Creflo Dollar - Godly Friendships - Part 2
Let's look at some things that will build relationships. What are some things you can do to build better relationships with people in the area of godly friendship? We ain't gotten to marriage yet. Oh, when we get to marriage, you gonna know it. But what can we do? I'm gonna give you seven actions, seven actions that you can begin to initiate to build better relationships. And I'm gonna start off with this first action because, like I said, we act like we don't do this until we get married. But here's the first action to build better relationships in the area of friendship. Here it is. It's this word that you all know, you all have heard, you all understand. Here it is, love. Because you're gonna find out that you're gonna have to have that as a foundation in the next relationship, in marriage.
See, love is the starting point. I'm talking about godly Christians, lovers of... see, godly Christians, godly Christianity, when you talk about, "I'm saved. I have the love of God poured in me". And I'm gonna talk to you about two kinds of love, agape love and phileo, you need both of them in order to restore or to reconcile relationships. And that agape love is not, I'm loving you because you did something. It's unconditional. It's the practice of loving without nobody having to do something to be loved. Man, many problems in conflicted relationships involve power struggles. They involve people feeling excluded. They involve the absence of brotherly affection. But you fix these problems by the expression of both agape and phileo love.
So, let's define those a little bit more because I want to give you a picture of what that means. Okay, so I'm a born-again Christian. I gave my heart to Jesus. The first thing the Holy Spirit did was to pour the agape love on the inside of me, giving me ability to love because the Bible says they will know us by the love that we have for one another. And I just think that is so foreign to the church right now. And I'm not talking about the fake love. I'm talking about the real love that helps us to do some things. So, this love is not based on merit of the person loved. It's like they didn't have to do something to deserve to be loved, but rather it's unconditional. Agape is unconditional. It's based on them as an image bearer of Christ, in a sense. Because you bear Christ, I can love you this way. This love is kind, it's generous. This love continues to give, even when the other is unkind, unresponsive, unworthy. It still gives.
You're unkind, I'm still gonna love you because I got this. I didn't love you for a reason in the first place. I loved you because you are a bearer of Christ on the inside of you, and I love you. And I love you when you're unresponsive. I love you when you're unkind. I love you when you're unkind. Agape love helps me to love what's not lovely. I love you when you're unworthy. It only desires good things for the other, and it is compassionate. What do you think would happen to every church in the world if they made this the starting point of their Christianity? I am born again, I am saved. I received the agape love that God gave me.
Now I'm gonna start loving people, not because they deserve it, but because of who I am. That's strong. I'm gonna love you with your unresponsive, mean, unreasonable self. But because I'm a Christian, I have a supernatural love that can love you in any condition you may be in. I can love betrayal that came from you. I can love slander that came from you. I can love unfaithfulness that came from you 'cause I'm a Christian and I bear supernatural love. I bear agape. And I'm not loving you cause you love me. I'm not loving you 'cause you did something nice to me. I'm not loving you because you called me to see how I was doing. I wasn't, no, no, no, no, no, no. When the church makes this the starting point to our relationships in our fellowship, then we're gonna start seeing something different happen in our worship.
I don't think you heard what I said. When the church can make this type of agape love the starting point in our relationship with one another, then you're gonna see the difference in our worship. It will be the most powerful thing you've ever seen. And then the building will become a place where all needs are taken care of because agape love was loving when it wasn't right. And when we walked in that building, and we met God there, and burdens started being removed, and yokes started being destroyed, and the anointing showed up because we're not loving with a fake love. We're loving in a way that invites the Spirit and the presence of God to show up every time we come together. Whoo. If you're at home, lift your hands up and praise God for that. If you're here, lift your hands up, praise God for that. Father, I welcome you right now, I welcome you right now.
Now, here's the thing you do. You're hearing me preach and you're thinking in your own ability, "I don't know how to do that". Well, the Lord has great pleasure in hearing you say, "I need you, Lord. I need you to help me love like this 'cause I gotta be honest with you, it ain't in me like that". Reconciliation requires both of these. Now, phileo, let's talk about that love. These are Greek words to describe it. This is a deep and intimate friendship that has been built over time caring about someone as a person or a brother. So, it's a friendship type of love built over time, but it's that unconditional agape love that keeps you engaged until that friendship love, you give birth to it, you see? So, you need both of them for reconciliation to take place. And you're talking about you don't have no friends. Go find somebody who everybody is turning off. There are plenty people who waiting for you to show up with some agape, plenty folks.
