Creflo Dollar - The Value of Knowing God - Part 2
All right, now, let's start today. John chapter 17, in 3, so this is the beginning of today's sermon. Someone said, "Dog, you just preached for 30 minutes". That's all right. I don't know when Jesus is comin' back. I am not in a rush. What I wanna do is make sure you got this, because when you walk out of here, you're gonna walk right into ministry, and everywhere you go, the atmosphere is gonna change, woo, and why will the atmosphere change? 'Cause you walked up in there with him. See, you gotta remember, when you walk in some places, just not you that showed up. The presence of the Lord showed up, and if there are demon-possessed people in there, they're gon' respond kind of weird because they know who just walked up in here. So I'm tellin' you, wherever you go today, your presence will demand an explanation if you're serious what I'm talkin' about, woo, glory to God.
All right, I hadn't done this much, but I wanna look at John 17:3 in four translations. This is so interesting, and you need to get this because it took me, oh, I know over ten years to realize this when I first got born again, and I want you to get this today, so I'mma look at it in, let's start off with the King James translation, the Amplified, then go to the NLT, and then the TPT, and this is just one Scripture, all right, so watch this: "And this is life eternal," okay, so we need to understand what eternal life is because we know that when we die, we step out of time into eternity, and we have heard this: "Well, I'm gonna spend eternity in heaven".
That's true, but somehow, as we stepped out of time, we're still tryin' to define eternal life within time, and it has nothin' to do with time. Eternal life has nothin' to do with how long you're gon' live. That blew my mind just like it's blowin' yours right now, like, "Rev, what you sayin'"? Read the Scripture, that's why I'm sayin' how important this is. Look at this: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee and the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent". So according to this Scripture, he says, "This is eternal life, knowing him". So if this is eternal life, we have begun eternal life in time. Now, we gon' step out of time, and there'd be no more time, but you don't have to wait until you die before you start eternal life. I declare everybody in here has started eternal life 'cause he said eternal life is knowing God.
Now look at this in the Amplified. He says, "And this is eternal life: It means to know, to perceive, to recognize, to become acquainted with, to understand You, the only true and real God, and likewise to know Him, Jesus, as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, Whom You have sent". He said, "This is what it means". It's an intimate relationship with God. He said, "Here's eternal life. Here's what eternal life means: an intimate relationship with Him". Look at it in the NLT. Look at this in the NLT, "And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth". That's eternal life. It's about who you know.
Look at this in the TPT, The Passion Translation: "Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God," Lord, have mercy. I couldn't get past this, readin' the Scripture, "to know and to experience you," I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, God wants you to experience him. Ain't gon' be no doubt about who God is as you learn that you can experience him. You ain't got to be, you know, pontificating and doin' acrobatic, you know, Sunday school, playin' with somebody to try to prove all of the Scriptures to prove to people that you can experience God. No, no, no, no, no, you, ma'am, sir, can experience God. You never have to walk anywhere doubting whether or not he exists. He came to live in you. "Eternal life means to know and to experience you as the only true God".
See, some of these people talkin' all this tomfoolery, the different stuff they talk on the street, you know, all these new Scriptures they got, the black man from, all that, "Where is it in the book"? And then they talk about "Well, the Bible written by the white man". Listen, I don't even need my Bible to show you what I'm talkin' about. I know him, I've experienced him, and this, that you're talkin' about, is not him. I ain't got to go Scripture by Scripture. Back up a little bit. Let me introduce him to you. Say these words after me. Let me cast this thing out of you, and let your boys look at it, and we ain't got to go back into the history of Egypt and black men and all that. I ain't gotta do all that 'cause I know him for myself. It's just like a recipe. I ain't gon' sit up there and argue with you on whether or not this is the recipe for a pound cake or not.
