Pastor Bill Johnson exhorts us to remain focused on the single most important thing: the Presence of Jesus. As Anna and Simeon waited for the promised Messiah, it was their focus that positioned them to recognize the fulfillment of that promise in baby Jesus. Our focus on God and His Word is what will position our hearts to also recognize what God is doing in the Earth today.
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uh one of the things that we love to do uh during several times of the year but christmas specifically is those who are in some kind of financial crisis or whatever and there seems to be more and more of those in this particular season we like to do what we can to make sure that they have a special christmas and and and i really do pray that for you i wish that we were together and soon i don’t know when but soon um um we’ll be back together again but specifically the lord is the one who provides the lord is the one who releases i’ll never forget the sunday that we had i believe it was father’s day and on father’s day i usually we will do something to give and to support single moms on father’s day and i i’ll never forget that one sunday we had a gal here who who had um she was down to her last i think it’s three or four dollars five dollars something of that nature she came on that sunday and and she came early with her child and she was going to just do something special for herself she was going to go to the hebrews coffee shop and get a special coffee and when she started to do it she just had this kind of a turn in her heart she thought you know what i don’t need the coffee i’m just going to give it away and so when the offering time came she just put the little that she had the widow’s mite if you will into the offering and just a few minutes later unknown to her of course i directed the attention of the whole church to single moms and we blessed them prayed for them and then people just randomly gave and that particular week i mean this is pretty extraordinary she put in the offering plate you know like four dollars five dollars and by the time that service was over she had been given over four hundred dollars and so you can imagine the kind of mark that that makes in her heart when you’re the one uh making the decision and then you see the lord return so quickly um it’s so encouraging so encouraging so we just we celebrate those kinds of things and i do pray that i just agree with amy in the whole offering reading i do pray that for you open heavens we pray constantly for all of you and the businesses the all the things that some have suffered some have not but some have suffered during this time all of us have opinions about everything and i have i have discovered that the spirit of offense is on discount right now and uh you can get 12 of those demons for the price of one if you want them um it’s the most common thing i have seen in uh in the last year has been uh that rampage of the spirit of offense and so i just may add to it i don’t know i’m just going to make a couple comments and i’ll let you just kind of sort it out and but i want to talk about we’ve been closed shut down in our corporate meetings we’ve not been closed as a ministry we’ve been goodness gracious i’ve been as busy as any season of my life and at home especially because of so little travel and which i’m thankful for i’m so glad to be able to have my time at home but i want to make just a couple comments these are not official comments these are just just the opinion of bill we are not closed on my part because we fear a disease it is real and i don’t want to create any disrespect towards that because i have two friends that died they had pre-existing conditions but but uh but but it’s real it’s real i have friends that have suffered horribly i i i don’t it’s like a hot stove i’m just not gonna put my hand on it but but it doesn’t mean i’m not gonna have a stove if if that makes sense so we’re not closed down because i don’t i don’t fear that disease uh at all just me personally i’m not requiring that of anyone we’re not shut down because of government restrictions this one may be the one that causes the offense i i honor i love i pray for i serve but they approve abortion they’re not always right they’re not always right they’re humans and uh i am going to obey the lord over government restrictions so we’re not we’re not closed down for that we’re closed down because we love our city that’s why 100 that’s why we love our city and um to close down corporate gatherings in a local church for nine months is is an unusual sacrifice but it is because we’ve loved our city not because we have thought that meeting would hurt the city but because it’s interpreted by our city as a love gift and even those who would disagree with us it makes no difference it’s not public opinion that directs this movement it is literally it’s our offering to the city that we love period it’s been nine months nine months of gestation is about to come to an end i don’t know how i don’t know when but when it does there’ll be a birthing of something fresh and something powerful the lord is going to honor the most unusual offering some of you it’s been forced on you others of you have been wholeheartedly supporting uh the the corporate decision that we’ve made as a leadership and and i get the mixed feeling i’ve got mixed feelings goodness asked me in the morning i may think different than i did the night before you know i’m i’m i’m like every every everybody around here i have my thoughts and opinions on all of it but sitting you know your opinion