SPEAKER_02: Did you know there's coming a day when every wrong thing is gonna be made right on the earth?
SPEAKER_02: And you are gonna have a resurrected body, and you are gonna get to serve the Lord with joy.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna actually have a mind that desires God.
SPEAKER_02: But you don't have to like rein it in, but it'll automatically go.
SPEAKER_02: I want to think about the body.
SPEAKER_02: I want to think about his presence.
SPEAKER_02: I want to think about his word.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's unimaginable, right?
SPEAKER_02: You'll have a body that you don't have to buff it into submission, but you crave serving the Lord.
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.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to The Road.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm usually the guy who's speaking up here, but uh today I've asked Marcus, our worship leader, our worship pastor, to share from God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Um it's awesome to have Marcus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I met Marcus a few really actually not very long ago.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how long it's been, but it's been a number of months, and he is one of the executive leaders over at Every Home for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's a subset of Every Home for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He actually used the facility called Axe.
SPEAKER_01: But we uh we started meeting each other really through my daughter Anna, who helps lead worship over at the Prayer Times, 24-hour prayer of different things that they do with Axe over at Every Home for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you know, but EHC and Axe Ministries is just a quarter of a mile, if that, from here.
SPEAKER_01: And uh we're actually talking about starting a noonday prayer for revival in Colorado Springs in 2017.
SPEAKER_01: I am so excited about 2017.
SPEAKER_01: I think I just really believe in my heart that this is a pivotal year, and it is a pivotal time for many of you.
SPEAKER_01: This is going to be life-changing this year for many of you, and you don't even know it right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you.
SPEAKER_01: Would you turn real quickly to Jeremiah 23?
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah 23.
SPEAKER_01: This is not what Marcus is going to be speaking on, but I want to just take one minute to share what God's been speaking to me about personally for our church, and I'll uncover this way more next week when I speak on January the 8th.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to just maybe whet your appetite with where my heart is at.
SPEAKER_01: So Jeremiah's in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: If you open your Bible right in the middle, it's always going to hit usually Psalms or Proverbs, then you kind of go right and you'll hit Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: But this is speaking of good and bad shepherds, good and bad prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you have been in churches where you've really had pastors who are more about themselves than about the church and about the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully you're in a church now with a pastor and pastoral team that cares about you and loves you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the standards.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read the first four verses, and may it be our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock, driven them away, and not attended to them.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all of the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's underlined and circled in my Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, that's underlined and circled in my Bible, and they shall fear no more, that's circled, nor be dismayed, that's circled, nor shall they be lacking, that circled, saith the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, I believe the responsibility of shepherds of the church, and the responsibility of anybody who comes up to preach in this church is to feed the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: That you, verse three, look at verse three, that you might be fruitful and increase.
SPEAKER_01: That is my main responsibility in this church, and that is our passion at the road, is that you, whatever God's called you to do, whatever the unique position you're in, the unique uh role that you have, the unique vocation that you're in, that you would be fruitful and increase in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And that you would be a fruit bearer, and that you would see multiplication of your gifts and your talents and the calling that God has on your life.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Sunday morning's about.
SPEAKER_01: That's what next week is all about in our week of impact.
SPEAKER_01: That when you come, you would be impacted, equipped, motivated, and challenged and encouraged to go out and increase in whatever God's called you to do, to multiply out the influence and the love and the passion of Jesus Christ in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what this is all about.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've asked Marcus to speak this morning because he has a message, I believe, for us to hear that is a great way, a perfect way to start 2017.
SPEAKER_01: So, Marcus, uh, would you come on up?
SPEAKER_01: Let's welcome Marcus.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Steve.
SPEAKER_02: Now you're only allowed one yawn during this message, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I'm keeping a little tally up here.
SPEAKER_02: If you give more than that, and I'm just playing, then it'll all spread.
SPEAKER_02: Did you guys enjoy bringing in the new year?
unknown: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: We had such a good time last night with we had some friends over, and uh we just had a good time fellowshipping with one another, talking about what the Lord is doing.
SPEAKER_02: We prayed over our families to bring in the new year, but we had our countdown at 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_02: We got the sparkling cider out, we started popping the corks, and and we did the countdown.
SPEAKER_02: 10, 9.
SPEAKER_02: It was the most glorious countdown of my entire life.
SPEAKER_02: 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_02: I was in bed by 10 o'clock.
SPEAKER_02: So when uh we used to live in Brazil just for a season, we we we took an 18-month season and focused on the Church of Brazil and lived in Brazil for a year.
SPEAKER_02: And in Brazil, they have a ton of fireworks.
SPEAKER_02: It's the summertime.
SPEAKER_02: My kids were begging me, Dad, can we stay out till midnight and see all the fireworks?
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, we could, we could do that.
