Creflo Dollar - How To Have A Godly Mentality - Part 2
The greatest sin that existed in the Garden of Eden, the greatest sin that exists in our lives today: spiritual blindness. Cannot see. And so that's what he's trying to do. He's just trying to get you... now, how's he do that? He gets you to focus on the norms and values of the world more than you focus on the Word of God. And so you're more focused on what's on the news, you're more focused on what's going on in the hip hop community, you're more focused on, you know, the social media stuff. You're so focused in all that drama, all that drama, all of that drama. You're so focused on all that drama. It's drama after drama. I don't even know how people do it. It's just drama after drama after drama after drama; and it just keep going, just more and more and more drama until you're stressed out and you have to say to yourself, "I need a break".
I was watching this movie on Netflix. It's called "Carter". It's an action movie, and it's about this Asian guy who they planted something in his head and he had to find this girl who had the cure in her blood. All right, so the movie starts and it's just action. It's action, chopping arms off. It went from one scene action, you know, shooting people and jumping on bikes and no... more action and just action and just action and just action and just action and just action. And I hit pause, I said, "God, I need a break". And even when it was going off, the end, it went off with no conclusion except more action. I don't know if they made it or not. I said that's exactly what the enemy, his plan is. "I want to get you so focused away from the things of God so you will be so inundated by the norms and values of the world".
So what's right in your eye is what everybody else says is right. What's wrong in your eye is what everybody else says is wrong. Whoever needs to be canceled is what everybody else say who needs to be canceled. You don't even think for yourself. You flow with the norms and values of the world, and whatever everybody else is saying you say the thing. You're a puppet and you don't even know it, and Satan's back there, "Yeah. Oh, I got a lot of folks I can devour right now", why? Because he successfully got you away from the Word. And even in church. A lot of folk go to church, they don't want to hear no Word. They don't want to hear nobody teaching. The teacher is one of those gifts that thousands don't gravitate to. They want to have church, and they call, having church is not necessarily the Word.
"But you have got to make me feel some kind of way. You got to get me up a little bit... You know, this thing you can't just, I didn't say anything about looking at no Scripture. I ain't come to learn nothing. I came to have church". The first time I heard that I'm like, "What"? "I didn't come to learn nothing, I came to have church". My own granddaddy told me one time, he said, "Now look, Cref". He said, "Let me tell you something". He said, "Now I'm going to tell you something. I know, you know, everybody appreciate your teaching, but I don't want to hear that. I want you screaming and hollering. That's what I want". That's a good way to be in church all your life and be blind 'cause you don't know nothing, and that's what's happened.
Look where we are today. Christian people can't even open the Bible and read it for themselves, it's so confusing. You got leaders in the pulpit that's just as confused as you are and they're calling themselves what? Generals. And just as confused, can't even read contextually. You know, as a former teacher, it was imperative that I understood how to interpret material that I read. In college we had to write a theme or you didn't graduate. I had to understand a central idea and a thesis statement and three, and thesis points and how to build each paragraph and how to end it with a clincher. I had to understand all that stuff. So, good Lord, I know how to read. I didn't just wake up one day and get stupid and just throw something out so you can holler, "Heresy". And then when I say, "All right, I'm not sure what you talking about". I'm like, "Oh my God, you can't even read".
You know, literature was all about comprehension. And in college we were given an impossible task. We were supposed to read this, I don't know if I got the name of it. I hated the book. Everybody in class flunked so he had to just pass everybody. The book, there was no way it could be comprehended. It just made your head hurt, and I thought, "Why are you doing this? Why are we", He says, "I want you to think". There are laws of interpretation. "I want you to think". This is kind of natural background that I had. I'm giving you kind of like Paul. Paul said, "I was a Pharisee. I was this; I was this". It's a natural background. So when the Holy Ghost gets in me and I open the Bible and read and interpret it and I know I got to find out who talking, I got to find out who that person talking to, I got to find out what time it is. Is this AD or BC?
I got to find out where they were. I got to find out what was happening before they had this conversation and after they had this conversation. I had to find out what dispensation we talking about. Where were we when we said what 'cause stuff is different based on, stuff that's going on today in our life wasn't happening 100 years ago. I had to find out what was going on. Yeah, they call that context. And today, oh, forget context. Just take this Scripture from one dispensation, mix it with this Scripture from that dispensation. Put them together and say you got a revelation, tell the congregation about that stuff. I can't tell you how irresponsible it is to not rightly divide the Word of truth and just preach something 'cause somebody else got it and then you learned it from your spiritual granddaddy, from your spiritual daddy, from your spiritual this and it came on down and ain't nobody sit there and say, "All right, let me rightly divide and interpret this properly".
