SPEAKER_00: It's time now for the rope with Pastor Peter Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Church, it's time for us to be vigilant in the disciplines of the faith and holy habits in our life.
SPEAKER_01: If we're just gonna kick back and just do church, if the enemy's gonna win, devastation is coming.
SPEAKER_01: A warning to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: I believe where much is given, much is expected, even in our city.
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 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to our website at theroad.org for service time.
SPEAKER_00: That's theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: Here now with today's message is Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.
SPEAKER_01: We are in Joel chapter 1, moving into Joel chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: You can go online and pick it up if you've missed the first two messages.
SPEAKER_01: But the theme of Joel is the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And just another way to frame that, you guys, is the Lord's day.
SPEAKER_01: So we think of the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's a day of reckoning, it's a day of judgment coming upon Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Somewhere between 400 and 800 BC, we don't know exactly.
SPEAKER_01: We know very little about Joel.
SPEAKER_01: But in Joel chapter 1, and then in Joel chapter 2, we are seeing an unhuman army assaulting Israel.
SPEAKER_01: God is using an unhuman judgment upon Israel through locusts.
SPEAKER_01: These locusts are coming upon the land.
SPEAKER_01: They're devouring the land.
SPEAKER_01: I described that in greater detail last week.
SPEAKER_01: But I see three unhuman armies of devastation upon America right now.
SPEAKER_01: Invading our nation.
SPEAKER_01: And the first is pornography.
SPEAKER_01: Pornography, men and women, is just invading our nation.
SPEAKER_01: I was just in King Supers doing some marriage, premarriage counseling on Monday, and after the couple left, I always go to the magazine section or the book section.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to see what's out there.
SPEAKER_01: I don't buy anything there except usually Victoria magazine for my wife, which has all these really cool designs on houses and everything.
SPEAKER_01: So me being the sensitive and loving husband that I am, I bought a Victoria magazine for Liz, and she said, I already have it.
SPEAKER_01: But there was there on the bookshelves, the bestsellers was 50 shades of gray.
SPEAKER_01: Um, just a travesty from what I've read about the brutality of sexual exploitation, especially of women.
SPEAKER_01: Haven't heard anything from any of the feminists on that.
SPEAKER_01: Gosh, I haven't heard anything.
SPEAKER_01: The pornographic industry makes more in one year than Yahoo, Apple, Amazon, and eBay combined.
SPEAKER_01: Porn is ruining marriages, it's destroying homes, and it's a national disaster.
SPEAKER_01: If you're involved in porn, and statistics would say eight out of ten men in this room are, I hope that's not true in the road, but it could be.
SPEAKER_01: If you are regularly involved in porn, it will ruin your relationships, it will ruin your marriage.
SPEAKER_01: And demons are in porn.
SPEAKER_01: When you're looking at porn sites, there's demons there.
SPEAKER_01: There's demons just pouring into your eye sockets and into your heart, and it's ruining your life.
SPEAKER_01: So I believe national disaster is porn.
SPEAKER_01: Second national disaster in epidemic terms is violence.
SPEAKER_01: In the movies and TV shows that glorify violence and mayhem, violence is pouring into our hearts here in our culture and into our country, and we just saw it yesterday, even in our own city.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've ever seen the movie or I mean seen the show.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't watched it, but I've seen it in advertisements, criminal minds.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that's about, but my understanding is from what I've read about it, and then what I've seen in the advertisements, it's glorifying criminals.
SPEAKER_01: It's glorifying deranged people.
SPEAKER_01: It is a national disaster.
SPEAKER_01: The prevalence of violence into our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, and this is the most important and the deepest national disaster in America, it's unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: The worst national disaster in America is unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Secularism, atheism, agnosticism, humanism is a national disaster.
SPEAKER_01: One nation under God?
SPEAKER_01: Indivisible?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: The unbelief, even in the church, is a national disaster.
SPEAKER_01: And it's more of a national disaster than porn.
SPEAKER_01: It's more of a national disaster than violence because porn and violence are just the fruit of unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelief in our church, in a powerful, loving, kind, compassionate God that can empower you through the Holy Spirit and His Word to do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
SPEAKER_01: We don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And God is raising up a church that does believe that because you're gonna have to believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe most of you are here right now because you do believe that, and you're growing in your faith, and you're getting equipped in your faith because this is what's about to come.
SPEAKER_01: So turn Joel chapter 1, we're at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Joel chapter 1, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Gird yourselves and lament, you priest.
