Which goals and influences do we follow?

In lectionary readings this past month, some common themes have recurred.
This message incorporates scriptures from various readings heard in services in the month of August.
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Chasing prosperity vs. walking in the way of the cross

David Sellnow

Jesus said, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). Scripture says repeatedly, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (*1)  But we don’t like to be humble. We want to be great. We want the best seats in the house. We want life to be smooth sailing and full of good fortune. And we’re inclined to listen to voices in this world that tell us things will be easy, comfortable, financially secure, problem-free.

In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, there were preachers telling people what they wanted to hear, promising good times and earthly glory were ahead. The Babylonian empire had besieged and attacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, carrying off many of the sacred temple vessels. The Babylonians deposed Judah’s king and placed their own governor in the land (cf. 2 Kings 25). Preachers like Hananiah offered comforting lies, predicting that within two years God was going to “break the yoke of the king of Babylon” and bring everyone and everything back home (Jeremiah 28:1-4). Don’t worry, Hananiah said, God was going to make Judah great again. 

Jeremiah cautioned that such promises were like straw, of no nourishment to people’s souls (Jeremiah 23:28) Jeremiah delivered the Lord’s truthful word that things were going to get more difficult—Judah’s people would experience an exile that would last 70 years. God was disciplining their hearts, encouraging spiritual seriousness and committed faith. 

People didn’t like that message. They felt entitled to be prosperous and were convinced they should not have to undergo suffering. They preferred other voices (like Hananiah’s ) that offered false hopes of security. Jeremiah was persecuted and ridiculed for his message, while the false prophets gained popularity and influence. 

People were that way in Jesus’ day too. They resisted hard truths. Jesus told them, “When you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat” (listening to weather warnings—but they ignored spiritual warnings. They kept expecting peace and prosperity, while Jesus brought a message of repentance and forgiveness. So, many people would not accept his message and became divided against those who did. (See Luke 12:49-56.)

It is a natural human tendency to want greatness and success in this world. Bible messages telling us to be humble and bear our burdens in life are not what our itching ears want to hear. (*2)

Back before the days of streaming services on our TVs, I used to flip channels to various religious stations included on basic cable, curious what the so-called prophets and televangelists were saying. I remember one captivating preacher who sat at a synthesizer keyboard, with a recurring slogan he would chant (and get his audience chanting with him): “I see you somewhere in the future, and you look much better than you look right now.” He wasn’t speaking about our eternal future. His prophecies focused on our lives in this world now. I thought to myself,“In the here and now, can you really promise everyone they will have a future better off than they are now?” Our futures on this earth are likely to have all sorts of problems (just like our past and present). An inevitable part of our futures is that we will end our days in death. As a matter of fact, that prophet whom I had watched—he died when he was just 60 years old, due to complications from pneumonia and a brain bleed, following a battle with an autoimmune disease.

That preacher had made all sorts of predictions about happenings he foresaw in this world in our lifetimes. Many of his “prophecies” pertained to prosperity and success in America. His messages frequently referred to various kinds of political events and were often quite vague. Some things happened—maybe, partially (depending on how you interpreted his rambling statements). Other predictions were clearly wrong. He responded to his critics by saying, “Some of my prophet compatriots have taken it upon themselves to tear this apart and say, ‘Well, he wasn’t that correct. He said many things that didn’t come to pass.’ So did you. I made mistakes, and so did you.” (*3) 

To me, that seemed an admission that he (and the other ‘prophecy compatriots’ he mentioned) were not given their visions by God, but were making their own claims. As God revealed through one of his genuine prophets, many prophesy lies in God’s name, saying, “I have dreamed! I have dreamed!” when really their ideas stem from their own unreliable hearts (Jeremiah 23:25,26). 

Even if someone predicts something about the future accurately, that doesn’t mean they are a prophet of God. As the first books of the Bible instructed us: If prophets or dreamers predict things that do take place, but then say, “‘Let us follow other gods’ (whom you have not known) ‘and let us serve them,’ you must not heed the words of those prophets” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). They are steering your hearts away from God’s truth.

It is not a faithful speaking of God’s truth to say that God’s goal for your life is success in this world, making sure you always have a great seat at the table and honors and privileges. It is not a faithful speaking of God’s word to have you put your hope in any earthly, political entity—like the United States of America—as if God’s intention is the greatness of some earthly nation or kingdom. Those sorts of promises are an invitation to follow another god, another goal, other than what the LORD our Redeemer has called us to follow. A lot of the messages you hear on televised “evangelism” broadcasts are not so much Christ’s gospel, which urges us to take up our cross and follow him. Rather, they are voices of a different gospel, a prosperity gospel.

