SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that when you take communion in a proper way, you say, Lord, I just I believe that this is the body of Christ that's been broken for me.
SPEAKER_01: You take the breath.
SPEAKER_01: This is the blood of Christ that's been shed for me.
SPEAKER_01: In remembrance of you, I take this.
SPEAKER_01: That the spiritual, listen, the spiritual presence, not the physical presence, the spiritual presence of God comes and you have proclaimed into the demonic world that that's what you believe.
SPEAKER_01: And there's power in that, folks.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit the Road.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we've been in a series.
SPEAKER_01: As you guys know, we've been going through the book of Matthew, and then I took a segue out.
SPEAKER_01: People have said to me, Well, when we're getting back to Matthew, we are going to get back to Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: But because of so many prophetic words that came our way over the last six weeks or so from all these different people, some of which I know well and some I don't know well, but they were also lining up with Ezekiel 47 and John 7 and John 4, God spoke to my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna take a break.
SPEAKER_01: How many know that sometimes your plans are different than God's?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so even as a pastor, I feel like God wants us to go through the book of Matthew and the kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna return to that in a few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: But what God's doing in our midst, and I think he's speaking to us about some of the dynamics of the early church that relate to us through the infilling and the outspilling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know there's an infilling of the Holy Spirit, but there's also an outspilling of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: You're not supposed to keep the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just for you to keep, it's also for you to release.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit's looking for people he can be released through to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we see in Ezekiel 47 is this rising tide.
SPEAKER_01: And you can go back and listen to those early sermons.
SPEAKER_01: I won't go into it too much, except to say that Ezekiel had a vision of this river flowing out of the temple of God that was a trickle that became ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, and to the point where he literally had to swim in this river, and this river of God, Ezekiel 47, was a prophetic word of this river actually coming to the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody been to the Dead Sea before?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I've been to the Dead Sea and it's really dead.
SPEAKER_01: And when you get there, it's so salty, nothing can live there, and you can float in it.
SPEAKER_01: Even some of you can't float anywhere else, you know, you can float in the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that thick with salt.
SPEAKER_01: The concentration's so deep.
SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna come in the latter days, this river of the Holy Spirit is gonna come down, touch the Dead Sea, and it's gonna be made into life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's gonna be made into life.
SPEAKER_01: Even to the point where there's gonna be guys out there fly fishing and catching fish.
SPEAKER_01: And it even says it.
SPEAKER_01: Look it up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not fly fishing, but it's gonna be a move of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus, at the Feast of Tabernacles, stands up.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I shared this earlier, like a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: They would take that golden pitcher, which was represented of the water coming out of the temple when Moses hit the rock and the water came out.
SPEAKER_01: They came and he was gonna, they were gonna pour it into the pool of Salaam.
SPEAKER_01: He stands up at that feast and he says, there's going to be a new fountain flowing through all of us of rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's a postscript by John that said he was speaking of the Holy Spirit that had not yet been released into the people of God because Jesus had not yet resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have that spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So in Acts chapter 1, so turn to Acts chapter 1 if you haven't already, we see this dynamic of the early church that I believe is a manual to us of what it means to be wholehearted.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm calling it the seven dynamics of a wholehearted church.
SPEAKER_01: If you've only come for the last couple weeks or you're new today, you're stepping into kind of the latter part, let me give you a quick overview.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Acts chapter 1, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: So we talked about a few weeks ago that the first sort of dynamic of this wholehearted church was they had one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: They had unified one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: They prayed together.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna say this for you that are struggling in your marriage, you that are struggling at school, you that are struggling in relationships, one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: That's the power of what John shared this morning, what we call around here having blood-stained allies in your life.
SPEAKER_01: These are men and women in your life that you can pray with, you can be honest with, you can be vulnerable with.
SPEAKER_01: Now, women are a lot better than men at this.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, women are like are just relational beings.
SPEAKER_01: And we guys are we're kind of weird in that we we love to go to work, we love to be leaders at work, and then we just become kind of sometimes like passive idiots when we get home.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a struggle for us, right?
