ABOUT BETHEL CHURCH Bethel Church in Redding, CA, is a congregation rooted in the love of God and dedicated to worldwide transformation through revival. It’s our goal for God’s love to be manifest in signs, wonders, and miracles. The atmosphere at Bethel is charged with faith and exuberant joy, which manifests in all we do. We believe we’re on the edge of the greatest revival of all time. It’s our vision to see history become His-story as the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our God. We welcome you to join us in this adventure!
my favorite verse for this is where
there’s no oxen the manger is clean but
much increase comes through the strength
of the ox so when you have something
happen like this there’s going to be
messes because he’s working with people
he’s working with imperfect people that
are going to respond
[Music]
so let’s look at one particular
manifestation that was personally very
offensive when i
when i began to hear it and um was being
drunk in the spirit and we call it holy
laughter kind of either one of those
sorts of things and so
what do you mean by that
you know when we when we talk about it
what’s your your experience of this
manifestation of being drunk in the
spirit and
well
after the outpouring of the holy spirit
in acts 2
peter’s response was
these
this 120 they’re not drunk like you
think they are so in other words there
must have been some sort of
a response they had to god touching them
that gave the appearance of being drunk
yeah um so let’s set the stage so they
they’re hit with the tongues of fire
and then there’s the sound of a wind i’m
not sure there’s a wind actually
mentioned the sound of the wind
and then they come out they stumble out
into the streets
and they are declaring the praises of
god
in languages that are known by the
people by the jews who had gathered to
jerusalem exactly and they could hear
them declaring the praises of god but in
the midst of that i think it’s verse 13
chapter 2 he said they are drunk
so the god hits them with power it’s the
promised uh he said i’ll give you my
holy spirit and you’ll receive witnesses
you’ll be power to be witnesses yep and
then the power comes and it results in
this these unusual manifestations like
it’s interesting how the lord doesn’t
mind gathering a crowd he’s like you
know what i’m doing and i have a big
tornado noise
with no tornado they’ll get them out of
their houses you know and then they see
these guys speaking praises to god in
the language but to your point they must
have been behaving
if i see a
person
speaking with a different accent or a
different dialect and they’re actually
declaring i can hear them declaring
god’s praises i do not say they’re drunk
dude i’m saying exactly i don’t see
somebody from a different ethnicity yeah
you know speaking a language i figure
like well they’ve learned that language
or you know and wow i love that they’re
praising the lord this is a beautiful
articulate praise i do not say they’re
not dirty drugs or whatever and neither
will it gather a crowd of thousands no
again exactly yeah you know we have
people
a city there’s lots of drunk people in
the streets
a thousand people don’t gap around them
that’s a good point yeah yeah that was
your point but go ahead
it just says uh it says when the sound
occurred the multitude came together it
says they were confused they were amazed
they marveled in verse 7. and verse 12
says they were amazed and perplexed
and then verse 13 says they were mocking
so those who think when god shows up
everybody just adapts quickly it’s just
not everybody jumps on board no it’s
just not true
it’s it’s just messy it’s it’s my
favorite verse for this is where there’s
no oxen the manger is clean but much
increase comes through the strength of
the ox so when you have something happen
like this there’s going to be messes
because he’s working with people yeah
he’s working with imperfect people that
are going to respond and sometimes
uh you know be careless sometimes
exaggerate sometimes try to control
um all of those things happen yeah but
it doesn’t
it doesn’t seem to be as offensive to
him as it is to us
i think my favorite part of that verse
is where peter’s defense he just he
declares they’re not drunk and he
doesn’t say these are holy men we’re
followers of jesus he goes it’s too
early in the day for them to be this
drunk
so again it’s like i’m not denying the
what you’re seeing like i’m not trying
to explain away the behaviors you’re
seeing that’s excellent and that you’re
hearing i’m just trying to tell you hey
think about guys it’s too early to
actually be physically drunk right
that’s his defense and then he unpacks
how this is a fulfillment of the of joel
uh chapter two so it’s just beautiful uh
interesting though but but he can’t deny
the manifestations that’s right again
this is implicit it’s not explicit in
scripture that they were behaving drunk
and again so i mean the the what what
are those people observing just thinking
through that well you know some negative
things you know that we could think
about some people are drunk do violence
we i don’t think that’s happening some
are some are getting sick i don’t think
that’s happening but they are uh being
oh they’re uninhibited by yeah uh
convention they you know they are
overwhelmed uh with the lord with the
