Creflo Dollar - The Attractiveness of God's Grace - Part 1
If you have your Bibles, open your Bibles up with me to the book of St John, chapter 8, verses 3 through 11. We've been talking about God's way versus man's way, and there are some things that I believe you'll get a hold of today that will be life changing. Verse 3, St John chapter 8, verse 3, he says, "And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, 'Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned: but what sayeth thou?' And this, they say, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger, wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.' And he again stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they, which heard it being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the mist. And when Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, 'Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?' She said, 'No man, Lord.' And Jesus said unto her, 'Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.'"
Now under the law which Jesus was a priest operating on, it would have been absolutely according to the law to take this woman and to have her to be stoned to death. But Jesus said, "I don't condemn you. Go, knowing that I don't condemn you. Go, knowing that I don't condemn you and with this gift of no condemnation, sin no more".
Now, that's God's way of dealing with this under the New Covenant. It's certainly not man's way. The law was something that God brought down on man's level. Man's way is equivalent to the law, but Jesus said, "That's not my way. I know what the law said, and I know what you were caught doing. But where everybody else that was caught doing something, why they didn't throw the stone"? Jesus said, "Now it is going to be possible for you to carry out this appeal. Go, and sin no more, because where there is no condemnation, there is now the power to be able to overcome what overcame you".
Now look at what Jesus said in the book of John 3:17, because while God is very concerned about keeping the lives of his people free from worldly things, yeah, there's nothing about what I just said, that gave you a license to go and just do something crazy. There's nothing about what I just said that said, "Adultery is right," nothing. God is very concerned about keeping the lives of his people free from worldly things, but his approach is way different from condemnation. Look what Jesus said in John 3 verse 17. He said this, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved".
So, there are unsaved people doing all kinds of crazy stuff, and the Bible says Jesus was not sent to condemn all these unsaved people, and yet church people love sitting back, condemning people who are not born again, and people who are born again. You think that that's the thing God has called you to do, and he has not called you to condemn the world. Jesus says, "I didn't come to this world to condemn it. I didn't come to this world to judge all of the stupid, crazy stuff that's going on. They've already tried that before time. There's a new way of doing this," and he says, "I didn't come to condemn the world, but that the world through me might be saved, without condemnation". If you ain't no good, you know you ain't no good, you don't need me to tell you how no good you're not. Your conscience takes care of that. But he said, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved".
Now this is going to be very interesting now, because we're gonna talk about the new and living way. All right, if we don't beat people up, then how they gonna change? If we don't convict people of their sins, how they gonna change? God never called us to convict people of our sins, he gave us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that will... not only convict, I like this word, he convinces you that that, that's probably what you don't need to be doing. I mean, by the time you called your wife stupid and then she done got a gun, you're convinced, "I probably don't need to call her stupid no more".
So, listen to me carefully now, this is interesting. There are two methods that the Lord uses to draw the hearts of man away from this present world, two methods that he uses to draw all the hearts of man from worldly things. Here's the first method. By setting before man the attractiveness and the stability of things that are above. He says, "I can change a man by making my ways so attractive, not by beating him up, but showing him the beauty that comes by seeking the things that are above". We have not done a very good job of teaching the attractiveness of the things that are above. We spend a lot of time with the condemning people, but folks don't talk about heaven like they used to, the attractiveness of what is to come once you leave this world, the attractiveness of the grace of God, the attractiveness of seeking those things that are above, seeking eternal things, the attractiveness, you just don't see that.
And I sat and thought about this, I'm like, just start thinking about the attractiveness of the things that exist that you don't experience right now. A heaven where there's no more crying there. Glory to God. A heaven where you have a body, but it's been renovated. A place where you have stepped out of time into eternity. A place where there are no more tears and the greatest thing about what we have to look forward to is that we're going where Jesus is. We're going where God is. The greatest thing for you to recognize is one day you're gonna be done down here and you're gonna be absent from the body and present with the Lord and all of the stuff. No more stress, no more stressing out over the comment section of the Facebook. No more stressing out over this, no more worry, no more gossiping, no more backbiting, no more hurt, no more pain, nobody else dying with you no more.
None of that, it's over with. We have lost the attractiveness of what is to come. Seek those things that are above and not the things that are on the earth. And I tell ya, we have been inundated with doing everything we can to be successful here. Oh my goodness, one day you're gonna slip out of this body and you're gonna walk in a new glorified body that Jesus demonstrated when he was resurrected from the dead, and the Bible says he walked through the door, the door being shut. And then he sat down and ate. Somebody asked me, "Will we eat anything in heaven"? Yeah, Jesus ate in his glorified body, he ate some fish and honeycomb.
Somebody asked, "Will we know one another when we get to heaven"? Well, will you know one another when you get to Texas? You'll still have your soul with you. Hallelujah. You gotta understand, you're gonna be in an atmosphere, you're gonna find out the power and the impact of real pure, genuine love. Oh, glory to God. Well, will we have clothes? You won't have artificial clothes. You're gonna slip out of your last outfit, the day you die, whatever you had on that day, you're gonna slip out that, because you will never again need artificial clothing. "Where you get that from"? Adam and Eve before they sinned, they were covered, but not with artificial clothing, they were covered with the glory of God.
Now this is something I can tell you about 'cause I saw it. I don't care if you believe what I just said. That truck turned over 20 something years ago, and those angels went by me, and they were not exposed, they were clothed, they had a... but the only way I can describe it, their clothes and their skin was like it was one. They were clothed in light. It's the best way I can, look I... they had facial eyes and characteristics, but it was... when you looked, there was no exposure of body, it was clothed in glory. That's exactly what Adam and Eve were clothed in. They were covered in glory. But the day that they sinned, they lost their glory coat and had to go and try to cover themselves with fig leaves.
