A Prayer Meeting Outside Of Sodom | Carter Conlon

I want to talk to you this morning about a prayer meeting outside of Sodom a prayer meeting outside of Sodom Genesis chapter 18 please praise God father I want to thank you Lord with all my heart for your presence here in this church this morning I want to thank you Lord God for your word which is a limb for our feet and a light for our path but it's even more than that it is the place of promise Lord that you have said you were going to take us into this place as our inheritance in Christ so God thank you for bringing us to this juncture in our day thank you for bringing us to the place of knowing we need you we need you every moment we need you every day every week every month Lord we need you a Holy Spirit of the Living God I'm asking you to enable this frail vessel to speak your word today take the thoughts of my mind far beyond the limitations of my own understanding and God speak to every heart that you have gathered here at this time at this season for this purpose so god I thank you with everything in my heart that you would be glorified today in Jesus name a prayer meeting outside of Sodom Genesis chapter 18 beginning at verse 1 then the Lord appeared to him that's Abraham by the terebinth trees of memory as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day so he lifted his eyes and looked and behold three men were standing by him and when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and he said my lord if I have now found favor in your sight do not pass on by your servant it's been a long long journey that Abraham had taken to get to this place called memory a matter of fact if you go back to Genesis chapter 12 with me just for a moment in your Bible it had been almost 25 years since the Lord first called him to leave his home and leave his and leave his place of familiarity to travel to a place where God said I'm gonna make you a blessing so powerfully that all the families of the earth are going to be blessed through you Genesis 12:1 says now the Lord had said to Abram get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you now everyone who's here today who was a believer in Christ you've already also experienced the same calling when God called you he called you to something bigger than what you had known he called you to something larger than where you had lived he called you and I to leave behind that which we had become familiar with to go to a place that can only be achieved in God that with which we were not familiar and with in which we can't obtain in our own strength and he said to him in verse 2 I'll make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and I'll curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed now we know from the New Testament that Abraham in a sense was the father of faith he believed God the Bible says it was accounted to him for righteousness in other words he was brought in to a right relationship with God because he believed his words that he spoke to him and God gave him a promise that through him was going to come a blessing that was going to bless the whole known world now he could have no way of knowing how that's going to be fulfilled and neither can you know what God has destined for your life although the Bible says he's determined to take you to an end that he has always desired for you now we don't always understand the journey on the way there we have made mistakes on the way the scripture tells us after getting this incredible promise the first thing that happens in his life is a famine comes over the area where he was living and he has to head down into Egypt for a season and it speaks to me it's a picture of the new believer in Christ we've given this incredible promise that God says I'm going to be a blessing to you I'm going to make you bigger than you are I'm going to do in you more than you can do for yourself and I'm bless people through you and so and we're so excited right in the beginning we start reading if anyone is in Christ is a new creation the old things that is life passed away behold all things are become new and we're so excited we read these promises and we recognize the Spirit of God now lives inside these earthen vessels and he's going to transform us by his presence inside of us and the next thing you know there's a famine and he's heads down into Egypt and it speaks about every new believer is gonna have to fight this this drawing of the world to draw you back into its way of provision its way of doing things it's hard to make the break you know that I know that it's hard to make that complete break from everything that we had become familiar with things that once offered us comfort and the world does offer sustenance and it does offer comfort albeit the comfort it offers is so far short of that which only God can give that it's not even worth the comparison then there came a point after Abraham was in Egypt he ran into a lot of trouble but God delivered him and some of you are like that here this morning you've you've run into a lot of trouble since you've been a Christian come on be honest with me now it's not been an easy journey you you you have been found in places you shouldn't be you don't know how you got there and you wish you hadn't gone there and you're wondering if God's gonna ever get you out is he going to be faithful to you Abraham ended up his wife was taken captive in a foreign Kings Court just because of the fear in his heart but the Lord released him the Lord will stay faithful to you even when you struggle even when you're in trial even when you find yourself in difficulty when he said I will never leave you or forsake you he actually meant what he said I'm not going to let you go I know you're going to struggle I know that Egypt is gonna this world is going to pull back on you again and try to get you inside the comfort of its arms Abraham chapter 13 left Egypt and he began to pray he had prayed once before but he says in verse 4 that he began to call on the name of the Lord he begets like you and I that finally realized oh God if I'm going to become anything it's going to be you that doesn't Lord lead me Lord guide me we start to pray prayers like that Lord take my life I can't get to where I need to go in my own strength you're gonna have to take me there and in the midst of that place of Prayer in verse 14 it says the Lord said to Abraham after a lot had separated from him lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward southward eastward westward all the land which you see I'll give to you into your descendants forever and I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth so that if a man could number the dust of the earth then your descendants also could be numbered arise walk in the land through its length and its width and I will give it to you phenomenal it's it's a it's a very real type of God saying get in the book my brother my sister and walk its length go from the north to the south from the east to the west through every page through every chapter and everything that's in this book I'm gonna give it to you I died to give it to you I rose from the dead to take your captivity captive and give you gifts that you can't get by yourself to make you a blessing everywhere you go and everywhere you travel I'm going to make your life this incredible blessing that was promised through your father Abraham and then the script says Abraham moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre so that's where we started one day when he was in that place the Lord told him go outside chapter 15 verse 5 he said look towards the heaven and count the Stars if you're able to number them and he said to him so shall your descendants be now what he was looking at was you and I the Church of Jesus Christ Himself said you are what you're the light of this world you are as the star said in the heavens for light for the ability for people to navigate this world and find the place where God has destined them to go you are the city set upon a hill that cannot be hidden thank God for that he could have no way of knowing what he was looking at but he was looking at the faithfulness of God in the next little season the Lord makes a covenant with Abraham but Abraham couldn't have understood that covenant and the Covenant if you take time to read it in Genesis from where we started in chapter 18 - if you go back to where we just left off you'll see that God Himself came down and made a covenant to fulfill this through Abraham all Abraham had to do was chase the birds away that was his whole job keep the keep away those vultures that would try to come down and devour this promise that I'm making to you and you and I have to do that too we got to chase the birds off of our heads that are that come down and try to say all you really trust in God you really believe in God you really believe that God will do this for you you really believe that God will make you a blessing our job is chase the birds away chase chase them all away say no I choose to believe God no matter what my eyes see no matter what my ears hear God is faithful he can't be anything other than what he is and every promise he's ever made to me he's going to fulfill now it brings us to where we opened today this place called memory it's almost 25 years after God initially made him this promise that he was going to increase him and he was going to be a blessing and in that 25 years nothing really had happened that Abraham could see and Abraham actually even tried to give