Creflo Dollar - Heirs According To The Promise

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Today, I wanna answer the question, "Why give"? I mean, come on, man, I mean, why give? Man, we've heard a lot about that, a lot of things that are interesting. I went to the Internet and pulled up some old sermons from me and other guys just to see what we were saying back then, and we didn't have it. And so, praise God, we gonna rewrite the book. Galatians chapter 3, verse 13 and 14, he said, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law". Now, literally what he says here is Christ has paid the ransom, "to be redeemed" means "you've been delivered because somebody paid a ransom".

So Christ has redeemed us by paying the ransom for us to go free from the curse of not being able to keep all 613 of the laws. And so Christ has redeemed us and delivered us through a ransom by being the peace offering. "He's delivered us, redeemed us, from the curse of the law," how? "Being made a curse for us," so he was made a curse for us. He took on the consequences that were due to us upon himself. He became a curse for us, "for it is this written, cursed is every one that hangs on the tree". Well, why did he do all of that? Why did Jesus die on the cross, became the compensation and the payment for our sins, paid the ransom so we can go free from the curse, shed his blood, had his body broken, all this stuff for us, why? For what reason? What was the purpose?

This is so awesome, see, this is, somebody says, "Well, he did all that so I can be saved". True, don't doubt that, but now he's specifically and precisely gonna say in the next verse he did all of this because... or so "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ". "I died, I took all of your sins, I became a curse for you so that Jewish people would not be the only ones to inherit the blessing of Abraham. I now did it so that Gentiles can get in on the blessing of Abraham". My God.

Ken Terry: The Bible talks about in the book of James that, trying to preach to a man, you need to first feed him.

Taffi Dollar: The Bible talks about how, when we feed those who are hungry, if we go out and pray for those who are sick or ill, in the hospitals, and we go to where they are, that was what Jesus did, he went to where people were.

Debra Carr: Just by going into the school, we would feed people, meet their practical needs, and then those kids get to hear the gospel, and we've had parents, those kids lead their parents to the Lord, and then those families come to the church.

Archie Collins: It may be that a well is needed in Kenya for the Maasai, or it could be that they need glasses in India for people who are having eyesight problems, or emergency-related outreach in missions, we wanna meet that specific felt need, and at the end of the day, we know, once we do that, people will understand grace and be empowered to change as a result of us meeting the needs that exist in their lives.

Jesus died, became a curse so that you could get what? So how does he plan on you getting the blessing of Abraham? No, you gotta be goody-goody to get it. You gotta come to church at least five times. You got to fast for at least 30 days. There's something you've got to do to deserve it. How does he plan on you accessing the blessing of Abraham? Through Jesus Christ, so if I believe in Jesus and I've made him the Lord of my life, do I have access to the blessing of Abraham? Good class, good class. "The blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ," now, watch this, semicolon, here's what comes with the blessing, "that we might receive the promise". And all of this, you've gotta get it through what? "Faith," not works, not striving, but through faith. Does everybody understand that?

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not to the seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ". Now look at verse 29. How do we get into this? Galatians 3:29. So we talk about accessing the blessing and the promise, but do I have a right to it? Well, "And if you be Christ's," "And if you be Christ's," and "If you be Christ's", so he's stating the condition. "So if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed". So what do I have to do to become Abraham's seed? Be Christ's. How many of you are Christ's? All right, I announce today that you are the seed of Abraham. But not only you're Abraham's seed, but you are now an heir. You are now an heir. All right, so what's the promise? What am I getting? "For the promise," comma. He getting ready to tell us what it is. The promise God made to Abraham: "You are going to be the heir of the world".

I believe the Greek word here, "world," is "kosmos". That's big because he is not saying you are to inherit worldly things. We are in the world, but we are not of how they operate. So here's what it means. It means you are a heir to all of the world's goods. You have a right to inherit all of the endowments, all of the riches, all of the advantages, and all of the pleasures. This is the promise that God made to Abraham and to his seed. You have a right to inherit all of the earth's goods. Everything, all of the goods on this earth are rightfully yours. All of the endowments of this earth are rightfully yours. All of the riches, the gold, the silver, the minerals, the water, it's rightfully yours. All of the advantages, so all of the technology that's born in the earth, rightfully yours. All of the pleasures on this earth, don't tell me I can't go to the beach. That's rightfully mine. I've inherited that.

