Arise & Shine 2022 Part 2

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of The Road at Chapel Hills.

This is the Road Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

Alright, so I did not even come close to where I wanted to be from this morning to tonight.

So I had to go up there with the PowerPoint team and walk through where we're at.

So turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 60, and we're talking about this idea of a rise and shine out of the darkness into the light.

That you are people of the light.

But yet we are people of the light, and yet we don't shine sometimes.

And so I think the challenge in 22 is will you arise and shine?

That's up to you.

All I can do is be a cheerleader for you, an encourager, your pastor, your leader, your friend, but you have to arise and shine every day.

And I can't make that happen.

And it is amazing, you know, you've heard the proverbial, you know, uh story of, you know, leading the horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

It's really true.

And that's why my grandfather's a rancher had blocks of salt.

So he had blocks of salt all over the pastures there in South Carolina on his ranch, where the cows would get the nutrients that comes from licking that block, but it would also make them thirsty so that they would replenish themselves.

Because sometimes cows won't do that.

So you have to kind of, you you can you can get them there, but they won't drink, so you make them thirsty.

So I'm here to make you thirsty tonight.

I'm here to kind of give you, I'm a salt lick, okay, for the Lord.

And I want to make you thirsty.

I want to make you hungry for him.

And that's our goal: the worship, the prayers, everything tonight, tomorrow night, and Tuesday night, is that you would be fascinated with Jesus, that you would be excited about him, that you would want to gaze at him, that you want to love him in a deeper, more manifest, more powerful way in the new year.

Because the more you fall in love with Christ, the more he can, his spirit can flow through you into amazing miracles in your life.

And I believe every person who follows Jesus should be experiencing signs and wonders wherever they go.

It should be the normal Christian life, it should be supernatural.

And it's not because of us, it's not because of him.

He's available.

We just had a pastor's advance up on Thursday with the pastors, and we were up there.

One of the things that was said there was, and I think it was uh Pastor Al who said it, he said, we can have as much of God as we want.

It's really true.

He doesn't limit himself to certain people, they're more anointed or they're more gifted.

No, God shows up for the most hungry and the most thirsty for him.

And so I'm here of the persuasion that you're here tonight because you're like that.

You're already that way, and so God's gonna show up in a mighty way.

So this morning we looked at Isaiah 59.

I won't cover that again, but we kind of look at the context in Isaiah of how the enemy comes in like a flood, but then he raises a standard.

He raises a standard in the midst of the enemy's work, and it's an intercessor.

It's a person, and I gave you three definitions of an intercessor.

It's one who's a man or woman of prayer, it's a person who's walking in proclamation, they proclaim the gospel, but they're also protection.

So there's a restrainer.

What I mean by that is what intercession literally means is that you're in between two things.

You stand in the gap, you're between two things, and you take, you take the heat, but you also take the power and you deliver it to the other side.

So intercession in prayer means you're praying for someone else.

You're not praying just for yourself, but you're praying for your wife, you're praying for your husband, you're praying for your sons and daughters, you're praying about your roommate, you're praying about school, you're an intercessor, you're interceding, you're between those things.

Well, same in the area of protection.

So you protect, you protect your family, you protect your heart, you protect by standing with Christ in an intercessory role of protection.

Then he moves into chapter 60.

Chapter 60, verse 1, and we started into that, and I want to kind of pick it up again in verse 1.

Arise, shine for your light has come.

Arise, shine for your light has come.

So in 2022, choose to arise and shine.

That means that you wake up and you begin to give God the opportunity to shine through you.

You're gonna you already, I like when it says, arise, shine, for your light has come.

It is present and past.

You have the light.

It has come.

But we have to arise and shine.

And so in Ephesians, jot down Ephesians 5, 8 through 14.

Ephesians 5, 8 through 14.

Paul says this.

For you were once darkness.

Now, how well how well would that go over in the culture if you said to someone, you're darkness?

Not very well.

But that's what Paul says.

Paul says, every one of us in this room, we're darkness.

You're your darkness, but now you're light.

You are the light.

He doesn't say the Lord is the light.

