SPEAKER_00: It's time now for the road with Patrick Teacher's people.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Such a big believer that with the rise of darkness, it's gonna be the rise of light.
SPEAKER_01: With the rise of the power of the demonic, there's gonna be a rise of the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Even as we see the lawless one at 2 Thessalonians 2, which talks about the satanic power of lying, signs and wonders, there's going to be the rise of spirit-filled, word-rooted, church planting, evangelistically oriented believers who are filled up with the power of the Holy Spirit doing true signs and wonders.
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 is Pastor Teacher Steve Holt with today's message.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, tonight we're starting the book of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: I woke up this morning to read from my Twitter account that ISIS, it was ABC News, that ISIS had claimed credit for the 126 to 129.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the different accounts seem to vary about how many were killed by the attacks in Paris yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, we are going to see in the latter days increased satanic and demonic power.
SPEAKER_01: Where the dark is the darkest, the light can be the brightest.
SPEAKER_01: And God is going to empower his church like never before in history.
SPEAKER_01: We get to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: So you can choose to view it from the perspective of fear, or we can choose to look at it from the perspective of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because God, in his infinite wisdom, and his ways are not my ways and not your ways, and the way in which he works is not necessarily the way we think, has given us inside information.
SPEAKER_01: He's given us prophetic intelligence briefs about what he's going to do in the latter days setting up the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And Joel is one of those books that he's given us.
SPEAKER_01: It's this minor prophet stuck way in the middle of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, often overlooked.
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard a sermon on the book of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: I've never listened to a sermon, and I haven't had any sermons to prepare for this.
SPEAKER_01: I've just been going through commentaries and studying and preparing for it.
SPEAKER_01: But Joel is a prophetic book that I believe has words for us in our time, maybe like no other book outside of maybe parts of Ezekiel and the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: So here's where we're going for the next year is that Joel is kind of an introduction.
SPEAKER_01: I would call it sort of Cliff's notes of revelation.
SPEAKER_01: As I've studied it and read it and reread it and restudied it, Joel is going to give us a glimpse into the rise of lawlessness.
SPEAKER_01: The rise of law.
SPEAKER_01: Now next week I'm going to talk more about that.
SPEAKER_01: This idea of the restrainer.
SPEAKER_01: That's in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to read ahead, not in your notes, but 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, read ahead about the restrainer and the rise of lawlessness and the rise of the lawless one that's mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: But my concern in leading us into Joel and then into Revelation after that is because of the deep, deep concern that I personally have, and I know many of you have, we've talked about it, of the direction of our nation, but also the direction of the church.
SPEAKER_01: The church in America.
SPEAKER_01: And I can speak to what I've heard about the church in Asia, or what I've heard about the church in Europe, or where I lived for many years, the church in Japan.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is this is our home now.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is what I hear on the airwaves.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I read about.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm deeply concerned that we have what I'm going to call a cultural hermeneutic instead of a biblical hermeneutic.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by hermeneutic?
SPEAKER_01: Hermeneutic's a big, sassy sounding intellectual word that makes me feel like I'm really educated, but I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: That means interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's this idea, men and women, that we interpret life through the lens of something.
SPEAKER_01: And we all have a worldview.
SPEAKER_01: And it all and it's all impacted by culture and upbringing.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible, I believe, as a pastor and a leader, should be our main hermeneutic.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we look through the lens of scripture to interpret culture.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm concerned about is that the church is doing the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: And they're looking through the lens of culture to interpret the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And that's really, really scary.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we have is we have a church that is continually redefining and readapting the Bible to fit where the culture's at.
SPEAKER_01: I say that God's called us to be a church that uses the Bible to interpret culture, and the Bible is our guide as to how we hermeneutic or how we define or how we look at culture.
SPEAKER_01: So Joel is one of those books that gives us that opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want to do tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give us an introduction into prophecy in general.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to really just barely get into Joel, and then next week we're going to dive into chapter one way more.
SPEAKER_01: But let me give you why I think the study of the prophetic scriptures is important.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you five reasons why I think studying prophecy is important.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the Lord tells us that all scripture is God-breathed.
SPEAKER_01: All scripture is God-breathed.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us that the Bible itself, in other words, the Bible interpreting itself says that it's living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_01: So it has power within itself.
