Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Bill Johnson teaches how to recognize the voice of God. His voice is not limited by our comprehension. He is always speaking to us.
[Applause]
yeah yeah happy happy happy easter
um it’s just wonderful i i will never
take for granted again the privilege to
meet
in a room with humans
what a what a great treat it’s uh
challenging to find
a humorous story that fits with easter
but i have one but i had to pick
but i had to pick one most of you have
already heard
oh well i’ve heard it many times i still
like it
a man his wife and his mother-in-law
went on vacation to the holy land
while they were there the mother-in-law
passed away
the undertaker told them you can have
her shipped home for five thousand
dollars
or you can bury her here in the holy
land for a hundred and fifty dollars
the man thought about it told him he’d
just soon have her shipped home
the undertaker asked why why would you
spend five thousand dollars to ship your
mother-in-law home
when it would be wonderful to have her
buried here and spend only a hundred and
fifty dollars
the man replied a man died here two
thousand years ago
he was buried here three days later he
rose from the dead
i just can’t take that chance
well happy easter i like
the bible condemns traditions
but in light of what it condemns it’s
always the traditions that replace
scripture
and are opposed to scripture to where
people actually value their
tradition more than what the word of god
says
the condemnation towards tradition of
celebrating a certain theme or a certain
day or
a certain event is never aimed at what
the bible addresses it’s it’s those
traditions are actually
significant and i know that many of you
were able to join us for the good friday
service this week and
and i i loved it so much i love those
events uh i
i love when we get together with the
body of christ in reading and
at multiple events down at the civic we
weren’t able to this year but
hopefully next year we’ll be able to do
that but i i really enjoy those and i
enjoy
seeing parents that bring their children
out that i
i know the hassle i remember when our
kids are young how
everything that you do of that nature is
challenging it’s a real challenge of
faith but sometimes we actually
illustrate
what we value by what we’re willing to
pay a price for
and unintentionally we train our
children
uh we train our friends even family
members on what’s important to us by
what we’re willing to endure
for a hassle and honestly we’re building
things in the lives of our children that
and in our own hearts that are so
valuable easter is one of those
one of those things i know early on as a
pastor i
rarely spoke on whatever season it was i
just kind of
would just talk on whatever you know
came to mind of late i’ve been
i’ve been warming up more to the idea
pay attention to the calendar bill
pay attention to the calendar christmas
is enjoyable
enjoy it you know i remember one one
year
at the theater in weberville we were
gonna have this christmas
play type thing and we had to cancel it
and uh
for many reasons but we just had to
cancel so i i got up and i announced the
christmas uh musical uh is cancelled
well there’s a little kid up in a kind
of a balcony section that we had there
that didn’t hear musical all he heard
was christmas
and that i cancelled it
i didn’t know i had that kind of
authority but he he figured i did
he threw himself on the floor with
wailing and gnashing of teeth because
i canceled christmas i didn’t do it i
didn’t do it it was just a musical but
anyway so fun um i want to talk to you
we’re going to we’re going to get into
the resurrection story a little bit
today
but i’m going to kind of back my way
into it and we will go into romans
chapter 6. so we’re going to do two
portions of scripture
uh romans 6 and then also in mark 15 and
16
we’ll wrap those two together but i want
to talk to you
actually what i want to do is i want to
talk about faith and
but it’ll be a little different kind of
a faith uh
message usually when i think in terms of
talking about faith i
think in terms of getting amped up to
believe for the impossible and
that’s always the case but what i’m
looking at is a little bit different
the lord has uh has initiated this
relational journey for us
here let me bring something to mind
hebrews 11 6 says it’s impossible to
please him apart from faith
that means faith is fairly significant
because
establishing favor increasing in the
pleasure of the lord
is in connect is connected to in many
ways
our life of faith one of the things that
has been the most important for me to
learn
in recent years has been that faith
doesn’t grow from striving it grows from
surrender
it’s the place of yieldness that brings
me into greater and greater faith
so if we can keep those things in mind
it keeps us from the hype
that is really is a is a counterfeit
uh to what real faith is uh you can’t
self-will
your way into great faith i’ve heard
people say i’m just gonna i’m just gonna
believe god as though they can will
themselves in the great faith and it’s
not quite how it works
faith comes in one of two ways it’s
number one it’s a fruit of the spirit
and or it is a gift of the spirit
it’s in galatians 5 mentioned as a fruit
of the spirit many of your translations
will use the word faithfulness but it’s
the same
exact word for faith as you find in
first corinthians chapter 12
where it talks about the gift of faith
so let’s talk about these two things
the fruit of the spirit is faith the
