Bill Johnson - Adjusting to the Yoke
Yeah, good morning, good morning, good morning! Good to see you! I did that push pay thing all by myself during the first service during the offering reading. I actually finished it during the offering reading. Never mind that a five-year-old could have done it in half the time—I got it done, and I’m quite happy about that! We’ve got a new book released; our «Increased» books are testimony books, and each page contains a great story with pictures, very well done. This one is made for kids, and it’s all about kids by kids—it’s just awesome! And, um, someone with five kids, what do you have? Nine? Come here! You win! Wow! I’m speechless; let’s all go home now. I don’t know what else to do! That’s amazing—nine! There are some in this family; I don’t know if they’re here today. I forget how many they have, but man, it’s a lot! And it’s wonderful because they line up like an army to give me hugs. All right, I got something to read to you.
A man was riding his bicycle through the zoo when he saw a little girl leaning into a lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabbed her by the cuff of her jacket and tried to pull her inside to devour her, right in front of the little girl’s screaming parents. The man got off his bike, ran to the edge of the cage, and hit the lion square in the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from pain, the lion jumped back, letting go of the little girl. The man brought her safely to her parents, who were very thankful. A reporter saw the whole thing and addressed the man, saying, «Sir, that’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen!» He said, «It was nothing—the lion was behind bars. I knew God would protect me, like He did Daniel in the lion’s den long ago. I saw this little kid in danger, and I just acted.» The journalist said, «I noticed a Bible in your pocket.» He said, «Yes, I’m a Christian on my way to a Bible study,» the man replied. «Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist; you will see tomorrow’s paper, front page, your story!» The journalist left.
The following morning, the cyclist bought the paper to see if indeed it had mentioned his actions. Sure enough, on the front page he saw the following: «Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalist Assaults African Immigrant and Steals His Lunch.» Oh, can you believe it? I read that on a Sunday morning—TV on and everything! Oh, I just feel better for having read it, though, I do! I just feel so much. Grab your Bibles—open to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. I know we have a lot of vegetarians here, and I truly bless you! I admire you especially for having endured in this church for so long with all the abuse that I dish out. But I’ve got one more: My son sent me one yesterday that said something like, «I eat twice as much meat as the average person so that the vegan who thinks they’re making the world a better place is canceled out by my choice.» So I’m just informing you of the news—I can hardly wait to see the emails this week! Yes, sir! Matthew chapter 11.
I’ve got some stuff that’s been stirring in my heart for quite a while, and I finally felt the liberty this morning to talk with you about it. We’re going to look at a very tender place in Jesus’s life and ministry. Jesus ministered to people differently; there was no cookie-cutter approach. For one person, He said, «Sell everything, give to the poor, and follow me.» To another, He just said, «Leave your nets.» To another person, He responded completely differently, like with the woman caught in adultery—He said, «Go and sin no more.» It’s different; it’s not that the requirements are different for every person, but Jesus had the ability to go right to the core of who a person was and speak to the supreme heart issue. He’s always targeting the center of who we are and what’s valuable and important to us. So this is a passage that is known for one of those extremely tender moments and has been a real standard for us.
I want you to read with me—Matthew chapter 11—we’re going to start at verse 25. At that time Jesus answered and said, «I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.» Let me talk to you just a minute about this verse. It’s not our subject today, but I’d like for you to get a bonus on this passage because of its importance. Let’s look at it again: Jesus said, «I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.» Oftentimes people ask, «How can I increase my revelation knowledge of Scripture?» There are so many things you can do. John chapter 7 teaches that one of the things is to obey what you already know—that actually attracts revelation. But this is very profound because it’s completely unexpected. Being a good steward of what you know makes common sense; that would attract more. But this is the key to revelation: being childlike. He saved His best insights and revelation for babes.