SPEAKER_01: Wail, you who minister before the altar.
SPEAKER_01: Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the houses of your God.
SPEAKER_01: And so last week I shared with you what it means to have a nineteen trillion dollar economic debt.
SPEAKER_01: And I gave you some illustrations of what that looks like as we see the economics in Israel at that time and even the economics in our country pouring in to the point where there will be no grain offering.
SPEAKER_01: There will be no economic abilities with our banks because of what's happening before us.
SPEAKER_01: But what would happen, church, if we cried out to God?
SPEAKER_01: Joel is speaking.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, Joel's a nobody.
SPEAKER_01: Joel's a nobody.
SPEAKER_01: We have no references to Joel except from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And in the book of Joel, we don't know who he was.
SPEAKER_01: Probably very similar to Amos.
SPEAKER_01: Amos was just a sheepherder who, even in the book of Amos, says, I'm a nobody.
SPEAKER_01: He's a nobody, and he and he's crying out to the priest, and he's crying out to the temple worshipers and to the Levites.
SPEAKER_01: Cry out, lament, cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: What would happen if we had a national leader like Abraham Lincoln?
SPEAKER_01: Have you read the 1863 proclamation for Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_01: So we read it before our meal.
SPEAKER_01: No, in the middle of our meal.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody was so hungry.
SPEAKER_01: Liz and I looked at each other, this is not going to happen before the meal.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's going to hear what we're saying.
SPEAKER_01: So in the middle of the meal, as people were getting stuffed with all the goo that goes with Thanksgiving, I read the 1863 proclamation, and just Google it.
SPEAKER_01: 1863 proclamation for the first Thanksgiving by as a national Thanksgiving holiday by Abraham Lincoln.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Cry out to God, lament.
SPEAKER_01: We're in the midst of a civil war.
SPEAKER_01: That's God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: What would happen if we had a national leader who called forth that our whole nation lament and cry out to God?
SPEAKER_01: And we said, Lord, we don't know what to do about ISIS.
SPEAKER_01: God, would you show us what to do about this evil?
SPEAKER_01: God, we don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because everybody already knows they don't know what to do, but they finally admit it.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we don't know what to do about our economic debt.
SPEAKER_01: We've got Democrats saying this, we've got Republicans saying that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we're not sure what your will is.
SPEAKER_01: We cry out to you.
SPEAKER_01: You think God wouldn't answer?
SPEAKER_01: We got on our faces, if national leaders got on their faces and cried out to God.
SPEAKER_01: God promises, if you draw near to me, I will draw near to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Joel's saying.
SPEAKER_01: God would show up in power and redemption and love and forgiveness and awakening.
SPEAKER_01: He would, because that's his nature.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God does.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's giving us in the book of Joel harbingers.
SPEAKER_01: We see harbingers.
SPEAKER_01: We see warnings coming to us through economics.
SPEAKER_01: And in our nation, they're coming, they're almost happening every.
SPEAKER_01: Before it was like every year.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's every month.
SPEAKER_01: And currently it seems to be every week.
SPEAKER_01: Consecrate a fast.
SPEAKER_01: Call a sacred assembly.
SPEAKER_01: Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so, guys, listen, prayer is turning to God, but fasting is turning away from things.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting is not just turning away from food.
SPEAKER_01: It's turning away from TV.
SPEAKER_01: It's turning away from media.
SPEAKER_01: It's turning away from hobbies.
SPEAKER_01: It's getting alone with God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Get alone with God and seek me.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, we're coming into the holidays to set aside time to get alone with the Lord and cry out to him.
SPEAKER_01: Get alone with the Lord and call to him.
SPEAKER_01: May I challenge you to a fast.
SPEAKER_01: We fast always, you guys remember, we we have our prayer and fasting time at either the first or second week of January.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be doing that again.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm still praying about what that theme will be.
SPEAKER_01: Last year it was windstorm.
SPEAKER_01: But even in your own life, that you might take, maybe take a day a week, or sometime between now and Christmas to take a day or two and just stop.
SPEAKER_01: Just stop everything.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe get away.
SPEAKER_01: Go to a coffee shop, go to a cabin.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the quietness of your own.
SPEAKER_01: Fast.
SPEAKER_01: Fast from TV.
SPEAKER_01: Fast from a hobby.
