The Foundation of Reformation – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

Bill Johnson concludes the series “God of Reformation” by teaching about repentance and compassion through the historical cities Nineveh, Sodom, and Gomorrah. Repentance is at the heart and soul of every move of God.

bethel family uh

local global i guess it all merges uh in

this season

um hopefully we will be back together

locally

here in this building soon i am i’m

almost ready to start holding my breath

in anticipation because i can i can just

i can feel it i can feel it coming

um today is the third and final week

on the uh series that we’re doing on

reformation

um man i’d love to visit it again it’s

i’m so

i was so encouraged when towards the

beginning of the year

eric told me the different series that

we’d be doing throughout the year

and one of my most favorite subjects on

the planet is the subject of reformation

i years ago i i kind of was talking to

friends and

and told them i i really had uh

you know i had so much interest in the

subject of reformation i don’t remember

how it happened i

i i i know one thing that happened is

stacy campbell was here

and uh she gave me a prophetic word up

in our upper room

uh in the green room during uh one of

our conferences and she prophesied over

me for

i don’t know maybe five or ten minutes

it was a very very moving

and uh compelling word for me and it was

uh it had its roots in the concept of

reformation

and what god had done in geneva

specifically through calvin and a bunch

of guys

they just basically they believed that

the bible had

answers for every one of men’s dilemmas

problems

issues in life and bringing a culture

back to biblical biblically divine

defined values was in many ways the

heart of that reformation so anyway

i i remember uh just saying oh man i i

need to

you know i go to switzerland i need to

just go to geneva sometime and

and um and just uh just research

just you know travel around the city and

try to try to get some sense

feel for the subject of reformation and

a long story short

some dear friends uh now very dear

friends of ours

uh bedros and rebecca um

lead a wonderful ministry there and they

uh bedos reached out to me and he said

listen if you come to

if you come to switzerland i’ll pick you

up bring it to geneva

and which he ended up doing and just

drove me around the city

benny and i around the city for uh a

couple days as we just would

visit reformation sites and the museum

and read the stories and

it was just moving i i i believe every

move of god

has in its basic

um in the seed of every move of god

carries the potential for a reformation

every visitation of god to me carries

the possibility the potential of revival

that is not supposed to end until

there’s true reformation

of culture society and it’s just it’s

just a huge subject it’s not

something that i i feel qualified to

to deal with in any uh any

great with any great success today but i

will touch on it

but having said all of that as i have

been thinking

praying towards looking forward to this

opportunity to be able to talk to you

about this

a favorite subject of mine i have i have

felt the dealings of the lord i don’t

use that

that kind of terminology with you very

often but i have

over recent weeks been feeling the

dealings of the lord

on our need our need

as a people a movement but as a nation

our need to return to the basics the

fundamentals

and i i want to read to you a verse that

many of you can quote

but i want to read i actually have quite

a few scriptures written down on paper

so i won’t have to

necessarily turn to each because i

really want to try to use the time well

i’ll give you the reference

but this first one where i want to start

today it’s not the portion we’re going

to study but it’s the

part that i want to start today is

second chronicles

7 14. i want you to listen carefully

if my people who are called by my name

will humble themselves and pray

and seek my face and turn from their

wicked ways

then i will hear from heaven and will

forgive their sin

and heal their land let me read it again

if my people

who are called by my name we keep

waiting for the world to repent

when god is saying the healing of the

land is dependent upon my people

repenting if my people who are caught by

my name

will humble themselves and pray and seek

my

face turn from their wicked ways

then i will hear from heaven and will

forgive their sin

and heal their land

this profound picture is of

the wonderful union between jesus

and his people where in this passage

the sin the rebellions the independence

the attitudes the all the

you know the wrong values all the junk

gets removed

and that fellowship becomes so tender

and so dear

that it overflows into the healing of

the earth itself

for me it’s the beginning place of all

true reformation and let me

let me just put it this way repentance

is at the heart and soul

