Hope deferred can make a heart sick, but a promise fulfilled is a tree of life. Bill Johnson teaches about how promises fulfilled reveal God and our destiny. Let’s pray hard and take risks this year to see the breakthrough God has for all of us.
all right
happy new year
happy new year
that’s that’s where you respond back
good to see you too
we’ll have maybe a group hug at the end
and
try not to injure anyone
we have a great honor this morning of
having uh congressman doug lamalfa and
his lovely wife jill here with us once
you guys stand up honor them thank you
for serving our state so well we bless
you
bless you thank you so much for
loving our state serving us so well
all right
you guys all ready
are you sure
i have a
couple funny things that i’ve read in
the last month or two
that i just put all together i figured
after eating all we ate for christmas
this might be an encouragement to you
i’m i’m just here to serve
what do we learn from cows hippos and
elephants
it’s impossible to reduce weight by
eating green grass salads and walking
huh
amen
people need to learn the difference
between a want and a need
i want a nice body i need banana pudding
this this is one of my favorites ever
right now donuts are healthier than
romaine lettuce
i have waited my whole life for this
moment
2018 was filled with quite a few
vegetable recalls
i remind you there were no recalls on
bacon
and then the last one
i just read the other day said
my stomach is flat
but the l is silent
you have to picture never mind
all right
sec uh
second corinthians chapter one
second corinthians chapter one
my stomach is flat
but the l is silent
just write it down you’ll get it later
so when it said
i didn’t go to the gym this morning
that makes five years in a row
[Laughter]
all right second corinthians 1 let’s get
going here
about a month or so ago
i
took two sunday mornings to talk about
perils or challenges difficulties
that we face
as believers just as people
and the first one was bitterness
resentment the second jealousy
and bitterness resentment is
is a contaminating
influence in people’s lives the
scripture warns
about how bitterness in one person will
defile many it’s contagious
if you watch the news be careful because
much of what you hear is through the
spirit of bitterness
you’ll find when
the influence of bitterness will enable
you to become offended easily
when you see that stirring up make sure
that you you rise to protect your heart
from the contamination of somebody
else’s bitterness
both bitterness and jealousy
um hide under the guise of discernment
it hides under the notion that
you see into the heart of the motive of
another person
and the scripture is pretty clear that
nobody can know the heart your own heart
let alone the heart of another person
and when we start moving into the area
trying to figure out the motives of
another person we’re actually into an
area that’s taboo
bitterness
is an attachment to the past
jealousy is an attachment to the past
jealousy reads into
jealousy actually works hand in hand
with entitlement
that
assumes i
i am owed certain things in life and
when somebody else gets blessed instead
of me somebody else has the favor the
open door of the opportunity whatever it
might be
it makes me feel very less and very
insecure in who i am because of their
breakthrough their blessing
jealousy is uh is a is a contaminant as
well and so i took a couple weeks to
talk about those two perils
and today i want to talk about the third
so merry christmas happy new year it’s a
happy day
we are happy people and i’ll try to
remind you throughout the message that
this is happy
this is happy
uh but the third one the third area i
think is the most devastating and the
most damaging of all three
and it’s called disappointment
disappointment robs people
of the courage for the future think
about this disappointment is anchored to
yesterday bitterness is anchored to
yesterday you were born for tomorrow
you were designed to make a difference
in this present moment that impacts the
course of history that’s who you are
the apostle paul dealt with the subject
uniquely two different times one time he
was telling in romans 8 he was
describing that nothing can separate you
from the love of god and he goes through
you know angels can’t do it nobody can
do it and then he mentions things
present and things to come
notice he didn’t mention the past
things present things to come why
yesterday can’t remove you from the love
of god but it can shut down your
awareness of the love of god
both bitterness
bitterness regret
disappointment is attached to yesterday
and it’s trying to the enemy uses those
things to redefine who we are and where
we are and what our purpose is that’s
right
i uh i played a lot of sports in school
and uh had uh
some interesting injuries through the
years of broken bones etc a couple
surgeries but the the the one that
affects me every once while hasn’t for a
number of years now is this left knee of
mine will get dislocated
i’ve actually uh
in weaverville
a number of years ago it dislocated and
chris happened to be there and
and i said i need help and he came over
and i told him what to do to get it back
into place because it’s not something
that you can do on your own told him
where to put his foot and where to pull
and where to straighten and then we
heard this big pop as the joint it was
glorious i wish i had a video i could i
could inspire all of you
and get a whole bunch of pity in the
process would be just be beautiful
helped him uh to put it back into place
