Creflo Dollar - Trusting God in the End Times - Part 1
Let's go to Hebrews chapter 13, verses 5 in the Amplified. Hebrews 13:5 in the Amplified Bible. I just wanna take you through the Word this morning. I wanna show you that God is committed to your care. God is committed to your care. God is committed to taking care of you. There'll come a time where the welfare won't take care of you and it ain't well because, dear God, it's messed up. You can't even live off of it, it ain't enough, but God is committed to taking care of you. I saw a documentary this past week called "Mully". How this guy from, I think it was from Nairobi, between Nairobi and other areas, he became rich. God prospered him and made him rich and then God spoke to him and said, "Now here's what I wanna do with you".
And he went and got all the kids that were in the street until he looked up and had a thousand kids and everything he needed God provided. He needed water and God showed him where a water well was. He needed food and the last day there was a truckload of food came in. This guy understood how...this is something that's alive today. This is not something that happened 30 years ago. This exists right now today where he was so convinced that God's commitment to care for him would take the place where he said, "I will no longer, I have no need to do what I used to do for my riches. I am going to now step into the riches of God and prove to this world that God can be trusted to take care of you".
And now all of his kids are graduating from college, they have an amazing things, and they're coming back to help out. It was like looking at the story of Moses again, all over thing. Yeah, I think it's, you can look it up and and check it out. But it was so inspiring to me. I looked at Taffi and I said, "Well, we got a few more rooms. Let's fill this house up". And Taffi was like, "Hold on a minute, now," you know? Alright, Hebrews 13 and 5. Alright, now watch this. He said, "Let your character or moral disposition be free from the love of money". Be free from the love of money. What is the love of money? It is trusting and idolizing money more than you trust God. The love of money, it's not money that's wrong. It depends on whose hands it is. The love of money or trusting money more than you trust God.
He said, "Be free from the love of money including greed, avarice, lust, cravings for earthly possessions and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have; for He, God, Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down nor relax My hold on you! Assuredly not"! God says, "I am committed to your care". Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1 through 5 in the NLT. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 5 in the NLT. God's committed to my care. God's committed to my care. Somebody says, "Well, I went and looked, it don't seem like it". Remember what Taffi said this morning? "Go look again". "Well, I look a second time, don't seem like it".
Go look again. It's kinda like God says, "I'm gonna give you a job that's gonna be a blessing to you". You say, "Well, I went and filled out one application. It ain't happened yet". Go fill out another one. Go keep going, keep going. You don't stop because, you know that no is not the answer from God. You know that he's committed to your care. So, you know that somewhere somehow what God promised is available to me and I'm gonna keep looking. It may look small right now, but I'm gonna keep looking. I don't see the rain right now, but he said the rain is coming. I'm gonna keep looking. I trust God. You wanna run the devil out of your house? You wanna run the devil out of your neighborhood? You wanna run the devil from your family?
Put your trust in Jesus and he'll make everything all right. I know it sounds like a simple message. I know it sounds like a basic message. But I think people have been lured to sleep because it's easy to step away from trusting God to say, "Oh, well, at least I have money". I don't want nothing, my wife and I have decided, I don't want nothing in my life that I can't give when God tells me to give it. Mm. Whoo, Jesus. 1 through 5. "You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days," how many of you believe we're in the last days? "There will be difficult times," but we trust God. I'm doing everything I can, Taffi is doing, we're doing everything we can to get you ready. Open your ears. Listen. Listen, I know you may think you don't need to trust God, but you're gonna need him. You're gonna need him.
And listen, there's gonna come a time when you know you're gonna need him, you might not believe him right now, but you will when you need him. But I don't want you to wait till the last minute. I need you to start practicing needing him now. I need you to wake up tomorrow, needing him. I need you to go to bed tonight, needing him. Lord, I need you to help me go to sleep. Lord, I need you to help me to wake up on time. Lord, I need you to help me to have a great attitude throughout the day. Help me to walk in love, Lord. I'm so doggone mad and upset with everybody. Help me, Lord, to get over all that. I need you, Lord. Help me to set boundaries in my life. I don't have no boundaries and I'm just doing all kinds of stuff. I need you, God. Get used to needing trusting God now in your everyday living so when something really big come, you good to go.
