Bill Johnson Sermons [September 11, 2021] | Cast Out These Spirits

welcome to the bethel church sermon of the week we hope you enjoy this message by pastor chris valatin for more information about this podcast and other resources visit bethel.com our online audience has dramatically increased and it's so cool that we are joined by not the angels not just the angels anymore but and not just the demons but also with all these wonderful people who are watching us online so so beautiful and uh what yeah i just bill texted me this morning and said greet the people for me i'm like i keep forgetting so bill says hi he's flying home today he was in the houston airport i don't know where he was though wherever he was it was amazing where was he nashville he was in nashville gosh maybe he's doing a country song [Applause] i i don't know country and music they don't go together for me but hey if it ain't rock and roll it ain't music [Applause] sorry made some friends right away this message is already moving forward quite well but bill does greet you and and he'll be back this week so let's pray holy spirit thank you so much for what you're doing all around the world all around the world and lord i just pray today that we would be inspired that we'd been challenged that we'd be instructed that we would leave here with a deeper sense of your presence and direction and inspiration amen i want to tell you a couple stories the first one doesn't have anything to do with my message it's just too good to not tell you we have have we had a bunch of students in orlando florida i think last week or the week before on a missions trip we didn't get to do missions trips obviously until later on in the year and so some cities are opening so we've at the last minute sent about i don't know a few hundred students out and we sent some students to orlando i think there's like 20 or 30 and they were um they were ministering to this man who had just come out of a bar who i think was not saved a few of them and they were praying for him and they got this word that the lord's gonna bless him like right now and the emphasis was like right now and so you know the guy was kind of like not believing and they're going no no the lord's gonna bless you right now like not tomorrow not the next day not a year from now right now and as they said that a black escalade drove around the corner and rolled down their window and threw a wad of cash at the guy like a big water a large wad of cash hit him right in the face and the guy goes what just happened to me and you know it went everywhere so they're all picking it up and and there's a bunch of people picking it up i i assume it's mostly our students they're picking it up and they give it to him and he goes what's going on and they said we told you the lord wants to bless you right now like right now and as they're saying right now again the escalade drives around again rolls down the window and throws another bunch of cash hits the guy in the chest this time money goes everywhere and this part of the story is a little unclear to me quite how it happened but i think some of the money blew down the street and the guy's like what's going on with me and they're like the lord loves you and he's trying to bless you and you need to receive it and and this a lady down the street i think that i think it was someone not connected to our team was gathering up the money too and he said to the guys if she gives me the money i'll know it's the lord well the lady gathers up the money she had and brings it over and said i believe this is yours and so anyway the guy's just like totally rocked he doesn't know what to do and just then the black escalade drives around the corner again and throws another bunch of money at hits the guy again the guy just falls down on his knees and receives the lord i mean that's just too good to not tell i was trying to work it into my message and i'm like nah nah that just has to be told there's a story isn't that amazing like right there i just received that for myself right there in jesus name listen you can receive it from yourself because god blesses me it doesn't take anything from you just bless god's got more than enough he's just very wealthy he's very i've been talking to him he's like way wealthier than i thought story i want to tell you is also about florida and with our students and what as they were there and i want to talk about the responsibility of reformation and they were there in a van i think it may have been a whole uh van of of ladies young ladies and they were driving along and the holy spirit hit the van and i think they were worshiping and just just talking about god and the holy spirit hits the van and so powerfully that the driver can't drive it's like totally intoxicated like acts 2 in the holy spirit and so they pull over i think it might have been a girl driving they pull over and jordan is behind them and and he's leading the trip um and uh and so he he let someone drive his car and he gets in the van and he drives the car to the hotel where they were going and when they get there they go to get the girls out of the car and these are young really skinny girls not the ones that have this kind of don't go there kathy's like don't go there talking about the glory and they go to they go to get the girls out of the van and they can't lift them like they literally can't lift them and so another guy comes over and two of them can't lift him three it takes six guys to lift one girl one skinny girl and so they finally like how are we gonna get these girls to the room so they go get luggage these luggage carts and they roll the luggage carts out and they get the girls six of them pick them up put them on the ledge cart and roll them into their hotel room you can't even make this stuff up see i used to think i was overweight but now i know it was just the glory [Applause] because the word glory is the word kabad k-a-b-a-d and it means to be heavy weighty burdensome abounding becoming fierce in honor and becoming heavy and what i'm getting at and the way reason why i use that as an opening because i feel like that that was a prophetic act not just for those ladies in that van and not just for that team i feel like the the glory of the lord is actually falling on our movement and listen it's probably fallen on several other movements so let me be clear i'm talking to us today so i'm going to address us but i believe something i believe if you watch if you watch watching the news to see what god's doing you're missing the point because i believe that the glory of the lord is rising in the midst of this darkness and i and i and i and i think that it won't be you know just people that when i say glory i'm not just talking about the manifestation that happened to them where they they can't walk and they're you know incapacitated but i mean when the glory fell on solomon he became smart you know when it fell on samson he became strong you get the idea it's like i'm just not talking about a manifestation i'm just talking about the presence of god is so weighty on people it actually causes them to act in ways that isn't normal and i'm excited for what god's doing and i'm also concerned why don't you turn to lurk luke lurk turn to lurk and if you can find that book you were in the wrong bible luke chapter 19 verse 11. well this is jesus speaking to the people around him including his disciples while they were listening to these things jesus went on to tell them a parable because he was near jerusalem and they suppose that the kingdom of god was going to appear immediately and he said a noble man went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return and he called 10 of his slaves and gave them ten midas instead of them do business with this until i come back let's go down to verse 15. when he returned after receiving the kingdom he ordered that these slaves to whom he had given the money be called so they might know what business they had done the first appeared saying master your mind it has made you ten more midas and he said to him well done good slave because you have been faithful in a very little thing you are to be in authority over ten cities the second came saying minor your master has made five minus and he said to him also you will be over five cities another came saying master here is your miner which i kept and put in a handkerchief for i was afraid because you are exacting man you take up what you did not lay down and you reap what you did not sow and he said to them by your own words i will judge you you worthless slave did you not know that i was an exacting man