SPEAKER_00: You're listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
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: Hey, listen, before you get started, five, what do you what do you think are the five top New Year's resolutions?
SPEAKER_01: No men can speak it out who are at men's fire this morning because you already heard this.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think's number one New Year's resolution for Americans?
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, number one, stay fit and healthy.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, um, that's the biggest one.
SPEAKER_01: Most signups for gyms between now and February, and 45% of those within a month will not be used again.
SPEAKER_01: And that's actually a stat too from Time Magazine.
SPEAKER_01: Uh what do you think is number two?
SPEAKER_01: Ooh, better finance is coming, but it's not number two.
SPEAKER_01: Number two is lose weight.
SPEAKER_01: So if you got a resolution to lose weight, you join 60% of the American population as one of their New Year's resolutions is to lose weight.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, enjoy life to the fullest.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, spend less, save more.
SPEAKER_01: Spend all you can, save all you can, earn all you can, and give all you can.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit of a rendition of Steve Holt and John Wesley.
SPEAKER_01: So number five, spend more time with family and friends, and I'll give you number six, quit doing New Year's resolutions.
SPEAKER_01: No, actually, it's be less stressed, which I think they kind of were the same.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about um what we mean by uh getting a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: God gave me this idea of breakthrough when we were in Costa Rica this summer for our church and for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And I am serious that you have to get serious to get a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And at the road, I believe God's word is on us for breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And if you'll get serious about a breakthrough, God will get serious about your breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: But you have to get serious about the breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: You have to have a conviction in your heart that you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, that you're sick and tired of status quo in something in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And that God is a God of breakthrough, and we're gonna talk about that tonight, but he's also a God that is able.
SPEAKER_01: He is able to change stuff in our life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what being wholehearted is all about.
SPEAKER_01: Wholehearted is where people want to be, but very few ever experience it.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is because there's these barriers that we just will not pay the price to penetrate.
SPEAKER_01: And so let me give you three definitions found in different dictionaries on what a breakthrough is.
SPEAKER_01: I like these.
SPEAKER_01: The first one, here's a breakthrough: an act or insistence of moving through or beyond an obstacle.
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
SPEAKER_01: An insistence, an act, it's action, it's an action word of moving through or beyond an obstacle.
SPEAKER_01: So you have obstacles in your life and it's an action.
SPEAKER_01: It's not thinking about it, it's not dwelling on it, it's not just praying about it, it's actually an action and an insistence that you're gonna break through this obstacle.
SPEAKER_01: A second definition: an offensive military assault.
SPEAKER_01: An offensive military assault that penetrates and carries beyond a defensive line.
SPEAKER_01: I really like this one.
SPEAKER_01: It is an offensive military assault that penetrates and carries beyond a defensive line.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's this idea of not being on the defensive, but being on the offensive.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a passage of scripture I'm gonna read in just a moment that, I mean, captures this in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, it's a sudden advance.
SPEAKER_01: It's a sudden advance.
SPEAKER_01: It's where you weren't advancing, you were not making progress, you were, you are not uh moving forward, and then you suddenly do.
SPEAKER_01: That's a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: Like you couldn't, it's like you couldn't get through, or you've been trying for a long time, and something happens and you get through.
SPEAKER_01: That's a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And I did a I did a search, I said, I said, images of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And there's things like breaking glass and shattering, and then I also saw the one that uh Dick used on Sunday, so I saw where he copied it.
SPEAKER_01: Um but but it's this it's kind of this idea of shattering through because I was thinking, you know, I should get a big piece of glass up here and just shatter it.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and tomorrow night I might do that, you never know.
SPEAKER_01: Um but it's uh it's like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's you know what it is?
SPEAKER_01: It's that guy in the commercial who likes running into things more than changing cable.
SPEAKER_01: You know, have you seen the guy?
SPEAKER_01: He's got the little platter of food, he goes, BAM, but he doesn't make it through.
SPEAKER_01: And so some of us feel that way, like we've been hitting the glass wall forever.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what God wants to do is he wants to take a sledgehammer, and he wants to break you into a new advance in your life, and a new work of God, where you're gonna see stuff, experience stuff that you never have before.
SPEAKER_01: So look at Matthew 11, 12, and Jesus predicts, prophesies that there's a new day.
SPEAKER_01: There's a new day that started with John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: That when John the Baptist came, he inaugurated breakthrough like no other prophet before, like no other leader before, that with the coming of John and the coming then of Jesus, there was this new advancement, this new ability to assault the enemy, this new power, which we know now to be the Holy Spirit, that was going to break in with miracle-working, exceptional authority and super, say supernatural authority.
