Confessions and Benefits of the Cross

good morning good morning everybody this is the day that the lord hath made and we will rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it because god is good and he's worthy i mean it he is worthy to be praised he is so worthy to be praised there's nobody like him there's nobody like god ever he can't ever be replaced there's nobody you can send in as a sub he is god all by himself man and you know i'm just i i don't know i don't know about you i just don't know what i don't i don't know what i would do without him in fact i don't even want to think about it because uh i mean wow god is this extraordinary amazing [Music] father who just he he he just keeps amazing me i know and i know you it keeps amazing some of you and and and i'm i'm i pray that people will come to know him personally and not as a a form of religion but to know god i mean to know god and to know him to the point where i mean it's very personal it's very very personal uh i mean when somebody says something ugly about him it bothers you you have to you have to hold yourself back that's how personal it is uh to know god and i i that's what i want for for world changers church for world changes nation i want you to know god not not about god i want you to know god hallelujah thank you i want you to know god and i want you to know him to the point where you know when he's talking to you i want you to know him to a point where you know uh you can hear from him and and he can lead you and he can guide you i want you to know him to a point where when um you know challenging things are going on in your life that you can lean on him and know when you walk out of that thing that uh it was god and and to come to a place in your life where any any and everything that ever happens you give god the glory i mean you think about it man you give god the glory because you just know you're not smart enough to even think about some of this stuff that happens and this morning this monday morning i just want to give god praise i want to give god praise for who he is and i want to give god praise for for what he means and what he has done for you and i'm just so thrilled and so excited about the reality of god and you know when that happens when you get free from people and when you're no longer concerned about you know trying to be important in front of people you're free to walk in this relationship with god and uh you know you don't compare the bible says to compare uh you know it's not good for us to to compare and i don't know there's a freedom that comes when you recognize that this earth is not your home and you begin to recognize that you know god is your everything and i tell you when god becomes your everything oh man that man that's what this is it is a personal relationship with god that's what christianity is it is a personal relationship with god i can say that a hundred times and it still goes back to the same thing it's not rules and regulations and who knows the most of this and who knows the most that it is a personal relationship with god um and so i'm just i'm so blessed and i invite you to the father's house i invite you to to know him personally i mean to get to know him personally i mean when you walk out of the house today or wherever you're going you're going with god if you're getting married this weekend you know it's it's it's you your spouse and god and um you know that's what it is it's not that's it's not competition to see who can be the most spiritual in their talk it's not competition to see who spends more time with god it's it's you knowing him and and not doing things um you know to try to get something from him uh more than you're doing things because you want to i want to pray because i mean that's that's my father that's my friend i want to know him i want to know him and uh i promise you when you develop that kind of relationship with god and you will never have a fear of death when you develop that kind of relationship with god you'll never have a fear of what people say or do or how they feel or think about you it's like you know you just kind of look at him and say you know bless his heart he don't you don't even know that i that it doesn't bother me and that's that's a big deal that's that's when you've really when you can when you can see god as your source for everything and i've said this before when you can see god as your souls for everything and and then every time something happens you go to god every time you need to know something you go to god i mean you talk about meekness going somewhere to happen you know you just like i'ma go to god it's like when i started uh our church i didn't i never pastored a church before so every time something happened i went to god some of my leaders got kind of upset because they say it took me a long time to let them know stuff and i'm like well i i gotta hear from god first uh you know i can tell you stuff but it might be wrong but if you want it right give me time to hear what god see what god wants to do uh i tell you what that's that's where it is that's where it is a relationship with god christianity was never meant to be a religion it is a relationship with god it's getting to know him as a friend and as a personal savior uh thanks for all of you who joined me yesterday in church we started our new series on understanding grace-based relationships and one of the things we said yesterday was that the first relationship you got to get under your belt is a relationship with god through his word and um you know if you want all the rest of the relationships to work then that's got to be the relationship that you you're serious about and when you establish that relationship you you begin to you're ready for marriage and so uh i'm excited about this series we're we're gonna move from that point of relationship with god to relationship with one another friendship to eventually the marriage relationship but if we don't i have a relationship with god if we don't know how to have a relationship and a friendship with one another our marriage is doomed to fail i look at people that they don't have any friends that don't have any relationship with god and then they want to go get married and find out what what are the laws what's what's the thing you do in order for your marriage to work well dude you got to back all the way back to that first primary relationship because in it just like god to use one relationship to prepare you for the next relationship to prepare you for the next relationship and so the first one if you get that relationship right with god you're ready to have a friendship if you get that friendship right then you're ready to have