Build Into Your Life An Atmosphere of Hope - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 I believe that we're all called to Abraham-type faith, that in the middle of all the odds are against us, but now God has said. It's hard to keep natural hope alive. There's so many negative situations around. But when you've heard God speak, when you have a word from God, holding to that word becomes a life source. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Wow.

0:31 I hate when I think I'm buying organic vegetables and when I get home I discover they're just regular donuts. yeah yeah yeah i have another one in here something like what do you call organic gluten-free brownies. Compost.

1:11 I could go on, but I'll just stop right there. Yeah. Why don't you open your Bibles to Romans 4. And I have an unusual passion for what I'm going to share today. Not that I have more passion than another word that the Lord would give us, but I feel a prophetic. In fact, today is more of a prophetic decree and a prayer perhaps than a teaching, but I'll teach until I get there. I want to talk to you today about the subject of hope.

1:48 a number of years ago a friend of mine gave me some advice i can't go into details it wouldn't i don't think so anyway uh he gave some advice and counsel that i needed to create some part of my life that would be new that god could breathe on and add blessing to i needed to step out courageously, so to speak, and create new parts of my life, things that I was invested in in prayer, invested in financially, invested in with time, with serving, with whatever it might be. I need to broaden my opportunity for his blessing. and what I have felt is that I've watched the Lord if I can use this in a in a real natural sense a number of years ago a gentleman wrote a book a very small little booklet which small booklets don't sell small little booklet on the prayer of Jabez and God breathed on it and it became a prophetic word to the entire body of Christ and it was a source of great blessing for him but the point is is that he put something out there that God could breathe on for some of you it's a relational connection for some of you it's other areas of personal investment of time, of serving I don't want to restrict it too much I want to get down to the primary point I felt in my own life in recent months that I needed to refresh my list of dreams.

3:42 I needed to refresh my list of dreams. I needed, my dreams needed life to them. I had the same dreams, some of them that I've had for many, many years. The big ones are important. But here's what I felt. I felt like I had to be careful to not categorize them in spiritual and natural. I couldn't categorize them as something for everyone and something for me. I had to actually go through this list and start making a list that just had to do with my dreams. And they were everything from cancer being non-existent in Bethel to me shooting a nice trophy elk. And I'm not sure which one's more important. That's not true. That's not true. You know, obviously all of us know enough to know which one to choose, but our problem is, as we don't understand his process. And sometimes the anointing for the breakthrough of a spiritual solution is found in a natural answer to prayer.

4:38 we don't understand his process we can't be trusted to dissect our life well enough to know how he's going to bring us into the breakthrough we long for because sometimes you've heard some of the silly stories perhaps that I have and all of us have, you know one day sitting by a lake wondering if a fish would eat a bee and have a bee fly by and literally fall out of the sky the moment after I thought it under the water and a fish comes up and eats it. And it's like he's listening to my thoughts and he's answering my questions. It's that, and it was, it was, it was one of the most important things of my life, as silly as it may seem, because it showed me so much about him. And that's the point is all of his answers to prayer, all of his fulfillment of dreams, of desires, all of the satisfaction that we receive in life that we were actually born for, they all reveal him. And that's the big cry in the earth is that the father would be known for who he is. We owe people a life that is extreme in hope. And so this is what I want to talk about. The biblical word hope is so much different than the way hope is used in this culture. The way hope would be used in our culture is it would be a wish. I hope that happens. I wish that this would happen in my life.

6:04 I hope that they call me on the phone. I hope that this job opportunity opens up, whatever it might be. It's a wish. Biblical hope actually means the joyful anticipation of good. In other words, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat excited besides myself with joy because I know what's coming my way. It's a different kind of a hope. And it actually becomes an atmosphere that faith grows in. It becomes an atmosphere that actually attracts the promises of God. I've watched people lose hope. And all of us have done it in situations. We just lose hope. We maybe know enough to say the right things spiritually to give the right answer. Or when it's appropriate time to pray the right prayer. But in our heart of hearts, when we're alone, we're face to face with the fact that hopelessness has really swallowed up that part of our life. and I feel like this morning I just wanted to do kind of a refresher course on this subject of hope and we're going to use a story of Abraham Abraham was honored by the Lord when God number one called him his friend number two said I'm going to count your faith as righteousness and number three he dedicated an entire chapter of the Bible to Abraham that's fairly significant Hebrews 11 is dedicated to about 20 or 30 people Romans 4 is dedicated to Abraham it was the Lord wanted to honor this man who believed when it was impossible what he was believing for in fact the phrase we'll look at is hope against hope it's when natural hope that has limitations gets swallowed up by divine hope that knows no limitations.

