“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

In AD 44, King Herod ordered that James the Greater be thrust through with a sword. He was the first of the apostles to be martyred.

And so the bloodbath began.

• Luke was hung by the neck from an olive tree in Greece.
• Doubting Thomas was pierced with a pine spear, tortured with red-hot plates, and burned alive in India.
• In AD 54, the proconsul of Hierapolis had Philip tortured and crucified because his wife converted to Christianity while listening to Philip preach. Philip continued to preach while on the cross.
• Matthew was stabbed in the back in Ethiopia.
• Bartholomew was flogged to death in Armenia.
• James the Just was thrown off the southeast pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. After surviving the one-hundred-foot fall, he was clubbed to death by a mob.
• Simon the Zealot was crucified by a governor of Syrian in AD 74.
• Judas Thaddeus was beaten to death with sticks in Mesopotamia.
• Matthias, who replaced Judas Iscariot, was stoned to death and then beheaded.
• And Peter was crucified upside down at his own request. J
• John the Beloved is the only disciple to die of natural causes, but that’s only because he survived his own execution. When a cauldron of boiling oil could not kill John, Emperor Diocletian exiled him to the island of Patmos, where he lived until his death in AD 95.

This shouldn’t be surprising nor shocking when we consider that our Savior and Lord was crucified on the cross.

There is nothing wrong with having nice things or being healthy. It’s just that wealth and health was not the reason why we were created. When we become too comfortable with the things of earth, we lose sight of heaven and eternity.

Our treasure isn’t here. Our home isn’t here. We are merely passing through. We weren’t created for these few decades. We were created for eternity.

Eternity is where our treasure is. Eternity is our home. We are merely passing through.

“Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:4-10).

Wealth, health, prosperity.

I want that. Who wouldn’t want that?

But it’s not about want. It’s about what is true. It is about what the Bible tells us.

So, what does the Bible say about our life here?

• Troubles
• hardships
• distresses
• beatings
• imprisonments
• riots
• hard work
• sleepless nights
• hunger

One of these is not like the other.

That’s the problem with the wealth, health, prosperity version of Christianity. It bears no resemblance to the truth revealed in the Bible.

None of the disciples or apostles lived a life of wealth, health, and prosperity. Every single one of them with the exception of one is tortured and put to death for their faith. Jesus did not live a life of wealth, health, and prosperity.

If the only way for Jesus to save sinners was through the suffering and death on a cross, why would followers of this Jesus think that our future is paved with wealth, health, prosperity?

Thank God that it’s not all troubles and hardship. There is much good and glory too. It’s just that when we exclude suffering and hardship from our Christian journey, we negate the faith.

You see, we will all receive health and absolute peace. That is our’s. But, that is our’s when Christ returns. We receive God’s total blessing in eternity. But here, we get both the good and the bad.

Got it?

Be wary of wealth, health, prosperity gospel. It is false teaching.

“I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:9-10).

I wonder if God knew that when he had David pen these words thousands of years ago how amazingly apt this would be in the English.

I bet God knew. I mean, he is God.

When it comes to generosity and giving, God says, “Don’t give me your bull!”

There is nothing in the created world that we can give to God because God already owns everything. Everything is already his, and all we have comes from him.

Giving, generosity, stewardship is not about how much we have or don’t have. It has everything to do with trusting God that God has given to us everything we have. When we start there, generosity and using God’s resources God’s way is a no brainer. Of course we honor God by using God’s resources God’s way. It’s God’s stuff anyway. We are merely caretakers of God’s resources.

I said that there is nothing in the created universe that we can give to God because God already owns everything. But there is something he doesn’t have.

Our hearts.

The only thing that God doesn’t already possess is our hearts. The only thing we can give God is our praise, thanks, and honor.

This is what God desires the most.

Don’t give God your bull! Give God your heart!