SPEAKER_02: Or I could let you watch all the Lord of the Rings right, you know, right one after each other.
SPEAKER_02: We can start at 8 o'clock and you can watch it till you know, you know, till midnight.
SPEAKER_02: Now the reason I did, they thought that was a great idea.
SPEAKER_02: The reason I did that is because I didn't want to get out at midnight seeing fireworks, you know.
SPEAKER_02: So we have our strategies.
SPEAKER_02: Again, this is my beautiful wife, Rachel.
SPEAKER_02: Will you just stand up one more time just so people just so I can embarrass you one more time?
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: My beautiful wife, Rachel, and our kids next to her, and and uh just to give you a little bit of our story, we started in Kansas City, our family started in Kansas City, and we are a part of the International House of Prayer for 13 years.
SPEAKER_02: And we are in the very early days of establishing night and day prayer and seeing it continue for five, seven, ten.
SPEAKER_02: They're in their 17th year of praying night and day.
SPEAKER_02: I know that it really is a miracle.
SPEAKER_02: It's a miracle in our land.
SPEAKER_02: And so, and as we sat in a prayer room, the Lord began to speak to us about the poor, the Lord began to speak to us about the nations, the Lord began to speak to us about orphans.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you guys know when you sit before the Lord, he begins to fill you with his desires?
SPEAKER_02: He begins to fill you with his will, the word of God says, his desire, what he wants to accomplish in the earth, and how he wants to use you.
SPEAKER_02: And as we sat in a prayer room and as we ministered to him and worship and as we prayed the prayers of the word, we begin to feel the setting apart of being called as missionaries to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: And so that's what led us to uh Brazil, and that's actually what led us to Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_02: And now we're a part of a ministry called Acts, and we labor and we gather and we train young adults to go to the hardest and darkest places of the earth and to take the gospel where it's never been preached before.
SPEAKER_02: So we have nine teams right now, some in Asia, some in the Middle East, some in uh in Southeast Asia, in the in the Himalayan regions in Nepal.
SPEAKER_02: And um, and it is just a joy to see these young adults, one, say yes to the Great Commission, but two, encounter the heart of God in the place of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And then three, go, Jesus is worthy.
SPEAKER_02: And they're moving for two and for five years to these hard places, learning different languages, but making Jesus known where he's not known.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm gonna invite you this morning into a little bit of my burden when it comes to Jesus' worthiness in the nations.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna start in Matthew chapter 9.
SPEAKER_02: So if you would turn your Bible to Matthew chapter 9, and we're gonna start in verse 35.
SPEAKER_02: I loved it when I told Steve what the Lord had laid on my heart.
SPEAKER_02: I said, uh, we're gonna start in Matthew chapter 9, and he says, Are you gonna start in verse 35 and go through 38?
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, that's exactly what I'm gonna preach on.
SPEAKER_02: So this is a famous uh passage when it comes to missions, but I believe it's an invitation for us.
SPEAKER_02: I believe it's an invitation for us, even January 1st, to begin to encounter the heart of our Savior, the compassion he has, and to follow his invitation of how to be filled with that compassion.
SPEAKER_02: So I know Steve already prayed, but I just can't preach without praying first.
SPEAKER_02: Is that okay?
SPEAKER_02: Can we pray one more time?
SPEAKER_02: All right, Lord, we just thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that you came as a man.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that you came not to serve, but not to be served, but to serve and to lay your life down as a ransom.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you for the resurrection, that we have hope in the resurrection today.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that you are alive with a resurrected body at the right hand of your Father, ever living to intercede for us.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you for that, God.
SPEAKER_02: You are coming again to bring a new heavens and a new earth, and you are coming again to establish a kingdom that will never be overthrown, that will never be upset.
SPEAKER_02: And you, God, will reign victorious forever.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you for the hope that is ours.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, I ask you by the power of your Holy Spirit to invite us into this journey that you are calling us on, into the great commission, into being whole-hearted disciples.
SPEAKER_02: We love you.
SPEAKER_02: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_02: Well, Matthew chapter 9, let's just start out by reading it.
SPEAKER_02: It says in verse 35, And Jesus went out, and Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing every disease and every affliction.
SPEAKER_02: And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out his laborers into his harvest field.
SPEAKER_02: First thing I want to focus on in this is that Jesus has compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Aren't you glad we don't serve just a stoic, emotionless God?
SPEAKER_02: Did you know God is filled with emotion?
SPEAKER_02: The word of God calls, okay.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, we can interact a little bit, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I'm up here, you can smile, you can say amen, you can say, preach it, brother.
SPEAKER_02: I can I get a preach it, brother?
SPEAKER_02: Preach it, brother.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_02: So we're a family here.
SPEAKER_02: I know this is a stage and this is a microphone.
