SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: We lead.
SPEAKER_01: I get so sick of saying the US leads everything that's bad.
SPEAKER_01: But uh, we lead the free world of pornography and sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: If you're having sex outside of marriage, you're outside of God's will.
SPEAKER_01: If you're living with someone and who you're not married to, you're living outside God's will.
SPEAKER_01: You're outside God's will.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of scary.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any sense of the fear of God, stop it.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: We'll help you.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the book of Revelation.
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: All right, gang, we are in Revelation chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: And if you would turn to that, we're finishing up Revelation chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Last week I talked about overcoming the dragon.
SPEAKER_01: I talked about strategies, tactics of the enemy as it relates to how he works in the area, two major areas, deception and accusation.
SPEAKER_01: Satan works, demons work in deception and accusation.
SPEAKER_01: And then we talked about how we overcome, and I gave five different steps of overcoming and walking in freedom.
SPEAKER_01: You can listen to those messages online.
SPEAKER_01: But as I prayed about this week's message and relation to the latter part of Revelation chapter 12, we're actually going to do a little bit of some biblical gymnastics, and we're going to go back and forth a little on this verse with another passage because of my discussion with Amy Lathan about some areas that are affecting our county, affecting our city that I'm very concerned about.
SPEAKER_01: There's dangerous omens, men and women, on the horizon.
SPEAKER_01: Dangerous omens.
SPEAKER_01: I trust that in the next 30 minutes or so you're going to understand what I'm talking about by the passage, and then how we see the enemy working even in our own city.
SPEAKER_01: I'm entitling this War on Our City and War on Our Nation.
SPEAKER_01: So Revelation 12, we're at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.
SPEAKER_01: But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to a place where she is nourished for a time and times and a half a time from the presence of the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: Now I shared with you several weeks ago that there's one way to look at this being the nation of Israel, the woman representing the nation of Israel and the persecution throughout time of the nation of Israel because of its special place, both in the oracles of God, the word of God, the principles of God, and also the birth of the Messiah coming from the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not going to cover that again.
SPEAKER_01: I showed you Nikki Haley in her recent speech, it wasn't a speech, her recent press conference to the press corps about what she saw on the Security Council of the United Nations.
SPEAKER_01: And you can find that online.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm not going to come from that perspective today.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
SPEAKER_01: But the earth helped the woman, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the floods which the dragon has spewed out of his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And the dragon was enraged, and this is where we're going to camp a little bit here today, is verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So the war is against Israel, but the war is also against those that have become Jesus followers.
SPEAKER_01: When I said this last week, when you become a Jesus follower, and especially if you become an all-in, burn the boats, wholehearted disciple of Jesus, you just drew a target on your back, and the enemy is out to take you out.
SPEAKER_01: You went from being a buddy with Satan, even though, you know, I'm not saying you're satanic worshiping or anything like that, but you became a part of his team.
SPEAKER_01: And as I say a lot of times with my kids, and you've heard me say it sometimes here at the road, you change jerseys.
SPEAKER_01: You change jerseys.
SPEAKER_01: So when a quarterback for a football team gets traded to another team, he changes jerseys.
SPEAKER_01: And all the guys that were his friends who used to block for him on one team want to kill him in the next game.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're wearing the jersey of Nasrani, if you're wearing the jersey of being a Jesus follower, Satan hates you.
SPEAKER_01: Demons are after you, and that's why you got to get discipled.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you need to be in a D group.
SPEAKER_01: That's why if you don't, if you men and women don't get discipled in small groups, you're just plaguing your growth.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to take you forever to grow because you're up to no good naturally.
SPEAKER_01: And unless you get filled with the Holy Spirit every day and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and learn through other people in your life, I'm listening to messages, getting discipled, being in the Word, we don't grow.
SPEAKER_01: And I want speedy growth.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to grow quickly.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's given us ways to grow in discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's been this enmity.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 3.15.
SPEAKER_01: I will put enmity between you, meaning Satan, and the woman.
SPEAKER_01: And this is interesting, between your seed, that means the satanic seed, and her seed.
SPEAKER_01: Only place in the Bible where it says her seed.
SPEAKER_01: Always in the Bible it's his seed.
