The Beauty and Wonder of Hope – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

Bill Johnson speaks about the beauty and wonder of hope. More than wishful thinking, hope is what anchors us to God’s goodness and faithfulness, and keeps our heart in a place of surrender to Him. Hopelessness robs us of the delight of obedience and the joy of sacrifice. It is our responsibility to manage our own hope levels. In this sermon, Bill shares keys for stewarding and growing hope in our own lives.

and what hopelessness does is it robs me

of the delight of obedience

i may still be locked into the

discipline of obedience i still may do

all the right things externally but

because of hopelessness my heart doesn’t

get to feast on the joy of obedience

thanks thanks thanks

you’re nice

well good

morning still morning

so good to see you

and all of you online by faith i see you

laughing at your own mistakes lengthens

your life

laughing at your wife’s mistake shortens

it

[Applause]

there’s a lot of wisdom in that

statement right there

um this fall we have a a eight-week

small group study

from my book strengthening yourself from

the lord it’s probably a good time to go

through that

in this particular season

and so anyway we have that uh taking

place this fall in our small groups

and uh we’d love to have

more and more leaders

uh help to lead these particular groups

too and so you can stop at the table in

hebrews and they will give you all the

information that you need

the leadership training for that starts

next sunday morning at 10 30. so if

you’re interested in that

stop by the table

give a pint of blood

social security no no just just go talk

to them and they’ll they’ll help you out

um i’ve been looking forward to today

i actually was wanting to talk last week

i’m glad i didn’t because daniel brought

such a brilliant word my goodness

i was so

so glad i didn’t uh insist

um

and i brought such a such a good word so

refreshing if you as always if you

didn’t have a chance uh to be here to be

a part of that then it’s online and i

would encourage you to see it but i’ve

been looking forward to being with you

because i wanted to talk to you about

hope

and how to take responsibility for the

level of hope that lives in your own

life

um

i’ve been uh i’ve been learning to cook

yes i have

and nothing extreme yet but i

this last year or so i’ve been exploring

and uh just to let you know

friday i cooked this

sea bass with asparagus

i had seafood i’m telling you it wasn’t

red meat

occasionally i like to explore the other

vegetable world

[Applause]

asparagus mushrooms and

some of the tiny little potatoes we grow

in our garden and

all cooked in duck fat which is just the

best way to to cook

anyways can i hear an amen

a salad

huge salad

with uh

parmesan cheese that i actually had sent

over from italy

it’s it’s it’s the

proper yeah grated over the salad

olive oil and balsamic glaze it was a

glaze i put on there it was tremendous

okay you can go now

[Applause]

but i also took supplements i i take

supplements to help fill in

weaknesses in the american diet

and the encouragement that you receive

from other people

i guess you can live by it if you want

to but it’s not the meal

it’s just supplements

the meal

is what you find on your own to feed

your own soul with

and we each have the responsibility to

maintain the level of hope in our own

life

many people live in a place of of

actually famine

needing someone else to bring them good

news

when god has given you actual

legal access

to an unlimited resource

of refreshing and good news

he oftentimes hides what we need the

most

in the most

offensive situation or circumstance

in proverbs 25 and verse 2 it says

it’s the glory of god

to conceal a matter

it’s the glory of kings to search out a

matter so the glory of god to conceal a

matter

he hides things for us not from us

uh my oldest grandson judah uh works for

me at my house and he helps take care of

things that

i either don’t want to do or don’t have

the time to do most of it’s the first

one i don’t want to do

and and and i pay him i pay him well and

um

uh i think it was

last week or week before last he found

an easter egg

that has been there for probably two

years

now if you’re thinking hard-boiled egg

no

we put money in plastic eggs

and i have one grandson that when he was

younger we had hard-boiled and

money eggs

and he’d pick up an egg shake it if it

rattled he’d put it in his basket if it

didn’t rattle it’s hard boiled he threw

it back in the bush

[Applause]

