Hope, Joy, and the Supernatural – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

You have a reason to live with hope every day of your life! Bill Johnson shares with us the role of hope in the life of a believer. God has a solution for everything you are going through right now!

thank you

[Applause]

beautiful

nice to see you oops benny

um i have a new book i’m so happy happy

happened

it’s called the way of life

good cover too

you don’t need to read the book just

touch the cover it’ll bless you

[Applause]

the way of life it sounds

interesting experience uh several years

ago i had a friend

a good friend i used to travel with

and in ministry

and uh

he came to visit and we were just small

talk just in hanging out my office

and he then spoke up he said billy says

you don’t know how different it is here

you need to write about it you need to

study it and write about it uh just the

culture

and uh and i and i thanked him and we

went on with our conversation and

but i i didn’t want to add another book

to my list because i had eight

on my list i wanted to write at the time

and i didn’t want to make it number nine

because it’s not encouraging to go

backwards it’s only encouraging to go

forwards

and so i thanked him because as a as it

was a it was a compliment an honor

and uh

and then i couldn’t shake it was like i

was being haunted by in a good way a

good hunt

i was being chased down by these words

over the next couple weeks and i called

him back i said hey dale

say tell me again what you said sit in

my office i felt kind of dumb i didn’t

take you seriously the last time but i’m

ready to right now

and uh anyway i ended up writing this as

a result anybody have a birthday today

bro take today birthdays

birthday come here

come here

how many how many birthdays man we got

tons of birthdays all right we got more

all right

how many more yeah merry christmas

yes

happy birthday

yes how many more do we have

another one how many is there another

birthday go ahead you have a birthday

too

okay another birthday another one

i need help

yeah would you go and just tell michael

we’ve had

they’re

producing like rabbits

right here the ones that were born on

september 2nd all right all right

so help me out those of you that have

birthdays

go with chris who’s running to the back

door just yeah just get up and go

arise pick up your bed

walk

[Laughter]

it’s your birthday go back there and

just look pitiful at the book table and

say it’s my birthday

and it will help you

all right

this is actually a sign in front of a

church

it said deacon joe battle’s funeral is

canceled

he is alive after all

i don’t even understand how you can

schedule a funeral

if the person’s not

dead oh well

i don’t need a valentine

i need eight million dollars in a fast

metabolism

my favorite exercise is a cross between

a lunge and a crunch it’s called lunch

being cremated is my last hope for a

smoking hot body

[Laughter]

that’s just gross

teach your kids about taxes eat 30

percent of their ice cream

[Applause]

this older couple’s looking at each

other the wife says you told me you’d

spend your whole life trying to make me

happy

he responded i didn’t expect to live

this long

[Laughter]

there’s a

a sign in a restaurant where where the

restrooms are

men to the left because women are always

right

this picture in a restaurant with a a

bowl of eggs and a sign on the bowl says

boneless chicken

[Laughter]

two more

sign on the front of a store says push

if that doesn’t work pull

if that doesn’t work we must be closed

[Laughter]