taking up where i did not lay down and reaping where i did not sow why then did you not put the money in the bank and having come i would have collected it with interest and he said to the bystanders take the mind away from him and give it to the one who has 10 miners and they say to him master he has 10 miners already but i tell you that everyone who has more shall be given but from the one who does not have even what he has shall be taken away this is a powerful parable and i actually wrote a book around this parable around this parable and the parable of the of the talents and i want to tell you just a little bit about that quickly but then get to the main point the amidah is uh 500 about 500 it's a very little bit of money and i was taken by the contrast between the story of the talents which almost seems like the same story and the story of the minus in the story of the talents a talent is about thirty thousand american dollars and so the man who was given five talents that he would be given a hundred fifty thousand dollars and he made a hundred fifty thousand more he doubled the money the one was given three talents he would be given ninety thousand dollars and so on and so forth but when they came when the lord ordered them to give an account for what they had done with the money they came back and the two that had done well said to the lord lord your you gave us five talents and see i have made you five more i have made you five more and he said well done good and faithful servant i will put you over more things the same with the man who had three and made three more well done i will put you over many things but these guys were all given each one one mida a small amount of money 500 and when they came to give an account to their master they didn't say master you're you're i you're you gave me a mida and i have made you ten more they said master your mida has made you ten more minus and the master said well done good and faithful servant listen to this i will put you over ten cities here's the main point probably of the entire message did you notice that the reward was more responsibility you didn't get what i just said it hasn't sunk in yet did you notice that the reward for doing good with money is i'm going to give you responsibility as a matter of fact you were over 500 bucks i made you responsible 500 bucks but you figured out how to make money make money and when you if you can make money make money if you create create an ecosystem not lord i made this for you but lord your money made you money if you can make money make money the lord says then you should be over cities did you notice the man's over 500 bucks but his next promotion is 10 cities not one city 10 cities and what i'm getting at is that oftentimes god gives us a reward and we think that we are overwhelmed okay i'm saying did you notice that god's reward is responsibility lord i want the favor of the lord on you solomon got the favor of the lord like solomon was the wisest man in the world he had the faith of the lord on him he had so much wisdom that people came from all over to hear the wisdom of solomon was the good news is solomon is the wisest man in the world and the other good news is now people are coming to hear him and he has no free time okay here we go the challenge is we often complain about the reward not understanding that the responsibility is the reward we get the privilege of feeding more people having the responsibility for more cities and etc it is quiet here luke chapter 9. let's go there the jesus has just given the the disciples power over all the power of the enemy in the first chapter and he and the first verse and he sends them out to do signs and wonders and miracles and say the kingdoms come near you heal the sick raise the dead cast out demons say the kings come here and they've just come back and they're like excited they're like wow this was amazing our ministry was so amazing and he and he says this them when the apostles return they gave an account to him of all they had done taking them with him he withdrew by himself to a city called bethesda but the crowds became aware that that of this and followed him walking him then he began speaking to them about the kingdom of god and curing all who were had who all who had needs of healing all who had needed healing now the day was ending and the twelve came to him and said send the crowd away that we may go to so that they may go to the surrounding villages and countrysides and find lodging and get something to eat for here we are in this desolate place but he said to them you give them something to eat and they said we have only five loaves and two fishes unless perhaps we go and buy food for these people there were about five thousand men and he said to the disciples have them sit down and have them sit down to eat in groups of about 50. and they did so and they had them all sit down and he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven he blessed them and broke them and kept giving to the disciples kept giving them to disciples to set before the people and they all ate and were satisfied and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up and 12 and filled 12 baskets it's interesting to me because luke refers to them as apostles this is the story obviously the feeding the 5000 and this is told i think this is the only or one of the only two parables that is told by all four gospels matthew mark luke and john all tell the story it's interesting i love john uh john puts this uh this little spin on it because uh he he let me read it to you a large crowd gathers same the same basic story uh jesus looks up at the crowd he sees their how how big the crowd is and it says this verse 5 of chapter 6 of john jesus lifting up his eyes seeing a large crowd was coming was coming to him said to philip where are we going to buy bread so that all these people may eat and he was saying this to test him for he himself knew what he was intending to do and philip answered him saying 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them for everyone just to have a little one of his disciples andrew simon peter's brother said here's a lad who has five barley loves and two fishes but what are these for so many people jesus said the same thing have them sit down um have them sit in in groups of five fifty i love this story because the disciples who luke calls apostles what i'm getting at i love that luke established the fact that they weren't just disciples following jesus these were actually leaders and after they had been there all day and they had been they had just come back from this big ministry trip where they're giving jesus an account of all the stuff and they're hoping for some away time jesus takes them away actually they go to a secluded place but the crowds find out and the multitudes come and they're all coming and jesus is leaves the i mean he he leaves his place of rest and he he's healing the sick and he's doing all miracles and he's preaching to them and the disciples at the end of the day they're just done they're exhausted and they're like get rid of these people go go tell them to go into the villages and get some food there and jesus looks at him and says you give them something to eat and the reason why i think that's really profoundly powerful right now is because i feel the lord saying you give them something to eat and i feel like we're like oh lord get rid of them we have all these issues and problems and challenges and i feel like the lord's like you give them something to eat and i love um this this thing that uh that that john adds because he includes this conversation that the lord has with philip and it says he's testing philip and he says to philip where were you gonna get food for all these people and philip's like i agree with you lord and i love andrew because andrew evidently overhears this conversation that the lord is having with philip and all the lord's trying to do is test philip god's jesus is being been doing signs and wonders multiplying the water to wine he's already done that in chapter 4 of john and they're seeing jesus do all kinds of miracles and jesus is testing philip to see if philip gets it and philip's like yeah you're right they can if we just you know what if we had 200 to marry we could not get enough denarii daenerys not yeah any not the iraqi daenery but whatever anyway if we had 200 or 2 000 or whatever that equals we couldn't give everyone a communion cup and andrew's overhearing this conversation and in my mind this is this is my a little bit of my imagination but i imagine andrew's hearing the conversation