"Watch out! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do--blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.   Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.  - Matthew 6: 1-4 (NLT)

http://www.charismanews.com/us/40853-filmmaker-tyler-perry-lays-hands-on-bishop-td-jakes

The link above is to a video showing what happened at the end of famous prosperity preacher TD Jakes' Megafest conference. Apparently the video has gone viral and elicited all sorts of opinions from across Christendom revealing that the body is sorely lacking in discernment and wasting away from malnourishment because no one reads their bibles anymore. One of the end results of the purpose driven-seeker friendly-bless me theologies infecting our churches today is that it breeds a lazy Christianity. It is a religion based on secular reasoning and driven by consumer-product logic. People now "come to Christ" to invite Him into their hearts so that they can go to heaven and they can receive untold blessings. No longer is there work involved on their part. No longer do we deal with the weight of sin and the need for a Savior. The need for repentance. No longer do we explain the need to pick up your cross daily to follow Christ or to fellowship in His sufferings. No longer do we warn people of the coming persecution and being hated for loving Christ. Instead it is sold as one big kumbya experience that requires nothing beyond a tithe, promises them that nothing will ever be wrong again, and that just before all the bad stuff happens on earth we will be whisked away to hang out with Jesus in the clouds as we watch sinful mankind be righteously judged. That is not the Bible beloved - it is a fairy tale. 

This lazy Christianity however is permeating the body. So we come to Mr. Tyler Perry, Hollywood media mogul. Now remember as we discuss this that we have two types of arguments. We have carnal arguments which are measured as the world measures and we have Christian arguments which must always be supported by Scripture. If there is no supporting Scripture, you are making a carnal argument. The video shows that mega church pastor Jakes calls Perry up to the altar at towards the end of his Megafest conference. This was apparently during the "offering" portion of that day. Perry tells the crowd that when Jakes asked the arena to sow a $113 seed for a youth center initiative he has that God prompted him to sow $113,000 and then changed his mind and told Perry to make it a cool million. Perry then lapses into the gibberish tongues that is practiced in far too many churches today, tells people that anyone who disagrees with them must be a "hater", misuses Psalm 23, and then lays hands on Pastor Jakes who immediately has to be held up by diligent staffers while he does the Pentecostal shake rattle and roll to the oohs and ahs of the crowd. Hallelujah! Pass the offering plate!

The fact that any Christian would rise to defend this only indicates how far we have fallen away from Christ and solid Biblical teaching. It is lazy Christianity that allows a little leaven here and a little leaven there until we think nothing of a man who cross-dresses for a living laying hands on a man trying to bilk poor people out of their money can be considered a profound moment in the faith. Wake up church! 

Let us start with Mr. Perry. As the world goes, Mr. Perry appears to be ahead of the curve and a nice affable fellow. My understanding is he does an incredible amount for his community. He has hired more African Americans than anyone else in Hollywood and his movies usually try to have a clear delineation between right and wrong and contain a moral. From a secular standpoint he should be applauded for all of this. To God of course it has zero relevance. These are all carnal arguments. His movies are not Godly. Besides language issues there are over sexualized characters not to mention Mr. Perry became famous portraying a woman and cross dressing. What does the Bible say about that?

A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.  - Deuteronomy 22: 5 (NIV)

There also have been people who came forward to "out" Mr. Perry as being gay. He has denied this but at the same time admitted that "Monogamy may not be for me." Hardly the Christian message. 

Jakes is just another in a long line of prosperity preachers who are slowly poisoning the Body of Christ. All one has to do is look at the guest speakers at megafest this year to see that the associations you keep reveal who you are. Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar highlighted the 2013 Megafest. But all we really have to look at is the nature of the giving that Perry tells us was occurring when God told him to hand over the million bucks. This is the seed-harvest nonsense that is such a staple of all of the prosperity heretics. That God can't bless you unless you sow a seed into their ministry. That you can essentially buy God's favor. Jakes himself has said that God wants to "heal our money" and that those that give would receive more money than they give. But Megafest required something special because Jakes wanted to build a youth center. So he abuses Scripture to claim that Psalm 113 somehow contains a magic potion in it that if people would just sow $113, then they would receive some huge blessing. Here is Psalm 113:

Praise the Lord.   Praise the Lord, you his servants;   praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised,   both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,   the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is exalted over all the nations,   his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God,   the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look   on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust  a nd lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes,   with the princes of his people. He settles the childless woman in her home   as a happy mother of children.   Praise the Lord.  - Psalm 113 (NIV)

There is no magic potion in this Psalm. This is also a past tense Psalm. The Psalmist is writing praise for all God has already done and who He is by nature. The only verse that comes close to dealing with money is "he raises the poor from the dust." To take that one verse, or this one Psalm and try and convince people they need to give you $113 is disgusting and despicable. It is also unfortunately the norm in prosperity preaching. I am going to show you how the scam works. Here is a Psalm that fits a lot closer to a message of God's provision:

May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;   may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary   and grant you support from Zion.   May he remember all your sacrifices   and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart   and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory   and lift up our banners in the name of our God.   May the Lord grant all your  r equests. Now this I know:   The Lord gives victory to his anointed.   He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary   with the victorious power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses,   but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall,   but we rise up and stand firm. Lord, give victory to the king!
Answer us when we call!  - Psalm 20 (NIV)

