A Year of Promise: Explore Your Promised Land - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

I really am provoked by promise I spent a lot of time thinking about praying about studying the scripture about this whole idea of coming more completely and fully into what God intended for us so I wanted to grab the opportunity to talk to you because of what I'm sensing for this next year I feel like the Lord set us up with promise he's drawing Us in to a hope-filled future with promise there's an inheritance that we can't earn but we can disqualify ourselves from good morning good morning nice to see you I saw this post

while back said people are telling me the Christmas trees Holly Ivy and mistletoe Are pagan I respond to them by saying yes I do celebrate one of the holiest days of the years by filling my house with the trophies of my defeated foe I just like that I like that so that's my new model right there must see that tree that's a trophy grab your bibles if you would open to the Book of Exodus I want to continue in a series I started two weeks ago and uh and hopefully uh do so today and uh

and next Sunday as well I've been really stirred for quite a few years over a particular story in the Bible I I reference it fairly often I guess and have taught on it some but I I felt um I felt to put some extra attention on the story and it's of Israel leaving Egypt going into the promised land the whole idea of God drawing us into our future through promises fascinates me his desire for me is greater than my desire for me his plans for me are greater than anything I could dream of or wish

for and it's not just what he has intended to do in heaven that's a given that's we know that's going to be beyond all we could comprehend but his intention for me in this life is even beyond what I have the intelligence to ask for or the faith to pray for that's his that's his heart for me that's his heart for you and this whole illustration of Israel leaving Egypt which represented sin so that they could come into an inheritance now an inheritance is when you receive something for free that somebody else paid a price

for it's not something you could earn but there are qualifications to The Inheritance God has always me measuring us let me put it this way he measures us to see how much he can trust us so that he can see how much he can entrust to us and that is all determined by my trust in him the target of this relational Journey that we have with the Lord is the issue of trust and as we start in Christ it starts off very simply we have an act of obedience we trust him and there's a breakthrough

but as we grow in the Lord sometimes the length between the promise and the Fulfillment is extended to see if we will switch who we're going to rely on who we're going to trust in and sometimes that impatience sometimes that mistrust that develops in our heart we start turning to Human Solutions instead of what God has actually promised to do and so this entire Journey that we have with the Lord is to measure and to uh to to measure to uh to see what we what we can carry responsibly everything for Israel in the wilderness

if we can go back to the story if if you're not familiar with the biblical story Israel a nation that was yet unformed in a sense were prisoners or slaves servants in Egypt they were treated very poorly very badly they were released when blood was put on the doorpost of the house house so it's a picture of us being set free from sin by the blood of Jesus being put over our own lives so they're released from that they come to the first body of water which is called the baptism of Moses represents water baptism

they go up through that before they can go through the pro into the promised land there's actually a second baptism if you will and it's a river and that baptism takes them into a land of possibility of Promise of fulfillment and the Lord's desire for you and for me is to be I I don't know I I I don't want to make this about um you know God is the God of Pleasure he is the god of delight he's the one who created us with such things with appetite that can be satisfied but I don't

want to ever make this about about becoming humanly perfect I want to make this about fulfilling my design my purpose for being uh the giftings that he gave me to fully walk in them in a responsible way in a way that glorifies God and strengthens me there's this desire that the Lord has for us that is really beyond anything that any of us could ask for to to for for many people in this room to be fulfilled in your gifting your purpose your calling would be a much greater blessing than inheriting 1010 million because it

brings a personal satisfaction that you can't get through what you would buy it's actually the Fulfillment I am alive for this reason and I just accomplished it and that's the promised land for us and Jesus Illustrated the promised land in a sense everywhere he walked everything that he did everything he said he was demonstrating the reality of a world that you and I get to live in the promised land is not a picture of Heaven it is a picture of a lifestyle living in the reality of the kingdom of God here and now he was

illustrating our inheritance and it's better than any of us have the intelligence or faith to pray for for Israel one of the things that dominated their Journey if you will was that the Lord himself was manifested in the middle of the encampment so how I don't know how many people there were let's just say there's a couple million people that left Egypt to go into the promised land so they are encamped in perfect order but they are always encamped around this Tabernacle and over this Tabernacle is the actual manifested presence of God a fire at

night and A Cloud by day everyone can see it continuously it's a 247 manifestation of the presence of God he told Israel he said my face my face is in the cloud but I did not let you see any form because I knew you to be an idolatrous people and you would create an image after what you saw so so the point is is he keeps intentionally he keeps some some things obscure because he knows what our weaknesses are he knows that we have a bent towards creating this form or this formula or this pattern