that's in the bible and he's and he says to the lord well here's a boy who's got five loaves and two fishes and and i think that and then he says well what's that for so many but i think he goes and here's a guy a boy who has five loaves and two fishes and phillip i think phillip goes he's like yeah what's that for so many but i mean why even mention it and first of all i want to say i just want to bless the mom who packs five loaves and two fishes for one boy and i'm saying the kids got to be a teenager right our oldest son we would go like burger king he would like order five double burgers so i'm like okay so we know the boy is not a little boy he's definitely a teenager but andrew offers a boy's lunch for 5 000 men plus women and children at least 10 000. can you imagine and going can you imagine have you ever seen that big of a crowd we were in africa i mean in a field we've been in africa where we're preaching that there's 15 or 20 000 there's just it just looks like a just a wall of people and you're and who would go well i brought my lunch anyway i mean i like to point out that andrew's probably the only one who really got it okay where are we going i think did you notice that the lord didn't take the bread and just throw it into the crowd he didn't just like okay we're going to multiply the bread you know throwing the bread out and here's the fish you know everybody's running for the food like you see sometimes in these you know these give the food giveaways it's like the lord actually arranges them in groups of 50. then he gives the food he's breaking off pieces you can imagine as he's breaking off a piece he's got a big loaf he breaks off a piece and the loaf i don't know it grows back or just keeps going however it looks physically and he's given it to the disciples and the disciples are distributing the food are you with me at all i'm saying i think sometimes we think we're so spiritual we think that administration isn't like spiritual and i'd like to point out that the lord is actually distributing the food in a way that is spiritual like he's actually having he actually has a plan it's not a spontaneous like you know the skinny people will get it you know it's not it's nothing like that in exodus 18 why don't you turn there i want to tell you another story moses has just led the children of israel not just led moses has led the children of israel out of egypt and they're all slaves you have to understand they're all slaves 400 years of slavery so in other words the people who are actually in the wilderness they don't know a jewish person who wasn't a slave their grandfather their father their grandfather their great-great-grandfather 400 years of slavery can you imagine and you know i always think who's leading who you're leading and what sees them you're leading them in determines how you're leading for example if you wanted to plant a church in middle class america you might have one pastor for every i don't know 50 500 people 500 people but if you want to plant a church in the ghetto with drug-addicted people i'd propose you might need a pastor for every five it's not the same things my point my point is is your leadership has to take into account what kind of people you're leading these people are slaves do you understand this like they don't dream they don't think they get their identity from working hard that's all they ever know and moses is tasked with bringing slaves into a promised land i'd propose we're not talking about middle class america or middle class europe or middle class asia we're talking about slaves and so he is he brings them out he's in the middle of a field the bible describes and from morning till night 18 hours a day he is judging the people judging being working out their disputes because now they have freedom they don't know what to do with freedom they've never had freedom and what they do when they're free is they argue and complain with each other so he's in the middle of the field every day 18 hours a day judging the people and his father-in-law sees this whole thing going on and you can imagine his daughter's probably saying hey mo hasn't been home in months the children haven't seen them you know you know the story it's like you got to do something and so jethro moses's father-in-law meets moses and says this to him first he tells them you this isn't working your family hasn't seen you and he says this to him you're going to have a nervous breakdown if you keep this up you cannot do this you are you are going to exhaust yourself and then he says this to him in verse 21 jethro said to moses you shall select men out of all the people able men who fear god men who men of the truth those who hate dishonest gain and you shall place those those men as leaders over thousands hundreds fifties and tens and he gives them this strategy on how to lead the people are you am i are you flown with me you do you know where i'm going i'm saying god is about to reward you it's going to look like responsibility you're going to need wisdom and that wisdom is going to look like a strategy and sometimes we see a strategy as a less than i remember years ago i love the way we do worship now so let me just be clear we used to have a worship leaders would have a list and they would give it to whoever's leading the meeting which i love the way we're doing it so let me be clear i'm not i'm not trying to say we need a list but we used to get a list and i remember this was probably 15 years ago i asked this young man said hey do you have a list for me he said no we're going to have holy spirit spontaneous worship and i don't know he probably was probably fine it was probably you know me not in the greatest mood but i just i didn't say anything to him but i thought to myself you know before you were a sperm and an egg the lord actually knew what songs you were going to say the challenge isn't like it's more spiritual because it's spontaneous because what spontaneous you was planned before the foundation of the world and sometimes what happens is we don't take time to pray before we actually do something so spontaneous seems spiritual when actually it's dysfunctional listen i like spontaneous so don't get me wrong i'm only pointing out that sometimes we spiritualize things and sometimes we're spiritualizing our dysfunction sometimes people think well you know i don't want administrators in the room when the visionaries are dreaming the administrators are administrating administrating [Laughter] we need to fly well let me say this ephesians 1 says that there's an administration suitable for the fullness of times and the word administration means to add to the and what i'm getting at is that kathy and i we've been together since the dinosaurs we own nine businesses together started seven of them and and started many of the ministries in here at least worked in many ministries in here and kathy's the administrator and i don't want an administrator who has less faith in the visionaries are you with me like i i don't want like moses has a plan and we're going to have people who can reduce that to something that doesn't need god no no we need administrators that have the gift of faith who look at what the visionaries are visionary meaning that's a new word write that down spontaneously came to me we need administrators who actually have faith not to say oh we can't do that let me cut that down to something small but we need administrators who can go does it look like this does it look like that how about if it's you get the idea we need people of faith no matter what your gift is and what i'm getting at is if you have a dream with no administrators that's like a jellyfish okay i'm done ranting my point is sometimes we devalue things that create structure and strategy yet the lord used that to feed the five thousand the lord used that to take care of people he brought out of egypt it isn't just a mass of people that actually had to be organized into groups to feed them it had to be actually organized into groups to care for them and there were some people who were annoying it for 10 there was some anointed for 50 there were some anointed for 100 and there's someone knowing it for a thousand let me know you may have an anointing for a thousand like bill johnson anointed for thousands but how many know if you're annoying it for 10 that's the same anointing it's just the manifestation of it is different it's no less it's just different so they have this model it's beautiful and it's very helpful but turn to numbers chapter 11. so now the people have been in the wilderness and they're eating manna manna for