Building and Becoming God’s Dwelling Place - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church Family Message

0:13 Every time you give an encouraging word, guess what? The breath of God came from one world through the gate into another world, into a heart. It's the gate of heaven. Thank you. There was no reason to tailgate me when I'm doing 50 in a 35 and those flashing lights up top of your car look ridiculous. This guy said, I'm so out of shape that if someone yells, run for your life, I'll be like, you guys go ahead. I'm going to meet Jesus.

1:16 One more. This woman writes, I waved to a man because I thought he waved at me. Apparently he waved to another woman. So to get out of the awkward situation, I kept my hand up. A taxi pulled over and drove me to the airport. I'm now in Poland starting a new life. lol Why don't you open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 21. I'm just going to read one scripture, and then I'm mostly just going to take you through stories in the Bible and then just personal stories. This is, for all of our guests, we're so thrilled to have you guys come. We love having friends from around the city and around the world to come and join us on these days. yeah this week's conference was just you know we benefit from every one of them but it felt like this one was just for us and so all of you guests thanks for coming we're willing to share with you but it was our party time so it really was a significant time for me and for everyone I know I'm going to read a passage of scripture and verse 12, Matthew 21, verse 12, Then Jesus went to the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

2:49 And he said to them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Historically, these money changers, this is, by the way, the second time Jesus did this, the first time is in John 2. He did it at the beginning of his ministry and then at the end. And what was happening is the money changers were people that were taking advantage of people who had traveled a great distance, and instead of bringing sheep to sacrifice, they would sell the sheep at home, bring the money, expecting to be able to buy sheep here at the temple. And the prices would be hiked up because of supply and demand and taking advantage of the people that were there. Anyway, Jesus turned the tables over and cleansed the temple. I want you to look at it again. Jesus went into the temple of God, drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

3:49 Strange verse to read for a building project. It really, I never would have thought, I felt like the Lord impressed on me, so I'll just, it's subjective, but I felt like the Lord impressed it on me last night. And here was the thought, if buildings aren't important, Jesus never would have cleansed the temple. if God cares nothing about buildings, he wouldn't have bothered cleansing the temple. This particular temple was one that Herod built, which was the rebuilt one of Solomon. Solomon's was destroyed. I'll go through a list here in a quick moment, but that temple was destroyed. Solomon's temple was destroyed because of Israel's rebellion, and it was destroyed. Sometime later, a temple was rebuilt, much smaller. There's no sign that I know of where the glory reappeared.

4:45 May have, I don't know. But when Herod became king, he wanted favor with the Jews. And so he constructed or added to the temple until it was twice the size of Solomon's. I don't want to ever call this temple evil, but if there were one that was less spiritual than any of the others, it would be Herod, what he built, to try to obtain favor from Jews. And yet Jesus came and cleansed that house because he values buildings that are dedicated to God. we've never turned our attention towards facilities above people never ever ever and we never will but we have and i use this um um i use this term uh with a certain affection and zeal we prophetically have been warned if you don't build now you won't be ready for what's coming one prophet Stacy Campbell told us facilities facilitate I love that phrase facilities facilitate and there is just a responsibility that we have this passage here Jesus quotes my house shall be called the house of prayer it's quotation out of Isaiah 56 and in Isaiah 56 the Lord says First of all, he starts with this phrase.

6:15 He says, and they will come, and he's referring to multiple nations if you look at the context. They will come and find joy in this place of prayer. There will be this joyful engagement with God that they discover in prayer. So the nations will find joy in this place of prayer. And then he goes on and he says, and this nation, excuse me, And this house is a house of prayer for all nations. Now, when I was growing up, just not thinking about it, I thought it's a house, it's a place where you pray for the nations. But that's not it. You can find that elsewhere. But in this particular context, it's literally a building built to attract nations to come and have joyful encounters with God. Well, guess what, Bethel?

7:09 I don't know if you've noticed, but Reading is not the easiest place to find. I remind you, God chooses the foolish things to confound the wise. And he's been known to do this. He took a John the Baptist, put him in the wilderness, and made people look for him. Because then only the hungry find him.

