The spirit of entitlement often hides in the need for justice. Bill Johnson teaches on the battleground over our hearts. We must not lose our values when we are loving the world around us.
uh man i i miss being together
so bad i just i feel like running up and
hugging everybody i see in a grocery
store you know
or the gas station or wherever yeah yeah
you can’t do that either i guess
i i don’t always remember however some
of you have been
attacked by me in a various locations
and i apologize
already if i see you somewhere and i
start coming towards you and you don’t
want to hug
just kind of go like that and i’ll i’ll
keep my distance but
really there’s a couple of things i want
to say as we get started first
the generosity and the faithfulness of
this church family
if you would have told me a year ago
that we would have like eight months of
not being together
and you’d be as faithful as you were and
supporting this ministry
i would have said that’s impossible
first of all i would have said it’s
impossible for us to survive this kind
of nonsense
but the the second thing is to have that
kind of support from this church family
has just has been one of the most
encouraging things i’ve ever seen
and that’s absolutely true when we meet
together as a team and
uh the board and we check over how
things are going
your faithfulness is extraordinary and i
do sincerely pray that god would return
to you
a hundred times over every
s every small measure of sacrifice or
large that you’ve ever had to make that
he’d return it to you
and uh so i’m i’m so thankful so so
grateful for you
also uh this week is election we’ve
already talked about that
let’s don’t forget to vote just just
vote just don’t be stupid vote
don’t be stupid vote and uh and vote
smart i
i saw somebody said this week uh we’re
we’re we have the lesser of two evils if
you think that then you’re not hearing
from god don’t
don’t cancel out your capacity to hear
from god because he’s
his sheep hear his voice and he’s not
mixed in his opinion about what’s
happening
and uh just be bold be confident be
courageous and let’s
let’s vote values into our nation and
let’s pray when we do it
because every act of obedience that we
have as a believer is not just
it doesn’t live by itself it’s not like
if i
take food to a neighbor it’s wonderful
but it doesn’t live by itself as just a
kind
act it prophesies the nature of god into
a situation
there’s the angelic participation in all
that we do they render service for those
who inherit salvation
so every time we take a bold
decision to do something we may not even
clearly know what to do but we’re
acting in obedience the lord
lends his hand his voice his breath into
that action so i want to encourage you
take advantage of your moment to believe
in what god is doing in this nation and
uh
and and pray pray pray pray pray pray
and then be courageous and vote so
father we just i just prayed for that i
prayed that there would be
an awakening all across this land to
take
charge and to take responsibility that
you’ve offered to us as a gift
many don’t have it but you gave it to us
and so we pray let it be with insight
let it be with clarity of heart and mind
and conviction
and let there be righteous values
restored to our nation
we thank you for what’s happened in
recent days we just say more lord
more lord more lord more lord amen amen
amen all right
so i want to talk to you out of the book
of james and that’s so scary all by
itself
any time somebody opens james uh it’s
it’s with fear and trembling
and uh so if you would uh open to james
chapter four i’m actually going to read
a verse or two out of chapter three
and we’re going to read a little longer
portion than i normally do
just because just because just because i
i need to do it to get where
i feel like we’re supposed to go this uh
what we’re going to talk about today is
the battle over the heart we often talk
talk about the battleground of the mind
and we know that
the enemy works so hard to bring
confusion or distraction or wrong values
or all kinds of crazy things
and the battleground is over our thought
life we’ve said that for many years and
it’s absolutely true
but i believe that what the enemy is
targeting is not just my thought life
he’s actually targeting my heart
um i had a a friend of mine oh it would
be 48 years ago and it might even be 48
years
to this month 48 years ago i think close
to this
month share a verse with me and uh you
know you don’t always remember when a
friend shares a verse with you 48 years
later
but this one in a good way just punched
me upside the head
and god just deposited something in me
that has been one of my life verses for
the last 48 years
and it’s been a primary verse i would
say i have three but this would be
the primary initial verse and it’s out
of proverbs 4 verse 23
where he says watch over the heart with
all diligence
for from it flow the issues of life
watch over the heart with all diligence