the glory of the lord so i don’t care
who’s looking uh like somebody who’s
intoxicated would be maybe you find
yourself sitting somewhere that you’d
like why am i sitting in the gutter you
know because like you know in this place
it’s like you’re sitting places doing
things you wouldn’t normally do
with this experience of the lord’s
presence so as a young man i had spent
my whole christianity never being drunk
and it was offensive to me to hear time
to get drunk in the lord yeah so i had a
total
stumbling block to the even the image
reeve like how could that imagery be
used by the lord yeah
yeah and and it’s it’s painful for those
who have come out of alcohol oh yeah
yeah and i’ve had couples
yeah uh real real offensive and i and i
understand that and i i don’t want to
teach drunkenness as a as a point of
theology it’s just you know it’s it’s
sometimes what happens well
if you’ve got if pharaoh’s
you know magicians can make counterfeit
snakes of moses
drunk with alcohol is a counterfeit of
spiritual joy
there it is yeah it is a counterfeit of
spiritual joy so some folks like looking
for spiritual joy is not
it’s not a problem it’s how you how you
experience it and what you access to to
obtain it
um a phrase i think randy clark uses
comes to mind tears
are to repentance what joy is to
salvation
can you unpack a little
to repentance what laughter is to
salvation okay yeah yeah now as as
we accept the tears as you mentioned a
while back but it’s it’s just all a part
of it the drunkenness of acts 2 or
whatever it was they had it was
something that helped to gather a crowd
of people
and uh and there was the preaching but
underneath it all is they were in these
languages declaring the greatness of god
in acts 2 verse 11 they were declaring
his wonders
and
so
so underneath all that you have that
whole thing of like it
it’s one of the weird things that
watching somebody have a spiritual
experience
is
weird yeah
like i remember being a young man
watching like worship on tv
you know at uh just whatever because
sunday morning tv used to have like a
ton of people worshiping and like and
they could be passionately you know
their faces were passionate their arms
were raised but as a believer i’m like
oh that just looks awkward that’s not
good tv i’m like thinking that in my
head so there’s lots of experiences in
the lord that when you stand as an
observer
they’re they’re not lovely to look at
no that’s
most of the things in revival are not
lovely to look at
i mean to be honest
they don’t make for good tv they’re not
good there’s not marketability there’s
not broad appeal it’s only good tv if
you were there if you’re there
yeah yeah you’re like i remember that
day when the lord met us so powerfully
and affection rises in your heart yeah
so watching it no no i don’t i don’t
enjoy it like
i i i’ve likened i i bought all my kids
these little geodes you know 25 years
ago because it reminded me of revival
the outside is just this ugly thing and
appearance you crack it open there’s
these beautiful
uh colors and crystals and all the stuff
yeah that uh that that to me is is a
great move of god it’s on the outside it
is offensive it just is but when you’re
in the middle of it it’s hard to put
into language what god just did for you
absolutely but you would do anything for
him you would do anything you’d take a
bullet any day it’s like this is why i
was a lot why i’m alive i was born for
this yeah and uh it’s you only get that
on the inside you don’t get it on the
outside totally we have this uh with our
students that not you know not every day
is a holy spirit encounter day and you
know full of joy and laughter but enough
are and you will get you know there’s
videos online of our students just in
piles you know um
of just enjoying the presence of the
lord and each other you know and um
it like i said it’s not a great look on
tv you know lots of videos are on the on
the internet but i know that the
encounter those students are having are
precious yeah and our lifelong
like foundational stones in the lord and
um and the lord’s doing a beautiful work
there so i just again i have to just not
be offended at that
and um you know we’ve talked about the
students like hey when you go someplace
you know you probably don’t fall into a
pile on the floor if that if that
environment isn’t ready for it if that
church doesn’t love that or like that
like hey you know we talk about that the
spirit of the prophet is subject to the
prophet like
general oftentimes
the holy spirit isn’t radically
overwhelming so you can’t do anything
about it
oftentimes you can
no that’s that’s true kind of like kind
of get it get it together using air
quotes there and then do the thing that
the lord’s been asking you to do um
just couple stories about that we had i
had one
service sometime in in this when i i was
the only for on a friday night i was the
only pastor that showed up at night just
for some reason i was the only one so i
kind of like i opened the meeting i did
the offering i closed the worship and i
did the whole deal and i had to preach
that night too so and the lord hit me
with joy
like during the worship and so i’m like
lord i got no back up here i got to do
this like this is
this is not and then i’m not i’m not the
big joy guy like i mean so this is
