SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is giving us his plan.
SPEAKER_01: He's about to throw a party.
SPEAKER_01: A beautiful party for the Church of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it's going to be horrible for those who do not have a personal vital dynamic going relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what it is, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying to us as friends, get ready.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be deceived.
SPEAKER_01: Be prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time to share our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time to tell our friends about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a day when it is absolutely too late.
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: We are in the Book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We've been going through a series on the Book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We are a chapter by chapter, verse by verse, expositional teaching church.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that it's my job as the pastor of the road to give you a love for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't give you a love for the truth if we're not in the truth, which is God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: So we're in the Word every week.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't want you to turn to Revelation, though.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to turn to John 15.
SPEAKER_01: Would you look at John 15?
SPEAKER_01: And if you have your notes that are on the app, it's also there.
SPEAKER_01: John 15.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to begin before we go into the seven seals of Revelation chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to understand the perspective of Jesus as it relates to you and I intimacy with him, an intimate relationship with Jesus, as he speaks to us as his friends, not his servants.
SPEAKER_01: Now we are his servants, but primarily in the heart of God is that you would be his friend and he would be your friend.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: This is my commandment, Jesus speaking, that you love one another as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_01: Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
SPEAKER_01: You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.
SPEAKER_01: No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, we're talking about a time in history where there were masters and servants there in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: They would have understood that clearly, that the master had very little relationship with the servant or the slave.
SPEAKER_01: It was more the servant of the slave just serving the master.
SPEAKER_01: The master and the servant would not have had a personal relationship.
SPEAKER_01: They would not have been connected to each other.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, look, I'm redefining to you a relationship with God like you've never known before.
SPEAKER_01: But I call you friends, for all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is what's important.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We are studying the book of Revelation, the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_01: And this is God speaking to his friends about information in the future that he wants his friends to know.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever done that?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been with someone and you're about to do something and you would only say it to someone of intimacy with you, because if everybody knew it, it would ruin the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: Or it would blow what you're going to do.
SPEAKER_01: You might call it a surprise party.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever done a surprise party?
SPEAKER_01: You know, everybody's either been a part of one or it had it done to you.
SPEAKER_01: And usually people who have it done to them don't like it until they're in it, and then it's kind of cool because it just shocks them.
SPEAKER_01: But you don't want people to know, and so there's a plan.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what's happening in the book of Revelation Jesus is giving us his plan.
SPEAKER_01: He's about to throw a party, a beautiful party for the church of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it's going to be horrible for those who do not have a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what it is, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: Be prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time to share our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time to tell our friends about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a day when it is absolutely too late.
SPEAKER_01: When things have moved along to such a degree it's too late or we're not here.
SPEAKER_01: And I haven't even started downloading the perspective of the rapture.
SPEAKER_01: But there will be a day when the gig is up.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's giving us this beautiful letter, this powerful letter of the beauty of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And don't miss this, what I'm about to say next.
SPEAKER_01: That men and women, we're going into the second week of January, this week of impact.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even like Marks and I've been talking about some of the staff and I've been talking about, we don't have a theme yet.
SPEAKER_01: But during this week, we do it every year.
SPEAKER_01: We come together.
SPEAKER_01: And do you realize in that week the next week is the inauguration of a new president?
SPEAKER_01: It's either going to be President Trump or President Clinton.
SPEAKER_01: And I guarantee you, there's fear on both sides of that equation.
SPEAKER_01: And uncertainty, right?
SPEAKER_01: The markets are talking about it right now all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: Tons of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to go into January with tremendous uncertainty about our nation and maybe about your 401k and about your life and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you what, we have got to stay focused, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: We have got to stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: You have got to keep your eye on the ball.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to walk in these latter days so close to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because as we're walking in truth, there is a security and a peace and even a joy and a power that comes through him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is your friend.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we study Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: So if you turn now to Revelation chapter 6, we are in the seven seals.
SPEAKER_01: We started it actually two weeks ago because we had the worship and prayer interruption last week.
