Bill Johnson - Experience God's Presence and Find Strength in His Word
Why don’t you bless the worship team? Thank you. Now, why don’t you bless the Lord? Come on, come on! We bless you, God! We bless you, Lord! God, we bless you, Lord! We bless you, Lord! We bless you, Lord! That was the tithe. Now let’s give Him an offering! Bless Your Great Name, wonderful God! Wonderful God! Lift your voices, lift your voices, lift your voices! We boast in You, Lord! We boast in You, Lord! Yeah, yeah! Do it again, do it again! We honor You, Lord! We honor You, Jesus! Wonderful God! Wonderful, wonderful Lord! Wonderful Lord! Wonderful Lord! Yeah!
You know it’s possible to worship and just celebrate community without celebrating the face. There are many things that are easier to do in worship than to actually engage, so let’s give to Him one more time. We give You glory, God! We give You honor! We celebrate Your goodness! We celebrate Your kindness! We magnify and honor. We boast in You, Lord! We boast in You, Lord! We boast in You, God! You are good! You are great! Thank You, thank You, God! Thank You, Lord!
Oh, come let us adore! Oh, come let us adore You! Oh, come let us adore in Christ the Lord. Again, oh, come let us adore! Oh, come let us Christ lift up a spiritual song! Honor and praise, we celebrate Your goodness, Lord! We celebrate Your kindness, God! Bless Your name, Jesus! Take, take, take Your Jesus! Wonderful God! Wonderful Jesus!
There, for Jesus, to behold You in Your beauty, to behold You in Your glory is the greatest of all pleasures, for You are wonderful! To behold You in Your beauty, to behold You in Your glory is the greatest of all pleasures, for You are wonderful! To behold You in Your beauty, to behold You in Your glory is the greatest of all pleasures, for You are wonderful! To behold You in Your beauty, to behold You in Your glory is the greatest of all pleasures, for You are wonderful! One more time, to behold You in Your beauty, to behold You in Your glory is the greatest of all. For You are wonder! Wonder of wonders, God! Wonder of wonders! Wonderful, wonderful God! Wonderful God!
Oh God, You fascinate us! You captivate us! You overwhelm us, God! Overwhelmingly wonderful! Oh God, just put Your hand on the shoulder of someone next to you and just pray for a fresh baptism of fire. Just pray! Pray for a fresh baptism of fire! If you don’t know the Lord, just come on up to the front right now! If you don’t know the Lord, it’s time to get right with God! If you’re not walking with the Lord, now is the time! Just leave your seat, come right up here! Just everybody stand, if you would. Just everybody stand! I want you praying for that fresh baptism of fire for the people around you! If you’re laid out on the floor, that’s fine, just stay there; but other than that, I want you just to pray for that fresh baptism of fire.
And if you don’t know Jesus, if you’ve never given your life to Jesus, or if you’ve walked away and want to get right with God, come right down to the front right now! Just leave your seat, come down quickly! Pray for that fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God on the people around you! More! Just pray for more! More, more, more! Just go deeper, God! Go deeper in us, Lord! Go deeper in us, Lord God! Yeah, just keep praying there! I know there’s someone here that needs to get right with God tonight!
We’ve been fighting with this all night, and I just… I don’t want to preach about it; I just want to tell you: come and meet Jesus! Just come, come quickly! Just come and meet Jesus! Mighty God! Mighty God! Go, just keep praying! Don’t stop! The person you’re next to needs a mighty touch from God, believe me! Thank You, Lord! Mighty touch of God! Mighty touch!
Go deeper, Lord! Go deeper! As you’re praying for others, offer yourself to God to go deeper in You, that He would touch you deeper than ever before! Just keep praying! We’ve got at least one more baptism, so someone just got right with God; we’ve got to get baptized right away! Pray for a baptism of the Holy Spirit in him! If anybody else needs that, come up real quick right now! Just keep praying, Church! Keep praying! Don’t stop! Fresh touch from God! Fresh touch from God! We need more! We need more! We need more! We need more! We need more! Fresh baptism of fire! Let this young man experience a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God, a baptism in the Holy Spirit, even as he comes up out of the water! A mighty, mighty healing! A mighty, mighty deliverance! Go deep in us, God! More! Oh God, more! More! Yes, God! Yes, God! Wonderful Jesus! Wonderful Jesus! Wonderful Jesus! Wonderful Lord! Worship Jesus just a little bit longer! Worship Jesus just a little bit more! We love You, God! We love You! We honor You! We celebrate You, Lord God! We honor, we bless Your Great Name, Jesus! Wonder of wonders! Wonderful God! Wonderful God! Bless Your name! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord! Wonderful Lord Jesus! Wonderful Lord Jesus! Wonderful Lord Jesus! I’ve been feeling it all night long. There are a number of people that need to make that absolute decree, that public declaration: I will follow Jesus! I will follow Jesus with all of my heart! A baptism is such a huge prophetic act; it’s physical obedience that brings a spiritual release! It’s a point of absolute surrender!
I just think there are more. If you just need to get right with God, just come over here to Chris or some of these guys to my left, on your right, and we’ll take care of that! I just feel like the Lord is delaying this, so yeah, we bless You! We bless You! We bless You! Thank You, Lord!
We worship You, Lord! We bless Your name! The Lord is actually healing people’s spines. There are several kinds of problems. There are those in the room that have broken their tailbone; I can actually feel it! Some, it was a number of years ago, but you broke the tailbone! You’ve been either in great pain or discomfort for years! Some of you! The Lord’s healing that! There are some of you who have some issue with the discs right here in the lower part of the back — the belt line area, up in that area! The Lord’s bringing healing there!
I actually saw it was like wires wrapped around — I don’t know if there’s actual wires wrapped around somebody’s spine or if it represented some sort of bondage; I don’t know what it was, but I feel like the Lord is healing that. So, if that just relates to you, put your hand up! There’s someone, in fact there are several with arthritic conditions in the upper part of the neck and upper back, and the Lord’s healing that! There are some people with pinched nerves in between the shoulder blades! I feel like the Lord’s just doing wholesale healing on the spine!
We need a strong backbone for this next season! We need a strong backbone for this next season! The Lord is doing chiropractic adjustments too in that spine, so if that’s you, put a hand up! You need a miracle in your back? If that’s you, you need a miracle in your back, put a hand up!
We can do baptisms and healing all at the same time! Overflow! If there’re people in the overflow, I forgot! Sorry, overflow! Please come over for baptism too!
All those spine people, put your hands up! Spine issues! If you have issues with your spine, put your hand up! Gather around them! Find out where the pain is! Speak to it with authority! This is the day of healing! This is the day of deliverance! Look around you! There are still people with their hands up! That young lady right down here! Somebody get — thank you, thank you, thank you! I love that!
Wave your hand at me if nobody is praying for you! Wave your hand at me because we want to get somebody to you, okay? There are some hands way back over here, to my right, your left, way in the back there, probably three-quarters of the way back! Make sure that they have people praying for them! Just find out where the problem is! Speak to it in Jesus' name! Command divine order in that back!
