Creflo Dollar - Overcoming Strife
Until you mature into your sonship, you're excluded from handling certain responsibilities. There are certain responsibilities you will not be included on if you're still immature child. Servants don't have this privilege, only sons and daughters. You understand that? Let me show you something now. Now I'm getting ready to step on every religious bone that grandmama and them ever showed you. Look at Galatians chapter 3, verse 27 through 29, responsibilities you'll be excluded from still acting like a servant when you have the privilege to be a son, privilege to enter into your sonship.
Now, watch this. If you're there, say amen. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ". 28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ". Next verse, "And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise". So he said you're heirs now that you're in Christ, those of you who have just identified, "I received Christ". Now that you're in Christ, you're heirs. Turn to your neighbor and say, "Hello, heir".
Now we need to make a distinction between what kind of heir are you. Sunday I closed with this: there's a difference between an heir versus an heir apparent. An heir inherits right now. Somebody shout, "Right now". An heir inherits right now. An heir apparent will inherit one day. One day he will inherit, but not right now. He's an heir apparent. One day he will inherit. But when the Scripture refers to us being heirs, he's not talking about us inheriting one day. The day you accept, hold on, hold on, hold on. Now, let's go to Galatians 4 through 1. Read a little bit more. Galatians 4 through 1.
All right, Galatians 4:1. Now, watch this. Now this is important. "Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child". So it's going to be important for us to understand what makes an heir a child. "He differeth nothing from a servant". So an heir that's a child is on the same level as a servant. Though he be Lord of all, he's a child. Next verse, verse 2. He says, "But he is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father". Verse 3: "Even so we, when we were children", now he's talking to Jewish people, "When we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world".
He just said something. He said something the whole body of Christ miss for years. Listen to this. The word child in this verse of Scripture in the Greek it's translated unable to inherit. He's a baby infant. He's a minor. He's unable to inherit, but a mature son is ready to inherit. He's a full mature son. So in Galatians 4, verse 1 and 2, he's talking about the children of Israel when they were under the law; and under the law, they were infants not ready to inherit. Under the law, they were infants that were not ready to inherit until the time appointed by the Father when Jesus would come to bring all of us into sonship, bring all of us into full mature sons ready to inherit.
So what he is saying right here, go to the Amplified. I want to read 1 through 3 in the Amplified. I'm getting ready to say this. This is so radical because, you know, what makes you a child. Look at what he says here. In verse 1 he says, "Now what I mean is that as long as an inheritor, an heir is a child and under age, he does not different from a slave, although he's the master of all the estate; but he is under guardians and administrators or trustees until the date fixed by his father". 3: "So we, Jewish Christians, also when we were minors were kept like slaves under the rules of the Hebrew ritual and subject to the elementary teachings of a system of external observations and regulations".
What did he just describe? The Law of Moses. Here we go. The law is for children, grace is for sons. What made them children? When they were under the law. When you operate under the Law of Moses, when you try to perform to try to get God to do something for you, when all of what you're trying to get to happen is based on your self-effort and not based on Jesus, you can't be trusted with certain responsibilities because you're operating by the law and you're a child under the law, an infant, a minor, no better than a servant because you're under the law; but God appointed a time for Jesus to come, and when Jesus came, he came to deliver us from the law.
Come on, go back to the King James, Amplified, Kings James, Galatians we left off 4. "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son," what? "Made of a woman, made under the law". Now, why was Jesus made under the law? Next verse, verse 5, "To redeem them that were under the law". The word redeem means to deliver, to pay the ransom from those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. So Jesus came to deliver out of childness or childhood or babyhood by getting you out of the law and making available to you sonship, and he calls it the adoption of sons.
Now, this word adoption is not defined like we use it in our society where you have a different blood adopting somebody else with a different blood. The word adoption in the Greek means adult son placing, adult son placing. Not adoption as taking someone else's child with the DNA different from the adoptive parents, but we are actually born of God as new creations with God's very own DNA. So he delivered you out of the law, meaning out of the law you're no longer children, and delivered you into the adoption of sons; and the same DNA this son, Jesus, has, you are now in him and you are now a full-grown, same DNA as Jesus and God able to inherit the promises rat now, R-A-T. Verse 6, "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, 'Abba, Father'".
