Creflo Dollar - How To Completely Depend On God - Part 1
Now, so we're talking about godliness, and it's not a very difficult thing to understand, but it is important for us to understand what these things are so that we won't be robbed by religion and find ourselves, you know, thinkin' in a whole different way. So here's how we've been defining "godliness". It means "to have regard for God". If ungodliness is to totally disregard God, then godliness is to have regard for God, and so in order to have regard for God, this involves voluntary dependence upon God. Godliness is all about the individual who has set his life aside for God and totally depends on God.
So now we're really getting into the really nitty-gritty of the Christian life and that the nitty-gritty of a Christian life is living a life where you resign your will for God's will. It's a life where you're saying, "I volunteer because I'm a free moral agent. I can choose. I set my will, and I volunteer to depend upon God". It's not a part-time thing. It's a life that you have chosen to live as you go down on this journey and this path as the Holy Spirit and you begin to work together on this journey of finding yourself depending upon God. I don't expect for you to depend on God 100% right now, but I do expect for you to get on the journey where you depending on God more and more and more, and maybe you can get a place in your life where you're dependin' on God 90% of the time, 95% of the time. He is responsible for completing us, amen?
And so a godly life is free from doubt. A godly life is free from doubting his wisdom, doubting his love, doubting his goodness, doubting his provision. I mean, you're not doubting the things that you depend on. I depend on his wisdom, to learn to depend on his wisdom, learn to depend on his goodness, learn to depend on all of his provision, and so, literally, just to put it down to a simplest point, dependence upon God excludes all dependence upon self. Dependence upon God excludes all dependence upon self. That's godliness. That's godliness.
Now, just a little bit more in review, so one of the things we looked at last week I thought was pretty important is the fact that, as people who have made their mind up to depend upon God, we've also made our mind up that we will not fail in our dependence, that we're gonna practice this, that every day when we get up, maybe begin to voice that "You know what? I'm dependent upon God". I'm voicing that I'm dependent upon God. And so what we decided to do in this series that the believer's life that should be in complete dependence upon God, and I want you to think about that. I want you to ask yourself the question, "Is my life in complete dependence upon God"? And the answer would be "No".
Okay, somebody says, "Well, how do you know"? Because I'm a human, and I know you. I'm not talkin' about dependin' on God after you've done tried everything else and all that. I'm talkin' about living a lifestyle of complete, unfailing dependence upon God. When you do that, you will find out what the Christian life is about, depending upon God. And so there are different ways that have been included in the New Testament, especially and in the Bible that, if we look at it carefully, it teaches dependence upon God. For example, last week, we looked at the issue of faith. Complete dependence upon God is taught through the teachings of faith.
Somebody says, "Well, really"? Yeah, you remember, in Romans 4, verse 21, Abraham gives the clearest definition of faith. Abraham was strong in faith because he was fully persuaded that God was able to do what God promised, and that was a situation where God promised them that they would have a child, a 100-year-old man, a 90-year-old woman. There's nothin' else to depend on. If you're a 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman, you can't look at anything in the natural and depend on that. Now I understand why God allowed this to turn out. You know, "You become 100, you become 90, and I'm gonna perform my promise because I'm gonna show you it's not you, and we're not dependin' on you. I wanna show you that I can do what I said I will do without your help".
Religion has involved you too much. You don't think that God can change somebody's life without you, and he can. God doesn't need you to be who he is, but we do need him to be who we are, and so he takes this 100-year-old man who has nothin' to bring to the table except his dependence upon God, this 90-year-old woman who has nothin' to bring to the table except her dependence upon God, and God showed up in that tent that day and did everything that needed to be done, and here is an absolute illustration of Abraham's faith. His faith was a dependence upon God to fulfill the promise. And so, if we define faith like that, and it's very clear in Romans 4, you see that a life of faith teaches you about a life of dependence upon God. That's what it's supposed to be.
If your faith involves your selfish stuff, you have to question whether or not it's the right kind of way to operate faith because, if you see here, Abraham had faith, oh, watch this: Abraham depended on God. That's what faith is. I define it like this: Faith in God is complete dependence upon God. Faith in God is complete dependence upon God. Now, the just shall live by complete dependence upon God. Do you see this? It's impossible to please God without depending on God. You go through, everywhere in your New Testament when you see this, I don't think I'm redefining faith. I don't think this is even the first time that, you know, a teacher has brought this out, but I thought I needed to bring it out that the word of faith has to be with clarity now so that we won't take a definition of old that may involve self rather than involving dependence upon God without self. Anybody hear me in here?
