WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:04.400 It's time now for the rope with Pastor Teacher E. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:04.879 Holt. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Every one of you, no matter what your gifts or your talents are, when you begin to start obeying scripture, watch out. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:16.239 Watch out. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:19.679 Because you're setting yourself up for a miracle. 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:27.440 You're setting yourself up for the God of the universe to start using you in a mighty way and in a powerful way. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.479 Welcome to another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:37.520 Steve is the head pastor of The Road in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:45.200 It's our vision to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:55.679 If you're in the area, we meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:00.560 You can go to our website at theroad.org for service time. 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.359 That's thheroad.org. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:08.159 Here now with today's message is Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:16.159 All of you that are parents in this room, you know when school ends, don't you? 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:24.719 Um if you're in District 20, at least, you probably don't know because it usually is it varies according to snow days. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:32.400 But you're gonna be pretty close to when knowing when school ends, and everybody makes those plans appropriately. 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:39.439 Sometimes weddings are planned in May and June based on when school is out for families, right? 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:40.319 Right? 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:47.120 You that are into NCAA basketball, you know when the season is going to end. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:51.920 I I grew up with a Duke Blue Devil dad because he went to Duke. 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:58.239 So all I've heard about is Coach K and Duke basketball since he came. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.840 So we know that's called March madness. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.000 And so everybody knows that. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:09.680 Well, how much more to know that the Bible actually tells us about the coming of the Lord? 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:11.919 That there's actually an end to history. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:14.159 History actually ends, folks. 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:26.240 And evolutionists would tell differently that it just keeps going on, and it and there's actually theories out there about the cycles of life that come from more of an evolutionary Darwinian side of things. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:47.360 Here's what we do know: we know that it began with a cosmic battle that we've just studied through the summer as it relates to the darkness and the light and the war, the great spiritual war that really kind of launched the beginnings of time as we would know it and as it's recorded in Scripture. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:52.319 And then there was Adam and Eve, and so man was created, and we know that was the beginning. 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:54.719 We also know that there was a middle section. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.439 This middle section, Jesus came. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:03.199 And as he came, he showed us the way of salvation through the cross, redemption, and the resurrection. 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.199 Well, there's actually going to be an ending. 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:07.199 There's actually going to be a conclusion. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:12.960 And so the book of Joel is about the conclusion, and I would call it Cliff's Notes. 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:22.240 So we'll just call it Joel's notes on the coming of the Lord, because the theme of the book of Joel is the day of the Lord. 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:29.439 So if you have your app and you've already, many of you probably already turned to your app, then you can look and you can see what we have in the app. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:32.560 The notes are there, my notes are there, or open your Bible. 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:36.080 We're in Joel chapter 1, and we started last week. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:47.599 And we looked at in Joel chapter 1 the five key reasons why we study in times prophecy, why the prophetic is in Scripture. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:48.479 It's very clear. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:54.319 We shared the aspect that 27% of all of the Bible speaks about prophecy. 00:03:54.960 --> 00:04:01.439 And that there's eight times more references to the coming of the Lord prophetically than there are the first coming of the Lord. 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:08.000 So the second coming of the Lord is mentioned eight times more in Scripture than even the first coming of the Lord. 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.400 And so we're studying prophecy. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:11.599 We're in the book of Joel. 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:16.000 We're going to spend about two months in the book of Joel, and then we're going to go into the book of Revelation. 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:30.560 So I see Joel as a kind of cliffs notes or kind of an introduction, and it's going to give us a macro perspective to the micro perspective and the particulars that come out in the book of Revelation. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:32.639 So let's look at verse 1 again. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:34.959 We looked at it last week, but I want to cover it again. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:38.160 The word of the Lord that came. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:46.879 And so let's just start there that there is a word from the Lord that came to a man named Joel who we know nothing about. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:51.519 We really know nothing about Joel except what's found in Joel. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:58.720 Joel is classically what I consider to be so true of all of Scripture, he's a nobody. 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:04.319 Have you noticed that God takes nobodies and he turns them into somebodies? 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.079 You know, that's kind of his MO. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:06.959 That's the way God works. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:10.319 He takes nobodies and he turns them into somebodies. 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:12.800 We don't know anything about Joel. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:16.800 But he's a somebody now, because he wrote the book of Joel. 00:05:16.879 --> 00:05:20.079 Because the word of the Lord came to him, and everybody don't miss this. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:34.160 Whenever God speaks to you, and you obey what he says, and you even begin to herald in some ways what he's told you and how he's working in your life, you become a somebody. 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:37.519 And it may not be on this earth, but you're a somebody to him. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:39.360 Don't miss that. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:44.480 You can be a, you may be a nobody to everybody, even your own family. 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:46.399 I know some of you here. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:50.720 You're nobodies in your own family because you became a somebody in Christ. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:55.680 When you become a somebody in Christ, sometimes you become a nobody to all your friends. 00:05:56.079 --> 00:06:13.040 Because all the friends you were hanging out with, you were a somebody as long as you drank and smoked and hung out and did all the stuff they did, and then you got saved, you came to know Christ, you began to grow in that relationship with Him, and you became a somebody in the kingdom, you became a nobody on earth. 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:19.279 I'd rather be a somebody in the kingdom and a nobody on earth than a somebody on earth and be going to hell. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:20.240 How about you? 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:28.319 And the reality is, is that God takes nobodies, he turns them into somebodies because they obey God. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:38.079 And that's what, I mean, that's all we know about Joel is he obeys the word of the Lord and he gives us these short three chapters and he repeats himself. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:41.600 Liz and I are praying through Joel together every morning. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:46.319 She goes, Man, he says the same thing again and again. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:47.279 What's that? 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:50.399 And I said, I guess it's because we're all so stupid. 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:51.920 And isn't it true? 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.240 How many times you need to hear stuff to get it? 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:56.800 All you gotta do is be married to know that that's true. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:13.199 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, Joel means, his name means Jehovah is God, the son of Pethuel, and here's what I love the father's name, Pethual, means God opening. 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:16.639 And so there's something prophetic even about these names. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:26.560 God is opening up something to us right now, church, with stuff happening in our world that is really strategic. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:36.000 It's strategic for something that God is saying to us, that he took a nobody, he made him a somebody because he obeyed God. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:44.079 And every one of you, no matter what your gifts or your talents are, when you begin to start obeying Scripture, watch out. 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:49.680 Watch out because you're setting yourself up for a miracle. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:57.360 You're setting yourself up for the God of the universe to start using you in a mighty way and in a powerful way. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:07:58.879 And that's what Joel did. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:02.480 The central theme of the book of Joel is the day of the Lord. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:08.240 It's mentioned five times, more than any other one book in all of the Bible. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.040 Listen to this statement. 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:13.519 I said it last week, I want to repeat it tonight. 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:23.439 What the prophet Joel was to ravage Judah, the prophetic church is to a ravaged world. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:32.799 What the prophet Joel was to ravage Judah, Jesus is to your ravaged life and family. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:36.000 So there's two meanings here in the book of Joel. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:43.120 One's going to be personal to each one of your lives in the ravaged places, because all of us have ravaged places, right? 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:43.840 We do. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:45.519 None of us have it all together. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:09:04.159 But also, I'm calling it the end time, I'm speaking here of the last days church because Joel, more than any other book in the Bible, even more than Revelation, in my opinion, tells us what and how the church is supposed to respond when all hell breaks loose. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:08.240 And I don't know if you're watching the news or you're like me. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:10.320 I don't want to hear the news right now. 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:17.600 I come home and my wife and my kids are watching the news, and I'm sick of the news. 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:20.639 Because I know it. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:26.720 Now, if you don't know it, and you don't know what's going on, that's a more massive mistake. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:30.240 You need to know what's going on, but you don't need to meditate in it. 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:40.879 I'll say this: meditate on God, his power, book a Joel, and it'll pick up your faith because we are really living in turmoil right now. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:46.240 Hear this, you elders, he says, and give ear all you inhabitants of the land. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:48.559 So he's speaking to leaders. 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:54.159 He's speaking to pastors, he's speaking to the shepherds of the road. 00:09:54.399 --> 00:10:01.440 He's speaking to elders across the nations who call themselves Bible-believing elders. 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:04.639 Has anything like this happened in your days? 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:08.240 Or even in the days of your fathers? 