of every great move of god it’s out the

heart and soul

because god will actually put his

blessing on an

unbeliever before he’ll put his blessing

on a carnal believer

the scripture says that blessing is

god’s calling card he will actually

touch an

unbeliever with his favor and his

blessing hoping that they will want more

of that and turn their hearts to seek

him it’s very clear in scripture

but it’s also clear that judgment has to

begin with a household of god

first why is that if it starts with the

world

it requires condemnation if it starts

with the church

it makes us pure which enables us to

bring more people into the kingdom

it must start with you and with me

repentance is at the heart of this thing

repentance the absolute turning from

every known

thing that would defile or compromise

our values our lifestyles

the focus of our life for many years

i’ve i have emphasized the true meaning

of the word repentance and

and uh i’m i’m not sorry for for that at

all

the the word repentance means to change

the way think change your mind about

something

and i believe in that very strongly

because it when i was growing up

it was not uh it was not an emphasized

part of repentance the crying at the

altar was the emphasized part

and here i want to make a not a

mid-course correction but i want to add

something to our definition first of all

repentance is

the changing of the way you think but

the bible says

godly sorrow leads to repentance

godly sorrow there is the place

for deep internal remorse for everything

that has defiled us

or has caused us to be off course it’s

not living in regret

it’s not living in regret over things

that jesus has forgiven it’s not that

it’s just the absolute realization that

i

am alive because of the mercy of god

and we’re going to look at a couple

stories today i’m going to i’m going to

try to

weave some very large stories into a

very small

period of time and see if we can help to

make sense of this

journey that we find through scripture

on how

god extends his mercy to a group of

people

and he heals their relationships their

relationship with him

families all of that get healed but the

land itself the

the earth the the agriculture the

political systems the educational

systems everything about

community life starts to come into place

and i would like to suggest that that

kind of repentance right there

is the seed of a great reformation

and i believe that the lord is actually

we’re it we’re we’re living at a time

with obviously the pandemic the

political stuff

we’ve got so many things that are

hanging in the balance

that if there was one word that i could

talk to every believer

in our country and i know we have so

many other nations that are

participating in the service and i would

encourage you to take this

tart as well but if there’s one verse

i could give to every born-again person

in this nation it would be

ii chronicles 7 14. if my people

and i would say look at me guys listen

to me

live this as full as you possibly can

because we have right now we have things

that will affect

multiple generations ahead hanging in

the balance right now and what we’ve got

to have

is a visitation of god we’ve got to have

an

invasion of the almighty one who would

come

in and among us and bring healing and

it’s

always to places we don’t deserve

so that’s that’s kind of where i want to

start today i’m going to um

i’m going to read a verse

out of the book of ezekiel if you want

to turn there with me

most of these references i’m just going

to uh

just give to you quickly and then

and then read it off the paper that i i

have printed out

but here’s a verse i want to talk to you

about three different cities i want to

talk to you about sodom

gomorrah and nineveh

all three cities had the absolute

judgment of god

pronounced towards them

now i realize that judgment of god is

not a very popular subject

but get used to it it’s still in the

bible and he didn’t take off his judge

hat when he became savior

if i can put it this way if you were to

have discovered cancer

in your body you would not want to go to

a doctor

that believed that cancer should have

its own free life and its own free

expression you would want a doctor that

would bring judgment on that which is

working to destroy your life and in the

same way we

want the mercy of god on our lives but

the judgment of god that cuts off

everything that wars against our own

destiny

mike bickel says it best he says god’s

judgments are always

aimed at whatever interferes with love

god’s judgments are always aimed at

whatever interferes with love

and so it’s something that we want as

blood washed saints as those who

have given ourselves to live to follow

to serve jesus to honor him with our

whole life

the judgment of god is the very thing

that we need is very sobering

and right now we need a heavy heavy dose

of the fear of god

released into our nation so here let me