This is the promise that God made to Abraham and to his seed, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but it was to Abraham and his seed through the righteousness of faith. So he says, "I have given you this will. I've given you this inheritance not to try to manifest it through the works of the law. I gave this to you to receive it through the righteousness of faith". All right, watch carefully now. The blessing of Abraham for the new covenant believer is made void and of no effect when you try to earn it and deserve it through your efforts. Hence, the secret to walkin' in the blessing of Abraham in your life is to stop trying to deserve it. Instead, exercise your faith to believe that you are righteous through Jesus's finished works. The more righteousness conscious you are, the more blessings you will experience.

The Abrahamic blessing of being an heir of the world comes by trusting entirely on God's unmerited favor in your life. But the next question is why give? Because now the church said the blessing's out there and the way you get blessed is by giving. That's not quite the truth. You're almost sayin' to me like the world says. You're almost saying, "I got to buy the blessing or earn it through my giving," and you're now treating giving like a quid pro quo. "What do you mean"? A quid pro quo just means that if you scratch my back, I'mma scratch yours. And so, I know, all my life, I heard, "Give," watch this, watch this, watch this law-based thing, "and it'll be given unto you". Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

And something's wrong with that because somehow in your mind, in your subconscious, you still believe that "If I give, I'll get blessed, and if I don't give, I won't get blessed," and that is a direct violation of 2 Corinthians 9 and 7. Go to 2 Corinthians 9 and 7. "If I give, I'll get blessed. If I don't give, I won't get blessed". "Bring ye all the tithes to the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me here, saith the Lord of hosts". Now, I'll still get all those blessings of the tithe except this one, and if you don't tithe, I don't wanna read it no more, but if you don't tithe, you'll be cursed.

Now, listen to me carefully. "Every man," verse 7, "according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give. Don't give grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver". To be a grudging giver means, "I don't wanna give, but I'll do it anyway for my religious practice". And he's sayin', "Don't give like that". And then, "I'm gon' give so I won't go to hell". He says, "You're giving because you feel like it's necessary for you to avoid hell". "I'm gonna give so I can get blessed". So you're giving because you feel like it's necessary for you to get blessed. You're still on the merit system. You're still doing something so you can feel like you deserve something, and you took something so precious as giving and made it a part of the works of the law. "I've got to give to get," quid pro quo. Giving is not a way to get the blessing. Giving is an act of worship. You don't give to get blessed. You give because you're already blessed.

Alexandria Dollar: We honor God through our giving. It's not about how much or the finances. It's more so about honoring God. From a practical standpoint, those things are being given to bless people, to reach people, to keep things going, but from a spiritual standpoint, you know, God honors that, so when you give to his kingdom, he's givin' it back to you in different ways that you can't imagine, through healing, through peace, through a sound mind.

Kathleen J. Dollar: Giving is an act of love. Before we understood grace, giving was, like, "You give, you get". But now understanding that, because you already have, because he's given us everything, in response, we give.

I've tried to hold back tears when I think about this, and I now know what it means when it says, you know, yeah, thank God for worship in song, thank God for worship in dance, and thank God for worship in all the things we do, but worship is never complete without the giving of a substance from your life to thank him for everything he's already done. And the fact that I wake up every day and realize that I'm blessed and I have an inheritance, I've got to do it. You can give the gift with the wrong motivation. The motivation is more important than the gift. All right, now watch this, I'll begin at verse 12: "And they took Lot, Abraham's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed". And Abraham heard about what, you know, 'cause Lot... you remember Lot and them, they couldn't stay together?

And so he heard that they kidnapped him and took all of his stuff, verse 14, "And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan". Verse 15, "And he divided himself against them, and he and his servant, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women, and the people". So I'm assumin' he won, right? But verse 7, says, "And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from", and he called it "from the slaughter". So he not only won, but with 300 men out of his own household, the driver, the server, the lawn guy. Do you understand? And they went in by night.