It’s important to see because «babe» has nothing to do with age; it has to do with simplicity of heart or simplicity of devotion. This is an upside-down kingdom! If you want to be exalted, you have to go low. If you want to receive, you have to give. If you want to live, you’ve got to die. It’s an upside-down kingdom. In this one, where we would think the most complicated parts of the kingdom would be revealed to, quote-unquote, the wise and the mature, Jesus is saying, «No, the best is saved for the children.» The best is saved for those who have a childlike heart as they approach the Lord. All right, let’s move on in the story. Verse 26: «Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.» Just good to make a mental note: Jesus is the continuous ongoing revelation of the Father. If you see Him, you see the Father.
Here are our three verses that I want us to look at today: verse 28. «Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.» The picture here is vital for us to catch, or this will make no sense. If you can picture a young ox yoked to a larger, bigger ox, you’ll get the picture. These big heavy wood yokes harness the power of these two animals to plow a field and accomplish whatever they’re supposed to accomplish. Jesus says, «You’re yoked to me; I’m going to carry the weight of this, and because you’re smaller, you don’t need to carry the weight. You just need to walk alongside me, and my yoke for you is going to be light. It’s going to be easy; it’s not going to be burdensome for you. That’s the life I have for you.»
It’s an amazing statement! The problem is that many of us find we’re in a lot of pain with the yoke we’re in. Now, if I’m yoked to Jesus and He is carrying the weight of this yoke, and it’s heavy for me, why is it heavy? If I’m feeling pain from the weight of this yoke, how could I possibly feel pain if He is carrying the weight? It’s only because I’m going in a different direction. Listen carefully: there are many times the Lord yokes us with other people, and it causes pain to us, but it’s only because we’re not going in the direction that is needed by being yoked with them. I’ve seen good people in their marriages fall apart simply because they could not cooperate with the other, and the yoke became burdensome, heavy, and painful. The answer was to get rid of the person causing the pain. It may be in a personal relationship area; it may be in ministry; it might be where you work. But Jesus is interested in something much more than our accomplishments and achievements.
Now, I for one believe He is interested in us doing something, accomplishing something. We see the story of the servants with the minas, sums of money, and the servants with talents—they were to invest to bring increase. God is interested in increase in all that He’s given us. Everything He’s given us, all that we are, is to be invested for His honor, for His glory, to bring in a harvest for Him. That’s important to Him, but there’s one thing He has in His heart that is of greater value, and that is me becoming like His Son, Jesus. All right, let’s make this practical. From what I hear, I am responsible around here; that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t think it’s a rumor; I think it’s actually true. I am responsible, and because I’m responsible, I have a lot of power. I don’t mean the power of the Holy Spirit—I mean the power to make choices. I can say, «No, you’re not going to do that,» or, «Yes, you’re going to do that.» If somebody causes me pain, I actually have the ability to organize them right outside of my life, which is sounding really inviting right now—at the moment, it’s just sounding like wisdom.
Here’s what I want to get to: as you increase in favor and power, it becomes easier and easier to remove the people from your life that God has yoked you with to make you more like Jesus. The more powerful you become, the more options you have in arranging who will be in your life and who won’t. I intentionally—this is going to sound a little weird to you, forgive me—I intentionally keep people of pain in my life because I know I’ve not arrived. You know how they put rocks in a rock tumbler, and they knock all the sharp edges off until they all become smooth? Listen, none of us have it all together, and we actually need people that in relationship expose where we have sharp edges. God’s main ambition for you and me is to be like Jesus, and the problem with maturity—let me rephrase it—the problem with blessing is you can insulate yourself from your own need for change.
I can create an environment where no conflict, no pain, nothing will ever come to me. I can create that environment because I have the power to do that. The problem is that God has sovereignly yoked me with people that cause me pain. And Chris thinks I’m talking about him, and I’m just not going there. Oh, sir! He puts us together with the people we need. He sovereignly yokes us; sometimes it’s in ministry responsibility, sometimes it’s in work. You may volunteer to help at the hospital or be a little league coach, and you may have a couple of coaches that you work with that irritate you to pieces. It doesn’t matter what context we apply this to—the point is, the more powerful you become, the more tempting it is to remove from yourself anyone who exposes where you have weakness.
