Gateway Church's Podcast
Creflo Dollar
I want to first of all congratulate you for allowing the Spirit of God to use your faith to build such a fine edifice that people can see when they drive down the expressway and I mean I look to the left and I'm like well I'm not lost tonight I see that big old sign over there you know God bless you father thank you so much we give you praise tonight and we ask in the name of Jesus that you will anoint every ear to hear and Lord what they hear tonight will make a mark in their lives that will never be erased we love you Lord with all of our heart and our soul and our mind and our strength we ask in Jesus mighty name that you will allow revelation to begin to flood the hearts of those who hear this word tonight and we thank you for it in advance in Jesus name we pray and everybody said amen praise the Lord if you don't mind let's eat go to the book of Proverbs chapter 24 and your pastor is one of the greatest teachers of the word of God that I've had the privilege of hearing and and I thank God for his life I thank God for his wife and his family and I thank God for you being here and it is absolutely an honor for me to be here tonight and I thank God for it also want to thank God for James Robinson being here tonight he is such a a leader in the body of Christ and such a man of faith and a man of love and we love you so much I thank God for you amen Proverbs chapter 24 now I want to take about 10 minutes to get your thinking in line with where I'm going and so I'm gonna plug some things into your mindset to set a mindset so I can say some things tonight because I believe something happens in our lives when God is first when God is first in our lives there are things that heaven now can do as I was reading in in Proverbs 24 and looking at some of these sayings of the wise I ran across verse 27 and in verse 27 it said prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house the amplified Bible says this put first things first everybody say first things first says first things first prepare your work outside and get it ready for yourself in the field and afterwards build your house and establish a home you see when I hear first thing first I hear priority say priority priority is just simply ladies and gentlemen that which is of first importance it's the status established in order of importance and or urgency first things first you know when you start dealing with priority you and I both know that those things we place higher value on will be those things that will have first place in our lives what you value the most is what will be first in your life so Matthew chapter 6 33 we know it says seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things shall be added unto you but in order for us to do that we've got to get very honest with ourselves we got to come to the place where we are ready to value God and value his kingdom more than anything else that's in our life more than anything else that's around us we've got to come to the place where we are very familiar with the genuine you see most people a lot of folks have been hanging around with the faith so long they don't recognize the authentic and we want to be genuinely in love with God and value the kingdom of God so that we can make it first place in our lives you know saying that God has priority in my life versus how you schedule your life or two different things we can say God has priority in God's first place but then we can go and look at how you schedule your life and we can see whether or not that really lines up as the truth now we all live according to priorities whether it's you know the right priorities or the wrong priorities we all live according to priorities we're gonna live life based on how we value certain things and so 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says something I really didn't think about this and my wife and I were talking about this one afternoon 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 12 he says all things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient or profitable all things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any now the message translation says this just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it spiritually appropriate if I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with I'd be a slave to my whims my impulsive those sudden desires if I only did what I thought I could get away with you know maybe some people say well you know I don't think it's that important to have priority in my life and you know it may not be necessarily something wrong with you know you're not putting proper priority in your life but ladies and gentlemen please understand this if you don't set priority straight in your life you will become a slave to those those whims in your life and and you'll become a slave to those those those impulses in your life and one of the reasons will be because we were not sensitive to setting proper priority in our lives now if you don't set priority in your life then situations will set priority in your life if you don't set priority in your life then circumstances will set priority in your life if you don't set proper priorities in your life then other people will set priorities in your life so when you begin to say that I value the kingdom when you begin to say that I value God when you begin to say that God is priority in