Bill Johnson - How to Encounter God Through Worship (02/05/2026)
Bill Johnson opens with light-hearted jokes before diving into worship as our core calling. Drawing from Mark 14's story of the woman pouring costly perfume on Jesus, he highlights extravagant worship that Jesus defends and memorializes forever, contrasting it with Judas's criticism and betrayal, showing how true adoration transforms us and forces decisions around power and surrender.
Jokes to Wake Up the Room and Transition to Worship
Yeah, good morning, good morning. Nice to see you. I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad you're here. By replacing your morning coffee with green tea, you can lose up to 87% of what little joy you still had left in your life. I wish my siblings would stop calling me spoiled just because I'm the baby in the family. The fact is, my parents kept having children until they found one they liked. My favorite part of the fall is when the mosquitoes go back to hell. A lady at the gym asked me why I was sitting still on a stationary bike. I said, ma'am, I'm going downhill. What about yourself? All right, that's enough, that's enough, all right. Grab your Bibles.
We're going to take me a few minutes to get there, but we're going to start with Mark chapter 14. And I suppose in honor of the fact that we're celebrating Brian and Jenn, Bethel Music, and all of that today, but also the worship school this week. I guess we've got like twice as many students as we've ever had. We've got like every overflow room filled. So there's just a mark of God on something.
The Privilege of Worship in Our Generation
And so I want to talk to you about worship, but here's what I want to do. And sometimes I think we're too familiar with some subjects. I'm thankful for a worship culture that has been developed. I was here 54 years ago, and my parents said yes to the call of God for worship. That it was not an add-on. It was not a warm-up to a message. It was actually a reason for being.
And I'll never forget that period of time where my dad began to open the scriptures to us to teach us about this incredible privilege we have to minister to God. See, in Exodus 19, verse 6, it says, you shall be a kingdom of priests, pointing to the future. Isaiah 61 says, you shall be a kingdom of priests. But when it comes to Peter, 1 Peter 2, verse 9, it says, you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
It was like all the hundreds of years, there was a pointing of the finger to the future, to a moment when something would happen that would qualify a generation of people to actually minister to the Lord. It was different than anything they'd ever known before. The only thing remotely similar and profoundly similar was what David broke into in the tabernacle of David. Leave that for another time.
The History of Worship at Bethel and Early Opposition
But in this season, I remember my dad and my mom and the group of people here, it was about 1971, could have been late 70s, and the yes to give ourselves to worship. I remember the opposition. It's crazy now because there's such a strong culture in the church, which I'm thankful for. There's not a problem with the worship culture. But a side thing that happens sometimes as we end up worshiping worship instead of the one.
So we're going to talk of that. So we just do stupid things as we're learning. So I'm good with it. It's just part of the process. But we get excited over the person who's leading, the songs that are being sung, the room that we're in, the people that we're with. All of that is a part of it. But what the Lord is constantly doing is refining us to the face-to-face moment where there's an encounter with the Almighty God where we actually minister to Him.
And I'll never forget that journey that I watched my parents go on. I remember the church actually split. If you can imagine a sanctuary that seated 600 people and the Sunday after everybody left, there was like 65 people in the room in a sanctuary that seated 600. But there was a freshness in the room. There was a presence. And from there it began to increase and explode until there's multiple services.
Songs About God vs. Singing to God
But the point was, one of the main points of contention was the subject of worship. People enjoyed singing songs about God but didn't want to sing to Him. They liked singing songs about theology but not actually the practice and the engagement with God over these issues. And so I watched that journey and made that commitment to myself.
I've told the story a number of times where I remember my dad teaching out of the book of Ezekiel on ministry in the inner court and the outer court. And I remember at the end of, I think it was the third week, I bowed my head and I was sitting back several rows on the edge, on the end. And I bowed my head. I said, God, I give you the rest of my life to teach me this one thing. Just teach me this one thing. What is it like to minister to you?
Two Unqualified Women and Profound Worship
Since then, I have found so many different stories and experiences throughout Scripture. But two, I want to make reference to. One, I'll reference. The second one we'll read. It's in Mark 14. The first one that I'll reference is this engagement that Jesus had with a Samaritan woman. So she's not a Jew. So she's outside of God's initial plan, not ultimate plan. All Gentiles were included in the ultimate plan.
