April 1, 2018 - Carter Conlon - If Grace Finds A Willing Heart

Ephesians chapter 4 please if you go there in your Bibles visions chapter 4 my message title is if grace finds a willing heart if grace finds a willing heart now father I thank you with all of my heart Lord for the presence of your Holy Spirit in this service today I thank you Lord for this incredible ocean of your love for every soul of every person that you've gathered who are here with us in person or visiting online thank you for the incredible depth of your love that is deeper than our minds can understand it would you open our hearts Lord and make us willing to let you do the wonderful work and you are more than willing to do inside of us would you give me the ability to speak this word today would you touch me with your Holy Spirit would you override my frailties Oh God and speak to every heart that you've gathered in this house today Lord eternity is a very very long time and I pray God for everyone here in this house that we would all make the right choice to guarantee that our eternal eternity will be spent with you where you are father and thank you for this with everything in my heart I praise you and bless you for what you will do this day in Jesus name Amen seasons chapter 4 verses 7 & 8 but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift therefore he says when he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men considering that we're celebrating Easter today and the resurrection of Jesus Christ it's so important for us to understand that the the moment we're celebrating is a little bit more than just celebrating a dead man coming back to life which is awesome in itself thank God for that but the Bible tells us what actually happened when Jesus Christ came back to life that he broke the power of death he broke the power of sin he destroyed the penalty of sin he broke the chords that bind every man and woman born into this world to certain types of thinking and behaviors and limitations he broke all the boundaries all the barriers that keep us from becoming everything that we are destined to be in God he took our captivity captive in other words and then poured out gifts unto us in verse 7 that says to each one of us grace was given now grace by definition means unearned favor something we didn't work for we can't earn it we don't deserve it it's simply just given to us by God it also implies that God was willing to give us an ability to do what were called to do and to be what we are called to be as a person to break the boundaries in other words to pour into us a newness of life a new heart a new strength a new mind a new future thank God for what happened on that cross thank God for what happened three days later for it assured a way into a new fall eternal and abundant life that can only come through Jesus Christ he says grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift now Christ's gift to you and his gift to me that he longs to give us his firstly eternal life God so loved the world John said in his gospel that he gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish that means suffer an eternal death or separation from God but have everlasting life that is God's gift to you it's God's gift to me we didn't earn it and we don't deserve it we can't work our way through to it we can't do enough good deeds to make our way into the presence of God for eternity God had to come blood had to be shed a sacrifice had to be made to pay the price for the wrong things that you and I have done so that believing in Christ Jesus that would separated us from God which the Bible calls sin could be washed away and we could be brought back into a right relationship with God and given the guarantee of eternal life hallelujah I saw a bumper sticker once it said eternal life don't leave the world without it internal life in heaven with God eternal life that means forever that means in a place where there's an explosive knowledge that comes into your mind and an ever-increasing light an ever-increasing revelation of God gifts and abilities that would stagger us if we knew what was in store for us the Bible tells us that our minds can't even conceive what God has in store for us what God has for us into eternity and because of the sacrifice of Christ where he paid the price for our wrong that is now our future if we've opened our heart to that sacrifice and simply admitted that we can't get to heaven on our own we believe that God sent his son to take our place on a cross to pay the price for the wrong that we do and have done and will do and confess with their mouths that he is now our Lord and their Savior if it's as simple as that if it's sincere then the scripture tells us Jesus himself said whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved saved safe from an eternity that is darker and worse than anything that your mind can even imagine and brought into an eternity in light and life with God through His Son Jesus Christ that is more wonderful than anything that your mind can even begin to imagine not only is this gift eternal life but it's an abundant life on this earth John chapter 10 of verse 10 jesus said the thief that's being the devil comes to steal and kill and destroy he comes to steal your family comes to kill your future comes to destroy your happiness and he spends all day every day doing that very thing that's all he's assigned to do steal kill and destroy but jesus said but I have come that you may had life and you may have it more abundantly praise be to God that's why the Bible says it cry if anyone is in Christ now I'll turn that around of Christ is inside anyone that person becomes a new creation the old things in your life pass away they