my life I want you to understand what you're saying now that he is and he holds a level of importance in your life that nothing else and nobody else holds now let me let me stick something else I want to stick about three more scriptures in your head then I'll start preaching what I can't preach tonight second Corinthians chapter 8 and verse five of course you know that this speaks of the legendary giving of the Macedonians but I notice in verse five when he said this he says and this they did not as we hope but first gave their own lives to the Lord and unto us by the will of God the Amplified says nor was this gift of theirs merely the contribution that we expected but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us as his agents by the will of God entirely disregarding their personal interests they gave as much as they possibly could having put themselves at our disposal to be directed by the will of God entirely disregarding their personal interests you know I've been doing some teaching on heaven because you know I share with my congregation you know sometimes out of sight out of mind and and and what happens sometimes is we get so busy with the love affair with the world we forget to see Jesus sitting on the throne in heaven and so I thought well let me show you the realities of heaven and maybe that'll help you to say no to some of the temptations that are coming and help you to want to live the life that that God's calling for us to live but are we willing to disregard personal interests or have we allowed those personal interests to become more valuable to us than the things of God than the kingdom of God and I want you tonight to authentically look at where you are with this first Timothy chapter 5 and 12 flip over there for a moment I love the word you're gonna look at lots of scriptures and I figure if I don't do anything but read you'll get something first Timothy chapter 5 and verse 12 says having damnation because they have cast off their first faith M5 says and so they incurred condemnation for having set aside and slighted their previous pledge now when I saw this one of the things that came in my mind and my thinking was that wrong priorities will be responsible for things not working in your life wrong priorities will be responsible for you having to ask the questions of why isn't this working how come this is not going the way that I've read about it and in the word of God because maybe the issue may be with this area of wrong priorities and then in 1st John chapter 5 21 I'm almost there 1st John chapter 5 21 he says this he says little children keep yourselves from idols amen but the amplified says little children keep yourselves from idols false God keep yourselves from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God from any sort of substitute for him that would take first place in your life that's what an idol is it's when you have removed God from first place in your life and you've bought in a substitution and it's that thing or that person maybe that is now sitting in the place where God used to sit and he says don't be immature to allow yourself to try to replace God with someone or something now this doesn't have to feel like bondage tonight this can be extremely liberating because all you have to do is to have a flashback of what life was like when you first got born again and nothing mattered except this Jesus that you had just encountered when God is first amazing things begin to happen now here's where I want to go with this tonight if love is your motive then honor will be your objective honor everybody shout honor what does that mean well literally the word honored talks about weighing in heavy carrying weight to weigh in to carry weight well you know you can't talk about honoring God without talking about honoring his word because God and his words are the same so if we're gonna honor God we're gonna have to honor his word so if you put that together here's what I want you to hear tonight to honor God means that you will allow his word to carry more weight in your life than anything that anybody else says or any other influences around you that's real Bible honor how much weight does God's word carry in your life the question I bring to you tonight is will you or are you allowing God's word to weigh in in the decisions you make are you allowing God's words to weigh in in the actions you take are you allowing God's word to weigh in even in the words that you speak because ladies and gentlemen we will sing oh Lord we honor you we will shout oh Lord we honor you but now when it when we get down to the nitty gritty are we allowing his word to carry so much weight in our life that it becomes the final authority in our life that all argument ceases because God's first I'm a Christian I'm born again I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and yet I am in this world but I've been warned not to be of this world and and I'm telling you right now I am ready to stand out and stand forth and say that God is number one in my life and I will honor him and his word carries weight in my life even in the midst of people saying ugly things about me I will honor God are you listening to me to honor God means that his word carries so much weight in your life that nothing else anyone says nothing else happening around you will influence you more than God's word you make your decision that nothing