SPEAKER_02: Don't let that scare you.
SPEAKER_02: We can kind of interact a little bit, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Is that good?
SPEAKER_02: All right, awesome.
SPEAKER_02: So preach it, that's right.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus has compassion, Jesus has emotion.
SPEAKER_02: And he came to show what the Father was like.
SPEAKER_02: That the Father isn't just sitting on his throne and he puts a plan in place and then he just watches it with a very stoic, somber face.
SPEAKER_02: No, God has emotion for his people.
SPEAKER_02: And I love to ask the Lord, let me feel the emotion that you feel toward me.
SPEAKER_02: Let me feel the emotion that you felt when you looked out over your people and saw that they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: You felt compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to feel that same compassion.
SPEAKER_02: You know why?
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus' compassion, it drove him to action.
SPEAKER_02: It drove him to actually show us what the Great Commission looks like.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know Jesus obeyed the Great Commission before he told us to obey the Great Commission?
SPEAKER_02: He's the one who first went out to all the cities, to all the villages.
SPEAKER_02: And he taught what the Father was like.
SPEAKER_02: He opened the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: And it said, He proclaimed the good news, the gospel of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know there's a coming kingdom and it's good news?
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 24, verse 14, it says, This gospel of the kingdom or this good news of Jesus' coming kingdom is going to fill every nation before he returns.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_02: And we have a part to play in that.
SPEAKER_02: I think we can we can have much more uh motivation for the Great Commission when we feel what Jesus felt for it, when we feel his compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this word compassion here, and then Matthew chapter 9, it means to be moved with emotion, to be moved with so much emotion that you're almost sick to your stomach.
SPEAKER_02: That's what the actual the Greek word means there.
SPEAKER_02: That you actually feel uh what the Lord feels for his people.
SPEAKER_02: It means to be gripped with sympathy, to be gripped with pity, and to be gripped with love.
SPEAKER_02: That's what this compassion means.
SPEAKER_02: And when Jesus looked out, now and this wasn't a one-time thing, this was during Jesus' ministry, when he encountered the multitudes.
SPEAKER_02: This is describing, I think this happened many times.
SPEAKER_02: We see this word compassion many times in the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It said Jesus had compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Even when John the Baptist got martyred by Herod, Jesus went to be alone.
SPEAKER_02: And it said the multitudes followed him.
SPEAKER_02: And when he saw them, he was moved with compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 14.
SPEAKER_02: And it says, and he healed all of their sick.
SPEAKER_02: And then from that, he feeds the five thousand.
SPEAKER_02: From that, Jesus encountered the multitudes, and when he encountered him, he felt real emotion for them.
SPEAKER_02: And this emotion, again, this compassion drove him to go to all the cities, to all the villages villages.
SPEAKER_02: It drove him to teach.
SPEAKER_02: It drove him to preach the coming kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And from this place, he healed every disease and affliction.
SPEAKER_02: And then I believe Jesus invites his disciples into the compassion he's feeling.
SPEAKER_02: So how do we, as disciples, how do we, in seeing Jesus, the one who's gripped with emotion over the lost, is gripped with emotion towards those that he wants to reveal the Father to?
SPEAKER_02: How does he invite us into that compassion?
SPEAKER_02: And I believe we see this in verse 37.
SPEAKER_02: It says this.
SPEAKER_02: Then he said to his disciples, he turns to his disciples after he sees, after he's encountering the people that are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: And he looks at him and he says, The harvest is plentiful.
SPEAKER_02: Now, right now in the nations, guys, the harvest is plentiful.
SPEAKER_02: Right now in Colorado Springs, the harvest is plentiful.
SPEAKER_02: There are more people who don't know him in our city than do know him.
SPEAKER_02: There are more people in the nations that don't know him than do know him.
SPEAKER_02: We work in the 1040 window, 10 degrees north latitude and 40 degrees north latitude, and it's all over Asia and the Middle East, and in this kind of resistant belt, it's called in the missions movement, or in this 1040 window are found most of the unreached people groups of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And just rough numbers tell us there are 3.2 billion people in this 1040 window area of the earth who don't know him.
SPEAKER_02: About 6,500, some say 6,700 people groups who are unreached and unengaged.
SPEAKER_02: They don't even have an opportunity.
SPEAKER_02: You say, Do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: They say, I've never, who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: I've never heard of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And when I read this, the harvest is plentiful, I think of those numbers.
SPEAKER_02: And then Jesus says this, but the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_02: And we know in the missions movement right now that there are about 250,000 evangelical missionaries.
SPEAKER_02: But only about 3% of those missionaries go to this place where 3.2 billion people live.
SPEAKER_02: So the harvest is plentiful.