in mind they really don’t matter the only thing that really matters is what is god saying and that’s what we’re working hard to discover is the heartbeat of god to honor him in everything we do and uh one person one person eats me the other person doesn’t eat meat in their efforts to honor god so we have to create a little bit of flexibility uh in the way that we approach our honor to the lord so this is uh this is the stand we’ve taken i do have a sense i’m feeling the labor pains and we’re about to end the nine months that’s uh i am prophesying but i’m not giving dates i’m not i’m not doing dates mates you know all that stuff all right all right that’s that’s enough there i i created just a big enough hole to crawl out of all right here’s what i want to do i want to talk to you about one of my most favorite parts of the christmas story this has actually been on my mind for a couple weeks and uh sometimes i don’t have that kind of clarity in a direction of very far in advance but this has really been in my in my heart on my mind for four weeks and i’m going to talk to you about a part of the story it’s in the gospel of luke we’re going to be reading out of luke chapter 2 and i’m going to talk to you about anna and simeon those are two sometimes unsung heroes of this incredible christmas story but there’s something about their story that really rocks my world i i don’t talk about it often but you know how you you have we all have history with god in the word and there are certain things that i they’re they’re kind of like like on a compass we have due north there are certain things that you that the lord has shown you in your stories and examples teachings whatever that they are they’re kind of like due north or a reference point that you use to measure your own response to your life and sometimes we sanitize the story because they’re in scripture and we we rob ourselves of the of the wonder and the adventure of what it would have been like to be in their shoes and to be in the shoes of anna and simeon and we’ll go over their story in just a moment but i i need to set the stage i need to create a context and it’ll sound a little strange to you to set it in the way i’m going to but hopefully by the time i’m through it’ll make sense and if it doesn’t it’s still the bible and it’s good all right here’s what i want to do i want to read out of the gospel of matthew in the sermon on the mount i want to read out of the sixth chapter and this is a verse that i actually make reference to you know uh probably a couple times a year um and have for quite a while because it it rocked me so deeply when i when i saw what the lord was saying the context uh in the sermon on the mount has to do with our our uh uh our response to money let me make this this statement fear worry anxiety that whole theme of emotions is released at our lives to distract us from our purpose and eventually reestablish our affection on something that’s inferior fear anxiety where all those things are are the enemy’s attempt to distract me and then once i’m distracted to re-engage my affection on something that’s inferior but so is greed lust it’s the other side of the same problem jesus deals with the whole thing of lust and greed here in the sermon on the mount quite heavily and in this portion he talks about where your heart is your tray your where your where your treasure is or will your heart be also and he’s not talking against money he’s talking about heart he’s talking about the focus of our heart so fear is as wrong as greed greed is as wrong as fear and the reason is because both of them are attempts to distract or pull away my focus my attention on the one thing i’m called to and if the enemy can’t get me to to um to accept something let’s just go raw immoral if he can’t get me to accept something to shift from being moral to immoral if he can’t do that then what he’ll at least try to do is add to my moral conviction too many issues in life so that i spread myself so thin i’m ineffective and then his desire is to pull me to defend my position outside of the spirit of christ abortion is wrong it’s wrong it’s it’s as wrong as the sacrificing of children to molech in the old testament it’s just simply wrong there’s nothing about it that’s right and the enemy cannot get me off that bandwagon so to speak so what does he try to do he tries to get me to operate in soulish flesh carnality accusation bitterness all those other things to defend my position on abortion does that make sense to you in other words he can’t get me to compromise my value so what he tries to do is to get me to overextend my value to where i operate outside of the spirit of christ these issues of distraction are huge and right now we have more distractions than we’ve ever had in our life and i let me just tell you i’m in the middle i feel the distraction i’m not just talking about the obvious things the political stuff the the racial stuff the economic stuff you know we can we can just add a big list i’m talking about the nature of our culture in our country where where we are inundated with the opinions of other people oh goodness i’m gonna i’m gonna dump and jump into a deep hole that i can’t climb out of and i do i don’t want to do that and i i actually like social media i’m i do i like i like i like the fact i can go on instagram i can look up fly fishing pictures and find them it’s like the magazines i used to buy you know i can look up deer hunting i can look up fountain pens i can look at anything hot sauce they’re all in in here i i look at them i have a good time i say