Bill Johnson - Worship In All Seasons | Teaching Moment

listen we're gonna bounce around a little bit I gotta talk about worship but here's what I want to do I want you to go to Psalms eight and I pick a text and then work on that for a bit when I teach in this school but I'm not going to today I'm going to bounce around a bit and this is a first school in a long time I will I actually will be back on Friday so I get to do more than one session which is nice I at this time of year is usually a time where I'm traveling and so I'm happy happy about that turn to Psalms 8 but also turn to Matthew 21 because I want you to see these two passages together Matthew 21 is where Jesus actually quotes this song and that's what I'm wanting wanting you to see all right Psalms 8 is where we'll read verse 2 out of the mouths of babes in nursing infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy of the avenge and the Avenger all right look at it again out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the Avenger Jesus quoted this passage in Matthew 21 but I want you to hear how he quoted it he said in verse 16 he said do you hear what these are saying and Jesus said to them yes have you never read out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise and Psalms 2 he says you have ordained strength in Matthew 21 he says you've perfected praise Jesus either misquoted the Bible which is hard for him to do since he is the word it's hard for God to not have something to say he is the word Jesus either misquoted the Bible or he gave us an insight as to what the psalmist was writing about when he said that children out of the mouths of babes they've ordained strength here's what I want you to see as we get as we get going this morning out of the mouths of babes praise is perfected according to Jesus in Psalms 20 or in Matthew 21 when he says that praise is perfected another translation says established because what I want to do this word praise in Matthew 21 is actually a word that means story and so when you see strength Psalms 8 says strength Psalms Matthew 21 I'll get it right Matthew 21 says establish strength he is interpreting the fact that praise is the way to personal strength but the word used in Matthew 21 is a word that actually means story and so in New Testament worship we are actually unpacking the complete story of God's goodness in decrees it's a story it says though you were sitting down with children and you were telling the story of your vacation or or where you were born or some experience you had in high school or whatever it might be but it's unpacking the story at one point Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and he says in chapter 3 he's got this dialogue going with him about being born again and he says we speak he's talking about the Father Son Holy Spirit who's not talking about him in the Angels if you read the context they don't know one has a clue what's going on but God he says we speak what we know we testify what we have seen but no one receives our witness what is he saying he's saying we have stories to tell you but people don't seem to be interested in the doors what stories the stories of God I don't know if this strikes up any curiosity in you but I want to know how the Holy Spirit was released from heaven the Bible says the highways to Zion the highways to heaven built in praise how the Holy Spirit came and invaded 120 people in an upper room and took the ordinary and made them extraordinary touched them with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead I want to know how that happened I want to hear the story I remember when my my grandparents were still alive and my parents they would tell us family stories I love to hunt and fish so that's just a part of my divine call I I i send animals to meet jesus and they contribute to my own personal health and strength i I caught some black snapper this week that we will be eating very soon anyway I love to hunt fish and so when my grandparents were alive they would tell a story stories about when they were raised and their hunting dog and their you know the activities in the snow and I just love to hear the family stories and we have family stories and they go back throughout all of eternity and the father is looking for someone to tell the story to those stories must be proclaimed they must be declared they must have songs written about we need more songs about the actual nature of God the person of God the presence of God this light is traveling real fast from the light bulb to the stage Jesus is the expression of the light of the Father he is he is that which came from the Father and is the expression the manifest expression of the father he's the exact image of the Heavenly Father and the beauty in the splendor his beauty is beyond all measurement in beauty his wonder is beyond and above all wonders his glory exceeds every ability that we might have to perceive in comprehend glory this is who he is in this one becomes manifest upon people that recognize him the Bible says we magnify the Lord how many know magnify means to make big you can't make him any bigger than he is so how can you actually magnify the Lord in the sense of making bigger you can't make God any bigger what happens however is that as we give God praise and we magnify him he becomes bigger in our circumstances in in the situation's of our own life through decrease see nothing happens in the kingdom until first there's a declaration praise is that decree that invites him to come and do what might otherwise not be done people sometimes get a little irritated at at me I don't know why but it happens known them and and they don't like messing with the subject of the sovereignty of God for example let me just mess with you a little bit how many you know God is in charge of everything do you think God is in control of everything every parent should know the answer to this one you're in charge but because there's freewill in your house you're not in control not every decision that's made is made according to your desire yes all right we sing about God being in control but actually he created us with a free will and gave us a measure of choice what is the