breakfast manna for lunch manna for dinner manna means what is it it's angel food and we are humans you get that part i mean i went to wendy's just a few days ago and waited five minutes for my hamburger i'm like what's going on you call this fast food can you imagine pulling up the wendy's it's like manna or manna would you like a double manner or a mana man a man a shake or a drink or a manna i'm like i want a quail you grumbler anyway the people begin to grumble they're like man everything man of morning man a night man of shakes man of mana like we're just done with manna and they're like you know we haven't had meat we haven't had you know a chicken we haven't had a you know a turkey we haven't we haven't eaten pork just manna always and so this is the first chapter the first verses we're not reading and moses is just he's just exhausted and moses said to god i alone am i alone i'm not able to carry all these people because it is too burdensome for me now let me remind you they have an administration structure this is years later they already have people over tens people over 50s people over hundreds i'm trying to point out something and people over thousands are you with me and moses says to god i can't do i can't do this it's too burdensome for me look at the next verse so if you're going to deal with me thus i love this part so if you're going to deal thus with me please kill me at once if i found faith in your sight do not let me see this wretchedness i love this moses it says to god god if this is the way you're going to deal with me do me a favor if i if you really love me kill me now [Laughter] i mean a guy is desperate he is completely done with trying to get slaves into a palace into a promised land he's done it's not the administration anymore he's got people doing the work he's got faithful people taking care of the people there is another weight on him i'm trying to explain to you and here's what god says to him the lord for lord therefore said to moses gather me seventy men from the elders of israel and whom you know to be elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting and let them stand there with you and i will come down and speak with you there and i'll take the spirit that's on you and i'll put it on them and they shall bear they shall bear the burden of the people with you so you will not bear it alone verse 24 so moses went out and told the people the words of the lord so we had gathered 70 men or the elders of the people and stationed them around the tent and the lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and he took this he took of the spirit who was on upon him and he placed it on the 70 elders and when the spirit rested on upon them they prophesied but they never did it again sorry i found my mask that's nothing i was in pennies and i lost it in my underwear wrong time to make you laugh i think i did that for me i'm so uh you know we've been in the middle of covet obviously and obviously thankfully we're moving away from that but i got really sick with code and i was i got really sick and i was in bed for nine days uh i was in bed for nine days if i was sick for like six weeks i was so sick i was so fatigued the bathroom was about 40 or 50 feet from the bed and i could barely get to the toilet i sit on the toilet just shaking from could it eat i think the intensity of it was you know if you have a flu or something every day you feel a little better but for not for seven days i didn't feel one bit better the doctor came to our house twice julie winter thankfully my close friend are a close friend and the seventh day i had laid there for seven straight days and you know how it is when you're sick and you you don't like you sleep and don't sleep right you kind of catnap and you fall asleep and you're awake and you're asleep and i woke up the seventh day i woke up early in the morning i don't remember how i woke up many times so it's probably four or five or six in the morning and the holy spirit was waiting for me and he said to me you must get out of this bed it's just time for you to help it is time for you to leave this people out of this crisis and i said in tears i can't even get to the toilet i don't know how i'm going to get out of this bed and the next morning same thing around the same time woke up and when i as soon as i came away the holy spirit was waiting for him you said you must get out of this bed it's time for you to lead these people out of this crisis i have anointed you to lead these people out of christ i'm sure you know many other people let me be clear the ninth day i did my my grandson's wedding shaky and exhausted and we've been in an intense season a very intense season you all know this you know i have a lot of compassion for the pharisees and sadducees nowadays i know some of our enemies are like yep because you're one i was thinking about the story of this good samaritan you know and you know what happens i don't know if you remember the story but you know there's a guy who gets beat up and there's the sadducee and he sees the guy beat up in the street you know he can imagine a head and he crosses the street he crosses the street for the same reason you and i avoid pain because he knows that if he connects with that he'll have to do something he realizes that he may be a sad seer pharisee but he realizes that he has human compassion that will turn on if he encounters a beat up man bleeding in the street the next guy is the saddest the pharisee and he sees the same situation and he looks ahead and he's like yeah if i encounter that i'll have to do something about it and then there's a samaritan and honestly the guy has the same issues you and i have he's busy he's his life is full already but he doesn't change he doesn't avoid the pain he encounters the man in his pain and he does what he can he bandages the guy up but he also is too busy so he takes the guide he takes him in the end probably like a hospice or something and he says to the hospice take care of this man till he's well when i return up i'll pay for it and my point is he does what he can he doesn't avoid the pain and this has been a season a crazy season you know we've had the social unrest and we've had so many of our people hurting in the middle of covet we have our our african americans and our black people we have lots of people here who are black or not african-americans because school ministries drawn so many black people and we've i think we've i think i've had seven or six or seven or eight meetings with them just just engaging just learning we have several of our staff african-american and black staff who couldn't when that whole incident occurred they couldn't come to work they literally were terrified i mean it's just easy to avoid across the street and make judgments especially when you don't have the answer or especially when you they think you're part of the problem or maybe you are part of the problem you don't even know if you're a part of the problem until you engage till you sit down ask questions and realize what you take for granted is hurtful to other people trying to navigate it's not been an easy season and then the lord says i'm going to do something so extraordinary that if i told you about you wouldn't even believe it and i believe that in the midst of darkness it's our time to rise and i've been saying to the lord like and we've got a great team here amazing team amazing teams everywhere and probably i don't know maybe uh three months ago or so the lord said to me the spirit that's on you might have put on others and i i walked into a room this is this has become common i walk into the room of our teams different teams we have so many teams we have 800 employees here walking in the room and i suddenly can see and i mean with my eyes i can see the favor of the lord on someone and without saying anything to anyone without talking to them without praying for them and not and this not and not in engaging even that engaging that subject i will look at them and suddenly they will fall down on the floor under the presence of god and the lord whispers in my ear the seventy elders i'm not talking about seventy i'm just talking about the spirit that's on you the spirit that's on him the spirit the son and i feel like the lord is doing something so profoundly powerful right now that the lord is not just raising up people that are administrative have an administrative anointing by the way i don't mean just like that have an administrative anointing he's also raising these people that can carry a whole movement in the middle of darkness that they can rise because the