And we don’t call it that—we don’t say, «They’re causing me pain,» which is exposing my weakness. We say, «They have a huge weakness that is causing me problems.» Anyone else with me on that one? «They have issues!» And I’m telling you, «They have serious issues,» and I don’t know how much longer I can endure their issues. So here’s what happens: people come and say, «Bill, I just—I don’t know what I’m going to do! I can’t handle this any longer!» And of course, I’m always trying to bring comfort, encouragement, and change situations that I can change, but here’s the bottom line—just between you and me, absolutely raw, gut-level honest: some of those situations are arranged by God because you’re not quite who you think you are, and having that person in your life will bring you to a place of absolute honesty and dependency.
Here’s what happens: I have a situation come up, a conflict, a betrayal—whatever it might be—and I’m just so troubled by it. This has happened to me too many times to count. I’m talking about not being able to sleep at night. I just—oh, this person is so important to me; this happened, that happened, and I can’t sleep! I get up at night, and I just go and pray. I go and just walk and pray, cry out to God. I used to go down to the church in Weaverville; I just go in there and pray and cry out to God. After a while, some relief would come, and I would have this insight. For example, I would say, «Well, you know, this person is a real gift to me,» or «This person has such great strengths.» Sometimes I’ll say, «Oh God, thank You! I never have to question their love for their family,» or «God, I never have to question their devotion to being faithful and true!»
I look for the things that are right in their life, and I begin to give thanks until there’s a real faith that floods my heart. Suddenly, that problem doesn’t cause me pain anymore. Why? Because I moved to fit the yoke I’m in. I’m in a yoke, and it’s a God-assigned yoke. You find your place in that. It may seem like punishment; it’s not. It’s the very gift of God to bring us into the likeness of Christ. He puts us in this context where we learn to walk in this environment. We learn to walk in this friendship, in this marriage, in this workplace—whatever it might be. We learn to walk in this environment by continual thanksgiving and learning to rejoice.
I mentioned it a few weeks ago: «Rejoice always! Pray without ceasing! In everything, give thanks!» My inability to give thanks in a given situation only reveals I’ve not yet won the battle over my thoughts. We’re supposed to rule and reign with Christ. That doesn’t mean dominate the planet; that means effectively serve, bringing out the best in every environment. If I can’t rule over my thoughts, what kind of influence am I going to have ruling and reigning with Christ? The battle is first right here. Secondly, it’s right here. «Rejoice always!» My inability to find joy—to choose joy in any given situation—only reveals my inability to find victory over my emotions. These two challenges are absolutely the key to yoke adjustment.
Yep, yoke adjustment happens through thankfulness. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, it just hits me—oh, just like someone just gut-punched me; and I just go, «Oh!» I’ll walk on the property; I’ll be at my house. I’ll walk around the house. The point is, I just get along with God, and I read until He speaks to me. I take the Word of God, and I just read. Then, eventually, I can take you to geographical locations where I met with God, where I was there in tears, in pain, wondering why this was happening or why that was happening. Why this betrayal took place; why this thing didn’t happen the way I thought it should. I’m crying out to the Lord, and I read on the pages of Scripture His promise to me. Suddenly, His Word gives me a yoke adjustment, and suddenly this yoke that I thought was put on me by other people becomes the most liberating thing to carry because I’m now walking in tandem with the One who called me to walk with Him. In doing so, I’m learning to be more Christ-like in my behavior and my response.
Some of us in this room would never pray if there were never a problem, and even if you have the discipline of praying when there are no problems, many find it hard to pray out of passion when there’s no problem. Pain gives birth to passion of prayer. Hope is supposed to—but pain gives birth to passionate prayer! As I heard someone say recently, «Hope is supposed to be that which possesses the heart of a person to pray with great passion.» Why? Prayers that move you, move Him! Present, don’t you? They don’t move you; they don’t move Him. It doesn’t mean they have to be long or loud; it just means you have to be honest, authentic, and involve all of us. Passionate prayer is one of the things that brings the hand of God more forcefully into broken situations than anything else I can think of. It’s the passionate cry to the Lord.
