Joshua Keith Craft

0:51 Here we are. Season two, episode two of The Dialog. We are asking the first question. I I I the first question that I kind of lined out as we started this season. I want to invite you to go back and listen to the introduction, the first episode of this season of uh what does it mean for us to prosper or I don't I don't I don't know what I titled it yet because I'm recording these episodes back to back. So, it's going to be titled season 2 episode one. There's a title there. And uh I I introduced what we're going to be talking about on this season. But the first question I want us to ask, the first question I want us to talk about that I think we should answer is, does God want us to be rich? And uh G.K. Chesterton, I I love what G.K. Chesterton said. He said, "I never discuss anything else except politics and religion. There's nothing else to discuss." So So one of my favorite experiences is when my conversations with friends are interrupted by complete strangers. And uh in case you didn't sense the sarcasm in my voice, of course by favorite I mean I despise it if I'm standing there talking to my friend in public that does not give you permission and uh this is an AB conversation. So see your way out. I I don't know what it is about me, but talk for me personally, I don't know if anyone else feels this way. When I talk to people in public, for some reason, there are some people that feel like that there's some kind of signal that's been sent out that I would like to hear their take on whatever issue that I happen to be discussing with my friend. Now, that that couldn't be uh further from the truth. But at the same time, this is the this is just the life that I live. And and I I I I often make this problem worse in my own life because I don't really have superficial conversations. It's hard it's hard for me to do that. Um if I'm not going to talk about it's like G.K. Chesterton.

2:42 If I'm not going to talk about things of significance, I really don't have a lot to discuss. I I I love sports. I love talking about sports. I love I love like discussing those things, but then those things always kind of draw me into some deeper thing because if I'm talking about sports, then I'm going to talk about a coach or a player or or some kind of issue that's that's happening. And if if we're not going to discuss something important, then we probably shouldn't talk at all, at least with my friends. Now, if you're a stranger, we should not talk at all. We should never talk. We should not have any conversations. You should talk to your friends and I'll talk to my friends. And if we become friends, I would love for us to have a conversation. But in public when I'm having a conversation with someone else, that's not the time for you and I to become friends. We can become friends on another day. So anyway, one one one particular time I don't work out uh at I have the benefit of having a gym, a home gym now, so I don't work out in gyms a lot anymore, but uh one particular day I was at the gym with my friend and I would go to the gym all the time and have conversations.

3:45 And usually when you go to the gym at the same time as certain people, you see certain people over and over again. And as an introvert, that's a nightmare because for some reason, again, seeing people multiple times somehow gives them permission to become your friend. Like, hey, bro, we just happen to be at the gym at the same time. That doesn't mean I want to be your friend or have a conversation with you. I'm glad that you're consistent in your workouts. I'm trying to be consistent, too. I don't really want us to have any other conversation or engagement. I'll give you a thumbs up. ask you if you're using that that piece of equipment. I'd be glad to I'd be glad to uh split sets with you or whatever, but I don't want to really have a conversation. So, anyway, uh I'm at the gym with a friend and we're talking about things that we usually discuss, life, philosophy, religion, politics, whatever else. So, my friend leaves and a stranger considered this the perfect time for them to approach me to ask a question and they said, "Hey, are you a pastor or something?" Now, I promise I'm going to finish this story, but let me let me just let me just uh digress for a second. So, technically, yes, I'm a pastor, but I don't like the box. I I think it's kind of weird how hung up how hung up people, and by people, I mean pastors and people in churches especially, or or not in church, people in general, pastors and people or people period, are hung up on the term pastor.

5:10 So in many environments to me being a pastor is like having an honorary doctorate. So I didn't go to divinity school. I have a film degree. There's a lot of people to earn the title pastor in a denomination in a certain environment. You have to have a certain degree. You have to approve some things. I don't feel like I've proved a lot. I was granted the title of pastor because I was in ministry for a long time and my parents pastor a church and they invited me into becoming a pastor. I I used to tell people that my dad didn't name me pastor, but then my dad was like, "Well, we made you a pastor." So, it's kind of the same thing. So, if you call me pastor, Josh, that's okay. I'm fine with that. My dad would prefer that people call me that. And so, um, I'm cool with it and I'm great with it and I don't ever want to make it awkward for people that love me or know me. I understand the uh I I I understand the importance of roles and titles in in any organization, but there's also for me a little bit of a strange fixation on a title like pastor in the church world.

6:13 So, um uh I wasn't going to take time to explain it, but I'll explain it. So, in in in the book of Ephesians, there's what's what we call the five-fold ministry. There's pastors, prophets, apostles, teachers, and evangelists. Okay? We don't call people teacher so and so. We don't call them evangelist so and so. Some places do. We don't call people apostle so and so. Some places do. We don't call people prophet so and so. So here's the thing. Pastor is not a job title. Pastor is a gift that God gives to the church. There are people who have a gift of pastoring. They're they're a great I am not personally I just sat here and was like a weird introvert for a second. Okay. So, I do not personally have the tools to be what I consider to be a good pastor because a pastor in terms of the gifting is highly relational. They love people. They do life with a lot of people. For me, that's just hard. So, it's hard for me to say, "Oh, yeah. I'm a pastor."

7:10 Because I don't feel like that's necessarily a gift that I have. Does that mean I don't care about people? No. I absolutely care about people. I love people so much. I want to serve people well. I love my friends, but my social energy is really low. and I don't really want people to approach me or talk to me or be with people who I don't know very well. That is not a good pastor. Okay, maybe I'm a good whatever other title you could name. But my thing is if we're just going to call people pastor in the church, we should also identify who all the apostles are and we should identify who all the teachers are and we should identify who all the prophets are and we should identify who all the evangelists are. And if that's what we're going to do, then we can have, you know, 50 pastors running around the church and 50 evangelists and 50 teachers and 50 apostles and and on and on I could go. Now, that's not necessarily how a church operates. So, pastors become a title like director or CEO. And that just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. But I digress from the whole point of what we're talking about today.

