Bill Johnson - Sons and Servants (Understand Who You Are in Christ)
Good morning! Yep, good morning, good morning! Nice to see you. I’ve always considered country music to be an oxymoron. I know I just created a whole bunch of enemies by saying that, but I needed to confess. I have an important story to share with you. Ever since I was a child, I always had a fear of someone being under my bed at night. So, I went to a shrink, and I told him, «I’ve got problems. Every time I go to bed, I think there’s someone under it. I’m scared. I think I’m going crazy.» He responded, «Just put yourself in my hands for one year. Come 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 a visit,» replied the doctor. «I’ll sleep on it.»
Six months later, the doctor met me on the street. «Why didn’t you come and see me about all those fears you were having?» he asked. «Well, 80 bucks a visit is the reason—three times a week—that’s over $122,000 in a year! My neighbor cured me for free.» I was so happy to save all that money that I went and bought a truck. «Is that so?» he asked, with a little bit of attitude. «How, may I ask, did your neighbor cure you?» «He told me to cut off the legs of my bed. Ain’t nobody under there now!» I think that’s funny.
Alright, we’ve got several portions of Scripture I want to look at this morning. I think we’ll read three; I may read one of them to you, but anyway, let’s start with Mark chapter 10. One of the passages we’ll read will revisit from goodness, the last time I spoke; I think it was three weeks ago. So, we’ll revisit a passage from then.
Alright, Mark chapter 10, beginning with verse 35: then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, saying, «Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.» Is that awesome or what? I mean, Jesus, we want you to do whatever we ask! I don’t know; I just think that’s funny. Jesus had to be smiling when he answered, «And what would you like me to do for you?» They said to him, «Grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory.» It’s a little better prayer than the last time in Luke 9, when they prayed to call down fire on a whole city and kill everybody. James and John have an interesting prayer life. You know, it’s amazing what grace does. Grace opens up the environment for you to look stupid, and then it adjusts us in our zeal, putting us on the straight and narrow. But that’s—Jesus invited these guys; he said, «Ask for whatever you want,» and that’s exactly what they’re doing. So in asking, he’s identifying something that’s in them and leading them into a real place of life.
So, okay, he says, «What would you like for me to do for you?» They said, «Grant that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory.» Jesus said to them, «You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?» They said to him, «We are able.» So, Jesus said to them, «You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized; but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.» When the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John because they didn’t think of it first.
Jesus called them to himself and said to them, «You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles—Gentiles in this context is synonymous with unbelievers—lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever of you desires to be first shall be the slave of all; for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.»
Well, I think one of the most mind-boggling stories in the Bible is where Jesus comes to serve the 12 disciples and humanity in general. He comes as the King of all glory but ministers to and serves people. It’s astonishing what happens through Jesus as he serves people, and we’re going to take a look at how that happens today. But first, I want to consider just a couple of thoughts here in this story.
First of all, «What do you want me to do for you?» They said, «Grant that we may sit on your right hand and on your left.» Jesus’s response—verse 38: «You don’t know what you’re asking.» I think it’s more common than we might think that we don’t have a clue about what we’re really asking for when we ask for big things because we’re actually asking for us to be changed. There are frequently times where we pray big prayers, and they’re important and in the will of God, but for us to survive the answer, he has to change us. All of God’s disciplines are so that we can survive his blessings. Amen? He says, «Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?» Interesting analogies there because in both situations he says in Luke 12, verse 50, «I am distressed over the baptism that I am going to be baptized in.» He’s obviously not referring to water baptism; he’s talking about this distress called the crucifixion, a baptism into death. He’s asking the disciples, «Do you have a clue what you’re asking for? Can you drink the cup that I drink?»
If you remember in three of the gospels, Jesus prays to the Father and asks if it might be possible to remove the cup—the cup of suffering—from him. Then he says, «Not my will but yours.» There’s this one passage in Luke 22 where he actually addresses this that I wanted to read to you. He says, «He came, as his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. When he arrived, he prayed. He told his disciples, 'Pray that you may not enter into temptation.'» If things are tempting to you that shouldn’t be, get into the prayer closet because that’s where victory is. Just increase your prayer life; it’s not that complicated. Just get before God, and let his countenance, let his presence shift and recalibrate the values of the heart. It’s that simple. If things from—if things are tempting, they’re trying to lure you into an inferior reality—which is what sin is—if that’s appealing, then get into the presence because he’ll recalibrate your values. Pray that you may not enter into temptation.
