SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Red at Chapel Hills.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Red Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is to empower you to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this message impacts you.
SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to talk about this morning built off what Eric was talking about last week.
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling it the Isakar anointing.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, how many enjoyed Eric Metaxis?
SPEAKER_00: Was that good or what?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, wasn't it funny to hear him speak, and you know, he's talking about what the title is of his message, and he never got to it.
SPEAKER_00: So people were asking me from the back, like, what do we what do we call this message?
SPEAKER_00: And so I listened to it twice and I went and never really got to what he said he was going to talk about, which we had talked about for him to talk about, because I had a feeling, and authors are like this, they get excited about their last book.
SPEAKER_00: And they've moved on from the book that I wanted him to talk about, which was like 11 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, bottom line is we if you go in and look at the message and everything, it's actually, you know, is Atheism Dead?
SPEAKER_00: So that's the title of it.
SPEAKER_00: And you can see it on YouTube and everything.
SPEAKER_00: And it was really good, and it was all over the place, but I thought it was excellent.
SPEAKER_00: So, what he's talking about in the book was this combination, really didn't talk about the philosophy side, but I'll just tell you the essence of the book, is that there's three categories to this idea built off of a contrast to the 1966 cover of Time magazine, Is God Dead, with Is Atheism Dead from a perspective of science, archaeology, and philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't cover anything on the philosophy side of things, but the reality is that it's true.
SPEAKER_00: For any sane, even scientific thinker, atheism is dead in the water.
SPEAKER_00: If you really use your mind, if you actually use science, if you actually think through logically, it makes absolutely no sense.
SPEAKER_00: All that God is doing in this present hour is moving the world, and those who really study and research and understand things, and I'm just saying, those who do, the mainstream media missing it all most of the time, is that God has been moving us toward an understanding of Him that is unprecedented in science, archaeology, philosophy, faith.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I would say, even economically, you could argue that God has made men and women to be free.
SPEAKER_00: Free to think for yourself, free to be all that God's meant you to be on this earth, even through government and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: That all speaks of a God of the Bible who gives us freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're coming to a really interesting verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's a cryptic verse.
SPEAKER_00: You may have read it before, you may not have.
SPEAKER_00: But turn in your Old Testament to 1 Chronicles 12.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Chronicles 12.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about what I'm calling the Issachar anointing.
SPEAKER_00: And you have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and then you start moving into Ruth, and then you go first and second, you got Samuel, Kings, and then Chronicles.
SPEAKER_00: So 1 Chronicles 12.
SPEAKER_00: And here's this one verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's going through this chronology of the army that was fighting for David at Hebron, and there's this one cryptic verse in verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to camp on that today.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a lot of stuff to talk about, so I'm going to talk fast.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you'll have to take notes fast, or we'll do a part two.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm hoping to get it all done today.
SPEAKER_00: But look at 1 Chronicles 12, 32.
SPEAKER_00: Of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.
SPEAKER_00: Their chiefs were 200, and all their brethren were at their command.
SPEAKER_00: So this is this is when Saul is in power.
SPEAKER_00: Saul is the king.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the first tribes to realize David should be king.
SPEAKER_00: David's the anointed one.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, Samuel anointed Saul to be king.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel anointed David to be king.
SPEAKER_00: It's a confusing time.
SPEAKER_00: And here's this outlaw shepherd boy.
SPEAKER_00: All we know about him right now is that he's a tremendous warrior.
SPEAKER_00: He kills Goliath, and then he does the bidding of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: But something has happened in the White House, and David is kicked out.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he's booted out, and this band of 400 discontented thieves, uh, robbers, um, kind of outlaw people, I would call them almost like outlaw prophets, gather at the cave of Addalam and begin to follow this outlaw shepherd boy named David.
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting is the sons of Issachar notice, hear from God enough to recognize what God is doing, that he's actually doing a new thing in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: So turn to the left, go to chapter 7 of 1 Chronicles, and we have another passage that talks about the sons of Issachar.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll start at the very beginning, it talks about the sons of Issachar.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes through the names, but I want you to jump down to verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter 7, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: And with them, by their generations, according to their father's houses, were 36,000 troops, ready for war.
