SPEAKER_00: It's time now for the rope with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the patience of God is the long-suffering of God for us to have time to repent.
SPEAKER_01: Because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't repent, he's coming.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming and he can sweep it all away.
SPEAKER_01: In a moment in time.
SPEAKER_01: Repent tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Get right with Jesus tonight.
SPEAKER_01: It's what you've always longed for.
SPEAKER_01: Have a personal, intimate.
SPEAKER_01: Relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: Steve is the head pastor of The Road in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
SPEAKER_00: It's our vision to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the area, we meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Harleman Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to our website at theroad.org for service times.
SPEAKER_00: That's thheroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: Here now with today's message is Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.
SPEAKER_01: So we are at the end of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: This is our last message on Joel.
SPEAKER_01: Then we're going to go into Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We're in chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: Last week Victor spoke on the great harvest in his entertaining way.
SPEAKER_01: I thought he was the best to do that because he is a Capital E evangelist.
SPEAKER_01: And if anybody's got a heart for evangelism, it's Victor Marks.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought he did a great job.
SPEAKER_01: But as we go into chapter three, we're actually looking at the last days of the last days.
SPEAKER_01: As I said before, I feel like that the book of Joel is a cliff's notes for the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: It's a preface to the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually kind of a generic look at the entire book of Revelation, just in the book of Joel, and we call it the marks of the last days church.
SPEAKER_01: And so we start at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Remember in chapter one, the locusts devouring the land.
SPEAKER_01: And we talked about demonic activity devouring our nation right now.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about the devouring hordes of rising demonic power across the globe.
SPEAKER_01: And that what God's doing is he's allowing the enemy, the restrainer is being lifted, as it talks about in Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_01: The restrainer is being lifted, and there's going to be greater, more intense demonic activity than the world has ever known before.
SPEAKER_01: Simultaneously, in those that are allowing the Holy Spirit to fill them, those that are that are word-rooted people, the power of the Holy Spirit is going to rise in the latter days.
SPEAKER_01: And so we looked at the marks of the last days church.
SPEAKER_01: And so we did week after week in dealing with those aspects of what are those marks of churches that God's going to mightily use.
SPEAKER_01: So now, and you can go online and listen to those, but as we close, we come to this part of Joel that's really unique.
SPEAKER_01: And for those that hate Israel, this is really a bad chapter for you.
SPEAKER_01: Because uh, because God is going to raise up Israel in the latter days and he's going to save a nation.
SPEAKER_01: And so in chapter three, we're actually going to be looking at probably Armageddon.
SPEAKER_01: This is a preface to and a summation of Armageddon.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: Someone once said this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where I heard.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was one of the times when I was in Israel, probably one of our guides said this.
SPEAKER_01: If we are God's chosen people, we wouldn't mind if he would choose someone else.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is because Israel has been through so much difficulty and so much tragedy and so much war throughout their history.
SPEAKER_01: There's a Jewish proverb that says, No misfortune avoids a Jew.
SPEAKER_01: And so in chapter three, what we're seeing is we're seeing what God's heart is in the latter days for Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles or look on your app at chapter 3, verse 1 of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: For behold, in those days, and now he's talking about the harvest, the end times harvest that we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_01: For behold, in those days, and at that time, when I bring back, listen, the captives of Judah and Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: And I was listening to a lecture by Joel Rosenberg, who's a completed Jew.
SPEAKER_01: Here's it, you know, he's written all the end times books, and and uh and Joel has spoken at one of my churches before.
SPEAKER_01: And Joel's a great guy, but he's Jewish.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this as Gentiles reading the book of Joel, that it is clearly a Jewish book.
SPEAKER_01: That this is a book of encouragement to Jews, that God is going to, in the latter days, bring the Jews back to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: I will also gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: And I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people, my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: They have also divided up my land.
SPEAKER_01: In the latter days, church, there is going to be a work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: God's going to be bringing the Jews back to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: We see that beginning in 1946, 47, and 48, becoming a nation.
SPEAKER_01: We could go through the history of what God's done in that period of time, which is just flat amazing, with the wars and the victories of Israel, surrounded by enemies on every side.
SPEAKER_01: Just amazing stories.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll go into it when we get into Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is God's gonna bring back the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: We've already seen that happen.
SPEAKER_01: But there's also gonna be this spiritual outpouring.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not just a physicality of God bringing Israel back.
SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna recognize the Messiah Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna recognize the Messiah Jesus, even as God is gathering the other nations into this valley of decision, this valley of Jehosaphat.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, who, if anybody could have begun to get bitter about his own people, it would have been Paul, just beaten times without number, on the run, you know, top 10 most wanted for the Mossad, it was probably Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and yet he said in Romans, there's a day coming, as he prophesied this in Romans chapter 11, there's a day coming where God is going to save Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to save Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 11, 25.
SPEAKER_01: For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery.
SPEAKER_01: And it is a mystery, it's really an enigma, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that for now a blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, we are the fullness of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: We are the fruit of the fullness of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And so all Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: For this is my covenant with them, meaning Israel, when I take away their sins.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what does he mean by the fullness of the Gentiles?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a whole nother discussion.
SPEAKER_01: That's a two-hour discussion, but let me just say this in brief.
SPEAKER_01: What it means is it appears in Scripture, prophetically, that there's a point where God, in his economy and in his strategy and plan for the latter days, there will be a fullness.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a fullness of what he wants to do in the Gentile nations, and then he's going to turn toward Israel, and he's going to start a work there.
SPEAKER_01: And it is going to be an end-times revival.
SPEAKER_01: And you can imagine just from looking at the Apostle Paul as an example, and the and the 11 of the 12 apostles who died martyrs' death.
SPEAKER_01: You get a Jew on fire for anything, and you better get out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: You better get out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's going to be this revival among, there's going to be 144,000 Jewish evangelists, not Jehovah's Witnesses, by the way, that are going to be used mightily by God.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to cover that more when we get into Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jeremiah prophesied of that day.
SPEAKER_01: In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: So this banner over the Israeli nation, this banner over the Jewish people, will be the Lord our righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Joel's prophesying that.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, what have you to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the coast of Philistine?
SPEAKER_01: Will you retaliate against me?
SPEAKER_01: But if you retaliate against me swiftly and speedily, I will return your retaliation upon your own head.
SPEAKER_01: This is a judgment upon the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have taken my silver and my gold.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's interesting how possessive God is over his people.
SPEAKER_01: He calls them my people.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys realize you're his people?
SPEAKER_01: That God, God is really zealous for you.
SPEAKER_01: He's really zealous for your family.
SPEAKER_01: He's zealous for your kids.
SPEAKER_01: He's zealous for your grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: He's zealous for your home.
SPEAKER_01: He loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to fight for you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to protect you.
SPEAKER_01: You and I are his people right now.
SPEAKER_01: He's zealous about that.
SPEAKER_01: Believe that.
SPEAKER_01: Trust that.
SPEAKER_01: Fight for that.
SPEAKER_01: When you go into prayer because you've got a son or a daughter that's messing up, when you go into prayer about your finances because you're struggling, God is for you.
SPEAKER_01: He's ready to battle for you.
SPEAKER_01: He's ready to take his spirit and his angels and move you forward.
SPEAKER_01: Believe him for that.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when we were beginning, we were beginning Joel in chapter one, and we were talking about the locusts coming over the land, and we were talking about the locust on the church and America and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to you, the number one tragedy, the number one issue, the number one sin in America is not pornography, and it's not sex and it's not abortion.
SPEAKER_01: It is unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelief in the church.
SPEAKER_01: That we believe God for what he can do through our lives and the miracles that could be happening in our lives if we just trust him and believe us.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading this and I'm going, wow, he's saying it.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking this about Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Your gold and silver is my gold and silver.
SPEAKER_01: You guys know your bank accounts, those are God's bank accounts.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to protect them.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to see you flourish.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to see you use your time wisely.
SPEAKER_01: He gave you talents.
SPEAKER_01: Allie's my assistant now.
SPEAKER_01: And she sent me this little thing.
SPEAKER_01: She's always sending me stuff now.
SPEAKER_01: I get all kinds of stuff now from Allie.
SPEAKER_01: But she said she sent me this thing on personality tests.
SPEAKER_01: And it's, I think it was called 16personalities.com or something.
SPEAKER_01: So I just clicked on it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's only 50 questions.
SPEAKER_01: I can dig that.
SPEAKER_01: I've done FIRO B and Anderson C and all these different personality tests.
SPEAKER_01: And there's like 300 questions.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time for that.
SPEAKER_01: Like the lady on YouTube ain't got no time for that.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I just don't have time.
SPEAKER_01: But this is 50 questions, so I did it, you know.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is God gave you a personality, and he gave you talents and gifts, and it was to flourish.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he said, some have been given five talents, some have been given two, and some have been given one.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants us to multiply those gifts and talents that he's given to us.