and then the last one is one i read

every once in a while

it was a mother’s day card written by my

grandson cruz who i believe was five at

the time

to his mother

my mom

is as pretty as a dancing princess

she is as sweet as a horse

she is as smart as god

we’re working on his theology

but most of all she is special like a

dragon

that is nice

and can shoot water out of its mouth

no woman has ever received as great a

mother’s day card is that what i do

that’s that’s at the top of yours

grab your bibles open to the book of

isaiah chapter 35 if you would

we’re going to look at

there are certain chapters i like to

read i like to go through the bible

book by book uh section by section like

the gospels maybe the epistles the books

of law whatever and i like to that’s how

i like to go through the scriptures

and but i also have portions that i just

turn to randomly that i call

recreational reading

and isaiah 35 is one of my recreational

chapters

it’s been uh very meaningful to me for

quite a few years back goodness going

way back

into weaverville day so we’ve been here

22 years it was probably

oh 35 years ago at least that i first

stumbled on this chapter for what it’s

worth

something i i saw clearer this morning

that i’ve seen ever before was the

relationship of hope to joy

i i didn’t realize

i don’t know why it didn’t cross my mind

but i didn’t realize that joy is

actually connected to hope

and that where you find hope find

hopelessness you find no joy

and where you find great hope you find

great joy

i think it’s it may be possible i need

to think through this but i think

it may be possible

in some ways to measure a person’s hope

by measuring their joy

when you understand what the word hope

means

it helps it helps for that to make sense

in present culture

uh

hope for us is like a wish i hope that

happens it’s like and i wish this would

take place it’s it’s kind of the shot in

the dark

uh but biblical is completely different

than that it couldn’t be more

uh different than that

than you can imagine it

the word hope in the bible is the joyful

anticipation of good

joyful anticipation of good that’s

actually what the word means

so it’s joy before you get what you were

praying for it’s like it’s the

anticipation of good that is equal in

the measure of joy

as to how you feel after you get the

breakthrough

in another month or so we’ll have world

series i love baseball baseball’s always

been my our family sport

and uh there will be a winner of the

world series and they will there will be

people in the locker room testifying

that they are thankful to god for giving

them their gift their opportunity and i

love seeing that because that’s uh you

know if you can’t give god thanks in the

good times you’re you’re a mess

you need help

maybe deliverance i don’t know

i’m always thankful to see those reports

but that kind of joy is not that hard to

stir up because it’s in response to

something wonderful happening to you

maybe something you work for maybe it’s

just a blessing out of out of nothing i

remember years ago my uh my wife’s

parents

uh were

went into a particular grocery store

here locally i think they were the

hundred thousandth customer

and as they walked through the doors the

bells rang they were given a brand new

toyota camry

and so it’s not it’s not hard to rejoice

when you’ve just won a brand new car you

know you didn’t do anything you just

happened to go

shopping and you won the car you rejoice

of course

but the biblical word of hope is

actually measured in a joy that is

expressed before there’s anything to

rejoice for

and it’s not um

it’s not wishful thinking it’s not like

it’s not it’s not based on nothing it’s

based on the actual nature and character

of god

it’s based on his prevailing word

over your life over my life it’s it’s

that we live conscious of the heart of

god the mind of god the nature of god

and his devotion or commitment to us and

because of that i may not know what’s

always happening but i can always live

with hope because i know that nothing

i’m facing caught him off guard

there’s nothing a lot of things i’m

facing right now

they caught me off guard they caught me

by surprise but there’s nothing i’m

facing that caught him by surprise and

so i can always return to that place of

confidence knowing that even though i

didn’t know to expect this my

relationship with him has kept me

positioned to be a person of hope so i

can actually celebrate the answer before

i know what the answer is going to look

like before it ever even comes

that really is the life of a believer

your responsibility our responsibility

in life

is to live with hope that is actually

contagious

it is it’s infectious it’s uh

