Journey of Desire Part 2: Darkness - Christmas

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

For some of you, this is not a great time to go.

For some of you, because of loss in your life, and maybe because of loneliness and struggles that you've gone through this year, this is not a happy time.

It wasn't necessarily a happy time.

Right after Jesus was born in the first century year.

Where the light is beginning to shine bright.

Always the move of the enemy with darkness.

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

You have your Bibles.

Would you turn to Matthew chapter 2?

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Last week we talked about desire, the desire of the nations.

We looked at Matthew 2 and we talked about the cataclysmic cosmos of the kingly star and the wise men.

I want to talk about darkness today.

And I want to just be honest with you and say that we're living in interesting times.

I believe 2020 will be the most tumultuous year that America has ever been through.

Politically, maybe spiritually.

Definitely the warfare in the heavenlies is getting more and more tense.

And as we look at Matthew 2, I want to talk about this issue of the dark getting darker and the light getting brighter.

And you see it right here after Jesus is born, Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him.

Now just stop right there.

We've seen king used three times.

There's always two kings.

There's always two kings in your heart, and there's always two kings over a nation.

In this case, it's King Herod, and then he hears about a king, because the Magi, the Magos, had seen a kingly star, so they spoke of a king of the Jews.

There's always a king that God's using, and there's always a king that Satan's using.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where this Christ was to be born.

So they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written by the prophet, but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will be a shepherd to my people Israel.

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the young child, and when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also.

There's always deception.

There's always a work of deception happening when the enemy is at work and also when God is at work.

Verse 9.

When they heard the king, they departed, and behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was.

So you guys understand this is probably a month or two after Jesus was born.

If you grew up in the Orthodox Church or the Catholic Church, and in some cases mainline churches, you've heard of Epiphany.

And Epiphany is the celebration, a Christian celebration for thousands of years for the coming of the wise men, and it's usually January 6th or January 20th.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

Verse 11.

And when they had come into the house, so they're not in a stable anymore, they're not in a cave anymore, they went into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshipped him.

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

That's the reason we get the idea of there being three wise men, because there were three gifts, but there's no basis for the number of wise men, but it looks better.

It just looks better on the manger seemed to have three.

We know there were three gifts.

It could have been one wise, two wise men, it could have been ten wise men.

We don't know, but anyway.

They being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, and which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt I call my son.

So many of us see that prophetically as being like Jesus being a second Moses.

At the birth of Moses, similar scenario with Pharaoh, if you recall.

Birth of Jesus, similar scenario.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry.

And he sent forth and he put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time when he had determined from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.

Satan always attacks young people.

Satan always attacks children.

Satan is always on the move to destroy the next generation of believers before they come to know him, before they experience him in their life.

Even here at this beautiful time of year, Christmas, let us not forget the darkness that was involved in the coming of Christ.

That Satan's on the move, and that God was on the move.

And for some of you, this is not a great time of year.

For some of you, because of loss in your life, and maybe because of loneliness and struggles that you've gone through this year, this is not a happy time.

It wasn't necessarily a happy time right after Jesus was born in the first century either.

Where the light is beginning to shine bright, there's always a move of the enemy with darkness.

And he always attacks our young people.

And I think it's especially important that we hear what Esteban and Lisa are doing right here in our city with our young people.

Because they're giving their heart from something that tried to take their heart away when they were younger.

And instead of just moving along with just any job, they've actually chosen to have a ministry into the heart to some of the most vulnerable young people that Satan is ripping apart right now in our city.

And so as this darkness is flowing, there is a move of the Spirit happening.

And God is on the move.

So turn in your Bibles to Psalm 2.

How many of you have bought a diamond?

Maybe in the last, let's say 10 or 15 years, you bought a diamond or you've looked at diamonds at a jeweler.

Anybody like that?

Okay.

By the way, I haven't.

But I have in the past.

And I know this is true also with when I'm when I'm working with a fly, when I fly fish, it's the same principle, but that is that they will take a black, usually like a black felt pad that they'll lay out for you at a jeweler to make the diamond pop, to make the beauty of the diamond kind of pop against the black velvet or the black felt that they've put there.

Psalm 2, in my opinion, is the black velvet and the diamond.

Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, the great pastor of the London Tabernacle, back in the 1800s, looked at Psalm 2 in the form of four Acts.

Acts 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, like a theatrical production at that time in England in the 19th century, the Act 1 being the first three verses, then in the next three, the next three all the way through.

But it speaks of, I believe, something of what God does and is doing in the latter days.

Now listen to what I'm going to say next.

