Creflo Dollar - How to Overcome Procrastination
Tonight, we're gonna talk about overcoming procrastination because that's a big one, isn't it? I promise you, when you find procrastination, you're gonna probably find a lot of missed opportunities and a lot of failure there. And regardless of who we are, it's something that probably requires our examination to make sure that procrastination hasn't become a subtle part of your life and how you do what you do. Let's begin in verse 5, Saint John 5, and verses 5 through 9. He says, "And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years".
How many of you know that's a long time to have an infirmary for 38 years? And he said, "When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole"? Simple question, "Do you want to be made whole"? And he said, verse 7, "The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool". Now, I said to you before that some people, they really give, they turn excuses into reason. It's really an excuse, but they try to turn it into their reason and really, excuses are given for the whole purpose of the fact that you really don't want to do it, or you don't believe it. He says, "I don't have anybody to put me in the water, in the pool but while I'm coming, somebody else steps in front of me", just more excuses.
Look what he says in verse 8, and this is what I want to talk about tonight. Jesus said unto him, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk. Rise, take up your bed, and walk". Now, if there's one thing that's gonna be responsible for change in our life, it's when we take immediate action to do the thing that God's revealed to us to do, or to do the thing that we know we need to do. I don't know about you, but there are things that God makes known to you and you just kind of, I mean, weeks go by and you don't do it, and I can't help but to wonder what if you would have applied immediate action to the thing that you knew to do? And so, it's what I hear Jesus saying here, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk", I hear him saying, "Do it now". I hear him saying, "Get up, take a step". That's what he's trying to get the guy to know.
You see, the excuses paralyzed him and nothing was gonna change until he did something now. Do something you haven't been able to do. I believe that's when something supernatural will begin to happen. You do what you can do in the natural. You do what you can do in the natural and then what happens is God will add his super to your natural, and you will experience supernatural results. This deal about just do nothing and, you know, I'm under grace and something supposed to happen, I truly believe, I just really believe, and please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm talking about when the Holy Spirit has put something in your heart, he's trying to lead, and guide, and direct your life, and we do nothing. He said, "Get up, take up your bed, walk". Jesus was ready for him to be healed. He wasn't ready to step into it.
So, this is what I'm talking about, don't confuse striving and performance base with what I'm saying. This is core operation with what has already been done. You know, faith has to what? Take possession of what grace has already made. So sometimes, it's something so simple as forgiving someone, or something so simple as giving a gift to someone, or giving an offering to God, or something so simple as, you know, praising God when you don't feel like it. Something so simple, as, you know, just the small things that the Spirit of God is leading you to do and the things you know to do. So, don't worry if the progress is slow. Forget about what you haven't been able to do up until now and just be willing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as he leads and guides your life, amen?
So, what's stopping you? The question, "You know, can I really change? Can I really change"? I know that comes up a lot. "Can I really do this"? Now, you may not believe things could have ever changed in your life, but he does. He believes you can and that's why he's leading you, and guiding you, and speaking to you, and inspiring you. Some of you have had dreams, you knew it was God, and I just kind of wonder what's on the other side of me cooperating with what the Spirit of God is clearly placing on my heart to do. I mean, God sent us the Holy Spirit so he can be a guide into our lives.
So, you know, under the law, you know, you know that you're supposed to do this with your spouse, but under grace he starts guiding you through those things. He starts guiding you through those arguments, and guiding you through those disagreements. He tells you, he told me one time he says, "Don't say nothing, just shut your mouth. Don't say nothing. Just hug her and be quiet". You know it worked? I said, "God, you know your stuff". He said, "I've been doing this for thousands of years".
Okay, so when this particular man in John chapter 5 started making excuses saying, "I have no man", the first thing Jesus said, "Rise, take up your bed, your pallet, walk". Jesus started giving him directions. I believe the Holy Spirit wants to lead and guide you and give you directions. How many of you are open to the Holy Spirit directing your steps, amen? And that was Jesus giving him directions, and the way to break out of failure in life and the inability to change in life is to take, watch this, immediate action. What is the Holy Spirit saying to do? You know, this morning's session was like, the Holy Spirit says, "I want you to do this". I didn't have a chance to have a lot of meetings to get it together.