so i can get up and function crazy
things about a joint that is dislocated
shoulder and knee whatever it might be
fingers
they’re yours it’s you
it’s alive
it’s not severed
but it doesn’t function
there’s very little function life is
still there i can’t walk on it i can’t
straighten it i can’t do anything with
it until it gets put back into place
disappointment dislocates a purpose a
person from their purpose dislocates a
person from their destiny
the enemy works hard to keep us focused
on what didn’t work
so that we’re of no use for what could
work
disappointment
is the mother of depression
it is depression in diapers
not dealing with it in early stages
deeply affects
our emotional mental and spiritual
health
there’s a great verse in proverbs that i
that i quote we we review fairly often
it’s in chapter 12 or 13 just read them
both it’ll be and just keep reading when
you’re done with those two
because it’s just all so good
but in chapter 12 or 13 i forget which
one it says hope deferred makes the
heart sick
desire realized is a tree of life hope
deferred makes the heart sick so what is
it saying
disappointment actually makes us
vulnerable to spiritual disease
it’s like our immune system is shut down
in disappointment if we don’t know how
to strengthen ourselves in those moments
we will be
affected by circumstances that didn’t
turn out the way we wanted the way we
prayed the way we
believed for
everybody in this room has had all kinds
of things happen that were not planned
that were never supposed to happen
disappointments losses
betrayals uh criticisms all the all the
all the junk we’ve all experienced them
and no one
ever likes them and we’re not supposed
to
but how we navigate in that adverse
situation adverse winds the sailboat can
actually position its sail to advance
against the oncoming wind
and correct attitude of heart
biblical mandates that we pray over
meditate on we actually make personal
advancements in the most adverse moments
in fact i’d like to suggest to you that
what you were born for is on the other
end of adverse winds
what you were designed for means the
adjustment of the heart trusting god
learning to trust him when there’s
things you cannot control you cannot
explain trust him in those moments
because it will help you even though it
feels like you’re going backwards it
actually causes us to advance in the
most difficult times and that’s where
strength is for
disappointment is a thief it’s a thief
because it robs us
of a sense of vision and purpose in fact
what happens
disappointment
is
is what
people hide behind
who secretly in their heart accuse god
of not being faithful
many would never want to think that
consciously but what it does is it
protects that that
in a wrong way protects that offense
towards god because things didn’t turn
out the way they were supposed to
i don’t think it’s possible to get where
god has designed us to go as individuals
as family units as a church family i
don’t think it’s possible to get where
god has designed us to go without us
learning how to navigate through this
issue of disappointment
god is the god of promise
there are over 7 700 promises in the
bible 7 700.
i only know that because i have a friend
who memorized them all
in multiple translations just because he
could
he was an amazing man he’s in heaven now
with the lord but he would memorize all
these promises and uh
and he would just rattle off things to
encourage people it was just it was he
was the most fun person to be with
because he was just one big
fountain of encouragement and he would
do it with god’s word he would just
encourage this is what god says about
this this is what god says about that so
think about this when adam and eve
sinned the first thing that happened
after their sins god gave a promise
genesis 3 verse 15 he gives a promise of
a redeemer
he actually had the promise prepared
before there was a problem
because god is the one who has solutions
before we make the mess
everything was thought of ahead of time
and he set the stage so that we could be
restored to him forgiven of sin
and healed in our sense of identity and
purpose
so here we’ve got this first set of
proverbs
it says hope deferred
makes the heart sick but desire realize
is a tree of life so there’s the
opposite the other side of the coin hope
deferred can make you sick desire
realized fulfilled dreams answers to
prayer that whole
area of life
desire realizes the tree of life
tree of life is mentioned in three books
of the bible it’s mentioned in genesis
in proverbs and revelation
at least to my way of thinking genesis
talks about what was
proverbs talks about what is revelation
talks about what’s to come
so the point is is that the tree of life
uh if you just turn back to garden of
eden adam and eve they’ve got a tree the
knowledge of good and evil they can’t
eat of that one they can eat from all
the rest once they sin and eat the
forbidden fruit
an angel goes to guard them from eating
of the tree of life
the thought behind it is is that
if i become now a sinner and i broke
covenant with god and i now eat of the
tree of life it won’t fix my problem but
it instead makes me
eternally a sinner with no hope for
redemption
in other words it locks me into a
predetermined eternal purpose
so just think with me now if desire
realized is a tree of life what does it
say
is saying
part of your eternal purpose is revealed
in fulfilled dreams fulfilled desires
god gives us promises not to entice it
is impossible for god to lie he’s not a
