A Word For The Weary | Carter Conlon

spirit of Jesus we thank you so much for the privilege that we have of calling on your name we realize that it is the ultimate pleasure to know that you are our God Lord we know that you are the Lord of the universe everything ultimately boughs to you but we have the privilege of understanding that under the canopy of grace we have the privilege of calling on your name not because simply of your awesome majesty but of your covenant faithfulness we call upon you voluntarily we call upon you with all of our hearts and all of our souls everything that we are bears witness to your goodness but we know ultimately every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and many will do it to their shame and they regret we thank you for the privilege of calling on your name because we love you because we bless you because we honor you we thank you for the commissioning in this life that we can reach out to people who don't know you but who should fear you they don't love you but who should honor you we have the privilege of reaching out to them and doing something to help them to change their minds and to change their hearts in the name of Jesus that they might learn to worship you and bless you and praise you for who you are they will inevitably bow one way or the other our goal is that they bow down to you have a free will not an utter shock of your glory and majesty but intended love of your character of your covenant faithfulness of your patience of your love god help us to help somebody la lord I know the work gets kind of difficult sometimes and we begin a little tired sometimes but but help us to get our second win it's a new year it's a new day we have a new set of responsibilities help us to help somebody Lord we love you we thank you in Jesus Holy Name we pray amen amen oh praise God it is a joy I read hallelujah it is a joy to be here as always always good to be home I want to read to you from a portion of Scripture and then we're going to kind of bounce around the scriptures for a little while and try to develop an idea that I think God wants to breathe into our hearts today I'm going to talk to you on the topic a word to the weary and the goal today is that we allow God to speak to our hearts so that we remind ourselves that as much as we have accomplished in our life as much as we have made a difference as many lives as we have touched there are still lives out there that need to be ministered to and for the most part I'm convinced that the better part of our ministry has not yet even begun I believe that there is something that we have to do in this final day in this generation that will eclipse anything and everything that we have ever experienced not only as Christian individuals but as a church as the church age I just believe that the best is yet to come that there is a great thing that God is looking to do and I think he wants to breathe new life into us a bit of freshness that will allow us to go on as it were that extra mile sometimes it's the last lap that's the most difficult and we just need God to speak to us and help us to get to that point now I'm gonna read you from the of Matthew the 17th chapter you can turn the if you will if not just listen I'm going to be just about four verses and they were just gonna track for two various points in the scripture now after six days Jesus took Peter James and John his brother and led them on a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them his face shone like the Sun and his clothes became white as light and behold Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him then Peter answered and said to Jesus Lord it is good for us to be here if you wish let us make foods have a knackles one for you one for Moses well for Elijah while he was still speaking behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him now we know that this is the second time that God spoke from the shekinah God spoke from the glory cloud with regard to Jesus and who he is and what he was here to do he is the only begotten Son of God he is the only true Son of God by nature we are sons and daughters by adoption he's the son of God by nature and what God is saying here he had already said before at the beginning of Jesus ministry but now you and I recognize that the Ministry of Christ is going in - as it were a time of crisis and the time of acceptance is almost over the time of people coming to him curious as to who he is and asking them questions and so on those times are beginning to be elapsed and they are about to be eclipsed by times of rejection this is the time where he's wanting to go back and forth with the Pharisees this is a time when the cross is looming large he at this stage is in the shadow of the cross he's at the twilight of his earthly ministry and God takes him aside and he says to him something that he said to him at the beginning of his ministry that is you are my son and in you I am well pleased and the Bible suggests that he's talking with Moses and Elijah in the presence of his disciples now if you and I consider what he's talking about with Moses and Elijah in the Book of Luke it gives us a little bit more clarity in that and it reminds us that he's talking about his decease he's talking about the cross he's talking about that second half of his ministry or that latter portion of his ministry that part that was going to require everything that he had