7:33 We've not made it easy. Forgive me if I'm overemphasizing this comparison, but we've not made it extremely easy for people to come even to our school because we want the hungriest to make it, the most desperate. and in 27 years of our school of ministry, we've had 17, somewhere around 17,000 graduates from 110 nations who have come to find this a joyful place of prayer.

8:13 I'd like to suggest to you that the pruning that the Lord is doing in us is this. is getting the house of prayer ready for the increase of the nations that will come. We've already had more than we ever could have earned. There was no advertising campaign that ever could have brought that many people. We advertised nothing. All we did was invite God to come. He did as he pleased. And the stories of his redemptive touch in your life and in mine has literally attracted 110 nations to come and encounter the joyful presence of Jesus and be forever transformed. That's your history. That's your history. You as a church family have lost your parking place. you have somebody else who was hungrier than you or got to church earlier than you and sat in your chair.

9:13 Oh, it's devastating, the things that we've lost. I say it humorously, but you know what I mean. You've given place, and many of you have had people from the nations, from our school, in conferences, our leaders' gatherings. You've hosted them in your home. Some of you year after year after year have hosted people in your home just to show your affection, your love for the nation. What have you done? You're a part of what God is building and bringing nations that will come and find a joyful place of divine encounter.

9:48 The house of God in Scripture takes on so many different flavors and perhaps you've heard the statement, the first mention of any subject sets a precedent. It sets kind of like boundaries for a subject that continues to be expanded on throughout Scripture. And the first mention of the house of God is actually in Genesis 28. And we don't have a lot of time today, so I'm just going to run through some things. And this is kind of a hybrid mini teaching and talk about our building and about us as a family. And all you guests have to watch. And I'm so sorry, but you are here to join with us. here's this house of God. The first mention is in Genesis 28. And it's a strange story because Jacob's on the side of a hill, finds a rock for a pillow, goes to sleep.

10:42 He sees a vision of an open heaven and angels ascending and descending on a ladder. So the first mention of house of God has angels ascending and descending. It's a place of angelic activity. Do you understand the house of God? that we are is a place of angelic activity. We don't worship angels, but it's equally foolish to ignore them. Amen. Amen. So here's this initial revelation of the house of God in Genesis 28. Angels ascending, descending, and open heaven. And Jacob makes this statement. This is the house of God. There's no building there. It was just him and God. This is the house of God. And this is what gets me his next phrase.

11:34 The gate of heaven. This is the house of God, the gate of heaven. we've studied this more extensively in the past and i'm tempted but i i don't have time to try to do it today so just study it yourself what's a gate a gate is where you go maybe from your front yard through a gate to the public sidewalk or maybe from your driveway through a gate into your backyard. A gate is a transition place. It's where you go from one reality to another. And the scripture calls the house of God, which is people, not buildings. calls the house of God the gate of heaven. So every time you lay hands on the sick and they are healed, the gate of heaven opened and what exists in heaven was released into their body and that infirmity was destroyed.

12:35 The gate of heaven. Every time you give an encouraging word that brings supernatural strength into somebody's life, guess what? The breath of God came from one world through the gate into another world, into a heart, into a person. It's the gate of heaven. Surrender, yieldedness to the Lord is what allows heaven on earth, his reality coming through your touch, your words, what you host in your own personal being, your homes, carrying that reality into this world. It's a beautiful picture. The next picture we have of the house of God is the tabernacle of Moses. it was not a picture of the church. There are prophetic symbolism in the Old Testament that point to different things. The tabernacle of Moses that he built in the wilderness pointed to Jesus.

13:27 Everything about the tabernacle was actually about Jesus, the bread of life, the great intercessor, the sacrifice, the living word, the water that washes. All of this was portrayed in this tabernacle. It pointed to the Messiah, to Christ. following him was the tabernacle of David and this one the tabernacle of Moses had extreme detail down to what threads were made out of goat hair I mean just the detail was just was so precise and yet in the next tabernacle the tabernacle of David there is no description given on size all we know is where the ark of the covenant was the presence of God and the priests of the Lord gathered around the presence of God and worshipped him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for something like 30 to 40 years.