oh that hot sauce looks good and i will order it and i can do it in just a heartbeat i love that this is just christian recreation in in my con but here’s the problem is we are often measured by likes how many people like what are we creating creating a system where we look for approval of other people to make our decisions it’s subtle but it’s there and we have a generation that’s being weaned on that value system so i i i don’t want to go there anymore i’m done with social media talk for this morning actually it could creep up again but i’ll try not to all right let’s let’s get to the scripture here because i want to talk to you about this i’m going to take one verse and i just try to emphasize the fact it’s in the context of money all right the principle oftentimes jesus will reveal a principle that he applies to a subject but the principle is applicable across the board it is what i just said was very important and true all right verse 22 of matthew chapter 6 the lamp of the body is the eye if therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light the lamp of the body is the eye if therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light this this deserves much more attention that i’m going to give here because i actually want to take you into the christmas story and show you something that that i hope will encourage you i hope we’ll we’ll add fuel to what god’s called us to be and to do but look at this again one of the translations says if your eye is single another one says if your eye is clean the word there for good is actually two words it’s the word alpha and then it’s a word that means voyage alpha would be uh alpha and omega the beginning and the end the number one and the eternal eternal future that’s that’s the lord so here’s here’s what i want you to look at this is a very interesting word it says if your eye is good let’s break it down in this way two words number one is the word single or one and the second word is voyage if your eye is set on one voyage the one thing your entire body will be full of light this is important we don’t have time for it now but i do think there’s something in this verse that is that will connect us to divine health i think being diversified outside of where god has called us actually affects us emotionally it affects us in in areas of greed and lust it affects us in areas of fear and anxiety and all those things war the affections of the soul that are supposed to be anchored in the lord himself all of these things war against our focus and our devotion to the one thing they are subtle but the end result is a people who over time diversify their affection from the lord to the many other things and it may even be in jesus name all right if the body if the lamp of the bod the lamp of the body is the eye if therefore your eye is set on one voyage this one thing i have desired the scripture says this one thing to see him to be in his temple forever to be one who glorifies him this one thing i have desired the song of the redeemed is this one thing i have desired it’s critical to fuel that one fire in my soul so much so that nothing else matters everything else is attended to through that one theme i don’t have a confusing life of serving god and serving the city and serving you and serving my family and serving i have one thing him and in that affection and adoration an absolute passion for him i become more fully equipped as a osmond more fully equipped as a dad as a grandpa as a pastor whatever other label we we share the point is it is the one thing one of my heroes in scripture is solomon and uh i’m i’m moved by the fact we studied this some years ago but i’m moved by the fact that hero’s a young man he becomes king and he goes to bed at night and he sleeps and he has this dream now dreams are extremely subjective i’ve had people that were opposed to the revival have a dream i believe they had a dream but our dreams are often shaped by our own values we sow into our dream life we contribute to our dreams what happened with solomon is he was so overwhelmingly aware of his need for god that that’s how he went to bed this he says in song of saul he says he says though i sleep yet my heart is awake in other words he would come into this place where he would rest but it would be before the lord and he had this ongoing passion i don’t know what i’m doing i’m reading into the story but i believe i have reason to i don’t know what i’m doing i need god’s input to be a successful and godly king he goes to sleep god appears to him in a dream and has a dialogue now this this is profound to me god talks with solomon while solomon is sleeping and solomon responds so much so that god trusts solomon to make a decision he says what’s what’s the one thing you want he says more than anything i i want to to have wisdom i want to be able to lead your people well and god says because he best for that and not long life and fame and money and all these other things you get at all what’s the point the point is is that in his sleep his agendas were set aside so much that he could trust the dream that he had and god could trust him to make a godly decision he made a decision to shape the course of history in his sleep in his sleep that’s that’s being focused not focused anxiously focused in this is why i’m alive now go to luke chapter 2. luke chapter 2 in uh verse 25 is where we’ll start we’re going to read quite a few verses so please have your bibles in front of you and follow along verse 25 behold there was a man in jerusalem whose name was simeon and this