Arise & Shine 2022 Part 1

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.

I mentioned last week, and I'm going to say it again, that I really do believe that 2022 is a tipping point year in our nation.

I think it's a tipping point for the church.

And I think the church is struggling right now.

It's struggling because it's not sure of what it believes.

Even many evangelical churches.

Eric's going to address some of this.

He and I are going to talk about this.

And I think that the title he'll use will be something like this How to Live Courageously in Changing Times.

And there's a lot of pastors, and there's a lot of leaders, and even many of you in this room who are full of fear.

And it feels like every time you look at the news or every time you listen to a podcast, it's so negative.

And it's so demoralizing that it's taking you down.

Well, at this church, I want you to believe that every time you come to the road, we're going to challenge you to live courageously, to not fear, and to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and be rooted on the Word of God.

So from time to time I have meetings with pastors.

And sometimes in those meetings, I get challenged by them because of some of the statements I've made, and they hear about it.

And where I stand is what Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy, where he said, the church is the ground and the pillar of truth.

Where else are we going to get truth than in the church?

And so this is a tipping point.

Are we going to walk in truth?

Are we going to be joyful in truth?

Are we going to be winsome in truth?

Or are we going to be cowardly in fear and find ourselves all locked up in trying to please man instead of trying to please God?

So it's a tipping point.

And I think that's probably why God spoke to me in November.

Arise and shine.

That we have to arise, you have to arise and shine every day, men and women.

And we tend to sleep.

We tend to fall.

I like sleep.

I got like seven hours of sleep last night.

I was exhausted.

We went and heard the Philharmonic last night, which was the first time in two years that they've done a concert.

And it was it was beautiful, Samuel, Liz, and I.

And we had a pastor's retreat.

We call it a pastor's advance on Thursday.

And then we had the elders over for the same some of the same material that we're working on for the whole year yesterday.

I was exhausted.

I love sleep.

But when that when it's that time in the morning and everybody's different in this, it's time to arise and shine.

The problem is when believers sleep all the time.

And they're always asleep.

And I want to say, get a cup of coffee, get some spiritual coffee into your system through the word of God.

And let's arise and shine, and let's make an impact.

So I want you to look at Luke chapter 11 with me.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

And we're going to work our way toward Isaiah 60.

I don't know how far we're going to get today.

We'll cover the rest of it tonight and Monday night and Tuesday night.

But I want you to look at Luke 11.

And Luke 11 is an interesting pericope or passage in the New Testament because Jesus is casting out a demon.

And he's getting questioned about what kind of spirit is empowering him to cast out this demon.

And they seem to indicate that he is working in tandem with Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.

You guys realize that just as God has a hierarchy, he has archangels and he has angels and principalities and powers.

Satan has a hierarchy, and Beelzebub has been historically the prince of the demons.

So he might, we don't know this for sure, but it could be that he's just under Satan in carrying out what happens around the world.

And we know from Daniel chapter 10 and from Ephesians 6 that there's actually principalities and powers that rule over nations.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

There's a principality, a demonic, angelic spirit that rules over America from the dark side.

And if men and women do nothing, if the church does not move forward with the proclamation and demonstration of the kingdom of God, then the kingdom of darkness will win.

It will begin to take over.

And we see that in so many areas right now in culture.

So I felt like this was a great starting point.

Listen to the dialogue, and let's draw a few thoughts on it as we set up for this principle and this admonition to arise and shine.

Verse 14 of Luke 11.

As he was casting out a demon and it was mute, so it was when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke and the multitudes marveled.

But some of them said he cast out demons by Beelzebolt, the ruler of the demons.

So even the Jews at that time understood principalities and powers.

It's amazing to me, the Jews at that time, without even the revelation of Jesus Christ, understood that.

Many in the church today do not understand what I'm talking about whenever I bring this up because of lack of good teaching.

So the ruler of the demons is Beelzebol.

Others testing him sought from him a sign from heaven.

Isn't that ironic?

You're casting out a demon and they want a sign from heaven.

Verse 17.

But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.

If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?

Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.

And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out, therefore they will be your judges.

And that's really interesting.

First of all, he's saying, Can't be that any kingdom, even the dark side kingdom, even the satanic kingdom, can stand if it's divided within itself.