SPEAKER_00: Underline that, you know, circle that, highlight that, ready for war, for they had many wives and sons.
SPEAKER_00: Now their brethren among all the families of Issachar were, and here, underline, circle this, mighty men of valor, listed by their genealogies, 87,000 in all.
SPEAKER_00: So these are these are men who fight for their families.
SPEAKER_00: These are men who care about their wives and their sons and their daughters.
SPEAKER_00: They're ready.
SPEAKER_00: They are ready for war.
SPEAKER_00: They are men of valor, 87,000 strong.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the the meaning of chapter 12, verse 32, is that there are those people, men and women, who understand the times.
SPEAKER_00: They understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: They have a God-given ability to see what's happening, not just on the surface, but underneath it.
SPEAKER_00: That there's meaning behind this, that God's doing something that many are missing.
SPEAKER_00: And they're willing to be controversial.
SPEAKER_00: They're willing to go out ahead of those that don't want to go there because they're cowards.
SPEAKER_00: And much of the Christian community is made up of cowards.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're saved, they're going to heaven, hallelujah, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Yay, you're going to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But they're not making any impact on earth.
SPEAKER_00: They're not doing anything with their lives, they're just biding their time, and they live no different than anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: And when I say they're cowards, what I mean is anything that challenges their faith, they kind of become like everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: They just say the same things, do the same things, and they're just vanilla.
SPEAKER_00: They're just vanilla people.
SPEAKER_00: They're chameleons.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they're lukewarm.
SPEAKER_00: And God is always looking to and fro for those whose hearts are completely his, that he might strengthen them.
SPEAKER_00: These are the sons of Issachar.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I mean by the Issachar anointing is understanding the times, listen, and the seasons.
SPEAKER_00: You realize there's times, and underneath times, there's seasons.
SPEAKER_00: There's seasons, and so it's an anointing.
SPEAKER_00: It's an anointing that all of you in this room can have if you want it.
SPEAKER_00: To have an insight.
SPEAKER_00: I call it insight and discernment.
SPEAKER_00: Insight and discernment about what's happening, not just what's obvious, but what's behind that.
SPEAKER_00: What's God doing?
SPEAKER_00: What in the world is God doing with COVID-19?
SPEAKER_00: What in the world is God doing with the Delta variant?
SPEAKER_00: What's God doing with the Omicron?
SPEAKER_00: God's in control.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: He's the Alpha and the Omega, He's the beginning and the end.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing something around the world.
SPEAKER_00: He's shaking us to wake us up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a hunter.
SPEAKER_00: And when we go elk hunting, we get up super early.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I have sons that I have to shake up to wake up.
SPEAKER_00: And God is doing that to the church.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing a shakeup to get a wake up.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes he makes you uncomfortable and suffer in order that you seek him in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 2, 27, we read, but the anointing which you've received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you.
SPEAKER_00: But as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, it's not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm calling this the Issachar anointing, and it's an anointing from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me just let me preface this by saying, I think this Issachar anointing is not just for believers.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm speaking to believers here.
SPEAKER_00: I think most of you are saved, you have a personal relationship with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But there are people, and I'll just say, someone like, I don't know if Abraham Lincoln was saved or not.
SPEAKER_00: There's different opinions on that.
SPEAKER_00: But he definitely had the Issachar anointing during slavery time.
SPEAKER_00: So he understood what God wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: Winston Churchill, I don't know if he was saved or not.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've studied almost every major book on Winston Churchill.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not convinced he was or he wasn't.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: God's the only one who knows.
SPEAKER_00: But he definitely had an Issachar anointing about what Hitler was up to when nobody else in England did.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Bonhoffer definitely had an Issachar anointing about Hitler when the rest of the church was asleep.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this Issachar anointing that comes from the Holy Spirit of understanding the times and knowing what God's saying.