SPEAKER_01: Say supernatural authority to give you supernatural authority to break in.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what he says: it's one of my favorite verses in scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And if I sound hoarse, it's because I am I watched the national championship last night.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if in my lifetime I've ever gone from so much thrill as a 26-yard missed field goal to so down and depressed as a touchdown, some 60-yard touchdown pass by the Crimson Tide, like 10 minutes later.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I lost my voice, but it's it's gonna come back, I know.
SPEAKER_01: But probably not tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Matthew 11, 12.
SPEAKER_01: And from the days, this is Jesus speaking, it's in red, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what one commentator says of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: This is a passage about people of keen enthusiasm and commitment who are willing to boldly respond to God in proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom of God on earth, Luke 16, 16.
SPEAKER_01: It is a new way inaugurated by John and Jesus and the apostles, listen, of forceful breakthrough, forceful enthusiasm, forceful advancement, taking back ground from the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus inaugurated breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And God, the God we serve, is a God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: That is who he is.
SPEAKER_01: That's his character, church.
SPEAKER_01: So look at one of the best passages, one of the best metaphors in scripture, I think, of breakthrough, a literal story that happened, and that's in 2 Samuel 5.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to 2 Samuel 5 and a situation with David that I want to just camp on tonight, and I want to call this the God of breakthrough tonight.
SPEAKER_01: The God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Eastman got me a little uneasy because he started with this passage on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't know what I he didn't have any idea what I was gonna teach him on.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going, oh no.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna, he's gonna steal my message, and I'm gonna have to work on a new message.
SPEAKER_01: But all he did was reference it and he went on, so that was great.
SPEAKER_01: And his message is way better than mine anyway, and that would have been cool.
SPEAKER_01: But 2 Samuel 5 is where we actually we actually see in Scripture this idea of the master or the God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: That God is a God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And in this story, I like to say, for you that have heard me talk on the Old Testament, Old Testament is God concealed, New Testament revealed.
SPEAKER_01: So truth or God concealed, New Testament revealed.
SPEAKER_01: So what's concealed here is what we just read in Matthew 11, 12.
SPEAKER_01: What's concealed here is the God of breakthrough is this storyline, and it's always it's always narrative in the Old Testament, it's almost always narrative.
SPEAKER_01: It's and I won't get too, I don't want to get too techy, I mean too nerdy here, but but it's didactic a lot of times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: So it's the truth is concealed through story in the old, but it's revealed in truth concepts, New Testament revealed.
SPEAKER_01: So David has become king.
SPEAKER_01: He's been on the run for 17 years.
SPEAKER_01: He gets anointed king over Judah.
SPEAKER_01: So for the next seven years in Hebron, he's the king.
SPEAKER_01: Then uh a civil war occurs over seven years, and finally David consolidates the kingdom with Israel, and Judah and Israel are brought together with him as a king.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's where we pick it up in verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David, and David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Now, circle in your Bible, highlight it, whatever you're using, anointed.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to circle that, underline it, uh, make it yellow, um, star it, you know, whatever you do with your computer or your phone or your notebook.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to get first here tonight.
SPEAKER_01: If you go after God's anointing, Satan's gonna go after you.
SPEAKER_01: If you will let God anoint you and call you into something for which he wants to use you, you might as well draw a big target on your back because the Philistines are coming.
SPEAKER_01: Always works that way.
SPEAKER_01: So, one of the first things we need to think about with breakthrough is you gotta get ready to battle.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta get ready to fight, you've got to be on the offensive.
SPEAKER_01: And and if you don't, we'll see what we'll see what the battle's like here.
SPEAKER_01: He's ready to take you out.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'll fight, he'll back off after a while.
SPEAKER_01: But it takes time and it's always a fight.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing: you're here, I'm convinced every one of you here is because you want to break through, and you can't get a breakthrough though until you know your anointing.
SPEAKER_01: And the anointing is the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know where anointing comes from?
SPEAKER_01: Anointing is what shepherds did in Israel to their sheep.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the whole term comes from.
SPEAKER_01: They would take oil, they would take olive oil, and they would anoint it on their sheep.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Israel is a dry climate, but not as dry as here, now not as humid as Georgia, where I'm from, but lots of insects.