I've been trusting the Lord every day, praise God. So if Thanksgiving comes one of these years and it don't come to pass, but believe God, God will take care of you, he'll take care of your children, he'll take care of your rent, he'll take care of your bills. I mean, rent is sky high. Something weird is getting ready to happen to the real estate market. I'm telling you, but God is not subject to the real estate market. He is not subject to inflation. He is not subject to a recession. My God is the God that still sits high and he still looks low and he will take care of you. If you trust him. My God, I almost took off running right now. I was like, "Oh, Lord". If you trust him. If you trust him. I know many say they trust him, but you're about to take a test, so you can see yourself. "You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. People will love only themselves," can you see that? "They will love themselves and their bag, their money. They will be boastful and proud, and scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful".
I've never seen such an ungrateful society. "They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving, unforgiving," are you kidding? If something was done 20 years ago, there are some people still holding on to it. "They will slander," slander is at an all time high. You need to get used to it. Somebody talking about you right now, you just don't know they're talking about you. You need to get used to it. They are. You sitting right here minding your own business, listening to the Word, trying to learn how to trust God, and somebody talking about you somewhere. "They will slander others and have no self-control". No self-control. I saw a clipping where kids are fighting in schools like it's a game. No self-control. Self-control is a gift that God gave us. No self-control. Just go out, you driving down the highway, you made a mistake. You honestly didn't see the guy when you pulled out in front of. No self-control. He gonna run you down and try to bump and pull out a gun and no self-control.
"They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends," y'all supposed to be friends. They will betray their friends. Make sure they're your friends, now. "They will be reckless, they will be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious," oh, Lord, have mercy. They will act religious. "Hey, brother, how you doing"? "This is the day the Lord hath made and we will rejoice and be exceedingly glad it". "Bro, I just said, 'Hey, what's up?' I don't even know all that what you just said". "They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly". What was that we were talking about last night, baby? What we were talking about, baby? People were so busy trying, we were so busy trying to move in the realm of acceptance that we ran away from honor.
A society where we're trying to accept everything society tells us to accept even if it means I no longer walk in honor where God is concerned. Because I'm telling you, even if you still messing up, if you're trying to honor God, you're gonna be better than you've ever been before. God will help you. God will help you. But if all you wanna do is accept everything the world said, the world says it's all right and then, "Well, y'all just need to be acceptance of it". Well, how about, let's accept God. Let's just accept what Jesus has done. Let's accept the death, burial, resurrection, soon coming king. Let's accept the provisions that he's already made. Let's trust him instead of kicking God to the side and say, "Well, I don't want his power. I reject the power of God that can make you godly". He said, "Stay away from people like that".
Now, listen to me carefully here, now. This is God's commitment to take care of you if you depend on him. Philippians 4:19 in the NLT. Philippians 4:19 in the NLT. Familiar Scripture. "And this same God who takes care of me," Paul said, "will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus". Now, Paul was referring to physical things that he needed and he said that God took care of all of his supply where those physical needs were concerned. And I am telling you that God can take care of your physical needs just like he took care of Paul's physical needs. Now, let's now go to this place of giving. Giving that we hate and despise to hear at church. Don't wanna hear nothing about no money in church. And that's exactly what mammon wants to do because the way to defeat mammon is to prove to mammon that I will not trust you over God. And any time you try to move me to trust you, I'm gonna find something to give. I'm gonna be a giving person so I won't be a stingy person ruled by mammon.
But every time you hear it, everybody thinks, "Well, it's just all about money. Well, it's just all about money," and you're being ruled by the spirit that's motivating that because you're blind to it, you can't see. My giving is a response to God's ability to take care of me. I give because I know God can take care of me. Giving should be your response to a God who has committed to take care of you. My giving is my declaration of dependence on God. God is committed to my care and every time I have a chance to give, and my giving is not gonna be just, you know, totally dealing just with being at church. I'm not talking about just offering. I'm talking about every opportunity I have to give, I can give because God's committed to my care. In other words, I don't ever have to be in fear where giving is concerned.