for from it flow
the issues of life let me put it into
the context of how
jesus dealt with the subject jesus on
one hand
said
adulteries murders jealousies
all these things come from the heart
to the other extreme he said blessed are
the pure in heart for they shall see
god so we have the capacity for either
i heard a statement from richard roberts
goodness
this would be a long 30-some years ago
he made this statement it went something
like this i don’t know if i have exactly
right but you’ll get the just of it
god will not change your mind you cannot
change your heart
but if you change your thoughts god will
change your heart
interesting thought that the the
thinking process that we have
in our lives actually contributes to the
condition
of our hearts and that’s the whole point
um
so what we’re going to talk about today
we’re going to read in chapter four but
let me
go back to verse 14
and 15 of chapter three because i need
to set a context because
james is actually writing in this
sequence of thoughts where he’s trying
to address
the possible corruption of the human
heart
the possible corruption of believers as
it pertains to the character of christ
interestingly
when a believer chooses
characteristics that are not godly
they’re actually evil
seldom do they do it because it is
founded on a lie
it’s usually because it’s founded on
misapplied truth
and to discern the tactics of the enemy
as he tr if he can’t keep you from truth
he’ll get you to overuse truth
or to misapply it’s it’s like the ephod
when they begin to worship this item
that god provided for them they took
something that god gave them and they
put it above its intended position in
place
and that’s really where idolatry takes
place it starts in those small decisions
where we carry the thoughts and the
principles of god and we apply them
according to our own wisdom our own
insight
and not in conjunction with the working
of the holy spirit that’s the beginning
of the breakdown and the real building
of a wrong character and a believer so
this is on a
on a negative side but i’m not mad i
just want to point out a few things and
say hey watch out for that watch out for
that all right everybody’s happy
yes we’re happy all right verse 14 of
chapter three says if you have bitter
envy self-seeking in your heart
do not boast and lie against the truth
this wisdom does not descend from above
but is earthly sensual and demonic
just stop right there this wisdom this
is what fascinates me about this verse
and this
gives us a huge key on how
we can protect ourselves from things
like jealousy
self-promotion that sort of stuff he
says jealousy selfish ambition exists
there’s every evil thing there’s
disorder and then he says
this wisdom doesn’t come from above so
what is he saying
he says it’s wisdom it’s just inferior
wisdom
what does that help us with it helps us
to understand
that jealousy self-promotion those kinds
of things
come out of human reasoning that
the unrenewed mind in other words it’s
going to appeal to the logic of the
unrenewed mind
it is reasonable which means it is
justifiable
i’ve never met a jealous person that
thought they were jealous
suspicion veils and hides itself
in this nonsense called jealousy
it’s often called discernment in fact
let me throw in
another thing that will help us as we
get into chapter four
entitlement the spirit of entitlement
often hides
in the need for justice
the spirit of entitlement often hides in
the need for justice
and we’ll that’ll become more clear
hopefully in chapter four
entitlement is where i have a right to
something
and misapplied passion for justice
is often times where entitlement is is
established in a believer’s life
entitlement is a birthplace for so many
things including jealousy
and other things you have something that
i should have had
you had opportunity for something that
was supposed to be mine
you were raised in a certain kind of
family i was not it’s not right it’s not
fair
and when you have the pursuit of
misapplied
kingdom principles misapplied truth
which is justice
it’s misapplied then it gives birth to
so many other things jealousies
covetousness and ultimately according to
chapter four is war
all right nice easy little conversation
we’ll have here
all right so he says wisdom is
it’s not wisdom from above it’s wisdom
from below but it
it is called wisdom so that means it it
has
an appeal to the intellect and the need
for
justice and for right things is just as
important
absolutely the foundation of god’s
throne is righteousness
and justice righteousness and justice
oftentimes as a church especially in
circles like ours we fight for
righteousness but we don’t fight as hard
for justice
justice is vital justice is critical but
don’t tell me you have a passion for
justice if you don’t speak for the
for the unborn the ones with the least
voice in our nation that are plundered
and stolen and killed on a daily basis
by the millions now
are the unborn and it’s not okay you
