Creflo Dollar - Believing the Finished Works of Christ - Part 2

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2 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, y'all, excuse me, it must have been that Baptist service we had this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 18 through 19 in the New Living Translation, I know baby, I got you, I got you, I got you. You just thinking about how good God been to you, I got it, I got it, I got it. Some of y'all don't know yet but you will. Maybe you hadn't been delivered out of something significant, but he gonna deliver you out of it. You got too many witnesses in this church that can testify, you got too many people in this church that can testify about the goodness of the Lord.

Sometimes I try to articulate this in a professional way but the professional won't stay on me, because when God gets on you, when he just breathes on you a little bit, you gotta tell somebody, you gotta shout about it. So it will happen, some of y'all gonna go to the bathroom at the job then you'll fell out, "What happened to Lucia"? "She went to the bathroom, Lord she in there praising the Lord, the Lord have mercy". The tumor then left, the tumor ain't there no more, glory to God.

Thank you, alright 2 Corinthians 5:18 through 20 in the NLT. Now see we get in a word but you know, we know Jesus, you talk about Jesus too much, we, you know, I'm, you know, hey. "Well, I ain't going back to that church no more, that's just a bunch of holy rollers". I remember my friend Andre Crouch used to say, he said, "They call us holy rollers," and what they say is true. But if they knew what we were rolling about they would be rolling too. Oh Jesus, I feel running in my feet. Oh, Lord, I'm trying to finish this, I'm trying to finish this last word. Thank you. C'mon, if y'all gonna do it, do it. If you gonna do it, do it. If you gonna do it, do it.

Celebrate, listen, let me say this, the whole world celebrate all kinds of junk and we have a time where we can celebrate our Jesus. Ain't nothing wrong with you clapping, ain't nothing wrong with you dancing, ain't nothing wrong with you turning around, ain't nothing wrong with you shouting. If anybody ought to get to shouting, it ought to be Jesus. If anybody get to hand clapping, it ought to be Jesus. If anybody get the sound, it ought to be Jesus. That's good.

Okay, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 18 through 20 in the NLT. Somebody is like, "What kind, what is going on in that church"? We teaching, we preaching, we praising, we dancing, we shouting, we, we celebrate, we're celebrating Jesus. "And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him," 19, "For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them". Wow, no longer counting your sins against you.

Now, I don't mean you go out and that crazy, what he's saying is, "I'm giving you a way out. I'm not gonna count your sins against you, but be careful your sin don't come against you". What that means is there's consequences for the things we do. He says, "I'm not gonna count your sins. I'm no longer counting your sins against you, I've turned off the sin meter, it's not counting your sins against you". So you ain't gonna be able to die and say, "Now how many sins I got there"? They gonna say zero, you gonna think, "Well, I'm gonna keep quiet because I don't know where," that's zero according to his mercy and grace.

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation, he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. And look at verse 20, wonderful message of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 20. So we are Christ's ambassadors, we represent him, God is making his appeal through us, we speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God. Find you two people today that left him and say, "Come back to God". That's our ministry, we gotta come back to God ministry and let people know, don't know what happened, but God is not gonna let you down.

Colossians 1:20 through 22 in the NLT, Colossians 1:20-22, Colossians 1:20 through 22. "And through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil faults and actions". That was then, a lot of guys wanna preach that to you now and it brings shame and guilt, "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy," oh my God. He didn't say you act holy, he says you are holy and the day you believe you are holy, then you'll start acting holy, but you, he says, "you are holy," watch this, "and you are blameless as you stand before him without a single fault".

Now in your head, you're thinking, "Now, wait a minute, that's not me". Oh yes, it is, he talking to you when you was messed up and he is saying, "Because of my blood, I now make you holy". Do you believe it? "Because of my blood, I now make you blameless". Do you believe it? "Because of my blood, you now stand before me without a single fault," and that's what he is saying, can you believe that? Because the day you believe that, the day you believe in reconciliation is the day that you start transforming your actions to line up with who he said you are. Are you listening to me?

To change completely, and reconciliation if you'll notice, it's a one way act of God, it's made by God alone. There is no mutual give and take as in the marriage of reconciliation. Remember, God does not need to change his attitude or meet us halfway, we are the guilty party. He doesn't need to meet us halfway, God didn't come and say, well, now if you meet me halfway, then I can reconcile. Now God came up with this by himself and regardless of what you decide to do, he decided to reconcile you. We're not debating on who the guilty party, we is the guilty party. So he decided to establish a completely new, a completely new relationship.