So, what I have can't possess me because I trust that God takes care of me. Because if what I have is just being hoarded up in a barn somewhere, then I'm gonna open myself up to the spirit of money and that spirit will now try to challenge my trust and I'm trusting all the stuff I got in my barns more than I'm trusting God. And this is why there are 2000 and something Scriptures in the Bible concerning this and we still won't pay no attention to it because the spirit of mammon has gotten so inside of us, we think it's always somebody trying to take something from you and that in itself is the spirit of mammon. God is committed to my care.
And I see, every time I give, I'm declaring. I'm declaring my dependence to God, I am giving and declaring my dependence to God. I like to pray about my offers before I make them out. I was in my closet this morning praying about, "Lord, what do you want me to give"? And he spoke it to me, but I thought, did I just hear you? And I went back in tongues. And it was the same thing. And I said, "Praise the Lord". I said, "Praise the Lord". I said, "That's a big one, but praise the Lord". But, see, cause what will bother me more is that I don't give it, somehow thinking that my security is what in what I can keep and I'm no longer secure in his ability to take care of me. My giving is a response to God's ability to take care of me. My giving is my declaration of dependence on God. God is committed to my care.
Now, I want you to look at this Scripture very, this is amazing. In Isaiah 46, verses 3 through 13 in the NLT. Follow me with this. Isaiah 46, verse 3 through 13 in the NLT. And somebody say, "Why are you sharing these Scriptures"? Cause I'm never gonna leave the Word. I'm never gonna leave the Word. I was saved by this Word. I was delivered by this Word. I ain't never gonna get so deep in God that I don't need his Word. Everything Taffi and I do will be done within the boundaries of God's Word. Including rhema. Listen, I'm gonna hear from God while I'm in the Word. I'm gonna hear from God while I'm in the Word. I'm not leaving the Word. As long as I'm pastoring this church, you ain't leaving the Word either. We gonna stick with the Word, we sticking with the Bible. There's still stuff to discover from the Scripture Jesus wept.
Now watch this. "Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born". Wow, that's deep. "I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime, until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you". Oh, my goodness. "I will carry you along and save you. To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal"? It sure ain't money. "Who is my equal? Some people pour out their silver and gold and they hire a craftsman to make a god from it. Then they bow down and they worship it! They carry it around on their shoulders," you know they're talking about that golden calf, "and when they set it down, it stays there. It can't even move! And when someone prays to it, there is no answer. It can't rescue anyone from trouble". My God.
"Do not forget this! Keep it in mind! Remember this, you guilty ones. Remember the things I have done in the past". Oh, somebody need to have a flashback. You need to remember what God has already done for you in the past. "For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. I will call a swift bird of prey from the east, a leader from a distant land to come and do my bidding. I have said what I would do, and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn people who are so far from doing right. For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future," watch this, "but right now"!
But right now, but right now. I declare in the name of Jesus that that rain that we told you this morning has already begin to fall. It's not going to fall, it's already raining. You might not be able to see it, but it's already raining. You might not be getting wet, but it's already raining. God is about to do some things right now. He's about to do something right now, success. He's about to turn some things around right now. He's about to open some doors right now. He's about to show you how big he is right now. He's about to get rid of your enemies right now. Hey, glory to God. And everything that's going on right now in the Middle East, take this as a prophetic word. He says, "I don't care what it look like. I'm ready to save Jerusalem and show my glory to Israel".
My goodness. Giving is hard to do when you're not sure that God can take care of you. Why is it so hard to give? Because I'm not sure that God can take care of me. I'm not sure that God can take care of me. I remember years ago one of my relatives came over and the Lord spoke to me. He said, "I want you to give him that favorite suit of yours with that purple stripe". Here's what I did. I went up to the closet, was getting ready to get that suit, and I saw six suits, or five suits. I said, "I'll tell you what. I'm gonna give him five suits".
So, I came down, I had five suits. I said, "Hey, look at here, boy. Five suits". He responded kind of nonchalant like, "Oh, okay". And I'm like, "What? Okay. I'm giving you five suits, you... oh, okay". And I went back upstairs. God said, "That's not what I told you to do". I said, "All right". I pulled that suit out, the one with the purple stripe that I ain't seen since. I came down. I couldn't get down the steps good. And he saw that, he said, "Oh, wow. Brother, that's what I'm talking about". I'm like, "Just shut up, take the suit. Just hush". It was hard for me to give because I wasn't sure that God would take care of me.