Bill Johnson - Unlock Blessing by Guarding Your Heart From Offense and Entitlement
Reality, glad you showed up. Ever since I was a child, I’ve had a fear of somebody under my bed at night. So, I went to a shrink and told him. I said, «I’ve got problems. Every time I go to bed, I think there’s somebody under it. I’m scared. I think I’m going crazy.» The 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 $112,000. My neighbor cured me for free.» I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought myself a truck. «Is that so?» he asked with an attitude. «How did your neighbor cure you?» He told me to cut the legs off my bed; there ain’t nobody under there now. I think that’s funny.
All right, we’re going to do a little bit of study out of the 14th chapter of Acts. If you want to turn there, go ahead. We’re going to spend some time, and I was at Cascade this morning and 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. We’ll see if we can do eight or nine verses or something like that here. I want to present a challenge to you before we actually begin to read out of Acts 14. 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 businesses, and all that stuff is the result of obeying the Lord. In the New Testament, Jesus comes along and He focuses on not your income, not your status, but going low, being generous, giving, imparting to others, serving others. Yet in Romans, somewhere, I think it’s chapter 15, 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 they’re no longer under the law. It’s a well-meaning statement, but it’s really foolish 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.
The challenge comes down to this, and it’s a way bigger subject than we have time for tonight. But as we go through, especially the 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 through, three realities exist in the Old Testament: Jesus, the Lamb of God, who 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 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, animal sacrifice ended at the cross. Jesus announced at the beginning of His ministry that this is the favorable year of the Lord. He mentions it in Luke 4, quoting Isaiah chapter 60. 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. Properties that had been sold were restored to original landowners to keep 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 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. That period of time—excuse me— the process or the vehicle that was used was called the Tabernacle of David. It was actually a tent. No description is given except that 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 Old Testament blessing and prophetic destiny 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, to become everything God intended. Sometimes that includes a title; sometimes it includes increased finances; sometimes it includes greater authority— all those kinds of things— and yet I’m very hesitant because I never want to make those things the goal. 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 when 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!» Come on, that just is bizarre to me. I don’t know what you do with that.
I’m going to talk for my sake tonight; you can hang out if you’d like. If you get done before I do, just go home. How’s that? I’m in this process; I’ve been in it for years, but I’m really pursuing this thing right now, this season because I happen to be writing a book on this subject. So, it’s right at the forefront of my thinking. So, Jesus says, «I will add back into your life a hundred times what you left.» And then He says, «with persecution.» My friend Bob Wier calls that income tax. The more income, the more tax; the more blessing, the more breakthrough, the more opposition. To think any other way is to be unrealistic. It’s the opposition, it’s the conflict, it’s the difficulty; 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. That’s right; 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—excuse me, sorry— not maintaining that sense of humility and personal discipline gets us into trouble. It’s my personal conviction that 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 with how much I enjoy the journey, if I can put it that way. There’s probably a better way to say that. I believe that 100%. Let me say it differently: He’s more concerned about what I become in here than what I experience out there. 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, the heartfelt issues. And so, anytime we deal with Kingdom realities, we deal with it from the heart first.
It’s why Jesus would come into a situation and say, «If you want to be exalted, you have to lower yourself.» It would go against the common thinking of the day, which exists today. If you want to obtain, you’ll have to give. Amen? Okay, the list just goes on and on. If you want to live, you have to die. It just gets confusing. And yet, He’s revealing to us the nature of His world. 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 affecting the nations of the world in my lifetime.
What you see in eras of reformation is that people diligently discipline themselves, following hard after the Lord, doing everything He says, putting Him first, serving family, loving one another, laying their lives down for the spreading of the gospel. And what happens? The Lord increases the favor upon their lives. One brilliant example is a personal favorite of mine: a man named Hans Nielsen Hauge from Norway. He lived back during, I believe, Napoleon’s era. Norway was a very, very illiterate country; it was 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 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. Yet he was a burning revivalist. He would come, for example, into an area, and people didn’t know who he was. 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 want to know who he was, and they would talk among themselves, saying, «This can’t be Hans Nielsen Hauge 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, at such and such a place, we will have a meeting.» And then he would preach a fiery message, and people would be transformed and changed.
But he knew the priority of healthy business; he understood the reason for a healthy family. It wasn’t just all about the goosebumps and the raised hands and the healings. As much as I like all of that stuff, it has to somehow translate into 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 in Romans 5. Reigning in life 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. I want to teach on that again, hopefully sometime soon.
So, here’s this guy, Hans Nielsen Hauge. He understood things that are rarely understood. He knew how to 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 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, he had a couple hundred books in print, and in that day, that was unbelievable. People were reading his books, studying his books.
