Loving the Living Word – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

This message is Week 2 of Part 3 of the series Life of a Disciple. Bill Johnson invites us into a fresh love of the word of God. Let’s continue to stay hungry for His word.

good morning

still morning yeah still got a little

bit left

a police officer pulled over a driver

informed him that because he was wearing

a seat belt

he had just won a thousand dollars in a

safety competition

the officer asked what are you going to

do with the prize money

he responded i guess i’ll go to driving

school and get my license

at that moment his wife who was seated

next to him spoke up said officer don’t

listen to him he’s always a smart aleck

when he’s drunk

this woke up the guy in the back seat

who boarded out i knew we wouldn’t get

far in this stolen car

[Laughter]

right about that time there was a knock

from the trunk

and a voice asked are we over the border

[Laughter]

yet

uh i don’t know why that’s funny but it

is

i i read this one a couple months ago

but

you deserve to hear it again this is how

i learned to mind my own business

i was walking past the mental hospital

the other day all the patients were

shouting

13 13 13

the fence was too high to see over it

but i saw a little gap in the planks

so i looked through to see what was

going on some idiot poked me in the eye

with a stick

then they started shouting 14 14

oh goodness that is

just classic classic

it is one of the better ones all right

well i have the privilege today of

talking to you about the word of god

and i remember i remember as a as a

young man first of all in school i

i got good grades i keep saying i wasn’t

a good student my mom always corrects me

afterwards but she’s not here so i can

say it i wasn’t a good student

i i didn’t learn uh some of the study

skills that you should learn in school i

i was able to kind of cram before a test

and

and get a good grade on the test and and

so anyway

it was creative learning on my part yeah

i uh so i i didn’t read i

hated reading i hated reading

and i hated writing i hated reading

and i hated writing

the two things my life is spent in right

now is

is like the lord says hmm divine humor

let’s see how this works out

but i didn’t i didn’t i’d enjoy reading

it all i hated it

and and i remember when i when i

i really gave everything about my life

to jesus

everything lock stock and barrel as they

say in my commitment to christ i

remember

i mean i loved to hunt fish i honestly

didn’t care if i ever hunted or fished

again

i didn’t care if i ever owned anything

besides the clothes on my back

honestly i had every ambition i had was

all laid on a

put on a cross on an altar and i just

said yes to jesus and that was my

that was my response to what he was

doing and speaking into my life

and i remember i i started reading

which was a miracle i remember i

actually read uh seven books back to

back to back

in a fairly short period of time all on

the subject of prayer for example

i just couldn’t get enough i i’ll never

forget where i started i started reading

this book called normal christian life

by watchmandy anybody else read that

book it’s a classic

great book i remember my experience of

reading this is i was i was blown away

by his insights

and i was reading this book thinking

this is what i was thinking in my head i

thought

this is all from the bible

and while i had a hunger for knowledge

so i would read people’s books

i especially had hunger for the word of

god

you can be fed with people’s books i

write them i hope people read them i

hope them

to help them but they’re supplements the

meal is the scripture

the word of god is perfectly fit

to speak into any and every given

situation of our lives

and so when i when i said yes to jesus

to absolute serve with him as my lord

and to be a true disciple i just had

this hunger for the word

and uh and i’ve i’ve never i’ve never

stopped

in that pursuit of hunger i’ve i’ve had

times where i’m hungry

hunger than others but one of the things

i learned in the kingdom is that in this

natural world you get hungry by not

eating but in the kingdom you actually

get hungry by eating

and so putting yourself in a place where

you have continual exposure to what god

is saying

actually creates an appetite for the

word itself

i i began to i began to read somewhat

randomly i

found that it was helpful for me to have

a disciplined

place of reading and so for me i i

like to read like from genesis to

revelation or maybe

a new testament only i’ll read just

matthew through revelation

sometimes in fact when we moved here to

reading i i took a period of time it’s

about 10 years

where my the bulk of my reading for 10

years straight was just the gospels in

the book of acts

i just read over and over and over and

over again

i remember at one point john paul

jackson was here and he spoke to us

about

this uh this next wave of revival

and what would be um

what would be involved in that and and

the lord had spoken something very

clearly to him

that it would be all around romans

chapter 4.

