Bill Johnson - Redefine Your Priorities and Overcome Complacency
And here’s my invitation to you: the thing I’m most concerned about—not in a sense of worry, but in a sense of priority—is complacency in the heart of a believer. Complacency gives more reason to oppose the gospel than to support it. Good morning! I’m glad you showed up and I’m happy you’re here. Happy New Year, by the way. I missed the chance to tell you that earlier. I was in Korea and Taiwan and had such a great time. People are catching on because I’ve been saying for years that when I go somewhere, I say I’m here to eat. If you want to have meetings before and after the meals, that’s fine, but I’m here to eat. I will admit this trip had a lot of meals, so I may need to dial that down some, but I had such a great time. Boy, is it ever good to be home! I’m so thrilled to be here with you.
I have something to read to you; it’s very short but worthwhile. Companies are bragging about making plants taste like meat; cows have been doing that forever! Oh goodness, that’s a word of wisdom right there. I think the most Christlike people in this church are the vegetarians because they endure so much of my teasing. Someone bought me a t-shirt a while back that said, «If God meant for us to be vegetarians, He would have made broccoli more fun to shoot at.» I don’t know; it makes perfect sense to me.
So, open your Bibles to the Book of Malachi, or as some would call it, Malachi the Italian prophet. It’s the last book in the Old Testament, and I haven’t done something like this for quite a while. What’s in my heart is to take probably two weeks—maybe three, but most likely just two—and study the Book of Malachi. There are two parts to this study. Part one today will primarily deal with the correction that leads to the fullness of Covenant. Let me say this better: the Lord is very confrontational, but when He corrects, it’s always an invitation to life. His corrections are never focused on punishment; they are always focused on life. They are invitations to step into purpose and destiny.
In the first three chapters especially, we find the Lord addressing some issues of the heart that we’ll look at in a moment. We’re just going to skim over a couple of them, but He addresses issues of the heart that had become dead in the people. They had become a people of routine instead of the life-giving relationship that they were supposed to have with the Lord. Of course, this is an Old Testament context, so it relates to animal sacrifices and that sort of thing, but it basically concerns our affection and worship for the Lord.
One of the things you’ll notice if you take time to read through the Book of Malachi this week is that a phrase is repeated over and over again. The Lord makes a statement and then says, «Yet you say…» He does this about nine or ten times. The book addresses the issue of lordship—absolute lordship. There is more room for freedom inside the kingdom than outside; there’s more liberty in a relationship with Jesus than being in a place where you can do whatever you want. Freedom is actually the ability to do what’s right. Freedom of will outside of God’s purposes is so restrictive and confining. Real liberty is in responding to the invitation for a relationship so we can live as transformed people.
So, let’s get right into this. I want you to go to Malachi chapter 1. We can’t read all of it; I’m just going to take a few verses that will give us a summary of some of what I see in this wonderful book. Malachi 1:7 says, «You offer defiled food on my altar, but say, 'In what way have we defiled you? ' By saying, 'The table of the Lord is contemptible.' When you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?» says the Lord of hosts.
Jump over to verse 13 of the same chapter: «You also say, 'Oh, what a weariness! ' You sniff at it,» says the Lord of hosts. «You bring the stolen, the lame, the sick; thus you bring an offering. Should I accept this from your hand?» says the Lord. «But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and takes a vow but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great king,» says the Lord of hosts, «and my name is to be feared among the nations.» This is where we’re going to start—a nice, happy, pleasant conversation in Malachi!
He says, «You take from your flock; you have a nice, healthy male, but when it comes time to give something in an offering or sacrifice, you take a lame one—probably reasoning it’s going to die anyway.» The Lord sees that and calls it evil. He calls it evil because He’s a great king. Now, what does He need from us? Nothing! What’s He going to do with a dead sheep that burns on a fire? Nothing. What’s He going to do with your money? Nothing. He doesn’t need one thing that you and I have to offer Him.
