SPEAKER_01: You're listening to the road with Pastor Peter Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know God's will on something, just do what you know is already happening in heaven and you'll find it.
SPEAKER_00: I think God likes those kind of people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's getting ready for heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing what we're doing up here.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh, I'm not gonna bless him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make it as hard as possible for him to find me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'll think about worship and fire.
SPEAKER_01: Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on The Road, visit the Road.org.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: On August 2015, Vester Flanagan gunned down a television crew doing a live broadcast, and within minutes he posted the chilling videos on Twitter and Facebook of the killing he wanted everyone to know.
SPEAKER_00: Only weeks prior to Flanagan's attack, nine African American believers in a prayer meeting were shot to death at Emmanuel African American Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
SPEAKER_00: Within a few months, another young gunman walked into an Oregon community college in terrorized classrooms full of students and would ask people directly, Are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: And those who professed their faith were immediately shot in the head.
SPEAKER_00: Last week, the first lady of the United States of America, Melania Trump, read the Lord's Prayer before a rally in Florida and was ridiculed by the press.
SPEAKER_00: Within two generations, our country has gone from honoring biblical values to despising them.
SPEAKER_00: David spoke of this in Psalm 2 of what would happen in the latter days.
SPEAKER_00: Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.
SPEAKER_00: We've watched the slaughter of thousands of Christians in the Middle East from ISIS thugs, all caught on film and posted Facebook and Twitter and even major news networks.
SPEAKER_00: We are seeing, church, the birth pangs, the Braxton hicks, the birth pangs of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And as we near the coming of the Lord, here's our thesis in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: We're in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And the thesis of the book of Revelation as I see it, besides being the splendor of the overcoming Jesus in all his glory in the latter days, is that even as persecution is rising, so will rise a tidal wave of the Holy Spirit with fresh anointing and power with a great awakening like the world has never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: It will be the first great awakening under Jonathan Edwards.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be the second great awakening under Charles Finney.
SPEAKER_00: It will be the Jesus movement in the 1960s and 1970s, all lumped together.
SPEAKER_00: Freaks, hippies, weirdos, those with every conceivable gender problem possible, getting saved and getting filled with the Holy Spirit and having their demons cast out.
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna move mightily.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most wonderful time to be alive.
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is this, men and women, that God never leads his church in any darkness without giving them greater power to handle the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never leads us to the edge of the precipice of the work of demonic powers against the church without then empowering his church with unprecedented grace and mercy and love.
SPEAKER_00: And so if Jesus builds his church, if Jesus builds his church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that we have to remember at the road on a regular basis, who's building this church?
SPEAKER_00: It's not me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not Ryan, it's not our shepherds and stewards.
SPEAKER_00: We're just under-shepherds of the chief shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He's the senior pastor of this church.
SPEAKER_00: And if he builds this church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there's more human slaves today than any other time in human history?
SPEAKER_00: Human trafficking of young children is in an epidemic like the world has never known.
SPEAKER_00: The pornography industry rakes in$97 billion each year around the world, with at least nine, with at least 13 billion coming from the United States alone.
SPEAKER_00: Islam is on the move in an unprecedented way.
SPEAKER_00: Joel Rosenberg calls it the apocalyptic Islam.
SPEAKER_00: He has written, quote, they want to establish their global Islamic kingdom where everybody must follow Islam or die.
SPEAKER_00: And when I read that, I'm not saying that in any way everybody in Islam is apocalyptic Islam.
SPEAKER_00: And our Muslim neighbors that we have in some of our neighborhoods, man, we should be reaching out with the greatest of love and mercy and befriending them in every way.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you in this room might be of Muslim faith, and we welcome you here because you have a deep respect for Jesus Christ as a prophet, and we believe Jesus Christ was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And if you keep coming, so will you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this, church.
SPEAKER_00: With greater prayer, there will be greater power.