where we try to intercept God and figure out what his will is so that we can help him out and he he keeps certain things from us sometimes sometimes Clarity of perception is withheld from us because of what we'll do for it does that make any sense to you so he he gives this instruction or he gives this Insight if you will to the nation of Israel because they were they were a people well we've said it you've heard it a thousand times probably it was easy to get Israel out of Egypt it was harder

to get Egypt out of Israel they had this bent in them to turn towards idolatry towards all kinds of things and so that's what the journey was about to was to get them as free on the inside as they were on the outside so the center of their existence is the presence of God I want to remind you Genesis 1 from that point on is a continuous revelation of the presence of God intermingling with his people we see it with Adam in the garden God walked with him in the cool of the evening when God

created Eve I I think God was wanting to reveal an aspect of his own nature through Eve through a wife that he wouldn't be able to receive in any other way in any other relationship he was revealing more of himself in that relationship God doesn't bring people into our life because he's not enough he brings people into our life because he's so much and as a friend of mine says He blesses or afflicts us with the people we need I didn't say that that was not somebody else said that that's so here's Israel everything the

center of everything is the presence of God so we have Adam Eve cool of the evening we have Israel now in the in the midst of the uh encampment is the presence of God when we come to the New Testament we see Joseph is going to be married he's already in contract if we can use that term to be the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus she is pregnant he's thinking adultery he loves her enough to not want to embarrass her so he's wanting to do something privately and dismiss her from being his wife

an angel shows up and says Joseph this child is is from the spirit of God she has not had relations with any man this is not adulter do not be afraid to take her as your wife and then he says this for he will be called Emmanuel which means god with us so from the very beginning it was always about the presence of God with and among his people now here's here's the The Clincher for me Jesus dwelt Among Us so the Holy Spirit could dwell within us yes he took on flesh was the perfect

offering the only s suitable sacrifice for the destruction of the power of sin he became that Lamb of God without blemish without sin he paid the ultimate price which then qualifies us to be a people that are inhabited by the spirit of God that the Holy Spirit would actually make my body your body his Temple to live unconscious of that is to live very inferior to our design and our purpose when the Bible says when John 15:7 says abide in me and my word abides in you you'll ask whatever you want it'll be done all

the outcome is you will have impact on the course of world history that's a fairly significant invitation but the way you get there is abiding in Christ what is that living in the felt realization of the presence of God the Holy Spirit the scripture says is exactly like Jesus so in a sense Jesus himself lives within you through the Holy Spirit he is he is there to enable to empower to convict to direct to all those things that we see Jesus doing in the flesh he is in us to do the same to live unconscious

of the one who has given himself so completely to me to you is to Anchor my soul in the inferior to such a degree that it robs me of potential if you can imagine Israel in the wilderness forgetting the fire that's there at night forgetting the cloud that the most obvious thing that they've got going is that he is here if you can imagine developing such an anxiety or fear whatever it might be that they lose sight of of God's manifestation among them I I know it seems like it might be impossible to do that

but I remind you Israel started complaining about bread from Heaven A Creative Miracle literally a creative Miracle where God created Mana he created food to come down upon them as a nation that they would be fed wellfed and satisfied but even that creat ative Miracle became so old to them that they began to despise and complain the the dangerous thing for you and me is to become over familiar with him in fact Bobby Connor warned us years ago he says we've become overly familiar with a God we hardly know W and so this invitation in

this season it is a Christmas message believe it or not I mean have to twist it and pervert it but I'm I'm going to make it a Christmas mess no I don't Emmanuel God With Us that is the story of scripture and Jesus Illustrated that but I remind you again he dwelt among us as people so that the Holy Spirit could dwell within us and that was the target from day one let's take a look at this passage here in uh Exodus chapter 16 uh I'll just give you kind of a warning here um Israel

complained a lot I know you don't but you probably have relatives that will be visiting this week that do and so I'm just trying to equip you with enough insight and Truth to be able to help your family oh man I wish I could say I never complained all right um so Israel complained a lot and we're going to look at at a root cause for their really an Affliction of the heart so let's go down to verse two of chapter 16 then the whole Congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron

in the wilderness the children of Israel said to them oh that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat when we ate bread to the full for you have brought us out out into this Wilderness to kill this whole assembly with Hunger complaining distorts memory Wow have you read the story of Israel when they were slaves in Egypt there's no description of pots of meat there's no description of bread to the full there was only torment trial exacting fees all these things

