Creflo Dollar - Rightly Dividing the Lord's Supper
I decided I'm going to preach every time I take the pulpit like Jesus is coming back in an hour. And he gave me one hour to convince as many people as I can. I don't expect everybody to believe this, I'm here to preach that I might win some. And then next Sunday win some more. And the next Sunday win some more. Verse 30, now I'm gonna look at this in the King James and then the Amplified. He says, "But of him are you in Christ Jesus". One verse says, "By his doings you are in Christ". "But of him are you in Christ Jesus".
Now how many of you know I'm preaching to people who make a decision to get born again, right? "And of him are you in Christ Jesus. By his doings you're in Christ Jesus". How do you even boast about this one? It's his doings that you're in Christ Jesus. You believed, but it's his doings you in Christ Jesus. "Who of God is made unto us," what? "Wisdom," and what? And what? Now, how many of you know that sanctification and holiness have the same Greek word? So, sanctification and holiness, and he has made unto us, what? Redemption, a ransom that was paid.
Now, look at this in the New Living Translation, or whatever I called out. It doesn't matter. Amplified will be fine, and then we'll go to the New Living Translation, but we've gotta do it quick. He says, "But it is from him that you have your life in Christ". Check that out. It's his doings that you have your life in Christ. He did that. None of your performance accomplished that. It's of him that you have your life in Christ. "Whom God made our wisdom from God. He revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden". It was hidden. "Manifesting itself as our righteousness, thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God". He did that. "And our consecration making us pure and holy".
He made us holy. He made us holy. He made us righteous. He redeemed us, glory to God. He is our redemption. What redemption? "Providing our ransom from eternal penalty of sin". He paid the ransom. You didn't pay it. You can't afford to pay this ransom. This ransom was so expensive that even goin' to hell was not enough to pay the debt. He paid the ransom. So, I am righteous because he made me righteous. I believed it, he made me righteous. I believe it. I believe that I'm righteous because of Jesus. And he says, "You're righteous".
I'm redeemed because of Jesus. He says, "You're redeemed". I have wisdom because of Jesus. He says, "All right, you have wisdom". I am holy right now. I am holy right now today. As you look at me and judge all of my inadequacies, I stand holy as your judge my inadequacies, not because of my performance, but I stand holy because I believe that he was made holy so I could be made holy.
And so, I'm holy "rat" now, R-A-T, quick little rat. I'm holy "rat" now. You're not gonna be holy when you start wearing dresses only. You're not holy when you pull your wig and weave off and no longer wear make up. That is a situation if you do that, praise the Lord. I'll tell you what is holy. Wigs, and weaves, and makeup, and eyeliner. All that stuff is holy, praise the Lord. It's holy. Whatever makes you look better, that's a holy thing. But none of that stuff has anything to do with your holiness.
Most of the church didn't even know what holiness is about. They stopped at the part of talkin' about separation and sanctification. Holiness is being uncommon with the world. When they are sick, you are healed. When they are sad, you're full of joy. When they are broke, busted, and disgusted, God has provisions and taking care of things in your life. It's standing opposite to the world. You're separated or sanctified from that. And he says you're like that now, but you're never going to see the manifestation of holiness until you receive that I believe I'm holy now. You're not gonna start doin' right until you believe you're righteous now. You're not gonna believe you're delivered from hell, sin, and sickness, and disease, and poverty until you believe that the ransom has been paid.
This is not an issue of your performance, it's an issue of your believing. Jesus can take care of your performance. Do you not understand if a man stood up on a mountain trying his best to curse Israel, and every time he opened his mouth, it showed up as a blessing. He tried to curse 'em, "Y'all, you're blessed". Who do you think you are that God cannot handle your behavior? He can the day you believe him.
Do you know, nothing will change on the outside until something's changed on the inside. What's got to change on the inside is your identity. You gotta believe that you are who he says you are. If he made you righteous, you say, "I believe I'm righteous", and you're righteous. If he gave you redemption, "I'm redeemed". What happens? What happens the day you believe that? The Holy Spirit starts working in you and he starts giving you new desires. He starts taking away your old want to's and start giving you a new want to's. And once you have the new want to's, you ain't gonna want to do what you've been doing because the Holy Spirit is working in you. He is working in you.
Turn to two people and tell 'em, "The Holy Ghost is working in you right now". He's working in you right now. He's working in you right now. Religion wants you to work, grace wants you to believe. Say out loud, "I'm the righteousness of God now. I believe it". Say out loud, "I'm redeemed. I believe it. I have wisdom. I believe it. I am sanctified. I am holy. Right now, I believe it". What's necessary for me to be righteous today? Is that all?
See, you've let the world minimize your belief because they're tryin' to tell you nothin' is really real unless you see the fruit of it first. The fruit doesn't come first. The fruit ain't never first. The fruit is the result of the root. You gotta get the right root before you get the fruit. The world wants to... If you've got a fruit problem, it's 'cause you've got a root problem. Fix the pipes and the water will flow right. Every religion in the world requires that you do something.