SPEAKER_01: The seed comes from the man, except in this case, because of the virgin birth of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, by the way, theologically, the virgin birth is a huge theological issue.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember my dad as a Lutheran pastor saying it's not a huge issue.
SPEAKER_01: Dad, it is the, if you take away the virgin birth of Christ, you take away Genesis 3.15, because the seed came from the Holy Spirit, not from Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: If you say that you don't believe in the virgin birth, you're saying Jesus was not deity.
SPEAKER_01: He was not God, because that seed came from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So her seed and his seed, meaning satanic seed, which is the Antichrist, I believe, have been at enmity since the beginning of time, since the rebellion of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And so Satan is out to take out the church.
SPEAKER_01: We are an army.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason we're as effective as we are is because of unity, and the reason we're as ineffective as we are is because of disunity.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's what I call discontinuity.
SPEAKER_01: There's a discontinuity of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: The discontinuity of the kingdom is the already, but the not yet.
SPEAKER_01: The discontinuity of the kingdom is the already but the not yet.
SPEAKER_01: So we've seen people at the road get healed of cancer.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty major healings.
SPEAKER_01: And we've seen other people who can't get their headaches to go away.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: That's super weird to me.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm not God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I know: we're called to pray for the sick, so we pray for the sick.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't know who's going to get healed because it's the already, but the not yet.
SPEAKER_01: We already have the kingdom, but we not yet have the full kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, you're all going to get healed.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it's going to be up there.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is to put on people that it's their lack of faith that caused them not to be healed or healed.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, sometimes it is.
SPEAKER_01: We know Jesus couldn't heal in certain villages because of their lack of faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's Jesus talking.
SPEAKER_01: Do y'all understand that?
SPEAKER_01: That's Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He knows why someone didn't get healed.
SPEAKER_01: I don't, and will never, at the road, never, ever lay on someone that it's because of their lack of faith that they didn't get healed.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's pretending to be God, and I fundamentally disagree with that attitude and that way of putting pressure on people.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Really important.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing: if it only takes the seed of a mustard seed, if it only takes the tiniest seed for God to move in a mighty way, i.e., he says, move mountains, cast mountains into the sea, then levels of faith are not the issue.
SPEAKER_01: 99% of the time, the issue is what is God, what do you want to do, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And we are coming to you.
SPEAKER_01: And we're saying you can heal.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to pray for healing, we're going to believe for healing.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes he does, and sometimes he doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: It's the already the not yet.
SPEAKER_01: Now, turn in your Bibles to Revelation 9.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 9 gives us, and we covered this really lightly about six weeks ago, but I want to cover it more in depth as it relates to the war on our county, the war on our city, and the war on our country.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 9.20.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to call this the sixth great strategy of Satan over a nation, a state, and a city.
SPEAKER_01: The six great strategies of Satan over a nation, a state, and a city.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 9.
SPEAKER_01: But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, this is talking about the unleashing of demonic powers.
SPEAKER_01: We covered this before, but there were satanic demonic powers released on the world, on the whole globe at that time.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe that's what's happening right now in our county.
SPEAKER_01: There's a release of demonic powers being released right now over El Paso County.
SPEAKER_01: I think because of the strong Christian population, the strong churches that are in our area, the strong, quite frankly, the strong city council that we've had, and I'll cover that in just a moment, we are a target now.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their theft.
SPEAKER_01: So I see six great strategies that are happening right now in our city.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give them to you.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he says, the works of their hands.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing that humankind does is we worship the works of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody in this room, at the sound of my voice, that have been coming to the road for any amount of time know that I'm a big supporter and proponent of you being all in at your job.
SPEAKER_01: That you give everything to give, that you're gonna bless your employee, your employer, or your employees if you own a company, but that you go in all out and you do the best you can.
SPEAKER_01: You make as much money as you can, you give away as much money as you can, and you save as much money as you can.
SPEAKER_01: That's John Wesley's philosophy, and that's been mine for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: Save as much as you can, make as much as you can, and give as much as you can.
SPEAKER_01: So he's not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is we tend to make our jobs and the making of money an idol in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is, and again, I'm not against making money, I'm for it all the way.
