Bill Johnson Sermons [September 17, 2021] | God Is Up To Something

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 well hello hello hello bethel family so good to uh to join with you again i want to encourage i know that there are people watch on a weekly basis that don't have a personal relationship with jesus you know what this is a time just to wake up to the fact we all need a savior we do and jesus is the only one the son of god who died in our place that we would know salvation we would know what it meant to be a part of the family of god that we would know what it meant to be forgiven of sin and then to live representing him in this world loving and caring for people anyway i just want to encourage you whether you're on youtube or bethel tv there are pastors there ready to talk with you pray for you uh if you need a miracle in your body whatever it is they're there and ready to go so welcome welcome listen yesterday i had um i i'm supposed to be speaking today i'm going to postpone what i was going to do for next week but i had this impression when i woke up that i should uh have brian uh speak into what's happening with this uh this virus and all the stuff that we that we've got going on but i also in talking with him knowing it's unfair for him to have to prepare a message with such short notice so the thought was is to take this time just to have a conversation on the role of worship in crisis because we've all gone through it we've all gone through hellish situations and we've we've learned the beauty the wonder of coming before the lord in the most challenging and giving him praise so this is what i want to do i believe that today the lord is going to give an impartation for worship now we love to worship here and our corporate gatherings are are just is i'd rather be here than anywhere in the world i'm biased of course but it's true but the corporate worship is built upon what happens at home and it's not that we have big sound systems it's that we have a heart that is yielded and surrendered so brian my first question to you just just give me um tell me why you think worship or is worship important in the middle of crisis and if so why oh of course i think it's i mean my own story is different seasons of crisis and and i think it's like a a blessing in disguise because when you're brought to your end you know and everyone experiences that in life where especially right now where there's this like so many questions and everyone has opinions but no one really knows what's real what's truth anymore and you just and it brings you to this point in life where it's like you know i know god's good i know god's faithful he knows the answers and when you actually identify with that and step into that and go uh uh my role now because i've had this revelation that i actually don't know what the heck i'm doing which is just so it's so simple is to worship is to praise and so i mean i think it's it's everything and a lot of times these these crisis or whatever you know um not that god causes them but it brings us to a place of maybe um maybe real worship's not the right word but but it feels like a bit a bit more messy and raw and you don't care as much about all the the peripherals all the extra you just care about connecting with god and so to me it's it's worship is super important because also like and we know that when we step into and actually start that process of surrender and worship and bowing before him bowing our hearts before him um doing what he wants us to do doing what he says becoming a friend of god spending time with him and then lifting up a song of praise it's like the heavens are opened over us it's like god's like oh there's one right there that's you know what i mean and um and then i think that revelation starts to pour in for the conflict for the crisis that we're in and so we don't worship to get the answer but in that place of worship and and i think that like there's different um thoughts on what is worship what's praise how do i praise do i shout do i dance you know what you know when you're in crisis none of you that kind of goes back here and you like do whatever right and so um i think that it's two-parted i think revelation comes for the crisis that you're in um the answers come the blessing comes the favor comes but you got to step through that oh wait i don't know what i'm doing i'm just going to sing sing yourself into freedom i'm really really like seeing yourself under freedom even if you don't feel like it thank you you just start singing or start to start you know i do this thing where i am if i'm anxiety or whatever um and a lot of my stuff is just post you know post from what i dealt with you know if i have a hard time breathing whatever i'll start run now and i have my ipods and i put my worship playlist on and i've noticed just by playing worship music not even singing just playing worship music and by the end of my my runs i'm like look it's interesting it's beautiful there's something something happened you know so that's that's impossible to explain how you can put it how you can put something out yesterday uh mom and i put on uh god of revival yeah and uh we thank you for the cross and put one on my ipad we thank you for the cross now we thought let's just put god of revival on our big screen tv the surround sound and the the bethel music channel on on youtube i'm telling you it just wrecked me i just i just was a mess just just looking you know because what happens is it's not only the moment that that you have with the lord but it triggers your history with god you know yeah the times we've sung that here with a crowd of people or elsewhere and how god has moved through that song and what he's been doing in our lives for these years when you sing that song it's almost it's like you're singing it's like you're singing from your history with his faithfulness oh man it just uh it messes me up you mentioned something you used a word you said when you come to that place of surrender in worship connect the dots for me on that one because i i really feel like that's that's it right there well i think i mean it's so everyone's different everyone has these things it's like like for me it's like the uh the surrender and worship like i was saying you i think you get to a point where you're like there's like a phrase that we we've used a bunch where when god becomes your only option consider it a gift becomes your only option it's like say it again consider it a gift when um god becomes your only option so there's all these things in life that happen where nothing else is working or has worked and you're at your and a lot of people are there right now like they're at their whether it's business the economy the the the fear the terror some of that stuff's just unexplainable and i know what it feels like to be in that like frozen state of like panic i either want to die or god you have to step in you know that that type of thing and there's a mome a special moment right where okay you surrender and and whatever that looks like right it's and sometimes it's not even surrendering a thing or it's just i don't even know what that is right now i just surrender and i'm gonna start worshiping basically giving the adoration giving the worship back to him that maybe you've been giving to something else and um i think in that surrender all sorts of stuff happens i mean like david's life when he surrendered even when he messed up and then he re-surrendered you know it's like god is waiting with the blessing and all the