But in this moment where he's supposed to give himself to the Jew, he has this conversation with a woman at a well. And come to find out, she's been married five times and is now living with the sixth. And she's not married yet. And she gives what I consider to be the most profound revelation on worship in the Bible to an unqualified woman. Not a Jew. Not living right at all.
The second story is with the woman that Luke calls a sinner. She had a pretty rough life. And she took an alabaster vial, a container that had to be broken to be opened. And it contained a very special ointment, years' worth of wages. So let's just, for illustration's sake, $50,000 worth of perfume.
Extravagant Act of Adoration
And she took that and she came into a house uninvited. She was so compelled with adoration and affection for the one that she came, she broke the vial, she poured it over his head, over his feet, she wiped it in with her tears. I think it's Luke's gospel that says she kissed Jesus' feet over and over and over again. The tears, she would wipe the tears and the fragrance into his feet with her hair.
It was an absolute abandonment in worship. And what happened is there was such a reaction in the room to what she was doing. And extravagant worship always dials up stuff that's in existence. Things that are in people's hearts that they don't even know is there come to the surface when there's extravagance in worship.
And by the way, this incredible offering that she gave to the Lord reminds us that when there's real worship, there's never a lack of funds. Because generosity is a very natural expression to those who have seen the one and care only for touching his heart.
Jesus Defends the Worshiper (Mark 14)
So here she is. She pours this ointment all over Jesus and there was an outrage in the room led by Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. He was the one who was the most vocal in John's gospel, I think it is chapter 12, says that he was outraged because he said this could have been sold and the money given to the poor.
But he was outraged because he was a thief and he was taking care of the money box of the offerings that would come in for Jesus' ministry and he would steal money out of that box. Why would Jesus put him in charge of the money? I don't... It's not like him to tempt. It's not like him to cause people to fall. It is like him to give people an opportunity to rise above their weakness. And he spotted something in Judas and he needed a chance to be victorious. Over his three and a half years, he's the one who blew the opportunity. But he was given the opportunity.
In this story, we find this woman. In fact, I want you... Let's just do Mark 14. Let's read this now. So we've got a woman who is a sinner and we've got the woman at the well, Samaritan. Two very unqualified people. And the greatest revelation of worship was given to one and the greatest expression of worship came through another.
No One Is Disqualified from Worship
Maybe one point that we ought to make here is that this only goes to prove no one's disqualified. Thank you. That was an expression of faith on your part, I know. No one is disqualified. Something took place in the hearts of these two people through worship.
I want to emphasize something as we move on in this. We are transformed. Discipline is important. Reading the word, studying the scripture is vital. But nothing can replace encounters with his face in the glory. We are more transformed in the glory. We're more transformed in five minutes in the glory than five days working out our stuff outside of the glory. Five years. We are transformed in the glory.
The Bible says, when we see him, we will become like him. It also teaches, as we see him, we become like him. There's something about worship that clarifies our perspective on everything else in life.
Worship Is Not Just a Song
Worship is not a song. Worship is not a song. Worship can be manifest in a song, and often is. Why? Because we're to love him with all of our soul. And there is no expression among mankind that more touches the soul than the expression of music. Music is used to bring all of our inner world out to the front where we get to worship him in spirit, Holy Spirit-led, and in truth, nothing hidden.
In that place, we stand bare but hungry and open before this one who has the capacity and ability to continuously change and transform. So here in this story, verse 3, And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask, a very costly oil of spikenard. And she broke the flask and poured it on his head.
But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply. Jesus said, Let her alone. Jesus always defends the worshiper. Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me.
Seizing Divine Moments
You have the poor with you always. Whenever you wish, you may do them good. But me, you do not always have. Which reminds me, not every divine moment is repeatable. Sometimes you only get chances once. And that's not to make you regretful of your past. It's to make you humble for the future. That we take advantage of the moments that he gives us.
She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.
This story is remarkable to me in so many ways. But one is the fact... It's the only time I know of. And if you know of another time, please point it out to me. It's the only time that I know of where Jesus told someone that what they did will be included in the gospel message everywhere it's preached.
It's the only time I know of where anything God took note of and said, oh, let's include this in the message. Think about that. An action of abandonment in worship. What others considered wasteful became at the core of the gospel message. Wherever this message is told, this story will be told.