so i remember in that in that meeting i

started that day i read romans 4

every day for three years besides what

else i was reading but i made sure to

read that every day

for three years with the exception of

five days because of international

flights

the point is is to stay exposed to what

god is saying and doing

and there are times i read just the

books of law sometimes just

the poetry books whatever the point is

is

i encourage people to have what i call

recreational reading but also

disciplined reading

not one or the other do both uh

recreational reading for me is i have

history with god

i have history with him where

i have been in trouble i’ve been

disheartened i’ve been discouraged i’ve

been challenged in my faith i’ve been

confused not knowing what decision to

make and

my habit throughout these 40-some years

is to always go to the word of god when

i’m in one of those moments

and i read literally i read until he

speaks i’ve sat down and i’ve read 20

chapters 20 plus chapters

just back to back to back i will just

continue to read until he speaks to me

and i find life here literally life

jesus

there’s this statement in scripture man

shall not live by bread alone

but by every word that proceeds from the

mouth of god

i’m alive i live because he talks

i live because he talks and so i would i

would

read and still to this day if i uh

anytime

i have a challenging situation

oftentimes what i do is i will actually

go

back to a place where i met the lord

before for example i’ll go to joshua

chapter 1

and i’ll spend time there i’ll go to

isaiah 60 i’ll go to psalms 27

37. i go to these places where i have

history with god i’ve wept before god

in some of these places and the lord has

spoken to me

and he’s fed me he’s fed my soul

he’s fed my soul with his word and it’s

changed my life simply because he spoke

i’ve

i’ve come desperate i’ve come hungry i

come with his word in front of me and

there’s just those

moments that you have in life with him

where he he breathes upon the words

that’s on the page

you can’t always explain what you just

read and i love that part of learning in

the kingdom

as he doesn’t touch my mind first he

touches my heart

if i’ll come to him and surrender he’ll

impact me here where the change begins

before i understand what he’s doing

that’s a huge part of learning that’s

the way learning takes place in the

kingdom

and so he would he would speak that word

to me so what i call recreational

reading is

to go to a familiar place in scripture

where i’ve been many many times before

and i will go back to those verses i i

refer to them as my cabin in the

mountains

you know you want to get away you want

to have a break you just go up to the

cabin there’s a little lake there you go

fishing or you can sit by the fireplace

or you can do whatever you want to do

but

the point is you’re just in rest mode uh

just recuperating recovering

and i have places in the word of god

where it’s my cabin on the mountain

it’s it’s my place of personal

refreshing and this is where i have

history with god this is where

i’ve taken time with god through the

years and he’s met with me over these

portions of scripture and i have them

mark and i i know where to go

i i know because i i have history

it’s like it’s like you being married

for

30 years and you still have the love

letters when you were

you’re engaged you go back and you read

those letters that’s what it is it’s a

love letter to me

and some so many people approached the

scripture so

so carelessly and i i saw a video i

watched a part of it again this week and

i had seen it maybe a month or two ago

uh no more than two months ago

where in in china where they’re not

allowed to have bibles in some places in

china you can’t get a bible

in fact what these believers will do in

these underground churches is they’ll

have one bible

and they’ll tear individual pages out of

that bible and they’ll pass it around

one family will have one page for a week

or two weeks and

then they exchange with another family

so they get another portion of scripture

and in this particular place they had

somebody was able to

smuggle in bring in uh a box full of

bibles and so here’s this home

with all these believers and somebody

brings this box and you have all these

people

video all these people standing around

and then they cut open this box and

here’s a box filled with bibles

and they just run they grab they hold it

to their chest and they just begin to

weep

and weep and weep because they have the

privilege of reading scripture

and the great sobering warning to me is

famine always follows misused abundance

is to have so much liberal access to

something

and yet have that thing close off in

your heart where it no longer feeds you

there’s this

summons there’s this invitation to come

and engage with god himself

as we read that which gives life

people will sometimes say well i don’t

remember what i

read and i’ve i’ve told you this before

but

people will say i don’t remember what i

read and i said well yeah i don’t

