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Let's start off our service with a word of prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, I thank you for giving us this day, Lord. This is time that we can come together in your house and to fellowship with our brethren here, Lord, and to hear the preaching of your word. And I thank you for the souls that were saved this afternoon, Lord. I thank you for giving us that opportunity to preach your word also. And I ask that you please just bless this service, Lord. Please bless this singing. And fill passing with you with your spirit as he preaches your word, Lord. And fill us with your spirit also in the congregation that we may leave here edified. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. Turn to your song books of song number 53. Song number 53, Beulah Land. I've reached the land of joy divine, that first verse. Song number 53, all together nice and strong. I've reached the land of joy divine, and all its riches freely mine. Here shines a gem, one blissful day, for all quite my past best to play. Oh, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, as on the highest mountain sand, I look away across the sea, where mansions are prepared for me, and in the shining ocean, light and my home forevermore. My Savior comes and what to be, He takes me through and near to Thee, He gently leads me by His hand, for this is heaven's borderland. Oh, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, as on the highest mountain sand, I look away across the sea, where mansions are prepared for me, and in the shining ocean, light and my home forevermore. A sweet perfume upon the breeze, is born forever through the trees, through the fall of the water, fading out where streams of life forever flow. Oh, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, as on the highest mountain sand, I look away across the sea, where mansions are prepared for me, and in the shining ocean, light and my home forevermore. A zest will seem to float to me, sweet sounds of heaven's melody, as angels with a microphone, join in the sweet redemption song. Oh, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, as on the highest mountain sand, I look away across the sea, where mansions are prepared for me, and in the shining ocean, light and my home forevermore. All right, great singing. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be song number five when I surveyed that wondrous cross. Song number five, if you want to get that ready. In your song books, our services are as follow. Sunday morning is at 10, 30 Sunday evening at 5 p.m., and then our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. You see the sowning times and teams, the list of expecting mothers. Keep Ms. Janelle Gonzalez in prayer as she has passed her due date there. And so just keep her in prayer there. You see the important reminders there at the bottom. And today was the May birthday breakfast in Judea sowning, so happy birthday to you all in the month of May. And also the Mother's Day service is coming up next Sunday. Make sure to invite your moms to church. Invite someone's mom to church. We're going to have gifts for all the mothers. And the service, of course, will be geared, the sermon will be geared towards mothers as well. And then on Wednesday, May 25th, we have the PE end of school picnic. If you have any questions about that, you can see Coach Hernandez for more details. And then the men's prayer meeting is coming up on Friday, May 27th. And as I mentioned this morning, the most important day of the year is Father's Day, amen. And that's coming up on Sunday, June 19th. We'll have a gift for all the dads. So make sure you invite your family for that. You see the reminders there at the bottom. And make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. So we're going to get some soul-winning numbers from this past week. Salvations from Monday up until Thursday. Any salvations from Monday to Thursday? Yes, two, okay, anybody else? All right, how about Friday and Saturday? Salvations for Friday and Saturday? Yes? One for Riverside. One for Riverside? Okay, anybody else? How about this afternoon? Salvations for this afternoon, Brother Morrie's team? Six for Brother Morrie's team. Four for Brother Elise's team. One for Brother who? I can't read lips. Brother Hikes. Oh, Brother Hikes team, okay. Brother Mark? Three for Brother Mark's team. Three for Brother Mark's team. Anybody else? One for Brother Glenn's team. One for Brother Glenn's team. Am I missing anybody? Going once, twice, thrice. Okay, keep up the great work on soul-winning. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Song number five, when I survey the wondrous cross. Song number five, when I survey the wondrous cross. All together on that first verse. When I survey the wondrous cross. On which the prince of glory died. My richest gain I count but loss. My richest gain I count but loss. And for contempt on all my crime. Forbidding Lord that I should boast. Saving the death of the poor. Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most. I sacrifice them to His blood. Seed from His head, His hands, His feet. Sorrow and love flow me, go down. Did e'er such love and sorrow meet? More thoughts come hope, so rich a crown. More thoughts come hope, so rich a crown. Were the whole realm of nature mine. That were a present far too small. Love so amazing, far too small. A dream so divine. Demands my soul, my life, my own. Amen. Wonderful singing at this time. The ushers will come forth to collect the offering. And you can turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians 2 1 Thessalonians 2 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, the Bible reads, And so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time use we flattering words as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holy and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, as ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this cause also thank we God, without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sin alway, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. But we, brethren, being taken from you, for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for the opportunity to come here and to hear your word preached from the pulpit. Lord God, we pray that you please fill Pastor Mejia with your spirit, and please let us leave here edified and different than when we came in. We love you and we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in First Thessalonians, chapter number two. Look down at your Bibles at verse number three. It says, For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. Verse number five, For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness. And the title of this sermon this evening is Greedy Preachers. Or another title can simply be Beware of Prosperity Preachers. Beware of Prosperity Preachers. And of course, what I'm referring to when I talk about the prosperity gospel, prosperity preachers, this is also known as the health and wealth gospel, right? It's a message that is typically geared towards twisting the Bible for lucrative purposes. And these types of teachers will often use wealth as a meter to determine if you have God's favor or not, okay? They believe that they can manipulate spiritual laws in order to get, you know, money or wealth or health or whatever it may be. In other words, they see God as an end to what they desire. They don't necessarily view themselves as servants of the Lord here for God's purpose. They see God as being there for their purpose. You understand? They see God as simply a mediator to get them from point A of poverty to point B of rich and being wealthy, etc. Now, when we think of prosperity preachers, we often think of the most obvious ones, right? You know, if I were to tell you, hey, name some prosperity preachers off the top of your head, I'm sure you'd basically name the same exact ones that I would name, okay? Now, I'm going to give you three tiers, okay, of prosperity