SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Cole.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes what God's doing is not what we expect.
SPEAKER_01: God's ways are not our way.
SPEAKER_01: When I was growing up as a new believer, I remember people telling me Jeremiah 33.3 is God's telephone number.
SPEAKER_01: God's telephone number was Jeremiah 33.3.
SPEAKER_01: Call to me and I will answer you and I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know.
SPEAKER_01: So watching is for God to show us things we do not know.
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 theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: The vision of the road is to be a part of, and I and I always say this, I try to say this as humility, Bill Bright with Campus Crusade, which was a big part of my life, as many of you know, got saved through Campus Crusade at University of Georgia, and then was on the mission field for 10 years with Campus Crusade, used to say that our ministry is a leaf on the twig of the branch of the limb of the big tree of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say a part of bringing a kingdom revolution, I don't want anybody to misunderstand me and think that somehow we think we've got this revolution we're gonna start.
SPEAKER_01: I believe what we are, we're a leaf.
SPEAKER_01: We're a leaf that is on the twig of the limb of the branch of the trunk of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have as a vision to be a part of what God's doing around the world to bring a kingdom revolution.
SPEAKER_01: A kingdom revolution I'm gonna start next week talking about.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look through the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to read ahead, read Matthew chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be amazed at the genealogy in Matthew chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: Believe me, I'll move through that very quickly.
SPEAKER_01: But but but we're gonna talk about a kingdom revolution from the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: As a mission of our church, we believe that only happens through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if we don't empower people in this fellowship, there's no way a kingdom revolution is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: And we believe it's all ages, starting from the very, very youngest.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Hasselt before her, and now Liz My Wife is directing children's ministry with a great team because we really want to see young people who know how to preach the gospel, that know how to open the word and read the word.
SPEAKER_01: My prayer is that in the days ahead, your kids are gonna be instructing you as parents about why'd you do that?
SPEAKER_01: That's not godly.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that be awesome?
SPEAKER_01: And I know of situations in the past where our young people have been catalytic for parents getting saved.
SPEAKER_01: Because they came, and the parents, oh, you know, a kid is six years old, or he's four years.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to give him a Christian education.
SPEAKER_01: So he starts coming to church for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: And then the kid gets saved, and the kid gets his parents saved.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, that's the way it works sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't care if it's up, down, or all around.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is God wants us to empower the saints with the kingdom of God that we might change the world.
SPEAKER_01: And when God gets in the business of building something, he often builds from the perspective of men and women, the body of Christ, working together.
SPEAKER_01: And in Nehemiah's time, I shared this last week.
SPEAKER_01: That he sent Nehemiah, the cupbearer of the king, back to Jerusalem to build the walls, to rebuild the walls.
SPEAKER_01: And the way they rebuilt the walls in Jerusalem is it was a genius idea from God to Nehemiah, to the people.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to do, Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: Get everybody to start working on the section of the wall, which is the back of all their houses.
SPEAKER_01: Because all the houses were built with their backs up against the walls, and nobody would work, especially the rulers.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that part in Braveheart where William Wallace is trying to get the rulers of Scotland to do something?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it wasn't that different for Nehemiah because these guys are rich, they're fat, and they're sassy.
SPEAKER_01: They don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're fine.
SPEAKER_01: He says, No, we got to care about everybody here in Israel, and we're gonna rebuild these walls.
SPEAKER_01: And the way he came up, the idea was if you can imagine if your house was against this wall and the and the three sides of the house come out from this wall, and this is the wall over Jerusalem, and it's all crumbled down.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I don't care about you building Isaiah's over here, build your wall right there.
SPEAKER_01: And so God also gave us this illustration in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 62, and we started last week talking about a kingdom revolution wall of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And our goal here at the road is today, today, we'd get all 168 hours of every week covered in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: That you would be challenged enough, invigorated enough, motivated enough, empowered enough to take one hour, just one hour, out of 168 hours in a week to pray for revival, reformation, and revolution in our city.
SPEAKER_01: In your family first, in your job.
SPEAKER_01: God, make me a kingdom revolutionary.
SPEAKER_01: God use me in a mighty way to bring the kingdom of God to the Rocky Mountain region.
SPEAKER_01: 123 people have already signed up.
SPEAKER_01: Even on that interesting day last week, where this place was like a third full.
SPEAKER_01: Almost everybody signed up.
SPEAKER_01: And so you look at the wall, look around the sides.
SPEAKER_01: You can see the days of the week and see the hours, all 168 hours represented.