SPEAKER_02: The harvest is plentiful in our nation, in our city, in our region, and in the nations of the earth, and the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_02: So here, you would think Jesus would say your response to this should be you leave right now and you go proclaim.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus actually doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_02: He invites us first into the place of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: He says, This the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_02: And here's the wisdom of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field.
SPEAKER_02: So the first thing Jesus does to invite us into the Great Commission, to invite us into this place of reaping a harvest in the earth, is to call us to cry out to the Lord of the harvest.
SPEAKER_02: And he didn't say pray.
SPEAKER_02: He says this.
SPEAKER_02: He says, pray earnestly.
SPEAKER_02: It's like uh the picture of the leper that fell at Jesus' feet in Luke 5.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, please heal me.
SPEAKER_02: Please touch me.
SPEAKER_02: Please, it's that type of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: It's falling at his feet.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, would you please touch me?
SPEAKER_02: He said, I am willing for you to be healed.
SPEAKER_02: Be healed.
SPEAKER_02: I think of this earnest prayer as the neighbor in Luke 11.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you guys know the parable of the persistent neighbor in Luke 11?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, when you pray, and he went through the Lord's Prayer, he says, Pray like this, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: We all know it.
SPEAKER_02: But then right after that, he says, Pray to God that the glory of God would be revealed in the earth, but do it in a persistent way.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I have seven children, and I like to think of that parable.
SPEAKER_02: I like to think of the house being locked, it's midnight.
SPEAKER_02: In that ancient culture, you know, they would they'd probably sleep in one room or two rooms.
SPEAKER_02: I think I'd like to think of all my kids around me, you know, and then you hear this knock, and you're just like, oh no, no, no, no, please.
SPEAKER_02: They all just got down.
SPEAKER_02: Like, please, have you experienced that?
SPEAKER_02: You know, like they all just get down and you lay in your bed, and then you hear the cry, and you're like, oh no, no, no, please, please, they all just fell asleep.
SPEAKER_02: And the neighbor continues to knock, and he continues to beseech his friend for bread for the neighbor that he's entertaining.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, When you pray, pray like this.
SPEAKER_02: Pray earnestly, pray.
SPEAKER_02: With persistence.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, and cry out to the Lord of the harvest for what?
SPEAKER_02: That laborers would be set apart, that laborers would hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and would respond.
SPEAKER_02: One, to loving God with all of their heart, soul, mighty and strength, but two, to going and proclaiming who Jesus is to those who don't know him.
SPEAKER_02: So, what does this setting apart look like?
SPEAKER_02: We're going to go to our second place in the Word.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go to Acts chapter 13.
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus calls us to pray for laborers to be set apart.
SPEAKER_02: And then I think we see a pretty profound picture of what it looks like for a labor to be set apart in Acts chapter 13.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, this is a the famous passage from the Church of Antioch where Paul and Barnabas get set apart.
SPEAKER_02: But I think we have something to learn here.
SPEAKER_02: We have something the Lord wants to show us here.
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like we have an invitation for 2017 for the road.
SPEAKER_02: I feel like the Lord wants to call us to this place of earnest prayer.
SPEAKER_02: We're about to have this week of impact.
SPEAKER_02: Make Jesus great again.
SPEAKER_02: I just love saying that phrase.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, make Jesus great again in our nation.
SPEAKER_02: We have this week of impact.
SPEAKER_02: We have this week of setting ourselves apart.
SPEAKER_02: I'm asking God, Lord, would you give us the gift of earnest prayer?
SPEAKER_02: And would you open our ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_02: And would you speak to us about how you are setting us apart to labor in Colorado Springs, how you are setting us apart to labor in the nations, how you are setting us apart to labor in our businesses, in our families, in our marriages, so that we can make Jesus known, so we can make him great again.
SPEAKER_02: So look, let's look at Acts chapter 13.
SPEAKER_02: This is our second passage, and then after this we have one more to get through.
SPEAKER_02: But let's look at this.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 13 says, Now they're in the church of Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who is also called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menane, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetarch, and Saul.
SPEAKER_02: And while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.
SPEAKER_02: Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
SPEAKER_02: So, Matthew 9, Jesus says, Pray, pray to the Lord of the harvest that labors would be set apart for the work of the harvest in the nations.
SPEAKER_02: And then, in Acts 13, we see this community.
SPEAKER_02: And what are they doing?
SPEAKER_02: First, one, this is an amazing leadership team.
SPEAKER_02: But verse 2, it says, They were worshiping the Lord and they were fasting.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you don't fast without praying.
SPEAKER_02: You don't worship the Lord without praying.
SPEAKER_02: The other translation here, another translation here, says they were ministering to the Lord and fasting.
SPEAKER_02: And that word ministering to the Lord is it was the it was the priestly language for what the priests would do in the temple and taking the word of God through the Psalms and ministering it to the Lord and taking music and singing to God like David would sing to God, like Solomon would sing to God.