else carries more weight in the decisions that I make than God's word so when I have to make a decision about a job what does the word of God have to say will I allow his word to weigh in or have I become so intelligent I no longer need his word to weigh in how much weight does his word carry in my life well why don't I just bring up a little something so you can gain concept here let's just say for example you've got some bills that are due and you're trying to figure out how to pay them I know something you're looking at me like an example that is really happening in my life prophesy I preach your prophesy but you're really committed to bringing the tithe you're really committed to that and so now you've got to make a choice what's gonna weigh in heavier the guy that keeps calling me about paying this bill or bringing the tithe see when God's word weighs in heavy in your life and when he is first placed in your life that doesn't become an issue because you've already made your mind up that his word weighs in heavier than that bill so I'm gonna go ahead and honor God now here's what the word says I want you to go with it to the book of 1st Samuel 1st Samuel chapter 2 when you get to 1st Samuel chapter 2 look at verse 30 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 30 take them a time that y'all get used to me I'm getting used to y'all and then I'm gonna go and say some stuff I hope y'all warmed up as I'm ready to preach okay I don't know how to be anybody but Creflo Dollar and I am so satisfied glory be the God with being able to be here tonight to be me amen all right now look at this 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 30 now watch this where for the Lord God of Israel said I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever but now the Lord said be it far from me for them that honor me I will honor and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed for them that honor me I will honor I mean we get this Lord if I walk in honor with you I can expect honor from you I get that but I also know what it means to do that when he says for them that honor me he's looking for people who say God's first in my life his word carries the priority his word is is the final authority in my life his word weighs in his word carries weight for those that honor God that's how you do that God says I'm gonna honor you but then he turns around and he says and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed well how do you despise it well his word doesn't carry weight his word doesn't weigh in in your life God's not priority in your life you've replaced him with something or someone and he says when you despise me you'll be lightly esteemed in other words it's just not gonna be working you're gonna be trying to figure out what's happening it's not gonna be working why it's an issue of honor it's an issue of honor honor is something that we've got to talk about honors something we've got to begin to teach our children honor is something that we need to remind one another of because it is something that will move the hand of God when we begin to walk in honor the promise is he will honor us well I got the prayer about this and I said well Lord how are you gonna honor us well hold your place then for a Samuel and go over here to Saint John chapter 544 St. John chapter 544 how will I know that I'm receiving the honor from God as a result of me honoring him you know somebody somebody said something the other day they said when you get to heaven and get your crowns where you gonna put it in your mansion I said I'm not taking my crown home I'm gonna cast it at the feet of Jesus hey man verse 44 Jesus is speaking he says how can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only there is an honor that comes from God only there's an honor in other words no man will be able to honor you like he will if you will walk in honor where he's concerned well what is that honor how will I know that honor is there now I wish I had time tonight to go from Genesis to Revelation to show you but here it is the honor that comes from God is the blessing now you didn't you didn't hear me it's not the car it's not the house it's not the money the blessing most people when they defined the blessing they defined the blessing by its result instead of by its very nature for example you see the wind blowing outside and you see leaves blowing in the yard somebody says look at the wind but that's not the wind that's what happens when the wind blows or you know you you go and you you hear some bell on the porch or some chimes on the porch sounding off somebody said that's the wind no that's the result of the wind so likewise we've been defining the blessing by its result instead of by its very nature so what is the blessing the blessing is an empowerment you know this the blessing is God's ability on your ability giving you ability to do what you could do before he put his ability on your ability but now that you have his ability on your ability you have a supernatural ability to go get sweatless victory in your life and I'll prophesy over you right now that you will know sweatless victory but it will start with honor it'll start with authentic genuine honor we're in our lives and in the decisions that we face that we are demonstrated that God's words we in heavier than anything else and God says if you honor me I'm gonna honor you I'm gonna