There are those who have… it’s like there’s this twist in the lower part of the back, as a result, your legs are out of whack, and the Lord wants to heal that! If that’s you, come up, sit on the front row! We’ll have some people do the adjustment thing on you! If that’s you, just come sit up here; we’ll take care of it right now! If you’re watching online, if you’re watching Bethel TV, just sit down in your home, your office, wherever you’re at, and let’s just take care of that right where you are! We just declare the Lord Jesus heals you! The Lord Jesus heals you! If that’s you, just sit down right there!
So, are you guys taking care of these legs? Lower back, is that you? Get up here on the front row! Yep! Just sit all the way back in the chair! Anyone else with the lower back thing? Just get up here, sit on the front row! I need some of our team down here, our healing technicians! Come on down!
The next person that’s to be baptized is getting born again right now, and then he’ll be baptized afterwards! So Lord, we bless You for that! We thank You! People are coming to Jesus tonight! Lower back stuff, sit on the front row! I need some of our healing team up here! Lift their legs up! Lift their legs up! Find out! It’d be good if the camera could get on this just to show!
Did it even out? Yes, it’s totally the same now! Beautiful! All right! Yep! Room! Yep! Just scoot back! Are they out of alignment? No, they’re pretty good! Just a little bit off; right leg grow! Whoa! Did you feel that shoot out? That’s fun! Yeah! Beautiful!
Is your lower back hurting, or are you just finding a place to sit? Beautiful! Lower back? Yeah! Lift your legs up, let me see! Does that hurt? Okay! Right leg grow! Now back adjust! Come into order in Jesus' name right now!
Come here! Stand up! Peace here in Jesus’ name! The Shalom of Heaven all through this back now, in the name of the Lord! Okay, bend over, check it out! How is it? It’s good! It’s good! Yes! Beautiful! All right! Others, with backlinks, just get right in here! Just help me out here, lift their legs up! Just find out what’s… yeah, we’ll be doing more in a moment! But let’s take care of the backs first!
Yeah, somebody lift the leg up, check it out! You’ve got to get in there! Just grab some legs! Thank You, Lord! We thank You, Lord Jesus! It’s a great miracle! Angels of Heaven are rejoicing right now! Angels of Heaven are rejoicing right now! We thank You, God! Come on! How many backs have already gotten healed? Put your hands up around the room! Look, look at this! Wow, wow, wow!
Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord! Okay, just a moment longer for these on the front row, then we’re going to open the word! I’ll try not to talk long, but we are going to talk! Thank You, Lord! Bless Your name, Jesus! Bless Your name! Who had the tailbone healed? Who had the tailbone right over here? There’s another one there, wave your hand at me! I want to see how many tailbones got healed! Back over there! Okay, beautiful!
There are at least four! I can see that’s good! Five! Beautiful! I’m just curious, of the women that got healed with the tailbone, were there any that broke their tailbone during pregnancy or delivery of a child? I’m just curious! Right back here! Was yours healed tonight? Yes! It’s fascinating!
Yeah, we’ve been praying for this for years! I don’t remember one! This is the only area I can say this for, but I don’t remember one woman that broke her tailbone in delivery of a child that wasn’t healed! I cannot remember one! It’s been the most unusual thing! I feel like Jesus is vindicating the enemy! The enemy tried to steal through the beauty of childbirth, and that torment and affliction is just broken off of people’s lives!
In fact, you know what? Let’s go for this! Any women in the room who have any physical problems that were either caused by or started during pregnancy or delivery of a child, I want you to stand! Okay, right here! Put your hand up, because I want to see who you are! I want some people gathering around them! I want you to just pray right now that the Lord would vindicate what the enemy stole from them during the most beautiful time of their life! The enemy moves in and tries to bring torment and loss, and we just declare that ends tonight! That ends tonight in Jesus' mighty name! Thank You, Lord!
Yeah, same online! Those on Bethel TV, any of you suffering with anything because of pregnancy or childbirth, we just declare healing grace to you! The Lord Jesus heals you! The Lord Jesus heals you! Thank You, Lord!
All right! Beautiful! Thanks, Lord! That’s wonderful! God, we give You thanks! We just give You thanks! Now you can slowly start to make your way back to your seats! Thank You, Lord! Bless those women you just prayed for! Make sure you bless them! Pronounce blessing over them! The full vindication of the Lord for anything stolen from them!
Thanks, Lord! God! Hey, Gabe, would you help me out and get that mic? I’d like to have at least three or four people where the Lord did something significant in your body tonight, healing you! I want to hear testimony! Just stand up where you are, put a hand up so I can see you!
Okay, right back over here! I want three or four people to stand up where you are! The Lord did something significant! I want to hear just a brief testimony! What did Jesus do for you?
Um, I really believe He healed me of leukemia! I have this gold dust all over me, and He healed my back! It doesn’t hurt anymore at all! So now pray for me to get off pain pills! All right, now! Okay! Oh, leukemia! And you’ve had issues with your back! How long have you had the back problem? About 20 years! How long have you had the leukemia? About 15 years! Yeah, really? 15 years? My goodness! Now, we declare that healing grace over your body in Jesus’ wonderful name! The back pain is gone, you’ve got gold dust on you! That’s fascinating! Yeah, that comes free, by the way! There’s no charge for it! We don’t give it! That’s why we can’t charge! That’s a joke, bad humor, but it’s a joke anyway! We bless your body in the name of Jesus!
Yeah! Get your test and give us a report of what Jesus has done! Yeah! Wonderful God! Somebody else, right down over here! Gabe, I’m going to have you just run around the room!
What did Jesus do for you tonight? He healed my back! In sixth grade, I broke my tailbone! And the doctors weren’t able to do a procedure on it because it would have made it worse! So I’ve been living with it! I was also in a car accident when I was younger and hurt my neck! The bottom of my tailbone never actually fully developed when I was younger either, so I’ve been dealing with back pain for a really long time! And tonight He completely healed me! Come on, Jesus! Come on! Bless the Lord! Wow, thank You, Lord! Thank You, Lord! Oh, that’s wonderful! Good!
Wow! Anyone else? I’d love to have at least one more! Right back over here! Oh, you know what? Let’s have Gabe go ahead and get to that one! Yeah, sorry! It’s just too much good news in here! That’s the problem!
Yeah! All right! Let’s see there! Hold on just a moment! If we can handle a couple more, why don’t you just come up to the front? I think there was somebody over here too! Just come up to the front! Just come on up to the front! Wait here and that way we’ll have a limit, but we’ll know who’s next! All right, just come on here! Gabe, go ahead! What did Jesus do for you?
So, about five years ago, I fell from a really high diving board on my back, and I feel it was the Holy Spirit who helped me! I curled up, and I fell on my back because the doctor said if I didn’t do that I would have been paralyzed! So, wow! I play the violin, and after that, every time I play for longer, my back hurts! I really want to play the violin, but my back hurts! Anytime I do something for too long, my back also hurts! So I feel tonight the Lord completely healed me!