read to you

we know that sodom and gomorrah were

destroyed nineveh was spirit

we’re going to just try to take a real

quick look if we can

at these three cities out of ezekiel

chapter did i tell you the chapter 16

chapter 16 verse 49 this is a very very

sobering verse

i want to remind you sodom and gomorrah

were destroyed

it’s it’s a cultural phenomenon people

who don’t read the bible

know about sodom and gomorrah and why

they were destroyed they were destroyed

for their immorality they were destroyed

for their gross gross perversion

sexually and so many other things that

had become a part of their

excuse me ongoing lifestyle but here in

ezekiel 16 verse 49

it says look this was the iniquity of

your sister sodom

she and her daughter had pride

fullness of food abundance

of idleness neither did she strengthen

the hand of the poor

and the needy

abundance of food spare time

and it wasn’t used for the poor and the

needy

i would like to suggest to you

that abundance in our life

has to find expression through

compassion

or it will be misused and abused

it has to find release through

compassion

the pharisees would complain to jesus

because he would heal on the sabbath day

what was missing

the compassion for the paralytic who had

no use of his arm

that’s what was missing they were more

concerned about keeping the rules and

they were somebody being set free

it’s over and over and over again the

complete absence of compassion is what

caused them to be so blind so blind to

their own

heart’s condition so blind to the cries

the needs of the people around them

that they they completely severed their

hearts from being

moved by this divine

expression called compassion

we see peter and john are walking to the

gate beautiful

and there’s a lame man there

and peter looks at him and he in acts

chapter 3

he says he’s there begging for for money

and peter says i don’t silver and gold

have i none but what i have i give to

you

catch that what i have

i give to you

just follow me on this on this little uh

this

this little logical journey here what i

have

i give to you many people don’t function

in the miraculous because they don’t

know what they have

let’s say that i had ten thousand

dollars cash in my pocket

and i go downtown and i’ve got all these

got a hundred hundred dollar bills here

i’ve got all this money here in my

pockets

and i walk past a somebody asking

for food first of all

if i have surplus money and i do nothing

then i obviously am not moved with

compassion and i hear all the time well

we don’t want them to go by drugs or

alcohol or whatever

i get that but there’s another issue i

can’t use their misuse

as my excuse to do nothing the

possibility of them

sinning with what i give them cannot

keep me from what i

need most and that is to move in

compassion

to do something to contribute to their

life now let’s change the story a little

bit let’s say that ten thousand dollars

every time i pull a hundred dollar bill

out it gets replaced it’s a supernatural

thing

no matter how much i give away it gets

replaced

that actually is a better description of

what it is to minister in the anointing

because you don’t release anointing and

power in

a miracle setting and lose something

it is always replenished it is unending

supply

the reason miracles are supposed to be

a regular part of our life is because

they actually express

the compassion of god you and i can show

compassion by

showing sympathy and and i don’t want to

say any of these things are bad i’m just

saying

biblical compassion leads to a solution

sympathy leads to comfort

in a problem but not a solution and i

believe that the lord would heighten our

awareness right now of something that

actually was at the

foundation of the fall of sodom and

gomorrah

is that they had all these perversions

and these things that developed out of

their surplus time

surplus money surplus food and the

absence of compassion

they developed into a self-seeking

culture which sounds a whole lot

like a place i’m very familiar with that

we all live in

surplus time surplus money and i realize

that’s not everybody but

as a culture what happens when you have

extra and it’s not directed

towards serving the needs of people

around you is we become

insulated and isolated from world need

if i walked past the person and i didn’t

do something you could say i was not

moved with compassion but here’s the

deal

jesus announced the spirit of the lord

god is upon me

to release captives to open the eyes of

the blind what is it what did he do

he declared his realization

that he had what was needed by that

blind person he had what was needed by

that lame person

i hope this is making sense that when

you

when you are aware of what you have and

it’s what it’s what peter said to the

lame man he says such as i have

i give you he knew he carried an eternal

flame

if you will sorry i need to call fear

it’s not coping

[Laughter]