preachers, okay? And, you know, I can't point to the Bible, a verse that breaks them up into these categories, but I think you would agree with me once I show you what these tiers are, okay? The tiers can be based off of how conspicuous of a prosperity preacher they are, okay? So let's talk about tier number three, okay? Tier number three is actually the most obvious one, and then we're going to go to tier two, tier one being the least obvious, okay? So tier number three, I would consider to be the most obvious prosperity preachers. Name one. Okay, there you go, right? Joel Holstein is like the leader of the prosperity preaching group, right? Then you have someone like Kenneth Copeland, all right? You have Joel Holstein, Kenneth Copeland, you have T.D. Jakes, okay? And then you have Cleflo Dollar, okay? I mean, come on. Now, why are these people so conspicuous? Why is it so obvious that these people are prosperity preachers? Well, Joel Holstein, first and foremost, I never heard any negative message come out of his mouth. Whereas the Bible can be a negative book, preaching is supposed to be negative. The Bible says to preach the word, be instant, end season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. And, you know, I find it interesting that one of the biggest false prophets in our nation is in Texas, by the way. Just throw that out there. You know, Joel Holstein has one of the biggest false prophet churches located in Houston, Texas, okay? Coincidence? I think not, okay? Because everything is bigger in Texas, including the false prophets. Hey, Kenneth Copeland is a major false prophet prosperity preacher, and you don't even have to listen to what he says, just look at him. Am I wrong? You can literally just look at a picture at Kenneth Copeland, and if anybody has any discernment, if anybody has two brain cells to rub together, you can see this person is a bad person, okay? Kenneth Copeland, Joel Holstein, T.D. Jakes would be one as well. And, of course, Cleftlow Dollar, the fact that his last name has dollar in it, okay? These are the very obvious ones. We as independent fundamental Baptists or other churches that wouldn't necessarily be called Baptists, but, you know, they believe in the fundamentals of the faith, they're a biblicist, they believe in the Bible, they would point to these people as well and say, these are false prophets, these are prosperity preachers, etc. Now, who I would point to in the Bible as being an obvious false prophet prosperity preacher or minister, would be the sons of Samuel, or the sons of Eli, excuse me. 1 Samuel 8, verse 3 says, And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes and perverted judgment. Now, if you remember the story of Eli's sons, who the Bible says were sons of Belial, pretty much everyone knew their reputation of being greedy, a filthy lucre. This is a common knowledge amongst Israel that these guys were really bad, they were taking bribes, they were also sleeping, committing fornication with women who assembled at the doors of the house of God. I mean, it's pretty obvious, you would have to be living under a rock in Mars in order to not see that these people were bad people. And so, you know, I would joke around and I would say, you know, the Bible often talks about false prophets being wolves in sheep's clothing, or these are just wolves, they don't even have sheep's clothing. These are people who just come to you as a wolf and they tell you they're a sheep, but they're not dressed like a sheep. And unfortunately, you know, there's people out there, they fall for this stuff. You say, really? Yeah, just look at Joel Osteen's church, filled with people who are just deceived into thinking he's a righteous person, he's a righteous man, and the common message that all of these share is money. Okay? And so that's tier number three, okay? Let's talk about tier number two. So tier number three are basically the most obvious prosperity preachers. Tier number three is that it's not as obvious to the public, but to Bible-believing Christians, it should be apparent, based off of biblical principles and biblical teachings, okay? Now, this group right here, they're not as obvious because they're not necessarily preaching health and wealth, prosperity, do this, and God will bless you with money and make you rich and all these things. What these will do is that they will deflect attention away from their own greed, listen to this, by calling out tier three. Okay? So these are prosperity preachers too. It's just that people don't readily recognize it because they're not, you know, doing this and dancing on money, and, you know, have a positive only type sermon. These actually sometimes preach hard, okay? They seem to be doctrinally sound. And one of the reasons people would never really, the public would never necessarily view them as prosperity preachers is because they're constantly calling out the prosperity preachers, okay? And so they deflect that attention. Now, who would that be? Well, in my opinion, John MacArthur's one of them. You say, what? John MacArthur? But he's such a good pastor, and he's such an apologist. Well, okay, tell me why his net worth is $15 million. Right? And by the way, you know, I guarantee you, you know, Joe Olstein, or maybe he's probably more of them, some of these other guys, they're around that same ballpark, if not maybe a little bit more. So to find irony, you have a guy like John MacArthur calling out the prosperity preachers when he himself is a prosperity preacher. Okay? He's not necessarily living a modest life. He's accumulating a lot of wealth, which is unrighteous for a pastor to do. Okay? According to 1 Timothy chapter three and other portions of scripture. So John MacArthur, but you know what? I say something like this, and the reformers, they just lose it. How can you call him? He calls out the prosperity preachers. How can you say he's a prosperity preacher when he's the one calling them out? Well, because of the fact that he's actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. Okay? And here's the thing is that prosperity preachers don't necessarily need to preach prosperity in order to be a prosperity preacher. They're preaching a false message in order to be prosperous. Which, you know, a person that we can point to in the Bible is Balaam the son of Bozor. Because Balaam the son of Bozor was a soothsayer, he was a wicked person. But Balaam came to him and offered him wealth, rewards, and all types of things in order to, so that Balaam would basically curse the children of Israel in order to get rid of the competition. So Balaam came to Balaam and said, I want you to curse the children of Israel, who was basically his competition. He was fearful of them because he knew God would bless them, he knew that God has used them. And anywhere the Israelites went, they basically took over. So he hired Balaam the son of Bozor, who he deemed to be a prophet, to curse the children of Israel. And he said, I'll give you a reward if you do it. Now Balaam could not curse the children of Israel because God hadn't cursed them. And God would not allow Balaam to curse the children of Israel. And by the way, that story shows us that Satan and his minions are on a very short leash with God. Because he forbade him to do it so he couldn't do it. But instead what Balaam did, go to Revelation chapter 2 if you would, Revelation chapter 2. Balaam could not curse the children of Israel because they weren't cursed of God. So instead he kind of bypassed it. He's like, I still got to get this reward, I want to get some money, I'm trying to get some wealth. How can I get this from Balak and still kind of curse the children of Israel in order for me to get this wealth? Well the way he did it was that he caused them to curse themselves. Now look at Revelation chapter 2, let's see here, in verse number, let's start reading in verse number 14. But I have a few things against it because that was there, them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed into idols and to commit fornication. So