8:08 Because what I want to talk about is the question, does God want me to be rich? So this guy comes up to me and he says, "Hey, are you a pastor?" And I'm got this internal dilemma all the time about stuff like this. And I said, "Well, hey, I'm really, you know," he said, he said, "Are you a pastor or something?" And I said, "Well, I'm I'm really more of an un or something than pastor, but sure." Like, he needs to hear all this stuff from me. He's just some random guy, and I don't want to talk to him anyway. I don't even know why I'm going down this road with this guy. Okay. So I decided not to explain to him my internal dilemma on the title of pastor within American Christian subculture even though I've just sat here and explained it to you. So he said, "Where's your church?" And I I I told him the intersection where our church sits in our church, Elevate Life Church. It sits in Frisco. It's on the corner of two streets called Main and Teal. And then he and then he hit me with it, right? He says, "Oh, okay. You're one of those prosperity gospel churches." So I said, "Well, okay. What's the prosperity gospel?" And this is like a great question to ask yourself if you think about the prosperity gospel. This is a great question to ask people who like to throw out the term prosperity gospel.

9:12 Ask them what it is. So he said, "Well, um, you know, it's kind of what all these mega churches teach." And I said, "Okay, well, what all these mega churches teach?" And he couldn't really say anything. He couldn't give me any kind of level of detail. So I asked him if you I said, "Okay, you know, I'm not I'm not trying to hurt this guy. I'm not even trying to talk to him, okay? Um, but I'm not trying to be mean to him or be critical or or debate him in public. I said, ' Let me ask you a few questions. He said, 'Okay. I said, ' Do you believe in God?' He goes, 'Yeah. I said, ' Do you want to make more money? Sure, I want to make more money. Do you want to win in life? Do you want to you, you know, be healthy? Do you want to be successful in your career? However you define success. He's like, well, yeah, of course. I mean, I'd love I'd love all that stuff. So, okay, if you believe in God, do you think that that's something God would want for you? He goes, well, you know, I I think so. I think God would want that for me. me and I said, "Well, it sounds like you believe in the prosperity gospel." So, that may or may not be true, but I just smiled and walked away. So, um, you might be sitting here saying, "That's not very pastoral of you, and you're right. I completely agree."

10:14 Hence, all the explanation I just gave a second ago. But people take the term like prosperity gospel, okay? They create their own definition. This is what people do with everything. But I want to talk about prosperity gospel. They take the term like prosperity gospel. They create their own definition and then they apply that definition to whatever they assume fits within it. Everybody does this. This isn't just some people. This isn't just ignorant people. This isn't just people we don't like. Everybody does this. Like when I say the word liberal, you have a certain definition of that. That's not a dictionary definition. It's your definition of that. When I say the term Christian, when I say the term white person or black person or CEO or father or mother, you have a definition of that that's not written in a dictionary somewhere. It's a def it's a definition that you've created. It's a box you've created that you've decided to group things in. Now, that's just how human beings operate. We categorize stuff.

11:08 Everybody does this, but that doesn't make the definition accurate. Okay? And it doesn't make the definition true. You might have a certain definition for a father or a certain definition of a president or a certain definition of anything and that doesn't make it true. We don't just do this with an idea like prosperity gospel. We do this with everything. We use terms like truth, you know, think about truth, think about love, think about kindness, and think about justice. We talk about this stuff as if there's like some common shared definition when the truth is we all have different definitions. And if I asked you to define what justice is, you would probably have a hard time defining it. If I asked you to define what kindness was. You'd probably have a hard, hey, tell me what kindness is. Um, uh, you know, being kind, you can't use the word kindness in the definition of kindness. So, what is truth? What is love? What is kindness? What is justice? This is the problem. Without defining these terms and agreeing to the definition, we can't discuss them, agree on them, or pursue them. So, this is kind of the point I'm making to the guy that with all due respect, I didn't care about in the gym because I was just trying to finish a workout. Okay. So, when Socrates though, so so I I want you to before I get into Socrates, I want you to understand something. We all have definitions of things and if you and I are going to talk about these things, the first thing we have to do is agree on the definition. So, what is the prosperity gospel? What is truth? What is success?

12:39 What is a family? What is this? What is that? If we're going to discuss it, let's agree on the definition. So, when Socrates would begin his dialogues, he would most often try to establish the definition of terms that he and his conversational partner or inter interlocutor as they write would discuss. So, this is a really good way to have a productive conversation. So first we need to define what prosperity is not in a cultural way but in a biblical way. So when I talk about on this podcast with this episode let's you and me come to a place where we have a definition of what prosperity is. Okay. So historically there's been a lot of bad teaching about prosperity. And if I'm honest it's probably more bad than good. But just because prosperity has been taught poorly doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. And it doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't talk about it. So there's a lot of bad teaching also about heaven and hell, but we're all going to end up in one of those places someday. So the difference there or the let me say it this way.

13:48 There is a key difference between what the truth is and how effectively the truth is communicated. The truth is still true even if it's poorly taught or understood. And like gravity, we misunderstand truth at our own peril. If someone poorly explained the law of gravity to me and I decide to jump off a cliff, would it be their fault or my fault for believing them? So before I decide something based on a truth, it's really wise for me to make sure that what's quote unquote true is actually true. So there's a lot of things, let's just talk, we're talking specifically about prosperity in this episode. There's a lot of things that have shaped our definitions of prosperity. So these definitions are multifaceted and there's they're also uh a combination of seemingly infinite factors. We have our environment, we have our culture, our religious background, our experience, our age. The these are just some of the things that have influenced how we define prosperity. And in any culture, there's a lot of things that we've decided that are true just because they've been told to us. So there's a way you think about money because your parents told you how to think about money. There's a way you think about rich people or poor people because of how your culture talked about that.

15:07 There there's a way you think about prosperity. There's a definition that you have to that based on whatever culture or environment or or background that you were in. It's like infinite things that have informed your definition of things. So we've decided that these things are true just because they've been told to us. So environments and this is this is even more uh pervasive let's say in in environments like the church where we place such a high regard on the opinions and and teaching of authority figures. So in Acts 17 the Bible tells the story of a group of people called the Bereans. In in Acts 17, the Bible 17 verse 11, the Bible says this. And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica. And they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. So, my greatest encouragement, and I'm just following up on something I said on the first episode, my greatest encouragement to you and to myself is to strive to be a Berean person. Be open-minded and also curious at the same time. Listen to new information eagerly, but also don't trust it. Don't just trust what people say. Listen and be curious and ask questions, but don't just trust it. It's a great practice to be open to what a person's saying. It's an equally great practice to question what they say. And I want to invite you intellectually to live in the tension of that. So whatever a person tells you should be weighed against the truth of scripture because human beings regardless of their education or status are sure to be wrong. like a 100% chance of being wrong when you when you space it out over all of the humans, but Scripture is not. So, we should be berean in our assessment of of what is said and taught to us about everything, including prosperity. So, people are notoriously bad at this. You've heard me you've heard me talk about this before, but Christians and pastors are really no different. Uh, and most looking at most recent statistics, only 6% of Christians claim to have a biblical worldview. So, if you're listening to this and you're a Christian, there's a 94% chance you don't have a biblical worldview. A 94% chance you don't know what you're talking about. You don't believe according to the Bible. Here's the other thing that's sad. Only 37% of pastors have a biblical world. So, 63% the vast majority of pastors don't have a biblical worldview. What does that mean?

