SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want from God?
SPEAKER_01: Ask.
SPEAKER_01: Seek.
SPEAKER_01: Take opportunities to grow.
SPEAKER_01: Take opportunities to change and be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: Seeking God comes through persistent prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Crying out to him.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to bless you, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Church, God wants to bless you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to pour out so much blessing.
SPEAKER_01: He's there for you, but he but for some reason in the economy of the kingdom, he puts us in a position to need to ask for it, to cry out for that.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7, and we're coming to the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you have been with us through the entire Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever given.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest sermon ever given.
SPEAKER_01: Even secular historical scholars will tell you this is the greatest speech ever given.
SPEAKER_01: And so here at the end of everything that Jesus has said, and we've been through, I don't know, 10 or 12 messages in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, this is how he concludes it.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to look at verse 24, Matthew 7, 24.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to actually go through the chat, we're going to go through chapter 7, but I want to start at the end, then we're going to backtrack.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.
SPEAKER_01: So he's saying that you've got to lay unshakable foundations.
SPEAKER_01: Church, we have this opportunity in this life, and this is the only life you're gonna have on earth, that we can have an unshakable life if it's built on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: I've had the privilege to be in Joplin, Missouri, right after that massive tornado about a decade ago.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in Okinawa, Japan living there.
SPEAKER_01: We went through a huge typhoon that wiped out houses all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: You've been to, maybe some of you have been to places where there's been a storm.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in third world countries right after a storm.
SPEAKER_01: And what's amazing is you went through Joplin, Missouri, and when you went through Okinawa, Japan, you saw the structures that were built with solid, fresh, new foundations and building material right next to these houses that were maybe 50 or 100 years old that were in shambles because the structure was built with those materials that could handle a typhoon, a storm, a tornado.
SPEAKER_01: And it looked like nothing had happened to one, and then the other one is leveled, right?
SPEAKER_01: You seen that?
SPEAKER_01: You've seen that in the pictures?
SPEAKER_01: You'll look at pictures, especially in third world countries in Asia, you'll look at pictures and you'll see whole communities leveled, and then you'll see this one structure standing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus saying, build your life on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Lay foundations because in both cases, whether it's the sand or the rock, typhoons are coming.
SPEAKER_01: Storms are coming.
SPEAKER_01: Rain is coming, floods are coming to your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have floods, typhoons, tornadoes, and storms in 2020.
SPEAKER_01: It's the way life is.
SPEAKER_01: But we can be a people.
SPEAKER_01: At the road, we can be a people who are unshakable by laying good foundations through the word and the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 7, Jesus gives us his last admonitions before he closes off his sermon.
SPEAKER_01: He says this in verse 1, chapter 7, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Judge not that you be not judged.
SPEAKER_01: For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged.
SPEAKER_01: And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
SPEAKER_01: And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
SPEAKER_01: Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove a speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye.
SPEAKER_01: Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
SPEAKER_01: Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about these axioms, a new axiom.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the unshakable foundation that Christ wants us to build our lives on.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first one.
SPEAKER_01: Stay focused on your own life and quit judging everyone else.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a plank.
SPEAKER_01: This is a two by four from behind my barn.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, it's really hard to be focused on your life if you got a big plank and you can only see out of one eye.
SPEAKER_01: And so many of us, and you know, especially in the Christian community, how judgmental we can be.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, look, you're sitting there trying to pick out the little sliver, the little speck in that person's life, and you got a plank in your own eye, it's going to be super difficult to stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: You guys know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: And so I know for me, one who has a tendency toward getting really upset about certain things, it's been a challenge to start focusing on Steve's life, focusing on my life and my family, considering the fact that all around me, with the way that news is and the way that we can get information, we can become so judgmental that it destroys us.
SPEAKER_01: It really destroys us.
SPEAKER_01: The recent research is that there's a 69% chance that you'll have a negative attitude during your day if you start your day looking at the news.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's another reason.
SPEAKER_01: He says here, you're gonna get judged.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna allow judgment to come your way if you're a judgmental person.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, there's nothing wrong with being having judgment.
SPEAKER_01: God wants us to have biblical judgment.
SPEAKER_01: It's the problem is judgmentalism.
SPEAKER_01: Being judgmental, having that judgmental spirit and that attitude toward others that begins to cause us to see every little sliver, every little splinter in other people's stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Usually we become negative.
SPEAKER_01: Usually that that negativity affects all parts of our life.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my challenge to us at the road.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stay focused with 2020 vision in both eyes toward ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Let's grow up before we grow old.
SPEAKER_01: Let's begin to see God in 2020 transform areas of our life that we need transformation.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the other thing.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he says in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing nobody cares about your opinion anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Like what Lou Holtz, the great Notre Dame coach, said don't tell everyone your problems.
