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Voddie Baucham - The Prosperity Gospel Is Thriving In Africa · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There are these two sides. One, there's the content side.
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  Speaker 1: And discipleship is definitely about content. Discipleship is about us
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: passing on the essence of the faith. Passing on this
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of Christ. Passing on this gospel and passing on
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  Speaker 1: this right gospel. And in this age in which we live,
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  Speaker 1: we have a heightened sense of this, do we not?
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  Speaker 1: As the gospel is perverted everywhere. I was talking to
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  Speaker 1: my friend, Justin Peters, who has for years been sort
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  Speaker 1: of beating the drum of the dangers that we face
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  Speaker 1: because of this prosperity gospel. And Justin and I were
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  Speaker 1: talking about the fact that basically in America, we have
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  Speaker 1: prosperity gospel juniors. It is. It's Prosperity Gospel Junior. Where
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  Speaker 1: I've been living for the last two and a half
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  Speaker 1: years in sub-Saharan Africa, that's Prosperity Gospel Senior. And it
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  Speaker 1: is horrid. There are churches in our region where people
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  Speaker 1: under the leadership of their pastor have crawled around on
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  Speaker 1: hands and knees eating grass. Others drinking gasoline handing over
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  Speaker 1: their wives to have sex with pastors and elders because
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  Speaker 1: they've been told that this will open up the womb
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  Speaker 1: and finally give them children and in light of this
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  Speaker 1: There is this need to sort of push back darkness
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  Speaker 1: to stand against falsehood and preserve and proclaim the gospel
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  Speaker 1: to get the gospel right. Amen. But we've got to
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  Speaker 1: be careful because it's not just the content, but also
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  Speaker 1: the consequences of the gospel. Christianity is not just a
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  Speaker 1: factory where we produce widgets and by putting information into
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  Speaker 1: the minds of individuals and then sending them off to
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  Speaker 1: reproduce that information. That is not the heart of discipleship.
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  Speaker 1: The heart of discipleship is this right gospel rightly understood
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  Speaker 1: and then rightly applied in the lives of believers. And
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  Speaker 1: so go back with me to chapter one and let's
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  Speaker 1: look more carefully at that side of it. And we'll
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  Speaker 1: see how these two are interrelated. We'll see how the
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  Speaker 1: Apostle Paul is giving young Timothy information, giving young Timothy
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  Speaker 1: insight this encouragement to hold on and preserve and proclaim
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  Speaker 1: the gospel rightly, but doing it in context, doing it,
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  Speaker 1: understanding that this truth that we have to hold on
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  Speaker 1: to has consequences for our lives. And you'll see it
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  Speaker 1: even in the way that he presents it to young Timothy. Paul,
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  Speaker 1: an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God,
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  Speaker 1: according to the promise of the life that is in
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  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child. It's an amazing
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  Speaker 1: statement to Timothy, my beloved child. This term of endearment,
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't just throw this around lightly. It's not as
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  Speaker 1: though this is something that we find everywhere with the apostle.
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  Speaker 1: But notice also the juxtaposition of on the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: This official, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the
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  Speaker 1: will of God according to the promise of life that
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  Speaker 1: is in Christ Jesus. This is an official letter to
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  Speaker 1: my beloved child. On the one hand, don't you forget
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  Speaker 1: that I'm an apostle. This is official. And on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, don't you forget that I love you And
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  Speaker 1: I'm your father in the faith. Because both of those
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  Speaker 1: things must be held in tension as you read the
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  Speaker 1: rest of this letter. And don't miss the fact that
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  Speaker 1: in a few moments there is going to be mentioned
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  Speaker 1: in verse 5. Let's just look at it now. I
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  Speaker 1: am reminded of your sincere faith. A faith that dwelt
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  Speaker 1: first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice.
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  Speaker 1: And now I am sure dwells in you as well.
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  Speaker 1: Where's daddy? Where's daddy? Your mother's faith and your grandmother's faith. Where,
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  Speaker 1: where's daddy? He's either not present or at least not
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  Speaker 1: a Christian. But Timothy's spiritual pedigree was a spiritual pedigree
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  Speaker 1: that was void of this significant male fatherly presence and
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  Speaker 1: his spiritual pedigree. And so the apostle writes him and
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  Speaker 1: says to my beloved child. Don't miss that. This is
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  Speaker 1: not just a data dump. We must preserve the gospel.
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  Speaker 1: We must proclaim the gospel. And it has to be
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  Speaker 1: the right gospel. And we have to be fiercely protective
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  Speaker 1: of that right gospel. But the reason that we're fiercely
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  Speaker 1: protective of that right gospel is because people matter to God.
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  Speaker 1: The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.