A Lifestyle of Peace – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

how many uh do we still have people here

from the uh heaven

in business conference this week is

there any any that we’re a part of oh

good i’m glad you’re here

good to have you and uh such a wonderful

time

at that event it’s just so fun to see

what jesus is doing all over the world

in every area of life it is so

encouraging

to see things that i kind of hoped and

believed were true

30 years ago and it’s actually doing it

it’s actually happening and

just such an encouragement to me

i do have something to read

two political rivals uh

found that they were both in a bakery at

the same time during their campaign

one was rather sneaky and came to the

other one and sees see how clever i am

the owner didn’t even notice but i took

three of his pastries

put them in my pocket that’s why i’m

going to win the election

the other one said that’s so typical of

you deceit and theft

i’m going to show you how to get the

same results honestly

so he went to the owner of the bakery

says give me three pastries

and i’ll show you a magic trick the

baker gives him three pastries he eats

one after the other

and the baker says so what’s the magic

trick he says do you want to see them

reappear

look in that person’s pocket

[Applause]

oh yeah

why don’t you grab your bibles if you

would to end open to philippians chapter

four

i’ve had two reoccurring themes

in uh in my heart for the last

um at least six months in fact i wrote

out uh we’re gonna read verse eight a

little bit

but i i wrote out a whole study on that

um that i did maybe

maybe as much as a year ago at least six

eight months ago

just for myself just just because i

could feel what was happening

in the air so to speak um i’ve been very

very

much aware of the battle that has been

going on

for many people in their thought life in

the mind

and i i don’t like uh talking

about anything negative in a way that

fuels it

uh sometimes uh we have the ability to

talk about problems and we act

we actually make the problems grow and

so i’m not interested in that

obviously but i do want to address a

couple things

um the two items that have been on my

mind a lot are going to merge

today in today’s talk one is the issue

of prayer

the whole thing of first love

relationship with jesus

and the second is the whole issue of the

of the mind and what god has

uh assigned for us to do with with the

mind

the enemy is is very very nervous

about several things about your life and

mine one

is that he works to keep keep us exposed

to anxiety stress

those kinds of things because that

undermines our creative expression

it’s very difficult to operate out of a

place of health when you’re anxious and

stressful

when you’re filled with anxiety and

stress the goal is survival

not creative expression and and the lord

really desires longs to express

who he is through his people his own

nature his the way he

functions his beauty the glory the

creative all that stuff

flows through a yielded believer

when they are free from the issues of

anxiety and stress

and it is possible to live free of

anxiety and stress

jesus illustrates it he’s headed to the

cross

and he’s giving thanks we’ll look at

that a little bit more later

but the point is as both paul and jesus

illustrate something that’s

almost scary profound and how they

modeled

life going into the most difficult

situation

possible but they did it not just as

survivors not just to stay positive and

you know stiff upper lip that whole

thing but as an overcomer they went into

a hellish situation it came out

absolutely glorious

because there was a way to think i’m not

talking about mind over men i’m not

talking about just mental exercise

i’m talking about a perception that

comes when we see what jesus sees

we see the way he sees so the enemy has

several things that he’s very very

i believe nervous about uh three i’ll

mention

uh to you today the first is

is this issue of uh of creativity

and i’m not putting these in in perhaps

the right order but i’m just gonna

randomly mention them

the first is the creative expression no

one who knows who god made them to be

would ever want to be anyone else

the uniqueness of every individual is so

beautiful and so profound that stepping

fully into who god made us to be is the

greatest privilege in life

and there is no comparison when you look

at another person

as to what you could actually become by

god’s design

so the creative expression is very rich

and very real

the second thing is that the enemy

uh is very very nervous about um

the whole issue of

of of our first love relationship

with the lord that’s been on my mind a

lot lately and the lord has just kind of

re

stirring my own heart stirring the pot

so to speak about this

intimate relationship with god because

what happens is

anxiety infects love

you can’t be anxious and keep the kind

of fervent relationship with the lord

that all of us long for

i don’t mean that we’ve rejected him

he’s rejected us i i’m not saying that

i’m just saying anxiety is

exalting another ideal over what he has

promised

i am actually giving my heart my

thoughts to

that which is inferior to the word of

the lord

it is true that love annihilates fear

but it’s also true if i embrace anxiety

fear