SPEAKER_01: 123 are already taken.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: So if we could get the next 40 today, but look at Isaiah 62, it's a case in point.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah's gonna talk about Zion.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna talk about Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to kind of plant in the idea of Zion Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: For Colorado Springs' sake, I will not hold my peace.
SPEAKER_01: And for Colorado Springs' sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
SPEAKER_01: The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, all kings your glory.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that be awesome?
SPEAKER_01: If people said, hey, I was just in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God's there.
SPEAKER_01: Crime is dropping, abortions are dropping, homelessness is dropping.
SPEAKER_01: I was just down at the Springs Rescue Mission.
SPEAKER_01: I think by the in the next few years, the Springs Rescue Mission will be state-of-the-art, one of the best in the United States.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Working with these folks, giving them a Christian education right there, right off the streets.
SPEAKER_01: I met one guy, he said he came from Miami.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize there's a storm coming tonight?
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be ten below?
SPEAKER_01: This was like three weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Yeah, and I said, Don't you wish you were in Miami?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Sort of.
SPEAKER_01: I said, then why did you come here?
SPEAKER_01: He says, because I heard that the Springs Rescue Mission was so good.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit there and quibble with him about why he's homeless or anything.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say that we ought to have compassion and love for everybody.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm not here to judge what the motivations are.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to build and equip people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: And you never know.
SPEAKER_01: You never know what's inside a man like that.
SPEAKER_01: There's gold down there deep inside somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And he probably never had parents that cared, probably never had every school teacher that cared, probably never had a coach that cared.
SPEAKER_01: Why can't we care?
SPEAKER_01: Why can't we be different?
SPEAKER_01: Instead of looking at the dross, let's look for the gold and the silver that's down in there.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: You know it's interesting when you look at Jesus, Jesus never had a problem with a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: Never had an issue with a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: His issue was religious people who thought they knew everything.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't that our problem?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we think we know everything.
SPEAKER_01: When we quit knowing everything and we start loving everything, God's gonna show up.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so that man, I don't know, you know, he looked to me like he was about 40.
SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of years left in that guy.
SPEAKER_01: So I love what Springs Rescue Mission is doing down there.
SPEAKER_01: You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name.
SPEAKER_01: You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
SPEAKER_01: You shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land anymore be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hespa, and your land Beulah.
SPEAKER_01: And that means the next two lines, for the Lord delights in you, Hespah delights in you.
SPEAKER_01: Your land shall be married, that's Beulah.
SPEAKER_01: For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you.
SPEAKER_01: And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what, men and women?
SPEAKER_01: The bridegroom rejoices over the bride.
SPEAKER_01: The bridegroom, capital B, Jesus rejoices over you, loves you, loves the church.
SPEAKER_01: We're the church.
SPEAKER_01: The church is us, the church is not a building.
SPEAKER_01: The church is you and me in this room living for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And he rejoices over us.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01: Your God rejoices over you.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the part about prayer that has been part of the motivation for us to build a wall of prayer, 168 prayer warriors for 168 hours.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: I have set watchmen on your walls, oh Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: I have set watchmen on your walls, O road at Chapel Hills.
SPEAKER_01: They shall never hold their peace day or night.
SPEAKER_01: So that's 24-7, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: That's a hundred and sixty-eight hours.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's day or night.
SPEAKER_01: People are crying out to God, God, do something in our time.
SPEAKER_01: God, move in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_01: God, change our city.
SPEAKER_01: God, drop the crime rate.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, use me in my business.
SPEAKER_01: God, I dedicate my business.
SPEAKER_01: I dedicate my paint business.
SPEAKER_01: I dedicate my auto service business.
SPEAKER_01: I dedicate my legal practice to you to bring a kingdom revolution.
SPEAKER_01: Now speak to me how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Show me how to do that in whatever I do.
SPEAKER_01: You guys realize we're citizens of the kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: You're not members.
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I'm so fired up for next week.
SPEAKER_01: I might even, there might be a little bit of runover.
SPEAKER_01: But but you know, you're members of the Rotary Club.
SPEAKER_01: You're members of a football team.
SPEAKER_01: You're members of a club, but in the kingdom, you're not a member, you're a citizen.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're a citizen, you become an ambassador when you go to another country.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're a citizen, you bring, you don't actually bring the king with you, you bring the culture of the king with you.
SPEAKER_01: So guess who wins?
SPEAKER_01: Guess who wins?