it’s not uh there’s a there’s there’s a

kind of

oh it’s kind of a phony faith

that just denies

reality and and i don’t like that

because real faith doesn’t deny

the existence of a problem

real faith denies the problem a place of

influence

and so i’m i i don’t ignore the fact

that i’ve got this doctor’s report or

i’ve got this bill that is due or this

relational conflict or whatever i may

not have answers for these things that

i’m facing

but i know that my father does i know

that when jesus died

he took into full consideration

everything i would ever face in life

he died in my place for my sin

he went to the absolute outer reaches of

what love looked like

and the implication of scripture is if

he would do that certainly everything

that is less than that is covered

does that make sense i just put a great

verse into my own words it didn’t work

as good but it’s because i couldn’t

remember how to quote the other verse so

here’s here’s my pretend copy of the

verse if he went that far certainly

everything this side of that extreme act

of love is covered by that same

act of love

how will he not all so freely give us

all things so we have in isaiah 35 the

first couple of verses

uh start with these verses of hope let

me give you

kind of prophetic language here

um i did a study uh goodness a long time

ago again as we revealed days

and what i did is i looked for every

place i could find water

in the old testament

so there would be mention of rivers uh

streams springs

rain any any kind of manifestation of

water

and what i did is i looked at all these

prophecies these prophets would say and

and he will bring streams in the desert

or rivers on the mountains and there’s

all these terms that were so unusual and

and uh and while i believe there’s

application of these kinds of promises

for nature itself

ultimately what god is looking at is the

barrenness of a human heart he’s looking

at

the barrenness of human condition

and he’s giving a promise of a solution

so anyway what i did is i i lined up

every verse i could find

and what i found was that no matter what

israel was facing sometimes they’re

facing uh military threat uh nations are

set against them sometimes they are

tasting of their own

uh sin

and and they’re tasting the fruit of

their own choices for generations and

and so they’re facing that dilemma

they’re facing maybe uh disease or

whatever it might be

anyway it seemed that no matter what the

problem was when god brought a promise

it was always in the form of water

he would say

they’re surrounded by enemy nations

that’s all right i’m going to bring

streams in the desert

rivers won’t help us god we actually

need to defeat our enemies

but his terminology is what you and i

need to

line up with because if you do

you’ll understand the language of the

prophets in scripture

whenever

i don’t want to say it’s 100 of the time

but it’s pretty close to whenever water

was mentioned in scripture it

represented the holy spirit

and so no matter the problem god’s

answer was i’m just going to release the

holy spirit to you i’m going to send you

the outpouring of the holy spirit the

early and latter rain i’m going to give

you i’m going to give you streams in the

desert and we see this terminology all

through the old testament and it’s

basically a prophecy of god releasing

his presence and power as the one

cure-all

there are responsibilities that we have

in life but this

increase of presence is really

the big cry of the human heart all right

isaiah 35 you ready

yes bill we’re ready

amen verse 1

the wilderness and the wasteland shall

be glad for them the desert shall

rejoice

and blossom as the rose

it shall blossom abundantly i just love

the word abundance

blossom abundantly and rejoice

flowers are rejoicing even with joy and

singing the glory of lebanon shall be

given to it

the excellence of carmel and sharon

they shall see the glory of the lord the

excellency of our god so what is this

this is a

a um

a barren area that is visited by god

until the blooms are blossoming with

abundance

the ultimate is they finally see the

glory of god which is in this passage

defined as the excellency of god so are

you tracking with me so here they’re in

this place and in hope all of a sudden

they’ve got this wellspring of joy

rising up in them because they have so

connected with god’s promise and purpose

over their life that there is abundance

they are flourishing there is life where

there’s always been death and now this

joy is just stirring up and they’re

seeing him the ultimate is to see the

glory of god which is the excellency of

god himself so we’ve got this as the

backdrop for the rest of the chapter now

verse 3.