SPEAKER_01: Fast from food, maybe too, but some of you can't fast from food because of different dietary issues and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But fasting is turning away from things, and prayer is turning to God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, consecrate a fast.
SPEAKER_01: Get alone with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, it shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God.
SPEAKER_01: Church, do you realize that sometimes joy and gladness is inappropriate?
SPEAKER_01: Even joy and gladness in the assembly because of what the enemy is doing is actually inappropriate.
SPEAKER_01: That there's a time of sober confession and sober repentance in our lives, and that's what Joel is calling out for.
SPEAKER_01: Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God, the seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles, barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
SPEAKER_01: How the animals even groan.
SPEAKER_01: The herds of cattle are restless because they have no pasture.
SPEAKER_01: Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.
SPEAKER_01: It's a day of reckoning and accountability.
SPEAKER_01: God's patience is running out.
SPEAKER_01: It is near.
SPEAKER_01: It is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Don't mistake the patience of the Lord as the Lord's acceptance.
SPEAKER_01: Longfellow wrote, the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.
SPEAKER_01: Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness he grinds all.
SPEAKER_01: God's patience, God's judgment comes slowly, giving us opportunity to repent.
SPEAKER_01: God's patience is long suffering, but then there's a point of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Petronius said, vengeance may be delayed, but it will come when least expected.
SPEAKER_01: God's judging Israel.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it might even do us well in December.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you have Isaiah as you're reading right now in our PBJ in our bookmark, I'm gonna do this at least.
SPEAKER_01: To read again 1st and 2 Kings.
SPEAKER_01: And the warnings of the Lord to kings and to nations.
SPEAKER_01: And if God judged his beloved people of Israel, you think he won't judge America?
SPEAKER_01: His wheels of judgment are grinding slowly but exceedingly fine.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19, O Lord, to you I cry out, for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
SPEAKER_01: The beast of the field also cry out to you, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.
SPEAKER_01: To cry out to God, you guys know the greatest prayer in the Bible is help.
SPEAKER_01: Just to cry out to God, help, to cry out to God for his mercy, and to cry out to God for his patience, he always answers.
SPEAKER_01: And as we talk about being a church, the church of Jesus Christ, the church in these latter days, we're the only ones who are going to cry out.
SPEAKER_01: We're the only ones who will cry out.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot expect those who do not have a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ to cry out to anybody.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know how to cry out, but we do.
SPEAKER_01: And so we carry this responsibility and this weight as the people of God to cry out to our God.
SPEAKER_01: And this is our city, and this is our watch.
SPEAKER_01: There is judgment upon Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: The two biggest fires in the history of Colorado in the last three years.
SPEAKER_01: Is that not a harbinger?
SPEAKER_01: Is that not a wake-up call?
SPEAKER_01: And in just the last month, two major shootings to whom God has given much.
SPEAKER_01: He expects much.
SPEAKER_01: And here we are, the home of navigators and YWAM and compassion and focus on the family, and yet less than 11% of our population is in a church on any given Sunday or Saturday night.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty bad, gang.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01: So God is judging this city, and we have got to cry out to him or it's going to increase.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't see how it couldn't be any more obvious that God is giving us warnings.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites cried out to God in their bondage in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord heard their cry, raised up a Moses, and he came and he set the captives free.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites, the nation of Israel, came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army closing in on them, mountains on one side, the ocean on the other.
SPEAKER_01: They cried out to God, he heard their cry and he brought deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua leads the army of Israel, they march around Jericho seven times, and on the seventh day, they march around seven times, they blow the trumpet, they cry out to God, and God gives them the victory.
SPEAKER_01: Gideon, down in the wine press, so scared of the Midianites that he hides away and doesn't want to lead anything.
SPEAKER_01: God gives him just 300 men.
SPEAKER_01: He tells them to take these 300 men with their jars, put tortures inside, surround the enemy's camp, hold up the jars, break the jars, cry out to God, and the Midianites run for cover.
SPEAKER_01: David's facing Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: Goliath makes his challenge to David.
SPEAKER_01: David runs at Goliath and he says, You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
SPEAKER_01: This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll strike you down, I'll cut off your head.
SPEAKER_01: David cries out to God.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah cried out to God at Mount Carmel, and fire came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Apostle Paul in the Philippian jail cried out to God, worship, the chains fell off, and the doors open.
SPEAKER_01: That God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that is the God we can cry out to, folks.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to cry out to him.
SPEAKER_01: At some point, I don't, it this is not business as usual.