Beautiful! Beautiful! Thank You, Lord! Did you feel anything happen in your back when you were prayed for? Did you have any sensation like warmth or anything? I felt like a cool river was flowing down! That’s fine! That’s beautiful! You know, only half the people actually feel something happen when they get healed! So if you don’t feel something, still move around and check yourself out because, well, half don’t feel it happen, but half do! Most of the time it’s heat; sometimes it’s tingling or electricity or something, and occasionally it’s cool!
We’ve actually had, we had one guy right over here; he was run over by a 14-ton truck, completely crushed his ankle, and had major issues with pain, flexibility, mobility for years in that problem! And his ankle went completely numb like it was under anesthesia or something! You know, it was gone! And then there was just this pop, and it came back to life! And he was completely healed!
So the Lord just has a good time doing it His way! So what did Jesus do for you? Um, I had an epidural 12 years ago, and it did damage to one of the vertebraei in my back! And so I was in a lot of pain ever since then! But as that one damaged vertebra was sort of out of alignment or not working well, the pain began to grow in my back, and then I began to have more pain in my hips and neck! And I had a pinched nerve in my neck, and then it started tonight where my neck loosened up! All this pain I was in for a long time was starting to get used to just being in pain all the time, and then it just completely loosened up! And then when you had the word about pregnancy-related injuries, that pain is gone!
Come on, that’s beautiful! Come on! Thank You, Lord! 12 years, 12 years! Wow! My name is Michael, and I’ve had this back pain for several months, and it just kept getting worse! We thought it was the bed that I sleep in in the motel! Every time I get up, it’s just excruciating pain! But tonight, I got healed! Yeah! Come on! I got healed! Thank You, Jesus! Thank You, Lord!
Let’s give one more shout of thanks! We honor You! We do! We bless You! We bless You, Lord! We bless You! Thank You! Thank You, Lord Jesus! Thank You, Lord!
Well, we’re probably going to do a fire tunnel at the end, and what I want to do is I want us to have that fire tunnel; I mean a baptism of fire tunnel! And just really pray because I feel like the Lord is just turning this up a notch! And we are to anticipate a massive harvest! We were just talking a little bit ago; we don’t know what to do with the people because there’s no room! But we’re going to do something! I feel like there are just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people to be born again in the coming weeks and months! And we just have to be ready!
I know of one church — oh goodness, this is in Argentina, I think it was back in the 90s! They had such a massive revival come! They had 23 services a day, 7 days a week, and they didn’t have service one hour long to clean the building! All the services were one hour long; that’s all they could do! People were assigned; if you got assigned in the middle of the night, you were there! But the place was just packed out!
I know of a pastor in… I don’t know where, in Africa, but in Africa, he had 250 people! He had this prophetic word about getting a bigger vision, so he built a sanctuary for 2,500 people when he only had 250 people! In 18 months, he had 25,000 people! 25,000 people! And it’s not about numbers in the sense that our identity is in size; but it is about numbers in the sense that every number represents a person, and people need to know Jesus!
Yes! There’s an unusual anointing for evangelism being released all over the world right now! In fact, you know what? Just stand! Let’s pray into this! Then, we’ll open the word! I think! All right, just put your hand on the person next to you! I was going to have you pray for yourself, but you’ll pray more boldly if you pray for someone else! So I want you to pray scary prayers about their anointing for evangelism! Pray for great boldness, great courage, great open doors! Massive open doors for evangelism! A heart for discipleship! Wisdom for discipleship!
Thank You, Lord! Thank You, Lord! Thank You, Lord Jesus! Massive evangelistic anointing! Yes, dear Father, we just pray right now for the release of an evangelistic anointing! Evangelism anointing! Father, we pray for great boldness, Lord! And God, we pray for great power at the preaching of the gospel, Lord! We pray, God, for an infusion of courage, Lord and faith! Lord, I pray for that right now, in Jesus' name! That as people step out, they’ll impart faith—the faith that Jesus saves! That as they open their mouths, Lord, we pray for that! God, we pray for a ready spirit! God, a ready spirit that people would be ready to open their mouths, Lord! We pray for open opportunities for people, that they would seize the opportunities that are in front of them! We pray for that, in Jesus' holy name! Jesus' name! Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen!
Beautiful! Thank you! Go ahead and sit down! I actually had somewhat of a longer message than what I’m going to give—not that I couldn’t; I just feel like I’m supposed to share something with you! We’ll save the longer version for another time!
I was fascinated in these last couple of weeks. There’s a theme in scripture, especially in the Psalms, that is so frequent that we can become so familiar with it that it doesn’t resonate anymore. And there’s this phrase that’s used frequently about meditating—for example—meditating in the night watches, meditating on the works of the Lord, meditating on the wonders of the Lord, meditating on the commandments of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord! This whole concept of meditating on the things of the Lord!
And I personally, I love to ponder what God has said! A number of you know that I had a real physical issue earlier this year and was really quite sick for a while, and Jesus saved me, and I’m so thankful! But one of the things that I did often is I would bring especially the familiar passages of scripture that had fed me for years, and I would reread them!
Sorry, I’m a little messed up! I’m not sorry I’m messed up; I’m just sorry it’s in public, you know? I would find the most familiar passages that have fed me, some of them for 30, and some for 40 years or more! And I hope that you have places like that! Places where little places of habitation that you can run to and feed! And I could take you to dates; I could take you to places in scripture where this is where God met me! He met me here in this chapter! I remember when I was walking on the church property in Weaverville—the property we were going to build on! I remember walking and crying out to God, and He met me with this passage!
Or I can show you a place I was in absolute pain or despair because of a situation going on, and God met me and He gave me this verse! Or traveling home, God met me on the plane and spoke to me these words! And I can take you through my own particular journey, but I’m not going to do that! I’m just trying to use it as a point of reference that when I was just so sick earlier this year, I spent a fair amount of time just reviewing some of the feeding places where I had been over the years!
And I would bring out the prophetic words that God had spoken over my life! Some of them, just literal scriptures; others, words that are from prophetic friends! Some of them you know, and some you don’t! But things that were spoken into my life! And the reason I love what Chris Cruz was saying earlier about this, you know, that things being too good to be true—they are so good they are true! They are so good! They are—oh, they are so good—they are truth itself!
And when the Lord gives you a promise, it’s because He has visited your future and brought you the tools necessary to get you there! And so promises are how we get into our future! You can just drift your way in, and you’ll be the victim of circumstances, or you can fight your way in as a person of promise! People of promise!
And I love doing that! I love that part! I love the rest part, but I love the fight part too because I like seeing His tools work! I like to see the effect of a word on surroundings, on circumstances! And one of the things that I did, I actually did in the hospital, but I have some notebooks, binders of prophecies over my life and over Bethel!
And I have a number of them in here! And so I would just sit there and lay there, actually, in the hospital bed, and I would just bring the pages up, page after page, and just read over what the Lord has said about our future! Some people, sometimes we need to be more convinced of the beauty of tomorrow than the difficulty of today!
Come on, and that’s what promises do! That’s what the commandments do! And this phrase hit me two weeks ago. I realized there’s a part of this process that I feel like I’ve done fairly well in being a steward of, but I have ignored altogether! And that was the meditation on the commandments of the Lord!