lose their hold they might not go overnight but they lose their right to dominate your future praise be to God and you become a new person in Christ you have a new heart you have a new home you have a new future you have a new mind everything is new by the measure of Christ's gift grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift in other words the measure means his ability or willingness to pour out combined with our ability or willingness to receive in the Book of Ruth there was a man who was called a kinsman redeemer he was this man of incredible wealth power resource and this young girl Ruth who really knew that she was in a bad situation came to him one day and she went down to his feet and said would you would you cover me would you provide for me would you protect me would you would you be my covering for the rest of my life and it's so stirred his heart and she found something in this kinsman-redeemer which is a type of Christ that he was so willing so willing to cover her so willing to become her husband as it was that not only did he pledge to do this for her which of course Christ did when he went to the cross but he told her he said go get your shawl and hold it out this was something she kept over his shoulders and held it out and he took measures of barley and he filled up her shawl with barley which was these the food substance of the of that particular day and this is what the Apostle Paul is talking about God is willing to give us this incredible grace to become everything that he's destined us to be because of his gift of abundant life as well as eternal life according to his willing us to give it to us if we are willing to receive all she had to do was go get her shawl and hold it out everything else was up to him all you and I have to do is open our hearts to God and say Lord I don't have anything to give to you but a needy heart and a needy life but Lord if you want to cover me and he looks and he says I do with all my heart in Ephesians chapter one and verse 17 listen to what Paul says that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Paul's basically saying that God would open your eyes that God would allow you to see verse 18 he says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling that you may understand what you're called to be that you may know what your life could be that you may see a future that's deeper richer more powerful more fulfilling than anything that your mind has even conceived that your life could be O God Paul says that your eyes can be opened that's described my heart too as well for everyone in this house today that we would see that we would understand what God has for us then we would know his willingness to pour into us everything that is needed to become all that not only his heart but our hearts have learned for that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches verse 18 chapter 1 Ephesians the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints in other words that you could see the treasure of what he won for you on the cross and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power first of all that you might see him and what he bought for you you may understand what your life is called to be and that you might see and understand the incredible power of God that available to accomplish what God has called you to be which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places remember when he was raised from the dead he took your captivity captive and left gifts for you on the way to sitting at the right hand of Almighty God he took your captors captive he took depression captive he took alcoholism captive he took gender confusion captive he took hopelessness captive he took powerlessness captive he took it all captive and gave you gift to become everything that He has called you to be and all this happened when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all principality all power all mite all Dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but in that which is to come that's where your savior sits today there's not a named name that is above him or has more power than him or has the right to defy him and he put all things under his feet all things everything is under the feet of Jesus no matter what you're struggling with today or what you're afraid of in the future or what you're going through I want you to know as a believer in Christ that is under the feet of your Savior it is already conquered and he gave him that is Christ to be the head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all that's where Paul starts oh that you could see who you are oh that you could understand the heart of God towards you all that you could see the power of God that is available to you to become everything that your heart and God's heart desire for your future and your eternity and chapter 2 verse 1 says in you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins you were dead if you're a sinner today you're dead if you haven't come to Christ you're dead I think you're alive but you're not alive you're dead you're dead and measure according to what you could be and what God's plan is for your life what your eternity can be and what your future can hold and Luke chapter 5 and verse 12 let me just read these three verses to use verse 12 to 14 it happened when he that Jesus was in a certain city that behold a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus and he fell on his face and implored him saying Lord if you're willing you can make me clean then he put on his hand and touched him saying I am willing be cleansed and immediately the leprosy left him and he charged him to tell no one but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them