any of that stuff that i have allowed

something into my life

that will infect love and the first

thing to be addressed is my

is my first love relationship with jesus

i remind you of the passage in

revelation chapter 2 where jesus is

addressing the

church at ephesus a great church and he

honors them for so many things but then

he says i have this against you

you’ve left your first love that that

you used to burn with you don’t burn

with anymore

you’ve got the structure down you’ve got

the skill down you’re functioning the

gifts well

but this first love this burning

affection

that we are to carry for jesus is not

like it used to be

and then he gives specific instruction

so we’ve got the creative expression

we’ve got the first love

and the third thing i would mention

is that the attack on

uh the the fear let me back i’m

sorry every thought comes from fear

or love every word out of my mouth comes

from fear

or love so what does what does the enemy

want to undermine then

he’s working if he can if he can get me

to compromise my first love

then he can get me to lose my sense of

identity

and that’s what fear and anxiety does

it causes me to lose track of the tools

he’s given me

the authority he’s given me

peace is is a huge part of god’s economy

for us as a believer

um i’ve talked to you even in recent

weeks and months

about this issue for me whenever i you

know i i

let’s just say let’s take a uh it’s

eleven o’clock in the morning and i’m

feeling

all anxious and stressful and i go man

what happened and i just i

i i asked myself the question where did

you leave your peace

because i had it it it’s mine it’s my

possession so i just got to find out

where i dropped it

so i i back up and i go okay oh yeah i

was feeling stressful there there

oh it was that phone call i got this

morning and it might not even been a bad

one but my reaction

to information or to a situation was for

me to become anxious

and i embraced a lie i embraced

inferior information over the word of

the lord over my life

it wasn’t a conscious decision but it

happened nonetheless

and so what i have to do is always have

to repent my way back to where i left my

peace

repent confess my sin pick it up and

just realize it’s my permanent

possession

peace in the kingdom is is very very uh

profound because peace is not the

absence of something it’s the presence

of someone

peace is actually a person it’s the

abiding presence of the spirit of god in

my life

i’m not saying i can drop it or leave it

in the sense that he abandons me

but my my the the felt awareness of him

gets laid aside

in the world peace is always the absence

of something it’s the absence of noise

or war or conflict

in the kingdom you can be in the middle

of all those and have peace

because peace is a person so i repent my

way back

embrace peace once again and use that as

my lifestyle

we’re going to look at why now um

one more one more two more comments

before we

open the scripture although you already

have it open right

philippians 4 you’re so good

i’m in your life to teach you patience

that’s why i’m here

the other side of this issue that we’ll

read about in a moment

is the amazing purpose

in prayer prayerlessness

is costly it probably would be worth

a study sometime just to look at the

cost of pearlescent prayerlessness but

let me give you two things right now

in scripture it says you have not

because you ask

not so the implication in that verse

is prayerlessness creates lack

we often think in terms of lack being

god’s

sovereign will for our life and it’s not

it’s just lack fills in where perilous

prayerlessness

exists

amen bill it’s very good point amen

keep it up stay encouraged

and the second price that i will

mention to you about prayerlessness is

jesus taught he said

pray so that you will enter temptation

pray make sure you maintain prayer in

your life

so that you don’t enter temptation

so the implication is if i am prayerless

i will face temptation i have no grace

for

and it doesn’t mean i am prone to sin

i may resist the temptation but the

problem is prayerlessness created a

battle

i didn’t need to fight

prayerlessness put me into a conflict of

a war of wills of decision

and let’s just say i win i make it

through i don’t do what i was tempted to

do

the problem is is because i was

prayerless i actually attracted

the situation into my life that was

completely unnecessary

if god designs for us to face a battle

it’s only because he’s already given us

the tools to win and he wants to punish

the powers of darkness

it’s never so that we would fall or

falter

if he allows the battle it’s only that

we get to enforce his purposes in the

earth

but there’s many battles that people

face that were brought on by

prayerlessness

i’m just here to encourage

philippians 4 philippians 4 let’s read

some scripture together

we’ll start with verse 4 rejoice in the

lord always again

i will say rejoice i remind you paul

writes this from prison

he’s giving us tried and tested truths

out of his own experience rejoice in the

lord always

i don’t know if you’ve ever looked it up

but that word always means always

again i will say rejoice let your

gentleness be known to all men

the lord is at hand be anxious for

nothing

that’s one commandment i have obeyed 100

of the time

[Laughter]