God a hand and fulfilling the promise remember he took his wife's servant girl and had a son by her called Ishmael it was it was Abraham's attempt I guess he got a little impatient with God said you never tried to give God a ham to make you what you're supposed to be try to he's not moving fast enough for you and I so we try to we try to just push it along a little bit we we try to push ourselves into ministries and push ourselves into places where we're not supposed to be yet and we wind up with this son that should never have been that's become just an albatross it can be a ministry too that's just an albatross around your neck and you say God how did I ever get to this place and so now he's sitting in this tent door in memory 25 years after the promise was originally made in the heat of the day and so he's gotten to the is just dealing with day-to-day stuff and it's hot and it's difficult and he's dealing with family issues obviously with the son Ishmael and his two wives are fighting that's why I believe in the New Testament it's oh you're only supposed to have one wife you understand that could you imagine Solomon with what would he have a thousand altogether imagine the birthday cards just trying to keep up with all of that and so in the heat of the day where he's just dealing with the day-to-day activities day-to-day stuff like you and I are the day is hot the day is difficult it's a hot day in our society isn't it right now it's a hot day there the heat of anger seems to be everywhere then the heat of passion seems to be the chords at once at least restricted it seems to be broken and it's everywhere and there's there's there's just this this heat everywhere and it's just so hard for so many of us to deal with it and we come home and we have to live in the heat of the day and you know what that's like it's it's hot on the job you you can't you're not even allowed a biblical worldview anymore your job is threatened and your hater if you happen to believe in traditional marriage for example or suchlike and so in the midst of being there 25 years after the promise was initially made to him he's it's kind of made peace with where he is he's just dealing with the heat of the day and suddenly the Son of God appears to him now everyone who studies this you can do it yourself go to any concordance it is generally understood that this was Christ himself a pre incarnate appearing of Jesus Christ with two angels walking with him and suddenly the Lord appears and he knows it's the Lord because though of the way he addresses him and the Bible tells us the Lord speaks back to him again as only the Lord could and he lifted up his eyes and three men were standing by him when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and he said my lord if I've not found favor in your sight do not pass me by praise be to God I don't know how many are saying that even this day so God you suddenly feel his presence again it's been a long haul since he first promised to make you into a blessing you feel in your heart that you've been but a blessing you're struggling like everyone else is in society you're struggling to rise above the crowd and to be a testimony of the reality of God in your life and suddenly just in the midst of the worship today for example you feel you just feel him passing by you again and that something comes into your hearts that oh my god if I've found favor in your sight don't pass me by have mercy on me you feel you find yourself like the blind pit on the side of the road the son of David have mercy on me I'm part of your family but I can't see my way forward I don't feel like my life is a blessing you said it was supposed to be a blessing but I don't feel my life is a blessing and then suddenly the Lord starts to speak to Abraham this is 25 years later God waits his timetable is not our timetable I remember one time I was I was a young pastor and a young Christian actually and I God started speaking to me about living to see a spiritual awakening I didn't even know what it was when he started to speak to me about it that that I would live to see a significant turning to God in a time of hardship I couldn't understand it other than he had spoken it to me and I was just so excited about it and full of youth and full of strength and ready to go out and try to make it happen and I I was talking in the kitchen of our old farmhouse one day and I remember pastor Teresa turned to me and pointed at me and she said God will never give the mantle of revival to a mantle he no longer wants it isn't it amazing tongue until we've come to a place where we've exhausted our own ambitions we've exhausted our own strength we're just dealing with the heat of the day the promise seems to be many many years ago it's not been fulfilled and and we've actually made peace in measure at least that I may never live to see what God spoke to my heart may it just happened even though I may never live to see it happen I don't know what was it Abraham's heart at this point but when he felt the Lord passing by he said if I've found favor if after all these years and he had nothing to point to there was no letting me of great faithfulness in his life he'd made some terrible mistakes along the way he'd let his wife be taken captive in a foreign Kings Court he had he had married that person he shouldn't have he had a child that God never ordained him to have and he had really made a mess of the promise in many regards but he felt the Lord passing by again and he says Oh God if I found favor in your sight please don't pass me by and suddenly the Lord sits down and he tries to serve God and God the Son of God just patiently waits for him to get through all of his stuff he feels he needs to do and when he gets through it all the Lord speaks and says I will return to you according to the time of life that's chapter 18 of Genesis verse 10 and behold Sarah your wife shall have a son now Abraham and Sarah verse 11 were old and well advanced in age and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying after I've grown old shall I have pleasure my lord being old also and the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh saying shall I surely bear a child since I'm old is anything too hard for the Lord now the word hard here is the same word in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6 describing the Lord he says his name shall be called wonderful and that's the exact same words in other words you could translate this clearly is anything too wonderful for the Lord at the appointed time I would return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son phenomenal phenomenal God waits until we can't do something and then he does it because if he did it I'm telling you if he did it before we got to the place of knowing that only God can do this we will touch the glory as surely as we live as surely as we sit or stand here and breathe it would be all look what Jesus and I did and then Jesus would get real small and I'd get real big we'd be writing books telling everybody else how we did this thing oh yes no if God determined to do something through your life and through my life he's gonna wait until we know it can't be done apart from him it's not going to happen God unless you do it what may be an issue of character may be a promise that he made to you whatever it is and you finally got to the place where you just you're just trying to get through the heat of the day that's it you've given up in a sense of trying to be a blessing in the world you've given up trying to help God make you a blessing in the world and suddenly comes to you again says okay now you're ready now you're ready for me to do through you through you not in spite of you through you what I promise when when Abraham was too old and Sarah was beyond childbearing these folks are almost 100 years old and God says I'm going to now give you a child god forbid [Applause] done that got the t-shirt no more grandkids all I wanted grandkids you know I was thinking to the scripture Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever anyhow I'm just looking down the scriptures why did you laugh [Applause] and so after this incredible promised Abraham it says the minerals that's Christ in the two angels arose and Abraham rose with them and they began to walk towards Sodom II miss autumn is a city that's about to be judged perversion homosexual perversion had arisen in that city to the point where the report of it had reached heaven and Christ Himself had come down with two messengers and said we're going to go we're sending the messengers into the city to see if it is as bad as the report is they went into that city it's a city that's about to burn folks you understand it's about to burn and it did burn the judgment of God came down on it the flash point of God's judgment was when men and boys of that city knew that two angels had come into town they were staying in Lots house and they surrounded the house and began to beat on the door so that they could have sexual relations with the two strangers that had come in they were don't ever underestimate how depraved humanity can become without God once you take away the foundation stone of Christ and the Word of God there's no limit to the depth of depravity I've seen this I was a police officer for 12 years folks I know what I'm talking about there is no depth to the depravity of humanity when you take God out of the equation it is only the power of the Holy Spirit that restrains evil in this world you have to