I couldn’t remember one time where I actually sat up in the middle of the night going, «Thou shalt not kill!» And I realized I have not done that part! I purposed in my heart! It leapt out at me! I purposed in my heart that it must be beneficial! It must be part of the package! It must be part of the system! He’s the creator! His economy and His resources work in His economy!
That may be one of the important keys! So I started thinking—meditating! In cultic meditation, you empty your mind! In biblical meditation, you fill your mind; there’s a huge difference! They’re worlds apart!
Biblical or secular, cultic meditation is you want to get to this place of nothingness! In biblical meditation, you want to get to everythingness! Don’t quote me on that one, but you get the point; it’s the kingdom! It’s the abundance of life itself!
And the word meditation is actually translated—there are several words for meditation in the Bible! One of the words is to mutter—to kind of mutter under your breath—which implies you think over this!
Let’s just take a commandment, for example: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength! You shall love the Lord your God! So there’s a commandment! And so what is it to meditate on? It’s to review it! It’s to bring it up! To bring it up! To bring it up! To confess it! To pray it! To declare it! To speak it! So that you hear the word spoken!
I am to love the Lord my God with all that I am! Yes! And suddenly it seemed weird to me that God would want to command us to love Him! And then I started thinking, only love could command love! Wow! Everything He does is out of love! So out of love, He commands me to love Him, who is love! It’s the absolute beginning place of life for us!
It’s the number one commandment in Scripture! It’s in Matthew 22, and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself! I was reading this week some of the harder passages! I like to read the in-your-face passages that Jesus gave! There are so many of them!
You know, unless you lose your life, you know, those kind of verses—unless you lose your life, you’re not going to find it! You know, I love reading those verses because I don’t want to get too comfortable! I don’t —I don’t mean to create insecurity; I just mean Bobby Conner made a statement here years ago! He said, «We’ve become all too familiar with a God we hardly know.»
That familiarity thing is really dangerous for us! This whole thing of being sensitive and tender to this one who has a heart of grace and mercy toward us, but He’s also right! He’s right about everything! And when He says to adjust here, it’s because standing where I am is going to cause some problems! And so He comes to us, and He says, «The second is like the first one, but it’s focused on people: love your neighbor as yourself.»
Now here’s the thing that I was reading this last week in the hard sayings of Jesus. He said, «If you love your mom and dad, your children, your family more than me, you’re not worthy of me!» That’s one of the harder statements! But it’s a good one! And then you have the other passage in 1 John 4 where he says, «If you say you love God but you hate your neighbor, you’re lying! The truth isn’t in you!»
So here we’ve got these two truths found in the center of these two conflicting realities! One is, if I love God, it has to be measurable in my love for people! If I love people, I cannot love them more than God! I can rephrase that better; I think you understand!
It’s possible to love people more than God! Yes, it is possible; it’s forbidden! That’s right! Do you understand? It’s impossible to love God without loving people! So some to keep themselves safe in not loving people more than God just simply stay away from people! Wow!
Because it appears to be safe! It’s not safe, because your love for God is not measurable! And so here’s this great privilege that we have in Scripture to meditate on the commandments of the Lord! The statutes, the testimonies!
Deuteronomy 6! I fear that so many New Testament believers are losing their grip on Old Testament truth, Old Testament realities because of this concept of being freed from the law! Yes, we’re freed from the law—guess what that means? You don’t have to sacrifice a sheep tomorrow! Celebrate it! We’re glad for that! But it doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says, «Don’t commit adultery!» It doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says, «Don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff!» Those laws are like the law of gravity! You can’t beat them!
Yeah! We’re not bound by the law? Well, jump off this platform and see! You’re not bound by a law that your works get you to heaven! But the commandments of the Lord are sure! It’s vital that we discover what in the Old Testament ended at the cross!
I know I’ve taught on this before, but we’ve got a lot of new people in the room, so let me cover this briefly! It’s vital! We discover what of the Old Testament ended at the cross! What from the Old Testament made it through the cross but was changed! And what of the Old Testament passed through the cross unchanged?
Because all three realities exist, and that will determine how well you are fed from Old Testament Scriptures! If you tackle that one, you’ll be a happy camper the rest of your life! You will be well-fed!
What ended at the cross? Sacrifice! Blood sacrifice! Jesus, the Lamb of God! Once the real came into place and was offered as a sacrifice for your sin and mine, no longer are those sacrifices necessary!
It ended at the cross! But what came through the cross but was changed? Well, for example, the Jubilee year: it was every 50 years where slaves were set free! People’s debts were forgiven! Everything was reset on the year of Jubilee! When Jesus came, He made a New Testament pronouncement: «This is the favorable year of the Lord!»
Which was the year of Jubilee! So in the Old Testament, it was every 50 years! In the New Testament, it’s every year! The concept is still there, but it came through the cross changed, new and improved!
What came through the cross unchanged? Davidic worship! The worship style that David invented! It started with him—the whole music, the songs, the prophetic song—all of that happened! It was continuous, 24 hours a day, 24/7 in David’s Tabernacle!
That became the prophetic prototype of the New Testament church! The Lord allowed him to taste a New Testament reality in an Old Testament setting! He actually experienced grace in the Old Testament! The people of God were forbidden, the priests were forbidden to come before the actual Ark of the Covenant—the actual presence and glory of God! Forbidden!
In the Old Testament until David came! And when David came, he caught a vision of a New Testament reality! And that was all believers would be able to come before the presence of God in worship! He caught it! He taught it! And God allowed it! Wow!
It was forbidden under law, but David saw something in the future that God allowed him to pull into his day that was actually reserved for another day! Now, let’s do this! Turn to Joshua 1, and I’ll— I was actually going to go through the Ten Commandments tonight just because I wanted to, but I still want to, so I’ll do it another time!
You know what’s kind of weird is we keep all the Ten Commandments except for the Sabbath! People who wouldn’t think of stealing, wouldn’t think of adultery, wouldn’t think of taking the name of the Lord in vain, wouldn’t think of any of those things don’t mind at all working seven days a week! Not taking a day of rest!
And so we have this—oh, I’m going to really get in trouble here! We have this consumerism culture now in America where all the stores are open on Sunday, and who works there? The low people on the totem pole, which is who? Our youth!
So what have we offered as a sacrifice so that we can have no day of rest? Did you get it? You know, we’re designed for—we’re designed for a… Let’s put it this way: if God needed it! Yeah, we’re not bound by the law, neither is God! This is good!
I’m feeling. I didn’t mean to go quite that hard, but now I’m happy I did! Honestly, just use wisdom in your life! Take that active rest! None of us are that good! None of us are that important! None of us are that significant that we can forego the boundaries that God set for life!
Yes! Amen! All right, well, I’m here to encourage! I’m going to take you to Joshua 1, and I will—I was actually going to go through ten commandments tonight, and just because I wanted to, but I still want to, so I’ll do it another time!
I was fascinated in these last couple weeks! I realized there’s a theme in Scripture! Especially in the Psalms that is so frequent that it can become… we can become so familiar with it that it doesn’t mean anything anymore!