SPEAKER_00: So let's turn our Bibles to Luke, excuse me, to Revelation chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we are as we go through the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: If you're on the app, you can go to the app and the passage is there in the app.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 11 is one of the most exciting chapters in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be talking about these two witnesses that come on the scene with signs and wonders that everybody's going to see.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everybody's going to see this on CNN and NBC and ABC and CBS and the BBC and the Fox News.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's going to see what we're going to read here because the whole world sees it.
SPEAKER_00: It's right here.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, I mean, it's really exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Even 20 years ago, this couldn't be true until the whole telecommunications and satellites had evolved to where it is today, that this can actually happen, and we've seen it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've seen this happen before with uh the Gulf War, the Second Gulf War, uh, where we watched almost like we were spectators, watching the events occur.
SPEAKER_00: I can still remember being in California visiting some supporters of us.
SPEAKER_00: We were back from furlough from Japan and watching the whole war break forth under uh George Bush, the first uh George Bush president uh when we attacked in the first Gulf War.
SPEAKER_00: And it was all right there.
SPEAKER_00: We are in the three and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: This is a three and a half years of peace during the Great Tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we find ourselves in Revelation 11.
SPEAKER_00: Very interesting first two verses.
SPEAKER_00: Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff, and someone said, Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he's not speaking here of the temple in heaven, he's speaking of a temple on earth.
SPEAKER_00: This is a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Leave out the court which is outside the temple, do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: So we believe there's been some kind of a peace treaty with the Antichrist, who is risen in power, and we don't know if he's over the whole earth or not, but it appears to me that nations, it's we might call it the internationalization of Jerusalem, has occurred.
SPEAKER_00: And Christians and Jews and Muslims and other faiths are all in Jerusalem, kind of trampling the city.
SPEAKER_00: You'll understand that in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: For it has been given to the nations, and they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months, or almost exactly three and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: So there's some kind of a peace treaty.
SPEAKER_00: There is a work of God using this peace treaty to give the Jews permission, as it were, to rebuild the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll explain in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that even the dome of the rock will be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, one of the key ways that we will see and understand that we are in the last days is through this abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of being in the holy place.
SPEAKER_00: So he says this in Matthew 24, 15.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, this is Jesus speaking, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place.
SPEAKER_00: That's a rebuilt temple.
SPEAKER_00: And then parenthetically, Matthew parenthetically put in there, whoever reads, let him understand.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is presupposing a temple being rebuilt in the latter days.
SPEAKER_00: Paul in 2 Thessalonians says this concerning the coming of the Lord, the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or all that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
SPEAKER_00: Now that hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_00: That's coming up.
SPEAKER_00: When we get to Revelation 13 in a couple weeks, that whole chapter is on the beast.
SPEAKER_00: That whole chapter is what the Antichrist will look like, how he will rise to power.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not doing that yet.
SPEAKER_00: He's not in the temple yet.
SPEAKER_00: I believe this is a time of peace leading up to that.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting that Paul would say that in 2 Thessalonians when Paul would have been alive in 70 AD when Titus destroyed Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Totally destroyed Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He's not speaking of something related to Titus, he's speaking of something, and he wrote this after Titus had done what he did in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And when we were on our last tour that I led out to Israel some six years ago, we went to the temple institute in Jerusalem where the garments of the priest have already been made.
SPEAKER_00: They're prepared for the temple sacrifices and for the rebuilding of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Over 90, now this is six years dated, I haven't looked it up, but over 90 of the hundred implements have already been made for the temple.
SPEAKER_00: The harps for the Levitical priesthood have already been made according to the Levitical and Pentateuch standards.
SPEAKER_00: So traditionally, we've heard, if any of you are have studied end times much, and eschatology, which is the study of end times, has been this idea that the dome of the rock would somehow need to be destroyed in the Temple Mount area, and that that's where the temple would be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: But the most recent archaeological excavations have shown that it's actually a hundred meters north.
SPEAKER_00: So a hundred meters north of where the dome of the rock is.
SPEAKER_00: And raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about when I when I speak of the Dome of the Rock.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so about half of you.
SPEAKER_00: So the Dome of the Rock is, if you look at a photograph of Jerusalem, usually from the eastern side, that's a popular area, you see that golden dome.