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.200 Tell your children about it. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:16.240 Let your children tell their children and their children another generation. 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:36.240 And so Joel is saying, have you ever seen, because he's going to be talking about the ravaged nature of what's happened in Israel through these locusts, these swarms of locusts that have literally come in and just eaten all of the vegetation, even the bark of the trees, and just ruined the land? 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:38.320 Has anything like this happened? 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:50.559 Church, in your time, has anything happened like what is happening in the last 15 years in your lifetime? 00:10:51.279 --> 00:11:00.720 Seriously, unless you've got your head somewhere stuck in a sandpile somewhere and you've piled it up and you're living in la land, you have to say yes. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:03.360 This is the strangest times. 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:13.440 They're eroding before our very eyes. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:19.360 And Joel comes in and he begins to speak to a nation that feels that. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.919 But don't miss this, don't miss this. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:24.480 Let your children know. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:36.320 You that are parents, you that are grandparents, this should be a discussion on a regular basis at dinner, at breakfast, as you're taking your kids to school. 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:40.399 Ask them, talk to them, find out how they're feeling. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:42.559 There's a lot of fear out there. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:45.279 There's a lot of fear out there, there's a lot of concern. 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:48.080 This is a divine opportunity. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:50.559 Instruct your kids. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:53.919 Your kids may feel like nobodies. 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:56.960 Tell them they can be somebodies in Christ. 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:02.480 I pulled in one of my kids today on the bed, and now he's calling little boy. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.120 And God's been convicting me about that. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:08.080 He's a young man now, he's not a little boy. 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:10.879 And I said, let's open the word. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:15.840 Because I want you to see the characters in the Bible that you were named after. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:21.279 And I want you to see what they did against the odds. 00:12:21.679 --> 00:12:23.519 Because that's who you are. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:29.360 So this little boy thing just stopped today, not going to be used again. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:32.559 You're a courageous, strong young man. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:34.320 And I'm going to call you that. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:38.159 We've got to call out the masculinity of our boys. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:41.440 We've got to call out the femininity in our girls. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:45.200 And if we don't call it out, somebody else will. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:54.399 In the world and in our schools, and in gangs, and in uh kids in the neighborhood, they're calling it out. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:55.679 They're calling out. 00:12:55.759 --> 00:13:07.039 You remember how it was called out in you, in bathroom stalls, and in locker rooms, and in situations we came out of that were a little bit less than godly. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:10.159 And so we as parents are called by God. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:13.600 And if the parents are not doing it, grandparents, you do it. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:22.000 Have the courage to come up and put that arm around that child and call out what you want them to be and what you know God's called them to be. 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:25.919 And so he says, look, tell your children what's going on. 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.799 Let your children know what's happening. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:33.039 Let them know that there is a God in heaven. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:35.279 Verse 4 is really interesting. 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:41.120 What the chewing locusts have left, and he's talking about literal locusts that came through and devoured the land. 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:45.279 What the chewing locusts left, the swarming locust has eaten. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.919 What the swarming locusts left, the crawling locust has eaten. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:54.080 And what the crawling locusts left, the consuming locusts has eaten. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:57.519 Now, if you look at commentary, some say these are different types of locusts. 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:02.159 And I'll tell you, when you start studying locusts, there's so many different types of locusts. 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.399 I actually am going to take it allegorically. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:07.039 I'm going to take it more from a metaphorical perspective. 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:09.039 But this is literally what happened. 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:22.559 This grasshopper type locusts was released, allowed by God to swarm at that time in Israel and literally ate up the vegetation. 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:33.200 Came in, ate up all the grass, and even stripped the bark of all the trees, and created an economic catastrophe in Israel at that time. 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:42.399 In the 1950s, there was a locust swarm of a hundred square miles that wiped out the land. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:48.000 On July 28th, 1962, I did a little bit of research on locusts. 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:49.200 So I've only done two. 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:50.240 I'm only going to give you two. 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:53.840 There's like, there's hundreds of them, but it's like that's not why we're here. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.159 But and who wants to learn about locusts? 00:14:57.519 --> 00:14:59.360 There's a bigger meaning here than locusts. 