The greatest injustice in the universe is for the great king to exist as the source of life and go unrecognized. There’s a bizarre story in the Book of Acts about King Herod. Herod was an antichrist-type figure; he sought to kill Jesus as an infant. He’s this ungodly figure. In the Book of Acts, when he gives a speech, the citizens of the nation are so rocked by his words that they begin to cry out, «The voice of a god!» The Bible says that Herod died that day because he did not give glory to God. Think through this: he died that day because he did not give glory. What does that imply? It implies that the Lord enabled an ungodly king to give a moving speech. He gave him an ability to impact citizens of a nation with words, but he did not recognize that it was the Lord who enabled him to do that.
The greatest injustice in the universe is to live in a world where there’s blessing, where there’s life, and for Him to go unrecognized. To make matters worse, when there’s a natural disaster, He gets the credit for that, but not for the crops growing—not for the ability to go into a grocery store and see walls of food that are there day after day, any day of the week. Historically, it is such an unusual blessing to walk into a place of abundance that we have lost the discernment for the abundance we’re in. So that injustice is what He’s dealing with; it has created a group of people who confess Christ but live complacently in their relationship with Him.
There’s a passage in Proverbs, I think it’s 18:19, that says, «The slothful in his work is brother to him who destroys.» So just look at it this way: we have the passionate laborer, we have the lazy worker, and we have the opponent to the work. We have the passionate servant of the Lord, the complacent servant of the Lord, and those opposed to the gospel. Complacency fuels the heart of the opponent; complacency legitimizes opposition to the gospel. The two most alike are the complacent and the opponent.
Being lukewarm in a relationship with Jesus is not a season; it’s a devil. It is not necessary. We have emotional ups and downs, but none of that has to translate to complacency in our devotion to Him. We have times we know what’s going on, and we’re aggressively pursuing the call on our lives. We have other times where we’re clueless, just trying to do our best, but complacency is never an answer. Never have I been reduced to routine in Jesus.
Verse 4 of chapter 2 says, «Then you should know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant with Levi may continue.» How many of you have your Bibles? Let me see them. Say this with me: «I love my Bible!» I do! I really, really love my Bible. If you don’t have one, steal your neighbor’s—no, no, don’t start a fight here!
He said, «I have sent you this commandment that my covenant may continue.» Commandments connect us to covenant; covenant connects us to encounter, which ends in transformation. Commandments are not meant to keep us busy in Christian activity. Every commandment is an invitation to enter into life. He says, «The commandment is given that my covenant with Levi may continue.» Verse 5: «My covenant with him was one of life and peace.»
Anyone ever go on a vacation where you stay at a hotel where everything is included—all the food, all the recreation, everything’s included? This word «peace» is the all-inclusive word in the Bible. If you ever wanted it, it’s right there; the word peace means sound mind, divine health, prosperity. It’s like anything you’ve ever prayed for is actually in that word peace. What’s he saying? «I brought you a commandment so the covenant will continue.» What is the covenant? It’s a covenant of life and peace—a covenant where you get launched into the reason you were made, and entrance is the commandment.
David said he would meditate on the commandments of the Lord in the middle of the night because he saw what they were: invitations to life, to personal breakthrough, to becoming all that God had destined and designed him to be. There are a lot of folks who have been saying there are no more commandments left because of grace. I don’t know how you can think that and read the Bible! I mean, even if you just read the New Testament, there are a lot of suggestions in here, and they’re not just suggestions.
So, verse 7 of chapter 2 says, «The lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord.» This is a beautiful statement. Every believer in this room is called a priest unto the Lord. What is the primary focus of the priest of the Lord? To preserve an awareness of what is actually righteous and what is unrighteous. When there’s complacency, the line gets blurred. When the line gets blurred, the message becomes weak. When the message becomes weak, there’s little understanding in the world around us of the nature of God. Compromise here defiles the revelation of God’s nature to the world.