Every religion in the world requires: it has demands, demands, demands, demands. That's why it's weird when you come here and we're teaching on grace, because under grace, under Jesus it's supply, supply, supply. Jesus is talkin' about everything he's already made available to you. Jesus is talkin' about everything he's already done. Jesus is talkin' about everything that's already been put in place. What religion says is, "Uh, uh, uh, you gotta do this, this, this before all of that happens". Demands, demands, demands. And it's weird to come to a church and you're hearing the total opposite of what Grandmama and 'em, Big Mama and 'em, Mamaw, and all them heard.
That's all they knew at the time. Revelation should get stronger and deeper every generation. The Lord told Taffi and I, he said to us, "You're no longer just preaching to your generation, so don't get upset when your generation have a hard time receiving it. You are now preaching to the generation that is on its way, because I am not gonna leave them or forsake them". And so, I'm cool with that, but I'm gonna tell you something. My generation and the generation ahead, you better catch this. You better catch it, 'cause things are about to change. Are you kidding me?
You know, the Bible says we know when the end comes. He says it's gonna be just like a woman getting ready to have a baby. And you know those birth pains, and then you who have had kids, your water breaks, right? And when the water breaks, contractions, and they stay far apart, and the closer the baby gets to coming... you think I would know this, right? The closer... 'cause I was praying in tongues when Taffi had our first baby. I was praying in tongues.
She said, "Baby, just shut up. I don't wanna hear". I'm like, "But it's tongues". "I don't care what it is. You're going to hear another tongue after a while if you don't". And those contractions got closer and closer, and more intensity, and more contractions, and more intensity, and more contractions, and then the baby came. And he describes the coming of the Lord just like that. The intensity of just the weather patterns have increased.
Call somebody. You're having more tornadoes worldwide than he's ever seen, more hurricanes than you've ever seen. There's a great travailing. There's a great intensity. The contractions are increasing more, and more, and more. What's happening? A baby is about to be born. Y'all better get ready. Y'all better get ready. You've better not listen to some of this ol' crazy stuff, talkin' about, "Ain't no such thing as no Bible. Ain't no such thing as no God and all that". You better don't listen to a fool. They'll lead you to hell. Don't follow fool. You'll fall in the ditch right behind him. They don't know they talkin' about. They've been confused because they hadn't been taught right and my heart goes out to them. And they're upset because they came up under the law, living under the flesh, people telling them God's mad at you. God ain't even in a bad mood where you're concerned right now today, but we didn't know no better.
Now we do, and now it's time to make the change. All right, let's get started, Romans 4:1-6. There's some people, they come when I'm speaking around the place. And I tell you, overseas, man, I thought they wouldn't get it. They got it. They gettin' it. There's one big university overseas. I'm not gonna tell you the country or anything, but they have three rules. Don't listen to Creflo Dollar, Andrew Womack, and Joseph Prince. And I said, "Well, whoopty whoop". And the more they try to stop it, the more their younger generations are logging on, and listening, and going through to it more, and more, and more. You can't stop it because this is a revelation of Jesus.
Now watch this. "What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found"? Now, the question is, you know, has he found anything pertaining to the flesh? All right, now watch verse 2. "For if Abraham were justified by works". There it is. So, he's justified by works. "He hath whereof to glory," he says, "but not before God". If he got justified because of his performance, he can't give the glory to God for that. He's got to give the glory to his works. Alright, look at the next verse. But he says, "All right, so what saith the Scripture"? I like this.
Let's go see what the Word got to say about Abraham. He says, "What the Scripture says is that Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness". And this was before the law showed up. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. What did Abraham do for it to be accounted unto him for righteousness? He did what? He believed God. He believed God and heaven declared, "You're righteous". Why? Because of what he did? No, he believed God. I always like to bring this up when people like to challenge this message right here.
I say, "Okay, okay, you're so into this. 'Well, you gotta do this. You gotta do that. You gotta do that. And if you don't do that, you can't go to heaven. And if you don't do this, you don't do this.'" And I pause for a moment, I'm like, "Dude! You remember when Jesus was on the cross"? "Yeah". "You remember those two thieves on the cross"? "Yeah". "You remember one of them had a problem with him, didn't believe"? "Yeah". "You remember what the other one said"? He said, "Yeah". "You remember what Jesus said"? He said, "Yeah". Somebody says, "Well, I don't. Could you tell us"? Well, basically the thief on his side said, "I believe in Jesus here this day". "This day that you believed has gotten you a free ticket to be with me. This day are you with me in paradise".
Now, please explain to me, how did he have enough time to do anything? He was dying on the cross, on his way to hell, and he believed in Jesus, and Jesus interrupted his path, changed his ticket, and said, "Today are you with me in paradise". What did he do? He didn't have time to go to church. He didn't have time to go on a fast. He didn't have time to do no goody goody thing. But he had time to believe, and Jesus says, "That's all I ever need from you. I can handle the rest if you will believe". That's what he did.