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:18.000 But on July 28, 1962, at the National Physics Laboratory in Delhi, India, on their radar, they saw this huge dark, what looked like a dark cloud coming toward them 60 miles southwest of Delhi. 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:21.200 They realized it was a locust swarm. 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:36.399 They were so fearful of what they would do that they called Pakistan, which is one of their arch enemies, and for the next six months, they used their Air Force and all the forces they had to battle locusts. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:45.679 So they battled locusts from July to December, and the estimation now is that they killed a hundred billion locusts in six months. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:47.519 So these are real characters. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.039 I mean, they do this stuff. 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:51.679 They really have come even in modern times. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.080 Economic disaster. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:55.519 Can you imagine this? 00:15:55.679 --> 00:16:22.480 I mean, can you imagine, even in our day and age, that let's just take the heartland, you know, the area of Iowa and Minnesota and Illinois and Nebraska and Oklahoma and Kansas, a lot of where our corn, a lot of our the heartland of our crops were, that if billions of locusts were released in just a matter of days, they could wipe out a major portion of all of our food. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:25.279 So that's what's happened to Israel. 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:44.240 It's interesting, though, that in Revelation 9, 1 through 12, from on the fifth seal, and we'll study this in the coming days, the fifth seal is opened in the last days, and it's locusts from the bottomless pit that are released upon the earth. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:59.679 So I believe that what we're seeing here is a demonically empowered locust swarm released by God upon Israel as a type of what's going to happen in the latter days that's going to bring economic disaster. 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:05.759 But there's another picture that I don't want us to miss about locus. 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:08.960 I think the picture here is of sin. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:12.160 And I think it's a beautiful, vivid picture of sin. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:17.359 The reason I know it's a part of how we can interpret this is because it's been true in my life. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:19.039 And it's been true in your life. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:23.200 I see four stages of how sin works, just like locus. 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:31.039 The first is chewing, and I'm going to call it, I know it sounds kind of weird, but the chewing on our flesh stage. 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:45.440 The chewing on our flesh stage in the form of outward temptations and the opportunity to just look at something, crave something, wanting something, longing for something. 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:50.799 Do you guys realize temptation's not sin, but sin is birthed out of temptation. 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:54.559 And so as we're going through life, anybody get tempted this week? 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:56.240 Anybody get tempted today? 00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:04.319 You know, it's true in our lives that there's locusts of sin ready to crawl in, and you're going to be tempted. 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:05.759 And it happens all the time. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:06.880 We need to be aware of that. 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:27.839 But then there's a stage too that if we're not careful with temptation, and I'm going to call it the swarming around us stage, as we allow our mind to drift into fantasies and thoughts of what we think will bring us pleasure, sin begins and it germinates, and I would say it incubates. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:37.599 So we can't do anything about temptation in most cases, but we can do a lot with how much we meditate on the temptation. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:53.279 So even tonight, for me, driving to work here with you guys, I'm driving, and my mind took off to something that happened two years ago. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:59.519 A shock in my life that happened two years ago, that changed my life. 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:05.440 And I found myself meditating on all the mistakes that I had made. 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:12.480 And all the shame that I carried because of what had happened two years ago. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:16.160 And I'm driving and I'm like, man, it's been ten days. 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:18.400 I've been free for ten days. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:22.559 There should be a there should be, you know, you got alcoholics anonymous. 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:26.480 I think you've got sexual addicts anonymous. 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:30.640 There should be shame addicts anonymous. 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:31.680 Okay? 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:32.880 SAA. 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:33.920 I'm an SAA. 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:36.880 I'm an SAA, okay? 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:39.920 And we grapple with shame. 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.279 And it came and it was on me. 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:50.799 And all I can think about is what this situation was and the things that I was grappling with from the past. 00:19:52.480 --> 00:20:00.480 I told Liz this week, or last week, or whenever it was, I said, I want to be a Philippians four guy. 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:03.279 I want to learn to be a Philippians four guy. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:13.519 And what I meant by that is where it says in Philippians 4, let your mind dwell on those things that are good and wholesome and pure and right and lovely and pure. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:14.880 Isn't that awesome? 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:16.559 So I started doing that. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:17.839 It works. 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:28.880 It works to begin thinking about, man, look what God's done at the road, and look at my family and the cool stuff God's doing in my kids' lives. 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:33.920 And I just found myself meditating, and I want to be a Philippians 4 man. 