Creflo Dollar - The Best Is Upon You
Creflo Dollar: Hello, I'm Creflo Dollar and thank you for joining us for today's broadcast. Now, we are literally just weeks away from our annual Grace Life Conference, we call it "The Reunion". This week, I've been sharing with you why you should attend this Grace Life Conference and some of the things that you can expect when you show up at this Grace Life Conference. You know, Grace Life is important because it's designed to bring practicality to the life that God wants us to live through his grace, making his Word not just something we do, but transforms us into who we are and who we are to become.
Now, listen, it is an amazing thing that when we come to Grace Life Conference, you're gonna be joined with like-minded believers of the message of grace. You know, sometimes you think, you know, something's wrong with me or did anybody else see this? Has anybody else ever gone through this? Grace Life allows you to encounter people, to have fellowship, and develop, even, relationships as you discuss life, as you discuss what it means to live the grace life.
This conference is going to teach you how to live abundantly blessed in this life of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we make Jesus everything. I mean, Jesus is literally our everything. It's important to attend because what happens is you get in an atmosphere where you're hearing that Word and it's like jumping in a pool. You're so surrounded by the Word of God and the Spirit of God, and in that atmosphere God begins to speak to you about certain important, vital issues of your life and shows you what Jesus has already done in those areas.
So, it's important that we don't neglect the message of the gospel. It's important that we know that grace is not just a curriculum, it's just not a subject matter, grace is a person. So, you're literally gonna leave the conference with a closer, more intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, today we're gonna hear from Michael Smith and Bishop Clarence McClendon and also Inky Johnson. Now, by the time this program ends, you will be fully charged and ready to face any challenge you encounter. Are you ready? Get ready. I'll be right back after this message.
Man: Wow. I mean, it's such an enlightening thing to know that the love of Christ and what he's done and just his love and just the anointing and I guess, the corporate anointing of just being in one place with like believers and those who are hungry and who are thirsting for the Word because he said if you thirst for it, that, you know, he will give us what we're thirst for. And I just tell anyone, "If you come to this conference, you will get what you need," you know, because God, he will meet you here, you know. Of course, we know that he lives on and relies on inside of us, but, you know, just being in the midst of others, you know, like believes is just such an awesome and powerful thing.
Creflo Dollar: Hold on to your seats, your hat, your wig, whatever you need to hold on to because up next we have Michael Smith, Bishop Clarence McClendon, and Inky Johnson. And I'm telling you now, hold on to it. Don't say I didn't tell you. I'll see you in a minute.
Michael Smith: And then Peter got hungry and on top of a rooftop Jesus said, "Hey, buddy, check that out". And down come all these crab legs, scripts, right? They all coming down. Some ribs and some light bread and some coleslaw, and it comes down. And a voice he recognizes says to him, "Get up, Peter. Break the law of Moses". And Peter says, "No, you're tricking me. No, I've been fooled so many times about, 'Who do you say that I am?' I'm not falling for that. Ha ha ha. Very funny. No unclean food has ever come out into this mouth. And not only that, you telling me to do something? Look, you got me out here crazy. I'm out here, I got no ground. There's no scripture I'm even standing on. I've gone past Malachi. I'm just standing with you and I never even saw you eat anything that wasn't in line with the scriptures".
And whatever this voice is, the alarm clock, "I bind you, Satan, in the name of Jesus," and Jesus kept telling him, "Eat it". And then there's a knock at the door and Peter says, "Who is that"? And they says, "Some Gentiles, and they want you to come to their house and break bread with them". "What"? And the voice says, "Go". "But what about the scripture"? "Go". "But you didn't say that in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John". "Go". And with trepidation he goes and he stops at the door and he says, "You know it's against the law of Moses for me to come in this house. But what I just heard on a rooftop tells me that with no authority other than what God has just spoken, I'm gonna step into it," and power confirms.
But there's a problem. He's got to go back to James and explain that he has no scriptural basis and no Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John basis. And James says, "We heard that you went in with men who were unclean". And he says, "I know, but Jesus just told me we have a false idea about people. We think the Jews are the only one who belong to God. And the same voice that talked to me on that beach when he told me to leave my nets just told me that's a wrong idea". Based on what? And they go in the scripture and they find, "Well, what about this"? "I guess that backs it up. But what about that"? "Yeah, but what about this"? "Yeah, okay. That's true, but what about an everlasting..." "Yeah, I know. But what about this"?