SPEAKER_01: Every guy, raise your hand if that's ever a struggle for you.
SPEAKER_01: And the rest of you guys are liars.
SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, it's true.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we guys, we go to work, we're all in, and then as soon as we leave work and we come home, it's like, I don't know, it's like this spirit of vegetation.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the vegetative state starts to settle in, and by the time you get home, you're looking toward the couch, or you're looking toward ESPN, and you begin to worship at the altar of ESPN or Georgia football or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I can handle it.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up, okay, I didn't grow up there, but I mean I spent a lot of my time in Athens, Georgia, or University of Georgia, because that's where I'm a graduate.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, I was telling my brother the other day, I said, they had 200,000 people come to that Notre Dame game.
SPEAKER_01: Only 93,000 got into the stadium, but 200,000 came just to hang out.
SPEAKER_01: That's idolatry, man.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is like a false God.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm glad we won, but I in some ways I couldn't care less.
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But but it's it's one accord prayer.
SPEAKER_01: They came, they were united.
SPEAKER_01: You read Acts chapter 1, it was a united church that prayed together.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, look at Acts chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Day of Pentecost had fully come, and they were all one accord in one place.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
SPEAKER_01: There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire.
SPEAKER_01: One sat upon each of them.
SPEAKER_01: One translation says it was like a wildfire.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a wildfire.
SPEAKER_01: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
SPEAKER_01: So, number two, the second dynamic is they were wholeheartedly empowered by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we don't need more of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You get it all when you get saved.
SPEAKER_01: But the issue is the Holy Spirit needs more of you.
SPEAKER_01: So as we grow, we start to surrender more of ourselves to Him, and we get more and more power.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you you face challenges that come into your life, and that filling that you received is not going to get you to the next level.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you from the Air Force Academy that are here, I see you in your uniforms around the sanctuary here today.
SPEAKER_01: You just entered into another world, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is like a challenging, challenging world.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you who've taken new jobs and you're being challenged.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you that have just had a baby and your whole parenting dynamic is challenged.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need more of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You need to give more of yourself to the Holy Spirit so that he can fill you up and give you what you need for the design and the purposes that he has for you moving forward.
SPEAKER_01: So they got filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, if you read the rest of Acts chapter 2, here's Peter, who denied Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He begins to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Then follow me to verse 42.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 2, verse 42.
SPEAKER_01: And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: So thirdly, dynamic number three, we talked about wholeheartedly preaching the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know there's a lot of churches out there that don't preach the word of God?
SPEAKER_01: You know why I started preaching the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse?
SPEAKER_01: I got tired of my opinion.
SPEAKER_01: My opinion is not inerrant and infallible.
SPEAKER_01: And many of you that have been with me for a number of years, you absolutely know that.
SPEAKER_01: But God's word is, and so one of the things that grounds us as a church, a wholehearted church, and we don't always we don't do it perfectly, but that we we go to God's word for faith and practice.
SPEAKER_01: We go to God's word because I lose perspective.
SPEAKER_01: You lose perspective.
SPEAKER_01: My elders lose.
SPEAKER_01: We just do.
SPEAKER_01: We're sinners saved by grace, but at the same time, we have to constantly well, I don't know about this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that was gonna come up.
SPEAKER_01: Boom, we go back to the book, and it guides us and it leads us and it speaks to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we talked about that.
SPEAKER_01: And then look at the next verse.
SPEAKER_01: I mean the next word in the verse.
SPEAKER_01: Fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: So we talked about that the last time.
SPEAKER_01: That if we don't have intimacy, and John was talking about this today, intimacy with some people.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth dynamic is we've got to have wholehearted relationships.
SPEAKER_01: So we had a bunch of great friends over last night to watch the Georgia game.
SPEAKER_01: It was really fun.
SPEAKER_01: And we as believers should have some deep friendships.
SPEAKER_01: We should be growing in relationships, we should have some blood-stained allies.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is people we can be honest and we can share our heart with, we can be vulnerable with.