remember what i had for breakfast last

monday either but it still nourished me

it still had its place

in me it’s it’s it’s going through the

privileged

routine if you will of going through

scripture now

i like the random reading the uh the the

cabin

the the weekend on the cabin i love that

kind of reading

but i always try to have the discipline

reading through

the scripture maybe through the four

gospels maybe through the old testament

whatever it might be

but the point is is what you’ll find is

you’ll be in a point of crisis or

need or you need clarity for something

and you will find that jesus

actually has you in the chapter you’re

in on that given day

you turn to where your bookmarker is you

open it up and you find

there’s the exact thing that i need an

answer for because he set you up

he’s big he’s sovereign and he loves to

set you up for life

and the point is is we do the discipline

and then as the sovereign god he sets us

up

for divine encounters the encounters we

need we just have to keep the thing

going

i hear people say oh i read a scripture

this morning

it was so deep it just fed me all day

long

whatever

i like food

i consider food to be the will of god

for my life

and i i will choose quality over

quantity

i like good food i have favorite

restaurants around the world my favorite

restaurant is

down in napa valley called the french

laundry i’ve been to a number of

three michelin star restaurants around

the world and oh goodness gracious you

just almost get a whole new

release in your prayer language eating

that food i mean it’s just

encounters with jesus at that table

and uh i i remember the first time i ate

at french laundry we’ve been blessed

enough to go there a number of times and

i remember the first time

about the there’s like nine courses and

then they throw in some freebies you

know

and it’s all just the finest food in the

on the planet you know

and uh so i remember sitting there and

they bring out this little this little

bowl

with uh caviar and oysters

it’s called oysters and pearls uh chef

keller is world famous for this

for this specific dish now you need to

know the inside

hate oysters and i hate caviar

all right so here here i have this set

before me

that i would not order if i had a choice

but what we do is you choose

vegetarian menu which is never going to

be chosen by me

or the real people that’s not the way to

say it

or the meat venue so all your

vegetarians you you love me week after

week i don’t know how you do it you

endure

you endure such torment for me but

so they brought out this little bowl and

it’s it’s a big plate but a little

little tiny bowl with

caviar and oysters and his sauce

and i looked at ben and i said i’m

spending too much money for this meal

not to at least try it which is not my

norm

but i thought i’m going to be bold i’m

going to express great faith

and i i took a bite of the oysters and

pearls

i could not believe what was happening

in my mouth

i turned to benny and i said i want a

chili bowl full of this stuff

i don’t know what’s in the sauce you

know what what we do is i

as you already know i’m a cookbook buyer

even though i don’t cook

and let’s say you go to french london or

some nice restaurant you

you taste the finest thing you’ve ever

tasted and you go into the

in the reception area of the of the

of the restaurant and there they’ve got

cookbooks by chef keller or whoever

happens to be

and you say man i want that again

and you pull off that menu that the

the cookbook and you find oysters and

pearls

and you start looking at all these

ingredients and you go you know what i

don’t like that that’s oysters

i don’t like that caviar oh look at that

spice i never

did like that oh they put that but

that’s kind of bland i don’t know why

you put that in a recipe

and you go all through this recipe and

you find there’s not very many things

on there you would ever enjoy by itself

unless of course you throw in chocolate

chips at the end

and so you’ve got this recipe of bitter

tasting things

fishy tasting things sour tasting things

too salty too sweet too bland

but somehow the master chef has put it

together

in perfect balance and it becomes the

best thing you’ve ever

eaten in your life

this book has bitter things

sour things things that are so sweet

it’s things that are so confrontive

things that are so

challenging things that are so exotic in

and of themselves

but when they’ve been blended into the

hole it is the absolute finest meal you

will ever eat

this is that which you were born for

it’s the whole council of god it’s not

just

some people they just drive me nuts they

just go through and find

just the feel good verses no you need to

be slapped

it’s called a sword for a reason there

are things clinging on to you that

shouldn’t be there

the bible says the word of god is good

for correction

proverbs 12 1 says and this is this is

like

in the new king james translation this

isn’t the message bible

it says he who hates correction is

stupid

[Laughter]