gift of the spirit is faith
fruit means it’s something you can
develop with use
so you can increase its size you can
increase its impact
through use it’s like a muscle you
develop it through use
i had so many years ago tell me they had
zero faith no faith whatsoever and
i was trying to figure out what they did
with it because god gave every person a
measure of faith so i’m not sure if they
left it somewhere or what they did but
oftentimes we look in the wrong places
for faith because faith doesn’t come out
of determination it really does come out
of a surrender
in relationship another point to faith
that is important before we read this
scripture
is the fact it says faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of god
we we actually studied this i think two
or three weeks ago recently
sometime in my lifetime recently i know
that i had a couple sleeps
since then but we we have talked about
it so faith comes by hearing
hearing by the word of god faith comes
from hearing faith is the evidence
of a current relationship where you’re
hearing from god faith comes from
hearing
hearing comes from the word of god so my
capacity to hear
is enhanced through this
literally the reading of scripture is
pouring myself
into the word of god it’s pouring the
word of god into me is what increases my
capacity to hear
now this is vital because the lord well
the bible also says a man shall not live
by bread alone but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of god
i live because he talks
i’m alive because he speaks the very
fact that god
speaks he breathes his word into my
heart day after day hour after hour
it’s evidence because i’m alive he keeps
me alive with his voice
and the mistake that we made that i did
address a few weeks ago
is that many times we are in a position
where we’re just not hearing his voice
well
in fact i asked you the question how
many of you have had times where he
couldn’t hear his voice well but you
could sense his presence
yeah and the point was is that is his
voice
that’s his voice we tend to measure his
voice by what we comprehend
instead of by who’s in the room he is
the living word he is the word of god
and when he comes in presence like that
he’s generally depositing stuff in our
spirit
that that is too big or too significant
for our mind
oh man i don’t want to fall in that hole
so let me back away here
stay away from that hole right there
it’s a good hole i just
just may not recover
he speaks to your spirit man he deposits
things
for example you’re sitting here in the
presence this morning worshiping great
worship
we’re just enjoying him um and there’s
this interaction between the holy spirit
and your spirit the bible says we
worship god
in spirit and in truth so in spirit
means we are engaged with the holy
spirit himself
who is the one who guides us who leads
us empowers us
in this worship time that we have with
him this
uh time of thanksgiving and praise that
we give him
but it also says to worship in truth and
truth means nothing hidden
i i am there with all my pain all my
my breakthroughs my testimonies my
questions my all my stuff
is laid out on the table i’m not
presumptuous i don’t i don’t
i don’t pretend to be something that i’m
not i am here as a child who has
problems
and i lay all of it before you and it is
all a part of my worship expression
there’s something about that kind of
interaction with him where
where you know you’ve had this happen
where you’ve got something that’s just
an insurmountable problem and you can’t
explain it but you walk out of that
moment with peace
you walk out of that moment you don’t
you don’t know what to do but it’s
almost like it doesn’t even matter
in fact you can almost worry yourself
into i’m not being responsible
because you’re not fearful and yet
there’s those moments where that peace
of god just comes what’s happened
he’s ministered deeper than your mind
cannot comprehend
in that moment and if we don’t learn to
recognize that we won’t know that he is
actually
speaking words of life into us that
literally keep us alive
there are times where the lord speaks to
you that job has this
this great uh dialogue or this this
situation where he talks about
god visiting uh or in the book of job it
talks about god
visiting us in the night putting things
in our heart that are too big for us to
handle
if he gave them to us in a day the
reason is we become
egocentric or we would think more highly
of ourselves that would be healthy for
us
and so the lord just deposits these
things very deeply in us and over time
they mature and they come to the surface
the point is god is always talking to us
the problem with
many of us is we sit in our spiritual
recliners
and we just you know basically say god
you know i’m hungry for revival if you
want me to experience it you know where
i’m at
you know just come and come and visit me
and that kind of an approach to the
things of god is very very dangerous
because
it it means it means you’re only going
to get what he is sovereignly
determined you’re going to get and your
hunger has no role
in the outcome of your life that didn’t
sound right let me put it a different
way
it was true but it didn’t sound right
most of what you need in life will be
brought to you most of what you want
you’ll have to go get
there’s a responsibility to seek and to
pursue even the spiritual gifts in first
corinthians 12
are once again repeated in 14 and he
says pursue earnestly
spiritual gifts so the revelation of the
gifts do not deposit gifts
