Creflo Dollar — Confirmation with Signs and Wonders
I want to begin to talk to you about the relevancy of God's grace, the relevancy of God's grace. What does it mean to be relevant? Because I don't think we've defined it quite right. You know, there are many times people are trying to be relevant, and what they're doing is, if they're not careful, they'll find themselves being, you know, more like the world than God.
Well, that's not what it means to be relevant, it doesn't mean to lose your identity and who God has called you to be to be relevant. To be relevant means to be connected with the matter at hand. When you're relevant, you're connected with the matter at hand.
In other words, how relevant, let me use a synonym here, how significant is God in your life? Because that's what it means to be relevant, it's the significance. What part, how is God connected to your life? How is God's grace connected to your life? What significance does God play when you get a report from the doctor and he says you have cancer? So, is God significant? How significant is God and what's the relevancy of God when, you know, you're on the verge of divorce in relationships? How significant is God when you're in debt, or you're in lack, and you can't pay your bills, or you just lost your job? How relevant is God when you're in strife, or emotionally you're tormented by depression, and fear, and you're hurt, and you're lonely, how significant is God?
And the reason why I'm talking about this is because I have noticed people don't know the Bible, they don't have a clue. They're still living off the little stuff they got when they were growing up and Mama made 'em go to church. Other than that, if this was a germ, it would be in epidemic proportion.
Ladies and gentleman, people have been trained by religion and taught that God is only relevant when it's time to die because we've been preaching about a God of the hereafter. In other words, here's the attitude of the world right now, "I don't need God until I die, because I need him to get into heaven." Because we've talked about God from the perspective of heaven and hell.
If you don't wanna go to hell, then you need to get God. If you don't get God, you're gonna go to hell. And so, basically, most people think, "Well, you know, I'm not dying," or they go, "I'm not old and I'm not dying, so, you know, what's the significance of me having God in my life? I don't need God, I don't need him until I die."
And so, God has no relevancy in the lives of a lot of people in the world right now because they're not at the point of death, and nobody's thinking about God until they get ready to die, why? Because, we've not preached, or we have to continue to preach the full counsel of God.
See, we've only preached God from the perspective of, you know, Jesus died to save man from sin, and then once you receive him and get saved, then you can go to heaven and avoid hell, and then that's just it. We see no significance of having God in our everyday life because we hadn't been told how relevant he can be when we're lonely, and when we're going through emotional turmoil, or when the doctor says you have sickness, or when there's lack in your life, because when we start preaching everything that grace has provided, because people hadn't heard it, they immediately reject it.
See, Jesus did not just die just to forgive you of your sins. Thank God he forgave us of our sins, we appreciate that, right? But he also died so you could be delivered from drug addiction, sex addiction, any other kind of addiction. Jesus can set you free from addictive behavior. In fact, let me put it like this, when Jesus died 2,000 years ago and shed his blood, he has already provided freedom from every addiction you can get in.
Alright, now you need to listen to me because I am telling you that you don't have to be condemned no more, and Satan uses condemnation. I am telling you that you don't have to live in guilt, and Satan uses guilt, and the church uses guilt, and for a long time, preachers have used guilt, and I'm taking those tools away from the devil, and he won't be able to use 'em against you anymore.
I'm telling you that God's not the punisher, he's not the punisher. He's not punishing you because you didn't do things perfect last week. He's not punishing you because you forgot to say your prayers yesterday. God's not a punisher. See, you have made this about you and this is not about you, this is about his story. Oh, y'all need to help me, here, I done heard something.
Are you listening to what I'm saying? You have an enemy and his name is the devil, and he comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and Satan does not want you to know the truth. He doesn't want the light of the glorious gospel of Christ to shine upon you, he wants to keep you in darkness.
So, it's alright you know that he died for your sins, but he don't want you to know that he is a deliverer, and he has already provided deliverance for every area of bondage that you can get in in this life. Lord, have mercy, it's like a pill for everything that's wrong with you. Jesus has already provided deliverance for every bondage that you can get in in this life, alright?
So, the blood of Jesus not only delivers you of sin, but it also delivers you from every bondage. The blood of Jesus... a part of the atonement, he took away your sickness, he took away your disease, he took away your bondage, but he also provided, I'm gonna say it real loud and clear, financial prosperity. Through the blood of Jesus, Jesus has provided financial prosperity for you.
See, nobody sees the significance of having anything to do with God when baby need a pair of shoes, and look, you got a light bill due and you even got a gas bill, too. Your telephone disconnect, wait till your next paycheck. Paychecks bounce on you, more bills are due.