man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of israel and the holy spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the lord’s christ so he came by the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law he took him up in his arms and he blessed god and he said lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples a light to bring revelation to the gentiles this is an extraordinary prayer he’s playing in the temple because he’s prophesying in his prayer that this infant this child is what will bring hope rest restore israel and will bring light and salvation to the gentiles he said and the glory excuse me a light to bring revelation to the gentiles and the glory of your people israel and joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him then simeon blessed them and he said to his to marry his mother bold this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in israel and for a sign which will be spoken against it’s not the first sign to be spoken against just because you experience a miracle and people criticize you for it doesn’t mean you’re not biblical you’re actually right in the middle of scripture sometimes you experience something that god does and the critics mount up against you welcome to the family of god let me read that again just in case you missed it and he’ll be for a sign which will be spoken against yes a sword will pierce through your own soul that the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed and then there’s one more we’ll do uh three three more verses now there was one anna a prophetess the daughter of however you say that name the tribe of asher who was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity and this woman was a widow of about 84 years now some say she was 84 years at this point others say this actually indicates she was a widow for 84 years after marriage which would make her over 100 years old she did not depart from the temple but she served god with fastings and prayer night and day and coming in that instant she gave thanks to the lord and spoke of him to all who look for the redemption of israel all right here’s here’s the deal i want to talk to you about simeon and anna i i think i mean i can’t prove this just an opinion but i think are two of the most honored people in heaven they lived in a time without the prophets they lived in a time without the thundering displays of god’s power and yet they lived for one thing anna says she never left the temple i don’t know if people brought food to her i don’t know how that works but the point is she was extremely devoted to one thing which was what that israel would have a redeemer that israel would have vindication and restoration the salvation would come to her people she lived for that one thing she got married she was married for seven years her husband died she’s a widow she spends the rest of her life serving god at the temple with fastings in prayer simeon his entire life it was a friend of god the bible says the holy spirit was upon him they weren’t born again yet so the holy spirit didn’t live inside but lived upon him rested upon him he was a prophet in a sense that he could see he heard the word of the lord he had that he had that promise given to him that he would see the consolation of israel he would see the redeemer he would see the vindicator he would see the deliverer the point that i have in this message today is really it’s really only one the more focused you are on why you’re alive the less it takes to encourage you the more focused the more all-in for one thing the less it takes to encourage you i read a story i i read a very interesting article some years ago i’ve not wanted to talk about it only because i i hate war so much but um i read this very interesting article about and i believe it was by a sniper in the military and they are an unusual breed of people i don’t know how many of you have ever ever read about them and if i can just put aside the moral issues of war and all i’m just glad i’m not a national leader that has to make that decision but i i admired so much what this gentleman wrote picture this a sniper have all this sometimes plant life and everything hooked to his body there are times where they will actually take several days to crawl from here to there because none of their movements can be noticed they do everything physically in their clothing they at times were on an ant hill and they’re being bitten by these ants and they are so focused on their assignment they show no pain and they make no noticeable movement and what the guy said he says in this place you are so focused that you notice when a blade of grass is different there’s something about focus there’s something about purpose there’s something about refining what is going to excite me refining what i’m going to feed my soul on refining my understanding my conscious awareness of why i am on planet earth i get to be a grandpa i get to be a dad i love being a husband all these things i get to be with you guys i love this this part of life but all of these are expressions of why i’m alive i am alive to represent jesus and to bring him glory i’m alive i live i live for that anything that doesn’t fit into that assignment it may be good it may be moral it may be upright but it’s there to divert attention and eventually to draw away my affection you see the anointing is actually released through affection when we diversify all the things you know the getting keeping 20 plates spinning on a stick you know that picture of of the complicated christian life i i believe in being involved in a lot of stuff but