Pastor Bill Johnson shares a heartfelt message, reminding us of the sweet reassurance we have in Jesus no matter what circumstances we face. Peace, prosperity, and well being is on the mind of God for us.
[Applause]
thanks thanks thankful bethel family
blessings to you
and uh much love and ongoing blessings
to eric and candace i’m
just so thankful this is uh more
challenging than
you you may be able to imagine but uh um
we’re going to do well um i want you to
notice the picture behind me
and they’re beautiful all those orange
trees are evergreens
so either they were photoshopped or
they’re dying
actually either they’re photoshopped or
they’re dead
it’s beautiful color contrast all the
dark green trees in the middle those are
actually the kind
that turn orange but they are green
i just thought it would help me to
communicate that to you because it’s so
important all right help me out here
open your bibles
that’s that’s uh helps me just
trust me work with me here open your
bibles if you would
until jeremiah chapter 29.
jeremiah 29 we will
as has probably been said well enough
already i i think
we are not going to be quick to be
making plans we want to
savor the moment in a sense because we
want to make sure that we give honor
where it’s due
and express our our absolute thanks and
and gratefulness and celebration
for who eric and candace are
and all that they’ve done and so this
will be a very tender
season we will be uh very open and
upfront with you about what’s going on
and when
but we’re going to we’re going to be
carefully communicating
this next season for you um this is uh
i i don’t for me there’s not been a
weirder season in my life
um the the most challenging in many ways
and to be honest with you the pandemic
has nothing to do with it it
just is kind of a nuisance and forgive
me i know it’s more than a nuisance to
so many
that have suffered so deeply but for
my own personal experience it’s not been
the cause of most challenging season
instead it is just there as a a constant
reminder that’s a it’s a it’s a strange
thing the political climate of the
nation
is going to settle here soon but uh we
got that swirling and now we’ve got our
own world and it’s like the perfect
storm
in which jesus himself will show up and
only he will get
glory it’s not going to be through
gifting through wisdom
nowhere that we have succeeded has it
been because anybody was smart or
unusually anointed it’s just
absolutely the grace of god the grace of
god and so i’m i’m i’m very thankful for
that i
i’ve actually had this chapter on my
mind for months
and um so
i i’m i’m going to talk to you out of
jeremiah chapter 29
and um try to uh
reaffirm uh a phrase that’s been used a
lot
uh benny i i think she started it for us
several years ago god’s got this others
have picked it up and there’s t-shirts
and there’s
mugs and all kinds of paraphernalia
to remind us that god’s got this and
but here’s what i want to do we’re going
to read the verse that probably
most of you know by heart or many of you
would know by heart would be able to
quote
and that’s verse 11. i want to read that
but then we’re going to go back and look
at the context i do want to give you
a brief but um
uh important uh teaching or decree
about this season that we’re in
verse 11 is the verse that
most people know for i know the thoughts
that i think toward you
says the lord thoughts of peace and not
evil
to give you a future into hope i want
you to look at it again
i know the thoughts that i think towards
you
says the lord thoughts of peace
not evil to give you a future and a hope
and that verse is such a broad-reaching
promise of the lord it’s quoted often by
you know preachers that i hear through
the years and rightfully so it’s just
one of those
it’s one of those gems that’s just
tucked away in a very
difficult setting and uh and i’m so
thankful for this
decree that the lord makes i know the
thoughts
that i think about you they’re not
thoughts for your calamity
the for your blessing the free of
welfare interestingly this word peace
in this passage is also translated
prosperity it’s translated health it’s
just overall well-being
and it is the it is what is on the mind
of god
about us in the middle of this situation
that we’re in
and we can describe it through the
political climate of the country we can
do it through the pandemic
we can do it just in the bethel world
with uh with a very
for me extremely sad uh departure and
transition
change uh we can look at a lot of
different things some of you in your own
personal lives have things complete
completely unrelated to anything
that i have mentioned going on in your
own life in your own home it may be
a business that is uh it’s just it’s
just
dying it may be other things so the
point is
we’re going to read a context here that
i think
long term can give us a wonderful
wonderful hope
and for me if you know anything about
how i function in my life whenever
something comes up i
run i don’t walk i run to the promises
of the lord
i run to what has god spoken to me what
has he
said to me last what is it that he has
deposited in my heart
about this season most people could
you would do well if you just returned
to the last thing god told you
but sometimes because of anxiety and
fear and all the junk that goes on in
our lives we
we tend to drop the things that god has
given us and
we can’t afford to do that right now
we’ve got too many things swirling
and i’m going to ask you as i mentioned
in this video