SPEAKER_01: I was recently with Victor and Eileen Marks, and I was with a young girl from Cambodia who was staying with them.
SPEAKER_01: She had an injury on a scooter in Cambodia and was here getting help.
SPEAKER_01: Her name is Holly.
SPEAKER_01: Holly comes out of a very, very abusive, drug, addicted background.
SPEAKER_01: She spent time in jail.
SPEAKER_01: She was a pimp.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you talk about women being, I mean she she pimped out girls.
SPEAKER_01: She was just comes out of a really rough and tumble background.
SPEAKER_01: So what she has been called to do for the last seven years in Cambodia, she takes traffic girls and girls that are coming out of abusive backgrounds like she came out of, and she has kind of like a school where she's where she's bringing healing and restoration into their lives, about 30 girls.
SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about the fact that the most important thing she does is she gets them into the word.
SPEAKER_01: She gets them into scripture.
SPEAKER_01: They have to read the entire Old and New Testament in one year.
SPEAKER_01: And that, in and of itself, is bringing healing into their lives.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, the word of God in 2 Timothy 3.16 says this.
SPEAKER_01: Church, the word of God is the most powerful thing you can be putting into your emotions, into your mind, and into your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And I say that because I am surprised all the time, personally, and I'm a professional Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I mean personally, that I don't spend enough time in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: So I know you struggle with it too, right?
SPEAKER_01: And all the rest of you are liars if you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Because the reality is this, is that the enemy is constantly working against that quiet time, against that devotional life, to just get on with our day and get into bed at night because we're tired or watch too much TV.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is that the word of God brings correction, instruction, reproof.
SPEAKER_01: Getting it into our souls is like a diet of meat and potatoes.
SPEAKER_01: Eating that to keep us physically strong and then meditating in it, keeping us spiritually strong.
SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, the prophetic scriptures are from God.
SPEAKER_01: And the word here for inspiration is theonostis.
SPEAKER_01: It's the idea of God breathed.
SPEAKER_01: I would say to anybody who wants to go see a counselor, who wants to go see a psychologist, who wants to go get help, are you spending time in God's word?
SPEAKER_01: Are you drinking, are you eating God's word?
SPEAKER_01: It cleanses you out.
SPEAKER_01: It's powerful, it's living and active.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4 12.
SPEAKER_01: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it's saying.
SPEAKER_01: It says like a sword that comes in and just drives into our into our muscle tissue and divides it.
SPEAKER_01: It's this two-edged sword that comes in between your flesh and your lust and your jealousy and your envy and your strife and your arguments, and then the intentionalities of where we want to be: loving, compassionate, caring, forgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The battle, Romans 6, 7, and 8.
SPEAKER_01: There's this battle being waged.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit comes in and cuts into that and begins to grow us up into all righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: That a man of God, a woman of God, can be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, we study the Bible at the road, book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, because of this, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is why we're here.
SPEAKER_01: Because just look literally, just by listening to God's word, he's doing something in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because it has its own living nature within the spirit, like nothing else that's spoken anywhere in our culture and in our world.
SPEAKER_01: So men and women, the number one thing you can do as a disciple of Christ is be in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: My wife just reads it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It's like she reads it way more than I do.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm always sitting there, she's like, I've got her pillow, she's got she's reading God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because of her that God has used me in many ways because of her support and her encouragement as a woman of the word.
SPEAKER_01: We have women of the word and men of the word all over this body.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: That's first, that's number one.
SPEAKER_01: So we study the prophetic scriptures because they're the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the Bible is a prophetic book.
SPEAKER_01: So we know that the Bible is an historical book.
SPEAKER_01: There's the historical books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We have the Pentateuch, we have the first five books, we have historical books of the Bible, 1st and 2 Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, 1 and 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: Those are historical books.
SPEAKER_01: We have poetic books, we have the Psalms and the Proverbs and Song of Solomon, prophetic books, we have the Gospels.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, 28% of the Old Testament is prophetic.
SPEAKER_01: So 28% of the Old Testament is prophetic.
SPEAKER_01: 21.5% of the New Testament is prophetic in nature.
SPEAKER_01: There is eight times more prophetic passages about the second coming of Christ than there is prophetic passages about the first coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's a real fear in that.