understand that the flash point of God's judgement is when they surrounded the house and they attempted to break in and make the messengers of God partakers of their sin and I challenge you with this one thought we are not far from that today there is a concerted effort now to push into the house of God and for and force the ministers of God to acquiesce to this immoral lifestyle and immoral lifestyles in our generation and to agree with definitions of things that does not agree with we are very very close to the moment that they were in in this particular chapter of Scripture that Sodom had no idea that they were going to come under the judgment of God they had no idea that the fire of God was going to come down and consume them they had no idea the people in Sodom that within a very very short time they were going to find themselves in an eternity without God if they could speak to us today they'd be crying out to you and to me to do something that perhaps Abraham could have done but failed to do in his time the Lord said as they're heading toward Sodom the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him for I've known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him here's the point God says I'm not going to hide from Abraham what I'm about to do because he's determined to do right he's determined to believe me he's determined to follow me he's determined to instruct his house in the ways of God and when you and I make that determination one of the things that starts to happen is God starts to open our understanding of the times that we're now living in we're not called the Apostle Peter says we are not people who live in darkness that the day that we're living and should overtake us as a thief we are people of the light and as such God can speak to our hearts not just the sweet promises as wonderful as they are in the Word of God but he can speak to our hearts about those things that he's determined to do that are coming on this world for a reason that we've not maybe yet fully understood so now the Lord said verse 20 chapter 18 verse 20 the Lord said because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grave I will go down now and see whether they've done all together according to the outcry against it that has come to me and if not I will know then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom now so now it's just Abraham and the pre-incarnate Jesus standing there Sodom is probably at least the area of are visible from where they're standing Abraham's just been told judgment is coming this church was founded in 1987 and when it was founded God told Pastor David Wilkerson warned the city of New York of an impending judgment that is coming warned it's been 31 years now that this pulpit is warned of a difficult day and not being in the darkness you remember in 9/11 in 2001 how the Lord started speaking to this congregation in about May or June that a time of great calamity was coming to the city and we were to prepare and we were to pray and by the grace of God we heard we listened to the voice of God he told us of something to come and as a congregation we were ready when the towers were hit this church was ready because we had been in prayer we had been interceding for the city for probably two months at that particular point now Abraham is standing face to face with God and it's a type of prayer you and I have incredible power with God in prayer he's not a perfect man you see there's great hope in these scriptures it's not that he's lived a flawless life he's made mistakes along the way he's doubted God he's tried to help God he's done he's gone down into Egypt he's done a lot of things but yet God is still with him and he's standing face to face with Christ the pre-incarnate christ outside of a society a city that's about to come under the judgment of God now Abraham came nearer chapter 18 verse 23 and said would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked suppose there were 50 righteous within the city would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it far be it from you to do such a thing as this to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous should be as the wicked far be it from you shall not the judge of all the earth do right here's a man is having a face-to-face honest encounter with Christ the Word of God who was there in the beginning all things were created by him and the Son of God is not offended by his prayer I love the reality of that he's not offended when we're honest with him even if we we own it we don't see through a glass darkly as the scripture says in comparison to Christ we have no sight at all but yet Jesus is not offended by this man's prayer he's not offended when we pray honestly when we stand before him so you not do right he says of God shall you not do right the inference of course is that how was it possible for the God of all the earth not to do right so the Lord said if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city then I will spare all the place for their sakes then Abraham answered and said indeed now I Who am but dust and ashes have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord he knows what he's talking to suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous would you destroy all the city for the lack of five and so he said I if I find there forty five I'll not destroy it and he spoke to him yet again and said suppose there should be forty found there and so he said I will not do it for the sake of forty that he said let not the Lord be angry and I will speak suppose thirty should be found there so he said I will not do it for the sake of thirty and he said indeed now I've taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord suppose twenty should be found there so he said I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty then he said let not the Lord be angry and I'll speak but once more suppose ten should be found there and he said I will not destroy it for the sake of ten so the Lord went his way as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham and Abraham returned to his place that means he went back to the tent where he was in this place called memory now this interaction there's two things I want to talk about in this interaction the first is why did he stop at ten he knew his nephew lot was there why wife and we know from from the testimony of Scripture there were four righteous in the city because the Angels took four out they were iffy righteous but they were righteous you talk about an imputed righteousness I mean but they were declared the Bible declares in the Epistle of Peter the Lord delivered righteous law so the scripture declares him to be righteous so there's no debating that he had an imputed righteousness given him of God Abraham was six short of a victory and there's no indication that the Lord said that's enough now stop don't ask for any more he could have gone down to five he could have gone down to four and you see sometimes we stop in our prayers just short of the victory just short we feel that our assessment of the situation has been reasonable and he got him down from from total destruction to 52:10 and walked away saying okay wow what a prayer meeting that was and he was six souls short of the victory I want you to really think about that just for a moment there's nothing in the scripture says he couldn't have said perhaps there's five and let me speak but once more perhaps there's four and you see if he had just kept going in his prayer history would have recorded perhaps something different perhaps similar to when Jonah went to Nineveh in a city extremely wicked city called Nineveh turned from the king down to the lowest of the land put on sackcloth and ashes in turn and a whole generation was spared because one man went into the city and this brings me to point two we know that Jesus Christ is omniscient we teach that which means he knows everything he already knows how many righteous are in the city so why is he playing this game with Abraham or is he playing a game with Abraham is he perhaps looking for something that Abraham was not fully aware of or maybe when we read it we're not aware of I mean right right away when Abraham said will you destroy it for fifty righteous he could have just said there's not fifty righteous in the city there's not forty there's not thirty there's not even ten he why did he allow Abraham to continue to pray was he really looking for something and it is my opinion that he was looking for something because Abraham is a type of the church don't forget it was the church that was going to come through Abraham and be the blessing we are the blessing that was promised by God through Abraham through Abraham came the patriarchs of Israel through the patriarchs came the Savior through the savior came the church through the church came you and I we are the blessing that was promised by God to Abraham here's what I feel in my heart that Jesus Christ was looking for and Abraham fell short in his prayer it was this one prayer God spared the city and I'll go send me give me 30 days give me 60 days to open my mouth you see law couldn't win the city because he was tuned here mixed in it not his own family didn't even believe him he had no authority in his own home but Abraham could have walked in and said listen folks I have just had a face-to-face encounter with God and God told me God told me this city is going to burn if you don't turn it who's to say he couldn't have 1 6 or 10 people of Christ in that city