cannot
create a reason where that’s okay
and if that doesn’t stand out to you
then then you
i i don’t know any other way to put it
it is not okay
it is not okay that that doesn’t matter
it must
provoke us if we can look at that and it
doesn’t provoke us to this
outrage of righteous
justice in the land i i don’t mean
destroying
people’s lives that vote for that i’m
i’m just saying we’ve got to write
something that is wrong
so you cannot tell me that you have a
value for justice if you don’t speak up
because what justice does is it speaks
for those who have little to no voice
and there is no one who has no voice as
much as the unborn
and there are many other parts of our
country where uh
the poor for example have very little
voice well they need to be protected and
spoken for i was reading
proverbs this week where a righteous
king
has the fear of god where he protects
the rights is the biblical word the
rights of the poor or the rights of the
afflicted
and so that has to be a part of our
pursuit
of righteous governmental expression as
that we
sacrificially speak on behalf
of those who don’t have as much
influence as the land as you do
that’s what authority is is authority is
the proper use
the proper use of god’s favor on your
life
to work for somebody else and
specifically it’s for those who have
little to no voice
back to my start here it’s a little
tangent but i feel better from it
and that is speaking on behalf of those
that have no voice and there is no group
in the nation that has less of a voice
than the unborn
and it must must matter i believe votes
let me tell you i believe natural things
writing the letter voting those kinds of
things are important
but the big thing we must do is second
chronicles 7 14 if my people who are
called by my
name will humble themselves and pray
i’ll hear from heaven i will forgive
their sin and i’ll hear them heal their
land we need
our land healed it’s been raped
and plundered out of injustice for a
long time
a lot of different people groups so all
right let’s get back
see if we can actually get into the
message
all right so we’re spinning off of the
word jealousies
and inferior wisdom and we’re now going
to flow into chapter four and there’s
warnings here
so i’m going to read 11 verses at one
time which i hardly ever do
because the attention span is
challenging but i’m gonna i’m gonna
challenge you listen to me look
in your bible let’s read these verses
verse one for where do wars
and fights come from among you do they
not come from your desires for pleasure
that war
in your members you lust and do not have
you murder
and covet and cannot obtain you
fight and war yet you do not have
because you do not ask
you ask and do not receive because you
ask amiss
that you may spend it on your pleasures
i like new american standard better in
on that verse it says you ask and do not
receive because you ask with wrong
motives
so there’s the heart issue now in the
communion with god heart issue is
everything
verse four adulterers and adulteresses
this is a charge
you do not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with god
whoever therefore wants to be a friend
of the world makes himself to be an
enemy of god
do you not think that the scripture says
in vain the spirit who dwells in us
yearns
jealously i really don’t like that one
um again new american standard is is
quite a bit better
it says that he speaking of the father
jealously desires the spirit who lives
in us
so it shows this relationship between
the holy spirit being entrusted to us
and the father himself longing for or
being jealous over that holy spirit that
lives in us
all right yes bill amen all right verse
6 he gives more grace therefore he
says god resists the proud but he gives
grace to the humble
therefore submit yourself to god here’s
a key verse that
many of us have memorized submit
yourself to god
resist the devil and he will flee from
you
draw near to god he will draw near to
you cleanse your hands you sinners
[Laughter]
cleanse your hands you sinners and
purify your hearts you double-minded
lament and mourn and weep let your
laughter be turned into mourning your
joy into gloom
in other words don’t let your repentance
be this surface little
oh yeah sorry about that this service
will approach go
deep if it’s deeply planted into your
personality nature then go that deep in
your repentance
it’s really what he’s dealing with here
he said this thing the war that’s going
on
inside of you needs to be dealt with and
you’re not going to deal with it lightly
that’s why in revivals you see
you see massive moves of repentance and
it’s never casual
it’s always costly it’s always costly
because when a person comes before the
lord on that level
they know they are yielding everything
everything and that’s really the word of
the lord all right
humble yourselves verse 10 in the sight
of the lord he will lift you up
first half verse 11 is all we need for
this one do not speak
