Creflo Dollar - Faith in the Middle of the Attack
Go with me to the book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 2. We're gonna talk about faith and grace in the midst of discomfort. We all agree that there is a purpose in discomfort. It is something that no one who's alive on the planet can avoid. Discomfort is something that is used to help mature us, to help grow us up. And there's one thing you've got to please understand, you cannot grow in the comfort zone. You're not gonna grow, being comfortable all the time, running away from trials and tribulations. The Bible says they that live godly shall suffer persecution.
So it's not this thing of something's wrong with you if tribulation and trouble and discomfort shows up in your life. God is trying to mature you. The objective is to get to the point where you can grow in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a journey. You should not punish yourself because you had things happen on the journey or you fail on the journey or things were not working on the journey. It is a journey and on this journey, there will be some uncomfortable situations that you will have to face. This is a part of our spiritual maturity and we must grow. This thing about, "Well, I'm a Christian and I got saved, so I won't ever have to be in discomfort," somebody made that up.
You have to grow and you grow in the middle of pressure, you grow in the middle of confrontation. All of the things that you experience in life, if you don't run away from them, if you stand in them and know how to do it properly, each time you will grow. When some months or years will go by and you look back and say, "Wow, had I not experienced that, I wouldn't know this". And so, you know, the question is not if discomfort is supposed to be a part of a Christian's life.
The question we want to deal with today is, you know, how do we go through it? How do we go through it? Notice, you're not going to build a house in discomfort, but how do I go through it? And the way we go through it is through this grace that's been made available to us. And the way we go through it is by living this life of faith. And now we get to a chance to see in context how faith and grace works to bring you or to help you in the middle of discomfort.
Now, let me start with this. The scripture says in Philippians chapter 3, verse 10, he talks about the apostle Paul saying that he wants to know him, know Jesus, in the fellowship of his suffering. Very interesting way to say that. I wanna know him in the fellowship of his suffering. Now, some people have thought, "Well, that means I wanna suffer like Christ suffered," and that's not quite what it means, because the stuff that Christ suffered, some of you wouldn't survive for a minute. They hit you with a cat o' nine tails, you're like, "Okay, okay, I'll do whatever you want me to do," you know?
So he's definitely not talking about you suffering the same way Jesus suffered. The key word here in this phrase, "fellowship of suffering," is the word "fellowship". It comes from an old Greek word "koinonia," which is a giving and taking, a giving and receiving relationship. If you go to drink coffee with somebody, you say you want to fellowship with them, you know, that person has a part, you have a part, you know? They're gonna share some things with you. You're gonna listen, you're gonna share something with them and everybody operates in their part to accomplish fellowship.
Okay, so let's look at Jesus's part in this fellowship of suffering. His part was to be beat with a cat o' nine tails, to be the sin offering, to be nailed to the cross, to pay the ransom, to go to a hell that we should have gone through, to suffer sin that he took from us on him. So his part of the fellowship of suffering is to obtain the victory. So he died and suffered to get the victory. His suffering got us redemption and righteousness and healing and all of the finished works. That was his job. So he got it. So a lot of stuff we're praying for, it's already done. A lot of stuff that you're asking God for, it's already done.
"O God, give me victory". Victory has already been gotten, okay? So that was Jesus's part. Now my part in this fellowship of suffering, your part in this fellowship of suffering, is to maintain what Jesus obtained. So everything he got, see, we gotta change our thinking. We're trying to get God to do something now as if he hadn't done it. It would be no different if I were to say to you, "Sit down," and you're already seated. How frustrating is that? "Sit down" and you're already seated. And you're going, "God heal me," and he said, "I already did that". God did, already.
So we got to change our thinking to line up with the reality of how things are. It's finished. That's the last word he said on the cross. It's finished. I'm done, it's finished. So whatever you're gonna be praying for or asking for or pleading for, it's done. Imagine in heaven as they hear you plead and beg and ask, like it's not already done. It kind of indicates your unbelief. So we, as Christians, we've got to operate with this thing has presently been accomplished.
Now, my job is to maintain the victory that was obtained, which means I have a job of standing there for. How long do I have to stand there? Until I get what I'm standing for. I'm standing there for. So I believe that Jesus has already given me the victory where deliverance is concerned, all right? So you say, "I'm gonna stand on that," all right? So now here comes the discomfort, here comes the trouble, to try to knock you off your stance. And now am I just to stand there and get beat up? Am I just to stand there and just get whopped in the head? No, the Bible says, "Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil".