just as Moses commanded now here's a man coming to Jesus he knows he has this internal disease going on inside of his life that he over which he has no control and he knows that day by day hour by hour it's gaining a stronger hold on him anybody ever felt that you ever felt like you something got a hold of your life you never thought it was going to get a hold of you it wouldn't be something you just started to toy with along your journey or or just a little bit of depression that started to gnaw away at the edges of your mind and you never thought it would get the hold that it did until now it seems to permeate your whole inside and you don't know what to do and I'm sure this man didn't know what to do and his problem was so obvious that obviously a lot of his friends and the society at that time wanted nothing to do with him but he heard of this man Jesus who seemed to be kind beyond kindness like he'd ever heard of it in his life and maybe pressing through the crowd all to get to press through I think when they saw a leprechaun and they just parted ways and suddenly it's just Jesus and this very obviously afflicted man standing there and he looks at him and I feel his voice is just almost like a whisper in the dust it's like a plea lord if you're willing you can make me clean not knowing what's going to happen how is he going to respond to me is he going to reject me is he going to tell me to clean up my act and come back when I look better and try again a lot of people have that impression about coming to the house of God don't even know why you're here you feel so dirty inside what why would God ever have anything to do with me the way I lived the way I think and what I do in public or in secret whatever the cases you don't feel like you can come through to God and there'd be no shortage of people in that crowd telling them what are you doing here you don't belong here unclean unclean ghosts somewhere else go follow the ritual there's a ritual under the law that you have to follow and maybe just maybe following this set of rituals and laws maybe you'll just get cleaned up enough and then you can approach the master he would have thought maybe we'll well Jesus simply ignore me and passed me by as he's blessing people all over the places he's healing those that are sick and delivering the afflicted will he will he touch my life or will he just just walk away from me suddenly Jesus looks at a missus I'm willing and he does something amazing he touches him now under the law of that time the religious law of the day if you touched a leper you became a leper do you understand that everybody would live their life to avoid a leper and there are there are kinds of people that we live our lives to avoid I guess in society maybe you feel like you're one of those people and people around you just live to avoid maybe you have an explosive temper maybe you drink so much that people can't trust you in a family gathering you can't trust what you're going to say or what you're going to do maybe you're that kind of person that just starts to fight every time you walk into a family gathering and people are fed up with you they don't want to have any more to do with you but suddenly there's this plea in your heart that says God if you want to I'm willing if you're willing I'm willing to touch my life I know that there's nothing I can do to change my condition but you seem to have power and compassion that nobody I've ever met in my lifetime has this kind of power or compassion you can imagine the gasp in the crowd as Jesus reaches out and touches somebody nobody else would touch that's who God is that's who God is that's who God is he's not offended by your struggle he's not offended by your weakness he's not offended by your duplicity even if you're playing a religious game where you come to church on Sunday but live a whole other kind of life outside of church he's not offended by it but if you are willing he's willing to touch you and to cleanse you and to change you not just for one day but for the rest of your life thank God for His mercy then he says go and show yourself to the priest in other words going so those who believe that healing can only come through human effort steps and rituals and cleaning yourself up and all the other such like things go and show them that God has given you a miracle simply because he's good and His mercy endures forever just go and show them what God has done for you you don't have to tell them anything just show them just let your new life speak for itself you don't have to go to work and talk about church Sunday let God talk about what he's done in your life let him show that what he's done in your life now this leper would have felt like all of us do from time to time he felt that he was called to be more than his life had dealt him you ever had that thought come into your heart I had it for years as a young man is this what my life is supposed to be you know you grow up with as a child you have such most do some of you were abused right out of the gate so you can't even relate to this but others weren't and as a child you have a sense of optimism and life is just wonderful and you look at the lights and you you just feel it there's something in your heart that says I'm I'm destined for something I don't know what it is and you you set out to find it throughout your life only to discover one day that you have an inner disease of the soul eating away at your hope eating away at your vision your future it's something going on inside of you over which you have no control it's a condition the Bible clearly tells us in a spiritual sense that is common to every person Paul the Apostle talks about it in Romans chapter 7 in the