based on their presuppositions regarding faith as an active force.

If indeed our words and thoughts can manipulate God into action on our behalf, then it is fairly easy to conclude that the only reason for a believer to remain poor or sick is due to lack of faith.

One of the favorite means the WoF teachers use to promote a believer’s journey to personal prosperity is through the mechanism of seed faith.

The analogy of the sowing and reaping is taught, but with a twist.

The WoF heretics teach that if a believer gives in faith, God is then obligated to multiply the seed that was sown and grant a bountiful harvest.

Illustrate: Show Joyce Meyer video clip.

Youtube video titled Joyce Meyer False Prosperity Gospel Sow a seed meet a need.

clip is first 47 seconds.

According to this heresy, God is obligated to meet the demands voiced in faith language.

Argument: While giving is a valid principle set forth in Scripture, God never declares that if a person gives, that act of giving places the Sovereign God in the subservient position of having to meed that person’s future requests.

As a matter of truth, Jesus told His followers to give without expecting anything in return () and also warned them that the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for things would prove to be unfruitful ()

Another bad example of the “seed of faith” theology is found with Gloria Copeland As she put it in her 1987 book, God’s Will is Prosperity, “Give $10 and receive $1,000; give $1,000 and receive $100,000. . . .

In short, is a very good deal.”

It’s evident, then, that the prosperity gospel’s doctrine of giving is built on faulty motives.

Whereas Jesus taught his disciples to “give, hoping for nothing in return” (), prosperity theologians teach their disciples to give because they will get a great return.

(Nine Marks article)

The WoF teachers will twist these accounts, (and others) to show that God’s desire for all believers is to be wealthy.

As Gloria Copeland put it in her 1987 book, God’s Will is Prosperity, “Give $10 and receive $1,000; give $1,000 and receive $100,000. . . .

In short, is a very good deal.”

It’s evident, then, that the prosperity gospel’s doctrine of giving is built on faulty motives.

Whereas Jesus taught his disciples to “give, hoping for nothing in return” (), prosperity theologians teach their disciples to give because they will get a great return.

(Nine Marks article)

The Word of Faith teaching on wealth and Prosperity - Claim your blessings!

Kenneth Copeland also wrote a book entitled The Laws of Prosperity in which he sets forth principles that are followed by WoF teachers such as Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and many others.

One quote that bears attention is when Copeland states, “You can have what you say!

In fact, what you are saying is exactly what you are getting now.

If you are living in poverty and lack and want, change what you are saying.

It will change what you have….

Discipline your vocabulary.

Discipline everything you do, everything you say, and everything you think to agree with what God says does, what God says, and what God thinks.

God will be obligated to meet your needs because of His Word….

If you stand firmly on this, your needs will be met.”

(The Laws of Prosperity, Kenneth Copeland, pp.

98-101)

Illustrate:

Show Joyce Meyer clip.

The Teaching of Joyce Meyer - Hank Hanegraff (clip is from 1:24 to 2:51) Meyer clearly states the power is in the very words we speak, regardless of God’s plan or agenda.

Show video clip from Joel Osteen’s message, Ask Big, posted on Feb. 20, 2016.

The clip is from 9:56 to 11:34.

Notice how Osteen places his heretical teaching alongside truth.

God does want us to pray for deliverance from addiction, not just to manage it.

(Truth), but even that has a self-centered focus with me and I being operative instead of God.

He then displays the full man-centered focus in all the WoF teaching when he tells his audience their faith is “what allows God to do great things” and that they can “take the limits off God.”

“Few theological ideas ring more dissonant with the harmony of orthodox Christianity than a focus on storing up treasures on Earth as a primary goal of faithful living.

The gospel of prosperity turns Christianity into a vapid bless-me club, with a doctrine that amounts to little more than spiritual magical thinking: If you pray the right way, God will make you rich.

(The prosperity gospel, by Cathleen Falsani, article in the Washington Post)

Argument: One common theme all of these so-called preachers have in common is shallow biblical teaching.

They use verses out of context, without clear reference, and with almost complete abandon to the original intent.

Why would Jesus give so many warnings about wealth if He had the desire for all of His followers to be wealth?

(cf., ; ; ; ) Why would Jesus tell the disciples how hard it is for rich people to enter heaven if He wants everyone to be rich?

() and why would the Holy Spirit lead the biblical writers to issue repeated warnings against accumulating wealth (; ; ; )

by Cathleen Falsani