8:00 And it's moving from I live with just a positive attitude about life to where I see prophetically the purposes and plans of God, and I am one of the instruments that help to bring about what God is planning to do in the earth. And so what I've done just for my own life, and I've been taking time over the last little while, just to make a list. and I'm not making that the point of the message, but I would encourage you to do it. I would encourage you to create something. Just keep an ongoing list in your Bible by your bedside. Something where you just write down your dreams. Your dreams for your life. Every dream is significant. I've got kind of a strange example. I was asked a question between services and this might be a way for me to illustrate this. Every dream was born of God. Now let me explain that.

8:56 Every dream was born of God in the sense that the basic desire that you have, that dream that you have, is born of God. The expression that it's looking for isn't always. I'll explain it this way. Friends of ours went to Lebanon many, many, many years ago. They went there to lead, direct a TV ministry to broadcast the gospel throughout that part of the world. When they got there, the nation blew up. Everything collapsed. And they ended up creating a correspondence course to send the message of the gospel into dark, dark places of the earth. And the gospel spread like rapid fire. What did God do? God gave them a desire to do TV in Lebanon. What was the real desire? to spread the gospel throughout the Middle East. When they went there to do it, all the opportunities collapsed.

9:50 But what got them there was still alive. Does that make sense? What got them there was still born of God. It got them in the right place to find out how he was actually going to unfold it. And sometimes we dream things that we think will happen this way, and it's only when we get into the middle of the difficulty, of the challenges, and we hold course that we actually find, oh, he had a completely different way of answering this cry of the heart. Does that make any sense? So this is what I want, I don't know, somehow I just want to encourage you to go crazy with dreams. And let's just see what he would breathe on. Let's just see what he would do. Because I feel like we've got to give him things that he would breathe on. Why? He's a good steward. He's a good steward. He doesn't waste his time. There are some people that have protected their comfort zone with unbelief. I refuse to insulate people from the pain of their own unbelief.

11:02 Amen. Romans 4 oh sorry one more comment John Paul Jackson came here a number of years ago.

11:42 And I'm so thankful for him, his ministry all over our nation, around the world. Great, great prophet of the Lord. And I remember when he was here, he talked to us about the importance of Romans chapter 4. And I remember when I heard him speak on it, I actually made a covenant in my heart to read that every day for a year. It ended up, I read it every day for three years, daily. I missed five days because of international flights. But other than that, it was every day for three years I would read this chapter because I felt sometimes we read things on a surface level and have a measure of comprehension of what it's talking about. But until that word becomes us or until we become that word, I don't know that we really understand it and can live it. And the Lord is looking for people who actually are what he says and can display what he promises. And to do that requires more than a simple glance or study or even memorization of a passage. It requires what I believe is deep, deep exposure to the word of the Lord. That means for me, what that means is, is times of prayer where I just prayerfully recite, recount a word of promise that the Lord has given me, a scripture that he's given.

13:08 And I rehearse that before the Lord. I may sing it. I may pray it. I may just dwell on it and think on it until it just becomes a part of me, until it affects my dream life, until it affects my, it's no longer a choice to think about. It comes up because it's in there. Does that make sense? It comes up, it grabs my attention because it got in there. Clear as mud? Good. All right, Romans 4. Verse 18. Actually, we'll start in the middle of 17, if you can figure it out. God, who gives life to the dead, calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Verse 18. Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken. So shall your descendants be.

14:00 Just verse 18 again. who contrary to hope and hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken. So shall your descendants be. All right, let me explain this. He became according to what was spoken. That's the heart of the Lord for every person in this room that we would become what he says. Say that with me. His desire is that I would become what he says. So Abraham took this word and it says he hoped against hope. In fact, the Message Bible says it in a pretty cool way.