And they argue the scriptures and then they have to say, "The scriptures don't give us a clear answer, but if we're asking ourselves, based on what we know of God, based on what we feel about Christ, do we feel that Christ honestly cares less about people who are not Jewish than he does about Jews? Do we really believe that about him? No, we don't believe that about him and guess what we're going to do? Even though we have no sidewalk, even though we have no visual example, we are going to allow God to be revealed through the person of Christ and step deeper into an idea than we've ever known before". And Peter is like, "Huh, I'm on the front edge. I'm on lead edge. I'm a revelator," but then the man of the scripture, the Hebrew of the Hebrews, the Pharisee of the Pharisees, blameless touch as concerning the law.
"Anytime I broke it, I knew exactly what animal to light on fire to make sure it was fixed, and I am a man circumcised the eight day". The man of the written word, one day, on its way to Damascus comes face to face with the living Word and at first he thinks he understands it and it says he went immediately into Damascus and says, "Everything we thought was going to happen for Israel has happened. Everything we thought was gonna happen for Israel has happened. Everything we thought was going to happen for Israel has happened," and, "The Christ is here, the Christ is here, the Christ is here". He thought he understood because all he knew was the written Word. "I was so wrong. He is the Christ. This is where he sets up Israel. This is where he puts the Jews above everybody. This is where he builds the temple. This is where...it's happened".
But he missed one little part, because Jesus said, "I'm gonna have you go tell everybody what I'm showing you now and you're gonna tell everybody what I'm gonna show you in the future". And he comes back and Peter and them are like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. It's a trick. We know about splinter cells". He says, "No trick. I met who you met". "All right, cool, but maybe this isn't a good time". But Barnabas goes, "I see it. I'm with you".
And Paul goes away for three years. By the time he comes back, he's even loonier than he was before. Why? Because the living Word didn't just ask him to rethink his opinion of Jesus, he asked him to rethink everything he knew about God. He said, "Yeah, I've been really thinking, based on, you know, the living Word and who Christ is," and da da da. "I don't really think, like, we have a God and there's all these other gods, there's really only one God and the Gentiles have him too". And Peter was almost in until the people came from James and Peter said, "Yeah, Paul, I can't rock with you". And Barnabas was almost in until the people came James and Barnabas, "I don't really, I don't know. I mean, I don't really," and James said, "You know what"?
James started going to all Paul's churches and they get Paul's churches to refuse to let him come back. And in 2 Corinthians, they ask him, "Look, you can come back here, just bring a letter from James". "A letter from James"? "Just get James to say it's okay for you to come back". Paul says, "You are my letter. I mean, I did miracles among you. I mean, you need a letter that proves God is with me? You are the letter". They said, "Look, we don't want to be in the middle of it. Sort it out with James". Last line. The problem is revelation, trajectory revelation, not just crazy revelation, but revelation that follows the trajectory from the Law to the prophets, from the prophets to the gospels, from the gospels revelation that's consistent with where the arrow is shooting, it flows easier in an individual than it does in institution.
Inky Johnson: I would go to discipleship, I would go to rehab for my arm, I would go to my different classes, and my father would be with me. So, I had a mother that came up, just to preface it, I had a mother that was crazy about God. In church Sunday, Monday, whenever they would let her in, she in there. My father, he didn't really wanna hear that, because he had a mother that he lost as a teenager and then he had me when he was 16, and his mother was all he ever had. And so, when he lost his mother, and then something happens to his son who was, at the time, prized possession, my son gonna make it, my guy, this is my dude, Ink gonna do it, and then something happens, it's almost a shot to the ego. And every single day he would take me to everything, except discipleship. He would never go in. He would stand outside of the room.
I'll be like, "Pop, you wanna come in and hear the Word"? "No, Ink, I'm cool. I'm gonna stand out here". And I would have to jump on a jet almost every single week and go from Knoxville, Tennessee to Rochester, Minnesota. When I would go from Knoxville, Tennessee to Rochester, Minnesota, who else was on the plane was Mitch, the chaplain, the pastor, and I would see him with my father. But I'll be like, "Boy, that's a hard nut to crack. I don't know what Mitch think he doing, that discipleship ain't gonna work over there. That ain't gonna work, Mitch, I'm telling you". And every single night, me and my roommates, we were routine, we were athletes.
And so, from the time we came on campus to the time we left, we were routine. Wake up a certain time, work out a certain time, go to class a certain, we were routine. And so, even when my father came in the house, it was still a certain level of routine. We would pray around the same time. I'm talking about every single day. And my father was with me until one day he went into the training room and, I'm talking about, my father 6'3", 250, and I literally watched the stress of the moment take him down to where my father was literally walking around and he was humpbacked from the adversity, opposition, and stress of the moment. I watched, when he walked in our door, walked up strong, upright. Then I watched him halfway through the journey of the first month and my father's back was leaning over.
