Creflo Dollar - Godly Living Obtained By The Power of God - Part 3
If you'll go with me to the book of Saint John chapter 15 verse 5, we have been talking about godly living by the power of God. And one of the things that we've been making clear is that instead of striving in our own strength to achieve this godly living, we need to learn how to yield to him, because this godly living is only gonna be produced by the power of God. It's not gonna be by somethin' that we bring to the table. It's gonna be by something that we're gonna yield to God, and through that yielding to God, he is going to give us the power needed to live that godly life.
And so, it's important to distinguish between tryin' to serve God versus being used of God. And so, we need to kind of think about that. We're tryin' to serve God, and what God would prefer is that we yield to him as instruments. You know, instruments, somebody has to take authority to blow the trumpet. Somebody's gotta take authority to yield the scaffold. Somebody's gotta take authority to play the harp. For the Bible says we are instruments to yield our members unto God. Quit letting the devil play you, and allow God to be responsible for those areas of your life.
And so, we wanna continue to talk today, and today we wanna continue the series "Godly Living by the Power of God" by saying that while salvation is of God, salvation is through Jesus Christ, so also is godly living, which is of God. It is through Jesus Christ. And so, I wanna set the picture of what it looks like to live through Jesus Christ, to live by Jesus Christ, to live trusting Jesus Christ, because that's how it's gonna happen. Godly livin' is not gonna be somethin' that, really that's achieved. Godly living has to be somethin' that you receive through your submission to the power of God, through your trusting in Jesus Christ. But it's gonna be through Jesus.
In fact, the Book of John chapter 14:6 says that no man comes to the Father except by Jesus Christ. You can't even get to the Father without trusting Jesus. You can't, so what does it look like? What's the picture looking like, a life being lived through Jesus Christ? Well, I wanna start off just sharing five or six scriptures before I make my point here, because I'm gonna show you how the Holy Spirit now is gonna assist in this godly living and how life, it's not a sum total of you restraining yourself from the flesh. And that's what a lot of people think. "As a Christian, I'm not gonna be successful unless I can restrain myself. I gotta hold myself from cussin' somebody out. I gotta restrain myself from bad living".
That's not what this is all about. It's gonna be by the power of God, and I gotta calm down. I'm excited. I feel like I'm talkin' a million miles a minute tryin' to get, but this is something. We been tryin' to achieve godly living. We, through the flesh, have been tryin' to earn it. We've been tryin' to get it, and what happens? We start off pretty good, then we fall back. And we start off pretty good, and then, God'll show you how to live this life, but it has to be lived through Jesus Christ.
Saint John chapter 15 verse 5, I'll read all of these in the NLT, and let's just kind of milk this just at the beginning and to get on the same page here. He says in verse 5, "Yes, I am the vine", Jesus is speaking. He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches," okay? Turn to your neighbor and say, "Hello, branch". Now, you gotta understand, the branch cannot produce anything. The branch, it what is produced by the vine appears on the branch, okay? And so, Jesus said, "I'm the vine, you're the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing".
And that's typical today that many people continue to try to live life apart from Jesus. They try to get Jesus out of the way, excuse Jesus, but godly living is not going to be possible apart from Jesus. And he tells you that. So, if you're tryin' to live a godly life but it's apart from Jesus, it's not by Jesus, it's tryin' to live a life without trusting him, it's just not gonna work. If you're tryin' to live a godly life through your self-discipline, your self-performance, your intellect, all of that, it's just not gonna work. You have to make your mind up that "every day my declaration of complete dependence will declare that I can't do this without you, Lord Jesus".
And then we move over to John 6. John 6 verse 57, let's look at this just to share these scriptures so you can look at 'em. I mean, I think if you come to church, you ought to at least look in the Bible, right? He says, "I live", why, why? "Because of the living Father", this is Jesus talking, "who sent me", I live because of the living Father who sent me, "in the same way", Jesus said, that I live because of the Father, he says, "anyone who feeds on me will live because of me". Anyone who feeds on now, I'm gonna show you that feeding on him is takin' your issues to him, trusting that he'll take care of it, okay? Anyone that feeds on me will live because of me. And I'm tellin' you, there it is again, it's through Jesus that we have this godly life and this godly living.