All right, I’m back. 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 businesses, and they were promoted into places of rule. But I remind you, in the Kingdom, ruling means to serve. Anytime we mix that up, we will abuse the position that God has given us. Every position of authority, 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 two is to empower. The Bible uses different terms to describe that empowering, but that’s basically it. Peter talks about protection and giving praise to 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 empowering. So let’s break it down this way: we rule to protect; we serve to empower. It’s ruling and serving. It’s always those two realms. And in this conversation, there is compelling evidence throughout history that those who obey the Lord and seek Him first and live wisely become promoted to places of great influence. I don’t know if you see the dance I’m trying to do here, but 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 at being in charge of stuff; we’re better servants.
I’d just soon see a servant 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. 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, that’s the longest introduction in church history. So, I’ve already presented to you some of the challenge. Let me read a couple verses to you. I’m just going to give you a reference and read it, and you do with it what you want.
In Job chapter 1, there’s an interesting verse. His children 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 family celebrations together in each other’s homes; they would celebrate their birthdays; they would celebrate special events. Here’s what it says: «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 conflict? It’s the Father who wants to pour out the blessing. I hear people say that the Lord has intended for us to live with persecution and conflict. No, He uses it, but He didn’t design that. In 1 Timothy 2, He gives a very specific way to do life, and His conclusion is that you may live a peaceful life, right? And that all may be saved. So, what He’s basically saying is that when you come into a place—let me use 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’re not controlled by greed and these kinds of things. You actually are reigning.
When that peace has put you into 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 in Africa, and I brought—this was when I pastored in Weaverville. I brought a good friend with me, and he wanted to give something to children in the villages. He showed me he had these bright pink pencils. I’ll be honest; I thought that was a dumb gift. Come on, if you’re going to give a gift, let’s do something significant. But he thought that was the thing to do. I remember we drove into this village, and we got out, talked—I don’t remember why we were there, but we were there—and we got out and talked, and there were a couple of teenage girls right by the car. He gave them two bright pink pencils, and as we drove away, I turned around and looked, and they were jumping up and down with joy, absolutely ecstatic and overjoyed that their life was just improved by a pencil.
Everybody has it in their heart to improve their life. It actually works against the nature God gave us to see Improvement and increase. If I can push it a little bit further, when Jesus gave the parable of the mina 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 were designed—your musical ability, your ability to lead, your ability to have compassion; maybe it’s a skill that you have of writing or analyzing things. Maybe you’re 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. The Lord is looking to have a body of people that continuously advance in their ability to communicate the gospel well and to bring the influence of change and transformation into society.
That’s probably— 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. Some of you already closed it because you got exhausted holding it open. 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 think—hopefully I’ve made my point. Acts 14 is a very fascinating chapter. It’s one of those chapters that could actually stand on its own. 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— it has everything—all in one chapter. 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 one: «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 Standard says «embittered» their minds—"poisoned 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 what I believe Paul prayed for deliverance from when he prayed for God to deliver him from that thorn in the flesh. There’s no reason to believe it was actually a physical illness of any kind; Jesus had atoned for that; He had taken care of that 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 be loved and accepted by everyone. There’s a measure of wisdom in that. We want to make sure that we present the gospel in wisdom, in kindness, in tenderness, real compassion for people. There’s no question; that’s our heart, that’s our call, our mandate. But many people have stripped the gospel of its power because of their intent to be well-loved.
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 I, who am 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 into your life a hundred times what you left— with persecution.»
What’s the point? 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. Wow, 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 say, «The devil just doesn’t like me.» And I say, «He doesn’t like anybody.» No, don’t take it personally; it’s just you remind him of Jesus. Just, you know, adjust.
I never want to glamorize opposition; I don’t make it an issue. Even in our private conversations, we will try to find wisdom to answer a challenge, 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 reality. It’s reality; 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 in this case, it’s a more accurate term— Gentiles. The Jews poisoned the Gentiles' minds. New American Standard says «embittered.» The word «embittered» means to make bitter.
Here’s the challenging part—Hebrews 12 says has this phrase; it says, «Looking carefully, lest 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 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.
That’s right. 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 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 challenging because what I’ve watched for years is I watch people give themselves 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 I think one of the things that keeps us from having the measure of cultural impact that God’s assigned for us is the challenge, the difficulty, the sometimes inability to wade into deep and dark places and serve well without getting contaminated ourselves.
