Prosperity First

Prosperity First

1/24/19

None of us can deny the fact that the majority of our decisions we elect come from financial bases, this is a common comfort level choice and one that many times are easily handled.  But what happens when we overcrowd our lives and hearts with such material witnesses, and to what degree will we sacrifice if times arise that we need to help others out?  How does being continually satisfied help out our hearts when it comes to the eternal gifts we are supposed to be giving to others?  God warns us quite often in His Word about such fallacies and what they lead to if not allowed to be washed away by His Divine cleansing.  Can the Church honestly stand before God and say that she has done such eternal blessings to those that are in need of God?  I believe that question can be easily answered but not in a manner to which she can be called a Bride.

It cannot be denied that there are plenty of reasons why God continues to share with us about our financial settings and how it directly relates to the eternal status of our hearts.  Sadly, we continue to revel in the blessings that God has given us while ignoring the Giver, a dire condition that shall end at some point in time.  Even in the times of the Medieval Church and up until today the buildings that denominations construct represent the finest of all materials that money can buy yet there are no spiritual reckonings that climb from the floors of these buildings and grace the ears and heart of God for they are strictly monuments to mankind and not true and eternal representatives of God and His Temple.  I cannot just mention mega churches and the followings they have for in all honesty many of the small churches located in small communities are just as notorious in their secular living and heart pounding as those who we see on television each week.  This is an abhorrent issue that stinks up the nostrils of God and if we do not turn and run back to God we shall see another aspect of God that shall not be so desirable.

God has no problems with large churches for it pleases Him to see His people gathered in one place to worship Him alone.  The problem lies within our definition of “worship Him alone” for we have completely written God out of His Word and placed our idea of what He should be in our hearts instead.  This is bad fruit people and it is a production line that when given to those who need the eternal Word given to them will make them sick because it is contaminated with the world and the message it brings.  These incorrect messages that ministers, leaders, and people who sit in the pews are providing are destroying people who need God and the message of worldly acceptance to those who are lost is just absolutely ridiculous.  Yes, these churches are preaching and teaching an eternal message but it is not the eternal message from God it is from the enemy.  The shepherds of today are not focused on the true matters of the sheep and have placed the value of the sheep on their appearance and garment futures.  It is this aspect of leaders that God wants to address us today for He is not just wishing that pastors teach the truth but His desire is for all of us to be in this correct teaching pattern when it comes to those who are lost.  The financial aspect of prosperity does not always have to lead the way in such deception either, images, tones, demands of obedience can also hinder the truth about the flock as well.  In other words, the shepherd should have their eyes on the entire flock at all times, for danger comes in many shapes, forms, and directions and the shepherd should not be part of the danger.

There never should be a time when the shepherd is not available for the flock and if they are away they should provide extraordinary care for the flock for even if not all the flock knows the shepherd is gone attendance will certainly fall away anyway.  If the people of the congregation are not being properly kept and taught then it is clear that the person in charge is not or does not have the correct heart in play.  The modern church has forgotten this principle about Scripture and its Ways for now if we watch ministry programs on the television or listen to them on the radio how may many minutes or what percentage does that program go into raising money to stay on the air?  It is not the shepherd (pastor) that is supposed to be in the spotlight or first in line; it is the flock for it is the eternal caring setting of the people under the pastor and leaders that mean the most.  Ezekiel 34:1-3 serves as our reference in God’s Word for this article and we shall see that the waning attention of the shepherd is not a new thing.  Indeed, this passage of Scripture that was written thousands of years ago not only described the conditions of the leaders of Israel then, it also predicted the behavior of the leaders of the Church from Jesus’ time forward and most definitely today.

