The Privilege We Have to Sow Into the Next Generation - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

don't ever let anybody manipulate you into giving and I mean this very strongly Paul said don't give under compulsion don't allow somebody's argument to persuade you be firm in your commitment and if you do that what you'll do is you'll protect generosity as a sacred thing so that when you're generous it's not because you were manipulated it's because your heart was right and when you do that the gift is powerful it's powerful for you it brings tremendous return thank you please please sit down good morning morning nice nice to see you glad you showed up

I just got back from Brazil last night that was that was fun I had uh couple of our alumni took me aside in one meeting and uh and and told me that several years ago they had come from two different countries they got married and uh and several years ago one of their relatives who was very antagonistic against the gospel uh got uh kidney cancer fourth stage kidney cancer and they brought them uh they persuaded them to come and and uh and and visit uh which is something they would never do but they were getting

pretty desperate and so they came to the healing rooms and then someone got them into our fourth grade class at school and the kids surrounded them and prayed and one of them prophesied and said when you go back to the doctor they're going to find their tumor smaller and then smaller and smaller and subsequent V visits it would it be until it's entirely gone and then they Al somebody else got up and said we need to pray a certain way they prayed a certain way and it's exactly what happened they went back to the doctor

the tumor started shrinking and uh completely healed of of uh kidney cancer so anyway that was that was fun it's fun to run into our alumni all over the planet and our online family bless you guys we welcome you into the house as well um it's it's just fun I was in Australia the week before so I'm just basically confused Lord give me patience because if you give me strength I'm going to need bail money yeah none of them today are very good so just kind of brace yourself and just goes downhill from from here

so if I had a dollar for every time I thought of you I'd start thinking about you more well I'm the reporter I didn't write these I I I'm yeah this is just kind of dumb but I I'll read it anyway Jesus drove a Honda but didn't talk about it John 12:49 says for I did did not speak of my own accord that's that's sad yeah that's sad yeah yeah yeah uh if you ever feel alone turn the lights off and watch a horror movie after that you always feel someone is standing behind you all

right let's see when you find a good wife you not only get a best friend and companion but you also receive a driving instructor for the rest of your [Applause] life all right this intercessors begin to pray yeah I'm going to need her um I don't know why men go to bars to try to meet women go to Target the female to male ratio is like 10 to1 and they're already looking for stuff they don't need oh oh come on bill you can do better I'll try to prepare myself better for the next time yeah

take your bibles if you would open to um Chronicles 1 Chronicles 29 this is a a chapter that I have oh goodness I you know how you have favorites and you mark them up and study I've had this one kind of marked up for probably 30 years and I don't know that that I've ever taught from it but I I do enjoy reading from so today we'll we'll do that um in case you've been living on another planet our nation needs healing it's probably one of the greatest understatements one could make we are just in

tremendous need of the Lord to bring healing that only he can make um I really want to strongly exert everyone that is uh legal uh vote please vote um uh it's it's a Democratic Republic and in that the people are the government so to not vote is like uh having a governor who doesn't show up for work it's it's the responsibility and when the church is silent it's where evil has a voice and our silence actually empowers Darkness to have the microphone and and it's not it's it's not a battle over control it's a battle

over just opportunity and influence and we just can't we cannot lay down our right and responsibility to do what we need to do part of part of um part of the issue is that we we're a part of a culture that has for quite a while now had very little regard for coming Generations it it didn't happen overnight it was just a a slow turning a slow coldness of the heart I think personally I think it started back when someone can make a choice and say I want to keep my um uh my occupation and

