Luke 6:37-38
The prosperity preachers are busy trying to convince people that God wants to make a deal with you. If you send, for example, $100 to the preacher, God will return to you some multiple of that amount. Some preachers say you'll receive double, triple or even 10 times the amount you send in. This message is all over the TV and I don't want you to be fooled. This is not Biblical.
The verse these preachers rely on to extract money from their congregations -- either in person or via television -- is Luke 6:38 where we read, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
The problem with preachers asking for donations based upon Jesus telling us to, "Give and it will be given to you" is these preachers are focused on the second half of Jesus' teaching. Being a giver should flow out of living a loving life that causes you to want to give just to give.
In Luke 6:37 we read, "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven."
Blessings come to the person with the right heart, not with a deal to put before God with a preacher as the collection agent. Jesus says the starting point with him is he forgives us every day all day of every sin we commit. When we humbly confess our sins, he forgives us and gives us a clean slate. Therefore, he expects us to forgive others when they hurt and disappoint us. If we do not, we rack up some of the big sins like envy, jealousy, hatred, gossiping and backbiting.
Verse 37 comes before verse 38 because forgiving others is the requirement to receive God's blessing. There is no way you can buy a blessing because, guess what? God does not need your money. He doesn't need you for anything. He loves you and wants the best for you but his work goes on with or without you. You, however, need God. You need his blessings, coaching, teaching and ever-present help.
Jesus showed us how to live a powerful, God-connected life. With dying breath he continued to do what he had done throughout his life. If someone hurt him, he forgave that person. And at the end, from the cross he asked our Father God to forgive the people who were putting him to death. In Luke 23:34 we read that Jesus said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Jesus was forgiving all of us at that moment and by forgiving us, he was released from bondage into God's loving care. The only way to come to God is with a clean heart and we get a clean heart by confessing our sin and by forgiving others.
Why don't the prosperity preachers say, "Go out and forgive those who have harmed you and God will pour a blessing on you?" Because it is very hard to forgive people who have hurt us.
These preachers skip to the 38th verse to try to fool the listener into thinking that just writing a check will move them closer to God.
You should give money to God's work but only with a clean, grateful heart expecting nothing in return. You give out of love and not to play let's make a deal with God.