And there is this phrase that is used frequently: about meditating! For example, meditating in the night watches! Meditating on the works of the Lord! Meditating on the wonders of the Lord! Meditating on the commandments of the Lord!
This whole concept of meditating on the things of the Lord! And I personally, I love to ponder what God has said! A number of you know that I had a real physical issue earlier this year and was really quite sick for a while! And Jesus saved me, and I’m so thankful!
But one of the things that I did often was I would—I would bring especially the familiar passages of Scripture that had fed me for years, and I would reread them! Sorry, I’m a little messed up! I’m not sorry I’m messed up; I’m just sorry it’s in public!
You know? I would find the most familiar passages that have fed me, some of them for 30 and some for 40 years or more, and I hope that you have places like that—places that are little places of habitation that you can run to and feed!
And I could take you to dates! I could take you to places in Scripture where this is where God met me! He met me right here in this chapter! I remember when I was walking on the church property in Weaverville! The property we were going to build on! I remember walking and crying out to God, and He met me with this passage!
Or I can show you a place! I was in absolute pain or despair because of a situation going on, and God met me, and He gave me this verse! Or traveling home, God met me on the plane and spoke to me these words!
And I can take you through my own particular journey, but I’m not going to do that! I’m just trying to use it as a point of reference that when I was just so sick earlier this year, I spent a fair amount of time just reviewing some of the feeding places where I had been over the years!
And I would bring out the prophetic words that God had spoken over my life! Some of them just literal Scriptures, others words that are from prophetic friends! Some of them you know, and some you don’t! But things that were spoken into my life!
And the reason I love what Chris Cruz was saying earlier about this, you know, that things being too good to be true—they are so good they are true! They are so good, they are—oh, they are so good—they are truth itself!
And when the Lord gives you a promise, it’s because He has visited your future and brought you the tools necessary to get you there! And so promises are how we get into our future! You can just drift your way in, and you’ll be the victim of circumstances, or you can fight your way in as a person of promise!
People of promise! And I love doing that! I love that part! I love the rest part, but I love the fight part too because I like seeing His tools work! I like to see the effect of a word on surroundings, on circumstances!
And one of the things that I did, I actually did in the hospital, but I have some notebooks, binders of prophecies over my life and over Bethel! And I have a number of them in here!
And so I would just sit there and lay there, actually, in the hospital bed, and I would just bring the pages up, page after page, and just read over what the Lord has said about our future! Some people, sometimes we need to be more convinced of the beauty of tomorrow than the difficulty of today!
Come on! And that’s what promises do! That’s what the commandments do! And this phrase hit me two weeks ago! I realized there’s a part of this process that I feel like I’ve done fairly well in being a steward of, but I have ignored altogether!
And that was the meditation on the commandments of the Lord! I couldn’t remember one time where I actually sat up in the middle of the night going, «Thou shalt not kill!» And I realized I have not done that part!
I purposed in my heart! It leapt out at me! I purposed in my heart that it must be beneficial! It must be part of the package! It must be part of the system!
He’s the creator! His economy and His resources work in His economy! That may be one of the important keys! So I started thinking—meditating!
In cultic meditation, you empty your mind! In biblical meditation, you fill your mind! There’s a huge difference! They’re worlds apart! Biblical or secular, cultic meditation is you want to get to this place of nothingness! In biblical meditation, you want to get to everythingness!
Don’t quote me on that one, but you get the point; it’s the kingdom! It’s the abundance of life itself! And the word meditation is actually translated—there are several words for meditation in the Bible! One of the words is to mutter—to kind of mutter under your breath—which implies you think over this!
Let’s just take a commandment, for example: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength! You shall love the Lord your God! So there’s a commandment! And so what is it to meditate on? It’s to review it! It’s to bring it up! To bring it up! To bring it up!
To confess it! To pray it! To declare it! To speak it! So that you hear the word spoken!
I am to love the Lord my God with all that I am! Yes!
And suddenly it seemed weird to me that God would want to command us to love Him! And then I started thinking, only love could command love! Wow! Everything He does is out of love!
So out of love, He commands me to love Him, who is love! It’s the absolute beginning place of life for us! It’s the number one commandment in Scripture!
It’s in Matthew 22, and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself! I was reading this week some of the harder passages!
I like to read the in-your-face passages that Jesus gave! There are so many of them! You know, unless you lose your life, those kind of verses—unless you lose your life, you’re not going to find it!
I love reading those verses because I don’t want to get too comfortable!
I don’t—I don’t mean to create insecurity; I just mean Bobby Conner made a statement here years ago! He said, «We’ve become all too familiar with a God we hardly know!»
That familiarity thing is really dangerous for us! This whole thing of being sensitive and tender to this one who has a heart of grace and mercy toward us, but He’s also right!
He’s right about everything! And when He says to adjust here, it’s because standing where I am is going to cause some problems!
And so He comes to us, and He says, «The second is like the first one, but it’s focused on people: Love your neighbor as yourself!»
Now here’s the thing that I was reading this last week in the hard sayings of Jesus! He said, «If you love your mom and dad, your children, your family more than me, you’re not worthy of me!»
That’s one of the harder statements, but it’s a good one! And then you have the other passage in 1 John 4! He says, «If you say you love God but you hate your neighbor, you’re lying! The truth isn’t in you!»
So here we’ve got these two truths found in the center of these two conflicting realities!
One is, if I love God, it has to be measurable in my love for people! If I love people, I cannot love them more than God! I can rephrase that better; I think you understand!
It’s possible to love people more than God! Yes, it is, possible! It’s forbidden! That’s right!
Do you understand? It’s impossible to love God without loving people! So some to keep themselves safe in not loving people more than God just simply stay away from people!
Wow! Because it appears to be safe! It’s not safe because your love for God is not measurable! And so here’s this great privilege that we have in Scripture to meditate on the commandments of the Lord!
The statutes, the testimonies! Deuteronomy 6! I fear that so many New Testament believers are losing their grip on Old Testament truth, Old Testament realities because of this concept of being freed from the law!
Yes, we’re freed from the law! Guess what that means? You don’t have to sacrifice a sheep tomorrow! Celebrate it! We’re glad for that! But it doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says, «Don’t commit adultery!»
It doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says, «Don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff!» Those laws are like the law of gravity! You can’t beat them!
Yeah! We’re not bound by the law? Well, jump off this platform and see! You’re not bound by a law that your works get you to heaven!
But the commandments of the Lord are sure! It’s vital that we discover what in the Old Testament ended at the cross!
I know I’ve taught on this before, but we’ve got a lot of new people in the room, so let me cover this briefly! It’s vital! We discover what of the Old Testament ended at the cross!
What from the Old Testament made it through the cross but was changed! And what of the Old Testament passed through the cross unchanged?
Because all three realities exist, and that will determine how well you are fed from Old Testament scriptures! If you tackle that one, you’ll be a happy camper the rest of your life! You will be well fed!
