Creflo Dollar - How To Overcome Inferiority - Part 1
Imagine a man getting up in the morning, waking up in his inferiority. What does that mean for his wife that day? What does that mean for his children that day? What does that mean for his co-workers that day? What does that mean for his friends that day? What's going on in his mind? Because what we've learned how to do as men, we've learned how to cover up our wounds and try to produce an identity through the cover. And that identity we produce through the cover is a false identity. And then you walk around afraid that somebody gonna move the cover and you're gonna be discovered. Because inferiority comes in, and when you remove the cover, you wonder am I enough? Will I be able to do this?
I mean, 'fore I got married at 23, 24 years old, can I pay the bills? 'Cause my dad made it seem like it was impossible to pay the bills. I mean, we went two years without no hot water. I don't know if you know what that looks like, but it looks like this. You put cold water in the tub and then you heat up the hot water on the stove and then you pour the hot water in and mix it in with the cold water, and everybody had to take bath in that real quick as possible, for two years. And it built up the same inferiority in me thinking, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to pay bills. But it would probably be easier for you to pay your bills for your family if you wasn't cheating around with another family. Oh, we ain't talking about that, huh? We'll leave that alone.
But that comes from inferiority, because what happens is I feel so inferior with my family, I need to go and find another family I can be dominant over that family since I have no more dominion here at this family. And so what happens, inferiority will take you from dominion to domination. You're trying to make up for feeling short. Got a little ahead of myself, but are you are y'all following me here, men? This is, the blood of Jesus does more than just forgive us of our sins. Watch this, it restores us the dominion over life that Adam and Eve once had. The blood of Jesus has restored our dominion over life. We are now in the process of being everything that God intended for us to be. As a born again man, you are in the process of being everything that God intended you to be. And you have a help now. The Holy Spirit is going to help you to be everything that God intended you to be.
So you gotta quit comparing yourself amongst yourself, because God's working in you and has accepted the responsibility for you reaching your glory. Every man has a glory, and I prophecy that you're going to reach that glory. There are not many who believe like we do. And the greatest revival that ever hit the planet is about to hit, and God needs you to let go of inferiority. You're not powerless anymore. You have the power of the Holy Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you in every area. You are going to be absolutely amazing at the glory that you're about to display. The devil don't know what's about to hit him, but it's gonna be a bunch of men who are no longer walking in their inferiority, but they're walking in their deliverance, and they're walking in their glory. Somebody shout glory. Made in God's image.
Look at this, Genesis 1 and 26, made in God's image. Verse 26 says, "God said 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle, and over all the earth.'" God gave man dominion over life itself, original purpose, dominion over life itself. Now, David described that dominion, he made us with dominion. David describes that dominion in Psalms 8, verse 4 through 6. Here's how he describes that dominion that God gave man. He said, "What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God".
Elohim is the Hebrew word there, not Angel, but a little lower than God. "You've made him a little lower than God and you have crowned him with glory and honor". Gentlemen, you have been crowned. You have been crowned. You have been crowned. Is there anybody in here that'll say I have been crowned? Not I will be. I have been crowned with glory, with honor, with this ability, to completely and totally fulfill what God intended for me. "You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet". I don't see inferiority here. Man was supreme, and it is in our genes to desire to be supreme. Follow me.
In our genes to be supreme over all of the earth and the creation. But when a person is not born again, and often when they are born again, he unsuccessfully strives for supremacy. He strives for authority, but he's empty inside, he's fragile, he's inferior, due to the sin in his heart. He is beat by the devil and by his own fallen nature, so he tries to compensate the inferiority complex by money, by sex, and by power over others. That's what happens. The inferiority complex is there, and he tries to compensate. You feel short, so you have to compensate. You feel unimportant, so you gotta compensate. You feel like you don't measure up, so you gotta compensate.
And so you try to compensate inferiority with money, with sex, with power over others. But it's all in vain. There's only one root cause of that inferiority, and that's sin. Therefore, there's only one root solution, and that's Christ. That's Christ. I don't think you really hear what I'm saying. It's like, if you don't get Christ in your life, you are subject to inferiority all your life. And your success can't be measured by money. You still feel short. You're a billionaire, you still feel short. Huh? You're... Oh. Christ is your only way to be restored back to that glory that will cause you to accomplish everything that God had intended for you to accomplish. And that is the problem, gentlemen, is too many men think that they can do without Christ.
"Well..." They come up with a bunch of excuses, why? They have a lot of excuses. Well, won't you go to church? Well, why don't you listen to a man? They looking for a perfect preacher. Ain't no such thing as no perfect preacher. He a man just like you are, probably struggling with some inferior issues of his own. We don't get in the Word. If you don't get in, you can't do this without Christ. In fact, there is no way you'll ever understand manhood without Christ, because the definition of manhood, if they would define it right, is Christ. What you've done is you've you've allowed society to give you a set of man-law. And man-law in operation is only going to produce toxicity. And then you gonna go round talking about, "Men don't do that and men don't do that and men don't do that and men don't do that".
You're just producing a toxic man who's gonna get in a relationship and it's gonna be a toxic relationship, who's gonna raise kids they're gonna be toxic kids because you're dealing with somebody who's inferior, who's trying to discover manhood without the man, Christ Jesus. "Well, you ain't necessarily got to be saved to be a man". You don't understand, dude, you can live your life thinking that way and when you get old and die, you will discover that you never reached real manhood. You never reached real manhood. You will never quite understand how to treat a woman because you're a male. And there's a difference between a male and a man. You don't understand that, you don't understand to be the head.
