Creflo Dollar - What Are The Conditions of a Worthy Walk? - Part 2
Everything God tells you to do. Be holy, be perfect, everything he tells you to do. Every appeal he makes for you to live by are void if you ignore his mercy and grace. Someone said, "Why do you come to church"? "'Cause I need to come to church 'cause God ain't pleased if I don't come to church". That's not why I come to church. "Well, Pastor, why do you come? Because you the preacher"? That's not why I come to church. There're several other things I can do. I don't have to be a preacher here. I come to church because at least I can do as what he want me to do, to carry out the will of God for his life. That's, look at what he's done for me.
Why would I wanna rebel against somebody who's done so much for me? "But I don't want to. I wanna do somethin' else. I'm tired. I'm tired! I don't know where them people at. Why? Why"? No. God has done too much, and maybe you forgot about it, but if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be where you are right now. If it wasn't for him, you woulda died in that car accident. If it wasn't for him, a whole lotta stuff woulda been messed up if it wasn't for him. Honey, God was carrying you when you thought you were walkin' all by yourself. Amen. Now, with that in mind, lets go to Ephesians and let's see if we can put a dent in the series.
Ephesians 4, verse 1. So now, it's not a hard thing now. You know, when God says, you know, don't do this, don't do that, watch out, stay outta gossip, don't be in bitterness, don't stay in unforgiveness, treat people the way you wanna be treated. Okay, not, they're just not like certain commands and laws under the, like under the old covenant. Under this new covenant, God's already done it before I can do somethin' to earn it. So, out of honor, I'm ready to do what he appeals for me to do. Verse 1: "I therefore," Paul is talkin' here, "the prisoner of the Lord," he says, "now, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called".
Now, without going back through the other two series, what is the calling that we've been called? Well, he says, "I therefore," so "I therefore" simply means you gotta go back to the previous chapters to find out all the stuff he did. Well, here's what he did in chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3. First of all, he made his mind up that he was going to take every believer and adopt them into his family. So you are all sons and daughters of God. If you have been born again and if you are a believer, you are a son of God. Now, as a son of God, being born again is kinda like the royals over in England. You born into royalty, and there's nothing you can do to earn your way in, work your way in, you have to be born in. It is a privilege. Okay?
So when you get born again, you are automatically born into royalty. Glory to God. You're born into privilege, the Bible calls it, Romans 5 and 2, you're born into undeserved privilege. It's just like the royals over in England. They don't deserve none of that. They were born into it. Just like you and I. We are born into undeserved privilege. Undeserved. Righteousness is a undeserved privilege. Holiness is an undeserved privilege. All that Jesus has done for you is undeserved. It came by God's grace, and he has called you as members of the royal family of God. Glory be to Jesus.
Can I read to you 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9 real quick before I get too far into this. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 and 10 in King James and then NLT. He says, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praise of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light". Verse 10: "Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy". So every Gentile, glory to God, that's born again, has been born into this undeserved privilege.
So, what is the calling? The calling is, glory be to God, it is everything that God's grace did for you to walk as members of the family with undeserved privilege for you to have faith and to walk worthy of the undeserved privilege as sons and daughters that you get because you are a believer, that you don't deserve or you don't, you didn't earn it. And this is amazing to me because he said, "Now, I want you therefore to walk worthy of this undeserved privilege". Well, how do I do that? Walk worthy of this undeserved privilege.
Now, a religious person will say, "You gotta do this in order to get the privilege". No, the privileges have already been granted to you. Walk worthy of the righteousness that God says you already are. Walk worthy of the holiness that God says you already have. Walk worthy of the salvation that you were born by grace, okay, born again by grace. Walk worthy of that. So, all my Christian life I thought that meant walk this way so you can be that way. It's the other way around. I was born that way, so I might as well learn how to match my birthright with my life. Match my birthright with my life. It's a whole different thing now, right? There's no fear and condemnation there. None at all.
So, look at this in the NLT real quick. Same one. "But you are not like that, for you are chosen people. You are a royal priest". You're a royal priest. You're "a holy nation, God's very own possession. And as a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of darkness into the wonderful light. Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God's people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God's mercy". That's who we are. So, here's what I'm gonna look at for the rest of this time. What are the conditions of a worthy walk? "Walk worthy," Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1. Go there, Ephesians 4 and 1, let's look at verse 1. He said, "Walk worthy of the vocation," or the call. Walk worthy of the vocation of the call. Walk worthy of your undeserved privilege. Walk worthy of your admittance into the royal family. Walk worthy of it.