He says you are light in the Lord.

Now, this is really important that we understand in this new year, you're the light.

I'm the light.

Anna and I were talking about the difference between Armenianism and Calvinism on the way here.

We were driving this morning, coming in.

Anna's visiting from Georgia, and she was saying, I feel like, okay, yeah, we were dead in our transgressions and sins.

So there is a total depravity part.

That's the T and the tulip and stuff with, you know, when we're talking about Calvinism.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it.

But um, but that we're created in the image of God.

So there's still light.

The argument could be made that there's still light in you because you're created in the image of God.

That's the reason there's good people that are non-Christians.

I mean, they're good people, they do the right thing.

It's called, we call it common grace.

There's common goodness, there's common grace out there.

Well, here he's saying, you are light.

Now he's talking about those who know the Lord, but the point is, is that even without Christ, there's light in every man.

And I think if you can see that and understand that, it's helpful in calling out the best in people.

He says, You are darkness, now there's light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light.

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.

But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light.

For whatever makes manifest is light.

Therefore, in other words, because that's true, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

I can promise you that when Paul wrote this, he's thinking of Isaiah 60.

Now he's not thinking Isaiah 60 because they didn't have chapter titles, but he knew the scriptures well.

He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.

He knew Isaiah.

He knew what Isaiah had written.

That's what he's alluding to, is our passage here.

He's saying, Look, you used to do stuff in secret that was really bad.

You were up to no good.

You were darkness.

And Christ came, he saved you.

And now in Christ, you're this light.

This light shines in you.

But still, even under those circumstances, we have to awake we who tend to sleep.

Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

So it's in a sense, every day is a resurrection in our lives.

Every day we have to choose to rise from the dead.

Every day we have to get up out of our sleep and we have to forgive people.

Every day people hurt us.

You know?

And every day you get disappointed and you had goals and you had plans and they didn't work out.

What are you going to do with that?

What are you going to do about that in 20?

Are you going to let that just drag you down?

Or are you going to say, I mean, I need to forgive?

Today I'm going to rise and shine.

I'm going to rise and shine.

I am going to take this day and I am going to make an impact for God in all that I do.

Man, you think God can work with somebody like that?

Are you kidding me?

I mean, God's just, he's just, his, the dancing hand of God is moving across the city and the county here in this church right now.

And he's just saying, man, if you'll just arise and shine and walk by faith, you don't even know what I can do through you.

It will amaze you what I can do through you.

So I want to challenge you, will you arise and shine in 22?

Will you arise and shine in 22?

It's your responsibility to do that.

It's my responsibility to do that.

I don't want to do that sometimes.

And none of us are going to do it perfect.

But I am convinced that I can get more of God's presence in my life if I will arise and shine more each day.

And if I do that, God's going to show up in some marvelous ways.

Because here's what the rest of verse 1 says.

He says, Arise, shine, your light has come.

Exclamation point.

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

So number two is that in 22, God's glory will rise upon you.

I promise you that's going to happen.

If we arise and shine, his glory will shine.

His glory will shine upon us if we will arise and shine.

If we will rise and stand and let the light shine, the glory of the Lord will come and rise upon us.

In a sense, we're kind of the moon, and he's the sun.

And so you see that bright moon.

That sun, that's a reflection of the sun.

The moon has no light.

It's a reflection.

And so there's a glory of God.

And the word here is kabod.

C-H-A-B-O-D.

Kabad.

Kabad means weight.

It means substance.

It means substantial.

It means heaviness.

It means power, glory, honor, wealth, and dignity.

That's what kabod means.

In the Old Testament, Kabbat had the idea of weight or honor or substance.

I like the word depth.

Kabbod means depth.

The contrast is lightness, which is equated with vanity, instability, and emptiness.

I dated a lot of girls before I married Liz.

And all of them were good looking.

I was into good-looking women.

That's why I married the one I got.

But a lot of them did not have Kabbod.

Okay?

They were what we might call airheads.

They were light.

There was not much to them.

You know, they look great.

But then I'd I'm not bringing that one home.

There is no way my parents would go, what are you doing?

That girl, I mean, you know, is any anybody home?