they must be pursued of independently
because they are in the word
all right let’s just jump right into
romans 6 since you you’re giving me that
um during the headlight look
let’s try and find some scripture so we
can
redeem this one all right verse 4 of
chapter 6 therefore we were buried with
him through baptism into death
that just as christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the father even so
we should walk in newness of life what
paul’s doing here
is he’s teaching about the death and
resurrection of christ
but he’s also teaching about water
baptism
and he’s using uh the picture of
of water being immersed in water that’s
a picture of the grave
and he says you’re you’re you’re buried
in the death of christ
and when you come up out of the water
it’s one of the reasons water baptist
baptism is so critical and he said to do
it
but you come out there’s there’s this
newness of life that is
imparted to an individual that you can’t
get physical obedience bring spiritual
release
don’t question what good it does just do
what he says
hey man bill that was a great point
that’s i’ll
buy into that one verse five if we have
been united together in the likeness of
his death
certainly we shall also be in the
likeness of his resurrection
knowing this that our old man that’s not
any relative of yours that’s
your old nature your our old man was
crucified with him
that the body of sin might be done away
with that we should no longer be slaves
to sin
now jump ahead the whole chapter is
profound but let’s just go to verse 11.
likewise you also reckon or consider
yourself to be dead to sin
this is one of the most stunning
chapters in the bible follow
follow this logic with me first of all
did you know
that um we know that the cross and the
shedding of the blood
made the forgiveness of sin possible yes
blood can uh sin cannot be tone
tone for apart from blood the shedding
of blood
jesus’s sacrifice made it possible
but paul says in first corinthians 15
which is a incredible mystery to me
he said without the resurrection you’re
still in your sins
so it’s the blood but it’s also the
resurrection it’s two sides of the same
coin if we can put it that way
it’s the death was necessary without a
resurrection you don’t get life
without a resurrection you don’t live so
here’s here’s the
two absolute theological cornerstones
for all that we
believe number one jesus died
he died in my place he died for me he
died for you
he suffered a brutal death
to atone for our sin secondly
on the third day he was raised from the
dead
never to die again everyone jesus raised
from the dead during his earthly
ministry they died again
but this was the firstborn from the dead
never to die again
two absolutes would you agree verse 11
says
even so as real as those two realities
are
think of yourself as debt to sin
is there anybody else in the room here
that i should be talking to
in the same way that those are
absolutely true
equal in absolutes is the fact you’re
dead to sin
now the reason the enemy targets the
mind so much
is because if i believe a lie i am power
of the liar
and if i think inconsistent with this is
not mind over matter this is not some
mental gymnastics that we
try to you know hype ourselves up with
it is the discovery of truth
it is the discovery of the greatest
reality there is
the death the resurrection of christ
absolutely true now
let your thinking be shaped by those two
realities
and the conclusion is he says consider
reckon it really means to add up
do you do the math he died rose again
it’s your life i’m dead to sin
it’s the only possible conclusion when
you actually believe those two things
i like to put it this way jesus never
took away any of our ability to sin he
just took away our ability to enjoy it
how many have made stupid chase stupid
decisions and
you it was you were miserable all right
let’s move over now to
mark chapter 15 we’re going to read uh
two verses there
and then i want to go into uh
in america 16. all right there we are
15 start with verse 31 likewise the
chief priests also
mocking among themselves with the
scribes said
he saved others himself he cannot say it
verse 32 let the christ the king of
israel descend now from the cross
that we may see and believe even those
who were crucified with him reviled him
here’s the phrase that really gets to me
that i just wanted to camp on just for a
moment
he says let the christ the king of
israel descend now from the cross
that we may see and believe
nobody sets their own parameters for
growing in faith
no one has the right to say god you do
this and i will believe
it is not the product of determination
and self-will
it is the product of the spirit’s work
in a surrendered person’s life
and this the sooner we get that that
arrogant thing that i’m just
determined to do this i’m determined to
do that get that out of our system
where our ambition is to surrender and
to yield and to
illustrate the nature and the character
of christ in our life
to yield to his purposes and promises
then suddenly we start
seeing things differently and these
religious leaders
had no right to even make the claim that
we will believe if he does these certain
things
it’d be a fascinating study just to see
all the things that were presented to
jesus
there were suggestions to him like when
peter said
don’t die that’s a bad plan that wasn’t
real good
and the devil said turn his stone into
bread there’s a whole list of them
thankfully
he knew when to recognize what was from
the father verse one of chapter 16.