So here's what confirms what has happened to you when you are adopted. When you receive your sonship, the Holy Ghost begins to speak out of your heart: Say, "Daddy". He's no longer just God, he is your daddy. Servants called him Jehovah. Servants called him God. You call him Daddy. Cry out, "Daddy". You can have a different expectation when you hear somebody say daddy instead of master. Servants sweat to serve, perform, and work hard to try to get the approval of their master. Sons and daughters wake up in the morning with no sweat, knowing that he will do what he promised 'cause that's my daddy. Servants lay hands hoping and praying something might happen, but sons lay hand with the assurance that; "When I lay hands on the sick, they shall recover. This is a promise from my daddy".
So until you receive your sonship, they'll always be the struggle of, "Do I have a right to do this or to execute this authority or to operate this particular way because I'm just not quite sure if I have been accepted"? Look at Romans chapter 8, verses 4 through 16, Romans chapter 8, verse 4 through 16. I'm telling you this year, if you walk in your sonship, the devil better pack his bags and he better hurry up and get out because he will no longer be dealing with a servant who has the sweat to get something happen. That sweat is performing to try to get it happen.
How many days do you have to fast before you can see power? How many days do you have to pray? How many hours you got to pray? See, we've been performing trying to earn God's goodness. And as a son you don't work to get God's goodness; as a son, his goodness is what's supposed to be yours through relationship. But if the church has tried to convince you over and over again, "No, no, no, you're not that close to God. You're just a servant of the Lord. You're a servant". "Who are you"? "I'm a servant of the Most High God. I never gave up. No, I am a son of God. I am a son. I am a son with the exact duplicate: as Jesus is, so am..."
What you saw on the earth when Jesus was here was a son walking around, and the Son of God became the Son of Man, when he took a body on, he became the Son of Man. Why did he become the Son of Man? So he can take the sons of men and show them how to be the sons of God, and he's done all of that and you're still walking around like Jethro and them just like a servant. You ain't a servant no more. Servanthood is over with. It is now time to enter into your sonship.
The entire creation is waiting on you to declare that; "I am just like Jesus. I am a son of God, a joint heir with Christ, a joint heir with Christ. I speak to mountains and they're removed. When I pray, I get answers. When things need to happen, I don't beg God. I just rest and watch it come to pass. I can speak in tongues and pray in the Spirit and he'll give birth to something that I needed to know". Don't go around talking about what you don't know. Just know as a son, it's in there somewhere. As a son, you know when I pray in the Holy Ghost, he'll give light to that dark place as a son.
See, you got to know that. If you don't come to the place of understanding who you are, your identity, then there are going to be certain responsibilities that you will not be included in on because you have not accepted your sonship. You're still around playing church trying to be a servant, servant. Look what he says in verse 14, Romans 8:14. You know this one. "For as many as are," what? "Led by the Spirit of God, they are Sons of God". 'Cause sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, servants of God are led by the Ten Commandments. Servants of God are going around talking about, "Well, is it wrong to have wine"? Sons of God ask the Holy Ghost.
Aren't you tired of sweating like a servant when sons go to bed with air condition? Look at verse 16. "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits, that we are children of God," specifically sons because this New Testament is all about the Holy Spirit. See, we're going around trying to find some more rules to live by. Rule keeping didn't work. We now have the Spirit who authored the rules and he said, "Instead of me giving you more tablets, I'm going to give you myself and I'm going to come in and I'm going to lead and guide you, and I'm going to take away your old want-tos and give you new want-tos," and you'll stay up at night trying to figure out why is it that I don't want to do what I used to want to do because the Holy Ghost is doing a work on the inside of you.
But some of you are here tonight would have not normally been here tonight, but the Holy Ghost is doing a work on the inside of you. Some of you would have been at a club somewhere getting ready to get your bottle out and do what you need to do. Now, I'm not saying you're not going to do that after we dismiss, but we just glad to have you here for the beginning for the prelude. But I'm telling you under this new covenant, there's some new wine. Praise God. And if you drink of this new wine, you'll never thirst again. Praise the Lord. And it's by the Holy Ghost. I'm not going to tell you no more rules. I'm not going to give you no more rules.