evil of one another brethren he who
speaks evil of her brother
and judges his brother speaks evil of
the law and judges
the law let’s start with that last
phrase we’re going to go back and work
our way through this
um work our way through this chapter
because listen to me the lord is doing
us a favor whenever he brings you and me
a command
it’s never restrictive in the sense of
punishment
it is always an invitation to life all
of his commands lead to life all of his
commands
lead away from what destroys and invites
us
into what sustains us he does not give
commands you know like a
dig a hole and now fill it back up just
because he’s trying to think of things
to keep us busy
he gives us commandments because he has
this dream
over our lives that we would enter into
the fullness of joy
the truth will set you free it’s not
just knowing
a truth it’s living in experienced truth
is where true liberty and freedom comes
from in every aspect and part of our
life
so the lord gives us these commands and
in this case he’s talking to a group of
people that have been
filled with compromise and james is
absolutely going head-to-head with them
confronting them which how many
understand we need
when when we are in that kind of error
we need somebody that cares enough
to stick with us and stick it to us and
say listen
this so there
there’s there’s this whole demand if you
will for
for repentance so let me get back to uh
verse
11. we’ll start then we’ll go back
towards the beginning it says do not
speak evil of another brethren
he who speaks evil of a brother and
judges his brother speaks evil of the
law and judges the law
if i judge somebody if i pass judgment
if i criticize and pronounce judgment on
a person
i am judging the law of god what is the
law of god the law of christ
is the law of love if i pass judgment on
a person i am
judging the law because i’m announcing
it’s inferior to my own opinion
don’t do that when you pass judgment on
a person it’s very easy especially in
this political climate to just point
fingers and do all kinds of stuff
in fact i took some time uh in the last
two weeks i don’t remember how many
times now just to read
over isaiah 58 over and over and over
again
and in there he says if you stop
pointing the finger
that’s that judgment thing that’s that
accusation that’s that criticism thing
if you stop pointing the finger if you
stop
you know try to nail somebody else and
prove they’re wrong that you’re right
if you knock off that nonsense there’ll
be a real
really a restoration of heart and mind
and god will put us back into a place
of blessed abundance and uh so that’s uh
just really
really big on my heart right now go back
to verse one now
where do the wars and fights come from
among you
do they not come from your desire for
pleasures that have worn your members
you lust and do not have you murder and
covet and cannot obtain you fight in war
and you do not have because you do not
stop right there
i doubt i i was looking uh this up and i
doubt very much
that that you’re looking at a
a group of believers that that have a
reputation for killing each other
there’s no record of that in in of that
happening
here uh in church history you don’t you
don’t have
groups of believers that incite wars
what james is doing
is he is identifying something that we
need to see covetousness
is at the root of every war
read history wars will start
because this nation thinks
they deserve better agricultural land
this nation has it
and so they go to war because they want
what they have
this nation wants better sea routes
trade routes
and they don’t have seaports so they go
to war with this one
to take their seaports so they have
better trade routes
sometimes there’s the oil fields there’s
the resource of minerals there’s all
these different things
in other words i want what you have and
what james is doing he’s doing us a
favor
if you allow that thing to reside in you
that
those are the seeds of war
that’s why there’s so much conflict in
our own soul
when we get into that mode of operation
and if you if you can imagine
god has god has blessing
in line for every person that responds
to his word
i i’m i don’t believe that your income
shows your spirituality i don’t like
that
but i i don’t like the lack of things
proving spirituality either
i think both are just horrible horrible
uh
misapplication of truth the whole of
scripture
testifies that when we obey the lord
and all these things will be added unto
you
he likes the blessing to be the addition
to the life
not the pursuit of the life and that’s
the deal
is see as long as i’m seeking his face
first as long as i’m giving myself
completely anything you want god you’ve
got all of it then he can trust me
so i told his own disciples who left
everything to follow him he said in mark
10
he said and i will give you a hundred
times as much of what you left back into
your life with persecution
in other words because you left it for
me i can trust you with it