it's similar to us we start off a certain way God gives us a certain calling he makes it clear what he wants us to do and how he wants us to go about it they would do the best that we can we minister outwardly we we love all people we do everything that we can to live a life that bears witness to the reality of the indwelling spirit and then as time progresses we can become a bit weary in well-doing especially if you're moving from that time of acceptance to a time of rejection so you're moving from a time where everything is new and exciting and and now it's getting a little bit where you're dealing more and more with the pressure of the calling and you're dealing with some of the hardships of the calling and so God comes and he begins to speak to you again the thing that he had already spoken to you now when we think about God doing this in the life of Christ sometimes we well Jesus knew who he was and there was no reason for reassurance and so on and so forth until you begin to see him for instance at Gethsemane and he see him weeping and crying and saying god this cup is too much for me saying I can't do this there must be a different way and then coming to the resolution not my will but thine be done you want a good New Year's resolution not my will but thine be done like we were ready to be locked into that it becomes pretty generic but at the same time pretty specific and so Jesus is fully God fully God in every sense of the word but is also fully human fully human in every sense of the word and sometimes even Jesus needed to be reassured but not just Jesus remember the disciples are there and he said to them right before they went up to the Mount of Transfiguration some of you are not gonna taste death and say you see the Son of God coming in his power and so you see the kingdom of God coming in its glory so basically what he's saying to them as they begin in the witness all of the rejection now and they have to weigh in judge you understand because they had been influenced by the Pharisees influenced by the Sadducees influenced by the lawyers influenced by those people who were now arguing with Jesus and against Jesus they were raised by these people to a certain degree and they had to fight some things off they had to offend some ideas off they had to fend off some lies just like you and me as we walk through this society we were raised in the society we were taught to believe certain people we were taught to be influenced by certain people and as they begin to bear witness against Christ we sometimes need reassurance we need to see Jesus in his power and we need to see the manifestation of the kingdom of God and that's all he did he took them to this mountain and basically he gave them their second wind he spoke as it were from God spoke as well from the Laurie cloud a word to the weary now think about Moses and think about Elijah they had very similar situations even met Moses at a certain point you see it in excess around somewhere between the 30th and the 34th chapters right read that whole block of Scripture and you will see Moses bringing the children of Israel obviously brought him out of bondage brought him to Mount Sinai God speaks to them from the glory cloud from the mountaintop he gives them what's called the the ten words or the ten commandments and then calls Moses to the top of the mountain and he actually writes the Ten command so first he speaks it verbally to the entire community and then they say Moses you go up to the mountain because we don't really want to hear God's voice directly and so he goes up to the mountain time and that's where it was back in Old Covenant thank God that's not the way it is in our generation but in those days they had to be an emissary they had to be somebody who spoke on behalf of God nowadays we don't have gurus we don't have emissaries we all could talk to God we can all hear his voice and know his name right so now Moses goes to the mountaintop he gets the word right God writes it on the tablets of stone but as Moses is coming down from the mountain he recognizes that the children of Israel have become hypnotized if you will by the way of the Moabites by the way of the ammonites and so on and so forth they wanted to go their way they want to do what they were doing because their life looked like fun they were the Israelites were out in the midst of the wilderness they didn't seem to have anything and the Moabites seemed to be enjoying themselves animal rights they had their gods they had their kings they had their armies they had their prestige in their power and the position and so on and so forth and so the people began to create a God that would allow them to live like the Moabite so they said these are the gods or Israel that brought you out of the house of bondage these are the gods that brought you out of the fiery furnace and then Moses comes down and he sees it you know what happens he gets upset he takes the law literally breaks the law right this throws it down and decides that he needs to intercede on behalf of the people now he goes and he intercedes on behalf of the people because he recognizes that what they had done was displeasing to God God with that very very clear God actually said to Moses that I'm going to destroy these people and I will raise them up people after you and they will go into the Promised Land Moses began to intercede now here's what's going on with Moses he is saying