We're not going to sit and tell you what's right or wrong. I'm telling you there's a Holy Spirit that wants to live on the inside of you, that wants to lead and guide you. You are now sons. You depend on the Holy Spirit. That's why everybody is so confused right now. "Well, how come God listen"? Why did God let that happen? Who God did that? Who did that? Why did God do that? And I don't think I want to go to church no more because I'm confused and I don't know why God did what he did and I don't understand nothing". Because you're supposed to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Quit trying to figure the Bible out and get in the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost will show you what you need to know. He'll show you every Scripture. He'll show you the job you need to go to. He'll show you who you need to marry and who you need to let go of. He will show you, hallelujah, things to come. He is your guide. He is your unseen partner. He has been given to sons. Servants don't have this privileged, sons do. Hallelujah. The spirit of sonship brings with it a sense that we are right with God, but the spirit of a slave brings with it the sense that we need to perform to earn the right to be in God's presence. I'm a son. I'm right with God. Even when I'm wrong, I'm right with God.
See, my children are going to be my children. I don't care what they do. They're still going to be my children. It ain't like they can divorce me and go find another daddy. They can go get a pretend daddy, but he never going to be the real one. The only DNA that they can claim as their DNA is this DNA. Somebody say, "Well, they're crazy". Yeah, but they crazy tell belong to me.
Quit looking for reasons to get rid of them and just stay in there and act like a son and say, "Lord, Lord, I need you right now. I don't know what to do. I made some mistakes. I don't know how to correct them, but you are my Father. Now in the name of Jesus, I declare over my children, because I am a son, that my children are taught of the Lord and great is the peace of my children. My children want to praise God. My children love to praise God. They will do what you've called them to do and they shall not fail in doing it. Now I'm the redeemed of the Lord and whatever I say is so".
That's what you do because you are sons of God. Under the law, God was judge. Under grace, God is father. As sons, we don't need to fear judgment from God. Man, before I knew about grace, every time the earth shook I thought judgment day was coming. Every time lightning hit, "Oh-oh, here we go". I don't need to fear that. Somebody say, "What happens to sons after the end of all this"? It's a party time. I used to think they had a real reel in heaven and at the end of time, we're going to get in line and God is going to say, "Next". And then they are going to call me next and they're going to play the reel of real and all creation is going to see all my dirty and God was just going to sit up there, me and God got talking about that one time.
I said, "Well, Lord, what is that"? He said, "Well, it's in the sea". I said, "What do you mean it's in the sea"? He said, "Don't you remember when you got born again I told you I was going to take your sins and cast them as far as the east is from the west and cast them in the sea of forgetfulness and I'm not going to remember no more"? There ain't any reel of reals in heaven with all your dirty laundry. All your dirty laundry was put on the body of Jesus Christ. Amen. This is not a relationship based on fear, but it's in the privilege and the freedom to call him daddy.
I shared with you yesterday morning, our sonship comes from three things: our sense of identity, our sense of acceptance, and our sense of approval. That's what happens when you receive your sonship. Identity, I know who I am; acceptance, he's received me as his son; approval, he approves of me. Now these three bring a true sense of belonging. These are basic human needs that every human needs to have, and if you don't get it in God, you spend all your life trying to find it in somebody and sometimes you find it in the wrong person. "How come I keep marrying the same thug-like person"? Because of your low self-esteem. Your low self-esteem still drawing that same old sorry Negro that don't want to do nothing but lay around and drink your milk because, I mean, he get it for free.
So why is he going to marry a cow that he can milk for free? Moo. But the day you start caring enough about yourself because you now have your approval in God and your identity in God, you're not just going to take in a little curly haired something that come your way. You're going to now value yourself enough to know that I value myself more than to let you come into my life and mess me up, stress me out, and make me miserable. "I'm a diamond, baby. You better get a shovel and start digging. I'm not just rocks on top of the surface. I'm a Rolls Royce. You don't get to test-drive me, baby. You don't get to test-drive me. You want this, you got to work for it. You got to you wait for it. You got to do the right thing for it. You ain't getting". Just stop while I'm ahead.