tease
he doesn’t put up false hope
and then cause us to crash and burn he’s
a loving father and this father presents
us with promises to inspire and instill
in us the capacity to dream
many believers because of disappointment
have lost the capacity to dream
many believers
because of the loss of promises have
lost the capacity to dream i just heard
recently
promises are the invitation of god into
a relational journey where together we
labor to see things happen in the earth
that reveal his nature
thanks
i’ll i’ll pay you
[Laughter]
later we are in this relational journey
where in cooperation
we see his purposes manifest in the
earth now he can do anything and
everything we do
better
he could position himself on the planet
one place caused every person on the
entire planet to hear the gospel as he
preached if he wanted to but he’s chosen
not to do that because his desire is to
work through sons and daughters why
because the ambition of god the father
is to be revealed as the father
now god can show up and reveal himself
as the creator
he can reveal himself as love he can
reveal himself as the great judge he can
reveal himself as the righteous one the
holy one
but it takes
a child
to reveal the nature of a father
because because the nature of the father
the father can’t reveal himself as
father by himself there has to be
evidence somewhere
just as the creator would create to
demonstrate his capacity for creativity
so a father’s effect on the well-being
of a son or a daughter is what gives
proof or evidence that god is actually a
perfect wonderful glorious heavenly
father
if you take the gospel of john and
and you take everything you can find
about why jesus came to earth you’ll
have a wonderful list in first john it
says he came to destroy the works of the
evil one we know that he came to die in
our place we know that he came to redeem
us he came to dine to be raised from the
dead
we know that he came to initiate the the
awareness the realization of the kingdom
of god at hand within reach there’s a
great list of all the reasons why he
came but they are all
sub-points of one
primary point
the gospel of john deals with it well
jesus came to reveal the father
jesus who came to reveal the father
remember the son through his behavior
reveals who he’s related to in other
words he only does what he sees his
father do he only says what he hears his
father say this is jesus so what is he
doing he’s revealing the nature of the
father in fact the scripture says that
jesus is the exact representation of the
father there’s no deviation at all
exact representation of the father
so jesus then tells his disciples
in john 20 he says as the father sent me
i send you
how did the father send him to reveal
the father
how then are we sent
to reveal the father what’s the point
he’s revealed for who he is through your
answers to prayer
tree of life experience
the fact that
you and i have this invitation to come
before the almighty god negotiates the
wrong word so i’m not sure what to use
but i’ll use it anyway
to negotiate over the affairs of man he
is interested
in input
promises don’t make me gob but they
bring me into a relationship where
through my time with him we negotiate
over the affairs of man so that we can
see his will and purposes accomplished
in the earth he’s looking for that
agreement he’s looking for the
co-laborer
he’s looking for the two to be made one
old testament you can’t receive an
accusation against somebody unless you
have two or three witnesses why it’s
it’s the it’s the many becoming one
voice
it’s marriage and the two shall become
one flesh it’s when you’re born again
you become one with christ this whole
concept is god takes the many and brings
them together into one
the members of the body are called
individual members that become one loaf
in first corinthians i think it’s 11.
so here’s this theme
now let’s take a look at this in if you
still have your bibles open if you’re
courageous enough to keep it open
second corinthians chapter one
i’m going to start with verse 18 but as
god is faithful our word to you was not
yes and no
for the son of god jesus christ who was
preached among you by us
by me sylvanius and timothy was not yes
and no but in him was yes now what was
what was yes the promises all right
all the promises of god verse 20
in him are yes and in him amen to the
glory of god through us
okay that’s it’s an awkward rendering
let me read it to you out of the niv
verse 20 says for no matter how many
promises god has made 7 700
over no matter how many promises god has
made
they are yes
in christ
before you ever believed a promise he
already determined yes
i have some amazingly good news for you
before you ever believed a promise he
said yes all right let me keep reading
it yeah it’s it’s too it’s too late it’s
too late you you had a chance
all right
no matter how many promises god has made
they are yes in christ listen to this
phrase
and so through him the amen
is spoken
by us
to the glory of god
so here it is the father
decrees a promise
but he waits for what the co-laborer the
one who says
amen
the one who comes into alignment with
his heart people say well my purchases
aren’t getting answered then change the
way you pray
he doesn’t
he doesn’t talk to me about what’s in my
heart well talk to him about what’s in
his
yeah discover what it means to seek
first the kingdom and all these things
will be added
go to his agenda first and see how he
blesses yours
and see how he changes yours see the
point is is you and i
