Creflo Dollar - The Motivation Behind Humility - Part 2
We gotta quit this little game that we conjured up. "This is the way we go to church, go church. Hallelujah, brother. God bless you, amen. Ooh, I felt that". Ain't nobody got time for that. I'm not preaching a ooh-ah doctrine, I am preaching a doctrine of love and a doctrine of humility so that God can lift you up. See, I keep it in my mind. I gotta see Jesus one day and he already know everything in my heart. So what am I gonna do? Meet Jesus and just act like he don't know what's going on? When Jesus asks you a question, you need to think, you can't lie, 'cause he already know. How many times in a New Testament that he read somebodies mail? Have you thought about that?
So when they say something, it's like Jesus said, "You know, you had a problem with arrogance". "Oh no, God, I didn't, I fed the..." You gonna say, "No God," to God? I think about stuff like this. "No, God, I am holy. Oh, I am holy, I am righteous, I am humble. Oh, humble". And then the Holy Spirit saying, "You're lying". "No, Holy Spirit I didn't lie". Well, you must be a liar, if he just showed you you're lying, that's why you can't hear God too much, 'cause you have filtered away the truth and you wanna hear your truth. And most of the time, your truth is the lie. Help me say this, say this, say this. "Help me not to deceive myself". Everybody good? I know some of you tempted to say, "Y'all ready to go? Y'all ready to go"? "Nah, we wanna hear the rest of the sermon". "Well, I'll be outside".
Okay, so watch this now let's go back to John 13. So I wanted to go over that first so you can see clearly what's going on here, when Jesus does this and he asks, he asked the disciples several times, "Do y'all know what I'm doing? Do you know what's going on here? Do you know what I just demonstrated in front of you? And now I'm on this journey with you as we journey this path of discovering humility in our lives". And so verse one, "He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the end". And so what that says to me is, Jesus walked in humility towards his disciples the whole time he was here on earth. It said he loved his disciples, love is humility. We see a humble guy where his disciples were concerned. He didn't walk around arrogant, he didn't walk around rude, he didn't walk around boasting except he did it in his Father. He walked around in humility.
Christians have gotten a bad name because we haven't discovered that path of love that is ultimately that path of walking in humility. But then, now watch this, what motivated him on the earth to walk down that path of humility? 'Cause if it motivated him, I believe it may be able to help us. So watch this. He says, "It was time for supper," or the Passover, "And the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot to betray Jesus". All right now check this out. "Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything," number one. Number two, "that he had come from God". Jesus knew that he had come from God, number two. And number three, "And Jesus knew that he would return to God".
Three things here, this is so vital. He said, number one, he said, "I know that Jesus has given me authority over everything". And I asked the question, is it possible for us to know, that he has given us authority over everything? Number two, he said that he knew that he came from God. Is it possible for us to know that we have come from God? And then number three, the Bible says that he also knew that he would return to God, woo! Is it possible for us to know that we would return to God? 'Cause to me, when you got those three things, notice what Jesus did after he said this. "So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel he had around him".
He said these three things, and got up from the table. It was as if he was already walking into humility by walking in love, but now he's trying to show them something. "I know I got authority over everything, I know I came from God, I know I'm going back to God, so ain't no problem for me to humble myself and serve in the lowest job of a servant, washing feet". But you can't do that if you're thinking about the world, and what they think about you, and how they view you and all that stuff, you gotta know that you got the authority to do everything that need to be done, you gotta know you came from God, and you gotta know you're going back to God. And when you know that none of that other stuff matters. Oh my God.
All right now watch this verse, verse 7. All right, "So when Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, 'Lord, are you going to wash my feet?' And Jesus replied, 'You don't understand now what I'm doing, but someday you will.'" You don't understand what I'm doing. See you and I, we thought it was just about washing feet. All my life I knew it had to be more than foot washing. I did, 'cause I was always thinking, "If somebody wanna wash my feet, I'm telling no, you ain't washing my feet, 'cause I need to cut my toenails for someone to be washing my feet. Washing my feet, that's personal". And then I feel condemned and I'm thinking, "Something ain't right about this".