i promise it is not coped it was a

tickle in my throat

leave me alone all right i’m i’m teasing

all right so here’s this here’s this um

the compulsion to give out of what you

have

i believe we know that authority comes

in our lives through the commission it’s

our yielding to what god has commanded

us to do but power comes in the

encounter

this is why this is why encounters with

god are so essential

because they cause you to be aware of

what you have

it’s not just it’s not just reading a

verse and claiming it i i

believe in that and i i try to practice

a huge part of my life is that

it’s it’s finding what god says in his

word and come before him in prayer and

just contend until there’s breakthrough

i believe in that

but i’m just telling you right now

we need the kind of encounters that are

unexplainable

unreasonable unmanageable

outside of our control so that we come

face to face with the fact

that god is upon me

and i am impacted by him who has no

limitation

he has no boundaries he has no

restrictions or restraints

except in some measure my willingness to

cooperate with him

obviously he can do whatever he wants

but you get the picture he primarily

flows through yielded people

and when we don’t yield when we look at

the problem as an impossibility

and don’t think in terms of what i have

what i have

i give to you peter gave something

that he didn’t have in and of himself

and that was the capacity

to walk given to a lame man here’s

here’s the story sodom and gomorrah

abundance time

and needs only two of those things

mattered to them

was the abundance and the time the

excess time

not the needy people and because of that

that brokenness in how we do life

as a culture as a society actually

became

a wide open door for the demonic to come

in

and create a playground of absolute

perversion but it started with

excess that wasn’t directed towards

helping serving loving people

and i’d like to suggest that whether

it’s sodom and gomorrah or it’s the

pharisees with religious

institutions and organizations both have

the absolute same

corruption at its core it’s the absence

of compassion

in the absence of a real heart for

people

jonah is um

is a personal favorite of mine i i’m i’m

working on a book right now and

and i i just this last week was writing

about jonah

and i i’ve i’ve had this in mind for a

while i

it feels like it feels like maybe one of

the most

underrated miracles in the entire bible

is the healing of a city called nineveh

if if you want an example

of reformation if you want an example of

repentance

that becomes the seedbed of a

transformation of society itself

look no further than the story of jonah

and nineveh god speaks to this prophet

jonah tells him to go on to preach

and interestingly he he doesn’t tell

jonah

go and tell them unless they repent they

will be destroyed

he said just go tell him i’m going to

destroy him

there was no offer of repentance there

was no promise there was nothing given

just the announcement jonah of course uh

flees from the presence of god

this is weird nineveh repents jonah

runs from the presence of god

ah i’ll get to it in a minute

i’m getting ahead of myself i can feel

it this story

john has the assignment to go to nineveh

walk the streets repent he runs from the

presence of god gets on a boat

thrown overboard to save everybody on

the on the boat which is an interesting

comparison the entire boat that paul was

on in the book of acts everybody was

spared because he was

there but everybody just about died

because jonah was in this one

they throw him overboard he’s swallowed

by a fish

he remembers the lord which is probably

a good idea if you ever get eaten by a

fish

and he uh he repents and

the fish pukes him up on the beach which

if you can imagine sunbathing on the

beach the day that

a man is barfed in your presence

you probably would listen to something

he had to say i’m not sure but anyway he

walks the streets it takes him

three full days if i remember right to

walk the street to

to walk from one end of the city to the

other announcing

judgment is coming in 30 days or

whatever

the word gets all the way to the king

and they announce that they’re going to

repent and see if by chance god might

have mercy on them

and and they do they repent i mean

from the greatest to the least they all

wore sackcloth and ashes they

they literally sat in in an ash heap

they

they’re they’re in their their mourning

place they even required the animals to

fast

that’s that’s just bizarre it’s such a

deep sense

of judgment coming upon them that they

deserved

there was such clarity in their thinking

that their repentance was not a casual

oh god forgive me for that that was a

that was a real bummer i’m sorry

it wasn’t that the deeper the sin

into who you are the deeper the

repentance needs to be not to

earn forgiveness somehow but to know

that you’re actually dealing with

