The Fight Over Worldview - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

a couple weeks ago the last time i spoke i mentioned to you what my intentions were i think it'll be for this entire summer that i feel like it's supposed to be a summer of review a summer of review and that we're supposed to take some of the things that have been very important uh to us in study in learning over the past 25 years and i'm going to bring them up again and review them which i did a couple weeks ago today i want you to go if you would to mark chapter eight and uh and i want to talk to you out of this chapter this uh is one of the most important chapters honestly in my life uh that's uh in no way an exaggeration i had an unusual experience probably going back 20 years it seemed that every time i opened my bible it just opened to mark 8. i could be wanting to go to the psalms and it would open the market i'd want to go to you know the book of jude and it would open to mark chapter 8. and it doesn't do that anymore so it's not a crease in the bible it's not a broken spine it just would open to mark 8 over and over and over again and after probably a half a dozen times i thought this is weird maybe i should read it and so i did i i tend to be real systematic in my reading i i'll read like the old testament or new testament or gospels or book of law and i take sections maybe the epistles the minor prophets and i just read over them sometimes i read them over and over again i did the gospels once constantly for 10 years just continually reading and rereading and i discovered it's actually all about jesus that was probably pretty good that i that i read that i read the gospels um but but what i do for my recreational reading which is like it's like going to a cabin on the weekend uh i have certain places that i like to go and feed and mark eight is one of those and there's about eight or ten verses that i feast on and the reason because these verses cut me they literally pierce my soul every time i read them it's a two-edged sword it heals where it cuts so we need to welcome that cutting of the word of the lord into our soul because it actually imparts and shapes a perception of reality that you don't get any other way and i remember dick mills wonderful friend of ours that had this message once if you can imagine uh a guy standing in front of me you know four feet away and he's got this big sword and the tip of the sword is at my chest and then that guy says come here and it was a picture of literally walking into the sword of the lord and that's what we do when we open up the word we open it with him and not just to learn about him but to engage with him mark chapter 8 is this a fascinating story about for me it's about the renewed mind in fact what i plan to do throughout the throughout the summer is on several occasions talk to you out of the gospel of mark because for me the gospel of mark illustrates the renewed mind again for me better than any other part of scripture the renewed mind is essential to our faith every single day of our life the holy spirit is working on us for the renewing of the mind the reason is because it is god's heart to invade this world with his will why the renewed mind it's his heart to invade this world with his will what does it say about the renewed mind in romans 12 verse 2 don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may what prove the will of god that which is good acceptable and perfect what is the will of god best definition for me is found in the prayer that jesus taught his disciples your will be done on earth as it is in heaven pray that with me your will be done on earth as it is in heaven say it again your will be done on earth as it is in heaven so what does a renewed mind do then it proves the will of god we see the miraculous through faith we see the miraculous through presence the most consistent way to see the miraculous is through the renewed mind there's no cancer in heaven he said on earth as it is in heaven and it's through the renewed mind the renewed mind is not the source of faith the mind excuse me faith doesn't come from the mind it comes from the heart faith is not the product of striving as a result of surrender that's why it's a heart issue but the renewed mind creates the context for faith like the banks of a river the renewed mind creates a context for faith to flow in so we see jesus talking to the centurion and he's stunned by his faith when he gives an explanation on how authority works it was his understanding that was renewed came only by revelation understanding of authority that was the context that gave evidence that he had real faith so the lord is i i believe working on us for the renewed mind now a couple weeks ago i likened it unto a truck driver and i'm going to do it again because it fits my illustration best a truck driver will take off with this load and after driving a while that load begins to settle and so the truck driver often will pull over to your truck stop and they tighten down the load because things have shifted and settled how many think maybe in the last 18 months we've had a few things settle and we we need a little bit of cranking down tightening of that load and that's kind of what i feel like we're doing over these next uh number of weeks uh here in the summer mark chapter eight let's begin reading with um with verse 13. and he left them getting into the boat again departed to the other side now the disciples had forgotten to take bread they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat then he charged them saying take heed beware of the leaven of the pharisees and the leaven of herod and they reasoned among themselves saying it is because we have no bread but jesus being aware of it said to them why do you reason because you have no bread do you not yet perceive nor understand is your