Now let me give you one warning and I'll be done. The finished work of Christ is universal and that it covers the whole world. He came and said, "I did this for the whole world". The death of Jesus was suffering enough to take care of all of the whole world, the finished works of Christ is only effective for those who believe and those who put their trust in him, it is only going to be effective for those of you who believe it and those of you who put your trust in him. And I know it's gonna be hard right in the middle of some stupid happening, and you're on your journey and you've been doing good and God's been transforming you, you got to believe that you're righteous even when you fall. You gotta fall down saying I'm still righteous, you gotta hit the ground saying I'm still righteous, you gotta get up saying I'm still righteous.

And then when that changes, you'll say, like I said, I am the righteousness of God. Now here's a warning, 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 1 to 3 in the New Living Translation. Here's a warning and this is going to take place, it's already started, it's a warning for us to look at and to listen to. "But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them, in this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teachings". Isn't that something? "They will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered".

I ain't saying you the righteousness of God, somebody's gonna teach you whether you got to do right or you ain't gonna be right, and that can't work because even in the Old Testament, he says, "Righteousness in the Old Covenant is as a filthy rag". "In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money". Tell you that curse gonna come on you if you don't get $20 right now, put pressure on you to give, tell lies to get you to give. "But God condemned them a long time ago, and their destruction will not be delayed".

You need to make sure you really know God because if you don't really know God in the time of social media and stuff, you might get hooked by a false teacher. You're not reading the Bible, the Bible is one of the protections and they're just saying nice stuff and you just listening to them and write it down. Oh, that was good, that was good, but who ain't even in the Bible. And all of a sudden you start adapting to this way of thinking that doesn't line up with the Word of God and the word of grace or you get a hold of a teacher that mixes the old with the new, a little bit of the law and a little bit of grace, a little bit of before the cross and a little bit of after cross.

And logically, you'll think that's okay. But Jesus made it very clear, "You cannot put new wine in old wine or you'll lose the benefit of both of them". In other words, he's saying you can't live by mixtures, you're gonna have to either believe this or not believe it because we're there, the time has come, all creation has been waiting for the manifestations of the Son of God. I didn't mind us partying for a little bit there, shouting, screaming, jumping, hollering all of us, because I knew I was gonna calm you down because you need to hear. That's shouting, that's extra curriculum, that's like PE when you was in school. Church are not just be PE, amen?

In closing, 1 Corinthians 15:17 through 19 says, "If Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain," it is worthless. Everything we stand on is based on him being raised from the dead. He prophesied, "Destroy this church, and in three days I'll raise it up again," they thought he was talking about the building, he was prophesying about him. If Christ was not raised from the dead, this whole thing is a sham. Christ was raised from the dead and a lot of you along with me and Taffi believe that Christ was raised from the dead. The resurrection affirms the truthfulness of God, the resurrection proves that he is the Son of God, it proves Jesus was the sinless sacrifice which satisfied the Father's wrath, and this resurrection is giving us a living hope. Our Jesus was raised from the dead and he is alive today. I ain't got nothing else to say, you get anything out of that? Every head bowed.

Father, in celebration of the Word that was made flesh, the Word that dwelt amongst men, that had Jesus not come we just still would not have any idea what you're like, but Jesus showed up and we have an idea of what you're like. Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you've seen the Father". And today we are so grateful and honored to celebrate your masterpiece work and your Son Jesus Christ. I pray Lord that the Spirit of God now will begin to minister to people and that you'll bring them out of darkness into the marvelous light, that while I was teaching, Lord, the Holy Spirit was speaking and teaching and saying things that wasn't even coming out of my mouth.

And today we declare our dependence upon you, today we declare our trust, we trust you, and for the rest of this year, Lord, we lean on you to be our guide and our helper, our strengthener, show us the way. Sometimes we think we know the way, your Word said, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death". We don't wanna go by the way that seems right, we wanna go by the way that is right. Help us to hear you with clarity that we may follow you, that we may understand that our relationship with you happens every day that we wake up and begin to live, and in our living, we discover you more and more, and through our tribulations and you bring us out, we get a deeper and deeper revelation of who you are.

And we're not just gonna put you in just a closet for just an hour, but we need you to walk with us every day and to put us to sleep every night and to wake us up and do it all over again as we grow strong to know who you are. Let your anointing be on these families, touch with your healing power, change their minds through your goodness and your grace, is my prayer.