And so now you got these big debates going on about what's true and what's not true because people can't read 'cause their mind is being blinded lest the glorious gospel should come on the inside of them. I don't understand that. I am responsible for World Changers. I have taught my congregation about the laws of interpretation. I mean, sat down, I think it might have been in this building, and say, "All right, look at this. You do this. What that mean"? I mean, and then we do stuff like, let me give you, I wasn't supposed to go here, but I'm here now so let me, I think it was Hebrews chapter 10:24. It talking about if you sin, I may have to look it up, there remaineth no more sacrifice for your sin. Is that 24 or 25? Go to 25. No, go back up to 23. I hope I got the right one. I might have the wrong...let's see. Is it 26? Go to 26. Hebrews 10:26. Yeah, the crew right there, boy. We don't give up on a Scripture. We're going to, somebody in here know, you know, even if the preacher don't know it, somebody in the crew know it. Praise God. We help each other out.
Okay, so when you just clump Scriptures together and you don't rightly interpret it, here's what you get. "For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin". Now, the first time I heard that somebody was telling me if you do something willfully and you know you did it, then there's no more sacrifice for sin. You can't get no more forgiveness. I said, "How you get there"? "Well, if you sin willful, did you do that willfully"? And then I started thinking, "Well, all sin is willful". But they didn't think that. They think, "Well, some sin you can just make a mistake". "Well, I made a mistake". You didn't make no mistake. You thought about it, processed it, and did it. I mean, it might have been quick for you to cast that eye, but you thought about it, processed it, and cast an eye. All sin is willful.
"So if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth", okay. Right interpretation is what knowledge of truth, what specific knowledge is he talking about? What specific truth is he talking about? He said, "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins". All right, what kind of sacrifices is he talking about? Old covenant sacrifices when they sacrificed the animals, sacrifices for sins. What is he talking about? And the law says you got, not the law, but the laws of interpretation say you got to keep going back until you answer these questions. You got to back up several verses and may have to back up several Scriptures. You might have to back up several books. Just like Malachi chapter 3, Malachi chapter 3 is not talking to the church. You got to back up when he says, "You have robbed this whole nation".
What nation is he talking about? You go to chapter 2 and you find out he's talking to the Levites, the priests. He's talk, so Malachi chapter 3, "You're cursed with a curse and you're rob", that was talking to Levitical priesthood. This right here, if you, you back up to the very first part of the Scripture, Hebrews chapter 10, and it starts talking about the sacrifices of the Old Testament and talked about how, you know, Jesus came as the final sacrifice. And he says, "Now, if you don't believe in Jesus as the final sacrifice, you're going to continue to present animal sacrifices". And he says if you sin willfully by bringing these animal sacrifices and not accepting Jesus as the final sacrifices, he says, after you've received the knowledge of the truth that Jesus is the final sacrifice, then there remaineth no more sacrifices for sins.
In other words, the reason why there remaining no more sacrifices for sin is because Jesus is the final sacrifice for sin and he's already settled the whole deal. So the willful sin is not believing that Jesus is the final sacrifice. That's the willful sin. So if you sin willfully by not believing that Jesus is the final sacrifice after you've come to the knowledge of the truth that he's the final sacrifice, and I have to sit there and hear this thing preached over and over again and I'm thinking like, "Oh, God". For 30 years I had to hear about Malachi and taught it myself. "Y'all don't want to be robbing God, do you? Amen, y'all don't want to be robbing God, do you? Hey, y'all don't want those curses, do you? Hey, hey, hey, you don't want...hey, hey. You don't want to live under a closed heaven, do you? You better get your tithe or that heaven is going to be closed up".
No, that heaven is open because Jesus is the one that opened that heaven and it remains open over your life, but we don't do the right interpretation. And then you start living like this, you start getting blind and you can't see. You can't see nothing but what you've always seen traditionally. And so he says your tradition has made the Word of God of no effect. And you will see people that are under demonic influence that's in the church that know the Bible as they debate and fuss over the Bible. They don't even know they're being demonically influenced. Satan operates, kill, steal, and destroy, right in this battleground right here. What are you hearing? What are you listening to? How many pathways have you given the enemy? How many entrances does he have into your life? What suggestions are...have you been hearing that you have yet to cast down and make it submit to God's Word?
You hear something say, "Kill yourself," and you won't even deal with it. And then you might even think, "Well, that's the Lord telling me that". That ain't no Lord telling you that. But there are many people who like, "Something told me". And it's time for me to put a name with something told...who the something? Now it's someone. Satan. He's whispering in your ear, and then when that happens, and there's evidence of it. School shootings, look at these people when they take pictures of them for jail. They eyes are gone. They're in a distance somewhere. It's like deep glass. Like these guys are seriously possessed. They don't, they get in jail for a few months and trying to figure out, "What did I do? Why did I do that? I don't even know what," watch this, "came over me". I do. It's the devil, and drug abuse just enhances it more. Same thing. Wow.
