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Rescued from the Prosperity Gospel Meet Dexter · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: My name is Dexter Versanda, but I grew up in
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  Speaker 1: a full Gospel church. In full Gospel is a general
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  Speaker 1: term for Pentecostal charismatic churches here in the Philippines. We've
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  Speaker 1: been through seasons as well in that church where we
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  Speaker 1: were influenced by some extra biblical fads. We've had deliverance
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  Speaker 1: season where we all vomited in church to try to
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  Speaker 1: get spirits out from within our bodies. So I've experienced
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  Speaker 1: that a few times. And at the same time, we
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  Speaker 1: didn't enjoy any assurance with regarding to our salvation or
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  Speaker 1: any joy in our being Christians. We were running on
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  Speaker 1: the prosperity gospel, but we didn't know. I remember we
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  Speaker 1: had a month where the entire team was about wealth
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  Speaker 1: and money, so everybody was very excited and they said
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  Speaker 1: we should be to more about how to become a
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  Speaker 1: millionaire in the biblical way. So I think I was
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  Speaker 1: third or fourth preacher on that team. The first two
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  Speaker 1: or three preachers talk about getting prosperous as usual, and
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  Speaker 1: everybody was saying that they were very excited for my sermon,
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  Speaker 1: and I knew what they were expecting. What I was
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  Speaker 1: expecting was as well, was I will be delivering a
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  Speaker 1: sermon telling them that everybody would get rich. When I
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  Speaker 1: started researching for my sermons, I naturally turned to the internet.
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  Speaker 1: I came across Desiring God, and so I started reading
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  Speaker 1: some of the articles there, and that's when I realized
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  Speaker 1: that the scriptures are much deeper than what we thought
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  Speaker 1: they were, and it showed me that we really had
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  Speaker 1: a very shallow grasp of scripture. It was the first
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  Speaker 1: time I encountered the prosperity gospel. Termical was about an
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  Speaker 1: impulse towards simplicity and setting our hearts maximizing mageeing our
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  Speaker 1: treasures in heaven and setting our hearts in heaven and
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  Speaker 1: putting our treasures there. When I started speaking, coming from
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  Speaker 1: what I learned from desiring God at or simplifying and
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  Speaker 1: having a sort of a wartime or a pilgrim mentality,
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  Speaker 1: I think everybody was surprised because it was not what
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  Speaker 1: they were expecting. From that time on, Desiring God became
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  Speaker 1: my first go to whenever I want to study something.
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  Speaker 1: Before it was like me against God, and I'm doing
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  Speaker 1: everything I can to keep myself favorable to him, very
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  Speaker 1: afraid of losing my salvation. Every day but then I
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  Speaker 1: realized that it is really God doing all of the
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  Speaker 1: work for my salvation, and there was really nothing much
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  Speaker 1: that I could contribute. After desiring God, reading scripture is
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  Speaker 1: much deeper than I suppose it was. It's now like
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  Speaker 1: diving into an ocean. At the surface, you really couldn't
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  Speaker 1: see how deep it is. You have to go down underneath,
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  Speaker 1: dive and explore. I would really really like to thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much. I really love your website. It really
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  Speaker 1: has changed my life. I pray for God to sustain
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  Speaker 1: you to keep doing this kind of work because really
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  Speaker 1: it is a great service to us here. We really
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  Speaker 1: don't have access to a lot of materials, but the
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  Speaker 1: free resources on your website have been really been very
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  Speaker 1: helpful for all of us and has been a big
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  Speaker 1: blessing for us. So I really would like to thank
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  Speaker 1: you with all of my heart.