honor you with the blessing I'm gonna release ability on your life I'm gonna put my super on your natural and you're gonna be able to do things you couldn't do in the natural but it's gonna start with your decision to walk in honor it's gonna start with your decision to walk in honor even if it means you have to lose some associates I'm not gonna call them friends because real friends understand covenant friendship is designed glory to God not to take advantage but to give the advantage you listen to me that starts with honor that starts with honor not not not not a bunch of Christians that go by the bookstore and buy a Christian t-shirt you know that that has you know a John 3 16 on it and then when they take the t-shirt off they turn into it's alive that's not what I'm talking about I tell you what I'm hungry for I'm hungry for some genuine authentic save people that are gonna walk the walk instead of just talking to tell and start demonstrating to a dark world that this life can be lived in honor where God is first you know I am I'm a fan of football I'm a fan of the Atlanta Falcons and the faculty went 13 and 3 I was there at the game I'm I'm I'm I'm you know I'm preaching a pulpit then I have this fast car outside waiting to take me and drop me off and I'm in there it's it's it's been a great year it's just great year so my son was talking to me last night and and I asked him I said do you have the playoff tickets we have home field advantage do you have playoff tickets he said yeah he says but we got an issue I said what he said we're gonna be in Australia for two weeks I said when he said we leave next week dad I said oh Jesus honor and then it got kind of funny to him I'm thinking the Falcons didn't die on the cross for me the Falcons didn't get up on the third day for me the Falcons are not coming back for me you think I'm gonna make the Falcons number one in my life you think the Falcons are gonna become my idol and I'm just gonna shove the one who died for me who saved me who healed me who delivered me for a football team that may not be any good next year no I've already made my mind up that I'm gonna walk in honor that I'm gonna I'm gonna allow his word to carry more weight and Jesus will carry more weight than the Super Bowl I'm not gonna be in the last days of fulfillment of prophecy men being lovers of pleasure more than they are lovers of God and I love football but football can't do me like Jesus you don't hear me up in here we've got to begin to understand what this means you know the Bible says in fact I want you to flip over there to the book of let's go to Ephesians chapter 6 we want to be more than people that give lip service Lord we honor you Bible talks about that Matthew 15 and 8 they were saying they were saying with their lips we honor you but their heart was far from you no we want to we want to be able to mean what we say that God we walk in honor and and begin to demonstrate that walk of honor but I notice here in Ephesians chapter oh verse chapter 6 I'll reverse 1 and 2 says children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise now watch the blessing that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth notice this is a result of your decision to walk in honor now when you talk about honoring your mother and father I mean how do you do that you know it's certainly it's more than a chicken dinner on Mother's Day certainly it's more than a certain type appreciate the certain type but you know it's got to be more than a certain time on Father's Day to honor your mother or your father simply means that you give them the authority to speak into your life and be obeyed that's how you honor them you know my my oldest daughter you know she she's not married yet and I'm thinking oh dear God I'm going to have to be the one to check out the dude she brings home so we have an agreement if you bring the wrong one home I'm gonna check him out but if he's not the one let's agree not to waste this time it's so you know let's just say this guy comes out he gets out the car and you know she's briefing them on everything and then I finally get a chance to meet him and I and home the door and I say hello how you're doing he said and so I'm looking like so maybe I heard it wrong and I say so what are you planning on doing you're like well you know man you know he's got you he just call me man yeah you know so you know like cuz you don't take you so now I've heard all the one to hear Jordan coming I said baby he ain't the one I said I don't even understand it he's he's not the one and she go back and says name is Ray Ray and say well Ray Ray my daddy said you ain't the one yeah but I thought you know I thought you said you love me shouting yeah but I love my daddy more and I honor his words and if my daddy said you ain't the one if he and Jesus said you not the one Ray Ray let the donob hit you with a good lost spit yeah that's on that's honor but there's so many kids today it is just no work like that you go tell them he's not the one hard you always try to control me oh don't understand but I love him you don't understand I mean just cuz I didn't do it like you and mama don't mean you said you said you said your mother and your father and let that boy go his way and then and then when the right one come in and I thought I had the right one a couple years ago I'm like that's the one said that's the one she