The priests—those who stand before the Lord—live with an awareness of righteousness and unrighteousness. That’s not an invitation to reject or criticize people; it’s recognizing this leads to life while this leads to death. Those two realities are true for believers as well as unbelievers: this leads to life, and this does not. The lips of a priest—it’s not just the thoughts of the priest or the heart of the priest; it’s going to come out in conversation because whatever is in the heart will be revealed through speech.
Chapter 3—are you still alive? Good! Because it’s about to get really good next year! Yeah, I’m going to hit you with this all year long! Just wait! Next week, we’re going to take the prophetic promise. Malachi is known for three basic passages. The first would be the tithe in chapter 3; we’ll read that in a moment. The second would be at the end of chapter 4, which talks about Elijah coming to restore the heart of the parents to the children and the heart of children to the parents. The third most familiar passage in this book says that the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. We’re going to take those promise aspects next week, but today I want to stay as focused as I can.
Let’s move into chapter 3, verse 8: «Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, 'In what way have we robbed you? ' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Try me now in this,» says the Lord of hosts. «See if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until there’s no more need.»
Alright, I like verses that growl at you when you read them. I like my coffee strong; I like it so strong it talks to me, it growls when I pick up the cup. My coffee is strong enough that you can walk on it without faith! That’s how strong I like my coffee. I want everything on the edge. I want it to challenge your breath!
When I read this scripture, I want the stuff that growls at me when I read it. When He says you’re robbing me, I say, «Bring it on. Talk to me.» I don’t want to skirt the issues. I don’t want to miss anything. The tithe, by many today, has been misunderstood. I don’t know what’s going on, but something’s happened where people think the tithe is actually part of the law. The tithe was not introduced by the law; it was introduced by Abraham, who is called the father of our faith. It was ratified by the law and ratified by Jesus.
In Matthew 23, Jesus said, talking to the Pharisees, «You guys tithe on your herbs.» They give such delicate care to this part, and He says, «You should do that.» These things you should do, so He’s ratifying the tithe without neglecting the rest. What is He saying? This is kindergarten; you’ve got to press on to graduate school! People think that tithing is a sign of spiritual maturity. You tithe? Congratulations! You’re no longer a thief! That just felt good to say. It’s a beginning place; it’s not an arrival place. It’s not a destination; it’s a step in the journey.
People describe this relationship with God as though—well, I hear them say there’s no fear of God in the New Testament. They obviously haven’t read their Bible if they think that! Those who say you can’t have intimacy with God and fear Him at the same time, my response is that whoever made that up is obviously not married! I am intimate with my wife, but she scares me! We’ll just leave that right there.
That’s the way I think this relationship with the Lord should be. Not one of the commands He gives us are to imprison us; not one of them! None of them are restrictions. Anytime a person sees them as restrictions, they’re looking from the outside in. Those who live in the relationship see when He speaks a command, He’s actually enabling us by grace to do what He said.
Now, the difference between law and grace: the law says don’t murder; grace says don’t call somebody a fool. It’s a lot easier to not kill than it is to not call somebody a very descriptive name when they cut you off on the freeway! The point is that the law is quite simple, but grace takes presence in a relationship to achieve the commands. Under grace, commandments are invitations to partnership; it’s where Jesus lives His life in and through our yielded willingness to obey. Grace enables me to do more than I could on my own.
If I were left with commandments, I’d remind you of the verse: the angel of the Lord spoke to Mary and said, «For nothing will be impossible with God.» The word «nothing» is two words—it’s «no» and it’s the word «Rhema"—that freshly spoken word of God. No freshly spoken word of God will be impossible! The word «impossible» means without ability. Jack Taylor years ago told us that verse can actually be translated like this: «No freshly spoken word of God will ever come to you that does not contain its own ability to perform itself.»
They’ve found seeds in places like the pyramids that are 2,000-3,000 years old. They plant them, and they grow. The power is in the seed; the seed is the word of God. The ability to become all that He has said is in what He has said, but it takes the receiving of the word by the yielded believer. It’s surrender. We don’t accomplish great things for God because we’ve determined to; we accomplish great things because we’ve surrendered. Faith is the evidence of surrender, not determination. Faith is not the result of striving; it’s the result of giving up.