When you leave and go to heaven, you will be covered with the glory. Ain't no more Hugo Boss, ain't no more, ah, none of this stuff, what brands you got. You've got the greatest brand that nobody on this planet can manufacture, it's the glory of God. Now I tell you, I gotta be careful talking about this because some of you will walk out here, it's like, "I'm ready to go". Seek the things that are above. You keep looking and allowing the stuff that you're going through now to govern your life, and you forget about the better that is to come. The greatest that is to come. Oh my goodness, praise the Lord. And there will be times where you will meet family members that you hadn't even heard about yet. There will be a great gathering in heaven, praise the Lord, as we come together and to worship the only one that is worthy to be worshipped.
It is the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God'll step in that room and everybody will fall down and begin to declare, "Glory, glory, glory to the highest, glory to the Lamb of God". Somebody said, "Well, that sounds kind of boring". Oh, know why? Because somebody told you, there's not gonna be any work in heaven. There are several scriptures that talk about the work we have to do in heaven. Yeah, you're gonna be working. If you don't like working here, listen, you don't wanna go to heaven. You still gonna have a job to do. "Well, I just don't believe". You will when you die. But I'm trying to tell you now, my God, my life is all about screaming loud, trying to get you to see, do not buy the deceptions of this world, seek the things that are above. This stuff here is so minute once you get to the real.
I preached a sermon years ago called, "Is the Physical World Really Real"? Because you got to understand that everything that's physical came out of stuff you can't see. The spiritual gave birth to the physical, glory to God. You couldn't have no physical realm if there were not first a spiritual realm. Everything that exists here came out of stuff you can't see. Everything that you can see and comprehend and touch here was born out of stuff you can't see and comprehend and touch. And everything in this physical world has an expiration. Things you can't see are eternal. Excuse me, things you can't see, yeah, are eternal. Things you can see are temporary. There are things that used to exist 10,000 years ago. Ain't no... you can't... they're not there no more and you're still trying to gain something that's temporal. The thing you oughtta be gaining is Christ, 'cause everything else you do will disappear. Only what you will do for Christ will last.
Now let's look at some scriptures here. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 through 2, presenting the attractiveness and the stability of the things that are above. Colossians 3, 1 and 2, "If you then be risen with Christ," if you're born again and you got up from your dead state of sin, "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God". That's what I'm seeking. Every day there are certain things about this world that are diminishing in my eyes, just not, I just don't see it the way I used to. I just don't see it the way I used to. It matters little to me what you think about me. I'm not trying to, like, get back with you or nothing like that, I'm trying to talk like you in your own shoes, 'cause too many of you continue to allow it to matter what people think about you.
And that takes up an amazing amount of time in your life. I'm not seeking only what I can have here, I'm seeking the thing that's above where Christ sits on the right hand. Look at verse 2. "Set your affection on things above". Where are your affections? Where are your affections? 'Cause most of us as church people, our affections are not on the... we forget about the thing that's above, our affection is not there. He says, "Don't set your affections on the things on the earth". Look at verse two in the NLT. Don't set your affections on the things of the earth, set your affections on the things that are above. He says, "Think about the things of heaven, don't think about the things of earth".
Think about the thing... every time you see something in your life that happens, let it move you to think about the things of heaven. What's gonna be different in heaven versus what's going on right now? There is one thing I have no doubt about, that everybody in here, including me, will pass one day. You're gonna die, not yet, but how do you plan on handling the reality of heaven if you have doubted it so much while you were on the planet? I can't deal with that. Death is a part of life and I wanna do as much as I can, although not gonna be perfect, not gonna be flawless, but as much as I can so I can stand before God and say, "Lord, I did all I knew to do. Thank you for the help, but you promised me you would finish me".
And I'm looking forward for him finishing me. And be careful before you pronounce somebody to hell 'cause of the thing they did. I'm sure there were many people that that woman who was caught in adultery, I'm sure many of 'em said, "She going to hell". We gotta stop doing that. "That person going to hell. That person going to hell. That person going hell". A hit dog'll holler a lot, you better be quiet. That's not what we're supposed to be doing, condemning people to hell, that's not what we're supposed to be doing. We seek and think about the things that are above. It may seem small, it'll change your daily life, as you start thinking about the things that are above.
Look at this scripture. Well, you know Matthew 6:33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," primary, the kingdom of God, "and all these other things shall be added unto you". We're seeking the things to be added unto us, he says, "Seek the kingdom first. Seek the kingdom first". Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and 2 in the NLT. Hebrews chapter 12 and 2 in the NLT. He says, "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne". Can you imagine being on the cross, after being beat up and whipped with a cat of nine tails? Can you imagine? You imagine how difficult and weird it is to read him saying, "For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross"?
His motivation for enduring something hard and painful and shameful was what he could see ahead, the joy that was ahead of him. Sometimes it's knowing the joy that's ahead of you that can help you go through certain things in life. Sometimes it's the pain that you experience here, and you think about the things that are above, you think about the things that are before you, the things that you're coming to. Jesus says for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross. There's a joy that's set before you. There's a joy that's set before me to help us to have endurance and patience. It's just what Taffi was talking about.
Don't allow the lack of manifestations in your life to cause you to give up, cave in, quit, get worried, get depressed, you know, turn nuts in what you're doing. Don't do that. Make your mind up, for the joy that's set before me. Just think about heaven. There are times that this wonderful woman and I have gone through that you will never know about. But it was the joy that was set before us that kept us moving. Stuff that hurt. I remember we went through a pain that hurt so bad, we stayed in the house for three or four days, it was so painful. But for the joy that was set before us. It is not our job to get up here and complain about what we're going through, 'cause everybody going through something. You ain't the only one going through nothing, you ain't never gonna be the only one going through, but how you go through it? For the joy that's set before you.