something that must be permanently

uprooted

from our life and the mercy of god of

course comes as they

are bowing in repentance and for days

they’re in this place of

repenting before the lord and uh and

god shows up and he forgives them

meanwhile

jonah is sitting up on a hill waiting

for the judgment of god to come on this

city

and uh and he’s he’s angry that god

forgives him

and you know i’ll let you read the story

but he’s angry because god showed mercy

he said this is why i didn’t want to do

it

that’s why i didn’t want to do because i

knew you’d just have mercy on him

because somehow it’d make him look bad

announcing judgment i guess and it not

happening

a lot of ministry gets perverted when we

are more concerned about how we appear

than how we reveal god

and so jonah in this situation he’s

bummed out he’s sitting on a hill

and a weird thing happens he’s got the

son just baking him

and he’s waiting for judgment it doesn’t

happen a plant grows up

overnight and it’s shade for him and the

next day

that plant dies at night here’s

here’s here’s what it says let me just

read these scriptures to you

it says uh when god saw their deeds

this is in um oh goodness i thought i

wrote down i didn’t write down the

reference

it’s in the bible oh it’s here it is

it’s in john 3

chapter 3 verse 10 when god saw their

deeds that they had turned from their

wicked ways now

please understand confession must

include

turning from and turning towards

that’s the concept of scripture hebrews

6 says repentance from dead works faith

towards god so there’s a from and

there’s a towards

he saw their deeds they turned from

their wicked ways then god relented

concerning the calamity which he had

declared he would bring

upon them and he did not do it

and so in the next uh the next passage

which is in chapter 4

verses 10 and 11 of jonah says then the

lord said now

the lord is rebuking jonah and you’ve

got to catch this part

the lord said you had compassion on the

plant

for which you did not work and did not

cause to grow which came up overnight

and perished overnight

should i not have compassion on nineveh

the great city in which there are more

than 120

000 persons who do not know the

difference between their right hand

and their left as well as many animals

this is a bizarre passage i want you to

catch this

jonah is shaded by a plant he goes to

sleep that night

the thing dies as quickly as it grew it

was he was being protected

god interprets that not as

oh you’re mad you don’t have shade

anymore god interprets it as

you had more compassion for a plant

that died in your presence than you do

for a city of people who are so

morally ethically twisted

that they spiritually speaking don’t

know the difference from the right hand

to their left they couldn’t find

themselves

their way out of a wet paper bag they

are so lost in their moral condition

that they couldn’t find their way into a

place of sanity

unless the mercy of god came upon them

so god announces

jonah your issue is the absence of

compassion

the absence of compassion so here’s this

story about nineveh

we see uh sodom and gomorrah were

destroyed

and um because of their sin god

announced he was going to bring

destruction on nineveh

and he did not why because he had

compassion now here’s the

here’s the deal that concerns me

jonah was fine with the compassion of

the lord

when it was for him he ran from god

swallowed by fish puked up on the land

and he was great with the compassion of

the lord when it was directed towards

him

but he was not happy with the compassion

of the lord

when it was directed towards those jonah

wanted to see judge for their sin

i see this i see this in in christianity

i see this in our world

where people will love the standard of

mercy when it’s extended to them but

they get very

frustrated when that standard of mercy

is extended towards others

it’s it’s it’s a blind spot it’s

actually a blind spot

it’s a blind spot that almo it’s almost

like it says

my deep repentance earned me that mercy

but i don’t believe they’ve deeply

repented it’s the judgment of the heart

and the judgment of the heart of another

person is one of the most

out of the line activities a believer

can be involved in because the scripture

says

no one can know the heart unless god

reveal it and he doesn’t reveal the

heart of another person

to you if you’re going to criticize them

he only gives revelation to those he can

trust with what he shows them

you cannot know your own heart how in

the world you’re going to know somebody

else’s

and when this this kind of stuff happens

somebody extends mercy extends kindness

uh i’m so i’m so thankful you were

patient with me i’m so thankful you were

kind

to me but when that same kindness is

shown to somebody else

it’s considered careless just no

standards

i remember we had a fallen

leader come to one of our events we’ve

had it several times but