he was a cash only kid he just

but my my grandson judah actually found

an egg that we had put there with cash

in it

probably two years ago

god hides things

for us

and then it goes on and it says it’s the

glory of kings

it’s the glory of people who know who

they are

that know what they have

legal access to

and responsibility for

think of it this way there is a treasure

hidden within reach that you have a

responsibility to find because you’re

discovering that treasure will affect

multiple generations

we’re not talking about just personal uh

you know

just encouragement for yourself that’s

huge but it’s not just personal pleasure

personal success it’s the responsibility

of creating a momentum of being a

generation who hopes in god in all

situations a responsibility

i have a responsibility to find

to apprehend to lay hold of what god has

put within reach

i remind you that that’s the way he

described the kingdom of god the kingdom

is the realm of his dominion so

everything that exists in heaven that he

wants to be

released if you will on earth

on earth as it is in heaven

is in that realm called the kingdom and

he said the kingdom is at hand it’s

within reach it’s here it’s now and it’s

obtainable

unfortunately many

choose to live with the theology of a

kingdom that is present but never

learned how to find the treasures that

have been hidden

the enemy works hard to keep us

distracted through anxiety through fear

all that

those family of bad decisions

to keep keep us anxious so that we lose

sight of we lose

awareness of the solutions

that god has for us

the enemy works to make us anxious

so that the problems we face appear

bigger than the solutions we carry

god intends

to work the impossible through a yielded

people

what hope does is it positions me for

surrender what hopelessness does

is it removes from my awareness

the beauty of sacrifice

hopelessness robs me

of an awareness of why

obey

why sacrifice why pay a price

let’s

make it simple if if let’s say that you

and your family we’re going to take a

special vacation next year

and that vacation um you’ve got 12

months to save up for it so you’ve

decided to

i don’t know cancel the movie channel uh

to not eat out uh

you know for six months or whatever it

is it’s you just you make sacrifices

because you have something more valuable

more pleasurable

at the end of the sacrifice

and what hope does is hope keeps

the long-term

situation in view it it keeps

it keeps perspective on the pain that i

experience right now

the self-denial that i have in this

moment will be worth it because we’re

going

here for a vacation

does that make sense

and what hopelessness does is it robs me

of the delight of obedience

i may still be locked into the

discipline of obedience i still may do

all the right things externally but

because of hopelessness my heart doesn’t

get to feast on the joy of obedience

every commandment of the lord is to

ensure that i succeed

every commandment of the lord is to tie

me into

the purpose for why i’m alive

the commandments of the lord connect me

to why i’m alive and they they ensure if

you will they ensure my

success

success is a biblical term i realize

wall street has a definition don’t fall

for that there’s a there’s a better one

the absolute fulfillment of why we’re

alive the gifts that we carry the the

joy and the satisfaction of doing all

that he said to do that he directed us

to do every one of us will appear before

the lord to give an account of our life

and and the commandments of the lord

actually link me to to my design

there’s also this thing this element

called the testimony that’s the spoken

or written record of anything god has

done

in his partnership with people

the reality is god can do

everything better than we can

and he does not need to say here people

teach all the time god needed us so he

created us no

no don’t be stupid

the one who lived eternally past

he has no needs he has lots of dreams

and you’re the dream

you’re the desire

hopelessness robs us of

a potential

and hope

always leads to great faith

hope anticipates

hope actually attracts

circumstances

that aid us in fulfilling our purpose

hope is a magnet

people with hope actually attract

opportunities

actually attract the building blocks of

prophetic words if you will into their

life so that they can fulfill their

reason for being

hope really is a magnet it magnetically

attracts into our life the building

blocks the things that we need

hope comes

from his nature

our hope doesn’t exist because we’ve

psyched ourselves into well we just got

to do better we just got to believe

it’s it’s hope is not the product

of determination

much like faith hope is the product of

surrender

it’s yielding to the reality of who he

is

i want you to look in your bibles at

psalms 42 we’re going to look at just

one simple passage in a moment

but to help us with this

hope actually is the product of his

presence