And when I would go get rehab on my arm, he would go in and sit on the training table and he would say, "Man, can I get a heat pack on my back"? They would put a heat pack on his back, they would stretch him, until one day he laid on the table, he was like, "Man, can I get a heat pack on my back"? They put a heat pack on his back. They took that one off. He said, "Can I get another one"? They said, "We're not sure if you need another". He was like, "Please give me another one. My back is tight". They put another one on his back. They took that one up. He said, "Can I please get another one"? Because he was carrying a burden that wasn't his to carry in the first place. He was fighting a battle that wasn't his to fight in the first place.
And every single night my father would circle around and he would go to our rooms. "Hey, Ramon. You good"? "Yeah, Pops, I'm good". "Manuel, you good"? "Yeah, Pops, I'm good". And I'm on the side of my bed, I'm on my knee. I grew up with my grandma, right? My grandma used to get on the side of her bed and pray. I'm on the side of the bed and I'm about to pray. My father walks in, says, "Hey, Ink, you good"? I say, "Yes, sir, I'm good". And he goes to walk off and he comes back in the door frame and he said, "Yo, Ink". I was like, "Yes, sir"? He said, "Man, you know that God you pray to"? I was like, "Yes, sir". "So you know that God I take you to discipleship about"? I was like, "Yes sir". He said, "Man, if that God can help you handle the situation the way you handling it," he said, "Son, I want to give my life to Christ".
And my father got saved. My father had a wife and two daughters, our household got corrected. And so, cats come up to me every single week, man, and they say to me, "Hey, Ink, if you could change what happened to you, would you change it"? "Hey, Ink, you said you would never change what happened to you. If you could be in the NFL right now, making millions of dollars, like, you wouldn't change that? Like, man, you got paralyzed right on the hand. What about the atrophy"? I'm like, "Man, I wouldn't change it for nothing in the world". And they always say to me, "Why"? I'm like, bro, if I had to put it on a scale and weigh NFL contract and my father's salvation, we got the real contract. Yeah. Said it's long and it's rich. Adversity and opposition is a beautiful thing, man, because you never know who it can go on the impact.
Like, my family's lineage is changed as a result of some opposition and adversity that me and my family had to face, right? Like the good book says it, "And we know that all things work to the good of those who love the Lord, who are called according to his will and his purpose," right? My life verse, Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". James chapter 1, right? "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of any kind because the testing of your faith goes on to produce perseverance, and perseverance must finish its race so that we may be complete and lacking nothing". We got to go through it in order to become the individuals that God has called us to be.
Clarence McClendon: When God says to Abraham, "And in you shall all the nations of the earth and all the families of the earth be blessed," he wasn't just talking to Abraham, he was talking to Abraham and to Jesus. Come here, William. Quick. Stand right here. Stand right here. Stand right here. Stand right here. Stand right here. Stand right here. Prophet Chan, come here, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. Stand right here. Stand right here. Oh, Jesus help me.
Now, we were just told that when God made the promise, he's Abraham, he's Christ Jesus. That when God made the promise in Genesis 12, he wasn't just talking to Abraham. It's just not to Abraham and his seed, singular, capital S, where the promise is made and it does not say into his seeds, plural, but to his seed, singular, who is Christ. So, the promise wasn't made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Look at your neighbor and say, "He can read. He can read. He can read". The promise was not made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promise was made to Abraham and to Jesus, saying, "You are the two men through whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed".
The Jews shall be blessed in this covenant and the rest of the world shall be blessed in this one and this one will be absorbed in this one when this one comes into fruition and that one is fulfilled. Watch me now. So, he doesn't say, when God is speaking, I'll be God. This is not typecasting. We're just giving for an example, watch. So, he doesn't say, "And to you and in you shall all the nations of the earth, all the families", he says, "And in you".
So watch this. Isaac and Jacob, come here, Seth. Come here, pastor. Isaac and Jacob come into this covenant when they follow the faith of Abraham. Now, you don't see them. You see Abraham. But when they follow Abraham's faith, when they do what Abraham does, they get in on the covenant because they followed Abraham's faith. But if you follow Abraham's faith, you won't get in. Ain't nobody saying nothing to the preacher. I come into the covenant. Come here. Come here, preacher, come here. Come here. I come into this covenant, not by my performance. Yeah, y'all ain't saying nothing to me. I come into this covenant not by my performance, but when I believe on what God has done for me. In Christ Jesus, I get all the benefits, all the blessing.
Sit down. Do you see it? You getting it, mama? Oh, you get it. Lay your hands, lay your hands on somebody close to you, and ask, "Are you getting this"? Keep your hand on, I'm saying, are you getting this? Are you getting this? So, Isaac and Jacob get it on the covenant when they believe what God said to Abraham. Dr. Dollar and Sister Taffi and Bishop McClendon and everybody else, everyone say, "Everybody else," and everybody else get in on this covenant, not by our performance, but when we believe.