SPEAKER_01: And they wanted to protect their sheep from insects.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to protect their sheep from insects and different things like that and diseases, so the oil was protective over the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: And then later in time, God began to use this idea of the anointing of oil for kingship.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you guys, you're anointed by God and it's protective.
SPEAKER_01: It's protective for you.
SPEAKER_01: And every one of us in this room has an anointing from God.
SPEAKER_01: You're called to do something with your life.
SPEAKER_01: We're not called just to worship.
SPEAKER_01: We're not called just to attend church, we're not called to just get saved, we're called to do something that changes people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: And it starts with us.
SPEAKER_01: You experiencing intimacy with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that anointing is there and it's available to you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at 1 John.
SPEAKER_01: Um, 1 John 2.27.
SPEAKER_01: I love this passage.
SPEAKER_01: John says this about all of us.
SPEAKER_01: The anointing, the anointing which you have received from him abides in you.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us that's a believer in Christ is anointed by God.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, don't, I don't, I want to talk about two anointings.
SPEAKER_01: One is the anointing everyone has because you've received the Holy Spirit by being born again.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a second anointing, and that is for empowerment.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the Spirit of God empowers you, church, for something he's called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: It's why all you beautiful women out there, you get fall in love, you get married, and you have a baby.
SPEAKER_01: And you said all your life, I don't know how I could ever be a parent.
SPEAKER_01: And then you have a baby, and something happens to you, and you get weird.
SPEAKER_01: And you start wanting to be a mom.
SPEAKER_01: And every father should be really happy about that because you ain't no mom.
SPEAKER_01: And so that you're changed because God's transforming is kind of an anointing for motherhood.
SPEAKER_01: And same with fathers, but there's something if they'll go with it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, in service, in different areas of our life, some of you are called to be writers, and some of you are called to be musicians, and some of you are called to be to be mechanics, and some of you are called to be to be lawyers, and some of you are called to be artists and graphic artists, and I could go on and on, and that's from God.
SPEAKER_01: That's from Him.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the aspects of breakthrough is the enemy often does his biggest work in the area you're most anointed by God.
SPEAKER_01: And so oftentimes you'll see people with a prophetic gift.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they can see stuff in the spirit and they get into drugs because they get addicted to the high that comes from drugs, which was a high that God meant them to have, to have insight into other people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: And God's anointing them that way that Satan knows it, and so they come in and they skew it, and they kill their ambitions, and they kill their anointing.
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta want the anointing.
SPEAKER_01: David was anointed.
SPEAKER_01: So here's this is a great example.
SPEAKER_01: David is anointed by Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: He had nothing to do with it, it's all by grace.
SPEAKER_01: He's just in Bethlehem with a bunch of sheep, gets called in, uh, oil's poured on him from the prophet of Israel, but for the next 17 years, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: He has to fight for the anointing.
SPEAKER_01: So when you're when you receive Christ, it's all by grace.
SPEAKER_01: You have nothing to do with it, you receive it, but now you have to fight for that next anointing.
SPEAKER_01: And that next anointing is a call in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And calling has nothing to do with vocational Christian work.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I mean by calling.
SPEAKER_01: Because in certain circles, he's called by God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that means he's become a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven forbid.
SPEAKER_01: You know, but but what I mean by calling is that you're a believer, you're a disciple of Christ, and you're called to do something.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and but you have to fight for it.
SPEAKER_01: David had to battle, so he's he's consolidating the kingdom, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: And that's when the enemy begins to work.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what he does.
SPEAKER_01: So count on it.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to fight for your anointing.
SPEAKER_01: Start asking God, God, what am I anointed to do?
SPEAKER_01: What am I called to do this year?
SPEAKER_01: What what's your what's your call on my life?
SPEAKER_01: You start praying that prayer, you start knocking on that door, you're gonna get a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, just go with your desires.
SPEAKER_01: Just go with your desires and see where God leads you.
SPEAKER_01: It's so cool because he'll open doors that no man can shut.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: So, let's go back to verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: All the Philistines went up to search for David.
SPEAKER_01: So now they're searching for him, right after he gets anointed.
SPEAKER_01: Now, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the valley of Repham or Rephim.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what that means?
SPEAKER_01: In your Bible, if you have a study Bible, it says the valley of giants.
SPEAKER_01: They go into the valley of giants.
SPEAKER_01: There's always a valley of giants.
SPEAKER_01: There's giants in all of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: There's areas of our life where there's always been strongholds of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Satan wants to fight you in that valley.
SPEAKER_01: This is my valley.