SPEAKER_01: It's the only way to grow.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at the next dynamic that we see.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just start by saying this that when we look at the early church, when we look at these the dynamics of a wholehearted church, in my opinion, the owner's manual is a book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: So the owner's manual of the church is the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: So let's read on.
SPEAKER_01: They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, in the breaking of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Communion.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, communion is key.
SPEAKER_01: We're one of those rare churches in the Protestant tradition.
SPEAKER_01: We do communion every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: So look around.
SPEAKER_01: You guys look to your right or your left, and you see these tables.
SPEAKER_01: If you look and you turn your head all the way to the back, you'll see the tables.
SPEAKER_01: And we consider communion, Eucharist, we all come out of different backgrounds, to be this part, this part of worship that the church has been given by Jesus Christ in his last institution to us.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think of it a little bit different.
SPEAKER_01: Because of 1 Corinthians 11.
SPEAKER_01: Now you don't have to turn there, but listen to what Paul writes about what we call the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take eat.
SPEAKER_01: This is my body, which is broken for you.
SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: This do as often as you drink it.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this sense, it's not just about church doing it, take it a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Often take communion.
SPEAKER_01: In the same manner, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: For as often as you eat this bread and drink, and this is really key, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.
SPEAKER_01: Now, stop there.
SPEAKER_01: If you're taking notes, I want you to write, or if you have your Bible open, I want you to write Ephesians 3.10 over on the side.
SPEAKER_01: Right next to your Bible, right there where it talks about fellowship in Acts 1, put Ephesians 3.10 and 1 Corinthians 11 right there on the margin.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: It's my conviction that when we take communion with what Paul has told us in 1 Corinthians 11, and we're proclaiming the death of Christ, what we're doing is we're proclaiming the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what that is?
SPEAKER_01: That is spiritual warfare, gang.
SPEAKER_01: That is spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because in Ephesians 3.10, it says that the church has been called to proclaim, listen, the manifold wisdom of God to principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_01: So when we take communion, we are proclaiming to demons in the fourth dimension, we're proclaiming to Satan in the fourth dimension that we believe, we put our trust in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ every time you take it.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't mean that the bread becomes the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Some teach that.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean the blood becomes the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It does mean, though, and there's a difference between consubstantiation and transubstantiation, but we're not going to go there right now.
SPEAKER_01: It means the spiritual reality of the presence of God does come.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I believe.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that when you take communion in a proper way, and you say, Lord, I just believe that this is the body of Christ that's been broken for me, and you take the bread.
SPEAKER_01: This is the blood of Christ that's been shed for me in remembrance of you.
SPEAKER_01: I take this, that the spiritual, listen, the spiritual presence, not the physical presence, the spiritual presence of God comes and you have proclaimed into the demonic world that that's what you believe.
SPEAKER_01: And there's power in that, folks.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship.
SPEAKER_01: That's praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We have the communion elements in our great room in our home.
SPEAKER_01: This past week we took communion together as a family.
SPEAKER_01: You can take communion anywhere, anytime.
SPEAKER_01: I would challenge you to even have an altar, even have a coffee table or something like that, a special place.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe put a cross there or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: Have a dish and put the elements in there and come together as a family.
SPEAKER_01: Or as a small group, a life group, or a D group, or a whole heart group.
SPEAKER_01: Come together and you guys take communion from time to time together.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus gave us to proclaim spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: So I see, so I think, I think communion is militaristic in a way.
SPEAKER_01: It's a militant worship.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to talk about that as I get into some other things here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's militant because there's demonic powers constantly putting pressure on you.
SPEAKER_01: At work, at home, in your marriage.
SPEAKER_01: You know, how many of you're moving along?
SPEAKER_01: It's been a good day.
SPEAKER_01: You had a good breakfast, you're ready to start your day, and out of nowhere, you get this sexual, lustful thought.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody like that?
SPEAKER_01: Out of nowhere, you start thinking about something that happened 25 years ago and it makes you angry.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Where does that come from?