Answer in distress! Send help from the sanctuary! May he give you the desires of your heart! May all your plans succeed! May the Lord grant all your requests! The Lord gives victory to his anointed! Answer us when we call! WOW - if there was a Psalm that prosperity hucksters could misuse, this seems to be the one. Not Psalm 113. Of course you see the problem right? It is not about the words of God it is about the number of the Psalm because remember, this is about sowing a seed and who wants a $20 seed? It is so transparent it is silly. There are only 150 Psalms and you don't want to appear too greedy. No, 113 is a nice number. Odd enough to throw most people off. This seed-harvest nonsense is on all the hot Christian television shows. Jakes lives in a 10,000 square foot mansion while driving a Bentley. He defends his lifestyle by saying that it is all from book sales but who do you think is buying the books? Now listen, I have seen many great teachings from TD Jakes. Sometimes people think false teachers have to say everything falsely. There are no false teachers who are going to try and convince you that Jesus was really from Bermuda and had seven apostles until his pet goat betrayed Him. It is never going to be that easy. Even the low hanging fruit like Benny Hinn or Joel Osteen still deceive hundreds of thousands of people. Why? Because they mix enough truth to make it appear righteous and fill in the blanks with everything that tickles our ears and massages our flesh. I have heard the other Christian argument of eating the meat while spitting out the bones. To that I simply ask you one question. If you know the bone is rotten why in the world would you trust the meat? 

Now I know some of my haters (sorry couldn't resist) will say that this is simply jealousy because I do not have a million dollars to give. Let us start with some basics. Tyler Perry is worth 400 million dollars and earns 100 million dollars per year. While the offer was a generous amount, please realize we are not talking about the widows mite here. I saw some Christians actually comment that people shouldn't complain when a million dollars is given to the kingdom. Realize of course that this money is going to TD Jakes' kingdom, not the Kingdom of God. I know some will balk and tell stories of people they know who were saved through the efforts of the Jakes ministry. Just like there are definitely people saved through the Osteen ministry. Of course Jakes and Osteen have precious little to do with it. God will save people wherever He can. The heart that is truly seeking God can find Him in the back alley or in a pew at the Potter's House. Realize of course that these people are saved in spite of TD Jakes, not because of him. But for every one of those, how many think they are saved and are actually going to hell? How many left the church and God when the blessing never came through and they had given the money for the light bill to the Psalm 113 blessing? I believe there are hundreds of thousands of people sitting in pews across America today that have been told by some huckster that they are saved and on the last day they will stand before Christ and here "I never knew you." The Bible has warned us specifically about this!

You see, we are not like the many hucksters   who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ's authority, knowing that God is watching us.  - 2Corinthians 2: 17 (NLT)

Some may say but wait a minute preacher! Jakes just wants to build a youth center! Terrific but that is a carnal argument that has nothing to do with God. If the vision is from God then God will provide the resources and you don't have to lie to the sheep He has entrusted to you in order to obtain the resources. 

So in the end I am unsure what the big fuss was about. A carnal man who plays the role of preacher allowed a carnal man who plays the role of cross dresser to play the Sunday morning preaching game in exchange for a million dollars. People got their hallelujah hop on and then wrote their checks for $113. Then they couldn't pay the rent or buy groceries. Hey the kids had to go a little hungry but God says fasting is good right! Besides I just bought me some divine payback! God is going to give me back that $113 plus interest. That preacher in the thousand dollar suit said so and look that nice man who makes all those funny movies gave a million! God must be in this! 

But He is not beloved. God is into holiness. He is into making us more and more like His image daily. He does not care for nor value the things of this world. He doesn't want a youth center as much as He wants the youth to have Him at their center. He is into us bearing fruit for the kingdom of God. He is into us reaching the lost with the uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ. For those who are unsure still, read the key verses and compare it to what Perry and Jakes tried to pull off here. 

"Watch out! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do--blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.   Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.  - Matthew 6: 1-4 (NLT)

This was a staged and arranged show put on by two great actors. They wanted this good deed aired publicly, in violation of Scripture, so that they could bilk $113 out of as many people as possible. But lazy Christianity laps this stuff up. They feed off of it. They fail to see the abused Scriptures and poor people cheated out of their money and out of the real God. Instead they see famous people building youth centers. Anyone who points it out is either a legalist or a "hater" for the less biblically inclined. And the lazy Christians will go back to their lives devoid of the power of God. Tyler Perry will go back and make another movie and TD Jakes will move onto his next interview with Oprah (yes she was part of Megafest as well). Meanwhile however the devil is laughing because we cannot get out of our own way when it comes to reaching the lost with the true Gospel. We don't even know what it is anymore. We think it has something to do with money. Or that the man in the thousand dollar suit is justified in his excess despite claiming to be a representative of God. Or that the cross-dressing Hollywood mogul must have been sent by God to the man in the thousand dollar suit because Psalm 113 says so. Forget the Gospel beloved. We cannot even think of wrapping our minds around that as long as we fail to be able to see that this entire carnal debacle between Jakes and Perry was nothing more than a con job pulled off by great actors and hucksters, to rob people of their money - all in the name of Jesus. 

God help us. 

Reverend Anthony Wade - September 4, 2013