The Memorial in Heaven and the Reaction on Earth
I think every born-again person in this room, when we come into heaven, will have the opportunity to sit down with this woman and ask her, honestly, what was it like? What was it like? What were you thinking? What were you feeling? What happened? It's one of those unusual, seemingly insignificant moments that got marked by heaven as a most significant moment.
This story I've read and taught on for, you know, I've been doing this for 50 years. So it's many times, but I have to confess to you that every single time I have read this story or every single time I have attempted to teach on this particular story, I've stopped with verse 9. This will be told as a memorial to her. And I failed to do verse 10 and 11.
So today I want you to look at verse 10. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went to the chief priest to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
They criticized her sharply. Judas led the choir of criticism against this woman for extravagance. And when that moment was over is when he received inspiration to betray.
Power and Tenderness Force Decisions
See, there's a few things about this life that you and I have been called to. And sometimes we shy away from them because of the repercussions. But I want to encourage you strongly. And I'm going to emphasize one, mention another. Power always forces people to a decision.
As long as you live a nice, moral, upright life, you help the poor, you do nice things for your neighbors, people applaud your faith. But when you start moving in power and you see demons cast out and you see broken limbs healed and you see blind eyes open, then stories start spreading around you.
As you know by experience in this house, people began to think that it must be some sort of a cult. When the power of God is absent from the church for so long, when he finally shows up, people think it's the devil. Power brings stuff to the surface.
Don't be a martyr of this now. Just this is the reality is that power forces a decision. When things come to the surface that you cannot understand, you cannot explain, you have no control of. And what religion does is that religion trains people in control. Kingdom trains people in surrender.
And what real worship is, is worship is the lifestyle of surrender. It's not a song. It may include one. It's the fact that I'm coming into a place where it's face to face.
Progression: Thanksgiving, Praise, Worship
It's easy to dance around the subject. I love the whole process. Thanksgiving, praise, worship. Thanksgiving is our response to the acts of God. Praise is our response to his ways. It says of Israel in the book of Psalms, it says Israel was acquainted with the acts of God. Moses was acquainted with his ways.
There's a progression in this relationship we have with the Lord. Israel was able to say, hey, water came out of the rock. Israel was able to say that manna appeared on the ground. But it was Moses who caught sight of the very nature and person of God.
Praise takes you beyond the works of God. In Thanksgiving, we thank God for healing our body and providing for us. But in praise, you are the provider. You can't help but provide. It's your nature to provide. You are the one who sustains life. God, I honor you. You are the one who provides for me. You provide breath. You provide strength. You provide life. You provide finances. You provide food. You provide favor, opportunity. You are the provider. You can't help but provide.
It's moving beyond the thankfulness for the manna on the ground. It's pressing into a discovery of who this one is that has actually called us to himself. And praise is one of those tools.
The Sacrifice Beyond Convenience
But in Thanksgiving and praise, what we do, our raised hands, our shout, our dance, or whatever it might be, those are all a part of the offering. Those are the offering that we give to God. But you'll never see the phrase, sacrifice of worship. Or sacrifice of Thanksgiving, sacrifice of praise. And that's why it doesn't happen quite as often as we think. That's not for shame. That's just an invitation.
It's all about the one-on-one. There may be a great song being played as we have all the time, which helped me. Gives me words and lyrics and concepts and focuses and helps me to think more clearly. And the music itself is a tool, an instrument that awakens me inside to who he is and what he's like and draws me into this place where I'm almost like one of the instruments, if you will, that is contributing to this song that's rising up to the glory of God.
What an incredible privilege that we have to do what we do. But it's because I was born for this.
Love Because He Loved First
You see, the woman takes the vial and she pours it all over Jesus. She only did that because he loved her first. Please catch this. I love him, but only because he loved me first. He actually equipped me with the capacity to honor him.
So when she pours out the ointment all over Jesus, it was only because he was already ready to break the alabaster vial of his own flesh and pour out his blood all over her. She could only do what he was already doing for her. See, that's why it's an expression of love. It's not earning favor.
The revelation of God in John 4 about worship is that God looks for worshipers. He doesn't look for worship. He's not an egotist in need of my affirmation. He's not needing somebody to, you know, work public relations for him while people are angry on planet Earth. That's not him. He's the almighty God.