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Verse 4, "Now to him that worketh," or performeth, "is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt". Somebody owes you something if you worked. Verse 5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," but he didn't work. It was his faith that counted it for righteousness. Verse 6, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputed righteousness without works".
To impute means to charge to your account, to lay to your account. He says God charged and laid to their account righteousness without them having to perform to get it. They believed and it was counted unto them for righteousness' sake. Now, I know, I mean, 'cause we're talkin' about you don't have to perform to get these things, and then, you know, I'm gonna talk to you next week about your authority, but now let's look at some Scriptures here. Look at Philippians 3:9. I have screamed it. I have passionately put it out before you. And now I'm going to calm down and we're gonna read, all right?
Verse 9, "And be found in him, not having my own righteousness". Paul said, "Not my own righteousness, which is of the law," which means it's gonna be a performance and works. "But that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith". That's the only true righteousness, the one that you have to believe for.
Alright, now let's look at some translations here. Look at Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 2 in the New Living Translation. Romans 5:1-2 in the New Living Translation. Now watch this. Is it on the screens? Put it on the screens. I want everybody to see this. "Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith. Since we have been made right in God's sight by faith". Turn to your neighbor and say, "I've been made right in God's sight by my faith, by my belief". He says, "Since, so we have peace with God".
There's no enmity between you and God. We have peace with God. Why? Because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Mmm, verse 2, "Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of deserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory". Hold verse 2 right there now. Go back to verse 1. Look at it again. "Therefore, since we've been made right in God's sight by faith".
How are you made right in God's sight? We have peace with God. Why do I have peace with God? Because of what you did? "But because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has," what? "Done for us". Verse 2. Ooh! He says, "Because of our faith, Christ has brought us", ooh, because of our faith, not because of your performance. Because of your belief, not because of your works. "Christ has brought us into this place of deserved privilege".
I'm in a place of undeserved privilege, not because of my performance. I'm in a place of undeserved privilege, not because of my good works. I'm in a place of undeserved privilege because of my belief and because of my faith in Christ. And he has brought me into this place where I get what I don't deserve. And guess what he says? And if you believe right now today, you are now standing in that place.
Say out loud, "I stand in the place of undeserved privilege". "No, no, no, Pastor. I don't stand in that place because I messed up last night". No, no, no! No. Excuse me. No, that's what's wrong. You think that you have to do something to deserve to stand in this place of undeserved privilege. The only thing you have to do to deserve to stand in this place of undeserved privilege is to believe God. And by believing him, praise God, there's nothing you have done that can remove you from that place of undeserved privilege if you don't let what you've done stop you from believing in what he has done.
"Well, it sounds to me like you tryin' to justify sin". Well, it sounds to me like you don't understand this, because there's no way you're gonna be interested in sinning when you allow and believe Jesus Christ. To believe him is to allow him now to infiltrate your insides, hallelujah. Once you believe him, he goes to work at changing your your old want to's. So, whoever you was sleeping with, you better tell them bye, because the desire is about to leak out. You ain't gonna want Herman like you used to want him, honey. Herman just ain't got it no more because a man by the name of Jesus has moved in and he's more appealing to you than Herman could ever be. You assume you're gonna want to do what you used to do now that you believe Jesus. That's not gonna happen.
"Well, I believe and it's happening". Now you ain't believing. Somethin' didn't take. Somethin' didn't take. Somethin' didn't take. 'Cause when you believe him and let him in, he will go to work on the inside of you. Honey, that weed you used to smoke every morning in order to get your day started, you don't even desire no more. Now you need a Scripture. You need to meditate on the Word of grace and that gets you goin'. I got to have my Word so I can get goin'. It ain't got to have my weed. There's a new W, baby. It's a new W. I gotta have my Word. I gotta have my Word. He's working in you.
Turn to two people and tell 'em, "He's working in you. He's working in you". If you have surrendered your work, then he can work. But if you're still workin', he not gonna interrupt and try to compete with your work. You just ain't gonna see nothin' happen. I'm in a place of undeserved privilege. Say that, "I'm in a place of undeserved privilege". Say this out loud, "I stand in a place of undeserved privilege".
All right, we in College Park right now. And now that I believe I stand in that place of undeserved privilege, then I confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. You know what's been robbing your confidence? Your behavior. Your behavior'll rob your confidence. When you misbehave, you don't believe you righteous no more. That robs your confidence. Some preacher tell you, you know, God don't like ugly, and he don't, but he ain't lookin' at you through your ugly. He's looking at you through Jesus. And as long as the sacrifice is okay, you okay.
All right, watch this. This is pretty fascinating. Romans 3:22-23, NLT. Romans 3:22-23, NLT. Let me see. Let's read this in the King James first. No, no, no, no, no. No, go ahead, NLT. "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who you are". "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who you are".