it has to all fit under one thing one thing how is it you can be so focused as a man picture yourself as a guy who intercedes who prays for the nation of israel who prays for the nations of the world who prays for the messiah to come and one day in your prayer the lord shows up and he says before you die you will see this great deliverer before you die you will see the mighty one who comes to save why is he alive the one thing and it says the spirit of the lord moved him direct him to go to the temple he went to the temple and he saw an infant he saw an infa he didn’t see a mighty deliverer he didn’t see a man with a sword he didn’t see a man with an army he didn’t see somebody with a great pedigree and great wealth he saw an infant a baby yes eternally god but he saw in the baby the deliverance of israel and salvation of gentiles he sought in the baby he saw it in the child see when you live for one thing it doesn’t take a lot to encourage you because you notice the movement of that blade of grass you notice the slight little indication oh that neighbor i’ve been talking to they warmed up just a little bit today that i didn’t get the raise yet but i i can tell something is happening because there’s more business at work it’s it’s just the little things it’s the fact that it’s the fact that we live for one thing and when you do you’re constantly filled with encouragement because god is doing all kinds of bringing all kinds of babies seed of the thing you’ve been praying for the seed of what you’ve been praying for and i look at this and anna and simeon both and they they both moved me so much because they they recognized the king of glory was there in an infant that couldn’t do a thing couldn’t do anything they they saw see this is what we need right now because we’re we’re in the middle of swirling stuff and we need people that just just dial down why am i alive why am i where i am in this season why am i here and we lean into the one thing and all of a sudden we get this little word of encouragement we see this testimony over here we see these things happen around us that are just indicators of a much bigger deliverance a much bigger thing that god is doing and right now we need encouragement in our lives maybe more than any other season of our life and it’s foolish to live within reach of a feast of encouragement and not apprehended not take hold of it it’s foolish to live this far away from the ultimate internal strength of faith a focus of living with divine purpose it’s foolish to be this far away from it and not take hold of it and i’d like to suggest that the lord is releasing an anna and simeon anointing it’s it’s the it’s the matthew 6 anointing it’s the eye the eye that has settled on one journey the reason my whole body is full of light the reason my entire life is under the visible manifestation of the glory of god is because i have determined i am alive for one thing i’m alive for one reason and that one reason god has illuminated everything in my life i i think often of uh elijah and his uh his deal when he was praying for rain it’s interesting because he prophesied the drought you know sometimes you cause something by the hand of the lord on you that’s supposed to come to an end and he knew it but he also knew there was some sort of intercessory role that he had he just didn’t assume it’s just going to happen it’s so it’s it’s irresponsible to not take responsibility there are just moments where it’s it’s it’s upon us to know god is about to do something but i’m going to take my place before him you know if ever there was an example of that it would have to be with the coming of the messiah let’s be honest if there’s anything god can pull off on his own without any of our assistance or help is the fact that jesus would come to earth and yet it was the spirit of god upon anna and simeon to stir them to intercessory prayers why he wanted them to be a part of the process what’s happening today see we we scrub these stories so clean we lose the wonder of the moment the mystery of the moment we sanitize these things and yet they’re they’re they’re living day after day after day hannah for 60 years cries prayers intercessions fasting how long do i need to fast and then one day was the day and she saw the christ child elijah prophesied though the drought and it was time for the drought to end and he he knew it but he didn’t just assume it would happen he prayed for it to happen and he said to his servant while he put his head between his knees and he just interceded he prayed sometimes sometimes powerful prayer is not pretty there’s nothing there’s nothing appealing about there’s nothing appealing about it sometimes the groanings the weepings the declarations the snotty nose the it’s just not it’s not pretty those things aren’t to be flaunted as some sign they’re just you know they just happen they happen when you when you’re gripped in your soul for something that’s got to be birthed into the earth that is not yet here it must be it must be it must be it’s not for show it’s not for anything but the friend of god is making history with god and that was elijah he’s he’s there he’s got his head between his knees he’s praying he can’t he doesn’t want to look he tells the servant what’s the sky like he’s praying for rain he said there’s no clouds all right keep spraying sometimes you just don’t want to look at the absence of an answer it’ll it’ll affect your praying so too many people measure the lack of an answer the lack of breakthrough i’ve prayed 100 times for this this never happened stop it stop it stop