Monetizing the Gospel of Christ: Is your Church Serving Christ or Mammon?
No time has money been glorified in the history of the church than in this age. Little wonder, many are complaining that they are confused in the Church. Some are crying to God to reveal Himself to them as many have been deceived into believing another kind of message. To cap it all up we see a lot of people leaving the church and worshipping at home as they can no longer trust pastors or what is being preached from the pulpits. They watch as their simple and humble church and the pastor is hijacked by dark forces and most of the culprits are the prosperity and kingdom dominionism gospel preachers/churches.
Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will be the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon
Jesus Christ says you can not serve God and mammon. Jesus was talking to the church to tell them to choose wisely because it is easy to be deceived. Alas, we have broken God’s heart and chosen mammon over Him.
Mammon, the demon of greed and Materialism is, in fact, ruling the lives of Christians world over.
Mammon is a term used in the New Testament of the Bible and is commonly thought to depict money, material wealth, or any entity, deity that promises wealth to humanity, and is associated with the greedy pursuit of gain. The spirit of Materialism whether in the Church or the world is the spirit of mammon.
You may say, how and when did we choose mammon over God? After all, I go to church, I pay my tithes and, I work in the Church.
Well, I will show you, how you could have been serving mammon over God in the following points:
1) We chose mammon when we monetize the gospel that Jesus died to purchase for us.
2) We chose mammon when we decided that physical structures are more important than spiritual structures (Souls)
3) We chose mammon when we decide to walk by sight (the size of the church, miracle, and signs) instead of by faith (rightly discerning if God is there or not).
4) We chose mammon when we decided that programs and crusades would be avenues for physical Miracles and Wonders, without which they (unbelievers) will not believe instead of preaching Christ crucified.
5) We chose mammon when we started the spiritual fatherhood, son-ship, and mentorship doctrines in the Church.
6) We chose mammon when we agreed that to submit to the final instruction of a Bishop, GO, Pastor is equal to submitting to God. We believe that whatever our pastor does or says is final because he represents God.
7) We chose mammon when we are opposed to a nameless pastor who is yielded to God preaching in our churches but a big papa or mama who has no message from God is preferred to minister.
8) We chose mammon when we are now using church growth models to appraise the spiritual standing of a denomination (the bigger the church the closer to God the man of God must be )
9) We chose mammon when we cede our spiritual liberties in Christ to our pastors who now stand in for us and act as a go-between us and God.
10) We chose mammon when we celebrate flamboyance and over the top showman is in the Church on other hand deride modesty, simplicity, and humility in the Church — (“great grace, higher grace ” or “my God is not a poor God”)
11) We chose mammon when we excuse the shortcomings of our church leaders because they are big men of God, and judge/ punish “smaller” church members because they are of no repute.
12) We chose mammon when we pay huge emoluments to “big” guest – pastors because they will be headlining the big event in the Church and, tax the church members to pay for it and also make the church workers labor for free after all — God is our Rewarder.
13) We chose to use every strategy to milk out money from the sheep while promising them spiritual blessings if they bring all.
14) We chose mammon when we pray for a transfer of anointing from our pastors unto us. You find yourself fasting and praying for supernatural transfer of the prophetic mantle of your spiritual father to fall upon you; (When the ‘grace ‘ your papa carries is your heart desire then you so in bed with mammon).
15) We chose mammon when we see nothing wrong with the prosperity gospel, kingdom expansion doctrines, miracle water, selling of oils and mantles also if you are a lover of “God loves everybody and nobody is going to hell” messages.
16) We chose mammon when we rather believe man-made doctrines over the true gospel of Christ.
17) We are serving mammon when we believe that the Holy Spirit in your pastor is different from the one in you. You believe God only talks to your pastor and not the congregation.
18) We serve mammon when our church services and crusades are used for fundraisers, business summits, financial strategies, global impact, and self-improvement seminars.
19) We serve mammon when our pastors are running from pillar to post looking for big altars to preach in and for big men of God to acknowledge them, even without having heard a message from God.
20) We serve mammon when our pastors are clamoring for government contacts and contracts. We even brag about whose pastor is the most influential, best and the biggest in the country.
21) We serve mammon when we are happy that our pastors are going to preach the gospel in the US, Europe, and Asia while we care not about those in war-torn countries.
22) We serve mammon when we are proud of our pastors hoping from private helicopter to private airplane and then unto a limousine with a motorcade to preach the gospel.
Shalom
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