What ended at the cross? Sacrifice! Blood sacrifice! Jesus, the Lamb of God! Once the real came into place and was offered as a sacrifice for your sin and mine, no longer are those sacrifices necessary!
It ended at the cross! But what came through the cross but was changed?
Well, for example, the Jubilee year: it was every 50 years where slaves were set free! People’s debts were forgiven! Everything was reset on the year of Jubilee!
When Jesus came, He made a New Testament pronouncement: «This is the favorable year of the Lord!»
Which was the year of Jubilee! So in the Old Testament, it was every 50 years! In the New Testament, it’s every year!
The concept is still there, but it came through the cross changed, new and improved!
What came through the cross unchanged? Davidic worship! The worship style that David invented! It started with him—the whole music, the songs, the prophetic song—all of that happened!
It was continuous, 24 hours a day, 24/7 in David’s Tabernacle! That became the prophetic prototype of the New Testament church! The Lord allowed him to taste a New Testament reality in an Old Testament setting!
He actually experienced grace in the Old Testament! The people of God were forbidden, the priests were forbidden to come before the actual Ark of the Covenant—the actual presence and glory of God! Forbidden!
In the Old Testament until David came! And when David came, he caught a vision of a New Testament reality!
And that was all believers would be able to come before the presence of God in worship! He caught it! He taught it! And God allowed it! Wow!
It was forbidden under law, but David saw something in the future that God allowed him to pull into his day that was actually reserved for another day!
Now, let’s do this! Turn to Joshua 1, and I’ll— I was actually going to go through the Ten Commandments tonight just because I wanted to, but I still want to, so I’ll do it another time!
You know what’s kind of weird is we keep all the Ten Commandments except for the Sabbath! People who wouldn’t think of stealing, wouldn’t think of adultery, wouldn’t think of taking the name of the Lord in vain, wouldn’t think of any of those things don’t mind at all working seven days a week! Not taking a day of rest!
And so we have this—oh, I’m going to really get in trouble here! We have this consumerism culture now in America where all the stores are open on Sunday, and who works there? The low people on the totem pole, which is who? Our youth!
So what have we offered as a sacrifice so that we can have no day of rest? Did you get it? You know, we’re designed for—we’re designed for a…
Let’s put it this way: if God needed it! Yeah, we’re not bound by the law, neither is God! This is good!
I’m feeling. I didn’t mean to go quite that hard, but now I’m happy I did! Honestly, just use wisdom in your life!
Take that active rest! None of us are that good! None of us are that important! None of us are that significant that we can forego the boundaries that God set for life!
Yes! Amen! All right, well, I’m here to encourage! I’m going to take you to Joshua 1, and I will—I was actually going to go through ten commandments tonight, and just because I wanted to, but I still want to, so I’ll do it another time!
I was fascinated in these last couple weeks! I realized there’s a theme in Scripture! Especially in the Psalms that is so frequent that it can become… we can become so familiar with it that it doesn’t mean anything anymore!
And there is this phrase that is used frequently: about meditating! For example, meditating in the night watches! Meditating on the works of the Lord! Meditating on the wonders of the Lord! Meditating on the commandments of the Lord!
This whole concept of meditating on the things of the Lord! And I personally, I love to ponder what God has said! A number of you know that I had a real physical issue earlier this year and was really quite sick for a while! And Jesus saved me, and I’m so thankful!
But one of the things that I did often was I would—I would bring especially the familiar passages of Scripture that had fed me for years, and I would reread them!
Sorry, I’m a little messed up! I’m not sorry I’m messed up; I’m just sorry it’s in public!
You know? I would find the most familiar passages that have fed me, some of them for 30 and some for 40 years or more, and I hope that you have places like that—places that are little places of habitation that you can run to and feed!
And I could take you to dates! I could take you to places in Scripture where this is where God met me! He met me right here in this chapter! I remember when I was walking on the church property in Weaverville! The property we were going to build on! I remember walking and crying out to God, and He met me with this passage!
Or I can show you a place! I was in absolute pain or despair because of a situation going on, and God met me, and He gave me this verse! Or traveling home, God met me on the plane and spoke to me these words!
And I can take you through my own particular journey, but I’m not going to do that! I’m just trying to use it as a point of reference that when I was just so sick earlier this year, I spent a fair amount of time just reviewing some of the feeding places where I had been over the years!
And I would bring out the prophetic words that God had spoken over my life! Some of them just literal Scriptures, others words that are from prophetic friends! Some of them you know, and some you don’t! But things that were spoken into my life!
And the reason I love what Chris Cruz was saying earlier about this, you know, that things being too good to be true—they are so good they are true! They are so good, they are—oh, they are so good—they are truth itself!
And when the Lord gives you a promise, it’s because He has visited your future and brought you the tools necessary to get you there! And so promises are how we get into our future! You can just drift your way in, and you’ll be the victim of circumstances, or you can fight your way in as a person of promise!
People of promise! And I love doing that! I love that part! I love the rest part, but I love the fight part too because I like seeing His tools work! I like to see the effect of a word on surroundings, on circumstances!
And one of the things that I did, I actually did in the hospital, but I have some notebooks, binders of prophecies over my life and over Bethel! And I have a number of them in here!
And so I would just sit there and lay there, actually, in the hospital bed, and I would just bring the pages up, page after page, and just read over what the Lord has said about our future! Some people, sometimes we need to be more convinced of the beauty of tomorrow than the difficulty of today!
Come on! And that’s what promises do! That’s what the commandments do! And this phrase hit me two weeks ago! I realized there’s a part of this process that I feel like I’ve done fairly well in being a steward of, but I have ignored altogether!
And that was the meditation on the commandments of the Lord! I couldn’t remember one time where I actually sat up in the middle of the night going, «Thou shalt not kill!» And I realized I have not done that part!
I purposed in my heart! It leapt out at me! I purposed in my heart that it must be beneficial! It must be part of the package! It must be part of the system!
He’s the creator! His economy and His resources work in His economy! That may be one of the important keys! So I started thinking—meditating!
In cultic meditation, you empty your mind! In biblical meditation, you fill your mind! There’s a huge difference! They’re worlds apart! Biblical or secular, cultic meditation is you want to get to this place of nothingness! In biblical meditation, you want to get to everythingness!
Don’t quote me on that one, but you get the point; it’s the kingdom! It’s the abundance of life itself! And the word meditation is actually translated—there are several words for meditation in the Bible! One of the words is to mutter—to kind of mutter under your breath—which implies you think over this!
Let’s just take a commandment, for example: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength! You shall love the Lord your God! So there’s a commandment! And so what is it to meditate on? It’s to review it! It’s to bring it up! To bring it up! To bring it up!
To confess it! To pray it! To declare it! To speak it! So that you hear the word spoken!
I am to love the Lord my God with all that I am! Yes!
And suddenly it seemed weird to me that God would want to command us to love Him! And then I started thinking, only love could command love!
Wow! Everything He does is out of love!
So out of love, He commands me to love Him, who is love! It’s the absolute beginning place of life for us!
It’s the number one commandment in Scripture!
It’s in Matthew 22, and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself! I was reading this week some of the harder passages!