SPEAKER_01: I read several articles this past week, and they were not from a conservative viewpoint.
SPEAKER_01: These were what we might classically call liberal journals.
SPEAKER_01: And in all three of them, it said, are we now actually in World War III?
SPEAKER_01: This was right after the Turkish uh missile shot down the Russian fighter plane.
SPEAKER_01: Are we now in World War III?
SPEAKER_01: If we are, many of you are gonna be drafted.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you are gonna be on the front lines.
SPEAKER_01: You're young enough, and we will have no choice in that.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what we want?
SPEAKER_01: If we just think that we can just keep doing business as usual as a church, then we're no different than the rest of the culture that's doing business as usual.
SPEAKER_01: And we always think it's gonna be a political solution or it's gonna be a treaty, and I'm not against those things, and believe me, I want you to vote as long as you're voting for the right person, because if you're not, then don't vote.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want you to vote.
SPEAKER_01: But he is a God of mercy, love, forgiveness, and compassion, but we have to call out to him.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 34, 17.
SPEAKER_01: The righteous cry out and the Lord hears, and he delivers them out of all their troubles.
SPEAKER_01: The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and he delivers them from all their troubles.
SPEAKER_01: And for some of you, you're in a day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You're in the day of the Lord, you're in the Lord's day.
SPEAKER_01: You know there's stuff in your life that the enemy has got strongholds on in bondage, and I'm telling you, it's time to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: To cry out in your own life and for your own marriage, and your own relationships and your own issues.
SPEAKER_01: Cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: He'll come, he'll come with love, he'll come with forgiveness, he'll come with compassion, he'll come with care, and he'll come with power and with healing.
SPEAKER_01: But for some reason, he set up a prescription here that he calls us to call out to him.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, George, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter two Blow the trumpet in Zion.
SPEAKER_01: Sound an alarm in my holy mountain.
SPEAKER_01: Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.
SPEAKER_01: It is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Hand, a day of darkness and gloomliness, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains, a people come great and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations.
SPEAKER_01: A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns.
SPEAKER_01: The land is like the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Surely nothing shall escape them.
SPEAKER_01: Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like swift steeds, so they run.
SPEAKER_01: You understand here?
SPEAKER_01: This is demonic, folks.
SPEAKER_01: This is a release.
SPEAKER_01: This is like I talked about last week, the restrainer.
SPEAKER_01: The restrainer has been lifted.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit's restraining power by the calling of God and by the evil that has risen over the land.
SPEAKER_01: It's a release of demonic powers that are actually currently being held back.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it doesn't happen one day that the gates are open, but there's a gradual lifting in the latter days.
SPEAKER_01: That was 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 of the restrainer being lifted, and then what is it?
SPEAKER_01: It's called the spirit of lawlessness upon the land.
SPEAKER_01: With a noise like chariots over mountaintops, they leap like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble like a strong people set in battle array.
SPEAKER_01: God is blowing the trumpet, church.
SPEAKER_01: The shofar is being blown.
SPEAKER_01: It is a war.
SPEAKER_01: The first shofar, the first warning, the first trumpet blast in these ancient times was a warning blast.
SPEAKER_01: That was a warning blast.
SPEAKER_01: And the way George did it was perfect with the staccato sound.
SPEAKER_01: Blow the trumpet in our churches.
SPEAKER_01: Warning us that the Syrians are coming from the north.
SPEAKER_01: That the Babylonians are coming to invade Judah.
SPEAKER_01: God's patience was running out with Israel.
SPEAKER_01: God's patience is running out with America.
SPEAKER_01: The God of history judges every nation for sin.
SPEAKER_01: These disasters have come and they're coming, and we cannot ignore it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: This is the responsibility of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's our finest hour.
SPEAKER_01: I believe for the right churches at the right time who understand the times, who have that what I would call kind of an Issachar anointing.
SPEAKER_01: The Issachar anointing are those who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.
SPEAKER_01: Those who understand the times and know what America should do.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what would happen if the president of our nation, who's the most powerful man in the world, said, I want to bring together the top 30 leaders in the world to convene a conference for 10 days on how we handle ISIS?
SPEAKER_01: You think people wouldn't come?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine if the president of the United States said, I want to get the 100 top spiritual leaders in our nation to come together and we're going to fast and pray for 10 days and see what God's saying to our nation?
SPEAKER_01: You think those national leaders wouldn't come?
