Without discipline and humility, God’s blessing will breed entitlement. Bill Johnson teaches on the potential pitfalls that can come from mismanaging God’s blessings. Let’s learn how to steward the favor of God.

merry christmas happy new year

happy fr president’s day

whatever is next i i forgot but

glad you showed up happy birthday happy

birthday

it’s not mine for a while but how many

of you plan to have a birthday next year

sometime right good yeah that’s good

ever since i was a child i’ve had fear

of somebody under my bed

at night so i went to a shrink and told

him

so i said i got problems every time i go

to bed i think there’s somebody under it

i’m scared

i think i’m going crazy

psychiatrist responded just put yourself

in my hands for one year

come and talk to me three times a week

we should be able to get rid of those

fears

how much do you charge i asked 80 per

visit replied the doctor

i’ll sleep on it i said

six months later the doctor met me on

the street he asked why didn’t you come

to see me about those fears you were

having

i responded well 80 bucks a visit

three times a week for a year is over

twelve thousand dollars

my neighbor cured me for free i was so

happy to save all that money i went and

bought me a truck

is that so with an attitude how may i

ask did your neighbor cure you

he told me to cut the legs off my bed

ain’t nobody under there now

i think that’s funny

all right um

we’re gonna do a little bit of study out

of uh

the 14th chapter of acts if you want to

turn there

go ahead and we’re going to spend some

time and

i i was at cascade or cascade campus

this morning

thought i would actually make it through

the whole chapter but we got through

like nine verses so

i don’t have any greater ambition for

tonight so

we’ll we’ll see if we can do eight or

nine ten verses something like that

here i want to present a challenge to

you before we

actually uh begin to read out of acts

14.