a marriage bring that bring the friendship uh principles into your marriage and um and then you you're ready to have a good marriage so we're excited about this and um you know i'm i'm excited about having um world changers that i mean you guys are so supportive and so loving and so kind i just blowed my mind it's just it's been amazing even this morning how you would take the time out to um to just just show up to make some confessions man it's it's you know i'm just like i'm so blessed to be able to pastor such an amazing group of people members churches and partners e-partners and members i'm just so blessed i just you know sometimes it just really blows my mind and i'm grateful and thankful and i guess one of these days i don't know when we know what happened i just feel like one of these days i'm just probably gonna stop while i'm preaching and just cry just tears of joy for the goodness of god and uh you know it's just it's awesome man it's just what a family and uh i'm blessed i love you guys i mean genuinely so so so much and um i really do i just um i don't know i just want everybody to kind of know and understand what i've come to know and understand that's all i ain't after nothing i just want you to know god i just want you to know god man and uh i want you to know him i mean he is just that good he's worth knowing he's worth spending your life with um i ain't got no gimmicks man i ain't got no no water from the red sea yeah i ain't got none of that i just i've i've got you know you know i got 40 years of experience and mistakes and and bad decisions and good decisions and i finally come to the place of understanding that this whole deal is about having a real relationship with god so so when you wake up from your sleep of death you're in your spiritual body in the kingdom and you know him this is just temporary right here you understand this is just a temporary home this is just a dressing room dressing up room and when that time comes man we're going to spend eternity together and i don't know about you but man i'm i'm in preparation for eternity you know and and here's the thing here's really what i wanted to say to you today um every time you miss the mark don't beat yourself up remind yourself hey this is proof that i still need you god oh my god did you get what i just said it's like every time you you miss the mark you fall you say something you shouldn't say here's something you shouldn't hear and you know that it wasn't the right thing to do that's not the time to beat yourself up that's the time to say see god i still need you man that's that's a growing christian right there and and we don't ever want to be in a position where we think we don't need him i think that's the worst place that you can ever uh uh step into a place where somehow you've been deceived that you don't need it okay so you don't violate the big ten but it's maybe it's like a attitude thing or uh maybe you exaggerate a little bit too much or uh maybe you jump into selfishness mode and you want to preserve yourself and and and and it just constantly it should just constantly remind you see god i still need you and i mean to tell you man he loves that god loves to be needed and god loves to be wanted god loves to be needed and god loves to be wanted he don't want you showing up with some religious play um he loves to be needed and he loves to be wanted want him today continue to say how much you need him today i just believe something supernatural happened something supernatural started happening in my life when i just kind of did that that little simple thing lord i need you lord i want you man that little simple thing right there just kind of took me to a whole another level uh rather than beating myself up and maybe judging other people even when i see other people right now just like praise god but they need you and and they want you and lord i know you're not going to let them down and and you just feel that maturity and that growth that begins to come into your life because you're at this place of uh you know deliverance from self-performance and deliverance from the pride of life and it's like you know the religion's gone that this is a serious personal relationship like he's just like they're with you you know and it it won't take much for you to just end up crying a lot when you're praying to god and thanking god and then you just kind of see look at god man and when stuff happens you're like look at god god did that and you go to praising him and thinking because you know where it came from you know it wasn't none you did and uh come on let's let's say that right now lord i need you lord i want you lord i don't want to live this life without you i give you praise you are my source you are my supply house your everything i've ever needed and everything i've ever wanted it's in you that i trust it's in you that i trust oh my god i feel an anointing in in this in this stream praise god it's in you that i trust a thousand will fall at my side 10 000 at my right hand but it shall not come near me i think that's a great place to go ahead and get psalm 91 equip you ready i declare that i will dwell in the shelter of the most high god i declare that i will find rest in the shadow of the almighty i declare that god is my refuge and my fortress i declare that you are my god in whom i trust and with great confidence in whom i will rely i declare that god will rescue me from every trap and protect me from every disease i declare that i am covered and protected by his outstretched arms i declare that god's faithful promises are my armor and my protection i declare that i will not be afraid of the terrors of the night nor of the arrows that fly in the day i declare that i will not dread any disease that stalks in the darkness or any disaster that strikes at midday i declare that because god is my refuge and the almighty god of my home no evil can befall me and no plague can come near my dwelling i declare that god has ordered his angels to guard defend and protect me and my house i declare that god's armies of heaven will keep me from falling i will walk unharmed and kick anything that is evil from my path i declare that because of god's love for me i will call upon him he will set me above all my troubles he will deliver me from all my fears and he will honor me with his presence and power oh my goodness he'll honor me with his presence and power i declare that he will reward me with long life and he will show me his salvation i am a new creation in christ all things have passed away behold all things are new have died and have been raised with christ and am now seated in heavenly places i am dead to sin and alive unto righteousness