favor and the revelation and we don't surrender for that but it's just a part of it so yep i was reading a verse before the meeting today and it says why are you in despair o my soul and why have you become disturbed within me hope in god for i shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my god what i found interesting is this word disturb means one of the ways is translate is to murmur why are you murmuring oh my soul and that that kind of inner language thing really causes us problems when when we're in stress i mean there's the complaining sometimes to god sometimes about people sometimes about circumstances sometimes about you know politics or whatever but me but that murmuring thing here really infects our worship how have you dealt with that well like i mean for me lately honestly it's it's every season is different but like like i was saying when i um whether anxiety creeps upon me or i just feel like you know like my wife she knows like if i go for a run you know what i mean that's a good idea you can tell like i think i'm gonna run that's a good idea [Laughter] because she wants me to be in shape and the other part is she knows that when that happens yeah something happens heather you know so um well for me it's it's you know there's a lot of times i think there's a lot of people that feel like they maybe they don't have the strength or even the willpower to lift up a song of praise or do whatever but for me and when i just put worship is gone and start singing i almost i'm sung into a position where i can just start and then i'll start oh it's funny i'll just start like fro going from i'm on a defense you know murmuring in a defensive posture to what like i'm off social media now you know there's i'm just i'm over it in a defensive position but one by the end of my run i find myself in an offensive position and i'm starting to pray for different things and i'm like declaring things and i'm like i'm like oh wait a second so i went and i started this run in this position and i'm ending the run in like i'm like praying for things and the holy spirit is now revealing things and so for me in this specific season um it's really simply just having my worship playlist that's my like start i just turn it on so i would encourage people that's good you know like like it's kind of like when they were gonna be facing the other army and and they got the word to send their praisers out you know it's like really like that doesn't seem like a and and for me it's like the simple little steps of like okay i'm just going to turn the worst music on and i know through that so that's what i've been doing yeah i mean i it has i i do have my guitar out and i've got my little studio and the problem with me is whenever i get my guitar out i start writing a song oh yeah yeah so like for me it's like i'll just put horse music on and you know so i would encourage people just to play worship music and you'll find that it really makes a difference so you you mentioned uh at the beginning of the run it's kind of defensive by the end you're praying for other stuff um i was thinking of phrases this morning uh when we eric and i were here early to pray intercessory worship intercessory worship i i'm not sure if that's a legitimate phrase but i think you know what i mean i think it's i think it's what ihop has done so well with the harp and bowl it's the the ministry to the lord but it's also the intercessor what do you find happening in your own your own ability to pray into things maybe that aren't even uh concerning you you know where you start remembering a friend that's in trouble or you you start thinking about our government or whatever it might be you start praying into that in a in an influential way how does that happen what what what transpires in your heart to go from encountering god in worship to making a difference i think this i'll just read this i was thinking about this um what i think what happens is so there's but the moment and this is about salvation i think in the holy spirit revealing things but the moment one turns to the lord with an open heart it says the veil is lifted and they see so i think it's connected to a surre i think it's connector to that moment of surrender that that that thing where you're like you know what lord like whether it's finances whether it's whatever all right god you know like i'm just i just do you know what i mean this is yours yeah it's it says and you know you know how people oh that's out of context well okay the context is when we turn our hearts to god with an open heart the veil is lifted and we see and now the holy spirit um brings freedom and so i think it's in that moment of surrender that we turn from the defense into the offensive and it's that harp and bullets like you said if i have 10 minutes to spend time with god it's been eight you know a lot of people said this eight in worship and two and in that offensive posture because i get i feel like i get um for me i get into a head space or a heart space where i have faith i actually am excited and i have belief and faith again to go you know i'm gonna i feel like the holy spirit brought this up i'm gonna go after this thing and um so i think it's faith too that rises up um but i think it's just connected to that let's give the reference on that it is uh it's second corinthians i'm reading the passion translation it's second corinthians 3 verse 16 through 17. read it again it says but the moment one turns to the lord with an open heart the veil is lifted and they see now the lord i'm referring to is the holy spirit and wherever he is lord wherever he's lord over us there is freedom and um when there's freedom i think it's like the domino effect of all this beautiful it's beautiful uh one of the things that i've not thought through before but i think you hit uh exactly right is that in worship you find yourself believing god i mean it shouldn't surprise us but specifically you said faith faith becomes activated in this place i think it's partly because of surrender faith is not the product of striving which gets us into trouble faith is the result of surrender and so here we are in this place of worship where we just we just choose not to worry and fret and complain and murmur and do all that stuff but turn our attention towards him we find ourselves believing what how does that happen for you do you recognize it happening or does it just happen well i think some a lot of times it the the belief and the faith comes right after i feel like the holy spirit spoke okay or revealed something because for me it's like you said it lightly but god is a real thing and i'm like i mean let's be real like sometimes when when things are so crazy it's like every we question everything and i'm not talking about like um we all you know some people question if god's real or not even in this pandemic but um it's it's really interesting when i'm trying to remember the question because i started going off on a rabbit trail thinking about that just about the connection of faith as a result of worship and how do you how do you how do you recognize when that happens okay the pre-occur it hap after i feel like the holy holy spirit speaks yes yes because then it reminds me that he's for me he's close he's on my side oh okay he's when the holy spirit is speaking it's like god is good but when he's speaking everything's gonna be okay yeah it's just when god is speaking and he's always speaking and then that thing rises up and it's like okay that's all that's right that's awesome okay