SPEAKER_02: It's that ministry to the Lord, telling us through his word what he told us to tell him.
SPEAKER_02: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_02: We open up our Bible, we read it, and we talk to God and we minister to him in this way.
SPEAKER_02: And then they were in a season to where they threw some fasting in there.
SPEAKER_02: I would encourage you guys in our week of impact to set aside time to fast.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Now, fasting is never the funnest thing to do, but it is required in our spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_02: It really is.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus didn't say if you fast, he said when you fast.
SPEAKER_02: But he said the Father who is in heaven is going to see you and he's going to reward you openly.
SPEAKER_02: So, this community, they're worshiping together, they're fasting.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what a remarkable community.
SPEAKER_02: And in this context, the Holy Spirit speaks.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Set apart Paul and Barnabas.
SPEAKER_02: I like to say this: the Lord knows how to set apart labors.
SPEAKER_02: It's our duty, it's our responsibility, it's our privilege to worship and fast and minister to him, and it's his privilege to speak to us through his Holy Spirit and set us apart for the work he's called us to.
SPEAKER_02: Now, my prayer for 2017, and my prayer even for today, is Holy Spirit, would you do this to us again?
SPEAKER_02: Would you do this in a fresh way to this congregation, to the people at the road, to myself?
SPEAKER_02: Would you speak to me and set me apart for the work that you're calling me to?
SPEAKER_02: For some of you, he wants to confirm again the work that he's called you to.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to encourage you in the work that he's called you to.
SPEAKER_02: For others of you, he has new things in 2017 that you were called to.
SPEAKER_02: I think there's there's some young adults in here who are going to be the beginning process of being called as missionaries.
SPEAKER_02: That there's this calling on your life to proclaim the gospel where he is not known.
SPEAKER_02: And he's gonna begin to speak to you in this season.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna begin to speak to you in worship.
SPEAKER_02: There's mothers who who you're gonna be, the voice of the Holy Spirit is gonna invite you back into that place of intimacy with God and raising disciples in your home.
SPEAKER_02: But it's in this context of fasting and prayer that the Lord sets apart Paul and Barnabas.
SPEAKER_02: I wrote this in my notes.
SPEAKER_02: As we set ourselves apart in the place of prayer, the Holy Spirit will set us apart for the work he has called us to.
SPEAKER_02: And then what happens after they get set apart?
SPEAKER_02: Look at this.
SPEAKER_02: It says, they're fasting and praying.
SPEAKER_02: It says, they get set apart, the Holy Spirit speaks, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them.
SPEAKER_02: What do they do in verse 3?
SPEAKER_02: They go back into fasting and praying.
SPEAKER_02: It's this wonderful cycle.
SPEAKER_02: We fast and pray, we're encouraged, we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and what does it drive us to do?
SPEAKER_02: To go back into the presence of God and listen to his voice again.
SPEAKER_02: So they're fasting to pray, and the Holy Spirit speaks, they go back into fasting and praying, and then it says, after they fast and prayed, they sent them off.
SPEAKER_02: And I like this relationship in Acts 13 between the Holy Spirit speaking and church leadership also responding and laying hands and sending them out as well.
SPEAKER_02: So the word here for uh for the church leadership, sending them off, is a Greek word and it means to loosen or to set free.
SPEAKER_02: And it's like we we we just got a dog this season, her name's Sammy.
SPEAKER_02: I had promised my daughter a dog for four years.
SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, okay, but when we go to Brazil, we'll get a dog there.
SPEAKER_02: But then we rented houses that wouldn't allow a dog there.
SPEAKER_02: And then we came back and oh, design, I promise you, right when we get back to Colorado Springs, we'll get a dog.
SPEAKER_02: We rented two houses that wouldn't allow dogs here.
SPEAKER_02: So we finally bought a house.
SPEAKER_02: The first day, the first week of buying this house, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: I took my daughter to do.
SPEAKER_02: We finally went out and got a dog.
SPEAKER_02: And so her name's Sammy.
SPEAKER_02: She's a pill, but we love her.
SPEAKER_02: And uh and I like to think of Sammy like on a leash, but she she wants to run and she wants to be free.
SPEAKER_02: And what this means is the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul and Barnabas, and they were ready to go, and the church blessed it, and they they set them free to run.
SPEAKER_02: They set them free to sprint, they set them free to run the race, they sent them off and they gave agreement.
SPEAKER_02: So not only does the Holy Spirit need to speak, but we need to agree with what the Lord is doing in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the church.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: When we hear, I'm feeling called to mission.
SPEAKER_02: I'm feeling called to preach the word.
SPEAKER_02: I'm feeling called to be a worship leader, I'm feeling called to open up this business and give thousands and thousands of dollars away.