no weapon that is formed against me shall prosper but every tongue that rises against me in judgment i shall show to be in the wrong i prosper in everything i put my hand to i have prosperity in all areas of my life spiritually financially mentally and socially i take every thought captive unto the obedience of jesus christ casting down every imagination and every high and lofty thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god as a man thinks in his heart so is he therefore all of my thoughts are positive and i do not allow satan to use my spirit as a garbage dump by meditating on negative things that he offers me i don't speak negative things i am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress i will speak forth the righteousness of god all the day long i never bind a sister or a brother with the words of my mouth i am always a positive encouragement i edify and build up i never tear down or destroy i am a believer not a doubter i am slow to speak quick to hear and slow to anger i am a doer of the word i meditate on the word all the day long i will study the word of god and i will pray i never get tired or grow weary when i study the word pray minister or praise god but i am alert and full of energy and as i study i become more alert and more energized i am a giver it is more blessed to give than to receive i love to give i have plenty of money to sow into the kingdom i declare that work is good and i declare by faith that i enjoy work i do all my work excellently and with great prudence making the most of all of my time i am a responsible person enjoy responsibility and i rise to every responsibility in jesus i am creative because the holy spirit lives in me i take good care of my body i eat right i look good i feel good and i weigh what god wants me to weigh pain cannot successfully come against my body because jesus bore all my pain i lay hands on the sick and they do recover i have a teachable spirit i do not think more highly of myself that i ought to think in the flesh i have humbled myself and god has exalted me i do what i say i will do and i get where i'm going on time i don't hurry and rush i do one thing at a time i don't have a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind i do not fear i am not guilty or condemned i am not passive about anything but i deal with all things in my life immediately i do not judge my brothers and sisters in christ after the flesh i am a spiritual man and am judged by no one i operated all the gifts of the holy spirit which are tongues and interpretation of tongues the working of miracles discerning of spirits the word of faith the word of knowledge the word of wisdom healings and prophecies i walk in the spirit all of the time i have been set free i am free to love free to worship free to trust with no fear of rejection or being hurt i have compassion and understanding for all people i do not hate or walk in unforgiveness i catch the enemy in all of his deceitful lies i cast them down and choose rather to believe the word of god in jesus name amen now let me say one thing all the confessions we make come from scripture i have all of the scriptures written by all the confessions that we make and um if you don't read the bible you don't you won't know that there's just lots of things that we confess but why confess something that's not in the bible uh and so praise the lord i thought i'd say that that probably make you feel a little better we confess god's word and his word is true and what we do is we just put it in a confession form so you can say it and believe it and you know use it to make your confession so uh i'm in now we think we got just a little time to talk about one more thing if the if the confessions bother you this is really gonna bother you glory to god look at this uh i'm gonna look at the king james bible and i want you to turn in these two scriptures really really quick we're talking about what happened before and what happened after the cross and there's a difference between the truth of what happened before jesus died on the cross and then what was made available after he died on the cross and we talked about a lot of stuff how to rightly divide the word of truth how the new testament is not what began in matthew the new testament began uh the new testament began after jesus rose from the dead so in order to rightly divide the word of truth you have to understand that you have to understand that uh there were some things that were true before he died on the cross which is reason why he died on the cross so he could change a lot of those things so what's the truth and the results of uh that happen after jesus died from the cross well this morning when i look at the subject of forgiveness and i got about five minutes let's see if we can cover that and uh mark chapter 11 and this is an excellent opportunity to show you how to rightly divide the gospels matthew mark luke and john matthew mark luke and john it those are books where jesus was still operating as a prophet under the old covenant as long as jesus was alive and on the earth the old covenant was still valid okay as long as he was alive and on the earth the old covenant was still valid and so uh you've got to discern in the matthew mark luke and john when jesus was talking about something that was true under the old covenant or the law versus something that was to come after he was going to be raised from the dead and so in mark chapter 11 and verse 25 uh let's read verse 25 together he says and when you stand praying forgive if ye now underline if ye now if you were here last week you'll understand that if you he says and when you stand praying forgive if you have ought against any that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses but if you do not forgive neither will your father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses so that's a pattern of the old covenant the pattern of the old covenant said you've got to do this in order for god to do that the pattern of the old covenant before jesus went to the cross and was raised from the dead was you got to do that and then got to do that and if you don't do that then god won't do that it was always based on if you and um if you'll go to matthew chapter 6 you see the same thing matthew chapter 6 and verse 14. it's important that you you see this matthew chapter 6 verse 14 and and uh and 15. now watch this he says for if you there you go every time you see those words together that's a little signal that uh oh this may be a pattern of the old covenant he says uh verse 14 and 15 for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive you your trespasses there's that pattern again if you want god to