Creflo Dollar - Transformed By Delight - Part 1
This morning I want to talk about «Transformed by Delight». The two keys to being changed and transformed was that the one key was beholding him and just by beholding him, the Bible says we’re changed by the Holy Spirit. But this issue of being transformed by delight, we need to figure out what that is. This is all within the series of «Living in the Rhythms of Grace». What does it mean to be transformed or changed by delight? In fact, what does that word delight mean? Let’s begin in Psalms 37, verses 1 through 7 in the NLT. Psalms 37, verses 1 through 7 in the NLT.
Father, I thank you for another opportunity to minister to these your precious sheep. Thank you, Lord, that revelation of knowledge will flow freely, uninterrupted and unhindered by any satanic or demonic force. And Father, I pray that you’ll speak through my vocal cords and think through my mind. None of me and all of you, it’s in Jesus’s name we pray, and everybody said amen.
Now we are so grateful for the grace and the mercy of God, but one of the things I want you to understand is that we can be changed by grace. And today is gonna be a focus on your relationship with Jesus Christ. You know, it’s just not gonna be possible to live this Christian life without a relationship with Jesus Christ. We can come up with more rules and add those rules to rules to rules to rules and still ignore the vitalness and the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus. Because what’s gonna transform us is that relationship, what’s gonna change us is the relationship we have with Jesus. What’s going to be the result of our success is the relationship we have with Jesus. What’s gonna be our delivering, our healing is that relationship with Jesus.
They that know their God shall do exploits, and I think sometimes we don’t know what it looks like to have that relationship with Jesus Christ. I mean, what does that look like? How do we do that? How do we have that relationship with the spirit of grace? It’s not just being religious, okay? It’s having a real relationship with him where sometimes your relationship with him informs you of something that you haven’t even found in the Bible yet. And yet your relationship with Jesus has told you about the thing and then later on you read it and say, «Wait a minute, God told me about that». That’s what this relationship is about.
And I don’t see success in the lives of Christian people when we don’t understand how important it is to have a everyday relationship with God. Your life as a Christian doesn’t grow because you come to church. Your life as a Christian grows every day through your everyday getting up, your living. It is as you live that you make disciples of people. It’s what you do every day because God can take advantage of all the things that life brings your way. And then you say you trust him, but now you have the opportunity to see what that looks like. You say you depend on him, now you have the opportunity to see what that looks like. It’s what are you doing every day and how are you involving God in your life on a day to day basis. It’s when somebody does something to you, and you know who you are, you know your identity, you know you’re a Christian.
Now is the opportunity to test that out, now it’s the opportunity to bring that forth. You go around and we say we love people, but what happens when somebody, you know, identifies and makes it plain to you they don’t like you. Now it’s the opportunity to exercise that and through that exercise and through the temptation and through that pressure, it’s that everyday life stuff that you’ll find yourself maturing in what you’re learning from the Word of God. It’s not just memorizing Scripture, and now you keep up with the number of scriptures you have memorized that makes you a great Christian, it’s being able to look at life and how it challenges you and how it tests you. And then the things you’ve learned, you pull them up out of your spirit and the Holy Ghost begins to direct your path.
And you see growth because you realized five years ago this would have been a fight. But now the love of God has been bubbling on the inside of you and you have the opportunity to see what’s really in you. It’s just like an orange. You just don’t know what it’s like until the squeeze has been put on. And I just believe that most of you world changers that will be squeezed, you’re going to demonstrate the amazing character and flavor of God that abides on the inside of you, amen? I believe that. And so, this is gonna be interesting because again, we’re gonna attack one of those little religious things that we believed all our time and just really look at it and just see what we have here.
So, Psalms 37, verses 1 through 7 in the NLT. Verse 1 says, «Don’t worry about the wicked,» that’s a good word, isn’t it? «Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong». Verse 2, «For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither». So, while he says don’t fret or don’t worry, he says here’s what you do, «Trust in the Lord, do good. Then you’ll live safely in the land and you will prosper,» because you trust in the Lord and do good. You’re not responding to the wicked. You’re not responding to all of the stuff that’s happening right now. You’re trusting in the Lord and you’re doing good and you’re gonna live safely, regardless of what’s happening. And you’re gonna live in the land and you’re gonna prosper. Verse 4, he says, «Delight yourself in the LORD, or take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desire».
Now put a pin there cause we gotta understand that because we’ve misunderstood that. Verse 5 he says, «Commit everything you do to the LORD». So delight yourself in the Lord, trust in the Lord, commit everything you do to the Lord, commit everything you do to the Lord. Commit everything you do… Wonder what happens if we’ll start committing everything we do to the Lord. Wonder what happens instead of you making the decision or you allowing your emotions to move you into a place. Wonder what happen if you commit yourself to the Lord. He said, «Trust him». There it is again. Delight yourself, trust in the Lord, commit yourself to the Lord. And all of this in the mid of fret and worry. Don’t worry about the wicked. You’re too busy to worry about the wicked. You’re trusting God. You’re depending on God. You’re committing everything to God. You’re trusting God, and you’re doing good. But why are you wasting energy concerning the wicked?