When you’re in pain—because, oh, this job that I have is just… Listen, let me just insert here: if you’re married and you’re in an abusive situation, this isn’t for you—just get out of it! Just get out! This is a principle of working with other believers where the Lord is adjusting our lives by the values and behaviors of people around us. Quite frankly, every time if I choose to honor the relationship with this partner, even though I don’t get to accomplish all that was in my heart to accomplish because this relationship came first, something is brought before the Lord in my value for unity that exalts Him above everything else. His celebration for my priority of unity that glorifies Him over personal achievement, over personal liberty, over me having my own way, speaks volumes to Him in a way that is almost unparalleled.
I’ve tried to work with this philosophy for quite a while now. If you want to catch the attention of a king, do so by treating his daughter well. For me, that’s my wife and many others. But it’s the way that I care for her that catches the attention of a king. Now, let’s take that down a level: the Scripture says we’re to submit ourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. If I don’t fear God in you, then I do not see you for who you are. Let’s have a drink to that one! You too can have one of these bottles—they won’t let me bring brand names up here anymore because it’s broadcast, so now we have our own brand, right? Shameless, shameless promotions! It’s not a new water company, just so you know—just the bottom!
Anytime we have a spiritual dysfunction, and we give it a virtuous name, we give it permission to stay and increase. There are oftentimes in relationships where there will be suspicions, jealousies, resentments—whatever it might be—and of course, hardly any believer I know would call it for what it is. It’s just discernment; it’s just my prophetic gifting; it’s my personality—which is a great way to hide dysfunction. Just call it a personality, and then you just create the capital city for dysfunction by calling it that! I believe that Jesus is interested in our personality, but He knows who we really are. When He says, «Shout for joy, barren one,» He doesn’t say, «Shout for joy, all of you that are extroverts!» and «All of you that are rather quiet and reserved, just think happy thoughts! I’m good! I’m good!»
He knows who He’s made us to be, so when He gives us a directive of any kind, it’s always so that we can step fully into our design. It’s never to violate our identity; it’s always to step fully into our design. While He will not violate my personality in the sense of my true identity, who He’s made me to be, He will oftentimes put me in situations to expose to me—if I’m willing to learn—what’s in my thinking, what’s in my behavior that He has nothing to do with, and He wants it gone; He wants it changed. So He puts me together with people that rub me the wrong way.
It’s called God’s gift! Dick Mills used to tell us, «Turn to the person next to you and tell them God loves you too much to leave you the way you are!» That was always an edifying, encouraging word to us! The Lord puts us in situations, and sometimes we wake up in the middle of the night, as I’ve already stated, and I get up and I pray for an hour, two hours. I just can’t get back to sleep! I get along with the Lord; finally, I hear that word, that verse—whatever it might be, peace comes to my soul. I go to bed and think, «Man, this person is causing me so many problems,» not realizing that maybe that was the goal. Maybe that’s what He was looking for—for a son to take very inconvenient time when it was very sacrificial and to cry out of true passion and get a kingdom solution, a kingdom answer.
The end result is that yoke that was causing so much pain—actually, I don’t feel it now. Why? I don’t know! I stayed up for a couple of hours and prayed, and He spoke, and I don’t understand, but I know it’s going to be okay. Then three days later it happens again. Why? Because you’re not perfect yet! All of us are in this place of together choosing and preferring one another. Sometimes, I have to sacrifice my personal dreams and agendas. Now, I hope you take this in the right spirit when I say I’m a powerful person. I’m trying to be lighthearted in my position; I can make sure that every one of my dreams get fulfilled. But that’s not what I’m here for! I’m not in this position for that; I’m actually here to hear the dreams of the people around me. I’m here to catch…that’s why I don’t give strong job descriptions. It’s because I want to see a dream develop. I want to see someone in motion who starts to burn for something.
So, I’m interested. We have things that have to be done, but I hope you understand I’m looking to see people explode into who God made them to be and to become something that God always intended for them to be. And so we create this environment where that’s a possibility. But this environment also creates a lot of rubbing the wrong way because that’s the nature of the game, and it’s the nature of my need. I actually need people that don’t think like me. I need people that don’t handle stuff the way I handle it. I love to travel; my favorite place on the entire planet is, right here: Thank You, Jesus!