SPEAKER_02: We need to agree with it and say, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I bless that.
SPEAKER_02: That's the Lord's working in your life.
SPEAKER_02: So, Matthew, I mean, Matthew, yeah, Matthew chapter 9.
SPEAKER_02: We're invited into prayer to experience the compassion that Jesus has for his people.
SPEAKER_02: In that place of prayer in Acts 13, the Holy Spirit begins to speak and set us apart for the callings that we have been created for to glorify Jesus in the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And then where's this all going?
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go to one more passage.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go to Isaiah chapter 42.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah chapter 42.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you know you can have about a hundred favorite passages in the Word of God?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: This is one of mine, one of my hundred.
SPEAKER_02: Because I believe it gives us hope, and there's many places in the word where we see the big picture.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: We're called as a personal disciple of Jesus Christ, but we're in the family of God, and we're in a remarkable story that is culminating in the return of Jesus Christ and the rule and reign of the Father and his son over this earth forever.
SPEAKER_02: That's the story you've been called into.
SPEAKER_02: And it's going to go on and on.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Isaiah chapter 9, the government has been given to him and it will ever increase, and you get to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Isaiah chapter 11, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of wisdom and counsel and might has been given to Jesus so that he can make the wrong things right in the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know there's coming a day when every wrong thing is gonna be made right in the earth?
SPEAKER_02: And you are gonna have a resurrected body, and you are gonna get to serve the Lord with joy.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna actually have a mind that desires God.
SPEAKER_02: That you don't have to like rein it in, but it'll automatically go, I want to think about God.
SPEAKER_02: I want to think about his presence, I want to think about his word.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's unimaginable, right?
SPEAKER_02: You'll have a body that you don't have to buff it into submission, but it will crave serving the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: How would you like a body that when you set your alarm for 4 30 for your quiet time in the morning, it just wakes up and it's like, oh, this is what I wanted to do all night long.
SPEAKER_02: Why did we sleep?
SPEAKER_02: You know?
SPEAKER_02: How many of you would like that?
SPEAKER_02: Now we get to experience that now on this side a little bit by the power of the Holy Spirit, but guys, we have been given a living hope.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna give us a resurrected body that will never die.
SPEAKER_02: We'll never fear death again.
SPEAKER_02: We will be provided for.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what Isaiah chapter 42 is speaking of.
SPEAKER_02: Alright, so we're gonna we're gonna go through this.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna get through 13 verses really fast, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I promise you.
SPEAKER_02: We are uh we're gonna sprint through it, alright?
SPEAKER_02: Let's begin in verse one.
SPEAKER_02: Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is speaking of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is one of the servant songs of the book of Isaiah, and there are five of them.
SPEAKER_02: The most famous one is Isaiah 53, the suffering servant.
SPEAKER_02: But this speaks of the conquering servant.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in the book of Isaiah, the front half of the book is describes the king, and the second half of the book, Isaiah 40 on, describes the servant.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Now, when Jesus came, he revealed the servant first in his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_02: But guess what he's coming back as?
SPEAKER_02: He's coming back as a king.
SPEAKER_02: And this passage describes the relationship of the Father and the Son, Jesus being the servant of the Father's will and their interaction between the two of them.
SPEAKER_02: So it says, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.
SPEAKER_02: I have put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: Another way to say that is he will make every wrong thing right in the nations.
SPEAKER_02: There's coming a day where he's going to do that.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 2, he will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I love this.
SPEAKER_02: Think of the political season we just went through.
SPEAKER_02: And think of all the TV ads of politicians.
SPEAKER_02: And in biblical context, they would have been crying aloud in the streets.
SPEAKER_02: They would have been saying, vote for me.
SPEAKER_02: They would have been saying, I can leave.
SPEAKER_02: They would have been saying, give me your men, give me your whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus doesn't have to do that.
SPEAKER_02: You know why?
SPEAKER_02: The Father's already chosen him.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't have to lift up his voice in the street, he doesn't have to make it heard.
SPEAKER_02: Because he has been chosen by his father to make all the wrong things right in the nations.
SPEAKER_02: So, did you know the kingdom of God actually isn't a democracy?
SPEAKER_02: You don't get a vote.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm chapter 2, he says, I have set my king on my holy hill in Zion.
SPEAKER_02: And the nations that refuse that, the nations that refuse to submit to him, the Father laughs at them.
SPEAKER_02: It actually says he laughs at them in Psalm 2.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_02: I've chosen the most anointed, compassionate, kind, powerful man to lead you into love, into acceptance, into sonship.
SPEAKER_02: Agree with him.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Psalm 2 says.
SPEAKER_02: Agree with him.
SPEAKER_02: It says, bow down and kiss the Son.
SPEAKER_02: Agree with the one I've chosen.