SPEAKER_01: 80% don't care, and 20% are glad you have them.
SPEAKER_01: They're not interested in our opinion.
SPEAKER_01: It's just casting your pearls before swine.
SPEAKER_01: Keep it to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Work on you.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we work on us to be the best we can be, the best John that I can be, the best Susan that I can be, that's our witness.
SPEAKER_01: That carries with it the power and the testimony of Jesus because we're being transformed.
SPEAKER_01: And through our positivity, and through our mercy, and through our love, and through our grace, lives are being transformed because they see a difference in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: They see something happening that's supernatural within us.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the next axiom for an unshakable foundation.
SPEAKER_01: When you give your opinion, most people don't want to hear it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So don't throw it, don't even waste your time.
SPEAKER_01: Be a witness for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Ask, and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_01: Seek, and you will find.
SPEAKER_01: Knock, and it will be open to you.
SPEAKER_01: For everyone who asks receives.
SPEAKER_01: He who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be open.
SPEAKER_01: Or what man is there among you who his son asks for bread, will give him a stone.
SPEAKER_01: Or if he asks for fish, will give him a serpent.
SPEAKER_01: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, whatever you want men to do, do also to them.
SPEAKER_01: For this is the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Unshakable foundation, axiom, persistence wins the day.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when we get our mind off of judging others and we start focusing in on our own life, we begin to realize, man, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have the capacity to get my marriage together.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have the capacity to relook and reframe my finances.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have the capacity to get another job.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have a capacity to lose weight or whatever it is that you're struggling with.
SPEAKER_01: And it many of us, it's all those things.
SPEAKER_01: So you got to start asking, seeking, and knocking for God to come with his power.
SPEAKER_01: For God to come.
SPEAKER_01: That those things that are impossible to us can be made possible because we're not focusing on all these other things that we have no control over.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: How many things do we worry about that we have no control over?
SPEAKER_01: Let's worry about, let's get focused on the things that we can control.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You have control of your life.
SPEAKER_01: You can change.
SPEAKER_01: You do not have to have the same future as you've had in the past because you're unwilling to change unless it's your choice to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, look, as you start to focus on your life, start crying out to me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me show up.
SPEAKER_01: I love to answer.
SPEAKER_01: Keep asking, persistence.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said in Luke 11, a friend comes to another friend at midnight, if you remember the story.
SPEAKER_01: And his friend says, Don't trouble me, it's midnight, I'm in bed.
SPEAKER_01: And the passage says this, but because of his persistence, he will rise and give him what he needs.
SPEAKER_01: And then right after that, this is Luke's perspective, he gives us this verse, ask and it shall be given.
SPEAKER_01: Seek and you shall find.
SPEAKER_01: Knock and the door shall be open.
SPEAKER_01: Then in Luke 18, a certain unrighteous judge and the person, the widow comes and she's crying out to the judge.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't bother me.
SPEAKER_01: But it says, Because she cries out day and night, he will avenge her.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 6.18.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with unceasing prayer and entreaty on every fitting occasion in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And be always on the alert to seize opportunities for doing so with unwearied persistence.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
SPEAKER_01: What do you want from God?
SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
SPEAKER_01: Knock, ask, seek, take opportunities to grow, take opportunities to change and be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: Seeking God comes through persistent prayer, crying out to him.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to bless you, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Church, God wants to bless you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to pour out so much blessing.
SPEAKER_01: He's there for you.
SPEAKER_01: But for some reason, in the economy of the kingdom, he puts us in a position to need to ask for it, to cry out for that in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Enter by the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: And there are many who go in by it.
SPEAKER_01: Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
SPEAKER_01: Life is hard.
SPEAKER_01: It's difficult to lay an unshakable foundation in our finances.
SPEAKER_01: It's difficult to have an unshakable marriage.
SPEAKER_01: It is difficult to have an unshakable relationship with your kids.
SPEAKER_01: It is difficult to have an unshakable relationship with your in-laws.
SPEAKER_01: It is.
SPEAKER_01: It constantly takes work.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, look, if you want to do what everybody else is doing, then that's a wide open road.
SPEAKER_01: Just don't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: But if you want to go the way of the kingdom, it's narrow.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be hard.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to take discipline.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to take work.
SPEAKER_01: And our mission here at the road is empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: Empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: So men and women, our destiny, our purpose in everything that we do and all the classes we do is to empower us to change our world first.
SPEAKER_01: It starts with our world and our family.
SPEAKER_01: And the three fronts are Satan, the flesh, and the world.
SPEAKER_01: There really is satanic oppression.
SPEAKER_01: There really is demonic activity constantly working against you.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't cast out any demons out of your house or any relationships recently, I can promise you they're there.