he who makes correction is just plain

stupid they’re just dumb

let me extend it he who hates

to be corrected by scripture is stupid

and i tell you what we’ve got an option

because you will be corrected

it’ll either be in private with a sword

or be in public with the community but

it will be exposed

oh just looking at your faces is such a

great joy for me right now watching

watching the squirm in people’s faces

this this is a relational journey

i i’m so thankful i’ve got goodness i

don’t know how many bibles and bible

programs and study materials and books i

have on my ipad

i love it i sit on the plane i go yeah

what does that word be did i look it up

and touch the word it just opens up i

got all this stuff

i love it but i want to tell you

do not have a relationship with god

over the scripture that is on a screen

only

have something you could write on

because this is going to be your history

i got up about three o’clock in the

morning august

2009 i think was the year i was headed

to argentina

i went in to use the restroom there was

a book sitting there

by kim clement i looked at the inside

cover

he wrote a note to me he was here he

wrote a note to me

wrote a scripture reference down i

looked at that reference

it spoke so deeply to me that i went to

my bible

and marked it and put the date down

because i never wanted to forget

the date so it’s on the right page in

the book of name

of my bible the date when gus book so

you want your history with god

you want to underline you want to make

cross-references god speaks to you out

of the gospel of john

and you see a similar thing back in

joshua then

find it in john then go back to joshua

write the reference on you want to have

that silver thread

of your redemptive journey with king

jesus

who is teaching you how he thinks and

how he sees

you need the confrontive stuff you need

the stuff that’s harsh

the book of judges the things that that

by themselves maybe

isn’t that pleasant but in the whole of

scripture in our journey to come to know

him

and be a true disciple we find out that

these things

they don’t contradict each other as we

thought they actually complement

each other this flavor that’s bitter by

itself when it’s added to this part of

the meal

it enhances the flavor of that part of

the meal

and this thing is written in its

entirety to minister who

we are to bring us into our sense of

purpose

and into our sense of destiny i want you

to open your bibles we’re going to read

two portions of scripture

and the first one is going to be in

psalms 119. i’m going to read the whole

psalm to you no

no i’m not doing that

actually yesterday i was thinking about

it i was

just fluent from new york by the way

god’s doing so many amazing things in

new york i’m so thrilled

to be there new york city right downtown

wow fun fun fun to see so many hungry

people

and i flew home yesterday and because of

the work on the runway in san francisco

we needed to redirect our flight and so

i arranged to fly

out to sacramento then i have a couple

interns that came and picked me up

brought me home and uh on the way

sitting in the back seat

i just start thinking about psalms 119

and so it’s a psalm that is so rich

in defining the role of the word of god

in our life

i actually want to challenge you sit

down at one setting and read the entire

psalm

it doesn’t take as long as you are

fearfully

thinking you know that we read faster

than we

talk right if we read out loud we read

at a certain space

if you don’t read out loud you actually

read faster and that’s true for just

about everybody on the planet

do you know how long it takes to read

this entire bible

if you read out loud is only 72 hours

72 hours it tells you how much we read

72 hours for the whole thing genesis

to revelation

119th psalm take note of the word word

statutes precepts testimony

commandments all those kinds of words

because they are all different angles of

this one thing called

word of god and what i want to encourage

you to do is read this at some point

in one setting if you can split it up if

you have to but go

into this with this question what role

is the word of god supposed to have in

my life

if you go to this book with questions

you’ll find answers

otherwise you’ll find random information

psalms 119 we’re going to read about

five or six verses here

beginning with verse nine how can a

young man

or old man cleanse his way by taking

taking heed according to your word

with my whole heart i have sought you

let me not wander from your commandments

your word i have hidden in my heart

that i might not sin against you i can

still hear my mom’s mom my grandma

quoting this verse i think she was

trying to help me she would quote this

verse for me you know how can a young