SPEAKER_00: So here's, I want to give you four thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Here's four points on the Issachar anointing.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the Issachar anointing is the ability to discern times and seasons.
SPEAKER_00: Let me repeat that.
SPEAKER_00: The Issachar anointing is the ability to discern times and seasons.
SPEAKER_00: The sons of Issachar were a proactive, listen, the Issachar tribe was a proactive tribe of leaders.
SPEAKER_00: I went through, I've read all of the chronologies of all the tribes in Israel, wherever it can be found in Kings and Chronicles, and there's no other tribe where it talks about chiefs.
SPEAKER_00: 200 chiefs.
SPEAKER_00: These were leaders.
SPEAKER_00: They were known at that time, the sons of Issachar were leaders.
SPEAKER_00: So the the anointing from Issachar, the Issachar anointing is a anointing of leadership, proactive leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may be sitting here today, I don't consider myself a leader.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a leader.
SPEAKER_00: I've never led anything.
SPEAKER_00: You're a leader.
SPEAKER_00: You're a leader because everybody leads somebody.
SPEAKER_00: There's always, it may be one person, it might be two people, it might be a crew that you work with, but you're a leader there.
SPEAKER_00: You're always leading somewhere, and it's proactive.
SPEAKER_00: When you compare chapter 7 to chapter 12, you see intentionality, proactivity, and you actually see that the other tribes of Israel seem to look to Issachar to see what they did.
SPEAKER_00: Because whenever they did something in Scripture, everybody follows.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll show that in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: In one particular example, 200 years before David.
SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly the anointing that we cried out for in 2020.
SPEAKER_00: In May of 20, starting in March with the whole COVID thing, and I drank the Kool-Aid for about six weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Four to six weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I mean, I thought, man, this is, we've sent enough kids into Africa on mission trips through the years to know what Ebola is.
SPEAKER_00: And Ebola, you're just dead.
SPEAKER_00: You're dead in like one day.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, boom.
SPEAKER_00: And so we were thinking it might be Ebola-like.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that was even what was said.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's ironic that we, the Holtz, we were the first ones to be wearing masks.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so yeah, I know somebody said, no way.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: We wore masks, and Liz made us wear gloves.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, so Liz said, if you're gonna go to the, if you're going to supermarket, you gotta wear gloves too.
SPEAKER_00: You know, these people touching these things and everything, you could get it, you know.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we bought in to, I would call it kind of the Fauci lie, you know?
SPEAKER_00: So we so we got into that and we're into that for a while, and then we just started doing research.
SPEAKER_00: You see, that's the Isakar anointing.
SPEAKER_00: Use your brain, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just listen to the puppets telling you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: So we started doing research, counter-research, different things that we were looking at, and as we did so, we just started kind of taking inventory, talking to people, and we're going, wait, this, you know, this dog doesn't hunt.
SPEAKER_00: There's some issues here, you know, and so we began to change, and we began to, and then when they said churches, you know, churches have to stay closed and all that, that, ooh, that did not sit well with me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't mind if churches decide not to meet based on the knowledge, but a mandate that you had to close your church never happened in American history.
SPEAKER_00: So we started sharing, and many of you guys were a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: We started having some meetings, and we just decided we're opening up.
SPEAKER_00: 87 pastors came here.
SPEAKER_00: We told these pastors in Colorado Springs, we're opening up.
SPEAKER_00: Three, I think it's three or four of us, we're gonna open up.
SPEAKER_00: And I think um Karas Christian Center, Lawson, had already opened up one week before.
SPEAKER_00: So it was just a few of us that did, and we did, and I think 25 joined us, because I always felt like if I'm gonna go to jail, I'd like to kind of go with a group.
SPEAKER_00: So um, but we we went against polis and we decided to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's that's what I'm talking about, you know, and so everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: It was like a reset, and and I haven't gone back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm so you guys, I'm a I'm a reluctant revolutionary.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to teach the Bible, have a church, hunt and fish, love my family and love you guys.