SPEAKER_01: I think there's a real fear in pastors with that.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the fear with the prophetic, with many pastors, is how many nut cases there have been over the years.
SPEAKER_01: There's just some real fruitcakes out there that have made pronouncements about the second coming of Christ, probably the most famous one, is the 88 reasons that Christ will come back in 1988.
SPEAKER_01: The best-selling book.
SPEAKER_01: And it obviously he didn't come back.
SPEAKER_01: And the reality is that I think many pastors and many churches want to, you know, stay as far away from the prophetic as possible because of the temptation that they'll somehow be lumped in to the guys who are claiming something about the coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to hear that here.
SPEAKER_01: There's going to be no dates, no pronouncements.
SPEAKER_01: I, man, if Christ wants to come back tomorrow, I would be just happy as a June bug in spring, let me tell you, but I don't have that kind of insight.
SPEAKER_01: I leave that to Hal Lindsey.
SPEAKER_01: So first, scripture is God breathed, it's living and powerful, and that's why we teach the prophetic Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Second, the Bible is a prophetic book.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, prophetic preaching and personal prophecy builds up the church.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to get built up over the next number of months and over the next year.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 14, 3, Paul says that the purpose of prophecy is for edification, exhortation, and comfort.
SPEAKER_01: So if I'm teaching this right, and I may have good days and bad days, but if I'm teaching this the way it's supposed to be taught, you should feel edified, exhorted, encouraged, and comforted by the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: It's uh prophecy encourages our walk with God.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit, the scriptures say the spirit of prophecy is the spirit of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So our purpose here is to lift up Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Not lift up Satan, not lift up demons, not lift up the doom and the gloom of maybe some of the current things that are happening, but to lift up Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: Even in Revelation, we're gonna look at some really, really bizarre stuff in Revelation, and it's gonna lift up Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Fourthly, prophecy is divine intelligence that equips the church to endure.
SPEAKER_01: So prophecy is divine intelligence that equips the church to endure.
SPEAKER_01: Unger's Bible Dictionary on Prophecy says this the revelation of future events is needful in times of discouragement to awaken or sustain hope, to inspire confidence in the midst of general backsliding and to warn of evil threatenings to the faithful.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting during slave times how the black slaves so loved the coming, the idea, the principle, the theology of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If you listen to some of the great Negro spirituals, they speak of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They speak of the beauty of Christ coming back and how he would come and he would set the captives free.
SPEAKER_01: Because Bible prophecy in times of discouragement, in times of enslavement, in times of difficulties is a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_01: It gives us hope.
SPEAKER_01: It gives us excitement.
SPEAKER_01: It gives us faith.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is coming back.
SPEAKER_01: And then you look at some of your marriages, and then you look at some of where your children are at, you go, oh Lord, you can't come too quickly.
SPEAKER_01: You know, come, please, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so God gave us prophecy for that purpose to encourage us and to equip us and get us excited to hang in there and endure because he is coming back.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever T-vot a football game?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we do that all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Georgia was on today, and I'm it started at 10, and I had stuff to do, so I told Josh to record it.
SPEAKER_01: So he set the recording, even though he was watching it.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to go back maybe and see it, but I had stuff to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so many times we do that, especially Duke games, because my dad, you know, Duke and everything.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm I follow Duke not too closely because it's just too discouraging.
SPEAKER_01: But but my dad does.
SPEAKER_01: He's at every game.
SPEAKER_01: Dad's got season tickets.
SPEAKER_01: So many times we'll be driving out of here on Saturday, and I go, I'll say to Josh, so should we watch it?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm always looking at that first reaction because he's not supposed to tell me anything.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, nah.
SPEAKER_01: And so we don't.
SPEAKER_01: But when he says yes, we do, and and just by that word, that's an intelligence brief.
SPEAKER_01: Just by that intelligence brief, I can watch it, and in the third quarter, they're three touchdowns behind.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not worried.
SPEAKER_01: Because I know Josh said, yeah, dad, you need to see this game.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's what that's what Jesus has given us in the prophetic scriptures, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: When things are tough and things are difficult, we know who wins the game.
SPEAKER_01: We know who's going to score at the end, we know who's going to show up, and we know who gets defeated.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, speaking of the last days, and I've already read this partially in our beginning here, but he says, Take heed that no one deceives you.