i’m thinking of one in particular and

when he came

i introduced him to the crowd because

everybody everybody knows

everybody knows just his stupid mistakes

stupid sins

no excuse but there is forgiveness

when i introduced him he got a standing

ovation

which i interpreted as we forgive you

we accept you we want to give you room

to repent and deal with your stuff

but the critics in the room took as an

indication

that we were soft on sin

i’m guessing that was jonah’s thought

towards god you’re soft on sin these

people deserve

judgment

there’s not very many things that i

could emphasize today

that would be more pertinent to the hour

that we live in

than this right here

the mercy i’ve received i

must give away i must give away

the man who is forgiven of a great great

uh i forget the numbers now but you know

he owes millions of dollars and the guy

forgave him and then he turned and he

was angry at somebody who owed him

twenty dollars and

the man who had forgiven him millions

took back his forgiveness and brought

judgment on him

the only part i want to say is when

you’ve received

something i would like to suggest you

jonah

the prophet of the lord who knows the

voice of the lord who knows the presence

of the lord

who ran from god in that moment created

a bigger sin

than nineveh who didn’t know their right

hand from their left

and when god extended mercy to jonah the

man of god who fled from his presence

unwilling to do his will

that was the greater sin at least in my

thinking

than a city that didn’t even know how

lost they were

i i don’t want to you know put graduated

levels of sin i just want to say

god had mercy on the greater sin and the

problem

is when when you are raised in a church

environment when you grow up in this

kind of environment

which many of you are watching have been

we we deal lightly

with our sins of jealousy

our sins that accuse and point

our sins of easily being offended we

deal

lightly with those and are so

harsh towards those who have the

quote-unquote greater sins

the moral failures etc and

this is this is a time

as we come into a holiday season to

celebrate the gift

of god’s mercy in jesus this is a time

when it would be really smart for every

one of us to realize

i didn’t deserve it i didn’t deserve it

i remember i was in another city doing a

conference and

this pastor and all were leaving to go

out to lunch and there was a woman still

standing there

she was the only one left at the altar

praying

pastor said ask if i take a moment so i

went over and i began to pray so it’s a

long story i’m just going to cut it

short

she basically didn’t want me to pray for

him which is fine for me because i was

hungry for lunch i wanted to go with the

pastor but

but i i had this compassion thing that

stirred up on me that

that was at a different level it really

was it’s outside of my norm

she didn’t want me to pray for her she

wanted her husband to pray for it which

generally i just tell somebody you know

i have no problem with that i don’t have

to be the one and we’ll just move on

and then as i started to pray for her

anyway because i felt i’m supposed to

i said do you need to forgive anyone and

she said you don’t know what they’ve

done for me i go oh

super so now i got someone who doesn’t

want me to pray for him number one

number two

they are bitter and they they’re

unwilling to forgive

and she was absolutely unwilling to

forgive

now 99.9 of the time when i’m faced with

that i just i basically say listen

you’ll have to

you’ll have to work this out because

there’s no freedom for you until you

forgive

but that compassion thing stirred up

again and it was operating outside of

my my norm the way i would normally

think i i need i need

her to face the difficulty of her choice

to live in unforgiveness

that this calamity that she is facing is

connected to

but it rose up in me again and i

bypassed all my rules my personal

boundaries i bypassed all of them

i put my hand on her uh the shoulder

that was injured

and i just began to pray very simply i

said all right now move it around

she moved first of all she was

completely healed as she began to move

she broke into sobbing fell to her knees

and said i didn’t deserve it

i didn’t deserve it and that’s what we

need right now is a whole bunch of i

didn’t deserve it

stuff going on i just didn’t

deserve it and repentance

happened before me on the floor because

i was

in some way i was willing to move beyond

my my prescribed boundaries that are

biblically based

and follow compassion to her compassion

would lead me

she was healed and she repented

of the resentment

my mind turned quickly to matthew

and there’s a portion of scripture i’ve

taught on a number of times a number of

you

i’m sure you’ve heard me teach on out of

matthew chapter 11

and matthew chapter 12 and if

if i had this to do ever again i might

spend the entire time

just in matthew 11 and 12.