well not to Christ of course at that time but back to the knowledge of God who's to say couldn't have done that I really believe in my heart that that's what the Lord was after that he would you see what he did is he he got it down to 10 that says the Lord walked away and Abraham returned to his place and a lot of our prayer meetings are like that we come to prayer meetings and and we pray and we get it down to what we think is a reasonable level according to our understanding then then we go home in a sense and the Lord goes back to the work that he's doing and we we think that victory has been won but we stopped not six short one short of the victory one me me that's what the Lord's always been looking for it's the Isaiah moment when we see our own unworthiness at the altar of God and we now fall far we fall short of the glory of God but when it's then we're touched by the mercy we hear remember suddenly Isaiah's hearing the voice of God when he says who will go for us who shall we send as they are so familiar with his own weakness and he knows he's been touched by mercy and because he's been touched by mercy he knows that God is willing to be merciful and he takes that mercy with him into that present society when he hears the voice of God saying who will go here am I send me I can I can talk to them about mercy I can talk to them about judgment but I can talk to them about mercy and my message will be balanced their behavior deserves judgment but God is willing to be merciful and has proven it on the cross thanks be to God thanks be to God Abraham having come to this place of personal bankruptcy may I call it that now knows the mercy of God this same scenario repeats itself all the way through the Bible the prodigal son coming home in the Gospels one of the Gospels he he understands the mercy of God but only through his own bankruptcy in his own failure and when you and I have come to the point where we recognize that we stand by mercy we stand by grace all of us all of us all of us the psalmist David said it the best and Lord if you dealt with us according to we deserve what we deserve who would stand among us how would you like all your thoughts of this week put up on the screen right now thank God thank God just like mama may Jesus forgets all of that except for his own name and his own covering in our life thank God for that with all my heart well when you get down to the place where you know you're not gonna change apart from him and it begins to change you then he starts speaking to you about the city then suddenly a prayer turns God you've been merciful to me you've been so good to me God in all my failure and all my struggles and all my trials in the things that only you and I know you've been merciful to me so God would you give me a chance would you give me a chance to extend that mercy to this people in spite of their behaviors in spite of what they do or don't do or live or don't live lest they come under judgment Lord would you send me and it's a type of the Christian it just says it I'm gonna start speaking by the grace of God I'm gonna start speaking and I'm going to speak about mercy a kindness the goodness of God his willingness to forgive there are standards of righteousness but I'm not going to go with a pointed finger in a closed fist I'm gonna go with an open hand and represent the one whose hands have scars in them and I'm gonna tell this generation there's mercy for you if you choose to want it God is willing to be merciful he is a judge and one day he will judge and one day one day cities in this world are going to burn the scripture tells us that all the things would be on fire Peter says the heavens will even melt with a fervent Heat but till that day comes I'm not just going to go home I want to go where the people are and start to speak to them and that is the cry of my heart praise God tonight I trust and believe that it's the cry of the heart of this church it's it's good to come to Perth thank God so many of you do thank God you pray thank God you fill this house on Tuesday night bless God for it but it's not enough just to come and pray and then go home we have to go into the city and so that's my altar call this morning here am I send me God give me the courage to open my mouth when it looks like people are not going to listen you know a lot of places we'd like to go as an evangelist but I suggest Sodom and Gomorrah might not have been one of them but who knows that some would have listened who knows that enough would have listened to spare the city for a season who knows that God wouldn't have raised up preachers among those who turn from their sin who knows I guess the truth is we never will because it didn't happen because nobody went but by God's grace that's not going to be our testimony in this generation we will be the blessing to this world by turning them from their sin we will be the blessing by leading them to Christ we will be the blessing by opening our hearts and being an open display of the love of God to people who maybe have never known it because they've never known that they've looked in perverted places to find love but we will be that testimony of the presence and the power of God it's a father I thank you with all my heart this morning Lord you are coming again soon this world is unraveling quickly society is turning dark all around us a hostility to truth and morality is growing by the day but Lord you have a church and you promised you promised that your people would be a blessing to this world you said it as a matter of fact you said all the families of the earth will be blessed in you it's the Lord if we're living less in a lower place than our inheritance give us the grace my god to start to believe you give us the grace to get up and go forward give us the grace of Jesus Christ son of God to be the people that you've called us to be we admit our fault we admit our failure Lord we recognize that we often don't speak when we should and we don't go where you call us but as you were merciful to Abraham you will be merciful to us and even though he went home you still fulfilled the promise that you made to him and through his life Christ came and the church was born help us Lord Jesus Christ to not go out of this world as as dull stars help us to shine brightly Lord for the sake of those who live in darkness that they may find their way home give us hearts of compassion to care about those that are lost in their sin help us my God not to condemn those that you died for but to tell them there's a forgiveness and Liberty a joy in the future and a heaven that can be theirs give us reasonings that can't be stood against give us power Lord that this world knows nothing about raise us up o God out of self-consumption and give us the grace Lord to live our lives for their sakes help us Lord Jesus Christ to gather the harvest in this generation I pray for my own poor heart O God I pray for the strength and the grace Lord to do whatever you ask me to do and to say whatever you ask me to say and to go wherever you ask me to go I pray it for every brother every sister Lord that's in this sanctuary those that are online those in our campus churches those that are part of our online congregation I pray God with all my heart that you would open our mouths and give us the courage to speak about your willingness to be merciful thank you lord all I can say is not in strength but in weakness here am I send me it's a father I thank you or this and I praise you in Jesus name I want to give an altar call and I have a picture in my mind of when Isaiah began to hear the voice of God and when the Lord said who will go for us who will go i I can see him moving towards the sound of that voice say me I don't think it was an exuberant thing I think he just maybe raised his hand said here I'll go I'll go and you know in that in that particular environment he was in at that moment he was the least holy thing there all that was there was was the triune God was there and all he's created cherubims and serums and angelic beings he's the only one who has no right to be there but he's the one that God sent I love it I just love the mercy of God because the message is about mercy folks it's not judgment is coming but it's about mercy mercy mercy Oh God have mercy God have mercy and everyone that God's ever used in a powerful way throughout history has known this truth that we stand by mercy we stand by grace we begin to call people from every walk of life out of darkness and into the life of Christ so if we will stand and if you want to join me at this altar it with a simple altar call here am I send me [Music] to God everyone here lifts to raise your voice to Gaza call out to him call out to you call out him for strength call to him for power call to him for what you need don't hold back lift your voice to God [Music] [Music] [Music] your name [Music] Jesus we we [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sing it as a prayer sing that part again Worf I thy name [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I just want you to breathe pray this simple prayer with me I want to talk to you this morning about a prayer meeting outside of Sodom a prayer meeting outside of Sodom Genesis chapter 18 please praise God father I want to thank you Lord with all my heart for your presence here in this church this morning I want to thank you Lord God for your word which is a limb for our feet and a light for our path but it's even more than that it is the place of promise Lord that