Creflo Dollar — Freedom from Mammon
So he said, "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction." Thank God for his correction. Thank God for his correction. You need to be asking God, "Father, thank you for correcting me. I don't wanna be doing something that I know I need to be corrected of. Correct me, Lord." 'Cause in that Scripture it says whom he loves. Yeah, "For whom the Lord loveth he," what? "Even as a father his son in whom he delighteth."
Don't get mad at correction. Somebody wanna bring correction to your life, man, that spirit is probably on you right now, "You know, I don't like how you're trying to correct me like that, man. I mean, I know I'm wrong, but I don't need you correcting me. Let the Lord correct me." Dude, come on, man. Verse 13. Here's the, I think, the fourth one. "Happy is the man that findeth," watch this, "wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding."
You can stay above the spirit of mammon when you get wisdom and understanding. And wisdom is available. You have to get it. There's a little distinction between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is not knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge. Wisdom acts like a light, and it shines light on knowledge, showing you what to do with it.
There are a lot of people that have knowledge but don't know how to use it. There are people with college degrees, and they're homeless. They don't know how to use the knowledge that they have. God gives us wisdom, and he makes it available to us. And when we get that wisdom and that understanding, then the wisdom now so outweighs what mammon can present.
Look what the Scripture says. He says, "For the merchandise of wisdom is better than the merchandise of silver, and gain thereof than fine gold." So he says wisdom is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do, kinda like those directions I was just talking about. He says the merchandise of wisdom outweighs silver and gold.
"Wisdom is more precious than rubies: and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared to wisdom. Length of days is in wisdom's right hand; and in her left hand riches and honor." It says here you are being seduced by mammon, thinking that money can supply all of your needs, and God says, "I have something called wisdom. It's available for you. Get it, and it's gonna be much greater that what mammon can offer you."
"Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all of her paths are peaceful." The path that mammon takes you down is not gonna be peaceful. Mammon may take you down a path where you had to do something illegal to get it, and now you ain't got no peace. Every time the phone ring, you're jumping up trying to figure out what's going on. You see a police car with the lights on, and it look like they're coming to get you. And then they're trying to get around you, and you're like, "Oh, Jesus," about to have a heart attack. Gonna kill yourself.
But wisdom's path, pleasant and paths of peace. "Wisdom is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth wisdom." And it said, "The Lord by wisdom has founded the earth; by understanding he's established the heaven. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew."
I'm gonna choose God, not mammon. I'm gonna choose wisdom, not the rubies or the diamonds or all the other stuff. There are just so many people who don't choose God because mammon seduced them before they could see what God could do. Yeah, I know you're going through issues. I know things are happening in life, but right down the street, around the corner, behind a building, your answer is showing up.
You just must understand that mammon has a strategy, and the strategy that mammon uses is to try to get you in discontent long enough for you to curse your own blessing. You see, the Bible says godliness with contentment equals great gain. You got to learn that there is something that God is doing wherever you are right now.
We think it's strange that sometimes we are in situations in our lives, and they're hard situations. They're painful situations. They're lackful situations, and we think, "Oh, man, that's all the devil." Not all it's the devil, see, because, like I told you before, certain things won't change in your life until you change.
And sometimes God will use you in that situation to try to use you while you're in that situation to mature you, to grow you, but you gotta be content in lack before you can rejoice in abundance. You're still asking questions, "I don't know why I've been here so long." I do you. You just told us: discontent. You're in some shack, roof leaking, and you talk about it all the time. "If God is so powerful and if that stuff he talking about work, then how come I'm still here?" You just demonstrated what? Discontentment.
You murmur and complain about where you are, and so God can never change you, where you are, so you stay where you are. But what would happen in that shack, you look at it and say, "Father, I thank you for this. You know what? We're gonna fix this thing up. We're gonna fix this thing up. Praise God. Come on, let's get together. Wife, let's pray over this."
You know what? Thank God that the roof is only leaking on the right-hand side, all right? Let's get that checked out. We're gonna save up to get the thing fixed on the right-hand side. And then all of a sudden, you redo the floors, and then you plant flowers outside. So you ain't got time to be murmuring and complaining, because you see this.
And throughout the whole process, you're changing. Your attitude's changing. God's teaching you some things that you didn't know. Now all of a sudden you've taken a shack, and you've increased the potential of that shack, the equity of that shack, and now somebody came along 'cause God says, "You've learned the lesson and matured in the shack. Now I'm gonna have somebody come along and see something in that place that you didn't see, give you enough money to go buy you a house of your dream."
But when you get there, you've developed. You've matured. You're not the same as you used to be. All because you learned how to be godly and content in the shack. Now you can enjoy yourself in the dream house, but ain't nothing happening until you can learn how to allow growth and maturity to take place in the shack.