-I get asked this question a lot.
Do you believe in prosperity gospel?
or do you preach prosperity gospel?
In fact, sometimes I even get accused of preaching prosperity gospel.
So I just want to go on the record and share something about
three kinds of gospels that I really see
that is there concerning this topic.
One is the prosperity gospel, which I don't believe in it.
And then there's a poverty gospel which I definitely don't believe in it.
And there's one gospel the Bible talks about
that I believe every Christian has to embrace and believe in.
And that's the gospel I believe and that's the gospel I preach.
So first of all, what is prosperity gospel?
There's different versions and definitions of that.
Prosperity gospel overall, what really it believes is that
if you are righteous, you automatically will be rich.
And if you have faith you'll be wealthy,
and if you are righteous, you are rich.
Poverty gospel pretty much the big idea is if you are poor, you are pious.
So the more poor you are, the more holy you are.
And the prosperity gospel is the other side
which simply teaches and preaches and believes that
if you really get a lot of faith and you sow money,
and then you live a righteous life you will be extremely wealthy.
Both sides are--
I believe both sides are both extremes and they're both wrong.
So first and foremost, prosperity gospel.
There are many drug dealers,
pimps,
and Hollywood stars,
who are extremely wealthy.
And who are heathens and going straight to hell.
There are people who are very, very bad and are wealthy
and so according to the standard,
that means that they're doing something right in their life.
They might be really smart with business,
some of them are very loose,
some of them live a very moral life,
and so that does not make them righteous just because they are rich.
And on the other side,
there are also a lot of poor people.
Who are on drugs
and who live under the bridge and who's shooting heroin.
It doesn't make them holy or righteous.
Poverty in itself, is not holy.
Because if you look at the neighborhoods where there's poverty
there's a lot of times a lot of drugs.
There's a lot of times a lot of shootings there.
We call them ghettos for a reason.
And nobody wants to live there.
A lot of times those places are not safe.
Those places are run down,
and so nobody wants to move in and live there.
And poverty sometimes it leads actually to more crime
And then there's more crime that leads to poverty.
And so poverty is not as noble as many people think it is.
If it would be so noble then why are we trying to help the poor?
Why don't we just you know, keep them be poor?
Why are we all helping countries that are, you know, struggling with poverty?
Let them be poor if that's really the will of God
and that's really so noble.
You know, not so noble.
Okay!
And so I personally believe in the kingdom
or in the gospel of the kingdom
instead of the gospel of prosperity or the gospel of poverty.
I believe in the gospel of the kingdom.
The gospel is the good news.
And Jesus did not preach gospel of the prosperity,
and He did not preach the gospel of poverty.
Now Jesus taught about poverty.
He taught about suffering.
And He suffered Himself,
but He didn't preach that gospel.
His gospel was the gospel of the good news of the kingdom of God.
It was not the gospel of poverty,
It was not the gospel of suffering.
It was not even the gospel of the cross.
It was the gospel of the kingdom.
It wasn't even the gospel of the salvation.
Salvation was in the kingdom message but His message was about the kingdom.
And so I want to encourage you today to believe in this gospel.
To all of my wonderful prosperity preachers,
you know, what bothers me,
is when I see people who preach so much on prosperity and sacrificial giving
especially when they're asking people to sow into them,
giving to them,
and they live flamboyant lifestyles.
But people around them are broke,
people around them are poor,
I've been to places
where the pastor has four people guarding his car in the parking lot
and switches cars faster than they switch clothes.
And people in that congregation couldn't afford to get water
which they were selling in the lobby in the church.
They were not even giving free water to people.
It's heartbreaking.
And that's not what God intended.
That's not--
If that's what prosperity is my friend, that does not glorify Jesus.
That's all.
I believe in sacrificial giving.
I believe the mark of a Christian is not being rich,
it's being generous.
And you can be poor and be generous.
But you can't be stingy and be Christian.
And we don't give so we can get,
even though the Bible clearly states that if we sow we will reap abundantly.