You know.

So Kabbat has the idea of weightiness.

It has the idea of someone with substance.

So when we talk about the glory of the Lord, it means you start having substance to your life.

There's something to you.

You're not just, it's not gonna help, bro.

It's not gonna help, but thank you.

I'm sorry, you guys.

Until I'm not speaking all the time, it's gonna be like this.

I'll get a few days off.

And Eric Metaxas is speaking on Sunday, so I can take a break there too.

I sent out an invitation to some pastors tonight about it.

And um, I'm not gonna say who, but a very large church in town said, why don't we stream it?

So they may stream Eric to their church on Sunday morning, which would be kind of cool.

Um but Kabod, this idea of the glory of God, is that I think as we arise and shine, we start following the Lord in areas we haven't followed Him before.

God puts, He gives a new maturity, he gives a weightiness to your life.

Become a person of substance.

Have you met people that you just, you know, you listen to them and it's just all it is is um, I don't know, the same thing you've always heard.

It's like amen, brother.

And uh let's have fellowship.

I'm like, I remember when I was a new believer, I was like, what's a fellowship?

I didn't know what that was, man.

It's like people that that that that church, they always talk about fellowship.

What?

Because Lutherans don't say fellowship.

Now they have fellowship halls.

I never I didn't know exactly what that meant, but you got fellowship, fellowship, but why was it let's just get together?

Okay, why don't we just get together and it's fellowship?

You know, and so there's so sometimes what happens even in the Christian life is we we just kind of go into sort of the the Christian ease and the lingo of it all, and there's no substance to it because we really aren't being transformed and changed by it.

And so what I think he means is that the glory of the Lord following your life, you guys, is he wants the light so shining that you're a person of substance.

There's some depth to you.

You think before you talk, you understand the ways of the Lord.

You see, when I think of our young people all over the church that I want to see mentored, I want to mentored by people like you.

I want my kids mentored, I want our young people through to be mentored by people with some depth to their life.

Not just spouting off colloquialisms, but people who have depth to them.

That's what it means the glory of the Lord will follow.

And you say, Well, I'm not like that.

I I'm not a very deep person.

I'm I'm I'm the opposite of that.

Well, you know what?

In 22, you can change.

You can let God change you.

Think.

Learn to think.

Read good books.

Read good books.

Read deep books.

Don't just read, you know, Christian comic books.

That's what most of them are.

They're just Christian comic books.

But I mean, read about men and women who made an impact.

Read about deep topics.

Oh, it's boring.

Well, it won't be boring if you start arising and shining.

Because what'll happen is you'll realize, I gotta know what to do here.

Because God's gonna put you in circumstances you don't know what to do, and you have to trust him.

So you go deeper.

That's what wholehearted advances is with the men.

We take you on our, we go up in advance and we we go deep on being wholehearted.

That's what Tuesday morning's about.

We talk about our hearts.

It's not the six points to have a successful marriage or the three points to whatever.

You know, it's not a pep talk.

It's that we try to go deep into things so that we can grow.

That's the glory of the Lord on a thinking person, on a person of death.

I want my kids to marry men and women of death.

Then they'll have deep families.

I want you young people out here who want to get married someday.

I want you to marry deep people, but you can't marry a deep person if you're not a deep person.

Deep people are attracted to deep people.

I know, because I dated so many light people.

You know, I wasn't a Christian, okay.

But but you heard what I'm saying?

Go deeper this year.

Think deeper, read deeper, worship with depth.

Think about what you're saying when you worship.

Look at the words, think about that.

Oh God, I want your glory in my life, the kebab.

Because when the kebab, the glory of the Lord, comes, he's gonna use you.

Psalm 72, 19.

And blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory.

Amen and amen.

Daniel 2.44.

The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, it shall break in pieces and consume all these other kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

You see what he's saying here?

He's saying that when we become people of the glory of God, then God's going to use you in the world to bring the kingdom.

That's what he's doing.

He's looking for people that bring the kingdom.

Isaiah 9, 6 and 7.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

And the government of God will be upon his shoulder.