SPEAKER_01: You're his child.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just see it right here.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about Israel, but he's really talking about us because we're children of God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Because you've taken my silver and my gold, and you have carried them into your temples and my prizessions, verse six.
SPEAKER_01: Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, you have sold to the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their borders, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I will raise them out of the place to which you have sold them, and will return your retaliation upon your own head.
SPEAKER_01: I will sell your sons and daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabians, to a people far off, for the Lord has spoken.
SPEAKER_01: Justice is coming, church.
SPEAKER_01: Justice is coming to those who have been oppressed, those who have been persecuted, those who have been ripped off, those that have been sold into sex slavery, those that have seen their land stolen from them, those that are refugees, those who are on the run that nobody on this earth cares about, God sees them.
SPEAKER_01: And if they'll turn and they'll turn away from Allah, and they'll turn to Jesus Christ, who's their Lord and Savior, and He becomes their Father, and He becomes their protector, and He becomes their mighty one, justice is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Justice is coming.
SPEAKER_01: We may not see it in our lifetime, church, if the Lord tarries.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a day coming when justice will be done.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to study in Revelation the martyrs, the martyrs weeping at the altar before the Lord for justice on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord says, It's coming.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's speaking of.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming, that day is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And those nations that have persecuted the Jews will be held accountable.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14 talks about the valley of decision, Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: The valley of Jehoshaphat is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible but here.
SPEAKER_01: Jehoshaphat means the Lord judges.
SPEAKER_01: And this is probably symbolic of the plain of Estra Elon.
SPEAKER_01: Estra Elon.
SPEAKER_01: Estra Elon is the plains of Megiddo.
SPEAKER_01: It's where many of the great ancient battles were fought, and it is known in Revelation as Armageddon.
SPEAKER_01: Joel mentions the sins that have been committed against Israel, scattering them among the nations, selling them into slavery, treating them like cheap merchandise for which people have cast lots, plundering their land and stealing their wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And we could go on and on with the travesties and the injustices against the Jews and against believers who are God's people.
SPEAKER_01: God is going to bring justice.
SPEAKER_01: If he doesn't judge evil, he's a good God.
SPEAKER_01: And he's going to judge evil.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women, according to the faithfulness of your own life, you're going to be rewarded.
SPEAKER_01: One of the joys of being with Ruth before she died was reading the book Heaven to Her by Randy Alcorn.
SPEAKER_01: And I've read it before, but I read it again.
SPEAKER_01: Parts of it.
SPEAKER_01: And it seemed like she always fell asleep.
SPEAKER_01: So, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm like reading it, and it's like, and I remember, I think it was Charity said, Dad, she's asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And I go, I know, but I'm really into it, you know.
SPEAKER_01: So I would like to dig it.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if she heard much, but she's now experiencing, so it doesn't matter anyway.
SPEAKER_01: But it's like I'm reading it and I'm like, oh, this is so good.
SPEAKER_01: And I would highly recommend it to any of you, Randy Alcorn's book on heaven.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a theological tome on heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Best book on heaven I've ever read.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, aren't that many books on heaven?
SPEAKER_01: There's probably more books on hell than there is on heaven, which is sad.
SPEAKER_01: But but the thing that he really reminds you of in that book is you're gonna be rewarded.
SPEAKER_01: It's really clear.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: This is what's cool.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation talks a lot about that.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna, I mean, I'm reading it, and he's got all these passages in Revelation going, oh, I'm going into Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: This is great.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like folding pages and underlining parts and putting checks by them.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta look this up.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's gonna be an exciting time this next year because what you see about heaven is that you're not gonna, we're not gonna be doing little harps on clouds, gang.
SPEAKER_01: I know for all the men in this room that breaks your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because I watch you and it's really hard to sing, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just all guys like we all struggle with singing, except the guys that are up here.
SPEAKER_01: But all the rest are like, ugh, uh.
SPEAKER_01: You know, unless it's you know, Bachman Turner Overdrive driving down the road.
SPEAKER_01: Or the Allman brothers.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, that's another subject.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is this you're not gonna be singing on little clouds with little harps on and everything.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it appears in numerous passages that we are going to get work to do in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get land, we're gonna get kingdoms according to how we ruled and how we reigned on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So our reigning and ruling here will be rewarded with more reigning and ruling there.
SPEAKER_01: I remember I told this to a guy one time and he said, I don't want to reign and rule, I want to rest.