14:23 Talk about a well that needs to be reduck. A well of revival. Here's this encounter of the priests ministering to the Lord. They were not performing for people. And so this Tabernacle of David is spoken about in 1 Samuel Kings. It's also prophesied about, Amos chapter 9, and it was prophetically tied into the nature of the New Testament church in Acts 15, tabernacle. The next building was Solomon's temple, the most extravagant building ever built, billions of dollars. Because of Israel's rebellion, they lost the right to that abiding place of God, if you will. And Nebuchadnezzar came in and destroyed it and stole of the gold and all this stuff. Some years later, the temple was rebuilt. It was rebuilt smaller than Solomon's and not nearly as extravagant.

15:19 In fact, people wept. People who saw the previous one wept when they saw the new one because it was such a shadow of what the previous was. Interestingly, those who had not seen the previous one rejoiced at the new one. Nice contrast. we don't have that I know of I can't find any record I've not seen any record where the glory filled that temple again it may have but I don't know what we do know is that many years later Herod comes along and he wants Jews he wants favor from the Jews and so he adds to their temple and he makes it twice as big as Solomon's temple Herod built the one that Jesus cleansed that he wanted to make sure remained the house of prayer for all nations. if buildings weren't important Jesus wouldn't have bothered to cleanse perhaps can I say the most inferior of all the Old Testament houses of God it's not that buildings are to be worshipped or served but the Lord really has given us a specific mandate let me tell you where this started I'm running over I can already see it okay I will talk faster about 40 years ago it may have been 35 but it was in Weaverville I was reading I was praying and you know how the Lord highlights scripture to you and I just had one of those moments about 35 to 40 years ago where the Lord spoke very very clearly to me out of Psalm 68 and the verse says this.

17:11 It says, I'll give you a paraphrase. He said, because of the house you're building in Jerusalem, kings will bring gifts to you. That jumped up at me 40 years ago and I didn't know what it meant, but I knew it was mine. And so I literally, I camped on it for many, many years.

17:36 Fast forward, we have what's going on here that's been going on for many years. The first few years we had a church this size grow to this size. Church growth at its finest. All pastors have experienced that, take comfort in Gideon's story. So anyway, but it began to build. And as it began to build, we had to go to more services. And very thankful for all of that, knowing that we didn't earn any of it. It was just a grace and a gift, a gift of God's mercy and kindness to us. But in that period of time, we started getting prophetic words that we needed to build. We needed to build. We needed to build. And if we've done anything, we've been slow in responding to what God has been saying. one day, I think it was maybe 20 years ago, I don't know now, we received a million dollar check.

18:39 Bethel has never, not we, not my wife and me, I say we, as in we, we. Bethel received a million dollar check. We had never gotten anything anywhere close to that before. It's amazing counting all those zeros. It came at such a critical time for us because we had such a loss in previous months. And it just helped to fill a need. And like a week or two later, we got another one. And then a month later we got another one. And then, like a month later, we got another one. George Mueller is one of my favorite guys in church history. He had 10,000 recorded answers to prayer.

19:34 A newspaper man interviewed him and said, do you have any unanswered prayers? And he said, no. He said, well, there's one. He said, the salvation of a friend of mine, the salvation of his son. That's not happened yet. He said, but it will because I'm still praying. He said, how can it be any other way? I'm still praying. and that young man was converted at George Mueller's funeral. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Anyway, George Mueller's praying, and he has orphanage. He feeds all these children, and he's praying, and the Lord gives him this picture of a building he's supposed to build. He hasn't told anyone. He leaves the prayer room, walks across the playground where the children are playing, and a child comes up to him, a young boy comes up to him, and gives him a penny and said, here, this is for the new building. George Mueller raises the penny before the Lord and says, thank you for the confirmation.