SPEAKER_02: But look, the one who the Father chose, verse 3, look how he leads.
SPEAKER_02: This is precious.
SPEAKER_02: A bruised reed he will not break.
SPEAKER_02: A faintly burning wick he will not quench.
SPEAKER_02: And he will faithfully bring forth justice to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: He will faithfully make all the wrong things right in the nations.
SPEAKER_02: And he does it in a way of humility.
SPEAKER_02: He leads with humility.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 4, this is one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: He will not grow faint nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Now, guys, when I look at the earth right now, I'm prone to grow faint and I'm prone to be discouraged.
SPEAKER_02: How about you guys?
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus on his throne isn't wringing his hands.
SPEAKER_02: He's not going, What am I going to do about war?
SPEAKER_02: He's like, No, I'm going to come back and I'm going to turn every sword into a plow shear.
SPEAKER_02: He's not saying, What am I going to do about this and about that?
SPEAKER_02: But we can get discouraged.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have some pretty overwhelming statistics.
SPEAKER_02: In the last hundred years, 200 million people have died from war or genocide or famine from war.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that that's something that's not right.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: And he's going to make that wrong thing right.
SPEAKER_02: But I even think of take that hundred years, take 80 of those years since about uh uh since about 1925, 1920 to 1925.
SPEAKER_02: We have lost over a billion people in the earth to abortion.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_02: In the last hundred years, there's been over a billion abortions, an entire generation wiped out.
SPEAKER_02: But guess what?
SPEAKER_02: That's a wrong thing that Jesus is going to make right when he returns.
SPEAKER_02: And he's not discouraged about it.
SPEAKER_02: And we can enter into his courage and his hope, because we get to enter into his calling, and we get to proclaim the good news of his coming kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go on.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 5 the Father begins to speak about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Thus says the Lord God, who created the heavens, stretched them out, he spread out the earth and what comes from it, and he gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it.
SPEAKER_02: So that's a pretty amazing description of the Father.
SPEAKER_02: I've created everything, and I'm sustaining everything, even the breath in your lungs, right now by my power.
SPEAKER_02: So Isaiah is saying, listen up, the Father has something to say, and it's kind of important, okay?
SPEAKER_02: And then verse six, he goes back to talking about the servant, the father's favorite subject.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I am the Lord, I've called you in righteousness, I will take you by the hand, and I will give you as a covenant to the people and a light to the nations.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so let's skip down to verse nine.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 9, in this passage, we have a transition.
SPEAKER_02: Whenever you see the word behold in prophetic scripture, you want to pause and you want to take note of that.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of the times there's a transition in a passage when you see the word behold, or the Lord's making a point and he wants us to pay attention, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So again, the one who created all things, who's giving all things to his servant, he's making a point here, and he says, Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare to you.
SPEAKER_02: So when you think of former things coming to pass, think of the judgments of Egypt and the deliverance of his people into the promised land.
SPEAKER_02: Those were the former things that God has done and they've come to pass.
SPEAKER_02: Think of Joshua and the battle of Jericho and the walls came down.
SPEAKER_02: Think about David and taking Jerusalem and establishing night and day prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Think about Solomon building the temple and then the Lord filling it with his presence.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: So the former things that God has done have has come to pass, Isaiah is telling us.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, But look, now I declare something new to you.
SPEAKER_02: So right now we go, wow, wonderful things, former things God has done.
SPEAKER_02: But now he's gonna tell us something new that he's gonna do, and he says, and before they spring forth, I'm gonna tell you about them.
SPEAKER_02: So he's saying, I've done things, believe that I can do great things, and now I'm gonna tell you about another great thing I'm gonna do, and you're gonna have that intimate knowledge before I do it.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna kind of be led into the secret of God, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So we're all excited.
SPEAKER_02: Wow, okay?
SPEAKER_02: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 10 it says, Sing to the Lord a new song.
SPEAKER_02: And then the Lord names every geographical region of the earth, and he calls them to sing, he calls them to worship him, he calls them to praise his holy name.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read this.
SPEAKER_02: Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.
SPEAKER_02: So when I think of the sea and the islands of the sea, I think of the Solomon Islands, I think of the Marshall Islands, I think of these islands that are in the, that are in the Pacific Ocean, and there's just a few people there.
SPEAKER_02: So in these remote islands of the earth, he is going to call them to worship.
SPEAKER_02: Well, how is that going to happen?
SPEAKER_02: It's because labors are being sent apart and being sent out to proclaim his name.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, and the coastlands are going to worship me.
SPEAKER_02: Now, sometimes we have faith for the small places, the small cities, the rural cities, but we don't have faith for the coastlands.
SPEAKER_02: These are like the major population centers of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Think of LA, think of uh I think of Steve being in Tokyo, think of the coastlands.