heart still hardened having eyes do you not see having ears do you not hear and do you not remember when i broke the five loaves for the five thousand how many baskets full of fragments did you take up and they said him twelve also when i broke the seven for the four thousand how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up and they said seven then he said to them how is it you do not understand this is the portion that i read over and over again in fact quite honestly there are times i'll open to this chapter and i will just read and ponder verse 17. jesus being aware of it said why do you reason because you have no bread any thought process that begins with what we don't have will have to be repented of because you can't build anything substantial on that thought it makes a poor foundation for human reasoning that went over pretty good so jesus gives them instruction and he warns them he warns them about leaven the leaven of herod the eleven of the pharisees there is a third eleven in scripture it's in matthew 13 it's the leaven of the kingdom so we know leaven is yeast you work it into dough we lived in weaverville we only had wood heat and not even a little space heater for 17 years and benny would make homemade bread and she would work that yeast and work the dough and sometimes the house was just too cold where the kitchen was so she'd put it right next to the wood stove and the fire would activate the east and it would rise fire always activates whatever yeast is in your mind it always activates it reveals it's a revealer it reveals what's been planted so jesus warns of two different kinds of leaven and 11 represents world view ways of thinking he warns against the pharisee mindset and the political or herod's mindset herod's is the political spirit it doesn't mind you having a belief in god just don't bring him into the equation which sounds very familiar in our political climate doesn't mind a belief in god just don't bring him in where that's a determining factor on policy etc the religious system has got at the center of everything but he's impersonal and powerless he's figurative not relational and the kingdom is opposite of both of those he's at the center of everything and defines everything by his own person his own presence everything is defined by the person of the lord jesus christ every value everything in him we live and consist and have our being so jesus warns about these value systems that could and will persuade you out of the reality of the kingdom of god which is the greatest reality in existence paul told us what you can't see is eternal what you can see is temporal the kingdom of god is not meat or drink it's not here in the physical it's righteousness peace and joy it's in the unseen it's a superior reality but thinking from that place gives you a different approach to a problem in the natural thinking from the natural at best makes you a beggar hoping to god to invade your situation we leave the posture of sons and daughters when we pray only from earth to get him to invade a problem and yet what he's trying to build in us is an awareness of identity and purpose so that we can effectively use his name his authority to accomplish his purposes it's not about our kingdoms it's not about our you know fame or success or any of those things it's not about my fulfillment of dreams that's always a byproduct of fulfilling his if god's not listening to your prayers maybe talk to him about what he likes to talk about just peace all right both of these realities the political spirit the political spirit and the religious spirit both have one overlapping common denominator if you study the gospels you'll see this repeated over and over again both of them are heavily influenced by the fear of man the pharisees wouldn't answer a question because the crowd would turn on them they refused to answer jesus question the political system refused to make this decision because of what this group pilot ended up crucifying jesus because of the political environment they're going to tell caesar the motivator for many decisions in these two realities is the fear of man and the crazy thing is they all think it's wisdom fear masquerades as wisdom whether it's fear of a disease fear of man doesn't matter what it is fear will always attract whatever information is needed to legitimize its existence fear reinforces itself i personally believe there's a little side note here i personally believe that we this everybody i'm sure would agree with we all have strengths but those strengths can be turned into weaknesses would you would you agree with me the boldness of peter didn't always work so well all right but it really worked well once it was under the lordship of jesus are you with me all right the fear of man i think starts out as a tender heart that has compassionate care for other people but the enemy works to manipulate it so that we are actually governed by the gift instead of we govern the gift for kingdom purposes he turns he works to turn our place of perception from compassion and concern for the condition of people around us to a place where we become imprisoned by the opinions of people around us back to the subject so jesus talks to these guys and let's go to the end of the story first he says when i fed the five thousand we started with five loaves how many baskets do we have left they said twelve he said when we fed the four thousand we started how many loaves seven how many baskets were left over seven so you mean to tell me when he fed the most people he started with the least amount of food and he had the most leftovers starting with more is not an advantage starting with more that's wall street's perspective that's not kingdom you were chosen not because of your strengths but because of your weaknesses you were chosen why all of eternity will be spent by us