SPEAKER_01: It's so obvious to me.
SPEAKER_01: We read Joel, that's what he's calling them to do.
SPEAKER_01: You guys know I like to hunt.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're elk hunting or you're deer hunting, you're out there, it's really early in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: And the coldest part of the day, the most uncomfortable time of day, is right before the sun rises.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's already starting to get light, and you keep thinking, you always faked it out because you think, I'm gonna now, it's gonna start warming up, and it never does.
SPEAKER_01: It actually, the cold air kind of tends to be pushed down into the valleys and the mountain valleys and stuff, and it gets colder.
SPEAKER_01: And that's when you start to shiver and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But that's the time when you're supposed to be ready to shoot.
SPEAKER_01: So it's really a problem.
SPEAKER_01: But but I found, I found at Walmart this really cool little thing that's a French press that you can carry in your backpack.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and it keeps it hot for like three hours.
SPEAKER_01: It's really cool.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, with my son and everything, uh Josh and I were there, and so we're like sipping on our coffee and stuff to keep the chill off.
SPEAKER_01: But then the sun rises, and so it's the coldest time, it's the most bitter time right before the sun rises.
SPEAKER_01: I believe with all my heart, and this is why I signed up.
SPEAKER_01: This is why we're here, that's why we planted the road.
SPEAKER_01: The road less travel is because in this day, it is an opportunity for the sun to rise and be the finest hour of the church in America if we will cry out to God, if we will seek Him, if we will pray.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, it's not business as usual anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just we go to church now.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to we go to church now, church, there's 300 others you should pick in this city, but not the road.
SPEAKER_01: Because we believe that God's called us to be anointed by the Holy Spirit as a word and spirit church to heal the sick, to proclaim the kingdom, to set the captives free, and we need to get equipped in how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're getting equipped to do that because God's gonna bring not only greater power anointing, but greater discernment and wisdom about these days.
SPEAKER_01: And God's giving us divine intelligence.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Joel's just an intelligence brief.
SPEAKER_01: Really, for the next few weeks, as we're in Joel and then we're gonna go into Revelation, you're just getting a briefing from God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a God briefing.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're still in that, you know, that mixed up state that think that history is just little cycles, you know, some kind of a Taoism or some kind of a yin and yang thing, that we're just kind of in this cycle and it's gonna get better.
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
SPEAKER_01: There's actually a beginning to history.
SPEAKER_01: We just studied that.
SPEAKER_01: We went through our stuff on the on kingdom power and war.
SPEAKER_01: There's a middle of history, and that's the coming of Jesus, and there's actually an end.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why 27% of the Bible is about the prophetic.
SPEAKER_01: And there's eight times more prophecies about the second coming of Christ than there is the first coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And we're getting ready to come into the first coming of Christ celebration.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll have Micah and Isaiah and all those cool passages at our Christmas Eve service.
SPEAKER_01: But there's eight times more prophecies in the scriptures about the second coming of Christ than the first coming of Christ, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: He came.
SPEAKER_01: One of the most debilitating judgments on theology, and many of you wouldn't be aware of this, called open theism.
SPEAKER_01: And open theism became really popular about 10 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: It's had its ebbs and flows since then.
SPEAKER_01: But it was by a professor last name Boyd, and the idea was that God kind of hasn't quite figured it all out yet.
SPEAKER_01: And he changed, and he took all those, God changed his mind passages, and he built a whole theology about it.
SPEAKER_01: What a travesty.
SPEAKER_01: Someone was asking me about that years ago.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
SPEAKER_01: I said, well, I think it's a travesty.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I believe in the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God knows the future.
SPEAKER_01: Well then, doesn't that mean it's kind of sarah, sada, whatever it shall be, shall be?
SPEAKER_01: I said, no, you got to read the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_01: There's a mystery to that.
SPEAKER_01: But if I were to say God's not sure about the future, what would that do with prophecy in the first and second comings of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: You'd have to throw all that out.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand how important that is?
SPEAKER_01: That's like, that's like, and I don't want to get into theology too much here, but that's like the virgin birth.
SPEAKER_01: The issue of the virgin, well, you know, I don't know if Mary really was a virgin, or if it just means she was a young woman.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the stuff I grew up with.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up with that with all these Lutheran pastors that I was hanging around with, and my dad's theological bent was that way.
SPEAKER_01: And then one day it just kind of occurred to me: if Mary was not a virgin, then who conceived Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Joseph?
