Christ Calls for Heavenly Riches

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the crowd, “Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your richesrnare” (Matthew 6:19-21). Wikipedia defines the Prosperity Gospel as “a Christian religious belief whose proponents claim the Bible teaches financial blessing is the will of God for Christians. They report that Joel Osteen has spread the Prosperity Gospel past it’s beginnings in the Pentecostal movement to the Evangelical’s and to the rest of the world. Wikipedia also discloses that many prominent Christian leaders, such as Rick Warren and Jerry Farwell, have harshly criticized the movement as heretical false teaching. Warren has alleged that the Prosperity Gospel promotes the idolatry of money.” In my book “Divine Revelation: a call from Christ to join the armies of Heaven,” I shared that “I decided to read Joel Osteen’s book “Become a Better You” because I speak out against Osteen and the Prosperity Gospel in radio interviews. I feel this message is not a Christian message for one reason: a Christian message propose a life passionate for Jesus Christ and not one for us. “Osteen doesn’t preach a Christian message. In studying his book and noting on the title page the number one purpose was self-actualization, I realized he promotes some form of the power of positive thinking supported by an Old Testament faith-based financial reward system. Osteen’s followers include as many as 40,000 people attending Sunday worship at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas and more than seven million people receiving his false teaching via satellite in over one hundred countries around the world” (page 105). In His Sermon on the Mount preached beside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus said “Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven.” Despite these strong words from Christ, tens of millions of Christians everywhere follow the false teaching proclaimed in the Prosperity Gospel and are investing their faith seeking social advancement and financial rewards. And unfortunately, many Christian churches now display a dollar sign above their door rather than the Cross of Jesus Christ. These Prosperity Churches need to heed the words of David Platt in his book “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream” and turn away from the pursuit of earthly riches and turn their congregations towards Christ and the riches of heaven. Jesus Christ is now calling Christians everywhere to experience a spiritual birth, to store up heavenly riches, to live a rich spiritual life, to join the Armies of Heaven, to help fight for church reform, and to prepare the church for His Second Coming.