He withdrew from them a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, saying, «Father, if you’re willing, remove this cup from me.» So when he told the disciples, «Are you able to drink the cup I’m going to drink?» they said, «Yes.» This is the cup he’s referring to. He says, «Remove it from me; yet, not my will, but yours.» An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. That always impacts me because it reminds me how Jesus chose to live with limitations and restrictions as a human being.
If he is there as Eternal God with all the strength that God himself has, then he does not need an angel to come and minister to him. He is eternally God, but he chose to live with the restraints and restrictions of a human being that is dependent upon God. Because of that, God sent an angel. Why didn’t God come himself? Why didn’t the Father draw near himself and minister to Jesus? It’s because he created everything with a purpose, and he will not violate the purpose of his creation by doing something in their place. That angel had the assignment to minister strength, and the Father is not going to replace that angel’s assignment with his own. Amen?
When Gabriel made the announcement to Mary that she was going to bear the Christ child, how many of you know the Father could have just as easily done that? But he created Gabriel with a specific responsibility of making proclamations, and the Father was not going to violate that purpose. Why? Because every one of us finds our identity in standing in our purpose—the reason we are alive. There’s something reaffirming; there’s something strengthening to us when we recognize who God says we are and we stand firmly in that. It’s affirmation on steroids!
An angel appeared to him, strengthening him. Verse 44, being in agony, he was praying fervently. His sweat became like drops of blood falling down on the ground. When he arose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, and he asked them, «Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you won’t enter into temptation.»
Here are two phrases I want to highlight before we move back to our primary text. The disciples—excuse me, Jesus—being in agony prayed fervently; the disciples fell asleep from sorrow. We all have different ways that we try to avoid pain. Some try to eat it away; some try to sleep it away; some spend money to take care of it, buy things. There are many things we do to avoid pain.
I heard on a talk show many years ago a psychologist discussing that he felt the majority of cases of insanity actually started with a person trying to avoid pain. Here is Jesus’s reaction to agony: he prayed fervently. More fervently. The disciples' reaction to pain was to sleep. It’s interesting that Peter and all the disciples rose up and denied Jesus, but Jesus gave them a chance to make it around that temptation and actually succeed. He gave them instruction; he said, «Pray that you won’t enter into temptation.» There’s something that happens in the presence of the Lord where things get reestablished and recalibrated. Some things that would normally appeal to us lose their appeal in his presence.
So Jesus gives them very practical and very powerful instruction. Back to the text here in Mark chapter 10: he says, «Grant us that we may sit on your right hand and your left.» He says, «You don’t know what you’re asking for. Are you able to drink the cup? Are you able to experience my baptism?» What’s the point? The disciples were looking for promotion. They believed that Jesus was the King. He is kind of the cure-all. I mean, he multiplies food when there’s a need for food; he heals people’s bodies; he walks on water to get through storms. There isn’t a problem that is an obstacle for him displaying the purposes and will of God, which is wonderful.
So the disciples realize he is the answer for the nation, and they’re rallying around him, expecting an earthly kingdom to be established. They’re looking; they’ve seen the crowds, they’ve seen the popularity, and they’re positioning themselves for key positions in that kingdom. They’re asking for promotion, and Jesus just underscores one of the most profound lessons on promotion: promotion is connected to our ability to suffer. It’s what we do with problems. It’s what we do with difficulty.
Now I need to caution you because there are many who will take any form of suffering and assume it’s sent from God to teach us a lesson. Sickness is not the suffering that is talked about—torment of the mind, demonic torment—is not the suffering we’re talking about. The suffering that Jesus had, that every believer must share, is the suffering for living righteously. I love the promises of God: «Delight yourself in the Lord; he’ll give you the desires of your heart.» There’s another promise you might want to put on your refrigerator: «All who live righteously will suffer persecution.»
What’s the point? The point is, when you live for God, sometimes you are immediately blessed and prospered, and sometimes there is great conflict and turmoil because you’ve said yes to the Lord. Now let me just put a word of caution here: I see many people suffer, and they act like martyrs, but they’re suffering because they were stupid. You don’t get any points for being stupid! If you make stupid decisions and you suffer, you don’t get points. Let’s just help you get through it, you know; repent for being stupid and let’s get you through it.