Okay, let's do it right quick. And I saw that, that really ministered to me today when I saw the number of people who took their time out to come to our morning session. And there were people around the world who streamed in to come to a morning session because I was quick to just do it. Sometimes we try to sit and try to, you know, go through here and he knows better. And the more you do it, the easier it becomes to begin to cooperate and allow him to lead, and to guide, and direct your life. So, a sure way to failure and an inability to change, a sure way to failure and an inability to change is something called procrastination. If you absolutely want to be a failure, procrastination will get you there. If you absolutely are not going to change and just kind of stay the same, procrastination will get you there.
Let me give you the definition of procrastination. It means putting off immediate action or to put off doing something that you can do today for tomorrow. It's, you know, especially out of habitual carelessness, or dare I say, laziness. And there is an element of laziness that's involved in procrastination, putting off immediate action, the thing I can do now, the thing I can do today, I do it tomorrow. The Holy Spirit shows up in your prayer time and he says, "Listen, I'd like to meet you everyday about six o'clock. I just want to have some fellowship time". Not as a rule that's required for me to bless you, but he's in it for the relationship. He's relational.
I want to say some things to you that will bless you. You'll say some things to me that will bless me. And we say, "Okay, Lord, I'll do it". And then a week goes by, and two weeks go by, and before you know it, it's not being done. So, when a situation happens in your life or you come to this area of your life, and you're like what happened? And I'm thinking I can't help but think, man, man, on the other side of what he told me to do, and that's the thing, what was it on the other side that my procrastination, along with my excuses, paralyzed me? And so, there are really three reasons for procrastination.
Let's just jump in this, you ready? Three reasons for procrastination, number one, indecisiveness, indecisiveness. We can't make up our minds about what to do. And indecision is something, that as a Christian you don't want to carry and sometimes your indecision can affect almost anything you want to do. You make up your mind to do something with your spouse, but you're so indecisive about things, then y'all never end up doing anything. And so, you know, procrastination would become the reason. I mean, "I don't know what to do, so I procrastinate the point and it doesn't happen".
So, indecision, indecisiveness is a reason for procrastination. Number two, perfectionism, perfectionism. Often we won't do anything until we think we can do everything. And so, if I can't do it with perfection, then I just, I just won't bother with it. And procrastination is a result of that. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verse 4 in the Amplified Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verse 4 in the Amplified Bible. You know, the perfectionist says, "If I can't do it the way I want to do it, then I just won't do it". And it's not that he shouldn't do that thing, it's just procrastination is a result of his perfectionism.
Look what he says here in Ecclesiastes 11 and verse 4, 11, verse 4. He says, "He who observes the wind, and he waits for all conditions to be favorable". You see that? He says he will not sow. "And he who regards the clouds, he will not reap". So, now he's procrastinating in his sowing, which is now affecting his harvest, why? Because he says, "I'm not gonna give until all the conditions are favorable". And I don't give when all the conditions are favorable. The time I'm really motivated to give when nothing's favorable, okay? And then he says, then he won't reap, verse 4, stay there, that's the only one. He won't reap because he's regarding the clouds. He's so busy looking at it, you know, you know what's going on with the clouds. Notice, waiting on everything to be perfect, waiting on everything to be favorable. Perfectionism causes you to operate in procrastination.
So, you have indecisiveness, you have perfectionism, and then three, as I said before, this is tied into procrastination, laziness, laziness. I don't want to put forth the effort to change. I know I need to change, I just don't want to do it. I don't want to put forth the effort to change. So, people in their hearts know what they should do, they have good intentions of doing it but they keep putting it off. And how many of you know that, you know, we don't do things by good intentions. I mean, "One day, I'm gonna get in shape".