the point is is that we're about to do the great exchange beauty for ashes joy for mourning like as we're arising we're gonna get a reward and that reward is more responsibility and if we're not careful we'll cross the street thinking we don't have what it takes and part of the challenge is that we don't realize that god is co-missioning us co-missioning meaning are you with me he's in the mission he's partnering with us he's like you arrange them in groups of 50 i'll prompt to fly the bread you arrange them in groups of 50 and i'll multiply the bread and i'll distribute it to you and you give it to them and i'm thinking i got to do this all and i feel like the lord is going to give us wisdom for administration administration and he's also going to put the spirit that's on you you're like oh the spirit that's on build no the spirit's on you actually needs to be on others part of the part of the challenge my concern is that so many people are avoiding responsibility because they're leading virtual lives that keep them in hiding many of us are living on social media connecting with virtual friends who only know us by our profiles and our shop photoshop pictures yet the most destructive ramification of fathers of this father's generation are kids who were raised by virtual parents video games have taken the place of real people it's common nowadays for kids to know their machines better than they know their folks if they even have folks consequently an increasing number of fatherless families are being raised on government subsidies and welfare programs 51 percent of all children in america are born out of wedlock you want to know why socialism is growing in our country these days many kids are growing up with a closer relationship with uncle sam than they have with their biological father i'm saying people we are the most fathest generation in the history of them of the world in which our fathers are alive but not home i preached on this two years ago i'm saying when i say more responsibility flawless kids mothers and fathers even adults are coming who have no social skills because they've been raised by machines are you with me at all and i'm saying part of the challenges is that the the the church has caught the american dream which is exotic vacations and retirement at 50. like we think god's going to reward me with exotic vacations and i'm going to make enough money to retire at 50. listen retire whenever you want but i want to tell you you weren't born to retire listen i don't care if you retire i don't care if you have nice things we have nice things nice houses nice cars even red corvettes it's all good as long as you don't think that's the reward because the reward is more responsibility you know what happens when you retire and you just go fishing and you feed your own soul all the time with what you want to do all the time you lose purpose in life and pretty soon you're either dead or insignificant because you were born to pour your life into other people this is the life cycle of the kingdom listen listen this is the life cycle i'm bored go invest in somebody life has no meaning there's people all around who are waiting for you they're waiting for the anointing on you they're waiting for the gift that's on you can you see this the american dream is not the kingdom dream the kingdom dream is you did good with the little good i'm gonna make you so busy i heard bill's message the other day about uh busyness is uh what do you say false significance and i completely agree with that the other side of it is like laziness is the same like there's nothing anointed about lazy i'm resting for years i mean the lord built the whole world and rested a day you've been off for years some people were like the lord's teaching me to rest no you need to get a job you're resting seven days a week you need to learn to work sex you know what i'm saying and i'm pointing out that there is so much reward and anointing in doing what god's called you to do but we need the mind of christ because where we're going you can be just busy instead of actually effective in what you do but don't be surprised if the lord calls you out of your comfort zone and puts you in a war zone and calls it a reward you're like lord something bad's happening he's like no something good is happening i'm finally getting you to actually have the impact i created you for it's time to think creatively it's time to realize and yes you know i hope that i gave you the whole gamut like moses doing what god told him to do but can't do it until he meets jethro and some of us need a jethro in our lives because we're like i don't know how i do anything else and it's like because you're doing what you're doing without a strategy a spirit-led strategy made that word up you like it you need a spirit-led strategy because you doing more will kill you you're like i won't have time to sleep and it's like i'm not saying just do more i'm talking about the reward is more responsibility not necessarily being busier but being smarter some of you doing something would be busier we have a wide audience so if you're offended i am talking to you [Laughter] stan i want to pray for you there's not one person in this room or watching on bethel tv or youtube that i'm not talking to i know if you're anything like me sometimes someone's preaching they'll be preaching i'm like i wish my neighbor was here this ain't your neighbor's message this is your message because no matter where you are there's more the guy that got 10 talents did you notice that the lord took away gave him took away the one from the guy who did nothing and gave it to the guy who had 10. did you notice that god gives busy people more to do i say busy people i don't mean just busy i mean he you're like oh i read that one time i was reading i was writing poverty rich's wealth i'm like oh the rich get richer and the lord said i didn't say the rich get richer i said the faithful get wealthier and i just want to pray for you right now because i can see what's coming and i look at your faces and i hear i don't hear amen i hear oh no and i believe that if you actually understood what was about to happen to you it wouldn't be oh no it'd be amen lord make my life count and i believe so much joy comes from pouring your life into other people and and looking at people who have value for you i don't know about you but some of the most exciting times in my life is when i sit with people who value me and they're asking me questions about their own life like how do what i do that how it's just there's something about people pulling things out of you you know we're in you and in this room is full of fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters who have so much more than you think you have you you ever there isn't a person in this room that isn't wealthy and lord i just pray right now that you would take the oh no and make it amen lord that we would see the reward through your eyes and know that you're about to do something so extraordinary that if you told us about it we wouldn't even believe it and lord i pray like that man i just see this picture of this man with with the students going and the lord wants to bless you right now and he's like i don't get that hit in the face with money the lord wants to bless you right now i don't know about that like that is some of you i don't know about that and the lord's like he's gonna bless you and then he's gonna bless you again and he's gonna bless you again and he's gonna keep blessing you until you get it like he has called you to be a blessing to be blessed and to be a blessing and lord i just release that all over jesus name thanks for listening to the sermon of the week this weekly podcast can be heard in multiple languages on our betheltv website if you'd like to partner with us in discipling nations and fueling personal revival you have the opportunity to give at bethel.tv podcast slash donate [Music] [Applause] welcome to the bethel church sermon of the week we hope you enjoy this message by pastor bill johnson for more information about this podcast and other resources visit bethel.com several years ago i was doing a study i had noticed that they were awkward awkward it's probably the wrong word uh unusual responses to trial famines difficulties in the word and so i began to do a study this is quite a few years ago now and uh since this whole uh virus issue came up uh these things have come to mind because what i want for me and what i want for us is to learn how to respond biblically to a crisis that comes up what are the different ways that the people of god in history