will of God in the earth one of the things that is the will of God is that it would become here as it is in heaven and so we sing that we pray it we contend for what else God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance is anyone perishing yes is that his will no when we talk about our influence it's not in violation of the sovereignty of God God in his sovereign plan wrote your role as a place of influence in unfolding his sovereign plan do you know that if we don't preach the gospel Jesus isn't coming back to do it there isn't a plan B there isn't a plan B when he passed the baton to the church and he says all right I'm the light of the world and he says all right now you're the light of the world it was actually passing off a responsibility that he refused to come and reclaim when he told the disciples to they had a crowd in front of them they've only got a boy's lunch they have no way to feed the crowd there's no food anywhere except a boy's lunch jesus said to them you feed them and when they were dumbfounded as to how that could even be possible Jesus didn't change the assignment instead he showed them how to do what was impossible to do sometimes when you're willing to do what you're not qualified to do that's what qualifies you the impossible is at the fingertips of those who say yes to anything God commands because in the command is the ability to do what he said to do the Word of God is a creative force he spoke the worlds into being so whenever he speaks to you he creates capacity I suppose if I could choose one thing that I would want everyone in this room to leave with at the end of however long the school is sorry I don't know I know it's more than a day if there were one thing I could choose I think the thing I would choose is that everybody in this room your ability and passion to hear the voice of God would multiply many many times over because the scripture says we don't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God our life is in his voice our life is in his voice when he speaks there's this how many member of this verse nothing will be impossible with God nothing that word nothing is actually two words it's the word no and it's the word rain mount Rhema which is interpreted word it implies the word Rhema often implies a freshly spoken word of God in other words that which not which is written but that which has been freshly spoken by the Lord I mean no he can take what is written and freshly breathe that into your life all right so when he speaks to us and never contradicts what's written all right so nothing is impossible with God nothing no thing no freshly spoken Word of God will be impossible with the impossible means without ability so here's how one way that that verse can be translated no freshly spoken Word of God will ever come to you that does not contain its own ability to perform itself no freshly spoken Word of God will ever come to you that does not contain its own ability to perform itself the ability for the miraculous is in the seed in the word that God has spoken to us and so hearing from the Lord as we sing as we worship in the preaching in the one-on-one conversation all of us have this ability to hear from God and to repeat what he says more and more you watch over the next 10 years more and more some of the most extraordinary miracles we will ever see will actually take place during worship times when decrees are made by those who are speaking or those who are singing those who are leading and song a decree will be made and miracles will be released not to manipulate not to cause in a sense that we want to force something to happen but to hear the heartbeat of God to hear his heartbeat to hear what he what he longs to do what he has such a passion to do what Jesus has paid the price to accomplish and when we see this thing released over congregations you will see extraordinary things happen we've had this happen for years but it happens at a small a real small level I I do remember one Sunday we had two people over here with broken they had both had problems in their bodies because of broken necks and they both came to me separately before at the end of the meeting as at the back door and they told me their story they were healed during worship of the severe problems that they faced because it broken necks when did it happen it happened during worship we have these things happen we had a gentleman visiting us sitting right in the back here from visiting from the UK and he came just kind of not really to receive but more to examine to kind of check things out and he was encouraged to do so he said I'll go so he came and he had just sold all of his sporting equipment anything to do it was very active with kayaking and and all kinds of outdoor sports but he had such a severe injury of his shoulder that couldn't be repaired spent all this money and III think there I don't know if there was multiple surgeries what there was but anyway they just they finally came to the conclusion he's gonna have to live with this injury and he sent right in the back and during the worship he's just kind of looking around and then he got really ticked off because somebody spilled coffee all over his shoulder and he turned around to express himself and there was nobody there and then he realized that heat that went all over his arm was not coffee but was actually the fire of God he was just during worship and these things happen but I'm telling you I thought you're going to multiply but they're not multiplying because we are targeting the miraculous they are multiplying because we're targeting giving glory to the one who has worth worthy of glory so here Jesus says the psalmist says I've ordained strength Jesus says that strength is found in praise it's found in telling the story of His goodness and listen you cannot exaggerate the story of God's goodness try you have permission from God to try the rest of your life to exaggerate it's good you can't exaggerate it you can distort it you can pervert it you can miss apply it but you can't exaggerate it it is absolutely beyond measure His goodness it's the cornerstone of all theology as the goodness of God what did Jesus come to do we know