17:44 Most Christians and their leaders have unverified and false beliefs. In other words, 94% of Christians are blind and 63% of their leaders are blind, too. So, it's reasonable, I think, to assume that pastors would be required to have a biblical worldview to be a pastor. Now, some do, but the qualifications for being a pastor vary widely from church to church and denomination to denomination. If you wanted to go start a church today and call yourself a pastor, there's nothing stopping you from doing that. And so a pastor or just a normal Christian, I'm not going to get back on the pastor thing. I I promise. But whether you're a pastor or a normal Christian, you're a human being. And if you have a biblical worldview, you find yourself in the minority. 94% of Christians don't don't believe truth. 63% of pastors don't teach truth.

18:40 They're teaching their opinion as truth. And this is not a modern problem, okay? This is not a Christian problem. This is a human problem. Most people are more concerned with their opinion than they're concerned with truth. And this problem is, I think, made worse in the modern world because it's easier than ever to confuse opinions for truth. Because influence in our world is credibility. I can trust what you're saying is true because I look at your follower count. I look at how much money you make. I look at how successful you seem to be on the surface. And also, well, I see that. But then there's a second thing that's become true is or or there's a second thing that we navigate. So the first thing is we mistake influence for credibility. The second thing is more than ever it's easy for us to think something is true because we agree with it. Well, what makes that easy is is that one of the key aspects of modern culture is how easy it is. So, what makes it easy for us to turn our beliefs into truth and not truth into our beliefs is how easy it is for us to create echo chambers that agree with you. There's an algorithm that governs your social media feed that knows exactly what you want to see and it serves up what you want to see in the way that you want to see it. If you are a conservative and you want to be outraged at liberals, you will scroll through your Instagram feed, your TikTok feed, your Facebook, whatever, all these different social media things and you will see things to get outraged at.

20:07 If you're on the other side of the equation and you want to get mad at stupid conservatives, then you're going to scroll through your feed and you're going to see the same things. And so it's it's it's never been easier to only hear what confirms the beliefs that we already have. So most most systems and algorithms that we interact with every day are created for for the purpose of showing us the content that we want to see. So, it used to be really easy for you and I to walk outside of the doors of our house and hear something or be taught something or navigate a dissenting opinion. Now, we have to search them out. And who wants to spend their time searching out things they don't agree with? Again, this is what I want to invite you into. Wrestling with something that you might you might fundamentally upfront disagree with. But here's the thing. Here's the odds that I'm taking. There's a 94% chance that you're wrong. If you're a pastor and you're listening to this, there's a 63% chance that you're wrong. There's also a 94% chance that I'm wrong or I'm a pastor. This is where I Okay, I'll be a pastor because my chances go from 94% chance of being wrong to 63% chance of being wrong. So, the odds are that I'm wrong, too. And God doesn't agree with either one of us. God's concern is not my agreement. His concern is my transformation. So to be transformed, Romans 12:2, allow God to transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think. To be transformed, I have to allow my human mind that disagrees with God, even if I'm a pastor, to wrestle with divine thinking that's higher and better than mine. So the question I have to ask myself, the question you have to ask yourself is, can I admit to myself that my opinions and beliefs may be flawed and even false? Can I admit to myself that I don't have the full picture? Can I admit to myself that it could be the case that what I've been taught and what I think I might know or or what I think I know might not be fully true. One of my all-time favorite quotes, it's it's commonly attributed to Mark Twain. It's it ain't what you know for sure that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. So, if you're a human being like me, there are some things that you think you know for sure that just ain't so. So, I don't know if I'm ever going to fully solve this problem, but uh you know, truth might might not be something that I ever fully ascertain. And I might not ever become fully wise, but it's something that's worth pursuing. So I might not fully arrive there, but I'm going to be closer than I was at the start of the journey. So the first thing I have to admit is my definition of prosperity is probably wrong. And we're starting the conversation with a definition of terms.

22:57 So back to Socrates, what is prosperity? Jim Baker, he's a pastor and an author. It's 1K, not two. RIP Jim Bakker with two K's . A pastor and author. He he wrote a book called When Heaven Invades Your Finances. And he asked this question in the book. If God had a plan for your money, what would it be? And there's really three answers to that question. Would would God's plan for your money be less than enough? Would it be for you to have just enough? Or would it be for you to have more than enough? So, what if it was about more than money? If God had a plan for your emotional, your mental, or your spiritual, or your physical life, would he want you to have just enough? Would he want you to have less than enough? Would he want you to have more than enough? The way you and I answer this question will determine how we think about prosperity in every aspect of our life. Does God want me to struggle with less than enough? What do I believe about? Does God want me to barely get by or does God want me to have more than enough in every area of my life? What what do I believe? Because that that really does matter. And we're going to see h how that matters. And and as we think about this question, let's talk about money again.

24:07 So the Bible talks about finances and money more than it talks about love, sin, faith, and even salvation. So here's the top 10 most mentioned script most mentioned topics in scripture. The number one most mentioned topic in scripture is God's sovereignty and his glory. Over tw It's mentioned over 12,000 times in the Bible. Prophecy is the second most mentioned topic in scripture. 28% of the Bible is is is prophetic is prophecy. What's the third most mentioned topic in scripture? If you listen to last week's episode, it's money and possessions. The fourth most mentioned topic that or sorry, money and possessions. They're they're mentioned over 2,300 times. Justice and righteousness. Justice appears Justice and righteousness are number four. Justice appears over 420 times. Righteousness appears 500 plus times. That I had to combine those to get to 900 900 plus. Law and commandments. 20% of the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah, the Pentateuch, whatever you call it. 20% of the Pentateuch is law and commandments. Uh this is the fifth most mentioned topic in scripture. It's mentioned over 800 times. Sin and redemption are the sixth most me most mentioned topic 750 plus times. Worship and sacrifice 400 plus Or sorry, worship and sacrifice 738 plus times. Worship is mentioned. There's 400 plus sacri references to sacrifice and there's 338 mentions of praise. Plus number eight, covenants and divine promises 359 plus mentions. Faith and obedience are mentioned about 300 plus times. Believe occurs 200 plus times.