everything's gonna be okay and when i know everything's gonna be okay inside all that other stuff goes away and i can actually move into a position of faith and believe again it's and i will say this and i said it earlier but i've gotten off social media i post but for three weeks i've been off and and it's kind of crazy like i don't usually just tell people you should do this too but but um i was getting so bombarded for a long season when i got off that it's it feels like because i don't even know what's going on with a lot of things i find myself being able to hear god but more wow and not be convoluted by and i believe this it's like every day the media is throwing out agenda every day five times a day it's like here now all you they're they're controlling what we talk about and what we think about whether good or bad or whether we believe it or not they're controlling us like little guinea pigs and when we step out of that it's literally like the the air over me wow went to it kind of feel like it used to feel and so what that tells me is and i'm not talking about ignore sometimes it's good to ignore things but i'm talking about what god is saying and what he has in store first in the future is good yes yes and when we remove ourselves from all that chaos and we can actually feel and hear that it's like okay then now that i can actually do something with my faith and so i've been have i've been on that journey for really interesting i don't know what to what if what to do with that but just don't stop yeah i like what you read and this is a fascinating concept in scripture that when they turned to the lord their eyes were opened it doesn't say their eyes were opened and then they turned to the lord they had to have enough conviction in their heart without clarity of sight to just abandon themselves to god then things opened it's a it's an unusual sequence of events that is essential it's the surrender and then you see yeah he doesn't work to persuade us why do we forget the gods for us how come what hap what happens it makes us forget well i think you know and we don't have to i think i think for me for me lazy spiritual laziness you know you know how it is when you're like i'm gonna get up every day and i'm gonna just pursue god and i've got this whole thing and it's like ah and then and then it gets easy again and it's like ah wow and then we get kind of spiritually lazy because the the pressure's not as much and then right now it's like we can't avoid the pressure it is everywhere yeah it's crazy chaotic it's chaos and so we kind of have one option and the church has always thrived in chaos when the world's in chaos because partly it's like foreign countries it's like they have one option it's faith yep yep and i think part of it is that but um i forget the question but yeah you answered it okay you did a good job um we've talked about this before all of us as a team the mental battle the battle is always in the mind in every season it's it's never it never changes but when things are going on like they are right now and partly stirred up through social media but just the circumstances forget all that just just the pandemic just the conflict and i don't mean even political conflict i mean the decisions that our leaders are having to make and and how to go about life and how to restore business all that so we got stuff swirling all around us why is why is the mental battle such a challenge and how does worship fix that well i think like i think it's spiritual if there's real things that are natural and then they're spiritual it's all bombarding and it's hard to even know what's spiritual what's warfare what's whatever right now and so i think worship is it elevates it's it surpasses our mind it it it i don't does this magical thing where it resets our mind you know what you're going to there's you know our our minds are are can be scary but there's a wreath there's a thing that happens where it's like a surge of like a reset where when we worship god promises us peace when we worship he promises to come when we and when when there when he comes all of those things fall into place our mind our spirit our body you know sometimes our bodies are so out of whack for lack of presence of god you know and um all of those things fall into place when we are in a position or a place of worship um whether in our hearts or and but i'll never you know some for me like music worship music music and worship connected yep it just does something it's it's i'm not talking about just even a heart of worship without music but god decides has decided to connect like his presence yeah that revelatory thing in music yeah and you know you can find it throughout the or throughout the bible but he's decided to do that and give us that gift and so for me obviously personally i've given my life to it i use music a lot like david played over saul he didn't even sing he played over saul and it drove the demon away there's something powerful when we use music in worship and so um for me i use music in worship to get me out of that that stuff yep you know i think it's probably a favorite psalm for both of us psalm 73 talks about all these pain no pains in your birth and just ongoing moaning and groaning because the sinners get away with everything and the righteous don't and he's he's moaning for like 16 verses and then verse 17 he says until i went into the sanctuary of god then i understood therein then i saw the outcome of all their decisions there's something about being in that encounter with the lord that brings clarity to everything else everything else i had an encounter with the lord towards the end of last year end of november first in december that i've spoken about here but in this encounter uh several things happened but two of the things that i came out with is that i felt like the lord strongly impressed on my heart that a key to mental health was giving thanks in everything a key to emotional health was to rejoice always both giving thanks and rejoicing before the lord are expressions that we have in our worship ministry in our worship encounter with god so there's something that happens in our own minds in our own brains a reset that he talks about here in psalm 73 a reset and i think the phrase that i've heard maybe the most often concerning this this pandemic is that there is a global reset going on and so as a church as the people of god we need to cooperate with god's intent to give us a reset to see things from his from his presence to see everything differently talk to me about the importance of thanksgiving and what do you do do you do things just intentionally to think meditate on things to be thankful for what what do you do in that regard well i think it's like faith everything everything in worship and praise everything it's faith the root of its faith it's belief it's believing god no matter what and so thanksgiving is just another way of going and i i i thanksgiving um is it seems so i think to a lot of people it seems so dumb it seems so like oh yeah when i'm five i learned about that but if if we are thankful in every circumstance find something to be thankful of it's crazy it's a real thing that that it like you said talking about the reset it like the mental illness thing yeah yep there's there's some there's been moments recently where i've just went down the road of oh my goodness lord i'm think i'm thankful for this and you start going oh that and that and wait a second why am i so so it's almost like you start down the road of thankfulness