Now, I done forgot some of them boys' name over there in England, George and them. Let's just say George, them. I'm sure they were not really liking the fact that they as royals had to carry themselves a certain way. And I'm sure there were some that rebelled against carrying themselves a certain way. But after while, once you realize you can't get out of it... oh, yeah, I heard that, once you realize you can't get out of it, you gon' go ahead and cooperate and walk like you're supposed to walk. You gon' start your, you gon' start allowing your life to match your call. So here's what's gonna happen to some of y'all: Some of y'all listen to this and like, "Yeah, whatever, whatever," and then you go fall and you think God left you, and he's still right there. And then you do somethin' else crazy and you think he don't wanna have nothin' to do with you, and then a blessing show up.
And then you gonna do somethin' else crazy and you thought, "I done blew that," and then you find out you didn't blow it, it was better than ever, and eventually you gon' realize, "Why you keep lovin' me like this? Why don't you leave me alone"? He says, "I can't leave you alone. I'm in covenant with you. And no matter what you do, I'm gon' be with you. I'm not gon' leave you. My goodness and mercy is gon' follow you all the days of your life. I'm not gon' let you go". Anybody ever experience that before? "I'm not gon' let you go". You go to a bar and try to get drunk, and then you start preachin' about the grace of God. You start talkin' about who you are, and your buddies don't wanna get drunk with you no more because you keep preachin', and they end up gettin' saved from your drunk preachin' because you can't help it because he's too good to you. Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.
And eventually you'll say, "You know what? Man, let me go on, lemme go on and get in line. Obviously, God's not gon' leave me alone". And I thank God. I thank him that we have a Father that will not leave us alone. Religion tells you God gon' leave you alone. Religion tells you, you gon' run the whole... think about this. You know, you better be careful because you gon' grieve the Holy Ghost. He gon' leave you. You think the little stuff you do, the Holy Ghost is so weak he is grieved because your little potty mouth, that you gon' grieve the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost has had more pottier mouths than you to deal with, and believe me, he is very, very strong and equipped to deal with potty mouths and potty everything else. You bring all the nasty you wanna bring to the Holy Ghost, and he still an Ajax that you cannot get rid of.
I know you wanna hear somethin' that, you wanna you wanna hear me talk about you gotta sweat to get this and you gotta work to do this. I keep tellin' you, you don't bring nothin' to the table. God doesn't need you to be who he is, but we do need him to be who we are. I'm tellin' you now, he's powerful, praise God. "Well, that's heresy". He not gon' let you go. He's got a plan for your life. He's wired you for a certain way, and honey when, God knows how to get you when he wanna get you. You understand? God know, God knows what you gotta go through in order to be able to bow down on your bended knees and life your hands up and say, "I yield, I yield, I yield".
God knows how to do that. Now it's up to you to determine how much more of that stuff you wanna go through. I'm good. I don't have to spend my time tryin' to get God, you know, to try to convince him that, Lord, I can do this on my own. That's where the law came from. Read the book of Exodus. The came down from the mountain and they said, you know, God said do this and do that, and they said, "We can do everything that God said," and he like, "Really? Really? You think you can do this all by yourself? Okay, I'm gonna give you Ten Commandments that are designed to cause you failure. And these Ten Commandments are not designed to bless you. I'm gonna give you with the Ten Commandments 600 and somethin' more laws, and you think you can do this without me"?
Here's the law, and these laws are designed to bring you down and to bring you to the end of yourself, until you one day recognize that you need a Savior. The law wasn't given to bless you. You can't keep none of it. It was given to hurt you. It was given to bring you down, and here we are in the church tryin' to live by somethin' that was given to break us down until we can lift our hands up and say, "Okay, okay God, I'm just playin'. We need you". And that's what he wanted them to say in the first place when he brought that request down. "Oh Lord, we can't do this without you". And that's the thing, as your pastor when I travel around the world, that's the thing I try to, I'm tryin' to teach people, but they're so embedded in the religion of, you know, if I do this, then God'll do that. And God was like, "Bruh. I've already done that so you can do this".
You see what I'm dealin' with? And then when they hear it, this is the funny thing. It ain't funny, but when somebody who just got baptized in water, they still drippin', ain't even dry yet, they wanna come and say, "Well, that ain't what my Bible say". You don't even know how to read it yet. And then when you learn how to read it, you gotta learn how to rightly divide it. And then when you know how to rightly divide it, you gotta understand that everything in the Old Testament is a shadow and a picture, and some people have settled for the shadow. You're just livin' by shadows. And you, "You arguin' about what day is the real Sabbath Day". "Well, the real Sabbath Day is Friday". "Uh-uh, it's Saturday". "Uh-uh, it's Sunday".