SPEAKER_01: Demons, man, I'm telling you, they're alive and well on planet Earth and they're moving.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why when you proclaimed and you made a statement today that you're going to stand on God's word before he started serving, you are speaking that into the fourth dimension.
SPEAKER_01: When we take communion together, when we eat the bread, when we drink the cup together, it's worship, it's inviting the presence, the spiritual presence of God, and you're proclaiming the manifold wisdom of God to the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: It's spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_01: I love it when couples that I'm marrying want to do communion together as their first act together in the wedding ceremony, they take communion together.
SPEAKER_01: I feel his presence almost every time, you know, because the wedding ceremony itself is so biblical.
SPEAKER_01: It's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: It's such a metaphor used in scripture of God the Father's love for his church and for his bride and the groom and the bride, they take communion together.
SPEAKER_01: It's powerful.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, first of all, I see there's three things that I see in communion.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he says, in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: So when we take communion, it's remembering the past of what Christ did at Calvary.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, There's a new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: So it's present.
SPEAKER_01: We have a new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: That new covenant is that you're now his sons and his daughters.
SPEAKER_01: There's no wall, there's no dividing wall as there was in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: That shroud, that huge curtain has been ripped from top to bottom, and we can come into intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, what does he say?
SPEAKER_01: You're proclaiming the Lord's return.
SPEAKER_01: That's future.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Every time you take communion, you're saying, Christ, we believe Christ is coming back.
SPEAKER_01: We believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship.
SPEAKER_01: And so it appears from everything that we've read in history and we see in Scripture that the early church, every time they got together, which seemed to be daily, they took the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_01: They took the communion together.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 46.
SPEAKER_01: So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 47, man.
SPEAKER_01: Underlying this, this is good stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't turn there, but let me read Luke 24.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read the last few verses of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: You guys understand?
SPEAKER_01: Luke is the same author of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: So Luke is writing about the history of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then part two of Luke, we can say it's Luke part two, is after Christ has risen from the grave, he starts teaching us from the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: So it's the same author.
SPEAKER_01: So Luke 24 is the bridge into Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: And he led them out, meaning Jesus, as far as Bethany.
SPEAKER_01: He lifted up his hands and he blessed them.
SPEAKER_01: Now it came to pass while he blessed them that he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's the end of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: Get it?
SPEAKER_01: So this is a really important sixth dynamic.
SPEAKER_01: Whole-hearted praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: So they sit there, they're going like, where's Jesus going now?
SPEAKER_01: What's he doing?
SPEAKER_01: And he blesses them.
SPEAKER_01: And then whoosh! He heads up to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty, pretty interesting, you know, scene.
SPEAKER_01: And this angel says, Why are you looking up into heaven?
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say, Angel, didn't you guys have any better lines than that?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's Jesus, like he ascended up.
SPEAKER_01: Why aren't you looking up?
SPEAKER_01: That's what I would have said.
SPEAKER_01: But they, you know, they see that, and instead of being discouraged, instead of being discouraged, they're pumped.
SPEAKER_01: Something's coming.
SPEAKER_01: He just Said to them, which is picked up in Acts chapter 1, the promise of the Spirit is coming soon.
SPEAKER_01: And they were worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says here in Acts chapter 2, after 3,000 get saved, they're worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: The power, you guys, of praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: It's a key dynamic.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the most exciting things we can have in our life is learning the power and the presence of praise and worship in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We get to worship.
SPEAKER_01: We get to worship on Sunday morning together.
SPEAKER_01: We get to.
SPEAKER_01: There may be a day.
SPEAKER_01: There may be a day in our lifetime where you can't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And the church will be outlawed.
SPEAKER_01: But right now we get to do it.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not about you.
SPEAKER_01: Worship's not about you.
SPEAKER_01: It's about him.
SPEAKER_01: It's not how much you get out of it.
SPEAKER_01: It's about what he gets out of it.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's about him.
SPEAKER_01: From time to time I meet people and say, well, I don't really get into your worship.
SPEAKER_01: And I go, that's fine.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not about you anyway.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really care what you think about our worship.
SPEAKER_01: I don't.
SPEAKER_01: Because worship's about him.
