John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

I had the opportunity today to talk to somebody about the danger of the "prosperity gospel" - that somehow if you accept Jesus to be Lord over your life that you will become wealthy or that everything will go well for you.

Truly accepting Jesus as your savior will fill you with a joy unlike any other. But not because of some object here on earth that is protected, but because you've acquired an inheritance that can never perish, that will not fade or tarnish. But until that time comes, Jesus makes promises like these:

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Matthew 10:16-22

To be completely honest, Jesus was speaking specifically to his disciples at the time before he sent them into the towns in Samaria. But the message still applies. Even though those of us in Jesus have a Redeemer, we still live in a fallen world. How much more valuable is He who made the world than anything that is in it?