but the persecution will keep you honest
and if you don’t understand that level
of
well a friend of mine calls the
persecution he calls an income tax
i said what do you mean income tax he
says the more income the more tax and
that’s just the way it works in life
so jesus promised his own disciples a
hundred times as much
he wasn’t talking about mansions and and
that sort of stuff he was
he was truly talking about what paul
would later testify of
says i’ve learned how to abound and i’ve
learned how to be a base i’ve learned
to i learned what it’s like to have too
much
all right man the last thing in the
world i wanted to do today is at make
this about
about money but it kind of comes down to
that in this sense
sometimes sometimes a believer
will look at another believer and want
their position
want their favor want their title want
their
gift want their blessing it’s legal
to use the breakthrough of other
christians to inspire you to seek the
lord
but if i want what chris has and i begin
to lust or
jealously uh covet what he has
that what i am done what i’ve done is i
have broken the cycle of blessing
and i’ve moved into the spirit of war to
obtain
out of divine sequence see when god
provides for us proverbs says this makes
it clear
when the lord blesses you there’s no
sorrow to it
but when we fight for it on our own it
always comes
with a balloon payment of sorrow there
are many
leaders in our country political let’s
just take a
business there are many business leaders
who have
all the money and more that they ever
wanted but they lost their family in the
journey
they were willing to sacrifice
relationships personal integrity
they maybe started with these great
values but they sacrificed them
in order to have personal gain and they
have great sorrow
in every day of their life they’ve got
to shove down this thing called a
conscience
where they know they violated their
design to obtain
something that is the nature of war and
that’s the warning of james
these things wage war within your body
and it doesn’t matter to me if it’s
wanting somebody
else’s house car or title or if it’s
just
jealous over the fact that they have
favor and you don’t
or they are recognized and you don’t it
doesn’t matter to me what slot you put
it in it is all the same thing
it is the spirit of war and right now in
this nation we have the spirit of
war robbing the souls of many bull
people many people on both sides of the
aisle
it’s it’s not a political matter it is a
moral
issue it’s a righteous issue of what
will we let
feed and fuel our hearts and to allow
ourselves to be careless in a time
where we point the finger accuse or
desire a plot
or do any of the stupid stuff that that
we’ve been known to do
it actually fuels that spirit
of war see covetousness makes me
take outside of divine sequence god has
a sequence
faithfulness and small things i learn to
steward
great things there’s a sequence and
when it’s his turn to release something
into my life
it comes without sorrow but if i take it
out of course i’m actually
in war and i’m fighting as a thief to
take something that’s not mine
it does not mean that it’s not in the
heart of god
see god is interested in process i’m
interested in outcome
i like you know i fasted for three days
i prayed this and that i cried out to
god i got up in the middle of the night
i walked
the my living room and cried out to the
lord for this breakthrough and the
breakthrough came
i like the breakthrough he likes the
process he liked the fact that
you actually skip food and you talk to
me you know he
actually likes the fact you didn’t lay
there in bed just toss and turn you
actually made a decision to get up and
pray
that’s what he likes i like when you did
that song see he likes the journey i’ve
i value outcome he values journey
and so when we talk about the outcome
let’s just take it
a material thing just because it’s so
easy to monitor to gauge
so i want somebody’s possession their
home i
lust and covet and pursue and i do all
these things to obtain
i’m taking out of divine sequence
i’m taking out of divine sequence and
i’m actually even though i maneuver and
manipulate and end up with the item
i have i have functioned as a thief
because a thief
steals what is not theirs and that’s the
issue of covetousness is it’s at the
root the foundation of all wars all
right that’s enough on that
verse four is very fascinating
uh verse three as a new american
standard says that you ask but you don’t
receive because you ask with wrong
motives
the heart is the issue of everything the
purity of heart
is what governs the true direction of
our life
you can have all the right words you can
have all the right outward actions but
when the heart is corrupt
it’s going to end up in failure but when
we do things as
unto the lord truly as yielded obedient
to the lord
then the outcome is uh the process is
holy and the outcome is holy
so here he says uh verse four it says
adulterers and adulteresses that’s a