You know, you know you need to. "You know, one day I'm gonna stop eating like this". You know you need to. You know, "One day, I'm gonna do this", and it just, you don't want to call it laziness, and I want to be bold enough to say you're lazy because you know to do some things, you just won't do it. You just won't do it, and then you make a excuse that becomes your reason for not doing it. "Well, the doctor said my sugar level high". It should be, you eat a lot of sugar. "Well, that ain't the only cause". Whatever, keep finding more excuses, instead of trying to find a way.
So, you can make an excuse or you can find a way to do what needs to be done. It's insanity to think you can keep doing the same thing and expect different results. You have no right to expect different results. You're doing the same thing. Listen to me carefully, I have good intentions and someday I plan as, I plan on being, you know, cooperate, cooperative with the Holy Spirit and working with the Holy Spirit, but nah, nah, that's the attitude of a lot of people. Good Intentions do not equal your cooperation with the Holy Spirit. It will never equal that.
So, you have to understand that no one is rewarded for good intentions. You don't get rewards for good intentions. I just say to people change isn't change until you've changed. Change isn't change because you had a conversation about change. Change isn't change because you prayed about change. Change isn't change 'cause you looked the definition up and you wrote a whole paper about change. It's not change until it's changed. And so likewise, where intentions are concerned, there's no profit in good intentions. What does the Bible say about the way the pathway to hell is paved with good intentions. It's gonna be filled with a lot of people that had good intentions. Hospitals are filled with a lot of people that have good intentions. Graveyards are filled with people that had good intentions.
You follow what I'm saying? A lot of people are in jail when they had good intentions. I taught along these lines years ago and a prisoner came up to me says, "Doc, if I'd have heard this before, I wouldn't be here". I had intentions, doesn't work. I'm trying to challenge you to come away from excuse making, come away from procrastination, be decisive. Don't wait till all the conditions are perfect. Refuse to be lazy, and watch God come in and begin to take you to places that you are probably now dreaming about. And so, everything starts with one simple act, one simple decision that says that if God sent the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me, I'm gonna cooperate with him. I'm gonna cooperate with him. If he said something to me, you better believe that's gold.
Listen, there's always the other side of what he said to you. It's real breakthrough, it's real breakthrough when you hear God. The breakthrough, breakthrough doesn't come necessarily from the Word of God. It comes from a Word from God. And when the Holy Spirit's taking the time to direct you, then the Holy Spirit's taking the time to speak to you, and even correct you, or even rebuke you, that's amazing. That's a huge, huge part of something that's getting ready to break loose in your life. And I just believe that in the name of Jesus, that there's something powerful gonna happen because we're gonna be people that say, "You know what, Holy Spirit? Wherever you lead me, I'll follow". Used to have an old Methodist song we used to sing in church. "Where he leads me, I will follow, I'll be somewhere", I think it was, "Listening for his name, Boom, boom, boom, I'll be somewhere, somewhere".
You know, I don't want to be in hell trying to listen for his name, okay? I mean, you know, I can hear somebody saying, "I knew I was supposed to get my life together. I intended on getting saved. I intended on coming to church". And then when the trouble hits, it's confusion like, "Oh, my God, what happened"? God saw that thing way before it got to you, had a way out, had a path. Procrastination kept you in the place for the failure when cooperation with God was gonna move you out of the path of it. You gotta decide, you gotta make your mind up to do the things you need to do.
So remember, when they came to Jesus and said that they were out of wine in that wedding that Jesus went to, what did he tell them to do? Listen, listen, listen, listen, "We're out of wine, what do we do"? He said, "Fill the water pots with water". But that didn't make sense. I said we're out of wine. You want to put water in the bottles, in the pots. We're out of wine, and you say put water, but that didn't make sense to them. They needed wine, not water. They needed a miracle but it started with the, with them taking immediate action, and doing whatever Jesus told them to do.
