Creflo Dollar - The Behavior and Character of the Last Day Society - Part 2
Self-centeredness, self-centeredness, this is an immoderate concern with one's own interest and well-being, egotism. The Bible talks how, you know, thinking higher of yourself than you ought to think. In fact, you'll see some advice given to us in Philippians 2:3 through 4. We live in a self-centered society. Everybody is about themselves. Everybody stands in their own circle. You're not supposed to be standing in your own circle. Somebody else is supposed to be standing in that circle. But we have put ourselves in that circle, which means we are the center of attention, that everything is, "What about me? What about me? What about me? What about me"? Okay.
And notice what he says here. He says, look at this in the NLT real quick just for the sake of time. This is the advice he gives against self-centeredness. He said, "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself". Seriously? You don't see that much. You don't see people thinking of other people better than themselves. It's me, it's me, it's me. He said, "Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too". You know what the society is right now. Everybody is looking out for their own interest. They're not looking out for somebody else's interest. It's a weird thing for you to see somebody put somebody ahead of them. That's not a common occurrence in this day and time.
You think, Well, you must be a Christian because you did that. Not even Christian people, Christian people have even become a little bit self-centered. They're concerned about what's going on with them. They're not concerned about what's going on somebody else. When was the last time you did anything for somebody but yourself? As Christians, we've been called to be servants, and we ain't serve nobody but ourselves. "don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too". So, what are the consequences? You know, Jesus making it clear this is what happens. This is what you're gonna see in the last days. How does a person get there? I don't want this to be seen in my life in the last days. As I study each one of these, it caused me to examine every area that I studied in my own life. And I'm like, "Oh, God help me not to be self-centered". Yes, it's all right for me to love myself, but not to the point where I never put other people ahead of me. That's, "I don't want to be like that, God. Help me".
So, what are the consequences? And so, remember the people who end up with these character issues in the last days, they end up because they wouldn't pay attention to what God was trying to say in the very beginning. He was saying, "There's a cliff, stop. There's a cliff, stop". You say, "Nah, nah, nah, I done been down this road before. I done been down this road before. I can handle it". And he's like, "You don't understand. They started construction on the bridge. There's a cliff. Stop". And you didn't pay attention. So, what are the consequences? And by Scripture, let me show you. Romans chapter 2, verse 8 in the NLT. Romans 2:8 in the NLT, let's examine what happens. He says, "But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves. He will pour out his anger and wrath for those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead they live lives of wickedness".
James 3:16 in the NLT. James 3:16 he says, "For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind". No, God's not doing this. God is saying, "This is where this path takes you. This path takes you to disorder and evil of every kind". It's gonna happen. Now, you may think, "Well, no, my selfish ways have really been a blessing to me". You better enjoy it because as you stay on that path, it is gonna lead to disorder and evil of every kind. Wow. We're always going through stuff and asking, "How come this happened? I don't know why I'm going through this. I don't know what's happening to me". And complaining. And, you know, listen, any time you complain about something, you remain in that same place. When you complain, you remain. Selfish, it takes you to disorder. It takes you to evil of every kind.
I found this in Luke chapter 17:33 in the NLT. This is so amazing here. Putting oneself leads to a destruction of oneself. Putting oneself first, excuse me, putting oneself first leads to a destruction of oneself. Look at this. He says, "If you cling to your life, you will lose it. And if you let your life go, you will save it". Out in the world, it's all about clinging to my life. Putting yourself first is a sure way, a sure way, to the destruction of yourself. There's no such thing as being self-centered and not seeing the destruction that comes from being there show up in your life, not by God's hand, by your decisions. Number two, lovers of money. Jesus said you're gonna see a time where everybody is about the money. "Oh, I'll do anything to get the money". We've been messed up with this. Oh, but God wants you to prosper. He doesn't want you to be a lover of money.
"What are you talking about"? Well, look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 and 10. A lover of money, what is a lover of money? A lover of money is trusting in money more than God. A lover of money, and that's what happens usually. When people figure out how to get money, God's gone. When you are a lover of money, God is not priority anymore. When you place more value in money than God, that's idolatry. Idolatry is based on the value you give a thing. That's idolatry. And God used to get the number-one spot in your life and your pursuit of money, you're trusting money has replaced God out of first place and now, money's first place. And the problem is not money. The problem is trust. Money is not the issue where you're talking about the love of money. Trust is the issue where you're talking about the love of money. You trust money more than anything.
