Encounter the Love of the Father - Best of Bill Johnson Sermons | Bethel Church

0:00 Everything that the enemy throws at us, every single one of them are attempts to disengage us from the love of God, to somehow shut off our awareness of this one who loves us so completely, so fully, so 100% the Father. There's a way of thinking that violates this sense of son, father, daughter, father. And that is that if I pray a prayer enough times, he'll hear me. He's not the caretaker of an orphanage. who promises to give you a coat in the winter, a cot to sleep on, and three hot meals a day.

0:47 He's a father who's actually interested in the inner workings of your heart, your soul, what you were born for, what you dream of. And it's this father that we are talking to in this prayer, and he gives us very specific ways to pray that bring about real effectiveness. I want to start with verse 5. I'm going to major on verse 7 later if we have time at the end. But let's start with verse 5 of chapter 6. When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they like to pray standing in synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have the reward. It's important to recognize prayer has a reward, either from people or from him. But you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

1:52 This is a very significant thought that I wanna make sure we have established before we get into this prayer. Where is the father? He's in the secret place. where is his attention is to the prayers prayed in secret what does that mean it doesn't mean you have to go into your clothes closet and close the door it means that what you want to do in meeting with the father it's a relational journey you shut down all the exterior noise everything that competes for your affection everything that competes for your attention why because to build the identity as a son or a daughter with a heavenly father isn't done in busyness. It's done in focused time with the father. Something is built in the secret place, the quiet place, the alone place that you can't build anywhere else. I'm thankful that we have the privilege of praying in the craziness of life, in the busyness of life. I'm just saying there's a muscle developed, if you will, a muscle developed in our soul about identities of son and a daughter that requires quiet before father. The discovery of who he is changes how we pray.

3:10 The discovery of who we are changes how we get answers to prayer. if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face the face of God is what we are invited to pursue. Think about that for a minute because the scripture gives that warning. Anyone who sees his face dies. So it was a great invitation.

3:45 Come and die. And I tell you what, every time we come before the face of the Lord, something dies that shouldn't have been alive. The Lord invites us into this ongoing interaction with a countenance of a perfect father. So when he says, seek my face, he's not saying seek my hand. I have tried to make a strong point for the last probably 20 years that Jesus never scolded anyone for seeking his hand. Blind Bartimaeus wanted to see. Jesus didn't say, are you supposed to seek to know me. He gave him healing in his eyes. You know, the one with the dead relative. Jesus brought through his hands the power of God to establish kingdom. He's never scolded anyone for seeking his hand, his blessing. I think it's a responsibility we have. But forgiveness doesn't come from his hand. It comes from his face.

4:42 Come on. It's from the countenance. It's the Father who welcomes. And that's what's needed right now is a grip of people that get recalibrated to the face. Somehow seeing the eyes of a loving Father recalibrates every value in my soul. Things that were important 10 minutes ago are no longer important. things that plagued me or worried me or frustrated me suddenly they don't have the bite that they once had why because there's something about the countenance that just absorbs every offense or distraction that i carry in my heart it just gets absorbed in this face of a loving father and he says if my people the ones i gave my name to if they would just humble themselves.

5:41 Seek my face. turn from their wicked ways. There is a picture given Old and New Testament that to seek the face of God automatically implies turning from something. I must turn from the inferior to seek the face of God. You can't drag both values into one act. He is the all or nothing God. He is the, he likes being first. and king. I mean, that's him. Everything is about putting him first.

6:38 So here he says, seek my face, turn from your wicked ways. In Hebrews 6, it says, turning from dead works, faith towards God. It's this turning from unto. And one of the things that I'm so thankful for for about the Lord as he welcomes us into his presence, regardless of the condition of our heart. You can be bitter. You can be mad. You can be indifferent. You can be, you know, careless. It doesn't matter where you're at. He says, come, but you can't leave the same way you came. That's the whole deal. You can't expect, I'm going to bring all this baggage and I'm going to come in and then I'm going to leave the same way. That's not how it works. We come in before him and we just get refined in the journey. That's part of the whole process is that I come to seek his face and things get recalibrated in this journey. It may be a five-minute journey. It may be an all-day long journey, but it's this journey where I engage once again to the face of God that reveals the heart of God that automatically engages me into my reason for being.