That word "resist" means to withstand and to fight against. And then if you'll do that, he will run with fear. He will flee. So you find something else in the scripture. "Oh I believe that. I'm gonna stand on that". And then all hell breaking loose to try to get you to change your mind. "Jesus didn't do nothing for you, didn't nothing happen on that cross," and you're sitting there like, "No, I'm standing. Oh nope, I'm standing". And then, "Now, so how do I stand"?
Okay, the attack comes. You remember when Taffi had that little red shield and she threw things at it. We're standing with the shield of faith. And what happens is, you know, you say, "I'm delivered," and he says, "No, you're not," and you hold your shield up. "Yes, I am". He says, "No, you're not". "Yes, I am". So the shield of faith is the Word of God. You go to the Word and you're taking the promise of the Word and I'm gonna stand there with the Word and every time you come and do something to contradict my deliverance, I'm gonna say, "I'm still delivered". Huh, you know? And he's coming. "I'm still delivered".
So that's a illustration of what that looks like. And it's all something that takes place in your mind and in your soul. So what I wanna deal with because what happens is we understand grace, but we have this attitude of, "Well, thank God for his grace. So I'm just not gonna do nothing," and that's not what it means. It means you're standing in the victory of what Jesus has obtained. And while you're standing, he will assist you with something called faith in the middle of the attack. Faith is not the magic wand to try to get you your stuff while you're here. Faith is your security in the midst of the attack while you standing on what you believe.
So this is gonna be a radical teaching on faith, grace. A lot of people think and I don't know why this is, but there's this thing about, it kind of, you know, spirit of division come in everywhere. Somebody starts teaching grace and then somebody has faith and now they're opposing one another. Grace and faith should not oppose one another. They go together like a hand and glove. You see, there are two groups. There's a group that says that those who emphasize grace, which is God's part. Understand something about grace. Grace is God's part. It's not my part. I ain't got nothing to do with grace. It's all God. That's God's part.
But then there are those who emphasize faith. That's our part. Faith is my part, grace is God's part, but they go together. Grace is God's part, faith is my part. Now we gotta get this faith thing right, because we're using it like it's a magic wand. "Well, I'm gonna use my faith to rob that bank". Well, grace didn't make that available for your faith to rob. "Well, you know in the name of Jesus, I'm gonna use my faith to believe that Taffi died so I can get her husband". Grace didn't make me available to you. Y'all laughing. People do that.
"I'm gonna use my faith to get somebody's husband". Well, grace hadn't made somebody's husband available for your faith to take. And we do wild, weird stuff with faith because it leaped over its boundary. It leaped out of its context, and we're not using it contextually where it was designed to use. So we start in Romans chapter 5. Is everybody on the bus, everybody on the bus? I know I kinda went there for a moment. Everybody on the bus, right? All right, all right, watch verse 2: "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand".
Look at here. We have access into this grace. See, grace has already made everything available and that's where we're standing. We're standing in this grace. "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God," or the manifestation of the glory of God. But notice, notice how we gain access to grace. Grace is this unmerited abounding provision in the unrestricted operation of God's love that comes through Jesus Christ to those who accept him, especially for those who depend on him.
The grace of God is unmerited, but it is also increasing provision, but it is also love that can't be restricted by our crazy. It comes through Jesus Christ because grace is not just a subject, it is a person, Jesus, who is full of grace and truth, and it will especially be available for those who lean and rely and depend on Jesus Christ. And he says none of that can be accessed without faith. So now all of a sudden, we need to understand how to live by faith so we can access this grace. Everybody follow me?
All right now, look at Romans 4:16. Live by faith, so we can access grace. Romans 4:16. He says, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace". They go together. They're designed to go together. They each have their function and they work together and without it, without grace, faith don't have nothing to access, yeah. But without faith, you can't access all that grace that's made available. So you gotta have both. There's no opposition and no fight should be going on between the grace people and the faith people. We ought to be grace-faith people. "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; and to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed".