said well what if I don't like it girl we can train you to like him you understand then I found out my daughter was a little bit stronger than he was and I'm saying that boy ain't got a chance you'll be on with him all over the place real Bible honor honoring your mother and father not just talking about it but actually doing that because when God is first you begin to respect the word and what the word has to say and when God is first and priorities operating in your life things start working like they're supposed to work because God's not gonna forget about you when you honor him he's gonna honor you but when you despise him when you despise his word when it doesn't weigh in anymore when it doesn't carry weight I mean you used to go and check with God with everything you used to acknowledge him in all of your ways and allow him to direct your path but now what we do we found ourselves marrying methods and so now we figured well I already know how to do this because I've done this for so long but I'm you know God God is like like like he'll always show it with something that you hadn't seen before and I don't want to be guilty of marrying methods I want to make sure that I'm ready to flow with him or whatever he wants to do however he wants to do it because I have made him listen God is not my source he's my only source what have I done I have eliminated all other options because he is first in my life praise the Lord and I've made him first in my life so here's what I want you to hear tonight if my words carry weight in your life and you carry it out if God's word carries weight in your life and you carry it out then when you pray your words will carry weight in heaven and he'll carry them out let me say that again if God's word carries weight in your life and you carry it out then when you pray your words will carry weight in heaven and God will carry it out ladies and gentlemen listen to me the root issue to things working in our lives is our decision to make God first and our decision to honor God to honor God above the humanistic viewpoint to honor God above that which appears to be the political or the politically correct way to honor God to praise God no matter what I've made my mind up to do that I mean I love people I'm gonna continue to love people but God has got to be first in my life I've given him my life I've given him my life ladies and gentlemen this is this is this is what Taffy and I do this is what we do nothing else comes in between that we are we love him we want to do his will because we we've got our we've got our eyes set on something else I don't expect nobody will ever give me an award or something like that but I'm not expecting nothing from here because God's gonna be first and I tell you what they've written a whole lot more ugly books about me than they have about you but I forgive them and I go on and I pray for them because it don't matter anyway I'm an alien here I'm ET on the earth my citizenship my citizenship is not here my citizenship is in heaven you are just living in the copy I am from the original praise God I'm gonna I'm gonna honor God because because I know I know what the end of this thing's gonna look like I want to God well I tell you one thing whoever heard of our preacher Reverend dollar oh look how to says God's got a sense of humor I didn't want to be a preacher because of my last name I'm thinking are you serious the will of God for my life is to preach with a last name like dollar I said God that that sounds like a ripoff hello I'm Reverend dollar and I've had people to pick at it they say they say creep your dollar or pass a dollar what are you laughing so hard for back then and then recently I was accused of changing my name that this was not my real name baby let me tell you something if I was responsible for my name I would not have named me Creflo eight dollar if I was responsible for my name I would have named me Creflo billion dollars if we don't talk dollars we might talk big doesn't matter because I've already made my mind up to honor God I've already made my mind up that I'm gonna walk in honor to God I've already made my mind up that I'm gonna love what's not lovely I've already made my mind up that I'm gonna operate in an unconditional love why because it's an honor to God doesn't matter how somebody treats me I've made my mind up God said to do it so I'm gonna do it it doesn't make me the difference at all and you like me or don't like me I'm gonna love you because I want to honor God and I'm not gonna let you send me to hell because I don't know how to forgive you so I'm gonna love you that's how that's how you live when God is first that's how you carry yourself when you decide to walk in honor to God and I love him so much and I asked myself in those hard spots Lord why do I do this because I've decided that your words gonna carry weight I've decided that your words gonna weigh in I've decided not to replace you with a substitute and to bring something in or someone in that's gonna that's gonna sit on the throne of my life when you've done so much for me I listen to what I'm saying so whatever is first in your life whatever you've used to replace or substitute God kick that stuff off the throne and invite Jesus to come back and sit on the throne of your life and he'll show you what you need to do to get it right he'll show you what you need to go to get it right he will