I believe the Holy Spirit lives in you. He lives in us, and he's n just been sent there so we can jerk or jiggle. He wants to guide us. He wants to speak to us. He wants to give us instructions. He wants to give us a warning about things that have not yet come to your place and if it's any place where we talk about in needing immediate action, it's when he speaks. When he speaks, you should not have this casual attitude of just kind of putting it on the side. When he speaks, it needs to be priority, put it on a sticky, put it on your refrigerator. That's a major piece in whatever God's trying to do in your life. That's a major piece in your safety. I don't believe that somebody just goes out and just dies. I believe if you back it up, rewind, somewhere between that situation, that terrible situation and when God said something could have stopped that particular situation.
I remember when it was almost 19 years ago, when I went to Sacramento, California, there was a thing about preachers being people of their words. And I was teaching on integrity, and I wrote a book on integrity. And I was on my way to Sacramento, and I heard the Spirit of God say, "Don't go". And I said to him, "Lord, but my integrity is on the line". Think about it, I thought this is so stupid. The Prince of integrity just told me don't go. So I said, you know, here I am talking to him. He tells me one thing and I'm like, "No, I'm watching out for you. I want to be a man of integrity". But I wouldn't, I wouldn't let like Jeremy I think was in high school, he wanted to go. And I'm like, you can't go. I said, your uncle Ken's gonna go with me because, you know, you know, he's an ex football player, his body can take it. And I'm like, I can't believe that came out of my mouth. I'm like trying, what did I just say?
So, we get up, we get down, we fly there, we get there and get up in the morning. We say our confessions, we pray, spend time with the Lord. We clothe ourselves like we've done for years. And just really strange things are happening. He had a new Suburban, the preacher I was visiting, and I normally don't sit in the front seat because I don't want to put my seatbelt on because I don't want to wrinkle my coat. So, he talked me into getting me in the front seat. So, I got in the front seat, so I put the seatbelt on. And we're riding and, you know, all of a sudden this car, runs the red light and the Suburban goes airborne in front of these people, and it turns over and over. It literally knocked the wheels off the tire.
Minister Ken went out the side backdoor, almost probably 60 yards or something, landed in the windshield of this car at the other red light. So, you imagine this lady sitting there and a flying man comes through the car. And we turn over and over and over again, and all that stuff happens. And I asked myself, of course, I believe the blood of Jesus was over our lives because we took authority before we left. But did that have to happen? See, he was way ahead of the game. And if I had would've died, it wouldn't have been, "What happened? Oh, God, what happened? Why did God let this happen"? No, no, no, no, no. God said don't go. There was no cooperation on my part. I'm trying to have integrity.
Now, that don't happen no more. I was in a situation, and I was on my way to Lagos and he said, "Don't go". I called him I said, "I'll pay whatever you paid on marketing, but I can't come, God told me not to go". And there was even strange things there that happened. But he knows what your future has and if he takes the time to tell you, and to warn you, and to talk to you, but he also can talk to you about other things. "Buy that piece of land right there". "But Lord, that ain't nothing". "Buy it". And you send a letter. Hmm, and then somebody comes and says, "I'll give you ten times what that's worth. I got to have this thing in order to get my project through". You didn't know it.
What would happen in our life, where success is concerned, if we would start providing immediate action to when the Holy Spirit starts speaking to us and telling us what to do? A lot of stuff would begin to happen. Procrastination is an enemy to that success. Procrastination is an enemy to that type of progress. Procrastination is an enemy to that type of safety, and preservation, and I just thank God that he was merciful and kind enough, I didn't get what I deserved. And, you know, had I died in that wreck, I would've been dead for almost 20 years and missed out on all of this wonderful stuff. And I'm tellin' you, it just pays to listen and to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and not allow procrastination to keep you in places that will keep you on the outside of your success and to thank God. Y'all understand what I'm sayin' right there? That's a big deal, big deal.