SPEAKER_01: The culture that's the strongest.
SPEAKER_01: You say your kids are struggling in school, guess which culture is stronger?
SPEAKER_01: Either the culture you're training them in at your home or the culture they get at school.
SPEAKER_01: It's really simple.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're equipping, developing, and building kingdom children, they will win and dominate in their school and the rim they're in unless that culture's more dominant than their culture.
SPEAKER_01: That's next week.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent.
SPEAKER_01: 24-7.
SPEAKER_01: Give him no rest till he establishes and till he makes Jerusalem, or he makes Colorado Springs, or He makes your home, or He makes the Holt home, or He makes the road at Chapel Hills a praise upon the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So he's talking about, he's using a metaphor here of watchmen on a wall as prayer warriors.
SPEAKER_01: So last week I talked about six points.
SPEAKER_01: And I say all this to set you up for the next part.
SPEAKER_01: Stand up with me.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to be a part of a kingdom revolution, I want us to say what we said last week.
SPEAKER_01: So I mean, well, I didn't know I wasn't here last week.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, look at the first line.
SPEAKER_01: If you would agree with that, then I want you to hold up your Bible and let's say it together, even if you don't know what this means.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know what he means about a kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then trust me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna download it next week, big time.
SPEAKER_01: Big time.
SPEAKER_01: All right, say it after me.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a part of a Kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: God can use me to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God can move mountains in my life and in the lives of those around me.
SPEAKER_01: I will build up my faith with God's Holy Word.
SPEAKER_01: I will come alive in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: With Jesus, nothing will be impossible.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father God, we say this because we believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us don't believe it 100% yet, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: God, I believe you take mustard seed faith and you grow it into a massive tree.
SPEAKER_01: A tree where all the birds of the air come and land in it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like yeast.
SPEAKER_01: It's like yeast in that dough, and it takes over everything.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, take our little bit of yeast and our little bit of seed faith and grow it, Lord, in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.
SPEAKER_01: In your most holy and precious name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, let's look real quickly at um, I started last week, the six characteristics of Kingdom Revolutionary Watchmen.
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of this message, men and women, we're gonna, I'm gonna give you the opportunity to go and sign up for a place.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me just say this: 12 people last week signed up, but they didn't put their email.
SPEAKER_01: So what you're seeing right now does not have the email anymore because we have those.
SPEAKER_01: But if you signed up last week for an hour, one of these hours, put in, be sure to put in your email, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the only way we can communicate with you.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody so far, except for 12, we have their email.
SPEAKER_01: So um, so make sure you do that when we uh sign up.
SPEAKER_01: First quality we talked about last week was a watchman worships.
SPEAKER_01: A watchman worships.
SPEAKER_01: It's the best place to start as we talk about prayer is being a worshiper.
SPEAKER_01: Worship is warfare.
SPEAKER_01: Praise and worship moves mountains in our life.
SPEAKER_01: You show me a man or a woman who's a worshiper, and I'll show you a man or a woman that's a warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we worship, you're inviting the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women, when the presence of God comes, it always pushes back darkness.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in that situation, many of us are often, God, I don't know what your will is.
SPEAKER_01: Should I buy this house?
SPEAKER_01: Should I take this job?
SPEAKER_01: What should I do?
SPEAKER_01: And you're not sure, and God's not spoken to you clearly, maybe from his word or from wise counsel, worship.
SPEAKER_01: Worship.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we praise the Lord, we come into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: When we worship him, the presence of God, we're inviting heaven down on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And matter of fact, that's really a good idea to understand for next week when I talk about the kingdom, because the kingdom of God is really about bringing heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_01: When we're told to pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: When we become a kingdom carrier, men and women, we're bringing heaven wherever we go.
SPEAKER_01: So to start with worship is to get ourselves in a place in our heart as we gaze upon God so that we become a heavenly man.
SPEAKER_01: We become a heavenly woman.
SPEAKER_01: God changes you.
SPEAKER_01: So that's first, we talked about that last week.
SPEAKER_01: Number two.
SPEAKER_01: Second quality.
SPEAKER_01: A watchman, this is really, everybody get ready for this one.
SPEAKER_01: A watchman watches.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what I meant last week is that in prayer, watching for what God's doing is huge.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes what God's doing is not what we expect.
SPEAKER_01: God's ways are not our ways.
SPEAKER_01: When I was growing up as a new believer, I remember people telling me Jeremiah 33.3 is God's telephone number.