SPEAKER_00: That is the second most holy place to Islam.
SPEAKER_00: It is built on the Temple Mount where the Temple of Solomon once was.
SPEAKER_00: So the theory has been that that would somehow have to be destroyed in order for a new temple to be built.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, there's new archaeological excavations underneath the Temple Mount that seem to indicate that some hundred meters north.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, nobody knows this for sure.
SPEAKER_00: But it seems like 100 meters north is where the Temple Mount is.
SPEAKER_00: And so it could be that the dome of the rock would actually be in the outer court of the new temple that's rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: So Muslims and Christians and Jews could be in this internationalization period all in that particular area during these 42 months.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And I will grant authority to my two witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: And they will prophesy for 1,260 days, three and a half years, clothed in sackcloth.
SPEAKER_00: So the picture here is these two guys come forth and they are anointed by God.
SPEAKER_00: This is simultaneous with 144,000 Jewish evangelists.
SPEAKER_00: So we already studied 144,000.
SPEAKER_00: You can go back and listen to that if you want to in a previous sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But during these last days, God anoints 144,000 Jews who will come to Christ, be filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with anointing and power.
SPEAKER_00: These are not churchmen, these are evangelists.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe it's all over the world, not just in this area, but all over the world, they are evangelizing this the Messiah that they have discovered, and they are excitedly and joyfully preaching the gospel all over.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that's what that three and a half year period of peace is this great awakening and revival.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a revival in the church and awakening in the cities happening all over the world.
SPEAKER_00: So how is this, how, how could this be?
SPEAKER_00: What is going on?
SPEAKER_00: Let me say this there's more people alive right now on the earth than all past civilizations and generations combined.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine a great awakening in our time?
SPEAKER_00: We will populate heaven like it's never been populated before.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I believe so much in this millennial generation.
SPEAKER_00: As I told you last week, God showed me in that dream, God's mighty millennials.
SPEAKER_00: That God has anointed you to be a generation, the abortion generation, nonetheless, who will come forth with signs and wonders and power and anointing like the world has never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us that have gone ahead of them, you're supposed to mentor them.
SPEAKER_00: So your job's not done yet.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 7.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible open, turn to Revelation 7, and this is what's happening, and this is where the power is flowing from.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the power is flowing from before the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and prom palm branches were in their hands, and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshiped God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, and I said to them, My Lord, you know, and he said, These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason they are before the throne, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them.
SPEAKER_00: So men and women, when before the throne during this time, and it's starting to gather momentum, even right now in our day.
SPEAKER_00: If we're seeing the inklings of that period coming upon us, those saints, those believers on that beach that we saw on the news who were beheaded by Isis are before the throne worshiping, crying out, and they're not crying out, oh Lord, just show your love on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I think they're crying out, Lord, bring justice upon the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Scriptures say they're saying, Justice.
SPEAKER_00: Because men and women, there is a justice, God, in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And wrongs will be made right.
SPEAKER_00: And it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so with groups like those at IHOP and those in 24-7 ministries of prayer and what's happening when we meet together at noon on Wednesday, and then what happens in the morning and the evening at every home for Christ with the act school.
SPEAKER_00: They're just lying, you're just lining up with what's already happening in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know God's will on something, just do what you know is already happening in heaven and you'll find it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God likes those kind of people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's getting ready for heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing what we're doing up here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but I'm not gonna bless him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make it as hard as possible for him to find me.
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: I think God loves worship and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be exciting if God's moving this church to a point where there's 24-7 prayer happening at the road and we're joining what's already happening in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: So in the latter days, as in the book of Acts, as the as the prayer power rises in the church, the power of the Holy Spirit rises in the community.
SPEAKER_00: Do I understand this?
SPEAKER_00: I absolutely do not.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we go and pray something that God puts on our heart to tell God what he already knows?
SPEAKER_00: That's so weird.
SPEAKER_00: That he's interceding for us for something he already knows because he's sovereign, and then he tells us something that he already knows that we're supposed to pray back to him that he already knows.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he calls us to pray that way, and so power follows prayer warriors.