SPEAKER_01: For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars.
SPEAKER_01: See that you're not troubled.
SPEAKER_01: So we're not supposed to be troubled.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Don't be troubled by wars and rumors of wars.
SPEAKER_01: For all these things must come to pass.
SPEAKER_01: They have to happen.
SPEAKER_01: He's got it planned, he's working it out.
SPEAKER_01: But the end is not yet.
SPEAKER_01: For nation will rise against nation, and that means ethnos against ethos.
SPEAKER_01: It's not talking about just geographic nations, it's talking about tribal groups too.
SPEAKER_01: Kingdoms against kingdoms, and there'll be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places.
SPEAKER_01: All these are the beginning of sorrows.
SPEAKER_01: They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake.
SPEAKER_01: And then many will be offended and will betray one another.
SPEAKER_01: So there's going to be this internal struggle within the church itself with people betraying one another.
SPEAKER_01: They will hate one another.
SPEAKER_01: Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
SPEAKER_01: And because lawlessness will abound, and we'll talk about lawlessness next week, the love of many will grow cold.
SPEAKER_01: But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
SPEAKER_01: So the prophetic scriptures are to help us and equip us and encourage us and strengthen us to endure until the end.
SPEAKER_01: And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations in the end will come.
SPEAKER_01: You see, that's why I'm such a big believer that with the rise of darkness is going to be the rise of light.
SPEAKER_01: With the rise of the power of the demonic, there's going to be a rise of the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Even as we see the lawless one, which we'll look at again next week on 2 Thessalonians 2, which talks about the satanic power of lying signs and wonders, there's going to be the rise of spirit-filled, word-rooted, church planting, evangelistically oriented believers who are filled up with the power of the Holy Spirit doing true signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: We know what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: So the book of Joel is an intelligence brief.
SPEAKER_01: So tonight we're coming in, and Jesus is instructing us from Joel as an intelligence brief about something that's coming up soon in the future for us.
SPEAKER_01: And then fifthly, prophecy reminds us that we are preaching, living, and will inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to inherit the kingdom of God, church.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in Matthew 25, then the king will say to those on his right hand, come.
SPEAKER_01: Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, God is preparing a home for you.
SPEAKER_01: He's preparing a place for you.
SPEAKER_01: He's preparing the kingdom of God, the rule and the reign of Christ for you.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_01: Even if you blow it on this earth, you get the kingdom up there.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you limp into heaven, you're in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you're broken and you've gone through difficulties and struggles and abuse and all kinds of things that are just so debilitating, you will be healed in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: That's good news.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody else can say that except the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that Jesus is promising his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: The prophetic is on four levels.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a now.
SPEAKER_01: Let's put it the way there's going to be an historical, there's a present, and there's a future.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain the four levels as I see it.
SPEAKER_01: This is my understanding of the prophetic.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, it's in the past.
SPEAKER_01: So what we're reading about literally happened.
SPEAKER_01: So we're looking at the nation of Judah.
SPEAKER_01: Israel and Judah are two separate kingdoms.
SPEAKER_01: And in Joel, we're looking at the southern kingdom around Jerusalem called Judah.
SPEAKER_01: Seven times Judah is mentioned in the book of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: That really happened.
SPEAKER_01: And there really were a locust who came into the land and devoured everything.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to look at that.
SPEAKER_01: That really happened.
SPEAKER_01: But there's also a now perspective to a prophetic book.
SPEAKER_01: So Book of Revelation, really, Island of Patmos, John on the Island of Patmos really did see a revelation of Jesus, the apocalypse, at a time of great persecution in the church.
SPEAKER_01: But also there's a now element to this historical book.
SPEAKER_01: And so, church, this book is for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's for your life right now.
SPEAKER_01: Even as we look at Joel and we see that we're going to see the triumph of the church in the book of Joel and the book of Revelation, that triumph is true for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Also, if you take it and by faith you believe it.
SPEAKER_01: There's also a church, an ecclesiological element to the church.
SPEAKER_01: This is a word to the church and to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, and this is the part we tend to camp on the most as it relates to prophecy, it's also something about a future work that God is up to.
SPEAKER_01: So Joel is going to speak of a trumpet blast.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be looking at a trumpet blast.