Anybody else thankful for the firefighters this week? Thank You, Lord! I’m very thankful; I’m glad to be here! This is my favorite place. But one of the privileges of travel is I get to see churches all over the world that are so different from us, and yet they are so anointed and blessed by God. It’s so important to realize, «Man, ah, I need this group of people. I need this leader in my life. He thinks differently than I do, but I need it. I need his voice. I need his example.» I step into his congregation whenever I go somewhere. I’m never there for my agenda. I’m always there just to support the person who’s in charge that invited me to support their dream, their vision. I love just sitting there, watching what they’ve done, what they’ve accomplished. It’s beautiful!
Because it’s so easy to get dialed into our little world and think we’re it. And we’re not it—we’re a spot on the map! But at least we’re a spot where we get to contribute. You know, Randy Clark says it best: «Every stream thinks they’re the river.» That’s sadly true! But at least we’re a stream! At least we’re a stream, and I’m glad to contribute to what God’s doing. I’m so thankful for that!
Here’s something that I want you to consider. I fly a lot, and my airline likes me. I’m thankful; there are certain privileges you get. When I land at certain airports, someone is right outside the plane when I get off, with a sign that says «Mr. Johnson.» I walk with them under the tarmac—I don’t go into the airport with the rest of the sheep! That’s bad! That’s bad! That was a joke.
I go down onto the tarmac into the Mercedes, and they drive me to my next gate—hallelujah! Occasionally, I’ve gotten off a plane, and it’s like a real tight connection—there’ll be somebody there saying, «Mr. Johnson, we’ve got to get you through this crowd quickly; you’re holding the plane.» And we’ll just run. You know what happens when you’re treated like that? When you have a tight connection and they’re not there? You say, «What’s happening? Don’t they know who I am? Don’t they understand I’ve got 10 minutes to get to the other side of the airport? What kind of organization is this?»
It’s true blessing! Here it is: take your biggest problem, put it right in front of you—the biggest aggravation in your life. Put it right in front of you. Now listen to me: don’t ever forget this—there are millions of people that would gladly take your biggest problem if they could also have your greatest privilege. There’s income and there’s income tax in a good nation—your income will always be greater than your income tax! I’m not going to talk today about the rest, but seriously! He puts us in situations where there’s extreme benefit but it’s also painful.
There’s a tax to pay! If I only see the tax I pay, I will be disgruntled, complain, and want to distance myself from the people that cause this pain—not realizing I’m in development. I’m in process—this is income tax! There are millions of people that would take your biggest problem if they could only have your greatest privilege! There are millions that would love to sit right where you’re sitting, and that is true!
So what do we do? We come face to face with the fact that we are blessed beyond reason! We are favored by the Lord! And because I’m favored, I have to use that favor for the welfare of others, or it’s misused favor! If at any point the favor is used for self-promotion, to insulate me from pain, to insulate me from problems or challenges, then I’ve misused the favor! The favor is to be used for the promotion of the Gospel, number one— the strength and empowerment of the people around me! This is a mandate from the Lord! There is no option here!
If I choose to insulate myself from the people that God yoked me with, then what happens? I have delayed my own development, my own maturing process. I’ve put off far into the future my Christ-like transformation. What seems to me like a shortcut is actually the long route! It seems like the shortcut off! «If this situation were different, I know I’d have so much greater faith! I’d be so much more devoted! I’d be so much more single-focused! I’d be—» you fill in the blanks. «I’d be so much better at what I do if this person or this situation were changed.» And it’s just simply not true.
Because what God has put in your heart is a vision to become something significant that is wrapped up entirely in a journey where you and I become like Him, and that can only be done by being yoked together with people. It’s sovereign! The sovereign God sometimes gets accused lightly—sometimes not lightly—but sometimes lightly accused of not believing strongly in the sovereignty of God. I feel like I do, but I’m accused of that because I emphasize so much our responsibility, and I get it, I get it! The sovereignty of God is a huge thing.