SPEAKER_01: Opening of the fifth seal, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
SPEAKER_01: This is a glimpse into the greatest evangelistic outreach the world has ever seen will be happening in these latter days, and the greatest persecution that the church has ever seen.
SPEAKER_01: I happen to believe, much to the chagrin of some of my dispensational brothers, and I'm a dispensationalist too.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a reformed dispensationalist.
SPEAKER_01: That we'll go through some of this.
SPEAKER_01: We may go through a lot of this before we're raptured out.
SPEAKER_01: And that we will be a part and we will at least see the beginnings of, I don't believe we're going to see the entire wrath of God by any means, but I believe we're going to see the beginnings of the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're in it right now, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: As I said last week, the candidates we have for president are the discipline of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't believe it's the judgment of the Lord, but I believe it's the discipline of the Lord, and God disciplines those he loves.
SPEAKER_01: And so there is this outpouring of persecution upon those who love the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I brought up here this morning my Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This is my study Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This is the one I read almost every morning.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and this is my journal.
SPEAKER_01: And we talk about PB and J around here, prayer Bible journal.
SPEAKER_01: P B and J, not peanut butter and jelly.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer, Bible, and journal.
SPEAKER_01: And I have a super cool journal.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: Even got the Worshiper and Warrior brand that Ryan put on it.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to challenge you that as we move into these days where there's uncertainty at every front, there's uncertainty in your job, there's uncertainty in your family, there may be uncertainty in your marriage.
SPEAKER_01: You may be single, and there's uncertainty in your singleness.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are being devastated by physical issues in your life.
SPEAKER_01: To be in God's word and to be going through that.
SPEAKER_01: Follow our PBJ journal.
SPEAKER_01: It's right there on the website.
SPEAKER_01: It's right there in that.
SPEAKER_01: You can read that.
SPEAKER_01: If not, may God lead you to a book and just read a chapter a day and let God speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: And that intimacy and that love and that passion for Christ will only grow as you put in the time with Him.
SPEAKER_01: And so in these latter days, there's going to be martyrs.
SPEAKER_01: Man, that's the way I want to go.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I'd rather be martyred for my faith any day than on some machine.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you know, I what a great way to go.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, arrow through the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I don't know, maybe they'll be into electric chairs for Christians.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But let's get it done.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just do it.
SPEAKER_01: Preaching the word.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, up here in the pulpit, that'd be a great place too.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the deal: you're gonna have Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary that comes to the family reunions and hates every time you talk about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There won't be Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary opportunities anymore.
SPEAKER_01: This is our time, church.
SPEAKER_01: This is our time to share our faith.
SPEAKER_01: You know, listen, I were we were up early this morning praying and we were praying about different things, and we were both saying, you know, I think the hardest part for us as Americans is how easy it's been.
SPEAKER_01: It's always been easy.
SPEAKER_01: And we've lived long enough to remember just how easy it was.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you if you talked about going to church or things like that, I mean, it wasn't a big deal, but it's increasingly different now.
SPEAKER_01: And as you talk about the Lord, there's pressures.
SPEAKER_01: And you're seeing your freedoms in some cases taken away.
SPEAKER_01: I was just in a conversation with a young man here who's at UCCS.
SPEAKER_01: He's here for the first time this morning, and he's he's the head of a group called Chi Alpha.
SPEAKER_01: Called Chi Alpha.
SPEAKER_01: They had to go to court in California because the school that that Chi Alpha was at, which was on 500 campuses now, they were told that you couldn't say that the leaders of a Christian fraternity, Chi Alpha, had to be a Christian to be a leader in the group.
SPEAKER_01: Well, they won, but that's increasingly the funnel we're walking in, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's disconcerting.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what we're reading now is like exponential.
SPEAKER_01: This is where things are going.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to what the martyrs under the altar say to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And John gets to eavesdrop in this vision.
SPEAKER_01: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, earth dwellers or those who dwell on the earth, always in Revelation refers to those who are unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: And this is different.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: They're not saying, Oh Lord, shower down mercy and love upon the earth for the fulfilling of the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_01: This is different now.
SPEAKER_01: They're actually praying, God, judge and avenge our blood.