Nobody pays any attention to God because the question is, how can God help me here? And I know some of you are looking at me, "Well, the Bible don't say nothing about prosperity." Oh, Lord Jesus, Psalm 35:27, the Bible says that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. Proverbs chapter 10, I believe verse 22 says the blessings of the Lord maketh rich without the toil and the stress. Deuteronomy chapter 8:18 says I've given you the power to get the wealth so that you can fulfill my covenant, huh? 2 Corinthians chapter 8, the Bible says, and makes it very clear, that he who was rich became poor so that we, through his poverty, might be rich. 3 John verse 2 says I pray above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.
So, if you hadn't read the Bible, be quiet, because the blood of Jesus has atoned and taken your lack, and taken your debt, and he has died and shed his blood so that you can receive the prosperity that he's made available to you, but when you prosper, he gets the glory, because you gonna tell everybody, "Jesus did this." So, there is relevancy in what Jesus did 2,000 years ago where your financial prosperity is concerned.
What about your marriage? People are getting divorced because the divorce therapist, the counselors are not working for 'em, the therapists are not working for 'em. You end up firing the therapist, cussing out the counselor, and going and getting a divorce. The only friend is the judge that's gonna sign the divorce papers.
But Jesus, 2,000 years ago, shed his blood so you can work it out, uh-huh. The best way to work out your marriage is to make Jesus the center of your marriage, because when Jesus is the center of your marriage, no matter who ain't doing what they supposed to do, the first place Jesus showed up was at a wedding.
That was the significance of him showing up at a wedding, to let you know that Jesus wants to have some relevancy in your marriage relationships. And Jesus showed up at a wedding, and there was lack at that wedding, they ran out of wine. And Jesus said, "Let me show you what I'm gonna do in relationship. Go get some water," and he turned the water into wine, and it didn't take three years to do it, Jesus did it in a matter of minutes.
And I'm telling you, you might have problems in your marriage, but if you'll let Jesus be in the center of your marriage, he'll turn that thing around in a matter of minutes. You need a Savior in your marriage, and provision has already been made so Jesus can show up and give you what he died for to take care of your marriage. You don't have to go get a secret divorce, you don't have to leave one another, all you got to do is take advantage of what Jesus has made ready for marriage relationships.
"Well, Brother Dollar" — now, y'all put your seatbelts on, this is the truth right now, this is the truth. "Brother Dollar, how is Jesus gonna help me with my marriage? You don't understand what I've gone through. You don't understand how I been treated. You don't understand the pain I got. You don't understand, y'all don't know, y'all just don't know, oh Jesus."
So, here's what Jesus said, he says I'll tell you what the deal is. The root cause for hurt, bitterness, and pain is self-centeredness. When you're self-centered, that's the only way you can feel like what I just described, because when you are not focused on yourself, then what somebody do to you won't hurt you. When you're not focused on yourself, what people say about you won't bother you.
Listen, self-centeredness is the root of every bitterness and strife. It's the enemy against humility, because true Bible humility is when you're submitting to God and you're willing to die to yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Jesus Christ. But you're so busy, "Look at me, oh, look at me." True humility is never focused on self-promotion, it's always focused on God promotion, what?
Yeah, that'll stop all the divorces right now, being delivered from yourself. Because here's your deception, your deception is you think once you get divorced from this one partner, then the next partner gonna be alright. No, every partner's gonna have to feed into your self-centeredness, and until you get rid of your self-centeredness, you ain't gonna be happy with nobody because you ain't even happy with yourself. And as soon as you get delivered from your self-centeredness, and start focusing on somebody else...
How he treats you is none of your business. Your business is how you treat him. What did I just describe? Deliverance from self-centeredness, but if you're sitting up thinking the whole time, "Oh, I don't like the way she talk to me. I don't like how I'm being treated. I'm being disrespected as a man."
That ain't none of your business, how your wife talk to you, how your wife treats you, what she cook and what she don't cook, that ain't none of your business. Your business is, is you doing some cooking? Your business is how you talking to her. Dismiss self-centeredness and every relationship begins to work in line with what God told it to work. See, he has significance in your marriage. If you come and talk to me, I'll just tell you right away, honey, so we don't waste no time, it's you. Get delivered from yourself, and everything change.
And you know, the next question is, "Well, what about him?" That ain't none of your business. Something about when you make somebody else priority and not yourself priority, everything seems to line up. Hallelujah, if they're not treating you right, you treat them right. If they're not talking to you right, you talk to them right.
You see, Jesus died and he put that love on the inside of you, and he loved you first, and now you can love what's not lovely because he loved you first. You know, you didn't used to be lovely, but Jesus loved you first, relevancy.
Now somebody says, "Well, now Brother Dollar, you know, being delivered from self-centeredness, that's gonna be difficult." Yeah, you'll be dealing with something like that for, like, you know, till Jesus comes or until you die. Yeah, it's an everyday thing, it's an everyday decision. It's when self pop up like a Pop Tart out of a toaster, you gonna have to put it back down and say, "No, no, no, no, no, no, I know as soon as you get in the way, things ain't gonna be like they need to do."