we’ve got a problem we’ve got a problem

because the old testament promises

things like peace and blessing and

prosperity and health and wholeness and

family and successful business and

all that stuff is the result of obeying

the lord

the new testament jesus comes along and

he focuses on

not your income not your status but

going low

being generous uh giving

uh imparting to others serving others

and yet in romans

somewhere

i think it’s chapter 15 he says paul

says

the things that were written in earlier

times

were written for our instruction

it’s important because so many believers

discard the entire old testament

saying i’m no longer under the law

it’s a well-meaning statement but it’s

stupid really

because the old testament was written

for us

there’s a richness there’s a treasure

there there is

such a wealth of discovery that we

have the opportunity to enter into

and the challenge comes down to this and

it’s a way bigger subject than we have

time for tonight but

as we as we go through especially old

testament

in fact i’ll just say going through the

old testament we have to

learn to recognize the wisdom of what

ended at the cross what was

changed by the cross and what made it

through the cross

unchanged because all three realities

exist

in the old testament jesus the lamb of

god he died

in our place there is no longer a

need for the sacrifice of animals

there’s no longer the requirement

of the shedding of blood of your own

blood or animal blood

to atone for sin by the way

it never did atone for sin it just

postponed the penalty for a year

and never dealt with sin only the blood

of the spotless lamb of god jesus christ

himself

could atone and cover and wipe out the

power of sin

so the animal sacrifice ended at the

cross

jesus announced at the beginning of his

ministry he announced that

this is the favorable year of the lord

he mentions it in luke 4

he’s quoting isaiah chapter 60. and in

this chapter he’s making

an announcement that if i can put it in

old testament terms

this is the year of jubilee

he’s making an announcement that because

the spirit of god comes upon a person

they can be once and for all free and

that was jubilee

jubilee is free from debt free from

slavery free from

all these things uh property were

properties that were had been sold are

restored to original landowners to keep

the the heritage the family line in

place

all these things took place every 50

years

in the year of jubilee

but jesus comes along and he says

jubilee

is now every year

so the jubilee was

changed at the cross it was redefined

when we come to the subject of worship

what we enjoy

tonight with the exception of

amplification

is exactly what david was doing

several thousand years ago before the

ark of the covenant

giving himself in worship completely

he was the one who brought musical

instruments into the worship expression

he was the one who had continuous choirs

24 7 ministering to the lord ministering

to the audience of one

and that period of time excuse me that

that the process or the vehicle that was

used was called

the tabernacle of david it was actually

it was a tent

no description is given except god was

there and people came to worship

the priests came to minister to god so

we have animal sacrifices ending at the

cross

we have the year of jubilee being

changed at the cross

and we have davidic worship being

unchanged it continues

so the challenge is

what of old testament blessing prophetic

destiny that exists in the realm of

obedience

what of those things can we expect in

the new testament

i don’t know if this is puzzling to you

or not it’s a huge deal for me

because we continuously try to

encourage people to step into purpose

into destiny become everything god

intended

sometimes that include a title sometimes

it includes

uh increased finances sometimes it

includes

uh greater authority all those kinds of

things and yet i’m very hesitant because

i never want to make those things the

goal

i don’t i never want to say

you can measure your spirituality by

your wealth

that’s about as nauseating as anything

we could ever say

and yet there are times where a person’s

spirituality

is actually honored by the lord in the

area of finances

it cannot be denied jesus himself

said this in mark chapter 10

he was telling the disciples how hard it

is for a rich man to enter the kingdom

peter says we left everything to follow

you and jesus said that’s right

and i will add back into your life a

hundred times what you left

to follow me that just is bizarre to me

i don’t know what you do with that i’m

i’m tonight i’m gonna talk for my sake

you can hang out if you’d like

if you get done before i do just go home

how’s that

i’m i’m i’m in this process i’ve been in

it for years but i’m

i’m really pursuing this thing right now

in this season because i happen to be uh

writing a book on this subject

so it’s right at the forefront of my