Let me give you another example. Maybe you need a financial change. A lot of people need a financial change, right? Maybe you need a financial change. And the Bible says, you know, "Give", and you may say, "Well, that won't fix it. How that's gon' fix it? What that gon' do with anything"? You follow what I'm sayin'? See, you've been givin' in the past, but this time was special. He said, "Give", all right? And so the first action, step, that you know to take is to go ahead and do it quickly. God will show you the next step. Just do what he tells you to do quickly, and then what happens? Your miracle will be waiting there. Take action now. Don't procrastinate. I need you to turn to somebody and say, "Take action now. Don't procrastinate".
Look at James chapter 4 and verse 13. James chapter 4, verse 13, and when you get there, we'll look at 13 and 14. Now, verse 13, now, notice how he says this: "Go to now, ye that say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city.'" I wanna read that again: "Go to now". Who's he talkin' about, "Go to now"? The guy that says, "Oh, I'll do it tomorrow". He says, "We'll go into such a city, and then we'll continue there a year, and then we'll buy and sell, and we'll get gain". And then he says in verse 14, "Whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow. What's your life? It's even a vapor, that appear for a little time, and then it vanishes away". He says you gotta be careful about that word "tomorrow". It might not show up.
So don't put off for tomorrow what you can do what? Today. So whatever we plan on doin' for Christ, do it now. Do it now. James says in so many words that "tomorrow" is the most dangerous word in the Bible. It is lazy, it is presumptuous, and it is reckless. Wow. The word that God prefers, in fact, I'll show it to ya. Here's what God prefers. Instead of say, "I'll do it tomorrow", "I'll put it off", "I won't do it right now", and for whatever reason, "I'm tired, I won't do it right now", "Oh, I can do it later", and he says, "Dude, don't be talkin' about what you can do tomorrow. Life is like a vapor".
Can you imagine the number of people who are not here, who had somethin' planned for tomorrow? A'ight, so check this out, Hebrews 3:13, and then Hebrews 4:7, and then Psalms 119. I thought I had just, like, two or three Scriptures, but watch this. "But exhort one another daily, while it's called today". He said, "Do it while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin". Do it today. Do it now. What are some of the things you can do today? You can love today. You can forgive today. You can be encouraging today. You know, when it's time for you to go, you ought to be ready to go. You ought not be, "Well, you know, there's some things I need to get done first". I'm pretty good. It's like, I'm really just here for you. I've done everything I wanted to do. I love you, that's why I try to tell you as much as I can when I'm out here preachin'.
You know I love y'all, I love y'all, I feel that thing. It might not mean nothin' to y'all, but it's like I feel that thing, but it's like, today, today, do it today. Do it today. And we keep procrastinating this. So he would rather hear you talk about what you'll do today rather than you talk about what you're gonna do tomorrow. That's what he wants to hear. And then look at chapter 4, Hebrews 4:7. Hebrews 4:7, he says, "Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, 'Today, after so long a time, as it is said, today, if you will hear his voice, don't harden your heart'", today, today, today, not tomorrow, today, today, today, today, today, today.
Now look at Psalms 119:60. This is gon' change your life because you're gonna be tempted to do, you know, tomorrow, what you can do today, and, hopefully, this message just starts ringin' on the inside of you, "Let me do it right now. Let me do it right now, let me do it right now". All right, look at this, verse 60. He says, "I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments". In those days, when they keepin' the commandments, they were sayin', "I did that now, I did it today". Today we don't wanna make haste in having faith in what Jesus has already done for us and believing what Jesus has done for us, and believe it now. Don't wait until somethin' happens to believe it. Believe it today, believe it today. Believe that "I'm a success" today. Believe that "I'm healed" today. Do it today, and then do it every day. Do it each day.
You know, don't walk around sayin', "Well, I have knowledge of this, but I'm not practicing this". Practice your faith. Practice the presence of God. Do it today. There's nothin' wrong with you gettin' up saying, "You know, God, I just thank you so much that I am blessed today, that today I'm healed". Today is gonna be a good day. What'd he say? "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so". We should have a lot that we need to be saying every day. Why are we saying it? Because we believe it. So that's the real deal. Why are we not saying it? Maybe we don't believe it. Examine this 'cause, when this is right and full, your mouth will just correspond with what you believe.