you have said you were going to take us into this place as our inheritance in Christ so God thank you for bringing us to this juncture in our day thank you for bringing us to the place of knowing we need you we need you every moment we need you every day every week every month Lord we need you a Holy Spirit of the Living God I'm asking you to enable this frail vessel to speak your word today take the thoughts of my mind far beyond the limitations of my own understanding and God speak to every heart that you have gathered here at this time at this season for this purpose so god I thank you with everything in my heart that you will be glorified today in Jesus name a prayer meeting outside of Sodom Genesis chapter 18 beginning at verse 1 then the Lord appeared to him that's Abraham by the terebinth trees of memory as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day so he lifted his eyes and looked and behold three men were standing by him and when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and he said my lord if I have now found favor in your sight do not pass on by your servant it's been a long long journey that Abraham had taken to get to this place called memory a matter of fact if you go back to Genesis chapter 12 with me just for a moment in your Bible it had been almost 25 five years since the Lord first called him to leave his home and leave his homeland leave his place of familiarity to travel to a place where God said I'm gonna make you a blessing so powerfully that all the families of the earth are going to be blessed through you Genesis 12:1 says now the Lord had said to Abram get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you now everyone who's here today who was a believer in Christ you have already also experienced the same calling when God called you he called you to something bigger than what you had known he called you to something larger than where you had lived he called you and I to leave behind that which we had become familiar with to go to a place that could only be achieved in God that with which we were not familiar and with in which we can't obtain in our own strength and he said to him in verse 2 I'll make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and I'll curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed now we know from the New Testament that Abraham in the sense was the father of faith he believed God the Bible says it was accounted to him for righteousness in other words he was brought in to a right relationship with God because he believed his words that he spoke to him and God gave him a promise that through him was going to come a blessing that was going to bless the whole known world now he could have no way of knowing how that's going to be fulfilled and neither can you know what God has destined for your life although the Bible says he's determined to take you to an end that he has always desired for you now we don't always understand the journey on the way there we a Bri have made mistakes on the way the scripture tells us after getting this incredible promise the first thing that happens in his life is a a famine comes over the area where he was living and he has to head down into Egypt for a season and it speaks to me it's a picture of the new believer in Christ we've given this incredible promise that God says I'm going to be a blessing to you I'm gonna make you than you are I'm gonna do in you more than you can do for yourself and I'm gonna bless people through you and so and we're so excited right in the beginning we start reading if anyone is in Christ is a new creation the old things that is life passed away behold all things are become new and we're so excited we read these promises and we recognize the Spirit of God now lives inside these earthen vessels and he's going to transform us by his presence inside of us and the next thing you know there's a famine and he's heads down into Egypt and it speaks about every new believer is gonna have to fight this this drawing of the world to draw you back into its way of provision its way of doing things it's hard to make the break you know that I know that it's hard to make that complete break from everything that we had become familiar with things that once offered us comfort and the world does offer sustenance and it does offer comfort albeit the comfort it offers is so far short of that which only God can give that it's not even worth the comparison then there came a point after Abraham was in Egypt he ran into a lot of trouble but God delivered him and some of you are like that here this morning if you run into a lot of trouble since you've been a Christian come on be honest with me now it's not been an easy journey you you you have been found in places you shouldn't be you don't know how you got there and you wish you hadn't gone there and you're wondering if God's gonna ever get you out is he going to be faithful to you Abraham ended up his wife was taken captive in a foreign Kings Court just because of the fear in his heart but the Lord released him the Lord will stay faithful to you even when you struggle even when you're in trial even when you find yourself in difficulty when he said I will never leave you or forsake you he actually meant what he said I'm not gonna let you go I know you're going to struggle I know that Egypt is gonna this world's going to pull back on you again and try to get you inside the comfort of its arms Abraham chapter 13 left Egypt and he began to pray he had prayed once before but he says in verse 4 that he began to call on the name of the Lord he be it's like you and I that finally realized Oh God if I'm going to become anything it's going to be you that does it Lord lead me Lord guide me we start to pray prayers like that Lord take my life I can't get to where I need to go in my own strength you're gonna have to take me there and in the midst of that place of Prayer in verse 14 it says the Lord said to Abraham after lot had separated from him lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward southward eastward westward all the land which you see I'll give to you into your descendants forever and I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth so that if a man could number the dust of the earth then your descendants also could be numbered arise walk in the land through its length and its width and I will give it to you phenomenal it's it's a it's a very real type of God saying get in the book my brother and my sister and walk its length go from the north to the south from the east to the west to every page through every chapter and everything that's in this book I'm gonna give it to you I died to give it to you I rose from the dead to take your captivity captive and give you gifts that you can't get by yourself to make you a blessing everywhere you go and everywhere you travel I'm going to make your life this incredible blessing that was promised through your father Abraham and then the script says Abraham moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre so that's where we started one day when he was in that place the Lord told him go outside chapter 15 verse 5 he said look towards the heaven and count the Stars if you're able to number them and he said to him so shall your descendants be now what he was looking at was you and I the Church of Jesus Christ member Christ Himself said you are what you're the light of this world you are as the star said in the heavens for light for the ability for people to navigate this world and find the place where God has destined them to go you are the city set upon a hill that cannot be hidden thank God for that he have no way of knowing what he was looking at but he was looking at the faithfulness of God in the next little season the Lord makes a covenant with Abraham but Abraham couldn't have understood that covenant and the Covenant if you take time to read it in Genesis from where we started in chapter 18 - if you go back to where we just left off you'll see that God Himself came down and made a covenant to fulfill this through Abraham all Abraham had to do was chase the birds away that was his whole job keep to keep away those vultures that would try to come down and devour this promise that I'm making to you and you and I have to do that too we got to chase the birds off of our heads that are that come down and try to say all you really trust in God you really believe in God you really believe that God will do this for you you really believe that God will make your blessing our job is chase the birds away chase chase them all away say no I choose to believe God no matter what my eyes see no matter what my ears hear God is faithful he can't be anything other than what he is and every promise he's ever made to me he's going to fulfill now it brings us to where we opened today this place called memory it's almost 25 years after God initially made him this promise that he was going to increase him and he was going to be a blessing and in that 25 years nothing really had happened that Abraham could see and Abraham actually even tried to give God a hand and fulfilling the promise remember he took his wife's servant girl and had his son by her called Ishmael it was it was Abraham's attempt I guess he got a little impatient with God said you never tried to give God a hand to make you what you're supposed to be try to he's not moving fast enough for you and I so we try to we try to just push it along a little bit we we try to push ourselves into ministries and pushing ourselves into