and you'll find yourself again it's just like worship you find yourself again in a position where you have perspective yep um his perspective again and like jen and i we do that we're like you know we've had it's hard to explain we've had uh an eight-year process of building the house the property and a lot of times you know you get what you pay for when you jump into something like that congratulations you decided to do something that was kind of impossible you're going to have you get a stuff that's going to come against you but um we you know a lot of days where like both washing machines go out all the all the sand from the filtering system ruined every appliance in the house every faucet everything and it's a two day they come in and then and then this over here happens you know it's like it's just it's like humorous uh it has happened a million times and you're just like but we always do that me jen and i but you know what she goes there's people over here in the world that are dealing with this and you're like oh wow okay and then we start going down the road of thankful you know what's amazing i'm so thankful for our kids our kids are doing really well right now um uh you know this and that and that and i'm so thankful that we've got this thing over here that god is putting favor on and when we find ourselves in a different head space by just folk and it's it sounds so stupid but we're just vocalizing it letting it come out of your mouth something happens i think mental illness i think you know i think the the the name and claim of the faith they're on to something when you say it yeah you kind of start to believe it it's an it's interesting thing that happens yeah you know what the scripture says let the weak say i am strong there's something about making the proclamation that is contrary to your natural train of thought it's not it's not magical it's not mind over matter kind of a thing it's it's coming into alignment with the heart of god come into alignment with the heart of god he says you're strong you know he shows up to gideon uh you know and he calls him a strong man a mighty warrior and gideon's going yeah yeah have you seen me yeah i'm 12 no yeah exactly um so let's move to the second part emotional health is connected to rejoicing in all things and some things are i mean let's be honest we have people watching that have lost loved ones to this virus we have people watching that spent 30 years building a business that has now it's now gone um really tough situations out here [Music] rejoice in all things it still says to rejoice in all things you don't get to choose the circumstances you get to choose how you're going to respond in what way has rejoicing changed things for you in tough things well i think we all have had moments in our lives where we've had the option to sink into whatever it is and then god knows what the outcome would be yeah yeah yeah you know and we've seen it in people that have chosen and it's or to rejoice so for me i think it saved probably my marriage it's saved my life it's probably saved multiple things cause you know there's those moments where you're in that um you know that moment of just like i'm gonna give in to it or i'm gonna choose to rejoice so for me i will believe it's life and death i think you know and i can think of moments that that happened and i'm sure everyone else can um but but i do think the the the continuing of rejoicing always always that always word that's the hard part because even though you overcome one thing and because you've rejoiced and you got through it things are going to come there's more stuff that's going to be coming down the road that are out of our control and um i mean i can even i can even think of uh um there's been some moments where even with the the house stuff that we're doing that that i believe that because you know we've chosen to take the low road in a couple circumstances and still believe and rejoice i think god's brought favor to us so i think favor is a big part of it a lot of us want favor you know we want like the business that's failed you know well i think that god has the second chapter for those people yes um in life that possibly might have interest involved like bigger and better i think god is always into growth and with interest and it's going to be you know the seven times more but i think that walking through that with rejoice always gets us to his promise which is better than what we're even in now so i think a lot of people right now could succumb to that reality that they lost everything or this this is real what happened but if they can hang on to that word and rejoice through it i think that god's favor is waiting for them yeah at the other end of that yeah i uh some years ago uh started learning this this concept this phrase faith does not deny the existence of a problem it denies the problem a place of influence and so if somehow we could learn to turn the rejoice button on and never turn it off in other words let that learn to let that be our initial reaction to a difficulty that i'm going to celebrate the goodness of godliness never forget the goodness of god for me it's the goodness of god is the cornerstone of everything it's the non-negotiable and if i can keep that in focus then it will define how i respond to situations so our our devotional life our rejoicing our giving thanks or times of worship the decisions we make to turn to the word in crisis all those things come out of a burning conviction that god is good he is absolutely good always and uh it's not negotiable it's not negotiable i have to i have to somehow learn to live from that one thing i have felt during this um in fact i was just telling eric this morning the valley of dry bones you know in uh ezekiel that the the prophet was to prophesy to the four winds and there would be life come i just want to declare i i believe that there are certain businesses that look beyond saving there are certain marriages that look beyond the ability to reconcile there are certain lost conditions children who have walked away with the lord from the lord that are so far gone maybe some even in a vegetative state because of a drug overdose or whatever none of those things are outside of god's reach and i feel like we are supposed to prophesy and declare to the four winds bring the restoration of god bring the healing of god to these impossible situations i want to move towards closing this and i want to i want to run off that because at the beginning you talked about worshiping and coming into this place where you're not now just in a defensive posture but you're now in the aggressive posture do you find yourself making decrees in declarations i mean not just petitions but actually declaring stuff how does that what does that look like for you well i think it's connected to of a belief and a feeling the holy spirit speaking something into something bringing someone to my mind so that i would turn into you know turn it prophesy i i just speak this over this thing i speak you know um say one more time it was just you come to this place from defense to offense and you move into an intercessory thing where you're praying but do you find yourself declaring oh yeah prophesying over people yeah and that well that to me that's the final exactly that's the finish line that's the right answer yeah well you're welcome you should have just said it no no no no no no you you find it that's right in a in a in a position of it's almost like a gift where you're like an hour ago i was totally not