And you fussin' about a shadow instead of discovering who is casting the shadow. And Jesus is the real. The Old Testament, the Sabbath is a shadow. Jesus is the real. He's the one that's casting the shadow. All of the Old Testament is shadow. But when you recognize, Jesus is what's casting the shadow of the Old Testament, 'cause he couldn't show you Jesus right away 'cause you wasn't ready for it, so he had to take you revelation point by revelation point until you can see you can't do this by yourself. You create all these religions, you come up with everything you got to do. Every religion requires you to do somethin' in order to get somethin' from God, except Christianity. It was supposed to be a relationship where he can finally give you all he wanted you to do. Woo. I'm tired. And the proof will be in the puddin'.
Why do you wanna sweat? Why do you wanna develop relationship with the shadow when you can have access to the real? Jesus said, "These scriptures," referring to the Old Testament, "they speak of me. They speak of me". Now, Jewish people got really confused for a while, and I understand why. 'Cause Jesus showed up and he says, "I have only come to preach this gospel to the household of Israel". And then they went to Cornelius and them house. He says, "All right, it's available to the Gentiles". What was he doin'? He was just laying it out. It was progressive revelation. Progressive meaning he knew the big plan from the foundation of the world, but he couldn't drop it, you remember when he told the disciples, he said, "I got some stuff to say and show you, but you can't handle it right now".
And 42 years ago, I, preach this 42 years ago? They woulda shot me on a gallop. It had to be, it had to be progressive. Okay? All right, now I think they ready for the Holy okay. Now, okay. All right. Jesus came and did everything in the law and the prophets and they turned around and said Luke 16:16, Luke 16:16, Luke 16:16. He said that the Old Testament ended with John. John is the last. John 16:16, "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses in on it". And then, he got up in the Old Testament, I mean the New Testament in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and he said this fabulous scripture that everybody missed. He says, "Okay now, repent and believe the gospel," oh, he says, "'cause the kingdom of God has come".
What was he sayin'? We thought it was a salvation thing. "Repent. Ask God to forgive you, 'cause the kingdom of God is at hand for you to get saved". That ain't what he was talkin' 'bout. He was sayin', "Repent". You know what the word "repent" means? It means to change the way you're thinking about what you're thinkin' about. You were thinkin' about the law. You were thinkin' about everything you learned about the law. But now that the kingdom has come, I need you to change your thinking from the law to this gospel of grace. That's what he's saying. And we thought it was, "Repent". "I'm sorry. Save me". 'Cause the kingdom of God is at hand.
That's not what he was talkin' 'bout. But he was tryin' to lay it out. I couldn'a said that, what I just said to you, I couldn'a said 20 years ago. But I can prove it right now, and you'll go back and look at it and you'll say, "God dog, there it is right there". It means change your thinkin'. Change your thinking about what you thought. Why? Because a new and living way is now at hand. Repent doesn't mean I'm sorry. "You need to repent". You know, what does it look like? "You need to repent. You need to repent for what you did".
You need to be sorry for what you did. That's not what repent means. Repent means literally to change the mind. Change your mind about what you got from the teaching of the law, and I want you now to look because the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. That's what he said, didn't he? He said repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. And we could hardly get that because religion said, "Say you're sorry and get saved so you don't go to hell". But that's not what he said. Change your mind, and believe the gospel. Change your mind, and believe. That blew my mind. I'm thinkin', "How am I gonna preach this"? You shoulda saw me the night before the first sermon I was gonna preach on the grace of God. "Oh my God, everybody's going to leave".
And that almost happened. I said, "Well, if they leave, Lord, I know you told me. I know you told me". I said, "If they'll leave, they'll be back. It just take a little time. A progression needs to take place". 'Cause what happens is you'll leave and you'll continue to try to live like you been livin', and you'll notice it ain't workin'. How many y'all realize that? It's like, "This ain't workin'. This ain't workin'. I done poured a whole bottle of oil on my head and I, it ain't workin'. It ain't workin'. I got the Ten Commandments in every room in my house. I'm doin' everything they tell me to do. It ain't workin'".
"I call those things that be not as though they were". But you didn't understand it needed to be in your heart before you call it out. Progression. Progression. And then, he progresses up here, and then he says, "All right. Now, I fulfilled the law. It's time for me to go. But I won't leave you comfortless. I'm'on send you the seal for the inheritance". "So you'll dial the Holy Ghost". "Oh, we done dialed the Holy Ghost up". "Oh, we got the Holy Ghost. Hit 'em. The Holy Ghost, movin' all in my soul. The Holy Ghost, all..."
And heaven's like, "Okay, uh, that's not quite why the Holy Ghost was sent. It's bigger than that. We're glad you're enjoying it. Glad you enjoy the presence and the feeling, but his job been way, way bigger than that. He is the seal to all of the mercy of God that was presented for you. It's to seal your sonship. Seal you, glory to God". You didn't have the blood, but you got the Holy Ghost and he will seal that relationship, and he'll show you things to come, and he'll show you wisdom, and he gonna lead you, and he's gonna guide you. He's gonna be your new conscience.