Creflo Dollar - Resting in the Arms of Jesus - Part 2
Now, listen to this very carefully. Under the old covenant, people would work first and then rest. Okay? Under the new covenant, you start with God's rest, and then your work will be empowered out of that rest. In other words, you learn how to rest in God, and then you work out of rest. And when you work out of rest, work out of depending on God, work out of trusting in God, your work will be empowered. 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 5 through 7. Let's look at that in the King James. 1 Peter 5, verses 5 through 7. So, the old covenant: work, then you rest. The new covenant: you start off resting and then your work is born out of rest. In other words, I'm gonna do what I do trusting God and I'm gonna do what I do depending on God.
You know, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna trust God. You know, I'm gonna believe God and some amazing things will begin to happen. 1 Peter, chapter 5, he says, "Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, but he gives grace to the humble". Now, I'm gonna call you humble for right now. And he says, "He gives grace to the humble". Alright, watch verse 6, so he said, "Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time".
So, now you're submitting yourselves unto God's plan; that's humility. Alright? Trying to do your own plan, that's a prideful man. He goes on and he says, verse 7, now, here he says, "Now if you're gonna humble yourself unto God, cast your care upon him". He doesn't leave it at that. He says, "If you're gonna be humble, cast your care upon him because he cares for you". So, this will authenticate your humility. A man that keeps his care and goes into self-preservation to take care of his own care, that is not a humble man. But a man who says, "I'm casting my care on God".
See, some people love to hang on to their care. Some people just love to worry. Some people are professional worriers. Worry is a negative meditation on the wrong thing. Spending your time thinking about the wrong thing all day as if you're thinking about the wrong thing is gonna change it any. It won't change it, but it will change you, age you, hurt you, cause dis-ease in you. And somebody, some people have been trying to discover the secret to long life, it's simple: peace. You do understand that right? You do understand, those of you who love drama, that you are entering into the death cycle? And those of you who carry care, you have turned on the death cycle?
Those of you who love the worry, you come, when you have dis-ease, when you're dis-eased in your soul, the disease enters into your body. Yeah. That's where a lot of cancers come from. It was no secret to me where, where my cancers came from. I pastor, but I can't use that as an excuse, just 'cause you pastor, you better, you gotta learn how to cast the care. For some reason, you just wanna keep it. "Oh, God, I've got experience. I know how to handle this".
Stop. Even if you've been successful at doing it one way, maybe God told you to do it one way, but see, God's not doing the same thing every week. The Bible says, he has many wisdom, many he calls it manifold wisdom, so, he's got a lot of ways of doing the same thing. He might heal somebody with spit one day, and the next time, he might just blow, and the next time, he might just wink. Don't be trying to get methods of how Jesus operates. But what do you do with people who they just carry the care, they won't let it go? I'm telling you, you've entered the death cycle. I'm telling you, I have a clear-cut revelation, it's real simple. If I want to enjoy a long life, I gotta keep my tongue from speaking evil. Slanderers.
You gotta stay out of that talk, and you gotta keep your mouth from telling lies. White lies or black lies, a lie is a lie. All of that produces care. Wonder how many of you came with a burden on your back, a care in your soul, sick and tired of being sick and tired. "I'm so sick and tired". You got that right. The death cycle is on, because if you wanna live long, you're gonna have to learn how to discover peace. At some point in your life, you got to say, "You know what? It'll be alright". 'Cause, can't nobody cause you to worry like folks you love. You do know that, don't you?
So, we're not talking about your deep, dark enemy from 20 years ago. We're talking about the ones you love. So, you better learn how to get peace with them. You gotta get away from this thing about, "Oh," y'all, remember this, "You ain't gonna embarrass me". See, it ain't about you. Your children 43. Church should not be a place where we come to absorb more drama. Church should be a place where we come to lay our burdens down, to cast our care on God, to say, "It's gonna be alright, that I'm not gonna be looking cross eyed at nobody, it's too stressful to have an enemy. It's too stressful to be mad at somebody. It's too stressful". You are killing yourself. "Well, I noticed you ain't hug me".