even close to there exactly questioning everything and now i'm in this like superman posture how did that happen yeah if you connect the dots it's like oh my goodness it's all the things we've been talking about and i think god's desire for us is to live in this it is posture so 100 that's exactly right well i want to ask if you would pray over uh the watching audience bethel tv youtube and i want specifically i want you to pray for you know the lord's you know when you when you go through pain you go through difficulty and you come out on the other side through yieldness surrender you actually have an authority you may not feel powerful sometimes but you have an authority and you you have an authority in this area i've watched our different members of our team who have gone through hell and high water but they've come out celebrating the goodness and the kindness of god they've come out with authority and you have that and i want you to pray just a real mantle of anointing for worship in houses in homes that our homes would be filled with the light the fire the presence of god yeah do that would you please well we just speak over everyone that's listening right now for the authority from god yes god with worship and song and music and surrender and all those things praise the high praise of god in the household and i just see even right now like there's children that god is putting this mantle on wow come on yeah in this in this pause season in this reset season that um and and maybe it might even be through the parents taking on this posture putting on worship music for the first time and god using that to anoint and put a mantle on children for praise to all the judas in the world and i just speak [Music] i speak that authority that even if it's a simple song an out of tune song it doesn't none of that matters in this in regard to what we're talking about but an authority for praise that moves mountains that shakes the heavens that actually causes change whether it's for your business for your family dynamic for stress anxiety for all the different things sickness that music and worship those connected things would cause such change and drastic um measures that you would be surprised yes that god used that and so we just release that and and i do really just pray over all the judas all the all the praisers right now the young people and old that you're that you're putting your hand of anointing on like you did david you know david was out with the sheep and you put your hand of anointing on his life and i pray that right now in this reset in this pause at this incubation period where you would be anointing and calling people out people that were going one direction now we're going to be going a different direction almost because they had to stop and you're doing a reset and we just speak that over everyone watching amen that's as a very powerful prophetic decree over our children and young people all of us actually but i i i think you hit something there that the lord is doing a reset as it pertains to recognizing and living from the actual presence of god so we bless you in jesus name we're so glad you joined us and i want to encourage you once again we have pastors on call online both betheltv youtube come to jesus come to jesus come dean with whatever issues you have and let's watch the love of god touch and transform your life we bless you in jesus name thanks for joining us 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] how many uh do we still have people here from the uh heaven in business conference this week is there any that we're a part of oh good i'm glad you're here good to have you and uh such a wonderful time at that event it's just so fun to see what jesus is doing all over the world in every area of life it is so encouraging to see things that i kind of hoped and believed were true 30 years ago and it's actually doing it it's actually happening and just such an encouragement to me i do have something to read two political rivals uh found that they were both in a bakery at the same time during their campaign one was uh rather sneaky and came to the other one and sees see how clever i am the owner didn't even notice but i took three of his pastries put him in my pocket that's why i'm going to win the election the other one said that's so typical of you deceit and theft i'm going to show you how to get the same results honestly so he went to the owner of the bakery says give me three pastries and i'll show you a magic trick the baker gives him three pastries he eats one after the other and the baker says so what's the magic trick he says do you want to see them reappear look in that person's pocket [Applause] oh yeah why don't you grab your bibles if you would to end open to philippians chapter 4. i've had two reoccurring themes in in my heart for the last um at least six months in fact i wrote out uh we're gonna read verse eight a little bit but i i wrote out a whole study on that um that i did maybe maybe as much as a year ago at least six eight months ago just for myself just just because i could feel what was happening uh in the air so to speak um i've been very very much aware of the battle that has been going on for many people in their thought life in the mind and i i don't like talking about anything negative in a way that fuels it sometimes we have the ability to talk about problems and we act and we actually make the problems grow and so i'm not interested in that of obviously but i do want to address a a couple things um the two items that have been on my mind a lot are going to merge today in today's talk one is the issue of prayer the whole thing of first love relationship with jesus and the second is the whole issue of the of the mind and what god has assigned for us to do with with the mind the enemy is is very very nervous about uh several things about your life and mind one is that he works to keep keep us exposed to anxiety stress those kinds of things because that undermines our creative expression it's very difficult to operate out of a place of health when you're anxious and stressful when you're filled with anxiety and stress the goal of survival not creative expression and and the lord really desires longs to express who he is through his people his own nature his the way he functions his beauty the glory the creative all that stuff flows through a yielded believer when they are free from the issues of anxiety and stress and it is possible to live free of anxiety and stress jesus illustrates it he's headed to the cross and he's giving thanks we'll look at that a little bit more later but the point is as both paul and jesus illustrate something that's almost scary profound and how they model life going into the most difficult situation possible but they did it not just as survivors not just to stay positive and you know stiff upper lip that whole thing but as an overcomer they went into a hellish situation it came out absolutely glorious because there was a way to think i'm not talking about mind over men i'm not talking about just mental exercise i'm talking about a perception that comes when we see what jesus sees we see the way he sees so the enemy has several things that he's very very i believe nervous about uh three i'll mention uh to you today the first is is this issue of uh of creativity and i'm not putting these in in perhaps the right order but i'm just going to randomly mention them the first is the creative expression no one who knows who god made them to be would ever want to be anyone else the