SPEAKER_01: I said, dude, then you're going to the wrong place because we're gonna be reigning and ruling.
SPEAKER_01: But it'll be cool.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be resting as you do it.
SPEAKER_01: It'll be according to your talents and your skills.
SPEAKER_01: So don't waste your life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't waste your life sitting around.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna be held accountable for you while you sat around a lot, you know.
SPEAKER_01: You get the washroom.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and this little dude comes up and he was just faithful with what God had given him to do.
SPEAKER_01: He's always serving us and lasting blood.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you get you get Argentina, dude.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you got Argentina.
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
SPEAKER_01: So Joel is pronouncing prepare for judgment nations.
SPEAKER_01: Get ready.
SPEAKER_01: Prepare for judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Now he says, prepare for war.
SPEAKER_01: And so here he begins to take us into sort of an introduction, I believe, into the battle of Armageddon.
SPEAKER_01: Prepare for war.
SPEAKER_01: Wake up the mighty men.
SPEAKER_01: Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_01: That's the opposite of what Isaiah says because we sometimes mix it up.
SPEAKER_01: That you know, the United Nations has the Isaiah passage, which is the opposite of this, inscribed on the building of the United Nations.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what, gang?
SPEAKER_01: It's never going to happen on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's the millennial kingdom when that comes.
SPEAKER_01: So it's only gonna get more and more scary for those who don't.
SPEAKER_01: Know the last chapter.
SPEAKER_01: It's this is what I believe.
SPEAKER_01: It's more and more exciting for those that are reading God's intelligence briefing called the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's exciting stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Beat your plowshares into swords, your pruning hooks into spears.
SPEAKER_01: Let the weak say, I am strong.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand if you felt weak this week.
SPEAKER_01: You felt weak sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, I want everybody together.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost everybody in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Let's all say, I am strong.
SPEAKER_01: One, two, three.
SPEAKER_01: Let's say it again.
SPEAKER_01: I am strong.
SPEAKER_01: You are.
SPEAKER_01: And when you proclaim that, you're saying you're strong in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around, because you're mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let the nations be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the valley of judgment, the valley of decision.
SPEAKER_01: For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
SPEAKER_01: Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
SPEAKER_01: Come, go down.
SPEAKER_01: For the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
SPEAKER_01: Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.
SPEAKER_01: For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
SPEAKER_01: The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness.
SPEAKER_01: This is the battle of Armageddon.
SPEAKER_01: This is the last great battle, the assembling of all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: So God is actually calling forth the unrighteous judgment of the nations by actually telling their men of war to get ready to fight.
SPEAKER_01: So God is actually letting the demon speak, but he's speaking because it's all according to his plan.
SPEAKER_01: He's actually working out his plan as they surround the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: For more detail, you can look at Zechariah 12 through 14.
SPEAKER_01: But the nations are gathering around Israel from the north, the south, the east, and the west.
SPEAKER_01: Joel compares this great battle to something like a harvest field.
SPEAKER_01: You see this imagery in Revelation chapter 14, where he compares the final days as like a sickle reaping a harvest.
SPEAKER_01: You see this in Matthew 24.
SPEAKER_01: You see this in Mark 13.
SPEAKER_01: You see this in Luke 21, where Jesus predicts his coming, the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He prophesies what it's going to be like, and he gives us a glimpse with even more detail about what those days will be like.
SPEAKER_01: But he says that there'll actually be not only the nations gathering against Israel, but also there'll be environmental terrors and environmental signs and wonders happening.
SPEAKER_01: We've already talked about this weeks ago, and you can go back and listen to the tapes about blood moons and the lunar eclipses and all the stuff that's beginning to happen like regularly, wasn't happening before.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know about you, but I like watching the news, and so I watch the news, and it's it's getting to be like weekly, where I think it was more like annually.
SPEAKER_01: I hear some incredible catastrophe environmentally happening.
SPEAKER_01: Crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And you can just see these scientists that they interview, they don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: They don't understand where all this stuff is happening.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, yes, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: This is the the this these are birth pangs.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus called it.
SPEAKER_01: These are birth pangs, these are labor pains.
SPEAKER_01: All you women that have had babies, you know, you you start feeling that kick and you start feeling that pressure, and everything starts to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You get excited.
SPEAKER_01: Your husband doesn't, but you do.
SPEAKER_01: Because all the husband thinks about is, uh, is it time?
SPEAKER_01: Should we go now?
