Creflo Dollar - Grace Teaches Us to Deny Worldly Lust - Part 1
Last time we were together I talked to you about how the grace of God teaches us to refuse ungodliness. And we showed you that to live a life of ungodliness is to live a life neglecting God. It is to live a life where you're not regarding God. And we showed you that that can happen in the life of a Christian as well as somebody that's not born again. That as a Christian, if you live a life and you do things and don't even feel like it's necessary to even get God to bless it, that's ungodliness. Or if you live a life and you don't take God into account in the things that you do in your life, that's ungodliness. And so we realize that we have to have God a part of everything that we do in our lives.
So today we're gonna continue that, we're gonna talk about how grace teaches us, not only to deny ungodliness, but how grace teaches us to deny and this is a big subject in the church, how to deny worldly lust. The first thing we gotta do is figure out what that is, and then we're gonna have to see how we've been misjudging the situation and in some cases misjudging other people because a lot of times as Christians, we gotta be careful not to take the cheaper for the deeper, or take the cheaper instead of the deeper. And I'll show you what that means today.
So let's get into Titus chapter 2 verses 11 through 13. Let's read verse 11 through 13 and then go back and milk it a little bit and this is gonna be an amazing series and again, I am trusting that your ears are anointed to hear, amen. He says, "For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live soberly," we should live righteously and we should live godly, "in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God, our Savior Jesus Christ".
I thought that was interesting that in the middle of this, he says, the grace of God is gonna teach us to deny these things, and the grace of God is gonna teach us how to live a godly way, but in the midst of it, he says, and as you are doing this, get your focus on the return. Get your focus on the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, what does that have to do with anything? All right, let's back up and look at verse 11, milk this, and get into this today. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men". So this grace of God, remember first of all, that Jesus full of grace and truth, okay? So when we talk about the grace of God, we are ultimately talking about a person and his name is Jesus. Jesus, full of grace and full of truth.
Now we have defined grace as this unmerited abounding provision of the unrestricted operation of God's infinite love that comes through Jesus Christ for mankind and especially for those who will depend upon him. And so we're talking about the grace of God. We're talking about this unmerited abounding provision that grace, in the unrestricted operation of his love. And so this unrestricted operation of God's love has been made available to the whole world. Everybody on the planet has an opportunity to receive this unrestricted operation of God's love and to depend on him. Everybody does.
So here's the deal, only those who believe and receive Jesus as their Lord and personal Savior, are those who have received this grace. There are people, it's made available to everybody, but not everybody has received it. Not everybody believes it. Not everybody wants it. But for those of us who believe it, and those of us who receive it... how many of you believe in Jesus Christ, amen? How many of you have received his unrestricted operation of love, amen? I receive that, I receive that God loves me, amen. I can't tell you how vital that is in the life of a Christian, for you to come to a point in your life where you recognize, "I know God loves me," and that your faith rest in the love of God and your faithful healing rest in the love of God. In other words, because God loves you, you know you're healed. Because God loves you, you know you're delivered. Because God loves you, you know that awesome things happen in your life.
You know, the last 14 days, shingles attacked my body and every time I went to preach somewhere, I said, "His grace is sufficient for me". That didn't mean it wasn't painful, it was the nastiest pain I've ever experienced before in my life, but his grace, I had to know that, it's sufficient for me, praise the Lord. And I mean, expecting that the deeper and deeper I grow in the knowledge and revelation of God, I, you know, the Apostle Paul said, there was a thorn in his flesh sent by Satan and he went to God three times about it and God kept saying, "Grace is sufficient, grace is sufficient". And Paul recognized, "Oh, I get it. When I'm weak, he's made strong".
We gotta stop trying to be strong when we're strong, and we are gonna learn how to be strong when we are weak, amen. And I wanna not just know this, I want to know it. I wanna walk in it, I wanna, I wanna demonstrate it. I can't tell you how excruciating it was on the past Thursday night, I'm getting on an airplane going to travel to preach the gospel, but his grace is sufficient for me and I know he loves me. Are you understanding what I'm saying? I know God loves me and so not everybody receives that. Not everybody believes that. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men". Every person on the planet has the same opportunity as you and I had, to receive and believe this grace of God. If you understand that, say, "Amen".
All right, now watch what this grace of God does to those of us who believe it. Next verse, verse 12. It teaches us. Now, this is interesting. The grace of God teaches us, us who believe. It doesn't teach everybody. See, grace has been made available to everybody, but he can't teach everybody unless they believe it and receive it. So grace teaches us, say this out loud, "Grace teaches me". So you have a teacher. The grace of God is teaching you, glory be to God. The grace of God is teaching you. You gotta believe that grace is able to instruct you and to teach you.