14:43 He says, when everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do, but on what God said he would do. And he was made a father of many peoples. God himself said to him, you're going to have a big family, Abraham. Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say it's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child, nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise, asking cautiously skeptical questions. I love that. He plunged into the promise and came up strong.

15:23 Plunged into the promise and came up strong. So here's this deal. every single person in this room has some dreams that are doable but the ones you don't want to talk about are the ones that are impossible and what I would encourage of everybody in this room is just start making your dream list and it can be anything from I want to take a vacation in Yellowstone Park to I want to see the dead raised and don't categorize because we don't do well categorizing. For God, as you know, your place of employment, some would say you have a spiritual job, Christian job, and others have a secular job. There's no such categorization in the Bible. Once you're in it, it becomes a spiritual point of occupation. Now, I remember hearing years ago a list of priorities for those in ministry, and it was very helpful, very useful list.

16:27 It was God is first, family second, the church is third, and this list that different pastors made. And they made it during a time when ministry seemed to be demanding all their time, all their affection, and they really saw that they had to give themselves first and foremost to the family and then to the church. And it was a wonderful emphasis and a wonderful revelation. But in my own journey with the Lord, I've changed the description a little bit and you do what you want with it this is how it works for me God is number one family is number two church is number three etc I've changed it God is number one and when he's number one there is no number two my love for my wife is a part of my offering to God there's no vacation from number one to do number two my love for my children my grandchildren is all a part of my expression of worship to God.

17:25 If I'm taking a vacation with my kids, that is a worship expression. I've been learning how to capture every single part of life and bring it into the scope of what is an offering, what I can actually give to the Lord as a fragrant offering to him for his glory, for his honor. No longer separation between secular and sacred. And so obviously there's still that emphasis I have to make sure I take care of my family but it's never vacation from number one to do number two does that make sense to you? alright hope against hope there's two guys in the bible that I want to do a little comparison with Abraham would be the first one Abraham lived with such an infectious hope that he defined his surroundings his nephew Lot it says in 1 Peter listen to this phrase Lot was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.

18:34 Let me say it again. I left out one word. Righteous Lot was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. Righteous Lot. Do you remember when Abraham believed God in the middle of absolute impossibility? He still is believing God. He's got a 100-year-old body. He's got a 90-year-old wife. It's impossible for them to have kids. He still just believes God. In that atmosphere of contagious hope, a miracle comes forth. Abraham was known for extreme faith and extreme hope. Lot was known for being righteous, but his... his life became engulfed by the sinful conduct of people around him and his own effectiveness was crippled and I believe it was because of this issue of hope.

19:33 If you compare the two lives, both are called righteous, both are going to spend eternity with God, both have promise. Abraham defined his surroundings, Lot was defined by his surroundings. And the only difference I can find between the two, primary difference, would be Abraham lived with hope, the swallowed natural hope. Lot just had wishes. here's here's the part of this verse that stands out to me and i i hope this is making sense the part of this verse that hits me so hard in romans 4 it says that um it says it contrary to hope and hope believed he became the father of many nations what is it saying it's saying your legacy comes out of hope Thank you. We don't know much about Lot's descendants in a good way, but we do Abraham.

20:35 we've talked in here for a number of years about the hundred year vision about having multiple generations that are affected by those who would serve the Lord and we pray frequently for children who don't know the Lord or parents who aren't walking with the Lord or whatever and we contend constantly to see one family entire family units brought into the kingdom we believe strongly in that principle that's found in the Old Testament where one lamb was sacrificed for an entire family. We believe that. We think in terms of family units, family lots, and that line of legacy. But here there seems to be an implied truth that infectious hope, the kind that defines surroundings, is what creates the atmosphere for legacy.

21:28 in Hebrews 6 I think it's in there it's in Hebrews 6 twice or it's in Hebrews twice there's this phrase that says by faith we inherit promises. through faith we inherit promises I don't I've looked at it to be honest with you I've looked at that passage for 30 years I don't think he's saying faith helps you to have promises fulfilled I think he's saying abiding faith actually attracts promises from God you wouldn't get otherwise because God's a good steward he plants into healthy environments and what is the healthy environment?