when the sabbath was passed mary
magdalene married the mother of james
siloam brought spices that they might
come and anoint him
very early in the morning on the first
day of the week they came to the tomb
when the sun had risen and they said
among themselves who will roll away the
stone from the door
of the tomb for us but when they looked
up they saw that the stone had been
rolled away
it was very large entering the tomb they
saw a young man clothed
in a long white robe sitting at the
right side
and they were alarmed and he said to
them do not be alarmed
you seek jesus of nazareth who was
crucified
he is risen there’s the coolest three
words ever spoken
he is risen he is not here see the place
where they laid him
but go tell his disciples and peter
which is
interesting
it’s not that peter wasn’t a disciple he
just needed a little extra attention
so sometimes every one of us have needed
just a little extra nudge and jesus was
kind enough to give it to peter so he
said
go tell the disciples and peter
go tell them
that excuse me that he is going before
you in the galilee where you will see
him
as he said to you and that’s a that’s an
amazing promise isn’t it
go to galilee you’ll see him for
yourself they went up quickly they fled
from the tomb they trembled were amazed
they said nothing to anyone they were
afraid
when he rose early on the first day of
the week he appeared to mary magdalene
out of whom he cast seven demons
she went and told those who had been
with him
as they mourned and wept and when they
heard that he was alive and had been
seen by her they did not believe let’s
stop right there for a moment
know what let’s read the next two verses
um three verses
after that he appeared in another form
to two of them as they walked in the
country
and they went and told it to the rest
but they did not believe them either
verse 14. he appeared to the eleven as
they sat at the table he rebuked their
unbelief
and hardness of heart because they did
not believe those who had seen him after
he had risen
i i returned to the story you know you
have places that you’re familiar with in
scripture and you return
to just for i call it recreational
reading it’s just
it’s just where you go to just to kind
of be refreshed with what is spoken and
this uh this portion has uh has meant a
lot to me personally
because it shows me how to number one
how to deal with mourning every one of
us have disappointment every one of us
have lost
every one of us got stuff that we have
no explanation for
uh you just get that in life and if you
don’t know how to navigate that stuff
you end up crippled you can call it
whatever you want you can
you can call it well that’s just not my
gift that’s not my calling but really
you’re just resisting to step into who
you are because you’re hurt
this issue of pain he says here it says
that they uh
they were mourning in verse 10 and they
did not believe
mourning will take you one of two places
first of all mourning is biblical if
it if it takes you to god blessed are
they who mourn
for they shall be what comforter say it
again
blessed are they whom are for they
should be comforted so here’s the point
there is one route to go
in mourning where i don’t have the
answers i don’t have the solutions i
don’t have some great strategy
all i know is who to come to and i come
to this place
in abandonment oftentimes in worship in
the sacrifice of thanksgiving
when it doesn’t feel good but i do it
anyway in that engagement with the
person of the holy spirit
he comes and he comforts there’s one
direction to go in mourning that takes
you to the comforter
the other takes you to unbelief
and we can call it all kinds of
religious titles
but the bottom line is is i’m in pain i
don’t have answers for it
and i’m going to keep the routine up i’m
just not going to be as involved in that
area
i just suffered great loss i’m not going
to pray for the sick like i was
and it’s not always thought through it’s
just what we do is we react to oh
we suffered loss with cancer i i’ll just
somebody else has the anointing for that
i’ll seek for
people who have injured legs or
something you know
we we rationalize instead of going
head-on
into the area where we need to be healed
when he brings healing to a broken heart
it doesn’t at least for me it doesn’t
initially start with
answers most of the time i don’t need
answers anyway i need a person
i need presence i i if i can have the
peace that passes
understanding i’m good which for me has
meant i have to give up my right to
understand
there’s something about coming into that
place of engaging with the person of the
holy spirit where i’m
i’m engaging with him in surrender i’m
not there to dictate to him
i’m not i’m not with him so that i can
become successful in life
i’m there because he’s god and i’m not
i think i mentioned it last week i saw
the sign and said
the only difference between you and god
is he’s not trying to be you
[Laughter]
excuse me that’s not the only difference