what did Balaam do? He said look, I can't curse them but this is what you need to do. You need to teach the children of Israel to commit fornication, to commit idolatry, eat things sacrificed into idols, and then at that point God will be forced to punish the children of Israel because they're sinning against God. So he cast a stumbling block, he taught people how to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, and did he do it because he thought he was in the right? No, because he loved the wages of unrighteousness, the Bible says. He ran greedily after his own error because he loved the wages of unrighteousness, so he taught something, not because he thought it was morally right or morally unrighteous, it's because he wanted money. So people have this misconception that a prosperity preacher always has to teach some sort of positive sermon, or just be positive all the time, but really a prosperity preacher is just willing to teach anything. As long as it gives him the paycheck, as long as it gets him a reward, because he doesn't really have any convictions, he just teaches these things in order for him to make money. So MacArthur is one of them. Those of you who are fans of MacArthur, no one's a fan of MacArthur in here, and if you are, you're in the wrong church. So he would fall under the tier too because not a lot of people would suspect him as being a prosperity preacher, but he is. Within independent fundamental Baptist circles, I would say someone like Jack Treiber is a prosperity preacher. He'd say, how dare you, he's been used by God. Yeah, but what God are you talking about though? Jack Treiber, the reason I would say he's a prosperity preacher is because of the fact that all he talks about, get this, is money. That's all he talks about. That's all his staff talks about. When his staff gets up to pray for the offering, I mean, it's a prosperity message every single time. He gets up and he's constantly asking for money to buy streets and buy whatever. It's just like, why don't you sell the four pianos, grand pianos that you have at your church or something, and then maybe you can pay off your debt or something like that. Because he's constantly in the red every single year, so he's constantly asking people to donate to his church and give to his church. And you go there, it's like a museum. It's like a museum. It's like decked out and everyone's wearing, I don't know, Prada or something. I don't even know if guys wear Prada, but they're wearing the most expensive stuff and it's just like, what in the world? But people wouldn't suspect him because I'm sure he's calling out the prosperity preachers too. Right? Another one would be Paul Chappell. He would be considered a prosperity preacher. Now, think about this. Who's a New Testament example of this? Because we said the public wouldn't necessarily deem them as being prosperity preachers. Well, I would say the Pharisees are a perfect example of this. Because outwardly, they looked like they had it together. Outwardly, they looked spiritual. But inwardly, they were full of dead man's bones. Correct? Well, the Bible says in Titus, go to Titus chapter one, if you would, Titus chapter number one, the apostle Paul was planting churches in Crete and you have all these congregations, but you don't have a leader. So he sent Titus to ordain pastors in these churches and he gives the qualifications and he's telling them, these are the kind of men you have to look for. This is what would qualify a man to be a pastor there. And then he also instructs them on how to fight against these prosperity preachers. He says in verse number 10, Now, circumcision is just another way of saying Jews. And more specifically, he's referring to the Pharisees, which is interesting because Crete is an island, right? And Jesus said that they come past sea and land to make one proselyte and when he is made, they make him twofold more a child of hell than themselves. So the Pharisees were very militant and crossing land and sea and taking so-called mission trips to go and convert people to Judaism and they basically became reprobates. If they adhere to what the Talmud says and what their religion says, obviously they would become wicked people. And this is why he's saying, look, you've got to stop these people because they're teaching these things. Look at verse 11, it says, So is it because the Pharisees are just like, well, we think we have the true God. We have the one true God and we believe Judaism is the right religion and we just want to win people to the Torah. We want people to observe the Sabbath and adhere to what the Bible says. No, it says, Look what it says, So it's not because they thought they had the truth, it's because they wanted to make money. Folks, the vast majority of the Jews in Israel didn't think that of the Pharisees. They thought that these people were righteous people, holy people, separated people, the religious leaders of that day and that's why they were able to deceive so many people. Because I'm sure the Pharisees spoke against the Samaritans and those who were false prophets, you know, that they deemed to be false prophets. So a lot of people didn't suspect them to be prosperity preachers, but the Pharisees were prosperity preachers. Why? Because they were doing what they were doing in order for them to get filthy lucre. Now what is filthy lucre? Lucre, you think of lucrative, something that's lucrative, right, makes money. Filthy means basically they did it unrighteously. So if you see a pastor out there with a helipad and a yacht, let me just tell you this, he probably didn't get that by righteous means. And here's the thing, let's just say, let's say hypothetically, there's some pastor out there that was given a yacht, right? At that point, it's like, okay, you're given a yacht, someone gifted you a yacht. But let me just say this, for the sake of your pastoral reputation, sell it, get rid of it, don't keep it. So why not? They gifted it to me. Because of the fact that the Bible teaches that a pastor should live just a regular modest life. Not a life in poverty, just a modest life. And it just doesn't look right when a pastor has a yacht. I mean, how big is a yacht? Huge? That's a good length. Humongous, that's the word I was looking for. You know, it just doesn't look right. And so, you know, you're not above reproach when you have those types of things. Or when pastors are rolling around in Benzes and, I don't know, Lexus or whatever. You know, the members can roll around like that if they want. Because they're not the pastors of the church, they're not the leaders of the church. The leaders of the church, according to the Bible, are supposed to live modest lives. Not a life of luxury, but a life of modesty to be an example of what contentment should look like. You understand? And so, and by the way, Jack Treer and Paul Chapel do not live modestly. I'm just telling you right now, okay? And so that's tier number two. So tier three, pretty obvious. The Reformers would agree with us, oh yeah, that's a false prophet for sure. Joel Osteen, that guy has a wolf in sheep's clothing. It's just like, no, he's just a wolf. He's not trying to hide it, okay? The wolf in sheep's clothing are actually tier two. The ones who are not as obvious. And unfortunately, you know, some independent fundamental Baptists, they think that John MacArthur's a good guy. And aside from his prosperity preaching, the guy just teaches false doctrine, period. Teaches a repentant sins gospel. He teaches that you can receive the mark of the beast and still be saved. He denies the blood of Christ. All types of damnable heresy, okay? Now go to 1 Timothy chapter number six, if you would. Let's talk about tier one. Tier one is not obvious at all. And in fact, could even deceive us. Bible believing, KJV only, once saved, always saved. They can deceive even the elect sometimes, okay? Now who is that? Well, I don't know because we can't really point someone out. But from a biblical perspective, we would say who? Judas Iscariot. Because even the