He says, «Put your energy towards these things. Trust him, and he’ll help you». Verse 6, «He will make your innocence radiant like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun». My goodness. «Be still,» look at there. Another version I think King James says, «Take rest». Be still, take rest. Trust in the Lord. Commit your way everything to the Lord. Take a rest. Rest in God. «Be still in the presence of the Lord, wait patiently for him to act». Wait patiently for him to act. You know what we do when we’re not patient for God to act? We act. And maybe it ain’t time for you to act because everything is seasonal, you know? It’s not time for you to act. Wait patiently for him to act. «Don’t worry about evil people who prosper. Don’t fret about their wicked schemes». Wow.
So, a big part of this is verse 4, which it says, «Delight yourself in the Lord and he’ll give you the desires of your heart». And before we dig into that, go to Isaiah 58, verse 13 through 14, because in there, he’s talking about the Sabbath. And we know that today, this our Sabbath is not a day. Our Sabbath is a person. Jesus is our Sabbath. Say that out loud, «Jesus is my Sabbath». Okay, he’s my rest. Jesus is my rest. Jesus is my Sabbath. So, here in the… let’s read that with the King James. Here he’s talking about the Sabbath day, but I saw something in this, even if we recognize that Jesus is our rest. He says, «If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure,» from doing your pleasure, «on the holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shall honor him».
Now here’s what I got out of this and I realized Sabbath is at rest, not doing thy own way, not finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words. What is that gonna be called when you stop doing your own pleasure, stop doing your own way, stop speaking your own words? Next verse says, «Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord». Oh, there’s gotta be something to that. Not doing your own pleasure, not speaking your own words. He says, «Then you find delight in the Lord; and I’ll cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and I’ll feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it». Something happens, something changes, something is transformed when we find delight in the Lord.
So, to me it’s imperative that we understand what it means to delight in the Lord. Because here’s the way we’ve taught it in church, «Delight thyself in the Lord,» and sometimes you’ll see people translated in joy, okay? Delight thyself in the Lord. Enjoy the Lord. I just believe it’s a whole lot more than enjoying. I believe it means a whole lot more. I had to go to the Hebrew and study that because I’m thinking, you know, not speaking my thing or doing my way is not gonna be very enjoyable to me, you know. But you’ve got to understand here when he talks about this enjoyment, you know, «Enjoy the Lord, delight yourself in the Lord and he’ll give you the desire of your heart».
So, if you, in your heart, you desire a car, all you gotta do is delight yourself in the Lord and he’ll give you the car. You know, in your heart, if you desire a husband or a wife, all you gotta do is delight yourself in the Lord. He’s gonna give you the husband or the wife. That’s not what that means. That is so not what that means. And so, you know, you’re gonna find out that it’s not God not gonna be giving you what’s in your heart, God’s gonna be giving you what’s in his heart, okay? But I want you to understand that so you can use delight as a weapon to overcome crazy times in your life, all right? So, let’s dig into this. Let’s look at the original word here. The Hebrew word for delight, it means to be soft and tender and pliable. The Hebrew word for delight, soft, tender, and pliable.
You see lovers of God are those who are soft and tender towards God. And what do I mean? Lovers of God, and when you delight in God, you’re always teachable when you delight yourself in God. You’re always pliable in his hands when you delight yourself in the Lord. In this context, in Psalms 37, and verse 4, it means to be dependent upon God and to derive your pleasure from him. I’m dependent upon God, and I have pleasure in depending upon God.
Now what does that look like? Delight yourself in the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord looks like this. It’s when you are willing to accept every experience as though God is trying to teach you something. It’s when you look at every experience that happens in your life, you look at it as God’s trying to teach me something and you find peace and fulfillment in the Lord because to be pliable and to delight yourself in the Lord, «I just went through this. I just believe God’s trying to teach me something». «This just happened to me. What can I learn from this»?
See, we keep asking the wrong question. When things happen to us, we keep asking, «Why did you let this happen to me»? But to have delight in the Lord, it says, «Lord, I am teachable, I am pliable, I am soft, and I trust that there’s a reason why this happened, and I just depend on you, and I accept every experience as though you’re trying to teach me something». Think about how you can carry on after something crazy happens when that’s your response. «Father, this thing just happened to me and it hurts, but I believe that you’re trying to teach me something. I believe that I’m supposed to grow. I believe I’m being equipped. I believe that as someone who is pliable and soft and teachable…» Who do we think we are? How do we think that just because we’ve been saved, I don’t care how many years, that you think you’re there.