Now move over to the book of Hebrews chapter 2, I mean chapter 4, verse 2, Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 2, well, now, let's go to Ephesians 2:8. This would be a perfect time to show this. I'll look at it again, but Ephesians 2 and 8... now, notice about your salvation: "For by grace are you saved". So you're saved by what? What provided your salvation? Take away grace, can you be saved? So you're saved by grace? All right, but how do you get a hold of it? How do you take it? Through what?
So you got what grace made available, but you got it through faith. If you don't have faith, you can't get what grace made available, because whatever grace has made available, you take it through faith. And that means through faith, man. I believe that I am saved because grace made salvation available to me and I take it by faith. And I'm not looking at my hands to see if my hands look new. I'm not looking at my feet and see if they do too. No, I am saved by grace and I now have it by my faith. I didn't do nothing different. I didn't sound different. In fact, probably when I left the church, I emptied the trash and cussed when I dropped the bottle on my feet.
See, the thing that separated me from God was not my sin action. It was the sin nature that separated me from God. But when I got born again, I had no longer the sin nature and now I am right there with God, hallelujah, and he can do things with my sin action because I'm no longer separated him because of this sinful nature, ooh. Right? Right? Are you all following? We're going on a journey today. You're going on a journey today. Something getting ready to happen. And you are not gonna be the last in line to find out that you already got your victory. You're not gonna walk away. You ain't walking out here today, "Oh, praise the Lord, one day I'm gonna get my victory". No, you got your victory. You got your victory right now.
Now, whether you wanna take it home with you is based on your faith. You gotta walk around believing this. Now, go to, I just said it, Hebrews 4:2. They were trying to enter into the rest and they heard the Word. They heard the Word. "For unto us was the gospel preached". Underline that word. We need to find, we need to understand what the gospel is. Someone says it's good news. All right, let's keep going. Good news about what? Because somebody says, "Well, the Bible, the whole Bible, good news". No, there's some bad news in the Bible too.
So we need some precision this morning about what the gospel is, so that we can determine if it's really being preached. Because the Coming of Jesus Christ is gonna be based on the gospel being preached in all the world and the end will come. And if we assume that the gospel is this one thing, just good news, and we're not precise about what good news, then we'll be deceived, thinking the gospel being preached around the world and it is not being preached around the world if you don't know what the gospel is, all right?
So watch him. He says: "Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not," and then we gotta deal with that word. What word? The word... what word? What was the specific word that was preached? What is the specific gospel, precisely the specific gospel? He said, "As well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them". There was no profit from the word that they heard preached. Why? It wasn't mixed with faith. It requires faith to appropriate what grace has made available. If you understand that, say "Amen".
Now, here's where I'm gonna attack all of our tradition. Romans chapter 10 in verse 17. Romans 10:17, very familiar scripture. Ready? So then if we're gonna have to have faith to access grace, "so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God". It would be cool if we all understood when somebody said the Word of God. But we've got all this stuff out here. So precisely what specific word that you hear for faith to come, because I can preach a word all over the 66 books, so precisely what specific word do you hear for faith to come?
Well, let's look at it in the NLT. Let's just travel to different versions here just for a moment. In the NLT: "So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ". So hearing the good news about Christ, faith for that comes. All right, let's keep going. Let's look at this in the NIV. Somebody says, "You getting particular". You know, in these days and times, you have to. Because I can be preaching this right now and somebody will still be stuck on quoting what they know traditionally and not hearing what I'm saying.
All right, now, watch this. He said, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ". So he is saying that faith cometh by hearing the gospel or the good news, right? The gospel. What kind of gospel? About Christ. Oh, my goodness. Faith comes from hearing the gospel of Christ. Well, what grace got to do with that? Well, going over here to, what is it? I think it's Galatians chapter 1 and 6, Galatians 1 and 6.
Now let's take on what you heard so far. I'm taking you on a little journey, Galatians 1 and 6. Paul is talking here. He says, "I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ," watch the assumption here, "unto another gospel". He is saying here: I am tripping out that someone has, that from him that called you into the gospel of the grace of Christ to another gospel.
And now notice what he says in verse 7, he's got that colon in there, notice what he says in verse 7: "Which is not another gospel". "I'm surprised that you left the grace of Christ to another gospel," and then he says, "there is no other", right? "There is no other gospel". And I literally have heard people tell me, "Well, there are other gospels". There is no other. There is no other, ain't no more good news like this good news about Jesus.