are uh are indebted in a sense to reveal
the father how through answers to prayer
it’s the breakthroughs it’s the fact
that you suffer a loss and it matters
enough to you that you get alone with
god and you cry out for the breakthrough
so that loss doesn’t happen again
you have that disappointment you have
that that person who’s got a horrible
disease and you prayed and they didn’t
get healed they died what do you do well
you don’t just brush it off you get
alone with god why because he gave a
promise to you and to me about him
demonstrating his life his love his
power through his through his own
children
you get along with god till you get
breakthrough
it’s not complicated but it is
challenging
it’s not complicated
how do you get breakthrough take risk
what do you do if you don’t get
breakthrough get along with god then
what do you do take more risk
you go into the presence cry out to god
go in where there’s hurting people and
you serve and you just keep that going
back and forth until you and i learn to
do what god’s called us to do well
you and i may stink at the assignment
but it doesn’t give us the right to
change the assignment
you are living and breathing
because he has hope you will believe for
the impossible
you are living in breathing
because when the impossibilities of life
yield
to a son or a daughter the father is
revealed
and he is glorified
he is exalted
people look at certain things that you
and i may do and they go well they’re
not that good
that must be
god
this one psalm says
certainly the nations will say god is
among them
in other words they’re not that sharp
they but god must be there because look
at what’s happening through them and
that’s what you want you want to display
the nature the kindness the heart of god
in such a way that people around you are
impacted by who he is
promises invite us to dream and i’d like
to suggest that those who have lost
their capacity to dream
have lost sight of the promises of god
our capacity to dream is fed fueled
inspired by our connection
to the promises that god has given to us
that we’ve not yet seen fulfilled
yep
it’s absolutely the truth
well i love you too thanks
in him
we provide the amen
it’s amazing to me that god would want
to co-labor because he can do everything
better he just
is that impacted by the role that you
place that he actually makes himself
vulnerable
to the desires of people
promises don’t make me god i don’t
dictate to him what he’s to do
but he does re invite me into a
relationship where i have influence on
what happens
why would he do that i don’t know
he wants he wants the mark of who you
are in him
to be seen for what it is
there’s something about the nature of
god revealed
when he uses people like you and me to
accomplish his purposes and that’s the
invitation
invitation is for us to believe for the
impossible
and it’s i’ll tell you what it’s uh
it’s been a whole bunch of years now for
me and it means that there’s
breakthrough after breakthrough after
breakthrough you’re overwhelmed by what
god is doing and then there’s loss and
loss and loss and you get along with god
i need to say god you’ve got to do
something in me because this isn’t okay
this isn’t okay
it’s not okay that this child has this
disease it’s not okay that this has
happened to this family it’s not okay
it has to matter enough i
benny
uh we’ve had an interesting couple weeks
and uh
oh goodness i think it might have been
christmas day either that or day before
so sometime this last week
we i woke up at like midnight and i had
gone to bed at late so i woke up at
midnight couldn’t go back to sleep
so we she said you’re awake oh yeah i’m
miserably awake yes i am
and says i said let’s just get up so we
got up at 2 30. we had breakfast at
three
as every good family should have at
least one time in your life just get up
have breakfast at three
and i had just smoked some bacon the day
before on my traeger so
the will of god was all over this meal
and uh she had that the waffles and the
eggs and the bacon and made some good
strong
coffee so strong you can walk on it
without faith
[Laughter]
it’s the will of god for my life right
there
so three in the morning we’re sitting
there eating breakfast
and i thought you know what we’re up
i just need to go pray
it’s what it is often times it’s just
the lord is just summoning us step aside
step aside
talk with me about the things that
matter
see the disciples saw so many things
from jesus i i can just imagine
us being one of the disciples going can
you uh that little bread and fish thing
you did where everybody got to eat and
there’s leftovers can you show me that
one
or that walking on the water that was
pretty good didn’t like the storm but i
like the walking on the water can you
teach me that one
and yet there was only one thing the
disciples asked jesus to teach them it’s
which is
strange to me because they’re with him
for three and a half years they see all
kinds of stuff
more miracles that can be listed in a
book anywhere
and they asked only one thing for him to
teach them they said would you teach us
to pray
they saw something about his life
he was he was an expression
of this father that he met with on the
mountain day after day
and it so provoked them to a righteous
jealousy that they said
can you just teach us that
they saw everything else somehow comes
from that
and the word that i have felt over this
this uh this next year
is a little different than uh
than i
normally feel
i’ve got great hope for the year
but i’ve got a challenge that comes with