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation 6.8, we read, So I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and the name of him who sat on it was death, and Hades followed with him, and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, to kill with hunger, with death, and by the beast of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So there is this sword of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: There's this sword coming from government to kill believers.
SPEAKER_01: And now there's a different viewpoint.
SPEAKER_01: Church, there's a different viewpoint by those who have been killed, and it's one of avenge.
SPEAKER_01: So, so hear what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: This is, we are in the age of grace and mercy and love.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the age of grace and mercy and love.
SPEAKER_01: And we when we are in a conversation with those who don't have a relationship with Christ, love them.
SPEAKER_01: Have relationship of mercy and grace.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a day coming when it will be judgment time.
SPEAKER_01: You in this room who you're not sure about your relationship with Christ, you're not sure where you stand with Christ, I hope your heart shudders a little bit because the reality is you're now in the you're in the age of grace.
SPEAKER_01: But that age of grace will come to an end, and the vengeance of the Lord will come forth.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, though, from another perspective, what we see in the viewpoint of the martyrs at the altar about our soul's destiny.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have heard of soul sleep?
SPEAKER_01: How many anybody heard of soul sleep?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, soul sleep has been a popular idea in the church.
SPEAKER_01: The idea that when you die, you basically fall asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to let you know, these people are not asleep.
SPEAKER_01: They are very, very awake.
SPEAKER_01: And the scriptures are clear.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says that he would depart and leave this body and be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In 1 Kings 17, the prophet Elijah and the widow's son, remember, he prays three times, and it says in Scripture, the soul came back into the boy's body.
SPEAKER_01: No mention of sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to the thief at the cross, you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: Today, you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: So we see a glimpse of eternity and what it's going to be like, and that when we die, men and women, we will be in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be fully engaged.
SPEAKER_01: It appears actually here that we can see what's happening on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you I mean, it seems as though our relatives, those around us, good friends of ours that have passed away, they see and they notice in some kind of mystical way what's going on on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And it appears, and we're going to see this in Revelation, about the incense, the bowls of incense are the prayers of the saints that they're actually praying.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, here they're crying out to God to avenge their blood.
SPEAKER_01: But how exciting that those that have gone before us are praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: They're praying for our grandchildren, they're praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord hears those prayers.
SPEAKER_01: They see what's going on, they can see.
SPEAKER_01: They're not asleep.
SPEAKER_01: There's no such thing as soul sleep.
SPEAKER_01: It's a weird doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: They're very awake.
SPEAKER_01: It's called soul awake.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, their soul is awake.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're born again, that's what you have to look forward to.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're not, as I said to you a few weeks ago, this is as good as it gets for you.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't get any better than what you have here because it's only going to get worse.
SPEAKER_01: But for the believer, this is as bad as it gets.
SPEAKER_01: It's only gonna get better.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you have been through horrendous stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I know your stories and the pain and the agony, and you grew up in families that were just a mess.
SPEAKER_01: And and you are you are making it.
SPEAKER_01: You are figuring it out in Christ, and it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna get better.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna get to heaven, you're gonna be saved, you're gonna be in the presence of the Lord, we're gonna be in the presence of all our friends who know the Lord, and we're gonna get our bodies back, and they're gonna be 30 years old.
SPEAKER_01: No, 29 years old.
SPEAKER_01: I said that wrong.
SPEAKER_01: 29 years old.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know about that part, but but you're, you know, we are going to hug each other.
SPEAKER_01: We will have bodies.
SPEAKER_01: There'll be a new, recreated heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I love living in Colorado.
SPEAKER_01: It's the closest thing to heaven in my mind anywhere, bro.
SPEAKER_01: You know, this is great.
SPEAKER_01: But it's gonna be way better.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't get any worse than this for the believer.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't get any better for the unbeliever.
SPEAKER_01: So get saved today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today and we're getting we're gonna take communion and go into worship, come to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Come up to some of us and say, I want to receive Christ, and we'll lead you in the same prayer that we prayed for me when I was 18 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Gave my heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That began the wonderful journey.
SPEAKER_01: I was born again.