thinking

so jesus says i will add back in your

life a hundred times

what you left and then he says with

persecution

my friend bob weiner calls that income

tax

[Laughter]

the more income the more tax the more

blessing the more breakthrough the more

opposition

and to think any other way is to be

unrealistic

it’s the opposition it’s the conflict

it’s the difficulty it’s the

it’s the challenges those are the things

that if i can put it frankly keep us

honest

the blessing of the lord breeds

entitlement

in the people of god if they don’t

remain humble

and practice discipline those two

elements

keep the blessing a positive element

as you look through israel’s history you

find

times where they came into great

extravagance solomon’s era

is maybe the best example they say

silver piled up on the streets

it was too common to bother counting

so what does that say about the

prosperity of a city of a nation

the blessing of the lord upon them in

this season was so extreme

that they didn’t bother counting what

was precious to them in other seasons

no excuse me sorry

not maintaining that sense of humility

and personal discipline

gets us into trouble it’s my personal

conviction

the lord would pour out blessing on

everybody in this room

greater than you have the intelligence

to ask for

but he is more concerned with my outcome

than he is how much i enjoy the journey

if i can

put it that way there’s probably a

better way to say that while that i

believe that all the way

100 let me say it differently

he’s more concerned about what i become

in here

than what i experience out here

jesus without question prioritizes

our inner world he speaks to the inner

world consistently in fact he says

the kingdom of god the kingdom of heaven

is within you

all kingdom issues are internal personal

issues they’re heartfelt issues

and so anytime we deal with kingdom

realities

we deal with it from the heart first

it’s why jesus would would come into a

situation and say

if you want to be exalted you have to

lower yourself

it would go opposite the the

common the common thinking of the day

which exists today

if you want to obtain you’ll have to

give

okay the list just goes on and on if you

want to live you have to die you know it

just gets confusing

and yet he’s he’s revealing to us the

nature of his world

so here he says now follow me and go low

put me first be generous give do all

these things

what happens when you look throughout

history at people who actually

lived like jesus taught

they become prosperous

it’s the result of reformation it’s the

result of

awakening it’s the result of renaissance

three terms

while they are not the same i’m starting

to use them interchangeably because they

are

ambitions and goals of mine for me to

see

affect the nations of the world in my

lifetime

and what you see in errors of

reformation is you see people

diligently disciplining themselves

following hard after the lord

doing everything he says putting him

first serving family loving one another

laying their lives now for the spreading

of the gospel and what happens

the lord increases the favor upon their

lives

one brilliant example is a is a

a personal favorite of mine a man named

hans nelson howard

from norway he lived back during i

believe

napoleon that era back in that day

and norway was a very very illiterate

country

is very very poor and he was truly a

revivalist

i actually call him a reformer because

he brought such transformation and

change he’s not a

common household name even in religious

circles that

study and talk about reform like uh

the the great reformation with martin

luther and

john calvin and all these guys here’s

another guy hidden away in norway

he was such a reformer in thought and

yet he was a burning revivalist he would

come for example

into a area and

people didn’t know who he was and he

would see them working in the field so

he would just join right in with them

and help them to harvest their crop and

when they would get done they would all

wonder who he is and they would

think talk among themselves saying well

this can’t be hens nelson helga because

he’s a revivalist and he would want to

preach but he’s here helping us

gather in the harvest and there he was

working together in the harvest

and after they completed their day’s

work he would announce

tonight such and such a place we will

have a meeting and then he would preach

this

fiery message and people would be

transformed and changed but he

he knew the priority of healthy business

he knew the

he knew he knew the reason for healthy

family

it wasn’t just all about the goosebumps

and the raised hands and the

and and the healing as much as i like

all of that stuff

it has to somehow translate in how we do

life

that is victorious and illustrates how

to reign

in life every person was designed to

reign in life

reigning in life is a biblical term it’s

an it’s in romans 5.