When the enemy is attempting to destroy your identity, steal your joy, and kill your faith, God is coming with greater light, greater protection, and greater power.

Now I don't understand this exactly, but it seems to me in Scripture that whenever God is on the move, even before we experience what he's about to do, Satan knows what's up.

And I don't know exactly what's happening in the spiritual realm of the fourth dimension, but it seems as though this fallen angel, Satan, who opposes everything good, right, wholesome, and righteous and right, seems to understand that he's about to move and he counters with something.

He counters with death, he counters with murder, he counters with violence.

And in Psalm 2, we have this picture, as Charles Spurgeon spoke, of like four acts, of a picture of what it's going to be like, a global opposition to God and the Father's response to the global opposition.

And I believe in 2020, and we'll talk more about this in the days ahead, because we're going to have three nights in a row at the beginning of January, preparing for the new year, where we're going to talk about our theme of partnership.

Partnership with the Holy Spirit.

Partnership with the Word of God.

Men and women, listen closely.

If you're not walking closely with the Lord this coming year, everything you believe in is going to be shaken at the very core.

Mark my word.

There will be riots in the streets.

If you're sending your kids to colleges, and if you've not grounded them well in the things of the word and the spirit, they're going to come home with a lot of interesting ideas.

Every one of the candidates on the democratic side of the political spectrum, except for two, are avowed socialist, which is a cloak for communism.

Which by the way is anti-God.

It's scary times.

Except for God.

So look at Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.

The spirit of the age hates the boundaries of the Word of God.

And thus there's a hatred for the Word of God.

And so the Word of God is being cast out in every chance, in every opportunity that it can be.

It's cast out, it's seen as archaic, irrelevant, obsolete.

Those are for old times of the past.

We don't need that anymore.

We're gonna break our bonds.

Don't tell us what to do.

Don't tell us of your morality.

Don't tell us about your views of marriage or your views of gender.

We have our ways, we're progressive, we have a new way of doing things, and it's about time you guys lined up and got in line with what's happening in our culture.

And here the psalmist David says, that's the way it's going to be.

That's what I predict.

That's the prophecy that came to him is that in those latter days the nations will rage against those biblical truths.

As Spurgeon said, Act two.

Curtain closes, the curtain opens.

Verse 4.

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

Wow.

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

They were called wise men.

Herod had all the power, all the influence religiously and politically.

And here comes along these wise men.

The Lord laughs at their strategies and plans.

Let's be wise men.

Let's be wise women.

Let's be wise young people.

The Lord shall hold them in derision.

And he shall speak to them in his wrath.

By the way, I don't think this is a laugh, kind of.

I think this is kind of a.

I don't know.

He holds them in derision.

He holds evil in derision and he laughs.

I don't know exactly how to describe that, but it's it's more like an understanding within him that he's got a plan that's going to put everybody to flight.

And so he's kind of laughing for the opportunity to let it roll.

Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure.

I love this.

Verse 6.

Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion, and I will declare the decree.

The Lord has said to me, You are my son.

Today I've begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron.

You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.

And then he says, Wake up, O you kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear.

On June 17th, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina, nine African American believers during a Bible study, gunned down.

Within a few months, another gunman would walk into an Oregon community college, asking each student as he pointed his automatic weapon at them, are you a Christian?

Are you not?

If they said they were not, he shot him in the leg, and if they said they were, he shot him in the head.

A growing hatred for the things of God.

Somewhere around estimates from 50 to 70 million babies slaughtered through abortion.

There are more kids in jails and prisons than ever in the history of our nation.

Crime, drug addiction, crack, opioid addiction, all-time high, and we legalize marijuana.

There are more slaves today around the world than any other time in human history.

Porn addiction is at an all-time high.

The porn industry brings in more than$100 billion a year around the world.

Hundred billion dollars.

Among millennials alone, it's between 18 and 30 years of age, a staggering eight out of ten men regularly use porn, and three out of ten women regularly consume porn.

Radical Islam is still alive and well in the Middle East, and even, as we know this week, London, England, spreading all over Europe.

Joel Rosenberg has said apocalyptic Islam wants to establish their global Islamic kingdom where everybody has to follow Islam.

And this is a much more dangerous form of radical Islam than Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Taliban.

These people are not crazy, they're demonic.

I praise God for Doug Lamborn, our congressman, who comes here to the road.

He's not here today because he's had some stuff he had to work on, but normally he's here.

I won't tell you where he sits because he hides out someplace in our sanctuary.

But what I love about Doug and Jeannie, first of all, is I've known them for 20 years and been a part of our family for around 15 years, and he's the same guy before he was a congressman as he is today as a congressman.