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:36.799 Men, you want, you gotta go after it though. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:41.359 And you have to renew your mind and take every thought captive to obedience to Christ. 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:42.799 And so that's what I did. 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:47.279 And the swarming locusts, the swarming demons, I think they left. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:48.720 I think they left. 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:54.559 But if they don't, you can move into stage three, and that's the crawling into your life stage. 00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:55.599 They crawl in. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:03.920 This is when we act on our sin, indulging in a sin, and enjoying the pleasures of that sin and that desire. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:05.119 We start letting them in. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:13.119 And then that leads to stage four, which talks about here as consuming our lives stage. 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:31.359 Looking turns to gazing, turns to craving, turns to acting, which leads to consummation, consuming, and that results, guys, in addictions and passions and illnesses in our life. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:34.640 And so pornography is like that way. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:35.599 You know, it starts. 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:37.519 I mean, you can't even get away from it. 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.079 You and all I all the guys know what I'm talking about. 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:43.200 The women, you guys are just you're just different. 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:45.839 And um, and it's great. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:50.640 In this category, it's it's I think it's easier for you than it is for us guys because of the way we're stimulating. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:59.599 But you can't even go to Fox News, you can't even go to CNN.com, you can't even go to uh New York Times.com and look at stuff, and there's always something, there's these bands, they figured it out, man. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:05.440 They figured it out, and there's images and stuff, and then you click on it, and there's a it's a it's a rabbit hole. 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:10.799 I mean, it takes you into Alice in Wonderland, and it's not, you know, so it's a wonderland that it's hard to get out of. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:12.000 Anyone know what I'm talking about? 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:13.119 Everybody else is liar. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:18.400 You know what I'm talking about, and so that's where it can become an addiction if you don't stop it. 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:26.720 And so it's a battle that can be won, but it's one in the swarming stage, it's not one in the crawling stage. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:30.640 And so I believe we're getting a taste here. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:34.960 Well, the same thing is true, church, in our nation. 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:40.480 Isaiah says this with my soul I have desired you in the night. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:44.000 Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early. 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:45.920 Listen to this, listen to what he says next. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:52.640 For when your judgments are on the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:57.200 I think a nation can go through a chewing stage. 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:06.319 A nation can go through a swarming stage, a nation can go through a crawling stage, and then a nation will be consumed with its sin. 00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:18.319 And when we get consumed, it eats away at the very heart and values of everything we believe in, and that's where we are right now, church. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:21.200 We have harbingers. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:27.359 God gives harbingers, God gives signs that he's coming. 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:29.119 They're called warnings. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:31.119 They're warnings. 00:23:31.359 --> 00:23:33.039 Be here next week. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:38.079 Because I've asked one of our members to come and we're gonna blow the shofar. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:44.240 And it's going to be loud because that's what chapter 2 talks about. 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:46.640 Blow the trumpet in Zion. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:51.519 We're gonna blow a literal shofar, a ram's horn here. 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:56.240 Twice we're told to blow the trumpet in the book of Joel. 00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:01.759 9-11 was a harbinger, a warning of coming disaster to our nation. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:09.119 Hurricane Katrina was a harbinger that wiped out one of our larger cities in America. 00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:19.680 The Oklahoma tornadoes, category five, 200 mile per hour winds that created great fear in the heartland of our country was a harbinger. 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:38.000 In Colorado Springs, we had Waldo Canyon Fire, we had the Black Forest Fire, harbingers, mass killings in Kenya in April by Al-Qaeda, the shooting down of a Russian airline just a few weeks ago by ISIS. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:42.160 The Paris massacre last week by ISIS. 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:52.960 And then tonight, tonight, I get the Twitter that says the White House has been targeted a new video by ISIS that just came out a few hours ago. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:57.599 Wake up and smell the coffee, America. 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:00.640 Two good books I would encourage you to read. 00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:05.519 I've met Jonathan Kahn when I was at Family Life with Mike Segovia. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:09.519 Mike and I were there when Jonathan Kahn spoke and did a devotional there with Dr. 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:10.319 Dobson. 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:19.440 The first is called The Harbinger, and he talks about 9-11 and the Harbingers of the Last Days, and then the mystery of the Shemitah. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:20.960 Also, two really good books. 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:25.279 While we're going through Joel and then into Revelation, encourage you to read these. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:45.279 Guys got tremendous insight, something that you might find fascinating as well as kind of, I don't know, I don't know, it's encouraging is not the right word, but faith building, go to YouTube and do a search on Jonathan Kahn and listen to his message at the inaugural prayer breakfast. 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:50.079 It is, for me, I mean I'm getting goosebumps right now, just thinking about it. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:51.440 I've listened to it three times. 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:53.200 Very, very powerful. 00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:57.440 Basically calling America to repentance. 00:25:58.720 --> 00:25:59.839 Verse 5. 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:14.559 Awake, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. 00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:22.559 You see, what Joel is doing is he is overlaying the word of God over current events. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:35.680 He's overlaying the word of God over current situations that to us, to anyone who cares about America, anyone who cares about their life, would say, this is a hopeless situation. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:38.000 What are we going to do? 00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:39.839 He's saying, wake up. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:43.039 Wake up, America. 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:47.119 Wake up, last days church. 00:26:48.640 --> 00:27:00.319 Most of the church is not going to wake up because they don't even honor, speak from, teach from, or obey God's word anyway. 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:02.559 Couldn't care less. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.240 Many of us come out of those churches. 00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:08.160 We've come from those churches. 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:16.640 And they're pastors, they love God, and they, you know, they're they do, they love God, and a lot of them are my friends. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:21.519 My dad's friends and his denomination, they're great guys. 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:30.559 But if it was a thief breaking into my house at 2 o'clock in the morning, I wouldn't want any of those pastors there. 00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:32.720 They're kind of sissies. 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:34.480 I mean, they just kind of are. 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:36.000 I mean, they're really nice guys. 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:37.279 They're really nice guys. 00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:40.640 But they're just, they're just wimps, you know? 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:42.400 And I'm sorry, but they are. 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:46.559 And and they they're kind of guys like, yeah, you know, they, you know, they they they like this. 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:50.160 They're just really sweet guys. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:53.119 That's not my image of Jesus, I'm sorry. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:54.720 I just don't see Jesus going. 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:04.000 You know, and just a little sweet guy, and just always says lovely things, always has a great meditation. 00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:08.160 And a really beautiful prayer. 00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:13.759 It's been the same prayer you've been hearing for 40 years, but it's still a really sweet prayer. 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:18.400 And they they just they've got it down, but it's going nowhere. 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:20.559 It's going nowhere. 00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:24.240 And what God's looking for is awake people. 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:27.200 Kind of people are sort of awake. 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:29.680 They kind of know what's going on. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:51.839 Because it's so easy, even for us, to be drunk on media, to be drunk on Facebook, to be drunk on Twitter accounts, to be drunk on TV, or football, or being cool. 00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:54.880 No smoke machines at the road. 00:28:55.119 --> 00:28:56.960 We don't have any smoke machines. 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:00.000 All right, no, maybe there are here. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:01.920 I don't know, but we don't have them. 00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:06.319 This is not about entertainment. 00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:10.559 If you want an entertainment church, there's plenty to pick from in Colorado Springs. 00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:12.000 They're all over the place. 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:19.200 But God is saying, awake! Weep, wail. 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:23.839 The new wine has been devastated. 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:27.279 The church has been devastated in our day. 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:31.599 If you have your Bibles, turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:36.480 And it's one of these kind of cryptic passages that are it's very rarely taught on. 00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:44.000 You'll hear me refer to it in the months and the in the year ahead frequently, because I think there's so much here. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:45.440 I'm just gonna give you a portion of it. 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:50.960 Really, all of it, uh, 1 through 5, or excuse me, 1 through 12, is powerful. 00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:53.680 I'm gonna pick it up at verse 5. 00:29:54.400 --> 00:29:58.240 It's speaking of the last days, and it's very cryptic, but it's really important. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:04.160 He says, This do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:11.759 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:16.400 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. 00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:24.400 Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:25.920 Verse 8. 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:34.160 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. 00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:53.279 The coming of the lawless one is according to the workings of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. 00:30:53.519 --> 00:31:00.960 And for this reason, God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie. 00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:08.720 Don't miss this, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:15.839 Now I could ask you what you see from that passage, and we'd all probably come to the same conclusion. 