reigning a life is a biblical term it

does not mean to reign over people

it means to reign in life it means money

doesn’t control me i control money

i control the resources put into my life

to invest

for eternal purposes and and and i want

to teach on that again

um uh hopefully sometime soon

so here’s this guy hans nelson how good

he uh he he understood things that

are rarely understood uh he he knew how

to

uh how to you know really ignite revival

in the hearts of people

great movement but on the side he would

also start businesses

he would go into a city and a massive

revival would come and he would start

businesses

and then before he left he would turn

them over to the young people

and they would start to prosper he would

write illiteracy was extremely high

in norway at the time and uh and he was

an

author he was a writer and he wanted

people to read his books so he

started training people teaching people

how to read

well pretty soon you know he’s got a

couple hundred thousand books

in print and in that day was

unbelievable

and people are reading his books

studying his books

excuse me in a second here

all right i’m back come out come out

he wanted people to read books so he

started this program to teach people how

to read

well guess what happened when it was

time

for norway to elect

officials to run their country

they elected the most educated who were

the most educated

his disciples

so what happened through revival

prosperity through business

and they were promoted into places of

rule but i remind you in the kingdom

ruling means to serve and anytime we

mix that up we will abuse the position

that god has given us

every every position of authority and

and i mean every position whether

i’m president of a country i’m the ceo

of a corporation

i’m the dad of my household i’m the

pastor of a church

doesn’t matter any place of authority

those positions of authority are always

for two basic

reasons number one is to provide

protection

and number 2 is to empower the bible

uses

different terms to describe that

empowering but that’s basically it peter

talks about

protection and giving praising those who

do right

so it’s basically empowering those who

do right

so what do we have here we have

protection and we have empowered

so let’s break it down this way we rule

to protect

we serve to empower it’s ruling and

service it’s always

those two realms and in this

in this um conversation

there is the compelling evidence

throughout history

that those who obey the lord and seek

him first and

live wisely they become promoted

to places of great influence i don’t

know if

if you see the dance i’m trying to do

here but i

i i i react a little bit internally

to those who always want the christians

to be in charge of stuff

it makes me nervous we’re not good in

charge of stuff we’re we’re better

servants

and i would just soon see us serve well

and if i serve well

and that gets me promoted great but just

don’t let me forget i’ve got to continue

to serve well

and if i can keep that combination going

i’m happy with promotion

but for me promotion has never been

about

size or title or position

all right i that’s the longest

introduction

in church history right there yeah it’s

probably not but

anyway

so i’ve already presented to you some of

the

some of the challenge let me read a

couple verses to you

i’m just going to give you reference and

read it and

you do with what you want in job

chapter 1 is this interesting verse

his children would would have parties

together

and it doesn’t say there were immoral

parties it doesn’t say there was

anything wrong whatsoever in the party

they would just have a family

celebrations together in each other’s

homes

they would celebrate their birthdays

they would celebrate special events

and here’s what it says so when the days

of feasting had run their course

job would send and sanctify them

he would rise early in the morning and

offer burnt offerings

according to the number of them all for

job said

it may be that my sons have sinned

and cursed god in their hearts

thus job did regularly

there’s no record of them ever sinning

what is he doing

here’s the deal he knows that

blessing without humility and discipline

will create an entitlement that will

eventually separate them from god

and yet it’s the father who wants to

bless

do you see the the the conflict it’s the

father

who wants to pour out the blessing

i i hear people say that the lord has

intended for us to live with

persecution and conflict no he uses it

but he doesn’t he didn’t design that

in first timothy two he he gives a very

specific way to do life

in his conclusion was that you may live

a peaceful life

and that all may be saved so what he’s

basically saying

is that when you came come into a place

of

let me use the another term

interchangeably here

when you come into that place where the

peace of god has so saturated your life

that you

actually are reigning in life reigning

over your thought life

you’re not imprisoned by being offended

by somebody you

uh you’re not you’re not controlled by

greed and

and these kinds of things you you

actually are reigning in life when that

peace

has put you into place of such a place

of security

and stability that you are reigning in

life

that is an invitation for people to come

to know the same jesus

because everybody was born for that kind

of significance

everyone was designed for that kind of

personal breakthrough

everybody wants it

everybody wants to improve their life

it’s a god-given desire

it’s not selfish in and of itself

it’s not evil in and of itself

i remember years ago i was i was in uh

africa

and and i i brought her i was as when i

pastored in weaverville

and i brought a good friend with me and

and

sorry

all right it’s out all right i brought a

good friend with me and he wanted to

give something to

children in the villages and then he

showed me at these

pencils bright pink pencils

and i’ll be honest i thought

that’s a dumb gift

come on if you’re going to give a gift

let’s you know

let’s do something significant but he he

thought that was the thing to do

and i remember we drove into this

village and we got out talked i don’t

remember

why we were there but we were we were

there and and we got untalked and

there was a couple teenage girls uh in

the right by the car

and he gave them two bright

pink pencils as we drove away

i turned around and looked and they are

jumping

up and down with joy absolutely ecstatic

and

overjoyed that their life was just

improved

by a pencil everybody has it in their

life in their heart

to improve their life everyone

it actually works against the nature god

gave us

to see improvement and increase

if i can push it a little bit farther

when jesus gave the

parable of the minor and the talents

in both cases the person

who suffered discipline was the person

who did nothing with what they were

given let me rephrase it

both times the landowner the master

representing the lord anticipated

that they would bring increase with what

they were given

you are designed your your musical

ability

your ability to lead your ability to

have compassion

your ability maybe it’s a skill that you

have of writing or

or analyzing things uh maybe a

strategist

you have this ability to put strategy

together whatever it is

that you were designed to do that

ability was given to you to bring

increase into the kingdom to bring

increase yes of souls but not just that

the development of life together because

your gift makes up for my weakness

and together we make advancement and the

lord is looking

to have a body of people that

continuously

advance in their ability to communicate

the gospel

well to in to bring the influence of

change and transformation

into society

that’s probably i i have i had more but

i’m

stopping right there and we’re going to

go into acts 14 because

you’ll just get too depressed and you

won’t keep your bibles open anymore

and some of you already closed it

because you just got exhausted holding

it open so

all right let’s just go right to acts

chapter 14.

i actually was going to take you into

some other portions of scripture but i i

think

i hope hopefully i’ve made my point

acts 14 acts 14 is a very fascinating

chapter

it’s one of those chapters that could

actually stand on its own

it’s it’s a complete representation

in many ways of life in the kingdom

it has great triumph great victory great

impact great opposition great difficulty

great it has everything all in one

chapter

and uh so we’ll we’ll take about nine

ten verses and let’s see how we do

at least that’s my goal we’ll see how we

do verse 1.

