Prosperity Theology, Storga, on this edition of Key Life. Vendorsky Brown and I am Mike Hello. The program Key Life, a program without an agenda, except to see you growing dreams. Here's Steve with a Teaching for the Day. Thanks, Mike. If you have your Bible open to Daniel, as we continue with our study, our Old Testament survey, and we have miles and miles to go before we rest, the staff is putting together some of the notes and the major themes in these books. We're putting that in a book at the first of which is available, and if you ask for it, I'd be glad to send it to you. Absolutely free. Let me see if I can find what the one now is from Genesis to Esther, and they're going to be two more, but I haven't finished the Teaching in the others yet. So when I do, they're going to compile a booklet, so you'll have it set of two or three, reasonably small booklets that you can put in your Bible, and when you read the Old Testament, we'll give you some handles. If you ask me for that first booklet, I'll send it to you for you without charge or obligation. I'll give you a phone number and address at the end of the broadcast. At any rate, we're going through Daniel, and I'm your tour director, and we're up to Daniel 628, where the text reads as follows. So this Daniel prospered, prosperity theology, during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus, the Persian, and I might add, and we're going to look at some of that later, that Daniel also prospered during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, where we've seen that, and Balshazar. Now, the story of Daniel is the story of a man who was constantly getting into trouble, out of which God constantly delivered him. And every time he went through trouble, it got better on the other side of the trouble. Does God always do that? Are you crazy? Of course not. Does some people die when things haven't worked out the way they thought? They were going to work out? Of course people do. We have a retirement plan. It's all going to be fixed, and the books are going to be balanced when we get home. In a lot of times, we get into trouble when we apply the promises of home for the hearer, and now we're in the end between times. But the truth is, and if you've been listening to this broadcast very long, I've said this, that the Bible's way, it's God's way, and when you do it God's way, you're doing it the way the universe is created, and you'll come out better, you'll be happier, you'll be more prosperous, and things will be better off in your life if you do it God's way. So the story of Daniel does not teach that God always, that if you tie, you'll get rich. That if you have enough faith, you can heal everybody, and nobody will ever get cancer, or MS, or will ever die, or that your church will prosper, and you'll go to one of those conferences and learn how to have 10,000 members in three weeks, and it'll happen because the Bible doesn't teach that, but the Bible does teach, and this is where the balance comes from. The Bible does teach that God is not in the business of abusing His people. That God likes to say yes, and if you've been listening to this broadcast very long, you know that if you're a believer, God's not angry at you, no matter what it feels like God is not angry at you, and He likes to do good things for His people. The story of Daniel is a good case in point. Daniel prospered. That didn't seem right for those who are into mormology, who believe you ought to go into a corner and ring your hands, and whine about how horrible you are, and say, I'll just accept whatever happens to me in life, I'll go bankrupt, I'll get cancer, and I'll die, and that's just the way it is. Men must work and women must leap in the sooner it's over the sooner to sleep. We were laughing, Eric and Tim, who were in the little glass booth, and me in between, just before we started, and we were talking about mowing lawns, I always think about mowing my lawn, and I told them that the stages of life is that when you're young, you have an apartment in the lawn, then you get a little bit older, you have a house in the little lawn, and a bad lawn mower. Then the next stage in life is you get a little bit larger house, and a larger yard, and a better lawn mower, maybe one that's powered driven. Then the next stage of life, you get a little bit bigger house, and a pretty big yard, and get a riding lawn mower. The next stage of life, you hire somebody to do it, and then you die, and that sounds so horrible. Men must work and women must leap in the sooner it's over the sooner to sleep. Let me tell you something, Jesus promised a lot of neat stuff. He said you could laugh and dance, and you could find joy in the midst of bad circumstances, and not only that, when Peter asked him, you remember the rich young ruler went to Jesus, and said, what do I have to do here? Jesus said, well, pay the commandments. He said, I have. Then Jesus said, one other thing you lack, sell everything you have and follow me, and then one of the saddest texts in the entire Bible says that he went away sorrowful because he had great possessions, and then Peter, good old Peter, said to Jesus, we lift everything. I mean, I had this fishing business, I was making big bucks, and I gave it up. What do we get? And Jesus said, when the kingdom happens, you're going to rain with me, and then everything's going to be restored in the future life, and then Jesus adds an addendum even in this life. And so, and so God likes to say yes to His people. I don't want anybody to get me wrong in what I'm going to say. I don't like testimonies where somebody says I started diving, and I got rich, or started being faithful to God in my business, and