SPEAKER_02: It has the wealth of the sea and it has the wealth of the land to sustain a lot of life.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: And when we were in Brazil, it would be like Sao Paulo, you know, like 23 million people.
SPEAKER_02: The coastlands.
SPEAKER_02: He says, the coastlands are gonna sing my new song before I return.
SPEAKER_02: And then it gets even better.
SPEAKER_02: He lists the deserts.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Qadar inhabits, and let the inhabitants of Salah sing for joy.
SPEAKER_02: In this context, this is the deserts of the Middle East.
SPEAKER_02: Saleh right now is like modern-day Jordan and Syria.
SPEAKER_02: So when the Lord looks down at war-torn Syria, you know what he sees?
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna send messengers to Syria, and they are gonna proclaim my name, and Syria is going to sing of my glory before my return.
SPEAKER_02: And the villages of Qadar, that's the the the this was a little village in Saudi Arabia, and it's actually still there today.
SPEAKER_02: It says the desert, the the village of Qadar, these small Muslim strongholds where we don't know of any believers right now.
SPEAKER_02: Guess what's gonna happen before my return?
SPEAKER_02: The gospel's gonna go forth, and worshipers are gonna be set apart.
SPEAKER_02: And before my return, they're gonna sing of my glory.
SPEAKER_02: So we have the Lord telling us he's gonna do something new, and he's and then we have the description of a global worship movement that's gonna come forth in the earth.
SPEAKER_02: It says this let the tops of the mountains shout for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains, let them give glory to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: We have teams right now, and they're in the tops of the Himalayan regions.
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: These labors have been sent out, and guess what?
SPEAKER_02: People are getting saved.
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: They're beginning to sing from the tops of the Himalayan regions.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to the righteous one.
SPEAKER_02: I think I can't wait till the day, till that, till the gospel penetrates the Tibetan people.
SPEAKER_02: And they've already been set apart, they already have these lifestyles that that are for prayer and meditation.
SPEAKER_02: Guess what's gonna happen when they look to Jesus and say, He's the one we need to be worshiping?
SPEAKER_02: Can you believe the worship movement that's gonna happen from the Tibetan people at the tops of the Himalayan mountains?
SPEAKER_02: I like to think of that in Colorado.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, what are you gonna do on the tops of the mountains in our region?
SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do about the front range?
SPEAKER_02: You said from the mountaintops, we're gonna sing.
SPEAKER_02: And did you know we're a part of fulfilling this prophecy even right now in Colorado Springs?
SPEAKER_02: We find ourselves in this story.
SPEAKER_02: When someone gets saved, when someone gives their life, when someone returns, they worship him from our city.
SPEAKER_02: We see it in prophetic scripture.
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna sing of the glory of the Lord before he returns.
SPEAKER_02: Now, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: That same compassion that we've talked about in Matthew chapter 9, that begins to be stirred in Jesus when this global worship movement happens.
SPEAKER_02: Look at this.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: After the seas have sung of his glory, after the coastlands are worshiping him, after the deserts and the deserts of the Middle East, the gospel penetrates and they worship him, after they are singing from the tops of the mountains, verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war, he stirs up his zeal, he cries out, he shouts aloud, and he shows himself mighty against his foes.
SPEAKER_02: That's describing the end time scenario.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know the Lord's gonna do that?
SPEAKER_02: Steve's been taking us through the book of Revelation, and yes, we will see a great falling away, and yes, we will see the man of sin revealed, but do you know what also is happening during this time?
SPEAKER_02: The gospel is going forth in power.
SPEAKER_02: We were just in the war room back there and we were praying, and someone reminded me of Joel 2, and they prayed Joel 2.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know it says, in the last days, it says, He will pour out his spirit on all flesh.
SPEAKER_02: You know why?
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna prophesy.
SPEAKER_02: You know what they're gonna prophesy of?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Give your life to him.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is coming, and he's washed away your sins.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is coming to make all wrong things right.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is coming to be king of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And this global worship movement is going to arise, and guess what?
SPEAKER_02: It touches the compassion that's in Jesus' heart.
SPEAKER_02: That same compassion when he was a man and he healed every disease, he has that compassion right now at the right hand of his father.
SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
SPEAKER_02: He's still praying John 17.
SPEAKER_02: He's still saying, Father, I desire that they would be with me where I am, that they would know my glory.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is asking that for us and for those that don't know him.
SPEAKER_02: And so, when I think of 2017 and when I think of what the Lord is doing, when I think of Colorado Springs and particularly this congregation, I've been asking God, Lord, would you give us a spirit of earnest prayer that would make us sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit so that we could be set apart for this global worship movement that you are rising, and you would show us our part to play, our small part, in the bigger storyline that you are inviting us into.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road.
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: Thank you for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.