SPEAKER_01: God's telephone number was Jeremiah 33.3.
SPEAKER_01: Call to me and I will answer you, and I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know.
SPEAKER_01: So watching is for God to show us things we do not know.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you raise your hand if you you don't know everything?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, there you go.
SPEAKER_01: See?
SPEAKER_01: So you gotta watch to know what God's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to the person next to you and says, I don't know everything.
SPEAKER_01: And if it's your spouse, they say, Well, it's about time.
SPEAKER_01: A watchman watches.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, and it kind of dovetails into the second one.
SPEAKER_01: Third quality is a watchman waits.
SPEAKER_01: A watchman waits.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 136.
SPEAKER_01: My soul waits for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: More than those who watch for the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's waiting on God and watching for God.
SPEAKER_01: So waiting and watching go together.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when I'm prayer walking and I go out and kind of my SOP, my standard operating procedure with prayer walking has been I go and I tell God, I speak to God, the stuff that's on my heart, and then at that point where I'm going to turn around and come back, all I do is wait.
SPEAKER_01: As I walk, I just listen.
SPEAKER_01: And I've got my phone with me.
SPEAKER_01: And in my phone, I've got this section called Notes.
SPEAKER_01: You know that part where it says notes?
SPEAKER_01: And I push that thing.
SPEAKER_01: God speaks to me.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times I'll just stop in my tracks and I'll jot that down.
SPEAKER_01: You know who gave me that idea?
SPEAKER_01: Jonathan Edwards.
SPEAKER_01: He had an iPhone.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Jonathan Edwards used to go out on horseback and pray to the Lord on his horse.
SPEAKER_01: If you know who Jonathan Edwards was, the author, the key, the key preacher to the first great awakening.
SPEAKER_01: And he had all these pieces of paper, they say, that would be pinned to his coat when he got back.
SPEAKER_01: And those were things God told him to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because he was waiting on God even as he walked with God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you can be waiting on God as you walk with God.
SPEAKER_01: One time I was fly fishing up around Winter Park, and um, and I was waiting on God while I fly fish.
SPEAKER_01: I know that sounds kind of crazy, and don't everybody start leaving on Sundays to go fly fish because you can say, well, Pastor said that he waits on God when he fly fishes, and I can do that really good fly fishing on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you're not allowed to do that on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm only kidding, but you can go on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: You just won't get as blessed out there as you do here.
SPEAKER_01: But that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_01: You either want part of it or you want all of it.
SPEAKER_01: It's up to you.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: But I was fly fishing, and um, and I really was waiting on God.
SPEAKER_01: I was praying about some stuff at the beginning, and then it just got super quiet up on this stream, and the Spirit of God came and told me something about Mountain Springs Church, which I was a pastor there at that time.
SPEAKER_01: And it was not good.
SPEAKER_01: It was of a demonic spirit that had entered the church and was up to no good.
SPEAKER_01: And it was through one of my staff.
SPEAKER_01: So I got in my truck and I drove back and started making phone calls on the way, and one thing after another came to be true of what the spirit had downloaded to me.
SPEAKER_01: And we got in there and we took care of it.
SPEAKER_01: And God moved in a mighty way as a result of that situation.
SPEAKER_01: But it wouldn't have happened.
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced it could not, he could not have spoken to me if I didn't take time to wait on watch on him.
SPEAKER_01: So, men and women, when we go into, when I talk about prayer and being a watchman, there's a waiting part of it too.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you're going to get in that chair in your house, and this is your hour of revolutionary prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And you, and sometimes you worship.
SPEAKER_01: I would say start with worship, but then you may just want to wait on him.
SPEAKER_01: Just wait on him.
SPEAKER_01: Just get really super quiet.
SPEAKER_01: God, what are you saying?
SPEAKER_01: Take your journal, be ready.
SPEAKER_01: Have your Bible there, be ready.
SPEAKER_01: Hundreds of times, hundreds of times, God has told me a passage to go to about something I never would have thought of.
SPEAKER_01: But do you understand that could only happen because I'm in the word.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So it'd be like if I said to the quarterback on the football team, we're gonna go with a 699 deep on two.
SPEAKER_01: And he says that to me.
SPEAKER_01: 699 deep on two.
SPEAKER_01: I got the on two part.
SPEAKER_01: 699 sounds like something to do with the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know the playbook.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know the playbook?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, men and women, you limit two-thirds of what God can say to you if you don't even know his word.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're not regularly in his word, how can God speak to you because there's not a lot of material to work with in your brain?