And he loves Jesus.

And we were part of a prayer meeting two weeks ago here at the road and had a powerful time of prayer.

Praise God that we have leaders that believe in truth and are fighting for truth even in Washington.

God is building his church, men and women, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Why do you think Jesus would say that God is building his church?

I am building my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

If there wasn't this sense that as he's building his church, the gates of hell might prevail against it.

Because as the light gets brighter, as the diamond is before us, it's on black velvet.

The darkness is going to get darker.

Church, we've got to be ready.

I love what God is doing through Victor and Eileen Marks with all things possible.

Is Victor in here right now?

Or is he in the lobby?

Victor?

Okay, Victor's over here.

Victor, would you stand?

And so, Victor, many of you already know what Victor does, but Victor's venturing into the sex trade, bringing victims out of that, also taking the lion the lamb into different parts of the world.

But where Victor has had, I believe, his greatest impact is with incarcerated youth here in our nation.

Terry and Giselle.

Lee, where's Terry and Giselle?

Terry, would you stand?

Is Giselle with you?

Okay, Terry, Giselle.

Terry and Giselle have been working with some of the most hardened criminals in our nation.

Seen over 2,000 of them get saved over the last few years.

Giselle's working with children also, and just love what you guys are doing.

The light in the dark.

Isn't that exciting?

That's what it's all about, church.

Now turn in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians.

So turn your Bibles quickly to the New Testament.

Back to the New Testament.

Turn to 2 Thessalonians.

How do we deal with the darkness?

How do we deal with the darkness in our time?

Here's the warning in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

Let no one deceive you.

Church, listen, deception is used more often about the last days than tribulation.

We get fixated on when's the tribulation going to occur.

Are we in the tribulation?

Are we moving toward the tribulation?

A bigger and more important question is are we walking in truth or being deceived?

Let no one deceive you by any means.

For that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the sons of perdition.

So we're going to see in these days, we're going to see it in 2020.

We've definitely seen it in 2019.

And I'm not going to go through names or anything, because not important, because then you'll go look it up.

And then it gives them more stardom.

I don't want to do that.

But there's some people that have had pretty noteworthy ministries in the United States over the years that have fallen away in the last few years.

You're going to see more fall away in 2020.

And let me tell you, if you don't listen to what I'm about to say, you're going to fall away.

Because the deception is moving and it's thick.

And you've got a king, Satan, who knows how to play his cards just right.

The falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, verse 4.

Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

So we're speaking here of the Antichrist.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

And now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time.

So what he's saying here, and I don't want to get into a bunch of eschatology, but I'm just going to say real briefly, I believe it's the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's restraining evil.

Restraining evil across the globe, restraining evil in the United States.

And there will be a point where the restraining is lifted and evil is unleashed upon our nation at a whole nother level.

Verse 7.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who now restrains it, again, I believe it's the Holy Spirit, will do so until he is out of the way.

Now let me just say this.

And now I'm already starting to get off on stuff I wasn't.

I told myself I wasn't going to get off on, but I'm going to do it anyway.

A lot of commentary on these verses would also say it's the federal government.

That the government, we know from Romans 13 and other passages in the New Testament, is there to restrain evil.

Well, what happens when the government becomes the evil that it's supposed to restrain?

And we elected them.

Or we didn't elect them.

I like to say everybody should vote.

Everybody should use their God-given gift to vote, except those that are voting differently than me.

Listen to what I'm saying.

If the government no longer restrains evil, then the restrainer is taken out of the way.

Did you vote to legalize marijuana?

Did you vote?

Did you vote to legalize abortion?

Did you vote?

No.

There wasn't a vote taken.

It was a Supreme Court action.

And now you know what is restraining.

That he may be revealed in his own time.

Verse 7.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

I believe that's the Holy Spirit.

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.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders.

So that's important too.

That even Satan can do signs and wonders.

But here's the most important part of what Paul is saying here.

Verse 10.

And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive, this is important, love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this reason, God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie.

Men and women, the challenge this Christmas, the challenge as we move into the new year is to ask God to give us a passionate love for the truth.

A passionate love for the Word of God.

A passionate love for the Proverbs.

Liz and I read a proverb a day to keep sin away.

And so to begin to ask God afresh, and for some of us, you've been believers a long time and you've grown stale in your faith.

And God would say, would you not cry out to me again?

God, give me a love for your truth.

Give me a love for your word.

Give me a love for the foundations of truth.

Because there is a strong delusion coming.

It is upon us.

And I'm warning you.

Psalm 34, actually, it's not Psalm 34.