A while back, God gave us a beautiful picture of how the Church is organized structurally with the illustration of a normal triangle △ with the leader being on top and the congregation behind following.  However, with the command that Jesus gave to His followers to go into the world this organizational structure does not match and will not match until the organization is opposite ▽ in which the people are in the lead for it is well known that when people are out witnessing there will be more saved due to the percentage of witnesses out and about than just one or two.  This truth goes back to what God shared with us a few paragraphs above that it is the spiritual health and fitness of the people that are more important to the world than the pastor – the one who should be leading and watching, not being preoccupied with obsolete causes.  Verse 2 addresses these obsolete advantages that pastors and leaders use in order to feed themselves before the flock and thus create then establish legendary stability of self-indulgence instead of focusing on the feedings of the flock.  When the pastor is fed but the flock continues to starve the result of the flock is death for it has become clear that the leaders are distracted from what is truly needed.

It is a true statement that the leadership of the Church should come from the pastor, but the heart of the leadership needs to be in complete tune with God and His Ways in order to provide the congregation with the adequate food necessary to sustain them while they are out in the world.  Look at the spiritual attendance of the congregation in order to see how well the pastor is doing.  Is the growth of the congregation but not the spiritual abilities of the congruent with the physical growth or is the physical far outweighing the spiritual?  How about no growth at all or are we having difficulty replacing the aging pastors and leaders due to the shortage of those who are being called into the ministry?  I believe that the answers are quite easily ascertained without much argument which is a sad commentary since the Church is supposed to be alive and bringing to the darkest corners the eternal life of the people who do not know God.  Pastors should be concerned with the spiritual growth of the people first along with the continued spiritual growth for God will use a congregation of twenty that is mature in the spirit before He will use a congregation of one thousand who is rich in numbers only.  A spiritually fed flock shall lead the world into the direction that it needs voluntarily and not have to be coached into witnessing a prime example of an upside down triangle.  How important is this truth?  God is saying to those in this passage that what they are doing is wrong, God uses the word “Woe” here and when this word is used there can be no mistake that God is not a happy camper about what is going on.

How can a pastor (shepherd) have any other interest in any other goal than doing what is right for the flock?  To be honest, if this truth is taught then there is no reason why the physical prosperity teachings need to be present from any pulpit for the blessings of God should fall into place according to the definition of Scripture.  When I was a young lad, I remember sitting out on the porch and shelling peas, snapping beans, shucking corn, completing many other types of food details.  Shamefully, I must admit that I did not like doing such chores back then but while I was doing them I was unknowingly reaping the benefits of the “salary” that my father was receiving for the ministry that he was doing.  I had no clue what some of my chores were accomplishing nor did I understand the reasons why either but in time my parents shared with me how they got paid for many years and my heart sank because I was unwilling to have a cheerful heart during those younger years.  My parents’ eyes knew exactly what was going on and what the congregation needed, not my will God but yours.

Ezekiel 34:3 hits the final home run when it comes to what occurs when shepherds do not complete the assignment that they are supposed to be providing, “Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed; but ye not the flock.”  This verse makes it clear that the shepherds are living quite nicely off the flock but not reciprocating the truth in return.  The shepherds are not feeding the flock as they should but with meager tokens compared to what the shepherds eat.  The Medieval Church is famous for living in such conditions and the modern day Church has followed suit for when the leader of a church drives in a fancy automobile and lives in a multimillion-dollar house with 24/7 security around their palace, while some of their congregation barely makes ends meet, Verse 3 is being fulfilled all over again.  God does not care about your physical numbers first that is NOT His type of prosperity and definitely NOT the type of prosperity any Christian leader should be emphasizing to their congregation.  God is spirit and He is only concerned where your spirit shall spend eternity and it breaks His heart every time a person who has been sitting in church all their lives or has been influenced by the Church all their lives dies in their sins and spend eternity away from Him.

When the shepherd finds out that there are a certain few who can provide the necessary fruit it is easily recognized by others about what is transpiring before their hearts.  The second part of verse 3 sums everything up when it talks about how the shepherd actually kills them that they have fed, maybe not in the physical terminology but definitely in the spiritual aspect of their lives.  On the outside, your appearance seems to be donned with the sharpest dress at the dinner table but you fail to treat the flock with the spiritual food that needs to be given for their survival.  When the spoils of the fattened gift (the word actually means butchered) become evident the leaders feel obligated to see that it is their job to oblige their appetites with others situations, kind of like the old Roman Emperors watching their citizens suffer in the Coliseum and lose their lives for sport.  The emphasis is on the leaders and not the congregation and it is this action by the shepherds that fail to recognize that their actions are killing the flock because of their lack of duty to the Truth.  How can the flock be fed properly if the shepherd does not take them to the appropriate table for dining?  How can the shepherd do such a working task when they are not even concerned with what the flock is doing, what the flock is being taught, or where the flock is actually at?  It is impossible because the table that the shepherd is seated at is not the ideal pasture that the flock needs.