But don’t be the martyr! Come on! I’ll talk to this side over here: don’t act like a martyr! What happens in every move of God is we’re learning. Jesus was perfect and he suffered; how much more will those of us who are horribly imperfect suffer when we attempt to live righteously? There’s conflict, there’s opposition, even opposition within the family when God begins to do a new thing. Those who experienced the last move almost always rise up in opposition to it. How you handle those moments determines what level of promotion you will have.
So when Jesus asked the question, «Can you drink the cup? Can you receive the baptism?» he’s referring to how you’ll handle the stuff that doesn’t make any sense to you; it doesn’t line up with all the promises you’ve embraced, with all the confessions you’re making. It doesn’t seem to make any sense, and yet it is a part of this thing called the kingdom. Even in Mark 10, which we’re in now, earlier in the chapter, Jesus makes this statement to the disciples about finances. He’s teaching them how hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom, and then he says when Peter says, «We left everything to follow you,» he says, «Okay, and I’m going to add a hundred times as much back into your life.»
Poverty is not kingdom, but wealth that makes me independent from God is also not kingdom. Yeah, come on! So Jesus makes this statement; he says, «I will add back into your life a hundred times what you left, what you sacrificed,» and he adds one more phrase: «with persecutions.» That helps us to remember it’s in this life—not heaven! Come on! There’s the reminder that there’s going to be opposition to your progress!
How do you handle that? The way you handle that opposition, the grace that you live with, determines how much more weight of blessing and glory you can live under, that you can carry. Alright, let’s go quickly to John chapter 13, and we’ll get to the primary text I want to look at this morning. John 13, you guys alright?
John 13, we’ll start with verse 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, «Lord, are you washing my feet?» Jesus answered and said to him, «What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.» Peter said to him, «You shall never wash my feet!» Jesus answered him, «If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.» Simon Peter said to him, «Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head.»
There are two verses I want to concentrate on: it’s verse 3 and 4, so if you look at it again, please. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself. This is an astonishing passage to me for a number of reasons. One of the huge mysteries is Jesus is eternally God, but he’s also operating 100% as man. That’s the great mystery; I don’t know if anyone can ever comprehend it or certainly even attempt to explain it well. But Jesus is eternally God, and he’s chosen to live with the restrictions of man. So when did he know he was the Son of God? Was that awareness something he had at infancy, at birth, or at conception? Was it something he became aware of in time? I don’t know, but I do know when the Holy Spirit inspired the Gospel of John, he emphasized a particular statement in the third verse that rattles me. He says, «And Jesus knowing he came from God and was going back to God.»
So in other words, that’s what Jesus is aware of in this moment. What is he about to do? He’s about to put a towel over his arm, he’s about to wash the feet of his disciples. Here’s the King of all kings, the King of Glory—the one everyone is supposed to serve—and he’s now modeling what this kingdom is like. The top is actually the bottom in this kingdom; the greatest are actually the least. The one who empowers the others is the one who has the greatest influence. And the nature of this kingdom is being illustrated. They’ve seen it in words; they’ve seen people healed and delivered, but the heart of it all was never picked up by the disciples. I don’t think it’s until this moment that they were actually commissioned into their destiny when they allowed the one they didn’t even deserve to sit at the table with to actually wash their feet. It did something to recalibrate how life is supposed to be lived. Everything changes after this moment.
Wow! Everything changes! So what’s the context here? The context is Jesus knowing he’s going back to the Father; he came from the Father and was going back. In other words, Jesus is conscious that he is the Son of God, and he is returning to God. Being aware of that, he put a towel over his arm. One of the things we work hard on here in our school—in the school, of course, we have many days a week to pound this into people’s lives—but it’s this issue of identity in Christ. It’s fun to watch people step into this liberty, this freedom of knowing who they are in the Lord. There’s a certain confidence that arises, a willingness to take risks, and a whole bunch of other positive things that happen.