SPEAKER_01: And that trumpet blast, at the time of the writing of Joel, this minor prophet with his major message was to warn Israel of something coming that was dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: Joel is warning us of things to come in the future that if we're unprepared for, could be dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles if you have them with you to Joel chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: And let's look briefly at Joel.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
SPEAKER_01: Joel, the son of Pethuel.
SPEAKER_01: Joel means Yahweh is God.
SPEAKER_01: He's a Hebrew prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Very little is known about Joel.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty interesting to study him.
SPEAKER_01: Went to several commentaries, and they all said, very little is known about Joel, except what's found in the book of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Very little is known about Joel except what's found in the book of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: So if you read it three or four times this week, that's what we have on Joel.
SPEAKER_01: The dating of the book, my goodness, it ranges from 500 to 800 BC.
SPEAKER_01: So we really don't know.
SPEAKER_01: It could be that he's the earliest of the minor prophets, that he's the first one.
SPEAKER_01: He's actually quoted, it appears in Amos and Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And then when I read that, I'm like, well, then why couldn't he be quoting Amos and Isaiah?
SPEAKER_01: So that's the reason they don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Between 500 and 800 BC, Joel is writing in a time of devastation in Judah.
SPEAKER_01: An enormous plague of locusts has come through, probably many believe, in just a few hours.
SPEAKER_01: So here was beautiful pasture, beautiful forest, cattle, sheep on the hills, fertile ground, green grass, bushes, trees with leaves on them.
SPEAKER_01: And then these locusts just come through in swarms.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna, it's very descriptive in the rest of the chapter what they do.
SPEAKER_01: And they devoured the land and to such a degree that they even strip the trees of all of their bark, and it brings economic devastation.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: God judges sin.
SPEAKER_01: God brings judgment on nations who will not repent.
SPEAKER_01: Nations that will not turn back to God or turn to God will be eventually judged by God.
SPEAKER_01: Listen and don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: What the prophet Joel was to ravage Judah, the prophetic church is to a ravaged world.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, we are called to warn this earth of the coming judgment of God and also to preach of the loving forgiveness of God.
SPEAKER_01: That there's more grace.
SPEAKER_01: You can't outsend God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have committed some pretty bad stuff, and you're walking right now with a lot of guilt.
SPEAKER_01: All of you are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is through the prophet Joel is reaching out to us today.
SPEAKER_01: So the prophet Joel, as he was to ravage Judah, Jesus is to our ravaged world today.
SPEAKER_01: What the prophet Joel is to ravage Judah, Jesus is to your ravaged life and family.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wants to come into the deepest parts of our damaged hearts to make us wholehearted believers by letting us come vulnerably to Him and letting His healing touch come to us.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, you elders.
SPEAKER_01: I would reframe that.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, you pastors.
SPEAKER_01: This is to me.
SPEAKER_01: This is to pastors.
SPEAKER_01: This is to church leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, you elders.
SPEAKER_01: Give ear, all you inhabitants of the land.
SPEAKER_01: Has anything like this happened in your days?
SPEAKER_01: Or even in the days of your fathers?
SPEAKER_01: Tell your children about it.
SPEAKER_01: Let your children tell their children and their children another generation.
SPEAKER_01: This, men and women, is about something terrible and beautiful that's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Who would have dreamed even 25 years ago that we would be where we are today?
SPEAKER_01: That we we didn't even know the term Al-Qaeda.
SPEAKER_01: Until really about five or six years ago, we didn't know the term ISIS because it just got formed.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't know about cell phones.
SPEAKER_01: I remember getting the first, I think we called it a car phone.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought I was like sort of like James Bond pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna say this was the mid-90s, like 96 or 97.
SPEAKER_01: I remember, I don't even think we had a church building yet with Mountain Springs.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just driving along, and it's a brick.
SPEAKER_01: It's this massive honking thing, and you pull out the little antenna and everything.
SPEAKER_01: And where we are today, how much things have changed?
SPEAKER_01: The transformation and information and all that's happening, and right now with Paris reeling 9-11, just a number of years ago, us reeling, and the Middle East on fire right now.
SPEAKER_01: Who would have dreamed that we'd be at a place where it's quite debatable whether we really even support Israel anymore at all?
SPEAKER_01: The central theme of Joel is the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The day of the Lord is coming, mentioned five times in Joel.