7:49 he said if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek the countenance of this wonderful father I've been reading the last couple days again Psalm 67 which is personally a favorite of mine and in verse 1 and 2 of that great psalm verse 1 says Lord, bless me, which I love that prayer. I'm into that kind of praying anytime. Bless me and cause your countenance to shine upon me. Countenance is a word for favor. It's the loving favor of a father. It's the, Brian and Jen just adopted another little boy. And we got to have him at our home again last night. And it's just, you don't have, you know, a parent will make faces to an infant that they would never even make in the mirror to themselves while they were alone. I mean, you say things, you make noises, you do all kinds of stuff to this little tiny infant that you don't even know you're doing. It just seems to come out of you as you, as you, And I've been told that children are actually, infants are trained in a lifestyle of joy through the countenance of their caregiver.

9:20 And so it's that face. And so here we are. We seek the face of the Almighty God, this perfect Father who welcomes us, welcomes us. We come with baggage. We leave clean and powerful. We come with issues. We leave confident. he is settling the issues. And he says, you seek my face, you turn from your wicked ways, then I will hear. That's an amazing statement because the Bible tells us he doesn't always hear. I don't know if you know that or not, but the Bible says, Scripture says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me. If I come conscious of sin and I'm unwilling to repent. so here he welcomes us he says turn from your wicked way seek my face then i will hear from heaven forgive their sin this is amazing to me forgive their sin personal blessing and heal their land corporate influence the personal breakthrough becomes a transformational influence in the land Ezekiel 39 verse 29 the Lord speaks and he says I will not hide my face from them any longer for I will have poured out my spirit on them okay so think through this God says I'm not going to hide my face now when we think of the face of God we have to think of the perfect affectionate loving father whose countenance expresses delight and joy over his child. So we talk about the face of God, we are talking about that which displays favor, that which displays delight, that which marks us with eternal purpose. It's all in that countenance. So he says, I'll not hide my face from them any longer. Why? Because I will have poured out my spirit on them. What is he saying? The outpouring of the Spirit always contains the face of God. Anytime the Spirit of God begins to move in a

11:29 room, maybe it's in worship, the face of God is there. Anytime God begins to move in a room and people start getting healed, people come to Christ. Marriages start getting restored. People abandon their bitterness, the resentment that they came into the room with, and they start getting freed up and delivered. What's happening? In that move of the Holy Spirit, the face of God is behind it all, which is what? The delightful face of a loving father is behind that outpouring. And it is the birthplace of hope. Seeing who is there, seeing his heart, his purpose, his plan, you cannot help but have hope in that situation. The Lord Thank you. the Lord gave us statements like all things work together for good to those who love God called according to his purpose all things work together I've even stated in recent weeks this reality it's a good reminder for me it's a good reminder for you all things work together for good My favorite restaurant is French Laundry.

12:48 Amen. Glory to God. in Napa, Youngville, actually. And I remember the first time I went to this restaurant. Now, I just like things when I can tell the chef or the architect or the author or whatever it might be, they were so intentional in the way they laid things out. In this case, just the way they prepared this food. So I've got nine courses. And so all small, but you end up full. I don't know, it's a miracle. I don't know how that happens. So I sat down the first time. Benny and I are there, and another couple of friends of ours were there, and they brought me this course dominated by two things I did not like, immersed in a sauce.

13:43 The two things were oysters. I know some of you like them. To me, they remind me of something else. Slimy things. Yeah, you're good? All right. Oysters and caviar. was never a fan. So they served this, and I looked over at Benny, and I said, honey, I'm paying too much money for this to not at least taste it. So I took a bite, and I looked at her, and I said, I want a chili bowl full of this stuff.

14:18 How could he take two things that I don't like, mix it together with a bunch of things I do like, and make it to this date one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. the same way our master chef takes the bitter, the tasteless, the meaningless, the stuff that's too spicy, the stuff that's too sweet, the stuff that's too sour, and then put it together in the perfect blend, and at the end of your life, you look back and you say, I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't change a thing. because every single part of my life he took by his grace and he worked it together to what brings him glory and it's the most satisfying meal I've ever had in my life. I wouldn't change a thing.