I promise to end happier. You look constipated; that’s 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 a sign of your practice in 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 ah: «If you have bitterness and self-seeking in your heart, don’t lie against the truth.» This wisdom—what wisdom? Bitterness and self-promotion—he says, «This wisdom does not descend from above, but it is 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 4—he says, «This wisdom is not from above; it’s natural, sensual, and demonic.» So, the appeal of bitterness of offense is that it’s reasonable. What I mean by that—if you carry offense, I’m sure everybody’s experienced this—if you carry offense in your heart towards somebody, you attract information to reinforce the offense. Wow! You will attract people into your life that think like you do about that individual, and they will reinforce that you are right. The difficult part 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 4:23: «Watch over your heart.» It’s been a life verse for me for 40 some years; «Watch over your heart with all diligence, for 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’ve had several times just this week where a thought comes to mind about an individual—an innocent thought that I accept and dwell on— and I find after about 3 or 4 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. It’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 then, because if you go to sleep, that thing will fester. You will have an infection deeply rooted in your heart that you’re no longer even aware of. That’s where people go through traumatic experiences sometimes with the Lord, just getting free from things they carried for years that they never knew—they never knew that they just squashed it down and just hid it, made up spiritual, you know, quick 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—great numbers of people would believe. And then the Jews from this other city would come, and it’s interesting. The Jews 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 divisive person; it’s just wisdom to recognize who affects you negatively and who affects you positively. And I’m not saying you know you have a loved one or a relative that really is steeped in bitterness or whatever—I’m not saying you don’t spend time with them. They’re your relative; you’re your 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 no— I don’t know if this chapter gets any happier. I think we’re pretty much stuck. 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 think it improves at the end of chapter 22 of Proverbs. There’s a 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 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 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 have both— not in that environment. The point I’m trying to address is recognize your own personal bent. If you are easily offended, just be honest. «I get so defensive; I get so defensive.» Just be honest. 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, 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: «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 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 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 to 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 boldness, you’ve got to get this connection. In response to the people of God’s boldness in proclaiming the gospel, the hand of the Lord was released to perform signs and wonders through 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 in prison, jailed for preaching the gospel. When they were released, they went to a prayer meeting, and Peter prayed this prayer: «God,» he says, «take note of their threats.» They had just been threatened by the religious leaders. «God, take note of their threats. Grant that your bondservants 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 four: «The multitude of the city was divided. Part sided 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, Derbe, and the city of Lycaonia and to the surrounding region.» All right, here’s the deal: 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. It says He knew what was in the hearts of men. 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. 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, resources, and attention just to keep them alive. The scripture says when the Lord makes rich—and I’m going to 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, we should probably end this. Let’s find a place.
Let’s go to verse eight: «In Lystra, there was a man without strength in his feet. He was sitting, crippled from his mother’s womb; he never walked. This man heard Paul speaking.» I have that phrase: «This man heard.» 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, saw that he had faith to be healed. He 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 three, 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 guard our speech and make sure that we speak positive things and encouraging things and faithful things. I’m all over that. But 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 go, «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 a couple of weeks ago; there was one moment when 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, a lot of stuff happening. 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 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. It’s years ago, and I talk about it to this day. It impacted me so deeply that I stood back and I just stared at it. I’m sure it looked odd in that context just to stare at somebody, but I looked at 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. That’s the lesson; that’s the journey that we are on, is to live a life of actual faith. Faith doesn’t mean you have nothing. Let me just insert here—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 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 can 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. So, the Father sends Jesus, and Jesus turns to His disciples and says, «Don’t minister to the Gentiles—only the Jews.» So now He’s in this conversation with a Syrophoenician woman who is not a Jew. She’s a Syrophoenician 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, and 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 the 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 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. 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 lame man, and he keeps catching this guy’s eye, and he looks intently at him and he’s in his heart. He’s going, «Man, there’s faith in there.» And so he launches the word—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 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 spirits is actually discerning the spiritual. There’s this responsibility that we have to actually learn to recognize one another according to how the Holy Spirit rests upon 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 we just stand? We’ll just end right there. We just landed that plane on the side of a mountain, but nobody was killed. Just injured.
I don’t even know how long I went. I have a feeling I went long, but you know—I know enough about church history to know there haven’t been very many seasons where the people of God could actually be blessed for very long. Blessing breeds entitlement in one generation and complacency in the next unless there’s humility and discipline. 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 Philippians 4, said, «I know how to abound, and I know how to be abased.» He says, «I can do all things,» which is abounding and lacking. «I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.»
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. That minor little detail is, I believe, key for bringing the kind of impact on culture that the Lord wants us to have, not as know-it-alls, not as people who have it all together, 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. You give us so much hope. You give us so much promise. The assignment You’ve given us 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 ask tonight that You’d impart a real refined grace, a focus, a looking intently on this that You’ve placed before us, that we could put a knife to our throat when it’s needed. That restriction, that restraint, 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.