 As you watch this video, there are millions of people that call themselves Christians but have been sold a lie. This video is made possible by The Daily Disciple Club on Patreon. To support my mission of equipping people to follow Jesus daily, join Patreon today. This lie takes multiple forms, the belief that Christianity is just a life improvement plan. It's just about God helping me have better relationships or a better marriage or a better business plan. God is just about trying to, you know, give me these tips and tricks in order to make my life better. And that's why we're often offered up so many of these Christian TED talks as sermons because people want to know how they can live a better life and ultimately Jesus is just a means to give them that. Hey friend, welcome back to Prosper Church. My name's Pastor Kenny. Thank you for joining us but I want you to buckle up though because we're right in the middle of our sermon series, How to Be Successful Like Solomon. But don't you fret my follically challenged fellows? No hair required. We took a break from our sermon series last week to hear from Pastor Curtis. He preached on the story of Zacchaeus and taught us all that even short kings can inherit the kingdom of God. I hope you enjoy our worship experience today. Our worship band just wrote a new song so you can be sure to hear that about three or four times but without further ado, let's dive in. Then there's the prosperity gospel folks. It's just about what I can get from God. I mean that's what people misunderstand about God is he wants you to be prosperous. He wants you to have this abundant life. He doesn't want you to just be poor and scraping by and be some loser. No, he wants you to be this rich wealthy person that has all your stuff together. That's why I have a private jet, I have a mansion, I have a jacuzzi. God gave me that stuff because he wanted me to be happy. Then there's the legalistic gospel, what I need to do to be saved. You see what people don't understand about God is that he ain't no slacker. When he makes a team he wants the best and the brightest. The question is what do you have to offer? I see people praying around thinking that God will take them in just as they are. Now they haven't even cleaned up their life first. To play off a quote from JFK or maybe it was Ronald Reagan I believe, don't ask what God has done for you. Ask what you can do for God. Now the truth is there are a lot of scriptures about obeying and following God's commands. But what these folks have yet to understand is that the Bible is clear about our lack of ability to hold to God's law perfectly. So what is this big lie that so many people that call themselves Christians have bought into? Basically that the gospel is about me. About the wonderful life that I can have or what I need to do for God or what I can get from God. But the gospel is about God and his glory. This makes it so clear for us as Jesus was preparing for his death on the cross. His soul was troubled and it says this in John 12. It says, now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour but for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. Okay hold that for a second but I want to go back. When we talk about the gospel, the good news, we also need to talk about the bad news of sin, judgment, God's wrath. And people don't like to talk about this and they don't want to present this because look if we're trying to present Jesus as just this cool nice guy, this nice teacher who came to make us have better lives than this idea of wrath and sin and judgment is kind of offensive right? But the truth is we can't understand the good news if we don't understand the bad news. You know a lot of people think about the gospel that we were drowning in our sin and Jesus kind of threw us this life raft and we grabbed onto it and he kind of reeled us in and pulled us up onto the boat and that's close. But the truth is is that we were at the bottom of the ocean. We were dead honestly and Jesus dove in and scooped us out. I think that's a little bit more accurate. Obviously no analogy is perfect but it just goes to show that we had no ability to save ourselves. Like it says in Ephesians, we were dead in our trust passes and sins. Don't hide the truth about sin and God's wrath towards it and ultimately his judgment towards sinners that is eternity in hell. Like if we truly believe that hell exists and that is what the Bible teaches right? If we truly believe that this exists right? This place exists. If they don't put their faith in Jesus then why don't we talk about it? I think of Galatians 1.10 where it says, For am I seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I was still trying to please man I would not be a servant of Christ. I remember Jesus saying you're either with me or against me. Like he wants to draw the clear line here. Would you rather gain their approval and compromise the gospel? Compromise the truth? Or would you rather seek the approval of God by what you're saying right? Like ultimately that's what matters. That's what should matter. Okay let's go back to God's glory for a second. The idea of God's glory can be something that's hard to quantify. What does it mean to glorify something? I think of and I've heard it put like a spotlight. That is what the intention is and so in God saving us and coming to this world he wanted to put a spotlight on himself and how glorious and merciful and loving and also just he is and is fulfilling justice and being the atoning sacrifice for his sins. He wanted to put the spotlight on himself because when all of our eyes are on him that is exactly the perfect place for our eyes to be because he's the most glorious in the universe. Like that's a good thing. I think about it like this. Think of when you're watching like a sunset and you're watching a sunset and you text your friend you're like you need to see this right now and they come out and they're enjoying it too. They're taking in this glorious beauty and they're like they're thanking you. They're like oh thank you for inviting me out here so I can see this too. In effect that's what we're doing with like Christ. Like we want people to see his glory and they you know ultimately maybe they will thank us for it right and like some people will, some people won't. But ultimately it's like this is the most glorious thing in the universe. This is better than a sunset. This is better than a glorious mountaintop like this is amazing. What I want to encourage you towards is a God-centered gospel. It's not about me and what I can be or become or what I need to do or what I can get but rather about God and what he has done. Put the spotlight on him. I think it's a while that we're ashamed of sharing God with people. You think about okay if you were friends with LeBron James or pick any celebrity that you want to or you know famous person if you're friends with him and you invited him over and you had also invited your friends over you wouldn't hesitate to like introduce them together right like oh yeah I know LeBron James like oh yeah you got to come over and meet him and they'd be like oh my goodness I get to the meet LeBron James. Ultimately okay people probably have a better reaction to LeBron James than they will Jesus at least depending on who they are. But ultimately it's like man you're like why are you ashamed man like it's God like he's infinitely more glorious and amazing and in him is new life and salvation and a new identity and this new purpose and also this like rest this deep rest in who God is and what he has done. Thank you for watching this video and I'll see you tomorrow.