man cleanse his way and then she’d go

into this one

your word i’ve hid in my heart that i

might not sin against you

let’s stop and look at that that concept

for just a moment

your word i’ve hid in my heart

that i might not sin against you do you

know what happens when you worry

you’re actually planting a lie

into your heart until the roots

grow down and affect your soul

they actually impact thinking

values emotions all those things come

under the influence of whatever it is

you’re worrying about

anxiety fear resentment jealousy

suspicion offense all of those things

when they’re held dear the longer you

hold it

the deeper the roots get that’s why

repentance has to be so

deeply felt when we turn things over to

jesus

it’s not a mere you know oh by the way

forgive me sorry about that

when it’s a lifestyle for many years

where the roots have gone down deep and

they’ve actually affected my

personality my soul then that thing has

to be deeply

dealt with i don’t mean through

self-abuse i mean

just through deep deep confession god i

see the

the uh the i see the impact of my sin of

this way of thinking

it has affected who you’ve made me to be

and it has been wrong and i’ve held to

this thing for 20 years

god please forgive me and deliver me

from this way of thinking

repentance has to be deep especially to

uproot those things that we’ve held down

to so dear for so long

what happens is with offense and

jealousy is

the book of james actually causes calls

jealousy

wisdom it’s one of the craziest things

you’ll ever see

the book of james calls jealousy wisdom

but it calls it inferior wisdom

that which is natural and demonic so why

call it wisdom at all

because what it’s saying is by by

acknowledging that it is wisdom

jealousy is kept alive by information

jealousy suspicion resentment

attracts information to reinforce the

position

of offense you will attract

more information to make you feel secure

in your conclusion

but it does not exist in the heart of

christ and that’s why

we keep the word of god in our heart why

that we might not sin against god

if our reaction is anything other than

love

it will lead to sin

if our reaction leads it comes from any

other place then

love it will lead to sin

jesus is very serious about having us

having him well represented

in the earth for how we deal with the

things that come our way

there’s only two responses in life fear

and love

there’s only two places from which we

speak fear or love

there’s only two places from which we

act and make decisions fear or love

and there’s a lot of believers they get

confused in this area and they think

they’re discerning something

when they become suspicious resentful or

filled with offense at another person

and they that offense actually attracts

information to keep them locked into

that place

and so the scripture says your word i

have

kid in my heart i’ve kept it there so

that i might not sin against you

it’s your word in me releasing its

spiritual nutrients

if you will that helps me to say stay

center

in an accurate and authentic

representation of who jesus is

jesus was talking to a crowd in john 5

and part of that crowd was a group of

pharisees and he looks at the pharisees

and he says you don’t believe me because

my word was not

in you so think about this

here’s the pharisees doing their routine

reading scripture studying doing all

this stuff

but they never let it get into their

heart it only was in their head

they had the concept so they could

debate they could argue they could

accuse

but it was never transformed their heart

so jesus shows up here’s the messiah he

shows up on the scene

and they do not believe and he says the

reason you don’t believe is because the

word wasn’t

in you you didn’t put it in your heart

so the implication is what

the word of god in my heart sets me up

to believe for whatever he’s about to do

next

verse 11 again your word i’ve hidden in

my heart that i might not sin against

you

blessed are you o lord teach me your

statutes with my lips i have declared

all the judgments of your mouth

i have rejoiced in the way of your

testimonies as much as in all riches

i will meditate on your precepts

contemplate your ways

i would delight myself in your statutes

i will not forget your word

you can see statement after statement

after statement is to

draw our hearts into an affection for

scripture

the scripture says faith comes by

hearing and hearing by what the word of

god

faith comes by hearing and hearing by

the word the scriptures

set us up to hear so that we can believe

faith comes from hearing hearing comes

the capacity to hear comes from

scripture

there’s two words in the new testament

regarding the word of god that would be

wise for us to know the

one is the word logos and the other is

