Creflo Dollar - Obedience Is a Gift of Grace - Part 2
Our lives are composed of grace through our union with God. Our lives are composed of grace through our union with God. Now, how many of you believe, that if Jesus used an illustration in the Bible of a natural thing, we probably ought to pay attention to it? So in John 15, you can go there verses 1 through 5. Well, let's go to Galatians 5:22-23, I just wanna show you this right quick. We might ought to pay attention if he uses a natural picture to try to illustrate a spiritual point, then we really need to pay attention to this, and really dissect that natural illustration to see what he was saying. Sometimes as Christian, we just ignore it. Like, "Oh, he really fixed that up. Fix it up Jesus". He wasn't trying to fix it up so he can get an amen, he was trying to use these illustrations to drive it home so you could clearly understand what he was saying.
So the first thing he says here, I love this Galatians 5 22. He says, "But the fruit of the Spirit". Stop, he didn't say the fruit of the Christian, he said the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, which means the fruit is of him, right? It's of the Spirit. Now, go to John chapter 15:1, John 15:1 "Branches cannot bear fruit". Branches cannot bear fruit, branches cannot bear fruit. Oh, it's a fact, somebody say, "I don't believe that". It don't matter, it's a fact, branches can't bear fruit. "But vines can do so naturally without any effort. As a branch, you carry the nature of the true vine in you and he will bear his fruit through you, he promised that". Somehow another, we wanna ignore this illustration as branches and change the rules.
Now, you're trying to bear what only Jesus can bear. You're trying to bear something instead of receiving it. So don't forget about this illustration here I'm getting ready to show you. John chapter 15 verses 1 through 5 in the New King James version. All right, let's read it all the way through to verse 5, and then let's come back and milk it a bit. All right, he says, "I am the true vine, and My father," this is so cool, "Is the vinedresser". So you got to understand what a vinedresser does. When that vine is in the shade too much, a viticulturist, I believe that's what it's called, they will come and they will dress that vine away from the shade to where it can get some sun, 'cause it won't do well in the shade, it's got to, it won't grow unless it's getting sunlight.
So Jesus says, "I'm the true vine," and when you are in the shade too much, you got a father who will dress you up out of that position and put you in a place where you can get some light. My God. "Every branch in me". See, we're in him. In him we move, in him we breathe, in him we have our very being. "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit". Now watch this carefully. "He takes away". And boy, the way people have butchered that, it's the idea of if you don't bear fruit, God gonna cut you off. A viticulturist would never cut a branch off because it would be like somebody taking your arm off, it wouldn't happen. He wouldn't, that would be deformity, he wouldn't do that. And you've heard the stories about this you get all, I just get all worked up. Every branch of me that does not bear fruit, he gonna take you away and cut you off.
And I'll be like, "Oh God, help me to bear fruit. Oh Jesus. Oh, I'm gonna be cut off, I'm be cut off by tomorrow". "Yeah, you gonna be cut off by midnight, you're going to hell, boy". They move from cutting you off that you're going to hell. "You better bear some fruit or you're going to hell". I didn't know what kind of fruit to bear, what kind of fruit do I need? In those days I thought bear fruit mean increase. "And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit". "You are already clean," what? "Because of the word which I have spoken to you". What? "Abide in me," that word means set up residence. That's what word abide means. Set up residence in me and I'm gonna do the same in you. "And as the branch cannot," the branch cannot, the branch cannot, the branch cannot say that loud, "I'm a branch". The branch cannot say that loud, "I'm a branch". The branch cannot, "The branch cannot bear fruit of itself".
Religion is a branch that's trying to bear fruit by itself. That's what religion is. Religion is a branch that's trying to bear fruit by itself without God. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides," and sets up residence, "In the vine". He said, "Neither can you, unless you abide in Me". Verse 5. "I am the vine". I mean, Jesus is trying to make it plain. "I'm the vine," watch this, "you are the branch". I don't know, I mean, you know, either we can't read or we're just volunteering stupidity. I'm not the vine, I ain't never gonna be the vine, I'm a branch. Turn to somebody, anybody say, "You are a branch". You are a branch, you are a branch. You trying to act brand new, you are a branch, you are a branch. Hello branch. My name is Creflo Branch Dollar, that's all I'm gonna be, ain't never be vine Dollar, it's branch Dollar. I don't bear fruit of myself, 'cause branches can't do that by themselves. They gotta to have the right connection.