strange thing to
to term to use to talk to a group of
believers
adulterers and adulteresses there’s
there’s no reason to believe that they
are
actually sleeping with other men’s wives
and other
women’s husbands the context
is in the scripture
adultery is frequently mentioned
in the same phrase as idolatry
idolatry is spiritual adultery
and paul identifies greed the
covetousness thing
as idolatry so he’s dealing with this
this war that’s going on inside of them
i want your position i want your title
i want your favor i want your open door
i don’t i’m not getting what i deserve
things are not right around here and
there’s that that entitlement thing
slips in in the passion for justice and
suddenly
i’ve actually moved outside of the
spirit of christ and james says you’re
an adulterer
why because you’re moving in
covetousness not in obedience to the
process that god has created for you
i hear your amens all over the city all
over the world and it’s
encouraging to me all right adulterers
and adulteresses do you not know that
friendship with the world is enmity with
god whoever therefore wants to be a
friend of the world makes himself an
enemy of god this is a fascinating
statement now the world is probably many
things in scripture but i understand
three first of all
the world in scripture is what he has
created
the earth all that it contains that is
the world he owns it all
the second thing the world is it is it
is
a cis excuse me it is the people of the
world for god so
loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son
so we have the creation itself we have
humanity and then the third one which is
the one he’s addressing here
is an order of things void of christ
it is the cosmos it’s the order of
things without jesus at the center
and many believers in order to appeal
to non-believers embrace a worldview a
wrong worldview
in fact it’s my conviction that many
christians will vote
in a horrible way to justify
their twisted world view there is a
world view that god has it’s not what
it’s not what i think that matters it’s
not what you think that matters what
does he say he has a certain value for
life
a certain process the way we go about
life
this whole thing of misapplied justice
is destructive
and yet that’s how the enemy hides
himself as he hides himself around
misapplied truth
and that’s where we we have to get
before the lord and in his word
the clarity of heart and mind so that
our authority
is used in a right sense to bring people
into freedom to bring them into liberty
to bring them into life
it’s not about your opinion or mine or
this group or that group it’s worthless
my opinions don’t impress me at all but
i love the mind of the lord i love the
mind of christ and i love when he speaks
and here he says to love the world
again that order apart from christ to
love the world
is to be at war with god so this
whole message is really choose your war
choose your war do you want to be at war
with god or do you want to be
at war with the things that are seeking
to spoil
and and destroy and weaken your own
stance before the lord
it’s a battle over the heart
amen bill amen whoever therefore wants
to be a friend of the world
makes himself to be an enemy with god
yeah i don’t do that that’s that’s not a
smart decision
um i i know that in times past the
church has so reacted
because of statements like this for the
end
the end result would be there’s no
interaction with unbelievers
that’s not smart we’re not to hole up
into a
modest uh monastic lifestyle and call
that love not the world that’s not it
jesus so loved the world that he gave
his own
father loved the world gave his only
begotten son jesus loved the world he
sacrificed his own life
we must love the world in that same way
but
never to embrace their worldview or
their order of things apart from christ
at the center
i i don’t know if i said that well
but i feel like it’s a point that needs
to be hit pretty hard
because i watch through the years as
more and more christians
have a genuine heart of compassion for
someone they don’t know
and they compromise their personal
values in order to be accepted by that
person
you lose your authority you lose your
power when you become like your audience
there’s a difference between having
genuine value for a person that you
listen you hear you respond to them
you have compassion for their stuff
and then there’s a difference between
that and actually mirroring
the people you’re trying to minister to
and there’s a
number of believers around the country
that i watch all the time they look more
and more like the people they’re trying
to minister to
in their worldview and they’re becoming
so twisted in their approach to
righteousness and serving god
they all hide it they hide it under this
thing called grace
and grace that doesn’t lead to righteous
living isn’t grace
all right so i’m actually quite happy on
the inside i’m just
you know i just sound mad on the outside