00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:26.480 It's very, very clear that there is one who is restraining lawlessness over the land, over the globe, over America. 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:28.319 That's the Holy Spirit. 00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:30.880 The Holy Spirit is the restrainer. 00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:42.079 Now, if you read your commentaries or your Bible study Bibles, the ones that have a lot at the bottom, they'll give you four different parts to this that are potential for the restrainer. 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:46.160 But most conservative commentators believe it's speaking of the Holy Spirit. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:53.359 So the Holy Spirit is literally restraining demonic activity over our land. 00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:55.839 And the lawless one is the Antichrist. 00:31:56.079 --> 00:32:12.240 There is going to be this lawless one that's going to be raised up in the last days who will do signs and wonders that are demonically empowered to deceive, as Matthew 24 and other places say, even the elect, if they could be deceived. 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:29.200 Now it appears here that there is actually going to be a strong delusion that comes from God over those who are unsaved, who maybe pretend to be saved or think they're saved, but they're not, to believe the lie. 00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:34.319 And so, and so what is happening, I believe, I don't think it's going to happen overnight. 00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:37.039 I believe it's going to be gradual. 00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:48.480 And as we see the closer we come to the coming of the Lord, the restrainer is going to be lifted, and there's going to be greater delusion over the church. 00:32:49.119 --> 00:33:07.599 And so we are going to see pastors and we are going to see leaders and we are going to see churches caving in theologically and morally to things that we never believed years ago, we could be at that place where people are beginning to believe that and calling themselves even Christians. 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:15.839 For a nation has come up, verse 6, for a nation has come up against my land, strong and without number. 00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:21.839 His teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. 00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:24.480 He has laid waste my vine. 00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:26.559 He has ruined my fig tree. 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:32.240 He has stripped it bare, thrown it away, its branches are made white. 00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:33.039 Very interesting. 00:33:33.119 --> 00:33:35.680 The possessive pronoun refers to the Lord here. 00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:37.599 The Lord is doing this. 00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:39.440 The Lord is allowing this. 00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:41.599 Folks, He's the owner. 00:34:07.359 --> 00:34:08.320 America is. 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:21.599 And the reality is, is that Israel was the last great hope in the Middle East at this time for those who were of the Canaanite religions of that area, because this is with Israel and Judah. 00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:27.440 He's speaking to Judah in the southern kingdom, to the Canaanite gods in the high places. 00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:37.039 And God allowed the enemy to come in in the form of locusts to strip the land, to humble Israel, that they might repent. 00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:39.599 And we'll talk more about that next week when we blow the Shafar. 00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:43.840 So God sent this heaven-sent solution. 00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:59.199 And he says first, verse 8, lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth, the grain offering and the drink offering, remember, those are the sacrifices at the temple, have been cut off from the house of the Lord. 00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:01.840 The priests mourn who minister to the Lord. 00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:03.599 They have no way to minister to the Lord. 00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:06.239 They don't even have the resources to minister to the Lord. 00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:10.639 If there's no grapes, if there's no fig tree, then there's no figs. 00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:13.679 If there's no olive tree, then there's no oil. 00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:16.480 If there's no grapes, then there's no wine. 00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:25.360 They can't even bring the cattle to the sacrifices anymore because there's no pasture, because it's economic devastation. 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:37.360 Verse 10, the field is wasted, the land mourns, for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails, be ashamed. 00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:58.400 You farmers, wail, you vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley, because of the harvest of the field, it's perished, the vine is dried up, the fig tree is withered, the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, all the trees of the field are withered. 00:35:58.719 --> 00:36:02.000 And the saddest part of all is what he says next. 00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:06.719 Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. 00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:10.079 Church, it's coming. 00:36:10.639 --> 00:36:18.559 Economic devastation is coming if we don't do what we're going to hear about next week. 00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:20.960 And he gives us a little glimpse here. 00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:24.719 He gives us a glimpse of what we should do, and I'll cover it in a second. 00:36:25.280 --> 00:36:30.079 I just this week was studying just the national debt alone. 00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:40.880 Talk about swarms of locusts kind of caged up, starting to break through the bars that nobody wants to talk about. 00:36:41.920 --> 00:36:53.199 The people who can make a difference in this arena do not want to talk about because their self-interest is more important than our economic national interest. 00:36:54.159 --> 00:37:03.039 The national debt is like the hordes of locusts caged up banging at the door, straining the door, about to break out upon our country. 00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:06.719 The democratic debate never mentioned it. 00:37:06.960 --> 00:37:10.159 The Republican controlled Congress won't do anything. 00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:14.880