So why would Beelzebub, the Prince of the Demons, have me casting out demons which are actually working for me?

Okay?

So that's what he says.

So here's the rhetorical point here is that Satan's not divided.

He's not divided in and of himself.

He doesn't work that way.

He works with a united front of darkness to take down Christians, the church, all that's good in society in order to divide.

So here's the first point I want to make out.

That is, Satan always comes to divide.

That's his job description.

His job description is to divide your family.

His job description is to divide your marriage.

His job description is to divide your mind.

That's his greatest work.

Before demonic powers can divide a family, they divide a mind.

That's why it's always a good idea to have a clear conscience.

It's always a good idea to do the right thing.

Because when you go to bed at night and you're laying there in bed, you're not going through, I hope they don't find out about this.

I hope they don't find out about that.

That's a divided mind.

A divided mind will destroy your faith.

You're duplicious.

You know, when you line up to run a race, if you're a runner, you're looking at the goal.

You can't be thinking about shop put.

You can't be thinking about dinner that night.

You got to run the race.

You got to have a united mind.

Everything in life is like that.

And so Jesus makes the very important distinction.

That this is the purpose.

He comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and he's coming to divide.

So here's what James says.

James 1, James says this if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives all to all liberally and without reproach, and it'll be given to him.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts, this is important, but let him who ask with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He's double-minded.

He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So, guys, it's so important you protect your mind.

You can't be double-minded.

And the only way you cannot be double-minded is to be single-minded.

And we're single-minded when we walk in the Spirit, when we spend time in God's Word, and we do the right thing.

So, so you could actually condense sanctification of the Christian life into wake up in the morning, spend time with Jesus, and throughout the day, don't do anything you know is wrong.

And you would be stable in all your ways.

You would be.

Now that doesn't mean that you won't have problems and struggles.

It means you won't be creating them.

Because you see, there's a whole lot of devils out there, and they're constantly harboring ill will, trying to take down your family, trying to take you out of your job because you're a believer, trying to work against you and all that they do.

You don't need to be working against yourself.

That's not good.

I'm from Georgia, I'm not real smart, but I figured it out.

When you work against yourself, when you're unstable and you're double-minded and you're thinking, that's worse than any outside battles that you have to deal with.

Right?

So that's where a lot of believers are.

They love Jesus, they come to church, they're good people.

I mean, they are good people, but they're unstable because they've let the divider get in.

They've let darkness come in, and it's dividing their thinking, and so they're duplicious on stuff.

And that you've got to be careful about what you watch, you've got to be careful about what you look at, you have to be careful about the movies you go to, you've got to be careful about what you read, because we don't have much time on this earth.

We don't have time to be duplicious.

God wants us to be single-minded.

And so that's what that's what Jesus is talking about.

And then he takes it a step further.

And this is the most encouraging part of this passage.

Look at verse 20.

So Jesus isn't done with them yet.

First of all, he says, look, the devil's not, the devil's not divided.

Then he says a very important point.

But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, I love that.

All it takes is the finger of God to cast out a demon.

Isn't that amazing?

Surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.

But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils.

He who is not with me is against me, he who does not gather with me scatters.

He's saying there's a stronger one.

There's a stronger one.

I'm the stronger one.

In other words, I'm showing you a sign from heaven.

I'm casting out demons because I'm stronger than Beelzebub.

And church, if you've got Jesus in your heart, if Jesus is living in your life, release the strong man over your family.

Release the strong man over your marriage.

Release the strong man over your student life, over your single life, over your purity, over the struggle.

Give Jesus access and he will kick the devil out.

That's what he does.

He's a stronger man.

I'll give you three things that I see in this passage.

Three things.

When Jesus shows up, he always overcomes the enemy.

Number one, when Jesus shows up, he overcomes the enemy.

Number two, when Jesus shows up, he takes away the enemy's armor.

In other words, he disempowers him.

And then number three, when Jesus shows up, he divides the spoils.

So when Jesus comes, he creates division in the demonic world.

So he's creating division.

So when he's casting out that demon in the situation which the Pharisees and the scribes are critiquing him, he's actually doing the opposite of what they said.

He's not dividing by working for Beelzebub, he's dividing by working for God, and he's dividing Beelzebub's kingdom.