20:28 Now, I have to confess to you, I needed million-dollar checks to confirm to me what we were supposed to do. Thank you, Lord, for the confirmation. Those million-dollar checks, before it was all over, I think this is accurate. Dan, you might remember better than me. I think it was $7 million that actually came in in those gifts, and we don't know who they came from. But it's what enabled us to buy the land. since then since then I mean we've had people from overseas who have never been here never been to Bethel write a million dollar check because they believe in the call of God on this unusual place in this unusual house believing that God is doing well he chooses the foolish things to confound the wise he's doing something significant you and I as a church family have said amen to this. And we've embraced this privilege to build a building literally for the nations. We've already started dreaming on what else we're going to do there. We bought extra land. Some of you have been around a while. Remember, we bought an additional 20 acres here a few years ago because we felt like we needed to provide more land for future generations to build on. And one of the things that we will be building is called the House of Generals. And it's a place where I've been collecting revivalist, historic things for years.

22:07 And we've got like 12,000 volumes of books. We've got like Catherine Kuhlman's gown, the white gown that she would minister in and her organ. And I mean, we have all kinds of stuff. Full Gospel Businessmen's original pulpit. John Alexander Dowie's pulpit chair. And we've got so much stuff that we've been collecting for the years because we're going to build a museum. Because I felt like the Lord years ago said, if you'll honor those who have gone before you, even those whose lives ended in failure, if you'll honor their yes, I'll release their anointing once again. I'll release their anointing. And so we've been working to do that. So there's so many pieces to this puzzle, but it's so that we can host the nations. And you've done it already. You've done it already. You've hosted the nations in your homes. we've done it here week after week for years and years and years but i believe now is the time and i think i think haley's right i think this this uh this this three-year time span is perfect for us that i believe that god's going to anoint us to build the building we have kings bringing gifts but that includes the kings that are in this room those of you it's not just the million dollar checks. Please don't rely on the million dollar checks. I have to do what I'm capable of doing, knowing that God will anoint the others. And one of the things that I've taken on my own heart is I've talked with some people who have such a generous heart and such a deep, deep commitment to this house, but they've suffered crisis and various things that have really affected what they're able to do. And so we have felt to really pray for safety and protection, not just for the money, but for them to fulfill what God's put in their heart. The giving issue is talked about in scripture that you don't do it out of compulsion. You do it out of according to what you carry in your heart, what you carry in your heart. Be honest with what you carry in your heart and don't let anybody manipulate or persuade you. Do what you carry in your heart. And that's really the mandate on this house. And so we are, we are thrilled to be able to build this together. And all of you,

24:16 We have so many people around the world that have added to our strength by enabling us to do what we haven't been able to do by ourselves. But then again, what you've done as a house, what's a church family, is extraordinary. So we're grateful. We're thankful. And I just say, let's get this thing built because we have things to do. And you know what I'm excited about? We have places where you can hang out after the meeting's over and the next group's coming in. we actually we have we have places that are so cool we do we yeah I want to talk about but we don't have time so I'm not going to talk anymore bless you it's nice seeing you why don't you put the video up here and let's see that then Haley will come and wrap it up bless you guys Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.

25:15 There's a lot of church services just like that right there. And he was afraid, and he said, how awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. All right? So back in verse 11, 12, 13, we've got a ladder. He dreams. And there's an open heaven. There's the voice of the Father. There's angels ascending and descending. All right? You got that? Open heaven, voice of the Father, angels ascending and descending. And he comes to the conclusion, this is the house of God, the gate of heaven. this is the house of God, the gate of heaven.

26:18 Gates are interesting. I've got a wonderful garden that we built for my wife. We've got two gates there. We've got a gate from our backyard to our driveway. We have a gate actually at the front of our property to come on and off the property. A gate is where you go through, you go through, you go from one reality through a gate to another reality. It may be from your front yard to the public sidewalk. It may be from your backyard to your driveway. But a gate is where you take, you go from one reality to another reality through a gate. And this passage of Scripture describes something that is more important than probably most any of us have considered. That the house of God, by nature, is built on the edge of two worlds. And as such, it is by design a gate between those two realities.