And we don't have a clue what's going on. We don't have a clue to open our mouth up and say, "Satan, I know that's you. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. Stop. No more". They're real. I hope you're not carrying this spirit with you and don't even know you carrying this thing with you. I've seen it. I used to work at a psychiatric hospital. I saw demons on a daily basis. There was some guy came in one time and he thought he was Jesus, and I said, "Jesus, we're going to have to put you in a BCR today". Yeah. I never forget ministering to a patient to get them filled with the Holy Spirit and the room, in the daytime the room got dark. Those demons that had been lurking there for I don't know how long, but I knew who they were so it wasn't scaring me. "Satan, I know you".
I know this place is filled with stuff. There are demonic forces that are being held in captivity in places you're not even aware of. Like when you leave the earth, a lot of them are out there in darkness. In the middle of the earth, there are demons because of the rebellion that are captured and locked down. Hell was created for the devil and his angels. That's where they are, but they're not just there. Some of them are still loose trying to take advantage of you and try to get something they wish they had: a body. So if they can't have it, they'll just get you to kill yourself. And this thing is serious. It ain't even no joke no more. And it's time for us to wake up and walk in the authority that we have been given by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Somebody got to cast these things out. Somebody got to recognize when that's devil. Somebody's got to speak the Word of faith. Somebody's got to make declarations of God's Word. Somebody's got to let that anointing come out of them and rise up in a level of boldness where the devil begins to tremble because he is afraid of you. "Well, I don't believe that. I think Pastor Dollar must have had something funny to eat today. I don't believe that". Blinds the minds of them who believe not lest the glorious gospel should shine unto them. He doesn't want you to understand this gospel, and especially this gospel. Well, you know, you and I know this gospel of grace. He doesn't want you to understand that. Are you kidding me?
To understand that Jesus died for your sins, to understand that Jesus took your sins upon his body, to understand that you've been made righteous not by your work but by what he did, to understand that you've been made redeemed, to understand what happens when you receive him as your Lord and personal Savior, to understand this grace and mercy? No devil wants you to understand that. He wants you to work and sweat and fight doubt and fight shame and fight condemnation and fight all of those weird things.
I asked the Lord, I said, "What is the number one problem with a man? What causes a man not to be able to do the things he needs to do? What causes a man...why is the percentage of men coming to church so low? How come they can't figure out how to get to church? How come they can't figure out how to stay with their families? How come they can't figure out how to stand on equal grounds with their wife? Why is it that they left having dominion by God to now wanting to dominate others"? I said, "Lord, I need to know. I don't want to have this men's conference coming up and they leave and come out the same. I need to know. We need to get down to the nitty-gritty".
He said because they fail short. Inferiority, that's what it means to have inferiority. You fall short. And when you fall short, then you try to do something about it. And so now when you fall short in having dominion, you will now try to dominate because you can't figure out how to fix what went on and you want to blame it on manhood. "Well, I left my wife 'cause I was doing this". No, no, no, no. You left your wife and went fooling around somewhere because of your inferiority. You felt like you could never get it together. Your inferiority brought in your insecurities and then your insecurities you threw out on everybody else and now you came up with this lame, God, I almost cussed. This lame... thank God for the Holy Ghost. This lame excuse.
I was hearing my mama in my head. My mama could cuss before she got saved. Ooh, I know you all look at her as sweet Mama Dollar. Mama Dollar used to, she cussed me out one, my mama cussed me out when I got saved. I tried to witness to her. I said, "Mama, you need to get saved". She said, "Who the blank blank you think you are trying to tell me I need to", and you know what my mama said, watch this, my mama said, "Oh, baby, forgive me. That devil must have had me there for a moment". Even my mama knew about the devil by then. But it's like we need to get this thing together. Like, you're the only one got a issue as a man. Are you serious?
And it's just so common that when you talk to a teenager, ain't nobody got no daddy. "Do you have a daddy"? "No". "Your daddy home? Where your daddy? Your daddy left"? All the daddies left. We got to fix this. No more excuses, dude. No more excuses. "Well, you don't understand. You know, my wife was just mean". I'd be mean too if I had you as a mate. Sorry, don't want to work, don't pay the bills, don't try and take care of yourself, just nasty and just trifling and, "Well, pastor, it ain't just the men". But you know what? You've been given the authority to dictate the course. Watch this, listen, listen. You can cause the course to go like it's supposed to go with everybody because you are a fountain of God's love that will feed spiritually everybody you connected to in your household, everybody you connected to.
Man, ain't got no more time. This thing is real. If you don't mind, I'd like to continue with it the next, I feel comfortable ministering here with the crew. And I know we online, but we got the crew online. They taking care of everybody else, man. Boy, don't mess with Creflo online. Boy, them crew people will come and get you. Some of them Christian folks I know they be cussing. If that thought does not line up with God's Word, you should cast it down and make it obey God's Word. All right, but watch this. Watch this. But how will you ever know if that thought is in opposition to God's Word if you don't know his Word, if you don't know his Word? You got to know his Word.