because everything i’ve ever been

anxious over came to nothing

maybe that’s not what he meant all right

be anxious for nothing but in everything

by prayer and supplication

with thanksgiving let your requests be

made known to god

and the peace of god which surpasses all

understanding will guard your heart and

mind through christ jesus

be anxious for nothing but everything

with prayer and supplication with

thanksgiving let your requests be made

known to god

and the peace of god which surpasses all

understanding will guard your hearts and

minds through christ

jesus

there’s a picture painted for us in this

part of philippians 4 of a military

guard protecting a person’s

heart and mind heart the place where

thoughts come from

the mind itself

and that military guard is there

because of the previous verse pray over

everything

with thankfulness

if you look at the nature of

thankfulness it is i don’t think we

could over

emphasize it i’m not sure that it’s

possible to exaggerate

the power of thankfulness

jesus on the night in which he was

betrayed he took bread he broke it and

he gave

thanks he’s about to be betrayed by

judas and he’s about to be forsaken by

all 11

disciples that he is now breaking bread

with

he’s about to experience the most

gruesome death anybody’s ever

faced not only because of the

crucifixion the scourging all

that he went through but because of the

weight of sin itself that came upon him

you know what it is to sin and feel

guilty and shameful

multiply that by billions of people with

millions of sins

on one particular individual

when the soldiers came to kill the three

on the

cross they didn’t have to kill jesus

because he was already dead why because

the weightiness of sin

that’s why he said god why’d you forsake

me because in that moment he became sin

when

was forsaken by the father the two

thieves had to be

killed because theirs was just a

crucifixion

i don’t mean to make light of it i’m

just saying the weightiness of sin

he became that which the father despised

which was sin

but he did that so that we could become

what the father delighted in and that

was the righteousness of god

it was an exchange so

in that moment which was his most

difficult moment

most difficult moment in all of human

history

in that moment he broke bread and he

gave thanks

i’d like to suggest that these difficult

moments throughout scripture

are the moments where he sets an example

a model for us that can and must be

followed

the thankfulness regardless of

circumstances to maintain

maintain thankfulness in those

circumstances

keeps us like attached to life source in

a sense

in a very practical way maintaining

thankfulness keeps us sane

when things are not going right keeps us

connected

to the to the right thing so we’ve got

this

interesting passage i want you to look

at it again 6 7 and this time we’ll read

8. be anxious for nothing verse 6 but in

everything by prayer and supplication

with thanksgiving let your requests be

made known to god

now here’s the result and the peace of

god which surpasses all understanding

will guard your hearts and minds through

christ jesus

verse 8 finally brethren whatever things

are true whatever things are noble

whatever things are just whatever things

are pure whatever things are lovely

whatever things are of good report if

there’s any virtue

if there’s anything worthy praiseworthy

meditate on these things what do we have

here

we’ve got we’ve got two

two verses that give us instruction the

first one

is pray over everything with

thankfulness verse 8 says

think on these things sandwiched

those two verses sandwich the promise

and the promise is

his peace will protect you but it has

responsibility given to you and me on

both

sides the first has to do with prayer

and the second has to do with what we

choose to think about

jesus gave an illustration a

kind of a parable he he talked about the

human being

like a house and in this illustration he

said if a house

has all this junk in it and it’s clean

and it’s swept but the owner doesn’t

refill the house

with correct things the enemy that once

dwelled in the house comes back seven

times worse

but the house in this in this example is

actually a human being

and so here jesus

says pray over everything

i’ll guard your heart and mine now fill

the house with the right things

do you understand that you you can think

about anything you want nobody has

control over your mind

i can think about pink elephants right

now if i want to

and i just helped you to do the same

you’re welcome

no one controls that part of our life so

what’s the issue

is that when we begin to submit

ourselves to the inferior

we allow anxiety stress to fill our

minds with

although the what-ifs that have no life

to them

there’s no promise to them and the enemy

again is working to undermine identity

first love relationship

and this whole thing of being an

authentic representation of jesus

he fears that he fears it so much that

in the book of zechariah

when zechariah was talking about these

four

beings rose up in the earth to destroy

the people of god

they’re illustrated with the term horns

horns

are figurative for authority for powers

and so the lord says these four horns

were

raised up in the earth to just to wipe

out the people of god

and god’s answer was to raise up four

artisans the creatives

in other words the authentic expression

of who jesus is

in a human being he was going to in the

four corners of the earth he was going

to do the same thing in the four corners

of the earth have an honest authentic

representation of who jesus is

released through his people and that

authentic expression

would be the very thing that would

defeat the four horns

that authentic expression of people who

reign

remain in first love and find that is

their identity

