Ten years ago a man by the name of Bruce Wilkinson published a book entitled The Prayer of Jabez. It immediately became an international bestseller, with sales of more than 9 million copies. Wilkinson based his book on these two verses from 1st Chronicles chapter 4: “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called him Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain.’ And God granted what he asked.”
The gist of Wilkinson’s book is that if you pray hard enough and often enough for God to grant you earthly blessings, God will give you pretty much anything you want. Do you want to be wealthy? Do you want a big expensive house? Do you want to drive a big luxurious car or maybe a bright shiny sports car? Well, according to this line of thinking, God wants you to have all the pleasures of this world and have them right now, so pray hard enough and often enough and God will give you money and a big house and fancy cars. Recite the prayer of Jabez every day for at least 30 days, and God will not only give you blessings – but will give you abundant blessings.
The success of The Prayer of Jabez is just one example of one of the most troubling trends in the Christian Church to take hold in recent decades – something we refer to as the “health and wealth gospel.” According to the health and wealth gospel, uppermost in God’s mind is a desire for all true believers to enjoy virtually every earthly comfort and blessing – that is, every material comfort and blessing. The men and women who preach the health and wealth gospel take little snippets of Scripture – a few words here, a few words there, occasionally even an entire verse or two – and taking those words out of the context in which they were written, they teach that God is waiting, is virtually chomping at the bit to give you great riches and a truly wonderful earthly life. They’re yours for the taking. All you have to do is claim them for yourself. Tell God to give them to you.
Today’s Gospel lesson from John chapter 16 is sometimes used by these folks to prove their point. Listen again to the first two verses, where Jesus says, “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Just ask God the Father for something in Jesus’ name and He will send it your way – no questions asked.
I’d like to suggest that the whole health and wealth gospel concept is flat-out wrong. It is wrong in so, so many ways. I could talk about any number of those errors, and at some time in the future this topic might just make for an interesting Bible Class – but for today, we’re going to look at just one of the major reasons why the health and wealth gospel is 180 degrees wrong from what Scripture – from what God – really tells us.
The Prayer of Jabez and the preaching of the health and wealth gospel are based on the assumption – the entirely wrong assumption – that it is always the will of God for the believer to prosper in the things of this earth. They teach that no matter what you want, it is automatically God’s will from all of eternity for you to have it.
Is that what the Bible really teaches us? When Jesus says that “whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” He’s not making a promise of wealth or expensive houses or even what we sometimes refer to as the “good life.” Jesus never promised that His disciples would have an easy life following His resurrection – in fact, He promised just the opposite. In Luke chapter 21, Jesus tells the disciples that they will be persecuted for His sake. In John chapter 21 Jesus specifically prophesies that the disciple Peter will die by crucifixion, just as Jesus was crucified. In fact, in chapter 4 of his first epistle, Peter would later write: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also be glad and rejoice when his glory is revealed.” And in the final words of our Gospel lesson, Jesus says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
According to the health and wealth gospel, God’s holy will always conforms exactly and immediately to our human will. What we want is ultimately more important than what God may want for us. Our plans are more important than God’s plans. The idea that God knows what is best for us is turned topsy-turvy so that man’s intelligence is greater than God’s.
But that’s not how God works. And no one knew this better than Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Shortly before His arrest and trial, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Another problem with the health and wealth gospel is that prayer ultimately becomes nothing more than something that we do for God. It’s like a child giving a list of toys to Santa or Sharon giving me a list of groceries to pick up at County Market on my way home from Church. “Let me tell you what I want, God, so you can get busy and give it to me.” I’m not saying that God does not want us to ask Him for the things that we need in our lives – even for the things that we want. Luther once said that since God is our Father, then we can ask Him just as any child can ask his or her father. For anything. For everything. I’m also not saying that God never wants us to enjoy the material blessings that we have been given – which sometimes do include wealth, big houses, fancy cars or anything else. But when we die – which we most certainly will unless Jesus returns first to judge the living and the dead – those possessions get left behind. It’s a fact of life and death that you can’t take them with you.
In a few minutes we will join in praying The Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus Himself taught us to pray. In our Catechism classes we spend a lot of time studying The Lord’s Prayer, where in the Fourth Petition we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread” which – if you remember from your Catechism class days – includes everything that we need to support this body and life. But immediately prior to those words we pray the Third Petition: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will – not ours. God’s desires for us – not ours.
My friends in Christ, the ultimate problem with the health and wealth gospel is that by focusing on material possessions here and now, it tries to make our human life more important than our eternal life. One of the great lessons of the Easter season is that eternal life is not something that is simply tacked on to the end of the life that we now have. Eternal life isn’t an afterthought for the Christian – it is a reason why we are Christians. The life that we now have is nothing but a prelude to the eternal life that our Savior has won for us with His suffering, His death and His resurrection. Jesus did not come into this world – He did not take on His human nature, He did not die, rise and return to the Father – just so we could have all kinds of riches and blessings during the years of our human lives. Jesus came into this world, took on His human nature, died, rose and returned to the Father to give us forgiveness of sins so that we might have eternal life, a life greater and more blessed than anything we could ever have here on this earth. Life free from all of the problems and trials we face every day. Life without the temptations of sin. Eternal life and unsurpassed joy and everlasting peace in the very presence of our eternal, all-powerful, all-loving God.
Yesterday morning I was getting ready to come into the office and finish writing today’s sermon. I had everything done except the end. I really didn’t know how to close this sermon. I wasn’t sure what to say.
Then the phone rang, and I was asked to rush to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where our sister in Christ Judy Doolin is near death. As I visited Judy in her room in the ICU unit – as I read Scripture and prayed – I suddenly realized that the life – and more importantly, the faith – of this dear woman proves how totally wrong the health and wealth gospel is. Those of you who know Judy know that she has been seriously ill for many years, suffering from diabetes, kidney failure, heart attack and a host of related problems. You know that she is not a wealthy person – indeed, as her Medicare nursing home benefits were getting ready to expire a few weeks ago, she didn’t know how she would continue to pay for the care that she needed. But you also know, as I have come to know, that she has a tremendously strong faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior. The fact that her faith and her prayers brought neither health nor wealth never bothered Judy, for she knows what God ultimately has in store for her when her suffering ends and her new life in heaven begins. For as Jesus says in our Gospel lesson, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
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