SPEAKER_01: And you're familiar with it because it's the same valley that you've been in since childhood.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same valley where your dad put you, or your mom put you, or that coach put you, and shamed you.
SPEAKER_01: And demons want to keep you there.
SPEAKER_01: Because if he can keep you there, there's no way you're going to experience breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: Giants, I'm going to say it's a valley of shame.
SPEAKER_01: It's the valley of shame.
SPEAKER_01: And Brene Brown, you guys know I'm a big fan of Brene Brown, and she's done some of the greatest um research on shame and vulnerability.
SPEAKER_01: In her book, Daring Greatly, which I'm reading right now.
SPEAKER_01: She gives what are the shame, biggest shame areas for women.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'll give you a little just a little um advertisement for the women's breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: I'm speaking at the breakthrough for women.
SPEAKER_01: You women better watch out.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm coming locked and loaded.
SPEAKER_01: And I love speaking to women.
SPEAKER_01: Women are way easier to speak to than men.
SPEAKER_01: Men are like this.
SPEAKER_01: Entertain me.
SPEAKER_01: You know.
SPEAKER_01: Women are like fired up and excited, and lots of cool stuff happened with women.
SPEAKER_01: So I love speaking to women.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I wish I was a woman so I could just speak to them more often.
SPEAKER_01: But um, but I'm gonna I'm gonna just give you like one little section here of part of what I'll define way more deeply at the women's breakthrough on shame.
SPEAKER_01: But uh Brene Brown and her research um would say these are these are some of these.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you about eight keys at the retreat, at the advance, but here's just a few about some of the giants in women's lives or shame in women's lives.
SPEAKER_01: Looking perfect, trying to look perfect.
SPEAKER_01: This is through over.
SPEAKER_01: 10,000 women that were interviewed.
SPEAKER_01: Look perfect, do perfect, be perfect, anything less is shaming.
SPEAKER_01: Never enough.
SPEAKER_01: That's the key word for women.
SPEAKER_01: Never enough blank.
SPEAKER_01: Never good enough.
SPEAKER_01: Never sexy enough.
SPEAKER_01: Never beautiful enough.
SPEAKER_01: Never enough at home.
SPEAKER_01: Never enough at work.
SPEAKER_01: Never enough in bed.
SPEAKER_01: Never enough with my parents.
SPEAKER_01: Shame means to a woman never enough.
SPEAKER_01: Men.
SPEAKER_01: What about men?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I elaborated more on this this morning at Morning Fire, but this is how we'll put men in a kind of a nutshell description from all the interviews with men.
SPEAKER_01: Men, shame is failure for a man.
SPEAKER_01: Shame is weakness for a man.
SPEAKER_01: Shame is failure and weakness at work, in your marriage, with money, with the children.
SPEAKER_01: Bottom line, shame is being seen as weak.
SPEAKER_01: That's our valleys of the giants, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: David is in this valley, but let's look at what he does.
SPEAKER_01: David does five things that bring breakthrough and can bring breakthrough in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, let's go to verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines?
SPEAKER_01: Will you deliver them into my hand?
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.
SPEAKER_01: So here's number one.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, you got to inquire of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, men and women, a breakthrough begins not with you writing out a strategy of how you're going to get a breakthrough, but seeking God.
SPEAKER_01: We seek intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: We come here, that's why I want to open up every night with worship.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to start with worship.
SPEAKER_01: The first 20 minutes, worship.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to go for it.
SPEAKER_01: Be here on time.
SPEAKER_01: If you come in time, I'll try to end on time.
SPEAKER_01: We'll make a covenant with each other.
SPEAKER_01: But when we come, we're going to inquire of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to seek God.
SPEAKER_01: It's deciding tonight, if you haven't decided yet, man, I'm going to make a covenant with the Lord this year of a sanctuary I'm going to go to, a closet, a place in the house, I'm going to open the word, PB and J, Prayer Bible, and Journal.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to seek God and I'm going to ask God, what does He want me to do about this or that?
SPEAKER_01: Don't assume you know.
SPEAKER_01: But ask Him, God, what do you want to do in that area of my life?
SPEAKER_01: So David went to, and this is really fun.
SPEAKER_01: So then David went to Baal Parazim, and David defeated them there.
SPEAKER_01: So David, listen, I want you to notice.