that is what the enemy works at every

time

he tries to stir up the stress the

anxiety

all the junk because when

i am anxious i have bought into

something that’s inferior

i love this verse verse 8. i i like it

because

i like really practical things because i

need practical things

he says i this is just some of the study

that i did for myself this last year

sometime

but he said look at verse 8 again

finally brethren whatever things are

true

things that are true are absolute and

they’re liberating remember truth sets

you free

so think about that which is absolute

and liberating

whatever things are true whatever things

are noble

that word noble is honorable revered

whatever things are just that is

righteous correct

innocent whatever things are pure

that’s holy and sacred whatever things

are lovely

that’s pleasing and agreeable whatever

things are

good report that’s well reported of

it’s attractive whatever things

are if there’s any virtue this word

virtue is moral goodness but it’s also

excellence

and if there’s anything praiseworthy

this i don’t know if if this will make

sense to you but

sometimes i’m having i’ll have been

having a real battle

maybe somebody you know just did

something that really

really was against

what they should have done i’ll be nice

somebody just really steps outside the

line of what they’re

doing and maybe representing me or us

as a house whatever it might be and you

know like anybody else i got this

mind thing going on where i’ve got to

make sure that i stay

i can’t ignore a problem if i’m

responsible but i also don’t have to

fuel it with my own stress and anxiety

because then i will come to wrong

conclusions and i will misapply truth

for my sake and not theirs

that was more true than you realize

and the scripture says i’m supposed to

fill my mind with certain things

and if i’m struggling with that here’s

what i do

i will think about my wife because she

is everything in verse 8.

she is she is so true so absolute

so life-giving she is so

lovely and praiseworthy and virtuous she

is so excellent all those things

i honestly will just stop if i’m having

a difficult day i’d go okay

i’ve got to recalibrate what is it that

i love about my wife and i start to

think specifically about those things

and it’s hard to be mad at anybody when

you start thinking of those kinds of

things

are you catching my drift here it’s hard

if i’m filling my heart and mind

recalibrating what’s important

recalibrating my heart my mind my

thought life

to what’s valuable as soon as i do that

something takes place in

in me where i’m at a place where i maybe

i have a responsibility with this

individual

that is just betrayed or done something

dumb maybe i have a responsibility there

but when i recalibrate my thoughts as to

what is righteous and good

i don’t come to that person that i need

to work with

abusively i come to them in grace

does that make any sense to you you know

this thing has to be practical and jesus

illustrated it the best i want you to

look at one more

portion of scripture and then we’ll uh

we’ll wrap this up go to john 13.

john 13. this is something we studied

here

i think a couple years ago now but it

very very meaningful passage to me

jesus is soon to go to the cross

i’ve already described a little bit just

the suffering that he was to go through

the

abandonment by all of his disciples the

betrayal

by judas himself all of this that he was

that he knew about

that he was just stepping into in this

moment

it tells us what he was thinking in that

moment which is this was

this is what floors me he he was doing

what we were instructed to do in

philippians 4.

so this is what he is conscious of in

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 girded himself

the next couple verses he washes the

disciples feet

there’s three things that are very

specific for any person in this room

let me let me announce to you why i’m

talking about this today

i felt this morning in praying that god

was actually going to

end a mental battle for a number of

people and it will end

in here today i i really sense that this

morning

i felt like i had a word of promise from

the lord regarding this if you’ve been

here any length of time you know i don’t

throw that kind of a statement out very

often

but i felt this morning that the lord

was going to bring

peace to a chaotic anxious thing

for a number of folks and i i’ve not

seen uh

a season like this in fact there’s been

a number of suicides across our nation

of high-profile people even in ministry

and it’s just one of the most horrible

things

bitterness is immature murder

self-condemnation and self-hatred is

immature suicide

in other words it’s just undeveloped and

it’s the reason we have to stay

so far away from those kinds of patterns

of thought

it’s not that i’m going to go kill

myself it’s just that it is already

killing me

life and death is in the power of the

time we even people who don’t murder

still

speak unkindly and release death into a

given situation

so in this passage it tells us this

jesus

knowing so that tells me what jesus was

conscious of

as he was about to head into this

betrayal cross

situation what does it say it says jesus

knowing

all things had been given to him by the

father there’s an interesting twist

you’re about to lose your life and what

you’re thinking about

is that everything is yours

you’re about to suffer the greatest loss

anyone has ever experienced and what’s

on your mind is i’ve already

re-inherited everything

this is this is this is practical

he says jesus knowing all things had

been given to him by the father just a

little

insert here jesus as god already owned

everything

but he laid that down if you will to

become a man and he now

re-inherits everything as a man it’s

mentioned in john 16.