places where we're not supposed to be yet and we wind up with this son that should never have been that's become just an albatross it can be a ministry to it it's just an albatross around your neck and you say God how did I ever get to this place and so now he's sitting in this tent door in ma'am right 25 years after the promise was originally made in the heat of the day and so he's gotten to the place where he's just dealing with day-to-day stuff and it's hot and it's difficult and he's dealing with family issues obviously with the son Ishmael and his two wives are fighting that's why I believe in the New Testament it oh you're only supposed to have one wife you understand that could you imagine Solomon with what but he have a thousand altogether imagine the birthday cards just trying to keep up with all of that and so in the heat of the day where he's just dealing with the day-to-day activities day-to-day stuff like you and I are the day is hot the day is difficult it's a hot day in our society isn't it right now it's a hot day there the heat of anger seems to be everywhere then the heat of passion seems to be the chords at once at least restricted it seemed to be broken and it's everywhere and there's there's there's just this heat everywhere and it's just so hard for so many of us to deal with it and we come home and we have to live in the heat of the day and you know what that's like it's hot on the job you you can't you're not even allowed a biblical worldview anymore your job is threatened and your hater if you happen to believe in traditional marriage for example or suchlike and so in the midst of being there 25 years after the promise was initially made to him he's it's kind of made peace with where he is he's just dealing with the heat of the day and suddenly the Son of God appears to him now everyone who studies this you can do it yourself go to any concordance it is generally understood that this was Christ himself a pre-incarnate appearing of Jesus Christ with two angels walking with him and suddenly the Lord appears and he knows it's the Lord because they love the way he addresses him and the Bible tells us the Lord speaks back to him again as only the Lord could and he lifted up his eyes and three men were standing by him when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and he said my lord if I've not found favor in your sight do not pass me by praise be to God I don't know how many are saying that even this day so God you suddenly feel his presence again it's been a long haul since he promised to make you into a blessing you feel in your heart that you've been everything but a blessing you're struggling like everyone else is in society you're struggling to rise above the crowd and to be a testimony of the reality of God in your life and suddenly just in the midst of the worship today for example you feel you just feel him passing by you again and that something comes into your hearts that oh my God if I've found favor in your sight don't pass me by have mercy on me you feel you find yourself like the blind pit on the side of the road the son of David have mercy on me I'm part of your family but I can't see my way forward I don't feel like my life is a blessing you said it was supposed to be a blessing but I don't feel my life is a blessing and then suddenly the Lord starts to speak to Abraham this is 25 years later God waits his timetable is not our timetable I remember one time I was I was a young pastor and a young Christian actually and I God started speaking to me about living to see a spiritual awakening I didn't even know what it was when he started to speak to me about it that that I would live to see a significant turning to God in a time of hardship I couldn't understand it other than he had spoken it to me and I was just so excited about it and full of youth and full of strength and ready to go out and try to make it happen and I I was talking in the kitchen of our old farmhouse one day and I remember pastor Teresa turned to me and pointed at me and she said God will never give the mantle of revival to a mantle he no longer wants it isn't it amazing tongue and so we've come to a place where we've exhausted our own ambitions we've exhausted our own strength we're just dealing with the heat of the day the promise seems to be many many years ago it's not been fulfilled and and we've actually made peace in measure at least that I may never live to see what God spoke to my heart may have just happened even though I may never live to see it happen I don't know what was it Abraham's heart at this point but when he felt the Lord passing by he said if I've found favor if after all these years and he had nothing to point to there was no let me have great faithfulness in his life he'd made some terrible mistakes along the way he'd let his wife be taken captive in a foreign king's court he had he had married that person he shouldn't have he had a child that God never ordained him to have and he had really made a mess of the promise in many regards but he felt the Lord passing by again and he says Oh God if I found favor in your sight please don't pass me by and suddenly the Lord sits down and he tries to serve God and God the Son of God just patiently waits for him to get through all of his stuff he feels he needs to do and when he gets through it all the Lord speaks and says I will return to you according to the time of life that's chapter eighteen of Genesis verse 10 and behold Sarah your wife shall have a son now Abraham and Sarah verse 11 were old and well advanced in age and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying after I've grown old shall I have pleasure my lord being old also and the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh saying shall I surely bear a child since I'm old is anything too hard for the Lord now the word hard here is the same word in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6 describing the Lord he says his name shall be called wonderful and that's the exact same words in other words you could translate this clearly is anything too wonderful for the Lord at the appointed time I would return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son phenomenal phenomenal God waits until we can't do something and then he does it because if he did it I'm telling you if he did it before we got to the place of knowing that only God can do this we will touch the glory as surely as we live as surely as we sit or stand here and breathe it would be all look what Jesus and I did and then Jesus would get real small and I'd get real big we've been writing books telling everybody else how we did this thing oh yes no if God determined to do something through your life and through my life he's gonna wait until we know it can't be done apart from him it's not going to happen God unless you do it what may be an issue of character maybe a promise that he made to you whatever it is and you finally got to the place where you just you're just trying to get through the heat of the day that's it you've given up in a sense of trying to be a blessing in the world you've given up trying to help God make you a blessing in the world and suddenly comes to you again says okay now you're ready now you're ready for me to do through you through you not in spite of you through you what I promised when when Abraham was too old and Sarah was beyond childbearing these folks are almost 100 years old and God says I'm going to now give you a child god forbid [Applause] done that got the t-shirt no more grandkids all I wanted grandkids you know I was thinking to the scripture of Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever anyhow I'm just looking down the scriptures why did you laugh [Applause] and so after this incredible promised Abraham it says the minerals that's Christ in the two angels roles and Abraham arose with them they began to walk towards Sodom II miss autumn is a city that's about to be judged perversion homosexual perversion had arisen in that city to the point where the report if it had reached heaven and Christ Himself had come down with two messengers and said we're going to go we're sending the messengers into the city to see if it is as bad as the report is they went into that city it's a city that's about to burn folks you understand it's about to burn and it did burn the judgment of God came down on it the flash point of God's judgement was when men and boys of that city knew that two angels had come into town they were staying in Lots house and they surrounded the house and began to beat on the door so that they could have sexual relations with the two strangers that had come in they were don't ever underestimate how depraved humanity can become without God once you take away the foundation stone of Christ and the Word of God there's no limit to the depth of depravity I've seen this I was a police officer for 12 years folks I know what I'm talking about there is no depth to the depravity of humanity when you take God out of the equation it is only the power of the Holy Spirit that restrains evil in this world you have to understand that the flash point of God's judgment is when they surrounded the house and they attempted to break in and make the messengers of God partakers of their sin and I challenge you with this one thought we are not far from that today there is a concerted effort now to push into the house of God and for and force the ministers of God to acquiesce to this immoral lifestyle and immoral lifestyles in our generation