I'll abort the baby to do it uh that there's a there's a slow turning of a value system where people become numb to the Future and in instead exalt the present and look for personal Comfort personal opportunity all these things in the place of responsibility um in Proverbs it says that a righteous man leaves an inheritance to his children's children the point is righteousness causes us to think and to see differently where we come to realize that my decisions today will affect a generation I may never see and that's the effect of righteousness righteousness act

actually uh shifts the sense of responsibility that it's not all for me it's not all for now I actually get to make decisions and sew into F future Generations by my actions my prayers uh how many of you are alive and serving the lord because you had a grandma who prayed for you you know that's it's the multiple generation effect and that is a reality I mean that's uh that's that's reality and so we we've got we've got a government that is printing off money like it's uh toilet paper and uh just printing off money

that has basically has no value and it's a I'm I'm only pointing this out because it's a bill that a future generation will have to pay they'll have there'll have to be tra dramatic change in turning around of this country and I'm I please understand some of the things that gets called political is not political it's more moral and we have to take responsibility in those areas and the political things there's debate and we can discuss but moral things you know it's uh you you you can't you can't allow a eight-year-old to go through surgery

to become a girl when they're born a boy and say that's political it's not political uh just just take take responsibility uh I I understand we can op we can lose the anointing by operating in a political spirit yes please understand that you C you can you can make it against people and lose the anointing that God's given us to make change but at the same time we do have responsibility now I mention all that in this context obviously we have an election coming up but I also mentioned because of this we're building a building

that and this may sound awkward for me to make the application here but we are building a building to not only meet present needs but to set future Generations up for success success we're we're actually we're actually going through difficulty in some ways personal trial and difficulty embracing them as challenges so that we can create a momentum for a future generation um as Chris mentioned a bit ago we have the 38 acres that we're building out we have additional 20 acres because we're trying to do everything we can to set the stage for future generations

to take this that God has given us and take it where we didn't have time to go and that's really what what I'm doing my dad was here for years uh we have this building because of the the vision and the the Brilliance of former Pastor Ray Larson and the whole team Dan was a part of that team who had the courage to take on this huge piece of property and build and we enjoy what they built because they had the foresight to to do something for future generations and I I I am so thankful

and indebted to to Rey and and the team that uh that work so hard on this well we're at that place again and I it's no fun for me to preach on buildings I I'd rather just talk about the glory and all the stuff that God's given us to do but one of the words that we received early on was facilities facilitate there's certain things that you can do with the proper facilities that you couldn't do without and that's just a fact um and so what we're trying to do is to set the stage for

what God's given us to do right now but also what we sense is coming and uh with the building of of bethl college and all the things that we have going we're we're really working hard to to well here's our approach to all all of our Ministries we teach we model we Empower that's what we do those three things we teach it's got to be taught it's got to be proclaimed it's got to be modeled there has to be a practical way example as this is how you do this and then we Empower we want

to release people to do it we don't want anything we do to be confined to the four walls of of the building even the new one um it's it's got to be released and um they did Chris and the team hired uh a company to do a u some research on our graduates and and found I think it was like 12,000 or so graduates at the time which we have I think 17 or so now 19,000 graduates now so but back when it it was just time and it was 12,000 um they did some research

and and found that there were hundreds involved in the political system that were graduates hundreds involved in the medical system hundreds involved in all these different spheres of influence and uh and we love the fact that we have missionaries all over the world we love the fact that we have people pastoring and doing all the the professional Ministry things but uh but I'm as excited to know that there are revivalists in the business community reval in the age you know when I hear more students for the text space that are becoming trained as revivalists and

then get into that place of influence that just Thrills me because that's been the dream I remember when my dad first taught on the priesthood of the believer and that's everybody not just those who are on the worship team or the Pastoral staff everybody is a minister to the Lord I I'll never forget when he taught on that began to expand and explode stuff in my heart and in our heart together of what we what might be POS possible if every one of us as Believers realize our our Priestly anointing our Priestly Place David in

a very unusual way uh not Not Unusual in a very profound way David was a prototype uh for a new believer it was actually a prototype and I'll tell you why number one before David worship before David and worship after David is as different as Old and New Testament it is that dramatic of a of a of a difference that was made by one man because he heard from the lord and there was a shift in focus a shift in application and he became a prototype of what New Testament Church Life and worship life would