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I just filled up the tank.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: We're just we're just weirdos, and we're just like, until you've had like seven.
SPEAKER_01: And then it's not a big deal anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, well, just let me know.
SPEAKER_01: I want to finish watching this program, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But but you know, it's like that you as a woman, you as a mother, you're just so excited because you know that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: The pain is a good thing because something's being birthed, it's beautiful, it's wonderful, and it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: The whole earth is like pregnant right now with the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And it's birth pangs, and the newscasters don't know what to do, and the politicians don't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody gets it, but we do.
SPEAKER_01: Because we we're getting an intelligence briefing every day when we're in God's word about what he's up to.
SPEAKER_01: So Joel says, nations prepare for judgment, nations prepare for war, and now he says, nations prepare for defeat.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Lord also will roar from Zion.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I call it tonight, the lion's roar.
SPEAKER_01: The lion's roar.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody go see Revelent?
SPEAKER_01: The movie Revelent?
SPEAKER_01: A bunch of us guys did.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of a guy movie.
SPEAKER_01: Liz said she wanted to go.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, you don't want to go.
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, there's that scene, you know.
SPEAKER_01: So Leonardo DiCaprio is the wilderness guy and everything.
SPEAKER_01: Hugh.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Hugh Glass.
SPEAKER_01: True story.
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, when you see that lion, it's not a lion, it's a bear, but it's kind of similar, just roaring and just and then boom on top of him.
SPEAKER_01: This is a lion's roar coming from Zion.
SPEAKER_01: And utter his voice from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: The heavens and the earth will shake.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord will be a shelter for his people.
SPEAKER_01: And the strength of the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: You guys remember that part in the lion, the witch, in the wardrobe?
SPEAKER_01: And uh the kid, Susan, she don't understand who Aslan is.
SPEAKER_01: So, Aslan is a lion.
SPEAKER_01: The lion.
SPEAKER_01: The great lion.
SPEAKER_01: Ooh, said Susan.
SPEAKER_01: I thought he was a man.
SPEAKER_01: Is he quite safe?
SPEAKER_01: I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.
SPEAKER_01: Safe?
SPEAKER_01: said Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Beaver.
SPEAKER_01: Who said anything about safe?
SPEAKER_01: Of course he isn't safe.
SPEAKER_01: But he's good.
SPEAKER_01: He's the king, I tell you.
SPEAKER_01: The roar of the Lion of Judah is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And whether we're up there or down here, everyone will hear it.
SPEAKER_01: All over the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Even the UFO guys, they will hear it.
SPEAKER_01: The roar of the lion is coming.
SPEAKER_01: John's apocalypse describes it best.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 19.
SPEAKER_01: Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and he makes war.
SPEAKER_01: His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
SPEAKER_01: He had a name written that no one knew except himself.
SPEAKER_01: He was clothed a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.
SPEAKER_01: Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, and that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron.
SPEAKER_01: He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_01: And he has on his robe and on his thigh.
SPEAKER_01: So he's tattooed.
SPEAKER_01: On his thigh was written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Lion of Judah coming, dipped in blood with a sword on a white horse on the plain of Estrelon.
SPEAKER_01: Megiddo.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 16, 16 mentions the name Armageddon.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 16 informs us that Satan, through his demonic powers, gathers all the nations together to fight against God and Israel at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: But the invasion fails because Jesus returns in glory and power and slaughters the enemies of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's a fierce lion.
SPEAKER_01: Church, don't mess around with God.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got secret sins, if you've got stuff you're messing around with, if you're in an affair, if you're embezzling money, if you're lying and cheating, he knows.
SPEAKER_01: And don't take the long-suffering and the patience of God as his blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Or him not acknowledging that he knows what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the patience of God is the long-suffering of God for us to have time to repent.
SPEAKER_01: Because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't repent, he's coming.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming and he can sweep it all away in a moment in time.
SPEAKER_01: Repent tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Get right with Jesus tonight.
SPEAKER_01: It's what you've always longed for.
SPEAKER_01: To have a personal, intimate, fiery relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's where you're the most happy.
SPEAKER_01: It's where you're the most joyful.
SPEAKER_01: It's where you're the most peaceful.
SPEAKER_01: It's where you find solace in all storms that come your way.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's there as your protector, and he becomes the lion of Judah that protects you.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_01: So you shall know that I am the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no alien shall ever pass through her again.
SPEAKER_01: You see, men and women today, the Jews have no temple.
SPEAKER_01: The mosque of Amor is there.