And I'm realizing even Jesus is saying, he just told him what he was gonna do. I mean, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize what it means to wash somebody's feet. He took his robe off, put a towel, got a basin, put water in it to wash your feet. And then he said, "You know what I'm doing"? They said, "I don't know what you're doing". No, no he said, "You don't know what I'm doing, but you will one day". That this is deeper, but like always, we take the cheaper instead of the deeper, "Oh, let's just go ahead and start a doctrine of foot washing". And then we pretend like it's spiritual and then we cry. "Oh, you're washing my feet," and all that and I just didn't get it. I'm like, "This has got to mean more than washing somebody's feet".
Now while we were doing that in the church I came from, we were washing people feet, and I gotta be honest with you, some of them feet I saw, I was like them ladies, I was like them ladies at the salon, you're laughing 'cause you know what I'm talking about. So now we need to look at this just a little closer. Verse 7, he says, "You don't understand now what I'm doing, but someday you will". Peter protested, you know Peter, Peter boy. You know, Peter, the revelation came through Peter. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". And Jesus said, "Woo, Peter, boy. Ooh Peter you're showing up, you're showing up let the Lord use you". He said, "You know what, flesh and blood hadn't revealed this to you Peter, but my Spirit revealed it unto you God revealed this unto you. And on this rock I'll build my church".
Now we thought he was talking about Peter, Peter ain't the rock, he was a piece of it. The rock was the revelation of who Jesus was, okay? And so Peter went through all that, and folks going around like, "Look at Peter boy, he think he bad now. Check over, check Peter out and everything". And then Peter kind of got into it a little bit more. And Jesus says, "I've come so I can die on the cross", and Peter said, "No Lord, no Lord, we'll not let it happen, it shall not be so". And Jesus looked at Peter and said, "Satan, I rebuke you". Peter was like, "What, I know you didn't called me Satan, I know you Jesus and everything, but I'm from College Park. You don't just sit up here and call me Satan". He called him, he said, "Satan".
See, he didn't know what he was saying, he didn't know that quick, he went from revelation knowledge to saying something that was of the devil. There you go again. "No, you will never, ever wash my feet". Jesus said, "Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me". Peter said, "Then wash my hands and my head not just my feet". "Wash me, wash me". Y'all pray, pray for me. "Jesus replied, 'A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash.'" This ain't what this is about, see he said that. "Except for the feet to be entirely clean".
'Cause that's what you're walking in, the dust got on your feet, you're coming in the house, that's why it was a custom. "And you disciples are clean, but not all of you. For Jesus knew who would betray him. That's what it meant when he said, Not all of you are clean". He knew Judas was in the house. "And after washing their feet, he put on a robe again, and then he sat down and he asked, 'Do you understand what I was doing?'" That should be an easy question. "You were washing feet, Jesus". He's not convinced, you understand what I was doing. He says, "You call me teacher and you call me Lord and you're right, because that's what I am. And since your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet". He said, "I reduce myself, no arrogance, no boasting, no rudeness and I'll wash feet, you do that, you do that. You know it's more than watching feet".
If listen, if it was washing feet, we having foot washing every Sunday. And you know some of y'all ain't gonna do it. "It's too cold outside, Pastor, you're not watching my feet today, that's not happening". It's got to be a little deeper than that, watch this. Verse 15, "I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you, and I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their masters, nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things," he said, "God will bless you for doing them". What things? 'Cause he says, "If you know them, he will bless you for doing them". Sounds like same thing as this day of exhortation, this day of being lifted up this thing.
All right let's dig a little deep here now. When Jesus ask his disciples to follow his example, he did not expect them to do so without the same incentives and enablement which was there for him. Nor should any believer be without these great influences, influences of humility, the influences of humility. Here's the first thing we see. Go to John chapter 13 and 34 in the NLT. John 13:34, Romans 5:5 and Philippians 2:1 and 3 in the NLT. So here, Jesus's great commandment to his disciples was, that you love one another as I have loved you. That you also love one another. You and I know that love is humility.
The scripture says here in verse 34, "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other". And then in Romans 5 and 5, this is the first act of the Holy Spirit. Romans 5 and 5, he says, "And this hope, and this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love". King James says "The Holy Spirit poured love into our heart".
So now we're talking about the supernatural love of God, and the ability has been poured in our heart. So we have the ability to love with the supernatural love of God. We can love what's not lovely because we're not loving with our natural love, we are loving with supernatural love given to us by the Holy Spirit. I can love what hurts, I can love what broke me, I can love what disappointed me, I can love what's ugly. I do it with supernatural love, but if I love this way, I'm humbling myself and he will lift me up. You keep negotiating with "No, you hurt me too bad to love you". No, no, no, no, no. If I don't love you regardless of what you do to me, you have power over me, and I'm not giving you that power over me. I'm gonna love you no matter what you do to me, and when I love you, I am on the path of humility, and when I'm on that path of humility, whether you like it or not, I will be lifted up and I will be exalted in due time.