Now, that's awesome to me because people say, you gotta be careful about that grace now, because that grace can cause you to live a loose life, and that grace will cause you to be sinful. If it's anything responsible for teaching you good Christian conduct, it's the grace of God. The grace of God is not teaching you how to sin and compromise, the grace of God is teaching you, how to live a godly life. He will teach us and so that means I don't have to put so much pressure on me trying to get it, more than me putting pressure on me and not even putting pressure there, but me believing, and me receiving Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and receiving grace teaching me. Grace teaches me. Grace teaches me.
Over the four, over these past 14 days, I have learned so much because grace has been teaching me. I'm excited about teaching you today, 'cause I know I don't have stuff I just got out of the scripture, and I got some experience to mix with the scripture. Oh, grace teaches me. You remember what I told you? If you really want to know if the Bible is true, you gotta go in the kitchen and cook. You know, if you got two recipes and both of them say it's chocolate cake, you need to go in there and find out which recipe is authentic. Honey, join me in my kitchen as we cook up scriptures to find out which is authentic.
How and what have you been cooking in your kitchen so that you'll stop questioning the Bible, but know that you know because you've been cooking it in your kitchen? Well, how do you know that's true? 'Cause I cooked it in my kitchen, amen. It teaches us, now watch what it teaches us. It teaches us to deny... now the word deny means to refuse it. It teaches us to deny ungodliness or it teaches us to refuse, to disregard and neglect God. Grace will teach you how to refuse disregarding, and neglecting, and leaving God out your life. Grace will teach you that. Some stuff you're not gon' know until you know. Some stuff you're not gon' get because I taught it through the pulpit, some of the stuff you gotta catch when you're going through stuff in life.
I'm trying to teach you, but you won't get it until stuff happen, and I pray that's not always the truth, that I pray that you can get some stuff from the pulpit, so it's not necessary for you to go through certain things. But I know certain things I had to go through in order to learn and understand, "Oh, that's what that means". Grace will teach you to deny ungodliness. I don't wanna do nothing without God. I don't wanna, I don't wanna hardly get dressed without God. I don't wanna disregard him, I don't wanna neglect him. Honey, if you ever been married before, and it was a bad marriage, ain't no way in the world you trying to get engaged without finding out what Jesus think about this thing first, amen. Grace, will teach you, amen. It'll teach you to deny ungodliness and it'll teach you to deny and refuse, watch this, worldly lust.
Now this needs to be talked about. Worldly lust. And notice what grace will teach you; grace will teach you how to live soberly, grace will teach you how to live righteously, grace will teach you how to live godly or regarding God in everything. He'll do that in this present, in this present world and while grace is teaching you, look at verse 13, you need to be looking for the blessed hope. While grace is teaching you, you need to be looking for that glorious appearance of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So we got to, we got to move from looking at what's in front of us, and we gotta start looking at what's ahead of us, amen. Grace is teaching you while you're looking for this. I'm still looking for the return of the Lord.
Every now and then I hear trumpet on somebody's phone or watch and I look up real quick, I'm thinking Jesus is coming back. You know, brother Oscar had a little horn on his telephone that went out, "Do-do-da-do," and I'm thinking, "Wait a minute, that's a weak, that's a weak trumpet," but I still looked up, you know. I'm looking for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm looking for it. I'm expecting to see Jesus one of the day. I wanna make sure that I don't stand in front of him and regret knowing I could have did it better, I could have, you know, I just, I just, I'm excited about seeing him. Not too soon, when the time come, I'm excited about saying I'm looking for the return of the Lord especially around people who don't believe it's ever gonna happen and the greatest enemy in our country, against the gospel of grace is cynicism.
They just don't believe nothing. They don't believe nobody can be genuine in their belief and in their walk with Jesus Christ, but there's a move of God and a move of the Spirit that's taking place, and I'm telling you, Jesus is about to stand up on the inside of all y'all, and those who didn't believe are gonna all of a sudden believe. They're gonna be people walking in in work talking about, "Can I talk to you during lunch? I wanna find out how to get saved, God been dealing with me". I'm telling you, God's dealing with a lot of people. God's changing some people that you thought never would be able to change, but he changed you, didn't he? And if he can change you, he can change some other people.
