A Baptism of Courage - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

thank you thanks thanks nice to see you that that camera bar back there i thought it was a tennis net and i thought man we got tennis in here that's awesome that would make some people very happy all right nice to see i i get here right now in this season about every other week so i'm sure you weren't here last week but it's nice you showed up when i was here so it's good to have you and bless our online community we're so thrilled to be able to have friends and family really around the world so we honor and bless you as well well well well i do have some funny things to read and that seems to be actually in the first service today i just kind of wanted to do that the entire time for about 30 minutes and sometimes it's just that kind of a day and i'm not guaranteeing anything today i just want you to know and and they're all old so just pretend they're new actually i have one new one a man and his wife his mother-in-law went on a vacation to the holy land while they were there the mother-in-law passed away the undertaker told him you can have her shipped from home for five thousand dollars or you can bury her here in the holy land for a hundred and fifty dollars the man thought about it and told him he'd just soon have her shipped home the undertaker asked why would you spend five thousand dollars to ship your mother-in-law home when you it would be wonderful to have her buried here and spent only 150 dollars the man replied a man died here 2 000 years ago he was buried here three days later he rose from the dead i just can't take that chance [Applause] i'll give you another chance a baptist minister a baptist preacher went to see a member of the community invited him to come to church on sunday morning the man was a producer of fine peach brandy and he told the preacher he'd love to attend his church if the pastor would drink some of his brandy and admit it in front of the congregation in kindness the preacher agreed had a small glass sunday morning came and the man came to church the preacher recognized him from the pulpit and said i see mr jones is here with us this morning i want to thank him publicly for his hospitality this week and especially for the peaches he gave me and the spirit in which they were given [Applause] my friends up all right three friends from the local congregation were asked when you're in your casket and your friends and congregation members are mourning over you what would you like for them to say daniel said i would like them to say i was a wonderful husband a fine spiritual leader and a great family man roger commented i'd like them to say i was a wonderful teacher and a servant of god who made a huge difference in people's life frank said i'd like for them to say look he's moving [Applause] no i'm gonna do one more i've never i've never done this one before this this is this is yeah yeah and and uh this is yeah socialism you have two cows the state takes one gives it to your neighbor who doesn't have a field to put it in [Applause] communism you have two cows the state takes both gives you some milk then the cows die due to neglect fascism you have two cows the state takes both sells you some milk the cows die in the war nazism you have two cows the state takes both and shoots you this this one is to offend everybody within reach then the cows are killed in the war traditional capitalism you have two cows you sell one by a bull the herd multiplies the economy grows you sell them and retire on the income i have the whole front row is interceding for me right in the nuremberg trials one of the men on trial was asked the question how did how did you get the people of germany to buy into your your deal was i'm paraphrasing and they said it was easy it has nothing to do with nazism it has to do with fear can control people if you can get them to be afraid and the tool that the enemy has been using ever since i mean way back to the garden i mean it goes out far back but there's been an intensity level that has increased dramatically in the last 18 months and the effort to control the values and thoughts the conduct of people through fear is extraordinary um i'm not a fan of socialism i have friends who are but i'm not one of them socialism is communism in diapers it wins and i'm i'm not looking for any applause or any you know support i'm i just want to make some statements and knowing that it'll sit well of some and it won't sit so well with others but just at least we can maybe think socialism um has an over emphasis on government at the expense of human responsibility humanism is the religion of socialism socialism worships at the shrine of human rights over response human responsibility and human rights are valuable but they never can exceed human responsibility or you end up in a moral decline and it's vital that you and i understand what's at hand and to we battle not against flesh and blood the goal is not to incite some sort of activist movement where we you know launch verbal abuses towards people who disagree that's nonsense because that's playing on the devil's field when you play on the devil's field you can't win we can only win on his field and it's the beauty the wonder of the gospel the gospel has answers and solutions for every single human dilemma there are people in their heart of hearts who want to succeed but don't know how and so out of fear they buy into a system that promises them bread tomorrow here's the i'm going to talk just a few minutes on this and then we'll actually open the bible and talk about something else so i'll give you a chance to get cleansed by the word and all of you that are hurt by my words you'll recover i promise if if somebody's in need over here if i take your car and i give it to somebody who doesn't have a car me as government calls that compassion but it's not compassion until i give my car there's many things that slide under an illusion of compassion and justice and they're actually the opposite and my burden for this hour for this day is that as a people we could be discerning and understanding what's actually happening if you take the last 40 years and you look at history in the united states and in the nations around the world you'll see a slow steady march towards a one world government i'm not saying we're