but in this chapter jesus talks about

three cities

and i’ll read it to you quickly jesus

says in matthew 11

21 what are you chores and what do you

bet say that if the miracles had

occurred entire in sidon

which occurred in you they would have

repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes

nevertheless i say to you be more

tolerable for tyron’s side

in the day of judgment than for you and

you capernaum

will not be exalted to heaven will you

uh

new king james says you are exalted to

heaven so

there are heaven-like in atmosphere you

will descend to hades for the miracles

had occurred in sodom which occurred in

you

it would have remained to this day now

hear this sodom

i said we’re talking about sodom

gomorrah in nineveh nineveh was spared

here jesus gives an insight as to how

even

the perverted horrible

twisted distorted city of sodom and

gomorrah could have been spared

and he says if the miracles that were

done in you capernaum

the religious community that is

comfortable

in living in biblical parameters

but you don’t move in repentance you

don’t move into a place where you

recognize

what god is doing is the only thing

worth being involved in

you just add him to your nice christian

lifestyle

and he says if the miracles that were

done in eucapan were done

in sodom sodom would still be here

what does that tell us it tells us

there’s something

about i want to say it’s the miracles i

want to say it’s the

abrupt invasion of the god of the

impossible coming into people’s lives it

is that

and more but let me suggest

that the miracles of jesus

all came from that place called

compassion

let’s re re-step this aware

the spirit of the lord god is upon me

why

to redeem to bring healing to restore

now he steps into a place where there’s

great need and he ministers

out of what he has what brought the

release

the compassion and jesus was moved with

compassion

and the person’s eyes were opened or the

lame walked whatever it might be

at a time that we live in right now

where

emotions are at a heightened uh area

level for everything it’s it’s

i’ve never seen a time when people are

more easily

and offended tell you the scary thing

about a fence and i i uh

i have to examine this in my own heart

in my own life right now

i’m aware that when you discern

something in somebody else

it’s often because it exists in you and

you’re not willing to recognize it

the spirit of offense

deadens a person’s ability

to discern while at the same time

heightening their awareness for the need

of discernment

offense clouds perverts distorts

a person’s ability to discern

what’s happening in another person if i

move with offense

i will misread and misdiagnose most

every relationship i’m in

if i’m governed by offense my own

ability to discern

but what’s crazy is my passion for

discernment increases and i don’t know

where i’m blind

and because i don’t know where i’m blind

and the passion for discernment

it means that my discernment now is

misdiagnosed

and uh and usually brings destruction

and not clarity not liberty not freedom

it is good

this past passage in matthew 11

jesus gives the insight to how senfield

cities can be

turned it’s through miracle signs and

wonders

specifically it’s the release of

compassion

that brings a company of people to the

streets

that know what they have and every

hundred dollar bill they give away

so to speak is immediately replaced

because the spirit is given to us

without measure

one more passage i want to read to you

it’s

this is typically what i refer to

it’s the very next chapter matthew

chapter 12.