but you got the point all right all
right
so this thing of mourning then takes me
in one of two directions it either takes
me to a place
of healing comfort from the comforter
or to unbelief now picture being the
11th
you’re huddled together in a home you’re
scared to death because jesus was just
brutally murdered
before your eyes you’re afraid you might
be next if there’s anything you don’t
feel
it’s resistant to truth you feel
demoralized maybe
you feel weakened there’s probably tears
there’s probably all this stuff going on
in the room
but the one thing you don’t feel like is
a hardness of heart and yet when jesus
walks in the room he rebuked them for
their
hardness of heart see hardness of heart
isn’t evident through
strong self-will hardness of heart is
oftentimes evidence in the unwillingness
to deal with the pain that’s in your
life
unwilling to come to the lord for him to
bring healing out of that which makes no
sense
and what happens is it builds a
resistance in us
the scary thing to me about this the
story is here’s the guys that are going
to be taking on the message to shape the
course of world history
and jesus starts off his relationship
with them with a rebuke
this is his first interaction with him
after the resurrection
and he’s basically saying listen i sent
messengers to you you didn’t believe
them
i told you ahead of time what would
happen then i sent messengers here’s
part of the problem
the first messenger was mary magdalene
first of all in this male-dominated
culture
women were
i’m counted saying it’s right i’m just
saying that’s that’s the culture of the
day
and so these guys that are running
things
who does jesus first reveal himself to
not just
women mary magdalene
the demonized tormented one
jesus chooses her first or the father
did
however it works it was chosen
i remember
here’s part of the problem is you have
to learn to recognize when god is
speaking
not because it makes sense to you but
because you recognize the presence
of god are released when they speak i
know that may sound abstract to you but
i i’ve been
harping on that for years and i feel
like i feel like if the lord wants to
bring it up again
it’s recognizing the presence jesus
taught this in john 6.
this incredible chapter where where uh
he multiplies food first and the crowd’s
crowd is there at least fifteen thousand
probably is five thousand men besides
women and children so we’re looking at
maybe 15 or 20 000 people anyway a whole
bunch a whole bunch of folks
and jesus multiplied a boy’s lunch
to feed them all the lunch of someone
who wasn’t counted
multiplied the food of one who didn’t
count because it counted to him
and then in this dialogue he
he tells everybody they have to eat his
flesh drink his blood which grosses
everybody out and he doesn’t
bother to do the pastoral thing and give
explanation
he could have easily calmed everyone
down by just taking them in their own
jewish history and showing them where it
was
you know where it was foretold how this
would be coming about he didn’t bother
he didn’t want a group of people that
were together because they agreed
towards the end of this time people
start leaving and he makes this comment
to his disciples
he said my words to you are spirit and
their life my words
become presence and that presence gives
life
so every word that comes to us from the
heart of god carries presence with it
but if i only analyze from
my reasoning i’ll get it right sometimes
and i’ll get it wrong sometimes i’m not
saying reasoning is wrong so please
don’t
don’t read in the wrong thing here
because because we’re supposed to
analyze truth but
there are times where uh here it is i
was sitting in a kitchen at a ministry
house we had here in reading
and a guy sat across the table for me
from me and he was
sharing his testimony with me i just met
him days earlier
and inside i’ve got every alarm the holy
spirit that put in me is going off
but my brain my mind was enjoying the
story
and my mind basically told my heart be
quiet this is a good testimony
and i sat there and listened to this guy
go on and on how jesus did this and
jesus did that
only to find out in about a week or two
weeks i think it was
that he had been stealing from people
creating false bank accounts
and literally has set himself up as a
quote-unquote christian to work with
christian businessmen
and he was plundering and stealing from
them
the alarms were going off because there
was no life in his words
but his words were impressive
are you getting the picture here the the
words
stirred my curiosity because they were
the kinds of stories i have heard before
are great things that god has done
and he duplicated them and he suckered
me into that place to just sit there
and you know let my heart be involved
and going oh amen what a great glorious
story
i had to ignore everything in me that
said this is not
right
another time i was in a big conference
thousands i was in the front rows one of
the speakers