The Bible says that God will reward us for the things we do in private
yet our motive has to be focused on living a life that glorifies Jesus
and exemplifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
Which is the life of giving,
life of fasting,
life of prayer,
and life of sacrifice.
We have to live a crucified life, not a carnal life.
God doesn't mind if you have money,
God just has a problem when money has you.
You know, there are people in the Bible who were very wealthy.
There are people now who are very wealthy and who serve God.
I know some of them.
And they're very genuine,
they are not flamboyant,
and they're not proud
and they're not walking around with inflated self-esteem.
They're extremely helpful,
and they don't want people to know that they're wealthy.
Not because they don't want people to ask them for money
but because they don't want their worth to be defined by their wealth.
Their worth comes from Jesus.
On the other side of the poverty gospel preachers,
who preach poverty like it's some kind of a fruit of the Spirit
or it's a gift of the Holy Spirit.
But yet-- this is my problem with the poverty preachers.
Who preach poverty but they don't practice poverty.
And I'm not going to mention names, okay.
But some of you know them.
Recently articles just started to surface online
where some of the people who are so for poverty and suffering preach it
and they're against prosperity.
Yet they have four or five houses.
Their houses are averaging about a million dollars.
Their children go to the loftiest
and most expensive universities in the United States.
They're literally getting hundreds of thousands of dollars
every single month in their bank account from their book royalties
and everything else.
And so what bothers me about that is hypocrisy.
I'm like, you're living in a nice neighborhood,
you got four houses that you don't need four houses.
You got literally millions of dollars coming into your account
your children are living in very expensive houses,
driving nice cars.
You would never live in a ghetto.
And there you are preaching that poverty is bad
but you don't live poverty.
You don't live poor.
You don't dress poor.
Your house is not in a ghetto.
Your car is not a ghetto car.
And so like, I find problems with that.
As much as I find problems with prosperity gospel preachers.
Who rip people off
and try to become rich at the expense of others,
and nobody around them gets elevated.
And they're not helping the poor.
They're just getting richer and richer.
And they're promising things that a lot of times are not very true.
So what do we preach?
What do we preach at Hungry Gen?
What does Pastor Vlad preach?
First of all, it's not about me, it's about Jesus.
It's what Jesus preached.
He preached only one kingdom
excuse me, only one gospel.
And it's the gospel of the kingdom.
Jesus was born a king.
He died as a king.
He preached kingdom.
Jesus used parables to describe the kingdom.
When He cast out demons, He said it's the arrival of the kingdom.
He said, "The gospel of the kingdom will be preached and then the end will come."
Repentance is the way to enter the kingdom.
Salvation is the way to be born into the kingdom.
He illustrated the kingdom,
He demonstrated the kingdom.
And He told us to seek the kingdom.
The kingdom is like pizza.
There's different slices there.
Pizza has you know, many slices.
And the kingdom is being under the reign of the king.
Kingdom is king's domain.
It simply means, we live under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Under that lordship, is His protection,
it's His presence,
it's His provision,
and it's His peace.
Under that protection He has his principles,
He has his rules and His laws under which we live.
And so God wants us to embrace the gospel
not of poverty or prosperity,
but the gospel of the kingdom.
And in that gospel,
there is King's protection,
King's provision,
King's peace
and then there is the power of the King to guard us and to keep us.
And this kingdom has its own principles and rules by which it operates.
But Jesus is supreme.
Not wealth or poverty.
Jesus reigns in this kingdom.
And this King is soon coming again.
So I want to invite you to believe in the gospel.
The good news of the kingdom.
Not of poverty or prosperity,
but the good news that Jesus reigns.
Jesus is supreme.
And we are the citizens,
we are the sons of that kingdom.
Let me know, what do you this about this?
What do you think about prosperity versus poverty?
or prosperity gospel?
What are your thoughts?
Drop your comments below.
Share this on your social media.
Let other people know.
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and until the next time.