it
was that this is a year
of increased breakthrough promises
that is directly tied to an increase in
prayer
i saw a quote here uh
uh in the last six months i i forget
when
uh quote from one of the the great
fathers of the faith some of you may
know who it is i’ve forgotten by now i
slept since then so i forgot
i would remember if it was mine but it’s
not mine so it’s somebody else
it said
you can tell the popularity of a church
by their attendance on sunday morning
you can tell the popularity of the
pastor
by how many people show up sunday night
you can tell the popularity of god by
the attendance at the prayer meeting
here let me just turn that knife around
while i’ve got it in here
there’s there’s this
there’s this invitation by the god of
the universe to come and meet with him
and in that meeting be changed
and become a transformer
it’s in the dialogue with god you’re not
getting answers to prayer then change
what you pray
change how you pray
do something because the problem isn’t
on his end of the
equation if it’s not working it’s not
him
if it’s not working it’s not him
so you get back to the drawing board and
you say
here i am again teach me
how to pray
teach me how to dialogue with you in
such a way that things change around me
and you’re honored and glorified
do something in me and through me so
that when we talk
transformation takes place
god has invited us into a co-laboring
role one that we never could earn for
ourselves a co-laboring role to have
influence on the course of history and
this is why you’re still breathing air
as you’re part of that family part of
that team
when i put my kids to bed at night
there’s a couple things i would say to
them
over and over again
one of them was
when you go to sleep tonight
just remember
you’re part of a team that’s here to
change the world
and the other one that i repeated often
was
as you go to sleep tonight
ask god if there’s anything that’s
impossible that he wants you to do
and so i’m saying that to you as though
you’re going to sleep right now some of
you already have
[Laughter]
as you go to sleep
ask god if there’s anything that’s
impossible see you’ve got to be you’ve
got to be driven by a god-sized dream
if you’re driven by a dream that
you could accomplish on your own
it’s not a god dream
in fact let me let me take it a step
farther if you’re not overwhelmed
by what he has assigned for you to do
you’ve not heard what he has to say
because his assignment is so
overwhelming that it compels us to trust
i look at the assignment and i realize
this is not something i can do
so i either ignore the word or i come
into a relationship of trust
so my my prayer my cry is that god you
would um you would give us a grace
for a prayer in this next season unlike
any previous season of our life
and we give you permission i give you
permission to wake them up
that’s cheating but it’s all right i got
the mic
we do invite you to teach us to pray we
want to step more fully into why
we are on planet earth
the assignment that you’ve given us in
different spheres of life
and i ask father
that jesus would be exalted through how
we do life
and that you in fact would teach us to
pray
there’s always a chance when we have
this many people in a room that there
are people here that have never
as we would say surrendered their life
to christ never
put faith in jesus for salvation and
actually be forgiven of sin and change
from the inside out the bible calls it
being born again
it’s changes that happen on the inside
of a person that we could never perform
on ourself
but it happens miraculously
when people simply put their faith in
christ the bible says whoever calls upon
the name of the lord shall be saved
this is a life and death issue
and if there’s anyone in the room that
would just say bill i don’t want to
leave the building until i know i’m
right with god then i want you just to
put a hand up just right where you are
i want to make sure that i see anyone
right back over here all right wonderful
another one right over here
beautiful another one we got yep
there’s another one there all right
anybody else right over here is another
one wonderful
yep
they’re so beautiful
that’s right most incredible thing
wait just a moment longer i want to make
sure that i saw everyone just put your
hand up just say bill i don’t want to
leave until i know i’m right with god
put your hand up real quick
i would like for those who put your
hands up if you would just confess why
don’t you all stand it’ll make it a
little bit easier a little more
practical i want you to just come down
to this we’ve got friends over here that
we know and trust
i want them to talk with you to pray
with you
and uh and a miracle is going to take
place in your life today
today this is wonderful
let’s have ministry team come up let me
let me pray one more thing
how many of you uh would say bill
disappointment has robbed me long enough
i want to put an end to it put it put in
that’s you all right
since it’s most everyone put a hand on
the shoulder of somebody next to you and
say jesus deliver them from
disappointment let them hear from you so
clearly that they are never robbed from
in this way again
in jesus mighty name
jesus mighty name
jay go ahead and wrap it up for me
amen let’s thank pastor bill
[Applause]
if we could have all all the ministry
team come forward uh we’d love to pray
pray for you
if you if you’re in here and you’d like
to get prayer uh please come forward and
line up otherwise have an incredibly
blessed sunday
and happy new year