SPEAKER_01: Because you understand that's the key to his divinity.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens in our world is we we start listening without using discernment, and before we know it, we get deceived.
SPEAKER_01: And the deceiver is upon the land and upon the church.
SPEAKER_01: And you remember the Waldo Canyon fires.
SPEAKER_01: I remember them.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember the sirens that I heard just all through the city.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: And then Black Forest Fire the next summer, all that happened.
SPEAKER_01: Because what happens was our firefighters in their bunks, playing checkers, whatever they're doing in the middle of the day, and suddenly they hear the trumpet.
SPEAKER_01: They hear the alarm and they knew what to do.
SPEAKER_01: They understood the times and they knew what to do.
SPEAKER_01: And they jumped in their trucks and they took off and they put out the fire.
SPEAKER_01: And in the Black Forest fire, there were 489 homes destroyed,$420 million worth of damage done, only two people died.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we heard the alarm and we acted differently than before.
SPEAKER_01: So I was in a counseling session, and one of my staff came in and knocked on the door and said, I think there's a fire really close to your house.
SPEAKER_01: And so we all went outside and we looked and we could see the billowing smoke right where I live.
SPEAKER_01: So about 10 of us jumped in trucks and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We drove out to our house and we started cleaning it out and we got stuff out and then we drove back and then we stayed in a hotel.
SPEAKER_01: And you guys all remember that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are mightily affected, some of you lost homes.
SPEAKER_01: And so for those weeks, your life changed, right?
SPEAKER_01: Our lives changed, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because we heard the alarm.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a time for business as usual.
SPEAKER_01: Church, it's time for us to be vigilant in the disciplines of the faith and holy habits in our life.
SPEAKER_01: If we're just gonna kick back and just do church, then the enemy's gonna win.
SPEAKER_01: Devastation is coming.
SPEAKER_01: It's a warning to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe where much is given, much is expected, even in our city.
SPEAKER_01: Amos 5, we read these words seek me and live, but do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Bathsheba, for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Seek the Lord and live.
SPEAKER_01: The day of the Lord, God's reckoning of the profane, ISIS will be judged.
SPEAKER_01: The slaughter of the innocent children and the babies will be judged.
SPEAKER_01: The suicide bombers will be judged.
SPEAKER_01: In our nation, those who have put together, developed, and set up pornography websites, they will be judged.
SPEAKER_01: Those who slaughter others through prostitution who are pimps, they shall be judged.
SPEAKER_01: There's a judgment coming.
SPEAKER_01: But Amos says, Seek me and live.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord of love calls out to his beloved those who know him and those who future will know him.
SPEAKER_01: Come to the cross, come to redemption, come to see your sins forgiven and your shackles broken and your captivity set free into new life in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ came to set you free.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ came to give you new life.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ came to give us a life of love.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the time more than ever, church, that you're walking in intimacy with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because many of the things that we've trusted in are going to be taken away.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you three things here in closing.
SPEAKER_01: Three things that I see that are huge in a walk of intimacy with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to call them three W's.
SPEAKER_01: Three W's of a walk of intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, a walk of worship.
SPEAKER_01: A walk of worship.
SPEAKER_01: His presence.
SPEAKER_01: You are going to need his presence daily.
SPEAKER_01: Focusing in on Christ.
SPEAKER_01: See, worship's not just singing a song.
SPEAKER_01: Worship is the direction of your focus.
SPEAKER_01: The direction of our focus in Christ and in his heart, meditating on his beauty, focused on Jesus, opening the psalms and just praying the psalms.
SPEAKER_01: Just praying the songs.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to work Monday.
SPEAKER_01: And you're going to go to work on Monday and you're going to be challenged to lie.
SPEAKER_01: Or you're going to be challenged to fudge on the truth a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And you just do the right thing and you trust God.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship too.
SPEAKER_01: It's where the temptation of a secretary comes your way with her temptations or a guy tempting you or uh video stuff that you see on that internet and you say, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I want Jesus more than that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to keep inviting demons into my life and you start saying no and you start to have allies through a D group.
SPEAKER_01: You're in a discipleship group because you can't do it alone.
SPEAKER_01: If you guys are not in a D group, you will possibly not be here next year.
SPEAKER_01: You are not made even by God to go at it alone.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a walk of worship.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it's a walk in the word.
SPEAKER_01: It's a walk of worship and a walk of the word.
