"The life you want... your best life now... look great feel great..."
Not exactly the headliner you would expect from three very influential pastors (including pastors of the two largest congregations in America).
I've always wanted to ask Creflo, Joel, or Joyce what they think about Paul's exhortation to be heirs with Christ, on the condition that we suffer with Him (Romans 8:16-18). I've heard countless statements by faith-teachers that monetary blessings are ours in abundance. But I rarely hear any of them teach a sermon on Jesus' sufferings that are ALSO "ours in abundance" (2 Pet 1:5)?
Christianity is not a gumball machine. In my recollection, we have been purchased by Jesus' blood (Acts 20:28), making us bond-slaves of God (1 Pet 2:16). We are not our own, we have been bought with a price in order to glorify God (1 Cor 6:19, 20). Although we have access to every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3), our purpose in life is to glorify God (Rom 15:5-9). The height of humanistic tendencies is our pursuing of the best possible life for ourselves, or to feel good.
Here is our instruction for these, Christian:
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Amen.
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