nobody looks into the face of god and

walks away without hope

hopelessness only reveals the distance

between

my face and his

it grows in the it grows in the space

between encounters

it grows in the space between awareness

of the spirit of god upon my life in my

life

hopelessness grows when i give my heart

to what other people will call common

sense

i have never been impressed with any

thought i had that was common

there’s nothing life-changing that is

common

just a brief little tangent here

little one

the more the fear of man controls your

life

the more you will think to fit in

and to be

pleasing instead of to be

changing

challenging transformative

it’s not that we become careless in our

regard of other people it’s just

that we

regard his thought of us

more than anybody else’s in a time of

heightened heightened social awareness

people live

monitoring their life by how many likes

or approval that they have

and the one way to silence many

christians is just to call them a

conspiracy theorist

it only affects those with the fear of

man

all right i feel better let’s move on

let’s

actually go to the bible and see if we

can find

in verse

5 of 4 psalms 42 did you find that

20 minutes ago all right

verse 5 why are you cast down o my soul

why are you disquieted within me hope in

god for i shall yet praise him

for the help

of his countenance that last phrase

i don’t know what it is i forgot to look

in new american standard and some of the

others

but i there is a translation that i

really like it’s the complete jewish

bible

instead of for the help of his

countenance it says for the salvation

that comes from his presence

so let me read that verse again with

that last line because it actually helps

the reason i’m reading this

is

it

i’m reminded in this scripture

the birthplace of hope

in my heart the place

where this

tangible sense of the spirit of god

become so pronounced in me

that the circumstances around me can all

shout one thing but i’ve got something

burning me burning in me that says

another

it’s that element of hope

and hope is displayed as hope in the

middle of controversy

in the middle of conflict

so let me read that verse again with

that in mind it says why are you cast

down on my soul why are you disquieted

within me hope in god for i shall yet

praise him for the salvation that comes

from his presence

hope in god

there’s this

verse in uh it’s exodus excuse me

ezekiel we’ll start with an e ezekiel

39 verse 29 that says the lord speaks

and he says i will not hide my face from

them any longer for i will have poured

out my spirit on them

okay so think through this

god says i’m not going to hide my face

now when we think of the face of god we

have to think of

the perfect affectionate loving father

whose countenance

expresses delight and joy

over his child

so we talk about the face of god we are

talking about

that which displays favor

that which displays delight that which

marks us with eternal purpose it’s all

in that countenance so

he says i’ll not hide my face from them

any longer why because i will have

poured out my spirit on them what is he

saying

the outpouring of the spirit always

contains the face of god come on

the spirit of god begins to move in a

room maybe it’s in worship the face of

god is there

anytime god begins to move in a room and

people start getting healed or people

come to christ

marriages start getting restored

people abandoned their bitterness the

resentment that they came into the room

with and they start getting freed up and

delivered what’s happening in that move

of the holy spirit the face of god is

behind it all which is what the

delightful face of a loving father is

behind that outpouring

and it is the birthplace of hope

seeing

who is there

seeing

his heart his purpose his plan

you cannot help but have hope

in that situation

the lord

the lord gave us statements like

all things work together for good

to those who love god called according

to his purpose all things work together

i’ve even stated in recent weeks this

this reality

it’s a good reminder for me it’s a good

reminder for you all things work

together for good

my favorite restaurant

is french laundry

amen

glory to god

in napa

youngville actually

and i remember the first time i went to

this restaurant now i i just like things

when i can tell the chef or the

architect or the you know the

author or whatever it might be they were

so intentional in the way they laid

things out

in this case

uh just the way they prepared this

food so i’ve got nine courses

so

all small but you end up full i don’t

know it’s a miracle i don’t know how it

happens

so i sat down first time benny and i are

there and another couple friends of ours

were there

and they brought me this course

of

dominated by two things i did not like

immersed in a sauce

the two things were oysters

i know some of you like them

to me they remind me of something else

[Laughter]