One of the things that happens that’s not so positive is that people sometimes, in their journey, become impressed with themselves, and they’re quick to start their intergalactic ministry—the Apostle of Apostles who will basically change first this universe and then move to the next one. It’s actually cute! I look at it, and I think it’s cute. It’s like the 8-year-old who gets a policeman’s outfit for Christmas, has a little plastic badge, a plastic gun, and drives his bike around the neighborhood pretending he’s a cop. That’s exactly what it’s like. It’s cute! Now you get a 30-year-old with a plastic badge—it’s not cute! But the 8-year-old? It’s cute! It’s part of the process—part of the process of learning who we really are. But the person who is infatuated with who they are has not yet seen him. Because once you see him, it not only increases your confidence in who you are; it makes you very unimpressed with who you are.
It’s a strange combination. It’s two sides of the same coin. It’s absolute, raw, brutal confidence and faith, but absolutely not infatuated or impressed by him. For years, we’ve been praying for people—all of us together—praying for the Father’s blessing. In fact, I was just with John Arnott this week, and of course, he was here a month ago. The Toronto blessing—the Toronto outpouring—was titled the Toronto Blessing by newspapers. When John found people calling it the Toronto Blessing, he retitled it the Father’s Blessing. As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t about Toronto and it wasn’t about their church; it was about what the Father was doing to reestablish identity in people.
And that really is the heart of the Lord. Jesus came to reveal the Father. Now think quickly here: Jesus came with an assignment; his primary assignment was to reveal the Father. Why? Because it’s a planet of orphans, and our whole sense of identity and purpose is regained in the revelation of God as our Father—not abusive, not distant, but incredibly interested in all the issues and affairs of life—fully involved, if you will. This revelation that Jesus brought to earth is to shift and change the way we perceive life, how we perceive ourselves, etc.
So oftentimes, we will pray for blessing—the Father’s blessing—over people. And it’s common for us when we pray to pray for that sense of identity, the whole sense of purpose and destiny. But I’ve been adding a fourth one for a number of years now, and I finally found a verse for it, so I felt pretty happy. I remember when my kids were small; I’d go in their rooms while they were sleeping at night and prophesy over them, lay hands on them, and I constantly prayed. I said, «God, give them a heart to know you.» It’s just a prayer, and I know it’s the will of God because it’s just the heart of God for everyone, but I didn’t have a chapter and verse for it.
Then one day, I was reading through Jeremiah and came to chapter 24, and there, the Lord said, «And I will give them a heart to know me.» I got so happy because I realized, «It’s a biblical prayer! It’s legal!» I get to pray this! So, I began to pray more fervently, knowing that I had Scripture behind me to pray that my entire family would have a heart to know God.
Well, I’ve been praying for people for this Father’s blessing for many years, and I pray God establish identity—true identity—in you—the kind that liberates, the kind that frees, the kind that empowers identity—but also let them see their purpose, why they’re on the planet. There’s no one in this room that if you saw who God made you to be, would ever want to be anyone else! This thing of purpose is so rich and so profound for every individual. There are no second-class citizens in the Kingdom; everyone gets to be involved in the purposes of God in the earth.
Your whole sense of identity, and that which makes you come alive, comes alive as we discover the purposes of God. The third one—destiny. This isn’t it; eternity is where we’re headed. Living for that is wisdom. We get to enjoy this life; I’m thankful for all the blessings of the Lord, the favor, the friends—all of that. But it is about eternity, and to lose sight of that is to really make a huge mistake.
But there’s a fourth area that I’ve been praying for years that I finally see is biblical, and it encouraged me greatly. I’ve also been praying, as I pray for people for the Father’s blessing, that God would give them an awareness of unlimited resources. Why? Because that’s how Jesus lived! You can see it in his life; there is no lack! When they need money for taxes, he gives the disciples instruction: «Go fishing,» and they find a gold coin in the fish’s mouth. The point is, they’re out of food; they have a multitude to feed. Jesus multiplies the food. Why? Because he’s connected to a world that has absolutely no lack!
But also not just no lack; it’s a world of extreme abundance! That is the world you’re connected to! I want you to look at this passage in John 13 again—verse 3: «Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself.» Jesus was conscious of two things before he put the towel over his arm and washed feet.
He was aware, number one, that he had access to unlimited resources. The Father had given all things into his hands. It’s more than a point of theology; Jesus lived conscious of unlimited resources! Wow! It includes money, but I’m not even talking about just money—that’s a part of the world. But it is so much bigger than that!
He lived aware of two things: number one, unlimited resources as a son; he had access to the Father’s kingdom. He says, «All things that the Father has is mine.» And I’m giving you all things! So technically, you and I have access to unlimited resources! Come on!