be like but David was we know was a man after God's heart and as a man after God's heart there were certain things that we're going to look at in a moment that uh that were priorities for him things that that uh can we say core values the things that drove him to be as successful and impacting in the course of history as he actually was and uh so we're we're going to take a look at the story open your Bibles to 1 Chronicles 29 if I didn't tell you that uh open open there if

you would David is my favorite person in the Bible besides Jesus and um looking at the things that he was facing he was as I started to mention a minute ago he was a prototype in that he was a king we know that he was King David but Acts chapter chapter 2 calls him a prophet Acts 2 says and David being a prophet looked ahead and spoke so he was a prophet we also know that he functioned as a priest and that he ministered unto the Lord so the role of the New Testament believer really

is patterned after Kings priests and the prophetic and that we represent the Lord to people and the people before the Lord and so um this privilege that we find in David gives us many many insights that help us to more effectively and more fully uh step into our responsibility and our call so what I want to do is is today we're going to look at a story um we know that U the Temple of Solomon is what we're going to briefly take a look at the building of the Temple of Solomon is not the same

as us building a facility now but in some ways here's here's my dilemma in the old in the Old Testament building a temple was a place for God to dwell but God himself said he doesn't dwell in buildings so but it was a place where his presence would rest upon certain sacrifices were made you it's hard to equate that to the house of God in the New Testament in building a facility because in the New Testament the Believers are the dwelling place of God right however I'm starting to see there's more similar more similarities than

I thought what happens when you take a anointed cloth off of the Apostle Paul's body and you send it to another location and a person is healed and delivered what happened it's not just a symbolic act it's not just a place where your faith can make connection contact there's actually a residue of presence that marks the cloth it's a fact how else can it and so what I'm trying to say is the same happens in buildings so good it is it is true that is so good how else could the Customs official from San Francisco

who had fourth stage cancer hear that healing was happening in reading and he drives up he gets up here late at night I believe it was the middle of the the night walked into the prayer house was healed nobody prayed for him was healed he went back healed to and verified the fourth stage cancer was gone and one of his other agents gave the testimony to one of our pastors that was going through customs said hey we heard this and how else nobody prayed for him what happened walked into a building where there are people

that pray and worship and honor and exalt the Lord and there's this atmosphere does God live in buildings no but he is somewhere so he might as well be somewhere extra and he's let me put it differently he's everywhere so he might as well be somewhere extra and that's really the the nature of facilities and when you have a place the Lord is really uh he really honors the prayers of dedication that we pray those of you who have dedicated your business things are different you dedicate your business you dedicate your home every one of

us need to go to our homes lay hand on the wall dedicate the house to the Lord the doorpost of the house that anybody who walks through this door what happens it's not that God has changed his address and he not lives at your house but but he does but he does and in a unique way there's something of the presence that just rests upon places where there's dedication a business a a dentist who dedicates his business to the Lord there's going to be an atmosphere of peace upon that business your homes we've had people

just walk into home say there's so much peace here yeah well I worship God here so that would be part of it but it's dedicated to the Lord people we worship God we serve God here we'll multiply that by the thousands that come in here every week into an atmosphere we've had people just walk into the building sit down and they get healed they get delivered they get set free nobody praying for them why well because because God does leave his mark on buildings he does leave his mark on buildings and I'm glad that that

you know in Weaverville we would go into the theater they would show polter guys Saturday night we'd show up Sunday morning and and uh and it would affect things polter go didn't affect us we affected the Sunday night showing of polter go and and that's that's just a fact that's that's exactly what would happen people would walk in and say man the atmosphere is different wow well that's because there was church that morning that's why so so this building is uh is significant and so let's read part of David's story oh what I started to

tell you that I forgot and I'm running out of time but it's okay I'm used to it poor Bill yeah poor poor Bill no I don't I don't I have all the time I want honestly um Solomon built this extravagant building I I think still today it's the most extravagant building ever built in the history of mankind this Temple to the Lord and Solomon gets the credit for it because he's the one who really put it together but do you know that David was actually the one who supplied all the material it was actually out