Jesus said in Matthew 22, «Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar—taxes. Give unto God what belongs to God.» That means there’s something that belongs to God. People say, «Well, all the rest is His.» That’s true, but that’s a cop-out in this verse because in this verse, that would include the taxes. He’s making a distinction.
In my wallet, whatever that advertises, what’s in my account belongs to Caesar, and what belongs to God? Only in the kingdom of God does 90% of the whole have greater impact than the whole. The only issue on His mind is the lordship of Jesus. That’s the issue: who will I follow? Who will I say yes to?
He says, «That there may be food in my house. Try me now in this!» We are warned in the Bible, «Don’t try God; don’t test God.» I remember during the Jesus People movement there were these bumper stickers that said, «Try Jesus.» Winky Pratton told us once, «He doesn’t come in trial sizes. You can’t try Jesus; He’s God! He comes in one size only, and that’s very large.»
According to chapter one, He says, «I’m a great king,» and the greatest injustice is for great things to happen in the world—the ability to eat food—and for Him to go unrecognized. When there’s a natural disaster, He gets the credit for that, but not for the floods and all the other junk. The Lord then is bringing us to account and says, «Test me now.»
Here’s the end result: «See if I will not open for you the windows of heaven.» Has anybody else here prayed for open heavens? It’s strange, but open heavens—Cornelius in the Book of Acts was a gentile. He was outside the faith—at least from an Old Testament context. He wasn’t a Jew, but he loved God and the work God was doing in Israel, so he gave. It said the Lord visited him, saying, «Your offerings have been raised up into heaven as a monument, a memorial.»
Now, memorial stones are piles of stones that Israel would put up to remind them of events. In other words, Israel crossed the Red Sea at this place, or the Jordan River, and they put up a pile of stones so that anytime Mom and Dad and the kids walked down that river trail, they could stop and tell them the story. «Well, this is where Joshua did this; this is where Moses did this.» The giving of Cornelius was a memorial stone in heaven, a pile of stones that spoke to God about the generosity of someone on Earth. What happened? He was visited with an outpouring of the Spirit; his entire family was saved.
The wrong conclusion is that you can buy miracles from God—you’ve heard the jokes about «send $100, and you’ll get your miracle.» That’s horrible; it’s wrong! You can’t buy from God. I can’t manipulate Him with my money; I can’t manipulate Him with my raised hands or my shout or anything else I do. He is unmanipulatable! I know what I mean; leave me alone! He’s unmoved by manipulation, but at the same time, it illustrates that I never tap the fullness of what God intends to do apart from generosity.
He says, «In this passage, that there may be food in my house.» Think about this: I’ve never seen a church—a ministry of any kind—that functions with great revelation of the word that was not equally generous. There’s a connection: «That there may be food in my house.»
It would be wrong to think that if I give a gift to God, my neighbor will be saved or my family member, whatever—that’s foolish! Because we can’t manipulate Him, but at the same time, every time we break into patterns of generosity, something changes in the spiritual realm over our lives, over our families.
There’s something to be said about generosity and the breakthrough over entire households. You know, there are warnings in Scripture about giving under compulsion. In other words, don’t let anybody use fancy words to manipulate you into giving anything. It’s wrong! We have the authority—the tithe is His, but everything else is ours to use at our discretion!
Don’t let anybody manipulate that out of you. At the same time, there are opportunities in God to step in and do something courageous with actions—sometimes it’s words, sometimes it’s just serving somebody, sometimes it’s just stopping long enough for a person in pain to let them know you actually care about the condition they’re in, and sometimes it’s money. But it’s a heart of generosity.
Here He describes open heavens because of generosity. We’ve got something going on here in the last month or so; I don’t know what it is, except it’s wonderful. There’s an incredible move of the Holy Spirit that we’ve been experiencing. I don’t know how much was talked to you in the opening of the meeting, but I guess they had to make people go home at midnight on Friday. There has been—we had a staff gathering this week, and it was just such a strong visitation of the Holy Spirit. Something is just happening around here, and I believe the open heavens are, at least in part, the result of you and me together choosing a life of generosity.