SPEAKER_01: It's what he gets out of worship.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we have a great worship set and sometimes we don't.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we're off key and sometimes we're on key.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we get the sound right and sometimes we don't.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: If your heart's right, God gets blessed by your worship.
SPEAKER_01: And we're not Hillsong.
SPEAKER_01: We're not Bethel.
SPEAKER_01: And I actually don't really think it matters how you worship.
SPEAKER_01: What matters is that you worship.
SPEAKER_01: And God looks at our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: When we go into any setting where we're going to worship, be all in, folks.
SPEAKER_01: Be wholehearted.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Acts chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: I love this passage.
SPEAKER_01: In this passage, we see the power of praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to emphasize that this morning.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in having our hearts right before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, we studied Revelation a few years ago.
SPEAKER_01: We went verse by verse through all the Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And remember Revelation 4?
SPEAKER_01: What's happening in Revelation 4?
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 4 is a picture of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've got little kids and they ever ask you what's heaven like, dad, say, let's go and see what the Bible says heaven is like, and they take you to Revelation chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: And so in Revelation chapter 4, it is a praise and worship conference.
SPEAKER_01: Constant, 24-7.
SPEAKER_01: And it is loud and it is big and it is expressive.
SPEAKER_01: Read it.
SPEAKER_01: Because you know, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: You go to my house, you come to my house, and you come into my living room, you come into the whole family living room, we got that living room the way we like it, not the way you like it.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come to your house and we go to your living room, you got your living room the way you like it.
SPEAKER_01: And I know enough from visiting as a pastor, you don't sit down in nobody's living room until they tell you where to sit.
SPEAKER_01: Because usually the place I pick is where the man sits.
SPEAKER_01: Not good.
SPEAKER_01: That is not good.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody's got their layout the way they like it.
SPEAKER_01: They've got it set up right.
SPEAKER_01: That's your living room.
SPEAKER_01: That's your prerogative.
SPEAKER_01: That's your house.
SPEAKER_01: Some say it's your castle.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus has a living room.
SPEAKER_01: God has a living room.
SPEAKER_01: And in Revelation chapter 4, he shows us what he likes in his living room.
SPEAKER_01: What he's most comfortable with in his living room is praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: So when you begin to worship the Lord, what you're doing is you're lining yourselves up with what's already happening up there.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's happening in heaven, is praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: And you're lining yourself up with God's will.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he could be up there just studying the scriptures, and that would be the indication from John when he was on the Island of Patmos when he had the vision, is he's just, God's just studying the Word.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Word, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So he has created an environment where it's praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: He loves to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And so in the Old Testament, worship meant being prostrate.
SPEAKER_01: It had the idea of kneeling before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It also had a sense of kissing the king, kissing the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament, it even becomes more intimate because the veil's been ripped and we have intimacy with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so worship is the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the person of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the person of Christ in our life where we take our mind off of ourselves and our jobs and our marriages and stuff like that, and we focus in on Him, and we're lining ourselves up with the throne room, the living room, the throne room of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He comes down in his presence because our heart is right.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, Steve, many times when I sing those songs and stuff, I don't feel like my heart's right.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Just keep doing it.
SPEAKER_01: Keep doing it.
SPEAKER_01: He makes it right by doing it in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: He changes us through that.
SPEAKER_01: So in Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas are in jail.
SPEAKER_01: They're in prison.
SPEAKER_01: And at midnight, instead of commiserating over their pain and their persecution, they're doing something dramatically different.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 25 of Acts 16.
SPEAKER_01: And at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.
SPEAKER_01: And the prisoners were listening to them.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosened.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: When they begin to praise the Lord, when they're worshiping the Lord out of their circumstances, this is what I believe is happening.
SPEAKER_01: The presence of God lined up with heaven is released over their circumstances and it drives back darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And in this case, it actually came forth and was manifested in the form of an earthquake.
SPEAKER_01: Because there was an earthquake in the fourth dimension that became an earthquake in the three-dimensional world.