So church, God's on the move.

And to the extent that we allow him to work in the commerce of our county and our city, in your job, in your marriage, he can clean house.

He can come in and his light can shine into the darkness.

That's what he does.

And so if you've got struggles in your mind, you've got to settle that.

I want to challenge you in 22.

Arise and shine.

Settle that.

Have a single-minded devotion to Christ.

Be, as we say on Tuesday mornings to the men, wholehearted.

Be wholehearted.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love Him with your body.

Love Him with your thinking.

Love Him in your relationships.

Loving in the kind of attitudes that you have.

And we're all imperfect in this.

Take it from me.

Take it from my family.

It's possible, even when you make mistakes, even when you mess up, to come back stronger than before.

So this church was built on Isaiah 43, 18 and 19.

Isaiah 43, 18 and 19 says, Behold, don't look at the old thing.

Behold, I do a new thing.

I am going to make streams in the desert and road in the wilderness.

And you may be in the desert right now.

You may be in the wilderness in some area of your life right now.

God's MO is to come into that desert and into that wilderness and make a new way of the living streams of his Holy Spirit and His word flowing through your life.

Will you let him?

Will you let him in 22?

Will you let him come in and heal that marriage and heal that brokenness and heal that duplicious mind that you have?

Because you know, listen, you guys, if you stay in the duplicitous mind, if you stay in this, you know, I'm a little this way, I'm a little that way, and you're always wavering on key points, you'll become mentally ill.

You will.

Your mind's not even made for that.

Your mind is to be single-minded.

Your mind is to be focused on the unchanging king and the unshakable kingdom.

The unchanging king, the unshakable kingdom.

As we talked about last week.

So God wants that.

Now, turn your Bibles to Isaiah.

I want you to look at Isaiah 59, and this is all a setup for the next three days.

I want you to look at Isaiah 59.

Because Isaiah 60 talks about a rise and shine.

But I want you to look at the context in Israel at that time, what's happening, and why this is so vital and so important.

So it appears in Isaiah 59 like I'm reading about America in 2022, starting at verse 14.

But before I read it, let me just, I want you to catch something here.

I want you to catch the flavor of this.

And that is that God is always looking for intercessors.

God is always looking for men and women who will stand in the gap for justice and righteousness and holiness and truth.

Because the Lord is a warrior.

Here's what's interesting about Jesus, for example.

Jesus is so compassionate.

Matthew 11, 28 through 30 talks about the compassion of Jesus.

But if you read Psalm 24, Psalm 27, and then you're going to see that here, God also, through Jesus, is actually a warrior.

And we have this kind of effeminate Jesus most of the time in the church.

You remember the Sunday school pictures?

He looks like, he kind of looks like a California surfer boy wearing a robe.

I mean, that's all I can say, you know.

And and the and he looks kind of wimpy and you know, kind of, ha, you know.

But but I'd love to see some some Sunday school pictures of Jesus, and he's got some guns, man.

Right?

Okay.

And uh that's what I like about the chosen.

With Peter, Peter, Simon Peter.

Guys got some guns, man.

He's a fisherman.

You row a boat, you throw a net, you pull in lots of fish, guns, right?

Jesus is a carpenter.

Okay?

So I want you to pick up on this as I read it.

I wasn't gonna say all that, but I think this is important.

God is a warrior, and I want you to pick up on this, how he wars for us, starting in verse 14 of Isaiah 59.

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off, for truth is fallen in the street.

You ever felt that way about our country sometimes?

Equity cannot enter.

So truth fails.

And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

I mean, they're talking right now, like they're they're that they're keeping a list of those who put in for a religious exemption.

Because they want to know who those people are.

Okay?

Those who stand or depart from evil make themselves a prey.

But this is what I love.

And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him.

That there was no justice.

He saw that there was no man and wondered why there was no intercessor.

See, this is what happens when there's no intercession.

That's why, church, it's so important.

Get in a community group where you pray together.

Come to noonday prayer.

We have noonday prayer Monday through Friday.

Just pick one day a week.

Come for one hour, noon to one, and intercede.

Because when there's no intercessor, justice is defeated by the enemy.

But look how much God loves his people.

Therefore, his own arm brought salvation for him, and his own righteousness is sustained him, for he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.