something to this effect or do you have every right to leave us now every right to leave us in the wilderness but we are going to depend upon your grace we're going to depend upon your favor he said if I have found favor in your sight show me your glory now Moses had already seen the glory of God just like Jesus had already heard you are my beloved son in you I am well pleased Moses for the glory of God all the way next is 3 right when he saw the fiery bush and he heard the voice come forth from the fiery bush so he had already seen God's glory but now this was a little bit different this was God show me your glory in a particular life atmosphere in a particular context show me your glory show me what it looks like when people get tired I don't think he was just talking about the Israelites because they made up their mind to do some things some people repented some people didn't so on and so forth but Moses was tired he had given everything that he had when he started saying things like did I have all of these children that I should deliver them into the Promised Land and so on and so forth he'd given everything that he had and he was disappointed by the end result he expected wonderful things to happen and rightly so he expected that God's people were going to bow down to the Lord and all sorts of wonderful things there journalist you have taken 11 days to 40 years and he was upset about it and he said God if I found grace in your sight in other words what he's saying is God if I am who I believed myself to be if I am called the way I believe I was called then show me show me something let me know that it doesn't end here and it doesn't in like that and then it goes on in essence saying as much as we've poured in there's still a long way to go and God says at a certain point excuse me he says at a certain point I'm going to send you into the land I'll send my angel with you but I'm not gonna go with you he said I'll provide for you I'll protect you I'll make sure that you have a word as angel means messenger I'll make sure there's it's almost like gotta say listen I'll let you go to church but don't expect to meet me there and Moses said no no no that's not good enough right it would be it was the same as if we said as a community God has been with us for 30 years 31 years to a wonderful things but we dare not take any step without God everything in us says we could have the provision we could have the protection we're gonna have the preach and we can have all my wonderful stuff but if we don't have the presents what difference does anything make amen that's what makes this church but it is we have always embraced the presence no matter what it costs us so now Moses says show me your glory now the wonderful thing about it is there are things that God couldn't show them obviously because he was still an Old Covenant man at that stage I mean even us as new coming to people there's still things that we have yet to see we look forward to those times but we've seen a lot more than they've seen except you see Moses here talking to Jesus later on and getting a glimpse you know into things that we see on a regular basis well anyway God begins not so much to show him but to speak to him a word in season to him that is weary then he causes his glory to pass by and he starts to talk about all of his mercy and all of his compassion and all of his goodness how he slowed the anger in other words what he's saying to Moses is what I called you to I am going to persist in he's saying don't look at the circumstances look at me remember he says Amen I will be merciful to whom I'll be merciful and I'll be compassionate to him I'll be compassionate what does he say in there he's simply saying mercy is my choice compassion is my choice so here we are Moses getting a second wind getting a second look what happens to him I was says his face began to shine just like at the Mount of Transfiguration the glory of God begins the manifests on him and then he comes evident to him that there's still a way to go it's still a call on his life it's still a responsibility and it's God saying to him and God saying to us no matter how difficult the road might be no matter how many disappointments you might engage as they did as Moses did as Elijah did when God calls you to something then you were called to that thing and whenever that call is God is gonna see you through hallelujah and sometimes he just wants to pull us aside and remind us of that reality so he says that Jesus at the beginning of his ministry you are my son in you I am well pleased then he says to him during that time of difficulty you're my son and you're well pleased he causes Moses to bear witness to his glory at the beginning of his ministry and then later on he causes Moses to bear witness to his glory at that stage of Moses responsibility same thing with Elijah the other one that was speaking to Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration remember Elijah is being used by God this is in Kings somewhere you have to be together we both of them in order to find it I don't want to make it too easy for me [Applause] so he's going through his thing right you know God uses him they call down fire from heaven and then water right afterward to turn the face of Israel back to God just like he did with Moses and then all of a sudden the people go from crying out the Lord he is the God the Lord he is the God - fearing the wrath