close to it i'm just saying we're closer than we've ever been here let me just if i haven't offended everyone yet give me a moment give me a moment i'm i'm trying i'm trying yeah all right so with the mark of the beast you can't buy or sell or do business and without a vaccine they want you to not be able to buy or sell or do business now i'm not opposing vaccines i'm just saying this is an interesting dress rehearsal for a bigger issue in the future and we've just got to be careful what we buy into not everything you buy into today that will bless you let me rephrase it some of the things you buy into today will cost you tomorrow wisdom the lord said the bible says the lord prospers his servant he adds no sorrow to it so when the lord does it there's no balloon payment does that make sense there's not like oh no when is something bad going to happen he doesn't work that way when he imparts the blessing to somebody it comes with sustainability in its in its system socialism is funded by entitlement and there are many of us in this room that would be 100 opposed to socialism but have married the spirit of entitlement and what you have going on on the inside is actually what creates the room for socialism on the outside and it's walking with that kind of wisdom that resolve to honor the lord with everything you are everything you have in a way that is responsible the lord is so interested in increase that when the guy who had the talent in scripture you remember the five talents of two the one he says you could have at least put it in a bank and gained interest everything was about increase it's not about what you were given it's about what you produce and i realize that that can be taken to an extreme where we create a works uh oriented environment and i i'm not interested in that but it's still true it's still true that god rewards according to productivity as we've stated a number of times i know i've heard chris do it i've done it a few times as well that the promised land is an interesting place because it wasn't where they went and sat on a beach sipped iced tea and waited for jesus to return they actually had to go in in the wilderness they picked up the man off the ground they followed a cloud not much else to do in the promised land they had to plant crops they had to harvest they had to work with herds they had to do all that stuff the point is is we are never more fully alive than what than when we are walking in our divine assignment producing things for his glory that is what we are wired for now it's the privilege of a of a culture to care for those who are disabled especially war veterans who cannot hold down a normal job anymore it is our responsibility to care for them those who are mentally disabled cannot function it is the privilege i'm not poo pooing all uh government stuff but i'm just saying socialism is like fire i think i already said it it's like the fire of proverbs it never says enough it never says enough there is no end to its increase of power and this is where as a people first of all we pray secondly i've heard christians say forgive me because this is probably something most all of us have said but i've heard people say well there's no no political leader is my savior well i don't know one christian that ever thought of any political leader as ever being able to save them but unfortunately that statement is usually not always but usually made by somebody who doesn't want to vote or they just don't want to take godly counsel for how they vote [Applause] all right i need a drink before i finish this so we have responsibility to understand to articulate now listen carefully righteously resist learn how to intercede and pray to understand what the challenges are to make sure that it's fixed in here first i uh i have uh the highest status you can get with the airline that i fly with they don't even tell you how you can get it there are statuses that you get by many miles but there's one status they don't even tell you about you have to be invited i've been invited i've been in there for years i'm i'm thankful and uh sometimes what happens is i will land late somewhere and there's a short time between where i landed and where i've got to get and they will meet me right off the plane with a sign they said you're mr johnson yes come with me they'll take me down onto the tarmac they put me in a mercedes they drive me to the next gate it's wonderful [Applause] until i'm really late on a flight i've got a short time and they're not there is anybody catching the picture here all of a sudden a gift they gave gave me is one that i expect i've been i've been treated rudely on a plane once and i thought i just need to pull out my status card to show them what they do who they just talk to one guy oh goodness i won't tell you what happened he just he just was extremely rude and he said you're no different than any other pastor and i said we'll see [Laughter] [Applause] then i think he looked on his chart to see who i was and my status and that guy could not do enough for me the rest of the fight to take care you know you you get into these places of favor and blessing and increase and it creates an appetite that if you're not careful you can actually think you earned it now i could say i'll i have that status because we spent this amount of dollars and uh and that's how the airline takes care of those who spend that much money because of all the flying that i do there's a lot of arguments you can make in your head for why you deserve something and it's that entitlement that has actually created the spirit of socialism in the land and if we can deal with it here we'll be positioned correctly to deal with it out here does that make any sense all right all right that's all i'm [Applause] doing i love my bible yes i do i love my bible um our friends love their socialist government as long as they're being blessed but as soon as they say you can't leave your house for two weeks it's not as fun and there's there's something about control that we've got to be careful we don't succumb to and um yeah i'm i'm just i'm just deeply concerned it's what i talk to the lord about it's what i pray about and i pray that uh i was i did an interview on a tv program here a week or so ago and the guy that was doing the interview said if you could speak to the leaders of