now it happened in iconium that they

went together to the synagogue of the

jews

and so spoke that a great multitude both

of jews

and of greeks believed but the

unbelieving jews

stirred up the gentiles and poisoned

their minds i think

new american standards has embittered

their minds

poison their minds against the brethren

let’s read those two verses again it

happened in iconium

they went together to the synagogue of

the jews they spoke that a great

multitude

of jews and greeks were converted they

believed

but the unbelieving jews stirred up the

gentiles

and poisoned their minds against the

brethren

this is um

this is what i i believe paul prayed for

deliverance from when he prayed for

god to deliver him from that thorn uh in

the flesh

it doesn’t there’s no reason to believe

it was actually a physical illness of

any kind

jesus had a tone for that he had taken

care of that uh at the cross

what paul had going against him was

every time he would travel somewhere

there was this band

of jews that would go there and poison

the hearts and minds

of the citizens of that area so that

they would rise up

in persecution against paul

they went everywhere the more pronounced

you become

in your testimony of the gospel the more

bold you become in your witness of the

gospel

the more you overtly pursue

the outward display of the gospel

through conversion

deliverance and healing the more you

will

incite opposition to your life

you can’t avoid it there’s this

whole desire to

you know to be loved and accepted by

everyone

there’s a measure of wisdom in that we

want to we want to make sure that we

present the gospel

in wisdom in kindness in tenderness real

compassion for people

there’s no question this is this is our

heart this is our call our mandate

but many people have stripped the gospel

of its

power because of their intent to be well

loved

the the priority is favor with god and

in the favor with god let me get favor

with man

once i reverse that i lose both

paul had a group of people that followed

him around

just bringing opposition

and there are those who believe they are

serving god by opposing you

now here’s the deal this is what i have

to tell myself

jesus experienced that opposition

a million times more than any of us and

he was perfect

how could me who is far

less than perfect expect to confess his

name and not have opposition

it’s unreasonable

i don’t like persecution i don’t like

opposition i don’t like the stuff that

we sometimes go through i don’t like the

slander especially

the lies

but when jesus spoke to peter and the

guys

who said we left everything to follow

you he said i’m going to pour back in

your life 100 times what you left

with persecution what’s the point

the the measure i want to pour blessing

upon you

you don’t have the strength to handle

without

the reminder of humility the need for

humility

and absolute trust and dependency that

is the outcome of being opposed

pretty good news isn’t it

and you know none of us are that good i

mean none of us

have it all that together to be able to

handle

constant blessing without difficulty

people come to me and they say the devil

just doesn’t like me and i

you don’t like anybody no don’t take it

personal

it’s just you remind them of jesus just

you know adjust

i never want to glamorize opposition i

never

i don’t make it an issue in our even in

our private conversations

we we will try to find wisdom to answer

a challenge

but but we don’t you know we just don’t

we don’t talk about that stuff it’s not

worthy

of my attention but it’s it’s reality

it’s reality it’s it’s what happens in

any person’s life that’s going to take a

stand for jesus

it’s just simply going to happen here’s

the challenge

the new american standard says and it’s

a in this case it’s a more accurate term

um the gentiles the jews poisoned the

gentiles mind

new american standards says embittered

the word embittered means to make bitter

here’s the challenging part

hebrews 12 says it has this phrase

it says look king carefully listen

anyone falls short of the grace of god

verse 15. listen to this phrase lest any

root of bitterness spring up

and cause trouble and by it many become

defiled

what is that what is the story there

what’s the narrative it’s that

bitterness in a person will defile those

around them

unless they are alert to what’s going on

it will excuse me it will defile it will

bring

contamination of hearts and minds here’s

one of the biggest challenges

in ministry i’ve brought this to you

before but let me do it again tonight

one of the biggest challenges in

ministry

is to give yourself to a people group to

an assignment

and do so without picking up the

offenses of the people

you are serving can you minister

to children without being offended at

the adults that don’t prioritize

children

can you minister to adults without being

offended

at young people that have that show no

respect for adults

can you serve the poor without being

offended at the rich

can you serve the rich without being

offended at those who won’t work

can you minister to one race without

being offended at another race

this is this is challenging because what

i’ve watched for years as i watch people

give themself in ministry and to

demonstrate

that they have a heart for the people