have dealt with famines plagues pestilence all those things the number one response that we are to have we find in the second chronicles 7 14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray turn from their wicked ways seek my face turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven forgive their sin heal their land always when there's difficulty that comes up it gives us a reminder to refine our focus and to make sure that we're standing on solid ground that our attitudes our behavior our relationships all these things are are really in in divine order but the unusual approach to uh in this case we're going to look at three famines in the bible and i want you to see the unusual response of different people of god throughout history so the first one is in genesis 26 and if you've got your bibles with you which i hope you do you're at home or somewhere where you have a bible i i want you to open to genesis 26 i want you to see the most unusual response to a famine by one of our heroes of the faith of history one of our forefathers and that's isaac and i want to begin with verse one it says there was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of abraham and isaac went to abimelech king of the philistines in gerar the first phrase there was a famine in the land then we jump to verse 12 and it says then isaac sowed in the land and reaped in the same year a hundred fold and the lord blessed him the man began to prosper he continued prospering until he became very prosperous i love that verse it's like god really wanted us to understand what took place here since he began to prosper he continued prospering until he became very prosperous but the point was verse 1 says there was a famine in the land verse 12 says isaac sowed in the land during that famine it's an odd time to plant crops um generally when we talk about sowing and reaping in the in the church we're talking about giving this actually technically is not a giving passage it's a good principle but that's not what's uh at stake here isaac was sowing into his future this is a business decision he is uh he has crops he has uh livestock and this is his future this is his business and so he is investing in his own future what's unusual is at a time when crops aren't being harvested when there's not financial progress being made by the typical people or farms or ranches or whatever he sows into the land and he reaps a hundred fold a hundred times what a normal harvest would be that's extraordinary it's a supernatural harvest what is this what is this all about is the fact that isaac took was intentional in sowing into his own future sowing into his own business if you will he made decisions that would otherwise seem foolish it would be normal to want to eat the seed but instead he planted the seed i remember a missionary friend many years ago sent a newsletter out and i of course was a recipient of that newsletter and he made this comment he said for the first time in my life i understand what it means in the bible what it says to sow in tears and to reap enjoy sow in tears reap in joy and then he began to describe in africa his missionary in africa began to describe the the mothers who would have children strapped to their backs and uh and they would take the seed that they were hungry to eat but they chose instead to plant it in the ground and so they planted it and they were crying while they were planting the seed they knew that they could that would be one meal for them now but if they planted it it could be a whole season of meals and so there was that challenging decision in this particular case i want to encourage every business owner i want to encourage every employee every person listening to this broadcast that to take the isaac approach to this virus to the shutdown of businesses all the stuff that's crazy that's going on this is an opportunity for us to really sow into our own future to come with hope we have a reason to hope his name is jesus he has conquered every enemy and he causes everything to work for good to those who love god and are called according to his purpose that's you and that's me and so for some of you it may be taking an online course it might be buying a book and reading a book during this shutdown time where you learn better how to maybe advertise or whatever it might be the point is is that you that all of us are making aggressive decisions about our own future that we're anticipating breakthrough we're positioning ourselves for breakthrough we're even sacrificing because we believe that god is breathing on that offering so i want to encourage you i believe this is a time for us to show great courage and great faith it's not a time to be foolish it's not a time to be careless but it is a time to be intentional so that we give god something to breathe on if you will to cause it to abound and to prosper so this is not a generosity verse this is a verse that deals with us investing in our own future the second story is uh is is very unusual uh in some ways more unusual than this one and it's found in nehemiah chapter five if you would turn to that one i'd love for you to see this one there's a little bit more uh involved in the detail here what's happening is there's a famine and the the people have got israel here uh they're running out of money they have no crops to harvest they uh they're in big trouble and so they're selling their their lands to other people and in this case uh one jew would sell to another jew but the point is is is these lands where the permanent inheritance of individual family lines this that when they inherited that land that was marked for them that was to be theirs and their family from that point on so when they sold them they were actually selling something that god had given to them and so it's a very very uh difficult situation so i want you to look at this uh it's in nehemiah 5 and we're going to start with verse 2. we have several verses to read so follow along for there were those who said we our sons our daughters are many therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live there were also some who said we've mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses that we might buy grain because of the famine there are also those who said we've borrowed money for the king's tax on our land in vineyards yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren our children as their children and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves some of our daughters have been brought into slavery it is not in our power to redeem them for other men have our lands and vineyards and i be this is nehemiah talking he says i became very angry when i heard the the outcry and these words after serious thought i rebuked the nobles and said to them each of you is exacting usury which is interest from his brother so i called a great assembly against him let me explain this situation when nehemiah examines he hears the cry of the people they're saying we're starving to death we're not able to eat we've had to sell our own children into slavery which is just the unthinkable and nehemiah sees he goes into the root of it and it's that brothers were buying brothers lands and they were putting heavy heavy interest on any payments that were to be made and they were losing they were losing their ability to buy food and so he he rebukes them and he restores them to a place of family and national covenant here's the point is that this is a time where uh many of us were being forced to stay in our own homes for example we uh we are confined quarantined to our own homes what's the point is this is the time to renew and restore relationships family first the body of christ the people of god it's not a time to take advantage of somebody in their difficulty this is where we adjust the opportunity for personal gain to accommodate the people that are in pain the people that are suffering the people that are suffering uh experiencing loss or diminishing of wages whatever it might be that we do whatever we can to stand as a family to give biblical support loving support financial support wherever possible i'm i'm reminded in acts uh chapter two through five is where the church experienced this great revival they began to sell their lands and do all kinds of stuff and what they did is they made sure that nobody among them was lacking nobody among them was poor it wasn't a mandate from the top it was something that erupted within them and that's important it's not a governmental decision of of everybody has the same it was an internal decision that says i care for my brother i care for my sister