SPEAKER_01: Let's make as much as you can, save as much as you can, and give as much as you can.
SPEAKER_01: Um what happens though is that in that process, especially when you start, it's called, let me give you another, I'm gonna give you a mysiological term.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what why does he do this?
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you say that.
SPEAKER_01: Some people say, that's really cool you say that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you if you don't like it, then don't write it down.
SPEAKER_01: But um but here's a here's a term it's called redemption and lift.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone heard of the term redemption and lift?
SPEAKER_01: That's why I paid$50,000 to get a master's degree.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: I know one phrase that nobody knows.
SPEAKER_01: Yay! You know.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's a it's a classic missiological term called redemption and lift.
SPEAKER_01: And missiologists developed this about 50 years ago as they looked out at what was happening around the world, and it's this idea that when Christ comes into an area where he has not been proclaimed, usually there's poverty.
SPEAKER_01: Usually there's poverty.
SPEAKER_01: Mike, this is important to what you do as an entrepreneurial trainer.
SPEAKER_01: That there's poverty, there's restrictions, there's bondage.
SPEAKER_01: This has especially been studied in Latin America and parts of Africa.
SPEAKER_01: Then Christ comes in.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not talking about a Christianity that is largely cultural.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about a Christianity that's largely revival.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the gospel comes in and people truly get born again.
SPEAKER_01: When that happens, it's called redemption.
SPEAKER_01: But then what happens is people start realizing Christ in me.
SPEAKER_01: The hope of glory.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna now make something of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And the laziness and the slavery and the bondage is transformed as people realize I can be free, I can do something with my life.
SPEAKER_01: Christ in me is my new hope of glory, and I'm gonna get out there and I'm gonna start a business, I'm gonna make things happen, and all across the globe, this always happens.
SPEAKER_01: And that's called lift.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is where there was poverty and where there was restriction and where there was slavery, freedom comes, and so suddenly men and women start figuring out ways to make money, start having businesses and stuff, and it's redemption and then lift.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that cool?
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's what always happens: it's the cycle.
SPEAKER_01: After redemption, lift, revival, and then you start having a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And then you want more stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And more stuff, and you forget what got you the lift.
SPEAKER_01: And then the blessing that was on your life actually subsides because the Lord can't bless you like he did before, because now you're actually worshiping what he gave you in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a cycle, it's called the revival cycle.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's redemption, there's lift, then there's actually idolatry, and then God has to do it all over again.
SPEAKER_01: And he usually does it with the next generation because most people won't repent.
SPEAKER_01: But if they will repent, and we see it with Israel, same thing with the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And we could go through all the passages of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, men and women, be all in, burn the boats, wholehearted disciples, even at your work, but don't worship your work.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Your work is your mission field.
SPEAKER_01: That's your main area of missional impact.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Where God has called you is your number one place of missional impact.
SPEAKER_01: Be in all in, burn the boats, wholehearted disciple as a lawyer, as a doctor, as a mechanic, as a landscape architect, as a construction guy.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is you do, look at the people that you're serving and serve them for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when they ask questions, put all the glory on him.
SPEAKER_01: Like the baseball players, you know.
SPEAKER_01: They're always, you know, kissing their hand or something, and they do something with their heart when they hit a home run.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they're all godly.
SPEAKER_01: No, I kind of dig that though, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's cool.
SPEAKER_01: You know, because it I because I know it makes liberals really mad.
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, I like that.
SPEAKER_01: So number two, the worship of idols, he says in number two is the worship of idols.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever drives a person, whatever motivates a person that is not primarily Christ, is always going to lead you toward idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm not saying that everything we do, we have to like be having a prayer meeting about, but I'm saying, and here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: I want every one of us in this room to be in a job that you love.
SPEAKER_01: You can't wait to go to work.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the way God wants it.
SPEAKER_01: I think if you like working on cars and you love being a mechanic, then it's not idolatry that you love being a mechanic.
SPEAKER_01: It just means that you walk that balance of remembering that it's for the glory of God, and everything you have in being a mechanic came from, sovereignly, from God.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's this thing that happens, he calls it here idols of gold and silver.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's an aspect of that that I think is is a materialism that he's speaking of here, but the bottom line is this that we're we're always re-engineering worship in our lives, that my job has been given to me to expand the kingdom of God, to make a different for the kingdom of God, to be all in here.
SPEAKER_01: Be the best mailman, be the best ditch digger, be the best housewife, be the best at whatever you do for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you saw the William Wilberforce movie, Amazing Grace?
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody of you see that?
SPEAKER_01: You should watch Amazing Grace again.
SPEAKER_01: If you watched it before, if you haven't watched it, watch Amazing Grace.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's a politician who had a passion for the ending of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave his life to that.
SPEAKER_01: And he and he experienced defeat after defeat after defeat.
SPEAKER_01: It actually broke him physically and emotionally.
SPEAKER_01: And the true story of William Weber Force is that is true.
SPEAKER_01: He was broken, but he broke the slave trade because he would not give up.
SPEAKER_01: That is what all of us have this great opportunity to do in some rim, some area that God has gifted you in.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, murder.
SPEAKER_01: He says murders.
SPEAKER_01: As I said last week, demons want a blood sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: They are driven by a blood sacrifice from abortion to suicide.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of every demon, the job description of every demon is to take you out before your time.
SPEAKER_01: To cause you to become so discouraged, so despondent that you start to consider self-mutilation and self-destruction.
SPEAKER_01: And it is happening in our county.
SPEAKER_01: It is happening in the three major schools.
SPEAKER_01: Three out of four that are right here within a stone's throw of this church.
SPEAKER_01: TCA, Pine Creek, and Discovery Canyon.
SPEAKER_01: And Time magazine had an article on Discovery Canyon that I read just a few months ago.
SPEAKER_01: I think we have the highest suicide rate in the state, and we're we're ranked up there very high in our nation.
SPEAKER_01: So just in the past, in the past month, we've seen, I think, a suicide at TCA, a suicide at Pine Creek, and a suicide at Discovery Canyon.
SPEAKER_01: America leads the free world in murder.
SPEAKER_01: It is mainly the African American community that's suffering the most.
SPEAKER_01: Black-on-black murder is in epidemic proportions.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not being talked about.
SPEAKER_01: And it is wrong, and the enemy's on the move.
SPEAKER_01: At some point, we gotta pull the covers back.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody's got to have the courage to say, why is this happening?
SPEAKER_01: We already know what is happening.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so sick of hearing about what's happening, but let's talk about why it's happening, and let's have a task force, a national task force, to go after this, made up of anyone who has a heartfart, both from the spiritual community, the political community, the medical community, who cares?
SPEAKER_01: So this is from the New York Times about the city of Chicago.
SPEAKER_01: From Reverend Michael Flager, an activist and pastor of a Catholic church on the South Side, quote, we should be embarrassed as a city, every single one of us, that we've allowed this city to become a poster boy of violence in America.
SPEAKER_01: Are we going to shake our Our heads and say, oh, what a terrible year in Chicago, and then do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: More than 750 people were murdered in Chicago in 2016, the police said, a 58% increase over last year and the highest total since 1997.
SPEAKER_01: As of April 7th, 2017, there have been over 700 shooting victims already in Chicago, vast majority black on black.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, drugs.
SPEAKER_01: Number four drugs.
SPEAKER_01: The word is sorcery here.
SPEAKER_01: Pharmacoon is the Greek word, where we get the word pharmaceutical drugs.
SPEAKER_01: The sorcery of drug addiction, not drug use.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: Drug addiction, not drug use.
SPEAKER_01: I take Tylenol sometimes when I get a headache.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not into sorcery.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are taking, you may struggle with even being bipolar.
SPEAKER_01: I believe all truth is God's truth, whether it comes from the psychological rim, medical rim, spiritual rim, and some of you are taking drugs that stabilize you emotionally and psychologically.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about hallucinogens that take us into addiction that is, that can be purely turn into being demonization in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying anybody who takes any drug, they're somehow demonized.
SPEAKER_01: Does everybody understand that?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody go like that.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't talk to me afterwards, be happy to talk to you about that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible calls it idolatry, and it does seem to be this connection, and I never took drugs, I never took illegal drugs, even in my uh before Christ days.