SPEAKER_00: So as the spirit of prayer rises at the road and at other churches in our city and through every hump for Christ and other groups across the nation and around the world, the power of the Holy Spirit is rising, and so right here in heaven we see that they're crying out to God.
SPEAKER_00: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies.
SPEAKER_00: So if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Rogers' Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is really different.
SPEAKER_00: This is like, I just want to be your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it says that fire comes out of their mouth, and if it says fire comes out of their mouth, I think fire comes out of their mouth.
SPEAKER_00: And it may not be the only place it's happening, it's just that it's focused in this case by John, God giving him that revelation through the vision that he sees of what's happening in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But I wonder if these 144,000 Jewish believers and others that are getting saved also have this kind of supernatural power.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying.
SPEAKER_00: That means three and a half years, no rain.
SPEAKER_00: And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire.
SPEAKER_00: So who are these ninjas?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who are these spirit-filled ninjas of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: There's three, there's actually three perspectives, three different theories.
SPEAKER_00: The first is some say Joshua, the son of Josedek and Zerebel, because the reference to the two lampstands before the Lord of the earth, which seems to reference Zechariah 4, and Zechariah sees a vision of two olive trees feeding the olive oil to a large lampstand.
SPEAKER_00: So that was in the time of Joshua and Zarebabel.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that's not what I think it is.
SPEAKER_00: The other is Elijah and Enoch.
SPEAKER_00: Many scholars believe this because these men never died a physical death, but actually were raptured or translated up without dying.
SPEAKER_00: Two men who did not die in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And that is because of Hebrews 9.27 that says, and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So they were raptured.
SPEAKER_00: The theory is they were raptured because God's not done with them yet.
SPEAKER_00: That they're actually in heaven right now, in their physical bodies, and they will be released again upon the earth for the latter days.
SPEAKER_00: The problem with that theory is that many in the Bible have died twice and been raised.
SPEAKER_00: So Elisha raised up a widow's son from the dead, Jesus raised the daughter of Jarius, Dorcas was raised up through Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's people who have died twice, and so I don't believe it's them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I believe.
SPEAKER_00: And I could be wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God's the only one really who knows.
SPEAKER_00: But I believe one is Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: Now turn in your Bibles, just keep your finger in Revelation, but turn your Bibles to the last book of the Old Testament, which is Malachi.
SPEAKER_00: So look at Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and very interesting cryptic verse.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna read, a lot of people read it from verse 5, but for the sake of what I'm gonna share, I'm gonna read it from verse 4, the verse before.
SPEAKER_00: So Malachi here is prophesying of the latter days.
SPEAKER_00: And chapter 4 of Malachi's, and remember, after this was written, there's 400 years of silence.
SPEAKER_00: So this is actually the last chapter, and it wasn't a chapter then, but the last word of revelation to the nation of Israel for some 400 years.
SPEAKER_00: So they're like meditating on this.
SPEAKER_00: And look what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to underline that.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I send you Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: Underline that.
SPEAKER_00: And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest they come and strike the earth with a curse.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe it's Elijah, because he says, for three and a half years he shuts up the heavens, and that's exactly what Elisha did.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any doubts about it, read James.
SPEAKER_00: So James says, Didn't Elijah, man just like us, say that it would not rain, and then for three and a half years, it actually says three years and six months in the Greek there, it did not rain.
SPEAKER_00: So he's calling out what Elisha did in the way of signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: And then we also have the passage that Elisha will come back, and that's why there was confusion about John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Is John Elisha who is to come?
SPEAKER_00: Even Jesus was confused.
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus the Elisha who's to come?
SPEAKER_00: Because even the rabbis at that time believed that in the latter days Elisha would appear again.
SPEAKER_00: And if you also recall, Elisha never saw death.
SPEAKER_00: He was translated in a chariot that went to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says, power over waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with all kinds of plagues.
SPEAKER_00: Who did that?
SPEAKER_00: Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is referenced in Malachi 4.4 here.