22:20 it's a heart of hope it's hope against hope divine hope consumes natural hope Wow. It's really good. It's hard to keep natural hope alive. There's so many negative situations around. You have to constantly psych yourself up emotionally and mentally to try to feel positive about negative situations. But when you've heard God speak, when you have a word from God, holding to that word becomes a life source. For me, I just have to get alone with God. I get alone with God. with the promise. I get alone with God with the crisis, with the situation. And sometimes I do a lot of praying. Sometimes I do a lot of listening. Sometimes I just do a lot of worshiping. But it's gathering together over this that God desires to be birthed in the earth.

23:16 And hope becomes the womb that a legacy is born out of. And everybody in this room is here for more than just yourself. Just here for more than just you paying the bills and having a nice Christian life. We are here as a tribe because we have this passion to see an effect of righteousness on multiple generations and nations all over the world. It's just a part of our DNA. We want to see this thing of legacy. What I'm telling you, hope is the womb that that legacy is born from. Hope is that atmosphere through which the impossibility is released into the earth that starts redefining our surroundings. Righteous Lot was oppressed by the people who lived evil around him. And I feel like the same option is available for every person, everyone who walks with the Lord now.

24:06 I believe that we're all called to Abraham-type faith, Abraham-type hope, that in the middle of all the odds are against us, but now God has said, and we just simply hold to it. We just simply hold to it. We stay accountable. We stay with friends. We stay in that support realm, but we just hold to, this is what I saw, this is what I heard, this is what he spoke to my heart, and I have to hold on to this until he shows me otherwise. But I cannot relax the devotion of my heart to that which gives birth to legacy that impacts nations. There isn't an insignificant person in the room. There's not an insignificant situation. the things on my list are are profound some of them and some are embarrassingly nobody would understand except another hunter I'm trying to be funny, but I feel like we have to give him more real estate to occupy.

25:37 Dreams become real estate that he occupies. I feel such a warning to not try to make them spiritual when it's not naturally spiritual. Don't dream what he thinks he wants you to dream. Dream what you dream. Just dream what you dream. Watch how he uses natural things to bring about supernatural and spiritual impact. Did I mention that fish and the bee a minute ago? I did, yeah. I'm sorry. All the meetings run together, so I don't know. I'm pretty sure this is Sunday, however. I got that one down. I was sitting by a lake. I'm going to tell it again because it has such a strange impact. I was sitting by a lake.

26:32 I went out just to read and pray and spend time with the Lord and just to kind of hover over his promises and his life and just enjoying life. I was there and I was throwing little pebbles in the water and fish were coming up and eating them and spitting them out. I was just the gift of torment. Torment of fish. And then this thought came to mind. I wonder if they would eat a bee. And this is before I started fly fishing. I wonder if they'd eat a bee because a bee has a stinger. And as soon as I thought it, a bee flies by from my right, eye level, stops right in front of me and literally drops out of the air, into the water. A fish comes up and eats it. And I'm by myself, I thought.

27:13 when I was in Australia a guy comes to me with that story and he shows me this is going to sound a little strange I don't recommend you do this but this is bizarre to me he's thinking about that story he heard my story and he's standing in his backyard and he's just looking around his yard he's got this nice yard looks around his yard He's got a bunch of trees there. He sees this one tree. It's about 40 years old. Pretty big tree. And he looks at that tree and he thinks to himself, I'd like to see that tree fall. Here's what he did. He took his phone. I have a video. He took his phone out and turned the video on, on that tree. And it's just sitting there for about 30 seconds, and then all of a sudden, boom.

28:11 Why? I'll never forget it. I'll be honest he's done a lot of things in my life that I've forgotten but I've never forgotten the bee and I'll never forget the tree falling why would he do that? I don't know except there's such an absence of the understanding of his nature in the earth that he's looking for people that will create real estate for him to come and reveal himself on. He'll come and breathe on. some people get that dream for christian tv in lebanon and then when it all crashes they come home in defeat not realizing the dream is still alive it just needs to manifest a different way So my cry for you.

