Creflo Dollar - Maintaining Your Righteous Stance - Part 2
Do you understand what it feels like? Do you understand what it feels like to be a preacher and to wake up and wonder if you're going to heaven because you hadn't done enough? And then you compare yourself amongst yourself, and then you start doing what you see some other minister or ministry doing because they seem to be doing more, so that means they're gonna be more, you know, okay with God than you are. Let's just pause for a moment. That's just too much. Somebody say, "That's just too much". Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, you think that's too much, wait until we read this, are you ready? All right, we're gonna look at verse 20 through 31. Boy, this is heavy. "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands".
That's what we've been taught though, right? "No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are". Okay, now let me explain this. The law was perfect. The law is not sin. The law is flawless. The law is perfect. The problem with a relationship with the law is you're trying to take imperfection and match it with perfection. So, what's gonna happen when you hang around perfection? It's gonna show up all your flaws. I don't wanna hang around a perfect father, it's just gonna show me how imperfect I am as a father. That's what that does. So, what God was saying is "You really think you can do this without me? Okay, I'm gonna give you something perfect, since you that awesome. I'm gonna give you the law". And he says, "The reason why I gave the law was to show you how sinful you are, to show you, you can't even go a day keeping it, not all of it, anyway".
I heard a preacher one time who says, "I keep the law perfectly". I'm thinking, "This dude, he just broke one: bragging and lying". Look at verse 21. Look at verse 20. He says, "Nobody, no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands," why? Because the law simply shows us how sinful we are. It shows you how sinful you are. It was designed to condemn you. It was designed to shame you. It was designed to make you feel guilty and to show you, that's what the law was doing. "The law simply shows us how sinful we are". The law wasn't given so you can be saved. If the law could have saved us, Jesus could have just stayed away from the cross and hell.
Verse 21, "But now", so, we're talking about now under this new covenant, "God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law". God's made a way to show us how to be right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, "As was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago". Next verse, "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ". The day Abraham said to God, "I believed," Genesis records that heaven said immediately, "You're righteous". He said, "I believe," heaven said, "You're righteous," wow.
And when you read further in Genesis, you see lying Abraham, coward Abraham, turn-his-wife-in Abraham, and then God turned around in the middle of all of that, glory to God, and transferred wealth into his hands, got his wife back, and used him to bring healing to those who had a curse on 'em. I'm like, well, he sure didn't earn that, but God said, "I had already declared he righteous". "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ".
How many of you believe in Jesus, but not just believe that Jesus exists, but you believe that because of Jesus, you've been made righteous? How many of you believe that you're righteous because of Jesus? See, here's the deal, so as you said, "Jesus, I believe," he said you're righteous, all right? So, some things, you know, popped off in your life, and you were wondering, "Uh-oh, am I still righteous"? Somebody said, "What do you do"? Go check with Jesus. "Jesus, you still all right"? He said, "Yeah, I'm all right". "Well, then I'm all right, because I'm not all right because of what I do, I'm all right because of what he did, and if he is all right, then I am all right".
See, during the time of the sacrificial animals, you couldn't just bring any animal, the animal had to be acceptable, and if the animal sacrifice wasn't okay, you ain't okay. But Jesus is our sacrifice who will always be okay, and if he is okay, I am okay, you are okay. I thought, this is awesome, what a gift. This is so awesome. This is amazing. And there are people who turn the TV off and say, "I can't hear this man say this". "You just trying to justify your sins". Exactly, it has been justified just as if I'd never sinned. This church is either gonna explode in growth or we're gonna be putting curtains in front of chairs. But either way, you and I who believe in Jesus and our righteousness will be able to stand in front of a righteous Christ and hear him say, "My good and faithful servant, well done".
And then God will look down the ages and he will use us for an example and say, "Look at what I did to those who didn't deserve it. Look at what I did for those who couldn't do it. Look at my magnificent grace". "Well, the gospel already been preached around the world". No, what I'm preaching is the gospel, and I can assure you this has not been preached all around the world, but it will be. Technology is coming out, I'm gonna use it. We're already working on it. They're working on an AI type of software that will allow me to speak every language in the world with my voice, so I'll be able to go on television or media anywhere in the world and everybody there will think that this Black dude preaching their language. I ain't sacred of AI. I ain't scared of technology. I'm going to get it saved and use it to preach the gospel, and when this gospel has been preached around the world, then the end will come.
I asked God, I said, give me 35 years, give me at least 35 years, strength and strong, to preach this gospel, 35 years. I need y'all to agree, 35 years. I need y'all to agree with me, 35 years, 35 years. And I ain't talking about no 35 years can't hear, can't see, can't remember where I put my Bible, always on the podium. I ain't talking about that kind of 35, I'm talking about rock and... 35 years more. You understand what I'm saying? You understand what I'm saying? Still coming here, still sitting out there, still looking good. I ain't stuntin' you. This gospel will be preached around this world. Why do you think he called us world changers? But we can't change the world until our world has been changed. If you do that, you'll be putting the buggy before the horse. "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ".