So I don't know if anybody, one of the reasons why you just read they won, 'cause don't nobody know what happened, except they won. It was a slaughter, and they collected all the goods and brought back everything and more, and it was such a slaughter that Sodom, who had been defeated by these nations, said, "I need to come out and meet this guy". But notice what happened. God help me. "And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine", when we do bread and wine, it's Communion, isn't it? "And he was the priest and the representative of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, 'Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hands.' He said, 'It was God that delivered your enemies into your hands. It wasn't your fight. It wasn't your servants. It wasn't whether your trainin' was good or not. You stepped out, all knowing you're blessed.'"

Who does that? Who takes the chauffeur and the cook and the maid and say, "Let's go and get 'em"? Three hundred and eighteen went out against the nations, and it was a slaughter. Now, you gotta know Abram's thinkin' in this. Abram's thinking, "We should all be dead. We should be dead. What the world... what happened? What the heck? We should be dead". And he can't get it off his mind. "I'm blessed. It was, I know what happened. It was him. It was him. It was the same one that showed up in the midst of the famine. It was the same one that showed up and got my wife back. It was the same one that gave me this kid that, it's him. It was him. It was him. It's him. It's God. God did it. God did it. God did it". And can't you see him? The next line, he said, "And he brought him a tithe". You know what happened? He says, "I worship him. I gotta worship him, I gotta", you know what "worship" means? "I'm in awe. I'm in awe of what had just happened, and so I bring my substance, and I worship him".

Oh, I don't know if you've ever been in a ditch so deep. I don't know if you've been in a situation so bad. I don't know if you've been in a situation you thought there was no way out, and you knew it wasn't you. You knew, you knew it was God somewhere stirring in that nest, and when he did a marvelous thing, I needed to figure out, "I need to worship him. Here, God, here's my substance". Your money represents you. Your money represents your time. Your money represents your effort. Your money represents everything. Here, God, my worship can't be complete by saying, "Thank ya," and wavin' my hands and singin' a song, but when I bring something to you, it says "honor". Giving is an honor act, not a quid pro quo. It's an honor act.

Anthony Adams: God's love is everlasting, but it has to be expressed through people.

Ken Terry: No one can love us more than God, so when God, who is love is on the inside of us, tells us to love our neighbor, he's saying, "Can you share me with them? Can you tell them about me and how much I love them? Can you tell them about me and how much I was willin' to sacrifice so that they can have what they need"?

Vetress Blanch: It gives you the opportunity to help bring the same knowledge and the revelation that you've received to other parts of the world who may not have had an opportunity to see it yet.

Shirley Wren: It's a way to expand the kingdom, but it's a way to manifest the Christ that's on the inside of you. It's a way to glorify the heavenly Father, and I just don't know what more you could ask for.

Giving is an honor act. It's a honor act. It's an honor act, and Abraham, in the following verses, said, "I don't want anything from you". He says, "I lift my hands up to God so that no man will be able to say he made me rich, but God only". My giving is an act of worship. Look at look Psalms 96, verse 6 through 9. My giving is an act of worship. I'm not giving to get the blessing of Abraham. I already have the blessing of Abraham by faith. I am giving to worship God in gratitude and thanksgiving for what he has already done. He has already blessed me, and I'm giving because of what has already been done. And every time you see that blessing is working in your life, you want, I wanna worship him, but we've never been taught and trained that the money is not giving to get. It is because I've gotten that I give. It is because of what I have that I give. It is a part of my worship. He said to gather the first of the week so that when you come together, you'll already have it because this is a part of your worship.

Watch this: "Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary". Verse 7, "Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength". Verse 8, "Give unto the Lord the glory that's due unto his name". How am I gonna give unto him glory that's due to his name? Colon, "bring an offering". It's a gift, it's a gift, "and come into his courts". It's a gift, it's not giving to buy the blessing. It's not giving to massage God up so you can get him to do something. "Bring unto the Lord what's due unto his name". Worship him. Worship him in the beauty of his holiness. That's what that means. It ain't about getting, "I'mma give so I can get that, and I'mma give", no, no, no. It's about, "Let me think about all that God has done for me". That's a part of your worship.