i want to make sure that they are supplied for that they have food to eat that they they have shelter to live in this is a time right now in a time of crisis not for us to withdraw and to become preoccupied with our own needs our own circumstances instead it's an opportunity for us to aggressively pursue those that we know that might be in trouble maybe they have maybe they have a financial crisis maybe they have a medical crisis whatever it is the point is is that we turn our attention towards the people of god and rally to their case rally to their cause you may have neighbors friends we've encouraged people you know call the senior citizens around you those who may not be able to go and get groceries and so we have a lot of our teams that are doing that right now they're they're doing that very thing calling their neighbors and friends but also our own church membership to call to find out where the needs might be the point is this is a moment where instead of reacting to the fear of the day which is running rampant instead refine our focus on our practical simple devotion to christ and to his people i want my love for god to be seen and measured by my love for people in this unusual story the famine happened but we never hear it spoken of again it's as though their compassion for each other their devotion to one another silenced the voice of that storm silence the voice of that famine the last story i want to ask you to look at is in acts chapter 11. and this is um this is obviously new testament and it's a it's an interesting story for so many reasons because once again a famine was coming to really devour uh from people and uh so what we've got here is in acts 11 we start with verse 27 it says and in these days prophets came from jerusalem to antioch and one of them named agabus stood up and showed by the spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world which also happened in the days of claudius caesar then the disciples each according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in judea i love this particular story for a whole bunch of reasons but i guess my favorite part is that when they heard that a famine was coming remember it says in the whole world so that means the people that are hearing this word can tell there is a famine coming in their direction and it's going to affect their life the first thing they did this is remarkable the first thing they did is they took an offering that's the last thing that so many people would ever think of during that's where you would retreat you you you do whatever can to survive and instead in this particular passage they moved aggressively to receive an offering and to send it to the brethren of judea they did it each according to their ability so there was no manipulation there was no uh somehow coercion where they uh where they had to relinquish goods it wasn't that it was there was this overwhelming thankfulness for god's promises and they decided to plant a seed the first story we read is about isaac who sowed seeds but it was not uh it was not generosity it was he sowing into his own future into his own business it's important the second one was covenantal relationship to sow into that and make sure that there was health there but this last one actually has to do with money itself they took an offering and they gave it to the brethren in judea this means a lot of things it could be an act of compassion i've heard people say that the brethren judea were in great crisis financially and so if that's the case this obviously was a very noble thing to do to receive an offering but i would like to suggest to you that there might be just a little bit more to the story than that judea this is where the ministers of the gospel came from to antioch to bring the gospel people in this audience if in this church if you will the people of this body of believers are converted because somebody came from judea and brought the good news to them i would like like to suggest that yeah this is probably a gift of compassion but even more so it was a gift of honor a gift of honor and that gift of honor while the famine happened we never hear it spoken of again it silenced the appetite it dulled the teeth it silenced the voice of this famine that was going to affect so many people's lives it's never spoken up again there's something profound about generosity in times of personal need i know around here when we've had different crises and challenges financially that's when i've gone into uh our uh uh financial people's office i'll say i need you to write a check for such and such a church in town they they aren't able to pave their parking lot and and we'll we'll just we'll aggressively go after that right now we had a guest that was supposed to speak uh to us this uh this i think it was this week if not if not this week next week and uh and itinerant people all of their travel is shut down and so this last week we sent this friend of ours an itinerant minister we sent him the honorarium as though he had spoken here we wanted to honor him and thank him for his ministry his devotion to us through the years we've done this through the years where we've where we've had individuals who have uh not been able to make a conference that they were a guest at and uh and because they they had a medical report and the doctors told them uh you're not to travel during this season and so we just write out a check we send the honorarium to them i got a text this morning from what our one of our staff guys who uh they are uh using the cash app to pay you know the the beautician that uh had to cancel the appointment to do his wife's hair but they're paying her as though uh the hair the hair appointment was kept and doing the same with the trainer at the gym and all these things the point is this is the moment to sow into people's lives aggressively to display honor because i refuse to bow at the threat of this famine so to speak in this case a virus i refuse to bow to this thing and instead i'm going to move aggressively in generosity to uh to take the teeth out of the bite of this thing and i believe that we're going to see a very quick quick end to this virus but i want to be found carrying on the heart of the lord as this thing comes to a close i want to be found in that place of of radical obedience to the lord where we care about people's souls we care about people's well-being we serve them the best we know how i have found personally that um you know just being shut in at the house except for moments like this being shut in at the house it's a tremendous opportunity just to walk around my home or to walk around our property and just to pray just to intercede to lift up praise obviously to the lord but to pray for these neighbors to reach out to people to to make the phone calls to do all that we can it's the generosity of soul it's buying the gift cards uh just uh send a text to a restaurant owner yesterday to be able to buy gift cards to help to sow into their ongoing business we want our city to do the impossible in this moment we want your city to do the impossible in this moment and that is to thrive in the face of loss instead of go backwards i want to see us advance and i believe together as the people of god this is the moment to advance this an advancement now is a miracle and that's what advancements are supposed to be so i i want to i just want to declare this to you teach teach you first of all from the word three different unusual responses to famine or the laws but also to challenge you to challenge us as a church family to stay with stand with resolve and have that devotion of commitment let me go over the three things invest in our own personal advancement in business in perhaps uh uh you your accounts or whatever the point is is that you sow into your own personal development because you believe you have a future and a hope secondly is to reaffirm covenantal relationships reaffirm the devotion to people the people of god the household of faith but also to to this city and then third is this thing of generosity i believe that the seeds of generosity in times like this are so uh they so attract god into an environment to prosper and to bring increase so that's what we're doing here we've uh we have a number of staff obviously they can't come we have a huge staff they can't come to the office and work so we're directing their attention towards our city directing their attention towards neighbors members of our family and i believe that the lord is honoring that approach to generosity i want to encourage you to do the same thing i want to pray for you because i the