do this you got to do that if you uh don't do that then god won't do that you see it's a pattern of the old covenant because old covenant said it it's performance-based it's like okay if you do this then god will do that if you don't do that then go do that so it's like wow you know everything is going to be based on what you do or what you don't do the problem was that if people are teaching that today from pulpits right now today and they're not saying well well it came out of the book of matthew well but jesus was operating as a prophet under the old covenant and uh the bible says you know when the bible talked about jesus didn't come to destroy the law he came to fulfill it well you see him fulfilling it matthew mark luke and john and uh somebody said it's in the red jesus said that yeah he's he's fulfilling what was written but the question is all right this is how it was before he rose from the dead you had to do this in order for god to do that if you didn't do that then god wouldn't do that so it was what god would do was based on what you would do that's what just simply what it was but now did it change after did it change after uh now let's let's settle one thing forgiveness is still important uh no no doubt about it you know because when you don't forgive you like drinking poison and you don't want to do that so let's see if something changed let's see if something change if something will change after he rose from the dead ephesians chapter 4. now ephesians chapter four jesus has uh been crucified on the cross all right and he rose from the dead and and uh called paul to the gospel of grace in ephesians chapter 4 verse 32 watch very carefully and be kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another forgiven even as god for christ's sake hath forgiven you you know what he says this look there god hath forgiven you so you can forgive it it's switched around it's like because he's forgiven you you now can forgive before the cross it was you got to forgive first and then he'll forgive after the cross is what jesus did first which enabled you to do second it switched he said in verse 32 uh he says for christ's sake for christ hath forgiven you therefore you can forgive one another for christ has forgiven you therefore you can forgive one another so that that change well look at colossians let's let's see if we see another witness here colossians chapter 3 and when you get to colossians chapter 3 look at verse 13 colossians 3 and verse 13 he says for bearing one another forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any forgiving one another even as christ forgave you so also do ye did you see that there it is again christ has forgiven you which now enables you to forgive somebody else see we were not able to perfectly do this so christ came after after the cross and he says i'm gonna i'm gonna forgive you first and empower you to be able to forgive second i'm going to forgive first and now you're going to be able to forgive others and so now it's not based on my performance whether or not i can forgive i can forgive based on what jesus has done i can i can forgive based on what jesus has done i can love based on what jesus has done you see what he did he took away the self performance even in forgiveness and he says look i forgave why so you can forgive others before the cross it was like you forgive others and then i'll forgive you well some some people have problems with that some people like i i can't forgive and and and and so now we're saying well we can't forgive because of jesus we can't forgive because of jesus this is rightly dividing the word so what happens when you don't write about the word you'll go to the book of matthew you will not realize that jesus is a prophet operating under the old covenant and then you'll start teaching people if you don't forgive god god won't forgive you and then they'll be walking around in condemnation and guilt oh my god i'm having a hard time forgive these people but i got to do it in order for god to forgive me rather than realizing god's already forgiven you so you're able now to forgive somebody else i heard somebody say at one time well this person died in unforgiveness that they're not going to go to heaven because they died in unforgiveness no that ain't right man that ain't right i mean you know telling somebody that you know oh my god they died in unforgiveness and so god's gonna go to judging that's based before the cross after the cross god says you know what you are able to forgive you are able to forgive and if you should slip away and and didn't do it like pers in person your heart did it and and and i'm i'm not gonna operate as a prophet under the old covenant i forgave you first check that out i forgave you first so you are not equipped to do all the things that you thought you could not have done in your own own efforts uh so we forgive because jesus has already forgiven us and that's the whole key about that so what what what i just do i just rightly divided the word of truth and so if i don't rightly divide the word of truth and i just read out of the book of matthew 19 and just read out of the book of matthew 6 and i don't rightly divide that then i could be preaching and causing people to be condemned and causing people to walk in guilt and causing people to walk in shame because i don't know how to rightly divide the word of truth and uh this is happening all over all over church you can sit there and it won't be long before something will be said and it'll bring about condemnation and it'll bring about guilt and and it's like wait a minute i thought jesus took my condemnation i thought there is therefore now no more condemnation to those in christ jesus so why am i feeling like that because you're reading out of the law which brings condemnation you're reading out of a perspective before the cross that is designed to cause you to feel guilt and shame that's why we have to rightly divide the word of truth so we can see what jesus has so gloriously done for us all so amen thank you for your attention today and um i'm just praying that somehow these little sessions that we're in today they kind of help drop a little truth a little bit at a time into your heart and as you're praying and spending time with god and developing a relationship with god these things really rise up on the inside of you i gotta go i love you guys so much i'll see you tomorrow morning uh we're gonna talk about love tomorrow morning how to rightly divide it so god bless you have a great

Channel: Creflo Dollar Ministries

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Length: 37min 35sec (2255 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021