"He who abides," sets up residence, "In me". It ain't talking about he who come to church every now and then. It ain't talking about, you know, in and out relationship with the Lord. You live there, you have set up residence in him. You ain't no Christian today and not no Christian tomorrow, that ain't, what he talking about. "He who abides in Me, and I in him," what happens? "Bears much fruit; for without Me," vine, "You can do nothing". So when nothing's being done in your life, you need to check your connection. Cause the vine ain't never failing. Now, let's break this down. Let's milk it. All right. Verse 1, St. John 15 verse 1. "I'm the true vine, My Father is the vinedresser". Verse 2, "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away". He takes away.
Now the Greek term for this phrase, taking away or cutting away, is the Greek word "Airo," A I R O. That's the original Greek word here, for taking away or cutting away. And this word "Airo" means in this context of John 15, with this illustration, it means, it clearly means to elevate, to raise up, or to lift up. To elevate, which means it's got to be down in a shade, to elevate, to raise up, to lift up, so it sounds like this, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit," will be elevated, raised up, lifted up. In other words, the vinedresser is coming to change your position out of the shade, and put you in the sunlight so you can grow, alright?
Now, he goes on and he says, "And every branch that bears fruit," okay? So that means you're connected, right? "Every branch that bears fruit He prunes". He prunes, now that's interesting. Grape vines don't produce fruit unless they're exposed to sunlight, we agree. Right? If, if you don't listen, if you don't believe me, you can go to something on the internet and just google how they take care of this and it'll, it'll tell you, it'll give you the whole cultural aspects of how these things work, man. Wikipedia will show you. Alright, now, watch this, the Greek term for the word purging or pruning is "Kathairro," K A T H A I R R O, "Kathairro". And what this means, this is almost shocking, it means cleansed already. In other words, "Every branch that bears fruit he cleanses it that it may bear more fruit".
Now watch this. Now the next thing is how is he gonna prune or cleanse? He says, "You are already". Talking to us. "You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you". So look what he says, he says, "You are already clean through the word which I have spoken to you," the pruning Jesus does is renewing our minds or our thinking to the truth of the gospel of grace. I'm gonna renew your mind with the truth of the gospel and you're gonna be clean. As you have for the last four months been renewing your mind away from religion and tradition, you're being cleaned and repositioned to bear more of the fruit that the vine is making. Because as a branch, you won't be able to go into full display if you don't get cleaned and if you don't get repositioned. You don't make the fruit, but what happens sometimes if you're not hearing the right thing to renew your mind with, you still gonna be stuck in the shade.
All God trying to do is get you out the shade. And that's why this gospel's got to be preached. This gospel of grace has got to be preached all over the world, and look at what he said, "and then the end will come". You just can't preach anything and then call it the gospel. You can't do it. I'm gonna be steady on this and steady on this and stay with it, my purpose is when I teach this message, I don't care about somebody making no noise, I don't care care about none of that. My greatest concern is that I leave a legacy of understanding about this gospel at the end of this one year, I've never been given a one year series. This one year series contains 104 messages on the gospel of grace, and we're cracking everything that can be cracked. And so I got four minutes left, I'm done.
Do you understand the difference between achieving and receiving? For you to try to achieve is for you to try to be a branch and produce fruit. He used an illustration, you can't produce fruit. So why does a branch attempt to try to achieve what can't be achieved by him? That's what he's saying. And Christian people still waking up every day with a plan or what do you call them thing? A protocol for how to get the Word to work for you so you can get what you after, a formula, one more step added to your third step. And sometimes I wonder, is that really faith or is that doubt going somewhere to happen, because it may be as rest is a way to authenticate whether you're in faith or not. Achieving seems big way to authenticate whether you're in unbelief and being disobedient.
Do you know when you're in unbelief, when you don't believe what I just taught you, clearly from the Word of God, do you know what it says? You are in disobedience in the New Testament. And so why are you surprised except the mercy of God shows up to try to do what he does. Why are you surprised when you, how can you say, as a Christian, "I hadn't seen results since I've been saved". And you've been saved for 30 years. It has to be your religion or you're trying to be a branch without a vine. You are a branch, but you don't need to be without a vine. This stuff is getting clearer and clearer and what's happening to Taffi and I, is that we're like intensely focused on this stuff now, like every day it becomes our most vital pursuit. And we are seeing things happen and the Holy Spirit is having to show us that it happened. Do y'all understand what I'm saying?