The more I learn, the more I realize what I don’t know. And I learned something new, and I realized, oh God, I didn’t know that. At one time I just said, «God, I don’t know nothing but you». And you know what he said? «That’ll be good». Because what’s happening? We’re in this theological contest with one another and we think that, you know, God approves us because of the knowledge we have obtained. And knowledge is not bad, but I am saying, ladies and gentlemen, intimacy with Jesus is better than all the knowledge you can learn from every concordance that you could read. Look at these scriptures. Let’s go into this a little bit more.
Psalms 22 and 8. Psalms 22 and 8, there’s something that happens when we remain teachable, pliable, when we look at the experiences of our lives as though God is trying to show us something. And that’s why I taught on self-deception. God’s trying to show us something where we can’t even see what God’s trying to show us because we don’t think we need to see nothing. Let me tell you something, self-deception, we’re good at it. We try to deceive other people and don’t even realize we already deceived. Because people who deceive, they love blaming other people still. People who are deceived have a hard time listening to somebody confronting them about somebody that they said. We’re gonna talk about that. And you can’t go far in God if you’re stuck in deception, amen.
And let me tell you this to make you feel good. Everybody goes through self-deception. Ain’t nobody in here that’s, «Well I’m not deceived,» somewhere. And God wants you to delight yourself in him. He’s got something he will do through delight. Look at this in Psalms 22:8. He said, «He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him,» I trust God that he’ll deliver me. Somebody says, «Well I don’t need to be delivered from something». You need to be delivered from something. Okay, maybe you need to be delivered from a mean spirit, or moodiness, or huntiness, or pride might be sitting at the table. «Oh, I don’t have pride, pastor». You do. Pride is somewhere at your table. It’s not sitting at the head of the table. And that’s your job, to make sure you know where pride and ego is sitting every day. Because pride and ego wants to sit at the head of the table so it can start directing things that happen in your life.
And a lot of issues we go through as a Christian is the ego and a pride issue. But we don’t want to confront ego and pride because ego and pride won’t show you what you wanna see. Ego and pride will show you who you really are. But there’s a great deliverance there, and it comes when you delight in God. That great deliverance is there to take you to the next level of your growth and it comes. He said, «He trusted on the Lord». I feel like trust is a big part of delighting in God. He trusted on the Lord, he depended on the Lord and I trust and I depend on God and I prayed the prayer, «Lord, help me not to deceive myself».
Why do I need God to help me to deceive myself? Because if I deceive myself, I probably don’t know I’m deceived. Help me, Lord, not to deceive myself. Show me, help me. I delight myself in you. I don’t want to walk around here deceived. I don’t wanna walk around here like I did before. I was almost 200 and something, 50 pounds and I couldn’t see it. Until this guy wrote me a nasty letter and said, «I can’t stand your big old fat blank,» and I said, I forgot about the insult and I’m like, «Fat? Fat? Fat? Forget everything else, fat, fat»? We are better at deceiving ourselves than anybody else. So, I have to trust God. I have to depend on him, and I gotta let him, when I trust God and when I delight in God, I depend on him to deliver me.
And the scripture says, «Let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him». So there’s something about delighting in God that brings about deliverance. There’s something that when we learn how to delight in the Lord that’ll bring about deliverance. Look at Psalms 119, verse 16. Psalms 119, verse 16. Is everybody still on the bus? All right, stay on the bus. He says, «I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget your word». I see that, I see that getting in God’s Word can be a part of delight. And yet as Christian people, we have forgotten about how important it is to have daily contact with God’s Word. I mean, whether you get the Word by reading the Bible, whether you get the word by listening to the sermon over again and teaching.
I’m like that guy who says, «How am I gonna read and understand the Word if I don’t have a teacher»? However you need to get it, get it, get it. Even if you make your mind up that I’m gonna get to work 15 minutes a day, get it. How do you think you’re gonna change and you’re not exposed to the agent of change? Oh man. Oh, I’m a Christian and know nothing, have no contact with the Spirit. Hallelujah. And it’s the spirit of grace that’s gonna change us. And sometimes, well not all the time. When you make daily contact with God’s Word and you don’t forget God’s Word, that’s a delight. And I tell you, he can deliver you when you do that, but I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it is. We’ve been saved for 30 years.
Now we don’t see any need to get in the Word. I don’t ever want to become a Christian that has stopped growing and maturing and learning because God is deep. You mean to tell me you done figured all God out? No, you ain’t figured God out. He did something one way with you this time, he’ll do something completely different the next time and seeing, and getting better results. God is wide and deep and high and there’s so much to know.
One lifetime ain’t enough to figure him out. And we took the place where we think we know all about God. We done learned five scriptures, got baptized last night, and now we don’t need God no more. Are you listening to me now? All right, so now let’s dig in this thing here now. True delight in him causes us to take our sights off of what we want in order to long for what he wants. When you’re operating in true delight, delight yourself in the Lord, this is what it looks like. You take your sights off what you want and you put your sights on what he wants. And you take your sights off what you want in order to long for what he wants.