25:49 Obedience occurs 170 plus times. And then the kingdom of God is the 10th most mentioned topic. It's mentioned over 100 120 times. Now, this is highly dependent based on the version of the Bible that you're using and all of that, but I think this is a give us gives us a rough idea that everything else is a little bit thousands of times. So, let me let me go back and just kind of give you an overview. God's sovereignty and glory 12,000 times. It's really important to understand that. Obviously, prophecy over 8,000 times. Really important to understand that. Money and possessions 2,300 times. Those are the only three things that are mentioned thousands of times or over a thousand times in the Bible. So these are probably the top three things for us to understand. And um so prosperity is not just about money. It's it's or let me let me say it this way. Life, okay, is not just about money and neither is prosperity. So that's that's the first part of the definition we have to get to is God's not just he's talking about money, but he's not just talking about money. So if we're going to talk about prosperity, we have to define what prosperity is.

26:58 Money and possessions are the third most mentioned topic in scripture. It's not all about prosperity is not all about money, but a big part of prosperity is money. Just like a big part of the Bible is money. The Old Testament, Old Testament law has more laws about money than it does anything else. So God seems to care a whole lot about money and possessions, more than we probably think that he does. And so just because prosperity is about more than money doesn't mean that prosperity doesn't include money. So let's let's start with the new let's start with the Old Testament. So I'm going to walk you through the Old Testament definition of prosperity. So there's four main words used throughout the Old Testament for prosperity. Of course, there's more words that are used, but these four words cover most of the mentions throughout the the Old Testament. And overwhelmingly, the Old Testament mentions not just spiritual wealth and prosperity, but physical prosperity, including financial prosperity.

28:04 So, I want to talk about the sources of these definitions so you can go look them up. I I want you to uh I want you to go look these up. I want you to get these books. I want you to read them for yourself and know that I'm not making this stuff up. And this is not something I just came up with. And this is not even this is me trying my best to not interp just give my interpretation. I'm not trying to seem smart, but I want to give you the information so you can find it for yourself and see if what I'm saying is right. I' I'd be glad for you to check my work. So the Brown D. So look up, you know, remember this part of the podcast and come back to it or take notes right now. And these are the Bible dictionaries that I'm getting these definitions from. The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English lexicon, the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, the Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, Strong's concordance, the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance, and the Complete Word Study Dictionary of the Old Testament. So, this is just for the Old Testament for this particular part. So, the most mentioned, and again, if you want to check my work or see if what I'm saying is true, go back and look. The most mentioned word throughout the Old Testament, number one most mentioned word throughout the Old Testament for prosperity is the Hebrew word tova. It's mentioned somewhere around 852 times in verses like Genesis 50:20, Exodus 18:19, Deuteronomy 28:11, 1st Samuel 25:30, 2 Samuel 2 Samuel 7:28, 1st Kings 8:66, 2 Kings 20:19, Nehemiah 9:25, Psalms 23:6, Psalms 31:19. There's more, but I'll just give you those for now that you can look up. Tova means good in five general areas. It means number one practical, economic or material good. The second thing it means is abstract goodness like desirability, pleasantness and beauty.

29:55 Third, it means quality or expense. Fourth, it means moral goodness and fifth it means philosophical good. So that's the first most mentioned word for prosperity in the Old Testament. The second most mentioned word for prosperity in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word chayil. It's mentioned around 242 times in verses. And I'll give you the verses. You can look them up. I'm going to give them to you fast, but you can slow down the podcast and write them down and look them up. Exodus 18:21, Deuteronomy 8:18. And I'll show you some of these. Joshua 6:2, Judges 6:12, Ruth 2:1, 1st Samuel 14:48, 1st Kings 11:12, 1st Chronicles 12:8, 2 Chronicles 26:11, Proverbs 31:10. Those are just some of the examples you can look at. And chayil means physical wealth and strength and influence to have and grow your dominion. Then the third most mentioned word is baraka. Baraka is mentioned 71 times.

30:50 These passage examples are there for Baraka and I'm just I I know this is maybe wearing you out. You feel like you're in school, but I'm giving you the receipts before I talk about this stuff or or we have to define it. I'm giving you the receipts. So passage examples for Baraka Genesis 12:2-3 Genesis 17:6-8 Genesis 24:35 Genesis 26:12 Exodus 23:25 Leviticus 26:3-13 Deuteronomy 7:13-15 Deuteronomy 28:1-14 Deuteronomy 30:9 Joel 2:24 Haggai 21:19 Malachi 3:10 Ezekiel 34:26 Baraka Malachi 3:10 is where the Bible talks talks about blessing us for tithing. This word means to endue with power or power for success, prosperity, fertility, fruitfulness, and longevity.

31:47 So the fourth and final for like our purposes today is tsalach. tsalach's mentioned about 68 times verses. Genesis 24:21, Genesis 24:40, Genesis 39:2, Genesis 39:3, Genesis 39:23, Joshua 1:8, Judges 14:6, Judges 14:19, Judges 15:14, 1st Samuel 10:6, tsalach's meaning is to thrive, to be well, to accomplish satisfactory all the good that was intended, to succeed because of God's favor. So, if you're wondering if the Bible talks about prosperity and prospering you practically and prospering you physically and prospering you with money and possessions, the most mentioned words in the Old Testament in Hebrew all have to do with practical wealth.