our nation it was a different country if you could speak to the leaders of our nation what would you what would you say to them and i said get a backbone get them back home go to the back [Applause] applause of any kind i'm looking for for thinking and responsibility um it amen um it's it's important that we know how we know how to recognize the root of something that's in the political system without picking up a political spirit and as soon as you do that you will get labeled you'll be called all kinds of names but people give labels so they can disqualify your voice and it's just going to take courage i feel like what the lord's wanting from us in this season is a baptism of courage to really pray in a new season so that's why don't you stand we're going to pray on that i let you get all cleansed and cleaned up from what i just said and then we'll get into the word see what happens here all right so uh lord i do pray for a true baptism of courage that you'd help us to live with wisdom and understanding to know the times the seasons that we are in and and what your response is to a given problem not just what we arrive at emotionally through our own frustration but true kingdom response that we can be builders and not just destroyers that we can be restorers and not just confronters i pray for this in jesus name amen amen all right go ahead and uh turn to somebody and tell them you really needed that all right [Applause] all right open your bibles if you would first samuel chapter 1 for samuel 1. now there are many who would say that um jesus didn't train his disciples in these kinds of things instead he taught them how to survive in existing governmental settings and that is that is absolutely true he taught how the employees should respond and the soldiers should respond and the slaves should respond and all that he taught them how to do kingdom in the environment they're in but i also remind you that he told them the kingdom of heaven is like 11. it is not 11 as a philosophy it is leaven as that which helps to redefine the environment that you're in he also said that we are light and that we are um salt and it's all all three of these elements affect their surroundings and so what the lord is wanting for us is to not raise up a political movement but instead to raise up a servant-hearted movement where we get into the systems and love people well and allow kingdom to truly bring about change i'm just trying to identify some of the things that i feel like that the enemy has he he has um he uses justice and compassion as false fronts for the for the real trojan horse that brings in this onslaught of demonic chaos and loss and so i i said i was done apparently i wasn't now i am all right [Applause] all right i may talk about this again i won't announce it ahead of time because i want to make sure you show up so it'll just be a surprise that's what it'll be i do believe that the the lord is giving us the opportunity the invitation if you will to give birth to a new season i believe i believe it's of the lord but i do believe it will take courage in prayer now we've talked about prayer more in the last year than probably any five years that i've been here i know that i've done it over and over again many of the team our sunday night meetings have been focused on prayer and it's not an accident it's uh tragic in some ways i wish i could erase everything everybody knew about prayer and start over because we've we've got it so confined to our religious activity that we've lost the fact that it's actually like breath it's breathing when he said pray without ceasing he's basically saying it's the same as breathing just do it all the time just make it the normal expression of who you are where you're in life all moments are good moments to pray and it's not special words it's not it's not that sort of thing it's it's not this professional sounding uh petition it is a communion with god that sometimes has words but i believe that the lord i feel like we're on the edge of it and it keeps standing over these edges i have intercedes praying for me just because i stand over the edge yes we're on the edge of a significant breakthrough in culture in the manifestations of revival in a way we've never seen before and i feel like i feel on the edge not quite in the place of transition women where you push but close to that point where we're about to get delivery to something that we've not yet seen before and it is it will require courageous kind of praying that is that for many is going to be foreign to you and so that's what i want to talk about not not in any kind of a you lack here or something just an invitation there's a story with hannah hannah is uh this woman um who's married uh who has no children and she wants children really bad and so let's just pick up the story in chapter one we'll just start with verse two i'm going to read quite a few verses so just follow follow along if you would please um and he had two wives the name of one was hannah the name of the other was panina and penang or penina however had no children but excuse me had children but hannah had no children um verse five but to hannah he would give a double portion for he loved hannah although the lord had closed her womb and her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable because the lord had closed her womb and so it was year by year she went up to the house of the lord she provoked her therefore she wept and did not eat verse eight then elkanah her husband said to her hannah why do you weep why do you not eat why is your heart grieved am i not better to you than 10 sons a question she never answered smart woman right there and hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in shiloh eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the lord and she being hannah was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the lord and wept in anguish then she made a vow and said to the lord of hosts if you will indeed look on the affliction of your made servant and remember me and not forget your maidservant but will give your maidservant a male child then i will give him to the lord all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon his head that's a nazarite vow and it happened as she continued praying before the lord that eli watched her mouth now hannah spoke in her heart