So, when you say, "I walk by dependin' on God and not by dependin' on my intellect," that's what that Scripture says: "We walk by faith and not by sight". To walk by sight means you're not walkin' by faith, and to walk by sight means you're walkin' by your intellect. So, if I walk by faith, I'm walkin' by dependin' on God and not dependin' on what I know. That's good. You deserve a Blow Pop anyway, ya understand? That's what it is, and I'm asking you, as Christians, to get this to become a habit in your life. "I depend on God". This is just supposed to be review. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the next one.
Last week, we closed with emphasis upon the faithfulness of God, that you should be in a pretty good position of dependence upon God when you understand that God is faithful. It is so easy to depend on a God who is faithful. Surely, the promises of God and his faithfulness teaches complete dependence upon him. This is why the Bible teaches on faithfulness. Why? If you can understand that you have a faithful God, that "his mercies are new every morning," that "you cast your care on him because he cares for you," that "he'll provide all your needs according to his riches in glory," "He is faithful to do what he said," if you'll understand that God is faithful, guess what? You can depend on him. You can depend on him. You're not gonna depend on somebody where you question whether or not they're faithful, and the Bible makes it clear, I gave you several Scriptures last week. It makes it very clear that God is a faithful God, and you can depend on him.
Now, let's pick up with number three today. Now, this is awesome. This is awesome. We're lookin' at the five different ways the Bible teaches depending upon God. Maybe we didn't know it, but, number three, "Practical sanctification teaches complete dependence upon God". Practical sanctification. "Sanctification," a church word, a religious word, even more emphasized in certain denominations, "sanctified". I used to think sanctified people were people where the women would wear long dresses. Why they wear them long dresses all the time? They sanctified. Can I get a witness? I didn't... that's my formal education on sanctification, which is why this is an excellent step to look at here because practical sanctification, "to sanctify" means "to set aside for a purpose". "To set aside for a purpose".
Think about that now, "to set aside for a purpose". For example, one who sanctifies himself unto God sets his life aside for God's purpose. As a Christian, have you set your life aside for the will and purpose of God, or have you set your life aside for you? Who's drivin' your car? Because I don't think we think about that. We become saved. We become Christians. We have the promise of heaven, and all that is good, but while you're here, who gets to play you as an instrument? Have you, at any time in your life, taken the time, go in your place of prayer and say, "God, I am saved now, and so now I set my life aside for you"? That's a serious time, serious moment. Maybe you have to go through a little bit more hell before you realize "I want my life to be set aside for God".
I've traveled eight million miles around this world and preached the gospel in a lot of cultures that, but, at the same time, I don't want to miss God, die, go to heaven, and then that's it. I wanna set my life aside for his will and his purpose, and that's all I have to do for the next, when am I gon' be 30 years. That's it. He got it. I am his instrument. I am idle as an instrument. Somebody got to play me in order for me to have impact. Now, I got ahead of myself. Let me back up. I don't wanna, I set my life aside for his purpose and his will.
Now, this act recognizes God's will as governing in that life. When you set your life aside, that one act recognizes God's will as governing in your life. Mr. Hanes, you can remember when we started this thing, and every time somethin' would come up and no matter what the question was, it was "Let me go pray about it". "Well, what did God say"? And people thought, "Well, you guys are just too slow. You know, we can't ever get a 'Yes' or 'No' out of you because y'all always sayin', 'Well, hold on, let me pray about it'. What did God say"?
Well, I didn't know whether that time, but that was the appropriate response. Don't go doin' stuff. That was the appropriate response because now his will is governing in your life, and this signifies "depends upon God". What it says is, even though you're a pastor or leader of a business, somethin' like that, I pause, selah, because I've set my life aside for his will to govern my life. So I don't need to be... There's a difference between a good idea and a God idea. Remember that? We live by that. A God idea, you don't have to ask God to bless it. It's already blessed. But a good idea may need some work. We can get God ideas. It don't have to be a bunch of good ideas. So Paul used words that convey the idea of dependence. Go to Romans 6:13. He used these words, I must've read over this Scripture really, really, fast, but he said some very, very, powerful things here. "Neither yield your members as instruments unto unrighteousness unto sin".