of Jezebel and Elijah gets frustrated and he runs and I don't think he ran out of fear although they would have been fear there's no question nobody wants to be killed right but I think the main thing is he ran out of frustration maybe he kept saying I'm no I'm no better than my father's just just take my life away from me so somebody who's afraid to die doesn't usually pray that way right it'll usually say I'm running from Jezebel because she's gonna take my life take my life away from me I think there was something else there something that said I'm finished I gave it everything I had I briefly saw a revival maybe it's time for somebody else now but God said no it's not time for somebody else now now understand what's going on that doesn't mean that there is not time for other people to do what they do it only means that it's not the end of Elijah's time so he says sweet idea when Elijah goes down to the mountain right Moses went to the mountain they lied to went to the mountain Jesus went to the man Moses fasted certain amount of days now he lied so fast in a certain amount of days and you know what happened Jesus comes down from the mountain and it's a young child there they be thrown from the water to the fire and certain disciples couldn't cast the demon out and they asked Jesus why I couldn't they cast him out he said certain things come on prayer and fast right so Moses fasts and he gets a second wind elijah fasts and he gets the second one now at first you lied it wasn't fasting he was just not eating there's a difference right but to fasting and not eating in fact the Lord groomer the Lord had to retreat rather reprove him first and says he lied to rise and eat for the journey is too much plea so the Lord first fed him then on that he fasted for the next forty days he goes to the man and here's again a word to the weary a voice a thin small voice after he had seen wonderful signs and wonders just like Moses who saw the Shekinah and saw the glory to eliminate a degree of course but then as the voice and God says to him don't worry you're not alone I have 7000 and have him bow down to the enemy and then he tells him about a man named Elisha Wright who was going to be able to stand by his side so he was going to have somebody to help somebody to Train somebody to develop and so on so forth but that didn't mean that his ministry was over it only meant that he was also being called a trained other ministers now once he heard these realities he went back to his ministry the first preneur the first question the Lord asked him was Elisha what are you doing here and there are times when God will say to us as we go through our little bits of difficulties and it gets a little wearisome and we get a little tired and and we find ourselves you know just I'm just god I can't do this anymore that's what Moses said right that's what it like just said that's what Jesus said against 70 that's what fasting involves fasting involves this idea of morning before God because of the needs of the needy because of the great difficulty that we face on a regular basis if we're actually doing ministry in this generation that means that come to God and to be honest with God and the parlor heart before God number they used to put on sackcloth and ashes and they would go into a time of mourning and so fast it looked like in those days so it's like coming to God and telling them this is too much for me coming to God and saying lord I need your help I can't do this alone that the days where it was just pure energy those days are gone the days when it was just brand new and it was adventure those days ago and now I have to settle into the reality of this and now we are fighting against the big boys because we're in that final generation and our wars are real you should be tired I know it's the beginning of the year it's hard to be tired at the beginning of the year but this war is real and so we poured our heart before the Lord and we say God I take this cup away from me I can't I can't do this anymore that's that's the mindset of a fasting morning for the lostness of the laws for the needs of the needy but in prayer is not just the opening my heart to God but listening listening to him speak a word in season to that person who is weary so that's what Moses did Moses poured out his heart and then he listened he lied you do the same thing he poured out his heart and then he listened you see the same thing with the disciples on the Emmaus Road they pour out their heart and they listen certain things can only be overcome through prayer and fasting and now all of a sudden the Elijah's opening up a school for the prophets and and he's training Elijah and he's got all the all again all of these wonderful ideas again and he's doing all these wonderful things again he realizes that there is a second wind I mean he's realistic he knows it's not gonna live forever so he's training young people to do the thing that he does but he also recognizes that the young people at this stage are not ready to fight on the level that he fights and there still has to be people that are able to fight on that level until the young ones are ready and none of us at this stage of our lives none of us can give up and say well we leave it you know to pass the Patrick in the youth group right I can't say that to my to my students that summit and all the people that work with us in something we can't say well then it's