but her only her lips moved but her voice was not heard therefore eli thought she was drunk eli said to her how long will you be drunk put your wine away from you hannah answered and said no my lord i am a woman of sorrowful spirit i have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink but i poured out my soul before the lord do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman for out of the abundance of my complaint in grief i have spoken until now last verse then eli answered and said go in peace for the god of israel grant your position a petition which you have asked of him this is um this is an extraordinary story and it underlines emphasizes to me the purpose behind persistent prayer because we have biblically i want to do this in a future date we biblically have mandates to pray once and don't ask again and we have mandates to pray and continue asking and both actually the one chapter apart jesus taught them both there's a purpose for each what i don't want to get into into the differences i do want to highlight this one here the purpose for persistent prayer in my thinking is one of two things there are demonic powers involved and that persistence helps to break that down the second is i need to be changed into the person that can handle and steward the answer well a lot of the things that we pray for if they were given to us immediately we would not manage them well we would not manage them well at all much of what we taste of the will of god in our life much of what we inherit or taste or actually experience is determined by what we've become much of what we experience in our walk with the lord the breakthroughs the answers to prayer the extraordinary events that take place in our life much of what we experience is determined by what we've become and that becoming takes place often in that kind of praying it's the kind of praying that you're embarrassed about but you just don't care enough anymore normally you'd be embarrassed it's the it's the kind of anguish of soul that it no longer matters how you appear to somebody else it's it's not it's not making a scene to get attention it's not that at all it's that i am so absorbed in that which god has put in my heart i've got to have breakthrough or i think i'll die you see that kind of praying throughout history if you've done any reading on some of the great revivals in history oftentimes people would come to that kind of moment in prayer they no longer care cared about anything at all they they didn't care if they ever ate again they never they didn't care they just didn't care about all these things that two days ago maybe really consumed their attention but at this moment in time the only thing that matters is that thing for which god has laid hold of my life and i will not settle for anything else and we have that kind of a moment here hannah doesn't know when her breakthrough will come we know that it's been years i would assume because of the way she's responding here that she has prayed the prayer to have children for many many years we know her competitor the other wife has had many so that we know it's it's years of barrenness i don't know how long i don't know what kind of prayer she prayed but it would be it would stand to reason that she's prayed this prayer before but something happened in this praying it was the old-timers would talk about this kind of prayers is i i was on the stretch in the picture is i was all laid out reaching for that which god has promised and there are many people uh those who know better than you would tell you you don't need to do that because it's already all yours and it's true i have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in christ it is all mine it is absolutely true ephesians 1 declares it john 16 declares it it is all mine the problem is it's in my account and not my possession and oftentimes what is withdrawn from my account that he has laid aside for me is not released to me until i actually become what is necessary for me to become to not blow it with that blessing that god has given me we've seen it throughout history look at the kings in scripture how many times did we see a king inherit the throne and then drive it into the ground within a few years of his of his reign what happened he wasn't he wasn't equal in character to the weightiness of his assignment and it is sure destruction when that takes place all of us have things in our heart that we've ate for i doubt there's a person in the room that has not prayed a big prayer a great thing that would happen in your lifetime that you would see in your lifetime that we would experience together and those are god-born prayers but great things don't generally come out of prayers of convenience there's something about costly praying i don't mean i don't mean drawing attention i don't mean that i don't mean i'm on my next day of fasting and i know i'm going to get i don't mean that i mean the kind that were it's it's you and the lord there's something about difficulty that helps you come face to face with the reality i really am in this to know him i'm not just in this to be a blessed person and difficulty separates those two groups of people some they're gone as soon as the blessings stop the glitter stops falling from the ceiling the you know the whatever it is the next thing that they're looking for to happen they're on their way to find another blessing but those who follow jesus when difficulty comes it's the time that we intensify the cry god you said you said and here she is praying things she can't even utter there was no words for she was just in anger her lips are moving but her heart is in deep deep anguish and she is she's late athletes will say i left it all on the field which means i gave 110 there's nothing else i could have done to help us win that game it's all out on the field and it's that kind of a praying we don't know if there was a crowd there we don't know if eli was even there the whole time he may have walked in after she was there for a while we don't know all we know is she put her all on the line and it was that kind of praying that positioned her for his kind of solution because here's the deal as mario marilla told us years ago she wanted a son god wanted a prophet and when though when she was willing to align with god's heart she got the breakthrough and