27:23 Now, that's not something we make happen. That is just a description of who we are. And when you understand who you are, you think different about your role. You think different about your responsibility. It's not like, so what do I do with that now that I'm a gate? It's not like you go through gate classes.

27:49 I don't know that there's something we do because of that. But somehow becoming aware of who he says I am and our purpose for being makes me much more conscious of things that I wouldn't have been conscious otherwise. Is that important? I believe it absolutely is. I believe it absolutely is. So here when you go to Gospel of John chapter 1, turn there if you would please. the Gospel of John chapter 1, you have this interesting conversation between Nathanael and Jesus.

28:28 Jesus in John chapter 1. Jesus saw Nathanael coming verse 47 he said an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit I love seeing these moments where Jesus actually celebrates and gives honor to a person you know when he says to the century man I've not seen I've not seen faith like this in all of Israel and you see these moments where he's just captured he's just he's stunned he's set back and and this is one of those moments where he looks at Nathaniel and says, man, there's no guile in you. That's amazing. There's no guile in you. There's no deceit in you. Nathaniel says, how do you know me? Jesus said, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. I mean, you understand Jesus wasn't there. He was seeing in the spirit. He was seeing something. Nathaniel answered and said, Rabbi, you're the son of God. So that's a huge leap. You know, a guy says, I saw you under the fig tree. You're God. You're God. So that was like, he didn't have a long ways to go in his journey. He was pretty close to the edge already. And so when Jesus called him out, he says, you're it. All right, you're it. I'm following you. So Jesus said to him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe? You'll see greater things in these.

29:50 makes you wonder what he saw greater things than these and he said most assuredly i say to you hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of god ascending and descending on the son of man heaven open open heavens, angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. is it too late to be thinking you're you've been traveling and you're all okay like this all right so if you have jet lag i'm so sorry see in verse 14 it says the word of god became flesh and dwelt among us and now just think with me now jesus is the word of god made flesh and he dwelt The word there is dwelt or tabernacled.

30:55 Jesus was the tabernacle of God among men. And now he says to Nathanael, you'll see angels ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. Jesus was the prototype he was the dwelling place of the spirit of God had no sin walked in grace the eternal son of God but he chose to live with human limitation so it makes this such a huge paradox impossible to comprehend fully God, fully man.

31:55 And that here he is in this moment. He is the prototype of what the church is going to be in just a matter of months. Just a matter of months. What he is, the dwelling place of God, the tabernacle of God among men. What he is, angels ascending and descending, heaven open, the Father's voice present. That's the prototype of this. to expect anything less is to sell ourselves short but more importantly to sell short his purpose and plan so you were actually designed to live in an open heaven He would like to build in us an awareness of the unseen realities of God.

33:04 Now, I know that sounds, especially for Western culture, it's very abstract and it sounds like make-believe, pretend, you know, imagination stuff. The unseen world is more real than what is visible. if we can catch that one thing paul said what you can see is temporal what you can't see is eternal that's like that's like a huge thing to get when you realize everything i see is temporal and the reality that surrounds me that i cannot see is eternal so it is greater than what i can see it's not that the spiritual is the shadow of of the natural it's the opposite the natural is the shadow. The natural is lax substance when the eternal is forever. And so then being aware of this open heaven is cultivated, I think, number one, as a worshiper. A worshiper when nobody's watching.

34:01 I love to worship. My goodness, I love being with our teams. I love to be here with you. I love to just take time. But before that was ever a reality, there were lights off in my home. Nobody there but me, scared to death to raise my hands,

34:27 even scared her to dance. 18 years old, 19 years old, no history in that. And yet there's this summons, there's this call to come in and just to learn to be an affectionate one.

34:49 It's not the performance of worship. It's the privilege of adoration. It's beholding. And how can you see him and not love him? How can you encounter him and not just want to absolutely pour out everything you are at his feet? It's not a performance thing. I'm thankful we get to do it corporately because it enhances everything. But that way was carved out when there was nobody else in the room. and this that we are privileged to be a house that's on the edge of two worlds where the realities of both