uniqueness of every individual is so beautiful and so profound that stepping fully into who god made us to be is the greatest privilege in life and there is no comparison when you look at another person as to what you could actually become by god's design so the creative expression is very rich and very real the second thing is that the enemy uh is very very nervous about um the whole issue of of of our first love relationship with the lord that's been on my mind a lot lately and the lord has just kind of re stirring my own heart stirring the pot so to speak about this intimate relationship with god because what happens is anxiety infects love you can't be anxious and keep the kind of fervent relationship with the lord that all of us long for i don't mean that we've rejected him he's rejected us i i'm not saying that i'm just saying anxiety is exalting another ideal over what he has promised i am actually giving my heart my thoughts to that which is inferior to the word of the lord it is true that love annihilates fear but it's also true if i embrace anxiety fear any of that stuff that i have allowed something into my life that will infect love and the first thing to be addressed is my is my first love relationship with jesus i remind you of the passage in revelation chapter 2 where jesus is addressing the church at ephesus a great church and he honors them for so many things but then he says i have this against you you've left your first love that that you used to burn with you don't burn with anymore you've got the structure down you've got the skill down you're functioning the gifts well but this first love this burning affection that we are to carry for jesus is not like it used to be and then he gives specific instruction so we've got the creative expression we've got the first love and the third thing i would mention is that the attack on uh the the the fear let me back i'm sorry every thought comes from fear or love every word out of my mouth comes from fear or love so what does what does the enemy want to undermine then he's working if he can if he can get me to compromise my first love then he can get me to lose my sense of identity and that's what fear and anxiety does it causes me to lose track of the tools he's given me the authority he's given me peace is is a huge part of god's economy for us as a believer um i've talked to you even in recent weeks and months about this issue for me whenever i you know i i let's just say let's take a a it's eleven o'clock in the morning and i'm feeling all anxious and stressful and i go man what happened and i just i i i asked myself the question where did you leave your piece because i had it it it's mine it's my possession so i just got to find out where i dropped it so i back up and i go okay oh yeah i was feeling stressful there there oh it was that phone call i got this morning and it might not even been a bad one but my reaction to information or to a situation was for me to become anxious and i embraced a lie i embraced inferior information over the word of the lord over my life it wasn't a conscious decision but it happened nonetheless and so what i have to do is always have to repent my way back to where i left my peace repent confess my sin pick it up and just realize it's my permanent possession peace in the kingdom is is very very uh profound because peace is not the absence of something it's the presence of someone peace is actually a person it's the abiding presence of the spirit of god in my life i'm not saying i can drop it or leave it in the sense that he abandons me but my my the the felt awareness of him gets laid aside in the world peace is always the absence of something it's the absence of noise or war or conflict in the kingdom you can be in the middle of all those and have peace because peace is a person so i repent my way back embrace peace once again and use that as my lifestyle we're going to look at why now um one more one more two more comments before we open the scripture although you already have it open right philippians 4 you're so good i'm in your life to teach you patience that's why i'm here the other side of this issue that we'll read about in a moment is the amazing purpose in prayer prayerlessness is costly it's probably would be worth a study sometime just to look at the cost of pearlescent prayerlessness but let me give you two things right now in scripture it says you have not because you ask not so the implication in that verse is prayerlessness creates lack yeah we often think in terms of lack being god's sovereign will for our life and it's not it's just lack fills in where perilous prayerlessness exists amen bill it's very good point amen keep it up stay encouraged and the second price that i will mention to you about prayerlessness as jesus taught he said pray so that you will enter temptation pray make sure you maintain prayer in your life so that you don't enter temptation so the implication is if i am prayerless i will face temptation i have no grace for and it doesn't mean i am prone to sin i may resist the temptation but the problem is prayerlessness created a battle i didn't need to fight prayerlessness put me into a conflict of a war of wills of decision and let's just say i win i make it through i don't do what i was tempted to do the problem is is because i was prayerless i actually attracted the situation into my life that was completely unnecessary if god designs for us to face a battle it's only because he's already given us the tools to win and he wants to punish the powers of darkness it's never so that we would fall or falter if he allows the battle it's only that we get to enforce his purposes in the earth but there's many battles that people face that were brought on by prayerlessness i'm just here to encourage philippians 4 philippians 4 let's read some scripture we'll start with verse 4 rejoice in the lord always again i will say rejoice i remind you paul writes this from prison he's giving us tried and tested truths out of his own experience rejoice in the lord always i don't know if you've ever looked it up but that word always means always again i will say rejoice let your gentleness be known to all men the lord is at hand be anxious for nothing that's one commandment i have obeyed 100 of the time because everything i've ever been anxious over came to nothing maybe that's not what he meant all right be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind through christ jesus be anxious for nothing but everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through christ jesus there's a picture painted for us in this part of philippians 4 of a military guard protecting a person's heart and mind heart the place where thoughts come from the mind itself and that military guard is there because of the previous verse pray over everything with thankfulness if you look at the nature of thankfulness it is i don't think we could over emphasize it i'm not sure that it's possible to exaggerate the power of thankfulness jesus on the night in which he was betrayed he took bread he broke it and he gave thanks he's about to be betrayed by judas and he's about to be forsaken by all 11 disciples that he is now breaking bread with he's about to experience the most gruesome death anybody's ever faced not only because of the crucifixion the scourging all that he went through but because of the weight of sin itself that came upon him you know what it is to sin and feel guilty and shameful multiply that by billions of people with millions of sins on one