that's what the anguish of soul does it puts you in a position like hannah hannah is now going to give back to god the very thing he gave to her at the age of five she takes samuel the son who came from this to the temple to be the prophet of the lord for israel extraordinary story yeah that's what abraham did he had to put isaac on the altar sometimes you have to take the very thing you ache for and realize i just want to be a part of what you're doing if i have to give it back i'll give it back i just want to be in the center of the work of god on the planet and i will put back into your hands the very thing you give to me it's it's the process of living abandoned to him it's the process of living on the stretch again in that place where sometimes it's not even words sometimes it's just the anguish the pain of the heart it doesn't mean we live in that place of of continued discouragement or whatever it's i'm not inviting people that i'm just saying pick your moments and when god has put that thing in your heart get before him and pour it all out on the field let it all be out there and lay hold of that which that which god has promised every one of us need those kinds of moments i don't think i don't think that's an everyday kind of praying i don't i i wouldn't i wouldn't count i wouldn't put that on you but i would say everybody needs that season in their life at some time where nothing else will do nothing nothing will satisfy nothing else will do oh my cry for you and for me is for baptism in courage is that is that backbone it's that backbone to stand when others don't stand it's the backbone that just says you know what i don't look like much of a winner right now but i've come too far to quit i must hold to what god has said and if i come to the end of my life and my cry was unfulfilled then i pray my children will pick it up and see it to fulfillment we all have a purpose for breakthrough in the earth the lord described us as salt and light and the kingdom is leaven to have impact and effect on surroundings it's not through political anger and that stuff it's it's by loving people well but moving intelligently and intentionally to bring about change all right that's probably enough you survived congratulations you all get the ice cream cone at the door chris will provide it for you [Music] all right let's stand together we're gonna pray what's that giving giving your orders what kind of ice cream you want yeah sorry chris sorry oh lord let's pray together for just let me hear you pray let's pray together for a a baptism in courage a courage a courage to be released over us as a people that affects our praying lift your voices [Music] yes lord great courage great baptism and courage god great baptism and courage god great baptism and courage father father i pray that you'd give us a fresh outpouring in the area of courage that as a people we could stand with the backbone that's not obnoxious but firm in in the kingdom principles you've revealed to us i pray that that they would be contagious and that you'd give us understanding to articulate well give us that issachar sons of israel our anointing that understand the day that they live in the seasons the times that we live in and i do pray that there would be in the prayer life of this church truly the birthing of a new season the turning of a page the turning of a page the turning of a page a new season begins i pray this for the honor of the name jesus i want to ask one question before we transition is there anyone here that has never made a personal commitment to the lord jesus christ it's what the bible calls to be born again it's actually to become a disciple is to turn away from the way you've done life to the way he would have you do life is to follow him to come to know him to love him there's a lot of movement i'd really appreciate if during these moments you would not move around because i don't want anyone who would respond to this to be distracted by your movement it's the most important moment of this day is this one right here i want to ask the question is there anyone here that would say bill i don't want to leave the building until i know that i have found peace with god that i truly have become a disciple of the lord jesus christ if that's you just put a hand up real quickly where you are because we're just going to take a moment to pray i don't want to miss you so way in the back thank you wonderful wonderful anybody else [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] anybody else real quick i know we have some online we've had so many people come to christ online it's been one of the most amazing things sometimes when we were uh forced to not be together i would sit here and watch if chris was preaching for example and i'd be on the youtube channel or bethel tv and watch the people that would come to christ extraordinary and we know that's that's true is there another one here back over here is another one wonderful yes there's another one over here thank you wonderful [Applause] beautiful another one right here [Music] wonderful so he was [Music] the last one was blessing somebody so i i just took the high five he's getting saved too all right that's fine that's good this is wonderful i bless all of you i'm gonna ask those there's at least three if not four that put your hand up that i saw i'm going to ask you to come up to the front right over here to my left and they're people that we know and trust that i just want to bless you that's all i want them to do and if you brought this person put their hand up you can walk with them down here church why don't you bless them as they come [Applause] come right over here

Channel: Bill Johnson Teaching (Official)

Views: 31,043

Rating: 4.9178643 out of 5

Keywords: bill johnson 2020, bill johnson, bill johnson sermons, bethel church, bethel.tv, miracles, bethel miracles, bill johnson ministry, BSSM, bethel, jesus christ, church, sermon bethel, holy spirit, bill johnson ministries, bill johnson bethel, bethel tv, bethel church redding, christian theology, Christian, God is good, a baptism of courage, courage and faith, be strong and courageous, courageous prayer, sermons on courage, hannahs prayer, hannah's prayer bible story, boldness

Id: -jCAv-0BvXA

Length: 43min 50sec (2630 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021