rhema some of you have heard these words

used in the past logos

genuinely refers to the printed or

written scripture

rhema generally refers to that which is

freshly spoken by god in a given moment

you may be reading for example out of

the book of ephesians all of a sudden

this phrase just leaps out at you

and it just just brings comfort to your

soul or direction of wisdom or insight

or faith or whatever it might be

but he just breathes on that which is

written

and so there’s the logos which is

printed but the

rhema is that which is freshly spoken of

god in the anointing

the line between logos and rhema

disappears it all becomes

empowered to feed us to empower us to

direct us

to correct us i

return to the scriptures frequently for

so many well every day

i just don’t miss a day i i missed a day

37 years ago

because i got kidney stones you know

those are way overrated

it wasn’t near as fun as they said it

would be

i i middle of the night i had the boys

leah wasn’t born yet so however long ago

that was 38 years ago i guess

and i was in such pain i i thought hell

had come

i i was in pain it was unbelievable i

called benny wasn’t there she was

at a women’s retreat and i called

my doctor was a personal friend and he

said i’ll meet you at the hospital come

come down right now i said i can’t i

can’t

i can’t move i was oh goodness gracious

i was so doubled over with pain

and and he said all right i’ll come to

your house so i called chris next i said

chris

i need help meet me at the hospital i

need you to take my boys

because there was no one to take them so

chris comes down he’s

in the lobby with my boys and i was

there in such pain

and i i just want to give praise to god

for whoever figured out

demerol is magical

demerol as far as i’m concerned is an

absolute gift from god

they gave me however many shots i needed

of that stuff until i was in la

la land and until that thing passed

and uh and the next day i was fine

but i didn’t read that date

i didn’t read it that day

but unless it’s something like that i’m

going to start my day

i’m going to end my day and if i have

the chance i will during the day read

wigglesworth

i think it was said of him if if he

wasn’t speaking or or intermediate or

doing something he wouldn’t go 15

minutes without reading the word

he had a little new testament his back

pocket he just bring it up sit down a

bus station

sit on a park bench wherever he’s at

just stop and would read

keeping ourselves connected to what

god’s saying is

a life source it is not optional

it is life itself i live because he

talks

the power of his word way back day of

creation he spoke he said let there be

light

do you know that at this moment the

universes are expanding at least

at the speed of sound if not the speed

of light they’re continuously being

formed and created why

because he never called his word back

how powerful is his word

what he declares he enables he empowers

and he makes possible

and he wants us to delight in the

privilege of having him speak to us

go to first timothy chapter 2 timothy

chapter 3 and we’ll wrap it up with this

one

are you alive everybody alive

i wrote just a quick quick list this

morning things i could recall

from the bible what it said about the

bible says the word instructs

corrects directs inspires empowers

gives faith heals and gives promise

if you want to know what divine health

looks like study the book of proverbs

and look at every time you can find life

and health and find out how often it’s

actually connected

to the word of god the word

actually inspires health in the human

body

it’s the gospel

that was bad that was bad that was

pretty stinky all right let’s

let’s hurry and get on to the scripture

second timothy chapter three

here’s a promise for you to put on your

refrigerator verse 12

yes and all who desire to live godly in

christ jesus will suffer persecution

let me read it again this is this is one

of the

tart verses that helps the rest

to be enhanced cleanse your palate you

ready

all right here we go yes and all who

desire to live

godly in christ jesus will suffer

persecution

evil men imposters will grow worse and

worse deceiving and being deceived

but you must continue in the things you

have learned and been assured of

knowing from whom you have learned them

and that from childhood

you have known the holy scriptures which

are

able to make you wise for salvation

through faith which is in christ jesus

wise for salvation

interesting phrase wise for salvation

you say well bill i’m already saved

yeah i believe that i believe when you

the moment you received christ you were

saved you were born again

but paul talks about working out your

salvation daily so there’s these

there’s this threefold dimension of