And I know people who have done stuff and didn't have a dime, but they trusted God, and the money showed up. But there's some people today, you know, there used to be a time where there were some things you wouldn't do for money. I think that's gone. I think people have agreed to do all kinds of things for money. If the price is right, and I ain't talking about the show. If the price is right, they do stupid stuff for money. Because if you give them the right money, they can get psychological help to try to get over whatever they decided to do. And you trust money more than you trust God. Now, look at this Scripture. This also helped because the church didn't even know how to teach this right here for a long time. They thought the love of money was having money.
When you're blessed, you're gonna be blessed in every arena of life, okay? But you know where your blessings came from. You know where your business came from. You know where your job came from. You know where your wealth came from. It came from God. Hallelujah. And you always giving him praise. But I guarantee you, you meet a guy who has the love of money, he's also selfish. He'll tell you in an arrogant way, "It was me". And if you talk about God too much, he'll get jealous. "God didn't do nothing".
I remember when my nephew when he was small, Ryan said to my daddy, he said, "Look at what God gave me". Got him a bicycle. My daddy said, "Uh-uh, God didn't give you that, I gave you that". I said, "Dad, no". He didn't understand. Praise God, he got it all later. But, you know, he didn't understand that. "Don't be giving God the credit, I did that". Love of money, folks. Notice this, "For the love of money is the," watch this, "the root of all kinds of evil". What's the love of money? Trusting money more than you trust God. That's the love of money. Having money is not evil. I'll tell you what's evil, being broke is evil. You better get that right. Not being able to pay your heating bill when it's cold outside, that's an evil thing. Not being able to buy food for your wife and your children and they're hungry, that's an evil, evil thing. Not being able to give your girl something to fix they hair and it gets nappy, now that's evil.
That's evil. The church folks didn't know how to talk about this. And see, you'd send them a double message. If money was evil, then all of us in here right now are evil for getting up every morning to go to a job to try to get some. No, the evil thing is your trust. Trust is the issue. It's a trust issue. For the love of money, or wrong relationship with money, trusting money is the root of all kinds of evil. "And some people, craving money, having wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows". The sorrows comes as a result of this. You know, the Lord said something to me that blew my mind one day. He said, "The root to all sin", I thought, man, this is gonna be good. The root to all sin, you ready for this? Not trusting God. Wow. The root to all sin, not trusting God.
Forget about your works you do at the church. The root to all sin is not trusting God. When you don't trust God to provide, guess what will happen. You will steal. When you don't trust God to fix your marriage, guess what will happen. You will commit adultery. The root to all sin is not trusting God. This love of money is an issue of trust. And he says in these last days, you're gonna see people that will join the First Church of Mammon. Let me show you what this is. Luke 16:13, Luke 16:13. Somebody shout, "Not me". I mean, think about it. You think it's really worth it to do something illegal for some money, and you gotta spend 22 years in a box? For real? Somebody say, "Why you in jail"? "Oh, 'cause I did a little Ponzi thing with money". For real? Ain't enough money in the world for me to do something that's gotta spend time in jail trying to get some paper.
Boy, please. But there are people in these last days who say it's worth it. There are all kinds of schemes coming up, all kinds of stuff people are doing. Anytime something new, somebody on the other side is working on an illegal way to get it. Luke 16:13 says, "No one can serve two masters. You will either hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and then you'll despise the other. You cannot serve God," and the King James says, "and mammon". He says you can't serve God and be enslaved to money. Mammon is not money. Mammon is the spirit or the demon that's over money trying to convince you that you don't need God, you need money. You don't trust God, you trust money. That's what mammon is. Mammon is a demon spirit. And what mammon wants to do is convince you, you don't need God no more. "Join my church. Don't trust God, trust money".
Because if he can get you into mammon like he's gotten this nation... this nation, this nation has been entangled into mammon. You have to ask yourself, every time something goes on in this nation, you gotta ask yourself, is mammon the ultimate motivation? Somebody getting paid. And how much is that happening? And I wonder, Oh, my goodness, I know it's on the news, but is that a lie? Is that a lie? And you don't really find out if it was a lie until 50 years later or something. And I'm thinking, Oh, my goodness. But the Bible says let God be true. I have to trust him. Maybe something you're dealing with, mammon might be behind. Maybe the girlfriend you got right now, mammon might be behind. She don't love you, but she saw your bank account. And she asked the question, "What love got to do, got to do, got to do with it"?