looking into each other's lives in honor in celebration by giving thanks to god because it was all by grace we'll see it clearly it was all by grace nobody got here on their own marriage everybody got here by grace it will be actually the inspiration for praises for all of eternity ephesians 2 says it's going to take the ages to come to unravel the mystery of the surpassing greatness of his grace so here we are he says when i broke the five thousand five loaves for the five thousand how many baskets did you have left they said twelve now go back to verse 17 let's take a look at this and let me talk to you for a few minutes about it why do you reason because you have no bread do you not yet perceive nor understand is your heart still hurt this is interesting because conversion gave us the capacity to see john 3 verse 3 unless you're born again you cannot see the kingdom of god the implication is your conversion gives you the capacity to see now in this passage jesus says okay you can't see is your heart still hurt now never does he do that in shame it's never to rub our nose in something it's never to make us feel hopeless it's always an invitation to maturity it's always an invitation to grow so he's pointing out some weaknesses in their perception what's the problem here they just if you read through this chapter you notice they just were used in multiplying food a second time for the four thousand they go from multiplying food to a boat where they don't have enough food and they're afraid of not having food for lunch why do you reason that you have no bread why did you start your thinking with what you lacked with what you don't have all right let me ask you the question how many of you have had honestly supernatural provision of god you've had god provide for supernatural how many of you after that miracle of provision you had another financial problem how many of you were as afraid the second time as you were the first time all right that's the issue right there is our experience in the supernatural is supposed to train us how to think and how to see when he asked the question why do you reason he never asked that to them in their beginning stages of discipleship he never would have expected them to have that awareness the god of the impossible unlimited supply is with us he wouldn't have expected it but now that they've experienced multiplying food twice see miracles are expensive because they require change miracles that are just observed and applauded but doesn't shift perspective have not had their full impact they're supposed to actually change the way i deal with the situations of my life once you've seen supernatural supply you've lost every right to start any thought process with what you don't have as i heard somebody say recently once you've seen supernatural supply you've lost all rights to begin any thought process with what you don't have see miracles are expensive because they require shift they require change any thought process that i start with what i don't have will have to be repented of because anything i build on it is built on sand it's built on that weak foundation people around you will applaud you they'll call it common sense common to what world what kingdom is it coming to why do you reason that you have no bread don't you understand can you not perceive and then he goes on then he asks three questions he says having eyes can't you see i don't know about you but oftentimes i mean that situation nope i cannot see i know it's me but it's real i don't i cannot see and he goes on and says can't you hear you know having years do you hit not here i i do hear better than i see but there are times i'm in a situation where i can't see i can't perceive it's seeing from the heart you understand we're not talking about open visions of angels and all that that's all wonderful but that's not the normal everyday seeing of the heart of a believer i've had situations i remember praying for this uh this guy who had a issue with his back and i couldn't see with my eyes but i could see it clearly from my heart there was a black substance on his back that was clinging to him i know it sounds weird i didn't make a big deal of it i just the person i was praying with i said pull that off his back and we had worked together long enough they they knew just to do what i asked them do so they just went as though they just grabbed this black mass and pulled off his back and he was healed it's a seeing it's a perceiving here's here's what i've learned he says having eyes can't you see having ears can't you hear and do you not remember the first two most of us would attribute to somebody connected to their gift that person really or chris for example has an unusual ability to see he sees he can see with his natural eyes what what sometimes what what i can't even see by faith you know he sees it with his natural eyes it's a gift so sometimes seeing we would relegate to somebody who has that unusual gift or they're hearing they just have such an ability to hear from god i love whenever i love whenever they share something because they're just like i tell they can just start hearing from god but remembering has never been attributed to a gift see i may not have what i think is a qualified gift to see and i may not have in this particular season of my life an ability to hear well but i can always remember psalms 119 verse 11 says this the testimony of the lord is your inheritance forever say that with me the testimony of the lord is your inheritance forever let's make it personal the testimony of the lord is my inheritance forever now what's interesting about that is that verse does not say your testimony is your inheritance forever it says the testimony of the lord which then opens it up to everything god has ever done in all of time in his affair with people and his activities of people