they’re serving they

ignorantly pick up their offenses and

consider that their partnership with

that individual

bitterness is contaminating in nature

and the i think one of the things that

keeps us

from having the measure of cultural

impact that god’s assigned for us

is the the challenge the difficulty the

sometimes

inability to wade into deep and dark

places

and serve well without getting

contaminated ourselves

i i promise to end happier

you you look

constipated is the word that comes to

mind but

that’s probably the wrong word

listen to this verse

the fact that you guys show up every

week is just signs of

you practice forgiveness and all that

all right listen to this

this is out of james he says if you have

bitter envy

or self-seeking in your heart

self-promotion

do not boast and lie against the truth

listen to this phrase this this ah

if you have bitterness self-seeking in

your heart don’t lie against the truth

this wisdom

what wisdom bitterness and

self-promotion

this wisdom does not descend from above

but it’s earthly sensual and demonic

what did he just say

bitterness is appealing because it’s

reasonable

it masquerades as wisdom he says james

writes in chapter four he says

this wisdom is not from above

it’s natural sensual and demonic so the

appeal

of bitterness of offense is is

reasonable what i mean by that

if you have if you carry a fence i’m

sure everybody’s experienced this

you carry a fence in your heart towards

somebody you

attract information to reinforce the

offense

you will attract people into your life

that think like you do about that

individual and they will reinforce

that you are right and and the

the difficult part is is it is

emphasizing your discernment

and takes what is evil and demonic and

turns it into a spiritual gift

staying clean in attitude

is everything everything

proverbs 4 verse 23 watch over your

heart it’s been a life verse for me for

40 some years

watch over your heart with all diligence

because from it flow the

issues of life the issues of life flow

from this place

that i’m to watch over the slightest

offense

the slightest irritation has to be

quickly dealt with

i i i’ve had several times just this

week where

a thought comes to mind about an

individual innocent

thought that i accept and dwell on

and i find after about three or four

minutes roots are starting to set

themselves down

because that thought that started

innocently

turned into a reaction of offense

and what happens is the roots

settle into our the longer you dwell and

think about an offense

something that was wrong the deeper the

roots go until they eventually affect

our personality

they actually shape the way we think and

perceive reality

that’s why the bible says don’t let the

sun go down on your

anger on your wrath don’t go to bed mad

deal with it before them because if you

go to sleep that thing will foul and

fester

and you have an infection deeply rooted

in your heart

that you no longer are even aware of

that’s where people go through traumatic

experiences sometimes with the lord just

getting free from things they’ve carried

for years

that they never knew they never knew

that they just squashed it down

and just hit it made up spiritual you

know

quicky answers for something that was

really poisoning their hearts

so paul would go in and preach the

gospel in this area have tremendous

impact masses uh great numbers of people

would believe

and then the jews from this other city

would come and it’s interesting the jews

which would come to the gentiles and

poison their minds

because that was paul’s primary goal he

would always minister to the jew

but he was outwardly called by god

to bring the gospel to the gentiles

and they would take their own bitterness

and spend time with the gentiles

until they caught the same disease

scripture says to mark a factious person

a divisive person

it’s just wisdom to recognize

who affects you negatively who affects

you positively

and i i i’m not saying you know you have

a loved one a relative that is

uh really is steeped in bitterness or

whatever

i’m i’m not saying you don’t spend time

with them they’re your relative you’re

you’re

whatever i’m just saying be aware

be aware go in

recognizing that there’s a problem

changing the subject a little bit and

then i’ll

actually i don’t know if this chapter

gets any happier i think we’re pretty

much stuck i

i think i’m kind of in your face tonight

we’re going to have to end it that way

i’m pretty sure

i don’t i don’t think it improves

at the end of chapter 22 of proverbs

is this uh statement that a person

of excellence will stand before kings

so that’s the last verse of 22 the first

verse of 23

says when you stand before kings

put a knife to your throat if you’re a

person of great appetite

so here’s the deal my lifestyle of

excellence has brought me into promotion

where i am now influencing a

circle in society of people

i have no logical access to but his

promotion put me there

now he says put a knife to your throat

what is he saying

if you recognize that you have a bent

it’s an

it’s an appetite that you have to

accumulate

stuff

when you get in that environment go in

there with self-imposed restriction

knowing that it’s a problem so that it