15:14 he has promised us, he has designed life in such a way that there are always discoveries to be made. He's the one who said, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no ever because you're with me. So in other words, the great treasure is in the middle of the greatest loss. You can feed your soul on whatever you want.

15:44 but you have the opportunity to encounter God in a way that you'll never have a chance outside of the valley of the shadow of death. It's not self-determination, it's surrender. It's yielding to the purposes of God. It's yielding to the word of God. He is the one who has declared this to be so. He goes on and he says, he sets a table before me. That table is a place to eat. French laundry. it's just almost time for lunch i'm just doing you a favor i'm giving you motivation here he prepares a table before me what is that it's a place of fellowship of encounter of engagement of personal pleasure delight joy he sets that table in the presence of my enemies if all i see are the enemies i've missed the table that he put there And we all have different stuff going on.

16:44 Most of you know what my family and I have been facing the last month. The tragic, tragic loss. Without question. But there's also a table there. There is a table. There's a table of intense fellowship, of great delight, of personal pleasure, of satisfaction, of fulfillment. It's there. It's much like the Easter egg that's been hidden in a bush. I know it's in there. In our Easter egg hunts, we put small amounts of cash in most of the eggs, but there's a few eggs that will have a much larger bill in them. And one of my grandsons One of them went to his dad before everyone was released to go find the eggs.

17:49 He said, Dad. Where is the one with all the money? And Brian, excuse me, my son, was so impressed that his son had the courage to ask that he told him right where it was. So he went over and got, I don't know, it was a $20 bill or what was in there, but it was a good aid. You know what? Sometimes you just ask the one who hit it. it's a funny story and there's more but we'll leave that right where it is but just think with me for a moment he wouldn't have asked if he wouldn't have thought there was a possibility of him being rewarded for asking.

18:52 There was something about his own father's nature that he responded to, an inviting nature of exploration, discovery, personal success. And if you're sitting in the middle of maybe a personal loss, maybe a financial crisis, legal matter, whatever, whatever, We all have stuff. There's a table there. He says so. The one who cannot lie, the one who cannot lie has declared over your life, there's a table there. And that table will nourish you. It will strengthen you. Anybody else glad that he made food good? Yes. Except for cilantro. It's, uh... In my opinion, God sees people eating cilantro and he says, it was a decoration.

19:58 I just offended three-quarters of the room. The sum of you are with me. Come on, be bold. Put your hands up. All right, all right. What are they eating that for? I was a decoration.

20:27 The table that he set is not just for your strength. It's for your pleasure. it says keep yourself in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ under eternal life keep yourself in the love of God three verses later it says now unto him who is able to keep you from stumbling keep yourself in the love of God now to him who is able to keep you, me, from stumbling. There is a connection there. Keep yourself in the love of God. everything that the enemy throws at us, whether it's a job loss, it's any kind of difficulty, a conflict in the home, doesn't matter what it is, somebody who doesn't like you anymore or whatever, all these things that come our way, every single one of them are attempts to disengage us from the love of God. To somehow shut off our awareness of this one who loves us so completely, so fully, so 100% the Father. The enemy works through difficulty, through accusations, through temptation, through all kinds of stuff to disengage us from the love of God. And so here he says, keep yourself in the love of God. Listen to this. The greatest reality in your life, usually I say us, but let's just pretend you and I are in my office, and I'm talking head to head here, nose to nose. I want to get something across.

22:27 The greatest reality in your life is the love of God. And if you're not aware of it, you're aware of too many other things. The single greatest reality in every single person's life, the greatest reality in every person's life is this unimaginable, uncomprehendable, extreme

22:57 expression of the love of God that is reserved just for you. And to not live aware of it, is to live aware of the inferior in its place. Everything in life is to be measured by the most important thing. What did he say earlier? He says, if he gave his son, if he went to that kind of an extreme, certainly he would provide everything else for you that is less than that. If he went that far, well, here we are. If the love of God is that extreme and it's just for you, and it's just for me, then that greatest reality of everything in existence needs to be dwelt on. Otherwise, I will fall for things that are inferior. The greatest things redefine everything else.