Well, go hug 'em! How you come to church and be stressed-out the whole time? "Because I don't like how they looked at me, or I don't like..." First of all, let's get this straight, ain't no perfect church nowhere on the planet, not nowhere on the planet. So, let's get that straight. The reason why there ain't no such thing as no perfect church is because ain't no such thing as no perfect people. I don't know why y'all keep leaving and coming and leaving and coming. You finding out what I'm saying is true. Ain't no "perfect," not nowhere. Ain't no perfect pastor nowhere, no perfect church nowhere, ain't no perfect bookstore nowhere, ain't no perfect traffic people nowhere, ain't no perfect quiet, no perfect, everybody gonna crack if not, ain't no perfect nothing. Amen.
Let it go. Let it go. It's gonna be alright. It's gonna be alright. When I'm walking through the lobby and some somebody got their kid, got chocolate all on their hands, and the kid all out there at the front light desk, and I'm trying to do something nice for, so we can have some, and the kid just putting it all over there, and mama just sitting there like she don't see the doggone kid putting chocolate everywhere. You sitting back there looking at us and like, "Will you get your child," and you're talking about that for two days. "Got dog it, some of these people need to watch they children".
Well, some of them don't watch they children, but thank God for soap and water and paint. I know it's true 'cause I'm talking about me. That's like, "Oh, get you". And you got, it was back in the day when the S-Curl was out. You just had a, you remember the S-Curl? And I just go hug somebody, had my glasses on, and I come out: one eye can't even see, the other one just, S-Curl-ed all up. Now, you know, you shouldn't have hugged me. You just, and then you want to sit down, my God.
When we were first moved in the dome and slide down and put your S-Curl all on the back of the seat. I can't preach 'cause I see your little spot. I used to be that anal. I stopped preaching one time and told, "Go in the bathroom because they done got glitter all on the floor and I put it on God and God's an excellent God, and he don't like glitter all over". God don't care about no glitter on no floor. That was just "cares," and now, if you wanna live long, you wanna live long? Ain't no secret. Pursue peace. Y'all laughing 'cause it was you too. Wasn't just me. Look at Psalms 55 and 22. Some of you used to get so irritated, you didn't even remember what was wrong.
Somebody speak to you, "Hey, how you doing? Hey, how you doing"? "I heard you, I heard you". They're looking at you, "She ain't saved. She don't know Jesus". And now, watch this, Psalms 55:22, "Cast thy burdens upon the Lord, and he shall sustain you: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved". What a great scripture, "Cast it on the Lord". So, part of my journey, now, is to learn how to, to say, "It'll be alright. It's just things kinda calm down here. You know what? It'll be fine. I don't know why, I don't know, I don't know the whole detail, I don't know, it'll be fine because I want to live long. I wanna live longer".
You understand what I'm saying? I don't wanna go until I'm done and until I want to. You know, the Lord said, "You can stay as long as you want to". I don't wanna, you know, when I'm not in this pulpit no more, it's not like, "Well he getting ready to go". Not until I want to. There's some things I wanna do. And one of the things I wanna do is to put what I want to be buried in before I leave. I don't wanna leave it up to relatives and funeral homes. I'm gonna go ahead and put on what I wanna put on, and y'all just freshen me up and throw me in a box, and we gonna do what we need to do. Okay, Joshua 24, and verse 13.
Now, let's look at the opportunity and what God was demonstrating in the Old Testament where rest is concerned. Joshua 24 and 13. He said, because we think he needs our labor. "Oh, that if God don't have our, my labor, he can't do nothing. If I ain't working, then God can't do nothing". How many you know, God don't need you to be who he is? Look at verse 13, "And I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and I gave you cities which you built not, and you dwell in them; and I gave you vineyards and oliveyards which you planted not. Do ye eat from those"? So, he he gave you stuff you didn't build. You eating from stuff you didn't plant. God is like, "When did I need you"?