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm thrown into this thing because what happened is God just began to give visions and dreams, and he began to show us, you know, you you guys need to be involved politically because these are mandates that are government-driven.
SPEAKER_00: So we should be involved in that.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, maybe we should start kind of a health ministry because nobody's talking about health stuff, all they're talking about is drug stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should be involved in education because we got this stuff called critical race theory and Marxism coming through education.
SPEAKER_00: That's the issachar anointing, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God calls you to change gears a little bit, to start thinking about what is the season that you're in.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's times and there's seasons.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: So just like there's physical seasons, men and women, you know, we have you know, we have spring and we have fall and we have winter and we have summer, and and you uh you dress different, you do different activities, you're outside more, or you're inside more, whatever, because you understand what?
SPEAKER_00: The season that you're in.
SPEAKER_00: And Colorado is the best state for that because we really have four seasons and it changes.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what season are we in?
SPEAKER_00: That's the Issacar anointing is knowing the season you're in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a different season.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had seven kids, and forever my season was like a nursery.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was like a combination of a nursery and a high school all packed into one room.
SPEAKER_00: And you just and everywhere we went, we're we're hauling kids.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the kids are always with us.
SPEAKER_00: We had a suburban, we've had so many vans.
SPEAKER_00: We've had so many minivans, we've had suburbans, we've had everything.
SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, I drive a tundra, and my wife drives a RAV4.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different season in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And so you you change, you you you understand the season you're in.
SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes 3 1.
SPEAKER_00: To everything there is a season.
SPEAKER_00: A time for every purpose under heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a time and there's a season for everything.
SPEAKER_00: And it's important.
SPEAKER_00: I like what Solomon is saying here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, a time for every purpose under heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Discern your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you here?
SPEAKER_00: What's your purpose on the earth?
SPEAKER_00: What's your purpose in Colorado Springs?
SPEAKER_00: What's your purpose in El Paso County?
SPEAKER_00: What's God, what is your purpose?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't know your purpose, you don't know your time, and if you don't know your time, you don't know your season.
SPEAKER_00: But if you understand the season, you'll understand the time, and then you've got to discern over all that.
SPEAKER_00: What's your purpose?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you here?
SPEAKER_00: So some of you have gray hair.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have no hair.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the issue.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is what you do while you're losing your hair.
SPEAKER_00: That's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's not vocation, it's not really about vocation, it's really about impact with our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Impact in our families, impact in our marriage.
SPEAKER_00: The most important purpose any of you have that are married is your relationship with your spouse and your family.
SPEAKER_00: That's the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00: To bring God into that.
SPEAKER_00: You lose that, you lose everything.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to build your family.
SPEAKER_00: You're single, you've got way more time to do a lot more stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And even Paul says it's better to be single because God measures impact by purpose, which is seasonal.
SPEAKER_00: And most of you will be married.
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody, but most of you will be married.
SPEAKER_00: But before you get married, you've got this season of singleness.
SPEAKER_00: Go for it.
SPEAKER_00: I did.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was I had been to 25 nations of the world before I got married.
SPEAKER_00: I was on mission trips constantly.
SPEAKER_00: I was just constantly doing kingdom stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I met Liz, who was the same way as me, you know, God put us together because we had the same purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And so, for some of you, if you're in college, then make an impact in college.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in high school, make an impact in high school.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in this church, serve, do something.
SPEAKER_00: It's fun.
SPEAKER_00: This is a great church to do stuff in.
SPEAKER_00: We're not a boring church.
SPEAKER_00: We are as far from boring as you can ever get.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you serve with sound or lighting or helping out in youth ministry, children's ministry, whatever you're doing, usually that team's pretty fired up.
SPEAKER_00: And if they're not, report back to me and I'll fire them.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm only kidding.
SPEAKER_00: Um, number two, the issachar anointing is the ability to discern truth from falsehood.
SPEAKER_00: The issachar anointing is the ability to discern truth from falsehood.