slimy things yeah you’re good all right

oysters and

caviar was never a fan

so they served this and i looked over at

ben and i said honey i’m paying too much

money for this to not at least taste it

so i took a bite and i looked at her and

i said

i want a chili bowl full of this stuff

how how could he take

two things that i don’t like mix it

together with a bunch of things i do

like

and make it to this date one of the best

things i’ve ever eaten in my life

the same way our master chef takes the

bitter

the tasteless

the meaningless

the stuff that’s too spicy this stuff is

too sweet

the stuff is too sour

and then put it together in the perfect

blend

and at the end of your life you look

back and you say

i wouldn’t change a thing

i wouldn’t change a thing

because every single part of my life he

took by his grace and he worked it

together to what brings him glory and

it’s the most satisfying meal i’ve ever

had in my life i wouldn’t change a thing

he has promised us

he has designed life in such a way

that there are always discoveries to be

made he’s the one who said

though i walk through the valley of the

shadow of death

i fear nowhere because you’re with me so

in other words the great treasure is in

the middle of the greatest loss you can

feed your soul on whatever you want

but you have the opportunity

to encounter god

in a way

that you’ll never have a chance outside

of the valley of the shadow of death

it’s not self-determination surrender

it’s yielding to the purposes of god’s

yielding to the word of god he is the

one who has declared this to be so

he goes on and he says he sets a table

before me

that table is a place to eat

brent’s laundry

it’s just almost time for lunch i’m just

doing you a favor i’m giving you

motivation here he prepares a table

before me what is that it’s a place of

fellowship of encounter

of engagement of personal pleasure

delight joy

he sets that table in the presence of my

enemies if all i see are the enemies

i’ve missed the table that he put there

and we all have different stuff going on

most of you know

what

my family and i have been facing the

last month

the tragic tragic loss

without question

but there’s also a table there

there is a table

there’s a table of intense

fellowship of great delight

of personal

pleasure of satisfaction of fulfillment

it’s there

it’s much like

the easter egg that’s been hidden in a

bush

i know it’s in there

in our easter egg hunts we

put small amounts of cash in most of the

eggs but there’s a few eggs

they’ll have a much larger bill in them

and one of my grandsons

one of them went to his dad before

everyone was released to go find the

eggs he said dad

where is the one with all the money

and brian excuse me my son

was so impressed that his son had the

courage to ask that he told him right

where it was

[Applause]

so he went over and got i don’t know it

was a 20 bill or what was in there but

it was a it was a good egg

you know what

sometimes you just ask the one who hid

it

just

it’s a funny story and there’s there’s

more but we’ll leave that right where it

is but just think with me for a moment

he wouldn’t have asked if he wouldn’t

have thought there was a possibility

of him being rewarded for asking

there was something about his own

father’s nature

that he responded to an inviting nature

of exploration discovery personal

success

and if you’re sitting in the middle of

maybe a personal loss maybe a financial

crisis legal matter

whatever whatever we all have stuff

there’s a table there

he says so

the one who cannot lie

the one who cannot lie has declared over

your life

there’s a table there

and that table

will nourish you it will strengthen you

anybody else glad that he made food

good except for cilantro

[Applause]

i in my opinion

god sees people eating cilantro and he

says

it was a decoration

i just offended three quarters of the

women

but some of you are with me

come on be bold put your hands up all

right all right

what are they eating bad for i was a

decoration

the table that he set

is not just for your strength

it’s for your pleasure

i want you to look at this uh

verse with me in psalm 68

excuse me 78.