strengthen the weak hands

make firm the feeble knees

say to those who are fearful hearted be

strong do not fear behold your god will

come with vengeance

with a recompense of god he will come

and save you look at those two verses

again

strengthen the weak hands now now here’s

this

verse three and four are the two verses

in the chapter where you and i are

commissioned to do something all right

we’ve got the backdrop of god changing

circumstances the backdrop where he just

shows up in an extraordinary way and

then he says here’s your job strengthen

the weak hands make firm the feeble

knees

say to those who are fearful hearted be

strong do not fear behold your god will

come with vengeance with the recompense

of god he will come and save you

this is interesting

because

of a life immersed in hope

we are able to step up to the person who

is not in hope

the person who is faltering the person

who is at the place of personal weakness

all of us have been in the place of

weakness we’ve all been in the place of

strength this right now is giving us the

backdrop listen you are being immersed

in the purposes of god you have a reason

to live with hope every day of your life

and in fact to the measure you are

without hope to that measure you are

under the influence of a lie

no one who truly believes what god has

said is without hope

there is nothing you and i will ever

face that caught him by surprise

nor was not already included

in his solution

one of the strangest things in scripture

to me

is where it talks about jesus being

crucified from before the foundations of

the earth so picture this before the

world was made

god the father the son already made a

decision

we’re going to create a world

we’re going to create people in our

image

they will sin

so there’s already the commitment in the

heart of jesus i will die in their place

what does that mean before there was a

problem there was a solution

that’s amazing

so when you and i hit something that’s

brand new to us it’s not new to him

before there was a problem there was

already a solution

so here he gives us the commission he

says all right find those that are in a

place of weakness strengthen their hands

they’re not able to work as they’re

supposed to strengthen their knees what

does that look i don’t know i just

remember years ago a friend of mine

that was fresh out of the military

talked about they would they would have

to run these great distances and

sometimes one of their troops would

would just lose all strength and

collapse

and so they would run over to him

because they’re all graded as as a group

one person would take the backpack put

it on top of their own backpack two

other soldiers would take the soldier by

the arms and they would actually carry

him the rest of the race he didn’t have

the strength to finish the race on his

own so two others that had strength

would carry him the rest of the race

until they finished maybe that’s what it

is maybe it’s the fact that we stand

with one another and we hold each other

up and tell our and tell our knees our

strength until we’re at a place where we

can carry out the very thing that god

called us but it didn’t stop there with

just physical service a touch uh embrace

holding somebody up it moves into a

prophetic realm that i don’t think was

i don’t i don’t see this passage as

somebody waiting to get a word from god

so they can prophesy to the friend

instead i think this is an automatic

decree that we owe to one another

because we know the nature of god and

the overriding promise of god for any

situation in our life so what is it say

to the one who is fearful don’t be

afraid

god is going to vindicate you with full

recompense everything that’s been lost

he will restore to you

why is that important it’s not just um

it’s not just it’s not just empty

encoura how many know what i mean when i

say empty encouragement

somebody who’s trying hard but it

doesn’t hit the mark and doesn’t fix

anything

this is actually the release of the

grace of god into an individual’s life

that helps to bring them into the very

answer that they ache for so look at it

again say

here i’m strengthening hands

strengthening knees now

don’t be afraid don’t be afraid

god’s gonna vindicate you there’s

nothing that we are facing that he

hasn’t already provided a solution for

he will fully restore everything to you

and they may not have the ability to

face that thing on their own but it’s

art because we got their arms and we’re

standing there bringing that kind of

encouragement why is this vital

to me in fact in my bible i wrote

ephesians 4 29 down next to this passage

because it for me it perfectly

illustrates

a truth that

that i i saw in in ephesians 4 29 here’s

the verse i’ll quote it to you

let no unwholesome word proceed out of

your mouth

but only such a word as is good for

edification

according to the need of the moment

that it might give grace to those who

hear all right

no negative words

encouraging words only edifying words

according to the need of the moment so

it has specific application

that it might give grace to those here

that’s the fascinating part to me is

that i could come to you and give you an

encouraging word and somehow that would

bring grace where does grace come from

it comes from god

grace is what it’s god’s favor

okay work with me here

it’s god’s favor i take this individual

i come to them with an encouraging word

i said don’t be afraid don’t be afraid

god’s going to vindicate you you fully

supply whatever was stolen from you i

will stand with you we’re going to see

this through god will fully vindicate

every loss you’ve ever suffered

we make this decree

but here’s what scripture says

when we bring that word of edification

according to the need of the moment it

gives grace where does grace come from

god so let me put it in my language he

sees me choosing an individual to

encourage and he says all right that is

where i will add grace

i will now release divine favor where my

son has

shown favor

[Applause]