Now, that don't mean I'm gonna live with you every day 'cause you beat me up. You beat me up, I got to love you from a distance because I ain't be going there getting beat up all the time. Lord, listen, the Lord don't mind you moving on, you ain't got, listen, the Lord don't want you, the Lord ain't called you, the Lord doesn't desire for you to remain in a relationship where you're beat up. "Well, what about love"? Well, you better learn, first of all you gotta love yourself before you can accurately love. And ain't no way in the world, I don't care what no preacher, I preached about.
"Well, now Brother Dollar, you need to just stick it out". I ain't never, and you can go to another church if you want to, I ain't never going to advise for a woman or a man. I've counseled abused men who were beat up by their wives. I know that sounds weird, but it happens. Nobody should stay in an abusive, toxic, dangerous relationship. I don't believe in that, I don't believe in it, I don't believe Jesus will believe in it, I don't believe in that, it's not right, it's not right. Because humility operates on equal ground, and love operates on equal ground. Love operates on partnership, not on domination. God has given us dominion over the whole world, but he never gave us dominion over one another. And you're beating somebody because you are inferior, you feel short, he came outta sin. What Adam and Eve did caused everybody to fall.
But listen, the Bible says, that "We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God". Short of the glory of God is how you define inferiority. And when you feel like you fall short of the glory of God all the time, and you feel like you're nothing, you feel like you don't measure up, you feel like you don't mean nothing, then you have to do something to try to take the place of your inferiority, and so what happens, is you choose a false sense of superiority, because you're really inferior. Inferior will try to make people, inferior people try to make it seem like they are superior, but you're not.
And so since you lost dominion and don't know how to get it back, you now try to replace your loss of dominion with dominating other people. But if we're gonna walk down the path of humility, we're gonna have to learn that we gotta be for real Christians, and we gotta quit playing this church game, where this is the way we go to church, go to church, and then we go home like a bunch of hellions, acting like they ain't no Christ on your side. There's a path of love, there's a path of humility, that God wants you to travel.
And Jesus said, "Do you understand what I'm trying to show you? I am your Lord, and I am your teacher, and I have humbled myself to love you, and I want you to love others as I have loved you, and in due time I will lift you up. In due time I will exalt you. I got your back". Pride says, "You serve me". Humility says, "We serve one another". It's just spiritual pride it's just you feel as, I've seen this happen, you feel so inferior in the world, you feel like you failed in the world, and you look at the church because they think of themselves weak sometime. And so you think you can make it in the church and then you come into church and try to do something you couldn't do in the world.
That's why saved people need to be dominating in the world, not people, but success in every arena, and God gets the glory for all of it. Yeah, why don't men, why don't men like coming to church? Well, they're men here today. Can I hear you, gentlemen? Or is any guy here at church today? Yeah, men today. But they're so tired of hearing everything's their fault. And then we go and we fuss the men out real good, and then we go fuss the women out real good, and Jesus was like, "Dude, don't you understand that my coming created an equal ground for men and women? Did you not hear it clearly in my word when I said, that once Jesus came, there's no more male or female"?
That takes care of biblical inequality. There's no more Jew or Greek that takes care of the racism. Ain't nobody better than somebody else, 'cause they got a deeper tan or a lesser tan, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? But we, you know, we'd let keep going on now between Democrats and Republicans and those from the South and North, oh oh, will the real Christians please stand up? My God. Hey, I gotta I need to pull myself together. Just, I wanna work on my love walk, and I wanna work on my humility.
So my life with God is about so much more than the materials I can get. And thank God you sow what you reap, but my focus is not on that. God does that for me there's just so many people that need caring for and loving, and we are so focused on the wrong thing, as if the kingdom is all about your bank account. We're on our way down the right path. Love and humility, you get that straight then from love, all of the necessary protocols and actions and the to-dos, will be born out of a love walk and not an attempt to defend your self-worth. Not an attempt to try to get validated by the wrong sources and resources, but a real live relationship with him where he wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, thank you so much for letting me sleep last night".