and right in front of me is a woman who
is singing
the wrong words the wrong notes
at the wrong time
some of you have such deep powers of
concentration that you would have done
fine
but i’m i’m fighting through this i’ve
been in enough of these fact i was in
one in new zealand you like this one
danny silk and i were standing together
and there was this gal she would wait
till it was silent and then she would
sing things that weren’t in the song at
all you know
and falsetto soprano voice and and the
two young ladies in front of
in front of her they would just start
giggling but they stayed there i mean i
was impressed
that for like 45 minutes they stayed in
front of this piercing
soprano voice singing the wrong
words at the wrong time and they stayed
there everyone said they’d giggle
they had to get their composure go back
to worship
so when the worship ended i walked up to
both of them i gave them 20
each i said you earned this you earned
this
i did i’m impressed so
they knew exactly what i meant to they
knew exactly
i felt like the lord wanted to reward
them for their because i i would turn
around find another place in the room to
stand you know but they just stood there
so i’ve got this gal doing this this you
know
i i knew enough they need to hear me
here i knew enough
not not to judge her i was just it was
annoying but i just i just tried to
distance my heart from it
because i’ve been wrong too many times
just been wrong i’ve looked
stupid too many times when i came to a
conclusion incorrectly
so i knew that was always a remote
possibility
so i just stood there just tried to
worship the best i could
and pretty soon heidi baker comes over
next to me she’s
she’s she was down there and she comes
over right next to me
she leans over she goes
isn’t that beautiful
[Laughter]
yeah yeah oh yeah
[Applause]
i didn’t lie just required greater faith
that i was accustomed to operating it
isn’t that beautiful again yeah yeah
yeah beautiful and then she says
yeah she was a prostitute for 37 years
and now she’s free and i thought yeah
you can sing anything you want
in fact i give you the microphone you
can take my next session i you know
there’s moments like that so what was
going on there there was life in what
she was doing but
but the confusion caused me to not
recognize it and another story
there was warning going on but my
intellectual pleasure in the story
canceled my discernment are you getting
the picture here
the lord wants us to learn the source of
life
itself man shall not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceeds from his
mouth
we live because he speaks we
live literally we are alive because he
talks to us
and our comprehension of his word word
by word his voice word by word
is not the measure of recognizing his
voice
it’s the impact of presence
verse 14 again later he appeared to the
eleven as they sat at the table
he rebuked their unbelief and hardness
of heart
because they did not believe those who
he had
seen who had seen him after he had risen
you know nobody wants to be gullible
right nobody wants to look stupid
maybe it doesn’t matter to you but for
chris and me it matters a lot
no nobody wants to be left looking
stupid because you believed some
dumb thing you know and we’ve all seen
it i mean we’ve seen people
sneak into the church and plunder and
steal money and all kinds of stupid
things just because of being gullible
but the protection for that is not
being resistant to people see that’s the
counterfeit
the protection is okay worshiper
come to know the presence because he’ll
never
deceive you he’ll never deceive you i
went
i remember my first time to toronto it
was i had seen most everything that was
going on in a room but there was 5 000
people there i had never seen
anything like that and it was over
literally it was overwhelming to my
senses
i walked in i stood over about
that far away and i was looking at
everything that was going on people were
being radically touched by god the
meeting hadn’t even started yet
and i i stood there a little bit
overwhelmed by what was happening
and then i thought i’ll just close my
eyes i closed my eyes
and then i realized
it’s the same holy spirit
the one i’ve interacted with so many
times through the years
this is him
the whole point is you don’t grow in
faith by trying to grow in faith
you don’t keep safe because you put
these barriers up that this person has
to meet this qualification in this
qualification
it really is an invitation into
an acknowledged relational journey where
the key to my life is
my ability to recognize him it’s
recognizing him
it’s one of the things uh in these
prayer meetings out in the tent i just
goodness time after time we just walk
into that tent and it’s just this glory
that’s there and
and you you just it shapes you i don’t
walk out of there
you know spouting off 45 minutes of
revelation i just got it’s not that it’s
that’s
tha that would be that would be a
disappointment because it’s like
walking into a person where you engage