you guys have been patient enough with
me for a long time so all right verse 5
or do you not think the scripture says
in vain
he jealously desires the spirit who
lives in us
but he gives more grace move on god
resists the proud
god he gives grace to the humble
here’s verse seven therefore submit to
god resist the devil and he will flee
from you i guess it goes without saying
it seems to
seems to be common sense it’s common
sense as we read it’s not always
common sense as we live it out submit to
god comes first resist the devil come
second
you know you can yell and scream at the
devil all you want if you’re not fully
surrendered to jesus your yelling has no
power
has no authority whatsoever it’s it’s
the place where we start our day it’s
the place where we start
you know the assignment of god on our
life is that we yield to his purposes
this is really a big deal it’s so
ridiculously simple
but once you start tasting of the
blessing and the success of the lord
it’s easy to forget i still need to
submit everything to him
but it’s true we sometimes grow out of
our need to submit
and that’s not true maturity
therefore submit to god resist the devil
he will flee from you draw
near to god he will draw near to you
that’s a fascinating statement how do
you get closer to the one who’s in you
he’s all around me he’s here how do i
get closer you understand it’s not
proximity it’s heart
again it’s back to the heart one of the
scariest
verses in the bible is that depart from
me i never knew you
so that verse tells me there’s one thing
in my life more important than knowing
god and that’s him knowing me
so when i worship god i worship in
spirit means it’s a spiritual activity i
do it with the help the assistance the
direction the empowerment of the holy
spirit
but in truth basically means nothing
hidden i come to him
completely open to him to rule and run
everything i don’t hide this i don’t
hide that i’m an
open book before him you may say well he
already
in fact i’ve had people call me a
heretic because of statements like
like uh that god you know you have to
open up for him to know you
he knows all about me he can tell you
how many hairs i have on my head he can
tell me which ones are going to fall out
tomorrow
you know he can tell you everything he
can tell what every cell of my body
what’s happening
but for him to know me in an
experiential way a relational way
requires
my response why open to him and that’s a
that’s
that’s this thing right here draw near
to god which means what
god i’m opening up everything about me
and you said seek your face
and my response is your face i will see
what happens in that moment he’s already
here
but he comes so deeply into that inner
place in us it’s
all a battle of the heart and when i
open myself completely to him
transparency
vulnerable need thankfulness
rejoicing celebrating victory all the
stuff that goes on in our life
all that i direct towards him there’s a
tenderness there’s a nearness
there’s an awareness of him in my life
that i didn’t have five minutes earlier
you know it’s it’s this uh this verse
out of john 15 has become
increasingly important for me in my own
personal walk
and that’s a verse i’ve taught of many
times that i love it so much but it’s
become
it’s haunting me in the right way
haunting is the wrong word but give me
some grace here
it’s it’s following me hard in a right
sense
remove that from the tape now to too
late
it’s the passage out of john 15 verse 7
where he says
abide in me and my word abides in you
you’ll ask whatever you want what is he
wanting
he’s not wanting me to be a self-willed
believer he’s wanting
me to be a co-laborer who in prayer
implement his purposes in the earth
that has to happen for his purposes to
be manifest in the earth
i have to have a co-laboring role you
have to have a co-laboring role
but the goal the goal is the prayers
that make a difference
but he didn’t start there he said abide
to me so there’s this acknowledged
manifested presence of the spirit of god
that my heart
is in full acknowledgement of and
engagement with
abiding the illustration of context is a
branch in a vine
you can’t tell where the branch begins
and where it ends where the vine
begins it’s not a flat surface it is
the intertwining of fibers so deeply and
so profoundly
that it was the best illustration for
abiding in christ
that you can’t tell where i end and
where jesus begins because it all
is so saturated in and among itself by
acknowledgment of his presence the
spirit of god upon me
and the engagement of heart to heart is
so intertwined
i’m abiding in him and his word is all
that matters to me what does god say
about the matter
i’ve laid down my right to an opinion
what does god say about the matter and
that thing just courses through my heart
where i bring it up in biblical
meditation god gave me insight from this
and it’s in that posture of absolute
surrender he says all right
ask for whatever anything you want i’ll
do it
