Prosperity: Why?

In the context of financial giving --

And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.         2 Corinthians 9:8

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. - 2 Corinthians 9:10

Why?

We don't have to wonder --

Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. - 2 Corinthians 9:11

Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. - 2 Corinthians 8:13-14 

God wants us to be the conduit through which He meets the needs of others for whom He cared enough to die.

“God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized, uneducated, unmedicated, and unfed millions. The evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own. God has prospered them. And by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture (baptized by a doctrine of health, wealth, and prosperity) they have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, better (and more) meat, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun. They will object: Does not the Old Testament promise that God will prosper his people? Indeed! God increases our yield, so that by giving we can prove our yield is not our god. God does not prosper a man's business so that he can move from a Ford to a Cadillac. God prospers a business so that 17,000 unreached people can be reached with the gospel. He prospers the business so that 12 percent of the world's population can move a step back from the precipice of starvation.” ― John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

 It constitutes a lost opportunity to give to what could count for eternity.  Remember this verse --

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. - Matthew 7:12

If you and your children were hungry, what would you want prosperous Christians to do for you?

How different John Wesley sounded than today's prosperity preachers --

“Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose?”

What is our deepest desire and need?

As the deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and stand before him? - Psalm 42:1-2

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water. - Psalm 63:1

How precious is your unfailing love, O God!All humanity finds shelter
in the shadow of your wings.
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your river of delights.
For you are the fountain of life,
the light by which we see. - Psalm 36:7-9

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! - Psalm 34:8

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."  Matthew 5:6

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart - John 7:37-38

“It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life." - Revelation 21:6

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.           Revelation 22:17

I wonder how many of us have found any of these verses part of our prayer and worship in our earlier days following Jesus and now would find it hard to repeat them for the heart has grown a little bit colder.  I wonder for how many your relationship with Jesus has found newness to the point that you are shouting amen as you read these out loud.  My prayer is that all of us would make sure that our hearts are in a place where God can meet our desires and our needs.

What is the chief end of man?  The Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647 says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."  

Augustine wrote the Confessions - here is what he wrote.

During all those years [of rebellion], where was my free will? What was the hidden, secret place from which it was summoned in a moment, so that I might bend my neck to your easy yoke . . .? How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose . . ! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves. . . . O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.

What a Savior - Laura Story

Our Deepest Desires

Our Deepest Desires

UNDERSTANDING OUR DEEPEST NEEDS