prayer that i've prayed more than goodness i think i think probably i've prayed for this more than any other five things combined in the last five years i've been praying for the spirit of breakthrough god identifies himself in david's life as the god of the breakthrough baal perism was the name he's the god of the breakthrough that when there is an obstacle he breaks through the obstacle when there is a season of difficulty he breaks through and brings increase he's the god of of answers and solutions regardless of the problem and so i want to pray because i believe it's not just to be a breakthrough season for the church i think it's individually i think that every person i know i've been i've been prayerfully meditating on a particular verse i would invite you to join uh join with me in kind of discovering the depth the richness of this verse it's the passage in john 15 verse 7 where he says if you abide in me my words abide in you you will ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you if you abide in me and my words abide in you you'll ask what you want and it'll be done all of us like outcomes we like the answer to prayer we like the graduation we like the purchase of the home where we move in we like uh we we like those kinds of things we like we we like the conclusion um but god likes the journey i like the and everything will be added he likes the abide in me and let my words abide in you so what i've chosen to do for me in my own journey in this season is to turn my attention i'm i'm literally giving my time in this season to learn one verse better not to quote it i can quote i've been able to quote it for years not that to live it fully what does it mean to abide in christ what is what does it mean to be in continuous ongoing affectionate relationship with him what does it mean to stay connected to the presence of god before his face in an ongoing way what does that look like was what does it look like for me to have to carry that awe and that awareness that the spirit of god is in me the spirit of god is resting upon me what does it mean to be that deeply connected to the heart and mind of god abiding in him and then he says that my words would abide in you that's where as we read his word something stands out to us in this case this whole thing of an offering in uh in a time of famine stands out to me it's been on my mind for for years what does that look like to face an external a problem what does it look like to act in the opposite spirit and then for god to bring a breakthrough what does that look like and so we carry these words in our heart you may have a different word there may be something that the lord spoke to you about your family maybe it's a personal promise of something he's going to do and this looks like the most impossible season for that to happen well guess what it's the most likely season for the breakthrough to come because he's the god who majors he brokers in impossibilities and so i i'm going to ask you join with me on this abiding in god this affectionate love for him continuously where his word where i can at any at the drop of a hat in any moment be able to quote to you declare to you this is what god is saying to me in this season i want to monitor those two parts of my life and let him monitor my prayer life where things happen where things breakthrough takes place so father i'm praying right now that for the entire bethel family our bethel community around the world our guests and friends who have joined us let this be the season where we see a spirit of breakthrough a mantle an outpouring of anointing for breakthrough would come upon every individual upon every household god i pray it for our city i pray for the cities represented that a mantle of break the most impossible situations would turn and reverse for the glory of god that this would be the hour where you receive the glory for every turning that takes place in our cities in our nation god we play it pray for america we pray for switzerland and japan and korea and all these countries all around the world that are joining with us right now that there would be a turning and there would be a massive deliverance of this that the enemy has turned towards us that instead there would be a mighty deliverance a mighty healing that would take place in household after household god instead of retreating in fear i pray that you'd release the mantle for health and healing upon the people of god that we would aggressively stand on behalf of our neighbors and friends to see healing and deliverance take place in the name of jesus god i pray for every business person that's watching that you would defend them in that business you would promote them in that business that their online success would more than make up for what's not walking through the door because of closure that you would give wisdom for how to maneuver in this season that's different than every past season that you'd help us to know how to invest in our future in a biblical manner that you show us where we need to to store up our strength one another with one another in our families in our church family and you show us where janet what generosity looks like in this season i pray all of this that the name of jesus would be exalted held in the highest honor amen amen amen please um i've been carrying this thing in my heart for days and in fact chris was supposed to get up today but he kindly bowed out so i could share what was in my heart i feel like this is a prophetic template and it's going to be applied differently probably for every household but there's a prophetic template on how we face the threat of loss how we face uh challenging situations so i encourage you re review these things pray over these things but the last thing i want to do is i know that with such uh a large online audience that there's always the opportunity for people who have never made a personal commitment to the lord jesus christ the greatest miracle of all is the salvation of a soul jesus tugged on my heart he showed me his love he called me to himself and i said yes i called upon the name of the lord and he saved me he forgave me of sin he delivered me from my past and he made it possible for me to walk with him that offering that gift of salvation is offered to every person watching this broadcast that may not have a personal relationship with jesus my goodness if there was ever a time where it should be obvious we need a savior we need a deliverer we need a father who works on our behalf who defends us it's right now i want to encourage you but it does cost it costs you this it's not your dollars it's your life it's the fact that we turn from our life of sin self-serving to become a disciple of the lord jesus christ and i'm going to ask you just to pray with me right now just say these words with me father i come to you i come to you as a sinner i come to you in need of forgiveness i ask you to forgive me from all sin i turn from them i will not serve any other god but jesus i will not follow any other lifestyle but the lifestyle of jesus and i ask that you would fill me now with your holy spirit and make it possible for me to live as a representative of jesus and the earth i ask this for the honor of the name jesus amen amen well thank you thanks for for joining us in this unusual setting this unusual context but thank you thanks for taking time out of your day i bless you in jesus name i pray that the face of god would shine upon you i pray that every single household would have increase of divine encounters divine experiences and i pray for everybody watching that god would release over you over me a gift of faith for this season in jesus name amen thanks for listening to the sermon of the week this weekly podcast can be heard in multiple languages on our bethel tv website if you'd like to partner with us in discipling nations and fueling personal revival you have the opportunity to give at bethel dot tv slash podcast slash donate [Music] [Applause]

Channel: The Teachings Of GOD

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Keywords: bill johnson messages, sermon, church, bethel church, bill johnson sermons, bill johnson, supernatural, miracles, christian, bethel, holy spirit, revival, holy ghost, spiritual warfare, bethel.tv, presence of god, signs and wonders, bill johnson 2020, bethel redding, bill johnson bethel, bill johnson healing, healing, faith, Jesus, Bill Johnson 2019, best sermons, online church services, bethel moments, presence, sermons, church online

Id: hZ9caEo53u0

Length: 80min 15sec (4815 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021