SPEAKER_01: The temple mount is controlled by Muslim nations.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna raise up his temple again.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a beautiful temple there.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 51.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Joy and gladness will be found in it.
SPEAKER_01: Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem, which is called the holy city, eight times in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I call it the holy city.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you call it the holy city.
SPEAKER_01: It will be a holy city someday again.
SPEAKER_01: And it will be like the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: And something's gonna happen there, and God's gonna beautify what has been a wilderness in the latter days.
SPEAKER_01: And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So there has to be a house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a temple, there's gonna be a house of the Lord, and water is gonna flow from it, a fountain.
SPEAKER_01: Water into the valley of the Acacias.
SPEAKER_01: Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of violence against the people of Judah, so the judgment of God upon these nations.
SPEAKER_01: For they have shed innocent blood in their land.
SPEAKER_01: But Judah shall abide forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation, for I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted, for the Lord dwells in Zion.
SPEAKER_01: So this nation of Israel that's been ravaged by drought, ravaged by war, ravaged by locusts, ravaged by demonic activity, ravaged by nations that have controlled it from millennium past.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be suddenly beautiful again.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna come and beautify it, and it's gonna be desolation on the nations that were not supportive of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So they will be a wilderness, and what has been a wilderness will be like the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: And it will be a river flowing, flowing out of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: This river, here's what's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize Jerusalem is one of the only great nations of the world, ancient nations of the world, not modern nations, but one of the only great ancient cities of the world that were not built on a river?
SPEAKER_01: So Rome was built on the Tiber, Nineveh was built on the Tigris, Babylon on the Euphrates, and all the great Egyptian cities on the Nile.
SPEAKER_01: Israel is surrounded by hills and valleys.
SPEAKER_01: So in the latter days, God's gonna have this fountain just come up right there at the temple, boom, it's gonna shoot up, and there's gonna be a river flowing out of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: That's like supernatural stuff, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: That's like really cool.
SPEAKER_01: And like, you know, we'll be we'll be rafting and stuff, and we'll be and we'll be catching like large trout.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You can't catch anything right now, man, in the millennium.
SPEAKER_01: Dude, I mean, you're gonna be catching some 16-inchers like like nothing, you know, with a fly rod.
SPEAKER_01: Like, Moses will tell you what kind of fly to use.
SPEAKER_01: He's really good with flies.
SPEAKER_01: So in the latter days, which is coming, be alert.
SPEAKER_01: Church is to be alert.
SPEAKER_01: C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis writes this.
SPEAKER_01: Precisely because we cannot predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments.
SPEAKER_01: Our Lord repeated this practical conclusion again and again, as if the promise of the return had been made for the sake of this conclusion alone.
SPEAKER_01: Watch.
SPEAKER_01: Watch is the burden of his advice.
SPEAKER_01: I shall come like a thief, he said.
SPEAKER_01: You will not, I most solemnly assure you, you will not see me approaching.
SPEAKER_01: If the householder had known at what time the burglar would arrive, he would have been ready for him.
SPEAKER_01: If the servant had known when his absent employer would come home, he would not have been found drunk in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: I love the logic of C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis.
SPEAKER_01: This is great.
SPEAKER_01: But they didn't, nor will you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, you must be ready at all times.
SPEAKER_01: The point is surely simple enough.
SPEAKER_01: The schoolboy does not know which part of his Virgil lesson he will be made to translate.
SPEAKER_01: That is why he must be prepared to translate any passage.
SPEAKER_01: The sentry does not know at what time an enemy will attack or an officer inspect his post.
SPEAKER_01: That is why he must keep awake at all times.
SPEAKER_01: So, men and women, keep awake.
SPEAKER_01: Stay awake.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I know.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if we're living in the last days, but I know this, every one of you are living in your last days.
SPEAKER_01: And so be alert.
SPEAKER_01: Finish well.
SPEAKER_01: Finish well, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you've been blessed by the message today.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we teach the Word of God verse by verse, scripture by scripture, and precept upon precept.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited about all the things God is doing in the lives of our faithful listeners.
SPEAKER_00: We understand that there are many trials and tribulations in this world, and we'd love to be able to pray for you as you encounter difficult times.
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SPEAKER_00: DO Box 88485, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been blessed by this message, please let us know as well.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the address is The Road.
SPEAKER_00: DO Box 88485, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.
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SPEAKER_00: And be sure to catch us again next time for another edition of The Road with Master Teacher Steve Hope.