It starts as a truth that gets believed that we begin to burn for, and when we begin to burn for it, we start living in that place of accessing what we have legal right to. But the purpose of the unlimited resources is not for building personal kingdoms, and this is where the problem starts for us. James and John were interested in personal kingdom. The orphan heart can serve, but the orphan heart serves to gain identity by pleasing God. A son makes the best servant, because he serves from identity.
The son serves from a place of identity in the household of God, knowing everything the Father has is at his disposal in order to serve well. The whole purpose of serving for a son is different from the serving of a servant. The son serves with hope because he can see the future. The son serves because he’s building something, preparing something for the purposes of God in the earth, seeing that God has intentions, purposes, and plans that are yet unfolding. A son has that in mind when serving.
Obviously, when I use the word «son,» I’m referring to sons and daughters. When I talk about the Father’s blessing in a home, I’m referring to fathers and mothers; it’s not gender-specific. But here, something took place in Jesus’s life that he modeled as a man dependent on God. When he saw that he had unlimited resources and he was conscious that he came from the Father and was going back, that identity as the Son of God—when those two things were in place, he put a towel over his arm.
I can tell when people don’t quite get it yet because they’re fighting for honor. Wow! When you fight for honor, you can call it justice. We empower evil all the time with heart issues by giving them virtuous names. A real good one for jealousy, if you’ve not tried it, is just call it discernment! You’ll look real good! When you give a virtuous name over an issue of the heart, you empower that thing. Remember, it’s the honesty before God that brings the power to leave a sin habit. The power is given with absolute honesty to confess, and in the confession is the power to forsake.
But when I call it something other than what it is, I’m actually toying with God as though I could justify my own issues of the heart. There are many who work hard for self-promotion; they call it justice because they’re going off of what the Bible says about their promotion, and they fight for self-promotion. But it’s actually an orphan’s heart—an orphan’s heart fighting for recognition because they do that recognition. It’s justice! Whatever you gain through self-promotion you have to keep alive through self-promotion. It’s a lot of work—it’s exhausting!
But whatever you gain through his promotion, he sustains! The real issue here in serving is sons and daughters versus orphans. I would guess that probably every one of us in this room has dealt with this issue and will continue to deal with it, as the Lord is working to build sonship in us—that authentic sense of identity with a father who is more generous than we have brain cells to comprehend.
His heart for you—if you’re interested, if it matters to you, it matters to him! His personal involvement in the details of life is beyond comprehension! Joyfully so! He delights in being involved in the day-to-day! It’s not yet entered our minds what kind of Father he is, and yet this father is longing for you and me to see what he’s like—and in that countenance to see our place, because they’ll never leave impressed with ourselves, but will leave with extreme confidence to serve well.
Imagine this! This passage in 3rd John, verse 2, is a passage we quote often: «That you would prosper"—that’s economic—and be in good health—that’s obvious physical health. Prosper, being in good health, even as your soul prospers! If you had a billion dollars in your bank account, would you walk by someone with $100 needing money and not help them? I would hope not! If you would, you need to reevaluate your relationship with the Lord!
It’s not yet occurred to us what we have access to! So imagine this: what would it be like if you had a prosperous soul—that’s mental and emotional strength—equal to a billion dollars? You had a prosperous soul that was equal in the spirit realm to Bill Gates' finances in the natural! What kind of services would we have as we gathered together week after week if people just had too much? See, I think it’s what Paul was talking about when he said, «Every one of you, when you come together, come with a song, come with a scripture, come with something to give to somebody else.» Why? Because you got too much! You got too much!
The whole concept we’re coming together to be fed—I believe in feeding from the word; we need that. It’s God’s heart for us. But there are times when our spiritual immaturity is promoted as spiritual maturity. Sometimes we’re taking our knives and forks to the table saying, «Feed us!» Jesus just shows us we’re the 8-year-old with a plastic badge thinking we’re someone when he says, «Listen, you have access to unlimited resources! If you knew it, you wouldn’t come making a demand; you’d be looking to serve!»
When Jesus saw who he was, and when Jesus saw what he had to give, the first thing he did was go to the bottom and wash feet. Wow! Come on! I know when I’ve met someone who has discovered who he is. Wow! And their richness in God because they’re not looking for recognition or promotion! They’re not asking to sit at the right hand and the left; they’re looking for a dirty job!