Baby, let's move, I cooked it. I have followed this recipe. What you're eating is the pound cake that you say doesn't come from this recipe, but I tell you, leave the paper. Let's go in the kitchen, and I could experience this recipe, and you can "taste and see that the Lord is good," 'cause he wants us to experience him. Woo, glory. "Eternal life means to know and to experience you as the only true God, and to know and to experience Jesus Christ, as the Son of God whom you have sent," and that I believe. That's eternal life. It's what I've been teaching you the last three weeks. That's eternal life, and every one of you who are alive today, sitting in this church or streaming at home, if you know him and if you're experiencing him, your eternal life has started in this physical body in the midst of time so, when you die, it's just a continuation of what you got started while you were here. Y'all understand that, right?
You're gonna continue what you started. My God, my God, so when you walk down heaven, there's no chance you're gon' walk right past Jesus and not know him. Honey, when you get into the general vicinity of Jesus, when you get there, you'll be like, "Wait a minute, I sense him. I know he around here somewhere. That's the same sweetness I get when I'm praisin' him. That's the same thing I get when I'm talkin' to him. Wait a minute, I know that voice. Wait a minute, I know that presence. I lived in that presence. In that presence, there is fullness of joy. I'm gettin' joy right now. At his right hand there are pleasures forevermore. I know him. I can't see him yet, but he's around, praise God, because I started this before I crossed over. I know him. I know him. I know him". Hallelujah. Hallelu.
Now go to Philippians chapter 3:8-10, and I'll do everything that I possibly can to hold my tears back. This blows, this blows my mind. It speaks of the apostle Paul, the preacher of grace, the one who received the revelation of grace on the road of Damascus. Philippians chapter 3, I wanna read it in the NLT and then the Amplified. Philippians chapter 3, he says, "Yes, everything else is", go back to the King James 'cause most of you have King James Bible. But the great thing about it, I think most of you have phones, so you can now, I have to remember that. I have to remember that y'all ain't comin' in here with no just one King James Bible no more. Go on to the New Living Translation. I had enough nerve to ask somebody, "Could you fax me"? They said, "What"?
I needed to send maybe 50 copies of somethin' to a class I was teachin'. I said, "How're you gon' get it to 'em"? They said, "They already got it". I said, "Well, how you sent it to them that quick"? "I sent it to everybody's phone". "Oh, I forgot about where we are". Yeah, ooh, my God, I might have to get you to go everywhere I go. You say that, I feel somethin'. I'm like, Lord, have mercy. I'd be ready to just quit preachin' and just join her, and let's just tear the church up right quick. No, we done spent too much money to be tearin' this church up. We ain't tearin' nothin' up, not now. Let it last at least ten more years.
All right, watch this. Look at this carefully. This is, to me, mind boggling about this man. He said, "Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord". So Paul said, "Everything is worthless in comparison with knowing Jesus. It's worthless". "For his sake I have discarded everything else". And I'm wondering, "God, are there some things I have not discarded"? Can I boldly stand up and say, "Everything else in my life is worthless except this intimate relationship with him"?
See, we say those things, but with close examination of our own personal lives, like me, you may find a couple of things that are still there. That's like, whoa, this guy, out of everything he had, out of all the revelation that flow, out of all that he got from Jesus, he says, "I've discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ".
How much of the stuff in your life have you started counting as garbage, the stuff that bother you, the stuff that hurt you, the betrayal you've gone through? Why do you let that get to you? It's garbage, but not only those things that hurt you and bother you. My life, everything concerning my life, it took 40 years, but 3 weeks, 4 weeks ago, it's garbage now. It's garbage. I count it all as garbage. Why? I want Christ. I'm gonna be in heaven much longer than I was in this physical world. I want Christ. See, what you don't understand, you're afraid to count it as garbage 'cause you think, if you count it as garbage and throw it away, then you won't have none. On the contrary, it's when you have Christ that all these other things, I don't seek the things and then seek Christ.