People don't marry no more for no love. They marry for cash. "Can you take care of me? Can you buy me this? And I want this brand and I want that, and I want to live this way. I want to do that way". Here's the deal. Here's what you don't understand about mammon. One day the truth of it sinks in and you realize you want more than that. Now, you want stuff that money can't buy. Money can buy a house but can't make it a home. Money can buy medicine, but it can't buy healing. Money can buy you a wife for about maybe four years. But don't go broke, she gonna go. 'Cause she did not marry you for love. But you don't understand. God will bless you with all the pieces, all the slices of the pie if you'll put him first. And if you trust him, he will take care of you. You will have the most successful businesses in this country. You will be the greatest entrepreneurs ever. And every time somebody comes and ask you why, you'll say, "To God be the glory". And God says, "Oh, I can," listen, "because they trust me, I can trust them with substance. They won't replace me with what I bless them with".
How are you gonna replace the creator with his creation? Does everybody understand that? Let's go to number three. Boastful and proud, boastful and proud. Of course, to boast means to speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, especially about yourself. I don't understand how can you boast about something you know you're not responsible for? The Bible talks about how we were saved by grace. It was not of ourselves, but it was a gift of God so that no man can boast. Pride is showing a high opinion of yourself, your own dignity and importance and superiority, thinking of yourself higher than what you really are. So, what are the consequences? Go to Proverbs 11:2 through 4 in the ERV version. In this version it says, "Proud and boastful people will be shamed, but wisdom stays with those who are modest and humble. Good people are guided by their honesty, but crooks who lie and cheat will ruin themselves," ruin themselves. "money is worthless when you face God's punishment, but living right will save you from death".
Wow. Look at James 4:16 in the ESV version. James 4:16 and then James 4:6 in the same version, ESV. He says, "As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil". Boasting in arrogance? I mean this dude, this dude is just... you ever met somebody arrogant? You can't help but to apply superiority with it. It's like you're so arrogant, you think you're above everybody. You know what he says? In these last days, that's what you're gonna see. And he says all that kind of boasting is evil. And then James 4 and 6. "Why are you showing us these Scriptures"? Because it's better for me to show you that it's in the Bible than for you to assume it's in the Bible while I go and try to articulate a sermon that you'll rate me a ten on. I don't care about that. I want you to get this stuff. Jesus is coming back, and I want to take as many of you with Taffi and I to heaven as we have the greatest party that has ever been given.
It's gonna happen. Jesus is coming back. He is coming back. You're not gonna be giving him these little, soft excuses. "Well, Lord, I thought". You know how far that's gonna go? You remember when this guy was in hell? He said, "Send somebody from the dead to my brothers and tell them that this is really true so they won't end up in this awful place like I am". And you remember what he said to him? He said, "They have Abraham and the prophets. They need to listen to them". He says, "Even though somebody come from the dead, they still not gonna believe them". And that's the society we're living in right now. If somebody were to come back from the dead with some of these people, they still ain't gonna believe it. They don't believe nothing. You do a miracle... you know, the greatest enemy to grace? Cynicism, the cynic who just can't believe that it is absolutely impossible for anybody to do anything good.
Everybody gotta be lowdown and dirty dog. But he gives more grace. Therefore he says, "God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble". I want to humble myself. I want to bow to knee and submit to what he's saying to me. I'm saying it's time to be a for-real Christian. I said it's time to be a for-real Christian, not this play church stuff. I'm talking you're gonna be a for-real Christian. When certain people come around you with some kind of tomfoolery, it ought to grieve your spirit to the point you say, "Come here, man. Let me talk to you. Don't do that around me". "Well, that didn't bother you before". "I'm not like what I was before, okay? I didn't realize how detrimental that was to my spirit. I don't want, I can't hang with that".
And like I told you, it's all right to cut people off. Sometimes you outgrow people. You need to let them say, "Me and you can't do that no more because I'm here and you ain't did nothing in the last 20 years. I got to let you go. So long". Some people refuse to grow. Well, just 'cause you refuse to grow doesn't mean I have to be impacted by your unwillingness to mature. Amen. And everybody ain't got to be your friend either. Some of y'all got too many friends. What? Some of y'all ain't got no more room for no more friends. Y'all got too many friends. It's wearing you out. Every 15 minutes, somebody different call you. "Hey, how are you"? "Oh, I'm fine. Hi, how are you"? "Good. What you up to"?
Ain't nobody got time for all, you can't get nothing done. Your husband freaking out 'cause he trying to get a little time but no, Amanda always calling the house talking about her stuff. "Why don't Amanda go spend some time with her husband and leave my wife alone. I can't spend no". And then you don't like Amanda. No, I ain't got time of no more friends. If I don't know you by now, I ain't got time for nobody else. I don't want none of that. Scoffing at God, number four. That word means to mock at, to deride or to laugh at and scorn, to reject, to refuse, or to ignore. Scoffing at God is, "I'm ignoring what you're saying. I refuse to hear what you got to say. I reject what you got to say about the things of God".