apostles themselves didn't know that Judas was guilty, that he was stealing money, right? Now obviously, we can point to people on the new IFB, who are new IFB pastors such as, you know, Donnie Romero, who years ago, you know, we thought he was a righteous man, we thought he was a man who loved the Lord, until we find out that, you know, he's sleeping around with prostitutes and doing cocaine or, you know, doing drugs and stuff like that with church money. It's bad enough that you're doing it, but then you're using church money to do it. It's like, hello? And then when he's confronted about it, he's like, well, I haven't disqualified myself. I was like, what? What do you think you need to do to disqualify yourself then? Because that's pretty bad. Okay? Judas Iscariot is one of them. Now, let me just remind you is that the tiers are not based off of one being more wicked than the other, because they're all wicked. It's based off of the blatantness of their greed and their covetousness, okay? Or how well they're able to, you know, cloak their covetousness, so to speak. So this one, Judas Iscariot is able to cloak himself very well because he was among the disciples for three and a half years and no one pointed him out. Of course, Jesus Christ knew, but all the other disciples did not know that he was a bad person, okay? Now, here's the great thing about the teaching of false prophets in the Bible, because sometimes people can get a little scared and they're like, oh man, who's among us then, you know? Who's the false prophet among us? Well, just know this, they're always discovered. They never remain, you know, covered for very long. They're always discovered, you know, their wickedness is always found out, God always exposes them, sooner or later it comes out, so I don't think we need to worry about that. If we ever had a Judas Iscariot in our church, you know, we would end up finding out about it sooner or later, okay? That's how it works, and we've had Judas Iscariots in our church, and they're all discovered, okay? The common denominator in all these preachers is their greed and covetous practices, their desire to make the ministry a lucrative business, okay? Now, look at 1 Timothy 6, if you would. I'm going to read to you from Jude 1, verse 11, it says, Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 3, it says, So let me just stop right there. So at this point, you know, when we're reading verse 4, we see he's proud, knowing nothing, donating about questions, this could kind of be referring to almost anybody, right? This could even be referring to Christians sometimes, you know, they dote about questions to no prophet, they're full of vain jangling, you know, some new Christians who just think they know everything or whatever. But once it gets to verse 5 and it says they're men of corrupt minds, now we know who he's specifically referring to. Because the Bible refers in 2 Timothy chapter 3, people being of corrupt minds, those who are reprobate concerning the faith, okay? And more specifically in Romans chapter 1, the Bible refers to it as a reprobate mind. So you can compare Romans 1, you can compare 1 Timothy chapter 6, and you can compare 2 Timothy chapter 3, and notice it's referred to the same person. The difference is that, you know, each false prophet is often given over to different types of lust or lasciviousness. One is more geared towards greed, another one is more geared towards sexual perversion, another one is just geared towards just teaching false doctrine, etc. But the common denominator amongst them all is that they have a corrupt mind, okay? They're reprobate concerning the faith. It says perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Listen to what it says here, supposing that gain is godliness. Now, does that not summarize the prosperity preacher? Doesn't it not? Because they tell you, you know, name it and claim it. You know, they'll tell you if you're rich and God is blessing your finances, and you have all types of money, and you can buy this, you can buy that, you know, that is godly, God wants you to prosper, he wants you to be successful. And what they translate that as just be filthy rich, okay? Now let me make myself very clear, it's not wrong for Christians to make money. It's not wrong for Christians to become wealthy. It's wrong when they do it unlawfully, unrighteously, dishonestly, right? That's when it becomes wrong. And it's wrong to have the will to be rich. You see, God is fine with you becoming wealthy as long as that wealth has its proper place. And it does not take the place of you serving God. It does not take the place of you soul winning. It does not take the place of your Bible reading. It does not take the place of you coming to church. It does not take the place of God in general. It's when you have the will to be rich and so, well, maybe I just won't come to church on Sundays because I can work another job so I can buy this whatever nice thing that I want. Well, at that point, you're becoming covetous, you're becoming greedy and you're not content with such things as you have. It's better to just honor God and serve God. Hey, better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. And I mean, for the Bible to, you know, approve of being a vegetarian. To say a better dinner of herbs is like, it's better for you to have salad but you have love than a stalled ox but hatred therewith. Now, I want the stalled ox and love. That's what I want. So how can you have that by making sure everything has its rightful place? You say, why is this term necessary, pastor? Well, number one, it's just necessary so you can identify prosperity preachers, just in general. But number two, in light of prosperity preachers, it's good to check our own covetous nature too. You know, to check yourself to see if you're becoming greedy, if you're becoming covetous, if you become lustful towards things that you should not have at all or should not have at this moment. It'll prevent you from being an unrighteous Christian seeking to gain or make gains unrighteously. You understand? So it's kind of a reminder, hey, whatever it is that you're trying to make, whatever amount of money you're trying to get, make sure you do it in the right way. He says, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. This is like when the prosperity preachers say, send in your seed tithe or something. You know, send in your offering here and God will bless you for it and all these things. And so they think, well, if I send my money to this prosperity preacher, to Joel Oostink, to Kenneth Copeland, he's going to send me an anointed hankie or whatever and God's going to give me his favor for it. Why? Because he's teaching that gain is godliness. Now look at verse 6, this is the true definition of gain. It says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. So we always got to view things through God's economy, do we not? We have to define things the way God defines them. And he defines great gain as you being content and being godly. Like, but what about money though? Well, you know, people have different amounts of money. What you consider to be rich is not someone else's, what they consider to be rich. You know, some people make a lot of money and to them that's not a whole lot of money based upon their expenses and their family or whatever. The point is, is that you have to learn how to be godly and pay the price to be godly by reading the Word of God, by praying, by having spiritual disciplines and then you have to learn contentment. What is contentment? It's just being satisfied with what you have at the moment. And look, if you can be content in whatsoever state you are in, you'll always be happy. Whereas the person who determines their happiness based upon happenings or based upon material wealth will never be happy. Because it's never enough. It's never enough. Okay? They can have X amount of dollars. You know, I think it was Rockefeller who said, just one more dollar. Just one more dollar. He just wanted one more dollar. But folks, if you're content, it doesn't matter if you have one more or one less, you're always going to be happy. He says godliness with contentment is great gain. Look at verse 7. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. Explain that to the Egyptian pharaohs. Who would literally bury themselves with all their gold and silver because they thought they were going to take it with them in the afterlife. But here we are 3,000 years later and Tutankhamun's wealth is in a museum for everyone to look at. He didn't take any of it to hell. And let's say it was possible that he took a morsel of gold with him to hell. It probably melted on the way. It's not going to help him any. Right? Because we didn't bring anything into this world and it's certain that we can carry nothing out. He's talking about physical wealth. Now the Bible does teach us that we can send our wealth ahead. When we invest in spiritual matters, when we invest in souls, when we invest in people, when we invest in discipleship, we invest in our church, we invest in that which is of God, the Bible tells us that it translates our wealth into spiritual rewards. He says in verse 8, having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. We're like, well hold on a second, where's like my iPad and where's like my nice car though? Like, you know, where's the other stuff? Well here's the thing, you know, most of us obviously have more than just food and raiment. I mean literally right now as we're sitting here, as I'm standing here, we have more than just food and raiment. So you know what that tells me? We have nothing to complain about. And here's the thing, look, having food and raiment, but how about this, having health. Are you breathing through a tube right now? No. Can you walk? Yes. Can you speak? Yes. Can you think? Yes. Are you just paralyzed onto a bed where your spinal cord is not allowing you to walk? No. So there's a lot to be thankful for, man. What he is saying is like, look, the two basic needs of every human, physically speaking, is just food and raiment. If you have clothing, you have some food, you can be happy. Now how much more if you have more than that? And everything else that we have is like a cherry on top. What prosperity preachers do is they make you discontent with what you have. Prosperity preachers will tell you, well look at me, God has blessed me, look at all the money that I have, look at the nice cars that I have, and I'm a Christian, and I have all these things, and it makes Christians discontent with the things that God has provided for them. He says in verse 9, very important verse right here, verse 9, But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. Let me tell you one of the most annoying things for me, one of my pet peeves, one of the most annoying things in life for me, is when I'm at a gas station, and I'm trying to pump gas, and maybe I have to go get something inside the store, and I have to wait behind a person who's buying like 10 lottery tickets. How many know what I'm talking about? He's like, yeah let me get the gold 50, yeah let me get, you know, Wheel of Fortune 2 or something, yeah let me get that, no no, the black one, and he's just like holding up the line, and the guy's gonna make maybe what, like 5 bucks? If that, he may be able to scratch something that says you can buy another lottery ticket. Right? I'm serious. Now I've never played the lottery, I've never gambled like that, I've never actually like gone, I remember as a kid I would see him on the floor and I'm like, you know, I scratched one off or something, I didn't understand what was on it, but you know, people live for that, and it's people who have the will to be rich. They can't rest content until they buy their lottery ticket because they hope that one day they'll make that money, and God forbid if they were to actually ever win. You say why is that? Because winning the lottery would be the worst thing that could ever happen to them. Winning 2 million dollars for, let's say it's 2 million dollars, could be the worst possible thing that could ever come upon that person. Just look up what happened to the people who have won the lottery. They're either dead or they're drug addicts or they're just flat broke now, because having more money doesn't equal more happiness my friends. Oh but the prosperity preacher, man he'd be like, hey make sure you're tied off of that, God's blessed your brother with that lottery ticket, he did it for a purpose, and make sure that I'm part of that purpose. That's the will to be rich. We should will to serve God, and by serving God we should will to go to work, make a decent living, to provide for our families, to be a blessing to others, and to even enjoy life. Because the Bible tells us that he had given us all things richly to enjoy. We never want to be on the extreme aspects of the spectrum. We never want to be like the prosperity preachers where it's all about health and wealth and making a lot of money, but we also don't want to be like the Buddhists and the Hindus who are like, well you can't have anything nice. You can't enjoy life at all. Be a vegetarian. You can't enjoy anything, and you got to be able to fight off the desires of the flesh, and it's just like, did you know that God made us with taste buds? Think about that. That is a testament to the fact that God wants us to enjoy things. Because if he wanted to, he could have made our tongues with no taste buds, and we just know that we have to eat. We just have to consume food because we need the calories, we need the protein, we need the fats, we need to satiate what the body needs, the nutrition, but you know what? He actually created us with taste buds in order for us to enjoy what we were tasting. And obviously there's other reasons behind it so we don't eat bad stuff too, right? But I'm saying for the most part, when we eat, I'm sure you didn't eat something today that you just did not like. Who ate something today that they did not like? You did? Okay. I'm sorry. Your fault. I'm just kidding. There's plenty of things in this world to enjoy, Alex. No, I'm just kidding. For the most part, except for Alex's situation, we enjoy what we eat, right? So you always want to be in the middle, which is, Lord don't make me rich, don't make me poor, I just want to be happy with what I have. I just want to be content. And we'll get to that verse in just a bit. It says there in verse 10, for the love of money. So the will to be rich is defined as having the love of money. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. He's saying, look, most people who love money and they have the will to be rich, they have destroyed their lives, they destroyed their marriage, they've destroyed their children. They just live a miserable life. And most rich people live a miserable life, folks. Okay, just look at Johnny Depp. I mean, obviously he's getting his now, he's getting his revenge or whatever, but you know, it doesn't sound like he's a very happy man. You know, when his wife's beating him up and he has to go to one of his other five houses. He was like, wow, it must be so great to beat Johnny Depp, he has like five houses. It's because his wife beats him up. He has to go to another house. That's why. Don't envy the rich and famous. It's not what it's cracked up to be. What about us, pastor? Look at verse 11. But thou, O man of God, flee these things. Flee what? Covetousness? Flee greed? Flee the love of money? Flee the will to be rich? Flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Notice, all things that money can't buy. Money can't buy your righteousness. Money can't buy you love. Money can't buy you patience. These are all spiritual things that the way we get is by paying the price of reading the Bible, walking with God. But no amount of money could ever buy this. You know, there's plenty of people out there in this world who are filthy rich and they wish they had someone to love them. But they don't. They're constantly suspicious about the people they're surrounded with because most of the people that