32:40 So, that's just the Old Testament, though. Let's talk about the New Testament. And then we're going to we're going to get we're going to get practical, but I want to make sure that you understand the depth of this. in the Bible. So, how does the New Testament speak about prosperity? Again, these these aren't the only words used, but they're some of the major words. So, let me give you let me give you the tools that I use to get these definitions. Okay? the Greek English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature, the Greek Lexicon, Strong's concordance, the Mounce Greek dictionary, the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the Blue Letter Bible, and the Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament. So, the first word, and again, I care about researching this stuff, so you can take my word for it, or you can double check my work. The reason why I'm giving you all this information is so you can double check it for yourself and make sure that I'm not making up what I'm saying as we define what prosperity means. And I promise we're going to get to a practical definition. You know, the great thing is you can fast forward some of this stuff if you're not interested.

33:41 So the first word is makarios. makarios in Greek. It's used about 50 times in uh Matthew 5:3-11, Luke 11:28, John 20:29, Acts 20:35, Romans 4:7, James 1:12, Revelation 1:3, Revelation 14:13, Revelation 16:15, and Revelations 19:9. Now, I I feel like I probably shouldn't have shouldn't have given you all these references, but I guess I did it with the Old Testament, so now I'm going to do it the New Testament. But here's what makarios means. makarios means blessed, fortunate, favored, or truly welloff in a practical sense. In classical Greek, the way they define makarios is the gods or wealthy people who live above the worries and cares of life. This is the number one most mentioned Greek word in the New Testament for prosperity. It is a person or a god, a wealthy person who lives above the normal worries and cares of life. It describes a person who is in a favorable position because of divine blessing.

34:48 The second word in Greek is ploutos. ploutos is used about 22 times in uh passages like Matthew 13:22, Mark 4:19, Luke 12:15, Romans 2:4, Romans 11:33, 2 Corinthians 8:2, Ephesians 1:7, Philippians 4:19, Colossians 2:2, and 1 Timothy 6:17. Now, here's what ploutos means. It means riches, wealth, abundance or fullness. And it means both material and spiritual wealth. Third word, the third most mentioned word is eulogia. Eulogia is used about 16 times in the New Testament. And the word family, so the the all the the words that come from this root is used like 58 times. So it appears in passages like Romans 15:29, 1 Corinthians 10:16, 2 Corinthians 9:5, Galatians 3:14, Ephesians 1:3, Hebrews 6:7, Hebrews 12:17, 1st Peter 3:9, Luke 24:53, Acts 3:25.

35:50 Done with the references. Thank God. But you can check these. I want you to check them. I want you to look at them if you're taking this journey with us. It's important that you see this. Eulogia means blessing, benefit, bounty, praise, or generosity. It's not the idea of good luck. It's not circumstantial fortune. It's God-given favor that produces holistic well-being. So, I need to take a drink. Now, let's get back to practical. If you skip past that, thank you for skipping past. Thank you for believing. Go back and listen to that whenever you can. But here's the thing. When the New Testament talks about, so we've talked about Old Testament. When the New Testament talks about prosperity, it doesn't just flatten prosperity into money. It's not just money, but it also doesn't eliminate material position, provision. It doesn't eliminate money as a part of prosperity. Prosperity, especially in the New Testament, is bigger than wealth, but not less than provision.

36:53 So, I want you to think about that statement, the sentence that I just said. It's bigger than wealth but not less than provision. So it includes blessing, favor, generosity, sufficiency, abundance, fruitfulness, and eternal inheritance. Biblical prosperity in the New Testament is not simply having more. It's having what God calls good, receiving what he gives, and using it in a way that serves his purpose. Now these definitions and I want to simplify them but I want to give you the long version first because they contradict the all these definitions talk to each other and they work with each other and they also contradict a lot of what we've been taught and assume about what God says about money, what the Bible says about money and how we should live. God's definition of prosperity, again definition of terms. God's definition of prosperity is about more than material wealth. But it's also not either or. It's both. And material possessions are included in every they're they're included in God's definition of prosperity. So in both the Old and the New Testaments, God intends for us to have more than we need in every area of our life, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, and financially. God's definition of prosperity is prosperity in every way that we can imagine.

38:20 And the reason why I give you these verses is because I want you to read them. Look at the context of them. I jumped around the whole Bible. Search the scripture for more words. Exegete the original words. Look up the Hebrew. Look at the Greek. You can do all of that yourself and see for yourself what they mean. So the words God uses for prosperity are not solely spiritual. They're also practical. And in their original context, these these words are used to both describe tangible and intel in intangible wealth. Now, what I want to do is simplify, let's let's for the sake of our conversation, okay, for the sake of this podcast, for the sake of you taking the journey with me and not tuning me out because I'm not just trying to take you to school. I'm not a professor. Like I said, I have a film degree. I'm barely a pastor. So, let's take a 30,000 foot view of these definitions and and let's or or or let's let's take a let's zoom out and get a little bit of clarity and simplify our definitions of these terms and let's do it for the Old Testament and the New Testament. So, in first let's start with the Old Testament.

39:27 What's the Old Testament definition of prosperity? What's a simple Old Testament definition? Well, in Proverbs 10:22, the Bible shares us shares with us this perspective. It says, "The blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow to it." God adds no sorrow to the blessing of to his blessing. So, does God really bless us with riches? The Hebrew word that's used in Proverbs 10 is only used 17 times in the Old Testament. So, it didn't make my list, but I think it's a good definition. The Hebrew word is ashar which means to be or to become wealthy in money, possessions or influence. The simple meaning of ashar is to become rich. This word is specifically used. It's not even just it's not even used to just describe spiritual wealth. It's specifically used to describe material wealth. So the blessing of the Lord makes you materially wealthy is what the Bible says.

40:26 So God wants you to be rich. That's the answer to the question that this podcast is all about. Proverbs 13:22, the Bible says, "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous." The Hebrew word we talked about chayil. That's the word chayil . It means physical wealth, strength, and influence to have and grow your dominion. So, we see this played out all throughout the Old Testament in the lives of the great people that we admire. In Job, Job 42, uh, Job 42:10, the Bible says Job, the Lord restored Job's prosperity and doubled his former possessions. Abraham in Genesis 13, the Bible says, Abraham had become very wealthy. Isaac, Genesis 26 says, he became rich and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. Jacob in Genesis 30 says, the man grew exceedingly prosperous. talking about Jacob in 1st Chronicles 29, David says this, "Now with all my ability, I have made provision for the house of God all in abundance." David says this in the context of giving what is estimated to be a $6.5 billion offering in today's money to start the construction of the temple in Jerusalem. There's only one Old Testament main character, so to speak, that I could find in my research that wasn't described as wealthy, and this was Elijah. He was a nomad for most of his life. But even though he was a nomad, God literally fed him supernaturally.