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: If you read the word only on Sunday when Pastor Steve is preaching, he ain't got a lot to work with.
SPEAKER_01: Partly because I'm your pastor and I know what he's got to work with over here, and ain't that much.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, because out of the other 168 hours, you're spending one hour in God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: He's got one hour's worth of data to work with because you won't know what the heck he's talking about if he speaks to you.
SPEAKER_01: So when I got saved, I started hanging around all these all these fired up campus crusade young people that knew the word inside and out.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, folks, I was intimidated.
SPEAKER_01: I was intimidated because there were a lot of pretty girls there.
SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to get to know some of them.
SPEAKER_01: And I was an idiot.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked around and I go, I wouldn't be interested in me.
SPEAKER_01: So whatever your motivation is, get into the word, man.
SPEAKER_01: Get into the word.
SPEAKER_01: So there you go.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth quality.
SPEAKER_01: A watchman wars.
SPEAKER_01: When we sign up to follow Jesus, we enter a war.
SPEAKER_01: Demons hate your guts because you're following Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: You just entered into a demonic warfare with an enemy that knows his craft well.
SPEAKER_01: He's been working out his strategies for millennia.
SPEAKER_01: So when we start to know God's word, and when I was that new believer, I began to read God's word and read it every day, sometimes two, three hours a day, because I had a lot of catching up to do.
SPEAKER_01: I got around these 18 and 19-year-old young people.
SPEAKER_01: They knew God's word.
SPEAKER_01: They'd grown up in really strong Christian homes and they had been reading the Bible, and you'd say something.
SPEAKER_01: I remember someone said to me, You know what I'm talking about from John 3.16.
SPEAKER_01: I had to know what the heck he meant by John 3.16.
SPEAKER_01: What is John 3.16?
SPEAKER_01: Is that the phone number or is that the room number of a guy named John?
SPEAKER_01: And so I began to read and study because I had a lot of catching up to do.
SPEAKER_01: And because I was in that war.
SPEAKER_01: As I got around those non-believers on my gymnastics team, and we began to, you know, I didn't know what to say about why I didn't want to go out and smoke and drink and party with them anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I just didn't want to.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know what to say.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have a good apologetic.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know the right words.
SPEAKER_01: I just was trying to obey God.
SPEAKER_01: And so as I began to study God's Word, I had a little more information, had a little bit more ammunition because it's a war.
SPEAKER_01: It's a war, folks.
SPEAKER_01: You are in a war.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids are in a war.
SPEAKER_01: There's so much stuff coming down the tube in our colleges today, in our high schools today.
SPEAKER_01: Some of it's beautiful and good because I believe our teachers want to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: But some of it's just not, it's just not right.
SPEAKER_01: And so, how do we change that?
SPEAKER_01: We change that by equipping at home kingdom revolutionaries.
SPEAKER_01: We help them renew their minds.
SPEAKER_01: We help them grow.
SPEAKER_01: That's what your citizenship is all about.
SPEAKER_01: That's your country.
SPEAKER_01: Your country is always first your home.
SPEAKER_01: I've always said I'm every time I've been planting a church, I'm always planting two churches at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: One church was Mountain Springs before, the road now, but it's always been the whole family church.
SPEAKER_01: Again, Jonathan Everett said, every home is a little church.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of church are you building?
SPEAKER_01: A battling church, a battling people, or those who can agree with David who said in Psalm 144, Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.
SPEAKER_01: God trains us in spiritual battle.
SPEAKER_01: I don't do it as much as I probably should, as I did earlier, but there was a period there for about 10 years in a row where I put on the armor of Christ every day based off Ephesians 6.
SPEAKER_01: So after I had my quiet time, my devotional time, my war time with the Lord, I said, Lord, I put on the helmet of salvation today.
SPEAKER_01: God, renew my mind.
SPEAKER_01: God, may my thoughts be your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: May your thoughts be my thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Keep me focused, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I put on the breastplate of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: May my motives be pure.
SPEAKER_01: God, I take the shield of faith.
SPEAKER_01: God, would you increase my faith and the sword of the spirit with the word of God?
SPEAKER_01: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: God, I put on the belt of truth.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna listen to the lies of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna listen to the lies of the culture.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna believe truth, and truth is found here in your constitution, your covenant book, the Bible, and then I'm gonna shod my feet with the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, wherever I go, might I be a peacemaker?
SPEAKER_01: That took about two minutes.
