A Cry From The Heart of God | Carter Conlon

the father I want to thank you God with all my heart I thank you Lord for your strength I thank you God for the anointing of your Holy Spirit I thank you Lord for your overwhelming presence God every time that we gather to worship you I thank your Lord that you are stirring us especially now in this most critical time in this nation and perhaps in this world I thank you Lord that you're going to reveal things to us of your heart and draw us to you in a way maybe like we've never known before help us Lord Jesus Christ to respond to you help us Lord God to love you and love your kingdom and love your people we give you the praise and the glory in Jesus name a cry from the heart of God mark chapter 15 beginning at verse 37 now this is Christ in his last moments on the cross and Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom so when the Centurion who stood opposite him saw that he cried out like this and breathed this last he said truly this man was the son of God now that's an incredible statement we're going to get into that in just a little bit into this message but suffice to say let me start by saying the Ministry of the Son of God who came to this world to redeem us it finished with a cry Gospel of Matthew Matthew records it and he simply says Jesus called out again with a loud voice Luke records it in chapter 23 verse 46 he said and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice he said father into your hands I commit my spirit John the beloved in John chapter 19 verse 30 he didn't record a cry but he recorded the final words of Jesus to be it is finished in my opinion for what it's worth there was there was so much in that final there was so much more than can be uttered by anything that comes from the spirit of man it had to be something that came from God himself it is possible that different people heard different things because God's voice is not like ours it's not limited to a time and a space and a specific thing that we're saying the Spirit of God for example this morning I'm speaking now to probably anywhere between two and three thousand people if we count those that are online with us today and God can speak to you something completely different than what's coming out of my mouth that's that's who the Holy Spirit is that's what he can do he can speak something I've had people come up to me after I preached on Sunday and talk to me about how their life was transformed by the things that I just said and I never said any of what they said I said and I've heard that too many times for it to be coincidence the Spirit of God is able to bypass the things that we do in the presentations we make and begin to speak to every heart and so if you love God if the Holy Spirit is in you and upon you no matter what I say today God can speak to you in a phenomenally deep way in your heart there's a cry in the heart of God for you his ministry finished with such a profound cry that a Centurion said truly this man was the son of God a Centurion who's whose job it is to crucify people his historians say that the road into jerusalem was literally paved with crosses and people dying he he would have been the gentleman who was in charge of much of this and he hurt a lot of people died he he saw a lot of last moments in a lot of people that were crucified for whatever reason they were but there was something in this cry that was so otherworldly there was something in this cry that he'd never heard before and it caused him to draw the conclusion truly this man was the son of God it was deeper than can be produced by the voices of it was in reality a cry from the very heart of God it is my belief that it was a cry for every one created in the image of God to come home ultimately I believe it was a cry for you your name was in that cry you have to have an expensive understanding of the voice of God he's not limited by time space or the moment he saw from the Garden of Eden to today in Time Square Church he saw you he saw me he sees every person who's ever created in His image walking the streets of New York City and many totally indifferent to the things of God not even aware of the fact that the Son of God came to redeem them and bring them home there was something in that cry that cry was a cry like none other it was a cry that was in the heart I believe before the foundation of the world I don't fully understand it to be honest with you but I believe I will one day when I stand in the presence of God for the Bible promises that I will know in that day as I am known all I can say is that I can I can feel on the cross the actual anguish in the Son of God for you for me to come home for every person no matter where they are there was something in God's heart when he created men and woman when he created humanity something we don't fully grasp yet there was a love in the heart of God for you and for me that's why the Bible says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son it was deeper than a cry of a mother with a sick child or a father trying to coax his children off of the highway it was deeper than anything you and I can produce that's why the Centurion said this has to be the son of God because I've never heard ever in my lifetime a cry like this the interesting thing is that as the Church of Jesus Christ we now have the Spirit of God living inside of these earthly bodies which means that the cry of God now resides inside of us incredible thought isn't it the cry hasn't ceased the cry of God is still going out for every man woman child not only in New York City but all over the world that that are lost that that have no hope that in the future they've got no eternity and they have no idea what it's going to be like forever to be cast out of the presence of God our minds can't even comprehend the horror of that kind of an eternity and that cry that was heard through Jesus Christ on the cross by the power of God's Holy Spirit is now inside of us now just like Moses for example we we can lose the ability to hear it Moses heard it at one time or at least he thought he heard it and he he saw his brethren striving in the field one against another and he set out to deliver them and he was in tune in a sense with the the the plea I guess that was in his among his own people and he set out to deliver them and he failed ended up for 40 years in the backside of the desert in a wilderness place and he lost touch with it and you know when we lose touch with the cry of God sometimes God will just bring it back to us knowing that we're far from it he it was so long away from it it's out of his thinking iiiiii I felt this burden once but the burden is gone it's almost like a believer in Christ that when you first came to Christ you had such a passion and compassion for for lost people and you could almost hear the cry as they walked past you down the street but somehow somewhere you just got you got busy or maybe feel like a failure and the cry became distant and to you I say God is well able in his time to bring it back to you if you can't get to it he'll bring it to you and the Lord said Exodus chapter 3 verse 7 let me just read it to you I've surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and I've heard their cried in other words Moses you don't hear it anymore but I have heard it and I know their sorrows so I've come down to deliver out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good in a large land to a land flowing with milk and honey a place is going to say that's now occupied by people that shouldn't be there and have no right to it now therefore he says in verse nine behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to me this is God and I've seen the oppression with with which the Egyptians oppress them come now and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt oh the mercy of God the mercy of God that he will come to us and in part his heart to us when we just feel like we're a million miles away from what maybe we were called to do at one time or something we lost or it's left or maybe we're just out there and say I I just don't I don't hear anything I don't know how I don't hear the heart of God I don't hear the cry of people but God in His mercy will bring the cry back to you again thank God for that and sometimes other times he just brings the he just brings the us to the cry has happened with King David he was a young man and he his father just sends him with cakes and raisins and cheese and stuff and says take it to your brother's and see how they're doing they're out fighting these powers of darkness that that continuously were threatening at least to swallow up the testimony of God in the earth and as he as he came into the camp the scripture tells us as he talked with his brothers there was this champion the Philistines of Gath Goliath by name he came up from the armies of the Philistines and he spoke according to the words and David heard them the Bible says a little earlier in 1st Samuel 17 8 that Goliath would stood and he would cry and he would basically say you're going to serve us we are stronger than you are our forces are dominant our way is better you may think God is with you and if you do think God is with you then send out a man to fight with me if you beat me we will serve you and if not you will serve us and this was the cry of the enemy so the first thing the David heard God brings David into the camp and he begins to hear the cry of the enemy Goliath was crying every morning out and sometimes maybe you're here today and you just you're aware now the cry of the enemy you're aware of this voice every day it's in the media you can't miss it any longer you will serve us you will do things our way you will accept our definitions of life and birth and family and marriage and everything else you will give your children into our hands we are stronger than you are and if you think you can fight against us then put them in against us and prove that you can and if you can't then you're going to serve us for the rest of your days and of course the first voice the first cry that David hears is the cry of the enemy and I know there's people here today and you're troubled David became troubled by that cry you're troubled by the moment that we're living in now you say Oh God what are we going to be leaving to our children in this nation what kind of a people are we becoming incivility has become the order of the day statesmanship is gone lying has become truth Oh God what a world we're inheriting how did this even happen I think some of the soldiers and Saul's army must have been standing there with all their training and saying how did this happen all of a sudden what happened to our history what happened to these glorious victories where's the power of God and into the midst of this camp comes just a teenage boy he's got no armor he's got no weaponry and he suddenly hears this cry but this his nine-foot big mouth standing on the other side of the valley and he starts saying why is nobody fighting against him what's wrong with you guys he's searched challenging his own brothers and of course they accused him of pride and saying would you leave those few sheep in the wilderness with go you leave your donkeys and just get out of here we're the men you see we'll look after this and David says well if you're looking after it why is nobody fighting this guy why are you letting him defy the God of the garment of the armies of Israel now David first heard the words of the enemy but I want to tell you God heard something else there people were hiding that the Scriptures they went into hiding they were afraid they were in caves they were in dens they were in whatever little huts they could make and God heard not just the the cry of Goliath but he heard the the pleas and the pleadings