Creflo Dollar - What Is Ungodliness and Worldly Lust? - Part 2
So you got the vegetable kingdom. You got the animal kingdom. Now let's look at the rational being, called man. Now, here's the difference here. Now watch this. Man now is created with power of choice and a freedom of will. Created with the power of choice and the freedom of will. So now dependence upon God, for him, must include somethin' far more than mere nonvoluntary reaction to fix laws or even an instinctive type of action to man who has a free choice and a will, his dependence upon God includes an understanding of God's provision, and then he's got to get an attitude of confidence and trust in God's confidence. So here's man right here. I'm a free moral agent. I have a choice. My dependence on God, well, it depends on what he can do and whether or not I'm gon' choose to trust it or not. Are you following' me now?
All right, now, watch this. A little bit more, and I'll be ready to preach, but this is so important. And, see that's the issue with church. I'm so proud of y'all. Sometimes, you've gotta learn how to come to church and sit down and listen. Quit tryin' to have church and then go home and be the church, you know? We know how to do church, but we don't know how to do life. We gon' learn how to do life, amen? Having freedom of will... now, everybody in here has a free will, having freedom. I love it when people say, "The devil made me do it". The devil, like God, can't make you do nothin'. Please understand that. Oh, you think God can make you do somethin'?
If God could make you do somethin', we wouldn't even be in the situation we're in right now. He just made everybody live like they're supposed to live. Mm-mm, we have the freedom of will. His dependents must partake of the nature of a voluntary act. Man's got to voluntarily submit to dependin' on God. It must be a willing subjection of self to God in recognition of his infinite resource and love. Now, because of this freedom that man has, this freedom to will, man can disregard God in his life and act independently of God because he's got that choice. No other kingdom can do that. They have no choice. He's the Creator. We have to depend on him, or it's over. Man, now, if he doesn't submit his will to God, man can, because of who he is, act independently of God. In fact, because of the initial sin in the Garden of Eden, it is now a part of the very nature of man to act independently from God.
Remember, Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19? Look at that real quick. Verse 19, says, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death. I have set before you blessing and cursing, therefore choose," here's my recommendation, "choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live". Now, you can also choose death so that you and your seed can die. You are a free moral agent. So the first test that came to man was a test of his voluntary dependence upon God. How did he get like this? Let's go to Genesis chapter 3, and reevaluate what you were told about Adam and Eve in the garden. Let's reexamine the garden.
Genesis chapter 3, and verse 1. Well, I wanna read out of chapter 2, to show you what he said, and then let's go to Genesis chapter 3, verse 1. In Genesis 2:15, "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it," and to guard it and to keep out all intruders. "And the Lord God commanded man, saying," look what he said, "of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat". God says, "You can eat of all the trees of the garden, no if, ands, and buts. You can have it all. You can eat of every tree in the garden". "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". So the sin in the garden that day was them not eating of all of the other trees.
Now watch this. Let's dissect this. Genesis chapter 1, what happened here? Verse 1, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made". All right, now watch this, and look at what he said: "Yea, hath God said", now, "hath God said," that's questioning. He's tryin' to get you to doubt somethin', like you're missin' out on somethin'. "Hath God said"? You know, God says, "You're healed". "Hath God healed you? Hmm? Do you really feel healed"? You're saved. "Hath God saved you"? Just questioning. All right, now watch this: "Yea, hath God said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' Hath God said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' Hath God said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"
What's goin' on here? This was a subtle question designed to raise doubt at the fullness and the goodness of God's provision. It implies that God was withholding some highly desirable thing. It was a direct attack upon man's recognition of full dependence upon his Creator. It's attacking God's recognition, I mean, man's recognition of his full dependence on his Creator and his need to consider him in every affair of his life. He's attacking that. Satan is attacking. Satan is attacking man's decision that "I'm gonna full depend on God". It was the first veiled suggestion that man might, to his own advantage, to his own advantage, you might act independently of God. So he's startin' here now, and notice the thing here, "I have got to destroy man's decision to depend on God. I gotta show him he doesn't have to depend on God. He can be independent of God".
Now look at 2. So the woman replies to the serpent. Here's the first recorded word of mankind, indicating that the initial step away from a voluntary dependence upon God had been taken, and here's what she said. Here's this step. Here's this step that's goin' on right here, verse 2 and 3, "And the woman said unto the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat of it'", now watch these five words that changed everything, "neither shall you touch it". Neither shall you touch it. God didn't say that. "Neither shall you touch it, lest you die".
Five words were in addition to God's command and suggest a feeling of unnecessary restraint and that his command was somehow a little unreasonable. These words indicated a desire for self-expression. "He said, 'Don't eat of the tree of the garden,' and he also said, 'Don't even touch it.'" Huh, they also show that she had left the path of unquestioning faith and had restored herself back to reason. She'd begun to look to her own intelligence instead of the infinite wisdom of God. Now, having departed from the path of unquestionable acceptance of God's work, the woman now was prepared for the serpent's next statement. Verse 4, "And the serpent said unto the woman, 'You shall not die.'" But over here, in verse 17, he says, "thou surely, thou surely die. Therefore thou surely die". Look, the serpent over here, "You shall not surely die".
This was a direct denial of God's word. God says, "You're gonna die". "You're not gonna die". A direct denial of God's word. And then was added the greatest of all lies in verse 5, "For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil". You know what he just did here? "You ain't got to depend on God when you're like him". This offer to be like God was an offer of independence of God, of freedom to choose and to act according to the dictates of their own reason and on, then, your own desire, and henceforth, it would not be necessary to consider God in all of these things because, after all, you're like him.