29:24 It's all right, it's all right. My cry for you. is that in every single area of life, that every place where hopelessness has influenced you economically, that that would die and be swallowed up with divine promise and divine hope. God is not the God of just enough. He's never been that. He created too much food always when he fed the multitudes, and he just is not wasteful. He made sure it was all picked up. He is the God of extreme. as Harold Everly once said he says how much sky do we need there's a whole bunch out there and that's the point and I just prophesy of you that this is a season of breakthrough economically and this whole thing of having our sights on just barely making it, we say no to that, I pray that divine hope would consume natural hope and that there would be this creation of real estate for God to land on and to bring a spirit of breakthrough into people's lives economically that are in great, great need of that breakthrough, that need of a real visitation of God.

30:43 I pray over your relationships, your family, specifically family, that this next season would be the season of restored hope for lost family members. Some of you have relatives that are drug addicts that are so far gone, they can't even communicate. And yet Jesus is the one who restores broken hearts, broken minds. We've seen him do it over and over and over again. And I prophesy to you that we create this real estate for God to land on, that there is not one unredeemable situation in our family line. And we just declare and pray the provision of the Lord, the breakthrough of the Lord over relationships in general, and places where there are conflicts in your family. we just thank you for the conflicts because you're making us better people you realize how hard of work it was for God to find somebody whose rough edge could match your rough edge It takes a lot of work.

31:43 And then he puts us together. So Lord, we pray for that breakthrough. Honestly, that breakthrough of embracing people and seeing wholeness come into family lines. Lord, I pray that family lines in this room would actually prophesy to entire cities and entire movements because we've seen how you have redeemed lost situations, lost people, lost tribes, if you will, that have been just forsaken, we just declare the Lord restores in Jesus' name. Relationships in general, we pray for that. I also pray for the dreams in ministry, those secret things that are so buried that they're embarrassing to talk about, yet they exist in the heart of hearts. I pray that this would be the season that God breathes on the impossibilities in life. I think of her stories, Randy Clark telling me a story of this young lady down in Brazil, a woman that he prayed for a whole bunch of people.

32:44 And this one woman who was not one of the pastors, not one of the cell group leaders, not one of any of the leaders at all, they call her the little Randy Clark because she's prayed for over 200 deaf people, completely deaf, and they've been healed. And come to find out she didn't have any kind of title or position. She was just hidden in the church. And now she carries this anointing for extreme breakthrough. And I feel like that's what God wants to do. He wants to, as important as titles can be, he wants to erase the concept, the restricting concepts of titles, the prohibitive concepts of titles, and release people into breakthrough in ministry. Some of you can get into places that I couldn't get into in a thousand years of trying, but you're there. God has placed you there. And my thought is this, is that the Bible says that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

33:35 Yes. How impressive is a mustard seed? not impressive at all. What will the mustard seed do? Put it on that table. It won't do a thing. You can leave it for a hundred years. It won't do anything, but put it into the environment it was created for. And it creates a place of refuge for birds to come and rest under. And there's this kingdom expression in you that is longing to get planted into the part of culture and society it was born for. And until it does, it will not manifest. But when it does, you will be a person that provides shelter, shade, safety, protection for people that have been crying out for you to surface, crying out for who you are to become manifest and to become real. So I just pray that this contagious hope would absolutely immerse our city, immerse cities represented in this room, that there would be not one place that would not be driven by an army of hope givers, a army of hope breathers, those who define the nature of the world, they're going to live in because of infectious hope.

34:40 Put a hand on somebody next to you and just say, God, extreme hope, extreme hope, extreme hope. Nothing mild, nothing simple. Make it extreme. Make it extreme, extreme hope. Extreme hope. extreme hope go ahead and stand extreme hope I'd like to get ministry team up here real quick if we could. Ministry team, come on up here. And we want to open this up always as we do for those who need a miracle. If you didn't get it at communion, then now is the time. And we also have a place over here for people just to get right with God. And Chris, are you coming up for that?

35:34 Why don't you explain that? If you could hold your places, if for no other reason, just out of respect for those who are going to be coming to meet the Lord today. Chris, I'll explain what is about to happen. Go ahead.