SPEAKER_00: You shall know the truth, the truth shall set you free, is what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: Well, knowing the truth intellectually is not good enough.
SPEAKER_00: You have to actually believe it.
SPEAKER_00: That's actually what no means there.
SPEAKER_00: It means believe.
SPEAKER_00: You shall believe the truth, and the truth shall set you.
SPEAKER_00: Free truth doesn't set you free unless you believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I know that sex outside of marriage is bad.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that didn't set you free if you're sacking out with people, you know.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe it and you live it, and you're walking in a celibate lifestyle and you're letting Jesus guide you, that sets you free.
SPEAKER_00: And plus, you don't have to worry about anybody getting pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: Um my daughter said to me the other day, she said, Man, dad, you sleep around and you could have a baby or something.
SPEAKER_00: That's not really smart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, amen.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, 16-year-old gets it.
SPEAKER_00: She's a son of Issachar.
SPEAKER_00: I like it.
SPEAKER_00: She's a daughter of Issachar.
SPEAKER_00: So the sons of Issachar evidently understood the law, but they also understood how to, listen, apply the law in truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Eric was talking about last week was truth.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, truth is on your side.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm working on a white paper right now on health, and I'm using the word science all through it, and then I'm backing it up with research.
SPEAKER_00: Science says.
SPEAKER_00: The new science on health says, Because this anti-science thing that has been kind of perpetrated upon the church is not going to be perpetrated on this church.
SPEAKER_00: The more scientific you are, the more knowledgeable you are, the more it always leads.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about real science, leads you to truth.
SPEAKER_00: And truth sets you free.
SPEAKER_00: So 2 Timothy says, be diligent to present yourselves approved unto God.
SPEAKER_00: A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I happen to read this a little differently, that it's not just the dividing of the Bible, the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's the dividing of the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: So wherever it is, whether it's philosophical, political, medical, or educational, that God wants you to be able to divide, that's what the Issachar anointing is, is to be able to divide truth from falsehood.
SPEAKER_00: Give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: I found myself in a debate this week.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in the middle of preparing this message.
SPEAKER_00: I get a text from someone in town, a pastor in town, and he's making accusations against a friend of mine who's a very influential political leader.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, back it up.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, he's this way and that way.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, back it up.
SPEAKER_00: Show me the bill number where you're saying that he voted that way.
SPEAKER_00: So he sends it to me.
SPEAKER_00: And you guys, I'm not stupid.
SPEAKER_00: I'm from Georgia.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: We won the national championship and the World Series, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to know that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so I said, give me the bill number.
SPEAKER_00: He did.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm sending it over to that particular politician who's a good friend of mine, answered right.
SPEAKER_00: He says, That's a total lie.
SPEAKER_00: And then he sent me a photo of the bill and how he voted.
SPEAKER_00: Sent it back to him.
SPEAKER_00: I said, You got a problem, brother.
SPEAKER_00: You're a liar.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to work it out, follow Matthew 18.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna set you guys up where you guys can talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said another thing right after that.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I just said, okay, send it back over to my friend.
SPEAKER_00: He sent it back over to me.
SPEAKER_00: I sent it back to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not gonna give my friend's number to this guy unless they're gonna get together.
SPEAKER_00: Again, another lie.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, the sons of Issachar don't believe everything they hear.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's Christians can be so idiotic.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna tell you, they're idiots sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And I hear the stuff they say in there, where'd you get that information?
SPEAKER_00: And they went to one source who's a nutcase, you know, up in New Jersey somewhere, and they believed it.
SPEAKER_00: Use wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, guys, use it, you know, have some discernment here and go to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, so you you need to understand truth from falsehood.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, the Issachar anointing is the ability to discern God's voice and then go on the offensive.
SPEAKER_00: It's able to discern God's voice and go on the offensive.
SPEAKER_00: I love Proverbs 28.
SPEAKER_00: The wicked flee when no one pursues.
SPEAKER_00: But the righteous are bold as a lion.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the transgression of a land, does that sound like America?
SPEAKER_00: Because of the transgression of our land, many are its leaders, many are its princes.
SPEAKER_00: But by a man of understanding and knowledge, right will be prolonged.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand all.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: You heard what he's saying there?
SPEAKER_00: You know, Solomon's writing in Proverbs, and he's saying to us that when you have the Issachar anointing, you understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And you can be righteously bold.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know how much I believe in being winsome.
SPEAKER_00: But see, winsome is being bold.
SPEAKER_00: It means you don't back down, you don't compromise, you don't have to be mean spirited, though.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you don't have to don't this is how the whole conversation got started with this guy was he said to me, he said, they're all rhinos.
SPEAKER_00: All those Republican rhinos.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, You've just fallen into a trap.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, What?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, because what you're doing is you're labeling.
SPEAKER_00: You're labeling people because you're not strong enough or intellectual enough to actually carry on an argument about what the issues really are.
SPEAKER_00: You hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: That's called, listen, that's called identity politics.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they're all liberal.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's debate the issues.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, tell me what the issues are, and let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's being that's the Issachar anointing, is that we duke it out, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And so 200 years before, 200 years before, David, God raised up a woman.
SPEAKER_00: He raised a woman to be a leader in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You know how controversial that would be in that kind of society that God would raise up a woman named Deborah to be a judge?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want you to watch where I'm going with this.
SPEAKER_00: Judges chapter 4, 1 through 7 is the context in which God raises up this woman leader named Deborah.
SPEAKER_00: When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazar.
SPEAKER_00: The commander of his army was Siserah, who dwelt in Harasheth, Hagaim, and the children of this is important, is verse 3, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For Jabin had 900 chariots of iron, and for 20 years he harshly oppressed the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So what happened was the children of Israel rebelled against God.
SPEAKER_00: God raised up a leader who was oppressive, and he enslaved them.
SPEAKER_00: But the children of Israel cried out to God, cried out to him, and in crying out to him, listen guys, when you whenever you cry out to God, God sends a leader.
SPEAKER_00: Take that one to the bank.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at scripture, every time you that the children of God cry out to God, he raised up a leader.
SPEAKER_00: So he raises up a leader, but it's not the kind of leader they expected.
SPEAKER_00: It was Deborah.
SPEAKER_00: She's a mother.
SPEAKER_00: She says she's the mother of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I think that means it means that she was a mother.
SPEAKER_00: She had children, she was married.
SPEAKER_00: God raised her up to be the leader.
SPEAKER_00: Well, guess which tribe was the first tribe to understand the times that this woman was being raised up by God, Issachar.
SPEAKER_00: So now, if you go to chapter 5, here's another one of those cryptic verses, verse 515.
SPEAKER_00: And the princesses or the leaders of Issachar, these are warrior leaders, you guys, were with Deborah.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me give you a little background before I go any further.
SPEAKER_00: Barak is the man that Deborah recruited to be the general to fight Jaban and his army.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But look at the next verse.
SPEAKER_00: As Issachar, so was Barak.
SPEAKER_00: Sent into the valley under his command among the divisions of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but when I read that, it seems to me that Deborah, this is the song of Deborah after the victory, after they won, is saying, Barak's kind of a loser.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and if you know the history of Barak, you know he did not want to fight.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm not gonna fight unless you go first.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so he's kind of this wimpy guy, but he's a general, and so she pulls him in.
SPEAKER_00: But doesn't it sound like to you that Barak actually followed the sons of Issachar?
SPEAKER_00: As Issachar, so was Barak.
SPEAKER_00: So the sons of Issachar were men, and I'm gonna say, and women, because of the context, they were warrior leaders who understand the, understood the times, and even out of controversy, in the midst of controversy, they're willing to fight.
SPEAKER_00: They're willing to move forward.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, even Barak becomes the leader that God had made him to be because of the sons of Issachar.
SPEAKER_00: That is the Issachar anointing.
SPEAKER_00: So in our story also, the sons of Issachar are not deceived by Saul.
SPEAKER_00: They notice something different about David.
SPEAKER_00: They see his heart, they see the anointing on his life, and they get behind him when nobody else would, except for a bunch of ragamuffin guys in a cave somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: They all start going together.
SPEAKER_00: So lastly and fourthly, the Issachar anointing is a discipline to discern when God is doing a new thing.
SPEAKER_00: So Issachar anointing is a discipline to discern when God is doing a new thing.
SPEAKER_00: They could exegete the law and the culture.
SPEAKER_00: We need pastors.
SPEAKER_00: We need leaders who can exegete scripture and culture.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be able to exegete both.
SPEAKER_00: The Issachar anointing is a discernment to realize we're not in Kansas anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And we're never going back.
SPEAKER_00: We'll never go back, folks, to the way it was.
SPEAKER_00: Everything has changed.
SPEAKER_00: American Marxism is here to stay.
SPEAKER_00: It is the political ideology of the Democratic Party.
SPEAKER_00: It is in the education, it is an education ideology, it's in our school system, and it's even in our healthcare industry.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know what Marxism is, look it up.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a social, educational, political, economic construct or philosophy, and it's the idea that the oppressed need to rise up and bring a revolution against the oppressors, which is capitalism, freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Never take this one to the bank.
SPEAKER_00: Never where Marxism has been in power has there not been a bloodbath and enslavement of the people.
SPEAKER_00: American Marxism is cloaked in deceptional level labels like progressivism, democratic socialism, social activism, equal rights means equal outcomes, etc., resulting in the brainwashing of our students, anti-American purposes of critical race theory, and the escalation of repression of Christian and biblical values, censorship of opposing voices, and enforcing conformity.
SPEAKER_00: Have the Issachar anointing.
SPEAKER_00: Discern what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: God's doing a new thing in our land.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 43, 18 and 19.
SPEAKER_00: Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will do a new thing.
SPEAKER_00: Now it shall spring forth.
SPEAKER_00: Shall you not know it?
SPEAKER_00: I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: That's where road came from.
SPEAKER_00: The road less traveled.
SPEAKER_00: Road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: So we tend to look at the outward only.
SPEAKER_00: We fell asleep in the 1960s.
SPEAKER_00: In the 1960s, with the assassination of Robert F.
SPEAKER_00: Kennedy, with the assassination of Martin Luther King, with the assassination of John F.
SPEAKER_00: Kennedy, with the Vietnam War, many of us in this room, our generation, we became disenfranchised and disoriented and hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a there was a at the at the underneath it all, there was a search for spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: The church completely missed it.
SPEAKER_00: The mainstream church missed it.
SPEAKER_00: And all we looked at was long hair and communes and drugs and sex and rock and roll.
SPEAKER_00: And there were a few churches that caught that, like Calvary Chapel and some others in those times in Costa Mesa, California.
SPEAKER_00: They got it.
SPEAKER_00: The vineyard understood what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: But by and large, the church missed it.
SPEAKER_00: The Issachar anointing is to not look at just the behavior, but why the behavior.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, as we look at our current situation, why is there so much conformity?
SPEAKER_00: Why are we so easily duped?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: That's the Issachar anointing, and I say the church needs to rise up.
SPEAKER_00: That God's looking for churches of the Word and the Spirit who will not compromise on truth, who will move forward with what we know to be true and what made our nation great, and will not compromise.
SPEAKER_00: It's time to be an outlier and it's a time for courage.
SPEAKER_00: It is your willingness to be an outlier, to stand out from the crowd that makes you one like Deborah, like David.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard at first, but let me just tell you, it's a whole lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00: I really mean that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I say it's fun, I mean that when you're in the center of God's will and fearing God is more important than fearing man.
SPEAKER_00: There's a confidence that grows in you, and there's a boldness where you become fearless like a lion.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what God's made this church for, and that's what God's made everyone of you in this room for, and that's why you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.
SPEAKER_00: My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the reality is that God has pledged your life here on this earth to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to the road.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.