and to agree definitions of things that God does not agree with we are very very close to the moment that they were in in this particular chapter of scripture that Sodom had no idea that they were going to come under the judgment of God they had no idea that the fire of God was going to come down and consume them they had no idea the people in Sodom that within a very very short time they were going to find themselves in an eternity without God if they could speak to us today they'd be crying out to you and to me to do something that perhaps Abraham could have done but failed to do in his time the Lord said as they're heading toward Sodom the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham what I'm doing since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him for I've known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him here's the point God says I'm not going to hide from Abraham what I'm about to do because he's determined to do right he's determined to believe me he's determined to follow me he's determined to instruct his house in the ways of God and when you and I make that determination one of the things that starts to happen is God starts to open our understanding of the times that we're now living in we're not called the Apostle Peter says we are not people who live in darkness that the day that we're living and should overtake us as a thief we are people of the light and as such God can speak to our hearts not just the sweet promises as wonderful as they are in the Word of God but he can speak to our hearts about those things that he's determined to do that are coming on this world for a reason that we've not maybe yet fully understood so now the Lord said verse 20 chapter 18 verse 20 the Lord said because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grave I will go down now and whether they've done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me and if not I will know then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom now so now it's just Abraham and the pre-incarnate Jesus standing there Sodom is probably at least the area of are visible from where they're standing Abraham has just been told judgment is coming this church was founded in 1987 and when it was founded God told pastor David Wilkerson warned the city of New York of an impending judgment that is coming warned it's been 31 years now that this pulpit is warned of a difficult day and not being in the darkness you remember in 9/11 in 2001 how the Lord started speaking to this congregation in about May or June that a time of great calamity was coming to the city and we were to prepare and we were to pray and by the grace of God we heard we listened to the voice of God he told us of something to come and as a congregation we were ready when the towers were hit this church was ready because we had been in prayer we had been interceding for the city for probably two months at that particular point now Abraham is standing face to face with God and it's a type of prayer you and I have incredible power with God in prayer he's not a perfect man you see there's great hope in these scriptures it's not that he's lived a flawless life he's made mistakes along the way he's doubted God he's tried to help God he's done he's gone down into Egypt he's done a lot of things but yet God is still with him and he's standing face to face with Christ the pre-incarnate christ outside of a society a city that's about to come under the judgment of God now Abraham came nearer chapter 18 verse 23 and said would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked suppose there were 50 righteous within the city would you also destroy the place and not spirit for the 50 righteous that were in it far be it from you to do such a thing as this to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous should be as the wicked for be it from you shall not the judge of all the earth do right here's a man is having a face-to-face honest encounter with Christ the Word of God who was there in the beginning all things were created by him and the Son of God is not offended by his prayer I love the reality of that he's not offended when we're honest with him even if we we own it we don't we see through a glass darkly as the scripture says in comparison to Christ we have no sight at all but yet Jesus is not offended by this man's prayer he's not offended when we pray honestly when we stand before him so you not do right he says of God shall you not do right the inference of course is that how was it possible for the God of all the earth not to do right so the Lord said if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city then I will spare all the place for their sakes then Abraham answered and said indeed now I who I'm but dust and ashes have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord he knows what he's talking to suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous would you destroy all the city for the lack of five and so he said I if I find there forty five I'll not destroy it and he spoke to him yet again and said suppose there should be forty found there and so he said I will not do it for the sake of forty that he said let not the Lord be angry and I will speak suppose thirty should be found there so he said I will not do it for the sake of thirty and he said indeed now I've taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord suppose twenty should be found there so he said I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty then he said let not the Lord be angry and I'll speak but once more suppose ten should be found there and he said I will not destroy it for the sake of ten so the Lord went his way as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham and Abraham returned to his place that means he went back to the tent where he was in this place called memory now this interaction there's two things I want to talk about in this interaction the first is why did he stop at ten he knew his nephew lot was there Lot's wife and we know from from the testimony of Scripture there were four righteous in the city because the Angels took four out they were iffy righteous but they were righteous you talk about an imputed righteousness I mean but they were declared the Bible declares in the Epistle of Peter the Lord delivered righteous law so the scripture declares him to be righteous so there's no debating that he had an imputed righteousness given him of God Abraham was six short of a victory and there's no indication that the Lord said that's enough now stop don't ask for any more he could have gone down to five he could have gone down to four and you see sometimes we stop in our prayers just short of the victory just short we feel that our assessment of the situation has been reasonable and he got him down from from total destruction to 52:10 and walked away saying okay wow what a prayer meeting that was and he was six souls short of the victory I want you to really think about that just for a moment there's nothing in the scripture says he couldn't have said perhaps there's five and let me speak but once more perhaps there's four and you see if he had just kept going in his prayer history would have recorded perhaps something different perhaps similar to when Jonah went to Nineveh in a city extremely wicked city called Nineveh turned from the king down to the lowest of the land put on sackcloth and ashes and turned and a whole generation was spared because one man went into the city and this brings me to point two we know that Jesus Christ is omniscient we teach that which means he knows everything he already knows how many righteous are in the city so why is he playing this game with Abraham or is he playing a game with Abraham is he perhaps looking for something that Abraham was not fully aware of or maybe when we read it we're not aware of I mean right right away when Abraham said will you destroy it for fifty righteous he could have just said there's not fifty righteous in the city there's not forty there's not thirty there's not even ten he why did he allow Abraham to continue to pray was he really looking for something and it is my opinion that he was looking for something because Abraham is a type of the church don't forget it was the church that was going to come through Abraham and be the blessing we are the blessing that was promised by God through Abraham through Abraham came the patriarchs of Israel through the patriarchs came the Savior through the savior came the church through the church came you and I we are the blessing that was promised by God to Abraham here's what I feel in my heart that Jesus Christ was looking for and Abraham fell short in his prayer it was this one prayer God spared the city and I'll go send me give me 30 days give me 60 days to open my mouth you see law couldn't win the city because he was tuned or mixed in it not his own family didn't even believe him he had no authority in his own home but Abraham could have walked in and said listen folks I have just had a face-to-face encounter with God and God told me God told me this city is going to burn if you don't turn it who's to say he couldn't have 1 6 or 10 people of Christ in that city well not the Christ of course at that time but back to the knowledge of God who's to say couldn't have done that I really believe that in my heart that that's what the Lord was after that he would you see what he did is he he got it down to 10 that says the Lord walked away and Abraham returned to his place and a lot of our