41:59 So the Hebrew words in the Old Testament unmistakably mean physical and material wealth. And in the Old Testament, financial and physical wealth are seen as gifts from God and an expression of his personal blessing and favor on a family generationally. If a person, let me let me say it this way. The old the way the Old Testament presents material wealth, money, prosperity is if a person does things God's way, they will be financially rich. Not just rich in an intangible way. It's important that we understand this, but rich in tangible ways. Deuteronomy 8:18 says it this way. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. So God gives you the power to get wealth as a confirmation of his promise to you is what the Old Testament says. And that word chayil is the same word used in Proverbs 13 I read just a second ago. the it's it's material wealth, but it's also the ability to grow your dominion. So, in the world of the Old Testament, one of the signs that a Hebrew, an Israelite, a child of God, was living life God's way was their material wealth. Now, this doesn't explain the wealth of wicked people in the ancient world, and it doesn't explain the wealth of wicked people today. But it also doesn't mean that if we're um if we're not wealthy that God's not working in our lives. So, if you don't have money and you're a Christian and you feel bad about that and you feel like God's not blessing you, just just stick with me. We're going to continue to define prosperity.

43:43 It's just important that we see this first. We're just defining it. We're going to walk through all the imple all the implications as we go through this podcast. So, what does it mean to prosper? It's not about comparison. So, a lot of times we we define wealth in in in in a as a point of comparison to someone else. What it means to prosper in the Old Testament is about sufficiency. And I it's really important that you remember this word sufficiency as we navigate through talking about what we're talking about on this podcast. But Deuteronomy 8 gives us clarity. It's God that gives us the power to create wealth. It's not God just gives you wealth. As a human being living on the planet who God has a plan for your life. God has given you the ability the power to create wealth. The about the ability to take dominion, the ability to grow your income, the ability to develop skills, the the ability to develop talents. Prosperity wealth doesn't just show up. This is where some Christians are overly spiritual and they just pray that God's going to bless them and they don't work hard and they don't develop skills and they don't do anything to go out and cultivate the dominion that God's called them to take.

44:55 We actually have a responsibility and this is true in the Old Testament and you can look at Judaism. You can look at how Jews today but also ancient Jews approach this. We have a responsibility to work for the for the wealth that we want to create. We have a part to play in the cultivation of prosperity. chayil isn't about being given something. It's not just about that. That there is a there is a part of that that's an inheritance, but it's about the power to create something. So, a good man according to Proverbs 13 leaves their children the power to create wealth and the power to take dominion. The ability to take dominion and become prosperous is a learned skill. This is what God's trying to teach us in the Old Testament is that God has given us the power to create wealth and we can learn the skills to create wealth. Isaac became rich. Jacob became wealthy. This is a part of the process of living life God's way. In some families, this has become a lost art, including mine. in in one of their last conversations, my my grandpa said to my dad, he said, "I just hope I don't live long enough to see the money run out." So, he left my dad and his siblings nothing. He he didn't fail in life. That doesn't mean he failed. It doesn't mean he he wasn't a godly man. He had a full career as a police police officer.

46:20 He became a vice president and ran a trucking company. And his pension, my grandmother's in her 90s, his pension still supports her to this day. But he didn't think about inheritance. He thought about making sure that he just had enough for him. That's not wealth. It's God who gives you the power to create wealth. But wealth is not just for you. Wealth is about what you pass down and what you teach to your children. But it was it was more that that was really a lot more actually than what my mom's dad was able to do. The wealth that my grandpa had, my my mom's dad had at the end of his life was about $100,000 in home equity. And a few years before he died, he cashed out all that equity in a reverse mortgage and spent the money. He not only my grandmother on that side too is still alive. He not only left her with nothing, he actually prepaid for his funeral, burial plot, and casket, but just for himself. Not my grandmother, who he was uh married to for more than 70 years. My mom and her sisters support my grandmother and take care of her needs themselves to this day. And if my mom's dad could have found a way to pass down debt as an inheritance, he would have. And I know that sounds critical. I don't mean that to be critical because I think that's better than most families. But I don't come from a family with significant generational wealth. This is a description of reality. Your reality probably looks the same.

47:48 It's not the same re and this is the tension point that we have with prosperity is that reality is not the same as what scripture teaches. So we stop believing in scripture. So I don't see healing happen. So I don't believe that healing is real. I don't see Christians prosper. I don't see prosperity in my own life. I don't see my parents prosper. So, I don't think God really cares about prosperity. Regardless of what my re reality is, and this is important that we understand this, our reality isn't the same as God's plan. What is God's plan according to the Old Testament definition of prosperity? It's for you and I to pass down to our children the power and ability to take dominion. That doesn't mean millions of dollars. So, let's say it this way. A good person wins in life and teaches their children's children to win in life. A godly man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Inheritance, chayil , the ability and power to to to take and to grow your dominion. Old Testament prosperity, simple Old Testament definition, winning in life through living life God's way. And it's the blessing and favor of God on you and your family generationally. Plutarch who was a um was a politician and and kind of a philosopher. He said it this way.

49:08 Those who govern must first achieve governance of themselves, straighten out their souls and set their character aright and then they should assimilate their subjects to themselves. For the one who is tripping over cannot straighten up someone else. Nor can the ignorant person teach. The disorderly established order. The disorganized organize. The ungoverned govern. So here's here's here's what he's saying by saying that we cannot show our children to do something we have never done. One of the reasons why you don't have wealth or maybe you don't have success in your life. I don't know you, right? But one of the potential reasons why you don't have wealth or success in your life is simply because no one has maybe showed you how to do that. If if we've never win, if we've never won in life, like if you've never conquered anything, if you never overcome your emotions and become emotionally healthy, you don't teach your children how to do that because you can't teach someone to take dominion when you don't know how to take dominion. We can't show our children how to do something we've never done. This is why the inheritance of a godly man is the ability to have and grow dominion.