There are things happening where I'm so blown away on one of the things that happened. I looked at God, I said, "God, do you see what you did? Do you know what you've done"? And they're like, "I know what I did. Do you know what I have done"? It's mind boggling, and it's accelerating. God's looking, I wish I can remember what Kim was talking about. Mrs. Kim was talking about, God is looking for someone to explode and express his love upon. He's anxiously wanting somebody to embrace him so he can do some fantabulous things, I don't even know if that's the word, but he wants to do some stuff. Running you over with his blessings, do you understand? When was the last time you met somebody that wants to run you over with Good? Let him, let him. Get rid of the religion. Go home tonight and think about, "No, I'm tired of being an achiever, I wanna be a receiver". This is your receiving day.
Somebody say, "No, this is my achieving day". No, no, no, that day happened almost 2000 years ago. Glory to God. The great achiever defeated the deceiver, but not so he can come and deceive us to go back to trying to achieve. You know what it meant when on the cross, when he says, "It is finished"? It means everything is done without a cost due. It's finished. And religion keeps trying to tell you, "No, it ain't no, you need to do these five more things before it's really finished. You need to do this thing before it really finished". And I have tapped into a level of prosperity, it doesn't involve your tithing, it doesn't involve all these little things people be talking about, where you got to get first fruit here, then you gotta to get your tithes here, then you got to don't forget your alms right here, you got to do that.
You're still gonna be broke, because you don't understand that there's a difference between being wealthy and rich. Rich people lose their money and they're doomed forever, but a wealthy person who got something on the inside, he'll always come back with more than what was taken and more than what was lost, because he has the spirit of prosperity in him, and he received the spirit of prosperity and not trying to achieve prosperity. Your choice is very simple today, I receive what you said, number one, or I ain't never coming back here no more. Number two, either one, I'm gonna still track on this trail. You have it, the difference between achieving and receiving.
Now, you gotta make your mind up, what you gonna do. And this is what I'm finding out about people, people do what they wanna do. I don't know, I no longer try to work real hard to try to get people to change their mind about stuff, you're a free moral agent, you gonna do what you wanna do. That's amazing to me. Used to spend, I'd stay up all night long with a believer, have done many times, all night long trying to convince them to do what they need to do. "Well, God will bless you". You know what I found out? One time I did that, God said, "Why did you get in my way? That was none of your business, If you'd have left it alone, I'd have had them straight by the end of the month". Be careful that you're not trying to achieve validation for your good works, while you completely ignore the Holy Spirit to leadering and guiding in what he's trying to do to mature a person, out of a place where they don't have to go back and do it no more. You've already labeled these five things if I do them, I'll achieve so much, God will like me.
"Now, well, honey, God already loves me without doing them five things, and if he wants me to do those five things, it'll be born out of my embracing his love and having a revelation for his love for me, because no work is received by God unless it's born out of love". Number one, if you doing work just to be validated, then God ain't receiving that, he ain't receiving that. Go around the world, work yourself to death, and only thing gonna happen is when you get to heaven, he's gonna say, "You didn't do none of that outta love, you were trying to get a trophy. You were trying to get somebody to recognize you". The only works that God receives, are the works that are born out of love.
So if you ain't gonna do nothing 'cause you and it's born out of love, I ain't gonna give you no money 'cause I feel bad. What am I doing? I might be helping you to stay broke for the rest of your life. "Lord, what you want me to do? Lord, I know you love me, so I know you'll tell me and lead me in the right way. I know you gonna lead me the right way, I know it. I'm receiving the right way, I'm receiving instructions to do that". But you doing stuff 'cause you scared somebody gonna shame you. Oh, what they call that thing today when they get rid of you forever, cancel, cancel you. They've been trying to cancel me for what? 40 years.
"Pastor, why are you saying all that"? 'Cause I am free. I live in the liberty of this grace and I am free. I don't have anything left to do on the planet, except preach the gospel, and I plan on doing, I am not gonna be bumping into Jesus when I'm done, you know, "Oh, there go Jesus". I wanna be able to say, "I gave it all I had. Lord, I hollered, I screamed, I jumped. I studied, I believed. I stood up to the fears of this world". And hopefully I'll have the opportunity for him to come up to me and give me that picture I've carried in my mind since I've been saved. Him coming up to me and embracing me and saying, "Son, I'm proud of you".