of those who were in hiding now we've got a lot of big mouths in our generation declaring that theirs is the new order and the new day but I'm telling you there are people in their homes that are not in agreement with this there are people in their apartments are people going to bed at night and God hears it God hears it and by His mercy even though we don't hear their pleas he will lead us into the battle one more time he would lead us you and me that's why I said real men go to church real men take up the cross real men stand and fight in this generation real men become men and don't bow down to the effeminacy that's trying to get a hold of them in our generation and sometimes in spite of all these weather he has to bring the cried to us or he brings us to the cry I don't really care how it happens to you as long as it happens bring it to me or bring me to it either way God lead me guide me O God into what my life is supposed to be and what effect I'm supposed to have on this present generation and how my life can make a difference God give me the courage to face the Giants again in our time it can't be just something written in the pages of history Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever and sometimes God answers our own cry by giving us his heart Hannah in the book of 1st Samuel chapter one the scripture says she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish you see she was empty she was barren she she had produced new life and it was a disgrace in the shame for her in her generation that's it's a type of a person like you or me that says god I'm ashamed of how little fruits been born through my life I'm ashamed of how little effect I'm having in the workplace in my own home in my neighborhood and my family I'm ashamed of of coming to your house and she came regularly to the temple and I'm always coming empty I'm ashamed I don't even have a name that's been born into your kingdom that's come to life through me and God see she was in such anguish the scripture said that she couldn't speak she moved she spoke in her heart and her lips move but her voice was not heard Oh God would you do something through my life it was her cry now that God was about to answer and God in His mercy gave her his son and her son Samuel became a voice to the nation to call the people back to himself again if you and I have that crime in our hearts I'm telling you God will make you a voice he will make you a voice in your home make you a voice in your workplace he will make you a voice in your community he will make you a voice he will give you a voice he will give you words that are not your own he'll give you authority that you don't have outside of him praise be to God praise be to God so whether he has to bring the cry to you or bring you to the cry or birth something inside of you because of the cry that you have to make a difference in your generation he raised up a great prophet that turned many of the people of God for his generation back to the worship of the one the true and the Living God now we go back to where we started in the scripture says Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last you see the cry was for you as well the cry was for us as his church there was so much in croc could spend the next month speaking on this topic there was something on every level that would explain why it seems that everybody who witnessed it heard something different there was just so much in that particular cry thank you now I'll tell you he cried with a loud voice and the scripture says he breathed his last and then the way was made into the presence of God the veil of the temple was torn from the top to the bottom and when the Centurion who stood opposite him saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last he said truly this was the son of God so what did he see what did he hear why was a man who's not a believer at that time as the people of God were what did he see in the Son of God what was so different about this man's last statement that made him come to this conclusion I did some reading in times past on crucifixion and what kind of a death it is and when a person is crucified ultimately the paralysis hits their chest because of this stretching of their muscles and the inability to extricate themselves from the that position their lungs fill up with fluid fluid begins to press itself around their heart too as well and ultimately just at the point of death they can't draw a breath I want to tell you something you can't cry that loud without drawing a breath in your last moment if you were on a cross or crucified it it would be the persons on a cross they literally drown and die of a heart attack both twofold it's a heart attack and drowning at the same time and when you're at the point of death you can't speak anymore but Jesus drew a breath and he cried out so loud that the Centurion was seeing dozens if not hundreds of people crucified he would have known this is physically impossible to cry out like this at your last moment of life on a cross he would have understood that only God could this only God could have given that man breath only God could have given him the power to cry out the way he just cried out only God could do this and he drew back after hearing the cry and he said truly this was the son of God it's really that simple there is no chance that anybody could cry a cry that loud at the last moment at the last seconds of life on a cross and what we learned from this cry for you and I today is a simple teaching a simple truth the Spirit of God within you is stronger than the deepest limitations of your physical body no matter how weak you may feel no matter how far away you may feel from God no matter how insignificant you may feel in this present day battle no matter how barren you may feel as producing life for the kingdom of God the Spirit of God in you as a believer in Christ is stronger