SPEAKER_01: But my friends, and many of them have, and they talk about these trips and these highs they were on and the stuff that they saw.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you in this room have done this, you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, it takes you into a bizarre world, especially LSD, and crack, cocaine does this, and it's demonic.
SPEAKER_01: It's a demonic world.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what he's talking about, I believe, here.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you some facts about Colorado's consumption in marijuana and the arena of drugs.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I am passionate about this morning.
SPEAKER_01: In the U.S., Colorado is the number one consumer of the top four drugs.
SPEAKER_01: In the U.S., Colorado is the number one consumer of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and opioids.
SPEAKER_01: There are more deaths from overdose in Colorado than auto accidents.
SPEAKER_01: From 1980 to 2014, the levels of THC in marijuana have increased from less than 3% to around 12%.
SPEAKER_01: This is based on the DEA seizures.
SPEAKER_01: In Colorado, we're closer to 18 to 26% average THC concentration.
SPEAKER_01: So for you that were that are older and you smoke pot in high school, we're not talking about the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: We are not talking about the same drug here.
SPEAKER_01: In 2013, an estimated 38% of all Americans tried marijuana.
SPEAKER_01: In 2016, more than 40% of Americans have tried marijuana, and 19% of those are young adults.
SPEAKER_01: Colorado is at 31%.
SPEAKER_01: There are estimated 6,600 new users every day.
SPEAKER_01: 16% report use in 8th grade.
SPEAKER_01: Average age of first use is 18.
SPEAKER_01: In Pueblo, an average of 75 people must be looked at in a job interview just to find 15 who can pass the drug test.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01: Heavy use of high potency marijuana increases further drug use by 15 times.
SPEAKER_01: It's the gate, call it the gateway drug, 7.8 times more likely to use further drugs for those who smoke marijuana.
SPEAKER_01: In a recent one-day shift in Pueblo, a physician reports that six of her 20 patients were homeless and all reported coming to Colorado for the legalization, because of the legalization of marijuana.
SPEAKER_01: Marijuana-related ER visits estimated to have doubled in just one year after legalization of recreational marijuana.
SPEAKER_01: From 2011 to 2014, this is a 68% increase.
SPEAKER_01: Every single category that you want to count is up since legalization of marijuana, DUIs, traffic deaths, youth use, college use, adult use, ER admissions, hospitalization, marijuana-related exposures, marijuana-related treatment, marijuana diversion, and THC extraction labs.
SPEAKER_01: Lastly, in a discussion with detective Andy Thompson, he's a detective with El Paso County, and he and I talked about this.
SPEAKER_01: He said the legalization of marijuana has brought into our city Cuban cartels that are now importing marijuana to other states.
SPEAKER_01: So what they do is they can come here and set up a big, huge marijuana construction site.
SPEAKER_01: It's obviously it's legal, but then they don't sell it here, they then import it, or I guess I should say they export it from here to other states and sell it illegally.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you know this, but in our city's election on Thursday, the pro-marijuana people won the day.
SPEAKER_01: They control the majority now on the city council.
SPEAKER_01: We are going to see drug labs, we're going to see marijuana pouring into our city.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just preparing it.
SPEAKER_01: If you didn't vote, and you're supposed to vote in that election, I'm in the county, I can't vote, then I would say you're part of the problem.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't vote.
SPEAKER_01: We're giving up our city to demons, folks.
SPEAKER_01: Just last week, a stolen truck related to a drug-related uh theft went right up here into Cordera and they had a shootout.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of the nicest neighborhoods in our city.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming.
SPEAKER_01: My son's had his car stolen twice here on the northern part of the city.
SPEAKER_01: I'm carrying right now.
SPEAKER_01: I carry a 380 right here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna challenge you and I'm gonna tell you you should consider getting a concealed weapon permit.
SPEAKER_01: And Andy Thompson teaches a class.
SPEAKER_01: It's called perfectaim.net.
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.aim.net.
SPEAKER_01: If you're involved in the marijuana industry, repent.
SPEAKER_01: Repent.
SPEAKER_01: It's not working.
SPEAKER_01: It is a modern slavery issue.
SPEAKER_01: It is enslaving our youth.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, sexual immorality and sexual addictions.