So why would he want me to be a worshiper? Because he looks for worshipers, not worship. It's because he loves me. So how then does wanting me to be a worshiper, how does that manifest his love? It's because we become like whatever we worship.
He could want nothing more for me. Love could want nothing better for me than for me to have continuous transformation into his likeness. That's love. And worship is the process where I get to actually attend to him. I get to minister to him.
Extravagant Worship Reveals Hearts
And it's amazing what extravagant worship brings out in people. Power forces a decision. But so does overwhelming tenderness to the Spirit of God. You know, when the glory of God showed up in Solomon's dedication and people found themselves on their faces before God, you didn't see Solomon with a microphone saying, I think it would be appropriate for us to kneel. Everybody looked for a place to hide because the glory came.
Old covenants don't provide superior blessings. What Jesus has gifted you and me with is the privilege to come face to face to do what I was actually designed for. Because he loved me, he created in me the capacity to love him in like return.
A newborn child comes and we just adore that child. It's funny what an adult will do looking at an infant. We say words that are tongues, basically. But you just, you know, you look at that child. You're newborn. It doesn't matter if it's the first or the tenth. You just can't figure out how you can love someone so much. The adoration, the affection, the burning of the heart that takes place. That is the expression of worship.
Adoration and the Mind in Worship
That's what the Lord is awakening in every child of God to draw near and adore. Something happens in the adoration of who he is. Many people are afraid to try that because they're not sure how he's going to respond. We'd rather dance around the outside and give him thanks, give him praise, shout, dance, do all the things.
But did you know you can only dance before him because he first danced over you? It's in Lamentations 3. He exults over you with joy. It's a word that means twisting and turning. He leaps in the air with joy over you.
See, all of this thing called love that we come before him, love with all of our heart, soul, and mind, the mind is an important part of our ministry to him. It's where we think. I love praying in the spirit. I love praying with the understanding.
I remember doing an experiment once in Weaverville. We had a Friday night prayer meeting, which was really a significant part of what formed our Sunday life. And sometimes there would be one or two or three people, sometimes 10 or 12, until the last year. Then it was 40 and 50, and that was fun.
Exhausting Understanding to Receive More
But I remember this one particular meeting. It was like 10 people there. And I was leading the meeting. And I said, listen, we had been worshiping for a while. And I said, listen, I want each of you to take one aspect of God's nature. Just take one part of his nature. And so somebody would take his love. Someone would take his power. Someone would take his patience. Someone would take his intensity or whatever it might be. And every person took a different one.
And I said, all right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to praise God. And I don't want you to pray in tongues. As important as that is, for this exercise, only use your brain. Only use your understanding. And I want you to think about his love. And I want you to express everything that you can think of. Anything and everything you can think of in praise. And give it as a verbal offering to him. To speak it to him.
And so everyone is in agreement. So we just said, all right, go. And it had to be out loud. I didn't want anyone to stand out, but I also didn't want that quiet in the heart stuff. I want it to be costly. We need to sacrifice. And that's a step beyond convenience.
So we did this for... I forget. We actually timed it. I think it was 10 or 12 minutes. I forget. So at the end of the 10 minutes, 12 minutes, I had everybody stop. And I asked each person the same question. I said, what happened to you?
And every person gave me the exact same answer. They said, I exhausted everything I knew about the love of God. I said, everything, you know, like every verse, everything they could think of about the love of God, they exhausted and ran out of things to say before the 10 minutes was up.
But when they had given everything, the Spirit of God came upon them and gave them new understanding. They let them see things they had never seen before. Why? Because He's a good steward. And He stewards to people who give. And they gave in praise their understanding of who He was. So He knew He could trust them with greater insight.
Designed as Instruments of Worship
Worship, one of the words for worship means to kiss. And so it actually implies this one-on-one, very tender, affectionate response to God Himself. And it's actually what you were designed for.
If you can imagine, we would never take a saxophone and hammer a nail into a board. You know, we would never... Well, some of you might, but only on a really bad day. We would never take something of that nature. We would never take a chainsaw and try to hammer a nail into a board.
We know that there's design behind everything, which you can't have design without a designer. And you were designed as an instrument. Personality, gifting, voice, everything that you have was actually designed as an instrument of worship.