I wanna stay hot on what I believe. I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe he's forgiven me of my sins, I believe I'm the righteousness of God. I believe that I am blessed, I believe that the Holy Spirit lives and abides in me. I believe that I'm an heir of the whole world. I believe it, I believe it, and I spend time with what I believe, and guess what? That stuff's comin' out my mouth. That stuff's comin' out of my mouth 'cause I am examining every day what I believe, what I believe. Guard your heart, guard your heart, guard your heart. Guard your eyes, your ears, your mouth, guard your heart. Why, why guard your heart? He says 'cause there's things comin' out of it. Out of it flows the issues of life. One translation says, "The forces of life, the issues of your very life flow out of your heart". Not only issues of your life, but the words out of your mouth flow. Everything flows out of your heart. Those words that you speak flow out your heart.
You gon' say what you believe. You're gonna say what you believe. People tell on themselves. If you understand this principle, just sit back and listen to people as they tell on themselves. They gon' say what they believe. Today, today I believe, today I believe he's my Savior. Today I believe that I am everything that his blood made. I believe that, I believe that, I remind myself, I put that on purpose in my memory. I think on these things, I think on these things. I think on these things. I get in here, and I think on these things. I just don't wake up in the mornin', "Oh, I'm a Christian under grace. I'm glad I know that".
I don't wanna have just an education in my mind. I wanna have a practice in my life, and then everything comes out like it's supposed to come out. Oh, praise God. Turn to your neighbor and say, "No procrastination in my life. No procrastination in my life". "I made haste, and delayed not to keep your commandments". In other words, what I got out of this was "Be a now person". Be a N-O-W, now person. Say it out loud, "I'm a now person, not a tomorrow person. I'm a now person, I'm a now person". "Well, I'm gon' go look for a job later". "Well, I'm gonna go and get this degree I know I need to get it". "I'mma go and get this certification". "I'mma invest in myself today. I'mma quit cussin' so much". "I'm gonna", be a now person. Be a now person. "I'm gonna be nicer to my spouse". "I'm gonna stop watchin' so much TV". "I'm not gon' eat so much sweet".
Every time you look around, you got a Honey Bun in your hand. It's just like, and they do look delicious. I saw one last night. I saw one last night at a high school basketball game. This kid came around with a Honey Bun. I was like, "Lord", put that baby in the microwave for about, what, ten seconds? Oh, you remember the cinnamon rolls that you used to unfold? Ha-ha-hah. You used to take 'em out and just unroll 'em and eat 'em piece by piece? Amen. Now let's take it a step further. The Bible takes a strong stance against procrastination, and he takes a strong stance against not doing things with immediate action, not being that now person.
Look at James 4:17. I wanna read it out of the King James and the Amplified. James chapter 4:17, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good", this is the thing that changed my whole life. I am having to face what I know, and I'm having to realize the truth that I know, but I'm not doin', and I'm realizing, knowing stuff and not doing stuff, I mean, so I know to do good. "To him who knows to do good, and he doeth it not", he said, "to him it's sin". And I pretty much put everybody on the planet in that category. See, while you're tryin' to talk about how you're, just, awesome and all these things, this one right here just nails everybody. How many times we knew to do good, and we didn't do it? Man, to know to do good for somebody else, and I didn't do it because I don't know.
I was occupied with somethin' at the time, or maybe I was feelin' kind of sorry for myself. It's very dangerous for you to insert yourself in every situation. It's not about you. It's about you being blessed so you can really impact somebody else's life, and it's so tempting at times to insert yourself in the situation 'cause nobody knows what you really do. If you hang around there long enough, you start gettin' depressed and sad 'cause don't nobody know what you do, and the problem with that is now you're needing validation because of, you know, nobody knows what you do. And so you're hungry for validation 'cause nobody knows what you do. "Oh, if they really knew what I did, if they really knew the sacrifice, if they really knew what they really knew", but here's the deal. I don't want you ever to forget this.