These type of congregations may be great in number but one who understands the true core and value of The Church can walk in and spiritually notice the dissections of such congregations and know that while superficially the flock looks healthy, they are spiritually anemic and are on the verge of death.  When a pastor places themselves in a lineup with physical prosperity they automatically line up their flock in the same direction.  How can we adjust our lives and hearts from the world if we are so precisely engaging in the physicality of the world?  What God is saying to us does not stop at just the pulpits, but it also includes those who go into the world and exercise what Jesus commanded us to do.  I do not suppose that an infected flock does much witnessing and by the looks of the condition that the Church is projecting today that assumption is fairly accurate.  It shows exactly what kingdom the leader and the congregation are committed to for it does not take too much admission for the world to grab hold but it takes the lion’s heart and determination to live and to witness for God.

God is troubled by the lack of truth, knowledge, and concern that the leaders of the Church today have for people and for their congregations.  As stated before, God would love to have huge congregations gathering in His name at all times and then going out and witnessing to those that need Him in their lives, what a magnificent vision that is and should be.  But reality slaps us in the face and we find out that our large congregations have a revolving door with those seeking to find the Truth, not finding it and then leaving still in search for the needed spiritual food they crave so much.  We have missed the Truth about God and His Word and what it means to live a separated and holy life for Him.  This belief has filtered down from pulpit after pulpit denomination after denomination and the bleeding of sacrificial lambs to the superficial presentations to those around us are beginning to stink with the vile smell of sin that we actually are portraying.  These superficial markings decry the truth about commitment to God and reflect and lift up the level of acceptance of the world that resides in our hearts instead.  This artificial truth stunk in Ezekiel’s day and it stinks, even more, today because we are a larger organization than what Israel was back then.

Pastors and leaders today have lost the truth that the congregations that they are blessed with are not theirs at all, but they are God’s children (sheep).  I have heard many a preacher say that their church is doing well and their church is financially strong and that their church is _______.  What these people are declaring is that they are taking the fattened sheep and slaughtering it for their own wishes and not returning the Truth to the entire flock.  It really does not matter what type of prosperity that catches the eyes of a church leader it is the fact that something derails the truth of the Truth being taught to the congregations that matter.  There are billions of lives each day that leave this earth not knowing who God is and it is a shame and a scam when they have been fed lies about who they are and what God made them for, all-the-while countless ministers are more concerned about what type of car they drive or how fast they can afford to bring in the newest sound system.  The purpose of the Church is not to become rich in the world and its status, but to make sure that everyone who walks through those doors knows who God is and how the people need Him in order to survive not only the world but live in peaceful eternity. 

The shepherd must always have their eyes on the flock and their attention on the flock when they are out and about, but their responsibility does not end there either, for when the flock needs attention on a personal level that leader needs to have the capability to be with that sheep until time has passed.  The question that now remains is to ask if we as the Church understand that it is not just the responsibility of the pastor to perform such activities but it is ours as well.  This is where we have fallen down on the job for we have put it into our hearts that the pastor is the only one that can operate in such a capacity.  It is our responsibility to listen to the pastor (shepherd) and to follow the instructions of this leader but we cannot afford to have lame leaders standing in our pulpits drinking coffee while sending out watered down messages to those sitting in the pews.  It is time that the leaders of the Church stick their nose back into the Word of God and lead the sheep as we are supposed to be led.  Jesus is coming back at some point in time and we need to know that unless we have listened to the Master’s command, we will be walking through that open gate into the world and quickly devoured by the enemy we do not know how to defend against.

DLB