measuring stop measuring your prayer life by what hasn’t happened stop it he wouldn’t even look himself this is what’s it like now six times in a row five the seven times well there’s a cloud that’s the size of a man’s hand elijah says let’s run it’s about to rain and that’s the moment that we’re at hears anna and simeon saw the cloud the size of a man’s hand they saw the seed of god in a child that was about to shape and change the course of world history run it’s time to take cover i’ve told you the story before i i think when benny and i first came here this part of the stage was nearest just stairs one of the first sunday nights we invited everyone to the front so there’s hundreds of people all along the front and we had just gotten here and benny and i were standing right about third step or so right here and we just talked to encourage everybody for what we believe god was doing and about to do and we invited the holy spirit to come that simple prayer and the holy spirit came he came in power he felt powerfully on one person one person right in front of us right here i don’t know what everyone’s thinking it may be they were amused maybe they were being touched by god in a more subtle way i i don’t know i didn’t ask but all i know is the power fell on one right there right there and benny and i looked at each other and we said we’ve got it it is now unstoppable it’s not unstoppable see if you’re not all in you miss the seeds you miss the subtle signs of god’s working because he doesn’t just always come and just show himself bowling strongly sometimes it’s in an infant that everybody else in the city didn’t see except as a baby everyone else but these two they looked and they saw the salvation of israel they sought in seed form because they’re all in the best way to be encouraged is to be all him all in because then you’ll see you’ll hear the subtle subtle anointing of god on the lyrics of a song as you walk into a restaurant the subtle the subtle story line behind a tv show that you realize there’s something prophetic in that storyline it’s just when you’re leaning when you’re all in i don’t mean you you interpret every number and every thing that happens it just means god speaks why because he has a listener he has somebody who’s all in he’s got somebody who has one reason for being alive the single voyage therefore everything about them will be under the influence of the light of god i realize that might be a little abstract kind of a talk today for some of you but my prayer is is that is that in this unusual season it is unusual i’m going to quit criticizing 2020. i saw meme the other day that says before i agree to go to 2021 i want to see the conditions and the terms you know it’s like i think one of the funniest ones i saw was somebody said all right let’s be honest five years ago when we said what we thought we’d be doing in five years none of us got it right none of us got it the gestation period is soon coming to an end a conclusion and there will be a birthing of something very powerful and very new in the earth but specifically in you and in me and i believe the lord is wooing us into the one thing simplify the one thing god forgive me everywhere i’ve been distracted i’ve allowed i’ve voluntarily submitted myself to distractions that have wore ward over my heart fought over my heart to redirect affections and values and attention heal us as a people god heal us as the people that come out of this season simplified refined focused and madly in love asked that in jesus name i sense that there are some i felt it earlier this morning that there are some who have been suffering from covet symptoms put your hand on your lungs put your hand on your lungs i rebuke right now the curse of the enemy to steal and to take life from you i don’t care if there’s precondition preconditioned your preconditioning situations we stand against that and covet in the name of jesus i declare the healing word of your body there’s somebody who has issues in the actual bones there’s some sort of a bone disease and i rebuke that disease and declare the life of christ the light of god over your whole body to restore what the enemy has stolen in the actual structure and health of your bones the blood supply i believe the lord is healing people that have had various kinds of infections and disease in the blood so lord we just pray for the healing grace of jesus to be released over every single person that watches this this celebration i want to encourage you if you don’t have a personal relationship with jesus talk with somebody in the chat line if you’re on bethel tv or youtube or one of the other who knows how many uh different ways to to engage with us uh talk with somebody on the chat line if you need prayer for something talk with somebody in the chat line and just say listen i need a miracle in my body he identified something i have or maybe he didn’t identify what i have but i really still need a miracle and uh and have somebody just pray with you and we’ll just agree with you massive massive breakthrough all right and finally merry christmas i pray that this would be simply the most joyful season of your life see i think it was c.s lewis who wrote a book called surprised by joy so i pray that you are surprised by joy merry christmas love you love you love you so much
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I realize what God is doing because of THIS word!!! Thank you Bill God has used you again for me!!!! I WILL submit more n more to God!! Thank you Bill, I spend eterny with you, remember me, nancy Webb☺☺☺??????i