There are people that have done amazing things. They have lived, and they are gone, and they've done amazing things, and nobody will ever know about it. But let me tell you somethin': When you do what you do out of your heart, then you won't need anybody to validate you. When you are sincere about what you do, you don't need nobody to ever validate you, and it's fun to be sincere about what you do and not have to search for the validation. Social media age is very interesting because the social media age promotes performance. "I wanna put somethin' out, then I wanna go see how it performed". And then it says, well, you know, you didn't do it, you know, the degree of it has to get even more intense because you're workin' for the approval and how did they perform, and how did it perform? That's sad. What's wrong with that?
You know, the world is crazy right now. It's crazy right now. I'm gettin' ready to set up a meeting with some mayors and governors about comin' up with a sex task force for sex trafficking, just like a drug task force, and they bust in your house and get the drugs. I need to take this tax money. There's 60,000 kids missin', and there needs to be a task force put together to bust up some of... See, their strategy, every type of thing develops a strategy, and they need to study the strategy, become aware of the strategy, and stop this stuff, and I will remind you that you have a daughter, and it's not even daughters now, and it's risin' to an epidemic level, and I'm like, "When are y'all understanding that until it comes to your house"? Are you followin' what I'm sayin'?
It's weird, it's weird, there are weird things goin' on, weird kind of stuff goin' on. The acceptable lifestyle is being accepted by every lifestyle, and it's okay for a teenager to do all kinds of odd sexual acts that you, the parents, don't even know anything about because it's accepted in their crew, so it's cool to do. Some of the most nasty stuff you ever heard before in your life. Some of y'all need to get out and get started talkin' to people younger than you so they can tell you stuff that'll blow your mind. And I'm like, it's all performance-based, working for approval. "I need you to approve me, I'm sad, I don't have friends. I need you to approve me. I'm not gettin' it from the parents. Nobody's ever proud of me. I need you to approve me, and I'm willin' to do whatever I need to do to get your approval. Even if it's wrong, I need approval. I'm hungry and thirsty for approval".
And I am sayin' that, when they encounter us as Christians, we should give 'em somethin' that Christ has given us that'll make 'em feel so good about being a Christian, and they'll wanna be a Christian. Ah, we got a lot of good things goin' on, but here's the thing that got me. You know to do good. You don't do it. Procrastination. What good has been lurkin' around your life, and it hadn't happened yet? It hadn't happened yet. Somethin' will change in you if you'll just start, kind of, lettin' it happen. "I know to do good. Let me do somethin'. Let me just do something good". We used to have this member. She used to sit right there, and just as sweet as she wanna be, and she came, and she said, "Pastor Dollar, the time's changed".
I think some of y'all remember Miss Sarah Tallyá. She said, "The time's changed, and when it get dark, I can't see to get to church at night, so forgive me, but I won't be here on Wednesday nights 'cause it's dark". And she said, "You know, by the way, my car is havin' trouble. You need to get me a car". She was that forward. Well, sweetest lady I met before in my life. Well, I said, "Miss Sarah, what kind of car you want"? "Nothin' too fancy. I like the Chevrolets". "What's your color"? Gave me her color, and I went and got a car. No, you say, "Ah". Had I not gotten a car, I would not be able to sleep no mo, not because of her, but because I knew that I was supposed to do that before she even said it, and I had a problem 'cause I should've just did it before she said it.
When she passed, one of the things she wanted to do, she wanted her ashes spread on her church grounds. "Yeah, I want my ashes spread around on the church". I said, "The church"? I said, "They cut the grass, and they gon' be pickin' your ashes up". Sweetest, sweetest, sweetest lady. I think she was over our interaction department when we first started, interaction department, just sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet lady. And what do you know to do good that you have it marked with procrastination? It'll change your life. It'll change your life. I mean, just starting with her opened me up. I think I ended up buying, like, over 100 cars because I knew to do good in those situations.