we don’t manipulate or control god but

he’s given us permission

every person in this room has been given

the ministry of reconciliation

it’s in first corinthians every person

every one of us have certain overlapping

responsibilities and in this case is the

responsibility to stand as one who

believes in the vindicator i can’t

vindicate you i can’t fully provide for

you what was lost but i can stand with

you out of my confidence because i have

hope out of my confidence and who god is

and his promise that prevails over my

life over your life and i can say he

will fully vindicate

god sees me bringing the edification

according to the need of the moment and

he says i will now add my power called

grace into the equation which will help

to bring about the vindication i have

promised

will it happen if you don’t say it

see the lord doesn’t give us commissions

that he’ll carry out if we don’t

he doesn’t give us some assignment go

into all the world preach the gospel

but if you guys just get too tired or

whatever it’s all right i’ll just do it

myself

or if you don’t go i’ll send angels my

goodness i’d rather have angels sent

anywhere that

some 20-foot angel standing on a street

corner probably have a bigger response

than any of us

or jesus will just show up in the flesh

and

man if that’s the option let’s just have

him do it

when he gives us a commission

it’s because he has imparted to us a

divine enablement grace

and a responsibility to carry out the

assignment

so my question is

i’ve got the weak faltering person next

to me that needs someone to strengthen

someone to grab an arm stand with them

bring encouraging words to them

but then prophesy

god will vindicate you is it possible

that some of the things we’ve waited for

him to do

have been delayed because he’s been

waiting for us to do

the thing he signed us to do

we’ve seen it before i’ve seen a number

of times in my life where i’ve waited

and waited and waited

and i found out after a while that he

was waiting for me

he’s waiting for me to act waiting for

me to obey take risk whatever it might

be

and all that time

i blamed the absence of something on the

sovereignty of god

when in fact it was just the lack of

risk and obedience

on the part of bill

so here we have the verse

strengthen the weak hands make firm the

feeble knees say to those who are

fearful hearted

be strong do not fear

behold your god will come with vengeance

with the recompense of god he will come

and save you look at verse 5

then the eyes of the blind shall be open

then

get next to the hurting person

prophesy over them that god will fully

vindicate

then

the eyes of the blind are open the ears

of the death shall be unstopped the lame

would leap like a deer the tongue of the

devil sing

for waters shall burst forth into

wilderness streams in the desert do you

see this

then the eyes will be open the ears will

be open the lame

the tongue

everything healed everything restored

what did it follow

it followed

the decree

made by the hope-filled believer

notice the language

the prophetic language used in this

passage

to illustrate a supernatural invasion

into a person’s life

then the eyes of the blind will be open

the ears of the deaf will be unstopped

the lame will leap like a deer the

tongue

of the uh dumb will speak

for

i will have

poured out rivers

water shall burst forth in the

wilderness and streams in the desert

there’s that prophetic language

he says this healing takes place why

because streams

waters

i released my presence who comes to you

like rain

i remember standing

right here

in uh

school of ministry second year class

actually i think his first year several

years ago

someone asked me a question about

worship

and it started raining right here

inside the building just started raining

i thought the rain was always spiritual

sometimes it just

rains where it shouldn’t

like indoors

you must have a leak up there

yeah it got repaired right after it

stopped raining

the angel who broke it repaired it

apparently

i don’t understand any of that but i i

like anything that makes me wonder

i was in las vegas years ago randy clark

and i were doing an event there

and it started raining indoors this that

time it rained for like three hours

brian gen leading worship they led with

the song rained down by delirious

and it did it rained down

for like three hours

so the pastor sent teams up to the roof

to find where the leak was there was

nothing up there it wasn’t raining

there’s no leak it’s just raining

sometimes the lord

does things to offend our brain

to soften our heart

because he wants to do something out of

the

out of the ordinary

break into the unusual

he wants to bring rivers

into dry places

and sometimes that means eyes are open

sometimes it means deaf ears are healed

sometimes it means the lame walk

sometimes it means it just rains

there are people all around the city

that ache in their heart as they go to

sleep at night

and it’s all because they don’t know

anyone with hope

if they just knew one person

that had the rock solid hope

of confidence in god

they would approach life differently

let’s look at the rest of the chapter

then we’ll wrap this up

verse 8 the highway shall be there

erode

it shall be called a highway of holiness

a highway of holiness

in psalm no isaiah 62

a highway that’s talked about and it’s

uh a highway is built if you can picture

this

worship worshipers are like spiritual

bulldozers

that remove rubble and stones and as

they prepare to build this highway

and this is unusual picture it’s in

isaiah 62 i think it’s verse 10. so

here’s this worshipers

in the spiritual realm are actually

bulldozing

atmosphere

where a highway is built i know it’s odd

terminology but it’s not mine it’s

isaiah and the holy spirit

so here’s this highway that’s being

built in this chapter it’s called this

road is called the highway of holiness

now i love this because i think one of

the most misunderstood things about god

himself is the holiness of god

when we see him and stand before him

none of us will

stand and say love

love

even though he is loved

none of us will stand and say good

good or great

great everyone who sees him

says holy

holy

holy

see holiness is the actual beauty of god