I like to read the in-your-face passages that Jesus gave! There are so many of them! You know, unless you lose your life, those kind of verses—unless you lose your life, you’re not going to find it!
I love reading those verses because I don’t want to get too comfortable! I don’t want to create insecurity; I just mean Bobby Conner made a statement here years ago! He said, «We’ve become all too familiar with a God we hardly know!»
That familiarity thing is really dangerous for us! This whole thing of being sensitive and tender to this one who has a heart of grace and mercy toward us, but He’s also right!
He’s right about everything! And when He says to adjust here, it’s because standing where I am is going to cause some problems! And so He comes to us and He says, «The second is like the first one but focused on people: Love your neighbor as yourself.»
Now here’s the thing that I was reading this last week in the hard sayings of Jesus: He said, «If you love your mom and dad, your children, your family more than me, you’re not worthy of me.» That’s one of the harder statements!
But it’s a good one! And then you have the other passage in 1 John 4 where he says, «If you say you love God but you hate your neighbor, you’re lying! The truth isn’t in you!»
So here we’ve got these two truths found in the center of these two conflicting realities! One is if I love God, it has to be measurable in my love for people! If I love people, I cannot love them more than God!
I can rephrase that better; I think you understand!
It’s possible to love people more than God, yes! It’s possible! It’s forbidden! That’s right!
Do you understand? It’s impossible to love God without loving people! So some to keep themselves safe in not loving people more than God just simply stay away from people!
Wow! Because it appears to be safe! It’s not safe, because your love for God is not measurable!
And so here’s this great privilege that we have in Scripture to meditate on the commandments of the Lord!
The statutes, the testimonies! Deuteronomy 6! I fear that so many New Testament believers are losing their grip on Old Testament truth, Old Testament realities because of this concept of being freed from the law!
Yes, we’re freed from the law, guess what that means? You don’t have to sacrifice a sheep tomorrow! Celebrate it! We’re glad for that!
But it doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says don’t commit adultery! It doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says you don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff!
Those laws are like the law of gravity! You can’t beat them!
Yeah! We’re not bound by the law? Well, jump off this platform and see! You’re not bound by a law that your works get you to heaven!
But the commandments of the Lord are sure! It’s vital that we discover what in the Old Testament ended at the cross!
I know I’ve taught on this before, but we’ve got a lot of new people in the room, so let’s just briefly cover this! It’s vital; we discover what of the Old Testament ended at the cross!
What from the Old Testament made it through the cross but was changed? And what of the Old Testament passed through the cross unchanged?
Because all three realities exist, and that will determine how well you are fed from Old Testament scriptures!
You tackle that one and you’ll be a happy camper the rest of your life! You will be well fed!
What ended at the cross? Sacrifice! Blood sacrifice! Jesus, the Lamb of God! Once the real came into place and was offered as a sacrifice for your sin and mine, no longer are those sacrifices necessary!
It ended at the cross! But what came through the cross but was changed?
Well, for example, the Jubilee year! It was every 50 years, where slaves were set free! People’s debts were forgiven! Everything was reset on the year of Jubilee!
When Jesus came, He made a New Testament pronouncement: «This is the favorable year of the Lord!»
Which was the year of Jubilee! So in the Old Testament, it was every 50 years! In the New Testament, it’s every year!
The concept is still there, but it came through the cross changed, new and improved!
What came through the cross unchanged? Davidic worship! The worship style that David invented! It started with him—the whole music, the songs, the prophetic song—all of that happened!
It was continuous, 24 hours a day, 24/7 in David’s Tabernacle! That became the prophetic prototype of the New Testament church!
The Lord allowed him to taste a New Testament reality in an Old Testament setting! He actually experienced grace in the Old Testament!
The people of God were forbidden, the priests were forbidden to come before the actual Ark of the Covenant—the actual presence and glory of God! Forbidden!
In the Old Testament until David came! And when David came, he caught a vision of a New Testament reality!
And that was all believers would be able to come before the presence of God in worship! He caught it! He taught it! And God allowed it! Wow!
It was forbidden under law, but David saw something in the future that God allowed him to pull into his day that was actually reserved for another day!
Now let’s do this! Turn to Joshua 1, and I’ll— I was actually going to go through the Ten Commandments tonight just because I wanted to, but I still want to, so I’ll do it another time!
You know what’s kind of weird is we keep all the Ten Commandments except for the Sabbath! People who wouldn’t think of stealing, wouldn’t think of adultery, wouldn’t think of taking the name of the Lord in vain, wouldn’t think of any of those things don’t mind at all working seven days a week!
Not taking a day of rest! And so we have this—oh, I’m going to really get in trouble here! We have this consumerism culture now in America where all the stores are open on Sunday, and who works there? The low people on the totem pole, which is who? Our youth!
So what have we offered as a sacrifice so that we can have no day of rest? Did you get it? You know, we’re designed for—we’re designed for a…
Let’s put it this way: if God needed it! Yeah, we’re not bound by the law, neither is God! This is good!
I’m feeling. I didn’t mean to go quite that hard, but now I’m happy I did! Honestly, just use wisdom in your life! Take that active rest!
None of us are that good! None of us are that important! None of us are that significant that we can forego the boundaries that God set for life!
Yes! Amen! All right! Well, I’m here to encourage! I’m going to take you to Joshua 1! I will—I was actually going to go through ten commandments tonight! Just because I wanted to, but I still want to, so I’ll do it another time!
I was fascinated in these last couple weeks! I realized there’s a theme in Scripture! Especially in the Psalms that is so frequent that it can become… we can become so familiar with it that it doesn’t mean anything anymore!
And there is this phrase that is used frequently: about meditating! For example, meditating in the night watches! Meditating on the works of the Lord! Meditating on the wonders of the Lord! Meditating on the commandments of the Lord!
This whole concept of meditating on the things of the Lord! And I, personally, I love to ponder what God has said! A number of you know that I had a real physical issue earlier this year! And was really quite sick for a while!
And Jesus saved me, and I’m so thankful! But one of the things that I did often was I would—I would bring especially the familiar passages of Scripture that had fed me for years, and I would reread them!
Sorry! I’m a little messed up! I’m not sorry I’m messed up; I’m just sorry it’s in public! You know?
I would find the most familiar passages that have fed me, some of them for 30 and some for 40 years or more! And I hope that you have places like that—places that are little places of habitation that you can run to and feed!
And I could take you to dates! I could take you to places in Scripture where this is where God met me! He met me right here in this chapter!
I remember when I was walking on the church property in Weaverville! The property we were going to build on! I remember walking and crying out to God, and He met me with this passage!
Or I can show you a place! I was in absolute pain or despair because of a situation going on, and God met me, and He gave me this verse!
Or traveling home, God met me on the plane and spoke to me these words! And I can take you through my own particular journey, but I’m not going to do that!
I’m just trying to use it as a point of reference that when I was just so sick earlier this year, I spent a fair amount of time just reviewing some of the feeding places where I had been over the years!
And I would bring out the prophetic words that God had spoken over my life! Some of them just literal Scriptures, others words that are from prophetic friends! Some of them you know, and some you don’t! But things that were spoken into my life!