SPEAKER_01: I was reborn spiritually in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Then a white robe was given to each one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were, was completed.
SPEAKER_01: So even in this horrific tribulation period, and I don't believe this is actually the tribulation period, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in this period leading up to the tribulation, because when we get to the tribulation, I mean that it this is like on this persecution's on steroids.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so at this point, as we're leading up with the birth pangs of the coming of the Lord, he's saying to us that there's actually a number.
SPEAKER_01: So God's still in control, even in these horrendous times.
SPEAKER_01: And he's actually got a number before he makes his move.
SPEAKER_01: I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a literal earthquake on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: There's three great earthquakes in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And we're seeing the birth pangs of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: From 1900 to 1910, there were three earthquakes globally over 6.0 on the Richter scale.
SPEAKER_01: So what I'm about to read to you is all over, it's either 6.0 on the Richter scale or above that.
SPEAKER_01: And you could triple this if we went 5.0, but I'm just talking about 6.0.
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of randomly chose that.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I chose it is because around 6.0 is when you really have damage.
SPEAKER_01: 1910 to 1920, there were two.
SPEAKER_01: 1920 to 1930, there were two.
SPEAKER_01: 1930 to 1940, there were five.
SPEAKER_01: 1940 to 1950, there were four.
SPEAKER_01: 1950 to 1960 there were nine.
SPEAKER_01: 1960 to 1970, there were 13.
SPEAKER_01: 1970 to 1979, there were 51.
SPEAKER_01: 1980s, there were 86.
SPEAKER_01: From 1991 to 1996, only five years, there were over a hundred killer quakes over 6.0 on the Richter scale.
SPEAKER_01: And since 1996 to 2014, there have been 188 earthquakes over six on the Richter scale, and you could just about double, almost triple that if you went 5.0.
SPEAKER_01: More people have died of earthquakes in the last 10 years than any other natural disaster.
SPEAKER_01: These are the birth pangs of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 24, that's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: He called them birth pangs.
SPEAKER_01: This election's birth pangs.
SPEAKER_01: You can say earthquakes are the Braxton hicks of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There is a birth coming.
SPEAKER_01: This, I believe this is such a pivotal time in history, church, to be sharing our faith, to be not afraid of men, to stand for goodness and love and mercy, and to share of your relationship with Christ to others.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this means a lot to me because my aunt in South Carolina had a fig tree.
SPEAKER_01: Big fig tree.
SPEAKER_01: Huge, shady fig tree in her backyard.
SPEAKER_01: And I can just remember it like it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: Walking back there through their detached garage, and I go through and just the smell of the figs and just seeing all the ripe figs on the ground all around.
SPEAKER_01: Saying that the stars of the sky are going to be falling from the sky.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys realize that for you that are scientists, and we have a lot of we have a lot of scientists here and researchers and analysts here at the road, do you realize the earth wobbles about every seven to eleven years?
SPEAKER_01: Now you don't feel it, but they they have instruments, you have instruments to be able to pick that up.
SPEAKER_01: And so every seven to eleven years, the earth wobbles.
SPEAKER_01: And Chuck Mitzler, when he was branch chief of the guided missile department for the Air Force, said that they decided that if 25 to 40 nuclear missiles were detonated at the same time, it would actually alter the rotation of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly, if an asteroid hit the earth, it would have an impact upon, at least briefly, the rotation of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: In Winslow, Arizona, we have this incredible crater.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this crater.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been to it.
SPEAKER_01: You've told me about it.
SPEAKER_01: They believe it's an asteroid crater that in times immemorial, an asteroid hit.
SPEAKER_01: This crater is 600 feet deep, a mile wide, and the earth, when it hit, kicked up the earth around it 130 feet burns on the edges of this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine hundreds coming all at once?
SPEAKER_01: That seems to be a picture of something about the stars of heaven falling to the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've seen the pictures of the nuclear blast with the Bikini Islands, it looks like a scroll being rolled up.
SPEAKER_01: When Krakata, I'm probably not saying this right.
SPEAKER_01: It almost looks like Japanese to me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it.
