Prepare to sift through the complexities of the prosperity doctrine with us—unveiling the rich tapestry of Biblical wisdom that treasures our holistic well-being above mere material wealth. Through the lens of our personal financial voyages, we expose the dangers of prosperity becoming an idol and reaffirm our commitment to prioritizing God in our lives. You'll be navigated through the murky waters of skepticism towards miracles and divine intervention, all while we anchor our hearts to the unwavering promise of God's will as the true north of prosperity.
This episode isn't just about abundance; it's an invitation to weave the golden threads of health and happiness with the sturdy fibers of faith. As we traverse the Biblical landscape of responsible wealth management and the pure elation of generosity, you're called to join us in a prayerful celebration of thanksgiving. We challenge you to embrace a spirit of giving that transcends the confines of the wallet, encouraging acts of kindness that resonate throughout the holiday season and ripple into a bounteous new year. With every story shared and scripture pondered, we hope to light your way to a richer, more generous life in the Kingdom of God.
Prepare to sift through the complexities of the prosperity doctrine with us—unveiling the rich tapestry of Biblical wisdom that treasures our holistic well-being above mere material wealth. Through the lens of our personal financial voyages, we expose the dangers of prosperity becoming an idol and reaffirm our commitment to prioritizing God in our lives. You'll be navigated through the murky waters of skepticism towards miracles and divine intervention, all while we anchor our hearts to the unwavering promise of God's will as the true north of prosperity.
This episode isn't just about abundance; it's an invitation to weave the golden threads of health and happiness with the sturdy fibers of faith. As we traverse the Biblical landscape of responsible wealth management and the pure elation of generosity, you're called to join us in a prayerful celebration of thanksgiving. We challenge you to embrace a spirit of giving that transcends the confines of the wallet, encouraging acts of kindness that resonate throughout the holiday season and ripple into a bounteous new year. With every story shared and scripture pondered, we hope to light your way to a richer, more generous life in the Kingdom of God.
Good evening, everybody and welcome to another edition of the Jordan and Kristen Rickard show actually your two hundred and first edition, believe or not, we thank you. We thank you for tuning in tonight. I know that you guys put this on your calendar at 845 every Tuesday, at AM 570, true story. We've actually, we've actually twice missed our own show airing twice.
Speaker 2:I thought I was just one.
Speaker 1:No, we were like no, twice. We were like watching a movie and you're like, oh, our show just aired. And we're like, okay, well, we can get on the podcast, and so can you, by the way that's right if you miss our show. Don't forget to get on the podcast and you can even be like the first person to like it. How about that? Go to our YouTube channel. You can be the first person to like one of our YouTube videos hey, listen, do not despise the small beginnings.
Speaker 2:Right, that's what God said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, for now. All right, so it checks out. Tonight's topic is going to be the prosperity doctrine, what it is, what it isn't, and how prosperity has really become, I think, distorted a lot in both directions in the church.
Speaker 2:But before we get to that, kristen, go ahead and pray for all of us thank you, jesus, for your love that reigns not just during this holiday season, but all your long-laned God. I just pray for those who are going through a really rough time right now, and maybe the holidays bring up kind of rough feelings and just grieving, lord, I just pray that you give them your comfort, your peace, god, and your overwhelming joy that fills us in your presence. God, lord, we just honor you and we praise you, for your promises are yes and amen, god, and we hold on to you and what you say. We don't. We don't look at what the enemy says or we don't look to the right, to the left. We focus in on you, god, and we thank you. That is already finished and you've already began that good work and you're gonna finish it, jesus name amen.
Speaker 1:Okay, so prosperity doctrine this is, I think, one of the most misunderstood things in all of Christianity. It is something the Bible talks about a lot and very few people understand it. And Chris and I just have to tell you, you know, this is sort of it's an important topic to me because, as you know, I spent a lot of my formative years in what would be called sort of a prosperity church and I think there was a time and a place for what they were doing there. The church happened to have a very large impoverished minority population and I think they needed to understand how God's will for them was not to live in poverty necessarily, but actually to lift them out of poverty and and to prosper and all things, even as our soul prospers. In one of my favorite verses I told you this is the very first few verses of the book of Psalms where it says you know, if you do the right thing, then everything you do will prosper.
