There is Only One Name You Can Drop to Get Past the Bouncer

This morning, I thought about the things I’ve seen preachers put on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. I’ve “followed” and “liked” a number of them, and I’ve read a lot of this stuff. I realized that almost all of it fell into two categories.

1. Feel-good platitudes that don’t offend anyone and certainly don’t help anyone. You know what I mean. “If you want God to stand up for u, stand up for God! #holywonderfulpeoplefullofpositivity!!!!”

2. Self-promotion. Things like, “WOW! I ALMOST GOT TO STAND NEXT TO JOEL OSTEEN!”

The pastors at my new church are constantly putting up useful scriptures and spiritual advice. John Bevere puts up a lot of stuff intended to help people get close to God. But they seem unusual.

Jesus told us that our hearts would be where our treasure lay. Many charismatic preachers like to tell us he meant that if we gave tons of money to churches, God would give us loads of cash in return. I’m not sure how they come to that interpretation. It appears Jesus was talking about generosity and the need to avoid materialism; he referred to people with eyes that were “single” or “evil,” and supposedly, this was idiomatic speech concerning generosity. And he said we were not to lay up treasures on earth.

It seems odd that preachers would use this verse to get people to give them earthly treasure, but there you go.

I don’t think the verse is about buying money from God, as the prosperity preachers do. I think it simply means that your heart will be occupied with the things that matter to you. If you treasure money, your heart will be set on money, and you will devote a lot of effort to obtaining it (and you may well end up running a megachurch and teaching false doctrine in order to get rich). If you treasure the things of God–things like generosity and mercy–you will set your heart on providing them.

I think it also refers to rewards we will receive in heaven. If your heart is on heavenly things, you will receive good things in heaven. That’s scriptural, so I have no problem with it.

When preachers tweet about their megachurch-running buddies, or about spending a few minutes in the glorious presence of famous athletes or entertainers, it shows where their treasure lies. They value promotion, admiration, and wealth. If they cared about their flocks, wouldn’t they spend their time talking about God, from scripture and experience? How is God glorified by your brief encounter with Shaquille O’Neal? Wouldn’t it be better to give people useful advice? Why not tell them to pray in tongues or to be sure to read the Bible? Why not remind them to be good to the poor? If things like that are important to you, you will talk about them.

In connection with this topic, I’m going to link to a video I saw a few days back. Tell me what you think of this.

VIDEO