unusual so i was like loving it and
appreciative
and yet also going papa not now
this is not a good it’s not a good time
so it was a weird moment where i kind of
got up and
and was experiencing this sort of
intoxicated my thoughts were cloudy i
would have rather been quiet and just
been
resting in his presence you know just
kind of
uh it you know just
not preaching you know in that moment
and uh just just enjoying this moment of
joy but for some reason i thought the
well the word had to be preached that
night and so i just like held on onto
the sides of the pulpit
and i got through it you know and it and
at the end i’m like lord you know i kind
of got through that and he’s like and i
just felt like from the father that’s
sort of like yeah i’m not sure why you
did that
again those are that’s his words through
my inner inner voice but at some point
i’m like he was like like i was just
determined like you gotta get through
the
yeah the sermon and he was showing up to
do something different and i just
thought i gotta i gotta do this so you
can like i found in that moment you can
resist and eventually kind of just shake
it off
um because that’s what i have the spirit
of the prophet subject the prophet like
he at that point if you that first i’m
quoting in corinthians they were all
prophesying on top of each other in an
ecstatic moment as soon as the utterance
the anointing is on me i gotta speak it
out and he’s like no no it doesn’t work
that way it’s not gonna go away
wait your turn one at a time we’ll
discern the word so uh in that in that
moment but i was
it’s possible for the lord to come and
for you to kind of like you know not
overly respond to it so sometimes we’ll
talk to the students like if you’re
going and ministering in a church that
doesn’t have these experiences
please you know
exactly you know be gracious and kind to
the environment and reflect their core
values
they they love the presence of the lord
they just experience it in a little
different way and so be in cooperation
with that
yeah it’s huge it’s huge and plus the
goal is not to draw attention yeah to
ourselves
it’s uh it’s
it happens at times because of what he
does in us but it’s it’s never the goal
and it’s not necessarily a measure of
spirituality
and so uh it’s not haves and haves not
it’s not we have this and you don’t it’s
anytime we get into that area it it’s
very very dangerous because then the
spiritual pride enters in it defiles
whatever god was doing that’s well said
yeah so i’m over being offended by
drunkenness uh and uh but i i’ve changed
like i i intoxicated with his presence
uninhibited in his presence like i mean
uh yeah you kind of substitute those a
little bit and that kind of helps me
find kind of my grounding in that yeah
yeah
so in all these areas i think probably
what i’ve
we’ve all been on this learning journey
of it you know nobody has to look like
us or think like us you know and and um
you know this that we have the pristine
you know gospel and you don’t or the
like the full gospel and you don’t or
all these sorts of things but i do think
it’s important for the church of jesus
christ to be listening um it’s actually
crucial that we listen not like
legalists but like lovers like
i i love you
and i i i know that you love the lord
like i’m disagreeing with you i’m
uncomfortable
with what i’m seeing
i’m concerned
right right but i love you and you’re
going to experience not just like my
love i can just like i put up with you
until you start behaving like me
but i actually
really genuinely are seeking your
highest and best good
and i think as we’re as partly
my journey through this whole thing was
just recognizing the real love that was
in people who were experiencing
manifestations of the leaders that were
they were full of love and they were not
mandating this was the new thing
everybody must be doing they’re like
i’m hungry
i’m walking in love and so i part of
this has been
a graciousness learning with gender
listening with generosity to the
experiences of our brothers and sisters
like you know uh in the faith you know i
instead of listening uh like a legalist
uh
um and being appreciative of the the
variety of expressions and experiences
that people have with the lord has been
part of our journey at least it has been
for me breaking me out of that kind of
arrogance um self uh group-centric sort
of thinking and realizing all that the
lord can accomplish
yeah yeah just celebrating
celebrating other people and god’s
unique touch on them too because he
he’ll touch me differently than he
touches you and if i don’t have a value
for
how he works in and through you and upon
you
then i’m going to measure and i’ll
either become greater than you or i’ll
become less than you and i can never
measure up but it’s always it’s always
wrong yeah it’s always unhealthy and uh
and so being able to celebrate the
uniqueness of god’s touch on another
person yeah i think is important and you
talk about honors i’m going to celebrate
who you are without being offended by
who you’re not in some ways and so the
whole church could kind of like
kind of step towards that yes i’m gonna
celebrate who you are what you’re doing
without being offended yeah with who
you’re not and uh trust that those folks
are on a journey just like we are
of becoming like christ exactly yeah
you