Look at Deuteronomy 6:10 through 13. Yeah, you can trust God 'cause he can give you cities you didn't build. Glory be to God. I say that, Lord, he's working on some stuff right now you won't be responsible for. God Almighty is getting ready to do something in your life where you're not gonna have any choice but to lift your hands up and say, "I had nothing to do with this. I just trusted in God, and God did this for me. Hallelujah! I didn't build it. I didn't plan it. He did it. Hallelujah"! I'm telling you you can trust him.
Deuteronomy 6:10 through 13, "And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not and houses". I feel a house anointing in his room this morning. "And houses full". And I know that happens because I did it. I sold the house and left everything in the house. They had to do nothing but bring their clothes. And if they wanted them, there was a big bag in the garage, they could have got. I'm telling you, God will do that. He'll put it on people's hearts to leave a house that's full of good things. He knows how to talk to people that you gonna be dealing with. Just trust him.
"And he says, I gave them houses full of all good things which thou filledst not". And then he said, "Wells that were already digged, which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou planteth not". Now notice what he said here. Here's the key, "When thou shall have eaten and you're full; beware, lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee fourth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage". You know what he's saying? Don't forget to thank God when he does something for you. Don't go around talking about, "Well, I don't know, I don't know how this happened. I don't know what's going on".
You call the IRS and say I'm calling to pay my bill. They say, "Ma'am we can't find no record that you owe nothing". Don't sit on the phone for ten more minutes trying to get them to check something else. You hang that phone up real quick. They say, "I can't find nothing". You say, "Bye"! You don't even say, "Bye"! Click. Hallelujah! Click. Because I'm telling you, God is getting ready to do something that you won't be able to take credit for. Hallelujah! Just trust him. Believe him. Believe that he can, and believe that he will. You need to praise him in this place, I'm telling you. You need to praise him in this place. You don't need to wait until it's done. You need to start praising him like it's already done. You need to start thanking him, and you ain't seen nothing yet. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Now, now, now, now, now watch this. Watch this. I'm telling you, there's an anointing being released. He getting ready to show you just who he is. Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6 through 7, in the NLT. Philippians 4, verses 6 through 7, in the NLT. Now, now, watch this. Here it is again, "Don't worry about anything". Well, somebody said, "Well, if I'm not worrying, then what else can I do"? He said, "Instead of worrying, pray about everything. Don't worry about anything, pray about everything".
So, in place of worrying, pray. Tell God what you need. You know, sometimes we go around worrying about a need being unmet and hadn't even checked in with God. So, just say, "God, I need you to do... Can you... Lord, here what I need"? Tell God what you need, and don't wait until you see it, go ahead and thank him for all he has done. That's the life of depending on God. "Lord, I need this. Thank you," and get on up and keep it moving. That's a life of faith. But there's so much fear and intimidation in the world that you forget God. Don't forget God. "Well, I don't know if I believe like that". Well, "Houston, we got a problem," because believing to God is like gasoline is to your car; you got to have it to move.
"Well, I got an electric car". Well, it's like electricity to your car then. Your smart self. He says, "When you do that, then," listen to this, man, I believe this, "then you will experience God's peace". So, if nothing else, you get your peace, and a lot of stuff can get to you 'cause you got your peace. A lot of stuff being blocked-up 'cause you're not in peace. Peace is your most valuable asset. If it costs you your peace, it is too expensive. You got to hold on to this peace like it's breath.
"Then you'll experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace," watch this, "will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus". We need a guard 'cause out of your heart flows every issue of life. And if your heart is not being guarded with peace, that's impacting the harvest. The harvest. I guarantee you. You go look at your harvestless life and you will notice you also have a peaceless life. No, it's everything. That's why Jesus said, "Peace I leave you". Then, he said, "My peace". Jesus's peace can keep you emotionally stable when you're going through a rough time.