doesn’t become a problem because if

if i get into the presence of the king

and i start wanting his stuff

what will happen is i will exchange my

favor for influence for

the opportunity to obtain possessions

you can’t you can’t have both not in

that environment

the the point i’m trying to address is

recognize

your own personal bent if if you are

easily offended

just be honest i i get so defensive

i get so defensive just be honest that

when you’re around this person

and they bring up this subject it dials

you up it doesn’t mean move to the other

side of the planet

it just means put some big boy pants on

get into that relationship put a knife

to your throat

if you realize you have a bent towards

this kind of behavior

go in knowing ahead of time if i’m with

this person

i tend to pick up their offenses you

just go in you’re talking with them

you change the subject you try to bring

something more positive more edifying

you do whatever you can but you go in

with a knife to your throat so to speak

you go in with self-imposed restriction

because you know

they are carrying something that could

bring a destructive influence on your

life

all right let’s move on

verse three we have not gotten very far

we’ve got poison brains in verse two

verse three therefore they stayed there

a long time let’s read verse two again

unbelieving jews stirred up the gentiles

poisoned their minds against the

brethren

therefore they stayed there a long time

is that a great verse or what

we are we are under intense opposition

so i think we’re going to move from a

hotel room and buy an apartment

in other words we’re going to go from

being visitors to residents because

we’re setting down roots

many people discern the will of god by

the opposition they have the more

opposition

the more they’re convinced that’s not

the will of god

not you but i’ve heard of people doing

this

and they should never do that again

therefore they stayed there a long time

speaking boldly in the lord

who was bearing witness to the word of

his grace granting

signs and wonders be done by their hands

stop right there

are you reading this in your bibles do

you see it

they stayed there a long time doing what

speaking boldly

and in response to the bullets you got

to get this connection

in response to the people of god’s

boldness

and proclaiming the gospel the hand of

the lord was released

to perform signs and wonders through

their

their hands

a lot of people wait for god to show up

so they can be bold

the scripture gives overwhelming

testimony

that god shows up when he finds a bold

person

mark chapter 16 exact same story

the bold proclamation of the gospel

brought the hand of the lord to display

miracles

peter and john were imprisoned in jail

for

preaching the gospel when they were

released they went to a prayer meeting

and peter prayed this prayer god says

take note of their threats

they had just been threatened by the

religious leaders

god take note of their threats and grant

that your bond servants could speak your

word with

all boldness while you extend your hand

to heal

and signs and wonders take place through

the name of your holy servant jesus

what’s the point boldness creates the

target

for the power of god to strike

i did that much quicker than the last

two verses that’s for sure

verse 4 the multitude of the city was

divided part sighted with the jews part

with the apostles

when a violent attempt was made by the

gentiles and jews

with their rulers to abuse and stone

them they became

aware of it and fled to lystra derby the

city of laconia

to the surrounding region all right

here’s here’s the deal

[Music]

jesus there were

times where the people wanted to make

him king

but he would avoid their promotion

because it wasn’t from the father

he knew it was in hearts of men so in

one moment you have them wanting him to

be king

it also says there was a time where they

wanted to kill him

push him off a cliff

and so he avoided premature death

avoiding premature promotion is as

important as avoiding premature death

premature promotion is like having

a baby born that has been in the womb

for five months it can live

thankfully our medical care

today is extraordinary and those

children can live

but they require a lot of extra care

and things that come into our lives

prematurely

drain us of energy resource and

attention

just to keep them alive

the scripture says the lord when the

lord makes rich

and i’m gonna use rich now as promotion

not just dollars the lord makes rich

he adds no sorrow to it

the promotion comes without regret

it’s just pure promotion that’s healthy

and enjoyable

all right uh we we should probably end

this

let’s find a place let’s go to verse

eight

uh in lystra there was a man without

strength in his feet

he was sitting crippled from his

mother’s womb it never walked

this man heard paul speaking i have that

phrase this man hurt

his faith comes by hearing things have

to be declared

many people in this room are one

declaration short of a breakthrough

this man heard paul speaking listen to

the sequence here

paul observing him intently

seeing that he had faith to be healed

said with a loud voice stand up straight

on your feet

and he leaped and walked what did paul

do in that verse

he illustrated what was back in verse 3.