than your weakness praise be to God there is no limitation to what God can do you and I now need to ask the Holy Spirit to say Oh God do something in my life that people look at me and say truly God is with that man truly God is with that women you couldn't endure you couldn't speak you wouldn't care if the Spirit of God was not upon you the way God is willing to do it in this generation it's imperative that we let the cry of Christ become our cry now God helped me to hear the cry of the people don't let me Lord live an indifferent life living for myself looking for my own pleasure doing my own things just just living every day to see how much fun that can squeeze out of it when people around me or crying out for you and and I can't hear them I haven't heard them for a long time but God you can bring that cry to me and asking you to bring it to me Lord make me aware of it I it doesn't make us despondent we don't become gloomy it's just that we become aware of the fact that there are people in their homes that are crying out for freedom for deliverance they're crying out for their children they're crying out for tomorrow because they don't see hope and there's others of us say God lead me into the battle if I'm too dumb to find it on my own lead me there lead me to where people are crying out lead me God to the person in my office my community that's that's desperate that's losing heart they're losing hope they don't have they don't have a future god if I can't hear it just leave me there then like you let David take me there with my cakes and raisins and bread and God somehow make a way that I can make a difference that I can fight the Giants in their lives these things that are telling them that life is not worth living or or leave your marriage or abandon your kids or there's no hope for the future or do drugs or whatever it is god help me to fight those giants that are wanting to tell these people that they have all the control over their lives and they have no power in themselves to stand god don't let me stand on the edge of the battle wait for somebody else to do something leave me there leave me and if you pray it he will he will lead you he will take you where you need to go he will it will give you what you need to have I when I was a police officer years ago I got I got transferred out of Community Relations and down into a kind of a platoon division it was it was essentially a demotion and I was thinking God what if iíve lived for you and I'm serving you and why would you send me here and I remember I I was a the first week I was down and I was assigned to a kind of a rough area of the city and and there was a guy on my platoon I'm telling you he was mean he was mean to the core of his being it was meaning his speech he was huge he was just mean and you just didn't want to cross this guy at any time and I'm out of just the first week I'm driving around and I'm not I don't even want to be there you understand I don't want to be there I've kind of I'm bummed I feel it's a demotion I just did I do something wrong it didn't occur to me to even pray and say Lord what is your will for this moment yeah I wasn't there yet and so I passed by this abandoned hospital and and there was this guy he was sitting in an unmarked car and his the lights were out and he was just sitting there and I recognized them as I drove by and then I felt the Holy Spirit telling me go and talk to him and so I began to plea bargain with God at this particular point in my life and I said well you know and tell him about me that was the next thing tell them about me o Lord and I remember thinking I'll go around the corner get a couple of coffees and hopefully he'll be gone by the time I come back around and because this was the kind of a guy who would take the coffee and reach in your current pour it on you I'm not kidding it it was that bad and so I just I got the coffee's he was still there I pulled up beside him rolled down my window and I said hi he says hi and I said I said ah there's no there's no easy way to say this I said I'm a Christian you've probably heard and he just nods and I said well God speaks to me and told me to park here and talk to you and then he started pouring out his heart he was sitting there thinking of shooting himself you know and I was able to lead him to Christ and the last time I heard from him he was in prison ministry here in the state somewhere he got involved in prison [Applause] so the point is the Lord will lead us into the battle even when we're reluctant even when we just got I just had two coffees David had cakes and raisins and cheese I had coffee and he led me into the Battle of a man who may not have made it through the night because he was really serious about ending his life that night and he poured his heart out and shared his despair I shared Christ we prayed together and he became a vibrant witness for Christ it was amazing he really became a stand up witness for Jesus Christ it's time to let his cry become ours Lord bring it to me bring me to it and and empty me god of my own Berenice and fill me and make my life a voice for you that's the moment we're now living in this is a desperate moment for this nation it's a desperate moment for a lot of people all around us you know the people in your workplace they put on a good front many of them but they're desperate and God God hears their cry that's why you are where you are and the cry the prayer of my heart is Lord let that cry that was in your heart in the last moment of your physical life on the earth as a man let it become mine let me not live in a different life to the struggles all around me let me not close my ears to the need in this hour or closing my heart and let me not be a coward but give me a willingness to fight for those who just have no more strength to fight for themselves created me a voice give me a voice Lord give me give me words give me