Speaker 1:Okay, the problem is it has become largely distorted and you see it with the televangelists. You know the guys living in 20 million dollar homes. Some of these guys have multiple jets. You know and, and, and. They're promising you that if you just give them money. You can live just like this. Like I tell you, you know, prosperity is not really necessarily about focusing on on, you know, fast cars and Rolex watches. Of course I say that I'm wearing my vintage Omega watch that you got me for our first anniversary, so you can talk to us about how prosperity isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it shouldn't be necessarily the focus, and so I think there's been a lot of distortion as far as that goes yeah, I, first of all, when you mentioned prosperity, you know, and with the prosperity gospel you, your mind tends to go to the money aspect, but I think about the word prosperity.
Speaker 2:It's so much more than money, and anytime that I've been unhealthy in my life I remember an older person saying to me one time you know, health is wealth, and that's true. I mean you when we talk about prosperity, real prosperity. Money to me is just like a small wealth is just a small, small part of it. When you need it, prosperity, god is wanting to prosper us in every area in our health, in our joy, in our family, things that money can't buy. So I just wanted to clarify that real quick.
Speaker 2:And you know, I've had I, as a Paul says, I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.
Speaker 2:And I've gone through a season in my life where I'm, you know, had some financial struggle and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Gave me the grit that I have today and the prosperity that God gave during that season in other areas was amazing. But I've also had seasons, were been very financially blessed and I remember reading a book one time and I almost started to feel guilty about my financial blessings, because the person writing the book and I don't think they meant it this way, but it kind of came across like Well, if you have this and you if you have that, and then you should be not holding on to that and it got to the point where it's like, well, where do you draw the line you know is in, or plumbing, something that I shouldn't have, you know? So I think the point of all of it is we need to keep the focus on God. He wants you to have nice things and prosper, but that shouldn't become an idol.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I see the counter reaction also. It's interesting how there's that, that scientific principle for every action there's an equal opposite reaction. It seems that the more prosperity doctrine has been distorted toward it, meaning like living large and private jets, neck and nonsense, the more you've seen this sort of counterweight, which is God doesn't perform miracles. God doesn't want you to prosper, he doesn't necessarily want you to be healthy. Bad things are going to happen to you. Just have to suck it up and deal with it. And the truth is neither of those things are scripturally accurate. Right, you don't have to draw a middle ground. But if you just look at what the Bible says, it talks all the time about prosperity, about God wanting you to prosper. The book of Proverbs is all about that. Okay, but the part that people leave out is it's not. You're not being prospered for your own aggrandizement, you're being prospered to help build other people up.
Speaker 1:There's the verse in the Bible In Corinthians which says you know God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
Speaker 1:As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness in Durst River. Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and, through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. And so the idea that, last line, through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God, chris, and that goes back to something we were saying the last couple weeks, when the themes that we've had, when I've complained about Staying awake during church services, is how I said. We agree that the best sermons are not the sermons you preach, it's the life you live and what. What Paul is saying here in Corinthians. He's saying look, you know, if you really want to honor God, yeah, god will bless you, but you have to be generous. And when people see your good deeds, when people see how generous you are, that will result in thanksgiving to God.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. I feel like you know it's not about flaunting whatever it is, but it's about giving the glory to God. And that can go as a principle. Guess, financially, where you're flaunting your wealth, but instead you're being generous and not withholding. And there's a verse about do not withhold good when it's in within your hand to do so. But you know, like I said before, prosperity, so many things you know. Wealth is just one little part of it. Because I could think about well, I don't want to talk about how great my husband is, because what if somebody else has a really rough marriage? Are they just lost her husband?