were put upon them uh to humiliate and embarrass them as a nation as a people to diminish their awareness of God's intention over their life and yet when they began to complain as a nation when they saw their need versus the the situation that they were in they were face to face with their need needing food legitimate need their complaining actually perverts their perception of what what their actual life experience was life and death is created in the power of the tongue often times as Believers we create our own calamities by our decrees life and

death is in the power of the tongue we were created in image of God he spoke the worlds into being spoke and it became doesn't mean we create our own reality but when we join our voice with what he is saying the circumstances of our life adjust to our decrees and when we fill our hearts with complaining accusation those kinds of things we actually empower the enemy to steal from us I I've I've watched I've been able to measure it for years some people bring Calamity on themselves yes they're in a hard place but it

multiplies in severity through their conversation wow and then the crazy part of it is is that they then blame God for not answering or they blame the people around them for not seeing their need and responding to their condition now again this is not you but those other Christians you know they they need this they need this yeah I'm just here to serve so the complaining thing is actually it it's a it's a it's it's a cancer of language and in this particular story [Laughter] [Applause] I I just heard the prophet of Siri the prophet

of Siri just spoke that was awesome Siri you and I will talk later that's sorry that's funny verse four says then the Lord said to Moses behold I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not so just think through this God said now they're hungry here's a deal about complaining complaining usually represents a legitimate need but the method that is used in complaining to satisfy the need is a violation of

the lordship of Jesus say yeah usually complaining is an acknowledgement or or represents a legitimate need they're hungry they need food to live you'd be foolish to not think they didn't you know that they didn't have a right to expect God to provide for them the complaining part is a violation of the lordship of Jesus because I'm going to complain because I'm going to take responsibility for my need voice it in complaining because I don't trust that he is either willing or able to take care of what I need or there are people in my

life that are inhibiting what God wants to do and they're the problem it's a lordship issue complaining reveals a lordship issue and I'm so happy to say I've never done it actually I haven't in the last hour at at all at at all at all so here the Lord says I'm going to rain bread from Heaven picture picture you're in a place of hunger you've gone for a while without food you're crying out to God and God gives you this promise he says I'm going to rain down bread from Heaven to test you God is

about to test them with abundance some of you you I hear you praying oh God give me that test Bring It On Jesus test me with the bundles but here was the test they had to take as much as they needed for that day if they took enough Mana for the next day it was because they feared God would not provide the next day and if they took more than they needed for that one day it it spoiled it smelled it stunk and it was filled with worms I don't know how in the world it

got filled with worms but it did and so when they took more than it was necessary it was it's not that God is opposed to abundance is that he's opposed to us being our own Lord and the need to provide for myself beyond what God has required of me is an expression of fear what happens for every single one of us in this room anxiety shuts down our capacity to hear from God and to recognize him anxiety can and does eventually influence our own memories of our past so we see the anxiety thing manifested in

complaining with Israel we see it when they say oh you know we should have died when we had pots filled with meat and bread coming out our ears that that's when God should have just killed us they've perverted and distorted their own memory their own history with God and now they're in this place where they're going to be taken into an abundance of re bread reigning from Heaven I remind you later we find Israel actually complains about the Mana the creative miracle endless supply of food is complained about fear and anxiety just does weird things

to our perception of reality let's move on down verse 7 says and they shall see the glory of the Lord for he hears your complaints against the Lord move way over to verse uh no verse the last part of verse uh eight says your complaints are not against us but against the Lord last phrase of verse 10 the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud and then jump over to verse 18 when they measured it by omers He Who gathered much had nothing left over he who gathered little Had No Lack every man had

gathered according to each one's need and Moses said let no one leave any of it till morning not withstanding they did not heed Moses but some of them left part of it till morning and it bred worms and stank and Moses was angry with with them so the lordship uh issue was tested in lack so they complained and in abundance they gathered more than they needed the Lord the Lord is targeting something in you and in me and it's this issue of trust it's the issue of lordship when I lash out because something is not

working the way I think it should I may reason well they have done wrong to me but ultimately what I'm doing is I'm violating the one who is in charge of the situations of my life it doesn't mean that we don't give ourselves to try to help and to fix conflicts and problems in our life I I I I don't mean they're to be ignored I'm just saying complaining never brings healing there are Redemptive Solutions and complaining is not one of the options it's not in the tool belt of how to fix relationships you can