be your Lord and your God and he'll take care of you praise God let me let me share this with you in our close you know the scripture says in the book of Proverbs chapter 3 says honor the Lord with your substance oh boy some of y'all like oh I was enjoying you you finish talking about money honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruit of all your increase social your barns be filled with plenty and your precious your burst burst forth with new wine and I said now Lord how am I gonna honor you with money or my possessions or with what's valuable to me how am I gonna honor you with that he's the same way on your your mother and father huh give me the authority to speak into your life concerning those things that you possess and you value oh and obey me I said okay so I got up on the pulpit we were in our chapel and we were having a meeting and I learned a couple of things number one not to do it in the pulpit do it at home and I said Lord what would you have me to give in the offering tonight I heard ten thousand dollars and I said Satan I said Satan I bind you ten thousand dollars I said was that me was that God was at the devil God said answer I said well it wasn't me because I didn't have that figure in my head said number two it wasn't a devil because he wasn't really he's not really excited about me doing anything that's going to cripple him I said God not even money will stand between me honoring you but then I noticed something I wrote the ten thousand dollars check out and I put it in the bucket and they were white buckets at that time and I kept my eye on that bucket and then they stacked the bucket I'm like I know number 15 I see the Lord show me something cuz as I was going around talking about I'll honor you he's gonna say well I'm gonna see to what degree see not even money stuff things when I stand between me a thing won't be first cash can't be first a career can't be first because when God is first I'm gonna make ministry decisions and not career decisions when God is first I want you to examine your life because it's easy to you know to float around stage like this Lord we honor you give ten thousand dollars because I'm telling you it's only your investment in people that will be transferred in heaven your car is not gonna go with you but your investment in lives will what's the degree of your honor is God really first place in your life or just in your speech I honor him tonight he's my king I said, "I honor him tonight. He's my king." The Bible says that my king is the king of the Jews. He's the king of Israel. He's the king of righteousness. He's the king of the ages. He's the king of heaven. He's the king of glory. He's the king of kings. And he's the lord of lord. That's my king. And I wonder if you know him tonight. My king is a sovereign king. No means of measure can define his limitless love. He's enduringly strong. He's entirely sincere. He's eternally steadfast. He's immortally graceful. He's impurely powerful. He's impartially merciful. Do you know him tonight? My king is the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He's God's son. He's the sinner's savior. He's the sinner piece of civilization. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He's the loftiest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosophy. He's the fundamental doctrine of truth theology. He's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient savior. I wonder if you know him today. He supplies strength for the weak. He's available for the tempted and the tried. He simplifies his and he saves. He strengthens and he sustains. He guards and he guides. He heals the sick and cleanse the leopards. He forgives sinners. He discharges debtors. He delivers the captives. He defends the feeble. He blesses the young. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the age. He rewards the diligent and he beautifies the meager. Oh, I wonder if you know him tonight. He's the key to knowledge. He's the wellspring of wisdom. He's the doorway of deliverance. He's the pathway of peace. He's the roadway of righteousness. He's the highway of holiness. He's the gateway of glory. Do you know him tonight? Well, well, his life is matchless. His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting. His love never changes. His word is enough. His grace is sufficient. His reign is righteous and his joke is easy and his burden is life. I wish I could describe him to you tonight. Yes, he is indescribable. He is incomprehensible. He is invincible. He is irresistible. You can't get him out of your mind. You can't get him off your hand. You can't outlive him and you can't live without him. Oh, hallelujah. Well, well, the Pharisees. The Pharisees couldn't stand him, but they found out they couldn't stop him. Pilate couldn't find any fault in him. Herod couldn't kill him. Death couldn't handle him. And the grave couldn't hold him. That's my king. That's my king. And I honor him tonight. And I give him praise tonight. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lord. He is a bomb of Gilead. He is the Rock of Ages. He is my Lord and my Savior. And he is first place in my life. Somebody shout and give him praise in his life. When God is first, nothing will be able to defeat you. Nothing will be able to bring you down because he'll take care of you. God bless you. I love you. God's first. (audience cheering) [BLANK_AUDIO]