prayer meetings are like that we come to prayer meetings and and we pray and we get it down to what we think is a reasonable level according to our understanding then then we go home in a sense and the Lord goes back to the work that he's doing and we we think that victory has been won but we stopped not six short one short of the victory one me me that's what the Lord's always been looking for it's the Isaiah moment when we see our own unworthy at the altar of God and we understand how fall far we fall short of the glory of God but when it's then we're touched by the mercy we hear remember suddenly Isaiah's hearing the voice of God when he says who will go for us to do shall we send as they are so familiar with his own weakness and he knows he's been touched by mercy and because he's been touched by mercy he knows that God is willing to be merciful and he takes that mercy with him into that present society when he hears the voice of God saying who will go here am I send me I can I can talk to them about mercy I can talk to them about judgment but I can talk to them about mercy and my message will be balanced the behavior deserves judgment but God is willing to be merciful and has proven it on the cross thanks be to God thanks be to God abra ham having come to this place of personal bankruptcy may I call it that now knows the mercy of God this same scenario repeats itself all the way through the Bible the prodigal son coming home in the Gospels one of the Gospels he he understands the mercy of God but only through his own bankruptcy in his own failure and when you and I have come to the point where we recognize that we stand by Mercy we stand by grace all of us all of us all of us the psalmist David said it the best and Lord if you dealt with us according to we deserve what we deserve who would stand among us how would you like all your thoughts of this week put up on the screen right now thank God thank God just like mama may Jesus forgets all of that except for his own name and his own covering in our life thank God for that with all my heart well when you get down to the place where you know you're not gonna change apart from him and it begins to change you then he starts speaking to you about the city then suddenly a prayer turns God you've been merciful to me you've been so good to me God in all my failure and all my struggles and all my trials in the things that only you and I know you've been merciful to me so God would you give me a chance would you give me a chance to extend that mercy to this people in spite of their behaviors in spite of what they do or don't do or live or don't live lest they come under judgment Lord would you send me and it's a type of the Christian it just says it I'm gonna start speaking by the grace of God I'm gonna start speaking and I'm going to speak about mercy a kindness the goodness of God his willingness to forgive there are standards of righteousness but I'm not going to go with a pointed finger in a closed fist I'm gonna go with an open hand and represent the one whose hands have scars in them and I'm gonna tell this generation there's mercy for you if you choose to want it God is willing to be merciful he is a judge and one day he will judge and one day one day cities in this world are going to burn the scripture tells us that all the things would be on fire Peter says the heavens will even melt with a fervent Heat but till that day comes I'm not just going to go home I want to go where the people are and start to speak to them and that is the cry of my heart praise God tonight I trust and believe that it's the cry of the heart of this church it's it's good to come to Perth thank God so many of you do thank God you pray thank God you fill this house on Tuesday night bless God for it but it's not enough just to come and pray and then go home we have to go into the city and so that's my altar call this morning here am I send me God give me the courage to open my mouth when it looks like people are not going to listen you know a lot of places we'd like to go as an evangelist but I suggest Sodom and Gomorrah might not have been one of them but who knows that some would have listened who knows that enough would have listened to spare the city for a season who knows that God wouldn't have raised up preachers among those who turn from their sin who knows I guess the truth is we never will because it didn't happen because nobody went but by God's grace that's not going to be our testimony in this generation we will be the blessing to this world by turning them from their sin we will be the blessing by leading them to Christ we will be the blessing by opening our hearts and being an open display of the love of God to people who maybe have never known it and because they've never known that they've looked in perverted places to find love but we will be that testimony of the presence and the power of God it's a father I thank you with all my heart this morning Lord you are coming again soon this world is unraveling quickly society is turning dark all around us a hostility to truth and morality is growing by the day but Lord you have a church and you promised you promised that your people would be a blessing to this world you said it as a matter of fact you said all the families of the earth will be blessed in you it's the Lord if we're living less in a lower place than our inheritance give us the grace my god to start to believe you give us the grace to get up and go forward give us the grace of Jesus Christ son of God to be the people that you've called us to be we admit our fault we admit our failure Lord we recognize that we often don't speak when we should and we don't go where you call us but as you were merciful to Abraham you will be merciful to us and even though he went home you still fulfilled the promise that you made to him and through his life Christ came and the church was born help us Lord Jesus Christ to not go out of this world as as dull stars help us to shine brightly Lord for the sake of those who live in darkness that they may find their way home give us hearts of compassion to care about those that are lost in their sin help us my God not to condemn those that you died for but to tell them there's a forgiveness and Liberty a joy in the future and a heaven that can be theirs give us reasonings that can't be stood against give us power Lord that this world knows nothing about raise us up with God out of self consumption and give us the grace Lord to live our lives for their sakes help us Lord Jesus Christ to gather the harvest in this generation I pray for my own poor heart O God I pray for the strength and the grace Lord to do whatever you ask me to do and to say whatever you ask me to say and to go wherever you ask me to go I pray it for every brother every sister Lord that's in this sanctuary those that are online those in our campus churches those that are part of our online congregation I pray God with all my heart that you would open our mouths and give us the courage to speak about your willingness to be merciful thank you lord all I can say is not in strength but in weakness here am I send me it's a father I thank you or this and I praise you in Jesus name I want to give an altar call and I have a picture in my mind of when Isaiah began to hear the voice of God and when the Lord said who will go for us who will go now I can see him moving towards the sound of that voice say me I don't think it was an exuberant thing I think he just maybe raised his hand said here I'll go I'll go and you know in that in that particular environment he was in at that moment he was the least holy thing there all that was there was was the triune God was there and all he's created cherubims and serums and angelic beings he's the only one who has no right to be there but he's the one that God sent I love it I just love the mercy of God because the message is about mercy folks it's not judgment is coming but it's about mercy mercy mercy o God have mercy God have mercy and everyone that God's ever used in a powerful way throughout history has known this truth that we stand by mercy we stand by grace we begin to call people from every walk of life out of darkness and into the life of Christ so if we will stand and if you want to join me at this altar it with a simple altar call here am I send me I just want you to pray this simple prayer with me Lord Jesus Christ here am I send me give me your Holy Spirit that I may open my mouth and make your mercy known everywhere I go your promise to me is that I would be a blessing and people all over everywhere I travel would be blessed through my life so I turn to You Lord Jesus knowing you have to be the blessing in me you have to be the words the heart the strength everything has to be you God give me a harvest of souls in this generation too numerous to count through my life Lord push back the judgment of this day on our homes and our families in our communities and on our children push back the judgment and let mercy flow like a river again I yield my body to this purpose and I trust you for the power to be a blessing everywhere I travel in Jesus name Paulino ooh [Music] thank you lord thank you God thank you God thank you Lord give him a shout of glory in this thank you God thank you God thank you God thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 74,178

Rating: 4.8466821 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: cob1ssM08dU

Length: 90min 50sec (5450 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 30 2019