that’s what he’s wanted he’s wanting a
family of
co-laboring believers that are so
yielded and surrendered to the manifest
presence of god that he can trust them
with any prayer
and it will be done just like he did
with solomon
solomon was the only one that got his
the one wish
except for the church the church gets it
countless times every day
and we oftentimes spoil the opportunity
to ask for whatever
we want we’ve got to learn abiding
we’ve got to learn the indwelling word
and in that position something that
moves us
knowing it’ll move him if it doesn’t
move me
it doesn’t move him
verse 10 is where we’ll end
humble yourself in the sight of the lord
and he will lift you up
i in fact i just released a book here
recently called born for significance
and the whole reason
for that book was
we we don’t we don’t know how to handle
blessing well
you know it either leads people to
corruption or you know selfishness or
i mean it’s crazy old and new testament
i like it it
the same happens and it’s it’s the
proper stewardship of blessing
that actually equips it and enables us
to impact the world around us culturally
is through managing resource blessing
well
it doesn’t matter if it’s money or favor
position title doesn’t matter to me what
it is
and this verse here illustrates a point
that i like to make says humble yourself
unto the mighty hand of god he’ll exalt
you at the right time we love it when
people humble themselves
under the mighty hand of god we’re not
always as happy with them when god
exalts them
we don’t know what to do with an exalted
person
i mean let’s be honest we don’t know
what to do why because we don’t have a
theology for that
there’s the passage that says that you
pray in secret he rewards in public
all right we seek him in secret he
rewards us in public so we see people
rewarded in public and become suspicious
as to how they got there
not realizing that god’s the one who
called the shots because he saw them
in the quiet time the quiet place of
their life so we don’t have a theology
that allows for someone
to be openly extravagantly blessed
before our eyes because of jealousy
because of covetousness this is at the
heart
of what god is going after in this hour
we love it when people seek first the
kingdom of god
we don’t always like it when he has
added everything
back into their life and so this is a
moment where we
learn to monitor the pastor if you will
the attitudes of our heart we see
we little things creep up like we start
thinking oh if only that was mine
or maybe it’s a it’s a sharp word
towards somebody it’s impatient
it’s critical it’s the pointing finger
those little moments when those things
begin to surface
god has sent up a flare he’s given us a
warning saying this is not who you’re
designed to be
you could forsake that way of life now
you can forsake that as an approach to
your life now you can abandon you can
cleanse your hands from that influence
now
and he invites us into this lifestyle
where god
there’s nothing apart from the heart of
god that i want in my life
i remember when my my kids were were
small
and and uh obviously all at home and and
i would
speak impatiently and i’d get i’d get
the family together so you guys know
all i want with my life is to honor
jesus that’s all i want
will you guys pray for me and they put
their little hands on me when they got
older they were still doing it
but praying pray praying for me i would
become impatient with the situation and
and confess to them and and they would
just pray i would tell ben and say
listen honey you know all i want to do
is honor jesus if you see an attitude
forming in me that i’ve not yet
recognized
please do me a favor i’m inviting you
i’m begging you point it out to me
why we’ve got to stay that kind of
accountable
to avoid the disaster that james warns
about
and we step into the promise
that he prophesied over us humble
yourself under the mighty hand of god
he’ll exalt you and when he exalts you
remember solomon’s word
god has highly favored you solomon from
the queen of sheba god has highly
favored you because he loves the people
around you
the favor on my life has to benefit
people around me or it’s misused favor
if you are one who is watching this and
you’ve never surrendered your life to
jesus
he doesn’t come in just to tickle your
fancy and fulfill all your dreams
he comes as god his lord of all
and he is worthy of being served and
loved because he is the source of all
life
if that’s you please just dial somebody
on bethel tv
or youtube just let in the message
section let them know
you want to receive jesus and this will
be the beginning
of the change and the transformation of
the rest of your life let’s just pray
father father let us live with holy fear
of the coming days as well as a holy joy
for what you’ve done what you’re doing
and what you’re about to do
we yield all of this to you and we just
declare
it is all for your glory
everything it is
all for your glory
in jesus name amen amen