SPEAKER_01: 13 times in seven other prophetic books.
SPEAKER_01: So it's mentioned the most in the book of Joel, the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is a warning book.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's being warned by this prophetic word, and America is being warned by us tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: Two fires of the kind of devastation we saw in the last three years.
SPEAKER_01: And God's not trying to get our attention here in Colorado Springs?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: God, I believe, has a special plan for this city.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in his heart God's wanted to do something great in this city of Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he wanted to be a model city of God's love and compassion and generosity and righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: The devastation of those fires.
SPEAKER_01: As far as I can tell, there's no increase in church membership.
SPEAKER_01: No great revival that's come to our city.
SPEAKER_01: God's allowed two massive fires to come through and destroy hundreds and hundreds of homes.
SPEAKER_01: The central theme of Joel is the day of the Lord is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, there's a day of the Lord in your life too.
SPEAKER_01: God's coming, and he always gives us grace with his warnings.
SPEAKER_01: You have warnings.
SPEAKER_01: We have warnings.
SPEAKER_01: Our nation has warnings.
SPEAKER_01: We have warning after warning after warning, harbingers, as it were, of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He does that personally and he does that nationally.
SPEAKER_01: Joel is a warning to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so in 2 Chronicles 7.14, we read: if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, and I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land.
SPEAKER_01: This word coming out of Chronicles to us is a word to the people of God about the one true God, about the grace of God, that if we'll repent and turn back to Him, not only will He relent from judgment, he'll actually heal our land.
SPEAKER_01: It's true on a personal level.
SPEAKER_01: When we come and we know stuff's in our life, some of you here tonight, you know there's stuff that's happening in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're running from God.
SPEAKER_01: And the long arm, the grace and the love of God is calling you back.
SPEAKER_01: He can heal your heart.
SPEAKER_01: I was with a young man this week who spent a majority of his life running from God.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just recently come back to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He's so fired up, he's so excited.
SPEAKER_01: And I look at his life, and I mean, there is a lot of devastation because of choices that he's made.
SPEAKER_01: But God's healing him.
SPEAKER_01: And he's in a D group.
SPEAKER_01: He's got some guys ministering to him, and he's ministering to them, and it's encouraging to see what God's doing in his life.
SPEAKER_01: God's long arm of grace calls you men and women home, but turn back.
SPEAKER_01: Because I believe there is sometimes a place where you pass through this place where it moves from the compassion of the Lord to the judgment of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be under the judgment of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody go like this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be under the judgment of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'd rather be under the judgment of the Lord than the judgment of man.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's always grace with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Joel's message to us is that a day of the Lord is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Repent.
SPEAKER_01: Blow the trumpet.
SPEAKER_01: Come back to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we're studying.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Joel.
SPEAKER_01: God's divine intelligence to us.
SPEAKER_01: Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Noah was given harbingers.
SPEAKER_01: Noah is giving signs that there was a storm coming.
SPEAKER_01: There was a flood coming, and he prepared.
SPEAKER_01: And God is giving us a harbinger, as it were, through Joel.
SPEAKER_01: This is an intelligence brief of the things that are coming our way.
SPEAKER_01: So prepare.
SPEAKER_01: You don't think Noah was made fun of?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you think Noah was considered a lunatic?
SPEAKER_01: You think Noah was the laughingstock?
SPEAKER_01: Of course he was.
SPEAKER_01: And you will be too as you prepare for the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because we are going to be not in step.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be out of step with the culture.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to be in step with the church.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be out of step with the church.
SPEAKER_01: Most of the church is ill-prepared for what's coming.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to be a church that's equipped by the Lord for what is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it interesting?
SPEAKER_01: Joel chapter 2, that when the church was birthed, and here's scaredy cat Peter, who has run from a little servant girl, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, people from Cappadocia and Pontius and Ephesus and Rome and Egypt, all over North Africa and all over the Mediterranean, come, they all start hearing their language being spoken through the preaching of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Peter gets up and he preaches from Joel chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we call this book the End Times Church.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is not only going to show us the devastation of sin and the devastation of the enemy, he's going to show us the power of an empowered, spirit-filled, word-grounded church.
SPEAKER_01: What God wants to do for each one of you.
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 Rogue, PO 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: PO 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.