He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, he was clad with zeal as a cloak, according to their deeds.

Accordingly, he will repay.

To his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, the coastlands he will fully repay.

So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

Who does he do that through?

He does it through the church.

He does it through people like us.

He does it through intercessors.

And let me give you three thoughts on intercession.

This is not in my notes.

You might not jot these down.

I think the unleashing of the kingdom through intercession is three things.

I think it's prayer, proclamation, and protection.

Prayer, proclamation, and intercession.

First, it's prayer.

It's a life of prayer.

It's developing prayer in your personal life where you cry out to God for Him to move in a mighty way.

He hears that prayer and he starts to move.

We see it all the time around here.

It's like every time we have a special alert prayer, and we've always and we've now gone like 450 days straight of noonday prayer.

Things, have you noticed how things are getting revealed?

I mean, it's left and right.

If you'd have told me some of the stuff that we sometimes hear about now, that we're in discussion about now, it wasn't even on our radar two years ago.

I'm talking about positive things.

I'm not talking about negative things.

I'm talking about even with the censoring of information that's happening today, information's leaking out because people are smart.

We're smart.

This church is an inordinate number of geeks and smart people in this church.

We really are.

I mean, I mean, I do not have many dumb people in this church.

You guys come up and you're so thoughtful and you're so strategic and tactical.

It's just amazing to me to see what you do.

And so God's moving.

That's what he does.

He's a God who moves out, and it baffles God that there's no intercession, but he keeps moving.

You see what you see what he's saying here?

I'm just gonna keep moving.

I'm gonna find them.

I will make intercessors where there's no intercessors.

I will make warriors where there have been no warriors.

I'm gonna make courageous people where they were cowards.

That's what I do.

I'm on the move, I'm working that way, and I'm gonna make you a man of God and a woman of God.

I am.

Well, Liz and I were talking about her ruth study.

We're talking about the women's studies that are coming up.

Our goal in our women's ministry is the same goals that we had in our men's ministry.

We want to make you worshipers and warriors.

We want to build spiritual warfare into you that you know how to intercede, you know how to pray, that you're a woman of God who is a woman of the word and a woman of the spirit.

Because if we don't, the enemy comes in like a flood.

And so when you look at verse 19, what he's saying here is the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard.

Guess what the standard is?

Us.

We're the church.

You lift up the standard, you are the intercessor.

He goes on.

Verse 20 the Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgressions in Jacob says to the Lord, As of me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them, my spirit who is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants, descendants, says the Lord, from this time and forevermore.

Wow.

He's saying here, you're a word and spirit believer.

If you're a word and spirit believer, it's because of the new covenant, it's because of what Christ has done.

And so, and so in Colossians 2, it says this, I love Colossians 2.

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together with him, having forgiven you all your sins, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that were against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way.

He has nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Folks, we have the victory.

We've already won.

We have stripped the enemy of his power.

You are forgiven.

You are released from your past.

You're a new person.

You do not have to be locked down by those people who locked you down before.

You're a new creation in Christ.

Behold, the old is passed away, the new has come.

Will you believe it?

Because if you'll believe it, you can walk in a new kind of victory this year.

And that leads into Isaiah 60.

I've run out of time, but I'm going to just do verse 1 and then I'll go at it really hard tonight.

Okay.

Arise, shine.

That's the context.

Remember, Isaiah didn't write in chapter titles.

That came later by human beings put together chapter titles.

So 60 verse 1 goes with 20 and 21 about standing in the gap.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

First thing, you've got to arise and shine, church.

We have to arise and shine.

We've got to get out of our sleep and come alive in Christ.

Arise and shine.

Then the glory shines upon you.

You guys hear what I'm saying?

You're supposed to arise and shine.

I'm supposed to arise and shine every day.

Look at it again.

Look at verse.

Arise, shine for your, has anybody got your light capitalized?

It's not capitalized because it's your light.

Your light has come, and the glory of the Lord all caps is risen upon you.

You're the light on the hill.

You guys are the light on the hill.

We are a city on a hill.

We are a light that shines in the darkness.

You can break the power of darkness because you already have the victory.

He's already won the battle.

Now we step into it with a victorious mindset.

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 the road.org.

God bless you.