salvation i was saved at such and such a

time

but i am presently being saved and when

jesus returns or i die

and appeared before him i will be saved

there’s that triune dimension of

salvation he’s talking here about the

word of god

as being that which enables us to work

out our daily

salvation

in other words we’d be more saved today

than we were yesterday

that should have excited you much more

than it did but we’ll just we’ll just

move on i’ll pretend it was a good

response yeah

verse 16 all scripture is given by

inspiration of god it is profitable for

doctrine for reproof for correction for

instruction in righteousness

that the man of god may be complete or

the woman of god

may be complete thoroughly equipped for

every good work

here’s the deal the word of god equips

me

spirit soul and body intellectually

emotionally

mentally which is different than

intellectually

it’s the state of my mind physically

in the natural thoroughly equipped for

every good work

in other words any challenge that comes

before me i am ready to represent the

king

with adequate adequate service to invest

into that situation

so that jesus is well represented

it’s the word of god the word of god

working in and through my life equips me

to be adequate and successful in any

opportunity i have

to represent the king in a given

situation

that the man of god may be thoroughly

equipped for every good work

keep reading chapter four we’ll wrap

this up it says i charge you therefore

before god and the lord jesus christ who

would judge the living and the dead at

his appearing and his kingdom

preach the word now this is everybody in

the room this is not

this is not a pulpit it’s not an

exhortation for pulpit people

every one of us should be declarers of

the word of god it may be

in a small group meeting it may be a

coffee with a friend

but the point is is you’re engaging in

fellowship and there’s the exchange of

insight in life

that comes from scripture preach the

word would be ready in season out of

seas in other words

do it when you feel like it do it when

you don’t convince rebuke exhort with

all longsuffering and teaching

time will come when they will not endure

sound doctrine but according to their

own desire

because they have itching ears they will

heap for themselves teachers

they’ll turn their ears away from truth

here’s this incredible warning

in the context of the purpose and power

of scripture

there are people right now that are just

making a mess of the bible because

they’re pulling out any words of

judgment

any words of correction any words that

make them feel

you know insecure removing all of that

and just anchoring into promises that

are rewarding them so that there’s

there’s absolutely no sting left in

scripture there’s supposed to be a sting

there

that’s supposed to be it’s never from a

father who wants to destroy us

it’s a father who says i am working

intently and seriously in your life

and you will look completely like jesus

when i’m done

and to do that i need to use a sword

it’s only going to hurt for a moment

and he speaks and he cuts off that thing

that was completely unnecessary

and he invites us into the escapement

with scripture

and sometimes it’s inspiring you you you

you can’t uh you don’t want to stop

reading you

need to get to the office or whatever it

might be and there are other times

you’re there just pushing through

because you know there’s life there i

read the genealogies

when i’m going through scripture and

it’s genealogy time

that’s the bland part of the recipe

but it helps the recipe

it helps it helps the whole meal to be

what it is

that which nourishes challenges changes

me

there are some people that are going

running around saying

we don’t have to pay attention to

teachings of jesus because

jesus all of his teaching was

actually in the old testament which is

true because the new covenant

was when his blood was shed so all of

his teaching during his three and a half

years of ministry

was actually in the old testament so

they say we don’t need the teachings of

jesus

well think about this was jesus the

greatest teacher of all time

yes if god the father had him teach

at the tail end of the old testament for

three and a half years

and that was the only time that teaching

was worthwhile then god is the worst

steward

ever to exist to have the best

at the last tail end of several thousand

years

for three and a half years with just a

few thousand people under its influence

it’s crazy

to deal with that that that the writers

of scripture knew would be coming in the

future

and first john he says anyone who comes

to you that does not have the teachings

of jesus do not even receive them into

your home

it’s that serious don’t even receive