50:12 Because if you are successful, one of the things that comes with success is you can teach other people the principles behind becoming successful. It is God. So go back. It's God who gives you the power to create wealth. It's God who gives you the power to create dominion. And when you learn how to take dominion, you pass down these life lessons to your children forever. I'm at the place I started last last week's podcast by talking about kind of the place I was at. The reason why I'm able at 39 to navigate my life the way I navigate my life is because I saw my dad do it. If my dad had not fought for health, fought for prosperity, fought for a good marriage, fought to be a good parent, fought to be a good husband, there would have been no way for him to help me. And this is the dynamic that most of us live in every day all the time generationally. So the question you have to ask yourself or let me let me say this before I ask the question to remind you the definition of prosperity in the Old Testament. Let's give our simple definition. Winning in life through living God's way and the blessing of favor and favor of God that's on you and your family generationally. So ask yourself this question. Are you currently winning emotionally? Are you winning mentally?

51:25 Are you winning physically, spiritually, and financially? It's if you are, it's because you've learned the skills necessary to win. And if you've learned these skills, you can teach them to other people. But if a person's not winning, the reason why they're not winning is because they haven't learned the skills to win. It's it's literally that simple. It's not a lack of opportunity, especially in the Western world where we have free will. It's it's not a it's not a the Bible says, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." So if I don't know the skills that I need to win and I'm not winning and I never win, how can I teach someone else to win? This is the inheritance of a godly man. A godly man understands that he has the power to create wealth. He cultivates the power to create wealth. Cultivates the necessary skills and then he teaches those skills to his children who teach them to their children. The way our children learn to win is by watching us win. If your children, if my children never see me win, they will have a hard time winning themselves. One of the reasons why maybe if you have a hard time winning, and again, I'm talking to a large general audience here. One of the reasons you might potentially have a hard time winning is because you've had really bad examples in your life. So, the best place to start is to go get better examples, is to go find people that are winning and go, I'm going to do what the winning people do, not what the losing people do. Both of my parents come from families who did not win. And both of my parents have won. Not because they're special, not because God has done more for them than he's just wanted to do for other people. It's because they've learned the skills necessary to win. I'm winning more than a lot of other people maybe I'm around comparatively or I'm winning more than people in my family have won historically because I've learned the skills necessary to win. No one taught my dad's dad and my mom's dad did not teach them this, but my dad taught me this. And that's the inheritance that he's left me is not money. It's not homes. It's not property. It's the ability to take dominion. And this is the biggest problem actually with generational wealth. When you just pass down money, the money always goes away. Your responsibility, if you're a person of significant means and you're listening to this, biblically, the requirement that you have with your children to give them an inheritance is not the money that you give. Give them whatever money that you give, but you need to make sure that they learn all of the skills, work ethic, grit, values, everything else that it took for you to become a person who took dominion. This is the problem that a lot of people face is they hand down money, but they don't hand down the values. They hand down money, but they don't hand down the skills. They hand down money, but they don't hand down the resiliency and the grit. And so to to raise a good family, those are the family values that you hand down. That's the inheritance. The inheritance is not money. The inheritance is all of the stuff that cultivated the money. It's the skills. That's what God gives us is the power and the ability to create skills to develop skills that create wealth. The power to create prosperity in most families is not modeled or passed down, but it's supposed to be. So my parents didn't allow that to limit their own life. For my entire life, they've modeled taking dominion in every way, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, financially, everything. So my personal inheritance in the Old Testament sense is not just something I'm granted in a will. It's the skill I have observed and been trained and and been trained in to become successful.

55:02 So, in in the New Testament, there's a there's a simple New Testament definition for prosperity. So, that's the Old Testament. And I I know you might need to like stop and like take a take a beat and and think about that after all that, but we're going to get into the we're going to get into the New Testament now. So, that's the simple Old Testament definition. It's deep simple New Testament definition. So, 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9. I frequently tell people to read these chapters. These are insightful chapters in the New Testament on the subject of prosperity, especially material wealth. 2 Corinthians 8 starts with Paul talking about raising money to support the church in Jerusalem. So big question, why does the church need support in Jerusalem in the New Testament world? In a Jewish city like Jerusalem at the time of the early church, Christians faced severe persecution from religious leaders and society and uh they were they were ostracized.

56:02 They lost jobs. They lost business opportunities and their social standing. So in acts 8 verse 1-3 you can read this. In Acts 12:1-5 you can read this. And about 10 years before the writing of 2 Corinthians, during the reign of the emperor Claudius, there was a severe famine in and around Jerusalem that continued to create issues for the local economy. So that's in Acts 11. You can read that the top 1% of the population in Jerusalem, the Roman elites, controlled the most fertile land and the non- elite had heavy burdens of rent and taxes. And in addition, most of the church were already poor before joining the church and they relied on the church for support. And then unlike uh most of the churches in gentile cities like Corinth or or Philippi, Jerusalem didn't have wealthy benefactors, patrons or givers and that made them reliant on outside aid. So that's the context of of first and second Corinthians. And so Paul, especially in 2 Corinthians, he's talking mostly to a wealthy church who has stopped giving. And he starts by talking to them about the church in a place called Macedonia. And he says these in 2 Corinthians 8:2, he says, "These people are being tested by many troubles and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy which is overflowed in rich generosity."

57:22 So Paul goes on to tell them that they had made a commitment. He tells the Corinthians after he talks about the Macedonians, he tells them that they had made a commitment to give over a year ago and he encourages them to finish what they had started. So, I want to I you know, now's a good time, I think, to pause the podcast maybe after we talked about all that Old Testament stuff and went to that level of depth. But I want to encourage you to read 2 Corinthians 8:9 for yourself and and understand exactly what Paul says. I'm not going to read the whole chapter. I'm not just going to sit here and do a teach on the whole chapter, but Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:8-11. He says it this way, and this is where our definition of New Testament prosperity is going to come from. He says, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he is distributed freely.

58:18 He's given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be 2 Corinthians 9:11. It's one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. So Paul gives us this really simple definition of prosperity in verse eight. He says, "All sufficiency in all things at all times so that you may abound in every good work." The Greek word that Paul uses for sufficiency is uh the word autarkeia. And autarkeia means self-sufficient or content. So this word is is generally used to describe contentment as it relates to everything. just being content about your life, being content emotionally, being content mentally, physically, spiritually, and uh financially. Paul's not just talking about being content though for the sake of yourself. That's the thing to remember. He says having all sufficiency, being being content about everything in all at all times so that you can do something so that you can abound in every good work. It's not just about us. It gives us sufficiency from God or New Testament prosperity gives us the ability to do good for other people. Verse 11 says we're going to be enriched in every way so that we can be generous in every way. Paul uses the word ploutizō which comes from the word ploutos that we talked about earlier.