So far, the entire attempt, from verse 1, to where we are right now, get man out of the decision to depend on God. How is it that everything God created depends on him except man, who's now being deceived by the other one who decided to declare independence and got kicked out? Oh, my goodness. All right, a little bit more now. So havin' to exchange faith for reason, lookin' to self instead of to God, sedition, that's opposition now. There's sedition and opposition that's in the garden, and it's already takin' place in their hearts. This sedition, this opposition to what God says was immediately sealed by the first recorded act of man. Watch: "The woman took of the fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband. He ate". Watch this: And by this simple act, man declared his independence of God. The creature who owed all to his Creator rebelled against God. The creature who owed everything to his Creator rebelled against God.
The first ungodly act had now been committed. Man has now become, in his mind, independent, not really, but I'll show you that in a moment. The Spirit of independence of God became the very nature of man. This is so interesting. It was not in our nature to be independent of our Creator. This is how it happened. The spirit of independence from God became the very nature of man, and by heredity it has been transmitted from generation to generation, makin' the entire human race a rebel. The rebels in the universe, man, God's creation, became rebels. And though man has rebelled against God, he's never really established his independence because he's still dependent upon God, but he's unwilling to acknowledge it. He still wants some sunshine. He still wants some vegetables. He still wants a lot of stuff, but he won't acknowledge that it came from God. He still need help.
It's kind of bein' akin to the dependence of animals but in a spirit of rebellion. In a spirit of rebellion, "I'll come, and I'll even get saved, but I'm not going to depend on him. I've become a member of the church, but I'm not gonna depend on him. I can do this because you know I pray for 12 hours a day. I can do this. I got four degrees and experience. I can do this".
And, over time, technology has become man's foundation that he stands on that further says to him, "I can be independent from God," and now that we have comin' right now, "God created the universe; I'm gettin' ready to create the metaverse. I'm gettin' ready to do my own thing. Further stretching my independence from God, I'll create my own universe, and I'll become an avatar in that universe," and this is nothing but attempt of the devil to try to fight this mighty move of God that's on its way and try to remind man, "You still don't need God. Where was God when that happened? Where was God when you needed that? Where was God when you needed, let me show you that you can be self-sufficient. You can do it on your own. You can self-help yourself", and further, further into ungodliness, "but we the greatest members in our church, and we pray for two minutes, and we do all these things, but when it gets down to the nitty-gritty, if it ain't hurtin' too much, I'm not going to submit to God in anything," when everything that God's created is in total dependence on him except us.
Take a lesson from everything else he created. The stars gotta do what they got to do. The sun does what it does. The rain gets full of clouds. It does what it does. When everything is functioning according to the laws, it's only not workin' well when man came in and decided to try to mess with stuff. "Well, ain't nothin' wrong with the different little things they gettin' ready to do a little different in universes". You think people crazy now? What's gon' happen after 14 hours of lookin' at somethin' that's an avatar of you? You think people crazy? And wait 'til the porn industry get ahold of this technology. And I smell in World Changers a group of people who will say, "Not me. I need God. I need God".
See, some people ain't went through enough to know they need God. So far, you've been able to escape this. So far, you've been able to get out of that. So far, that didn't hurt too much, but you were able to do that. That's why we, as Christians, gotta be careful before we interfere in somebody else's maturity process. Sometimes you gotta kind of step back and put yourself in a holdin' mode and just let them go through it because God's tryin' to convince them that "you need me, and I'll show you, you need me". And if you'll come to the place where you know you need God, then the things are gonna be easy. There's no technology on the planet that they can create that'll ever be greater than the Creator of every law that man, through his intellect, has tapped into.
The intellect came from God. So nothin' the created can create that's gon' be greater than the Creator. I'm gon' stick with the original. I don't want some knockoff. The history of man from Adam to the present day is a history of dependence upon self and independence of God. That's what the fight has been. From Adam sealing that deal in the garden 'til today, it has been a dependence on self and a independence of God. He has been largely left out of man's thinking. Man has planned, man has acted, and man has lived as though God did not exist. All of this, ladies and gentlemen, is called ungodliness. Now, I said a lot.
Now let's go in the Scripture, and let's break it down. "Break it down, Reverend". Some of y'all sayin', "Bring it on home". No, sit here for a minute. Genesis chapter 6. See, this is interesting. When I go preach in places, I can't do like what I'm doin' here this mornin', talkin' to our church as we come together to see this and paintin' a picture and now showing you these Scriptures, you're gonna say, "Okay". Watch this. Genesis chapter 6, in 3, let's read verse 3, out loud together. Ready? Read. "And the Lord said, 'My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years".
See, this indicates a general disregard for God. This is like, his Spirit's not dwellin' with man 'cause he's in flesh, disregarding God, not taking God into account in his life. You've heard people say, some of us have had the weird privilege of hearing somebody say, "I don't need God". So he said, his Spirit, because of this disregard, will not always dwell with man 'cause he's flesh, and he's in disregard. Now let's go to the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11, verse 4, the Tower of Babel. This is at Babel shortly after the flood, and here's what men said.
Look at what they said, man. Verse 4, "And they said, 'Go to, let us build us a city and a tower,'" oh-oh, "whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth". I ain't even got to, you already know what happened here, right? You see how many times they said, "us"?
Here, there's no mention of anything vile. There's no mention of anything immoral. There's no, anything mentioned, anything debased or wicked. All shows great human progress, but all was of themselves and for their own glory and not taking God into account. You read later on their work was ungodly and brought upon the judgment of God. Okay, so because the people of the earth had forsaken him, God called Abraham, called Abraham out from his people into a land where God would bless Abraham and raise up a people for his own glory, but what happened? But even they forgot God.