At the same time, I feel like the Lord is inviting us: come on, air! Come on, air! Here’s my invitation to you: the thing I’m most concerned about—not in a sense of worried, but in a sense of priority—is complacency in the heart of a believer in this house. Because complacency gives more reason to oppose the gospel than to support it. We’ve never been designed as a people to be lukewarm in our approach to Jesus.
He’s a great king, and because He’s a great king and a source of all life, everything needs to be viewed through those lenses: that God is the giver and sustainer of life. All good gifts come from Him. That simple recognition positions us with His heart of generosity for life. Why don’t you stand? Happy New Year! Merry Christmas, too, I guess! Almost feel like I should announce we’re in for a wild ride!
I think one of the most important things to realize when you see the Spirit of God moving like we are is that our first conclusion should be that we don’t know what we’re doing. Because when you know what you’re doing, you try to fit Him into what you’ve seen Him do in the past. Excuse me! You’ve said yes; we’ve said yes together! Your kindness and generosity of lifestyle have once again given the invitation for God to prove who He is. He’s an extravagant father, one who delights over you and over me!
I don’t know if it needs to be said now, but every once in a while I just get overwhelmed. I work hard; you work hard! But when it works, it was all by grace. I do my best! And when it works, wow! It was all by grace. I’m at that moment again where I feel like the Lord is just upping the ante. So, my challenge has been for the last few days with people I’ve talked with: you know, get up 15 minutes early to pray, get up 30! It’s time to up the ante!
You give 10%, give 15%! You come to the six o’clock meeting; come at 5 for prayer! You’re willing to pray for anyone who has need—look for people who have needs! The whole point is, at every point, you read two chapters a day, read five! I’m not trying to describe legalism; I’m trying to say this insulates us from complacency! I’ve had a challenge in the last few weeks with sleep, and please don’t give me suggestions! I don’t need any more herbal teas; no, it’s not my coffee! Leave me alone!
But seriously, almost every moment of being stirred in the night, I have interpreted as an invitation to pray. I have something in the crosshairs called complacency, and I don’t want to allow that to live in anybody I know. Come on! Because I want to erase the objection to the gospel as much as possible and never again have the people of God fuel the opponent through complacency.
So, Father, that’s what I pray. I pray you’d help us to be a people again who are all in. We’ve said yes for years, but we say it again: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I pray for those watching even on Beth TV the same thing, that there’d be such a fire in our souls beyond just the emotional highs and lows. The fire because I’ve said yes to the God who burns for me.
I was probably 19 years old when I heard a woman in this church, while my dad was the pastor, prophesy. I’ll never forget her prophecy. She said the word of the Lord through her mouth was, «If you long for me as I long for you, you will be satisfied!» If you long for me as I long for you—Lord, let those eyes burning like fire touch my heart! God, I give you everything; I show you everything. Let your burning eyes ignite something in me that no opposition could ever quench!
So I pray that for this family in Jesus' name. One more question: if there’s anyone here that would say, «Bill, I don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. I need to get right with God. I want to find peace with God; I want to know what it is to be forgiven. I want to surrender my life and truly become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.» If that’s anybody in the room and you would make that agreement with me now, I want you just to raise a hand, and I’ll pray with you right where you are. Just say, «Bill, that’s me. I want a relationship with Jesus.»
Is there anyone else? Wave your hand at me if I see you. Anyone else? There’s another one over here, yes. Wonderful, wonderful, beautiful! Anyone else? I don’t want to miss anyone. Right over here, we’ve got a Fresh Start banner, and we’ve got some folks we know and trust. I want to ask anyone who is making that commitment to follow the Lord Jesus to come over here and meet our friends. They just want to talk and pray with you. Come right now! I want the ministry team to come as well. That’ll help them to find their way up here. But if you have a friend that wants to come up and make this commitment to Jesus, have them come right now!