hopelessness is heart disease

in the church

it is the root of heart disease

we were designed to be robust believers

in the nature of god

faith does not put me in control

faith does not control god faith does

not manipulate him to where he has to do

what i want

faith puts me in the greatest place of

co-laboring with him for he is able to

fulfill his own desires through a

cooperative people yes

how many of you believe on earth as it

is in heaven is the will of god

i mean honestly you that’s actually what

he what he intends

is it happening

what’s not happening is not because

he lacks the desire

or he has he has not

put at our disposal what is needed

that may be too large of a piece for me

to take with 13 minutes left but let’s

just try

it’s not because there’s lack on his end

of the equation

he’s done everything necessary

now it’s up to you and to me to explore

and discover what he’s put at our

disposal

well why did this happen i don’t know i

i don’t have answers for most things

but i do live aware of the fact that

there are realities that surround

certain problems that we’ve not yet

learned how to dismantle

and in this pursuit of the one who hides

things for us

is the pursuit of solutions answers and

breakthroughs

one by one

that aligns that part of this world with

heaven

and that is our task

that’s our responsibility

is to implement on earth as it is in

heaven

psalms 78 is uh

is a tremendous psalm it’s it’s uh it’s

an air if you could it’s an aerial view

over israel’s history their successes

their failures their failures their

failures their failures and a moment of

success again and then their fail and

it’s it’s kind of an aerial view on how

and why these things happen and it’s an

extraordinary psalm but what he does in

this psalm is he highlights the elements

that brought about their success

the elements that made life work for

them the way he designed it to work

do you remember when when the lord spoke

to the nation of israel they’re captive

in egypt they get released and he gives

them the promise

of the promised land remember anybody

remember that story or you’re just

staring at me all right

dan remember so i’m going with you dad

you and me all right

so we got this whole thing of the

promised land a whole generation

did they get in

nope

what did god lie

nope

they just disqualified themself for what

he promised

and what we’re learning to do is how to

not disqualify ourselves for what god

intended

sometimes we get it good sometimes we

miss it by a mile

is anybody tracking with me here

all right well let’s talk to me then all

right

so let’s go to verse uh psalm 78. and um

verse five he says he established a

testimony in jacob

and appointed a law in israel okay

testimony spoken written record of

anything god has done and a law

once again god gives us commandments to

ensure our success

his commandments are not

restrictions or restraints

they are not to keep us from pleasure

his commandments keep us from immediate

pleasure that destroy long-term pleasure

immediate success that destroys

long-term success

thanks

my credit

will allow me to buy things

i will regret buying later

every month

being a slave to that payment

and what the lord does with his

commandments is he commands us for the

long-term success instead of just

immediate gratification

and if we could see that we would

celebrate every time he said yes or said

no

we would celebrate every no because we

know it’s connected to a better yes

he established a testimony in jacob

appointed a law in israel which he

commanded our fathers that they should

make them known to their children

that the generation to come might know

them

the children who would be born that they

might arise and declare them to their

children

that they may set their hope in god

new american standard says that they may

set their confidence in god

okay think through this with me

the lord says i’ve given you

commandments

these are the directives i have for your

life they ensure your success suck it up

and do it

the testimony don’t forget the god who

invades the impossible these two things

if you’ll make them known to your

children and then make sure that they

make them known to their children

it will be instinctive for that next

generation to place their hope in god

why because seeing the commandments and

the fruitfulness of the commandments of

the lord and the testimony of the lord

sets a person up for hope

so i would say this hope comes from the

presence

from the testimony and from the

commandments when you see them as god

designed them they give us reason to

hope

david would talk about waking up in the

middle of the night

and meditate he would meditate on the

testimony of the lord he would meditate

on the commandments of the lord

it probably wouldn’t hurt for all of us

to pick up a little better

habit

of contemplating the directives that

god’s given us in our life

so for some of you the lord has

restrained your activity in this area of