1:00:03 If you don't remember that from this specific episode, it means both spiritual and material wealth. So Paul says, "You will be enriched in every way. You will be given spiritual and material wealth in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God." 2 Corinthians 9:11. It's true that God wants us to be rich. And this is where the New Testament adds on to the Old Testament. God wants us to be rich, but there's a purpose in the wealth as well as a a desired outcome from God. So, what's clear is that God wants to make us rich in two ways. He wants to make us rich in eternity and he wants to make us rich on this side of eternity. But it's not just about our needs being met. It's about us having more than what we need so that we can meet other people's needs. So, this gives us the simple New Testament definition of prosperity. I have everything I need and I have enough to meet other people's needs.

1:01:09 But then we got to define something else. And I promise we're almost done on uh on these the the the journey of of definitions that uh that we've been on. So what does it mean for us to have a need? Let's look specifically at money. So the problem with our thinking about money is that we primarily look at financial wealth through the lens of comparison. And I and I said that a little bit ago, but the first comparison that we make is between today and tomorrow. So we think in terms of our our first comparison is we think in terms of our ability to well we think in terms of our ability to do something today versus the ability that we want to have tomorrow. What can we do today and what do we want to be able to do tomorrow? Like today I can stay home and I can eat a sandwich.

1:02:01 Tomorrow I want to be able to eat a steak. If a billionaire only has a billion dollars, but they need $2 billion for something they want to do, they might struggle to think of themselves as a prosperous person. Now I know that's crazy, but when you need two billion and you have one billion, one one billion is not going to get you that far. So we compare our financial state with our preferred financial state. Our current we compare I'll say let me say that in a different way. We compare our current financial state with our preferred financial state. And that makes it easy for us to think that we don't have enough. Prosperity is not about your preferred state. It's about the state God has you in where you have enough to meet your needs and you have enough to meet everybody else's needs. Now, we have to define needs and we're going to do that as we go throughout these these episodes and this podcast. But the first thing is we need to define it based on our contentment today, right now in our life, not some future state. Secondly, we tend to define prosperity as a person having more than us. So, the odds are if you're listening to this, you're probably not a billionaire. So, it would have it would, you know, if I had if I needed $2 billion, but I had a billion, um, I could probably adjust my needs down to where I, you know, I only needed a billion dollars. Um, and it just would have been nice. So, let's let's change the example as it relates to prosperity.

1:03:30 What does it mean for us to be prosperous? Let's talk in in terms of median income. So, according to most recent statistics, the annual median income in the United States of America, where I live in in in uh the the Paragon of the Western world, it's $83,730 per year the last time I looked at it. And the average household side is household size is 2.54 people. I don't know what the 0.5 is, but two and a half four 2.54 people. So if a household makes the median American household income, again, we define prosperity as someone having more than us. Okay, the median household American income is $83,730 a year. If a household makes the median American income, they are in the top 8% of income earners in the entire world. So, if you make a household income of $83,730 a year, you make more than 92% of the world. Do you feel rich? You should feel rich because you're richer than than 92% of people in the world. Now, the problem is the comparison, right? In the part of Texas where I live, the median household income is almost double what it is the rest for the rest of America. The median household income where I live is $145,914 a year.

1:04:50 If I live here and I make the median income, it doesn't feel sufficient for me based on all these points of comparison, based on the place I live, based on the price of gas, based on whatever, whatever, based on all the comparisons, which is mostly how we define wealth. But if I make the median income in the city that I happen to live in, I am in the top 3% of income earners in the entire world. So if you make $145,000 plus a year, you make more than 97% of the world because we live in a world where nearly half of the global population o over three billion people live on less than $7 per day. And if you make the median American household income $83,000, you make more than 32 times what those people make per day in a day.

1:05:44 So, where we live, maybe where where you live, I don't know if you live in America, but where I live in America, a coffee drinker will spend more than $7 on a on a pourover uh or or on some kind of fancy Starbucks drink without batting an eye. You will spend, you and I will spend more than the daily income of three billion people on the planet without batting an eye. And this should change our perspective on what it means to be wealthy, what it means to be prosperous, and what it means to be content. and sufficient. So we tend to see wealth in a human way. Comparison. God doesn't see things through the lens of a dollar amount. He sees things through the lens of sufficiency. And this leads to another question. So if you feel that what you have is not enough for you, where does your lack of sufficiency come from? Is it God that's not blessing you enough? Do you really have a lack of sufficiency? or have you accumulated things that you don't actually need that you think that you need? And we'll get to that. I promise we're going to talk about it. We got a lot to talk about in this season, but we're taking time to draw out some definitions here. Overall, prosperity. And this is where we have to this is where we have to think like God and understand what God thinks about prosperity versus what we thinks about what versus what we think about prosperity. Because as I've talked on this podcast, some of your thinking has been, well, yeah, God gives me the power to be a millionaire or God gives me the power to be a billionaire. I mean, yeah, I mean, he gives you that power, but that's not really the definition of prosperity.

1:07:19 Prosperity is not about having more than another person or enriching ourselves at other people's expense. This is why we have to define prosperity in in a clear way. We have to we and and we have to define it not in our own definition. And we have to define what we have to seek out what God's definition of prosperity is. So we should learn we should learn to understand that God wants us to be rich. He wants to make us rich. And this idea can make us uncomfortable. But be open to the idea that God wants you to win in every area of your life. And don't allow God's word to be limited by your thinking because then uh well well understand that God wants you to be rich in every area of your life even though this can make you uncomfortable. And then and at the same time we we need to learn to understand that God wants us to be rich. And this idea can make us uncomfortable for a lot of reasons and and and we'll talk about that. But as we end this podcast today, one one of the things I want us to land on is the definition of terms as we have this discussion. And in the Old Testament, let's say it this way, the Old Testament simple definition of prosperity is the blessing of God to have and grow my assigned dominion for generations. And the New Testament definition is I have everything I need and I have enough to meet other people's needs.

1:08:47 Thank you for being a part of The Dialog . If you liked it, make sure you subscribe and send it to a friend who you think might like it. If you'd like to know more about me, what I do, what I talk about, you can follow me on Instagram at joshuakcraft or go to my website jkc.is.