we’ve got to return to the strongest
absolutes in our life and that is this
right here i know the thoughts i have
towards you thoughts of a father a
perfect father
a perfect father who is wonderfully good
and it was that one theme that one
thought
that brought jesus to earth to take on
flesh
to take on the cross and to raise again
everything that he did was to reveal the
father and so this
is not a side issue this is the core
issue
it’s all about the fatherhood of god in
your life
and in mind and right now
i’m in a place where i’m going to
emphasize
being a son a child
not the leader that never stops
but hopefully awfully understand what
i’m saying right now
is where i take that hat off i’ll put it
down
and i’m i’m i’m wearing the hat of a of
a child
that really needs the father
so here’s what i’m going to ask you to
do we’re going to read about 10 verses
so hang in there
i’m going to make uh three kind of
concluding thoughts
and then we’ll wrap this this day up
together
we’re going to start with verse 4 thus
says the lord of hosts the god of israel
to
all who were carried away captive whom i
have
caused to be carried away captive from
jerusalem to babylon stop right there
please notice this wonderful promise
where god says i know the thoughts i
have toward you
was towards a group of people that were
in captivity they were held prisoner in
another nation
build houses verse 5 build houses and
dwell in them plant
gardens and eat their fruit take wives
and beget
sons and daughters take wives for your
sons and give your daughters to husbands
so that they may bear sons and daughters
that you may
increase there and not diminish so that
the word of the lord was
you’re in captivity but if you’ll do
this my way
you’ll thrive there you’ll thrive there
what what you think is destroying your
life
is actually going to be the platform for
your greatest promotion
and so we’ve got to repent and shift
change the way we think and perceive
situations that you may be increased
there and not diminished verse seven
and seek the peace of the sea this is
one of my favorite verses in the whole
bible because it
i’ll never forget when it hit me oh
goodness 30 35 years ago in weaverville
when we
we began to focus on the prayer for the
benefit of our city and not
thinking it’s us and them and this word
peace this is one of the places i think
it’s in the new american standard where
it says
seek for the prosperity of the city so
let me read it with that word prosperity
verse 7
seek the prosperity of the city where i
have caused you to be carried away
captive
and pray to the lord for it for in its
peace or in its prosperity
you will have prosperity there’s
something profound about
this in fact if you’re writing notes
down write down first timothy chapter
two verses one through four
because in that passage is a directive
in prayer
that was to bring the people of god into
the abundance of peace
and impact on culture itself it’s the
most unusual parallel between this
chapter
and that one all right so for uh for in
its peace
you will have peace verse 8 for thus
says the lord of hosts the god of israel
do not let your prophets or your
diviners
who are in your midst deceive you here’s
an interesting phrase nor
listen to your dreams which you cause to
be dreamed
it’s a profound lesson by itself i
believe very much that the lord speaks
to us through dreams i have
i’ve had so many critical times in my
life where the lord has
has has inspired a dream that’s given me
insight of what to do
things i didn’t know what to do and i
woke up understanding because of a dream
i’ve had the lord affirm me in dreams
very unusual
unusually but when we hold to our agenda
and there’s an unwillingness to yield to
the purposes of god
that bent or that desire in us will
actually create
its own dream in the night
it will actually cause there to be a
dream that appears to be a prophetic
dream when in fact it’s not from the
lord at all
it’s the offspring of your own unyielded
desires
i believe strongly in the dream life and
the lord speaks all through scripture
and in my own experience but just
understand
walking with a yielded heart to the
purposes of the lord
song of solomon though i sleep yet my
heart is awake
that posture positions us
to have divine dreams all right look at
it again the last
part of verse 8 nor listen to your
dreams
which you cause to be dreamed
for they prophesy falsely to you in my
name i’ve not sent them says the lord
thus says the lord after seventy years i
completed at babylon i will visit you
and perform my good word
toward you cause you to return to this
place
for i know the thoughts that i think
toward you says the lord thoughts of
peace
not evil to give you a future and to
hope
then you will call upon me and go and
pray to me and i will listen to you
and you will seek me and find me when
you search for me with all your heart
and i will be found by you says the lord
look at verse 13 again what we’ll
wrap up the reading up with this you
will seek me
and find me when you search for me
with all your heart i will be found by
you it’s interesting jesus
used a very similar um
language in the gospel of john where he
said
he said i will be found by you and he
uses a word that says
i will make myself conspicuous in other
words you’re going to be going down the
road looking
and i’m going to jump in the middle of
your path and do something like this
that you can’t miss me
and we have that kind of a father who
wants to be known