so here it’s identified he says jesus

knowing

all things have been given to him by the

father number one and number two

he came from the father and he was about

to go home in other words he’s going to

step into

eternal purpose and eternal destiny

so what was he thinking about when he

was about to be betrayed

that unlimited resource

and a destiny that can’t be challenged

or changed

that’s that’s about as practical as it

as it gets facing betrayal crucifixion

all the stuff is thinking about

i’ve just inherited everything now

as the son of man

and i’m about to ascend to the father

into eternal destiny eternal purpose

and the third thing he did was he washed

his disciples feet

what’s the point come back next week and

i’ll tell you

it’s an overused joke sorry

to me the serving

is what this will be a weird

illustration

jesus mindful everything was his he was

going to the father

two-part epoxy it was the serving that

brought

him together it was what makes practical

his own confidence in his own destiny is

the fact

that he lost nothing by going low many

people can’t go low

because their identity is wrapped up in

a title or a position

when jesus illustrates going low

is actually revealed his security

watch your stand

now i’m in a moment i’m going to give

people an opportunity to

meet jesus it’s the most important thing

that could happen today

so i’m going to ask everybody to not

walk around

because i don’t want anyone’s

restlessness to affect anybody else’s

opportunity to respond to an invitation

i want you to respect that

there’s always a chance when we have

this amount of people in a room that

there are

our folks here who have never had a

personal relationship with jesus

the bible calls it being born again it’s

simply

faith that we put in christ to follow

him alone

that brings a transformation to the

heart of a person

born again from the inside out changed

and that is made available to everybody

here

and i want to give the opportunity if

you would be one who would say bill i

don’t want to leave the

room i don’t want to leave the building

till i know

that god has forgiven me of sin and that

i’ve been brought into his family

i want to follow jesus

if that’s you then i just want more

yards put a hand up in the air

and i’ll just acknowledge you where you

are if that’s you just put a hand up

right here yep see you bless you for

that wonderful

anybody else

is there another one back over here

there’s another one back over here

i bless you yeah wonderful beautiful

another one where

over here okay oh excellent beautiful

wonderful is another one over here

thank you all it’s the greatest greatest

thing ever

it’s the greatest miracle ever anyone

else real

real quick we have three that i could

see responded to this invitation

here’s what i want to ask we have people

that we know and trust that i want

to pray with you and talk with you it’s

not about

bethel or membership it’s about your

walk with jesus

because we want you to experience his

love in a way that changes

everything from this moment on so i’m

going to ask

two things to happen at the same time i

want to ask the ministry team to come to

the front

and i want to ask the three people that

raised your hand and any others that i

missed

just walk right up here to this team

where this banner is

and these folks here will talk with you

and pray with you so if you would just

leave your seat

wherever you’re at come down here right

now ministry team come

quickly

yeah those those who raise their hand

come on

come on down here i want to make sure

yeah bless you bless you bless you

right here

all right all right well i love that

here now i want to pray over you

because i i really i really felt strong

this morning

that the lord was going to end

for many many many people he was going

to end

a mental battle that has been going on

for a long time

in fact i just i feel like i just should

announce this is

this is the end of that of that season

of anguish anxiety

nothing ends

circumstances don’t always immediately

end

sometimes it’s me who need to change so

that they can change

and i just i really believe that the is

releasing your grace for this right now

so let’s pray together and then i’ll

turn it over to tom and we’ll wrap it up

all right

so father i thank you for the the fact

that you give us

tools that work and that we can expect

and anticipate

things to be different simply because we

have

anchored our hearts into the superior

not to be influenced by the inferior

i’m asking now for a grace over the

heart

and the mind of the people of god that

our

thought life would accurately represent

who you are

and the resource you’ve made available

for us i ask

all of this in the wonderful name of

jesus extend the hand towards these that

are

receiving christ today we pray as again

lord

that the power of the spirit of god

would come upon each one

anyone else in the room that still needs

this that the power of the spirit of god

would come

so mightily that there would be

permanent transformation

that would ripple through their entire

family line

in jesus name everybody said

amen amen tom come hang out a moment

you