dead time now it's their turn now it's not that turn yet they have a great deal of responsibility in their generation they have a great deal of responsibility in this time but the when they start fighting monsters and devils on that level they should be ready in the meantime that's what we do that's what all tea so we pass a baton but we hold on to it for a little while and that's what Elijah did with Elijah that's what Jesus was doing with the three disciples that were with him what I want to suggest to you is simple and we're gonna close no matter how difficult the road is no matter what you have to endure your battle is not over hallelujah the thing that Moses did ultimately was more than he had ever done Moses did more after he was 80 than anything that he had done in his life over to that point there are people in this room who can who will look and you'll look at your birthdate and you'll say well I did everything that I could now it's time for the next person if you still here that means your work is not finished little bit little bit of mandatory overtime right you got to do what you got to do right because Moses did more after that second when they did before Elijah did more after that second win that he did before and you know what Jesus did after there is a call in your life that's greater than anything that you have experienced up until this point brothers and sisters the best is yet to come hallelujah hallelujah that doesn't mean that we don't train young people it doesn't mean that we don't pass the baton and ask them to hold on as we run together those things we have to do because we're realistic people we're not gonna be here forever and as long as this generation is as long as the earth is that needs to be a witness but in the meantime we sometimes just need a word to the weary we need God to be able to call us aside and remind us of something that he had already said to us that's what he did with Moses that's what he did with Elijah and now Moses and Elijah are they're doing that same thing with Jesus as God speaks to Jesus so the final thing I want to do is be very very practical with this what does it mean for us to hear that word and season if you look at what was going on at Gethsemane I'm sorry at the Mount of Transfiguration and later at Gethsemane were particularly at the Mount of Transfiguration even though Peter might have said some things that he didn't fully understand you know let's build three Tabernacles and so on and so forth I think what was going on was God was speaking to Jesus from three different directions he spoke to him directly from Shekinah just like he speaks directly to a heart he spoke to them spoke to him through Moses and Elijah right which can represent the law and the prophets so he speaks to us through his word his distress directly he speaks to us through his word and then what he speaks to us through each other but he spoke through Peter even though Peter was not and at that moment you know entirely theologically exact none of us are we're all babies babbling babies through the best that we can to help surviving that's all we are and God is all right with that he can still use us now I want to suggest to you that there is no shame in being weary there's no shame in breaking your heart and the presence of the Great God as long as you're willing to let God talk when you and I talk we talk respectfully we talk humbly we talked lovingly to God but we talked honestly God is not interested in our play and religion the key is when God starts to talk we don't walk out when God starts to talk we listen because he will speak a word to us in season sometimes he does it in prayer somebody does it through the heavens declaring the glory of God something we just speak so just a word into our heart he's a wonderful God he lives there so he can do that sometime he seems to choose the Word of God so you and I might say I just don't feel God speaking to me in that way then we just open our Bible he'll stick to us in that way and then trust each other we don't always do it perfectly but we can speak a word in season to each other when we get tired a drawback sometimes is you feel more vulnerable when you're tired so you're very very particular or will you let speak into your life there's some wisdom in that but don't get to the point where you become in your times of weariness unapproachable wisdom says be semi permeable right so if I really mean certain things get in certain things just can't let me show you let somebody in and then when you get an opportunity to be that kind of cold water be that to someone even if they're a little bit resistant don't be afraid of resistance remember we talked about earlier Jesus time of acceptance time of rejection or time of resistance that's okay as long as you get your second wind you can help somebody else with theirs so I wouldn't pray with you this morning message is very very plain very very practical but it's biblical and it's real my prayer is that you take a moment now you'll do it in other ways when you leave here of course we'll have your time of study your time of Prayer you'll know who to speak to and so on understand here why are you here take a moment I just let God speak a word to you it's one thing to hear it from someone like me or somebody like your brother your sister next to you it's another thing to bow your head in the presence of the great God and hear him drop a word into