SPEAKER_00: Moses and the miracles that he did are referenced also in Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe it's Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets standing together, prophesying to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Not Charlton Heston, Moses.
SPEAKER_00: These were the two on the Mount of Transfiguration, talking to Jesus about his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: It was Moses and Elisha.
SPEAKER_00: And also, do you realize we don't know what happened to Moses' body?
SPEAKER_00: Pretty curious.
SPEAKER_00: Jude 9.
SPEAKER_00: Another little cryptic passage which most of us don't understand, me included.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says Michael, the archangel's disputing with the devil about the body of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: That is weird, man.
SPEAKER_00: So you got this body of Moses that they're like having a tug of war with.
SPEAKER_00: I want it.
SPEAKER_00: No, I can get it.
SPEAKER_00: I want it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like the archangel who is the who is the guardian angel over the nation of Israel is saying, no, God's not done with that body yet.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get that body back.
SPEAKER_00: We got some more to do with that body.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 24, 4.
SPEAKER_00: It happened as they were greatly perplexed at the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: That behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.
SPEAKER_00: Angels?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
SPEAKER_00: Conjecture here, but could be.
SPEAKER_00: It's Elijah and Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: When they had finished their testimony, by the way, Revelation 11, 7 is the Antichrist's favorite verse in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The verse I'm about to read is the beast's favorite verse in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: He has it memorized.
SPEAKER_00: When they had finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the obvious will make war with them and overcome them and kill them.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time that the beast is mentioned in Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And from this point on, we're going to have 36 references to the beast.
SPEAKER_00: He really starts to take center stage in this last part of the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: This is really encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: This is actually one of the most encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize this is one of the most encouraging verses in the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: I know you're looking at me like you've lost your Georgia brain.
SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what this says to us, church.
SPEAKER_00: God has numbered your days.
SPEAKER_00: For every Jesus follower, if you're a Jesus follower in this room, God has a course for you to run.
SPEAKER_00: And you're not going to be translated, you are not going to die one day too early or one day too late from God's design for you.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_00: So Paul said to the Ephesian elders at my latest, I must finish my course.
SPEAKER_00: Each one of you have a course to finish.
SPEAKER_00: I did a seminar yesterday on how to teach the Bible to transform lives.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you were there.
SPEAKER_00: It was an awesome time.
SPEAKER_00: And when we were teaching that, we were going through God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We were talking about how do you learn to teach God's word in an effective and powerful way that transforms lives?
SPEAKER_00: It spoke to me of how important it is that we number our days and the impact that we have with whatever God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are architects, and some of you are entrepreneurs of your own company.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have coffee shops, some of you are mechanics, some of you are counselors, some of you are pastors and teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Each one of us in this room has a calling, and there is a course for you to run.
SPEAKER_00: Number your days is what the scriptures say.
SPEAKER_00: You're indestructible until it's the right time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying go and just eat candy and drink beer and live it up because I'm indestructible.
SPEAKER_00: Because we we we marry that with obedience and holiness in our lives as we walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But isn't that exciting that God's number of your days?
SPEAKER_00: And so we can pray for healing, and sometimes people don't get healed, but it's always a win-win for the believer.
SPEAKER_00: It's always a win-win.
SPEAKER_00: Because if it's your time to go, you get to be with Jesus before we do, and that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Get our mansions ready.
SPEAKER_00: But if you if you're called by God to stay here and get healed, then make it count.
SPEAKER_00: Wonder how different it would be if we knew somehow in the spirit, you have 1,260 days.
SPEAKER_00: How we'd live differently.
SPEAKER_00: I know I live differently.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's exciting to me that God calls us to number our days, Psalm 90, 12.
SPEAKER_00: So teach us to number our days that we may gain what?
SPEAKER_00: A heart of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Church.
SPEAKER_00: Men and women, you have a course to run.
SPEAKER_00: Run it wholeheartedly.
SPEAKER_00: Love God each day.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up, say, Lord, today I want to love you with all of my heart, soul, and mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: And my neighbor is myself.