that then means that when the water came out of the rock for israel that's my story that's my story it's part of my inheritance now there are sometimes people don't enjoy their inheritance they don't use their inheritance they leave it where it is you know they they inherit a home but they never stay there and a lot of us have inheritance in god some of you never knew they were yours but these are your stories when jesus walked upon that funeral and a dead child was being carried to be buried and the mother was weeping and jesus with the father's heart was so deeply moved with compassion he raised the child up that's your story that's your story why why is it important because prayerfully meditating on the testimony of the lord equips us with an ability to see here's what happens for me i get in situations where i'm trying to see and i i can't see i there's times i can't i can't perceive what he's saying what he's doing i'm trying to hear and i'm trying to you know i'm trying to i'm trying to prime the pump you know i'm reading the scriptures and doing i'm not hearing at all but i can remember and i'll stop and this is what i'll do i'll stop and i'll say all right two weeks ago we got a testimony of pancreatic cancer being healed one of the most horrific kinds of cancer anybody could ever have and right after that i saw a woman with als healed two of the most horrible diseases this is the season for going after horrible diseases this is the season where did you get that we got it from the testimony it shapes how we think i remember flying back from new zealand i just spent some time several years back i just spent some time with winky pratty he's a a wonderful friend and a hero of the faith for me and he um he had a stroke and it literally blew up like a quarter of his brain and he he threw literally through the renewing of the mind the lord had healed his brain and i had just been with roland baker who had a disease that was eating his brain they have x-rays it was his brain was dying so here i've got the two smartest men i know winky pratty and roland baker are the two most intelligent guys i think i've ever met and here they both had brain issues that were going to take their life and they've been healed i came back here thinking on the airplane thinking about this is interesting god must be healing minds it must be healing minds we've got to target this god's going after trauma of the brain so in here out of that not out of a word of knowledge not out of sometimes he'll speak to me something or i'll see a picture of it sometimes he just puts it in my heart i can tell there's a faith for something it wasn't this this was seeing what he's doing so i called out brain trauma we had one of our own staff guys that had a horrible horrible fall and has not been able to do anything with his children any kind of activity with any kind of movement he couldn't be in the room when a difficult subject was being discussed he would just it would just go into panic mode he couldn't function he was in here when i called that out he went into the men's room and he just he literally just calmly put his head against the wall as his act of faith and he was completely healed a woman sitting right over here two-year-old child had had uh grown up with an abusive husband a abuse abusive father and that child was beat as an infant a misshaped head disassociated wouldn't associate with parents with people and some of our students right over there just laid hands on this child the next morning the child walked into them to the mother's room which never happened when associate walked into the mother's room and said mommy i'm okay now see it's supposed to be that feeding five thousand and feeding four thousand become the lenses through which you see an empty boat without food it's supposed to be the way i see the present challenge it's supposed to affect perception because it causes me to look at things differently by the while that child's misshaped head but i believe it was by the next morning was normal completely normal how different lenses see to pray for miracles to look for god to do what only he can do and then not be changed ourselves in how we think and how we see challenges problems is to miss the point and so jesus he's got his disciples cornered they're on a boat they can't go anywhere and he says can't you see is your heart still hard if i've ever lived in a season we've got two things going on we've got the residue or whatever you want to call it from the last 18 months and we have these ongoing testimonies that are being handed to us that are some of the most extraordinary miracles we've ever seen some of them are happening pancreatic cancer a student stood in proxy for her mom fourth stage they were going to run scans on her to see if she could survive three 16-hour surgeries beginning in the month of june and the scan came back there's zero cancer left the mother excuse me the daughter just stood in proxy long distance it's supposed to be one of the primary lessons of this last season of having to do things on zoom and and online all that stuff the amount of miracles as it is right now we have an ex a great number of people that are becoming born again literally through the declared word online the miracles empty wheelchairs out of uh out of comas i have one friend he's seen two resurrections from the dead all through online all through zoom extraordinary miracles taking place what is it it's learning to think and to see from god's history with people see for many their history is works against them i've been prayed for a thousand times nothing's ever happened yeah we prayed for my mom and she passed what is it it's not that we pretend those things never happened that they never existed it's that we bring them in to the relationship with the lord so he can heal the place of pain and turn it into