And every time you see, "Placing your faith in Jesus Christ," it's not just saying I believe in Jesus, it's saying placing your faith in Jesus Christ and his righteousness. "And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned". Now, let's talk about that just for a moment. "For everyone has sinned". "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard". Now, listen to me, everybody in this church got an issue. Everybody, everybody, every preacher on this planet got an issue, every preacher. I have to move my neck just to say that, "Every preacher..." I don't understand this thing we do when we see what we already know, when the issue is revealed, when we see it, then you panic as if you magically don't have one.
And I think the Bible somewhere say, you know, take heed, lest you fall. Everybody got an issue. I already told y'all, I know I got some issues, but because I know I'm righteous, I don't have them same issues, I got some different issues today. Well, maybe they've always been there. You know, I'm calming down, but every now and then the calmness ain't there. Every now and then, you know, a word come out of my mouth. Not too bad of a word, but you know, when is God like, "This is not bad and this is, you know, really bad"? But I got enough sense to go to God and say, "That's proof that I still need you. Help me to continue to develop. I'm on a journey".
Now, some people see this at church, you so holy, and you are holy in your stance, but your state's still catching up with your stance. We all growing. We're not all at the same level, you know, we're not all getting delivered from the same things, but there's a issue somewhere. Your attitude, how you treat waitresses and waiters. "I ain't gonna tip them". You ought to stop it. They got babies at home. You ought to go in there with the attitude that "I'm gonna serve until", and if you ain't got no money, say, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but ain't got no... I'll get you the next time". But don't act like, you know, we got that little thing. "Where is your manager"? Like you all that. "I want to talk to your manager! I said I want Grenadine in my Coke, and where's the Grenadine"?
You need to go home. You need to go somewhere else. That's an issue, you see what I'm saying? Fornicating is the issue, but that bad attitude is still a same issue. You follow what I'm saying? So, nobody in here, including the good reverend, is without an issue, and some of y'all needed to hear that. Some of y'all needed to hear, including me, because for so long we stand on this pulpit like we are excluded, when in fact, a better leader will be included so that it's easy to follow somebody who has gone down the path, who has crossed the goal line, who know what you talking about. "For everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard". We all fall short.
Now, what is he describing here in this verse? Inferiority, okay, he is saying because of what Adam did in the garden, every person deals with inferiority. Inferiority is saying, "I don't measure up". Inferiority that says, "I don't feel like I'm cared for". Inferiority, it's this thing that men fight especially, that your manhood is under attack because of your inferiority. Because what happens in the life of a man is in order for him to battle his inferiority, he tries to gain a false sense of superiority. This is where racism comes from. Racism comes from "I really feel inferior, but I'm gonna find somebody of a different color so that I can pretend to be superior". But it's a false superiority, which will create a false identity and false intimacy, because you're now developing under the covers, because you're not showing who you really are.
And we encounter this every day. We encounter somebody's inferiority complex, and in order to deal with it, I got to figure out how I can be superior, so you beat your wife? The ugly things we do to fight off inferiority, and the only antidote for inferiority is Jesus. That's the only antidote, it's Jesus. Oh, our society is something. I often sit in my kitchen in the morning and turn on the early broadcast and listen to it to judge myself, and what can I say better, what better illustration I can use? And then I close and the Lord's dealing with me and I say, "Lord, I wonder if anybody in the world even watching this".
I remember going to my CEO and I told him this. I said, "Man, I don't even know, is anybody paying attention to this or am I just laughable"? He called the head of our television department, or the head of our TV thing, TV buys or whatever that is, media, and he had them to put a report together about where we stood, and the media guy came in, Brother Damon, he had to hold back his tears. He said, "You ain't gonna believe this," and I'm like, "Yeah, what, go on and give it to me".
We need to come off TV because ain't nobody paying attention to nothing. He said, "Pastor, on the contrary", he said, "you are the number one broadcaster on several networks and stations around the world". And he answered the question, he says, "You wanna know if anybody is watching"? And he put something in front of me, the millions of people that tune in every single day to get the gospel. I may never know, and the whole time the Spirit of God would say to me, "You won't know until you see me the impact of this ministry".
Now, what did I do when I received that? It still ain't enough. There's still some people that need to be reached. They're talking about building condos on the moon. We gotta believe for a space shuttle, and we gotta get somebody that's gonna stay on the moon with them, because they need Jesus. If that telescope discover life on Mars or something, we gotta figure out how to get there. They need Jesus. We don't have just the God of the earth, our God is the God of the universe, hallelujah! And I don't know why he favored us on the planet!
"What is man that thou art mindful of him"? That you visit him, oh, glory to God, this little dust, why do you visit this man who has been made a little lower than Elohim, that you crown him with glory and honor? The little speck of something that can't even be seen in distant galaxies. What is man that you chose to live in him? The Creator of the universe lives in us. Came down and died for us, went to hell for us, gave us the gift of righteousness, and we let some earthly religious theology talk us out of what he has given us.