and discovered by his own and every
person watching this whether you’re part
of the bethel family tribe
and this uh news is uh this morning as
devastating to you as it is to me
uh it rattles us deeply or you’re a
guest and you’re watching and
and and you don’t have quite the history
to feel some of what we’re feeling
regardless of what
position you’re in the lord makes a
covenantal promise to you
and he says if you search for me
with all your heart you’ll find me
i will make sure that i am in the middle
of whatever road you’re walking down
and you will discover me there will be
that encounter that changes everything
our life as disciples of jesus our our
life as followers of the lord
is hinged upon us encountering him
it’s not peripheral it’s not an addition
to it is life
his voice brings us life we live because
he talks
this word is the living word of god he
speaks in it and
through it and he enhances and adds
strength and life to us
to carry out his purposes but this story
this great
grand promise that god gives i know the
thoughts
that i think towards you the thoughts i
have for you
their thoughts of your welfare not your
calamity
they uh to give you a future to give you
a hope
that pristine promise
came at the most unexpected and awkward
time and it’s the mercy of the lord
that regardless of whatever hell hole
you think you’re in right now whatever
the situation might be
if you’ll calm your heart just a bit
turn to the word of god
god will speak to you and bring a
promise
that is so opposite to your surroundings
that it will shock you it will stun you
imagine
being carried away captive not willingly
unwillingly bound taken to another
nation
you are now subservient to this ruling
class of people you are prisoners there
and the lord comes to you and all you
can see is the restrictions the
restraints the problems
all you remember is what you left behind
what you lost how it could have been the
promises you had over your life and they
didn’t come to pass
you got all this stuff swirling around
you and the lord steps into the middle
of that absolute chaos and he says
i want you to know what i’m thinking
about i’m thinking really good thoughts
about you
and it’s about your it’s about your
welfare it’s actually about your
prosperity
i’ve got a lot of plans i i daydream
about you
and i think about these moments that are
so difficult for you
but if you’ll take just a moment you’ll
rediscover the promise of the lord
and i remind you of that psalm that is
so
important to all of us the 23rd psalm he
says i prepare a
table before you in the presence of your
enemies
think through that i prepare tape what’s
the table the table is a place of
exchange the table is a place of
fellowship
the table is a place to eat it’s a place
of nourishment and strengthening
so the lord says i prepare this place of
personal strength and personal encounter
in the midst of your enemies and
oftentimes we’re
overly mindful of what’s not right
and we’ve lost sight of the very fact
that the lord put a table
right in the middle of the most
unexpected place and we find it again
in jeremiah 29 i know the thoughts that
i have
towards you they’re thoughts of your of
your blessing
of your your prosperity i’m gonna bring
you into wholeness
i’m gonna i’m gonna bring you into why
you’re on the planet in the first place
you’ll not miss a thing i’m bringing you
back
and then he says be careful don’t listen
to those who’s
who uh who announced to you that uh
that god is not in this he has arranged
us and i don’t care
he’s not the god of calamity uh he’s not
the god who creates
viruses and all this junk that’s going
on but i tell you what he is still god
in the midst of it
and what’s important for us is to not
fight
it’s going to sound awkward don’t fight
the restraint
strengths the restrictions
masks pandemic
we’re going to have a mass burning party
someday but until then there are some of
you that believe
it’s the absolute key to remaining
healthy is
as a as a community
fine promote it in the spirit of christ
do your best to hold up that standard
and i will support you
there are others of you that believe
that it is
from the pit of hell and you will have
nothing to do with it
fine just do so in the spirit of christ
the point is is we’ve got to hold to
what we’re doing
realizing we are a diverse family we
never require you to think this way
what i want you to do is i want you to
learn how to think
how to respond
not give you our prescription on how to
you know make it through this pandemic
that’s not important to me
i i know the lord has convictions about
stuff but sometimes
there are some issues that we face in
our life i don’t
the devil doesn’t care what your opinion
is as long as you leave the spirit of
christ
to promote it if you sacrifice
this so that you you promote i don’t
care what
noble cause you have i watch i watch
right now it’s at a heightened level in
our nation
where people leave and forsake the
spirit of christ to promote their agenda
and i’ll tell you what it is that drive
in here to promote an agenda apart from
the pro
the spirit of christ that actually
creates in us the capacity to dream
things that are not from god
so look at these verses number one
we’re in a situation we can’t get out of
you you pick pick whatever one you want
i feel like i’m holding up a deck of
cards just pick a card any card
we’ve got enough things going on right
now just pick one
i don’t care what your favorite your