But see, that came from God being relevant in our lives. And I'm sure hundreds of you can testify to this. Something changed in your life when you just started showing up and hearing the Word. And the more you came to church, and the more you got in the Word, and the more you heard in the Word, you start noticing a transformation, a change started taking place in your life. And folks don't understand it.
Let me tell you something. I'll prophesy this over you, you are about to be so blessed that the people that don't know your testimony will accuse you of doing something illegal because they can't understand how you're so blessed. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. You are about to be so blessed, because things are about to change in this church. You are about to be so blessed that they who have not heard your testimony will accuse you of doing something illegal, 'cause they can't understand how can somebody be so blessed, hallelujah.
Jesus died on that cross, he shed his blood so you could be blessed, so you could be healed, so you could be delivered, so you could be happy, so you could be rich, so you could be comfortable, so you could have a good time. He is not the punisher, he is not the one that's putting sickness on you, he is not the one that's killing you in accidents.
He is the God that loves his children, and he wants to run you over with his blessings. That is Jehovah that we serve. That is our God, and I will not cease to preach this gospel of grace until everybody knows that God's not the one behind the catastrophe, that God didn't tear your house up in a tornado, hallelujah, that God didn't put sickness on you trying to train you to do something. He's a Father, not an abuser, hallelujah.
That God is not the one condemning you to make you feel bad about what you did 10 years ago. He said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," hallelujah, and if you're in Jesus, there's no more condemnation, there is no more guilt, there is no more fear about you having to die and go to hell, because if you have been seated with him in heavenly places, you are already there, hallelujah.
But you see, those are the tools of the devil, and somehow he got into church and religion, and preachers have used condemnation, guilt, and shame to try to keep you coming to church. And now there's a new generation of young people who won't buy it. Teenagers ain't buying this. You tell a teenager you're gonna die and go to hell, they gonna say, "Why?" And you're gonna say, "Because you did that, you did that, you did that," he says, "Well, didn't you say God was love?" "Yeah," "Well, why would a God of love send me to hell because I did that?" And then you say, "Well, you just quit being smart."
No, you gonna have to answer their question. "Well, so-and-so and so-and-so died, why did God let 'em die?" "Well, you know see, he picked a flower in his garden on the earth, and see, he wanted to plant it in heaven." They're not gonna buy that.
The first thing they're gonna say is, "Well, I don't wanna serve no God who gonna be pickin' flowers out of the earth and planting it in heaven, I don't want that. You need to tell me why." And you need to tell 'em the reason why is 'cause there's a devil loose, and Satan comes to kill, and steal, and destroy, but Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly," so that ain't God.
So, if you wanna get the devil back, get saved, get filled, get ready to go, and let's attack 'em all at one time. And if you'll give a teenager a cause, they'll get behind the cause, but if you try to use that old stuff that was used on you, you know, fire, and hell, and fire and brimstone, that ain't working now.
And that don't work with most people because when people don't see that God is relevant in your everyday life, it's not gonna work when you tell 'em, "Well, you know, you gonna die and go to hell." They like, "Man, I'm in hell right now. I'm in hell right now, I can't pay these bills, I done lost my family, I lost my job, I ain't got nothing to eat, I got sickness on my body, bring it on."
Hell ain't doing that no more, and see, if you use those kind of condemning tactics to try to keep people to come to church, they just say, "Well, since I'm going to hell, and since it don't seem like I can ever please God, then I might as well stay home. Ain't no use in me wasting no time in getting dressed up."
And that's another thing about getting dressed up. You ain't got to get dressed up to come to church on Sunday, you can come to church with your sweat suit on if you want to, are you hearing what I'm saying? I came out last week without a tie and some jeans on, some of the people almost put their finger up and said, "Oh Lord, this man done backslid."
No, I'm trying to show you I can be just as anointed with jeans on as I can with a suit on, 'cause God ain't looking at all that stuff, he is weighing the heart. We've got to discover the relevancy of God's grace in our lives every day or we won't have anything to do with God until it's time to die, until it's time to die. We just keep preaching the God of the here and after instead of preaching the God of right now. I need Jesus, I need him every day I get up.
In fact, I need him to wake me up. I need him to wake me up, because I discovered a long time ago, the alarm clock didn't wake me up. Because if you believe the alarm clock is responsible for waking you up, then take the alarm clock down to one of the funeral homes where they got some dead bodies, and set it, and let it go off, and see if they get up. No, the alarm clock didn't wake you up, it was Jesus. Don't make no mistake about it, Jesus wakes you up.