And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase, of his government and peace, there will be no end.

Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom.

So God's kingdom, his glory is coming across the globe.

I mean, it's really a mystery, isn't it?

How this happens.

I mean, it seems like darkness is over the land.

But the kingdom, the light of the kingdom is going forward, gang?

Through you.

And you may not notice it, but you're gonna notice it this year.

God's going, his glory's gonna come through you.

At your job, in your family.

So it starts in our home.

It starts in our home.

May I challenge you to have deeper conversations this year?

Think, I mean, how about this?

You know, you're at supper and you and you got all the kids there, or maybe it's just you and your wife or whatever, and you say, What's the glory of the Lord mean?

What?

All right?

We'd rather talk about the weather, we'd rather talk about the football game or the playoffs.

How about if we go a little deeper and we we ask questions like that?

Look where it's gonna go.

It'll increase our capacity for the glory of God.

Because we're thinking deeper.

We should be the smartest people on the face of the earth.

Christians should be the smartest people in math.

Christians should be the smartest people in science.

Christians should be the smartest people in geology and geography.

We should be the smartest people because we have this capacity called the glory of God that increases actually our mental abilities.

Because you're lined up with the kingdom, you're lined up with the glory of God.

But we have to arise and shine.

So first, arise and shine.

Second, the glory of God will be upon us.

Number three, look at verse two.

Because this is the way we feel, right?

I mean, this is what this is what we battle with today.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness, the people.

But the Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

So the earth is full of darkness.

Culture, all that culture is really, is a combination of the values of a people.

It is the it's the consummate total of the culture, of the values of the people that constitute culture, in my opinion, is neutral.

It's just neutral.

It is what it is.

So I'm not going to say culture is darkness.

I will just say that most cultures are dark because the light hasn't come.

So when Paul, when Jesus says in Matthew 20, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, he seems to indicate to us that he wants us to disciple a nation.

What if, forget the nation part, that's a little bit, that's above my pay grade, but what if we discipled a county?

What if you discipled your family?

Hello?

We just started with our family, but we started building some great families, hundreds of them just in this church, and other churches caught the fire.

We started discipling our city.

We started discipling our county.

Whenever we saw darkness, we tried to be the light.

Simple as that.

Not some grandiose strategic plan, but just when you're shopping, you see darkness, be the light.

You see so you see a little old lady who's struggling to get to the door and she can barely walk, you come along and you help her out.

When you go and you and you buy a meal at a restaurant, you tip well and you thank them and you ask if you can pray for them.

Just little things.

If everybody started doing that, we would start to shine a light in the darkness.

That's number three.

In 2022, shine the light of Christ in the darkness.

Shine the light of Christ in the darkness.

May we disciple our city, our county.

Look at Matthew 5.

So turn to Matthew 5.

And Jesus basically says the same thing in Matthew 5.

He might have even been alluding again to Isaiah 60, Matthew 5, um 13.

Matthew 5, 13, in the Sermon on the Mount.

You are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

So, you guys, in the temple area, they had all these rooms on the Temple Mount area where they kept things, different things.

And they had a room for salt.

And the reason they had the room, they had the salt was because this was old salt.

This was salt that they used when things froze and when it snowed or it was cold.

This was the old salt that wasn't good anymore.

It didn't have any flavor.

And so they would take that salt and they would throw it on the Temple Mount to melt the snow and the ice.

That's all it was good for.

So he's saying when if salt loses its flavor, it's just for melting the ice.

It has no other purpose than that.

Verse 14, but you are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light all over in the house.

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

So Jesus is saying, We are the light of the world.

And then he's later going to say, I am the light of the world.

So he's the light of the world, you're the light of the world.

But he's not saying I'm the light of the world just through you, but that I'm the light of the world, but you're also the light of the world, and is the light of the world shine.

And I mean it's really cool.

I've done many prayer meetings up on the roof of this facility.

It's been a while, but we used to do it all the time in the early days because you can see way out.

You can see way down to Garden of the Gods.

You can see way down toward Pueblo and the whole mountain range.

As far as the eye can see on certain days, you can see the mountain range way down there.