SPEAKER_01: David does not go to the valley of Rephim in verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: God tells him what to do, and it says, David went to Balperazim, and David defeated them there.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, The Lord has broken through my enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Here's where we get the word the God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: He broke through my enemies before me like a breakthrough of water.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, he called the name of that place Baalperazim.
SPEAKER_01: Now we don't know if it was already called Baalperazim, and then he just adopted the name, or if it had some different name and he gave it the new name.
SPEAKER_01: But Baal Perazim means the God of breakthrough, the master of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And David, here's a second thing.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing.
SPEAKER_01: David obeyed.
SPEAKER_01: He obeyed what he heard God tell him to do.
SPEAKER_01: David prayed, David obeyed.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us pray, but then when God tells us something hard to do, we go, I must have missed it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean today.
SPEAKER_01: I overheard a conversation with someone.
SPEAKER_01: I'm listening to this conversation, I'm going, uh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: This is not good.
SPEAKER_01: This is like not good.
SPEAKER_01: I know that this particular person is making a decision.
SPEAKER_01: It's not anywhere close to God's will.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: So if you signed up for easy, man, you are in the wrong faith and you're definitely in the wrong church.
SPEAKER_01: Because hard is most often where the greatest victory occurs.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be courageously scared this year.
SPEAKER_01: We went and saw Darkest Hour, which is the early days of Winston Churchill when he became prime minister in 1940, May 1940, right when Dunkirk was occurring, and then the fall of Europe had just occurred, and Churchill becomes Prime Minister, and then the Battle of Britain's just about to get going.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to watch that movie.
SPEAKER_01: But if any of you know the story, it's it's I mean, it just scratches the surface of what the next four or five years are gonna be for uh Churchill.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a guy that's a study in courageous fear.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't handle fear, if you can't handle being scared, everything has to be comfortable for you, forget that word.
SPEAKER_01: Don't come tomorrow night.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make you so flipping uncomfortable that you'll hate my guts.
SPEAKER_01: Because the reality is this is that the people who walk fearful but courageously keep going are the ones who get breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: It was actually Churchill who said, if you're in hell, keep going.
SPEAKER_01: If you need a if if you're a complainer, if you're a compla if you're a perpetual complainer, you're gonna courageously be fearful if you start to quit complaining.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a gossip and you love to gossip, you're gonna be courageously fearful this year if you decide to quit gossiping.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never tithed your money, if you've never been a generous giver, and God's saying, I want to set you free to be a generous giver, you'll walk in courageous fear this year as you go, Oh, how can I trust God with that?
SPEAKER_01: We only have that amount.
SPEAKER_01: But guys, that's obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just tell you, it's way more exciting than the boring life of the status quo.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't want to do this stuff, then just have your own little boring life.
SPEAKER_01: Serious.
SPEAKER_01: Everything will be perfect, and you'll just be bored stiff, and you'll be watching soap operas.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, have you ever watched a soap opera?
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody I've never watched a full episode of a soap opera.
SPEAKER_01: But I've passed and I'm going, people watch these things.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't be there if they didn't watch them, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: They I mean there's advertisers and stuff, so that's bored people.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody go like this, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be bored.
SPEAKER_01: Go like that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we want joy and adventure.
SPEAKER_01: So David obeyed.
SPEAKER_01: So David prayed.
SPEAKER_01: And then so God's gonna speak to us, church, and then let's go for it.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: And they left their images there, and David and his men carried them away.
SPEAKER_01: So they they beat them, they defeated them, then they carried away their images.
SPEAKER_01: Underlying men, men, men, men.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, you've gotta have bloodstained allies to fight with.
SPEAKER_01: David could not do this on his own.
SPEAKER_01: He had men who helped him.
SPEAKER_01: Men, you need other men.
SPEAKER_01: Women, you need other women, not just your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it starts there.
SPEAKER_01: It's wonderful for that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Your number one blood-stained ally should be your spouse, but there's things in a man's life that a woman shouldn't have to say.
SPEAKER_01: Men should speak that into the man's life.
SPEAKER_01: And most of us men that don't have blood-stained allies, you will be the same person this time next year if you don't have any blood-stained allies.
SPEAKER_01: You'll just be the same guy.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can try hard and all that, but the reality is you are created for connection.
SPEAKER_01: You are created for belonging.
SPEAKER_01: You are created for love, and that is not gender-specific.
SPEAKER_01: That's for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And you need men in your life who can say, dude, would you quit doing that?
SPEAKER_01: You're driving your wife nuts.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of the web of porn.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll be a partner with you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be an accountability guy for you with covenant eyes.