with
with with the one who created everything
the one who sustained your life the one
who
who is the evidence of god on earth the
holy spirit himself that
somehow there’s this encounter with a
person
and just in those moments i don’t have
any great ideas
i i have nothing i want to persuade him
of
i i didn’t bring my shopping list or
anything suddenly in this
moment of presence all i can think of is
to honor him
and to love him to join near to him and
to celebrate him and
to be a just a faithful steward of
whatever he’s
he’s put in my charge that in this
moment you know
somebody who asked you want to go up and
do something
no i don’t want to do anything i just
want to
i just want to stand here and worship
and honor and love this one who
has given himself so completely and and
i realize that doesn’t sound like a
logical way to great faith but i think
it is
i think it is i think that’s it i think
that’s the whole journey
the whole journey is that he he says
come just come
get to know my voice get to recognize
my presence
acknowledge that glory know that the
scripture says jesus was raised
from the dead by the glory of the father
that glory you come into that place and
that just that
incredible sense of his presence and
that weightiness of his presence that is
actually resurrection power it’s
resurrection power
it’s it’s the testimony of this day
that affects every day of our life i i
like how you live i like how we live
every day is easter
i get that but i love being able to take
a moment where we just say he has risen
he has risen indeed and it changes
everything and as the scripture says
if he did not withhold his only son
how will he not much more freely give us
all things
i didn’t deserve his son
and that he said it’s a down payment
this is the life we’ve been invited into
it’s a walk with jesus and great faith
is what you’re destined for
i don’t want to grow in faith so i
become more successful
i want to grow in faith because that’s
my design
it’s my nature i’m in a creation
created to believe
and have the privilege to illustrate his
nature
through my trust
trust is the only reasonable response to
someone as faithful as he is why don’t
you stand
we’re going to pray together
i think i think our life is is made up
of a whole bunch of tiny little moments
you know the big significant things i
know they’re important
you know when somebody gets healed or
delivered or a relative gets saved or
you get that promotion that you’ve been
praying for or whatever it might be
i love all that stuff but for me life is
really made up of these little moments
where you’re just walking down the hall
and you just have this overwhelming
sense of
gladness because of jesus it’s just
nothing happened nothing was said
no no fireworks went off it’s just
it’s just you become aware you just
become aware of him
sitting on my deck yesterday two little
quail male female came by and
i didn’t shoot him some
so i realized i could feel the vibe in
the room here
honestly i they walked by and i just i
just
i just gave thanks i thanks for letting
me enjoy this i love this so much that
you would
you would give me the privilege of
seeing these two amazing creatures
i’m not as happy with the ground
squirrels i don’t consider them to be
amazing
the gophers they’re not amazing at all i
think they’re
demons in fur you know
we’re working through that one
but father i ask that you fill our lives
with the little things that trigger that
that awareness of who you are the
amazing covenant that you’ve made with
us
your goodness that’s beyond our
comprehension
and that you would endear us to that
place of longing to hear from you again
and again and again and that the result
really would be great faith
we really would honor you with how we
respond to stuff
i know there’s a chance anytime there’s
as many people in a room we’ve got a
whole bunch of folks online we bless our
bethel family online we have overflow
rooms
anyone who has never made a personal
commitment to the lord jesus christ
to be a true true disciple of jesus
you know that it is time for you to as
we would say get right with god to be
born again change from the inside out
that this
is your moment if there’s anybody in the
room in that condition you’d say bill i
don’t want to leave till i know
i have found peace with god i know what
it is to be forgiven to be brought into
his family
if that’s you put a hand up right where
you are and we’re just going to pray for
you just do it boldly
this is right where you are if you’re in
one of the overflow rooms please do it
there and our pastoral teams will help
you
right down here yep beautiful all right
excellent wonderful
anyone else real quickly we just thank
you lord leslie would you mind
coming over here and just in talking
with us
right back here thank you just
ministered to her
oh my goodness jesus thank you what a
wonderful day
what a wonderful day hold tight and tom
here will
help you to figure out what to do next