The Jesus Sweepstakes
Posted on February 4th, 2005 by Reformed Pope into the Tithe, Sermons categoryThis is a quote by Pastor Rick Snow taken from his Jan 22nd sermon at CBC titled The Generosity Factor
“He (God) is literally looking, in the American Church especially, for people He can trust with thousands, millions, maybe even billions of dollars over the course of your lifetime”
I know this seems obvious so I probably don’t need to write anything, but come on; is this guy for real?
So let’s see…
God is out searching the nation for one lucky tither, and on this Superbowl Sunday he is going to show up on someone’s doorstep and surprise them with a check for $10,000.
This generous soul will then have the opportunity to turn that $10,000 into 1 million or possibly 1 billion dollars.
After receiving that check he will be asked these three questions.
1. How do you live a life that honors God?
2. What 3 things does God look for in people that He blesses?
3. What is a Triple Dog Dare?
If he gets them all right then that check will turn into 1 million dollars. (hint: The answer to every question is - Give to the church)
What he doesn’t know is that if he takes that million dollar check and signs it over to City Bible Church within 5 minutes of receiving it than he will be given 1 billion dollars.
Alright, alright, alright,
When did the ultimate goal of Christianity become parallel with the American Dream?
In listening to this sermon I was amazed with the double message. Rick has great things to say about generosity. He is absolutely right that God will bless those who give, but his message is all about what it takes to get rich. What happened to Jesus, the Cross, and Salvation.
1 Tim. 6:9 (NIV)
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
1 Tim. 6:17-18 (NIV)
It’s clear that the Bible is calling us to be generous, but it doesn’t promise riches in return. God may bless you with “millions maybe even billions of dollars”, but he may also bless you with health, joy, or possibly seven children.
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. [18] Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
Is it not enough that God has pulled us from the grasp of hell? He now has to give us the keys to His BMW?
I thank God for His gift of The Cross. Salvation is my reward.
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February 4th, 2005 at 3:49 pm
Ooh, boys, I love you dearly, and as a member of the family, I love you with all of my heart. That said, please change the scripture at the top of the blog; you know what God says about altering His words. Anyway you have made your point, now let us move on to HIGHER GROUND. When you are not attaching like Dobermans you are brilliant, and yes quite funny, but then you always are! The articles you have posted have been great and the interaction with God that you have been experiencing is fantastic. The fact that you are questioning, reading, and finding meaning for yourselves sends chills down mine spine; and I am thrilled. It is obvious by the number of hits you have had that people are interested and believe me they are not all coming to hear you bash CBC. Stop the name-calling and slinging of mud, believe me God knows who they are. Not that I do not think that some things should be brought out into the open; trust me you have done that. All I ask is for you to move on to higher things; and call off the dogs. A loving family member; and trust me I in no way want you to stop expressing yourselves, your beliefs, or your opinions; just stop leaving bite marks. I do not see how that brings us all closer to God himself and is not that the real objective.
February 4th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
Auntie M, Auntie M, is that you…?
I would feel much better about the comments if I new who was writing them (I’m sorry that I don’t get the princess caraboo reference). I do appreciate the thoughts; sometimes it’s hard for me to see what is offensive since hardly anything ever offends me.
I do not want to sling mud and hope to spend more time focusing on how great the Gospel is, but I have to admit that I’m just not that mature yet. It seems that I can focus my passion towards positive things for only a short time; you see the stuff about CBC writes itself. However, you are right, we need to find a way to move on. The problem is that I feel the time spent at CBC was more harmful to me than good. I believe the majority of my friends there are sheep who don’t know the truth from a lie; so I mock the things that they say and do to point out flaws.
As far as Damazio 3:16 goes, well….again it probably is a maturity thing, but that is my favorite part of this site. I really feel like this site has caused me to grow in many ways already; mostly it has caused me to really think about what I believe.
If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to call me or email me @ mortonjp14@hotmail.com.