SPEAKER_00: Guide me, lead me, show me how to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you start praying like that, and you think that there's not going to be this work of angels and this work of the Spirit all around your life, and supernatural stuff's gonna begin to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which mystically is called Sodom in Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Egypt was famous for idolatry and Sodom for immorality.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe in Jerusalem at that time there is tremendous idolatry, tremendous immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And their bodies are laying in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days.
SPEAKER_00: And so everybody can see it.
SPEAKER_00: All the news networks are there.
SPEAKER_00: You can see, finally, oh, this guy's tortured us.
SPEAKER_00: They're finally dead, and everybody can see it.
SPEAKER_00: And they will not allow their dead bodies to be put into the graves because they want everybody to see it.
SPEAKER_00: And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of the satellites are watching this thing, and they're so happy, and there's there's new kinds of greeting cards.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the dead, two guys, greeting cards.
SPEAKER_00: Two guys dead, greeting cards.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's two guys in a truck or something, and there's two guys dead, greeting cards.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they'll call them witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: They probably wouldn't call a witness if you're an unbeliever, but and so, and so they see this, everybody's happy, and then God's gonna crash the party.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Now, after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God enters into them, and they stood on their feet.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty freaky, folks.
SPEAKER_00: And then they rise up, breath comes in, these guys, and it just freaks everybody out.
SPEAKER_00: After the three and a half days, the life of the breath of life from God enters into them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, they're back.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, they're alive.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody sees it.
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, 20 years ago you couldn't even have done this, but now you can.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody can see this happening.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody's freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here.
SPEAKER_00: So they hear the voice.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what I've said again and again over the last few weeks that the purpose of the great tribulation period is not mainly judgment.
SPEAKER_00: It's really an invitation to get saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to give your heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's the longing heart and the loving, merciful heart of Christ crying out, and he's showing them ways to get saved and to come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're gonna see a resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: But even that is not gonna be good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Come up here.
SPEAKER_00: So now they hear a voice, and he's not done yet.
SPEAKER_00: They ascend to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.
SPEAKER_00: In the same hour, there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and the earthquake, 7,000 people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That means some are fearful and do nothing, others are fearful and they get saved, and the second woe is passed.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.
SPEAKER_00: So cameras are rolling.
SPEAKER_00: The beast kills the two witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't kill them before, they were indestructible.
SPEAKER_00: He kills them.
SPEAKER_00: For three and a half days, they just they're out in the streets and everybody's celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's happy.
SPEAKER_00: Cakes are being built with, like, you know, you can see the cake with the like the two little witnesses on top, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe they've got arrows through them or something.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: And then all the warlocks and sorcerers and witches have their little dolls with little pins in them, ah, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And then and then they rise up.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Then they hear a voice from heaven, everybody hears it, and they ascend to heaven on a cloud.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how many times have you heard people say to you, well, if I could just see a resurrection, or if I could just see a miracle, I'd believe.
SPEAKER_00: And every time that's said, God hears it, and those that are around in the latter days are gonna see it.
SPEAKER_00: A resurrection and an ascension.
SPEAKER_00: So, men and women, we're living an exciting, exciting time.
SPEAKER_00: We're on the precipice of a great move of God around the world.
SPEAKER_00: We're a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: We are a church that gets to be a part of this great move of God.
SPEAKER_00: Believe that this week.
SPEAKER_00: Believe that at work.
SPEAKER_00: Take opportunity to share your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Look for ways to show God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Look for ways to reach out to those that nobody cares about.
SPEAKER_00: Reach out to them with the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because people are hungry, they're more hungry and they're more thirsty than they've ever been.
SPEAKER_00: Don't believe the reports.
SPEAKER_00: It's not true.
SPEAKER_00: Almost every person that I share my faith with in a winsome way, I try to be as winsome as I can under God's grace, are open to the love of God because most people's view of Christ has been relegated to a stereotype that they receive from the church, which is not biblically accurate.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are called by God to be a church that is wholeheartedly devoted to Christ, but that we also reflect God's life and his mercy to those around us.
SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
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SPEAKER_01: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.