SPEAKER_01: Hearing from the Lord, meditating in his scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: PB and J in our bookmark, this is to help guide you with prayer Bible journal, prayer Bible journal, prayer Bible journal to spend time with the Lord daily.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to have to have that.
SPEAKER_01: You are going to be assaulted.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be assaulted in these latter days.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff you always just believed.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be challenged to not believe that anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful with the news you listen to.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful with the TV programs you watch and be careful with the movies you watch.
SPEAKER_01: There is a value system being communicated through that to take away the joy of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And this sounds really weird.
SPEAKER_01: I was telling Ryan this the other day.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Ryan, I know this is weird, but I've gotten as much out of this as any preacher that I listened to, maybe on a podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Now you're gonna laugh.
SPEAKER_01: So don't laugh.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain it.
SPEAKER_01: But I have had such a kick out of going in and studying MMA fighters.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is I think MMA is like probably the sport now that is the most athletic of all the sports.
SPEAKER_01: The kind of training these guys have to have and what they have to do to be in that kind of shape.
SPEAKER_01: Now, do I like watching MMA?
SPEAKER_01: I really don't.
SPEAKER_01: I've probably watched three MMA matches in the last year, and those were by accident.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not, I'm not against it.
SPEAKER_01: I just haven't watched it because I'm not into people's heads being bashed in for a belt.
SPEAKER_01: But what I dig about it is the training they go through.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, these guys train.
SPEAKER_01: They just, they're in incredible shape.
SPEAKER_01: And it is so convicting to me because I don't train like that, even spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: They watch their diet, they watch how they use their time, they're careful about what they watch, they're careful about, you know, they usually have to have five disciplines.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta have jujitsu, karate, judo, wrestling, and boxing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you gotta have all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And they're so in tune with that, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: What would happen if we became worshipers and warriors here at the road, and we as men and women were walking in those kinds of that discipline, but it's not because we have to, it's because we want to.
SPEAKER_01: And there's joy in being all that God wants us to be.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that comes through the word of God, being in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly and lastly, a walk of warfare.
SPEAKER_01: Let us not forget this life is a walk of warfare.
SPEAKER_01: Obeying God in the daily grind of life, where freedom comes as we war in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, in the days ahead, you're gonna be warring in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna experience demons.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are gonna see demons.
SPEAKER_01: There's, I believe there's actually, and Amy, I believe this.
SPEAKER_01: I believe there's like a release of demonic powers over Colorado Springs right now.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's been probably the last two or three years.
SPEAKER_01: There is a release of demonic powers that cause those fires.
SPEAKER_01: There's a release of demonic powers that are causing these shootings.
SPEAKER_01: And it will increase if we as a people of God don't cry out to God and become warfare people.
SPEAKER_01: We have to become warriors.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, you've got to become warriors.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be people coming in many of your cases, there are gonna be people coming to steal your jobs away in the next year.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be demonic forces trying to take you out and ruin you financially.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be demonic forces coming in with temptations you never had before for sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are gonna be tempted in areas of gambling and in areas of pornography that you never were tempted before because there's a because a restrainer in the last days, guess what he's doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's cleaning house.
SPEAKER_01: He is preparing a bride, a beautiful, holy bride called his church for his coming.
SPEAKER_01: For his coming.
SPEAKER_01: He is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know when the rapture is gonna occur.
SPEAKER_01: Are we gonna go through some of the persecution?
SPEAKER_01: I actually think we are.
SPEAKER_01: I think we're gonna go through the persecution.
SPEAKER_01: All of it?
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we might go through part of it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, remember the plagues in Egypt?
SPEAKER_01: Remember the first three?
SPEAKER_01: The first three plagues affected even the Israelites, too.
SPEAKER_01: So I would like to be wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like, hey man, let's go tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go before the Broncos Patriots game.
SPEAKER_01: Please.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I would love that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, pray for the rapture, but prepare for persecution.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what we're training to do and to be and to become at the road as people of God.
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.
SPEAKER_00: Please drop us a note and let us know how we can pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Write us at The Road.
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.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the area, please stop on by and join us at The Road.
SPEAKER_00: We meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.
SPEAKER_00: You can find out about our service time and more about the road by going to our website at theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: That's theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you follow us on Facebook as well.
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SPEAKER_00: As always, we cover your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today.
SPEAKER_00: And be sure to catch us again next time for another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.