Come on, let's go to Galatians chapter 2:20. Galatians chapter 2:20. It is through him. He says, "My old self", that's the self before you made Jesus your Lord, "my old self has been crucified with Christ". That old you, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me". Say out loud, "Christ lives in me". Say it again, "Christ lives in me". See, if you are born again, it is Jesus now who moved in, and he occupies you. He lives in you. "So I live in this earthly body", how do I live in this earthly body? "By trusting in the Son of God," I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God. This is complete dependence God. And your declaration every day that "I depend on God, I live today by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And I'm living today as a result of me trusting in the Son of God".
How many of you believe that? I live, say that: "I live today by trusting in the Son of God". So no matter what you face today, you're trusting in the Son of God, right? Hey, get rid of this thing, "Well, I'm not gonna have no problems, I'm not gonna have no trouble, I'm not gonna have no situations". May I please be blunt? You are. Stuff is going to happen. Life is going to bring things your way, but you live by trusting God, amen? Somebody says, "Well, you know, if I pray and if I do this", you can pray, you can be holy, holy, you can be all of that and you still gonna have trouble. You're still gonna be confronted with something. That's life. Don't get all upset and "Oh my god, nobody knows the trouble I've seen". Everybody do.
In this world, you'll have tribulation. They that live godly shall suffer persecution. But what he says is "I put you in the middle of life and all of its ups and downs, but if you will live your life trusting Jesus, it's gonna be a'ight". It's gonna be all right. All right? Look at Philippians chapter 4:13, and this is interesting here. I wanna put a little detail with this. Philippians 4:13. He says, "For I can do everything through", who? "Who gives me strength". Now, most people think, "Well, I can do everything through Jesus that gives me strength. Well, you know, through Jesus I'm gonna be able to do all the things I wanna do and all the things I desire to do".
That's how we most of the time interpreted that scripture. But I need to give you the setting here. The apostle Paul wrote this while he was in jail. Now, I had the privilege, he was in Rome in jail when he wrote this, and I had the privilege of actually visiting that in Rome, and I walked in that, actually, it was a pit, and it was dark and damp, and I wanted 'em to kind of cut the light off so I can get ahold of it, 'cause like, okay, okay, that's good, turn it back on, and there was a little hole at the top where they would lower his food down to him, and in that pit and, by the way, when you walk into that prison, they have the names of who was gonna be killed that day.
And of course, Paul was, and he wrote this from that setting. He didn't write this as he was passing the finish line for the Olympics. He didn't come through and say, "Yes, God, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me". He didn't write this after he got a $100,000 promotion. "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me". He didn't write this after he obtained great victory. "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me". But in the middle of a damp, dark prison, awaiting the day that he would be put to death. He wrote, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me".
Number one, he said, "Through Jesus, I can get through this". And through Jesus, we can get through whatever life brings to us. No matter what happens to you today, what happen to you this week, through Jesus you can get through it. Secondly, when you have Jesus, you can be content, not complacent, but you can be content. In other words, you can be content where you are, knowing that Jesus is gonna work somethin' out for it to get better, amen? I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. That means you keep your eyes on Jesus, not the circumstances, and you'll get through it. He wrote this because he said, "Hey, man, keep your eyes on Jesus. Yeah, you're in the middle of a circumstance. Yeah, you're in the middle of a heated situation. Yeah, it hurts right now. Yeah, you're told you're gonna die. But don't get your eyes on the circumstance.
Get your eyes on Jesus, and he will keep you content and through him, bring you to a better day, amen". And then finally, Jesus will bring me through how? By trusting him. By trust, so, we're living a life where it was like, "Jesus, I'm gonna trust you". And so, when situations happens, you don't panic. You don't give up. You don't quit. You say, "Okay, I still trust you, God. Had a good day yesterday, hallelujah, but today I'm facin' some stuff, and I'm trustin' you today like I trusted you yesterday. So whether good or bad, I'm gonna trust you. I live my life trusting you. You are my source. You are my strength and I completely depend upon you".
Isn't it good to have somebody that's trustworthy, amen? Somebody that's worthy of your trust. Romans chapter 8:3. Romans chapter 8:3. Just there are three more. I just wanna show you, this is all through the scripture. He says, "The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do". What did he do? "He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins".