SPEAKER_01: Krakotawa in 1883 exploded the island in the South Pacific, Krakotawa.
SPEAKER_01: It was heard, now this is in 1883, it was heard over 3,000 miles away.
SPEAKER_01: That would be like hearing a blast in New York City that we would hear here in Colorado.
SPEAKER_01: It changed the tides of the ocean for 1,700 miles.
SPEAKER_01: This is going to be horrendous changes on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a pervading fear rippling through the church.
SPEAKER_01: There will be prevailing fear rippling through our politicians.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: It won't matter how big your bank account is.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what John says next.
SPEAKER_01: And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, this is how deep their faith will be.
SPEAKER_01: They're talking to mountains and rocks.
SPEAKER_01: God, Almighty, sovereign God, is doing this, and the kings and the prime ministers and the wealthy and the billionaires are crying out to rocks.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't help but say that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I read that and I went, what?
SPEAKER_01: Fall on us and hide us from the face of him.
SPEAKER_01: They know it's God, but they still don't cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?
SPEAKER_01: Presidents, diplomats, rulers, military generals, billionaires, confused, fearful, praying to rocks.
SPEAKER_01: No station in life, no position, no power will be able to save them.
SPEAKER_01: There will be no advantage to anyone from the highest to the lowest.
SPEAKER_01: Vance Havner has said that the most expensive real estate at this time will be a hole in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Great leaders begging for their death, terror in their hearts for those who have not accepted him.
SPEAKER_01: But not repentant, not repentant, praying to rocks.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says, he who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Never does it say, he who calls on Krishna, he who calls on a crystal, he who calls on trees and rocks shall be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Yet that's exactly what the scriptures say they're doing.
SPEAKER_01: Have you made your peace with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room are carrying such angst toward God because of the pain of the past.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say Jesus loves you, He cares about you, and He saw you in that most difficult hour.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was sexual molestation.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the death of a father or a mother at an early age.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the pain of loneliness.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it's probably could be said, and I know Billy Graham said it many years ago, that the greatest disease in our nation is loneliness.
SPEAKER_01: Mother Teresa said when she came to the United States to speak to a joint session of Congress, said, I've never been in a more lonely nation than the United States of America.
SPEAKER_01: And having lived around the world and been in many third world nations myself, it is true that just looking at our neighborhoods that we think are kind of cool and beautiful, the reality is they actually represent with our independence a lack of any relationships.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you go to most parts of the world and everybody's just kind of crammed together.
SPEAKER_01: And you oh, we'd never live there.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a beauty to it.
SPEAKER_01: There's a beauty to it.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember loving being in Tokyo when we lived in Tokyo those years, and then later in Okinawa, how you just see all your neighbors when we go to eat, because there's these, all the shops are right there, you'd see each other.
SPEAKER_01: There was a sense of community.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have that.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe we should have that.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's right here.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you should be at church.
SPEAKER_01: We have good donuts too.
SPEAKER_01: But to come and have relationships, most of us are very, very lonely.
SPEAKER_01: And I say to you, come to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Begin a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Open up your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Pray to receive Christ into your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Open the door.
SPEAKER_01: He knocks at that door.
SPEAKER_01: And that begins the love relationship where we won't be walking in fear.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think we're going to be walking in fear.
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of excited about this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And kind of in a weird way, it means to me that I'm going to soon be with Christ in eternity where there's no more sorrow, there's no more tears, and there's no more pain.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have this thing going on with Jesus wherein we have an intimacy with everybody around us.
SPEAKER_01: And I know it's hard, I mean, it's really hard for us to understand, but the reality is, is we're going to be with Him and all the things that your heart longs for.
SPEAKER_01: You see, our hearts long for stuff right now that we just never seem to quite experience.
SPEAKER_01: And you get glimpses of it when someone listens to you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're sharing something, and something within you feels security when someone listens to us.
SPEAKER_01: What is that?
SPEAKER_01: That was put in you by the Lord Jesus Christ because He will always fulfill that in the next life.
SPEAKER_01: That awesome! No more sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: No more tears.
SPEAKER_01: So come to Christ.
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 the road.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.