that he came to die we know that he came to destroy the works of the Evil One we know that he came to initiate a realisation of the kingdom of God come to earth we know that he came to do a number of things and you go through the scriptures we know that he came to reveal the name of the Father that's in John 17 are you guys alive everybody's still alive we know that he came to do a number of things but if you take everything that's on the list reading through all of the New Testament that describes why he came it all sums up in one phrase he came to reveal the father why because we live on a planet of orphans and he came to reveal the father and your job and my job is to learn the story of his goodness put them into words if they rhyme and they're worthy of a song wonderful if they don't rhyme they're not worthy of a song is still needed to be declared don't do don't do things for performance do things because the right do things because they are true you can sing a prophetic song that will never be repeated again that's fine don't do something to market it do something because in the moment it's alive in the moment it's a lot in the moment the breath of God is on that phrase on that statement on that theme and you just flow with that theme and you you you you lose track of what's going to be remembered what's going to be recorded that's that is so not important in moments like that I think if we were I think if we were willing to be less perfect we'd become more perfect I think for a thinker this see perfection is religion excellence is Kingdom and excellence is anchored in what's alive and what's true and if we can anchor ourselves into the things that God is breathing on we will end up with things that look very very perfect but we didn't get there because we were striving for perfection we were striving for excellence we were fighting we were contending to illustrate who this father is to a planet of orphans all right now let's go to where I really wanted to go go with me to somewhere in the Bible I want you to go with me the Psalms no to Isaiah Isaiah 60 and this 60 put a piece of paper there or something and then jump over to Psalm 102 a lot of what I'm going to try to address today will be covered I'm sure much more thorough by some of the others we'll be spending time with you but I I wanted you to see something that just makes me so happy Psalms 102 verse 18 well we'll go to Isaiah after this all right psalms 102 verse 18 this will be written for a generation to come that a people yet to be created may praise the lord for he looked down from the height of his sanctuary from heaven to view the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoner to release those appointed to death to declare the name of the lord in zion his praise in jerusalem go back to verse 18 alright this will be written for the generation to come that he people yet to be created may praise the Lord alright stop right there since the garden where Adam and Eve were created there has never been a another creation of humanity are you with me this says a people yet to be created he never came and recreated or created more people on there there was Adam there was Eve and they reproduced but this prophecy says there's going to be a people yet to be created that will praise the Lord and the reason they will praise the Lord is because he looked from his height in heaven and he saw people bound in in prison so somehow the release of prisoners is connected to the praise of God's people are you talking with me alright so what's this created people Paul talks about it in second or thien's 5:17 I think 5:17 where he says you are a new creation old things have passed away all things have become new how many remember that it's the only time there has been a new creation in fact the Bible declares that you as born again people are descendants of Abraham but actually a new race a chosen race according to 1st Peter 2:9 a chosen race a royal people a priesthood a people for God's own possession a new created group of people are the people sitting in this room born again born of the Spirit of God the Bible calls a new creation so here the psalmist is sitting hundreds and hundreds of years ago and he sees something off into the future and he prophesies in song he says what's about to be done is written for a generation to come a people that aren't even created yet he didn't say people born he said he people created and he looked off into the future when there would be this experience where people would be actually born again of the Spirit of God into newness of life were the resurrection power of Jesus that raised him from the dead moves into us takes up residence within the physical being of every born-again believer making us new from the inside out not conforming from the outside in but new from the inside out are you following alright so he looks ahead and he sees this moment when there's going to be a new race of people on the earth now let's you get any ideas about a superior race and that that whole don't go there that's the spirit of stupid it's simply something that every human being is invited to come into through a rebirth experience see he looks at he says if people yet to be created will praise the Lord why he says in verse 19 for he looked down from heaven and he saw the groaning of the prisoner make the connection there's going to be people created and they're going to be created to praise they're going to be created for the purpose of worship why because God looked down and I saw hearts in prison and he knew that this here would actually break this here this should make you happy alright Isaiah instead of sixty we'll go to 60 to verse ten I'm making you work and I'm not even sorry I'm making you work today you shouldn't have to work so hard on the first session right now well alright first ten go through go through the gates prepare the way for the people build up build up the highway take out the stones lift up a banner for the peoples look at it again verse ten go through go through the gates prepare the way for the people build up build up the highway take out the stones lift up a banner for the people alright look in Isaiah 60 verse 19 or 