of David's own extreme generosity and extreme Vision that that the temple could be built in the first place and uh Solomon had to orchestrate to organize it but it was uh it was David's generosity and so what we're going to do is we're just going to take just a brief look at this is uh this is the heart of a king Prophet priest who loves the presence of God more than anything else in the world and this is how he did life and so we're going to look at just some of the values that he

had so 1 Chronicles 29 verse 1 furthermore King David said to all the assembly my son Solomon whom alone God has chosen is Young and inexperienced and the work is great because the temple is not for man but for the Lord how about we build this actually for the Lord I mean really really I mean think through it this is for the Lord every every opening every entrance into the facility what would it be like for people to actually walk in and encounter the presence of power of God here the same everywhere you know we

have we've had people just drive onto the property and have this encounter with the Lord and I just my I just want to see that increase verse two now for the house of my God I have prepared with all my might gold silver bronze Etc verse three moreover because I have set my affection on the house of my God I have given to the house of my God what an amazing statement here's the first point I want to make actually about the 20th but we'll just call it number one the first point I want to

make is that David set his affection on the house of the Lord therefore he gave is he saying that his affection is not on the presence of God I maybe this doesn't stand out to you so I'll just preach this to me I have set my affection on the house of the Lord therefore I gave do you know that our affection that that love element that flows from our life that's what directs our giving whether it's money or it's time or it's a word of encouragement it's an act of service it's calling the friend on

the phone that you're concerned about it's it's all all the giving stuff it goes wherever our heart burns in affection Paul actually made a statement that is a sobering one to me he says you are restricted by your affections I will sometimes in Ministry I will just I'll I'll look around across the crowd let's just say there's a bunch of people to minister to I will just I'll look across the crowd and without trying to reason who's in need I will look to see where is my heart pull where is the affection of my heart

pull to a given person or in individual and then I follow that and more times than not if I follow that is where we'll start to see the Breakthrough come so Paul says you're restricted by your affections David says I have set my affection on the house of the Lord and because I set my affections there that's where I gave yes that's right I like it verse n then the people people Rejoice for they have offered willingly because with a loyal heart they offered willingly to the Lord and King David also rejoiced greatly it's a

great um it's a it's a great connection of ideas that willing generosity and a loyal heart actually go together that's that's that's an interesting parallel verse 14 excuse me 13 now therefore Our God we thank you and praise your glorious name but who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this for all things come from you and of your own we have given to you we are aliens and pilgrims before you as were our fathers our days on Earth are as a Shadow Without Hope Oh

Lord Our God all this abundance we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and is all your own I know also my God that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness as for me I uh in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things and now with joy I've seen your people who are present here offer willingly okay what's what's the point I don't know I don't know I'm embarrassed to say it but I have this underlined but it didn't hit me

till today who am I that I could offer what I've given so freely to you the privilege of giving is a gift we're not qualified for the privilege to give is a gift that God gives to us yes who am I he says I'll try this out over here it it it could go over I'm not sure it hasn't yet this is my third time and I have you have you ever thought about that when you've been able to to sacrifice and sew into something and I mean it may be a neighbor that needs help

it could be you know any any number of things but you you give you know that you gave sacrificially and there's always the sense of privilege there's always the sense of Honor but I don't remember ever thinking who Am I who am I that I could be given this kind of a privilege and yet that was the approach of the greatest Giver maybe to ever live besides Jesus himself how could I have ever earned the privilege to do what I've just done wow it's amazing Verse 18 is the real reason I have this uh chapter

all marked up was when this verse hit me probably 30 years ago he said oh Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel our fathers keep this forever in the intent of the thought of the heart of your people and fix their heart toward you look at it again we're going to wrap it up with this verse Oh Lord our God of Abraham Isaac and Israel our fathers keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people and fix their heart toward you David interceded for you and me he actually prayed