And the reason I love what Chris Cruz was saying earlier about this, you know, that things being too good to be true—they are so good they are true! They are so good! They are—oh, they are so good—they are truth itself!
And when the Lord gives you a promise, it’s because He has visited your future and brought you the tools necessary to get you there! And so promises are how we get into our future!
You can just drift your way in, and you’ll be the victim of circumstances, or you can fight your way in as a person of promise! People of promise!
And I love doing that! I love that part! I love the rest part, but I love the fight part too because I like seeing His tools work! I like to see the effect of a word on surroundings, on circumstances!
And one of the things that I did, I actually did in the hospital, but I have some notebooks, binders of prophecies over my life and over Bethel! And I have a number of them in here!
And so I would just sit there and lay there, actually, in the hospital bed, and I would just bring the pages up, page after page, and just read over what the Lord has said about our future!
Some people, sometimes we need to be more convinced of the beauty of tomorrow than the difficulty of today!
Come on! And that’s what promises do! That’s what the commandments do! And this phrase hit me two weeks ago! I realized there’s a part of this process that I feel like I’ve done fairly well in being a steward of, but I have ignored altogether!
And that was the meditation on the commandments of the Lord! I couldn’t remember one time where I actually sat up in the middle of the night going, «Thou shalt not kill!» And I realized I have not done that part!
I purposed in my heart! It leapt out at me! I purposed in my heart that it must be beneficial! It must be part of the package! It must be part of the system!
He’s the creator! His economy and His resources work in His economy! That may be one of the important keys!
So I started thinking—meditating! In cultic meditation, you empty your mind! In biblical meditation, you fill your mind! There’s a huge difference! They’re worlds apart!
Biblical or secular, cultic meditation is you want to get to this place of nothingness! In biblical meditation, you want to get to everythingness!
Don’t quote me on that one, but you get the point; it’s the kingdom! It’s the abundance of life itself!
And the word meditation is actually translated—there are several words for meditation in the Bible! One of the words is to mutter—to kind of mutter under your breath—which implies you think over this!
Let’s just take a commandment, for example: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength! You shall love the Lord your God!
So there’s a commandment! And so what is it to meditate on? It’s to review it! It’s to bring it up! To bring it up! To bring it up!
To confess it! To pray it! To declare it! To speak it! So that you hear the word spoken!
I am to love the Lord my God with all that I am! Yes!
And suddenly it seemed weird to me that God would want to command us to love Him! And then I started thinking, only love could command love!
Wow! Everything He does is out of love!
So out of love, He commands me to love Him, who is love! It’s the absolute beginning place of life for us!
It’s the number one commandment in Scripture!
It’s in Matthew 22, and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself! I was reading this week some of the harder passages!
I like to read the in-your-face passages that Jesus gave! There are so many of them! You know, unless you lose your life, those kind of verses—unless you lose your life, you’re not going to find it!
I love reading those verses because I don’t want to get too comfortable! I don’t want to create insecurity; I just mean Bobby Conner made a statement here years ago! He said, «We’ve become all too familiar with a God we hardly know!»
That familiarity thing is really dangerous for us! This whole thing of being sensitive and tender to this one who has a heart of grace and mercy toward us, but He’s also right!
He’s right about everything! And when He says to adjust here, it’s because standing where I am is going to cause some problems!
And so He comes to us and He says, «The second is like the first one but focused on people: Love your neighbor as yourself.»
Now here’s the thing that I was reading this last week in the hard sayings of Jesus! He said, «If you love your mom and dad, your children, your family more than me, you’re not worthy of me.» That’s one of the harder statements!
But it’s a good one! And then you have the other passage in 1 John 4 where he says, «If you say you love God but you hate your neighbor, you’re lying! The truth isn’t in you!»
So here we’ve got these two truths found in the center of these two conflicting realities!
One is if I love God, it has to be measurable in my love for people! If I love people, I cannot love them more than God!
I can rephrase that better; I think you understand!
It’s possible to love people more than God! Yes, it is, possible! It’s forbidden! That’s right!
Do you understand? It’s impossible to love God without loving people! So some to keep themselves safe in not loving people more than God just simply stay away from people!
Wow! Because it appears to be safe! It’s not safe because your love for God is not measurable!
And so here’s this great privilege that we have in Scripture to meditate on the commandments of the Lord!
The statutes, the testimonies! Deuteronomy 6! I fear that so many New Testament believers are losing their grip on Old Testament truth, Old Testament realities because of this concept of being freed from the law!
Yes, we’re freed from the law! Guess what that means! You don’t have to sacrifice a sheep tomorrow! Celebrate it! We’re glad for that!
But it doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says don’t commit adultery! It doesn’t mean you don’t keep the law that says you don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff!
Those laws are like the law of gravity! You can’t beat them!
Yeah! We’re not bound by the law? Well, jump off this platform and see! You’re not bound by a law that your works get you to heaven!
But the commandments of the Lord are sure! It’s vital that we discover what in the Old Testament ended at the cross!
I know I’ve taught on this before, but we’ve got a lot of new people in the room, so let’s just briefly cover this! It’s vital! We discover what of the Old Testament ended at the cross!
What from the Old Testament made it through the cross but was changed! And what of the Old Testament passed through the cross unchanged?
Because all three realities exist, and that will determine how well you are fed from Old Testament scriptures!
You tackle that one and you’ll be a happy camper the rest of your life! You will be well fed!
What ended at the cross? Sacrifice! Blood sacrifice! Jesus, the Lamb of God! Once the real came into place and was offered as a sacrifice for your sin and mine, no longer are those sacrifices necessary!
It ended at the cross! But what came through the cross but was changed?
Well, for example, the Jubilee year! It was every 50 years where slaves were set free! People’s debts were forgiven! Everything was reset on the year of Jubilee!
When Jesus came, He made a New Testament pronouncement: «This is the favorable year of the Lord!»
Which was the year of Jubilee! So in the Old Testament, it was every 50 years! In the New Testament, it’s every year!
The concept is still there, but it came through the cross changed, new and improved!
What came through the cross unchanged? Davidic worship! The worship style that David invented! It started with him—the whole music, the songs, the prophetic song—all of that happened!
It was continuous, 24 hours a day, 24/7 in David’s Tabernacle! That became the prophetic prototype of the New Testament church!
The Lord allowed him to taste a New Testament reality in an Old Testament setting! He actually experienced grace in the Old Testament!
The people of God were forbidden, the priests were forbidden to come before the actual Ark of the Covenant—the actual presence and glory of God! Forbidden!
In the Old Testament until David came! And when David came, he caught a vision of a New Testament reality!
And that was all believers would be able to come before the presence of God in worship!
He caught it! He taught it! And God allowed it! Wow!
It was forbidden under law, but David saw something in the future that God allowed him to pull into his day that was actually reserved for another day!
Now let’s do this! Turn to Joshua 1! I will—I was actually going to go through the Ten Commandments tonight just because I wanted to, but I still want to, so I’ll do it another time!
You know what’s kind.