It doesn't mean there's not other things we don't do, but oftentimes, in fact, most of the time, the other things become the primary without ever touching what we were created for.
I love the corporate gathering. I look forward to us coming together every week. I love our teams. I love the music's written by not only our house, but all over the world, the incredible songs that assist us in expressing love for God. I love all of it. I look forward to sitting in that seat week after week after week being with you.
Corporate vs. Personal Worship
There's something about the corporate expression that helps me to explore the individual, unique expression at home by myself. There's something about the corporate experience, being with people, learning to recognize the atmosphere of heaven. I can experience the same thing at home, but a lot of folks don't have quite the courage to give themselves to that.
But I'll tell you, there's something about affection. There's something about adoration. Just to adore. Just to adore. It doesn't use a lot of words. It's just, I refuse to let all the inferior things capture my heart. I refuse to let all the other things drain my affection. I refuse to let the inferior capture my heart.
It may be just a moment. It may be, I wake up at three in the morning and don't know why, and I lay there for just that moment. I love you, God. Sometimes I'll lay there and I'll just start giving thanks for everything I can think of. Just giving them an offering.
There's something about activating that motor in me of affection and adoration of just getting that thing ignited to connect with Him. That's what I was born for.
Non-Worshipers Are Dangerous
Non-worshiping people are dangerous. See, Judas was a non-worshipper. And the ugliness that was in him surfaced in extravagant worship. Before Adam and Eve were made, created. Satan and a third of the angels were booted out of heaven because of worship.
Worship has always been the central theme. Again, it's not a music, it's not a song necessarily. It's a place of tenderness, of surrender, of affection. It's a place of connection with the heart of a perfect father who has never abused any of his kids. He has only poured out extravagant love. He has only drawn us into life. He can be trusted.
You were designed for this. You're a musical instrument created for the purpose of worship. So I pray that over you, over me.
I have felt for years, I've declared it many times, that I have felt where we're headed is we're going to see increased manifestation of the glory of God resting over the people of God. We've had it happen a number of times through the years. But I think it's going to increase.
I think it's all headed towards the manifested presence of Jesus resting upon his people. And I would never want to imply that we earn it. I would never want to imply that we can, you know, take steps one, two, and three, and four will happen. I would never want to do that.
Responsibility in Adoration
But I would want to say we have a responsibility. And a part of that responsibility is to be alive in our deep adoration and affection for Jesus where you can take just a moment sitting at a stoplight and just stop and just say, I love you.
There's something being trained and groomed in us. It gets to be more fully expressed in the corporate gathering, but it's in the day-to-day just turning my heart towards him. It's the privilege of being born again as I get born back into what I was designed for.
So, Father, I pray that for this family of believers. I'm so thankful for the yes of everybody in this room, of course, for Brian and Jenn, the whole crew that has led us for these years.
But I pray for us, the corporate anointing that would somehow impact our houses, our homes, our workplaces, our personal lives, our drives down the street, the simple things that seem to be so outside of anything professional, that in these moments we would join here and love you well.
I ask for that in Jesus' name.
I know that there's a high chance of there being people in the room that don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. You don't know what it is to be forgiven. You don't know what it is to be brought into God's family. You don't know what it is to experience what the Bible calls being born again.
And if there's anybody in the room that would say, that's me, I don't want to leave the building until I know I have found peace with God. If that's you, then I want you just to put a hand up where you are. And I'm just going to find you and make agreement with you. Just put your hand up really quickly because I want to give that moment.
This is the greatest moment of the day for anyone who comes to Jesus. I missed... Is there a hand right over here? Wonderful. Yes. Amen. Amen. Is there another one over here? Wonderful. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Anyone else? Anyone else?
All right, let me have all of you stand. All of you stand. And if you could hold your places, it really does help us. But I want to encourage ministry team. And I think there were two individuals at least that put your hand up to receive Jesus.
Do me and yourself a favor. Come right over. Oh, the banner's not up. Come right over here where these people are that have their hand up. And these are trusted friends. We want nothing from you except the privilege to pray for you and bless you.
So I'm going to ask you to come down to the front. The one over here, come on down to the front. And they will love on you and pray. Minister team, if you would also come down and get ready to pray for people. We're going to believe God for miracles. And then tonight is going to be an outrageous night. Thank you, Jesus.