particular individual when the soldiers came to kill the three on the cross they didn't have to kill jesus because he was already dead why because the weightiness of sin that's why he said god why'd you forsake me because in that moment he became sin when was forsaken by the father the two thieves had to be killed because theirs was just a crucifixion i don't mean to make light of it i'm just saying the weightiness of sin he became that which the father despised which was sin but he did that so that we could become what the father delighted in and that was the righteousness of god it was an exchange so in that moment which was his most difficult moment most difficult moment in all of human history in that moment he broke bread and he gave thanks i'd like to suggest that these difficult moments throughout scripture are the moments where he sets an example a model for us that can and must be followed the thankfulness regardless of circumstances to maintain maintain thankfulness in those circumstances keeps us like attached to life source in a sense in a very practical way maintaining thankfulness keeps us sane when things are not going right it keeps us connected to the to the right thing so we've got this interesting passage i want you to look at it again 6 7 and this time we'll read 8. be anxious for nothing verse 6 but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god now here's the result and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through christ jesus verse 8 finally brethren whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are good report if there's any virtue if there's anything worthy praiseworthy meditate on these things what do we have here we've got we've got two um two verses that give us instruction the first one is pray over everything with thankfulness verse eight says think on these things sandwiched those two verses sandwich the promise and the promise is his peace will protect you but it has responsibility given to you and me on both sides the first has to do with prayer and the second has to do with what we choose to think about jesus gave an illustration a a kind of a parable he he talked about the human being like a house and in this illustration he said if a house has all this junk in it and it's clean and it's swept but the owner doesn't refill the house with correct things the enemy that once dwelled in the house comes back seven times worse but the house in this in this example is actually a human being and so here jesus says pray over everything i'll guard your heart and mine now fill the house with the right things do you understand that you you can think about anything you want nobody has control over your mind i can think about pink elephants right now if i want to and i just helped you to do the same you're welcome no one controls that part of our life so what's the issue is that when we begin to submit ourselves to the inferior we allow anxiety stress to fill our minds with although the what-ifs that have no life to them there's no promise to them and the enemy again is working to undermine identity first love relationship and this whole thing of being an authentic representation of jesus he fears that he fears it so much that in the book of zechariah when zechariah was talking about these four beings rose up in the earth to destroy the people of god they're illustrated with the term horns horns uh are are figurative for authority for powers and so the lord says these four horns were raised up in the earth to just to wipe out the people of god and god's answer was to raise up four artisans the creatives in other words the authentic expression of who jesus is in a human being he was gonna in the four corners of the earth he was going to do the same thing in the four corners of the earth have an honest authentic representation of who jesus is released through his people and that authentic expression would be the very thing that would defeat the four horns that authentic expression of people who reign remain in first love and find that is their identity that is what the enemy works at every time he tries to stir up the stress the anxiety all the junk because when i am anxious i have bought into something that's inferior i love this verse verse eight i i like it because i like really practical things because i need practical things he says i this is just some of um the study that i did for myself this last year sometime but he said look at verse 8 again finally brethren whatever things are true things that are true are absolute and they're liberating remember truth sets you free so think about that which is absolute and liberating whatever things are true whatever things are noble that word noble is honorable revered whenever things are just that is righteous correct innocent whatever things are pure that's holy and sacred whatever things are lovely that's pleasing and agreeable whatever things are good report that's well reported of it's attractive whatever things are if there's any virtue this word virtue is moral goodness but it's also excellence and if there's anything praiseworthy this i don't know if if this will make sense to you but sometimes i'm having i'll have been having a real battle maybe somebody you know just did something that really really was against what they should have done i'll be nice somebody just really steps outside the line of what they're doing and maybe representing me or us as a house whatever it might be and you know like anybody else i got this mind thing going on where i've got to make sure that i stay i can't ignore a problem if i'm responsible but i also don't have to fuel it with my own stress and anxiety because then i will come to wrong conclusions and i will misapply truth for my sake and not theirs that was more true than you realize and the scripture says i'm supposed to fill my mind with certain things and if i'm struggling with that here's what i do i will think about my wife because she is everything in verse 8. she is she is so true so absolute so life-giving she is so lovely and praise-worthy and virtuous she is so excellent all those things i honestly will just stop if i'm having a difficult day i'd go okay i've got to recalibrate what is it that i love about my wife and i start to think specifically about those things and it's hard to be mad at anybody when you start thinking of those kinds of things are you catching my drift here it's hard if i'm filling my heart and mind recalibrating what's important recalibrating my heart my mind my thought life to what's valuable as soon as i do that something takes place in in me where i'm at a place where i maybe i have a responsibility with this individual that is just betrayed or done something dumb maybe i have a responsibility there but when i recalibrate my thoughts as to what is righteous and good i don't come to that person that i need to work with abusively i come to them in grace does that make any sense to you you know this thing has to be practical and jesus illustrated it the best i want you to look at one more portion of scripture and then we'll we'll wrap this up go to john 13. john 13. this is something we studied here i think a couple of years ago now but it uh very very meaningful passage to me jesus is soon to go to the cross i've already described a little bit just the suffering that he was to go through the abandonment by all of his disciples the betrayal by judas himself all of this that he was that he knew about that he was just stepping into in this moment it tells us what he was thinking in