New Testament he said I know what to do with my mind and my heart even embraces it I I know I should be a truthful person I know I should be kind I know I I shouldn't steal i i i know i i i should be faithful in my relationships but there's a and that's in my heart i want to do right but there's a there's a law said there's there's another power at work inside of me that is driving me to do the opposite to what I know is right and and he becomes so exasperated as he talks about the human condition in Romans chapter 7 he says I delight actually you know I know there's some people here today you actually in your heart you delight in being here you delight in the songs you delight in the comraderie 104 Nations in one place where it's been God who else but God could do this and you delight in your heart and there's something inside you that just so wants to be good how long do you think it's gonna last without an inner power greater than yourself probably to the corner of Broadway and 51st after the service today you won't get very far you want to get to the parking garages and on a new law another law inside that's that's working against this inner desire to to be what God called you to be it starts to work inside of you and Paul finally says who will deliver me from this body of death this body that just seems to fight inside with this inner rock called sin that wants to destroy my mad marriage my my mind my future my morality everything about me wants to wants to preserve my speech it just fights constantly against who I feel I'm created to be and suddenly the crowd parts and it's just that man in Jesus and that's what happens to all of us at some point so you can't get into heaven by just following the crowd it's a one-to-one encounter with the Son of God suddenly the the crowd parts and it's just he and Jesus and I can feel the silence you know when you have that momentary encounter with the Son of God it's like all the other voices just die suddenly and you are found facing him before I came to Christ and when I was 24 I had no shortage of people telling me who Jesus is and what he did on the cross and all these voices but suddenly all the voices become dim and there's only one voice and that one voice is saying Carter do you believe or don't you do you want what I have for you and I remember when I was first told that if anyone is in Christ he becomes a new creation I remember thinking is that possible my temper was getting worse by the day my drinking was starting to increase to the point where some of my friends were concerned about me I started to lose heart for the future I was utterly selfish to the core of my being I was destroying my own marriage and suddenly this one voice is saying who do you think I am and I was confronted with that voice and I was confronted as a gut into the Word of God do I believe her don't what don't I believe and I prayed in a simple prayer on the side of the road May 12 1978 3:20 in the afternoon I know it exactly because I was on the way to work and I pulled over and I said Oh God if what my friend is telling me is the truth then I opened my heart and I asked you to come into my life and be my Lord and be my Savior if I was praying the prayer of the leper if you're willing o God you can touch me if you're willing you could cleanse me if it's true what I've heard and it was an if but it was a sincere do you understand me it was good enough for God and it was at that moment I believed that the hand of God touched me and the victory that was one when God raised his son from the grave became mine my captivity was taken captive and giftings of God were poured into this human body to become that which God had called me to be that is the miracle of the gospel the gospel is not just another head trip a lot of religions are just rituals and head trips that's all they are it's smoke and mirrors there's no reality to it but Christianity is one man being raised from the dead breathing another from the dead raising another raising another raising another raising another raising another and the Carter Conlan that existed for 24 years died on May 12 1978 and a new man was raised from the dead his captivity was taken captive by Christ and the ability that God was willing to give me to become everything that he'd called me to be began to grow in my heart the Bible calls it born again by the Spirit of God changing as I beheld him as I spent time in the Word of God now some things pass really quickly you pass from death to life quickly some things in your character take a little more time but they are all taken captive they all lose their power to govern your present and to dictate your future thank God for that with all of my heart thank God thank God Lord if you're willing the men says you can make me clean if you're willing and jesus said to him I am willing and he touched him you know the Bible says he's touched with the feelings of our struggles not aloof from us he's not sitting on the throne with his arms folded going all well haven't saved anybody in a long time I might as well save you remember Paul said that you would comprehend the love of God that you would comprehend the the passion in the heart of God that sent him to a cross to get you it's more than your mind can even begin to understand Lord if you're willing and when he touched the leper the hand of God poured out in fullness because he found a heart willing to receive what he wanted to give him Lord if you're willing I guess that's the cry of somebody's heart today as we read the scripture and says according to but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift therefore he says when he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men grace is here