life because he wants you to give

yourself to this area of life

and just to stop and to think and allow

god to work in and through your

imagination releases such great hope

because you have this anticipation i’m

saying no to the movie channel today

because this next summer we’re going on

vacation it’s the long-term delight and

pleasure

that keeps us filled with anticipation

and hope

hope deferred makes the heart sick

desire realizes the tree of life god

designed us

to live in the strength of hope

but here’s the bottom line the measure

of hope that you live with the measure

of hope that i live with is entirely up

to

me it is what i choose to feed my soul

if i feed my soul on all the things that

didn’t happen

i will have what’s called common sense

very common and little sense

but when you take on the mind of christ

and relays i i don’t need an explanation

for this what i do need is a sense of

presence

and to know what to do next i just need

to know what does he require of my life

this psalm i love this psalm for many

reasons

but one is he says

make them known to your children have

them make

these things known to their children

that they may hope in god what’s the

point

a person who embraces the word of the

lord and the testimony of the lord this

miracle

these miracle components

embraces these two things

cast such a long shadow

that multiple generations are inspired

into hope because of the decisions

they’ve made

think about it

you stand before the lord and you see

people that you never met you never knew

their name

but you find that you made a hard

decision in this moment you made a

challenging decision here you chose to

save instead of spend

metaphorically speaking you chose to

restrict yourself here and had such

influence that multiple generations grew

up inspired to just believe god just to

trust god because of your decision

it’s the beauty of a hope-filled life

won’t you stand

job said though he slay me

yeah well i hope in him

it’s like

what options do you have

you can hope in him or yourself

oh boy

you can either hope in the one who’s

perfectly faithful

or the one who isn’t

as the most logical thing in the world

in the kingdom

is to trust the one who is perfectly

trustworthy

so i pray for that i pray that for you i

pray that for me

that uh that this would fit into

whatever you’re facing

their online community same thing is

that all the challenges that we face

i i pray that we would that we could

face them this next week with robust

hope

robust hope a an infectious hope that

says

i don’t know what’s going on

i’m not even sure what to do all i know

is that i serve a father who is in

charge

and i trust him

so father i pray that for us as a family

that you would give us a grace

for unusual levels of trust and hope in

this next season

i want to give opportunity for anyone

here who has never

placed your faith in christ

for

your salvation

there’s an opportunity

for people online people in this room

overflow

it’s an opportunity

for those who would say

i know that i’m not at peace with god

but i want to be i want to be a disciple

a follower

one is committed

to follow jesus if there’s anybody in

this room that is in that place where

you would say i don’t want to leave the

building till i know i’ve been forgiven

of sin that i’ve become a part of god’s

family

if that’s you just put a hand up where

you are we’re going to take just a

moment for this just to

just on somebody way back over here

wonderful yes i see this

anybody else raise your hand

[Applause]

i’m sorry is there another one here i i

missed it anybody else

okay

all right wonderful

so all right oh that’s a two-year-old

child that’s awesome

i see that hand that’s beautiful

that’s the best that’s awesome

thank you lord

all right here’s what i want to ask

those who just raised your hand

to commit your life to jesus it’s very

important that you do this next thing

over here’s a banner to my left we’ve

got people over here that we know and

trust i want you to come to them and

talk with them they will pray for you

it’s not about membership here it’s just

simply about a relationship with jesus

so anyone in this room that is

interested in that come over here i’d

like to have the ministry team come to

the front

and come on up right now if you would

we’re going to open it up and leslie

come on up and tell them what to do but

the ministry team come on down and those

of you that are responding to the

opportunity to surrender to jesus come

to my left right over here a guy waving

his hand he’s the guy you want to talk

to

yeah i’m so glad that you watch this

video i do pray that it’s a great great

strength and encouragement to you and

i’ve got a verse that it really is my

cry for all of us and it’s psalms 20

it’s verse 4

may he grant you your heart’s desire and

fulfill all your plans

that’s my prayer that’s my prayers that

this would be the season of rich rich

fulfillment

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