The Greek word for the word head that appears in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians is kephale. And that Greek word for head means you're the source of nourishment for what came out of you. The woman came out of the man, so the man is responsible for nourishing the woman and his family. He's the faucet where love flows out to nourish them. But now man came out of God, so your source of nourishment is God. And you're trying to exist as a man without being properly nourished from the atmosphere that gave birth to you. God gave birth to a man, out of a man came a woman, out of a woman came the children, and you still don't know what you're supposed to be doing. First base, you have to nourish yourself from where you came from. Fish are not nourished in the air. Cows can't eat in the sea. They got to be nourished from where they came from. You came from God.
God breathed into the nostrils of a man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. So if you're ever going to be the man you're supposed to be, you got to return to that place that gave birth to you. A lot of men don't want to come around a lot of men because they feel inferior. So I'd rather stay home, away from y'all, cause y'all gonna make me feel some kind of way. No matter what you come up with, the bottom base, inferiority. So it took us years to get here. It took us years that, maybe decades, maybe centuries to get here. And it gives more proof now of why we need to preach the Gospel of grace more now than ever. That's mine, that's mine, that's my nourishment. I'm not a man without him. I can't even tell you I'm a man if I don't know him. The only one that's really got the right to claim manhood is Jesus.
More of a man than anybody in this room will ever be. And what did he do as a man? Serve sacrificially. But see, because of inferiority, we turn servanthood into slavery. That's inferior men. Inferior men, like, "I ain't got to serve nothing". I'm a slave. "Why I got to do that? You gonna pay me to do it"? Inferior men do that. But when you receive, you've been free from sin and you're delivered from inferiority, that's all you find yourself doing, serving sacrificially, serving your wife, serving at home, serving your friends, looking for opportunities to serve because it brings you joy. Because the very essence of manhood is that ability to want to serve sacrificially. But when you're inferior, that causes you sweat. You back in slavery now.
"This is bondage. Nah, he can do that hisself". He know that. The opportunities of manhood that we pass up. And you raise your sons to do that, you raise your sons, teach your sons how to serve. Teach your sons how to serve. Teach 'em how to take that trash can out. That's service, boy, that's manhood. "Cut that grass". That's service, that's manhood. "Well, I don't want him to get no allergy". Boy, you better... Washing them cars, that's servanthood. My daddy had me trained. I knew my job to empty that trash. He came in one night, midnight, school night, he said, "Hey, trash can ain't been emptied". I said, "I'm sorry". He said, "No, get up and empty it". I said, "Now"? He said, "Yeah". I said, "This man crazy". He said, "Get up and empty it".
Same thing happened with the grass, if I can recall correctly, I was cutting grass one night. But I tell you what, I bet I remember what I was supposed to do in the daytime after that. Man some of these boys, they ain't even got no chores. They go home and play video game. "I feel like a slave". Oh, that's inferiority. So you know what I'm talk... You're not inferior, son. You've been delivered from... you believe Jesus delivered you from your sin? Come on, let's pray. We need to be nourished by the atmosphere that we came out of. Let's get in the Word. We need to be nourished by the atmosphere we came out of. If you're gonna teach him how to be a man, you find out what it means to be a man now and then you can teach manhood. But until you get in that atmosphere, you're not even qualified to teach manhood.
All you are is a bad example for him to copy. And then he grew up kind of like you and whoever else he's been hanging around. Some of these dudes right now, like in their 20s, they soft as cotton. I don't even understand, man. It's all, I reach out to shake their hand, they shaking their hand, and I'm like, "Boy tighten that thing up a little bit". Oh, I don't wanna shake no noodles. You start moving your finger in my hand I'm like, "Hey, watcha doing? What's up? Whatcha... what's there"? "Well, I'm offended when you say that".
Listen man, I just, all I know how to do is tell the truth as it come through Creflo. I don't know how to be nobody else. I just gotta be the best me I know how to be. All right, all of that was to distract you, 'cause we're going a little deeper. Say inferiority. Say inferiority no more. So, Adam and Eve, they sinned, they lost their dominion, they lost their authority. After sinning, they felt rejected, exposed, naked. They now based their decisions on what they saw and what they felt. They no longer had dominion over life, life now had dominion over them. The consequences of the spirit of inferiority.
So we look at Genesis chapter 3:16. I'm gonna pick out some points there. Verse 16, he says, "To the woman, he said. Your desire will be for your husband, but he shall rule over you". Now, notice this curse. All right, have you noticed that? That doesn't sound like a blessing, right? What God was actually saying was this, here's his translation. Now that you have lost your dominion over life and over the earth, boy that's good, that's something big. Your desire will be to rule over your husband, but he gonna rule over you.
See, that's a curse. Now you got a woman trying to rule over you but you're gonna be ruling over her, and ain't nobody supposed to be ruling over nobody. It was never God's intention for either of them to rule over each other. It was his intention for both of them to rule over this world together and to do it in equality and to do it as joint heirs, just as we are now joint heirs with Christ Jesus. As Romans chapter 8 and 16 says that. We were supposed to do it as joint heirs. Marriage should be partnership equality, but somebody came in and invented these roles and the joint "heirness" disappeared and now inferiority says we're fighting to see who gonna rule over one another.
Since we both lost dominion, we gotta see who gonna dominate and manipulate. Who's the boss? That came out of inferiority. You got women right now who don't see it necessary to be in love with you, as long as you're willing to take care of them, and you look a little bit half decent. And at this point, they don't really care how you look. And there's some, not all, there are great women in the earth, but there are some who will take advantage of your inferiority 'cause you don't value yourself.