And we just, I don't know. "Well, I just, you know. You know how folks are". Well, there you go again generalizing everything, diminishing the power of God's agape as if it's not gonna work for you, when he made it available to work for everybody. And that person that you engage in agape love may turn out to be the greatest blessing to ever happen in your life. Man, I don't want you to get to heaven and find out that that person who you despise, God sent to be a blessing to your life, but you never engaged the blessing. Sometimes the blessing can look raggedy at the beginning. And later on, it looks like pure gold at the end, amen?
I know some of y'all listening, "Mm-hmm, well, I'mma have to pray about this. Well, I don't know". Well, you right, you don't. And that's why I'm teaching you right now. You're right, you don't. You don't, you don't, some of you have no idea how to engage agape with somebody who has done you wrong. I do. I mean, I've engaged with people who have been so slanderous with such betrayal and turned around and did something like pay all their bills off. And it almost messed them up. Or after they stolen from me and they went to jail, I was the one to go and get them out. It messed them up, agape. Some of them couldn't stay. Some are like, "I just can't stand it. I gotta stay. 'Cause I don't know, why would you do that? Why would you do that? Why would you come and get me out of jail? You know I stole from you". Ah, ah, ah. Agape.
Are you willing to do that? Jesus did. The same people that beat him up and mugged him, he died for them. He went to hell for them. The same ones that beat him with a cat o' nine tails, he shed his blood for them. His body was broken for them. He will welcome them. Think about how that feels. You were part of the mugging team that beat Jesus up, and then you got saved. There was some people that got saved, who whipped him with a cat o' nine tails and all that. And they entered into heaven. And you know what Jesus did? Come on, "ye blessed of my Father, enter into that which was prepared for you for the rest of the world". And if Jesus could do that, and I like what Jesus did. Jesus forgave them of a $1 trillion debt. And when he asks us to forgive one another, it's like a two-cent debt. He's asking you to forgive somebody of a two-cent debt, and he forgave somebody of 1 trillion debt. It's time for us to mature. It's time for us, if we're gonna be Christians, we're gonna have to practice and ask God to help us in developing in this area, amen. Reconciliation requires both of these being expressed to resolve the problems in conflicted relationships.
Let me look at Philippians 2. And I realize I'm probably gonna run out of time and not finish this, but also promised God that I would take my time and not rush through this series because the planting of this is so important to the future of World Changers. The planting of it is the future. So important to the future, it's important to the future of our worship. It's important to the future of our church coming back into the Dome. It's important to the future of where God wants to take us and how God wants to use us. I believe the Dome is gonna be a center for miracles. I do, I believe the Dome is gonna be a center for the supernatural. I believe there's gonna be one time that every time it opens up, something miraculous happens, something super... There are gonna be people coming from all over the world because there's gonna be a fire burning over that Dome because of the very thing I'm talking to you about now that some people don't see how the supernatural can be associated with this. But there's lot of things, a lot of ways we live that prevents God from doing what he wants to do.
Now, you take what I'm talking about, and everybody start operating like that. And all of the home churches are now coming back to the Dome. And all of the folks are coming back. Well, they're coming back willing and ready to operate in agape. You can't, you can't put all of that in one place and not have the Holy Ghost walk up and down every aisle and touch every person. I saw people walking in the back of the Dome and falling out under the power of God like they ran into a wall when they walked in there. That's what I'm talking about. We're not in any competition. We refuse to compare ourself with somebody else. I'm trying to... something getting ready to happen. And I'm trying to get you ready for it so you will not be a victim of the times, but you'll be a prophecy of the times. Signs and wonders and miracles and healings, and all of this wonderful stuff, and you're gonna be alive to see it all. But he's waiting on his church.
You know, a little of what we saw this morning in worship is nothing to compare about what you're gonna see. I saw it one time. When I first got called to the ministry, I was director in this community choir. We were going to L.A. to do a concert. I didn't have any money to get any food to eat, so I wasn't complaining to nobody. So, I stayed in the room and I fasted for three days. Didn't nobody know that. I mean, I fasted and prayed for three days. And a few of my friends came in and joined me, and I just spent time with the Lord. And it got so intense in there, I still till this day don't quite understand that. But I opened my eyes while I was laying on the bed praying, but when I opened my eyes up, I was looking down at my body. And it scared me. I gotta be honest, like what the heck?