23:54 This says keep yourself in the love of God. Let me tell you, it is possible for you to keep yourself in the love of God as much as it is possible for you to keep yourself in the kitchen or keep yourself in the bedroom or keep yourself in the living room. It truly is a choice. Why? Because this word is living. We're not looking at just ink on paper. We're looking at something that flowed from the heart of a father, a loving father who gave us the gift of scriptures that come alive and feed our soul. One only needs to prioritize the things that are more true than every other problem. The accusations, they mean nothing because there's no one who has the right to accuse me. There is no one who has the right to steal from me. No one. And so everything else becomes subject to this one primary truth. And so we keep ourself in the bedroom or keep ourself in this case, in the love of God. What does it mean? It means I stop and I ponder and I think for God.

25:07 my heavenly Father, the Father of life, the Father of all creation, was so in love with me, so infatuated with me, was so hopeful in what I could become. He was so caught up in his imagination, his planning for me that he was willing to go through the pain of the loss of his own son, his own beloved son, his only beloved son. He was willing to do that because of the hope he had for me. And he laid down the life of his own son knowing that he would in fact raise him from the dead also for our benefit.

26:01 This wonderful father did all of that so that I could do one simple thing, believe. So that everyone, I would believe in him. And in the moment I believe, I'm given eternity, everlasting life. And you take moments in your day, you just stop. You just stop. Sometimes we go so fast, it's hard for the love of God to catch up with us. We've got to stop being anxious. We've got to stop being divided. We've got to stop being distracted. Reduce things. This is a reset that God is gifting us with.

26:38 And the Bible says, blessed is the man whose quiver is full of children. I mean, no, you have to have children if you're going to be a father. It's actually connected. Your quiver is fuller than most, Bob. Yes, sir. And then it says, they are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. and the next verse is and they will speak with their enemy in the gate. The gate is a place of authority. So if you could picture this God's intention in fatherhood is to position you and me with greater authority, greater clarity and purpose in dealing with the powers that try to steal, rob and kill people on the earth. And you and I get to stand in a place of great authority. So I feel like the Lord is just imparting something. Psalms 127, just imparting today. But here's what I want to ask you to do. We're going to, I want us to honor all these dads.

27:33 And so I'd like for the rest of you that are sitting down, stand up, lay hands on them, and pray a really good, healthy, scary prayer. Something that really blesses them extra good. Make sure every dad gets somebody praying for them. I want you to pray concerning power and wisdom. Pray very specifically power and wisdom. power and wisdom. We pray this for those watching on TV. We declare the same thing over every household, that dads would be, there would be just a garment, a mantle of wisdom and power would be released over each one. pray concerning the authority that God has given them. That authority is to serve, and it's an empowerment to serve well. Pray for that blessing of authority to be clarified in each father's life.

28:28 Father, let there be a sharpened, the arrows to be sharp. The arrows, the lives of children to penetrate into the realms of darkness and bring about transformation. and we pray that the skillful warriors who are standing, the dads, that there would be a great wisdom that would come upon and that you would enable us to serve more effectively, more efficiently, more powerfully. We pray these things in Jesus, Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Why don't you hug them, bless them, do something really nice to them. Here we go. Beautiful. Thank you, Jesus.

29:32 We're going to be praying for a number of family-oriented needs. One of the things that we'll pray for in a little bit, we've got a video to show you that is quite moving. And following that, we're going to pray for the healing of households and families. And what you can receive prayer for is going to be a very broad range of requests. And we're going to pray because we believe, I believe that there's this anointing for breakthrough in households and families. And we see so many miracles in this area. And so we're going to have some ministry there. I also know, in fact, we were reminded at the end of the last service that so many people grew up in homes without a dad or without a real healthy environment, without a healthy dad.

30:27 I feel like today the Lord is going to release a father's blessing to heal that part that just never got fulfilled. And I feel like the Lord can just really launch people into a journey. I don't mean a journey that takes 40 years, although it's the rest of our life we get to enjoy a journey with the Lord. I feel like there's some things that He's going to heal in the next maybe even just few weeks in this area. And so we're going to pray for the Lord just to really touch people concerning that father issue thing. God is the only one that can take tragedy, turn it into triumph. He's the only one that can take a disaster, turn it into a delightful situation. And He is so devoted to you. He is so completely you know, he didn't hold anything back when he committed himself to you, to me. He gave his best and he gave his all. And that's saying something. And there just is a promise in the room, and I believe a presence, a Holy Spirit presence, to see breakthrough in family issues.