that moment which is this was this is what floors me he he was doing what we were instructed to do in philippians 4. so this is what he is conscious of in verse 3. jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from god and was going to god rose from supper laid aside his garments took a towel girded himself the next couple verses he washes the disciples feet there's three things that are very specific for any person in this room let me let me announce to you why i'm talking about this today i felt this morning in praying that god was actually going to end a mental battle for a number of people and it will end in here today i i really sense that this morning i felt like i had a word of promise from the lord regarding this if you've been here any length of time you know i don't throw that kind of a statement out very often but i felt this morning that the lord was going to bring peace to a chaotic anxious thing for a number of folks and i i've not seen a a season like this in fact there's been a number of suicides across our nation of high people even in ministry and it's just one of the most horrible things bitterness is immature murder self-condemnation and self-hatred is immature suicide in other words it's just undeveloped and it's the reason we have to stay so far away from those kinds of patterns of thought it's not that i'm going to go kill myself it's just that it is already killing me life and death is in the power of the time we even people who don't murder still speak unkindly and release death into a given situation so in this passage it tells us this jesus knowing so that tells me what jesus was conscious of as he was about to head into this betrayal cross situation what does it say it says jesus knowing all things had been given to him by the father there's an interesting twist you're about to lose your life and what you're thinking about is that everything is yours you're about to suffer the greatest loss anyone has ever experienced and what's on your mind is i've already re-inherited everything this is this is this is practical he says jesus knowing all things had been given to him by the father just a little insert here jesus as god already owned everything but he laid that down if you will to become a man and he now re-inherits everything as a man it's mentioned in john 16. so here it's identified he says jesus knowing all things have been given to him by the father number one and number two he came from the father and he was about to go home in other words he was going to step into eternal purpose and eternal destiny so what was he thinking about when he was about to be betrayed that unlimited resource and a destiny that can't be challenged or changed that's that's about as practical as it is it gets facing betrayal crucifixion all the stuff is thinking about i've just inherited everything now as the son of man and i'm about to ascend to the father into eternal destiny eternal purpose and the third thing he did was he washed his disciples feet what's the point come back next week and i'll tell you it's an overused joke sorry to me the serving is what this will be a weird illustration jesus mindful everything was his he was going to the father two-part epoxy it was the serving that brought him together it was what makes practical his own confidence in his own destiny is the fact that he lost nothing by going low many people can't go low because their identity is wrapped up in a title or a position when jesus illustrates going low is actually revealed his security watches then now i'm in a moment i'm going to give people an opportunity to meet jesus it's the most important thing that could happen today so i'm going to ask everybody to not walk around because i don't want anyone's restlessness to affect anybody else's opportunity to respond to an invitation i want you to respect that there's always a chance when we have this amount of people in a room that there are folks here who have never had a personal relationship with jesus the bible calls it being born again it's simply faith that we put in christ to follow him alone that brings a transformation to the heart of a person born again from the inside out changed and that is made available to everybody here and i want to give the opportunity if you would be one who would say bill i don't want to leave the room i don't want to leave the building till i know that god has forgiven me of sin and that i've been brought into his family i want to follow jesus if that's you then i just want more yards put a hand up in here and i'll just acknowledge you where you are if that's you just put a hand up right here yep see you bless you for that wonderful anybody else is there another one back over here there's another one back over here i bless you yeah wonderful beautiful another one where [Applause] over here okay oh excellent beautiful wonderful is another one over here thank you it's the greatest greatest thing ever it's the greatest miracle ever anyone else real real quick we have three that i could see responded to this invitation here's what i want to ask we have people that we know and trust that i want to pray with you and talk with you it's not about bethel or membership it's about your walk with jesus because we want you to experience his love in a way that changes everything from this moment on so i'm going to ask two things to happen at the same time i want to ask the ministry team to come to the front and i want to ask the three people that raised your hand and any others that i missed just walk right up here to this team where this banner is and these folks here will talk with you and pray with you so if you would just leave your seat wherever you're at come down here right now ministry team come quickly yeah those those who raise their hand come on come on down here i want to make sure yeah bless you bless you bless you right here all right all right well i love that here now i want to pray over you because i i really i really felt strong this morning that the lord was going to end for many many many people he was going to end a mental battle that has been going on for a long time in fact i just i feel like i just should announce this is this is the end of that of that season of anguish anxiety nothing ends circumstances don't always immediately end sometimes it's me who need to change so that they can change and i i just i really believe that the lord is releasing your grace for this right now so let's pray together and then i'll turn it over to tom and we'll wrap it up all right so father i thank you for the the fact that you give us tools that work and that we can expect and anticipate things to be different simply because we have anchored our hearts into the superior not to be influenced by the inferior i'm asking now for a grace over the heart and the mind of the people of god that our thought life would accurately represent who you are and the resource you've made available for us i ask all of this in the wonderful name of jesus extend the hand towards these that are receiving christ today we pray as again lord that the power of the spirit of god would come upon each one anyone else in the room that still needs this that the power of the spirit of god would come so mightily that there would be permanent transformation that would ripple through their entire family line in jesus name everybody said amen amen tom come hang out a moment you

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Length: 76min 20sec (4580 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021