them into your home that’s not saying

your neighbor who doesn’t know christ

it’s saying those who are masquerading

as believers

they’ll have nothing to do with the

teachings of jesus do not engage in

interaction with them

if they refuse to repent and they hold

to those ideals because they will

infect your value of scripture

all right

people come and say well there’s errors

in the bible

no there’s not but let’s just pretend

there is

for discussion’s sake

there’s not as many errors in here as

there is in you

and i’m not gonna let you redefine

what is valuable in here for me

[Applause]

other than that i’m quite happy all the

time

i pray that the lord would gift you

with a grace for the word of god for

scripture

for understanding the bible says

knowledge comes easy to him who has

understanding

if you can imagine a mail room where

there’s slots for different individuals

different offices

when you have the slot you have a place

to put knowledge

when you have understanding there’s a

context for what god would like to say

but he’s not a bad steward and he

doesn’t release revelation knowledge to

a person

that doesn’t have a context to put it in

so one of the things that we do

that we get hungry we fully respond to

what he’s spoken to us so far

we live from his word we have history

with him

and then we attract ongoing

understanding of revelation so that we

can impact the people around us

so i want you to stand up because we’re

going to pray i’m going to pray for you

jesus make it come alive

i you know what i i remember i was

probably 19 at the time

the church was in the old facility that

no longer exists

there was a little library there i

remember pulling this little tiny

white book off the shelf i remember i’m

not a reader but i was just starting to

engage with reading

and i pulled this little tiny white book

off the shelf and i just opened it in

the middle started reading

and as while i was reading i thought

this is amazing

i could feel it coming off the page

honestly

i could feel it life coming off the page

and i kept reading kept reading kept

reading and i turned the page

kept reading and then there was a

scripture reference

and i saw oh i was actually reading the

word and i didn’t even know it

it’s why life was coming off the page as

he was quoting a passage of scripture to

prove a point

life i live because he talks

so father i pray that you would make

your word come

alive at a level that we’ve never known

before and that every person

in this room all of our friends that are

scattered around the globe

with bethel tv that there would be this

fresh fresh gift of hunger

for the reading of the word of god for

delighting it

you’d expand our wisdom expand our our

devotion to the written word i pray this

for the honor of the name jesus

amen now i want to have the ministry

team come to the front

and i there’s been an altar called

people have already been invited to

christ do people

did chris do that and and he did do it

during the communion okay

okay if you could hold on a moment it

really would help us thanks

just ministry team only just come to the

front if there’s anyone here

in fact let me just ask the question is

there anyone here that would just say

bill

i’ve never been a disciple of jesus or

if i if i was i

i chose my own way entirely and i want

to return to him today i want to place

my faith in him

and become a true disciple of jesus

disciple means learner

when we stop learning we stop being a

disciple and you would say bill

i want to be the lord i want to be

forgiven of sin and really healed from

the inside

if that’s anybody in the room put your

hand up real quickly because i want to

make sure

anybody right right over here is one

anybody else you would just say

anybody else right over here is another

one right over there

one that’s so beautiful come on right

over here’s another one

that’s so cool so clear

right over here to my left are you guys

setting that up

right over here to my left is a group of

people that we know and trust there’ll

be a little banner there so you kind of

know where they’re at

but right over here to my left those

four of you and if there’s more

i want to ask the four of you please

come quickly

to this group over here because i want

them to talk with you i want them to

pray with you

just leave your seats come come to them

right now

and this team is going to pray for you

because i i want you to be blessed

beyond measure

yeah church bless them as they can

that’s awesome

right over here come on

[Music]

amazing all right are you wrapping up

come and grab the mic tell everybody

what to do hold on just a second let me

get to the back

and uh he’ll tell us what to do come on

can we just give uh

pastor bill around that’s such a

powerful word