SPEAKER_01: It is like, to me, a regular routine to cast out demons.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not talking about that I meet someone and they're foaming at the mouth or their head spinning around their head or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying that there's enough spiritual activity that is demonic in the fourth dimension around us that I would challenge you to make it a habit as you come into situations.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you just on your regular day have vile, violent or sexual or lustful thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere?
SPEAKER_01: Wow, a lot of you guys are liars.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: You know you do.
SPEAKER_01: It happens all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because demons are out there and demons are speaking into your mind, they're speaking stuff into your heart, and it has nothing to do with anything you looked at, it has nothing to do with anything that you were thinking about.
SPEAKER_01: It just seems to come out of nowhere, right?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We've got to get in a habit of casting that out, committing that to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of Jesus, get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Spirit of lust, leave right now.
SPEAKER_01: Spirit of jealousy, leave right now.
SPEAKER_01: Spirit of unforgiveness, leave right now in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's the world.
SPEAKER_01: So if we inundate ourselves too much with the values of the world, maybe the movies we watch or what we have on our apps and different things like that, there's going to carry with it oppression.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's just us, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's just what we do, the stuff that we drum up within our flesh that we all struggle with and battle with.
SPEAKER_01: And so the battle on that narrow way is one in which we need others.
SPEAKER_01: We need the word, we need blood-stained allies, we need folks in our life.
SPEAKER_01: As we grow.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a fight, it's a battle.
SPEAKER_01: And yet that's how we build unshakable foundations.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Beware of false prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Who come to you in sheep's clothing?
SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, they would appear to be believers.
SPEAKER_01: They appear to be Christians.
SPEAKER_01: You will know them, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves.
SPEAKER_01: You will know them by their fruits.
SPEAKER_01: Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
SPEAKER_01: Even so, every good tree bears good fruit.
SPEAKER_01: But a bad tree bears bad fruit.
SPEAKER_01: A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.
SPEAKER_01: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name.
SPEAKER_01: And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
SPEAKER_01: Liz and I have a phrase that we use a lot, inspect the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Inspect the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Not just what people say, but what they actually do.
SPEAKER_01: Inspect the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say this, in light of the context in which Jesus gives these words, inspect your own fruit first.
SPEAKER_01: Are you in the faith?
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, are you in the faith?
SPEAKER_01: Are you really born again?
SPEAKER_01: You're here today?
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: But does the life that we study and we read here line up with how the other six days of the week are in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not bearing some kingdom fruit, there's two problems.
SPEAKER_01: One, you don't know how to grow, or you've chosen not to grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know how to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Or secondly, you're not saved yet.
SPEAKER_01: You may have said the words or prayed the prayer or been through a catechism class or even been baptized.
SPEAKER_01: But are you born again?
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can answer that but you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you that opportunity today.
SPEAKER_01: Get saved.
SPEAKER_01: Get born again.
SPEAKER_01: Put Christ on the throne of your life.
SPEAKER_01: For some of us, we are born again, we know Christ, but we've never discovered the power of God.
SPEAKER_01: That unshakable power that when we're faced with temptation, we can ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit and we start to overcome that anger in our life, that bullying in our life, that pride in our life.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, it's the other side.
SPEAKER_01: You're fearful to step out.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to give you boldness.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, you need a good dose of humility, and others of us need a good dose of boldness.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Spirit knows what we need.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we build our house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus concludes again, let me read it again in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, and this is the key here, he this is someone who hears and does.
SPEAKER_01: You're hearing me this morning, you're hearing God's word, but now we do it.
SPEAKER_01: We hear it and we do it.
SPEAKER_01: I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: The operable word here is built.
SPEAKER_01: Circle built or highlight built.
SPEAKER_01: He built his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: The rain descends, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall.
SPEAKER_01: Because it was founded on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: But everyone who hears these sayings of mind does not do them.
SPEAKER_01: So you hear it, it's in one side of your head and out the other.
SPEAKER_01: It really doesn't affect you that much.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that was a good sermon, or you had your time with the Lord, that was a good word.
SPEAKER_01: But really, it's not changing your life.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and great was its fall.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the word here.
SPEAKER_01: Jot this down.
SPEAKER_01: Build on the unshakable rock by doing, not just listening.
SPEAKER_01: Build on the unshakable rock by doing and not just listening.
SPEAKER_01: And the operable word here is building.
SPEAKER_01: Building is hard work.
SPEAKER_01: Building anything is hard work.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to challenge you today on Super Bowl Sunday, 2020.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to have a Super Bowl life.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to have unshakable finances, unshakable marriage, unshakable relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Because storms are coming.
SPEAKER_01: You are gonna get rocked this year.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the road.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.