SPEAKER_01: We lead, I'm getting so sick of saying the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: leads everything that's bad.
SPEAKER_01: But uh we lead the free world in pornography and sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: If you're having sex outside of marriage, you're outside of God's will.
SPEAKER_01: If you're living with someone and who you're not married to, you're living outside God's will.
SPEAKER_01: You're outside God's will.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of scary.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any sense of the fear of God, stop it.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: We'll help you.
SPEAKER_01: I've counseled many couples that are living together.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I can't marry you.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're not doing anything.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good.
SPEAKER_01: That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: That's between you and God.
SPEAKER_01: You say you're not doing anything, then why are you living together?
SPEAKER_01: And it's usually financial or economic.
SPEAKER_01: We'll figure out a way to get you a place till you get married if you're really not doing anything.
SPEAKER_01: A third of all births in the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: are to unwed mothers.
SPEAKER_01: It's over half.
SPEAKER_01: It's, I think, I don't know the number, but it's around 70% for African Americans.
SPEAKER_01: It's epidemic.
SPEAKER_01: And we're messing around with the dumbest things when we've got a nation demonized and being driven down to nothing in our major minority communities.
SPEAKER_01: And why won't people stand up?
SPEAKER_01: We need courageous people.
SPEAKER_01: Number six, thefts.
SPEAKER_01: Under the table dealings where money's being stolen.
SPEAKER_01: Since the legalization of marijuana, drug cartels are pouring into our city and into our state.
SPEAKER_01: We're seeing thefts skyrocket.
SPEAKER_01: And I already talked about that.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so go back to Revelation 12, 17, or I'll just go on and on and we'll be here forever.
SPEAKER_01: So I gotta close this thing down.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17 again of Revelation 12.
SPEAKER_01: And the dragon was enraged with the woman.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just settle this one.
SPEAKER_01: The devil is enraged.
SPEAKER_01: He's really upset, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I like this title.
SPEAKER_01: This came from Deborah, my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wins.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wins, but he doesn't win because he's up in heaven walking around going, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have anybody to work with.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that I planned is just really gone south.
SPEAKER_01: He's actually working out his plan.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we have the book of the apocalypse of the revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And we are the solution.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wins through people.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wins through wholehearted, all-in-burn the boats disciples.
SPEAKER_01: That's us.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we start living like that, guess what he does?
SPEAKER_01: He starts putting people in your life that want to win, that are sick of losing, that are sick of being demonized, that are sick of living this drab, boring life, and they know there's something more, but they don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_01: They absolutely do not know what it is.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's going to take you because you're all in, and he's going to move you into a path at work, at King Supers, at 7-Eleven, on a baseball team or a soccer team or something like that, and he's going to intersect you with someone who's hungry because you'll feed them.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's Steve, that never happens to me.
SPEAKER_01: That's because you're not all in.
SPEAKER_01: You're half in and half out.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is really resourceful.
SPEAKER_01: And he puts people in our lives because he knows he'll trust that you'll say something, and you'll love them and you'll care about them and you'll open up your heart to them.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't have to be like Billy Graham or something, or be an evangelist.
SPEAKER_01: It just means that you might just show love.
SPEAKER_01: You might care a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And you're part of that stepping stone of God moving in their life that they can be changed.
SPEAKER_01: Edmund Burke once said this: the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: We need modern day Paul Reverse.
SPEAKER_01: We need modern day Charles Finney's.
SPEAKER_01: We need modern day D.L.
SPEAKER_01: Moody's.
SPEAKER_01: John Calvin, who hated Geneva, he couldn't stand Geneva.
SPEAKER_01: He liked Strasbourg.
SPEAKER_01: Strasbourg was prettier, it was nicer, it was just a good place for a good Reformation guy to hang out.
SPEAKER_01: But there was this council in Geneva that saw their whole city going to hell in a handbasket.
SPEAKER_01: They had to make a law that you couldn't have but one concubine.
SPEAKER_01: The whole place was going to hell, and the Libertines had come in, and the Libertines came in not dissimilar from liberal Christianity, basically saying, Well, hey, we're of the Reform movement.
SPEAKER_01: We're with Luther.
SPEAKER_01: We're with Calvin.