provoke someone you can motivate somebody but you can't heal someone through complaining chapter 17:2 says therefore the people contended with Moses and said give us water that we may drink Moses said to them why do you contend with me why do you tempt the Lord now that's interesting that for me to be in continuous contention with people complaining about people I'm actually tempting the Lord yep verse three and the people thirsted there for water and the people complained against Moses why is it you've brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children

and our livestock with thirst Moses cried out to the Lord what shall I do with this people I've never prayed that prayer I have never prayed that prayer I just wanted you to know I've never prayed that prayer what shall I do with this people it's was such a great prayer this this is just a fascinating Journey that to me represents a whole bunch of our walk with the Lord and our walk with each other to learn how to do so uh tenderly and respectfully is just a significant part of life it would be better

that I achieve little in harmony than I achieve much through conflict jump all the way down to verse six I will stand before you there on a rock and horb you shall strike the rock water will come out of it the people may drink Moses did so in the sight of the Elders of Israel now here's our key verse verse 7 and he called the name of the place MSA and merbah because the contention of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying is the Lord among us or not I don't know

if you if you recognize the severity of This Moment The Passion of the Lord is to manifest and dwell among his people from day one we see that as the desire of the Lord the cool of the evening with Adam in the garden all the way through scripture New Testament Jesus comes dwells Among Us that the spirit of God could live within us The Passion of God is to be at one with his people with his creation and here we have a situation where God is visibly manifested in the middle of the camp 247 how

is it you can become so familiar with that manifestation that you question whether God is here how is it that we can become so familiar and Israel became so familiar with the miracle of provision that they began to despise the Mana that rained down and in this this uh passage they tempted God to tempt is to try to lure into evil they tempted the Lord by saying is God really here it reminds me of what Gideon did he's standing before the angel of the Lord the angel of the Lord's talking to him about the call

of God on his life and Gideon's response is well if God's really with us then why are all these bad things happening you know so he he's got this he doesn't realize he's talking to the almighty God you know through this representative Angel and he's he's he's he's got these unreasonable uh issues and questions but God patiently brings him through but here in this situation Israel is questioning whether God is there that's what anxiety does anxiety turns my awareness the affection of my heart from the lifegiving presence of the spirit of God to the death-giving

presence of a conflict that I'm facing the anchor of my soul turns from the Holy Spirit himself self to this difficulty this challenge this problem this place where I need a miracle legitimate need most all of the complaints represented a legitimate need we need water we need thirst uh food we need protection we need all these things the complaints represented legitimate needs but they had to leave the awareness of the of the God of all promise to make those complaints and I I I I fear that often times as people we we create our own

realities through complaining through criticism uh by the way merry Christmas just just want to keep this as festive as I possibly can Mar so I forgot to say that in the last 10 minutes so here we go Merry Christmas boy isn't this going to be a great week yes amen [Applause] yeah yeah just about killed you and then Proverbs talks about the the influence of a good word that it brings such healing and refreshing to a person's life person's heart Ephesians 4 says let no un wholesome word proceed from your mouth but only such a

word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment that it might give Grace to those who hear I don't know if you've ever thought about that verse but when you've determined to speak encouraging words you actually have the incredible privilege of imparting parting the grace of God into another person's life come on but complaining does the opposite complaining towards people actually has the potential of damaging their own awareness of who God made them to be cause them to question their own whether or not God has actually called them or forgiven them

or healed them or whatever and the problem the conflict may be real and may be legitimate it's just that complaining doesn't fix and in this situation Israel had fallen so deep as a nation that they had lost the awareness of the of the obvious can we say the elephant in the room they lost the awareness that God is there as a fire by night and A Cloud by day they lost awareness of the most obvious thing about their life from the beginning the Lord designed our life to be literally wrapped around this engagement with his

presence not instead of people because I'm I'm seeing that the Lord has just made us he's made us rich with people and he he manifests so uniquely and differently and so personally through other people that are in my life that I need so much but the quickest way to destroy the gift that God has has given you is the finger of accusation and the spirit of complaining and Israel did that to the point they despised the creative Miracle of daily provision and they forgot all about the God who made himself known among them so what's

the solution the solution first of all is that we guard our hearts our minds we guard ourselves from what from fear from anxiety from the things that pull us away from what is to become the anchor of our soul and that is this deep rooted affection for the Holy Spirit himself I don't know that there's anything more important in my life than that that affection for the Holy Spirit himself it's it's that that's the that's do north on the compass for me that's do North that's that's the that's the the place that everything else is