reasonings give me courage to speak don't let me be idle on the sidelines any longer so father I thank you God with all my heart Lord that I have delivered to your people the word that you gave to me and in my heart Lord I am the first person at this altar today I'm asking you to birth in me a new voice a stronger voice courage to face the enemy in our generation I'm asking you God for ears to hear Lord not just your word as wonderful as that is but the cries of the people that I may not live in a different life to the struggles that are around me today father I pray for this church in this church age that you would draw us back to you again deliver us God from so many things that occupies so much of our time and our thinking things that are of absolutely no profit to eternity god help us all of us Lord we recognize our need so bring it to us or bring us to it or Berthoud in us whatever you have to do Lord I yield my body I yield this body to you for your purposes whatever you have in the future wherever you take me whatever you want me to do or whatever you want to do through me God Almighty I just pray for courage wisdom and strength and the ability to hear and thank you for it with all my heart in Jesus name we're gonna worship for a few moments and if if your heart is one with mine I want to invite you in the enix all our campus churches this morning as well and here in the main sanctuary I'm just going to invite you to say Lord God please I heard something from you today and I want what I heard I want it to be part of my life I want my life to make a difference take me away from the sidelines Oh God and bring me into the battle and helped me to understand God your heart and give me your heart for this generation if that's the cry of your heart as we stand would you come and just join me here at balcony go to either exit let's all stand together and as we worship just slip out of your seat in the in the annex we'll wait for you make your way down here to is we'll wait for you god bless you you know I just loved the picture that Moses headed to Egypt David ran down into the valley to face the Giant and and Hannah went home and the voice that turned the nation was born from her womb this is the miracle God that we serve this is the power of God it doesn't matter about our age it doesn't matter for too old the world says we're too young according to the world's standards or are too barren according to our own testimony of ourselves God's Spirit overrides all of that and he takes the weak to confound the strong and he takes the foolish to bring to nothing those things that stand in their own strength and so whether or not you are aware of it you are mighty warriors in the kingdom of God you're a mighty in the sense that you're saying in your heart use my life God use me for your glory and speak through me Lord and and guide me and lead me and you know just an acknowledgment that I won't even find it if you don't take me there I won't hear it if you don't bring it to me and I can't give birth to it if you don't unless you form it in me it's just a dependency on him and and he delights and taking us in our frailty and using us he didn't need us to preach the gospel he chose to need us chose to use us it's mind-boggling wouldn't they all understand that too as well he's God he could preach think he can preach the gospel over a heavenly loudspeaker doesn't he need us but somehow it's so tied in with us his heart is so tight in with us that he declares that were his body one day I'll understand that but for now I can only scratch the surface of it and accept it by faith the God loves me and he wants to use me for his glory and take me somewhere where I could even never go in my own strength give me things I could never possess and make me into what I could never be praise be to God so don't look in the mirror don't look in the mirror for the answer to this one it's not there it's in him so father God today like Moses we get up and we just head to our calling like David we run to face the Giants knowing that you are with us and the honor of your name is at stake God Almighty we thank you that you're giving us a voice again as your people in this last hour and as you did in the early church Lord when they prayed God you shook the place where they were gathered you they were filled with the spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness this is your promise to us in this generation Lord forgive us Lord for forgetting it for drifting away and maybe because of our youth or our age or whatever we just somehow reached the wrong conclusion about whether or not we matter for your kingdoms sake today Lord I just asked God for an empowerment of the Holy Spirit on every life mine included Lord fresh touch of heaven giving us the grace that we need for the sake of others for the sake of others for the millions in Egypt for the trembling before the enemy and for those who need a voice Oh God thank you Lord for choosing us thank you for calling us O God with all of our hearts all we can say is thank you thank you Lord for your mercy your kindness your tenderness to us Lord thank you God thank you God would you lift your voice and just thank him for using you just thank him for using you everybody just take a moment just thank you thank you just take a moment lift your hands lift your voice and say thank you Lord for using my life for your glory just just lift your voice to him God Almighty thank you Lord thank you God not in our strength but in our weakness law that your strength might be made known and you might be brought to glory again in our time hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah [Applause]

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 52,608

Rating: 4.9169397 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: TwDWB4OIicU

Length: 34min 53sec (2093 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 06 2020