Speaker 2:So it you can go all different ways with this. And it's being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. And you see that a lot on like social media. Like what do you post and say thank you for this testimony, because you are encouraging people with your testimony, how God has blessed you. But then it's like okay, where am I sensitive as to what I say? And I think that just goes back to filtering everything through the Holy Spirit and just praying God, help this, whether it's a post, whether it's something I say to a friend, help it to bless people and not be something that is, I'm like, look at me, look at, look at me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also want to point out that, when it comes to material prosperity, I think a lot of people get the wrong idea. They think you sign up for Christianity and all of a sudden God's gonna start sending you checks in the mail. In fact, one of the mistakes I think that the church I went to use to use to commit is they kind of gave that idea and they would just you know, pray for, just you know, finding money and money finding means of it's like. Well, if you actually read the Bible, what the Bible actually says is he gives seed to the solar. That that implies labor on your part. Right, you have to take the seed, you have to do something with it.
Speaker 1:Leviticus says when you reap the harvest of your land, you know, make sure to give some of the poor. What that means, you actually have to go out and work, okay, and so it's not like, it's not like there's a sort of unilateral contract where pardon me for using lawyer language where, where, it's just like okay, god, I'm a Christian now and thank you for everything and and you know where's the blessings that come along with it.
Speaker 1:I mean, you actually have to. What's the saying? Faith. Faith without works is dead. And so you actually have to put yourself in a position where, when you are blessed, that you actually go ahead and you work for that, you take advantage of the opportunities that God's giving you.
Speaker 2:You know, I I say this Humbley or however else you want to say it I really want to get to the point and of like the George Mueller I think it was his name George Mueller thing, where he was so dependent on God for things that he had the orphanage and he would just pray and say, god, we don't have milk for the kids, and then the milk truck would break down and bring the kids milk. Now I'm not saying I want to necessarily live, god bless him, and there's people who can live with that sort of faith. I feel like I have a lot of faith, but I'm not quite at that stage yet. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be wise with our. God has given us our resources, but at the same time, it's amazing to see how God does not work in the world's economy.
Speaker 2:There's so many times when in that season, financially, when I was going through a rough time, that I felt like, wow, god brought stuff without even using money. He would just bless me with things, including things that I didn't even need. You know, like even somebody just said hey, I have all this designer clothes, you want them, and things that I would never know how much money I had, would spend money on my thought. God cares about the little, wants God. God is amazing how, if you don't focus on that, make that your idol. He does care about the little things, if he loves you enough to give you those those little things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and more than that, though. This isn't optional, this isn't kind of like, well, I'm gonna accept Christianity but stay away from this other part of it. First of all, I can't think of any part of the Bible, any Bible story, where God Position someone to fail. It was always here's how you're gonna succeed. I'm gonna do this work for you, okay, or do this work through you, alright.
Speaker 1:But Bible also says the righteous are always generous and lend freely. It's this isn't something that you can just like. You can choose not to participate in. This is central to the Christian walk of life Is being generous. And like you said, kristen, you know, listen, money doesn't really buy happiness. I get it, but you know, money can buy orphanages. Money can go buy food for people to eat. I mean it is, and we don't serve a poor God. But what is the Bible say feast maketh men marry and why, and wine maketh men laugh. But money answers all things. It's an important component to the kingdom and it's it's important that we have it, not that it has us so that we can do so we can do the good works with it.
Speaker 1:Alright, sweetie, I love you very much. Thank you for let me talk over you today what you go ahead and pray us out well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.
Speaker 2:I know this is gonna air the day after Christmas and speaking of prosperity and everything that we've gotten for Christmas and the season that you would, we would just Bless others with with our joy and generosity not just our income, but our hearts and our smiles, and things that don't even cost anything. So, thank you, jesus, for your love. In your light, god, we focus on you, like I said before, all year long, not just the season, but may people see you through us and for those going through a rough time right now, once again, I just reiterate my prayer, or that they would just just just leap into your arms as you open up the doors that they need in.
Speaker 1:Jesus name. Everybody good to see you. I hope you guys had a great 2023. We'll see you in 2024 or better alright take care.