for us today because he prayed something that would Mark the people of God forever he didn't say just until the Old Testament time is over he prayed for something that would actually Mark the value system the thought process the perception of reality all these things would be marked by this that David was personally experiencing so first of all just imagine yourself giving you know being able gifted by the Lord to be able to give extravagantly extreme all of us have it in our heart so you've been I've been gifted by the Lord to give abundantly

above anything I could could have had reason to believe for I have I'm sitting here in this moment realizing I'm just not even worthy to be able to give like that and then he says you know what I'm going to pray that every following generation knows what I've just experienced and God I ask that you would preserve that value system that way of thinking in the heart of your people from this point on I talked to you a few weeks ago about the power and the responsibility to walk in forgiveness and for those of you

that were here for that particular day I I used uh the concept of a spear to illustrate powerful prayer and in Mark 11 it says whenever you stand to pray forgive so the illustration I give gave you was the spear point is forgiveness the thrust of effective prayer is makes its way because of forgiveness the commitment to walk in forgiveness well this is the same concept right here it's the same concept is to make a mark on the course of history is the realization this is a gift from God to be able to give and

to protect this as a part of the value system of a new testament believer is something that marks us in our effectiveness this point on why because we don't just live for today we actually consciously live making decisions for future generations and what we're doing you know let's be honest if we had the place built today it would be we would already have multiple services and it would our it would our we we probably still have Pastors in closets and you know I mean it's just what we what we tend to do so it it's

it's it's not extravagant by any means but it will enable able us to do multiplied times more than what we're doing right now which is wonderful but honestly as successful as I hope as we become in the next 10 years of ministry uh from bethl and the the Nations that come of all places to reading none of us would have planned it or thought it it's it's it's God chooses the weak things you know he chooses the foolish things so when you find out you've been [Laughter] chosen when you find out you've been chosen it

means you have two qualifications foolish and weak welcome to the family foolish and weak and why honestly why would is you know be bethl is a small sliver of the pie of what God's doing in the Earth but at least we're in the pie you know and so I'm I'm thankful for that it's certainly not all and it's not the focus of everything but we have our responsibility and a part of what God does so that only he can get the glory is to actually we've had I think 110 Nations involved in our school so

far 110 Nations around the world and they go back home and it's tremendous impact and it's because of your yes many of you is your yes in coming here uh for others of you is your yes in supporting this and just creating place so I just I really want to honor you but we're moving into another phase we've been working on this for quite a while and I really really am thankful for all of your participation I join my prayer with David's right now and just say father help us to realize the absolute shocking gift

to be able to give and view it as such grab Our Moment our opportunity and just celebrate it don't ever don't ever let anybody manipulate you into giving and I mean this very strongly Paul said don't give under compulsion don't allow somebody's argument to persuade you be be firm in your commitment and if you do that what you'll do is you'll protect gener generosity as a sacred thing so that when you're generous it's not because you were manipulated it's because your heart was right and when you do that the gift is powerful it's powerful for

you it brings tremendous return that's what we need so father I pray that you give us real wisdom and Grace in this in this wonderful wonderful season of exploring what you're saying what you're doing and I do I do pray that uh that that which David has prayed for would take on full effect in this house the privilege the privilege the privilege of sewing into future Generations in Jesus name let me ask a question real quick I know uh with this many people in the room there's always uh someone here perhaps several who don't have

a personal relationship with Jesus don't know what it is to be as the Bible would call born again that's a place of surrender where we invite God into our life in Jesus into our life he heals us he sets us free he forgives us and it's the most amazing thing he actually adopts you and brings you into his personal family and that's available for everyone here and I would just like to ask the question if there's anyone here that would just say Bill I don't want to leave the building till I know I have found

peace with God if that's you that right where you are just put a hand up quickly and I just want to see you and acknowledge I just make that agreement with you right here right now anybody else real quick just put a hand up if if if I missed you I want to make sure that you take advantage of this opportunity eternity is a long time and these opportunities are not opportunities to become wealthy and independent these are opportunities to have our life change from the inside out as we become Disciples of the Lord Jesus

Christ