least favorite is just pick one
we’re not in a position to change it
what are we in a position to do
we are in a position in the middle of
whatever crisis you may be facing to
find the word of the lord
you’re responsible for it i’ve told you
before in these what
i don’t know how many hundreds of years
it’s been since we’ve met together
but i’ve mentioned before if if you have
more input from social media from
mainstream media than you do the word of
god then your discouragement is
self-inflicted you’re responsible
you cannot have a garden and have a key
to the gate
and invite the enemy to come in and
plant weeds and then moan to god about
it you’ve got to repent
for the fact you’ve entertained things
that are in conflict with the will and
purposes of god
we’ve got to take ownership of this the
the gate if you will to our own hearts
the gate if you will to
to our own assignment here in life as we
guard well what god has said
so number one stop fighting the
restriction
learn how to flourish in it
amen bill i think you’re on to something
number one
stop trying to fight where god put you
number two
be restored to the promise of the lord
rediscover for yourself not just
something you can quote flippantly but i
mean the heart-to-heart connection with
the father
who honestly looks for your welfare he
fights for your welfare he
contends for your blessing not your
calamity be restored to that
face to face that mouth-to-mouth
connection with the father who says
this is how my heart burns for you my
imagination runs
wild of the things that i want to do for
you
get get back to that one the father
and then the last one
is set your heart to seek the face of
the lord
these are all things that are normal
parts of the christian life
but i feel like in this moment it would
be critical for us
to review and to renew
it’s kind of like when the lord spoke in
revelation to the church
at ephesus he
corrected them he rebuked them because
they had
lost their first love but what was his
prescription that he wrote out for them
he says
do the deeds you did at first be
restored
to what you used to do and i i’m coming
to you right now not with the first love
message but with
just the overall message right now right
now
stop trying to fight a setting or a
situation
that you’re in where
god has placed you
and you have to discern that one but
where god has placed you
stop trying to fight it number two
instead of focusing on what isn’t going
right that enemy that surrounds you
because he will he we all know from
experience he torments us
torments us by attacking us in our
thought realm
instead of being that where we anchor
our souls and our thought life
this is where we deliberately return to
the promise of the lord
the table of the lord and have the face
to face fellowship with the king
of kings our father
and we get restored to that place of
confidence god i don’t know why this is
happening
i don’t know what’s going on i don’t
know the answer
there’s so many things i wish i would
have done differently and i tell you i’m
speaking out of experience
so many things i wish i would have done
differently
but i’m here
and i’m still on your mind
i’m still in your heart
and your intentions for me have never
changed
they are nothing but the best even when
i feel so
unqualified so undeserving
for your best and yet you’ve set it
aside for me
so father i sit and i i return to that
table
where i refuse to be distracted by the
circumstances of my life
and i choose to be occupied with the
face of the one who brought me to the
table
stop fighting the restriction rediscover
the table
and set your heart to seek the face of
the lord
because he’s given us a promise i will
be found by you
i will be found by you
it is impossible to hunger after the
lord
and not discover him it is the
covenantal promise
of the one who is more perfect than the
rising of the sun to more
tomorrow morning it is more dependable
than the rising of the sun in the
morning he is that kind of a father
now i realize that there are some
watching
this
this service who don’t have a personal
relationship with jesus
you know what put everything else
everything that we’ve said put it aside
this is what’s important is that jesus
suffered and died with you in mind
he actually wanted to make it possible
for you to know what eternal life is
and we’ve got people on the youtube
channel and the bethel tv and
podcasts and other other forms of
broadcasting
that are available to talk and pray with
you i want you just to
put it on there and just say i i want to
know jesus i want to know what it is to
be
forgiven i want to know what it is to be
born again i want to i commit my life to
follow
this jesus let me pray for you
and then we’re going to wrap this up and
i’ll turn it over to our team that will
close the service
so father
we just we just put on the child’s hat
and take off all the other significant
hats and important hats and
responsibility and position and title
and all the other stuff and we just
we just say father here we are we’re
we’re kids
we don’t know what we’re doing
but we sure do love you and we sure do
trust you
and so we just turn our hearts to you we
say father
we trust you father we love you
and we ask be glorified right now
in our lives together this global family
the local bethlehem family father be
glorified
in the individual members with eric and
candace with
us who remain here in this place most of
all father be glorified
i ask this in the honor of the name
jesus
amen