Jeremiah 34, I wrote it wrong in my notes, says this, about the shepherds of Israel.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.

Prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, to the shepherds, woe to the shepherds of Israel, you do not feed the flock.

The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost.

So they were scattered because there was no shepherd.

And they became food for all the beasts of the field, and they were scattered.

For thus says the Lord God, indeed, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day is coming, his scattered sheep, so will I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they have scattered on a cloudy and dark day.

The church is not preparing the sheep.

Pastors are not equipping the saints.

And men and women, I consider that myself and all of my pastors on staff, that's our greatest responsibility, is empowering you to be healthy and strong and vibrant and dynamic and excited about Jesus Christ.

We're not hirelings.

We're not hirelings.

We're called to be your shepherds.

And we take that responsibility so seriously.

Like last night.

I told Liz, I've got all this nervous energy.

I was like, ah, it's like six o'clock, and it didn't help that Georgia got slaughtered in the Southeastern Conference game.

My daughter Anna was having a party, an open house at her house, so I went over there, and then I had to come here.

I had to come here.

I love coming to this facility.

No one's here.

It's just dark and it's quiet.

And so I just walked around the campus and prayed.

The stars were out, the moon through the it was kind of dusky, a little bit cloudy.

It was really beautiful though, and you could you could see there was enough light to see the outline of the mountain range and our steeple.

And I cried out for you.

I cried out for you guys that you would not be deceived.

But you love God's word.

That's why we go chapter by chapter and verse by through the word.

That's why we're in Matthew.

We're gonna go back to Matthew when we get into January.

Because the best way to disciple people is you don't need my opinion.

You need God's opinion.

And God's opinion is found in God's word.

But men and women, if your consumption of and the food that you eat of God's word is only on Sunday morning, 45 minutes out of 168 hours in a week, you will not survive.

You cannot survive.

The deception is getting more and more crafty and clever.

Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

The hireling flees because he's a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known by my own.

Let me say that again.

I know my sheep, and I am known by my own.

As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Church, go after the good shepherd.

I'm an under-shepherd.

My pastors here on the team, all of us, we're just under-shepherds of the chief shepherd.

He's the senior pastor.

He's the capital S senior pastor.

I'm the small S senior pastor.

And as we go together, we're leading all of us toward the sheep.

The good shepherd, he fights for you.

He battles for you.

You can't be lost.

You can't be lost.

I want 2020 to be the greatest year of your life.

It can't happen unless you fight for truth in your own heart, beginning with you, in a conscious effort to spend time in his word, worship him.

It's never been easier.

It's never been easier, and it's never been more difficult than it is today.

It's never been easier to consume God's word, spend time in God's word.

It's on apps, it's on all kinds of forms of media.

You can hear God's word, you can be in God's word, you can read God's word, you can worship through YouTube, you can worship in your car, you can worship in your room, you can worship everywhere.

And yet never has there been so much deception and so much evil and so much darkness attacking the light.

And that's the way it's going to be.

It's not going to change.

The darkness is going to get darker, and you're going to get busier and busier unless you make a choice to jump off the racetrack and waste your life away.

I want to waste my life.

I want to waste my life on God.

Because that's the way it feels at the time.

When when we don't do what everybody else is doing it, and we get off the track, we get off the train and we go after God.

What are you doing?

You're wasting your life.

Yes.

Let's waste it for the kingdom.

Let's waste it for the king.

Or you'll be so busy, you'll just be busy into your next divorce.

You'll just be busy into adultery.

You'll just be busy into the next affair.

You'll just be busy, busy, busy because God can't get our attention.

And I'm saying, stop the merry-go-round.

Stop it.

And come into the light.

And just do this.

Just do this this week.

God, give me a love for your word.

I don't have a love for the word.

I'm I'm dried up.

I hear what Pastor Steve's saying, but man, that's not me.

It can be you.

And every person that said it can be me is a person who said they couldn't a week before.

Who's got the courage to go after the things of God?

Read Joshua chapter 1.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

Read Psalm 1.

Today, read it.

It's all about success and prosperity.

Who wants success and prosperity?

Man, you're nuts if you don't.

Of course you do.

But what kind of success?

And what kind of prosperity?

Because Joshua has the challenge of two million people that he's going to lead across the Jordan River.

How in the world is he going to be able to do that?

He hasn't even been to an American how to be successful seminar or how to win friends and influence people seminar.

Or the seven habits of highly effective Israeli leaders.

Read Joshua chapter 1 about what it means to be strong and courageous.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

That's where God wants to take us, church.

That's where God wants to take us.

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Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.