SPEAKER_01: Now turn to the left in your Bibles to the Old Testament really quick to 2 Chronicles.
SPEAKER_01: So go back almost to the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Go to 2 Chronicles, and I want you to look at chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: So look at 2 Chronicles 20.
SPEAKER_01: Really interesting passage.
SPEAKER_01: This is about Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: Jehoshaphat is surrounded by enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: It happened after this that the people of Moab and the people of Amon and others were with them besides the Ammonites came to battle against Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jehoshaphat's the leader of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Then some came and told Jehoshaphat saying, A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria.
SPEAKER_01: And they're in Hazazon Tamar, which is in Geti.
SPEAKER_01: Now look, I love verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Jehoshaphat feared.
SPEAKER_01: He feared, he was scared.
SPEAKER_01: But, look what he says next.
SPEAKER_01: He set himself to seek the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there are times in our life, you guys, where fear is going to get all over you.
SPEAKER_01: You are so fearful about your finances.
SPEAKER_01: You're so fearful about a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: You're so fearful about what some of your friends at school are saying about you.
SPEAKER_01: Fear starts to grip you, and you have got to stand up and set yourself before the Lord to get wisdom from Him.
SPEAKER_01: I think that deserves at least one amen.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to set yourself up.
SPEAKER_01: This guy, here's the worship fearfully.
SPEAKER_01: Worship fearfully.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing absolutely wrong, and it's all through scripture, that most of the great saints had fear in their life, but they did not succumb to fear.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't stay there.
SPEAKER_01: They had it, they stepped out of it, and in this case, he needs wisdom from God.
SPEAKER_01: It is a heart set and a mindset.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he does next.
SPEAKER_01: So he calls out to God, gathered the people together.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: This is why we need fellowship with other believers.
SPEAKER_01: God did not directly speak to Jehoshaphat, even though he's a senior pastor of the congregation.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke through someone else.
SPEAKER_01: Jehoshaphat had the presence of mind to listen.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys realize there's like a lot of verses between verse 3 and verse 14?
SPEAKER_01: That means he would not have heard that if he hadn't set himself to listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: And many of us just live our whole lives in fear.
SPEAKER_01: And we get addicted to stuff and we and we give our lives to stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes we've got to start setting ourselves up when the fear comes, crying out to God.
SPEAKER_01: Spirit of the Lord speaks to Jehazel, and look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: You will not need to fight in this battle.
SPEAKER_01: Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you.
SPEAKER_01: O Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: 19.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Levites of the children of the Kohites and the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel loud and high.
SPEAKER_01: Loud and high.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I'll be honest with you guys.
SPEAKER_01: I love loud praise.
SPEAKER_01: I really do.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see those maniacs at Sanford Stadium?
SPEAKER_01: Last night?
SPEAKER_01: 93,000 people going nuts over a football game.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: You were made to worship.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you in this room, we're made for worship.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason you know that is because C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis said it best is that we all tend to praise what we love.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, why can't we be as I don't want the painted faces and the spiked shoulder pads.
SPEAKER_01: We can do without that.
SPEAKER_01: But why can't we have praise and worship every Sunday like you're at a football game?
SPEAKER_01: We can.
SPEAKER_01: To praise him loudly before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord and who should praise the beauty of his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: And as they went out before the army and were saying, Praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22, now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Amon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.
SPEAKER_01: Four things.
SPEAKER_01: Jot these down.
SPEAKER_01: Four aspects of praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, when we come before the Lord with wholehearted praise and worship, we line ourselves up with God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: We line ourselves up with heaven.
SPEAKER_01: When we come before the Lord with praise and worship, we line ourselves up with what's already happening in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, praise and worship brings the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Praise and worship brings the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, praise and worship brings joy and confidence.
SPEAKER_01: Praise and worship will give you joy and confidence.
SPEAKER_01: It'll break the power of fear over your life.
SPEAKER_01: It will give you joy and confidence.
SPEAKER_01: And then fourthly, praise and worship brings God's power.
SPEAKER_01: It releases God's power over your life.
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 theroad.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.