Kate Bowler, a scholar of American Christianity (*4), has described prosperity gospel as a religious movement which “expects that believers have faith as a kind of spiritual power” for speaking into existence the things they want in their lives. Prosperity gospel preaches that if you’re sick, you should say, “I’ve been healed,” and expect healing. If you’re struggling financially, you should give a “seed faith” gift to the prosperity preacher’s ministry and trust God will reward you financially. (*5) Prosperity gospel makes the measure of your faith equivalent to the state of your physical health and the balance in your bank account. It can make people who have cancer or other diseases question whether they’ve had enough faith. Kate Bowler said, “If you’re one of the many people who take medicine and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, it makes you into a failure as a believer, someone who has lost the test of faith.”

Faith actually, she said, abounds in people who know “what it feels like to come undone.” The eyes of Christ-centered faith stay focused on the cross, which shows us “a suffering Jesus, to remind us that we’re in our bodies, that Jesus was in his body … that our suffering is not an affront to God and that the world isn’t as it should be.” The gospel’s central story—of Good Friday and Easter—reminds us continually that “the world has come apart and only God can put it together.” The gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection points our hope to a new kingdom—”a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1). If we focus our attention on health and wellness and prosperity in this life, we don’t see that we need a new kingdom. But we definitely do. (*6)

The gospel of Christ’s kingdom is not about making you healthy and wealthy and wise with your investments or popular on social media. God’s mission is not about your earthly glory. Nor, for that matter, is it God’s mission to make America great in this world. (Or any other country or kingdom or political party.) It is God’s mission to enshrine Christ as king in our hearts and have us understand that his kingdom is not of this world. We may experience prosperity at times in this life, yes, and in this country, yes. But life with God is not about prosperity in this life now, in this country now. 

What is God’s purpose for us in this life? What did he say? Jesus said, “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15). It is not about “serving your own interests or pursuing your own affairs” (Isaiah 58:13). It is about being rich toward God (Luke 12:21). It is about using whatever earthly resources we have to give justice to the weak and the orphan, the lowly and the destitute (Psalm 82:3,4). Those who are rich toward God are people who deal generously and lend, who distribute freely and give to the poor. They show hospitality to strangers, they remember those who are in prison. They invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to eat and drink with them. They do not neglect to do good. They share what they have and are content with what they have, trusting that God will never leave them or forsake them. People who are at rest and content in Christ are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. (*7)

Throughout the history of faith, God’s people have not routinely enjoyed prosperity and lives of ease in this world. Scripture tells how God’s faithful people have suffered torture and mocking and flogging and chains and imprisonment. There were those who were stoned to death, those who were killed by the sword. Many lived their lives destitute. The Lord commended them for their faith, but in their earthly lifetimes they did not receive the inheritance that was promised. The world was not worthy of them, Scripture said. But what God had in store for them was something better, something everlasting, something moths and rust can never destroy, something thieves can never break in and steal (Matthew 6:19-21).

May we follow the example of those heroes of faith, considering the outcome of their way of life and, like them, running “with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1; 13:7). We can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6). We don’t need to fret about success in this world, about prosperity in this life, not even about whatever disabilities or diseases may befall us. Why? Because we know that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). We know that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). With Jesus, we have an eternal home promised to us. Like our ancestors who persevered in the faith, we confess that we are “strangers and foreigners on the earth” who are desiring “a better homeland—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:13-16). 

Our dear Lord has prepared an eternal inheritance for us. We lift our hearts and our hopes up above this world. While in this world, we help one another and our neighbors, and any and all who need help. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), confident that we will be more than repaid for anything we lacked in this life when we are joined with Christ “at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14). That is the life we live as people who know the cross of Christ, and who know the new life, the new creation, the resurrection that we have in him. 

• (1) James 4:6, cf. also Psalm 138:6, Proverbs 3:34, Proverbs 29:23, Luke 1:52, 1 Peter 5:5.
• (2) See Ephesians 4:2, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:5, Luke 9:23, 14:27; 2 Timothy 4:1-6.
• (3)  TUKO News, 2/12/2025.
• (4) See Wikipedia for info and references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bowler
• (5) See article on “Seed Faith Giving.”
• (6) See Kate Bowler article on The Christopher Blog, 4/29/19.
• (7) Cf. Psalm 112:5, Luke 14:12-14, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16).