18 and you will see what he was talking about when he said your gates he says verse 18 violence will no longer be heard in your land neither wasting nor destruction within your borders but you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise all right when you study the scripture you've got to pay attention to the context so what does he say in Isaiah 60 verse 2 he says go through the gates only about 15 verses or so earlier he tells us what the gates are the gates are praise I want you to see I want you to visually see your artist you should be able to see this go through the gates clear the way for the people why because praise is a it is a road building equipment it removes obstacles between people and God that exists in the spirit realm build up the highway what's the highway it's a place of easy access when there's when there's no praise in a city you watch it's very difficult to get people saved but when the church responds to the presence of Lord and his greatness and declares his greatness suddenly people start getting saved in great numbers why because things in the unseen have been dealt with now in Revelation it says that the gates are made of one solid pearl the gates to the City of God are made of one solid pearl how our pearls formed through irritation right irritation anybody can praise when they won the World Cup or the Super Bowl or The Reader's Digest sweepstakes but it's in it's in the praise response in conflict in disappointment in loss that builds a gate and what is the gate for the gate is the place of entrance and access lift up your head o you gates that the King of glory may come in when my my dad died about 10 years ago he moved here to actually help help us in revivals just the most encouraging man I've ever met in my life much of our family or was around his bedside when he took his last breath he died of a disease that we see healed there's confusion there's pain there's loss there's all these things that I don't like and that's that's what define that moment I I asked for the entire family to come and surround the bed and we did several things one of the things we did is my dad had he is the one who really helped to bring breakthrough in the in our city many many years ago in the area of worship he had a very strong mantle in this area and as a family we just made a covenant to pick up that mantle that he had released to the family to the church and that we would we'd never drop it so we made that covenant together first secondly I determined to take what was painful and confusing to me and if you could picture this I'm going to offer God incense and so I took pain and I put it in the fire of incense and I took a loss and I put it I took confusion I took guilt all the stuff and I let it flavor the fragrance of worship because I'll never have the chance to give him that same sacrifice in heaven because in heaven there's no loss there's no confusion there's no mystery there's no guilt none of that stuff I only only have this life this is my only opportunity to give him that prized offering the prized offering that comes out of just the brokenness of my own life and take all of that put it into that fire and then give him honor as the healer even though we didn't see the breakthrough we wanted to see to give honor to God because he is so good to our family and his blessed us so much and we just and we as a family and individually continue just to pile on any confusion any sense of loss any sense of pain just to put it in there and just to offer in in spite of loss in spite of all this that I don't understand and I can't control to offer it up as an offering because I'll never have the chance to give him that gift in heaven this is my only chance and in the pain of that moment to lose the greatest encouragement of my life it's a very painful thing the pain of that moment made that offering more valuable in his own nostrils if you own that's how gates are formed they're formed in conflict the conflict of thought that says wait a minute you didn't get the miracle that you you cried out for that's right and God is still good there's the conflict they give Him praise yeah but you couldn't you should have prayed this way or that way you didn't you didn't pray you didn't you didn't you didn't do these things to get the breakthrough that you could that's right there's conflict just the irritation of these things rubbing together is forming something in me because I'm I'm determined to respond to him based on his goodness not based on my my experience good or bad and see this says go through the gates what are they they're the gates of your own life or you have chosen to give him honor regardless you formed the gates you create the gates by taking your moments your moments of victory if in moments of victory celebrate the goodness of God make sure he gets all the credit for anything good that happens I'm I'm real I'm real serious about this if I'm looking for a parking place and I find one where I need it I give him thanks if I don't find one where I needed I intentionally give him thanks that I have the privilege to walk and to get to where I needed I mean the point is it doesn't matter what happens he's going to receive glory he's going to receive honor and what's happening is that throughout my life throughout the last 45 years about has been the forming of this gate and this says now go through these gates continually go through these gates of praise why because every time I do I clear the way for people praise has become popular and and I'm I don't feel bad about that praise has become excellent our musicians work hard the music that they write I mean my goodness you don't even have to be saved to enjoy you can come in and just sit out how this is this go out Frank we have we have people that companies ago the vibe to the soul good it's all right whatever works whatever but the problem is is the shift can move from the one who is wonderful to the artistic expression itself don't dumb down excellence just make sure you can worship what no one's watching I don't want anyone leading us in worship that doesn't worship when they don't lead you want big breakthroughs on the stage when you're leading