And so, Jesus says here's what, I mean God says, "Here's how I'm gonna deal with this. I'm gonna send my Son in a body and he is going to give you a free gift of forgiveness, and through the sacrifice of his body, he's gonna take care of that sin nature. He is going to do what you cannot do". No man could have done was Jesus was sent to do. I tell you, he is trustworthy, amen? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15:57. 1 Corinthians 15:57. He says, "But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death", I just showed you how. Thank God, he gives us victory over sin and death, how? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. So far, everything we have access to is through Jesus. Even the Father is through Jesus.
2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14. Everything we have is through Jesus. Everything. And you wonder why he's under attack. You wonder why people are just saying, "You know, forget a Jesus, and all this". No, no, no, everything we have is through Jesus. He says, "But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ's triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume". Everything we do, everything we have, it happens through Jesus.
Philippians chapter 1:11. Somebody says, "Okay, Pastor, we got it, we got it". No, I wanna make sure you got it. When you get home and forget it, I want you to pull these scriptures back up and remind yourself it's through Jesus. He said, "May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation, the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ". The righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ. The righteous character that is produced in our lives, but it's produced by Jesus Christ. It's his power that produced that righteous character.
See, you have to wake up every day trusting that God is producing character in your life. Every day, you've got to depend, "God is producing character in my life. I will be better today than I was last week," praise God, why? Not because of your program of disciplining yourself to have good character, but "I am trusting God to produce good character in my life". See, all of this, everything concerning you is gonna be by the power of God through Jesus Christ, through his Son, Jesus. And then finally, Ephesians 6:10. Ephesians 6:10. Through Jesus Christ. He says, "A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might".
I am not sufficient of myself for strength, but he is. And I am dependent on him for strength. And when you feel like you're weak, Paul said, that's when I'm strong. Because it's not the strength that's in him, it is the strength that's in Jesus Christ. Not the strength in you, but the strength that is in Jesus Christ, amen? Everybody got that? All right. Let's start. Now, based on these scriptures, based on what we have seen, it is impossible to live the true godly life that is under grace apart from Jesus. Can't do it. Can't do it. And I've met people who, they give me the steps. They know the five this and they know the ten that. Can't do it. Gotta have Jesus. You gotta have Jesus. You can't even get born again without him. Can't do it. You have to do it through Jesus.
Now, the popular idea that Christ goes alongside of the believer to lead, that's very popular. God goes on, God goes, he's by my side. It's kind of, like, come on, Jesus by my side. Seriously? That's popular amongst believers, but it doesn't adequately describe God's presence and work in our lives. Please hear this. He is in us, not merely with us. He's in us, not just with us. And we get the idea that he's with us, and our job is to be yielding to him. To yield means to allow him to go ahead of us and then we follow him. We've got the idea that, "No, you're with me. This is what I wanna do. Catch up, Jesus, so you can make it happen".
That's not how that works. He's in you. Say out loud, say, "God, he lives in me. He's in me. He's in me", praise God. He lives in me. And so, this godly life is not imposed upon the believer from the outside. You're not gonna live godly from somethin' that's gonna flow from the outside in. Glory to God. This is going to flow from the inside. It's gonna flow within and it's gonna flow within us as naturally as a water spring flows. There is something goin' on in us, and it is by the Holy Spirit.
So, what I'm about to do is to take familiar scriptures that we just kind of passed by 'cause we didn't understand how it worked, and I'm gonna show you how the work is going on in you, what's happenin' in you, the work that's happening in you, the innermost being of the believer and what did God say about what's happening in you, and what does it mean. You ready? Good journey. John chapter 7 and verse 37. John chapter 7 and verse 37. Let's look at it in the NLT. John 7:37 through 39. I'll read the whole thing, and then we'll break it to pieces. We need to find out what all this stuff means. Verse 37 says, "On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, 'Anyone who is thirsty'", here's what he shouted, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me"!
Watch Jesus, anyone who's thirsty may come to me. Next verse: "Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scripture declares, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.' (When he said 'living water,' he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him". So the day you got born again, the day you started believing, the Holy Spirit was given to you. "But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)"
Now, let's break this down, verse 37. So, once the Son of God would be back at the right hand of the Father, the scripture says that the Spirit would be poured forth. Now, Jesus is speaking in verse 37 about how one can enter into that fullness. Now, it's real, real simple. Watch this. It's subtle, but it's simple. He says, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. In other words, if anyone has a spiritual need, bring that one to Jesus. "If anybody's thirsty, come to me". If anybody's got a spiritual need, bring that to Jesus.