a place of strength every loss is supposed to be a place of vengeance not your vengeance not mine but where god shows himself strong uh somebody wrote a book years ago don't waste your sorrows don't don't experience tragedy and then let it just sit there and haunt you use it against the enemy use it why build a life formed around the disappointment of loss when you could use it for the place of promotion for breakthrough pancreatic cancer i just mentioned to you what did my dad die of pancreatic cancer two days before he died i talked to rick joyner on the phone and he said god's gonna use this to give you seven times greater anointing against that disease yeah you have to you have to bring this stuff before the lord i can't make anything happen you can't make anything happen but i can be available i can't i can't find myself leaning in the right direction i may not be moving fast but if i'm just moving in the right direction there's hope it's you bring this step before the lord say let your name be exalted god you take you have the last laugh you have the last say in this matter and then suddenly you start attracting these stories you start attracting this this news of what god has done and what he's doing you will always attract whatever you value any we did this two weeks ago any person who values gossip you put them in the middle of a business with a hundred people they will naturally attract every person in that business that values gospel but the same is true testimony the same is true with words of faith you will attract what you need having eyes can't you see having ears can't you hear can you at least remember so he takes me through that list i go yeah i'm not seeing well oh my hearing stinks sorry but i can remember the first two are attributed to gifts the third is attributed to willingness what am i willing to feed my soul on so i pray that in this next season everybody in this room every one of us would would literally be a magnet to hope and to faith and to testimonies the things that reinforce the why why we're alive the purpose for our life that it would not be void of the supernatural interventions of god it would not be occasional wouldn't be that russian roulette thing or maybe it's god's will but one out of ten times no not that this is the heart this is the nature of god it is for the people of god we come with the violence of a john the baptist who lays hold of that which has been promised i pray for that father i pray that you put a grace over every family that we find ourselves mysteriously running into the very story we needed and that you'd help us to wear them like lenses and see through your history awaken for us in the scripture the very report of the lord that we need in the season we're in i'm praying father for every part of our family online family local family that you would equip us with the eyes to see what's been in front of us all this time see if this story is true and it's from jesus so obviously it is this could represent the greatest spiritual reality in my life but hardness of heart can make me blind to what's right in front of me and so often we're praying god how come how come you haven't provided god how come the miracle hasn't happened yet how come how come how come when right in front of us is the reality that requires a response but we're too hard to see what he's put in front of us so lord we turn intentionally away from all those things that would build that crust in our heart to what you're saying and to what you're doing and help us to be unusually tender to your voice to your presence for this next season i pray in jesus name the bible says jesus made this statement i was reading it this morning what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and he loses his own soul what does a prophet what would profit a person to have every dream you've ever had every thought every ambition fulfilled and that you lost your own soul in that moment every person would trade every experience every blessing everything they ever had in life for that one sound of him saying well done good and faithful servant there's nothing a person wouldn't give in that moment for that very word i believe that told it brings us together we have oh goodness i think it's eight to ten people a week are coming to christ just in our online service but i want to make sure that everybody in the room knows what it is to be forgiven to be brought into the family of god and to be a follower of one his name is jesus and anybody that would be in this room and just say bill i don't want to leave the building i don't want to leave the property till i know i have found peace with god i've been forgiven of sin and i truly become a follower of jesus if that's anybody in the room just put a hand up real quick where you are give just a moment to look around the room wave it at me if i miss you because i want to make sure we give full opportunity for everyone here to make that confession of faith towards jesus all right online put in the chat that you want to surrender your life to jesus we have pastors that are there that are ready to talk with you to pray with you and we believe this can be the absolute beginning beginning of a whole new life for you bless you why don't you go ahead and stand tom come on up and tell them what they've won

Channel: Bill Johnson Teaching (Official)

Views: 72,800

Rating: 4.8963485 out of 5

Keywords: jesus christ, church, bill johnson, bethel.tv, bethel church, bill johnson sermons, faith, holy spirit, bill johnson 2020, bill johnson ministries, bill johnson bethel, bethel tv, bethel church redding, sermon bethel, is God good?, christian theology, Christian, miracles, bethel miracles, bill johnson ministry, bethel, worldview, christian worldview

Id: ZAVoaeMFCF4

Length: 36min 43sec (2203 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021