god granting signs and wonders to be

done in response to their bold faith

what does paul do in this situation he’s

preaching the gospel

and he looks at this man who’s been lame

from birth

and he sees faith

now i’ve heard expressions of faith that

didn’t end up to be faith

i’m not opposed to it i think we need to

we need to guard our speech

and and make sure that we that we speak

positive things and

encouraging things and faith-filled

things i’m i’m all over that

but i i can’t tell you how many times

i’ve had people come to me and say

you know i believe i’m supposed to be

healed today and i will

pray my best and we’ll go after it

together i will partner with them in

their faith

it doesn’t always turn out that way but

there was one time

i actually i think i spoke about this

couple weeks ago there was one

moment where this lady came up to me i

was in nashville we

had people all over the front we were

praying for a lot of healing going on a

lot of stuff happening

and this lady walked up to me and she

said i believe that tonight is my night

to be healed

now it’s hard for me to describe what

happened

because i felt i had never felt this

before

when she walked up to me and said those

words

i felt the presence of faith

i don’t know how to describe this i felt

the presence of faith i

i literally did this she said those

words

and i stepped back one or two steps and

i looked from the top of her head

to the sole of her feet back to the top

of her head what was i doing

i wanted every cell

in my body to be awakened

to what faith looked like

it impacted me deeply i i it’s years ago

and i talked about to this day

it impacted me so deeply i stood back

and i just stared at it i’m sure it

would look

odd in in that context just to stare at

somebody

but i looked her because i wanted every

part of me to become awakened

to this thing called faith why because

the bible says it’s impossible to please

god

without that thing i just saw

so i want to know what that thing is and

i want to know how to get more of that

functioning inside of me and and that’s

the lesson that’s the journey that we

are on

is to live a life of of

actual faith faith doesn’t mean you have

nothing uh let me just insert here

i i see people all the time that have

nothing in a material sense but they’re

not in a place of great faith

and i have other friends that they’re

not in a place of great trust

in god and i have other friends that

would qualify in the billionaire status

billionaire with a b and they live with

absolute confidence and trust in god and

do only what he directs them to do

the point i’m trying to make is is that

being without

so many people think being without

illustrates faith

no being without just means you’re in

need and you hope that somebody who has

something will help you

and calling that faith doesn’t make it

faith

i could say it better than i did but i

don’t want to take any more time so

let’s move on

he saw that the man had faith now we

know that jesus

i’m going to end here so we’ll find a

landing place

jesus only said what he heard his father

say

right he only did what he saw his father

do

so there was this incredible connection

that jesus had with the father to know

what to do

so here’s this moment

jesus has been sent by the father to

minister to the jew

first and in the rejection

by the jew the gospel then was to be

given to the gentiles

as well it was an important

part of the process and so the father

sends jesus and jesus turns to his

disciples and he says don’t minister to

the gentiles only the jews

so now he’s in this conversation with a

sovereign

syrophoenician woman who is not a jew

she’s a syrophoenicial woman she says

i’ve got a daughter

who’s demonized tormented needs to be

healed needs to be

delivered and jesus says

i can’t give the children’s bread to

dogs

the children’s bread is healing the

children are jews

i can’t take the meal that i’m supposed

to offer to this group

and give it to you if i can add it

wasn’t the moment that was coming

after the rejection but this moment is a

jew moment

all right so jesus is there he says i

can’t give the children’s bread

to dogs churches have split over

less than that

and that’s a fact i can’t give the

children’s bread to dogs so what does

what does a woman say the woman says

but the dogs get the crumbs from the

table what did she do

she answered intelligently

faith is divine intelligence

real faith is not this i’m ignorant

about everything

she saw something in a moment of how the

kingdom worked

and when she gave an intelligent answer

jesus healed her

but he only did what he saw the father

do i would like to suggest to you

i can’t prove this it’s only it’s only

an opinion

i’d like to suggest that jesus looked at

the woman

and never heard from the father what to

do

but when he saw faith in her response

he knew she could have only gotten that

from the father

so he knew what to do so here’s the deal

i not only want to recognize faith

functioning in me

i want to see it in other people i want

to know when i’m

face to face with faith for that miracle

because in this moment paul is preaching

to a crowd

but he sees a layman and he looks and he

keeps catching this guy’s eye

and he looks intently at him and he

stares at the guy

and he’s in it his heart he’s going and

there’s faith in there

and so he he he launches the word you

know he stands back and makes this

bold loud voice decree stand up and walk

and the guy stands up he leaps and he

walks he’s completely set free

what happened god say said amen

to the bold confession of faith

if i could take this just an inch

further

and this is where we will end my second

ending and i’m allowed three before it’s

a lie

is the scripture says we’re to know one

another after the spirit

the scripture talks about the discerning

of spirits

now i grew up thinking the discerning of

spirits was the ability to recognize a

demon in somebody

it includes that but that’s not what it

says

discerning of spirits is actually

discerning the spiritual

and there’s this responsibility that we

have to actually

learn to recognize one another according

to how the holy spirit

rests upon their on each other’s lives

how else can we beat this thing that has

crippled the church forever and it’s

called

a prophet is not without honor except in

his hometown

how can we receive from family

is when our honor for family exceeds our

familiarity

why don’t you stand we’ll just end right

there we just landed that plane in the

side of a mountain

but it but nobody was killed just

injured just

i don’t even know how long i went i have

a feeling i went long but

you know well you just didn’t get any

options you know

i know enough about church history to

know there’s not been very many seasons

where the people of god can actually be

blessed for very long

blessing brings entitlement in one

generation

complacency in the next

unless there’s humility and discipline

and i look at what we’re facing today

the lord has

called us to do more than survive

a very secular society and culture

he’s called us to disciple nations

i don’t think it’s possible to complete

that assignment to do it well

unless we know how to manage and steward

our lives

in the midst of abundance and lack

i use the word lack as well because paul

in

in philippians 4 said i know how to

abound and i know how to be a based

he says i can do all things which is

abounding

and lacking i can do all things to

christ who strengthens me

i ins we instinctively know we need to

pray good when we’re lacking

we don’t instinctively know we need to

pray even harder when we’re in abundance

and that minor little detail is

i believe key for bringing the kind of

impact

on a culture that the lord wants us to

have

not as know-it-alls not as people who

have arrived but just people who love

jesus

and want to serve well so let’s pray

father

i give you thanks for the privilege of

being together

and you give us so much hope you give us

so much promise

the assignment you’ve given us is is

just greater than

anything any of us could have ever

earned and so we just say thank you

thanks for just letting us be involved

thanks for letting us be on the team

thanks for letting us play

but i asked tonight that you’d impart

a real refined grace of focus on looking

intently

on this that you’ve placed before us

that we could

put a knife to our throat when it’s

needed

that that restriction that restraint

that actually causes us to lose

influence

we just want to love you well and

represent you well

i ask all of this in jesus name amen

amen

all right