So, brothers and sisters, get ready to be used by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look for him, hallelujah. He is gonna come back. He's coming back. It's not if, but when he comes back, hallelujah. That great day will come, glory. Where the clouds will unfold and split open and there Jesus right now stepping through the clouds, I'm expecting the return of the Lord. I'm looking for his return, glory to God. I'm looking that when he shows up, I'm gonna be changed. We will be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye and we'll be caught up to meet him in the air and there shall we ever be with the Lord? And the Bible says, "Encourage one another with these words".
I'm looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't talk me out of it, you can't convince me it's not gonna happen, you're too late, I'm already looking for my home. I am not a citizen here in this world, I'm a citizen in heaven, glory to God, hallelujah. I'm a foreigner in this world, glory to God. I'm an alien in this world, hallelujah. But one day I'll return back. Let me go and leave that thing alone. The Bible says, that's your great hope. That's your great hope.
Now, let's get into this worldly lust. The Holy Spirit through his grace will begin to teach us to refuse worldly lust. Now I guarantee you this is not gonna come out like you think it is. Go to 1 John chapter 2 verse 15 to 17 in the King James. 1 John 2, 15 through 17 in the King James. Grace teaches us. Grace teaches us. Isn't that amazing? He teaches us who believe. All right, now watch this. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever".
Quickly let's read that in the NLT. Let's look at it in the NLT. "Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure," it offers, "a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away," this world system is fading away, "along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever".
Now listen to me very carefully. If you have lost your joy, if you feel, like you're far away from God, if you're busy but with no purpose, if you are bored with spiritual things, "Yawn," then maybe you're too attached to this world. Maybe you might be, have become worldly and not know it...uh? Some of you may be thinking at that particular point, "Well brother, Dollar I don't cuss in public. I don't cheat. I don't steal. I don't own a Rose Royce. In fact, I attend and I give and I serve and I love the preaching of the Word of God. I'm not worldly". But these are not the things that determine worldliness as we have thought. You cussing, and cheating, and stealing. Yeah, that would be worldly, but it's not the deeper issue.
Some of the things we call worldly, ain't nothing wrong with that. The scripture says, "Love not the world". Now, here's what it means. Love not the fallen wicked system that leaves God out and lies under the influence of Satan. Don't love this wicked system that leaves God out. Now, you know, the world's system leaves God out. The world system leaves God out of everything. It's almost become a running joke. In the world system, it's you that's responsible for everything, we leave God out of that. And if you're dare bring him up, then you'll enter into a conversation, well, you know, I don't really believe in God or I'm not religious or all these kind of things, that's what the world would say. The world system, the wicked system, it leaves God out and it lies, this system lies under the influence of Satan.
So the world's system all lies under satanic influence. Look at 1 John 5:19, 1 John 5:19. A system of operation that disregards God. A wicked system that turns its back on God. 1 John 5:19 says, "And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness". So this system, is demonically influenced. "Oh no. You're trying to say that just because I disregard God that it's wicked"? Yeah, that's what it is. Worldliness refers to the harmful values that Satan spreads throughout humanity. Worldliness is basically the norms and values of the world. The norms and values of the world hear how it operates.
Somebody says, "Well, that's all right because everybody else says it's all right". And that becomes the value of the world because everybody says it's okay. It must be okay, 'cause everybody says it's okay. And so now it becomes a norm and it's like, okay, well, since it's a norm and everybody's been doing it and everybody's done it and that becomes right, because everybody says it's right. Can't you see what's happened so far? Can't you see how confused the world's operation is becoming? More and more they can't even come up with a solution for a simple problem. All of the problems are becoming so complex. Simple solutions but don't have no idea how to get those solutions, because the whole world lies in wickedness.
"Well, brother, Dollar, I need to understand. I was told that entertainment is worldly". And so let's deal with that for a moment. Does entertainment like movies and games count as worldly? See, I have to say that because church folks take the cheaper and then use it to beat everybody up. "Do you go to the movies? That's worldly". I'm still gonna go to the movies. So it's amazing to me, even though people try to condemn you with that, we don't even know what's worldly. What defines something as being worldly?
You know, I was, you know, listening to some older song, oldies, oldie goody songs, and this song came on, "It's cheaper to keep her," yeah, and then Taffi said, "You know the words"? I said, "No, but Ken knows all the words to these songs". And Taffi turned to me, she said, "Listen to the song, 'It's cheaper to keep me.'" But it's worldly. I remember before they had drums in the church, drums were worldly. When the fashion began to change amongst women, only thing that was... you couldn't wear pants, they were worldly. You couldn't show your, no parts of your shoulders 'cause you would cause the deacons to lust. Sounds like a personal problem to me. So I never could because it felt like I was being put more and more in bondage.