now I own this multinational corporation. Or I started having faith, and I've never had a cold since then. I don't even take zinc, or what, I'm not saying that. But let me give you the right questions from Psalm 73. Truly God is good to the upright. Who are the upright? Those are people who have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. To those who are a pure of heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had well-nigh slipped, for I was invious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pains, their bodies are sound and sleek. They are not in trouble, as other men are. They are not stricken like other men. Therefore pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice loftily. They threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues struts through the earth. Therefore the people turn, and praise them, and find no fault in them. And they say, how can God know? Is their knowledge, and the most high behold? The wicked always, at ease, they increase in riches all in vain. Have I kept my heart clean and wash my hands in innocence? For all the day long I have been stricken and chastened every morning. Now that's a honest. That's a statement that I suspect all of us had. Did one time or another, when we've been faithful, when we've done the best we could, when our heart was right before God, and we wanted to pleasing with everything and the righteousness of Christ had been imputed to our account. And then we look at people who didn't have any of that stuff. And they've got all kinds of riches and power and glory, and people think they're something else, and that they're hot tickets. And we want to say with the soul, how come? What's happening? And what I would say is, wait around. Be still. The salvation of God comes. And the whirlwind stops and in the silence you will see his blessing. And he's here. You have a kid who isn't home with the Lord, who's running as fast as he or she can in the other direction. Quit trying to fix everything. Go before the Lord and say, Lord, you love my kids. More than I love my kids. And so I bring this before you, my children, and I lay them on the altar before thee. I ask that thou wouldst intervene. God loves to answer yes to those kinds of rear. Lord, I'm in serious trouble here. I've got financial difficulties. I can't pay the bills. And I can't make the mortgage. And they're just plowing up. God, I need some help. Really bad. And I ask in the name of Jesus that you would intervene. God loves to say yes to those kinds of prayers. Some of you are going through difficult times. I go by a prayer list periodically of things that you send and a staff person compiles. And man, I'm just blown away with some of the pain. And we pray for you. We don't just pray that you'll get through it. We pray that God will change your circumstances. And I want you to know God loves to say yes to those kinds of prayers. Some of you are going through physical difficulty right now. You've been to the doctor and he's done everything he can do. You've been to the hospital and it's still not fixed and it still hurts. Let me tell you something. Go before the great physician and say, God, I'm in serious trouble here. And the doctors can't fix me. But you can if it's pleasing to you. And sometimes it's pleasing to him to fix things. What I'm saying is, while I'm not into prosperity theology, I'm not absolutist about it. God does as he pleases and he does it right well. But I am saying you bring your request and your petitions before God. He's old, powerful. He owns the cattle on the thousand. He controls every circumstance. And if you're a believer, he's quite fond of you. I really mean that. He's quite fond of you can ask him anything. And the God of the universe likes to say yes. Simply stated, work hard. Work honestly. Make all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can. And when it's painful, go before your father who loves you. The king. And make your request no matter what they are. And you say, well, stay bad stuff. Really bad stuff. It's not happening to me right now. What about the little things? Dear Fred, this G-Cambell Morgan said, do you know of anything that isn't little or for a sovereign God? Do you think about that? I mean, listen, if you don't have the summer magazine, and I'd love to send it to you free, as long as supplies last. It centers on issues of freedom and holiness. I wrote a piece called The Law, God's Gateway to Freedom. And that's Gateway to Freedom. And Brian Chappell, my friend in St. Louis, the president of Covenant Seminary, wrote a piece called The Power of Joy you're going to love. Magazine has a question and answer column. My tenderaries there are a lot of good resources to get you. And those you love home with freedom and joy, and faithfulness to Christ is your crowning achievement. If you'd like it free, give us a call 1-800-keylife-24-hours-a-day. Or you can write key life post office box 5,000, Maitland, Florida, 327-94, or key life Canada post office box 321-50, Cambridge, Ontario, in 3H5 and 3, or you can email us at steve.org with your regular mailing address. And listen, pray about it, and if you can help us financially, I sure would appreciate it. This is a very expensive ministry, and if you're called to be a champion, you're going to help so many people. You can charge a contribution on your Mastercard Visa Discover Guard included in your envelope. And for any contribution of any size when you request it, I'll sing you the cassette teaching dealing with fear. Are you afraid what can you as a Christian do about it? You'll find out in this date. Oh yes, key life is a list for your supported production of key life networks.