today God's hand is ready to heal deliver save restore give you a future is your heart open to receive the title this message was if grace finds a willing heart if you've exhausted your search and it's finally brought you to the place you should have begun God who's been there all along he's been waiting we haven't told him we used to sing years ago when I was first saved in the church he he waited patiently in line he was there all the time he was there all the time waiting patiently in life waiting for us to exhaust all the options in the lepers case all the physicians all the rituals everything until finally it's just a face-to-face with Jesus with one question if you're willing you can make me clean and one answer I am willing be cleansed if you want to be free today if you want a future if you want a new life if you want a new marriage if you want a new heart if you want to become everything that God has designed and destined you to be if you felt for years that your life was meant to be more than what it's amounted to today God put that thought in you do you understand that you were created in His image so you instinctively know that your life is to be more than what it's become to this point but if you are willing to receive he is willing to give and so in a moment we're going to stand and if you would like the hand of God to touch your life forgive your sin and offer you not only an eternity as wonderful as that is in heaven but an abundant life a full life a meaningful life a life that counts for something eternally on this earth then all you have to do is come forward and say Lord if you're willing to you can make me clean and you're gonna find a savior that says I am willing sir ma'am young person I'm willing more than willing the next thing you know the hand of God will touch you and claim you for his own you watch what will happen in your future father I thank you with all of my heart today with all of my heart God for the incredible love that you have for every man woman and child in this house I ask you Lord for the grace for each one of us to open our hearts to you and just say Lord I want to be clean I want to be forgiven I want to know that heaven would be my home I want to live the life that you have for me for the rest of my days and I thank you that you're not offended at my struggle but you're willing to touch me in the midst of it father I thank you for this Oh God in Jesus name thank you Lord thank you God listen everybody has it assaulter you don't have to hide from God you don't have to hide you have to hide your struggle you don't have to hide your sin you don't have to hide anything he loves you with a love that so deep your mind can't comprehend it he knew we were in a mess that's why I came to get us that's why he died because we were in a mess and he knew it and we couldn't get out of our mess and we couldn't change our the way we do things the way we think we couldn't do it so he had to come and he had to pay the penalty for the wrong that we had done so we could be restored to God so now God can come back inside of us and do inside of us what needs to be done it's the beauty of the gospel God literally raises you from the dead that's amazing it's absolutely amazing the only thing I would encourage you to do is go the whole distance don't go halfway if you won the lottery first of all you shouldn't be playing the lottery but if you want you wouldn't go half way to the bank would you with that ticket right you'd go the whole way so in Christ's you really do win the spiritual lottery because it's free it's if the resources are unlimited but don't go halfway to the spiritual bank go the whole way say Lord I want you to touch me completely I want you to do in my life what needs to be done and I opened my heart to it I want you to lead me where I need to go and I want you to help me to read the words you left to us and you're in the Bible and to understand it and to believe it and God you have a promise for me that you'll give me a new song a new heart in the future and gifts that which means things I don't have he's gonna do things in your life that you don't have right now but he has you watch you'll know it and that when you first get saved when you first come to Christ when you look in the mirror you're gonna see another set of eyes looking back at yours inside of you it's it's to me that's what really when I got when they knew I was saved it when they looked in the mirror and it was like a different set of eyes looking out into that mirror God promises it when you open your heart he will actually come into your life in the third person of His Holy Spirit and be God inside of you and to you pray this simple prayer with me please everybody here Lord Jesus Christ thank you for loving me thank you for dying on a cross and taking my death upon yourself so that I could live as you were raised from the dead so - I will be raised from all the death of sin thank you for loving me that much I believe that you died for me to make a way back to you back to the life that you have for me I believe that with all of my heart I believe that you are willing to touch me and give me freedom from all the things in my heart that have taken me captive I believe that you have a new life for me not only in heaven but here on the earth so I opened my heart to you and I thank you for your willingness to save me touch me to heal me to make me into a new person and I thank you for this in Jesus name

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 16,212

Rating: 4.8624339 out of 5

Keywords: Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: mmxTGdKY6s8

Length: 36min 28sec (2188 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 03 2018