You know, I'm reaching trying to get where I was. But when I got to the concert and the other people started joining me in prayer, when I got to the concert, I was the director, so I started talking to set the song up. And I turned around and I started speaking. And as I started speaking and I turned around to the choir that started singing the song, everybody fell out. No, no, no, the whole choir. No, not two people, everybody fell out, both in the choir stand and in the congregation. Least to say, we couldn't have no concert 'cause wasn't nobody conscious. So, we had an altar call, and everybody got saved. And I said, what in the world was this? I said, well, I didn't have nothing to do with that. And then so I got invited to a church. I got a witness here, Taffi and Ken, I think, went to that church. We went to, I don't know what it was, but they had preachers here and not too many people in the congregation. And after I finished, everybody in that church got saved, including all the preachers on the pulpit. I'm thinking, now, I thought y'all was already save.
I have seen what I'm telling you about. And part two is right around the corner. I said, part two is right around the corner. And I'm telling you as sure as I stand here today, the greatest move of the Holy Ghost that this earth has ever seen is gonna take place, but the worship is coming off the platform and it's gonna get out here into the congregation. And it's gonna be worshiping God in a spirit of truth. And you're gonna see things like you never seen before. Watch this, in your house, on your job, in your recreation time, at the park, on the street. You watch. And how is this? This agape.
Look at what he said, Philippians chapter 2, verse 2 through 4 in the NIV, Philippians 2:2 through 4 in the NIV. And this will be my last Scripture for today. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. You ain't seen nothing yet. You're gonna see, you're gonna see, "The time that I have prophesied concerning the early and the latter rains coming together are at hand. It is my early anointing that operated on those prophets of old, and it is my anointing that fell in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. The earth has never seen these anointings operate together all at one time. But I'm about to bring a spiritual storm upon this earth. Yeah, it looks like the devil is winning. And if you're keeping score, it looks like he's leading. But if you understand who I am, just in a moment of time, I'll turn it all around. And I'm about to turn things around in your life. I'm about to turn things around in your house. I'm about to turn things around where your finances are concerned, that you may know that I am the Almighty God and that you will come to know that when my hands are on your life, no devil in hell can do anything to you.
So, don't wait until you see it before you begin to rejoice. Go ahead and rejoice and be exceedingly glad because of what I am about to do with you," saith the Spirit of the Living God, amen. "What I'mma do to you, what I'm about to do where you're concerned, what I'm about to do where you're concerned". Right there in your house, let this anointing come through this stream right now. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. Something's getting ready to happen to those ashes in your life. Hallelujah, glory to God, hallelujah, glory to God. Thank you, Lord. Philippians 2:2 through 4 says this. He says, "Then make my joy complete by being like-minded". What? "Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same," look at this, "love".
Look at that. Having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. So, he's telling us what to do. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the other". You see how this thing's gonna start? Having the same love. There's only love, there's only one kind of love we all can have, and that's agape 'cause it's not based on nothing, but your decision to have it and to receive it and to walk in it. And I tell you, World Changers, the name has not been granted unto us by mistake. The name has not been given unto us by mistake. God is calling the World Changers nation to rise up all over the place. You gotta understand what I'm saying.
There are gonna be people that are gonna be moving here because God told them, "I need you to be in College Park". There are people that are gonna be coming from all over the place. There are, there are some serious reckonings that God is about to do on the planet. And those people who don't believe in it, and those people who, for some reason, hated him, well, that'll be no more 'cause the God of big miracles is at hand. You receive that this morning? I'mma stop right there. I'mma stop right there. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Father, we thank you for this opportunity to minister to these, your precious sheep, that they've received it, that supernatural things have happened, even in their hearing, that this went beyond the ears on the side of their heads, but they heard it with the ear in the center of their heart. I pray, Spirit of God, that you begin to deal with each individually. Oh, my goodness, glory be to God. And that you do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think. And I believe we got the key today. That love is the key. We praise you for it now in Jesus' name, amen.