measured by sometimes I've got stuff going on in my life like like you do in yours where there's just so much anxiety so much fear and I I walk around in my house I I I walk back and forth and I pray and sometimes I just I just blurt out I trust you father I trust you and I may need to say it 20 times and I don't say it out of inspiration I'm saying it out of surrender I'm I'm acknowledging you're the only one that's trustworthy you're the only one that's trustworthy people people say

well I don't know if I can trust God in this situation who you going to trust you who who do who do I think got me into most of the messes I you know I it was my stupidity that got me into that I trust you amen and often times a confession um an obedient confession paves the way for my heart to follow an obedient confession God I trust you no matter what you're the only one trustworthy I trust you I don't trust my reasoning I don't trust my insights apart from you I only trust

you and somehow that declaration starts making way and my heart begins to follow and I don't understand how this works I don't understand why it works this way but that obedient confession Proclamation can we just say a prophetic decree over our own Hearts our own lives this prophetic decree God I trust you no matter what I trust you paves away for my heart to follow and suddenly there's a strength and encouragement there's a life there's something that begins to generate inside of me that I was in desperate need of 10 minutes ago 10 minutes ago

I was really terrified but I'm I'm getting better I'm getting better the more I talk the more I confess the more I Proclaim father I trust you no matter what you're the only one trustworthy I'll I'll take his word and I'll read it to him it's not that he forgot it's just he needs me to remember before him this is what he said yesterday I took out a list of prophetic I often will will do this but I just in bed as I laid in bed last night I took up my iPad and I've got

a list of about 20 or 30 things that the Lord has promised through the years and just read over them God these are the things that you've said I have to have hope yeah I have to be I have to I have to have hope not as a last option but I have to have hope so that it's my default yes in a given situation yes yep what Moses did following this whole scene is in verse 14 of chapter 17 I I'll make this the end right here he said then the Lord said to Moses

write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of amch from under heaven and here it is and Moses built an altar and called its name the Lord is my banner this I I don't know that everybody in the room needs to do this but here's Here's a thought if you found yourself in this trap of pointing fingers of criticism and probably all of us in the room have done it you find yourself in that cycle of life it might be

time to build an altar yes in other words a very specific moment in time where you come before the Lord and you abandon your right to criticize and complain you lay down the right listen to me your right for unbelief you abandoned your right to actually question the only faithful one in existence what kind of arrogance would enter my heart that I would actually question the only faithful one in existence and there's just this moment where we come before the Lord we just say God I I don't understand how this is going to work but

I acknowledge you are Lord and I will not violate your lordship through my lips and I confess I trust you and then I add help hurry help please Merry [Laughter] Christmas last time we go to church on Christmas yes sir that's um I I really I really am provoked by promise that's that's what I I spent a lot of time thinking about praying about reading about studying the scripture about this whole idea of coming more completely and fully into what God intended for us and um the reason I I I wanted I I I looked

for we had three weeks I'm talking three out of four weeks that I'm talking to you so I I wanted to grab I don't have that opportunity very often so I wanted to grab the opportunity to talk to you because of what I'm sensing for this next year I just I just have this this anticipation this expectation a fulfilled promise and I don't know that it comes easily I don't know often times what we long for is on the other side of a conflict a battle you know that we that we go through but I'm

I'm I'm in it I'm I'm in it to win it as they say I I feel like the Lord set us up with promise he's drawing Us in to a hope-filled future with promise and I would encourage you I I do this uh all throughout the week i' I've actually had days in the last couple weeks where I've taken at least an hour out of a day just to review promises over my life at least an hour where I read over them I pray through them because I've I I can sense I can feel it

I can smell it there's there's an inheritance that we can't earn but we can disqualify ourselves from amen Bill good point all right why don't you go ahead and stand I I I need to figure out where to end this thing and I just ended it I if you could hold your places right now for just the next couple minutes it would really really help I I want to show I want us to show great respect for those who may not have a personal relationship with the Lord and I'd like for us in moments like

this to make sure we don't do anything to distract them because this is an opportunity for people to actually come into this place of forgiveness perfect healing with the father brought into the family of God if you find yourself in this place today and you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus you don't know what it is to be forgiven of sin you don't know what it is to actually be adopted into the family of God if that's foreign to you but you want to know what it is to follow Jesus what it is to

make him the absolute Lord Master over your life this incredible privilege that we have as Believers if that's you I want you just to acknowledge it by putting a hand in the air and just saying that's me I don't want to leave the building till I know I have found peace with God put your hand up high if you're online put it in the chat box one of our pastors will be right there to help you and serve you okay some oh right over here I did I missed your hand wonderful thank you wonder