February 4th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
Truth will always be truth. And the truth is that this whole charismatic movement into the prosperity gospel is nothing short of pure heresy. It’s an abomination and it hurts people; it is a very sly and deceptive practice that is a very new age brand of Christianity. It is all about the worship of self. How to use Jesus to glorify and achieve your own desires and needs, etc. etc. The body of Christ has to give this up if it is going to pull together. I know of no other way to say it, this is harmful, this is wrong, and I will pray for repentance across this nation as people start to come out of it. I will also pray for good counselors, family and friends as the lives hurt by this deception start to feel the pain of its effects.
I urge all faithful Christians viewing this to do the same for the Church of Jesus Christ in this country. Pray for this to change. Consider this as a prophetic word.
February 4th, 2005 at 5:26 pm
You know, I was with you until the very last line
“Consider this as a prophetic word.”
It can’t be a prophetic word, you weren’t enunciating the last syllable of every sentence.
February 4th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
Don’t change damizo 3:16 its gold pure comic gold.
February 4th, 2005 at 6:51 pm
I have no idea whether Princess Caraboo is actually a member of our family…
Nevertheless…
As for taking down Damazio 3:16 because of what the Bible says about altering God’s word… uh, no worries… …that quote isn’t anywhere in the Bible. Its not God’s Word, nor is it intended to be God’s Word. So nothing is being altered…
Also, I suppose you should know that our goal isn’t to bring people close to God. I mean it would be nice to say that was our goal, but really, lets be honest, thats not it. Our goal is to make people think and laugh… and not necessarily in that order.
Nevertheless, thank you for your comment.
February 4th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
Reformed Pope, you know what, your right you are too immature and that is ok, you are young and it is aloud, I love you. It is not that I think your message of the church loving money more than God is wrong; I think you are so right. However, I do think this is only a sign of the times; and thank God you realize this, and thank you for sharing your views. I know you realize that CBC is only a part of a generation of churches (mega churches as you and many call them)in this country; and it is you the present and coming generations that will help to change the church and help it to become the Bride of Christ that our Father is coming back for. I thank God for the fresh air that you bring. But let go and move on,we have all been hurt in one way or another by the humans that collect togther and call themselves a church. I have also distanced myself from the church I have been a part of from the day I gave my heart to the Lord; and truthfully I am not sure why. I to have never felt comfortable there and have never felt like I could live up to what “they” expected of me. Still I am not sure if it is me or them. I have decided to spend my time with God and His Word for now. I am coming into my own and I have found that when I am spending time with God and doing what I think he is telling me to do I never feel out of place. No, I am not auntie M, although I always look forward to when you come back to Kansas, you know who I am; if you think about it; I am the outsider looking in, observing, as I have spent my life doing. Loving you in Tahoe, we will talk about the Princess Caraboo story later.
February 4th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
OOps, Justin, forgive me for thinking that your goal was that of entertainment. Perhaps it is the opptimist in me that thought you where trying to help steer us to what God is really try to say to us. my mistake. I will leave you to your inconsequential blog and sign off.
February 4th, 2005 at 7:23 pm
oh, sorry i have just read my first sentence and realize that what i was trying to say was: forgive me for think you where trying to improve yourselves and the rest of us. i did not know that this site was purely for entertainment. now i understand and i won’t take it to heart; it is a same though you did have some good things to say. maybe i will tune in later to see what is on the next page of the sitcom. and again forgive me for thinking you were trying to help us understand God a little better, my bad.
February 4th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Since your comments always seem to come back to money, I’m curious what exactly you think about the people that God has chosen to bless (with money) so they may, in turn, give money back to the kingdom of God and (GASP!) City Bible Church, if that happens to be where you go to church?
February 4th, 2005 at 11:11 pm
And, P.S., if God decided to bless you with a BMW, would you hand back the keys?
February 5th, 2005 at 8:15 am
Honestly, Caraboo, you are absolutely right, this blog is inconsequential. People are giving it more credit than it deserves.
And I don’t really understand the BMW question. But I don’t think you read this blog. I have no problem with people being rich. I have a problem with how the church preaches about money.
But I do appreciate your thoughts. We are free to believe whatever we want.