in this chapter a paralytic is healed

then a crowd gathers everyone in the

crowd is healed

then a blind and mute man is brought to

jesus

and he is healed and then it says

in verse 38 then some of the scribes and

pharisees said to him teacher

we want to see a sign from you

it’s one of the weirdest stories

sequence of stories in the bible for me

miracle miracle miracle

we want to see a sign from you then we

want to see a sign from you

what’s the point

the war is between signs that come from

compassion

and signs that elevate my own esteem and

my own sense of control

the pharisees as always want to dictate

what happens and they want jesus to

perform tricks for them

when jesus refused to perform for them

especially since he had just done these

series of miracles

that brought healing deliverance to

people and they went unrecognized

by the pharisaical crowd

what’s the point they were not moved

with compassion they

are in the exact place as sodom gomorrah

was

in that time of judgment because they

didn’t use their

surplus towards serving

and helping and redeeming

so here’s this verse is used often

against those of us who pray for the

sick

jesus answered and said to this group he

says an evil and adulterous

generation craves for a sign no sign

will be given but the sign of jonah the

prophet

it is an absolute abuse of scripture

the heart and the context of scripture

to assume that jesus is rebuking people

that are pursuing miracles it’s an

absolute abuse it’s in the context

it’s a violation of reason

what he refused to do is put them in

charge where they could dictate

the showmanship of the hour

and instead he withheld and he said this

he said no sign will be given to you

that’s very specific group of people you

will not receive any sign except the

sign of jonah i’ve always thought

three days in the belly of the fish come

out the resurrection was the sign

and it may be but in my reading today

it stood out to me

that jesus followed this statement with

verse 41

and he said the men of nineveh will

stand up with this generation at the

judgment

and will condemn it because they

repented at the preaching of jonah

and behold something greater than jonah

is here

what’s the sign of jonah i’m wondering

if it’s not the absolute raw

preaching of the gospel of jesus christ

the raw preaching where god himself

shows up he puts his hand on a message

that releases the opportunity for the

transformation of a life

if it might not be that this group of

people will not see miracles anymore

all they will have is the opportunity to

repent because they have heard a message

that comes forth with the force and the

power of heaven to transform a life

there’s something unmistakable in this

message that jesus brought to people

unmistakable in that he always provides

people

a way to enter life and to avoid uh

damnation credit uh a condemnation

tragedy he gives access

to life to breakthrough to becoming all

that god designed

for us to become all of his disciplines

none of them are for punishment

the always to refine our focus so that

we enter more fully into life enter more

fully into who we were designed to be

i believe that the testimony of

scripture

is that we have a sense of indebtedness

as believers

number one to get to be to get filled

with the spirit of god until we are

conscious

of what we have silver and gold have i

none but here’s what i do have

get up out of the wheelchair and walk

the burning conviction that what i have

is greater than the problem you have

and i’m going to make an exchange with

or i’m going to give you a gift

it’s a bizarre situation

that what the lord is looking for is for

you for me to number one

become aware of the god who is with us

emmanuel

god with us number two allow his heart

to bring us to that place of compassion

yieldedness

so that the gifts of the spirit move in

the context of love

not in showmanship not in we want a

bigger crowd not

any of that stuff it’s the simple gospel

that changes a person’s life the

greatest miracle is the conversion of a

soul

the greatest miracle but it does not

stop there is to heal the bodies to

bring deliverance

from the torment that exists on the mind

on the family line

all these things were to be dealt with

with the gospel of power

and that’s what you have that’s what i

have is a gospel

of power it is unlimited in its scope

in its measure in its ability

to not only restore everyone watching

this to a place of

friendship with god restored as a child

to a loving father

but also to the point where he heals our

land

and right now we need the healing of the

land

i’m going to close in prayer but i want

to ask all of you that are watching

if you find yourself outside of a

personal relationship with jesus christ

then i want you on the bethel tv on

youtube channel

podcast whatever means you are

by which you are watching this broadcast

let somebody know

i need i want to know jesus

i want to know jesus somebody will pray

with you they’ll talk with you pray with

you

let me just close the prayer father

i thank you that we actually are on the

edge

of what could be the greatest

reformation in all of history

all of history we acknowledge that that

is

the purpose of the gospel is to

transform a life

a family a nation a world

and i’m asking that in this season

regardless of the abundance in our life

in the season or the lack

that we would never lack compassion and

that you would flow in and through us

to bring healing to the land i pray this

in jesus name

amen amen bless you