surround them are people who want their money. Hey, but if you're broke and you've got yourself good friends, man, those friends are awesome. Because obviously they're not your friend because of your money. Because you're broke. You've got nothing to give. You always have to pay for their meal. Or they have to pay for yours, should I say. What he's saying is that the priority should be this. Go to 2 Peter chapter 2. Prosperity preachers emphasize the wealth and the prosperity in an inordinate amount. We obviously want to be healthy. Obviously we want to prosper spiritually. But the inordinate definition according to prosperity preachers is that you just have an excessive amount where you're just living a luxurious type of a life. Look at 2 Peter chapter 2 verse number 1 it says, But there are false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by a reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. By the way, Kenneth Copeland is one of the reasons people talk so much crap about Christianity. Right? The way of truth is evil spoken of because of these wicked false prophets. Because they look at them and say, well look at this guy, he's buying all this stuff, he's living lavishly, luxuriously. And it's like, but that guy doesn't represent Christianity. He represents the other side. Verse 3, And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise, how? Of you. Because you're sending them, you're tied, you're sending in your offering to these people. And the Bible says here that they do it with feigned words. What does that mean? Fake words. Insincere words. They just kind of build you up and tell you all kinds of lies and nonsense to get you to buy into their message in order for you to give to their ministry. Look at verse 15. They've forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. Look at verse, let's see here, let's keep reading. But was rebuked for his iniquity, the dumbass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest to whom the midst of darkness is reserved forever. Now by the way, you know, there may be someone out there that says instead of you know saying that about Joel Osteen or Kenneth Copeland, why don't you try to reach him? Why don't you pray for them? Why don't you try to give them the gospel? Well I'll tell you why. This is why I will never, if I ever run into these prosperity preachers, I will never ever try to reach them. Let me explain why. Because God sent a dumbass to speak to Balaam to try to knock some sense into him and he still didn't listen. He opened the mouth of a donkey to speak with man's words unto the prophet to tell him, you're crazy, what are you doing? And Balaam didn't even listen. And I preached about Balaam a couple months ago but it's like, dude if you're riding on a donkey and that thing starts talking to you, you would forget everything, you would forget wherever you were going. You'd get off, you'd go live, and you would say, say that one more time. I'm about to get five million views right now. Hey Balaam, if you're smart, you'd use them as a circus show too, right? Come see the talking donkey. But even then, he instead of being amazed at the fact that the only animal in history actually spoke a language and communed with the human being, what did he do? He hit the donkey instead. He started smacking the donkey, he's like, you stupid donkey, he's like, stupid, the guy's talking. The donkey had more sense than Balaam. God has a sense of humor my friends. The ass had more sense than Balaam himself. The story's not on there on accident. And really the reason why God allowed the donkey to speak is because of the fact that he's basically showing that false prophets can sometimes say the right things. It was like by a miracle that the donkey spake, in like manner, it was like a miracle that Balaam actually prophesied the right things. Okay? And so, you know, he's an idiot. Look what it goes on to say. Verse 18, for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lust of the flesh. You can have this, you can make money, you can be happy. Through much wantonness, those that are clean, escape from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, oh if you send this in, I can heal you through the screen. You can get rid of your depression and your anxiety and if you're handicapped, I can help you with your scoliosis. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought in bondage. He's like these prosperity preachers are promising all of these people health, wealth, and prosperity when they themselves are the servants of Satan. They didn't even know how to get saved. Let alone heal you of your scoliosis. Let alone heal you of your disease. Okay? Turn to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter number 12. Let me read to you from Proverbs chapter 30, verse number 7. This is a great attitude for us as Christians to have when it comes to finances. When it comes to provision, when it comes to wealth. It says, verse 7 in Proverbs chapter 30, in Luke chapter 12, it says, Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies. And then he says this, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. So he says, just let me be right in the middle. Because if I have too much, then I'm going to say, well, who's the Lord? I'm the one who got me this wealth. I'm the one who put food on the table. I'm the one who did this in X, Y, and Z. Or if he's not full and he goes without, he could be tempted to do something wrong in order to get food, in order to get money, in order to get wealth. And then he takes the name of God in vain because of it. Look at Luke chapter 12 and verse 13, And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Don't find your identity in the things that you have. And the clothing that you wear and the car that you drive, our identity should be in Christ as Christians. Right? And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do, I will pull down barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, So random, Thou wast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto them, Thou fool, This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? And my father-in-law used to say, Her second husbands. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So this is actually giving us the formula how we can actually become eternally rich. Because God is not against you being rich. He's just not for you laying up treasures here on earth. Because again, look at Tutankhamen and every other pharaoh and how that worked out for him. Right? What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? He's saying you need to be rich toward God. Don't take your goods and store them in a barn and just say, Well, man, look at all the goods that I have. Because once you die, you take nothing with you. It's better to use what you have for eternal purposes so you can be rich on the other side. That's what the Bible teaches. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life. What you shall eat, neither for the body what you shall put on. The life is more than me, and the body is more than raiment. I'm gonna skip a couple verses here. Go to Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter number six. I'm gonna read to you from Luke chapter 16. Jesus Christ is rebuking the Pharisees and he says, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And by the way, that not only applies to the unsaved Pharisees, it applies to us as Christians as well. Listen to me, you can't serve God and mammon. Don't justify not coming to church, not reading your Bibles, not soul winning, not serving the Lord because, Oh, you're just trying to make more money. Well, at that point you're serving mammon, you're not serving God. He says, You will despise one and love the other and vice versa. And then he says in verse 14, And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things and they derided him. So who's gonna hate what I just said, people who are covetous? So if you're sitting there like, Just talk about me. Are you deriding me? Because if you are, you're in the same position as the Pharisees. See, a righteous person would say, You know what? I need to stop serving mammon. And mammon needs to have its rightful place in my life. Paying the bills and, you know, taking care, it's a tool to be used, right? To feed my family, to pay the bills, to be a blessing to others, whatever it is. But it should not take the preeminence in my life. It should not consume me. And let me just remind us as a church, just remember this. Remember that one of the things you can get kicked out of church for is actually covetousness. Just remember that. I always gotta remind our church every once in a while that according to 1 Corinthians 5, a covetous person, in other words, a person who's constantly talking about money, constantly trying to get people to get involved in a pyramid scheme, or constantly trying to get people to buy their product or trying to sell in church, that person is liable for excommunication out of the church. Okay? And so, you know, obviously I'm not saying you can't talk about business and how your business is doing or whatever, but when it becomes a perpetual thing and it seems as though you have the motive of, you know, spreading covetousness and the desire to get money in our church, at that point it becomes wrong. Because this is not a place for you to network your business. You understand? Now look, you know, there's people in our church who can hire other people in our church and that's perfectly fine. You know, that's perfectly fine. But when you are characterized by that or it starts spreading in the church, at that point we regard that as being a covetous person. You need to stop that because at that point you could be excommunicated from the church. Okay? Where did I have you turn? Matthew chapter 6, look at verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves, try not to be a covetous person. Matthew chapter 6, look at verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Why? Well look what it says, where moth and rust doth corrupt. I remember I pulled a suit out of my closet one time and I'm like, man I like this great suit, I finally lost some weight. I can wear this again. And there's like a huge hole in it. The moth got it. Because I hadn't worn it for so long I just kept it in there. Okay? Moth and rust doth corrupt. And where thieves break through and steal. Thieves are everywhere my friends. And sometimes now that I even steal the vehicle they just take your, what's that called? The catalytic converter. Yeah, the catalytic converter now. I remember when I lived in Montebello, we were like, you know, it was like 930. Okay? And on the main street, car pulls up, couple guys get out, and they literally just pull up to a car, sawed off the whatever, the catalytic converter, and they just took it in front of God and everyone. No shame whatsoever. And I've gotten stuff stolen from me and my family, and I have to remember this, like, well this is a place where thieves break through and steal. So I can't value my vehicles, I can't value things, I can't, you know, be attached to the things of this world because some thief out there might take it. This is verse 20, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. In other words, invest in eternal things. And look, I'm not saying don't have a savings account and save, you know, for important things. What I'm saying is, you know, the greatest treasure that you need to be saving up is that which is in heaven first. Okay? It says the light of the body is the eye, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light, but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. What is he saying? You know, if you are a covetous person and you just, you have a greedy eye, you have an envious eye, and there's darkness in that eye, you know, if the whole body is full of darkness, it just kind of shows you what kind of covetous person you really are. That's all you talk about. That's all you think about. That's not a good sign. Okay? Now let me give you some verses that are twisted to support the prosperity gospel. Go to Luke chapter 6 and verse 38. Luke chapter 6 and verse 38. We're going to breeze through some of these real quick. These are some that I've heard myself by other people use to teach, and unfortunately, you know, like fundamental Baptists have been influenced by prosperity preachers, believe it or not. Well, they'll use these verses for their prosperity type messages and, you know, for their building program or whatever. Look at Luke 6 38. Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give unto your bosom for with the same measure that you meet with all it shall be measured to you again. And they'll quote this to say, give so people can give back to you. Referring to wealth, money, right? But it's literally not talking about money at all. Look at verse 37, judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. So what is the context? If you forgive others, then people will abundantly forgive you as well. Nothing to do with money. Nothing to do with wealth, okay? Has everything to do with having a forgiving spirit, a forgiving attitude, because if you are merciful to others, first off, God will be merciful unto you, but then you also reap mercy from others as well, okay? Look at, go to John, or excuse me, go to James chapter four if you would. And look, let me read you a portion of scripture here that debunks that previous interpretation of that verse. Because they say, you know, if I give to Geo, you know, I can rest assured that Geo is gonna give me five times as much back or something. That's what they teach, okay? But let me show you what the Bible says here in Luke chapter 14 verse 12. It says, then said he also to him that bade him, when thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maim, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed, listen to this, at the resurrection of the just. There, it's better to give and not get anything back in this lifetime. Because if you don't get anything back in this lifetime, God says, I'll get you back. I'll pay you back when? At the resurrection of the just. Now, is it possible that we get recompense here at the resurrection of the just? Yes, what I'm saying is, it doesn't always work where, oh, you are a blessing to someone else or you give and then you automatically get something back. Sometimes you don't, but that's okay because you will always be recompensed, not in this lifetime with the yacht, not in this lifetime with the Benz, at the resurrection of the just. You'll get a Lexus glorified body. You'll get a Mercedes glorified body. Look at James chapter four. Here's what the name and claim it preachers will use. Verse two. Let's see here, it says, ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not. By the way, they never quote the beginning of that verse. They'll just quote the end. Ye have not because ye ask not. You gotta name it and claim it. They'll literally say, if you really want that thing, you have to like name it. You gotta say, I'm gonna have this. It's gonna be mine. God wants me to have it. I'm gonna get it. It's gonna be mine. They have to kind of psych themselves up or something. Right? But what does the text actually say? Why is it that they're not getting what they want? Well, look at verse three. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your own lust. If you get what you're asking for, it's because you're asking for to win the lottery. Right. And I'm not gonna bless you with that. You're asking for things that ye may consume it upon your own lust. You're not asking according to the will of God. Okay? This is what the name and claim it people tend to preach. Look at verse 13. This right here debunks the name and claim it completely because they say, if you just say it, you name it, you claim it, it's yours. Well, look at verse 13. Go to now ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue their year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know now what shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes the way. For they ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or do that. But now ye rejoice in your boasting. All such rejoicing is evil. So a person who does the name and then claim it, they're being presumptuous because they're expecting God to bless them asking what they want to consume upon their own lust. And according to this, it says, well go to now ye that say, this is what we're going to do because of the fact that you don't know what's going to come on tomorrow. You can die tomorrow. The worst thing can come upon you the next day. All such rejoicing is evil. What we should say is, you know what? If the Lord wills, this is what we're going to do. God willing, we'll do this. Go to, let's see here. Go to Mark chapter 10. This will be the last one because I'm out of time here. Here's one of the main ones that they use. Let me just read to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse number 9 says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that the ether's poverty might be rich. They'll use this verse to say, you know, Jesus Christ became poor so he could become rich. It's like, what in the world? But folks, obviously that's how devils would interpret the Bible. Because no righteous person would look at that and say, oh, okay, I get it. I'm going to have a lot of money, my bank account, I'm going to be a baller. I'm going to be a baller. I'm going to be balling out of control because that's why Jesus Christ came to be poor. Right? What he's referring to is the fact that we are rich in Christ because we have, listen to this, we possess something that no amount of money can buy. What is that? Salvation. The righteousness of God can never be purchased with any amount of money. You could own all the money in the universe, all the most wealthiest things in this world. You cannot buy righteousness. So he became, why? Because the Bible tells us that we became the righteousness of God in him. He had made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So he became poor. He came down from heaven's glory. He submitted himself and he took on the likeness of man. I mean, he was born in Bethlehem's manger. There was no room for him in the inn. He became poor so that we can have salvation. That's what that's referring to. But these carnal, wicked, prosperity preachers view it as oh, this means I can have a lot of money. Oh, this means that I can buy a mansion. Oh, this means I can take all kinds of trips to Hawaii and Dubai and have helicopters because it says here that we might be made rich. Wrong. In fact, those prosperity preachers are some of the most poverty-stricken spiritual people you'll ever meet. In fact, when they're weighed in the balances, the Bible says they're found wanting. Look at Mark chapter 10, his last verse here. Verse 28, Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, My brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my sake and the Gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions in the world to come and in the world to come eternal life. So they'll use this passage of scripture to teach, well, you know, if you live for God, if you name and claim it, if you name things, you're going to have houses, you're going to have lands, and that's it. Because they ignore all the other stuff, right? What about the brother and sisters? That doesn't matter. What about the mothers? That doesn't matter. What about the children? That doesn't matter. What about persecutions? Oh, no persecutions. They only focus on the actual possessions that the list gives, and this is not Jesus Christ saying that if you get saved and you serve God, he's going to get you a mansion, he's going to get you a Tesla, he's going to get you acres of land and you're just going to be really wealthy. This is basically saying, because if you look at the context, we see, by the way, when you study the men, because who's the one he's responding to? Peter. Now tell me, did Peter have houses and lands and all these things? Did he have persecutions? We see that his influence expanded even to the point that he, in his latter years, lived in Babylon. He was loved of his church because he was a pastor. We see that he's a well-respected man. What this is telling us is that when we serve God, God opens up doors of opportunity for us to meet more people. And when we meet more Christians, we open ourselves up to a more opportunity to be admired by other people, to be loved by other people, to be needed. I'm sure any one of you can go to a different state where there's like a new IFB church, for example, right? And if you ask someone at that church, hey, can I stay with you? They'll let you stay there. They'll take you out to eat. They'll be a huge blessing to you. They'll let you use their vehicle sometimes. They'll pull out the red carpet for you. Why? Because they're a brother in Christ. That's why. They're trying to focus on the houses and lands, but you don't see any of these prosperity preachers getting persecuted. Right? You don't see them talking about the brothers, sisters, and mothers. And in fact, they actually add one on here, which is wives. A lot of these guys are like divorced and remarried. But notice it says if you leave wife or children or lands, it doesn't say you also have wives. Right? That's what they do according to the Bible. What am I saying? What I'm saying is that greedy preachers exist, my friends. Beware of the prosperity preachers. You got to take the middle ground. Okay? The middle ground is that we don't want to be wealthy and have an inordinate amount of wealth to the point where it causes us to sin and be tempted to forsake the Lord. But at the same time, we don't want to be poor either because that can cause us to take the name of our God in vain. So what's the answer? Well, if you have a good amount of money in the bank, be content with such things as you have. And if you're poor, go to work. Get a job. Learn some character. Get a job. But at the end of the day, simply be content with the things that you have. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for the warnings. I pray that you would continue to help us to identify prosperity preachers and those who would cause us to misinterpret the scriptures and help us to take into account the three tiers that we mentioned tonight. The ones who are obvious, the ones who are not as obvious, and those who even we ourselves can become oblivious to because they are hiding amongst the sheep and they blend in so well with God's people that we cannot identify them. I pray that, Lord, you'd continue to help us to have discernment and help us more than anything to be just content with the things that we have and to pay the price to be godly, whether that's reading God's word, being in church consistently, going soul-winning, just exercising ourselves rather unto godliness. And I pray, Lord, that you bless our church in Jesus' name. Amen. Please turn your song book to song number 10. Song number 10. There's our last song, Near the Cross. Song number 10, all together nice and strong on that first verse. Jesus, keep me near the cross. There, a precious fountain, free to all the healing stream. Flows from Calvary's mountain. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find me. Rest beyond the river, near the cross, a trembling soul. Love and mercy found me. There, the bright and morning star sheds its wings around me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find me. Rest beyond the river, near the cross, a trembling soul. Hear the cross, O Lamb of God, with its seeds before me. Help me, love, from day to day, with its shadows o'er me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find me. Rest beyond the river, near the cross, a longing soul. Help me, love, from day to day, with its seeds before me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find me. Help me, love, from day to day, with its shadows o'er me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find me. Till my raptured soul shall find me. Rest beyond the river. Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed.