SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of The Road at Chapel Hills.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Road 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: We want to welcome all of you to the Road.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor here.
SPEAKER_00: I've been gone all summer because of sabbatical, and man, that was a it was an interesting sabbatical.
SPEAKER_00: It was not all relaxing, I can tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: I shared a lot about that last week.
SPEAKER_00: But in May, right before we took the sabbatical, we were in the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: And so we went through the first three chapters of Ephesians, and we're going to pick it up today.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to start back into Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the funnest part of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have, how many of you have ever studied Ephesians before?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And this is my second time going through Ephesians as a teacher, so I love it.
SPEAKER_00: And I get so much more out of it.
SPEAKER_00: This is better.
SPEAKER_00: This teaching's better than the one I did before, I'll tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: And so the theme, the theme of Ephesians is born for war.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I believe.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you were born for warfare.
SPEAKER_00: You are born for battle that God has put you on this earth to be his a kingdom of priests, a kingdom of kings that will battle and bring the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: A hundred times Jesus spoke on the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he said for us to pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He, it's the church's responsibility to be a part of bringing the kingdom from heaven down to earth.
SPEAKER_00: And the book of Ephesians is the best book in the entire Bible about that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00: We're in chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, and if you don't, I'm gonna inform you now, that the Bible was not written in chapters.
SPEAKER_00: These were letters written, these were treatises written.
SPEAKER_00: And so later they were put into chapter form.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: The theme, as these next few weeks pan out as we go through Ephesians, is that you were born for war.
SPEAKER_00: And what's exciting is four, five, and six, chapters four, five, and six are the most practical in Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: So if you missed one, two, and three, I would encourage you to go to our app slash sermons, look up sermons, go to Born for War, Ephesians, and when you're going to and from work, catch up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, go back to chapter one when I did the introduction, work your way through.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was nine messages that I did on one through three, because that's the setup of our position.
SPEAKER_00: So you guys listen now.
SPEAKER_00: Chapters one, two, and three are really about our position in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what that is, is that God has positioned every one of you in the heavenly realm, that you have been positioned by God to be his priest, his leaders, his kings in heavenly places when, listen, when you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you're if you're not walking, you realize you can be a Christian but not be in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you can be a Christian but not in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that there's a lot of people that say they're Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I said I was a Christian when I was a freshman in college, but I wasn't saved.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people call themselves Christians.
SPEAKER_00: But to be in Christ is one who's in the center of God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Because that means you're living in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I can be a Christian and be living in Steve.
SPEAKER_00: Or I can be a Christian and I'm living in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Ephesians is about.
SPEAKER_00: It's about how to be in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ, Ephesians says, you are above every principality and power.
SPEAKER_00: You are, you have within you Christ, which is above all demons.
SPEAKER_00: All principalities and powers in the heavenly realm.
SPEAKER_00: He's living in you.
SPEAKER_00: How about that?
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good news, right?
SPEAKER_00: Say hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's in your you have that within you.
SPEAKER_00: Most believers don't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys know the truth doesn't set you free?
SPEAKER_00: Did you know the truth doesn't set you free?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, You shall know the truth, the truth shall set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Truth doesn't set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing the truth sets you free.
SPEAKER_00: You shall know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That means you can be cognitively aware of truth, but you don't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't believe it, it doesn't set you free.
SPEAKER_00: So the media today, most of the time, they know what the truth is.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't want you to know that.
SPEAKER_00: Because they know if you know that, you'll be free, and if you're free, you'd probably kick them out.
SPEAKER_00: So they hide the truth and they live in they live in a world of deception.
SPEAKER_00: That's demonic.
SPEAKER_00: You're above that.
SPEAKER_00: You're smarter than that.
SPEAKER_00: You're wiser than that.
SPEAKER_00: And chapters four, five, and six is practical ways that we begin to walk that out.
SPEAKER_00: So turn, if you would, to Ephesians chapter four, one through six.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm reading out of the New King James Version.
SPEAKER_00: That's the version I like the most and I use the most.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people ask me that, and we've grown so much.
SPEAKER_00: We've grown by 300% in the last year.
SPEAKER_00: And so people come with NIVs, ESVs.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what you use.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not dogmatic about it, but I'm just letting you know, when you when I'm reading it, you go, Oh, that's really different.
SPEAKER_00: My voice, because you might have a different translation.
SPEAKER_00: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling which you were called.
SPEAKER_00: With all lowliness and gentleness and long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_00: There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.
SPEAKER_00: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in, there is that in Christ, in you all.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father God, in the name and the blood of Jesus, we ask you to speak to us from your word.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we believe that your word is inerrant, it is without error, it is infallible, it is authoritative, and I pray, Lord, you'd wake us up in new ways today where we've slumbered, where we are asleep, not understanding the fullness of the calling that you have on all of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, I pray for the word today to be like an alarm clock into our spirit so that we might grow to be more in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: So in verse one, look at that again.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing as Paul moves into this very practical set of chapters is he says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What an interesting statement.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you say you're a prisoner of Rome?
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you say you're a prisoner of the state?
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you say you're a prisoner of a governor?
SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm in the center of God's will.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing what God's called me to do, and because of that, I've been made a prisoner.
SPEAKER_00: And so God must be behind it.
SPEAKER_00: God is allowing it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: God sometimes lets suffering happen in your life because you're in the center of his will.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes suffering happens in your life because you're stupid.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm one of the dumbest people I know.
SPEAKER_00: And some of the things that I've done over the years, I'm like, man, I am an idiot, you know, on that decision that I made.
SPEAKER_00: So we all do that.
SPEAKER_00: But there's other times where you're doing exactly what God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: You're seeking the kingdom first.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing, you're being as beat as you know to be.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to stay humble, and you're and you're in love with Jesus, and you're trying to do Jesus, what he has for you to do, and you suffer.
SPEAKER_00: And so that suffering's from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And God disciplines those he loves, and sometimes he takes you through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul, he never, he never planned for this.
SPEAKER_00: This was not in the cards.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And when we see what's happening in culture right now, we see what's happening with the government right now.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us may be prisoners of the Lord in the years to come.
SPEAKER_00: They may shut us down a year from now.
SPEAKER_00: And if they do, some I might still meet.
SPEAKER_00: I might say, I'm gonna still meet.
SPEAKER_00: And they're just gonna be there, and man, I'm in handcuffs and I'm offered, well, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And if I go to Canyon City, we'll bring revival down there.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not a prisoner of anybody, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what drove Paul, and I believe God wants us to be driven this way.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_00: And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who delivered himself up for me.
SPEAKER_00: So you can't crucify someone who's already on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Are you living the crucified life?
SPEAKER_00: It's a great life to live.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually the life you were meant to live.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people can't crucify you if you're already on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I just see the two major fears that Christians struggle with: the fear of man, the fear of what other people think, the fear of opinions of other people, and the fear of death.
SPEAKER_00: And we, of all people, we win if we die.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: So in some cases, we get there earlier.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_00: I'll find out addresses where you guys are all set up, and I'll make sure it's furnished and it's beautiful, and you'll get your 6,000 square foot mansion ready.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Steve set it up for you because I got there first.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fear dad.
SPEAKER_00: Fear God.
SPEAKER_00: You fear God, you're crucified with him.
SPEAKER_00: When you're crucified with him, nobody.
SPEAKER_00: That's when you become dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: You're dangerous when you fear only God and you don't fear man.
SPEAKER_00: You don't fear the government.
SPEAKER_00: I've been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You've been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That's when you are free.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed.
SPEAKER_00: You shall know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You shall believe the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That word know is the same word for intimacy, sexual intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: It's knowing, it's really knowing God.
SPEAKER_00: It's intimacy with God sets you free because you now have the truth living within you.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing more exciting than that.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says that he's a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've entitled today's message, The Weight of Your Calling.
SPEAKER_00: The Weight of Your Calling, because of the next line.
SPEAKER_00: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody in this room is called by God to do something on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: You are not here to be a consumer, you're here to be a producer.
SPEAKER_00: You're not here to just take up space and say that you're happy and play golf all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Now playing golf, not against golf.
SPEAKER_00: My son plays golf all the time, and he is also producing.
SPEAKER_00: So golf's great.
SPEAKER_00: I like to fly fish, but I don't fly fish all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I like to be outdoors.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not outdoors all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm called to something.
SPEAKER_00: In my case, I'm called to be a pastor of this church.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here, you're gonna have to deal with me because I'm not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I love this church.
SPEAKER_00: I want to build a family here, and I want my family to love this church, and so I work hard at that.
SPEAKER_00: But some of you are called to be school teachers, and some of you are called to be lawyers, and some of you are called to be entrepreneurs, and many of you are called to be husbands and fathers and mothers.
SPEAKER_00: That's a calling.
SPEAKER_00: He's not writing this just to the pastor, which would have been Timothy in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's still reading it, he's writing it in the plural.
SPEAKER_00: Your calling.
SPEAKER_00: You, every one of you in this room are missionaries.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us in this room are called to the purposes of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is a holy calling.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that kind of messed this whole concept up was the medieval period.
SPEAKER_00: During the medieval period, in the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church was really the only church, except for some spurious sects of Christianity at that time, kind of built a theological concept of the priesthood and the laity.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard the have y'all heard the term laity.
SPEAKER_00: So you got your laity.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's people who lay around, I guess, you know?
SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna hear me say laity.
SPEAKER_00: Are you a layman?
SPEAKER_00: And people are saying, you're a pastor, how's you how are the layman?
SPEAKER_00: And they go, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I forgot I was Lutheran in the background.
SPEAKER_00: He's just a layman.
SPEAKER_00: But it was this idea the priests are the ones who are really called, and the layman, yeah, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you just kind of provide for your family.
SPEAKER_00: And so you had the monastic movement.
SPEAKER_00: The monastic movement were the monks and the nuns.
SPEAKER_00: And so you had monks, nuns, and priests, they're called, and it's kind of the rest of us, kind of the riffraff.
SPEAKER_00: But when the Reformation came with Martin Luther and Zwingli and Calvin, they began to teach a theological concept called the priesthood of all believers.
SPEAKER_00: Have you heard that before?
SPEAKER_00: The priesthood of all believers is the idea that all of us are priests.
SPEAKER_00: All of us are kings, all of us are worshippers and warriors, and that we're all called to God's purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so Ephesians is gonna explain what that means.
SPEAKER_00: That we're we're elevated.
SPEAKER_00: You are elevated in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You're above all principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_00: And as a matter of fact, many of you in this room, I know because I talked to you, you're more eloquent, more called to verbal gifts and speaking and teaching than most of the pastors in this city.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're anointed that way.
SPEAKER_00: But you'll probably never be a pastor, you know, in a in the sense of getting your paycheck from a church.
SPEAKER_00: You've got a calling on your life that God's gonna use.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we started home fellowships.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're gonna do these community groups or what we call house churches.
SPEAKER_00: Because if the government begins to move in and we have to split off into small churches, we will.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are gonna be called to be pastors of those groups and leaders of those groups.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, walk worthy of your calling.
SPEAKER_00: The word worthy in the Greek means sufficient weight.
SPEAKER_00: Write that down.
SPEAKER_00: It means sufficient weight.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis got it right in his treatise, The Weight of Glory.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: There is a weight to our calling.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight to your calling.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are entrepreneurial, and there is a weight to that walk, and the weight of the walk is sufficient to the calling on your life.
SPEAKER_00: So when you know your calling from God, you have something meaningful to live for, there's weight that goes with that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not all joy and happiness, there's a weight to it.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard sometimes, it's difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you three things.
SPEAKER_00: Three things I think that are part of what this passage is saying about the weight of your calling.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're called to do, that weight, and here's the first one it's the weight of responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: It's the weight of responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: You have a responsibility that goes with your calling.
SPEAKER_00: So, men, if you're called to be a husband and a father, there's a weight to that.
SPEAKER_00: So recently, about a month and a half ago, I was talking to a young man who's been in and out of prison.
SPEAKER_00: And he was so excited to tell me about this girl he had met and how they're gonna get engaged and they're gonna get married, and he's pumped about that.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, How long have you been clean?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Four months.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What's the longest period of time you've been clean for meth?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, six months.
SPEAKER_00: I said, When are you planning on getting married?
SPEAKER_00: He said, in about four months, I said, That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard.
SPEAKER_00: I said, You show me at least a year, year and a half of walking clean because you've got a weight of responsibility by getting married.
SPEAKER_00: You're absolutely dragging that woman into a nightmare if you haven't learned about the weight of your calling, which is that of being a husband.
SPEAKER_00: And you never know, because you're sleeping together, as you might be a father too.
SPEAKER_00: So think it through because God's got a weight of a calling.
SPEAKER_00: And so, guys, when you're fathers and when you're husbands, there's a weight that goes with that.
SPEAKER_00: It interrupts your schedule.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do all the hunting, you can't do all the fishing, you can't play as much golf.
SPEAKER_00: There's a responsibility to that of making ends meet financially for your family.
SPEAKER_00: I have not met a guy yet.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Man, I just can't wait to get home today and change poopy diapers.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so pumped about that.
SPEAKER_00: Weight of your calling.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to do poopy diapers.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: But that's true in everything, guys.
SPEAKER_00: That's true in everything.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a responsibility that goes with that.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so the reality is you moms, same thing as a mother and a wife.
SPEAKER_00: You have got new responsibilities you didn't have before.
SPEAKER_00: You're not, you can't just go do anything willy-nilly, whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight that goes with it, it's a weight of your calling.
SPEAKER_00: Now I happen to believe it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: After almost 36 years of marriage, I I've loved it.
SPEAKER_00: But man, I had to renew my mind in those early years, you know.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, I I'm uh we were on the mission field at that time in Japan, and so I had to renew my mind.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going home now.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm gonna be there for Liz.
SPEAKER_00: And probably Liz had to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, he's coming home now, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta love him.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not all, you know, roses and happiness and joy.
SPEAKER_00: It's there's a weight of responsibility that goes with it.
SPEAKER_00: So think about Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about Paul for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: He is an up-and-coming rising star in Phariseaism, in the Jewish synagogue, all around the Mediterranean, but also especially in the temple area, he's well known.
SPEAKER_00: He's a rising star, and he is so zealous for Judaism that he's imprisoning this Christian sect called the way.
SPEAKER_00: And he's on his way to Tarsus, and he gets, and God comes with a blinding light, and he speaks into his life.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that God said, and it's covered in Acts, is that God said, he doesn't know, he's speaking to Ananias who went and baptized him, he doesn't know what he's gonna have to suffer for my sake.
SPEAKER_00: So the reason these are tied together in our verse is because he is a prisoner of the Lord to walk worthy the weight of his calling.
SPEAKER_00: So the weight of Paul's calling was he was a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's be honest.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands on this.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have felt, just you just say a yes inside your spirit, do not say it out loud, or you will get an elbow in your ribcage.
SPEAKER_00: Have felt sometimes in marriage and sometimes in parenting, you're a prisoner of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Paul was a prisoner of the Lord because he's in the center of God's will and he knew the weight of his calling, and he was willing to be responsible.
SPEAKER_00: Men and women, be responsible.
SPEAKER_00: Shoulder it.
SPEAKER_00: You can handle it.
SPEAKER_00: So I went three years ago, Liz and I was had these back problems.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the back problems I was always having.
SPEAKER_00: We had to change out our mattress, got a purple mattress, things like that.
SPEAKER_00: But I went to a chiropractor, and the chiropractor said, first of all, your posture is horrible.
SPEAKER_00: And I went, no, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Yes, it is, and I took a picture of it.
SPEAKER_00: So he showed me.
SPEAKER_00: They had this thing where they could take a picture of it.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, And he said, for every one degree that your head is forward, it's 15 pounds.
SPEAKER_00: So I think I was like eight degrees forward, and so eight times fifteen.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the kind of weight I was putting on my spine and my shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: So he said, get your chest out, get your head back, and let's get that spine lined up.
SPEAKER_00: And I had to do that, and guys on the staff team all know I used to come in sometimes like this, and they go, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: I go, This is what my chiropractor told me to do, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because if I will line up my spine the way it's supposed to be lined up, I'll be healthier and I'll have a stronger back.
SPEAKER_00: So, church, puff out your chest, hold your head up, and carry the responsibilities on your back that God gave you.
SPEAKER_00: You can do it.
SPEAKER_00: It's alright.
SPEAKER_00: So we have a responsibility on Saturday to Sunday next weekend.
SPEAKER_00: We have an increasingly oppressive government being led by a censored media that is doing everything possible to fake you out so that you won't do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: And we're doing a thing because we feel called to a 24-hour burn.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say, if you can't give up two hours from 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: on Saturday morning to 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: on Sunday, and we'll be in here worshiping and praying.
SPEAKER_00: If you can't give up two hours, you have no room to complain if they shut us down a year from now.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we pray, God comes.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys remember that there was a, well, you may not know this.
SPEAKER_00: I know this.
SPEAKER_00: Liz knows this because Liz told me because we know a person in the National Guard that called us and let us know that they were called up.
SPEAKER_00: Was this a month ago, Liz?
SPEAKER_00: The thing about the um targeting Hispanics?
SPEAKER_00: So three months ago?
unknown: Three weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Three weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: So three weeks ago, National Guard was called up in Colorado to target Hispanics to go after them in vans and with their uniforms and their guns and everything to make them take the shot.
SPEAKER_00: And we called a meeting and we prayed, and that edict was changed, and they didn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer matters.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer makes a difference.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not praying for our governor, and if you're not praying for our county, did I say that right?
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you need to go outside and not listen to this thing.
SPEAKER_00: National Guard was encouraging people to get the show.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: She said they were encouraging people, they weren't making people.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But we sent it to we actually sent the article to Delonguinos Gonzalez, one of our county commissioners.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know about it.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, it changed when we prayed.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: 9 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: Saturday, two-hour slots, and men, I'd encourage you if y'all could take those wee hours of the morning, come here, miss two hours of sleep, and cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to God for our nation.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to God, mainly for our state.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, seriously, national politics, that's that's above my pay grade.
SPEAKER_00: I care about El Paso County.
SPEAKER_00: I care about Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_00: So when I spoke at a revival, I was at a revival tent meeting.
SPEAKER_00: Were any of you there?
SPEAKER_00: Because I was at a revival tent meeting in fountain last night.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you were there.
SPEAKER_00: It's really fun.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I gave it to a man.
SPEAKER_00: Both both guns were blazing.
SPEAKER_00: And um, we talked about a kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_00: And I shared with them that when I was I was riding my bicycle years ago to go to class in graduate school, and almost like an audible voice, the Lord spoke to me, I want to make Colorado Springs a model city.
SPEAKER_00: And we already knew we were called here.
SPEAKER_00: I still believe that.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that Colorado Springs should be the model city for our nation.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that El Paso County should be the model county for our nation.
SPEAKER_00: We got to pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta believe God.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be willing to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna come here and so come.
SPEAKER_00: In that hour, we're gonna pray for education, we're gonna pray for government, we're gonna pray for the military, we're gonna pray for our businesses, we're gonna pray, like even when I was with the county commissioners.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember we made the big declaration a few months ago with the county commissioners, and you guys packed out, you know, Centennial Hall down there and everything.
SPEAKER_00: It was just powerful.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember Longinos and Holly and those in the county commissioners said, we are begging people to stay open with their business.
SPEAKER_00: Even though Polis is saying that.
SPEAKER_00: It's unconstitutional, it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, if they will, we'll back them and we'll take him, we'll take him to court.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing, you guys, that you need to understand is when you have an oppressive government, they count on good people doing nothing.
SPEAKER_00: This is our country, this is our county, and this is our city.
SPEAKER_00: So God's called us to stand for that.
SPEAKER_00: And this is our church, and this is your church family.
SPEAKER_00: So we watch each other's back.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's important for you men to come to whole heart advance, September 9th through the 12th.
SPEAKER_00: We only do this every two years.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna come together, and for three days, we're gonna dive into a man's heart, our masculine heart, how to be the man that God created us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's tough to be a man these days.
SPEAKER_00: It's tough to be a woman these days.
SPEAKER_00: But I, because of my calling, I feel a special allegiance to men and to that masculine heart within you guys.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna pour out my life.
SPEAKER_00: In those three days, we're gonna pour out our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go to Georgia next.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be in Champaign, um, Illinois.
SPEAKER_00: Is it Champaign, Illinois?
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
SPEAKER_00: I'll be in Champaign, Illinois end of September because we're pouring into men.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Tuesday morning's about.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the weight, there's a weight of responsibility for us as men.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight of responsibility for you as women, too.
SPEAKER_00: So I challenge you, be a part of the 24-hour burn.
SPEAKER_00: I challenge you, be a part of the wholehearted vance.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: With all lowliness, lowliness, lowliness, lowliness, and gentleness with long suffering, bearing with one another in love.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, there's the weight of love.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight of responsibility, and then church, there's a weight of love.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to love people.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to love people that criticize you.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to love people that make fun of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to love people that have stabbed you in the back.
SPEAKER_00: It said, it says in lowliness, gentleness, and long-suffering.
SPEAKER_00: They're all similar in meaning.
SPEAKER_00: The rubric is humility.
SPEAKER_00: Humility.
SPEAKER_00: Don't we all get on our high horse?
SPEAKER_00: That's what my mom used to say, say, son, get off your high horse.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'd get on my high horse, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And I still get on my high horse.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be on my low horse.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Humility, it's love.
SPEAKER_00: I've been mentored by many great leaders, and one of the leaders that last spent time with me once a month for years was a guy named H.B.
SPEAKER_00: London.
SPEAKER_00: And H.B.
SPEAKER_00: London was cousin to Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Dobson and director of pastoral ministries at folks in the family for many, many years.
SPEAKER_00: He was always called America's Pastor's Pastor because he was just so loved.
SPEAKER_00: And he used to say that the most important quality of leadership was humility.
SPEAKER_00: Winston Churchill said the most important, the most important leadership quality is courage.
SPEAKER_00: I think that both are true.
SPEAKER_00: It takes courage to be humble.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're saying to yourself right now, I'm really a humble person and you got issues.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you start bragging about your humility.
SPEAKER_00: But but the weight of love, and love is mentioned 15 times in the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: There's no admonition in Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: There's no place in here where he actually says there's anything wrong with the Ephesian church, but he talks about love 15 times.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's really not.
SPEAKER_00: Because we, if you've got a church that's doing all the stuff that you think is pretty much right, and yet you have to mention love 15 times, we all need to be reminded of that.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you husbands, you need to love your wives better.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you wives, you need to love your husbands better.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really hard to love kids that keep having poopy diapers.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the weight of love.
SPEAKER_00: It's not easy.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Steve can't love the way Christ wants him to love.
SPEAKER_00: But in Christ, Christ can love through Steve.
SPEAKER_00: So I have to always re-surrender, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we resurrender.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, thirdly, look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_00: There's one body and one spirit, just as you are called in one hope of your calling.
SPEAKER_00: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, is the weight of unity.
SPEAKER_00: We try our level best to forge unity with our brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: It's why back in May of 2020, we had been given the edict from Polis that we were not to open.
SPEAKER_00: And so all the churches were closed.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: This is March and April.
SPEAKER_00: And I drank the Kool-Aid for about four weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And then I woke up one morning and what am I doing?
SPEAKER_00: We had done our research, we understood that COVID wasn't what they were saying it was going to be, and that there was a lot of evidence starting to show that it was not as deadly as they had predicted.
SPEAKER_00: And the measures that they were giving weren't actually working.
SPEAKER_00: So we called a meeting here at the road.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you remember this, and 85 pastors from across the city came.
SPEAKER_00: And in front of the pastors, six of us got up and said, We're opening up.
SPEAKER_00: And we encourage you to open up.
SPEAKER_00: And out of that, probably 25 did open up.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they opened up because they got courage because of unity.
SPEAKER_00: They knew that we had their back, and that was my main point was we've got your back, you've got my back.
SPEAKER_00: Now you guys all have a conscience, you guys all seek God, and if you want to stay closed, that's up to you.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna stay closed.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna open up, and for you guys that are, we support you, and we're behind that.
SPEAKER_00: And he gave them courage.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the power of unity.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he means by the there's a weight to unity.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: I could have thought a lot of better things than to seek, call a meeting with some pastors everywhere from Roman Catholic to word of faith to Pentecostal to Bible church.
SPEAKER_00: We all came in there, and I wanted everybody in that room to open up.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to know why we were gonna open up and why it was important that they open up.
SPEAKER_00: And some believed it, some didn't, but I guarantee you, everybody who came to that meeting with today, they came out unified.
SPEAKER_00: They felt loved, they felt our the weight of responsibility as pastors, but we we did different things.
SPEAKER_00: But 25 churches that would not have opened up opened up because of unity.
SPEAKER_00: You need that.
SPEAKER_00: We need that.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are carrying the weight of being a husband and the weight of being a father and the weight of being a wife and the weight of being a mother, or the weight of working in UC Health right now where they're putting pressure on you to take the shot.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we did the, that's why we did the package, um, the package for you last week where you could come with a waiver for religious and personal exemption.
SPEAKER_00: Because we wanted you to know we're behind you, we're gonna support you as best we can under these kind of edicts that come our way.
SPEAKER_00: That's unity.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really weird.
SPEAKER_00: I'm super weird because I grew up in a weird family.
SPEAKER_00: So my dad, as many of you know this story, but I was I grew up in a Lutheran home.
SPEAKER_00: My dad was a civil rights advocate with Martin Luther King Jr.
SPEAKER_00: from high church Lutheran, almost Roman Catholic type services that he held in the Bible Belt Southern Baptist Territory South.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how popular that made my dad?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we got calls all the time and editorials in the paper calling my dad an in lover and death threats.
SPEAKER_00: And then we had we had Catholic, I mean, everybody wore a clerical collar that was in our house.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there were Methodists and Presbyterians and Roman Catholic united together in our home to stand strong for equality in the South.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe we can unify under the rubric of a kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to agree on every little thing, but we can be unified for the kingdom of God to bring forth the glory of God in our county and in our city.
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying we're one faith, we're one baptism.
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm in a room and I've got a Roman Catholic priest here where we disagree on tons of theological issues, but we are fighting against abortion, then that guy's my brother, and we're gonna battle together.
SPEAKER_00: And if I got another guy over here who believes everything I do about the Bible and we're like in sync theologically, but he's pro-abortion, I got issues with that.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: So, men and women, the revolution of what God wants to do in our hearts is that there's a weight to everything you do.
SPEAKER_00: Pick your weight.
SPEAKER_00: If you decide that you don't want to carry responsibility, you're gonna divorce your wife, or you're gonna divorce your husband, you're gonna go your own way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about where there's maybe some issues there that legitimately need counseling and work.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying they're just gonna get out of here and get out of dodge and run from your responsibilities.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight to that.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's gonna pay the alimony.
SPEAKER_00: You got kids, you know, meeting at different, you guys know what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you are in divorce or been through divorce.
SPEAKER_00: There's a weight to everything.
SPEAKER_00: Why not have the weight be the calling of God on your life in the center of his will?
SPEAKER_00: Because then he shoulders it with you.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be like this, like I was, but he's like this inside of you, and he's beginning to give you the strength that you need.
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 placed 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.