Wow! Some serve because they need identity. They serve, and they serve well, but you know, sometimes this is going to get a little off subject here, but orphans make great leaders! Yeah! Because they like to be in charge; they like to be in control. Leading as a son is different from leading as an orphan! Come on! Sometimes when you lead as a son—well, here’s the deal: you rule with the heart of a servant and you serve with the heart of a king.
You rule with the heart of a servant because you know what you have access to is for the benefit of others, and you serve with the heart of a king—meaning I’ve been placed into people’s lives as royalty. But because I’m there to serve, it’s going to make it easier for them to receive what I have that can empower them and release them into their destiny.
See, when you serve with the heart of a king, you’re looking for the royalty in others that they don’t see in themselves. Yes! Chris, the whole prophetic culture that’s been developed here is really based on this simple concept: looking for the gold in people and calling it to the surface. This is what sons do; this is what daughters do. They’re not interested in building a system whereby they receive the accolades, they receive the attention, they receive the glory. Instead, they realize they have access to everything!
Yeah! Everything! Everything that could ever be needed by any person around them. Now here’s the challenge: there’s a difference between what’s in my account and what’s in my possession! The entire Christian life is learning how to take hold of what God has put in our account and bring it into our possession so that as we lay hands on this person, as we prophesy, as we serve in this situation, something actually happens to affect eternity!
Jesus, being aware that all things had been given to him and that he had come from the Father and was going back to the Father, took a towel. If I could put it this way, he was conscious of the Father’s favor and the Father’s blessing, and the evidence of that was profound service. It’s stunning to me how the disciples got completely recalibrated in this one act. Because up until this point, they thought everything was around this King being served, and he broke all protocol. He broke all awareness they had of how you treat royalty and how you treat leaders.
There’s still the revering; there’s still the respect; there’s still the worship. But the most humbling thing they probably ever experienced was to let the one they were born to serve actually serve them. You and I have this incredible privilege of introducing people to the authentic gospel. It’s not by locking horns with them; it’s not by correcting their lifestyle. I believe there’s a role for confrontation and all that sort of stuff, so don’t mishear me.
But so much of what’s tried in reaching out to people and touching the world just drives people farther away from the servant King who came to wash feet. I think anything that we offer him—the simplest act, giving money to help somebody, helping somebody move—it’s whatever it is! It’s just the stuff that we do as people. Anytime we do it as unto the Lord, it attracts his presence because fire always falls on sacrifice.
We have this incredible privilege of filling our city with servants! See, the world has seen servants, but they don’t know about royal servants, and they don’t know about servants who are driven by hope! Wow! Come on! They know nothing about servants driven by hope because they can see what God purposes in the earth, and they’re sewing into what God has purposed.
Wow! Come on! I think that’s about it. Why don’t you stand? Good! By the way, Georgian and Winnie are here tonight! That’s going to be—you may want to bring a crash helmet to church for tonight! I put on my Instagram that you were Mr. Joy on steroids! That’s Georgian! That will be tonight!
But I want to pray over all of us. In some ways, it’s kind of ironic to talk to you about serving because you serve so well. Here’s what I want: I want to see the body serve as sons and daughters, not as orphans looking for something to affirm themselves with. I feel like the Lord is helping us with that; he’s helping to identify those places in the heart that are so prone to self-promotion and all the stuff—all the stuff that we give virtuous names to.
I don’t—you never look at somebody who is caught up in an orphan’s heart and blame them or tell them to repent or whatever. I mean, it’s not about that; it’s just simply about them realizing who Jesus says they are. And no one who sees that ever has a problem serving.
So Father, let there be a whole new understanding. In fact, here’s what I pray: I ask, Lord, that you would cause there to be divine encounters even in the night as people sleep. You would draw near to us; you’d instruct us in the night. You would arrange unusual encounters during the day—things that just reaffirm who you say we are and that we could see clearly who you are and that our place is in you and that all things are at our disposal, for you didn’t make a mistake when you said all things were at our disposal because you meant for us to serve so well, so effectively, empower so many people into their identity, their purpose.
So I pray for that; I pray that it would be a contagious thing across our city, that our city would have an awareness of being a city loved by a Father—a perfect Father, a Father who delights in us. I ask for this in Jesus' name.