SPEAKER_01: So I was talking to a guy who started a ministry here in town.
SPEAKER_01: He was over at my house watching the game with me last night, and we were talking about covenant eyes and how important that is in porn for guys.
SPEAKER_01: And he's got one of the largest now ministries, and these are college students.
SPEAKER_01: College students that are doing covenant eyes in this Christian ministry that he has going.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: So these these 18, 19, 20-year-olds, they're getting serious.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so, women, you need it too.
SPEAKER_01: You need, I think all you need is one or two.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need 18.
SPEAKER_01: You just need one or two men or women in your life that'll love you, that'll trust you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you what I think are four characteristics of a blood-stained ally.
SPEAKER_01: Four characteristics.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, you do life together.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you like each other.
SPEAKER_01: So you do life together.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, you trust that person to keep a secret.
SPEAKER_01: They speak well of you behind your back.
SPEAKER_01: They keep a secret.
SPEAKER_01: Confidentiality.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, you have a reciprocal relationship of sharing shame, areas, disappointment, and sin.
SPEAKER_01: You can be utterly honest.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just you with a mentor, and mentoring is important, and that's great, but I'm talking about a reciprocal relationship.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a give and take to it.
SPEAKER_01: And then fourthly, they don't cut and run when things get tough.
SPEAKER_01: They don't cut and run when things get tough.
SPEAKER_01: They really love you and they're really for you.
SPEAKER_01: So you need that in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the valley of Rephim.
unknown: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistines didn't roll over and die.
SPEAKER_01: Demons don't roll over and die just because you had a few victories.
SPEAKER_01: They reconstituted themselves, they redeployed themselves.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the fourth point.
SPEAKER_01: Realize that the battle with shame and giants is ongoing.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be an ongoing battle.
SPEAKER_01: So you've got to arm yourself for an ongoing battle.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, therefore, David inquired of the Lord again, and he said, Isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to look at this in verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You shall not go up.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he said, go up before.
SPEAKER_01: That's how I want you to fight.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This time he says, Do not go up.
SPEAKER_01: Circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.
SPEAKER_01: And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly, for then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: And David did so as the Lord commanded him, and he drove back the Philistines from Giba as far as Gazer, that's 15 miles.
SPEAKER_01: He drove them back.
SPEAKER_01: Listen up, this is really, really important, this last point.
SPEAKER_01: You cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You have to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, because what God told you to do before may not be what he tells you to do the next time.
SPEAKER_01: So learning with intimacy with the Lord to listen to the Holy Spirit's voice in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's why every day spending time with him is so crucial in getting a breakthrough because he'll give you fresh and new strategies for everything.
SPEAKER_01: When I started the road, the way God told me to start the road was so different than the way I'd started Mountain Springs, which was so different from the way we started the ministry in Okinawa, which was so different than the way we started the ministry in Tokyo.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I've started a new ministry, it's always been different.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's deploying leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's not getting any leaders.
SPEAKER_01: You just start doing it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's it's uh it's linguistic, sometimes it's uh it's more sophisticated than any of that, and then sometimes it's super simple.
SPEAKER_01: But it's listening to the Holy Spirit and cooperating with what he's telling you to do.
SPEAKER_01: David, the first thing he said, inquire the Lord, Lord told him what to do, boom, done.
SPEAKER_01: This time, mulberry trees?
SPEAKER_01: Sounds in mulberry trees?
SPEAKER_01: Joshua, ready to go, commander of the Lord, full armor on, uh, march around the city seven times.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: You kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Where's that in you know, the military uh manuals that I've been studying for the last 20 years?
SPEAKER_01: He was cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, you have the anointing.
SPEAKER_01: You have the anointing, you can hear what God's calling you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Again, that's where also bloodstained allies helps because some of us are nuts.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the ideas I've heard from some of you about things God's telling you to do, I go, um, let's really seek the Lord a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: That's super weird.
SPEAKER_01: Steve God said, do this and do that, and um I said, why don't you just uh you know save a little more money?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, yeah, I'll do that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So so you need others to bounce ideas off of you so you don't like lose your marbles.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is, cooperating with the Holy Spirit's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you would say here that you have heard the voice of God, an impression or a sense in your spirit before, and you just knew that was God.
SPEAKER_01: You guys know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost everybody in the room.
SPEAKER_01: So trust that.
SPEAKER_01: Trust that.
SPEAKER_01: Bounce it off others, get some wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we get breakfast.
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.