your heart some people in here who are weary do weary in well-doing and that's higher because you're spinning your wheels you know tired because you're running from God you're tired because you've been doing a lot of good things and sometimes doing good things in a world that challenges that can be very challenging and I want to pray with you that doesn't exclude if somebody is running from God that you can come to but of the most part what I'm saying is if you are running with God then you're running for God and you just getting tired God wants to speak to your heart he's just going to drop a word in your heart we're gonna sing some songs then you're gonna let God speak to you and then we're gonna pray together and we're gonna disperse would you stand with me please my brothers there's no shame in being tired Jesus said certain things only come up through prayer and fasting that means certain things only come out in other words you can only get that kind of victory that's something God is trying to bring into your life and victories that guy's trying to bring through your life to other people when you are open and honest with God tell them how you feel and listen to him as he reminds you of who he is and who you are and how to look at this life without being overwhelmed by it I've got to speak into your heart you can begin to come to the front of this auditorium we're gonna pray together we usually call this the altar as you know but it's just a time when we stand together and we remind each other that we're not alone I think the best thing about the altar is it breaks the back of the devil devil it tries to isolate you tries to tell you the only one everybody else is purely energy and you're the only one who's tired that's not true this is your family this these are your brothers and your sisters hallelujah you know it's a strange thing it's almost like Moses asked a question and in a very real sense God when speaking to Jesus answers that question Moses asked the question have I found grace in your sight and when God speaks to Jesus in Moses presence he said you are my son and I am very pleased with you it's a wonderful thing to know that God's favor is on your life a wonderful thing to know faster harder faster Teresa God's really spoken to their hearts and they see this as a year of faith in your favor and I agree with him 100% this is a time thank God for us to recognize how much God loves us to recognize his favor recognize his faithfulness and to put our faith in Him father in Jesus name we know that we are your sons and daughters and we know that you are well pleased with us we know that we have found favor in your sight we have found grace in your sight and we're asking you to simply remind us of this reality that way for every person in this room and particularly for those who have come to this altar and those who are at various places of prayer and I say God in Jesus name would you speak a word to us word and seasonal god a word in season a word to the weary low we're not ashamed of the fact that sometimes we get tired but I'm gonna let the devil make us a shame we're not gonna allow him to rob us of our confidence in you instead we're gonna come to you and we're gonna be honest when I go to try religion we're gonna say God we love you and we trust you and we are coming to you and saying God I need a second wind I need strength I need your will to be done I need power I today I simply commit to allowing your will to be done that's my resolution not my will but yours be done hallelujah we believe in you God to speak to us not just once or twice but as we saw in the book of Acts fill us again and again and again and again and again tell us as often as we need to hear it that we are your sons were your daughters Lord we come as a family against every lie of Satan every lie that would try and rob God's people of their position every lie that would try and rob God's people of the pleasure of serving the person of God we come against it in Jesus name we know that the enemy cannot move us but we refuse if we cannot be moved spiritually we will not be moved emotionally we know that we are your children we know that we're your sons and daughters we come against every lie and instead we bask in the truth the truth of your love the truth of your mercy the truth of your grace the truth of your goodness the truth of your acceptance the truth of your embrace the truth that you are proud of us that we are your sons and daughters that you love us that you like us that you are our Father that you can be trusted that we can put all of our hope and all of our dreams in your hands God you make us and mold us according to your image Lord we still have a long way to go there's still a great responsibility in front of us we thank you for the days that have gone by we thank you for the goodness that you've already manifested but God will not finish yet we still have a thing to do we still have a ball in our life we still have a responsibility in this generation and Lord we want to see your name glorified in it we thank you for it Oh God and we bless you for it in the name of Jesus Christ amen amen [Applause]

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 7,298

Rating: 4.8293839 out of 5

Keywords: William Carrol, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: xgMtXzRMqk4

Length: 44min 35sec (2675 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 08 2019