I seek Christ, and those other things run me down. There is no way you're gonna ever have any needs, wanting him, gaining him. He's the gain. He's the gain changer. Quit thinkin' you're gonna lack and go without something when you choose him and count everything else as garbage. It's just helpin' you to keep first things first. It's just helpin' you to keep things in right perspective. God's love could never let that happen where you're so afraid that you're not gon' have that, and you're not gon' have this, and ya ain't gon' get this, and this ain't gon' happen, and all of that, no, no, no, no.
See, the thing about it is when you gain Christ, whatever you gain after that is gonna come from Christ, and it'll be the right thing. Some of you are tryin' to gain stuff that you ain't got no business touchin'. Some of you are tryin' to get stuff that's gon' almost kill you 'cause you compared yourself amongst yourself, just exactly what the Bible says don't do. Don't compare yourself amongst yourself. He said, "We must not do that". And we, still, through the social media and television and other areas, we're still comparing ourselves amongst ourself, therefore, we're closing our ears and eyes to what God has for us. Have you checked to see what God has for ya? How many failures do you want to walk in? How many circles do you wanna travel and fail because you keep comparing yourself amongst yourself instead of goin' first place?
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these other things will be added to you". It's a add-on to the relationship. It's an add-on. It should never be the priority. It's an add-on, and you keep goin' for, you define this success based on comparing yourself amongst yourself. How do you know that's success? The guy has a billion dollars but nobody loves him. As far as I'm concerned, he's broke. He's just a broke man with a billion dollars, hah. How do you define success? "Oh, he's got a big house, and he's got these nice cars, and everybody knows him". And he fights suicidal ideation at least once a week. He's a broke man with a big house, nice cars, and fame, but he's broke, why? Because, and see, most people I know and talk to, when they finally get to that place that they're workin' hard to achieve, it wasn't what they thought it would be because life is the sum total of who you spend it with.
That's a life. It's all garbage now. I just want him, and I gotta have him 'cause I don't know what to do without him. I don't know what to do without him. I don't know where to go without him. I don't know who to be without him. So he may be an option for others. He may be a multiple choice for others. Maybe you got A, B, C, D to choose. I count it all as garbage. He is my source. And "I count everything else as garbage, that I might gain Christ," verse 9, "and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law, but, rather, I'm so dependent on him, I am now countin' on his righteousness through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with him depends on faith".
Verse 10, "I wanna know Christ", how many of y'all wanna know him? I'm talkin' about know about him, know him experientially. "I wanna know Christ and experience", Paul says, "I wanna know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I wanna suffer with him. I wanna share in his death," come on, keep goin', "so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead". Look at the Amplified real quick. We'll go quickly. Hallelujah that you're gon' be ready. Something's comin', and you're gonna be ready. You're gonna be ready. You're not gonna have any fear because the love that you're gonna experience from God is gonna expel all fear.
You know, "The love of God casteth out all fear" is not how much you love God. It's how much you believe God loves you, and that love is gonna cast out all fear. John 4:18, in the NLT, you know, this came up. Can I stop by there right quick, what I just said about love? Because there's a lot of fear that people are dealin' with. 1 John 4:18, in the NLT, but you believin' that God loves you is gonna expel it all. Remember, it's not, "Perfect love casts out all fear," it's not your love. It's not how much you love God. It's do you believe that God loves you this much? He says, "Such love has no fear, because perfect love," you believin' that God loves you, "expels all fear".
So every time the potential for fear to show up comes forward, you remind yourself, "God loves me, and I know it," and you know what happens? The fear is expelled. Every time you're in the middle of a situation, and it looks like it's gon' be bad, pause, selah, and remind yourself, "I believe God loves me," and the fear will be expelled. Every time you're so overwhelmed with fear, and you're tryin' to figure out where it came from and, "Oh, my God, what's gonna happen"? Don't go into panic. Panic is groundless fear. Don't go into panic. Just remind yourself, "God loves me, and I know it," and that love expels fear.