SPEAKER_01: Because we believe it's justification by faith alone, so you can do anything you want.
SPEAKER_01: It's the hyper grace movement today in the church.
SPEAKER_01: And so Calvin has his little study and he's got his little house and he's happy as a June bug in spring.
SPEAKER_01: He said, We need you in Geneva.
SPEAKER_01: The council wants you in Geneva.
SPEAKER_01: The libertines are taking over, immorality is everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, I'm not coming there.
SPEAKER_01: And so he had this buddy who invited him to a meeting and they kidnapped him.
SPEAKER_01: And they made him come to Geneva.
SPEAKER_01: And so in 1541, John Calvin came to Geneva.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't let him do anything except preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, look, we don't like you that much, but you're the only good thing we got.
SPEAKER_01: So you're licensed.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't even ordain him as a true elder of the church.
SPEAKER_01: So you're kind of a deacon.
SPEAKER_01: So all we'll let you do is preach from that book called the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And don't veer off into other stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Just preach the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: So he preached hundreds of sermons from Deuteronomy and hundreds of sermons from Psalms and hundreds of sermons from Leviticus.
SPEAKER_01: And he preached twice on Sunday, three times during the week, year after year after year, and God showed up.
SPEAKER_01: And the city was transformed and it became a model city.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who's worth their salt and knows anything about history will tell you it was because of John Calvin preaching the gospel chapter by chapter and verse by verse, challenged on every front, with several large groups putting a wanted poster on his head to take him out.
SPEAKER_01: And he just did it every day, every week, year after year.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you go to St.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen Church where he preached today, there's a beautiful lettering across the sanctuary in Latin.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what it says post, tenebras lux.
SPEAKER_01: And it means light after the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what he did.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this church is called to do, whether we're in this facility or we're in a school somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter to me.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever we are, the light shining in the darkness, this is our watch.
SPEAKER_01: This is our city.
SPEAKER_01: This is where God has called you to live, and we're to do everything we can to bring the kingdom of God and his love and his power and his forgiveness to this city until Christ returns.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to say, lastly, a few things.
SPEAKER_01: One, this is where I believe God wants to take the road in the days ahead.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God wants, number one, for us to develop a training center.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God's called us to build a training center here for our young people, for our middle-aged people, for our old folks.
SPEAKER_01: To get us trained to be wholehearted disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, this summer we have a thing called the Springs Initiative.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go into one of the poorest neighborhoods of our city and we're gonna clean up lots and we're gonna paint houses.
SPEAKER_01: Be a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be two times, one in June and one in July.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Springs Initiative.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing to sign up for yet, but it's it you'll hear soon.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, join us for Revival in the Rockies prayer times on Wednesday afternoon at noon.
SPEAKER_01: Noon to one.
SPEAKER_01: It's a prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_01: Come one hour, once a week.
SPEAKER_01: 168 hours in a week, would you come one hour?
SPEAKER_01: And Marcus and I are actually gonna do a training this Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna do, we may we may pray some, but we're gonna do a training for everyone who comes.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna equip you in what the purpose of this meeting is and what prayer is all about at Revival in the Rockies.
SPEAKER_01: And that's at Every Home for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You could almost pick up a baseball and throw it over and hit Every Home for Christ right over here.
SPEAKER_01: And that's called Revival in the Rockies, noon to one, every Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, I want to challenge every one of you in this room, if you're not in a discipleship group to get in one, a D group, go to our website, email Roy Garcia, find out how to get in a D group and have some blood-stained allies.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, each one invite one.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it is about Easter.
SPEAKER_01: It's when everybody shows up and they wear coats and ties and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I might even wear a coat and tie.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not promising, but I might.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to have a purpose for my one suit.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I know I have two suits.
SPEAKER_01: One's black and one's kind of like a gray-green.
SPEAKER_01: And I always feel like feel bad because me, I want to use, I just threw out half of my closet.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I never wear that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I I offered it to my kids and nobody wanted it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to come with a coat and tie, you get permission.
SPEAKER_01: You get permission at Easter.
SPEAKER_01: You can do that, and you're still, we still consider you a part of the road.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Might even be a good idea so the visitors don't feel odd.
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.