You can see parts of the city.

So the road at Chapel Wiz really is a city on a hill.

I mean, look how many are in here on any given weekend.

How many are here tonight?

We're a city on a hill.

I mean, this group right here is bigger.

You're bigger than most of the towns in Colorado.

You know?

So you're a city on a hill.

Why can't we make a difference here?

Why can't we bring the kingdom in a significant way into all forms of darkness this year?

If we see something happening in our school that we disagree with, we feel like it's unrighteous in a winsome, joyful, kind way, say something.

Set up an appointment.

Like we've done.

Liz and I were set up an appointment with the principal because of something that was taught in one of the classrooms.

And we were nice about it.

They were nervous.

We weren't.

What do they want?

We had this teacher, she's mad at us, you know, kind of mad at us.

I don't care.

We just said, no, we were nice about it, though.

We weren't arrogant.

I'm gonna do it.

Some of you guys are arrogant.

I mean, you are.

I don't, you know, that's that's not my gig, man.

You know, let's be nice, let's be kind, but we can still have convictions, right?

Say, hey, I heard, you know, I heard this happen in the classroom.

Is that accurate?

Oh, yeah, okay.

Well, here's why I got a problem with that.

You know?

I'm a Jesus follower, and and I just think, you know, that's not necessarily the right place for that.

And it's okay if they say, well, I disagree.

I mean, that it's a it's a pluralistic culture.

It's okay.

Everybody doesn't have to believe the way I do.

But the reason that things happen and darkness infiltrates our schools is because good light parents don't do anything.

They want to challenge you.

That's that's not what the way we work around here.

We, you know, if you feel something's from the Lord, stand up for it.

But do it in a nice way.

You mean you can't speak the good news if you're the bad news.

So don't be the bad news, be the good news and speak the good news.

Okay?

So he says that you're a light on a hill, you you light this lamp, you don't put it under a basket.

We light it.

We're proud of what we believe in.

And we're confident.

And if you're not, take someone who is.

You know, go together.

Um, support each other.

By the way, you get more confident by doing what you're the most scared of.

You gain more courage and more confidence by doing the very thing that you're the most frightened of.

And by the way, on the thing with the school, I was following my wife because she's the leader, but I follow her on some things, okay?

So you hear what I'm saying?

So Liz had the boldness, I was there, we were we did it together.

But the reality is that God's gonna give you situations and circumstances where there's darkness.

And it might be even with a son or daughter, and that can be very intimidating where you haven't you haven't said anything before.

You've let things happen, and now you've got to try to reel it back in.

So you do, with kindness and with mercy and with love, you say, you know, I've been rethinking this a little bit.

And um, I know you're not gonna like this, but uh who feeds you?

Oh wait, who pays the mortgage on this house?

Um, do you sleep in a bed?

Oh, who bought that bed?

So, as long as you're under my roof, we're gonna go to church on Sundays together.

Oh, I can't believe you're, you know, you're a dictator.

I can't believe you're making me do that.

Then you can leave.

You know?

So you can say it nicely.

Smile and you doesn't bother you one bit, you know, you're not losing any sleep over it.

In other words, sometimes you gotta reel it back in, but you're gonna do it gradually.

Say, look, I know this is this is really hard for you, and usually you're drunk on Saturday night, and so you come staggering in and you throw up in your bathroom and everything.

And um, we're we're we're not gonna we're gonna not gonna do that anymore.

We're not doing the throw up in the bathroom thing anymore in our house, okay?

Go throw up in your friend's apartment or whatever, but here, you know, we want you to respect our home.

And we want to respect you.

We're trying to make you into a leader, and there's not a lot of good leaders out there that are throwing up all the time.

And so we want to help you learn how to think better, work harder, be a part of the team.

So you gradually you kind of start doing so you guys can take back the ground that you gave up.

You're the light in the darkness, and not everybody's gonna like that.

It's good for them.

How many would say when someone came and kicked you in the pants on a few things, that was bad?

That's what I thought.

So it's a good thing.

So, anyway, in a loving way, you're a light in the darkness.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at the Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to theroad.org.

God bless you.