the congregation then get a breakthrough and you're by yourself get it when you're by yourself that's when nobody's watching there's something powerful about this passage here in Isaiah 60 to clear the way for the people go through go through the gates prepare the way for the people build up a new America standard I said I think says clear the way for the people if I remember right build up build up the highway take out the stones lift up a banner over the peoples I had a friend years ago I didn't know him well but he was a hero of mine to be with him was honestly like being with the Apostle Paul it was it was just one of these giants of the faith that you ever have those people that you admire so much they scare you to be with them but you but you don't want to leave yeah he's one of those guys and he was the missionary and he was in in Oh get Marshall Islands and he was challenged by some witch doctors one day he says can you do this and he brought they brought him over to a circle of men that began to chant and to chant and do this thing and these dancing women came out of the hut in the middle of this circle of men and they literally floated off the ground into the into the air they levitated off the ground and the witch doctor leaned over to my friend and said can you do this and he said no but I can bring them down they said no you can't this is yep and they just begin to praise Jesus and that's just one of the coolest story no but I can bring them down but here's here's the deal worship you know is this extraordinary weapon of war the Bible declares that declares praise as a weapon of war here's the fine line when my reason for worship is warfare it's no longer worship it's flattery and flattery you do something nice because you want something back and when we worship because we're looking for a certain result let me try this side when we worship because we're looking for a certain result we are doing nothing more than flattery worship is a response to worth that's the nature of worship is an acknowledgement of worth if I'm in the biggest loss of my life or the biggest victory of my life my response is according to his world because his worth remains the same that's the reason I can praise in any situation it's the reason I can bow low in worship and honestly be honest in my expression excuse me in my expression of exulting in its honest its do you know that if I if I worship only when I feel like it that's not honest worship honest worship is when I do it based on who he is not my own circumstances people say well I don't want to I don't know if my hand says I just don't feel like it it wouldn't be genuine oh it's that's the perfect time to do it because that just shows you recognize who's Lord you do it based on who he is not based on how you feel amen bill is very good point [Applause] turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace won't you stand the signal turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the thing will grow strangely dim in the of his club sing it again turn eyes upon Jesus who look for in his wonderful face the [Music] lord I give you my heart I give you [Music] every breath [Applause] [Music] [Applause] ha ha five [Music] I will give you mine [Music] you [Applause] my Harley you I love you when erica our firstborn was just a few months old he got real sick and he had this horribly high fever and really scared us been an hour just really it just scared us especially your firstborn you don't you don't even know how that little thing stays alive you know you're wondering like how does it keep breathing just there's nothing you can do to make this thing work and it just works you know and and he was dead this horribly high fever and I knew that praise was this powerful weapons I said honey let's go stand next to malicious praise and so we did and I was praising because I wanted Eric to be healed and in the middle of this performance of praise I saw my heart that I was actually trying to manipulate God it wasn't evil in the sense that it was outside of his will it was in his purpose to heal but I could see how I was using the opportunity to honor him to get something and I saw I said oh God forgive me and I just I just broke I just broke and I I made this commitment in my heart I'm not even gonna pray for my son we'll just walk this thing out and I just broke before the Lord I said Oh God forgive me and it was exalting you because I was trying to get something forgive me for them and as I began to repent and confess this faith came on me for his healing and all I can tell you is I had determined to not pray for him in one moment and in the next moment I was rebuking this this affliction on his body and it was like it was like the Lord was honoring this moment of brokenness because it's in our weakness that were made strong in the in that in that moment of just confessing this anointing came on me and I turned to my son and I said I rebuke this fever on my son within an hour he was completely fine the Lord used that to help me to see he's not interested in flattery he can create robots to do that he's interested and the sacrifice of the heart the yield is the yield earnest that just in no matter what happens I'm in a position to honor him because he's worthy because he is worth the praise is worth the honor he's worthy of the glory let's sing that laughs just a little bit again I will give you one last time I'll give you Oh Holly you are my friend I love to Oh lift up your praise muscle [Applause]

Channel: WorshipU by Bethel Music

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Keywords: bill johnson, bill johnson sermons, bethel church, bill johnson healing, bill johnson bethel, preaching, bethel music, bethel, jesus, bethel sermons, god, bethel worship, bethel redding, church, bethel.tv, sermon, worshipu, worship u, worship, seasons, music, worship leading, worship leader, worship leading tips, worship team tips, bill johnson sermon, leadership, gospel, praise, brian johnson, jenn johnson, holy spirit, how to lead worship, ministry, christ, bssm, redding california, bible

Id: xJlZyO23ev0

Length: 45min 4sec (2704 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2019