SPEAKER_01: I challenge you to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Start at the top, as a part of your warfare prayer, as a part of being a watchman on the wall, is you wore by first getting dressed.
SPEAKER_01: I put on this coat today.
SPEAKER_01: I put on this shirt today.
SPEAKER_01: Put on the armor every day.
SPEAKER_01: Just like you get dressed, get dressed with the armor.
SPEAKER_01: Fifth quality: a watchman warns.
SPEAKER_01: In ancient times, the primary focus of a watchman was to warn the people that bad things, foreboding things were coming, or an enemy could be seen way off.
SPEAKER_01: I love that in Lord of the Rings, when they start to light the fires on those mountaintops, those were warning fires that they would start.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Ezekiel said, Son of man, I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I love prophetically gifted people.
SPEAKER_01: Prophetically gifted people are awesome when they're walking as sanctified in the spirit because they warn us of things.
SPEAKER_01: They tell us things we do not know.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times, prophetically gifted people, and if you're in that category, I say this to you as a challenge, that you should be watching more than anyone.
SPEAKER_01: If you have that gift, that anointing of visions and dreams, which is the language of the kingdom, I'll talk about that in the days ahead.
SPEAKER_01: But that language of the kingdom is visions and dreams.
SPEAKER_01: Often prophetically gifted people get those words from God.
SPEAKER_01: And many of you are like that, and you give me stuff on emails and texts and stuff and say, Amen, I was sensing this, or I had this dream.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't even thinking of that.
SPEAKER_01: And many times it becomes true.
SPEAKER_01: I think that prophetic gift a lot of times is in women.
SPEAKER_01: I really mean that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean there's something, there's a sensitivity that women have that a lot of us guys don't have.
SPEAKER_01: And women have this intuitive sense, kind of a sick sense, to see things in our kids, see things in our church, see things in people that we miss.
SPEAKER_01: Liz is like that for me.
SPEAKER_01: She senses things.
SPEAKER_01: And she'll say, If you talk to, you know, Josh about this or charity about that, and I'll go, why?
SPEAKER_01: And she, I mean, I know that sometimes she just wants to knock on my head and say, Is anybody home?
SPEAKER_01: Watchmen warn.
SPEAKER_01: And certain people are good at this, some people are anointed by this, some people are empowered by this, this ability to warn us of things ahead that we should be warned of.
SPEAKER_01: Sixthly, a watchman weeps.
SPEAKER_01: Watchman weeps.
SPEAKER_01: We recall how the psalmist says, Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
SPEAKER_01: He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves with him.
SPEAKER_01: So a watchman often weeps.
SPEAKER_01: We feel things, we're gonna sense things from God that are making him weep.
SPEAKER_01: And God is looking for men and women who weep with him over the things that he weeps over.
SPEAKER_01: You show me a man or woman who weeps with God, and I'll show you a man or woman that's gonna have joy overflowing.
SPEAKER_01: Because God never leaves us in that weeping state.
SPEAKER_01: He brings forth his joy as we weep because we've got his heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's part of this watchman on the wall is that men and women, it's gonna change you.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be changed as you weep and as you watch and as you wait and as you war and as you worship.
SPEAKER_01: But then God's gonna hear our prayers, and we're gonna see a move of the Holy Spirit in our day.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, we are going to see a move of the Holy Spirit in our day.
SPEAKER_01: There's a day coming when the lines of people getting baptized will go out that door right there and into the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: They will come because every person on this earth wants to know.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know it, they don't know that they that they know it.
SPEAKER_01: They want the delight of all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: They want his delight in their heart, and they're trying to find it in sex, and they're trying to find it in drugs, and they're trying to find it in all these different ways because that's what the culture says is the only way to find it, and we have the answer.
SPEAKER_01: And the answer is the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna get saved by the thousands.
SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna be baptized by the thousands, and we will equip them and we will empower them, and other churches are gonna get the germ on them, and they're gonna wanna do it, and we will look back and say we were a part of that day when God began to move.
SPEAKER_01: But it takes concentrated and focused prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It begins with men and women crying out to God for Him to move.
SPEAKER_01: I don't get prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I threw you most Americans don't pray enough.
SPEAKER_01: It's because we have to get it.
SPEAKER_01: You go over to Asia, especially Korea, you talk to a Korean uh Christian about prayer, and they go, they say, I say, do you get it?
SPEAKER_01: And they go, yeah, every time I pray, something happens.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I get.
SPEAKER_01: And they pray.
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.
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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.