it’s called the beauty of holiness

holiness is one of the things the enemy

fears the most in his people

because holiness is the actual

it’s the actual representation

representation

of the nature

and presence of god into culture in

society

the enemies worked hard to reduce

holiness to a list of rules things you

can do things you can’t do

it’s not that it’s a person

it’s the it’s the essence of a person

his own beauty his own wonder

this particular passage describes

this backdrop of hope

the people of god getting in there

bringing

encouragement and prophetic decrees

the invasion of the supernatural into

those people’s lives and out of that

comes this highway of holiness it’s

amazing what people are willing to pay a

price for when they discover it’s

authentic

and it’s real

it’s amazing what people will lay down

to pick up something else

when they find out

this is the pearl of great price

everything else i own

is nothing compared to

this

and the holiness of god actually reveals

the very nature of god

imparted to the people of god

his purpose is all wrapped up in this

thing called holiness

and here

a highway of holiness is built the

unclean shall not pass over it

it shall be for others

now my translation new king james is a

little different than

i think both new american standard and

new international

but i want you to hear it out of this

one

whoever walks on the road although a

fool shall not go astray

i love that

i love that

this road is so wide

that you get somebody on their worst day

and they’re still not going to fall off

the road

that encourages me it may not encourage

you but i like that verse

a highway of holiness that has been made

so broad and so profound

that the weak instead of faltering

somehow become a success

when in a previous season they never

would have made it

verse 9 no lion will be there i’m glad

for that

nor any ravenous beast go upon it shall

not be found there the redeemed shall

walk there here’s our last verse

the ransomed of the lord shall return

and come to zion with singing

with everlasting joy on their heads

they shall obtain joy and gladness all

right listen to what it said

they will come with joy

and obtain

joy

anyone in the market for an upgrade

enjoy

it will embarrass you

anyone in the market for an upgrade

enjoy

[Applause]

you saw it

when joyce it’s amazing how many people

want joy until they see it

they will come with joy and obtain joy

and gladness

sorrow sighing shuffling away

here’s my prayer in fact i’ll just pray

when my cry is that an upgrade of hope

would be released into this church

family

how many of you are tired of being

impacted by the size of a problem

and you want to impact the problem with

the size of your hope

size yeah amen so what we do we just

pray that we pray that that you would so

impact every every one of us that we

would never again

be impressed with the size of a problem

or a dilemma a challenge

but so infected driven by the size of

great hope

that we would be an instrument of

solution

of resolution

an instrument of the release of grace of

miracles into the most broken

environment

how many of you want the upgrade in joy

we pray for the lord i pray right now

that you

you would release to us a hope that is

actually measurable in joy

that never again would we fault under

the influence of the size of a problem

but instead our own

joy

would be that life-giving spring within

us

that not only impacts us and our

families

but impacts everybody around us we pray

this

in jesus mighty name

yeah i just i pray that that would just

increase you know in fact i pray that

some of you would wake yourselves up

laughing

to where you’re embarrassed

[Applause]

the cool thing is you can be so

intoxicated by joy that you’re no longer

embarrassed

so i pray for that level to be released

over every single person

every person

tonight’s going to be one of those

nights

i know anytime we have this many people

in a room there’s always

a good chance that we have people here

who

don’t have an actual personal

relationship with jesus

the bible throws out this cry whoever

wills may come in other words the

invitation is open to every single

person

to know what the forgiveness of god is

like to know what it’s like to be

adopted brought into his family as his

son as his daughter

this that the bible calls salvation or

being born again

is actually available for every single

person in the room

i’m going to ask everyone please just

hold your places because this moment is

the most important moment of the day

if there’s anyone here who would just

say bill i don’t want to leave the

building till i know

i’ve been forgiven

that i’m at peace with god

that he welcomes me into his family

if there’s anyone in that position today

i want you just to put a hand up by

doing so you’re saying those words

bill i don’t want to leave the building

till i know i’m at peace with god i’ve

been forgiven of all sin

i’ve been adopted brought into his

family

i’ll wait just a moment

it’s worth waiting for

but i want to make sure that everyone

anyone who’s here

that who was not born again has the

opportunity to meet jesus

all right

i’m going to assume you’re all in let’s

go ahead and stand together

please continue to hold your places

um

i want to have ministry team come on

down to the front real quickly if you

would

i want to have our teams of people down

here ready to help to serve to pray

and then anyone who needs a miracle in

your body

maybe in your finances could be in any

area we’ve got people here

who just believe god

for a miracle for you

we’ve had great reports this morning

in our early prayer meeting

one of our

our

former

janitors who is now a missionary

which is a

logical

leap

let someone to the lord in the country

that they are in

and this couple

have their home has become literally a

healing center

where people have lined up they fill the

home they’ve only been saved a year

but they lay hands on the sick there are

people getting healed like crazy

and it’s just what happens

when you say yes to jesus and us we want

to encourage you to come down why don’t

you come and wrap it up and

tell people what to do

all right let’s show our appreciation to

bill in that message