That is so powerful because look what it says here. He uses this word "yield". "Yield yourselves unto God". Now, what does it mean to yield? Let's use the traffic that we drive in every day. When you see a sign that says, "yield," you're responsible for allowing that car to go ahead of you, a'ight? And then you go. And it's the same thing here. To yield to God is to allow him to go ahead of you. How many of you are allowing God to go ahead of you? Or do we go ahead of him, and then we get in trouble, go back and see if we can find him? Yield yourself. Let him go ahead of you. All right, watch this now. And then he says, "Yield you your members as instruments," and this is what I was talkin' about a little bit more. I wanna be detailed on this one. The word "yield" is the key word here to "sanctification". In a yielded person's life, there is not a resistance to the will of God. When I yield to God, I'm not resisting his will.
There is a no self-planning nor insistence upon one's own idea or rights but complete dependence. So I'm not goin' to God with my plan. You know, "I went to God, but not to get his plan. I went to God 'cause I knew you gon' ask me have I gone to God, but I insist on doin' this. I'm smart. I have five PhDs, and, therefore, we're goin' to do this". That's not yielding. That's a religious thing, but there's no self-planning. When you yield to God, there's no self-planning. There's no insistence on doing things your way. And then he uses this word, "instrument," which I never really thought about. He says, the word "instrument," it signifies dependence. An instrument, in and of itself, is inactive. It depends on someone to use it. A harp is inactive without the fingers of the harpist. The knife that is used by a surgeon to perform operations is inactive without the skill of that surgeon. It's an instrument.
Man. The piano, all by itself is an instrument without a pianist behind it. All instruments must be yielded to some master's touch to be of value, and that's what Paul was talkin' about, "Yield yourselves, yield your members as instruments of God". So the question I thought about is "Who's playing you"? Or "Have you been played"? I mean, think about this for a moment. Lord, I yield myself to you, and I'm inactive. You know, that's the other way around with church. We can't figure that out. We think we're more powerful by doing somethin' without yielding. I'm an instrument. "Lord, without you, I am of no use". Gosh, I thought about this. I say, "No if, and, buts about it, Lord. If I'm an instrument, and I shouldn't have any significance until you put your fingers and your hands on me, well, who have I allowed to play me"? Myself? Demonic influence? Or God? And I don't want to remain in ignorance, allowing some crack-jack demon to play me. This is God's instrument.
Some of y'all act like you don't know what I'm talkin' about. When you hopped in the bed with such-and-so, such-and-so, who was playin' that instrument? Some of you and some of that lust devil, but God wasn't playin' that instrument. God says, "I want to be responsible for your significance". You don't have to go to social media to try to get validation and significance. God says, "If you yield yourself to me as instruments," glory to God, "honey, I'll play you into glory. I'll play you into prosperity. I'll play you into healing. I'll play you into deliverance". That's just somethin', sanctification is somethin' we just play with. We just say stuff with our mouth, but we don't come to the realization "Has this become a reality in me"? How many times am I gonna go ahead of the Holy Spirit? A job comes up.
I don't say, "Holy Spirit, what do you think?" first. I go ahead. "What you payin'? Yeah, I'll take it". And the Holy Ghost said, "Wait a minute. I was gettin' ready to take you another route where you will be able to go in and state your salary, state your work hours, state whether you wanted to work at home or work in the buildin', but you went ahead of me". And so many Christians accept the cheaper instead of the deeper, and the only way you're gon' get the deeper is by yielding to the Holy Spirit, and let him lead and guide you and take you and play you and be an instrument. All instruments must be yielded to some master's touch to be of value. Who's your master? Who's been touchin' you? Who's been playing you? That's why it's important to come to church. That's why it's important to hear. That's why it's important to go to bed so you don't fall asleep while I'm talkin' 'cause I'm not gon' get up there and scream and holler and act like I'm in a circus to try to keep you awake.
If you're not listening, and if you're not learning nothin', then you probably not wanna be able to change, you know? You change your thinkin', then you change your life, but if you don't change your thinkin', you're not gonna change your life. There's nothin' magical happening here at church. You don't come to church, and some magic falls over you. "I'm just gon' come and sit. Mmm, it's somethin'". And it's gon' magically change your ole, dirty, nasty thinkin'. That's not how that happens. You have to listen to the Word, and that Word'll go in and start changin' your thinkin' and washin' you. See, right now, if you're in here for the right reason, doin' the right thing, you're being washed right now. You're being cleansed. Jesus said, "I spoke the word, and they were cleansed," and right now, you're being cleansed. Where? In your thinking.