February 5th, 2005 at 10:48 am
A jumble of thoughts:
Regarding the Damazio quote at the top of this blog……I hate to say it but after ten years of CBC
it pretty well sums up what is taught. Week after week,
month after month, and yes, year after year. If you think it can’t be that bad I assure you it is…. and worse.
I will not tell you the number of times I came home and sobbed because of my deep grief over the lack of life and truth in the message. I grieve for those who are so hungry and so needy. They need a touch from the living God and so they came to where they thought they could get that, the came to “Church”,
only to receive a self help message that they could have gotten through Amway or AAA or even a bussiness
seminar. In truth we are all that person, We come to Church to be fed truth. Real food that will take us from our present to his presence . Food that will give us vision for eternity, Food that will give us the strengh to battle the lies in this country.Instead we get crumbs… and lies. One of which is “We don’t have enough money,and we need more” That is so silly, (compare yourself to most of the world, I beleive God does,He has a world view of things)and I am sure you will agree, we have enough money, what we don’t have enough of is graditude and contentment. So I end this by saying we have a lot…. so much, please be grateful, please say thank you and mean it. Please be content, and grateful. And if you have to stive for something…….make sure it has eternal value.
God bless
February 5th, 2005 at 11:35 am
God does bless certain people with money so that they can finance mission trips and buy churches new buildings and so on. That is fantastic. If God choose to give you great wealth then that is wonderfull (if you know how to use it).
I have a friend that was recently blessed with a new BMW. I am very excited for him, and in no way do I think that he should give the keys back. He won the BMW through his job, it was because he was dilligent and hardworking and not because he tithed regularly. Still, he should thank God for blessing him. We should all thank God for everything that we have.
People, please do not think that we are anti-money. Believe me I work hard at my job and want to get paid for it, but that is not my ultimate goal in life. If God has given you the “business” gifting and you make a fortune because of it then great, but that doesn’t make you any better then the poor “prayer warrior”. God blesses each person differently, but provides for us all as we need.
My issue is not with money, but with the church telling you that you need more of it; teaching you how to live a life to honor God only so that He in return can bless you. IT IS ALL A BUNCH OF BULL.
February 5th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
February 5th, 2005 at 11:05 pm
Amen… and Amen!
February 6th, 2005 at 11:36 am
Yes, Luke 6:38
Well done. Now maybe you would like to do a little study on that scripture. You might just find that it is not talking about money.
February 7th, 2005 at 7:59 am
“Anonymous said…
Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down…”
OH MY GOD has this scripture been pounded into my head. Over and over and over and over and over and over again. Question: assuming you take this single scripture (out of an entire chapter I might add) as it’s used at city business church at face value, I’ve got to ask: GIVE TO WHO?!?! If I give away my coat to a homeless guy every morning on my way to work, and yet I always seem to have a new coat to give away, what does it have to do with the church?
(And guys don’t touch Damazio 3:16, for it is holy and doth make me giggle)
February 7th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
I’ve never heard of God giving anyone a BMW, or really anything else for that matter. God is not in the business of supernaturally creating new things to meet our needs. He quit creating stuff on day 6. If someone else felt moved with compassion or generosity to give me a BMW, then it was another human being that gave me the BMW. They can claim that God told them to do it, but they had to earn that BMW before they could give it to me. There’s no free lunch. All this nonsense about God blessing you with superhuman wealth if you tithe and give faith offerings is a terrible lie. The money has to come from somebody else’s pocket and God can’t force anyone to give you anything thing they don’t want to give. Christ told us to love each other, and sometimes we express that love through giving to each other and to the church. Giving should be an act of love, not as a means to wealth. If I expect to get something back from God or the church or anyone else, it’s no longer an act of love but of selfishness. I am no longer motivated by generosity, I’m simply an opportunist in a spiritual disguise. Maybe Pastor Rick should reexamine Matthew 5 and Luke 6 which talk about giving without expecting anything in return.
April 19th, 2007 at 8:46 am
[…] Pastor Rick Snow of Atlanta City Church spoke last week at CBC. The title of his sermon was The Generosity Factor, which struck me as odd, because I instantly recalled listening to a sermon from CBC last year by Rick Snow also called The Generosity Factor…in fact I even blogged about it. […]