31:37 It may be, I know that there are people in this room, a crowd this size, who have suffered this kind of a loss and are such a pain. For some, things never got right between you and that child or parent or whatever. And there's just this hard to describe place of pain that only Jesus can see and only he can heal. For others, not able to have children. For others, it's some other kind of a marital deal. It doesn't matter what it is. If you need a miracle in family, those that are watching online, this is your moment. Step into it as well. Those at Twin View Campus, this is just a real day of miracles for family. And I feel like today was orchestrated by the Lord as much as any day I've seen in a long time. And the Lord has designed it for breakthrough.

32:34 and so if you need a family miracle a miracle pertaining to family i want you to stand these folks that are standing stood into an opportunity. It's amazing what little is asked of us.

33:02 He said, if you confess your sin, he is faithful just to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. I use that verse to show this. you take one step his direction he takes four towards you you stood saying I need a miracle in my family guess what that same God just entered the room to touch you I want those of you that are sitting be a part of the miracle I want you to lay hands on these folks I want you to pray you're free to share the need if you want which I usually have you do if you'd rather just be quiet let them pray I'm fine with that too today we are praying for miracles for families. So I want you to stand, folks. Look around you. See those who are standing. Lay hands on them. There may be pockets of people where there's no one to lay hands on you. If that's the case, then you pray for each other. And church, I want to encourage you to stir up your voice. Just lift your voice. Begin to pray for this breakthrough, breakthrough, breakthrough on family that God would restore what seems to be impossible.

34:05 If you're standing next to other people and nobody's laying hands on you, put a hand on their shoulder and just pray for each other. There is an anointing for breakthrough. He is the restorer of homes. He turns hearts of the parents towards the children, children towards the parents. He restores broken marriages. we call lost children those who have wandered away from the Lord we call you home come home in Jesus name we pray for just a massive revival literally from the restoration of fallen believers we pray for this now in Jesus name let great restoration come those who have suffered great loss and heartache and there's such scarring, such wounding We just say, Lord, turn the scarring into medals of honor and reverse the effects of these losses.

35:07 We pray for this in Jesus' name. Mighty, mighty restoration. Father, I pray for a word of hope, a word of promise given for every single person that is standing. A word of promise that they can take to the bank. They can just walk with that into their breakthrough. We pray for this in the name of the Lord Jesus. and we declare nothing is impossible with God nothing is impossible with God God restore what's been stolen in Jesus name thank you God yeah now bless them bless them really good hug them give them a word of promise do something but just bless them really good All right.

36:05 Thanks, Lord. Wow. Please email or write down on a prayer request card or something the stories. Because we get so encouraged when we see homes and families restored. How many of you would just say, I'm just in real need of a father's blessing? If that's you, I just want you to stand. I want to make sure that this really becomes settled for every person.

36:35 It would be fine with me if everyone stood. You know, we all could do some more, right? But especially those, we know that a number of you that are standing, you just didn't grow up in the healthiest situation. And that wasn't God's fault. and he's good and he can use the tragedy of anyone's upbringing for your strength and his benefit. So we're going to pray for that. I want Eric and I both to pray this prayer over you. I'm going to pray over you then he's going to do it as a father and son that are both fathers.

37:10 If he's a spiritual father then am I a grandfather? No. I am a grandpa. I just, I bless you as a father in the faith. I bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus. I declare blessing with a sense of identity that this would be a season of finding out who you are in a way that's clearer than any other time of your life. That purpose would be defined. That people around you would champion your purpose. They would remind you. You would hear over and over again why you're alive. and that a sense of destiny would become your portion. That every day of your life you would live with the awareness that you were born for something. There is a significance about your life and I bless you with that as a gift from the Father through the Father. But I pray as well that every person standing would have an unusual revelation of unlimited resources that a more than capable father makes available to his children.

38:15 that everything he's called you to do, you have more than enough to accomplish it.