I remember when our kids were small; you know, they’d be in little league or have a school teacher that was, you know, kind of challenging or whatever. Our approach was, «We’re not going to fight to change their environment; we’re going to fight to equip them to thrive in that environment.» Instead of insisting they have a different little league coach, we just, you know, tried to give them the tools. «The best we know how, this is how you do this. This is how you deal with…» I’m not bending our yellers! We just don’t holler and yell at each other—anyone you know, unless someone’s on the other side of the yard and we need their attention! But, you know, we just don’t have that kind of makeup at all.
And yet our kids would be in literally, you know, with this coach that yells and screams, and we just have to work with our kids, give them the tools to thrive in that environment. Does this make any sense to you? And so that’s what we do; we are not trying to change the environment so everybody is safe. We’re trying to change everybody so they can influence their environment! And that really is the heart of God for us in this situation.
So that’s pretty much all I have to say today. We’ll bring it up again when I can do it again more thoroughly. You know what? I should go. There are millions of people that would gladly take my biggest problem if they could also have my greatest privilege! Entitlement is a scary thing! And that’s what blessing does—it insulates us from the awareness that we carry of our need for one another.
And so I just pray that over everybody in this room! I just pray that there’s an unusual grace and a real clarity of sight, clarity of thought, so that there’s a true, true celebration for the gifts of God. One of the things that I’ve been doing is, there’ll be a challenging situation, and I just take time to pray and thank and ponder on the gifts and strengths in their life. And, uh, and what I’ll do is I’ll start giving thanks for specific things where normally it might be tempting for me to try to figure out how to change them.
A lot of times I’m the one that needs to change! And so what I do is I just think about, «What is it that I can give thanks for? What can I celebrate in that individual?» When I say this, obviously all of us have people in our lives that are just out-and-out to get us, and I understand, I’m not pretending all is well in that environment, but most of us have conflict and problems with really good people—it’s a mystery to us! I know how they can be that good and cause me that much pain! And really, it’s the getting up in the middle of the night, praying until there’s a breakthrough, and you’ll find that the yoke has been readjusted, and actually all that changed…was you!
So Father, now that today, would there be a great grace for this—a real great grace for this—to celebrate, to honor, to value the privilege that we have of being family, the privilege that we have of growing together. And we really do—bottom line is we want to honor You above everything, where You’re exalted by us becoming more like You and us truly caring for one another where it counts most. I ask this in Jesus' name.
Also, if you can hold your places, that’ll help me out here. I’ve got a couple minutes left, so there’s always a chance there are people here that don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. A friend of mine started just walking up to people randomly and asking them the question, «Are you a personal friend of Jesus Christ?» It’s just amazing how conversation starts at that point and how many people have come to the Lord simply because of that question! So I ask you that question: Are you a personal friend of Jesus Christ?
That friendship, that intimacy, that closeness with God actually brings you into a position of being forgiven and brought into a family—simply made new from the inside out; it’s available for everybody here. And if you are one who would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave this building; I don’t want to leave the property until I know that I’m at peace with God, that I know that my friendship with Jesus has started,» if that’s anybody here, I want you just to put a hand up real quickly and say, «Bill, that’s me! I don’t want to leave until that thing is settled!» Put your hand up real fast; I want to make sure that I give ample time for it. And there’s Bethel TV as well—yeah, right over here is wonderful! Yep, beautiful, come on! The best thing ever!
Yeah, and we so much love our Bethel TV family! My goodness, I travel around the world and you guys greet me all the time and with thankfulness for this! We honor you, we bless you, and I pray that there’ll be the same breakthrough in household after household! In fact, what Chris prayed earlier for prodigals to return home—that it would come as a result of this invitation!
Is there anybody else who would just say, «I want to surrender my life to Jesus today?» Just real quickly, put a hand up. Okay, it may just be that one. I want you all to stand. Here’s what I want to ask the one person—if I missed somebody else, we’ve got a team over here that we know and trust. I want to ask you to come on up; I want the ministry team to come up at the same time—line up along the front. If you brought a guest that wants to come up for prayer, walk with them—that’s always helpful to do that. All right, hold your places and time will wrap it up.